Butte, Montana, USA
January 2012

Effective January 1, 2012, Northern Seed, LLC assumed ownership of the former Columbia Grain seed conditioning plant located at 2811 Charles Street, in Fort Benton.

“We have received feedback from producers in the greater Fort Benton area, stating that they need access to market leading varieties of small grains produced from certified seeds” states Ron Ueland, Managing Partner of Northern Seed, LLC. “Because our focus will exclusively be on the seed needs of the local producers, we should be able to satisfy a variety of production strategies.” adds Jake Baum, Supply Chain manager of Northern Seeds.

Northern propagates advanced varieties from genetics sources such as WestBred, MSU, CDC Canada, and ProGene LLC among others and makes them available to local farmers as a quality “certified’ seed. Northern carries certified varieties of spring and winter wheat, Clearfield wheat, malt, feed, and waxy food grade barleys, along with pulse crops and grasses. In addition to providing certified seed this location will also continue to offer cleaning, conditioning, and treating of seed grown by local farmers. Additional storage and capacity will be added over time to fill the demand of these varieties.

This is Northern’s fourth location in the Golden Triangle with other locations in Conrad, Shelby, and Eastern Pondera County. Northern Seed, LLC, a Montana based company, is owned by Ron Ueland, of Butte and Robby Barkley of Yuma, Arizona. Both have over 30 years of agricultural business experience, including successful histories in the seed industry.

Locally, the Fort Benton location will retain Ed Kelly as the seed plant manager. Ed will coordinate with Jake Baum, the Supply Chain Manager for all of Northern’s locations. Jake is originally from Highwood.

Website: http://northernseedllc.com/default.aspx

Published: January 16, 2012