Plans to increase the research checkoff on wheat and barley have been put on hold while the Western Grains Research Foundation concentrates on reaching a new funding deal with research organizations in Western Canada.
However, the foundation’s chair said the organization still wants to go ahead with an increase once those agreements have been signed.
“We’ve started the groundwork but we want first of all to get all of the funding agreements in place and then go from there,” said Keith Degenhardt.
He said there seems to be a consensus among the foundation’s member organizations that a check-off increase is in order.
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“We have done some tentative work on it and it’s looking promising,” he added, referring to support for the idea from commodity groups, the Canadian Wheat Board and the federal government.
The checkoffs, which are deducted from wheat board final payments, have remained unchanged at 20 cents a tonne for wheat and 40 cents a tonne for barley since they were introduced 10 years ago.
The plan is to raise each by 10 cents a tonne, putting wheat at 30 cents and barley at 50 cents.
The foundation said the value of the checkoff has eroded significantly during the past decade, losing about 60 to 70 percent of its value to inflation.
Degenhardt acknowledged that concerns have been expressed about raising the checkoff at a time when many grain farmers are facing a cash squeeze.
“There will be many people that will be unhappy if an increase does go forward,” he said. “But the question is, where do we want to be 10 years from now?”
That’s how long it can take to develop a new variety, one that may well put more money into farmers’ pockets and more than repay the investment made through the checkoff.
