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Behlen Industries’ marketing supervisor Tania Nociar, vice-president of agriculture products Sean Lepper and the shipping department’s Tom Hallam are proud of the growth at the Brandon manufacturing plant.
Behlen Industries is experiencing a significant boom in agricultural sales this summer, thanks to strong yielding crops across the Prairies.
Vice-president of agricultural products Sean Lepper said the grain bins in particular are selling briskly.
"It’s pretty substantial, certainly for the local market," Lepper said. "I’d say on the grain bins it’s probably a 50 per cent increase … That’s been a big impact for us, whereas last year, sales in those were pretty limited from all the water and flooding. No one was really looking for grain storage."
Statistics Canada says Prairie farmers are anticipating record canola production this year, as well as increases in wheat and barley.
Total wheat production on the Prairies is expected to reach 24.8 million tonnes in 2012, up 9.7 per cent from 22.6 million tonnes in 2011. Barley production on the Prairies is anticipated to rise 23.8 per cent to nine million tonnes because of an expected record average yield of 65.1 bushels per acre.
Behlen Industries is also seeing an increase in sales of crop rings, which are used for temporary storage.
"We export a lot of that product, so we don’t see as much domestically," Lepper said. "But recently with the crops being very good across Manitoba and the rest of the Prairies, the sales of those have really jumped."
Lepper said the local boost has helped offset limited sales to the southern United States, which are lower due to the severe drought.
"The Canadian Prairies are picking up some of the sales we would have lost, so … it’s been very good," Lepper said.
Yields are trending above average at about 50 to 100 bushels per acre. The latest 10-year average is 43 bushels per acre, shows the latest crop report, released Monday.
Curvet sheds, which are steel sheds used for grain and machinery storage, are also selling well.
"All of our ag products are seeing a jump," Lepper said. "It’s pretty significant in the local market here, for the product that’s readily available and ready to go for storage, more for the farmer that maybe didn’t plan ahead as much as he should have."
To keep up with the demand, the company hired more employees and was running 24 hours per day in the curvet storage shed line.
"A lot of that’s global-based, with export markets being much larger than they have in the past," he said.
Behlen Industries is Canada’s largest manufacturer of steel building systems and serves customers worldwide.
Lepper said the great local crops have created many other spinoffs.
"It has an impact … for people that supply us with packaging and that sort of thing," he said. "When we get busy, lots of other industries get busy."
And Lepper anticipates that trend to continue well into the fall.
"Especially because the harvest is at different stages across different parts of the Prairies," he said. "Northern Saskatchewan’s hasn’t started yet really, but much of southern Saskatchewan is complete. Southern Manitoba’s done in certain areas, so it’ll be busy for us right until the end of September."
» jaustin@brandonsun.com,
with files from The Canadian Press
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition August 23, 2012
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Behlen Industries is experiencing a significant boom in agricultural sales this summer, thanks to strong yielding crops across the Prairies.
Vice-president of agricultural products Sean Lepper said the grain bins in particular are selling briskly.
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Behlen Industries is experiencing a significant boom in agricultural sales this summer, thanks to strong yielding crops across the Prairies.
Vice-president of agricultural products Sean Lepper said the grain bins in particular are selling briskly.
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