Alberta barley growers are dismayed to see the province moving away from malting variety development and regional research trials to focus on grain for biofuel.
“As of 2008 regional variety trials, which are province wide research plots of every variety of grain and oilseeds in Alberta, will lose their funding from the province,” said Doug Robertson, chair of the Alberta Barley Commission.
Robertson and past commission chair Terry Young said the publicly funded trials and agronomic reports provide an unbiased consumer report for farmers, rather than relying on research done by private companies who promote their varieties.
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The barley commission is working with the Alberta pulse growers and seed grower associations to lobby for continued public research funding.
Malting barley breeding will be discontinued in Alberta and probably picked up in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Alberta indicated variety development could be handled by private enterprise similar to canola breeding programs.
The barley commission representatives see these decisions as the thin edge of the wedge at a time when grain and livestock groups are requesting more variety research and development.
“Until the regulatory or marketing systems are changed in Western Canada, private companies will not undertake malt or wheat breeding investment,” Robertson said at the recent Western Barley Growers Association annual meeting.
Part of the barley commission’s mandate is to collect check-off money from farmers to fund research. That money will likely leave Alberta and be spent on research in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, although nothing has been finalized.
“If we have funds available for malting barley, and it is important to Alberta, we will probably distribute them to the Western Grains Research Foundation,” said Young.
He hopes for a change in government attitude after the provincial election March 3.
“In two months time this could all be moot. If a new government comes in and the priority is agriculture, then maybe something will return, but we don’t know that.”
Alberta agriculture minister George Groeneveld said some of these changes happened before he took charge but he agreed with the decision to alter the research focus.
“We are starting to work more with Manitoba and Saskatchewan governments so we are not duplicating and make our dollars go further on the research,” he told reporters Feb. 21 at a Beef Industry Council meeting in Red Deer.
More research is dedicated to biofuel work but he said government regulations such as removing the requirement for kernel visual distinguishability could open the door for new feed barley and wheat registrations. He added the government hopes private industry will fund more wheat and barley research, especially on the malt side.
At the same time, the cattle industry is calling on the federal and provincial governments to spend more on research into feed grain and forages.
Not having higher yielding grain and forage varieties hinders the industry’s ability to compete with the United States and other red meat producing nations, said Rick Burton, vice-chair of Alberta Beef Producers.
ABP has committed long-term funding for feed grain research to develop better producing varieties with industry partners including grain grower organizations.
