Fs131111 by Farm Business Communications

FALL 2013 EDITION

GROWING NEW IDEAS

Farmers have high hopes for hemp » 12

GROWING KNOWLEDGE

Protecting “solar panel” equals higher yield » 14

GROWING STEWARDSHIP

The Evolution of EFPs in Alberta » 32

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CONTENTS

GROWING NEW IDEAS Montana Madness A Farming Smarter Adventure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Farmers have high hopes for hemp

GROWING KNOWLEDGE Protecting “solar panel” equals higher yield Understanding how the cereal plant grows and produces seed is

Hemp comes with a steady learning curve as far as production and marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

an important step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Farming Smarter puts VRT to the test

Soil scientist recommends using two types of inoculant for best results . . . . . .22

Does VRT ﬁt into your farm? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Making the bait at Farming Smarter’s Field School

Brassica carinata becoming a viable oilseed option for biofuel market Farming Smarter starts trials in southern Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Rhizobia — one more thing to manage

Chairman’s Message Make wise choices about your crop with help from Farming Smarter . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Manager’s Report Farming Smarter expands with more land, looks forward to future projects . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Opinion Disney-ﬁed nature puts agriculture at risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Book Review Is gluten-free just a food fad or is wheat really harming our bodies? . . . . . . . . . .38

GROWING STEWARDSHIP The Evolution of EFPs in Alberta ARECA takes over EFP program with plans to increase adaptability, ﬂexibility and utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Conservation easements a win-win for landowners and NCC Nature Conservancy of Canada protects habitat for generations to come . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Alberta Shelterbelt Program still going strong

Dr. Jeremy Hummel explains how to make bait balls that attract wireworms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Trees and shrubs available through Alberta Nurseries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Farming Smarter 2013

Cover Photo: Farming Smarter’s research plots, taken with a remote controlled octocopter equipped with a digital camera.

Event overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

EVERY ISSUE

FALL 2013 EDITION

Research and profitability top priorities for new Alberta Wheat Commission

CREDIT: JZAERIAL

Partnership with Farming Smarter provides avenue for new research projects . . . . . . . . . .26

Visit us online for innovative agronomic and technical research information:

Guy Lafond 1953 - 2013

www.farmingsmarter.com

Remembering a pioneer of conservation farming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Advocacy paves the way for political support Farming Smarter meets with ag minister and caucuses to bridge the gap and get noticed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Farming Smarter is published bi-annually by Farm Business Communications for Farming Smarter, #100, 5401 – 1st Ave. S., Lethbridge, AB T1J 4P4 with the support from the Agriculture Opportunities Fund Editorial Board: Ken Coles, Jamie Puchinger Editor: Sarah Sutton

FA R M I N G S M A RT E R / FA L L 2 013

Chairman’s Message

Make wise choices about your crop with help from Farming Smarter

ell, it appears the 2013 crop will go down in the books for most as a bumper crop. It started a little dry at early seeding in southern Alberta but changed to be a relatively wet spring with good rains. The floods in mid-June were a catastrophe for some but in general the farmland benefited from the good moisture reaching down for the crop’s needs throughout the rest of the growing season. The Lethbridge and Highway 3 corridor had a few bouts of hail and some fields, including our FS site, had major damage but most recovered nicely. Mother Nature gave most of us, including myself, a hot and dry harvest, which is always nice when taking the crop off. Although the hot harvest temperatures may give us some storage challenges if we are not careful monitoring bins and such. Some reports of irrigation yields on dryland have been heard and overall most would agree Mother Nature gave us a pretty good season. With the bins

now full of grain, the challenge for this year may be capturing the best price for our commodities as they continue to fall from last year’s highs. With either great yields and/or great prices, we still need to remember to use good agronomics and informative decisions on our farm. Farming Smarter is all about that! We use the organization to do the dirty work for us. They try to help us disseminate the good and the bad choices or options we have on our farms. We greatly appreciate all the support we get from our sponsors that help us get our job done. They help our organization grow and without them, we would not be able to do what we do. The sponsors allow us to do the work needed and to get that value back to the farmer throughout the entire year through many of our activities such as field schools, crop walks, Ag-Tours and conferences. Our organization does not work alone but is in collaboration with many other groups across the province, including the

newly formed Wheat Commission. Together with our success, we in turn hope to make each farm a success and help in the growth of agriculture in Alberta and beyond. Our manager, Ken Coles, and staff have once again helped us have a very successful year. I would like to acknowledge them for the great work that they do. I consider their work to be the major contributor to the success Farming Smarter has each and every year. If you would like to check out any of the current or past projects or the newest widget for your farming operation, visit our website (farmingsmarter.com) or attend one of our upcoming functions. If you are interested in joining our board, you could attend our annual general meeting held during the Lethbridge Ag Expo in March. Have a great fall and hope to see you at all, or at least some, of the upcoming winter events. Thanks, Kent Sande Chairman, Farming Smarter

Manager’s Report

Farming Smarter expands with more land, looks forward to future projects

eflecting upon another season always makes me feel older! But, here we are and the 2013 season is almost completely in the rearview mirror. A mountain of data looms as our next major hurdle in addition to plans for new projects, reports and more reports. Kudos to an amazing staff at Farming Smarter who not only do a wonderful job, but are a real pleasure to work with. They even enabled me to take a long summer holiday with my young family on Vancouver Island! The tour season started out a little rough with lots of rain and hail but we were very pleased to have many guests participate in all of our events this year. Thanks to all our members and partners who have supported our endeavours.

Farming Smarter / FALL 2013

Farming Smarter continued its expansion by leasing 140 acres of land east of the jail and directly south of our college site. This allowed us to take on more projects and to take advantage of a pivot irrigation system. Not that we don’t love our hand moves! We also contemplated a move to a new facility but opted to stay where we are for a couple more years. Better facilities and equipment, especially a pricey plot combine, are priorities for us in continuing to improve our efficiencies. Earlier this summer, we enjoyed an evening pig roast and plot tour with the Alberta Canola Producers Commission board and staff. I was also able to grab a sneak peak of the Alberta Wheat Commission and Alberta Barley Com-

mission’s new office in Calgary. We are very fortunate to have great support from the commissions and share many common objectives toward helping producers in Alberta. More recently we were very pleased to have hosted MLA Bridget Pastoor, who presented us with a cheque from the Agriculture Innovation Program for the purchase of two new Electro-Conductivity soil sensors that will aid in our precision agriculture projects. Earlier we also received a CAAP grant to purchase GPS equipment and to study the viability of UAV-based imagery. There’s always a lot going on at Farming Smarter! See you at the farm shows! Ken Coles General Manager, Farming Smarter

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Opinion

Disney-ﬁed nature puts agriculture at risk Urban Canadians a.k.a. the preservation industry often don’t see nature’s true character // BY LES BROST

n June 2013, we had an up-close and personal look at nature’s brutal power and capacity for destruction. The world watched as rampaging rivers destroyed southern Alberta’s vital infrastructure, devastating communities and wildlife habitat. In the U.S., the wildfire at Yarnell, Arizona killed 19 highly trained wildfire fighters trying to control its spread. This year’s look at the raw power of the natural world was frightening, even for those of us who have personally witnessed nature’s darker side. It demonstrated that nature’s way is often a hard and unrelenting path. In the real world of species in the wild, retirement condos are not an option. When nature’s creatures slow down and become infirm, they usually become dinner for another species.

Most urban Canadians don’t see this side of nature. They are accustomed to seeing nature through the lenses of Walt Disney’s imitators, who tend to minimize nature’s destructive and harsh impact. Popular media puts the focus on the cute, the sweet and the beautiful. After all, cute sells cereal, toys, telephone service and other goodies. The networks are not totally responsible for the distortion, for they are simply responding to the marketplace. Many of today’s parents don’t want their children exposed to the sight of the coyote chewing up the cute little rabbit. Nor do they want children to see rabbits dying by the thousands from diseases stemming from overpopulation. That media conditioning is heaven-sent for the preservation industry — and it is an

industry — in its advocating, lobbying and sheltering activities. The preservation industry has added its own powerful subtext, which is that any human intervention (management) of nature is evil. The cumulative influence, coupled with the dramatic reduction in the number of people familiar with nature’s harsher side, has produced a serious distortion in the way today’s first-world societies view nature. The resulting Alice in Wonderland effect has serious implications for rural communities. It puts entire rural communities at direct physical risk. This physical risk arises because of land use management practices used on provincial or national parks or other areas under protecContinues on page 6

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Opinion

Continued from page 5

management. Too often, managers of these protected areas defer to the preservation lobby and cease to employ basic forest management practices such as removing dead and diseased branches and trees. Left untouched, the forest’s fuel load ramps up exponentially. Farm families and communities bordering such areas have their lives and livelihoods placed in jeopardy because of the high risk of wildfire. For such adjacent families and communities, it’s like living next door to a badly run fireworks factory. There is another serious consequence of this reluctance to manage nature. It is no secret that farmers have ongoing issues with the voracious appetites of unmanaged wildlife populations. As you read this column, hordes of cute, cuddly little rabbits munch the production and profit of western Canadian market garden operations. In other communities, ballooning deer or elk populations in wildlife sanctuaries are straying onto farm or ranch land, destroying fences and consuming valuable pasture and forage. Government wildlife managers at all levels are loathe to act, knowing that to do so will unleash the fury of Disney-fied urbanites determined to save Peter Rabbit or Bambi. Perhaps the largest issue resulting from the Disney-fication of nature is the impact on agriculture’s public image. In today’s instantopinion society, where reflection and thought is as rare as panty hose on a bullrider, it’s easy to make the farmer into the villain. After all, isn’t he or she the one trapping the rabbits or demanding a cull of the deer population? The preservation industry has become very adept at turning that farmer into the bogeyman. Why is this happening? Most farmers and ranchers can find the answer by looking in the nearest mirror. They and their organizations have not told their story in language and symbols understood and accepted by urban Canadians, particularly young urban Canadians. Instead, they rely on their suppliers and processors to advocate for them. That strategy does not work and is often counter-productive. So how should primary agriculture tell its story? What concrete steps can farmers and ranchers take to set the record straight? How

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

Even cute little Bambi can pose a risk to farmers if left unmanaged.

can they expose Disney-fication for the dangerous bundle of half-truths that it is? Many more farmers and ranchers must tell their own stories in the media and on-line. What would these stories look and sound like? The stories would show both nature’s harsh and unrelenting aspect and the negative impact of total preservation. Farmers would showcase the good things they do for environmental stewardship. They would help urbanites understand the value of crops, grass and hay consumed by excessive numbers of wildlife on their land and the negative environmental impact of that overgrazing. They would ask urbanites why farmers should subsidize excessive wildlife populations that ultimately risk both the farms and the wildlife. Urban Canadians need to see and understand the risks farm communities and local wildlife populations face because of the failure to manage fire risk in protected areas. Now, while memories of Yarnell are still fresh, rural communities must expose the frightening risks tolerated by Canadian land managers who are intimidated by the preservation industry.

Credit: Bambi (1942), Walt Disney Pictures

The public image of farmers and their relationship to nature needs reshaping. Every day, in rural communities across the West, farmers and ranchers practice good environmental stewardship. Why aren’t more of those stories told in ways that resonate with urban Canadians? We need stories told in a language that resonates with a young, urban audience. These should be stories about people, wildlife and landscape rather than the standard modern industrial agriculture spiel. Above all, farmers and ranchers must understand a difficult truth — that they are more, much more — than the sum total of their machinery and technology. There are two terrific — and very different — examples of that kind of great communication. Over the years, King Motion Pictures of Edmonton (This Living World) has done marvelous work in presenting a balanced and beautiful look at nature’s reality. The Peterson Farm Bros. from Kansas do an amazing parody of Korean rocker Psy on their YouTube video clip, “Farmer Style” and it has 14 million views. h

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

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Farming Smarter / FALL 2013

Growing New Ideas

Montana Madness: A Farming Smarter Adventure By Ken Coles

hat a trip! Farming Smarter organized and hosted a whirlwind tour of agricultural points of interest in Montana. On July 9, a dozen brave southern Alberta farmers loaded into two passenger vans and crossed the border to learn more about our neighbours to the south. Little did they know that an ambitious schedule had them travelling a nearly perfect figure eight covering 1,600 kilometres with no time to spare. The tour included 12 stops from Havre to Bozeman and our poor vans were screaming as we tried desperately to stay on schedule. As we ventured south, the landscape in Alberta was diverse with bright flowering canola, lush green pea fields and tall crops of wheat and barley waving in wind. But, as we crossed into Montana and headed east to Havre, we were met with a strikingly different view. It was as if the Sweet Grass Hills were a gateway to a different time when the wheat-fallow system dominated the landscape. What a difference, and I have to say kind of boring to look at! A quick stop in Chester where we saw some young entrepreneurs who had started a camelina biofuels plant, which seemed pretty strange since all we saw was wheat. This experience continued at Montana State University where we saw top-notch research and educational facilities dedicated to biofuels from Camelina. We were all miffed at how many times Camelina was mentioned because north of the 49th, this crop had pretty much disappeared entirely. Luckily, we also toured the machinery training facili-

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

ties, which got everyone back to their true love — tractors! A tour of Northern Agriculture Research Center was a muck, as it was too wet to access thanks to a downpour the night before. Nevertheless, we were treated to presentations on the great research going on at the centre. They spoke of many trials on pulses, cover crops, fertilizers and alternative cropping systems. Overall, I was impressed with the work but couldn’t get over the fact that just outside the borders of the facility, no one was really growing anything but wheat? What could be so different on the south side of the Sweet Grass Hills? The U.S. Farm Bill was the answer most often mentioned. A short drive south to Big Sandy brought us to my favourite stop of the entire trip. And, despite some grumblings from passengers who noticed that we were going to an organic farm, I’m sure that everyone really enjoyed this stop as well. Dr. Bob Quinn, a scientist-turned-organic farmer wowed us all with his 4,000-acre organic farm. His innovative and intriguing businesses and ideas constantly challenged traditional approaches. His most notable endeavour is the development of Kamut wheat, an ancient grain that he currently contracts thousands of acres from across the U.S. and Canada, and direct markets through various food shows. Additionally, he raises safflower, presses his own oil, sells it to restaurants as a healthy oil and gets the used oil back to run his tractor. His newest ideas are based on replacing everyday con-

ventions that don’t make sense given that the products can’t be grown locally. For instance, he hopes to replace popcorn and peanuts as popular snacks and change up the traditional glass of orange juice in the morning with a cherry-apple blend. To top off the evening, we dined at Ma’s Café where we were served most definitely the largest slab of prime rib that I have ever seen in life. After stuffing ourselves silly, we struggled to stay awake on the drive down to Great Falls and little energy was leftover for evening libations. Our next day began with a conversation about precision agriculture with a local farmer enthusiast. It was followed by stops at the Central Ag Research Center in Moccasin and the Montana State University Farm near Bozeman, where fellow Canadian Dr. Perry Miller showed us his rotational trials while melting in near 40 C temperatures. Our last stop of the day was spent with a tall, slender, long-haired Dutch potato farmer. He met us at a local gas station on his quad equipped with a holstered pitchfork and shovel. We then learned that he and his family operated an extremely stream-lined operation consisting of over 11,000 irrigated acres. Their core business was seed potatoes and with a slight smile they commented on starting a reality show called Spud Dynasty mimicking the popular show Duck Dynasty. Maybe someday because these were some interesting folks! Continues on page 10

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

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GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Farming Smarter / FALL 2013

Growing New Ideas

Unscheduled stop at a gold mine near Helena, MT.

Mike Gretzinger approves of Wheat Montana bakery.

Brand New shop and office at “Spud Dynasty.”

Dr. Bob Quinn raising cherries.

Continued from page 8

Our next stop was at a very large forage and seed farm where we saw giant basin wild rye complete with a hilarious looking 10-foot wheelmove! But even this was not quite as funny as our next stop. To this day, we’re still not sure how this happened but our tour was somehow highjacked by a passenger who desperately wanted to stop in Helena to see a Komatsu bulldozer for sale. Amazing what can happen when you buy drinks for everyone the night before! As it would be, the seller was a rather interesting fellow who was operating a small gold mine, which he was happy to show us. It was like another snippet from a television show. Ironically, we were back on schedule and excited that we might actually be on time for the first time of the entire tour at our last stop, the Western Triangle Research Center near Conrad. Well, that was until another passenger convinced us to take a shortcut that ended up taking us up a steep gravel road to Montana’s version of Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump. Lesson learned. Don’t listen to farmers from Warner! It was a wonderful trip and we very much enjoyed hosting such a great groups of fellows. Always lots to learn and we look forward to our next great adventure! h

Highlights included the most awe-inspiring and well planned out mega-shop that was near completion. The farmers’ jaws dropped as they absorbed the amazing place with impeccable attention to detail that most perfectionists could only dream of. This was the case in everything we saw, including a seemingly endless line of John Deer hoe drills parked perfectly. Despite the level of perfectionism, we were all amazed with the low-tech approach that was taken — simple by design. No air-drills, no smart phone controlled pivots, no precision ag. Another great meal was shared at a unique and popular restaurant called the Land of Magic Dinner Club, and then we were back to Bozeman to regenerate for one last push home. Our first stop of the morning brought us to Wheat Montana, a thriving farm business that added tremendous value to their farm’s main product, wheat, by starting their own mill and bakery. Their product can be found all over the nation and we were treated to a personalized tour of their bakery. What a beautiful smell!

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Growing New Ideas

Farmers have high hopes for hemp Steep learning curve, but also great economic potential

// By Lee Hart

s a grain and fibre crop, hemp comes with a steady learning curve as far as production and marketing are concerned, but Rod Lanier is one of several southern Alberta farmers believing it has great economic potential as an alternate crop in rotation. Lanier, who farms just southeast of Lethbridge, is producing about 600 acres of a mid-stature hemp variety he plans to market as a raw seed for its grain value. After processing and packaging, shelled and crushed hemp seed is used in the health food market. From an agronomic standpoint, he treats hemp much like canola — it loves nitrogen. He has grown it on dry land over the past six years with yields ranging from 700 to 1,200 pounds per acre. He estimates input costs at between $200 to $300 per acre, including his combining costs. The whole-seed is sold to a processor for about $1 per pound. Further east near Bow Island, Will Van Roessel of Specialty Seeds has about 450 acres of hemp this year. About half that crop will go into certified seed and the other half will be marketed as grain for the health food uses. As the first, four years ago, to grow hemp in his area, Van Roessel produces it all under irrigation. He estimates there are now eight to 10 committed hemp growers in his area. No one is recommending producers seed the farm from fencepost to fencepost with hemp, says Lori-Jo Graham with Alberta Agriculture, but it is one of the emerging crops with real potential as an economic “alternative” for Alberta producers. Graham is a development officer with the Bio-Industrial Opportunities Branch. With about 20,000 acres in production, Alberta is the largest single hemp-producing jurisdiction in North America. “As with any new crop, it is a process of matching production to markets,” says Graham. “As markets appear more farmers will grow it and as more farmers grow it, more buyers will emerge. We are in the early stages of these developing markets. Right now there is pretty good demand for the grain, and I think we are just entering an era where we will see solid markets develop for the fibre.”

Some of the 1,200 bales of hemp straw stockpiled hopefully to be sold into a fibre market. Rod Lanier speaks with a TV news broadcaster about the potential of the hemp industry during a summer field day.

“ Producing hemp is different but not necessarily difficult.” — Rod Lanier DO YOUR HOMEWORK

BASIC AGRONOMICS

Graham and growers alike urge any farmers interested in hemp to do their homework first. Research the markets, line up a potential buyer, and then start on a smaller scale to learn to grow the crop. Producing hemp is “different but not necessarily difficult”, says Lanier. As a relative veteran among hemp growers in Alberta, he says the first step is made in January each year to begin a 50-day process to obtain a grower’s permit or license from Health Canada. Although hemp is a member of the cannabis family, with very low, or none of the hallucinogenic properties of its cousin marijuana, a permit is needed from Health Canada to grow it. And farmers can only purchase certified hemp seed after they have the permit. There are several hemp varieties registered in Canada. Since neither Lanier nor Van Roessel are particularly interested in the straw or fibre side of hemp, Lanier has chosen a mid-stature variety that grows about chest high, while Van Roessel grows a variety he says is similar to wheat in height.

It is a short season crop that can be seeded late. Lanier, this year, spread hemp seeding over three different dates from early to late May to stagger the harvest. And Van Roessel seeded hemp in early June. It is roughly a 90-day crop that should be ready for harvest by early to mid-September. Lanier says he treats it much like canola. He applies a pre-seeding burn down with a glyphosate before seeding. Avadex and Edge can also be used. There are no registered broadleaf herbicides that can be used in-crop with hemp. Select as clean a field as possible, and apply good fertility. On the Lanier farm, which has been direct seeded for the past 27 years, Rod direct seeds hemp into standing stubble with a John Deere disc drill set on 7-½ inch row spacing. He seeds shallow to moisture and applies a canola-level fertilizer blend with up to about 150 pounds of nitrogen. He has applied a liquid nitrogen top dress in-crop to help keep the straw green.

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Continues on page 12

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

Growing New Ideas

Some of the 600 acres of hemp growing on the Lanier farm at Lethbridge this year.

Lori-Jo Graham working with growers to help develop the bio-materials industry.

Continued from page 11

he says, is not to let the straw get too dry, to avoid the risk of combine fires caused by friction of dry coarse fibre in the threshing process. Van Roessel, on the other hand, isn’t interested in the fibre at all and simply swaths the hemp to let it dry down for combining. Later he will bale the residue to be sold as straw. He prefers to swath hemp, but other farmers prefer to straight combine the crop. “Seeding and growing it is not that much different, but harvest is probably the biggest challenge, so a producer has to figure out what works best for him,” says Van Roessel Both Lanier and Van Roessel say an average amount of hemp crop residue is no issue

Lanier and Van Roessel have different approaches to harvest. Lanier uses a combine equipped with a stripper header — a cutter bar equipped with comb-like fingers — that strips off the seed heads and leaves most of the stubble standing. He’ll come back in second and third operations to swath and bale the straw. He has about 1,200 large round bales of hemp straw stockpiled. While there isn’t an aggressive market for hemp fibre, he says they are out there and they are emerging. Hemp fibre is used for a wide range of materials from clothing to building materials. One of the challenges of harvest,

This “concrete” block containing hemp fibre, used in construction, is an example of the wide range of emerging market uses for hemp. Credit: Lee Hart

to work through the following year when direct seeding into hemp stubble. Van Roessel says hemp is a fast growing crop that doesn’t necessarily need high heat units like corn; however, it does like moisture during the mid-July to mid-August period, which may limit its production in some drier dryland areas. He says hemp doesn’t deal well with poor fertility, poor drainage, or poor soil conditions, so it needs a good nutrient package and does best on better soils. “It doesn’t do well if you have soils that are prone to salinity; also, it is very susceptible to saturated soils,” he says. Van Roessel says there isn’t a lot of good agronomic information on growing hemp, so much is left to farmers to figure out on their own. Part of the issue too, he says, is that different varieties will respond differently depending on growing conditions, so it can be very much a farm-by-farm experience. h

For more information on hemp varieties, market potential and production practices, farmers are urged to visit the Alberta Biomaterials Development Centre website at: www.albertabiomaterials.com;

the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance website at: www.hemptrade.ca; and the Farming Smarter continues to be a key supporter of 4-H programs within the Southern 4-H Region, including the Judging Competitions. Approximately 150 junior, intermediate and senior 4-H members between the ages of nine and 21 attended one or both of the 2013 judging competitions, demonstrating their individual abilities to present oral reasons for a variety of classes including beef bulls, dairy cows, ranch horses, seed barley, antlers and jewellery.

Alberta Agriculture website at: www.ropintheweb.ca and/or call the Alberta Agriculture info line at 310-FARM.

Photo: Ginny Smith, 4-H Specialist - Southern Region

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

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Farming Smarter / FALL 2013

Growing New ideas

Farming Smarter puts VRT to the test Does VRT fit into your farm?

// By Lee Hart

arren Taylor hopes his involvement in a four-year, field scale research project will help him find the answer to where or how precision farming might fit in on his southern Alberta farm. Taylor, who farms land around Lethbridge, has been collecting yield mapping data, and using very precise GPS technology for interrow seeding for a number of years, but he

Farming Smarter launches technical study to determine whether variable rate technology is worth a producer’s time and money. Credit: Farming Smarter

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

hasn’t taken the next step into variable rate application of crop inputs. He’s hoping a fouryear, province-wide research project lead by Farming Smarter looking at precision farming will put more pieces of the puzzle in place. “I know a lot of guys have been involved in precision farming and variable rate technology (VRT) for some time,” says Taylor in a late August interview from the combine cab. It was day three of the winter wheat harvest. “But personally I haven’t quite got my head around what to expect. Do you take a field that has variable soil and expect to even it out so you get 125 bushels off every acre, or do you adjust your inputs so you get 150 bushels off the better land and accept 50 bushels off the poorer land? There is a fair bit of expense involved in moving to a full variable rate system, so I need to see more pieces of the puzzle in place before I make that move.” Taylor, who runs a grain and oilseed operation, is one of a number of farmers from Donnelly in the Peace River region to Warner, south of Lethbridge, participating in the project where VRT fertilizer and seeding rates will be evaluated on as many as 25 160-acre fields. Both dryland and irrigated fields are involved

in the project, says Jodie Dunbar, precision agriculture technician with Farming Smarter, who is co-ordinating the project. The purpose of the study, says Dunbar, is to use as many of the tools or inputs available for precision farming to come up with variable rate seeding prescriptions over these variable fields over a range of growing conditions, and then assess the impact of the variable rate technology. Fields with various soil types and quality and topography are selected. Combining soil analysis with crop production history, each field is mapped out with anywhere from two to five production zones. And Farming Smarter technical resources develop the “prescription” for providing variable rate inputs over those respective zones. In 2013, replicated strips in all fields were applied with variable rate fertilizer and two also had variable rate seeding. “Did it or did it not make a difference either in terms of yield or input savings and of course the overall economics is the big question,” says Dunbar. “The project is technically complicated, but we’re hoping to provide some fairly straightforward and simple answers as to whether variable rate technology is worth a producer’s time and money.”

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Growing New ideas

”We’re hoping to provide some fairly straightforward and simple answers as to whether variable rate technology is worth a producer’s time and money.“ — Jodie Dunbar The project started in 2012. There are 11 160 acre fields involved in the study in 2013 and five more fields will be added each year, leading to a final report in 2015. Farming Smarter is using as much information as possible to develop the production zones and input prescriptions on each study field. That information includes soil test analysis, yield monitor information, topographical maps, historical yield maps, farmer history, weather information and satellite imagery. Two other relatively new soil-sensing tools are also supplying information to help define crop production zones — Veris and EM38 instruments. Among other characteristics, Veris measures soil texture while EM38 measures soil salinity. With this complex package of information, Farming Smarter works with producers to create replicated strips in each research field. Various treatments include strips with no fertilizer, the optimum variable fertilizer rate for each zone, strips with lower variable rates, and strips with higher variable rates. That will all be compared against areas of the field that receive the average flat-rate fertilizer blend the farmer would normally use for that crop. For 2013, Darren Taylor has one pivot of CPS wheat in the research project. “They wanted a field with variable conditions; well, this one has it all,” he says. “It has different soil types, areas of salinity, and varying topography so it will be interesting to see what difference there is over the various treatments. You can drive by now at 60 miles per hour and pick out the strips with no fertilizer — that’s a no brainer. But I am interested to get in there with a yield monitor to really measure the difference.” With very limited results from 2012 fieldwork, Dunbar says it is too early to consider any recommendations. “One thing we did see is there can be quite a bit of variation with standard GPS whether farmers are using the WAAS (U.S.) or GLONASS (Russian) satellite systems,” she says. “There can be errors in both vertical and horizontal accuracy. In most cases for standard variable rate fertilizer application, for example, it isn’t a huge issue. As long as you are aware of it, you can make corrections. However if you wanted to use the information for more detailed or more specific field work such as inter-row seeding, or controlled traffic farming, or even for land contouring or drainage work, it would be best to have the more accurate RTK (Real Time Kinematic) signal for GPS guidance.”

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FARMING SMARTER / FALL 2013

Growing New ideas

Brassica carinata becoming a viable oilseed option for biofuel market Farming Smarter starts trials in southern Alberta

// by Donna Trottier

rassica carinata, commercially registered as Resonance, is proving itself as a viable oilseed option for growers in southern Alberta. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) has developed varieties of carinata that offer growers high yield and high oil content, and are suited to the semi-arid conditions found in southern Alberta. Growers who want to include an oilseed in their rotations but who farm in an area where canola production is limited due to soil type or climate, now have an oilseed option with Brassica carinata. Because of its similarity to canola and mustard, Brassica carinata fits into the prairie farmers’ cropping practices. Carinata is more suited to the brown soil zone than canola because it is more drought and heat tolerant; it has a significant branching ability, and it is very shatter resistant. “Carinata is the most shatter resistant of all brassicas, making it ideal for straight cutting. Growers can leave the carinata to be harvested later, without the worry of the crop shelling out. This helps to spread out the workload at harvest,” explains Daryl Males, plant breeder and agronomist with Agrisoma Bioscience Inc. “The production costs of carinata are also lower than canola so the return on investment should be favourable.” Carinata is being developed as an industrial oilseed, with an oil profile optimized for use in the biofuel industry. For instance, carinata produces a high quality jet fuel that burns clean, increases fuel efficiency and reduces aerosol emissions. With the global aviation industry committed to reducing emissions by 50 per cent by 2050 from the 2005 level, the future of the carinata biofuel market is promising. The emerging opportunities for carinata in the biofuel sector have prompted Agrisoma to pursue further development of the crop and to target future market production into the brown soil zone. Agrisoma and Mustard 21 have commissioned Farming Smarter to conduct research trials with carinata in southern Alberta.

Brassica carinata flower early in the growing season.

Credit: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Farming Smarter’s Brassica carinata trials.

Credit: Farming Smarter

Eric Johnson, researcher with AAFC, has been researching best management practices for carinata at Scott, Saskatchewan, in recent years. “The Farming Smarter carinata trials in Lethbridge and Medicine Hat will help to confirm that the data collected for nitrogen responses and seeding rates at Scott, Saskatchewan, are adapted to southern Alberta,” says Johnson. Another part of the Farming Smarter trials is investigating weed control options for carinata. The herbicide trials are evaluating new herbicides and testing the safety and usability of tank mixes of Assure and Muster. Farming Smarter is also investigating the effectiveness of sulfentrazone (Authority) for broadleaf weed control in carinata. Males indicated that Authority is showing promise for the control of kochia, lamb’s quarters, wild buckwheat and red root pig weed. “We hope to gather enough data from these trials to apply for an emergency registration for use of Authority in 2014 carinata crops. I am fairly confident that we will be moving forward with an application for the registration of Authority in carinata,” says Males. The Farming Smarter team is screening two AAC advance lines of carinata, A100 and A110. Medicine Hat and Lethbridge are two areas that have not been used for screening mustard in the past. Paterson Global Foods, which manages contract production of carinata for Agrisoma, is seeking to develop the Medicine Hat area as a core production area for both contracting and crop collection in the long term. Medicine Hat will therefore be established as a core site for screening and the selection of new mustard chemistries and hybrids in the future. Males indicated that Agrisoma will be looking to Farming Smarter to conduct the screening of mustards year after year. h For more information on carinata production, visit www.agrisoma.com.

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

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Growing Knowledge

Protecting “solar panel” equals higher yield Top three leaves responsible for majority of yield

// By Lee Hart

nderstanding how the cereal plant grows and produces seed is an important step in making the most effective use of fungicides, says Nick Poole, an agronomist working in Australia who specializes in crop disease management. Poole, who spoke at the Farming Smarter field school near Lethbridge earlier this summer, says all leaves of the wheat plant contribute to yield but it is the top three leaves that are the most important to protect from disease. It is a slightly different story in barley, since barley grows a bit differently, but a similar concept. “The top three leaves — the flag leaf, the flag leaf -1, and flag leaf -2 — are responsible for about 70 to 80 per cent of yield,” says Poole. “So it is important to have the proper timing of the proper product to protect those leaves in particular.” Foliar applied fungicides do not travel up and down the plant he says. If they are applied to a leaf they will migrate to the tips of a leaf, but they do not travel through the stem distributing further disease control. So he says farmers have to pay particular attention to these primary leaves and apply a timely fungicide.

SOLAR PANEL

Poole, who is the director of research and extension for the Foundation of Arable Research New Zealand and Australia, has spent 30 years as a research agronomist. He describes the wheat (or barley) crop as a “giant solar panel” that collects sunlight and converts that energy into carbohydrates that are stored first in the stem, and eventually into the seed head. Some diseases attack the leaves which in turn affects their ability to capture and process sunlight, while other diseases may attack and strangle the stem of the plant preventing the flow of carbohydrates to the seed head for proper grain production. The flag leaf at the top of the plant collects the most sunlight and contributes to about 50 per cent of the plant’s yield.

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

Nick Poole, long time agronomist from England who is working in Australia and New Zealand, explains the importance of protecting the wheat plant’s “solar panel.” Credit: Lee Hart

“The bottom leaves could be affected by disease which could then spread to the whole plant, and certainly could affect crop vigour.” — Nick Poole Poole describes the leaf below that as flag leaf minus-one (or -1) — sometimes referred to as the penultimate leaf — and the next leaf down as flag leaf -2, and so on down the plant. Flag leaf -1 and -2 are responsible for 20 per cent and 10 per cent of yield respectively. Most wheat plants have seven to eight leaves and the lower ones contribute three to five per cent toward yield. Even though those lower leaves aren’t huge contributors to yield, Poole says they shouldn’t be ignored when it comes to disease control. “You might say how important are those first three or four leaves since it is top three that really matter,” says Poole. “But that is not a good argument. Those bottom leaves could be affected by disease which could then spread to the whole plant, and certainly could affect crop vigour.”

But a foliar fungicide application may not be the most effective at reaching those lower leaves — the product may not get through the crop canopy to make contact with the lower leaves. He suggests looking at ways to “treat them from the bottom up” either with some type of fungicide drench applied in or on the soil or an application method that specifically reaches those lower leaves. In his research over the years, he also found that applying a top dress application of about 25 pounds of nitrogen when treating those lower leaves really helps to boost crop vigour. He says a wheat crop, for example, will be prone to low vigor especially in a rotation with backto-back cereal crops, as opposed to a rotation that includes a break crop like canola. Continues on page 20

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Farming Smarter / FALL 2013

Growing Knowledge

TAKE HOME MESSAGES

Continued from page 18

PROTECT THE PEDUNCLE

Along with leaves being solar panels, the stem of the plant also serves as a solar panel. The top section of the stem, between the flag leaf and the seed head, known as the peduncle, is an important solar panel. And the seed head itself is an essential solar collector, responsible for as much as 20 per cent of photosynthesis process. A disease such as stem rust can put a strangle hold on the stem, impeding the movement of carbohydrates to the seed head. Poole drew a few smiles and comments with a warning “you don’t want stem rust on your peduncle.” Poole says a fungicide treatment to control fusarium head blight is really about protecting the carbohydrate sink in

the seed head. The plant is growing and working all season to produce carbohydrates to produce grain kernels in the seed head. He says there is a narrow window of about five days for treatment and overall treating for FHB is no where near as effective in controlling the disease, compared to an application of fungicide to control something like stripe rust. Poole says the world record wheat crop, produced in Australia, yielded 15.63 tonnes per hectare, which roughly converts to about 232 bushels per acre. Along with other good production practices, the farmer that produced this record crop also made four applications of fungicide during the growing season aimed at preventing diseases from damaging the wheat crop’s “solar panel.”

Approximate nodal growth stage when important leaves emerge?

Flag -1 Flag -2 Flag -3

Start of ext.

GS31-32

1st-2nd node

GS32-33

2nd-3rd node

GS39

Flag Leaf

GS59

Ear Emergence

This diagram shows the various growth stages of a wheat plant and most important leaves that need protection to ensure optimum yield.

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

• Pay attention to your crop and take steps to protect it from disease. Be particularly vigilant: “watch it like a hawk” from the early-boot to early-head stages and apply disease control as needed. Heat and humidity are great “friends” of disease and a pathogen can incubate quickly. • The plant is a solar panel. The flag leaf, flag -1 and flag -2 leaves are the three most important in wheat to protect yield. • Don’t ignore the lower leaves on the crop either. They are not critical in terms of yield, but they can harbour disease that can then spread to the rest of the plant. • Apply the proper product at the proper timing and make sure foliar products are coming in contact with areas of the plant that need protection — it doesn’t move around. • There are many good fungicides available to producers. “Strobies” or strobilurons found in products such as Headline, Quadris and Stratego are very effective. And triazoles found in products such as Folicur and Proline also do a very good job. Poole says the triazoles are better able to get inside the leaves and “are more curative than the strobilurons.” He says it may be a good idea to use a combination of products to provide even greater protection.

Flag Leaf

GS30-31

Some of the take home messages from Nick Poole:

• Slower-acting products may be more effective than very fast acting fungicides, he says. One product, not registered in Canada, is very fast acting and controls disease, but it can also damage the crop. “Slower acting products have more persistence and give more protection,” says Poole. • The big issue with fungicides, he says, is often their value can’t be assessed until after harvest. Did they make a difference? Are they just good insurance? “When it comes to fungicides, farmers really have to assess their risk factors,” he says. h

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FARMING SMARTER / FALL 2013

Growing Knowledge

Rhizobia — one more thing to manage Soil scientist recommends using two types of inoculant for best results

// By Helen McMenamin

“I

f we understand what’s going on under the soil, we can learn to take greater advantage of soil microbes in our farming.” That’s the goal Agriculture Canada soil scientist, Newton Lupwayi, has for his research on the impact of farming practices on soil microbes. Rhizobia, the bacteria that live and fix atmospheric nitrogen in the root nodules of legume plants fascinate Lupwayi. “The nodule looks so simple, yet it is very complex,” he says. Applying the right species of rhizobia at seeding is not always enough to maximize the nitrogen-fixing benefits of peas or other legume crops, says Lupwayi. The type of inoculant is important too. Peat-based inoculants, applied to the seed tend to form nodules mostly around the crown of the plant with quite sparse nodules on the laterals and the more distant parts of the root system. Granular inoculant placed in the seed row resulted in fewer nodules at the crown of the plant, near the soil surface, and more nodules spread throughout the root system. Lupwayi recommends using both types of inoculant for seasonlong nitrogen fixation and many nodules all through the root mass. Late in the growing season, more of the nodules on the roots away from the crown are pink, and look healthier than those around the crown. “Nodules don’t remain active all through the growing season,” explains Lupwayi. “The coleoptile and early roots encounter rhizobia from seed-coating inoculant as the seed germinates. The nodules form early in the plant’s life, but they sense and die early as well, often about podset.” The nodules that form further out on roots that develop later also die off later. Using both types of inoculant gives you an extra level of assurance in the event of stress — pests, flooding, drought, cold or heat — that can destroy nodules. Applying granular inoculant in the seed row is like using a much higher seeding rate. You’re putting on a lot more rhizobia than with peat-based products. The rhizobia form colonies that spread through the soil. As the legume roots grow, they encounter rhizobia colonies. If it’s a species that works with that plant species, a single rhizobium invades the root and in response the plant seals the rhizobium in a nodule where it can safely multiply. The plant’s response to the rhizobium is to seal itself against further invasions by bacteria and to build the nodule, which is a highly specialized environment the bacteria need to fix nitrogen. Rhizobia are aerobic — they need oxygen, but the enzyme that transforms nitrogen gas in air to ammonia cannot tolerate oxygen. The plant provides the bacteria with its oxygen via leghaemaglobin, which carries oxygen to the rhizobia for respiration, but keeps free oxygen levels low enough that the nitrogenase enzyme can function and fix nitrogen.

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

Newton Lupwayi (r) shares his insight about using two types of inoculant for season-long nitrogen fixation at the Farming Smarter field school. Credit: Farming Smarter

“Applying the right species of rhizobia at seeding is not always enough to maximize the nitrogen-fixing benefits.” — Newton Lupwayi The intricate task of maintaining the rhizobia and their unique nitrogenase enzyme depends on membranes that surround the nodule. These membranes control what enters or leaves the nodule to or from the nodule coating or the plant’s vascular system. Nitrogen passes through the membranes but oxygen and other substances are regulated, with oxygen carried in by the leghaemaglobin. Maintaining the nodule as well as breaking apart nitrogen molecules demands a great deal of energy, so any time there is a drop in photosynthates — sugars and other substances — reaching the nodules, they die off. In perennial legumes, nodules live longer than those on annual plants, but they die off, especially following stresses such as cutting or frost. Legumes vary in their ability to partner with rhizobia to fix nitrogen. Dry beans are usually considered lazy N-fixers but, working with bean breeders, Lupwayi is finding some genotypes are much better than others at hosting rhizobia. They hope to incorporate these genetics into new lines of dry beans. h

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FARMING SMARTER / FALL 2013

Growing Knowledge

Making the bait at Farming Smarter’s Field School

t the Farming Smarter Field School in June, Dr. Jeremy Hummel challenged audience members to make bait balls that attract wireworms once buried in the soil of a field. Hummel recommends using several buried balls especially where you suspect previous year wireworm damage. He used a bait ball recipe based on published recommendations from Dr. Bob Vernon of Agriculture and AgriFood Canada. “The exact amounts are not critical — what we’re trying to create is a mass of moistened sugars and starches that will feed microorganisms quickly (the honey) but also provide a lot of decay (oatmeal or flour) to release CO2.” h

Bait ball recipe

Dr. Hummel demonstrates how to cut a sock for a bait ball. Credit: Claudette Lacombe

Ingredients and supplies: • 1 to 1-½ cups quick oats or wheat flour (we used quick oats) — approximately a baseball-sized amount • 2 tbsp. honey • Enough water to form the ball into a sticky mass, about ½ cup • Cheesecloth or old sock, etc. (any fabric to keep the bait ball together but still allow the wireworms to make their way through to the ball itself.)

Directions: Mix ingredients to create a sticky ball, then place in a pouch made of cheesecloth, an old sock, etc. Sink the ball approx. four to six inches into the soil. Dr. Hummel says to pull it up after about a week. “You’ll have to sort through the decaying ball to find the yellow-orange wireworms inside.” He cautions that “if bait balls are left in the soil too long, the decay progresses too far and the wireworms will no longer be attracted.”

Farming Smarter 2013 Event overview Date Event

Attendance

Agronomy Update

Precision ag / VRT & soil sensors / Industry updates / Farming Smarter

450

AgExpo

Tradeshow

23,308

Farming Smarter AGM

Night spraying / VRT project / Fusarium, Inter-row trial updates / Wheat: why in the world are we growing it? / Wheat class performance / Put your money where your yield is

May 30

Crop Walk

Japanese and Downey brome control in winter wheat / WW pest management / Winter peas / Night spraying herbicides

June 6

Crop Walk

Cancelled due to weather

N/A

June 13

Crop Walk

Night spraying incrop / Carinata trials / Fertigation

All Crops Tour

Dry bean breeding / White mold in lentil and dry bean / WW fertility / Inter-row seeding / singulation planters / Fusarium / Winter wheat agronomy / Barley diseases

Farming Smarter Field School

Ground dwelling predators / Wireworms / Cutworms / Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and rhizobia inoculation / Effects on nodulation in peas and lentils / Ultimate Canola Challenge #UCC / Cereal disease management / Root diseases / Effects of: Seed treatments / High/low vigor seed / Damaged seed

235

Agricultural tour – Montana

Biofuel crushing & processing / Rotation trials / Cover crops / Organic land production system/ Vegetable and seed production system / Vegetable oil production and recycling / Precision ag / Specialty crops / Grains & forages / Pulses / Private farm tour / Wheat processing facility / Mill and bakery / Forage seed company / Nutrient management / Optical sensors

July 18

Medicine Hat Field Day

Ultimate Canola Challenge #UCC / wheat and canola insect pests / Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) / Rhizobia inoculation / Yellow/Brown and Ethiopian mustard production

July 30

SeCan Tour

SeCan plots / SeCan member only tour

Disease Crop Walk

Cereal leaf diseases (Net blotch / Tan spot / Spot blotch / Strip rust / Scald) / Ergot / Fusarium / Sclerotinia / Clubroot / Goss’s wilt / Ascochyta / Mycosphaerella and hail injury

January 15 February 27 – March 1

February 28

June 20

June 25-27

July 9-11

August 15 December 3 & 4

Topics

Farming Smarter Conference

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

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FARMING SMARTER / FALL 2013

Growing Knowledge

Research and profitability top priorities for new Alberta Wheat Commission Partnership with Farming Smarter provides avenue for new research projects

s the first of its kind in the province, the Alberta Wheat Commission is already racking up some major successes since its formation in 2012. The organization held its inaugural annual general meeting in January 2013, with several new changes on the horizon. To begin with, the Alberta Wheat Commission just moved into a new office in Calgary, which they are sharing with the Alberta Barley Commission. Having both commissions in the same space saves growers check-off dollars so the organizations can make better use of funds by using shared space and staff positions. The commissions are sharing two accounting positions, a special events and marketing person and a receptionist, as well as a reception area, boardroom and kitchen, all of which reduces overhead costs. The two commissions will also be combining their efforts for some initiatives, such as regional meetings. The new office is located in northeast Calgary in the same complex as Alberta Beef Producers and the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation. The two commissions plan to launch a new cereals magazine in January 2014. Doug Cornell is the new general manager of the Alberta Wheat Commission, as of August 1, 2013, taking over the position from Rick Istead. Cornell has spent most of his career in agriculture and has a wealth of experience in government, agricultural start-ups, consulting, marketing, research and business. “I have a unique skill set that encompasses all of the things the Alberta Wheat Commis-

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

sion wants to address,” he says. “I’ve got a lot of experience in many of the areas this job touches on and this position is an excellent opportunity for me.” The commission has also hired several new staff members. Jeff Jackson is the new markets manager, responsible for market development and information in Canada and overseas. Lauren Comin brings her experience in food science, wheat breeding and agronomy to the newly created research manager position. She is in charge of working with wheat researchers, and helping them access funding for their projects. Brian Kennedy has joined the team as the grower relations coordinator. “He’s just very good at talking to people and communicating with farmers, moving things forward and being pro-active on getting our messages out,” says Cornell. Cornell says the dissolution of the Canadian Wheat Board means that there’s a change in wheat marketing in Canada. “It’s fun to be on the leading edge of that,” he says. The Alberta Wheat Commission adopted an organizational structure modelled after the Alberta Barley Commission, the Alberta Canola Producers Commission and the Alberta Pulse Growers Commission. The group is also working on its relationship with the Canadian International Grains Institute, a relationship expected to evolve as other provincial wheat commissions develop. The wheat commission is also in talks with the

// By Alexis Kienlen

Western Canadian Grains Research Foundation. They recently toured research plots at the wheat breeding stations at the University of Alberta and the Lethbridge Agriculture Research Station. One of the commission’s goals is to assist researchers like Dean Spaner and Rob Graf with some of their costs and efforts. They’ve also supplied funds for agronomic research in the Wheat 150 plots, designed to examine the effects of stacking inputs on wheat crops to hit a target of 150 bushels per acre of spring wheat. Furthermore, the Alberta Wheat Commission has become a core partner of Farming Smarter’s activities. Ken Coles, general manager of Farming Smarter, says the Alberta Wheat Commission and Farming Smarter have the same objectives. “It’s about maintaining profitability for wheat growers. We consider ourselves the muscle behind them. Those types of organizations will invest in research and market access. They decided to partner with Farming Smarter in a pretty significant way to be core funders of our extension efforts,” he says. The Alberta Wheat Commission signed a sponsorship agreement to support many of Farming Smarter’s activities. Coles says the Alberta Wheat Commission wants to see more research in wheat and Farming Smarter will be collaborating with the group this fall and winter to figure out new research projects. “It’s a nice new partnership that I’m proud of,” says Coles. h

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Growing Knowledge

Guy Lafond 1953 - 2013 Remembering a pioneer of conservation farming

// By Lee Hart

s a Manitoba farm boy, who went on to become one of Canada’s leading agriculture research scientists, Guy Lafond never lost sight of what was important to farmers, say his long time colleagues paying tribute to their friend who died earlier this year, after a battle with cancer. Lafond was 59. One aspect of Lafond’s research involved the foresight to look ahead to technology and practices farmers could use 10 to 15 years down the road. But, as one of the pioneering leaders in the “new era” of conservation farming during his 30-year career at the Agriculture Canada Indian Head Research Centre in Saskatchewan, he also focused on practices and farming techniques producers could use today. “He was always very available to farmers, and always interested in what farmers were doing,” says Bob Blackshaw, researcher, colleague and long-time friend of Lafond, at the Lethbridge Research Centre. “He was extremely dedicated, and always had a great connection with farmers. He was a Manitoba farm boy like me. He asked a lot of questions and always had a sense of the type of research needed and the answers farmers were looking for.” As one of the early researchers involved in conservation farming, Blackshaw says Lafond focused on research looking at direct seeding and zero till farming practices. “He was very involved in helping develop no-till farming practices,” says Blackshaw. “And in the early days as he was figuring out how to do it — the economics were pretty dicey. But Guy’s research was clearly geared to finding ways to make direct seeding more economical and more practical for producers.” Brian Beres, researcher and colleague of Lafond, also at the Lethbridge Research Centre, says, “Guy was an integral part of western Canadian agriculture, and he always had a good practical sense of the research gaps. “We often worked together in the area of winter wheat — an eco-friendly crop,” says Beres. “He had a real passion for the environment and for the whole concept of conservation farming. He always had a real good instinct of what were the immediate needs in terms of research, but he also had a visionary quality.”

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

Guy Lafond (l), a pioneer of conservation farming, talks with participants of Farming Smarter’s annual conference in 2012. Credit: Farming Smarter

Beres points to Lafond’s work in developing GreenSeeker technology — an optical sensing system that measures crop status and makes a foliar application of variable rates of nitrogen as needed. “He saw a technology he felt would be of value to producers somewhere down the road, perhaps a decade or more out,” says Beres. George Clayton, an Agriculture Canada senior administrator, said he first connected with Lafond in a hockey game. “When we first met, I was crowding him into the boards during a university hockey game,” says Clayton. “We were both taking our Master’s program at the University of Manitoba and we both liked to play hockey. We got to know each other after that game and became lifelong friends.” “He was a great person, and a great researcher with a tremendous capacity to learn,” says Clayton. “Guy was the most curious person you’d ever meet. And he wasn’t just curious about science and agriculture, he was also curious about people. He wanted to know how you did things, why you did things — who you were.” In a prepared tribute to Lafond presented at a meeting of agricultural researchers in September, Clayton says: “Keeping abreast of innovations initiated by farmers, Guy would often be seen with them in a field or on a combine in the evening and on weekends. He

loved the farmers and the farmers loved and respected him.” Lafond’s accomplishments are many, and his involvement with industry and professional associations was extensive. His research work was widely published to the benefit of all. With a strong focus on conservation farming, and direct seeding and zero till production practices, Lafond’s research contributed to key areas such as crop production systems to enhance production economics, crop nutrition, residue management, soil quality and fertility, carbon sequestration and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He was keenly involved in precision agriculture concepts and adoption of new technology, and his research also addressed grain storage issues aimed at developing safe and economic storage systems. His contributions to agriculture were significant, but Clayton emphasizes who he was as a person. “Guy loved people. Nothing was more important to him than to connect with family and friends who he would visit on his many travels,” says Clayton. “He also established strong friendships with many of the people of Indian Head and surrounding areas where he has lived and worked for 30 years.” Lafond, who died in late April, is survived by his wife of 32 years, Enid Oddleifson, his son Eric (Jessica Parker) and daughter Gaetane. h

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Farming Smarter / FALL 2013

Growing Knowledge

Advocacy paves the way for political support Farming Smarter meets with ag minister and caucuses to bridge the gap and get noticed

// By Alexis Kienlen

uilding relationships with politicians and government can help create a strong future for agricultural research in the province. That’s why Ken Coles, general manager of Farming Smarter, other Farming Smarter members and representatives from various applied research stations met this past February with Verlyn Olson, the province’s agricultural minister and two urban MLAs. “Advocacy has become really important. Basically, if you don’t get out there and get your name known, and sell the successes that you’ve had, you’re not going to get the support,” said Coles. There aren’t many Pprogressive Conservative rural MLAs in southern Alberta, so Olson invited urban MLAs to meet with the group. “He was very keen on getting a lot of the urban MLAs aware of agriculture and what needs to be done so our needs are listened to,” said Coles. Lethbridge East MLA Bridget Pastoor, and Calgary Northwest MLA Sandra Jansen, chair of the Calgary caucus, embarked on an agricultural tour of southern Alberta. While touring the region, the urban MLAs met with Farming Smarter and representatives from the province’s other applied research stations. “It was an invigorating meeting. Despite not being agriculturally focused, they really did care about agriculture. They were just excited about what we doing and wanted to help us,” said Coles. The Farming Smarter team told the visiting MLAs about applied research within the province and what producers in Alberta are doing to grow their businesses. Jansen, who has a background in communications, was especially interested in promoting good news agriculture stories. Thanks to her, Farming Smarter was able to meet with members of the Calgary caucus in May. The Agricultural Research and Extension Council of Alberta (ARECA) chair David Eaton, ARECA executive director Ty Faechner, Coles and Farming Smarter communications director Claudette Lacombe participated in this meeting. The group explained who ARECA was and what they did, but maintained a focus to keep the meeting as an open dialogue. “It was another exciting meeting. They honestly cared a lot about agriculture,” said Coles. “Many of them said they came from agriculture backgrounds, and they wanted to make sure the type of work we’re doing is supported.” The urban MLAs asked a lot of questions and tried to figure out ways to help Farming Smarter get more funding and access to grants. Farming Smarter will try to meet with Edmonton and rural caucuses and is currently trying to arrange a meeting with rural caucus members. “It’s really about making them aware of what we’re doing so we can get continued support and hopefully an increase in support as well,” said Coles. He sees these meetings as a way to bridge the gap and create connections between urban and rural people. “We’d love to be able to take the next step further and begin to start communicating to the general public,” he said.

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

Back Row (l to r): Neil Brown (Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill), Linda Johnson (Calgary-Glenmore), Wayne Cao (Calgary-Fort), Alana Delong (Calgary-Bow), Donna Kennedy-Glans (Calgary-Varsity), Sandra Jansen (Calgary-North West), Yvonne Fritz (Calgary-Cross), and Len Webber (Calgary-Foothills). Front row: Ty Faechner, ARECA, Executive Director, David Eaton, ARECA Chair, Ken Coles, ARECA Board Member and Claudette Lacombe, Farming Smarter Communication Director.

Farming Smarter has partnerships with the other applied research associations across the province including ARECA, a group that includes 12 other applied research associations. These organizations are all non-profit, producer-directed groups working to help farmers be profitable and sustainable. Each of these groups tries to address the issues and needs of farmers in their respective areas. “We have to advocate for agriculture and for support of our organizations. It’s really about ensuring that producers will have the capacity to meet future needs through research and extension,” said Coles. Government has reduced research and extension, leaving other organizations to supply these needs. “They’ve been challenging producers to meet these needs themselves essentially, and we’ve been trying to do that through our organization,” he said. Coles said groups like Farming Smarter need to build recognition and capacity and make the government aware of what they’re doing and why funding is needed. Farming Smarter gets its funding through the government of Alberta’s agriculture opportunity fund. Even though Farming Smarter has grown a lot in the past six years, the amount of funding provided by the government in the past six years hasn’t changed in a decade. “For us to continue, it’s important that the government maintains the base funding, and hopefully increases it,” said Coles. In the past six years, Farming Smarter’s budget has quintupled but there have been no increases in core funding from the provincial government. The group has received some ad hoc supplemental funding that they can put towards projects, but this funding doesn’t help sustain core activities or staff. “I’m a big believer in advocating,” said Coles. “We’re not going to be successful unless we do a good job of that.” h GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

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Growing Stewardship

The Evolution of EFPs in Alberta Building off the initial success of Environmental Farm Plans, ARECA has taken over the program with plans of increasing the adaptability, flexibility and utility of EFPs // By Lyndsey Smith

irst spearheaded by industry, Environmental Farm Plans were supported by provincial and federal governments for several years, but administration of the program recently shifted back under the Agricultural Research and Extension Council of Alberta's (ARECA) umbrella. Fiona Briody is one person well versed in Alberta’s environmental farm plan history. That’s because she’s been associated with the program since the beginning, and, given her experience, this made Briody a natural fit to lead the program forward. The reasoning behind moving EFPs out from provincial jurisdiction is simple: EFPs need to be flexible and, increasingly, evolve to better meet industry needs. As an example, Briody says that McCain Foods now uses a completed EFP as a minimum requirement for delivering potatoes to the food manufacturer. “The McCain example is one which shows how EFP can be used and tailored if necessary to be the foundation to demonstrate commitment to environmental risk management,” Briody says. “Industry is willing to take on a leadership role with EFPs, and (moving to ARECA) allows that.” EFP requirements and standards simply have to be able to change more quickly than was possible under the government model, she says, in order for the plans to maintain their value. And just what is that value? EFP is a whole farm risk management tool that enhances the understanding of the agricultural and environmental relationship. Briody explains that an EFP is meant to alert farmers — be they grain growers, livestock producers or mixed farms — to potential environment hazards on their farm. From there, a completed plan can help farmers secure funding to implement changes, including purchases of things like double-walled fuel tanks or low-drift nozzles. EFPs use a self-assessment process that identifies areas for improvements and is supported by EFP technicians throughout Alberta. Developing an environmental farm plan requires close scrutiny of all risk-prone areas on the farm, Briody says, and ensures that farmers

Farming Smarter / FALL 2013

take a hard look at aging equipment or storage, or ecologically sensitive areas that perhaps haven’t been a focus up until now. Drawing attention to all areas of the farm has benefits, Briody says. “Farmers have told us that they’ve found the process meaningful, even without applying for funding (to implement changes),” she says. How EFPs Work

Let’s say you’re interested in joining the over 12,000 farms that have completed an EFP. Where do you start? Briody says calling the Ag-Info Centre (see sidebar for details) or visiting www.albertaefp.com is the first step in finding a technician in your area, and from there farmers follow a three-step process to completion. Farmers first receive the EFP workbook. This big binder can seem really daunting at first, which is why one of 40 trained technicians will sit down with farmers in the beginning and work through getting set up. “Not all chapters apply to every farm,” Briody says, “so don’t be too scared by the size of the binder!” Once they’ve gone through a chapter and the farmer is comfortable with the process, the technician leaves the workbook with the farmer and returns for a second meeting later to review the completed binder and plan. The second meeting is usually very question and answer heavy, where technicians offer tips and insight into the particular risks or risk-prone areas the farmer has on their farm and offers available solutions. In this process, farmers commit to what changes need to be made or will be made on the farm. Step three is having the plan reviewed by a technician. After review, farmers receive a certificate of completion, which is then used to secure funding (possibly) to implement the plan they themselves have created. “The only people who see the completed binder and plan are the technician and the farmer,” Briody adds. If interested, farmers can then request a gate sign to show they have completed an EFP. EFPs are completely voluntary, and any

farm or farmer can participate, but Briody does see the plans becoming a requirement for entry into certain markets, just like what is happening with McCain Foods and potato growers. That’s part of the value of the EFP, she says, that industry and farmers can work together to highlight changes and advancements farms are making, and use this stewardship tool as an example of a best-practices commitment to consumers. Going forward, Briody says the goal is to make this a “dynamic and purposeful process” for farmers and industry. Increasing pressure on industry to demonstrate the environmental risk management and measures of sustainability of given products is likely only going to increase — environmental farm plans should evolve, change and develop in tandem with these demands to stay relevant, which has to be driven by industry. That’s exactly the plan, now that EFPs have moved under ARECA’s administration. h More about EFPs Environmental Farm Plans are voluntary and are free for farmers to complete. The cost of various improvements made as part of implementation of the plans may be covered through the Canada-Alberta Farm Stewardship Program. From low-drift nozzles, to new double-walled fuel tanks, to offsite waterers, there are several small and big-ticket items eligible for partial cost recovery once an EFP is completed. For more information, or to begin the process on your farm, call the Ag-Info Centre at: 310-FARM (3276), or visit: www.albertaefp.com or http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca, or via email: duke@gov.ab.ca

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FARMING SMARTER / FALL 2013

Stewardship in Action

Conservation easements a win-win for landowners and NCC Nature Conservancy of Canada protects important habitat for generations to come

// by Sarah Sutton

or the second instalment of Stewardship in Action, a series of Q&A-style articles that highlight the efforts of stewardship and conservation groups working in southern Alberta, Farming Smarter spoke with Dana Blouin of the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). Blouin is the Manager of Science and Conservation Planning for the Alberta region of NCC. She is based out of Lethbridge, but her scope of work extends across the province. “We really base everything we do on the ground on science and actual data, and then use that information to help us prioritize where we will be working and directing donor dollars,” says Blouin, who has worked for the NCC for the past 11 years. Here’s what she had to say about Canada’s largest national land conservation organization: What is the Nature Conservancy of Canada?

We are essentially a land trust, utilizing traditional tools such as purchasing land, receiving land donations, and negotiating conservation easements. Since 1962, we have helped to protect more than 2.6 million acres (one million hectares) across the country by working with federal and provincial governments and private landowners. NCC’s on-the-ground work is led by a team of conservation science professionals who work to identify, plan and execute the protection of Canada’s natural spaces, and manage and restore them for the long term. This process ensures that our conservation actions (like buying land, removing invasive weeds or mapping the location of rare species) are efficient and effective. What’s new this year with the NCC?

As a non-profit organization, fundraising is always at the top of our list. We are pleased to announce that we have a renewal of the Natural Areas Conservation Program Federal

Farming Smarter / Fall 2013

The Sandstone Ranch is an NCC partnership property on the Milk River Ridge (about 1 hour south of Lethbridge), owned by the NCC, Alberta Conservation Association, and the Alberta Fish and Game Association. It is 1,800 acres in size with an additional 2,300 acres of crown lease associated with it, held by the Sandstone Ranch Grazing co-op. Credit: Karol Dabbs

Grant. The renewal of $20 million has been allocated for projects next year across Canada, with a portion of that coming to Alberta. Another major announcement this year is the option to acquire an easement on the Waldron Ranch. Once the remaining $3 million is raised, it will be the largest easement project ever in NCC’s history at 30,535 acres. The Waldron Ranch is located on the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains, along the historic Cowboy Trail. This agreement, once finalized, will allow NCC to purchase a conservation easement from the Waldron Grazing Co-operative Ltd., which represents 72 cattle ranchers in southern Alberta. The project involves a fundraising campaign that will complete the $37.5 million purchase of the easement. However, NCC still needs to raise an additional $3 million in public donations (visit www.conservewaldron.ca for more information). This year, NCC also bolstered its conservation volunteer program with 27 events across

the province this summer, with several in the Waterton Park area. More than 300 volunteers contributed their time to several initiatives such as weed picking and catching butterflies. How do you collaborate with private landowners and agriculture producers?

As a land trust, we can buy land, accept land donations, and negotiate conservation easements without actually buying the land. These tools would only apply to deeded land — obtaining crown land for conservation requires another process. While conservation easements are often a lengthy process, at the end of the day, landowners are really comfortable with the easement terms because they are so involved in determining them. Each easement is customized for the individual landowner, making Continues on page 36

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Farming Smarter / FALL 2013

Stewardship in Action Continued from page 34

each easement unique. It’s important that they are comfortable, because the terms go on forever. The similarities in most easements are generally no subdivision, no cultivation and no changing of the wetlands/waterways. With conservation easements, there is a caveat registered on the land title, so even if it trades hands, the terms will stay in place and limits the development on that property. Landowners come to us wanting to do this because it is a voluntary tool with financial incentives that allows them the ability to continue owning and managing their property within the agreed upon arrangements of the easement. For the most part, if the land obtained is already being used for agricultural production or grazing, we keep it that way. The grass is made to be grazed — we recognize it’s the best thing for it. Even if we buy land directly, we often tender it out for grazing at competitive rates. Funds are required for each easement: first, to compensate the current landowner, and second, to set aside funds in a Stewardship Endowments Fund. We draw on this fund for future stewardship projects to look after the area for the long term. Also, in Alberta, we’re

required to go out and monitor the easement, so the fund covers staff time and resources. Generally speaking, we find the conservation easements work really well with the ranching communities. At the end of the day, any restrictions to the landowner outlined in the easement actually align with how they are managing the area anyways. More and more, we are finding that people are coming to us with interest to sell their land. Sometimes they want to get out of the ranching/agriculture business, but have no family to take over the land. How can the agriculture community be involved?

If people are interested in learning more, the NCC webpage (www.natureconservancy.ca) is full of great information. While our main office is in Calgary, we have field staff all over rural Alberta, including Cardston, Medicine Hat and Waterton, so no one’s too far away to come visit and provide more information. We have certain criteria to meet when taking on new conservation easements, such as priority areas. That said, just give us a call, tell us where you are and we’ll go from there. As far as protecting specific species, it’s really the habitat that we’re interested in. The species that use it are an

added benefit. We also like to build on existing blocks of habitat so that we are able to build a buffer zone around a certain area, like Waterton. What can we expect from NCC for 2014?

Look for information on community open houses that NCC will host this fall and winter. We will also have lots of fundraising events, but these usually occur in Calgary. In southern Alberta, the Weston Family Conservation Centre, staffed by NCC and located at the Waterton Springs Campground will be open to the public this fall and next summer. Also, Sandstone Ranch is a great place to go for a hike (located northwest of Del Bonita); it is foot access only and access is by reservation only. To reserve your time on the property, you can call (403) 331-7657. Although we have our traditional tools for securing land for conservation, we are trying to branch out with other initiatives such as our stewardship credit program. It’s a new program to work with private landowners that lease land for grazing. We give them a break on grazing fees when they do stewardship projects on their own land. It’s a way to recognize those who are already doing the good work of conservation. h

Alberta Shelterbelt Program still going strong Trees and shrubs available through Alberta Nurseries

lberta landowners still have access to a shelterbelt program through the Alberta Shelterbelt program through Alberta Nurseries located in Bowden, Alberta. It operates extensive facilities and is confident it can meet the perpetual needs of Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan. Alberta Nurseries worked in conjunction with the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) for the past 12 years growing and dispersing tree/shrub seedlings for establishment of shelterbelts and other agroforestry, conservation and reclamation projects on eligible agricultural lands. Spring 2013 marked the last season PFRA dispersed trees due to federal government budget cuts. Unlike the PFRA,

Farming Smarter / fall 2013

// news release

the Alberta Shelterbelt Program does not require a land title to receive trees. The benefits of shelterbelts are numerous. Shelterbelts reduce wind speed and create necessary microclimates. On average, a mature five-row shelterbelt, with at least two rows of conifers, planted around a farmhouse can save 25 per cent in heat requirements. The trapped snow provides water for dugouts and soil reserves. The sites provide wildlife habitats and add biodiversity. Wherever people build dwellings, one of the first things they turn to is planting trees for shelter, shade and beauty. The longevity of the Alberta Shelterbelt Program is a testament to these and the many other benefits of plant biodiversity on the farm.

Shelterbelt trees growing strong in Bowden. Credit: Alberta Nurseries

For more information, visit the Alberta Shelterbelt Program page on www.marketland.net

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

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GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

FARMING SMARTER / FALL 2013

Book Review

Author wages war against wheat Is gluten-free just a food fad or is wheat really harming our bodies?

wanted to review this book for Farming Smarter because we grow a little wheat in Alberta. So if this book has relevance to the industry, I wanted to let you know. Also, I saw many people turning away from wheat and ordering gluten-free meals. But most of them were unable to articulate why it is important to ban wheat from your diet. I wanted to find out if there is any science behind the wheat ban or if this is just another fad driven by modern man’s (and woman’s) distrust of the food industry in general and modern crops in particular. The author is a preventative cardiologist from Wisconsin and medical director of Track Your Plaque (www.trackyourplaque.com). Davis bases his prescription to eliminate wheat, in particular, and grains in general from your diet on evidence that over the generations of hybridization we turned ancient grain into a supercarbohydrate that overloads our bodies through glucose response to ingesting modern gluten-rich wheat. He claims that before Dr. Norman Borlaug developed dwarf, high-yield wheat, we were growing and eating something reasonably close to ancient grains, such as Einkorn and Emmer. With the wheat Borlaug developed, we began eating something that causes the human body to overreact with an inflammatory immune response. He lays the blame for modern illness and obesity squarely at the roots of Triticum Aestivum. He postulates that most of us are celiac disease sufferers, but we don’t display the most common symptoms and are therefore undiagnosed. He takes readers through all the things that eating wheat will do to your body — which is where my first objection came into play. He

FARMING SMARTER / FALL 2013

carefully explains terms such as glycation, cerebeller ataxia, exorphins and many other medical terms related to every disease of the body and brain. My challenge is that, even though I’m a smart cookie (gluten free of course), I needed a glossary and there isn’t one. Davis brings in examples from his own practice and scientific studies that support his premise. I have no way of knowing whether he is using carefully selected results or offering definitive evidence that would stand up against peer review. I’ve written enough stuff about science to know that it is possible to skew results to fit just about any purpose. Speaking of which, I too write a little and can recognize a writing style/mechanism that serves to emphasize a point or drill an idea into a person’s mind. This book is rife with such techniques and that causes me to distrust, but that could just be me. It took a while to read this book. Every now and then, I had to walk away because I found myself feeling very much like I was committing suicide every time I had toast. The level of detail regarding what wheat does inside the body and the diseases it aggravates overwhelmed my ability to think rationally and made me want to abandon my life-long belief that a little bit of everything in moderation is the way to go. Davis also talks about how much wheat we grow on this planet. He claims the average American diet is about 50 per cent wheat. He talks about the fact that you can find wheat in some strange places — like pea soup — and that to become completely wheat-free requires diligent effort. This effort will pay off through a long, slim, disease-free life. By the time I got to the back of the book where he pares food options down to veg-

// BY CLAUDETTE LACOMBE

etables, nuts/seeds, dairy products and meat, I figured I’m doomed. If Davis is right, wheat farmers are growing poison that is causing the great obesity, diabetes, heart disease and mental illness epidemics of our time. They are feeding us a food that will kill us slowly and with much pain, sensory deprivation and mental illness. There is no part of the human body that wheat is not hurting. If this guy is right, Houston we have a problem. If this is just another food fad directed at a modern population looking for a silver health bullet, then we just have to wait it out. Another fad will come along and I’ll be reading something called Fruit Face or something.

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

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Global Perspectives... Local Knowledge

2014

Join us... Jan. 28-30 Edmonton EXPO CENTRE at Northlands FarmTech™ 2014 Speakers Chris Hadfield Astronaut, Former Commander of the International Space Station FarmTech™ 2014 Banquet

Michael Clemons CFL Legend, Toronto Argonauts Vice-Chairman

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Leona Dargis Canadian Nuffield Scholar

Canada’s premier crop production and farm management conference. FarmTech™ 2014 features an outstanding line-up of speakers delivering more than 65 concurrent sessions covering the latest in technology, environment, agronomy and farm business management. The Agricultural Showcase is home to the most innovative companies displaying their products and services along with special events and networking opportunities.

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