The Western Producer takes a weekly look at some of the stories that made headlines in issues of the paper from 75, 50, 25 and 10 years ago.
75 years ago: Oct. 17, 1940
Federal trade minister James MacKinnon angered prairie farmers when he said they had delivered only 64 percent of wheat quotas between Aug. 1 and Oct. 4. Many assumed he was implying farmers weren’t delivering be-cause they didn’t need the money. The Western Producer wasn’t too happy about this, either, and ran a photo on the front page of the elevator row in Abbey, Sask., which the paper said was unable to accept more wheat because it had run out of room.
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Meanwhile, agriculture minister James Gardiner said it was unacceptable for Canada to sell wheat to France, Holland, Belgium and Norway while they were occupied by Germany. He said wheat trade would return to normal once the Germans were driven out of those countries.
50 years ago: Oct. 14, 1965
Prime minister Lester Pearson, campaigning in the federal election, promised that his government would buy uneconomic farms, redevelop them and sell them back to farmers. He said his Liberal party would also establish a dairy commission to raise milk prices and extend employment insurance to the main groups of full-time farm workers.
Canada was expected to produce a 704 million wheat crop in 1965, which would be second only to the 760 million bu. crop of 1963. Farmers had initially expected to break the 1963 record, but bad weather in September dashed those hopes.
25 years ago: Oct. 18, 1990
Much of the world may have welcomed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, but it turned out to be bad news for Canadian barley growers, who lost their fourth largest market when East Germany became part of Germany and joined the European Union, with its protective trade barriers.
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool be-came one of the first livestock handling companies in Canada to establish a code of ethics for dealing with animals. Don Allewell, general manager of the pool’s livestock division, said the new code reflected common sense.
10 years ago: Oct. 13, 2005
A storm that dumped 30 centi-metres of snow in southeastern Saskatchewan and 45 cm in southwestern Manitoba was just the latest installment in a weird weather year on the Prairies, which included a extreme rainstorm in western Manitoba in June and a 140 km-h windstorm in that province in the same month. Meanwhile, muddy conditions in northeastern Sask-atchewan continued to complicate and delay harvest.
A rumour swirled through Manitoba that Olymel was planning to build a hog slaughter plant in the province. Industry officials were quick to lower expectations, and nothing ever came of the rumour.
