Seed cleaning plant going strong

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

In these less than ideal economic times, the local seed cleaning plant has seen an uptick in production and continues to crank out promising seeds for farmers to use.
The seed cleaning business has been great to Strathmore Seed Cleaning Plant manager Keith Reynolds, so much so that after nearly 37 years of running the plant, he has put his retirement papers in for this summer.
Born in Camrose and having moved to Strathmore in 1979, it didn’t take Reynolds long to take over as the manager at the plant, and farmers from all around Strathmore have benefited from his tireless work.
For nearly four decades, the plant has been taking in seeds from the harvest of nearby farmers and cleaning them, giving clean seeds back to the farmers for next year’s crop.
“I look at it like, a rancher doesn’t want any runts in his herd of cattle. He wants the biggest cows and biggest bulls to produce the biggest, meatiest cows the next year,” said Reynolds. “What we do is take the crop from the farmer and clean out anywhere between 10 to 20 per cent of his crop and give the best seeds back to him for next year’s crop.”
Reynolds’ operation of four employees also coat the seeds with a treatment that helps protect the young seeds from fungus and root rots in the early stages of growth.
Only able to work on one individual’s harvest at a time, the plant takes in anything between 2,000 and 3,000 bushels at a time and typically works with three different individuals per day.
The modernization of farming technology over the years has helped speed up the process.
Like any agriculture job, the seasonal challenges of bitter cold, heaping amounts of snow and heavy rain that creates mud bogs on farmer’s land slows business down from time to time. That, and faulty electrical and mechanical glitches pop up, too. But Reynolds has seen it all in his time and knows his way around any problem.
The business has also expanded and now ships seed all over the world for farmers in other countries to use. They have also gotten into the seed-growing business by growing pedigreed seed to help span a new generation of seed for farmers to use.
Those new projects and a couple other small irons in the fire keep Reynolds busy as the days until his retirement fly off the calendar.
“I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do after this, but I know that there will be a lot of fishing and golfing when I’m done.”