Well-known Saskatchewan cattle producer Carl Block was remembered last
week for his tireless promotion of the Canadian cattle industry.
Block died May 28 when the four-seater plane he was piloting crashed
into a pasture on his ranch near Abbey, Sask.
He was 58.
“There was no quit in him,” said Neil Jahnke, president of the Canadian
Cattleman’s Association and a rancher at Gouldtown, Sask. “We’re going
to miss him.”
Block moved to Saskatchewan from Alberta in 1985, when he purchased a
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ranch in the Great Sand Hills.
He and his wife, Pat, ran a cow-calf and backgrounding operation of
about 900 cows on nearly 60,000 acres of primarily government lease
land.
He was active in the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association, serving as
president in 1995-1996, and was a director on the CCA from 1993 until
this spring.
Block also served on numerous committees, including five years as chair
of the Animal Health and Meat Inspection committee, and terms on the
Animal Health Research and foreign trade committees.
He was past-chair of Quality Starts Here, a beef promotion program.
Block had just signed on as a director of the national checkoff agency
and was chair of the Canadian Animal Health Coalition.
But he will likely best be remembered for his 1998-2001 term as chair
of the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency, when he took the lead and
travelled throughout the country to promote a national cattle tag
identification system.
Block was challenged by opponents of the program, but maintained his
conviction that it was the right direction for the industry to take,
especially in light of the foot-and-mouth epidemic in the United
Kingdom.
“He had a degree of steadfastness you don’t see in many people,” said
Dennis Laycraft, executive vice-president of the CCA. “He was a
remarkable gentleman who took the high road.”
Block’s friend, Brian Weedon, who ranches at Swift Current, Sask., and
is also a past-president of the SSGA, echoed that.
“He wasn’t met with a lot of friendly reception sometimes,” Weedon
said, referring to the cattle indentification meetings. “He’d be
standing in front of 300 or more and many of them angry at him. I think
he did that because he believed in his cause.”
Weedon said Block was also a man who practiced what he preached in
terms of herd health and range management.
RCMP and Transport Canada are investigating the cause of the accident,
which resulted in a significant fire. Block, an experienced pilot, was
trying to move cattle to a better water source when the accident
happened.
Weedon added that Block was above all a family man.
He is survived by his wife, four children and three grandchildren. The
funeral was scheduled to be held June 5 at the Block Ranch.
