Canadian farmers can take advantage of a program that can give them a leg up this harvest season through the Canadian Grain Commission's (CGC) annual Harvest Sample Program.
Through that farmers get an unofficial grading from the CGC which they can use to help market their commodities.
Program Manager of Analytical Services Kerri Pleskach talks about the program and how it helps out Canadian producers.
"The Harvest Sample Program is a program that the Canadian Grain Commission has been running for over 95 years now and it is no cost to the producer. So the producer can sign up for the program and what we do is they tell us what different commodities they're growing and we send them a packet with envelopes in it and at harvest time, they fill the envelopes up with their commodity, pop it in the mail."
"We receive the samples here at the Grain Commission and we will give them an unofficial grade on the sample that they submitted as well as different analytical tests based on which commodity they send us. They will get a report with all of this information on it and it will help them market their grain when they go to sell it."
With the grading producers can have a way to prove that their grain is good to go to the market, says Pleskach.
"The benefit for them is they'll have an unofficial grade for their grain as well as different analytical tests. So say for something like wheat we will do a vomitoxin test on it. We'll also do a following number analyses on it so they'll know how safe and sound their grain is as well."
Pleskach says she hopes to see people signing up through the fall so they can get their kits right away.
"We like people to sign up by the beginning to middle of November because it takes us a while to make the package and send it out to you. Producers need to put their samples in the mail by November 30th so that we can receive them, along with the holiday rush, as you can imagine and any sample we receive up until December 31st, we will give the grade and do the analysis on it."
Pleskach says that once a farmer enrolls they'll get a package every year unless they ask for those to stop.
Anyone looking to join can contact them online at GrainsCanada.gc.ca and sign up online or call 1-800-853-6705.