Submitted
The board of directors of North West Terminal Ltd. (NWT) has announced the construction and commissioning of a new high-capacity grain dryer at its Unity location is complete.
The new dryer – manufactured by Chief Industries Inc. – has a capacity of approximately 3,500 bushels per hour when removing five per cent moisture from wheat.
The project is expected to increase the speed at which the company can dry grain for its customers by almost threefold compared to its old grain dryer – which was damaged in a fire in November 2016.
The project had a total cost of just over $2 million which management expects to be partially offset by insurance proceeds from the previously damaged dryer.
The remainder of the project will be financed using existing capital.
“The board of directors is very pleased to be adding a new high-capacity grain dryer,” says NWT’s president, Brad Sperle. “Grain handling is changing as many farmers want to harvest their grain earlier at a higher moisture content (to speed up harvest and preserve quality) and many export customers are demanding grain of a lower moisture content (for storage reasons). This new high-capacity dryer positions NWT well to meet the needs of its customers going forward. I also want to point out that the colour of the new dryer is red. This symbolizes the many red barns that once dotted the prairies and is a tribute to the hard-working farmers that made agriculture the great industry that it is today.”
NWT is an independent farmer-shareholder owned company headquartered near Unity in the North West region of the province. NWT owns and operates both an inland grain terminal and a bio-products manufacturing facility at its Unity location. NWT is also a minority owner of Alliance Seed Corp. (ASC) in Saskatoon and Alliance Grain Terminal Ltd. (AGT) in Vancouver, British Columbia.
