A former chief grain inspector, a retired grain company executive and a farmer have come up with 19 ways the industry can keep deer excrement in feed barley from soiling Canada’s export reputation.
It is now up to the industry whether to follow the recommendations or flush them away.
After two months of interviews and study, Henry Fast, Wally Madill and Dave Sefton say changing grades for barley or adding new regulations won’t solve the problem.
Rather, each player in the export system, from farmers to elevators to terminals and the wheat board must learn to trust each other, co-operate and discuss issues.
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Madill said “nobody … or perhaps everybody” is at fault for the mess deer manure made in feed barley exports this year.
“Put simply, people have to start talking to each other,” he said.
The panel proposed a broad-based operational committee to foster communication.
Japanese customers rejected two shiploads of feed barley last winter when they found deer excrement in the holds.
The Canadian Wheat Board is still trying to resolve the issue with the customers and other players involved.
Since then, the Canadian Grain Commission proposed a tolerance level of 0.0005 percent, or one pellet of excrement in 40 kilograms of cleaned grain. Grain with higher levels should have a separate grade, said the commission.
Too hard to test
But the committee rejected the idea because there’s no practical, accurate way to determine the amount of excrement in grain. Fast said four tonnes of grain would have to be sampled out of a rail car load to determine whether it met the 0.0005 percent tolerance level.
The trio recommends a “reasonable” visual tolerance level, to be negotiated with industry players.
Provincial governments need to do a better job explaining their compensation packages for wildlife damage to crops, and to make sure compensation is fair.
If farmers decide to take deer-damaged barley to the elevator, managers should be able to reject loads or charge for extra cleaning, keeping the barley segregated.
To improve accountability, the committee also said feed barley rail cars should no longer be pooled in Vancouver. Contaminated cars could then be traced back to their source.
Madill admitted this could make the system less efficient, but said the costs would be far less than what is being incurred now.
About 700,000 tonnes of feed barley go through Vancouver, out of a total 17 million tonnes of grain handled there.
Terminals should be able to reject cars with excrement, or charge more for cleaning the grain, said the committee. Inland terminals should clean more of the grain to reduce pressure on the port terminals.
And the wheat board should accept primary responsibility for solving its customers’ problems, said the committee.
