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New SD oilseed crush plant on schedule to open at harvest

A new multi-seed crush facility coming online in southeast South Dakota this fall is starting to contract soybeans.

“We have probably half of what we need so we need to buy a few more yet.”

Tom Kersting is the CEO of the South Dakota Soybean Processors, the group that manages High Plains Processing in Mitchell.

The plant can hold three million bushels of oilseeds and has the capacity to crush 100,000 bushels of soybeans each day. With a big soybean crop expected, he tells Brownfield “exactly how much we’ll process early on is unknown at this time, it will probably run at that 100,000 bushels of soybeans per day rate, but we might have to shut it off from time-to-time and make adjustments.”

It’s the first facility of its kind in the state to crush multiple oilseed crops and will take soybeans, sunflowers, canola and camelina. Kersting says the plant will only take soybeans the first year, but there’s interest from growers who have other commodities.

“We’ve had lots of interest from farmers in western South Dakota who are custom raising sunflowers. They’re excited for a new market and opportunities to raise something other than corn or soybeans.”

The oil processed at the facility will be used in the food industry, renewable diesel and other byproducts. The soybean meal will be exported, used to feed livestock and aquaculture. 

The plant is expected to be online by early October and there will be a test run of the receiving area at the end of August.

Kersting says he’s expecting high truck volumes at times and farmers delivering to the crush facility this fall should be aware of traffic.

“We can take 60 doubles in the parking lot and we’ll be punching them through quickly. Our goal is to get people in and out of there in a hurry,” he says. “We’ll probably run from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. for bean recieving and maybe longer for meal and products.”

A map of the plant’s layout can be found on the plant’s website.

Kersting and others at High Plains Processing gave an update on the project in a panel discussion at Dakotafest this week.