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SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Breeding for carcass quality has a payoff Using genomics to improve carcass quality can greatly improve profitability, study says

BY JENNIFER BLAIR AF STAFF

S

ourcing quality breeding stock has the greatest impact on carcass quality — and having carcass data is “integral” to that process.

But too many producers are flying blind, according to Tom Lynch-Staunton, director of industry relations for Livestock Gentec.

“Most people sell their calves in the fall at weaning and really

SEE CARCASS  page 7

PHOTO: SUBMITTED

It’s Canada’s biggest crop

But forage research remains a hard sell

There has been a dramatic drop in forage research, but it’s not just because producers could make more money growing canola

BY MADELEINE BAERG AF CONTRIBUTOR

M

ore than 52 million acres in Alberta are currently used to graze livestock or produce crops like alfalfa and timothy hay, but farmers who manage grasslands and forage fields say their industry is declining so rapidly its future is at risk.

“The long-term graph of forage research shows a dramatic drop — probably 70 per cent of our capacity has been let go in

the last 20 years,” said Doug Wray, board chair of the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association and a forage and cow-calf producer from Irricana.

“We’ve come down a long way and we really can’t afford to go any further. If we don’t stop the slide and start rebuilding, there are going to be some very big consequences to this province.”

Forage fields are increasingly being consigned to low-quality land, with more productive acres being seeded to canola and other crops.

High prices for grains and oilseeds in recent years is a big factor, but so has been the decline in forage research, said Ron Pidskalny, executive director of the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association.

“Producers look at forages and say: ‘Not only would I make less growing forages, the production methods aren’t there, the variety selection isn’t there and the field testing hasn’t been done so I do not have

SEE FORAGE  page 6

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2

news » inside this week

inside » HAND-HELD POWER Turning your smartphone into an inventory manager

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

livestock

crops

HOW YA DOING?

NO HILL OF BEANS

columNists laura rance

8

brenda schoepp

These E. coli are OK Can convert plant material directly to fuel Reuters/British and Finnish scientists have found a way of generating renewable propane from E. coli that could one day be an alternative to fossil fuel reserves.

“Although we have only produced tiny amounts so far, the fuel we have produced is ready to be used in an engine straightaway,” said Patrik Jones of Imperial College London.

While the work is at a very early stage, commercial production may be possible in five to 10 years, he said.

The researchers used E. coli to interrupt a biological process that turns fatty acids into cell membranes. So far, the level of propane is 1,000 times less than what would be needed to turn it into a commercial product, so they are now working on refining their process.

“At the moment, we don’t have a full grasp of exactly how the fuel molecules are made, so we are now trying to find out exactly how this process unfolds,” said Jones.

Tiling requires approval An article in the Aug. 18 edition (Pricey tile worth the money, producers say) incorrectly stated Alberta Environment doesn’t require permits for tile drainage.

In fact, tiles are considered as “works” under the Water Act as they are capable of altering the flow or level of water by drainage. Prior to wetland compensation guidelines coming into effect in 2005, no authorization was required if consolidation occurred on the parcel. However, there is no longer an exception for consolidation.

Water Act approval forms can be obtained at http:// esrd.alberta.ca/water/ forms-applications/wateract-forms.aspx. Applications can be completed and submitted online.

5

How to avoid a hard landing

EXOTIC LIVESTOCK

28

Lloydminster show offers up the unusual

4

No grain gridlock this year

Infrared thermography measures animal stress

12

Faba acreage exploding, soybeans may be next

17

Roy Lewis Reducing respiratory risk

15

New program takes aim at high early mortality rate of farmers Stress, poor eating habits and other factors mean farmers have higher rates of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory issues

By Alexis Kienlen af staff

Y

ou can’t enjoy your farm if you’re dead — but many farmers take better care of their land, equipment, or animals than themselves.

“It’s true for my family and a lot of farmers I know,” said Jordan Jensen, who grew up near Raymond and is now project manager of Sustainable Farm Families Canada.

“Farmers tend to know more about their cattle or their machinery, or their land… way more than they know about themselves and their health.

They’re more concerned about taking care of their $500,000 tractor than they are about themselves.

“What good is having a $500,000 tractor or 1,000 acres of land or cattle, if you’re not there to enjoy it or to make use of it?”

“Farmers tend to know more about their cattle or their machinery, or their land… way more than they know about themselves, and their health.”

Jordan Jensen

The Sustainable Farm Families program was developed a decade ago in Australia and will be rolled out in this province at workshops in Lethbridge, Taber, and Grande Prairie in November. Jensen said he hopes it generates the same feedback it did Down Under.

“Every single one of those participants said that they would recommend it to a family, a neighbour or somebody who they knew,” said Jensen.

Rural Canadians have a

higher incidence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory issues than urbanites, but previous health and safety programs in Alberta have not made a significant impact in these areas, said Jensen.

“Farmers have a higher risk of early mortality, and it is preventable. It’s just a matter of changing how they look at themselves and how important their role is on the farm.”

The Sustainable Farm Families workshops, which are free, run over two consecutive days and focus on health issues that are common among farmers, including stress, nutrition, disease prevention, mental health, and physical activity. Each workshop is only open to 20 participants, with an emphasis on discussion and group learning activities, rather than lectures. While most farm programs target children, Sustainable Farm Families is geared towards farm couples, and children or apprentices working on the farm.

“The decision makers on the farm are the ones getting the education so they can take it, share it, and lead by example,” said Jensen. “That is one of the aspects of the program that makes it so successful.”

Participants decide what they want to implement and there’s no finger pointing. The workshop leaders, who provide information and handbooks, include farmer peers and registered nurses.

“It’s friends and peers teaching each other,” said Jensen. “A lot of it is farmers sharing stories, opening up to each other, and that’s where the magic really happens.”

As part of the program, participants take a tour of a grocery store to learn how to read labels, and spot misleading advertising. Participants also make their own action plans and goals for wellness.

At the beginning of the program, they get a free health assessment from a registered nurse. Blood pressures, blood glucose, cholesterol levels, eyesight, hearing, family history and many other key indi-

Jordan Jensen, project manager of Sustainable Farm Families, a new program designed to help farmers take control of their health. photo: supplied cators of health will be measured and discussed in private.

If the first year of the program is a success, this year’s participants will be invited to participate in second- and third-year workshops. In Australia, participants monitored their health over the three-year program.

“This was one of the highlights that people mentioned,” said Jensen.

For more information on the program or to sign up, go to www.abfarmsafety.com or contact Jensen at 403-752-4585 or j.jensenSFF@abfarmsafety.com. akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

3

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Permaculture advocate says work with nature, not against it Ferintosh producer Takota Coen says carefully designed mixed farms are the way of the future

BY JENNIFER BLAIR AF STAFF / FERINTOSH

T

he first thing you’ll notice as you drive by Grass Roots Family Farm is the orchard — an unlikely sight in rural Alberta, but somehow it seems right at home beside the sprawling vegetable garden.

In a paddock near the house, a sow nurses a handful of nearly newborn piglets, and just down the lane from there, free-range hens and roosters scratch for feed beside a little white chicken coop.

Farther yet, a small herd of cattle graze pastures just below fields where fresh-swathed grain lines the hills.

But what you can’t see from the road is that this little farm is almost completely self-sustaining, thanks to a little-known farming system called permaculture.

“Permaculture is a design system that involves basically observing your surroundings and working with nature rather than against it,” said Takota Coen, who manages the farm near Ferintosh.

For more than 25 years, parents Michael and Laura Coen operated the farm using organic practices, producing certified organic cereals for Sunny Boy Cereal and pork for Sunworks Farm. And while the family still holds true to those ideals today, the younger Coen saw greater potential elsewhere when he came back to the farm two years ago.

“We hit the end of the rope with what we thought we could do with organics,” he said.

After stumbling on permaculture while researching alternative farming methods, Coen decided to put principle to practice and create a self-sustaining farm. And so far, he’s seen great success.

“By looking at a system like this where it’s not just input in and then line out, it becomes truly economically viable and sustainable,” he said.

“When you embrace nature’s diversity and understand it, then you can start designing ways for it to work for you.”

“By looking at a system like this where it’s not just input in and then line out, it becomes truly economically viable and sustainable.”

TAKOTA COEN

Self-regenerating

Originally dubbed ‘permanent agriculture,’ the concept dates back to the 1920s and is based on creating a system that can sustain itself indefinitely with very little human involvement — which is a big part of its appeal, said Coen.

“With these perennial agriculture systems, you can design them in such a way that they are self-regenerating and self-maintaining,” he said.

Takota Coen has planted fruit and nut trees between his pasture land and a 1.5-kilometre swale that collects run-off from his annual crop field and feeds his farm’s drip irrigation system — creating a sustainable system that balances water management, perennial crops, and annual crops. PHOTO: JENNIFER BLAIR Livestock plays a major role in the system.

“Our philosophy is that, in order to have a sustainable farming system, animals need to be a part of the farming system to contribute to fertilizer,” said Coen.

“We’re essentially making our own fertilizer on farm and selling to the factories.”

The Coens produce almost all of their feed requirements on farm, growing hay for the cattle and peas and wheat for the chickens and pigs. And even those crops help sustain each other.

“The wheat and peas were planted together,” said Coen.

“The wheat provides the structure for the peas to climb up on, and the peas fix nitrogen for the wheat.”

Even though the crops have been planted in the same space, they “don’t really compete” for resources, he said.

“You get this complementary, symbiotic relationship where both the peas and the wheat benefit.”

Pasture cropping

Right now, Coen’s main crop is hay — small square bales of timothy alfalfa and brome — produced in a field established last year with a nurse crop of oats.

“You seed your annual grain crops — in this case, wheat and peas — and underseed it to hay or pasture mix, and the cereals act as a nurse crop to outcompete any weeds while the slower-growing perennials establish,” he said.

“It helps your pasture establish, it gives you a yield in the meantime, and it reduces any weeds that would be coming up.”

This year, he’s also experimenting with pasture cropping, where annuals are rotated into pasture land so the cattle can fertilize the field.

“If we could find a way to grow annual crops on perennial pastures without breaking up the land, I think it would absolutely revolutionize organic farming,” he said. “It would provide another option for organic farmers to

maintain fertility in their land with a lot less use of fossil fuels.”

But in order to adopt these systems throughout the farm, Coen had to change his definition of profitability.

“If you’ve got two things together on the same area of land, you’re not going to get 100-bushel-to-the-acre canola and 100-bushel-to-the-acre wheat in the same crop,” he said. “The yields aren’t bumper crops, but together, they are far greater than what they would get by themselves.”

It’s also a “far more resilient system,” he said.

“If your one crop fails, it doesn’t matter. By managing your land like this, it’s increasingly going to be a benefit to your bottom line.”

mistic” that change will come, however slowly.

“We have some of the most brilliant minds that have ever existed on the planet right now, and we’re able to do absolutely fan-

tastic things with the technology we have,” he said. “We can figure this out. But we’re never going to get there if we don’t start.” jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

Like an old friend.

Designed transition

In recent years, conventional producers have implemented permaculture principles on their own farms almost inadvertently — moving to no-till systems to maintain the land and incorporating things like winter wheat or perennial crops into their rotations.

Coen said he believes it’s only a matter of time before more producers start adopting other permaculture practices on a larger scale.

“There’s only so far we can get with our abundance of fossil fuel energy and the amount of resources we have,” he said.

“It will get to a point where we can’t keep buying three-quarter of a million dollar combines and sprayers to make a profit. The margins are getting slimmer and slimmer all the time.

“It really becomes a matter of designed transition or forced collapse.”

But that transition can’t happen overnight, he said.

“If we just all of a sudden decided that we weren’t going to plant annual crops anymore, there would be a lot of problems that would quickly start showing their heads,” said Coen.

Even so, he’s “hopelessly opti-

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SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

EDITOR Glenn Cheater Phone: 780-919-2320 Email: glenn.cheater@fbcpublishing.com twitter: @glenncheater

Reporters Alexis Kienlen, Edmonton 780-668-3121 Email: akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

The ‘new’ wore off of ‘normal’ pretty quickly

Jennifer Blair, Red Deer 403-613-7573 Email: jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

PRODUCTION director Shawna Gibson Email: shawna@fbcpublishing.com

The grain industry may have gotten a little too optimistic after last year’s whopper of a crop

Director of Sales & Circulation Lynda Tityk Email: lynda.tityk@fbcpublishing.com

CIRCULATION manager Heather Anderson Email: heather@fbcpublishing.com

national ADVERTISING SALES James Shaw Phone: 416-231-1812 Fax: 416-233-4858 Email: jamesshaw@rogers.com

ADVERTISING sales Crystal McPeak Phone: 403-646-6211 or 403-360-3210 Email: crystal@fbcpublishing.com

classified ADVERTISING SALES Sharon Komoski Phone: 1-888-413-3325 Fax: 204-944-5562 Email: sharon.komoski@fbcpublishing.com

ADVERTISING Co-ordinator Arlene Bomback Phone: 204-944-5765 Fax: 204-944-5562 Email: ads@fbcpublishing.com

PUBLISHER Lynda Tityk Email: lynda.tityk@fbcpublishing.com

Associate PUBLISHER/ editorial director John Morriss Email: john.morriss@fbcpublishing.com

president Bob Willcox Glacier FarmMedia bwillcox@farmmedia.com 204-944-5751

The Alberta Farmer Express is published 26 times a year by Farm Business Communications.

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

By Laura Rance

Editor, the Manitoba Co-operator

I

t’s easy to get a little giddy when things go much better than expected. For example, take last year’s bin buster of a crop.

By any measure, it was an astounding production feat. Western Canadian farmers shattered all previous records on most major crops, growing a whopping 76 million tonnes, 50 per cent higher than the five-year average and 30 per cent above the previous year.

It was like a runaway freight train and the grain trade executives and politicians were quick to hop aboard.

A senior industry official told the Canadian Global Crop Symposium last spring this is “the new normal,” a phrase also embraced by federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.

Some suggested 90 million tonnes of production on the horizon.

The push was on for new and expanded handling facilities, and perhaps more notably, more rail capacity for moving grain. The trade scoffed at the notion put forward by railway company officials that it would be imprudent to make major investments into expanded capacity just to handle infrequent surges.

We’re not here to defend the railways’ performance. By our calculations, until the government brought in the threat of financial penalties, the system we have today was

proving relatively less efficient than it was back in the days when men used shovels to fill boxcars.

The reasons for that were multi-faceted, including the bitter winter weather and unexpected surge in production. But it was also clear the rail companies had perhaps been a bit too aggressive in streamlining their locomotive power.

A similar scenario is unfolding in the U.S. this fall, which appears poised to harvest a bumper crop that far exceeds the available handling and storage capacity. It all underscores the insanity of focusing solely on production increases without considering the necessary handling and marketing infrastructure to accommodate it.

Nor do we suggest the marketing system has a whole lot to do with what farmers choose to grow. In the years previous, we heard how changes to Western Canada’s grain-marketing system would result in a big jump in wheat production. The data would suggest that surge was short lived. They are driven by the economics, marketing opportunities and increasingly, crop rotations.

Then the weather must co-operate. And, as of late, it hasn’t.

The latest data from Statistics Canada points to an all-wheat crop that is 26 per cent lower than last year, and a 23 per cent drop in canola production. One industry analyst suggests there might not be enough canola to meet the current demand for crushing and export, which would be great news for farm-

ers, until you consider the domestic crushers and seed exporters tend to be owned by the same companies — making bidding wars unlikely.

Western Canada still has a good crop.

Despite the drop, this year’s wheat crop is the third largest in a decade and the canola harvest could be the third largest ever.

Data provided by Agriculture and AgriFood Canada analysts last winter shows western Canadian production has been increasing, on average, by about three per cent annually over the past three decades — not the 50 per cent increase we saw in 2013 or the 23 to 32 per cent decrease in production we are seeing in 2014.

As for carry-overs, it appears this year’s carry-over won’t be anywhere near as high as threefold increase predicted last winter.

We are left wondering whether farmers who couldn’t seed much of their land due to flooding last spring wouldn’t be happy to have a bit left in the bin from last year to even out their farm’s cash flow.

So while last year’s harvest gave us a hint of the potential that is out there, it is far from being what the industry should expect year after year. It’s something farm lobbyists need to keep in mind when considering — or demanding — investments in grain handling and transportation infrastructure. After all, the cost of building and maintaining those investments ultimately flows back to farmers. laura@fbcpublishing.com

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The campaign to whitewash farm and ranch vocabulary Cargill is apparently no longer in the business of ‘slaughtering’ cattle

1-204-944-5568 For more information on The Alberta Farmer Express and subscriptions to other Farm Business Communications products, or visit our web site at:

www.albertafarmexpress.ca or email: subscription@fbcpublishing.com At Farm Business Communications we have a firm commitment to protecting your privacy and security as our customer. Farm Business Communications will only collect personal information if it is required for the proper functioning of our business. As part of our commitment to enhance customer service, we may share this personal information with other strategic business partners. For more information regarding our Customer Information Privacy Policy, write to: Information Protection Officer, Farm Business Communications, 1666 Dublin Ave., Wpg., MB R3H 0H1 Occasionally we make our list of subscribers available to other reputable firms whose products and services might be of interest to you. If you would prefer not to receive such offers, please contact us at the address in the preceding paragraph, or call 1-800-665-0502.

The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to Alberta Farmer Express and Farm Business Communications attempt to provide accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis. However, the editors, journalists and Alberta Farmer Express and Farm Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the editors as well as Alberta Farmer Express 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.

by Alan Guebert

F

armers and ranchers have a welldeserved reputation for straight talk.

Saying what you mean and meaning what you say, after all, were essential elements in the handshake deals that were the hallmark of rural business for generations.

They still are.

Now, however, some folks outside the nation’s fields and fences are working overtime to wash — and, in many instances, whitewash — the work-a-day farm and ranch vocabulary of its meaning and culture.

For example, two ag publications I receive, one from Canada and the other from the U.S., recently carried stories about cattle slaughter. Neither, however, used the word “slaughter.”

Instead, both stories substituted the completely bloodless, completely inaccurate “harvest” — as in, “Cargill closes Milwaukee harvest facility,” and, “Dissecting the makeup of the U.S. fed cattle harvest,” — for the more descriptive, completely accurate “slaughter” in each headline and throughout each story.

We don’t kill cattle in North America anymore; we “harvest” them now?

“Slaughter” and “harvest” are not sub-

stitutes; each carries a unique meaning.

In fact, according to the Oxford Universal English Dictionary, slaughter (“Middle English, slahter, 1. The killing of cattle, sheep, or other animals for food…”) and harvest (“Old English, haerfest, 1. The third season of the year, autumn 2. The season for reaping and gathering in the ripened grain 3. The reaping and gathering in of ripened grain…”) are as different as salt and pepper. Each may be a seasoning but salt is not pepper and pepper is not salt.

Other examples of either lazy usage or intentional misuse of words in agriculture abound. For centuries “crop protection” meant fences to keep livestock out of grain fields. Today “crop protection” really means chemistry — herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides — without hoping to sound like it means chemistry.

Today we often say “barn,” as in livestock barn, when we really mean shed, as in machinery shed; often hear equipment dealers talk about “farm power” instead of “tractors”; and watch as veterinarians use “animal health products” to treat (even pre-treat) ailing livestock, not “drugs.”

And “wastes” long ago replaced “manure” for, well, you know what.

Indeed, we’ve taken our gift for word confusion to almost laugh-out-loud levels.

Most times, however, these shiny new words and not-at-all-accurate phrases aren’t new cats that just show up on the farm and ranch. They are born, poll tested and dropped off in rural America by ag hired hands — sorry, “team members” — who are paid to sanitize the sometimes muddy, sometimes bloody realities of today’s farms and ranches for an increasingly misinformed, hopefully naive consuming public.

In the cleansing process, however, we trade accuracy for vagueness, honesty for deceit and truth for deception.

Truth be told, the vast majority of North American farming and ranching is about herbicides, slaughter and manure. Hiding these processes and practices behind sunny, inaccurate or misleading words only creates more costly mistrust that, sooner or later, will have to be cleaned up by farmers and ranchers, not the rebranding spinmeisters.

“Harvest” cattle? What, PETA will become more farmer friendly if we just say “harvest” instead of “slaughter?”

That’s as absurd as calling cowboys chickens.

Alan Guebert writes from Delavan, Illinois.

His Farm and Food File is published weekly through the U.S. and Canada, www. farmandfoodfile.com.

5

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Avoiding a hard landing in your business Planning ahead for your business is critical for when the day a crisis hits, or when you want to make big changes

BY BRENDA SCHOEPP

I

do a lot of flying and still to this day find the takeoff rather exciting.

After 35 years of travel there has never been an incident with takeoff — but the landings have been mixed. There were quite a few times when we could not land because of weather, and times when the pilot realized he might overshoot the runway and had to hit the brakes. This is a jolt to the system and can be unsettling especially if the fog is so bad that no one can see the runway anyway!

I often think of flying — the pure miracle of it and the opportunity that the disruptive technology of the invention of the plane has afforded us. In terms of business, I see that we spend a lot of time planning the takeoff and enjoying the ride, and very little time preparing to land. The runway is only so long, it takes a flight plan to change, close or transfer business and that cannot be done from the air. At some time, our

feet need to be firmly planted on the ground.

Landing in business is not just succession planning, it is planning for when the bank says no, when the business fails, when our health fails, or when the world around us changes. It is the mitigation of risk and the knowing of when we are safe after the wheels hit the ground.

Young entrepreneurs, especially women, should look at this very carefully.

More than half of small and medium-size businesses in Canada are owned by women (a small or medium business is defined as under $25 million) while the food product from those make up over 80 per cent of our items for trade. As a consumer, she buys and sells food, clothes, houses and cars, appliances, vacations, tools, trucks, tractors, feed, seed, welders and combines. Yet accessing money for continued growth is often difficult.

Even though women and men face the same challenges when accessing finance, research in this area has found that even in developed countries only 58

per cent of all equally eligible loans applied for by women were approved and at a higher interest rate than the same proposal by men. (In the United States, the rate is 20 per cent less approval rate than men and only four per cent of venture capital funding has been allocated to women.) The study found that the reason for credit refusal was that lenders do not wish to be associated with specific types of borrowers such as women, racial minorities, classes and castes. In short, commercial banks and village money men did not loan to women because they presented a bigger perceived risk, they did not loan to women because they were women.

A true lack of access to credit often hinders growth in what could be a thriving agricultural practice. Women in particular continue to be tied to their husband’s financial performance, permission or signature, even when they are solely responsible for the production of food or for the business. What needs to be done for young men and women to access financing

for business (the takeoff) and how do businesses access additional funding for growth or mitigate their financial risk (the landing)?

Asking the right questions ahead of time is important.

What do I need to prepare?

What are the asset requirements needed to satisfy the lender?

What are the perceived risks?

How much weight is on past history and credit score or on receivables and cash flow? And the list goes on.

But the point is that the plane cannot and will not take off without the appropriate preparation and pilot check.

Compared to their male colleagues, women often face the additional challenge of not asking for enough money.

Many commercial banks look to larger long-term loans attached to a sound business plan that is clearly articulated both in writing and orally. And repeatedly we see evidence that cash flow is not king, men and women need to own something concrete — an office building, factory, ship or any other asset.

When it comes to farming,

ladies who wish to build their enterprises must have deeded land in their name.

For example, the Montreal Gazette recently ran a story of two women with an 11-year-old company generating $4 million in home party clothing sales.

Because they did not own the factory in which the clothing was produced they were ineligible for a meagre $500,000 line of credit for the past three years and were forced to use personal savings.

In this scenario, the women are obviously fighting an outdated system that is discriminatory but I also see it as preparing for a landing. Like these ladies, at any point in time in our business if we do not have collateral, capital assets, receivables and cash we can run out of runway. Paving the way for success includes takeoff, a flight plan, and a long runway.

Brenda Schoepp is a farmer from Alberta who works as an international mentor and motivational speaker. She can be contacted through her website www.brendaschoepp.com. All rights reserved. Brenda Schoepp 2014

Beneath your feet lies a marvel of nature It’s believed native grasslands contain plants a century old, their tillers advancing inch by inch to create a perpetual ecosystem

BY KRIS RINGWALL, BEEF SPECIALIST

NDSU EXTENSION SERVICE

T

he other day, the Dickinson Research Extension Center became home to an unstoppable force that is going to drill a well. In this case, an oil well.

The spot selected is in the middle of a native grass pasture. Who knows the age of that native grass, but certainly the plants were there long before any of us.

This mixture of grass plants and interesting earth cover certainly would bemoan its upcoming fate.

Not long after the fence was opened, the Eucs arrived — massive machines extremely efficient at moving dirt. In preparation for the next onslaught, colleague Lee Manske and I went to the ranch to take one more look at the site.

Our feelings were mixed. Perhaps there was a bit of dismay and a bit of disgust, but we both knew there was no stopping the process. We went to say goodbye to something we know will not be back in our lifetime. The ground we stood on

would be green again, but the soil we stood on would need time — a long time — to re-establish the working ecosystem developed through the centuries.

We already had agreed to the process and understand the many issues involved between surface and subsurface property.

But the land was about to be disturbed, which is something even the glaciers could not do.

This land had become a seemingly perpetual ecosystem of life. Grass is not simply a plant that is potted and admired. No, grass is the essence of life and the source of the prairie ecosystem. I asked Lee, who is the centre’s range scientist, just how old the plants were. He said the source of some of the plants could go back 100 years or more. Longevity of grass plants in grassland ecosystems is dependent on the development of tillers through the vegetative production from axillary buds.

Although studies obviously do not go back hundreds of years, we do know grass plant longevity of major northern species managed with traditional grazing practices can approach 50 years. Grass plant longevity would be expected to be long. As the plant community expands, this pro-

cess of passing on genes through vegetative growth determines the survivability of the grasslands.

This constantly developing ecosystem, which slowly evolves through the interaction of grazing animals and the need for plants to be grazed, is critical.

Grazing stimulates vegetative tiller production, which assures the growth and development of native grasslands. This earthly cover, the prairie grasslands, when present, is home to a much more powerful life-giving system, which is the prairie ecosystem.

If for no other reason, Lee and I stood there to acknowledge that point. What is an ecosystem? Without one, it would be like having a house with no electricity, heat, cooling, furniture, beds or even a kitchen. Without an ecosystem, the world simply becomes a shell, a non-functioning, non-life-supporting empty place.

We might survive, but with the passing of time, that survival becomes doubtful because all inputs have to be obtained from somewhere else.

Lee went on to explain this ecosystem process and how, under our feet, living systems are driving biological, chemical

and atmospheric pathways that actively are transferring essential elements into our ecosystem.

Ideally, the ecosystem is obtaining more than is being used, so there is a positive contribution to a growing and healthy world. The key to the system is not so much the above-ground grass, but the soil micro-organisms that are supported by the below-ground grass roots and other living things.

Lee pointed out that, once disturbed, these organisms die and only can be replenished from an existing living ecosystem. The functional replenishment and growth of the soil biosphere takes years because living communities only expand outward at a rate of a few inches a year. That is why we knew that what we were standing on would not be back in our lifetime.

The Earth does take care of itself. So we paid our respect to something we know is marvellous and said goodbye to a piece that soon no longer will exist.

Kris Ringwall is a North Dakota State University Extension Service livestock specialist and director of the Dickinson Research Extension Center.

6

OFF THE FRONT

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

FORAGE  from page 1 access to the information I need to produce a good crop.’”

And it becomes a vicious circle, he said — as forage production drops, it’s even harder to get funding for forage research.

But it’s a problem that should concern all Albertans: ranchers, farmers, and urbanites alike.

Forages are the biggest crop by acreage in Canada — a full 55 per cent of this country’s agricultural land is grazed grassland or is seeded to forage. At least as important as the agricultural value (estimated at $1.5 billion in Alberta alone) are the environmental benefits.

“There is significant public good from forage land and native grassland,” said Wray.

“When you talk about clean air, clean water, biodiversity, ecosystems at work for wildlife in agriculture — that’s the grazing lands of this country. That’s the side benefit they provide.

“I don’t think it’s good enough to turn a blind eye and walk away.”

When people think of clean water, they should also give thought to the watersheds it passed through before reaching them, he said.

“Fortunately for most Albertans, pretty much everything upstream is in forages and forest. Keeping it that way is pretty important to what kind of water ends up in the water system. If you let the land get degraded and more silt comes down the river; if you let the land run when it rains hard as opposed to being tied down by the perennial roots of hay land, there’s a consequence down that road.”

Residents of southern Mani-

“If we don’t stop the slide and start rebuilding, there are going to be some very big consequences to this province.”

DOUG WRAY

Forages and grasslands are not just about cattle and hay, they also provide a major environmental benefit for all Canadians. PHOTO: CANADIAN FORAGE AND GRASSLAND ASSOCIATION toba and southeastern Saskatchewan have learned all too well that the loss for forage and grasslands has an impact, he noted.

Recent floods are being blamed in part on extensive drainage on a massive scale to convert acres best suited to forage to cropland.

The loss of these acres and the dramatic reduction of potholes and riparian areas has greatly reduced the capacity to hold back water during spring and in wet years.

However, getting more dollars for forage research will be a challenge, given today’s real-

ity of declining public funds for agricultural research.

Private companies now do much of the R&D for some annual crops — but this is only possible because seed sales allow these companies to turn a profit once their research and development successfully produces a commercially attractive crop variety. However, given that forages are perennials, more biologically complex, and the scientific knowledge base is smaller, it’s a whole lot harder for a private company to see potential profit in forage research.

Beef producer groups and forage associations are attempting to fill the void and invest in the future of forages. Current industry-led projects include working towards developing testing sites for new varieties, and building a bank of environmental research.

However, Wray and Pidskalny said they hope forage stakeholders will step forward with additional funds for new variety development.

Alternatively, they suggest Canada take a page from Europe’s playbook.

“We were in England a few years

ago. The farmer we met there had to measure up on a whole list of environmental benchmarks — he had to leave a headland of unmowed grass, not hay before a certain date, leave the hedges untrimmed — and if he did that, he got a payment from the public purse,” said Wray.

“A value has been placed on eco-services in other places in the world. That would certainly help shift the dynamic here when a producer is trying to decide between growing wheat and canola or pasture brome and alfalfa.”

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Albertafarmexpress.ca • September 15, 2014

CARCASS } from page 1 have no idea how those animals perform further down the line,” said Lynch-Staunton.

“It’s really important to get back to those producers whether their animals actually grade well or yield well. If they don’t know, they have no idea whether they can make improvements or not.”

But there is a major fly in the ointment.

“If you’re a cow-calf producer and you’re selling your calves in the fall and you’re not getting paid for any carcass quality, there’s really no incentive for you to increase those traits,” said LynchStaunton.

In fact, traits for improved carcass quality “can sometimes be antagonistic to production traits on the ground,” he said.

However, a recent study by Livestock Gentec found that breeding for carcass quality traits — over the long run — will put some serious money into the pockets of cow-calf producers. The costbenefit analysis, conducted last year by the research organization, measured genetic improvement in birth weight, weaning weight, and post-wean gain.

“We found that if you were selecting for bulls with those three traits, you were able to make genetic improvement on your calf crop at about $4 per calf per year,” said Lynch-Staunton.

“Information transfer is really essential to doing any sort of genetic improvement, whether it’s carcass traits or production traits.”

Tom LynchStaunton

That figure didn’t include items such as feed or labour, and it went up to $10 per calf per year when additional traits that improve carcass quality (such as yield grade, marbling, or back fat) were targeted in a breeding program.

Best of all, as genetically superior heifers were retained, the savings started to compound.

“In 10 years, your cow herd could be worth about $100 more (per animal) than it was at year zero,” said Lynch-Staunton.

“If we can improve the good cattle, even the bad cattle will be a little bit better.”

small fraction of what’s needed to make it viable.

However, Lynch-Staunton said he is cautiously optimistic that cattle producers now have a better system for tracking their cows from pasture to packing plant.

“The second version seems very impressive,” he said. “But regardless of whether it’s BIXS or another system, there needs to be some sort of information exchange system that’s easy for cow-calf producers to use to be able to get information back on his or her carcass quality.

“Some producers may not care, of course, but you can’t make any improvement if you have no idea what your cattle are doing.”

Ultimately, it’s the industry as a whole that suffers when producers don’t consider the quality of their end product, he said.

“If we can get people to focus on carcass quality in the greater industry, that only makes our product better for our customers,” said Lynch-Staunton.

“And if we can create a quality product that people will continue to buy — and be happy about buying — that should continue to drive the economic sustainability of the industry.” jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

There’s money to be made by breeding for traits that improve carcass quality, says Tom Lynch-Staunton of Livestock Gentec. Photo: Supplied

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But there’s another issue to deal with — actually getting carcass data.

“Information transfer is really essential to doing any sort of genetic improvement, whether it’s carcass traits or production traits,” said Lynch-Staunton.

“That can come through a system like BIXS, it can come through other software systems, or it can come through one-on-one relationships between a cow-calf producer and a feedlot.”

BIXS (short for Beef Information Xchange System) is “a bit of a sore spot” for the beef industry, he said.

“It’s taken a long time to get up and running, and the first version didn’t work out very well.”

The initial version was shut down in December following complaints about its slow processing speeds and low uptake among producers. Version 2.0 was given a soft launch in March, but as reported by Alberta Farmer earlier this month, it has attracted fewer than 1,000 users — only a

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SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

New Alberta Barley directors sought Elections will be held at November regional meetings Agri-News/Alberta Barley is calling for nominations to fill three open spots on its board of directors. Nominations are currently being accepted for the director positions available in regions one and two to replace Greg Stamp (Enchant) and chairman Matt Sawyer (Acme) respectively. Both Stamp and Sawyer are completing their second threeyear term this December.

“Representing Alberta’s barley farmers has been one of my best experiences in life,” said Sawyer. “I’ve always believed that farmers need to have a voice in this industry, and it has been an honour to be that voice as your chairman.”

In addition to the director positions, Alberta Barley is also accepting nominations for an open director-at-large position.

Current director-at-large Glenn Logan’s (Lomond) term also concludes in December.

The director-at-large position represents the entire province and nominees are currently accepted from every region where a directorat-large is not currently represented. For this election cycle that means nominees can come from regions one, two, four and six.

“It is important that people get involved,” added Sawyer. “There is no better way to influence agricultural policy and grow our industry.”

The deadline for nominations is Oct. 31, 2014, and nomination forms are available on www.alberta barley.com.

The elections for directors will take place at November’s regional meetings, and the director-at-large will be announced at the annual general meeting on Dec. 10, 2014.

Big technology in a small package An iPhone-based program called BioLinks allows meat processors to track sales and manage inventory while having full traceability

By Alexis Kienlen af staff

I

f you’re a small meat processor, you can now manage your entire operation using your iPhone and a personal computer, thanks to an Alberta-created program called BioLinks.

“I wouldn’t want to run our business without BioLinks,” said Tim Hofer, manager of the Pine Haven Colony Meat shop.

The meat shop was a participant in the pilot project, and worked with Alberta Agriculture and Rural

Development and a private software developer in the creation of the program. BioLinks uses a basic bar-code system to track every cut of meat from a carcass, which allows meat processors to simultaneously track sales and manage inventory while having full traceability.

There are similar systems out there, but they are larger, more expensive, and more difficult to run, said Hofer.

“This program would meet the needs of small or large processors,” he said. “It’s not that large processors would run out of capacity. It’s more suited to small processors

because it is affordable to them.”

The system costs about $1,500 to set up, and that’s key, said provincial business development specialist Vince McConnell.

“A lot of the systems that the big boys like Cargill have, they’re $250,000 systems,” he said.

“Now we’ve made a system that can perform as well as their systems, but a small-scale guy can use it and get some information back.”

BioLinks became commercially available earlier this year and is now being used by small processors in several provinces. The meat shop at Olds College, the Viking Hutter-

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ite Colony, and Spragg Meat Shops are some of the Alberta companies using BioLinks, which is being distributed by BIO, a company from Guelph.

The team at Pine Haven worked closely with McConnell and his Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development colleague Bert Dening and Drevertech, a programmer out of Camrose, to perfect the system. Government funds paid for years of program development.

To run the system, an iPhone is slipped into a sleeve called a “sled,”

STORY CONTINUES ON NEXT PG }

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Albertafarmexpress.ca • September 15, 2014

which contains a bar-code reader.

It also connects the iPhone to a web-based database for managing inventory and sales (the phone uses Bluetooth technology to connect to a printer to print receipts).

“The fact that it is web based and can be shared with a computer is a very important feature,” said Hofer.

The technology allowed him to hire an assistant who can take phone orders, handle inquiries, and generate data about inventory all from her home.

The program has cut down on a lot of paper waste.

“We can fill orders online, fill orders with a scanner and email an invoice to the customer requesting payment,” said Hofer. “The customer will then give us a call and pay over the phone using a credit card.”

Processors using the system are finding unique ways to manage some of their data. For example, QR codes on packaging allow custom-

ers to trace information right back to an animal.

“A person who is eating that steak can actually take his iPhone, scan the package, and it brings him to the producer’s website,” said McConnell. “If he doesn’t like that meat, he can comment on it, and it automatically drops into the database, where the animal and production information is stored.”

Some processors are making marketing decisions based on the information they have gleaned from the system, said McConnell.

VG Meats, a meat processor from Ontario, has been taking pictures of rib-eyes and tracking meat tenderness. The owner has created a price grid which reflects the true value of the cuts.

“He’s actually rewarding the producers who have true tender steaks and also, he’s doing a discount for the extra fat,” said McConnell.

“We’re really getting some solid data on how the actual animals per-

Get tested — to ensure your well water is safe to drink An iPhone and a personal computer are all that are needed to run BioLinks, a new data management program created in Alberta for small meat processors. PHOTO: SUPPLIED formed. And because we can collect the actual invoices from the sales of these animals, we get the true story.

We get the true bottom line.”

The technology has been designed so it can one day be linked to the Beef InfoXchange System. (BIXS).

Transitioning from manual data entry to a scanning technology does

take some time, but is worth the effort, said McConnell.

“The data collected gives us some real good information for key production indicators on the farm for retail and for processing plants,” he said. akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

T:11.428”

AARD release/Urbanites seldom worry about whether or not their water is safe to drink because regulations require municipalities to treat and test water quality on a regular basis.

But it’s not so simple for rural residents who rely on wells, as they are responsible for managing and maintaining their wells, and ensuring their water supply is tested regularly and is safe to drink.

“Even though testing is free of charge for residential users through Alberta Health Services, we’re finding that some people aren’t testing their water,” said Debra Mooney, an environmental health consultant with Alberta Health and an advocate for the Working Well program.

“People need to know what’s in their water.

Some well water has high nitrate levels which can be harmful to small infants when mixed in their formula. Other harmful substances can also make their way into wells and since water quality can change over the lifetime of a well, regular testing is the only way to be certain that well water is safe for human consumption.”

Testing well water on a regular basis also provides a baseline of the water quality, which can be very important to a well owner if things go wrong.

“Routine testing can pick up changes in water quality early on and help a well owner realize that certain maintenance procedures need to be done to preserve water quality and increase the lifetime of a well,” said Jamie Wuite, executive director of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development’s irrigation and farm water division.

“A baseline is also important information to have when you suspect your water quality has been negatively affected by another party. If you never tested your water quality, it’s hard to prove that it has been negatively affected.”

As well, land use changes or structural degradation of an aging well can change or affect water quality over time.

Online resources and free community-based workshops offered by the Working Well program provide well owners with the information and tools they need to properly care for their wells. For more information, including a fact sheet on taking water samples, visit the Working Well website at www. workingwell.alberta.ca.

O-66-07/14-10238268-E

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NEWS » Markets

10

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Ukraine grain exports rise 44 per cent

Record EU rapeseed production

Ukraine’s grain exports rose by 44 per cent to 5.98 million tonnes in the period from July 1 to Sept. 8, compared with the same period a year earlier, the Agriculture Ministry said Sept. 8. The volume included 3.37 million tonnes of wheat, 2.15 million tonnes of barley and 387,000 tonnes of maize, the ministry said in a statement. Ukraine plans to harvest no less than 63 million tonnes of grain this year, the ministry has said. Analysts and traders expect that grain exports could reach 30 million tonnes this season. — Reuters

Analyst Strategie Grains raised its estimate of the 2014 rapeseed crop in the European Union by 300,000 tonnes to 23.2 million tonnes, 10 per cent above last year’s harvest, as the latter stages of the summer harvest confirmed good yields. “In the EU, feedback from the fields… indicates very good yields,” the analyst said in a monthly report. Like other analysts, Strategie Grains expects EU rapeseed production to break a previous record of near 22 million tonnes, after good growing conditions this year. — Reuters

Pressure’s on new canola crop after StatsCan report Expectations of large world wheat crop continue to weigh on prices

By Terryn Shiells

I

CE Futures Canada canola contracts hit fresh lows during the week ended Sept. 5, but managed to bounce ahead of the weekend after Statistics Canada released its ending stocks figures for the 2013-14 crop year.

StatsCan pegged 2013-14 ending stocks at 2.36 million tonnes, at the low end of trade expectations. The news caused a bounce in prices, though support from the ending stocks figure isn’t expected to last unless there are some significant production issues in 2014-15.

The tightening stocks figure means there will be more pressure on the 2014-15 crop to produce at least 14.5 million tonnes, according to members of the industry. The possibility of canola supplies being very tight will increase if the production comes in below the 14.5-million-tonne target.

How large production will be this year is still unknown, especially with recent cool, wet weather causing problems in parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Statistics Canada pegged 2014-15 canola output at 13.9 million tonnes, and a number above that should be possible as the crop yields look generally good overall.

But quality could be a problem, due to recent excess moisture and problems with harvest. Possible frost in the second week of September in some Prairie regions could also cut into yields.

Predicting where the market moves is kind of a wait-and-see situation, though weakness in Chicago soybean futures should continue to be the main driver, even though there are problems with Canada’s crop.

Soybean futures in Chicago continued to move lower during the week, as crop prospects continue to be record large and conditions improve. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said 72 per

cent of the crop is rated good to excellent, well above seasonal averages.

Losses, however, were limited by short-covering following recent sharp declines.

Corn in Chicago was down sharply, as conditions remain very favourable for crop development in the U.S. Midwest.

Crop ratings improved during the week as well, which further undermined values. Traders say, however, that the market is starting to look oversold and could be due for a corrective bounce.

Traders will watch the weather and the progress of the harvest as it gets underway soon in the U.S. Midwest, with the next area of focus being on South American plantings for both crops.

U.S. wheat futures were down sharply as traders liquidated positions in reaction to news that Ukraine and Russia agreed on a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. The news erased worries that political unrest in the region would slow wheat exports.

Some support came from worries about possible quality problems and slow spring wheat harvest progress due to excess moisture in parts of the U.S. As of Aug. 31, only 38 per cent of the U.S. spring wheat was combined, which compares with 27 per cent the week prior and 61 per cent at the same time in 2013. The five-year average is 65 per cent complete.

Traders will continue to monitor the situation in Ukraine, U.S. weather and harvest progress and export demand.

Expectations that global supplies will remain large this year should continue to overhang prices. Confirmation of big stocks was expected in last week’s USDA monthly production and supply-and-demand report, which will help confirm the size of upcoming U.S. crops. Supply and demand for the U.S. and the world will also be important for the trade.

Terryn Shiells writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

For three-times-daily market reports from Resource News International, visit “ICE Futures Canada updates” at www.albertafarmexpress.ca.

FILE PHOTO

11

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

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news » livestock

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

PEDv vaccine looks promising Zoetis Inc. has received a conditional licence from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its vaccine against PEDv and will begin selling it this month in the United States, the company said Sept. 3. Results from preliminary studies on the product have been “promising,” said Joelle Hayden, spokeswoman for USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

“They’ve shown sufficient data that we think the vaccine will be effective,” she said. The fast-moving virus has killed an estimated eight million piglets since it was first identified in the United States last year, pushing U.S. pork prices to record highs. — Reuters

Perdue hatcheries now antibiotic free Major U.S. poultry producer Perdue Foods said Sept. 3 it has stopped using antibiotics at its chicken hatcheries, completing a five-year effort aimed at curbing the unnecessary use of antibiotics. “By no longer using any antibiotics in our hatcheries or any human antibiotics in feed, we’ve reached the point where 95 per cent of our chickens never receive any human antibiotics,” said spokesman Bruce Stewart-Brown. Perdue said it does not use antibiotics for growth promotion in its chicken production, and has not since 2007.

Stress tool could have a big impact Infrared thermography provides a quick and non-invasive way to measure stress, and that has big implications for livestock producers

By Dianne Finstad af contributor

A

new ‘eye’ on how animals respond to stressful situations is providing researchers with a valuable tool that could one day have a big impact on how livestock are treated.

Infrared thermography — or IRT — can tell a lot of stories by measuring body heat in a specific area. Using a device that looks like a radar gun, it’s a non-invasive way to learn what animals are going through. And it’s giving scientists like Drs. Christy Goldhawk and Ed Pajor of the University of Calgary a window on what animals are experiencing.

Goldhawk is conducting postdoctoral research through a fellowship position partnership between the university’s faculty of veterinary medicine and the Calgary Stampede. So she spends half her time in and around the stampede facilities and events.

In July, that meant using her IRT tool behind the chutes during the stampede rodeo.

“Specifically, what we have been looking at, at the stampede is the idea behind, ‘Are the animals aroused and stressed?’” said Goldhawk.

“Don’t go buy one today or tomorrow, but get thinking about it.”

Christy Goldhawk

“When they do react, it takes energy — both mental energy as well as physical energy. So infrared measures that heat response.”

Having a way to physically measure stress would bring measurable evidence to what has been a matter of opinion — with critics claiming rodeo animals are mishandled, and those from the rodeo world insisting they like to perform, said Pajor, an animal welfare expert.

Their work initially focused on rodeo animals in the chutes.

“We started with wanting to describe what the animals are

Technology such as infrared thermography brings hard data — instead of opinion — to the animal welfare debate, says Ed Pajor, a professor of animal welfare at the University of Calgary. Photo: Jill Steele experiencing prior to their performance in the rodeo,” outlined Pajor. “So the first couple of years we looked at the behaviour of the animals in the chutes just before they started bucking: Were there fear behaviours being shown?”

Their studies then expanded to include IRT, and also to look at the behaviour of the animals in the back pens and the loading area.

“We had to do it in a non-invasive manner because this is a real rodeo with real timelines, rather than a controlled setting for an experiment,” he said. “But that’s the beauty of IRT as an indicator of physiological response.”

The reading is taken off the eyes, so it’s a lot easier to do than other response indicators, such as blood tests or heart rate monitoring. Plus it doesn’t add any additional stress for the animals.

So what has the stampede study found?

The behavioural study found experienced animals were calm in the chute setting, while the novices had more of a response. The IRT results found the same thing, which is evidence it is a credible method to measure stress.

Pajor is now using IRT in another study on castration in cattle to see whether the age of the animal impacts the stress it experiences.

“IRT is one of a number of measures, but it allows us to look at the animal’s immediate response to the procedure, whether it be surgical or banding. It also allows us to look at how things progress in terms of the healing rate.”

The next phase of the project will examine the effect of using some pain mitigation along with the procedures, and again IRT will be one of the measurement tools.

It’s a key to developing a whole picture of what’s happening with the animal, he said.

Both Pajor and Goldhawk said being able to accurately and easily measure stress could affect a wide range of animal management practices, from how to best move show animals in and out of buildings to developing recommendations for animal care codes of practice.

Goldhawk has a cowgirl background, and adheres to the teachings of legendary natural horseman Ray Hunt, who said when handling and working with animals you want to fly under their radar, so they don’t react as much.

But she is also quick to say that just because an animal’s response is heightened, it’s not always a negative thing.

“As a researcher I get sticky on the term ‘stress’ because there’s good stress, especially when you’re thinking about learning,” she said. “It’s stressful to learn something you don’t know, and it’s a challenge, but it’s good to learn.

“If we use infrared as a standalone measurement, that’s not a great idea, because you have to put it in context of other parts of what the animal is doing, and what’s being done to the animal.”

That includes factoring in long-term implications, such as whether stress diminishes

Infrared thermography is non-invasive, which allows Christy Goldhawk to gather stress data on animals at the Calgary Stampede as rodeo events are taking place. Photo: Emma McGeough after the animal figures out the handling system, or becomes familiar with the new pasture, or, in the case of rodeo, knows what to expect when the chute gate opens.

Pajor agreed, calling it dangerous to take a single-minded approach to animal behaviour.

“The more technology, the more approaches we have to try to understand what’s going on, with behaviour or physiological response, the better we can understand whether this is good stress or bad stress.”

But if it’s the latter, the ‘it’s always been done that way’ defence isn’t good enough, said Pajor.

“In agriculture there’s an awful lot of tradition in terms of how things have been done,” he said.

“Often, there’s not a lot of evidence for that. Sometimes what we’re doing with research is just finding evidence that demonstrates the ranchers are correct in terms of why they were doing things. But other times we find the evidence says maybe this is a technique or a process that could be done better.”

Infrared technology is also rapidly improving, said Goldhawk, an early adopter who has been using it for five years.

Used in everything from home inspection to military operations, the measuring tools are getting less cumbersome, the images better, and the software and editing functions easier to use.

However, it’s not useful on the ranch level just yet, she added.

“Don’t go buy one today or tomorrow, but get thinking about it,” said Goldhawk. “Because there are a lot of applications, and research is working on it. Like with the wireless technology we have in our smartphones now, a lot of it can come from ranchers’ own ingenuity about how (best) to apply it.”

Videos of Goldhawk’s work at the Calgary Stampede can be found at YouTube. Go to www. youtube.com and type her name in the search box.

Lying eyes What else is infrared thermography being used for?

One of the initial users of the technology was the U.S. military, which used it to see if people were truthful, said Ed Pajor.

It turns out there are eye temperature differences between those who are telling a lie and those being honest.

IRT is a valuable tool in all kinds of animal production research and is currently being used in projects in reproduction, growth and performance selection, illness and pain detection, emotion and learning in performance horses, and even zoo animal behaviour.

13

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Better animal welfare is also better for your bottom line Consumers are beginning to demand higher animal welfare standards for livestock — but improving welfare isn’t ‘rocket science’

By Jennifer Blair af staff

A

nimal welfare and beef cattle productivity are “inseparable,” says a federal research scientist.

“Sick animals are not productive animals,” said Dr. Karen Schwartzkopf-Genswein. “Incidences of sickness and lost performance are really heavily linked to welfare.”

Stressors like castration, transportation, weaning, and handling have been linked to things like slower rate of gain, greater chance of illness, and increased risk of lameness. And when those things are done with little thought to animal welfare, the bottom line suffers alongside the animals.

“Animals become sick more often, they take longer to finish, and their growth is hindered, so you’re spending more money on drugs, and you have increased costs because you have people

“Incidences of sickness and lost performance are really heavily linked to welfare.”

Karen SchwartzkopfGenswein

who have to go pull those animals at a more frequent basis,” said Schwartzkopf-Genswein.

While the beef industry doesn’t yet have hard numbers as to how much welfare issues cost the industry, producers will need to continue placing a greater emphasis on animal welfare, or risk seeing their market share drop among consumers who demand it.

“People are more aware of welfare than they ever have been before,” she said.

“The general public doesn’t view, for example, castration or dehorning without any pain control as acceptable.”

But determining the optimal combinations of drugs or techniques for potentially painful procedures has been a challenge, said Schwartzkopf-Genswein.

“A lot of the work we’re doing now is trying to determine optimal drug combinations, like an analgesic with an anesthetic, and the timing of administration.”

She sees potential for a painkiller called meloxicam, which is effective for several days, rather than a few hours.

“Producers are asking for that,” she said of the drug. “People are becoming more aware of what some of the issues are.”

Safe transport of animals is another key consumer concern — one shared by the industry.

“The No. 1 call to the minister of agriculture currently is transport. They view transport as a very stressful situation,” she said, adding that consumers often see

Safe transport is a key concern for consumers and the main reason for calls to the minister of agriculture.

File Photo

cattle transported during extreme environmental conditions.

“The industry is pretty good at knowing at what point the cattle are negatively affected, but I think we can always do better.”

Loading only healthy animals for transport and handling them carefully during the loading and

unloading process will reduce some of those concerns.

“If you’re handling them roughly, they can become lame just by slipping,” she said.

“Lameness is very painful, and those conditions need to be dealt with sooner than later.”

Ultimately, animal welfare

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comes down to common sense in most cases, said SchwartzkopfGenswein.

“None of it is rocket science.

None of it is difficult to do. It’s just saying, ‘This is how we manage the animals on our farm.’” jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

14

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

THOSE LAST DAYS OF LAZY SUMMER

Peso, a small standard donkey, enjoys a back rub on a dirt mound, out in his pasture near Priddis, Alta. Lucy, the mule, savours late-summer forage. PHOTO: WENDY DUDLEY

Canadian Young Speakers for Agriculture Competition

BRIEFS WTO rules against U.S. in meat label fight — again REUTERS / A World Trade Organization panel has ruled against the United States in a trade dispute over meat labels with Canada and Mexico, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The newspaper, citing anonymous sources familiar with the findings, said the U.S. lost its case before a panel set up to determine whether its revised labelling rules complied with an earlier WTO ruling.

A spokesman for Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said he will only speak about it once it becomes public.

All three governments received the compliance panel’s confidential decision earlier this summer, but have not publicly commented on its contents.

The U.S. rule, which requires retailers such as grocery stores to list the country of origin on meat, has resulted in fewer Canadian pigs and cattle being exported to the U.S. since 2009, according to the Canadian government.

The WTO ruled in June 2012 that the U.S. labelling program, known as COOL, unfairly discriminated against Canada and Mexico because it gave less favourable treatment to beef and pork imported from those countries than to U.S. meat.

The WTO said the U.S. must bring its labelling rules into compliance with the ruling by May 23, 2013. The U.S. government made changes, but Canadian officials said they only made the situation worse, and asked the WTO to form the compliance panel.

Ebola threatens food security

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ROME/DAKAR / REUTERS The world’s worst Ebola epidemic has endangered harvests and sent food prices soaring in West Africa, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Sept. 2, warning the problem would intensify in coming months.

The FAO issued a special alert for Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the three countries most affected by the outbreak, which has killed at least 1,550 people since the virus was detected in the remote jungles of southeastern Guinea in March.

Restrictions on people’s movements and the establishment of quarantine zones to contain the spread of the hemorrhagic fever have led to panic buying, food shortages and price hikes in countries ill prepared to absorb the shock.

“In the three countries severely affected by Ebola, the agriculture and food security situation is really deteriorating,” said Vincent Martin, head of an FAO unit in Dakar that is co-ordinating the agency’s response.

“People either cannot afford to buy food or it is not accessible anymore,” he said in an interview.

15

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Improvements in respiratory treatments with macrolide antibiotics This class of drugs can work as a preventive to help reduce mortality in feedlots

BY ROY LEWIS, DVM

I

f we analyze the most recent success cattlemen have had in reducing respiratory disease morbidity and mortality, several things come to mind.

Vaccines have improved and cover a broader range of respiratory pathogens. Currently there are about seven main virus and bacteria vaccines that can help protect cattle against respiratory disease. Reducing stress from soft- or two-stage weaning, along with good nutrition and parasite control, can help reduce the incidence even further. Macrolide antibiotics are a key component to reducing sickness and death from respiratory disease, especially in large feedlots or when we gather, mingle and transport cattle.

The macrolide family is often used in what we veterinarians call “metaphylactically.” This really means as a preventive when there is a good chance a high percentage of cattle are at risk of getting respiratory disease or have already been diagnosed with it. You are then administering antibiotics when you need them most. This family of antibiotics all has a similar chemical structure and longer withdrawal times (as long as 49 days slaughter withdrawal) as they accumulate in the lungs and other tissues, so it makes sense then that withdrawals are long.

The four primary ones I will talk about are Micotil, Zactran,

Draxxin and the newest macrolide Zuprevo, which just came on the market two years ago. All of these antimicrobials are prescription products so must be purchased from a veterinarian and you need to have a working relationship with the vet so they can advise where and when to give them and help you develop treatment protocols.

Even though there can be cost involved, bringing death loss in some of the medium-size feedlots in Canada to right around one per cent is a huge improvement. These macrolides in general have an affinity for respiratory tissue and with half-lives that in some cases are very long they stick around a long time in the lungs and lung excretions before being excreted. This can be as long as two to even four weeks depending on the product used.

Risk categories

Cattle are assessed at home or on entry to the feedlot as low, moderate, high or ultra-high risk. Once risk assessment is done an appropriate antibiotic is prescribed. Veterinarians will have their favourites based on effectiveness, price and various softer features such as dosage, route of administration, syringeability (important in Canadian winters) and even size of bottles.

All these softer features may not be critical if you have a small herd but if dosing 20,000 cattle could make a huge saving in labour. All the macrolide antibiotics are quite syringeable.

Stretch your

The risk category of the cattle being treated will be a major factor in the decision. Most cattle in Canada, commingled, auction market derived or transported long distances often are considered high risk (this applies to most cattle weaned and shipped through the auction system in Canada). Even weaning in inclement weather may tip the scales from low-risk to highrisk calves.

Vaccines have improved and cover a broader range of respiratory pathogens. Currently there are about seven main virus and bacteria vaccines that can help protect cattle against respiratory disease.

The companies in most cases have manufactured a dosing syringe where the specific weight is dialed into the syringe.

The setting can be changed on the fly to adjust for differing weights of individual calves.

The use of the macrolides can allow you a window of

time and allows cattle to settle in and get on feed before much observation is necessary. The macrolides last a long time in the lungs. Effectiveness against the bacteria varies but with some products effectiveness of almost a month has been demonstrated.

Micotil had some issues with safety and self-injection earlier on but if you are practising good beef quality assurance and ensure good restraint of the animal, you can avoid selfinjection.

There are many studies out there comparing morbidity and mortality and most veterinarians take these into account before choosing which macrolide to prescribe.

Having these choices promotes competition and is also good if supply problems arise or we see resistance developing (this hasn’t been the case with macrolides). Occasionally recalls happen because something has gone wrong in manufacturing which is why you and your veterinarian need to develop a good protocol and know in what situations for respiratory disease specific macrolides can be interchanged with each other.

Over the last several years macrolides have helped significantly drive down the death loss so that in most situations respiratory deaths have become a rarer event. As we eliminate the primary respiratory causes with better vaccinations and antibiotic metaphylaxis, death loss

and treatment rates for clinical respiratory disease are significantly reduced.

Veterinarians and producers should also strive to implement management practices which further reduce respiratory disease such as preconditioning programs which could actually decrease the necessity for antibiotics.

In the meantime, vaccinations, dewormings, stress reduction and metaphylactic antibiotics give us a pretty good insurance plan in today’s modern feedlots.

Always speak with your veterinarian as often they have their own preference of which macrolides give them the best results.

Again veterinarians may prescribe different brands, based primarily on the risk level of contracting respiratory disease.

At today’s high prices one wants to save every calf possible. Macrolides can in general reduce the morbidity and mortality of respiratory disease. This fall be sure and set up a vaccination, deworming and if needed metaphylactic antibiotic regime with your herd veterinarian. The more we reduce morbidity or mortality from respiratory disease we profit more, cattle are in better shape from an animal welfare perspective and by not using treatment drugs as often we keep antimicrobial resistance under control.

Roy Lewis is a Westlock, Albertabased veterinarian specializing in large-animal practice. He is also a part-time technical services vet for Merck Animal Health.

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16

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

U.S. forecaster lowers El Niño chances

Drought cuts Brazil’s sugar output

A U.S. weather forecaster pegged the likelihood of the El Niño weather phenomenon occurring during the Northern Hemisphere autumn and winter at 60-65 per cent in its monthly update on Sept. 4. The Climate Prediction Center (CPC), an agency of the National Weather Service, has begun dialing back its outlook for the phenomenon since going on El Niño watch earlier this year for the first time since 2012. The agency had lowered its outlook to 65 per cent for an El Niño last month. “At this time, the consensus of forecasters expects El Niño to emerge during September-October and to peak at weak strength during the late fall and early winter,” CPC said in the report. — Reuters

Brazil’s 2014-15 main centre-south sugar output is seen at 32.8 million tonnes due to drought, down from 34.29 million tonnes produced in the previous season, a Brazilian consulting agency said on Sept. 4. Datagro said large sugar stocks, especially in Asia, would continue to weigh on prices in the near term, despite the expected drop in output from Brazil, the world’s largest exporter. But world sugar supply is still expected to shift from surplus to deficit for the first time in three years, with demand outstripping supply by 2.45 million tonnes. “We continue to have a shortage of rainfall in Sao Paulo and when it doesn’t rain, you can’t plant cane,” Datagro said. — Reuters

Believe it or not, it was a pretty average summer When you average things out, it was slightly warmer in July and August, and rainfall was near or slightly below normal by daniel bezte

W

hile there are a number of ways to define summer, I think for most of us summer is simply the months of July and August.

Being perfectly honest, in our part of the world, more often than not, these are the only two consistently warm months of the year. So, now that summer is over it’s time to look back at the summer of 2014 and then look ahead to see what fall might have in store for agricultural Alberta.

As I have done in the past, the easiest way to look at summer weather across Alberta is to break it down into a couple of areas that have good, clean, reliable weather data. In Alberta this works out really nicely using Calgary and Edmonton, so I typically use these two stations. Is this ideal? No, but typically when we look at weather over the time period of a month, differences that occur over short distances smooth out and I find that two or three stations will usually give us a good picture of what happened weatherwise, at least when it comes to temperature.

Precipitation tends to be a little trickier, so I have included a precipitation map for the summer.

Looking back at July, the Edmonton region recorded a mean monthly temperature (the average temperature for the whole month) of 17.3 C, which was around 1.5 C above the long-term average. In the Calgary region it was a little warmer, as would be expected, with a mean July monthly temperature of 18.6 C. This warm reading was a good 2.5 C above the long-term average.

Overall, it was a fairly warm July across Alberta.

Looking at precipitation for July things were not that even. The Calgary region recorded only around 25 mm of rain for the month, which was less than half the average.

Farther north around Edmonton it was wetter, with Edmonton recording around 90 mm for the month, which is right around average.

The warmer-than-average temperatures continued into August but, compared to average, they were a little cooler than July. Edmonton recorded a mean monthly temperature of 16 C while Calgary came in around 16.6 C. Both of these readings were about 1.0 C above the long-term average for August.

Looking at rainfall for the month we find that July’s pattern was reversed, with Edmonton only reporting around 15 mm of rain, which was way below the long-term average of 70 mm. The Calgary region reported around 55 mm of rain during the month, which was right around the long-term average of 60 mm.

If we combine these numbers to come up with an average for the two summer months it ends up that both of these regions had a warmer-than-average summer along with near- to slightly below-average amounts of precipitation.

Looking at the precipitation map you can see that northern regions saw below-average amounts, while southern regions, especially southwestern regions, saw above-average amounts. The next questions are, will this pattern continue into fall, will it intensify, or, will a colder-than-average pattern move in?

Let’s look at the two almanac’s (Old Farmer’s and the Canadian) first.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac is calling for near- to slightly above-average temperatures for September and October, with well-above-average temperatures in November. It is also calling for near- to slightly below-average precipitation. All in all, not a bad fall forecast!

Over at the Canadian Farmers’ Almanac it appears to be calling for colder-than-average temperatures in September, as it mentions chilly and colder several times. October looks like it will start off on the cold side, with temperatures warming towards the end of the month. These warmer temperatures then look to continue into November.

On the precipitation front, it seems to be calling for a wetter-

This map shows the total amount of precipitation during the 60-day period ending on Sept. 2.

It was a fairly dry summer across much of the Peace River and northern regions. Farther south it was much wetter, with parts of southeastern Alberta seeing double the average amount of rain.

than-average September as it mentions showers and stormy conditions. October looks like it might come in around average as it seems to be calling for a mixed bag of dry and wet weather. It does call for dust storms late in the month, and to me, that could only happen if the weather has been dry. Finally, November looks as if it will see near-average amounts of precipitation.

Over at Environment Canada,

it is calling for fall to start off with below-average temperatures in September, followed by a slow warming pattern that will see near- to above-average temperatures in October and November. Precipitation this fall is a little tricky as EC shows southern and western regions of Alberta seeing above-average precipitation, with east-central and northern regions seeing near-average amounts.

Finally, my forecast (which

is simply my gut feeling), is calling for near-average temperature to prevail for most of this fall, along with near-to slightly below-average amounts of precipitation.

Daniel Bezte is a teacher by profession with a BA (Hon.) in geography, specializing in climatology, from the U of W. He operates a computerized weather station near Birds Hill Park.

Contact him with your questions and comments at daniel@bezte.ca.

Grain corn potential for Alberta

By Madeleine Baerg af contributor

E

Alberta’s short growing season is challenging for traditional faba bean, but the newly released varieties gaining production traction now are tailor-made to suit the cool, moist parts of this province. Top producers are seeing 60, 70, and as high as 100 bushels per acre with prices this spring at $8 bushel, making for returns as good or higher than peas.

Soybeans, on the other hand, require daytime heat and temperatures of at least 10° at night, said Fabian. While Bowness cautions that soybean is a “risky” proposition for Alberta producers, Fabian said producers can have success so long as they do their homework first.

“What I tell clients is go on to www.farmzone.com and do a historic check of overnight lows in your area for the last six to seven years,” he said.

“If you have five or more nights below 10° during the growing season, that would give me a flag. At 10 or more nights of 10° or less, don’t waste your money.”

There is growing potential for both faba bean and soybean markets.

“Pulses in general are starting to gain some ground domestically because even if you’re gluten free or vegetarian, you can eat pulses,” said Bowness. “As well, fractioning, whereby a product is separated into protein, fibre and starch components for food additives, is growing

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Soybeans have faced a “chicken or egg scenario” — but that’s changing, said Fabian.

“People say they’ll grow them but they need a place to market them; the soybean industry said it can market them but it needs a critical threshold amount,” he said. “Now we’re seeing investment in the industry — a number of soybean-processing plants are being built in the province to handle the anticipated increase in acres.”

Trim: 15.5”

very farmer knows a fouryear crop rotation is best for good crops, healthy fields and managing pests.

However, the four-year ideal often clashes with production reality: canola has been the big moneymaker, and while legumes are good for nitrogen fixing, they usually pay less and can present big challenges with disease, standability and harvestability compared to cereals.

But with cereal and canola prices down and fertilizer prices up, farmers are looking for other options. Enter faba bean and soybean — albeit new and improved versions of each.

Alberta faba bean acreage shot up from 6,000 acres in 2012 to between 25,000 and 30,000 acres last year, and then almost tripled again with about 80,000 acres this year.

“It’s still not a huge acreage in total, but the interest is growing very, very quickly — depending on producer success rate and pricing, I’d say we could potentially see acreage double again in 2015,” said Robyne Bowness, pulse research scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.

Extremely low disease incidence and pest problems, easy harvestability, and good potential profitability are all drivers.

“Last year, we saw a big hype in

faba bean and the acreage exploded,” said Bowness. “Now farmers are gaining some confidence in them and increasing their acreage.”

At just over 10,000 acres in Alberta, soybean production is currently very small. However, seed grower Patrick Fabian says interest is ballooning, particularly as growers here look eastward to Saskatchewan, which saw soybean acreage double to 370,000 acres this year, and Manitoba, where acreage was up 17.7 per cent to 1.2 million acres.

“There is the potential for a quarter of a million acres over the next number of years,” said Fabian.

“The thing we have as a challenge in Alberta is low nighttime temperatures, and that’s a huge obstacle to overcome. Otherwise, they would already have swept Alberta by storm the way they have Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

“But some new varieties are proving themselves in our interesting climate, and it is now possible for some Alberta growers to have really good success.”

Both beans are cheap to grow because they fix rather than require nitrogen. And because they’re fairly new to the province, neither yet faces significant disease or pest pressure. Soybean is RoundUp Ready so offers easy weed management. And both crops stand well and are easy to harvest: a major benefit for farmers frustrated by hard-to-manage pea crops.

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Faba bean acreage has increased tenfold in two years and could double again next year, with soybeans following suit

The

No hill of beans: faba bean acreage soars, soybeans may be next

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Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development has released a report on the potential of grain corn in the province. The new report examines agronomics, areas of the province that have enough heat and water for corn and economics. In 2014, grain corn area in Alberta increased by 60 per cent from the previous year to 40,000 acres. ARD says further increases are expected in the next decade, with agricultural technology companies investing in new varieties which they feel will spur adoption of grain corn on the Prairies. The report is available on Alberta Agriculture’s Farm Manager website.

TM

} research

17

Trim: 10.25”

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

18

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Alberta potato growers fearful of future So far, high quality along with a strong reputation for hardy and virus-free seed stock has kept potato acreage steady in Alberta

By Madeleine Baerg af contributor

T

Unlike other potato-growing areas, Alberta acreage has held steady.

But producers fear cuts to their contracts may be coming. Photo: Supplied

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$50,000?

he humble potato is suffering a very bad rap of late — and that has Alberta growers worried.

Although full of vitamins, nutrients and fibre, the longtime staple has become vilified in the last decade and grouped with sugar and white flour as an obesitycausing ‘white food.’ And changing demographics and tastes has more North Americans reaching for rice, quinoa, couscous, and other starches instead of potatoes.

So far, Alberta growers are holding their own, but are likely to be feeling the pinch of declining production contracts in the near future.

“We’re absolutely concerned,” said Terence Hochstein, executive

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director of the Potato Growers of Alberta. “There has been declining demand for both fresh and frozen potato products for a decade.

“Why? Misconceptions, diet crazes, you could go on and on about the issues that affect the potato market. You can’t blame anyone, no one is at fault. A fad will come along and someone pays the price. We hope as an industry we can turn it around.”

Production acreage in Alberta has been fairly steady — at around 53,000 acres — in recent years. But growers in Eastern Canada and parts of the U.S. have seen their production contracts cut back in the face of declining demand, and it’s feared the same will happen here because the North American potato market is so interconnected.

Just how interconnected?

Currently, only about five per cent of potatoes grown in Alberta are sold fresh to domestic markets. Approximately 18 per cent of potatoes are grown for seed, about half of which is sold into the U.S. because Canadian potatoes are known as both hardy and virus free. The remaining 77 per cent are processed into products like french fries and potato chips, the majority of which — a full 82 per cent of all Canadian french fry exports — is then sold into the U.S. While the U.S. is known for its own spud production, a large portion of American potato products are destined for offshore sales. The country’s biggest production area is the Columbia Basin, which has easy access to the Port of Seattle for export. In turn, the U.S. uses the Canadian french fry supply to backfill its domestic market.

As such, if demand declines anywhere within North America or in any country the U.S. exports to, Albertan producers are likely to be affected.

“You can’t blame anyone, no one is at fault. A fad will come along and someone pays the price.”

Terence Hochstein

© 2014 UFA Co-operative Ltd. All rights reserved.

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UFA.com

“Our contract volumes (to potato processors) were the same this year as last year, which is good,” said Hochstein. “I think that is based on our excellent quality. We have very diligent growers who take a great deal of pride in the product they produce.”

But, he added, even the very best-quality potatoes won’t have a market if consumers decide to snub potatoes.

“We have to educate the public that potatoes are good for you; they are healthy,” he said. “Our responsibility as growers and processors is to take the myths out of the potato and show the science-based facts about why it is healthy.”

Currently, potato production in Alberta is worth $175 million to $185 million at the farm gate and about $1 billion after processing.

19

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Canadian Grain Commission looking for CPS Red or Red Winter wheat samples Program helps marketers, and farmers who participate receive a free grade and protein analysis

By Alexis Kienlen af staff

I

f you’re growing Canada Prairie Spring Wheat or Canada Western Red Winter Wheat, then the Canadian Grain Commission wants your samples.

“These are minor classes of wheat that not all producers grow,” said Twylla McKendry, program manager for Analytical Services with the Canadian Grain Commission. “We don’t have a lot of people in our database who grow CPS Red or Red Winter.”

These two classes have significant marketing potential with some of Canada’s key overseas wheat markets. McKendry suspects Alberta growers could be growing more of these classes than their Prairie counterparts.

Some Albertans have already submitted samples to the program, but more participation is still desired, said McKendry.

“We need people to go to our website and sign up so we can still send them out the (sample) packages,” she said.

While these two classes are highly sought after, the Canadian Grain Commission still wants to collect variety samples from as many producers as possible. Producers in the free program take samples of wheat off their fields during the fall harvest. They then seal these samples in provided postage-paid envelopes, and mail them to the Canadian Grain Commission in Winnipeg.

“When they do that, we let them know what their grade is,” said McKendry. “If it’s not a top grade, we tell them what degrad-

ing factor has caused it to be a lower grade, and we also give moisture levels, protein levels, “These are minor classes of etc. for the crop they sent in.” wheat that not all producers All of the samples from the Harvest Sample program are comgrow. We don’t have a lot of posited and used in processing people in our database who tests, which can include making bread, noodles or pastas. Once grow CPS Red or Red Winter.” samples are turned into processed goods, scientists determine the quality of the current year’s crop. Research scientists take this information and use it Twylla McKendry to promote Canadian wheat to Canadian Grain Commissions overseas customers.

Each year, the Harvest Sample program receives about 12,000 samples from all crops across Canada. Growers have up until Grain Commission’s toll-free trade and farmers can visit the the end of harvest to submit their number, or get them from the booth and get a printout from the samples. website. Also, CGC representa- database.

Growers who want to get their tives attend various farm shows, results can call the Canadian including Farmfair and Agri- akienlen@fbcpublishing.com T:8.125”

CWB raises PROs for wheat, durum, canola by commodity news service canada

T:10”

CWB has raised its Pool Return Outlooks (PROs) for canola, wheat and durum in the upcoming 2014-15 crop year, while leaving the outlook for field peas and malt barley unchanged from the July report.

Projected wheat returns were up $19 to $22 per tonne from the previous month.

CWB said concerns about lower-quality crops in North America were behind some of the gains. CWB’s crop tour at the end of July pegged average wheat yields at 43.1 bushels an acre, down from 53 bushels an acre last year.

A weaker Canadian dollar, improved logistics and strengthening export basis have also had a positive impact on the pool returns.

Projected durum PROs were raised by $49 to $56 per tonne from July. Yields are expected to be similar to last year, but rain and cold weather are raising concerns about the quality. The report noted that the damage is not fully known, but it is expected that much of the western Canadian durum crop will be downgraded to a No. 2 and No. 3 CWAD. Canola PROs were up $1 to $6 per tonne compared to the previous month. Support came from worries that canola crops in Western Canada will be vulnerable to frost until mid-September, though harvest has begun in some parts of Western Canada. The returns were only raised slightly due to weaker ICE Futures Canada futures prices compared to July.

Malting barley and field pea price expectations were left unchanged. The harvest of field peas has begun on the Prairies, while the European malt barley harvest is nearing completion.

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SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Island top marks end of lean hog rally market outlook } In the late stages of an aging bull market,

opinion is weighted very heavily to the long side of the market

By david drozd

E

arlier this year, the PED virus was captured in the news and caused widespread speculation on how tight pork inventory would be during the barbecue season.

At the peak of the rally, an island top developed in the October 2014 lean hog futures contract at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which alerted hog producers to take action and lock in record-high prices. This bull market rally ran out of steam in July 2014 and the nearby futures have since plummeted $43 per hundredweight.

Island top

Island tops form at the end of Variety reclassification – [6”] extensive price advances. The island top is not very common and 2014 it is a reliable formation therefore

for signalling a halt to the prevailing major trend.

As the name implies, there is a brief period of trading which, on a daily bar chart, will stand apart from all the activity both preceding and following it. The activity is isolated on a chart by virtue of gaps.

A gap is a price range within which no trading takes place.

Normally, price activity during a single trading session will overlap part of the preceding session’s price range. When a gap is present, this does not occur. Either today’s low price is higher than yesterday’s high, which is an upside gap (point A) or today’s high price is lower than yesterday’s low, which is a downside gap (point B). These gaps are illustrated in the accompanying chart.

This island reversal coincided with prices gapping below the lower boundary of an uptrending channel

(point B). When an island appears as part of a larger major reversal formation, then the probability is high for a major turn in the market.

CME Lean Hog October 2014 CME Lean Hog October 2014

Island Top

(Chart as of August 26, 2014)

Market psychology

In the late stages of an aging bull market, opinion is weighted very heavily to the long side of the market. Weeks of beneficial price movement tempt the longs to expect still higher prices. Many who would ordinarily consider taking profits simply hang on. They fear missing additional profits and are psychologically conditioned to expect higher prices.

The market tends to be in the news and the publicity is bullish.

At this juncture, emotion is driving the speculative buying, not any preconceived formulated strategy.

Some buyers will pay any price to be long the market. They help provide more buying fuel, particularly

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Grain producers

A reminder from the Canadian Grain Commission DO YOU GROW THESE VARIETIES OF AMBER DURUM AND FLAXSEED? The variety registration for the following Canada Western Amber Durum wheat varieties will be cancelled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as follows:  Sceptre on October 24, 2014  Plenty on August 1, 2015

A B

Uptrending Channel

Chart as of August 26, 2014

when the market enters the blowoff stage, which marks the beginning of the end. Here the emotioninspired buying will often produce upside price gaps (point A), indicating the imbalance of buyers over sellers. The gaps also warn that the buying frenzy is about to run out of steam.

In a bull market rally, the buying is exhausted over a number of sessions at around the same price level. A downside gap (point B) signals the pattern’s completion.

The imbalance of sellers over buyers produces the downside gap, which will remain unfilled at day’s end.

This session’s price retreat represents a radical departure from recent activity and generates nervousness on the part of longs.

Importantly, the market’s sudden weakness cracks the armour of prevailing bullish psychology. Long liquidation pushes prices lower, in turn bringing in more selling. The

cycle feeds on itself, thus ending the bull market.

The news is extremely bullish at market tops, which leaves optimism for higher prices. Fortunately, technical analysis and charting can cut through the bullish news, thus allowing producers to take advantage of selling opportunities before the market nose-dives.

Send your questions or comments about this article and chart to info@ag-chieve.ca.

David Drozd is president and senior market analyst for Winnipeg-based Ag-Chieve Corporation. The opinions expressed are those of the writer and are solely intended to assist readers with a better understanding of technical analysis. Visit Ag-Chieve online at www.ag-chieve.ca for information about our grainmarketing advisory service and to see our latest grain market analysis. You can call us toll free at 1-888-274-3138 for a free consultation.

Fertilizing winter wheat

Both Plenty and Sceptre will be eligible for all grades of amber durum wheat until August 1, 2015.

Research has shown that fertilizing at seeding can be very effective — and a big time saver come spring

The variety registration for the following Canada Western flaxseed varieties will be cancelled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as follows:

AARD release / Once the decision to grow winter wheat has been made, one question that frequently comes up is when to fertilize.

“Traditionally, winter wheat has been seeded with very little fertilizer and then fertilized in the spring,” said Doon Pauly, agronomy research scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development in Lethbridge.

“Sometimes, however, producers get caught with not enough time in the spring to fertilize, or things get delayed and yield is sacrificed.”

Research has shown that fertilizing at seeding can be very effective, said Pauly.

“If you’re banding your fertilizer away from the seed, in a lot of cases you can put down your entire crop’s fertilizer requirement at the time of seeding.

However, people can be a little reluctant to do that as it’s a big investment and there is the potential that what isn’t taken up in the fall can be lost over the winter.”

To balance that potential loss, producers can either put down some of the fertilizer at seeding and top it up with a surface

 CDC Valour on August 1, 2015  CDC Arras on August 1, 2017  Flanders on August 1, 2017  Somme on August 1, 2017 As of these dates the flaxseed varieties listed above will be removed from the Canadian Grain Commission’s variety designation list.

1-800-853-6705 or 204-983-2770 TTY : 1-866-317-4289 www.grainscanada.gc.ca Twitter: @grain_canada

application in the spring, or use a blend of regular urea with ESN fertilizer.

“This second option gives some immediate nitrogen from the urea while having a portion protected in the ESN form,” he said.

In many of the province’s winter wheat-growing areas, the risk of overwintering nitrogen loss is quite low, he said.

“In southern Alberta, where most of the winter wheat is grown, we don’t typically have big snowmelt events in the spring that give us saturated soil conditions that lead to denitrification. It’s not to say it won’t ever happen, but it is more unlikely to occur in the south than it is in other parts of the province.”

Pauly said he recommends putting down at least half of the nitrogen in the fall so the crop gets off to a good start.

“That way, if you are delayed getting fertilizer on in the spring, you haven’t sacrificed yield.

In many cases, you can benefit by putting even more than half down in the fall — it just depends on your comfort level with potentially having some loss. ”

21

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Russian food embargo to cost Europe five billion euros a year The products affected account for nearly half of the annual trade

BY ROBIN EMMOTT BRUSSELS / REUTERS

R A worker picks pears during a harvest in an orchard in Hannut near Liege August 22, 2014. EU fruit and vegetable growers will get financial aid of up to 125 million euros ($167 million) to help them cope with Russia’s ban on most western food imports, which has created a glut of produce in peak harvest time. PHOTO: REUTERS/FRANCOIS LENOIR

Dutch co-op buys more Parkland share

ussia’s ban on imports of food from Europe, part of its response to EU sanctions imposed over the Ukraine crisis, could cost the European Union five billion euros ($6.6 billion) a year, according to an internal EU document seen by Reuters.

Russia, which is the EU’s second-biggest food market after the U.S., decreed the one-year ban on Aug. 6. on European fruits and vegetables, dairy products and meat, accounting for almost half of the bloc’s food exports to Russia.

Big fruit and vegetable exporters such as Poland and the Netherlands are already feeling the impact of the embargo and the European Commission, the EU executive, is seeking ways to compensate farmers or find new markets for the food.

Germany, which has led the EU’s decision to impose sanctions on Russia, is also suffering as one of the bloc’s main meat and dairy exporters.

The commission document followed a product-by-product analysis of the impact of the embargo. While it may also hurt Russian consumers, it is also another setback for the euro zone’s stagnant economy that is trying to avoid another recession.

Multiply your operation.

International co-op has been a partner since 1997 STAFF / Dutch potatobreeding co-operative Agrico has stepped up its direct interest in the North American seed potato sector by buying control of one of its major seed dealers.

The co-op announced it has bought a 21 per cent stake in Parkland Seed Potatoes, raising its ownership to 60 per cent of the Edmonton company.

Agrico has worked with Parkland since the Alberta company launched in 1997, then bought a 25 per cent share of the company in 2005. It boosted its interest to 49 per cent in 2008.

“North America offers us promising opportunities for systematically generating more income for our cooperative,” Agrico general director Jan van Hoogen said in a release.

Parkland contracts with growers in both Canada and the U.S. to produce Agrico’s seed varieties for sale in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, providing seed stock for use by growers supplying the fresh, chipping and processing potato industries.

The co-op has subsidiaries and stakes in seed companies in France, Britain, Poland, Italy and Sweden as well as Canada, plus sales agents in “virtually all” seed potato-importing countries.

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22

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

The bottom line on grain storage

GOOD DAY TO HAY

Many hay producers in southern Alberta have been ahead of schedule, with hot and dry conditions making it possible to cut and bale hay earlier than usual, and without risk of rain. Photo: Wendy Dudley

Average yield

Trim: 10”

*Canola yield data summarized from Proving GroundTM trials across Western Canada from the last 4 years (2010-2013). Yield data averaged from DuPont Pioneer Proving GroundTM competitor canola trials as of June 18, 2014. Product responses are variable and subject to any number of environmental, disease and pest pressures. Individual results may vary. Multi-year and multi-location data is a better predictor of future performance. Refer to www.pioneer.com/yield or contact a Pioneer Hi-Bred sales representative for the latest and complete listing of results, traits and scores for each Pioneer® brand product. Roundup Ready® is a registered trademark used under license from Monsanto Company. Pioneer ® brand products are provided subject to the terms and conditions of purchase which are part of the labeling and purchase documents. The DuPont Oval Logo is a registered trademark of DuPont. ®,™,SM Trademarks and service marks licensed to Pioneer Hi-Bred Limited. © 2014, PHL.

Trim: 8.125”

AARD release/Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development has a pair of new fact sheets on the pros and cons of various grain storage options.

“With record crop yields and transport delays of 2013, came greater interest of onfarm storage options,” said Jennifer Stoby, provincial market analyst for agriculture inputs.

“Choosing the right grain storage system can be difficult. But by looking at total costs, the farm’s future plans, existing systems, and labour availability, producers can narrow down the best option for their operation.”

The two new fact sheets are Grain Storage: Cost Comparisons and Grain Storage Considerations.

They detail many different storage options available, both temporary and permanent.

“The two most popular options are steel grain bins (either corrugated or smooth walled with or without hoppers) and grain bags,” said Stoby. “Other options are sheds, producer-owned grain elevators, grain rings, piles, and bunkers.”

Grain baggers are useful in situations when: • Land is either rented or leased and investment in permanent storage is not desired; • Short-term storage is needed; • The operator plans to exit the business in a few years; • Labour and trucking availability is limited during harvest; • Fields are located long distances apart; • Storing low-quality crops such as feed wheat, barley and sample canola; • Grain doesn’t need to be dried or aerated; • There is plastic recycling in the area; • There is a need to store large volumes of grain.

“Having developed an example cost comparison of bins and baggers, it was found that operations need to store more than 70,000 bushels of grain per year to make the bagger more competitive than bins,” said Stoby. “This was based on a set of assumptions that can be viewed in the Grain Storage: Cost Comparisons fact sheet.”

Baggers are not as easy as they seem, said Stoby.

“Since they only provide temporary storage, grain should only be stored for six to eight months. There is also potential for damage to the plastic from wildlife, trees or human activities such as snowmobiling. Once the bag is exposed to the elements grain spoilage and pest and wildlife damage can occur.

Recycling options are also limited and some municipalities may not take the waste plastic.”

For more information on grain storage costs and considerations, go to www. agric.gov.ab.ca and type ‘grain storage cost comparison’ in the search box.

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23

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Canada producing less wheat, canola than expected

BRIEFS

The all-wheat crop is still the third largest in 10 years and the third-largest canola crop ever

BY ROD NICKEL

WINNIPEG / REUTERS

F Captain Mustard — the super spice STAFF / The Saskatchewan Mustard Development Commission has come up with a new superhero team to promote the condiment for hotdogs and other foods.

Thanks to a federal-provincial Growing Forward grant, Captain Mustard and his sidekick, Squirt have made their debut via an activity book called Team Mustard from Seed to Squirt!

The activity book was distributed to children at the Great Saskatchewan Mustard Festival in August as well as at various Agriculture in the Classroom events.

Full of information and activities to educate children about the growing of mustard in Saskatchewan and the commodity’s many uses, the book was prepared with assistance from Saskatchewan educators.

Activities directly relate to the Saskatchewan Grades 3 and 4 curriculums.

armers are on course to produce less wheat and canola than expected, according to Statistics Canada.

The agency’s first farmer survey on this year’s harvest pegged the 2014-15 all-wheat crop at 27.7 million tonnes, down 26 per cent from last year’s record harvest and below the average trade expectation of 28.5 million tonnes.

Canola production looked set to reach 13.9 million tonnes, a drop of 23 per cent from last year and less than the average trade forecast of 14.5 million tonnes.

“I think the trade is going to view this report as fairly friendly (to price),” said Dave Reimann, market analyst for Cargill Ltd.’s grain-marketing services division. “The canola number is going to jump out a little

bit because we’re looking at a tightening supply situation versus last year, and this turns the screw one more turn.”

Despite the production drop, the all-wheat crop is Canada’s third largest in the last 10 years and the canola harvest would be the third biggest ever. StatsCan said yields look lower year over year at 43.6 bushels per acre for spring wheat, 39 bushels for durum and 32 bushels for canola.

The smaller-than-expected canola crop raises questions about whether there is enough to supply domestic crushers and export sales, said John Duvenaud, analyst at Wild Oats Grain Market Advisory, on a conference call organized by Minneapolis Grain Exchange. Tighter supplies could give canola prices more upside later in the year than soybean oil, a competitor in the global vegetable oil market said.

Expectations for a big U.S. soybean crop otherwise overhang canola prices.

Similarly, global wheat supplies looked to top 716 million tonnes, a record high, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report on Aug. 12.

Canada might also have bigger-than-usual leftover supplies from last year’s bumper harvest. StatsCan will estimate on Sept. 5 stocks as of July 31.

“In Western Canada, we’re moving from a huge glut of wheat to still a pretty big carryover, but by no means the kind of oversupply we had in the last year,” Duvenaud said.

The harvest is off to a slow start in Western Canada, with much of the crop developing more slowly than usual.

Duvenaud said the quality of crops is still unclear. Fusarium head blight, a fungal disease, has downgraded some winter wheat and may damage spring wheat as well.

Crops of oats, barley and durum also look sharply smaller year over year, and smaller than expected.

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CWB completes purchase of Great Sandhills Terminal

BY COMMODITY NEWS SERVICE CANADA / CWB has completed its purchase of Great Sandhills Terminal Ltd. (GST) in Sask. following a shareholders’ meeting earlier this month. GST shareholders voted 100 per cent in favour of the transaction.

The deal will see CWB acquire a 23,000-tonnecapacity high-throughput grain-handling facility near Leader, Sask., as well as a majority stake in Great Sandhills railway — a short line railway operating 197 kilometres of track between Swift Current and Burstall, Sask.

“All tonnes delivered to any of our facilities or through our grain-handling partners continue to be eligible for an equity interest in CWB under CWB’s Farmer Equity Plan,” said Ian White, president and CEO of CWB.

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24

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Don’t spread the seeds of this nasty weed AARD RELEASE

P

roducers have reported ‘strange regrowth’ of Himalayan balsam following control measures to Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.

“There are some important points to keep in mind when attempting to eradicate this invasive weed,” said provincial weed specialist Nicole Kimmel.

Himalayan balsam is shallow rooted and easily pulled up by hand. That makes it labour intensive to deal with heavily infested sites, but is the simplest and most reliable management technique, she said.

If cutting the plant, the stem must be cut below the lowest node, otherwise it will send out more stems from that point and produce

more flowers and therefore, more seeds. Strimming or weed whacking will not accurately cut the stem below the first node as it is often very close to the ground. If you go this route, it must be repeated on a regular basis — prior to the plant setting seed — for two to three years, she said.

“Management must be before the plant sets seed, as disturbing the plant once it has seeds will spread the seeds over a wider area,” says Kimmel “The cut or uprooted plant, if left on the ground, may send out new roots at every node point along its length, producing more plants and more seeds than without management.

The cut or uprooted plants should be left off the ground, burned or removed from the site or piled up in a single location — depending on the number of plants.”

Cutting Himalayan balsam can easily end up boosting seed production.

PHOTO: NICOLE KIMMEL

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CASA RELEASE / The Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA) has developed a new online tool to give farmers an opportunity to express their concerns about possible hazards with farm equipment.

The Speak Up For Safer Equipment tool is intended to provide a way for farmers, manufacturers and standards organizations to talk about safety concerns with agricultural equipment manufactured within the past five years.

“We decided to develop this online tool after routinely receiving calls from producers who were frustrated that their concerns weren’t being heard,” said Glen Blahey, agricultural health and safety specialist for CASA. The online form handles safety concerns where farm equipment is being used for primary agricultural production. It is not intended to handle cases where legal proceedings are taking place, where there are labour relations concerns, or issues related to financial transactions.

Once a farmer has filled out the online form, CASA will review the safety concern and either will forward the issue directly to the appropriate manufacturer or, if the concern is a universal issue, forward it to the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). The forms will also provide data on potential safety-related trends affecting farmers.

“The tool isn’t designed to hurt the reputation of any manufacturer or individual,” Blahey says. “Speak Up for Safer Equipment will foster better communication and education between farmers, manufacturers and standards organizations and will ultimately reduce the potential for injuries.”

The online form can be found at www.casa-acsa.ca.

Concerns can also be reported by phone at 877-452-2272.

25

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

U.S. GMO labelling foes triple spending in first half of this year over 2013 Major companies want to prevent states from passing laws requiring foods containing GMO ingredients to be labelled

By Carey Gillam reuters

O

pponents of mandatory labelling for foods made with genetically modified organisms spent more than $27 million in the first six months of this year on GMO-related lobbying, roughly three times their spending in all of 2013, according to an analysis released Sept. 3.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association and major food makers such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo along with top biotech seed makers Monsanto Co. and DuPont were among heavy spenders on GMO labellingrelated lobbying, among other food issues, according to a report

issued by the Environmental Working Group.

All told, the opponents of GMO labelling disclosed $15.2 million in lobbying expenditures for the second quarter of 2014, bringing the six-month total this year to $27.5 million — triple the sum for all of last year, according to EWG, a Washington-based non-profit that supports GMO labelling.

In contrast, labelling supporters disclosed $1.9 million in lobbying expenditures for the first half of 2014, up slightly from $1.6 million spent in 2013.

Mike Gruber, vice-president for government affairs for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, said that the EWG report is “grossly misleading.” The lobbying work the dollars in the report includes

a host of issues unrelated to GMO labelling, he said.

GMA said the dollars spent lobbying on GMO issues are far less than what the EWG report indicates.

“The GMO issue is a very important issue, without a doubt, but so is food safety, so is international trade,” said Gruber.

The expenditures by food and biotechnology companies come as the group pushes for passage of a bill introduced in April by U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo that would block state laws that require GMO labelling on food packages.

Vermont in May became the first U.S. state to pass a mandatory GMO labelling law that requires no other trigger to become effective. More than 20 other states are

considering mandatory labelling of GMO foods, including Colorado and Oregon, which have the issue on the ballot for the November election.

Consumer groups and lawmakers pushing for mandatory labelling of GMOs say there is no scientific consensus on their safety, and consumers have the right to know if GMOs are in the food they eat. They say high pesticide use associated with GMOs and pesticide residues on food containing GMOs is a health concern.

But the food and agriculture industries, including the makers of genetically modified corn, soybeans, canola and other crops widely used in packaged foods, say their products are proven safe.

They have sued to block the Ver-

“The GMO issue is a very important issue, without a doubt, but so is food safety, so is international trade.”

Mike Gruber

mont law and say that labelling will imply GMO products are unsafe, confuse consumers and increase costs for consumers as well as farmers and food companies.

China stockpiles far more wheat this year Imports are forecast to fall by 57 per cent beijing /reuters

China Grain Reserves Corporation (Sinograin), which manages state reserves, said it had stockpiled three times more wheat so far this year than last year, which will dent the need for imports by the world’s top producer.

Sinograin said it had purchased 24.34 million tonnes of wheat from farmers this year. Last year, bad weather during the harvest period hurt the domestic crop and caused imports to surge to the highest in a decade.

Chinese imports in 2014-15 were forecast to fall by 57 per cent to three million tonnes from 6.77 million tonnes the previous year due to a bumper domestic harvest, according to the China National Grain and Oils Information Centre (CNGOIC), an official think-tank.

Last week, the International Grains Council raised its forecast for global wheat production in 2014-15 to reflect larger-thanexpected crops in Russia, the European Union and China.

Beijing has promised to continue to stockpile grains at higher prices this year, aiming to boost rural incomes, although it has scrapped its scheme to stockpile cotton and soybean.

In addition to the temporary reserves, the government also holds what it calls strategic reserves but it does not publish figures for these.

Sinograin said it would be able to release 32 million tonnes of grain from state reserves by end-October to try to make room for the new harvest next month.

It is moving 10 million tonnes stored in major growing areas to silos in consuming provinces to help with that.

The government has been selling its temporary corn and soy stocks since May as well as rice and wheat reserves. It would finish the construction of storage facilities able to hold 2.25 million tonnes of grains before the harvest, it said.

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26

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

taking a break

A calf beds down in long grass near a row of granary bins, west of High River, Alta. Photo: Wendy Dudley

GOT A LOT ON YOUR PLATE?

High-priced calves drop U.S. July cattle placements The data is seen as mildly bearish for live cattle futures chicago / reuters

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he number of cattle placed in U.S. feedlots in July dropped seven per cent from a year ago, which was less than the forecasted average, as pricey calves deterred some feedlots from purchasing them for fattening.

There are fewer cattle available for feedlots to draw from after several years of droughtdamaged crops, which reduced the herd to its lowest level in 63 years.

Additionally, healthy pastures allowed ranchers to feed cattle longer outside of feedyards.

Many of the cattle that were placed in feeding pens in July will come to market beginning in December.

Despite more cattle placed in July than some had anticipated, beef prices should remain high through 2015 given overall tight cattle supplies, said analysts.

The USDA report showed July placements at 1.560 million head, down 7.0 per cent from 1.684 million a year earlier. Analysts, on average, had expected a 9.1 per cent decrease.

Nonetheless, July placements were the smallest for the month since USDA began the dataset in 1996.

Sufficient grazing land, and feedlots struggling to fill pen space due to tight cattle numbers and expensive calves or feeder cattle, was partly behind last month’s placement drop, said University of Missouri economist Ron Plain.

27

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Grain prices weighed down by corn glut The gap between MIST expenditures and Asian expenditures on corn has narrowed considerably in recent years

BY GAVIN MAGUIRE CHICAGO / REUTERS

B

umper low-quality wheat crops across parts of Europe and the Black Sea region are widely expected to eat into U.S. corn exports over the coming year, potentially exacerbating a corn supply surplus for the 2014-15 marketing year.

But while U.S. corn shipments to Europe may indeed decline as excess feed-grade wheat supplies in that region displace imported maize in feed rations, consumers in other regions are likely to dial up their corn purchases over the coming year now that global grain prices are near multi-year lows.

U.S. corn exports to a variety of key markets so far in 2014 are actually running well ahead of last year’s pace, and could gather further momentum as consumers in those nations see usage margins widen to their best levels in years thanks to depressed corn values. Even exports to Asia — which have been hit by a shut-off in orders from China due to a skirmish over GMO-tainted shipments — are on pace to reach their largest total since 2011, while exports to Mexico look set to top 10 million tonnes for the first time.

And when you add in the fastest pace of corn shipments to the Middle East and North Africa since 2007, U.S. crop shippers should actually find some solace in the outlook for corn exports even if China sticks to its non-GMO stance and Europe’s excess of feed-grade wheat cuts off further U.S. corn exports to that region.

China, Europe only part of the puzzle

Corn market bears have made a big deal in recent months about the bleak prospects for U.S. corn exports into China and Europe for the foreseeable future, and how the back-up of supplies that would

normally make their way to those countries will likely keep domestic corn values under heavy pressure for the next several months.

But while Europe and China accounted for around 16 per cent of U.S. corn exports in 2013 — they accounted for less than one per cent of sales from 2000 to 2010. So a dropoff could be viewed as a reversion to historical norms.

At the same time, there have been steady increases in consumer demand lately from markets such as Mexico, the Middle East, and South Korea, and they could well record their strongest corn import total since 2008.

Big spenders

Another, more familiar grouping of key U.S. export markets is the “MIST” countries, made up of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey. They rank first in terms of total amount spent on agricultural product imports from the United States, spending $16.3 billion over the first half of 2014 — more than Japan and the European Union combined last year.

The MIST nations also outspent most other countries on purchases of corn, spending more than $2 billion in 2013 and close to $1.8 billion over the first six months of 2014 alone. Indeed, only the entire continent of Asia has spent more on U.S. corn in recent years, and the gap between MIST expenditures and Asian expenditures has narrowed considerably in recent years as China backed off from U.S. purchases just as MIST buyers dialed up their consumption of the grain.

For U.S. corn exporters, these purchases from MIST countries and other regions should be a cause for optimism, and could well offset projected downturns in demand from Europe and China and ensure the U.S. corn market averts the massive build in domestic stockpiles currently projected by market bears.

France forced to import wheat as rain hits crop quality Exporters may struggle to meet international demand

BY VALERIE PARENT PARIS / REUTERS

F

rance’s rain-hit wheat crop has delivered the first shock of the 2014-15 season: the EU’s top grower and exporter is buying Lithuanian and British milling wheat to mix with its unusually poor-grade crop to meet contracts signed before the harvest.

French exports exceed those of Britain and Lithuania on the world market, but a wet summer has meant France is set to produce more wheat for animal feed and less higher-grade bread-making grain this year.

The imports are the latest signal that France might struggle to retain its market share of milling wheat exports this season because a large part of its crop is failing to live up to its traditional clients’ criteria.

During the past 13 years for which Reuters has records, France has only once imported significant amounts of Lithuanian wheat.

That was during the 2010-11 season, which was also beset by quality problems.

France’s key markets in North Africa, particularly the world’s fourth-largest wheat importer Algeria, are expected to look beyond their traditional supplier for future purchases but in the meantime, French exporters are meeting existing contracts by mixing in higherquality foreign wheat.

“I think that France will certainly have a problem with high-volume sales to some of its traditional markets this year, especially Algeria and Morocco,” a German trader said.

The main quality concern has been weak Hagberg falling numbers, a measure of the flour-making quality of wheat and one that is hard to remedy even by blending lowgrade grain with superior wheat.

Varied results in France have often been well below the 230-240 Hagberg minimum required by top client Algeria, the 250 sought by Moroccan importers or the 200 set by the state grain buyer in Egypt, the world’s top wheat importer.

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28

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Community news and events from across the province

Pot-bellied pigs, Shetland Vermilion ranch honoured ponies and rabbits, oh my!

McGrath family’s detailed approach to stewardship also boosts the bottom line

CCA RELEASE

R

ound Rock Ranching is the 2014 recipient of The Environmental Stewardship Award (TESA).

The fifth-generation family farm near Vermilion is operated by Sean and Tanya McGrath and their three children in partnership with Sean’s parents, Fred and Anne McGrath.

The award, created by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, recognizes producers who go above and beyond standard industry conservation practices and set positive examples for other cattle producers and the general public.

“The McGraths have demonstrated a thoughtful and strategic approach to stewardship that has resulted in significant benefits to the land as well as the operation’s bottom line,” said Bob Lowe, vice-chair of the association’s environment committee.

Sean McGrath gave a tip of the hat to the other nominees when his family

was presented with the award at the CCA’s semi-annual meeting in Charlottetown last month.

“To be totally honest with you I’m going to steal a whole bunch of ideas and take them home,” he said.

Round Rock Ranching was selected for, among other things, implementing innovative techniques, such as offsite watering systems and boosting production on tame pasture stands with limited inputs.

The ranch also employs bale grazing, portable wind fence, and numerous recycling efforts for twine, used oil containers, used oil, and old wire.

Located on the northern fringe of the Battle River Valley and adjacent escarpment, Round Rock Ranching consists of 2,000 acres of owned, leased and rented ground. Eighty per cent of the home ranch is native rangeland, with the goal being to graze year round. The ranch runs an Angus-based cow herd with calving in May/June and is currently breeding between 150 and 200 females.

BY ALEXIS KIENLEN AF STAFF

P

ssst… Do you want to buy a duck?

Or sell a goat? How about a donkey?

Then the annual Lloydminster Rare and Exotic Fall Sale on Sept. 27 is for you.

The sale, which has been running for 31 years, is popular with hobby farmers and attracts about 800 people from Alberta and Saskatchewan each year.

Ashly McKinnon is one of them. She’s bought and sold various animals since she purchased her first rabbit about seven or eight years ago and now raises Dutch rabbits and Holland mop rabbits.

“I just really enjoy different types of animals,” said McKinnon. “I grew up on a farm and my parents encouraged me to learn. If I saw an animal there that I’d like, they made me do my research about it before we bought it.”

McKinnon’s hard work has paid off, and she’s raised ducks, donkeys, goats, sheep, cows and horses.

“It’s a very popular event, both if you’re buying and selling, or if you’re just coming down to show your family the different animals,” said Sam Hardstaff, agricultural

A chance to see how beef is raised down south The Grey Wooded Forage Association is planning its first trip to Argentina AF STAFF

M

embers of the Grey Wooded Forage Association are planning a trip to a new continent, and they’re looking for people to join them. The group will be hosting its inaugural tour abroad to Argentina in February 2015. The tour is focused on Argentina’s beef industry, and participants will get to visit farms, research centres, and co-operatives and have lots of opportunity to meet Argentine farmers.

“I think people are moving away from mainstream tours. They want to connect with like-minded folks. If they’re in the farming industry, they want to meet local farmers and ask questions about how they farm, the different techniques that they employ, and about the market,” said Lawrence Rowley, whose Calgarybased company, Leader Tours, designed the tour.

Partners in Argentina lead the tour group and help Canadians get past the language barrier.

“One of the highlights that

people really like on all our tours is the visits to the farms to meet the locals,” said Rowley.

The tour, which runs from February 20 to March 3, 2015 will include Buenos Aires and the southern part of Argentina, with an optional Iguazu Falls add-on.

Many of the farms visited in Argentina do business with Canada.

“The domestic demand for beef in Argentina is the highest in the world, so most of their beef is being shipped within Argentina or South America,” Rowley said. “They struggle to compete in the international market. If they did get that right, they would be very competitive, just like Brazil.”

Other highlights will include a visit to a horse-breeding farm, and interactions with Argentinian cowboys, known as “gauchos.”

This is the first tour for the Grey Wooded Forage Association, but the Foothills Forage and Grazing Association has been offering agricultural tours for several years. Members of the Foothills Forage Associa-

tion have toured Brazil, New Zealand, the Mississippi area of the United States and Argentina. Last year, they took about 64 people to Argentina and the same number, divided into two smaller groups, will be going to Scotland in June and July 2015.

Ian Murray, president of the Foothills Forage Association, sees value in the tours because they allow people to see farming in other parts of the world. The tourists learn about different farming technologies and management practices that they can use back home.

“Some of the producers who have gone on these trips have had hugely positive feedback about what they have seen over there,” said Murray.

For more information about the Argentina tour with the Grey Wooded Forage Association, visit www. greywoodedforageassociation.com.

Information about the Foothills Forage and Grazing Association tours can be found at www.foothillsforage.com. akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

Ashly McKinnon has been attending the Lloydminster Rare and Exotic Sale for years, and now raises rabbits. manager of the Lloydminster Exhibition Grounds.

“I would say that there’s a wide range of people who attend. There are people who want to get pets for their new acreages and there are lots of older people who are bringing in new animals too,” said McKinnon.

The event is hosted by the Lloydminster Exhibition and is run by volunteers.

Entries are accepted at 8 a.m. Sales of small, “boxed” animals like guinea pigs, rabbits, chickens and pheasants run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m and are followed by sales of larger animals including goats, pot-bellied pigs, Shetland ponies, and donkeys.

There’s also a spring exotic sale, held the second weekend of April each year. akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

what’s

up

Send agriculture-related meeting and event announcements to: glenn.cheater@fbcpublishing.com Sept. 16: Range Health Assessment Training — Second Course, Stavely. Contact Donna Watt 403-563-8925.

Sept. 24: Growing Points: Managing Your Soil, Water and Fertility (in greenhouse operations), Arber Greenhouses, Wetaskiwin. Contact: Ag-Info Centre 1-800-387-6030 Sept. 24-25: Agriculture and Food Council Summit Up!, Pomeroy Inn & Suites, Olds.

Contact: Bryanna Kumpula 780-469-3714 ext. 237 Sept. 27: Interested in Organics? (Peace River Organic Producers Association), Demmitt Community Centre, Hythe.

Contact: Jerry Kitt 780-356-2239 Sept. 27: Fall Rare & Exotic Sale, Lloydminster, Sask. Contact: Corinne McGirr 306-825-5571 Oct. 2: Canadian Association of Farm Advisors — Current & Connected Conference, Lethbridge Lodge, Lethbridge.

Contact: Liz Robertson 1-877-474-2871 Oct. 11: Andrew Garlic Festival, Andrew Community Centre, Andrew. Contact: Carri Hrehorets 780-896-3902 Oct. 15-16: Pembina Sheep Grazing Symposium 2014, Thorsby Community Hall, Thorsby. Contact: Tina 780-727-4447

29

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

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SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

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(780) 895-2241

www.dseriescanola.ca

Round up the cash! Advertise your unwanted equipment in the Alberta Farmer Express classifieds.

Available at:

South Country Co-op High River, AB

(403) 652-4143

www.dseriescanola.ca If you want to sell it fast, call 1-800-665-1362.

FARM MACHINERY Parts & Accessories

ADVERTISING DOLLAR!

1-800-665-1362

Available at:

SOLD COWS. 2006 Haybuster bale processor, model 2650, good shape, stored inside, $13,000.

Also calf sheds & round bale feeders. Also have a Westward 30-ft pull swather, $4000, has cut less than 8000-acs. (403)485-6530.

AUTO & TRANSPORT Trucks WORLD PROPERTY MANAGEMENT: We screen & place tenants, we will set up a maintenance program to meet your needs, so that you create extra cash flow without effort & stress. Contact Jake or Joanna:(780)612-0998.

WE WILL MOVE YOU FORWARD.

IH 25-FT. SWATHER 1,200-HRS, PU reels, cab; Sakundiak grain auger; Inland sprayer. Phone (780)919-9985 RETIRING! Case 2090 ($14,500), Chev 6000 grain truck ($6,500), Vers. 18-ft swather ($950), Alteen 14-ft double disc ($1,000), 4 twister, 5 ring 14-ft diameter bins, ($1,000/each). Phone:(403)932-2343 or (403)519-7815.

www.dseriescanola.ca

1980 GMC 7000, STEEL box, hoist, roll-tarp; 1976 Ford F600, steel box, hoist. Phone (403)321-0455.

DOWNSIZING: 2001 JD 7410 FWA 740 loader 6,870-hrs; MF 860 6 cyl , PU, $5,000; 20-ft. straight cut PU reel; JD 2420 DSL 25-ft. UII reel; 21-ft. Hart Carter PU reel; New Quonset future steel 52x35x18 in crate; GMC 1981 7000 series 17-ft. factory grain box & hoist, A1; 1980 Chev 6500 tandem gravel box & hoist, propane, $3,500; 18-ft. Vac tank & pump, off Ford 750 truck, A1; MF 410 combine PU, runs good, $1,200; Power parachute Rotex SR7, as is $3,000; Steel mounted skid mount cummins w/trans $2,200; 1999 Cat loader IT28G, A1; 2003 Hitachi ZX200LC, A1. (306)236-8023

NEW WOBBLE BOXES for JD, IH, MacDon headers. Made in Europe, factory quality. Get it direct from Western Canada’s sole distributor starting at $1,095. 1-800-667-4515. www.combineworld.com

RON SAUER

MACHINERY LTD. (403) 540-7691 ronsauer@shaw.ca

846 Ford Versatile Designation 6, 4WD Tractor 1990, newer 18.4 x 38 dualled tires,12 speed manual, 4 hyds., 6036 hrs., looks & runs good .............................. $27,500 555 JD Crawler Loader, 250 hrs. on rebuilt engine, good condition ................................................... $17,500 8070 AC Tractor, FWA, wheel base extended, with duals........................................................... $22,500 275 MF Tractor, diesel, multi power, 3 pth, new 18.4 x 30, front weights, loader available, looks and runs great .. $12,500 51’ Degelman Landroller, only done 3,000 acres, as new.... .......................................................... $40,000 Degelman Dozer Frame MF 4000 Series 4WD .$1,000 41’ Flexicoil B Chisel Plow, 3 bar harrows, excellent condition .............................................. $12,500 Flexicoil 6 Run Seed Treater .............................. $1,000 134’ Flexicoil S68XL Sprayer, 2007, suspended boom, auto rate, joystick, rinse tank, triple quick jets, auto boom height, electric end nozzle & foam marker............. $32,500 100’ 65XL Flexicoil Sprayer, complete with windguards,elec. end nozzles single tips, auto rate, excellent condition .............................................. $12,500 30’ 8230 CIH PT Swather, PU reel, nice shape, . $10,000 25’ 8225 CIH PT Swather, PU reel, nice shape .... $9,500 25’ 1200 Hesston PT Swather, bat reel, good .... $5,500 10 Wheel MATR (Italy) Trailer Type V-Hayrake, hyd. fold, as new.................................................. $5,000 14 Wheel Enorossi V-Hayrake extra contour wheels, as new .............................................................. $11,500 NEW 12-39 Sakundiak Grain Auger, 44 HP Generac engine, E-Kay HD mover, power steering, belt tightener, slim fit, lights, scissor lift, remote throttle, new tires ............ $23,500 NEW TL 10-39 Sakundiak Grain Auger, 35HP Vanguard Motor, Hawes mover, clutch & lights, new tires ......$14,500 8 x 1000 Sakundiak Auger, new 30 HP Koehler engine, Hawes mover, gear box clutch, spout ....... CNT $9,000 8 x 1200 Sakundiak Auger, 25 HP Koehler engine, Hawes mover, clutch, runs good ............................... $8,500 7 x 1200 Sakundiak Auger, 18 HP Koehler engine, looks and runs good, ......................................... CNT $3,500 8 x 1400 Sakundiak Auger, 25 HP Robin engine, Hawes mover, clutch, spout, excellent condition, ...........CNT $10,000 New E-Kay 7” Bin Sweep .............**In Stock** $1,785 New E-Kay 7”, 8”, 9” Bin Sweeps available.........Call 8” Wheat Heart Transfer Auger, hydraulic drive .. $1,500 18.4 x 30, tractor tire & tube .....................................$350 New Outback MAX & STX guidance & mapping ...In Stock New Outback E-Drive, TC’s .................................In Stock New Outback E-Drive X, c/w free E turns ............In Stock New Outback S-Lite guidance ............ **In Stock** $900 New Outback VSI Swather Steering Kit...........In Stock New Outback E-Drive Hyd. kit, JD 40 series ........ $1,000 Used Outback E-Drive Hyd. kits..............................$500

**NuVision (Spray Air) & Meridian-Sakundiak Augers, Outback GPS Systems, EK Auger Movers, Belt Tighteners, Bin Sweeps & Crop Dividers, Kohler, Robin Subaru & Generac Engines, Headsight Harvesting Solutions, Greentronics Sprayer Auto Boom Height, Kello-Bilt Discs**

Prairie-Wide Display Classifieds

MORE OPTIONS TO SAVE YOU MONEY

Buy one province, buy two provinces or buy all three.

Great rates whatever you choose

Barb Wire & Electric High Tensile Wire Spooler & Water Hose Roller

- Wire Roller can now be converted to roll up & unroll flat plastic water hose up to 6” diameter (11” flat) - Hydraulic Drive (roll or unroll) - Mounts to tractor draw bar, skidsteer front end loader, post driver, 3pt. hitch or deck truck (with receiver hitch & rear hydraulics) - Spool splits in half to remove full roll - Shut off/ Flow control valve determines speed - Works great for pulling out old wire (approx. 3--5 minutes to roll up 80 rod or 1/4 mile) - Also works great for swath grazing or rotational grazing The Level-Winder II Wire Roller rolls wire evenly across the full width of the spool automatically as the wire is pulled in Ken Lendvay (403) 550-3313 Red Deer, AB email: kflendvay@hotmail.com Web: www.levelwind.com

FARM MACHINERY Machinery Wanted

Buy and Sell

anything you need through the

1-800-665-1362

WANTED: NH BALE WAGONS & retrievers, any condition. Farm Equipment Finding Service, P.O. Box 1363, Polson, MT 59860. (406)883-2118

HAYING & HARVESTING HAYING & HARVESTING Baling Equipment HESSTON 4655 INLINE SMALL square baler, quarter turn chute; New Holland 1033 square bale pickup wagon; 1948 Farmall M tractor, live hydraulics; single bottom 30-in breaking plow; Maxant single frame flail honey uncapper. Call (780)841-2984 WANTED: JD 7810 c/w FEL & 3-PTH; sp or PTO bale wagon; JD or IHC end wheel drills. Small square baler. (403)394-4401

HAYING & HARVESTING Various MF 8460 CONVENTIONAL 2418 E-hrs, Sunnybrook concave, new rub bars, Melroe PU, $27,500; Hesston 6450 18-ft, 1980 E-hrs, cab, air, P/U reel, $9,700. Both excellent (403)782-2545.

Contact Sharon

Email: sharon.komoski@fbcpublishing.com

Available at:

Neerlandia Co-op Association Ltd. Neerlandia, AB

(780) 674-2820

www.dseriescanola.ca

Hit our readers where it counts… in the classifieds.

Place your ad in the Alberta Farmer Express classifed section. 1-800-665-1362.

Combines COMBINES Ford/New Holland RETIRED FROM FARMING: 2012 NH CR 9080 twin rotor combine, 240 eng hrs, 620 metric duals, fully loaded; 2012 94C 36-ft. straight cut honey bee header, full width top auger, fore & aft; 2012 NH 16ft. PU header. (403)318-0172.

31

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

COMBINES Combines - Various

TRACTORS Various

TRACTORS Various

Big Tractor Parts, Inc. Geared For The Future

STEIGER TRACTOR SPECIALIST

COMBINE WORLD located 20 min. E of Saskatoon, SK on Hwy. #16. 1 year warranty on all new, used, and rebuilt parts. Canada’s largest inventory of late model combines & swathers.

1-800-667-4515 www.combineworld.com

COMBINES Accessories RECONDITIONED COMBINE HEADERS. RIGID & flex, most makes & sizes; also header transports.

Ed Lorenz, (306)344-4811 or Website: www.straightcutheaders.com Paradise Hill, SK.

SPRAYING EQUIPMENT Sprayers

Available at:

W. Buis Holdings Limited Foremost, AB

(403) 867-2436

www.dseriescanola.ca

RED OR GREEN 1. 10-25% savings on new replacement parts for your Steiger drive train.

2. We rebuild axles, transmissions and dropboxes with ONE YEAR WARRANTY. 3. 50% savings on used parts.

1-800-982-1769 www.bigtractorparts.com

SEED/FEED/GRAIN Grain Wanted

TRAVEL

BUYING HEATED/DAMAGED PEAS, FLAX & GRAIN “On Farm Pickup” Westcan Feed & Grain 1-877-250-5252

AGRICULTURAL TOURS

BUYING SPRING THRASHED CANOLA & GRAIN “On Farm Pickup” Westcan Feed & Grain 1-877-250-5252

BOW VALLEY TRADING LTD.

WE BUY DAMAGED GRAIN Wheat, Barley, Oats, Peas, etc.

Green or Heated Canola/Flax

1-877-641-2798

Australia/New Zealand ~ Jan 2015 South America ~ Jan 2015 Kenya/Tanzania ~ Jan 2015 Costa Rica ~ Feb 2015 South Africa/Zambia ~ Feb 2015 India ~ Feb 2015 Japan ~ May 2015 Ireland/Scotland ~ June 2015 Scandinavia ~ June 2015 *Portion of tours may be Tax Deductible

Select Holidays 1-800-661-4326

www.selectholidays.com

Search for

AG EQUIPMENT DEALS on your PHONE

HEAT & AIR CONDITIONING JD 9400, 9420, 9520, 8970 JD 9860, 9760, 9750, 9650, 9600 JD 9430, 9530, 9630 Case STX 375, 425, 430, 450, 480, 500, 530 CIH 8010-2388, 2188 combine CIH 435Q, 535Q, 450Q, 550Q, 600Q pto avail.

JD 4710, 4720, 4730, 4830, 4920, 4930 SP sprayers JD 9770 & 9870 w/CM & duals CIH 3185, 3230, 3330, 4430, 4420 sprayers

4955 JD low hrs, 3 pth, very clean S680 JD Combine low hrs 2011 4730 JD Sprayer, 100 ft.

4050 JD, fwa loader with complete front end NH T8050 with fwa 4920 Macdon, 21 ft. D.S.A. GOOD SELECTION OF JD & CASE SP SPRAYERS AND 4WD TRACTORS

• Sprayed foam insulation • Ideal for shops, barns or homes • Healthier, Quieter, More Energy Efficient®

www.penta.ca

“LIKE MANY BEFORE, WE’LL HAVE YOU SAYING THERE’S NO DEAL LIKE A KEN DEAL” • Phone: (403)526-9644 • Cell: (403)504-4929 • Email: kendeal@shaw.ca We know that farming is enough of a gamble so if you want to sell it fast place your ad in the Alberta Farmer Express classifieds. It’s a Sure Thing. Call our toll-free number today. We have friendly staff ready to help.

1-800-665-1362.

AG DEALS TO GO!

TracTors

1-800-587-4711

LIVESTOCK

REGISTERED RED ANGUS BULLS Quiet, Easy Calving, Low to Moderate Birth Weights, Good Growth, E.P.D’s available Guaranteed Breeders (Vet Checked & Semen Tested). Excellent Bulls for Heifers or Cows.

Cleveley Cattle Company (780)689-2754.

SEED/ FEED/GRAIN Feed Grain

CASE 2090 (1984) W/CAB, A/C, dual PTO, front weight & duals. Full engine rebuilt 7,000-hrs, in VGC, $14,000 +GST. (403)932-2343 or (403)519-7815

BUYING ALL TYPES OF feed grain. Also have market for light offgrade or heated, picked up on the farm.

Eisses Grain Marketing 1-888-882-7803, Lacombe.

TRACTORS Various

JD 2955 c/w ldr., 3 pth hitch JD 326D Skid Steer 2011 Model JD 7800 complete with 740 ldr.

JD 4020 c/w ldr. & new motor JD 7700, 740 ldr.

ST 250 Steiger, tires new 20.8 x 38 Clamp on Duals, 20.8x38-18.4x38 148, 265, 725, 740, 280, JD ldr.

Available at:

CHS DynAgra Carseland, AB

(403) 934-4644 www.dseriescanola.ca

Available at: Get the APP »»

BUYING:

HEATED & GREEN CANOLA • Competitive Prices • Prompt Movement • Spring Thrashed

Medicine Hat Co-op Ltd. Medicine Hat, AB

(403) 528-6609

www.dseriescanola.ca CAREERS

“ON FARM PICK UP”

1-877-250-5252

CAREERS Construction

LIVESTOCK Cattle – Red Angus

SEED / FEED / GRAIN

TRACTORS Case/IH

FINANCE, TRADES WELCOME 780-696-3527, BRETON, AB

The Icynene Insulation System®

CANOLA WANTED Buying Tough, Heated, Green, Canola, Freight Options, Prompt Payment Bonded and Insured

Boldt Precision Const. Of Ponoka is looking for mature reliable workers. We install metal trusses & decking on roofs, so must be good with heights.

Some heavy lifting involved. Wage depends on ability. bpcdavid@gmail.com

CALL 1-866-388-6284 www.milliganbiofuels.com TIRES

FEED GRAIN WANTED! ALSO buying; Light, tough, or offgrade grains. “On Farm Pickup” Westcan Feed & Grain 1-877-250-5252

Available at:

Webb’s Crop Services Ltd.

Farming is enough of a gamble, advertise in the Alberta Farmer Express classified section. It’s a sure thing.

1-800-665-1362.

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Search news. Read stories. Find insight.

New 30.5L-32 16 ply, $1,995; 20.8-38 12 ply $795; 24.5-32 14 ply, $1,495; 14.9-24 12 ply, $486; 16.9-28 12 ply $558; 23.1-30 12 ply, $1,495; 18.4-26 10 ply, $890; 11R22.5 16 ply, $299.

Factory direct. More sizes available new and used.

1-800-667-4515. www.combineworld.com

Vermilion, AB

(780) 853-6565

www.dseriescanola.ca

Watch your profits grow!

ADVERTISE with AFE Classifieds

Place your ad today call

1-800-665-1362

32

FO R NO TH W E BO 20 O 15 KI ED NG IT IO N

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

ADVERTISE YOUR AG BUSINESS WHERE IT COUNTS.

The Farmer’s Product Guide helps farmers make informed decisions on everything that’s essential to their farm. From equipment and accessories to buildings, technology, tillage and trucks – the Farmer’s Product Guide covers it all.

If you’re in the Ag business, the Farmer’s Product Guide offers you some amazing opportunities to reach your target audience! Call to find out about our fully integrated media solutions featuring print, online, email and interactive.

135,000 COPIES PRINTED And distributed through:

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Terry McGarry Ph: (204) 981-3730 Email: trmcgarr@mts.net

and at all major farm shows.

THOUSANDS OF FUllY SEARCHABlE AG PRODUCT AND SERVICE lISTINGS: WWW.FARMERSPRODUCTGUIDE.COM