Seed cleaning plant looks to increase its production
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
The Strathmore Seed Cleaning Co-op is looking to expand their business in the near future. On Dec. 2 members held their annual general meeting to discuss the possibility of opening a new seed plant, among other items.
“This plant is 35 years old and it’s time to update it. We’re starting to put patches on patches,” said Kelly Wheeler chairman of the board.
Wheeler said they are hoping to get enough interest from the local farmers in the next month or so to be able to raise funds to go forth with the project.
“The idea is that it will enable us to clean seed better and clean way more seed,” said Wheeler.
“The new plant will double the capacity of the old plant. It will be twice as fast. The old plant runs at about 300 bushels an hour and the new plant will run at over 600 bushels an hour.”
They want to build the plant on a new site, out of town about five to six miles. It will boast some of the latest equipment.
“The big thing is, it’ll have a colour sorter in it and that’s kind of the new technology we’re looking to buy,” said Wheeler.
The sorter will sort the seeds based on their colour. It will pull all of the foreign material out of the seed so all they are left with is pure seed. This area is what Wheeler said they call a deficit seed-producing area, with most of the seed coming in from other areas. Wheeler said they want to make it so that more seed is produced here and they can export to more people. The current plant serves about 300 farmers in the area.
“We’re looking at lots of old plants in this county and we’re looking and thinking maybe it will serve all members of this county,” said Wheeler.
He said the board wants to generate a million dollars worth of equity, which needs to be done before they can really get started. He said there is approximately half a million committed at this point. There is a share structure set up so farmers can buy shares and it will also buy them discount cleaning at the new plant. A 200-acre share is worth $1,000.
“We’re hoping to get some strategic partnerships with the new seed companies that are starting to pop up and hopefully grow more seed in this area for export to other areas,” said Wheeler.
A big chunk of the equity for the new plant will come from the sale of the old property, and the old plant would be disposed of.
Much of the equipment in the current plant still has value, said Wheeler, and will likely be traded in for newer equipment. He said it is the facility itself that is almost outdated. He said the construction and renovations on it are becoming too costly. The name may be changed to encompass the whole county, but that is something that would happen later down the road. Wheeler said the county will help support the approvals and maybe some of their construction needs.
“For the most part we’re looking at the members getting this thing built ourselves,” said Wheeler.
Once everything is in place, they hope construction will be complete in the summer of 2012.