FUNDER FOLLOWS YOUR LEAD
BY IAN DOIG • ILLUSTRATION BY SERENA TANG
Raised on a mixed grain and pig farm in southeast Saskatchewan, a career in agriculture was a foregone conclusion for Wayne Thompson. Although he helped raise the pigs and grow the grain, he has always been preoccupied with the issues farmers face and how they can maintain stable, profitable operations.
The friendships and connections he formed while a student at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture and Bioresources reinforced his early commitment to the farm sector and led him to a job as an agriculture policy economist with the province’s Ministry of Agriculture in 2002. Since leaving government, he has worked for farm organizations, with ag research being top priority since he became executive director of the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) in December 2022.
GrainsWest: In 2014, you began eight years as head of the Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission and later spent two as head of the Flax Council of Canada. What did you take away from your work with that crop?
Wayne Thompson: In the flax sector, it’s important that farmers direct research so they can grow a high quality and profitable crop. It’s also important to bring farmers together with the value chain to understand the needs of the entire sector, because there are a lot of opportunities in the flax industry to increase production and for market development. Similarly, at WGRF, I think about how all these pieces affect the kind of research that’s of interest to farmers.
GW: How did your flax industry work contrast with your time as executive director of Saskatchewan Canola Growers Association from 2008 to 2010?
WT: The focus for the Canola Growers was on policy issues; working to make sure the canola grower voice around policy issues was heard by industry and government, whereas the Flax Commission touched almost every aspect of the flax sector including trade, market development and research.
GW: Flax is a much smaller crop than canola.
WT: Yes. The various canola associations were very good at collaboration, as were the flax organizations. At the time, there were just not as many people to work on the issues faced by the flax industry. While budgets were smaller for flax, the collaborations helped to be effective and build long-term relationships.
GW: How did your flax and canola experience prepare you for WGRF?
WT: With experience in flax and canola and my farming background, that has provided me with experiences and skills to help support research. It’s given me the opportunity to build relationships with farmers, industry, government and understanding of how the agriculture industry works and collaborates, the issues and opportunities and what farmers want.
GW: How does WGRF fit into the big picture of ag research?
WT: WGRF was established in 1981 to direct and fund research that benefits farmers. It has a board of directors made up of farmers from across Western Canada for a broad range of perspectives across several crops. The opportunities for WGRF to collaborate with other producer organizations and governments that fund research has been really valuable.
GW: WGRF funds projects across a range of crops. What is the key to addressing the needs of the industry groups and the farmers who grow them?
WT: It’s important to work with the industry groups to address the diverse range of crops we grow in Western Canada. Those relationships help WGRF understand the needs of the farmers who grow those various crops. It also helps WGRF identify the cross-cutting research opportunities. Because they grow crops in rotation, farmers have a lot of questions about research related to the benefits and drawbacks of various rotations.
They’re thinking about the sustainability and profitability of their farms. That’s part of what WGRF considers when making funding decisions.
GW: What is the focus of WGRF as a research funder?
WT: WGRF funds research in variety development and crop production. It funds research in 16 crops that include barley, canary seed, canola, chickpea, corn, dry beans, faba bean, flax, lentil, mustard, oats, pea, soybean, sunflower, wheat and winter cereals. The diverse research proposals we see and the discussions we have with researchers and our board makes WGRF a fun place to work every single day.
GW: How is the organization itself funded, and how does it go about allocating funds for research projects?
WT: The way it has been funded has changed over the years. It started with an original $9 million fund. That was invested, and returns from the investment funded the research projects. Then, for a while, WGRF was the administrator of the wheat and barley check-off for
Western Canada. Today, WGRF continues to receive returns from that original $9 million and is also the recipient of the Maximum Railway Entitlement. At WGRF, the research committee reviews the letters of intent and research proposals. They determine if the science methodology is good, and if the project results in outcomes that have an impact on the farm. The board takes the research committee recommendations and makes the final funding decisions.
GW: Under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (SCAP) Program, WGRF leads and partially funds the second Integrated Crop Agronomy Cluster, that began April 1, 2023, and runs until March 31, 2028. How does the Cluster advance ag research?
WT: The Integrated Crop Agronomy Cluster was designed to address the interaction of crops within a cropping system. Its development of the cluster was an opportunity to research the benefits of different crop rotations. Also, activities within the cluster support the monitoring and forecasting of weeds on the Prairies.
GW: In June 2024, WGRF invested $1 million in the five-year Diverse Field Crop Cluster. What is the intent and duration of the program, and how will that money be used?
WT: It is one of the clusters under the SCAP. Flax, mustard and sunflowers are the priority-eligible crops for WGRF. The cluster is an important way to carry out research for crops that can be valuable and profitable in a rotation. It’s important for farmers to have information about which crops are a good fit for their rotation.
GW: What additional work does WGRF carry out?
WT: In addition to the research that is funded by WGRF, the extension and communication of those research results to farmers is also important. We do that through conferences, producer meetings and webinars, and we support researchers in the development of websites. We support the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network, which provides farmers with information about insect developments during the growing season as well as monitoring and forecasting insect issues.
We have taken that model and are working with researchers to develop prairieweeds.com and prairiecropdisease.com as additional resources for farmers. We’ve also worked with researchers to develop fieldheroes.ca and provide information to farmers and agronomists about beneficial insects.
GW: What do you hear from farmers and ag organizations about the state of Canadian agriculture research?
WT: Farmers are asking for high-quality research that helps them grow a sustainable and profitable crop. They want information they can use on their farm. For that to take place, the ability to carry out the research is important. They’re looking for places where that research can be done, and they want to be confident they can apply the results to their farm.
GW: What is needed to maintain the good health and vitality of Canadian ag research?
WT: There’s always going to be the need for collaboration between farmers and government. They need to talk about the opportunities for research and identify the needs of the various sectors in the agriculture industry.
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