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1928
August 1, 1928, Great Grampa Gottfried Semler, his wife Wanda, and daughter Klara, sailed from Europe heading to Canada. The family was hit hard by the death of their only child, who died at sea. They settled in Tomahawk, Alberta, and had 3 more children.
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1944
Great Grampa Gottfried Semler Rented first quarter in Cherhill Alberta
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1947
With the abundance of rocks on the fields of Cherhill, the decision was made to make the move to Highridge, where we are still located today. The first quarter was bought in highridge with 40 acres cleared.
Today, this field is fully cleared, and still farmed by our family, although the original buildings are no longer there.
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1951
Gus and Elsie Semler were married, and purchased their first quarter, and built their first home. This quarter of land was the main yard where all the activity happened until 2019, and is still used today. Gus had heard that the road (TWP 590) would some day be paved right past this quarter of land. He wanted to live closer to pavement and had the foresight to think about this location. He had to wait about 30 years for pavement, but eventually it came!
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1986
Lorne Semler had been farming with his father Gus, and had made the decision to focus on cattle. The small feedlot, expanded almost every year to max capacity of 5,500 head. A large percentage of capacity was dedicated to finishing Holsteins for a specialty US market.
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1996
November 28, 1996, the workshop that held all the major cattle equipment for daily chores, burned down with all the equipment inside. With the help of friends and family, no cattle went hungry, and a new shop was soon built.
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2001
Agricore United was demolishing most of their grain elevators in small towns. Lorne Semler made an offer to purchase the newest of 6 grain elevators in Barrhead (built in 1970), and Agricore accepted his offer.
Today, only 2 grain elevators remain standing in Barrhead.
Lorne had already started buying and selling grain from using the farm bins he had, and this was the tool needed, to really bring this business to life.
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2002
1 year after the purchase of the grain elevator in Barrhead, there was a sever drought. Most people remember 2002 as the year of the drought. Cattle prices were at an all time high, and feed prices had tripled. Even with cattle prices at a high, economics were not working, and the decision was made to sell all the cattle, and see what things would look like the next year.
Spring of 2003, BSE hit the cattle industry hard, and it seemed that entering into cattle would not be wise for a few years, so the focus was switched to the grain business that was already running, and also expanding the grain farm.
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2010
With the feedlot shut down and the added acres, Grain storage had moved from silage pits, to grain bags, but with the wildlife problems associated with grain bag storage, it was decided to build grain bins in 2 phases within the next few years. In 2010, five 31,000 bushel grain bins were built, totaling 155,000 bushel capacity
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2012
After 2 years of using large bins, the time was right to build more bigger bins. At the same time, the grain business being handled out of the grain elevator in Barrhead, was doing very well, and it seemed likely that the business would expand, so it was decided to automate the farm facility with a bucket elevator, and grain conveyors. The system was designed to handle 14,000 Bu/hr. Also, four 56,000 bushel bins were built, now totaling storage capacity at 379,000 bushels at this location.
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2018
Until 2018, Most of the grain sales were dealt with from the Barrhead location, but with the expanding business, it was decided that the farm location would greatly compliment the grain elevator with added storage.
So construction began. Two 100,000 bu bins were built, and eight 7000 bu hopper bins were placed, as well as a 1,000 Bushel/hr grain dryer. This added 350,000 bu capacity and almost doubled total capacity at 729,000 bushels.
An office shack was also added to keep personnel out of the weather, and made an ideal place to move the managing staff the following year.
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2019
With the quickly expanding grain business, the truck fleet grew from 2 trucks, to 10 trucks in the matter of a few years, the old farm shop was quickly outgrown. There was a great need for more work space, and winter parking. Our customers need feed no matter how cold it is, and heated parking for our fleet became a necessity in order to guarantee delivery.
Our shop was built to a size of 32,000 sq feet, built with overhead cranes, and truck lifts to make servicing equipment a breeze, Our new grain office was also included in this building.
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2020
After the 3rd phase of bins in 2018 was built, grain sales exploded. The added storage and drying capacity provided the necessary facilities to reach farmers further away, and handle more commodities including human consumption grains. The same year of the expansion, storage was already a shortage, and by the following year, the harvest run brought the facility to capacity by end of October, and grain bags were filled from that point on. With business increasing as fast as it was, Phase 4 was planned which almost doubled capacity again, adding four 100,000 bu bins, six 7500 bu hopper bins, and four 7200 bu overhead hopper bins. A 180 foot scale and pit were also added to speed up loading and unloading. Super B’s could now dump and reload inside of 15 minutes, which greatly improved efficiencies, and almost eliminated waiting times for producers. The new expansion brought the total capacity to 1.1 Million Bushels!
Who is Alberta Feed Grain?
The roots of our family business go back 100 years with the purchase of the first quarter section of land near Cherhill, northwest of Edmonton. It was our 5,000 head feedlot that eventually steered Lorne Semler into the feed business and Alberta Feed Grain was born. Today, his son Jason is the fourth generation of the Semler family to be in agriculture.
In 2000, we bought our first grain elevator, a facility built in 1981 by the Alberta Wheat Pool. It's in Barrhead with easy access for local farmers. The Semler family is no longer in the feedlot business, but we've since added a second grain facility in Westlock that is now again being expanded.
We are farmers too, so we understand the needs of our customers and how to make grain marketing simple and convenient.
If you have a bin in your yard that you don't know what to do with, call us - we pride ourselves on never rejecting a load and we'll find you a solution that works.
