WHO WE ARE

Roles

The roles of the Ontario Cereal Crops Committee (OCCC) are to:

*Act as the recommending body to The Canadian Food Inspection Agency for cereal variety registration in Ontario. OCCC also advises The Canadian Food Inspection Agency Variety Registration Office (CFIA) as to whether registration of wheat varieties should be extended to Ontario if the variety has been supported for registration outside of Ontario.

*Coordinate cereal performance testing and dissemination of the results.

*Review cereal-related research (public and private) to facilitate its coordination. Part of this role leads to the inclusion of new information in the OMAFRA Agronomy Guide (publication 811).

The crops for which OCCC holds this mandate are: Wheat • Barley • Oats • Rye • Spelt • Buckwheat • Durum • Triticale

Note: The OCCC has no authority outside of Ontario.


The Ontario Cereal Crops Committee meets three times each year.

• In late August, the committee meets to review the results of the current year's winter cereals performance trials, edit the public performance trials report and make any necessary revisions to the testing procedures for winter cereals for the coming year.

• In late October, the committee meets to review the results of the current year's spring cereals performance trials and edit the public performance trials report.

• Other urgent business may also be dealt with at the August and October meetings as required.

• The committee meets again in mid-January to consider applications for support of registration of candidate cultivars for all crops within the committee's mandate. In addition, the OCCC reviews its testing methods and procedures for support of registration, as necessary, receives reports from its member organizations, and conducts any other such business as is necessary for the effective operation of the committee and variety trials.

Membership

The voting membership of the OCCC consists of one representative of each of the following organizations representing the cereal industry in Ontario:



In addition, the committee is served by the following non-voting members:

Chair:
Matthew Czerwinski (GFO)

Secretary:
Melinda Drummond (U of Guelph)

Treasurer:
Peter Johnson (Real Agriculture)

Vice Chair:
Andrew Burt (AAFC)

Past Chair:
Gavin Humphreys (AAFC)

Winter Wheat Registration Coordinator:
Ellen Sparry (Seeds Canada)

Spring Wheat Registration Coordinator:
Ellen Sparry (Seeds Canada)

Barley Registration Coordinator:
Raja Khanal (AAFC)

Oat Registration Coordinator:
Weikai Yan (AAFC)

Performance Testing Coordinator:
Ellen Sparry (Seeds Canada)

Spring Cereal Disease Coordinator:
Lily Tamburic (Ridgetown Campus, UofG)

Winter Cereal Disease Coordinator:
Lily Tamburic (Ridgetown Campus, UofG)


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