BALGONIE, Sask. – A farmer from Pilot Butte, Sask., says the Canadian Wheat Board should have done more to help producers with ergot problems.
The disease hit wheat crops hard last year, and Frank Szeles said he would have liked a little more help.
He told a meeting held by his wheat board director, Rod Flaman, that there should have been a program similar to the one for fusarium-infected wheat.
“They have some responsibility,” Szeles said in an interview.
Bruce Burnett, director of weather and crop surveillance, said the board considered an ergot program but worried about toxicity levels.
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“We’re looking to the elevator system to blend the problem off,” he said.
Flaman, who also has ergot in his wheat, said he hadn’t heard widespread concern about the disease. He took his grain to Weyburn Inland Terminal in Weyburn, Sask., which offered an ergot cleaning program.
“We’ll do what we can for producers, but I think producers need to do what they can for themselves before they call on us,” Flaman said.
Szeles said the board could have blended the grain and added it was irresponsible of the board to think individual farmers could adequately blend on their own.
Burnett said it wasn’t practical for the CWB to blend grain because it doesn’t own facilities.
Szeles also said some farmers were short on contract deliveries because they weren’t sure how their wheat would grade.
Flaman said the wheat board has a program available for farmers in that type of situation, assuming the wheat still grades at least feed.
“Farmers that offered the full amount of their grain and then cleaned a significant portion out (to obtain a qualifying grade), I’m sure that’s a situation that could be addressed,” he said.
“If it grades sample, I don’t know where the stuff ends up because it’s poisonous.”
