In the past year, I have had two friends that lost canola seed bags off the back of their truck after seed pick up. Blame it on the wind, poor shrink wrap or your speedy driving, but you need to make sure that you have the seed bags secured on the truck or trailer deck before you hit the road.
In the first anecdote, Southern Alberta farmer, Kevin Serfas was driving at a rather high speed (allegedly) and a bag flew off the truck. There was good that came of this issue though. Kevin mentioned to Canterra that their bags were a bit slippery. No doubt this was his excuse for the bags flying out of the truck but Canterra Seeds listened and re-designed their canola bag which includes new material and ink to increase pallet stacking stability.
Our new #canola bag proof has arrived! Coming soon to an exclusive retailer near you. #sneakpeak @canterraseeds pic.twitter.com/IwMplwdWJV
— Brent Derkatch (@CANTERRABD) October 10, 2013
CHECK OUT: How Canterra Redesigned its Canola Bag
Here is another example of not having the seed bags secured on the truck while transporting in a strong wind. As Gary mentions in the twitter string of discussion he received a discount for picking up by Feb 28 and this mishap has cut his discount in half.
Lesson learned, don’t haul stacked canola seed bags in a wind storm..ugh. pic.twitter.com/mLwoPT3v3E
— Gary Chambers (@TractorView) February 27, 2014
We all know that seed bags falling off the truck can happen to anyone but this spring take extra care and make sure that you minimize the chance of bag loss. The seed company has gone through great work to make sure you have the top genetics in the bag and in case you haven’t looked at the retail SRP list lately its also expensive seed. All the more reason to use tie downs, slow down and maybe even use extra shrink wrap if you are going a great distance.
As one seed company rep mentioned last week, “when transporting seed you need to handle seed like an egg and not a stone.”
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