The Mountain View Seed Cleaning Plant is already starting to see the benefits of a new colour sorter installed at the Carstairs-area facility earlier this year, say officials.
The $340,000 sorter has been working well, according to plant manager Duane Trottier.
“The product coming out is a better product,” said Trottier. “We're putting out way better seed than we did before, so we've really improved quality. We had products in the grain before (purchasing the sorter) that we couldn't necessary (separate) but by running it through the colour sorter at the very end, we're seeing stuff that normally would have stayed in the clean seed that we were able to take out.”
Cameras in the machine help sort out undesirables that don't match specified seed characteristics the sorter is programmed to detect.
Staff at the plant make a point of taking farmers to see the seed once it's gone through the sorter and show them some of the seed that formerly would have stayed in the product prior to the plant getting the machine, he said.
“We've had some comments noting that they can see better quality seed that is coming out of the machine. We make a point when the farmers do come in to get it clean, we show them what their extra (money) is going into,” he said.
Farmers are being charged an extra 15 cents per bushel to pay for the sorter.
Trottier said the plant hasn't seen much of an increase in business yet, but he said he expects to see the plant busier once the main season – November through May – arrives.
He estimates about 300,000 bushels of product has gone through the sorter to this point.
“If we do get an ergot (a fungus that affects grain) problem this year or next year, then that's probably when we'll gain some more business. It may be a blessing that we don't have (ergot). We'd have more business but on the other hand, then you've got a lot of bad product around,” he said.
Plant staff members are still making adjustments to the machine. Operators can adjust how much air is put through the machine, the product size it checks and how much of the defective product the sorter sees before it will start rejecting it, he said.
The Mountain View Seed Cleaning Plant is located three kilometres east of Carstairs on Highway 581. It first opened in 1987.
