BROOKS, Alta. – It’s been almost a year since Alberta alfalfa growers formed their own commission to fund research and raise their profile.
The industry was previously represented by an association that spoke for 120 growers of pedigreed alfalfa seed on irrigated land.
The decision to form the Alfalfa Seed Commission last summer meant collecting a checkoff and hiring manager Michelle Gietz.
The organization collects a refundable checkoff of 1.25 percent of net sales with an expected annual income of $114,000.
“We as an industry must decide what projects and research and partner in funding them,” president Karl Slomp recently told the organization’s first annual meeting in Brooks.
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Gordon Frank of Alberta Agriculture, who serves as an adviser to the commission, said growers have been organized for nearly a century, coming together because they needed a seed cleaning plant. Production started in the Brooks area and continues today on 18,000 acres.
Harvests can be variable. In the first year of the commission, production was hammered by a cloudy, cool summer, June frost, hail in the fall and the coldest December on record. There were also disease problems.
“It seemed environment trumped everything else that you do,” Frank said.
The 2009 harvest was the poorest in 10 years, compared to 2008 when record yields were reported. Yields were 100 to 700 pounds per acre. Most was sold as certified seed.
However, Frank is optimistic about planting intentions for 2010.
“We are quite low in acres on an historical basis right now. I am guessing they are going to up this year.”
