As I sit at my computer this morning contemplating what words of wisdom I can possibly pass on to our membership and all those who receive the Prairie Steward, I know why this article is at least a week late getting written. I'm great at having thoughts of wisdom with no pen or paper handy and either my memory is getting shorter or the initial thought couldn't have been that good.
As was mentioned in the last Steward, some major changes were coming the way of the SSCA. Staff changes have had Claire Neill and Ken Sapsford moving to other exciting job challenges and as of the end May, Doug McKell has finished his term as SSCA executive manager as indicated in the spring issue of the Prairie Steward. We welcome Blair McClinton, our former assistant manager to the role of executive manager .Blair's familiarity with the issues dealt with by the SSCA will provide stability during this time of staff changes. As was also mentioned in the last Steward Marilyn Martens has taken on the role of office manager and the SSCA board moved ahead with its plan to reduce field staff time to2/3 time.
SSCA executive officers attended part of the April planning meeting where our organization's priorities were worked in with a reduced field work plan and changes in staff responsibilities. April also saw a continuance of our participation in the carbon, Koyoto, atmospheric warming debate. Members of Canada's soil conservation organizations met with Alyden Donnelly of the GEMCO consortium at the Sask. Power building in Regina on April 17. The producer concerns that were raised ranged from use of soil sinks, input cost risks, management practises, credit for early adopters ( baseline protection), discrepancies of CO2 possible values by different parties, and share of risk given high energy use of fuels and fertilizer. Producers also had many questions about types of agreements that could be used to reduce the risks associated with any potential carbon sequestration agreements, outright or partial sale, lease agreements, also many other possible options. From the industry prospective some form of international agreement will eventually be signed, if not Koyoto, so any agreement they enter into must have verifiable reductions of carbon at the most reasonable price possible with the least amount of risk involved. The SSCA is looking carefully at all aspects of any national or international agreement that will have such a major impact on all producers.
Field tours of plots that SSCA has or participate in are ongoing. Please watch for notice in your local media and take the time to go. I thought it would be nice if your president attended the Seager Wheeler field day this year even if the SSCA didn'tparticipate directly in planning this year. Juanita spoiled my day by mentioning that perhaps I might want to check the date on my calendar; I was only two weeks passt June 6. Where did those days go?
Juanita also passed me a few thoughts as encouragement to get this article done on time The thoughts were great when I took the extra time to look at them in the context of the SSCA.. Now the quote I received was " farmers are the algae upon which everyone feeds"and knowing that this was not meant to be at all derogatory to society in general, it took, as I say, some in-depth thought. If we as people of the land look at our role on this planet we call home, not many of us would want to change too much except for the economic rewards and recognition for the role we play. Nature is what we providers of food are about. That rain in the morning that washed off the early tank of spray, the blow out of the rest of the day where you could have sprayed the whole quarter with just a little more elevation of the boom. That high-low elevation problem with seed emergence, cold soil packing, too dry, too wet. Why didn't that pre-seed burn off work better? Maybe we all need to slow down a little, keep working on that recognition problem, watch the calves, fawns, hatches of wild fowl in the creeks and ponds, and do the best we can with the limited amount of knowledge that nature allows us.
The last week of June the SSCA board will meet to discuss the many ongoing issues that affect the membership. The continuance of some projects, identification of funding sources, reviewing the changes adopted at our spring board meeting and their effect on staff job descriptions and performance, will all be looked at. Planning will also begin for our annual direct seeding conference to be held in Saskatoon in February.