(file photo/farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Alice McFarlane

Wheat testing standards

Calls for reversal on grain commission test weight and foreign material changes

Jul 18, 2023 | 12:00 PM

Two farm organizations are banding together in their opposition to a change to test weight and foreign material for most western Canadian wheat classes.

The Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission (Sask Wheat) and the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) oppose a recent decision by the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) to tighten those tolerances and are calling for a quick reversal of this decision.

In early June, the CGC announced that longstanding separate primary and export standards for test weight and total foreign material for most western Canadian wheat classes would be harmonized at the tighter export tolerances, effective Aug. 1.

Wheat producers will potentially face significant negative financial implications as harmonized test weight and foreign material standards may lead to quality downgrades and CWRS wheat that previously would have graded a number one could be downgraded to as low as feed if test weight is the determining grade factor.

Sask Wheat Chair Brett Halstead said producers do not have the same ability to improve the test weight of their grain. He said CGC should reverse the decision before it creates additional production and price risk for Saskatchewan’s wheat farmers.

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“Not only was this decision ill-considered and finalized hastily but it was also done without proper consultation with producer groups and individual farmers who will bear the costs of the tighter standards,” Halstead said. “This decision failed to consider a motion that was carried at the most recent Western Standards Committee meeting asking for such a decision to be delayed until an economic analysis is completed, and the results are considered in the decision.”

Sask Wheat has repeatedly asked the CGC to do an economic impact analysis, especially of the impact on producers. Halstead said this needs to be completed and made public by the CGC before harmonization of these standards is considered again.

APAS President Ian Boxall said higher grading standards for test weight and foreign material increase the risk that producers will receive lower grades for their production. This could negatively affect farm revenue for years to come.

“The CGC’s mandate is to work in the interest of grain producers, and Saskatchewan farmers are left wondering how these changes could proceed without completing the economic analysis that producers have asked for,” Boxall said.

Sask Wheat commissioned a preliminary study that provides a framework to evaluate the economic and marketing impacts of the harmonization of differing primary and export tolerances.

APAS recently completed its summer district meetings, where producers across the province shared the opinion that these changes should be reversed and only reconsidered after the analysis and clear policy rationale are presented.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

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