Seed growers who have contributed to the betterment of the association and all of Canadian agriculture are recognized by the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association.
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At the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association annual general meeting held in Clear Lake, Man., July 6-8, seven people were recognized for their dedication to the Canadian seed industry._x000D_
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Robertson Associate Award_x000D_
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Each year, the Robertson Associate Award is given to recognize individuals who have fulfilled with utmost fidelity and success their obligation to CSGA. This year’s award recipients are Randy Court, Gerald Girodat, John Smith and Craig Riddell._x000D_
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Prior to farming, Court worked in forage variety selection, barley breeding and pesticide research. He and his wife Jeanine moved from Winnipeg, Man., and took possession of a small mixed farm northeast of Plumas in 1980. They began to produce seed under contract in 1982, and built their first seed processing plant in 1985. They received Select grower status in the early 1990s. The business grew during the next few years, and it currently consists of a new cleaning facility, a large seed retail business and 20,000 square feet of commercial greenhouse space. They recently celebrated 34 years of seed production, 31 years of seed processing and 25 years of Select status. Court is a current director with Seed Depot Corp. and an active member of the Prairie Grain Development Committee disease evaluation team for wheat, rye and triticale, plus barley and oats._x000D_
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Girodat acquired his first piece of farmland in 1965. After working for Farm Credit Canada and the Saskatchewan Department of Agriculture, he moved to the farm north of Shaunavon permanently in 1976 and established Girodat Seeds in 1988. He has filled many roles in the agriculture community through the years. He is founding director of South West Grain Terminal at Gull Lake; served as director of Red Coat Stock Farm east of Shaunavon; is a founding director of Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association; a member of the District No. 4 Agricultural Board; member of the SSGA board; and was CSGA president from 2010-2012._x000D_
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Smith graduated from the tiny high school in Pilot Mound, Man., in 1978. He would spend the rest of his life living within miles from Pilot Mound and beginning with a mixed grain and cattle farm. In the early 1990s, he transitioned to mostly grow seed, which he found challenging and interesting._x000D_
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Most of all, he appreciated the people that he met in the seed industry. Smith started Seed Depot in 2001, which provided him with continued business opportunities, personal growth and many excellent friendships that he built within the industry. Conlon barley became an almost instant success and is to this day one of the most successful barley varieties in Manitoba history._x000D_
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Smith was passionate about bringing the best varieties to Canadian farmers. The epitome of his vision and hard work was seen in the introduction of the CWIW wheat class and later the CNHR wheat class, allowing Canadian farmers to grow profitable varieties and make them available to new markets. In September 2015, he succumbed to an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was blessed to be able to leave Seed Depot and the family farm in the capable hands of his son Walter and son-in-law Dave._x000D_
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Craig Riddell is the owner of Riddell Seed Co., a pedigreed seed business he operates along with his wife Colleen and a few long-term employees. He graduated from the University of Manitoba with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2000 and started farming in partnership with his cousin Clifford Riddell while transitioning the farm to a full service seed business._x000D_
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Riddell Seed Co. operates on 3,000 acres producing a wide variety of crops for seed, both for direct retail and on contract for seed companies and breeding institutions. Craig is both a select grower and also is accredited with variety maintainer status. In addition to supplying pedigreed seed to commercial producers the farm specializes in early generation seed increase of new varieties producing 30-40 breeder, select, or foundation plot fields each year. Crops produced include spring and winter wheat, barley, oats, soybeans, fababeans, canola, corn, flax, peas, alfalfa seed, clover and several grass seed species. He is also a shareholder in Interlake Saskatoons Ltd._x000D_
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Craig sat on the Manitoba Seed Growers Association board of directors for 10 years starting in 2003. He was MSGA president in 2010 and 2011 and served as past-president for two years following. Craig concluded his time on the MSGA board at the 2013 Annual Meeting._x000D_
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Craig continues to advocate for the Manitoba seed industry and currently sits on the Industry Advisory Committee for Alternate Service Delivery and the Seed Sector Value Chain Roundtable and enjoys making presentations to Canadian International Grains Institute training programs on the value of certified seed and the CSGA to CIGI training programs. Through the summer Riddell Seed Co. hosts several tours of the farm for visitors from around the world taking part in various CIGI programs._x000D_
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Clark Newman-Clayton Award_x000D_
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This award is presented only to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to Canada’s pedigreed seed production and to Canadian agriculture through research, plant breeding and administration. This year’s award recognizes Brian Rossnagel._x000D_
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In 1977, Rossnagel began a 35-year career as barley and oat breeder with the Crop Development Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. During that period, he and his team developed more than 100 barley and oat varieties. He served as the CDC adviser to the Saskatchewan Seed Growers Association board for 29 years. His research and industry involvement gave rise to a number of improvements to milling oat varieties, laying the groundwork for Canada to become the major international supplier of oat for food. He also pioneered the development of specific forage and feed quality oat for cattle producers in Western Canada, as well as hulless barley. Rossnagel retired in 2011, was made a University of Saskatchewan distinguished professor emeritus and continues to assist the CDC barley and oat program on specific breeding projects around food barley, forage oat and barley and specialty feed oat._x000D_
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Honourary Life Award_x000D_
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This award is presented to persons who, by distinguished services to CSGA, have contributed to the betterment of Canadian agriculture. This year’s recipients are Glen Green, Harold Rudy, Don Pollock and Anita Brûlé-Babel._x000D_
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Green was born in Manitoba in 1964 and raised in Mellonville, a village near Portage la Prairie. He began working at BrettYoung Seeds in 1986 as a seed bagger and in 1994 became an accredited seed analyst there. Green decided to start his own business in 2005 — Green Seed Lab. The company operated for nearly four years until it was bought by SGS Canada. His many roles within the industry have included serving as president of the Commercial Seed Analysts Association of Canada in 1995, and as a director of the Canadian Seed Institute, which he had a role in creating. Green is now vice-president of Integrity Seed Lab, part of the Imperial Seed Group._x000D_
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Rudy was born and raised on a mixed farm in Waterloo County, near New Hamburg, Ont. From a family of 10 siblings, he and his partner Sandra own the original homestead bought by his parents in 1929. Contract seed production was part of a crop mix that included potatoes and u-pick strawberries. After graduating from the University of Guelph in 1971, he worked for several years as field staff for York Farms in Brantford, supervising their vegetable research trials and coordinating commercial production of sweet corn and peas. In the mid-1980s, Rudy joined the Conservation Program staff with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture until he took on the role of program manager with the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association in 1987. He enrolled in part-time studies and completed his master of science degree in 2003. The Environmental Farm Plan and many other programs have been part of Rudy’s career highlights, including administering over $100 million in environmental improvement cost-share to the Ontario farm community over 25 years. He is now heavily involved with the Ontario Seed Growers’ Association._x000D_
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A longtime seedsman, Pollock got his start in the industry growing alfalfa seed in the mid 1970s. In 1982, he and seven other alfalfa seed growers pooled their resources to form Northstar Seed Ltd., based in Neepawa, Man. The company originally focused on alfalfa seed and since that time has expanded to provide forage, turf, lawn and native seed and to include a full-service dealer network in Western Canada._x000D_
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With customers in the United States, Europe, South America and Eastern Canada, Northstar Seed has become a truly global company. As general manager, Pollock oversees the company’s operations and reports to a board of directors. He has provided leadership not only at the company level, but also at the national level, having previously served on the board of directors for the Canadian Seed Trade Association, the Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers and SeCan._x000D_
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Dr. Anita Brûlé-Babel is a professor in the Department of Plant Science at the University of Manitoba working in the area of wheat breeding and genetics. Having served the seed industry in a number of ways, one of her primary contributions is the training of undergraduate and graduate students in the area of plant breeding and genetics. Many of these students are now working in industry or government positions as plant breeders or associate plant breeders._x000D_
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Anita grew up on a mixed farm near Prince Albert, Sask., and received her bachelor and doctorate degrees from the University of Saskatchewan. She has been married to her husband Ken for 36 years and has two grown daughters. She has been with the University of Manitoba since 1987._x000D_
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Her winter wheat breeding program focuses on the development of high-yielding, disease resistant winter wheat cultivars that are adapted to the eastern Prairies. Anita has conducted research in a number of areas, including inheritance of leaf spot and fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance in wheat, and the inheritance of herbicide resistance in weeds such as wild oat, green foxtail and wild mustard. She has published research assessing the potential for gene flow among genetically engineered and non-genetically engineered crops._x000D_
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Anita recently completed a study for the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association to evaluate seed crop inspection procedures, and has also been involved in variety registration meetings since 1988 and has served on several ad hoc committees involved in development of regulations around variety registration.
