WGRF Approves $18 Million for Research

[gustgd]

WGRF Approves $18 Million for Research

Western Grain Research Foundation (WGRF) is planning to invest over $18 million dollars into field crop research in 2015. The WGRF Board recently passed its 2015 Budget at a Board Meeting on November 19, 2014 in Saskatoon.

“WGRF is the largest producer funder of crop research in Canada,” said Dave Sefton, WGRF Board Chair. “Crop research is vital for the development of new farm management practices and improved crop varieties. WGRF invests in research covering a variety of field crops. As producers we should be very proud of this investment because we will be the ones who benefit most from this increased commitment to research.”

WGRF has built relationships with member organizations and research funding partners across Canada with the goal to increase research investments. The 2015 WGRF research budget of $18 million is more than double the amount invested in 2013 ($7.3 Million).

“WGRF is committed to continued collaboration on agricultural research funding at both the federal and provincial levels to leverage public, private producer and private industry investments into crop research to increase the industry’s competitiveness” says Garth Patterson, WGRF Executive Director. “WGRF is currently co-funding with 30 organizations on more than 125 research projects worth over $22 million dollars,” added Patterson.

The WGRF Board consists of 18 producer representatives from different agricultural organizations across western Canada. WGRF brings the research spending power of all farmers in Western Canada together, maximizing the returns they see in crop research.

Recent WGRF Research Funding Highlights:

WGRF committed $5 million to the Genome Canada Large Scale Applied Research Project.
The total value of the Systems Approach to Crop Sustainability is $4.32 M over the next 5 years; WGRF is leading this initiative and is contributing $2.16 million.
The total value of the Wheat Cluster is $25.2 M over five years; WGRF is leading this Cluster and is contributing $9.6 million.
The total value of the Barley Cluster is $11.2 M over five years; WGRF is contributing $1.5 million.
Graduate Scholarships of $100,000 per year continue to be provided to U of M, U of S and U of A on a rotational basis.
WGRF commissioned a study to evaluate agronomy research capacity in western Canada.


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For more information, contact:

Mike Espeseth
Communications Manager
Western Grains Research Foundation
Tel: 306-975-0365
MikeEspeseth@westerngrains.com



WGRF Backgrounder
WGRF is a farmer funded and directed non-profit organization investing in agricultural research that benefits western Canadian producers. Since 1981, the WGRF Board has given producers a voice in agricultural research funding decisions. WGRF manages an Endowment Fund and the wheat and barley variety development check-off funds, investing over $14 million in 2014 into breeding and field crop research

[tweety]

So we can grow more wheat and get even less for it. Excellent!

[bucket]

Grow more, move less. Yep brilliant.

Money well spent.

[MBgrower]

We pay the checkoffs and the seed cos collect the royalities. Brillant.

[grower99]

I think that we need to keep our presence in the public domain of cereal breeding. I've been pretty adamant that with the feds strong support of Upov'91 we need a strong public breeding program to act as a counter balance. With reduced fed dollars the growers will have to step up.

[tweety]

Please give me an example of a long term successful profitable farmer owned anything?

[farmaholic]

Their farms......

[tweety]

Good one, but you know what i mean

[fjlip]

The key words are "long term", successful, some years we burn equity just to wait for the upturn.
I disagree with all checkoffs for farmers. The rest of the value chain reaps the benefits, THEY should pay!

[parsley]

Tweety, the Weyburn Inland Terminal was very successful. Pars

[gustgd]

A guy should take a screen shot , and the next time one of you is talking about using US varieties, or trying some agronomy that you've heard about from Australia, maybe wishing you had market access to China. I'll just bring it up.

I had been hammered on here for years that the railroad money was not being spent at a fast enough rate. Now that there is some capacity and means. Some are saying it's adding to a burdensome pile.

I'm going to paraphrase colevilleC02 When you stop using modern genetics and agronomic practices. To try and whittle down the pile, I and your neighbours will double down to steal market share. If it's not us it will be our international competitors. If they are in Russia, Australia, or our US neighbours.
Good luck in your strategy, we'll see in 50 years who is right.

[farming101]

Great news. This is one place where you can see checkoff money at work. Other places not so much.
It is my understanding that the current policy of the WGRF is that the actual contributions made to the endowment fund triggered by the rail cap are invested, not spent. It will be interesting to see the annual report. There must have been some huge gains realized in the endowment fund for that much money to be available?
Invest it wisely boys, the 65 million dumped in the endowment fund in '09 will never be repeated. It would be a shame to lose it because of bad investments.

[bucket]

Everyone has talked with people that used the latest varieties and bought all the right chemical and had a 50 bushel #1 wheat or durum crop go to shit.

If you are trying to outsmart mother nature 18 million isn't going to cut it.

What's the end game for the research? If you want to equal the US or Australians you had better put the house in order as well and have a transportation system that can handle it.

[farmaholic]

Re: Cereals

I would say screw the yield bump and focus on fusarium "resistance", midge resistance, and other meaningful agronomic traits. What good is a durum variety that was bred from desert durum varieties with 80bu/ac potential without any fusarium or midge tolerance? Or even spring wheat varieties that need to have less than .25% fusarium for a #1 or .80 for a two, really? Ya that's what I need, is more of the same where I farm. And Alberta watch out it's(fusarium) coming to farm near you!!

How about bundling up a few positive traits, there are no silver bullets in the Seed Guides.

How about developing something different and unique that would separate us from everyone else. But don't forget we are producing a cheap raw commodity so it probably wouldn't garner much of a premium anyway. (Isn't fertilizer a commodity, any use for it other than the value I add to it by converting it to FOOD!!! LOL)

[gustgd]

Most yield improvement across the prairies comes through yield stability.
Yield stability comes from increases in tolerance to adverse factors. Whether your talking about increased disease resistance, more efficient fertilizer uptake, or frost tolerance.
Some always point to canola being no better than it was 20 years ago. Yet they fail to remember the disasters they also had or the small number of acres it could be grown on.

Fusarium research in Saskatchewan is lacking because for years we had no fusarium nursery. No govt regulator would allow fusarium to be brought in to test under field conditions. Yet here we are 10-15 years later with full blown fusarium and no inbred resistance.


Much of the work just involves crosses. Read: time and money.
More crosses = better chance of success.