Kerian Machines Makes Customized Sorting Machines in North Dakota
In partnership with: North Dakota Department of Agriculture
Louis Kerian managed potato packing lines for many years when he realized a vegetable sorting machine could sort potatoes more consistently and efficiently than his own two hands. This was the inspiration for Kerian Machines, which he founded in 1967. Once the machine was developed, all potato growers in the northeast corner of North Dakota wanted a Kerian Speed Sizer to increase productivity and decrease labor costs.
The Kerian Speed Sizer sends fruits, vegetables or nuts along rollers with increasing spaces between them. The item being sorted falls between the rollers when it reaches a space of corresponding size and is carried by a takeaway conveyor to join similarly sized items.
Louis’ son, John Kerian, took the helm of the quickly growing company in 1979, bringing it from a five-person operation to 10 people in the 1990s. During this time, John designed new equipment features and increased sales worldwide by expanding the customer base to Europe, South America, Africa, Asia and Australia.
Today, John’s son, James, the third generation of Kerians, has expanded the company further to 14 employees and sells equipment to customers in more than 100 countries. All machines are still custom-built in Grafton. “Half of our machines stay in the U.S.,” James says. From there, James explains there is an even split between Canada and Mexico for their top export destinations.
“We also sell a lot of machines in Greece to sort peaches, apricots and pears, and in Holland, to sort potatoes, onions and Brussels sprouts,” James says.
Harvesting Innovation With the Kerian Speed Sizer
It takes two to three months to build a custom Kerian Sizer. There are 17 different models constructed in carbon or stainless steel, built to the customer’s specific requirements.
“Each machine is made to order,” James says. “It’s rare that we make two machines that are exactly alike.”
The first sizer on the machine removes debris, with second and third sizers sorting the product into varying sizes. Blueberries are the smallest crop using a Kerian Sizer, and watermelons are the largest.
“We can’t do anything with grain or rice, crops of that size yet,” James says.
Potatoes are the No. 1 product using the sizers.
“All potato varieties around the world use our sizers,” James says. “I feel confident there isn’t a variety of potato in the world that we haven’t made a machine for and have a happy customer for.”
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One of those happy potato farmers is Christian Miller of John Miller Farms in Minto, who purchased a seed potato sizer in 2023.
“When we decided to go with a Kerian Sizer, we went to their shop to discuss ideas for customizing the machine to fit well with our shipping area,” Miller says. “They had a set timeline for when the machine would be completed, and everything was on schedule.”
Miller says their sizer works efficiently, removing oversized potatoes and eliminating human error.
“Our Kerian Sizer sizes off larger potatoes to ensure our customers have a nice size profile of seed potatoes to go through their seed cutter before planting,” he explains.
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Sorting Ahead
James remarks how seed potato sizers are a growing area for Kerian Machines.
“Seed potato sellers want the oversized and undersized potatoes, the ones that are too small and too large to work well, taken out,” James adds. “Our equipment does that accurately and effectively, which is a growing area of demand for us, and we look forward to continuing to provide more seed potato equipment.”
Looking ahead, James hopes one of his six children, ages 3 to 17, will continue the company.
“The best thing about my job is that we solve people’s problems,” James says. “When a customer has a challenge that needs to be fixed, we create a solution.”
For more information about Kerian Machines, visit kerian.com.