Culminating with Canada

Canada sure is a very big country!

Big lakes - that I couldn't see the other side of...

Big fields - all the better to grow crops efficiently ...

Big flood plains - waterways from several states / provinces are all headed for Lake Winnipeg over land contoured so flat that a place named "High Bluff" made me laugh out loud ...

Big sky - for magnificent sun rises and sunsets...
Big horizon - where the few interruptions to the distant curved skyline tend to be man-made - grain stores, factories, pylons...

Big pickups - even this long-legged person had to haul herself up into them...

Probably of most significance to this temperate-climate-dweller is the sense of "Big Seasons".
Being here in fall, for Thanks­giving & as crop harvesting was being concluded it was very clear that winter looms large. And why wouldn't it when the days grow short and temperatures remain further below zero than I have ever experienced?

The growing season is very condensed - sometimes made worse by water-logged soils delaying sowing or later activities - so 'when weather permits,'  activity is intense. The imperative behind the proverb ''make hay while the sun shines" makes lots of sense here!

In Ontario I met several farmers that are, or have been, growing tobacco.
This used to be a high return crop that grew well on the sandy soils hear Lake Erie that other crops didn't really flourish in. There was a marketing board that used a quota system and worked on behalf of the growers to secure good sales to the tobacco companies; one of the companies even had a processing plant in the region. A series of events & the changing attitude to smoking lead first to a shrinking and then a complete restructure of the industry. Some quota was 'retired' via a voluntary buyout in 2004, giving an exit option to some and hope for the ongoing value of the remaining quota to those that stayed.

In 2007 all remaining quota was compulsorily bought out (for less than earlier) and the marketing board disbanded. Buyers that sold quota could never supply tobacco again as the same entity - only a handful didn't sell. I got great insight into the turmoil of decision-making by some growers over that time. Tobacco requires a lot of specialised gear / infrastructure. Sell this? Hope one of the kids may want to grow in their own name? Do something completely different? Retire early?
On my travels I had the privilege to meet a Nuffield Canada scholar for 2016, Clair Doan. Via Twitter he shared the thought that because farming is an identity these decisions are not purely 'business- based' - they are emotional. One farming couple that took the second tobacco quota buyout, and are now leasing their land out, shared how acutely they felt the pain of deciding they would no longer "be farmers." This is something I understand.
When I first arrived in Ontario I mentioned to people that I would later go to Manitoba - and that along the way I was hoping to see at least the start of the fall colour display.

I was told I should see colour in Ontario, despite being a bit early, but in Manitoba all I was likely to see was a dog running away for 3 days! That proved to be a tad biased, though from my introductory 'big' thoughts you can see where they were coming from. I did see colour that intensified even during the week I was in Ontario - as for the dog running away?  All the dogs I met in Manitoba were too friendly for that!

Flooding was the limit I got furthest 'inside' in this province, even riding a quad bike over a river flats farm & seeing the eroded riverbank, 'forced' crop choices in a flood-curtailed growing season, changing pasture species, crossing / culvert damage - and I must mention the small lakes that used to be drainage paths until the local beavers got busy engineering dams!

The whole flooding issue relates not just to the vagaries of mother nature, but to choices about the whole watershed that must consider not only the flood-prone farmland, but the vulnerability of the city of Winnipeg, which sits at the confluence of two major rivers with huge catchments, the recreational requirements for an up-river dam, and drainage of land not just in Manitoba but in Saskatchewan and North Dakota.

A multi-issue, multi-stakeholder discussion of the highest order!
My final thoughts on Canada must go to the dairy industry.
Canada is a trade-oriented country, but with an acute desire not to be swamped by their North American neighbours. Indeed they have a similar ally-competitor relationship with the USA to ours with Australia!
The T.P.P. 'conclusion' was reached the day I arrived in Canada. Many dairy farmers here are very nervous of the ultimate implications on their hallowed supply management system.

Their controlled system has driven very high prices for milk quota but essentially it guarantees both a stable and 'high' milk price in return. While some were more pragmatic about Canada as a trading nation needing to be part of TPP and indeed happy that the dairy concessions are relatively small, I was especially circumspect when introduced as 'working with NZ dairy farmers' to a Canadian dairy farmer who happened to have a pitchfork in his hands at the time! No injuries were sustained & we managed a civil, maybe even relaxed, conversation. I was however impacted by the strength of feeling & sense of uncertainty that many have about it all.

So here is the end of this journey.
In about 10 days the new Nuffield NZ scholars will be announced. I think I have a few tips for them!

This is not quite the end - it's a bit like the final Lord of the Rings movie! In early November I will be in Australia to learn about limits on some of their commercial fishermen - and I'm excited to also be attending an extension conference. So you haven't quite heard the last of me yet...