Irrigating Alberta Fall 2015

IRRIGATION

HELPS RESEARCH

SUCCESS!

Alberta MINT

- Dale Thacker’s drive

RICHARD

&

STAMP

WILL VAN ROESSEL TABER IRRIGATION MUSEUM

volume 19 • number 2 • fall 2015 • price $3.50 IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 1

IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 2

volume 19 • number 2

FALL 2015

03 ................................................. Table Of Contents 04 ..........................................................

Ric’s Corner

06 - 07 .......... Irrigation Assures Research Success 08 .................................................... Will Van Roessel 10 ......................................................................... Mint 11 ......................................... Aqua Systems 2000 Inc. 12 ..........................................................

Kent Bullock

16 - 17 ................ Taber Irrigation Impact Museum 18 ...................................................... Richard Stamp 19 .................................................

16 - 17

11

22 19

Dr. Shelley Woods

20 ........................................................ Potato Update 22 - 23 ...................................... Mountain Irrigation

10

24 - 25...................................... Gilchrist Consulting 26 - 27................. Cory Vanden Elzen - Sugar Beets

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Without them, this publication would not be possible. Irrigating Alberta is proudly produced in Southern Alberta and distributed inside the Farmer/Stockman Ad-Viser

PUBLISHER: Jeff Sarich DESIGN & PRODUCTION: Whitney Olitch EDITOR: Ric Swihart ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Al Such & Mel McDonald ADVERTISING CO-ORDINATOR: Kathy Overes IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 3

RIC’S corner

H

ow many things in life, it seems, can be managed to the benefit of a few or many?

Look at many magazines or gaze at the television often and you are sure to see different ways to lose weight, solve sore legs or, on the positive side, find more ways to exercise.

Some might conclude weight is a function of eating too much or sore legs not enough exercise.

Sounds like a management issue.

Globally, the greatest looming, and in some regions, the current crisis is water.

Sure, the news scares most folks when Mother Nature lets loose and floods inundate the land. Hardly a nation has not had such problems unless there is an abundance of sand.

On the other hand, the opposite problem – drought – can be just as devastating, although seldom has life been lost. Drought is that element that robs a society of its life-giving food supply, and one might need a mighty good memory when it hasn’t hit hard in a region of the world.

Drought is nothing new to southern Alberta. With perhaps a foot of moisture annually in the form of rain and snow melt, drought can be a serious threat many years.

The massive tracts of dryland farms are most at risk in southern Alberta, and this spring, a problem year was shaping up. One landowner in the Foremost area even pondered in late June if grain heads would form, at least with any yield potential.

Yet, as the sage claims, southern Alberta might not get a lot of soil moisture. But it a good soaker hits at the right time, total volume of moisture is not so important. Dryland farmers have learned to manage the land is ways that conserves soil moisture.

It is a talent learned through government research and pure intensity to try new techniques. For instance, summerfallow is a diminishing act. It costs soil moisture every time the soil is disturbed. Now, weed control can be done with products, crops can be planted earlier to get a head start on weeds, and working against weeds long enough helps punch the population even more.

Then comes irrigation.

Management of the irrigation water supply has never been so good. It didn’t even require a reality check. Irrigation districts were quick to jump on the bandwagon, spending millions on water pipelines. Irrigation farmers pulled out their wallets to improve irrigation equipment. Researchers found new ways to improve the timing of water applications to get a bigger bang for the buck. And this list goes on.

While there were times in southern Alberta of irrigation water rationing because of drought and lack of infrastructure to store water, advances have pretty much eliminated such issues.

IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 4

In fact, irrigation has taken a very positive position on water supply and demand. Most districts are expanding boundaries under existing water licenses because districts and farmers are so much more efficient.

The latest figures from an interim sector irrigation progress report to the Alberta Water Council on conservation, efficiency and productivity plan says volumes.

The levels of investment to become more efficient and to achieve reduced water diversions from the river system are shocking.

They include $184,500,000 by farmers; $205,400,000 from the province for its 75 per cent share in annual irrigation rehabilitation, $65,807,894 from irrigation districts in that same rehab program; $199,942,980 from irrigation district ICW projects for a total district contribution of $265,750 874.

That is a grand total of $655,651,000 invested in irrigation efficiencies and reducing water diversions from the river system.

The next step, already underway through the Alberta Irrigation Projects Association, is informing Alberta citizens of such spending and benefits to spread the value of irrigation far and wide.

One can only imagine how efficiencies will improve over time because there is a will on the part of all partners in irrigated agriculture to do the ultimate in water conservation and water use.

The benefactors are everyone. Too bad there really isn’t a time machine. The future is that exciting.

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IRRIGATION

Assures Research Success

By Ken Coles

E

select varieties for resistance, determining economic thresholds and appropriate timing for the use of fungicides, crop sequences and so forth.

Tens of thousands of research plots rely on access to irrigation water to protect these investments. Oddly enough, there is no insurance available for small plot agricultural research. Irrigation at least provides a certain level of insurance in the case of crop establishment and drought avoidance but it’s not the only use.

When it comes to the pursuit to grow something new and different, irrigation provides the opportunity to adapt high value crops such as potatoes, sugar beets, dry beans and seed canola. Now Alberta’s research initiatives include faba beans, soy beans, grain corn and hemp.

ach year, producers, government and industry makes huge investments in crop variety development, new crop adaptation and management practice improvement.

This ultimately improves profit, business diversity and competitive advantage for southern Alberta.

For instance, repeated irrigation can help promote disease development so that researchers may have the opportunity to study them. Resulting benefits include the opportunity to

Farming Smarter’s research capacity continues to grow and now has access to hand move, wheel move and a pivot.

Recently, we conducted a three-year, on-farm study of irrigation scheduling and fungicides for the control of Fusarium Head Blight (results on www.farmingsmarter.com).

The study researched avoiding irrigation during crop flowering to minimize a wet environment that encourages the development of infection. This in conjunction with fungicides helped reduce DON micotoxin levels in many

coming IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 6

situations.

Our current research includes irrigated hemp production, growth regulators, nitrogen management in winter cereals and cereal leaf disease control. Our Night Spraying Fungicides project provided some very interesting results around fungicide efficacy depending on application time of day in canola, peas, barley and wheat.

Finally, an innovative forage project will highlight opportunity for grazing winter wheat, fall rye and winter triticale under irrigated conditions. The crops are seeded after a silage, grazed in the fall and winter and grown to maturity the following year. This dual harvest looks very promising and potentially very profitable.

Looking to the future, we hope to revisit salinity management with a precision agriculture approach. This will make use of two electro-conductivity soil mapping instruments, a Veris MSP3 and an EM38MK2, currently used in a variable rate project. The instruments also estimate soil texture and may generate variable rate irrigation maps. We’ll be keeping that one on the back burner for now.

If you live in southern Alberta, you know irrigation plays an important role in our economy. Now you also know that agricultural research under irrigation plays an equally important role in our success.

For more information please contact:

Ken Coles M.Sc. P.Ag. General Manager Farming Smarter Office: 403-381-5118 Cell: 403-317-0757

www.farmingsmarter.com IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 7

WILL VAN ROESSEL B

OW ISLAND – The search for opportunity is a constant for second-generation farmer Will Van Roessel whose farm is on the outskirts of this Prairie community in the eastern heart of the St. Mary River Irrigation District.

His newest venture – production of registered industrial hemp seed for a growing industry in southern Alberta’s irrigation industry – was a reversal of fortunes for Van Roessel.

“I called a seed grower in Saskatchewan looking for red lentil seed for a customer,” said Van Roessel, who operates Specialty Seeds Ltd. “He asked me if I would consider growing industrial hemp on irrigated land. He suggested it might work out pretty well for me.”

That was 2010 and Van Roessel has his sixth crop growing this year.

“It was one of the few times I was not looking for opportunity when opportunity came to me.”

He admits he had to learn a few things about industrial hemp production and seed handling. While hemp is a basic grain crop, it requires some special equipment and lots of knowledge. “It is very different from other crops we grow.”

He finds the research information base on industrial hemp is increasing, especially in value- added processing of the hemp stems which can be made into quality papers and clothing materials, among other uses.

At a recent field tour near Lethbridge, Vegreville researcher Jan Slaski said a lot of work is being done on hemp fibre and straw processing. “He is optimistic one or two fibre processing plants will be built in southern Alberta.

Van Roessel’s father came from Holland in 1954, and purchased his first farm here in 1960. Will and his brother Rob each took over half the home farm and have added land base since. Rob is a potato grower in the Bow Island area.

Van Roessel grew soft white spring wheat on rented land his first year of farming on his own, and dry peas for Columbia Seed.

As his land based expanded, he added field peas, hybrid canola, yellow peas, edible beans and durum wheat.

Without irrigation, he would be limited to spring wheat and durum and peas and lentils.

IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 8

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MINT B

OW ISLAND – Specialized, highly-intensive crop production is the fuel for Dale Thacker’s drive, and he gives all the credit to irrigated agriculture.

With two sons and his daughter directly involved in the family venture, Dale has a team for the future in place.

Grandchildren are the icing on the cake.

Thacker’s father George, 96 and still golfing, introduced mint crops to the farm about 32 years ago. It has become a staple crop for the farm, and he often rents land to accommodate mint.

It is a two-year production process. A baby mint crop is seeded first, usually on a small acreage. That crop dries up and the root structure or stolons are harvested for planting the second year. Normally, two to three acres of baby mint will produce enough stolon for 40 to 60 acres. This spring one acre of baby mint production allowed up to 40 acres of mint.

Because mint is a tissue culture operation, a producer invests up to $10,000 an acre to establish a crop.

That same tissue base makes early water application vital to success, he said. To help alleviate water concerns, he dug a large reservoir that has paid dividends. But this spring, the St. Mary River Irrigation District released water from reservoirs into the canal system three weeks early. “It was a Godsend for mint growers.”

The Thackers use a distillery to extract the mint oil. It is stored in 45-gallon drums awaiting shipment to processors.

“Growing mint without a contract would be silly,” he said. His two customers are Colgate, which uses his mint in toothpaste and mouthwash, and Wrigley, which make chewing gum with the oil.

Still, there are risks. He lost all 1,200 acres of his mint crop over the winter of 2013-2014.

Bow Island growers produce 25 per cent of the North American market for Scotch mint used in mouth and gum products.

Thacker is an irrigation man. He has seen development of the irrigation industry across the province, and marvels at a look at the massive network of pivot circles in the heart of the St. Mary River Irrigation Project. He is proud his father and two uncles purchased the second, third and fourth centre pivots in the early 1960s after neighbouring Campbell family introduced the technology.

Without irrigation, Thacker admits he would still be a farmer.

But he has reservations about the interest his children would have for farming. “Without irrigation, the fabric of farm families and the very community would be affected.”

He also grows industrial hemp, introduced two years ago, uses hard red spring wheat as a crop rotation tool, plants three or four pivot circles to hybrid canola, started fababean production two years ago and grows flax and field beans.

He also grows dill, harvested as dill weed and distilled to produce dill oil preferred in the pickle industry. Bow Island farmers supply about half the dill oil market in North America.

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TID

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(Established in 1915)

Taber is the centre of specialty crop production and value added processing in Alberta including sugar beets, hay, potatoes, corn and many other vegetable crops.

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TABER IRRIGATION DISTRICT Serving over over 83,000 82,000 acres acresand and750 750water waterusers usersininthe theTaber Taberarea area Serving

IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 10

O

ne man’s dream often can become another’s passion.

When Coaldale irrigation farmer Peter Langemann put his inventive mind to work to improve the irrigation canal water flow at his farm he built a unique canal water control structure.

It became known as the Langemann Gate.

Enter engineer Ken Craig, who jumped at the chance to develop the gate. He attracted some investors and started Agua Systems 2000 Inc. That was about 20 years ago, and work has progressed since.

Today, Craig and his partners Gerald Robinson and Marie Hurnanen head up a team of about 10 specialists from electricians and draftsmen to electronic control designers. Their designs, now aided by 3D computer programs, are marketed across Western Canada and Western United States.

The project designs are built in Lethbridge.

Tradesman Manufacturing in Lethbridge cut and bend all the stainless steel plates. Handsaeme Welding Ltd. in Coaldale or Boznak Welding Ltd. in Lethbridge manufacture the precise pieces of metal.

Craig said Aqua Systems works for improvements to designs, and makes necessary changes depending on the size of a project. For instance, the original gates were controlled with springs. Hydraulics is the modern answer to ultimate control of the gates.

The first Langemann gate was installed on a St. Mary River Irrigation District canal southeast of Lethbridge in 1994.

In 1995 two Langemann gates were installed in the Bow River Irrigation District and the SMRID. With the help of some modernization in electronic controls, they are still operational.

Langemann didn’t stop at his first invention. Later, the LoPAC (Low Power Automatic Control) Gate was ready for manufacture. It is a barn-door style gate featuring hydraulic controls designed for upstream water level control in small canals.

Since then Aqua Systems has designed equipment to sweep debris in canals beyond where water enters pipelines or canals.

A new project was built for the BRID to harvest debris from major canals to help alleviate debris woes for farmers downstream. BRID built deflector panels to direct debris into an Aqua System conveyor. The debris is lifted to another conveyor to move the debris to a dumpsite on one canal bank. The debris pile, in season, has to be hauled away almost daily.

A new project is a fish exclusion screen. Built for a U.S. project, the screen allows creek water to be diverted into a pipeline to replenish the underground aquifer to meet the needs of consumers. Aqua Systems developed a system of high-pressure nozzles, which spin slowly to remove any debris that could plug the screen.

Aqua Systems has also moved into municipal projects.

“In small-town Alberta, domestic water supplies and sewage disposal facilities have become more complex. Many jurisdictions are turning to service companies to design, build and maintain these facilities,” said Craig. “Mark Adams heads up a team which is finding a ready market for their services in designing, fabricating, installing and commissioning electrical controls for these facilities.”

IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 11

KENT

BULLOCK Taber Irrigation District

He worked summers for Alberta Agriculture, and in fall 1977, joined the engineering staff with Eastern Irrigation District in Brooks. He was district engineer there until TID approached him to take similar duties; work he feels helped give him a base for his manager’s job.

T

he Taber Irrigation District is known as Canada’s most intensively farmed project in the West because of land, water and professional farmers.

It also tends to feature long-serving employees.

Kent Bullock was one.

Bullock grew up on a small irrigated farm in the Raymond irrigation District in the Welling area about 20 kilometres south of Lethbridge. He remembers the gumboot era of flood irrigation, and modernization with side-wheel move equipment.

He launched his secondary education at the University of Lethbridge, and after a two-year mission to Finland with his church; Bullock completed his education at Brigham Young University in Utah. He holds an MSc degree in civil engineering.

He moved into TID management in April 1989 when the district boasted 71,000 acres. Mostly with expansion in existing irrigated parcels, that land base with modern pivot sprinklers has reached 83,000 acres.

Bullock said TID farmers have driven the modernization program.

Today, 80 per cent of district lands are irrigated with centre pivot sprinklers, and 80 per cent of those are the low-pressure systems, that limits evaporation and reduce pumping costs.

Bullock was also a key part of the TID decision to partner with the St. Mary River Irrigation District and Raymond Irrigation District to build a hydroelectric generation complex. Irrigation water powers generation plants at three locations. That project cost will be repaid in five years, allowing the partners to generate large volumes of money to boost irrigation services.

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C R A E P M B I N A T RRIGATIO E I

T

S U M

aber’s Irrigation Impact Museum attracted more than 1,300 visitors last year.

Offering a look at the history of southern Alberta’s irrigation industry, the museum is tucked in a corner of the Taber Community Centre.

Karen Ingram, museum manager, said the facility began with a group of citizens passionate about preserving artifacts, documents and photos of the community.

The governing Taber & District Society determined that a focus on agriculture, irrigation and related industries was its goal.

“Today, that is still the theme for the permanent exhibit in the centre of the

museum,” said Ingram. “There are two areas within the room that

are used for changing exhibits.

Exhibits are changed on a regular basis with at least

three separate and distinct displays a year.

Ingram, the sole society employee, works with volunteers who can assist visitors.

IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 16

The archi irrigation t the goal o

“Today, a archives c she said.

Ingram no people fro holidaying South for t to irrigation

ACT

M U E S

archive work continues. Donations on the tion theme are welcomed and become part of goal of educating the public.

ay, a great many historical photos from the museum ves can be seen in the businesses and office of Taber,” said.

am notes a change in the origin of visitors. There were more ple from Western Canada the last four years. With a theme of aying closer to home, many visitors from northern Alberta investigated the h for the first time. A common comment is the diversity of agricultural production linked gation.

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Saturday: 9:00 to 4:00 p.m.

September Monday to Friday: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

October through April

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Phone: 403.223.5708 Fax: 403.223.0529 Email: tiimchin@telusplanet.net IRRIGATING IRRIGATING ALBERTA ALBERTA -- FALL FALL 2015 2015 •• 17 17

RICHARD STAMP I

Irrigation Council

t all started rather innocently.

It was about 35 years ago that Richard Stamp, a young man in the Enchant area with a desire to become a farmer, secured a beginner farmer loan through AFSC to buy two quarter sections of land and purchase wheel move irrigation sprinklers on his way to become an irrigator.

The rest of the story would make a great documentary – if Richard and his wife Marian were so inclined. They don’t shy away from the public eye but their farming activities have put them in the spotlight for achievements earned through dedication to family, farming and mankind.

Today, their farm includes deeded and rented land, both dry land and irrigated. All three sons have joined the family farm – their daughter is married to a Foremost-area farmer – and registered seed has been the backbone of the operation for about 26 years.

Richard gives credit to two stalwarts of the seed industry – Leonard Haney who farmed in the Picture Butte area, and Tony Crooymans of Bow Island – for his start in the seed business.

Irrigation has been a priority for him. He served as a director for the Bow River Irrigation District for seven years. It was that board, including producer Harold Unruh and executive director Brian Hogan, who nominated and then urged Richard to consider serving on the Alberta Irrigation Council.

Council was established in 1920 to advise, monitor and regulate irrigation district boards. Today the board’s job is to support the minister of agriculture and rural development by providing advice and regulatory administration for irrigation sustainability.

Richard joined council in 2009 and was appointed chairman by the agriculture minister in 2013.

Council business takes three to four days a month on the road, and a like amount of time in his farm office.

He feels challenged by the council goals designed to meet the needs of today’s irrigation industry and how it fits with the other water consumers across the land.

“There’s a vision, expressed also by the Alberta government, for an industry of water management systems that will meet the needs today and into the future,” he said. “This is between all users of water in Alberta. It means strategic multiuse of water and needs planning between all stakeholders. Water is the back bone of economic development in Alberta and we have to recognize the economic value of irrigation in the Alberta economy, driven partly by new crops, stability and crop mix potentials from irrigation.”

“

Water is the back bone of economic development in Alberta and we have to recognize the economic value of irrigation in the Alberta economy, driven partly by new crops, stability and crop mix potentials from irrigation.

IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 18

As a mediator and moderator in the chair, he helps council through some tough meetings, all the while helping council work with irrigators to find the best decisions.

“How do we work together to build the future for the next generation,” he said. “This is no different than what was done for us.”

During this run, the Stamps have poured time and energy into the Outstanding Young Farmers of Canada program, earning the Alberta young farmer designation in 1998 before capturing national honors as the western representative that same year. Marian worked for many years on the OFY awards program and Richard wore all executive president hats – vice, president and past.

That dedication has also earned them the W.R. Motherwell Award, recognition of their contributions to the OYF program. It recognizes an individual or couple that has shown exemplary dedication to the Outstanding Young Farmers of Canada program and also have unselfishly given of their time and talents to promote the values of excellence, advancement, opportunity and exchange within Canadian agriculture.

DR. SHELLEY WOODS

Ph.D., P. Ag.

S

helley is a Soil and Water Research Scientist with the Irrigation and Farm Water Division of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD), at the Lethbridge Research Centre. Shelley has been with ARD since 1988.

Before coming to Lethbridge in 2005, she worked at the Crop Diversification Centre South in Brooks.

Shelley received her B.Sc. degree in physics from the University of Alberta; her Master of Environmental Design in environmental science from the University of Calgary; and her Ph.D. in soil physics from the University of Saskatchewan.

Shelley has worked on a variety of agricultural research projects, including soil salinity mapping; salinity tolerance of trees, shrubs, and grasses; precision farming of potatoes; field-scale variability of greenhouse gas emissions; long-term solute transport in a semi-arid environment; and water-use efficiency of irrigated cereals and oilseeds.

Shelley is currently working on water-use efficiency and variable rate irrigation research and irrigation water policy, including irrigation water productivity, allocation, and efficiency.

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POTATO UPDATE

T

he Great Famine, according to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, was a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. It is sometimes referred to, mostly outside Ireland, as the Irish Potato Famine because about two-fifths of the population was solely reliant on this cheap crop for a number of historical reasons. During the famine approximately one million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the Island’s population to fall by between 20 and 25 per cent.

The proximate cause of famine was a potato disease commonly known as potato blight, which ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s. However the impact in Ireland was disproportionate as one-third of the population was dependent on the potato for a range of ethnic, religious, political, social and economic reasons, such as land acquisition, absentee landlords and the corn laws, which all contributed to the disaster to varying degrees and remain the subject of intense historical debate.

Disease containment remains a vital part of the progressive Alberta potato industry which supplies product to three main markets – seed which is sold in North America, fresh table potatoes and the most significant sector, potato processing, which keeps three French fry plants, chip plants and granule potato operations working around the year.

Potato Growers of Alberta executive d i r e c t o r Te r r a n c e

IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 20

Hochstein, raised in the foothills ranching country near Pincher Creek, knows Alberta potatoes and how they fit into the massive irrigation industry in the southern reaches.

There are 147 potato growers in Alberta generating $190 million to $200 million a year in farm gate value. That is the backbone of a $1 billion industry as the potato buck circulates throughout the economy. Pointing down the road from his Highway 3 office on the eastern reaches of Taber, Hochstein notes equipment dealers, the building industry, technology firms, vent equipment dealers and irrigation companies . . . and the list goes on.

He credits the special crops section, including potatoes, sugar beets and onions, as examples, for reviving Grassy Lake, a village that was becoming a retirement centre for area residents.

Those crops have spurred a population increase, including many Mennonite families attracted by farm jobs.

“And every Frito Lay Lays potato chip consumed in Canada is made right in Taber,” he said. “Without irrigation, southern Alberta would virtually be a desert. Irrigation generates a huge value.

The area potato industry has also invested in education. McCain Foods,

Lamb Weston and Cavendish Farms, all processors in southern Alberta, worked co-operatively with the PGA to fund a five-year, $1 million research chair at the University of Lethbridge. It is the first such chair in Canada.

Hochstein said the research chair is industry driven with the goal to build on the education of people. It will help build the future of the potato industry so potential workers will be able to come back in the field in all corners of the potato industry.

Hochstein isn’t predicting a major growth in potato acreage, but with science backing, the yields and quality of Alberta potatoes will continue to improve. And with Federal Bill C-15 to enhance plant breeder rights in Canada, more potato breeders will be enticed to Canada to build the production base.

“That should help the Alberta potato industry provide more family-safe, nutritious Alberta-grown food,” he said.

Potatoes already carry a consumerfriendly label because nothing grown in Alberta is genetically modified. That remains a consumer concern gauging by reaction from many of the 35,000 youngsters who paraded through the Calgary Aggie Days fair last summer.

“One of the biggest questions – are our potatoes GMO.”

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IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 21

MOUNTAIN IRRIGATION Payne Lake, the major water collector for the three mountain irrigation districts, is heavily used by campers and fishermen.

Water enters a siphon to c

C

ARDSTON – Desperation and need often become the Mother of Invention.

Farmers in the foothills and mountain regions west of here were desperate in 1919 and 1920 following financial disasters and the mainly Mormon producers reached back on Utah history to introduce irrigation to the area.

Lee Nelson, a former Mountain View Irrigation District ditch rider and manager who runs the water from the Belly River to three mountain irrigation districts for Alberta Environment, holds his history book close to his chest – his father was one of the pioneer irrigators in the Mountain View district.

Those men worked with horses and slip scrapers to carve a canal out of the country side to take water from the Belly River to what today is called Payne Lake -- the water source for the Mountain View, Leavitt and Aetna districts. It took 10 years to finish the work.

A water diversion structure on the Belly River is still the head works for all three districts.

Ryan Vadnais of Cardston, a chartered accountant, is manager for the Leavitt and Aetna districts. He also ranches with his father and in 2013; the farm bought its first centre pivot sprinkler.

It is a glimpse of the modernization slowly taking hold in the southwest corner of Alberta. It also paid dividends early for the Vadnais operation.

In 2014, they harvested 390 large round hay bales on the first cut of the pivot-irrigated field.

This year, with the pivot, the first cut produced 741 bales. ”That increased production almost pays for the pivot,” he said.

Size doesn’t worry Vadnais. Mountain View has about 3,800 irrigated acres.

Vadnais said the Leavitt district had 4,848 assessed acres in 2014. That includes almost 2,000 acres not irrigated that year and 1,193 acres with no irrigation system. Leavitt has a potential of about 6,000 acres.

Aetna’s assessed role was 4,522 acres in 2014. That year, 1,811 acres were irrigated, 850 acres were not irrigated and 2,061 acres had no irrigation system.

There is some wiggle room to expand irrigated agriculture, said Vadnais. He points to the flat fertile lands in the Aetna district that could be added to maximize the water roll at 7,500 acres.

Nobody worries about size here, he said. “The small acres of irrigation here are just as important to our producers as the thousands of irrigated acres in the rest of the province.”

Grass is the major crop here. Second cuttings aren’t always attempted, depending mostly on availability of hay and cost.

Small amounts of barley, hard red spring wheat and triticale round out the production in the three districts.

Finding land suitable for irrigation might be difficult, but looking sure is easy on the eyes in the region stretching west from Cardston to the Porcupine Foothills and the Rocky Mountains.

IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 22

n to carry water beyond the Leavitt Irrigation District boundaries.

Lee Nelson, left, and Ryan Vadnais discuss water on top of Belly River diversion structure for mountain irrigation districts.

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GILCHRIST CONSULTING

RA

Cur %

By GRAHAM GILCHRIST, P.Ag.

A

to do it.

Int %

s a young District Agriculturalist in Foremost and Taber, I had the opportunity to work with Cal Brandley as he advised farms in southern Alberta. For the generation of farmers who came later, Cal would speak and never tell you what to do. He would just talk and talk about all the examples of how NOT

In my years with the Alberta Agriculture and the Farmers’ Advocate Office, I was given the unique vantage point to repeat what Cal saw. I have picked up my own stories of how Not to do it that way. Now as a private consultant, I am passing this knowledge to my clients.

I was asked by Irrigating Alberta to discuss buying land (irrigation) and bring this knowledge into the discussion. Here are a few discussion points when buying land.

Cash Flow The first question that needs to be answered is does the purchase add value to your current operation. With class 1 land reaching upwards of $3500 per acre, this financial expenditure should be sound.

My example is using an AFSC like loan at 4.4% over 20 years. The yearly payment for the fully financed $3500 is $267 per acre. The total interest paid would be $1857 per acre. This cash flow draw now ripples through the farm business.

In order to absorb the new cash flow, the business will need to achieve new levels of operational revenue. Based on the work of Roy Ferguson, the ratio calculations helps us target the needed revenue to pay for the new land.

The key point I want to make, by looking at these two ratios, is that the production and the price achieved from the production is key. Other parts of the farm need not pay for the new acres.

Condition of Sale Now let us move to the buying of the land.

You and the seller have agreed to $3500.

I would highly suggest you add to the sales agreement a few conditions that really should be completed before finalizing the purchase.

The first condition is for the seller to provide copies of all the documents that go with the land. My list is not exhaustive but here are a few of the documents I think you should examine. If you need assistance, you may wish to seek out advice.

IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 24

•

Licences – This would include wate

equipment and any other County or P

• Water Wells – Include in this b approval docume

• Abandoned Water Wells – Ident aban

•

Surface lease and Pipeline Agreemen these to see what annual payments ar operational obstructions. Ensure the you as the new owner.

•

Rental Agreements – This should be d on the land or in a house on the land.

•

Survey – More often than not, I would s lines are not accurate and knowing w You may require a real property report

The second condition is the ability to insp improvements and irrigation equipment. I pumps, engines and any other improveme

The third condition would be an agronomy a cropping, weed and disease history for provincially or federally reportable disease Adding these conditions to the agreement you are buying. Depending on the reports, the offer or kill the deal.

Diligence

I would also pull the mineral title of the la if the underlying title is provincially or pri information to see if the title is leased t company is identified, seek assistance to fi will give you some insight into their financi I would also request assistance from the issue associated with the quarter. Both of obtaining this information.

RATIO TITLE

TARGET

Current Liabilities as a % of After Tax Profit.

A healthy farm would be in the range of 50% or lower (better).

Interest Expense as a % of Total Revenue

A healthy farm would be in the range of 15% or lower.

FARM FINANCIAL TARGET The new liability is the $267 payment. After tax profit would need to move up by $528 per acre to absorb the new liability.

The interest payment the first year is $155. The total revenue would need to be $1033 per acre or better.

water agreements, permits for irrigation

y or Provincial approvals.

his both the original driller’s report and ocuments.

Identify and seek abandonment.

information

on

their

ements – If you have these on the land, examine nts are included, their surveyed location and any e the cash flow from these agreements goes to

be disclosed by the seller if a renter is currently and.

ould suggest seeing or obtaining a survey. Fence wing where the pins are is valuable information. eport as an additional condition.

I would also request information from the County. I would be looking for planning restrictions, including land use plans, area structure plans, and environmentally important land reports.

The purpose of this diligence review is to get the best picture of what you are buying.

Conclusion This list of things to do when buying land comes from my experience of examining wrecks and land purchase deals gone either wrong or purchased with surprises.

If you would like to contact to discuss this article further, you can reach me through my website at www.gilchristconsulting.ca.

o inspect. Your purchase price may include the ent. Inspect the condition of the pivot, ditches, vement you are buying.

onomy report from the seller. This would include y for the past 5 years. Is there a history of both seases?

ment for sale will give you a fuller picture of what ports, you way wish to keep the price or discount

he land you are buying. You are looking to see or privately owned. Examine the title and other sed to an energy development company. If a e to find out their LLR number. The LLR number nancial health.

m the AER/ESRD to identify spills and any other th of these agencies do have websites to assist

IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 25

Cory Vanden Elze Cory Vanden Elzen - Sugar Beets

READYMADE – When Cory Vanden Elzen’s father grew his first crop of sugar beets in 1967 a major snowstorm that year didn’t deter him.

When he married in 1970, the new couple became sugar beet growers, adding more crops and a feedlot over the years.

Like their fellow sugar beet growers they were idled in 1984 when a dispute with B.C. Sugar Refinery, later Rogers Sugar, closed the fields and factory.

By the time Cory finished university and joined the farm operation, sugar beets were an integral part of the Vanden Elzen rotation.

chemicals to fight weeds, and even then, could be faced with a weed problem they couldn’t control. “I think Roundup Ready beets saved the industry,” said Cory.

At one point they tried to hire weed pickers. One Dragon Boat team volunteered, but could only face one pass over a field. “They got the job done, but they hated it.”

The Vanden Elzen’s relying on sugar beets and beans for their

Irrigation is essential for sugar beet production in a region once called uninhabitable. The Vanden Elzen’s started with sprinklers and advanced to wheel-move and wheels with end-move water attachment.

They used to move wheels from field to field, and eventually put one system on each field.

They bought their first pivot in 2001, and today, pivots provide optimum water management and application.

Like most modern farmers, the pivots can be controlled from a computer and fertilizers and fungicides can be applied through them.

Not only do pivots help produce better crops they significantly ease labor demand.

Vanden Elzen said that like most farmers the family has shifted to genetically modified sugar beet varieties. Called Roundup Ready beets, the variety allows farmers to spray the crop with the herbicide Roundup to kill all weeds but leave the beet plants healthy and strong.

Before, many producers were forced to use four or five

IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 26

main crops. Wheat and barley fill out the rotation. Beans and sugar beets are to be grown on the same field only once every four years.

zen - Sugar Beets

Water flows to the Western Irrigation District throuth the gate on the left while Leavitt and Aetna districts are served by the other structure. Lee Nelson, left, and Ryan Vadnais.

IRRIGATING ALBERTA - FALL 2015 • 27

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