THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2013
VOL. 91 | NO. 31 | $4.25
FOOD DAY IN CANADA P22
SERVING WESTERN CANADIAN FARM FAMILIES SINCE 1923
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FOOT PATROL
TECHNOLOGY | 3D PRINTING
Need a new gear by noon? Get it printed 3D print technology grows by leaps and bounds BY DAN YATES SASKATOON NEWSROOM
Greg Thorstad can imagine a day when farmers will be able to order and receive parts for broken machinery in a matter of hours. His vision looks something like this: A farmer walks into a shop, looking for a hard to find item, for example an old model gasket or gear. Staff receive the order, load its 3D design in a computer and hit print, sending a command to the shop’s in-house 3D printer, which builds the object, micrometre by micrometre, out of melted plastic. A few hours later, the farmer picks up the part and goes back to work. Look hard enough and you might even find someone willing to make it for you today. Thorstad has already done small custom jobs, creating designs and repairing things like toys and can openers using a desktop 3D printer in his computer shop in Outlook, Sask. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
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u|xhHEEJBy00001pzYv.:, Harold Skarberg watches the springs on the share-mold assembly of a plow from the cab of the tractor as his son, Brian, walks alongside on their farm northwest of Sexsmith, Alta. The duo worked to break up 80 acres of grassland so it can be seeded to wheat next year. Two of the assemblies kept coming up while working the land and had to be repaired and adjusted. | RANDY VANDERVEEN PHOTO
CWB | TIMELINE
CWB: one year in an open market Farmers weigh in | Has the transition from a single desk to an open market been good for farmers? BY BRIAN CROSS SASKATOON NEWSROOM
It’s been one year since the western Canadian grain industry took its first steps into the world of open wheat marketing. For some farmers, the transition away from single desk marketing has
been a positive step forward. But according to others, those first steps were more akin to stepping off a cliff. Glenn Tait, a farmer from Meota, Sask., and director with the National Farmers Union, thinks changes made to CWB last August have come at a huge cost, not only to his own
bottom line but also to Western Canada’s reputation as a reliable supplier of top quality wheat. Tait, who normally produces 1,000 tonnes of high quality milling wheat each year, estimates that marketing changes implemented last August have cost his farm $75,000 in the past 12 months, or $75 for each tonne of
wheat he harvested in the 2012-13 crop year. That estimate is based on data that shows the price differential between high protein milling wheat and low protein feed varieties all but disappeared last year. SEE CWB ONE YEAR LATER, PAGE 2
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The Western Producer is published in Saskatoon by Western Producer Publications, which is owned by GVIC Communications Corp. Publisher: Shaun Jessome Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240
AUGUST 1, 2013 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Box 2500, Saskatoon, SK. S7K 2C4