Saskatchewan agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud delivered welcome news to the province’s beleaguered livestock producers last week but did not come through with all the help producer groups had requested.
Speaking at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities midterm convention in Saskatoon, Bjornerud announced $30 per acre for producers who have to reseed forage land damaged by flooding.
The program also includes up to $50,000 in assistance for producers who will have to haul in feed or ship their cattle to other locations to feed them.
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The program will be available province-wide retroactively from June 2010 to August 2011.
Bjornerud acknowledged that this was not the per head payment many producers wanted.
“We looked at all avenues we could do right now,” he said.
“We’ve talked to the federal minister and I know they’re assessing it.”
Bjornerud said the overall availability of feed in the province is a potential impediment to securing the federal funding necessary for a per head payment.
“The situation we’re in with 180 percent of normal feed right now almost dictates that I don’t think AgriRecovery will kick in at all,” he said.
SARM president David Marit agreed the program is valuable despite not meeting all of producers’ requests.
“I like the part where ranchers can haul it themselves and be compensated for hauling it at a commercial rate, so that might work out very well.”
Marit said there was still time for the federal government to help producers in the province’s most flood-ravaged regions cope with feed shortages.
He was hopeful that federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz will eventually work with Bjornerud on a per head payment.
“We’ll just have to wait and let those politicians figure that out,” he said.
Jack Hextall of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association said cattle producers were grateful for the assistance, but there was still more work to be done.
“One of the things that we’re concerned about is that although we have a freight-assistance package in place now and that’s a good thing, producers still need to have the ability to buy that feed.”
Hextall said an improving beef market won’t solve all of producers’ problems.
“Calf prices are up and that’s great, we absolutely need that, but those calves have got a mountain of bills to pay from the last seven years.”
He said he worried that unless cattle producers in flood affected regions receive a per-head payment, they would be forced to sell breeding cows to buy feed, which would diminish the industry.
