Founded in 1909, UFA Co-operative Limited is an Alberta-based agricultural co-operative with more than 120,000 member-owners. UFA’s network comprises more than 114 bulk fuel and Cardlock Petroleum locations, 34 Farm & Ranch Supply stores and a support office in Calgary, AB. Independent Petroleum Agents and over 1,000 UFA employees provide products, services and agricultural solutions to farmers, ranchers, members and commercial customers in Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan.
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takes a certain kind of ambition to do what farmers do. Between the hours and the hard labor, to the public scrutiny and bureaucratic maze running, it's not an easy task. While the agriculture industry feeds millions quietly tilling and producing behind the scenes, many forget that our food comes from the hands of real people with real stories.
Join us as we share stories from those with boots on the ground and unearth unique perspectives on agriculture's biggest conversations. It's time to grab your shovel and get to work. I'm Don Schaefer and this is Digging In with UFA.
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What does it take to be a producer? From the expensive and specific equipment to the feed, to the staff, to the water, and the gas, and the hours, and the labor. There are so many elements that as a consumer are completely unseen in the process of farm to plate. As the economic turbulence of high food prices keeps driving a wedge between production costs and market value,
Where do we find the balance in consuming good food, recognizing where it comes from, and understanding the price to grow it? Today, we dig into the changing nature of farming.
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It takes a particular type of passion to be a cattle farmer.
A resilience and grit coupled with a deep empathy and work ethic that is second to none. A passion that Dorothy Tings is all too familiar with. From being the co-owner and operations manager for Grace Feed Yards and her industry advocacy as a delegate for UFA and Alberta Beef Producers, Dorothy's firsthand experience brings a unique perspective by spearheading conversations that allow the ag community to roll the bill towards equity and legislative progress.
My grandfather homesteaded in 1926. And so we're coming up to our 100 year and through that, my dad's been feeding cattle for 68 years. So I've influenced my children as well that this is a lifestyle. It's a way of life, but it's also business. I am a proud woman in agriculture, but I don't define myself as only being a woman in agriculture. I don't need distinction because of that.
I've earned my spot at the table because of my hard work and what we do at our farm. There's challenges sometimes, yeah, because I have different viewpoints, but that's the part of diversity, right? So by bringing everybody together, man or woman, it doesn't matter. We're all here for the same reason. Grace Feedyards is not for the faint of heart. It's not a nine to five where Friday rolls around and you're off to the weekend.
You never really clock out. Just as the landscape of farming changes, so do the expectations. To be a farmer is to be a collector of many hats. We work with livestock. We work with the weather. We work with humans. It's seven days a week. I'm here at 5.30 in the morning and I'm usually the last person to leave the feedlot. And it becomes tiresome. But then you have really rewarding days where you love everything you do.
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And some days you just swear a lot.
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When my father started farming, you farmed, you did your job, you sold your product, you carried on. Now it's a combination of business farming and presentation and promoting and networking. It's a whole cycle of different aspects that we have to bring together because if we don't, we can't provide what the world needs. And we're all tied together, whether you're turkey, chicken, beef, sheep, green, canola, it doesn't matter.
On the family farm, problem solving and a relentless work ethic are tools you develop early in life. From generation to generation, learning to troubleshoot your way to ultimately get the job done is as customary as the dinner bell. So it comes as no surprise to know that Tyler McCann holds an unwavering optimism in the face of rising production costs and greater systemic community hurdles.
My name is Tyler McCann. I'm the managing director at the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. CAPI is a national agriculture and food think tank based in Ottawa, but with a network of people across the country. My day job has been in and around agriculture, policy and politics for the last 20 years. But outside of my day job, my wife and I also farm in Western Quebec. We have a 60 cow-calf hobby that occupies our evenings and weekends with our family. I wasn't born on farm, but my family moved to a farm when I was 10, so...
have been around at all of my life. Agriculture is, I mean, it's one of those things where it's a way of life and it's a lifestyle that I think you really have to be in it to understand it. Really some significant risks, but there's this optimism. I think that that's being around that optimism, that sense of community, that idea that we're in this together and we're part of something bigger, something that I think I was grew up around and was always interested in continuing to be part of. Agriculture fuels the world. So when it comes to policy,
We're all affected. think that when you understand how important agriculture is and really the foundational piece that it plays in, mean, food security, everybody eats every day, but not just that, the sustainability, the environmental sustainability of the country, the economic growth of the country, the role that it plays in Canada's place in the world. I think it's just a really interesting place to be. And I think when I think about it in the policy role and wearing my day job hat.
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Agriculture is a sector that really is incredibly impacted by policy. Everything that happens in agriculture is effectively enabled by government policies and regulations. Ideally, those government's policies and regulations should facilitate the work that agriculture does, but far too often, actually, it seems to stand in the way and be a bump in the road. And so the more that we can do as an organization to help people understand the impact, the positive and negative impacts that policy has on agriculture,
really is what motivates me in the work that we do every day. I think a big misperception that exists from the people that are on the outside looking in is how little they actually understand about what things are happening inside agriculture today. I think that as much as we in agriculture try not think this way, a lot of people do think about, you know, that old red barn and the white picket fence and the cows that are out on the grasslands, kind of doing their thing off on their own. And really,
The world is really different today inside agriculture. And I think people just don't understand how different and how much things have changed in the last 30 years, let alone in the last five years and how much things are going to change in the next five or 30 years. That not knowing how much they don't know. When I think about creating a political context for the right supportive policy environment that we need, getting governments to think smartly about the future in agriculture and food, it really is important that we're thinking about
What does everybody else think about what we're doing? What do they understand? I don't think that we have to convince everyone that, you know, of our vision for the future of agriculture, but I think we need to understand the important role that they play in that future. So I think when you think about farming and food security, there's a lack of an understanding of how the food supply and what a resilient food system and a system that's designed for food security actually looks like and how it operates. And I think that there is this sense of the average consumer that
you know, our supply chains are relatively short and tight and, you know, the food comes from a farmer just down the road. But for so much of what somebody's buying in the grocery store is coming as part of a global supply chain, their food security really is a global issue and a global challenge. And we need to think about it in that context. The particular challenges in Canada around food security are often income issues and are not necessarily food system issues. But the solutions that come to it are we need a global food system that works so that the food
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can get from where it can be produced efficiently and affordably and sustainably to where it needs to be consumed. And sometimes that means that food's going to be imported, but also a lot of times that means, you know, if it's Alberta beef, it's going to end up all around the world because Alberta is one of those places where you can produce that beef affordably, sustainably, productively. And that's where it should be able to go from Alberta to Beijing or Indonesia or wherever else it needs to go.
And part of that is helping people understand the trade-offs that are there, right? I think everybody here a lot of these stories about the pressures to improve sustainability, about people, how they want these really tight local food systems, but yet they're going to Walmart and they're buying the cheapest food that they can. And so I think you have to help people understand what that disconnect actually looks like. And it is one thing for farmers to be able to produce the most sustainable food at the end of the day, but
It's going to cost them more. And the unfortunate reality is that some consumers can't, but a lot of consumers just don't want to pay what it really does need to take to get the food that their kind of ideal food might be at the end. If you look at supply chains and export markets and infrastructure and capacity and human resources, I mean, these are all pressures that don't encourage people to stick in agriculture and they don't encourage.
those small or not necessarily the small farms, but the mid-size farms, the traditional family farm to succeed and thrive. And so I think we, you know, there is no one single thing here, but I think it's a mindset around how do you create conditions that enable facilitate those that are actually out there farming to continue to farming that we need to find the right space with.
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When it comes to cost on the farm, there's no shortage of things to pay for. However, for those looking to begin their journey into farming, what is the cost of entry? Is it even feasible to begin, given the immediate overhead? Or is entry-level farming nowadays primarily for those flush with cash and an acreage of land at their disposal? It seems like no matter which way you slice it, there's always a pretty penny just waiting to be spent.
It's hard for people to have your family farm because cost of living and everything is so much more expensive. So you pour everything you have into your farm and then you've got to work on the outside of the farm to be able to provide for your family. It's a lot, it's a different scope. And so the smaller you are, the harder you have to think about how you want things to go. Because when a tractor costs a million dollars, if you only have like 600 acres,
That's pretty hard to justify. So it's hard to do it with the equipment that's available and like with the technology improving and everything else, everything just keeps increasing. So it's harder and harder for people to do, but there is ways like custom work, people coming in to do your farming and things like that. And so that's how people have to change their mindset to change, to keep everything growing and producing is
It's not just about I own the tractor, so I'm going to use the tractor. It's about, okay, I have the land. I want to farm. What can I do with it? How can I do this economically? Is there a neighbor that has a great big huge seeder that can come in and seed my stuff in 10 hours? You know, like there's just different ways to think about it and we have to evolve. And sometimes it's hard because you're stuck with your traditions, but you have to evolve.
We have to think outside of the box. I think Dorothy, it's also hard because as people are having to figure out how to do that, they can also see, heck, I can probably go give up on the farming side of things, probably work less and make more money, right? And so how do you balance all of that and find that right space where you can succeed in a more financially risky environment? And arguably, you know, your margins might be better off, but
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The reality is that you're exposed to a lot more risk today than you did. You talked about that farmer, but it's not just the farmer. It's about the feed, fertilizer, and everything else that you've got to kind put into the production system that may pay off in the end. But if it doesn't, you're falling from a higher place today. And so there's something to be said for those that continue to be committed to doing that when, although they could probably go work somewhere else, be better off at the end of the day. Almost everything that farmers do is expensive, right? And that starts with the land that the farmers are farming on. so
You know, we talked earlier about young farmers and growth, but when you're trying to get bigger in agriculture today, it's a lot more expensive than it used to be. So the land's more expensive. If you're growing crops, what you need is the equipment that Dorothy talked about earlier that's more expensive than it's ever been before. You need fertilizer to make your crops grow. You need seed to actually do the growing. You need the fuel to fuel all of that equipment. And those
are all considerably more expensive than they have been than they were three or five years ago. If you're a livestock farmer, you need all of that feed at the end of the day. You either need to make it yourself or get it from someone else. You need the vet drugs in order to make your animals healthy. You need the animals themselves, which are worth again more than they have been in the past. And regardless of what you're doing, you need the labor, both kind of the physical labor, but also the skilled labor to be able to make all of that happen. I think that labor asset is
one of the most valuable things we have in agriculture. You can know that your fertilizer is getting more expensive at a time when you may not know how much more expensive your crop's gonna be worth or how much more valuable your crop's gonna be at the end of the day. Sometimes it takes some mental gymnastics to make all of that work. I don't like gambling, but I think I kind of am. And I think every farmer is, and anybody in the ag business is, because it's hard. It's a juggling act. My dad would never spend eight hours in an office prior.
Now I can spend up to 12 hours just planning and litigating and moving things around and trying to figure out what is best with everything. And sometimes you got to make tough calls on things and you have to say no, even though you think it might be the best thing for the next step. You have to weigh the options. When you're playing with futures and you're forward contracting your barley and everything to bring it together to make things work. And then all of a sudden,
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Hey, guess what? Cattle just raised their price and they're over $3,000 for a calf now. And you're like, huh, huh, okay. So I think if you look at the dollars and cents of it, largely it's been helped. That's why farmers are investing in it because they see that return and that reward at the end of the day. And sometimes it's really easy to understand what that incremental benefit is. The farming equipment that we use today makes farming more resilient than it used to be.
a drought on the prairies doesn't have the impact that it would have had 30 years ago because of that new equipment that farmers are using. So how do you kind of pencil that out at the end of the day, I think, is again, where you get into that really skilled workforce that you need to do the math and understand the benefits of some of those farming systems or that new equipment technology. Using services like a nutritionist and, you know, your armonist and everything else to come together to help you.
be efficient and to use that equipment to its efficiency and stuff, right? Like with our nutritionists, with the animals and going over all of our rations and everything weekly, we're able to be efficient to produce more with less. And it's the same as in our crops and stuff, like balancing our manure spreading to our fertilizer versus which type of seed to use. And like there's different seeds for when it is dry.
and we make those calls based on what we predict the weather to be and we can't do that without key people who have the knowledge base because it's not just simple you grow canola wheat or barley or corn there's so many varieties and so many varieties that have strengthened and made the industry more productive and more efficient.
But so many of those varieties and so much of that equipment, again, you can think that they're going to make sense because you've got a sense as to where the market's going to be at the end of the day. And then something comes along and wipes it off, right? So canola, it's great when it's flowering in the summer and the countryside turns yellow, but all of the sudden it gets really hot and that heat blast comes in and can do huge, huge damage to canola crops. So you've spent kind of that extra money to get better quality seed and then you're
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faced with a production loss because something that's happened outside of your control. And again, there are things that farmers can do, but so much of that investment in new technology, new equipment, new varieties really is premised on things hopefully working relatively well. And unfortunately, sometimes they don't. Agriculture is a sector that's changing. I think that as much as you think about how farmers today are using new equipment and new technology and that ongoing tech adoption is a big part of that ongoing evolution in agriculture.
When we look at the global structure of food production and associated cost, many other nations face similar struggles to keep production at a low cost and quality at a high standard. How do Canadians fare present day in comparison to other countries? Historically, Canadians pay a relatively small share of their income on food compared to other parts of the world. So we need to keep that in mind that as much as food inflation has caused issues for people across the country over the last couple of years,
they are still in a pretty good position when it comes to how many days of the year they need to work in order to pay for their year's salary. How do we make sure that when farmers are doing something for sustainability purposes, when they are returning a public good, when we're protecting grasslands and we're sequestering carbon and we're protecting biodiversity, that farmers are rewarded for that? Because right now a lot of those things farmers just do because and better systems that help them return that.
is really important. And the other thing is, think we also do need to, again, we talked about the next generation of farmers, just make sure we're evolving how we support and the tools that the governments offer farmers at the same time, because we need to be more creative and we need to understand that there are these really high-priced environments. And so the programs that worked 15 years ago aren't good enough anymore. And we need to think smarter and differently about the programs that governments offer farmers. This is ridiculous. The food is outrageous.
Tell me how this cost me over $500. This was literally three bags of groceries. $218? Like, are you joking? You see the protesters on YouTube and things like that where they're very passionate people, but they don't really understand what's going on either. And the thing is, we have verified beef program. If you said that to somebody in the grocery store,
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they wouldn't know what that meant. And that comes with a cost. And it does follow that chain of command, right? Because it's supposed to go right from the cow-calf producer right through to the feedlot, to the finish, to the steak. And we're supposed to be able to have a premium, but we can't all get on board of it because we don't all understand the program. And that's the thing is we need to be involved in these programs so that we can prove to the consumer that we are this and you need to buy
your Canadian and your Albertan products to strengthen the system because we do have superior products, because we do have such tight regulations and such willing people to follow them, which is important. So much of it isn't about the consumers themselves, but about the retailers and the food processors and governments and others and the rest of the value chain. How do we make sure that everybody else is doing things so that farmers are being adequately rewarded?
A consumer may grumble at the checkout in the grocery store, but they do typically keep buying the food that's there that's available to them. It's how are we working with the rest of that supply chain so that farmers are getting their fair share of that dollar that the consumer spends. I think things are different than they used to be. So from a policy environment, ag policy used to get decided by the farm groups and the people inside Agriculture Canada or Alberta Agriculture, and it was really a closed shop.
But that's not how the world works anymore. We see a lot more people talking about a lot more ag issues in a lot of different ways. Farmers in the ag industry needs to be a little bit more sophisticated and needs to be a little bit more open-minded and needs to be prepared to think differently about what are the new solutions that we need today because there's a lot more voices, a lot more heads at the table. And in addition to those risks of the high cost of production, you've got all of the risks of a far more complicated convoluted policy world too at the end of the day.
As the hurdles continue to grow higher, what does the future of farming look like?
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For the average person driving out of Calgary and into the countryside, agriculture is probably going to look very similar today or in 10 years than it does today. But for the people that are in that sector, I think it's going to look different. I mean, it has already changed so much. And I think we often talk about change in the future, but it's really important to understand how much change has happened in this recent history as well. I think that that change is inevitable. I think that that change is going to happen and have an impact.
Again, people continue to need to eat and we continue to have huge thousands upon thousands of acres of land that needs to be used that is well suited to grow crops on or to raise cattle on. And so that is all going to happen, but the systems that that all happens in is going to look pretty different. And I do think you're going to end up with probably what ends up being really small farms, people that are really doing it for a hobby on a little bit of land and really large farms. And some people may see that as kind of the corporate agriculture, but
For a long time, a lot of those really big farms are still going to be family farms and they're still going to be owned by a farm family that's responsible for them. instead of a farm family being the only employees on the farm, you're probably going to see a farm family that's got 14 employees that are helping make that farm happen. You can't underestimate how significant that evolution and how you think about farming and the business of farming is as you go from the older generation to the next. And I think we see a younger generation that are coming in.
more exposed to all of these different forces and factors that are there, probably a little bit more open-minded to doing things differently and experimenting and trying with different practices to make their businesses more profitable, more prosperous. And so I really think that we can underestimate the positive impact that generational change has on agriculture. And so I think it's about how do we make sure that from a policy perspective.
governments giving those young farmers that next generation of farmers because some of them aren't all that young but that next generation of farmers the tools that they need to succeed. I think the next generation of farmers are future-proofing agriculture. I think that often we have this a little bit backwards and especially if you talk to people in government that they want to kind of put it's the policies that are future-proofing agriculture. I actually think it's the people on the ground that are working on this every day that are actually doing that future-proofing work themselves and we need to
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do a better job, flipping that on the head again and understanding that it's about how do we give them the support that they need to future-proof their businesses, recognizing that their businesses are going to look really different than the previous generation's businesses did. I believe that people need to become involved. Whatever sector you're within, get involved so that you understand the policies that are coming, so that you understand where the challenges are coming from. And before those policies are written in stone,
you're able to influence or give a viewpoint and try and help grow the policies because complaining afterwards doesn't get you anywhere.
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At the end of the day, we look to our resiliency within ourselves and our communities to make our collective futures as bright as possible. All it will really take is conversations like these, some vulnerability, and a little digging.
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Thanks to the support of UFA Cooperative, we're able to share stories from those who live and breathe agriculture. We'd like to thank our guests for sharing their insight into the future of agriculture and for being with us today. For more information and a new episode every month, visit ufa.com. With listeners like you, we'll continue to dig a little deeper here on Digging In with UFA. I'm Don Schaefer. Thanks for listening. Another Everything Podcast production.
Visit everythingpodcast.com, a division of Patterson Media. Subscribe wherever you get your podcast. The views expressed in this podcast reflect opinions and perspectives from participating guests and not necessarily those of UFA, UFA Cooperatives membership, elected officials or stakeholders.