Flax - again!

[checking]

I don't know how it is with other producers that use farm saved seed, but we buy certified seed, produce that crop, and then save the entire crop for all future crop years. It only makes sense to us to have seed one generation away from certified. Don't be suggesting the requirement of certified every year as it puts into great question to me of the purity of the original certified seed that I paid a premium for to gain purity.

Therein lies a problem Charlie. Our elevator system of 5000 tonne bins is not suited for this new world of tolerances. That system can't be used, in this situation, to avoid the combining of neighbours' flax for a market like the EU. We require container sized farm pickups that get rid of the risk associated with high through put elevator combinations and neighbours. It's traceable to source. Now only if we can ever be assured that all registered seed growers won't cheat.

To throw a scare into this industry. I've just learned that locally 52 cars of flax were loaded under the new testing regime, and sent on their merry way through the high through put system. 18 cars were rejected at port with triffid contamination with the third test. What's the EU test going to find on the fourth try?

[bucket]

Shaney

All your questions are valid for the seed grower system as well.

The audit system that charlie talked about is bogus since the triffid has no source.

And maybe you haven't quite read the facts to date. So I will will repeat them.

1. Triffid was never to have been released for commercial growers. That means only seed growers had the seed.

2. Seed growers were to have swept out their bins and that seed was crushed in Manitoba. This was supposed to have happened close to a decade ago.

3. Triffid flax has shown up at the breeder stage of development. That means seed growers will have a certain amount of triffid present at all times. This means that the questions you asked earlier are not part of anyone's protocol for cleanliness.

Having stated the facts why would anyone trust certified seed from a seed grower when, in fact, they are the ones directly responsible for this mess.

[parsley]

<p></p>
<p class="EC_style8ptBK"><strong>[URL="http://www.canterra.com/home/introducing_canterra_seeds/board_of_directors/"](Will seed sales surge if bucket cannot use his own seed?)[/URL]</strong></p>

[Hopperbin]

Sold out for sure, won't have to sell certified froze all to hell seed to the elevator then. From past experience with seed growers I now take them with great caution but only after hundred thousand in extra costs. Don't get me started on what problems. Farmers if they test their own seeds they know what they are planting. Get certified pick up during planting and get major screw job.

[parsley]

Well, you probably clicked on the link, and saw Shaun is a new kid on the Board of Director's block for Canterra Seeds:

Shaun Haney

Shaun, his wife Trish and their three young children reside in Picture Butte, AB where Shaun is actively involved in his family business Haney Farms. Shaun is a feature contributor with GrainNews and in 2008 started an agriuclture blog www.realagriculture.com. Shaun also is very involved with his community, sitting on the Board of Directors with the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Shaun joined the CANTERRA SEEDS Board of Directors as the Alberta Vice-President in March 2009.


And Joe is a lontime Board Member.

Joe Dales

Joe, his wife Sandy and their two children live in London, ON. Joe has 23 years of agriculture industry experience working with companies such as Pfizer, Cyanamid Crop Protection, First Line Seeds, and NK Syngenta Seeds. Joe holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Chemistry and an MBA. He is founder of Farms.com and leads their business strategy, marketing and development activities.

Joe joined the CANTERRA SEEDS Board of Directors in 2003. He is also very active in several agri-food industry associations such as the Canadian Agri-Marketing Association, the US National Agri-Marketing Association, and is a member of both the Agri-food Council and Renewable Energy Council in London. As well, Joe is past Treasurer and Board Member of the Ontario Pork Industry Council, past Board Member of Techalliance and Internetworking Technology Group.

[oneoff]

Does anyone diasagree that the registered seed growers and their associations are solely responsible for contaminating the seed flax supply.
If not ; then why don't the seed growers and their association at least replace the certified and registered seed that they sold to farmers in past years (and do it out of their own pockets; and accompany it with their deepest regrets and pleas for forgiveness)
I see their proposed plan as a perfect way to expand their sales and profits. The farm supply wings of the line elevator companies are also going to benefit. Aren't these the same guilty bodies that have severely harmed the flax growers of this country.
Trust and reputations are earned; not developed by marketing and publicity initiatives unilaterally promoted by guilty scum that harm their customers.

[bucket]

How about an exchange program if the seed growers are so adamant about getting certified seed out there.

You take the required amount of flax to the seed grower and he replaces it with his certified seed. A 1:1 exchange - no money changes hands. The seed grower then has to test that lot prior to selling it to an elevator.

Plus he has to provide purity tests for every exchange they make. Doesn't matter if it is 10 bushels or 500 bushels. Not just the usual blue tag lot test that may be for 10000 bushels. And the seed grower has to have that test available for prior to pick up and the sampling has to be witnessed by an independant grading agent. The seed grower must not just pull the flax from a large bin as all exchanges must come from a separate bin and a dedicated auger is required for each bin.

Maybe then they would get the picture as to how much this is costing regular farmers thanks to the seed growers's greed, incompetence and immorality,etc.

Funny how people sitting on boards for seed companies lose their competence, morality etc, for compensation. A lobotomy must be a prerequisite for being on a board.

Once again,

THE SEED GROWERS CAUSED THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE FLAX INDUSTRY!!!

Do you non believers get it yet or have you had your lobotomy already?

[dmlfarmer]

Without question, the seed industry initally caused this problem but thinking the same growers can resolve the issue is naive. The genie is out of the bottle and it is impossible to guarantee flax grown in western Canada will ever be 100% Triffid free again.

New, tested, certified Triffid free fax is not enough. Every grower who ever planted a Triffid seed likely added Triffid seed to the soil seed bank. (A harvest loss of just one bu per acre due to poor combine setting, spillage from the truck, inability to harvest a corner or wet spot, or even a hail storm adds 113 seeds per square foot)
Granted volunteer flax is not a huge problem because flax seed is not highly viable more than a couple of years, but even if one Triffid seed survived and produced, the problem continues.
And it has been proven there is a 1-6% cross pollination between flax plants, more if there are strong winds at flowering. So that one viable seed that grew has the potential to contaminate the certified free seed you are planting if you have seeded flax on a field that had ever had even one Triffid flax plant on it. Or if you had a neighbor who had Triffid contamination in his flax planted adjacent to your flax, you likely have a low level of contamination in your crop too from cross pollination; no matter how careful and good a grower you are.
Even just growing flax on land where flax has never been grown is not a solution. There were reports across eastern Alberta this year of Roundup Ready canola appearing in canola fields that were sprayed out with Roundup because of the drought inspite of the fact the variety seeded was a Clearfield or Invigor. In some cases there were surviving Roundup canola plants where Roundup canola had never been seeded.
As I said the genie is out of the bottle and 100% cleanup is impossible. The actions of a few mean the rest of us have to live with restrictions and loss of markets until we can convince the buyers our flax (with low levels of Triffid)is safe.
And hopefully we all learn from this that the growing of any crop that is not registered for planting in Canada is not just a risk for the grower doing it but threatens the production of that crop by every grower.

Given the Triffid experience, you really have to question the wisdom of those growers wanting to licence RR wheat before the market is ready to accept it!

[checking]

So, we stay the course. We hope that Mr. Weber is correct, and this flax turmoil does resolve itself with widened tolerance levels. The one thing we don't do is reward the culprit(s) responsible as they with their seed industry have "NO SIVER BULLET" solution to clean this mess up. Their solution is only to enrich themselves a second time.

Thank you Parsley for your research.

Shaney, with your disclaimer now out there, do you agree with dmlfarmer that your "naive" to think the genie can be put back in the bottle?

[wmoebis]

Shaney brings up a good point. However can every seed producer insure that every seed was cleaned out thoughly before growing, storing and handling certified seed. NO.

Lots of samples of wheat contain trace amounts of flax and other seeds even if the farmer has never intentionaly growen them.

Certified seed has tolerances, for purity, built in. Example: Buy cert yellow peas and a trace amount maples will be in sample. This is due partly to the fact that no one can guarantee 100% clean seed, including seed growers.

The Triffid gene may have or may not have entered seed supplies accidentaly. If it entered intentionaly the rules weren't fallowed and action should be taken.

[parsley]

<p></p>
<p class="EC_style8ptBK"><strong>[URL="http://parsleysnotebook.blogspot.com/2010/01/fp967-triffid-flax-under-purview-of.html"](Are these what you call grain Senators?)[/URL]</strong></p>

[cottonpicken]

Sitting in a running combine wishing I was a weather forecaster and praying I get to meet a few of the pricks that started this