More and more country elevators, ethanol plants and dealerships are finding a need to store corn in gigantic piles. This makeshift storage plan solves a fall crunch. The headaches come later when the unit trains roll in or the semis are loaded to transport the grain to secondary markets.

A new machine just rolling off the line of Swift Manufacturing, Clara City, MN, is providing a cure for those grain-handling headaches. Its name, The Gobbler, is more than appropriate, for it can “gobble” an average of 28,000 bu./hr. If you want to calculate that a step further, it means the machine can load a semitrailer in two and a half minutes.

Rich Leiseth, manager of the Farmers Co-op Elevator in Clara City, MN, who was one of the motivators in the development of the Gobbler, was impressed when Swift drove the prototype up to his million-bushel grain pile.

“I was very impressed with the flexibility as well as how fast it moves grain,” he says. “Grain damage was insignificant to say the least. If you could keep the trucks coming, you could take a pile like this out in a couple of days.”

Dave Skjefte, general manager of Swift, agrees. “The limiting factor,” he says, “is getting the semis backed into place.”

Swift has nearly 40 years of experience in designing and manufacturing heavy-duty conveyors for the aggregate rock industry. Two and a half years ago the company was purchased by Kelly Pauling, owner of Northern Grain Design and Construction Company.

“Our goal was to find a way of combining the efforts of the two companies,” Pauling says. “This is our first effort.”

That Pauling and the former owner of Swift, Gerald Kleene, are friends didn't hurt matters, and the two had kicked around scenarios for a long time. Those thoughts went into high gear when Leiseth approached them about finding a way to more rapidly move that grain before wicked winter weather set in.

The Gobbler is the end result of those efforts and has the trademark sturdy bulk and size necessary for the aggregate rock industry, yet offers a soft touch for handling the grain thanks to a corrugated Chevron belt conveyor that allows for tremendous capacity even at high incline angles.

Pauling and Kleene, and their cadre of engineers and shop foremen, took those components and engineered them around the old New Idea Uni Systems, otherwise known as “mules” in the ag industry. This gives them a mobile power unit, which they have reengineered to make it both more ergonomically and technologically friendly.

The mule has a completely hydraulic-driven system — from the large basket and auger system on the front end to the emptying chute at the end of the conveyor. The operator simply drives the Gobbler straight into a pile of grain and puts it into operation.

The Gobbler's front end sight lines are user-friendly, and the cage includes a heavy-duty, variable-speed “clod buster” to break up those cakes of spoiled grain. Inside the cab is an LCD monitor that allows the operator to see what is going on behind the unit. Skjefte said the entire “elevator” is hydraulically controlled from inside the cab.

Key features include a variable-speed in-feed auger and variable-speed belt, heavy-duty hydraulics, detachable front feeder, and a large oil reservoir and oversized oil cooler.

Word about the new machine has spread quickly. “We've been shipping units out to Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska,” Skjefte says.

“It's been fun watching all these ‘free thinkers’ come together with a belief that things can be done,” Pauling says. “Our Gobbler is definitely a combination of our two industries. It's a way both companies can complement one another.”

For now the plan is to continue converting the old mules into the design. “There are plenty of them around, and there are still plenty of parts available to keep them running,” Skjefte says. “Eventually, though, we will likely design our own power unit.”

For more information or a free video, contact Swift Mfg. Co., 8015 Hwy. 7 S.E., Clara City, MN 56222, 800/354-2106.

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