Thank you, Mr. Barlow, for the invitation to be with you today.
I'm Cedric MacLeod, representing the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association as the executive director. We represent just over 72,000 producers and 70 million-plus acres of crop production across the country.
While these acres are substantial, we continue to see acres under production continue to decline due to a number of factors. It's largely due to the conversion of perennial cropland to annual cropland, but we also see urban encroachment taking some of those acres. Native rangelands are the most endangered ecosystems globally. Canada currently stewards just over 30 million acres of native rangelands that are potentially at risk of conversion. Public extension services also continue to decline across Canada. As we know, this limits the access of forage producers to current program opportunities and agronomic support services.
There are many recognized positive impacts of foraging grasslands on the economy and the environment. These underpin the dairy, beef, bison, sheep and equine industries, as well as a supportive export industry. Beef prices are elevated. Encouraging market growth with federal, provincial and industry investment can help improve pasture management, productivity and profitability for growers across Canada, for which we are thankful. However, forage and livestock producers carry higher production risk than annual crop producers, typically, and they have fewer tools, insurance and policy supports to manage risk, which therefore exposes them to greater market volatility.
Existing policy frameworks can move farmers towards annual cropping even when foraging or pasturing would be the better choice on the land base simply from a risk management perspective. BRM policies must be levelled so farmers can choose what is best for their farm economically, environmentally and socially, not between perennial or annual crop production.
Here are some current policy realities.
Coverage and functionality disparities between forage and annual crop insurance programs require perennial forage producers to assume far greater production risk. In some provinces, there are little to no forage or livestock insurance supports available, creating even greater incentive to convert from perennial or native grasslands to annual crop production, where such supports do exist.
Small to medium-sized mixed operations are more heavily impacted by available risk management program and policy options than larger operations, with new entrants to the grazing and foraging sectors especially negatively impacted.
Limited risk management tools are available to satisfy lenders' required level of security when advancing working capital or providing long-term financing for land, cattle or equipment purchases in the forage sector.
There are recognized negative environmental impacts when converting native rangeland or long-term tame perennial pastures to annual crop production, as we see significant releases of carbon dioxide through the decomposition of soil organic matter. That has negative environmental impacts on both climate and soil productivity, as was mentioned earlier.
Considering those reduced public extension services, the responsibility for timely and accurate knowledge translation and transfer—or KTT—services will increasingly fall to industry. With a surge of new entrants and farm succession changeovers happening in the next 20 years, KTT strategies will need to be developed to provide timely and relevant support in order to ensure resilience in the forage-cropping and livestock-grazing systems, as we heard from my colleague Vincent a few moments ago.
Canadian agriculture continues to trail its global competitors in the adoption of advanced technology and management practices, with research capacity to support the Canadian forage sector continuing to decline.
Here are some recommended actions.
One, develop a comprehensive risk management suite of programs to reduce risk for forage and pasture production, and place forage on a level playing field with annual crop production systems. This is especially pertinent for small to medium-sized operations and new entrants.
Two, develop tools and resources to provide forage growers with a better opportunity to proactively manage risk using crop yield monitoring, on-farm data management and cost production analysis supports through the development of a Canadian forage production centre of excellence.
Finally, invest in industry-led knowledge translation and transfer programs to ensure that graziers and forage producers are provided the most up-to-date production, practice and technology adoption supports possible, ensuring that the forage sector does not fall further behind the annual cropping sector from an innovation adoption perspective.
Thank you.