Released on December 18, 1998
Expert advice from the Prairie Feed Resource Centre has helped big
things happen for a small Saskatchewan company.
The company, West Central Pelleting Ltd., has generated $3.75 million
of growth in the Wilkie area through its newly-refined method of
processing grain screenings into livestock pellets. Screenings are
small or cracked seeds and pieces of stem removed from harvested grain
during cleaning.
This project is just one example of how the Prairie Feed Resource
Centre is helping the feed industry to diversify and expand.
Established earlier this year with $600,000 from the
Canada-Saskatchewan Agri-Food Innovation Fund (AFIF), the Centre is a
partnership of feed and livestock producers, feed ingredient
manufacturers, the Government of Canada, Prairie provincial
governments and the University of Saskatchewan.
"In collaboration with universities and the private sector, the Centre
is helping new and innovative projects come to fruition right here in
Saskatchewan," said Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board
and MP for Wascana, Ralph Goodale on behalf of Agriculture and
Agri-Food Minister Lyle Vanclief. "The Government of Canada is happy
to offer its support to partnerships like this because they help
bolster the economy and make the agricultural sector become more
efficient and competitive."
Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food Minister Eric Upshall said
making feed pellets from grain screenings is an excellent way to
help rural communities grow.
"The Centre shows us how money invested in research and
development projects helps the economy grow by developing new
ways of adding value to material that did not produce revenue
here in the past," Upshall said.
The pelleting plant in Wilkie has provided a variety of economic
advantages for the area: farmers are able to separate and sell
their screenings close to home rather than pay the extra money to
send them as part of a regular grain shipment; jobs have been
created; and about 15,000 calves are being fed with the value-added pellets.
"Money from the federal-provincial fund has produced a huge
return on investment in just the Wilkie area of Saskatchewan
alone," explained Vern Racz, executive director of the Saskatoon-based Prairie Feed Resource Centre. "We worked closely with the
people in the Wilkie area to provide the technical advice and
support for the establishment of a pelleting plant to serve that
area."
Margaret Skinner, president of West Central Pelleting Ltd., said
the concept of using grain screenings for feed has been
successfully applied at their Wilkie plant.
"Without the support and expertise of the Prairie Feed Resource
Centre, we would not have been able to open," she said. "Our
grain screen pelleting plant stands as a testimonial to the
tremendous contribution the PFRC made to our region."
The PFRC, which held its mid-winter meetings in Saskatoon this
week, is one of almost 200 projects the Canada-Saskatchewan
Agri-Food Innovation Fund is supporting in the province.
Established in 1995, the Fund was created to promote and support
emerging primary production and value-added processing activities
in Saskatchewan. The $91-million fund receives two-thirds of its
funds from the Government of Canada and one-third from the
Province of Saskatchewan.
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For more information, contact:
Vern Racz
Executive Director
Prairie Feed Resource Centre
Saskatoon
Phone: (306)966-5622
Bob Kohlert
Federal Co-Secretary
Agri-Food Innovation Fund
Regina
Phone: (306)780-7491
John Babcock
Provincial Co-Leader
Agri-Food Innovation Fund
Regina
Phone: (306)787-9786
Prairie Feed Resource Centre
Background Information
The Prairie Feed Resource Centre (PFRC) is a partnership of feed and livestock producers, feed ingredient manufacturers, the federal and provincial governments plus the University of Saskatchewan. The Centre is dedicated to enhancing the value and utilization of feed.
About 30 million tonnes of grain are exported annually from Saskatchewan. At 3.5 per cent dockage, this leaves about 700,000 tonnes of screenings available in this province. Add in Manitoba and Alberta and the market potential is at least 1.2 million tonnes annually.
The target market for grain screenings is the beef industry. Screenings are valued for their protein and energy content.
Dockage is the unwanted material that is removed during grain cleaning. This is often referred to as coarse screenings and includes chaff, other grain, weed or inseparable seeds and pieces of
stem.
Coarse screenings are cleaned a second time producing No. 1 and No. 2 feed screenings and refuse screenings. No. 1 feed screenings are minimum of 35 per cent broken, shrunken or oversized parent grain by weight. This product has a high feeding value and is used primarily by the poultry and swine industries.
Currently, 36 per cent of the world's grain production goes to feed livestock and poultry.
Vern Racz, executive director of PFRC, says that more than half of Saskatchewan's total crop production is used to feed livestock and estimates the feed industry is worth $1.8 billion to the province's economy.
Developing countries and their rising affluence are behind a major increase and the tripling of feed use since 1950. However, the demand for meat, dairy products and eggs has almost increased five-fold over the same period of time. The difference in demand for total feed and that of food from animal sources has been due to increased production efficiency. The demand for greater production of animal products will increase as many developing countries are only
consuming a third of that in industrial nations.
Based at the University of Saskatchewan's Department of Animal and Poultry Science, PFRC is the only organization of its kind in Canada and one of a half-dozen feed resource centres in the world.
The Centre's focus is on improving and enhancing the value of feed crops, developing new products like pea-canola blends and using byproducts from value-added processing for feed.
The PFRC supplies the agri-food industry with technology to support marketing and to also help
market development.
