The grain industry is adopting a zero tolerance for grain contaminated with deer excrement.
An order will be issued this week by the Canadian Grain Commission prohibiting country elevators from accepting the delivery of any barley or wheat with visible deer poop.
The decision was made following a grain commission-sponsored meeting last week involving about 20 representatives from producer groups, country and terminal elevators and the Canadian Wheat Board.
Previously, country elevators had been prohibited from shipping contaminated grain. They were given the option of rejecting it, or accepting it and trying to clean it.
Read Also
Manitoba beekeepers battle for survival
Honeybee colony losses have hit 43 per cent, making 2025 the latest in a string of poor bee survival years for Manitoba’s honey producers
But CGC spokesperson Tom Askin said the consensus at the meeting was that that wasn’t good enough.
“There was concern that wasn’t sending a strong enough message to farmers,” he said in an interview June 8.
The decision to adopt zero tolerance goes further than the recommendations of a special committee, which studied the issue for the commission this spring. It recommended that elevator agents have the discretion to reject severely contaminated loads, or accept them, segregate them and assess a special charge for cleaning.
The commission will also issue a directive to terminal elevator operators that if any deer excrement is detected in a shipment arriving at port, it must be immediately put into a separate bin. Then it must either be cleaned to the satisfaction of everyone involved or sold back into the domestic market.
“We expect there is still some in the system that will be showing up for a while,” Askin said.
Deer poop became a high profile issue this winter when two boatloads of contaminated feed barley were shipped to Japan. The shipments were cleaned and eventually accepted, but the incident raised concerns among other customers over the quality of Canadian feed barley.
Gord Flaten, director of market development for the CWB, said the board believes the new rules will accomplish the industry’s goal of keeping excrement out of export cargoes: “In order to have zero tolerance in exports, which is what everybody wants, it was felt necessary to have zero tolerance at the country elevator.”
He said improved sampling and rigorous inspection at terminal elevators have prevented further incidents.
The commission is preparing an information package to be sent to farmers advising them on ways to prevent contamination and informing them about the new rules.
