CWB Builds its First Grain Elevator

Mar 25, 2014

By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com

The CWB recently announced that it has begun building a new grain elevator, west of Portage La Prairie in Bloom, Manitoba. The elevator is expected to be ready for the 2015 harvest.

News of the elevator construction signals that the CWB is making strides as an independent grain handler. The elevator will be the CWB’s first construction of a grain-handling facility.

In a release CWB says that construction is under way near the Trans-Canada Highway, about four miles west of Yellowhead. The state-of-the-art facility will include 33,900 metric tonnes of storage capacity, with a 17,400 MT workhouse, plus cleaning facilities.

“The site is easily accessible from a number of highways, including the Trans-Canada and the Yellowhead, and it is located in an area with a clear need for more grain-handling capacity,” CWB president and CEO Ian White said in a release.

The facility will add to the company’s network that includes Mission Terminal in Thunder Bay, Les Élévateurs des Trois-Rivières in Quebec, as well as a minority interest in Prairie West Terminal.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.