Canadian wheat class modernization

You can deliver affected varieties into CWRS or CPSR up to and including July 31 of their transition year. For example, you can deliver Muchmore as a CWRS variety up to and including July 31, 2021.

If you have a contract for affected varieties that you aren’t planning to deliver before July 31 of its transition year, you should contact your buyer to talk about how this will affect your contract.

To help producers and grain companies manage this change, we’re giving grain companies a period of 5 months following the transition date to clear their stocks of affected varieties. During this time, we’ll monitor export cargoes for ineligible varieties and wheats of other classes, including the varieties moving to CNHR.

Our mandate is to maintain the quality of Canadian grain, so that it remains a dependable commodity for domestic and export markets.

Under the Canada Grain Act, the Canadian Grain Commission has the authority to establish wheat classes and to designate registered varieties to a specific wheat class. Each class has its own set of quality parameters that relate to its functional, or end-use, characteristics. This allows customers of Canadian wheat to purchase the product that best suits their needs and, in turn, benefits producers who grow higher quality varieties.

Under the Canada Seeds Act, the quality evaluation team of the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale has the authority to recommend varieties for registration. The team sets the quality and performance parameters for each wheat class and check varieties, which are grown along with new cultivars.

Committee members are industry experts, representing all aspects of the grain sector. The committee also agreed to the revised quality parameters and the variety review process proposed by the Canadian Grain Commission.

Before making any changes, the Canadian Grain Commission held public consultations with all parts of the grain value chain, including producers, commodity and producer organizations, researchers, life science companies, breeders, grain companies, millers and other end users.

The Canadian Grain Commission also worked extensively with the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye, and Triticale. This committee consists of industry experts representing all aspects of the value chain.

Nearly all stakeholders supported the proposal to protect the quality, consistency and end-use performance of the CWRS and CPSR wheat classes.

Based on the results of the consultations, the Canadian Grain Commission took these steps to decide which varieties to move:

• Reviewed current varieties in each class to make sure each variety met the revised quality parameters set by the Quality Evaluation Team of the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye, and Triticale. If a variety did not meet the revised quality parameters for its class, the Canadian Grain Commission informed all stakeholders that the variety would be moving after a 3-year transition period.
• If there wasn’t enough information to determine if the variety met the revised quality parameters, the variety was required to undergo additional scientific trials for two years, at a minimum of six sites per year across western Canada, before making a decision. Varieties that went through this process included the following CWRS varieties: AAC Redwater, AC Domain, Muchmore, Vesper, 5606 HR CL.
• If, after the trials, a variety met the revised quality parameters for its class, it stayed in its class. If a variety did not meet the revised quality parameters for its class, the Canadian Grain Commission informed all stakeholders that the variety would be moving after a 3-year transition period.

The acreage of the varieties that are transitioning out of the CWRS and CPSR classes has declined since the classification changes were announced in 2015.

During that time, the acreage of the transitioning varieties dropped from 18% to less than 5% for CWRS and from 55% to less than 15% for CPSR. The following chart provides a summary of the most relevant varieties in terms of acreage planted.

Percentage (%) of Total Prairie Acreage by Variety and Year

Additionally, during the 2017 new crop missions, many customers told us they had no issues with the gluten strength in their recent shipments of CWRS wheat.

To ensure that these wheat classes continue to deliver the consistent quality customers of Canadian wheat expect going forward, all varieties in the CWRS and CPSR wheat classes must meet the quality parameters established for those classes.

The Canadian Grain Commission has completed its review of existing CWRS and CPSR varieties, assessing their quality against the revised quality parameters for these classes. Beyond the changes announced for 2021, no further CWRS or CPSR wheat varieties will be moving to another class.

Going forward, all new varieties proposed for CWRS or CPSR must meet the quality parameters for those classes.