October is Agriculture Month in Saskatchewan

Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan will officially launch its Agriculture Month observance this coming Friday.

 

October is Agriculture Month in Saskatchewan.

 

On Friday representatives of Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan and Federated Co-op will join Agriculture Minister David Marit at the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre to officially launch the observance.

 

Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan Executive Director Clinton Monchuk says, if you go back to the early 1900s when the settlers were coming in, the majority were farmers and ranchers and that has been the backbone of the Saskatchewan economy and culture and even though a larger segment of the population is now urban there's still a strong agricultural presence.

 

 

When you look at the bulk of the population of this country, we're at around three percent or less of the population that actually has a personal tie to farming and ranching so that means you have 97 percent roughly of the population that doesn't have that opportunity to speak with a family member or a friend to actually get a true depiction of what happens on a grain farm or a cattle ranch or any of the different farms out there.

 

So, what happens is if you go to social media or do a web search on Google, you're going to find things that aren't necessarily true or pro modern agriculture.

 

I think creating some of these different opportunities and celebrating agriculture is just another way that we as farmers and ranchers in Saskatchewan can actually engage consumers and make sure they have truthful information about their food is being grown.

 

Monchuk says the Agriculture Month observance highlights the importance of agriculture in the province and allows those not directly connected to agriculture to ask the questions and make sure they are informed as much as possible about the foods they consume.

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.