Beef Business September 2020

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Association News, Reports, and Events A Report From Bill Huber President, Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association of Northern Saskatchewan while in the Central and South parts it was a mixed bag. If you were lucky enough to have received a shower or two, your hay and pasture could have been average, but some parts of the province are extremely dry and remain to be dry.

As I write, we are nearing the end of August and still in a strange environment because of the pandemic. There were days I thought the situation was improving and then the curve goes up again with more positive cases, I would like to commend Premier Scott Moe and the Government of Saskatchewan in the way they have dealt with the COVID 19 pandemic, to maintain the health and safety of everyone while working to keep the economy strong. Over the past few months, we have participated in regular conference calls with the Ministry of Agriculture and other livestock organizations to deal with some of the negative effects the pandemic has had on the agriculture industry and especially the livestock sector. We were there every Wednesday morning to support the Minister to try and help resolve some of the roadblocks we were faced with. As a result, two of the positive outcomes were the changes brought to the Western Livestock Price Insurance Program (WLPIP) premiums and the launching of a Livestock Set Aside Program to help support the feeding industry. The weather this spring and summer has been a little different to say the least. We saw flooding and too much rain in parts

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In just over a month from now, we will be heading into a provincial election and this year’s election will be a little different than past elections due to COVID. However, this opportunity only comes along every four years and it’s an important opportunity to communicate the priorities for the livestock industry to all parties and candidates. SSGA is currently drafting our election priority document for the livestock industry and it will be publicly available in the near future. I would like to encourage all livestock producers to reach out to your local candidates to help communicate the challenges and opportunities facing our industry.

been President. I would also like to thank, Deputy Minister, Rick Burton and all of his staff for all their hard work to help support and improve our industry. In closing, it has been a pleasure and an honour serving as your President for the last 2.5 years. I would like to thank all of our staff, Chad, Fonda, Sharon and Carolyn for the hard work and dedication they have shown, especially in the last five months. We will continue to work together in the months and years ahead to improve and grow this valuable industry that we all love and work in.

Bill

We are only a few short weeks away from the fall calf run and markets are fairly steady and we hope prices will remain strong with good demand for feeder cattle this fall. As you all know, our 107th AGM and Convention was postponed in June because of the pandemic. However, we have rescheduled the business portion of the AGM for October 14th at 1:30 pm. We will be holding the meeting virtually so we are asking everyone to pre-register by going to www.skstockgrowers.com. I would like to remind everyone that the deadline to submit nominations and resolutions is October 1st. This will be my last report as your President. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Minister Dave Marit and former Minister Lyle Stewart for the great working relationship we have had over the past 2.5 years that I have

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SEPTEMBER 2020


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