The Canadian Grain Commission says it’s reassuring customers that changes to the wheat board won’t undermine Canada’s wheat quality, but some buyers say that it’s already undermined. “They were really concerned that we’d be like Australia (and) when we lost the single desk we’d lose quality control and we’d also lose variety control,” assistant chief
Customers are not happy with wheat quality
World markets growing for Western Canada’s CPS wheat class
Recent regulatory changes will make it easier for American wheats to be registered in the Canada Prairie Spring class
The only problem processors are having with Canada Prairie Spring red wheat these days is not being able to buy enough of it, industry officials told the recent Prairie Grain Development Committee’s annual meeting. “I think if we can maintain our focus on quality, we have the potential to beat out pretty much every otherWinter Cereals Canada understands rationale for crop insurance changes
It turns out MASC has been paying out a lot more on winter wheat claims than it has been collecting in premiums
Growers weren’t happy about changes to the crop insurance program for winter wheat outlined at their recent annual meeting, but they had to acknowledge that some changes were justified. In 2014, Manitoba farmers will still be eligible for a reseeding benefit based on 25 per cent of their coverage if their winter wheat fails beforeAgCanada boss says budget cuts won’t affect fusarium head blight research
Recently retired plant pathologists Andy Tekauz and Jeannie Gilbert will be replaced, but the positions will be in Morden, not Winnipeg
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada isn’t easing up in the battle against fusarium head blight, says the director general for the department’s Prairie/Boreal Plain Ecozone. “Fusarium work is a high priority,” said Stephen Morgan Jones. “It is, along with the rust diseases, a very high priority for us.” Jones said two recently retired fusarium experts fromFarmers urged to consider forming one, national association
Manitoba producer Danny Penner says there would be less duplication and better use of checkoff dollars
A Manitoba farmer mounting an effort to create one big commodity association says a splintered voice is not only expensive, it could cost farmers control of their industry. As the number of commodity organizations collecting checkoffs continues to grow, a 5,000-acre Manitoban farmer can be paying around $20,000 a year in checkoffs, said Danny Penner,Analysis: Wheat registration — having your cake and eating it too
Manitoba Co-operator’s Allan Dawson attended the Prairie Grain Development Committee’s annual meeting recently. Here’s his analysis on calls to change the registration system for western Canadian wheats
Calls to reform Western Canada’s wheat variety registration system boil down to the classic Canadian schism — the public and collective-managed approach versus letting the market decide. True to form, the majority of wheat industry officials see the solution somewhere in between, but there are powerful interests pushing for a market-driven approach. Private seed companyWheat registration system faces review
A new review for the Prairie wheat varietal registration process could prove contentious, with defenders calling it key to Canada’s quality brand and its detractors saying it is a barrier to innovation. The industry was already looking at the system in anticipation of the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly ending. A year ago, it agreed to
Richardson Pioneer, Seed Depot working on Faller IP program
All the contracted seed will be delivered to Richardson Pioneer, which is selling it to British baker Warburtons
Richardson Pioneer, in co-operation with Seed Depot, expects to contract around 10,000 acres of Faller, an unregistered, American wheat, through a new identity-preserved (IP) program this spring, says Peter Entz, Richardson International’s assistant vice-president of seed and traits. “It’s going to work like any other identity-preserved program,” Entz said in an interview Feb. 27 onRemembering Eugene Whelan
Ronald Reagan gets credit for winning the cold war with the former Soviet Union, but Eugene Whelan arguably played a role. Whelan was prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s agriculture minister for 12 years beginning in 1972, except for the nine months Joe Clark’s Progressive Conservatives held office in 1979. He died last week at age 88.
IP program portends changes to registration system
An identity-preserved production contract a Manitoba company is offering for the U.S. wheat variety Faller this spring could be a sign of things to come as Canada’s variety registration system faces unprecedented pressures for change. Farmers selling Faller, a high-yielding, lower-protein, unregistered American spring milling wheat, would normally get a feed wheat price. But those