Alfalfa dehydration plants switch over to fall/winter production

FTLComm - Tisdale - October 2, 1998

With the arrival of fall its time for a good deal of gear shifting. At Tisdale Dehydration and the other plants in the area its time to switch over from fresh cut alfalfa processing to stockpiling the summer's bail crop. Two areas are rapidly filling up with bails, this one East of the plant and another West have less then one quart of this year's production that is being brought in by contract trucking. Each bail ranges

from four to six hundred kilograms and is being hauled in from Porcupine Plain, Mistatim and areas North and West of Melfort.

The depressed economic conditions in Asia have reduced the demand for this years production and processing will be rated to match demand. These bails can be purchased outright as the excellent crop year has produced a bit of a surplus for this year. The bailed material is more likely to be turned into cubes as opposed to pellets which is lower in cost to produce and more desirable for North American livestock feed as it contains more fibre. The Tisdale plant is expected to run some cubes through late next week.

The bail shredder is seen just to the left of the centre foreground in the picture below. The skilled truckers and workers who are involved in the plant and harvesting through the summer have all moved on to their fall work and the operation has to make do with a reduced pool of labour.


*FTLComm - Tisdale - October 2, 1998* With the arrival of fall its time for a good deal of gear shifting. At Tisdale Dehydration and the other plants in the area its time to switch over from fresh cut alfalfa processing to stockpiling the summer's bail crop. Two areas are rapidly filling up with bails, this one East of the plant and another West have less then one quart of this year's production that is being brought in by contract trucking. Each bail ranges
	from four to six hundred kilograms and is being hauled in from Porcupine Plain, Mistatim and areas North and West of Melfort. The depressed economic conditions in Asia have reduced the demand for this years production and processing will be rated to match demand. These bails can be purchased outright as the excellent crop year has produced a bit of a surplus for this year. The bailed material is more likely to be turned into cubes as opposed to pellets which is lower in cost to produce and more desirable for North American livestock feed as it contains more fibre. The Tisdale plant is expected to run some cubes through late next week. The bail shredder is seen just to the left of the centre foreground in the picture below. The skilled truckers and workers who are involved in the plant and harvesting through the summer have all moved on to their fall work and the operation has to make do with a reduced pool of labour.