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: Nov. 28, 1940
A 25 percent increase in oat prices was seen as an indication that a feed grain shortage was developing in Western Canada. Saskatchewan agriculture minister J.G. Taggart felt this might ultimately have a favourable effect on the country’s wheat marketing problem.
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool president John Wesson rejected a proposal to cut wheat acres as a solution to the country’s wheat marketing woes. It was estimated that all grain storage space in Canada would be full by July with 60 million bushels left on farms and nowhere to market it. However, Wesson argued that reducing acres wasn’t the answer. Instead, he said quotas should be based on matching supply with demand rather than on the amount of elevator space that was available.
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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: Nov. 25, 1965
Manitoba Pool Elevators officially opened its new meat packing plant in Brandon. Pool president W.J. Parker said the company’s grain operations would not subsidize the new plant. “You wanted it, now get in and support it,” he challenged pool members.
A.J. McPhail, the first president of Sask Pool, was honoured when his portrait was unveiled in Canada’s Agricultural Hall of Fame at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds in Toronto. McPhail had died in 1931.
25 years ago: Nov. 29, 1990
A worker at the N.M. Patterson and Sons Ltd. elevator in Killarney, Man., got a surprise when he pulled the lid off a hopper car waiting to be loaded and found a man inside. Police took the 29-year-old Winnipeg man to hospital and said he told them he couldn’t remember how he ended up in the car.
Saskatchewan farmers donated 4,000 bushels of wheat to help feed the province’s hungry. The wheat was expected to provide 36,000 kilograms of flour, which would be available by a voucher system to food banks, Salvation Army centres and Friendship Inns.
10 years ago: Nov. 24, 2005
The federal and Manitoba governments announced a three-year project to support farmers who maintained wetlands and planted permanent cover on fragile land. It was hoped the project would eventually turn into a national program.
Saskatchewan agriculture minister Mark Wartman lashed out at the federal Liberal government for its treatment of his province’s farmers, lambasting it for everything from botching the federal farm safety net program to getting rid of the Crow Benefit.
“There are some people somewhere in the bureaucracy down there who believe that there are too many farmers in Saskatchewan,” he said. The tirade was prompted by a question about Alberta’s recent enhancements to the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program.
