Some grazing leases are set in expire at the end of February, and residents of the Municipal District of Taber were given one last chance at public consultation earlier this month in what has been a string of standing-room only discussions on the topic.

WHY IT MATTERS: With acres of native grassland dwindling in Alberta, agricultural producers across the province are taking a keen interest in what the future of tax-recovery lands in the MD of Taber will look like in its land-management strategies with various grazing leases set to expire soon.

Concerns from all directions have been voiced, including conservation groups, concerned residential taxpayers and lease holders, over how hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tax-recovery land should best be used to help the MD provide services for its approximately 8,000 residents.

Those issues resurfaced again at the Feb. 10 public consultation meeting as council takes feedback on the proposed draft policy updates to guide its decisions at its Feb. 24 meeting.

Because some tax-recovery land grazing leases are set to expire at the end of the month, any decision made at that council meeting concerning the 81,355 acres of land the municipality holds will likely be the final one.

The contentious issue has dragged on for two years and has gained interest across Alberta.

The packed information and feedback session meeting on Feb. 10 was attended by multi-generational ranching families with significant financial investments, conservation groups, high-value crop producers, residents feeling left out of a possible market-value tendering process and concerned taxpayers.

One resident in attendance read an excerpt from a memorandum of agreement from 2007 and 2011 when the MD first took on the tax-recovery lands.

“It is our intention to provide insurance to both the Province of Alberta as well as to existing lease holders, that this sensitive land will be protected in the future from breaking.”

The resident then went on to say: “This was probably mostly related to the MD selling lands to leaseholders, but where I guess what was coming, is they failed to protect this land from the MD itself. None of these caveats were ever put on title, and this is why we are where we are now trying to fight to keep this native grass.”

Former councillor Don Johnson cautioned the current council about the direction it takes with possible future land sales and the handling of grazing leases with future tenants.

He agreed council must get far better rates than it currently receives.

Transitional and community pasture grazing leases were set at $26.10 per AUM in August, and the new council is now proposing two times the provincial grazing lease rate for Zone 1.

Other proposed changes would allow lease rights to be sold and for leaseholders to receive some oil-and-gas payments based on thresholds. Tendered grazing leases would also have the option to purchase.

Johnson said council knew oil-and-gas revenues would eventually dwindle, and other municipalities, such as the County of Warner and Cypress County, sold tax-recovery land for a short-term cash infusion, but that’s now gone as a revenue stream.

“The intent was that it would never be sold, that the native grasslands would be protected and preserved. We met a number of times with grazing associations and the folks around that area, and with their input, we were able to come to an agreement in how these lands should be managed,” said Johnson.

“I have no problem with having a discussion about looking at are the rates appropriate? They need to be changed. Where I part company is any discussion about putting up for sale any tax-recovery land. I think that is wrong. I think if the council proceeds the way they’re going with this, it’s a violation of the trust in our council.”

A previous council decision last year to proceed with a joint venture with the Bow River Irrigation District to convert 3,100 acres of grasslands to irrigated cropland was put on hold by the new council after October elections.

Only 4.2 per cent of the native grasslands were to be converted under the MD’s control for the proposed Scope Reservoir Joint Venture Agreement, generating considerably more revenue with the venture than with current leases.

However, some fear this would create a slippery slope, with more grasslands converted to irrigated cropland or sold to the highest bidder outside the MD.

Feedback from the MD’s numerous open-house discussions and written recommendations from residents, which had a Feb. 17 deadline, will be taken into consideration for council’s Feb. 24 meeting.

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Liisa Jeffrey, executive director of Peace Country Beef and Forage Association (PCBFA), said the funding offered by the RSP is a good fit for her organization.

“We’re a forage-based research association and all of the research and everything that we are doing very much ties in with the goals of that program,” said Jeffrey.

This year, grant recipients for the 2024-2025 program include academic institutions, Indigenous organizations, non-profits and grazing associations. The RSP is funded by a portion of rental fees collected from grazing disposition holders on Crown land. The money is then reinvested into projects supporting responsible stewardship across Alberta’s rangelands.

“That’s money coming from ranchers set aside to benefit ranchers. It’s a good concept that the government has come up with,” said Lindsye Murfin, general manager of the Western Stock Growers Association.

The projects for this year include education and community outreach, adaptive grazing practices, conservation strategies, grassland bird conservation and bee biodiversity surveys.

Murfin said they submitted their application for the program in fall 2024, and funding was approved in March 2025.

The WSGA’s project is looking to develop a market for ecosystem services that would work best for ranchers.

“We have an index that we developed that measures ecosystem health, and you could take that, apply it to a parcel of land, get the score and then use the score in the marketplace,” she said.

“You could contract your management of that parcel to either keep your high score or improve it,” she said.

“Our project is fine tuning that index. We’re doing a market analysis and a cross jurisdictional scan of what metrics and measurables are already being used,” she said.

Next summer, the WSGA will be field testing the new index on ranches of stock grower members to make sure it works. WSGA is working with Solstice Environmental Management, and Green Analytics, both of which are based in Edmonton. These companies have started doing a scan of all market analysis in North America and Australia.

Field testing for the project will take place on 50,000 acres in Alberta.

Jeffrey said PCBFA has three projects funded by the RSP.

The projects include a silvopasture project, a liming project, and a perennials project.

“All three of them are three-year projects that started in 2024, so they’re in their second field season right now,” said Jeffrey.

The silvopasture project is a producer-led study that evaluates the potential benefits of grazing forest systems versus open pasture.

“That kind of intentional combination of trees, forage and livestock managed as a single integrated practice is what’s called a silvopastural system, and they have potential to provide a number of benefits to livestock and to the plant community,” she said.

Some of the benefits include increasing soil fertility and conservation, improving wildlife habitat and the quality of forage, and diversifying income. There are also some ecosystems benefits like atmospheric carbon sequestration and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.

“On top of that, trees and shrubs in these systems provide shade for animals, so that’s going to improve thermal comfort, which then improves the ability of animals to consume and digest adequate forage biomass, especially in hot weather conditions,” said Jeffrey. This research is being conducted on a ranch in High Prairie, in Big Lakes County.

The second project is a liming project, which is being run as a field study on a producer’s farm in Sexsmith. Adding lime to forages can increase soil pH, which is the primary outcome of the project.

For that project, agricultural lime, pelletized lime and wood ash (an industry by-product from a mill), are being tested to measure the impacts of PH on farm income and profitability.

“It’s assessing the economic feasibility and measuring the impact of liming over the three-year period, and the goals to design liming guidelines and management strategies, particularly for forage systems,” said Jeffrey. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to provide clear recommendations for producers. We’re seeing that soil acidity is a growing concern,” she said.

“When soils are strongly acidic, so 5.5 and under, the availability of many macronutrients for forages decreases and some elements will increase to toxic levels as well. So that’s a concern,” she said.

The Peace country, which contains the boreal forest, has a low pH and more acidic soils, so lime can increase the pH.

The third project is called the Longevity and Ecosystem Services of Perennial Forage Mixes.

Small plots were seeded in 2020, but the project will be monitored again between 2024 and 2026.

“We’re continuing to monitor the biomass production and feed quality of the forage itself, as well as water use efficiency and some soil health parameters,” she said.

A former PhD student who is now a staff member started this project to test water use efficiency, said Jeffrey.

“It’s been interesting because we have had some severe drought years in the time we’ve had these plots. We had our field day last week, and they had harvested these plots about two weeks before the field day and took their cut off them,” she said.

The project has highlighted the value of legumes in drought conditions.

“In the two very dry weeks since the plots were harvested, the only thing that has come back is legumes. None of the grasses have and the legumes look great, like they’re green, they’re up, they look fantastic,” she said.

The plots have been seeded with monoculture grasses, and everything in between, all the way up to monoculture legumes.

“We saw how strong of an impact those legumes had on the water use efficiency of the forage, and their ability to continue producing decent quality and decent quantity of forage in drought conditions,” said Jeffrey.

The project is now in its fifth year.

“We’re at the point where we are looking at how long can these plots continue producing a forage stand that’s worthwhile,” she said.

Jeffrey said there were other benefits to participating in the RSP.

“On the silvopasture project, we were able to get the rangeland specialists to come out to the site and do some of the data collection analysis with us. They looked at identifying all the species that were present and determined the proportion of the species that were there,” she said. “That was really cool.”

Jeffrey said the RSP is a great program, and she would encourage people to consider applying for it.

Applications for the program are now open for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Applicants will be considered based on their knowledge and understanding of rangeland management. Applications are open until Sept. 17, 2025.

More information on the program and how to apply is available online.

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As of Tuesday evening 89 wildfires are active in Alberta, with 25 out of control, according to the provincial government, forcing about 20,000 people out of their homes.

A cold front bringing gusty northwest wind, but little rain, was likely on Tuesday, according to Environment Canada’s weather department.

The change in wind direction can pose a problem for firefighters as the path of the fires changes suddenly, said Christie Tucker, spokesperson for the Alberta Wildfire agency.

Evacuation orders and alerts have also been sounded in neighbouring British Columbia, where as of Tuesday evening 61 wildfires are active, and Saskatchewan, where 28 wildfires are active with five ranked as “not contained.”

“The arrival of sustained winds from the north has resulted in aggressive fire behaviour on all wildfires within the north Peace Region,” the B.C. Wildfire Service said late Monday.

Saskatchewan on Tuesday reported it has had more than double the amount of wildfires usually seen at this time of year. Evacuation orders were recently issued at communities including Buffalo Narrows and Dillon, about 250 km north of Meadow Lake.

With fire risk rated high to extreme across much of the province, Saskatchewan on Tuesday also imposed a fire ban for Crown lands and provincial parks north of the Yellowhead Highway (Highway 16) and for the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District.

The Canadian military and firefighters from across Canada and the U.S. are helping fight the blazes in Alberta.

“We will build better,” Judy Levesque, who lost her house at Drayton Valley, said while fighting back tears. “We planned to renovate so now we get to do it quicker.”

“That’s the attitude we have to have because it’s too sad the other way.”

Drayton Valley, a town of almost 7,000 people about 100 km southwest of Edmonton, was under evacuation order up until Tuesday afternoon. Twenty-three full or partial evacuation orders remain in effect for various towns, municipalities, First Nation communities and Metis settlements in northern and western Alberta.

At one point Alberta’s fires forced oil and gas producers to shut in at least 319,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or 3.7 per cent of national production.

On Tuesday morning, Calgary-based Crescent Point Energy said it was shutting in its Kaybob Duvernay production, impacting 45,000 boepd, as a precautionary measure due to changing wildfire conditions. Benchmark Canadian heavy crude prices have risen to their highest levels in months on concerns about the wildfires.

Farther west in B.C., the hot weather is causing rapid snow melt that has increased river flow and prompted authorities to issue a flood warning for part of the Skeena region.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa, Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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The provincial government announced Wednesday it has frozen the rates charged to producers who lease Crown grazing land in 2023 at their 2022 level. The freeze will apply to all grazing leases across the province, affecting about six million acres of Crown land in total.

Furthermore, producers who have to reduce their stocking rates on Crown land due to “ongoing dry conditions” will be eligible for a rent cut of up to 50 per cent.

Crown grazing rates in Saskatchewan are set each year using a formula based on fall cattle prices and the long-term stocking rate of each parcel. The rent cuts would apply where a lessee or pasture association must reduce the number of animals grazing on a Crown lease by 20 per cent or more, compared to the parcel’s approved long-term carrying capacity.

The 2023 rate cut would match the reduction in carrying capacity, ranging from a 20 per cent rate reduction up to the maximum 50 per cent.

“Saskatchewan’s livestock sector is facing increasing costs of production in addition to successive years of low precipitation in many areas of the province,” provincial Agriculture Minister David Marit said in a release.

The rate freeze and cuts, he said, “will assist producers through the current challenges while supporting the continued stewardship and productivity of the land.”

Shellbrook cattle producer Arnold Balicki, chair of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association, on Wednesday hailed the province’s announcement as “something many of our ranchers have been calling for.”

Neighbouring Manitoba last fall announced rent reductions for perennial forage growers leasing Crown land in 2023 and the following two years, citing “extreme weather conditions” ranging from excess moisture in 2022 to severe drought the previous two years. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Provincial Ag Minister Derek Johnson on Wednesday announced the forage lease rent on agricultural Crown land will be reduced by 50 per cent in 2023, 33 per cent in 2024 and 15 per cent in 2025.

These rent reductions will be automatically applied starting with next year’s bills, the province said, so forage leaseholders won’t need to apply for the cut.

“Stakeholders have told us that rental rates on forage lands are challenging with the hardships they are experiencing following the past two years of extreme weather conditions,” Johnson said in a release.

“We are responding to their concerns by implementing this rent reduction program over the next three years, which will provide ranchers with up to $4 million in relief.”

Said “extreme weather conditions” have ranged from severe drought the past two years to excess moisture this year, which have “significantly affected the productivity and forage capacity of agricultural Crown lands,” the province said.”

The rent cut will be in place as the productivity of the land recovers and as “further improvements” to the province’s agricultural Crown lands program are put in place, Johnson said.

The provincial ag department said it’s “exploring other policy, program, regulation and service improvements to enhance the productivity and sustainability of agricultural Crown forage lands including mechanisms for leaseholders to invest in productivity and adjustments to the terms and conditions of leases.”

Other changes made in the past several years as a result of the province’s ongoing review of the Crown land program included the move to an online auction system; a “market-based” formula for calculating rental rates; and the eliminations of lifetime leases and unit transfers.

The program review now includes an online public survey that will be available until late October. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Provincial Finance Minister Donna Harpauer on Wednesday tabled the province’s 2020-21 spending estimates with the “unusual step” of not including revenue forecasts, citing the current COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Estimated spending on the agriculture file includes an appropriation of $366.2 million and capital asset amortization of $2.67 million, for total estimated expense of $368.9 million, down from an estimated $391.3 million for the 2019-20 budget year.

The most significant estimated spending markdown for 2020-21 is on AgriStability, the federal/provincial farm income stabilization program, to $19.98 million, down from $32.9 million in 2019-20.

Provincial spending on crop insurance program premiums is also estimated to fall by $15.9 million in 2020-21, to $139.07 million.

Ag spending to be eliminated in 2020-21 includes the province’s Crown land sale incentive program, which had been earmarked for an estimated $1.55 million in 2019-20.

Increased spending is projected for “regional services” such as ag extension work, at just over $37 million, up $4.8 million from 2019-20.

“The key investments in this spending plan for the upcoming year provide stability and include significant spending lifts in many areas, including health, and significant economic stimulus through capital spending,” Harpauer wrote in a message attached to Wednesday’s estimates.

“And if we didn’t proceed with tabling the estimates, we wouldn’t be able to move ahead with any of these new spending initiatives or stimulus as we start the new fiscal year. So we need to move forward with the estimates now.”

Harpauer added that “more may have to be done to address both the health and economic impacts of COVID-19” in Saskatchewan, but the “full impact” of planned federal measures is still uncertain.

The province, she said, may have to make “adjustments to address the economic fallout” from the pandemic, adding:”we fully recognize that this may mean a deficit.”

That said, she added that Saskatchewan has $1.3 billion in cash reserves and has also “shifted reliance on resource revenues” such as from oil and potash, to an expected 12 per cent, down from a previous high of 32. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Saskatchewan Crop Insurance on Wednesday announced an extension on the June 30 deadline for seeding crops for greenfeed, to July 15.

Producers who have crop insurance will now be able to seed and insure any cereal greenfeed crop — including producers who hadn’t previously endorsed greenfeed on their contracts, the agency said. Crop insurance customers have until July 15 to select that endorsement and seed their greenfeed crop.

According to the provincial ag ministry’s crop report for the week ending June 10, seeding is “mostly complete” in Saskatchewan but a few fields are still being seeded for greenfeed and silage.

“Many areas of the province that are in need of rain did not receive any this past week,” the ag ministry said, except for “localized” rain in northwestern and southeastern cropping areas.

A crop insurance customer who wants to use annual crop acres for livestock grazing or for feed can contact their local Saskatchewan Crop Insurance office, the agency said Wednesday, noting crop insurance customers also have coverage in the event that their annual crops suffer from the dry conditions.

A producer can register a pre-harvest claim if he or she doesn’t want to carry the crop through to harvest. If the producer takes their crop to harvest, but it has a reduced yield, he or she can file a post-harvest claim.

The provincial government on Wednesday also noted the Western Livestock Price Insurance Program (WLPIP) grants producers the opportunity to purchase insurance based on a forward market price for their cattle — and for those who purchased price insurance this spring, the 60-day continuous criteria will be waived for the 2019 grazing season.

Enrolling in AgriStability for the 2019 program year is also still an option for those who haven’t yet done so, the province said, as that enrolment deadline has been pushed back to July 2.

Among other options available to livestock producers, the province noted Crown land lessees with “excess” grazing or hay resources can contact their regional ag ministry offices to request permission to sublease their pasture, graze “non-owned” cattle on the lease, harvest some or all of the hay on the lease and/or sell hay from the lease.

Provincial environment ministry lands may also be available for grazing until Sept. 1 through the Fish and Wildlife Development Fund, the province said. More information on FWDF land is available online. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“To do this, you will need to obtain a permit from an Alberta government forestry office,” said provincial woodlot extension specialist Toso Bozic. “When cutting your own tree, you know that it’s fresh.”

For information on obtaining a permit, go to the Alberta Agriculture website and search ‘Christmas tree.’ There are also two Alberta U-cut Christmas operations listed at www.prairiechristmastrees.org.

If you’re buying a tree, be sure to conduct a freshness test, said Bozic.

“Grasp a branch between your thumb and forefinger and pull it towards you. If the tree is fresh, no more than five or 10 needles should come off in your hand, unless it is very cold and dry outside, and then a few more needles may come off. This is a good time to check the fragrance of the tree as well.

“The balsam fir tree species is often considered the ‘real’ Christmas tree and many growers grow this species for its special aroma. White spruce and varieties of pine are excellent choices as well.”

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Provincial Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart on Tuesday announced a “targeted incentive” program aimed at about 1,100 eligible leaseholders, offering the 10 per cent purchase incentive on the sale of eligible land until March 31 next year.

Eligible farmers, who can expect to receive notices about the new program soon in the mail, can continue leasing if they don’t wish to buy the land in question, but will see a 45 per cent premium applied to their standard formula rental rate in 2018.

That premium follows a 15 per cent premium applied in 2016, and a 30 per cent premium applied in 2017, the province said.

Out of about six million acres of farmed Crown land under lease today in the province, about 300,000 acres will be subject to the 45 per cent rental premium, the province said.

Also, unlike previous incentive programs, this one applies only to the 300,000-odd acres subject to the new premium, the province said.

Under provincial policy on Crown farmland sales to lessees, sale price can be set through a land value report provided by the province; an appraisal by an accredited rural appraiser, paid for by the applicant; or an appraisal paid for by the ag ministry.

If either the applicant or the ministry has a problem with the value indicated in the report or appraisal, that party can hire a second accredited appraiser. The average of the two values would be used to set the purchase price.

The new incentive program “supports our government’s consistent approach to putting land in the hands of producers in cases where there is no higher public good from an ecological, environmental, heritage or economic perspective,” Stewart said in a release Tuesday.

Thus, any parcel of land previously deemed ineligible for purchase will remain so, the province said.

Grazing co-operative lands and former federal pastures also won’t be eligible for the sales incentive and won’t be subject to the rent hike, even if those sites include cultivated or formerly cultivated land.

Farmers interested in buying leased Crown land under the new program can call the provincial Agriculture Knowledge Centre at 1-866-457-2377 or find more information and application forms online. — AGCanada.com Network

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Provincial Bill 36, which passed in December, takes effect May 15, requiring an approved helmet for anyone “driving, operating, riding in or on, or being towed by” an off-highway vehicle, and sets out fines for violations.

For the purpose of the new rules, an “off-highway vehicle” is any motorized vehicle built for cross-country travel on land, water, snow, ice, marshes or “other natural terrain.”

Thus, the law covers use of all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, motorcycles, dirt bikes, utility terrain vehicles and amphibious vehicles, among others.

The bill defines “public land” as Crown land or other land which isn’t privately owned. That includes any areas designated for public off-highway vehicle use, as well as any public roadways and highway rights-of-way.

Bill 36 also sets fines of $155 for not wearing a helmet, and fines of $93 for wearing a helmet that isn’t CSA-compliant or is damaged or improperly modified. Those are the same fines already in place for on-road violations involving motorcycle riders, the province noted.

The law doesn’t require helmets for those using off-highway vehicles on their own property, on other private property with the owner’s permission, or on First Nations reserve or Metis settlement lands (except those with laws requiring it).

The province said the helmet rule doesn’t apply in the performance of “farming or ranching operations exempt from Alberta’s occupational health and safety laws.”

Those who have documented exemptions from Alberta Transportation, and are following the terms of those exemptions, are also exempt from the new helmet law, as are those who wear turbans as “bona fide” members of the Sikh faith, the province said.

Off-highway vehicles that have manufacturer-installed rollover protective structures (ROPS) and seat belts that are being properly worn are also exempt from the helmet rule.

Vehicles that meet standards for motor vehicles designed for on-road use and have seat belts — for example, unmodified 4×4 trucks, SUVs or jeeps — are also exempt, the province said.

Safety helmets under the new law must meet the same standards required for motorcycle helmets, such as CSA Standard CAN3-D230-M85, among others.

“Albertans told us overwhelmingly that they wanted us to make helmets a requirement for OHV riders, and we responded,” Transportation Minister Brian Mason said Monday in a release. “This will keep riders safe so that OHVs can be enjoyed well into the future.”

Noting head injuries are the “No. 1 risk” to off-highway vehicle riders, Brent Hodgson, president of the Alberta Off-Highway Vehicle Association, said the province has “struck the right balance with this legislation.”

On average, according to the provincial Injury Prevention Centre, about 19 people die each year while operating off-highway vehicles in Alberta.

Out of the 185 deaths of ATV riders in Alberta between 2002 and 2013, the province said, 74 were due to head injuries and almost 80 per cent of those deaths involved people not wearing helmets.

Helmet use is still recommended for all off-highway vehicle users, even if they are exempt, the province said. — AGCanada.com Network

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