Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116Seed Plant Profile After struggling for years with an old plant that was too small, the Lougheed Seed Cleaning Co-op will open its new facility in the spring. 44 www.seed.ab.ca | Advancing Seed in Alberta THE Lougheed Seed Cleaning Co-op will begin a new chapter in the spring of 2017, when its new cleaning facility officially opens. Manager Michael Patten says the time is right to bid the cur- rent plant adieu and put the modern, high-throughput facility into operation. “The current plant has done its time. There’s only one other plant in the Alberta co-op system that’s the same age as us. We just can’t expand anymore in our present facility,” says Patten, who’s been the manager at Lougheed for 29 years. The current plant was built in 1954. Patten is 60 now, and has seen a lot of change over the past three decades. He originally started at the plant in 1985 as a third man. He’s felt for a long time the current plant was outliving its use- fulness, but its age really began to show about six years ago, he says. That’s when the region faced a major ergot infestation. “For those couple years, we were handling such high volumes. We did 1.5 million bushels in a single year, and we normally do around 500,000,” he says. “It was obvious the plant was wear- ing out. It was around that time we began looking at building a new one.” The new plant, which will be about four times the size of the current one, is nearing completion. The co-op acquired 15 acres of land just a quarter-mile north of the current plant. Wheat, oats, barley and peas are the co-op’s bread and butter, with some rye and triticale to boot. The new plant, which has been in construction since 2014, will have 15,000 bushels of screening capacity, 15,000 bushels clean seed capacity and 24,000 bushels of rough seed capacity. Diversification Lougheed is a village in central Alberta, located 94 kilometres (km) southeast of Camrose, along Hwy. 13. Only around 230 people live there, but the Lougheed Seed Cleaning Co-op enjoys a shareholder base of 130. Historically, the plant has provided mainly seed cleaning services, and has also offered screening purchases, bagging and tagging of seed, bin rental services and tarps. That limited list of services will slowly begin to change when the new plant opens, according to Patten. “We couldn’t diversify much with the old plant, but we expect to harness that capability with the new one. We’ve made Building for the Future contacts with several companies that clean grain for export, and we’re looking at the same capability for producer car loading,” he says. There’s huge potential in the pedigreed seed market, he notes, and the co-op plans to capitalize on it. “A lot of plants have been able to align themselves with seed growers or seed companies. Most seed plants clean in their The new Lougheed Co-op Seed Cleaning Plant is four times the size of the old one. Photos courtesy Michael Patten The new plant has been under construction since 2014.