MOOSE JAW, Sask. — Construction is finally underway on a feedlot proposed more than 10 years ago near Outlook, Sask.
Stuart Thiessen of Namaka Farms said earthwork is in progress at the site in the Rural Municipality of Rudy. The permit is for 36,000 head, but he said the plan is to start at about 5,000 and build up.
“We’re moving forward and with luck and hope and a lot of other things we will have cattle there end of next fall, maybe early January,” he said during a presentation at the annual Irrigation Saskatchewan conference.
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Thiessen’s family had been trying to get the project going since 2007, when they applied for a development permit. They operate a 25,000 head feedlot near Strathmore, Alta., but knew they couldn’t expand because of acreage pressure and water availability. Feedgrain and water supply in Saskatchewan made it an obvious choice.
However, they ran into tremendous resistance from some people, which took years to sort out.
“We call it the great castigation,” Thiessen said.
“We were blamed for everything. It took us five years to get our development permit (and) all the way to the appeal court. It was absurd. I got accused of trying to drain the river.”
The project lost focus and momentum. Workers who had intended to move to Saskatchewan to help establish the feedlot were no longer available. The Thiessens bought more grain land to make the Saskatchewan operation economical.
When they finally got their feedlot approval in 2014, the economic downturn and lost momentum meant they weren’t able to proceed immediately.
Thiessen said in hindsight the rural bylaws were weak, which gave lawyers lots of ammunition. There was also confusion about who should set environmental standards, he added. On that point, he thinks the province’s Agricultural Operations Act does a good job.
He doesn’t blame the RM council. He said they had a difficult decision to make, little budget and poorly written bylaws.
“The amazement to me was how a few people could hold up a process like that,” he said.
Building in an irrigation area provides certainty of water for cattle and silage. Thiessen said feedlots and irrigation can work together.
“Manure is a wonderful fertilizer, but it’s hard to haul so it’s really nice to have highly productive land right next to your feedlot,” he said.
“Silage is very bulky, high moisture, hard to haul and you can’t go to the market and buy it.”
The Thiessen grain farm counts 1,400 acres of irrigated land among its 10,000 acres and that may increase, he added. The feedlot footprint is about 250 acres.
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