Various Saskatchewan producer commissions hold their annual general meetings in January during the same week as the Western Canadian Crop Production Show at Prairieland Park in Saskatoon, Sask.
The largest commissions including SaskOilseeds, Sask Pulse Growers, Sask Wheat, and SaskBarley will hold their AGM’s during a new event called the Sask Crops Forum.
SaskOilseeds Communications Manager Ellen Greuter said the forum will be held Jan. 14 and Jan. 15 at the Western Development Museum which is a short distance from Prairieland Park.
The crop commissions hosted a similar event at TCU Place called Cropsphere which was held in the pre-pandemic years.
“Now that we’re post pandemic, we hosted our AGM events in collaboration. I think there was a a desire to return to more of a leadership oriented event where there is some professional development included as well in terms of a speakers series. We put our heads together and we’ve come up with a new name SaskCrops Forum,” she said.
The agenda will include the commission AGMs, four keynote sessions, and plenty of networking opportunities, according to Grueter.
“Day one, we’re going to kick off with a leadership keynote given by General Rick Hillier. He’s the chair of the Ukrainian World Congress’s Strategic Advisory Council and former Chief of the Defense Staff for the Canadian Military. He’s going to give a talk about leadership in tough times,” she said.
The second speaker session on Day one will be a research investments panel that will include panelists from the University of Saskatchewan, Ministry of Agriculture and the Global Institute for Food Security.
“That’ll be a dialogue about how research investments have improved the agricultural landscape for farmers to date and a discussion of funding priorities to understand where we can go from here,” Grueter said.
Day 2 will kick off with Nutrien’s chief economist and head of market research Jason Newton providing a global economic outlook. The day will conclude with a live taping of the podcast called Cursive Politics.
Greuter says the AGM’s will be held throughout the two days.
“Day one we have the Sask Wheat AGM in the morning and the Sask Barley AGM in the afternoon. Day 2 has the SaskOilseeds AGM at 11:00 a.m. and the Sask pulse growers AGM at 3:15 p.m.,” Greuter said.
This will be the first annual general meeting for the newly established SaskOilseeds which saw the merger of SaskCanola and Sask Flax into a single commission on Aug. 1, 2024. There will be a full reporting of the activities from 2023-24. There will be separate financial reports presented during the collective SaskOilseeds AGM.
There is no charge to attend Sask Crops Forum. Greuter said they were fortunate to receive sponsor dollars to make that happen.
“That’s the rationale behind it being free this first year. We expect this to be a really popular event as we’re anticipating over 300 farmers and ag leaders in attendance, and I suspect we’re going to reach capacity at the Western Development Museum quite quickly,” Greuter said. “So, if you are interested in taking part in the AGM’s or seeing some of the speakers we have in the lineup, please register early.” Greuter said.