MORINVILLE, Alta. – Three years ago, one field of frozen canola was enough to prompt an Alberta farmer to develop a machine to sort green seed from mature canola seed.
Charles Hepfner invented the machine because he was unhappy with the price he received for his sample canola from the frozen field, which brought in less than half the price as the top grades.
Charles’s sons Scott and Neal helped develop and market the canola sorting machine.
“It removes the yellow seed and allows you to sell it at a higher grade,” said Scott, from the family farm outside Morinville, near Edmonton.
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Other seed cleaning machines remove foreign material from seed, but can’t deal with different grades within the same seed. The differences in frozen canola aren’t always visible. Green seed is coloured by chlorophyll left in the seed before it has matured. Most times, the seed must be crushed before the green interior is visible. Crushers dislike green seed because it turns the oil rancid and unstable.
Hepfner discovered immature seed has slightly different characteristics than mature seed. Once he understood the differences, he developed a machine that could separate the two.
“My father has a very creative mind. He is a problem solver,” said Scott. Four years ago, his father also invented a machine that baled directly behind a combine.
The senior Hepfner discovered that green seed doesn’t roll as quickly as mature yellow seed.
“The unripened seed migrates more slowly than the yellow on certain surfaces,” said Scott, who was unwilling to provide more details on how the machine works.
The family built a prototype that uses 600 plates that allow the canola to roll down a slight incline and separate. The small prototype machine will clean the green seed from the rest of the canola at about 140 bushels per hour, or will clean a B-train semi-load of canola in 16 hours.
Over the past two years the prototype was refined, but good harvest conditions made green canola seed a smaller problem on the Prairies.
The Hepfners bought sample canola from Saskatchewan and northern Alberta, but the cost of trucking outweighed the profits of separating the seed.
“It wasn’t as profitable as we hoped,” said Scott.
The family also started talking to seed companies about removing green seed from the canola they sell for planting. Green seed more rapidly loses its viability, but problems arose over the subjective definition of green seed.
At the elevator, seed that is “very green” is considered green, while seed companies maintain that anything “non yellow” is green, making the separation of seed more difficult.
“That was quite discouraging for us,” said Scott.
In the process of refining the sorting process, the family discovered that seed put through the sorter had improved vigour and growth characteristics.
Any misshapen, small or cracked seeds are removed from the seed lot, improving the overall quality.
“In repeated tests for vigour, all seed that goes through sorting has better growth than the unsorted seed,” said Scott. “It’s possible for a seed company to improve the vigour and stands of their seeds.”
However, while seed companies might see a benefit from improving the vigour or growth characteristics of their plants, vigour also depends on the growing season. In some years, producing high quality seed is a challenge, while other years the majority of seed produced for planting has adequate vigour.
“They don’t consider it an issue if they can sell it,” said Scott. But he still believes improved seed vigour will be the selling feature of the machine. They’ve patented the process and hope to license the Vigorsort process to seed sellers.
“They really have to be determined to improve the quality of seed and even accepting some loss,” he said.
The machine also sorts cleavers, a weed with seed of similar size to canola that is difficult to separate.
Tests show good results on other oilseed crops like mustard and some varieties of soybeans.
