Grower Funding Key to Oat Research

SASKATOON - Jan 10/07 - SNS -- New research in oat varieties is unlikely to continue for long in Canada without direct grower funding, cautioned Dr. Brian Rossnagel of the University of Saskatchewan Crop Development Centre at the inaugural public meeting of the Saskatchewan Oat Development Council (SODC).

He told farmers attending the meeting that Canada had 11 full time oat breeders a few years ago. But drastic cuts to public funding reduced the number of full time Canadian oat breeders to one and a half. That includes Dr. Rossnagel, who spends half his work time on oat breeding. The other oat researcher is Dr. Jennifer Mitchell Fetch, based at the AAFC Cereal Research Centre in Winnipeg.

Saskatchewan oat-growing farmers began funding the SODC through a fifty cents per metric ton )MT) refundable check off Aug 1, 2006. Interim SODC chair Dwayne Anderson of Fosston, cautions that the amount of money available from the check off will be only a small portion of what is needed to drive oat research and market development.

"But", he said, "it's a start on what many oat growers have been working towards, for years." Farmer members, working with the SODC, have now established that at least 40% of funds which become available through the oat commission should go to research, with another 40% dedicated to market development.

Rossnagel was tandemed with long-time oat market analyst Randy Strychar of Ag Commodity Research, Vancouver, B.C., and noted that by empowering the SODC, farmers will in fact empower growth in the oat industry.

Strychar cautioned farmers to do their own homework and to seek information from multiple sources to make their own decisions, but over all, he is highly bullish on the market prospects for oats. Strychar says the strong demand for corn-sourced ethanol in the United States, combined with near crop wipe-outs in Australia and Scandinavia are the two leading factors currently driving oat prices.

With cash oats running in the CDN $2.40 per bushel Strychar says he would not rule out seeing the trend break through $3.00. "We can't say when that will happen or for sure it will happen," Strychar says, as he emphasizes that the oat market run-up is not driven by oats, but by other market forces.