Move over, bluegrass.

The victual of choice for discerning Kentucky Derby winners is now timothy hay, the high-energy caviar of sweet grasses grown by southern Alberta’s Blood Tribe.

At least one recent Derby champ is known to prefer the particular timothy that’s harvested by the Blood Tribe Agricultural Project (BTAP), 10,000 hectares of irrigated land that produces and exports 30,000 tonnes of the highly palatable grass each year.

“The premium grade of timothy we produce is ideal for racehorses. Our timothy has gone to some of the big tracks in Florida and New York,” said BTAP general manager Campbell Eagle Child, real pride in his voice.

DFAIT photo
Pierre Pettigrew presents award to Blood Chief Chris Shade.

And it’s good to know that the hard work of 75 members of Canada’s largest First Nations reserve has helped warm the tummy of a champion thoroughbred.

But it was BTAP’s ability to market its premium hay to the Pacific Rim that raised the eyebrows of judges for the Canada Export Awards.

International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew presented one such award to Blood Chief Chris Shade and a tribal delegation, which included Eagle Child, in Toronto on November 24.

Thanks in part to a joint-venture partnership with Transfeeder Inc. of Olds, BTAP has made magnificent strides since it shipped its first bales of timothy five years ago.

Last year, the corporation exported 17,000 tonnes of “densified” timothy fibre to the Japanese for dairy cattle feed, with the remainder sold to customers in the U.S., Korea, Taiwan and the Middle East.

Projected revenues for the current fiscal year are $1.1 million, most of which is earmarked for operations and paydown of loans needed to build storage facilities and a modern forage processing plant on the reserve.

“Right now, the primary benefit for Blood tribal members is jobs – jobs in the fields, transportation, security and processing,” Eagle Child explained.

BTAP had its origins in the late 1950s when the Bloods turned over reserve lands to the feds to accommodate construction of the St. Mary’s dam and reservoir.

In exchange, the federal and provincial governments joined forces to finance an extensive irrigation system, including a canal, dam, reservoir and 128 kilometres of pipeline, for the Bloods. It’s now the largest irrigation operation in the Canadian west.

“Our leaders at the time may not have understood everything irrigation could do, but they had a vision for improved agriculture on the reserve,” Eagle Child said. “They said: ‘This will be for our children.’ ”

Eagle Child is also quick to acknowledge the assistance of BTAP’s Olds-based joint-venture partner, the country’s largest exporter of densified forage products.

A seasoned player in offshore markets, Transfeeder Inc. helped BTAP make the Japanese connection. After then-chief Roy Fox led a Blood trade delegation to Tokyo in 1996, producer and customer signed a letter of understanding.

And the bond has been gaining strength ever since.

“Our Japanese customer (Sumitomo Corp.) is very particular,” Eagle Child continued.

“Our timothy hay has to be a celery green. If it’s discoloured from sitting in the fields, they don’t want it. Their buyer comes over, looks over the hay in the storage area, touches it and sends samples back to Japan,” he said.

“And the moisture content cannot exceed 15 per cent. Whatever they want, we try to accommodate them.”

Culturally, the aboriginal Canadians and their Asian customers also feel they have much in common. As proof of their esteem, the Bloods even inducted a Sumitomo official known to Eagle Child only as “Mr. Ono” into the Kainai chieftainship.

Apart from playing matchmaker with the Japanese, Transfeeder Inc. has been instrumental in helping the Blood community raise the bar in other important ways.

After building the BTAP processing plant six years ago, the company assigned several staffers to train tribal members in procedures.

“We’re still in the learning process but we’re picking up knowledge as fast as we can,” said Eagle Child. “With our partner at our side, our people are getting trained in every facet of the operation.”

And the learning has been swift. As we speak, every job in the plant is held down by a tribal member, with a sole exception. One Transfeeder supervisor remains on hand for trouble-shooting purposes.

But BTAP has done more than merely generate revenues and provide jobs for aboriginal youth. It stands as a symbol of self-reliance, self-respect and genuine accomplishment.

Eagle Child couldn’t agree more: “The BTAP processing plant can’t solve all the social and economic problems of the reserve. But it’s a real positive starting point.”