EDMONTON – While most farmers have made their plans for seeding, few are planning what their harvest will look like.
The Canadian Grain Commission, however, is thinking a little further ahead. It has been traveling the show circuit this spring asking farmers to send it samples of the grain that comes off their combines this fall.
Community relations officer Dolores Phillips said the commission gathers farmers’ names and addresses and in the fall mails them grain sample envelopes, which the farmers fill and return.
“We gain all kinds of information on the quality of crops,” Phillips said.
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Last year the commission mailed 30,000 envelopes; 5,100 were returned.
“We want it directly off the field to see a true indication of what’s coming off,” said Ken McLean, a grain commission compliance officer.
The survey seven classes of wheat as well as durum, canola, flaxseed, peas, lentils, chickpeas and beans. Data from the tests are posted on the commission’s website.
Marketers and buyers use the information to determine what kinds and quality of crops are grown on the Prairies.
“It provides marketers with a sample of the quality of crop that’s coming off,” McLean said.
