New color sorter at the Pincher Seed Cleaning Plant

New color sorter at seed cleaning plant

Justine Jorgensen

There is new technology at the Pincher Seed Cleaning Plant. The addition is a color sorter that is able to separate ergot from wheat, barley out of wheat, wheat out of barley, etc., by detecting the colors of the items that pass before it. The machine also takes out different varieties of diseases with different colors.

"It's the latest and greatest technology at the moment. We couldn't take some of the ergot out of wheat so we bought one of these machines to do it. Because ergot you can't feed animals or anything - it'll kill it. So that's why we invested in this," explained Manager Kevin Schmaltz.

Of the thousands of bushels of seeds brought in by customers a day, the sorter runs around six hundred bushels an hour. The whole project cost $450,000.  Employee Bud van Kommer said it was made possible because "farmers and the MD and ourselves put money into it."

Schmaltz went on the say that the new color sorter has opened some new possibilities. "There's different varieties now so we can take other stuff out of different commodities. Some day in the short future we're going to be cleaning hemp."

The machine that has been awaited for several years is now up and running. Schmaltz said, "We're just happy that we got the funding from the MD, from our members, and it's working good. We're open for business."

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A tour of the Pincher Creek Seed Cleaning Plant