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BY SEAN PRATT
SASKATOON NEWSROOM
Millers are increasingly relying on
Canadian wheat and oats as corn and
soybeans devour acres across the
United States.
Traditional cereal growing states
such as Kansas, the Dakotas and
Minnesota are succumbing to the
corn and soybean tide.
“All of the wheat and oats is being
pushed in a northwesterly vector up
into Canada, and I expect that’s not
only going to continue but probably
accelerate,” Jim Bair, vice-president of
the North American Millers’ Association,
told the Prairie Oat Growers Association
(POGA) convention Dec. 6.
New drought tolerant corn hybrids
performed well in Nebraska and the
Dakotas last year, leading Bair to
believe more wheat and oat acres will
soon be lost in the U.S. to more profitable
crops.
His presentation included a chart
showing that U.S. oat production has
fallen below a million tonnes, down
from 16.7 million tonnes in 1960.
“Virtually every year for the last 30
years, with a couple of exceptions,
we’ve set a new record low in oat production
in the United States,” he said.
Almost all of what is produced in
the U.S. goes into feed markets.
“I’m trying to underscore the importance
of you folks to the U.S. and Cana-
dian milling industries,” said Bair.
In an interview following his presentation,
Bair said Canadian producers
must take up the slack in U.S.
production because food companies
want more oats. Consumption has
been increasing by about five percent
a year.
“Demand is very strong,” he said.
“People are starting to recognize the
heart healthy benefit of oats. It was the
first food in the U.S. that was allowed
to make a heart healthy claim.”
The crop is particularly appealing
these days because the shaky economy
is prompting many U.S. families
to try reducing their grocery bills.
NEWS
CROPS | MARKETS
Millers tapping more Canadian crops
Wheat, oat acres falling in U.S. | Corn, soybeans more popular south of the border
Food companies are looking for more
oat crops — and Canada is positioned
to supply them. | FILE PHOTO
“Not only is it heart healthy, but it’s
an inexpensive food,” said Bair.
Private commercial oat breeding programs
are nonexistent in the U.S, which
is why NAMA contributed $510,000 to
the North American Collaborative Oat
Research Enterprise. The genetic mapping
research initiative is aimed at identifying
beneficial traits that can be bred
into new oat lines.
“We’re looking at all kinds of things
from increased yields to rust resistance
to looking at the heart healthy
components,” said Bair.
He said the project has been successful
and should put plenty of new
beneficial oat lines in the hands of
producers over the next 10 years.
“That’s going to be super important
to keep oats as a competitive crop,” he
said.
Millers are nervous that the corn
and soybean acreage blitzkrieg taking
place in the U.S. will spill across
the border into Canada. It’s already
happening in Manitoba, where oats
are losing ground to the big two.
“We’re looking at that picture and
saying, ‘look, we better get out in front
of this train and compete and develop
some oat varieties that will make reasonable
crop options for farmers and
at least be in the game,’ ” said Bair.
The goal is to develop lines that will
deliver increased profitability for
producers and improved health
attributes for the milling industry.
THE WESTERN PRODUCER | WWW.PRODUCER.COM | DECEMBER 13, 2012
Centennial Column
Celebrating 100 years of students at the College of Agriculture
and Bioresources. The Centennial Column is a weekly feature
highlighting the history and present successes of the college.
Wild Boar
Unseen Menace
“Many people in the province simply don’t believe we have a problem
with feral wild boars,” says Ryan Brook, an assistant professor in the
Department of Animal and Poultry Science.
“You often hear people say they would never be able to survive
Saskatchewan winters in the wild. But they are doing very, very well in this
province.”
In this case, ‘very well’ is very bad. Just ask a farmer or naturalist in
Texas, home to about half of the four million feral wild boars in the U.S.
“Feral wild boars are a massive problem in Texas, California, and many
other states,” says Brook. “In Texas alone, the damage to agricultural
crops is $50 million a year. That doesn’t count the $7 million they spend
trying to control their numbers or the ecological damage. They’re a
rooting animal, and people say when they get into wetlands, it looks as if
a giant rototiller has gone through the landscape.”
Wild boars, native to Europe and much of Asia, were introduced to
North America by Spanish explorers in the 17th century. They came north
in the 1970s and 1980s when the fi rst commercial domesticated wild
boar farms were set up. Escapees had no problem adapting to their new
northern home.
“In the last fi ve years, there have been sightings across the province
from Prince Albert and the tree line in the north all the way to the U.S.
border. But we don’t really have a handle on how many there are.”
There’s a good reason for that. Despite their size and the damage they
can cause – one farmer next to Moose Mountain park lost 15 acres of
oats to wild boars in just two days – these highly intelligent animals are
amazing elusive. They are most active in the evening and early morning,
and use their keen sense of smell to both search for food and avoid any
humans.
Brook has obtained some funding from the Cyril Capling Trust Fund,
NSERC, and the University of Saskatchewan for a limited investigation to
see how many wild boars are in Saskatchewan. Cameras were set up in 17
locations around the province this spring, and while the research provides
insights in boar populations and behaviour at these sites, it truly is just a
snapshot of what’s going on.
“The key thing is getting the right people at the table and launching
a coordinated effort between many groups,” he says. “You also need
the will to do something. When you’re dealing with an animal that
reproduces at this rate, a go-slow approach is not going to have any
benefi t.”
“When you look at the crop losses, disease potential, the environmental
damage, and the rest, this critter could conceivably become the biggest
species of concern in our province.”
www.agbio.usask.ca
Novozymes BioAg congratulates the College of Agriculture and
Bioresources on their 100th anniversary.
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