Voluntary checkoff | Council would provide advice on developing niche markets and products
A national barley council is in the early stages of discussion among farmers and companies that use the grain for food, feed and malt.
Its function would be similar to the Canola Council of Canada or Pulse Canada to promote and research a grain that is losing ground to other commodities, said Rob McCaig, managing director of the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre.
Ten producer and industry groups are involved in the working group that meets monthly either through conference calls or in Winnipeg.
The council could also support barley breeders with funds and advice on how to develop niche markets for malt, feed and food products.
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‘We do not support our variety researchers as well as we should compared to other countries in the world,” said McCaig at the recent Western Barley Growers Association convention in Calgary.
A value chain round table could also step up marketing and development of new products so farmers can make more money, said McCaig.
Funding would come from a voluntary checkoff collected at the point of use so farmers, maltsters and brewers would contribute.
Barley acres are down 20 percent in 20 years, mostly losing out to canola.
“For farmers, cash flow is king,” said Doug Robertson, a member of the working group. He is also president of the barley growers association.
“A lot of people were tired of trying to get selected for malt because they couldn’t get a good price signal coming to them from maltsters, and they couldn’t sign contracts with malt-sters, so that has depressed that acreage,” he said.
He does not see the council as a large physical structure with many employees. Nor would it diminish provincial associations because the working group has been advised to keep these associations strong so farmers continue to be represented.
“We want to have as small a board as possible because the more people you get, the harder it is to make decisions but we want to make sure we have good representation of the industry and the producers,” he said.
Alberta’s strong suit has been barley production, partly because of the strength of the feeding industry.
“In the past, that was the only way we could export barley if we didn’t want to use the board system, was to put it through an animal,” he said.
With barley potentially earning more money for farmers, it could encourage them to lengthen their canola rotations and break the disease cycle that is plaguing the Prairies.
“We all know we have pushed that canola acreage more than we should have. On my own farm I know I am doing it but I have to survive another year,” he said.
