Regina, Saskatchewan January 24, 2012

ROYAL SASKATCHEWAN MUSEUM: CARIBOU IN BOREAL SHIELD

Today in Regina it was cloudy with light snow. The temperature was 0 °C but it felt like -7 °C with the wind chill. So we decided to go to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, where we visited the Life Sciences Gallery: A Tour of the Province. It had an interactive map of Saskatchewan’s ecoregions with a movie for each area including Taiga Shield, Boreal Shield, Boreal Plain, Aspen Parkland, Grasslands, Frenchman Valley and Cypress Upland. It showed us how amazing Saskatchewan’s landscapes really are.

A TOUR OF THE PROVINCE: TAIGA SUMMER

On our drive through the province of Saskatchewan we saw the snowy flat plains of the Regina wheat farms. Regina’s climate and soil conditions allow wheat to grow year round. Regina has a dry, continental climate with long, cold winters and short, warm summers. It does not get very much precipitation and can have droughts during the summer months. Regina has dark brown chernozemic soil that has a thin surface layer with little organic matter.

There are two species of wheat in Saskatchewan: Common Wheat and Canadian Western Amber Durum Wheat. Some of the classes of wheat that grow there are: Canada Western Red Winter, Canada Western Red Spring, Canada Prairie Spring Red, Canada Prairie Spring White, Canada Western Extra Spring and Canada Western Soft White. Saskatchewan produces more than eighty percent of Canadian Durum Wheat. Over the past several years, Common Wheat production has declined but Durum Wheat has increased.

Western Canadian wheat farmers need a delivery permit that shows who they are, where they live and what they plan to seed. They also need to know what wheat varieties they are growing and delivering. The Canadian Grain Commission has a list of eligible varieties for each class of wheat to ensure the quality of Canadian wheat. Regina farmers deliver their wheat to a licensed primary elevator where a sample is taken, the class of wheat is declared, and the amount of dockage on each load of grain is measured. They must declare the class of wheat for every load they deliver to the elevator. The grain elevators store the grains before they are moved to a port to ship overseas. The Canadian Wheat Board sells the grains delivered by the western Canadian farmers globally.