Saskatchewan Cattle Feeders Look at the Big Picture

source: Farm and Food Report

The Saskatchewan Cattle Feeders Association will focus on understanding the factors that affect their industry at this year’s conference in Saskatoon on January 27-29, according to General Manager Jamie Blacklock.

“We want all our players to gain insight into the big picture,” Blacklock said. “We want them to see how international politics and those other market influencers affect the cattle feeder industry, so that they can acquire perspectives that will allow them to make better decisions about their operation and the choices they face.”

Some of the speakers are operators themselves. Take Rick Pascal of the Picture Butte/Iron Springs area in Alberta. Active in the Canadian Cattlemen for Fair Trade initiative, Pascal will look at made-in-Canada solutions to the BSE crisis and talk about exercising the feeders’ right to claim damages incurred to their operations under NAFTA Chapter 11.

To get a sense of how issues are playing out, the organizers have invited well-known Canadian pollster Allan Gregg of The Strategic Council. In his presentation titled Looking Beyond the Polls, Gregg will review the effects of the recent U.S. presidential election, public opinion trends over the last 20 years, and how the Canadian mindset has evolved and changed over that period of time.

Market influences will be explored in depth with financial services industry expert Michael L. Levy of Custom House Global Foreign Exchange. By interpreting economic analysis in plain English, Levy will engage participants in discussions on finance, foreign exchange markets, and the market environment, in a way that will help them understand all influential factors, allowing them to better prepare for the situations they may face.

SCFA’s Jamie Blacklock believes this is all very timely. “Cattle feeders need to be aware of the industry developments more than ever at this time to make smart business decisions, especially in light of BSE. But you know, cattle feeders are also very much a different breed of people — they are very resilient in the face of hardship.”

They also take pride in celebrating their unique business culture, as they will demonstrate at the Cattleman’s Feast and Festivities event on Friday night. Blacklock promises a SCFA celebration that is next to none.

Short Rail Line Brings Southwest Communities Together

source: Farm and Food Report

It takes determination to raise enough capital to acquire over 300 miles of short rail line, engines and maintenance equipment, and to cover operational costs that includes the salary of 14 employees in southwestern Saskatchewan. Yet, that is precisely what a group of agricultural producers and investors have managed to do in Ponteix, Gravelbourg, Bracken, Admiral, Kincaid, Shaunavon, Eastend, Climax, Frontier, Neville, Vanguard and Lafleche when they acquired Great Western Railway Ltd. recently.

Leo Legault is a farmer and, now, a Director of the company. “In three weeks, our group of 15 raised $3.8 million. We had to deal with complex legal issues and we had much to learn. We wanted to keep all the staff because they have so much knowledge about how to run this operation. We made a formal offer to Westcan a year ago and, on November 2, 2004, it became a done deal.”

Ponteix’s Legault and his partners knew that the stakes were high. In recent years, over $18 million was invested in various grain handling infrastructures along the line. Around 40 jobs depended on this deal coming through. Had the bid been unsuccessful, the future of these new facilities would have been jeopardized.

“We were well aware that the only way to ensure that producers get a greater share of revenues from our agricultural activities would be for us to own the transportation network that links all our towns and villages in the Southwest,” Legault said.

Legault believes that everyone wins as a result of this deal — from those who hold jobs along the line, to taxpayers, governments, producers and municipalities — in savings alone.

“Our studies indicate that our rail transportation system saves $5.4 million in road maintenance costs annually. Our roads simply are not designed to sustain the kind of heavy traffic they are subjected to because of agricultural transportation needs.”

And this traffic is likely to keep on putting additional pressure on highways, as Shaunavon looks at building a $90 million ethanol plant that would require around 10 to 15 million bushels of wheat to produce 150 million litres of ethanol a year.

Conrad Johnson owns a mixed farm in Bracken. He is also the new Chair of the Board of Great Western Railway Ltd. “Look at any country in the world today — look at how closely economic development and diversification are associated with the availability of a rail transportation service. It is phenomenal and particularly relevant to the geography of the Southwest. We want our children to have a future here. We want to ensure the economic prosperity of our region for our grandchildren, and we are taking the means to do just that.”

Putting his beliefs into practice, Johnson and three partners recently acquired an old Wheat Pool elevator along the line and converted it into a state-of-the art field pea cleaning plant. His Whitewater Coulee Cleaners has processed 120 rail car loads of peas in the last two years, plus 300 cars of cereal grains. Johnson is the first to admit that his success and that of the Great Western Railway and other projects along the line now hinges on communities working more closely together than ever before.

“It is funny how, when you look back 20 to 30 years, we had these rivalries between towns in this part of the province about hockey teams, schools and all those divisive issues,” Johnson said. “Things have changed quite a bit since then. I believe we now realize that we must work together for the good of the entire area. We are all proud of what we have accomplished so far and we look forward to the future.”

As far as Leo Legault is concerned, every new day that comes breaks new ground and breeds hope for the economic outlook of the whole region.

“You know, this is the longest short line in Canada,” Legault beams with pride. “Fifty-two per cent of all the grain moved on short lines in Saskatchewan is moved on our railway. When you think of it, there is no end to what we can accomplish — just keep watching us.”

FarmTech 2005: Best to Know Your Competitors

source: Farm and Food Report

Alberta’s premier crop production and farm management conference will put global perspectives at the forefront again this year as it focuses on two major international competitors to Canada’s agriculture industry: China and Australia.

Rick Taillieu is Chair of the FarmTech 2005 Conference that takes place in Edmonton on January 26-28, 2005.

“Every year, we ask our delegates what topics they would like addressed at the following year’s conference. Last year, they expressed strong interest in what was happening in those two countries. We take delegates’ requests very seriously, and I think we’ve come through with this year’s selection of 40 speakers.”

Agricultural producer Peter Treloar will talk about Australia and Canada, and their affinities in agriculture. Treloar farms 7,000 acres in a family partnership in South Australia, growing wheat, barley, canola and pulse crops. He will be sharing his experiences as a recipient of a 2002 Nuffield Farming Scholarship. The scholarship allowed him to travel for four months throughout countries of South East Asia, the U.K. and France, along with the United States and Canada.

Another highly anticipated presentation will feature challenges and prospects around Chinese agriculture, with Agriteam Canada Vice President Alex Schumacher. With 30 years of experience in agricultural development, Schumacher has worked in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and North America with a wide range of crops, cropping systems, cultures and languages. He regularly consults for the World Bank on project preparation, and has conducted workshops for the Bank on project design and management.

Chinese agriculture has grown at an annual rate of about six per cent, providing steadily improving nutrition and health to approximately 1.2 billion people, as well as employing about 70 per cent of that population. It now faces multiple challenges, including rapid loss of farmland to urbanization, depletion of major aquifers, rising fertilizer costs, external competition under WTO, and a growing urban-rural income divide. How will China respond? What are the prospects for Canada? This will be addressed at the Conference.

According to Rick Taillieu, about 1,200 delegates came last year from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana, Idaho and the State of Washington to attend FarmTech.

“I think our success can be attributed to how we mix research developments, knowledge, extension resources and farmers’ experiences to enrich the conference program,” Tallieu said. “For instance we will address soils issues around the world. The presentation on the role of oil and water resources in the rise and demise of civilizations with Daniel Hillel, a Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts currently residing in Israel, is bound to be very popular.” The connection between humans and the world’s soil and water resources; the way early civilizations grew in intimate association with their environments; and, the vital role of soil and water resource availability and their sustainable use all played a pivotal role in allowing societies to thrive over extended periods.

Even in planning the future, lessons can be learned from the past. And planning the future of agriculture is what FarmTech 2005 is all about.