MORE SPACE MORE TECH
LONG GUN
REGISTRY GONE Dealers welcome end to controversial registry but overall reaction muted » PAGE 3
MAY 31, 2012
Food Develpment Centre expands with increased space and equipment » PAGE 12
SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | VOL. 70, NO. 22
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MANITOBACOOPERATOR.CA
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BIOBLENDING a path to growth
By Shannon VanRaes
A Manitoba short line railway has been nationally recognized for its innovative solution to blending biodiesel
CO-OPERATOR STAFF
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entral Manitoba Railway (CEMR) didn’t plan to get into biofuel blending — until it saw a good business opportunity headed the wrong way down the tracks. “The railway is a mature business and we’re a short line with 120 miles of track, so where do we grow our business?” said CEMR’s assistant general manager, Sean Crick. The answer to that question was transloading fuel and blending in biodiesel so that Manitoba fuel suppliers could comply with new biofuel regulations. Changes to Manitoba’s Biofuels Act in 2010 meant all diesel fuel sold in the province would be required to contain 2.5 per cent biodiesel. See BIOBLENDING on page 6 »
Central Manitoba Railway’s assistant general manager, Sean Crick, stands in front of the railway’s mobile blending unit in Winnipeg. PHOTO: SHANNON VANRAES
KAP questions checkoff administrator The Alberta Barley Commission will have the authority to decide who gets farmer funds and how much By Allan Dawson CO-OPERATOR STAFF
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T
he Keystone Agricultural Producers is miffed over a federal decision to appoint the Alberta Barley Commission as administrator for the new interim checkoff on western wheat and barley. “I can’t see why KAP couldn’t have handled it or why the Canola Growers or Corn Growers couldn’t,” KAP president Doug Chorney said in an interview last week. “I don’t really see the rationale... unless there’s something they have in terms of experience that I don’t know about.”
Chorney was even more concerned after learning the barley commission “would have the authority to determine which organizations would receive the checkoff funds, and how much they would receive,” according to a federal government website (http://www.gazette.gc.ca/ rp-pr/p1/2012/2012-05-26/ html/reg1-eng.html). Chorney said he wonders why Levy Central didn’t get the job since it is collecting the new checkoffs on behalf of the commission. Levy Central, overseen by the Agriculture Council of Saskatchewan Inc., handles
checkoffs for nine organizations across the West. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says the new checkoffs — 48 cents per tonne on wheat and 56 cents per tonne on barley — are intended to replace the checkoffs now administered by the Canadian Wheat Board on behalf of the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF), as well as funding the board issued directly to the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi) and the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC). The new checkoffs will remain a maximum of five years and are to be replaced by a
“I’ve already had some farmers say to me, ‘I’m not sending my money to the barley commission.’” DOUG CHORNEY
grain industry-led and -administered checkoffs. The new checkoffs, which take effect Aug. 1, coincide with govSee KAP on page 6 »
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