It hasn’t officially formed yet but the proposed Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association (SCA) has already established a website and hired a consultant.
Janice Bruynooghe of Spring Creek Land & Cattle Consulting at Outlook, Sask., will look after establishing a commission under the provincial Agri-Food Act.
If approved, the commission would take control of the $1 per head refundable checkoff. It plans to use the money for industry research and development.
Right now a committee appointed by the agriculture minister administers the fund.
Earlier this week the Saskatchewan Cattle Feeders Association, with the support of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association, was to ask the fund to pay the cost of Bruynooghe’s contract. If the request wasn’t approved, the cattle feeders group intends to use some of its reserve money.
Read Also
Why selenium is still an important factor in horse health
Selenium is an essential equine trace mineral that supports antioxidant defense, muscle integrity, immune function, metabolism and thyroid activity.
In 2007, the cattle marketing deductions fund earned about $1.5 million from the checkoff.
The proposal doesn’t affect the $1 national checkoff, which is deducted at the same time.
SCA interim chair Bob Ivey, from Ituna, Sask., said producers won’t notice any change.
“This is no different than what the Cattle Marketing Deductions Act does,” he said.
Ivey said it’s important for producers to have control of that money. He used BSE as an example.
“Personally I think we did a pretty good job but, my gosh, it was difficult,” said Ivey, who was co-chair of a ministerial advisory committee during the crisis. “We just didn’t have enough behind us. We had to get communication back out (to producers) and we had no people and no resources to do it.”
He said a single organization would make that process more efficient.
Everyone who pays the checkoff would be considered a member of the SCA. This differs from the current situation in which producers pay voluntary membership fees to the stock growers or cattle feeders group.
The stock growers has more than 400 lifetime members on its books and about 300 regular members. The cattle feeders typically has between 120 and 150 members each year.
The latter group unanimously passed a motion at its annual meeting earlier this year to support the idea of the SCA, but the stock growers membership won’t vote until June. Several stock grower members have been vocally opposed to the idea, worried that it will mean the end of the organization.
The proposal calls for the SCA to elect a director from each of crop districts one, two, four, five, six, seven and eight and two directors in districts three and nine.
The stock growers and cattle feeders would each appoint two directors.
Ivey said the stock growers group doesn’t have to support the SCA in order for it to proceed.
“It needs ministerial approval,” he explained. “The minister needs to be satisfied that a significant portion (of livestock producers) support it.
“I would think support from the two existing organizations would be a pretty compelling case.”
Colleen Gillespie is a stock growers member from Neville, south of Swift Current. She is concerned there isn’t enough information available.
“We ask questions and get no answers,” she said.
She also said many of her neighbours aren’t members of either organization and don’t know what’s going on.
Ivey said the proponents of the SCA, which include both cow-calf producers and feedlot owners, have attended many meetings to deal with questions.
Agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud would not comment on the proposed organization at this time.
If the organization and the commission go ahead, the government would have to repeal the cattle marketing legislation. The act couldn’t be introduced until the fall sitting of the legislature in November.
