Saskatchewan Enviromenatal farm plan workbook

[Jagfarms]

Has anyone done their Saskatchewan Enviromenatal farm plan workbook?

If you did what do you think of it? I am in the process of doing it now. If any one has done it yet did you get the PFRA to pay for 1/2 a GPS?


Jason

[grefer]

I did one last winter and found it very frustrating and heavily slanted toward livestock producers.When it was sent to the peer review committee there were no remarks at all when returned.I answered some questions that I thought would get a response for sure!I'm not sure if they even read through it,but I received my certificate saying I have jumped through the hoops successfully.All is good.

[cowman]

We did the Alberta Environmental farm plan and it was sort of a joke...in my opinion.
They had all this stuff about degree of the slopes etc.? Like who knows that? Basically you just guessed as best you could! Because we were basically cow/calf we came out looking pretty good. Cleaned up a couple of things that were just basic common sense and got the certificate. As far as I was concerned it was just a waste of time and a make work project for somebody, but then I am a cantankerous old dinosaur who thinks most government experts should be taken out in the woods and shot!

[Jagfarms]

I am finding it very frustrating as well and more geared toward livestock producers. I guess as long as a person gets the certificate that is all that matters. I was going to do 2 workbooks one for myself and one for my dad. I do not know if there will be a benifit of having the 2 workbooks as we farm together and the only thing we might get is the GPS. They would not pay 50% for him and 50% for me I do not think.


Jason

[Jagfarms]

Jason, They only pay a 1/3 for GPS, and no they will not pay 1/3 for you, and 1/3 for your dad.

[cowman]

On rereading what I wrote: I would not suggest in anyway wevshould take Charlie out and shoot him! I find Charlie very informative and well worth sparing his life!

[charliep]

Thank you. I was worried. Hopefully Lee is in the same camp.

I listened to my brother as he worked through the process. I hear about the issues around fuel sites/used oil. Handling chemical containers. Treated seed.

One that caught us by surprise was old well sites. He worked through the process of identifying wells only to discover one that everyone had forgot about (well before my 50 plus years). Mentioned to my Dad only to see his memory light go on (in his case, 80 years on the home farm).

You will have to correct me but I thought this is a farmer driven/taught course. The farmers I know that are involved in it believe in it passionately and put a lot of effort into it.

With a fear of getting shot (messenger only), what are farmers thoughts about using farm environment plans as a part of a "Brand Canada Strategy"? Are there ways to exploit this for some of the "higher value" customers?

[cowman]

Charlie: Two of the things we fixed up was got rid of the last old wood fuel stand and capped off two old water wells. The other thing was we fenced the cows out of the springs. Now we knew we should have had those cows out of there and the wood fuel stand was getting ratty anyway, but I will admit never thought anything about the old water wells! When the boy went to weld a cap on one he got quite a surprize as it had some gas in it and blew the cap away up in the air! Almost gave him a nose job!
And I will admit the farmer running the farm plan session was right into it and he'd walked the talk on his own place.

[grassfarmer]

I did the Alberta one this winter - the guys on my course were younger on average than a regular cross section of farmers/ranchers, 3 out of 10 were of European origin. It's an OK program - risk analysis that most other industries take for granted. We are used to this type of thing being very stringent and rigorously enforced in Europe so to have a voluntary, industry led program seems like a good idea.
On the other hand I'm sceptical - I think Canadians sometimes have a naive idea that doing things ahead of enforced legislation by the Government puts us on an equal footing with world competitors with stricter, enforced rules. To my mind it doesn't and someday someone will call us on it - at which point it will finish up a compulsory scheme anyway.