Alberta pork producers should get more bang for their research bucks under a new agreement, according to a former Alberta Pork director.
By bringing different research groups together to agree on priorities, producer checkoffs to the Alberta Pork Producer Development Corporation will be better spent, said Blain Middleton. About 20 cents from every Alberta hog sold, or about $500,000, goes into industry research each year.
“The feeling is we have to have viable research at all facilities,” said Middleton, Alberta Pork’s former district one director.
Under the Alberta Pork Research Centre agreement, representatives from Alberta Pork, the University of Alberta, Alberta Agriculture and Agriculture Canada’s Lacombe Research Centre will form a committee to discuss research goals. The committee, to be run by a board of directors, will then forward its suggestions to Alberta Pork to decide where research dollars will go.
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When formed, the research committee will help direct about $1 million from research check-off dollars and government contributions per year, said Ed Schultz, general manager for Alberta Pork.
“It’s to make sure we’re focusing on areas of greatest need so we can prioritize because of limited funding,” he said, adding Alberta Pork feels environmental projects such as lagoon seepage studies are the current priority.
The research committee’s input should give Alberta Pork directors, who may be farmers themselves with little knowledge of the research world, a better feeling that money is going into the right areas, said Middleton. It will also eliminate duplication, he added, noting Alberta Pork doles out research money to a number of different groups.
The centre will also discuss ways of best communicating research findings, said Shultz.
The agreement, publicly signed March 7 at Alberta Pork’s annual meeting, means scientists will know what spending priorities are when they apply for money, said Ron Ball of the University of Alberta.
“There’s a greater risk to scientists if they don’t respond to industry needs.”
The idea for the integrated research committee was in the works for about four years, said Middleton, who was one of the first players involved. Bureaucracy and position changes slowed the process and Middleton admitted he had doubts whether the committee would form.
“I had given up on it and then last week I received a fax that my baby had been born,” he said.
The agreement is still in the organizational stage and directors have yet to be chosen, said Schultz.
Once they are chosen, they will talk with officials from their organizations to target key research areas. They will bring those back to the committee table so members can develop a three- or five-year research plan, said Middleton.
He hopes other industry players, like pharmaceutical and feed companies, will also give input and perhaps funding.
“Down the road, the dream of all dreams is to get money from other corporations.”
