Perseverance makes for a feel-good story. David showed it against Goliath. Canada used a healthy hockey dose of it facing the Soviets in '72. And the springtime sun displays its dogged presence after months of cold. But, when it's your livelihood at stake, that story can go from folklore to frightening, fast.
Such is the tale of farmers and ranchers. They're stretched mighty thin these days. Like a stone in their boot, sometimes when they take a step, something's digging into them. When it's not global commodity markets, it's the weather, and when it isn't the weather, it's other cosmic forces coming to bear. Sometimes the universe really wants to give 'em a bigger hoop to leap through, and these forces gang together to join the party (empty-handed, of course).
But this is no pity party. Western Canadian farmers are some of the most resilient people around. And if they teach us one thing, it's that you should never overlook the underdog. For them, uncertainty is the norm. They grab uncertainty by the mane and ride it like a counterfeit bronc. Bareback.
There are times, though, when unyielding determination isn't enough. Like when the world went to war and they answered the call to arms. When the Great Depression gutted their bottom line.
And when Mad Cow decimated ranchers' herds and COVID decimated the economy. From trade wars to foreign wars, they sometimes won't admit it, but those hands could use a hand.
Luckily, there's a force stronger than a canola grower's spine and a voice louder than a cow-calf operation during calving season with a purpose that channels generations of tradition and champions it for the modern world. A model of co-operation and perseverance steering the proverbial tractor through the mud. UFA.
Since 1909, we've faced every unprecedented event with a bushel of precedence, every new normal with the callouses of old abnormalities and every once-in-a-century catastrophe with over a century of been-there-done-that-know-how — together. Just like the farmers we serve, we're never afraid to get knuckle-deep in the dung if it means you get a fighting chance at success.
So if a farmer falls on the Prairies, we hear them, help them and get them back on their boots.
It's been the UFA way for 116 years. And it always will be.
