Lake Country Co-op and Prairie North Co-op announced Tuesday they have agreements in place to buy the assets of Melfort-based Paragon Ag Service from owners Sherman Boland and Don Nash for an undisclosed sum.

The terms of the deal, expected to close mid-month, call for Prairie North to take over Paragon’s sites just west of Melfort and at Brooksby, about 35 km northwest of Tisdale.

Lake Country, meanwhile, will take up Paragon’s dealership at Kinistino, about 30 km west of Melfort, and an anhydrous ammonia site near Gronlid, about 20 km north of Brooksby.

Taking up the Paragon business “will strengthen these local co-ops by growing their footprint and adding dry fertilizer and anhydrous ammonia assets,” the co-operatives said in a release.

Paragon’s full-time staff will be offered “similar employment” with the local co-ops, which said they will continue to deliver fertilizer, seed and crop protection services to customers in the area.

“Finding a partner who shares our values and could keep our business local was important to us,” Boland said in the co-ops’ release Tuesday.

Paragon has operated in the Melfort area since 1999, selling a “full complement” of crop input products and services including crop protection products, canola seed, dry fertilizers and anhydrous.

The co-ops noted they’ve made “strategic investments” to build up their ag businesses over the past year.

Most recently, Lake Country announced plans in December to build a new agro centre at Shellbrook, about 45 km west of Prince Albert. A fertilizer facility is already under construction there, the co-op said, with the rest of the site work due to begin in the spring. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Winnipeg-based company announced Monday it will build new facilities at Rycroft, Alta. and Melfort, Sask., with construction starting later this year on both toward completion in early 2023.

The two elevators will each be built with 150-car loop track systems connecting to Canadian National Railway (CN) track, and will each include storage capacity for 42,000 tonnes of grain.

Other “high-efficiency features” will allow producers the ability to unload a Super-B truck in less than five minutes as well as “excellent” road access, the company said.

“G3 is keeping grain moving to market, and that means more delivery opportunities for our farmer customers, and faster service which saves farmers time and money,” G3 CEO Don Chapman said in the company’s release.

Other grain handlers with elevators at Melfort include Viterra, Richardson Pioneer and The Andersons, while Richardson, Parrish and Heimbecker, Cargill and Grain Millers Canada have facilities at Rycroft.

G3 has been on a relatively steady expansion track on the Prairies since its formation in 2015, today operating 17 Prairie grain elevators and five port terminals.

Those include elevators opened earlier this year at Vermilion, Alta. and Swift Current, Sask. In 2020 G3 opened five Alberta elevators, along with its West Coast port terminal at Vancouver. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Saskatoon-based Federated Co-op announced Monday it will consolidate its production of bulk and bagged cattle, horse, sheep and poultry feed into three of its existing plants, at Calgary, Saskatoon and Moosomin, Sask.

That means winding down operations and shuttering Co-op Feeds’ plants at Melfort, Sask. in August and at Brandon, Man. in October. Media outlets in Manitoba and Saskatchewan on Monday quoted Federated Co-op officials as saying those two closures will affect a total of 10 jobs.

The sixth Co-op Feeds plant, at Edmonton, and its operations are to be transferred to Wetaskiwin, Alta.-based Country Junction Feeds, a division of Wetaskiwin Co-op, at the end of September.

Federated Co-op said Monday it will make “significant capital investments” to modernize Co-op Feeds’ three remaining plants, including new bagging equipment to support “better stitched, open-mouth bags.”

“While we don’t make these decisions lightly, by consolidating manufacturing and taking measures to refocus our resources in the livestock sector, we’re better able to serve our local co-ops and their producer customers across Western Canada well into the future,” Ron Healey, Federated Co-op’s vice-president for ag and consumer business, said in a release.

Federated Co-op said it undertook a “full review” of its feed business — and its decisions to close facilities and make capital investments at others are meant to “address unprecedented competitor consolidation and a changing market in the feed sector.”

The parent co-operative said it’s “making these changes to help ensure that it can continue providing Co-op feed products and services in the long term.”

Shelley Revering, Federated Co-op’s director for feed, said the move “results from industry challenges and in no way reflects the substantial efforts of our plant teams.”

For its part, Country Junction Feeds said in a separate release Tuesday its acquisition of the Edmonton feed milling plant will provide “significant feed mill capacity directed at serving northern Alberta and beyond.”

Combined with its current operation, the company said, the Edmonton plant will allow it to deliver a “wide range of feed and solutions to fit all major livestock and equine species and production approaches, including tailored solutions for different stages of life and both conventional and niche market opportunities.”

Country Junction today bills its Wetaskiwin plant, built in 1973, as the “only full-line feed mill producing organic feeds in Alberta.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The WSA on Friday announced it has lifted its advisories in relation to livestock watering and recreational uses such as water skiing and other activities. Those advisories took effect after a Husky Energy pipeline near Maidstone, Sask. leaked an estimated 225 cubic metres of crude oil into the river July 21.

The agency cautioned that its evaluations on impacts to aquatic life and “other uses such as fish and wildlife” are “ongoing and separate from this assessment.”

The WSA also gave SaskWater and the cities of Prince Albert, North Battleford and Melfort notice they can again begin diverting and treating water from the North Saskatchewan River and Codette Reservoir. Those intakes have been shut since the spill was confirmed.

The agency said its decision to allow the water intakes and treatment to resume comes after the recovery of about 88 per cent of the oil from the spill, plus “significant technical study, monitoring and review.”

The WSA said its decision stems from an overall water safety assessment from the technical group which has been working as part of the oil spill response to address “human health threats, the fate of the oil, treatment requirements and long-term monitoring.”

The assessment report said it assumes “direct residential use,” such as ingestion, bathing and/or showering, of untreated water from the North Saskatchewan River, thus its results are also “health-protective of direct‐contact recreational water activities” such as swimming in the river.

That assessment — later reviewed by federal, provincial and university experts and consultants for the affected municipalities — found the oil components still detected in the river “do not present unacceptable health risks to residents whose treated water supply will be sourced from the river once intake use restarts.”

The oil still in the river is mostly attached to fine river sediments, such as silt and clay, is dispersed mainly in points in the river less than 100 km downstream from the oil’s point of entry, and “will continue to degrade naturally,” the assessment said.

Affected municipalities are also advised to adjust their water treatment processes “to account for the current water quality of the sources,” to collect samples of treated water and test for petroleum components before the water goes to their distribution systems, and to advise their consumers of a “potential change in water quality” as those systems come back online.

North Battleford and Prince Albert, with funding from Husky, also plan to invest in “further temporary pre-treatment and treatment options,” the agency said.

Also, “an ongoing river water quality monitoring plan for potable water intakes will ensure that the water quality impacts due to the river cleanup and changing river conditions can be adequately assessed over time,” the assessment report said. — AGCanada.com Network

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Collected water samples haven’t exceeded Canadian drinking water standards since July 24.

As of Tuesday, over 1,000 water samples had been collected from over 60 locations between the spill site and Prince Albert, Sask., said Dr. Paul Noni.

Noni is a senior toxicologist with the Centre of Toxicology and Human Health, based in Arkansas. He’s also part of a technical advisory group assessing the spill’s effect on the North Saskatchewan.

Five locations along the river did initially exceed drinking water standards after Husky’s July 20 pipeline break and spill near Maidstone, about 85 km northwest of North Battleford.

Those water quality breaches were “transient,” rising above standards one day, and receding later, Noni said. He noted they are still finding compounds from the spill, but at low concentrations.

Health Canada’s drinking water guidelines are “very health-conservative,” he said, representing water that is safe for people to drink for a lifetime.

When samples exceed those guidelines, it’s a red flag warranting further investigation, he said, and consistent high levels, time after time, indicate a potentially significant issue.

Water samples haven’t exceeded guidelines for agricultural use, Noni said. Those guidelines include drinking water for livestock and irrigation.

However, the cities of Prince Albert and North Battleford aren’t yet opening their water intakes in the North Saskatchewan, instead relying on alternative water sources.

Muskoday First Nation and the RMs of Prince Albert, Buckland and Cana have also had water supply problems because of the spill. But water supply operations in those communities “have reached a pretty stable environment,” said Duane McKay, commissioner of emergency measures and fire safety.

Prince Albert supplied rural water authorities with water before the spill. However, “the city wants to maintain their water supply for their citizens as their top priority,” said McKay.

Prince Albert is now drawing water from the South Saskatchewan and Little Red River. McKay said tankers were on contract to supply water to the city’s hospital in case of interruptions. Those tankers have been released and the hospital is sourcing its water from the city.

“That indicates that the city is becoming more comfortable,” he said.

For now, tankers are supplying rural residents with water. McKay said that the city is considering allowing tankers to pull water from their system for rural residents.

The spill also led SaskWater officials to close the water intake at Codette Lake, about 150 km east of Prince Albert. That intake normally supplies communities including Melfort, Kinistino, Star City, Beatty and Weldon, among others, and rural customers in the Melfort and Weldon areas.

Until the river is again declared safe, the Melfort area has switched its supply to a reservoir at its water treatment plant. A drinking water advisory was briefly in effect for the area after the switch.

Scientists are still analyzing the spill’s effect on aquatic wildlife. As of Wednesday, 63 wildlife mortalities were recorded, including birds, fish, and other animals.

Longer term still a question mark

While some materials from an oil spill dissipate rapidly, heavier oil sinks. It tends to bind with organic matter and sediment, and stay close to the spill site, Noni said.

How much heavy oil remains below the surface is still an unknown. Noni said they are gathering data about oil collecting along the shoreline.

“That gives us a good idea of where those heavier oils might be down below the water surface,” Noni said. Sediment samples from those locations are a priority, he said.

What kind of long-term risk those heavy oils present is still a question mark. Noni said one factor is the moving sands in the North Saskatchewan, which heavily affect the river’s floor and shores.

“It is a dynamic river,” he said.

The freeze-thaw cycle is another potential issue. During the spring melt, the river’s ice breaks into large iceberg-like chunks. Those ice chunks could release more materials, Noni said.

Plans for ongoing monitoring still need to be worked out, he added. — AGCanada.com Network

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The provincial government on Wednesday announced an interest-free loan worth about $550,000 for Kinistino-based Northern Lights Railroad to buy 59 km of track from Melfort west to Birch Hills on CN’s Tisdale line.

Northern Lights Railroad formed in 2013 as a steering committee of municipal officials after CN added the line to its list of track to be discontinued. The shortline company, through the RM of Invergordon, put in an offer on the rail line in May that year.

“We look forward to being a fully-operational shortline, including opening our two loading facilities in the near future,” Northern Lights president Wayne Bacon said in the province’s release.

The shortline, which also runs through Kinistino, Weldon and Beatty, would connect at Birch Hills with OmniTrax’s Carlton Trail Railway, which runs through Prince Albert to connect with CN’s line at Warman, north of Saskatoon.

Financial terms of Northern Lights’ deal with CN haven’t been released, but the province’s rail line loan program, operated by the highways and infrastructure ministry, has previously loaned applicants up to a third of the purchase price.

According to a report filed with the RM of Birch Hills in early 2014, the program offers a 15-year loan term with payments beginning in the fourth year.

“Retaining rail infrastructure is important for supporting agriculture and economic development in the region,” said Bacon, a Kinistino farmer and former president of the Canadian Canola Growers Association.

“Throughout the purchase process, a good working relationship was established between municipalities and towns with great support from producers, and we had tremendous support from CN and the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure as well.” — AGCanada.com Network

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