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: May 1, 1941
Federal agriculture minister James Gardiner said he saw evidence during a recent visit to Western Canada that prairie farmers were preparing to co-operate with the government’s plan to reduce wheat production. The plan had come under significant attack from opposition parties, farm groups and this newspaper.
A federal bulletin explained how to more reliably distinguish male and female chicks of purebred Barred Rocks birds. The method, which used the pattern of the white head-spot, leg colour and the shade of black colour in the down, was said to have reduced “sex sighting” to a science.
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Worrisome drop in grain prices
Prices had been softening for most of the previous month, but heading into the Labour Day long weekend, the price drops were startling.
50 years ago: April 28, 1966
Ottawa agreed to pay 75 percent of the costs of fighting the Red River flood, which were estimated at $20 million. “A fine example of co-operative federalism in action,” said prime minister Lester Pearson.
Alberta Wheat Pool delegates and members of their advisory committee “set a precedent” by travelling on a chartered DC-6 Western Airline plane from Edmonton to Calgary to inspect the pool building and the Western Co-operative Fertilizer plant and then returning to their homes that same evening. The headline for the story was: “Lengthy trip for Pool men.”
25 years ago: May 2, 1991
Farmers were storing 23.9 million tonnes of the six major grains and oilseeds on their farms as of March 31, which was half an average prairie crop. It was also 48 percent higher than the 16 million tonnes in storage at the same time of the previous year.
American politicians caused consternation among Canadian food manufacturers when they approved a plan to require new nutrition labelling on food exported to the United States. “We couldn’t believe it when they hit us with this in the middle of harmonization talks,” said Carol Findlay, executive director of the Association of Canadian Biscuit Manufacturers.
10 years ago: April 27, 2006
The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan asked the federal government for $3.4 billion in aid for the province’s farmers. It was more than three times what Ottawa contributed to all provinces the previous year and quite a bit more than the $575 million in spring relief requested by Sask-atchewan agriculture minister Mark Wartman.
High moisture at harvest, frost in August and a mild winter were playing havoc with germination in Alberta. Labs that would normally see 90 to 100 germination were seeing more like 80 to 90 percent, and 30 to 40 percent wasn’t unusual. Joe Walliser, a seed cleaning plant manager at Balzac, Alta., said he found a 15 percent germination rate in an oat sample.
