Photo courtesy of Meadowland Farmers Coop The high-speed blending tower at the new Meadowland Farmers Coop dry fertilizer plant in Echo can mix and discharge a batch of fertilizer in under 30 seconds, according to builders GSI.

ECHO — It was a project that took a little more than a year of construction work to complete. But a new dry fertilizer plant near Echo will be more efficient for area farmers, said Meadowland Farmers Coop agronomy manager Ralph Price.

“There was a need in our area for a bigger facility,” Price said. Having updated fertilizer blending equipment and more storage space meant the cooperative could meet area customers’ needs more quickly. “Blending will not be the bottleneck any more,” he said.

Meadowland broke ground for an agronomy center complex near Echo in summer 2024. The center’s dry fertilizer plant started mixing fertilizer for customers this fall. The new facility has been working well, Price said.

Meadowland Farmers Coop has 15 locations in southwest Minnesota, in communities in an area stretching from Westbrook to Sacred Heart.

The planning and process for the new fertilizer mixing facility started over two years ago, after Meadowland Farmers Coop purchased the assets of Echo Coop Oil in 2023, Price said.

The Echo fertilizer facility was one part of a new agronomy center complex that Meadowland broke ground for in summer 2024. A timeline of the project on Meadowland’s website said the complex includes a dry fertilizer plant, a chemical warehouse with liquid fertilizer storage, a maintenance shop, a seed warehouse, and a railroad spur to allow fertilizer deliveries by rail.

Concrete pouring for the agronomy center started in fall 2024, and construction continued into 2025. The fertilizer plant was able to send out its first load of fertilizer in September.

In a news release, Price said the new Echo location allows the cooperative to run one blending location, instead of three that previously operated in the northern part of Meadowland’s trade area.

The fertilizer plant includes equipment from GSI, a company that builds grain storage and management equipment, as well as fertilizer blending and nutrient handling equipment. Price said the Echo fertilizer plant has Meadowland Farmers Coop’s second GSI blending tower. The company built a blending tower in Russell about 10 years ago, he said.

GSI said the Echo fertilizer facility includes equipment like a blending tower with an 8-ton horizontal mixer.

“It has leading technology in creating a homogenous blend of fertilizer to guarantee even spreading in the field,” said GSI project engineer James Krist. “In under 30 seconds, the mixer can produce an even blend of up to 16,000 pounds of ingredients.”

“We wanted to have high-speed, accurate blending,” Price said of the new tower.

GSI said 300 tons of raw materials for dry fertilizer can be stored in bins on top of the blending tower.

“The blending tower has a tremendous amount of capacity,” Price said.

The facility also has a receiving system that can quickly unload trucks or train cars supplying materials for fertilizer. GSI said a 20-ton truck can be unloaded in less than five minutes.

Price said the new fertilizer plant also had greatly increased storage space. The new facility had space for about 26,000 tons of storage, in addition to the 300-ton capacity of the blending tower.

Having more storage space at the Echo facility makes a big impact on how well the cooperative can serve farmers, Price said. In the past, fertilizer supplies often had to be trucked in from other Meadowland locations, like Walnut Grove and Sanborn.

With the new facilities, “We can basically have the season’s supply right at hand,” he said.

Having a fast and reliable system to meet fertilizer demand was important for customers, Price said.

The response to the new fertilizer plant has been positive, Price said. He thought area farmers would judge the facility by the service it was able to provide.

“We’re committed to providing good service,” he said.