The Canadian Wheat Board attracted what it considered an insignificant amount of Alsen wheat through the special program it announced in early November.
The board gave Alsen its own grade under a special contract program aimed at drawing the variety, which is not registered in Western Canada, out of farmers’ bins. When announcing the program, the board suggested it would give farmers a significant premium above what they could expect if selling the variety as feed wheat.
The deadline for farmers to contract tonnage under that program ended Nov. 28. As of Dec. 1, only a few producers had participated, although there was a possibility that more contracts could arrive through the mail a couple of days after the deadline.
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“The numbers are very small at this point,” said CWB spokesperson Rheal Cenerini.
“It’s hard to know exactly what people would have done with their Alsen, but just from what we’re seeing here, they’re not contracting it through the special program.”
Alsen has improved resistance to fusarium head blight. It was given a one-year interim registration to be grown in 2002, but was not registered for 2003. Prior to the recent special program, farmers who grew Alsen this year were told they could market it only as a feed wheat.
According to Manitoba Crop Insurance, more than 36,000 acres of Alsen were grown in the province this year. Manitoba has been plagued by fusarium for much of the past decade, so Alsen’s improved resistance made it an appealing option.
Farmers still holding Alsen grain might be waiting to learn whether it gains registration this winter when the Prairie Registration Recommending Committee for Grain convenes to review varieties and decide which ones to support for registration. The final decision about registration rests with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
If the variety were to win registration, growers who now have Alsen in their bins could market it as a milling wheat, said Paul Graham, a Canadian Grain Commission spokesperson.
“If it were to be registered as a red spring wheat, then farmers could deliver it as such and they would be eligible for milling (prices).”
Margaret Coyle of Canterra Seeds, the company with the exclusive rights to market Alsen in Canada, said the company put Alsen into a third year of co-op trials this year. The results will be reviewed before making a decision about whether to pursue support for registration from the PRRCG. Falling numbers were one of the issues that hindered the bid for registration for the 2003 cropping year.
Manitoba farmers are growing increasingly anxious to have wheat and barley varieties with stronger resistance to fusarium. Fusarium can drive down yields in cereal crops, damage grain kernels and taint the crop with mycotoxins that can make it unsuitable for things like malting and hog feed.
Garry Wiebe, a Winkler, Man., farmer, suggested last week there is a conspiracy among those with influence in the crop registration process to keep Alsen from becoming registered in Canada because it was developed outside the country. He farms in the Red River Valley and said he may have to abandon wheat because fusarium adds risk and cost that yields and returns from wheat cannot justify.
