Country elevators will no longer accept barley containing deer droppings.
The Canadian Grain Commission announced last week that it and the grain industry have agreed on a zero-tolerance policy for deer, elk and moose manure.
“The zero-tolerance policy represents an industry-producer group consensus that we are all accountable for maintaining Canada’s quality assurance system,” said Barry Senft, chief commissioner of the CGC, in a news release.
“Managers will try to help producers find other markets for their barley if it has visible deer excreta, but it will not be permitted into the handling system.”
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Previously, elevator managers were not required to turn away soiled barley.
Also from now on, if deer droppings are found in rail cars at port terminals, the barley will have to be segregated and the shipper will have to find a domestic market for it and assume the costs of doing so. It will not be exported.
The new regulations are being implemented to preserve the reputation of Canadian grain that was sullied last year when several shipments were found to contain deer droppings.
Tom Askin, CGC manager of policy and planning, said an interim terminal monitoring program had been used since the initial problem.
“Since the two cargoes that we had complaints about from Japan, we’ve shipped nine more cargoes without complaint,” he said in an interview.
“We are talking about keeping the same kind of checking at the spout at the terminal, but also doing more to prevent the excreta from getting into the system in the first place.”
A Barley Cleanliness Committee that reported on the issue in May made other recommendations about protecting the integrity of Canadian grain. These recommendations, such as no longer pooling feed barley cars at port, were not acted on because the industry thinks the droppings issue alone doesn’t warrant such a major change, Askin said.
The CGC has agreed to establish a group representing the Canadian Wheat Board, terminal elevator operators and the CGC to discuss a protocol for detection of deer excreta in and out of terminals.
Since the problem arose, CGC inspectors have been going into ship holds, visually checking and probing for manure, he said.
A protocol will set out how often the check should be done and other details.
Also, a system for checking rail cars will be developed.
“As you can imagine, it is a lot easier to separate them out and prevent a problem on ship if you can identify it coming in,” Askin said.
