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Photo: Montana State University
THE
FarMGaTe
Winter
2014
Grains
West
14
IT’S AN INCREASINGLY PROSPEROUS TIME TO BE A
landowner in certain pockets of Canada, especially in rural
areas. Farm Credit Canada’s (FCC) Spring 2013 Farm-
land Values Report estimated that land values in Alberta
increased by 7.2 per cent in the second half of 2012. Values
are the highest around the Highway 2 corridor, while
southern Alberta’s irrigated areas had a solid showing
due to favourable commodity pricing and crops grown on
contract.
“There are a lot of different factors that are driving this,”
said Ken Gurney, senior appraiser for FCC in Lethbridge,
AB. “Our ag industry across Canada as a whole, and espe-
cially in Alberta, is very strong.”
To the east, Saskatchewan and Manitoba had increases
of 9.7 per cent and 13.9 per cent, respectively, in the second
half of 2012. The biggest winner was Quebec, with a
whopping 19.4 per cent farmland value increase. Both
New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador had
zero change.
The report, which will be released only once a year
beginning in the spring of 2014, uses about 245 benchmark
properties across Canada to assemble its data.
TimetoBuy(orsell) theFarm?
MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY’S (MSU) COLLEGE OF
Agriculture has $1 million more to put towards its top-level research
programs. Montana Grains Foundation president Dale Schuler
presented the research-intensive university with a $1-million cheque
on October 26, 2013, to establish the college’s first-ever chair position
and program, which will focus on plant breeding and disease resis-
tance. The funding, entirely from farmers’ pockets, has been coming
in the form of gifts ranging from $15,000 to $50,000, Schuler said.
“Raising these funds is no minor effort,” Schuler said. “While we
were somewhat daunted by the task, we knew from the beginning
that this chair must be created. We decided the best way to fund
research would be to set up an endowment.”
With the first million in the bank, and closing in on $2 million by
Christmas, the goal is to create a $5-million endowment fund
by 2018.
Montana produces quality wheat and barley, and the research
could have direct implications for southern Alberta as far as disease
resistance and knowledge transfer, according to Lori Cox, MSU’s
director of business development for the alumni association.
Schuler agreed, and said the key is multiple people coming
together.
“Certainly that is something that we hope to achieve with this—
collaboration,” he said. “We will emphasize that. We’ll reach out to
other researchers, whether it’s state-to-state or across the border. We
certainly share some growing conditions [with Canada].”
The position will have an advisory council and could be in place as
early as fall 2014.
seVeN-FiGUre
sUPPOrT
Montana State University teammembers receive a $1-million cheque fromMontana
crop producers to establish the first chair in theMSUCollege of Agriculture.