Moooo-ving a Million Cubic Yards of Dirt

California might successfully argue higher total head count and gross production rates, but Wisconsin is still known as the "Dairy State." Read the slogan on the state’s auto license plates and talk with Harold, Nick, Tom, Dusty or Nathan Mueller.

Three generations of Muellers are the backbone of Mueller Excavating — the Campbellsport, Wis. contractor performing the site prep on a 100-acre dairy farm that will support 8,000 head of cattle. There will be almost nine times more cows there than residents of the Village of Rosendale, where the dairy is located. It will be the largest milk dairy farm in Wisconsin.

The massive Rosendale Dairy operation is being built for Milk Source LLC, Kaukauna, Wis. It will be the company’s third facility.

"There were eight or nine other site-prep bids on the project," states Nick Mueller, president of Mueller Excavating. "We weren’t the lowest, but we won it, in large part because we use GPS machine control.

"Milk Source is very impressed with our capabilities and understands that our use of GPS systems will yield highly accurate results. On a site like this, we’re looking at some very unique, tight tolerances."

Mueller Excavating is responsible for all excavating, grading, utility work, and gravelling. The job entails moving 1 million cubic yards of dirt, all of which is staying on the site, thanks to balanced cutting and filling.

Three of the 15-plus machines are equipped with Trimble® GCS900 Grade Control Systems. A recently purchased John Deere 750J Crawler Dozer shipped from the factory Trimble Ready™,which meant that the base-level installation requirements, such as mounting brackets and system cables, were pre-plumbed prior to delivery — thus, significantly reducing installation downtime. The local Trimble dealer, FABCO Equipment, Inc., installed the GCS900 system and configured it to Mueller Excavating’s needs. Additionally, a new Caterpillar 140M Motor Grader and a Cat D5M Track-type Tractor are equipped with the Trimble systems.

A Trimble SPS750 Modular GPS Receiver functions as the base station, which is located at an adjacent farm that Milk Source owns as well. "The worksite is wide open, so we don’t have issues with holding satellite signals," Nick remarks.

Advantages Experienced Early On

"We first got into machine control in 2007 and began experiencing benefits almost immediately," states Dusty Mueller, project manager. "We have virtually eliminated rework — we do it once and it’s done." According to Dusty, the efficiencies Mueller Excavating experiences with grade control technology are helping them stay ahead of the four-month schedule that Milk Source has for the Rosendale Dairy project.

In that tight timeframe, the grading and excavating of the foundations for two 1,340-foot-by-400-foot barns and milking parlors; digging three manure pits with a total capacity of 74 million gallons; digging feed bunkers that measure 300 feet by 400 feet and 800 feet by 600 feet; digging a 100,000-cubic-yard stormwater pond; and laying three miles of pipe must all be completed. Plus, Mueller Excavating must abide by the stringent and detailed construction standards established by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture.

The project and its schedule were also dramatically affected by a month of heavy rainfall and historic flooding that recently hit the area.

The site plan provided by Milk Source was converted into a 3D model, using Trimble Terramodel software, by Nathan Mueller, who handles estimating and is the company’s data prep expert. Nathan says, "Importing a designer’s electronic plan drawings to our computer system simplifies job planning and estimating. And loading them into our GPS-equipped machines improves productivity, efficiency and accuracy. Because of the GPS system's electronic-staking capability, we can do whole jobs without putting a single stick in the ground."

"Additionally," Nathan states, "with the digital model we make, simple design changes, such as a change in the pitch of a flat plane — maybe it’s sloped a little different — can be made right in the field."

Dusty adds, "With GPS, when you work 10 hours a day, you get 10 hours of production, not eight hours of production and two hours of staking. It saves about 25 percent, time-wise. We’ve been using GPS for about a year and a half, and it’s always been right on. In fact, other contractors working on the dairy site with us have had us use our GPS to double-check their work."

Three Generations of Success

Mueller Excavating was started in 1953 and currently performs a wide range of site-preparation and utility work for customers in east-central Wisconsin, with about two dozen employees on the payroll.

"My dad, Harold, began with a cable backhoe that required the coordination of his hands and feet to operate the two cables which maneuvered the machine to dig," Nick states. "My brother Tom and I joined the business when we were young and my sons Dusty and Nathan are a part of the operation." All five Muellers are active in the business. Harold, who is in his 70s, can be found operating a dozer every day.

"My dad is blown away by where we’re at and what we can do with GPS grade control technology," says Nick, who has owned the business since 1975. Over 55+ years there have been a lot of changes in heavy equipment, and add to that the significant advantages we now have with GPS. My father is astounded at the way GPS is revolutionizing the way we work, and so am I for that matter."