Copeland Seeds Never Loses Sight of Farm Roots

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

It may be one of the most successful farm-based operations in the Rosetown-Elrose area. Copeland Seeds has never lost sight of its family farm roots, says Bob Copeland.

“We are the processor—the middlemen hired by the exporters to process the product for them and to get it to port on time, in containers or hopper cars or boxcars, or whatever they want to ship it in,” Copeland says. “We process lentils primarily, but all kinds of grain for export for different companies. We got into the cleaning business in 1968. My father started to do pedigreed seed, and in 1978, we got into lentils. It has just taken off from there.”

The business started as an operation firmly grounded in reality, explains Copeland.

“We started small, as most businesses should, and over the years, we have done sunflowers, canaryseed, a few chickpeas, and to date we still clean a lot of common seed for the local growers, cereal grain mostly. We have 13 full-time employees right now, and we have had anywhere up to 22 people hired throughout the year.

“We work on contract for a set price. Depending on the year, on average we may handle 22,000 metric tons of just lentils. The most we have done is 29,000 metric tons in a year.”

Copeland notes that “The pulse industry has become limited in part due to our transportation challenges. We could do more, but logistically, we can’t ship the product overseas—it does limit you at times in terms of how much you can do volume wise.”

Despite limitations, the operation has done quite well over the years, success Copeland attributes to service and quality.

“We have maintained a high standard in the quality that we put out and in the work we do when we are loading containers. We make sure the container is good; we make sure the bags aren’t ripped; we try to look after this as much as we can. I guess in the early years, there weren’t a lot of processors around and we actually had quite a few people exporting to Spain, Columbia and other places coming here and witnessing the quality of the work that we did, and I guess that has just continued on.

“What we say we can do with the product, we try and carry it through. I guess we have gained the trust of the grower, as well as that of the importer and exporter.”

Copeland is not only carrying on a family tradition—he is building on it. “It has been a family run business since my father started it. We do farm, as well. We have a separate company name for that, Copeland Farms. The seed is the commercial business. And through Copeland Farms, we continuous crop 7,600 acres of mostly lentils and malting barley—two-row barley.

“We have been very fortunate to work with people like Dr. Brian Harvey, a plant breeder at the University of Saskatchewan. Such relationships enabled us to access the new two-row out there that so far has grown in demand: the Copeland barley. We hope that continues.”

Like many agri-entrepreneurs, Copeland always has an eye on the future. “In our family, we believe that agriculture will get turned around and treat us alright. The last few years have not been good in agriculture. To tamper that, we don’t keep all our eggs in one basket. My grandfather started farming in 1932 in this area. He passed it on to my father. Now, I’m looking after it with him.”

For more information, contact:

Bob Copeland
Copeland Seeds
(306) 378-2286