County of Newell takes over Crop Diversification Centre South and hopes to attract dozens of tenants for the $100 million facility
Like the mighty Phoenix, the County of Newell is hoping the Crop Diversification Centre South in Brooks, Alta., will rise from the ashes and regain the prominence it once had in agricultural research.
It was first established before the First World War by Canadian Pacific Railway as a demonstration farm, and the ensuing decades saw the research facility become a major player in testing thousands of plant species for adaptability in Alberta’s harsh conditions.
“It was said on this property, if you could grow things here, you could grow things anywhere,” said Candace Woods, project co-ordinator for Crop Diversification Centre South, during a tour for Alberta and Saskatchewan farm writers.
“The soil conditions were so poor, they did not have much luck at the beginning.”
In the 1930s, Canadian Pacific Railway stepped away from the facility, suffering a $400,000 operating loss, and it was transferred to the Alberta government.
The 1990s saw financial constraints, and positions eliminated, divisions consolidated and new crop programs transferred to other research associations.
The past five years had residents complaining about weed levels at the understaffed facility, and the county took it over April 1 as provincial funding dried up.
“The place had kind of just been left. When your boss comes in and tells you you’re all gone, you don’t have a lot of priority to make sure things are closed up properly,” said Todd Green, director of agricultural services for the county.
It will spend the summer getting the $100 million facility up to par with upgrades, thanks to provincial funding, and lining up new leases come September from interested parties.
The county signed a 10-year lease for the facility, which features approximately 30 buildings for research and crop production, stretching over 700 acres of land.
The CDC played a key role in recent decades developing Alberta’s horticultural and special crop industries. It was focused on applied research, extension services and technology transfer in horticulture, fruit crops, greenhouse crops and special crops.
It conducted extensive research on various crops, including vegetables, fruits, and special crops such as pulses and herbs, while establishing programs for variety testing, disease resistance and crop management practices. CDC collaborated with industry partners to enhance production techniques and market development.
The county hopes to eventually hand over the facility to a non-profit organization. Such a model would insulate it from political instability because municipal councils change every four years.
“We have met with colleges, universities. We are out there actively introducing ourselves to the researchers, but there is also word of mouth that happens, working to get ourselves known as best as we can,” said Woods, adding agri-businesses have also been contacted in an effort to turn the facility into a full community space with an agricultural focus.
The price of leases will depend on how labour-intensive in-house requirements would be.
“We are hearing a mix where private researchers are excited to come out here and do research on the land and have no one bother them, renting a 20-acre piece and being done with it. From anyone further away than Lethbridge, we are getting questions if there will be someone on staff who can monitor the research for me. If I start it, who is going to irrigate, who is going to do the data collection?”
At one time, the centre was home to nearly 50 full-time staff in research, extension and development work, but staff currently comprises seven government employees who lease from the county.
“Our current goal is to have it be more campus style, where it’s not one organization that has the whole site. We hope to have many organizations here doing what they need to do,” said Green.
“Our goal is to be the conduit between the land and the buildings that are here and the people who need them. We have about seven leases signed, and we need about 37 more to fill our space. At one time we had 100 people (full/part-time) working here. If we can get people back living here or just working here, that means our restaurants get eaten at, hotels get people staying here.”
The county will operate the facility on a $1.2 million yearly operating budget and hopes leases will cover the expense in a break-even proposition. For now, the shortest leases will run three years.
“I would love to see some new crop research here,” Green said.
”We have that ability with dryland and irrigated crop research, but we are not prejudiced against anything. If you want to do some alfalfa research, we’d happily allow you to plant alfalfa and pay for it for five years. If you want to do some canola, we’d be happy.”