The Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions are launching a consultation this summer to solicit farmers’ opinions on amalgamating to form a single commission. The consultation will begin in July with an online survey, followed by online town hall events after harvest in October, with further dialogue and sessions during Regional Meeting events in November.
Read MoreBarley growers now have two plant growth regulator (PGR) options to mitigate lodging risk in barley. Both Manipulator and Moddus are registered for use on barley in Canada. However, growers may be asking what the right choice is for their farm.
In this special edition of The Growing Point, myself and my colleague Dr. Sheri Strydhorst discuss the relevant agronomic information on PGR options for barley, so you can decide what's right for your farm.
Read MoreFollowing this morning’s statement by the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau and the Honourable Jim Carr on the federal government’s proposed improvements to AgriStability, 11 of Alberta’s agriculture commodity and producer groups are requesting the Government of Alberta to accept the proposed changes.
2021-2022 Changes to AgriStability
Producers and producer groups across Alberta and Canada, identified the reference margin limit (RML) as a key irritant of the AgriStability program and advocated to governments for its removal. In March of this year, the federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers came to an agreement to remove the RML, retroactive to the 2020 program year and extending the 2021 deadline for producer enrollment to June 30, 2021.
The removal of the RML is intended to make AgriStability simpler, more predictable and more equitable across all agriculture sectors. It continues to provide producers with a whole-farm risk management program that offers protection against disasters and margin declines of 30 per cent or more that threaten their farm viability.
In order to better understand the impact on your operations the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions worked with AFSC to provide additional examples as to what this change might mean for your farm.
Read MoreCanada’s barley breeders have developed a promising suite of new malting barley varieties such as CDC Bow, AAC Connect and CDC Fraser each with excellent agronomics and disease resistance. These new varieties are poised to succeed older, established varieties such as AC Metcalfe and CDC Copeland. They have very desirable malting and brewing characteristics, reinforcing Canada’s position as a supplier of premium quality barley and malt, and increasingly these new varieties are being accepted by domestic and international maltsters and brewers.
Read MoreAs part of the Canada Grain Act review, the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions call for an end to mandatory outward weighing and inspection services by the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) that impose additional costs on farmers, and the expansion of the CGC’s role in supporting farmers’ rights to dispute grading results.
Read More