A feed mill that has been the biggest employer in Bruno, Sask., for decades is shutting down on April 18.
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool says it is closing the Heartland Feeds plant because there is too much capacity in the marketplace.
“This is the best year for making feed and it wasn’t running at full capacity, so that kind of suggests where we would be going down the road,” said Rob McNaughton, the pool’s general manager of feed grains.
He also said the 30-year-old plant needs repairs.
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“There would be some significant capital that would be required to improve the efficiencies of the facility.”
Bruno mayor Jerome Strasser agreed that there are too many players in the feed manufacturing industry in that part of the province.
But he doesn’t buy the argument that the facility needs to be repaired. He said the mill had “quite an extensive upgrade” a few years ago.
“I’m not convinced that you need to spend the amount of money they say you do.”
Strasser thinks the pool doesn’t like hanging onto old facilities, even if they are in good shape.
“I don’t believe the pool wants to be here, quite frankly. It’s an older mill. I think they’re more geared to the high-production mills.”
But he doesn’t blame the grain company.
“In all fairness, the pool has a lot bigger worries on its plate than a 50,000 tonne feed mill with 30 employees.”
McNaughton said the facility will either be sold or dismantled, although a sale is unlikely considering that in a normal year, the plant operated at half capacity.
“I certainly didn’t give the employees any sort of hope in that,” he said.
Mill manager Ken Weiman said the plant was recently operating on a bare bones staff of 23, down from a crew of 30 in 2002.
“I was told it would probably be dismantled,” said Weiman, who has been with the company since its inception.
“That would be a sad day for the community, but I guess life goes on. They call this progress.”
The potential loss of 23 families out of a community of 571 people is a big blow for Bruno. Weiman wonders if the school and elevator will be next.
But he and Strasser aren’t ready to throw in the towel just yet. The mayor has met with a couple of groups interested in buying the facility before it is dismantled.
Despite overcapacity in the feed industry, Strasser thinks there is potential for the plant to operate as a scaled-down facility supplying niche markets for specialized feed.
Losing a plant that buys two million bushels of grain a year from area farmers is an unacceptable prospect for Strasser.
“I don’t even want to think about that,” he said.
McNaughton said the pool is willing to entertain proposals from local investors and others, but there is a set time frame by which the plant will be dismantled and its equipment salvaged. He wouldn’t specify how long that would be.
“It’s obviously not years, but dismantling isn’t going to be the day after we close, either.”
Shutting down the Bruno plant leaves the pool with only one feed mill, a four-year-old facility in North Battleford.
The grain company sold its four other Heartland Feeds plants to Masterfeeds in 2001.
McNaughton said industry overcapacity is partially the result of large hog barns producing their own feed.
He expected further attrition in the feed sector in other similar regions of the Prairies where too many plants compete for the same business.
