DANIEL TYLER GOODEN / L’Observateur / March 25, 2000

CONVENT – Down a winding country road better known as Louisiana Highway 44 and past all the small towns nestled downriver from Baton Rouge stands one of the largest, most sophisticated grain elevators in the world.

Zen-Noh Grain Corp. was built by its parent company, the Japaneseagricultural cooperative Zen-Noh, in 1982 in order to better supply its some 4.5 million Japanese farmer-members.Last year Zen-Noh exported more grain than any other elevator in the world, around 13 million tons, said plant manager Rodney Duhe’ Jr. This is due inpart to Consolidated Grain and Barge Co. The Japanese cooperative wantedto guarantee the quality and quantity of their import grain thus, the company bought half of CGB in 1988, giving access from “the field to the dinner table,” said Duhe’. CGB ships grain from around 60 elevators locatedacross the Mississippi Valley by barge down to Convent.

The Convent elevator was built in St. James after over a year of searching inLouisiana. Taking 33 months to build, it was constructed “state of the artthen and still is,” said Duhe’. Zen-Noh bought 540 acres and built on 125acres, leaving the rest for local cane farming.

The company took care to hire not just St. James Parish workers, butparticularly Convent citizens. The elevator started off hiring 60 workers, 35or so who are still with the company after 18 years, said Duhe. Currently theelevator has about 130 Zen-Noh workers and around 20 contract workers, the majority being from Convent and almost all from St. James Parish. Thecompany’s payroll generates around $5 million from its 24 hour a day operation, and the company spends about the same amount in the parish every year. Duhe’ takes pride in the fact the company has worked so wellwith and in the parish.

The elevator exports a vast variety of grain, soybeans and sorghum.

Through the years the company has moved away from generic grains and concentrates on specialty grains. There are grains that are grown for highfiber, low stress cracks and other specific traits.

“Whatever kind of grain a customer wants, we can get it,” said Duhe’.

Also an exporter of wood chips, the company has a storage capable of holding 240,000 tons of chips. Since 1995 it has been a major exporter orhard hardwood chips, such as Southern oak, maple, hickory and pecan. Thechips are used for fine paper products, microwavable cartons and such. Thefacility is rated second in the world based on it’s quality control and volume of wood chips.

On the river, 14 million bushels of grain can be lined up in barges for their turn at the receiving dock. With two lanes, the barges are constantly beinglined up for their turn at the massive unloader, which swings down from above into the barge to unload the barges at 100,000 bushels an hour, or about 25 barges in 24 hours.

About 96 percent of the grain comes in by barge. About 3 percent of thegrain arrives by rail and unloads at 60,000 bushels an hour. Local farmerstake care of the last percent, unloading around 20 trucks an hour. Thoughnot in the original design, the truck unloading station was added for the local industry.

All produce goes bad at one time or another, said Duhe’, but Zen-Noh is prepared. The company’s quality control ensures that sour or spoiled grain isreconditioned. The USDA operates 24 hours a day on site, keeping a closeeye on the condition of each new load of grain. Zen-Noh also has its owntesting personnel that work along side the USDA. The rejected grain is driedand aired out, bringing it back to the standards required.

When switching between handling the grain and wood chips, the quality control systems ensure that cross-contamination does not occur. Betweentwo and four hours of thoroughly cleaning the system are spent each time the elevator switches its products. The system won’t even start unlessevery door leading to a possible mixing of the grain and chips are sealed tight. “The combination of equipment for exporting both wood chips and grainis a real work of art here,” said Duhe’.

When the grain is ready to be shipped it’s transported from the storage silos into the scale tower, weighed and then loaded onto the massive ocean going vessels. The loading dock can fill the vessels at 3,000 tons an hour. Theships, called Panamacs due to being designed to be as large as they can and still fit through the Panama Canal, can hold up to 50,000 tons in seven to 10 holds. Zen-Noh charters some 14 of these vessels that continually cycles the35-day trip from Louisiana to Japan.

All the receiving, loading, mixing, quality control and transporting of products over the six miles of conveyer belts is done in one central station. Inside thecontrol room the walls are lined with displays marking the equipment in multicolored lights. The old wall displays are now backup systems, ascomputers now regulate and control the functions of the plant. The stationsin the control room watch the visual display of the grains, unloading from their docks, moving into the silos, mixing and storing into the desired product and moving back out to the river to be loaded onto the ships. Every event ismonitored by a computer, and a extensive collection of cameras take pictures every few minutes to monitor what is going on. If there is ever abreakdown or a problem it is recorded down to the smallest detail by the monitoring systems.

Safety is a major concern for Zen-Noh. There are many inherent risks forgrain exportation workers, said Duhe’. That’s why when the Convent elevatorwas built it was designed to utmost safety regulation to provide for a safe environment for its workers. The elevator has worked for two straight yearswithout time lost due to injury.

The plant is designed to move it’s products slower and to carry more. Thiscuts down on the fire hazards of friction, Duhe’ added. Also, the majority ofthe machines are built on the ground level, reducing the risk of fall during repair, maintenance and possible accidents.

Blowout devices are built into the different sections of the elevator to reduce possible explosions from traveling through the facility. The metalcovering on the elevator is designed to withstand 125 miles an hour winds but will strip off in a hurricane to prevent the buildings from being blown down. The design of the elevator is so efficient LSU brings its engineeringstudents there for a tour every year.

The dust collection machineries suck in the grain dust to prevent possible explosion hazards. “You could eat your lunch in here there’s so little dust,”said Duhe’. Zen-Noh’s dust collection designs are so effective the USDA usesthe elevator as an example to other companies to illustrate its rating of excellent. The system is so important to the facility that dust filtersthrough the elevator are check for safety every day.

Along with the safety checks, machinery checks are conducted regularly to prevent failure. Around 400 cards a month are filed as the machinery andsafety checks are conducted. The company can go back and see everyrepair, replacement or check done since they began the system, said Duhe’.

Being a company that hires unskilled workers as easily as they do experienced workers, the company watches after their workers closely. Newworkers wear green hard hats along with their required safety glasses. Aftersix months of work, the employees wear a yellow hard hat, and then a white one after a year. This enables management and supervisors to keep in closecontact on a daily basis, making sure they’re getting along alright and understand how everything works in their first year of getting used to the elevator, said Duhe’. The company is so secure in it’s safety measures, thatit voluntarily invites OSHA to inspect their elevator.

Zen-Noh spends 10 to 15 percent of its budget on making improvements and maintaining its state of the art condition. This ensures its safety record aswell as keeping the elevator environmentally sound. Public relations officerErrol Savoie explained that’s why the company’s environmental record is “very clean.” The problems of pollution on the river don’t apply here, Savoieadded.

“We’re a big small company. We’re in the market place with the big guys butsmall enough to get things done,” said Duhe, proud of his plant in St. JamesParish.

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