In a note pinned to the top of the program’s official website, the CGC noted that the strike was causing mail delays with the program.

Farmers were urged to, if possible, deliver their samples directly to the CGC, either at their head office in downtown Winnipeg, another CGC office or service centre, or another approved drop off site.

Service centres are located in British Columbia (Prince Rupert), Alberta (Calgary); Saskatchewan (Saskatoon and Weyburn), Manitoba (Churchill), Ontario (Thunder Bay and Hamilton) and Québec (Baie-Comeau and Québec City). Western and eastern regional offices can be found in Vancouver and Montréal, respectively. A full list, phone numbers and addresses can be found on the CGC’s webpage through the Government of Canada website.

“Please contact the office or service centre you’re visiting to confirm they have a sample drop off box available,” the website advises.

Besides CGC offices, drop off sites have been arranged at the following locations:

• BroadGrain Commodities Inc. – Dafoe, Sask.
• Bunge – Lethbridge County, Alta.
• All Paterson Grain elevators in Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba
• Sakai Spice – Lethbridge, Alta.

Farmers may also choose to keep their sample until the strike ends, the CGC said.

On Oct. 10, Canada Post said that mail service would resume after the Thanksgiving long weekend, as they moved to rotating, rather than nationwide, strikes.

The last day to mail samples is Nov. 30, 2025. Dec. 31, 2025 is the last day for any samples to be included in this year’s Harvest Sample Program.

Testing for quality

The cross-country Harvest Sample Program is a voluntary initiative for testing a host of quality factors across a range of crops.

For each sample, inspectors provide unofficial grade and quality results at no charge, including:

• Falling number for wheat and rye,
• Vomitoxin (deoxynivalenol or DON) levels for wheat, corn, barley and oats,
• Dockage assessment on canola and mustard seed,
• Protein content on barley, beans, chickpeas, lentils, oats, peas and wheat,
• Oil, protein and chlorophyll content for canola,
• Oil and protein content and iodine value for flaxseed, and
• Oil and protein for mustard seed and soybeans.

A CGC inspection supervisor said producer participants appear to be taking the inconvenience in stride.

“There hasn’t been a lot of complaints or anything. I haven’t heard one complaint,” said Judy Elias with the Weyburn, Sask., service centre.

“We’re all used to strikes, so there’s just new ways to do old business.”

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The organization’s final quality determination program allows producers to opt for a reassessment by the commission, should they disagree with the elevator-given grade. According to a recent federal release, the determination is based on a representative sample of grain the elevator operator is required to take upon delivery.

The operator will store the sample — which needs to weigh at least one kilogram — for seven days after an elevator receipt is provided to the producer. However, some elevators may allow producers to store samples themselves.

Farmers have seven days to request a reassessment. Once received, the operator is responsible for properly labelling the sample container, completing the request form and sending the sample and completed form to the nearest CGC service centre. The elevator is also responsible for the cost of the reassessment.

The elevator might give the farmers an interim elevator receipt after they request an final quality determination. If not, the producer should keep the original receipt received upon grain delivery.

Producers can request a reassessment either for their grain’s official grade or individual grading factors including moisture, protein and dockage.

Upon reassessment, the commission will send the producer and the elevator operator a submitted sample certificate.

The operator then exchanges the original elevator receipt for a new receipt, a cash purchase ticket or a cheque stating the CGC inspection results.

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The Canadian Grain Commission on Oct. 3 announced amendments to the Canada Grain Regulations are now in effect allowing grain growers more time — seven calendar days, to be exact — to ask for the CGC to make a “final quality determination” on their grain.

Farmers have long been allowed to ask for those determinations — a process formerly known as “Subject to Inspector’s Grade and Dockage” — in the event of a dispute on their deliveries into CGC-licensed primary elevators.

Under the Canada Grain Act, farmers who disagree with the licensed elevator’s assessment have the right to ask for a sample to be sent to the CGC for a binding decision on that delivery’s grade and dockage.

Until now, however, that process required that a farmer had to request binding determination right at the time of delivery.

Apart from spotting producers the new seven-day window, the amendments made to sections 34 and 36 of the Grain Regulations also remove the obligation for a sample to be taken in the presence of the person delivering the grain, unless the producer asks to be present.

The CGC on Oct. 3 said the new amendments also clarify how long samples must be stored and allow “more flexibility for producers and elevator operators to decide who will store delivery samples and where.”

CGC chief commissioner Doug Chorney on Oct. 3 described final quality determination as an “important producer right,” and said the rules now reflect “the realities of today’s grain sector.”

The amendments, he noted, are in response to feedback received during the federal government’s ongoing Grain Act review. The changes now in place were first proposed back in December and were subject to an 11-week public consultation that ran through to the end of February.

The CGC in December noted “grain delivery and handling processes have changed. Producers are often not present when their grain is delivered to the licensed primary elevator. Third parties, such as commercial truck drivers, are increasingly being hired to deliver grain into the licensed elevator system.”

In its consultations, the federal government said, “many suggested that somewhere between five to 14 business days was an appropriate window of eligibility” in which a farmer could launch the dispute process.

The government acknowledged in August last year that these aren’t the only changes farmers have sought to the “Subject to Inspector’s Grade and Dockage” process during its Grain Act consultations.

For example, the government said at the time, “many” respondents also want to see an expansion of the quality characteristics eligible for such assessments — because grain contracts are “increasingly specifying non-grade factors” such as deoxynivalenol (DON) level and falling number for wheat.

Farmers had also said they’d like to see their right to access binding determination expanded to include “other classes of CGC licensees,” such as processing elevators and grain dealers. More processing facilities have been going up on the Prairies in recent years, farmers said in the consultations, and more such plants are on the way. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Grain Act and its regulations provide the framework for Canada’s grain quality assurance system and it’s the CGC that administers the act.

The English-language Webex webinar goes from 12:30 p.m. (CT) to 2 p.m. on April 23. Farmers can register here.

The review started about two years ago.

“The Canada Grain Act sets out the objectives and functions of the Canadian Grain Commission, which is responsible for regulating grain quality and handling in Canada to ensure a dependable commodity for domestic and export markets,” the federal government says in a discussion paper on the review.

“The Canadian Grain Commission delivers programs and services to establish and maintain Canada’s science-based grain grading system and provide various safeguards for grain farmers.”

The paper highlights the following issues that could be of special interest to farmers:

• Access to binding determination of grade and dockage: Binding determination is intended to be an independent dispute resolution mechanism when a producer and buyer disagree on grade or dockage. Are there any gaps between the current system and what is needed?
• Producer payment protection: The program is intended to help ensure producers are protected against a buyer’s failure to pay for grain, in a cost-effective manner that fairly allocates risk. Can the program be improved to better meet the needs of the sector?
• CGC licensing: The licensing system for elevators and grain dealers is designed as a framework for establishing and maintaining Canada’s grain quality assurance system, while also safeguarding producers and enabling data collection. Does the existing licensing approach meet the sector’s needs?
• Official inspection and weighing: The system of inspection, weighing, and certification of grain for export is intended to help ensure there is dependable Canadian grain for domestic and export markets. Are there ways the system could better meet the sector’s needs? Currently it’s mandatory for the CGC to weigh and grade Canadian grain exported by ship — a process is referred to as ‘outward inspection.’

The Western Grain Elevator Association (WGEA), which represents Canada’s main grain companies, wants to be able to use private grain inspectors, with CGC accreditation, instead.

The WGEA says it already uses private inspectors in part because grain buyers use the same inspecting companies when they received the grain.

Eliminating CGC inspection would save money, the association says.

But some farmer are wary noting the CGC is independent and its oversight assures the integrity of Canadian grain, renowned for its quality and consistency.

— Allan Dawson is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator at Miami, Man.

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Bill C-4, the implementing legislation for the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), passed second reading Feb. 6 and came back without amendment Feb. 27 from the Commons standing committee on international trade.

While C-4 is meant to amend various laws for CUSMA compliance, the NFU says the bill’s proposed changes to the Canada Grain Act “go beyond what is required” and would make “substantive changes to Canada’s grain quality control system.”

The CUSMA pact, as signed in Mexico City in December, has just four clauses relating to grain, only two of which call for changes to the Grain Act, the NFU said in a release Friday.

Those two clauses, the association said, would provide grades to U.S.-grown wheat according to the same quality standards and handling it as if it were Canadian-grown wheat.

However. the NFU said, C-4 goes further than CUSMA calls for, by amending the Grain Act so all U.S.-grown grains, not just wheat, would “become equivalent to Canadian-grown upon delivery into Canada’s grain handling system.”

In so doing, the association said, C-4 would allow grain companies to “increase their ability to use U.S.-grown grain to weaken prices paid to Canadian farmers by purchasing lower-priced American grain grown under U.S. Farm Bill subsidies.”

In its form at first reading, C-4 calls for the repeal of the Grain Act’s definition of “foreign grain,” replacing it with a definition of “imported grain” as “any grain grown outside Canada or the United States and includes screenings from such a grain and every grain product manufactured or processed from such a grain.”

C-4, the NFU said, would also “weaken (Canadian Grain Commission) authority to decide what constitutes contaminated or adulterated grain” and would make issuance of official export certificates “optional.”

The bill at first reading repeals the Grain Act’s current definition of “contaminated grain,” instead deeming grain to be contaminated “if the grain contains any substance in sufficient quantity that the grain is either… adulterated for the purposes of the Food and Drugs Act; or… contaminated within the meaning of the regulations made under section 51 of the Safe Foods for Canadians Act.”

C-4, the NFU said, would also “enable regulations that will allow inspectors to confer Canadian grades” on grain grown outside of both Canada and the U.S.

The bill, in its first-reading form, allows for the CGC to be able to issue “any certificate or other document setting out any information that the Commission considers necessary to facilitate the export of any grain.”

“As it stands, Bill C-4 is a Trojan Horse designed to make it easier for grain companies to pay farmers less for their grain,” NFU second vice-president Stewart Wells said in Friday’s release.

Fast-tracking C-4 “just weeks before planned consultations on revisions to the Canada Grain Act is an end-run around the public process that sidelines farmers and is contrary to the government’s claimed commitment to transparency,” he said.

That’s a reference to a review of the Grain Act, announced in March last year, to be conducted by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said last month the process for that review “is still taking shape” but added the government remains “committed to holding consultations in order to hear from grain farmers, stakeholders and parliamentarians.”

The NFU, Wells said, is calling on Bibeau “to do the right thing and correct these mistakes (in C-4) before the final vote.” –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“We are seeing a bit of a shortage of trucks,” said Tracy Green of Market Master Ltd. in Edmonton, adding “things are still moving, just a lot of our truckers are booked right up.”

The end of the strike at Canadian National Railway (CN) will help the overall transportation situation, she added.

The logistics tightness did see feed prices rise over the past few weeks, with feed barley trading at about $235 per tonne delivered into the key Lethbridge feeding area.

Buyers were also short on contracts, due to the large amounts of tough grain coming off the field that needed to be dried.

Green said prices were leveling off now, as the higher prices have feedlots reverting to buying on a hand-to-mouth basis.

Demand typically increases over the winter months, as cattle eat more when the temperatures drop. However, farmer selling also picks up around the New Year as producers sell into the new tax year. Green expected those two conflicting forces would keep some stability in the market.

Beyond the supply/demand fundamentals, quality of the grain could become a larger concern going forward. Green said more ergot was showing up in feed wheat samples this year than normal, which will lead to downgrades and possible rejections if the levels are too high.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin reports for MarketsFarm, a Glacier FarmMedia division specializing in grain and commodity market analysis and reporting.

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The Canadian Grain Commission on Monday put out a call for “grain sector stakeholders” to submit their views before May 10 on a proposal for falling number and deoxynivalenol (DON) to both become official grain grading factors.

Testing for falling number and for DON has “escalated” in importance “due to increasing buyer demand for wheat purchases by specification,” the CGC said in its consultation document.

Both of those specifications “increasingly play a critical role in grain contracts and the assessment and price that grain sector participants, including producers, receive for their grain.”

Also, advances in technology now allow direct testing for both characteristics, using methods that “are increasingly accessible to the sector,” the CGC said.

The commission, in its consultation, wants to know whether stakeholders support use of falling number and DON as grading factors, and what the impacts would be for those stakeholders if those factors are added.

From the grower’s standpoint, adding falling number and DON as official grading factors could lead to “greater price transparency,” the CGC said.

Producers have no visual means of assessing falling number or DON values themselves, “but these specifications often play a critical role in the assessment of, and price received for, grain deliveries.”

A falling number test, done by passing a plunger through a sample of ground wheat mixed with water, is used to gauge sprout damage in wheat by measuring viscosity — an indicator of elevated levels of the enzyme alpha-amylase.

The level of alpha-amylase in wheat kernels rises in response to hormones triggered by germination and leads to lower viscosity and a lower falling number. A falling number of around 300 seconds shows wheat is of sound end-use quality for most milling, bread baking and pasta making processes.

For official grading purposes, the CGC instead visually assesses whether grain is sprouted or severely sprouted as “rapid, low-cost proxies” for alpha-amylase activity or falling number.

Apart from the official grade, however, the grain industry often uses falling number as a specification in sales contracts with buyers of Canadian wheat. Visual assessment of sprout damage alone doesn’t accurately reflect actual alpha-amylase levels in grain, the CGC said.

DON, or vomitoxin, is produced in grain infected by certain types of fusarium head blight, a fungal disease of wheat, barley, oats, rye, and corn which produces shrivelled, chalky white kernels.

For official grading, the CGC visually inspects grain for fusarium-damaged kernels (FDK) to gauge DON levels. FDK, however, isn’t a precise predictor of DON levels and “may not ensure sufficient accuracy for grain contracts with defined DON specifications,” the commission said in its consultation document.

In the document, the CGC proposes to add falling number as an official grading factor and set a minimum falling number level that applies to all grades within a class. It would also consider removing the existing “sprouted” and “severely sprouted” kernel official grading factors.

The commission also proposes to add DON as an official grading factor with a maximum allowable level that applies to all grades within a class. FDK would remain an official grading factor, though, since fusarium has “other significant end-use quality impacts” apart from DON level.

Falling number and DON grading factors “would not take precedence over other official grading factors,” the commission proposes. Other grading factors such as mildew, frost and percentage of hard vitreous kernels (HVK) “would continue to apply.”

Before any official changes are made to CGC grading factors, the Eastern and Western Standards Committees would also be required to conduct “a careful review and consideration,” the commission said.

Some grain sector groups have pressed for years to add DON and falling number measurements in official grading. The Alberta Wheat Commission made such a request in 2016.

“We may not be getting paid for the quality that we are getting if you’re not measuring those things because we are using (visual) proxies” instead of objective measurements, Kevin Auch, AWC’s chair at the time, told the Manitoba Co-operator.

“We don’t want them to do anything that is impossible, but there is an objective measure for something that millers do care about and feeders too (when it comes to DON).” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“The question is when will it be marketable? When will it be out of the field and in condition to market?” said Allen Pirness of Market Place Commodities in Lethbridge.

Wet weather over the last few weeks has stalled harvest progress across parts of the Prairies, and with snow falling in parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba during the first week of October, the quality of wheat and barley left sitting in fields continues to deteriorate.

As it deteriorates, more of the crops are ending up in the feed grain category.

The latest crop report from the Alberta government said that as of Sept. 25, only 35 per cent of the provincial spring wheat crop was harvested and 42.7 per cent of the barley crop in the bin. Harvest progress had basically stalled during the week across the province.

Cheap corn from the U.S. has also been making its way into Alberta feedlots lately, which is helping to keep a lid on prices. Feed barley, feed wheat and corn are all sitting around the $245 per tonne mark, according to Pirness.

The corn price “doesn’t allow for barley and wheat to get too much above corn, or else we’ll just see a bigger replacement,” he said.

The snow is causing some issues for grain deliveries, according to Pirness. Overall, however, it isn’t affecting the market much right now.

“There’s some near-term demand where stuff can’t show up and they’re buying what they can to make it through until stuff starts showing up more regularly. It’s not critical; there still seems to be enough grain getting to market,” Pirness said.

— Ashley Robinson writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

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“Farmers keep asking if there’s a lot of grain out there, and that’s not really the main reason markets are falling off,” said Jared Seitz of Agfinity Inc., an Alberta-based online brokerage.

Farmers are eager to sell feed wheat and barley in order to free up bin space for new crop, he said, which is proving difficult in a market where there’s already grain to work through.

Feed barley is going for about $150-$155 delivered per tonne in Calgary through to Lethbridge. Old-crop feed wheat is between $180 and $190 per tonne.

Seitz said he expects those prices to stay into late October and the beginning of November.

Heavy precipitation this summer has lent itself to quality issues in the Canadian grain crop, which could add additional pressure to the feed wheat and barley markets.

“As a long-term thing there’s just going to be more feed grain to work through,” Seitz said.

Demand for grain that is available to move has been consistent, which means buyers are willing to pay better prices for old-crop loads, he said.

“That demand is for anything that can actually ship when needed.”

— Jade Markus writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

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Russian food safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor and the Chinese government body in charge of quality control signed two food safety documents on Russian wheat, corn (maize), rapeseed, soybean and rice supplies at a ceremony in Beijing.

The documents were signed along with other deals during Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to China, the Russian government press service told Reuters.

Interfax news agency said the Rosselkhoznadzor head Sergei Dankvert had previously said these agreements would open up the Chinese market for Russian wheat. Russia has been in talks on supplying grain to China for several years.

But one Moscow-based trader said the agreements signed on Thursday would make only small volumes of grain from Russia competitive in China.

China has agreed to allow Russian wheat supplies only from several Siberian regions — the Altai, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk and Omsk, Rosselkhoznadzor representative Yuliya Melano told Reuters.

Melano said China had originally asked for wheat supplies in bags only, but Russia has managed to remove this condition.

Supplies of corn, rapeseed, soybean and rice are now allowed from Russia’s far east regions, including Khabarovsk, Primorsk, Baikal and Amur, she also said.

“These moves will lead to some supplies but they will be small,” the Moscow-based trader said. He said that the agreements would provide some additional demand for Russia’s grain in Siberia.

Russia is currently one of the world’s largest wheat exporters to North Africa and the Middle East and its key wheat exporting and producing regions are based in the south of the country. Russia is expected to get a bumper crop of more than 100 million tonnes for the third year in a row in 2016.

— Reporting for Reuters by Olesya Astakhova and Polina Devitt.

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