A Ten-Year Overnight Success Story

By Paula Schuck

Tight, tested and true. A game changer, a ten-year overnight success story with, at its heart, a family. There are many ways to describe Clean Seed Capital Group, but the vision, the path towards using the SMART Seeder MAX/MAX-S™ globally on farms, is full speed ahead.

In 2011 Graeme Lempriere, Chairman & CEO, took Clean Seed Capital public to capitalize on and finish what his father started, a vision of change. In the 90s, Dr. Noel Lempriere began investigating how to capitalize on soil conditions while planting in a way that would protect the natural soil structure by limiting soil disturbance while embracing and protecting the environment. Lempriere, now 99, an PHD engineer and World War II veteran Lancaster Bomber pilot, can still be found in the field watching how SMART Seeder MAX/MAX-S efficiently seeds, plants and delivers life-supporting inputs. “We were always looking for ways to disrupt the seeding and planting space,” says Chief Operating Officer Colin Rush. “There’s the perception in the field that heavily tilled soil is easier to plant, but that is also detrimental to the soil.”

The team began introducing the concept to the farming community and working on proof of concept for the Smart Seeder in 2014. “We have come a long way since then, we are characterized as an ag company, but what we really are is an ag tech company that happens to make equipment. While we are publicly traded, at heart we are a family company. Most of our shareholders are farmers and likeminded investors who recognize what we have changes everything,” says Rush.

Clean Seed Capital Group is known for its smart seeding technology and vast intellectual property portfolio that makes planting thousands of acres precisely with maximum yield in mind paramount. SMART Seeder MAX/MAX-S micromanages all input products and plants exactly what is needed on every square foot of the field. Their proprietary system is much more efficient and leaves a significantly smaller carbon footprint than their competition.

Waste not want not – farmers are well acquainted with this phrase, embracing the way of life it suggests. It should therefore be no surprise that a company looking to help farmers maximize their investment in seed and minimize waste would capture the attention and support of Gary Anderson, whose leadership in the agricultural manufacturing sector extends back to 1978.

In 2017, Anderson met Lempriere and Rush at an agricultural conference, after listening to the company’s vision he was captivated. In August 2017, Anderson was appointed to the Board of Directors of Clean Seed Capital Group Ltd., a TSX Venture Exchange-listed ag tech company, and in 2018 was appointed President. In March 2019, he was inducted into the Manitoba Chapter of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters Hall of Fame.

Anderson is a co-founder of Ag Growth International Inc. (AGI) and was its Chief Operating Officer from inception in 1996 to December 2010 at which time he became Chief Executive Officer until he retired at the end of 2015.

“I was very much attracted to the environmental aspect of the business, which also fits with my family philosophy and lifestyle. I sensed their passion right off the bat. After this much time in business, I am very attuned to that.”

Anderson describes Clean Seed as tight, tested and true. “Everyone pitches in together. There is no hierarchy. Everyone is out in the field working. We often joke that we are a ten-year overnight success. This team has been through a lot together.” “Everyone has complete buy-in to the technology we are making and the vision that we are making a transformational technology.” “At AGI, we built it to be a billion-dollar company in the 1990s,” says Anderson. “It took twenty years to do that. Now the market moves much faster. The space we play in now, we can do this in ten years.”

So how does it work?

The current market in Western Canada largely relies on the air seeder platform that’s been around for about 30 years. That particular technology puts seed and fertilizer into the ground; however, it is inconsistent, patchy and creates seed bunching, while also not planting in a favourable seed bed. Plant spacing

A true game changer, Dr. Noel Lempriere.

SMART Seeder MAX/MAX-S™

and seed bed utilization is critical for both quality and quantity. SMART Seeder MAX/MAX-S is not an air seeder or a planter even though it leverages both concepts.

Clean Seed Capital Group has also developed its own software and hardware to accurately leverage data now provided by third parties. “We also changed the way we engage with the ground,” Rush says.

SMART Seeder MAX/MAX-S™ cuts the soil and opens up a very narrow furrow and interprets previously imported agronomic prescriptions that account for zone, fertility quantity, seed volumes and spacing. As the operator drives, the SEEDSYNC software translates that prescription and effectively makes the SMART Seeder function like a printer, putting down exactly the right amount in the right spot every time on every foot.

There are hundreds of different things a farmer can do to impact yield. There’s good data available, but until recently there hasn’t been equipment to extrapolate that foot-by-foot description. “The data will only get you so far. We are turning that data into actions at the lowest cost and most efficient delivery process as possible,” Rush says. “We’d like to see the industry move further away from just talking straight yield and looking directly at the quality and environmental impacts. We need to increase food production across the globe while also being stewards of the land.” says Noel Lempriere, VP Marketing.

Farmers are always looking for ways to increase yields while also improving quality of the product. The price of land has gone up dramatically, a lot of people are landlocked. The other side is that many farmers have a philosophy of making do with what they have while also pushing the limits in soil and economy. “The Smart Seeder Max is our opening salvo,” Rush says. “The vision, company and brand are about leveraging Clean Seed Capital’s expertise to evaluate synergistic opportunities to advance our vision. Our success is in the development and application of our technology. There are so many that never make it to the marketplace, our door is always open.” “We have a tight, talented group for a company of our size. That speaks well of the mandate in many ways, there’s no way a small company usually can attract a team of this calibre. We have less than 20 employees presently outside of our manufacturing partnership, we punch far above our weight.” Rush says.

Right now, Clean Seed is building a new plant in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, a big win for the province. Centrally located in Western Canada, this flagship facility will be home to the assembly of the SMART Seeder group of technologies, sales and customer experience infrastructure, dealer support and related research and development activities. Clean Seed will hire new skilled workers during the next twelve months for this facility to scale to customer demand for the new SMART Seeder MAX/MAX-S.

As Clean Seed looks to the future, Rush says data leads the way. “The prescription will evolve based on real-time conditions. The beauty of that is we already have an edge on the competition. “We have so many offers and so much interest in the technology already. This isn’t a fixed race. We believe in doing things for producers that will be helpful long-term.

Future Challenges

“We are a scrappy start-up company. There’s only room for a couple of those. There are a few OEMs that don’t really want us to succeed as we are truly upsetting the apple cart. As we thrive, it makes other products antiquated and that can be threatening. There’s an environmental aspect to this of course, and not everyone supports it; however we want to play a meaningful role in climate change programs that play a pivotal role.”

Where Will Clean Seed Be in Five Years?

In farming, innovators and early adopters often want the latest and greatest tech and equipment. Clean Seed Group has an aggressive ramp up model, Rush says. “We have customers who have already bought this, and we haven’t even released the pricing yet. We plan to sell a lot of units.”

Global Markets

The SMART Seeder MAX/MAX-S is set to start demonstrating in Australia in the fall with a down-scaled demo machine to show the benefits for the Australian famer.

Overseas in Argentina and Brazil farmers can get two to three crops per year because of the conditions. In Africa, South Africa, the Ukraine, Russia and China, there is growing interest in the technology.

So how does SMART Seeder MAX/MAX-S work in developing countries?

“Well, our tech is all based on one row at a time so it’s scalable for all markets, we have developed 5-foot, 8-foot and 12-foot machines in our trial years to be prepared for the inevitable,” Rush says. “Right now, we are riding a huge high note with the SMART Seeder MAX/ MAX-S and look forward to implementing change for the betterment of agriculture as a whole worldwide,” says Graeme Lempriere.