DESPITE having the largest seed cleaning shed in the world, Bruce Rock Seed Cleaners still struggles to keep up with demand from farmers during harvest.
Owners David and Glen Kevill and plant operator Perry Hodgkiss caught up with Farm Weekly last week, to discuss the challenges and issues involved with the seed cleaning industry.
David Kevill has been in the industry for 45 years and said their biggest issue today was that they simply could not clean seed fast enough to keep up with the demand.
Prior to entering the industry, Mr Kevill owed a machinery dealership in Quairading, where he did many machinery adaptations and adjustments.
He then purchased a small farm and wanted to clean the seed that came with it, but was frustrated at the poor quality job done by the seed cleaning company that he hired, and their inability to remove all the weeds in the seed.
Mr Kevill went on to practically build his own seed cleaning machine, which was displayed at the machinery dealership and generated a lot of interest, as it did a far more thorough job than anything else available.
"I had farmers asking me to clean seed for them, but we didn't know whether we wanted to get into it or not," Mr Kevill said.
With five seed cleaning sheds located in the centre of the Wheatbelt under his belt, that question has now been well and truly answered.
Each one of those five businesses, located at Corrigin, Bruce Rock, Quairading, Dowerin and Perenjori, are designed and built by the Kevills and are extremely popular with farmers, and Mr Kevill does not mince his words as to why that is.
"Farmers come here because we do the best job," he said.
"On most occasions, we can get all the radish and wild oats out of barley, wheat, lupins and most of the time, oats.
"The people who have used us, their farms are worth more because they are cleaner and they have smaller weed banks.
"The farmers that use us are the ones who see the biggest picture."
Mr Kevill said times had changed from when farmers could rip up paddocks up to eight times in order to get rid of weeds, and they could no longer afford to lose precious subsoil moisture.
And gone are the days where bags of seconds lay around on farms, often torn open by vermin and contributing to the weed bank.
The Kevills buy all the seconds, which are ground up and made into feed pellets for use in the live export industry.
Perry Hodgkiss is the plant operator at the Bruce Rock depot and said having clean seed had definitely become more important to farmers.
"People are coming from further distances, they are fussier now, they have to be," Mr Hodgkiss.
"Having clean seed is more important."
The biggest headache for them is the large number of varieties available these days, and having to do a thorough clean down after each load to avoid any contamination issues.
Mr Hodgkiss said they used to go all summer with one variety, but this year had been the worst in term of the number of different varieties coming through.
"It's just a lot more time consuming," he said.
"The biggest challenge is maintaining a logistical balance and trying to look after everyone."
"As an operator it's difficult to book everyone in, and they all want it done as soon as possible," David Kevill said.
"If I had any criticism of our business, it would be that we can't do it fast enough.
"But I think we do it pretty well, we don't get grain mixed up at any of our sheds."
Glen Kevill said the chemical side of the industry was also challenging, but they had simplified things to a degree by providing two seed dressings for wheat, oats and barley, as well as one seed dressing for lupins.
"We put on what we think is best and we stick to that and won't move," he said.
"It's too risky to use other dressings."
As far as trends go, both the Kevills and Mr Hodgkiss agreed there has been an increase in ryegrass and speargrass, while wild oats seemed to have decreased slightly.
Radish also seemed to be more under control, they said.
Dowerin is the busiest seed cleaning centre, and is booked up to three weeks in advance, with the area also having the highest percentage of speargrass.
Although it was less common, Mr Hodgkiss said some farmers still held the mindset that if their grain needed grading, then they may as well keep it for seed.
Others however, recognised the importance of having good quality seed.
"Their concentration should be on picking a good paddock and having top quality seed," he said.
Although there has been an increase in the number of farmers purchasing their own grading machines, the Kevills and Mr Hodgkiss still maintain that nothing compares to the job done by their machines.
That statement is backed up by the fact that they often receive loads that have already been to other seed cleaning companies.
"There are also a lot of rumours going around at the moment about a seed cleaning unit with mobile gravity capabilities, it's important farmers know that it is physically impossible to have mobile gravity," Mr Hodgkiss said.
"The cleaner has to be fastened to 150 tonnes of concrete to keep it still, otherwise it loses it's cleaning pattern."
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