Nykole King
Regina Leader-Post
A single bridge in another province impacts Cassidy Flavel’s livelihood.
Flavel, whose family owns a mixed grain and cattle farm near Silton, Sask., relies on the Second Narrows Rail Bridge near the Port of Vancouver to get products to market.
The bridge handles nearly a third of all cargo that comes through that western port and it must be lifted several times a day to allow for marine traffic, which disrupts rail shipments.
Flavel attended a grain expo conference during the Canadian Western Agribition this week in Regina to hear from industry speakers, including representatives of Canadian National (CN) Railway. Flavel said she was relieved to find out that CN is addressing some of the logistical issues, like cutting the lag time between trains in half from 20 minutes to 10 minutes.
“They’re trying to make everything more and more efficient, and you can see over the last 15 years how much more efficient it’s been made, so it’s definitely good there,” Flavel said. “I think the primary kind of takeaway, though, is that there’s still a bottleneck at the port.”
Exploring concerns
Agribition — a six-day agricultural exhibition and trade show at REAL District — is attended almost every year by Flavel, her husband Alex, and father Scott.
What keeps them coming back is how the programming explores concerns of farmers across Canada, she said, noting that trade and export troubles have loomed large as of late.
“There are just different factors every single year,” Flavel said.
Bill Prybylski, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS), says Agribition has evolved over the years to stay up to date with the issues of the day.
“There’s always something we can learn, and Agribition is a great place to do that,” Prybylski said. “In shows like this, it doesn’t matter where we go, what meeting you attend as a producer, you’re always learning something of value that you can bring back to your own farm and help your own operations to improve our bottom lines or improve our quality of life.”
Adversity ‘the name of the game’
Patricia Stroeder and her husband Shaun travelled from their farm south of Weyburn to attend Agribition for the first time and take part in the grain expo.
“It’s just sitting and learning,” she said. “I think you can take away something from anyone if you sit and take the time to listen.”
Commodity prices were top of mind for the Stroeders, who farm canola, durum, chickpeas, lentils, barley and peas.
Global markets have been in flux over the past year due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and uncertain international relations.
While canola prices have been steady as of late at around $13 per bushel, the price of yellow peas has dropped by about $3 and sits at roughly $7 per bushel as other export markets look at levies as well.
“Commodity prices are horrible,” Stroeder said. “Canola is kind of the only thing that is maybe OK compared to everything else. But cost-wise and input cost-wise, it’s all pretty poor.”
Flavel estimates high fertilizer prices have accounted for around 70 per cent of her family’s input costs this year.
“Our commodity prices are a lot lower than they have been in previous years, but we’re paying the most we ever have for fertilizer,” Flavel said. “With farming, adversity is just the name of the game. I don’t think there’s ever a perfect year, nor will there ever be.
“One really bright thing is cattle prices have been strong, so I think most cattle producers at this show are probably feeling pretty good because of that.”
nyking@postmedia.com
