Manitoba canola growers’ checkoff to fund research and development will double Aug. 1 to $1 per tonne, the Manitoba Co-operator reports this week.
Members of the Manitoba Canola Growers Association voted at what the paper called a “sparsely attended” meeting to raise the checkoff, by a count of 16-11 with six abstentions.
The increased checkoff will compare to canola checkoffs of $1 per tonne in Alberta and 75 cents per tonne in Saskatchewan, according to the association’s new president, Dauphin farmer Ernie Sirski.
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Sirski, a former director with grain company Agricore United, told members at the association’s Jan. 14 meeting in Brandon that canola growers must continue to invest in the crop, to remain competitive.
“We’re not the only game in town,” he said at the meeting, quoted by Co-operator reporter Allan Dawson in the farm newspaper’s Jan. 24 issue. “There will be soybeans, there will be sunflowers, there will be competitors from other countries. If we sit here and stand still I’m afraid we will come in second best.”
Newdale farmer Bruce Dalgarno, the association’s new treasurer, noted the MCGA is able to lever $5.80 from other sources for every dollar Manitoba growers contribute to canola research through the checkoff.
Manitoba’s canola checkoff rate had not been changed since it was granted in 1997, Sirski noted.
