A new grass seed mixing plant has been set up in Belview.

The plant, at Seed Technology Ltd’s (Seedtech) site near the Kilkenny port, will meet the seed mixing demands of the company’s biggest partner in the grass seed sector DLF Ireland.

The automated mixing plant, designed with seed handling experts BDC Systems Ltd, increases output, accuracy of mixing and reduces labour requirements.

“We had a small grass seed mixing plant, which was very labour intensive and delivered limited output.

“We needed a plant that would allow us to easily, quickly and accurately mix up to 20 varieties of grass seed to meet the individual seed mixes our customers require,” Seedtech general manager Nigel Whyte explained.

Waterford-based Seedtech is the leading developer and producer of arable seed varieties for Irish tillage farmers.

Development

Whyte described how during the scoping for this new project, Seedtech and BDC Systems’ Andrew Lee evaluated existing seed mixing plants in the UK, Ireland and Denmark.

Plant installation was conducted by BDC Systems’ partner, Irish Grain Handling Systems Ltd, supported by Castle Facility Electrical Services Ltd, in the autumn of 2022 and was commissioned early in 2023.

Grass seed is now received into the plant in approximately two-cubic-metre bags, placed over an above-ground intake equipped with a splitting knife, which automatically opens the bags so that seed is discharged into the intake.

The new Seedtech grass seeding mixing plant has been operational for four months.

From the intake, seed is transported via a Skandia belt and bucket elevator to a reciprocating cleaner, which removes any foreign objects.

A second Skandia elevator discharges the seed on to a conveyor belt, where it is taken to the appropriate storage hopper. The destination hopper is determined by integration between the PLC control panel and the WMS.

Seed orders are handled by the PLC control panel and the WMS, so that the exact amount of grass seed variety is drawn from the correct hopper, until all of the needed varieties have been gathered to make up the required mix.

‘Extremely happy’

“Our new grass seed mixing plant has been fully operational for almost four months and while we are still adapting to the system, we are extremely happy with how it is working for us.

“The automation has greatly reduced manual handling, which is crucial, as finding good-quality employees is a growing struggle.

"Reduced labour costs, reduced overtime, increased accuracy in mixing and increased output, delivers significant savings to our business,” added Whyte.