Harvest samples The head of the grain commission says the agency wants a closer look at special crops
The Canadian Grain Commission wants more pulse grower participation in its harvest sample program.
“We’re asking for more support from your industry,” chief commissioner Elwin Hermanson told farmers attending Saskatchewan Pulse Growers’ annual meeting.
The program provides producers with a free grade on samples they submit. The commission supplies the bags and pays the postage on the samples.
“It’s a pretty good deal from the Government of Canada,” said Hermanson. “They’re not in that kind of a mood for much of anything else, but in this particular case it’s a heck of a deal.”
Read Also
Federal government supports soil health strategy
Sophie Beecher, director general at Agriculture Canada, said at a soil conference in Winnipeg that the feds support the idea of a national soil health strategy.
The commission graded 399 pea samples from the 2012 harvest, including 343 yellow and 56 green pea samples.
Producers submitted 302 lentil samples: 217 green and 85 red lentil samples. Twenty-nine chickpea samples were received, comprising 27 kabuli and two desi samples.
Samples are used for research and to assess the overall quality of each year’s crop.
“That’s why it’s so important for us to get these,” said Hermanson.
The commission needs at least 50 samples from each class of a crop to generate reliable data, although 100 is preferred. It can conduct regional breakdowns on the data once it receives 300 or more samples.
Hermanson said the commission has been analyzing wheat and canola samples for decades, but it hasn’t done much analysis on special crops and would like to change that.
The program provides valuable information to marketers, customers and growers.
“It just makes marketing your product a little easier and a little simpler and hopefully a little more profitable for you,” he said.
Pulse growers were encouraged to sign up for the program on the commission’s website or by calling its toll-free number.
