Saskatchewan Moves Crown Land Leases to Online Auctions

Starting Nov. 9, Saskatchewan will offer agricultural Crown land leases through online auctions run by McDougall Auctioneers Ltd., replacing its single annual offering.

Eligible land, including expired leases, will be posted year-round as it becomes available on the province's Crown lands site and McDougall's site.

Bidders must still meet provincial eligibility requirements, and the announcement released no acreage, lease counts, or pricing details.

Source: The Western Producer, Saskatchewan to auction Crown agriculture leases

Starting Nov. 9, Saskatchewan's Ministry of Agriculture will lease agricultural Crown land online through McDougall Auctioneers Ltd., on an ongoing basis instead of in one annual offering.

Eligible land, including expired leases, gets posted as it comes available at saskatchewan.ca/crownlands and mcdougallauction.com. So instead of one big annual draw, you get a rolling feed. Doomscrolling, but for pasture.

Bidders still have to meet the province's eligibility requirements. What exactly those are didn't make it into the announcement, because of course it didn't.

Ag Minister David Marit calls the new model a "transparent and accessible process that better aligns lease opportunities with producer needs."

The province's pitch is fairness: put it all online and every producer gets treated equally. Translation, the family that's run cows on that quarter since Diefenbaker and the guy who moved out from Calgary last spring now get the exact same login screen.

Watch the listings, not the calendar. You used to plan around one annual offering. Now land shows up when it shows up, which means somebody on your operation just got promoted to Chief Refresher.

Competition is kind of the point. Our read, not the province's: open online bidding tends to put more hands on the same parcel, and that can push lease costs up for anyone counting on a quiet renewal. No pricing, acreage, or lease-count figures were released, so how hard this hits anyone's budget is still unknown.

Got a lease near its end date? Expired leases go into the pool. Pin down what eligibility looks like before Nov. 9, not after somebody else's bid lands.

Leduc County, Alberta, declared a municipal state of agricultural disaster on Tuesday, with farmers reporting a 25% loss of acres due to moisture after a wet growing season.

So what: a declaration is a flare, not a cheque. It tells the province and Ottawa that local producers need help, and anyone with unharvested or unseeded acres should be keeping records like the adjuster is already in the yard.

U.S. Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins told Brownfield the U.S. is "making progress" in trade talks with Canada, while insisting Canada hasn't treated U.S. agriculture fairly.

The same day, a Canadian official told Reuters progress has been limited. The latest talks have centred on Section 232 tariffs on steel and autos, with U.S. midterms on Nov. 3 putting a clock on everything.

So what: steel and autos lead the talks, but Rollins keeps putting farming on the agenda. Our inference: "unfair to U.S. ag" has historically meant dairy and supply management, so any deal could drag farm trade onto the table. The tariff list changes from Monday's edition still land at month's end.

Ottawa's proposed Clean Fuel Regulations amendments, including the 1.3x credit multiplier for Canadian ethanol we covered yesterday, will be formally published in Canada Gazette Part I on Oct. 30, opening a 75-day consultation that runs into mid-January 2027.

New wrinkle: the U.S. Renewable Fuels Association says it's pleased Ottawa skipped a domestic content mandate that would have restricted U.S. imports. When your competition sends a thank-you card, read the fine print.

So what: Canadian ethanol plants are grain buyers, and the Lloydminster plant still closes Dec. 15. The comment window is where farm and biofuel groups will push for the 1.4x multiplier they wanted.

The CNH and Bourgault Industries partnership now has dates: manufacturing starts in 2027, with units arriving for the 2028 model year under the names "Case IH by Bourgault" and "New Holland by Bourgault."

CNH can take anything in the Bourgault line, from frame seeders and seed carts to hoe and coulter drills. Same air drill, now available in two more corporate wardrobes.

Built in Saskatchewan: St. Brieux stays the main production line, and the Saskatoon plant keeps making planters and combine headers.

Bourgault keeps service, parts, and technicians. CNH sticks to tractors, combines, sprayers, and digital. Orders go through dealers in conjunction with CNH; service comes straight from Bourgault.

First targets are the U.S. and Eastern Canada, backed by a new parts warehouse in Kansas City. Western Europe is tougher thanks to rules on things like air brakes and equipment height, because even seeders need paperwork over there.