GrainsWest Fall 2019

Fall 2019 grainswest.com 9 BY GEOFF GEDDES development through winter wheat’s increased early season competitiveness.” Winter wheat also acts as an ally against certain pests, where farmers will take all the help they can get. “If we move the time of flowering from spring wheat to winter wheat, it doesn’t match up as well with Fusarium head blight and wheat midge timing,” said Boychyn. “Winter wheat adds complexity and diversity to a farming system and decreases the number of potential pest control inputs we need to develop crops. It also brings diversity to the ecosystem, which benefits Alberta as a whole. As well, winter wheat can yield 15 to 40 per cent more than other crops, giv- ing you the potential for higher margins and profits in the right market.” Growing crops in the winter also reduces the risk of erosion from wind and water. MEETINGMILLING NEEDS One sector already sold on winter wheat is the Canadian milling industry, which utilizes it in a range of products including cakes, cookies, crackers and pizza dough. “Millers use a relatively large percentage of winter wheat because of its availability, cost and quality,” said Lisa Nemeth, direc- tor of markets for the Canadian Interna- tional Grains Institute (CIGI). “It’s typical both in Canada and around the world that when you mill, you are blending wheat to achieve the end-flour quality you want at the lowest possible price. Canadian Western Red Spring wheat is the most ex- pensive and has the highest protein levels, so if you don’t require that much protein, you could blend in a more cost-effective option like winter wheat and still meet the end-product needs.” Of course, deriving positive impact from winter wheat requires the critical first step of adding it to the rotation. Mak- ing that prospect more attractive is the focus of the Cereals Canada winter wheat market development committee, which is bringing together winter wheat growing groups from across Western Canada to explore domestic marketing opportunities. “We have met with everyone up the value chain from the farmer such as grain handlers, millers and bakers to gather impressions and interest around leverag- ing the environmental benefits of winter wheat,” said Thoroughgood. Those benefits include providing nest- ing habitats for ducks and other wildlife. Extensive research by Ducks Unlimited indicates that western Canadian winter wheat produces greater nesting success than any other crop type. “Consumers today are looking for those kinds of feel-good environmental stories,” said Ramage. “We think there are oppor- tunities to differentiate and add value to winter wheat through such attributes, us- ing approaches like eco-labelling. It’s rare to have marketing options like this with wheat. It all comes down to whether we can bring the right stakeholders togeth- er across all links of the supply chain to capitalize on this opportunity.” There is much more to be done on this front, but the committee is headed in a productive direction. “We participated in research efforts with three Prairie winter wheat commissions and saw some inter- esting results,” said Thoroughgood. “In focus group work, a third of participants “We have met with everyone up the value chain from the farmer such as grain handlers, millers and bakers to gather impressions and interest around leveraging the environmental benefits of winter wheat.” —Paul Thoroughgood were willing to pay a premium for winter wheat marketed in this way, and the rest would buy it, just not for an added cost. We saw the feedback from the groups as a real positive. I think generating some concrete results for winter wheat will take longer than we hoped as there are a lot of moving parts, but I think we are on the right track.” Cigi also does its part to promote winter wheat through technical support of marketing efforts. If a winter cereals group wants to promote winter wheat, Cigi can provide support by analyzing composite samples and determining its overall quality in a given year. “Those results give us a baseline of quality that we can use to compare with other winter wheat from around the world and under- stand how the Canadian version stacks up to the competition,” said Nemeth. “We also present information on winter wheat to incoming groups so they see where it fits in the portfolio of all wheat classes in Western Canada.” Finding hot prospects for winter wheat is an ongoing challenge, but promoting an increase in demand and total acres may be well worth the effort for farmers, millers and consumers.