UPDATE ON PFRA PASTURES IN SASKATCHEWAN

[WiltonRanch]

I was a patron of a pf pasture for a few years. I
thought it was a great deal. Drop your critters off in
the spring and pick em up in the fall. However I
knew the writing was on the wall several years
previous from some good sources. I knew these
pastures were a money losing venture from the get
go. Heck the guys in the pf said the oil revenue was
barely keeping them in the black, and they werent
even paying any lease to the owners the provincial
govt. Therefore this transition to grazing coops or
associations is going to be interesting. I honestly
don't know how you can even cost out grazing fees
close to what the pf did. Even if the provincial govt
gave the improvements away (which they should)
the day to day cost of employees, maintenance,
andkeeping a bull herd will be daunting. My honest
opinion is the prov govt should structure lease fees
at a lower rate because these pastures require more
management because of the sensitive
environments they contain.
I don't think the pasture committees should be
sitting pat for too long. What I found dealing with
govt guys is if you go to them with a workable plan
they are willing to deal. Standing back and getting
hostile won't solve much. I wouldn't worry about
Sunterra as much as I would about the fsin. They
are definately sniffing around.
What we worried about with our pasture was raising
enough money to address buying bulls, daily costs
etc. All these costs before you even turn a wheel.
Therefore, this is a complete frickin mess.

[SADIE]

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n523/kphaber/2013-01-19004628_zpse818ef0c.jpg?t=1366639034

[SADIE]

Tried to upload two pieces this morning and am rusty taking it out of photobucket. It appears some changes were made in that area.

Time to go to work. Will try again for tomorrow morning.

[grassfarmer]

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[grassfarmer]

It's the third code down you need to use Sadie - the
one that says HTML and starts <ahref. I tried but it
will never post off a Mac for some reason. Don't have
time to fire up the old PC.

[SADIE]

<a href="http://s1138

[SADIE]

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[SADIE]

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[SADIE]

Here is how things came out the winter of 2012 & 2013.

Map of all the PFRA pastures in Saskatchwan. Notice 7 districts.

PFRA pastures many had patron meetings fall of 2012. Pasture Advisory Committes were formed in many of those pastures.

Other than the first 10 pastures announced the rest of the pastures did not know when their year was up for their final year.

The schedule final came to all pasture patrons on Feb 7 2013. What a relief to approx. 2000 patrons. Many looked at their final year of PFRA, looked at their age and are targeting their date of cow-herd dispersal.

The first 10 have had a very busy fall & winter. Meetings with themselves, crunching nos, what to do, how to proceed with a business plan, identity.

Bylaws of identities from other pastures (like in Alberta) have been circulated.

Several meetings with government(provincial). No final nos to work with. Those nos were slow to get to the Province from the feds.

PFRA pasture patron informational meeting (full house) Jan 23 in Saskatoon. CPPAS was encorpated as a result of that meeting. To share knowledge from patron groups across the province.

To date CPPAS is close to 40 of the 60 pastures as members. Communication is strong amongst pasture groups.

Lobbying the Feds through letters to the MPS and to AG Minister Ritz to have the PFRA federally get all the information (Ducks in a row) now and the first 10 could then proceed with business plan, formation of business entity.

That is the process to date.

Look at the map and notice how the first 10 pastures are selected throughout the entire province.

Government strategy in this process is the old:

DIVIDE AND CONQUER, CROWD CONTROL used by government and energy companies like PIPELINE.

CPPAS association, brought everyone together to communicate, share knowledge and move forward.

Manitoba pasture patrons association is ahead of Saskatchewan in their process. They are working on a business plan on their 22 pastures with support from their cattlemen's association and their provincial government to put together a new business entity so that pasture patrons have similar grazing leases with professional management of grasslands and animal husbandry still in place similar to the PFRA system.

Collectively Cppas is looking at that Idendity as well.

[per]

So what numbers are you waiting for? The asking price? You should know everything else, capacity etc. Figure out what you think it is worth and make an offer.

[SADIE]

Per

Some of the first 10 have done that. It was rejected.

[Horse]

What is the AUM there , here at the local community pasture is $22.50, all mineral and salt provided but you have to suply a bull per not sure how many cows. No oil rtevenue in community pastures only on grazing leases. Based on 5 mo grazing but if conditions fail the cows go home whenever, the bulls are pulled in aug. Patrons have to help on incoming and outgoing dates.

[WiltonRanch]

Horse
Those fees are realistic. The PFRA fees with
breeding worked to about one dollar per day. The
breeding fee was 48 bucks per season. There is no
way a non govt funded group could pull that off. The
pfra doesnt pay any prov lease fees just municipal
tax.
The feds really dropped the ball on the provinces,
and now they're making policy on the fly. The
improvements on these pastures are found money
for the province. They never bought one cent worth.
So why should they even consider charging
patrons. Heck half these improvements need
improvements. Fences 50 years old and slufted in
dugouts are worthless. Not only will paying for
improvements be daugnting but bringing them up to
acceptable standards will sink patrons before they
start.