Grain grading isn’t the exclusive purview of elevator operators and private consultants. The information necessary for producers to survey quality, short of an official grade, is publicly available, according to recent seminars hosted by Saskatchewan producer groups.
Saskatchewan wheat, barley, canola and flax associations hosted officials from the Canadian Grain Commission for a crash course on grain grading in Indian Head and Swift Current last month to give producers the tools to carry out their own quality assessments.
The idea behind giving producers the ability to do their own grading is part giving them a better feel for what they have and give grain growers better information when marketing their products, said Joey Vanneste, CGC operations supervisor.
Armed with that information, “they can go out and market their grain to achieve top dollar for their product.”
From proper sieves sizes and techniques, to identification of fusarium, sprout and pest damage, to procedures and equipment required for test weights and information on threshold levels, the information is available through the Official Grain Grading Guide, said Vanneste.
“Producers are educating themselves in grading,” he said. “It’s not that at the end of the day they are going to be grain graders but we’re trying to educate people on the process and where they can find the information. The Canadian Grain Grading Guide is available online and covers all of our grains covered under our act…. We are seeing an uptake in producers’ knowledge of it.”
Cody Glenn, SaskBarley board member, said the more producers know about the quality of their product, the easier it will be marketing it and it’s a skill gap that seminars like Grade School help close.
“Older generation farmers were used to selling to the Canadian Wheat Board and it was kind of all handled. When the wheat board went away and we had to start marketing our own grain, now we have to determine what we have,” said Glenn. “The younger generation is OK with that, but I think there is a pretty good gap with the older generation not used to it.”
Glenn noted the Grain Grading Guide is updated before the growing season to give producers the latest information.
“But if people don’t know it’s out there, they aren’t going to use it and that’s why something like this (seminar) really drives it home to producers so that they have a better understanding of how it works,” said Glenn.
Baillie Shewkenek, who took in the Grade School in Swift Current, said the ability of producers to better assess quality is part of the new reality of farming and the technical expertise required to be successful at it.
“You have to be state-of-the-art in knowledge and you can never stop learning,” he said. “With technology and crop advancements coming as quickly in this day and age, you need to be attending everything you can to learn as much as possible.”
With tight margins, the ability to enhance knowledge of a producer’s product is essential.
“If you are one grade out on 100,000 bushels, you could be out $10,000 to $100,000 difference, so you need to know what the options are and protocols are if you disagree with the assessment,” said Shewkenek.
Those protocols include being able to appeal a grade at the elevator to the CGC, with the results binding on both parties.
Vanneste highlighted producers can avail themselves of the CGC Harvest Sample Program, which provides unofficial grades to farmers for all 21 officially recognized grains while providing a tool for researchers and marketers selling the merits of the Canadian grading system.
