Construction on the new Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence near Clavet, Sask., is about 30 percent done and on track for completion by next spring.
The federal government through Western Economic Diversification recently added $4.47 million to the project budget.
The University of Saskatchewan has contributed $10 million, as did the federal and provincial governments together through Growing Forward 2. The Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association is contributing $1 million.
However, the total budget is $37.5 million.
“We have $25.47 million and are actively engaged in fundraising because we need more,” said project director Dorothy Murrell.
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The centre is actually three facilities: a new Beef Cattle Research and Teaching Unit, a new Cow-Calf and Forage Research and Teaching Unit and the existing Goodale Farm where the Western College of Veterinary Medicine conducts its research.
The two new facilities will be 16 kilometres from the Goodale Farm and across the road from each other. An earlier recommendation to relocate the Western Beef Development Centre from the Termuende Farm at Lanigan, Sask., to the Goodale Farm was scrapped in favour of the cow-calf and forage unit.
The construction has to be done by the time Growing Forward 2 funding expires.
“The timeline for substantial completion is March 31, 2018,” Murrell said.
“Population (move-in of cattle) is slated to begin in the summer of 2018.”
The centre will replace the university’s feedlot located on the river bank in Saskatoon and the extensive grazing and beef research done at the WBDC.
Murrell said research will continue at Lanigan until at least 2021.
“We are working on a sensible transition plan,” she said.
“The last thing we want is for research to lag or suffer a setback or any of that sort of thing.”
A four-year transition will allow projects on forage and extensive grazing to be completed before a move.
Although the university has already passed a motion approving the sale of the Termuende land, no decisions have yet been made. A sale would also require an order-in-council from the provincial government.
Murrell said everyone involved in the LFCE recognizes the value that Termuende created in terms of allowing a relationship to develop between researchers and producers.
The university bought the land for the LFCE in 2012. It includes 11 quarters, and the two new facilities will be across a grid road from each other rather than more than 100 kilometres apart.
Murrell said having the facilities closer together will allow even more co-operation among researchers from the college of agriculture, the WCVM, Agriculture Canada and the WBDC.
The construction includes the ability for future expansion at the forage and cow-calf facility for more lab, teaching and office space.
The budget is $12 million more than originally announced, she added, partly because upgrades are required at the Goodale Farm.
“We consider that to be part of the Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence, so some refurbishment there is required to allow ease of transfer of animals back and forth and to upgrade facilities,” she said.
For example, some research requires more isolation facilities.
Other costs also came in higher, including the requirement for an environmental assessment.
