Slideshow presented at 2015 ACORN Conference PEQ

1. EQUIPMENT NEEDS
RELATIVE TO YOUR SCALE OF SEED PRODUCTION

2. HARVEST EQUIPMENT
SMALL TO MEDIUM
• Hand Harvest
• Buckets, bins, blades,
bags, scissors, pruners,
weed wacker, bill hook
• Machine Harvest
• Hand held seed stripper
• Modified weed wacker
• www.prairiehabitats.com

3. HARVEST EQUIPMENT
MEDIUM TO LARGE
• Pull-type sweep harvester
• www.prairie habitats.com
• www.seedburo.com
• Pull-type combine
• PTO driven
• Allis Chalmers
• $2500 -$8500
• Combine
• $250,000 & head
• Plot combine more $

4. THRESHING EQUIPMENT
SMALL SCALE
Threshing Flail Threshing Grain

5. THRESHING EQUIPMENT
SMALL SCALE DRY SEED

6. THRESHING BOXES
Threshing box for stompingThreshing pea seed on a
threshing box

7. CORN THRESHING EQUIPMENT
Seedburo Equipment Company
www.seedburo.com
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
www.southernexposure.com
Decker Corn Sheller $7 -$10
Corn/Walnut
sheller $289
Almaco Ear Corn
Sheller $24,000

8. DRILL & BUCKET THRESHER
PRAIRIE HERITAGE FARM

9. Threshing peas in the field

10. I-TECH MODIFIED CHIPPER SHREDDER
GRAIN THRESHER – MEDIUM SCALE
• Creating a Grain
Thresher
• By Allen Dong and
Roger J. Edberg, I-Tech,
P.O. Box 413, Veneta,
Oregon 97487
This invention was
declared public
domain August 1994, a
gift to humanity.
$50 - $3000 to build

12. MODIFIED HAMMERS
spacers
Flip
hammers

13. MODIFY RPM BY SEED TYPE
• 250-400 rpm for
beans and large
seeds
• 400-800 rpm
coriander, radish,
sunflower
• 600-1400 rpm
wheat, oats, barley,
rice and small seeds

14. TYPICAL THRESHING RATES
Pounds of seeds per
hour
• Amaranth 66
• Bok Choy 22 to 30
• Oats 94
• Pinto bean 117
• Soy bean 81 to 127

15. THRESHING EQUIPMENT
LARGE SCALE
Portable belt thresher new $10 -15,000
Photo credit: Micaela Colley,
Organic Seed Alliance.
Photo credit: Micaela Colley,
Organic Seed Alliance
All Crop stationary field thresher
Allis Chalmers

16. WET SEED THRESHINGCLEANING
SMALL TO MEDIUM SCALE

17. WET SEED
CLEANING TOMATO SEED

20. FOOD PROCESSOR FOR SMALL TO
MEDIUM WET SEED THRESHING

21. MEDIUM TO LARGE SCALE
WET SEED THRESHING
Millet wet vegetable seed separator, under $4000
AGE Manufacturing info@agemfg.com

27. WET SEED THRESHING LARGE SCALE
The ‘Liberty 5000’ from
High Mowing Seeds
Tomato seed extractor in use at
Johnny’s Select Seeds

29. TOMATO FLUME
LARGE SCALE WET SEED CLEANING

30. SEED CLEANING EQUIPMENT
Size Weight

31. SEED CLEANING BY SIZE
SMALL SCALE
Screens and hardware cloth Deep fryer baskets.

32. SEED CLEANING
SMALL – MEDIUM SCALE
Hoffman Manufacturing www.hoffmanmfg.com
Seedburo www.seedburo.com
$40-$48 US$8 - $15 US

33. SCREEN THEORY
• Top screen removes
larger debris
• Bottom screen
retains seed and
allows fine debris to
fall through

34. SCREEN SHAPES AND SIZES
http://www.atferrell.com/clipper/products/clipper-office-tester
for common screen sizes for seed by type ( tomato, pepper, bean etc.)
The Seed Garden, The Art an Practice of Seed Saving
1/20 screen
Round holes 1/20th of
an inch in diameter
11/64 screen
Round holes 11/64th of
an inch in diameter

35. 11/64 x ¾ screen
Slot or oval shaped holes that in one
dimension is ¾ inch and the other is
11/64 inch

36. 6 x 20 screen
Wire mesh screen with 6 wires/inch in one
direction and 20 wires/inch in the other

37. CLIPPER OFFICE TESTER
$2400 - $3000

39. SMALL MODEL CLIPPERS
Clipper Pacer
Manual Seed
Cleaner
• Pedal powered
• Conversion kit
• 50 bushels/hour
Clipper 334
• 3 screens
• $15,000 US
• 120 -250 bushels/hr.
Seed cleaning room at Fedco

40. CLEANING SEED BY WEIGHT
(SPECIFIC GRAVITY)
• Air /Wind
• Hand held hair
dryer with cool
setting
• Air compressor
• Fans of all sizes
• Shop Vac
• Air columns
• Gravity table

41. WINNOWING SEED WITH A FAN

43. I-TECH SMALL ELECTRIC WINNOWER
www.efn.org/~itech/
http://ltras.ucdavis.edu/files
All I Tech designs are public domain, a gift to humanity

44. http://vegetables.wsu.edu/NicheMarket/WSU-SeedCleaner.html
WSU Seed Cleaner
Washington State University

45. REAL SEEDS AIR COLUMN

46. HAWTHORN FARM VERSION
Air flow control
valve
Lighter debris and
hollow seeds
Seed intake
Clean seed

48. GRAVITY TABLE
Laboratory size gravity seperator $46,000.

49. GRAVITY TABLE
Laboratory size gravity separator $46,000.

50. Spiral Lab Separator
Profile Industries

51. ODDS & ENDS
masks
Magnifying lens

52. DRYING
AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
Tomato seed drying at room temperature on ceramic
plate takes 3-10 days depending on ambient weather.

53. SEED DRYING UNDER COVER

57. DRYING
WITH ADDITIONAL HEAT
Squash seed drying on a screen above a woodstove. A
small fire keeps air warm and dries seed in 2-3 days.

58. STACKING SHELVES WITH FAN

59. TRAY DRYER
.

60. WALK IN HEATED SEED DRYER

61. EXHAUST FAN, HEATER & SHELVING
$3000