SASKATOON – You’ve got some grain to sell, but you’re too busy to drive to your favorite grain company’s elevator?
No problem. Just call one of the mobile grain elevators that will be running on Saskatchewan roads this fall courtesy of United Grain Growers and the three prairie wheat pools.
It’s the latest development in the growing trend among grain companies to go after business on the farm, rather than waiting for the farmers to come to them.
“Western Canadian farmers will be the first in the world to receive complete on-farm service,” says Ken Ganczar, manager of farmers direct marketing for UGG.
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But not many farmers will be able to use the service this year. Both UGG and the pools will put one unit into operation this fall to test the machinery and the concept.
The “Mobiload” service, developed jointly by the Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba pools, will be offered to farmers in southwestern Saskatchewan. The UGG will run its mobile elevator out of Saskatoon.
While both projects are designed to bring grain collection services into the farmyard, they’ll be doing it in significantly different ways.
The pools’ Mobiload consists of official weighing equipment, grain conveyors and an office mounted onto a conventional truck chassis. It will travel to farms where agents will grade, weigh and buy grain as they would at a regular elevator. The grain will then be transferred to commercial trucks and taken to market.
UGG’s service includes trucking. The weighing equipment is attached to a cab, which will haul trailer units capable of carrying 42 tonnes of grain. Once the grain is loaded, a semi-truck, which has brought a second set of trailers, will haul the full load away, while the mobile elevator cab takes the empty trailers to the next customer.
Ganczar said he’s had the idea for 20 years, but the technology to make it a reality has only been made available recently. The units need items like cellular phones, computers and modems to work properly.
“It’s been like sitting in a covered wagon waiting for the technology to come up with the mobile home,” he said.
The first unit, which is being built in Saskatoon at a cost of $200,000, should be in service in October, he said. More will be built if the system works as expected.
Reg Hinz, market development co-ordinator for Saskatchewan Wheat Pool’s country service division, said the prototype Mobiload will be in business in early October. It’s being put into southwestern Saskatchewan because the pool has fewer elevators in that area.
Hinz expects in a couple of years, the pools will be operating about six Mobiloads on the Prairies. The units could also be used at rail-loading sites and end-user locations, like feedlots.
“We’re not looking at them to be a replacement for current elevator facilities,” he said. “We look at it as another service option to producers.”
The Mobiloads, which are being built in Saskatchewan, will be able to transfer 120 tonnes of grain an hour. Hinz declined to reveal the cost, which is being shared by the three pools.
Ganczar expects mobile elevators to be used in areas where companies have no elevators. Depending on how well they are received by farmers, they could become a factor as handling companies make decisions about closing country facilities.
