Who will patronize Saskatchewan public pastures of the future?
Murray Jelinski says he’s not sure, but he knows it won’t be the same ones who now keep an average of 28 cows in the pastures.
“The demographics of North American farmers and business trends tell us that the user of today’s pastures won’t be around much longer,” the veterinarian, Alberta beef chair and University of Saskatchewan large animal sciences professor told producers and pasture staff attending a Saskatoon livestock seminar sponsored by the Saskatchewan Farm Animal Council earlier this month.
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He said producers who use Western Canada’s federal and provincial pastures are aging along with the rest of society.
The 5,000 Saskatchewan pasture patrons are a mix of grain farmers who need pasture and access to a bull, and cow-calf producers who are running short of pasture of their own.
“From what we can tell about many of these producers, they will be consolidating or leave the industry over the next decade,” Jelinski said about the baby boomer farmers of today.
He expects to see larger cattle producers replace smaller producers and grain farmers who are less interested in cow-calf production.
He also said it is reasonable to expect that in the future about 1,350 patrons will each place 100 animals on Saskatchewan’s public pastures.
Those producers are more likely to want a bigger hand in choosing the genetics their animals are exposed to and may want less mixing of herds, Jelinski said.
“There may be a greater emphasis on animal health entering the pastures. It’s too early to tell, but one thing is for certain, big changes are coming to the community pastures.”
