Protecting Sask. crops from snowmobiles

Nov 13, 2019

Three organizations created signs to warn snowmobilers where they’re going

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Two ag organizations and one recreational group worked together to devise a plan to warn snowmobilers when they’re venturing onto cropland.

The Saskatchewan Snowmobile Association partnered with Farm Credit Canada (FCC) and the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation (SCIC) to create signs farmers can place on their property to alert snowmobilers that a crop is still in the ground.

This year is the second time the three groups have organized the sign campaign.

It’s a small and simple gesture to help snowmobilers enjoy the winter without causing harm to crops, said Chris Brewer, CEO of the Saskatchewan Snowmobile Association.

“It’s a very important matter to us to get this information out to snowmobilers and to support the important producers in our province,” he told Farms.com.

FCC will have signs available starting the week of Nov. 25 at all its regional offices in the province. SCIC should have signs available around the same time, or producers can contact the snowmobile association for information on where to get a sign, Brewer said.

Producers hope the signs will be enough to keep snowmobilers away from their crop fields.

“I hope (snowmobilers) will be respectful and understand the difficult harvest farmers have had, and that there’s still livelihoods at stake,” Wayne Truman, a grain producer from Redvers, Sask., told Fams.com.

“If the crop is in swaths, the machine goes over and there’s the potential that it shells the swaths out,” he said. “If the crop is being straight cut, the snowmobile could flatten the crop down or break stems depending on the crop. It’s just not a good thing.”

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.