SASKATOON — The push is on to build the new Saskatchewan Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence before construction funding expires.
However, there is still uncertainty about where one of the facilities will go and what will happen to the existing research operation at the Termuende farm near Lanigan.
The $25 million centre was announced last summer after a year of consultation and planning by a steering committee.
The committee recommended integrating the four facilities at Termuende (Western Beef Development Centre), University of Saskatchewan campus, Goodale Farm south of Saskatoon near Floral and new land purchased by the university near Clavet for the Beef Cattle Research and Training Unit.
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“To achieve this vision, it is recommended that the WBDC facilities and research program at Termuende Farm be relocated to the Goodale Farm and integrated with U of S programs in veterinary and agricultural sciences, and that the Goodale facilities be enhanced to accommodate these programs,” said the committee’s report.
“The BCRTU facilities at Clavet are critical and a high priority and must be developed as soon as possible.”
The Clavet land was bought to relocate the intensive livestock feedlot from atop the Saskatoon riverbank.
To fund the new facilities, the University of Saskatchewan pledged $10 million, as did the federal and provincial governments through Growing Forward 2. The Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association will contribute $1 million and an application for the remaining $4 million was made to the Canadian Agriculture Adaptation Program.
However, Growing Forward 2 expires March 31, 2018, leaving just two years to design, tender and build the facilities southeast of Saskatoon. The CAAP application is now in the process after being held up by the federal election.
“I think we would have liked to have made more progress on this initiative, but apparently we did not,” said Abdul Jalil, executive director of the research branch at Saskatchewan Agriculture and a member of the steering committee.
“The bottom line is we don’t have much choice but to complete this initiative by March 31, 2018. It has been made clear not only to the university, which is leading the construction of those sites, but also the steering committee that we need to make it happen.”
However, there is some concern that the Goodale Farm, which was purchased in 1972, is not the best location for the Cow-Calf and Forage Research and Teaching Unit, and that the land donated by the Termuende family in 1974 should not be sold.
Agriculture dean Mary Behr said the university is grateful for the gift, but at this point she can’t say what will happen.
“As we assess all of the work that is going to be carried out at the livestock and forage centre of excellence, we already know we don’t have enough land,” she told the Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference.
“There is, at this point, no intention to do anything other than to hang onto the Termuende land and see what the best use is that we can possibly make of it. We’re still working out … how we’re going to manage to conduct all of the activities that actually need more land than the university already has access to.”
More land is needed for grazing trials.
She said the university’s board of governors has approved the sale of Termuende if necessary, but selling an asset of that value would also require an order-in-council from the provincial government.
“Quite frankly, right now I do not see that kind of a sale as a likelihood,” she said.
The Termuende farm has closed before, in the early 1990s because of budget cuts, before it re-opened in 1998.
Bob Tyler, associate dean of research in agriculture and bioresources, told the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association semi-annual meeting that the Clavet site has never had intensive livestock on it and required an environmental assessment at a cost of $1.5 million.
The Goodale site requires replacement of aging veterinary medicine facilities plus facilities for WBDC activities.
“We have challenges at the moment,” Tyler said.
“We know where the Clavet feedlot facility is going to go. We still have to figure out exactly where the cow-calf and forage research and teaching unit is going to go. The passion in veterinary medicine is certainly to replace what already is at Goodale-Floral. There are logical arguments that that’s not the best place for it.”
Saskatoon is expanding toward the Goodale Farm — a new Costco store would be nearby — and the land has also seen flooding after several wet years.
“I’d be very concerned if the cow-calf portion of it was focused at Goodale,” Duane Thompson of Kelliher, Sask., told the meeting.
“It would seem very shortsighted to spend a lot of money in a place that’s being approached by the city development.”
He also said the proceeds of any sale of Termuende should go toward the cattle industry as the family intended.
Tyler said that decision is out of his hands.
The original budget for the BCRTU at Clavet was $16.5 million, but preliminary estimates were $2 million more than that and had to be whittled down. Tenders should go out this spring, Tyler said.
The CCFRTU budget was $8.5 million and estimates came in $6 million higher.
Tyler said there is clearly a lot of work to be done on the final design to bring the cost down. The committee can’t even ask for rural municipality approval until it knows exactly where the facility will go, he said.
Contact karen.briere@producer.com
