O’Mara designs and manufactures equipment and complete systems for seed, grain, agriculture, food processing, and other industries. From individual conveyors and bins to complete seed processing facilities, we bring engineering, manufacturing, construction, and installation together to create equipment tailored to each operation.
If you need one piece of equipment, an upgrade to an existing line, or help planning a complete facility, our team can work with you through design, engineering, manufacturing, installation, and system integration.
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We manufacture agricultural and industrial equipment for moving, storing, drying, processing, and handling seed, grain, and other bulk materials.
Our product lineup includes conveyors, bucket elevators, bins and hoppers, seed drying systems, gates, filling and unloading equipment, dust-control components, and custom equipment. We also build custom platforms, stairs, catwalks, equipment stands, and other structures that support complete processing systems.
You can work with us for a single machine or a complete system that connects multiple stages of your operation. With engineering, fabrication, assembly, and system integration handled in-house, we can design equipment to fit your product, capacity, space, and workflow.
We specialize in equipment and facilities for seed and grain processing, but our capabilities extend beyond agriculture. We also work with food processing, edible products, popcorn, and other industrial applications that require dependable material handling and custom equipment.
Our experience includes conveying, storage, drying, cleaning and separation, treating and coating, packaging, palletizing, dust control, and air handling.
Because every product behaves differently, we consider the material, where the equipment will be used, and what it needs to accomplish. This allows us to develop solutions for both familiar agricultural applications and more specialized processing challenges where off-the-shelf equipment may not be the best fit.
We are based in Des Moines, Iowa, where we design and manufacture agricultural and industrial equipment.
Our in-house capabilities include engineering, laser and plasma cutting, CNC forming, welding, powder coating, industrial painting, equipment assembly, and system integration. Keeping these capabilities together gives our team greater control over how equipment moves from an initial idea to a finished system.
Our Des Moines operation supports projects ranging from individual conveyors, bins, gates, and other components to complete seed processing facilities. While our roots are firmly in the Midwest and agricultural industry, our equipment is built for operations that need dependable material handling, product protection, efficient flow, and long service life.
Yes. Custom equipment is an important part of what we do.
Instead of requiring your operation to fit a standard machine, we can design equipment around your product, available space, capacity, material flow, existing machinery, and production goals. A custom project may involve modifying the size or configuration of an existing product or developing a completely new solution for a specific process challenge.
Our engineering team uses design tools such as SolidWorks to visualize equipment, check fit, and refine designs before fabrication begins. Because engineering and manufacturing work closely together, design decisions can also account for how the equipment will actually be fabricated, assembled, installed, accessed, cleaned, and maintained.
Seed handling is one of our core areas of expertise. We design equipment with the understanding that every drop, transfer, angle, surface, and cleanout point can affect seed quality.
Our approach focuses on reducing unnecessary drops and impacts, improving product flow, simplifying inspection and cleaning, and limiting places where seed can collect between batches.
These considerations can help protect seed from physical damage while also supporting cleaner product changes and more efficient production. We refer to this design approach as incorporating “seedsmanship” into the equipment. We apply those principles across conveyors, bucket elevators, dryers, bins, filling systems, transfer equipment, and complete seed processing facilities.
Yes. We design and manufacture equipment in Des Moines, Iowa, for customers throughout Iowa and beyond.
We work with agricultural and processing operations that need custom equipment, material handling systems, plant improvements, and other engineered solutions. The right approach depends on the project’s size and scope. Some equipment can be manufactured and shipped as a complete unit, while larger systems may use modular construction or require field installation and integration.
If your facility is outside the Midwest, start by sharing your location, equipment needs, material, production goals, and installation requirements. Our team can then discuss the best approach for designing, manufacturing, delivering, and supporting the project.
Yes. Our engineering and fabrication capabilities allow us to develop equipment for applications that do not fit neatly into a standard product category.
The process starts with understanding your material, what you need the equipment to accomplish, required throughput, available space, connection points, and any concerns related to product damage, dust, cleanout, corrosion, or maintenance. From there, our team can develop and refine a design before fabrication.
Our in-house manufacturing capabilities include laser and plasma cutting, CNC forming, MIG and TIG welding, stainless steel and aluminum fabrication, finishing, assembly, and system integration. Custom work can range from a modified component to a purpose-built machine or complete processing system.
Yes. Existing drawings, equipment specifications, photographs, measurements, and facility layouts can be very helpful when developing custom equipment or planning a plant modification. This information helps our engineering team understand available space, elevations, connection points, surrounding equipment, structural limitations, and other conditions that may influence the design.
If you already have an equipment concept or engineering drawings, we can review them as part of the project. If you do not have detailed drawings, you can still contact us.
Our team can help identify the measurements and information needed to move forward. Starting with accurate information helps reduce surprises later and makes it easier to design equipment that fits properly and connects with the rest of your operation.
Yes. We can design and fabricate equipment using materials and finishes selected for the needs of the application. Depending on the environment, that may include stainless steel components, aluminum fabrication, specialized coatings, industrial paint, powder coating, or other application-specific construction. These choices can be important when equipment is exposed to moisture, corrosive materials, demanding cleaning procedures, food ingredients, or other challenging operating conditions.
The right material should be selected based on the product, environmental exposure, sanitation requirements, abrasion, and how the equipment will be cleaned and maintained. Sharing these conditions early in the project gives our engineering team the information needed to recommend an appropriate construction and finish rather than treating material selection as an afterthought.
Equipment capacity should be based on the complete process, not simply the highest number a single machine can achieve.
We consider the type of material being handled, bulk density, flow characteristics, desired throughput, conveying distance, elevation changes, storage requirements, and the equipment before and after each step.
A conveyor sized for very high capacity will not improve production if another part of the line becomes the bottleneck. The same principle applies to bins, elevators, dryers, gates, filling systems, and other equipment.
Our team can review your desired production rate and how material moves through the facility to help size equipment appropriately. The goal is a balanced system that keeps product moving reliably without adding unnecessary size, complexity, energy use, or cost.
Cleaning, inspection, and maintenance are important parts of equipment design, especially when processing seed, grain, food products, or multiple varieties.
We consider where material can collect, how operators will reach important components, and how equipment can be cleaned between products or batches.
Depending on the application, designs may include accessible cleanout areas, smooth product paths, removable panels, inspection points, or strategic equipment access. Drives, bearings, gates, conveyors, and other components can also be positioned with service needs in mind. In seed facilities, better cleanout can help reduce unwanted carryover between varieties.
Easy cleanout and inspection are specifically included among the principles we use when designing seed handling systems.
Yes. We can support projects ranging from individual equipment purchases to the design and construction of complete seed processing facilities.
Our capabilities include plant design and engineering, equipment manufacturing, construction, millwright work, installation, consultation, procurement, and system integration. This allows conveyors, dryers, bins, gates, structures, filling systems, and other equipment to work together as part of one coordinated process.
During design, we can consider product flow, capacity, seed protection, cleanout, equipment access, available space, and long-term operating goals. Working with a single team across multiple stages of the project can also simplify communication and help ensure equipment is designed with installation and integration in mind from the beginning.
Yes. You do not need to be building an entirely new plant to work with us. Existing facilities often need additional capacity, replacement equipment, improved material flow, better cleanout, new storage, or updated processing equipment.
We can design equipment around existing buildings and production lines when the application allows. Depending on the project, this may involve new conveyors, bins and hoppers, dryers, gates, dust-control components, structures, or custom transition equipment.
Our engineering, manufacturing, millwright, construction, and installation capabilities can help connect new components with the equipment you want to keep. This makes us a practical partner for expansions, remodels, equipment replacements, and phased facility improvements.
Yes. Problems with material flow can reduce production even when the individual machines are working correctly. Bottlenecks, unnecessary drops, poor transitions, uneven feed rates, product buildup, and misaligned equipment can reduce efficiency and affect product quality.
We can review the process and determine where equipment or layout changes may improve flow. Solutions might include conveyors, elevators, surge bins, gates, loading boxes, hoppers, trippers, or custom transfer equipment.
Because our experience includes conveying, storage, drying, cleaning, treating, coating, packaging, dust control, and other processing systems, we can consider how a change in one area may affect the rest of the operation.
Yes. New equipment can often be designed to work with existing machinery and facility layouts.
The engineering process can account for your current elevations, conveyor paths, discharge points, capacities, controls, structural limitations, and available floor space. This is useful when you need to replace one machine, add capacity, or introduce a new process without rebuilding the entire production line. Accurate drawings, photographs, measurements, and existing equipment specifications can help our team understand how the new equipment needs to fit and function.
Our combination of design, fabrication, assembly, construction, and system integration enables us to consider both the new machine and the surrounding equipment when developing the solution.
Yes. We can incorporate automated operation into agricultural and bulk material handling systems when it fits the application.
Automation may involve product routing, gates, conveying, bin filling, weighing, drying, blending, transfer points, or coordinated operation between several pieces of equipment. The goal is not simply to automate as many steps as possible. The right level of automation should make the process easier to control, more consistent, or less dependent on unnecessary manual handling.
Our team can review the product, desired throughput, existing equipment, operator responsibilities, and production goals to determine where automation may provide the most value. Automation can be considered during the design of a new system or as part of an upgrade to an existing facility.
Yes. Not every plant expansion needs to happen all at once.
We can help plan equipment and systems to meet current production needs while considering how the facility may grow in the future. A project might begin with new conveyors, storage, drying, or processing equipment and expand into additional capacity, automation, packaging, or other areas in a later phase.
Thinking about future needs during the first stage can help reserve space, establish useful connection points, and avoid design choices that make later expansion unnecessarily difficult.
We also emphasize prebuilt and modular designs whenever practical, which can support projects where equipment needs to be installed, expanded, or reconfigured in stages.
Yes. We provide construction, millwright, and installation services in addition to engineering and equipment manufacturing.
Our teams can handle equipment setup, alignment, and integration with other parts of the processing system. This is particularly useful for projects that require multiple pieces of equipment to work together, such as conveyors, elevators, bins, dryers, gates, structures, and material transfer systems. Working with one company for design, fabrication, and installation can simplify coordination throughout the project.
We also design equipment to be prebuilt and modular whenever practical, helping simplify field installation and reduce the amount of fabrication that must take place at the jobsite.
Our equipment can be configured for a broad range of agricultural and bulk materials. Applications may include seed corn, soybeans, wheat, popcorn, specialty seed, grain, feed, food ingredients, fertilizer, powders, pellets, cobs, husks, silage, and other materials.
The right equipment depends on more than the product name. Density, moisture, particle size, abrasiveness, fragility, flow characteristics, throughput, and cleanout needs can all affect how a material should be handled.
We manufacture multiple types of conveyors, bins and hoppers, elevators, dryers, gates, and custom equipment, allowing the system to be matched to the material rather than expecting every product to work with the same design.
Seed can be damaged by long drops, hard impacts, poor transfer angles, excessive speed, or equipment that handles the product too aggressively.
We consider these factors when designing seed handling equipment. Our approach focuses on minimizing drops and impact, maintaining steady product flow, improving transfers, and using equipment designed to protect seed quality.
Bucket elevators, conveyors, letdown equipment, bins, and other components can all play a role in protecting product as it moves through the facility. Cleanout and contamination prevention are also important because seed quality includes more than physical appearance.
We call this overall focus on maintaining seed integrity while improving system performance “seedsmanship.”
Reducing product loss begins with controlling material at loading, conveying, transfer, and discharge points. Product should flow onto the conveyor at a steady rate and remain centered on the belt to reduce spillage and uneven loading. Equipment should also be sized correctly for the amount of material moving through the system.
We manufacture belt loaders, loading boxes, hoppers, gates, enclosed and troughed conveyors, and other equipment that improves product control. System layout also matters. Poorly aligned transitions or unnecessary drops can increase spillage, product damage, and cleanup.
By considering the entire material path, our team can identify opportunities to improve containment, control product flow, and reduce waste.
Reducing cross-contamination starts with designing the material path so seed has fewer places to collect between batches.
We design seed handling equipment with easy cleanout and inspection in mind. Smooth transitions, accessible equipment, well-designed flow angles, and fewer ledges or difficult-to-reach areas can make it easier to remove product before another variety enters the system.
The best approach depends on the complete line because residual seed may remain in conveyors, bins, elevators, gates, hoppers, spouting, or other transfer equipment.
We consider cleanout needs across the entire system to help reduce the risk of cross-contamination. Preventing contamination between batches is specifically identified as part of our seed handling design philosophy.
The best conveyor depends on the material, required capacity, distance, incline, layout, cleanout needs, and how gently the product needs to be handled.
We manufacture a variety of conveyor systems to suit different materials, capacities, and applications. Options include screw conveyors, high-capacity belt conveyors, batch treater drying conveyors, dual-roller conveyors, tri-roller belt conveyors, round bottom conveyors, pan idler belt conveyors, and belt trippers.
A conveyor carrying delicate seed may require a different approach than one moving cobs, husks, fertilizer, or other bulk material. Belt width, speed, trough design, loading method, transfer points, and elevation changes should all be considered when selecting the system.
We offer a variety of belt conveyor designs for different products, capacities, and material handling applications.
Tri-roller conveyors form the belt into a trough that helps contain bulk material and support higher-volume conveying. Pan idler conveyors combine a formed pan with idler rollers to support the belt and contain material. Round bottom conveyors use a curved carrying area suited to smaller, free-flowing products where containment and gentle handling are important. High-capacity conveyors are designed to move larger volumes, while dual-roller conveyors help provide smooth, stable material handling. Belt loaders, tripper systems, gravity take-ups, and indexing covers can also be added where the application requires them.
Choosing the right conveyor depends on the product, process, and handling requirements.
Yes. We manufacture bins and hoppers for storage, receiving, weighing, drying, buffering, sampling, and material handling.
Current products include custom bins and hoppers, receiving hoppers, auger leveling bins, weigh bins, drying and aeration bins, bulk storage systems, surge bins, and bin probe samplers.
Custom designs can be developed around the product being handled, required capacity, available space, flow characteristics, cleanout needs, and connection to surrounding equipment.
Because we also manufacture conveyors, bucket elevators, gates, samplers, and other material handling equipment, bins and hoppers can be designed as part of the larger processing system rather than as isolated storage vessels.
The main difference is how the bin is used and how long material is expected to remain inside it.
A surge bin acts as a temporary buffer between production steps. It helps regulate product flow so downstream equipment receives material at a steadier rate. A holding bin generally keeps material for a shorter period while it waits for processing, packaging, or another handling step. A storage bin is intended for longer-term product storage.
The right design depends on the material, capacity, discharge rate, cleanout needs, and how the bin connects to surrounding equipment.
We can customize bin geometry, capacity, discharge arrangements, and integration based on the role the bin needs to play in your process.
We manufacture seed drying equipment for production and research applications. The current product lineup includes production dryers, seed research dryers, burner-blower units, specialized fill doors, and single-point reversing air doors.
We also manufacture drying and aeration bins and batch treater drying conveyors to support additional stages of the drying process. The right system depends on the type of seed, production volume, available space, airflow needs, and how drying fits into the overall process.
Our experience across multiple stages of seed processing allows drying equipment to be designed to work with the rest of the system.
We design dust-control and airflow equipment for seed, grain, food, and other bulk processing operations. The current product lineup includes dust hoods, air diverters, and air dampers; however, dust-control connections and containment features can also be incorporated into other custom equipment.
Effective dust control starts by identifying where dust is created, such as conveyor transfer points, elevators, filling areas, bins, cleaners, or loadout areas. Equipment can then be designed to help capture or manage dust near those points.
Because we also design conveyors, bins, hoppers, gates, and transfer equipment, dust control can be planned as part of the overall material handling system.
Yes. Existing processing facilities may have dust problems around transfer points, conveyors, bucket elevators, bins, filling equipment, or other areas where material changes direction or elevation.
We can review the application and help determine what equipment or modifications may improve containment and airflow. Depending on the process, solutions might include custom dust hoods, air diverters or dampers, enclosed transfer points, duct connections, or redesigned material transitions.
Because dust generation is often connected to how product moves through the system, the best solution may involve more than adding one dust-control component. Our experience with material handling, dust control, air handling, and custom fabrication allows these issues to be considered together.
Yes. We manufacture custom structures that provide equipment support and safe access throughout agricultural, processing, and industrial facilities.
Current products include equipment stands, man ladders, platforms and stairs, structures, catwalks, mezzanines, and Easy Letdown Ladders. These components can be designed alongside conveyors, bins, dryers, and other processing equipment so access and support needs are addressed from the start. Custom fabrication also allows structures to fit around existing machinery, floor space, elevations, and facility constraints.
For larger projects, we can coordinate engineering, manufacturing, construction, millwright work, and installation as part of one integrated system.
Yes. We engineer equipment to be prebuilt and modular whenever practical. This depends on equipment size, transportation requirements, building access, installation conditions, and the overall project.
Preassembly allows equipment to be checked for fit and function before shipment and can simplify installation on-site. Larger equipment and systems may be divided into planned modules that can be transported separately and connected during installation.
We also have full assembly and system integration capabilities at our manufacturing facility. Thinking about modular construction during the design stage can help make installation more predictable and may also make future expansion or modification easier.
Equipment needs can change as production volumes, products, layouts, and processes change.
If an existing O’Mara machine needs a component, modification, or upgrade, contact our team with as much information as possible about the equipment and your current needs. Useful details may include the equipment model, project information, photographs, dimensions, and a description of the issue or desired change.
Because we design and manufacture equipment in-house, our team can review the application and determine what options may be available. The same applies when an existing line needs to accommodate a new process, additional capacity, or a different transfer arrangement. Starting with accurate equipment information helps us identify the most practical next step.
The more we understand about your material and process, the easier it is to recommend or design the right equipment.
Helpful project details include your material, capacity needs, available space, equipment layout, elevations, existing equipment, and any special handling or installation requirements. Drawings, photographs, equipment specifications, and facility layouts can also be useful.
You do not need to have every engineering detail figured out before contacting us. Our capabilities include consultation and engineering, so we can help identify the additional information needed to move the project forward.
For custom projects, starting with your problem, production goals, and facility limitations is often enough to begin the conversation.
The timeline depends on the size and complexity of the project.
The design and manufacturing process will vary depending on whether you need one custom component or a complete system with conveyors, bins, structures, controls, and installation. Engineering requirements, materials, fabrication complexity, project approvals, outside components, shipping, and installation can all affect the schedule.
If you have a target completion date, seasonal shutdown, harvest window, or planned plant expansion, share that information as early as possible. Early planning gives the project team more opportunity to coordinate engineering, manufacturing, delivery, and installation around your operation.
Once we understand the project scope and requirements, our team can provide more specific information about the expected process and schedule.
Start by telling us what you are trying to accomplish. You may already know the exact conveyor, bin, dryer, gate, or other equipment you need, or you may simply know that part of your process is creating a problem.
Our team can review your goals, product, production requirements, existing equipment, facility layout, and expectations to help determine the next step. Depending on the project, that may mean selecting an existing O’Mara product, customizing equipment for your application, developing a new machine, or planning a larger processing system.
We can support projects through consultation, engineering, manufacturing, construction, installation, and system integration. The result is a solution designed around the way your operation actually works.
Every seed, grain, and bulk material handling operation is different. You may need a single piece of equipment, more capacity in an existing line, or a complete system designed around a new facility.
We can help you assess your product, process, layout, and production needs and recommend the right next step. Our team can support everything from custom conveyors, bins, dryers, and material handling equipment to engineering, fabrication, construction, installation, and complete system integration.
Contact us to ask a question, request a quote, or start planning your next equipment or facility project.
