WINNIPEG – A pellet of an idea germinated in Fred White’s mind when he heard that United Grain Growers would likely raze its elevator in Hartney, Man., when it builds a high throughput elevator in nearby Souris.
“It would make quite an impact on the town,” White said, adding the town of 500 can’t afford to lose the two employees who work at the elevator.
So he talked to other farmers in the area and his idea grew. The group wants to buy the elevator to store and handle grain and build a feed pellet plant next door.
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White said UGG will sell the elevator to them for $1 and will give the group first option on screenings from its new elevator.
Pipeline essential
There is a snag to work out first. In a couple of weeks, the town is expected to find out if plans to extend a natural gas pipeline to southwestern Manitoba proceeds. If they don’t get the gas, the idea won’t be viable.
But if the plan goes through, White said there are a lot of farmers willing to help pay for a feasibility study. He said early research shows a plant could cost up to $800,000.
But the group thinks the concept has a lot of factors in its favor:
- About 4,500 tonnes of screenings would be available from the Souris elevator, and nearly plants would have lentil and pea screenings. There is also a canola crushing plant nearby in North Dakota, from which the plant could get canola meal.
- Trucks taking farmers’ grain to these plants would be able to get a good rate on backhaul for the screenings.
- Farmers in the area produce plenty of oats and feed barley to round out the mix.
- There are already a lot of cattle and horses in the area and White expects hog production to increase because of changes to grain transportation subsidies.
Herb Penner, manager at a feed plant in Kola, Man., which is about 40 kilometres southwest of Hartney, said the market has room for the volumes and types of feed the group is proposing. He said the plants would compete with and complement each other.
“We understand the situation in those towns,” Penner said. “Anything that will use product to feed locally, I think is an asset for the whole area. On one hand we might lose a little bit in volume sales, but on the other hand, we will gain because it will encourage more feed.”
Jim Linaker, the manager for Feed-Rite in Manitoba, was less optimistic. He said three feed plants in Brandon are not working to full capacity now and he would be surprised if the market could bear another plant.
