Ag ministers start FPT meetings

Nov 09, 2021

Canada’s ag ministers are meeting Nov. 9 and 10 in Guelph

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Some of Canada’s agriculture ministers are in Guelph this week participating in the federal-provincial-territorial (FPT) meetings.

“Three days to discuss issues such as: sustainable agriculture, emission reduction, business risk management, opening of new markets, science and innovation, labour, biosecurity (and) mental health…” federal minister of agriculture, Marie-Claude Bibeau, posted on Twitter on Nov. 7.

On to Guelph for the annual #FPT meeting of #Agriculture ministers. Three days to discuss issues such as: sustainable agriculture, emission reduction, business risk management, opening of new markets, science and innovation, labour, biosecurity, mental health, +++ #CdnAg pic.twitter.com/IERBRIhWuq
— Marie-Claude Bibeau (@mclaudebibeau) November 7, 2021

Ministers and industry reps will also work on the next ag policy framework. It will go into effect from 2023 to 2028 and replace the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

The meetings are scheduled to conclude Nov. 10.

Some ministers are attending in-person while others will be joining virtually.

The in-person attendees include Bibeau, Ontario Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Lisa Thompson, Derrick Bragg, Newfoundland and Labrador’s minister of fisheries, forestry and agriculture, and Ralph Eichler, Manitoba’s minister of agriculture and resource development.

On Nov. 8, the ministers and industry reps visited the Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre at the University of Guelph, toured the Dairy and Beef Research Centre in Elora and heard presentations from multiple industry groups, including the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

The CFA’s presentation “was well received with engaged discussions on alignment, climate change, competitiveness, need for strong BRM programming & much more,” the organization said on social media on Tuesday.

Yesterday, CFA Exec. Officers presented at #FPT in Guelph on key industry sector priorities.

Presentation was well recieved with engaged discussions on alignment, climate change, competitiveness, need for strong BRM programming & much more. #cdnag @Agproudmary @mclaudebibeau pic.twitter.com/wJTC93XGKf
— CFA (@CFAFCA) November 9, 2021

Ministers Bibeau and Thompson will be highlighting the results of the conference on Wednesday afternoon.

Ag industry members can follow the conference on social media using the hashtags #AgFPT21 or #FPT.

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators