Winnipeg’s Paterson Grain plans to make its move into the central Alberta grain handling market with a new inland terminal about an hour southeast of Edmonton.
Paterson announced Thursday it plans to build a 55,000-tonne capacity handling site at Daysland, about 40 km southeast of Camrose, to start accepting grain sometime next year.
The new unit train loading facility would be the third site in Alberta for privately-held, family-owned Paterson, which operates mainly in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Its other Alberta handling assets include a 57,000-tonne capacity terminal at Dunmore, just east of Medicine Hat, and its 43,000-tonne capacity Long Plain terminal outside Gleichen, about 80 km east of Calgary.
Read Also
Alberta crop conditions improve: report
Varied precipitation and warm temperatures were generally beneficial for crop development across Alberta during the week ended July 8, according to the latest provincial crop report released July 11.
At Daysland, which is on Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) track, Paterson plans to set up a “highly efficient” loop track — a system the company says it was the first in the industry to adopt, starting at the Long Plain facility in 2011.
With the loop track system, Paterson said it “has been able to minimize train loading times, setting a new industry benchmark.”
The Daysland site will also have a dual receiving area for “efficient” truck unloading, which with the rail system is expected to offer “quick turnaround times for off-farm deliveries.”
Other grain handlers already operating in the area include Viterra, at Camrose and Killam; Cargill, at Camrose and Viking; and Providence Grain and Great Northern Grain, with sites at Viking and Killam respectively. — AGCanada.com Network
