It might sound like a play on words, but often Prairie farmers are faced with an old-fashioned chicken and egg conundrum.
听
Producers here do a very good job of producing, and that production over the years has included a myriad of crops and a surprisingly lengthy list of livestock varieties as well.
听
Over the years farm profits have often been tight, if not flat out nonexistent, and that has led farmers to try new things.
听
Most have not panned out very well.
听
You will not find thousands of acres of lupins, nor major orchards of sea buckthorn,听 and the acres devoted to spice crops is miniscule in spite of past promise associated with fenugreek, coriander and a few others.
听
It鈥檚 the same thing on the livestock side where ostrich and emu and fallow deer and other species went from high-priced breeding stock with the promise of a future attached to largely a novelty at best these days.
听
One might argue these farm ventures were never meant to be on the Canadian Prairies, and indeed some have seemed more mirage than real in retrospect.
听
However, there is often a missing element in the storyline, and that is someplace local to sell what is produced.
听
Yes, Canadian Prairie farmers exist largely because they sell product around the world. Exports have long been critical to the bottom line.
听
But domestic processing of one kind or another is also part of the equation.
听
Canola is exported as oil, but much of the crushing is done here.
听
We see the same thing in terms of oats. The oatmeal is eaten by consumers across North America and beyond, but is processed on the Canadian Prairies.
听
We see more first-step processing of pulse crops on the Prairies.
听
Often with new crops farmers can jump quickly into production. They have the acres and a built in production expertise. Granted the exact production of coriander may not be that of wheat, but producers can adapt long held skills pretty quickly.
听
So they grow something new rather easily, but finding a market is a challenge. The region is an unknown in international markets and getting a buyer to look to a new producer with no track record in terms of quality or year-to-year delivery is not easy.
听
And locally there are no market options.
听
We see today some three million acres of soybean are grown here. Those acres have found export markets but there is a growing call to have a production plant here, especially since large amounts of soybean meal are imported to the Prairies for the livestock feed sector.
听
And the promise of hemp for fibre has been slow in materializing not because of production, producers could ramp that up quickly, but because developing a market and some level of domestic processing has been slower in developing.
听
It can come down to what comes first, production or processing, chicken or egg, although ultimately both must exist to build a viable option for farmers.
Calvin Daniels is Editor with Yorkton This Week.
