CUT BANK – Pardue Grain was founded in Glacier County in 1959 by a partnership between Art Pardue and Herb Sammons. By 1964, Pardue Grain had grown to 285,000 bushels of storage and a railway spur.
Herb Sammons bought Art Pardue’s interest in the plant in 1970, setting the stage for further growth over the next three decades.
Until recently, Pardue Gain has been essentially a storage facility, keeping primarily government wheat and waxy barley. The volume of waxy barley increased drastically in the late 2000’s, causing the company to expand its storage facilities.
The warehouse built to store 220,000 bushels of waxy barley is now what is being used to house the new pulse crop processing machinery.
In 2016, the company began buying equipment to support the needs of pulse crop processing. When work on the new facilities is complete, Pardue Grain will be able to process a variety of different pulse crops including lentils, chick peas, and both yellow and green peas.
Pardue Grain will be able to process unique requests such as crop length separation, color sorting, destoning, sizing, and custom product bagging.
Pardue Grain is on track to open its new facilities by the end of October. The expansion is expected to create around 15 jobs in Glacier County. Pardue Grain is located 11 miles west of Cut Bank at 64 Pardue Road.
(JULY 9, 2018) Ag leaders and community members from Cut Bank and beyond enjoyed a ground-breaking ceremony on Friday.
Pardue Grain broke ground on a $6.5-million dollar project to upgrade its pulse crop processing facility.
The new facility will create 12 full-time jobs.
Rogers Sammons of Pardue Grain said, “Now we’re going to be able to operate with a food-grade facility and be able to do it under the food-safety standards with excellent traceability.”
The facility will allow farmers to sort, size, bag, and clean their products.
Reporting by Jason Laird for MTN News
