The Winnipeg publishing house, which owns and operates this website, announced Thursday it acquired the two Advancing Women in Agriculture Conferences (AWC) — and has hired AWC’s founder, conference organizer Iris Meck of Calgary, as GFM’s director of conferences.

Meck will lead the AWC West and AWC East conferences and the annual Farm Forum Event, which GFM acquired in 2018 and is scheduled this year for Nov. 24-25 in Saskatoon.

The AWC conference, which Meck launched in Calgary in 2014, expanded to include an eastern edition the following year.

AWC West 2020, which was set for March 23-24 in Calgary, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; AWC East 2020 is scheduled for Nov. 15-17 in Niagara Falls, Ont.

“AWC is proud of the quality of speakers that we bring to the podium, including business experts, motivational and inspirational leaders and industry representatives,” Meck said Thursday in GFM’s release. “I look forward to working with the Glacier FarmMedia team and energizing AWC to a new level.”

“At Glacier FarmMedia, we know that access to information, connecting, learning and networking are foundations of success – for those on the farm, for students and for those working in the agriculture industry,” GFM president Bob Willcox said in the same release.

“We’re pleased to be able to offer this to an important and celebrated sector of the ag industry – women – through the Advancing Women in Agriculture Conferences.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The two grower commissions announced Wednesday that the AWC’s general manager Tom Steve will now serve also as Alberta Barley’s general manager, replacing Rob Davies.

With Steve on board, the two commissions’ boards said they’ve approved a project to “assess the feasibility of amalgamating their management teams over a four-month trial period.”

Since they already share office space, near Calgary International Airport, as well as accounting and administrative staff, the move is “a logical next step in further building the working relationship between the two commissions,” they said.

“By exploring the idea of a single management team, we hope to identify ways to provide greater value to the province’s wheat and barley farmers,” Jason Lenz, Alberta Barley’s chairman and a farmer at Bentley, said in a release.

“Since our inception in 2012 we have collaborated with Alberta Barley on projects that serve both crops,” AWC’s chairman Kevin Auch, who farms at Carmangay, said in the same release.

“With a shared management structure, we believe we can operate with maximum efficiency and provide the best possible return on investment to farmers.”

Once the trial period ends in 2018, the two boards said, they’ll “determine whether they will formalize an integrated management structure operating under one general manager and reporting to both boards.”

The two commissions have shared space and staff since 2013, a move which they said at the time marked “an industry first for collaboration, as well as maximizing farmers’ checkoff dollars.”

Steve, the AWC’s general manager since 2014, came to Alberta from the same post at the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission, and previously served as Viterra’s director of customer relations and service.

Davies, previously best known as the CEO at Saskatchewan’s Weyburn Inland Terminal, left Alberta Barley on Sept. 6 after just over two years as its GM. — AGCanada.com Network

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The Alberta Wheat Commission, Sask Wheat and the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association on Tuesday announced the formation of the Canadian Wheat Research Coalition (CWRC) to “facilitate long-term investments aimed at improving profitability and competitiveness for western Canadian wheat farmers.”

The commissions, in a joint release, said their new coalition will “facilitate a collaborative approach to producer funding of regional and national research projects in variety development and agronomy, including the next Canadian National Wheat Cluster and core wheat breeding agreements with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and universities.”

Other “regional” projects that line up with the coalition’s variety development and agronomic priorities will also be considered for funding, they said.

CWRC project funding will be shared on a proportionate basis based on checkoff revenue, the three commissions said.

The new coalition’s structure allows for more producer or private sector groups to join as “organizational members,” providing a platform for the coalition to pursue what it described as “public, private, producer partnerships (4Ps).”

CWRC administration will be handled by a “host” commission, rotating every three years, starting with Sask Wheat.

Eight farmers, including the AWC’s Kevin Auch, Jason Saunders and Terry Young, Sask Wheat’s Ken Rosaasen, Glenn Tait and Laura Reiter, and the MWBGA’s Cale Jeffries and Dylan Wiebe, will sit on the coalition’s first board.

The commissions took on an expanded role in handling checkoff funding after the Western Canadian Deduction (WCD) on wheat and barley sunset on July 31.

All three commissions had single checkoffs in place for Aug. 1, covering both their own work and the WCD’s funding obligations, which include funds for the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF), the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre and Cigi, the Canadian International Grains Institute.

The WCD checkoffs had been set up in 2012 by the federal government as a transition move following its deregulation of the CWB’s single marketing desk for Prairie wheat and barley.

Where the WGRF previously led research initiatives through WCD funding, the commissions said they will now “ensure continuity” in new spring wheat variety development is maintained through the CWRC, and will engage WGRF as “a key player” through the transition.

The WGRF, which will remain a separate entity, steered by its own board of directors, has already charted a four-year transition plan providing about $18 million per year in research funding out to 2020.

That money, coming from WGRF’s wheat and barley reserve funds, is to cover its core wheat and barley variety development commitments; ongoing funding commitments; new projects focused on “sustainability, resiliency and efficiency” of crop production systems; and new projects dealing with “specific research issues” in intermediate Prairie field crops.

The WGRF has said its transition plan has the commissions’ support and will “ensure the stability of core breeding programs” at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the University of Alberta, University of Saskatchewan and University of Manitoba out to 2020.

“Most of the best performing wheat varieties available to farmers are the result of producer-funded wheat breeding efforts,” Auch said in the commissions’ release Tuesday.

“I look forward to working with my provincial counterparts to continue this work with the goal of seeing new, high-performing varieties that result in better returns and increased competitiveness for farmers.” — AGCanada.com Network

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The Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association (MWBGA) on Wednesday announced that when the Western Canadian Deduction (WCD) on wheat and barley sunsets on July 31, the association’s new single checkoffs will be $1 per tonne for spring wheat and $1.06 per tonne for barley, effective Aug. 1.

The MWBGA checkoffs will combine the association’s own checkoffs with the WCD — a separate levy which, until July 31, is charged at 48 cents per tonne on sales of spring wheat and 56 cents per tonne on barley.

The WCD checkoffs were set up by the federal government in 2012 as a transition move following its deregulation of the CWB’s single marketing desk for Prairie wheat and barley, to support the Western Grains Research Foundation, the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre and Cigi, the Canadian International Grains Institute.

Funding the association’s own work, along with the obligations covered until the end of this month by the WCD, a single checkoff is expected to “improve efficiency and effectiveness at no extra cost to farmers,” the MWBGA said in a release.

For its part, the regulatory amendment submitted to the province, following a resolution at the association’s annual meeting earlier this year, “will allow MWBGA to continue providing leadership for continuity of funding to wheat and barley variety development, as well as tackle other important research- and market development-related questions,” chairman Fred Greig said in Wednesday’s release.

Alberta’s and Saskatchewan’s spring wheat and barley commissions have also received amendments for their own respective single checkoffs once the WCD ends, MWBGA noted.

Sask Wheat had previously announced it would set its single checkoff on spring wheat, starting Aug. 1, at $1 per tonne, as per a resolution by Saskatchewan wheat growers earlier this year emphasizing that they “will face no net increase in checkoffs.”

Sask Barley also previously announced its single checkoff, starting Aug. 1, will be maintained at $1.06 per tonne.

The Alberta Wheat Commission also already announced plans to set a single checkoff, at $1.09 per tonne on wheat, starting Aug. 1.

That’s down from the combined AWC and WCD levies of $1.18 per tonne, “consolidating all current AWC programs and WCD obligations in a model directly accountable to Alberta farmers,” the commission said.

Alberta Barley’s levy starting Aug. 1 will be $1.20 per tonne, applying to Alberta sales of “every type” of barley, including feed, malt, food and other uses.

Winter Cereals Manitoba and the Saskatchewan Winter Cereals Development Commission, which currently administer their individual 50-cent per tonne checkoffs on winter wheat sales, have also received regulatory amendments to move to a single checkoff on winter wheat, MWBGA noted Wednesday. — AGCanada.com Network

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AAFC, Canterra Seeds and the Alberta Wheat Commission (AWC) on Wednesday announced they would jointly contribute $3.4 million over five years to Dr. Harpinder Randhawa’s CPSR breeding program at AAFC’s Lethbridge Research Centre.

The funding model, described as a public/private/producer partnership (4-P), is expected to “streamline the development and commercialization” of new CPSRs from Lethbridge.

Set up in 1985, the Canada Prairie Spring class of wheats was meant as a “lower-protein alternative” to Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS).

The CPSR subclass offers low to medium protein content, medium-hard kernels and medium to strong dough strength properties, and is used by itself or in blends to make products such as noodles, flat breads and crackers.

Specific financial terms weren’t released, but for its part, AWC is to get a share of royalties on new varieties coming from the program, to be re-invested in future CPSR research and development.

Canterra’s contribution to the 4-P is to include “significant” additional technical and field-testing capacity for CPSR breeding material from Lethbridge, plus “increased funding and support for the program as a whole.”

Canterra “will also provide links to the entire value chain, a deeper understanding of end-user requirements and broad experience in seed production and commercialization.”

In return, Canterra is to get first right of refusal on a stream of future CPSR varieties from the program, “a class of wheat with an unrealized potential in evolving food markets — particularly in Asia.”

“Each of these partners bring their own skills and resources to drive competitive new (CPSR) wheat varieties for producers across the Prairies,” federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in a release.

Canterra already works with a “wide range” of AAFC-bred varieties, including CPSR varieties AC Conquer VB and AAC Crusader.

“In our evolving marketplace, we often hear talk of the need for true partnerships between public breeders, private companies and farmers,” Canterra CEO David Hansen said in the same release.

In this case, the partners said Wednesday, the breeding and development work “will also factor in input from Alberta’s wheat producers.”

Cam Dahl, president of Cereals Canada, said in a separate release Wednesday the 4-P deal “serves as a model for new ways of bringing forward innovation in Canada.”

The 4-P, he said, “takes advantage of the strengths of all three organizations. The result is additional investment in innovation and variety development in Canada and more choice for Canadian producers.”

As was the case in Canterra’s wheat breeding and commercialization deal last week with French firm Limagrain, the 4-P partners noted their deal “builds on the passing of the Agricultural Growth Act (Bill C-18) which enables an environment more conducive to investment in plant breeding.” –– AGCanada.com Network

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