Wind on the Prairie – Scotgrain Heads West

Scotgrain’s General Manager Owen Southwood has just returned from a trip to Calagary, Alberta where he was visiting Canada Malting, a sister company of Scotgrain Agriculture as part of the United Malt family.

The trip allowed Owen to share some of the experiences of Scottish Growers, while also looking to learn from some of the experiences and resources of Canadian Growers. This included taking a look at some new software packages designed to provide more functionality and support to grain trading partners.

“It was a great opportunity to look at the differences in farming practices which on the whole there are not that many,” said Owen. “Driving through rural Alberta the tractors and combines were pretty standard across both sides of the pond.  The big difference was this was big sky country and jokingly we often talk of all four seasons in one day but the Canadians can do this with bells on.  My second day there I left the hotel only to turn around to get sunglasses, within an hour of leaving the skies had darkened and sleet had turned to a full blown blizzard.”

The next day the snow had passed and temperatures lifted to be replaced with a raging gale.  A visit to a grain elevator saw many combines back in fields trying to cut barley and oilseed rape in the swath.  Here the farmers faced the challenge of watching the swath blow away from in front of the combine. Owen comments that “In all an interesting trip and I came away surprised by the similarities in farming practices as much as by the variable weather.”

To find out more about the systems and software the Scotgrain can use to assist you in your farm trading, please get in touch with us via the link below.