In a note pinned to the top of the program’s official website, the CGC noted that the strike was causing mail delays with the program.

Farmers were urged to, if possible, deliver their samples directly to the CGC, either at their head office in downtown Winnipeg, another CGC office or service centre, or another approved drop off site.

Service centres are located in British Columbia (Prince Rupert), Alberta (Calgary); Saskatchewan (Saskatoon and Weyburn), Manitoba (Churchill), Ontario (Thunder Bay and Hamilton) and Québec (Baie-Comeau and Québec City). Western and eastern regional offices can be found in Vancouver and Montréal, respectively. A full list, phone numbers and addresses can be found on the CGC’s webpage through the Government of Canada website.

“Please contact the office or service centre you’re visiting to confirm they have a sample drop off box available,” the website advises.

Besides CGC offices, drop off sites have been arranged at the following locations:

• BroadGrain Commodities Inc. – Dafoe, Sask.
• Bunge – Lethbridge County, Alta.
• All Paterson Grain elevators in Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba
• Sakai Spice – Lethbridge, Alta.

Farmers may also choose to keep their sample until the strike ends, the CGC said.

On Oct. 10, Canada Post said that mail service would resume after the Thanksgiving long weekend, as they moved to rotating, rather than nationwide, strikes.

The last day to mail samples is Nov. 30, 2025. Dec. 31, 2025 is the last day for any samples to be included in this year’s Harvest Sample Program.

Testing for quality

The cross-country Harvest Sample Program is a voluntary initiative for testing a host of quality factors across a range of crops.

For each sample, inspectors provide unofficial grade and quality results at no charge, including:

• Falling number for wheat and rye,
• Vomitoxin (deoxynivalenol or DON) levels for wheat, corn, barley and oats,
• Dockage assessment on canola and mustard seed,
• Protein content on barley, beans, chickpeas, lentils, oats, peas and wheat,
• Oil, protein and chlorophyll content for canola,
• Oil and protein content and iodine value for flaxseed, and
• Oil and protein for mustard seed and soybeans.

A CGC inspection supervisor said producer participants appear to be taking the inconvenience in stride.

“There hasn’t been a lot of complaints or anything. I haven’t heard one complaint,” said Judy Elias with the Weyburn, Sask., service centre.

“We’re all used to strikes, so there’s just new ways to do old business.”

The post Mail strike disrupts grain sample delivery appeared first on Grainews.

Grainews will continue to bring you the stories you’ve come to expect through our e-newsletter and digital editions while we wait for postal deliveries to be restored. Look to our e-newsletters for the latest developments in this dispute and how it affects your delivery services.

In the meantime, you can access the digital version of your print editions.

If you have questions, please call our toll-free customer service line at 1-800-665-1362.

Dave Bedard

Editor, Grainews

The post Where to get Grainews during a Canada Post strike appeared first on Grainews.

“We are doing everything we can to make sure Canadian farmers can continue to access their agricultural news and production information during the mail service disruption,” said Laura Rance-Unger, Glacier FarmMedia executive editor.

Our digital editions are now freely available online. You can access them here.

You can select the edition you want to review and click on that link, then on the front page of the publication that appears. A reader will then open and you will have access to the full publication, and the ability to turn virtual pages. When you see a story you want to read, click on it and a reader window will open. When you’re done reading the story, click on the close button at the top right, and you’ll be back to the same edition.

In the event of a prolonged mail disruption, we will look to make physical copies of Grainews available for free pickup at designated locations. We will provide specific locations as they become available on the Grainews digital edition page.

The post Find your ag news during the mail strike appeared first on Grainews.