KAP president encouraged by northern railway investment

Aug 05, 2022

Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) President Bill Campbell is encouraged by a federal-provincial partnership that will see up $147.6 million invested into the Arctic Gateway Group, which owns and operates the Hudson Bay Railway.

The Arctic Gateway Group is a partnership between 41 First Nation and Bayline communities.

"It's encouraging to see the provincial and federal governments working together to ensure critical infrastructure. We need all the options that are available to us as far as agriculture to ensure that our products are deliverable to export markets," said Campbell. "There has been limited use of that particular railway in the last little while but this investment should help ensure that the agricultural products from northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan have an efficient and effective way to deliver their products to marketplace."

Campbell commented on grain movement so far this year.

"I think for the most part it has been moving relatively effective and there's been marketing throughout the year because of the higher commodity prices from Christmas time on. We also need to understand that there was very limited production last year. There has not been that strain on the transportation system. When we look at some of the problems that happened on the west coast with the flooding and some of those parts, when there was downtime in the railway system. We were able to cope with that because of our limited production. There are still some production challenges in western Canada but I would hope that we have more production this year than last year and so we may test the transportation system and the export system a little more this year than last year."

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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.