Manitoba wheat, barley growers’ first meeting attracts crowd

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Published: March 5, 2015

The Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association may have a long and triumphant existence if its first general meeting is an indicator of things to come.

More than 200 farmers and interested parties packed into a hotel conference room in Winnipeg to attend the Feb. 18 meeting.

Hotel staff had to take down a temporary wall to accommodate the rush of people streaming into the room.

“It’s pretty impressive that at our first AGM we’re already bringing down walls,” said Fred Greig, a farmer from Reston, Man., and vice-chair of the association’s interim board.

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Manitoba producers took longer to organize wheat and barley associations than did their Alberta and Sask-atchewan counterparts in the aftermath of the federal government’s decision to end CWB’s single desk monopoly in 2011.

Alberta and Saskatchewan farmers assembled wheat and barley commissions in 2012 and 2013, which support research and market development for the cereal crops.

Manitoba producers decided to combine the two crops into one entity partly because they wanted to make the association more efficient and increase co-operation between commodity groups.

The association instituted a 52 cent per tonne checkoff for wheat and a 50 cent checkoff for barley last year. Less than three percent of Manitoba growers requested a levy refund in the first year.

Members elected three new directors out of five candidates at the meeting: Dean Harder of Lowe Farm, Robert Misko of Roblin and Drew Baker of Beausejour.

About the author

Robert Arnason

Robert Arnason

Reporter

Robert Arnason is a reporter with The Western Producer and Glacier Farm Media. Since 2008, he has authored nearly 5,000 articles on anything and everything related to Canadian agriculture. He didn’t grow up on a farm, but Robert spent hundreds of days on his uncle’s cattle and grain farm in Manitoba. Robert started his journalism career in Winnipeg as a freelancer, then worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Nipawin, Saskatchewan and Fernie, BC. Robert has a degree in civil engineering from the University of Manitoba and a diploma in LSJF – Long Suffering Jets’ Fan.

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