A crowd of over 200 people attended the grand opening of the new Westlock Seed Cleaning Plant the afternoon of July 29.
Plant Board Chair Colin Felstad MCed the event and welcomed all in attendance on behalf of the board and staff, noting the planning and construction of the new plant took about six years of planning and three years of building.
“The project really started in 2018 with a strategic plan. The Board got together with the management and staff and created a plan that identified the need. We wanted to keep growing the business. We were reaching the capacity at the old plant (still currently in operation). We wanted to keep the growth going forward, and to do that, we need more capacity. We didn’t want to be in a position where we were turning away customers,” he said.
Speakers for the afternoon included John Conrad, Assistant Deputy Ministers for Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation; Christine Wiese, Reeve of Westlock County; Jon Kramer, Town of Westlock Mayor; Monica Klaas, General Manager of Alberta Seed Processors, Mack Walker, Manager, Westlock Seed Cleaning Plant; Steve Miller, who gave tribute to retiring Plant Manager Wayne Walker, and Wayne Walker himself, who gave a history of the Westlock Seed Cleaning Plant.
“Alberta seed cleaners provide an important and valuable service to our producers across the province and in some cases, around the world in terms of market reach. I want you to know how important what you do is to our sector,” said Conrad.
“On behalf of the Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, a real heartfelt congratulations at the innovation and determination to make this courageous investment.”
Klaas, Wiese, and Kramer each in turn brought their congratulations to the board and staff of the plant.
Felstad read of a list of those involved in the construction of the new plant, which included several local contractors providing many of the services for dirt work and gravel, plumbing and heating, concrete, doors, office fixtures, and others.
Mack Walker, who took over as manager of the seed cleaning co-op as of July 1 from his father Wayne Walker, noted he has really big shoes to fill.
“This new facility has about 90,000 bushels capacity and goal is about 1,000 bushels per hour (cleaning rate) while the old plant was about 500 bushels per hour,” he said.
Wayne Walker gave a brief history of seed cleaning in Westlock, starting with a small plant in 1942. “In the mid-40s, a plan to build a larger seed cleaning plant in Westlock took form under the guidance of Fred Casavant, a councillor for the MD of Westlock.”
He noted the plant was opened in 1949 and situated on the rail siding line approximately where the Town water station is situated. Walker noted that plant had a capacity of 75 bushels per hour and a storage capacity of 18,000 bushels. The plant operated until March 1975, when fire destroyed it. A new plant was quickly built at its current location in the Industrial Park and was operational by March 1976, with a cleaning capacity of 250 bushels per hour and a storage capacity of 20,000 bushels.
“Over the course of the next 40 years, the existing plant has had four major upgrades of new equipment and additional storage, legs, truck scale and larger cleaning capacity," he said. "With the upgrades, there is now 50,000 bushels of storage capacity and cleaning capacity of 500 bushels per hour.”
Walker noted with increased volumes each year year, the plant was running 24 hours each day, five to six days per week from mid-October to mid-April, taxing staff and equipment. He also noted the new plant, which will have double the cleaning capacity as noted above, will be in operation soon.
He added it will be a fully-automated plant with all controls in the office as well as remote locations. He told the News later, the cost of the plant is somewhere around $13 million.
“This plant was built with an eye to the future, increasing our seed cleaning and separations capability. Our trading area continues to grow, with producers coming from many neighbouring counties. We continue to have great support from our seed growers. We have 20 pedigreed growers that clean annually and 144 bins surrounding us in the yard with about 550,000 bushels of storage.”
Walker was manager of the Westlock plant for 42 years until his recent retirement, and will no doubt be called on for some time yet for guidance and his advice from his many years of experience. Steve Miller, a former board member and chair, gave a tribute to Wayne, and Matt Meinczinger, Busby area farmer and shareholder, presented Wayne with a painting he did depicting the old and new plant.
Following the formal portion of the grand opening, burgers and hot dogs were provided, along with donuts and refreshments. Tours of the facility were provided by staff members.
With modern cleaning equipment, three 100-foot scales, and increased capacity, the new Westlock Seed Cleaning Co-op Ltd. plant, as Wayne Walker noted, was built with an eye to the future.
