How one seed cleaning plant blends, bags, and delivers with optimum service.
When John Beifort started working at the Fort St. John Seed Cleaning Co-op in 2006, he couldn’t have imagined just how far the small plant would come — or how central a role he’d play in its growth. Now, nearly 20 years later, Beifort is the plant manager, and the co-op is stronger and busier than ever before.
“The biggest change? The upgrades we made two years ago,” says Beifort. “We invested about $1.5 million, with the help of grant funding and the strong support of local farmers. We replaced our main cleaning line, added a colour sorter, and installed three new storage bins. It’s made a huge turn around in terms of capacity, and especially the quality.”
Built to Keep Up with Farmers
Today, the plant cleans between 400,000 and 450,000 bushels a year — double from the 200,000 to 300,000 range that was the norm for many years. While those numbers are important, Beifort says what really matters is being able to keep up with the needs of local growers.
“It gets crazy here in the spring,” Beifort laughs. “You need enough storage and cleaning capacity to get through that rush. Especially up here in the north where most of our base is ranchers. If we were running flat-out year-round, we could clean maybe 600,000 bushels, but summer is usually for maintenance and prep for the fall.”
The most commonly crop at Fort St. John? “Oats, hands down,” says Beifort. “Then wheat, barley, and peas.”
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