The Launch of Another Academic Year

The hallways in buildings across campus have largely been silent over the past 4 months, but the bustle of students returns this week. Some students have trekked here from distant countries in pursuit of education, while others have driven from their home for just a few minutes to reach campus. Regardless of where each student originates, this is always an enjoyable part of the academic year. Walking into the room where a class will be taught and seeing dozens (sometimes hundreds) of faces turn to begin their learning. As a prof, the opportunity to meet new students are learn their insights, passions and frustrations about agriculture, is one of the rewards of standing at the front of the classroom.

As an industry, agriculture rarely seems to represent a calm pond, with no disruptive waves. Spring moisture conditions were better in many parts of the Prairies than in previous years, however a prolonged period of high temperatures and minimal moisture in July reduced yields in many areas. Just as harvest was getting started, commodity movement by rail came to a halt as rail workers went on strike and were subsequently locked out by both rail companies. This created a tremendous challenge for agriculture as fiscal losses were calculated in the tens of millions of dollars per day. Fortunately, the lack of commodity movement by rail was short-lived, as binding arbitration was imposed on the rail companies and workers. With this issue seemingly resolved, the Chinese government announced it would retaliate by placing tariffs on imports from Canada in response to the 100% tariff Canada placed on the import of illegally subsidized electric vehicles manufactured in China. This is a typical response from China, as it routinely places illegal tariffs on Canadian products, especially agricultural products.

The exciting news from our end is that my research team and I have secured another 5 years of partnership funding, allowing us to continue with our program of research and communications until at least the summer of 2029. Thank you to all of the partners that provide support.

We will be launching new surveys to collect more farm level data that will be analyzed and compiled into publications that communicate the increased sustainability of Prairie agricultural practices. Additionally, we plan to expand our communications capabilities, which will be ramped up over the coming year.

My staff, students and I will be providing new blogs over the coming year and we look forward to sharing these with everyone. I hope that harvest goes well for those that are busy in fields over the coming weeks. Wishing a very successful term to all of the students.