Trees may be growing where canola once bloomed as more prairie producers consider poplars as a new hybrid plant for their land.
Deb Weedon of the Saskatchewan Forest Centre said the demand from grain and oilseed producers for information about tree crops is fuelling the development of that sector.
More than 300 Saskatchewan producers have attended seminars, requested information and sought out the centre’s advice about the viability of trees as a potential agricultural crop.
While the appeal of a crop that only needs three to five years of weed control may excite farmers, they get a dose of reality with the realization that harvest cash flow comes once in 20 years.
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Gary Coghill of Saskatchewan Agriculture said compared to annual net returns of $30 per acre from continuous wheat cropping, a 20-year, $1,800 return might sound attractive compared to the $600 earned from that cereal crop.
However the loss of the interim cash flow, the long-term uncertainty of any market for trees and unknown crop returns for grain and oilseeds leave too many unanswered questions for most producers.
Other issues that need to be dealt with if tree farming catches on are crop insurance, deferred taxation and the lost jobs in the agricultural community resulting from shifts to longer term cropping.
“There is a lot of research and examination of the sector that needs to be done before one can predict the viability of forestation,” said Hayley Hesselin, an economist who recently joined the faculty at the University of Saskatchewan, specializing in forestry.
Cees Van Oosten, a tree production consultant in British Columbia, agreed.
He said there is likely a role for pension funds and other large investors looking for returns well into the future, when it comes to forestation of farmland.
Hesselin has set out to find some of those answers.
