Trucker and rancher Floyd Fick during a stop in a Provost restaurant is approached by rancher Fay Middleton about the cost of alfalfa bales that were parked outside on two rigs. The truckers were on their second trip of 20, hauling feed to the Czar area.
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Feed Prices Driven by Americans—Rancher
Feed prices are being established by Americans with their more powerful dollar, says a rancher and trucker who was spotted hauling bales from Dauphin, Manitoba to Czar.
Floyd Fick of Biggar, Sask. who has 50 cow calves said on August 2 while he was stopped in Provost along with another driver hauling alfalfa bales that the feed is “very much in short supply.” He estimates that each medium sized square bale that he is hauling is worth around $63 each. That translates into between $140 to $180 per ton depending on quality. In this area that’s about a $40 per ton increase from a year ago.
But, says Fick, southern Alberta ranchers were paying the high prices last year.
As Fick and fellow driver Shaun Bonyai of Biggar, Sask. parked their rigs—one carrying 33 ton and another 32 ton of feed—for a bite, several interested producers stopped at his table to enquire about the loads. One kidded the drivers, suggesting that they should be carrying a shotgun to protect their load.
Another one of the ranchers who was enquiring about the cost of feed was Neilburg, Sask. rancher Fay Middleton who is trying to make up his mind whether he can afford to pay high prices for feed—or just get out of the business. Middleton, who will be 70 next month told The News that this is “the driest I’ve seen in my life.” He adds that there isn’t even any water for ducks to land on sloughs. He looks after 40 beef cows and some purebred horses. The rancher adds that he’s been working for the joy of it the last five years but now “I’m getting too long in the tooth” to continue much longer.
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