Mobile Seed Cleaning Trailer

Seed Processing Equipment on Wheels!

Every season we work to bring our seed cleaning trailers to seed savers and seed producers across the province.

Often a lack of equipment stops growers from scaling up their seed cleaning. Cleaning seeds in small to medium batches, in all shapes and sizes, can be tedious. Our trailer can increase the efficiency of this process while reducing labour costs and improving the quality of the finished product. Having seed cleaned to a higher quality can help farmers increase the germination rate of their seed lots as compared to sorting by hand.

Access to seed cleaning equipment helps:

  • Scale up and incorporate seed production, building capacity for organic vegetable seed production in the province;
  • Clean seed to a higher level and increase efficiency of processing larger volumes of seed;
  • Create community around seed, bring seed producers together, and share tips and tricks

By helping farmers scale up and incorporate seed production and strengthening community connections, we are on our way to greater food system resilience for all.

If you’re interested in having the trailer visit your farm or community, scroll down to request a stop, or request use of the equipment. *Best to get in touch in the winter or spring, as most of our planning is being finalized by summer and fall. Not to worry though, check below for a stop in your area!

Vancouver Island-South Coast 2026 Tour Schedule Lower Mainland, Interior-Kootenay 2026 Tour Schedule Northern-Interior 2026 Tour Schedule Register for a seed cleaning stop

A big thank you to our 2026 seed cleaning tour funders, and all the communities and farmers that support us so we can keep doing the good seed work.

Did you attend a seed cleaning stop this season? Borrow some seed cleaning equipment? Your contributions helps keep this vital equipment, and the knowledge that comes with it, rolling from community to community.

Contribute to seed security!

What you might find in the Mobile Seed Cleaner

The Clipper AGM 224 is a medium-capacity seed cleaner that can clean a wide array of seeds. It cannot be removed from the trailer. The Clipper can be used for the initial and final cleaning of many seed types. You can find an overview tutorial video here.

The Clipper comes with a selection of 26 screens which can also be used on their own without the Clipper. A video tutorial can be found here on how to change the screens.

 

 

 

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The Winnow Wizard is a game-changer for small-scale seed production.  In addition to replacing manual fan winnowing, the Winnow Wizard can perform precise density separations to remove hollow/immature seeds, difficult chaff/weed seeds, and heavier dirt/rocks.  It has saved thousands of labour hours and many thousands of dollars – both through time savings and through bringing unsaleable lots up to acceptable germination rates.

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This is the smallest version of a long-proven seed cleaning machine. This can do test batches for larger-scale operations, or small amounts of lettuces or other small seeds that need final cleaning. This can be used on a tabletop and can be used independently from the rest of the trailer.

 

 

 

A great small size thresher that can quickly thresh all sorts of crops from lettuces to brassicas, and legumes. This thresher comes with 2 screens, one works well for grains and smaller seeds, while the other works well for larger seeds such as sunflowers and beans.

Put the pedal to the metal and thresh your crops using our bike powered thresher. This thresher uses your biking force to turn an axil with chains that spin to help break apart your crop. The bike thresher comes with three screens: A large screen, a small screen and a sheet of metal. The larger screen works great for larger seeds such as peas, and the smaller screen size for smaller seeds including brassicas. The sheet of metal is useful for seeds that are too big for the larger screen or for crops that are more challenging to thresh.

Our drill powered thresher comes in two sizes, a larger garbage bin and a smaller bucket. This thresher uses a drill to rotate a paint mixer with attached chains that spin to thresh your crop. This drill powered thresher is great for seed crops of all sizes.

The air column separator is great for the final cleaning of many seeds or for differentiating seed by weight. This design used air pressure differential to sort seed and debris according to weight.

For instructions to build this yourself, see this link to a document and video in our resource section.

Similar to the air column separator, the zig-zag seed cleaner also differentiates seed and debris by weight.

Although simple technology, our large variety of 20+ hand screens have the capacity to sort a lot of varied seeds by size. They have been extremely useful for smaller batches of seeds for many of our growers.

 

 

 

Vacuum cleaner

The vacuum is used with the air separators and also for clean-up – a true multi-functioning tool!

Air compressor

The air compressor is an important tool for cleaning seeds and cleaning the equipment in between seed lots. The unit has two compressors that can be used outside the unit. These units are quite heavy so be careful when using them. Ear, eye, and lung protection are recommended when using the compressor to clean seeds or equipment.

Foot threshing box

A handy bucket and wood board to easily stomp thresh small quantities of seeds.

Totes

Rubbermaid totes and a selection of buckets are useful for catching and storing seed while cleaning. These can be used separately from the trailer as well.

Tarps

Use tarps under your cleaning areas to catch any stray seeds and to keep your work area clean. A selection of colours helps with different types of seed.

Safety Supplies

Safety is important to us. The trailer comes with a selection of hearing, eye, and lung protection options to keep you safe and healthy while cleaning your seeds. We appreciate a donation for any safety equipment you use to help cover the costs.

Box fans

Request to borrow the Seed Cleaning Trailer Request a Stop on the Seed Cleaning Tour

Past Seed Cleaning Tours

2025 Mobile Seed Cleaning Tours recap

2024 Mobile Seed Cleaning Tours recap

2023 Mobile Seed Cleaning Tours recap

Background

We have three mobile seed cleaning trailers spread across the province that are equipped with an array of seed cleaning tools and equipment, including but not limited to hand screens, air separator, the Clipper office tester, threshers, the famous Luterra winnow wizard and more. See below for tools and equipment you might find in our mobile seed cleaning trailer. Note that each trailer is a little different, if you are looking for a specific tool/equipment, please reach out.

Our mobile seed cleaning trailers are outfitted with tools and equipment to help farmers and seed keepers save and clean their seed. We have cleaned over 140,000 pounds of seed and hundreds of varieties since the first trailer was mobilized in 2018.

Mobile Seed Trailer Timeline

2018: First trailer purchased and outfitted with seed cleaning equipment

2021: In response to growing demand across the province, three more mobile trailers added to reach the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, and Kelowna/Shuswap.

2023: One of the seed trailers made a one way trip to Northern BC, to further broaden access across the province.

BC Seed Hub Feasibility Findings Report and Environmental Scan of BC's Vegetable Seed Sector

This report presents the results on the feasibility of incorporating seed processing equipment into food hubs as well as the results of an environmental scan on the state of organic seed production in British Columbia (BC).

Read the Report

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