Editorial: Too many organizations

A few years ago, a group of Japanese wheat millers was touring the Canadian Wheat Board building in Winnipeg. In the transportation department, where there was a large wall map showing all the rail lines in Western Canada, they received the standard presentation on logistics. The presenter explained that to save distance and costs, wheat



Checkoff system needs to be credible

It is laudable that the federal government has moved to set up an interim checkoff to support research, market development and technical assistance for the grain sector. The Western Grain Research Foundation (WGRF), the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi) and the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC) are major assets to the western grain industry


Experts say Canada falling behind in crop research and development

Getting the federal government to fully restore funding for agriculture research remains a top priority for Canadian farm groups, says Richard Phillips, executive director of the Grain Growers of Canada. With federal spending cuts looming, farm groups want the Harper government to consider plowing royalties from existing crop varieties developed by Agriculture Canada scientists into


Revenue Cap Accounting Questioned

CN and CP won’t face penalties for exceeding their revenue caps in the crop year that ended July 31, even though farmers paid about $6 per tonne above those caps to ship their grain. The railways collectively were $5.4 million or 17 cents a tonne under the Canadian Transportation Agency’s (CTA) revenue cap of almost

Setting The Record Straight

TheManitoba Co-operatorincorrectly quoted Doug Robertson of the Grain Growers of Canada in a Dec. 9 story as saying the railways are “getting screwed royally” by the freight revenue cap. This is what Robertson said: “I understand why they don’t like the rail cap. Personally, I don’t like it either. If I was forced to work

Farmer Funds Behind Flood Of New CWRS Wheats Coming

“It was a pretty strong showing (this year) for CWRS wheat. What we’re seeing now is the WGRF (Western Grain Research Foundation) checkoff really kicking in.” – GRAHAM WORDEN An unprecedented nine new wheats eligible for the top Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) class were recommended for registration during this year’s Prairie Grain Development Committee’s


Make wheat like canola, CropLife told

“One of the things farmers maybe should be interested in is having some control over their own germplasm.” – David Rourke Plant breeders need to make wheat more like canola, farmers said during CropLife Canada’s annual convention in Ottawa last month. “You look at what canola (yield) has done and it has been phenomenal,” Jeff