A recent return on investment study commissioned by the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) has estimated that investment in wheat and barley varietal research is providing producers with a very high return on their investment. This study calculates that on average every producer check-off dollar invested into wheat varietal research has returned $20.40 in value to the producer. Barley varietal research saw a return of over $7.56 for each producer dollar invested.

The value is realized when new wheat and barley varieties are released and adopted by producers in Western Canada. For example, new WGRF supported varieties like Carberry, Muchmore, CDC Verona and all of the midge tolerant wheat’s are higher yielding with improved disease and pest resistance. Through WGRF farmers have assisted in the development and release of more than 110 new wheat and barley varieties over the past decade and a half, many of which are today seeded to large portions of the cropland in Western Canada.

“The WGRF investment in variety development has earned a very high return for producers,” says Dave Sefton, WGRF Board Chair. “The return on investment of 36% on wheat variety development and 28% on barley variety development demonstrates that investing in research continues to be an excellent way for producers to improve their returns. WGRF invests over $6 million of producers dollars annually into breeding and crop research. As a regional organization WGRF brings the research spending power of all farmers in Western Canada together, maximizing the returns they see in crop research,” says Sefton.

“The popularity of WGRF supported varieties and these high rates of returns show that producers have benefited substantially from their check-offs and would benefit from increased investment in varietal research” said Garth Patterson, WGRF Executive Director.

A full copy of the study can be found by clicking here.

For further information, contact:

Mike Espeseth
Communications Manager
Western Grains Research Foundation
306-975-0365

WGRF Backgrounder

The Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) is a farmer funded and directed non-profit organization investing primarily in wheat and barley variety development to benefit western Canadian producers. WGRF has assisted in the development and release of more than 110 new wheat and barley varieties over the past decade and a half, many of which are today seeded to large portions of the cropland in Western Canada. WGRF also invests in research on other western Canadian crops through the Endowment fund. Since 1981 the Endowment Fund has supported a wealth of innovation across Western Canada providing over $26 million in funding for over 230 research projects.