BRANDON, Man. (Staff) – Manitoba’s farm lobby group is still working out the kinks in its new membership fee checkoff.
Keystone Agricultural Producers is now working with feed mills and smaller grain companies to figure out how to efficiently collect the fee.
KAP fees are $107 per year, paid by cheque before Dec. 1, through commodity groups or collected by grain buyers at the rate of one-half of one percent of sales until the full fee is reached.
The group recently agreed to pay members of the Western Grain Elevator Association $5 per paid-up membership at the end of the year.
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KAP president Les Jacobson said many smaller grain buyers are not computerized and face logistical problems in collecting the checkoff.
He said KAP has to decide whether to pay the smaller buyers, as well as commodity groups a $5 fee for their work. Jacobson said he has answered many calls from farmers since August who were surprised to see the checkoff deducted from their payments and wanted to know what KAP is doing for them.
Executive director Craig Douglas warned a meeting of KAP members they should be prepared for questions from new members at district annual meetings held across the province in November.
“We’ve got one chance, in my mind, to tell them what it’s all about,” Craig said.
