Have you registered for POGA's Annual Conference next week?

You may not realize it, but Canada is a major supplier of oats with some of our key export markets located in the U.S. Mexico, and Japan.

According to the Prairie Oat Growers Association (POGA) website Saskatchewan typically produces more than 50 per cent of Canadian oats each year, making Saskatchewan the largest oat-producing region in the world. 

For growers, the 2023 growing season went better than expected.

POGA president Brad Boettger, says there were definitely some areas that struggled due to the drought and weather conditions.

He says another challenge this year was that they didn't really have the prices this Spring to attract the acres for growers.

"So unfortunately, we didn't have the acres go in the ground that we would have hoped to. So hopefully going forward our oat buyers and millers understand that and can show us some good prices coming up in 2024 so that the acres can get in the ground."

The Prairie Oat Growers Association is set to hold its 26th Annual Conference and AGM next week in Winnipeg.

Boettger says the day's agenda covers a wide variety of topics.

"There's presentations on Side Banding vs Midrow Banding or Does it Matter in Oats, as well as Beta Glucan and Oats have a health benefit. We'll also have Randy Strychar the Oat Market guru there to help us understand where the market is at and where it is going, as well as what everyone wonders about the weather and Drew Lerner will be there to talk about that."

If you haven't registered for this year's event there's still time to do so, registration for the event is available here and closes Wednesday, November 29th.