EMILI’s Innovation Farms powered by AgExpert is fertile ground for agtech companies to test and validate technology in their mission to make agriculture more efficient, and producers’ jobs easier.
Elmer’s Manufacturing has been working with EMILI over the past several seasons to validate three of these technologies and their components.
The HaulMaster 2300 is a grain cart with a 2300-bushel capacity, designed to reduce combine idle time, minimize travel across fields as well as soil compaction, and maximize harvest windows. Elmer’s has been testing two systems on the grain cart at EMILI’s Innovation Farms – a TerraWave track system that allows for stability and traction of various terrain, and a moisture sensor.
“We brought in a new moisture sensor, and needed to verify that it was accurate enough for producers to get value” said Rheal Boileau, product development manager with Elmer’s Manufacturing.
“Innovation Farms operate on a seed farm and do a lot of sampling. Being able to directly compare our sensor results to Innovation Farm’s sensor results was an asset to validating the accuracy of the moisture sensor. That is a big positive,” he said.
The Super 7 harrow bar has a seven bar design and is used early in the spring for seedbed preparation and in the fall to incorporate fertilizer or manage straw. Elmer’s Manufacturing benefitted from the feedback that they received from Innovation Farms during the 2025 season.
Elmer’s Super 7 Harrow Bar on EMILI’s Innovation Farms. (Photo credit: EMILI)
“Our harrow was operated at Innovation Farms and their team collected data on operating hours, fuel consumption, acres worked and more. With that data we identified the potential to quantify the ROI between larger and smaller harrows to help producers be more efficient” said Boileau, who noted that Elmer’s didn’t have defined outcomes for this project, but instead were looking to work with farmers who were good at providing feedback.
But it is the Hive Motherbin 8250 that has the most commanding presence on EMILI’s Innovation Farms.
Standing 14 feet tall and spanning nearly 80 feet in length, this portable grain storage solution is designed to streamline harvest logistics and optimize grain collection and distribution. During the 2025 growing season, the EMILI team worked to determine the return on investment of the Hive. They used the 5,500-bushel Hive Motherbin as a temporary fertilizer storage solution during the spring, and the Hive Motherbin 8250 to test what it can provide in terms of time saved and increased fuel efficiency during harvest.
HIVE Motherbin on EMILI’s Innovation Farms (Photo credit: EMILI)
“Our main purpose is trying to validate the value for farmers on having a Motherbin,” said Boileau.
“We want to prove to customers with numbers that this is going to be valuable for their operation so that when we call them back in a year, they’re going to say they made the right decision. Innovation Farms was able to systematically pick enough data points for different fields … and show that having a Motherbin does provide value.”
The Hive Motherbin was used on a site in Gypsumville, about 250 kilometers northwest of Winnipeg, which has limited permanent storage capacity.
In the spring, EMILI’s Innovation Farms team determined that the Motherbin can be used for fertilizer storage with some adjustments to the auger to account for differences in the flow of fertilizer. Having the Hive on site allowed more flexibility in the timing of trucks delivering fertilizer and more control over the timing of fertilizer application.
“We’re trying to explore other value opportunities,” said Boileau.
The Hive Motherbin’s most obvious ROI, however, shines during harvest. EMILI’s Innovation Farms team found that the Hive increased labour flexibility, increased the ease and speed of loading trucks with grain, and ultimately allowed harvest to be completed more quickly. Additionally, for most crop types tested, using the Hive Motherbin increased the acres per hour that could be harvested, and reduced the amount of time the combine spent idling.
The Hive Motherbin has a large auger that can load trucks much faster than a typical grain bin and auger setup. Shawn Foster, a farm manager with Rutherford Farms on which EMILI’s Innovation Farms operates, described how helpful this was during harvest.
“Sometimes we were loading right out of [the Motherbin] into Super Bs heading down the highway down to the elevator,” said Foster. “It was a lot nicer when you could load a truck in six or seven minutes instead of 20 to 30 minutes.” Foster also described how, though there were typically only three workers at the site, the Hive Motherbin allowed them to make the most of that labour.
“The biggest benefit for us was that we were able to, a lot of times, run two combines and not have to stop when we only had three people [at the Gypsumville site],” said Foster. “There were times when we were able to run two combines and a grain cart, and just dump into the Motherbin. That allowed us a lot more flexibility on some of those days where we didn’t have somebody to run a truck. We didn’t have to shut a combine down … On a quarter section of canola, as an example, we were able to harvest it in three hours instead of six.”
Foster also noted that the Hive Motherbin provided relief for a cart operator who was able to dump their crop into the motherbin when the truck wasn’t back to the field in time, allowing the combine to keep running without stopping.
“It allowed us a lot of flexibility from that standpoint,” he said.
Visit EMILI’s Innovation Farms to learn more about this project and other activities. EMILI hosts field tours and demonstrations on Innovation Farms throughout the season to showcase new agricultural technology, expand innovation opportunities, and increase understanding and adoption of digital tools.