It was a story told with casual ease but with a concise purpose.
The story was about a woman who had been a devoted customer of Quaker Oats since her early childhood. She remembered waking in the morning to the smell of hot porridge as it simmered on the stove.
When she grew up and had a child, the woman fed her daughter Quaker Oats, confident of its nutritional value.
But in a letter to Quaker Oats, the woman revealed that she had stopped buying the product due to a startling discovery. She and her daughter had supposedly found a piece of human skin in the cereal while preparing their morning breakfast one day.
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The woman’s daughter was horrified by the discovery and the woman asked Quaker Oats how they could allow a dried slice of human skin into their product. She vowed to sue the company and requested the name of Quaker Oats’ law firm.
As it turned out, the woman had mistaken a barley hull for a thin slice of human skin. But her letter to Quaker Oats revealed how easily a company can lose a customer if there’s any suspicion about the quality of its food products.
Quality is essential
Bruce Roskens shared the story at an oats information day in Brandon, Man., this month. As Quaker’s senior manager of commodity development, he conveyed the message that quality counts.
“You only lose a customer once in the food business – only once.”
Roskens rattled off a list of things that can affect the quality of oats geared for human consumption. The varieties grown, the test weight at harvest and the presence of wild oats and volunteer barley are all things to consider. Roskens also underlined the importance of storing grain in a place that’s free from bird and mouse droppings.
He found an attentive audience in Brandon, since Quaker now buys most of its oats from Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan. Other companies are also in the market for prairie oats suitable for everything from breakfast cereals and nutrition bars through to baby foods and beer.
Farmers wanting to sell oats into those markets were encouraged to look at their crop as something more than an “afterthought crop.
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got,” Roskens advised.
Because different oat varieties mill differently, it’s important to know what varieties customers look for.
Roskens cautioned against blending different varieties or grades. He also advised producers against mixing one year’s crop with another. The quality of oats can change during a year in storage, making it inconsistent with the same variety harvested a year later.
A three-year study is under way to examine things such as when to seed and when to harvest oats. The research is being done by the North Dakota State University, along with Agriculture Canada’s research station at Indian Head, Sask., and its cereal research centre at Winnipeg. Findings from the first year of study suggest early seeding brings higher yields.
That goes against the practice of waiting until wild oats emerge before going onto the field. But Roskens said an earlier-seeded crop can get a head start on wild oats with some promise of an earlier harvest.
Quaker normally wants oats that contain no more than one percent wild oats. That mix can go as high as two percent, but there will be a penalty.
Roskens said producers should not read too much into the three-year study until it’s complete and results are analyzed. He noted, however, that current findings suggest many farmers are costing themselves yield and quality by swathing their crop too soon.
Farmers wanting to grow oats for companies such as Quaker are advised to explore the markets. Through contracts it is possible to lock in prices for at least a portion of the crop.
But farmers need to know what prospective buyers want, said Gregg Downie, a director for the Prairie Oat Growers Association.
“What’s good for Can-Oat may not be good for the guy down the road.”
