Saskatchewan government to increase agriculture spending

Mar 21, 2024

Agriculture funding in Saskatchewan will reach $570.6 million for 2024 – 2025.

In the provincial budget released Wednesday afternoon, it was announced the agriculture portfolio will increase by $22.4 million, or 4.1 per cent, from last year.

The largest portion of the agriculture budget includes $431.7 million, an increase of $23.7 million over last year, to fund federal-provincial risk management programs, including Crop Insurance and AgriStability, through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

Average Crop Insurance premiums and coverage for 2024 are down because of a decline in insured commodity prices. The details on the 2024 Crop Insurance Program were released earlier this month.

Crop Insurance weather-based programs now provide options to insure intercrops and additional mixed feed crops. All weather-based programs are enhanced through 38 additional weather stations, bringing the total to 224 stations across the province.

Producers continue to deal with the effects of consecutive years of dry conditions, the budget also includes a freeze on the Crown land grazing rate at 2022 levels. Also, producers who must reduce their stocking rates on Crown grazing land due to drought will be eligible for a lease discount.

The province is contributing $2.7 million as part of an $8.2-million investment between the federal and municipal governments for rural municipalities to upgrade and replace bridges and culverts.

Funding of $38.0 million will go to strategic initiatives like agricultural research, including support for institutions that do state-of-the-art research in Saskatchewan, project funding and programs that promote the implementation of new technologies.

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Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.