Saskatchewan Stock Grower's Receive SARPAL Funding

Mar 10, 2021

The Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association has received its second round of SARPAL (Species at Risk Partnership on Agricultural Lands) funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

The $840,000 in funding will help the group build on the success of the programs first five years, and the work they are doing with landowners to protect the Greater Sage Grouse critical habitat in the Province.

Stock Grower President Kelcy Elford says grazing of the native prairie plays an important role for wildlife, like the Greater Sage Grouse.

"We have seen in some cases where the native prairie hasn't been properly maintained. Where it's not grazed at all that actually the tiny chicks that are born won't be able to pass through the grass, and ultimately they perish. So you know they need some tall grass and some that's grazed off, they need to be able to hide in the buck brush."

Over the last five years the Stock Growers have signed more than 40 conservation agreements with landowners, protecting a total of 250,000 acres of grassland and critical habit for species at risk in southwest Saskatchewan.

Elford says it's a program that the Stock G

Click here to see more...

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.