SSGF Holds 4th Annual General Meeting
SSGF Holds 4th Annual General Meeting
The Saskatchewan Stock Growers Foundation recently held their 4th Annual General Meeting in Swift Current during the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association AGM and Convention. The convention did not disappoint and brought forth intentional conservations between ranchers and landowners to discuss numerous topics and policies that affect their livelihood as ranchers.
The SSGF General Manager, Brant Kirychuk, presented an update on everything that we’ve been up to within the last year and program summaries. New for this year, the SSGF is committing to supporting their agreement holders and now offers training support. Agreement holders can receive up to $2500 in support for training/education that would support rangeland management, conservation, and/or ranching business management tailored to their individual needs.
Also discussed was that the SSGF staff members attended various conferences, workshops, field days and hosted events their own events throughout the year, which in turn, increased overall landowner engagement with over 250 agricultural producers reached in the last year. This increased investment in communication activities resulted in many inquiries into SSGF programming and quickly filled our field season with assessments for landowners interested in entering into agreements or easements.
In conjunction with South of the Divide Conservation Action Program, assessments took place on 15 new ranches and encompassed over 130,000 acres. There are currently 26 agreements in place that are working to increase grazing management with cross fencing, deferring native grass grazing, controlling invasive weeds, grassland restoration projects, putting grazing exchanges in place and much more. The SSGF also has 8 potential agreements in the works.
During the banquet, SSGF staff were able to present the 2024 Environmental Stewardship Award (TESA) to Block’s Ranching of Abbey, SK. Block’s Ranching consists of Neil and Denise Block, alongside their children, Arika, Dane and Lauren, Neil’s moms Pat and long-time hired hand, Brian. Block’s Ranching is operated on a large native grassland base with a combination of cow-calf, feeder and grasser cattle in the beautiful sandhills area of the province. They have dedicated their lives to ensuring the grasslands they manage are healthy, proliferative and able to support their livestock and the wildlife that call that area home. Blocks are highly active in the grassland conservation community and collaborate with countless organizations that work to collect data about the species that live on grasslands and how different grazing systems affect grasslands in the long term. Many ranchers shy away from allowing researchers and scientist on their land but Blocks see it as an opportunity to learn more about the rangelands they are stewarding.
Neil believes that true wealth comes from two sources- the ground and the sun. Whereas ranchers are best positioned to capture both and with proper management they can improve the true wealth generating capacity with both proper functioning soil and plants. The Block family truly embodies the spirit of the TESA and have proved themselves through the years for excellence in environmental stewardship within the ranching community. Good luck to the Block family as they compete for the national TESA this summer at the Canadian Cattle Association Semi-Annual Meeting in Saskatoon.
The SSGF would like to bid farewell to two of their longest standing board members, Ray McDougald and Helen Finucane. Both have played valuable roles to ensure the Foundation was always headed in the right direction for grassland conservation. Ray was the first chairmen on the SSGF Board of Directors and his steady presence to steer the board and our conservation work will be truly missed. We wish them nothing but the best in their future endeavours!
We are looking forward to what this coming year has in store for us, as we are busy with field season right now and have new opportunities to connect with more landowners at upcoming field days and workshops. Grassland conservation is needed more than ever and we are working hard to preserve this delicate landscape in collaboration and partnership with Saskatchewan ranchers and landowners.