REGINA, Saskatchewan - The dust swirls around Jim Rogers' feet as the longtime farmer walks around a grain terminal near Regina, Saskatchewan. The elevator - an iconic symbol of the prairies - has had a facelift.
Gone is the red and yellow "Pool" sign that boldly marked the elevator in Balgonie as part of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
And after more than 80 years, gone, too, is the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool itself.
The pool, as it simply was known by Rogers and generations of other farmers, unveiled its new corporate identity: Viterra.
"My family has been using the pool, I think, since the elevators were built in the town that I came from, in Edgeley," says Rogers, standing beneath the new sign. "My father worked in an elevator at one time, but it wasn't the pool. He was in competition with the pool at that time, but his neighbor and best friend ran the pool, so that was OK," he laughs.
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Roots in the community
Rogers has farmed for 35 years. Like many in these parts, his roots in the community actually pre-date the formation of the pool. His great-great grandfather arrived in 1872 and "spent the first winter in a tent, which in Saskatchewan is pretty rough."
The farmland was bought in about 1901. The
ool wasn't formed until 1924. At that time, more than 45,000 Saskatchewan farmers signed delivery contracts, committing 6,333,000 acres to the pool, according to archives.
"It was needed at the time," Rogers says. "It's done well for everybody. The pool was responsible for bringing agricultural services to rural Saskatchewan. There was not very much, and they came out and they supplied it."
In recent years, however, the pool as an organization changed rapidly. While the familiar logo remained on the side of grain elevators from Thunder Bay, Ontario, to the West, the pool lost its roots as a cooperative.
Biggest in CanadaIn 1996, it started publicly trading on Toronto Stock Exchange. This past June, the pool took over Agricore United to become the biggest grain-handling network in Canada.
Murray Fulton, a professor of Agricultural Economics with the University of Saskatchewan, says the name change comes as the company tries to rebrand itself.
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"It's obvious why the pool wants to do this," says Fulton. "They see themselves as a very different organization and they are."
Fulton acknowledges the change also affects the prairie landscape.
Canadians who have driven across the vast expanse of the prairies have become familiar with the pool sign on the grain elevators, rising into high into the sky. Now, it will be the Viterra name they'll see, in blue lettering with a green blade of grass swishing across the "V."
"For me, it'll be a reminder of how agriculture changes," Fulton says. "The industry is always evolving."
Jim Rogers knows pool CEO Mayo Schmidt had a difficult decision to make about the name change after the Agricore merger. He likes the name Viterra - which stands for "life from the land" - and calls it a sign of progress.
"Everything has to change sooner or later," says Rogers. "I think a new name's a good start.
"Hopefully, it'll bring the provinces together and the whole agricultural industry and make a much stronger company out here."
