Winter
2016
grainswest.com
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and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and
Canterra Seeds to bring new Canada
Prairie Spring Red varieties to market.
In addition, commission staff members
do their part to maximize producer
dollars by working together on research,
policy and market development
initiatives.
Initiatives led by the management
teams are often collaborative amongst
commissions. Alberta Barley and AWC
share an office space, which makes
working together that much easier.
One of the key successes of the
commissions’ joint activities has been
the recent Team Alberta lobby mission
in Ottawa. Staff and board members
met with all political parties, outlining
key priorities to ensure Alberta farmers’
voices are heard loud and clear in the
nation’s capital—communicating what
is important back at the farm gate. The
ACE program, Alberta Crops Extension,
is another ongoing collaboration run
in part by all four crops commissions
(including the Alberta Pulse Growers
Commission (APG) and the Alberta
Canola Producers Commission) to host
crop walks and maintain extension work
for farmers.
“When you have as many initiatives
as we do at Alberta Barley, it makes our
voice that much stronger when we can
strategically partner with other groups
in the industry,” said Mike Ammeter,
chairman of Alberta Barley and region
three director-at-large. Ammeter and his
wife Allison (APG chair) farm near Sylvan
Lake in Central Alberta.
“If you try to go it alone in agriculture,
it’s too big of a nut to crack on your
own,” said Ammeter. “You’re better
off working with other people. As you
combine ideas and research, crossover
becomes invaluable.”
Ammeter has seen the volume of
work a group faces when it branches
out on its own, and sees the truth in the
“many hands make light work” mantra,
especially in agriculture policy, market
development and research.
In addition to the work that the two
commissions do on behalf of their farmer
members, the Western Wheat and
Barley Check-off (WWBC), also known as
the Western Canadian Deduction, is also
managed in house by the accounting
staff— for a fee—saving producers
administrative overhead by centralizing
operations.
The WWBC is a temporary, five-year
transitional program initiated by the
federal government and administered
by Alberta Barley. The program will
remain in place while western Canadian
provincial wheat and barley commissions
transition into new research and market
development models.
Levies are collected from the WWBC
across the Prairies and shown on a
farmer’s cash purchase ticket at the
point of sale from Canadian Grain
Commission-licensed grain buyers, and
the funds are distributed to well-known
western Canadian organizations: the
Western Grains Research Foundation
(WGRF) at $0.30 a tonne for wheat
and $0.50 a tonne for barley from
Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and
separate funding to the Field Crop
Development Centre at Lacombe
from Alberta Barley, the Canadian
International Grains Institute (Cigi)
at $0.15 a tonne for wheat and the
Canadian Malting Barley Technical
Centre (CMBTC) at $0.03 a tonne for
barley.
More than 200 varieties have been
created since 1995 through WWBC
funding, giving farmers the competitive
edge they need in world markets.
“The WWBC is a great example of
us being masters of our own destiny,”
Ammeter said of the recipient groups.
“Things don’t just fall from the sky.
Markets don’t just appear and you do
not simply find new varieties growing in
the back 40 overnight.”
Ammeter pointed to competition
on a global grain scale to underline his
belief in “beating the street” to bring
awareness and interest to Alberta’s—and
Canada’s—top-quality products, done
in part by the crop commissions pushing
the local agriculture agenda forward.
The levy ensures work is carried out to
develop new, profitable varieties, as well
as to promote cereals around the world
and develop new markets for western
Canadian farmers.
“One of the reasons Alberta’s grain
and farming practices are recognized
is because of the hard work the
commissions do on behalf of farmers,”
said Erickson. “Without them, we’d be
lost.”
HARD AT WORK:
The Alberta Wheat
Commission meets regularly throughout
the year to discuss policy, research, market
development and communications.
