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Location: Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, AB
Date: Wednesday, December 4, 2024

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Location: Delta Hotel, Winnipeg, MB
Date: Wednesday, December 6, 2023

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Matt Booth began the day with “Attitude is Everything”, and many other interesting speakers followed, including Sijo Joseph who discussed “New Health Claims for Oats: Looking Beyond Beta Glucan” and Damian Mason spoke on “Agriculture: Because Starvation Sucks! We Are Already Sustainable, How Do We Define That?“.

Also, after the AGM, Damian Mason interviewed John Bergen, director-at-large for MOGA and POGA, and Riley Anderson, Manitoba oat grower after the POGA AGM in December 2023. The interview, packed with ‘oat talk’, is posted to his YouTube channel. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/kOE0ygdqND0?si=2eIq1V0Knkx1stNd

Location: Sheraton Cavalier, Saskatoon, SK
Date: Thursday, December 1, 2022

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• Location: Fairmont Springs Hotel, Banff, AB
  Date: Wednesday, December 1, 2021

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  • Thanks to our Sponsors!

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Location:Delta Hotel, Winnipeg, MB
Date:Thursday, December 5, 2019

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Location:Sheraton Cavalier, Saskatoon, SK
Date:Thursday, December 6, 2018

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Location:Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, Banff.
Date:Thursday, December 7, 2017

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Location: Lakeview Hecla, Hecla Island, MB
Date:Thursday, December 1, 2016

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Moose Jaw Saskatchewan; December 3, 2015: Balmy weather, festive surroundings, fabulous food and great interest in the oat industry all contributed to a successful meeting and conference of Prairie Oat Growers Association. One hundred and thirty (130) plus oat growers, industry folk, researchers, academia, other agriculture specialists, food and health professionals met at Temple Spa Gardens to share information related to production, marketing and consumption of western Canadian oats and oat products.

Special Guests at the event included the Honourable Lyle Stewart, Minister of Agriculture, Saskatchewan, who brought greetings and the Venezuelan Ambassador to Canada Sr. Wilmer Omar Barrientos Fernandez. The Ambassador’s purpose was to meet oat growers and understand oat production in Canada as a potential supplier of quality oats to his country. Current oat imports to Venezuela are from America, Argentina and Europe. Minister Stuart and Ambassador Fernandez had opportunity to chat at the conference.

The day’s program was very diverse covering topics like the weather, agronomy, transport, weed management, varieties, market outlook and new information on gluten-free oats.

The Market Outlook is always welcomed by oat growers, and this year Brenda Tjaden Lepp, Farmlink, delivered her perspective and handed out bits of advise to growers, like getting a free app called Farm at Hand, for their operation which records bin inventories, acreage intentions, mapping of the crop etc . This helps farmers “know what they have”, and “what will be out next year.” Also know your cost of production as this provides a tool to negotiate prices. Regarding the oat market; oat futures are up, we are starting to see increased prices in small geographic regions; commercial pipeline is relatively full for short term, but companies will be looking supplies all year long. Year to date farmer selling was capping upside with harvest pressures and on going cash flow requirements, which suggests a flat outlook for most markets. This combined with the value of the Canadian dollar against the US dollar direction will also influence oat prices and in oat markets we see a lagged influence of the impact.

Shelley Case, registered dietitian and celiac expert and author, shared information related to celiac disease and the inclusion of oats in a celiac diet. Although, gluten-free is trending today as a healthier diet, it is not a magic pill for weight loss, and there are two types of people who are following it: those who follow nutrition trends, and those who have celiac disease and have to avoid gluten in their food supply. This diet must be followed for life to stop disease effects on their body and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Case mentions that although oats do not contain same proteins as wheat, rye or barley, they are often contaminated with these cereals by production or processing methods using the same equipment for the crops. The good news for the oat industry, is that after many years of cooperation to have oat production and processing segregated from the other crops has led to a market authorization to make gluten free claims on their products. The market authority permits the use of gluten-free oats that contain

Farmers were briefed on new oat varieties available, enabling supply chains for oats, and new entrants into western grains.

POGA president Art Enns presided over the business meeting. He also took the opportunity to thank the event sponsors, who make this event possible with their support. POGA directors from Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan were in attendance for the entire day and took many opportunities to talk with oat growers and industry members present.

The evening ended on a very positive note, with Samantha Stephens, owner of OatMeals, one of the hottest new restaurants in New York, serving oats in a wide variety of forms from savour to sweet, to hot and cold, to a very welcoming public. Stephens told her successful story and that she has plans to franchise the business, creating another new and exciting market for western Canadian oats.

POGA 2015 Conference Agenda (PDF, 22KB)

The 17th Annual AGM and Conference for the Prairie Oat Growers was held December 4, 2014 in the scenic and beautiful Fairmont (Banff Springs) hotel in Banff, AB. With what could be considered one of the better turnouts of past conferences, the day was filled with informative speakers and engaging discussion.

To kick off the event, Dave Burdek, Assistant Deputy Minister to Agriculture provided greetings to the crowd on behalf of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.

The morning proved to be chalk full of information starting with Neil Blue, a market specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development speaking on oat marketing and “how to hedge the market using a variety of resources”. His presentation was informative and encompassed a great deal of marketing resources with take home points focused around the idea that price and basis remain the same, that there are ways to reduce risk using different levels of risk tolerance (i.e. diversification, flexibility, insurance, market alternatives), and that the starting point to manage risk is developing a marketing plan.

Randy Strychar (president with Ag Commodity Research) provided follow-up with his presentation on the Oat Market Outlook. Randy outlined the key factors driving the oat market including Canadian rail car supply, fund/specs, CBOT oat carry, high price of oats in the US horse market, and tighter 2014/15 oat end stocks. He finished up his presentation by providing a spread outlook that stated that Dec/Mar should maintain decent to good carry if Canadian oat exports hold current pace however this could also could result in them loosing further ground to corn and wheat if 2015 Canadian oat plantings are up 10% or more.

The morning was then wrapped with an ever popular topic among farmers – weather. Drew Learner with World Weather, Inc provided his outlook on world weather patterns with a prediction for the prairies of warmer winter temperatures with the potential for dryness in the spring and summer. He predicted that in general for much of the prairies, moisture levels will coast on abundant subsoil moisture and then dry down in the late spring and summer.

Following lunch was the POGA AGM meeting which was then followed up with a quick update from Tom Grafenhan from the Grain Research Laboratory with the Canadian Grain Commission on a project currently funded by POGA and the Agriculture Development Fund on the occurrence of toxigenic fungi and associated mycotoxins in oats.

Sheri Strydhorst, Agronomy Research Scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development then presented on a project specific to Alberta, partially funded by the Alberta Oat Growers Association entitled, “Optimizing Oat Yield, Quality and Standability in Central Alberta”. She provided an excellent overview on the three year project which is well into its first year. She outlined the three main markets for oats being pony oats (high performance feed), milling oats (human consumption) and feed oats. The Alberta climate is suitable for high quality oat production however current agronomic practices and varietal choices are not producing the high quality oats required for millers. Previous to in depth detail on the project, Sheri stated that the overall objectives of the project include increasing the milling quality of oats grown in Alberta and therefore increasing profitability to Alberta oat growers, providing increase awareness on variety choices, and then sharing agronomic tips to producers.

Transportation is a hot topic among grain producers but particularly to those in the oat industry. Robynne Anderson, President with Emerging Ag provided the next presentation on a report of Transportation Activities to date with a focus on the Canadian Transportation Act review. This then lead into a panel discussion moderated by Robynne on Grain Transportation and the issues facing oat farmers and other members of the value chain. Participating panel members included Bruce McFadden: Director of Research and Analysis, Quorum Corporation; Lorne Boundy: Trader, Paterson Grain; and Jim McCarthy: President & CEO, North American Millers Association.

Wrapping up what was deemed an incredibly successful day was the banquet and keynote speaker:

Life is What you Make it: A Personal Story of Adversity and Adventure –Leona Dargis, Motivational Speaker; Young Leader in Agriculture and 2011 Canadian Nuffield Scholar

POGA’s 16th Annual Conference and AGM was held December 5, 2013 in Winnipeg.