Irrigation Key Part Of Ottawa's Infrastructure Funding

A recent funding announcement by Ottawa is being well-received.

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced 10 billion dollars in Infrastructure Funding last week.

 

Included in that is $1.5 billion dollars for agricultural irrigation projects in Western Canada, including the addition of an estimated 700,000 acres of newly irrigated land.

 

Keith Currie, First Vice-President with the Canadian Federation of Agriculture is pleased with the investment.

 

"You're going to start seeing an increase in yield, you're going to see crop diversification. It's going to open up doors for our farmers to expand into areas that they can grow into and crops that they can grow into. It's also means stability for that water source, consistency and stability, which will then allow us that diversification that we're looking for. So, there's a lot of aspects to it and essentially it's going to allow us to continue to feed the world."

 

In July, Premier Scott Moe announced a $4 Billion Irrigation Project for Lake Diefenbaker.

 

The three-phase ten-year project will irrigate up to 500,000 acres of land from Lake Diefenbaker and more than double the irrigation land base in Saskatchewan.

 

At the time of the announcement Saskatchewan was seeking federal funding to help support the planning work and will be seeking significant longer-term funding for the project.

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.