Emily Plihal
Local Journalism
Initiative Reporter
SARDA Ag Research held its grand opening for its new home on July 26, with a large crowd on hand to help celebrate.
“We were pleased to have approximately 125 people at the site,” says SARDA Ag Research executive director Vance Yaremko. “We moved into the office in April and just started moving into the shop this month.”
The new location is east of Donnelly Corner on Highway 2. For years the research group were located within the M.D. of Smoky River building, but they outgrew their location and wanted to have all their resources in one place.
The grand opening was also meant to include a crop tour to show some of the work they’ve been doing this year, but Mother Nature had other plans.
“We definitely weren’t expecting a torrential downpour right before our tour,” says Yaremoko. “We had to cancel our tours because we weren’t sure the buses would be able to go where we needed them to. In some of the areas we got over two inches of rain.”
Yaremko says the new location will be a huge advantage to their team and local farmers. Now all of their research and office administration team will be in one building, not spread across two different locations.
Yaremko explains SARDA received the Western Grains Research Foundation grant to the tune of $750,000. The total cost of the project is approximately $2 million. Impressively, a local farmer donated 15 acres of land to help complete the build and the team also has access to the rest of the quarter if they want to rent it to complete trial plots.
Yaremko says moving locations will be a big help to the SARDA team, as everything will now be in one spot instead of split between two locations. They are also hoping the new location will help with visibility and help entice other companies to do research again.
“One of the biggest reasons for the move was we wanted a piece of land to do long-term trial plots,” he says. “The donation of the land helped move our vision.”
The SARDA Ag Research team invites you to drop in and visit them at their new location next time you’re in the area.