Thanks to inflation, what cost a dollar in 1993 costs about $1.20 today.
By that reckoning, research checkoffs being paid by wheat and barley growers are generating about 83 percent of the revenue they did when they were established a decade ago.
The voluntary checkoffs, which are administered by the Western Grains Research Foundation, have remained unchanged for the last 10 years at 20 cents a tonne for wheat and 40 cents a tonne for barley sold through the Canadian Wheat Board.
But those checkoffs will be coming under scrutiny over the next few months, as two external review committees examine the foundation’s operations and future needs.
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“It’s all about looking down the road to see what will be needed and starting to move in that direction,” said Lorence Peterson, the foundation’s executive director.
One committee will focus on wheat and one on barley, and all aspects of the foundation’s operations will be put under the microscope.
“They will be looking at such things as should that level be increased, should there be any change in direction of how it’s used, should the research be broadened beyond varietal research, and so on,” Peterson said.
Each four-member committee will include a farmer, a plant breeder and representatives with expertise in grain quality and future market demands.
The review teams, which have not yet been selected, will work through the winter and submit reports to the foundation’s wheat and barley technical committees.
Peterson said any discussion of a change in the levy rate would include an analysis of whether farmers could afford it and how it might affect the proportion of farmers who opt out of the checkoff.
Five or six percent of eligible farmers opt out each year, representing 10 to 12 percent of the available funds.
Another issue that will be reviewed is whether check-off funds should be used to finance research into feed barley varieties, since virtually all of the checkoff is collected on sales of malting barley.
