It’s been a tumultuous year.
Governments, private business and Mother Nature all conspired to make 2006 an interesting time to be in prairie agriculture, as will be noted when reading our Top 10 stories of the year.
While many of these major events were riddled with pessimism and frustration, the year also provided its share of optimism.
Federal election
While it’s been traditional for the Western Producer to present its Top 10 stories of the year in no particular order, this year we felt that last January’s federal election deserved special mention.
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Our decision to name it the top agricultural story of the year may raise a few eyebrows, but it’s important to remember that three of the major agricultural events of the year were a direct result of that election.
It wasn’t initially clear how much of an impact the election would have on agriculture immediately following the Conservatives’ minority victory on Jan. 23.
But the early warning signs were there. The party had promised during the election to strip the Canadian Wheat Board of its single desk powers and replace the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program with something different. As well, while in opposition it had opposed the Liberal government’s plan to sell the federally owned rail car fleet to the Farmer Rail Car Coalition.
In hindsight, all the necessary ingredients were in place for a year full of controversy and fireworks.
Canadian Wheat Board
The heated debate over the future of the wheat board had evolved into a firestorm of controversy by late in the year, but it started slow.
Opponents of the board’s export monopoly began pressuring the minority Conservative government to act immediately following the election, but new agriculture minister Chuck Strahl threw cold water on those hopes, announcing shortly after his appointment that he had no plans to act quickly on the issue.
The first signs of the tumult to come was in the middle of summer when Strahl organized a meeting of single desk opponents in Saskatoon to discuss how best to dismantle the board’s monopoly. The meeting prompted single desk supporters to organize their own day-long rally.
In September, Strahl appointed the first single desk opponent to the CWB board of directors, a process that would escalate over the fall. Later that month, he set up a task force to recommend how to remove the single desk, which tabled its report later in the fall. He also announced plans for a farmer plebiscite on the barley portion of the single desk early in 2007.
The wheat board director election in December returned a majority of single desk supporters to the board, but acrimonious relations between the board and the government continued, culminating with the firing of CWB chief executive officer Adrian Measner in late December.
Rail cars
After years of work, the Farmer Rail Car Coalition had signed a deal with the Liberal government late in 2005 to buy the federally owned rail car fleet.
The first signs of trouble came in April when the new Conservative government axed operating funds to the coalition. The rest of the month was spent feuding over a secret government report that the coalition said bolstered its case.
The Conservatives scrapped the rail car deal in early May, deciding instead to keep ownership of the cars.
CAIS
While the Conservatives had campaigned during the federal election to replace CAIS, Strahl agreed during a meeting with provincial agriculture ministers in March to back away from those plans.
However, he soon retreated from that commitment as well and announced he was still committed to replacing CAIS.
What followed was months of bickering over semantics as Ottawa, the provinces and farm leaders fought about whether proposed changes to CAIS constituted a change or a replacement.
Finally, Strahl and his counterparts agreed during a meeting in November to make major changes to the program, including developing a stand-alone disaster program.
Weather
It wasn’t all controversy and feuding in 2006.
As a nice change from recent years, the weather co-operated with most prairie farmers.
There were pockets of trouble, including severe flooding in northeastern Saskatchewan and parts of Manitoba, heavy rain that delayed spraying in southern Alberta and drought in parts of the Prairies, particularly southwestern Saskatchewan.
But generally the weather was ideal, starting with a mild winter that helped livestock producers and ample snow cover that boded well for spring seeding. Spring rain was adequate for crops and pasture and an unusually early harvest avoided the risk of frost.
Disease
As has been the case since May 2003, BSE was the most important livestock disease story.
Most of the news was positive. Trade in younger cattle and beef to the United States continued and the first shipments of beef arrived in Japan on Dec. 23, 2005.
But the optimism over increased cattle and beef exports was tempered by a flurry of new BSE cases in Canada in 2006. The five new cases were thought to have contributed to delays in a much-anticipated American ruling to allow older cattle and beef exports from Canada.
As well, the federal government expanded its ban on specified risk materials in animal feed.
The other big livestock disease story of the year was a major anthrax outbreak in northeastern Saskatchewan in July and August. The outbreak killed hundreds of cattle and forced the vaccination of hundreds more. The outbreak was thought to have been caused by flooding in the region that disturbed soil and brought long-dormant spores to the surface.
Commodity prices
At the same time that most prairie farmers were looking at an average or above-average harvest, prices for many of those crops began to rise on the world market.
Commodity prices, including agricultural ones, soared in May, culminating in wheat prices hitting 10-year highs in October.
It was a welcome development.
WTO
The news wasn’t so welcome for farmers hoping for an international deal that would bring freer trade to the world marketplace.
After months of stalled World Trade Organization negotiations and dire warnings by WTO officials that the talks were in jeopardy, the Doha round was officially suspended on July 24. It is expected to take years to revive the negotiations.
Hog production
The optimism generated in 2005 over the announced construction of two new hog slaughter plants on the Prairies evaporated in 2006.
In October, Maple Leaf announced a major restructuring of its operations, including not only scrapping plans to build a new plant in Saskatoon but also its intention to close its existing plant in that city, leaving Saskatchewan without a major hog slaughter plant. As well, plans to build a new hog slaughter plant in Winnipeg were thrown into jeopardy in December when Olymel, which is also restructuring its operations, announced it was pulling out of the project. Big Sky Farms quickly followed, leaving only Hytek to continue with the project. While that company insisted it remains committed to building the packing plant, uncertainty dogs the project.
In November, the Manitoba government shocked hog producers in that province when it announced a moratorium on new hog barns until after an environmental review.
Takeover bombshell
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool stunned the agricultural industry in November when it announced plans to buy a controlling interest in much-larger Agricore United.
The AU board is resisting the takeover and some analysts argue that Sask Pool isn’t offering enough for AU shares. The pool insists it will continue with its plans in 2007.
