Seed cleaning plant breaks ground

Times Reporter

 

After just over a year of planning, the Strathmore Seed Cleaning plant broke ground at its new home. It is located just north of the Hwy 1 and Hwy 21 junction.

The concrete is set to be poured this month and the hope is to fill the building shortly after. 

“Well, we’re ready to start. Our building has arrived and it’s 70 by 150 by 40 feet tall and so that’s here and we’ve got some bins up on the site that we’re selling to members and we’re ready to go,” said Kelly Wheeler, Chairman of the board. 

The cleaning machinery is on order from the United States.

The previous plant is 37-years-old and the time had come to update it. Wheeler had previously stated they were putting patches on patches and the time to start new had come. 

The new plant will have double the capacity of the old plant. It will clean seed better resulting in a better product for and from local farmers. 

“The start of every good crop is good seed, the better the seed the better your crop as a rule so this is where it all starts,” said Wheeler. 

“Keith is an expert at cleaning seed and treating seed, and he prepares it for going in the ground.”

“The colour sorter is going to make a huge difference, ergot the last couple of years has been pretty bad, and nobody can clean it out,” said Wheatland County Reeve Glenn Koester. 

“We have a new terminal down there in Gleichen and this will give them an option to haul clean product.”

The colour sorter will sort the seeds based on their colour, it will pull all of the foreign material out of the seed, so all that’s left is pure seed. 

“It’s a necessity and they’re building a top-of-the-line outfit here, so it will be beneficial to the agriculture industry and to the county for sure,” said Wheatland County Councillor Ken Sauve. 

The County of Wheatland council unanimously passed Bylaw 2012-78 on August 21, 2012, which authorized Wheatland County to borrow money from the Alberta Capital Finance Authority (ACFA) to finance the plant. The money was given by way of debenture issue, to pay for the cost of construction. The total cost of the project amounts to 4.5 million, with two million put up by the Strathmore Seed Cleaning Plant. The county will pay 2.5 million to ACFA in 30 equal semi-annual installments.

Shares in the plant are worth $1675, which represents approximately 320 acres of farmland.