Primary and export grade determinant tables for the new Canada Northern Hard Red and Canada Western Special Purpose wheat classes take effect.

Canada Western Feed, Canada Western General Purpose and Canada Western Interim wheat classes will be eliminated.

Poor colour has been added to the definition for degree of soundness for Oats, No. 4 Canada Western.

The Official Grain Grading Guide, including the new primary grade determinant tables, will be posted on the Canadian Grain Commission’s website on July 29, 2016 and will come into effect August 1, 2016.

A new moisture table for Great Northern White Beans took effect, July 1, 2016, as well as a new procedure for estimating moisture in Yellow Beans.

Procedures for producer railway cars will be available on the Canadian Grain Commission’s website on July 29, 2016 and are effective August 1, 2016.

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U.S. Dark Northern Spring varieties Faller, Prosper and Elgin ND, now in the Canada Western Interim Wheat class, will move to the new CNHR class and the interim class will end, the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) said Friday in a release.

On Aug. 1, 2018, 25 CWRS and four CPSR wheats will move to the CNHR class. Among the CWRS wheats there are some popular varieties, including Harvest and Kane. The CGC had initially planned to move them in 2017, but are delaying it a year to give the industry more time to adjust.

“We want to make it clear that these varieties are not being deregistered, they’re just moving from one class to another,” Daryl Beswitherick, the CGC’s program manager for quality assurance standards, said in an interview.

“Farmers will just need to know what class the wheats are in by 2018. They will still be legal to grow.”

This Aug. 1 the CGC is also eliminating the Canada Western General Purpose (CWGP) and Canada Feed Wheat classes, transferring the varieties from both to the new Canada Western Special Purpose class. Like the CWGP class, the special purpose class does not require end-use quality be assessed as a prerequisite to registration.

The CWGP class was created in 2008 for wheats suited for ethanol production and livestock feed. But it’s also become home for some higher yielding varieties that don’t meet the milling and end-use requirements of other wheat classes.

Marketability also played a role in the switch to the new special purpose class, Beswitherick said. “General purpose” doesn’t sound as appealing as “special purpose.”

Elwin Hermanson, the CGC’s chief commissioner, announced the wheat class review at the Manitoba Seed Growers’ Association annual meeting in December 2014. He explained the goal was to protect and enhance the CWRS and CPSR classes following several years of complaints from some customers about weaker than normal wheat gluten strength.

An investigation concluded that some new CWRS wheats with gluten strength close to the minimum allowed were among the most popular with farmers. In addition poor weather had resulted in even lower gluten strength. The industry has since agreed to tighter gluten strength standards for the CWRS and CPSR classes.

Over the past 12 months Western Canada’s grain industry has been consulted and there is a consensus to make the changes, Beswitherick said.

The new CNHR class opens the door to new varieties with slightly lower protein and gluten strength and higher yields, while protecting the CWRS class.

“The market will determine what farmers grow,” Beswitherick said, alluding to the possibility that some CNHR wheats will earn less per bushel than CWRS varieties but make as much or more because of higher yields.

For example, in 2015 based on crop insurance yields province-wide Prosper, the highest yielding variety that will be in the new CNHR class, averaged 11 bushels an acre or 19 per cent, more than AAC Elie, the highest-yielding CWRS wheat.

More new varieties could be added to the CNHR class as early as this year. In anticipation of of the new class the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale, set up registration trials last year.

Western Canada’s current eight milling wheat classes are as follows: CWRS, CPSR, CPS White, Canada Western Extra Strong, Canada Western Amber Durum, Canada Western Red Winter, Canada Western Soft White and Canada Western Hard White Spring.

The following varieties will be moved from the CWRS and CPSR classes to the CNHR class Aug. 1, 2018.

CWRS: AC Abbey, AC Cora, AC Eatonia, AC Majestic, AC Michael, AC Minto, Alvena, Alikat, CDC Makwa, CDC Osler, Columbus, Conway, Harvest, Kane, Katepwa, Leader, Lillian, McKenzie, Neepawa, Park, Pasqua, Pembina, Thatcher, Unity, 5603HR.

CPSR: AC Formost, AC Taber, Conquer, Oslo.

— Allan Dawson is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator at Miami, Man. Follow him at @allanreporter on Twitter.

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The list (see below) of 25 CWRS and four CPSR varieties includes formerly popular varieties such as Katepwa, Harvest and Kane as well as Neepawa, which was once the check variety for the CWRS class.

“In an evaluation of varieties against the revised quality parameters for the CWRS and CPSR classes, the Canadian Grain Commission determined these varieties do not meet the quality characteristics of their current designated class,” the CGC said in a release.

It also said that it would start a review of up to two years of CWRS and CPSR varieties for which more quality data is needed before a decision about their class designation. They will remain in their designated classes unless the evaluation shows they do not meet the revised quality parameters. At least two years’ notice will be given before any of these varieties are designated to another class, the CGC said.

The changes are part of a “Canadian wheat class modernization” consultation started by the CGC last February. During the consultation, the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale, at its annual meeting, changed the check varieties for Canada Western Red Spring wheat and Canada Prairie Spring Red wheat. Changes came into effect on Feb. 26, 2015.

CWRS check varieties now, depending on region, include Glenn, Carberry, Splendour, BW 965, PT 472 and PT 772. CPSR checks are Glenn, AAC Foray, HY537 and 5700 PR.

The CGC earlier announced creation of an interim wheat class for Faller, Prosper and Elgin ND wheat varieties, effective Aug. 1, 2015.  The CGC said it will consult with stakeholders before deciding whether the class is permanent.

Varieties changing classes effective August 1, 2017

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The Canadian Grain Commission on Friday announced a review of the CWRS and CPSR wheat classes will start immediately, citing “strong support” from the industry, during a consultation period ending April 20, to protect the classes’ “quality, consistency and end-use performance.”

The CGC said it plans to make further decisions on a modernized wheat class system will once it reviews “further information and input regarding market demand” and finds “appropriate” classes into which it will transition any varieties that don’t meet the criteria for CWRS or CPSR.

Letters are headed out to CWRS and CPSR variety owners requesting that they indicate their intentions for their varieties before the end of May, the commission said.

Most stakeholders, during the consultation, said they want the proposed variety transition process from one designated wheat class to another to be “carefully managed, by communicating clear information and procedures to the entire wheat value chain,” the CGC noted Friday.

For varieties shifted to another wheat class, some stakeholders told the CGC, a longer transition period may be needed, giving seed growers the time to exit those varieties and find “suitable replacements.”

The CWRS and CPSR classes today include 81 and 17 varieties respectively.

Wheat varieties Faller and Prosper, which last month picked up interim registration from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, will go in an “interim wheat class” for now, the CGC said Friday.

Generally considered lower-protein and higher-yielding, Faller and Prosper are grown in Western Canada for U.K. bakery firm Warburtons under identity-preserved contracts — but farmers may now also buy certified seed and grow the two American Dark Northern Spring varieties for any buyer, without an IP contract.

The interim class could also include the Elgin-ND hard red spring wheat variety, if it gets CFIA registration. Elgin, developed at North Dakota State University and licensed to FP Genetics for Canadian distribution, was supported for interim registration by the Prairie Grain Development Committee (PGDC).

This move, the CGC said, will allow it to assess the viability of a new wheat class before deciding whether the new class will become permanent.

“Stakeholders advised caution in introducing a new wheat class,” CGC chief commissioner Elwin Hermanson said in a release Friday. “With that in mind, any decision made on a new wheat class will be based on careful study of potential market demand, farm gate value and grade structure.”

The CGC noted “many” stakeholders, during the consultation, wanted a six-month period for a market scan, now being done by Cereals Canada and the Canadian International Grains Institute (CIGI), to be completed before a new wheat class is created. — AGCanada.com Network

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