AgWired

“Rolling on the River” was the theme of the grand opening event this week in St. Louis of AGROTAIN International/Lange-Stegmann’s new stabilized nitrogen production facility and urea storage center. To drive that home, they even had a Tina Turner look-alike to kick off the celebration, which also featured a riverboat themed luncheon.

This company is most definitely on a roll that has a global focus and the river is their highway to the world. Vice President of Global Marketing Jeff Whetstine says they are selling AGROTAIN technology in 68 different countries. “We started here in the United States, expanded to South America and now we’re going around the world,” Jeff says. “It was a regional fertilizer company up until the year 2000 when Lange-Stegmann purchased the AGROTAIN technology and started AGROTAIN International, their subsidiary.”

Jeff says they anticipate rapid growth with the expansion. “Frankly, we’ve had trouble keeping up with the demand for our product and that’s why this stabilized nitrogen center is so important,” he said. “And the Urea Center will help us with the efficiency of bringing urea from around the world to the farmers in the heartland of America and into Canada.”

And that is why the location on the Mississippi River is so strategic for the company. “It’s been a very fortunate thing that we’ve had this location and we are exploiting the advantages of it,” Jeff concluded.

Listen to an interview with Jeff here: agro-jeff.mp3

AGROTAIN Grand Opening Photo Album

Several members of the Stegmann family are actively involved in the operation of Lange-Stegmann and AGROTAIN International, following in the footsteps of grandfather Henry Lange who started the company with his brother, and father Rich Stegmann who serves as chairman of the company. Rick Stegmann is Operations Manager for the new granulation production facility and urea storage warehouse that opened this week in St. Louis.

Rick explained the river station barge unloading operation portion of the facility. “The majority of urea comes in from New Orleans by barge and St. Louis is the northernmost lock-free, ice-free port on the Mississippi River,” he said. “And so we are able to bring barges up and off load them either into storage, into truck or into rail.”

The operation is extremely efficient, handling in excess of 500 tons an hour. “We can do four barges a day, a barge is average of 1500 tons, so that’s 6,000 tons in 24 hours,” Rick said.

Rick says the new facility is the future of Lange-Stegmann and AGROTAIN International. He attributes the success and longevity of the company to the core values that his grandfather and father instilled in not only the family members involved in the business, but also the rest of the employees, who are treated like family.

Listen to an interview with Rick Stegmann here: agro-rick.mp3

AGROTAIN Grand Opening Photo Album

Media got the first look at the Allen R. Sutton Stabilized Nitrogen Center prior to the official grand opening on Tuesday in St. Louis and our tour guide was Dan Kuttenkuler, project manager for Lange-Stegmann and AGROTAIN International.

Dan explained how the center uses a falling curtain granulation process for quality control and production efficiency. The process allows finished products to be manufactured to a specific size for different markets. “By varying the size of the holes in the screens we are able to control the final size of the product,” Dan says. “We have an agricultural market which is used to grow corn, wheat and cotton, we have a turf and ornamental and we also serve the golf industry which is very specific in terms of types and height of grasses.”

The Center is designed to meet the increasing demand for stabilized nitrogen fertilizer, with a production capacity of 125,000 tons annually.

Listen to an interview with Dan here: agrotain-kuttenkuler.mp3

AGROTAIN Grand Opening Photo Album