APAS releases COVID-19 survey results

Apr 08, 2020

More than 250 farmers participated in the online poll

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Saskatchewan farmers have provided a snapshot into how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting their operations.

A total of 262 producers participated in Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan’s (APAS) first COVID-19 survey between March 25 and April 5.

The organization will be posting online surveys on a weekly basis with different questions as the pandemic continues. APAS plans to share the results with governments to help them develop industry responses.

Here are some of the highlights from the first survey.

Seventy-two per cent of survey respondents believe the pandemic will lead to lower revenues and reduced commodity prices while another 71 per cent think the COVID-19 situation will lead to reduced cash flow.

Almost half of the polled farmers think COVID-19 will hinder their abilities to pay bills.

“Farmers need cash to be able to get their crop in the ground this spring, and after the brutal last couple of years we’ve dealt with, reduced cash flow would really break people,” Todd Lewis, president of APAS, said in an April 6 statement. “So far, the government’s COVID-19 support to farmers has been to increase our access to loans, but going into even more debt isn’t the answer.”

Other findings include:

41 per cent of farmers have seen the cost of inputs increase or anticipate the costs to go up
45 per cent have reported delays in the delivery and sale of farm production
18 per cent reported issues finding farm labour

Sask. producers are also reporting higher levels of stress.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest level, farmers averaged 6.23 out of 10. Another 5 per cent did report “unbearable levels” of stress.

Mental health resources have been receiving more calls from farmers during these difficult times.

“We’re certainly busier than usual…,” Jan Thorson, executive director of Mobile Crisis Services, which manages the province’s Farm Stress Line, told Discover Estevan. “I think (COVID-19 has) placed a little extra stress on the population in general since none of us know how long we’ll be living under these restrictions.”

APAS’s next survey has been posted and will be available until April 12.

Farms.com has reached out to APAS and other farm groups for comment.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.