Monsanto in Clarion visitor tours

On August 17, Clarion’s Monsanto location held a community lunch and tours of their seed packing facility. Originally meant as a “thanks with franks” event, visitors enjoyed hot dogs and a look at what goes on inside of a packaging plant.

Visitors first learned how samples of seed are taken from bins, sorted, and examined for quality. Good samples are taken and planted 400 in a tray and placed in a specially monitored room that keeps the seeds at the right temperature, 25 degrees Celcius, for lab germination. Batches of seed with a good appearance and “germ” may indicate that the beans from that bin are right to sell for seed next year. “That gives us an indicator if we should bring it in and package and condition it,” said Tyler Gorman, a Monsanto production associate who oversees the lab in Clarion.

Next, visitors got a look at the machines it takes to package 2.4 million bags of seed a year. “A bag of soybeans doesn’t just appear,” Gorman said.

Some seeds are packed into 50-pound bags; others get sent along conveyer belts and chutes to fill 45 “minibulk” (2,000-pound) bagsnan hour during packaging season. Still more might be loaded directly into semi-loads for true bulk seed.

For the full story, see the August 25 edition