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Volume 40, Number 14 | SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

$4.25

PRACTICAL PRODUCTION TIPS FOR THE PRAIRIE FARMER

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SPLITTING THE DIFFERENCE Splitting your nitrogen application can decrease your risk. Find out if it’s the right fertilizer solution for your farm

PHOTO: COURTESY OF PRACTICAL PRECISION INC.

Some farmers using split nitrogen applications use GreenSeeker technology. The GreenSeeker system lets farmers apply nitrogen in-crop at variable rates during the growing season.

BY ANGELA LOVELL

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s a split nitrogen application worthwhile on the Prairies?

That’s a question researchers have been trying to answer for the past 30 years. The higher fertilizer prices rise, the more farmers want an answer. Is there value in hedging your bets — applying part of your nitrogen at seeding then waiting to see what yield potential the season brings before you add the rest? Or, is it better to gamble on having all the nitrogen the crop needs ready and waiting in case the weather keeps you off the fields when that in-crop application needs to be made?

There has been plenty of research done in both Eastern and Western Canada and consequently there are differing opinions on the value of splitting nitrogen just as there are different cropping systems and conditions on either side of the country.

The general consensus, however, is that there is no significant yield advantage from split nitrogen applications over applying it at seeding in most cases.

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THE WESTERN EXPERIENCE When you compare split nitrogen application to banding an equivalent amount of fertilizer at seeding, there is little yield advantage, says Cynthia Grant with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Brandon Research Centre. “Normally, our soils are dry enough and our season short enough that losses between fertilizer application and crop uptake are not enough to make split applications significantly better,” she adds.

Dr Grant led multi-year research across various sites in Western Canada into crop yield with controlled release urea (CRU) and split application of nitrogen as compared to non-coated urea (NCU) just at seeding. The results showed that urea applied as an in-soil band at the time of seeding was generally as or more effective in increasing yield than use of a CRU, split application of urea or a blended application of urea plus CRU. The studies also found that delays in release of the urea from the CRU occasionally appeared to limit early season nitrogen avail-

ability and crop growth, resulting in some yield reduction versus non-coated urea, most commonly at sites where yield potential and nitrogen demands were large.

“Across a wide range of ecoregions and growing conditions, the use of CRU or split applications do not appear to provide a consistent improvement in crop yield, nitrogen concentration in the grain, total nitrogen accumulation at harvest, or nitrogen use efficiency as compared to recommended applications of non-coated urea banded at the time of seeding,” says Dr. Grant.

There are exceptions where split applications may have benefits: • Under wetter than normal conditions combined with warm weather which can lead to greater nitrogen losses in the spring; • When a high level of leaching has occurred due to lots of precipitation on light textured soils; or, • In variable rate situations based on nitrogen sufficiency using systems like the GreenSeeker that allow farmers to apply nitrogen rates to specific spots where deficiencies are identified.

A poor start to spring is another situation where split nitrogen might also be useful. If a farmer cuts back on fertilizer due to poor conditions in the spring, but the season then improves to the point where he expects a significantly higher yield potential than he first believed would be possible, adding extra nitrogen in-crop might help boost yields.

IN THE EAST The potential advantage of being able to add nitrogen in-crop to take advantage of improving weather conditions and increased yield potential is certainly supported by some of the research being done in Eastern Canada. Although when results are averaged over a number of years there is no consistent yield increase due to split nitrogen application, says Peter Johnson of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Johnson has conducted the research in conjunction with Dr. David Hooker, University of Guelph and found that, under certain weather conditions, split nitrogen applications

In This Issue

have been shown to increase yield in winter wheat in Ontario by seven to eight bushels per acre.

All research indicates that the most important factor in whether split nitrogen applications improve or decrease yield is weather. “Split nitrogen applications have the potential to work very well but the weather plays a big role,” says Johnson. “The challenge with split nitrogen application is if a producer relies too much on the second application. For example if 120 pounds nitrogen total is the target and 30 pounds of nitrogen goes on up front, then most of the nitrogen goes on in the second application. If it starts to rain right when I want to put my second application on and I am delayed a couple of weeks, or if it doesn’t rain for two to three weeks after I apply the second shot — in both those scenarios I reduce my yield because I starve my crop for nitrogen in that two or three week time frame when the crop has high demand and I need the nitrogen to be there.”

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Wheat & Chaff ..................

2

Features ............................

5

Crop Advisor’s Casebook

6

Columns ........................... 20 Cattleman’s Corner .......... 30 Machinery & Shop ............ 33

Floating fall fertilizer

DANELL VAN STAVEREN PAGE 14

AGCO’s tractor lineup

SCOTT GARVEY PAGE 36

FarmLife ............................ 44

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Wheat & Chaff STAMPEDE

BY JERRY PALEN LEEANN MINOGUE

had to track him down. This kind of story will be gold at Christmas for years to come.

BEANS IN A POD

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“I don’t think it’s stuck too bad, But it just keeps sinking.”

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e got a late start — the crops just weren’t ready — but harvest is finally underway. We’ve already got most of the winter wheat in the bin (with a slightly disappointing yield and a little fusarium), and we’ve made a good-sized dent in the canola swathing.

With local help hard to find (darn high-paying oilfield jobs) and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program under attack, we created our own Relative Workers Program to get us through the harvest season. We’ve flown in a retired uncle from Ontario and a young nephew from Vancouver to help us get the job done.

We’re not sure the accommodations and food we’re providing would pass a detailed government inspection, but the help are earning their pay so far. Here are some reasons you might want to try this at home: • Recently retired uncles are really conscientious. Maybe this only applies to my Uncle Bob, but he’s already spent more time planning how to lay out the corners when he swaths canola than I ever have. (I always think of it as a fun puzzle for the combine driver.)

Bob got the hang of the machine in less than an hour. My only worry: he’s making me look bad.

• Having relatives around gives you time to catch up on the family gossip. While she’s helping me make lunches to send out the field, Aunt Lois is giving me the dirt on relatives I didn’t even know I had!

She also has a surprising tasty easy salmon recipe.

• Our city-raised teenage nephew is providing great entertainment. Last week when he was driving the grain truck after dark, he got lost in the field. My husband

I took a look at the soybeans at a local field day last week. We’re new at growing soybeans, but even I could see that most of the pods in the plot were filling with four soybeans; ours mainly have three. I emailed Shawn Rempel, production manager for Quarry Seed, to find out why.

Shawn replied right away. “This is somewhat variety dependent. For example our TH 33003R2Y puts on a lot of four-bean pods compared to other varieties. As the plots are all trimmed up and have a lot of space in between the reps, they receive a lot of heat, which can exaggerate the podding that you see.”

We don’t need to worry too much. “Consistent three-bean pods are always the best to achieve yield,” Shawn said.

CONTRACTING OUT I’m not sure I’m allowed to tell anyone this, so here’s hoping my neighbours and relatives aren’t reading Grainews.

This summer, I’ve done something that may cause me to lose status as an “official farm wife.”

I don’t know exactly how this gets enforced. There’s probably a municipal bylaw. Or maybe SGI (Saskatchewan Government Insurance) will send someone around to pry the “F”-class license plates off of my SUV. I’ve hired someone to help with the yard.

Most of my female city friends don’t understand this. In the city, if couples don’t share all the work equally, the default seems to be “men do the yardwork.” It’s normally managed differently on farms. Any plants not growing in an area large enough to handle a large-sized tractor tend to fall to the women.

On our farm, I’m pretty sure

this is because my husband is too busy in the spring — not because I have any yardwork skills. While the grass on our front lawn was growing high enough for a duck to build a nest, my husband was seeding, spraying and working with roofing contractors. I can’t exactly explain why I didn’t have time for the lawnmower, but in my defence, there were farm shows, and a seven-year old who needed chauffeuring to soccer and school events. Yardwork didn’t make the top of the list.

I started to daydream about moving to a yard-free condo in the city. But I’d never get my husband to leave the farm, and hiring help is much cheaper than getting a divorce lawyer. The two young women I found to come out one day a week are doing an excellent job. Our yard has never looked better.

I was a little embarrassed to admit this. But when I finally told a friend, she told me about a nearby farm family who has contracted out the cooking. Every evening, one of the harvest crew heads to town and picks up meals prepared by a caterer. Then he delivers meals to everyone in the field. This operation has three combines, so there can be up to a dozen people to feed on a sunny harvest day. To make it more complicated, their land is quite spread out. “It was taking [we’ll call her] Susan almost two hours to take meals out, by the time she packed up the kids and drove around looking for all of the grain trucks.”

Susan has her own job in town, and two kids to look after. The new regime makes sense to me.

Some farmers contract out marketing decisions. Lots hire custom sprayers. Some don’t do their own bookkeeping. Now it’s meals. And weed whacking. Is there something you’ve found a way to contract out on your farm? If so, let me know. I’ll either write about it, or try it at home.

Leeann

You might win this contest if…

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f you’re from the Prairies, this might be the contest for you.

I’m sure you’ve been laughing at the “You might be from the Prairies” cartoons we’ve been running on Page 3.

I’ll bet you have your own idea for a cartoon that would be at least as funny as the ones the authors Jason Sylvestre and Carson Demmans have come up with.

Here’s your chance!

These cartoons have been coming out of a book called, ”You Might Be From Saskatchewan if…” This book has been selling so well, Volume 2 is in stores now. The publisher, MacIntyre Purcell Publishing, has sent me five copies of the new book to give away to Grainews readers.

Send in your best “You might be from the Prairies if…” lines. We’ll choose the five funniest entries, and mail copies of the new book to five winners. I’ll print your lines in Grainews, and some may make their way into Volume 3.

No need to draw a cartoon (unless you want to), just send your funniest lines about Prairie life to leeann.minogue@fbcpublishing.com. † Leeann

You might be from the Prairies if this is the view from your front step.

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

grainews.ca /

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Wheat & Chaff Photo contest

Farm safety

GIVE US YOUR BEST SHOT This is fifth generation farmer Mason Phillips, age three at the farm near Beauvallon, Alta. (Don’t worry, of course that truck isn’t running!) Mason’s family says, “Mason is an active farm kid that spends his days outside in all the equipment and helps as much as we let him.”

Thanks for sending in this photo! We’re sending you a cheque for $25.

Send your best shot to leeann.minogue@fbcpublishing.com. Please send only one or two photos at a time and include your name and address, the names of anyone in the photo, where the photo was taken and a bit about what was going on that day. A little writeup about your farm is welcome, too. Please ensure that images are of high resolution (1 MB is preferred), and if the image includes a person, we need to be able to see their face clearly.

Leeann

Refuelling farm machinery safely

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ractors, combines and grain trucks are just a few of the machines farmers rely on to get the job done.

These machines need fuel and farm workers find themselves refueling machinery so often that it’s easy to become complacent. Both gasoline and diesel are extremely flammable and can cause explosions, so it’s important to pay attention and make sure proper refueling procedures are followed.

When refueling, the first step is always to use the right type of fuel.

Double check machines to see whether they take diesel or gasoline; clearly and correctly label supplies of diesel and gasoline to avoid confusion.

It’s essential to ensure farm equipment is off and cooled before refueling. A spark from the ignition system or hot exhaust could ignite the fuel. If fuel spills on an engine, wipe away any excess and allow time for the fumes to dissipate. Always have your fueling station outside, in a well-ventilated area — never inside a building.

It’s important to be aware of any source that could cause a spark or static electricity. Grounding the machine with a ground wire or dropping mounted equipment reduces the risk of static electricity. Remain still while refueling. Walking around, entering and exiting the machinery could result in a static charge buildup. Electronic devices, including cellphones or MP3 players, can also cause static electricity and shouldn’t be used when refueling.

Open flames are also dangerous — items like cigarettes and butane torches need to be kept away from designated refueling areas.

Exposing fuel to sparks, static electricity and open flames could result in explosions and fire.

Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD), the only type of diesel fuel legally allowed for use in Canada (with the exception of railway and marine applications), poses a greater static ignition threat than gasoline or other types of diesel formerly used in farm machinery. ULSD lowers emissions and

improves air quality but removing sulfur from the fuel increases its ability to store a static charge.

It’s important to properly bond and ground all of your equipment (fuel supply tank, transfer pump, transfer hose, nozzle, etc) when using ULSD to eliminate the risk of a fire or explosion. Check with your fuel supplier to make sure your fuel delivery system is up to fueling standards.

Fire prevention is the goal when refueling. However, even when following all of these steps, be prepared for the unexpected. Always have an appropriate and fully functional fire extinguisher close by, so you can react quickly to eliminate the danger. Clean up fuel spills immediately, no matter how small, to reduce the impact on safety and on the environment.

While it’s easy to let your refueling routine slip, it’s important to remain alert and aware of the dangers of refueling. It only takes one misstep to cause a tragedy. † Canadian Agricultural Safety Association — www.casa-acsa.ca

Agronomy tips… from the field

Minimize potato bruising

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You might be from the Prairies if...

By Carson Demmans and Jason Sylvestre

s a potato producer, the first thought on your mind at harvest is probably “Go!” But this year, you might want to modify this idea slightly to “Go gently.”

Challenging planting conditions caused above-average levels of seed-piece decay in some growing regions, resulting in uneven plant stands. And that means a challenging harvest, given the greater probability of tuber-size variability and maturity. This variability can increase the potential

for black spot and shatter bruising and, if the tuber skin breaks, fusarium dry rot. Addressing variability in order to minimize bruising and storage loss will take a special degree of care.

Begin by keeping conveyor belts full. A conveyor that’s uniformly and fully loaded minimizes jostling and bouncing.

Adjust the ratio of the harvester’s conveyor speed to ground speed to maintain a uniform flow.

Always operate the bin piler at full capacity. And remember to

Project management

Growing canola

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You have had more deer in your yard than the average zoo.

Weather Lore

Early frost?

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Clear moon, frost soon. lthough it seems that a late spring or early fall frost is more apt to occur during a full moon, meteorologists say that’s not necessarily true. But we do tend to notice the full moon more when the sky is clear and clear skies are much more likely to accompany below zero temperatures.

Clouds which diffuse the moonlight and starlight also act as an insulating blanket over the earth — the clearer and calmer the air, the greater the chance for frost.

When the stars and moon are shining crystal clear, it’s a good idea to tuck a blanket around those tomatoes. † Shirley Byers’ book “Never Sell Your Hen on a Rainy Day” explores over 100 weather rhymes and sayings. It is available from McNally Robinson at: www.mcnallyrobinson.com

n a previous issue of Grainews, we announced the addition of our new timelapse camera. My husband helped me drive in a post in the ground in the canola field north of our house. I attached the camera to the post and set it to take a photo every day around lunchtime. Eventually, we would be able to string the photos together into a time-lapse video of the growing crop.

And so, I set the camera and left it in the field.

Before the bolting stage, when it was time to spray, I took the chip out of the camera and uploaded the video, then reset the camera (slightly higher), and left it in the field again.

The early video turned out well. (Find it online at grainews.ca by searching for “canola timelapse.”)

But then things went awry.

When I took the chip out of the camera and went to upload the video, I found …. nothing.

The batteries died, or I set the camera wrong or both. It was an accident, although some of you might want to accuse me of sabotage — if you look very closely, you might notice that we accidentally set the camera in the wheel track, not exactly the spot we’d want to showcase for every Grainews reader.

The camera’s out in the field again, hopefully capturing the changing colour of the crop and eventually our harvest progress. I have my fingers crossed. † Leeann

apply this tip to all other conveyors in the yard.

Next, avoid dropping potatoes more than six inches. Pay special attention to drop height when loading trucks in the field, when unloading into the stinger and when piling into the shed.

Training operators and harvest staff on drop heights and conveyor operation can help maintain tuber quality. † This agronomy tip is brought to you by Susan Ainsworth, P.Ag., a contractor with Syngenta Canada specializing in potato production.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Cover Stories Fertility management at high nitrogen rates. “The plant determines how much stem elongation is going to happen beginning at the time that the heads start to come above ground, at growth stage 30,” he says. “In a split application, where I have applied 60 pounds of nitrogen up front, the crop at growth stage 30 responds as if it only has 60 pounds of nitrogen to work with, so it doesn’t develop a thick, lush early canopy. It doesn’t compete plant-to-plant as much, and so I don’t get this stretch by the wheat plant trying to reach up and out-compete its neighbour for sunlight and moisture. By growth stage 32, when I apply the rest of the nitrogen, the stem elongation has been determined and the crop acts from a lodging standpoint like it has the lower rate of nitrogen and not the higher rate of nitrogen. I can apply high rates of nitrogen at this stage and still have standability.”

Winter wheat boost: Johnson has found that split nitrogen applications seem to provide more of a boost for winter wheat because it can help stimulate new tiller development in spring, so it could offer additional benefits for Western Canadian winter wheat growers. He’s confident that split nitrogen applications for Western Canada, even on spring wheat, could hold a lot of potential under the right conditions.

Variable moisture: “From a Western Canada perspective, in a situation where a grower is often concerned about lack of moisture, if he targets 90 pounds total nitrogen and puts his first 60 pounds on at seeding, by mid-June, when he is at growth stage 31 or 32, he knows how much rainfall he’s had through May and June and has a much better concept of what his yield potential is going to be,” he says.

» CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Splitting the difference The risk of missing that brief window of application may be even greater in Western Canada, where the growing season is typically shorter than in the East.

Conversely if the rain is received at the appropriate time to move the second nitrogen application into the ground where it can be taken up by the plants, it can result in a yield increase and improved nitrogen use efficiency, adds Johnson.

Ideally a second application of nitrogen should be made at growth stage 31 or 32 (first to second node) says Johnson, which is standard whether a farmer is growing spring or winter wheat anywhere in Canada.

Factors beyond yield Other benefits of using split nitrogen applications include more uniform heading and reduced lodging.

Even crop maturity: Even crop maturity is especially important in Ontario, says Johnson, because farmers are often using a fungicide to control fusarium The more uniform the crop is at the heading stage the easier it is to time and get the most out of the fungicide application. In Western Canada, fungicide use is increasing, which could make this an important factor in a year when conditions are conducive to fusarium development. But, with the West’s shorter growing season, maturity at harvest is probably as important.

Reduced lodging: Reduced lodging is one the most significant effects Johnson has seen from split nitrogen application, even

“In a normal year, add the 30 pounds. But if it’s a good year — like 2013 — add 60 or even 75 pounds to really drive the crop.

You do need one more rainfall to get that nitrogen into the ground so the plants can utilize it, and that is always the risk, but if it’s a wetter year you probably have that opportunity. You could also use liquid nitrogen, which makes it a little easier to get the nitrogen into the ground than dry urea. So the split application in this scenario does offer the potential to do a better job of nitrogn management and still prevent lodging.”

Types of nitogen While research work has been done into how different forms of nitrogen affect yield, studies across the Canadian Prairies from 2004 to 2006 found the nitrogen rate to be the main factor behind yield variations in barley, wheat and canola.

The nitrogen form did not significantly affect either yield or protein content in studies led by Drs. Cynthia Grant and Mohammad Khakbazan of AAFC at Brandon.

“In general, application of noncoated urea (NCU) produced similar or higher returns than the use of controlled release urea (CRU), split fertilizer applications or a blend of NCU and CRU,” the study says. “There were some limited situations where the use of split applications, CRU or CRU in a blend with the NCU increased crop yield as compared with the NCU. However, when higher costs of CRU or split application were taken into account, the increased yield was not enough to cover the extra cost. Therefore, additional economic benefits were limited or nonexistent.”

How to do it Johnson’s research in Ontario is now focusing on better recommendations about how to do the split. “We are trying to determine what is the right amount of nitrogen to put up front so that if I get delayed in the second application I don’t see that yield loss,” he says.

Similar research by Guy Lafond and others in Western Canada in 2005 and 2006 suggested that risks can be reduced if a minimum of 50 per cent of the target rate of nitrogen is applied at seeding in spring wheat and 67 per cent in canola.

In-crop applications in spring wheat can be made up to growth stage 30; for canola, in-crop applications can be made up to the start of bolting.

Research shows that as long as 50 to 66 per cent of the total nitrogen rate is applied at seeding in Western Canada, later in-crop N applications should pose little risk to yield, but there is always a risk from lack of precipitation at that time.

Johnson is confident that a lot of the research findings about split nitrogen applications in Eastern Canada are equally applicable to the West. “I really do think that a lot of this applies quite nicely to Western Canada,” he says. “I would encourage growers to put down two thirds of their nitrogen early and then wait and see. If it’s extremely dry then maybe they should stop at the two thirds. If there’s lots of moisture then maybe they should push the yield by adding more nitrogen. It just opens up more opportunities to manage your nitrogen better once you know the weather conditions and are that much further into the season.” † Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist living and working in Manitoba. Find her online at www. angelalovell.ca.

1 6 6 6 D u b l i n Av e n u e , W i n n i p e g , MB R 3 H 0 H 1 w w w. g r a i n e w s . c a PUBLI SH ER

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EXTENDED OUTLOOK FOR THE PRAIRIES Weather Forecast for the period of September 7 to October 4, 2014

Southern Alberta

Peace River Region

September 21 - 27 Highs reach the teens on most days with frost at many locations on 2 to 3 nights. Some rain and blustery on a couple of days.

September 28 - October 4 Changeable and at times windy.

Fair, mild days alternate with cooler days and occasional rain.

Frosty on most nights.

42.2 mms

BELOW NORMAL

September 7 - 13 Temperatures vary with frost at several localities, especially central and north. Fair overall apart from scattered rain.

Windy at times.

September 14 - 20 Although sunny and warm days dominate, rain falls on a couple of occasions. Frost in several areas on a couple of nights.

September 14 - 20 Sunny, warm days will interchange with a few blustery, wet days with cooler temperatures. Several lows dip to around zero.

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September 21 - 27 Highs reach the teens on most days with frost at a few locations on 2 to 3 nights. Some rain and blustery on a couple of days.

September 21 - 27 Seasonal temperatures with highs in the teens and lows near zero on many nights. Sunny skies interchange with scattered rain.

September 21 - 27 Fair most days with highs often in the teens. Frosty on a couple of nights. Scattered rain in the south, possibly mixed with snow in north.

September 28 - October 4 Changeable and at times windy.

Fair, mild days alternate with cooler days and occasional showers. Frost on many nights.

September 28 - October 4 Conditions vary as mild, fair days interchange with cooler air and occasional rain. Windy.

Frosty on several nights.

September 28 - October 4 Warm and seasonal days alternate with cooler, wet days. Windy at times. Cool in the north with occasional rain, and a chance of wet snow.

Canadian Postmaster: Send address changes and undeliverable copies (covers only) to PO Box 9800, Winnipeg, Man. R3C 3K7

September 14 - 20 Several mild days although some lows fall to around zero on a couple of clear, cooler nights.

Often dry apart from a few scattered showers.

September 14 - 20 Several mild days although some lows fall to around zero on a couple of clear, cooler nights.

Often dry apart from a few scattered showers.

Precipitation Forecast 6 / 20 Edmonton

NEAR NORMAL

41.6 mms

5 / 19 Jasper

32.0 mms

5 / 19

43.8 mms

Banff

7 / 20 Calgary

Forecasts should be 80% accurate, but expect variations by a day or two because of changeable speed of weather systems.

Manitoba

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

September 7 - 13 Variable temperatures and weather. Some lows near zero in the south. Occasional frost in the north. Fair skies alternate with rain.

September 7 - 13 Changeable as fair skies and gusty winds interchange with rain. Variable temperatures with a risk of frost in some areas.

September 7 - 13 Changeable as fair skies and gusty winds interchange with rain. Variable temperatures with frost in several areas.

6 / 18 Grande Prairie

Saskatchewan

Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240.

48.1 mms

8 / 20 North Battleford 6 / 20 Red Deer 54.2 mms

9 / 23 Medicine Hat 19mms cms Lethbridge 36.3 44.2 mms 26 cms 7 / 22

8 / 18 The Pas

6 / 19 Prince Albert

30.6 mms

8 / 21 Saskatoon 32.1 mms

39.8 mms

57.3 mms

NEAR NORMAL

7 / 21 Yorkton

7 / 21 Dauphin

62.0 mms 9 / 20 8 / 23 48.0 mms Gimli 8 / 23 Regina 8 / 21 Moose Jaw 34.4 mms 47.9 mms Swift 35.2 mms 9 / 22 7 / 21 Current Portage 9 / 22 8 / 23 Brandon 50.1 mm Winnipeg 33.7 mms Weyburn 50.5 mms 51.3 mms 42.3 mms 8 / 23 Estevan Melita 7 / 23 42.2 mms

52.7 mms

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Published 18 times a year.

Precipitation Outlook For September Much Above Normal Below Much above normal normal below normal normal

Temperatures are normals for September 1st averaged over 30 years.

Precipitation (water equivalent) normals for Sept. in mms. ©2014 WeatherTec Services www.weathertec.mb.ca

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The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to Grainews and Farm Business Communications attempt to provide accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis. However, the editors, journalists and Grainews and Farm Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the editors as well as Grainews and Farm Business Communications assume no responsibility for any actions or decisions taken by any reader for this publication based on any and all information provided.

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

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Features TIP OF THE ISSUE

Trialing is always a win-win

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farmer’s seed rep is the local expert who can offer valuable advice about what works well in a geographic region, a crop type and a production system.

But there are a number of variables that can affect how a recommended variety or product performs on your farm — and sometimes the best access to that information comes from participating in a trial.

On-farm trials can give a clearer indication of how a variety or product will perform using your production methods, your equipment, and your land. When the crop year is complete, you’ll have clearer insights on the products and tools that will help you make key planning decisions for the years ahead.

If you’re new to the trialing game and not ready to work with a company, you can always start small. Plant two varieties side-by-side in a field and track which one performs best. Or, try a different seeding rate and leave a check strip to see the results against what you’ve always done. With a little extra work, trialing can pay off by giving you the opportunity to take new practices and products for a test run before gambling across your whole farm.

If you’re ready to take your trialing efforts up a notch, working with a seed or chemical company can be an opportunity to be on the ground floor of something new. Seed companies are always looking for farmers to participate in trials because the more trials we have in, the better picture we have of what is likely to happen consistently across a given geography over a number of years.

Product advancement trials (for pre-commercial products) can be a great way to get a sense of what’s coming down the research pipeline and to contribute towards advancing a hybrid or variety that works well in your area.

Plots for registered products can give farmers a good sense of how commercial products compare on your farm. Also, agronomy trials looking at agronomic considerations such as fertility, seeding rates or seed treatments can provide valuable information about what agronomic practices can help you get the most bang for your buck.

There are trial options to fit any farmer’s interest. If you are interested in a trial next season, talk to your local rep about the options available to you. † Glenda Clezy, P.Ag., is agronomy trials manager for DuPont Pioneer.

SOIL MANAGEMENT

Carbon in your soil Carbon levels vary across the Prairies. The ideal amount depends on yield expectations and the local climate

BY LISA GUENTHER

G

reat civilizations, including the Mayans and Mesopotamians, have been built on productive agricultural systems, underpinned by fertile soil. And as soil quality eroded, so did these civilizations. But when it comes to soil organic matter, it seems Western Canadian farmers have learned from the past.

People have known for centuries that dark soil is generally more productive soil, says Dr. Henry Janzen, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge.

“And the darkness of the soil is really an indicator of the amount of organic matter. And we measure organic matter by analyzing for carbon,” explains Janzen. One of Janzen’s specialties is carbon cycling and sequestration.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has long-term experiments at Lethbridge and other research stations, with the longest being over 100 years old, Janzen says. And that long-term approach is critical when it comes to measuring soil carbon changes, he says, because changes are slow and slight, above a high and often variable background.

“And sometimes it takes years or decades to see the final benefit of some of these practices,” he adds.

BUILDING CARBON Soil carbon varies widely across the Prairies, depending partly on climate and soil factors. But man-

PHOTO: LISA GUENTHER

Soil profile – Horizon A (dark band on top), and Horizon B (lighter band on bottom). Cavalier, SK. agement practices can influence carbon over time.

Although bumping carbon would benefit many soils, there’s no definitive level that indicates soil is too short on carbon for grain production, Janzen says.

And how much carbon is ideal depends partly on yield expectations and local climate.

“So for example, if you are in the Melfort area — where you have generally higher rainfall and higher yield demands — the higher organic matter there, the higher carbon there is probably of value to you,” says Janzen. “Whereas in the Swift Current area… you probably maximize yield without needing as much organic matter.”

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soil carbon, Janzen says. “So if you increase the amount of residue going in, you’re likely to increase the amount of carbon stored.”

Planting more perennial forages, which have large rooting systems and longer growing seasons, can help, says Janzen. Cutting summer fallow and reduced tillage can also increase soil organic matter, he adds.

Bumping yields can also bump carbon. Applying nutrients, either as fertilizer or in organic form, will reap higher yields and more residue. “If you add those residues back into the soil, that tends to increase soil organic carbon,” Janzen says.

Janzen is reluctant to offer a definitive estimate on how much

carbon is being stored in Prairies soils. He says there may be local areas in Western Canada where carbon has fallen well short of optimal amounts because of erosion or improper management.

But he thinks many Prairie soils are probably holding their own, or even increasing slightly.

“I think most farmers have this innate, instinctive sense that maintaining organic matter in soils is a good thing. And many, if not most, are doing things that, in fact, will preserve soil organic matter in soils” for their own benefit and that of those who farm the land after them, says Janzen. † Lisa Guenther is a field editor with Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Contact her at Lisa.

Guenther@fbcpublishing.com.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Features Crop Advisor’s casebook

Ailing canola crop a mystery

By Jason Sauchuk

L

ast June I received a call from Bill, a grain farmer with 8,000 acres of barley, wheat and canola in Waskatenau, Alta. Bill had sprayed his canola crop with a herbicide before going away for a weekend of fishing. When he returned home, he was alarmed to see patches within the field with damaged, stunted plants that looked delayed compared to the rest of the crop.

“I don’t understand it. I sprayed the field a week ago, when the crop was in the one- to two-leaf stage, and the prob-

lem appeared a couple days after,” Bill said, adding that plants in some of his other canola fields were exhibiting the same symptoms.

When I came out to Bill’s farm to have a look, I could see obvious signs of stunting and damage on affected plants: purpling, chlorosis and cupped leaves.

There also appeared to be a distinct pattern to the damage. Bill had hoped the symptoms would clear up on their own, but that wasn’t happening.

Bill had tried a new variety of canola seed that spring, but I couldn’t see any issues with either the seeding depth or

the planting speed. Bill had also tried a different fertilizer blend than he had used before, and thought that might be causing the problem. However, improper fertilization was ruled out because we’d taken a soil test the previous fall and made a fertilizer recommendation based on the results.

There was good soil moisture in the field and Mother Nature had provided excellent weather, so environmental conditions weren’t likely to blame either.

As for Bill’s pesticide use, he had the right water volumes and had mixed his chemicals the right way.

Just what was responsible for Bill’s ailing canola crop? If you think you know the answer, send your diagnosis to Grainews, Box 9800, Winnipeg, MB, R3C 3K7; email leeann.minogue@fbcpublishing.com or fax 204-944-95416 c/o Crop Advisor’s Casebook. Best suggestions will be pooled and one winner will be drawn for a chance to win a Grainews cap and a one-year subscription to the magazine.

The answer, along with reasoning that solved the mystery, will appear in the next Crop Advisor’s Solution File. † Jason Sauchuk is a sales agronomist with Richardson Pioneer Ltd. at Sprucefield, Alta.

Jason Sauchuk is a sales agronomist with Richardson Pioneer Ltd. at Sprucefield, Alta.

The bronzing within the crop wasn’t occurring just in the low areas, but was happening on slopes and in higher areas of the field as well.

Casebook winner

R

ob Stone is this issue’s Casebook winner.

Rob, his wife Donna, and his parents operate their family farm at Davidson, Sask. Rob is also the Pioneer hi-bred sales agent for the area.

When he heard we were sending him a Grainews cap and a one-year subscription, Rob wrote back, “Awesome! I love winning stuff.”

Leeann Minogue

There were obvious signs of stunting and damage on affected plants: purpling, chlorosis and cupped leaves.

Crop advisor’s solution

Phosphate deficiency culprit in canola

By Rachelle Farrell

I

t was early June when I got a phone call from Wayne, a canola grower at Westlock, Alta. He was worried about the canola in one of his fields, which was suffering from very poor plant establishment and vigour. The field was also rife with purpling and dying plants.

Wayne thought poor seed quality might be to blame and he asked me to come out and have a look.

When I arrived the farm, I could see uneven and stunted growth along with purpling and dying plants evident throughout the entire field. I also saw the ground was extremely wet — almost saturated — and there was also lots of trash, or straw from the previous crop, covering the field and acting to hold moisture in.

When I examined some plant roots, they were obviously stunted but didn’t appear to be infected with disease that often thrives in wet soil conditions.

I thought a nutrient imbalance might be the answer, but Wayne informed me that his fertilization program had been very comprehensive, and a subsequent plant tissue test revealed that all the necessary nutrients were in balance. I then inquired into Wayne’s seeding practices; he told me that although a new disc drill had been used at planting, there were no issues initially and all the seed had appeared to go down at the right rate.

Looking more closely at the plant stand, I noticed something important. To even be close to getting a decent crop, Wayne needed at least five plants per square foot.

Here, we were looking at about only two to three plants per square foot.

I could see there were numerous seeds still sitting on top of the straw on the soil. The disc drill had obviously failed to penetrate the trash, causing a hair-pinning effect where the seed gets placed on top of the straw, instead of in the soil. This explained the poor plant stand, and for a

moment I thought I had figured it out. But why were the plants that had emerged so small and discoloured? Something else was at work, too.

It had to be a nutrient imbalance, I told Wayne. “But we already did a tissue test and the results were good,” Wayne reminded me. However, that test showed the nutrients were in balance for the twoto four-leaf phase of canola plants, and did not take into account that the plants should have been at the rosette stage at this point in time.

To get to the bottom of the problem, I felt a soil test was in order. Lack of available phosphate often leads to severe stunting, and a standard tissue test alone does not tell the whole story. Phosphate is essential for root development; plant uptake is reduced in cold, wet soils, like that found in Wayne’s field. The wet soil would potentially be restricting root growth, further compounding a phosphate uptake issue.

Sure enough, a soil test found low lev-

els of available phosphate. Unfortunately, nothing could be done to save Wayne’s crop. The damage was too severe; the crop was too thin and too far behind in the season to recover.

I advised Wayne that although his nutrient program had been comprehensive, there is much more to crop nutrition than fertilizer. Particularly with nutrients like phosphate, maintaining soil fertility, or the nutrient levels in the soil, is even more important. It is important to factor in how much phosphate is removed each year and that soil levels are not depleted over time.

There are so many interactions happening in the soil profile that we cannot see which nutrients might play an important role in plant development.

My advice to Wayne was to ensure he improved his crop residue management in the future, to monitor his soil fertility over time and improve seed-soil contact. † Rachelle Farrell is a crop input manager for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. at Morinville, Alta.

As a farmer, you have a lot of decisions to make. The DEKALB® brand team is here to empower you with expert advice, agronomic insight and local data. With every important decision you face on your farm, we’re behind you. And we’re ready to help you turn great seed potential into actual in-field performance.

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Talk to your DEKALB dealer today, or visit DEKALB.ca ALWAYS FOLLOW IRM, GRAIN MARKETING AND ALL OTHER STEWARDSHIP AND PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Details of these requirements can be found in the Trait Stewardship Responsibilities Notice to Farmers printed in this publication ©2014 Monsanto Canada, Inc.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Features CROP VARIETIES

FARM MANAGEMENT

Orient new Man. farm workers

Soybeans on display

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hawn Rempel, is a product manager and agronomist for Quarry Seed. On August 15, he traveled to southeast Saskatchewan to talk to farmers at a field day.

In mid-August, it was too soon to know the results of the trials on display. “The combines are going to tell the story,” Rempel said.

In this picture, Rempel is in front of the Thunder 35002 soybean plot. The last three numbers in this variety name indicate the relative maturity. In 2013, the most popular soybean Saskatchewan was a “004” variety. This year, a “003” variety “took the crown for that.” Now, Remple says, “there’s a 001 out there.” †

BY ANGELA LOVELL

A

Leeann Minogue

It’s the Prairies’ best kept secret.

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Learn more at ProvenSeed.ca or ask your CPS retailer.

Proven Seed is a registered trademark of Crop Production Services (Canada) Inc. CPS CROP PRODUCTION SERVICES and Design is a registered trademark of Crop Production Services, Inc. ®

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s of spring 2014, amendments to the Workplace Safety and Health Regulations in Manitoba require safety and health orientations for new farm workers, including seasonal and part-time workers.

“Employers will have to give their workers an orientation on the farm,” explained Jeff Shaw, Manitoba’s Provincial Farm Safety Coordinator in a presentation at the Manitoba Young Farmers Conference in Portage la Prairie.” New regulations outline specific safety and health requirements but commonly in orientations you can address the hazards on the farm, the tasks they will be doing, identifying where the personal protective equipment is and some of the rules and policies on the farm, just to get workers familiar with the farm and the farm’s expectations.

The intent is that safety and health orientation will become a standard part of training for new employees, says Shaw, but if there are new processes or new equipment being added to the farm or existing employees are re-assigned to a new job, affected employees need an orientation.

Employers are also responsible to ensure the safety of visitors to the farm such as contractors and others who need access to the farm, such as oilfield workers or custom operators. Visitors must be aware of the roles and responsibilities for safety and health on the farm; this knowledge can be provided through an orientation.

It is always a good practice to orientate family members and it’s essential to orientate new workers even if they are only working a few hours on the farm. “Farms are unique because a lot of the workers are often family members, so you want to make sure that you are keeping them safe as well,” says Shaw.”You want to ensure that all individuals are trained on the farm and know how to do things properly, know what the hazards are, how to protect themselves and what to do if something does go wrong.”

Shaw suggests that many farmers are already providing orientations to their workers, but aren’t always recognising what they do as such and often aren’t documenting it — another important aspect of a safety and health system.

“You want to protect your business no matter what you do on the farm so you want to document what you are doing,” says Shaw. † Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist living and working in Manitoba. Find her online at www.angelalovell.ca.

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

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Features Soil management

Using ecological systems Diversified, long-term crop rotations can pay off for Prairie farmers with strong management skills who are prepared to invest the time to carry them out

By Lisa Guenther

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Diversification can extend beyond crops. Although many farms are trending towards specializing in grains or livestock, Entz points out mixed farms are still popular in many regions “and really doing a fantastic job of managing their problems. So much of the Parkland region is mixed farms.”

need to offer farmers a true sort of ecological package in addition to their conventional package of information,” he says. “And that’s why we had the advanced organic diagnostics school here to train those agronomists in those things.”

Farmers should also track the types of extension events they take in “because so many of them are talking about the same thing, Better advice like a new herbicide or a new variEntz also says farmers should ety,” says Entz. get better advice.

“And what farmers should do “I have a lot of faith in the is look for opportunities to go agronomists that we have workto field days and events where B:8.125” ing in the industry in Western people talk about changing your T:8.125” Canada but I think that they rotation.”

Entz says he thinks most farmers know their system could be improved. He says they should be asking for more innovation from governments and universities.

“And that’s what we pride ourselves (on) is having something that’s a bit radical, a bit diverse, but it really shows farmers what is possible outside the paradigm they’re in right now.”

For more information, contact Entz at m_entz@umanitoba.ca or visit www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/ naturalagriculture/index.html. † Lisa Guenther is a field editor with Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Contacther at Lisa.

Guenther@fbcpublishing.com.

S:8.125”

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anadian farmers have good management skills, but those skills aren’t being rewarded in the conventional system, says a Manitoba researcher.

“On well-managed organic farms, or ecological farms, I’ve seen farmers really being rewarded for their management skills,” says Dr. Martin Entz of the University of Manitoba.

Entz says there is some middle ground between conventional and organic production. The most useful thing farmers can do is rethink and diversify crop rotations, he says.

Rotations that are five or six years long don’t have a lot of problems, Entz says. “And so many of the problems our farmers are facing are really a function of the monoculture system that we’ve been drawn to.”

Farmers looking to loosen up rotations should look for crops that don’t host many pests and that offer different weed control strategies, he says.

The conventional rotations at the University of Manitoba’s Glenlea research station illustrate the benefits of diverse rotations.

The grain-only conventional rotation looks “absolutely gorgeous,” says Entz, but has “a big patch of herbicide-resistant wild oat in the middle of the plot.”

“Over the 23 years we’ve done this rotation we’ve selected for herbicide-resistant wild oats,” says Entz. He adds they have Roundup Ready soybeans in the rotation that clean up the wild oats for a year.

But the persistent weeds returned.

The other conventional rotation, which has a short-term alfalfa phase, has “no wild oats. No hint of resistant weeds,” says Entz.

Another rotation consideration is whether a crop, such as a legume, can save money through the whole rotation, says Entz. “That’s huge because nitrogen costs are huge.”

The alfalfa phase in Glenlea’s conventional grain rotation cut the rotation’s fertilizer needs by 40 per cent and left soils in better shape than the grain-only rotation.

A 12-year study by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada looked at nine different cropping systems at Scott, Saskatchewan. Researchers found evidence that using perennial forages in rotations, along with reduced tillage, improves soil quality and the soil’s ability to supply nutrients.

Reduced tillage, especially when combined with a diverse annual grain cropping system, was also linked to better soil structure in the Scott study. And researchers found more mites, which are an indicator of soil health, in systems that combined fewer inputs and reduced tillage, than either the high input or organic systems. Nearby native prairie had more mites than any of the farming systems.

The Scott study also looked at the economics, energy use, and agronomic aspects of the cropping systems. It’s available online at www.prairiesoilsandcrops.ca/articles/volume-5-8-screen.pdf Entz and his colleagues at Glenlea

found more microbial biomass carbon, or living organic matter, in the soils of organic forage-grain rotations than conventional. But conventional grain-only rotations had more living organic matter than the organic counterparts.

Glenlea researchers also found out the hard way that their organic grain rotation needs a green manure every third year, instead of every fourth, to maintain nitrogen levels in the soil.

They also found including alfalfa in the organic grain-forage rotation doesn’t provide enough soil phosphate long-term. But adding composted cattle manure restored the rotation.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Features Crop production

Harvest management

Monitor that monitor

Old-style, new attitude

“

J

urgen Kohler sent in these photos taken in his field on May 24, 2014. He was seeding soybeans with a 40-foot John Deere 9450 hoe drill.

These rows are so straight, I don’t think someone driving by the field after he was finished would have believed that.

He says, “I still seed the old fashioned way using markers. My goal is to get GPS Autosteer for the tractor for next year. I must be one of the few farmers around Brunkild, Man., that still seeds without GPS.” † Leeann Minogu

Growers can’t stop talking about its flushing weed control. ( Please accept our apologies. )

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To find out more visit agsolutions.ca/clearfieldcanola or contact AgSolutions® Customer Care at 1-877-371-BASF (2273).

Always read and follow label directions.

AgSolutions is a registered trade-mark of BASF Corporation; ARES is a trade-mark and Clearfield and the unique Clearfield symbol are registered trade-marks of BASF Agrochemical Products B.V.; all used with permission by BASF Canada Inc. © 2014 BASF Canada Inc.

H

ow did that canola run?” Whether or not you want to tell the truth in town, if you’re getting your answer from the yield monitor in the cab, make sure it’s well calibrated.

“It’s critical to get an accurate calibration,” says Ward Anticura, integrated solutions manager at Battle River Implements in Canora, Sask.

“Some guys will fill their hoper up, then estimate based on a full hopper. That’s not accurate,” Anticura says. “It’s nearly impossible to do an accurate calibration without some way of weighing it.”

It’s getting easier to do this at home. Many farmers have accurate scales on their grain carts. Some ag service providers offer weigh wagon services. Using these tools can be crucial if you’re planning to use your yield estimates to decide how much fertilizer to apply next season. If accuracy matters to you, Anticura says, “Find somebody with a weigh wagon. Borrow a neighbour’s cart, or go to town.”

“If you’re using that data for variable rate management zone purposes, it’s important to have accurate yield calibration,” Anticura says. “It’s also important to have consistent yield calibration if you have more than one combine in the field.”

There are different methods to calibrating each yield monitor, so Anticura says, “It’s important that the customer understands the procedure for his particular model.” The most important challenge is “just taking the time to do it. It’s one of those things that’s a bit of a pain. But if the data if important to you, then the calibration is important.“ Aaron Bouchard, agronomic services representative for Syngenta Canada Inc., says adjusting for moisture is an important part of accurate yield monitor calibration. “A lot of it comes back to the grain moisture.”

Although a lot of farmers rely heavily on the numbers on the screen, Bouchard says, “If you’re doing trials, the yield monitor is not the best way to really gauge your performance.” For trials, especially corporate-run trials, a higher degree of accuracy will give a more useful result. For Syngenta’s trials, Bouchard says, “We prefer to use a weigh wagon.”

It can be a hassle to take the time to calibrate your yield monitor, and it’s a job that needs to be done on the busiest day of the year.

However, Anticura says, “If you recognize the importance of it, then you’ll do what you’ve got to do to get the information accurate.”† Leeann Minogue

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

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Features CROP PRODUCTION

A guide to temperature inversions Normally, the higher you go, the colder it gets. During a temperature inversion, the rules are upside-down. Spray with caution on clear nights

BY ANGELA LOVELL

P

opular wisdom has suggested that evenings are a good time to spray because conditions are generally calmer and there is less potential for spray drift, but that’s not always the case, says Tom Wolf, an independent spray application consultant with Applications Specialists in Saskatoon.

“The main concern with night spraying is temperature inversions which typically occur only at night,” he says. “A temperature inversion is a reversal of the normal temperature profile with height and that leads to what we call a stable atmosphere, which means that air can’t be displaced; it wants to stay where it is. So any small airborne droplets, like spray droplets, tend to just hang in the air. It’s never a good idea to spray during a temperature inversion because it can cause crop or environmental damage.”

is about a 1 C drop with every 100 meter height increase.

Under sunny, warm conditions the soil is heated, which in turn heats the air close to the soil. As a result of that, the air near the soil tends to be much warmer than usual. The rate of temperature decrease with elevation is greater, and there is a stronger decline with height as the heat closest to the ground dissipates. This is called either normal daytime conditions or sometimes unstable conditions or turbulent conditions.

At night, once the sun sets and the soil cools down, the soil cools the air close to the ground. As a result, the air near the soil tends

to be colder than the temperature of air at higher elevations. This causes temperature to increase with height instead of decreasing as it normally — that’s why this is called a temperature inversion. This leads to what is called a stable atmosphere.

During a temperature inversion, air cannot be displaced and stays where it is. Any small airborne droplets will be more buoyant and will simply hang motionless in the air.

“They won’t deposit and they won’t disperse in the atmosphere,” says Wolf. “If you have spray droplets in the air during a temperature inversion they will stay where they

were placed and in some cases they will concentrate and can move downhill and cause damage to crops or vegetation in lower areas.”

A temperature inversion does not occur every night, , so the challenge is figuring out when one is likely to happen. One method is by observing conditions, says Wolf. “Temperature inversions typically occur under clear summer skies at night and they are suppressed by gentle breezes and cloudy skies,” says Wolf. “If we have a bit of a breeze at night the temperature profile that builds up is disrupted by mechanical turbulence. In other words, the breeze stirs things up

and mixes the cool and warm air and results in what we call a neutral atmosphere and neutral atmospheres are quite good for spraying.”

Cloud cover also suppresses temperature inversions. “When we have cloud cover it suppresses inversions because the cloud insulates the atmosphere and reduces the rate of cooling at the ground and can result in neutral conditions as well,” says Wolf. “I would say be cautious of spraying at night if the skies are clear and it’s perfectly calm. That usually indicates the presence of a temperature inversion.”

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

WHAT IS AN INVERSION? Under normal atmospheric conditions, temperature tends to decrease with height. This temperature decrease is more or less a constant in dry atmospheres, whenever moisture conditions are not at the dew point and there is no condensation happening. When conditions are dry the normal rate of temperature decrease with height

Good and Bad Spray Scenarios Likely an inversion: It’s a sunny summer day, the temperature got into the mid to high 20s. The forecast is for a sunny day tomorrow. The sky is going to be clear tonight and you are in the midst of a high pressure system so winds will be very low. The likelihood of a temperature inversion is extremely high. Try to avoid spraying at night during these conditions.

Likely no inversion: It’s a sunny summer day, but there is a low pressure system moving in and it’s becoming cloudy. The wind has increased slightly and it’s clouding over. In all likelihood there will be no temperature inversion that night.

You are probably okay to spray at night, but keep an eye on the winds in case they get too strong to spray.

Likely no inversion: It’s a cloudy day and it’s going to be cloudy tomorrow. A temperature inversion is unlikely, so you are okay to spray at night, again as long as the wind doesn’t get too strong. † Angela Lovell

WE’RE IN IT

FOR LIFE. Ag for Life and its founders believe in Alberta agriculture. That’s why we support rural and farm safety, and educational programs that build a genuine understanding and appreciation for this vital industry.

Join us. Share your voice. Make a difference.

Visit agricultureforlife.ca for more details.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Features Crop protection

Spraying safely and efficiently at night GPS makes it easier to spray at night. Now a new lighting system makes it possible to see what you’re doing

By Angela Lovell

A

s farmers grow more acres the window of opportunity for spraying insecticides or fungicides can get pretty narrow, especially if Mother Nature doesn’t co-operate as well as she should. For more farmers there is little option but to push that window by spraying on into the night sometimes, and for certain pests night spraying can often be the best time to achieve effective control.

Fortunately technology such as GPS has allowed more options for spraying at night or during low light conditions, but it’s still not

ideal. With farmers are unable to see the boom, so they can’t be sure that they are getting proper coverage. “When we sprayed at night we couldn’t tell if we had a blocked nozzle, we couldn’t see the spray pattern or check the droplet size,” says Guy Cadrain of Cadrain Farms near Leask, Saskatchewan.

Nozzle Lights Cadrain has been trying out LED AppliMAX Spray Nozzle Lights, a product that came to the market a couple of years ago, and says these lights have made a big difference for him. “The

Spray Nozzle Lights allow us to see our spray pattern as well as our droplet size, so when we get out to check our nozzles we can make sure we are getting the proper coverage, and the product is applied properly,” he says.

“With the lights on it doesn’t even have to be dark, even closer towards evening at dusk it really helps to see the droplets.”

The AppliMAX Spray Nozzle Lights were developed and are marketed by ATI Agritonics Inc. of Saskatoon. They feature high intensity, down-facing LED lights that allow the spray operator to see the spray pattern clearly from the cab, even during day-

time conditions when it’s cloudy or approaching dusk. The lights have a strobe light feature that freezes the pattern of the spray so the operator can easily check droplet size and see if any nozzles are not functioning.

The lights fit most types of sprayers. Cost depends on the number of nozzles on the boom but is, on average, around $2,000 to install, a cost that can easily be repaid by ensuring correct coverage, says Robert Letkeman, Director of Sales for ATI Agritronics.

“All a farmer needs to do is catch one sprayer nozzle that’s not performing properly and he’s got that investment back,” he says.

Cadrain Farms consists of around 20,000 acres of canola, wheat, oats, peas and lentils and there is a lot of spraying required.

Cadrain says the Spray Nozzle Lights have given him a lot more flexibility and peace of mind. “It seems we are spraying later and later and our window of opportunity seems to be narrowing all the time. The lights give us the opportunity to spray more hours and we ended up getting a lot of cutworms this year as well, which have to be sprayed later in the day, so this allows us to be able to do that,” he says. “It also gives me the comfort of knowing that the spray operators I have out there

» CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

A guide to temperature inversions Detecting a temperature inversion Temperature inversions do not occur every night. There are some nights when conditions are perfectly conducive to night spraying. The challenge for farmers is to know when a temperature inversion is actually happening.

The traditional way of detecting a temperature inversion has been to try and produce smoke by lighting a fire or using a smoke generator to see what the smoke does. If the smoke just gently rises or rises to a certain level and then moves horizontally, that typically indicates an inversion. If the smoke dissipates, moves erratically in the atmosphere, moves up and down or moves downwind, that indicates that there is sufficient turbulence in the atmosphere to prevent an inversion.

Fog can be another good indicator. If fog is present and vertical layers of fog are hanging in the air or concentrating in low lying areas, that’s likely indicative of a temperature inversion.

Another way to detect whether a temperature inversion is present is to measure the temperature at two different heights. Generally, if the air temperature is warmer higher up an inversion is probably happening. If the air is cooler higher up, if all other factors such as wind speed and direction are favourable, it’s probably okay to spray. This can be a tricky indicator to use, says Wolf, because the temperature differences between the different heights can be very small.

“Farmers need to be able to make an informed decision and to do that they need to know what happens during a temperature inversion,” says Wolf. “We need to provide good information so that people can make the right decision because it is possible to spray safely at night but it’s been a confusing issue. When farmers can understand the atmospheric conditions that are occurring in their fields they can make the right decision about night spraying.” † Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist living and working in Manitoba. Find her online at www.angelalovell.ca.

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Features

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Top: The Spray Nozzle Lights can make a big difference at night, allowing farmers to see the spray pattern and the droplet size. Right: LED AppliMAX Spray Nozzle Lights have been on the market for a couple of years. are getting proper efficacy out of the products they are using.”

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Other solutions Being able to see isn’t the only challenge with night spraying.

Conditions aren’t always conducive or safe to spray. There is still a lot of confusion over night spraying, says Tom Wolf, an independent spray application consultant with Applications Specialists in Saskatoon. “The main concern with night spraying is temperature inversions which typically occur only at night,” he says. “It’s never a good idea to spray during a temperature inversion because it can cause crop or environmental damage.”

The challenge for modern spray application is to cover more acres in less time, says Wolf, especially during wet years when opportunities to get out on the field may be limited. “Farmers need to spray fungicides on most of their crops and opening new opportunities for spraying is going to be an essential part of meeting the challenge,” he says. “We need to provide good information so that people can make the right decisions because you can spray safely at night under certain conditions.

The other side of it is looking also at other ways of increasing productivity like perhaps going to a wider boom or faster fill times.

If operators can become more efficient in how they make their spray applications they may be able to reduce the need to spray at night.” † Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist living and working in Manitoba. Find her online at www.angelalovell.ca.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Features Soil nutrition

Floating your fall fertilizer With new fertilizer products on the market and new machinery available, fall-applied fertilizer could be your solution for the too-busy spring season

By Danell van Staveren

A

t first glance the Case 4530 is a strange looking contraption. It seems to be an awkward combination of a sprayer and a tractor. As it turns out, the “floater,” as it’s commonly called, is anything but awkward. Rather, its 70-foot boom and latest and greatest GPS make it well suited for the job it was designed to do — surface apply, or “float” granular fertilizer and chemical.

Dean Schenk, agronomist with Precision Ag Services in southeast Saskatchewan, has conducted extensive testing to ensure that surface fall applied fertilizer ends up in the soil ready to grow a crop. “With the trials and tests we have done we are confident that it works,” said Schenk, “and it can be suitably applied to any crop.”

Urease inhibitors Advancements in product technology, specifically urease inhibitors, are a big reason fall application of fertilizer is viable.

Urease enzymes help break down urea and change it to ammonia. Through the process of hydrolysis a hydrogen ion in consumed — increasing the pH of the soil around the

photos: danell van staveren

New fertilizer technology has made fall surface application a more feasible prospect. urea. Nitrogen in the soil moves towards ammonia at high pH levels, and putting shallow banded or surface applied urea at risk of loss through volatization.

If volitization occurs, 30 to 50 per cent of the nitrogen could be lost as ammonia escapes through the porous layer of topsoil. There are two solutions to preventing or at least lowering volitization. One is to place the urea two inches deep in the soil. The other solu-

tion is to surface apply nitrogen with a urease inhibitor.

Urease inhibitors slow the rate of hydrolysis, preventing the pH spike that increases volitization.

When a urease inhibitor is used, nitrogen losses can be minimized to 10 per cent. Delaying hydrolysis also provides time for moisture to move the urea down into the soil, which will guard against the movement of ammonia into the atmosphere.

Working together es around power lin

“New advancements in products stop the gassing off of nitrogen, and give about 30 days protection, helping us have a more efficient product,” says Schenk, “Urease inhibitors are an insurance policy on the fertilizer investment. When we factor in the amount we could potentially lose with the untreated urea (50 per cent) as compared to the inhibitor treated urea (10 per cent) the cost of treating it becomes minimal compared to the cost of not treating it.”

Along with advanced urease inhibitors, there are other, more practical, reasons to apply fertilizer in the fall. Fertilizer prices are generally cheaper in the fall than in the spring. Schenk says the company floating the fertilizer will have more time to do the job in the fall than in the spring during the rush of seeding. Product can be applied late into the fall, even with up to four inches of snow.

“It pencils out well to guys with the per acre fee. The prices in fall are better, and they are storing fertilizer in the ground rather than needing bin space for it,” says Schenk, “It made life easier for the farmer, but created another busy season for us. But what we get done in the fall we don’t have to do in the spring.”

Fall application frees up time

and man-power in the spring.

When nitrogen and sulphur are applied in the fall, only phosphate and potash need be applied in the spring, which means hauling less product to the field and less stop time for filling during seeding.

“Guys can cover more acres in the spring with less fills,” says Schenk. “Spring seeding works well when nitrogen and sulphur are eliminated in the fall.”

The downsides to fall applying fertilizer are few says Schenk.

There is the chance that urea will be lost. In the event of spring flooding, the product could become mobile and be washed away. Some of the acres that are accessible in the fall may be too wet to seed in the spring, causing product to be lost.

Schenk sums fall application up like this: “Fall-applied fertilizer opens up a lot of opportunities on fertility to do a better job of soil fertility. It is also very economical when all the numbers are worked out — wages, time, fertilizer.”

In the fall of 2013 Dean Schenk and Precision Ag Services floated roughly 15,000 acres. In the fall of 2014, they want to exceed that number. Like any tractor or sprayer working in the field, they hope to make their strange looking contraption a common sight. † Danell van Staveren farms and writes near Griffin, Sask.

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The Case 4530 is commonly called a “floater.” It has a 70-foot boom for surface application of granular fertilizer and chemical.

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Features SOIL MANAGEMENT

Fertilizing winter wheat With new polymer-coated nitrogen products on the market, winter wheat growers have one more option when it comes to fertilizer decisions

BY ANDREA HILDERMAN

G

etting winter wheat seeded is a juggle of equipment, people and inputs that leaves little room for delays.

On top of that, fertilizer and seed safety is top of mind for growers, more so in winter wheat, and for two good reasons. Getting the crop seeded is a challenge in the fall, and accommodating the fertilizer needs of winter wheat requires a lot of thought.

Should the fertilizer be applied with the seed? Or banded? Should the entire amount be applied in the fall?

Or should some be applied in the spring, timed to the winter wheat breaking dormancy and meeting those immediate demands of the growing plant?

Will you be able to get out on the field in time? Will you be able to spare the time and equipment in the spring to top-dress?

Applying sufficient fertilizer

with the seed in the fall comes down to a seed safety issue.

Nitrogen levels are the biggest concern. All three Prairie provincial governments have guidelines for safe rates of fertilizer applied with seed (find them on provincial websites). These guidelines are the results of years of research and provide rates based on the crop, soil texture, soil moisture, width of seed row openers and row spacing.

By replacing some or all of the nitrogen applied with the seed with ESN (Environmentally Smart Nitrogen), a polymercoated fertilizer product, farmers can put more fertilizer down with the seed without risking seed safety. Compared with traditional forms of fertilizer, ESN brings a number of benefits that should be considered along with the price difference.

“The advantages of ESN are numerous and stem from the polymer coating and how it manages the release of fertilizer in the soil,” says Ray Dowbenko, senior specialist,

agronomic services at Agrium.

“The coating acts to slow the reaction of the urea granule with moisture in the soil and in doing that, it diminishes the free ammonia and salt problems that can damage seed.

Additionally, the slow release of nitrogen coincides better with the growing seedlings’ demand for nitrogen — particularly with winter wheat.”

ESN brings a number of advantages WINTER WHEAT AND ESN Winter wheat has traditionally been fertilized by first applying a low rate of nitrogen at seeding, then broadcasting more in the early spring. There were many reasons for this: • Too much nitrogen at seed-

ing was thought to reduce winter survival.

• Too much nitrogen in the fall could lead to losses due to leaching or denitrification.

• There can be cost savings from not having to broadcast nitrogen in the spring if the crop doesn’t survive the winter.

Applying ESN as all or part of the nitrogen requirement for winter wheat in the fall accomplishes a number of things. Firstly, the full rate of nitrogen can be applied with less risk of losses to leaching or denitrification. “The coating on the granule separates the seed from the fertilizer, and also reduces urea from reacting with moisture in the soil directly, acting as a barrier,” says Dowbenko. “Only when moisture crosses that barrier will the urea be able to react and release nitrogen.”

“Secondly, as the temperature in the soil drops heading into fall and winter, water movement into and nitrogen movement out of the gran-

ule is essentially at zero,” says Dowbenko. “Conversely, as the soil warms up in the spring and the winter wheat breaks dormancy, nitrogen will become available in the right place and at the right time for the crop to take the best advantage of it.”

Winter wheat is seeded into warm soils from late August to mid- September. “In a normal year, we would expect 30 to 40 percent of the nitrogen to become available to the crop before freeze-up,” says Dowbenko. “The rest will be locked up in the granule until spring.”

The theory is that when nitrogen is supplied at the time the crop demands it, nitrogen use efficiency is increased, resulting in increased yield potential. Using ESN may not be the answer for all winter wheat growers, but it does add another option. † Andrea Hilderman has her master’s degree in weed science and is a member of the Manitoba Institute of Agrologists. She writes from Winnipeg, Man.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Features FARM MANAGEMENT

Don’t let your assets go up in smoke “That will never happen to us,” we all think. Until it does. Be prepared for fire

BY MELANIE EPP

A

t 4:30 am on June 6, 2012, dairy farmer Harry Byce woke up very suddenly to what he thought was the sound of rain on his hay. It was odd that he heard it before he smelled it, but that’s the way the mind works when deep asleep. Concerned about his hay, he jumped out of bed only to discover that his hay was fine, but his barn was on fire. The sound he’d heard wasn’t rain, but heavy ash and sparks hitting the roof of his house.

Fire may be a rare occurrence today, but it does happen. And it can cause significant damage. Harry and his wife, Celeste, owners of Heatherdale Farms at

Beachburg, Ont., know this all too well. Although, it took the fire department less than 30 minutes to respond to Harry’s call, by that time they got there, the barn — constructed of dry timbers and filled with flammable feed — was unsalvageable.

“The fire burned so hot that the pipeline and the gutter chains and the metal stalling all melted,” says Celeste. “It even burned holes in the tower silos. The guys worked to contain it to one building, saving a nearby hayshed.”

What caused the fired was never determined, but investigators said it was likely a combination of the barn’s age and dated electrical wiring. “We had redone the electrical from the addition from ‘78 back to the main barn,

but had not redone the wiring in the old feed room,” says Celeste.

“The newer milk house was all up to code, but we had not disconnected the old bare wiring in the dry cow barn.”

CHECK THE POWER LINES Kerry Sharpe, a grain farmer and volunteer firefighter from the village of Munson, Alta., says this type of fire is common. It’s not just old wiring in barns that farm owners should be wary of, though, he says, recommending regular checks on outdoor power lines too. As they age, he says, they can fray or fall down, causing fire.

“Be aware of your surroundings,” he warns.

Two years ago, Sharpe took a

call from a farmer who had hit an overhead power line with his combine. The combine caught fire. Although none of his crop was lost, the farmer did lose his combine.

Other causes of fire, says Sharpe, include improper disposal of flammable material and unmaintained equipment, the first of which causes an average of one fire per month in Munson.

In the event of fire call 911 immediately. “Don’t try to tackle the fire on your own first,” Sharpe says. “And know what kind of fire it is before tackling it at all.”

Finally, he says to make sure that you have a fire safety plan on hand for workers and do regular fire safety checks.

Harry and Celeste offer their own valuable advice. The fire on their farm destroyed their entire barn and nearly took a nearby storage space with it.

Unfortunately, the couple hadn’t reviewed their insurance policy in quite some time. Following the fire, they quickly discovered that much of what they’d been insuring was worth nothing, some items weren’t insured at all, and the income interruption insurance they had didn’t fit their business. These were hard lessons to learn at a time at the time, but valuable ones to pass on to others.

“The insurance company was good to work with, but it took a lot of time determining the value of items,” says Celeste.

“We should have reviewed the policy, dropped the items or had different coverage, like replacement value for three or five years.”

Although the couple had interruption insurance, they hadn’t properly reviewed and amended the policy as their company grew.

As a result, they were insured for the wrong value.

“Insurance is boring and a bit confusing,” says Celeste, “but it should fit your company and be reviewed every two years.”

Harry and Celeste haven’t just reviewed and amended their insurance policy, though.

They’ve also implemented a strict no smoking policy on the farm. They’ve installed new fire extinguishers and firebreaks have been incorporated into the trusses in the ceiling. In their new barn, everything is up to code and they conduct regular preventative maintenance.

Don’t put off until tomorrow tasks that could prevent a fire today, says Celeste. “Get someone to properly disconnect the old wires in parts of barns you intend to redo later or don’t intend to redo at all,” she says.

“And review your fire procedures. We were lucky the house did not go up. We were lucky no one was hurt. We worked with great people to rebuild and as a result we are now milking again.” † Melanie Epp is a freelance farm writer based in Guelph, Ont.

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Fire safety checklist

T

o minimize fire hazards, Kerry Sharpe, farmer and volunteer firefighter at Munson, Alberta, suggests the following checklist: • Implement a strict no smoking policy on the farm • Check machinery regularly • Use a laser thermometer to check machinery temperatures • Remove flammable debris from around the farm • Store flammable items safely and properly • Know your surroundings

Melanie Epp

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Features DISEASE CONTROL

Detect and avoid bacterial leaf streak Last summer, bacterial leaf streak was found in fields in southern Alberta. For best control, avoid infected seed

BY REBECA KUROPATWA

B

acterial leaf streak (BLS) and black chaff occur in cereal crops around the world. In 2010, BLS in wheat was declared an emerging problem in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. In 2013, it was found in a number of fields in southern Alberta.

BLS can cause significant yield loss on some cereal varieties, but, as is the case with other disease issues, its development is dependent on weather conditions and susceptible plant host presence.

The bacterium causing the disease is xanthomonas translucens.

“The disease can develop and become severe rapidly after the crop reaches the heading growth stage,” said Michael Harding, crop diversification centre research scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.

SYMPTOMS AND SPREAD BLS symptoms appear after the crop has reached the heading growth stage. The disease can affect yield by reducing grain filling and kernel numbers.

“This bacterium can cause elongated water-soaked lesions on leaves, which later turn light brown,” said Harding. “As the disease progresses, lesions coalesce to form large stripes or streaks along leaves. The bacterium can also infect the glumes, causing black, longitudinal stripes or bands on the glumes and awns.”

The glume infections are referred to as “black chaff.”

“During periods of leaf wetness, lesions and plant tissues surrounding them feel slimy to the touch,” said Harding. “When plant tissues are dry and humidity is low, the same leaves will have a shiny appearance.

“Leaves look as if they were glazed or frosted with a thin sugary glazing. In this case, however, the glazing consists of millions of dry bacterial cells awaiting transport to another leaf or plant.”

Bacteria are transferred from one leaf to another during periods of leaf wetness.

Wind provides leaf movement, allowing for the localized spread of bacteria from plant to plant. “As the pathogen is spread through contact with diseased plants, fields may have initial hot spots or patterns of diseased plants running parallel with wind direction,” said Harding.

The bacteria can be spread by plant-visiting insects, and the bacteria can survive in soil organic matter for an undetermined period of time and on or within the seed.

Bacterial diseases, like BLS or black chaff are often seed borne.

“Using certified, disease-free seed is an important prevention practice, as is using spring wheat varieties with bacterial stripe resistance,” said Harding.

“Bactericidal seed treatment can also add an extra level of prevention of seed borne outbreaks, but seed treatment of infected seed won’t prevent disease outbreaks, so it can’t replace the use of diseasefree seed.”

Although there are a number of compounds registered in Canada

for the control or suppression of bacterial diseases, Harding is not aware of anything registered for use on cereal crops to control BLS or black chaff.

YIELD LOSS Black chaff and BLS rarely cause serious yield losses. However, in extreme cases, losses of up to 40 per cent have been reported in the U.S. BLS and black chaff are rarely seen at economic levels in Western Canada, yet, on occasion, there have been existing

PHOTO: MICHAEL HARDING

Harding says, “This bacterium can cause elongated water-soaked lesions on leaves, which later turn light brown.” conditions that have led to an outbreak or epidemic.

“Some seed borne inoculum could introduce the disease to a field,” said Harding. “Then, conditions of high humidity, intermittent rains, and/overhead irrigation can compound the problem, leading to moderate or severe disease pressure.”

In 2013, there was higher than usual levels of BLS and black chaff in Alberta. “There were a handful of fields with measurable yield loss, but there will be a large amount of harvested grain infested with the bacterium,” said Harding. † Rebeca Kuropatwa is a professional writer in Winnipeg, Man.

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MANAGEMENT If BLS is detected, no fungicide application can control it. “As fungicides are highly targeted to disrupt fungal metabolism and respiration, they will rarely affect bacterial metabolism and/respiration,” explained Harding.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Features Farm management

Switching to biomass energy offers on-farm heating opportunities When the prices are right, on-farm bio-heating systems can lower farm heating bills and keep energy dollars in the community

By Angela Lovell

W

hether on-farm bio-heating systems are economically feasible depends on the value and supply of farm-grown feedstocks, such as straw or grain.

“The challenge is natural gas prices have been too low in the last five years,” says Raymond Dueck, owner of Triple Green Energy, a manufacturer of biomass energy systems in St.

Adolphe, Manitoba. “Natural gas prices are $6-per-million BTU and straw at $20 a bale works out to about $2.50-per-million BTU. As natural gas prices go up then it will become even more appealing to be burning straw.”

That said, if a farmer can sell bales at $30 a bale, he may be more willing to harvest and sell it for extra revenue than go to the work of producing energy from it. “They can still save 50 per cent of their cost but the off-set is that a natural gas burner is rela-

tively inexpensive and it’s very trouble-free once you install it,” says Dueck. “When you’ve got a mechanical system where you’re shredding and feeding bales, it’s a little bit more work.”

The Triple Green Energy biomass combustion systems are automated to reduce the amount of work needed. “Bale shredders, depending on the size of the magazine, can hold anywhere from 10 to 20 bales, so typically enough bales to last for the better part of a week or at least three days,” says

Dueck. “So the farmer only has to start up his tractor every three days or less to fill the magazine.”

T h e t e c h n o l o g y, m u c h o f which comes from Europe, isn’t exactly cheap, especially for larger systems that can handle straw as a feedstock. As a result, straw burning bio-energy systems are generally only used on larger commercial farms, greenhouses or Hutterite colonies, where the upfront investment makes sense.

“Straw is much more difficult to burn because straw has silica

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in it,” says Dueck. “The smallest straw burning system we have is a one million BTU system. It’s five times the size of our smaller, wood chip burners. The furnace itself is about $50,000 but you also need a shredder to chop the straw, which is another $50,000 so that puts it at a $100,000 bill.

If you have a $20,000 or $30,000 annual heating bill, the system makes sense.”

Most on-farm biomass heating systems use wood chips, which are still the most efficient feedstock especially for smaller systems. Dueck’s Triple Green Energy DGE series is less expensive than a straw burning system, starting at around $25,000 and can heat an area up to 20,000 square feet. “It depends a lot on what the cost of the wood chips are. Wood chips right now are selling for about $35 a ton,” says Dueck. “At $35 a ton, it’s about $2-per-million BTU. If a farmer was burning fuel oil at a cost of 70 cents a litre he would be saving 90 per cent of his fuel bill by converting to a biomass system. If a farmer had a $10,000 fuel bill right now, he could be saving $9,000 a year.”

Selling to the grid The Alberta government allows development of bioenergy projects producing less than five megawatts of power; any excess can be sold back to the grid. To create a megawatt of electrical energy using a biomass combustion system requires an investment anywhere from $1 million to $2 million and produces around three megawatts of heat. These projects need a buyer for both the heat and electricity generated to become, says Toso Bozic, Agroforestry and Bioenergy Specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.

Although most of the projects that have been developed to date are for large businesses or community facilities such as a hospital or school, Bozic says farmers could have a unique opportunity to become suppliers of bioenergy feedstocks or energy providers themselves.

“The key sustainability quesBy Dan Piraro

Bizarro

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

grainews.ca /

Features tion for any bioenergy project is who controls the feedstock,” says Bozic. “Farmers often have privately owned woodlots and other feedstocks like straw and if a few of them got together to form a co-operative and invested in a biomass energy system for which they could control the feedstock they could have a good opportunity to be an energy provider for a local facility or business.”

Other Prairie utilities do not have commitments to purchase privately produced power back to the grid from biomass combustion. Manitoba Hydro is evaluating the potential for utilityscale electrical generation based on agricultural and industrial solid biomass waste streams in Manitoba. SaskPower is purchasing a limited amount of power back from one biomass plant in Prince Albert and plans to purchase power from a landfill in Saskatoon and an animal waste biodigester in Weyburn.

“Ontario Hydro is buying back electricity at 13.8 cents a kilowatt if it’s biomass generated power,” says Dueck. “At that rate if the customer has some use for the heat, then it’s certainly worthwhile.”

Although farmers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan don’t have the same business opportunities in terms of selling power to the grid, many could still be missing out on an opportunity, says Dueck. “We have an awful lot of wood that gets dumped in municipal landfills,” says Dueck. “It just needs to be processed. You could have the local people dump all their wood at your place and then once a year you bring in a wood chipper and he chips all the wood for you and you’ve got fuel for the winter.”

Dueck made a deal with the local garbage hauler to provide wood for his own biomass energy system, which heats his business.

“I asked him what it cost him for municipal dumping and it was costing him $20,000 a month just to dump wood,” says Dueck.

“So I told him I will charge you $10,000 a month and you can dump all your wood at my place.

All of a sudden I had fuel for my furnace.”

Although it’s primarily economics that will decide whether a biomass energy system is feasible on the farm or elsewhere, the system also has environmental benefits, such as being a localized energy source that is carbon neutral. “Carbon neutral essentially means that what you’re burning today is the sun’s energy from the last year,” says Dueck. “The carbon was taken out of the air when the plants grew last year and now you’re burning them.

So it’s carbon neutral within the cycle of one year. If you’re taking carbon out of the ground that’s been there for millions of years, and adding it to the atmosphere that’s not carbon neutral.”

A pilot project at Netley Marsh in conjunction with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) based in Winnipeg harvested cattails to use in a biomass burner and received $25 a ton carbon credit for the cattails. “The concept is that if you don’t harvest the cattails, they will rot in the swamps and if you harvest them, you’re reducing the methane gases that the swamp emits,” says Dueck. “When you then burn them in a biomass system, there C

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is no methane gas production and electricity on the farm or business, says Dueck. so there’s a carbon credit.”

“Theoretically if you bought a IISD is a non-profit organisation that was able to claim carbon off- system from us and you had let’s sets and sell them to some agen- say a natural gas heating bill of cies that purchase carbon offsets, $50,000 and you had an electrical but there is currently no standard bill of $50,000 and you put our process in Canada for the trading system in then Manitoba Hydro of carbon credits. But in theory would give you a grant of three anyone who is burning coal or fos- times your annual bill for electricsil fuels, and switches to biomass, ity plus one times your annual is producing carbon offsets and bill for heat or gas,” says Dueck. if a formal market was developed “In other words, you would get a carbon credits farmers would be $200,000 grant to put our system in a good position to benefit, says in, but that’s a one-time thing. The Dueck. “If you were given $25 a actual cost savings from our system ton in carbon credits for every would go on and on. With the bale you burned in our system, grant, I would say that it’s viable.”

The beauty of biomass systems, there would be a huge incentive,” says Dueck, is that biomass is evehe says.

Manitoba Hydro does have a rywhere. “It doesn’t matter where Bioenergy Optimization Program you go there’s biomass available that offers financial incentives for and by utilizing it those energy both a feasibility study for a bio- dollars stay in the community,” mass to energy combustion sys- he says. † tem and implementation incen- Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor tives, but it’s difficult for farmers and communications specialist living and to participate as it’s based on the working in Manitoba. Find her online at www.

ABIC2014_Grainews-Junior.pdf 1 25/02/2014 4:04:55 PM ability to displace natural gas or angelalovell.ca.

If you have a $20,000 or $30,000 annual heating bill, the system makes sense.

— Raymond Dueck

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Columns UNDERSTANDING MARKET BULLS AND BEARS

A view from the cheap seats Brian Wittal is watching local basis and relating it back to world events BRIAN WITTAL

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his time of the year brings the most tension and stress of the entire farming year. You are heavily invested in the crop with no guarantee of a return You have crop insurance in place, and you may have done some prepricing, but this could bite you if something were to happen to impact your production, making you unable to deliver.

You face too many unknowns and risks for the rewards and returns you are hoping to get!

Makes you a little nervous to say the least. This must be what it feels like to be a high roller in a million dollar Texas hold ‘em game. If it is, then let me tell you I am quite happy to sit on the sidelines in the cheap seats and offer my advice .

Tensions in the Ukraine region have not improved and further political sanctions have been enacted against the Russians by numerous foreign governments. Grain shipments out of this region are behind normal, meaning they are sitting on more grain than usual for this time of year. This is not good for North America from a competitive perspective as we enter into our harvest period.

U.S. crops are reported to be record crops by the most recent surveys and numbers that are being put out by the USDA. Growing conditions have improved greatly the past six weeks, which has driven yield estimates higher.

Logistics issues continue across the prairies and the northern tier U.S. states with many backlogged orders still waiting to be cleaned up. Some smaller U.S. transfer facilities are still waiting on March orders to be filled.

The worst I have heard of on the Prairies is two-month old orders still waiting to be shipped.

It looks like we could he headed down the same road we went down last fall.

Old crop world stocks are ample.

The world’s new crop is looking good as well.

World buyers are not very eager to engage in the activity of buying right now; they believe prices should come down more as the new crop comes to harvest.

If we do not make early sales to our buyers we will be forced to sit on the grain into the winter months basically wasting prime shipping opportunities (September to November), which we cannot get back later in the year. If weather becomes an issue we could be faced with a repeat of last year: Minimal delivery opportunities as rail service is disrupted and historically wide basis levels as grain companies try to control the flow of grains.

Are you positioned to survive another repeat of last fall and winter’s grain movement problems? Have you planned for some early harvest deliveries

for cash flow to help get you through if this should happen again?

Let’s hope the weather is milder with few or no disruptions to rail traffic this winter. That certainly would be an easier solution for everyone involved!

Basis levels Over the past six weeks we have seen a dramatic change to basis levels that the grain com-

panies have been offering for both old and new crop grains.

We have returned back to what I would call normal to aggressive basis levels, finally.

Canola basis levels for old crop have been in the positive territory in a few locations and there have been some limited new crop basis offerings that have also been in the positive values the past few weeks.

Spring wheat basis levels have dropped from -$2 per bushel down to the -$1 per bushel range with a couple of companies offering values below -$1 per bushel These basis offerings are there to help the companies buy grain from you to cover sales they have on the books now. If sales should slow down or stop because buyers decide to back

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away from the markets, these basis levels will no doubt widen back out.

What I am trying to do is give you a quick view of the world grain picture to get a better understanding of the local picture and what it may mean for you. If the risk is likely greater that prices are going to fall

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 21

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Columns KELLY’S AGEXPERT TIPS AND HINTS

AgExpert Analyst’s cost of production Setup and use the cost of production tool to determine your break-even point KELLY AIREY

D

etermining cost of production is a valuable management tool for every producer.

Compare your costs for the year

to the value of the commodities you’ve produced to determine your break-even point. This will help you make important decisions such as determining appropriate selling prices for grain or cattle.

A cattle producer, for example, will want to calculate all the expenses that went into raising their calves for the year, such as feed, veterinarian and labour, in order to deter-

mine how much the calves need to be sold for to cover costs.

If you assign the expenses you’ve recorded in AgExpert to the commodities you produce, Ag Expert’s cost of production tool will give you a report that breaks down your cost per head or cost per bushel or tonne.

To get setup and using the tool complete the following steps: • Click on the “Management

Menu” > “Operational Benchmarking” > “Cost of Production.”

• Customize your reporting options in the cost of production window.

• Under “Commodity”: – Select “Edit List.” Add the commodities you produce. Add specific commodities such as wheat or barley, or a group such as grains. Type in appropriate unit labels (such as tonnes).

– Select “Allocate Commodities.” Under the “Expenses” tab you will see a list of expenses that you’ve entered into AgExpert through your day-to-day transactions. Allocate these expenses to the commodities you produce.

Click on each expense line (or multiple lines by clicking and holding the “Shift” key) and allocate your expenses by percent or amount to the appropriate commodities. For example, a vet expense may be allocated to cattle; a grain cleaning expense may be allocated to wheat.

• Hints & Tips: – You will see the list of expenses highlighted in red, white or blue. Red transactions haven’t been allocated to a commodity.

White transactions have been fully allocated. Blue transactions have been partially allocated.

– Expenses can be assigned to future or past crop years under the “Production Period.” For example, canola seed purchased in the fall can be allocated to next year’s crop.

– Under the “Production” tab you can allocate the inventory adjustment transactions to determine how much was produced. For example, an inventory adjustment for the production of wheat should be allocated to the “Wheat” commodity.

• Under “Assign Expense,” select “Assign Expense Accounts” and assign your AgExpert accounts to an expense category that will be displayed on your report.

• Select the “production period” for your report.

• Click “generate” to view the report.

Next Month: bank reconciliations. †

T:11.428”

Kelly Airey is a producer and Ag Consultant in Western Manitoba. If you’re interested in purchasing AgExpert Software, she can help you receive $25 off your purchase. Contact Kelly at kelly.agconsulting@gmail.com or (204) 365-2442.

» CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20

A VIEW FROM THE CHEAP SEATS further, maybe you need to review your marketing plan and decide what is going to be the best strategy to protect your farm and your profits.

Are you priced appropriately with the right type of contracts (cash, deferred, futures, options) to avoid a cash crunch if we end up with logistics issues this winter?

What’s your Plan B? Cash advance, extend your operating line of credit, sell livestock, work off farm?

Plan B’s are not something you want to do but rather something you have to do to survive because of a change of circumstances that have altered the normal.

Not wanting to do it is one thing. Not being prepared to do it, if or when it should happen is not a situation you want to find yourself in.

Plan and be prepared. † O-66-08/14-10238268-E

F:8.7”

Brian Wittal has 30 years of grain industry experience, and currently offers market planning and marketing advice to farmers through his company Pro Com Marketing Ltd. (www.procommarketingltd.com).

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Columns Farm financial planner

Slash the tax bill

Resigned to quit, a farming couple makes a plan to slash taxes and hand the operation to their children

By Andrew Allentuck

I

n south central Manitoba, a couple we’ll call Harry and Marge, 81 and 73, are tackling the problem of transferring their 1,760 acre farm, mostly pasture, and their 120 cattle, to their children who we’ll call Bob, 46, and Cathy, 42.

Harry and Marge know they have to give up control sooner or later, given Harry’s age. Their children have been farm employees for three decades and know the business well, but there is a feeling in the reclassification family that they are– not Variety [6”] ready to manage.

“The challenge for the par2014 especially for Harry as ents,

the chief decision maker and sole shareholder of the company, is to transfer the corporation to the children without compromising the viability of the business,” says Don Forbes, head of Don Forbes Associates Inc./ Armstrong & Quaile Inc. in Carberry, Man. Harry and Marge, for whom he is an advisor, have to transfer ownership and control, he says. The necessity is undeniable. But how to do it is the problem.

Don and his son, Erik Forbes, point out that the retained earnings in the farming corporation are taxable when the corporation is sold or wound up. If the farm land itself is sold, gains in value

will also be taxable. The goal is to transfer the farm and its land to the two children in equal shares while minimizing potential capital gains taxes, Don notes.

The Canada Revenue Agency allows situations for businessbased capital gains to be exempt from capital gains tax. Shares of a small incorporated business can be sold to a qualified buyer. The price difference between the book value of the shares and their fair market value can be exempted from capital gains tax up to a value of $800,000 per shareholder in the sale. The rule also applies to the sale of personally owned farm land. Each piece of farm land being sold must be personally

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owned, with each owner claiming farm income on his or her income tax return.

Bob has $800,000 of capital gains exemption available which he can split between the farm land and farming corporation shares, as both are in his name. Cathy can be made eligible for an additional $800,000 of capital gains exemption if the farm business is restructured, Don Forbes says.

All of the gain in the farm land and a portion of the value of the corporation could be sheltered.

But this depends on how the business is valued. If the corporation has a value over $670,000, Cathy could be made eligible to use her $800,000 capital gains exemption. That would create a $1.6 million combined capital gains exemption. If the land is transferred to the children to create a $430,000 capital gain and the $800,000 exemption is applied, then a $370,000 residue of exemption would be left to claim, Erik Forbes explains.

There is no doubt that Harry is qualified to use the Farm Land Capital Gains exemption, though Cathy’s eligibility for it could be challenged by tax authorities. Though the land is held jointly, the Canada Revenue Agency prefers to see a joint farming profit and loss statement on annual personal tax returns for the spouse to qualify for the credit, Don Forbes notes.

“To make the exemption strategy work, Harry and Marge will have to work with their accountant to structure farming profit and loss statements and tax returns for the next two years to include Cathy’s name,” Mr. Forbes says. “That should help her qualify for the farm land capital gains tax exemption when the transfer takes place. Then in 2016, when two years of farming profit and loss statements have been filed with Cathy’s name included, the children can purchase the farm and its land.”

Harry should sell his shares to Bob and Cathy as an even split of value. If the fair market value is $500,000 with a book value of $300,000, there will be $200,000 of recaptured depreciation. That is classified as taxable income. If company shares are sold to a qualified small business owner, then the capital gains exemption for corporate shares will be triggered, saving about $100,000 in tax.

“The couple will have to work closely with their accountant to ensure that they comply with the rules,” Don Forbes says.

To make the recommended transfer work and comply with

By Dan Piraro

Bizarro

CRA rules, the purchase agreement for the sale of shares could be a demand note with a take back feature. Thus if one of the children gets divorced, the transfer value, if embedded in a mortgage or other debt instrument, would be protected. They also need a shareholder agreement with all shareholders. This agreement should describe buyout terms, management control, and the demand note take back.

The parents should update their wills to reflect the shareholder agreement. And there has to be management contract with the children, which describes their jobs, level of responsibility, wages and benefits including sick and holiday time and any bonus arrangements. Finally, the purchase agreement should have a plan for skills transition training, especially management and book keeping duties. If the home farm is left to the children in acreage of unequal value, then there could be a gift plan to equalize the dollar value of the farm transfer.

There is also a matter of offfarm investments. Harry and Marge have $660,000 of non-RRSP money in a major online brokerage account and RRSPs of financial services and energy stocks that produce $20,000 a year in Canadian-source dividends. They should consolidate all their nonRRSP investment accounts into a joint account with right of survivorship so that, upon the death of one spouse, there would be no deemed disposition in the transfer to the surviving partner. That would avoid capital gains tax, Erik Forbes adds.

There is clearly a lot of accounting and investing work to do. Harry and Marge could hire an investment manager to handle their offfarm portfolio. They should check on fees, which are usually based on assets under management. For portfolio of their size, they might pay one to 1.5 per cent of assets under management. Fees paid for management of assets other than those exempt from current tax, such as RRSPs, would be deductible from taxable income, Don Forbes adds.

F i n a l l y, H a r r y a n d M a r g e should ensure that their Tax-Free Savings Accounts are maximized each year to shelter as much investment growth. The present contribution limit is $31,000 and it will grow by $5,500 each time January 1 comes around, Erik Forbes says. In the decade following the asset transfers, Harry and Marge will have rising incomes based largely on offfarm investments and post-tax incomes rising from $75,000 in 2014 to $100,000 when Harry is 87 and Marge is 79 to $106,000 when he is 90 and Marge is 82. “It’s win-win for everybody,” Don Forbes says.

With planning focused on the farm transfer and tax minimization, the legacy that Harry and marge have built will be protected. “These plans, as I have outlined them, will protect what the children get as they assume management and ownership of the farm. The plan has an equality of what each child gets, but the children will be free to adjust their duties and ownership after the plan goes into effect,” Don Forbes says. † Andrew Allentuck’s latest book, “When Can I Retire? Planning Your Financial Life After Work,” was published in 2011 by Penguin Canada.

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

grainews.ca /

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Columns CAN’T TAKE THE FARM FROM THE BOY

The mysterious power of debt and difference

It’s sometimes necessary but not always easy to talk about debt, or to realize that not all farmers are the same TOBAN DYCK

I

f my glasses look smart, then go ahead and assume I am, too. I won’t mind. And I won’t open my mouth.

Transparency. It’s not fun. I prefer to keep the unseen parts of my life mysterious to most. It’s an edge, albeit a fake one.

And I’m guessing it rarely fools the people I want it to.

But I wouldn’t give my farm to someone shrouded in mystery, no matter how smart his or her glasses look. I’m assuming others feel the same way. So, transparency is important. My tell-all moment resulted in a few takeaways: debt is good to talk about, and we’re all different.

DEBT Among those things I keep mysterious, and ranking quite high, is money, a topic I keep 10 paces from, generally. I have debt,

some new; some old. Some high interest; some low. Money is often a sensitive topic.

I don’t like it. But the family farm shouldn’t inherit this mystery. I wouldn’t place my retirement in the hands of a stranger with smart-looking glasses, so when I moved back to the farm I bared it all in what must have sounded like a decade and a half of fiscal follies, blunders, and stupid mistakes.

It wasn’t. It’s not that bad. But I listed my decisions with such a deprecating tone.

It felt strange to do this. I had wittingly rendered most of the financial decisions made between leaving the farm and coming back as irresponsible. But I wouldn’t trade them for the world.

You try. List all the poor decisions you’ve ever made, and share them. As an adult well into the grit of adulthood, the outcome will make you feel young in all the ways you were happy to leave behind. I have a beard. This was what distinguished me from a 15-year-old at that moment.

This was a milestone for the farm’s transition plan. Confessing my full financial details took me down a few notches, but it’s an honest foundation from which a solid plan can be built. Debt is not specific

to me. Many farmers have it. And many keep it secret. Talk about it. Get it out in the open. It’ll do wonders.

DIFFERENCE Wading through your muck will result in things, decisions, etc., that will reveal differences between you and the farmer across the road. This should be a realization more significant than John Deer vs.

Case IH. “What kind of haircut would you like?”

“I don’t know (I never do). Short, I guess.”

After she washed my hair: “So, what do you do?”

“I’m a writer and I farm.”

“Whoah! You farm?!

That’s amazing.”

Some call it engagement. Others call it a need for recognition. Don’t ask me what I call it. But writers, especially journalists, generally want to talk about what they do. I would have put $2 on her wanting to know more about the writing. Good thing I didn’t.

I would have lost, which I could have added

to the poor choices list. The combination farmer/writer is unique, I thought. I trade on this, whether it’s true or not.

She chose the familiar over the less so.

Really, she chose neither. She just cut my hair short, and did an excellent job. I’m using her. Writers do that sometimes.

Difference is acceptable. I too easily forget that. I may not farm like my father. I may not farm like many around me. And that’s okay.

I’m a new farmer, you’ll recall, having moved to the family farm in August 2012. I love farming, but it consumes me in different, untypical ways. I worked as the managing editor of a Toronto-based publication before that. And at the National Post before that. My wife and I love the lifestyle, viewing it as our own but also in relation to what we used to have. We love our farm, the yard, and its potential. We are different than many our age in this community. And that’s okay.

Here’s to things that are different, ideas that are new, and that reclusive farmer people call eccentric. † Toban Dyck is a freelance writer and a new farmer on an old farm. Follow him on Twitter @tobandyck or email tobandyck@gmail.com.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Columns Farm Talk

Running train(s) of thought With the latest technology, farmers have more time than ever to think about problems like grain transportation while they put their crops in the ground

By Kim Althouse

A

s you sit in the comfort of your tractor patiently going back and forth, placing fertilizer exactly 1.5 inches below and three-quarters of an inch to the side of the expensive seed you have chosen in hopes of growing

the second biggest crop you ever grew (last year will always be the biggest), you wish you had not installed the autosteer kit, which now causes sheer boredom.

As you sit there you’re planning the upcoming cycle of seed, spray, spray again, spray some more and then harvest and finally put down some

anhydrous. Somewhere between the thoughts of where you want to go on a getaway next winter and what is the best rotation to follow what you’re currently seeding you think about selling the rest of the best crop you ever grew.

Then you remember the battle you went through to try and

sell grain into the annual “can’t move grain from the Prairies this winter” thing.

As you try decide which bills have to be paid and which you can let slide for a month you start to wonder why. You can decide how much fertilizer to apply, what variety of seed to grow and whether it’s time to

trade off the combine. But of all of the decisions you make, you don’t have the ability to pay the guys that haul your production to Vancouver or Thunder Bay a small premium for assurance that your grain will reach a buyer from a country whose name you can’t pronounce.

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25

Columns rejoiced when the federal government legislated Bill C30, the “Fair Grain Freight for Farmers Bill,” imposing fines for not meeting targets set for weekly grain movement. Then you said, “Wait a minute, the same people who are demanding that I pay last year’s taxes are going to benefit to the tune of $100,000 per day while my grain sits in its bin?

There’s something wrong with this deal.”

Then you need to turn, and click on the auto steer again but your mind goes back to why you can’t pay a little extra to get your grain to markets. “Just an extra marketing cost,” you reason.

Then you realize why you

can’t. The railway revenue cap.

The restrictions imposed by the federal government in 2000 to regulate the rail freight rates.

As it was explained at whatever meeting you were at last winter, the cap claws back excess revenue that the railways earn with the exception of an inflation factor and some capital expenditures to improve efficiencies.

You were just like all the other guys in the room. Reduced to the lowest common denominator.

You suffer equally for the good of all. A government inadvertently caused a problem 14 years after the regulations were adopted.

Then you realize that in 2008 you paid the same rate to move

your grain even though with the short crop there was a reduced demand for rail service.

What if there was a mechanism to adjust the price of rail freight where increased demand raised the price and lower demand lowered the price? That works everywhere else but Canadian grain freight rates.

Then you think about all the other players in the rail freight market. Grain companies, producers, railroads and even business people who could accept risk in return for financial reward.

Whoa! Gotta turn again! “Still about the same tire slip as before” you calculate.

“Then, what if there were spec-

ified time periods in which the price of the rail freight was determined so that I could purchase a guarantee of service? And what if, when the cars didn’t get there because it has been -30 C for two weeks, I received a check in the mail to compensate me?” you think. “Maybe I could make a payment on the tax account.”

“There must be a way to determine the price of something, even freight rates, into the future?”

“Futures markets, that’s it!”

You celebrate your epiphany with a slurp of cold coffee. “There is a supply, there is a demand, there are sellers and there are buyers, why can’t they meet to dis-

cuss the relative values of freight rates, or why not trade them electronically as they do with wheat, corn and hundreds of other commodities?”

“That couldn’t work because all those other commodities have a real component, like wheat or cotton or corn. But, what if I can purchase a contract that guarantees me a portion of the freight market, and that contract had value that I could sell to my neighbour.” You wonder.

“Beep – Beep, plugged hose, finally get to stretch”. Train of thought lost. Or is it? † Kim Althouse is a market coach with AgriTrend at Tisdale, Saskatchewan. He is also the president of www.eGrainCanada.com.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Columns OPEN FIELD

Rye, oh rye: the second part Two new hybrid varieties, ergot research and some all-too willing volunteers SARAH WEIGUM

M

y last column on fall rye yielded a surprising amount of positive feedback from readers, so I’m plunging ahead with Part 2. Last month I discussed some agronomics and some niche marketing opportunities with fall rye. This issue I’m discussing new research on an old crop and what to do about those persistent rye volunteers.

ANCIENT CROP, MODERN TECH I first heard rye described as “prehistoric” by Jamie Larsen, rye breeder at Agriculture and AgriFood Lethbridge.

“Because rye is open pollinated and there hasn’t been much breeding work on it, it really is kind of prehistoric,” said Larsen.

“You see all kinds of wacky stuff in it.” Unlike wheat and barley which are self-pollinating and have been bred for uniformity, rye from the same seed lot will have variation in plant height and seed colour. Other, less visible traits, like cold hardiness, threshability and falling numbers can be teased out through cross pollination and selection within populations developed from parental lines that are known to have these traits.

Canadian rye varieties already have world class cold tolerance (no surprise, really), so Larsen’s current research focuses on reducing straw height while improving falling numbers (the main quality specification for milling rye).

Larsen is also addressing everyone’s main concern when it comes to rye: ergot. Larsen and colleague Kelly Turkington developed an ergot nursery at AAFC Lacombe

where they put down the equivalent of 80 pounds of ergot bodies per acre and planted several lines of rye, with the hope of determining which varieties are more or less susceptible to ergot.

“Ultimately you want to see good infection, so the more you lay down the better,” said Larsen referring to the ergot. “If you see very low infection it’s hard to separate good lines from bad lines. If you get really high infections then you get some that are one per cent infected and some are 20 per cent.”

T h e S a s k a t c h e w a n Wi n t e r Cereals Development Commission provides funding for Larsen’s research — this year he purchased a colour sorter with some of the funds. This machine will help him assess the percent of ergot per rye line. With ergot being an issue in wheat and barley recently, Larsen hopes that if his research on rye provides useful results, the project might be applied to other cereals.

Rye being on the extreme end of ergot susceptibility makes it a good candidate for research on ergot and the same principle applies with straw height and plant growth regulator (PGR) research. Brian Beres, research scientist, agronomy at AAFC Lethbridge included rye in his PGR trial this year because he wanted to make sure he had a crop in the trial that would have sufficient lodging susceptibility to demonstrate the effect of the PGR. The trial included two different rates and two different timing of application. Since this is the first year for the trial, results are still forthcoming, but it’s certainly a project I’m going to be following up on as lodging can be a big headache in rye.

Probably the biggest headline in fall rye right now, though, is the news that two new hybrid varieties have been registered in Canada. Brasetto and Guttino both come out of the German breeding company KWS and they

PHOTO: LEEANN MINOGUE

Rye deserves its bad reputation for volunteering, sometimes three or four years after its grown. One tool to deal with these volunteers is a good sense of humour. are the first hybrid cereals to be registered in Canada.

A Regina based seed company, FP Genetics, won the rights to distribute Brasetto in Canada and they have several trials underway across the Prairies, comparing Brasetto with Hazlet, a high yielding conventional rye. According to Ron Weik, seed portfolio manager at FP Genetics, Brasetto has out-yielded the best open pollinated rye by about 25 per cent.

“It’s also shorter, so there isn’t as much straw,” said Weik. Shorter straw height also means less susceptibility to lodging. While rye tends to be grown on less productive land, Weik said this crop should be babied.

“Because this is a hybrid with the promise of yield, it needs to be grown on high productivity land. It needs to be fertilized and sprayed for disease as you would any cereal crop,” said Weik. Growers will pay considerably more to plant hybrid rye.

“Seed cost per acre is about

$50,” said Weik. “I’ve talked to a number of people and thrown out that number and they didn’t hang up on me.” He likens the advent of hybrid cereal production to the initial years of hybrid canola seed.

“If there’s an econ advantage to growing the hybrid, then people will pay the price and if it doesn’t bring them value, they won’t do it.” In order to bring this profit to growers, FP Genetics partnered with Paterson Grain to develop an identity preserved program. Keith Bruch, Paterson’s vice president of operations, sees potential for sales into the milling and feed market given Brasetto’s high falling numbers and high fibre content. He believes the main economic advantage growers will see is through the yield gains, rather than a higher price compared to other rye varieties.

“There’s a big return on incremental yield gains,” said Bruch.

While the first cross hybrid side exhibits heterosis, or hybrid vigour, Weik pointed out that

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ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Roundup Ready® crops contain genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides. Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for canola contains the active ingredients difenoconazole, metalaxyl (M and S isomers), fludioxonil, and thiamethoxam. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for soybeans (fungicides only) is a combination of three separate individually registered products, which together contain the active ingredients fluxapyroxad, pyraclostrobin and metalaxyl. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for soybeans (fungicides and insecticide) is a combination of four separate individually registered products, which together contain the active ingredients fluxapyroxad, pyraclostrobin, metalaxyl and imidacloprid. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for corn (fungicides only) is a combination of three separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin and ipconazole.

Acceleron® seed treatment technology for corn (fungicides and insecticide) is a combination of four separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin, ipconazole, and clothianidin. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for corn with Poncho®/VoTivo™ (fungicides, insecticide and nematicide) is a combination of five separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin, ipconazole, clothianidin and Bacillus firmus strain I-5821. Acceleron®, Acceleron and Design®, DEKALB and Design®, DEKALB®, Genuity and Design®, Genuity®, RIB Complete and Design®, RIB Complete®, Roundup Ready 2 Technology and Design®, Roundup Ready 2 Yield®, Roundup Ready®, Roundup Transorb®, Roundup WeatherMAX®, Roundup®, SmartStax and Design®, SmartStax®, Transorb®, VT Double PRO® and VT Triple PRO® are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC. Used under license. LibertyLink® and the Water Droplet Design are trademarks of Bayer. Used under license. Herculex® is a registered trademark of Dow AgroSciences LLC. Used under license. Poncho® and Votivo™ are trademarks of Bayer. Used under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

No excuse not to!

more information or to find a collection { For site near you visit cleanfarms.ca Now, take your empty fertilizer containers along for the ride!

10901A-CFM-5Reasons-1/8Page-Grainews.indd 1

the production from harvested Brasetto will not make good seed.

“If you replant the seed of a hybrid you’ll notice a big yield decrease,” he said. While some farmers may balk at not being able to save seed, Weik sees this as “an opportunity to demonstrate to people the benefits of new technology that can be made available to cereals.”

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING While there are innumerable wonderful things to be said about rye, it is not without its drawbacks.

One being the fact that it volunteers so easily, sometimes for three or four years. Often after the first year the volunteer plants do not vernalize so there is no seed in the heads, but on our farm where we’re trying to produce other certified cereal crops, a crop can fail the inspection if there are too many volunteers visible. Our strategy has been to follow rye with Roundup Ready canola and then grow a year of commercial cereals, then maybe back to peas. Some growers follow rye with canola, then peas, but because we usually grow our rye on pea stubble it’s a bit of tight rotation to make it back to peas.

Recently I polled Twitter for suggestions on dealing with fall rye and one grower said he allowed all the volunteers to come up the following year, banded fertilizer on at early tillering and harvested a 55 bushel crop! Someone on Twitter reminded me that Clearfield wheat is also tool in the tool box.

I’ve often thought the best solution would be to plant a cereal crop following rye and have it cut for silage or green feed (granted there’s a local feed market) and then go in with herbicide resistant canola, giving us an extra year and the added benefit of controlling both rye and weeds through cultural, rather than chemical means.

Maybe the best tool for a farmer growing rye is a good sense of humour or a blind eye, because invariably, a few rye plants will escape even the best chemical and cultural controls and you’ll have to deal with your neighbours’ comments or your own ego. † Sarah Weigum grows pedigreed seed and writes at Three Hills, Alta. Follow her on Twitter @sweigum.

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28

/ grainews.ca

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Columns OFF-FARM INVESTMENTS

Things I wish I’d known Because it’s always cheaper to learn from other people’s mistakes, here are six things Andy Sirski wishes he’d learned sooner ANDY SIRSKI

O

ver the years I’ve heard and read many ideas about investing. Some have been directly opposite to others. These are my thoughts on six things I wish I knew or learned sooner about investing.

1. BUY QUALITY One of the first things an investor should learn is to buy

quality — stocks that will still be here and doing well in five, 10 and 15 years. One of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t buy shares in Disney (DIS) when it split three-for-one years ago. After the split, shares were $25. Now they trade at $87 and have paid a dividend every year.

Disney has several good qualities: pricing power, it raises the cost of its tickets by four to six per cent every year and the crowds keep coming. It has a cash cow media business and makes some slam dunk profitable movies.

Most years Disney’s earnings are higher than the average for S&P stocks.

2. LEARN HOW TO SELL This is one of the more controversial things I wish I had learned early in my investment career. I think learning how to sell is more of an attitude than a skill. A lot of farmers, for example, don’t really need to learn how to sell crops because they are driven by events such as when crops are harvested, when they need cash and so on.

Still if more Western Canadian farmers had sold their canola at something around $500 a tonne when the daily price crossed through the 10-day moving average going down, they would

be a lot happier and have a lot more money.

Stocks are different. Many stocks are influenced by recurring seasonality but those ups and downs are often offset or neutralized in investors’ minds by being told by the media, the investment industry and others that they should be in for the long term, and not try to time the market. Yet stocks go up and down. For example, Bombardier made a lot of investors a lot of money from the 1940s to 2001 or so. Then shares dropped through the 10-day moving average at around $20 and have never been even close to that price ever since.

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Non-believers will say we can’t time the market (which isn’t true), but you can make up your own mind on that. All I know is that the price of Nortel, Enron, Barrick Gold, Goldcorp, Disney, Research in Motion and many others dropped and some disappeared. Some stopped dropping and only Disney came back up from that short list.

3. LOOK FOR GROWING DIVIDENDS Over the years dividends can make up a good chunk of total returns from a stock. Some say four per cent of the total, some say eight per cent of the total long-term return average of 11 per cent per year. You can improve returns by holding stocks with a history of raising dividends by more than the rate of inflation.

4. AVOID THE HIGH FLYERS Every now and then the market brings to us stocks like tech stocks during the tech boom in the late 1990s. I didn’t know better, so I took part in that market. Over time I’ve learned to invest in companies that have proven management, make reliable products or provide excellent services and have a positive and growing cash flow. Even if these companies run into grief now and then, the good ones figure out how to solve their problems and dig themselves out of a hole.

Companies like Ford, Alcoa, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Manulife, the Canadian banks and many others have been tested over time and survived and thrived. Insurance companies are a special group of stocks. They are about the only companies that get money up front from people, set some aside for dealing with catastrophes and invest the rest. I wish someone had explained that to me when Manulife was under $10 a share in 2009.

5. SELL COVERED CALLS My bread and butter strategy is to sell covered calls on most of my stocks. I learned how to sell covered calls in 2003. Selling calls kept my account flat during the meltdown in 2007 to 2009 while the market dropped 59 per cent.

6. KNOW WHEN STOCKS ARE ACCUMULATED Stocks get accumulated at times and sold off at times. These days with computers we can see very quickly on free charting services like Stockcharts whether a stock is being bought up or sold off.

Stocks drop for many reasons and I find that it’s a lot safer and more profitable to sell when I see the stock drop and look for why it dropped later. † Andy Sirski is mostly retired. Besides gardening, playing with grandchildren and travelling a bit with his wife Andy also manages the family’s portfolio. He publishes an electronic newsletter called StocksTalk where he tells what he does and why. You can have a month free if you send and email to sirski@mts.net.

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

grainews.ca /

29

Columns SOILS AND CROPS

A word about micronutrients With lower commodity prices, it’s back to “buyer beware” in the micronutrient market LES HENRY

D

epending on the textbook you read and the plant you are growing it takes from 16 to 20 chemical elements to grow a crop. And, a nutrient required in even the most minute quantity can put the lid on yield just as much as a nitrogen deficiency.

In Henry’s Handbook of Soils and Crops I wrote, “I do not suffer under any delusion that we have discovered all the micronutrient deficiencies that exist in Western Canada. … Micronutrient research is expensive and often not exciting because a lot of ‘nothing’ results are obtained.”

In past Grainews articles I have also said “If you have to pick a lot of stones it is not likely you will have a micronutrient deficiency.” The rationale is that soils mixed up and deposited by glaciers will have a little bit of everything. The water-laid deposits separate out various size fractions and in the process a crucial nutrient may be in short supply.

Pencils have to be sharpened again

PET MICRONUTRIENTS Micronutrients have “pet” soils and “pet” crops. For copper, wheat is the pet crop and pet soils are peat and high organic matter sandy soils. And, for copper there is a well-established set of soil test benchmarks based on enough field experiments to be useful. In Western Canada, copper is the micronutrient most likely to be used with good economic benefit on soils that are deficient.

Oats is the pet crop for manganese and peat soils are the soils that may be deficient, but documented responses are few.

In Tanzania we had a wheat variety and volcanic ash soil that would grow nothing without manganese fertilizer — but that was a very special case. In that case it was a special new variety that exhibited the manganese problem. That variety had done well in tests on other soils that were not manganese deficient.

Beans are the pet crop for zinc, and high pH and high lime soils are the most probable

Boron deficiencies with alfalfa on sandy grey soils have been shown, but they are not widespread.

Iron has been a problem with some shrubs and fruit trees on high pH, high lime soils, particularly very fine textured soils.

folks with a $5 “Lucky Iron Fish” that could be put in the cooking pot to provide iron for a family for five years. (You can read more about this in the May 24, 2014 issue of “The Globe and Mail”.) Seems like a very sensible solution to me.

With the high annual crop ZINC AND IRON yields we’ve been growing the On a global basis, for human past many years it is reasonable nutrition iron and zinc are the to suspect that more cases of major problems and some coun- micronutrient deficiencies will tries have many zinc-deficient develop. But, specialty N/P/K/S soils. Plant breeders are working fertilizers that have a small quanon varieties that have higher tity of a micronutrient may not levels of zinc to improve the provide any benefit and should nutritional value in areas where be priced on a comparison of the that nutrient is limiting. cost of the actual macronutrients.

For iron deficiencies in Africa, If the actual cost for the microT:8.125” a unique solution was to provide nutrient is high, there should be

Strong returns.

some reasonable expectation of a positive return to warrant the expense. At $8 wheat and $15 canola the extra cost may be of no consequence but we are back in a situation where pencils have to be sharpened again. At the same time we must continue to be on the lookout for new situations where a micronutrient may be of economic benefit.

Caveat Emptor/buyer beware. † J.L.(Les) Henry is a former professor and extension specialist at the University of Saskatchewan. He farms at Dundurn, Sask.

He recently finished a third printing of “Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water,” a book that mixes the basics and practical aspects of soil, fertilizer and farming. Les will cover the shipping and GST for “Grainews” readers.

Simply send a cheque for $50 to Henry Perspectives, 143 Tucker Cres, Saskatoon, SK, S7H 3H7.

L156H Because you don’t have money to throw away, invest in InVigor® Health L156H and watch it come back to you in a big way. Exceptional yields and a specialty canola contract premium, InVigor Health was designed for growers hunting for a better return on their investment.

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BayerCropScience.ca/InVigor or 1 888-283-6847 or contact your Bayer CropScience representative.

Always read and follow label directions. InVigor® is a registered trademark of the Bayer Group. Bayer CropScience is a member of CropLife Canada.

O-66-08/14-10249510-E

T:10”

So far I have had no one give me any meaningful data to refute that statement. Maybe this time someone will. If any reader has valid experiments over years and locations that show that statement to be false I will be most delighted to eat crow and learn in the process.

soils. Very high rates of broadcast phosphorus fertilizer used to raise soil test phosphorus can induce a zinc deficiency. That happened on the clay soils of the University of Saskatchewan Kernen farm.

CCA and P.Ag types that want to check it out can go to: J. P. Singh, R. E. Karamanos,and J. W. B. Stewart. 1986. Phosphorusinduced Zinc Deficiency in Wheat on Residual Phosphorus Plots.

Agronomy Journal: Volume 78 pages 668-675. In that study the highest rates of phosphorus fertilizer used were 700 pounds acre of 0-46-0 (Triple Super Phosphate). But, apart from that case, documented responses to Zinc are few.

30

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Cattleman’s Corner ANYONE CAN START FARMING

Don’t take water hemlock for granted DEBBIE CHIKOUSKY

W

ater hemlock is popping up all over this summer. The fact that this weed is spreading on high ground had us hopeful any new growth we saw might be the harmless cow parsnips. However, the weed specialist confirmed the new growth as water hemlock on all our hayfields, now there is more than a little cause for concern.

Control is now the focus.

During the 1940s, farmers were told as long as the cattle didn’t eat the root of the highly poisonous water hemlock there wasn’t a problem. Since then it has been proven that the toxin is in all parts of the plant, and grazing young plants can cause birth defects, miscarriages, open cows and death.

The birth defects in unborn calves that can result from the cow ingesting poison hemlock may include crooked legs (crooked calf disease, arthrogryposis), cleft palate, and kinked tails.

Arthrogryposis means the permanent fixation of a joint in a contracted position. This is a congenital disorder, not due to a nutritional issue, and is marked by generalized stiffness of the joints, often accompanied by muscle and nerve degeneration, resulting in severely impaired mobility of the limbs. Arthrogrypotic skeletal malformations occur in calves

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF MANITOBA AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND RURAL INITIATIVES

One of the challenges is to identify if the weed growing in your pasture or hayland is poisonous water hemlock, or harmless water parsnip. These plates show one difference in the bracts found below the seed head. But if still in doubt, it may be wise to consult a weed or forage specialist. when pregnant cows between 40 to 70 days of gestation ingest water hemlock.

Considering a cow can die from ingesting one water hemlock root, the assumption is that it wouldn’t need to eat much to cause these birth defects. The plant is poisonous to all livestock and the oils from the plant are very toxic to humans as well.

This plant needs to be handled properly and with respect given to its ability to harm, as we found out last fall.

RESPECT THE WEED My son was haying a field where at first there were just a few plants here and there. He just kept getting off the tractor

and hand-roguing them. By the end of the day he would feel unwell but it would go away.

We have been told in the fall the poison goes to the root and the plants dry quickly, which is what they appear to be doing.

The third day he found a fairly heavy infestation and started pulling those plants. He soon started feeling unwell again and this time his heart developed an irregular beat. Then he realized what the problem was. He wasn’t wearing gloves and he was feeling the effects of hemlock poisoning.

Thankfully it wasn’t enough to be deadly but it was enough to scare us into respecting this plant.

Although hand-roguing was an effective way of eradicating small outbreaks, it must be done safely.

PROPER HANDLING PRACTICES Safe handling procedures for water hemlock would be similar to the safety protocols for handling other toxic substances such as pesticides. Since we had a scare we recommend following these step stringently. These guidelines were provided by a weed specialist for us to use.

1. Coveralls — preferably disposable water-repellent ones like Tyvek so that they can just be packed into a garbage bag and thrown away. If using fabric coveralls, wash them separately from other clothing. Use hot water and detergent, repeat wash once.

Dry coveralls on a clothesline so as not to contaminate the dryer

and allowing the sun to further decontaminate them. Clean the washing machine by running it through another wash cycle with only hot water and detergent.

2. Impervious gloves, either neoprene or nitrile material — long enough to cover your wrist and extend over the sleeve of your coveralls. Wash gloves with hot, soapy water, or dispose of gloves in a garbage bag once finished handling the hemlock.

3. Rubber boots — wash down with hot, soapy water after leaving the infestation site.

4. Protective eyewear — Safety glasses or goggles give protection against flying debris and help prevent the inadvertent rubbing

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

THE MARKETS

Cattle markets reach record highs JERRY KLASSEN MARKET UPDATE

C

attle prices have been the bright spot in Western Canada over the past few months with both fed and feeder cattle touching all-time record highs.

Alberta fed prices touched the $166/cwt in early August but have softened moving into the fall period due to softer beef consumption and larger-than-expected beef production.

The Russian ban on all food imports set a negative tone for all meat products. Russia imports very little beef but is a main home for pork and certain poultry cuts.

Ideas that additional pork and chicken supplies will have to be absorbed in the domestic market caused live cattle futures to drop limit down two days in a row after the announcement.

Alberta breakeven prices on fed cattle marketings are in the $155/ cwt to $158/cwt range for the fall and there is a nervous attitude in the feeder complex. While the fed market remains sharply above these levels at the time of writing this article, there is a fair amount

of risk in the feedlot sector with 850-pound steer purchases over the magical $200/cwt level.

Barley and corn prices continue to grind lower into the harvest period, which has been supportive for the feeder market. Most feedlots have bought feeder cattle relying on fed prices to remain at the higher levels, but there is potential for a softer tone in the market through the fall period.

the border is supporting the larger weekly slaughter pace. Alberta and Saskatchewan feedlot inventories continue to run eight to 10 per cent above year-ago levels.

If we don’t see demand remain strong from the U.S., fed cattle prices in Alberta could come under pressure.

PRODUCTION ESTIMATES

U.S. consumer confidence reached the psychological level of 90.9 in July, which was the highest since October 2007. Remember this is when the stock market peaked prior to the recession. A reading over 90 suggests that the U.S. economy is firing on all cylinders. (The July 2013 reading was only 72.3.)

The main question is whether consumer spending will increase and the recent optimism continue into the third and fourth quarters of 2014. Even if the reading does move higher, the economic output and consumer spending does not significantly improve because the environment is nearing capacity. Back-to-school season usually results in slower restaurant spending and retail beef demand also eases. These are two factors to keep in mind with fed cattle prices near historical highs.

Second-quarter beef production for 2014 came in lower than anticipated. For the week ending Aug.10, U.S. year-to-date beef production was down 8.4 per cent in comparison to last year. U.S. cattle on feed for slaughter as of July 1 were down only two per cent in comparison to July 1, 2013.

Therefore, the USDA has marginally increased third- and fourthquarter beef production estimates from earlier in spring. U.S. beef production is running below yearago levels, but in Canada, year-todate beef production is actually two per cent over 2013 for the week ending Aug. 2. In Western Canada, beef production is up three per cent. Fresh and chilled cuts exported to the U.S. were up 11 per cent in comparison to 2013 so strong demand from south of

STRONG CONSUMER CONFIDENCE

U.S. QUARTERLY BEEF PRODUCTION (MILLION POUNDS) Quarter

2011

2012

2013

Est 2014

Est 2015

1

6,411

6,283

6,172

5,868

5,785

2

6,559

6,475

6,517

6,190

5,505

3

6,737

6,584

6,608

6,330

5,490

4

6,492

6,571

6,420

6,150

5,980

Total

26,199

25,913

25,717

24,563

22,760

Source: USDA In mid-August, choice beef dropped significantly as retailers prepared for softer demand in September. The U.S. unemployment rate for July was 6.2 per cent, up from the June number of 6.1 per cent. This is another signal the income levels are stagnating rather than increasing. In a bull market, the bull needs to be fresh news every day and if a couple factors start to turn, the market momentum tends to change.

The outlook for feeder cattle is quite optimistic even if the market softens or retraces from current levels. Feed grain supplies will be burdensome during the first half of the crop year, supporting feeder cattle prices.

There is room for the fed cattle market to deteriorate before feeding margins move into red ink

and this should keep the feeder complex firm into September.

The U.S. cow slaughter for the first half of 2014 was down 15 per cent compared to the same period during 2013 and the industry is expecting significant heifer retention this fall. Available feeder cattle supplies will be down from last year in both Canada and the U.S., which is also a positive factor. This is the first time since the early 1990s that the industry has been financially healthy enough to justify expansion. Lower feed grain prices, historically high fed cattle values and an expanding economy all bode well for the cow calf producer. † Gerald Klassen analyzes cattle and hog markets in Winnipeg and also maintains an interest in the family feedlot in Southern Alberta. For comments or speaking engagements, he can be reached at gklassen7@hotmail.com or call 204 899 8268

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

grainews.ca /

31

Cattleman’s Corner BETTER BUNKS AND PASTURES

More lameness forecast for the rest of the pasture season PETER VITTI

found along the horn wall. It is the laminar corium that produces the horny nail of the hooves.

HOOVES GET SOFT

E

xcessively wet weather followed by hot dry days is the norm during this year’s grazing season, at least in some parts of the Prairies, and will likely continue until weaning time.

That means many cow herds are often forced to stand on soggy ground, in puddles or in mud for days and as the ground dries out.

This leads to many cases of painful and performance-damaging lameness. So it’s a good idea for producers to check their cattle regularly during summer and well into autumn to find any lame animals and treat them immediately.

Healthy split hooves are one of the toughest parts of the brood cow and her calf’s body and form a protective barrier against invading bacteria that cause many types of infectious lameness. They are covered with a thick waxy hoof wall (made of keratin — a specialized protein that gives hardness to hooves), which sits upon the sole, white line (a junction between the sole and the hoof wall on the underside of the hoof) and heel.

Inside the hoof or claw, the pedal bone sits inside the laminar corium, a blood-enriched living tissue

Lameness starts with constant exposure to wet pastures, which causes hooves to eventually become very pliable and rubbery. This makes them more prone to overall excess wear, bruising on the underlying sole and direct physical injury such as punctures, scrapes or deep cuts to the above hoof horn. It is these latter abrasions that opens cattle hooves up to pathogenic invaders that cause the majority of lameness in pasture cattle.

Subsequent hot and dry weather only accentuates the problem by promoting chaffing and cracking of the tender and compromised hooves.

Unfortunately, the initial stages of lameness are subtle or invisible, because we cannot see every little scrape or wound that might compromise hoof health. From the road we probably might not even see swollen feet hidden by lush grass unless we walk amongst the cows in the herd. What we might see is one or two of those animals favouring its hind legs, while another individual is limping away in pain. Producers need to be vigilant with their checks of the herd for probable hoof problems.

FOOTROT IS COMMON Most of us blame a higher incidence of lameness of cattle upon footrot, which seems to be a matter of universal debate. Natural surveys, field trials and available literature do attribute up to 75 per cent of all diagnosis are valid footrot infections!

The chances are good that if pasture animals suffer from actual footrot, the space between their claws (inter-digital space) is red and swollen. If suspect footrot has significantly progressed, their claws will be noticeably separated and the skin between the toes will be cracked and visible tissue will be dying. The classic smell of decaying flesh should also be evident.

By nature, footrot often shows up in cattle after a stretch of rainy weather, followed by a week or so of warm dry weather. The skin of the inter-digital claws starts to crack, chap and is eventually opened to infection by anaerobic (lives without oxygen) bacteria called Fusobacterium necrophorum, but also may include other invaders such as strep and staph organisms found in pasture soil and manure.

Footrot is a contagious disease. Pus and discharge from swollen feet will contaminate muddy ground or water and other cattle can become infected within a day if they walk in the

same pasture with similar direct physical injuries to their hooves.

Several environmental studies have proven that footrot bacteria can live for about 10 months in unfrozen ground or manure.

Part of the frustration of producers in controlling this common disease is that footrot organism seems to disappear from wet or dry pastures for a few years and then may come back with a vengeance.

OTHER ABSCESSES Similar to footrot, cows and calves from wet lush pastures are also susceptible to lameness caused by toe abscesses. These are caused by hoof sole penetration by bacteria in the toe area under the hoof wall. A mitigating factor includes that the hoof is soft and easily worn down to the sensitive tissues, especially in the outside front toe of the claw. Producers able to restrain cattle with toe abscesses often trim the affected toe parts to allow drainage and relieve the build-up of pressure, which is painful to the animal.

Regardless of footrot, toe abscesses, or other infectious foot problems, the general consensus of many cow-calf producers and large animal veterinarians is that antibiotic treatments can get cattle back “on their feet” within a few days.

Treatment of swollen hooves is

most effective when each lame animal is caught in early stages of progressive hoof damage.

Rather than waiting for individual lameness to happen and then treat each case, some beef nutritionists suggest a cow herd prevention plan to infectious hoof disease by strengthening cattle’s hooves and improving their immunity by feeding “hoofhealth building” trace nutrients.

They suggest copper, zinc, selenium and Vitamin A should be fed in their most bio-available organic forms to all cattle for a few months ahead and during the entire pasture season.

For example, a commercial loose mineral might provide four to five grams of zinc methionine per cow or calf (proven effective by decades of university research) in order to reinforce the horn of cattle hooves and make them more injury resistant.

Keep in mind that this is only one nutritional prevention plan and the former are well-accepted treatments that may avert a high incidence of infectious lameness in some cow herds forecasted for remainder of this year’s wet pasture season. Depending on one’s pasture opportunity, it is might be best to move cattle to drier ground. † Peter Vitti is an independent livestock nutritionist and consultant based in Winnipeg.

To reach him call 204-254-7497 or by email at vitti@mts.net.

ANIMAL HEALTH

Vaccine reactions are normal — to a point ROY LEWIS ANIMAL HEALTH

N

oticeable reactions to a vaccine injection are becoming more common, as more vaccines are now given subcutaneously and especially with vaccines using oil-based adjuvants.

The adjuvants are designed to protect the vaccine and give a much higher immune response, but reactions in the form of lumps are an expected albeit undesirable result.

As many of the pharmaceutical reps will tell us, at least we know the vaccine is working.

This is true and we must keep in mind the same reaction was probably happening before with the intramuscular products, it’s just the reactions happened deep in the muscle where it was not visible to us. This is where lots of the gristle (scarring in the muscle cuts of meat) would occur.

So from a beef-quality assurance standpoint there has been a huge improvement with almost all the vaccines going subcutaneous.

COMMON REACTIONS Most of the lumps regress with time, or a small egg-sized lump is left which is a granuloma or basically a lump of scar tissue.

You will find more reactions with the bacterins like blackleg and the other killed vaccines as they generally use the oil-based adjuvant. The modified live vaccines generally use sterile water as the liquid for reconstitution, so the reaction is much milder.

More reactions can occur if the nutritional status of the herd is low especially in the three trace minerals copper, zinc and selenium. If there is a high percentage of large reactions nutrition should be checked as well as the producer’s administration technique.

Dull, bent, dirty or burred needles increase the likelihood of introducing infection or causing more trauma. This needs to be watched. Change needles when they are damaged and at least after every 10 or so animals. You can feel when they are getting dull and it is time to change. In my opinion the steel thick-walled needles with the cleaning wires should be outlawed as they give the producer the impression they

can be cleaned and reused. This should not happen.

WHAT ABOUT TECHNIQUE? If you see large swellings from vaccination, which subsequently abscess, the technique of administering the shot needs to be looked at. I have seen some wrecks occur when cattle are vaccinated in the rain. The moisture seems to wash dirt into the needle hole or the process itself takes in more dirt. Try and avoid vaccinating in inclement weather. The infection starts after the vaccine is absorbed so in all likelihood there has been a response. Keep the vaccine protected from the elements, as frozen or overheated vaccine will be ineffective and it might be denatured leading to more vaccine abscesses.

The egg-sized reactions are of no concern to the animal but are simply a blemish noticed more in this country in the summer when the hair is slicked off. Purebred show or display animals can be vaccinated in places like behind the elbow so if there is a reaction it won’t be noticed.

I have never heard of vaccine reactions being a problem at auction sales. The argument could

be made that at least you can see these particular stock are being vaccinated — that to me relates to good management.

In the winter the lumps become like a brand and disappear under the hair. When slaughtered these lumps are somewhat adhered to the hide and in almost all cases come off with the hide not affecting the underlying meat in any way so there are no trim losses. We all know if they were a concern, buyers would discount the price. I haven’t heard of that happening.

FURTHER ADVICE Also when vaccinating, don’t vaccinate through manure.

If a multi-dose gun is hard to advance you may be too shallow and giving the vaccine intradermal (between the skin layers).

You want to definitely give the product subcutaneously (under the skin) and it should be very easy to inject. Use the smallestgauge needle that still allows you to inject it quickly (16-18 gauge).

If the lumps get large (baseball size or larger) over time they most likely are abscessed and may need to be lanced and flushed.

To check technique if giving several vaccines give them con-

cisely in the same location leaving at least 10 or so centimetres between injection sites. Give the shots on the opposite sides of the neck if possible. That way if there are lumps you can assess which vaccine is involved and/ or who administered the vaccine.

Sometimes tweaking your technique is all that is required.

Certain genetic lines of cattle are more reactive which is why certain producers will have a high incidence and other farms have almost no reactions with the same vaccine. Cattle do not appear to get any more sensitive over time to repeated vaccinations. but if reacted once they commonly will react again so you may see several of these same reactions.

Accept vaccine reactions as a normal occurrence and investigate with your veterinarian if the incidence gets too high or if abscesses are created. Rest assured the vaccine is working and offering protection. The future may see needleless vaccination or oral or intranasal vaccines given which will eliminate this lump issue. † Roy Lewis is an Alberta-based veterinarian specializing in large-animal practice. He is also a part-time technical services vet for Merck Animal Health.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Cattleman’s Corner RANCHER’S DIARY

Lots of riding to check cattle and train horses HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

JULY 15

A

ndrea and I helped Carolyn and kids bring their cows down from the 320 pasture a couple weeks ago to put their new bull with them. Dottie hasn’t had much experience working cattle; she got excited when the cows ran down the hill and Nick galloped ahead to open the gate. She tried to run and buck and got angry when I wouldn’t let her buck. She still has a lot to learn before she’s ready for young Sam to start riding her.

Granddaughter Heather has been working with two Arabians she’s training for a lady who wants them broke to ride so they’ll be saleable. Andrea rode with her while she ponied them, and also when she started riding them on our low range. The black mare is flighty but the bay gelding is very smart and learns quickly. Andrea really likes him; his personality reminds her of Snickers (her old ArabThoroughbred mare) and Fozzy (her old 7/8 Arab gelding).

Michael got home from North Dakota last week. He and Carolyn and kids helped the range neighbours move cows. Last Sunday Andrea, her friend Robbie, Nick and Em drove to the trailhead and hiked to Running Creek Ranch (where Em

is working for the summer), and took groceries in with backpacks.

Michael reset Breezy’s shoes last week and helped Lynn hook up our swather. Later he helped Lynn work on our baler and got it running. Next, we discovered that the stackwagon had a problem, and Michael helped Lynn fix it, too.

While Michael hauled the first loads of hay, Andrea and Lynn picked up 22 bales on the feed truck. These were in a wet part of the field and were already starting to heat. We spread them out by my horse pens and cut them open so they wouldn’t mould.

I’ve been proofreading chapters for my new horse book, and finding photos for it. I sent it to the publisher and he’s hoping to have it printed by October.

JULY 31 A couple of weeks ago when Andrea and I rode Sprout and Dottie up through the 320 pasture we saw about 80 range cows and six bulls in Baker Creek. We took them over the mountain and scattered them out in small groups over the range where there’s a lot more grass. It was Dottie’s first major cow moving and she did pretty well.

Andrea talked with the lady who owns the Arabian gelding young Heather is training, to start buying him. Andrea led him down the road two miles to our place.

Even though he’s seven years old and had never been halter broke or ridden until now (and had some bad experiences along the way, and was a stallion the first

four years of his life), he seems to trust Andrea and she wants to finish his training herself.

The larkspur is bad this year, and even though the grass was good in their new pasture the cows were eating larkspur. Several cows died, so they moved them back out.

Millers brought their draft horses and equipment to cut, rake and bale Alfonzo’s hay.

AUGUST 13 Last week Dani rode with Andrea and me to move the range cows up out of Baker Creek again. We took them around the mountain to better grass. Dani really likes helping more cows; she and Ed make a good cowchasing team.

Lynn took our old stackwagon to a friend who is a good welder — to fix the hole in the floor where the gas pedal goes down through it. Lynn had stuck an old licence plate under it to get by during haying, but it was time to fix it for real!

That evening Andrea and the girls were visiting Yoders, our Amish neighbours a mile below us on the creek. Yoders got a phone call from Hannah Miller; her younger brother Sy had been rushed to the hospital by ambulance with a head injury.

He’d been helping his dad straighten some metal on their hay cutter.

Sy was holding a bar against it while John pounded it with a big sledgehammer. The hammerhead flew off and hit Sy in the back of the head.

It knocked him down and he was unresponsive, so they called

PHOTO: HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

Riding through the 320 pasture checking on grass and cattle. for the ambulance. Word spread quickly around the neighbourhood and many people were praying for him through the night. A CT scan showed no bleeding in the brain, and after keeping him overnight in the hospital the doctors let him come home the next morning. He had a big knot on his head, headaches and dizziness for a few days, but seems to be recovering.

Wednesday Andrea and I rode over the middle range and discovered a dead calf near the Bear Trough. The smell was strong, and Risheem wouldn’t go near it, so we made a wide detour and come down the second gully. When Andrea went to Millers that day with Get Well cards and a gift for Sy, she told John about the dead calf. He thought it might be Alfonzo’s sick calf that they had to cut back the day they moved cattle to the high range.

A few days ago it rained hard for 30 minutes — our first real rain for more than a month. The next morning we made a short ride (Andrea’s 15th ride on Risheem)

down the road a couple miles and back — since it was too muddy to go over the hills. The next day we made a short ride over the low range and met our neighbour Terry Magoon. Risheem had never seen a helmeted person on a bicycle. It blew his mind until Terry talked to us, and Risheem realized it was a person and not an alien.

The rest of the day I cleaned house and cooked a big dinner, and Carolyn helped Andrea clean her house. That evening my cousin Ned Moser and his wife Pam arrived (from Texas) to stay with Andrea and us for several days.

Yesterday Andrea cooked a dinner and had Michael, Carolyn, young Heather and Nick join us at her house. We all ate too much!

Today we’ll take Ned and Pam up the creek (Pam has never seen the upper part of our ranch) and maybe a longer drive around the county to show them some of our spectacular Idaho scenery. †

» CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30

grubbed out of areas with standing water, animals should be excluded from the area to prevent them from drinking the contaminated water.

DON’T TAKE WATER HEMLOCK FOR GRANTED

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800-235-6140 Canfax2014_Grainews_QuarterPage

of the eye while wearing contaminated gloves. These should also be washed with hot, soapy water once handling is complete.

5. Have a supply of clean water and soap available for immediate washing if there is any skin contact with the hemlock.

6. Do not eat, drink, smoke, or use the washroom until after you have thoroughly washed with soap and water. The oils from this plant are very toxic, and readily absorb through the skin.

7. In Ontario the crews that are involved in eradication programs are also cleaning their equipment so as to not contaminate fresh fields.

This practice could be considered if cutting down big patches of water hemlock with haying equipment.

The oils stick to the cutters and can then be spread over good feed.

8. Carefully gather all plant pieces and dispose of them in the garbage. If plants and roots are

More on the web

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Roper

620-872-5777

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Heather Smith Thomas ranches with her husband Lynn near Salmon, Idaho. Contact her at 208-756-2841

HOW TO CONTROL Our pastures have not been contaminated, but hay and has. We are confused about how to manage the weed since one plant can produce 30,000 seeds that remain viable for three to six years, but at the same time it can reproduce by both root pieces and seed.

The recommendation from specialists is to plow the weed under this fall so the plants rot and you bury the seed. At this time of year it is clearly visible due to the white flowers/seed heads and it is quite tall. Then in the spring, once the area greens up, we are supposed to disc it lightly. The idea is to kill what might have grown without disturbing seeds, which should be far enough underground as to not germinate. Then they said to reseed the area to grass hay. There are chemicals that can be used against water hemlock with grass hay, but spraying is ineffective and costly.

So, for now, our plan is to do mechanical control along with increasing fertility of the land. We have to decide what forage species to plant so it will compete with the water hemlock. To be honest, we are very open to ideas so please send an email with suggestions. † Debbie Chikousky farms with her family at Narcisse, Manitoba. Visitors are always welcome. Contact Debbie at debbie@ chikouskyfarms.com.

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

grainews.ca /

33

Machinery & Shop Canada’s Farm Progress Show

Bourgault introduces L7550 tow-between seed cart Bourgault introduces a new cart, and more drill options

By Scott Garvey

T

his year Bourgault used Canada’s Farm Progress Show to introduce growers to another new addition to its 7000 Series seed cart line. The L7550 takes the features of the existing tow-behind 7550 and puts them into a tow-between configuration. The “L” in the new cart’s model number stands for “leading” (tow between).

The introduction of more towbetween models seemed to be part of a trend at this year’s CFPS. Product reps at most equipment brands acknowledge they are seeing a slight increase in demand for this type of cart, transfers some weight to a tractor hitch. That could help minimize wheel slip.

“We sell, by far, more tow behinds, but we are seeing a bit of a creep up (in demand) for the leading,” says Rob Fagnou, marketing specialist at Bourgault. “Horsepower is no longer the limiting factor.

Traction becomes the limiting factor. Some farmers want to transfer some of that weight to the tractor.”

The L7550 becomes the second tow-between or “leading” cart in Bourgault’s 7000 Series model line up.

“It’s really a continuation of

the 7000 Series,” Fagnou continues. “We’re still selling the 6550, because there is quite a bit of difference between the 6000 and the 7000. There is a strong demand for the Auto Section Control which is only marketed on the 7000 Series.”

The L7550 offers 550-bushel capacity (the same as the 6550) split between four compartments, with the same inter-tank flexibility Bourgault offers on all its models. The meter uses hydraulic drive and is operated by a Topcon X30 monitor.

“It’s a full 7000 Series system,” Fagnou explains. “You have a 20-bushel saddle tank and hydraulic drive for that quick response you need for sectional control and variable rate. The only thing we can’t sell on there is the bulk boom.”

To load and unload seed and fertilizer, the L7550 gets a 10-inch auger. And the cart rides on 800/65R32 duals as standard equipment.

Also standard is a stand-alone camera system that has its own seven-inch LCD monitor. Each tank compartment has an internal camera so the operator can see how much product remains in each one. The system also has a rear-mounted camera to allow the tractor driver to see traffic

approaching from the rear during road transport.

Load cells to monitor tank weights are an option.

When Bourgault initially introduced a high-floatation tire option on its largest 3320 drill at last year’s Canada’s Farm Progress Show, farmers immediately began asking the brand to make that option available on models with smaller working widths. This year the company is doing just that with an improved high-floatation package.

“We have a mainframe option, where you can get the high floatation wheels just on the mainframe or straight across,” says Fagnou.

High floatation tires are now an option on Bourgault’s 3320 drills with working widths from 60 to 86 feet and on the 3720 models with 60- and 70-foot widths. An added advantage of this feature is when operating in very wet conditions, the bigger tires with their improved floatation could help improve seed placement.

“It will help in that way because you’re not going to have the sinking in,” Fagnou says. “You are going to be able to realize better placement in more extreme conditions.” † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

photos: scott garvey

With the recent introduction of the L7550, Bourgault adds a second towbetween or “leading” seed cart model to its 7000 Series line.

Availability of the high-floatation option on 3320 and 3720 drills has been expanded and the drills can now be equipped with high-floatation tires on both the main frame and outer sections.

service THAT STACKs UP. OK Tire carries a wide range of tires for farm equipment- everything from tractors to combines. The best part is we service every tire we selland with locations across the country, you’re always close to help when you need it.

For the latest specials on Firestone Farm tires, stop in to your local OK Tire or visit oktire.com. ® Firestone is a registered trademark of Bridgestone Licensing Services Inc. used under license.

learn more about how jordan farms smart at nhsmart.com/jordanK Š2014 CNH Industrial America LLC. All rights reserved. New Holland is a trademark registered in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates. NHK04148906L

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

grainews.ca /

35

Machinery & Shop PRODUCT LAUNCH

McCormick debuts X7 tractors Introduced at Germany’s Agritechnica last November, the first X7 Series tractors to arrive in North America were on display at Canada’s Farm Progress Show in June

BY SCOTT GARVEY

H

ere in Canada, farmers didn’t hear a lot of news from McCormick during the past couple of years. But as it turns out, the brand that is part of Italian company ARGO’s stable had been quietly working on developing an entirely new series of mid-range, MFWD tractors with a wider range of options and broader market appeal.

McCormick proudly unveiled the result of that R&D effort, the new X7 Series tractors, last November in Hannover Germany at Agritechnica. In June the brand gave visitors to Canada’s Farm Progress the privilege of being the first North American farmers to see three of these 143 to 212 horsepower tractors on home turf.

“We pushed really hard to have them here at this show,” said Sergio Correia, national sales manager for McCormick, during the event.

“These are the first full-production units in North America.”

The new, six-model X7 Series actually replaces the brand’s previous top three most powerful lines.

And when it comes to available options and updated design, the new tractors push the envelope compared to what their predecessors offered.

“It’s very exciting for us,” added Correia. “The X7 is going to be replacing our three high horsepower series: X, MTX and TTX. And it’s a big step up for us in functionality and build quality. This is taking that to a new level for us. It’s our way of saying we’re not just a simple, basic tractor” Under X7 hoods, the “BetaPower” diesel engines are built

by Fiat Powertrain Technologies, making them the same engines used in some Case IH and New

Holland machines. The three smallest X7s get 4.5-litre, 16-valve, four-cylinders, while the three largest tractors use the 6.7-litre, 24-valve power plant.

To cope with the extra power from the 6.7s, the largest three models get heavier chassis. The two largest models, the X7.670 and X7.680, get a longer wheelbase than the other four and even more chassis weight than the 175 horsepower X7.660, the smallest of the six-cylinder models.

Engine Power on all six models flows through a “Pro Drive” 24-speed semi-powershift with power shuttle built by ZF, which allows for clutch-less reversing.

These gearboxes also offer an “eco 40” feature, providing a 40 k.p.h. road speed at reduced revs. A 40-speed creeper version of the Pro Drive is also an option.

“It’s a six-range semi-powershift,” explained Correia. “It has robotized range shifting, so when you drive it, it feels like a full powershift. We also have a function called APS, Automatic Powershift. When that is engaged it will automatically shift up and down within the range, depending on your r.p.m. If you lower your r.p.m. it will downshift for you; increase your r.p.m. and it will upshift for you.”

“Right now it (APS) is just within the powershifts, but we hope next year it will be released within the ranges as well. So it will be almost a full automatic transmission within the 40 gears.” “ We w i l l h a v e a v a r i a b l e (CVT) transmission released next year. It was launched last year at Agritechnica. We are hoping to see that (in Canada) sometime mid next year. We haven’t announced it to our market yet, but it’s one of those things that will be coming on this series.”

To go with the new body styling is an all-new, larger cab that represents a giant leap forward in ergonomics compared to previous models. In front of the seat, the steering wheel and dashboard tilt in unison. On the right, the new armrest includes a multi-function lever with programmable control features for push-button shifting and implement control.

“The cab is 100 per cent new for us,” adds Correia. “We feel the build quality and materials used are reminiscent of the automotive industry. The fit and finish of it, we feel, are a step up from what we’ve had in the past. It’s a tractor that you definitely need to sit in the seat (of).”

Although McCormick doesn’t offer its own guidance system, the X7 models come equipped for auto steer, with steering sensors on the front axle as standard equipment. “It’s very much plug and play,” he added.

The X7s haven’t yet had a date with examiners at the Nebraska Tractor Test Lab or the DLG test facility in Germany, but Correia said arrangements have already been made to get models to Nebraska as soon as possible.

And for those who still like the basic features McCormick tractors were originally noted for, X7s can still be spec’d out that way even though the options list is a long one.

“For McCormick as a brand, we made a name for ourselves with the MTX, which is a very simple product that doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles,” said Correia.

“But no one should be scared off by the X7. Although the functionality is there, it can still be kept very simple.” † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

learn how to become new holland smart at nhsmart.com/jordanK

PHOTOS: SCOTT GARVEY

Top left: Canada’s Farm Progress Show was chosen as the venue for the North American debut of McCormick’s new six-model line of X7 MFWD tractors. Top right: A programmable multi-function lever allows for fingertip control of shifting and implement systems. Bottom left: The new, larger “Premiere cab” includes a buddy seat that folds neatly away, along with a redesigned HVAC system that includes automatic climate control. Bottom right: Exterior controls on the rear fender allow for PTO, three-point linkage and SCV control while standing outside the tractor.

©2014 CNH Industrial America LLC. All rights reserved. New Holland is a trademark registered in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates. NHKP04148906PFT

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Machinery & Shop AGCO JACKSON

AGCO one-ups its tractor quality control capability The company continues chasing its goal of becoming Number 1 in perceived product quality

BY SCOTT GARVEY

I

PHOTO: LISA GUENTHER

Top left: A new, tracked Challenger tractor undergoes testing on a new chassis dyno designed to test its performance through the full range of gears. Right: Senior welder Ted Nelson, supervises a robotic process that will finish weld a front tractor axle held in this jig.

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n July, farm editors traveled to Jackson, Minnisota to get a look at the newest Agco products bound for dealers’ lots.

With another 30,000 square feet just added to the plant, the manufacturing process has been subjected to yet another improvement on the assembly line. Among them are the addition of a lot more automated processes, including robotic laser cutters that ensure extreme precision when cutting out parts. Those parts now see much more robotic welding than ever before. Again, to ensure precision and accuracy. The robots also measure the fit up of component sections to ensure they are within tolerances before even beginning to fuse them together.

But what AGCO management most wanted us to see was the all-new test and dyno facility designed to check the finished quality of new tractors before they are loaded onto a flatbed truck for delivery.

“There are two separate test stations,” says Arun Shankaran, the senior manufacturing engineer in charge of testing. “The first is the ‘Jounce’ test which can rock the tractor back and forth to simulate different track conditions. The purpose of this test is to make sure all the hydraulic and electrical connections are not loose and the tractor can handle anything in the field. We also have a PTO test.

The purpose of that is to make sure the horsepower and torque specifications of the tractor are met through the entire RPM range.”

The jounce test has four separate stages as the tractor is shaken at various rates. If there are loose connections, they’re bound to show up after the tractor goes through this process.

“The next stage is the chassis dyno,” explains Shankaran.

“We do a lot of tests on the dyno, high-speed test, steering test, braking test and so on. The whole purpose of this is to ensure a very high quality product goes out the door.”

Prior to building the dyno station, these tests were performed on an oval test track outside the factory. And while the tractors will still see a few laps on the track, the new procedure helps bump up the accuracy of that final evaluation.

“This (dyno station) is in addition to the road test,” adds Shankaran. “Some of the tests we couldn’t do before, like the jounce test. We had rumble strips, but now we have a more repeatable test. Now we have a more consistent and quantitative measurement for everything.”

For a video look at tractor testing at AGCO’s Jackson plant, go online to Grainews.ca and click on the e-QuipTV listings under the videos tab. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

grainews.ca /

Machinery & Shop

Getting our hands on AGCO’s current tractor line up

BY SCOTT GARVEY

I

n early July, AGCO invited members of the North American farm media to gather at its Jackson, Minnesota, tractor and sprayer assembly plant for a look at the newest manufacturing processes recently incorporated into the factory. And it also offered to put together a collection of the brand’s newest machines in a nearby field so journalists could get into the cabs and drive them to see for themselves how they perform. Grainews took them up on the invitation.

In this issue of Machinery and Shop we show you some of the highlights of our trip south. Be sure to go to Grainews. ca and check out the series of online videos. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

Aiming for Number 1

Avoid Overlap

AGCO’s chairman and CEO Martin Richenhagen

B

ack in 2012 AGCO’s chairman and CEO Martin Richenhagen sat at a boardroom table upstairs at his company’s Jackson, Minnesota, tractor and sprayer assembly plant surrounded by editors from North American farm publications. He and other senior executives were playing host to members of the media to show off improvements to the manufacturing process recently adopted there, which were designed to improve the overall quality of the tractors and sprayers rolling out the factory doors. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows just over his shoulder we could see assembly line workers busy building new Massey Fergusons and Challengers.

“We want to be Number 1 in perceived quality by 2014,” said Richenhagen. “Which isn’t an easy target because our competitors don’t stand still.”

But Richenhagen said his company was up the challenge and was pressing ahead to achieve it.

In July most of those same editors were back in Jackson at AGCO’s invitation for a look at the newest products bound for dealers’ lots and to get an update on Richenhagen’s efforts to hit his quality target. †

Scott Garvey

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Machinery & Shop Canada’s Farm Progress Show

Power Pin Inc. expands product offering

By Lisa Guenther

F

or over 25 years, Power Pin Inc. has been building tractor-implement hitches. Now they’re offering a new line of products, under their Hit-NHitch division, for trucks and trailers.

“It’s a complete on-road system for trucks and trailers,” says Gary Wilson, sales manager for Power Pin’s Hit-N-Hitch division. “Everything we learned in the last 25 years on the ag side of it from making tractor hitches, we’ve taken and put (it into) the on-road.”

The Hit-N-Hitch line includes straight pintle hitches that connect with a ring to the trailer. They also offer ball-ring combos that will work with either type of trailer.

Wilson says they’ve taken the droppin system from their tractor hitch design and applied it to a trigger system on trucks where “as soon as you back

up, you’re locked in. We’re offering one pass, but we’re saying it’s one safe pass,” says Wilson.

Power Pin is known for its ag division, which founder and president Brian Olson launched after inventing a drop-pin hammer strap and three-in-one hitch in the 1980s. Today, the Fort Qu’Appelle, Sask, company is the largest supplier of tractorimplement draw bar hitching components.

Olson picked up a Best New Invention award at Canada’s Farm Progress show in 1988 for his tractor hitch system. And he was back in the spotlight this year, where he snagged a Gold Innovation Award at the same show for the Hit-N-Hitch products.

“So 26 years down the road he’s back at Farm Progress Show, and Power Pin’s super excited about what’s going to happen in the future,” says Wilson. † Lisa Guenther is a field editor with Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Contact her at Lisa.Guenther@ fbcpublishing.com.

photo: lisa guenther

Power Pin Inc., know for its innovative tractor hitch design, is now offering a line of quick-connect hitches for on-road applications.

Take a look inside

I

nside the cab of Agco’s MT500E tractors, the SIS (Setup and Information Screen) grows in size by 50 per cent and gets a substantial 10-fold increase in resolution. The forward dash is also nicer with a blend of analog and digital readouts.

The tractors now come ready for integrated auto guidance with a simpler user interface, allowing first-time users to catch on more quickly.

“We have a nice new dash display,” says Conor Bergin, marketing manager for highhorsepower track. “And our SIS system is a lot bigger, a lot brighter, it’s very easy to navigate through, set up different tractor features and tractor functions.” † Scott Garvey

BKT Tires (Canada) Inc.

www.kaltire.com/ag photos: scott garvey

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

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Machinery & Shop AGCO Jackson

Challenger MT500E Series tractors unveiled at Jackson, MN, factory

By Scott Garvey

W

hen it comes to model numbers on its line of Challenger tractors, AGCO has kept with the tradition originally used by Caterpillar when it owned the brand. Each updated version gets a higher letter designation behind the model number. So when it pulled the wraps off the newest incarnation of the mid-range MT500s in a field near its Jackson, Minnesota, assembly plant, the new tractors were sporting an “E” designation.

The five-model line of MT500E tractors, which range from 185 to 255 engine horsepower, see a host of upgrades both inside and outside the cab.

Under the hood, they’re powered by Tier 4 Final versions of AGCO Power’s 6.6 and 7.4 litre, six cylinder diesels. Electronic wastegate turbos and the new Engine Performance Management system (EPM) apparently provide faster warm up and cleaner combustion, eliminating the need for a diesel particulate filter.

“We’re continuing to use our AGCO Power 6.6 and 7.4 litre engines with this 500 series,” says Conor Bergin, marketing manager for high-horsepower tractors. “But what’s unique is we’ve now added a single-stage turbocharger in conjunction with an electronic waste gate. And that allows us to operate that tractor at lower RPMs with higher torque levels. It’s the ability to get a lot more work done in a day and do that with a lot more fuel efficiency.”

To keep those diesels cool, the modified hood and grille design improve airflow. AGCO claims the new CYCLAIR cooling package boosts overall performance of the previous cooling system without increasing its size. But the A/C condenser does get a size boost to help keep the cab cool.

Buyers can chose to mate those AGCO Power engines with either a CVT or the brand’s Auto Power VI semi-powershift transmission. Hydraulic capacity gets an upgrade to a 50 GPM pump (with the CVT transmission) or a 29 or 39 GPM system with the semi-powershift.

For those who want a smoother ride, the suspended front axle option gets double the suspension travel range of the previous series. Frame mounted doubleacting cylinders allow the operator to adjust the suspension characteristics.

“That allows for better movement left-to-right or right-to-left to ensure we’re always maintain constant contact with the ground for better tractive ability and, of course, a better ride for our customers,” says Bergin. “When ordered with front-axle suspension, that tractor will have the ability to go up to 33 MPH down the road. So you can get from field to field very quickly.”

For a virtual test drive in one of the new MT500E tractors, go online to Grainews.ca and click on the e-QuipTV listings under the videos tab. †

photos: scott garvey

Left: New MT500E Series tractors get a variety of upgrades and Tier 4 Final-compliant diesel engines, which use SCR-only technology. Top right: A blend of analog and digital gauges are used on the forward dash.

Runs on results not theory The New 9R/9RT Series Tractors are ready for anything

Power and effciency are what defne the new 9R/9RT Series. Start with a new 620-engine hp 9R model and a 10-engine horsepower increase across all models. Then add the FT4 engine technology, and regardless of which of the 16 models you choose, you have plenty of get-up-and-go with less fuid consumption. The new industry-exclusive HydraCushion Suspension, available on wheeled models, helps mitigate power hop and road lope. The 9 family also has the new CommandView™ III Cab which has more space, visibility, and convenience than our previous cab. It also features the new CommandARM™ and CommandCenter Display designed to improve effciency and give real-time insight into daily operations and machine performance.

We’re still not done. The new e18™ Transmission, increased hydraulic capacity (up to 115 gpm), and an LED lighting package add to the list of impressive features. Visit your John Deere dealer today and sit behind the wheel of the new 9R/9RT Series because Nothing Runs Like A Deere™.

JohnDeere.ca

Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Machinery & Shop AGCO JACKSON

Fendt 900 Series tractors offer updated features for 2014 AGCO included its German-built Fendt tractors in a product demonstration day in Minnesota

BY SCOTT GARVEY PHOTO: SCOTT GARVEY

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Top: Fendt’s 800 and 900 Series have a variety of updates for the 2014 season.

Left: The 10.4-inch Vario Terminal is capable of handling up to four separate guidance, video, tractor and implement control functions simultaneously.

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W

hen AGCO invited members of the farm media to its Jackson, Minnesota, tractor and sprayer assembly plant to look at new equipment, it didn’t limit what was on display to only machines built in there. Management also wanted to show off the newest models in its German-built Fendt tractor line, including a 900 Series

tractor in the group of machines gathered in a field near the factory.

Early in 2014, the company announced improvements to 900 and 800 Series Fendt tractors. So far these are the only two Fendt model lines available in Canada, but the company has promised to soon make the new, smaller 500 Series and the veryhigh horsepower 1000 Series just introduced in Germany available here too.

The S4 versions of the 900 and

FASTER BY DESIGN. Designed for maximum capacity and speed, the Brandt 7500 HP GrainVac helps you operate at peak effciency. With input from producers like you, we’ve refined our GrainVacs to include many innovative features only available from Brandt. With fewer moving parts, and premium build quality this GrainVac delivers unrivaled reliability and durability. That’s Powerful Value. Delivered.

800 Series are the Tier 4 Final engine emissions-compliant models.

“We are utilizing a Deutz 7.0 litre engine with the Fendt 900 Series that features a dualstage turbocharger with a heat exchanger,” says Conor Bergin, high-horsepower tractor marketing manager for AGCO. “What that allows us to do is operate the tractor at lower engine RPMS but with higher torque. With the 900 Series we’re offering four models in Canada from 270 to 360 horsepower,” Fendt remains the only brand in the AGCO stable that doesn’t use the company’s own AGCO Power diesels. Despite that, the company has been very vocal about the fuel efficiency of the Deutz-Fahr engines under the hoods in their dark green German tractors.

“Something Fendt is known for is the lowest total cost of ownership in the industry bar none when compared to any other tractor of this size,” says Bergin.

“Fendt continues to win awards for lowest cost of ownership and lowest fuel consumption.”

“What we’re doing with our Fendt 900 to meet Tier 4 Final regulations is unique to the industry.

We have a combination system where we’re using our patented SCR technology along with cooled EGR. In addition to that we’ll be using a coated soot filter. It’s maintenance free and it allows us to reduce the amount of DEF consumed, reduce the amount of exhaust gas that has to be recirculated, and at the end of the day reduce customer expenses.”

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And aside from fuel efficiency, the Fendt brand is also known for including other cutting edge features.

“Fendt is always forward thinking and has come to the industry with a lot of firsts,” he adds. “One of those is something we call Vario Grip. It will allow us from the terminal up in the cab to adjust tire pressure. It’s very advantageous for customers from a performance standpoint.”

I n s i d e t h e c a b , t h e Va r i o Terminal gets another round of digital updates. The 10.4-inch monitor is now a little slimmer and is certainly able to walk and chew gum at the same time — figuratively speaking. It can handle up to four different tasks simultaneously.

“It’s the only true four-in-one terminal in the industry that will allow you to use up to four different features,” says Bergin. “It’s a sleek screen design very similar to what we’re used to with iPads or iPhones. We also have a new backlit feature we call night mode.”

For a video look at the new 900 Fendt, go online to Grainews.ca and click on the e-QuipTV heading under the videos link. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

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Machinery & Shop AGCO Jackson

Sunflower vertical tillage tools set to go high-tech AGCO calls its 6631 Series vertical tillage tools “second generation of the second generation”

By Scott Garvey

V

ertical tillage implements have undergone an evolution, according to Larry Kuster, AGCO’s Sunflower brand marketing manager. They’ve changed to better deal with tough trash problems but still keep that ability to lift and mix soil and trash.

Standing beside a Sunflower 6631 vertical tillage implement and talking to a group of farm journalists in a field outside Jackson, Minnesota, Kuster describes its features and explains why it represents an evolution in design that matches the new take on the vertical tillage concept.

“This is second generation of the second generation,” he says. “Our vertical tillage tools find themselves in the second generation of the vertical tillage genre. The first generation was the low gang-angle tools, which sized residue but did a very poor job of anchoring it and left it vulnerable to wind and water erosion. The second generation with a greater gang angle do a much better job of anchoring the residue and being assured of eliminating all the weed population.”

The Sunflower 6631 is an update of the original 6630 vertical tillage implement the brand introduced a few years ago, hence his “second generation of the second generation” description.

To achieve a more aggressive field finish, Sunflower uses an 18 degree disc gang angle, only two degrees less than the 20 degrees used on the brand’s conventional disc harrow offering. But the discs use a shallow concave design that limits lateral movement of residue and soil but provides aggressive lifting.

“They (6631 implements) feature our Sunflower Sabre blade which has a serrated edge that maintains a good working edge throughout the life of the blade,” explains Kuster. “They’re very shallow they have less than one and a

photos: scott garvey

Larry Kuster describes points out the longer frame length on the Sunflower 6631 vertical tillage implement. half inch concavity. Combined with that 18-degree gang angle, that gives a good vertical lift. So we get very little lateral movement and exceptionally good lift.”

The 6631 also has a very long frame design to maintain balance, which prevents trailing attachments, like rolling baskets that reincorporate the soil to minimize erosion, from making the implement tail heavy.

“The length of the frame has been extended,” he continues.

“That gives us a lot of positives.

We’re actually able to move the wheels farther back. That puts about 58 per cent of the mass of this tool on the front gang. We’re putting the weight where it’s needed.”

With the release, in August, of the 6631’s bigger brother, the new 665048, working widths now stretch to a maximum of 47 feet, 11 inches.

And AGCO also expects to give their tillage implements a digital component in the near future.

Kuster points to the Auto-Till system mounted on the 6631 beside him as he talks to journalists.

Although not yet ready for release Auto-Till will allow the brand’s tillage implements to communicate

with ISO virtual terminals in tractors, he explains. It will be able to relay a variety of data to the operator and help auto guidance systems accurately position the implement when plotting A-B lines.

“It hasn’t been released to the public yet,” Kuster says. “We have several of these systems out running throughout the country. It’s intelligence for tillage.”

“The operator now has cab control of the cutting depth and foreand-aft adjustment. It will monitor how many acres have been worked. It will do mapping and actually notify the operator when the gangs have been in operation for 10 hours and it’s time for servicing. He can keep a library of service history as well.”

“We’ve got a list as long as my arm of information we can gather from this tool that will be beneficial to the operator. There’s a lot of stuff coming.”

As for when Auto-Till will be commercially available, AGCO hasn’t officially released a date.

“As my boss likes to say, watch this space,” says Kuster. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

An 18-degree gang angle and shallow disc concavity helps provide a more aggressive field finish along with good soil and residue mixing

Auto-Till system uses sensors on wing cylinders that inform the operator when the hydraulic lift settings are out of phase.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Machinery & Shop PROJECT CJ3A

How to replace a clutch We keep our ongoing restoration project moving forward by installing a new clutch in the old Jeep

1

BY SCOTT GARVEY

P

roject CJ3A keeps inching toward completion.

The chassis is now fully rebuilt and finally ready to accept the engine and transmission. But before we reinstall them, we need to inspect the clutch to make sure it’s in good condition. That means unbolting the transmission bell housing from the back of the engine.

There is certainly no better time to do that than when they are out of the vehicle. As it turned out we’re glad we took the time to check. We didn’t like what we found.

The clutch was a little worse for wear, so we ordered a full replacement kit from a specialist supplier. Here’s how the installation process went.

Before we did any serious wrenching, there were decades of grime to scrape out of the bell housing — along with an abandoned mouse nest. It’s impossible to see what you’re working with when components are thickly caked with dirt, grease and oil.

With the tidying up completed, we started the job by replacing the clutch components that ride on the transmission input shaft. Those are the throwout bearing and sleeve it rides on. This bearing and sleeve slide back and forth on the shaft and contact the pressure plate, disengaging the clutch. The clutch fork, which is connected to the pedal linkage, pushes them toward the pressure plate when the clutch pedal is pushed down. A spring pulls them back when the pedal is released.

The old bearing grumbled when we spun it, so it was clearly on its last legs. We pressed the new throwout bearing

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

grainews.ca /

43

Machinery & Shop 6

5

PHOTOS: SCOTT GARVEY

1. When we separated the engine and transmission we found the clutch needed replacement. 2. The friction plate is held in position against the flywheel with a clutch alignment tool. 3. With the alignment tool still holding the friction plate in position we bolted the pressure plate to the flywheel. 4. We torqued the nuts to the required setting in stages, tightening them in a star pattern. 5. Looking a lot nicer than when we started, the clutch components are in place and the transmission is ready to be bolted back onto the engine. 6. After the transmission was reinstalled on the chassis, the final step was to reconnect the pedal linkage to the clutch fork, which sticks out the side of the bell housing. onto the new sleeve and slipped it onto the input shaft, connecting it to the return spring.

Our replacement kit didn’t include a new fork, but the old one was still serviceable. It simply pivots against pin with a rounded head. Putting a dab of grease on the pivot bin helps reduce wear.

Next, we unbolted the old pressure plate from the engine flywheel. Only six bolts hold it on. With that off, we inspected the flywheel surface. It wasn’t perfect, but we decided it was OK and didn’t need to be resurfaced. There were no signs of excess heat or stress cracks. If there were, we would have had to replace it as well. A good scrubbing with brake cleaner removed all the grime without leaving a residue that could cause excess slippage.

The first step in bolting on the replacement is to use a clutch alignment tool to position the friction plate. The end of the tool fits into the pilot bushing on the flywheel and centres the friction plate. Some clutch kits come with an alignment tool specifically for each application, but ours didn’t.

We used a Lisle 55500 universal type, which is designed to work for almost any clutch job.

A spare input shaft from an old transmission would have worked too, but we didn’t have one lying around.

Next the pressure plate is fitted over top of the friction plate and bolted to the flywheel. We found the correct toque setting for the bolts in the service manual and gradually tightened them down in stages, using a star pattern to avoid deforming the pressure plate.

Because the flywheel uses a pilot bushing, rather than a sealed bearing, we placed a dab of grease in it to minimize wear from the transmission input shaft.

Bolting the engine and transmission back together can be a bit awkward. Our neighbour, Cory, agreed to stop by for a few minutes and help me manhandle them back into place. Then, the unit was dropped back onto the chassis. Connecting the pedal linkage to the fork was the last step in the process. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Home Quarter Farm Life SEEDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Love is learning how to say ‘sorry’ at harvest Stress is high at harvest time so knowing how to apologize is important ELAINE FROESE

S

ometimes I wish I didn’t have reallife examples of how I make mistakes, but my mishaps make good fodder for this column. Last harvest I was the combine driver who backed into the fuel truck while I was unloading my auger for cleanout to move to the next field. I have a bad habit of many accidents while backing up, so I should have checked my mirrors. The damage was a bent hydraulic shaft over the straw choppers, which was fixed with a $400 part, and no downtime, thankfully.

I told my husband that I was sorry for the mistake, and I thanked my son for quickly tracking down the part. Our employee also now understands the importance of not parking vehicles behind me.

Harvest this year is going to be extra fun because we all feel behind before we start due to the late-season crops. I have already started praying for no frost until November!

I’d like to share some practical ways to make things right that I learned from Gary Chapman and Jennifer Thomas this summer in their fabulous book called When Sorry Isn’t Enough. Chapman is also the author of The Five Love Languages, so you may be familiar with his practical approach.

There are five ways to say sorry: 1. “I’m sorry.” You express regret. I was quick to do this after I heard the thud of hitting the truck. I also expressed regret

to the semi-driver who grazed me as I was backing my SUV out of my garage onto my lane, rushing to get to the post office. I now always look down the lane before cranking out of the driveway! Sometimes expressing regret is all it takes to make restitution with the person you have offended, but recall the young kids who you’ve asked to say “sorry” and it comes out quickly from their little mouths, but with the wrong tone of voice, and no further change of behavior.

Not a good thing.

2. “I was wrong.” Those folks who can accept responsibility for their hurtful actions get more traction with spouses who expect more that a quick sorry. This means that you accept the fact that you made a mistake and own up to it. I was not going to sneak around the next field with a dented shaft. Honesty is always the best policy in my books. Someone has torn a piece of sheet metal out of our shed, but we never have found anyone to own up to the mistake. Damage is done, but no one accepts responsibility. The hole is still not repaired!

3. “How can I make it right?” Making restitution. When I backed Wes’s pickup into a car parked in my blind spot with the pickup hitch making a perfectly square hole in the car’s front bumper, I was angry that the driver had not used his horn to stop me!

I had to make it right with a $700 cheque to pay for a new car bumper, and I no longer drive the truck in town. Besides an apology, some people want to know what is going to change in the future with your actions so that you can make things right. In harvest season when stress is high, you really need to focus on a positive attitude to catch people doing things right, so that you can

build up the emotional bank account of all the harvesters. Be willing to take some difficult feedback if you are cutting too high, or the meals need to be more timely to the field. Don’t take things personally, but seek out the ways other folks would like to be appreciated. Watch the tone of your voice on the FM radios. Long hours, dusty, itchy backs, and poor yields make people cranky if you are not careful to check your attitude.

Just making fresh hot coffee for my son and our employees “makes lots of things right” during busy field times.

4. “I want to change.” Genuinely repenting. In harvest season you have habits around how you like to open up a field and the direction of the swaths.

Sometimes getting folks to adopt a new way of doing things is stressful, until they can see the benefit. The swather driver needs to have some compassion for the grain cart guy or trucker as to the pattern created by the swaths. Are you open to suggestion to change your ways?

Make a mind shift to be able to ask, “Is there something you would like me to do differently?”

5. “Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?” Requesting forgiveness takes courage, but the result is that you will feel better and lighter when you are forgiven. I appreciate a spouse who doesn’t yell or swear at me when I cause damage with backing up. He forgives me and we move on. Chapman says that “for those with a controlling personality, asking forgiveness is out of their comfort zone emotionally. To successfully learn to speak the apology language of requesting forgiveness or, for that matter, any of the apology languages, an extremely control-

ling individual will likely require the help of a counsellor or friend who is willing to be honest with him or her” (page 156).

So now you are primed for harvest, getting machines ready, and your ability to apologize in the right way. Here are Chapman’s tips of what not to say when apologizing: • Haven’t you gotten over that yet?

• Why do you always…?

• What’s the big deal?

• Give me a break.

• You just need to get over it.

• You sound like your mother.

Try this instead: • I did it, and I have no excuse.

• Can you ever forgive me?

• I realize that talk is cheap.

I know that I need to show you how I will change.

• I will try to make this up to you by…

• You have every right to be upset.

I wish you all a very safe and successful harvest. In the sunny southwest of Manitoba we have crops that are great, and in the terms of a teenager… some that suck! Take care of everyone on your team, and yourself with good sleep, great food, and gracious attitudes. I will do my best this year not to back into anything! † Elaine Froese writes from her seed farm near Boissevain.

Her latest book, Farming’s In-Law Factor, is at www. elainefroese.com/store. Invite Elaine to motivate your farm audiences to action at your next ag event. She now has her CSP and is a certified speaking professional. Call 1-866-848-8311 for coaching. Visit “farm family coach” on FB and youtube.com.

Zucchini has many uses From baking with, freezing, stuffing, dehydrating — you just need to get creative

BY JULIE GARDEN-ROBINSON NDSU EXTENSION SERVICE

I

f you have some zucchini or other squash, you are enjoying the modern version of a food that has been around a long time. Some types of squash seeds have been found in archeological digs dating back thousands of years. Zucchini, according to some sources, wasn’t used in its more modern form until the 1800s, and many people trace its origins to Milan, Italy. It gets its name from the Italian word “zucca,” which means squash, and although botanically a fruit, it is used as a vegetable on the menu.

Zucchini is a variety of summer squash and can be green or yellow. It’s low in calories and a good source of vitamin C, with no fat or sodium unless you add it.

When choosing zucchini, look for young, tender squash with shiny rinds, and avoid any with bruised or dull rinds. It can be added to breads, muffins, soups and casseroles, and can be stuffed with fillings to serve as a main dish or served raw as an appetizer. Zucchini blossoms are edible and can be stuffed or lightly battered and deep fried for a novel menu item.

If you have lots of zucchini, you can preserve some of it by freezing.

Simply rinse under cool, running water and cut it into 1/2-inch slices.

Then blanch the slices in boiling water for three minutes. Cool them promptly in ice water and then drain and package in freezer bags or containers labelled with the contents, amount and date you froze it.

You can grate zucchini and freeze it for use in breads without blanching.

Although flavour changes can occur if you do not blanch vegetables, the spices used in breads and muffins will mask the changes.

Try making zucchini chips. You can make dehydrated chips by washing, trimming and cutting zucchini into 1/4-inch slices. If desired, sprinkle with garlic or onion powder or your favourite seasoning prior to drying. Then dry the chips in an oven or dehydrator set at 140 F until they are brittle. The chips can be stored in a plastic bag and used in soups or casseroles. † Julie Garden-Robinson, PhD, R.D., L.R.D., is a North Dakota State University Extension Service food and nutrition specialist and professor in the department of health, nutrition and exercise sciences.

One way to use zucchini is to stuff it for a tasty meal.

PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

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Home Quarter Farm Life

Family-run orchard and U-pick operation Prairie-hardy fruit provides the potential for this successful business

BY EDNA MANNING

A

visit to the Bruno Cherry Festival in 2005 inspired Paul and Jacquie Mitchell to expand their U-pick orchard to include University of Saskatchewan sour cherries and haskap berries. The delicious flavour and the hardiness of the fruit convinced them of its potential.

The Mitchells had purchased their farm, located in Eagle Hills south of Battleford, Saskatchewan, in 2004. They had both been raised in the city, but wanted their three children, Jordan, McKenna and Lyndon to grow up on the farm, and decided to try a U-pick operation.

“The light sandy loam provides good drainage and was good for growing fruit,” said Paul. Their location on a north-facing slope is also ideal for winter snow cover and some frost protection in early spring.

To amend the soil, Paul has grown clover for a green manure crop. “I’ve also experimented with landscaping pellet, which is an organic-based, slow-release form of nitrogen, made primarily from oat hulls, dried distillers grains and a mineral pack to provide micronutrients,” he said.

Paul broke eight acres of an alfalfa field and planted 20,000 strawberry plants, several rows of raspberries, and 1,500 saskatoon bushes, opening the U-pick operation in 2004.

In 2006 they added haskap and sour cherry bushes to the U-pick

and also started a 30-acre commercial orchard in partnership with Paul’s parents, Terry and Barb Mitchell. About 17,000 haskap and 5,000 cherry bushes were planted at the orchard, which is located in a valley next to the Battle River west of Battleford.

Because little was known about the haskap at that time, Paul, along with four other growers, started Haskap Canada Inc. — a notfor-profit national organization, developed to provide information and assistance to haskap producers, plant breeders and consumers.

“We’ve had interest in the fruit from as far away as Japan, but right now, as an industry, we don’t grow enough to meet local demand, let alone Canadian or North American demand,” says Paul.

The Mitchells’ commercial orchard began production in 2012 and Eagle Hill Foods is the marketing brand for their processed fruit products and frozen fruit.

Products are marketed locally and also in stores in Saskatoon, North Battleford, Lloydminster, Regina, Moose Jaw, Outlook, Prince Albert and Craik.

“We are also working with a processor from Newfoundland to produce vacuum-packed dried fruit powders,” adds Jacquie.

In 2008 Jacquie became involved with lilies. Fred Fellner, an Alberta lily breeder since the 1960s, presented her with an offer.

“He presented me with a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity that I couldn’t refuse. He asked if I want-

ed to take over his lily-breeding program along with a few other growers, and if so, he would definitely help me out.

“That July, our oldest daughter Jordan and I went out to his farm when the lilies were in full bloom.

He wanted me to get started with the ones that caught my eye.

Jordan has taken a keen interest in the project and did all the breeding last year. Fred is so excited to see her enthusiasm — seeing it as a continuation of his life’s work,” she says. Jacquie currently has about 4,000 lily seedlings and she and Jordan plan to continue the project.

Paul and Jacquie appreciate having their children’s help with many aspects of the business, whether it’s weeding, pruning, picking berries, or assisting customers at the U-pick, farmers’ market or trade shows.

“We value the lifestyle and the opportunity to work with our children. Developing a good work ethic is important,” said Paul.

“We also feel it’s good for the children to know where food comes from and the value of growing healthy food free from harmful pesticides,” adds Jacquie.

The Mitchells’ future plans consist of building and developing a processing facility on their farm.

“This year our priority is to get some cash flow from the crops so we can begin planning,” said Paul.

For more information visit www.haskapberries.ca. † Edna Manning writes from Saskatoon, Sask.

PHOTOS: EDNA MANNING

Paul and Jacquie Mitchell with son Lyndon at their U-pick.

Haskap bushes flower in early May and the blossoms can tolerate up to -7 C without damage.

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FROM THE FARM

Preserving eggs for over the winter DEBBIE CHIKOUSKY

T

he main focus of our farm was to feed ourselves. The first thing we had was eggs and we are now trying This is apparently the way our pioneer grandparents had to function. The hens would never keep laying through the cold weather due to short daylight periods and freezing temps. We are not giving up on having hens through the winter months, just trying to store eggs.

Eggs contain 13 essential nutrients. They are a very good dietary source of selenium and iodine as well as a protein source.

A complete nutritional profile of pasture-raised eggs can be found at http://www.whfoods.com/ genpage.php?tname=nutrientpro file&dbid=60.

The goal is to keep the fall eggs as long as possible and freeze surplus from now. We learned last year that eggs that were not washed kept longer. This is because washing the eggs disturbs the bloom or

cuticle — the natural coating on the eggshell that seals the shell’s pores.

The bloom helps to prevent bacteria from getting inside the shell and reduces moisture loss from the egg.

If it is essential to wash the eggs a light coating of mineral oil is helpful to reseal them.

Whole eggs can be kept refrigerated in their shell at 35 F to 40 F for four to five weeks beyond the pack date, or about three weeks after purchase, according to the Incredible Egg website. This translated to our family being able to eat eggs from November till February last winter. By the end we were finding a few bad ones but usually there had been a small crack in the shell that we had missed before storage. We found that raw whole eggs (slightly beaten) could be kept up to two days, raw egg whites up to four days, raw egg yolks up to two days, hard-boiled eggs (in shell) up to one week, hard-boiled eggs (peeled) go stale very quickly.

Egg yolks have a gelatinous quality which makes them hard to store out of the shell.

The other method of storing eggs has been freezing, which can be done in a few different ways.

Our smaller eggs fit one egg per cell in an ice cube tray, which is very

convenient. After freezing, these can be popped out and kept in the freezer in bags. They work very well for cooking and scrambling after defrosting. Another option is to beat them gently and freeze them in freezer bags in recipe-size batches. The guidelines for shelf life on frozen eggs are impressive.

Raw whole eggs (slightly beaten), separately frozen raw egg whites, or separately frozen raw egg yolks can all be kept in a deep freezer for one year.

The other way that we have found effective to preserve our eggs is pickling. We have two methods and enjoy them both.

GRANDMA VANDERNEUT’S PICKLED EGGS Two dozen eggs 3 c. white vinegar 1 c. water 1 c. white sugar 1 tbsp. pickling salt 1 tbsp. pickling spice Hard boil eggs. Cool quickly by pouring cold water over them then peel. There are a lot of suggestions online about how to get fresh eggs to peel but my best suggestion is cracking the shells just a little bit. According to the pickling

recipe this isn’t recommended, but I have done it without it resulting in watery eggs.

The brine is made by simmering the rest of the ingredients in a stainless steel pot for 10 minutes. Cover so it doesn’t all evaporate. Allow the brine to cool before pouring it over the eggs. Pour cooled brine over eggs in sterilized canning jars and let stand at room temperature for two days. Move them to the fridge.

These eggs stay very well for weeks.

Pam, 49 - 5’4 110lbs

divorced, business owner, loves horses, sailing, shopping, travel I don’t sweat the small stuff, my life is great, I laugh everyday and appreciate every moment.

Michel, 58 - I am in my fifties and I am in the best shape of my life and have a trainer. I love to be in excellent health and am an occupational therapist and health is vital. I have no debt and no bad habits.

Casey, 42 - I have two children a girl and a boy. I am a teacher and I love my job. I live in a small town where I feel I know everyone and my dating opportunities are limited.

GILLIAN DADE’S PICKLED EGGS FROM KENT, ENGLAND Eggs Malt vinegar Hard boil eggs and cool quickly.

Fill sterilized jars with peeled eggs.

Boil enough malt vinegar to fill jars.

Pour the boiling malt vinegar over the eggs. Top jars with sterilized canning jar lids prepared as to manufacturer’s instructions. Allow to sit at room temperature for two days then refrigerate. These eggs have been known to keep for months.

There are a few other ideas such as dehydrating that we are considering, but for now these methods have been working. † Debbie Chikousky farms at Narcisse, Manitoba

Chelsea - My parents were married at my age 28. I am the girl next door, I love the outdoors, red necks are fine for me, love God, my family and my community.

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/ grainews.ca

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Home Quarter Farm Life SINGING GARDENER

Gather round for another visit with Ted He shares emails, phone calls and more gardening tips and info TED MESEYTON

I

t’s time to giddy-up and toot my horn and ring the bell for another rootin’ tootin’ visit with my readers on the Grainews Singing Gardener page.

I’m a hat- and cap-wearing kind of guy with a lot of headgear on my hat rack, including my black cowboy topper I got in Vancouver. My latest acquisition is one of those baseball-style caps that friends brought back from the Cayman Islands. However, my all-time favourite is still my limited edition railroader-style original personalized Singing Gardener caps. Yet, here I am tippin’ a caricature of one of my half-dozen or so Tilley hats acquired from various places.

way to improve health with fresher short-travelled, nutrient-dense food that we can’t get in most local grocery stores.

Got to admit I found the brine and the pickles for “Lucky Husband Cukes” far too strong for me as they sure are potent. On the plus side the recipe contains no salt and the cukes are certainly crisp. That’s the way they did it according to an old newspaper clipping from the 1890s. I’m experimenting at toning things down by adding more water, cutting the amount of dry mustard, leaving the sugar as called for and increasing the quantity of fresh cucumbers used. I’m adding some fresh dill too. It’s definitely a recipe to be played around with.

There’s nothing quite as fresh as a cucumber facial. I slice a really ripe and chilled cuke down the middle and gently massage one of the halves all over my face. Leave it on for a few minutes and then rinse off. Haven’t noticed any of the facial lines or life’s wrinkles disappear yet, but it’s sure refreshing.

IT’S AN ORCHID CACTUS

ALL ABOARD; WE’RE PULLING OUT OF THE STATION I, Ted, can’t take on the garden or any other duty with an empty stomach. There’s nothing like nutritious, homegrown, freshfrom-the-garden veggies and fruit to pick me up; especially when made into smoothies. We’ll be stopping at the email and phone call stations, plus take a pictorial visit with Annabelle hydrangea elsewhere on this page.

PLANTS AND SONGS NAMED AFTER PEOPLE There are numerous plants and songs named in honour of persons.

Take for example roses named after actress Ingrid Bergman, Queen Elizabeth, songstress Julie Andrews and Charles Darwin.

From my youthful days I remember a song titled: “Lonesome for you Annabelle.” Here are a few of the lyrics I recall.

Won’t you come back to me, I’m so lonesome you see, Lonesome for you Annabelle, Someone made you feel blue, Said I didn’t love you, You know I love you Annabelle.

THANKS TO ALL WHO GROW A GARDEN … and those who support and shop at farmers’ markets and local-area growers. It’s a sure-bet

Remember that request from June 10, 2014 Grainews? Well I received followup emails from Esther Wagner at Lancer, Sask., re: her flowering cactus. She writes: Dear Ted: So sorry to take sooooo long but we were having a number of electrical storms over the past couple of weeks and I simply turned off my computer and have not been on until now.

I am usually only on the computer once a week or so. I am sure you will appreciate what it is like living in a farming community and having a big yard to tend to.

I am very seldom in the house during the spring through fall (only for “bare necessities” and too lazy and doggone tired to do anything else but shower and become a couch potato until the next a.m. Funny how it goes — can hardly wait until spring and digging through snow to see how plants are coming, to wondering, “when is this ever going to end?”

I never ever saw such GIANT gerbera daisies.

O.M.G.!!! Never in God’s green earth did I ever expect to receive the response I did to the name of my cactus. I knew I had to thank you and your readers for the response I received. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!! I thought I had a one-in-a ?? unusual plant but it would appear that many of your readers have this, or a relative to it and knew the name and origin.

FYI — It is an orchid cactus (most likely a hybrid), accord-

LOVE HEARING FROM YOU Do you have a story about a farm or home-based business? How about some household management tips? Does someone in the family have a special-diet need? Share some of your meal ideas.

SEND THEM TO FARMLIFE 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, Man. R3H 0H1 Phone 1-800-665-0502 Email susan@fbcpublishing.com Please remember we can no longer return photos or material. – Sue

PHOTO: TED MESEYTON

Valerie Howard of Portage la Prairie, Man., admires her gigantic Annabelle hydrangea and deservedly so. A single bloom consists of hundreds upon hundreds of miniature flowers; loved by bumblebees. Each bloom is so large it won’t even fit into an empty four-litre ice-cream pail. Provide morning sun, afternoon filtered shade, good drainage, watering during dry periods and protection from gusty winds for dramatic results.

This particular perennial hydrangea also makes a memorable temporary summer landscaping hedge whose showy white mopheads sparkle throughout July and August and even well into September. Some staking support may be required. Cut back each plant close to the ground annually in late fall and Annabelle will continue visiting for years. ing to Larry Hodgson (horticulturalist expert) for Gardens West Magazine. Orchid cacti are various species and hybrids of the genus Epiphyllum and another epiphytic cacti. They apparently can take years to start blooming, but once they do, they will usually bloom every year. Larry was sent a letter the same time I contacted you and was merely responding to my letter to the magazine.

None of the readers had any funny tales to tell about their “orchid” cactus other than it took forever for it to bloom for them as well. Thank you readers for all your help (emails, letters and telephone calls)! Thanks again Ted — keep on singing!!!!!!! I hope you have a great summer. Take Care...

Sincerely — Esther.

Note from Ted: I too, heard from a number of other folks in connection with Esther’s cactus and my thanks to each one of you. Here’s one brief example forwarded from Isabel Leman of Black Diamond, Alta. “It’s an orchid cactus and I used to have a very large one.”

PICKING UP THE PHONE Had a great conversation with Allan Enden who lives 30 miles south of Saskatoon. He also has such a plant. Allan told me that it’s over 200 years old and was originally brought to Canada from Norway by an aunt who lived to the grand age of six weeks short of 100 years. Here’s how Allan described his cactus.

“O gosh, the roots on that thing.

It’s so huge. We’ve always just called it a Christmas cactus. It doesn’t like the sun by the way.

It sits in the north window.

Always has.”

NOW ON TO AN EMAIL … that’s short and to the point.

It comes from Ken Klaassen of Oakville, Manitoba who writes: Could you send me the recipe for killing weeds without using chemicals? I think it was a couple of years ago you had a way of killing weeds in the Portage Graphic and I forgot to clip it out. I know someone who has tried the vinegar recipe and it only slowed down the weeds, but did not kill them. I did not try it, but I will try yours.

I, Ted, confirm as noted above to not expect something miraculous or the same results when compared to a commercial product, so keep that in mind.

WEED CONTROL ALTERNATIVE NO. 1 Mix together 4 cups white vinegar, 1/4 cup of table salt and 2 teaspoons of liquid soap. This blend is non-selective and kills or sets back pretty well anything you spray it on. Apply carefully and with prudence so grass and other plants you want to keep are not sprayed with it as they will burn or easily show signs of dehydration.

Several or continued applications on weeds may be required.

WEED CONTROL FORMULA NO. 2 This is another homemade, lowcost recipe that’s quite similar to the above except it calls for apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar and concentrated liquid Dawn.

The story goes that it strips weeds of their protective oils, allowing the AC vinegar and salt to work together with unrelenting force.

There are so many good things I could say about apple cider vinegar but that’ll have to remain for a future time. Thoroughly mix together the following and try using it from a spray bottle.

8 cups apple cider vinegar 1/4 cup table salt 1/2 teaspoon Dawn dishwashing liquid Ensure weeds are well covered and avoid any mist drifting onto grass and other plants you don’t want harmed. Stubborn weeds may require more than one application.

Opt to apply either one of the above combos on hot, sunny days (preferably during at least four hours of sunshine) and at the receding and dark times of the moon for best results. Here are some recommended dates coming up this month: September 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23, 2014. If you try both recipes, make comparisons and let me know results. †

This is Ted Meseyton the Singing Gardener and Grow-It Poet from Portage la Prairie, Man. Unless we’ve got everbearing strawberries, the strawberry season is since long past. I once heard a one-liner that asked something like this. Q: Is beauty like a strawberry? A: Soon out of season but exquisite while it lasts. Like the strawberry, beauty isn’t perfect without a regular sprinkling of sweetness. Beauty is also described as the first present nature gives to us and the first it takes away, while inward beauty never fades.

My email address is singinggardener@mts.net.

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