It’s written, signed, and delivered to Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister David Marit.

The Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association sent a letter to Minister Marit, which has feedback on various support programs and general comments from producers.

The feedback was complied during 5 townhall meetings in Perdue, Kindersley, Cabri, Cadillac, and Central Butte. CEO of the Cattlemen’s Association Grant McLellan estimates a total of 430 producers attended the townhall meetings, though the letter says about 400 were in attendance.

McLellan says they also released the letter publicly on their social media and website. He says it shows the seriousness of the situation.

“And that’s why we wanted to make sure this letter got out there and was public so that people could see that these concerns weren’t just going into a black box, that we were making sure that they were put into the hands of our elected officials and our decision-makers in the province.” McLellan said.

Programs not being responsive enough was one of the key themes of the letter.

“When producers are in a situation where the weather forecast is changing on a daily basis and they need to make decisions for their operations, they need to be able to be sure they got cash in hand when they’re in a claim position, so that they can go make business decisions for the future of their operation.” he said.

He also says the Ministry of Agriculture received the letter and is already responding.

The Forage Rainfall Insurance Program, Low Yield Appraisal Threshold, Agri-Stability, Agri-Recovery, and Livestock Price Insurance all have bullet points summarizing producers’ feedback, as well as other concerns on different issues, including the Carbon Tax and federal regulations around trucking.

The letter can be viewed here.