Facilities at Texas Foundation Seed Service
The Texas Foundation Seed Service (TFSS) organization started back in the 1950s with a seed plant near Texas A&M University in College Station. Then in 1990, TFSS purchased an old seed conditioning facility and green house near Vernon, and 5 acres of land were donated by Pioneer, the original owners of the conditioning facility. A large warehouse was constructed and conditioning equipment was installed with funds provided by the Texas Wheat Producers Board, the E. Paul and Helen Buck Waggoner Foundation and the Vernon Industrial Foundation.
The operations of TFSS are conducted from a small office complex attached to the workshop building. Our computer systems are networked with the Texas AgriLife Research Center in Vernon. We are fortunate in being a site for the evaluation of experimental hybrid hibiscus plants from a breeding program at the Texas AgriLife Research Center in Vernon.
A well-equipped workshop facilitates on-site maintenance and repair of equipment, and provides a secure area for chemical storage, and a large general storage area. It houses a hammermill and an Eclipse seed cleaner for conditioning small quantities of seed harvested from experimental plots.
The coldroom houses breeder stock of various plant varieties and the more valuable inventory in order to maintain the germination potential of the seed.
The warehouse houses the small grains conditioning plant and has partitioned storage space to store loose seed or wrapped pallets of bagged seed ready for delivery.
A loading dock at the warehouse allows easy access to delivery trucks.
A fumigation chamber helps in quality maintenance of already bagged seed.
The warehouse also serves as a venue for field days.
The wheat seed is planted in fall.
The attributes of the growing wheat varieties are discussed at a field day..
Amber waves of ripening grain.
The wheat is harvested.
An auger transfers harvested grain to the bin.
Varieties are stored separately in the bins until conditioning and bagging.
The seed cleaner cleans the wheat of foreign matter.
The cylinder indent machine separates by size to remove cracked grains and foreign material.
The wheat is treated with fungicides and pesticides.
The treated wheat seed is bagged, ready for sale.
The 20 drying trailers are stored in line, next to the dryers.
The drying trailers are ready to be attached to the dryers.
The 11 gas-powered dual drying units are temperature controlled and are used to dry from peanut to grass seed.
The dumping facilities comprise trailer lift, sand screen, dump pit, and short belt conveyer for loading seed onto trucks.
The peanut seed is planted in spring.
The peanut plants produce flowers.
Then the plants form pegs that push underground and develop into peanut seeds in pods.
The mature peanut plants are harvested into windrows that are left to dry out.
The harvested farmer's stock is cleaned of foreign matter, then loaded into trailers to be dried if necessary.
Peanut samples are drawn from the trailers with the pneumatic sampler.
The peanuts are graded by the inspector.
The graded peanut harvest is stored in the warehouse.
Farmer's stock peanuts are ready to be hauled to the sheller.
