The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News - Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties

With harvest season underway, Ag Partners in Royal has developed contingency plans to deal with this year's bounty following an explosion that disabled one of their grain elevators.

According to a statement from the company, the Royal location has been redesigned to enable customers to deliver grain to the facility this fall. Grain will be taken using Dump 3, which according to Vice President of Operations Dan DeJong, can move 30,000 bushels per hour and can leg grain to all the functional storage space in Royal.

"We are pleased that this pit is functional as we historically move much of our fall receipts through this portion of our elevator," he said.

All the bin space in Royal can be utilized this fall aside from 330,000 bushels of storage that is not usable due to the explosion, according to the company. The incident remains under investigation, but Ag Partners previously said the Aug. 25 blast was caused by a "grain dust incident."

The Royal location is slated to be fully functional sometime next week. The scale and traffic routes for delivery will remain the same as in other years.

The potential need for additional grain storage locations was discussed last week by the Royal City Council. Ag Partners representative Lucas Clive gave an update on the situation, and noted there will be no dryer this year. The issue will be revisited if more grain storage locations are needed later this fall.

"The Royal customers' commitment to Ag Partners has never been more evident," CEO Troy Upah said in a statement. "As a result, we will rebuild the Royal location in a way that will accommodate our customers' needs for years to come."

A message left with Brent Low, vice president of agronomy and corporate marketing at Ag Partners, regarding the structural integrity of the affected elevator was unreturned as of press deadline.