By Alice McFarlane

Agriculture Roundup for Monday March 8, 2021

Mar 8, 2021 | 6:11 PM

MELFORT, Sask. — Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association (SSGA) has secured $840,000 in funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to continue working with landowners to protect Greater Sage-Grouse habitats.

Species at Risk Partnership on Agricultural Lands (SARPAL) funds support projects committed to engaging the agricultural sector to preserve key wildlife habitats.

SSGA President Kelcy Elford said this is building on work going on for the last five years.

Between 2015 and 2020, SSGA signed more than 40 conservation agreements with landowners, protecting a total of 250,000 acres of grassland and critical habitat for species at risk in southwest Saskatchewan.

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Saskatchewan continues to provide what the world wants.

Saskatchewan enjoyed a large increase in year-over-year exports in January, according to monthly export merchandise numbers released by Statistics Canada.

Merchandise exports increased by 14.6 per cent in January 2021 compared to January 2020.

Saskatchewan ranked second in percentage change among the provinces on a seasonally adjusted basis. The national average saw a one per cent decrease.

Export sales for January were more than $2.7 billion in the areas of farm and food products, forestry, building and packaging materials, industrial machinery, equipment and parts.

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The University of Saskatchewan (USask) has been awarded $6.76 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to help conserve bison and other threatened animal species.

The research program includes working with Indigenous communities to develop the world’s first bison genome biobank at the Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence (LFCE).

USask’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) specialist in reproductive biology Dr. Gregg Adams said bison were nearing extinction.

“Canada has led the way in bison conservation, but due to small genetically isolated herds and disease, bison remain at less than two per cent of their historic population,” Adams said. “Without conservation efforts, bison as a distinct species would cease to exist.”

A key benefit of this project to beef producers will be the development of new genomic tools for trait selection, enhance genetic diversity, and diagnosis of disease-causing microbes in herds.

New equipment for high-performance computing and data handling, as well as for genetic sequencing, will be installed at an on-campus genomics lab.

A mobile lab will be outfitted for conducting time-sensitive testing of animals away from campus, such as bison herds or potential disease outbreaks on farms.

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alice.mcfarlane@jbg.ca

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW