36 GERMINATION.CA JULY 2018 end-use functionality work, and it was deemed that there were an additional five varieties that don’t meet the qual- ity parameters.” Quality parameters for the wheat classes are set by the quality evaluation team at the Variety Registration Committee, which is made up of an industry group including producers, seed growers, end-use custom- ers and millers, representing the whole value chain, Beswitherick explains. The committee makes these decisions based on feedback from Canada’s international wheat customers. Again, producers will have three years to adjust to the changes before they take effect. “Producers have until Aug. 1, 2021 to make their decisions as to whether they want to keep growing these varieties or clear them out of their handling system,” says Beswitherick. And for the foreseeable future, producers won’t have to brace themselves for any more reclassifications. Beswitherick says that although the CGC is currently doing a review of the quality parameter tests, the process has been “fixed” and new varieties will receive the correct classification. “There was a period where there were a number of varieties that weren’t evaluated as well as they should have been, but going forward they will be, so the prob- lem shouldn’t reoccur,” he says. Why the Change? Currently our top markets overseas are Japan and Indonesia, followed closely by the United States. Peru, Bangladesh, Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria and China all bring in significant quantities of Canadian wheat. According to Lisa Nemeth, director of international markets at the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi), when complaints initially arose from international customers over CWRS gluten strength, the industry took them extremely seriously. The reason? CWRS wheat is prized specifically for its gluten strength and is added to lower-quality product to ensure consistency in high-volume bread products. For comparison’s sake, Nemeth says Black Sea wheat is typi- cally around the 10 to 11 per cent protein level for winter wheat, where Canada’s CWRS wheat is around the 13 to 14 per cent protein level on average. Our top competitors are Australia and the U.S. in terms of gluten strength, but CWRS has a different protein qual- ity that customers have adapted to for their processes. For maintaining the health of our export markets over the long term, consistency is key, says Nemeth. “You want the varieties in CWRS to have a certain gluten strength so that shipment by shipment, no matter where the product is being drawn, it will have the strength to meet custom- ers’ needs.” But Canada maintained customers during the time of the gluten strength issue, she says, and since the changes started to take effect it’s become a non-issue. “On the last missions that we were on we had no specific questions on gluten strength. This process has seemed to address that issue, so that’s a good news story for quality,” she says. How will it Affect Producers? First things first: wheat class modernization will impact producers price-wise if they wish to continue growing AAC Redwater, Muchmore or the other downgraded varie- ties past 2021. How much, it’s hard to say. According to Derek Brewin, associate professor and head of the Department of Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics at the University of Manitoba, AC Domain, AAC Redwater, 5605 HR and Muchmore were seeded on over 95,000 acres in Manitoba in 2017. “There will be a cost to farmers who have seeds that were dropped down to Northern this year, but they have three years to adjust, which greatly mitigates that cost,” he says. Rick Steinke, Canadian grains manager at Archer Daniels Midland Company, says that for CWRS varie- ties now classified as CNHR, the main price determining factor is protein, but the value of the product is a function of global supply and demand. “Traditional CNHR varieties (Elgin, Faller, and Prosper) are normally one per cent lower in protein and result in a lower market price. The value of protein in spring wheat varies from year to year and will depend on global supply and demand realities in 2018,” says Steinke. But he adds that farmers typically receive a higher yield on CNHR compared to CWRS, which might offset the price impact. Lisa Nemeth, director of international markets at the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi).