The Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) is getting the word out about its Harvest Sample Program.
The program encourages producers to send in a grain sample to the Commission for grading, at no cost, then receive a preliminary report from the CGC that includes the grade and other relevant information of the sample. Farmers can then use the grade as a marketing tool when selling grain.
Kerri Pleskach, the Program Manager of Analytical Services for the CGC, says farmers wanting to participate can reach out to them by phone, email, or in person at their booth at one of the many farm shows throughout the year.
"When they sign up, they would let us know what crops they're growing. We would make a package in the coming months here that would have different envelopes in it based on what crops they're growing and then they'll receive this package in the mail in July or August. Then once they harvest their crops, they fill up the envelope with what they've grown and then drop it in the mail. And the shipping is paid by us, so again, no cost.
Once we receive the samples here at the CGC in Winnipeg, the samples get cleaned, inspected, and then the inspection results are entered into one of our applications. The producers will get an automatic email if they've given us their email with a preliminary report of their grade as well as any degrading factors that may be associated with their sample. These results are unofficial as the sample is not collected by an inspector, and then once we complete all of the analysis on the samples, they'll get a final report with their information, and they could use this information to help market their grain.
If they don't have an email with us, they'll have to call us for their results or they can go online and get the results online. And then different commodities get different analysis done on them, so depending on what they send us will depend on the different analysis that they get."
The envelope producers receive after signing up are colour-coded based on the commodity and can hold up to one kilogram. She says it takes one week to analyze after receiving the sample.
She says they get thousands of samples each year.
"So you can imagine at certain times we are swamped with samples, so it takes us a little longer to process, but we hit our service standard 99% of the time, so within 20 business days they'll get their final report. We hire 12 to 14 term staff to help us out with the program, and we can get anywhere from 9,000 to 16,000 samples a year that we're processing, and it just all depends on the year."
The Harvest Sample Program also benefits the Commission, said Pleskach.
"Each year we publish grain harvest quality reports, and that's based on the scientific analysis of these samples, and it helps market and promote domestic and international sales of Canadian grain. It also gives us a chance to conduct research on the grading factors to ensure the grading factor tolerances reflect the impact of end-use functionality, and we also use leftover samples for different research to help mitigate grain quality or grain safety issues and to help us develop new scientific methods or sampling to help us improve."
The CGC is promoting the program through producer organizations, on social media, and word-of-mouth.