“This is about fairness and alignment,” said Trevor Welch, chair of the Canadian Beef Check-Off Agency in a June 24 news release.

The rule change applies to all interprovincial sales, including auction markets, dealers and direct farm-gate transactions,t he agency said.

The change also affects remittance chains, especially for auction marts, dealers and processors. These will have to adjust how they identify and apply check-off rates.

The agency said these changes will support compliance, consistency and transparency in the system. It will also ensure “the right amount of producer dollars stay in their home province, supporting provincial priorities.”

“Producers, provincial cattle associations and other stakeholders have been asking for a more consistent system that reflects their home province’s priorities, especially as interprovincial marketing and transport becomes more common,” Welch said.

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Check-off dollars are intended to promote and support the cattle industry in Alberta, but about $3.2 million is taken out of Alberta Beef Producers’ budget each year due to refund requests from Alberta producers.

Of the $4.50 per head check-off price tag on Alberta cattle, the $2.50 national levy is non-refundable, but the $2 provincial service charge is refundable.

Many producers want to see that changed in order to keep crucial funds in the hands of ABP.

A resolution was passed at the organization’s 2024 annual general meeting, directing it to take steps toward moving away from the refundable checkoff.

General manager Brad Dubeau said that remains a standing resolution that the organization is actively working toward.

“Hopefully some day soon we will have a plebiscite, but I will not recommend a plebiscite to the board or to the delegates until I feel like we’re comfortable that we will potentially have a successful outcome,” Dubeau said.

In 2018, the last time a plebiscite was held to change to a non-refundable checkoff, the proposal was defeated by the slimmest of margins.

It was shot down with 51 per cent of the votes cast against the proposed change.

However, that could have easily gone the other way, Dubeau said.

Of the 18,000 producers in Alberta, only 1,874 cast a vote in the 2018 plebiscite. He believes that if ABP can get producers to feel comfortable coming out to vote next time, they could make some real progress.

“What I really hope is where we’re successful is that we have thousands of producers come out in the next plebiscite and give us a strong answer, one way or another,” he said.

Dubeau added that ABP has developed a working group to assess the organization as a whole and find ways that it can improve operations to prepare for the possibility of working as a fully funded industry in the future.

“We’re doing our best to kind of pull apart the organization and look to see if it needs a revamp. It’s coming up on 60 years old, and not a lot has changed in those 60 years,” he said.

“But if we’re going to have a successful plebiscite back to a fully funded industry, whatever that looks like, we have to make sure we’ve addressed some of the concerns with producers. We want to make sure that the organization is being proactive.”

Dubeau said regardless of the results of a future plebiscite, the most important thing is giving producers an opportunity for their voices to be heard.

“We will never all agree from one end of this province to the other, and I hope that producers can understand that that’s the whole premise of ABP is that it’s a democratic organization. It’s so important for producers to be involved so that voices come from all areas of the province,” he said.

In its most recent financial report, ABP showed that it processed $3,172,072 in refunds from 819 refund requests in 2023. Feedlots made up $2,555,223 of that from 221 operations, with 598 cow-calf operations accounting for $616,849 in refunds.

The figures from 2022 were nearly identical.

ABP chair Brodie Haugan said a fully funded industry would benefit all producers in the province.

“I’ve been harping on a fully funded industry. It’s been my goal to build respect back into the industry. There is value in the organizations that are across the province — the ABP or the member organizations. They have their place,” he said.

“But when we see $3.2 million refunded in 2023, we know there is money being lost… A fully funded industry is ensuring that every dollar that should be there is at least ending up somewhere back into the industry.”

When the topic was discussed at the ABP’s northeast zone regional meeting in Vermilion on Jan. 23, one producer asked about the possibility of a mandatory one-time checkoff per head instead of the partially refundable $4.50 price tag per head for each time it is sold. He suggested that this would help keep check=off funds in ABP while remove some of the financial burden from producers caused by paying checkoffs multiple times on the same animal throughout its lifetime.

Dubeau said this is something that has been explored for many years, and places like Australia operate on a one-time checkoff. However, it would be a major shift for the industry.

“There are countries around the world that we can learn from, but it would take a massive change in the way we think about cattle,” he said.

Dubeau added that changing to a one-time checkoff would move the price tag up to at least $10 per head.

Another concern with a one-time checkoff, Haugan said, would be putting more leverage in the hands of one side of the industry or the other.

“I truly believe that if every single cattle producer has to pay a checkoff, it gives them each a voice. It gives them each a vote. If you put it to one hand or the other, there’s that potential optics to say, well, now the feeders have the whole control or the cow-calf guy has the whole control,” he said.

“That’s just my personal opinion, but I love the conversation. Everything’s on the table. And it all comes back to going to a non-refundable or having the current refundable system.”

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SaskCanola and SaskFlax said Wednesday their new “management collaboration” will translate to efficiencies for both commissions with “a full staff complement to support both boards.”

Both organizations will now operate out of the current SaskCanola office at Innovation Place, a research and technology park next to the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon.

SaskCanola’s current executive director Tracy Broughton will manage both organizations as their new exec.

The two organizations emphasized they maintain their separate boards of directors and governance structures under the new collaboration, and canola and flax levies will still be collected separately.

“Finding administrative and operational efficiencies within our industry ensures that growers’ levy dollars are put to the best use,” SaskFlax board chair Greg Sundquist of Watrous said in a joint release.

“Our commissions were created with similar mandates and key focus areas — research, extension and market development. We are excited about the opportunities this arrangement brings to oilseed growers.”

“A lot of flax growers in our province are also going to have canola in their rotation, so it makes sense,” SaskCanola board chair Charlene Bradley of Stranraer added in the same release.

The new arrangement removes a question mark over the management of SaskFlax, which in late August put out a call with the Flax Council of Canada seeking a joint executive director for SaskFlax and president for the council, with a deadline of Oct. 21.

A SaskCanola representative said Thursday the Flax Council of Canada is not involved in the SaskCanola/SaskFlax arrangement.

SaskCanola, set up in 1991, is a farmer-led, levy-supported organization backing research, advocacy and market development work, while SaskFlax, operating since 1996, supports research and market development through checkoffs on flaxseed and flax straw. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) announced Monday it now has its designation under the provincial Agricultural Producers’ Organization Funding Act. The designation allows the new organization to collect mandatory-yet-refundable checkoffs on all sales of spring wheat, winter wheat, barley, sunflowers, corn and flax.

The amounts of the checkoffs are “unchanged to what was in place with the five amalgamating organizations” — the National Sunflower Association of Canada, Manitoba Corn Growers Association, Manitoba Flax Growers Association and Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association and Winter Cereals Manitoba.

MCA applied in February for the designation regulation from the Manitoba Farm Products Marketing Council, following votes by the five groups’ memberships during annual general and special meetings at the CropConnect Conference in Winnipeg.

Also effective Aug. 1, Manitoba Corn Growers Association and Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association general manager Pam de Rocquigny will be the MCA’s CEO, and National Sunflower Association of Canada and Winter Cereals Manitoba executive director Darcelle Graham becomes the new group’s chief operating officer.

MCA said its new checkoffs will be invested in three main areas, making up 86 per cent of MCA’s total budget: research and production; market access and development; and communication and advocacy.

“Each dollar spent in these areas is an investment from Manitoba farmers which helps to make wheat (spring and winter), barley, sunflower, corn, and flax profitable production choices for Manitoba farmers,” MCA said in a release.

Checkoff-funded initiatives “will also work to maintain and continuously improve the competitiveness of these crops both domestically and internationally.”

MCA also said Monday that its new website will go live Aug. 4. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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For wheat, the tax credit is 31 per cent while for barley, it’s 13 per cent.

The federal program encourages R&D investment by giving claimants tax credits for their expenditures on eligible R&D work.

Eligible producers should use form T2038 (IND) to claim this credit when filing their taxes while farm corporations must use form T2SCH31.

For more information, contact the Canada Revenue Agency or visit canada.ca and search for SR&ED.

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Producers at the Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO) annual meeting in Mississauga on Wednesday voted 87 per cent in favour of the plan. A similar plan was rejected at last year’s annual meeting. As a constitutional change was needed, a two-thirds majority had to approve of the change.

Why it matters: The beef sector has been stagnant or declining in Ontario for years. It is hoped an increase in marketing, tied to the Ontario Corn Fed Beef Program’s successful history, can change that.

Joe Hill, who was returned as chair of the BFO at the annual meeting, said the proposal was well thought-out and was the best hope of increasing value in the Ontario beef sector.

“Today is the day to fund it and bring it to life,” he said in making a plea for the approval of the increased checkoff.

Producers heard his request, but it was not a new story for them. After last year’s failure to fund what was called the Regional Marketing Initiative, BFO staff and directors provided extensive opportunity for beef farmer delegates to learn about the proposal during numerous meetings across the province.

That extra explanation seemed to work as the mood in the room at the annual general meeting of the organization was more positive towards the proposal than it was a year ago. That showed in the questions and statements of support before voting.

“We have to try it. I have to trust the people that the people who have been appointed will do their best,” said Stewart Cressman, a Waterloo County beef farmer.

The proposal was different this year with more details on how the program will be managed. A marketing committee has been formed of members of BFO and the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association, led by OCA executive director Jim Clark.

The OCA’s 20-year-old Corn Fed Beef Program now accounts for 30-40 per cent of all cattle processed in the province and has achieved market penetration into many major supermarket chains and also into targeted markets in Asia and the Middle East.

The goal is to use the branding experience of the CFBP to drive more demand and eventually grow the sector, especially the number of cow-calf operations in the province.

“Outcomes have to benefit our beef producers from top and bottom,” said Clark at the BFO meeting. “BFO and Cattle Feeders have to develop a process that works.”

Beef farmers in Ontario have challenges others in Canada do not, such as being the landing place of 85 per cent of imports from the U.S. and with ready large markets nearby. Cow numbers have declined over the past 10 years, with a stabilizing of numbers in the past three years.

— John Greig is editor of Farmtario at Ailsa Craig, Ont. Follow him at @jgreig on Twitter.

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Under the new Beef Science Cluster III program — which runs until March 31, 2023 — $21 million will go to 26 research projects (with $5 million coming from the checkoff). The projects cover a wide range of areas, including camera-based carcass grading; improved disease surveillance; cattle transport; and reducing the need for antimicrobials to treat bovine respiratory disease.

Details on all 26 projects can be found at the BCRC website (PDF).

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There were 1,874 votes cast in a plebiscite to make the $2 provincial beef checkoff non-refundable — with 51.3 per cent opposed. ABP officials estimate about 7,000 producers were eligible to vote.

“I wasn’t entirely surprised because I knew it would be extremely close and I knew it could go either way,” said ABP chair Charlie Christie. “The disappointment comes with the low number of votes that we got on a really important issue.

“I’m not saying that the outcome would have been any different. A statistically relevant number of people voted and that’s the answer, and that’s the way we move forward.”

The cattle organization’s executive director echoed those comments, noting the group has been asking the province for a plebiscite since 2009 when the former Conservative government gave producers and feeders the right to request a refund.

“We were hoping that the checkoff would be non-refundable because we thought that the creation of the beef industry development fund would be really good for our industry,” said Rich Smith.

“In 2009, we asked for producers to have to make that decision. Now they were able to have the opportunity and now we need to move forward based on the results.”

A spokesman for a group called Concerned Producers for a Great ABP said advocates of a refundable checkoff believe it’s a better system.

“The argument was not over the merits of the work that’s been done (by ABP),” said Danny Hozack, who ranches near Streamstown and was ABP chair in 1986.

“It was over our philosophical belief that the funding should be voluntary and so that’s why we voted no. We think it should be voluntary. We just think it’s one way of holding an organization accountable.”

Hozack said opponents also felt a proposed $1.4-million beef industry development fund, which would have been created if the checkoff became mandatory, wasn’t needed.

“There’s already the $2.50 (national checkoff) that is compulsory,” he said. “You can do the research you need to do through that anyway. They didn’t really need the beef industry development fund.”

Christie was aware that many producers believe a refundable checkoff “creates accountability.”

“That’s not exactly my view,” said the Trochu-area rancher, feedlot operator, and grain farmer. “It kind of puts us up for sale — if you do this, we’ll leave our checkoff in.”

But there’s no hard feelings and the organization will move on, he added.

“We just have to make sure we take the high road and make the proper decisions,” he said.

Hozack, like Christie and Smith, was also disappointed by the low turnout.

ABP officials had hoped that the organization’s fall meetings would see double the usual attendance, but it was only up by 10 to 15 per cent and the low vote numbers came despite the voting period being extended by two weeks to Nov. 27.

“Our fall meetings came during the first period of good weather that had happened since the Labour Day weekend,” said Smith. “When we started to hold our meetings at the end of October with the plebiscite voting, that’s when the weather got good. That’s when every combine in the province was in the field.”

The next step is to meet with Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association, which also backed a non-refundable checkoff and would have received a small portion of it.

The two organizations now have closer relations than they’ve had in many years, and Christie said he wants to build on that.

“We’ll get together with the cattle feeders in the middle of January,” he said. “I think we need to continue working together with the industry. That was probably as important as the money would have been. We need to try and salvage that part and it may salvage some funding as well.”

Still, he expects ABP will continue to rebate about $2.5 million annually, which has been the situation since 2010.

“It doesn’t represent a significant change in our revenue,” said Smith. “It just means that we won’t be able to make the investments we were hoping to make with that $2.5 million.”

*A previous version of this article stated in the headline that the checkoff was ‘refundable’. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

The post Non-refundable checkoff defeated, cattle group moving on appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Out of 1,874 votes cast, 962 votes, or 51.3 per cent, fell in favour of a refundable service charge model, with 908 for a non-refundable model and four ballots spoiled, according to the preliminary figures from the Alberta Agricultural Products Marketing Council, which conducted the vote.

Alberta Beef Producers (ABP), which collects a checkoff on cattle sales in the province, has been required to refund producers’ checkoff funds on request since 2009, when Ed Stelmach’s Tory government required any Alberta agricultural commission to refund checkoff dollars to a member upon his or her request.

The current NDP government last year blunted that legislation’s effect when it granted each of the province’s 13 ag commissions the ability to determine whether their respective checkoffs should be refundable or non-refundable.

“Our government felt it was important to empower producers to make this choice for themselves,” Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier said in a statement Monday.

The AAPMC this fall held plebiscites for the Alberta Beef Producers and Potato Growers of Alberta on the refundability of their respective service charges. In the PGA plebiscite, 82 per cent of votes favoured of a non-refundable service charge model, Carlier noted.

The ABP plebiscite, which originally was to run from Oct. 19 to Nov. 13, was later extended to Nov. 27, as producers cited “challenging” weather conditions which led to delays in harvesting and other fall farm work.

ABP, in a release Monday, noted the results of the plebiscite can be contested by challenging the voting process to the returning officer before Dec. 11 — but the organization also said it “intends to abide by this decision of producers.”

“In a democracy, decisions are made by the people who participate and as we’ve said all along, (ABP) will honour the decision made by producers and the service charge will remain refundable,” ABP chair Charlie Christie said.

“While we wish the results were in favour of a non-refundable service charge and would have liked to see a higher voter turnout, (the Alberta Cattle Feeders Association) respects the decision of producers that voted,” ACFA chair Ryan Kasko said in the same release.

“We will continue to work hard to strengthen industry collaboration and create efficiencies regardless of the outcome.”

If Dec. 11 passes with no contests, the results of the vote will then be made official, the province said Monday.

Since 2009, ABP said, it has received “many” resolutions from producers at fall meetings and ABP delegates at general meetings pressing for a non-refundable service charge.

ABP and ACFA had reached an agreement earlier this year to support a checkoff plebiscite, on the condition that part of a non-refundable checkoff would go to create an industry development fund. A non-refundable checkoff had been expected to make $1.4 million available for such a fund.

As it is, producers will continue to pay service charges but retain the ability to request refunds. It’s recently been estimated that from what it collects each year in service charges on cattle sales, ABP refunds about a third, or $2 million, mainly to cattle feeders. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Alberta Agricultural Products Marketing Council “recognized that the terrible weather during September and early October left many producers far behind on their harvest and other fall work in the fields during the plebiscite voting period,” said Alberta Beef Producers.

“Along with harvest weather conditions, Canada Post disruptions had the potential to further affect the movement of mail-in ballots.”

Cattle can vote at Agriculture Financial Services Corporation offices or by mail until the Nov. 27 deadline.

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