Viterra? Meh.

The Pool inland terminal in Swift Current, which will be re-branded today

40 years from now, I'll probably have a chat with my grankids and say, "when I was your age, gas was less than 50 cents per litre, we only had three channels on television, and Viterra was called the Pool."

Today, the new ag company formed by the merger of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Agricore United will rebrand itself, according to Canada's Intellectual Property Website, to "Viterra". The name, however in my opinion, seems to distance itself from the great history these two companies once had.

There goes nearly a century of agricultural tradition and history down into the boots of the very elevators of which this company operates.

What's worse, that name's not on Kevin Hursh's list (scroll down to the bottom of the page). If you ask me, I'd take Hold the Mayo or Cement Schmidt House over Viterra anyday.

small dead animals was the first to let us all know

It's a fair deal...

The Frontier Days midway on the final night

Last weekend was Frontier Days 2007, the regional fair for Swift Current, coinciding with Canada Day weekend. Throughout the weekend, I was with Golden West Radio at the Leisure Wheels Mobile Studio™ at Kinetic Exhibition Park, set up right next to the concession and right across from the Elephant Ears. Other than that big storm on Friday, there was beautiful weather, and good crowds through the weekend. Some of the notable points of the past few days were the Kiddies' Day parade through the downtown area, the Michelle Wright show on Saturday, the professional rodeo at the arena, the annual Kiwanis parade through the city, and the Canada Day fireworks display on Sunday night.

A local 4-Her showing off her steer at the livestock presentation ring

My personal highlight of the fair was the 4-H Steer Sale. I have lived in Saskatchewan my entire life, and I have never been to a livestock auction before. I was quite impressed with everything about it, especially the hard work and the amount of time these kids committed to raising their cattle. The Grand Champion steer was sold for $2.55/lb (It had a live weight of more than 1500lbs.) to an ag business in Riverhurst, SK. More than 100 were sold to several individuals and businesses from all over the prairies, and the buyers had a choice of keeping it, or giving it to one of the local packing plants or abbatoirs. Some of the steers were reluctant, and even incensed they were being separated from the humans who raised them, and that just shows the emotion involved in cattle ranching, from both the rancher and the cattle.

It's been a great weekend. Can't wait for next year.