CAMROSE, Alta. – The prairie horizon continues to change as old wooden elevators are replaced with imposing cement towers that can hold enough grain to fill six ships.
Alberta Wheat Pool’s Legacy Junction, on the outskirts of Camrose, is part of the co-operative’s overall country plan.
Old wooden structures are being knocked down to make room for more efficient concrete facilities that provide more storage space, faster loading of grain and 24-hour service, said pool vice-president John Pearson. Legacy Junction is the largest structure ever built by the pool.
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“This is probably one of the very largest elevators we will build. We’re uncertain whether we’ll be building a lot more of these. The next elevator will probably be a little smaller,” he said.
A $10-million touch, this operation replaces seven older elevators in the area. Some of these buildings will be used for storage including conversion of the Bawlf elevator into a malt house.
The Legacy Junction facility is the star in the pool’s new line of elevators, with a storage capacity of 30,000 tonnes of grain. Placing the facility at this site made good sense to the pool since about half a million tonnes of grain are handled in the Camrose area each year. It’s also pool country where the co-operative enjoys 75 percent of the business, said Pearson.
Increased capacity
In the new world order of grain delivery where time is money, workers at Legacy Junction will be able to ship 30,000 bushels per hour. It also has the capacity to receive 52 rail cars at once. With two driveways, grain can be unloaded by farmers on one side while trains are loaded on the other.
Grain will be cleaned to export standards and screenings will likely be sold into local feed markets, said Pearson.
In addition, condominium grain storage in 4,000-bushel units has been sold to local farmers. Each permit book holder can buy a maximum of four spaces for $10,000 each. Of the 140 units offered, 125 were sold quickly and the remainder will probably be sold soon.
Condo storage allows farmers to hold their grain at the elevator until they are ready to sell. Then, they can sell the grain with a phone call, rather than having to truck it from their farm to the elevator, said Greg Thirsk, interim chair of the Legacy Junction Storage Association.
The pool is also offering condo storage at its other new facility under construction at Fahler, called Smoky River. If these setups work well, most of the new facilities will offer grain condos to farmers, said Trish Jordan at the pool’s head office in Calgary.
