WINNIPEG, Man. — Packed into one ballroom in a Winnipeg hotel were most of North America’s key players in the oats industry, from processors, marketers, millers, grain handlers, and, yes indeed, farmers.
It was the Prairie Oat Growers Association annual meeting last week and I covered it for half a day, with my colleague Robert Arnason covering the other half.
I marvel at high-performing organizations like this and a bigger version — the Canola Council of Canada — that effectively bring together the vast array of interests in these crucial crops industries.
In that room, you could have chatted with the most important oats buyers on the continent. They were around at the coffee breaks, happy to talk.
You could have asked the world’s leading oats market analyst, Randy Strychar, whatever burning questions you had. He was there for the day.
You could have talked to farmers from across Western Canada, who farm in different soil zones and with different buyers to deal with.
If you wanted to chew the fat with Manitoba’s agriculture minister, Ron Kostyshyn, he was there, not just giving a speech but also staying for lunch, sitting among oat growers and learning about this booming Canada-based industry.
At my table, I had the chance to talk with Jill and Carley of Timac Agro about their company’s crop supplement, which is based on something extracted from seaweed growing near St. Malo, France. Interesting, huh?
That’s not something I would have known anything about if I hadn’t been there, sitting at a table with strangers.
This is the stuff that happens at industry meetings, but which too few farmers take advantage of. Kostyshyn noted that Manitoba alone has about 2,500 oat growers, with 10,000 in Western Canada. There weren’t too many of them at the convention, perhaps a few dozen.
Most of these farmer-led organizations rely upon a few dozen dedicated producers in each province. At this meeting, eastern Manitoba farmer Jenneth Johanson was recognized for her service since 2019 as POGA president. She took on the position just before the pandemic struck and dealt with all the demands that go with it. This summer that included flying to Rome, Italy, for a Food and Agriculture Organization meeting, which sounds more fun that it is in the middle of a growing season.
Brad Boettger has now taken on the president’s role and he’ll be flying to meetings in Ottawa and elsewhere to make sure oat growers’ interests aren’t ignored.
In this column, I’ve argued that every extended farming family should have one member who joins these sorts of organizations and does their civic farming duty. Some of these organizations work well. They’d benefit from more farmers sharing the load.
For the organizations that don’t work well, they’d benefit from new blood with fresh ideas and energy.
I’m glad that most of you rely upon media like The Western Producer to become informed about what goes on at these meetings. That gives me a job and our organization a purpose.
But I’d sure like to see more of you at these events and involved in these organizations.
Farmers’ industries are vitally important and these farm groups will not operate well without your involvement.
It doesn’t have to be daunting. Some farmers just join organizations, attend a few meetings, meet some fascinating people, learn some stuff and leave it at that.
For any of you thinking of getting aboard one of these farmer-based organizations, why not try it? Sign up to attend a convention, go, chat with some folks, and see how it goes.
Who knows? Maybe you’ll like it and end up running the thing. From what I’ve seen from covering these organizations over the decades, that’s where new farm leadership comes from.
