Beef industry could benefit from "RALP"

Jul 27, 2022

The Canadian Cattle Association is pleased to see the increased funding for the next Ag Policy Framework.

The agreement includes $500 million dollars in new funding, $250 million dollars of which, has been earmarked for a Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program (RALP).

Tyler Fulton, an Officer with the CCA, says that's a program the cattle industry is well positioned to take advantage of.

"The nature of having cattle on the landscape has really positive ecological benefits. Not just from a habitat conservation standpoint, but also from adding climate resiliency, so far as protecting against floods or fires. And then of course, the whole carbon sequestration thing."

He says the CCA is hoping this could recognize some of the services that the industry to date hasn't really benefited from.

"Just in operating our ranches the way that we do. So, I'm encouraged by it but really, the devil will be in the details of how its administered."

He add they were pleased to see that any environmental outcomes weren't tied to AgriStability or Crop Insurance, adding they'll have to wait and see the government's plans in the connection to Agri-Invest.

Fulton notes the CCA was also pleased to see the increase in the AgriStability compensation rate from 70 per cent to 80 per cent.

"What we've seen over the course of the last five years or so is just an increasing number of cattle producers exit the AgriStability program because it really didn't address their rent on their own operations. It wasn't responsive and with a move from 70 to 80% compensation rate, as well as some of the other changes that they've been suggesting. That would more equitably relate to our type of business operation. I'm generally pretty optimistic that we can see a recovery in the number of people using that program."

Additional reviews of the business risk management suite of programs to increase efficiency and effectiveness were also announced.

CCA President, Reg Schellenberg says the announcement on the new Ag Policy Framework is recognition that the FPT Ag Ministers heard the beef industry's concerns.

"We are partners in the intertwined objectives of sustainability and competitiveness."

The CCA notes the beef sector provides tremendous environmental benefits and the CCA is active in discussions to ensure the sector’s sustainability is recognized.

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Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”