Removing Corn Storage Piles

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I have been noting that more and more big grain elevators that have been adding facilities for corn storage piles. In fact, some are now being built with permanent infrastructure to build the piles.

• CGB in Onley was the first outside storage facility I noticed actually being used (Ashkum quit using theirs after they built some more steel bins.)  
• Andersons in Champaign
• Cargill in Tuscola
• The south facility in Francesville, IN
• Tate & Lyle in Mattoon, IL
• Tgm Grain in Lis, IL

You can tell it is a rather new development because there is no one accepted method for removing the piles.

I caught CGB unloading their third storage pile on a satellite image. It appears they are using a front loader and the trucks are shuttling the corn over to their regular truck unloading facility while a train is being loaded. Note that farmers are also bringing corn to the elevator. I've noted before that when they are going to load a train they must notify the local farmers that they can bring more grain because they have freed up storage space.

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When I noticed that Cargill was removing its second corn pile, I actually drove into the driveway to take pictures at a discreet distance away from the action. It appears they shove the bottom part of an elevator into the pile and then use the tractor's PTO (Power Take Off) to run the elevator.

Screenshot from a video

But it was a video describing the development of an exceptionally large bucket for loading corn that motivated the Cargill post and finding the other examples of elevators using corn piles.

My first thought was that they could use a bigger bucket for corn than for dirt because it was lighter. But a grain truck is not much bigger than a regular construction dump truck. So the weight must be comparable. My current thought is that they can use a bigger bucket because it is easier to shove the bucket into corn than into the compacted dirt that excavators normally dig.

Note in the screenshot the black tubes that have been taken apart. I assume they had fans near the outside that blew air into the pile to help keep it dry to avoid mold. In the upper-left corner, you can see some of the tarps they have taken off the pile and rolled up for storage for the next season. Once they remove the tarps, speed is probably of the essence because I assume they want to get the pile moved before it gets rained on.