This year marks what would have been the 100th anniversary of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, which started as the Saskatchewan Co-operative Wheat Producers in 1923.
Farmers joined together with a goal of trying to get a fair price for their wheat by selling directly to importers rather than through the futures market or grain exchange.
Wymark area farmer, Marvin Wiens was a director with the Pool for 20 years and served as president from 2000 to 2004 and admires the drive and determination of the farmers that came together to form the SWP.
"Well, it's an amazing story. I really admire the people that started the Wheat Pool back then in the 1920's. I guess people worked together and they realized that they could do better if they had their own grain company. They set up Saskatchewan Wheat Pool in such a way that they had representatives in every small town that gave input into what the Wheat Pool should do. Then they became involved in farm policy as well. It's just a a remarkable story. "
The first grain elevator was built in 1925 at Bulyea, by the early 70's Saskatchewan Wheat Pool operated more than 1200 country elevators as well as export terminals in Thunder Bay and Vancouver.
Wiens says there were elevators in virtually every small town along the railroad.
"Back then the hauling distance was about a maximum of eight miles because when farmers first started farming here or using the elevator system, they had horses and wagons. And then they had trucks that didn't travel very far."
He says once the railroads introduced variable rates and farmers were becoming larger, the small town elevator wasn't economical anymore.
"So we made the decision to get into the big terminals, which was very controversial. But it was the right thing to do because you see the big trucks that are hauling grain now. These big elevators handle as much in a day as the old elevators used to handle in months. So it it was the right thing to do, although it was very controversial at the time."
The Saskatchewan-based farm co-operative later became the first publicly traded Co-op in the world.
Wiens says the mistake they made was changing the structure from a Co-op to just a company (Viterra) that was publicly traded.
"We were a Co-op that was publicly traded and it was just a wonderful concept. And if it would have continued, I think it still would be in existence because it was such a positive concept."
He notes they expanded very quickly and ended up getting into financial difficulty to the point where they were just about to declare bankruptcy.
"I had speaking notes ready to declare bankruptcy for the Wheat Pool. At that time we hired a new CEO and ( the banks in Regina had cut off our line of credit) managed to get a new line of credit out of Toronto banks and they kept us going. Then we started selling assets, including the Livestock division and a bunch of other things. We laid off 1500 people from a staff of 3000. It was very, very difficult, but we kept from going bankrupt and ended up being Viterra through that whole process."
In 2007, Viterra was formed when the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool took over Agricore United which at the time was the largest grain handler in Western Canada. Agricore United was comprised of the former United Grain Growers, Manitoba Wheat Pool (1926-1998 when it merged to form Agricore United) and Alberta Wheat Pool (1923-1998 when it merged to form Agricore United).
In 2013, Viterra was sold to Glencore International.