Ummm...you win, eh?...

Ooookay - our neighbors to the north just reset the definition of BTO (Big Time Operator).

A 1-million-acre grain and cattle farm planned by Sprott Resource Corp (SCP.TO) represents a fork in the Prairie road for Canadian agriculture, but the super-farm's president and chief executive says family farms have more to gain than fear.

Sprott, an investment firm, is spending C$27.5 million ($21.8 million) to launch One Earth Farms on native Indian land in the western provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta at a time when grain prices are coming off last year's highs and the world economy sits in recession.

"This large investment I think speaks volumes about the optimism that exists looking ahead to the future of agriculture," said One Earth Farms Corp. CEO Larry Ruud. "This industry has been looking for additional capital ... Agriculture is a great place to be."

One Earth also helps answer the question of who will carry on Western Canada's farm tradition with the average age of farmers getting older, Ruud said.

Large corporate grain farms are a novelty in Canada, though well-established in Eastern Europe and South America. Investor-owned corporate beef and pork farms are more common structures in Canada.

One Earth wants long-term agreements on its inputs, such as fertilizer, and its production.

"It has to be win-win," said Ruud, who is also a director of Viterra (VT.TO), one of Canada's biggest grain-handling and farm products companies. "Everybody has to keep the lights on every day to stay in business."

It's unlikely small farms will face a pricing disadvantage since standard grain prices are based on international supply and demand, said Jim Unterschultz, an associate professor of rural economy at the University of Alberta. [More]

I think the largest farming entity in the US is the Mormon (LDS) Church.  Regardless, a million acres is whole new ballgame.  Does this signal the long anticipated entry of outside corporations into grain farming?

Don't know. Don't care.  Defending my farm from The Huge Corporation can't be much different than defending it from my all-too-competent neighbors who can farm better than me (I?).


Game on.