By: Anèl Dannhauser, Regional Communication Coordinator, Heartland Region

The Wellington Soil and Crop Improvement Association’s 2024 Twilight Tour featured a visit to Cribit Seeds to learn about cereal crops, the cereal crop market and opportunities for barley operations, and an insightful discussion at Winterose Farms about the operation’s solar system.

Cribit Seeds

After a brief tour in the cereal fields, Quentin Martin of Cribit Seeds introduced attendees to their modified small plot combine. He added that this unique piece is crucial for precision harvesting of barley and other grains. The addition of magnets and buckets ensures more accurate weight measurements through a fixed measurement system.

In the adjacent building, a detailed discussion ensued about Cribit Seeds’ ‘Food Plant’ – their barley processing system detailed below – and the route they followed to optimize the system to where it is today:

• A barley dehuller – hulls are removed by means of a vacuum system to a hover bin where it is combined with oat hulls to be used by other farmers to feed heifers;
• A cleaning plant to produce different barley grades – hops, pot and pearl;
• A machine to split barley into whole and partial grains; and
• A roaster.

To improve efficiency, the system was replaced in 2019 over a five-month period, with all new equipment brought in from Ohio, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Quentin commented that the new roaster is gas powered, making it much more efficient, albeit with a lesser environmental benefit.

Cribit Seeds ships out 40-ton loads of barley at a time, primarily within Ontario, to roughly five or six breweries. The remainer is sold largely as pet food, with only a small percentage processed for baking. Due to the high transportation costs, it’s difficult to compete with western Canadian suppliers, but Cribit Seeds is an emergency petfood provider, both for the western provinces and in the U.S. It was noted that barley is highly nutritious, which is why it’s targeted for pet food. However, he added that barley suppliers must be careful of which variety they use, as color differences can affect downstream uses. For example, a gene more prominent in winter barley results in a blueish colour, and can even be confused with rye.

Winterose Farms

The next stop was Winterose Farms, where Dennis and Helen Martin switched from cows to rotational crops and solar power in 2010, increasing their solar energy use since then. As evening settled in, Dennis provided an overview of their solar tracker and rooftop installation, part of the Canada Greener Homes Grant.

The 10kW tracker panel and their 20kW rooftop installation cost $102,000, including storage and meters. Producing more electricity than they need, they can supply the neighbouring farm and also feed excess energy back into the grid, for which they get paid. The tracker is nearly paid for due to reduced reliance on grid power and surplus energy payments.

The static rooftop installation produces about 70% of the output provided by the tracker, in large part because of the south-facing angle. The tracker’s higher output is due to its ability to follow the sun in both the horizontal and vertical ranges, maintaining a minimum 2% slope for optimal rain runoff and light capture. This allows the panel to generate electricity year-round, with a winter output of 30-40% of the generated summer totals.

Bill Leeson from Arcadian Projects Ltd. estimated that similar solar systems now cost approximately $40,000 to $65,000 and roughly $40,000 for the rooftop installation, with hookup costs of $8,000 to $12,000. Martin emphasized the need to right-size installations to offset consumption effectively. Leeson added that Ontario’s FIT/microFIT Programs (https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/ontario-s-fit-microfit-programs.html) aim to offset consumption by production for new systems over 12 months.

For more information on how solar installations can help your farm, contact Bill Leeson at bleeson@arcadianprojects.ca

The tours of Cribit Seeds and Winterose Farms offered a look into innovative agricultural practices in Ontario, exemplifying the forward-thinking approaches needed to sustain and advance agricultural productivity and sustainability.