YORKTON - If you happen to be a journalist who really got his start because of an interest in agriculture, and you happen to ply your trade in Saskatchewan and in particular in Yorkton, then your interest is immediately peaked when you see a positive development in the canola sector reported on.
Certainly in terms of Saskatchewan agriculture the crop has become the major economic driver in terms of crop-generated income.
And, as the agriculture sector has endeavoured to create more value-added processing, again the canola sector has been a major driver in that direction thanks to the canola crushing sector. That is of course particularly true here in Yorkton where two major players; Richardson and LDM, have built major crush facilities that each has expanded over the years as well.
When it comes to the crush sector of course the focus is oil – canola oil being a highly sought after commodity.
But the oil is only one product of the crush process. There is a significant ‘meal’ component that remains after the oil is extracted.
The meal is of course a byproduct – the sector making its profits largely on the oil – one which has typically been something of a challenge to market, at least in a way that adds significantly to the bottom line.
The meal is certainly a protein source, which places it largely in the livestock feed market, although it suffers in as much that it isn’t exactly a tasty sort of meal for stock.
So anytime new market options for canola meal are developed it’s good news for the crush sector which is good for the Saskatchewan/Prairie economy, and for farm producers.
Such a development was recently reported in a story on producer.com about an Alberta-based company looking at canola meal as a feed for farm-raised fish.
The article suggests using canola byproducts in the fish ration could save fish farms a significant amount in their feed costs and thus improve their bottom lines.
In the process it would create a new market outlet for the crush sector – that while maybe not suddenly turning meal into a major revenue driver would at least diversify markets.
Certainly one will still look at the meal produced as a resource yet to be fully exploited in terms of a protein source, leaving the sector still looking for new markets, but even modest steps such as the potential as farm fish food has to be seen as generally encouraging.
