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Press Release

Provincial Council of Agriculture Development and

Diversification ADD Boards for Saskatchewan to Become Simply Agriculture Solutions As of April 1, 2014, the Provincial Council of Agriculture Development and Diversification ADD Boards for Saskatchewan Inc. (PCAB) will be making some major structural adjustments and be known as Simply Agriculture Solutions Inc.

As a leading grassroots agricultural organization in Saskatchewan, PCAB has evolved over time to meet the changing needs of its agriculture producers and partners. The continued progression of the province’s agricultural industry has resulted in a new vision for the future of our organization and effective April 1, 2014, PCAB will become known as Simply Agriculture Solutions.

The Simply Agriculture Solutions Board of Directors and staff will continue to guide and deliver efficient, reliable programs that Saskatchewan producers are accustomed to, as well as to actively seek out new opportunities for producers and the agriculture industry in Saskatchewan. Our organization will also provide new, exciting opportunities for its members through innovative program delivery and strategic partnerships to help shape the future of agriculture in Saskatchewan. The mission for Simply Agriculture Solutions remains ‘to advance and promote the Saskatchewan agriculture industry by providing education, beneficial programming and opportunities for producers via positive partnerships and collaborations’. Simply Agriculture Solutions continues to administer the Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) and the Agriculture Plastics Recycling Pilot programs. “The Simply Agriculture Solutions Board and staff are thrilled about the next evolution of our organization,” says Executive Director Tamara Weir-Shields. “Simply Agriculture Solutions already has a number of innovative initiatives under development in our project pipeline that we look forward to implementing to benefit our members”. Simply Agriculture Solutions will also continue to operate as a non-profit, membership driven organization. Previously, in order to be directly involved in PCAB, a producer was required to

be appointed by their Rural Municipality (RM) to participate on a regional Agriculture, Development and Diversification (ADD) Board. Under the new Simply Agriculture Solutions membership structure, ADD boards are still eligible for membership and the structure will remain based on regional grassroots representation of the province. However, the new membership structure will also enable individual producers, agriculture interest groups and businesses to become members of Simply Agriculture Solutions to help shape the future of agricultural programming in Saskatchewan.

For more information contact: Tamara Weir-Shields, Executive Director

Simply Agriculture Solutions [email protected]

1-866-298-7222 ext 205

Return undeliverable items to: Simply Ag Solutions

102-333 25th Street East Saskatoon, SK

S7K 0L4 Phone 306-955-5477

Fax 306-955-5473

Spring News Update 2014

Inside This Issue:

Plastics Recycling Update

2

EFP Update and New Program Information

3

Program News 4

Producer Highlights 5

Products to Watch 6-7

Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #41471021

mailto:[email protected]

Ag Plastics Recycling Up-


Recycling grain bags has been steady and is likely to continue into 2014-2015 due to the bumper harvest in 2013 and the grain shipping backlog. All of our sites have seen increased activity in the last year and several have waiting lists for use of the roller.

The pilot program has entered a new phase in 2014-2015. Simply Ag will now be accepting net wrap and silage plastic at our collection sites. We are still working on the details of how best to collect these types of plastic and will be working with producers and livestock industry organizations on streamlining the collection process for

ease of use and access.

Simply Ag has also been trialing some new equipment to help compact the plastic. A mobile vertical baler is currently being used to compress the plastic and is especially beneficial with twine and the other types of plastic that we will be collecting. This should help make shipping much more efficient and deliver the plastic in a consistent manner to recyclers.

We have been shipping to a new recycler in Oregon that is taking both grain bags and twine. This alleviates the need to collect enough for a shipment of solely twine at any of our sites as we can send mixed loads. We have shipped 272,000kgs (~600,000lbs) of grain bags since the start of the pilot program and recently have shipped 6500kgs (~14500lbs) of twine. We are constantly being contacted by recyclers interested in our plastic.

The Ministry of Environment is currently working on regulations

for an industry led province wide recycling program and if all goes

well this province wide program will be commencing in 2015.

Ideally this will be in place and operating prior to the completion

of the pilot program so that there is a seamless transition.

Simply Ag will now be

accepting net wrap and

silage plastic at our

collection sites!

Travis Quirk

Ag Plastics Recycling Program Coordinator

1-866-298-7222 ext 204

[email protected]

Environmental Farm Plan Update S imply Ag is looking to collaborate with agricultural industries to

become emerging leaders in utilizing the Saskatchewan Environmental Farm Plan as a valuable marketing tool.

Today’s consumers are becoming increasingly concerned with how their food is being produced and the effects its production has on the environment. Food quality is a popular topic in the media, and consumers are demanding products that are produced in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Developing an Environmental Farm Plan demonstrates that producers care about environmental protection and are good stewards of the resources they manage. By participating in the Environmental Farm Plan program, producers contribute to the positive public image of agricultural production in Saskatchewan. Furthermore, producers are doing their part to progressively position their agricultural products among the world markets.

The Potato Growers of Alberta (PGA) have already implemented the use of the Environmental Farm Plan among its registered producers. Market response has been very positive and even the PGA’s top customers, including McDonalds Corporation and Walmart, are receiving the dividends.

We would like to encourage agriculture industries to utilize this service and help strengthen your industry’s marketing power by showing your consumers that you are committed to environmental stewardship.

If you are interested in learning more about the Environmental Farm Plan Program or if you are interested in participating in the EFP workshop process, please contact Simply Ag at 1-866-298-7222 or your local program representative. Further information can also be found on our website at www.saskpcab.com.

Jenny Calow

EFP Program Coordinator

1-866-298-7222 ext 206

[email protected]

Seeking Participants for a New

Program Opportunity! Simply Ag is working on implementing a project piloting the use of biobeds for pesticide rinsate disposal in Saskatchewan. We are seeking environmentally conscious, dedicated producers to be participants for this project. This pilot will be used to determine if biobeds can operate efficiently under normal use of an agricultural producer. The results of the pilot will provide information for the adoption of biobeds as an accepted, sustainable and environmental beneficial practice in Saskatchewan in the future.

There is limited space available for this cost-shared program, so inquire early!

For more information on the requirements for participants and project details please contact:

Teresa Wahl at 306-955-5477, ext 208 or [email protected]

The disclosure to the province SIMPLY AG has turned over administration of the Farm Stewardship Program to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Province of Saskatchewan. By lawful request from the

Province, SIMPLY AG has disclosed ONLY that information necessary for the Province to administer the program and verify past certificate holders. No confidential information

about specific farm plans has been divulged and any required information in the form of certificate numbers and names will now be protected under the applicable Provincial

privacy legislation.


Other Program News Agricultural Entrepreneur workshops with the Wilson Centre Watch for this Valuable Resource! Simply Agriculture Solutions Inc. will be collaborating with the Brett Wilson Centre located at the Edwards School of Business (ESB), in piloting a series of workshops for entrepreneurs in the agriculture industry. The goal of collaboration on these workshops is to help agricultural entrepreneurs in Saskatchewan learn how to grow their ideas from fiction into a marketable product or service. These workshops will inform participants where they should take the idea next, what steps are required, and create connections for taking their project to market.

These workshops will take place in June and July of 2014. Give us a call for more information and watch for updates on our website!

The Wilson Centre for

Entrepreneurial Excellence Inspiring entrepreneurial excellence throughout the

University of Saskatchewan The Wilson Centre provides University of Saskatchewan

students with the applicable training, networks and tools they need to start a business, creates connections between students and the business community, and collaborates with other organizations to leverage and promote entrepreneurship

throughout the community.

Membership to

Simply Agriculture

Solutions Inc. is

now open to all individual farmers,

agriculture organizations and

associations, and professionals with a

vested interest in the industry. Contact Simply Ag to find out how you

can be involved!

D E F I N E

C R E A T I V E

N E T W O R K

M A R K E T

I D E A S

I N N O V A T I O N.

E N C O U R A G E

YOUR Opportunity to Thoughts,

with businesses,

Your

and


Ken was raised near Richardson, Saskatchewan on the family farm and he’s been farming there for over 45 years. Ken and his family raise pulse crops, cereals, oil seeds, and pedigreed seed. Ken loves the farm lifestyle and being his own boss, the freedom of decision making and being able to set his own goals. Recently there had been some erosion issues on Ken’s farm land next to a creek bed. Debris and cattails had been building up and they were holding the silt during the spring runoffs and over the years they created a dam which caused water to bypass the creek bed and erode some adjacent farm land. Ken was able to apply for and receive a grant from the Farm Stewardship Program to fill in the washout and restore the creek bed and creek bank to its original profile. The Farm Stewardship Program was a great opportunity for Ken to take advantage of some funding in order to help him to correct the erosion issue and improve the water flow down the creek. Another project that Ken has been able to incorporate into his farm because of the Farm Stewardship Program are improving his farm fuel storage by retiring decades old rusting overhead tanks with double walled ground level fuel tanks and a double walled storage container for waste engine oil. Ken also was able to receive some Farm Stewardship Funding to improve the chopping and spreading of crop residue, including flax straw, at harvest time by upgrading combine choppers and spreaders. Other things that Ken has been implementing on his farm are continuous cropping for the past 22 years. Zero till farming has had a huge impact in the preservation of topsoil, improving soil quality, air quality, and reducing silting of waterways over the years. In Ken’s spare time, he enjoys working in his shop, spending time with family members and volunteering as a search and rescue pilot for CASARA (Civil Air Search and Rescue Association). Ken was pleased to receive grants from the Farm Stewardship Program for these projects and he was very appreciative for the assistance from the staff at the Farm Stewardship Program and the Provincial Council of Agriculture Development and Diversification ADD Boards for Saskatchewan. And he would like to especially thank Candice Frederiksen, a Farm Stewardship Representative whose professionalism and patience helped guide Ken through the application process.


Producer Highlights Wilfred became interested in farming early in life after helping his father out on the family farm. He started farming in 1949 and has a mixed grain and livestock farm. Over the course of his farming experience, Wilfred has raised cattle and sheep while continuing to grow a crop every year. At the height of his operation, Wilford and wife Alice were running 300 head of cattle on their farm. Wilford eventually passed his sheep operation to his nephew, and only farms cattle and grain now. When asked what excites him most about his work, Wilford felt that it is quite an achievement to be able to raise livestock and crops, when you consider what farmers are facing in raising them; always fighting against the elements. With Saskatchewan’s ever changing growing season it is amazing anything survives. In Wilfred’s opinion, when building a farming operation it helps to keep out of debt or avoid it whenever possible. He feels that by avoiding debt in the beginning it helped him to succeed, but this is increasingly harder to do so today; it is extremely difficult for new farmers to get started now that equipment and inputs costs so much There is never a lot of downtime in Wilford’s operation; he is a hard worker and has always been tied to livestock. When there is a bit of time for relaxing he enjoys watching TV and net fishing on Lake Lenore once a year. For the future Wilford said his plan was to grow another good crop!

Wilford Lumerding

Ken Etter

Simply Agriculture (Ag) Solu-tions is developing a website to facilitate connections between Saskatchewan producers and consumers who seek locally grown food products. SaskFood-Find.com will provide an essen-tial service for Saskatchewan producers to feature their operations and locally grown food products to a captive audience of consumers who care about where their food comes from. The project will engage local producers, restaurants that feature local food sources and industry groups who promote agri-food to participate in the site. SaskFoodFind.com launching June 15, 2014, will be a website that serves as a hub for individual and com-mercial consumers to source locally grown food directly from producers. There will be two main portals on the website: a portal for Saskatchewan producers to access for a fee, and a free consumer portal where consumers looking for local food sources will be able to search on one convenient, comprehensive site. Saskatchewan producers (and Simply Ag Solutions members) will be provided with the platform to pro-mote their operations and sell their products directly to the consumer, streamlining the sales process and eliminating the need for sales intermediaries (‘middle men’) for a reasonable access fee on the website.

The producer portal will feature easy-to-use online fields for producers to create a profile that promotes their oper-ations and products. For more information on this product please contact Simply Ag. A survey about this product is also available at www.saskpcab.com

The concept of Unmanned Arial Systems (UAS) has been around for a long time; in recent years this

technology has been developed to the point that it has many practical applications. One such company who has been working with the

technology is Aeryon Labs Inc. they have developed a UAS called the Aeryon Scout™.

As with most UAS’s it has a variety of uses from public safety to commercial & industrial, but also for precision agriculture. The Aeryon Scout™ and other UAS systems present many opportunities for farming operations. This “eye in the sky” technology could be used for checking cattle or crops in hard to

access areas; scouting crops for signs of weed infestation or disease; integrated pest management; checking livestock in winter; monitoring flooded areas or

equipment. This gear gives the user the ability to see an area without having to be present at the location. There is potential for lowering labor costs and increasing

profitability through use of equipment such as this. The Aeryon Scout™ is small and lightweight for ease of transport; allowing for deployment from a variety of

locations. The UAS can fly in high winds and stand a temperature range of -30 to 50 degrees Celsius. It has an easily navigable interface for flying and Aeryon states “Scout™ can be flown by anyone with only a few minutes of

training due to its simple point-and-click navigation and camera control systems. Fully stabilized and weather-sealed, Scout can fly anywhere, anytime in the most demanding weather and wind

conditions.” For more information on and videos of the Aeryon Scout™ visit www.aeryon.com

Aeryon Scout™

Un

ve

iling

Ju

ne

15

!

Coming soon! Watch for this excellent marketing resource!

Products to Watch


F armLead, based in Saskatoon, SK, is North

America’s first online and now mobile physical

cash grain marketplace where grain producers,

buyers, brokers, and end-users can anonymously list, track, negotiate, & connect to complete a transaction.

FarmLead was founded by Brennan Turner, who is originally from Foam Lake, SK and played hockey for the Notre

Dame Hounds & at Yale University where he got his degree in Economics. FarmLead users can create their free

accounts and expose their grain trade deals (and not their farm or agribusiness) so that the terms of the trade are

the focus of any deal. Further, FarmLead is not the broker! Rather, buyers and sellers can negotiate on the terms of

trade directly with one another over the FarmLead.com website or the innovative and free FarmLead Mobile app

for iOS and Android devices.

Posting deals and making counteroffers on the FarmLead Marketplace

automatically maximizes a grain seller or buyers’ chances of getting a deal done.

By putting their deal in front of more potential counterparties, there are more

options to work with. Further, FarmLead does quarterly credit checks on all

registered buyers and allows sellers to upload photos or documents certifying

the quality of the grain they’re selling. Just as the pillar of the FarmLead model is

transparency, users should provide as much

information in their postings as it tells

potential counterparties exactly what’s on the

table. FarmLead only changes a flat

“Connection Fee” of $40-$100 (depending on

the grain) to both buyer and seller if they

agree to a deal, regardless of the size of the

deal.

The introduction of the FarmLead

Marketplace is especially well-timed for the North American grain industry,

namely because of the current downturn in grain prices and the opportunity and

challenge for Western Canadian grain growers to market their own grains

independently as a result of the recent ending of the single-desk. With over 230

registered Canadian & U.S. buyers on the FarmLead Marketplace and growing

daily, a Canadian farmer automatically benefits by marketing their grain in the

chance that they might find a couple extra cents per bushel than what the local

bids are. On the FarmLead Marketplace, users can inherently

expand their marketing strategy or procurement process

without having to put any skin in the game in terms of time,

energy, or money. FarmLead.com – nothing to lose but

potentially everything to gain. - Author: Brennan Turner


Products to Watch

Disclaimer: No personal or contact information of SIMPLY AG clients is shared/sold except by request of lawful authority and such information is used for SIMPLY AG purposes only. You are on this list because at some point in the past you have had business or communications with SIMPLY AG, or enrolled in one of its programs, providing either explicit or implied consent to receive further communication from SIMPLY AG about its programs. If for any reason you wish to be removed from our database, or unsubscribe from this newsletter, OR you wish to receive it by email only please contact us by phone or email at the address provided.

In case you want to

say “Hi” Simply Ag Head Office Contact Information

www.simplyag.ca 102-333 25th Street East, Saskatoon, SK S7K 0L4

Phone 306-955-5477 Toll-free 1-866-298-7222 Fax 306-955-5473

Tamara Weir-Shields—Executive Director Extension 205 Email : [email protected]

Julie Burnay—Simply Ag Financial Administrator Extension 203 Email : [email protected]

Travis Quirk– Ag Plastics Program Coordinator Extension 204 Email : [email protected]

Jenny Calow—EFP Coordinator Extension 206 Email : [email protected]

Lisa Long– Office Administrator/ Simply Ag program assistant Extension 201 Email : [email protected] Teresa Wahl - Administrative Specialist Extension 208 Email: [email protected]

Meet our Directors!

Executive Members: Alex Mitchell, Chair, Marsden, SK Allan Oliver, Vice-Chair, Aneroid, SK Murray Huber, Secretary, Lipton SK Board Members: Al Hooper, Tisdale, SK Jean Kernalguen, St.Brieux, SK David Ollen, Lloydminster, SK Glenn Blakley, Tantallon, SK Betty Hamm, Perdue, SK Barry Harris, Estevan, SK Ellis Leaman, Chaplin, SK John Serhienko, Blaine Lake, SK South East—Vacant Chair


Just So You Know...

Supporting Partner:

About the Provincial Council of Agriculture Development and Diversification ADD Boards for Saskatchewan Inc. (PCAB): PCAB was developed in 1988 and was a result of restructuring the Agriculture Extension Boards (since 1946). Most producers will recognize PCAB as the delivery agent for the Saskatchewan Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) Program since 2005, the Agricultural Plastics Recycling Pilot since 2011, and the Farm Stewardship Program in Growing Forward 2009-2013. Less recent programs included Provincial Pest Control/ Fieldworker Policy, Farm Input Price Survey, Minor Use Research Registration, Watershed Awareness Initiative and West Nile Virus Education to Saskatchewan. For more information, please visit www.saskpcab.com. About Simply Agriculture Solutions: Effective April 1, 2014, Simply Agriculture Solutions will replace the existing PCAB organization. For continued program and membership details, please contact Simply Agriculture Solutions head office at 1-877-298-7222, your local Board member or visit our new website launching soon at www.simplyag.ca.

Looking for Stories from Producers! Simply Ag would like to showcase producers who are trailblazers,

who have shown innovation and perseverance in the Ag industry. If you know (or are) a person with a great story or invention we want to

hear from you and share your story.

Congratulations to Edwin

Plohr for winning our

harvest photo contest!

View the top ten photos

on our website.

http://www.saskpcab.com

http://www.simplyag.ca

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