A call for straw contracts in Saskatchewan’s south is drawing interest from farmers over a six-million-acre zone.
The straw draw is centered on the town of Assiniboia, where a proposal to build a strawboard plant is gaining steam.
Strawboard is similar to high and medium density particleboard and is a replacement for the tree-based, formed wood product. Cereal grain straw and glue are bonded under high pressure and temperature to create sheets of board primarily used as flooring and as skeletons of factory-built furniture.
Local economic development groups, municipalities and experienced partners from an established Elie, Man., strawboard plant are holding meetings with farmers in the coming weeks. The strawboard group is trying to attract a commitment from producers to provide up to 300,000 acres of cereal straw to the factory.
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The participants say they can pull straw from as far west as Swift Current, east to Weyburn and north to Regina.
Farmers are initially being offered $6 per ton, or $6.60 per tonne, for unbaled straw, left in windrows. The plan includes price increases once there is an inventory of straw and the plant is running.
“We are going to need 100,000 acres committed to the plant before the financing and a commitment from the principals in the project can occur,” said Marc Topola, of the Assiniboia Economic Development Authority.
He said producers need to understand how important it is to commit to the project quickly.
Rudy Schmeichel agrees. His role is to deliver the straw contracts and create the ability to locally bale and transport the raw product.
“I need to avoid that Catch-22 problem with farmers. They want to see our market before they sign up and without their commitment for straw there can be no market,” said Schmeichel.
“The sooner we have the straw, the sooner we can get this project up and running. We need this type of business activity in Saskatchewan and this is an opportunity for the whole region,” said Topola.
Opportunity is what Bengough area farmer Grant Payant wants from the new business.
“I’ve got two kids in Alberta now. It breaks my heart. It really hurts to see your kids have to leave the province to get a life of their own. It’s because we don’t have any opportunities here. This plant is an opportunity,” said the farmer, who has committed some of his annual cereal acres to the plant.
Payant doesn’t worry about straw loss from his fields. His continuous cropping rotations occasionally require the removal of some straw. He feels it provides a better seedbed for pulse and oilseed crops.
In the plans, farmers will receive approximately $1.5 million annually for straw. The $170 million project would employ 120 full-time staff and 100 seasonal workers with an annual payroll of $4.3 million.
