YORKTON - Parrish & Heimbecker’s officially opened its new grain handling facility just north of Yorkton along Highway #9 Wednesday.
Construction of the new facility began in spring 2021 and was completed June 2022, and features state-of-the-art facilities, noted Regional Manager Shawn Skolney.
“All of these new facilities are using new technologies,” he said.
The key element is to enhance efficiencies, primarily in terms of grain handling.
For example, Skolney pointed to the ability to ‘spot’ 150 rail cars on-site, which he said creates “efficiencies from CN’s perspective.”
The large amount of cars also means the new facility can move out a lot of grain in a short time, with the ability to load the car fleet in about 10 hours, said Skolney.
The rail cars are spotted on a large circular rail siding, and Skolney said down the road the land within the circle could be utilized for crop demonstration plots.
In terms of grain handling at the heart of the new facility is a 25,000 MT grain elevator, with a 130 MT grain dryer.
The elevator is now in operation, with the initial fill carried out from late June through July 12, explained Skolney. Once the grain had settled, it was loaded out.
The annex storage is not full, and once it settles, it too will be loaded on to rail cars, with the entire grain handling facility ready to take fall deliveries of grain, said Skolney.
Skolney added the facility has been designed to accommodate adding additional grain storage if deliveries warranted, but there are “no plans as of right now,” for additional builds on the site.
The site also has a 6,000 MT dry fertilizer shed and a 7,800 square-foot Agrichemical Warehousing Standards Association (AWSA) heated chemical shed.
The fertilizer facility has actually been at the location for about five years, said Skolney, adding that has meant locally managing two facilities for the last half decade.
“That has its own challenges,” he said, adding with the opening there will “be slightly less” staff as services are at one location now.
While not pegging the exact cost of the overall project, Skolney did note inland terminals are generally $40-$60 million to construct.
The new Yorkton location replaces an older site that was built in 1980.
The complete switchover to the new facility is slated for Aug. 31. For the existing P&H elevator closer to Yorkton Skolney said they will be “utilizing what we can,” with a tear down expected “as we go forward.”
P&H is a Canadian family-owned agribusiness with more than 110 years of success in the agriculture industry.
