Canaryseed has muscled its way onto the 2005 Crop Production Week agenda to be showcased alongside other crops like pulses, flax, canola and mustard.
With canaryseed at 750,000 acres in Saskatchewan, industry promoters felt it was time for it to share the limelight at Saskatchewan’s largest annual crop production show, which attracts thousands to Saskatoon every January.
“We wanted to have an information meeting there,” said Ken Schikowski, president of the Canaryseed Association of Canada.
The association has been granted a half-day allotment that will be filled with breeding and agronomic research updates, a market outlook session and grower feedback on a proposed refundable checkoff.
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Schikowski said the board of directors will meet in the coming months to hash out a checkoff proposal so they can tell growers at the meeting how much it will amount to, whether it will be based on crop value or pounds marketed and when it might be implemented.
Another possible item on the agenda is the producer security issue. The Canadian Grain Commission is contemplating whether to add canaryseed to the list of 21 grains covered under the Canada Grain Act. If the crop is designated eligible, producers who deliver canaryseed to companies licensed by the commission will be eligible for payment protection.
Although some canaryseed growers lost considerable sums of money when Naber Seed and Grain Co. Ltd. went into receivership in 2002, Schikowski said the board is undecided whether the crop should be added to the list of grains the CGC oversees.
“We couldn’t really comment to the grain commission when they asked us because we don’t really know where the growers sit,” he said.
The grain commission seems to be struggling to come up with a consensus on the issue as well.
In a February 2003 News release
news, the agency said if canaryseed was added to the list, the most likely implementation date would be Aug. 1, 2004. That date has come and gone and no decision has been made.
Commission spokesperson Paul Graham couldn’t provide much of an update on the matter.
“Nothing is new. (The commissioners) are still working on the report. It’s still in the analysis stage.”
Commissioners have had since May 30, 2003, to mull over written submissions.
“I think they’ve just got a lot of other things on their plate. It hasn’t had as high a priority as the other things they’re working on,” said Graham.
He has been told the commissioners are close to a decision on the canaryseed issue. If it is designated under the Canada Grain Act, the new most likely implementation date will be Aug. 1, 2005.
