The Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association may have a long and triumphant existence if its first annual general meeting is an indicator of things to come.
More than 200 farmers and interested parties packed into a hotel conference room in Winnipeg to attend the Feb. 18 meeting.
Hotel staff had to take down a temporary wall to accommodate the rush of people streaming into the room.
“It’s pretty impressive that at our first AGM we’re already bringing down walls,” said Fred Greig, a farmer from Reston, Man., and vice-chair of the association’s interim board.
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Manitoba producers took longer to organize wheat and barley associations than did their Alberta and Saskatchewan counterparts in the aftermath of the federal government’s decision to end CWB’s single desk monopoly in 2011.
Alberta and Saskatchewan farmers assembled wheat and barley commissions in 2012 and 2013, which support research and market development for the cereal crops.
Manitoba producers decided to combine the two crops into one entity partly because they wanted to make the association more efficient and increase co-operation between commodity groups.
The association doesn’t have a formal office space. Instead, the interim board and contracted staff operate on a bare-bones budget, sharing a cellphone and using a website to communicate with growers.
Interim board president Don Dewar, who didn’t seek election on the new board, said the association might eventually share office space with another commodity group to save money and foster more co-operation.
The association instituted a 52 cent per tonne checkoff for wheat and a 50 cent checkoff for barley last year. Less than three percent of Manitoba growers requested a levy refund in the first year.
Members elected three new directors out of five candidates at the meeting: Dean Harder of Lowe Farm, Robert Misko of Roblin and Drew Baker of Beausejour.
robert.arnason@producer.com
