Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council

Manitoba and Saskatchewan are land-locked with the exception of Churchill, which makes transportation a challenge for agricultural producers trying to get their product to market. A recent study completed by the Manitoba Forage Council (MFC) looked at potential transportation routes and the costs associated with them.

“Our forage marketers were saying that we needed to be looking at transportation routes because we’re in the middle of Canada so it’s very competitive in regards to transportation costs,” says Wayne Digby, former MFC executive director and current executive director of the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association.

This project received approximately $55,000 in funding from the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP).

Allen Tyrchniewicz of Tyrchniewicz Consulting in Winnipeg, Man. was hired as the consultant for the project, which wrapped up on October 31.

“We were trying to determine if there’s potential to market Manitoba and Saskatchewan forages beyond the U.S.,” he says. “In particular, one of the driving components of the project was looking at whether the port of Churchill would be a possible venue for producers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan in dealing with transportation costs.”  

Tyrchniewicz says forages are usually moved overseas in containers, but there’s some potential to move forage pellets using the bulk equipment at the port of Churchill.

“Container movement through the port of Churchill isn’t feasible yet, but it’s something that the port is working on,” he says. “They do have sufficient facilities to handle some of the larger ships but they don’t have the necessary equipment and storage for the containers.” 

One of the big issues is having the containers come in and be available long enough for us to load them, notes Tyrchniewicz.

Another problem we do run into with the port of Churchill is that most of the markets we’re looking into are continuous markets so they expect product shipments all year, says Tyrchniewicz. “That works out great in the summer months, but not so great in the winter, so we’d still have to find alternate routes.”

Tyrchniewicz analyzed a number of markets in the Middle East and Asia, which are existing markets for some areas of Canada. “We also started looking around for other potential markets and one that has some potential is India, which has the largest dairy herd in the world but it has one of the lowest productivity rates for its cattle. One of the limiting factors happens to be feed,” he says.

We also looked at the energy market in Europe where they’re switching to biomass and forages have a potential role to play in that, says Tyrchniewicz, however, it’s another continuous use market because they use it for both heat and electrical power.

Other than Churchill, alternate routes would be east, west or south depending on the market. If we’re going into Asia, it’s better to go through the west coast, he says. An interesting finding from the report is that the best route for shipping pellets into Europe would also be through the west coast. “Because of the high traffic volume of pellets shipping through the west coast, the rates are considerably lower than shipping from the east coast,” he says.   

For producers in the southern part of the province, Minot, North Dakota is a feasible option to the south. “In Minot there’s access to the U.S. rail system, which is more extensive. So there are more options and the costs are not quite so high,” says Tyrchniewicz. “However there are other issues and costs associated with getting your load across the border.”

The study also revealed that there’s limited forage production and quality data available. To determine where best to set up a processing facility, we tried to find where the quality forages are grown in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, says Tyrchniewicz. “We found that a lot of the information wasn’t being collected anymore and we had to rely on Census data that comes out every six years so it wasn’t very reliable,” he says.

We do get some data on forage quality through Crop Insurance but only about 15 to 20 per cent of producers use crop insurance on forages, says Tyrchniewicz.

“So we suggested that the forage councils, as well as the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association, start working with the provinces and Statistics Canada to develop better monitoring systems,” he says, adding, we also encouraged the forage councils to work with the quality testing labs to develop a method where that data can be shared so they have a better handle on what’s going on with their commodities.

Digby agrees that there’s a lack of information available. “We have a problem getting good information on forages both from the standpoint of what is being produced and accurate export statistics,” he says. “We’re concerned about this and attempting to address it.”

The MFC is currently looking at the study’s results and will provide recommendations in the near future.  

Digby says without the CAAP funding this project would not have moved forward. “This funding is very important and we really appreciate it,” he says.  

Funding for this project has been provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program. In Manitoba, this program is delivered by the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council.

~ By Teresa Falk, MRAC Communications Officer