WHAT Saskatchewan Wheat Pool began through Heartland Livestock Services will now be carried forward by Nilsson Brothers Inc. of Alberta. On Aug. 29, Pool sold Heartland’s livestock operations to Nilsson’s for $32.9 million.
Nilsson Brothers owns and operates meat packing plants, auction marts, livestock feeder buying services, livestock commodity trading and financing operations. Last year it purchased the packing plant in Moose Jaw, Sask., and last week’s purchase puts Nilsson in a good position to further develop Saskatchewan’s cattle industry.
Speaking to stock growers last June, David Nilsson said his company wanted to increase its Saskatchewan stock inventory to 50 percent of Nilsson’s total, up from its current 15 percent.
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Worrisome drop in grain prices
Prices had been softening for most of the previous month, but heading into the Labour Day long weekend, the price drops were startling.
“There’s no reason 70 percent of the feeder cattle in this province are loaded on a truck and shipped to Alberta, followed by a load of barley shipped to the same feedlot,” Nilsson told the stock growers.
Saskatchewan producers have thought the same thing, figures show. Last week Statistics Canada reported a 5.6 percent increase in the provincial beef herd over 2000 totals. That’s above the western Canadian average growth of two percent. The Alberta herd grew 1.9 percent and the Manitoba herd by one percent.
Saskatchewan’s percentage increase in number of beef cows in cow-calf operations rose seven percent over last year. The much larger Alberta herd grew by two percent and Manitoba’s by less than one percent.
Saskatchewan led the way in sheep flock expansion too, with numbers up 17 percent. Alberta flocks grew by five percent and Manitoba’s held steady.
To match the general trend toward more livestock, Saskatchewan producers are putting more land into hay and pasture. In 2000, statistics show 3.65 million acres of hay in the province, a 15.5 percent increase over 1999.
Recent issues of the Producer have documented an increasing number of Albertans moving east to start livestock operations where land is cheaper and feedgrain is plentiful.
They see the opportunities too. And as cattle producers encourage higher domestic beef consumption and develop new markets, the expansion of the Saskatchewan livestock industry will serve to complement Alberta’s activities as the beef production leader.
So, while politicians have been urging diversification as an answer to grain farmers’ troubles, it appears Saskatchewan farmers and ranchers have been quietly expanding their livestock interests.
There’s no mystery to it, with grain and oilseed prices as they have been and Saskatchewan’s agricultural economy seeking to realize its full potential.
Investment in that industry, first by Sask Pool and now by Nilssons, will hopefully allow producers to spread their risks and reap some profits.
