Heartland Livestock Services and Mainline Agro Products have announced they plan to study the feasibility of a 10,000 head cattle feedlot in southeastern Saskatchewan.
This is the first of several lots that Heartland wants to develop in conjunction with groups in Western Canada.
“We talked to quite a number of communities, groups and individuals about it and you have to start somewhere. Initially, we hope to do two and this will be one of them,” said Stewart Stone, Heartland’s chief financial officer and director of marketing.
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The Mainline group includes shareholders from the Mainline Rural Economic Development Authority, which includes the towns of Wolsely, Grenfell, Broadview, Whitewood, the Cowessess First Nation and the rural municipalities of Elcapo, Chester, Kinsley, Willowdale and Wolsely.
A 10,000 head feedlot will cost $4 to $5 million, of which half would be debt financed. The other half would be split between the community and Heartland, Stone said.
Included in the plan is the potential to expand to 20,000 head.
Looking for location
The next step is to look for a suitable site.
“Secondly we need to pursue the community interest a little more and make sure the community is very comfortable with it and is prepared to invest in it,” said Stone.
There will be public meetings and if there is a local share offering, a prospectus outlining the details of the project will have to be written, Stone said.
Over the past few years Mainline has been interested in a feedlot and an ethanol plant to make local use of feed grains.
Larry Lang, spokesperson for Mainline said rising freight rates are a concern for the local farming community.
“We’re about as far as you can be from any port. We grow cattle and barley right here, so it makes sense to keep the work here.”
He said area feed grain producers have tended to seed malting barley varieties but the weather does not always co-operate. Having a nearby feedlot might encourage producers to seed higher yielding feed barley varieties.
The involvement of Heartland makes the project workable because of its management expertise and financial support, Lang said.
Heartland is owned by Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Manitoba Pool Elevators.
