Down on the Farm - Art Gallery of Alberta

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The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition ProgramAgriculture in Alberta continuedThe Canadian Wheat BoardControlled by western Canadian farmers, the CWB is the largest wheat and barleymarketer in the world. As one of Canada’s biggest exporters, the Winnipeg-basedorganization sells grain to over 70 countries and returns all sales revenue, lessmarketing costs, to farmers.In 1923 the United Farmers of Alberta metwith then Attorney General John Brownleeto consider setting up a Wheat Pool inAlberta. They created a non-share,non-profit organization responsible forselling wheat for the best advantage. UnitedGrain Growers grain company and theAlberta Pacific Elevator company agreed toaccept Pool deliveries in their facilities. With26.000 farmers joining the Pool, The AlbertaWheat Pool started making direct sales toflour milling companies.Joe AcsEgremont, AB, 1977Acrylic on masoniteCollection of the Art Gallery of AlbertaMuch of the unforested part of Alberta is given over either to grain or to dairy farming,with mixed farming more common in the north and central Alberta. Wheat and canolaare primary farm crops, with Alberta leading the provinces in spring wheat production.Much of the farming is dryland farming, often with fallow seasons interspersed with cultivation.Continuous cropping (in which there is no fallow season) is gradually becoming a more commonmode of production because of increased profits and a reduction of soil erosion. Across theprovince the once common grain elevator is slowly being lost as rail lines are decreasing;farmers typically truck the grain to central points.The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) is one of the world’s largest graintrading companies, marketing 22 to 24 million tonnes of wheat and barleyannually. Annual sales revenues average between $3 to $4 billion US.The Canadian Wheat Board Act gives the CWB sole marketing authorityfor wheat and barley produced by the 75,000 grain farmers of westernCanada for export and domestic human consumption.July 5, 2010, marked the 75th anniversary of the CWB working withfarmers and caring for Prairie wheat and barley through the process fromthe family farm, to a grain elevator, a rail car and a ship, Canadian WheatBoard connects international customers with Prairie farmers.AFA Travelling Exhibition Program, Edmonton, AB. Ph: 780.428.3830 Fax: 780.421.0479youraga.ca
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition ProgramAgriculture in Alberta continuedRanching in Alberta: a brief historyRanching is the raising of cattle or sheep on rangeland, although one might also speakof ranching with regard to less common livestock such as elk, bison or emu. Ranchingand irrigated agriculture predominate in southern Alberta.Historically, during a period on the frontier in North America after the removal of the AmericanBison and the Native Americans and before the coming of the homesteaders, ranchingdominated economic activity. The public lands on the Great Plains consisted of “open range”and anyone could turn cattle loose on them. Barbed wire, invented in 1869, gradually madeinroads in fencing off privately-owned land, especially for homesteads, and ranching becamelimited to lands of little use for cultivable farming.The first herd of breeding cattle (eleven cows and one bull) wasbrought into southern Alberta in 1873 by Methodist MissionaryJohn McDougall. When the Northwest Mounted Police came tothe area from Manitoba in 1874 they brought 235 head of cattlewith them. Over the following years the increased market broughteven more herds from Montana into the Canadian west. Alongwith the animals came their drivers from the United States; famouscowmen like George Emerson and Tom Lynch by 1879 had beguntheir own ranching business and with it a small cattle industrywas born in the foothills region. In eastern Canada and Britain thegrowing interest in beef and its potential profits gave the CanadianGovernment reason to endorse larger-scale ranching in the west.John McDougallFall roundup: lead man John Thompson herding cattle backto ranches, Alberta, October 1975 (photo byTed Grant/courtesy Library and Archives Canada/PA-142584).Not only would this local industry bebeneficial to the Native peoples, whoselivelihood had been destroyed with thedemise of the buffalo herds, it would alsoprovide added impetus for the building ofthe Canadian Pacific Railroad across theprairies. In 1881 regulations were amendedto allow the leasing of large tracts of landfor the purpose of ranching. According toan Order-in-Council, any individual or anyranch company could lease up to 100,000acres for the cost of one cent per acre peryear. In exchange they would have threeyears to stock their ranch with a minimumof one head of cattle for every ten acres ofland.AFA Travelling Exhibition Program, Edmonton, AB. Ph: 780.428.3830 Fax: 780.421.0479youraga.ca
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Down on the Farm - Art Gallery of Alberta

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