“This is about fairness and alignment,” said Trevor Welch, chair of the Canadian Beef Check-Off Agency in a June 24 news release.

The rule change applies to all interprovincial sales, including auction markets, dealers and direct farm-gate transactions,t he agency said.

The change also affects remittance chains, especially for auction marts, dealers and processors. These will have to adjust how they identify and apply check-off rates.

The agency said these changes will support compliance, consistency and transparency in the system. It will also ensure “the right amount of producer dollars stay in their home province, supporting provincial priorities.”

“Producers, provincial cattle associations and other stakeholders have been asking for a more consistent system that reflects their home province’s priorities, especially as interprovincial marketing and transport becomes more common,” Welch said.

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SaskCanola and SaskFlax said Wednesday their new “management collaboration” will translate to efficiencies for both commissions with “a full staff complement to support both boards.”

Both organizations will now operate out of the current SaskCanola office at Innovation Place, a research and technology park next to the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon.

SaskCanola’s current executive director Tracy Broughton will manage both organizations as their new exec.

The two organizations emphasized they maintain their separate boards of directors and governance structures under the new collaboration, and canola and flax levies will still be collected separately.

“Finding administrative and operational efficiencies within our industry ensures that growers’ levy dollars are put to the best use,” SaskFlax board chair Greg Sundquist of Watrous said in a joint release.

“Our commissions were created with similar mandates and key focus areas — research, extension and market development. We are excited about the opportunities this arrangement brings to oilseed growers.”

“A lot of flax growers in our province are also going to have canola in their rotation, so it makes sense,” SaskCanola board chair Charlene Bradley of Stranraer added in the same release.

The new arrangement removes a question mark over the management of SaskFlax, which in late August put out a call with the Flax Council of Canada seeking a joint executive director for SaskFlax and president for the council, with a deadline of Oct. 21.

A SaskCanola representative said Thursday the Flax Council of Canada is not involved in the SaskCanola/SaskFlax arrangement.

SaskCanola, set up in 1991, is a farmer-led, levy-supported organization backing research, advocacy and market development work, while SaskFlax, operating since 1996, supports research and market development through checkoffs on flaxseed and flax straw. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) announced Monday it now has its designation under the provincial Agricultural Producers’ Organization Funding Act. The designation allows the new organization to collect mandatory-yet-refundable checkoffs on all sales of spring wheat, winter wheat, barley, sunflowers, corn and flax.

The amounts of the checkoffs are “unchanged to what was in place with the five amalgamating organizations” — the National Sunflower Association of Canada, Manitoba Corn Growers Association, Manitoba Flax Growers Association and Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association and Winter Cereals Manitoba.

MCA applied in February for the designation regulation from the Manitoba Farm Products Marketing Council, following votes by the five groups’ memberships during annual general and special meetings at the CropConnect Conference in Winnipeg.

Also effective Aug. 1, Manitoba Corn Growers Association and Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association general manager Pam de Rocquigny will be the MCA’s CEO, and National Sunflower Association of Canada and Winter Cereals Manitoba executive director Darcelle Graham becomes the new group’s chief operating officer.

MCA said its new checkoffs will be invested in three main areas, making up 86 per cent of MCA’s total budget: research and production; market access and development; and communication and advocacy.

“Each dollar spent in these areas is an investment from Manitoba farmers which helps to make wheat (spring and winter), barley, sunflower, corn, and flax profitable production choices for Manitoba farmers,” MCA said in a release.

Checkoff-funded initiatives “will also work to maintain and continuously improve the competitiveness of these crops both domestically and internationally.”

MCA also said Monday that its new website will go live Aug. 4. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Producers at the Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO) annual meeting in Mississauga on Wednesday voted 87 per cent in favour of the plan. A similar plan was rejected at last year’s annual meeting. As a constitutional change was needed, a two-thirds majority had to approve of the change.

Why it matters: The beef sector has been stagnant or declining in Ontario for years. It is hoped an increase in marketing, tied to the Ontario Corn Fed Beef Program’s successful history, can change that.

Joe Hill, who was returned as chair of the BFO at the annual meeting, said the proposal was well thought-out and was the best hope of increasing value in the Ontario beef sector.

“Today is the day to fund it and bring it to life,” he said in making a plea for the approval of the increased checkoff.

Producers heard his request, but it was not a new story for them. After last year’s failure to fund what was called the Regional Marketing Initiative, BFO staff and directors provided extensive opportunity for beef farmer delegates to learn about the proposal during numerous meetings across the province.

That extra explanation seemed to work as the mood in the room at the annual general meeting of the organization was more positive towards the proposal than it was a year ago. That showed in the questions and statements of support before voting.

“We have to try it. I have to trust the people that the people who have been appointed will do their best,” said Stewart Cressman, a Waterloo County beef farmer.

The proposal was different this year with more details on how the program will be managed. A marketing committee has been formed of members of BFO and the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association, led by OCA executive director Jim Clark.

The OCA’s 20-year-old Corn Fed Beef Program now accounts for 30-40 per cent of all cattle processed in the province and has achieved market penetration into many major supermarket chains and also into targeted markets in Asia and the Middle East.

The goal is to use the branding experience of the CFBP to drive more demand and eventually grow the sector, especially the number of cow-calf operations in the province.

“Outcomes have to benefit our beef producers from top and bottom,” said Clark at the BFO meeting. “BFO and Cattle Feeders have to develop a process that works.”

Beef farmers in Ontario have challenges others in Canada do not, such as being the landing place of 85 per cent of imports from the U.S. and with ready large markets nearby. Cow numbers have declined over the past 10 years, with a stabilizing of numbers in the past three years.

— John Greig is editor of Farmtario at Ailsa Craig, Ont. Follow him at @jgreig on Twitter.

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Out of 1,874 votes cast, 962 votes, or 51.3 per cent, fell in favour of a refundable service charge model, with 908 for a non-refundable model and four ballots spoiled, according to the preliminary figures from the Alberta Agricultural Products Marketing Council, which conducted the vote.

Alberta Beef Producers (ABP), which collects a checkoff on cattle sales in the province, has been required to refund producers’ checkoff funds on request since 2009, when Ed Stelmach’s Tory government required any Alberta agricultural commission to refund checkoff dollars to a member upon his or her request.

The current NDP government last year blunted that legislation’s effect when it granted each of the province’s 13 ag commissions the ability to determine whether their respective checkoffs should be refundable or non-refundable.

“Our government felt it was important to empower producers to make this choice for themselves,” Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier said in a statement Monday.

The AAPMC this fall held plebiscites for the Alberta Beef Producers and Potato Growers of Alberta on the refundability of their respective service charges. In the PGA plebiscite, 82 per cent of votes favoured of a non-refundable service charge model, Carlier noted.

The ABP plebiscite, which originally was to run from Oct. 19 to Nov. 13, was later extended to Nov. 27, as producers cited “challenging” weather conditions which led to delays in harvesting and other fall farm work.

ABP, in a release Monday, noted the results of the plebiscite can be contested by challenging the voting process to the returning officer before Dec. 11 — but the organization also said it “intends to abide by this decision of producers.”

“In a democracy, decisions are made by the people who participate and as we’ve said all along, (ABP) will honour the decision made by producers and the service charge will remain refundable,” ABP chair Charlie Christie said.

“While we wish the results were in favour of a non-refundable service charge and would have liked to see a higher voter turnout, (the Alberta Cattle Feeders Association) respects the decision of producers that voted,” ACFA chair Ryan Kasko said in the same release.

“We will continue to work hard to strengthen industry collaboration and create efficiencies regardless of the outcome.”

If Dec. 11 passes with no contests, the results of the vote will then be made official, the province said Monday.

Since 2009, ABP said, it has received “many” resolutions from producers at fall meetings and ABP delegates at general meetings pressing for a non-refundable service charge.

ABP and ACFA had reached an agreement earlier this year to support a checkoff plebiscite, on the condition that part of a non-refundable checkoff would go to create an industry development fund. A non-refundable checkoff had been expected to make $1.4 million available for such a fund.

As it is, producers will continue to pay service charges but retain the ability to request refunds. It’s recently been estimated that from what it collects each year in service charges on cattle sales, ABP refunds about a third, or $2 million, mainly to cattle feeders. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Why it matters: Beef Farmers of Ontario pulled from its reserves to fund at close-to $1 million deficit in 2017 and was planning to do the same in 2018 in anticipation of the $1.50 per head increase in checkoff being approved. The loss of the increased provincial checkoff will have national implications as Ontario has been slow to approve a new national agreement and increased checkoff.

“We’re simply not going to be able to draw down on our reserves as fast,” said Joe Hill, the newly elected president of Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO). “We’re going to have to realign our budget, going to have some hard decisions around what our priorities are for spending and what it ultimately means is we’re going to have to take money from some areas where we’re going to have less focus and put it into areas where we have more focus so we can come back with a closer to balanced budget so we can keep going for the next couple of years.”

BFO’s board wanted the increase in provincial checkoff funds in order to pay for an expanded role in marketing and communications in order to try to stem the constriction of the Ontario beef industry and replace some of the $530 million in yearly beef imports from the U.S. that come into the province.

A provincial checkoff increase beyond the current $3 per head required a constitutional change for BFO, which meant provincial consultations and a two-thirds approval from farmers delegates at an annual meeting.

When it came to a vote of its delegates to the BFO annual meeting recently in Mississauga, the result was 61 per cent in favor, short of the 66 per cent support required for the constitutional change.

Most of the new money would have gone to the BFO’s Regional Marketing Initiative which invests in branded Ontario beef marketing initiatives. In the past year there were nine projects approved worth $390,000, with $148,000 invested by BFO, including projects such as:

• Flanagan Food Service developed a premium Ontario Beef private label brand called Carve.
• Norwich Packers created a grass-fed beef program.
• Ryding Regency developed a program for beef from cattle that hadn’t been treated with hormones.

“When you have a stake in the game you have the ability to have a say in how things are done,” said John Baker, the program manager for the Regional Marketing Initiative.

National beef politics also in play

Ontario has been slow to approve a new national agreement with the Canadian Beef Cattle Check-Off Agency that’s been approved by the rest of the provinces in the country. There is also a debate over an increase to the national checkoff which would also mean an increase to $2.50 per head checkoff versus the current $1.

Beef farmers at the BFO annual meeting voted to continue discussion of the increase in national checkoff. It would require a vote at next year’s annual meeting.

An import levy equivalent to the per-head checkoff also applies to beef imported into the country, and as a result, national funds that come back to the province can only be used for generic promotion of beef versus branded products or import replacement – the aim of the Ontario Regional Marketing Initiative.

When it comes to signing the national agreement on collection of the levy, Hill says the BFO board isn’t yet convinced there’s enough value for beef farmers in Ontario from an increase in the national agreement, although he says the wording of the agreement is mostly finalized.

“The national industry tends to be fairly western-oriented,” says Hill. “Arguably 80 per cent of the beef is from Western Canada, so it’s to be expected, but for the Ontario industry to really survive we’ve got to find some value adding in there, which we aren’t seeing from our national organization yet.”

It all comes down to the market. A large volume of Western Canadian beef is exported, whereas there are significant urban markets in Ontario currently underserved by Canadian beef. Eighty-five per cent of beef imports from the U.S. come into Ontario totalling more than $530 million each year, says Jim Clark, executive director of the Ontario Corn Fed Beef Program.

Beef farmers passed a resolution at the annual meeting that encourages the board of directors to get the national agreement finalized.

“We’ve been working at this for the last number of years,” said Larry Jinkerson, who moved the motion to approve the resolution. “It’s time to get on with it and get it signed. We’re the only province not on board.”

— John Greig is a field editor for Glacier FarmMedia based at Ailsa Craig, Ont. Follow him on Twitter at @jgreig.

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The Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association (MWBGA) on Wednesday announced that when the Western Canadian Deduction (WCD) on wheat and barley sunsets on July 31, the association’s new single checkoffs will be $1 per tonne for spring wheat and $1.06 per tonne for barley, effective Aug. 1.

The MWBGA checkoffs will combine the association’s own checkoffs with the WCD — a separate levy which, until July 31, is charged at 48 cents per tonne on sales of spring wheat and 56 cents per tonne on barley.

The WCD checkoffs were set up by the federal government in 2012 as a transition move following its deregulation of the CWB’s single marketing desk for Prairie wheat and barley, to support the Western Grains Research Foundation, the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre and Cigi, the Canadian International Grains Institute.

Funding the association’s own work, along with the obligations covered until the end of this month by the WCD, a single checkoff is expected to “improve efficiency and effectiveness at no extra cost to farmers,” the MWBGA said in a release.

For its part, the regulatory amendment submitted to the province, following a resolution at the association’s annual meeting earlier this year, “will allow MWBGA to continue providing leadership for continuity of funding to wheat and barley variety development, as well as tackle other important research- and market development-related questions,” chairman Fred Greig said in Wednesday’s release.

Alberta’s and Saskatchewan’s spring wheat and barley commissions have also received amendments for their own respective single checkoffs once the WCD ends, MWBGA noted.

Sask Wheat had previously announced it would set its single checkoff on spring wheat, starting Aug. 1, at $1 per tonne, as per a resolution by Saskatchewan wheat growers earlier this year emphasizing that they “will face no net increase in checkoffs.”

Sask Barley also previously announced its single checkoff, starting Aug. 1, will be maintained at $1.06 per tonne.

The Alberta Wheat Commission also already announced plans to set a single checkoff, at $1.09 per tonne on wheat, starting Aug. 1.

That’s down from the combined AWC and WCD levies of $1.18 per tonne, “consolidating all current AWC programs and WCD obligations in a model directly accountable to Alberta farmers,” the commission said.

Alberta Barley’s levy starting Aug. 1 will be $1.20 per tonne, applying to Alberta sales of “every type” of barley, including feed, malt, food and other uses.

Winter Cereals Manitoba and the Saskatchewan Winter Cereals Development Commission, which currently administer their individual 50-cent per tonne checkoffs on winter wheat sales, have also received regulatory amendments to move to a single checkoff on winter wheat, MWBGA noted Wednesday. — AGCanada.com Network

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Cigi, the Canadian International Grains Institute, on Tuesday announced the new funding model, plus a new governance model setting up a new 10-member board of directors representing its sponsor organizations.

Winnipeg-based Cigi said the new funding formula will see the three wheat commissions and seven grain firms provide $7.7 million over the next two years, representing the institute’s “core funding.”

The seven grain firms supporting Cigi will include:

• privately-held Winnipeg grain companies Richardson International, Paterson Grain and Parrish and Heimbecker;
• Viterra, the Canadian grain arm of commodity firm Glencore;
• the Canadian arm of U.S. agrifood firm Cargill;
• G3 Canada, the privatized former Canadian Wheat Board (CWB); and
• five farmer-owned grain terminal companies in Saskatchewan and Alberta, represented by the Inland Terminal Association of Canada.

The Alberta Wheat Commission, Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission and the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association will provide their shares of Cigi funding through their respective wheat checkoffs.

According to the wheat commissions in a separate statement, Cigi has asked the three commissions for funding that matches grain industry contributions over the next two crop years.

The commissions’ funding for Cigi replaces farmer checkoff funding the institute received through the Western Canadian Deduction. That checkoff, set up in 2012 by then-federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz following the deregulation of the CWB, sunsets on July 31, Cigi noted Tuesday.

“Today’s announcement represents the culmination of months of consultations involving the value chain,” JoAnne Buth, Cigi’s CEO since 2014, said in a release Tuesday. “We are extremely pleased that the provincial wheat commissions and the grain companies and handlers developed a consensus on a sustainable funding and governance model for Cigi.”

Where Cigi’s board had previously reflected its founding organizations, with members from the federal government, CWB and Canadian Grain Commission, the institute in 2013 reworked its governance to include representation from farmers as well as exporters, processors and others in the industry.

Under the latest funding and governance model, however, the first board will include five representatives from the wheat commissions and five representatives from the grain handler/exporter sector, elected June 29 at Cigi’s annual meeting.

Kevin Bender, a Sylvan Lake, Alta. farmer and the Alberta Wheat Commission’s vice-chair, will chair Cigi’s new board. Brent Watchorn, Richardson International’s executive vice-president for marketing, will be the new board’s vice-chair, while Jim Smolik, head of corporate affairs for Cargill Canada, will be board secretary.

New board members also include Drew Baker of the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association; Bill Gehl and Harvey Brooks of the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission;  Gary Stanford of the Alberta Wheat Commission; Trent Rude of Viterra; Jean-Marc Ruest of Richardson International; and (unavailable for the photo above) Ward Weisensel of G3 Canada.

Three previous Cigi board members, including chair Murdoch MacKay and directors Henry Van Ankum and Lawrence Yakielashek, will remain with the board as observers “to provide continuity during the transition,” Cigi said.

Randy Johner and Jim Wilson, farmer members of Cigi’s previous board, will retire as directors.

Bender, in Tuesday’s release, hailed the outgoing board members’ “foresight and determination… in guiding Cigi through a period of significant industry change.”

The new board, he said, comes to an organization with “a long and distinguished history of working on behalf of farmers and industry to promote and demonstrate the quality and functionality of Canadian grain in international markets.”

Cigi, set up as a not-for-profit body in 1972 with federal government and farmer funding via the CWB, is now billed as an independent organization working with field crop value chains in Canada and internationally.

The institute today provides applied research, training and technical support services to drive development and use of Canadian crops — including wheat, durum, barley, canola and other oilseeds, pulses and other special crops such as canaryseed and mustard — for domestic and export markets.

Cigi, which still also gets federal funding via the AgriMarketing and AgriInnovation programs, broadened its activities in recent years to include pulse crop product and market development.

That pulse crop work, Cigi said, is now backed by the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program, Pulse Canada, Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions, Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, Manitoba’s Agri-Food Research and Development Initiative (Manitoba Agriculture) and Warburtons. — AGCanada.com Network

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The Manitoba Corn Growers Association (MCGA), Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers Association (MPSG), National Sunflower Association of Canada (NSAC) and the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Association (MWBGA), all of which are headquartered at Carman, Man., announced their MOU Tuesday along with the Winnipeg-based Manitoba Flax Growers Association (MFGA).

“This MOU signals a more formalized relationship between all the involved commodity groups as we work together to explore new and innovate ways in how our organizations can improve efficiencies and deliver maximum value to our memberships,” Pam de Rocquigny, joint general manager since January for the MWBGA and MCGA, said in a release.

The five groups said they plan to hire an advisor by early June, to come up with a a work plan that includes “timelines and consultation with members.” According to the groups’ preliminary timeline, member consultations would start in about December.

The groups emphasized Tuesday they have “no predetermination of what this common commodity organization will eventually look like,” except that they would make sure farmers from each commodity organization “will have a strong, critical voice in shaping this merger.”

The MOU follows more than three years of talks on how the groups could “better work together to maximize member value,” the groups said.

Retired MCGA general manager Theresa Bergsma told the Manitoba Co-operator in February that the “seed” for the idea came from one southern Manitoba grower, Danny Penner of Halbstadt, who called on commodity groups to make better use of checkoff funds through a merger.

A motion around the board table was passed in November 2014 to begin investing “minimal dollars” pursuing the idea of “working together to increase efficiencies,” later followed by monthly meetings on the topic, the groups said.

For example, Bergsma noted in February, most commodity groups have their own specific agronomists, but could benefit from improved co-ordination and efficiency by working under one blanket body.

However, if growers expect to see reduced commodity checkoffs as a result of a merger, that’s “not necessarily going to happen,” Bergsma said at the time. “It is more about using the money and then leverag(ing) it.”

“Good farming is about growing more than one crop. I represent one farm that grows multiple crops,” Jason Voth, chair of MPSG’s board, said in Tuesday’s joint release. “This merger makes sense.”

The notion of a merged provincial-level body for multiple crop commodities isn’t new by itself. Grain Farmers of Ontario, for example, has represented that province’s corn, soy and wheat growers since 2008, plus its barley and oat growers since mid-2015.

The MPSG, for another example, has operated since 1983, collected checkoffs since 1989 and worked out of Carman since 2000. The MWBGA formed in 2013 and began jointly collecting spring wheat and barley checkoffs the following February, also setting up an “administrative support agreement” with Manitoba Corn Growers.

The five Manitoba groups, along with the Manitoba Canola Growers Association, Manitoba Oat Growers Association and Manitoba Seed Growers Association, have also already begun holding their annual general meetings at a single event, the CropConnect Conference.

Other “like-minded” commodity groups may also join the merger talks, as long as they have the “same level of commitment to delivering value and increasing profitability among their farmer members,” the five groups said Tuesday.

Other interested organizations will have an opportunity to join the working group in April 2018, after the first phase of the merger process has been completed, the five groups said. — AGCanada.com Network

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The provincial government on Tuesday tabled amendments to the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act (MAPA) which would grant each of the province’s 13 agricultural commissions the ability to determine whether their checkoffs should be refundable or non-refundable.

Checkoffs — service charges that are collected when an agricultural product is sold, or levied as a base charge per member — fund commissions for operations and activities such as product market development, promotion, research funding and trade missions.

The amendments tabled Tuesday would allow each commission’s membership to choose whether to change their commission’s respective checkoff model. A plebiscite of a commission’s eligible producers would be required.

Ed Stelmach’s Tory government in 2009 passed changes to the MAPA which required any ag commission to refund a checkoff to a member upon his or her request. Previously, commissions could opt for refundable or non-refundable charges.

George Groeneveld, Stelmach’s ag minister at the time, said the refund rule “ensures producers all have the same fundamental right to choose how their hard-earned money is spent.”

The Tories’ amendments had specifically applied the refund option to checkoffs for the commissions for beef, lamb, potatoes and pork, which previously had non-refundable models, the province noted Tuesday.

Alberta thus became “the only jurisdiction in Canada” with mandatory refundable checkoffs, the province said Tuesday.

“With this amendment, government would restore autonomy to agricultural commissions and their members,” Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier said Tuesday in a release.

“We want them to have the power to determine their own service-charge model, because a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach doesn’t make sense in today’s diverse agriculture.”

Carlier emphasized during a press conference Tuesday that the new amendment “is not about whether one model is better than another. This is about giving producers the choice of service-charge model.”

Commissions to which MAPA applies include the Alberta Barley Commission, Alberta Beef Producers, Alberta Beekeepers Commission, Alberta Canola Producers Commission, Alberta Elk Commission, Alberta Lamb Producers, Alberta Oat Growers Commission, Alberta Peace Region Forage Seed Commission, Alberta Pork Producers Development Commission, Alberta Pulse Growers Commission, Alberta Wheat Commission, Alfalfa Seed Commission and Potato Growers of Alberta. — AGCanada.com Network

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