Dean Palmer recently admitted to a room full of cattlemen and women that he’s a worrier and that he’s an impatient man.
With such character traits as these, it’s a wonder how he wound up as chairman of the newly formed McCraney Community Grazing Corporation.
“I missed a meeting,” he told the crowd of cattle producers packed into Davidson’s community centre.
The answer earned him lots of laughs as well as a few sympathetic nods from the crowd attending the Community Pasture Patron Association of Saskatchewan’s first annual general meeting.
Palmer as well as Clint Christianson, of Lone Tree Grazing, were there to relate their experiences with the transition of community pastures process.
“If you don’t like bungee jumping or skydiving, this isn’t for you, because that’s what this is,” Palmer said.
Christianson offered a different metaphor: “We’re kind of like the sheep that got led to slaughter first.”
The two men are involved in forming patrons groups that will operate the former PFRA community pastures in their areas this spring. This is necessary because in 2012 the Harper Conservative government suddenly announced it would no longer operate community pastures. The provincial government, which owns the land, indicated it had no interest in operating the pastures either, but would lease the pastures to patrons.
A year ago patrons of community pastures formed CPPAS to represent their concerns with the goal of maintaining the long-term viability of the pastures for cattle production and cattle grazing.
CPPAS is “about all of us working together to achieve success. No one else will save our pastures,” CPPAS chairman Ian McCreary said.
The group has representation from nearly all of the affected pastures in the province and is a way of pooling resources and expertise for the patrons as well as representing patrons’ concerns to the provincial and federal governments.
The association’s first priority was to seek a delay in the transition process. McCreary said there were a number of issues that needed resolution, however, he said, the federal government denied this request.
Last year was the final grazing year for 10 federally operated pastures, including McCraney, which is northeast of Davidson and Lone Tree, in southern Saskatchewan near the U.S. border.
To read more please see the February 10 print edition of The Davidson Leader.