About POGA

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

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• Thanks to our Sponsors!

Following are the presentations made at the conference  (PDF versions of the original PowerPoint Presentations):

• Oat Market Outlook – Jon Driedger, Vice President, Leftfield Commodity Research
• Stimulating Germination and Emergence of Wild Oat, Volunteer Oat, Barley and Wheat – Dr. Shaun Sharpe, Research Scientist, AAFC
• Oats Everyday: Expanding the Canadian Oat Market – Robynne Anderson, President, Emerging Ag 
• Fertilizer Overview and Outlook – Josh Linville, Vice President – Fertilizer, Stone X Financial
• Understanding the Impact of Particle Size on Physicochemical Properties and Nutritional Benefits of Pulse and Oat Flour – Dr. Yongfeng Ai, Associate Professor and Carbohydrate Research Chair, University of Saskatchewan. *Note this is an approved pdf (not from the original PowerPoint)
• Oat Processing Expansion: The Changing of Agriculture – Meeting the Demands of the Socially Conscious Consumer of the Future – Murad Al-Katib, President and CEO, AGT Foods
• Stop Acting You Age, Boring isn’t a Business Requirement – Matt Havens, Generational Expert

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

  • View POGA AGM Agenda
  • Thanks to our Sponsors!

  Following are the presentations made at the conference (PDF versions of the original PowerPoint presentations):

  • Oatly: How They Became the Leader in Oat Milk, Keeping Up with Demand and Where They Are Going Next – Tomas Wennerholm, Oatly Global Oat Supply Manager (PDF 4.91 MB)
  • The Influence Factor: How Fake News Impacts Our Perceptions of Food and Our Choices as Leaders – Kevin Stewart, FArmer, Olympic Television Producer & Media Entrepreneur (PDF 6.09 MB)
  • Oat Production Development, What Consumers Want, What’s Being Tested, and the New Possibilities and Challenges Ahead – Dana Gibson, Director of Business Development & Maynard Kolskog, Certified Research Chef, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), Centre for Culinary Innovation (PDF 4.36 MB)
  • If you are interested in obtaining Randy Strychar’s presentation, you can contact him at randy@oatinformation.com. For Drew Lerner’s presentation, please email smathieson@poga.ca.

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

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• Thanks to our Sponsors!

Following are the presentations made at the conference (PDF versions of the original PowerPoint presentations):

• Secrets of Old Farmer’s Almanac Prairie Forecasts, What’s Predicted for Weather in 2020, and Other Stuff He Probably Shouldn’t Be Telling You – Jack Burnett, Managing Editor, The Old Farmer’s Almanac (PDF 2.2 MB)
• GHG Emissions and Carbon Capture in Canadian Agriculture – Fraser McPhee, P.Eng. in Biosystems Engineering and a Manitoba Farmer (PDF 1.8 MB)
• Agricultural Trade Opportunities and Challenges in the Current Global Context – Fred Gorrell, ADM International Affairs, Canadian Food Inspection Agency & Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (PDF 811KB)
• Regenerative Agriculture: What Does it Really Mean and Does it Have Real Value for Farmers? – Kris Nichols, PhD, Soil Microbiologist for KRIS Systems Education & Consultation (PDF 7.6 MB)
• Intensive Agronomy, Intercropping, and Everything in Between to Maximize Profits with Oats – Jessica Pratchler, Research Manager, Northeast Agriculture Research Foundation (PDF 774 KB)
• The Canadian Oats Market: What to Expect in 2020 – Brennan Turner, CEO, Farmlead (PDF 4.4 MB)

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

• View POGA AGM Agenda
• Thanks to our Sponsors!

Following are the presentations made at the conference (PDF versions of the original PowerPoint presentations):

• What the Dickens has Oat Genomics Done for you Lately? The Groats of Christmas Past, Present and Yet-to-Come. – Nick Tinker, AAFC Research Scientist in Cereal Genomics (2 MB)
• Diversifying Markets. Update on China and Mexico. – Robynne Anderson, President, Emerging Ag (4 MB)
• Oat Market Outlook. What’s Ahead for 2018/2019 and Beyond? – Chuck Penner, LeftField Commodity Research (7 MB)
• Disruptors in Agriculture – Marty Seymour, Industry and Stakeholder Relations, Farm Credit Canada (10 MB)
• The Ever-changing Climate – Dave Sauchyn, Ph.D., Professor, Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative (4 MB)
• Disruptive Change & Trade Agreements – Carlo Dade, Director, Trade & Investment Centre (2 MB)

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

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• Thanks to our Sponsors!

Following are the presentations made at the conference (PDF versions of the original PowerPoint presentations):

• What’s Driving North American Agriculture in the Year Ahead? – Mike Pearson, Market to Market host, Writer of Weekly Journal of Rural America and co-host of Ag News Daily podcast. (PDF, 3.1 MB)
• USA Oat Marketing Campaign: What’s happened in the First 6 months and What’s the Future Plan? – Jody Dundas, Partner and Chief Strategist, Suckerpunch Creative (PDF, 43 MB)
• The Western GHTS – Current Review – Mark Hemmes, President, Quorum Corporation (PDF, 848 KB)
• China: Progress on POGA’s Application to Allow Canadian Oats into China for Food and Feed Use! – Robynne Anderson, President, Emerging Ag (PDF, 455 KB)
• Ways the University of Alberta is Developing Oats for End Uses and Utilizing the Total Oat to get more Value for Them – Dr. Lingyun Chen, Ph.D., Professor, University of Alberta (PDF, 7 MB)
• Dinner and Speaker: What Makes Consumers Tick – Carman Allison, VP of Consumer Insights, Nielsen (PDF, 1,000 KB)
• Results from Two Years of Oat Variety trials in Westlock and Falher, AB . . . Spoiler Alert: the Best Variety was not Morgan in Year One; We’ll Have to Wait and See for Year Two! – Sandeep Nain, General Manager, Gateway Research Organization (PDF 3,734 KB)

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

• View POGA AGM Agenda

Following are the presentations made at the conference (PDF versions of the original PowerPoint presentations):

• POGA 2016 Conference Agenda (PDF – 385KB)
• Nitrogen and Test Weight in Oats: Bill May (PDF – 418KB)
• Opportunities for Oats in the Feed Industry: Ray Newkirk (PDF – 347KB)
• Mycotoxins in Oats: What are They, Where are They, and Why They Matter: Sheryl A. Tittlemier (PDF – 2,206KB)

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.

Following are the presentations made at the conference (PDF versions of the original PowerPoint presentations):

• POGA 2015 Conference Agenda (PDF, 22KB)
• An innovative approach to managing weeds in oats -Christian Willenborg, Jessica Weber, Eric Johnson, Bill May, Steve Shirtliffe, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan (PDF, 3.81MB)
• UPOV91-the impact on the oat industry and producers -Cosmin Badea, Canterra Seeds (PDF, 2.22MB)
• Canterra Seeds -Cosmin Badea, Canterra Seeds (PDF, 560KB)
• SeCan Oats -Bradley Pinkerton, SeCan Oats (PDF, 5.59MB)
• FP Genetics -Ron Weik, FP Genetics (PDF, 296KB)
• Oat Meals -Samantha Stephen, Oat Meals (PDF, 2.37MB)

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

Following are the presentations made at the conference (PDF versions of the original PowerPoint presentations):

• Crop Marketing 101 – Neil Blue, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (PDF, 1MB)
• Oat Outlook – Randy Strychar, oatinformation.com (PDF, 1.2MB)
• Occurrence and Fate of Toxigenic Fungi and Associated Mycotoxins in Oats – Dr. Tom Gräfenhan, Grain Research Laboratory, Canadian Grain Commission (PDF, 729KB)
• Optimizing Oat Yield, Quality and Standability in Central Alberta – Sheri Strydhorst, PhD, Research Scientist, Alberta Agriculture & Rural Development; Joseph Aidoo, MSc Student, University of Alberta; Linda Hall, Professor, University of Alberta (PDF, 4.6MB)
• Transportation – Robynne Anderson, President, Emerging Ag (PDF, 153KB)
• Weather Outlook 2014-2015 – World Weather, Inc. (PDF, 13.4MB)

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

Following are the presentations made at the conference (PDF versions of the original PowerPoint presentations).

• The Largest Oat Miller in Canada and Its Expectations for Oats in the Future – Pat VanOsch, Senior Vice President, Richardson International
• Influence of Consumer Trends on Oat Quality Throughout the Value Chain – Dr. Nancy Ames, AAFC Research Scientist
• World Demand, Future Risk and Where Food Use Is Going – Randy Strychar, President, Ag Commodity Research
• Oat Varieties for the Future – Erin Armstrong, Director of Research and Product Development, CANTERRA SEEDS
• Heading South: Transportation Impediments and Emerging Markets in Mexico – Robynne Anderson, President, Emerging Ag
• Heading South: Transportation Impediments and Emerging Markets in Mexico 2 – Robynne Anderson, President, Emerging Ag