As the empires of concrete rise and flourish on the Prairies, the people of the village of Prud’homme, Sask., find they’re now in the hinterland.
But they’re fighting to preserve the last outpost of the grain trade still in the village: The wooden United Grain Growers elevator slated to soon close permanently.
“It doesn’t take long to become a ghost town,” said local UGG board secretary Leo Jeanneau, who is heading the campaign to save the elevator.
“You can’t give up. If a bulldozer comes down and flattens it, then I’ll give up. But not until then.”
Read Also
Going beyond “Resistant” on crop seed labels
Variety resistance is getting more specific on crop disease pathogens, but that information must be conveyed in a way that actually helps producers make rotation decisions.
The town used to have three elevators and three grain companies. One closed. Then a few years ago Saskatchewan Wheat Pool sold its elevator to UGG, which merged both local facilities.
The loss of the village’s last elevator could sound the community’s death knell, Jeanneau said. If the elevator goes, people will spend more time driving to Saskatoon, taking their business there. Local taxes will have to rise to make up for the loss of the elevator’s contribution.
The school may have to cut back on expenses because of funding loss, and that may force it to close. If people have to put their children on school buses every day, they may decide to move to a bigger town, Jeanneau said.
“I see it as a domino effect.”
UGG has tried to reassure local farmers they won’t be hurt by the closure. A major UGG concrete elevator sits west of Humboldt, offering a full range of services that aren’t available in Prud’homme, 75 kilometres away.
A local agent has been assigned to visit local farmers and arrange grain shipments and input purchases, which should not only sustain service, but increase it.
“We can’t offer all the services (through the Prud’homme elevator) that we feel we should,” said UGG area manager Lorne Hadley.
He said the elevator won’t be able to compete in the future because it has only a 14-car rail spot, while concrete elevators to the east and west have much larger car spots, allowing for better incentive rates and more efficient loading.
Hadley said UGG’s goal is to make the closure of the local elevator as painless as possible for local farmers: “It’s unfortunate that these things have to happen, but that’s life.”
Jeanneau isn’t calmed by the idea that a local agent will be arranging deliveries to and purchases from the Humboldt-area elevator.
“We’re not talking about delivering pizzas here,” he said.
The community had hoped it was going to be OK in the quickly changing prairie grain industry. The town lies on a railway main line and is in the centre of a grain-growing area that will become more concentrated around Prud’homme once a local branch line is abandoned.
But main line or not, Prud’homme finds it is not considered a central location any more, but rather a feeder area for bigger communities.
Local farmers and villagers have organized petitions and appealed to UGG to reverse its decision to abandon the elevator.
Jeanneau said he has been told UGG’s decision is a “done deal,” but he won’t give up while the elevator is still standing.
