Monsanto’s DeKalb canola seed processing plant has been cleaning hybrid seed since the cool days of October, but it officially opened July 10 in the heat of a southern Alberta summer.
The $14.7 million plant processes more than 10,000 acres of hybrid canola seed contracted with 40 growers.
It’s the first such plant for Monsanto in Canada, and includes seed cleaning, automated bulk storage and blending equipment on Highway 3 east of Lethbridge. It has a capacity of 12,000 tonnes per season.
The region is a hotbed for hybrid canola seed production because of its climate, irrigation and agronomics, and the Monsanto plant is located near several of its competitors in the hybrid seed business.
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Mike McGuire, president of Monsanto Canada, said the company competes through its relationship with growers, as well as its innovation in planting and processing.
“We’re all kind of competing for a limited resource with the grower base,” he said.
The company treats hybrid canola as a row crop similar to corn and soybeans, said McGuire. That is different from other seed companies and has advantages in weed control, pollination and yield.
The facility was designed to minimize seed handling and reduce potential damage. The seed is moved with conveyors and a dense phase pneumatic air system.
The seed travels up and down the plant twice before it is stored and later shipped elsewhere for treatment and bagging.
It is also blended for uniformity so every bag of seed performs the same.
Once cleaned, the seed can be stored in the plant’s 32 hopper-bottomed bins, each holding 120 tonnes. At a five pound per acre seeding rate, on-site storage is enough to seed 1.7 million acres.
The site also hosts Monsanto’s parent seed plant and warehouse.
Eleven people are employed full time, with 32 more working part-time and seasonally.
Patti Miller, president of the Canola Council of Canada, said the new plant is a sign of the canola industry’s high level of growth. About 21 million acres were planted to canola in Western Canada this year, a new record that surpassed council expectations, she said.
The Lethbridge plant is the most recent investment by Monsanto, which has made several investments in its canola business within the last seven years:
- $4 million for a new Canadian head office in Winnipeg
- $12 million for the plant breeding centre, also in Winnipeg
- $3 million to expand the crop technology research centre in Sask-atoon
- $1.7 million to expand the field research farm in Carman, Man.
