The St. Paul Municipal Seed Cleaning Association held its annual general meeting on Dec. 6 and discussed its newest piece of machinery, a colour sorter.
The machine, which was purchased this summer, has been operational for about three weeks now. The sorter is designed to sort seed by colour, which allows for commodities to meet required standards from buyers, explains the plant manager, Ron Wirsta.
“Through lengthy discussion, and a few trips to other facilities, we finally came to the decision that this machine would help our producers,” said Wirsta in his annual message to the board.
The colour sorter comes with a price tag of $350,000.
According to product information for the Sortex Z+ from Buhler Group, the machine uses 2048 pixel visible camera sensors and high-resolution infrared sensors to detect defects on the seed. The information states the sorter adds value to a variety of commodities, including seed.
Wirsta says there were about 15 stakeholders in attendance at the AGM last week and one concern that came up was the plant’s struggle with keeping staff. Wirsta says that being part of the “Alberta Advantage” has its challenges and the seed cleaning plant does have difficulty keeping its plant operators. The plant is currently seeking a full-time operator.
A total of 639,464 bushels of seed was cleaned during the current fiscal year, an increase of 82,138 bushels from the previous fiscal year, reported Wirsta.
There were no changes to the Municipal Seed Cleaning Association board this year.
The board of directors includes: chairman Andre Pomerleau, vice-chairman Richard Brousseau, director Jacques Plante, director Francois Hebert, director Dennis Bacque, director Roger Beaudin, and director Denis Kotowich.
