Canadian pulse farmers let out a collective sigh of relief when the
United States set crop support levels earlier this year. But they are
starting to hold their breath again.
American senators have blasted the United States Department of
Agriculture for the way it set loan rates under the new farm bill and
are demanding the agency issue new ones more favourable to U.S. pulse
growers.
The USDA established rates of $11.94 US per 100 pounds for lentils,
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$7.56 per cwt. for small chickpeas and $6.33 per cwt. for dry peas.
Those are the exact rates requested by the American pulse industry and
they were passed into law earlier this year.
But the USDA’s rates are for the top grades of those crops, while
Congress wanted them for No. 3 quality lentils and chickpeas and for
feed quality peas.
“Congress passed what the loan rates would be and the USDA took it upon
themselves to kind of adjust those loan rates however they saw fit and
that has upset all of Congress,” said Paul Thomas, executive director
of the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Association.
He said 15 senators sent a tersely worded letter to the USDA last week
telling the department to implement the farm bill legislation as it was
passed and to stop acting as a law-making branch of government. In
particular the senators were mad about how minor oilseeds and pulses
were treated.
It looks as though the letter has already made an impact. Late last
week the USDA announced changes to support rates for durum wheat,
sunflowers and minor oilseeds.
It raised the support rates for most of the minor oilseeds and switched
to a single rate for sunflowers, as requested by the senators. The USDA
will be announcing new loan rates for corn, sorghum, soybeans and
pulses early next year.
Thomas is confident the intent of Congress will be followed when those
new pulse loan rates are announced.
If that happens, it could threaten the Canadian pulse industry, said
Saskatchewan Pulse Growers chair Glenn Annand.
“The loan rate might pay them more than what the world market will be,
and that has got to be bad for us.”
He said the original rates implemented by the USDA were neutral. In
fact, they didn’t trigger any payments for American pea and chickpea
growers in 2002.
Lentil growers, on the other hand, got $3.2 million and could be in
line for a lot more money if the rates are based on No. 3 quality
crops, said Annand.
He said there will be a strong incentive for American farmers to
produce small green lentils, which are a high volume, low value crop.
They won’t have to worry about the low value aspect of that type of
lentil with the floor price that is being proposed.
“That market is not a real large market so it could easily flood it,”
said Annand.
Saskatchewan Pulse Growers executive director Garth Patterson said $3.2
million in payments is a drop in the bucket compared to Canada’s pulse
sector, which he estimates will generate $500-$600 million for farmers
this year.
But he too worries that revisions to the program will eventually cause
a big surge in North Dakota’s pulse acres. That’s why the grower
organization feels it is crucial to invest heavily in research and
development so Canadian farmers can get the best seed and technology
before their American counterparts.
“That’s really going to be our strategy – stay ahead,” said Patterson.
