With just mere days before spring seeding for the 2024 year begins, Westlock Seed Cleaning Co-op Ltd., busy most of the year already, is expecting it to be even busier in the days and weeks ahead.
With construction on the new plant to resume soon, and lots of equipment and trucks working on the west side of the plant property, plus growers in and out to pick up their seed, plant Manager Wayne Walker is advising extra caution for customers this spring.
“We’re hoping some of our customers will come in as early as possible to pick up and treat grain, or whatever they need to help alleviate some of the congestion that will be out there,” he said last week.
“There will be a lot of truck traffic and we’re asking everyone to slow down and pay attention and use caution.”
Walker also advises producers to treat their seed grain for their own protection.
“There’s a lot more fusarium that has shown up this year in this area than in the past, so we’re highly recommending farmers do their due diligence and do their best management practices as far as growing, and that starts with treating their seed.”
“In my mind, you can have all that bright, shiny equipment out there, but if your crop doesn’t grow, what do you need it for? The seed end has always been a very important part of the farm.”
Walker added when prices drop like they have right now, treating their seed is one of the first things that farmers cut out.
“With all of the disease pressures, it’s probably something they shouldn’t be cutting out,” he said.
To a question regarding cleaning volumes at the plant this year, Walker said it is down this year for cleaning, and attributes some of that to the fusarium that has been around. “We’ve had some growers that have dumped some seed because the numbers (fusarium) were too high. That’s hurt us a bit. It’s not just the seed growers that get hit, it’s every commercial grower too, and some of them haven’t cleaned quite as much. So it’s been a slower year than what we have been used to. But in saying that, over the last couple of weeks, once the calendar turned to April, it’s starting to get busy again. That’s why we’re hoping to get guys coming in earlier.”
Regarding construction on the new plant, time wise, Walker said it is a little behind.
“We were hoping that we would be able to get into it early March-April next year but we’re thinking it will be cleaning come the fall of 2025. We’re going to try to run some grain through it in June-July next just to make sure all the bugs are out of it. That’s the plan.”
He said it (the new plant) will be nice, because it will have twice the storage and twice the cleaning capacity of what the current plant has. “We were hoping to go down to two shifts, but definitely have the capability if we need to and with that added capacity, we should be able to catch up in a big hurry.”
Upgrading to a new plant
There are not as many seed plants in the area as in the past. Lots of smaller plants, including private plants, have closed down over the past number of years, and more producers cleaning seed than in the past. Other factors such as more crop acreage means the Westlock Seed Cleaning Co-op Ltd. plant use has increased considerably over the years. And with an aging plant, the board of directors recognized the need for a larger plant.
Walker said the office and warehouse for the new plant should be completed and the main structure and legs lifted up in June. In the meantime, there’s lots of site work to take place.
The initial seed plant was built adjacent to a railway siding in Westlock in 1949, but perished in a fire in 1974. A new and current plant was built in 1975 in what was then the new industrial park on the west side of Westlock. It was upgraded with work completed in 2004 to speed cleaning and treating capacity and has over 45,000 bushels of in-house storage. The Westlock Seed Cleaning Co-op Ltd. has a shareholder base of over 800 members and serves a large area, cleaning and treating seed for the crops of tomorrow
