Growers to benefit from £250,000 seed plant investment

In a bid to improve quality and efficiency, Openfield, the farmer co-operative, has invested £250,000 into its seed production plant, to provide growers with high-quality seed and an unrivalled seed service.

Openfield’s new seed colour sorter removes all discoloured contaminants and produces the cleanest possible product. Grains are cleaned to remove contaminants such as ergot, foreign seeds, wild oats and other impurities.

“We pride ourselves in producing the very best quality seed and are continually investing and updating our plant. Our new colour sorter is extremely impressive and is helping us to improve our product quality even further.”Lee Bennett, head of seed business at Openfield.

Using high speed digital signal processing technology, the new colour sorter will allow Openfield to produce as much as 60 tonnes of seed every hour.

Openfield, who market over 4 million tonnes of British grain every year, promote seed varieties with an established market appeal. Through links with main plant breeders and the co-operative’s national grain marketing and storage capacities, Mr Bennett and his team can select seed varieties which are most suited to farmers’ conditions and local markets.