A potential settlement between Canadian National Railway and the Teamsters union is one worry off Kent Erickson’s mind.
The chair of the fledgling Alberta Wheat Commission says he can now concentrate on developing and implementing policies and priorities.
“Obviously, our two key priorities for the wheat commission are re-search and market development. Communication would be our next pillar,” Erickson said.
“Being fairly new … we’re trying to get an identity and make sure people know that the commission is there and what we’re about.”
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The commission, which was formed slightly more than a year ago, is now fully staffed and guided by a farmer board of directors.
“We’re really kind of building a framework of how to run, and so there’s some challenges, but when it comes down to policy and comes down to programs, our board and our staff are really solid.”
Erickson said wheat research is one of the main priorities.
Declining government support for agricultural research is a concern, so the commission and other organizations will need to make financial commitments that keep existing crop breeding and agronomic research programs operating.
Erickson said the commission is concentrating on supporting basic and traditional plant breeding research at Alberta’s federal and provincial research facilities.
Cereals Canada is expected to help the commission and other organizations maintain and develop markets for wheat.
“A lot of our attention is going to be trying to get that up and running and really help them promote our wheat internationally to end users,” he said.
“One of the things that farmers are going to have to really figure out is how we’re going to promote our wheat domestically and in the international market.”
He said the former incarnation of the Canadian Wheat Board emphasized Canada’s high quality wheat, and subsequent promotion will have to go further.
“There’s a need to make sure that we have not only high quality wheat but the mid and low quality wheats for all the different markets.”
Recent commodity price reductions don’t particularly worry Erickson, who said futures haven’t dropped substantially and the basis should improve once the grain shipping backlog is handled.
As well, he said it only takes news of wheat crop problems elsewhere in the world to affect prices. For example, last week’s news about potential damage to U.S. winter wheat crops gave markets a boost.
“That really shows that people are watching the world markets, and it means that there’s still opportunities for bull rallies.”
Plenty of competition exists for acres, with growing interest among prairie farmers in corn, soybeans and the standbys of pulses and canola.
However, Erickson thinks wheat will hold its own because farmers will pay attention to rotations. He and his father maintain an eight-year rotation on their farm near Irma, he said.
“A good rotation means a very level and fairly even dispersion of acreage across Western Canada, and I would hope that people would rely on crop rotations and good management practices to make decisions.”
