The Canadian Wheat Board defended its producer survey last week, after a prairie farm group said the annual poll produced skewed results.
The Western Barley Growers Association said the survey is flawed as a strategic planning tool because it includes only CWB permit holders.
As a result, the board is hearing primarily from its supporters, said WBGA president Brian Otto.
“If the CWB wants farmers’ views to assist in future business decisions, they need to change the survey,” he said.
“This is not in the best interests of the CWB nor the farmers it represents.”
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The association also said Alberta farmers are under-represented and older, smaller farmers are over-represented in the survey sample.
The CWB has been hiring professional pollsters to conduct an annual opinion survey of permit book holders since an elected board of directors was put in place 10 years ago.
The results of the surveys, designed to guide the agency’s internal strategic planning, were kept confidential until three years ago, when the board began to release them publicly.
CWB spokesperson Maureen Fitzhenry said the survey is one of many tools the agency uses to assess farmer opinion, design programs and plan for the future.
“The whole point is to try to get each year as accurate a picture as possible of what farmers are thinking,” she said.
Others tools include feedback from farmers at meetings and events, direct contact between individual farmers and directors, focus groups, an annual farmer satisfaction survey and advice from outside consultants. Those include opinions from farmers without permit books, she said.
Otto said if farmers without permit books were included in the survey, some of the results could be different, especially on questions relating to single desk marketing.
“If all farmers were given a voice in proportion to provincial production, those favouring an open market in barley would be more than the 60 percent shown by the current survey.”
