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A Farmer’s Viewpoint
Self-sufficiency isn’t commercial agriculture by Kevin Hursh
10 12 26 32
Markets and outside factors by Scott Shiels
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40 42
Risk Managment
seeds of discontent by Natalie Noble
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Grain Handling
New-found freedom by Alexis Kienlen Ag Smart
Spraying 101
Reducing selection pressure for herbicide resistance Farming Your Money
Dealing with grain markets by Paul Kuntz
Those Wily Weeds
Patch Management 101 by Tammy Jones Ag Colleges
Field to Glass
by Brianna Gratton
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SELF-SUFFICIENCY ISN’T COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE | A FARMER’S VIEWPOINT
Self-sufficiency isn’t commercial agriculture As I wrote this on March 18, we were on holiday in a small fishing village in southern Mexico. Our flight home was cancelled and we booked other airlines for the earliest possible departure. However, I wasn’t certain, given the escalating actions to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic, that we’d be back intime for seeding.
Kevin Hursh, P.Ag. Kevin Hursh is one of the country’s leading agricultural commentators. He is an agrologist, journalist and farmer. Kevin and his wife Marlene run Hursh Consulting & Communications based in Saskatoon. They also own and operate a farm near Cabri in southwest Saskatchewan growing a wide variety of crops. Kevin writes for a number of agricultural publications and serves as executive director for the Canary Seed Development Commission of Saskatchewan and the Inland Terminal Association of Canada (ITAC). Twitter: @KevinHursh1
Nor am I confident that seeding will be easy for anyone with the possible supply chain disruptions that could be looming. This is an amazingly difficult time in human history. As I scoured social media, I was surprised to see this tweet pop up: Twitter User @Twitteruser
So...Remember last spring when @KevinHursh1 told farmers/farm household managers to no longer waste time growing gardens, that it was an inefficient use of time and resources? I disagreed then, and disagree as strongly now.
The tweet received a lot of retweets and likes, so it no doubt struck a chord with lots of people. Someone else chimed in and said, “We stopped listening to Hursch (sic) years ago.” I responded to the initial tweet noting that stockpiling food for an emergency can be done independently from growing a large garden, but I suspect that in the current environment many people like the idea of being independent and self-sufficient. 7
A FARMER’S VIEWPOINT | SELF-SUFFICIENCY ISN’T COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE For the record, here’s what I’ve said and written about large gardens and beautiful farmsteads. If it pleases you, go for it. Great to have fresh vegetables and there are numerous ways to preserve the food and store it for a long time. And if you like turning your farmyard into a virtual park that is also your choice. But sometimes people get trapped into this work when it isn’t their first love. For instance, since the mom always kept a large garden, the daughter-in-law might feel pressured to keep up the tradition even though she’d like to make other contributions to the farming operation. Yard work can be a never-ending job if you let it and so can a large garden. Assess why you’re doing it. For most people, the grocery money saved from a large garden pays very poor wages. A smaller garden can still provide some satisfaction and the pleasure of fresh produce without such a big time commitment. Everyone should make their own choices, but if the farm is short of labour and/or short on profitability, you might want to re-evaluate the best uses of your time. As a writer and speaker, I’m not of much use if not a bit provocative. Feel free to disagree. If you don’t want your ideas challenged, stick to romance novels. I grew up on a mixed farm at a time when most farms were specializing. We had laying hens with the eggs sold locally, a few pigs raised from weanlings for our own pork, chickens running all over the yard in the summer, a small 20-head cattle herd and a big garden. My mom baked everything and there was never any store-bought bread or buns in the house. That was the way my parents scraped through some very tough years. The milk cow, a recently purchased Jersey, died when I was about four years old and my parents stopped milking cows
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For most people, the grocery money saved from a large garden pays very poor wages. A smaller garden can still provide some satisfaction and the pleasure of fresh produce without such a big time commitment. and shipping cream at that time. Turkeys were also eventually discontinued, but the rest of the livestock and the spirit of self-sufficiency continued for a long time afterwards. At my graduation from ag college, the guest speaker was Mac Runciman, the long-time president of United Grain Growers. He spoke about farms specializing and moving away from the self-sufficiency model. I remember disagreeing with him, because that wasn’t the way I was raised. Goodness knows what the world will look like once the COVID-19 crisis has passed. I suspect some people may want to go back to simpler times of self-reliance. In past times of anxiety, there were people who built bomb shelters. This is a similar mentality. Since I can’t predict the future, I can’t say the selfpreservation mentality is misplaced, but it certainly isn’t commercial agriculture, where scale, efficiency and cost of production matters.
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GRAIN MARKET ANALYSIS | MARKETS AND OUTSIDE FACTORS
Markets and outside factors Well, this certainly has been an interesting year as far as the markets go. What began as a struggle with quality concerns stemming from a very difficult harvest has turned into an absolute debacle following the global shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Commodity markets through the early spring were extremely unstable, and constantly searching for a reason to rally. This in turn left farmers with endless questions about what to seed, and what to try and sell to generate cash flow for spring bills. Scott Shiels Scott grew up in Killarney, Man., and has been in the grain industry for more than 25 years. He has been with Grain Millers Canada for five years, doing both conventional and organic grain procurement as well as marketing for their mills. Scott lives in Yorkton, Sask., with his wife Jenn. www.grainmillers.com
In my 27-plus years in this industry, I have never experienced uncertainty like ever before. In a situation such as this, for seeding plans, the best thing to do is just stick to your rotation. When there is massive instability such as this, control what you can and try and bring some stability back into the situation. Staying the course in trying times is most often the best course of action, while trying to make a lot of last-minute changes on your farm, in order to chase high specialty markets for example, is most times a recipe for disaster. In times like this, we need to look for, and find the positives that are out there. We work in an industry that is moving forward and making advancements at a rapid pace in nearly every sector. We grow the most technologically advanced crops, using the most technologically advanced equipment on the planet. Sure, we pay high prices for these items, but the value that they bring to the bottom line on the farm is ultimately worth it. Farmers on the Prairies are growing safe, nutritious food ingredients in large volumes, and are literally feeding the world with them. As a food company, we have the utmost confidence that our customers are doing their very best, each and every day, to provide us with the best quality grain that they can produce. As for where the markets are at, or where they are going, nothing is certain on those fronts. We normally see a bit of a lull going into seeding time, but this year, there was a much more significant drop beginning in late winter, due to protest blockades that disrupted rail shipping along with unions trying to stop truckers from getting fuel. Both these issues forced grain companies to look at alternatives for shipping, and eventually these put some downward pressure on the markets. As we began to return to normal following these literal roadblocks, we ran directly into the coronavirus, and global upheaval in every way, shape and form. At the end of the day, there is one thing for certain, people need to eat. Because of that, companies like ours and many others, need to buy the grain you grow. While we may be experiencing markets that are soft and seem slow to recover, they definitely will do just that. As people are rushing to prepare for possible quarantine situations, we are seeing food companies increasing orders to meet this demand. This should bode well for markets moving forward, giving them a bit of a bullish spectre even. Take care of yourselves and those around you and remember to work safe out there. Until next time‌
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RISK MANAGEMENT | SEEDS OF DISCONTENT
SVUA pilot program a glimmer of hope while producer groups remain dissatisfied By Natalie Noble
While the value creation conundrum continues, Canada’s seed industry is taking the lead. In February of this year, the Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA) and the Canadian Plant Technology Agency (CPTA) announced the launch of the Seed Variety Use Agreement (SVUA) pilot project in efforts to draw more crop variety development dollars. Currently, two primary models have been discussed: the end-point and the trailing royalty. For the seed industry, a trailing royalty in the form of implementing an SVUA, has been widely accepted as the most appropriate and implementable. Varieties selected into this model have an SVUA attached when growers purchase them. Any farm-saved seed planted each year thereafter are invoiced a Seed Variety Use Fee (SVUF). The seed industry welcomes the program as a step forward, but Prairie wheat and barley groups have expressed concern, leaving some to wonder if the industry’s public and private sectors will ever agree on a solution. Both sides have one thing in common. Their stakeholders have invested into breeding research and they want to protect that investment. As the pilot unfolds, both sides will watch closely to see how revenue is distributed back into both private and public programs. Tyler McCann, interim executive director with the CSTA, says the private sector in Canada’s seed industry has significantly ramped up its investment in seed research since Canada’s 2015 ratification of UPOV 91. Private sector investment is now at $23 million annually, up from $3 million before the deal. “Growers are now seeing the benefits of this in two of the varieties that are in for this year,” he says. “Canterra Seeds and Limagrain Cereals Research Canada are directly a result of [that] increased investment.” But producer organizations are concerned about the public programs they’ve invested in as well and want assurances, especially on public varieties.
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RISK MANAGEMENT | SEEDS OF DISCONTENT
“Looking into other crop types like feed grains, silage crops, anything fed domestically through livestock or often used locally, these get missed. Those crops would be completely left once again outside of any collection mechanism that would provide them support.” - Todd Hyra “We’re disappointed that AAFC and CFIA didn’t show a commitment to finishing these consultations,” says Halstead. Photo: Todd Hyra, western business manager, SeCan
“I cannot stress enough that because producer and public dollars have developed those varieties, we want to ensure farmers continue to have a say in that and continue to have a strong producer–public breeding system in place,” says SaskWheat chair Brett Halstead. Meanwhile, Todd Hyra, western business manager at SeCan, sees the SVUA pilot as an opportunity for both sides to win. “The goal of the SVUA is to enhance the royalty portion for breeders,” he says. “It’s about stabilizing some of the income, providing a platform that works for both private and public breeders and ensuring there’s an additional stream that rewards a breeder for a job well done.” So, just how did things come to this point of dissention? After seed value creation consultations led by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) gained momentum in early 2019, the process was suspended ahead of the federal election. McCann says consultations revealed starkly different viewpoints and government realized this would take a long time, yet wanted industry to take a leadership role to build support for one model. Prairie producer groups are still feeling the sting from the discontinued talks. 14
Producer groups want to see AAFC clarify what its long-term role and plans are in value creation, particularly since farmers have invested in public variety development for years. Meanwhile, the seed industry sees a number of drawbacks within the end-point model that make it less desirable. For one, Hyra says the trailing royalty model works across all crop types, whereas the end-point system is better suited for products typically collected by larger central handlers such as malt barley or milling wheat. “Looking into other crop types like feed grains, silage crops, anything fed domestically through livestock or often used locally, these get missed,” he says. “Those crops would be completely left once again outside of any collection mechanism that would provide them support.” It would also require customers to make another declaration with a grain handler, bringing a third-party into the process, adding a degree of separation between the breeder or representative and the farmer. “It makes it awkward and introduces an extra level of potential slippage,” says Hyra. While the seed industry agrees on trailing royalties as a preferred system, McCann notes others have failed to coalesce around one single option. “We’ve heard complaints around every single idea on the table,” he says. “We think the SVUA model addresses a lot of the concerns that farmers have.” Halstead confirms that disconnect.
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RISK MANAGEMENT | SEEDS OF DISCONTENT
A breakdown of the process looks straightforward. A farmer has an account and seed companies and retailers enter into the platform when a farmer purchases seed with an SVUA. The following year, the platform sends a message indicating which SVUA-attached seeds a farmer purchased and requests them to declare how much of that seed they kept for replanting in 2021. A farmer enters these details and the platform provides one invoice from the various applicable companies. Payment is collected and the money is distributed back to the involved breeder, distributer or companies based on each royalty the farmer paid. The seed industry’s role in the pilot is based around the platform and not variety selection. “It’s up to companies to decide for themselves whether or not they’re going to nominate or select varieties into the pilot,” says McCann, adding the CSTA and CPTA don’t select varieties.” He says seed companies are committed to ensure farmers will see the value in any varieties brought into the program and that they have choice. “It won’t be for everyone. We recognize that some of our retailer members are not ready for it yet and others will welcome it,” says Hyra. “I believe the same with our customer base.”
Photo: Brett Halstead, SaskWheat chair
“The seed industry was stuck on only reviewing two options,” he says. “They weren’t looking at anything through crop insurance, credits through using certified seed or any other options out there. It seems AAFC and the CFIA have allowed them to pick a winner before the consultation process was completed.” He says most producer organizations don’t have a preferred model and last winter’s consultations were just beginning to get people listening and thinking about the different options. What’s involved with the SVUA pilot? It’s hoped the pilot will demonstrate how the model might work and give people a chance to see that. Essential to the program is its online platform, expected to be operational this year.
However, producer groups are confused, particularly around two public wheat varieties, Starbuck and Wheatland, as there has been online chatter they may be included in the pilot. “These varieties were significantly funded by producer dollars through our wheat commissions and the Western Grains Research Foundation prior to that,” says Halstead. “This leaves us wondering, what’s the commitment of AAFC to developing and protecting these varieties from trailing royalties? It makes me wonder if government agencies have their licensing agreements in order.” Hoping to resolve some of the ongoing tension, the pilot includes a working group to draw engagement from all sides. “We have a really strong commitment to transparency, value and choice. We want farmers to be able to see and understand how the SVUA mechanism lives up to these three parameters,” says McCann.
The single system will connect multiple seed companies, distributers and breeders with farmers.
Those parameters are farmer experience, retailer experience and understanding revenue distribution. Like most Canadian ag programs, discussions must continue, whether friendly or fiery, to give everyone a chance to speak.
“One of the real priorities is to make this as easy as possible for the distributer, the retailer and the farmer to use while reducing the number of interactions between these different points,” says McCann.
“In order to come up with a solution that works for everyone, we still need greater consultation with producers to hear their options, opinions and understand the impacts this might have on their farms,” says Halstead.
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Born to run COVER STORY | STEPPING OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE
Fed up with traditional grain marketing, dynamic farmer builds her own system By Trevor Bacque
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BORN TO RUN | COVER STORY
Independence is nothing new in farming. Most children keen to take over the operation often dream of the day when they are in charge. It’s a common thought among those with an entrepreneurial spirit and a proclivity to blaze their own trail. For Lynn Dargis, this has always been the case. The second eldest of five girls, Dargis and her sisters were given egalitarian status on their St. Vincent, Alta., family farm from an early age. Daily chores didn’t discriminate against gender and each girl was given a choice: Do your chores now or do your chores later. Either way, they would be done. “If you had a beating heart you were good enough for the job, didn’t matter if you were a girl or not,” says Dargis, 33, with a nostalgic laugh. “We were involved in every aspect of the farm, animal welfare, taking care of the crops and everything in between.” Her parents, Jean and Joanne, started the farm in 1980 with 50 cows and a couple quartersections of land. Over the years, the farm grew to more than 6,000 acres and a 3,000-head feedlot. The pair were quick to teach their daughters everything they knew and Dargis, a selfdescribed ‘right-hand man’ of her folks, was perhaps the most determined of all the sisters to be the farm’s next boss. She got her chances early.
manage the farm. Her sisters and grandparents all drove while her parents flew. Jean had acquired his pilot’s licence six years prior and had developed a penchant for taking to the skies whenever time permitted. Excited for his niece’s graduation, he was even more enthusiastic at the idea of travelling there in his recently acquired single-engine Cirrus SR22, the world’s top-selling general aviation aircraft on the market. He shut down work early and everyone headed east for the weekend. The entire family minus Dargis had a fun and lively time celebrating Gropp’s achievement. By supper time Sunday it was time to head home. The girls left first to make the six-hour drive before dark. The parents left later since it was only a two-hour flight. On short notice, Jean’s mother Anita decided to fly home with them instead of driving with her husband. Halfway through the two-hour flight, Joanne phoned home and inquired about the weather.
“If you had a beating heart you were good enough for the job, didn’t matter if you were a girl or not. We were involved in every aspect of the farm, animal welfare, taking care of the crops and everything in between.” –Lynn Dargis
One year, when Dargis was just 17, the family acquired a new John Deere air drill. With Jean in the driver’s seat, Dargis climbed in beside him and away they went. After running the outer lap of the field and teaching his daughter a few primary buttons, Jean abruptly stopped.
“Then he jumped out and said, ‘here you go,’” says Dargis, realizing she had to finish seeding the field. “He really pushed that we think for ourselves. You just have to have that creative mind. That has always stayed with us growing up. If you’re in a situation or unsure or uncomfortable—that happens all the time—think to your parents pushing you one step further.” Little did the girls know their parents’ constant push towards independence would be so critical so soon.
The farm went quiet In the summer of 2007, Dargis’ cousin Lindsay Gropp was graduating from high school in Spirit River. The entire family travelled to convocation except Dargis, who stayed back to
“I looked outside, it was a beautiful evening with not that much wind and just a few clouds,” says Dargis. “I said, ‘it looks good, you’re good to go.’ [Mom] said, ‘I love you. Bye.’” Those were the final words she ever heard her mother speak. The family had an airstrip near the main farmyard, and it was easy to spot the plane from a good distance away. One hour went by. Then two. Then three. Her sisters arrived home, but no sign of the plane.
Dargis knew something was wrong but didn’t know what. Her parents were not answering their worried daughter’s calls. Dargis called her uncle Gerry Boucher, also a pilot, hoping for re-assurance, or, really, anything. “You’re hoping for the best, but the next thing you know the cops are standing at your doorsteps the next morning,” she says. According to the Canadian Transportation Safety Board, Jean’s plane crashed into a muskeg-laden area in the vicinity of the House Mountain communication tower, 25 nautical miles southwest of Slave Lake. Interviewed by local media at the time, Richard Dargis said his brother likely encountered fog and then hit the radio tower’s wires, which ultimately brought the plane down. Jean, 46, Joanne, 45, and his mother Anita, 75, died Aug. 12, 2007. Dargis, about to turn 21, was left alone with her four sisters, their lives forever changed. 19
COVER STORY | BORN TO RUN
Left: From left to right: Leona, Jeanelle, father Jean, mother Joanne, Lynn, Suzanne and Sarah. The five young ladies all shared a love and respect for the family farm. Today, Lynn manages the farm while the other sisters have different careers, but retain fond memories of their rural upbringing.
Above: From left to right: Sisters Leona, Jeanelle, Suzanne, Sarah and Lynn. The five sisters still remain close to one another and regularly keep in contact.
Rebuilding one day at a time Everyone deals with death in their own way. For Dargis, she did what she knew best, work. Harvest was rapidly approaching, and a promising crop of oats, canola and feed barley demanded attention. “The next few months, even year, feels like a blur,” she says. “I immersed myself in farm work. That’s kind of how I dealt with it.” She and her oldest sister Leona spent the next three years raising their three younger sisters until the last had graduated from high school and all were off to university. However, amid chaos and mourning, the farm still needed to be managed and Dargis knew this was her moment, albeit sooner than she anticipated. The family had never truly talked succession and her parents’ will was outdated, yet the estate needed decisions, and soon. After speaking with her uncle Joe and grandfather Pierre, Dargis felt there was one logical conclusion if the farm was going to continue. “That’s when I spoke up and said I want to figure out a way to take this on,” she says. In 2008, she secured two loans, one from Farm Credit Canada and another from TD Canada Trust. Her grandfather lent her a sum of operating capital, as well. Now, locked in financially and mentally, Dargis put her head down and hit the field. “I was determined,” she says. “I knew that I wanted to take over the farm. No one was going to stop me. I was going to do what it takes. I was willing to risk it all.” She did not go into the operation completely blind, either. In 2006, she graduated Olds College with an agriculture production and management diploma and was firmly integrated in the farm’s daily business well before the crash. 20
Due to the farm’s overall size, Dargis had to make difficult choices right away. She didn’t renew 2,000 rented acres and then sold off the cow herd, opting instead to custom feed for the community. She made certain to surround herself with other talented individuals, though. One key member of the team Dargis held onto was Richard Cadrin. Described by Dargis as a surrogate father, he was a primary employee of her parents since 1986. In addition, she hired her own accountants, bankers, lawyers and seasonal workers. “I built a team of people that I could trust and give me really good advice along the way,” she says. “There’s no way to know it all. I found those people that believed in me. They came to know me.” After farming on her own for two years, she met Ryan Schappert in 2010. An oilfield consultant that operated out of Whitecourt. He knew nothing about farms other than that he was surrounded by them. A romance was struck and the two were married the next year. Today, they have a trio of kids between three and seven, all eager to pitch in and learn about rural life. After refining the farm’s operation’s, Dargis and Schappert farm 4,400 acres together full time. They primarily grow canola, wheat and barley, suitable crops for their grey-wooded and clay-loam soil mixture. They also background 2,000 feeder cattle. Over the years, she has learned the hard way how to draw up equitable cattle contracts. Too often she accepted substantial risk and made poor choices. However, those choices gave her hard-earned business education and daily she takes those lessons into farm management.
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COVER STORY | BORN TO RUN
Photos: Lynn Dargis, right, created and launched app
Farmbucks in 2018 after getting fed up with traditional grain marketing. Since then, nearly 2,000 farmers have signed up for Farmbucks, leading Dargis to believe there are others who demand a better system, as well.”
Photo Credit: Dawn Wickhorst Photography
“After all the lessons I’ve been through I was more empowered,” she says. “I could make my own contract and do it on these conditions. I’ve learned so much throughout the years owning my own cattle.” Rarely enthused to settle for second place, the straight-talking Dargis is neither the type of person keen to try a better method nor afraid to admit and adopt it when there is a superior way. Although, in the absence of a better method, she didn’t necessarily think she’d create the solution.
Build a better mousetrap In early 2018, she sat on a load of No. 1 CWRS, waiting for a fair number. She locked in a target price agreement with a nearby elevator and continued to wait. One day, while killing time between chores, she hopped onto a competitor’s website and scoured its prices. To her good fortune, the company just shored up its basis by 30 cents and hit Dargis’ price. She called her initial buyer, cancelled her TPA and took the new offer. However, she was infuriated that by chance she found her desired price and there was no means to alert her otherwise. “Had I not looked at that website on that particular day I would have missed an opportunity to sell,” she says. “I wanted to find those pricing opportunities in a more easy and efficient way. Farmers don’t have time to search every day.” True to Dargis’ nature, her frustration boiled over, and she began to create a practical solution for grain marketing woes. “Do you think I knew anything about building apps? No. but I was determined,” she says. Dargis began racking up the minutes, logging phone call after phone call with c-suite grain company executives across the 22
country, and plainly asked if they were interested to fundamentally change the way farmers, herself included, access grain prices. To everyone’s surprise except Dargis’, four companies came on board. ADM, GrainsConnect, Providence Grain and Viterra all supported her goal and became leading industry partners of her brand-new company: Farmbucks. Receiving a yes from such major players so early deepened her resolve. “That’s what definitely motivated me to continue and forge on,” she says. “It was a big confidence boost just knowing that we’re on the edge of transforming the industry. It definitely solidified that this idea has the potential to change the industry. “It’s kind of tricky. You’re building a two-sided marketplace. Buyers don’t want to come on unless there’s farmers and farmers don’t want to come on unless there’s options. Farmers have the ability to make the change happen and hold the grain companies accountable for giving us that information we need.” Identical to how she hired a good team of people to help farm, Dargis followed the same blueprint with Farmbucks and has learned a tremendous amount from web and app developers and computer programmers. Farmbucks is indicative of a 2020 world where consumers price-shop and openly assess all competition in milliseconds. Likened as an agricultural Expedia, it compares grain prices across buyers, helping farmers find the best deal amidst a myriad of customized parameters. Here’s how it works: A farmer signs up or utilizes a 30-day free trial. They enter their location and a search radius. After selecting the crop type and punching in its characteristics, results pop up that meet the criteria.
COVER STORY | BORN TO RUN
been turning heads in several different realms through a slew of recent accolades. In July 2019, Dargis entered the Telus Pitch contest in Toronto, Ont., a nationwide pursuit for young entrepreneurs with a top prize of $100,000. Farmbucks was named the most promising startup and Dargis received a few prizes, including a $5,000 Facebook advertising budget. Months later, she was at Agri-Trade in Red Deer, Alta., talking to farmers about her business. She also happened to enter the show’s innovation awards. Voted upon by attendees, Dargis won the Farmers’ Choice Award and $5,000, a testament that the people who would use Farmbucks saw the value.
Photo: Husband Ryan Schappert and wife Lynn Dargis with kids Piper, left, Brier, centre, and Phoenix, right.
Dargis and her team developed an essential and sophisticated back-end algorithm that will even convert basis rates for a level playing field when evaluating numbers. “We don’t just show bids, we calculate market premiums and discounts for different protein levels, so you can actually compare apples to apples,” she says. Farmbucks isn’t even 18 months old, but that hasn’t stopped just under 2,000 farmers from signing up, which tells Dargis many believe this has potential. The platform also offers free canola bids 24/7 regardless of whether you subscribe. For Dargis and the millennial cohort rich in buying power, even grain marketing has become about more than money. “You have to bring other value other than just price,” she says. “You can have a good price, but if no one likes dealing there…” As she continues to angle more industry players to participate in Farmbucks, she isn’t surprised by hesitation or all-out resistance. After all, this is the way things have been done for generations. “They say they’re for the farmer and I’m trying to help them connect … and they’re saying no,” she says of uninterested grain companies. “There’s some old paradigms to break. It just takes time for the industry to wrap their heads around it and how they can play that for their benefit. I think that’s how they’re going to bring their additional value to their own customers.”
Peer approval, industry altruism While building up Farmbucks, running a mixed operation and parenting alongside her husband, the stalwart Albertan has 24
Brightened by her successes at both Pitch and Agri-Trade, she took Farmbucks to the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE), a Vancouver, B.C.-based charity focused on empowering Canadian businesswomen. Her idea was a hit during early competition and she advanced to the final. For being accepted to decisive round, all contestants were paired with mentors. Dargis linked up with businessman and angel investor Manny Padda of New Avenue Capital, a global investment firm, to help her further develop Farmbucks. Off to Vancouver she flew in February 2020 where she once again presented, this time to an audience of more than 750 business leaders. Dargis confidently explained the current state of grain pricing and how Farmbucks is poised to be a market disruptor through its transparent approach. She also joked that without farmers the world would be hungry, naked and sober. Farmbucks’ message hit the bull’s-eye and the crowd, who collectively voted for the winner, crowned Dargis victorious. She received the $25,000 grand prize for her business. She has quickly reinvested the money and continues to work with experts to help push her business forward, just like she did at the family farm more than a decade before. Dargis is confident Farmbucks will continue to grow and be a benefit for who else? Farmers. “I feel like there’s always this burning thing inside me that always wants to help others, that wants to do something for others,” she says. “This was just a great way to do that. It’s almost like I’ve found my purpose and I have that passion to keep going. It’s been a long road to success for a farm girl from St. Vincent, one she was forced to walk alone at a tender age. “Looking back, I kind of think I was crazy,” she says. “A 20-yearold girl to take over the size of business that I did is pretty remarkable. At the time, you don’t really think about it, it was normal. I didn’t think anything of it, I was so focused on getting what I needed done.”
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GRAIN HANDLING | NEW-FOUND FREEDOM
New-found freedom
Photo: Les McGrath’s grain handling
system was an investment, but he considers it a necessary asset on his grain operation. Photo Credit: Les McGrath
Grain handling systems expensive, worthwhile tool to give farmers more control By Alexis Kienlen
Some farmers in the Prairies have decided to build their own grain handling systems. These systems have come in handy in the past two years, when tough grain has become more common. Ron Cloutier farms oilseeds and cereals with his father near Donnelly, Alta. He has a grain handling system with a dumping station and with wet bins that he can access when he comes into the yard. “Those wet bins feed the grain dryer. From the grain dryer, I’ve got a discharge auger that supplies a bunch of bins. It’s nothing super complicated. I do have the ability to mix different moistures of crops,” he says. Cloutier has three wet bins, and as the grain dries up during the day, he can change bins and blend. He purchased his dryer in 2018, and it’s big even in comparison to dryers at local elevators.
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GRAIN HANDLING | NEW-FOUND FREEDOM
Left: Cloutier purchased his dryer in 2018, and it’s big even in comparison to dryers at local elevators.
Above: Cloutier has three wet bins, and as the grain dries up during the day, he can change bins and blend.
Photo Credits: Ron Cloutier
“I don’t have to wait for any kind of natural drying,” he says. As long as the combines can separate it, I can haul it into my yard and can handle extremely tough crops. That said, we have to be able to unload it. We draw the line when we have to start shoveling out trucks. Then we shut it down. We don’t push that hard.” Cloutier said being able to manage the toughness of his grain, prevent spoilage and control his grain quality are a few of the perks of his setup. His system combines old school technology with new technology. “Some of the big operations now, they’ve got all these grain pumps and ability to recirculate. I do have the ability to recirculate if it gets too tough … with an auger,” he says. “I do have one grain leg that because of the dryer’s capacity, it’s a lot taller than what I had before. There’s no grain auger that could reach that now.” Cloutier started farming with his father in 1998, and they’ve had grain dryers on their farm ever since. Cloutier has expanded his system, and improved it over the years as his farm size grew. His grain handling system has expanded as his farm has grown, and he has grown from using one combine, to using three combines. 28
His system has changed a lot since 1998. Cloutier used to have a smaller dryer, but that system worked better when he was working with one combine. He now has two Class 9 and one Class 8 combine and is thinking about adding another combine if he gains a few more quarters. Currently, he’s very happy with the dryer he has now, and how it works with his combines. “This dryer has the capability of following those machines,” he says. “I dried twice through the night, and I’ve never taken off tough crop like I did last year.” The dryer can do about 3,000 bushels an hour, and its capacity has allowed Cloutier to sleep better at night. “Most operations with smaller dryers have no choice. They need to run through the night when the combines are shut down. Because otherwise, the mountain of tough grain builds up,” he said. If a farmer doesn’t have the storage or can’t get to their grain, the grain can start to heat up. “In the morning, the first thing we do is fire it up,” he said. On a typical harvest day in the Peace Country, most people don’t start harvesting until around noon, so the dryer has lots of time to dry between 3,000 to 6,000 bushels. “I get those three to four extra hours in the morning,” he said.
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GRAIN HANDLING | NEW-FOUND FREEDOM Another key piece of his grain handling setup that Cloutier enjoys is how it affords him the ability to work on his own schedule and not that of the elevator. “This year, we didn’t move much until November,” he says. “Whenever a grain elevator can get me to haul, the guys in the driveway are always so thankful I’m hauling because I’ve got a few extra points and it gives them blending power. I tend to want to say that I get favoured a little bit more when it comes to contracts and grain deliveries.” Long-term storage is another huge advantage. Cloutier doesn’t worry about spoiling. If he doesn’t like the price, he can just hang on until a better price comes along. “At the end of the day, my product is extremely safe and it could stay there for two years if it had to.” Cloutier said his dryer was a great investment and it’s been worth it financially because of money he has saved from spoilage and downgrading. Les McGrath farms with his family near Humboldt, Sask., and grows canola, barley, wheat, flax and peas. He said he used to have a small grain dryer. But as acreage grew, the family decided they needed a larger grain handling system. In 2011, the McGraths upgraded their setup. “We looked at our farm and the size of our farm and our harvest ability and how many combines we had and how much grain we could harvest in a day,” he says. “At the end of the day, we decided we wanted a grain dryer that could keep our harvest flow operating. So, we chose the size of dryer we did. It’s not small and it wasn’t cheap. It’s a piece of machinery on our farm that gets used every harvest.” His dryer dries 1,500 or 1,600 bushels of grain an hour in general. The dryer generally runs 24 hours a day. He has 16 bins that hold 40,000 bushels of grain each. The leg behind his dryer moves wet grain to the dryer and pushes dry grain out. Under one bin is a blowing system that does the rest. “I can dry about 6,000 to 7,000 bushels of grain and blow it into the big bins without touching it,” he says. The entire system is sized to handle the volume of grain that is being put through it. Pipes from the top of the leg can direct the grain into different bins. He can even load a Superbee in 15 minutes. “I can just push a lever and change to different bins, so I don’t mix grain,” he says. “Every time you have to handle grain, it costs you time and money. “It comes through the system, we auger it once and it’s then in a bin in storage after that. I can dry it, aerate it, but I don’t have to touch it myself.” 30
Photo: Cloutier said being able to manage the toughness of his grain,
prevent spoilage and control his grain quality are a few of the perks of his setup. (Photo Credit: Ron Cloutier)
“Two years ago, we dried 1.2 million bushels of grain, and I never dried in the winter time. This year, we dried 6,000 to 7,000 bushels. Three to four days after we were done combining, we were done drying.” – Les McGrath McGrath says it’s a system that he can use in many different ways with multiple crops, all at the same time. “We try to equate it with the size to keep our harvest machinery moving,” he says about the handling system. “Two years ago, we dried 1.2 million bushels of grain, and I never dried in the winter time. This year, we dried 6,000 to 7,000 bushels. Three to four days after we were done combining, we were done drying.” McGrath said his system, especially the dryer, has become a necessary tool on his farm and it’s allowed him to create his own schedule and not be as reliant on the local elevators. “Every year, there are more and more guys doing the same thing we are,” he says. “We’ve had more guys come to our place and see how we have incorporated the wet storage and the dry storage into the grain handling system that we have on our farm. It’s less labour. It puts a flow to harvest because of the situation where the dryer is and where the storage is and how we can move grain out after that,’ he says.
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AGSMART | AGSMART 2020
AgSmart 2020 A Showcase of Future Farming
By John Hardy
The practical and real demands as well as challenges of today’s farmers usually don’t leave much time or opportunity to find out what’s new or possible related to the vital efficiencies of producing food. Innovation, technology and a tsunami of changes are transforming the farm and creating a new normal. The ag industry is navigating countless new ways of doing things and dealing with speedbumps. Some exciting, some challenging. From new techniques, the rising cost of supplies, the rollercoaster of the economy, the gradual recovery from the coronavirus outbreak, and most significantly, the impact of technology. Precision agriculture companies are now developing new technologies that allow farmers to maximize yields by controlling every variable of crop farming such as moisture levels, pest stress, soil conditions, and micro-climates. Smart farming makes operations more efficient in various ways, like automating the crop or livestock production cycles, seeding and weeding with autonomous tractors, the crucial ability of remote sensing, robotic harvesters and automatic watering possibilities.
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AGSMART 2020 | AGSMART
Photo: “Digitizing farm records makes everything else possible,” says Fred Wall, vice-president of marketing with Farm Credit Canada.”
There’s no doubt about it. Constant updating and advancements in ag technology—from state-of-the-art digital options to computer vision software—are altering modern farming. It’s an undisputed fact that technology has become an indispensable part of most commercial farms. That’s one of the several key reasons why AgSmart 2020 will be timely, relevant and important. AgSmart is a dynamic and valuable two days of information, question-and-answer, seminars, demonstrations and exhibits all set for at Olds College on Aug. 11-12, 2020.
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“We developed AgSmart to create a cutting-edge learning and demonstration event for producers and Canada’s ag sector as a whole,” says Patrick Machacek, vice-president, development and strategy at Olds College. “AgSmart profiles the latest technologies aimed at improving productivity and it is developed to bridge the gaps for producers who are incorporating ag tech into their operations and would like to learn how to do it more effectively and efficiently.” © 2020 UFA Co-operative Ltd. All rights reserved. 13538
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AGSMART | AGSMART 2020
According to Fred Wall, the vice-president of marketing with FCC: “The two day event at Olds College will help producers discover the many ways that technology and data management can maximize the potential of their operations. “The most critical aspects about today’s agriculture are also the most underrated,” he says. “Digitizing farm records makes everything else possible. The simple act of digitizing the farm’s field and financial records can have a lasting, positive impact on the operation of the farm. We see better financial outcomes. Greater productivity in connecting different tools and improved efficiency in doing the work that needs to get done anyway, like crop insurance reporting.” New advancements in technologies ranging from robotics to financial record software and drones are continually evolving and re-defining contemporary agriculture. And while ag technology is constantly updating and evolving, not all vital farm technology is new. Some, such as GPS, have been popular and important agricultural tools since the late 1990s. “Drones specifically for agriculture are the culmination of advancements in aeronautics, robotics, geomatics and remote sensing,” says Markus Weber, president and co-founder of LandView Drones. He points out that drones provide two key benefits for farmers: time savings and identification of problems. “Producers can access distant parts of their field or pasture in mere minutes, even if the landscape or crop is otherwise nearly impossible to get through, like canola in August. Another advantage of drones on the farm is making it a lot easier to spot crop problems—with equipment, fertility, water or soil—with just a little bit of altitude.” Weber admits that, on the learning curve of ag technology, interest in drones is just beginning. “Drones haven’t yet revolutionized farming, but they are being adopted quickly by farmers young and old alike. Much like smartphones, drones have hundreds of applications on the farm.” Contrary to popular myth, age is not such a big factor when it comes to Canadian farmers embracing ag technology, being dubbed “overrated” by Wall. “What matters most to the farmers is the quality of the tools and how they work together,” he says. “We hear about three obstacles to adoption: trust, complexity, and ROI. Farmers won’t use a tool if they don’t trust the provider or if they don’t trust the generated data. How complex and difficult to use is the tool? And ROI is obvious: does the tool offer a positive return, in cost of acquisition or cost of learning?” 34
“Drones specifically for agriculture are the culmination of advancements in aeronautics, robotics, geomatics and remote sensing,” - Markus Weber, president and co-founder of LandView Drones. The show focuses on the latest available data and technology in agriculture today. “How to gather it, how to use it, how it benefits the producer and identify reasons why it makes sense to invest in equipment and technology to capture data and implement the data to increase productivity and profitability for farm operations,” says Machacek.
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Photo: AgSmart 2019 attendees learned about the emerging technology of drones on the farm. Photo Credit: Sergei Belski
“And during the two days of AgSmart, farmers will have opportunities to interact with cutting-edge high-tech ag players and experience the latest innovations first-hand. It will also be a valuable source for the latest information, featuring education workshops, in-field demonstrations and an exhibit fair profiling some of the latest commercialized products that are transforming the ag industry in Alberta and the world. And for ag tech companies, it is an opportunity to provide information and demonstrate their technology and data-driven products and services.” Wall underscores the limitless potential and positivity of technology on the farm.
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“We value Ag tech and encourage producers to attend AgSmart and see for themselves what the future of agriculture in Canada looks like,” he says. “Farmers always adapt when it makes sense to do so.” Getting ready for AgSmart, Machacek is gung-ho. “It is exciting times in the Ag industry, with innovation and ingenuity taking us to new frontiers,” he says.
© 2020 UFA Co-operative Ltd. All rights reserved. 13538
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SPRAYING 101 | REDUCING SELECTION PRESSURE FOR HERBICIDE RESISTANCE
Reducing selection pressure
for herbicide resistance Tom Wolf, PhD, P.Ag. Tom Wolf grew up on a grain farm in southern Manitoba. He obtained his BSA and M.Sc. (Plant Science) at the University of Manitoba and his PhD (Agronomy) at Ohio State University. Tom’s research and extension career is focused on spray technology, first with Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, and now with Agrimetrix in Saskatoon. Together with Dr. Jason Deveau of OMAFRA, he runs the world’s number one sprayer website, Sprayers101.com.
Herbicide resistance has been called the No. 1 threat to conventional weed management strategies. Since the 1970s, the number of cases of herbicide-resistant weeds has shown a linear increase both globally with about 500 documented cases and within Canada, currently hovering around 70 cases. The rate of increase has been constant, and there is not yet any reason to believe that growth in the number of cases will slow. Resistance is caused by selection pressure, and the principle applies even outside of the realm of herbicides. There is an oft-cited example of barnyard grass in China that is resistant to handweeding through mimicry of rice. Over time, barnyard grass that looked like rice kept surviving. By using herbicides, we select for biotypes that already exist in the weed population, albeit at very low levels. Repeated use of the same mode of action will increase the relative frequency of the resistant biotype until it becomes noticeable, and shortly thereafter, problematic. The best-known forms of resistance involve single-gene mutations in plant enzymes that prevent the herbicide from binding with the enzyme, and therefore don’t inhibit it. Other forms of resistance involve the overproduction of the target enzyme by the plant, mechanisms that either metabolize or sequester the herbicides, or changes in uptake of the herbicide. The main mechanisms are summarized in this table: Table 1: Mechanisms of herbicide resistance
RESISTANT CLASS
MECHANISM
Target site
Target site mutation Increased gene copy number Enzyme over expression
Non target site
Enhanced metabolism Different uptake Differential redistribution Sequestration Delayed germination Rapid necrosis
*Source: Bo AB, Won OJ, Sin HT, Lee JJ, Park KW. 2017. Mechanisms of herbicide resistance in weeds. Korean Journal of Agricultural Science 44:001-015.
36
REDUCING SELECTION PRESSURE FOR HERBICIDE RESISTANCE | SPRAYING 101
The simple act of using herbicide repeatedly selects for resistance. We can delay the onset of resistance by reducing the frequency of herbicide use, for example, by integrating cultural controls such as crop rotation, seeding rate, cultivar competitiveness, and other factors into our agricultural systems. If spraying, we can also reduce our reliance on a single mode of action, either by rotating modes of action, or, more importantly, tank-mixing multiple effective modes of action. But let’s not kid ourselves. The recent discovery of glyphosateresistant (e.g. Roundup) wild oats in Australia, and glufosinateresistant (e.g., Liberty) ryegrasses there and elsewhere is sobering. Relying more on these herbicides will only increase selection pressure. Let’s look at the situation, not from the perspective of prevention (not using herbicides), but of delaying the onset of resistance. What we’re trying to do is buy time so that new strategies can be developed.
How can spray application delay the onset of resistance? To better understand our options, we need to talk about a specific type of herbicide resistance called polygenic resistance.
within that plant, and is most common in plants that are monoecious (flowers contain both male and female parts) and whose own pollen can fertilize their own eggs. What this means is that outcrossing plants receive genetic material from others, increasing their genetic diversity, and therefore their ability to adapt. In a field, weed populations will contain some individuals that, for some reason or another, have slightly greater tolerance to an herbicide than others. If we apply a low herbicide dose to those individuals, and they survive to cross with other survivors and set seed, then their offspring may be as tolerant or even more tolerant than its parents. If this repeats itself over successive herbicide applications, the additive effect goes on, tolerance grows until we can call it resistance. In a recent study at the University of Arkansas, susceptible Palmer amaranth (a dioecious plant) was treated with a range of dicamba doses to identify individuals that survived the higher doses. Three generations of saving the survivors, crossing them and growing their seed, and repeating the procedure, resulted in a three-fold increase in LD50, the dose required to observe 50 per cent of the full effect (compare LD50 at P0 (111) to P3 (309) in Table 2).
Table 2: Dicamba and 2,4-D doses required for 50 per cent (LD50) and 90 per cent (LD90) control of Palmer amaranth populations selected following sublethal doses of dicamba in the greenhouse.
HERBICIDE
SELECTED POP.
LD50a
LD90b g ae ha
Dicamba
P0 P1 P2 P3
This refers to accumulation of additive genes of small effect over time, a process that is more common in plants that share genetic material among plants, i.e., they outcross. In plant breeding, outcrossing refers to fertilization where the pollen and egg originate from different plants. This can happen in some monoecious plants (flowers contain both male and female parts) but is the only option for dioecious plants (species that have either male-only or female-only plants). The opposite of outcrossing is self-pollination, or selfing. Selfing refers to a process that keeps the genetic material confined
111 (92-130)c 198 (165-235) 221 (185-263) 309 (257-382)
-1
213 (177-283) 482 (378-724) 546 (423-839) 838 (610-1503)
The lessons are two-fold. First, to prevent polygenic resistance, we need to apply the full label rate and avoid repeated sublethal doses. Second, we need to apply multiple effective modes of action (MEMoA) whenever possible.
How can this be achieved? 1. Prevent application practices that result in less effective dosing. For example, larger weeds, or weeds growing in difficult environmental conditions, may require higher herbicide doses. Early application is helpful because small weeds are easier to control. In addition, crop canopy shading at later staging leads 37
SPRAYING 101 | REDUCING SELECTION PRESSURE FOR HERBICIDE RESISTANCE
to dose reduction and increase in dose variability. Spraying under windy conditions also reduces dose, and can increase deposit variability.
0.6X0.6X
1X 1X
1X 1X
1X 1X
3X 3X
1X 1X
Without turn compensation Without turn compensation
With turn compensation With turn compensation
2. Get pulse width modulation (PWM) with turn compensation. If your sprayer makes the same turn around the same feature year after year, then the outer boom region will under-dose the same part of the field over and over. This is the breeding ground for polygenic resistance. 3. Prevent boom sway and yaw. Boom movements result in uneven application, which results in lower control. Pull-type sprayers with supporting wheels are best, but these are becoming rare. Suspended boom performance depends on the manufacturer and the levelling technology they use. However, boom height is usually more consistent with slower travel speeds.
Aside from specific technology such as PWM, improved booms, or a spot sprayer, the most effective fix for variable application doses is slower travel speed. This may appear as a problem for when timing is critical and productivity is required. But there is a way, and that is to look at productivity differently.
4. Minimize air turbulence. Large sprayers, and those moving at fast speeds, create aerodynamic turbulence that can displace spray. The main problem spots are wheels, in whose tracks measurably less spray is deposited. The exact role of turbulence is still unknown, but we do know that it can be reduced with slower travel speeds.
We tend to equate productivity with travel speed. However, a spray day is filled with many hours of non-spray time, including filling, cleaning and transporting. How much time is lost depends on the operation, but for everyone, it’s useful to do time accounting. Record how time is spent. Focus on areas where you can save time without much expense.
5. Consider spot spraying. The use of optical spot spray equipment, such as the new WEEDit Quadro, or Trimble’s WeedSeeker II, save product during burn-off or post-harvest. These savings can make the use of more elaborate, expensive tank mixes containing multiple effective modes of action, affordable.
On any given spray day, less time spent filling, or transporting, is added to spray time. Our anlysis shows that time lost to driving slower can more than be made up with these changes. The productivity gain gives more opportunity to spray under more ideal conditions that save yield and also ensure more uniform application.
38
FACTOR
REASON
Delayed application
Larger weeds and crop shading
Turns
Lower dose at outer boom section
Boom sway and yaw
Variable dose
Turbulence
Lower dose in wheel tracks
We can still be there for each other Even if we have to be apart Make sure your well-being is a priority and talk to somebody if you or someone you know needs help. Agriculture is rooted in strength − the strength to take care of our families and ourselves.
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39
FARMING YOUR MONEY | DEALING WITH GRAIN MARKETS
Dealing with grain markets When I watch commodity markets fluctuate, I sometimes think: What a crazy way to make a living. The risks that grain farmers go through to raise a crop is unmatched. Once you finally have a crop to market, the prices can be up, they can be down, or there can be no price at all for your commodity. How can this industry be sustainable?
Paul Kuntz Paul Kuntz is the owner of Wheatland Financial, he offers financial consulting and debt broker services. Paul is also an advisor with Global Ag Risk. He can be reached through wheatlandfinancial.ca
For some reason, the industry of growing grains, oilseeds and pulses has been going on for more than 100 years. Even though there are very few guarantees, farmers take risks every day. They invest billions of dollars into land. They invest billions of dollars into equipment. They invest billions of dollars into crop inputs. All of this investment is made with high levels of speculation. Last issue I spoke of how to mitigate risk on the farm. There are tools out there to assist with that. Some are yield-based and others protect revenue. For most farms, there will always be an element of risk they must carry. This is part of the entrepreneurial spirit. Taking risk is part of the challenge that draws people to this industry. The interaction between commodity markets and farmers does intrigue me. In all of my 30-plus years dealing with farmers, there has been a common fear: It is very risky to lock in crop prices before you grow it. I do not disagree that there is an element of risk in contracting delivery of a product that you have not grown. What I challenge farmers to think about is all the other areas of risk that exist on their farm. Let us take a simple transaction like buying a quarter of land for $300,000. You obtain a mortgage to purchase the land for the same amount. In doing so, you sign a contract that for next 20 years, you guarantee the financial institution that you will deliver them $10,967 every six months (based on four per cent interest). Your farm has probably not locked in prices for the 2020 crop. Now you have locked in a deal that sees cash going out of your farm every year for 20 years. Think about the machinery debt on your farm. Every year we sign financial contracts that guarantee banks and finance companies large sums of money over several years. Yet, when asked if we would like to guarantee some income for the crop we have not yet grown, we deem that transaction as risky. Grain needs to be converted to cash to pay for these obligations. Every farmer has a story of train wreck in grain marketing. They will talk about that one time when they locked in a price, the commodity could not be grown, and the market reacted by going higher resulting in a buyout penalty. Everyone has a story or they speak of a family member or friend who experienced it. The interesting dynamic of marketing grain today, is eventually we all lock in contracts. If you want to sell your grain, you will have to do a contract. Our more experienced readers will remember a time when you just called the elevator and said, “can I bring in a load of wheat today?” Often the answer was yes. Those days are over. Now the typical response from grain buyers is, “we are only taking delivery of contracted grain.” The industry has changed so that we have to contract the grain regardless. The question is, when do we contract it?
40
Farmers have many recent events that show that rail lines get disrupted and the best laid plans go out the window. That is not an excuse to give up.
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If you work with a grain marketing expert, they will be able to show you that there are opportunities every year to lock in a premium price. This higher price happens before we know exactly what we are growing. That is why the market rewards you with a better price. Once the market knows how much we have grown, the premium will disappear. This cycle happens every year. We know we need cash at certain times of the year. We know we must contract grain to convert it to cash. We can do this long before the crop is grown. Instead of thinking of the risk of defaulting on a contract, think of the risk of panic selling to make a payment. Or worse than panic selling would be having to talk to your banker about late payments because you did not get the grain moved. We all know that a contract to buy your grain does not mean it will move as scheduled and create cash when you need it. Farmers have many recent events that show that rail lines get disrupted and the best laid plans go out the window. That is not an excuse to give up. One issue I have always had with marketing grain is that we are almost always wrong. We lock in a load of canola for $10.25 and the next day it goes to $10.30. We pull out the calculator and immediately tally up the loss. There is no loss there. We never had the $10.30 price so we cannot lose what we never had. I still feel like I failed in those circumstances. Perhaps the answer is to accept the fact that we are not going to hit highs. Understand that markets go up and they go down. Sometimes they move for understandable reasons, and sometime they do not. At the end of the day, we need to make a living selling grain at a profit or as close as we can to a profit. Know that sometimes we are right and sometimes we are wrong. At the end of the day, we are going to lock in a contract and we are going to sell the grain. If we make a mistake, learn from it. If we have success, try to repeat it. Try to put this risk in perspective with all the other risks a grain farmer faces.
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41
THOSE WILY WEEDS | PATCH MANAGEMENT 101
Patch Management 101 Tammy Jones B.Sc., P.Ag Tammy completed her B. Sc. In Crop Protection at the University of Manitoba. She has over 15 years of experience in the crops industry in Manitoba and Alberta, with a focus on agronomy. Tammy lives near Carman, and spends time scouting for weeds and working with cattle at the family farm in Napinka, Manitoba.
Weeds are opportunists. They seize the moment and grow in spaces and places where they are undesirable. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer wrote in the book Weeds and What They Tell Us to “Remember: wherever weeds grow, they have something to tell us. Weeds are indicators of our failure.” That seems a little extreme, a weed will grow between the cracks in a sidewalk, not because of anyone failing but because a weed seed found an opportunity and grew. A new weed may become a dominating problem in a field for several reasons. Perhaps it’s an indication of soil conditions, a reflection of the crop rotation or even herbicide resistance. If a weed patch is due to herbicide resistance, we frequently recommend patch management to avoid contaminating the field or the entire farm. But the idea of focusing efforts for weed control to patches makes sense in a number of situations. By preventing the spread of newly introduced or highly problematic weeds and reducing seed set, we can minimize future costs associated with weed control and increase land productivity.
Assessing the problem Let’s set aside the issue of herbicide-resistant patches, where chemical controls are challenging and patch management is sometimes the only option and look at other weed patch issues first. The quantity and type of weeds in a patch may indicate soil properties, including issues such as salinity, or variation in soil texture as influenced by erosion and soil moisture. Other factors that can influence weed populations, and that we can adjust, are crop rotation and tillage. By assessing the cropping pattern and the consistent weed issues in a patch, and knowing the biology of the weeds, there is an opportunity to adjust the system to reduce the problem.
Soil properties Pardon the pun, but this is about getting to the root of the issue, the above-ground portion of the weed is not so important as the details of what is happening below the soil surface. Some weeds are considered indicator weeds. Obvious examples are salt-tolerant weeds like foxtail barley and kochia or weeds that thrive in compacted soils such as pineapple weed and broadleaf plantain. While tillage may be an option for compaction, another option that could address these scenarios would be crop choice. Field horsetail seems to be becoming an increasing problem in reduced-tillage cropping. This weed tends to favour poorly drained, low pH soils, so improving drainage or growing crops that tend to have a higher water use requirement may be much more effective than the limited number of 42
PATCH MANAGEMENT 101 | THOSE WILY WEEDS
The idea of focusing efforts for weed control to patches makes sense in a number of situations. By preventing the spread of newly introduced or highly problematic weeds and reducing seed set, we can minimize future costs associated with weed control and increase land productivity. herbicides that are registered for top growth control only. Other options might include timely tillage (in that problem area only so that it is not spread further) or some would suggest applying lime in that area to adjust the pH slightly and favour the crop rather than the weed.
be necessary if the weed patches were managed before the problem was widespread in the field.
Patch Management By managing the patch separately from the rest of the field, the impact of the weed is minimized, productivity of the field is optimized and long-term herbicide use is reduced. Technology available today makes the process so much easier. The first step is to document the location of the patches by marking them—dropping a pin—on a map while field scouting or flying a drone or accessing satellite imagery of a field to pinpoint the problem areas. The weed management choice may be as low-tech as going out to pull a few weeds or mowing off, silaging or grazing the weed to prevent seed set. Higher tech options include sprayers with weed sensors to apply herbicides only when weeds are detected and inter-row camera guided cultivators that can be used in narrow-row spacing and can be equipped with sectional shank control to avoid cultivating any rows. The real opportunity for patch management is when there are isolated islands of a problem weed. I’d compare it to picking rocks. Both of these activities are proactive approaches to prevent future problems.
Crop rotation Weeds that have a biology similar to the crop rotation will thrive when given the opportunity. It was in the 1990s that Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research scientist Bob Blackshaw studied downy brome control in winter wheat, as the weed was causing 30 to -40 per cent yield reduction in that crop. The ultimate recommendation was for three to four years between winter wheat crops, and maintaining an oilseed or pulse crop in the rotation to help keep downy brome under control. Studies showed that downy brome seed remained viable for three or four years, so crop rotation allowed for seedbank reduction otherwise with a similar biology to winter wheat, downy brome was a significant obstacle to winter wheat production. A further recommendation was to control downy brome in adjacent areas, along field borders and fence lines to prevent it from spreading into fields (more patch management). The same principle rings true for many weeds. Wild oats are a challenge to control in early seeded crops such as peas and wheat but not typically a problem in corn and soybean rotations. Wild oat prefers cool moist conditions, causing the majority of emergence to occur in the spring, which means tillage and later seeding dates will effectively manage a good portion of the wild oat population. Waterhemp prefers the open rows and sunlight provided by corn and soybean, so then early seeded, narrow row crops can help to address the problem. But many times, changing the crop rotation would not
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AG COLLEGES | FIELD TO GLASS SECTION | TITLE
Field to Glass
The products we are consuming go through many steps to get from the farm to us and often the origin is lost by the time it hits the shelf. But today’s consumer is increasingly interested in knowing where their food and beverages come from, how they are made, and what exactly happens to get them to their end use.
Brianna Gratton
Brianna Gratton is the smart ag techgronomist at the Olds College Smart Farm. After obtaining her Certified Crop Adviser designation, Brianna worked with various companies such as Crop Production Services, Decisive Farming and Chinook Agronomics before joining the Olds College team.
With this is mind the Field to Glass project commenced on the Olds College Smart Farm in the 2019 growing season in partnership with Decisive Farming, Grain Discovery and local micro-malthouse Red Shed Malting. Barley grown on the Smart Farm was tracked through the process to the Olds College Brewery where an exclusive batch of ‘Barley Trail’ beer was produced. This beer can is equipped with a QR code that when scanned by a mobile device links to the site that displays the story line of the barley including exactly where the seed came from, transportation, and seeding, spraying harvest, cleaning, malting and, finally, brewing. To show the process of growing malt barley from seeding to processing to final product, Decisive provided Croptivity and My Farm Manager for data management support and to provide variable rate fertilizer and seed prescriptions. Through the software applications, Decisive was able to provide a data package that Grain Discovery accessed to create the storyline. From the farm, the barley made its way through the cleaning process to Red Shed Malting where it was malted and prepped for the brewery. Olds College Brewery then transformed the grain into beer, resulting in the Field to Glass project. The product produced has the QR code created by Grain Discovery on the can that when scanned displays the barley’s digital passport. This project looks to address consumers’ growing concerns on food safety and sustainability of the supply chain and allow the supply chainit to build additional value into their product. By incorporating technology we are able to capture this information in a reliable and more efficient manner to not only benefit product farmers but also retailers and consumers. FarmProducers are proud of what they do but all too often their role is forgotten when it comes to the end- use product, this gives them a platform to show all that they have put into the product to get it from point a A to point B while increasing the overall value of the product. With the increasing interest in craft beer, people want to know what’s going into it and with this they can see the exact field that where it was grown and harvested.
44
NEWS & INNOVATIONS
Assiniboine Community College Assiniboine Community College and Olds College have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to work cooperatively and collaborate to enhance agricultural and environmental programming to better meet the labour market needs of the Prairies. Both colleges are well known for agricultural programming in their respective provinces and have long-delivered ag programs reflective of labour market needs. The MOU will support an expanded ability for the colleges’ to work together in a more official capacity. “Assiniboine strives to provide program leadership in the agriculture field,” says Mark Frison, president of Assiniboine Community College. “A partnership with Olds College will facilitate a dialogue amongst colleagues in both provinces, which face similar challenges with protected labour market gaps.” The agreement will encourage sharing of curriculum assets and program information between the two colleges. Both institutions will examine ways they can best use and share resources to serve learners, industry employers and commodity organizations while partnering to support economic growth opportunities.
“Olds College is known for high-tech, hands-on agriculture education and innovative applied research that lays the foundation for solving real-world problems in farming, food and land,” says Stuart Cullum, president of Olds College. “We look forward to our partnership with Assiniboine Community College and working together to support the agriculture industry.” Another important aspect of the signed partnership will have both parties explore opportunities that will allow students to move between the two institutions and their programs. The MOU, signed March 5, 2020, continues until June 30, 2025.
Prairie Grain Analyzers Prairie Grain Analyzers has released a new model of the recently developed MA-404, a new moisture tool that doesn’t require the grain to be weighed or have its temperature taken. This does not require farmers to look results up on a chart. The MA-405 introduces new features such as the change in user interface which is now much simpler to use, grain moisture testing based on volume and weight basis, meaning that farmers no longer need to separately weigh grain, but rather just fill up the grain cup and pour a sample in the tester. Prairie Grain Analyzers has also adjusted the thermometer in the machine to allow for temperature compensation, allowing farmers to test hot grain out of the dryer and cold grain that has been stored during cold winters. The new model still has many of the same features as the MA-404, such as a set of sensors, a rugged touch-screen interface, using an Android portable-device operating
system and rechargeable batteries to provide instant moisture tests in the field. The MA-405 can be updated using WiFi and you can connect to it through the USB port and get all the tests results and manage them that way. The machine does have a little printer, if you need results while in the field. 45
NEWS & INNOVATIONS
Fertilizer Canada Ensuring our farmers are equipped this spring planting season Canadian farmers work hard to ensure the food demands of the global population are met. These demands are also being met with the challenge to ensure crops are produced in an environmentally sustainable way, while at the same time providing economic returns to the farmer. One of the critical nitrogen-based inputs is anhydrous ammonia, particularly for western Canadian farms, and spring seeding is the time farmers need it the most. Decisions made now can determine the strength of the harvest come fall. The Canadian fertilizer industry recognizes the importance of inputs like anhydrous ammonia, and works to create simple, safe and secure access to products that support farmers. In addition to industry-leading codes of practice, Fertilizer Canada also provides training resources on the safe and
secure handling and use of fertilizer through its online eLearning platform. These courses provide education and best practices on the safe handling and use of fertilizer products to all levels of the supply chain, from transport drivers and managers to first responders and farmers. Canadian farmers are committed to sustainable agriculture. Close to 70 per cent of Canadian farm acres meet the basic criteria under 4R Nutrient Stewardship, which includes best management practices for fertilizer application proven to boost crop yields and profitability while reducing environmental impacts.
Farm credit canada The average value of Canadian farmland increased by 5.2 per cent in 2019, the smallest increase over the past decade, according to the latest FCC Farmland Values Report. The 2019 increase follows gains of 8.4 and 6.6 per cent in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and becomes part of a five-year trend of softening growth in average farmland values. “The days of sharp increases in farmland values continue to be replaced by more modest growth,” says J.P. Gervais, FCC’s chief agricultural economist. “Changes in commodity prices, uncertainty around global trade and some challenging weather conditions may be tapping the brakes on an otherwise healthy and robust Canadian agriculture industry.” The highest provincial increases in 2019 were observed in two of the Atlantic provinces: Prince Edward Island with an average increase of 22.6 per cent and New Brunswick at 17.2 per cent. Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan reported average increases slightly above the national average at 6.7, 6.4 and 6.2 per cent, respectively. British Columbia was closest to the national average at 5.4 per cent. Manitoba, Alberta and Nova Scotia had below-average increases of 4.0, 3.3 and 1.2 per cent, respectively. Increases in farmland values reported across the country are as wide and varied as the factors that may have influenced 46
them. Average farmland values have increased every year since 1993. However, increases were more pronounced from 2011 to 2015 in many different regions. Since then, Canada has seen more moderate single-digit increases in average farmland values. The COVID-19 pandemic makes the current economic environment challenging for farm operations and business owners throughout the entire food value chain. “Given the uncertainty, I expect farmers, ranchers and food processors to continue being careful with their investments,” says Gervais, encouraging farmers to have and maintain a risk management plan that considers a broad range of possible economic changes, such as variable production, volatile commodity prices or disruptions to global trade. This year’s Farmland Values Report reflects factors that influenced average land values and prices in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Any impact from the pandemic will be captured in future reports.
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