Agriculture Producers Association of Saskatchewan calls for livestock tax deferral

Jun 07, 2022

The Agriculture Producers Association of Saskatchewan is calling on the federal government to implement a Livestock Tax Deferral Program for 2022.

“Many areas of western Saskatchewan are still dealing with unprecedented drought, which is leading to herds of cattle being sold” says APAS vice-president Scott Owens.

Owens says many producers are running out of feed, and the pastures haven’t recovered from a lack of moisture. “We have a lot of cattle farmers that, you know, they were short on feed last year so they didn’t have any extra to carry them through,” Owens says.

It’s not just last year, though. He says the dryness so far this spring has led to grass in pastures not greening up the way everyone hoped.

“You’re taking already short feed supplies, and then you’re piling on a lack of pasture,” he says. “It’s causing farmers to have to liquidate their herd in many cases”.

All of these struggles adding up has led some cattle farmers out of the industry says Owens,

“If you’re a cattle farmer and you’re in that 50-60 years old age bracket, the money just isn’t there to stay in it so a lot of them are opting to simply sell off the herd and retire or move on to some other opportunity”.

For farmers who sell off their herd, Owens says if it’s an unexpected sale it would be taxed at more than 50 per cent.

“If the tax deferral isn’t granted, it just puts a real financial burden on those producers that are forced to liquidate their herd”.

APAS is primarily looking at the dry situation in the west but there’s also herd liquidation going on in the very far southeast with excess moisture.

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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.