New facility has been ‘logical next step’ for Kulbacki Seeds

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Published on Friday, September 25, 2015

Photo by Kira Paterson. Chris Kulbacki with his wife Sharon, sons Jory and Cohen and brother Darryl in front of the soybean bins.

By Kira Paterson

The Neepawa Banner

Recently, Neepawa area Kulbacki Seeds added a new soybean facility to their company. The development was finished and functioning in the beginning of May.

“It’s a state of the art, continuous flow seed treating facility,” said Chris Kulbacki, co-owner of Kulbacki Seeds. “It allows us to quickly and accurately treat our customers’ beans.”

The upgrade cost over $400,000 in total. “It seemed like the logical next step as the soybean acreage starts to grow,” said Kulbacki. 

Soybeans have been grown more and more in the area over the past five or six years. Farmers started growing them to break up the wheat and canola rotation in their fields. Having a crop rotation is important to prevent plant diseases from spreading and to prevent the depletion of certain nutrients in the soil. Over the past few years, large seed corporations have been developing a soybean variety that has a shorter maturing time; this makes the crop more suitable for Manitoba’s shorter growing season. 

Farmers are finding soybeans to be much more durable than they originally assumed. “Soybeans do handle the wetter weather better than some of the traditional crops we’ve been growing,” explained Kulbacki. “For guys that had some very waterlogged fields they’ve been struggling with, soybeans have been an excellent fit.” Another advantage is that they don’t need to be swathed, which saves farmers time during harvest.

Having a continuous flow seed treating facility allows Kulbacki Seeds to be more flexible in providing seeds to their customers. They treat the seed as it’s needed, so if a customer wants more or less than they originally thought, they can treat only the amount that they know they need. 

The five bin storage system allows for multiple varieties to be stored at the facility. There are different kinds of seeds, such as the earlier maturing seed, and depending on when and where the farmer wants to seed, they may need to use different varieties. Having multiple varieties on site allows Kulbacki Seeds to efficiently supply their customers with the kinds they need as soon as they need them. “Speed and efficiency are very important to our customers at seeding time,” explained Kulbacki. “Their window to get things done is very small and this allows us to very efficiently keep them going.” 

Kulbacki Seeds has been running as an agent for Dupont Pioneer since 2009 under the co-ownership of Chris and his brother Darryl. They are both farmers so they understand the needs of their customers. “This facility really allows us to serve our customers’ needs as efficiently as possible,” Kulbacki concluded.