I am writing this column from Calgary. We are with our two grand daughters, aged three and one, who are celebrating birthdays this week. We began our travels on Thursday in the darkness of the early morning unable to see how the crop harvest was proceeding in the western end of the district. By the time we reached a dirt road that would take us through Morris and Souris, we were made aware of how large this year’s harvest will be.
What we thought might be fires was simply the dust being thrown up behind giant combines thrashing through various crops. Large clouds drifted along the routes of the combines. The trail of dust was significant. That was augmented by multi unit grain trucks burling along dirt roads heading to inland terminals. Western Canadian farmers were doing their bit to meet the hungry needs of the world. Across three provinces as far as the eye could see, fields were being harvested and the grains were being delivered to silos. At the silos, miles of cars waited to be loaded. It has been a dry September across the three provinces and that dryness has made harvesting easier and the dust levels higher. In one field, a green John Deere combine had turned dusty brown from the dust that was raised in the field.
Canadian farmers are expected to harvest record crops this year. Stats Canada predicts that the harvest of canola, wheat, barley, oats, corn, and soybeans will be up this year. The harvest of wheat alone is expected to be up by 55 per cent over the 2021 crop year. In Alberta, the wheat crop will increase by 80 per cent above the 2021 year. The costs of production have risen this year for fuel, pesticides, and fertilizer. The increased value of the crops more that offsets those rising costs.
Once those crops reach rail terminals, we can expect to see increased rail traffic through Fort Frances bringing those western Canada crops to Thunder Bay and then on to Europe and Africa making up for the lost shipments of grain from Ukraine.
Across much of Manitoba, wind turbines were turning, putting power into the grid. Around Virden Mb, we didn’t see an idle oil pump. In fact, we witnessed more than one new drilling tower in a field of pumps. Oil was being delivered on to refineries. Similarly in Alberta, the oil pumps were in full operation and many square miles of solar fields were putting energy into the North American grid.
The western provinces are doing their shares creating wealth and supporting the Canadian Economy.
Former Publisher
Fort Frances Times
