Features Handling Systems Structures & Equipment
Seeder innovator earns Premier’s Award

July 23, 2010, Drumbo, Ont. – John Malecki of J. Malecki
Holdings Ltd. knows how to sow with precision.

July 23, 2010, Drumbo, Ont. – John Malecki of J. Malecki
Holdings Ltd. knows how to sow with precision.

Lambton, Kent, Middlesex MPP Maria Van Bommel (at left) congratulates Mary Ann Malecki and John Malecki of J. Malecki Holdings Ltd.

He designed and developed two types of automated precision
seeding equipment for use by greenhouse operations that grow cabbage, broccoli
and cauliflower. The systems earned the company one of 55 regional awards in
the five-year, $2.5-million Premier’s Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence
program.

• The “muck bed seeder” is considered to be among the highest
quality and most competitively priced in the market and shows promise in
increasing acreage plant yields by 20 to 40 per cent.

• The “tray propagation seeding system” enabled a team of
three people to seed 3,000 trays in a single day, a process that usually takes
five people up to a week to complete. The equipment is rented out to other
growers and generates 70 per cent of the farm’s income.

“The Premier’s Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence
recognizes the unique and forward-thinking approach that Ontario’s farmers,
agri-food business, and agri-food related organizations take to running their
business now and in the future,” said Carol Mitchell, Ontario Minister of
Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.