INDIAN HEAD, Sask. – Gerard Demaer knows the $250,000 investment is risky, but diversification has become a reality and the gamble will pay off, he predicts.
Demaer, a purchasing agent for AgTech Processors Inc. of Indian Head, Sask., said his company can make use of technology adapted from the nut and rice industries of the U.S. and southeastern Asia.
His company is planning to sort and grade pulse and grain crops for human consumption. A color sorter from the U.S. and modifications to the plant required the large investment from the company.
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“It costs money to ship rocks, dirt and bad seed. Farmers and grain companies are going to be cutting those costs since the loss of the Crow, and I think we are going to be part of the solution. The more we do at home the more we keep at home,” said Demaer.
AgTech processes grain for a number of grain companies as well as some local farmers. Volume of grain and the amount of sorting necessary is determined by the crop year and mainly the weather. AgTech will be at its busiest when crops have problems with quality. The equipment is highly specialized, using video CCD chips like those found in small video recorders. The speed at which grain can be sorted has always been a limiting factor for processors.
With the new technology, seed slides through small channels past a bank of CCD chips. As seed passes a background material the same color as the desired product, the chips are blind to good seed. A blast of high pressure air removes bad seed or impurities from the flow.
ESM International builds sorting equipment for the rice and nut industries and has modified its machine for use on lentils, peas, beans and cereal grains.
“Canada is our fastest-growing market. Processing and the value-added sector is just getting started up here,” said Don Lusk, regional sales manager for ESM. Lusk installed the new equipment at AgTech.
Color sorters of the past have traditionally been the bottleneck for production. The new machine AgTech has purchased is only slightly larger than one of the five existing machines it shares a room with in the plant.
Its size is deceiving. It culls more than 2,000 kg per hour, 20 percent more sorted seed than all of its roommates combined.
