BRANDON, Man. – Most farmers see red when elk eat their hay and snowmobilers zoom over fields seeded with winter cereals. But Bob McNabb sees green.
He believes there’s a way for communities to make money and keep themselves alive if they start to market the natural resources found on farmland.
“It seems to me that as producers, we always view wildlife as a pest,” said McNabb, who farms near Minnedosa.
He told farmers and bureaucrats at a conference here that more than $20 billion per year is spent in the United States on migratory birds alone. Many of these birds also spend time in Canada.
Read Also
Russian wheat exports start to pick up the pace
Russia has had a slow start for its 2025-26 wheat export program, but the pace is starting to pick up and that is a bearish factor for prices.
Farmers benefit
If landowners got together and sold hunters and nature lovers access to their land, McNabb thinks they could reap the benefits.
He has talked to a lot of urban people who said they would gladly pay to be able to get closer to wildlife.
“It’s just waiting to be developed,” he said. “We have not put our minds together in doing it.”
McNabb has been thinking about the idea for a long time, but this was the first time he talked about it publicly.
He thinks a conservation or community development group should do a pilot project, working with farmers, snowmobile and wildlife groups, and game farmers or others in the community who have sights or skills to offer.
McNabb said the group could promote its project at large sporting shows in the United States. They could offer to do customs paperwork for hunters and turn abandoned farmhouses into hunting lodges or way stations on trails.
Farmers should receive some tax rebate on their land used in a project, McNabb said. And, they would have to receive 100 percent compensation for wildlife damage.
McNabb said he also thinks farmers participating in such a project should:
- Fence off hay.
- Use zero-till systems on nearby land to ensure wildlife habitat.
- Straight-combine rather than swath so they avoid damage caused by migratory birds descending for a feast.
Governments should keep better track of wildlife numbers and open up hunting seasons when they get too high, he added.
McNabb warned farmers if they don’t develop this opportunity, urbanites will. He said urban dwellers are already buying rural land for recreational uses.
“We’ve got to do things that create a resource base in our community. That’s what keeps our schools open, that’s what keeps our health units open, when we’ve got people here.”
