Yellow flowered canola fields that expand in all directions seem to kiss the soft blue sky that somehow truly does seem higher and wider and, well, bigger. That’s how I would sum up the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, just north of Montana and North Dakota in the U.S.
I recently traveled there to attend the International Farm Management Association Conference at the University of Saskatoon. This was my first time to attend an international conference. There is a richness in being able to learn from the many perspectives of farmers, farm management business consultants and university professionals.
The organizing committee gathered a diverse group of speakers with all kinds of agricultural perspectives. The theme was resiliency in agriculture. I was stretched as I learned and heard statistics and personal stories throughout the four days. As I have looked back through my notes, there is so much more I want to share with you, but here are just a few highlights.
Two of the days were spent listening to presentations at the university and two days were tour days of farms and agricultural businesses outside of Saskatoon. We toured several dairy farms with a variety of management approaches utilizing scale, efficiency and value-added opportunities (ice cream) to create viable business models. The Canada milk quota system is different from our dairy marketing system here.
We also learned about barley and the malting process to produce beer, especially for smaller craft breweries. Though craft beer in Canada is about 8% to 10% of the market, those smaller breweries use about 25% of the malt, because they do not add other starch sources for brewing like the larger manufacturers do.
In Saskatchewan, farmers plant about the first week of May and hope to begin harvesting by the first week of September. Farms there can use up to seven different crops in rotation including cereal crops (like barley, oats and wheat), oilseed crops (canola and flax) and pulse crops (peas, lentils and chickpeas), among others.
Saskatchewan is home to Nutrien, formerly known as PotashCorp, which is the largest potassium producer in the world. They are also the world’s third largest nitrogen producer. The speaker from Nutrien said because of the way nitrogen is generated, the cost of natural gas makes up 70% to 90% of the cost to produce nitrogen.
Many of the European farmers, and those from Australia and New Zealand as well, were very conscientious about reducing nitrogen rates. Government policies and regulations in many of their countries limit the nitrogen they are allowed to apply. Europe typically leads the way in many of these situations because they have to. There is more urban and rural interface and, in general, there is less farmland, so the discussions are more prominent than here in the U.S.
There were so many great sound bites, valuable nuggets of information and experience. Here are some of the highlights I captured from farmers.
- The paradigm must shift to farm the best land and farm it better.
- We should shepherd the use of fertilizer and treat it as precious and powerful.
- Consider output of grain per input of nitrogen fertilizer.
- Resentment is a cancer on a family farm.
Another favorite part of the trip was visiting Wanuskewin Heritage Park to learn about the first nations that lived in Canada. On this site, the bison roamed the plains and many different tribes gathered for hunting and other spiritual ceremonies. Just as there are many efforts to restore race relations in the U.S., there is a desire to make restitution with the indigenous people groups in Canada. It is a complicated situation, but my outside observation is there is some genuine effort to learn from one another and a desire for a better future for all people in Canada.
Today, I’ll leave you with this quote from President Harry Truman: “Canada is a broad land — broad in mind, broad in spirit and broad in physical expanse.”
Emily Marrison is an OSU Extension Family & Consumer Sciences Educator and may be reached at 740-622-2265.