SFSDC Annual General Meeting 2015

The SFSDC Annual General Meeting was held on December 2, 2014 in Nipawin, SK.

David Maxwell, Chair welcomed the group and provided his report for the year. Three new Directors joined the Board. They are Denton Peifer, Morley Doerksen and Bill Biligetu.

Special thanks go to Roger Kirk, Randy Tulloch, Clayton Myhre, and Bruce Coulman who retired from the Board after nine years of service and were presented with Certificates of Appreciation.

Ray McVicar, Executive Director provided a report on the Commission’s activities. The Audited Financial Report for 2013-2014 was reviewed. The 2014-2015 Budget and list of planned activities for the new year were presented by James Silcox. The Auditor for 2014-2015, Milton & Associates, Regina, SK was appointed.

Highlights of 2013-2014 included:

• An increase in both the forage seed levy ($56,931) and the number of levy payers (176). The increase in the levy was due in part to a good crop in many areas in 2013 and strong prices for most forage seed. There has also been an increase in acres planted over the past year as long-time and new growers have seen canola and wheat drop and demand stay strong for forages.

• A total of 3.6 Million kg of forage seed (excluding alfalfa seed) was purchased from Saskatchewan growers in 2013-2014 with a value of $7.9 Million.

• Terry Kowalchuk, Provincial Forage Specialist joined the Board as Ex-Officio Director.

• We continued to look at potential minor use herbicides on nine established forage seed crops at the Melfort NARF site. Products were donated by BASF Canada, Dow AgroSciences, Bayer CropScience, Nufarm Agriculture, Syngenta Canada, DuPont Canada, and DLF-Pickseed. BASF Canada provided a financial contribution to the project.

• Encouraging results in the 2013 copper trial led us to carry out a more in-depth project on copper fertility in 2014 with more products and sites. Products were provided by Yara International and Nexus Ag.

• The Commission applied to Saskatchewan Agriculture’s Agricultural Demonstration of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT) program, and was successful in receiving support for 5 new projects at the NARF site. These are:

  • Controlling Noxious Weeds & Improving Seed Quality in Established Forage Legume Crops;

  • Controlling Noxious Weeds & Improving Seed Quality in Established Forage Grass Crops;

  • Demonstrating the Proper Application of a Desiccant on Red Clover Seed Crops;

  • Management Options to Control Lesser Clover Leaf Weevil in Red Clover; and

  • Evaluating the Placement of Companion Crops in Forage Seed Production.

• We continued to partner with the University of Alberta by providing $1,000 in 2013-2014 to complete their research on “Pheromone-Mediated Mating Disruption for red clover casebearer.” The final report can be found on the SFSDC website.

• The fertility project “Improving Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Forage Seed Production” led by Dr. Fran Walley at the University of Saskatchewan is now winding up. The final report is expected out in March 2015.

• Starting in 2013-2014, SFSDC provided $5,000 per year for three years to the Saskatchewan Forage Network with the objective of increasing the amount of forage crop research at the University of Saskatchewan. The Network has now begun to allocate a total of $43,000 per year towards Masters or Post-Doctorate student projects on forage research, scheduled to start in 2015.

• A new display banner was produced and the SFSDC information brochure was revised with the financial support of Saskatchewan Agriculture. The display banner and brochure will be used to promote the forage seed industry and the activities of SFSDC at trade shows, field days and grower meetings. This is the first time SFSDC has had a display. The previous brochure was published in 2005.

• The research field day was held at Melfort in July 2014. We joined the NARF plot tour for much of the day and then held our Forage Seed Mini-Tour in the late afternoon to focus on our research program.

• Joined Forage Seed Canada in 2014 with the objective to better coordinate our efforts with the other forage seed grower organizations in the Prairies.

Thank you to those who attended the AGM, as well as our levy payers and forage seed buyers for their support of the Commission’s activities.