Growers of winter cereals in Saskatchewan and Manitoba may be asked in a couple of months whether they support a new checkoff to help fund research and market development for their crops.
Garth Butcher, president of Winter Cereals Canada, gave details of the proposed checkoff during Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon last week.
“Producers need some money of their own to promote their industry,” said Butcher, a producer from Birtle, Man. “We can’t sit back and go along for the ride.”
The checkoff would be voluntary and refundable. An amount being considered is 50 cents per tonne, which works out to 1.4 cents per bushel.
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Producers would set the priorities for how the money would be spent, Butcher said. Some possibilities would include agronomic research and crop variety development, as well as market development, and possibly some effort to influence government policy relating to winter cereal growers.
“We’re doing some of that work now but on a limited budget.”
The check-off money could help leverage additional research dollars from government, Butcher said, noting governments tend to look more favourably upon requests for money when producers also are willing to contribute.
The grains targetted for the checkoff would be winter cereals marketed in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, including winter wheat, fall rye and winter triticale.
Winter Cereals Canada is working on the idea of using mail-out ballots to gauge producer sentiments. March is the most likely month when those ballots would go out, since the organization wants to avoid polling producers during the busy seeding season, Butcher said.
Producer Bill Acheson of Somerset, Man., said the benefits of the checkoff would need to flow back to producers. One of his concerns is that producer and public money supports crop variety development, but he sees much of the benefit from that investment going to private industry. He is alarmed at the seed prices farmers now pay.
“I feel sometimes we’re paying for radical research and radical (corporate) profits and that bothers me.”
There already is a checkoff in Alberta on winter wheat. That money is collected mainly on winter wheat handled through elevators, said Butcher.
There also is a 20 cents per tonne checkoff on all wheat grown on the Prairies and handled through the Canadian Wheat Board. The use of that money is directed through the Western Grains Research Foundation.
