The Canadian Grain Commission is going ahead with a plan to reclassify 25 wheat varieties in the Canada Western Red Spring wheat class.
The commission announced July 29 that 25 CWRS varieties, including Lillian, Unity and Harvest, will be reclassified Aug. 1, 2017.
The decision was based on consultations with domestic and international stakeholders, including end users of CWRS wheat who had raised concerns that gluten strength in the class was no longer meeting expectations.
Four Canada Prairie Spring Red varieties will also be reclassified.
The grain commission has yet to determine if the varieties will be placed into another existing wheat class or if a new lower quality milling wheat class will be established to accommodate them.
Read Also
Canada announces steel tariffs on some trade partners
Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday said Canada will introduce a tariff rate quota for countries with which it has free trade agreements, excluding the United States, to protect the domestic steel industry.
“That really hasn’t been determined yet,” said Daryl Beswitherick, the commission’s manager of quality assurance standards.
“That is still under discussion with the industry to determine whether there is a need for a new wheat class or not.”
Either way, the varieties that are slated for reclassification are expected to command a lower market price beginning in the 2017-18 crop year.
Commercial growers who produce the varieties will still be able to market their grain in the CWRS class until July 31, 2017.
Information on the grain commission’s website says additional CWRS and CPSR varieties could be slated for reclassification, pending the outcome of a review that will be initiated in 2016.
For the time being, the list of varieties scheduled for reclassification includes CWRS varieties AC Abbey, AC Cora, AC Eatonia, AC Majestic, AC Michael, AC Minto, Alvena, Alikat, CDC Makwa, CDC Osler, Columbus, Conway, Harvest, Kane, Katepwa, Leader, Lillian, McKenzie, Neepawa, Park, Pasqua, Pembina, Thatcher, Unity and 5603HR, as well as CPSR varieties AC Foremost, AC Taber, Conquer and Oslo.
Of the varieties slated for reclassification, Unity, Harvest, Lillian and Kane are by far the most popular among western Canadian growers.
As recently as 2011, the four varieties accounted for close to 50 percent of CWRS acres planted on the Prairies.
Beswitherick said commercial wheat growers who used those varieties have been gradually migrating toward other CWRS cultivars during the past few years.
Unity, Harvest and Lillian accounted for 25 percent of prairie-wide CWRS acreage in 2014, he said.
It is possible that some growers will stick with varieties such as Lillian and Harvest based on agronomic performance rather than price.
Beswitherick said the purpose of the reclassification is to narrow the range of gluten strength parameters within the CWRS class, establishing Carberry as the lower threshold for gluten strength and Glenn for the upper threshold.
The 29 varieties’ gluten strength does not meet the expectations of end users or the new gluten strength requirements that were established by wheat quality experts at the Prairie Grain Development Commission meetings in February, he said.
brian.cross@producer.com
