Dry Saskatchewan Conditions Cause for Concern Among Livestock Producers

Aug 09, 2021

A Saskatchewan pork producer says the driest conditions in the province since 1988 will challenge cattle and hog farmers securing feed for this coming winter. Concerns over the exceptionally dry conditions in Saskatchewan continue to increase.

Florian Possberg, a partner with Polar Pork Farms, observes almost all of the western prairies are at some level of drought but it also extends well into some of the major corn and wheat growing areas of the United States so this is an issue for all of North America.

Clip-Florian Possberg-Polar Pork Farms:

We're in the hog business and we feed our hogs grain so it's less problematic for us to bring feed from distances. The cattle industry is the one that's really being impacted because hay crops in our area are 25 to 30 percent of what they have been the last few years.

In addition, we're seeing some of the barley stands being cut down for greenfeed just so that the guys with cattle can find something to feed their animals this winter. And lower yields in our feed grains plus some of our cereal crops being harvested for greenfeed and not available for hog feed, this is having a substantial impact on our ability to feed our animals.

The guys that grow grain have crop insurance, most of them do and so they will be able to offset a lot of their losses. In the hog business we can't feed our pigs crop insurance. We need the physical inventory so it's going to create quite a challenge for us.

Source : Farmscape

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.