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Davidson

Farmers haul record crop

The largest crop in Saskatchewan’s history and record yields all across Western Canada has resulted in some strains in grain being moved by trains this fall, but when taken in perspective everything is going smoothly.

Derrick Vetter, general manager of Cargill Ltd. in Davidson, said local producers have had “pretty good crops” the past four or five years while other parts of Western Canada have suffered through wet land, problems seeding or the crop just not coming in as big. He said this year is different as there are big crops spread out all across Western Canada.

“We’ve been lucky and maybe a little bit spoiled the last couple years when we’ve had good crops and good quantity and good quality, so we’ve been probably able to get a little bit more than our fair share when we talk (about) our local marketplace here, between the two cities and either end between the lakes,” said Vetter. “Now that this year when everybody has lots of quantity and for the most part the same quality it’s just getting spread out over a much bigger geography.”

Last week Statistics Canada estimated Saskatchewan’s 2013 crop is 38.4 million tonnes, which is 40 per cent above 2012 production and 48 per cent above the 10-year average. It further indicates this province’s canola crop is estimated to the largest on record at 8.9 million tonnes, an increase of 37.5 per cent over 2012. Production levels for wheat, canola, peas, lentils, chickpeas, oats and flax are all estimated to be above the 10-year average.

Vetter said this has resulted in a bit of a delay in grains being moved by trains, but it’s more company specific and they are “probably not” experiencing much of one. He said they still have a little bit of October grain to move, but for the most part they’re fairly current.

“When we’ve actually started looking into as far as trains running this year versus previous years, other than the month of October for us, we’re probably ahead of where we typically would be this time of year as far as shipping by rail,” he said. “It’s one of those things. There is lots of talk about the doom and gloom, (but) I think if people were to look at the stats it’s maybe not as bad as what the perception is out there.”

A Canadian Grain Commission release last week showed exports of Western Canadian grain to be higher this year to date compared to data from the same time last year and the five-year average. It states the volume of grain shipped by producer cars is also higher than at the same time last year.

As of Nov. 24, the Canadian Grain Commission states 5.1 million tonnes of wheat and 2.3 million tonnes of canola have been exported this crop year. The five-year average for exports of wheat by this time is 3.9 million tonnes and for canola 1.8 million tonnes.

That means 2013 exports have seen a 31 per cent increase in wheat exports and a 28 per cent increase in canola exports compared to the five-year average. This amounts to Western Canadian producers shipping 105,700 tonnes of wheat and 5,500 tonnes of canola to terminal elevators by producer car, while in the 2012-2013 crop year producers shipped 64,600 tonnes of wheat and 5,300 tonnes of canola to terminal elevators by this time.

To read more please see the December 9 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Sports

Raiders start year on a high note

The Davidson Raiders senior boys basketball team jumped out of the gate last Tuesday beating the Central Butte Bulldogs 71-33 before a big crowd at home in their first game of the 2013-2014 season.

Kim Rettger, head coach of the Raiders, said the team did a good job moving the ball quickly up the court and staying wide until they reached the three-point line resulting in good penetration on the Bulldogs defence. He said they have a small team with a deep bench, so that is going to be their “bread and butter” this season and it worked well against the bigger Central Butte team that seemed to run out of gas in the third and fourth quarter.

“I was really pleased how they stuck to the game plan,” said Rettger. “From the big guys we got some inside plays and some real nice passes from our guards, some screens and some guys were working pretty well together. We tried a couple different defences, man-to-man in the first half and then we went to zone in the second half, and both seemed to work pretty well. With the defences mixed up no one can find us very predictable, which is a nice thing.”

The Raiders were led by centre/forwards Travis Bublish and Kirby Manz who controlled the backboards while also dominating the inside, which gave point guards Huck Rettger and James Morrison the means to send in passes. Davidson forward Vanner McDonnell helped set the tone for the game playing a strong first half that saw the Raiders jump out to a quick 20-8 lead after the first quarter and 35-18 advantage by halftime.

“It was good,” said Huck, who got his first taste of senior basketball action in the game. “It seems a lot faster than junior is, but it was a good game. We had pretty good contributions from everyone. Vanner and a whole bunch of kids played great. James, Gabe (Ebenal) and Ben (Nykiforuk), all those guys played good. It was just a good all-around team game.”

Rettger said he has lined up a busy season for the team where they would play some strong opponents that they normally wouldn’t see, while also developing some good rivalries with opponents in their own conference. He said they’ll be heading to a few “big schools” for tournaments this year giving the Raiders a chance to see some tougher competition while also providing them with a couple clues on what they need to do to keep improving.

“We’re going to be playing uphill most of this season, but I’ve found over the years we play much better by challenging ourselves versus playing teams that you have an easier chance to beat,” said Rettger, noting better play and staying healthy are their keys to a successful season. “With this deep a team we can take a fairly good run at the playoffs and see how far we can go. Going out of conferences is a real strong possibility and after that who knows.”

Sports

Cyclones turn special teams talk into action

The Davidson Cyclones senior hockey team lit the lamp three times in the second period while on their way to a 6-1 road win last Wednesday against the Nokomis Chiefs.

Jason Shaw, head coach of the Cyclones, said they dominated the play during the middle frame, which was book-ended by an even first and a quiet third. He said Nokomis doesn’t play a physical style, so that makes for a bit of a different game for them, but the most important thing is they still got the win.

“We were short staffed, but we played pretty good. The guys that were there played well. Brady Willner played pretty good in net,” said Shaw. Chad “Manz had a breakaway goal (4:43 into the second to put the Cyclones up 2-1), which was pretty good and then Carter (Smith) had a nice shorthanded goal. I guess with guys gone it gives different guys a chance to play a little bit more.”

The penalty kill goal by Smith, who also picked up two assists, came after Zach Sim scored his first of two on the night on the power play. Colton Allan and Rance Anderson also figured into the scoring with Allan potting the opening goal for the Cyclones to even up the score at 1-1 less than a minute after Tyler Hartmann gave the Chiefs their only lead of the game and Anderson scored the final goal with a little over five minutes left in the third. Davidson forward Cody Danberg didn’t find the back of the net against Nokomis, but he did add to his league leading point total that now sits at 24 after he picked up three assists during the game.

Shaw said it was especially nice to see Smith back on the ice and helping them out on special teams after suffering through an injury earlier in the year. He said the improved power play and penalty kill has also come around just through players chatting amongst themselves about what works and what doesn’t.

“During games (players are) talking about what we want to do power play wise (and) where we want to set up,” he said. “The first part of the season, especially on the power play, we had some chances (and) we just couldn’t score. Then on the penalty kill we’ve cut our penalties down quite a bit, but we’ve just as we’ve gone along change it up how we want to defend against their team’s power play and it seems to be working.”

After a slow start to the season the Cyclones (3-3-1) seem to have found their stride going two-and-two over the past four games, but keeping each of them fairly close with the big win against the Chiefs being the lone exception.

“For the rest of the year anybody can beat anybody,” said Shaw. “Nokomis had two wins and they’re on the bottom (of the standings) and Watrous is on the top with five, so we got to come every night to play well. As long as we can get three lines and four or five (defencemen) it gives us a chance every night.”

featured

$2.6 million improvements planned for Blackstrap

A “start” is the best way to categorize the two new agreements between the provincial government and private investors that would bring $2.6 million worth of improvements to Blackstrap Provincial Park, said a leader with the Dundurn Rural Municipality.

“There is a long ways to go yet,” said Fred Wilson, Reeve of the RM of Dundurn. “The Park itself is planning some more campsites and that is an important part of it too, but the marina is a good move because that will take quite a bit of pressure off their highway on the weekend with everybody having to bring their boat down and then take it back home again. The boat launch will help out quite a bit too.”

The Saskatchewan Parks, Culture and Sport Ministry reached the multi-million dollar agreement Nov. 15 with Blackstrap Marina Corp and Waterfront Development Ltd. to develop and operate a 190 slip inland marina at the Park that will offer multi-year, annual and daily slip rentals to the public as well as a marine fuel service, boat launch and vehicle and trailer parking as well as a new 12 fully-furnished year-round unit rental accommodation cabin project.

In addition to these agreements, the Parks, Culture and Sport Ministry announced they are in the planning stages of a new serviced campground for Blackstrap Provincial Park with design and development to occur over the next two years.

Lin Gallagher, deputy minister for Saskatchewan Parks, Culture and Sport, said the ministry began this project by entering into some public and stakeholder consultations as well as incorporating some of their own ideas on what would be appropriate for renewing Blackstrap and enhancing recreational opportunities in the area.

“Then coming from there… some unsolicited interest came in to us for proposals for different initiatives in the area of the Park and within the Park,” said Gallagher. “What we did then is we had a RFP (public request for proposals), so we formally solicited some detailed proposals for commercial or private parties and…we received two formal proposals from both of the companies that we’re working with now.”

Gallagher said the agreements entered into are for 25 years with the two companies responsible for paying the government for the lease along with all the costs of constructing and operating the facility. She said the marina developers are presently undertaking geo-technical and soil samples before they put in their construction and detail designs while working to obtain all federal and provincial regulatory approvals.

“What we understand from them is that they hope to be through all of that for spring of 2014 and they’re hoping to open in July of 2015 or earlier if possible,” she said. “For the rental cabins…they’re presently working on the detailed design plans for the cabins along with any supporting infrastructure requirements and plans and then they also have numerous regulatory approvals that they have to acquire and we need to ensure that they do that before they start work.

“They’re anticipating pouring foundations for all the cabins in the spring of 2014 with the cabins completed and ready for occupancy in the fall of 2014.”

To read more please see the December 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson

Study suggests ways to boost spirit

The Davidson United Church is trying something new in order to build the spiritual well being of the community and the individuals within it.

Mary Smillie, a leader with the multi-faith Rural Spirit Study project initiated by the Davidson United Church, said they are going to be installing “around $10,000” worth of audio-visual equipment in the church, so they can use the resources of the Internet to start content-driven conversations among community members. She said this would be phase two of the three-phase $30,000 research project that is funded by the United Church of Canada and is being conducted by the church and the Centre for Rural Community Leadership and Ministry (CiRCLe M) in Saskatoon.

“We saw, ourselves as a congregation, the need to understand better what it is that makes people’s spirit tick,” said Smillie about the purpose of the Rural Spirit Study. As “a church we’re supposed to exist for that, but as everybody can see in Canada and North America church populations are generally dwindling. That doesn’t mean people don’t still have a spirit that they want to nurture and we as a church need to change how we approach people from a spiritual point of view. We can’t do that unless we understand what it is that makes people’s spirit tick.”

Smillie said the word spirit is representative of things such as wonder, awe, and a person’s purpose, meaning, and connectivity in the world. She said religion is “not essential” in the steps they are taking to nurture the spirit of the community and individuals in the community.

“The end goal would be to take what generations before us built in terms of this church and this structure and this space…and continue to have it evolve and expand in what it does to be more relevant to more people in this community,” she said, noting they are not trying to get more people to attend United Church services with this project.

Cam Harder, executive director of CiRCLe M, said phase one of the study identified a number of factors through focus group research that resulted in a sense of spiritual well being in a person. He said one of these factors is the importance of having a place where people can have a content rich conversation about things that are important to them and that is something the church can provide using some of the funds from the scholarship.

“People felt that having these conversations was a really rich experience, so we thought what if we set up a space where we can for example Skype somebody in on a large screen TV from anywhere in the world really who could share something really interesting with us and we could have a back-and-forth with them,” said Harder, noting they could also show the self-development video TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talks or YouTube videos and then have conversations about them. “We could (also) have the young people come in and they could share their favourite content piece from the Web…and it would allow for some intergenerational sharing of resources. It would allow for some content rich conversations.”

To read more please see the December 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Sports

Penalty shot helps Canucks secure win

An errant trip by Cyclones defenceman Orrin Gryba with 7:54 left in the second period against the Drake Canucks proved the turning point in Davidson’s second-straight loss last Wednesday.

Gryba wasn’t sent to the penalty box on the play that saw the defenceman swipe his opponent’s feet with his stick on a diving attempt to stop a breakaway chance. The referee on the call instead decided to award the Canucks, who were losing 2-1 at the time despite playing the majority of the game in close quarters with Cyclones goalie Mark Zoerb, a penalty shot.

During the free attempt Canucks forward Doug McLeod raced down the centre of the ice shifting the puck from backhand to forward and again to backhand before slipping it low through the pad and glove of Zoerb who had went down to try and slide sideways to stop an expected shot to his blocker side.

“You just try and make him do the first move and then react to it,” said Zoerb, noting a goalie doesn’t usually face many penalty shots during the season, but they do happen.

“A call like that is a referee’s discretion,” said Cyclones coach Jason Shaw. “I could see why he’d call it, but maybe I didn’t think it could be a penalty shot. There is no changing his mind once he’s made that call.”

Canucks forward Derek Eberle struck 4:56 later at the tail end of a power play when he stuffed in a rebound off a Nick Kalnicki shot through Zoerb’s legs from in close giving Drake a lead they would not relinquish. A seeing-eye wrist shot from the point that somehow found the high glove side on Zoerb courtesy of Canucks defenceman Matt Rintoul 14:59 into a defence-first third period for Drake held up as the insurance marker.

Davidson would make it close 3:01 later when assistant captain Brett Siroski tapped in a behind-the-goal-line pass from Chad Manz bringing the score to 4-3 with their goalie pulled, but that would be the closest the Cyclones would come to a second home ice win this season.

“It was a really good game,” said Shaw. “We’re kind of short staffed a little bit right now, but the guys that were there played well. Drake is a good hockey team. We would have liked to win, but we were right there to the end. A couple breaks either way, a bounce here or a bounce there, and it might have been different.”

To read more please see the December 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.