El Centro Hay Plant
Welcome to Wilbur-Ellis' sunny El Centro forage facility! El Centro supplies Sudan, bermuda and oat hay, as well as a host of other related forage products, blends and seed. The locally grown product flows either through the compress facility, generally for export, or through the pellet and cubing mills, both for export and North American markets.
"Our stack specific inventory system means you receive the stack you have chosen. Guaranteed."
The plant is situated on twenty-four acres just outside the town of El Centro. The facility utilizes two H and H Hay presses, two California pelletizers, and two Warne and Baerg cubers. We are currently operating with 70,000 tons of hay storage.
Wilbur-Ellis El Centro buys primarily from the Imperial Valley area, a small amount from the A2 area, and Mexico. The Imperial Valley covers a 300 square mile radius. The valley enjoys yearlong production, with about 9 crops taken off per year. The highest quality crops of Sudan hay, which accounts for the majority of exported hay, comes from the crops taken in June, July and August.
Wilbur-Ellis will purchase enough Sudan for the whole year, regardless of whether contracts are in place, to ensure its clients will receive the hay they need. The actual demand levels will depend on many factors farmers around the world are familiar with: weather, grades achieved, growing conditions for alternative crops and trends in shipping conditions. Contracts are created with clients usually about 30 days before delivery.
Wilbur-Ellis shows its commitment to its customers by taking on the risk of purchasing major
quantities of product with no contracts to deliver arranged.
Our Custom Production of Sudan hay is another initiative we have undertaken to meet the particular needs of Japanese clients for lighter colour Sudan.
Clients who have visited our operation, or who have talked with our representatives, will likely remember the Plascensia brothers. Jose, Quality Control Manager, has been on the job with us for 19 years. Alfredo, Production & Transportation Supervisor, has been on the job 18 years. It is this type of experience and commitment to the industry you will find with Wilbur-Ellis. Your satisfaction begins with people who care.
Our H & H presses run around the clock.
COMPRESS PRODUCTION CREW
The Compress Department usually operates 24 hours per day, six days a week. The compress superintendent reports to the general manager. There are three crews scheduled to work eight hours per day. A crew of ten men consists of:
- a quality assurance supervisor (who reports to the compress superintendent),
- a crew chief,
- a squeeze operator,
- a driver to position containers (yardgoat driver),
- a forklift operator,
- two press operators,
- two quality control bale checkers, and
- one laborer.
In addition, on the day shift there is a squeeze operator for the barn loading and unloading, and a retriever driver/waterman. All employees in contact with the hay are trained in quality control management, and understand the importance of quality to the success of the operation.
COMPRESSING CAPACITY & PROCESS
El Centro has two H & H presses. Each press is equipped with a Freeman Unstacker, a chain conveyor, a volume metric conveyer (flaker), a cutting knife unit for half-cut bales, an accumulator table and two Strapack stappers. There are fifty-eight bales in each dump loaded on the unstackers. The bales feed down onto the chain conveyor. The twine is automatically cut and removed. The bales are then processed through the flaker that combines part of one bale with another bale to maximize the weight.
TRUCKING
The average container weight is 46,500 pounds (23.25 short tons or 21.5 metric tons). The maximum gross vehicle weight in California on the roads servicing El Centro to Long Beach is 80,000 pounds. This includes the truck, chassis and loaded container. There are normally 40 containers at the plant and half of them are loaded with product. The round trip to Long Beach is 490 miles and takes about 12 hours.
We ship out of Long Beach California, Los Angeles Ports, primarily to three far eastern countries.
El Centro is a two hour drive east of San Diego in the heart of Imperial Valley. The plant is located at 45 W. Danenberg Road, El Centro, California, south of Interstate 8, off the Dogwood exit.
El Centro Hay Plant History
It was in 1988 that the hay compression idea got going for Wilbur-Ellis. Given that shipping containers can carry 58,000 lbs per container, it makes sense to compress the forage before shipping, with compression making about 50% decrease in volume and so reducing shipping costs substantially. While about 25,000 tons of material was compressed in the first year of operation, the facility currently compresses about 125,000 tons per year. Shifts are added as needed to meet any size order.
In the 1960's forage exports to Japan centered on the 1/4" hay pellets. In the 70's the preference became the 1 1/4" cubed product with a growing preference for longer fibers. This demand tapered off as the desire for compressed bales grew in the 90's.
The El Centro facility continues to grow, along with the Wilbur-Ellis Feed Division and Wilbur-Ellis Company, of which El Centro is an important part. In the Wilbur-Ellis Company, each individual facility is operated with an entrepreneurial spirit: El Centro has the flexibility to anticipate the changing needs of our clients, while benefiting from the financial backing and global market intelligence that come with being a part of a multi-billion dollar, international supplier of agricultural products and services.
Contact
Wilbur-Ellis El Centro Hay Plant
45 West Danenberg
El Centro, CA 92243
Office: (760) 352-2847
Fax: (760) 352-2921
Dan Wray
General Manager
Email
Eulalio Perezchica
Production Manager
Quality Control Manager
Alfredo Plascensia
Trader
Email
Cell: (760) 427-6969
