Leading edge or bleeding edge
A lot of crop and livestock diversification opportunities have not ended up being the panacea that promoters claimed, but there have also been some amazing success stories through the years. On the livestock side, ostriches and wild boars ended up as failures for most producers. The lasting legacy from wild boars is that they’re now a big wildlife problem. Elk production had great potential and had some good years, but was devastated by Chronic Wasting Disease. The one big success in livestock diversification has been bison. They went through tough times, but there’s now a strong and profitable market for the meat. On the crops side, there’s a long list that didn’t live up to early expectations – chickpeas, buckwheat, safflower, coriander, dill, hemp. Sometimes production got ahead of agronomics. In other cases, the market proved to be far more limited than expected. Some observers say a relatively new cropping option called camelina has run into market difficulty. They predict that its acreage will decline at least in the short term. Of course, there are also crops that have had amazing success. It didn’t happen overnight, but just look at how important canola and lentils have become in Saskatchewan. When something new comes out, there’s always a temptation to be one of the first to give it a try. Sometimes early adopters make a lot of money. Other times, the leading edge becomes the bleeding edge. I’m Kevin Hursh.