Saskatchewan farm leaders say they aren’t too worried about the lack of new agricultural initiatives in last week’s throne speech.
However, they agree that the state of the livestock industry bears watching.
The speech to open the fall session of the legislature reiterated the measures the Saskatchewan Party government has taken over the last two years but did not promise anything new.
SaskPork chair Joe Kleinsasser said producers understand that the government has a lot on its plate and that the hog sector in particular has received attention lately.
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“Ever since this government got in, I guess they’ve had to deal with (a struggling livestock sector) and I can almost see them getting to the point where they don’t even want to deal with us anymore,” he said.
“But they’ve certainly been very responsive to a lot of the issues that are out there and I certainly look forward to a lot of the same. I heard nothing in the throne speech that would indicate otherwise.”
Agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud said the government will work on improving crop insurance, lobbying Ottawa to top up payments made to cattle producers and improving the administration of AgriStability.
He said taking over AgriStability administration from the federal government is going more slowly than he would like, but it would be part of next year’s budget.
Agriculture critic and NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter said he didn’t think moving AgriStability to Melville would impress farmers.
“I have not had one farmer tell me that they need the office moved,” he told reporters.
Lingenfelter said the government should have acknowledged the 10 percent decline in the cattle breeding herd and 30 percent drop in pork production over the past 18 months.
However, Bjornerud noted that the last cheques from the $71 million cattle and hog support program were mailed two months ago, and the advance AgriStability payments for hog producers were just announced.
As well, farmers are just getting tax notices after the largest cut to education tax on farmland was announced in the spring budget.
The ministry has been working on a livestock strategy that is supposed to be released this fall.
Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association chair Jack Hextall said cattle producers are anxious to see what initiatives the strategy might contain.
He said cash flow is going to be a serious problem this winter. The cattle industry wants governments to initiate AgriRecovery to help producers who don’t have enough feed.
“There’s so many external forces at work that we can’t really deal with, other than try and get producers to a spot where the market starts to pick up.”
He said the number of producers leaving the industry appears to have slowed, likely because prices are poor and no one wants to give cattle away.
“I think a lot of guys that were maybe thinking of moving cows are now trying to find ways to get them through the winter to get a better price out of them,” Hextall said.
“But it’s going to come down to their feed situation.”
Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan vice-president Don Connick said the exodus is serious and he was disappointed that it was not addressed in the throne speech.
He also said cash flow is going to be a problem for grain producers with unharvested crop. About a quarter of this year’s crop was still in the field last week.
“The prospect for harvest is not very bright there,” Connick said.
