MCA News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, March 2, 2021 (Carman, MB) – This year, Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) is thrilled to celebrate 40 years of being an administrator of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) Advance Payments Program (APP). The APP is a federal loan program administered by MCA. It offers Canadian farmers marketing flexibility through interest-free and low interest cash advances.

“Celebrating 40 years of being an APP administrator is a big milestone for MCA”, says Pam de Rocquigny, Chief Executive Officer, MCA. “We’re proud to celebrate this milestone and will continue to provide the high level of personalized, friendly, small town service our clients expect and deserve when they contact our office regarding APP now, and well into the future.”

MCA provides cash advances on over 30 different crop kinds, including the major crops such as wheat, canola, soybeans, and grain corn. MCA’s interest rate on interest-bearing cash advances is a competitive rate with major banks and credit unions.

MCA is currently accepting applications for the 2021 program year with funds to be issued starting April 1, 2021 and will continue to accept applications for short term financing needs under the 2020 program year.

“MCA has recently published APP Service Standards on our website defining the high level of service our customers can expect when they contact us. As we celebrate 40 years of being an APP administrator, we recognize producers have the choice of administrators and we’d like to thank our loyal customers for their continued support,” adds de Rocquigny.

MCA’s staff will continue to work closely with partners at AAFC to deliver the APP and provide administrative options to serve Manitoba farmers. For more information about the APP or to review the APP Service Standards, visit mbcropalliance.ca.

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About Manitoba Crop Alliance:
Manitoba Crop Alliance is a non-profit organization established August 1, 2020 representing over 9,000 farmer-members. Manitoba Crop Alliance puts their farmer-members first and strives to continuously improve the competitiveness and profitability of all crops represented by the organization by focusing on four main areas: research, agronomy, market access and development, and communications. It is through investment in these key areas that Manitoba Crop Alliance can ensure wheat, barley, corn, sunflower and flax are sustainable production choices for Manitoba farmers. For more information, visit mbcropalliance.ca.

For more information, please contact:

Pam de Rocquigny

Chief Executive Officer

Manitoba Crop Alliance

204.745.6661 | pam@mbcropalliance.ca

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, November 5, 2020 (Carman, MB) – Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) announces the results and next steps in the nomination and election process for the positions of Crop Committee delegates. The nomination period took place starting September 1 and ending October 30, 2020.

Corn Committee: Carl Bangert (Beausejour), David Boerchers (Laurier), Dean Toews (MacGregor), Emile Morin (Otterburne), and Hubert Preun (St. Andrews) were nominated for the four available crop committee delegate positions. With five nominees for four positions, an election will take place where farmer members in good standing with MCA’s corn group will be eligible to vote.

Flax Committee: Dean Buchanan (Crystal City), Jack Hodgson (Roland), Lance Bierens (Winnipeg), and Lorne Johnson (Arborg) were nominated for the four available crop committee delegate positions and are thereby elected by acclamation. They will join Andrew Harris (Winnipeg), Eric Fridfinnson (Arborg), Garry Froese (Winkler), and Nick Matheson (Stonewall) to form MCA’s Flax committee.

Sunflower Committee: Edgar Scheurer (Dugald), Korey Peters (Randolph), Myles Kubinec (Holland), and Sally Parsonage (Baldur) were nominated for the four available crop committee delegate positions and are thereby elected by acclamation. They will join Gilbert Sabourin (St. Jean Baptiste), Gregg Fotheringham (Reston), Mark McDonald (Virden), and Roger Vaags (Dugald) to form MCA’s Sunflower committee

Wheat and Barley Committee: Boris Michaleski (Ashville), Fred Greig (Reston), Josee Saquet (Laurier), Rauri Qually (Dacatoh), and Sheila Elder (Wawanesa) were nominated for the five available crop committee delegate positions and are thereby elected by acclamation. They will join Doug Martin (East Selkirk), Drew Baker (Beausejour), Robert Misko (Roblin), Ryan Hueging (Woodlands), and Wilfred Harder (Lowe Farm) to form MCA’s Wheat and Barley committee.

Avenue 4 Communications will be the returning officer for the Corn Committee delegate elections. The election will be conducted by mail-in ballot. Ballots will be mailed to eligible corn group members mid-November with voting closing on December 15, 2020.

The acclaimed and elected delegates will be installed at the first Crop Committee meetings to be held in January 2021. At the meeting, the four crop committees will make their director appointments to the Manitoba Crop Alliance board. The MCA board will be announced prior to the annual general meeting being held virtually on February 11, 2021.

Manitoba Crop Alliance extends its sincere appreciation to out-going delegates Allan Olinyk, Cam Laxdal, Charlene Lewandoski, Chris Raffard, Dennis Thiessen, Devin Toews, Hugh Drake, Luc Remillard, Patrick Friesen, and Reginald Johnson and for their service and contribution to Manitoba wheat, barley, corn, sunflower, and flax farmers.

About Manitoba Crop Alliance:

Manitoba Crop Alliance is a non-profit organization established August 1, 2020 representing over 9,000 farmer-members. Manitoba Crop Alliance puts their farmer-members first and strives to continuously improve the competitiveness and profitability of all crops represented by the organization by focusing on four main areas: research, agronomy, market access and development, and communications. It is through investment in these key areas that Manitoba Crop Alliance can ensure wheat, barley, corn, sunflower and flax are sustainable production choices for Manitoba farmers. For more information, visit mbcropalliance.ca.

For more information, please contact:

Pam de Rocquigny
Chief Executive Officer
Manitoba Crop Alliance
204.745.6661 | pam@mbcropalliance.ca

Rej Vermette
Returning Officer
Avenue 4 Communications
204.961.1213 | rej@avenue4.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 26, 2020 (Calgary, Saskatoon, Carman) – The Canadian Barley Research Coalition (CBRC), a collaboration between Alberta Barley, the Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission (SaskBarley), and Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA), has committed more than $1.5 million over five years to a core barley breeding agreement with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).

The agreement ensures that western Canadian farmers will have continued access to premium barley varieties from AAFC for years to come.

CBRC was officially formed earlier this year, with the goal of facilitating long-term investments aimed at improving profitability and competitiveness for western Canadian barley farmers. CBRC also assumed responsibility for farmer funding of barley varietal development from the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF), which includes working with AAFC to ensure adequate funding is in place to deliver improved genetics and profitability for barley farmers.

“This new phase of funding will allow the continuation of ‘core’ activities for AAFC’s barley breeding programs, which aim to design new varieties that have the best sources of disease and insect resistance, are designed for western Canadian growing conditions and will deliver high quality traits for end users,” says Jason Skotheim, Chair of the CBRC and SaskBarley.

“This funding will support the development of new two-row malting varieties that are adapted to Western Canada and have improved yields, stronger straw, and higher kernel plumpness, test weight and kernel weight,” Skotheim says. “They will also have improved disease resistance, including for fusarium head blight and traits specifically designed to appeal to the evolving needs of the malting industry.”

Quotes

“Public barley breeding is crucial to Canada’s agriculture sector and the barley varieties AAFC has produced to date are a tremendous return to the farmer investment in this program. This next round of investment will further leverage our check-off investments by developing varieties that will allow our farmers to stay competitive globally, especially in the malting barley world, and reduce farmer business risk.” – Jason Skotheim, SaskBarley Chair

“Manitoba Crop Alliance knows how important it is to continuously work on the improvement of barley varieties so that western Canadian farmers are able to remain competitive. We’re excited to invest in
this collaboration and are looking forward to learning about the varieties that are developed out of this funding agreement.” –Fred Greig, Manitoba Crop Alliance Chair

“We are pleased to be collaboratively investing with our fellow Prairie barley commissions and AAFC in varietal development. This investment ensures western Canadian farmers future access to improved, high-quality barley varieties. This core breeding agreement will attribute to new barley varieties providing farmers with stronger agronomic packages, plus superior end-use quality traits for the malting sector.” – David Bishop, Alberta Barley Chair

For more information, contact:

Pam de Rocquigny
Chief Executive Officer
Manitoba Crop Alliance
204-750-0217
pam@mbcropalliance.ca

Delaney Seiferling
Communications Manager
SaskBarley
306-250-1099
dseiferling@saskbarleycommission.com

Erin Tateson
Interim Communications Manager
Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions
403-219-7902
etateson@albertawheatbarley.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 19, 2020 (Calgary, Saskatoon, Carman) – The Canadian Wheat Research Coalition (CWRC), a collaboration of the Alberta Wheat Commission, Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission, and Manitoba Crop Alliance, has committed more than $22.6 million over five years to a core breeding agreement with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) for the development of wheat varieties. The agreement ensures that farmers will benefit from new premium wheat varieties and associated genetics from AAFC’s breeding program for many years to come.

The CWRC assumed responsibility for producer funding of wheat varietal development from the Western Grains Research Foundation, which includes working with AAFC to provide the capacity needed to deliver improved genetics and profitability to producers. The $22.6 million commitment of producer funding is an increase of $2.6 million over the previous agreement. The funding will provide further support for plant breeders, technicians, and specialists who are working to deliver field-ready wheat varieties to western Canadian farmers.

“The activities being conducted by Canadian researchers and wheat breeders such as those at AAFC have led to major innovations over the past few decades, including the development of several new wheat varieties with improved genetics and more desirable traits,” said Fred Greig, CWRC board chair and a director with the Manitoba Crop Alliance. “Building on the work funded by farmers through organizations such as the Western Grains Research Foundation, this investment will ensure Canadian farmers benefit from new wheat varieties that improve and enhance the competitiveness of their farming operations while maintaining Canada’s reputation for providing quality wheat for markets around the globe.”

This agreement will contribute to the development of wheat cultivars that provide farmers with greater yield potential, resistance to priority diseases such as fusarium head blight, rusts, and common bunt, and resistance to pests such as the orange wheat blossom midge and wheat stem sawfly. AAFC will be concentrating on the development of wheat varieties in the Canadian Western Red Spring, Canadian Western Amber Durum, Canadian Prairie Spring Red, Canada Western Soft White Spring, and Canada Western Red Winter classes.

CWRC core breeding agreements are funded proportionally by province based on the previous year’s production with 53 per cent coming from Saskatchewan, 32 per cent from Alberta, and 15 per cent from Manitoba based on the 2018-19 production year.

Quotes

“The research and plant breeding conducted by AAFC over the past few decades brought needed innovation and economic benefits to Canadian grain farmers. Farmer funding committed by Sask Wheat and our fellow commissions in Alberta and Manitoba through the core breeding agreement will help support AAFC’s ability to bolster their technology and attract and retain top researchers and breeders. Public wheat breeding is crucial to Canada’s agriculture sector and the wheat varieties AAFC has produced are a tremendous return to the farmer investment in this program.” – Brett Halstead, Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission Chair

“Manitoba Crop Alliance is proud to be a part of this collaborative initiative with our sister organizations in Alberta and Saskatchewan. This is an investment that will benefit our western Canadian wheat producers by providing them with competitive new varieties.” – Fred Greig, Manitoba Crop Alliance Chair

“This is an exciting and historic investment by Prairie wheat farmers. Investing collaboratively in this core breeding agreement ensures that farmers will continue to have access to wheat varieties with desirable traits, higher yields and strong disease packages, further enhancing our long-term profitability.” – Todd Hames, Alberta Wheat Commission Chair

For more information, contact:

Erin Tateson
Interim Communications Manager
Alberta Wheat Commission
403-219-7902
etateson@albertawheatbarley.com

Dallas Carpenter
Communications Manager
Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission
306-801-2643
dallas.carpenter@saskwheat.ca

Pam de Rocquigny
Chief Executive Officer
Manitoba Crop Alliance
204-745-6661
pam@mbcropalliance.ca