The Western Producer takes a weekly look at some of the stories that made headlines in issues of the paper from 75, 50, 25 and 10 years ago.
75 years ago: Aug. 22, 1940
A conference organized by Manitoba premier John Bracken called for the dominion government to immediately “promote and bring into force a practical scheme of loans to farms on farm-stored grain.” The Bracken Conference was attended by representatives of farm groups, wheat pools, elevator companies, municipal bodies, retail merchants’ associations, retail lumbermen and boards of trade to discuss the crisis faced by western agriculture because of the lack of storage for the current grain crop, the limitations on deliveries from the farm and the consequent tie-up of farm income.
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Determining tariff compensation will be difficult but necessary
Prime minister Mark Carney says his government will support canola farmers, yet estimating the loss and paying compensation in an equitable fashion will be no easy task, but it can be done.
Matthew Longmuir of Grainland, Sask., donated a purebred registered Shorthorn heifer so that raffle tickets could be sold and the proceeds given to local chapters of the Canadian Red Cross Society. Longmuir was widely known for his herds of Shorthorn cattle and Clydesdale horses.
50 years ago: Aug. 19, 1965
The strike at the port of Vancouver was settled, but A.T. Baker, general manager of Alberta Wheat Pool, said federal pressure to get grain moving forced elevator companies to accept unfavourable terms. Federal trade minister Mitchell Sharp denied the accusation.
Earlier hopes of a record wheat crop in Saskatchewan had been in trouble for weeks because of a heat wave, and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool was now reporting that extreme heat damage was sharply reducing the potential of wheat stands, especially in later seeded crops.
25 years ago: Aug. 23, 1990
Canadian Pacific Railway and Alberta Wheat Pool were testing a grain container system that would load barley onto flat bed trucks on farms near Edmonton and Calgary and ship them by rail to livestock operations in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley.
The demand for canola producer cars had fallen 80 percent since the Canadian Grain Commission changed its allocation policy. A study assessing the new policy conceded that farmers could no longer deliver canola against a futures contract, but it said farmers rarely did so under the former system. The study, which was conducted by Deloitte and Touche, said the new policy was working and should continue.
10 years ago: Aug. 18, 2005
The U.S. government cut in half the countervailing duty it had imposed on Canadian hard red spring wheat in 2003.
However, CWB chair Ken Ritter said the much higher anti-dumping penalty, when combined with the remaining 2.54 percent countervailing duty, would continue to cripple Canadian hard red spring wheat sales to the United States.
Artist Laura Hale designed artwork of mega proportions in fields near Regina that could be seen by airplane passengers arriving for the Canada Summer Games. Doug Harle owned the durum field and Kevin Eberle owned the lentil field.
