(Jack Dykinga photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Prairie farm slapped with plant breeders’ rights infringement penalties

Farmers need to know who they are buying seed from to avoid potentially significant costs

Infringing on Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) has cost a large southern Alberta farm a record $737,597. “The settlement relates to unauthorized advertisements and sales of PBR-protected barley and wheat varieties,” Alliance Seed, SeCan and an unnamed seed company said in a news release Wednesday. The settlement “includes the royalties, plus legal fees and penalties,” Todd

File photo of Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau speaking to media in Winnipeg in March 2019. (Dave Bedard photo)

Bibeau says government committed to federal plant breeding

Seed royalty consultations stalled

The Canadian government is committed to plant breeding, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau told members of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation on Tuesday. Some farmers and seed industry officials suspect Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) variety development work, along with many other programs, will be on the chopping block post-COVID-19 as the government tackles its

File photo of a rye field in Kazakhstan. (Stsmhn/iStock/Getty Images)

Beware of Kazakhs wanting to buy seed, agency says

Seed growers and farmers alike are being warned such sales breach breeders' rights rules

Western Canadian seed growers, seed retailers and commercial farmers are being urged not to sell seed to Kazakhs or their agents because it breaches plant breeders’ rights rules. “The basic fact is no Canadian breeder has given permission for their genetics to go to Kazakhstan,” Lorne Hadley, executive director of the Canadian Plant Technology Agency,


Sixty-five per cent of all farmers surveyed rejected both proposed seed royalty models and 25 per cent said they need more information.

Survey says: Farmers reject proposed seed royalty models

Farmer skepticism on end point and trailing royalties proposals came through loud and clear in a recent survey

Proponents of royalties proposals to fund cereals variety development need to either head back to the drawing board or do a better job of making their case. A recent survey from the three Prairie general farm organizations conducted to gauge farmer response to the two proposals for end point or trailing royalties found a deep

A fine balance

One major wheat seed producer says protecting Canada’s quality reputation is important

Changes to wheat classes have been disruptive for the seed business, but it was also necessary, according to a representative of one of the country’s major seed companies. Todd Hyra, Western Canada business manager for SeCan says even though the wheat class changes have disrupted business for SeCan and its seed grower-members, restoring gluten strength



SeCan says PBR enforcement will ensure farmers get the best possible varieties by rewarding the breeders who develop them.

Saskatchewan farmer pays up after breaching plant breeders’ rights

Seed companies warn infringers potentially face significant costs, not only for unpaid royalties 
but also the investigation and court costs

Canada has had plant breeders’ rights (PBR) regulations for 25 years, yet some farmers still breach them. Dustin Hawkins, who farms near Kincaid, Sask., is the latest to be penalized for the unauthorized advertising and sale of durum wheat varieties AC Transcend and AC Strongfield, whose rights are held by FP Genetics and SeCan, respectively.

Better yields with Manor Buckwheat

Better yields with Manor Buckwheat

Our History: March 1984

Buckwheat was still a significant crop in Manitoba in the 1970s and 1980s, exceeding 100,000 acres some years, and SeCan was promoting the Manor variety in our Mar. 1, 1984 issue. However, acreage has declined to the point where it is no longer reported by Statistics Canada. In that issue, we reported that the U.S.