PEORIA MAGAZINE June 2023

SEED AND SOIL

PLANTING ROOTS

Precision Planting’s new Morton operations center is a symbol of its exponential growth

BY STEVE STEIN

P recision Planting was founded in 1993 by Greg and Cindy Sauder with a single product. It was a meter tester for corn and soybean planters that verified that only one kernel or seed at a time went from the hopper into the ground. Thirty years later, the Tremont-based company has become a major manufac turer of high-tech agricultural products that farmers around the world install on their equipment. It has been owned since 2017 by Georgia-based agricul tural equipment giant AGCO. As a visible symbol of its growth, Pre cision Planting is building a mammoth operations center in Morton — 500,000 square feet in total size, 47 feet tall — that catches the attention of motorists on two of the area's busiest interstates. The facility should be fully up and running by late fall. Morton officials are thrilled about the project. “I can't wrap my head around the size of this building,” said Morton Public Works Director Craig Loudermilk. “It’s

five times the size of the new Amazon facility in North Pekin. It’s the size of nine football fields under one roof.” “When this building is done, Morton will become the agricultural hub of the Midwest,” said Mayor Jeff Kaufman. “And the property taxes and jobs the building will create will maintain and improve the quality of life in our community.” GROWING PAINS Precision Planting is making the investment because it quite simply needs the space. “As our business continued to add products and increase our global footprint, a new place to assemble, house and ship our products became imperative,” said Keith Crow, the company's director of finance. The Precision Planting operations now done in seven buildings — three in Morton, two in Peoria Heights, one in Pekin and one in Edelstein — will be consolidated in the new building, which will more than double the company’s current footprint.

Meanwhile, there are 85 acres of additional room on the site that can accommodate another 430,000 square feet of expansion. Precision Planting has about 750 employees, including 650 in central Illinois. The rest are based across the globe. Of the area employees, about 90% work out of the Tremont and Morton locations. In addition to the company's head quarters in Tremont, there's a software development facility in Bloomington, and the Precision Technology Institute, a 400-acre agronomic research site in Pontiac. PUTTING THE TECHNOLOGY INTO PRACTICE Besides the research done at PTI, farmers can try out Precision Planting products in a real-farm environment. Precision Planting develops smart products that improve planting, liquid application and harvest operations on farms. The products are available at more than 400 dealerships in the

8 JUNE 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE