Cge141014

EASTERN EDITION

country-guide.ca

October 2014 $3.50

Money Management

IS THIS THE YEAR TO EXPAND?

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FIVE LIFE-INSURANCE STRATEGIES TO BUILD YOUR FARM’S FUTURE LAND-TRUST TACTICS THAT SHARE FARM RISKS AND BENEFITS CROPSGUIDE: ARE CORN GROWERS TO BLAME FOR SICK LAKES? PG 38

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CONTENTS

OCTOBER 2014

BUSINESS 10

LANDLOCKED IN AFRICA

15

GUIDE LEGAL — WHEN THE SPCA COMES KNOCKING

16

FOOD, PLUS THE FACTS

18

A TRUST FOR YOUR CORPORATION

22

LIFE INSURANCE STRATEGIES

24

CHALLENGE OR OPPORTUNITY?

28

THE PARADOX OF OFF-FARM INCOME

30

GUIDE HR — IDEAS THAT DON’T WORK

31

REAL-TIME FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

34

BUCKING THE TREND

36

NETWORKING AND THE FARM

52

GUIDE LIFE — FARMING BETTER THROUGH YOGA

55

GUIDE LIFE — THE FLYING BISHOP

Zambia is a case study in what could be — but too often isn’t — going right in Africa’s farm fields.

Know your rights, and your duties, before the inspector arrives.

This top Toronto chef serves up a side order of farm insights to make his diners thankful they’re Canadian.

Building a trust into your corporate plan may be your best first step, depending on your farm goals.

These five strategies may help you achieve multiple objectives.

But be prepared to do some serious thinking before you sign.

The irony is, it’s often easier to expand in tough times.

We all knew off-farm income is reshaping Canada’s farms.

But who knew that our largest farms are impacted the most?

Many common workplace strategies just don’t work.

54 58

Can a tough year be the best time to expand? In this special issue, our journalists also tackle topics ranging from real-time accounting to strategic life insurance opportunities. It’s an issue chock full of expert advice.

New Holland votes against large new corporate dealers.

There’s more science to networking than you realize.

Park your skepticism. Yoga may be just what you need.

Touch down with Rod Andrews on Reflections’ 20th anniversary.

EVERY ISSUE 6

MONEY MANAGEMENT 2014

Are the new phone apps just what you’ve been waiting for, or just one more source of data you’ll never use?

MACHINERY GUIDE

CROPS GUIDE 38

THE SICK LAKES

42

MANURE FOR COVER CROP

44

PEST PATROL

Big innovations are arriving in today’s small tractors.

GUIDE HEALTH

Gout isn’t only for the rich aristocrats. It hits farmers too.

HANSON ACRES The Hansons got a surprise for Thanksgiving. What’s next?

Yes, farming is part of the Lake Erie pollution story, but let’s get the whole story straight.

Interest in cover crops keeps building. Now add some additional soil benefits by mixing in manure.

Here’s a new app that will help you choose next year’s rotations, balancing agronomic and economic factors.

Our commitment to your privacy 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 Avenue, Winnipeg, 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 1-800-665-1362.

OCTOBER 2014

country-guide.ca 3

desk EDITORIAL STAFF Editor: Tom Button 12827 Klondyke Line, Ridgetown, ON N0P 2C0 (519) 674-1449 Fax (519) 674-5229 Email: tom.button@fbcpublishing.com Associate Editors: Maggie Van Camp Fax (905) 986-9991 (905) 986-5342 Email: mvancamp@fbcpublishing.com Gord Gilmour (204) 453-7624 Cell: (204) 294-9195 Fax (204) 942-8463 Email: gord.gilmour@fbcpublishing.com Production Editor: Ralph Pearce (226) 448-4351 Email: ralph.pearce@fbcpublishing.com ADVERTISING SALES Lillie Ann Morris (905) 838-2826 Email: lamorris@xplornet.com Dan Kuchma Cell (204) 290-5419 (204) 944-5560 Email: dan.kuchma@fbcpublishing.com

Tom Button is editor of Country Guide magazine

Our advisers can do better There’s no question that much of the progress that farmers have made in the past five years has come from the quality of advice they have received.

It’s impossible to weave an accurate statistical story of the progress agriculture has made since the bull market began in 2007, but I’m convinced that most farmers have made prudent decisions of how to handle the returns from those years.

Most farmers have positioned themselves as well to be even more efficient in future. I know that some farmers have overinvested in machinery, and that this may come to haunt them. There will be others who have ignored the opportunity to pay down debt and have paid too much for land.

But by and large, farmers have made wise decisions in areas where they have expertise, or where they know how to assess the expertise of the people they are listening to. Farmers aren’t investing in just any machinery. They’re investing in the machinery that aligns with what they’re learning from agronomists, soil scientists and a host of others. Plus, I’m continually impressed at the increasing sophistication of farmers’ commodity marketing, based on their careful evaluation of the advice that is available from a growing number of sources.

The short and the long of it is, when farmers have the tools to assess their advisers, they make shrewd decisions about whose advice they will take.

4 country-guide.ca

But this cannot be as easily said for the legal and accounting advice they are receiving, not because farmers lack the brains to figure it out, but because they lack the ability to make informed, competent decisions among potential advisers.

It’s true that in aggregate, the financial and legal advice farmers are getting today is more sophisticated than it was a generation ago when more farmers relied on bookkeepers than on accountants. But the complexity of farm operations and their need for sophisticated advice have grown by an even greater amount.

Too many of these professionals are learning the farm portion of their business on the job, which puts farmers at great risk.

Too many farmers too are frustrated and often stymied by the conflicting advice they get from different channels.

In such a specialized industry, when the whole future of an operation can ride on the details of its incorporation, for example, word of mouth isn’t a good enough way for a farmer to assess their advisers.

We had hoped the Canadian Association of Farm Advisers would make greater strides in this direction. We agree — the association has helped. But it has not helped enough. It will come up with myriad excuses to explain why, but in the end none really amount to more than saying to your clients, “well, too bad for you.”

Am I getting it right? Let me know at tom.button@fbcpublishing.com.

Head Office: 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1 (204) 944-5765 Fax (204) 944-5562 Advertising Services Co-ordinator: Sharon Komoski Fax (204) 944-5562 (204) 944-5758 Email: ads@fbcpublishing.com Designer: Jenelle Jensen Publisher: Lynda Tityk Email: lynda.tityk@fbcpublishing.com Associate Publisher/Editorial Director: John Morriss Email: john.morriss@fbcpublishing.com Production Director: Shawna Gibson Email: shawna@fbcpublishing.com Circulation Manager: Heather Anderson Email: heather@fbcpublishing.com President: Bob Willcox Glacier FarmMedia Email: bwillcox@farmmedia.com Contents of this publication are copyrighted and may be reproduced only with the permission of the editor. Country Guide, incorporating the Nor’West Farmer and Farm & Home, is published by Farm Business Communications. Head office: Winnipeg, Manitoba. Printed by Transcontinental LGMC. C o u n t r y G u i d e is published 13 times per year by Farm Business Communications. Subscription rates in Canada — Farmer $39 for one year, $58 for 2 years, $83 for 3 years. (Prices include GST) U.S. subscription rate — $35 (U.S. funds). Subscription rate outside Canada and U.S. — $50 per year. Single copies: $3.50.

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Call toll-free 1-800-665-1362 or email: subscription@fbcpublishing.com U.S. subscribers call 1-204-944-5766 Country Guide is printed with linseed oil-based inks PRINTED IN CANADA Vol. 133 No. 11 Internet address: www.agcanada.com

ISSN 1915-8491 The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to Country Guide and Farm Business Communications attempt to provide accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis. However, the editors, journalists, Country Guide and Farm Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the editors as well as Country Guide 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.

october 2014

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Machinery

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

The fall of 2014 will be remembered for all the improvements that manufacturers are making in small commercial tractors in the 120- to 220-horsepower class. Despite the trend towards “bigger, wider and more powerful,” these tractors are showing they can compete based on nimbleness, adaptability and durability. Below, we feature offerings from four different manufacturers, but be forewarned.

There’s much more information waiting for you from the manufacturers. It can be a big job to select the right small tractor.

John DeerE 6R Series Just in time for 2015, John Deere is rolling out its improvements on the 6R series tractors. Five extra horsepower levels have been added to the 6R lineup, with the company pointing to higher productivity in the field as the overall advantage. The higher specs on these machines include Final Tier 4-compliance, along with Intelligent Power Management that provides as much as a 40-horsepower boost when conditions demand it. There are also new remote rear couplers similar to those on the 7R and 8R series tractors, making attaching and detaching implements easier. Inside the cab, you’ll find a new CommandARM, complete with a standard seven-inch touch-screen display, with a 10-inch model as an available option.

www.deere.com

Challenger MT500E Series  Boost power and increase efficiency, and you get the new MT500E series from Challenger, with five new models available in the series. All feature the AGCO Power Tier 4-Final 6.6- or 7.4-litre, six-cylinder diesel engine. The company says the new engines provide a significant bump in power compared to previous designs, and all are equipped with dual alternators and third-generation selective catalytic reduction (SRC) technology. They also come with the no-shift smooth operation of CVT — a continuously variable transmission. In the cab, there’s even a new front dash display, featuring a setup and information screen (SIS) boasting 10 times greater resolution and 50 per cent larger area for easier viewing and less fatigue.

www.challenger-ag.us

6 country-guide.ca

O cto b e r 2 0 1 4

Massey Ferguson 7700 Series  Working those longer days that stretch into the night might not seem as daunting when you see what Massey Ferguson is building into its 7700 series tractors. Five models — four of them in the 120- to 220-horsepower class — are available with a Tier 4-Final, six-cylinder AGCO Power 6.6- and 7.4-Litre diesel engine, pushing the limits on power in the 7700 series. According to the company, this series boasts turbochargers with new electronic wastegates which can actually anticipate power needs, along with improved engine response and high torque, no matter the r.p.m.s. The 7700 series has more than twice the front-suspension travel of previous designs. That means more power to the ground for reduced wheel slippage and power hop, plus superior steering control at higher speeds.

www.masseyferguson.com

Fendt 700 Series  Turning heads takes more than a roar from the engine. What really matters is how you put the entire machine together, including everything under the hood and in the cab. Fendt has taken its 700 series tractors, made them easier to operate and also reinforced the series’ structure. The new 700 series boasts six models, five of which fall within the 120- to 220-horsepower class, and all are available in the Profi and ProfiPlus option packages, including stronger front axles to handle higher payloads and enhanced steering capabilities.

Of course, each 700 series unit comes equipped with the Fendt Vario continuously variable transmission (CVT). There’s also a new fourspeed, 1000E PTO, which means higher operating efficiency and an expanded range of PTO applications.

www.fendt.com/us

O cto b e r 2 0 1 4

country-guide.ca 7

WHAT MATTERS MOST?

Family. When we’re all done we hope to work for our boys, so we’re putting resources into place for them now.

Our Syngenta Rep is always there for us and treats our sons well. That trust and respect make all the difference.

We know when our boys take over they’ll be in good hands.

Hugh Dietrich, 2nd generation farmer and owner, Hugh J Dietrich Farms Limited, Lucan, ON

Visit SyngentaFarm.ca or contact our Customer Resource Centre at 1-87-SYNGENTA (1-877-964-3682).

Always read and follow label directions.

The Syngenta logo is a registered trademark of a Syngenta Group Company. © 2014 Syngenta.

business

Landlocked

in Africa Zambia is an optimistic but also a heartbreaking study in what might be — but isn’t — achievable in African agriculture

By Marianne Stamm

10 country-guide.ca

October 2014

business

T

he long driveway into Lilayi Farm, just south of Lusaka, Zambia, is lined with large shade trees. Cattle graze in knee-deep grass, and halfway along the lane I find the building I have been told to look for.

It is the new polo clubhouse, where an international polo tournament will be hosted this weekend.

Alan Miller, owner of Lilayi Farm, waits for me in the office behind his computer.

From there he can cast an eye not only toward the maintenance yard but also toward their steaming grain dryer and storage facilities.

This is one picture of Zambian agriculture… modern, high tech and efficient.

Five hours to the north, near Mpongwe, I find another picture. It is quite a different one.

Jessy Mpupulwa, above, symbolizes the whole country, growing bigger crops that he still must harvest by hand.

October 2014

Jessy Mpupulwa is struggling to harvest his 150 acres of corn. He has the machinery to plant and spray the crop, but not yet to harvest it, so the corn must be picked by hand.

Jessy is one of a swelling number of emerging farmers — small-scale farmers who have grown beyond the hoe and oxen, and who have increasing financial and business skills, but are held back, among other things, by lack of access to credit.

Nearby, Jasinta Bulaya farms with the strength of her hands. Her brother’s oxen plow most of her fields, then she plants and weeds with her hoe, hiring help when she can afford it. Jasinta is a model small-scale farmer, using the conservation farming methods that others just talk of.

But Jasinta wants to break through to more. In fact she needs more, because she wants to send her son to agriculture college.

Zambia’s agriculture is a collage of what can be achieved in African agriculture, and also what isn’t being achieved.

The country has the potential to be Africa’s breadbasket. That’s a consensus that even Rabobank touts on the website for its Emergent Farmer program for Zambia.

Flying into the capital city of Lusaka, you look down to see irrigated crop circles that remind you of southern Alberta.

To the northeast is the Mkushi farming block, where mostly white farmers grow

immense tracts of tobacco, wheat, corn and soybeans, and where they also raise large herds of cattle.

A state-of-the-art grain-handling and -processing facility there is farmer run and owned.

Then south of Lusaka, in Mazabuka on the road to the Victoria Falls, you drive through massive plantations of sugar cane, a growing industry here.

A congenial climate, plus fertile soils and some of Africa’s best waterways combine to make Zambia a farmer’s paradise.

But only for a few — the few produce almost all of the country’s surplus. Meanwhile, the greater part of Zambia’s farmers still struggle just to exist and eat.

Despite heavy workloads and limited credit, crop production shows signs of potential fast, sustainable growth.

Commercial operations “Zambia is far from reaching its potential agriculturally,” says Alan Miller. His 4,500-acre mixed farm is one of about 500 commercial farms in Zambia, many of which operate 10,000 acres or more.

Their farmyards rival the best in Canada with the latest grain augers rising about the shiny steel bins, and with the biggest and newest John Deere equipment standing ready in the shed.

Continued on page 12

country-guide.ca 11

BUSINESS Continued from page 11 Almost all of Zambia’s commercial farmers are white, many from South Africa or Zimbabwe where they fled repressive conditions although Miller himself comes from one of the oldest farming families in the country.

He irrigates 1,100 acres with centre pivots fed by wells, including 600 acres of wheat and malting barley in the cooler, dry season from May to October followed by 300 acres of corn plus seed corn and soybeans during the November to April rainy season.

As well, Miller runs 125 acres of cabbages year round for a large retailer.

The rest of Lilayi Farm is either pasture land for the cattle herd, or used for hay, including for a thriving local forage market. Small farmers are raising more cattle, but don’t have the land to produce adequate feed.

“Irrigation is your insurance,” Miller says. Dryland corn yields between 45 and 160 bushels per acre. If the rains are late or if they stop at the wrong time, the consequences are severe.

ZAMBIAN AG IN NUMBERS ZAMBIA 14.5 2014 MILLION POPULATION

AVERAGE LAND SIZE OF SMALL HOLDERS

LIVESTOCK

3 MILLION CATTLE 2.2 MILLION GOATS whose living % Of corn sold produced 66% Population 13% Agriculture’s derives from agriculture 20 by (mostly white) contribution (60 per cent rural)

Average yield of 30 corn for smallbu./ac. scale farmers

commercial farmers

Average yield of 135 corn for commercial bu./ac. farmers

Statistics derived from Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute, Zambia.

12 country-guide.ca

Zambian Gross Domestic Product

Average land 8 holding of acres

small holders

Irrigation eliminates that risk, guaranteeing not only the moisture needed for pollination and grain fill, but also that the crop gets off to a fast, uniform start so it can tap the annual cycle of heat units and sunshine.

Weather isn’t the only issue, though. A big challenge for Zambian farmers comes from constantly changing government policies. When a government changes, it does more than bring in a new leader. All the ministers and civil servants change too.

That means farm organizations have to explain their cases and situations all over again.

This year, for instance, the Zambian government announced new water rights policies. Miller is concerned the change will cause considerable commotion and confusion among farmers. The new act is not really enforceable, he thinks. It doesn’t cover the availability correctly.

Getting the voice of farmers heard and listened to on such issues is essential, but it also takes energy that should ideally be invested in actual farming.

IMPORTED INPUTS Most of Zambia’s farm inputs — fuel, fertilizer, chemicals, and machinery — are imported, and with the lack of saltwater access, plus poor rail infrastructure, everything arrives by truck, increasing prices.

The economic squeeze then continues on the other end. Government often puts tight restrictions on food exports, so farmers are captive to domestic markets. Neighbouring Zimbabwe, Angola and Congo need food, but can often get it from Russia or Ukraine, Miller says.

Interest rates are also high at 10 to 12 per cent for the U.S. dollar which most commercial farmers work with, since American currency is less prone to fluctuating inflation. By comparison, the Zambian kwacha has an interest rate of 28 per cent.

But for Miller, such constraints — bad as they are — aren’t as bad as his most costly challenge.

That’s theft. “That’s where the country’s problem really is,” says Miller. “The amount of work we spend checking and rechecking things, it really gets you down.”

Many years of experience have taught him where the problem losses are — bolts, fertilizer, soybean seed. And corn.

Zambia’s staple food disappears straight from the field. Lilayi Farm begins harvest with 22 per cent moisture, although millers demand 12.5 per cent for safe storage in the humid climate. He’d prefer to let it field dry, especially with locally high costs for fuel, but thieves won’t steal high-moisture corn that they can’t easily sell.

Dry corn is a different story. Once the field moisture gets down to 15 per cent or below, theft can be up to 40 to 60 bushels an acre, a third of total yield, and it’s proving extremely difficult to stop, or even to slow down.

Continued on page 14 OCTOBER 2014

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2014-09-11 1:36 PM

BUSINESS

Continued from page 12

MIDDLE SCALE

Soils are deep and fertile, and Zambia’s climate allows yearround farming

Jessy Mpupulwa owns two smaller tractors, a three-row planter, a 10-metre sprayer, a fertilizer spreader and a small truck. That puts him a good notch above Zambia’s small farmers but a long way from commercial operations like Miller’s. “Harvest is the bottleneck,” Mpupulwa says. He hires about 20 people for three months to help pick the ears, which are shelled by machine.

Labour is scarce during harvest. He sometimes transports workers from 180 km away who camp at the farm.

The long harvesting period gives thieves lots of opportunity to steal. Mpupulwa doesn’t have the options Miller does. He doesn’t have the machinery to get the crop off quickly. He doesn’t have the drying facilities, so he has to wait much longer for moisture to go down. Like many others, he cuts at least part of the corn and stooks it, so it’s easier to check.

Mpupulwa spends a small fortune on 10 security guards for his crop.

Alan Miller, above, farms 4,500 acres.

Jasinta Bulaya, right, crops just seven.

Both believe they can succeed, but the challenges are very, very real.

14 country-guide.ca

One farmer recently complained that even security guards don’t stop the stealing. They just limit it to their own family and friends and family.

Mpupulwa was once manager of the coffee plantation of a very large commercial farm. He travelled, and gained a good sense of business and finance. (Dutch Gibson, consultant with the Conservation Farming Unit of Zambia, says one of the biggest problems of small farmers is that they are financially illiterate.)

But that edge doesn’t give Mpupulwa access to the credit he needs to grow. Banks don’t lend easily to black farmers. Mpupulwa says that’s due to a heavy rate of defaulting on loans by black farmers. Even were he to get credit, interest rates are a staggering 25 to 30 per cent for the local currency that small and emerging farmers work with.

Banks want land title as collateral, something few small farmers have. Mpupulwa is in the process of getting title to his land. Chiefs control the tribal lands, and are much more willing to sell to large companies who will pay good money than to allow the farmer on the land to get the land title.

“Farmers have the right to have ancestral land which they have inherited surveyed so that they can’t be displaced,” Mpupulwa says. “But there are few who do that.”

Mpupulwa is a member of the Zambian National Farmers Union (ZNFU) and takes advantage of the Lima Pak program to purchase inputs. The Lima project requires a 50 per cent down payment, the other 50 per cent after harvest. “The Lima Pak is reliable and has made farming much easier,” Mpupulwa says.

Immediately after Mpupulwa sells his corn, he purchases 25 per cent of the next crop’s inputs when they are at their seasonal lows. Few small farmers have that kind of cash.

Most small farmers sell to the FRA (Food Reserve Agency), a government program. It’s often a sale on credit. In the past, farmers might sometimes wait months for payment. The current government has improved that timing considerably, Mpupulwa says.

Farmers the size of Mpupulwa, who produces over 5,000 bags of corn (50 kg/bag), are in a better position. The miller will come to the farm to collect the corn. They can also negotiate a better price.

Mpupulwa hopes to get about US$260/tonne for his corn. The floor price for the FRA is $200/tonne, while Lilayi Farm will get $270/tonne, because of its ability to deliver early.

“If we were given the same conditions as commercial farmers — forward sales, loans for inputs and combine harvesters — we would do as well or better,” Mpupulwa says. Not having that, they will remain stagnant. “We can’t get past the bottlenecks.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 59

OCTOBER 2014

Legal

When the SPCA comes knocking Understanding your rights and duties

By Naomi Loewith, lawyer at Lenczner Slaght ecent media coverage of alleged abuse at Chilliwack Cattle Sales in B.C. has sparked questions about an owner’s obligations when dealing with animal abuse investigators. What are your rights and responsibilities when an investigator arrives at your doorstep?

Inspector powers Animal cruelty is prohibited under the Criminal Code, which applies across Canada. In practice, most investigations into suspected mistreatment of animals are conducted by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in each province.

The SPCA often works with local police forces, but SPCA officers themselves also have police powers.

Although the specific provisions vary by province, some general rules apply across the country.

Investigating officers — whether from the SPCA, the police or peace officers — can enter a property where animals are kept during the regular business hours of that operation. The officer does not require a warrant or the consent of the owner. This does not extend to private homes; officers can only enter a private home with a warrant.

Where an officer has reasonable grounds to believe that an animal is in immediate distress and requires urgent intervention to alleviate suffering or preserve life, that officer can enter a premise without a warrant or permission, even outside the regular business hours.

During any lawful inspection, officers can inspect or seize animals, as well as take samples or carcasses.

Officers can also order the owner to take steps to relieve animal distress, such as ordering veterinary care at the owner’s expense. In these cases, the officer must provide the owner with written notice of how to appeal the officer’s decision.

In the face of these powers, an owner cannot stop an investigator who attends at his property during regular business hours. Indeed, a refusal to allow access could be used as evidence to obtain a warrant, which can be executed outside regular business hours. Owners should, however, ask to see an investigator’s credentials. In addition, while owners can be required to give documents or evidence to the officer, they are not required to answer questions.

Undercover investigators From time to time, animal rights activists obtain positions as employees with the intent of taking videos of mistreatment of animals. Unless owners have a specific provision in their employment contract banning filming (which would be a suspicious clause), this type October 2014

of activity likely does not break any laws. Evidence obtained through these means might be used as the basis for the SPCA to lay charges, or may be used in public relations campaigns that can be hard to control.

In the U.S., a number of states have passed “aggag” bills. For example, Idaho prohibits unauthorized recording inside agricultural facilities and Iowa criminalizes providing false information on an employment application with the intent to record images. There has been little enthusiasm for these types of laws in Canada, and industry organizations have generally pushed for openness and transparency, rather than trying to limit access to agricultural facilities. From a public relations perspective, this demonstrates that producers are confident in their livestock practices.

As a middle ground, some states, including Missouri, now require that any evidence of animal abuse be turned over to law enforcement within 24 hours.

Animal activists argue that this inhibits their ability to establish patterns of misconduct, but it ensures that the authorities can intervene to protect animal welfare at the earliest opportunity.

Best practices Producers should ensure that proper procedures are in place for the ethical treatment of animals, and that there is sufficient internal oversight to ensure they are being followed. A common feature of many of the recent scandals has been the professed ignorance of the abuse by management. It is also helpful to have open lines of communication, so employees feel comfortable notifying management of any concerns they have.

When an investigator arrives on your property, it is reasonable to ask for identification, and to accompany the investigator without impeding his access. Owners should also record what the investigator reviewed, and take photographs where there may be a disagreement about the current condition of the animals.

Thank you for this opportunity This is the final piece in my five-part legal series for Country Guide. I was raised on a dairy farm in southwestern Ontario, and it has been a pleasure applying my legal skills to current issues in the agriculture field. If you have any legal questions in the future, please feel free to contact me at 416-8652971 or nloewith@litigate.com. CG Naomi Loewith is a lawyer at Lenczner Slaght in Toronto. As a business litigator, Naomi advocates and manages risks for clients in a variety of sectors, and has experience in actions involving all levels of government. country-guide.ca 15

business

Food, plus the facts This Toronto chef serves great food, with a side of information so customers learn how lucky they are to have Canada’s farmers working for them

By Steven Biggs, CG Contributing Editor

16 country-guide.ca

and knows his local farm supply store, and before long, we’re off on another tangent, this time about crop rotations and soil organic matter.

When Long was executive chef for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, he was responsible for food at sports venues such as the Air Canada Centre and BMO field in Toronto. As part of that role, he’s fed his share of athletes. “Mats Sundin ate the brown rice,” he says with a smile. Others, he frowns, only wanted steak and didn’t heed his nutritional advice.

Communication doesn’t always work.

On restaurants As a former co-host of the television show “Restaurant Makeover,” Long has looked at a lot of restaurants under the lens. “If you’re doing seven to eight per cent profit as an independent restaurateur, you’re doing good,” he says.

He attributes that single-digit margin partially to the profession attracting people with a passion for food and not enough business smarts. “We’re math idiots,” he sighs. For Long, part of the solution is to deal directly with producers. “What if I get rid of the guy in the middle?” he asks.

From the restaurateur’s perspective, one downside to dealing directly with producers is the time spent cultivating and managing relationships. Another is that some food is seasonal, meaning menus must be changed. It doesn’t deter Long, who feels there’s no creativity involved in producing the same menu year round. The menu on his website says, “Dishes, ingredients and prices are subject to change as menus are adapted daily.”

Another solution to low margins, he says, is to raise menu prices. “There’s a huge fear,” he says, as he talks about raising menu prices. And that is why communication is so important. He seems ready for the conversation, trotting out figures on historical changes in food prices relative to other goods, and on what Europeans spend on food compared to North Americans.

Long is partway through this thought when the crowd at the table next to us gets up to leave. One of the women, who introduces herself as Kerry, recognizes Long. She apologizes to me for interrupting our conversation, then gushes, “That salad… I dream about that salad.”

After Kerry and her table have left, he says to me, October 2014

Photography: Anne de Haas

Like farming, Long says, owning a restaurant isn’t for the faint of heart.

But a good plan will succeed.

omeone is getting screwed,” declares chef Brad Long. We’ve only just sat down at Long’s restaurant, Café Belong, and the conversation is already intense. I immediately like Long, who smiles and gesticulates as he talks a mile a minute, punctuating his thoughts with the odd F-bomb. It takes focus to keep up.

Even when he goes off on a tangent and I give up hope of ever getting back on topic, Long somehow manages it. Like now, when we’re back to the question of how he deals with people who ask him about his menu prices. He politely turns the tables on the questioner, asking them why so much food is so cheap.

When the pause comes, as it usually does, he answers his own question, saying, “Someone is getting screwed.”

That someone, Long tells me, is the farmer. Or it’s the restaurateur. Rarely is it the guy in the middle.

Long thinks it’s too bad that so many shoppers — and so many diners — don’t see this. For Long, the solution is communication.

I’ve read somewhere that he has a few acres, so I ask what he farms. “I’m not a farmer,” he says, explaining that he raises produce and livestock for his own family. (Long has five children, aged six through 18.) He’s a chef who is so passionate about good food that he grows his own, talks with farmers,

business

Chef Brad Long scores big in Toronto by talking up Canada’s farmers “That salad should be good!” He uses expensive produce and the price on the menu reflects it. Young chefs, he says, often think they get such compliments because of culinary skill. “It’s not about my art,” he says, sounding exasperated. And he knows his produce is very good because he manages his suppliers very, very closely.

On food Long clearly gives a lot of thought to food, but surprisingly, he isn’t down on McDonald’s, if it’s mixed into a healthy diet. “It’s about balance,” he says.

I glance around while Long takes a call on his cellphone. His restaurant is at Evergreen Brickworks, a former quarry and brick factory transformed into a public space that is used for environmental education. Outside the window is a water garden combining native plants and broken bricks. It’s historical, industrial — and trendy. Long’s restaurant fits well: shiny new metal and funky lights are paired with exposed ducts, beams, and a burnished concrete floor.

October 2014

On shelves near the entrance he has jars of preserves and colourful enamelled cast iron cookware. It’s a touch that communicates his creds to the upmarket crowd that comes here on Saturdays for the farmers’ market.

Long thinks many foods have a story behind them. The trick is communicating that story to consumers — and making the story good enough that consumers change shopping habits. He tells me about a producer he knows who has done a good job telling the story of cold-pressed oils: how, in Italy, the really good olive oil is cold pressed; and how, in Ontario, there’s this great cold-pressed soybean oil. The story has to be well told, though, if it is going to get consumers to forsake cold-pressed olive oil.

Another thing to remember when telling the story, he says, is telling it to the right audience. It’s easy to tell our stories to people with whom we’re comfortable — people who are like us. He says he has often reflected on his own audience, then asked himself, “Why am I talking to old

white guys all the time?” There is a greater potential to make a difference, he feels, when we reach out to new audiences.

His audiences include cooking classes.

He says the last thing he wants to do is teach people how to make a fancy veal dish, which he likens to preaching to the converted. It’s just giving them one more recipe for their portfolio. He finds it far more satisfying to tackle the basics, like teaching people with very little cooking knowledge about all that they can do with boiling water.

His website says Long is in postproduction of a provocative food documentary. When will the documentary be out, I ask? He’s not sure, and begins to talk about the challenge of piecing the information together in a way that many people can understand. Then, he tells me about Carl Sagan, the American astronomer who made complex ideas understandable for a wide audience. I leave with no doubt that when his documentary is done it will be understandable — and it will be intense. CG country-guide.ca 17

business

A Trust For Your corporation Depending on your farm objectives, building a trust into your corporation may be your best first step

By Amy Petherick

he death of the family farm is widely bemoaned. Activists ask, “What do we really know about these corporations that produce our food?”

As it turns out, it’s the same question that many farmers are asking themselves, although in a very different context. How can I be sure that my farm corporation is the best design for my farm and my family? Can I really be sure its fine print isn’t hiding a time bomb that we’re going to deeply regret in future?

Canada’s 2011 Census of Agriculture clearly showed that family farm corporations are on the rise at the expense of sole proprietorships. However, the census also found that the trend is linked to gross farm receipts; the higher the receipts, the higher the rate of incorporation.

“ The young generation is very, very comfortable with incorporation… it is really smart.”

— Mona Brown Many farmers have turned their operations into corporations as the next step in a natural progression that had already seen them evolve from sole proprietorships into partnerships, says Robert Berry, partner in the Miller Thomson law firm at Guelph, Ont. In the past 25 years too, the rate of incorporation has been hastened by taxes, Berry says. “And transfer driven… but that’s also affected by tax.”

That isn’t to say accountants and succession planners suddenly discovered corporate advantages overnight. Berry says he has been helping a steady stream of clients incorporate for the last 20 years, so it hasn’t really been tied to the boom and bust cycles that come with fluctuating commodity markets.

But there’s no question that there’s been a surge, and these complex business structures have now become commonplace enough to be almost predictable.

18 country-guide.ca

“Generally, we’re seeing a transfer of operating assets into corporations, but land and buildings, or at least the main residence and a garage, stay in the name of the original holders of the property,” Berry says. “Since I started 40 years ago, the main issue is still the same; giving up title to the property creates emotional issues and concerns, so they leave the farm property in the name of a parent.”

No one adopts change, especially change which causes “issues” unless there is good reason. In good years, the incorporation trend can be explained by its tax savings. As for the bad years, some speculate that farmers may be looking for a means of limiting liability. But Berry says that although one of the advantages of incorporating is often said to be limiting liability, he sees more reliance on insurance to achieve that goal.

But this brings us to the crux. From Berry’s perspective, it’s accountants who are driving the bus on the corporate trend.

Mona Brown farms and practises law in Carman, Man., and says understanding how corporate farms are run will likely become even more difficult. She’s seeing more farmers willingly adopt very complex business structures, especially young incoming farmers willing to skip sole proprietorship and partnerships entirely.

“The young generation is very, very comfortable with incorporation, with tax planning, and with paying for tax planning because it is really smart,” says Brown. “I’m not saying the older generation wasn’t, but these farmers are savvier with these mechanisms, and they read more.”

Brown says it’s exciting for her to work with such savvy newcomers who think a little more outside the box. When they come to her, she says she finds the trend is to adopt one of three popular structures.

One of the most common scenarios is to join them with an established farm corporation. Whether it is his family or hers, a family trust is a great way to allocate growth in the company to farm kids looking to take over the corporate family farm.

Continued on page 20 October 2014

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business Continued from page 18 In most of the cases that she sees, Brown says a trust has already been established as part of the original incorporation process. When she builds such a business structure herself, she likes to create a corporate operations company (OpCo) for managing equipment, livestock, and quotas in addition to a corporate land holding company (LandCo) which is only responsible for land.

“We have them as two separate companies, with the shares all owned by the family trust,” Brown explains. “The family trust gives us the ability to get income or capital to other family members without changing the decision-making.”

In other words, those who control the trust, control the corporation, and when it’s time to pass the farm on to the next generation, parents only have to hand over their trust shares.

The next most common structure that Brown sees for passing on the family farm is to set up three companies. One corporation is established for the parents, another one for the children, and then the two corporations work together as a joint venture.

“In the joint venture, they combine their equipment and labour, and gradually the parents’ company stops buying and the kids’ company keeps buying.”

Since a privately controlled Canadian Corporation (CCPC) is considered a small business as long as it generates no more than $500,000, this allows large operations to take advantage of small business rules, Brown says.

But unlike having a family trust, there are fewer succession options. “This doesn’t leave us the flexibility the first structure does for using multiple capital gains exemptions,” Brown says. “There’s more in the estate planning side if you have a family trust, but you don’t get three small-business limits.”

Finally, one of the most popular ways she structures incorporations actually reaches back to a more familiar structure in the beginning. Brown says she encourages her young clients by starting first with a spousal partnership. Not only does it act as a two-year trial period, it allows her to sell partnership interests into the corporation rather than actual assets, inventory, and equipment: “so, you get the value out of the company using your capital gains exemption.”

“It works something like two people carrying a shopping bag together,” Brown explains. If you take your grain or equipment out of that shopping bag, you can’t use the capital gains exemption. Instead a husband hands one handle of the shopping bag to the new corporation at 9. A continuation agreement between the corporation and the wife is drawn up, enabling the shopping bag to continue moving forward without the husband. At 10, the wife hands her handle of the shopping bag to the corporation, automatically dissolving the partnership. “Now they have all their assets in the corporation and the value of their handles is owed to them by the company as a shareholder loan.”

20 country-guide.ca

Brown says ever since 1985, when the capital gains exemption first came out, this has been a popular choice.

The ability to discuss, compare and deploy such a wide range of strategies is why Brown says she is so encouraged by the upcoming generation of farm owners. Whether they’re taking over the family business or starting out on their own, they are not leery of incorporating when it suits their operation, and they are not afraid to plan well into the future.

As far as Brown is concerned, fortune will favour those who think furthest forward. “Farmers have such ability to succession plan, they have the best rules, it’s amazing. Clients should not have to pay a bunch of capital gains tax,” Brown says. “But if they don’t plan early, they’re likely to pay more tax.”

Meanwhile, Lance Stockbrugger is one of the chartered accountants that Berry says is part of the reason for the growing number of incorporations.

Stockbrugger also farms in LeRoy, Sask., and he points as well to recent farm profitability: “Now that we’re seeing more value, there are things we can do to protect that value.”

Part of that value has been realized from agricultural business activities. But not all of it. Increasing off-farm income also has significant impact on most modern farms’ money management strategies.

Corporate farms have an operational advantage in claiming only the annual earnings needed for personal living costs as income, leaving unused value for future business expenses and corporate taxation.

Where off-farm income covers all personal expenses, incorporation can appear particularly attractive.

Incorporating also allows for converting taxable income into “active business income” payable to farm corporate shareholders as dividends, and enables the spread of the tax burden to spouses, parents, children over 18, or even non-farming relatives.

Information about farm corporations isn’t exactly easy to find, and at the coffee shop, direct ownership of shares forms the basis of many legendary tales of family fallout, which is why Stockbrugger always recommends a family trust be added where multiple parties are involved.

“You might not ever need a trust. A simple basic share structure might be just fine, but how do you know?” Stockbrugger asks. “The ‘simple’ corporations cost more money in the long run.”

From what he has seen, direct ownership of corporate capital works for some long-established partnerships that are quickly approaching retirement, but Stockbrugger says it’s a mistake to try to save money up front by keeping a corporation simple. A trust that has to be added to an established corporation is 10 times more expensive than paying for one to be built into a corporation at startup.

“If it’s complicated to you, it is probably a good structure,” Stockbrugger says. “The more things you can build into it now, the more it will help in the long term.” CG October 2014

CHRISTIAN FARMERS FEDERATION OF ONTARIO 7660 Mill Rd. RR4, Guelph ON N1H 6J1 Voice: (519) 837-1620 Fax: (519) 824-1835 Email: cffomail@christianfarmers.org Web site: www.christianfarmers.org

Working hard to support your farming business

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business

Life insurance strategies These five strategies can be serious winners for farm corporations. But be prepared to do some equally serious homework

By Maggie Van Camp, CG Associate Editor f everything is tied up in fixed assets when a major change happens, even the best-managed farms can stumble and fall. Debts suddenly become unmanageable, family farms get bogged down in the mud of unachievable succession, and estates get devoured by tax liability.

Setting up a rational way to deal with these situations ahead has some upfront costs and requires some serious conversations. However, those costs are nothing compared to the headaches and costs of working out something after a major life change.

Life insurance is one tool to build strategies to

Benefits may be large, but the right first choices are crucial, Knight says. “Insurance rewards patience and consistency.”

22 country-guide.ca

solve these problems. “The No. 1 benefit of (life) insurance is liquidity,” says Rob Knight, investment adviser and director at HollisWealth Steward Group in Cambridge, Ont. At death, life insurance payouts are generally used to cover debt, tax liability, funeral costs, and of course, to support a family. For family farms, life insurance can also be used to equalize inheritance, and if it’s done within a corporation, create a taxfriendly liquid investment.

The premiums are personal expenses, unless the insurance is to cover a loan required by a financial institution as security or if the farm is incorporated.

The corporation can pay the premiums for the insurance policy with money earned at the lower corporate tax rate instead of personal income tax rate. At death, the payouts are tax free for the corporation and the proceeds can be moved out tax free through the corporation’s capital dividend account (CDA).

The premiums can be significant and it’s imperative to have a good shareholder’s agreement for your corporation. A shareholder’s agreement helps navigate through death, divorce and disagreement. “It’s much easier to divide something up before you pile it up on the table,” says Knight.

Knight estimates only about half of the incorporated farms he works with have shareholder’s agreements, and of those, only about one-quarter include life insurance to fund them.

That’s partly because whole life insurance is costly. But it’s also because it’s complicated. Finding the right policy for you can be challenging. Generally, the younger the person, the cheaper it is to insure them. Trying to get life insurance once someone is sick or old can be costly or even impossible.

Although there are only five major insurance companies in the country, they have a multitude of policies and values, sold by a myriad of smaller companies. Each insurance company has its own sweet spot at any given time, says Knight. This sweet spot will change from time to time as these companies try to acquire different demographics.

“You should definitely go through an insurance broker,” Knight says.

October 2014

business Strategy 1: Farm corporation buys insurance Basically, there are three parties to an insurance plan; the owner, the beneficiary and the person(s) whose life is insured. The corporation is both the owner and the beneficiary of the policy, and the farmers are the ones insured.

The income tax corporate rate is 16 per cent, compared to top-line personal rate of 46 per cent.

So compared to paying for it personally, having the farm corporation pay the premiums can save about 30 per cent of cash flow.

However, those premiums still have to be an amount your corporation can sustain even in bad years. If you need to back out of a policy, it’s really not a good investment. Make sure you can afford the premiums for the duration.

If the plan is to sell or wind up the company in the future, there may be negative tax consequences on a future transfer of a life insurance policy out of the corporation. Also, corporately owned life insurance policies are vulnerable to the corporation’s creditors.

“Insurance rewards patience and consistency,” says Knight.

At death, the corporation is the beneficiary and gets this tax-free insurance payout. Then the money goes out of a notional account, called a capital dividend account (CDA) to the individual as stated in a shareholder’s agreement.

Whole life insurance policies can also be leveraged. Banks will loan up to 90 per cent of a whole life insurance policy’s value, with interest-only payments. Those interest payments for farm expansions or purchases are a tax-deductible expense for your corporation.

Strategy 2: Expand CDA CDA accounts are a channel for money (not just insurance payouts) to come out of a corporation taxfree. “The CDA is a very useful account when you’ve got other corporate capital to liquidate,” says Knight.

One strategy Knight uses to inflate the CDA is to borrow against the insurance policy to buy more insurance. The larger the policy, the bigger the CDA amount allowed.

For example, let’s say you have a $1-million insurance policy and you go to the bank and get a loan (using the policy as collateral) to double the value of the policy to $2 million. At death, the corporation gets $2 million tax free and pays back the debt. The amount left of the insurance payout is at least the original policy value. In the process, the CDA credit has doubled, allowing for $1 million more capital to be taken out of the corporation tax free.

What happens if Canada Revenue Agency changes the rules? Even if it does change the legislation, Knight says CRA has never applied new rules to old dates, so it won’t likely affect already established life insurance policies.

October 2014

Strategy 3: Equalize estates Buying insurance on individuals can multiply the value of the investment in order to cover any tax liability or as a way to get money out of the corporation tax free. It’s also an affordable way to equalize inheritance for non-farming heirs.

If there isn’t insurance or other investments, the farm either has to pay siblings out over time, sell other assets, or give land to the rest of the family. For agriculture, land ownership can roll to children or spouse without being taxed.

However, Knight has seen some land inheritance conflicts arise recently with the big increase in land prices. The non-farming siblings want to sell their land for seven, eight or even 10 times the value that it was worth when it was given to them years ago.

You can hardly blame them. However, the increase in prices means the farming sibling can’t afford to buy it, yet it’s needed for their operation.

Strategy 4: Cover debt If your corporation is in growth mode, you might need insurance to cover debt payments at death or to pay out individuals.

For this, many businesses with shorter horizons will buy term insurance. Knight uses the example of three friends setting up a business which they intend to sell in 10 years. Term insurance is cheaper than whole life or universal insurance for businesses that require life insurance for shorter terms to cover loans or buyouts. “Ten to 15 years is the breaking point,” says Knight.

Multi-generational family farms by their nature are longer-term enterprises, so Knight generally recommends whole or universal life insurance. There’s an upper age limit to term insurance, he explains, and it won’t cover a permanent problem, such as the funding of an estate bequest or tax liability.

“Farms that are growing accumulate debt. Farms that are not growing accumulate capital,” says Knight.

Strategy 5: Shelter extra capital “Another reason to buy insurance is to shelter redundant capital,” says Knight. A corporation may have too much capital. Maybe their children don’t want to farm so they don’t expand, or they don’t want to service debt or are nearing retirement.

The return on investment for whole insurance is not as appealing as trading equities, it ties up your money for a long time and only your beneficiaries get the big payout. However, it’s 100 per cent guaranteed and does multiply.

As well, if you’re afraid that your money won’t last to the end of your life, whole life policies can be borrowed against to use while you are alive.

Permanent life insurance can help diversify investments for farmers who want low-risk investments and have a large portion or all of their capital tied up in the farm. If the farm is incorporated, it can be a tax-efficient investment. CG

country-guide.ca 23

BUSINESS

Challenge or opportunity?

The irony is, it’s often easier to expand in tough times

By Gord Gilmour, CG Associate Editor t felt like it was going to be different this time.

In 2008, when the bull run in grain prices really kicked off, that was the sense that swept through the grain industry. Finally, the world was going to have to ante up and pay farmers a fair price for their products. And keep paying it.

The fundamentals seemed rock solid. Growing demand from emerging economies like China and India was combining with biofuel programs that saw almost half of the U.S. corn crop diverted into ethanol production.

It all came together to push grain prices in a nearvertical trajectory, aided by a series of drought and production problems in major grain-growing regions.

In recent months, however, the bears have roared back, leaving us with a crucial question. How much

damage has Canada done to its competitiveness by letting its cost of production swell in order to chase grain prices that are no longer here?

As always, the answer varies widely from farm to farm. But the worry is growing.

Land is more costly, including cash rents. Inputs are pricier too, and most farms are carrying more equipment inventory. Often MUCH more equipment inventory.

Suddenly, the wiggle room is evaporating, and we may be heading back into the old paradigm of tight margins on low-cost farms, and negative margins on many others.

Just outside Winnipeg, near the community of Starbuck, farmer Chuck Fossay knows all too well the reality he and other growers now face. He says the pencilling is tougher but the challenges are famil-

PHOTOGRAPHY: WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

“We could be in for a tough few years,” says Saskatchewan’s Chuck Fossay.

But that doesn’t mean there won’t be opportunities too

24 country-guide.ca

OCTOBER 2014

BUSINESS

iar, and he’s not particularly surprised at the way things have gone.

“Grain markets and prices are cyclical,” Fossay says.

“We’re now entering a down period of that cycle.”

On the other side of the Prairies, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (AARD) farm economist and management specialist Dale Kaliel echoes that sentiment.

“It’s Economics 101,” Kaliel says. “Over time, the price of commodities falls.”

That’s not to say prices in actual dollars are always on the decline, but rather that in real, inflation-adjusted terms, commodity prices trend downward over time, with occasional upward blips that last until supply and demand are again reconciled.

This is a reality that hits farmers across the country and around the globe. In southern Ontario Mark Brock, who grows cash crops and raises sheep near the village of Staffa, an hour north of London, reports exactly the same kind of tougher math, both on his family’s operation and all around him.

Brock says, if anything, the trend might even be a bit more pronounced in Ontario, since growers there grow the same rotation as vast swaths of the U.S. — corn and soybeans.

“The stars have aligned for U.S. farmers, and they’ve got a good crop coming off,” Brock says.

“We’re seeing supply meeting demand and prices coming down.”

That dovetails with what Ontario ag ministry cost-of-production and business specialist John Molenhuis sees. He cites crop prices as the largest, but not only, factor in the looming squeeze.

“Margins are tighter in 2014 than in the past few years,” Molenhuis agrees.

LOWER PRICES, HIGHER COSTS There’s another uncomfortable piece of math in play here too, however. That’s the fact that if you could go back to the fall of 2006 and offer those growers today’s market prices, they’d have jumped at them gladly. Back then, corn futures were flatlining around $2.50, compared to today with medium-term contracts $.80 to $1 north of there, and, at press time, longer-term contracts close to $4.

So in an era of low inflation and even lower interest rates, what’s driven this change?

Continued on page 26

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business

Continued from page 25 In no small part it’s because the cost structure of farming has risen at roughly the same pace as prices, pulled along by an overall commodity boom.

“It does seem that when farmers make a bit more money, the people who produce the inputs want their share of the pie,” Fossay says.

That’s not necessarily the result of cigar-smoking fat cats colluding in boardrooms, however. Frequently it’s the result of simple supply and demand coming home to roost, exacerbated by the nature of how these farm inputs are made. Nitrogen plants and potash mines aren’t cheap to build, and they tend to come online only when new demand sends CEOs a strong price signal.

Think of the Saskatchewan potash industry, for example. Back in the 1970s, as grain boomed, so did the province’s potash sector, with the addition of new production capacity. During the grain bust of the ’80s, ’90s and aughts, however, that sector didn’t add a lot of new capacity, because there wasn’t any economic signal to do so. Why spend a small mountain of money to commission a mine that would immediately begin losing more money? Then when higher grain prices send a signal to farmers to maximize production, a jump in demand leads to a jump in prices and eventually new mines and plants, the process we’re now seeing play out.

Ontario’s Molenhuis calls nitrogen production another of the complex factors that must be figured into any assessment of this situation. There, he says, a further complicating factor is what happened when natural gas prices peaked a few years ago.

“ Having a business plan gets you ready to jump on opportunities.”

— Dale Kaliel “Nitrogen fertilizer production capacity shut down in the U.S.,” Molenhuis says. “Now most of the nitrogen fertilizer is sourced from offshore, and this has made the North American fertilizer market more susceptible to global supply and demand.”

That means benchmark contracts with players like India and China can now affect fertilizer prices in rural Ontario and Saskatchewan like never before.

The process of rising prices hasn’t been linear either, as any farmer who’s puzzled over when to buy the fertilizer for the coming season can tell you.

“Some individual costs see a lot of fluctuation from year to year,” Monlenhuis says. “Fuel and fertilizer have been the most volatile in the past six to seven years.”

26 country-guide.ca

In other areas, farmers have made their own contribution to the rising cost structure. They’ve certainly spent a few dollars on renewing their machinery line, and some observers say that’s led to a situation where farmers might be overcapacity on the equipment side of the ledger.

Bob Tosh works with the accounting firm Meyers Norris Penny at Saskatoon, where he sees a wide variety of farm financials and has a good sense of the macro trends at play throughout the industry. Over the past few years, he’s noted an increase in equipment size and costs and in overall equipment investment per acre.

Tosh says a number of factors are at play, including higher fuel costs and more challenging weather patterns which drive equipment investment, but the bottom line has boiled down to higher depreciation per acre and, counterintuitively, also rising repair bills on the newer and more complex machines.

“This all worked well when canola was $13 a bushel, but now that it’s less than $10 a bushel, it makes things a little tighter on the bottom line,” Tosh told Guide during a recent email exchange.

Then there’s the question of land prices and cash rents, where farmers appear to have bid up the price of both. There’s been a lot of talk of outside investors buying land, but that’s been the headlines, not the majority of the action. Farmers Fossay and Brock say most, if not all, of the land sales in their area have been to local buyers.

“We’ve really seen land prices and cash rents increase a lot over the past few years,” Brock says.

Fossay reported the same in his area, and further noted that despite tighter margins, he’s not expecting them to come down any time soon.

“It takes a single good year to start making rents move upwards, and as much as five bad years before they’ll begin to move down again,” Fossay heard at a recent presentation. “I think we are going to see rents and land prices be a bit sticky.”

Management time There’s little doubt a period of belt tightening awaits grain growers across the country. What remains to be seen is exactly what form that takes.

Mark Brock describes a delicate balancing act, where farmers need to find the sweet spot where they’re producing at maximum efficiency and spreading out their fixed costs over as many bushels as possible But that won’t necessarily mean squeezing every last possible bushel out of an acre like the past few seasons.

“I think you’ll see that last bit of nitrogen not being applied,” Brock says. “When prices are higher, you can do more things because the reward is there. Say you applied fertilizer in 2012 that you needed three extra bushels to pay for in 2012. In 2015, you’re likely to need seven or eight additional bushels to make it pay.”

October 2014

business

Fossay agrees, and says there are a number of ways farmers are likely to tackle this fundamental problem of making the outgo meet the income.

Some farmers will actually spend money to make money, he says, seeking to become more efficient and therefore more cost effective.

Others will look hard at marketing and they will shop their grain around more, based on an intimate understanding of their cost of production. Still others will start looking at their rotation and seek new opportunities there.

“We’re seeing more soybeans here in Manitoba, and I expect we’re going to see a lot more,” Fossay says.

The nitrogen-fixing soybeans can save a grower in the neighbourhood of $80 an acre of nitrogen costs over canola, Fossay explains, adding growers in areas not suited to soybeans will likely explore their own options for specialty crops.

“An argument could be made that good times encourage the status quo, while during more challenging times, growers are more willing to experiment and do new things,” Fossay says.

AARD’s Dale Kaliel replies to the question of what farmers could do differently with a question of his own. Where’s your business plan? “From a lon-

ger-term perspective, a business plan for your operation should give you better profits and stability.

“The main tenets of good farm management — things like watching your financial ratios and having a plan based on solid budgets and unit production costs — let producers ‘pre-think’ their choices,” Kaliel says. “By doing these things, you will find yourself more disciplined and better able to recognize both opportunities and risks.”

It doesn’t remove the cyclical nature of farm opportunities. But it does make them more definable.

“Having a business plan gets you ready to jump on opportunities. It’s easier to make money when times are good. The test of your management is whether or not you can use these good times to get yourself in a financial position to launch when the opportunities that bad times bring present themselves.

“In the end, these are the people I think are going to do the best through this cycle.”

But how long will this cycle last? Fossay knows the effect of millions of farmers around the globe seeking to maximize production and seeking peak efficiency may be to set up a feedback loop of higher production and lower prices.

“If we all go down this road,” Fossay says, “we could be in for a tough few years.” CG

Plan to attend the...

2014 5 Annual TH

CFGA Conference & AGM November 17-19, 2014 Hôtel Château-Bromont Bromont, Québec

hosted by the Quebec Forage Council

‘CLOSING THE FORAGE GAP’

ADDRESSING THE COMPETITIVENESS OF FORAGES IN THE AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE Call for Leadership Award Nominations Deadline Oct 3, 2014

Canadian Forage & Grassland Association Association Canadienne pour les Plantes Fourragères

For more information please contact: Canadian Forage & Grassland Association Ph: (204) 254-4192

www.canadianfga.ca October 2014

country-guide.ca 27

business

The paradox of off-farm income We all knew off-farm income is reshaping Canada’s farms. But who knew large farms are affected most?

By Gerald Pilger griculture and Agri-Food Canada has released its farm income forecast for 2013 and 2014. Not surprisingly, in view of our record grains production in 2013 and rising livestock prices, its 2013 farm income estimates remain at historically high levels.

AAFC pegs average total farm family income in 2013 at $128,517. This is 19 per cent higher than the average total farm household income over the previous five years. And it is expected to keep growing. At the time of the forecast, the department projected farm family income to rise to $132,579 for 2014 despite declining grain prices.

Such figures are even more eye opening when you learn that Statistics Canada put median income for all Canadian households in 2012 at $74,540.

Average Farm income 2010 $600,000

Average net income Average government payments Average off-farm income (employment/pensions)

$500,000 $400,000 $300,000 $200,000 $100,000 $0 -$100,000

$10,000 to $99,000

$100,000 to $249,000

$250,000 to $499,999

$500,000 to $999,999

$1,000,000 to $2,499,999

$2,500,000 and over

Average income by source for Canadian farms 2010, Six Years that Changed Agriculture by David Sparling and Nicoleta Uzea

farm operator household income 1988-2004 $1,000 90

Farm earning of farm households Off-farm income of farm households Total income of U.S. households

80 70 60 50 40 30

Off-farm income

20 10 0

However, there is a wide variability in individual total farm household incomes depending on the size of farm, location of farm and commodities produced. For example, according to Statistics Canada, the net market income for farm families (this is the average farm family income derived from actual commodity sales less any program payments and before adjusting for depreciation or CCA for all farms reporting over $10,000 in sales) ranged from a low of $6,290 per farm family in British Columbia to a high of $22,464 in Quebec in 2011. Prairie farm families averaged roughly $20,000 in market income.

Canadian farm families involved in dairy production received the highest portion of their household income from the market, taking home an average $79,508 in 2011. They were followed by egg producers who received $51,737 from the market, grain and oilseed producers at $32,262, hog producers at $25,081 and beef producers earning only $1,756 from the market in 2011.

Size matters when it comes to income levels. In 2012, David Sparling of Ivey Business Schools wrote Six Years that Changed the Future for Agriculture: Impact on Farm Income in Canada 2005-2010.

By using Statistics Canada data, Sparling categorized farms by sales volume. The 66,000 farmers who had between $10,000 and $100,000 in sales revenue actually had a negative net income of $-0.3 billion in 2011 (a loss of over $5,000 per farm). At the other end of the scale, the 2,425 farmers with over $2,500,000 in sales earned $1.2 billion in net income (almost $50,000 per farm).

Sparling is quick to point out: “the 10,000 farms in Canada with more than $1,000,000 in annual sales now account for over 50 per cent of sales.”

However, a closer examination of the variability of net farm income reveals that even the biggest farmers, those farmers producing the highest-value commodity, and farmers living in the provinces with the highest net farm income never even came close to the average farm family household income that Statistics Canada has reported for 2011 and what is predicted for 2013-14.

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

Average farm operator household income by source compared to average U.S. household income 1988-2004, page 1, Farm Family Income, USDA Farm Bill Forum Comment Summary and Back Ground 28 country-guide.ca

A fundamental shift is taking place, says David Freshwater, ag economist at University of Kentucky who writes, “Off-farm income has become a major determinant of farm operators’ and farm families’

October 2014

business

economic well-being. For a majority of farm families and operators in OECD countries, off-farm or non-farm occupations have become a significant source of income and a major determinant of their well-being.”

Freshwater collaborated on the 2011 research paper “Farm Income Variability and Off-Farm Diversification in Canadian Agriculture.” Data presented in the paper shows off-farm income grew from 55 per cent of Canadian farmers’ income in 2002 to 62 per cent by 2006.

Even more interesting, since 2006 and in spite of much higher commodity prices, the percentage of farm household income that comes from off-farm sources continues to go up.

Many other researchers have also reported the importance of off-farm income. In planning the 2008 U.S. Farm Bill, the USDA study of farm family income found that in 2004 off-farm income accounted for 24 per cent of the household income for the largest eight per cent of U.S. farms (those with sales of over $250,000). The study also stated: “Almost 90 per cent of farm household income comes from off-farm sources.”

The March 2009 issue of Statistics Canada’s Rural and Small Town Canada Analysis Bulletin reveals a corresponding trend. “In 2006,” it says, “the share of operators of small census farms reporting off-farm (income) has remained stable while that of operators of larger census farms has further increased.”

The September 2013 information bulletin of the USDA Economic Research Service entitled “The Off-Farm Occupations of U.S. Farm Operators and Their Spouses” found 91 per cent of farm households had at least one family member working at an off-farm job. The paper states: “… even households operating larger farms often have substantial non-farm income: in 2011, median offfarm income was $29,250 for households with family farms with $250,000 or more in annual sales.”

Freshwater believes farmers consider and rely on off-farm employment as a risk management strategy. “Agriculture is risky. Most farm families deal with this risk with off-farm income. It is a form of diversification. Farmers used to produce a number of commodities to deal with risk. Today they don’t have to produce 10 different things to deal with risk.

O c t ober 2 0 1 4

Instead they specialize, which reduces the labour needs of a farm. As well, technology and capitalization have resulted in more labour than a farm needs except for short periods of time so farmers are able to diversify by working off farm.”

While many farmers complain at having to work off farm and some look down on neighbours who work off farm, Freshwater does not see off-farm labour as bad. Instead, he sees it as a valuable management strategy to deal with risk and to enable a farm to expand. It also allows farmers to live better.

Where it becomes a problem is when off-farm income is used to run up land values and rental rates.

Sparling agrees that risk management is a reason some farm families supplement their farm operation through offfarm employment. However, he feels most farms are simply too small to be economically viable, and the owner/ operator must work off the farm. Small landholders, he says, farm as a lifestyle choice.

However, this does not explain why a significant amount of the household income of even the largest farms comes from off-farm employment. Sparling points out it could be a lack of understanding of what constitutes off-farm income. We do not know if value adding of the commodities a farm produces is included in the farm income or if the increased returns as a result of a farmer value adding are recorded as off-farm income.

Nor do we know if income that a farm receives when the farm business adds a trucking service and hauls grain commercially is being reported as farm income or as off-farm employment.

Could there be other reasons why so many farmers with economically viable farm operations also work off farm?

Could it be they are sought after for management or technical skills that are lacking in their community?

Could it be that the farmers have developed business skills to the degree they recognize off-farm opportunities and are increasingly pursuing those opportunities while at the same time managing a viable farm business?

Or could it be farmers simply like the challenge of another job?

We really need more information about what constitutes off-farm income. CG

Impact of off-farm income on farm policy Are we on the verge of a revolution in farm policy?

Recent USDA studies have found: • Eighty per cent of U.S. farm commodity program payments go to farms with sales of $100,000 or more.

• While gross farm income is increasing, expenses are rising faster than market revenue and payments.

• In the United States, average farm family income has now surpassed that of average Americans.

• In the early 2000s, 85 to 90 per cent of farm family income came from off-farm sources.

• Even the largest farms relied on offfarm support.

Policy-makers in Canada are increasingly aware of the disconnect between the intent of policy and the effect of policy. For example while most people believe the bulk of government support of agriculture goes to small farms, in fact large farms tend to receive a much greater benefit.

Recent analysis by Ivey School of Business economist David Sparling shows that farms selling less than $100,000 receive an average $3,291 in government support while those with sales of over $2.5 million receive an average $167,198.

Sparling goes on to report “the smallest class (of farms by sales revenue) is the one least reliant on government payments — roughly seven per cent of their income comes from government compared with at least 21 per cent for all larger classes. For the largest farms, government payments made up nearly 22 per cent of their income.”

Now that farmer’s incomes and net worth exceed those of non-farmers in both Canada and the U.S., and since traditional government support of prices typically benefits the largest farmers the most, might we see a change in focus in future agricultural policy from trying to support farm gate prices and individual farmers to support for rural communities and rural development?

Will the past few years of high farm incomes change the future of agricultural support and policy?

country-guide.ca 29

HR

Ideas that don’t work These common workplace tactics don’t work.

The better ideas do

By Pierrette Desrosiers, work psychologist, business coach, and author

ubrey C. Daniels, one of the world’s foremost authorities on human performance, has developed a list of management tactics that often backfire. Here are some of his losers, plus tips for achieving your team goals in more productive ways.

1. Employee of the month Why it doesn’t work: Often employers focus too much attention on one employee, holding them up as examples. Yet most work is a team effort. When other employees feel underappreciated, they are demotivated.

A better idea: Acknowledge everyone’s achievements as they happen, and emphasize teamwork.

Everyone contributes to the farm’s results.

2. Stretch goals Why it doesn’t work: When you set out goals that are meant to help your employees “stretch” and drive their performance to the next level, employees can instead end up overwhelmed and frustrated. When they fail to reach aggressive goals, they begin to feel that their best is never good enough.

A better idea: Set achievable short-term goals.

Ask the team if it is confident it can reach its goals.

Chart employee progress month by month instead of once a year.

3. Performance appraisal Why it doesn’t work: Annual performance appraisals are hated by both managers and employees. They aren’t even effective motivators because they are only done once per year, and are especially damaging when employees do not have total responsibility for the metrics on which they are assessed.

A better idea: Give immediate feedback for both successes and failures. Coach your employees. Do they lack training, resources or motivation? Are personal issues interfering with their focus? Give appropriate help. Then, if an employee is not suited for their job, make the decision appropriately.

enue in a way that must be earned each year, but also pay for behaviours that are important in your business and align with company values. Make sure you include perks for effective teamwork.

5. Saying, ‘You did a good job, but…’

Why it doesn’t work: Softening criticism with praise is not a motivator. Nor does sandwiching criticism between two positive statements.

A better idea: Praise and criticism should come in separate conversations. Learn to give constructive feedback. Be straightforward.

6. Promoting People No One Likes Why it doesn’t work: Just because a person is the best mechanic doesn’t mean they should be in charge.

Good supervisors inspire commitment and loyalty.

Promoting someone no one likes can lead employees to underperform or perform out of fear.

A better idea: Promote people who are liked and who have superior interpersonal abilities. Remember, supervisors play a large role in determining work climate and employee motivation.

7. Downsizing Why it doesn’t work: Between the added workload placed on those who remain, the cost of training new hires after the recovery, and the fear among employees that they might be next, downsizing is a disaster. People feel demotivated, overwhelmed, and abandoned.

A better idea: Find creative ways of cost saving.

Be honest with your employees. Ask for their ideas.

8. Not taking care of employee stress

4. Raises in salary and automatic bonuses

Why it doesn’t work: New neuroscience studies demonstrate how stress hurts the brain and substantially impacts individual and team productivity. Stress impacts workplace climate, motivation, and more. It also impairs your ability to make decisions and effectively manage money and time.

A better idea: If you have one and only one competency to improve for yourself and your employees, invest in resources for stress management training. CG

Why it doesn’t work: A raise is permanent, but it’s unlikely to continue to motivate better performance. Often, bonuses also become seen as entitlements even if performance isn’t satisfactory. If bonuses are triggered by hitting certain targets, and employees cannot entirely control whether or not they hit those targets, failure can build resentment.

A better idea: Pay for performance or share rev-

Pierrette Desrosiers, MPS, CRHA is a work psychologist, professional speaker, coach and author specializing in agriculture. She comes from a family of farmers and she and her husband have farmed for more than 25 years ( www.pierrettedesrosiers.com ). Contact her at pierrette@pierrettedesrosiers.com.

30 country-guide.ca

October 2014

October 2014

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OCTOBER 2014

page

All in a day’s work

4

1.6 million acres

8

The market challenge

12

Slowly on to traceability

16

Buzzing about bean yields

18

A look back at thicker soy stands

22

Two decades later

24

WHERE’S DOMESTIC PLAN?

W

hile soybean acres continue to surge across Canada, and while the sheer number of soybean acres threatens to explode in 2015, so much else about the crop is lagging.

The great breakthroughs that we have been promised in the past decade have not materialized. In fact, they seem as distant as ever.

It all means our soybean incomes are hostage to factors beyond our borders.

Most dangerously, we are still exposed to a shortfall in processing capacity that creates an uneasy vulnerability. By comparison, the West’s expanded canola crush capacity seems positively breathtaking.

No one thinks that new crushing facilities will absorb the entire Canadian crop. But soybeans are nervously becoming too much like pork and beef in their reliance on one or two corporate boardrooms.

Nor, despite decades of research, and a generation of talk, have soybeans made good on their potential to develop value-added, identity-preserved markets for specialty oils and proteins.

Since the 1920s and the introduction of soybean-based paints, we have known that soybeans have an incredible potential to fill myriad industrial roles, not to mention the potential food uses that have been explored, but that also haven’t been realized.

The upshot is that if the same unspectacular rate of progress that we see in crushing, or in

Soybean Guide, October 2014

industrial or specialty oil markets, also prevailed in food-quality exports, we’d still be sending exploratory cargoes to the Pacific Rim, waiting for the first real orders to come in.

Food-grade export premiums aren’t a lifesaver every year, of course. Perhaps they never rise to quite that height. But with the bears back in the pit at Chicago, who isn’t happy to know that the food-grade market has been developed so vigorously and so well?

Now imagine if similar progress had been made in other markets, especially in the domestic sphere.

Part of my complaint, I realize, stems from simple fatigue at having heard too many promises over too many years from one soybean group after another, especially when those groups have made their promises with an aloof and often condescending confidence.

Nor do I want to dismiss the good work that has been done in sectors such as biofuels, or the work that has stemmed from the incredible efforts of dedicated individuals on the farm, in the private sector and beyond.

Soybean growers are right, however, when they believe their crops have untapped use potential, and untapped market potential too.

2015 promises to be a year when such pontential could have paid off.

Tom Button, CG Editor tom.button@fbcpublishing.com 3

Soybean guide

All in a day’s work The Van Kessel family redefines what it means to ‘stay busy’

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

“The challenges to being a good manager never end.”

— Mike Van Kessel

Continued on page 6

4

Soybean Guide, October 2014

Photo credit: david Charlesworth

I

n the old days, farmers were kept busy finding enough hours in a day to get the planting and harvesting done, as well as all the other chores that went with running a farm and keeping up with the demands of day-to-day living. It was simply a fact of life in agriculture. If you don’t like working 16 to 18 hours a day during spring and summer, you’d better find a less-taxing, more orderly vocation — probably in town or in a city.

In many farming circles today, there’s still a wish there could be a few extra hours in a day, especially at the start and the close of the growing season.

But today, the story is the incredible amount of work that a farm family can do, and the unbelievable productivity of modern agriculture.

It’s a reality that today’s consumers would never guess at.

An example is the Van Kessel farmily of Warwick Township. In addition to cash cropping 2,400 acres, Van Kessel Bros. finishes approximately 35,000 hogs per year and, as if that’s not enough, it also runs an on-farm grain elevator which has undergone a recent expansion to a capacity of 1.4 million bushels.

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An expanded grain-drying and storage system creates marketing and income opportunities, but adds to management demands.

Continued from page 4

Farming is in the Van Kessel genes, actually. Mike’s parents came to Canada in 1951 from the Netherlands, and purchased some local farms in the years following their arrival. Mike has been farming with his brother Tony since 1980, and now, Tony’s sons Kyle and Brent are part of the operation. The brothers also have two fulltime employees, and Mike’s wife Jeannine is the bookkeeper for the farm.

On the crops side, Mike and Tony grow a conventional rotation of corn, soybeans and soft red wheat on a combination of owned and rented land, located largely within a triangle formed by the towns of Forest, Watford and Arkona.

“We try never to grow back-to-back corn or beans,” says Mike. “We prefer no till for beans and wheat, and conservation tillage for corn.”

On the livestock side, there’s a nearby farrowing unit, and Van Kessel purchases all of the early weaners under contract from that operation. The receiving elevator is an added advantage for local farmers to dry and store their crops through Lakeside Grain and Feed and its affiliation with London Agricultural Commodities (LAC).

6

Cost of production, Van Kessel says, is the foundation of good farm management.

Caring for the land One of the hallmarks of today’s agriculture is a heightened sense of stewardship and an eye on sustainability. It isn’t enough to simply expand an operation in the chase for “economies of scale.” Such growth requires careful consideration of what the land is capable of yielding.

Van Kessel understands that relationship, and purchased a variable-rate

dry fertilizer spreader in 2013, that he uses in connection with his grid-sampling program.

“Our consultant, Aaron Breimer at Veritas, makes prescriptions based on the soil test results,” says Van Kessel. “We’ve found that many of the unproductive areas didn’t require as much potassium or phosphate, as they had a buildup from years of blanket broadcasting.”

Soybean Guide, October 2014

“We’re extremely picky about when we drive on land.”

— Mike Van Kessel By comparison, Breimer helped the brothers determine that those highly productive lowland areas of their fields required large amounts of P and K. Lime and gypsum, it was found, were also needed as part of the prescriptions, but only in localized areas.

“It’s impossible to do a side-by-side comparison showing the effectiveness of this method of fertilizer application,” says Van Kessel. “But I firmly believe it’s working and that it’s beneficial.”

Part of the recipe for their fertility and nutrient management program is their proximity to their land. Specifically, their barns are close to their land base. The Van Kessels use Boere Irrigation, a local custom drag-hose operator, to apply manure to almost all of their land on a rotating basis, and Mike maintains that the addition of manure over the years has greatly improved the structure of the soil and enhanced its productivity.

“We prefer to drag hose as there’s much less soil compaction,” says Van Kessel. “We had one very wet fall and had to take off our crop in very wet conditions. We saw the effects of compaction from that harvest for many years, and now, we’re extremely picky about when we drive on our land.”

When it comes to challenges, Van Kessel has a unique vantage point. Mike and Tony are kept as busy as they are, managing such a diverse farming operation, yet when asked about the biggest challenge he faces, Mike points to the wind turbine issues that have made the district a focal point for the local battle that’s been developing for the past three or four years. It all comes down to a struggle between landowners with wind turbines on their properties, and those who don’t want them around.

“The Green Energy Act has taken autonomy from the local townships and let non-farmers change the face of our countryside,” says Van Kessel. “There wouldn’t be one commercial turbine in Ontario if it were not for government subsidies, and it certainly doesn’t seem as though wind energy will ever bring down our energy costs.”

Yet whether it’s dealing with the vagaries of the weather, local issues surrounding wind energy or the frustrations from U.S. foot-dragging on country-of-origin labelling, Van Kessel puts it down to a case of “All in a day’s work.”

“The challenges of being a good manager never end,” Van Kessel says.

“Fluctuating commodity prices, weather, crop conditions — there’s always something that needs to be looked at. So I try to keep a handle on my cost of production for all the facets of our business, so we can see what areas we need to pay attention to.”

But farming today also means farming with the future in mind, Van Kessel says.

Not only do people need to eat, the list of products they need from agriculture is growing exponentially, as is the list of professions and careers relating to agriculture.

From a farming perspective, however, Van Kessel is impressed with the young producers entering the industry. They’re bright, energetic and eager, he says, and they’re bringing a lot to the industry. SG

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soybean Guide

1.6 million acres Manitoba’s soybean acres have exploded in 2014, and Saskatchewan farmers are close behind

By Ron Friesen

Y

ou can’t accuse Ernie Sirski of doing things by halves. In fact, he does them by twos, at least when it comes to soybeans.

In 2012, Sirski planted 200 acres of soybeans for the first time on his farm near Dauphin, Man. The next year, he doubled that to 400 acres, averaging an impressive 40 bushels an acre. This spring, despite cool, wet conditions which delayed seeding, Sirski planted 800 acres of soybeans, nearly a quarter of his 3,600 acres of cropland.

That’s still less than his acreage for wheat and canola. But consider this. Sirski’s yearover-year doubling of soybean acres is happening in northwestern Manitoba, four hours from Winnipeg, where soybeans until now have barely been on the radar screen as a commercial crop.

From a marginal crop hugging the Canada-U.S. border, soybeans have begun surging across Manitoba well beyond the Red River Valley, where roughly 80 per cent of the province’s soybeans are still grown. Non-traditional regions include places where soybeans would hardly have been considered a few years back.

According to the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation’s harvest production report, the two areas of the province where soybeans expanded the most in 2013 were Dauphin, Sirski’s home municipality where yields averaged 36 bushels an acre, and the regional municipality of Bifrost in Manitoba’s Interlake region.

What’s remarkable is the extent to Continued on page 10

Ernie Sirski has doubled his soybean acreage every year that he’s grown them, even though he farms ground that was thought too cold for the crop.

8

Soybean Guide, October 2014

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Continued from page 8

which Manitoba’s soybean acreage has expanded in a short time. Since 2011, when Statistics Canada predicted Manitoba farmers would seed 575,000 acres of soybeans, plantings have increased by 225,000 to 250,000 acres annually.

In 2014, StatsCan said Manitoba farmers planted an almost unbelievable 1.3 million acres of soybeans, a 24 per cent increase from 2013.

Next door in Saskatchewan, the acreage, although much smaller, has grown even more rapidly. In 2013, for the first time ever, StatsCan included soybeans in its spring planting intentions for the province. The figure was 170,000 acres. This past spring, growers nearly doubled the crop, planting 300,000 acres there.

Overnight, Saskatchewan has become Canada’s fourth-largest soybean producer, ahead of Prince Edward Island. That’s quite an achievement for a crop which seems to have come from nowhere in a province where wheat is traditionally king.

Normally associated with southern Ontario and the U.S. Midwest, soybeans are relatively new to Western Canada, and it’s fair to say their rapid rise has some farmers rubbing their eyes and wondering: is this for real?

Apparently so. From a minor crop 10 years ago, soybeans today are Manitoba’s third-largest crop behind wheat and canola. Last year the provincial average yield for soybeans was 39 bushels an acre, up from 36 bushels in 2012 and well above the 10-year average of 30 bushels.

There are two reasons for soybeans’ recent success. In the field, the arrival of early-maturing varieties has made them more commercially feasible. Meanwhile, strong prices and steady market demand have notched up the incentive for growers to give them a chance.

Not that long ago, the only soybean varieties available to Manitoba farmers were late maturing, which limited their viability during the province’s relatively short growing season. Since the early 2000s, however, the development of earlier-maturing varieties better suited to local growing conditions has helped the rapid expansion of soybean acres in Manitoba and even farther west.

“Genetics have brought us a long way, as far as shortening maturity,” says Kristen Podolsky, production specialist for the Manitoba Pulse Growers Association.

“That’s led us into this progression and it’s going to continue.

“My No. 1 concern about limitation may come down to variability in weather and climate,” Podolsky says.

Ah, yes, weather and climate — two factors which could yet send a promising crop into a tailspin. Even though some soybean boosters tout Manitoba as the next Iowa, the fact remains that growing conditions north of the 49th parallel are different from those to the south.

Although new improved varieties have reduced the number of days to maturity, soybeans are still a late-season crop. Producers harvest them in September, and there’s no way around that. That makes soybeans more vulnerable to an early frost than some other crops. And in Western Canada frost can

“The real benefit of soybeans is that they allow a warm-season crop into our rotations.”

— Martin Entz

10

and does come early while unharvested crops are still in the field. The average date for the first fall frost in Winnipeg is around September 21. Near Dauphin, where Sirski farms, it’s more like September 12.

For that reason, farmers must seriously consider if they want to play dice with Mother Nature before going into soybeans, says Dennis Lange, a farm production adviser specializing in pulse crops for the Manitoba Agriculture Ministry.

“When they’re planting soybeans, they have to realize it is a late-season crop,” Lange says. “At the end of the day, if they realize there’s potential for a frost in September and beans aren’t going to be mature at that time, they might rethink how many acres they’ll grow in the future.”

Soybeans can be a pretty forgiving crop, able to withstand both wet and hot conditions reasonably well. But even they have their limits. Soybeans require enough precipitation in early August to set seed. If they don’t get it on time (as happened in western Saskatchewan in 2013), yields are affected. Manitoba growers also remember 2004 as the year with no summer which saw cool weather, lots of rain and a killing frost in August. The average provincial soybean yield that year was just eight bushels an acre.

Since then, for the most part, growers have dodged the weather bullet. True, the last two years have seen cool, wet weather in spring, which delayed seeding. But a series of late, warm autumns extended crop development and stretched harvesting into late September and even early October.

Favourable fall weather and earliermaturing varieties are the two main reasons for successful soybean crops in recent years, says Lange.

“We haven’t had any detrimental weather in fall, like an early frost in September. Things have been moving along, and growers have been quite successful at choosing varieties that are suited for their region,” Lange adds. “Part of our expansion has just been due to the fact that we’ve seen some good varieties come along, we’ve seen some good yields, and the weather has co-operated.”

Podolsky believes soybeans are still a high-risk crop on the Prairies, despite advances in genetics. For that reason, she says producers need to consider multiple agronomic factors when selecting a soybean variety, as producers do in any region. But one factor overrides them all: days to maturity.

“Growers should really focus on inforSoybean Guide, October 2014

Dodged another bullet mation about days to maturity because it takes into account all the factors,” Podolsky says. “Regardless of how it gets to maturity, it’s really the number of days it takes that matters.”

Martin Entz, a University of Manitoba plant scientist who specializes in sustainable agriculture, observes that soybeans still represent a small acreage in Western Canada and will probably never rival wheat and canola. But because it’s a commercially viable legume crop, which fixes its own nitrogen, soybeans can be a good fit in crop rotations.

“The real benefit of soybeans is that they allow a warm-season crop into our rotations,” says Entz. “That gives us some risk management options because canola is very much a cool-season crop. If we have both canola and soybeans on the farm and if we get a cool year, the canola will respond. And if we have a hot year, the soybeans will respond.”

But Entz warns against using soybeans to replace other crops.

“If we’re just going to move from a canola-wheat rotation to a soybean-wheat rotation, then perhaps we haven’t made any progress,” Entz says.

Entz also expresses concern about what soybeans may do to zero- or minimum-tillage systems. Soybeans require warm soil to germinate, and some growers have been known to abandon zero till and cultivate soils black in order to warm up the ground faster.

“That can really come back to hurt us,” Entz says. “Farmers need to think really carefully about that.”

Another concern is the fact that most soybean varieties grown in Manitoba are glyphosate resistant. Entz warns that, with the arrival of second-generation Roundup Ready soybeans, the continuous use of glyphosate will create greater selection pressure and increase the presence of glyphosate-resistant weeds. A rotation which also contains Roundup Ready canola only adds to the risk.

While welcoming the arrival of soybeans in the West, Entz says it should be seen mainly as an opportunity to diversify crop rotations. He encourages producers to approach soybeans carefully and not to treat them as a new Cinderella crop.

“If you grow some, get some experience with it. Grow varieties that are suited to your length of season,” Entz says. “And if there are no varieties suited to your length of season, maybe you should be considering whether you even want to grow them.” SG Soybean Guide, October 2014

M

anitoba soybean producers narrowly escaped a crop disaster this September when early frosts caused only minor damage to the ripening crop.

But it was a wake-up call to warn growers that Manitoba is not Iowa,

and that soybeans remain a high-risk crop the farther north you go.

“It’s a reminder that we are growing a long-season crop in Manitoba,” said Dennis Lange, a Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Development farm production adviser. “Even with early-season varieties, we are still growing a crop you’re not going to be harvesting in August. You’re going to be harvesting in mid- to late September.”

Lange said the frost which swept across Manitoba in mid-September caused “very minimal damage” to soybean crops. Temperatures dipped to only -1 C in most locations, although some regions reported readings as low as -3 C. Most crops experienced some browning on the upper leaves but no damage to ripening pods. A few crops, though, saw damage to the bottom of the plant.

Lange said an estimated 75 per cent of Manitoba’s soybean crop was in the R7 growth stage by the second week in September. That’s when a plant contains at least one mature brown pod.

2014 was a challenging growing season for Manitoba soybean growers, beginning with a late spring which delayed seeding, excessive moisture in June, cool weather in early summer, a dry spell from mid-July to early August, and then the mid-month frost in September.

Despite erratic growing conditions, the crop outlook has been generally positive. Just before harvest, Lange was predicting an average provincial soybean yield of around 32 bushels an acre, down from a record 39 bushels an acre in 2013 but still close to the provincial 10-year average yield.

Manitoba growers insured just under 1.3 million acres of soybeans in 2014, another record for the province’s most rapidly expanding crop.

Lange said the difficult season proved once again that Manitoba’s extreme climate requires special strategies for growing soybeans, which, despite early-season varieties, are still more suited for southern regions than northern ones. He stresses three key recommendations: 1. Plant varieties suited to your growing region.

2. Plant when soil temperatures are best for emergence (at least 10 C).

Base planting decisions on how many acres you have. If you have only 160 acres of soybeans, you can afford to wait until the ground warms up enough. But if you have several thousand acres, you may have to push the envelope to get them all planted in May. 3. If you start pushing your seeding into June, harvest may be delayed and your risk of frost increases. You’re going to be combining soybeans in late September no matter what. You don’t want to wait until October, when overnight frosts can occur regularly.

11

soybean guide

The market

challenge S

As the world stumbles into 2015, the job for soybean producers is to figure out where to look for market rallies

By Philip Shaw

12

oybeans are often called the great liars, a reputation they get because sometimes the crop looks tremendous in the field, but then fails to yield as much as expected. On the other hand, the yield is sometimes very surprising compared to how poor a soybean stand might look.

It’s for this reason that soybeans can sometimes be the great wild card in our production estimates.

Soybeans have been the great favourite in 2014, with farmers across the huge North American Corn Belt shifting more acres to soybeans this year. Of course, that had as much to do with the decline in corn prices as with any strength in soybeans.

The USDA has pegged American soybean acreage at 84.8 million acres in 2014, which is an 11 per cent increase from the year before and a new record.

That new record wasn’t set by just a little bit, by the way. This crop is a whopping seven million acres bigger than anything we’ve seen before.

The expected harvested acreage in United States in early fall was set at 84.1 million acres with an expected yield of 45.4 bushels per acre, although these numbers will be massaged as we get further into harvest.

At the same time corn acreage was projected at 91.64 million acres, which is the smallest corn acreage since 2010, but still the fifth largest since 1944.

So soybeans are winning the day in the battle of the acres in the United States.

It is the same in Eastern Canada with Ontario soybean acres this year projected at 3.03 million acres, up from 2.495 million acres last year. The projected yield by Statistics Canada is 43.2 bushels per acre.

Quebec has an estimated 836,500 acres, up from 710,400 last year, and the expected yield there is 43.5 bushels per acre.

As in the U.S., the great loser in this

surge in soybean planting has been corn acres, as well as a smaller-than-expected wheat planting in Ontario in the fall of 2013.

New crop soybean pr ices have responded accordingly, based on the projected acreage, heading down to the $10-bushel range, which is clearly much lower than last year.

The great challenge for producers is to measure just where we are now with regard to the soybean market structure and prices. As we look toward the spring of 2015, will the soybean market need to bid aggressively to keep the acres away from the corn market?

Or will the corn market have to bid aggressively to take back all those soybean acres that have gone in at its expense over the last two years?

There are other questions too. Which underlying factors will be the key market determinants as we head into 2015? Will the corn market rebound, making it easier to take all those acres back from beans?

And will the value of the Canadian dollar change everything?

As the 2014 production year comes to an end, much will depend on the actual soybean yield that comes out of the field.

Yes, the USDA has spoken with its projected yield of 45.4 bushels per acre, but late-season diseases and the lack of rainfall may cause this number to drop.

Or, there is always a chance that this number will rise. Weather will remain the key.

With the total projected supply of 3.971 billion bushels of soybeans in 2014-15, USDA is projecting demand to be 3.541 billion bushels with ending stocks of 430 million bushels.

That ending stock figure is more than three times higher than the ending stocks of 2013-14 of 140 million bushels.

That statistic alone has contributed to the USDA projecting cash prices to American farmers from $9.35 to $11.35 a bushel, far below the $13 and $14 enjoyed Soybean Guide, October 2014

by American farmers last year. With ending stocks that high, lower prices would seem to be in for the long term.

Of course any discussion about soybean prices in Canada has to involve the value of the Canadian dollar, which is currently trading at .9151 U.S., boosting basis values. As of early September, oldcrop basis levels were approximately $2.75 above the November futures price, and new-crop basis values ranged from 25 to 35 cents over the November 2014 futures price.

The soybeans priced in Canada have a more direct connection to the U.S. dollar, making them very sensitive to foreign exchange. Any movement in the Canadian dollar can have a huge effect on cash pricing. In fact, the lower loonie in September 2014 has mitigated some of the price decline over the last year.

The Canadian dollar affects our cash prices greatly. However, often overlooked is the effect on grain futures prices by a change in the value of the U.S. dollar.

The U.S. dollar is the world’s default currency and any appreciation in its value makes these commodities more expensive in the world’s currencies. On September 4, the U.S. dollar index reached a 13-month high in response to the European Central Bank cutting interest rates. If the U.S. dollar remains high, it will act as a drag on futures price appreciation.

The switch to soybeans was not and is not restricted to North America. As we all know, South America produces more soybeans than North America and it will be planting soybeans in October and November of 2014 for its upcoming season. While last year Argentina produced 54 million metric tonnes (MMT) and Brazil 87.50, in 2014-15 USDA is projecting the same 54 MMT crop in Argentina but boosting Brazil’s crop up to 91 MMT. It’s all theory now, but the spectre of big South American crops weighs on the market.

Darin Newsom, senior grain analyst for DTN/Progressive Farmer in Omaha, Nebraska believes 2015 could be a makeor-break year for soybeans. South American production is set to rise in 2015, making all producers so much more dependent on Chinese demand and the Chinese economy. There are logistics problems in Brazil as well as Soybean Guide, October 2014

“Despite the bearishness of late 2014, there will be marketing opportunities ahead.”

Argentina, but if all of these beans do come to market, it will have a significant negative impact on soybean prices.

Of course all this news sounds very negative for soybeans as we look into 2015. Many farmers follow their rotations closely, but the rise in soybean acres over the last year is very telling.

Clearly, farmers also planned with their pocketbook.

Corn is much more expensive to grow, with simple variable costs of between $400 and $500 an acre.

After you pay those costs, fixed costs must be accounted for and there isn’t a lot left from $3.50-$4 corn prices. So strictly from an agricultural economic perspective, unless things change there will be a movement away from corn into soybeans in 2015.

At least, this is what it looks like now in the early fall of 2014. But this is agriculture, and we know that not everything stays the same.

While this year the United States had a very healthy-looking soybean crop, that may not necessarily hold true in South America this winter. Even though its crop potential is huge, you have to

consider whether it will actually happen or not.

China remains an almost insatiable source of global demand for soybeans.

Chinese demand has risen almost fivefold over the last 20 years and its imports now are over 70 per cent of the U.S. crop.

However, it also imports many South American soybeans. This demand is growing and will continue to grow.

It is hard to imagine Ontario planting more soybean acres in 2015 than the record 3.03 million planted in 2014.

Much will depend on wheat planting in the fall of 2014 and on any price strength in corn over the winter season.

The challenge for soybean producers is to take advantage of market rallies as the different market conditions shift into 2015. Demand for non-GMO soybeans remains strong.

The only constant in agriculture is change. That goes for the soybean market too.

Despite the bearishness of late 2014, there will be marketing opportunities ahead. Soybeans might be the great liars, but at the end of the day, they always tell the truth. SG 13

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Soybean guide

Slowly on to

traceability T

he word gets rolled out every time there’s a scare about foodborne illness, or when a meat or vegetable recall hits the headlines. It’s traceability.

On the food side of the agri-food industry, it’s a word that instils confidence and trust. Yet on the agricultural side — at least, on the crop side — it too often instils doubts, impatience and talk of unkept promises.

In livestock production as well as in much of horticulture, traceability is becoming part of the cost of doing business in Canada. In grains and oilseeds, it’s nowhere.

Or so it seems.

“Admittedly, soybeans are maybe further along than most commodities are, although wheat is quickly catching up to it,” says Martin Vanderloo, president of Huron Commodities in Clinton, Ont. “There are so many different traits in the same crop, whether it be protein or seed size or taste or sucrose content,” Vanderloo says. “Every variety is different, and there are many different applications for the soybeans. Therefore you have to have some sort of system in place

to be able to assure the client that yes, that’s what you’re getting.”

Seed certification is one aspect of the IP sector that Vanderloo insists on, with a copy of either the bag tag or the seed invoice as proof. It’s the way he’s done business for a number of years, and given the perception of Canada in other countries, he believes even the suggestion of traceability is worth the added effort. He refers to a conversation he had with a customer in Japan a few years ago, about branding of Canadian soybean products and how valuable it was to have the Canadian flag and logos on the packages.

“The wilderness and fresh water, and everything that’s good about nature ‘is’ Canada,” the buyer told Vanderloo. “If I can put the Canadian flag on my package of tofu, I think that’s a good bargaining tool, and I think I’m going to gain market share.”

Such reactions are why the Canadian government launched its Canada brand, with the only stipulation being that processors and manufacturers show that Canadian soybeans are being used. If a processor or manufacturer can prove that — through contracts and seed tags

The low percentage of certified seed used in cereal production is a concern, particularly in moving traceability initiatives in the cereals sector forward.

16

Traceability may be inevitable, and it may even be welcomed by farmers, but it is arriving in baby steps

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor — then they can use the logo, and look for a premium.

“Sometimes we sell ourselves a little short here,” says Vanderloo. “The Japanese consumer has a good impression of Canada and all that’s good about it. It’s to the point where the manufacturer in Japan wants to make use of that as a marketing tool, and I say, ‘Great! Go for it!’”

Double the effect As a farmer, as vice-president of sales and marketing for Pride Seeds and also as a past president of the Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA), Steve Denys also believes traceability is getting more entrenched in the crop sector.

As a farmer, he grows some of his crops under contracts that let him apply some sprays, but not others, based on terms laid out by the buyer. He signs those contracts and abides by the conditions, which represents a form of traceability.

But as a seed company executive and former CSTA director and president, Denys is concerned with the certified seed issue, especially in the cereals sector where bin-run usage is still a huge issue.

“It’s a bigger problem out west than it

Certified seed has been a starting point for traceability, particularly in IP soybeans and genetically modified corn and soybeans for nearly 20 years.

Soybean Guide, October 2014

Contracts for edible beans specify which chemical sprays can be used, pointing to another level of traceability in the row-crops sector.

“The consumer in Japan views Canada as big and the wilderness and fresh water, and everything that’s good about nature ‘is’ Canada.”

is here,” says Denys, who farms just outside of Chatham, Ont. “What’s interesting about it is the broader debate with western cereals, where you’re sitting at less than 20 per cent in certified seed.”

Denys believes farmers need to adopt certified seed in order to continue getting the kind of new genetics that will help keep Canada one of the world’s best and most competitive wheat growers.

But he also sees implications for traceability. “We’re at a fork in the road, and some — like myself — are saying, if you don’t have certified seed, you’re never going to be able to have traceability, because you cannot guarantee that you’re dealing with a homogenous source.”

— Martin Vanderloo, Huron Commodities

Traceability and sustainability From David Sparling’s vantage point, traceability is inevitable. It’s happening in other countries, says Sparling, professor of agri-food innovation at the Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ont. Sparling says it’s only a matter of time before it migrates into North America and Canada on a more visible, definable level.

“What’s amazing to me is how slowly it’s coming,” says Sparling. “I worked on the Can-Trace project in 2003, and we’re still asking many of the same questions as we were then. And it’s partly because with the exception of the food safety driver and some of the economic drivers Soybean Guide, October 2014

around things such as free range and organic, there just hasn’t been enough of the need, and certainly not enough of a recognition of the value in traceability.”

The greatest potential Sparling sees for traceability is the North American “mimicking” of what’s happening in Europe and other regions. Markets for free range and organic often have a secondary impact on retailers, encouraging other stores to push traceability through the value chain.

In that scenario, Sparling believes there’s more urgency on the part of retailers to implement a traceability system than any pressure from consumers. The first is regulatory; there can be food safety reasons for putting traceability systems in place. In some sectors, he says, there has been significant progress, but not necessarily in crops, primarily because there aren’t large issues pertaining to food safety.

“The other motivator that we’re seeing deals with the question, ‘Can you add value through traceability?’” says Sparling. He cites IP soybeans as a first step, not a complete trace-back to the farm, but definitely a process to establish assurance and consistency. “So there’s been a market value piece to it, but with most of the row crops, there hasn’t been either an economic or a food safety motivation to move ahead with this.”

Where traceability could see more application to row crops may be in the

rapid evolution of sustainability, and being able to prove that a crop was produced according to a certain set of criteria, and that it was produced for instance to be carbon neutral.

Precision pays One game changer could be precision ag technology. Variable-rate systems, data management, and precision planting could all help growers derive value from information that many are already gleaning from their operations.

“To me, this is where the sustainability piece will come,” says Sparling.

“They’ll start to collect more information on what they use in terms of inputs, where they put it, and that’s just good management practices for field crops.

But it also provides a lot of the information that you need to be able to do much more full-chain traceability.”

In more ways than one, that’s good news for farmers, Sparling argues. In effect, he says, traceability will work hand in glove with efforts to become a more productive, more profitable farmer.

Says Sparling: “One of the things that gets missed in the whole traceability equation is that if you actually know where all of your material is all the time, and track it all the way through the chain, you should be able to achieve higher quality and efficiency.” SG 17

Soybean guide

Photo courtesy of Adam Varenhorst, Purdue University

Determining whether bees affect soybean yield is not only complex, but it could take years of research.

Buzzing

about bean yields

S

ome call it serendipity. Others say it merely proves the old adage that you make your own luck. Either way, some of the world’s biggest scientific breakthroughs have come when the researcher was actually looking for something else. Think penicillin, for example.

Matt O’Neal is more a member of the group that says it all boils down to hard work, and knowing how to make use of what you find. As an assistant professor of entomology at Iowa State University, O’Neal has been involved in several studies on bees and their impact on, unexpectedly, soybeans.

Despite the long-held view that soybeans are self-pollinating and therefore don’t need an insect to move their pollen about, O’Neal has been looking at conservation practices using prairie plants and other species that could entice beneficial insects.

The work started with searching for beneficials to combat soybean aphids.

Now, it’s directly focused on what impact bees might have on soybean yield.

But it isn’t an overnight project. It started a decade ago, and continues today.

“I started at Iowa State in 2004, and I was hired during an outbreak of the soybean aphid,” says O’Neal, adding that some of his early work examined landscape factors that could help researchers

18

understand where and when an aphid outbreak was occurring.

“One thing we learned in the first five years — from 2004 to 2009 — was that the landscape around soybean fields helped predict the risk for a soybean field. And what we learned over the course of several studies was that there’s a community of beneficial insects — predators — that will feed on the soybean aphid, and if given the chance, under certain conditions, can prevent outbreaks from occurring.”

At the same time, another group of researchers were taking a comprehensive look at incorporating strips or small areas of prairie plants into a watershed or catchment area that grows corn and soybeans.

Their goal was to see if those strips would reduce the amount of sediment loss coming off those fields, and reduce the amount of nitrate and phosphorus moving out of those fields as well.

A second question would then be, if you have these prairie strips, would you see more beneficial insects in them, and would their benefits spill over into adjacent crop fields?

Beneficial insects include pollinators such as bees, and some of the sampling techniques that O’Neal and his students used caught bees almost by accident.

The research is preliminary, but early results suggest that some bees might be good for soybean crops

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor Mistaken identity It’s worth noting that nearly two years ago, there was a citation in a U.S. farm publication of a similar Canadian study on the effect of honeybees and higher yields on food-grade soybeans. But O’Neal says that the particular citation was incorrect, and that the work was actually done in Brazil.

In those trials, researchers set up beeproof cages in large soybean fields during flowering, says O’Neal. The team then compared yields from plants that were caged against plants that were visited by bees. They found about a six per cent increase in yield when the bees had access to the flowering soybeans.

These bees would be a combination of several species, not limited to honeybees.

So in another part of the field, they placed eight honeybee hives and they repeated the experiment.

With the honeybees nearby, the soybean yield was 18 per cent higher.

On the surface, the take-home message would be that soybean yields Continued on page 20

Soybean Guide, October 2014

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Continued from page 18

respond to bees, and that when researchers controlled for the type of bee, they could get a different yield response.

But there was a problem, O’Neal says, because the research wasn’t adequately replicated. There was one large field and the “replications” were the caged plants, not another field test conducted under the same specifications.

O’Neal says he’d regard that study as successful in indicating some evidence to support the hypothesis that bees can improve the yield of soybeans. But it’s mainly a starting point, not the basis for making specific changes in farm management practices.

“How do you tell a farmer in Iowa how to take advantage of that?” asks O’Neal.

“How many honeybee hives would it take, and for how long should the plants be exposed? Think about science breaking down between biological and management when it comes to agriculture. Biological studies show what’s possible, but when it comes to management, you have all kinds of questions how. It’s kind of not yet ready for prime time to think about how we would incorporate honeybees into soybean production.”

In the last three years, O’Neal has been studying the community of bees that visits soybeans and corn, and honeybees are there, but they’re not the most abundant bee in the soybean-growing region in North America. In fact, O’Neal has seen a community that encompasses at least 40 or more bee species. And not all of them forage on flowers.

Even so, when O’Neal and his colleagues focused their attention on the most abundant bee species, anywhere from 20 to 30 per cent had soybean pollen on them.

That suggests that bees do use soybeans as a food source, even though there are probably forage sources out there that they prefer. It seems that if better food isn’t readily available, they’ll go with what they can get.

“There can be, at times, a lot of soybean flowers available to bees, and not just honeybees. There are probably some species that can do well in those landscapes,” says O’Neal. “But that’s a huge black box that nobody knows much about, and we’ve only scratched the surface. When we look at the bees that we capture, a subset of them has corn and soybean pollen on it, and that gives us some insight that, yes, these bees are probably there for the corn and soybeans.”

Not all the reaction to his research was positive, but as he has continued to pull 20

“Biological studies show what’s possible, but when it comes to management, you have all kinds of questions how.”

— Dr. Matt O’Neal, Iowa State University evidence together, more researchers have gotten involved, and now there is interest in Ohio, Kansas and Manitoba — even in China — for doing local research.

What’s interesting, especially in North America, is that they’re finding many of the same species of bees everywhere they look. In conducting the research in other regions, O’Neal learned that Manitoba has the greatest number of honeybees in its soybean fields, while Kansas has the most diverse community of bees.

Asked if the preliminary results indicated any sign of a yield bump in soybeans due to the presence of bees, O’Neal replies that the research wasn’t designed to do that. Instead, it would provide an understanding of the bee community and the best way to measure its abundance and diversity.

Indiana research Christian Krupke, associate professor of entomology at Purdue University is leading an effort among north-central entomologists focusing on which species of pollinators are present, and how far they fly into the field.

One of the perceptions about bees revealed in the recent debate concerning neonicotinoid-based seed treatments is the assumption that all bees are honeybees, which is not true. Determining whether they are a native species or if they are domesticated can create multiple layers in the research for both Krupke and O’Neal. If the bees are native, as O’Neal states, there are as many as 40 different potential species.

“There are many species of native pollinators that have been here since long before we got here, and are specialized on crops and flowers of different sizes and shapes,” says Krupke. “In many cases, they’re more efficient than honeybees because they’re tiny, they can get right into that flower, they can buzz their wings to pollinate and they’re far more adapted to certain plants.”

Yet little is known about these species.

Nor do researchers know how to raise them in large quantities. As well, it’s hard to determine where they are, and the kind of a nesting habitat they like.

The other problem is that most of them are solitary species, which makes it difficult to increase their numbers and use them for agriculture of any scale.

“If we go 100 metres, 200 or 500 metres into a field, the number of bees may drop dramatically, because that’s a long way to go into a crop that doesn’t offer a lot of resources to a bee,” says Krupke. “If they do have an impact, it may be restricted mainly to the edges of large fields, because they just can’t go far; they’re too small and there aren’t enough of them. If we don’t find any bees in our surveys that extend 500 metres into the field, then there’s the answer — they’re probably not affecting yield.”

Stretching the limits O’Neal believes there’s much more to the issue of bees and soybean yields, which is why he’s looking into the diversity created within a comprehensive management program. Working with other researchers as part of the STRIPs group — Science-based Trials of Row-crops Integrated with Prairies — he hopes to develop an overall approach that looks at the impacts of surface-water management, erosion control and prairie strips.

“The trick is, you’re looking for those efficiencies that you can build along similar lines,” say O’Neal. “For me, if I had a menu of practices and I was trying to select ones that are most important for pollinator conservation, habitat and improved forages would be at the top. Below that would be reducing the exposure to pesticides, and below that cover crops.”

There is definitely a soil-health component to growing cover crops, but O’Neal suggests it may be minimal advantage to conserving bees. Cover crops scavenge residual nutrients and they might provide a little microclimate that’s better than bare soil for ground-nesting bees, but in the end, the cover crop will be “burned down” or tilled.

As for incorporating prairie strips on a farm, the challenge is to prove there’s a payback for farmers. Right now, the STRIPs group has some 20 farmers interested in taking part in this research.

However, U.S. farmers also have access to local, state and federal programs, including the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) that can help offset the value of production being set aside for the prairie strips. In Canada, a similar opportunity isn’t as readily or widely available. SG Soybean Guide, October 2014

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Soybean guide

A look back at thicker soy stands

S

ometimes it’s best to take a quick look in the rear-view mirror before considering where to go next. In farming, of course, it isn’t that simple.

The weather next year will never be exactly the same as it was this year, and pest and disease pressures will vary too.

Still, it’s essential to look for lessons, and if the 2014 growing season has taught farmers, retailers and extension personnel anything, it’s that planting conditions and cool summer weather can combine in the worst ways.

In turn, that means the big lesson this year is all about the risk of lower seed populations.

Seeding rates Seeding rates have been a hot topic for the past three to five years. Then, with a drop in soybean prices in the forecasts last spring, many growers shaved their rates in order to cut their production costs.

Yet cutting your seeding rate isn’t for the faint of heart, and Horst Bohner for one isn’t a strong advocate of the practice.

Bohner understands the theory — beans are genetically good at compensating for low populations — and under ideal conditions, he says, it’s always good to keep an open mind about basic practices like populations.

But Bohner, soybean specialist for the Ontario agriculture ministry says this year, conditions weren’t at all ideal in most fields.

“You can solve a lot of agronomic problems by simply increasing the seeding rate or keeping it at a relatively high rate,” says Bohner. “An acre of land needs a certain minimum number of plants for maximum yields. If you fall below that, you will give up yield.

“By keeping seeding rates reasonably high,” Bohner explains, “you increase the chances of an acceptable stand. Problems associated with soil crusting, poor depth control, excess corn residue, insect feeding or a little bit of phytophthora are reduced by putting down enough seed.”

Yes, he adds, under ideal conditions

22

and a long growing season, and by selecting the best tall and bushy variety for a specific zone or field, it’s possible for a grower to get away with a lower plant density.

“But this 2014 growing season is a perfect example of why it doesn’t always work,” says Bohner. “We had problems with plant stands, and with pod-set per plant.

“What we care about is the number of seeds per acre and the size of the seed. We don’t care about how many plants you have out there, but if every plant can only bear so much in a given year…”

So when planting rates go down, each of the plants is responsible for an even larger share of the overall yield, and there are also fewer plants to fight against any of the challenges that are almost bound to come up.

In other words, you’re heading into “whatever can go wrong will go wrong” territory.

Of course, fields can be overplanted too, especially where there’s a history of white mould, or when overplanting results in lodging.

Is 2014 proof that we’ve been going in the wrong direction with soybean populations?

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor “Within management strategies,” Bohner says, “there is a huge range, and there are producers who make lower populations work for them, and good on them — why not?”

But, he adds, just because it can sometimes happen doesn’t mean that it’s always a good idea: “It certainly takes a higher level of management when you get into those more unique strategies.”

The long and the short of it is that the growing season, even in extreme southwestern Ontario, is relatively short, and the goal is to capture as much sunlight as possible.

“If you go to wider rows and reduced populations, you just don’t have the leaf area to catch the sunlight,” Bohner says.

Diseases — East and West As might be expected, sclerotinia (white mould) has been a problem both in eastern Ontario and in the southwest this year. For Clare Kinlin, sclerotinia is a constant issue in the east, one that was so bad in 2014 that in some fields he could see it from the highway.

In a growing season such as 2014, bumping seeding rates can overcome poor stands, planting issues, even poor pod-set.

Soybean Guide, October 2014

White mould was a definite challenge, both in eastern and southwestern Ontario.

“You can solve a lot of agronomic problems by simply increasing the seeding rate.”

— Horst Bohner, OMAFRA Unfortunately, Kinlin says, the disease isn’t likely to go away any time soon, given the trend in rotation practices.

“We’re growing more and more soybeans every year,” says Kinlin, sales manager of the crop division for MacEwen Agricentre, based in Maxville, Ont. “We’re really starting to turn into a corn-soybean rotation.”

More beans in the rotation mean more pressure from white mould, especially in a moderately wet climate like eastern Ontario.

On the positive side though, growers are hungry for more information on how to overcome or compensate for the disease.

“They’re saying, ‘OK, we’re trying to get a tonne and a half out of these fields, so how do we get these beans to yield?’” says Kinlin. “There’s a real desire to get beans to yield, and the really frustrating part with soybeans is trying to get them to respond to anything.”

Plant populations in the region are generally 180,000 to 200,000, which was a slight increase for 2014. There’s also a greater tendency to move to 30-inch rows, a practice that’s gaining ground as more growers get rid of their drills and switch soybeans to their planters. The move is giving them better everything — better depth control, better emergence, better stands and less white mould.

Soybean Guide, October 2014

“White mould is the big one, and it’s bad, it’s here to stay and that’s nothing new,” says Kinlin, setting his sights on 2015.

Asked if there’s anything to combat sclerotinia going forward into 2015, Kinlin says it all comes down to one thing: “Residue management — that first pass for next year is the combine this fall.

We need to do a better job of (corn) residue management, in terms of spreading it or working it in uniformly and consistently. With 200-bushel corn and that leaves a lot of residue, and beans struggle with that.”

Six-hours’ drive west and south, Dave Curry faced the same problem in 2014. As agronomist with Parkland Farms near Sarnia, Ont., Curry oversees the operation of several thousand acres each year. And like Kinlin, he’s seen more white mould than he’d care to, although he would have expected to see more, given the cooler and wetter growing conditions this past year.

“We’re usually pretty good about planting the right variety in a field that we know has a history of white mould, where we tried to make sure we were going in with wider rows and actually planting with lower seeding populations, and planting a variety with a good genetic resistance to it,” says Curry.

Still, Parkland’s soybeans were largely planted during the last week of May and

early June this year, so the crop wasn’t as lush and the onset of white mould was slower. “There was the odd pocket,” Curry says, “but I didn’t come across as much as I would have expected.”

Another sign of the cool, wet weather that Curry had to deal with was a higherthan-usual incidence of rhizoctonia on the wet spots that had some compaction issues in heavier clay. Despite the wetterthan-normal conditions, even in spite of the later planting, phytophthora wasn’t a problem, and sudden death syndrome was only an issue later in the season.

Curry was busy taking notes late in August, and mapping out the cropping plan for 2015, and perhaps eyeing 2016 in an effort to stem the spread of all of the diseases he saw.

“With certain diseases they’re going to last a lot longer,” says Curry, noting that the sclerotia associated with white mould can remain viable in the soil for years.

“It’s not a matter of if you rotate away for a couple of years, it’s gone,” Curry says.

“We need to plan it longer term so that when we go back in with soybeans, we make the proper management decisions.”

Curry adds that it’d be great to be able to break the disease cycle completely by putting in a forage crop for three or four years, but for most growers, including his operation, that’s not an option. Many farmers he knows are moving to tighter rotations, although he’s maintaining his three-crop plan because he says he gets upwards of a five-bushel-per-acre yield rotational bump on his soybeans.

Curry also tries to manage the farming operation with very little tillage, yet he acknowledges there’s the temptation to bury the sclerotia associated with white mould, even to reduce the pressure for a year. But research from the U.S. suggests that given the long life of those mould spores, it’s possible that when you try to bury one year’s sclerotia, you bring other, still viable sclerotia back up to the surface.

Curry’s other concern is fungicide resistance. According to reports from the U.S., populations of two diseases, frogeye leaf spot and rhizoctonia have been confirmed to be resistant to strobilurins, and he’s watching that situation.

It’s still a long way from his Ontario ground, but Curry says that he knows of sugar beet farms in Lambton County and in Michigan that have run out of answers to the Cercospora resistance problem.

And he wonders if its spread into soybeans closer to home isn’t just a matter of time. SG 23

Soybean guide

Biotech is ready to turn 20, but still hasn’t won the public relations battle

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

“Science and safety still have to be — and must remain — our bedrock.”

— Chris Davison, Syngenta Canada

Two decades later

B

iotechnology has been part of the farm landscape for nearly a generation, becoming a staple of agriculture in North America and spreading around the world. Yet there is still a vocal minority of non-farmers who are opposed to biotechnology. And it can seem like their number and their power is growing.

Now the question is, are farmers inevitably going to be pushed backwards in time, losing their biotech gains at the very moment when the world needs more grains and oilseeds than ever?

A glance at the headlines seems to justify the concern. Anti-GM labelling campaigns, angry mothers lobbying Washington, China rejecting GM corn… such reports used to seem easy to dismiss as fringe, sensationalist or mercenary, but they’re not so easy to ignore anymore. Today, they’re in mainstream media, and they’re shaping the ground that farmers have to work in.

Need to stay positive Amid the negativity, there are good news stories too. The consensus in the agri-food industry, for instance, is that it

Advances in biotechnology have provided farmers, big or small, with access to elite hybrids and varieties.

isn’t a majority of consumers who are opposed to biotech. It’s still the vocal minority.

And the consensus is also that the majority can still be reached with relevant, factual and balanced information.

“What we are faced with is the fact that very few Canadians have the same connection to agriculture as they once had,” says Nadine Sisk, vice-president of communications and member services with CropLife Canada. “Our research indicates that people don’t even understand the impact of weeds in a field — so they don’t understand that farmers want to keep weeds out of their fields.”

For Sisk, educating consumers who know so little about the farm is now a complex, long-term process.

From Syngenta Canada’s perspective, there are two messages that agriculture must succeed in getting across, says Chris Davison, head of corporate affairs for the company. First is that agricultural biotech can and does improve productivity. In other words, if farmers are to have any chance of feeding our surging global population, they need biotech.

“Secondly, I would say that science and safety still have to be our bedrock,” says Davison. “We have a track record with biotechnology that supports that.”

There are other messages too, Davison agrees. “But we have to start with those.”

In other words, the discussion starts with agreement that we must feed the world, and also with the agreement that science is our best guide to ensuring we do it safely and wisely.

Such a conversation gets away from a polarized “either/or” start, Davison says, and it reframes the discussion in a spirit of dialogue and collaboration.

Farming came first Trish Jordan, public and industry affairs director with Monsanto Canada, concedes that in the early days of biotechnology, the agribusiness sector overlooked the consumer.

“That was probably a mistake on our part,” Jordan now says. “We were so busy Continued on page 26

24

Soybean Guide, October 2014

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Continued from page 24

focusing on our customer, who is the farmer, that we didn’t realize that the whole issue of food and farming and where your food comes from and how it’s grown was something that consumers wanted to know.”

Now, says Jordan, companies like Monsanto see the need to branch those discussions out, talking not only to farmers and shareholders, “but also talking to consumers like mothers, millennials, the food-minded — because that’s where these discussions are happening.”

When agriculture let the opportunity slip, other groups jumped in and started claiming that space. The result has been a mass of biotech misinformation.

Now, farmers and industry are tackling that challenge, often hand in hand.

And they have made a crucial decision.

That is to focus on those who are willing to listen, instead of trying to convert those who never will.

They are also getting more scientific.

Surveys in 2012 and 2014 by the U.S.based research group Sullivan Higdon & Sink found friends and family are more trusted as sources of information about f o o d p r o d u c t i o n t h a n t h e U. S .

Department of Agriculture (USDA) or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In the 2012 survey, those numbers were 66 per cent for friends and family,

“Very few Canadians have the same connection to agriculture as they once had.”

— Nadine Sisk, CropLife Canada 59 per cent for the USDA and 57 per cent for the FDA. By 2014, each of those numbers had fallen, (57, 52, and 51 per cent respectively) but the relative rankings still held, with one exception.

Farmers and ranchers held 53 per cent of trust in both years.

That sparks a comment from Jordan.

Farmers have been urging the biotech companies to “do something” to help them. “But we also say, ‘Growers, you’re the most credible source of information available out there,’” says Jordan.

“You have to share your story, you have to partner with us, you have to find ways to get creative, you have to start blogging, you have to invite people out to your farm, you have to get out and talk to students in the classroom,” Jordan says. “And there’s a ton of that going on.”

But not enough.

It’s one more reason why there’s a growing consensus that agriculture needs to do more.

“The vast majority of people who have questions about GMOs want to know — they’re curious, ” Sisk says, but then adds, “they find it difficult to know where to go for information.”

Continues Sisk: “Once we start answering those questions and explain-

One of the standards of biotech innovation is that it has improved productivity, and continues to do so today.

For more info http://whybiotech.ca/resources/SpeakUpMessages.pdf www.croplife.ca 26

ing to them not only the reasons why plant biotech exists, but the potential for this technology to deliver benefits that are good for the world, people get much more comfortable, and are much more willing to accept the rationale for the technology and the fact that it’s regulated, it’s researched and it’s safe.”

Sisk says she has seen it work, seeing participants in focus groups who start out opposed to the technology change their views once biotech’s potential to reduce hunger or to prevent allergies or provide food-health benefits are outlined.

Davison says it helps too when consumers see why farmers opt for biotech.

“We’ve seen (biotech crops) go from in the neighbourhood of 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) globally in 1996 to more than 175 million hectares (432 million acres) in 2013,” he points out.

“That’s been driven by farmer use of this technology.”

At the same time, adds Davison, there’s increasing public interest in where food comes from. Farmers have demonstrated their commitment to the technology, and agribusiness continues to support the technology; now comes the part where the commitment involves those who are interested in learning more about food production as well.

Says Davison: “That’s part of the stewardship of the technology.”

Sisk says people who aren’t communicators or may not have a stronger scie n ce b a c k g ro u n d c a n c h e c k o u t “Confident Conversations.” It’s an initiative designed to help such people have those conversations at the hockey arena or at a community barbecue. Sisk also points to individuals such as Mark Lynas, Hilary Clinton and Neil deGrasse Tyson as champions of genetic modification and GMOs, and that more has to be done to find such influential supporters.

As an advocacy group, there’s also the Council for Biotechnology Information and its Speak-Up Group, which is a collective of academics, media, teachers, farmers and dietitians for sharing insights on how to get the biotech across.

There’s no final report that comes out of these meetings, and no report card, says Jordan. They’re just a dedicated group of individuals pledged to stop the misinformation when they see it. SG Soybean Guide, October 2014

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business

Real-time

financial management Is it good, or too good to be true?

By Andrea Hilderman t sounds like a dream come true, placing current financial data at the fingertips of everyone involved in the farming enterprise so you can make better, more efficient on-the-spot decisions at critical crunch times. And it might not be a pipe dream any longer.

“It’s just the way the world is working,” says Lance Stockbrugger, a chartered accountant, consultant and farmer cropping 4,000 acres in east-central Saskatchewan. “Having all the required financial data at the fingertips of everyone on the farm who needs it makes capturing better deals and negotiating for grain contracts, parts or equipment easier without the need to always second-guess yourself.”

Just like in the field, however, it’s one thing to have the data. It can be quite another thing to put that data to its best use. And also like in the field, while it’s true the data can make you a better manager, it won’t happen instantly or all on its own.

FCC predicts virtually every AgExpert Analyst user will soon use the phone app too.

Stockbrugger, like any other farmer, knows how the “busy work” on the farm can eat into your time, and it’s no surprise to find that bills, receipts and everything else sits day after day in the office waiting to be entered into the system.

That’s the way it used to be — or, in many cases, the way it still is.

Now, farm apps are emerging that enable the capture of data, receipts, bills and so on, at the time the transaction occurs.

FCC’s real-time app is AgExpert Mobile, says Matthew Van Dijk, senior specialist for management software at Farm Credit Canada. “This smartphone app can capture a picture of receipts in real time and sync back to the home or business desktop computer at the push of a button.”

AgExpert Mobile is the travelling companion to FCC’s flagship farm accounting program AgExpert Analyst, a widely adopted program that has been around for 30-plus years.

Some 2,000 farmers are already using AgExpert Mobile, but FCC says it expects that over time, virtually every smartphone owner who uses AgExpert Analyst will become an AgExpert Mobile user too.

This app, and others like it, takes a photo of the receipt or other document. This (a) captures a copy of the document and stores it in the cloud, preventing that all-too-common occurrence of the “lost” receipt, and (b) then with a few taps or swipes allows the information to be marked as an expense or income and to note the supplier, the type and the amount of the transaction.

“At this time, the taxes have to be assigned at the desktop location,” says Van Dijk. “In future, there will be even more functionality added to the app, but for now, if operators use this type of real-time capture of transactional data, they are giving themselves a huge advantage in terms of knowing the whole story of their financial data.”

Security is an obvious question when an app transmits confidential data. “The app does the data capture, and at a tap from the user, will send its data to the cloud,” says Van Dijk. “The cloud then transmits or sends the data down to the office computer.

Continued on page 32

October 2014

country-guide.ca 31

BUSINESS

“It’s important to put some controls on who can enter the data, who can read it.”

— Lance Stockbrugger

Continued from page 31 There is no transmission of data the other way from the home computer to the app.”

Van Dijk says the risks associated with this type of data collection and transmission is far less than, say, credit card data that might be stored on a company server where it can be hacked, as recently happened with The Home Depot in Canada and the U.S. Van Dijk also says that FCC does not collect or mine any data stored on the app.

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toward financial data,” says Stockbrugger. “It is important to put some controls on who can enter the data, who can read it or view it.”

Farmers also need to keep in mind the potential benefits of real-time accounting, Stockbrugger says.

With real-time accounting, buying decisions can be made remotely based on, for instance, the most accurate cost of production. This year’s cost of production can also be compared to previous years. “Maybe it’s just me, but I like as much detail as possible,” says Stockbrugger. “Dollars per unit or per acre, not just dollars.

“I still see far too many farmers trying to figure out a cost of production or other details in the supplier’s office,” Stockbrugger says. “If you don’t know this, you can’t figure out where your profits are, or are not. You can’t make an informed decision about what you should be pre-selling before seeding or at harvest and so on. In order to mitigate risk, this is crucial financial information, and real-time financial management tools make it even easier to have this available even in the busy season — which runs from April through to November in many cases.”

Stockbrugger has embraced cloud storage for other aspects of farm management besides just the financial data. “I have all the farm grain contracts stored in the cloud,” says Stockbrugger.

“I can be swathing canola and I can look at my canola contracts and make decisions at that moment based on what I’m seeing in the crop I’m harvesting. I can lock in prices and make other decisions right from my smartphone sitting in the swather.”

Stockbrugger and his brother Lane also log their field operations in real time. “We find keeping spray records and other field operation records invaluable,” says Stockbrugger. “One of us can look at a field, or be in the field with an agronomist, and pull up the data and make determinations and decisions right then and there. Talk about a time saver.”

Embracing real-time financial management means having a smartphone and an app to facilitate data recording and syncing with the home office.

How many farmers across Canada actually have a smartphone?

“Our latest survey in 2014 showed that 76 per cent of Canadian agriculture producers own a smartphone,” says Van Dijk. “As well, over half own a tablet. Of those producers, 35 per cent use ag-related apps, and a third regularly use banking apps.”

These numbers showed a considerable increase over FCC’s last survey in 2011, when 29 per cent reported having a smartphone and only six per cent a tablet. On top of that startling increase in technology adoption, the survey also demonstrated that Canadian farmers are more willing to try new technologies sooner. In 2011, only 16 per cent of producers felt they would be the first of their peers to try new technology. By 2014 that number had jumped to 26 per cent.

“What this tells FCC, and other businesses that supply farmers, is that their appetite for new technologies is growing,” says Van Dijk. “Farmers are now finding value in new technology and are moving more and more to working with devices and online services.” CG OCTOBER 2014

soil matters………..www.ifao.com

Long Term No Till and Cover Crops Simply the Best to Achieve Healthy and Productive Soils written by Kate Procter

Using cover crops provides many advantages, explains Michon. He has seen an increase in organic matter, more biological activity, improvement in soil structure, more nutrient scavenging, improved nitrogen production, along with better weed control, erosion reduction and improved water holding capacity.

Jocelyn Michon is a soil conservation champion who is convinced that healthy soils make productive soils. Having practiced reduced tillage methods for almost 40 years, Michon shares some the lessons he has learned about keeping soils healthy and productive.

“Tillage is a thing of the past on my farm,” says Michon. He began protecting his soil 37 years ago when he began using reduced tillage methods. The moldboard plow disappeared from his farm 28 years ago, and 20 years ago, he started working with cover crops. For his efforts, Michon has been inducted into the Canadian Conservation Hall of Fame – both for the success he has achieved through using conservation techniques, and for the inspiration he has provided to other farmers.

Growing cover crops has made even more improvements to Michon’s soil. He says that every year, more Quebec farmers are growing them and on his own farm, he has seen constant improvements in soil structure over the years.

“When I flew over the farm last summer, I was able to see the crops – on my long-term no till fields, I could see more uniformity than comparable conventional fields in the neighbourhood.”

Farmers should seriously consider mixing cover crops with no till, says Michon. Begin by thinking of the soil as a habitat for a variety of organisms, including earthworms, fungi, and bacteria. All of these help to maintain soil health, while restoring the physical qualities to the soil. This includes increased accumulation of organic matter, more structural stability, resilience and water infiltration.

Michon’s rotation includes corn, soybeans, spring wheat and vegetables. He was one of the first farmers in Quebec to try planting no-till green beans and no-till peas. Having used a variety of crops over the years, Michon has had success planting seed rye between the corn stalks with a drill after the corn was harvested.

Another cover crop mix includes buckwheat, fava beans, oats, peas, phacelia and radish.

While phacelia makes a good addition to the mix and can handle the cold, he cautions that the seed is expensive. In addition, he has tried alfalfa, white clover and crimson clover strip seeded with spring wheat and radish and fava beans after wheat harvest.

In 2012, Michon replaced his Great Plains drill planter for soybeans. His new system has a trash whipper, modified tines at the back to scratch the surface and wavy coulters at the front to open the soil. The coulters work at a depth of two inches, which helps dry and warm the soil. “A little dust behind the planter is a good thing in my opinion,” says Michon.

Always innovative and with a passion for improving the health of his soil, Michon is not afraid to try new things or make mistakes. “I’ve been doing research on the farm all of my life.”

business

Bucking the trend

New Holland veers away from corporate mega-dealers

hen New Holland vice-president Abe Hughes spoke to a room full of farm media at the company’s North American headquarters in Pennsylvania in July, he wanted to talk about more than the shiny new iron parked outside. It was important, of course, to highlight the innovation in the brand’s 2015 equipment introductions, but Hughes also had another message he wanted to get out: the brand needs dealers.

While that’s something of a surprise, what really got the journalists scribbling was Hughes’ suggestion that big corporate dealership networks need not apply to fill that gap.

Hughes has a vision for the ideal New Holland dealer, and it doesn’t involve a big public corporation run from out of town.

“We’re bucking the trend — and this is really important — I’m not announcing dealer consolidation,” Hughes said. “I know other brands have done that, where they bring dealers together and say, look around the room, look at the dealer to the right, look at the dealer to the left, in five years they’re not going to be here anymore. That’s not what we’re selling. We’re looking to make sure the New Holland brand maintains a strong local presence with independently owned dealer networks.

“We want to have a community link,” Hughes said. “We want to Abe Hughes, vice-president of have people who are on the school New Holland North America. board, who go to the local church, people who have been involved in the community.

We believe this business is best done when there is community engagement and there is trust, honesty and reliability within that community. That’s the New Holland model.”

New Holland’s dealer network must reflect the “authenticity” that’s at the core of the brand, Hughes said. “That’s an important distinction, I would say.

That’s the commitment to the local dealership model.”

Having said that, Hughes acknowledged there are already a few NH dealers which are part of relatively extensive networks, and he has no plans to pull the rug out from under them. Most are doing a pretty

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good job, he believes. It’s just that the giant corporate dealer, which is owned from afar, won’t form the core of the New Holland dealership network of the future.

That puts considerable distance between the blue brand and its sister company Case IH. From the dealer perspective, however, operating multiple locations is something that many say they must do in order to get the operating scale they need to provide the expertise and resources necessary to support today’s high-tech machines. So don’t think Hughes is ruling out the multi-store model. Far from it.

In fact, flexibility in meeting customer needs is at the heart of Hughes’ dealership vision, and it has even influenced the way he has organized Hew Holland. As he sees it, different industry segments need different things from a manufacturer and its dealers.

Hughes’ vision is for a New Holland in three segments, he said. “We don’t just go out and do business as one dealer network or as one type of company. We manage it (our business) in segments.

“First we have our main business, which is dairy and livestock. We have about 450 dairy and livestock dealers, and they sell all kinds of equipment around that. Then we have our other business, which is cash crop, where we have our combines and high-horsepower tractors. All of that is our cash crop dealers, and we have about 150 strong. Then we have our pro work tools; these are our compacts (tractors) and our light construction area.

“We’re managing this business completely different, as businesses need to be run these days. We understand our customer, we understand their needs, and then we go from there.

“We know we’re not No. 1, and our aspiration isn’t to be the biggest. In many markets we are, but in North America our aspiration is to be the best at what we do. And that is in particular in hay and forage and in combining in small grains. We made a great entry into the sprayer market. And we are making really good inroads in developing market share for our high-horsepower tractors. Those are the areas where we want to be the best.”

In a way, Hughes’ strategy seems a little reminiscent of Apple’s. The go-its-own-way technology firm developed a loyal following among customers (some might say a fanatic following) by doing just that. Apple users want something a little different.

Hughes thinks the blue brand’s customers see things in a similar way.

October 2014

Photography: New Holland

By Scott Garvey, CG Machinery Editor

business “We think our customers are a unique bunch of individuals who think a little bit differently, who always want a little bit better out of their equipment,” Hughes said. “They want to be the early adopters on new innovations.

“We want people to have a brand experience with New Holland. It’s not just about the iron. That’s why we’re probably the leading innovators with social media. We’re trying to create an experience around this brand. And that means involving the users.”

In past years Hughes has often said he wants to run his business on integrity, where a handshake means more than a written contract. He reiterated that in July, and he wants dealers who will carry that business philosophy to the showroom floor.

“It’s all about people relationships,” Hughes said.

“That’s how we run the business. We think business should still be done on a handshake. Not as corporations to corporations. We think that’s a unique aspect of the way New Holland does business compared to a lot of the others in this day and age. We want to get back to a lot of those short-liner roots with its real relationships, real authenticity.”

Hughes now wants New Holland dealers who share those core values.

“We want the rural entrepreneurs to think about New Holland as a business proposition,” Hughes said.

Hughes has instituted a plan to give those who choose to open up a New Holland store a bit of an edge to broaden sales opportunities. Merging NH North America’s ag and construction divisions has given his retailers the right to sell both ag and light construction machinery.

“We believe that a lot of skid steers and a lot of backhoes are really used in the agriculture markets.

A lot of those customers are farmers. And more importantly, a lot of our dealer network is in all of those rural communities. A lot of government and municipality business uses light construction as well.

That’s really our whole strategy for pulling all of this together. We’re going to be more present in that municipal business than we have in years.

“There was a time when Ford dominated that business. That Ford backhoe was part and parcel of every municipal community. We want to get back to those days when we have a skid steer, we have a tractor, loader, backhoe and light construction in every municipality. So we (ag and construction) are back together.”

Since beginning his rejuvenation of the brand when he took over North American operations, Hughes has had dealers in mind. Efforts to help them upgrade and carry the brand’s message to customers have been ongoing. This latest announcement works to expand that effort, and there are a few reasons for it.

Hughes wants his dealership plan to not only help reinforce that brand experience for those who walk through retailers’ doors, it also aims to expand the company’s reach into previously under-represented regions. And there is the reality that many existing

October 2014

dealers are getting close to retirement age. They’ll need help transitioning out of the business, which isn’t a problem unique to New Holland. “(In the past) we really spent a lot of time focusing on our biggest and our best (dealers),” Hughes said. “Now, we have to pull up all the rest, including the ones that need an upgrade. What got us to this is we did a huge consultant study over the last couple of years. We went into the network very deeply and discovered quite a few things that we had to get our heads around. For one, we have an aging dealer force. There are a lot of dealers out there who need a succession plan. So we’re working on figuring out how we transition them, because they’re in need of our help.

“Soon we’ll be coming out with an ad campaign,” said Hughes. “We’re looking to recruit dealers in key places. So expect to see more visibility of us actively recruiting dealers.” CG

Back together since January 2013

Two brands — One network — One management

Large and Widespread Network Total locations in U.S. and Canada 996

Dairy and Livestock Cash Crop Pro Work Tools AG and CE

New Holland has given its 996 North American dealers both ag and light construction equipment lines to retail.

country-guide.ca 35

business

Networking and the farm In the first of two parts, networking expert Donna Messer explains why her work should matter to you

By Madeleine Baerg f you challenge yourself to describe a farmer in 10 words or less, before you’re halfway through, you’ll find yourself reaching for words like independent, autonomous and self-reliant.

And no wonder. With all the risks and stresses of agriculture, farmers have earned the rights to that image of strength, resiliency and self-determination.

But, as every farmer also knows, it can also go too far, and the way you can tell it has gone too far is that you find yourself thinking that the only person your farm really needs is you.

Today’s farms are big business. To survive in the 21st century farming game, farmers know they need to leverage all of the business skills necessary in any other business.

The harder question is: do farmers always recognize what skills they need to foster in themselves? Do they set a priority, for instance, on getting better at networking?

Networking?!?

Networking is not what you might think (thank goodness!), and if your first response to the concept is “Ugh,” you can bet it’s time for a rethink.

Networking might make you think of assertive strangers, or of aggressive salespeople always pressing for business. You know the kind, always pushing their business cards on you, and droning on and on about the service or product they hope you’ll give in to.

So, as you might say to yourself, why would you want to learn anything about networking? Who wants to start ambushing people on the street or at business events, holding them awkwardly, frustratingly, uncomfortably hostage in the name of furthering your own business?

Not you, that’s for sure. Because that’s the last thing a good networker would do.

Like everything in life, networking can be done the wrong way (the way you’re imagining) or the right way (the way that could make a significant difference to your farm’s bottom line and your farm’s business health).

Networking does need to matter to you, though, because networking is about encouraging others to care about you, your business and what you produce enough so they want to invest even a little time, energy or, yes, money to help you reach your goals.

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Though high-calibre connections are valuable, so too are the relationships that encourage small changes: someone believing in your story, choosing your farm over someone else’s for a grain contract, putting in a good word about you with others.

“This is not just agriculture, this is not just farmers. This is about people. It’s about life,” says Donna Messer, president of ConnectUs Canada. “You have to build relationships so you have cheerleaders out there.”

A leading expert in networking, Messer says that whether she is consulting to top-tier financial institutions, boards of trade, major law firms, or even universities and colleges, or whether she is working directly with farmers, her message is the same. The true currency of business is personal relationships. When properly cultivated and leveraged, personal relationships can be put to mutual benefit, even if you produce commodities, not highly differentiated brand goods.

Direct-to-consumer and niche agricultural marketers generally understand that telling their story and building relationships with their consumers are key to customer loyalty and business success. But does that apply to the large majority of agricultural producers who grow commodity products for sale to industrial processors or large-scale distributors?

Absolutely, the experts say. Setting yourself apart always makes a difference. october 2014

business When the ship springs a leak

The networking how-to

“If there are 25 farmers and they all grow the same thing, there will come a time when one of those farmers will stand out. It’ll be about who they know — guaranteed,” says Messer. And if you’re not that guy, it’ll be a tough pill to swallow knowing that he’s making more money than you simply because of who he knows.

Second, you need to be the first to swim if your unsinkable ship ever sinks.

It was in ancient Greece that a philosopher first said: “The only thing constant is change itself.” Given that this adage remains as true today as when Heraclitus said it 2,500 years ago, odds are good that the market you believe is entirely stable, and the customers you believe are totally reliable probably aren’t that stable at all.

And when change happens, your only safe plan is to be prepared.

“What is, will not always be,” says Messer. “Ask, how do I prepare myself?” For instance, if you’re a wheat grower, and you’re in a jam because the local basis is so bad, or because the local elevator has stopped accepting deliveries, who do you know that you can talk to who might know someone who might take on your wheat at a reasonable price?

People can be split into three key personality types. Auditory personalities are the life of every party. They are natural networkers who love to work a room. (As you’ve probably guessed, those people probably don’t need this article.)

Kinesthetic personalities make up much of the background hum. These are people who are most comfortable talking one on one, and who prefer an in-depth conversation to a brief and superficial chat.

Finally, visual processors prefer a purpose for conversation and are least likely to be comfortable in a large group setting.

Great networkers understand that the person they are networking with may have a different way of processing the world than they themselves naturally have, and they are able to adjust their conversation style to be more comfortable to the other person.

“People like people who are like themselves. They buy from them, they sell to them,” says Messer.

The solution? First, remember that the world needs all three types, then ask yourself what you could do in order to reach that person in a style that would be comfortable to them. While an auditory personality might need regular contact, a kinesthetic might need a more directed effort, and a visual personality might prefer a solution-based conversation to an emotional exchange.

Second, remember that while your goal is connection, you don’t have to connect exclusively via your product. You are not just a farmer. You might be a parent, a passionate supporter of an art form, a sports junky, a fisherman, a foody, a car lover.

Many others in this world share your passions. In fact, you can find commonality with anyone if you seek it. Relationship starts with finding common ground.

“ Make the person you want to talk to want to talk to you… that’s networking.”

“How do you explore opportunities?” asks Messer. “What kind of strategies can make the person you want to talk to want to talk to you? That’s networking.”

Networking is about building real relationships. In fact, networking only works when it is beneficial to both parties. Let that fully sink in. Both parties. That is why in-your-face sales networking does not work.

Rather, networking is about providing relevant and timely information to a party who is not only primed to receive it, but actually wants to receive it.

“I’m not going to try to sell you anything until I know who you are. I’m going to ask you some questions and find out who you are.

You’re going to care because I took the time to do something for you. If there are five of us all with the same product, and I took the time to learn about your family, you’re going to choose me because I took the time to care,” says Messer.

It’s not just you You aren’t the only person trying to network. In fact, everyone who hopes to be successful in any field needs to actively network. Even more important and more basic, it is human nature to seek commonality and connection with others. Therefore, remember that the people you are attempting to connect with likely want to connect with you too.

“Why don’t you ask me if there’s anything I need? That’s kind of what the world is all about,” says Messer. “There’s enough room for all of us to dance on the same floor. All we have to recognize is that we are listening to the music, and that at least some of the steps are the same.” CG

Trait Stewardship Responsibilities Notice to Farmers Monsanto Company is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship® (ETS). Monsanto products are commercialized in accordance with ETS Product Launch Stewardship Guidance, and in compliance with Monsanto’s Policy for Commercialization of Biotechnology-Derived Plant Products in Commodity Crops. Commercialized products have been approved for import into key export markets with functioning regulatory systems. Any crop or material produced from this product can only be exported to, or used, processed or sold in countries where all necessary regulatory approvals have been granted. It is a violation of national and international law to move material containing biotech traits across boundaries into nations where import is not permitted. Growers should talk to their grain handler or product purchaser to confirm their buying position for this product. Excellence Through Stewardship® is a registered trademark of Excellence Through Stewardship.

ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Roundup Ready® crops contain genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides. Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for canola contains the active ingredients difenoconazole, metalaxyl (M and S isomers), fludioxonil, and thiamethoxam. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for soybeans (fungicides only) is a combination of three separate individually registered products, which together contain the active ingredients fluxapyroxad, pyraclostrobin and metalaxyl. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for soybeans (fungicides and insecticide) is a combination of four separate individually registered products, which together contain the active ingredients fluxapyroxad, pyraclostrobin, metalaxyl and imidacloprid. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for corn (fungicides only) is a combination of three separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin and ipconazole. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for corn (fungicides and insecticide) is a combination of four separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin, ipconazole, and clothianidin. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for corn with Poncho®/VoTivo™ (fungicides, insecticide and nematicide) is a combination of five separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin, ipconazole, clothianidin and Bacillus firmus strain I-5821. Acceleron®, Acceleron and Design®, DEKALB and Design®, DEKALB®, Genuity and Design®, Genuity®, RIB Complete and Design®, RIB Complete®, Roundup Ready 2 Technology and Design®, Roundup Ready 2 Yield®, Roundup Ready®, Roundup Transorb®, Roundup WeatherMAX®, Roundup®, SmartStax and Design®, SmartStax®, Transorb®, VT Double PRO® and VT Triple PRO® are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC. Used under license. LibertyLink® and the Water Droplet Design are trademarks of Bayer. Used under license. Herculex® is a registered trademark of Dow AgroSciences LLC. Used under license. Poncho® and Votivo™ are trademarks of Bayer. Used under license.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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october 2014

country-guide.ca 37

Guide

The sick lakes Yes, farming is part of the Great Lakes pollution story, but let’s get the facts straight

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor nce again, agriculture in Eastern Canada is under fire, this time in the Great Lakes basin. Already bearing media scorn for neonicotinoid seed treatments and biotech innovations, now farmers are getting blamed for Great Lakes pollution.

To be specific, the type of pollution in the headlines is eutrophication. It’s a phosphorus enrichment of waterways, and it creates the conditions for harmful algal blooms.

And there’s little doubt that this pollution is real, and it’s serious.

In 2012, the International Joint Commission (IJC) created the Lake Erie Ecosystem Priority (LEEP), with the goal of responding to what has been identified as a growing challenge in Ontario and in all states bordering the Great Lakes.

The driver was the algal bloom in Lake Erie in 2011, described in the report as the “largest in history.”

The report blamed both rural and urban sources, along with changes in climate and the presence of invasive aquatic species.

These aren’t the first algal blooms on the lakes.

Such blooms were on the front pages in the 1970s too, with the finger pointed mainly at municipal sewage treatment plants rimming the lake.

The difference now, the IJC report says, is the combination of intensive farm management and its allegedly heavier applications of phosphorus combined with more severe and intense weather events, such as heavy spring and summer rains.

Make no mistake, there have also been media reports that blame the cities and towns within the Great Lakes watershed. A story in the London Free Press in August 2013 cited Windsor and London as the two worst polluters in the region, with both cities regularly discharging partly treated or raw sewage into adjacent water courses. Sarnia and Toronto were also listed in the study. The combined result of these mismanaged practices was billions of litres of sewage finding their way into the Great Lakes.

But then in August 2014, an algal bloom formed at the southwestern end of Lake Erie, forcing the closure of water treatment plant intakes near Toledo, Ohio. According to media reports, scientists and farmers agreed that phosphorus from run-off of farm fields was the primary cause of that bloom. They added that more intense storms are washing away

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topsoil and phosphorus, turning watercourses and lake fronts brown and murky, and promoting the growth of harmful cyanotoxins.

Not so fast…

One of the paradoxes with that 2014 algal bloom is that sales figures from the fertilizer and inputs sector show that farmers have actually cut their fertilizer use. In the case of the Toledo-based bloom, the stats show that Ohio farmers used less than half as much P-based fertilizer in 2011 as in the mid-1990s.

Another claim is that large-scale livestock operations, particularly along the Maumee River watershed, are flushing more phosphorus into watercourses, a claim which one researcher deems unfounded. He says that without soil tests, there’s no way to determine whether those so-called “megafarms” are responsible.

“If we really want to fix whatever the issue is, however it’s happened, make it very focused on where it’s occurring,” says Dale Cowan, senior agronomist with AGRIS and Wanstead Co-operatives in Chatham, Ont. “These broad, sweeping gestures of ‘We have to reduce tillage,’ or, ‘you have to cut phosphorus levels back’ are premature.

“You often don’t get the desired effect,” Cowan says. “It must be science and technology based.”

Cowan also wants to avoid a witch hunt. He says spring run-off doesn’t come off in waves, but usually from a corner of a field that runs for a couple of days. These areas can be identified, and Cowan asks if it’s possible to put together strategies to mitigate against those areas rather than imposing new regulations on all cropland.

“It’s probably a small percentage of the land base that’s contributing to most of the run-off issue,” Cowan says.

Cowan is also quick to mention the decreasing sales figures in Ohio, and says that farmers are poised to do more with less as long as productivity is increased by way of precision agriculture systems.

Gone are the days when farmers ramped up their P applications, and the same is true with nitrogen and potash. There also have been improvements in feed efficiencies for phosphorus with Phytase reducing phosphorus release by 30 per cent.

“It’s not like we’re increasing our fertilizer use every year,” says Cowan. “We’re putting it where it’s needed.”

October 2014

produc G tui io dn e No single cause; no silver bullet An emerging consensus is that there is no one single cause, which also means there can be no one single “cure-all” solution. That’s why a collaborative approach to assessing and overcoming the challenges is so important.

Great Lakes pollution is more complicated than farmers and consumers may want to believe, says Jackie McCall, a geographer with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). For every answer that researchers and industry specialists produce, another question comes to light.

For instance, why are some isolated lakes in northern Ontario and in northern Russia, which are lownutrient (oligotrophic) in nature, showing signs of algal blooms for the first time in their recorded histories?

Scientists are questioning possible climate change links, but there are also invasive species and the physical structure of Lake Erie itself that may be part of the puzzle. Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, which might make it more prone to phosphorus enrichment, depending on a certain set of weather parameters.

Interestingly, the Lake Simcoe watershed has developed a phosphorus-reduction strategy, and McCall refers to efforts to verify different sources of phosphorus. There have been at least two studies on that watershed, one started in the late 1990s, and the latest in 2011 by the University of Guelph. In the earlier of the two studies, tributary and atmospheric sources were identified as the greatest contributors. Atmospheric deposition of phosphorus attached to windblown soil accounted for up to 49 per cent of the loadings from 1999 to 2000. In the Guelph study, atmospheric deposition was identified as a “major non-point source” with very similar findings of roughly 25 to 50 per cent of the total phosphorus entering the lake.

“That’s controversial because most of the scientific world discounts atmospheric loading of phosphorus as a significant source,” says McCall. “At the time they were collecting that information and making those extrapolations, Lake Simcoe was one of the most heavily urbanizing watersheds in Canada.

Barrie was rapidly growing, and Newmarket and Aurora were rapidly growing, and a lot of dirt was being blown around.”

McCall adds that recent research in Ohio has also identified storm events as playing a significant role in phosphorus loading of the lakes, and in particular Lake Erie. In November 2013, the Ohio Phosphorus Task Force issued Phase II of its assessment of the Lake Erie watershed. Although it determined that roughly 20 per cent of phosphorus from the Maumee came from livestock and nearly 80 per cent from commercial fertilizer use, the report also cited major rain events, coupled with pre-existing short-term land and soil conditions, as key factors in phosphorus deposition.

October 2014

“That’s maybe a new piece of science that we’re trying to grapple with,” says McCall. “How do we incorporate that new information into the way that we’ve traditionally done best management practices in agriculture?”

Variety of measures Some may recommend on-farm projects such as berms, buffer strips and riparian zones as helpful measures to reduce phosphorus contamination. Yet there has been some recent research, albeit in Manitoba, that suggests buffer strips and riparian areas are not as effective filters as previously believed. It needs to be emphasized that Manitoba has different watershed dynamics compared to Ontario, and that research in that province has found the on-farm constructs are less effective in spring; it doesn’t say that they do not function at other times of the year.

There are also conflicting opinions on the value of tile drainage, and whether it’s a contributor to pollution in general and phosphorus loading, in particular.

In the past three years, there have been stories in U.S.

“ Nothing’s better for the environment than high-yielding crops.”

— Dale Cowan, AGRIS and Wanstead Co-operatives farm media sources that place the majority of blame for a seasonal “dead zone” at the mouth of the Mississippi River on overuse of fertilizers and tile drainage.

Dr. Merrin Macrae is an associate professor at University of Waterloo’s department of geography and environmental management, specializing in research on the movement of nutrients in water and soil, including the use of tile drainage. Like McCall, she believes there are many potential contributors to eutrophication, including golf courses and urbanizing landscapes, in addition to agricultural lands. But she also contends that it’s more difficult to pinpoint the exact percentages that each may contribute.

And as non-farming interests line up and demand answers, she says, nothing happens quickly.

“If you look at the last three years for example, we have had very different weather from year to year,” says Macrae. “The fact is, in Ontario, and really anywhere around the Great Lakes, our climate is so incredibly variable that you can get a huge range of temperatures or rainfall, and yet it’s all within the range of the norms that we get in this region. This variability is why it often takes many years to be able to answer questions with confidence.”

Continued on page 40

country-guide.ca 39

Guide Continued from page 39 Another important point is that phosphorus loading — when it comes — isn’t like a dripping tap.

These rain events that have been identified as major contributors are not always predictable, and a storm may occur in one region but not another. So the idea of doing research in one place where a heavy rain event is occurring sounds simple, but it isn’t.

“We often find that what comes out of one field may not come out of a different field, whether or not you are in agriculture or urban landscapes. You go from one place to the next, and you can find a lot of differences,” says Macrae. “We have to make sure that we capture this range in conditions in our water sample collection to get a good picture of what is really happening in watersheds.”

There’s also the notion that these studies are easy to fund. Cowan proposed a paired watershed study to the provincial government years ago. He recom-

“ All sectors have a role to play in the source of the problem, and all sectors have to talk to each other.”

— Jackie McCall, OMAFRA mended getting a set number of farmers to follow an optimal plan for reducing run-off, while a second set of farmers worked their ground as usual. Then, water quality would be assessed, and after five or six years it would be possible to determine which practices work best.

There are two problems though, says Macrae.

One is money. The second is variability. Besides, it’s a lot to ask farmers to commit to such a project, especially during a five- or six-year period.

“We do have some paired study sites that have been sampled now for three or four years, and even with that, you can have two fields or plots within a field that seem to be perfectly identical but they’re not always,” says Macrae. It is important to be certain that differences between sites are caused largely by management and not just natural variability. She adds that the complexity of measuring and gathering relevant data increases once you take the research out of a lab to a “real farm” setting, but notes that capturing data from real farms is highly valuable.

Over or under?

Much of Macrae’s work focuses on the use of tile drainage, and when it comes to managing run-off, she maintains that it’s best to help water flow under

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the soil rather than over it. Whatever farmers can do to reduce the loss from erosion at the surface is the best plan, she says, and tile drainage may be one of those measures.

“Tile drains are controversial because there have been studies that have shown that tile drains can lose a fair bit of phosphorus,” says Macrae. “The question is, is that something that’s happening here in Ontario? It is true that you may catch blips of phosphorus in tile drainage following a summer thunderstorm, but how do those losses compare to very wet periods of the year such as springtime when the potential for run-off over the surface is high, since those wet periods are when most run-off and phosphorus are lost?”

What Macrae finds is that the phosphorus losses are low from sites where farmers carefully manage their fertilizer application, they’re careful with their tillage, and they apply their fertilizer in bands, rather than surface broadcasting. These growers are using multiple bundles of BMPs, using everything available to them.

Macrae stands firmly behind the science associated with tile drainage. Much of what has been learned and documented, and the practices that have resulted in the past 10 to 20 years have done more to keep the water on the land and avoid or at least reduce surface erosion.

That’s a sentiment that Cowan echoes. “Nothing’s better for the environment than high-yielding crops, and what drainage has done is to improve our land quality, so we actually have less run-off,” says Cowan. “Certainly people argue that we’re now allowing more through the tile, but it’s a very small amount of water that actually ends up going through the tile. And the soluble P — and that’s one of the main contributors — is a very small amount.”

Cowan adds that increased soil testing would help, to match a plant’s nutrient demand with available soil nutrient levels. This is one of the tenets of the 4R Nutrient Stewardship program being supported by many stakeholders who are embracing the idea of source, rate, time and place of nutrient applications. More farmers are banding and incorporating their fall P applications, there’s more interest in no till or zone or strip tillage, and there’s the move to precision placement of fertilizers.

From her vantage point, McCall advocates for an “all for one and one for all” approach, noting that one significant change has to take place, and that is the finger pointing that may be occurring between all interested parties. Urbanites want clean water, she says, but so do the farmers, and everyone involved wants workable solutions.

“All sectors have to talk to each other,” Macrae says. Not only do we need more science on how we as humans contibute to the problem, climate change may be a factor too, she adds.“If that’s the way things are going, we have to collectively get around a table and say, ‘OK, we’re in a new world here.’” CG

October 2014

North American Ag & Grain Trade Conference Fairmont Hotel Winnipeg 28-30 October 2014 www.cerealsnorthamerica.com

Cereals North America 2014 features leading agriculture industry thinkers and innovators from the U.S., Canada, Latin America, China and Europe. The conference will showcase the global grain and oilseed markets.

Conference attendees will hear regional market outlooks from around the world and expert analysis of Canada’s crop quality.

For more information, contact: Jennifer Bruce - (204) 983-5906 Jean Basse - (312) 972-5858

Speakers: • Daniel Basse, President, AgResource Co. • Bruce Burnett, CWB • William Tierney, AgResource Company • Erin Fitzpatrick, Bunge • Gary R. Blumenthal, World Perspectives, Inc. • Scott Yuknis, Climate Impact Company, Inc. • Pedro H Dejneka, AGR BRASIL • Leo Plaisier, Agribrokers International • Jim Richardson, National Geographic ...with more to come!

For information on sponsorship or display booths please visit: www.cerealsnorthamerica.com

Guide

Manure for cover crop Interest in cover crops keeps building; now add some more nutrients

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

t’s undeniable that interest in cover crops has taken off in the past two or three years. Red clover is making a comeback, there’s more being done with multi-species covers, and there’s renewed interest in seeding covers into standing corn crops.

There’s even more research into using cover crops as emergency forage sources.

Now comes another “return to yesterday.” The practice of seeding cover crops with manure is making a comeback, and it’s getting a hard look especially by growers interested in establishing cover crops following corn silage.

The principle is the same as with any cover crop: protect the soil while adding some nitrogen for the following crop. But the addition of manure after corn silage provides the added benefit of sequestering more nutrients — not just nitrogen, but phosphorus, potassium and several micronutrients — for the rotation.

It’s a tricky proposition, but one that Scott Banks acknowledges has been tried before. As emerging crops specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), Banks says there are several considerations, including what kind of cover crop is being planted, the specific timing and even the method of planting.

“ Cover crops like oilseed radish in manure are similar to the days where we’d feed trefoil seed to beef cattle on pasture.”

— Scott Banks, OMAFRA

42 country-guide.ca

There is also the growth of the silage-specific portion of the corn sector. In the past 10 years, seed companies such as Mycogen have made significant inroads into the silage market, convincing many livestock producers to invest in a specific silage hybrid.

That counters conventional thinking on so-called multi-functional hybrids where growers take a portion of their regular crop early for silage and leave the rest to dry down as grain corn.

When it comes to applying manure with a cover crop, Banks concedes there’s really nothing new about the approach. Growers were doing something similar decades ago. But there has been a big change in the cover crop species that can be planted.

Red clover is certainly on the rebound, says Banks, and oilseed radish has carved out a strong niche among many growers. There are even some who are trying cereal rye or annual rye in August into standing corn, using high-clearance sprayers to broadcast in between the rows.

But it’s the manure-cover-crop combination following corn silage that’s an intriguing concept, although one that still must be carefully managed.

Covers and manure following a cereal crop — even a late-spring cereal crop as in 2014 — are far more common, and offer more time to grow before winter.

“Years ago, there were some guys doing covers and manure after corn to some degree,” says Banks, acknowledging that it worked best in years when the silage crop comes off a little earlier than usual, perhaps at the end of August. (In 2014, conditions just didn’t offer that window.)

“But I do know that the guys who used to do it tended to be on the lighter soils, and it’d be a bit of protection for the soil as well. They’d put in cereal rye which was the predominant choice, and they’d take a cut of forage grass off it going into late fall, just before freeze-up. If they got it before the frost, it’d make some pretty good feed quality in that kind of a system where they’re backgrounding some calves, and it makes a nice mix with the feed.”

October 2014

PRODUC G TUI IO DN E

Timing is everything The primary issue with corn silage and the covercrop-manure blend is simply timing. Some may argue that the late-September planting of a cover crop with a manure application defeats the purpose of keeping the soils growing; it’s too late in the year to establish a good stand, be it clover, rye or oilseed radish. But that seems to be less of an issue for Banks, who says the real issues are the cost of seed, the cost of planting (versus broadcasting) and assessing the amount and value of nutrient sequestering.

“Some growers have done the manure and covers together, but it tends to be more with cover crops like oilseed radish or some of the smaller, harder-seed covers that they’ve used in the past,” says Banks.

“Things such as oats or some of those bigger, bulkier seeds — I haven’t tried putting them in the manure and agitating them and putting them on, but cover crops like oilseed radish (in manure) are similar to the days where we’d feed trefoil seed to beef cattle on pasture. It’s the same concept but a different approach and timing.”

As for getting the cover crop into the ground, Banks says broadcasting is the usual method, but in an ideal situation, a farmer would drill in a cover crop, except for the added expense. Seed cost is the other factor. If you’re using inexpensive seed, you may be better able to afford the loss of some seed with broadcasting and cultivating it in.

“The biggest challenge is having a cover crop that will hold the nutrients, particularly the nitrogen,” says Banks. The primary focus is capturing nitrogen and keeping it from leaching into the ground or volatilizing to the air. Then there’s the issue of releasing it at the right time.

The other consideration is the rate of nutrient release by different cover crops. Red clover has come back as the best of the covers, but oilseed radish

British Columbia ®

OBSOLETE COLLECTION CAMPAIGN

OCTOBER 15

Saanichton Vantreight Farms

OCTOBER 16

Duncan Bings Creek Solid Waste Management Complex

is a rapid-growth cover with lots of biomass. That can become an issue where such lush growth can break down very easily, leaving less residue and the potential for the “too-soon” release of nitrogen for a subsequent crop. There’s a significant savings or cost from that release of nitrogen, says Banks. Work done on cover crops indicates that 50 to 60 lbs. per acre of N should be applied to a crop, and at $0.50 per pound of N, that’s $25 to $30 per acre from the manure alone, plus phosphorus, potassium, micronutrients and organic matter.

“We still find that you don’t capture the full value of that nitrogen with things like oilseed radish because it releases it too soon,” says Banks, adding that the timing for red clover works better for the following year’s corn crop. “But it does certainly help, and anything you can do to build up organic matter will also help capture that nitrogen and release it over time. As for the other nutrients, those crops certainly help take them up and release them again over time, so particularly with phosphorus but even with potassium and some of the micros, it will tie them up and bring them into the whole system over time, as well.”

Banks understands there are more growers looking at cover crops, perhaps matching them with manure applications, and potentially using that combination with post-harvest of silage corn. He acknowledges too that there actually is a window of opportunity, and he believes we’ll see such a practice being adopted on a larger scale in the next few years.

The interesting thing about this is that it’s not so much a regional practice. Cover crops are a province-wide trend — as is applying manure. But getting the most out of the soil and returning nutrients to the soil are not limiting factors for growers.

“I always thought that window was too short,” says Banks. “So it’s certainly interesting to see what growers can do to try to protect their soils.” CG

Return your unwanted or obsolete pesticides and livestock medications Farmers: safely dispose of your unwanted agricultural pesticides and livestock/equine medications from October 15-23 at one of the following locations, for no charge.

OCTOBER 17

Cumberland Comox Valley Waste Management Centre

OCTOBER 20-21

Delta Direct Solutions (Agrium)

OCTOBER 22-23

Abbotsford Univar Canada Ltd.

* Obsolete pesticides and livestock/equine medications will be accepted from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at each site on the date(s) indicated.

Please visit www.cleanfarms.ca for information about collection dates across Canada.

For more information, please call CleanFARMS at 877-622-4460 or visit www.cleanfarms.ca OCTOBER 2014

country-guide.ca 43

GUIDE

#PestPatrol

with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA Have a question you want answered?

Hashtag #PestPatrol on twitter.com to @cowbrough or email Mike at mike.cowbrough@ontario.ca.

Rotation planning Here’s an app to help choose your rotation Crop prices are certainly more bearish now than they have been during the past two seasons, and because of this some farmers will question whether they should tweak their cropping rotation in the short term or stay the course.

Now there is a smartphone app called “Cash Cropper” that will help you to evaluate: 1. The revenues and net incomes that different crop rotations will generate for your operation.

2. How much phosphorus and potassium is being removed from the soil by each crop in a rotation.

3. How much nitrogen is required to reach anticipated grain yield in each crop.

The Cashcropper app allows Ontario grain growers to compare the net profitability and fertility requirements for different crop rotations within a given field. This app is powered by

2 1

44 country-guide.ca

2a

more than 30 years of rotational yield response data from the University of Guelph. It takes into account the user’s location, soil type and tillage practices for corn, soybeans and wheat.

The real costs of “yield-driven” nutrient removal for each crop are included in the calculation, and the app is preloaded with default OMAFRA yield values by county and township as well as input costs, although users can input their own data to assess real and hypothetical rotation decisions.

This app was made possible with the help and expertise of Dr. Bill Deen and Ken Janovicek from the department of plant agriculture at the University of Guelph, and the financial support of the AgriFood and Rural Link (an OMAFRA and University of Guelph partnership) and the Grain Farmers of Ontario. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com. cashcropper&hl=en The app will be available for Android, Apple and BlackBerry 10 devices. CG

3

4

1.

2.

2a.

3.

User can create different crop rotations for a field that they farm.

The user can select different crop rotations and compare their profitability.

User can change default crop yields, prices and production costs to better reflect their operation.

Yield estimates and net profitability for each rotation are calculated using the information provided by the user and the long-term crop rotation data.

4. Cash Cropper also presents the nutrient removal and requirements for each crop in the rotation so that user can compare removal between two different crop rotations.

OCTOBER 2014

THE ONTARIO AGROLOGIST Drew Orosz, P.Ag, is President of the Ontario Institute of Agrologists, and is also Strategic Sales Manager with CNH Industrial Capital Canada Ltd. Q: You’ve worked in the agricultural

shortage of good people, and looking

industry for many years. What still

forward, more young people need to

surprises you?

be made aware of potential for a valid

Drew: It never ceases to amaze me how

career path within agriculture. That said,

Ontario’s agricultural industry is so poorly

I think the tide is changing positively in

understood by the general public, and

this regard. We want to build on this

how this huge industry tends to play

momentum.

second fiddle to other industries - so unlike the Western Canadian provinces where agriculture has such a strong presence.

The public seems more interested in our industry today, primarily due to a deeper interest in its food quality. The public seems to want the facts behind

Q: Do you think the OIA is, or should be,

their food, and to understand how

an Agent Of Agricultural Awareness to

modern agriculture works. This gives us

unparalleled in the Ag Industry.

the broader Public?

an opportunity to tell a story of what

The wealth of knowledge resources

Drew: Yes, the Ontario Institute of

our industry is contributing, whether it

that you gain through OIA membership

Agrologists can be beneficial for the

be through local food initiatives, or how

just can’t be summed up in the simple

Industry in that role. The OIA, through

agricultural companies’ decisions can

word ‘networking’.

its professional members, is in a unique

affect the broader economy. And,

position to be an industry advocate. We

health is important. We’ve had some

have members working across the entire

major food problems published in the

spectrum of the agricultural industry.

media - and rightly so. But there has also

Members of OIA are expert resources

been some conflicting information put

able to explain not only where our food

forward, leaving a confused consumer.

comes from, but why agriculture is more

So they’re looking for professional

than just about food production, and

information sources to help them

how important this Industry is to our

sort through all that confusion. The

general economy. If the OIA can help

OIA, through its Professional Member

to communicate beyond agricultural

resource, can play a strong role here.

circles, we are accomplishing one of our major objectives.

Q: What is the OIA doing to maintain its Relevance for Agriculture now, and into

Q: Networking is a popular buzzword

Look at it this way… I could go to work every day and talk about farm equipment and equipment financing, and I’d probably have the basics of what I need to do my job. But my OIA membership and the associations I’ve made through my OIA affiliations have helped me to more deeply understand how the professional role I play fits within the larger Ag Industry and Community – here in Ontario, in Canada, and within the world.

today. Is this the core Benefit that OIA membership offers?

The Ontario Institute of Agrologists

Drew: The common concept of the

is based in Guelph. OIA represents

word ‘networking’ does not do justice

a membership of nearly 500

to the actual value gained from the

Professional (P.Ag.), Technical

quality of people you meet at OIA, or

(T.Ag.), and Articling (A.Ag.)

the quality of speakers at OIA events,

Agrologists across Ontario. For a

and the ensuing interactive discussions.

current listing of OIA members,

It might be genetics, or world-class

OIA events & information, our

This industry is very broad and the range

research project implementation. The

website is www.oia.on.ca

of skills needed is vast. Agriculture has a

professional connections you make are

the future?

Drew: Right now, we’re working to change OIA’s Best Kept Secret status in Ontario Agriculture. We’re attempting to do that through actively engaging our members in various outreach programs.

www.oia.on.ca

LAND IMPROVEMENT CONTRACTORS OF ONTARIO

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• Plastic Tile and Culvert Sales • Excavating, bulldozing, fine grading • Fence Bottom Removal • Erosion Control • Water Mains and Irrigation • Shoreline Protection • Tile Bed Systems – All Sizes

We tackle any equipment related project Phone: (613) 388-2345 Fax: (613) 388-1092 Mobile: (613) 561-5006 Email: herman@richmondditching.on.ca www.richmondditching.on.ca

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Tile Drainage Contractor • GPS RTK Topomapping Backhoe, Bulldozer, Excavator Rentals Steel Culverts in Stock • Plastic Tile Licenced in Ontario & Quebec

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LAND IMPROVEMENT CONTRACTORS OF ONTARIO

www.drainage.org

CROPLAND DRAINAGE OUTLETS

The Most Important Drainage Feature A drainage outlet (or outfall) is the point at which sub-surface drainage water is discharged to a drainage channel or natural watercourse.

Properly installed drainage outlets are critical to the trouble free operation of a sub-surface drainage system. They are also an important point of interest to the public that may be affected by the management of the cropland that the drains serve, and by any impact that a drainage installation may have on receiving waters.

It is therefore important that the outlet be functionally, technically and legally acceptable. Several parties have responsibility for this.

• The Conservation Authorities (CA) regulate watercourses and wetlands under the Conservation Authorities Act and regulations. They may also act on behalf of the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), Ministry of the Environment (MOE) and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. They are particularly interested in water quality and quantity, habitat protection, and land management activity that could affect watercourse flow and potential flooding. The number of outlets, the location, how the outlet is constructed and the time of year for the construction may all come under regulation.

• The Municipal Drainage Superintendent must be notified before installing an outlet in a municipal drain channel. They will be concerned about: the impact an outlet may have on the drain; that the outlet is properly constructed; that water from outside the watershed is not diverted into the drain; and the location of outlets to avoid damage to them during

drain maintenance. Municipal drains are communal drains constructed to provide outlet for sub-surface drainage systems.

They come under the Authority of the “Drainage Act”, are designed by drainage engineers and are the responsibility of the municipality for improvement, repair and maintenance.

• A LICO drainage contractor will check that all approvals are in place and all regulations are addressed before an outlet is installed. The contractor will construct the outlet so that it will cause minimal disturbance to receiving waters and will meet or exceed all regulations and drainage installation standards.

Contractors install clean drain pipe and want it to remain clean. They will make every effort to avoid contamination to the drainage system because contamination soon becomes pollution at the outlet.

Typically, contractors will provide a drainage plan that will show the location of outlets and place a marker at an outlet to ease maintenance. LICO drainage contractors and their equipment are licensed under the Agricultural Tile Drainage Installation Act to regulate the quality of work provided.

• The farmland owner/operator has responsibility to get approvals where required for an outlet installation, repair or maintenance, and to ensure that the outlet is kept clear of debris, sediment and the rodent grate is functional. Careful soil, nutrient and manure management will do much to ensure that the water discharged from the drain outlet will be clean. If maintenance is required for an outlet that is located in a municipal drain then the Drainage Superintendent should be notified.

The public forms their opinion about cropland drainage mostly by what it sees at the drain outlet. This is the face of drainage. Outlets should be properly protected from erosion, be well maintained and discharge clean water.

A drain outlet pipe should: discharge water beyond the embankment, be a minimum of 12” above the stream flow, be protected from flood and ice damage and be equipped with a rodent grate.

NOTES/ RESOURCES · Legal considerations and procedures for obtaining an outlet are in OMAFRA Factsheet “Drainage Legislation”, Order No. 89-166 · Cropland Drainage Best Management Practices · Factsheet “Operating and Maintaining a Tile Drainage System”, Order No. 10-091, AGDEX 752/555

The Land Improvement Contractors of Ontario (LICO) is an association of professional drainage contractors and suppliers of drainage pipe and equipment. The focus of their business is soil moisture management to enhance crop production in Ontario.

LAND IMPROVEMENT CONTRACTORS OF ONTARIO

LICO CONTRACTORS CENTRAL Region

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Schmidt’s Farm Drainage 1990 Ltd. Harriston

Specializing in Farm Drainage, Backhoeing & Excavating. GPS includes: mapping, grade control & surveying GPS Grade Control Tel: 519-338-3484 Cell: 519-323-6335

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LICO CONTRACTORS SOUTH-WESTERN Region

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FARM DRAINAGE INC. CONSULTING • EROSION CONTROL BULLDOZING • EXCAVATING • G.P.S. SURVEYS PLOW AND WHEEL

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LAND IMPROVEMENT CONTRACTORS OF ONTARIO

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w e at h e r MILDER THAN NORMAL

C Snoold wy MILDER AND A LITTLE DRIER THAN NORMAL

d Mil y r D lls spe

Variable rain / snow NEAR-NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND PRECIPITATION

ble ria / a V ain r ow sn

AN TH R DE AL AL MIL USU ORM ION T -N AR IPITA E N EC PR

M Weild sp t ell s

NEAR NORMAL

October 19 to November 15, 2014

ONTARIO

Oct. 19-25: Seasonal to mild with some highs in the 20s in the south. A few lows approach zero in central regions.

Fair apart from scattered shower activity.

Cooler in the north with periodic rain and nighttime frost.

Oct. 26-Nov. 1: Unsettled at times this week with blustery winds and occasional rain. Variable temperatures trending to the mild side in southern regions. Frost pockets central and north. Rain mixed with wet snow in the north.

Nov. 2-8: Windy at times as disturbances move through and bring rain on two to three days this week. Fluctuating temperatures with some lows near zero south and sub-zero north. Occasional snow in far northern areas.

Nov. 9-15: Fair skies alternate with rain in southern regions changing to snow farther north. Chance heavy precipitation in places. Windy at times with variable temperatures. Frost threat possible south, more definite elsewhere.

QUEBEC Oct. 19-25: Look for seasonal to mild temperatures and windy at times this week. Occasional rain on a couple of days.

Frost pockets in many areas especially central and north. Periodic heavier, wet snow far north.

Oct. 26-Nov. 1: Weather disturbances bring intermittent rain from time to time, chance heavy in places. Seasonal with lows near zero in a few areas, especially October 2014

central and north. Rain changes to snow in northern regions.

Nov. 2-8: Temperatures fluctuate from mild to cool under occasionally windy conditions. Fair but rain falls on two to three days this week and changes to snow in central and northern regions. Frost is common most nights.

Nov. 9-15: Unsettled and changeable as fair, mild days interchange with wet, cold days. Windy at times. Frosty nights. Wet snow or rain in the south with heavy snow in central and northern regions.

ATLANTIC PROVINCES Oct. 19-25: Highs climb into the double digits daily and at times 20s west. Frost is common in many inland areas. Fair skies dominate aside from rain on a couple of days with a threat of heavier rain in eastern areas.

Oct. 26-Nov. 1: Generally fair on most days this week but expect a couple of rainy days, possibly heavy in places. Windy at times. Seasonal to mild temperatures but frost occurs on a few clear, cool nights inland.

Nov. 2-8: Seasonable temperatures but some lows fall to around zero at many inland localities. Fair apart from rain on two to three occasions accompanied by windy conditions. Snow is common in Labrador.

Nov 9-15: Although frost occurs at several locations, expect highs to crest near or a little above normal. Windy from time to

time as weather systems move through bringing heavier rain changing to snow inland and north.

October 19 to November 15, 2014 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS Milder and drier-than-usual weather is likely to dominate much of the West in this period despite shorter days and colder outbreaks. A similar mild temperature regime is expected across the Atlantic provinces, although eastern regions are likely to see a few weather systems bring accompanying wet spells from time to time. Elsewhere from Saskatchewan eastward through to Quebec, alternating mild and cold periods should average out with temperatures near normal values. Snow in northern areas will spread southward in October, with a few heavy snow events in many southern areas of Central Canada in November.

Prepared by meteorologist Larry Romaniuk of Weatherite Services. Forecasts should be 80 per cent accurate for your area; expect variations by a day or two due to changeable speed of weather systems. country-guide.ca 51

life

Farming better through

yoga

Set your skepticism aside.

Just check out the science and these benefits of yoga on the farm cross the country, yoga is catching on as a way to strengthen muscles, reduce pain and increase energy. “Yoga is good for injuries, work-related soreness and tiredness,” says Kate Stevely, a certified instructor who teaches yoga in Stratford, Ont. and surrounding communities.

It’s enough to make you think yoga should be universally prescribed on the farm. Besides, the image of yoga is changing too, in ways that are also healthy for farmers.

While traditionally nine out of 10 of her yoga students have been women, Stevely says that’s changing. People of all ages and from all walks of life are discovering the benefits of regular yoga practice, she says.

That includes a private class that Stevely teaches to a group of farmers. “I see farmers with bad knees, bad backs and some with both,” says Stevely.

Stevely has seen how yoga can benefit those with injuries. One of the men in her Yoga for Farmers class had back surgery, and after getting approval from his doctor, he started doing yoga during his recuperation, says Stevely. Some 18 months post-surgery, he received a clean bill of health, she says.

Then there’s also a farmer participant who spent a summer completely incapacitated due to a back injury. Since starting yoga he hasn’t experienced any relapses, she says.

Another of Stevely’s classes is a group of golfers, mostly older men. “Yoga helps by loosening the hips and shoulders and minimizing damage caused by always twisting the same way,” she says.

A long-haul truck driver has discovered the benefits of yoga for the low-back pain he was expe-

52 country-guide.ca

By Helen Lammers-Helps

riencing from so many hours spent driving, says Stevely. When he is home he attends Stevely’s yoga class and when he is on the road he uses a special platform he built so he can do the Legs-up-the-wall yoga pose in the cab of his truck.

Stevely’s understanding of yoga is based on almost 50 years of personal and professional experience. She first discovered yoga after injuring herself in a track and field event at the age of 15. She was told by her osteopath that the only way she could avoid wearing a back brace while she healed was if she did yoga.

Back in the 1960s there weren’t any local yoga classes but Stevely did find one book in the Stratford library. She did the exercises morning and night, and made a full recovery, without the brace.

That was the start of Stevely’s lifelong dedication to yoga. She began studying under instructors in Ontario and the U.S., becoming a registered yoga teacher (RYT) with the Yoga Alliance.

Many people have the misconception that yoga is a religion but it’s not, explains Stevely. Yoga, which originated in ancient India, combines breathing with movement. “It’s that awareness and focus that makes it different from other exercise programs,” she says.

One of the advantages of yoga over other forms of exercise is the focus on how you’re feeling.

Traditional yoga moves slowly so you can listen to your body, explains Stevely. “Yoga shouldn’t be competitive. If you push too hard you will end up hurting yourself.

“It’s that focus on what you’re doing that also provides stress relief,” she adds.

Fortunately, today’s yoga classes are much easier to find with many fitness and community recreation centres offering classes.

October 2014

life

Yoga at home While yoga instructor Kate Stevely recommends attending a class, if you cannot find a way to slot a class into your schedule then she suggests getting a video to do it yourself at home.

While there are many videos available, she likes the Rodney Yee series (www.yeeyoga.com) because they range from beginner to advanced. (These can be purchased online and are also available in some department stores.)

Suggested Poses: Yoga doesn’t have to be complicated. Doing these three simple poses will provide noticeable benefits, says Stevely. As with any exercise program, check with your doctor before trying these poses.

Legs-up-the-wall

What to look for in a yoga class Unfortunately not all yoga classes are equal. To get the most from a class, Stevely offers these suggestions.

• Check out the teacher. Some classes are taught by people with very little experience. When looking for a class, find out what the teacher’s qualifications are, insists Stevely. “Make sure they didn’t just take a weekend workshop to become certified.”

Stevely recommends looking for a teacher certified by either a provincial yoga association or the Yoga Alliance. These organizations typically require instructors to have a minimum of 200 hours of training.

• Get approval. If you have an existing medical condition or injury, get your doctor’s approval before signing up.

• Ask questions about the style of yoga being taught. Avoid classes where participants move quickly through the poses, since this can lead to injuries. “While some classes are based on yoga, they have lost the focus on the mind and the breath,” says Stevely.

• Look for small classes. Large classes with 20 or more participants make it difficult for the instructor to help each individual.

• Try it out. Before signing up for a series of classes, try to observe a class or drop in to a class to try it out.

• Commit to doing it. To experience the benefits of yoga, it’s necessary to practise regularly. Ideally you should devote 20 to 30 minutes a day to yoga, but at the very least attending one class with a followup of one session at home is the minimum commitment, says Stevely.

• Start now. You are never too old to begin doing yoga, says Stevely. “One of the benefits of yoga is that it starts where you’re at.” As you get better at it you can challenge yourself more, she adds.

As an example, Stevely tells the story of one student who started yoga at age 69. When she first came to class she was hunched over and was having knee trouble. After a year of attending class twice a week and practising at home, Stevely says her posture improved noticeably and she is walking much better. CG

O ctober 2 0 1 4

This is a restorative pose that relieves lower back pain and boosts circulation.

Sit sideways to the wall with your hip and shoulders touching the wall. Swing legs up and roll over onto back. Rest here or add moving your arms in time with breath to focus mind on the connection between breath and movement and to get your mind tuned into what you are doing. Then bring the knees into the chest and wiggle away from the wall and Roll Side to Side (see below).

Roll Side to Side This can be done after Legs-up-the-wall or on its own. This is very free-form, spontaneous yoga. Hold on to the hamstrings or shins or toes or let go of the legs. Roll side to side. Or drop the feet to the floor and with knees bent, roll legs side to side, like windshield wipers. Try to use your awareness to find tight spots in shoulders, hips or back and roll them out.

Back Bridge Pose Start in Constructive Relaxation position (feet flat on floor, knees bent, chin tucked a little, shoulders down away from ears). Then draw navel back toward spine and feel tailbone lift a little. Press down into the feet and let the back follow the tail bone up into a Back Bridge. Then roll down slowly, trying to feel each vertebrae touching down separately. End back in Constructive Relaxation.

Gentle Hamstring and Back Stretch with Easy Twist Holding a belt or yoga strap in both hands and starting in the Constructive Relaxation position (feet flat on floor, knees bent, chin tucked a little, shoulders down away from ears), bring right foot into strap and push sole of foot up to ceiling. If it’s comfortable, slide left leg out long on the floor. Take the strap in the right hand and let right leg roll out to the side while keeping left hip/pelvis down. Next bring right leg back up, take strap in left hand and take right leg across the body ensuring right shoulder stays grounded into the floor. Draw legs in and hug. End in Constructive Relaxation, rolling knees side to side like windshield wipers. Repeat with the left leg.

country-guide.ca 53

h e a lt h

Gout isn’t only for the rich and famous

By Marie Berry ou probably think you need to be royalty like King Henry VIII of England to have gout. Not so! About two per cent of Canadians have gout, and even that number may be under-reported because gout is often mistaken for other types of joint pain, leading many people to just treat it themselves with a pain reliever.

It is true that more men than women are affected, yet by age 50 this difference disappears.

Gout or gouty arthritis is a type of arthritis, with joint inflammation affecting often the big toe, but also potentially the ankle, foot, knee, hand, wrist, and/or elbow.

The inflammation is caused by deposits of uric acid crystals in the joint. It is thought that these joints are more often affected because they usually are cooler in temperature, which allows for uric acid deposits.

Gout’s association with the rich and famous was historically due to the different diets of rich versus poor people. The wealthier you were, the more likely you were to eat foods that produce uric acid when digested. Today, diets are much more similar regardless of income, meaning gout can affect anyone.

However, some foods do seem to be more strongly implicated in gout. These are foods high in purine which is broken down in your body to uric acid. Such foods include red meats, seafoods, and organ meat such as kidneys and liver.

While your wealth is no longer a risk factor, there are others. Higher alcohol consumption (that is more than one drink per day for women or two for men) seems to be associated with a higher rate of gout.

As well, more people with untreated or poorly controlled high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, or diabetes have gout. A family history of gout and existing osteoarthritis are also considered risk factors. And, some high blood pressure medications and low-dose ASA used for heart health can worsen gout.

Uric acid can be measured with a blood test.

In general, with high uric acid your risk for gout increases. However, some people never are affected despite high uric acid levels.

Gout is a condition that flares up from time to time, with symptoms occurring, then diminishing and not recurring until months or even years have passed.

The pain is usually sudden and intense, and seems to occur most often at night. There may as well be joint swelling, redness and tenderness.

For acute attacks of gout, a non-steroidal antiinflammatory drug is most often used, for example naproxen, ibuprofen, or diclofenac. Treatment is used until the symptoms have disappeared, usually in five to 10 days.

Sometimes, if the inflammation is severe, a steroid is needed but again only for a short time. Colchicine was at one time used widely, but today its gastrointestinal side-effects such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea have limited its use.

Your body is also able to manufacture uric acid, and this process may itself be the reason for your higher levels. Allopurinol interrupts a crucial step, inhibiting an enzyme known as xanthine oxidase which is needed for the manufacture of the uric acid.

If you are prone to gout and have more than just occasional attacks, regular daily use of allopurinol may be a good idea. In general it is well tolerated and available in a variety of strengths, although a skin rash allergy is possible.

In the case of gout, making sure that you have a good fluid intake, especially water, is key.

Water helps wash excess uric acid from your body. Just think, if King Henry VIII drank more water and less alcohol along with saying, “No thank you,” to steak and kidney pie, he might not have had those painfully swollen joints!

Marie Berry is a lawyer/pharmacist interested in health and education.

Anyone who has experienced a migraine headache will know how painful this type of headache can be, but so often migraine headaches are under-reported and under-treated. People take an analgesic and just “wait it out.” Next issue, we look at some new approaches to treating migraines, because if you are a sufferer, you should at least be aware of some of the options.

54 country-guide.ca

October 2014

life

The flying bishop As he celebrates his 20 th year as Country Guide columnist, Rod Andrews remembers that he only ever wanted to be an Anglican priest. And a pilot

By Shirley Byers

R

od Andrews knows what it is to be forever connected to a chunk of land and a way of life.

There’s a special quality in his voice when he talks about the family farm, on Alberta’s Coal Trail between Delburne and Red Deer.

“It was a magic place. I loved to go there,” Andrews says of the days when his grandparents still lived on the home ground.

“On holidays and long weekends my family gravitated to the farm and I would go there on my own for a couple of weeks in the summer. I’d have my own calf and that was where I learned to drive a tractor.”

Continued on page 56

October 2014

country-guide.ca 55

life

Farmers faced their share of challenges then as they do now — some similar, some quite different — but there was a strong sense of community and co-operation. The rural telephone line was just one example.

Everyone worked together to set up a line in the district, and then everyone was expected to take their turn to help repair it if, and more likely when, need be.

Rod remembers the phone going down and his grandmother, unable to phone her grocery order in to town, saying to the men, “Well, it’s raining today, you can’t hay; you can fix the phone.” The men would go out and get the lines going.

“But it had to be a rainy day activity,” Rod chuckles. “Today, if our Internet doesn’t work for half an hour it’s a crisis. Think of what happens when BlackBerry has a blackout…”

Born in Red Deer and raised in the little town of Delburne, Alta., Rod was ordained in the Anglican Church of Canada in 1965 when he was 23. His first posting was to Lethbridge as the assistant priest. He loved his vocation, as he’d known he would, but he felt he lacked life experience. He’d gone directly from high school to seminary, and apart from one summer working on a survey crew, all of his summer jobs had been church related.

When it came to careers he’d only ever wanted to be an Anglican priest. And, as readers well know, a pilot.

So, when his income tax refund was $550, the exact-same amount required to pay for flying lessons, he signed up and earned his private licence at High River. And, as he’d hoped, he met many people outside the church and began to make friends apart from church association. Getting to know people from different backgrounds, and being in different circum56 country-guide.ca

When not flying, Rod may be tinkering with his ’45 John Deere AR, just as he did on the old family farm stances and situations enabled him to broaden his horizons and to learn from the experiences of others. It’s made him a better priest and a better person, he says.

Rod eventually attained his airline transport pilot’s licence, and his own plane. He became a flight instructor and continues to teach to this day. In the church, over the years, he’s served as rector, chaplain, archdeacon and Bishop of Saskatoon.

Today, retired from the church, he’s the proud owner of a 1945 John Deere AR, identical to the one he learned to drive as a boy on his grandparents’ farm. When he’s not driving it at Saskatoon’s Pion-Era, the Borden Threshing Day and a few other events, he keeps it in his airplane hangar.

Rod took over the job of writing the Reflections column for the Country Guide 20 years ago, but his association with the magazine goes back 60 and more years to those long summer evenings on his grandparents’ farm when he would pore over the Guide’s ads for farm machinery and listen to his family talk about buying a new tractor. He wrote his first column in September 1994 and through 20 years and four editors, he’s never missed a deadline.

“Every now and then I go to garage sales and see somebody selling back issues of the Country Guide. I’ve collected a few,” Rod says. He’s also learned a bit about the history of the column.

October 2014

Photography: David Stobbe

Continued from page 55

C ountry G uide has been around since 1882 and has almost always had an inspirational column. Bishop Morse Goodman, who passed away on December 12, 1993, wrote it from 1961 to 1993. At that time the Reflections column was part of a Family Living section which included recipes and articles on subjects such as canning and sewing.

Rod remembers Bishop Goodman, and remembers him jotting down notes on a sheet of foolscap at church meetings, as he pondered an idea for his column. After Bishop Goodman passed away, Guide editor Colleen Armstrong reran some of his columns for a few months. That summer Rod contacted her and applied for the job. “I took the initiative,” he says. “I said this has been a good thing. I’m sure many people appreciate it. It seems to be an important part of the Country Guide.” She asked him to write a couple of sample columns, which he did, knowing that other writers were also on the short list. He was delighted when she called and offered him the job.

In writing the Reflections column, Rod’s goal is to focus on common human issues such as forgiveness, community and personal relationships. He often writes about the concerns of small churches. “Readers attend a variety of churches and many do not attend church at all,” he says. “I try to find themes that speak to real life for Country Guide readers. I also try to expand those themes by touching on global issues.”

In Reflections, he’s written on everything from the existence of God to volunteering, from a visit to China to cussing, from enemies to healing. He sometimes receives requests to copy his columns, and always says yes.

His editors do too. One column a decade ago was about the harm that gossip does. A reader from a small town in Western Canada asked for permission from Rod’s editor to copy the article, and distribute it to every person in his town.

Rod also thinks carefully about the scripture readings he recommends at the end of each column, saying specifically of this month’s selections, “I find both passages meaningful.” From such a man, that is an assurance that there is value for all his readers in seeking them out.

“Being able to write those monthly columns for C ountry G uide has been a tremendous experience,” Rod says. “As I travel about I meet folk who seem to know me.

People introduce me to other people almost as if I was their close friend… .

“Religion and life need to be connected. I try to write about everyday events where that connection happens. I hope to deal with questions people are asking, and I hope my short articles validate their feelings.” CG October 2014

“F

ive days without a phone or email! How did you survive?”

When my son David and I signed up for a trail ride in the Rocky Mountains, we were warned: “No radio, TV or newspapers, and your cellphones will not work.” Horses plodded along, mules carried their loads, and food tasted great out of doors. As we sat around the campfire I looked at the stars and wondered what was happening beyond the mountain peaks. Surprisingly, little changed while we were tuned out.

The “pause button” worked.

I am teaching Matthew, a Saskatoon teenager, to fly. He had a student pilot permit when he was 14. I sent him solo in an airplane before he had a driver’s licence. His parents drove him to the airport for lessons.

He is 16 now, owns his first car, has a girlfriend, gets good marks in school and has a part-time job. Is Matthew packing too much into his young life? He is one more teenager pressing the “fast-forward” button on the machine of life.

When life is good, we wish we could hit a “hold” button. New relationships excite us. We wish we could hang on to the initial pleasure forever. Imagine pushing a “hold” button when sitting by a tranquil lake on a warm evening, relishing a sunset or celebrating a special event with friends. Such moments pass too quickly. If only we could stay in the present a little while longer.

When we run into a bump in the road, we would like to have a “rewind” button. Frank Sinatra sang, “Regrets, I’ve had a few.” I occasionally think, “If only I could go back and do that over again.” We may wish for a “delete” button.

In our senior years we feel life speeds up, even though the days have the same number of hours and the weeks are still seven days long. Days that used to drag by are over in a flash.

In August we went to a drive-in movie. We sat in folding chairs next to our pickup and ate popcorn. As the sun was setting in a crimson glow behind the big screen, the story came alive. It was not much of a movie, but the experience was nostalgic. My mind wandered as I watched for shooting stars and satellites. As the sky grew darker, I focused on the movie. The principal character, clinging to a tree branch on the side of a mountain, was in a precarious spot. He needed a dramatic rescue. As I sat traumatized by his situation, my wife Jacqueline reminded me,“It’s only a movie.”

When the movie ended, we followed a chain of tail lights to the exit.

Back at the campground I fell asleep quickly but woke with images of the miraculous rescue. The actor was plucked off the cliff by some improbable helicopter antics. I lay awake thinking, “How did they do that?” It was just a movie.

Life, however, is not just a movie. Next morning the news told of racial tensions in Ferguson, Missouri, rockets between Israel and Gaza, a religious minority captured on a mountainside with no food or water and certain death if they descend. There is no fast-forward, pause, rewind or delete. Life can be harsh and cruel. Is there some way we can use the time God gives to make a kinder, gentler world?

Suggested Scripture: Ecclesiastes 9:7-18, Ephesians 5:15-20 Rod Andrews is a retired Anglican bishop. He lives in Saskatoon.

country-guide.ca 57

ACRES

By Leeann Minogue

Guess who’s coming to dinner ast year the Hansons had invited way too many relatives to Thanksgiving dinner.

The immediate family had snuck out to the shop to eat pie standing up and get away from the chaos. This year they promised: “just us.”

So Dale was confused when he ran into Brian Miller at Tim Hortons. After the usual talk about rotten fall weather, never-ending rain, the hassle of a late harvest and the problems Dale was having with his new combine, Brian said, “Hear you’ll need an extra chair at the table this Thanksgiving.”

It took Dale a minute to realize what Brian meant. “Yup. Dad’s still got that girlfriend from Medicine Hat. She’s coming out for a while before they go back down to Yuma. Assuming we finish harvest before spring.” Dale felt awkward calling Helen his father’s “girlfriend” — the woman was 72 — but he couldn’t think of a better word, and Ed didn’t seem likely to propose soon.

“That’s not what I meant,” Brian said.

Dale swelled with pride. “It’s the granddaughter’s first birthday this weekend. Hard to believe how fast they change.”

Brian chuckled, picked up his change and his Timbits and headed for the door.

“You must have missed a meeting, Dale!

You should call your daughter.”

Dale stepped up to the counter almost too confused to order his usual. He drove home through yet more drizzle, just enough moisture to keep the Hansons from picking up that last section of canola, and went straight to his wife.

“Is Trina coming home for Thanksgiving?” he asked.

“Yes, she called this morning,” Donna said. “How did you know?”

“It’s a nine-hour drive from Calgary.”

“She said she didn’t want to miss her niece’s first birthday. And she’s bringing someone.”

58 country-guide.ca

“Huh,” Dale said. “Must be someone pretty important, if she wants to spend 18 hours in the car with him.”

“She didn’t say,” Donna said. “Just that his name’s Ryan.”

“She’s working fast,” Dale said.

“She’s only been in Alberta a couple of months. I just hope this one doesn’t get her all upset. Last Thanksgiving she spent all weekend in her bedroom, crying about that scientist who dumped her.

What does this one do?”

“No idea,” Donna said. “She didn’t say anything about him.”

Dale leafed through the stack of mail he’d brought home and paused to look at a magazine cover. “Article about postharvest burn-off. Humph. If we ever get to finish harvest we’ll think about that.”

“Wait,” Donna said. “How did you know Trina was coming home?”

“Brian Miller told me,” Dale said.

“Wonder how he’d know.” Dale went back to his magazine, wishing he could get to the field. Donna found something to do in her office, also wishing Dale could get to the field.

Neither of them gave Brian Miller any more thought.

After a month of grey skies and machinery breakdowns, Thanksgiving weekend finally brought sunshine and warm temperatures.

“This is the kind of gorgeous fall weekend everyone imagines when they think of Thanksgiving,” said Ed’s “girlfriend” Helen when she arrived carrying three pumpkin pies.

“We’d feel more like giving thanks if we had the crop in,” Ed said, opening the lid of one of the pie containers.

“Get your finger out of there, Ed Hanson,” Helen said. “Shouldn’t you get to the field?”

Ed went back out to the combine.

By the time Trina arrived, Helen,

Brian chuckled: ‘You must have missed a meeting, Dale’ Donna and Donna’s daughter-in-law Elaine were putting the final touches on dinner while Elaine’s two kids played in the living room.

“You’re just in time, honey,” Donna said when Trina came in with her overnight bag. “But you’re alone. Did your friend change his mind?”

“No, he’s coming,” Trina said, disappearing into the bathroom. “He should be here any minute.”

This left everyone wondering why the boyfriend would drive all the way from Calgary in a separate car, but before anyone could ask, Trina’s brother Jeff stormed in.

“Elaine, can you print those pages from the parts manual off the Internet again? Damn header’s still not working.

And look,” he said, gesturing toward the window. “That moron Ryan Jackson’s driving up in his beat-up truck. He sold me the wrong part three times this week.

Does the dealership have him delivering wrong parts now? We’ve got enough problems, without that idiot standing around telling us we should farm organic like his dad. Oh, hey Trina,” he said.

“Long time no see. Long drive, hey?”

After kicking her older brother in the shins, hard, Trina opened the door and greeted Ryan. She introduced him to Elaine and Helen, and explained that she’d started seeing Ryan in Saskatoon, where they’d both spent the summer.

“We grew up less than 30 miles apart, but since we went to different schools, we didn’t know each other very well,” Trina said. “Now he’s back here, working at the machinery dealership and helping on his parents’ farm.”

“Hello Ryan,” Jeff said, shaking hands and then bending down to massage his shin. Elaine stood close by her OCTOBER 2014

ACRES

LANDLOCKED IN AFRICA CONTINUED FROM PG. 14

husband, making sure Jeff didn’t say anything rude to Ryan’s face.

Donna snuck down to the basement to phone Dale with an update before he was caught by surprise and said something he’d regret.

“Oh geez,” Dale answered. “You’ve got to be kidding. He’ll have Trina nagging us to quit using fertilizer. Let weeds grow all over the place. Just when she’s finished university and got a job with a company she likes. Now she’ll have to trek all the way out here to see him every weekend? Geez.”

Then Grandpa Ed stomped into the house. “Did you get those parts figured out yet Jeff? No point trying to deal with those dopes behind the parts counter if we don’t know exactly what we need.”

The Hansons around the table opened their mouths and looked at each other, trying not to catch Ryan’s eye.

“Ed,” Donna said, “you remember Ryan Jackson? He’s working in the parts department now. He’s here for dinner with Trina.”

“Of course he is. Didn’t all of you know that?” Ed said. “It’s been going on for months. They’re the talk of coffee row. Jackson, put your coat back on and come out and give us a hand with the lemon of a header your boss sold us.”

It was after 10 when Dale finally came back to the house. “We saved some pie for you,” Donna said, opening up the last of Helen’s Tupperware containers. “How did things go out there?”

“We got the header fixed,” Dale said. “But we’ve got a few more days out there at this rate. And there’s a 30 per cent chance of rain in the forecast for tomorrow. Is Ryan still here?”

Donna shook her head, bracing herself for… she didn’t know what kind of outburst from Dale. “He and Trina went to town.”

“For an organic farmer, the kid’s not totally useless,” Dale said, offering a rare compliment. “He knew his way around the header. He could probably show Brian Miller a thing or two about setting headers. If Brian wasn’t such a loudmouth.” Dale finished his pie and went off to have a shower, another Thanksgiving behind him. CG Leeann Minogue is the editor of G RAINEWS , a playwright and part of a family grain farm in southeastern Saskatchewan.

OCTOBER 2014

SMALL, BUT EAGER TO GROW “Zambia’s emergent farmers are growing and gaining confidence,” Dutch Gibson says. Farm groups are working with the banks, which are becoming more willing to provide loans without demanding land title as collateral.

Mid-size farmers like Mpupulwa also go to seminars, they get the monthly magazine from the national farm union, and he gets updated prices on his smartphone.

All that information, Mpupulwa believes, makes him a better farmer and gives him an edge when negotiating with end-users of his crops.

But it is information few small farmers can access. Jasinta Bulaya lives at the edge of her small family village close to the town of Mpongwe. There is no electricity or running water to her home. A widow with two older children, she owns 16 acres and crops about seven. She grows 2.5 acres of corn using conventional methods, and another 2.5 using conservation farming (CF) methods, plus another couple of acres of peanuts and some beans.

Her brother plows the worked acres with his oxen, although she prepares her CF field as taught, making holes with the hoe for each planting basin.

Jasinta hires help for the weeding, which is a continuous struggle in the rainy season. The heat together with almost daily rains keep weeds growing faster than anyone can keep ahead of.

Herbicides would make the job easier and are more reliable than hiring workers, but they are expensive.

Jasinta is among the top 10 per cent of small farmers whose corn outyields the average small farmer by 15 to 60 bushels per acre. The yields of her conventional corn are more than double the average, around 80 bushels per acre compared to the area average of just over 35.

Her CF field can yield 160 bushels per acre, equal to that of a commercial farmer.

Working harder, being more committed and having a desire to learn make her exceptional. While most small farmers in Mpongwe only grow corn, Jasinta regularly rotates with peanuts and beans to improve both soil and cash flow.

Fertilizer comes from oxen manure and compost, which is very effective but

time consuming. It is the price of urea for top dressing that troubles her. Only 55 per cent of small farmers use fertilizer — another reason for poor yields.

The government Farm Input Support Program (FISP) sells packs of hybrid corn seed and starter fertilizer to small farmers at a discounted price, which must be paid in advance. It sounds like a good deal, but the packs are often delivered late, or sometimes not at all, due to corruption along the way.

Jasinta manages to have money to purchase at least part of her seed and fertilizer without the FISP so that she can plant on time (90 per cent of the government’s agriculture budget is spent on the FISP and Food Reserve Agency, leaving little for much needed research and extension programs).

The government and NGOs (nongovernment organizations) are all encouraging CF to improve yields, yet most farmers find the method too laborious, and others lack the commitment or the credit to do the job right.

It helps explain why, although 66 per cent of Zambians make at least part of their living from agriculture, half of the surplus food produced and sold by the sector is grown by just three to five per cent of its farmers.

It takes Jasinta three weeks to harvest her peanuts with 10 workers. She harvests the corn herself with another woman, often camping in the field to try to prevent theft, which is a big problem for her too. She can lose up to a quarter of her yield to thieves.

It isn’t an easy existence, but she makes enough money to buy food and medicine and to send the children to school.

Yet Jasinta also feels she has hit a ceiling on her farm. Her son wants to go to agricultural college. It’s expensive, but it is her goal, and hopefully after college he will come back. That would make things much easier.

Will Zambia become the breadbasket of Africa? Maybe.

Jasinta hopes it will. So do Jessy Mpupulwa and Alan Miller. To make it happen may be three times as hard, however, because each group faces such real limitations.

I look at their situations and wonder if it will be possible. Maybe, I agree.

But it will take time. CG country-guide.ca 59

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