Saskatchewan Investing In Ag Tech Sector

Jul 24, 2020

On Wednesday, the Province announced the creation of a $1 million AgTech Growth Fund to encourage the development of agricultural technology.

Innovation Saskatchewan Minister Tina Beaudry-Mellor says they realized the need for the fund when they saw AgTech applications in the Saskatchewan Advantage for Innovation Fund go from zero to 31% in a two-year period.

She says the new AgTech Growth Fund will help people with really innovative ideas get them off the ground.

"We have found that in the past we have farmers that have been anxious to test out some of those ideas, and get help for those innovators and get them ready for commercialization."

She notes we have a thriving agriculture sector and a growing tech sector.

"Both of those areas have really been amplified by the COVID pandemic. It's been really important, everybody I think has had the experience of using increased technology throughout the pandemic. It's also been really critically important to make sure the food supply chain is intact and so that has actually amplified this opportunity even more."

Agriculture Minister David Marit says Saskatchewan is already an agriculture research hub and investing in farm equipment technology will add to our investments in crop breeding and production.

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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.