From lake to plate: Sask. Polytechnic bringing innovation to tired industry

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“The original literature, and we have studied lots of it, there’s lots of stuff on taking the snowmobile engine out of your snowmobile, go harvest rice and then put it back in your snowmachine, that dates back to like 1978. That’s kind of the latest and greatest literature on wild rice harvester innovation. There are pontoon boats that are really big and really heavy, there’s the lighter runabout boats that use the 580 Rotax and a little bit bigger engines, and there is such a discrepancy in size of a big pontoon boat and small one.”

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For the past three years, Thomson and his team focused on modernizing equipment for the NWC Wild Rice Company’s Indigenous producers in Northern Saskatchewan.

“We opted to use our shop during COVID to allow someone to bring in a wild rice boat to scan it, so they could do some research on how to make a better header collector system,” Thomson said.

“As soon as it was in our shop, me and my staff all kind of looked and it and thought we can work to do better and that’s when I got involved in the program to come up with a way to essentially help them out with a better sustainable harvesters. That led to applying for grant money and then that particular application was positive ($400,000 from PrairiesCan) and we were able to get some funding where we developed a sustainable drive system, meaning an engine that can be bought and services and be efficient, and then we reshaped the hull around that.”

The hopper, also known as catch basin, is also wider on the protype boats. This one is capable of folding together. (Image Credit: Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

Green wild rice immediately after its been harvested. (Image Credit: Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

The boats feature custom-built hulls, redesigned propulsion systems, and precision agriculture technology adapted from farm equipment. Each is powered by a 4.3-litre V6 industrial emission-controlled engine.

The hopper, also known as catch basin, is also wider on the protype boats. Thomson explained traditional boats harvest two to two-and-a-half bags per hit and the protype in testing brought in five-and-a-half to six bags.

“We’ve been able to get a lot of information from the producers, even just what it is like to harvest. The harvester’s information of what we got from them about what is it like to harvest really made this possible,” he noted.

“I’m just thrilled on behalf of Sask. Polytech that we have been able to take a agricultural equipment program that could have stayed in its row its whole life and just done farmwork in the South, but I am really happy we are able to branch out and help northern farmers.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com