WhereDes Plaines, Illinois, United States
Since1912
FamilySampling and measurement
History
Seedburo was born from a journal, not a workshop. The company's site gives only two dates, 1912 for the founding and 1940 for the first export. All the rest of the account comes from the company, relayed by the milling trade press in January 2012, at its centenary. In 1912, in Chicago, Leroy M. Smith founds the Seed Trade Reporting Bureau, a publishing house that follows the seed trade. It also sells testing equipment, on the side. The pivot comes from the law. The Grain Standards Act of 1916 imposes official grades on American grain. Grade means an instrument to establish it, and an inspection bureau to use it: the equipment becomes the real business. Smith gives up his shares in the publications and keeps the equipment. The reorganized company shortens its name: Bureau contracts to buro, giving the Seedburo Equipment Company. It has exported since 1940, and said it was present in more than one hundred and thirty countries in 2012. In 1983 it reportedly received the President's E Award, a federal distinction that rewards export effort. In 2008 it leaves Chicago for Des Plaines, in the northern suburbs. It now presents itself as manufacturer and distributor, both at once, and says it built up its exclusive lines through acquisitions.
What it makes
Seedburo builds no roaster. It makes the tool that comes before, the probe, and its principle is mechanical, never thermal. Two concentric tubes slide one inside the other, pierced with the same slots. With the probe closed, it is pushed into the sack or the pile. A rotation of the inner tube aligns the slots, the grain falls in, a second rotation closes it. A core is drawn out over the whole height, not just the surface. Partitioned models keep separate what comes from each level, which tells at what depth the defect lies. The catalog separates two families. The double tube probe, which it recommends for rail cars, trucks and barges. The open-handle probe, which empties through the end of the handle, more convenient to unload. The so-called spiral probe offsets its openings in a helix: they open from bottom to top, which corrects the tendency of heavy impurities to fall to the bottom. The bodies are heavy-gauge brass or aluminum, the tip bronze. The rest of the company's own manufacture follows the same measuring logic. First dockage sieves, which separate from the grain the impurities that will be deducted from its weight. Then gravity dividers and moisture testers. These lines carry the mention Made in USA in the catalog, and the company writes that its probes are made to meet USDA specifications.
The models
No roasting machine, so no capacity in kilos per batch. The range is counted in inches and grams. Open-handle probes first. No. 20-OH, 40 inches and six openings; No. 21-OH, 51 inches and eight; No. 22-OH, 63 inches and ten. The No. 16-OH goes up to 72 inches and twelve openings, in brass, the 18-OH being the same in aluminum. These probes start at 667 dollars. Spiral probes next, in double-tube brass of 1 3/8 inch, heavy bronze tip. No. 39-OH, 40 inches and six openings; 39A-OH, 51 and eight; 39B-OH, 62 and ten; 39C-OH, 72 and twelve. The No. 552 is a partitioned probe with an auger tip, eleven openings, brass, wooden handle on a steel tee, 1103 dollars. The auger serves to enter damp or packed grain. Then come the bag probes, short ones, those that pierce the burlap. No. 77, six inches of clear anodized aluminum, half an inch in diameter, 80 dollars. No. 79, twelve inches of black anodized aluminum, one inch in diameter. The catalog gives them for everything, from flower seed to coffee beans. Boerner Heavy Duty divider, 38-pocket cone, splits to within plus or minus 1 percent on 1000 grams, brass and copper, 30 pounds, 2600 dollars. The catalog makes it the divider of all federal, state and local inspection offices. Cargo divider with 20 pockets, model 292. 1200D moisture tester, 250 gram test portion, range of 5 to 40 percent, more than two hundred commodity curves in memory, 2650 dollars. Parchment coffee sheller, 250 grams of green coffee in under five minutes, 9383 dollars.
What you gain
The probe solves a problem that the sample roaster cannot fix afterwards. A sixty-kilo sack is not homogeneous: moisture and broken beans settle toward the bottom. Sampling by hand through the opening gives only the surface. The two tubes bring back a core over the whole height, and the partitioned version tells at what level each defect lies. The spiral goes further. By opening from bottom to top, it takes the bottom before the grain above covers it. The Boerner then divides. Its 38-pocket cone returns splits to within plus or minus 1 percent on 1000 grams. The hundred grams that will go to the sample roaster therefore resemble the lot, and not one corner of the sack.
What you lose
Sampling remains manual, therefore uneven. The number of sacks probed, and the five points per truck that the catalog recommends, depend on who holds the probe. The probe pierces the burlap and leaves a hole that has to be plugged, hence the three-inch adhesive patches sold alongside. On a parchment coffee, or in a sack lined with plastic, it goes in poorly. The rest of the range is tuned to North American grain. The dockage sieves and official grades follow USDA specifications, written for corn, wheat and soybeans. Coffee has no equivalent grade there. And the only machine truly dedicated to coffee, the parchment sheller, is precisely the one that carries no mention of origin. Finally nothing in this company says what the lot will be worth once roasted.
Gray areaThe most important point first: Seedburo builds no roaster, neither sample nor production. Its placement in the sampling family is due to its role, not to a machine. It occupies the upstream half of the same test bench, that of the hollow probe, and it is in this capacity that it appears here. A reader looking for a sample roaster must not confuse it with Ikawa or ROEST. Next, the boundary between what it makes and what it resells is not clear. It calls itself manufacturer and distributor, but its About us page opens by presenting it as one of the largest distributors of agricultural equipment in the country. The profile retains as manufactured only the lines bearing the Made in USA banner and sold under its name. That is, the probes, triers, dockage sieves, Boerner and Cargo dividers, moisture testers. Nothing made it possible to know whether these parts come from its own workshops or from an American subcontractor, nor where that workshop is. The parchment coffee sheller does not carry this banner and its real manufacturer is not identified. On Burrows, the About us page says it built up its exclusive lines “through acquisitions” and cites Burrows moisture testers in the same sentence. But the sentence also lists Ohaus among these lines, whereas Ohaus is an independent manufacturer. The acquisition of Burrows is therefore indicated, not demonstrated, and no date or deed of transfer was found. The existence of a tester sold as Seedburo Model 1200D, which reuses a Burrows model number, points the same way without proving it. Only two dates are confirmed by the company itself: 1912 for the founding and 1940 for the first export. All the rest of the historical account rests only on the 2012 article, which relays the company's own account and therefore is not an independent source. This holds for Chicago, for Leroy M. Smith, for the name Seed Trade Reporting Bureau and for the contraction into buro. It also holds for the 1916 pivot, for the 1983 President's E Award, for the one hundred and thirty countries and for the 2008 move. Nothing was found on Leroy M. Smith beyond his name. The archived versions of the former site, which perhaps carried a more detailed history, could not be consulted: access to web.archive.org is blocked from this workstation. No patent search could be run either, the search quota of this session being exhausted. Neither the double-tube probe patents nor the origin of the Boerner divider were therefore verified. Seedburo uses the name Boerner as a brand, without saying who designed it or when the company took it over. Finally, the link with coffee is real but thin, and it rests on the catalog alone. The company keeps a Coffee Equipment collection. Its bag triers are given for coffee beans, its needles for burlap coffee bags. It also sells a parchment sheller intended for an exporter's laboratory. But no professional coffee trade document consulted here names Seedburo as a supplier, and the share of coffee in its business remains unknown.
Manufacturer's website seedburo.com, home page and About us page, “a leading manufacturer and distributor of handling, testing, inspection and grading equipment for the grain, feed and seed industries,” founding in 1912, “Seedburo first began exporting equipment world-wide in 1940,” mention “Through acquisitions” followed by the list of exclusive lines, including Seedburo Grain Probes, Boerner and Precision Dividers, Count-A-Pak Seed Counters, Burrows Moisture Testers, Seedburo Computer Grain Scales and Ohaus Grading Scales, address 2293 S. Mt Prospect Road, Des Plaines, IL 60018; milling trade press, article of January 2012 on the company's centenary, repeating the account it gives of itself, founding in Chicago in 1912 under the name Seed Trade Reporting Bureau by Leroy M. Smith, Grain Standards Act of 1916, transfer of shares in the publications, Bureau contracted to buro, President's E Award in 1983, more than 130 countries, departure from Chicago for Des Plaines in 2008; seedburo.com, Probes, Triers and Samplers collection, mentions “proudly made in the USA” and “All probes and triers are designed to meet USDA requirements”; Open-Handle Probes sheet, reference 3200, “Seedburo probes are made to conform to USDA specifications,” “constructed from extra heavy gauge tubing,” “Cars, trucks, wagons or barge loads should be sampled with a double tube probe in five or more places,” No. 16-OH of 72 inches with 12 openings in brass, No. 18-OH identical in aluminum, No. 20-OH of 40 inches with 6 openings, No. 21-OH of 51 inches with 8, No. 22-OH of 63 inches with 10, starting at 667 dollars; Open-Handle Spiral Probes sheet, reference 3210, “The openings on the inside tube rotate around so that it opens first at the bottom and then in gradual steps to the top,” double-tube brass of 1 3/8 inch outside diameter, heavy bronze tip, No. 39-OH of 40 inches with 6 openings, 39A-OH of 51 inches with 8, 39B-OH of 62 inches with 10, 39C-OH of 72 inches with 12, from 640 to 858 dollars; Auger-Tip Probe with Partitions sheet, reference 3222, No. 552, 11 openings, auger tip for damp or packed grain, brass, wooden handle on a 12 inch steel tee, 10 pounds net, 1103 dollars; Partitioned Brass Probes sheet, reference 3724, No. 22P, 890 dollars; Seedburo Bag Triers sheet, reference 3242, No. 77 of 6 inches in clear anodized aluminum and 1/2 inch in diameter, No. 79 of 12 inches in black anodized aluminum and 1 inch, No. 158R of 11 5/8 inch in nickel-plated steel and 3/4 inch, No. 76 of 13 inches and 1 1/2 inch, stated use “Available in several sizes for sampling from small flower and vegetable seeds to coffee beans and sunflowers,” from 80 to 140 dollars, Made in USA banner; Bag Patch sheet, reference 3239, “The Seedburo Bag Patch provides an effective seal after using a bag trier to take a sample,” adhesive patch of 3 inch diameter; Bag Needles sheet, reference 3385, “They are used for sewing or repairing bags including burlap coffee bags,” imported English steel; Chrome Plated Probes and Triers sheet, reference 3223, No. 78-OH; Nobbe Trier sheet, reference 3214, No. 222; Boerner Divider Heavy Duty sheet, 38-pocket cone, “Provides accurate splits of ±1% on a 1000g sample,” brass and copper, painted steel base and supports, 31 inches high and 3 inches clearance under the spouts, 18 by 18 by 39 inches, 30 pounds net, “The Boerner Heavy Duty Divider is the standard divider for all federal, state, and local grain inspection offices,” “Meets USDA-FGIS (GIPSA) specifications for official inspection,” Made in USA banner, 2600 dollars with two pans; Cargo Type Divider sheet, model 292, 20 pockets, 1895 dollars, and Mini Cargo Type Divider 292-M; Official Grain Dockage Sieve Sets and Official Grain Dockage Individual Sieves sheets, sieves made to USDA specifications; 1200D Digital Moisture Testers sheet, reference 3108, “The Seedburo Model 1200D Digital Moisture Tester,” 250 gram test portion depending on the commodity, range of 5 to 40 percent, temperature probe to 0.5 degree Celsius, “Internal calibrations available for over 200 commodities,” 2650 dollars; Coffee Sheller sheet, reference 3426, “a great aid in the inspection of samples in the coffee processing laboratory,” 250 grams of parchment converted to green coffee in under five minutes, timer from 0 to 180 seconds, speed from 0 to 1725 revolutions per minute, half horsepower motor, stainless steel basket and hard chrome cylinder, 9383 dollars at 115 volts and 9774 dollars at 220 volts, no mention of origin or manufacturer; Coffee Equipment collection of the same site; pages accessed September 2026