In the early 20th century wheat farming was expanding fast in the Canadian prairies.

[1] For years the prairie farmers complained of unfair treatment and lack of true competition between the existing line elevator companies, who owned the grain elevators where the grain was stored before being loaded into railway cars.

[3] The Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company (SCEC) had its roots in agitation by the agrarian reformer Edward Alexander Partridge of Sintaluta.

[4] In Saskatchewan premier Thomas Walter Scott arranged for a Royal Commission on Elevators in 1910.

[5] The SCEC was to provide elevator services for local farmers, and later expanded into selling grain.

The remainder of the company's capital requirements came from a government-guaranteed loan that the SCEC would repay from its income.

[2] The SCEC drew criticism for being too conservative, unwilling to expand from running elevators into marketing grain.

One of them noted, "Inasmuch as most of the pioneer settlers are too poor to hold shares, it is doubtful if it [SCEC] has helped them much, except as a powerful and keen competitor with other firms."

The two farm organizations in Saskatchewan lent the pool funds, and the provincial government provided a CAN$45,000 advance.

The SCEC was violently opposed to organization of a wheat pool in the province, which it saw as a threat to its existence, but could not stop rapid growth in membership.

By 6 June 1924 the pool in Saskatchewan had signed up 46,500 contracts covering more than half the acreage in the province.

The three provincial pools formed the Canadian Co-Operative Wheat Producers to market the grain.