This is a good year for lentil growers to get a second or third opinion on the quality of their crop before marketing it, says the Canadian Grain Commission.
“The word we want to get out to producers this year is know what you have,” said Norm Woodbeck, the CGC’s program manager for quality assurance standards and re-inspection.
Many red lentil growers are in uncharted territory. For years, all they have produced is No. 2 or better quality.
That is not the case in 2010. While there was some quality product early in harvest, things dramatically turned worse after fall rains stalled fieldwork.
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“Some is making Extra 3 but a lot of it is going down to No. 3,” said Woodbeck.
That is causing tension between farmers and grain buyers.
“We’re already hearing rumblings out there where maybe producers are thinking the companies are trying to take advantage of them,” he said.
The main downgrading factors for red lentils are bleaching and copper staining.
“There is a misconception out there with producers that because you’re going to split the lentils, you don’t have to worry about the bleaching or the staining,” said Woodbeck.
The commission has confirmed in laboratory studies that bleaching causes the skin on the seed coat to adhere more tightly to the cotyledon, causing extra breakage and a subsequent loss in milling yield during the splitting process.
Green lentils are also being downgraded for bleaching and for disease damage.
Another issue for both classes of lentils is wrinkling, which is not a downgrading factor but it is a sensitive issue for some users so grain companies may shy away from buying wrinkled product unless they have a market.
Saskatchewan Pulse Growers executive director Garth Patterson said losing one grade on a big money-maker like lentils can prove costly, especially in a year like this.
Price spreads between lentil grades widened this fall when buyers realized how much weather and disease damage had been inflicted on the 2010 crop.
The difference between a No. 2 red lentil and an Extra No. 3 was 6.3 cents per pound as of Oct. 8. That discount amounts to about $88 per acre in lost revenue. The loss jumps to $140 per acre if the grade drops to a No. 3.
“It is an important issue for the lentil industry this year,” said Patterson.
Woodbeck said growers must know their product and their rights. For instance, producers who deliver lentils to a primary elevator and are unhappy with the grade they received can ask for the sample to be sent to the Canadian Grain Commission for arbitration.
Arbitration is unavailable to growers dealing with a buyer who is not a primary elevator.
Before farmers haul their product to the local plant, they are encouraged to have their samples assessed for free by the Canadian Grain Commission through its Harvest Sample Program or have it analyzed by a private inspection company or a competing grain company.
“There are options out there for producers. They don’t just have to take it to one place and accept what they get,” said Woodbeck.
