The challenge was staggering.
Every fall, 200,000 tonnes of straw are to be gathered to feed the new strawboard plant built at Elie, Man. The question was how to manage the collection of straw from a 20,000-square-kilometre area?
Isobord Enterprises turned to technology for the answer. The company is using a computer system to map out the most efficient way to bale and gather the straw.
The technology is known as geographic information systems. It creates maps to show the location of wheat straw grown for the Isobord plant. The detailed mapping shows quarter-section grids, provincial and municipal roads and basic features such as towns.
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The technology helps with the scheduling of baling crews. Crews are assigned baling jobs based on continual monitoring of their location and the location of fields ready to be baled. The same technology guides the paths of crews hauling straw to the Isobord plant.
“The system flags when the field has been baled and it flags when it needs to be picked up and then they can route the crews,” said Bill Reynolds of Linnet Geomatics, a Winnipeg-based company that developed the technology.
“It figures out which is the best route for these guys to reach the field in the least amount of time.”
The Manitoba government said last week it would share half the $117,000 cost to develop the computerized mapping and route planning system.
Straw for the Isobord plant is supplied by a producers’ co-operative with hundreds of members. Isobord uses a computer database to track the inventory of straw as it comes off the fields. The number of bales produced, the dates and the names of baling and hauling contractors are recorded.
The $142 million Isobord plant converts cereal straw into a moisture-resistant composite board. The company pressed its first board Aug. 8 and expects to be in full swing by the end of 1998.
It will then produce more than 144 million square feet of board each year. Three quarters of that will be sold to export markets.
Isobord intends to build a second strawboard plant, but has not decided on a location, said Dick Duquette, vice-president of projects and production.
