Grainews

FEATURES

COLUMNS

Coping with wet spring soils

Getting to the root of the problem

Patience and flexibility could be the keys to getting the crop in 8

Les Henry goes back to the basics of plant growth 28

Volume 43 · number 9 April 11, 2017 · $4.25 Practical production tips for the prairie farmer www.grainews.ca

By Lisa Guenther

I

f you’re planning to spray, beware air temperature inversions on calm, cloudless days.

That was the message from Andrew Thostenson during the Canola Council of Canada’s Cano­ LAB at Vermilion’s Lakeland College this winter. Thostenson is an exten­ sion pesticide specialist with North Dakota University.

Avoiding pesticide damage dur­ ing an inversion comes down to understanding how inversions work and recognizing the environmental conditions that cause them, Thost­ enson explained to the gathered agronomists and farmers.

How inversions work To understand air temperature inversions, a person needs to know a little about thermodynamics. While “thermodynamics isn’t for every­ body, this is pretty easy,” says Thostenson.

During the day, short-wave radi­ ation from the sun warms the earth, along with any other objects it hits.

At night, those objects emit longwave, or infrared, radiation, revers­ ing the process.

As the objects lose heat, the ground may cool the surrounding air. The warmest air will be highest, and the coldest air closest to the ground, creating an inversion.

“If there’s enough moisture, fog walls will form. And if you have a fog situation that is an inversion situa­ tion,” says Thostenson. Fog might appear to form a layer close to the ground, but it’s not really a layer, he says. It’s just the point where the air temperature is cool enough to con­ dense moisture.

Crop protection

Understanding temperature inversions photo: thinkstock

Those calm, cloudless days may not be the perfect days to get out the sprayer

See temperature on Page 5 

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wheat & chaff

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

CONTENTS

3

Finally! spring is in the air Leeann Minogue

leeann.minougue@fbcpublishing.com

Get that seed vigour test now Some seed labs are seeing a gap between germination and vigour results in wheat and barley seed 18

Shop Class: relays If an electrical component in your vehicle stops working, test for a faulty relay. Here’s how 32

Having a great ‘seeding’ baby Having a baby during spring seeding worked out well for Sarah Schultz 20

Crop Advisor’s Casebook. . 6 Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Columns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Machinery & Shop . . . . . . 30 Cattleman’s Corner . . . . . 36 FarmLife. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Leeann

GET IN TOUCH SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (CST) call 1-800-665-0502 U.S. subscribers call 1-204-944-5568 or email: subscription@fbcpublishing.com

STORY IDEAS & SUBMISSIONS If you have story ideas, call us. You can write the article and we’ll pay you – or we can write it.

Phone Leeann Minogue at (306) 861-2678 Fax: (204) 944-5416 Email: leeann@fbcpublishing.com Write to: Grainews, 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK Grainews has a Facebook page. Find, read and comment on posts easily and with a thumbs up!

FIND US ON TWITTER Leeann Minogue is @grainmuse Lisa Guenther is @LtoG Lee Hart is @hartattacks Scott Garvey is @machineryeditor

photos: Leeann Minogue

S

pring is in the air. And in the dirty snow. And in the muddy cat tracks on my car.

While I understand there’s no way to get from winter to summer without going through spring, I can’t say I’m thrilled when the snow on the lawn melts and all the disgusting things the dog’s brought home for the last three months show up again. I’m not going to tell you what we’ve found (it really is too disgusting), but let’s just say none of it smells as good now as it did back in January. (The dog disagrees.)

Of course there are some great things about spring. One morning our son and I spent a good 15 minutes watching a flock of birds take turns bathing and splashing in the puddle in front of the truck. We’ve already mail-ordered vegetable seeds for the garden, and our son is off at a 4-H meeting right now, planning what he’ll seed on the five acres he’s “renting” for his 4-H project.

Down here in southeast Saskatchewan, most of our fields are snow-free, but we still have some pretty deep banks out in the trees. We didn’t realize quite how much moisture we had until the dugout just south of the house suddenly filled one day last week when we weren’t watching.

So far, it looks like we’re set up for a “normal” seeding season (not that we’re sure exactly what normal is anymore). I know that’s not the case for everyone, so we have some stories on dealing with wet soils (Pages 8 to 12).

Besides seeding, other spring traditions are budgets and tax deadlines. We’re still adding up how much the new Saskatchewan provincial budget will cost our farm in the future (PST on Crop Insurance is Item 1 on our list), but on Page 20, we’ve got tax tips for farmers filing their 2016 personal income taxes.

Happy spring.

I took this photo of the lingering snow cover just east of Regina on March 14.

This is how the cats on our farm celebrated the first day of spring, on March 20. I suppose car wash owners everywhere are celebrating too.

new contest

You won’t win if you don’t enter Thinking of buying a new loader? Why not try before you buy?

Our machinery editor, Scott Garvey, has sweet-talked a handful of dealers into lending us their best, newest telehanders, and we’re going to spend a day testing them out.

We’re looking for three farmers to come along and help.

The test day will be Monday, July 17, on the AIM grounds just northwest of Saskatoon. Our three guest judges will get a free night at the Delta Bessborough, $50 to spend on gas, dinner with Scott and me, and tickets to see the AIM farm show. AIM runs from July 18 to 20, so our judges will also get a sneak preview of the show grounds during setup.

Enter to win: send a picture of whatever type of loader tractor you’re using on your farm now. Telehandler, forklift, loader — we don’t care. Just send a photo to leeann@fbcpublishing.com.

We’ll make the draw on May 8.

Leeann

4

wheat & chaff

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

farm safety

Putting farm safety into practice every day F or Dave Brand, safety is a core belief that’s evident not only in the way he talks but also in how he runs his farming operation.

Brand, the newest member of the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association’s (CASA) board of directors, farms not far from Red Deer, Alta, where he, his fiancée and their four kids have a small commercial herd of Simmental beef cattle. Working as a senior manager at a municipality by day, Brand explains that many of his safety practices are habits he’s brought home from off-farm work experiences “I’m an engineer, documentation is our lifeblood,” he explains, noting the critical importance of a well-maintained paper trail in the event something goes wrong. “I find, working off the farm, a lot of organizations are very, very, good about safety.

In agriculture, safety is more in its infancy.”

It isn’t that Brand thinks safety isn’t important to farmers. He says that working in the same place where he’s raising a family or hosting visitors makes it very important to him and he thinks that is pretty standard among farmers. But farmers are often working in isolation and he says it’s easy to feel alone when it comes to planning for safety on the farm.

“I think sometimes when you don’t

even know the resources are available, we tend to struggle on our own, especially in rural areas,” he says. “We learn things from people inside our circle of influence.”

For Brand, it wasn’t until tragedy struck the community he was living in during the fall of 2015 that he became aware of the resources available through CASA. He says the three young sisters who lost their lives in a grain truck were his neighbours.

During that time of mourning, Brand says many things came into sharp focus for him. He recalls how suddenly an organization he can barely remember having heard of before, CASA, was speaking to the media on behalf of agriculture again and again. He started hearing about farm safety programs he hadn’t known about before and he started hearing from other farmers about their own worries.

“There was a lot of outpouring from the farm community, and the non-farm community, from around the world actually,” he recalls. “One of the ones that sticks out in my mind and will always stick out in my mind was a farmer from Kansas, who said his wife asked him if it was okay for the kids to play on the bean pile. He said, ‘Yesterday I would have said yes. Today, I’m not so sure.’ If you can touch people, create that awareness, potentially you save someone from going through a bad situation.”

For him, that’s the essence of any safety program whether it’s CASA’s new BeGrainSafe program or something more like what he learned from Ag in the Classroom. He strongly believes that anything that helps farmers see just how real the hazards are around their farm has the potential to save lives. As a member of the Red Deer County Technical Rescue Task Force, he knows too well what the worst-case scenario really looks like.

He explains how, when they train as an emergency response unit, the hope is always that they never have to use the training. He would love to see the same mentality be adopted by the agricultural community. Because unlike productivity or environmental stability, there’s no real measure to show the improvements you’ve made on the farm. “With safety, you can’t predict an incident; there is no measure of what you have stopped from happening,” he points out. “So, it’s very difficult to measure.”

For more information about the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association and how to commit to safety on your farm, visit agsaftetyweek.ca or casa-acsa.ca. GN Amy Petherick for the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association.

Give us your best shot!

Dave Brand farms alongside his family near Red Deer, Alta.

agronomy tips… from the field

Lay the groundwork for a strong soybean season Want to set the stage for a strong soybean crop? Start by seeding into warmer soils. Light tillage can help break up crop residue and spread it evenly across your field. Working up soil also attracts sunlight and heat more effectively.

Aim to seed into moisture to give your beans a better start.

If possible, try to time seeding so that it’s at least a couple days before a major rainfall, as too much cold water in the soil can impact emergence.

Crop rotation is important to consider, since common root diseases such as rhizoctonia, can affect both canola and soybeans. But smart crop rotation can also help you ensure that you’re keeping disease inoculum levels to a minimum when rotating out of non-host crops. Generally, the best practice is to seed soybeans after a cereal crop.

Weed control timing is especially important in soybeans, as they are not a highly competitive crop. Early competition from weeds will result in plants that are smaller, weaker, not as vigorous, and ultimately contribute lower yields.

This photo came from Mel Hoffer, from Maple Creek, Sask. Mel wrote, “I was on my way to the Cypress Hills Winery when I noticed these heifers conveniently grazing on the other side of a ‘No Hunting’ sign. The heifers belong to Randy Bohnet of Maple Creek.” Thanks for sharing this photo Mel! We’re sending Mel a cheque for $25.

When I emailed back to say that I love that area of the province, and I especially like the Cypress Hills rhubarb wine, I found out that Mel does the artwork for the wine bottle labels, and gets a chance to try all the wines. What a great job that would be.

Send your best shot by email to leeann@fbcpublishing.com or through Twitter at @GrainMuse. Please send only one or two photos at a time, and also send along some information about where and when you took the photo, or even something about your farm. Photos with larger file sizes look better in the paper.

— Leeann

The “critical weed-free period” for soybeans is from emergence until the third trifoliate. Use tank mix options suited for your growing area during your first herbicide application so that you can extend your length of weed control. GN Marc Brown, soybean research associate, with Syngenta Canada.

cover stories

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

5

Crop protection 1666 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg, Man. R3H 0H1 www.grainews.ca Publisher Lynda Tityk Editorial director Laura Rance Editor Leeann Minogue Field Editor Lisa Guenther Cattleman’s Corner Editor Lee Hart Farmlife Editor Sue Armstrong Machinery Editor Scott Garvey Production Director Shawna Gibson Designers Steven Cote, Ron White Marketing/Circulation Director Lynda Tityk Circulation Manager Heather Anderson President Glacier Farmmedia LP Bob Willcox Head Office 1666 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg, Man. R3H 0H1 Phone: (204) 944-5568 Fax: (204) 944-5562 Sales Director Cory Bourdeaud’hui Phone: (204) 954-1414 Fax: (204) 944-5562 Email: cory@fbcpublishing.com National Advertising Sales Kevin Yaworsky Phone: 250-869-5326 Email: kyaworsky@farmmedia.com Advertising Services Co-ordinator Arlene Bomback Phone: (204) 944-5765 Fax: (204) 944-5562 Email: ads@fbcpublishing.com

photo: Lisa Guenther

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An inversion demonstration at CanoLAB in Vermilion. Note the cloud of water droplets illuminated by the light. Inversions happen when warmer air rises, and cooler air sticks closer to the earth's surface. Fine droplets are suspended, and can travel laterally, damaging other crops.  temperature from Page 1

But how does an inversion affect pesticide applications?

Larger droplets will have enough mass to fall through dense, cooler air and hit their targets.

“But if you’re dealing with fine droplets — and all spray nozzles produce a certain amount of fine droplets — they start to move laterally. They become suspended in that cooler, denser air.”

Those suspended droplets are not necessarily going to stay in the field where they were applied.

“What you’ve got to understand is that cold, dense air moves like water,” says Thostenson. The cool air will collect in low spots. “And as it collects, it begins to condense the moisture out of the air.”

A light breeze will also push the suspended droplets to an unwanted place, Thostenson adds.

“The take-home message is that droplets still matter in an inversion.

But it’s not 100 per cent. Use the right spray drop, with the right nozzle, and you can minimize this problem dramatically.”

On a clear, calm day, inversions will start to form in the mid- to late afternoon in the southern Prairies or in the evening in northern latitudes. The inversion will be most intense shortly after sunrise the next day.

“It’s because even though the sun is up in the horizon, it isn’t high enough to be able to start striking objects, where you’re standing,” Thostenson explains. “So the coldest part of the day, when the maximum part of the inversion occurs, is just a little after sunrise.”

Late afternoon and early evening

photo: Lisa Guenther

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

Andrew Thostenson

are the most hazardous times to spray if an inversion is forming, says Thostenson, because the inversion won’t dissipate until after sunrise.

In the meantime, the suspended pesticide could move miles downrange, depending on the weather.

Cloud, wind, surface conditions, and humidity Cloud cover will reflect the infrared radiation back to earth, preventing or weakening the inversion.

Thostenson says the “best guess” is that 25 per cent or more cloud cover should prevent a strong inversion.

Wind plays into it, too. The wind’s “tumbling action” will mix warm and cool air, clearing up an inversion. The wind must be at least four to five m.p.h. to weaken the inversion, according to a North Dakota State University publication.

When thinking about inver-

sions, it’s important to know that a closed crop canopy acts as the earth’s surface, says Thostenson.

That surface is cooler than bare earth because plants respire and dissipate heat.

“So when you’re spraying over top of a closed crop canopy, the temperature inversion will be much more intense than if you were spraying over bare ground or ground that’s only partially covered with crop canopy,” says Thostenson.

High humidity weakens inversions because the moisture in the air acts as a heat sink, buffering the movement of temperature ranges in the atmosphere, Thostenson says.

Inversions will build faster and be more intense in low humidity situations, he adds. “The good news is that in the morning, when that sun comes up, that inversion isn’t going to last very long.”

If humidity is low, the inversion will likely dissipate an hour or two after sunrise, he says. If humidity is high, it will likely take two and a half to four hours to dissipate after sunrise.

Inversions can set in after windy days, as the weather system passes, Thostenson says. That’s a potential pitfall for people in a rush to spray after weather delays.

Thostenson says that significant inversions don’t happen every day, so there’s no need to be paranoid.

“But you need to watch the local environment and the terrain. Understand the topography, the wind breaks. All those sorts of things play into it.” GN Lisa Guenther is field editor for Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Follow her on Twitter @LtoG.

Sensing an inversion “If you know what you’re looking for, you can tell if there’s an inversion in place or not,” says Andrew Thostenson, extension pesticide specialist with North Dakota University.

Dust hanging in the air is one sign of an inversion, he says. As well, smoke will move laterally instead of rising during an inversion.

“You can smell an inversion,” he adds. Odours are more intense because the smell stays closer to the ground. In Oklahoma, livestock producers have to check a website on certain days to make sure there isn’t an inversion before spreading manure, he says.

People an also hear sounds from farther away during an inversion, Thostenson says.

Cold air bends sound waves, projecting them farther along the earth’s surface. Anyone who’s camped near a lake during the summer has probably experienced this. The cold air above the lake bends sound waves, amplifying conversations from across the lake.

Lisa Guenther

FEATURES

6

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

crop advisor’s casebook

A BIG BARLEY BOTHER indicated both wheat and barley can play host to this insect.

If you think you know what pest is causing white heads and empty kernels in Ian’s barley crop, send your diagnosis to Grainews, Box 9800, Winnipeg, MB, R3C 3K7; email leeann@fbcpublishing.com or fax 204944-95416 c/o Crop Advisor’s Casebook. The best suggestions will be pooled and one winner will be drawn for a chance to win a Grainews cap and a one-year subscription to the magazine. The answer, along with reasoning that solved the mystery, will appear in the next Crop Advisor’s Solution File. GN

By Kathy-Jo Toews

W

hile assessing his crop for damage after a storm last year, Ian, a Manitoba producer, noticed some barley plants had white heads. Also, the kernels of the affected plants didn’t fill. Ian, who farms 1,500 acres of wheat, barley and canola near Oak Lake, Man., wasn’t sure if the storm had damaged the barley plants, or if there was another reason for the whitened heads and impaired kernel development.

It was the first week of July when I visited Ian’s farm. As I walked through the field, I noticed only a small percentage of barley heads had turned white. These plants were distributed randomly throughout the field. Of these plants, most of the barley heads hadn’t filled, and, when pulled, these heads separated easily from the stem.

Ian thought the rain, wind and hail the area received that week could have damaged the barley heads. However, the whitened and empty heads were not consistent with damage typically caused by inclement weather such as hail wounds and broken stems.

Although root rot also causes white heads, I could also rule out this type of infection because, usually, the entire plant turns white and the heads don’t pull out easily. In the case of these plants, the roots also looked healthy.

Rather, I thought the damage looked similar to what I’d seen in wheat fields, and caused by a certain pest, which burrows into the stem, killing the head.

I checked my pest guide, which

Kathy-Jo Toews works for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. in Brandon, Man.

Casebook winner The winner for this issue of Casebook is Charlee McLaughlin.

Charlee is a sales agronomist with the Shoal Lake Branch of Shur-Gro Farm Services Ltd. She comes from a livestock farm near Rivers, Man. Charlee, thanks for entering!

We’re sending you a Grainews cap and a one-year subscripation to the magazine.

You could be a winner too. If you know the answer to this issue of Casebook, email me at Leeann@ fbcpublishing.com. ­— Leeann Minogue Some of the barley plants had white heads. Also, the kernels of the affected plants didn’t fill. When pulled, these heads separated easily from the stem. The affected plants were distributed randomly throughout the field.

Crop advisor’s solution

Not going to wing it, when it comes to pests

By Charisse Garland When a large bird population started circling and swooping Henry’s durum wheat field last July, he asked me to take a look at his crop. He thought the “black bugs” he’d found were attracting the birds, as well as eating his crop.

When I arrived at Henry’s farm, which is located southwest of Tompkins, Sask., the durum wheat field looked normal and healthy.

The wheat plants’ leaves, stems and heads also looked good. The crop was completely headed out and near the milky stage.

When we checked the crop

for insects, we found nothing out of the ordinary, except for a noticeable lady beetle and lady beetle larvae population. This beetle population was likely the reason for the birds circling and swooping the field.

Lady beetles are beneficial insects, preying on other insects that feed on crops. These beetles are natural pest predators, and regulate pest populations. Both lady beetle larvae and adults have a favourite food source — aphids!

Knowing this, Henry and I examined wheat plant stems and heads for aphids, checking the heads carefully for insects tucked up in places we couldn’t easily see

them. We found high aphid numbers on the heads — more than 12 per head. We also found aphids on the plant stems and on the ground, as it was quite windy that day.

Because of the favourable moisture and growing conditions that season, farmers in the area, including Henry, cut hay earlier than normal. Aphid infestations tend to manifest after the first hay cut because the winged adults migrate to new hosts. Producers with cereal crops close to hay flats or near areas where alfalfa is cut should scout their fields frequently for aphid populations.

Since the aphid population in Henry’s crop met the economic

threshold (12 to 15 aphids per stem prior to the soft dough stage), he chose to spray the field with insecticide. If a rain event had been forecast for the following day or so, the aphid population may have been suppressed because the rain would have disrupted them.

In addition, because lady beetles and lady beetle larvae are natural predators of aphids, had the aphid population not been so high, the beetles may have been able to curb the pest population, eliminating the need for chemical control.

There is no way to avoid aphid infestations — it’s a matter of pest control when it’s necessary. A week after Henry sprayed the wheat crop,

we scouted the field. The aphids were gone, as were the birds, which were after the lady beetle larvae.

At harvest, the crop yield was not affected because Henry sprayed in good time to control the aphid infestation. He felt sure his yield would have been lower if he had not sprayed because his neighbours, who chose not to spray, were disappointed with the yield from their aphid-infested crops.

This was the first time Henry had ever encountered aphids in a durum crop, and he plans to scout for them earlier in the season in future.

Charisse Garland works for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. in Swift Current, Sask.

FEATURES

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

7

Weed management

Kochia not confirmed ‘triple resistant’ — yet Producers should take action against kochia based on threat severity

By Julienne Isaacs

“

T

riple-resistant” kochia — kochia resistant to herbicides in Groups 2, 4 and 9 — hasn’t yet been confirmed in Alberta despite recent media reports, says Hugh Beckie, a weed scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Surveys have turned up two-way resistant kochia, specifically Group 2 plus Group 4, and Group 2 plus Group 9 resistant weeds, but so far no populations have been confirmed that combine resistance to all three chemistry classes.

“I expect it’s out there already, but it hasn’t been confirmed,” he says. All populations of kochia are Group 2 resistant. According to Beckie, the most recent weed surveys showed that five per cent of kochia populations were Group 9 or glyphosate resistant.

“It’s only a matter of time until we get populations with all three types of resistance because of kochia’s extensive seed movement,” he says.

“The key message is that if it’s an imminent threat, carefully plan your crop rotations and make sure you have the appropriate herbicides available to control kochia.”

In wheat, the only herbicide mode of action remaining to producers for kochia control is Group 6, so producers should think carefully about their plan of attack. “We already have Group 2 kochia, could have Group 9 kochia, and if you’ve used a lot of Group 4 in the past and you’re planting wheat on wheat on wheat, you have to be prepared to move out of wheat for a while and diversify to other crops where resistant kochia may be controlled,” he says.

Those crops can’t be pulses, though, as pulses rely on Group 2 chemistries. Roundup Ready or Liberty Link canola systems are an option.

In the southern Prairies, Beckie says producers are quite concerned about the problem. “If their populations become resistant to Group 4, it would have a big impact on their bottom line.”

Story “different” in Manitoba Jeannette Gautier, a weed scientist with Manitoba Agriculture, says random tests have found about 15 per cent incidence of glyphosateresistant kochia in Alberta and Sask­ atch­ewan, but the story is “quite different” in Manitoba.

“We’ve found most of our glyphosate-resistant kochia in the Red River Valley area, in glyphosatetolerant soybean and corn,” she says. “Our incidence is about five per cent." Less chemfallow in Manitoba accounts for the difference.

In Manitoba, the Manitoba Can­ ola Growers Association and Manitoba government have joined forces with the Pest Surveillance Initiative (PSI), a “grower-led molecular

detection laboratory that identifies, quantifies and tracks risks to successful crop production.”

The lab uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to assess samples. Farmers can even submit green material without having to wait for plants to set seed, she says.

Gautier’s team just released an up-to-date map on the PSI website (online at mbpestlab.ca), based on last year’s lab results, showing areas affected by resistant populations of

kochia. Five rural municipalities are affected, she says. Producers can check the map to determine whether a plan is needed on their operations.

Gautier says it’s “hard to know” whether the problem is getting better or worse. Many producers are aware of the problem and have begun tank mixing or applying different modes of action.

Prairie producers have also started using pre-emergence prod-

ucts, such as those in Groups 14 and 15. Some Group 3 and Group 8 products can be used as pre-seed burnoff to tackle herbicide resistant weeds, followed by a post-emergent application of glyphosate. Preemergent herbicides that specifically target kochia include Edge (Group 3) and Authority (Group 14), says Gautier.

Though cereal crops are fairly competitive against kochia, cereal producers should stay on top of the

situation early. “It’s important for producers to target their main weed problems,” she says. “If kochia is the one you’re really concerned about, pick something with multiple modes of action, and again you’ve got a competitive crop in wheat so get it in there as early as you can, and keep seeding rates up.” GN Julienne Isaacs is a Winnipeg-based freelance writer and editor. Contact her at julienne.isaacs@gmail.com.

GET IT UNDER CONTROL.

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Enforcer® controls these weeds and many more of the toughest weeds on the prairies. It’s part of Nufarm’s team of hard-hitting ® ® cereal products that includes Curtail M and Signal .

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2017-03-01 9:27 AM

8

FEATURES

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

Soil management

Coping with those wet spring soils After last fall’s moisture, spring seeding is going to require patience and flexibility

He’s prepared to be flexible

keeping track. Although he got all his crops off some of his neighbours still have corn and soybeans in their fields, and he’ll have to do some tillage this spring to smooth out a few rutted fields before he can seed.

“We have had a lot of snow, so that hasn’t helped the situation,” says Lehenbauer. “We need a warm, dry spring and any kind of big rainfall at the end of April or early May rain will probably delay us right to the end of May or early June. If it gets that late, obviously we’re cutting it fine for crop insurance deadlines, and yield potential goes down because in this area we like to start seeding ideally the end of April or early May.” Like many of his neighbours, Lehenbauer has upped his crop insurance moisture coverage this year. “It doesn’t pay all the bills but it does help if we can’t seed,” he says.

Having an Alternative Crop Plan

There’s no doubt that excess moisture — just like drought — causes a lot of stress and hardship for many farmers, which is why many are taking higher crop insurance this year and being as flexible as possible in their crop plans to make sure they are ready for whatever Mother Nature throws at them.

Arnaud, Manitoba, area farmer Matt Lehenbauer battles excess moisture conditions constantly.

In the 18 years that he has farmed he has only had one year that was too dry. Last year he got 40 inches of rain between May and early October and then gave up

Lehenbauer did manage to get a lot of his field work done in November during a week of good weather that allowed him to take out the cultivator and deep tiller and clean up a lot of rutted fields. There are still a few fields he will have to smooth out with some tillage this spring, but he’s optimistic that he will get 90 per cent of his land seeded, and he’s prepared to be flexible with his crop plan.

“The equipment will be all ready to go and as soon as we can get out there, we’ll be out there, and we may get a little aggressive and seed probably a bit on the early side, but we have 4,300 acres to cover, so we just

Swathing this perennial rye grass left deep ruts in a wet field.

Photo: Matt Lehenbauer

Being Flexible

Photo: Matt Lehenbauer

P

atience is a virtue, but it’s not an easy one to practice, especially when it involves waiting for saturated fields to dry up so you can get out and seed this year’s crop.

Last fall left many Prairie fields already saturated thanks to late fall rains and early snowfalls, and after a winter with heavy snowfalls, and predictions of flooding in some areas, farmers are understandably a little edgy about when they will be able to get on their fields this spring.

Exacerbating the situation is the fact that some still have last year’s unharvested crops to deal with before they can even begin seeding this year’s crops.

Agronomist Reinhard Bachmeier of Parkland Astrophysics has been urging his clients to get out on their fields this winter to clean up those crops. “If producers have a crop like corn still out in the field they have to do something with it, so I have been suggesting that they get out there even in -30 and harvest that corn,” says Bachmeier. “The frozen ground can carry the equipment, and gives an opportunity to clean up the field and in some cases dry down the crop so it is still usable.”

Farmers who did get all their crops harvested, didn’t all manage it in ideal conditions, and will have some seriously ugly fields to deal with in the spring if they couldn’t get out again last fall to clean up the ruts.

Cliff Banman has a grain and dairy farm near New Bothwell, Manitoba, and says his land is currently the wettest it’s been in 10 years, but he’s surprised how variable the wet weather was last year. Banman got all his crops off and worked all his fields at least once, but this spring he will have to do a bit more tillage than normal to get a better seed bed, but he’s planning as if it’s going to be a normal year, while remaining flexible if it isn’t. “If it’s not drying out quick enough and I can’t get corn seed in the ground by the end of May then I will take some corn acres out, and go for a cereal like oats or barley,” he says.

It was still very wet during the soybean harvest.

Photo: Matt Lehenbauer

By Angela Lovell

Rain came, just after winter wheat was seeded into canola stubble.

FEATURES

9

photo: supplied

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

Wet weather has left farmers with deep ruts to cope with in the spring. This photo was taken in the Fork River area, north of Dauphin, Man., in the Parkland Region.

don’t have the time to wait for the conditions to be completely ideal, this year especially,” he says.

L e h e n b a u e r u s u a l ly s e e d s wheat, canola, then soybeans last when the soil has warmed up and there’s no frost risk, but if it’s getting towards mid-May the soybeans will take priority for seeding. “Soybeans has been a crop in the last few years that has paid out the best, and they can handle moisture better so there’s less risk and less input costs too.

Corn’s probably out for this year.

If it’s really wet we’ll go back to canola because that’s something we can broadcast on, and harrow in and hope for a crop. We’ve done that in the past with some success.”

And if it gets to the stage where some of his fields aren’t going to get seeded, Lehenbauer says he’ll start thinking about next year. “If it gets too late there will definitely be drainage projects in the summer, to hopefully get fields into shape for next year,” says Lehenbauer, who put his first tile drainage system in last fall. “We put tile drainage in late last fall on a field that is 70 per cent clay and I am not sure it’s been done on that kind of heavy clay before in Manitoba, so it will be interesting to see how it works.”

Managing blackleg takes more than genetics.

Going with the Flow Weeds could be another big headache for farmers who weren’t able to get effective control last season or after harvest. Lehenbauer already has some major weed issues in some of his fields, and is hoping he doesn’t have to content with both seeding and spraying in the same tight window during the spring. “It could be a very busy two or three weeks,” he says.

Despite his frustration with last year’s wet conditions, Lehenbauer remains philosophical about the upcoming year. “At some point you just have to realize there’s really nothing you can do about it,” he says. “We will have our seed, fertilizer and equipment all ready to go on demand and hopefully we will get that nice window of 10 to 14 days and get everything done. We’ve had many challenging springs, but if we can get a lot of crop in if we get that two weeks. We’ll just have to go with the flow.” GN

Growers who are tightening canola rotations and relying on the same blackleg R-rated varieties year after year are at a higher risk of blackleg infection. Your best defence is an integrated approach that includes Priaxor® fungicide. Combining the unique mobility of Xemium® and the proven benefits1 of AgCelence®, Priaxor delivers more consistent and continuous control of blackleg, and helps maximize your canola crop’s yield potential and growth efficiency2. Keep blackleg out of your fields and save with the 2017 Canola Solution Offer. See agsolutions.ca/priaxor for details.

AgCelence benefits refer to products that contain the active ingredient pyraclostrobin. 2All comparisons are to untreated unless otherwise stated.

1

Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist living and working in Manitoba. Find her online at www.angelalovell.ca.

Always read and follow label directions.

AgSolutions is a registered trade-mark of BASF Corporation; AgCelence, PRIAXOR, and XEMIUM are registered trade-marks of BASF SE; all used with permission by BASF Canada Inc. PRIAXOR fungicide should be used as part of a preventative disease control program. © 2017 BASF Canada Inc.

NEWS

RethInk YouR opeRatIon

Tracks Deliver Efficiency Year-Round No matter which track option best meets your needs, tracks can bring a higher level of efficiency to your operation.

I

t used to be that tracks earned their keep during the fast-pace, high-pressure planting and harvest seasons — especially when less-than-ideal weather tightened the screws even more.

But today, with more equipment options and greater flexibility, tracks deliver year-round benefits. And that starts with greater efficiency.

“We know the cyclical farm economy is as reliable as a late-spring snowstorm,” says Mitch Kaiser, Case IH Steiger® marketing manager. “We also know how those dips in the cycle help farmers push for increased efficiency.” More and more of that focus falls squarely on track technology.

It starts under the hood Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) helps make Case IH tractors among the most fluid-efficient available, which translates directly to lower operating costs.

“SCR technology allows us to tune our engines for maximum horsepower, without compromising efficiency for emissions,” Kaiser explains.

“Fine-tuning the combustion process and eliminating exhaust gas recirculation provides substantial improvement in fuel efficiency, too.”

SCR technology helps efficiently power Case IH Steiger and Magnum™ series tractors. Combining those powerful engines with Quadtrac® and Rowtrac™ systems transfers more of that efficient power to the ground and to the implement you’re pulling.

“Through the years, we’ve stayed true to our original promise of offering better traction and less compaction,” Kaiser says. “Better traction results in more-efficient power transfer.” But it doesn’t stop there.

“Our track design helps maintain full power through turns without producing as many ruts and berms,” Kaiser says. “That results in greater productivity across more of the field.” a gentle footprInt With increased flotation and less soil compaction, Case IH tracked tractors go easy on the soil.

“The Quadtrac system uses four 30- or 36-inch-wide rubber tracks to reduce ground pressure, resulting in minimal soil disturbance, a smooth and comfortable ride, and less stress

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Case IH track technology more efficiently delivers more usable power. And that translates directly to lower operating costs. on the soil,” Kaiser says. “The Magnum Rowtrac keeps four points of ground contact, which reduces surface pressure and means less weight transfer from front to rear than typical two-track systems.”

Case IH tracks also oscillate and pivot to maintain a flat footprint that keeps the power on the ground.

“This produces traction that is unaffected by hitch or drawbar load.

Constant contact with the ground produces optimal pressure, ideal flotation and better traction,” Kaiser says.

The exclusive track design features five sets of wheels and five axles to better distribute weight and avoid pressure spikes in the soil. Additionally, each unit independently pivots up and down 10 degrees, allowing it to better follow ground contours, yet turn tightly without causing berming or disturbing the soil.

tracks for any task Steiger Quadtrac, Steiger Rowtrac and Magnum Rowtrac tractors operate in multiple crops and a variety of field conditions and operations.

“Our tracked tractors can handle everything from primary and secondary tillage to planting and spraying row crops to side dressing fertilizer,” Kaiser says. “When you outfit your Axial-Flow® combine and, now, your Early Riser® planter with tracks,

you truly can capitalize on the efficiency and benefits tracks deliver during every phase of the growing season.”

The diverse Case IH tractor lineup and track options help make the decision to give tracks a try on your farm an easy one.

“For maximum flotation and efficient productivity, tracks are the way to go,” Kaiser explains. “Soil types vary from farm to farm and from field to field. Tracks can help you minimize compaction, which is especially important if you need to get into fields earlier to help maximize yield potential.”

If you need the ultimate in row crop flexibility, Magnum Rowtrac combines the benefits of tracks with the maneuverability of mechanical front drive.

“Magnum Rowtrac offers row spacings to match specific cropping systems,” Kaiser says. “The combination of low compaction, high traction and ease of handling make it well-suited to a variety of crops, especially specialty crops, such as potatoes, sugar beets and vegetables — crops that require smooth fields from fence line to fence line to achieve optimal productivity.”

No matter which option best meets your needs, tracks can bring a higher level of efficiency to your operation. For more information, visit caseih.com.

CASEIH.COM/TRACKLEADER

The exclusive Case IH five-axle design provides more even power to the soil for less ground pressure in all applications.

Time-tested, field-proven Building on more than 20 years of global leadership since the introduction of Steiger Quadtrac series tractors, Case IH has developed and refined its track equipment lineup over the last two decades.

Today, Case IH incorporates this award-winning track technology across multiple product lines, including Steiger Quadtrac tractors, Steiger Rowtrac tractors, Magnum Rowtrac tractors, Axial-Flow combines and, most recently, Early Riser planters.

“Since we unveiled the Steiger Quadtrac, our tracks have traversed millions of acres around the world,” recalls Mitch Kaiser, Case IH Steiger marketing manager. “Many of the same benefits introduced in 1996 continue to draw producers to our track offerings today.”

Those benefits include: • Individually driven, oscillating tracks maintain a flat footprint, keeping power to the ground. axle design better distributes weight.

• • each unit individually pivots so it better follows ground contours.

• Wide track options and a longer wheelbase increase flotation and produce a smoother ride.

• exclusive, self-tensioning, maintenance-free track system with clear-bearing-cap sight gauges keeps you in the field longer.

WHEN YOU’VE SHOWN THE WORLD WHAT WORKS,

THERE ARE BOUND TO BE SOME IMITATORS. For 20 years, we’ve left the competition with some pretty big tracks to fill. But in the rush to keep up, there are a few things the copies have missed. Like our exclusive five-axle design. It gives our Steiger® Quadtrac,® Steiger Rowtrac™ and Magnum™ Rowtrac tractors a smoother ride and more power to the ground with less berming and compaction. Which is one of the advantages of paying your dues, instead of paying homage.

Learn more at caseih.com/tracks.

©2017 CNH Industrial America LLC. All rights reserved. Case IH is a trademark registered in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates. www.caseih.com

12

FEATURES

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

photo: thinkstock

Ask the expert

If producers really want to try and get moisture levels down in their soil and decide to till, they need to think carefully about their phosphorus needs, says Dr. Mario Tenuta.

Tillage is tempting, but treacherous While tillage can get you in the field faster, it can also disrupt networks in your soil

By Angela Lovell

Disrupting Fungal Networks Limits P

a n y fa r m e rs a c ro s s Western Canada have been struggling with wetter than normal conditions over the past few years. This spring many will again be facing soils that are close to the saturation point and puzzling over how to deal with them. Some farmers may turn to tillage to help dry them out, or at the very least to smooth our ruts. While it might get them back on the fields faster, they could be inadvertently setting their newly planted crops back by making nutrients harder to access.

Tillage causes physical disruption to soil organisms, especially larger ones like earthworms, and those that have large networks like fungi. “Tillage can physically destroy the networks of hyphae (long, thread like filaments) that fungi create, and for the larger bodied organisms like earthworms tillage could cause death due to crushing, removal of their tunnels and burrows, and so on,” says Dr. Mario Tenuta, professor of applied ecology at the University of Manitoba. “The other thing that tillage does is redistribute materials, and that’s one of the reasons why farmers do till, to mix in surface crop residue below the surface. Once residue is in contact with the soil, it’s also in contact with active soil organisms, which can speed up decomposition of the material.”

But the most critical issue from a plant productivity and crop production standpoint is the effect of tillage on the networks of mycorrhizae fungi, which relay nutrients and compounds to plants.

“Primarily for crop plants, the network transfers phosphorus to plants, which allows them to photosynthesize for better yields and feed the fungi to keep that network surviving and active,” says Tenuta.

“Tillage breaks the network, which has to be completely resynthesized and that requires a re-deployment of the whole network,” says Tenuta. “The reconstruction process will take energy from the fungus, and that takes energy away from the process of acquiring phosphorus and translocating it to the plant, because the fungi are trying to repair itself instead. It’s a loss of efficiency for the fungus and the plant.”

Because commonly, farmers till in the fall after harvest and/ or the spring before the crop is planted, there is a delay in reestablishing the fungal network.

“The early season uptake of nutrients for a crop can be compromised because of that,” says Tenuta. “In that period of time where it’s getting rebuilt, it’s not as efficient in transferring the phosphorus and that can be a big thing for a plant or a crop because it’s often the early season uptake of phosphorus that is

M

really critical for plant establishment and growth.”

Farmers can’t compensate by simply putting on more phosphorus fertilizer. “Farmers can do a couple of things, they can increase soil test phosphorus, or the background level of phosphorus that’s available for plants, but researchers have found that even if they do that, some crops highly dependent on mycorrhizal fungi such as flax, are still compromised for early treatment P uptake,” says Tenuta.

Fungal networks do rebuild themselves “To get over that negative hit on the mycorrhizal fungus, and its inability to help with phosphorus acquisition, it’s necessary to add phosphorus in and/ or near the seed row in a band, not just broadcasting it, so that the phosphorus is more available to the emerging seedling in the early spring. It makes things more complicated, and more input intensive and expensive in management of the phosphorus.”

As well, there is a limit to the amount of phosphorus that can safely be placed with the seed in the furrow without causing

seedling injury. The safe amount of in-row phosphorus is well documented and available on provincial websites. Safe levels depend on the soil type, the crop, the source of phosphorus and moisture. Tenuta recommends farmers band phosphorus to the side of the seed-row if unsure of safe in-row limits.

Wet Soils Tempt Tillage The good news is that the fungal networks do rebuild themselves within a year, but not necessarily fast enough to make a different to the new crop. “If a farmer has done a fall and spring tillage, then plants a crop like wheat or corn, if we compared it to a notill crop, early on in the season there would be more presence of fungi in the roots of the plants in the no-till situation,” says Tenuta.

“If we went back later in the growing season, colonization of the roots by the fungi would be about the same. They will rebuild the network but it’s delayed, and eventually it’ll catch up and establish with the crop. However, it may not be as efficient later in the season. A lot of our crops need phosphorus earlier on in the season so that’s the problem. If it catches up later on it might be too late.”

Rarely do no-till farmers use tillage unless they have a major issue that is hampering their ability to achieve their yield potential. But do the costs in terms of losing the benefits pro-

vided by soil organisms outweigh the benefit of a tillage operation in these cases?

“Often there is a problem related to establishing the crop, in getting a stand emergence that’s decent to get good yields, so if there is something that is near catastrophic happening in their situation, that’s compromising their yield, they are playing a balancing act,” says Tenuta. “That balancing act is, they may compromise their early phosphorus acquisition by doing tillage, but they may not get a decent crop unless they do till. They may be able to compensate with good phosphorus management but it becomes a pragmatic decision for the grower in terms of doing tillage.”

If producers really want to try and get moisture levels down in their soil and decide to till, they need to think carefully about their phosphorus needs, says Tenuta, especially in crops that are very sensitive to early-season phosphorus that require mycorrhizae. “If they have a crop like flax, corn or sunflower t h a t re q u i re s ea rly- sea so n phos­phorus and are very mycorrhizal dependent, I would really recommend them to think about making sure they have good phosphorus as a band when they plant,” he adds. GN Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist living and working in Manitoba. Find her online at www.angelalovell.ca.

FEATURES

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

13

Crop nutrition

How’s your moly doing out there?

Molybdenum was once known as ‘poor man’s lime’ for a good reason

By Lee Hart

U

nder the category “if it ain’t one thing it’s another” when it comes to crop nutrient requirements, the question is now being asked, “have you thought about the molybdenum levels in your canola and pulse crops?” Cereals need it too, but canola, peas, beans, lentils, faba beans, soybeans and others all have higher molybdenum requirements.

Molybdenum, also often referred to in the abbreviated term “moly,” is one of the 16 essential elements for plant growth. It is a micronutrient particularly important in helping plants in their uptake of nitrogen.

They don’t need much moly, but if the soil is deficient in molybdenum it can really have an impact on yield.

“The fact of the matter is that we don’t know much about it,” says Mike Dolinski, an agronomy specialist with Agri-Trend Agrology.

He’s been speaking about molybdenum at several farm meetings this past winter and early spring.

“A soil analysis for molybdenum really isn’t worth the powder to blow it up, and tissue testing is a bit better, but not many farmers tissue test their crops,” he says. “We really don’t know what’s out there. What we do know is if your soil and ultimately your crop is deficient in molybdenum it affects nitrogen uptake which in turn reduces yields.”

Molybdenum is an essential component in two enzymes that convert nitrate into nitrite and then into ammonia before it is used to synthesize amino acids within the plant. It also needed by nitrogen fixing bacteria in legumes to fix atmospheric nitrogen. Plants also use molybdenum to convert inorganic phosphorus into organic forms in the plant.

While there are many unanswered questions about molybdenum, the good news is farmers don’t need to apply very much, it is relatively inexpensive, and it can be easily applied at just about any stage of crop development.

Dolinski first became aware of concerns when dealing with farmers and in Idaho who were seeing a response to molybdenum.

“The only theory I have about what’s happening in Western Canada is that in the past few years farmers are beginning to push crops for higher yields,” says Dolinski.

“We are starting to see much higher yields. And those higher yields are removing more molybdenum.” The only natural source of molybdenum is through mineralization in the soil.

“Crops yields are getting bigger, higher rates of nitrogen are being applied and at the same time soils are becoming more acid — soil pH is dropping. And in most cases when soil pH drops most nutrients become more available. The reverse is true with molybdenum. As soils become more acid, moly becomes less available.“ He says at one time the micronutrient was referred to as “the poor man’s lime.”

Canola, pulses and legume crops have the highest requirements for molybdenum, says Dolinksi. Canola for example, uses about five times more than cereal crops such as wheat.

Crop signs of a molybdenum deficiency aren’t always obvious. In canola a deficiency can show up as cupping of the leaf margins in younger leaves, interveinal chlorosis (yellowing) of leaves, and a condition Dolinski calls “whip tale,” a narrowing of lower leaves.

HAVE A LOOK AT SOIL pH So what is the fix? First of all Dolinski says to have a look at soil pH levels. If levels are up in the eight to 8.5 pH range he wouldn’t worry about molybdenum. If they are getting down to six pH range, producers of canola and pulse crops should begin to have concern. And if they’re in the 4.5 to five range, he’d apply molybdenum to all cropped acres.

Idaho farmers are using a prod-

uct called sodium molydbate to correct molybdenum levels. It is very water soluble and can be applied as part of any field spraying operation. And you don’t need much. Moly levels can be boosted at a recommended rate of 50 grams (less than two ounces) of sodium molydbate per acre.

“Some people apply it as a seed treatment,” he says. “It can also be applied with a fertilizer, herbicide or first fungicide treatment.” Sev-

eral crop nutrient supplements also carry molybdenum.

“Have a look at your soil pH levels to start with,” says Dolinski. “And if pH levels are getting into that warning zone, at least set up a few acres for an on-farm trial. ” GN Lee Hart is a field editor with Grainews based in Calgary. Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com.

Tough broadleaves and flushing grassy weeds have met their match. No burndown product is more ruthless against problem weeds in spring wheat than INFERNO® DUO. Two active ingredients working together with glyphosate get hard-to-kill weeds like dandelion, hawk’s beard, foxtail barley and Roundup Ready® canola, while giving you longer lasting residual control of grassy weeds like green foxtail and up to two weeks for wild oats.

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14 P R E- E M E R G E N T

FEATURES

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

GROUP

14

SEED EVERYTHING

Weed management

Palmer amaranth continues spread north Producers should learn to spot the tall, fast-growing weed before it becomes a problem

photo: United Soybean Board

AND THE KITCHEN SINK.

To date, AAFC’s Dr. Hugh Beckie has not seen Palmer amaranth in the Prairies. However, he says, “if it did come up it would be through the floodwater in the Red River Valley.”

A Mix what you want, seed what you want with the freedom of Aim. Get a more complete burn down that lets you seed almost anything. Tank mix Aim with your choice of products, so you can use what you’re used to with superior results and no fear of cropping restrictions.

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16FMC082_Aim Grainews 1/3 page vertical (3.85”Wx14”H)

maranth is extremely nutrient-rich. It was important to the Aztecs, and is still cultivated in South America and Mexico.

It germinates easily, grows rapidly and produces huge numbers of seed.

But the crop that sustained the Aztec economy famously wreaked havoc on the American cotton industry, and is now affecting corn and soybean producers in 29 states, including Iowa and South Dakota.

Glyphosate resistant Palmer amaranth has been found as far north as Minnesota. It hasn’t reached Ontario or Manitoba yet, but it’s on the doorstep.

“It’s spreading north very rapidly,” says Hugh Beckie, a specialist in herbicide resistant weeds with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Peter Sikkema, a weed scientist at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown campus, says Palmer amaranth has been confirmed within a couple hundred kilometers of the Ontario/ Michigan border, but hasn’t been found in Ontario as of yet.

Sikkema says producers and researchers alike are aware of the threat, but as the weed might not arrive in the province imminently, other weed challenges are being prioritized.

The same goes for Manitoba, according to Beckie. “We have no results from the Prairies as far as I know, but if it did come up it would be through the floodwater in the Red River Valley,” he says.

It could also travel north via contaminated crop seed. Such is the case in Minnesota, where Palmer amaranth was spotted in areas planted in a federal conservation program late last year. The contaminated seed was

traced back to a single company that remains unidentified due to the state’s ongoing investigation.

Action in Minnesota Minnesota has hit back hard against Palmer amaranth, says Brian Jenks, a weed scientist with North Dakota State University. Minnesota’s state agriculture department has classified the weed as noxious and is actively hunting and destroying it in compromised areas.

It’s an approach Jenks hopes North Dakota will adopt if the weed becomes an issue in that state. Last fall, extension researchers got a scare when they heard the weed had been introduced to Iowa via contaminated conservation seed mixes — the same mixes planted by producers in some North Dakota counties.

Jenks says they obtained a list of producers in October who had planted the seed mix in question and alerted them of the risks. But only some fields were scouted before the winter, which means producers and extension staff will be on the lookout in the state this spring.

“It may be an issue here, but we don’t know yet,” says Jenks.

North Dakota is unlikely to treat the weed with the same level of seriousness as Minnesota, he believes, but he says that would be a mistake.

“The way I look at it, we have one chance to control it,” he says. “If we just let it go it’s going to take over, so I think we need to be very proactive. If it does show up we need to work with those growers and do everything they can to help them eradicate the weed.”

This will be difficult, considering many North Dakota producers don’t know how to identify the weed.

“They probably won’t know what they’re looking for until it’s in

Photo: North Dakota State University

By Julienne Isaacs

Recognize Palmer amaranth seedlings by their long leaf stems.

their fields standing six or seven feet tall,” says Jenks.

Rob Gulden, a University of Manitoba weed scientist, says it’s tough to know how much of an issue Palmer amaranth will be for Prairie producers before it actually becomes established north of the border. “We don’t know much about the biology of Palmer amaranth this far north or how well it will do here,” he says.

Palmer amaranth is not as high on his list of concerns as other, more imminent weed threats, such as tall waterhemp, giant ragweed, common ragweed, kochia and Canada fleabane, all of which have been found right on the Manitoba-North Dakota border, and all of which are glyphosate resistant.

Next year, with renewed Growing Forward funding, Gulden’s research team plans to monitor Red River Valley floodwater for all of these weed threats, including Palmer amaranth. GN Julienne Isaacs is a Winnipeg-based freelance writer and editor. Contact her at julienne.isaacs@gmail.com.

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

FEATURES

15 GROUP

P R E- E M E R G E N T

Weed management

Narrow-leaved hawk’s beard travelling

NOW AVAILABLE IN

This noxious weed is spreading outside of northwest Sask. and the Alta. boarder

WHEAT!

By Melanie Epp

Photos: Clark Brenzil

U

p until recently, narrowleaved hawk’s beard was mostly found in northwest Saskatchewan and along the Alberta border. A 2014-15 weed survey has revealed that the weed has spread to areas outside of these traditional hotspots. Identification and control can both be difficult.

For this reason, it is advised that growers — especially those who live in non-traditional hotspots — take a moment to familiarize themselves with management options.

Considered a noxious weed under the Saskatchewan Weed Control Act, narrow-leaved hawk’s beard can be tough to control.

Clark Brenzil, Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture weed specialist, attributes the weed’s spread to three possible reasons. “One may be the moisture regime that we’ve had over the last few years,” he said. “We’ve had much more moisture than normal, especially in the southern areas.”

Another contributing factor, he said, could be misidentification: narrow-leaved hawk’s beard has a similar-looking weed cousin that is found in the southwestern prairies, green hawk’s beard.

“The real way to tell the difference between the two is when the plant is flowering,” Brenzil said. “Narrowleaved hawk’s beard’s rosette will have degraded by then, leaving only stem leaves, whereas green hawk’s beard still has a very definite rosette when it’s flowering.”

Brenzil said it is virtually impossible to tell the difference between the two weeds in their earlier stages of growth.

A third contributing factor could be that narrow-leaved hawk’s beard is well suited to reduced-tillage systems. The weed is a prolific seed producer and its seeds are distributed by wind. In untilled fields, seed tends to get caught up in stubble in the middle of the field rather than blow off to the edges of the field.

What makes narrow-leaved hawk’s beard even more complicated is the fact that seeds have little dormancy, so they can germinate to produce new plants soon after they are shed. As a result, seedlings can emerge throughout the growing season. Generally, however, narrow-leaved hawk’s beard acts as a winter annual with seeds germinating in the fall from mid-August until early October if conditions are suitable. Remaining seeds will germinate in the spring once soil temperatures have risen above 5 C. The best time for scouting winter annuals, Brenzil said, is in the fall or during burn off. “Most pro-

14|15

This is a narrow-leaved hawk’s beard.

While the leaves are slightly lobed, they are narrow.

ducers are going to be doing a spring burn off anyway,” he said.

“But they may want to try and ensure that they’re covering off some of these more specialist weeds a little bit better is to make sure they get on their burn-off process as soon as possible in the spring. As soon as you can get equipment on the field and see some green growth coming, get out there and start making your applications.”

Dandelions provide a good indicator, Brenzil said. “If the dandelions have greened up but they haven’t started producing many flowers yet, then it’s the perfect time to be in the field doing your burn off to make sure that you catch some of these more difficult to control weeds,” he said.

“In the case of narrow-leaved hawk’s beard, if you missed that early window, it’s much more difficult to control,” he said.

In this case, another component needs to be added to burn off.

“This isn’t a bad policy, in general, just to try and mitigate the risk of glyphosate resistance in any weeds that are out there,” said Brenzil.

New control option When it comes to controlling narrow-leaved hawk’s beard, Rory Cranston, field marketing specialist at Bayer CropScience, agrees with Brenzil and recommends taking a holistic approach, one that includes both fall management and spring burn off. Failing that, Cranston pointed to another solution: Luxxur, a recently launched wheat herbicide that’s also good for tackling wild oats and hard-to-manage perennials. Luxxur’s active ingredients are thiencarbazone-methyl and tribenuron-methyl; both ingredients belong to Group 2.

This is a green hawk’s beard. Note that the large-lobed leaves are still making up a rosette at the bottom of this plant, while the narrow-leaved hawk’s beard has few leaves right on the ground.

“Together, this combination has a real good impact on narrowleaved hawk’s-beard,” said Cranston. “It’s not a single, stand-alone chemical. It’s supposed to be tank mixed with another one.”

“That’s Bayer’s best chemical option,” said Cranston. “I still think also taking the holistic approach.”

Where bad infestations are found, harrowing might also provide a solution, since the weed is surface germinating, said Cranston. “But it’s pretty tough to convince people to do anything with soil in the southwest just because we’ve spent so many years building the soil profile to no till or minimum till that they don’t want to throw it away.”

In order to prevent problems w i t h h e rb i c i d e ca r ryove r o r exceeding MRLs, producers do need to be careful that they’re not doubling up on active ingredients in the same year, Brenzil warned.

He suggests reviewing Saskatchewan’s Guide To Crop Protection, which is available online and in print from Regional Offices or retail outlets.

It should be noted that there are records of Group 2 resistance in narrow-leaved hawk’s beard in Alberta, and although there are currently none on record in Saskatchewan, resistance is possible.

“In that situation, products like Luxxur wouldn’t have any effect,” Brenzil added.

Again, a holistic approach is best. If you think you’ve got narrow-leaved hawk’s-beard in the field, but you’re not sure, be sure contact your regional crop specialist or agronomist. GN

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Melanie Epp is a freelance farm writer based in Guelph, ON. 16FMC050_Focus West_Print 1/3 page vertical (3.85”Wx14”H) Grainews

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Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

On-farm research

Ed Seidle learns on the job

This on-farm research program generated info about everything from aphanomyces to root rot

By Lisa Guenther

Fungicide ROI Between 1997 and 2010 the Seidle family studied fungicide effects on barley yields. Seidle notes that the term fungicide was hardly a word in most peoples’ vocabulary at that time.

Photo: Lisa Guenther

H

ow can producers make sure their on-farm trials produce useful results? Or perhaps a better question is whether growers can, or need to, run trials as rigorously as researchers?

Most farmers don’t have the time or patience to run the types of onfarm experiments that scientists do, says Ed Seidle. But that doesn’t mean they can’t pull together useful information.

The Seidle family run a pedigreed seed farm near Medstead, Sask. Ed Seidle is also an on-farm researcher and a honourary lifetime member of the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrologists. He has studied a wide range of agronomic topics in the field, including root maggots in canola, the economics of fungicide use in cereals, and, lately aphanomyces in peas. His office is filled with research papers, his own on-farm data, and cropping records going back decades.

Side-by-side test strips need to be repeated, preferably four times, in the same location to be considered sound by the research community, says Seidle. Anything less is frowned upon, as it can produce misleading information, he says.

But that doesn’t mean that test strips are useless, Seidle says. Test strips can be useful when looking at factors such as maturity and straw strength.

Two sets of side-by-side test strips are “not bad,” Seidle says, especially if they’re repeated in several fields. Pull that information together and “it may be something you can go on,” he says. Strips don’t necessarily need to run the entire length of the field, he says, unless you’re comparing yield.

However, Seidle doesn’t recommend a couple of sets of test strips for issues such as disease tolerance.

These trials require more scientific rigour, he says.

Farmers can also partner with agronomists. Ag retailers, farm groups, seed companies, and other organizations can run the same trials on several farms and pool the data.

“It would seem to me that you can make something of that,” says Seidle. But that data doesn’t necessarily represent what happens on a particular grower’s farm. Soil type, moisture, management, and microclimate can all come into play.

“I’m not saying it’s worthless but you’ve got to be a little careful with the results,” he says. Poor research can be worse than none at all, he adds.

Ed Seidle farms with his family near Medstead, Sask. He also conducts on-farm research and is an honourary lifetime member.

Spray strips were replicated several times. The sprayer was a 100 feet wide, so the spray strips would be either 100 feet or 50 feet. Seidle says they would then leave a wide buffer before spraying another strip. He adds they watch wind direction closely to prevent the fungicide from drifting onto untreated checks.

To measure yield, Seidle used a square metre frame, and hand-harvested from four spots in each strip.

Seidle says the return on investment was second only to the return on fertilizer. The treated checks often yielded 12 to 15 per cent better than the untreated, and sometimes as high as 35 per cent, with better kernel quality.

“Never did we have a situation where it didn’t pay,” he says.

Common sense tips While most farmers don’t have the time or patience to run a four-year replicated trial, diligence and curiosity can go a long way on any farm.

Seidle has nearly 40 years of daily weather records for their farm. He’s compiled 30 yearsworth of the mean temperature for each month into decade-long increments. The data shows that September is trending 1.5 C

warmer on their farm. He’s also noticed that seeding and harvest months see more frequent precipitation than they used to.

Seidle has also been tracking May soil temperatures on their farm since 2003. Based on those averages, plus frost data, they wait until mid-May before seeding canola.

Crops such as peas and oats can be sown earlier.

Farmers looking for better onfarm data can also look at improving soil sampling. In Seidle’s opinion, some of the soil testing is not done “in a manner that suits my science appetite. The results will only be as good as the sample.”

One common problem is an insufficient number of soil samples, Seidle says. Another problem is the small amount of soil sampled by small-diameter probes.

Soil characteristics can vary between and within rows. Seidle says there isn’t much research on it, but he is concerned that a small soil probe won’t draw a truly representative sample.

Seidle gets around this by using a narrow, flat spade to shave off a thin slice to the required depth. He then combines it with other samples from the same area, mixes them, and pulls a representative sample from the mix. Another solution

would be to extract more samples with the probe, from both between and within rows, he says.

If farmers suspect soil quality differs between areas, they should test each area separately, he adds.

It’s also important to observe and keep track of details with any type of on-farm enquiry, Seidle says. He always carries a notebook and camera while checking crops. Depending on what he’s looking for, he might bring a sample pail as well.

Studying aphanomyces on the farm Aphanomyces is a water mould that produces two types of spores. The active spores, known as zoospores, move through water in the soil and infect roots. The oospores rest in the soil for many years before releasing active spores that infect roots. Wet, compacted soils favour aphanomyces. Peas and lentils are susceptible to the disease.

Seidle suggests farmers track their rotations and yield, and refer to those records. For their own farm, he’s used these records to better understand what aphanomyces root rot is doing in each field.

Observing visual symptoms can be very helpful because they are quite distinct.

One of Seidle’s fields saw an extra

pea crop for certain reasons, but most were on a four-year or longer rotation. After several four-year rotations that included peas, some pea crops yielded poorly. There was no known reason for the yield decrease at that time. Fields that saw more frequent pea crops were more likely to see a yield slide. Ignoring that slide meant the next pea crop was more likely to be a wreck if the growing months were wet.

Seidle tells customers worried about aphanomyces to watch their pea yields. If the peas yield poorly for no known reason, it’s best to take at least a six-year break from aphanomyces-susceptible crops in that field, he says. That break should gradually drop inoculum levels.

Soil tests done in commercial labs don’t necessarily give farmers a good indication of whether or not they have aphanomyces in their fields, says Seidle.

Seidle has been screening pea varieties for tolerance on a piece of land he knows is heavily infested.

On May 10, before seeding peas, he sent a soil sample to a commercial lab for aphanomyces testing, and it came back negative.

“I thought, wait a minute. This piece of land’s had peas on it for two years. It was bad before. It’s had two (susceptible) crops in succession.

FEATURES

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

And it has no (detectable) aphanomyces?”

Ed Seidle seeded the trials anyway. On June 28, once the crop was growing, he sent in soil and plant material samples. Those samples came back positive. It seems that the test was able to detect new active spores but not the resting spores.

In July and November 2014, Seidle drew several soil samples from a

field with a confirmed, severe aphanomyces infection. Seidle sampled soil from zero to 10 cm, 10 to 20 cm, and as deep as 50 to 60 cm.

Out of eight samples, two returned positive results, despite what should have been a high spore load. One positive sample was extracted from 8 to 12 cm on July 23. The other was sampled on November 5 at 10 to 20 cm. The other six were negative.

“It seems as though those soil tests are good for the active spores,” says Seidle. “But the hard, resting spores that are a little bit farther down, it doesn’t appear to pick those up.”

Seidle notes that research stations have other soil tests, but they’re not commercially available. He suggests doing a bioassay using infected plants to figure out whether they’re sufferT:9.875” ing from aphanomyces, fusarium

root rot, or something else. Sample at the earliest signs of stunting or yellowing, he adds.

Aphanomyces tends to infect roots early in the season. Later on, other pathogens can obscure the aphanomyces infection. That means growers wondering whether a crop has aphanomyces should check the crop every few days, says Seidle. Observe waterways and traffic areas, he adds.

17

Watch what your plants are doing, he says. “That’s the best test.”

Much of the information on aphanomyces for this article was drawn from Ed Seidle’s paper “The Status of Aphanomyces Root Rot in Peas in North Western Saskatchewan.” GN Lisa Guenther is field editor for Grainews based at Livelong, Sask.

Follow her on Twitter @LtoG.

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Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

Spring seeding

Vigour tests recommended for wheat and barley Last fall’s harvest may have left some wheat and barley seed less than ideal

By Melanie Epp

P

oor harvest conditions can create poor seed quality, and in some cases affect germination and vigour. As a result of last year’s harvest conditions, seed analysts are seeing a wide gap between germination and vigour in Western Canadian wheat and barley seed.

Analysts are urging growers to test seed so that they can take action, if necessary.

In Western Canada, soil conditions are not always perfect for planting come spring, but a short growing season makes it sometimes difficult to wait for ideal conditions. Under less than ideal circumstances seeds may still germinate.

But without vigour — the crop’s strength and vitality — that crop could still fail.

In a recent interview, Sarah Foster, senior seed analyst at 20/20 Seed Labs, said seed analysts are seeing as much as a 40 per cent

spread between germination and vigour. “We like to see no more than a difference of 10 per cent between germination and vigour,” she said.

The gap has mostly been found in wheat and barley seed produced in central and northern Alberta, Foster said.

Germination and vigour explained Foster explained how germination studies are conducted in the lab. A germination test is the base test that establishes field-planting value under favorable field conditions, Foster explained. “It’s very difficult to assess if seed has issues if it grows normally, and one expects the vigour will be good too,” she said. “The vigour test stresses the seed so if there is a problem that’s not detected in the germination test we find it in the vigour.”

Wheat, she said, is tested at a constant 20 C between paper blotters or in sand for seven days.

There is often a four-day interim

count. If dormancy is present then there is a pre-chill period of three days at 7 C before the germination period at 20 C. Vigour is tested at 5 C on paper in a sealed plastic box. It is held at that temperature for 12 days.

Results this year can be attributed to a number of causes, but namely poor harvest conditions poor harvest conditions. Foster thinks seed either chitted or sprouted, or came off the field too immature. When seeds sprout, poor development can be expected, as the seed has used much of its food and energy reserves. “Also root tips can be necrotic because they are exposed and weathered,” she said. “Immaturity causes seed to not be physiologically mature so there is a higher level of abscisic acid that prevents germination under stress.”

“This means there is a lower concentration of gibberellins, which are needed for germination to occur,” she continued. “The seed

quality this year has been affected and it’s apparent that under stress there are low vigour results.”

Pam de Rocquigny, one of two general managers for Manitoba Corn Growers Association and Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association, expects there will be problems with disease as well this year.

“We had high disease pressure last year in terms of fusarium head blight,” she said. “Of course, that can have an impact on the quality of seed that you’re intending to keep for planting this spring.”

Foster agrees. “We are doing lots of DON testing,” she said. “The mycotoxins have been quite high in durum.”

So what can growers do to mitigate problems? De Rocquigny encourages growers to get seed tested at an accredited lab. “If there are issues and concerns with it they have the ability to either condition and re-test it or secure another seed source for planting in 2017,”

she said. “You have one chance to set the crop up for success, and securing a good quality seed lot is one of those first steps.”

De Rocquigny suggests calling either Sarah Foster at 20/20 Seed Labs or Holly Gelech at BioVision Seed Labs.

Foster said it’s important that growers get a vigour test that is truly representative and timely, one that is closest to the planned date of planting. “Use the vigour as your seeding rate number and get a 1000 kernel weight,” she said. “Use seed treatments and seed into warmer soils. If the seed vigour is lower than 60 per cent and has dormancy, think about new seed.”

“There is good quality seed out there that has good germination, good vigour,” said De Rocquigny.

“I always like to remind producers that it’s not all doom and gloom.” GN Melanie Epp is a freelance farm writer based in Guelph, Ont.

LEAVE NOTHING BEHIND.

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Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

19

Crop production

Should you be planting green manure?

Researchers see planting and terminating ‘green manure’ as an alternative to summerfallow

By Dilia Narduzzi

R

esearchers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada as well as the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture have published two recent studies about the effects of green manure on farmland in the Prairies. In one study specifically, the researchers looked at using green manure as an alternative to summerfallowing.

Green manure “is a crop that is specifically planted in order to be terminated, it isn’t harvested for grain,” says Dr. Patrick Mooleki, a soil and nutrient management specialist with the Agriculture Knowledge Centre in Saskatchewan, and one of the studies’ authors.

Green manure is planted to add organic matter to the soil. “It can be terminated by spraying it, cultivating, or mowing it,” says Mooleki. It can be a legume or a cereal crop, but not one that you’ll harvest and sell.

Growers planting a green manure

crop know they won’t be selling crops for cash on those acres. For example, if lentils are grown as green manure, “it will be grown until it starts to flower, when it is in full flower, then you kill it. You terminate it halfway.”

Green manure can be a replacement for summerfallow. Summerfallow used to be a common practice to retain soil moisture. Farmers used to cultivate summerfallow acres to kill weeds.

The cultivation also helped the organic matter break down and enhanced the nutrients in the soil.

However, summerfallowing can be bad for the soil “because during summerfallow period, you are losing organic matter in the soil, as the rate of organic matter breakdown is increased with the tillage.” Those acres can become vulnerable to soil erosion.

Summerfallowing has decreased for the last two decades, but “we still want to have soil moisture recharge,” says Mooleki. Legume green manure crops add nitrogen as well as biomass to the soil. By ter-

minating the crop midway, “when it hasn’t used as much moisture as a crop that goes to harvest,” you conserve soil moisture for the subsequent crop. Therefore, green manuring is an environmentally friendly way to conserve soil moisture and enrich the soil.

The study results The study that Mooleki was involved with looked at how the kind of green manure used, and when it was seeded and terminated, as well as method of termination affected soil moisture, soil nutrients, and durum wheat yield and quality in the following growing season compared to other treatments such as summerfallow and stubble of harvested spring wheat, yellow peas and forage peas cut for silage. Yields for durum wheat after green manure were comparable to yields of durum wheat after summerfallow. However, Mooleki says, green manure is superior “because it doesn’t have the negative effects

that you get with conventional summerfallow.” Grain yield of durum wheat on green manure was higher than that on stubble of grain crops or silage.

When should you try a green manure crop instead of summerfallow? “It depends on your cropping system,” says Mooleki. Organic farmers need to do this more frequently because they don’t have the option of using chemical fertilizer to add nutrients to the soil. Conventional farmers can use green manure if they are in an area where summerfallow is necessary once in a while, says Mooleki.

Since certain parts of the Prairies have moisture concerns, a green manure crop will help enrich the soil without stripping it of muchneeded moisture and organic matter. A conventional farmer could plant a green manure crop as part of their rotation, says Mooleki, but it is up to the farmer to decide, as those acres will not produce any income that cycle. “You’re hoping that it is

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money well-spent come the following year when you harvest your subsequent crop.”

Something else to consider is what was planted on the field the year before and what will be planted after. “You have to consider your general crop rotation,” says Mooleki.

For example, don’t want to plant a green manure crop of peas, for example, if you are planning to grow peas the following year.

The researchers found that it really didn’t matter when a green manure crop was seeded to see the positive effects on the soil and next year’s crop. If you are running late in the spring, you can seed the green manure crop later when you have time, says Mooleki. If you end up seeding your green manure crop late, you can even leave it to be killed (terminated) by frost; you’ll save time and money because you don’t have to go out and terminate it yourself. GN Dilia Narduzzi is a freelance writer in Dundas, Ont.

20

FEATURES

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

Ask the expert

5 questions to ask your accountant Even before the March 22 budget, federal changes could impact your 2016 income taxes

By Angela Lovell

1. What’s my tax rate?

Another change that could affect farm businesses is the freezing of the small business tax rate at 10.5 per cent. “The previous government had announced that they were going to reduce the small business rate eventually down to nine per cent from the original 11 per cent, however, in the recent budget, the Liberal government went down to 10.5 per cent for 2016, and have announced it will not go down any further,” says Bolley. “So the rate will be 10.5 this year on active income up to $450,000 inside a corporation, but there won’t be any further rate reduction.”

Changes to rules around the small business deduction could also have an effect on some farm business corporations, especially if multiple family members own different enterprises.

2. Can I transfer that income?

The small business deduction allows corporations to pay a lower tax rate on business income up to $450,000. “There have been some changes in the rules regarding setting up structures where you’re trying to access multiple small business limits using other family members,” says Bolley. “For example, if a husband owns a farm corporation and his wife owns a custom work corporation, and the husband’s corporation has income over $450,000, in the past he could keep his income at the lower taxable level by paying custom work fees to his wife’s corporation, which has its own, separate small business limit.”

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has put a stop to this practice.

Under the new rules, if the husband’s corporation has business income that is taxable at the higher

photo: thinkstock

I

t’s tax time again and there are a number of new or imminent personal and corporate income tax changes which could have implications for farm families on their 2016 tax return, or need to be discussed with the accountant to plan for this year.

When the federal government announced tax changes in its 2016 budget last March it wasn’t aiming them directly at farmers, but many farm business corporations and farm families are feeling the impact.

Personal income tax changes are affecting many. The tax rate for people in the middle-income tax bracket (with taxable annual earnings of $44,700 to $89.401) is now 20.5 per cent, down from to 22 per cent. The highest tax rate for people earning in excess of $200,000 has increased four per cent to 33 per cent. “Most of our producer clients will see a net decrease in their overall tax this year but those who in a higher income bracket will definitely see an increase in their taxes,” says Matt Bolley, a tax specialist with MNP.

Personal income tax changes are affecting many, and so are business tax changes. Changes to the rules around small business deductions could have an effect on some farm business corporations.

corporate rate, it will still be taxed at the higher rate if he transfers that income over to his wife’s corporation. “They are targeting people who basically only have one business but are trying to use family members to create multiple small business deductions,” says Bolley.

There is some concern among some agricultural practitioners, adds Bolley, on some of the far-reaching consequences of these new rules.

“There’s some concern that bonafide transactions that would otherwise be acceptable could get caught by these rules, so legitimate transactions where say, maybe Dad runs a farm and son runs a seed plant. Transactions between the son and the dad could get caught by these rules even though it’s a typical business transaction that’s not meant to be a tax reduction measure, it’s just strictly operating business,” says Bolley.

The new rules could also adversely affect producers who sell to only one customer, like a cooperative. “There is some concern for people who earn all their income from one source, but also own an interest in that source,” says Bolley.

“I’ll use honey as an example. If a producer sells all of his honey to a co-op, and he owns a percentage of the co-op as an equity member, the way that the rules are structured currently, he could have to share one $450,000 limit with all the members of the co-operative. That wasn’t the intention of the rules but because the rules have been written quite broadly, that’s a situation that could inadvertently happen.”

Bolley says accountants and tax advisors are waiting for CRA to provide more clarity on these new rules, which will take effect for 2017, but it’s still important for producers to be aware of them and

that reporting for the small business deduction could be more complicated in the future.

“It is going to make reporting for the small business deduction much more difficult if you’ve got multiple corporations with family members that do business together or if you have situations where you’re selling all of your crop or cattle to one entity,” he says. “We don’t want producers, especially those who are selling to a co-operative to panic because we believe that CRA at some point will

threshold they won’t receive anything,” says Bolley. “Some people will get more money under this program, because the child tax benefit isn’t reported on their tax return so they get the full amount of whatever they receive. Other will receive less or will be phased out completely.”

Anyone interested in knowing if they do qualify for the new Canada Child Benefit can go to CRA’s website and see, based on their children’s ages and their estimated household income, how much they will receive.

If parents hit a certain income threshold they won’t receive anything.”

Matt Bolley tax specialist with MNP

provide administrative relief, given that the rules were not intended to catch these situations, and it’s impossible to administer because how are you supposed to know who’s claimed what for the small business deduction when you’re dealing with 50 or 100 farmers in a co-operative.”

3. Will I still get child benefits?

Some farm families with kids and teenagers are already feeling changes to child tax benefits implemented in 2016, which is also the last year parents can claim the child fitness and art tax credits.

The Liberal Government replaced the old Universal Child Care Benefit and Canada Child Tax Benefit with a single, non-taxable Canada Child Benefit, based on household income.

“If parents hit a certain income

4. What about tuition credits?

Young people in university will have fewer tax deductions in 2017 when the textbook credit and education tax credits end. “The tuition tax credit will still be in place, but instead of offering the textbook and education credits they’re going to be offering increased Canada Student Grants for students who have financial needs to go to school,” says Bolley. “If you’re in that middle lower income bracket, you will be able to apply through the university for a Canada Student Grant, but the unfortunate part is that it’s based on parents’ income. So if you’re household has a higher income you are not eligible for those grants. So if parents that decided for their personal reasons that they want their chil-

dren to fund their own education, and they happen to be better off income-wise, the child can get hurt because that child won’t have access to these Canada Student Grants even though they don’t have their parents’ income supporting them.”

5. What else has changed?

There are a lot of tax changes for 2016 and 2017, and with the federal government’s March 22, 2017, budget added to the mix, there may be even more implications for farmers coming up in the years ahead. Bolley advises farmers and all taxpayers to have discussions with their accountants or tax preparers on how some of these changes will affect them.

“None of these changes are specific to agriculture but there are lots of farm families who are putting kids through university or have younger children in sports or arts, so changes on that horizon will impact them this year,” says Bolley.

“If they do have multiple corporations and are doing business with immediate relatives, children, or spouses, they need to get the right advice to know if they’re going to have issues with the small business deduction. Unfortunately, it’s become very complicated, so we are encouraging people to talk to their accountants so they can ensure that if there are any issues with the new rules that they identify them now and identify whether changes need to be made, or whether they just need to ensure they are reporting correctly next year so that they don’t lose out on a small business limit that they should receive.” GN Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist living and working in Manitoba.

Find her online at www.angelalovell.ca.

FEATURES

Grainews.ca / April 11, 2017

21

Crop protection

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“Guide to Crop Protection 2017.” You can download the whole 720-page document, or just the sections you need. If you prefer a paper copy, visit your local office. You’ll pay $10.00, including GST.

Again, download the whole thing, or just the sections you want. Or, you can pick up Saskatchewan’s “2017 Guide to Crop Protection” for free at the Ministry of Agriculture’s regional offices.

In Manitoba: For an online copy, Google “Manitoba” and “Guide to Crop Protection” and Google will direct you to a “Guides and Publications” page with many links, including a link to the

In Saskatchewan: For an online copy, visit www.saskatchewan.ca, then type “guide to crop protection” into the search box. This will take you to a link in to the “2017 Guide to CropT:9.875 Protection.”

In Alberta: Alberta’s crop protection guide is known as the “Blue Book.” Find it online by Googling “Alberta” and “blue book.” You’ll see a link that will take you to a page where you can download or buy “Crop

Protection 2017.” Get a free electronic copy of the whole 592-page document, or buy a paper copy. They’ll ship you a copy for $12 plus shipping and taxes.

In B.C.: Farmers searching the B.C. government’s web site for a crop protection guide are re-directed to Alberta’s blue book.

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FEATURES

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

Pest management

Want to know what’s in your field? Try traps Trapping beneficial beetles can help you see just what’s living on your land

By Lisa Guenther

Photos: Lisa Guenther

W

ondering what types of beneficial insects you have beetling around your fields? Try a ground trap.

“It’s nice to know that you’ve got some good guys in there that are eating the bad guys,” said Patty Reid, a research tech with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. There isn’t an economic threshold for beneficial insects such as ground beetles yet, said Reid. But trapping beneficials gives farmers a look-see, and could factor into a spray decision, she said.

Reid was part of the Canola Council of Canada’s CanoLAB in Vermilion’s Lakeland College this February. During the beneficial insect lab, people peered at beetles under microscopes, took a close look at other preserved beneficial insects and bugs, and even watched beetles feasting on cutworms. Experts were on hand to answer questions and show everyone what they were looking at.

Reid encouraged people to pluck ground beetles from their liquid baths, using tweezers, and count them. She explained how to set ground traps to catch the beetles, and

Lining up the beneficial beetles from an insect trap. These are melanarius beetles, which belong to the carabid, or ground beetle, family.

Ground beetles prey on pest insects.

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FEATURES

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

23

what farmers and agronomists could expect.

Ground traps will catch other insects as well, including pea leaf weevils and flies, she said. But ground beetles are the insects to focus on, Reid says. The beetles are voracious predators of insect pests.

“They eat eggs. They eat larvae.

They parasitize larvae,” she said.

They also eat adult insects, she added.

How to do it

Lisa Guenther is field editor for Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Follow her on Twitter @LtoG.

Farmers can buy or make their own beneficial insect trap, to get an idea of how many beneficial beetles are crawling in their fields. Pictured are the components of both a professional and home-made trap.

Patty Reid of AAFC showed CanolaLAB participants the ins and outs of trapping and counting beneficial beetles.

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Farmers can use a professional or home-made trap for catching ground beetles. The professional traps were developed by Dr. Bob Vernon of AAFC in Agasiz, B.C. To set up and use the professional trap: 1. Use a bulb planter to dig between the rows (Reid recommends a bulb planter because the trap is tapered). The hole needs to be deep enough so that the trap’s top is level with the soil surface, allowing the bugs can walk into it.

2. Add plumbing anti-freeze to the small cup that fits inside the trap.

3. Place the lid on the trap. The serrated lid will keep out mice, frogs, and salamanders.

4. After a week, retrieve the cups.

If you wait longer, the cups will stink.

5. Dump the contents into a container. Reid recommends a flat Ziploc container.

6. Sort through the insects in the trap and count the ground beetles Farmers might have a hard time getting their hands on a professional trap right now. Curious producers can also use a yogurt container and pie plate to create their own traps. To place the trap, dig a hole between the rows, so the top sits flat with the soil surface. Dump the anti-freeze into the container, which acts as a pitfall. Put the pie plate over the container to prevent evaporation.

Sometimes the home-made traps have a one-inch gap between the cover and the pitfall container.

Unfortunately, mice and salamanders can squeeze through that gap, fouling the trap, so be prepared.

In a follow up email, Dr. Jim Broatch, pest management specialist with AAFC, wrote that five to 10 traps could help farmers figure out the beetle population in that field.

Broatch says research has been published on how beneficial insects affect foliar pests such as aphids.

Ground beetles research “could be the next phase in the understanding of pest management for use in an IPM program,” he writes.

For now, what’s a healthy number of beetles? Broatch said if the beetles have plenty of insects to eat and several crops to occupy, farmers could see high beetle numbers. Reid said they’ve found up to 53 melanarius ground beetles in one trap over a week during their field studies.

How many a farmer will see depends on the year, and whether they’ve sprayed. “The more the better,” said Reid.

Asked whether she had any other advice for farmers trapping beetles, she said: “Just have fun.” GN

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columns

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

Reporter’s notebook

Working with all types of people in ag Most people in the ag industry are great to work with. But harassment still happens

By Lisa Guenther

T

alk to a few people in the agriculture industry, and you’ll likely hear something like this: Agriculture is a great field to work in, largely because there are so many good people in the industry.

I think about this a lot. Is it true?

In what way is it true? Is agriculture different than other industries, and if so, how and why? And if agricul-

ture really is a great industry to work in, how broadly can we apply that sentiment?

I don’t think I’ve found a definitive answer to all of those questions.

But I do find myself nodding in agreement when people talk about their positive experiences in ag.

In most ways, my experience in agriculture has been lovely. I think a lot of it’s about the culture. Last December, I interviewed John Knapp, former deputy minister of

Alberta Agriculture, for a leadership story in Country Guide. Knapp picked out many of the key shared values in this sector, including: rural egalitarianism (the idea that we work together as equals); humility; the belief that brevity is elegance; and speaking directly.

There, are, of course, divisions over contentious industry issues. I appreciate that when readers write to me to correct me on something, or to disagree with me, they’re gen-

erally civil about it. This is no small thing, given the vile comments other journalists face in mainstream media or certain industries. A thick skin will only get you so far, especially if trolls post your street address online.

Getting too close I wish I could say that people in ag will never face harassment, but that’s not the case. For over two years, a local reader stalked me. He

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The farmer’s forecasT Toolbox

said weird stuff to me on Twitter. He got my cell number and texted me, even after I told him to cut it out. He leered at me when I competed in cattle sorting. When I confronted him about sitting outside my house at night in his vehicle, he said he’d only done it once, as though that was acceptable.

At times, he was so absurd, it was darkly funny. My neighbour and I laughed at the spectacle of this man, in his 70s, revving his motorbike in front of my house like a horny teenager.

But as months dragged on, it wore me thin. One low point was realizing he was able to send me voice messages on my cell phone, even though I’d blocked his number. I was recovering from my concussion at the time.

I started reading about the psychology of stalkers, and it’s not pretty. There are a few different stalker types. There are the people who stalk ex partners. There are the predatory people who stalk before assaulting the target. And then there are the stalkers who fixate on acquaintances or total strangers (which I was). They are the most persistent. There is very little practical advice on how to get someone like this to back off because there is no real logic behind their actions.

Such people are convinced that they are in a relationship with the target of their infatuation, or that they would be, if some external force wasn’t stopping them (such as the target’s spouse, etc.). They are not as likely as some others to be violent, but it is impossible to predict whether they will become violent, according to the research I found.

I didn’t talk about this with my boss for a long time, as I didn’t want it to affect my job. That was probably a mistake because once my boss found out how serious the situation was, she really had my back. So did the human resources people at my company, my editors, and my other colleagues. I also found support from people within my community, locally and farther afield. That support was vital to resolving the situation.

Perhaps writing about this is unwise. For all I know, he still reads my stuff. But I feel like it’s something I’ve been writing around for months. And this afternoon, as I discovered my friend’s street address online, I felt sad. When exactly did I start worrying about these kinds of things, for myself and other people?

But then I thought: I don’t feel like this most of the time anymore. I am just as comfortable sitting down for a coffee at a farmer’s kitchen table as I was before all this began.

I’ve changed, but my faith in good people is stronger.

I feel safe in agriculture. It’s a good field to work in, filled with great people. GN Lisa Guenther is field editor for Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Follow her on Twitter @LtoG.

columns

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

25

Hart Attacks

On the upside, no plucking necessary Get ready for designer chicken, and cultured steaks. Meat technology has arrived

By Lee Hart

I

knew when CaseIH rolled out that robotic tractor that didn’t need a driver, it was only a matter of time before technology produced meat without an animal.

And here we have it — Memphis Meats, a food science company with headquarters in Transylvania has just launched “the world’s first Clean Poultry”… that’s chicken meat produced w i t h o u t t h e chicken. They don’t just produce chicken without the chicken, but also duck without the duck. Beef, pork, lamb and the always-tasty sushi is just a matter of time.

So how do they do it? The company didn’t reveal all its secrets but basically it involves exposing a small piece of animal tissue to highly toxic nuclear gamma rays, while chanting an ancient spell once used by witches during the fourth century BC of the Durid era.

The tissue is then placed in a sterling silver container stolen from a church, buried in a pet cemetery and covered with moss from the Black Forest, left for 33 days and uncovered at the stroke of midnight. Viola... it turns into a chicken breast.

The idea of engineered or culture meat just makes me leery. We’ve got grass, we have grain. Is there really anything that bad about letting animals eat these God-given energy sources and then eating the animal?

Apparently so.

The idea of these products isn’t new. In my extensive three minutes of research for this column I found even Winston Churchill had predicted engineered meat in 1931.

“We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium,” he is quoted as saying.

Memphis meats I admit my earlier description of the company and its meat producing process was somewhat shaded. The scientists and technicians behind this process don’t look like monsters and they don’t use any deadly technology or black magic. In fact they look like pretty nice, normal people.

Memphis Meats is headquartered in San Francisco. CEO and cofounder is a cardiologist by the name of Uma Valeti, who with his medical skills has saved a few lives.

Also in business he has developed a number of food, medical and technical companies. Another cofounder is Nicholas Genovese, described as a stem cell biologist, meat-lover and vegetarian (not sure how that works). He raised poultry on his family farm. And another co-founder is Will Clem, who holds a PhD in biomedical engineering. His family, based in Memphis, Tennessee owns a chain of BBQ restaurants.

So these three, along with a team of technicians who all look like normal young people, have developed the technology where they can produce meat “from animal cells.”

“Memphis Meats’ poultry breakthrough was made possible by the unique technological platform that the company is building to produce new clean meat products and accelerate clean meat innovation,” says their release.

“The multi-animal platform will allow the company to produce

many types of meat and to finetune the taste, texture and nutrition profile of its products.”

Why are they doing it? Their website at www.memphismeats. com says they all love meat, but meat production comes with negative side effects such as environmental destruction, animal welfare concerns and “a slew” of health risks. They go on to say, with consumers spending $750 billion per year on meat and meat demand expected to double in the coming years, they were looking

for a “better way to feed a hungry world.”

From an environmental standpoint they expect the production of their products to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, land and water requirements by 90 per cent, compared to conventional meat production — and most importantly they’re delicious.”

I am curious to try engineered meat. After all I do like hot dogs and bologna and those are a couple meat products about which I don't ask too many questions.

Memphis Meats has a tempting photo of chicken meat on a plate which looks pretty appealing. Of course it is also breaded and deepfried and in my experience nothing bad ever came out of a pot of hot vegetable oil. Unless it is that dreaded genetically modified canola oil — then I would really face a dilemma. GN Lee Hart is a field editor with Grainews based in Calgary. Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com.

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columns

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

Guarding wealth

Keeping your financial portfolio stable How much risk do you want in your portfolio, and will risk bring you higher returns?

By Andrew Allentuck

C

hoosing stocks and bonds is in some ways like picking the petals off a daisy. The choice: will it be regular income or capital gains (hopefully)?

Some investment assets pay regular income. In this category are conventional bonds that promise annual or semi-annual interest payments and dividend-paying stocks that make no firm promises but that traditionally pay and even raise their dividends.

Assets that pay income on a regular and dependable basis tend to have market prices more stable than those which do not. The promise of income induces investors holding the stocks or bonds to keep them, even if their prices take a dip, and to defer sales even if there is a handsome profit to be had. The incentive to hold varies with the tastiness of the dividend. This causes stocks like telecom BCE Inc., with handsome dividends with little or no chance in sight to cut them, to have relatively stable prices. Meanwhile, stocks with modest dividends, such as Apple Inc., which competes in the dog-eat-dog tech industry, have volatile share prices.

Let’s look at what dividends — and dependable businesses, of course — do for the two companies, both in communications: BCE Inc., with landlines and cell services, among other things; and Apple Inc., a technology company that makes cell phones.

BCE Inc. has a 4.88 per cent annual dividend. Apple Inc. has a 1.67 per cent dividend. The gap between the dividends accounts for much — but not all, to be sure — of the ups and downs of their stock prices. BCE Inc.’s up and down are modest, those of Apple Inc. are dramatic. The measure of jumpiness is beta, a number which shows relative volatility. The beta of the market as a whole is 1.0. BCE Inc.’s beta is 0.16, very low indeed. Apple Inc.’s beta is 1.21. Thus BCE Inc. wobbles only 16 per cent of the amount of other stocks listed on the TSX while Apple Inc. outdoes its NASDAQ index by a fifth.

If we look at the price lines of the phone maker and the tech company, the differences are dramatic. BCE Inc.’s prices trace a relatively smooth line from $30 in 2010 to about $60 today. Apple Inc.’s price line moves from US$25 in 2010 to US$136 today.

There is more involved than just dividends as a fraction of stock price, for Apple Inc. has grown its business and even culture extraordinarily well while BCE Inc. was and always will be a relatively dull phone service provider.

Bond variability Bonds, too, show price wobbles consistent with the dependability of their interest payments. For bonds, that dependability, which goes from 100 per cent for U.S. Treasury and Government of Canada issues to “high” for top corporate bonds to “just good” for lower grades of investment-level bonds to “not so good” for junk bonds,

especially those in the lower ranges of quality. Default rates 10 years after issue for government bonds are zero, for top corporate bonds 0.45 per cent in the U.S. and zero in Canada, for lower quality investment grade bonds 6.1 per cent for U.S. bonds and 3.8 per cent for Canadian issues, and a shocking 56.5 per cent for U.S. issues and 33.3 per cent for Canadian issues rated at the bottom of the junk heap. The market prices adjust for these risks, so that a U.S. Treasury or Government of Canada bond pays a couple of per cent for 10 years, solid corporate bonds double that, and chancy junk bonds can offer up to 50 per cent combined interest if it is paid and refund of bond price at maturity if it happens.

Getting paid on time is the essence of the problem. Bond holders almost always get paid, for even if a bond does default, the promise of payment can be taken to court. The resolution is that the bond holders, often after many years, wind up with stock in a reorganized company coming out of bankruptcy. Stockholders who are not paid dividends have nothing, for dividends are not guaranteed by anybody and, technically, the stockholder’s only right is the essentially meaningless one of voting for directors.

fluid. The most solid government bond bought for $1,000 could slump hundreds of dollars if interest rates rise a good deal. That seems unlikely right now, but over a 20- or 30-year life of a long bond, it can happen. It did in the late 1970s and early 1980s when interest rates on bonds were in double digits.

Good stocks, as Kodak and Polaroid once were, can turn into bankrupts, as both did.

Diversification is the key to survival, especially for investors who either do not live by their computers or who, as many of us do, discount bad news that challenges our mental commitments to concepts we like. Few analysts believed Bre-X

Minerals, which was seen as the biggest gold mine in the world, was a fraud until its price had collapsed to about zero. Same for Enron, the American energy trader and vast fraud.

Diversification is the essence of risk management. It is easy to do with investment funds. There are perhaps 30,000 ETFs and mutual funds available. The magic of these things is that the broader the mandate and the more diversified the fund, the lower the management fees tend to be. You can buy a U.S. or Canadian broad ETF for less than 30 basis points and even as little as 10 basis points of fees a year. One basis point is 1/100 of

one per cent By definition, you will be getting an asset with average market risk, beta = 1.0. Hold the asset for a decade or two and you should have a tidy return. The historical average of North American markets is 6.5 per cent a year composed of dividends of about 4.0 per cent and price gains of about 2.5 per cent. Take off 3.0 per cent inflation and you have a real return of 3.5 per cent, which is not bad for a passive investment. Run all this by your financial advisor and see what reaction you get. GN Andrew Allentuck is author of When Can I Retire? Planning Your Financial Life After Work (Penguin, 2011).

More risk, more return?

What does all this mean for your own investment policy? If you get upset by market swoons, go for low volatility stocks or dividend-focused exchange traded funds and mutual funds. If you believe that what goes down will bounce up, as usually happens with broad indices, and if your stomach can take the ride, then volatility may be less of a problem.

Do not embrace risk you cannot afford Some say that if you take bigger risks, you can have bigger returns.

Over periods of centuries, it is true.

But one’s lifespan is not centuries and the concept only works for very broad blends of assets. If you go back to 1800, then zero volatility cash has a low negative return from uncompensated inflation erosion, more volatile bonds have a higher return, and stocks with far more risk and no promises at all have a still higher return. But for any one stock or any basket of conceptual stocks (think of the dot coms that nearly all flopped), it does not work.

After all, if a company goes bankrupt, which is the ultimate risk, that’s it for compensating return.

Bottom line: do not embrace risk you cannot afford. That is the concept, but how do you put it into practice?

For most investors, picking one level of risk bundled into just one concept is wrong. Why? Because everything in investment markets is

Let nothing slow you down.

columns

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

27

Understanding market bulls and bears

A price chart is worth a thousand words What can we learn from a look back at this May 2017 canola futures chart?

Brian Wittal

bfwittal@procommarketingltd.com

I

was looking at this May 2017 canola futures charts the other day to remind myself just how much we can learn from them. It is a lot easier to figure out the trends and patterns on a chart after they’ve happened than it is to decipher what will happen while it is happening.

Cyclical patterns Cyclical patterns are just that, cyclical, because something is happening in a repeating pattern on a regular basis (such as seeding) that

can have a significant influence on the markets.

In the fall of 2015 we had a big canola crop and we saw prices slowly crawl up to $500/t levels in December before drifting steadily lower until March.

The main reason futures fell from December through March was the large South American bean crop that was coming off and pressuring world oilseed crop prices lower. On March 1 we hit a bottom at $468/t.

As always, lower prices spurred buying activity. That, along with a low Canadian dollar, pushed canola sales to record levels, reducing overall stocks and pushing futures higher.

Combine that with buyers wanting to

incent producers to put in more acres for the coming year, and we saw canola futures rally $71/t. Prices peaked on June 15 at $539/t.

Not every year will be the same or move as high as the rally last spring.

However, world demand for canola continues to grow. It was estimated that we needed to seed between 20 and 21M acres to meet demand. To seed that many acres, producers had to shorten their canola rotations in 2016. The best way to get them to do that was to push futures prices higher. The market pushed futures up to $539/t. The unfortunate reality is that less than 10 per cent of the crop was actually priced at that attractive level.

2016 prices That is pretty much exactly what happened the spring of 2016. Spring seeding started early and big acres were seeded into almost perfect spring conditions across most of the Prairies. This set the tone for a bumper canola harvest. On June 15 the futures uptrend broke and then began a steady three-step regression trend lower that eventually bottomed on July 25 at $460/t (pretty much in line with the previous low in March at $468/t).

From July until mid-October we saw a sideways trend building that traded in a $30/t range between $460/t and $490/t. This trend was likely to continue for some time, as the crop was coming off with higher than expected yields. Only a significant event would break canola out of this sideways trend — either yields would have to continue to grow larger, which would have driven futures lower, breaking the $460/t support level, or a major weather event would have to push futures higher to break past the $490 resistance level. Well, we know what happened.

October was a difficult month for harvesting. When the snow hit we saw futures break through that trading range and rocket higher on concerns that over 25 per cent of the crop was still in the field and may not get combined. This drove futures up over $40/t in two weeks.

Then the weather changed and harvest resumed in pockets across the Prairies, pushing futures lower on the anticipation that more canola would get combined. This weather didn’t last long; rain and snow returned to stop the harvest again.

Futures did an about face and headed $35/t higher to top out at $545/t November 28. Futures struggled to hold at that level and eventually headed lower from outside pressures that included large U.S. and South American bean harvests.

We saw futures fall through December to a low of $502/t on January 9.

That low again inspired new buying, and an even lower Canadian dollar was plenty of incentive for buyers to get aggressive with purchases. This helped push futures values up as canola inventories are MAY 2017 CANOLA FUTURES CHART

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now being depleted quickly because of the unharvested acres and lost production still out in the fields.

This year Since mid-January canola futures have been trading in a sideways pattern in a $35/t range between $505 and $540/t. The main reason for the highs is the tight canola stocks. The main reason for the lows is the South American harvest that’s hitting the world markets. It continues to grow in size weekly as the harvest progresses.

Until some event, negative or positive, happens to push futures out of this sideways range they will continue to trade between these levels.

That brings us to today, where we see that futures trading near the $505 support level of the sideways trend, mainly due to the fact that the South American crop continues to get even larger, putting more competitive pressure on canola futures. A higher Canadian dollar is also negative for canola futures.

What would breaking that $505 support level mean? It would likely mean we’ll see canola futures head lower in the short term, until new buying emerges to support price levels and push them higher. How low might futures go? Based on technical analysis review they’re expected to head down to a level of $485/t, unless something else happens.

Now spring seeding is on everyone’s mind. How many acres of canola will need to be seeded? Will the marketplace push futures higher to buy acres?

We are at a much higher futures value now compared to last March, so I can’t see any reason the marketplace would try to push futures higher, especially when you compare canola’s profitability against other crops. The economic incentive for producers to grow more canola is already there. For that reason, plus the pressure from the large South American crop, I can’t see futures going higher, sorry. GN Brian Wittal has 30 years of grain industry experience, and currently offers market planning and marketing advice to farmers through his company Pro Com Marketing Ltd. (www.procommarketingltd.com).

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Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

Soils and crops

Getting to the root of the matter For a look at the big picture, the ‘old’ research on roots is still relevant today

Les Henry

SUGAR BEET ROOT This is a root of a sugar beet grown in fine sandy loam soil, showing root stratification in the second and fourth foot of soil where layers of clay were encountered. From Weaver, 1926, Root Development of Field Crops.

P

lant roots are receiving more attention of late and well they should.

Roots are the foragers that deliver water and nutrients to the plant, but too often our attitude is “out of sight, out of mind.”

With the current interest in many plant species, cover crops and soil health, much of it comes down to what happens with roots. We hope soil health enthusiasts will enjoy seeing the anatomy of the roots that feed the plant and maintain the soil.

The mycorrhizal fungi in the rhizosphere (the area next to the root) play a big role in getting nutrients to the plant.

Our switch to zero till has allowed them to flourish. Our University of Saskatchewan is embarking on a big program to learn more about how roots do their thing and how we might intervene to the plants’, and our, advantage. Much of that is “inside” work — learning about how the plant roots and soil organisms interact in artificial systems.

It makes sense to me that we should know something about how roots grow in natural, outdoor, systems before doing the close up work. A lot of good work has been done in this area.

The reader may wonder why I talk about work that was done before I even entered university and by folks that have been pushing daisies for 60 years.

Read on and find out! The information is “old enough to be good” and no one is doing such work today.

The big actors in documenting the big picture, the gross anatomy of roots and the physical nature of crop and native plant root systems were Pavlychenko and Weaver.

Since their work from the 1920s to the 1950s, no one has even come close to what they did, except for the Austrian connection.

Pavlychenko Thomas K. Pavlychenko, 1892 to 1958; University of Sask­ atchewan 1930 to1948.

By far the best work on gross root anatomy was done by T.K. Pavlychenko at our very own College of Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan.

Pavlychenko developed a unique method of studying the

WHEAT AND WILD MUSTARD This graphic shows root competition between Marquis wheat (on the left, with roots marked 1, 2, 3 and 4), and wild mustard, 22 days after emergence.

This graphic is from Pavlychenko and Harrington, 1937: Ecology Vol. 18 No.1 Pages 62-79.

details of plant roots to their entire depth. It involved a lot of physical labour. He dug all around a big block of soil, removed the block in one piece, washed the soil from the roots and made mounts of it all. The root washing was what made his method unique.

There is actually a silent movie that shows it all. Thanks to Steve Shirtliffe of our plant sciences department that movie has been digitized and is available at the click of a mouse. (Find it online at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=T_Vx3hWJVpc.) Pavlychenko prepared many complete mounts of entire root systems. A mount of a twoyear-old crested wheat grass plant goes to a depth of eight feet. It is a grand piece of work.

It can be viewed on fourth floor of the Agriculture Building at the University of Saskatchewan but it is hard to photograph. Pavlychenko made many such mounts that are now scattered around Western Canada.

It was Pavlychenko’s dream to complete a root-study museum which would preserve the great root mounts he had assembled. But alas, university bureaucracy got in the way and it never happened (that is my interpretation of the readings I have done on the subject).

Pavlychenko did his PhD with John E. Weaver of the University of Nebraska who spent a lifetime working on roots of native and crop plants

of the Great Plains region of North America.

Weaver John E. Weaver 1884 to 1956; University of Nebraska 1915 to 1952.

John Weaver spent his working days at the University of Nebraska and specialized in grassland species but also did great root work on crop plants.

Some of his early work was published by the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington. I have communicated with them in penning this piece. They were very responsive and helpful, and there is much useful information on their website (find it online at carnegiescience.edu).

A quick Google search of J.E. Weaver, Nebraska, reveals his complete works in PDF format from the University of Nebraska.

Weaver used a different technique than Pavlychenko.

He also dug deep trenches next to the plants but did not excavate, wash and mount. He painstakingly exposed the roots with a sharp instrument and then prepared sketches of root systems that produce easy-to-reproduce photographs.

In addition to the journal articles and the Carnegie Institution pieces, Weaver wrote two books published by McGraw Hill: Root Development of Field Crops and Root Development of Vegetable Crops, both available with the click of a mouse.

Weaver’s swansong was two complete books: 1. North American Prairie, Johnsen Publishing Co. Lincoln, Nebraska, 1954. (This was re-published in 2012 by Literary Licensing, LLC.) 2. Grasslands of the Great Plains: Their Nature and Use, with co-author F. W. Albertson, Johnsen Publishing Co. Lincoln, Nebraska, 1956.

The second book has a chapter on “Canadian Mixed Prairie.”

The Austrian Connection While at the U. of S. library looking for books on roots I stumbled on a book written in German by one Lore Kutschera (1917 to 2008).

Now, Kutschera just happens to be my wife Inga’s maiden name so my ears perked up. Her folks emigrated in 1939 and settled at Loon Lake, Sask. In her early years German was the language.

With her translation help, the title of Kutschera’s book is something like Root Atlas: Central European Field Weeds and Crops. This book has dozens of very good diagrams of root architecture of plants grown in the field.

In his reference list Kutschera had many Weaver references and his field diagrams suggest he used the Weaver method to get the information.

In the next issue we will bring you a number of examples of what plant roots look like

when growing in actual field situations. What I have found interesting in all the reading and looking at plant roots is that the detailed work fits well with what I have observed over 40+ years of using a backsaver soil probe to get a sneak peek at a very small portion of the roots that feed our plants.

In this issue we will provide a couple of examples. The first example is for sugar beet growers in the Taber, Alberta, area. We often think of sugar beets as just the beet itself but the roots can go to five feet.

Weaver went on to say that when roots encounter an area enriched by previous roots or earthworm burrows they also branch out.

Our second example is closer to home and shows wheat duking it out with wild mustard. The plants would have been grown on the U. of S. campus. No wonder 2,4-D was such a game changer.

This is Part 1 of a series. I’ll have more to say about roots and root networks in the next issue of Grainews. GN J.L.(Les) Henry is a former professor and extension specialist at the University of Saskatchewan. He farms at Dundurn, Sask. His book, “Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water,” mixes the basics and practical aspects of soil, fertilizer and farming. To order a signed copy, send a cheque for $50 (includes shipping and GST) to Henry Perspectives, 143 Tucker Cres, Saskatoon, SK, S7H 3H7.

columns

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

29

Can’t take the farm from the boy

To buy or not to buy? The land dilemma Toban and Jamie Dyck are deciding whether or not to purchase farmland Toban Dyck

tobandyck@gmail.com

F

atigue. It’s on my mind. It’s the end of March. The snow is beginning to melt. Seeding is around the corner, and I’m struggling to find time.

But, that said, it’s exciting to daydream and fast-forward a month from now when full days will be spent outside working, prepping, planting. I’m sure you’re thinking the same thing.

This year will be different for our farm. Two weeks ago, we were given the opportunity to purchase land.

Since 2015, when I began testing my newly-formed farming mettle on a few rental acres, things have been progressing quickly for my wife, Jamie, and me. It’s been an absolutely amazing experience, so far, but it has required us to stay sharp along the way in order to meet the demands that seem to be constantly emerging.

Since that time, my acres increased from 110 to 230; Jamie’s the- burgeoning interest in agrelated activities has transformed entirely into a passion (she’s going to dabble in chickens again this year); we purchased the homestead; and I got a full-time job in the ag sector.

So, now, starring down the barrel of what will no doubt be an exciting growing season, I’m wondering how I’ll find the time and the energy.

Fatigue hasn’t hit yet, but my energy levels are finite. There is a threshold.

There has to be. Or, maybe not.

never doubted our decision to move back to my family farm.

No, this decision has to do with raw numbers and long-term investment (and a little pride — it would be quite something to own land). But, it also has very little to do with those things, either. There are enough anecdotes blowing around coffee shops that point how buying land rarely pencils out.

It’s nearly always a risk.

It seems like a big move, but,

like many of the moves we’ve made since moving here, it feels like it may be the right one. To pine for things to stay the same, is to be okay with things moving backwards.

Whether it’s farming or writing or teaching or working in the commodity group sector, it’s important to make moves. I’m busy, but not too busy to buy land.

I’m busy, but not too busy to be passionate about everything I do.

Besides, how Jamie and I have been doing things may just be the way my family’s farm will have to operate in order for us to make it work. And I think we are both very okay with that.

Will farming slightly more than 1,000 acres become a hobby to my off-farm work? Is that a necessary trajectory for farms this size? I’m still too green at some aspects of this whole business to answer that question, but

Toban Dyck is a freelance writer and a new farmer on an old farm. Follow him on Twitter @tobandyck.

ADVENTURE BEGINS HERE

Taking the step I meet farmers who chore pigs, cattle and run grain farms, as well. Their schedules are inspiring. They work hard. Their stories are there to keep in mind, when, after jumping from meeting to meeting to meeting and desk to desk to desk, another meeting is scheduled whereby 120 acres are offered to Jamie and I at a price we could potentially make work.

This would/will be our first step into farm debt. It’s paltry compared to the numbers many of you face or are facing on a regular basis. Soon, I imagine, I’ll join your ranks. But, for now, this is all I know. And because it’s our first land purchase, it’s a decision we’re taking our time to answer.

We have until the end of March. So, by the time you read this, we will have decided one way or the other.

The decisions we’ve had to make on the farm, so far, have been mild.

Or, at least they’ve seemed this way, but perhaps only in retrospect.

These decisions have only tested our level of commitment to the farming, rural lifestyle. But that’s all they have tested. The fiscal demands attached to them haven’t been terribly crippling.

This land deal is no longer about commitment to the farm. That is safely assumed by now. We’ve been here for five years this August. I have

I wonder. And I wonder about this often.

Fatigue. While it is on my mind, it’s far from being a reality for me; for us. Jamie and I are excited for the weather to turn and for the farm to wake up. Her chickens arrive on May 9, but first thing first: land. GN

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Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

New equipment

Deere introduces the 5R Series The green brand offers yet more choices in the utility tractor segment

T

he number of tractor models John Deere has been offering in the utility and mid-horsepower tractor classes has been large, to say the least. It already offers more model choices there than any other brand. At the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky, in February, the green brand introduced even more models that land in the utility segment.

The all-new 5R Series offers four models in the 90 to 125 engine horsepower range. The letter designation following the model number in all of Deere’s tractors indicates the level of features, and R is at the top of the line. So these new tractors aren’t short on bells and whistles.

One of the biggest advantages

these tractors offer is all that horsepower packed into a chassis with only a 2.3 metre (7.4 foot) wheelbase. That gives it a very tight turning radius of just 3.1 metres (12.1 feet), making it pretty capable when it comes to working in tight spaces.

Buyers get a choice of two electronic transmission options, the CommandQuad or Manual and Command8. With either one, the tractors come with the AutoClutch feature pulled down from the larger series models that make depressing the clutch pedal an optional activity. All the operator has to do is press the brake pedal and the clutch automatically disengages.

The tractor can be paired with the new quick-attach 540R loader that uses a single-point hydraulic connection, and the Premium Panorama Cab includes glass high up on the cab roof to

The new 5R Series tractors from John Deere offer four models in the 90 to 125 engine horsepower range.

Photo: John Deere

By Scott Garvey

allow the operator to keep an eye on lifted loads. Inside the cab, the 5Rs get a much nicer seat than what is available on the 5M Series, a high-backed swivel chair with thicker cushions and wider armrests. The loader joystick, with gear shift buttons and reverser built into it, is integrated

into the armrest. That allows for one-handed tractor control.

Cab suspension is also available as an option.

An interactive display screen on the right A pillar allows the operator to customize the readout while monitoring tractor functions.

Six halogen work lights come as standard equipment, but buyers can upgrade to LEDs for higher output at a lower amp draw. GN Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

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31

Technology

Photo: case IH

More AFS equipment from Case IH UAV kit and new GPS receiver added to Case IH AFS product line

A new UAV kit and GPS receiver add to Case IH’s AFS product line for 2017.

By Scott Garvey

I

n February Case IH ramped up its precision farming offerings with the addition of an unmanned aerial vehicle kit that will be available for purchase later this spring. The brand is partnering with UAV firm DroneDeploy to offer this kit.

The DJI Phantom 4 UAV will come with an RGB camera, hard carrying case, extra battery and a one-year subscription to DroneDeploy software.

Case IH claims the drone includes an easy-to-use software package and can be set off on an autonomous flight path with just “two taps of an IOS or Android device.” That, it adds, should make this UAV useable for people of all skill levels.

The software package allows users to apply different filters to collected data to help understand field conditions in detail.

But that wasn’t the only new precision farming equipment announcement Case IH had to talk about early this year. It also introduced the new AccuStar GPS receiver to its AFS product line. The company says AccuStar is ideal for use with ElectriSteer-assisted auto guidance (which can be clamped onto a steering wheel for auto guidance on machines from any brand), GPS positioning for combine yield mapping and GPS for third-party displays or applications. GN

Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

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machinery & shop

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

Shop class

How to check for a faulty relay If a component isn’t working, is the relay to blame? Here’s how to check

By Scott Garvey

Photo/graphics credits: Scott Garvey

M

any electrical components in a vehicle or machine are controlled by a relay. So if a component isn’t working because electricity isn’t getting to it, there is a possibility the relay may be faulty. But determining whether or not a relay is defective requires a little basic investigation. Here’s how to go about it.

First, though, it’s important to know how relays work.

Relays have an internal electromagnet that opens and closes a circuit to stop and start the flow of electricity.

They help extend the life of switches by making it unnecessary to route the high amperage flow of electricity needed by a system directly through a switch. That can burn its contact points over time. Instead, a switch activated by a driver or machine operator simply sends a low-amperage current through a relay, which activates the electromagnet inside it. The magnet then closes a second, independent electrical circuit, allowing high amperage to flow through it directly to a component. Relays also allow for simpler routing of electrical circuits by making it unnecessary to route high amperage wires into and out of a machine cab.

To begin checking a relay, you need to know where each circuit flows into and out of it. All relays have standard numbers identifying each of the four connection pins, and those numbers will be printed or embossed into the relay body next to the pins. Here’s what they signify.

Pins 85 and 86 are on the control side of the relay. Power from the switch flows into the relay at pin 85 and out to a chassis ground from pin 86, making a complete circuit that activates the relay’s electromagnet.

The magnet closes the second independent circuit within the relay that runs between pin 87 and 30.

Pin 87 is where high-amperage current from the battery enters the relay. Pin 30 is where that current flow from the battery goes out to the component when the electromagnet is energized and the circuit closed.

Relays use an internal electromagnet to turn on and off the flow of electricity.

Checking the connection points in the fuse box with a multimeter will confirm if battery voltage is available at the relay terminals. The 12.65 reading indicates voltage is available at the 87 connection.

When there is no current flow from the switch (through the left side of the relay), the main power circuit on the right side remains “open.” No battery voltage flows through it to the component either.

When the switch is activated, voltage flows through the left side of the relay, causing the electromagnet to “close” the power circuit on the right. So voltage now flows directly from the battery to component.

Is it open or closed?

By Scott Garvey The term open and closed is often used to describe electrical circuits. But what does it mean, exactly? It refers to whether or not current can flow.

It’s easy to understand the concept if you think of the analogy of a fence gate. When the gate is open, the fence isn’t complete and the enclosure is open. When the contact points in a switch are apart, the circuit is “open,” just like that gate, and current can’t flow. When the contact points are together, the circuit is “closed” and electricity can flow from the battery to where it’s needed.

machinery & shop

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

Using a multimeter The only tool required to check a relay is a multimeter. With the relay removed from the fuse box, the multimeter set to measure DC voltage and the switch in the cab activated, first check to see if there are 12 volts at the 85 position in the fuse box where the relay plugs in (or wherever the relay is located). If there isn’t, check to see if the appropriate fuse has blown. If the

fuse is intact, ensure the switch is allowing current to flow to the relay.

Once you can confirm there is voltage at the 85 position, set the multimeter to the continuity mode and check to see if the 86 slot has a good ground connection.

If voltage is able to flow through that side of the relay, move on to the 87 connection point and determine if battery voltage is present there. If

it isn’t, that also suggests a blown fuse or circuit breaker.

By once again using the continuity function of the multimeter, it’s possible to ensure there is a good connection from the relay to the component. Place one lead on the 30 terminal and the other on the component positive voltage connection point. (You may need to hook the T:9.875” multimeter lead to an extension to

reach the component, depending how far it is from the fuse box). If everything checks out properly, then the relay is probably at fault.

It’s possible to do an easy double check of that, just to make sure.

Simply take a cotter pin or piece of wire and connect it between the relay’s 87 and 30 connection points in the fuse box. The component should begin working. Doing this is

33

also an efficient way to make an emergency repair that will allow you to get the machine back to the yard until the relay can be replaced.

Remember, a relay is not a fuse; there will still be a fuse to protect the circuit. GN Scott Garvey is machinery editor at Grainews. Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

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machinery & shop

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

Technology

Case IH introduces the new AccuTrun

By Scott Garvey

C

ase IH may not yet be ready to put a retail price on the autonomous Magnum tractor it showed last year, which started the industry talking, but some of the technology from that concept vehicle is beginning to make its way into the brand’s existing line of tractors.

The software logic used in the guidance system of the autonomous Magnum project is now debuting as an advanced auto guidance feature called AccuTurn. It automatically controls the entire headland turn process, taking over control from operators. That ensures the tractor and implement are precisely aligned for a new pass after completing the turn.

AccuTurn offers operators two settings, “automatic” and “turn

now,” which allow for different levels of operator control. It can be configured to skip a pass or turn in a regular pass-to-pass mode.

“It all comes back to reduced operator strain,” said Leo Bose, Case IH’s AFS marketing manager, “especially when pulling larger and longer implements.

Without the need to manually steer a tractor and potentially multiple implements, operators will be more alert to perform other end-of-row functions.”

AccuTurn will be an available option on the brand’s Steiger, Magnum, Optum, Puma and Maxxum tractors equipped with the necessary auto guidance equipment and the AFS Pro 700 display. GN

photo: case IH

Automated headland turning feature comes from robotic tractor project

AccuTurn, Case IH’s automated headland turning system, is now an available on the brand’s mid- and high-horsepower tractor lines.

Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

news bits

photo: case IH

Case IH brings back two-wheel drive Maxxums

Two-wheel drive tractors with 116 to 145 horsepower get added to Case IH’s Maxxum line this year.

By Scott Garvey Following the lead of its sister brand New Holland, Case IH announced it is bringing back two-wheel drive tractors to the high end of its utility class models this year. The brand will offer buyers a choice of Maxxum tractors in the lower-cost two-wheel drive configuration with horsepower ranging from 116 to 145.

“By popular demand, we are excited to bring back two-wheel drive capabilities to our Maxxum tractor

line up,” said Cole Carling, Maxxum tractor marketing manager, in a press release. “Removing the MFD feature reduces the purchase price, but still gives producers the dedicated horsepower to get the job done.”

The brand believes these tractors will especially appeal to livestock producers who want a capable tractor for haying operations and don’t need the extra traction of an MFWD model. These machines will still offer the specifications level built into the other tractors in the Maxxum line.

52330-2 DAS_Simplicity_Matters_Black_12-8419x9.indd 1

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35

Technology

New guidance bar and display from Topcon A new ‘cost effective’ light bar system and ‘Modular’ digital monitor introduced

By Scott Garvey

for the operator to steer by, which allows the actual console to be mounted off to the side in the cab.

The SI-21 Lightbar is compatible with the entire Topcon Agriculture X-Family of displays including the X14, X25 and X30 — and now the X35.

The new X35 display In fact, introduction of the all-new X35 display was one of the other n e w s i te m s To p c o n h a d to announce this winter, which it calls the next generation in the X-Family of touchscreen displays.

According to the company, it gets “advanced functionality” compared to previous releases.

Designed to be “a modular solution,” the 12.1-inch console runs Topcon Horizon software, providing “icon-based and user-definable views” for a variety of functions and designed to allow easy upgrades.

“The X35 console adds to the Topcon premium range of agriculture solutions, including the userfriendly functionalities that made the X30 a reputable solution in the industry, and offering additional benefits for farmers,” said Markus Kalin, product manager, in a press release. “The new feature, Horizon XTEND, allows users to manage control applications via mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.”

The Remote Assistance Tool lets technicians log in from any location to help diagnose and fix problems. It also allows agronomists to make cropping decision inputs remotely as well.

With the X35 operators can control multiple camera views simultaneously. It incorporates ISO sect i o n c o n t ro l fo r u p to 2 0 0 individual sections and can variable rate control up to eight products. And as you’d expect, it transfers data via cloud-based technology. GN Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

NEW

What matters most to you.

That’s Simplicity™

photos: topcon

I

f you haven’t made the jump to light speed — figuratively speaking — when it comes to having full auto guidance in your sprayer (or other machine) and don’t plan to have one with that capability anytime soon, this is news you’ll like. In February Topcon Agriculture announced the release of its new SI-21 Lightbar. Designed, the company says, as a “cost-effective, user-friendly product to complement manual guidance, providing users better visibility of steering corrections required to stay on line”.

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The SI-21 Lightbar also does a bit more than just point the way. It includes an integrated graphic display featuring the swath number, cross track error, speed, area covered, area remaining, and the master switch.

It also includes brightness control for the LEDs, so they’re easy to see, even in bright, sunny daylight conditions. One of the SI-21’s most important benefits includes a straight-ahead or “heads up” view

The new SI-21 guidance bar works with any of the X Family of Topcon displays, including the all-new X35.

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2017-03-22 11:14 AM

36

cattleman's corner

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

Anyone can start farming

Numbers point to improved productivity Changes to goat herd management are paying off

K

idding is in full swing and we are certainly thrilled the weather is starting to settle.

The March blizzard that rocked Manitoba left us with only a bit of snow, but the most incredible winds we have ever had. Thankfully the does were very co-operative about having their kids inside buildings and out of the wind.

Our top goal for our goat herd is to make a profit. In order to do that five aspects of production and management had to be improved upon: unassisted kidding; weaning average of two kids per doe; kid weight of 60 pounds at four months; longevity of does; and keeping kidding season short.

Improving the herd takes a combination of genetics, nutrition and environment. We are making progress in all these areas.

Unassisted kiddings have greatly improved over the last five years.

Easier kidding results in faster doe recovery and less chance of kid loss. The most common problem involves single male kids born to a

KEEPING THEM WARM

photo: Debbie Chikousky

Debbie Chikousky

first-time mother, which is understandable. To reduce the number of does that need help with kidding, we pay attention to the body shape of the buck, which is very important in transferring kidding ease. And we also plan to not breed doelings until they are at least 65 per cent of their mature size.

This season is showing improvement in our live-kids-per-doe average. For many years the herd average has been 1.7 kids per doe. Some of our diehard does that usually only had singles have produced twins this year, which is exciting. Mulitple births are rippling through the herd. As more does are producing twins, we are also seeing an increase in the number of triplet sets. At birth, multiples can get confusing to deliver and it is much more common for a kid to come backwards in births of twins or more.

The popular question is whether a doe can feed triplets. The easy answer would be yes, if they are heavy milkers. The challenge is to determine if each of the kids is aggressive enough to get their share. Since goats only have two teats, this means that weaker kids or those just not as aggressive may not get enough milk.

On our farm triplets stay with the

Hope is that this doe will have twins (at least) to help maintain herd roduction average for 2017.

doe as a family unit but we top up by bottle-feeding supplement to all three twice a day, just to be sure everyone is getting adequate nutrition. When kids go to suck, the doe will smell their behind. In the event of rejection all three kids are offered the bottle. A few does with singles have adopted one of the extras from another doe which also reduces expenses and workload.

During the blizzard there was one night the temperature dropped very low. The last four families born in the barn were too cold. Since we don't use heat lamps for the goats, the kids were brought in the house.

The does were milked and the kids fed. The does all took their kids the next morning and they all passed inspection. Goats excel at remembering their own young.

The expectation of kids at 60 pounds at four months has become a reality. Last year's kids reached this almost 100 per cent by the three-month mark with the rest achieving it by fall.

A goat costs approximately $85 per year between feed, vet expense and miscellaneous items. That makes twins very important. The average price per pound for kids has been steady around $1.75 a pound, so the first 48.6 pounds of kid goes straight to expenses.

KEEP THEM WORKING Longevity of bucks and does is very important to us. The cost of a new buck has been about $500. That cost is spread over 70 does and there are usually two to three on the farm so it isn't a yearly expense. With careful

planning and care, a buck can work until it is about six years old. That expense spread over at least 100 kids per year, over six years makes the purchase quite affordable.

The cost of a mature doe of comparable genetics is about the same as a buck. In this case, multiple births and longevity contribute to the doe making a profit for the farm. For us improving our does with better buck genetics has been the choice for many years.

A tight kidding season is directly linked to fertility. Does cycle every 21 days and a buck can service 30 does. Last fall 15 does were put with the buck and they all kidded within three days. We did notice the later does that had only just weaned their kids, were later in kidding out this year, which again was to be expected.

It has been fun to watch all these little ones run and jump and play. They grow so fast and take absolutely no time to figure out how to escape the barn and cause havoc. GN Debbie Chikousky farms with her family at Narcisse, Manitoba. Visitors are always welcome. Contact Debbie at debbie@chikouskyfarms.com.

the markets

If you see a profit, take it Markets have improved, but it likely won’t last MARKET UPDATE Jerry Klassen

F

ed and feeder cattle have been percolating higher over the past month as the market moves through a period of seasonal low beef production. Restaurant traffic sharply improves in March and April, and retail beef movement also increases. Consumers generally start eating more once spring rolls around and this year, the health of the overall economy has spurred on consumer spending.

Retail beef prices continue to trend lower so the market is encouraging demand. At the same t i m e , wh o l e sa l e p r i ce s h ave strengthened, jumping sharply in recent weeks allowing packers some breathing room on purchases.

Alberta packers were buying fed cattle in the range of $165 to $168 in mid-March, the highest levels since February of 2016.

Feedlot margins have also reached colossal proportions. Fall-placed yearlings were purchased after huge losses in the previous 13 months but there's been a significant shift in market fundamentals since. As of late March, larger-frame, medium- to lower-flesh steers weighing just under 850 pounds sold for $170 landed in

southern Alberta while calves just under 500 pounds reached $230.

RENEWED OPTIMISM, BUT… The cattle complex has renewed optimism and I’ve tempered the downside in my price outlook from earlier in fall. However, producers need to be aware that market is factoring in a prodigious year-over-year increase in beef production during the second and third quarters.

U.S. first-quarter beef production will finish marginally higher than last year. However, I want to draw attention to the second and third quarters, which reflect a year-over-year increase exceeding 400 million pounds. The 2016 calf crop came in one million head above 2015 so this means more feedlot placements, higher cattle-on-feed inventories and larger overall beef production.

The Canadian calf crop for 2016 was only 50,000 head above 2015. However, Canadian beef production is also marginally exceeding year-ago but supplies are tempered with lower carcass weights. I believe we’ll see the weekly slaughter pace increase later in May and June so beware if the cash trade starts to turn.

PRODUCT DIDN’T MOVE One major reason cattle prices overextended to the downside last fall was the inability of the retail

market to move product while supplies were building. Cold storage stocks increased while wholesale prices deteriorated and this environment resulted in a very weak price structure.

The picture has now changed.

Retail beef prices have dropped to levels where the average- to lowerincome consumer can increase purchases. Positive job data has also spurred on beef consumption with a mild winter. Construction in the U.S. didn’t slow down as much as anticipated but actually bolstered job numbers throughout January and February. The average Joe was able to maintain a normal diet over the past five months. Higher-end consumers are also reaping the rewards of a historically high stock market.

White tablecloth restaurants have experienced a very prosperous first quarter coming on the heels of a strong 2016. Airpline travel was at record highs in 2016.

SELL OR BACKGROUND? I’ve received many calls from cowcalf producers wondering if they should sell their calves now or place on grass for the summer. Backgrounding operators are also asking if they should finish their cattle or sell now at 850 pounds.

My thoughts are to take advantage of the current prices. Those of you

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

2013

2014

2015

Est. 2016

Est. 2017

1

6,172

5,868

5,664

5,935

6,085

2

6,517

6,183

5,857

6,187

6,605

3

6,608

6,179

6,068

6,468

6,910

4

6,420

6,021

6,109

6,623

6,650

Total

25,717

24,251

23,698

25,213

26,250

Average U.S. retail price for ground bef ($ /lb)

Source: USDA

who have read may previous articles know that the fed cattle market will often pull up feeder cattle prices, especially when margins are quite profitable. I think it is prudent to take the profits and clear the table.

Then reload with lighter calves and take some protection on the futures or with the Livestock Price Insurance program.

Feedlots will want to be aggressive with fed cattle marketings. The cash market is trading at a huge premium to the futures and it is only a matter of time before this

relationship comes back in line.

Feedlots will want to reload with shorter-keep cattle and instead of locking in with a plant, just ride the risk in the cash market because the basis is abnormally strong. GN Jerry Klassen is manager of the Canadian office for Swiss-based grain trader GAP SA Grains and Products Ltd. With a strong farming background, he is also president and founder of Resilient Capital, a specialist in commodity futures trading and commodity market analysis.

He can be reached at 204-504-8339.

cattleman's corner

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

37

animal health

Very doable synchronization programs Timing and attention to detail are key for breeding beef by AI ANIMAL HEALTH Roy Lewis

S

everal factors must be considered when deciding what AI synchronization program to use in your herd. One of the first is whether you have the time to heat detect yourself or if you want timed breeding.

Cost is a consideration, as timed AI programs require more financial commitment and more passes through the chute.

The three main synchronization programs I find most successful are among several options now available. Your veterinarian or semen sales rep may recommend programs as well. Drugs required for these synchronization programs are available through prescription.

Also talk to neighbours to see which programs they’ve had success with. The key is not to get them too complicated. Write down the protocol to follow so nothing is left to chance. Success depends on undertaking all the details.

With any synchronization program, cows and heifers must be in good health and have a sound nutritional program. All the factors that lead to a high conception rate with natural breeding apply to AI and must be incorporated into a synchronization program.

Synchronization is not a substitute for poor management. Heifers must be at the two-thirds mature weight in order to breed.

Adequate energy and trace minerals must be in the ration. A good body condition score of between 2.5 to 3.5 is necessary. Have the cattle vaccinated for the reproductive diseases that may be in your area, such as BVD and IBR. Recently calved cows should be gaining weight on a rising plane of nutrition and be at least 60 days postpartum. If the semen is of high quality the only thing left is to fine-tune the synchronization program.

PROGRAM ONE If labour is not an issue and the skill level for heat detection is high, the original program of two shots of prostaglandin is still very effective. The shots are given 10 days apart and cattle are observed very closely for heats two to five days after the second shot, then bred accordingly.

Be very careful as the two commonly used prostaglandins on the market have a different dosage.

Lutalyse, the natural one, is five cc and estrumate, the synthetic one, is a two cc dosage. Always, always give these products with a long needle (at least 1.5 inches), as you must get this low-dosage product deep into the muscle. The neck muscles are preferred for all these injected products.

As a slight variation, producer can observe and breed off heats picked up after the first shot of prostaglandin. If cycling well previously, approximately 70 per cent of the cows will cycle in the first several days after the first shot. Those that aren’t bred after the 10 days are then given the second shot. This cuts your cost but increases labour as you are breeding over a longer period.

FIXED-TIME AI (TAI)

CO-Synch + CIDR® GnRH

Perform TAI at 60 + 6 hours after PG with GnRH at TAI.

GnRH PG AI

CIDR

0

®

60+6hrs 7

Treatment day

Continued on Page 38 

10

This diagram shows the timeline for the third A.I. synchronization protocol described for cows and heifers by Roy Lewis in his column.

With any of these synchronization programs timing is critical. Similar diagrams showing products and timelines are available from several websites. Just Google search “beef cow synchronization protocols” and several sites will appear.

DE

EN

AD

TE

LI

NE

R

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:A

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38

cattleman's corner

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

Rancher’s Diary

Haystack and woodpile getting low Long winter eventually yielding to spring weather

W

FEBRUARY 20 e’ve had warmer weather, barely freezing at night.

Michael, Nick and Robbie have been working on the new fence for Breezy’s pen. Friday I trimmed Willow’s feet. They’d grown very long over winter and I wanted to trim them before we put her in her new pen. Saturday we put Dottie, Ed and Breezy in pens by the calving barn to get them farther away from the noise of pounding posts. Michael hauled Sy Miller’s tractor and hydraulic (jackhammer) pounder over here again, and Sy set all the new posts for Breezy’s pen. Some were hard to pound through the frost, but they used a metal pilot post to start those holes.

FEBRUARY 28

We had a lot of windy weather and a blizzard Tuesday afternoon. The guys had to quit fencing early that day, after they got soaked and cold.

The next day our vet me to look at Shiloh’s right eye. It has been running and irritated and we thought there might be something embedded under the lid. Weather was still cold and windy so we stood her behind a big sagebrush that blocked some of the wind. The vet couldn’t find anything in her eye, but the eyelid tissues were swollen and the eye was discharging mucus. So she inserted cortisone/ antibiotic ointment into the corner of the eye. Andrea and I continued that treatment daily for several days, which seemed to resolve the problem.

Lynn had an appointment with a n o r t h o p e d i c s u rge o n , a n d doesn’t need surgery. The shoulder attachments are torn, but not all the way through. The doctor put two cortisone shots into the affected area and prescribed physical therapy to help him regain strength and movement.

 Continued from Page 37

PROGRAM FOR HEIFERS ONLY An excellent program, but only for heifers, is the MGA (megesterol acetate) program. MGA is a progesterone compound which was primarily used in feedlots to keep heifers from cycling. Heifers are fed MGA at a rate of 0.5 mg/hd/day for 14 days (most feed mills will have this mixed in a small amount of grain or in pellet form, making it easy to administer the proper amount). This is fed for 14 days exactly then stopped. Since the progesterone source is removed, almost all of the heifers will come into heat within two to six days. A big word of caution — this is NOT a fertile heat.

To achieve that, we then go in with a prostaglandin shot (remember the dosage difference) 17 days

MARCH 9 The premature calf only lived three days. He was getting stronger, then went into a decline, with slight fever.

after the removal of the MGA. The heifers will be in standing heat within two to five days after the injection and are then bred according to heat. This program does not work on cows even when a higher dosage of MGA was used. Do not under any circumstances use this program on cows. The results are much too inconsistent.

Advantages of the MGA heifer program include reduced cost and only two passes through the chute, including one pass to AI them.

With any of these programs, natural breeding could also be used, but bull power is critical as many more animals are cycling over a short period. Natural breeding will work with fertile bulls in small breeding groups.

If you do the math, the MGA program needs to be started 33 days (just

Even though we had him on antibiotics, to head off pneumonia (since lungs are not well developed at that stage), something went wrong.

Sunday Andrea and Robbie helped Michael, Carolyn and Nick vaccinate and delouse their cows, and put nose flaps in the six big calves (late-summer calves that wintered with their mothers) to wean them.

We are running low on hay, after feeding so much during extremely cold weather this winter. We are buying 50 more big bales (alfalfa/ grass) from a rancher across the valley and he delivered one load yesterday afternoon. We only had one bale left for our heifers, so we’re glad for the hay.

MARCH 20 A week ago we moved the young cows (first calvers) from the swamp pasture to the horse pasture where we can watch them when they start calving. We cleaned old bedding out of the barn and left doors open, so the dirt floor dry can dry out before we put new bedding in, and started training the heifers to go into the barn, using Buffalo Girl to lead them in.

Even though weather isn’t bitterly cold in April, we sometimes get blizzards, so we like to put a calving cow or heifer in the barn if necessary. We let the heifers eat a little alfalfa hay in the barn, to teach them that it’s not scary.

Now that the days are getting warmer and longer, Dani has been spending time here after school, working with Willow. That young mare is five years old but still very green, since we didn’t have time to do much with her last year. Dani is catching her and brushing her, and we hope to start riding again in a few weeks, to resume training.

Wednesday Michael and Robbie finished the horse pen project and I moved Sprout back into her creek pen. Michael brought the backhoe and started taking out the ancient fence along the field below the lane.

over one month) before you wish to breed the first heifer. Some larger producers will synchronize their heifers in two groups to avoid a large number of heifers calving very close together.

FOR HEIFERS AND COWS The last program involves the use of controlled internal drug release (CIDR) and fixed time AI — all cattle on the program are bred at a specific time. Both labour and management are put to efficient use. If hiring a technician, the whole group is AIed together.

The CIDR is a vaginal implant, which releases a controlled amount of progesterone dAIly. There are probably 15 different programs using CIDR in the industry today. One easy-to-follow program I’ve found to provide the best results includes:

Photo: Heather Smith Thomas

Heather Smith Thomas

Charlie passed his driving and written tests, so now he has his driver’s licence. He can drive his younger sisters to the school bus, leave the car there, and drive them home again after school.

Friday the guys finished Breezy’s new fences and we moved that old mare into her pen and put Willow in her rebuilt pen. Now the spare pen where Willow spent the winter can be used for calving. We also put more poles on the calving pen fence so the heifers can’t stick their heads through. We are sawing up old fence poles for firewood, since our woodpile is very small.

With Willow in her new pen, with an easy-access gate, I started using the new slow-feeder we got for her. She always gobbles her hay quickly and is then bored all day and entertains herself by trying to destroy her pen. That’s why we put chicken wire on the top poles of the new fence (so she can’t chew them) and no-climb netting so she can’t put a foot through the fence pawing at it. It covers the posts so she can’t chew them.

Sunday we gave the cows pre-calving vaccinations and deloused them again. Yesterday was cold. Andrea and Robbie discovered a newborn premature calf when they came to help feed cows. The heifers were grouped around it, sniffing and licking. The calf was tiny, with short, velvety hair, probably six or seven weeks premature. We brought him into the house, warmed him by the stove and dried him with towels. I tried to feed him colostrum but the calf wouldn’t suck a bottle so we tubed him. We then fed him by tube every four hours. Lynn went to town and bought milk replacer and we started feeding it after we ran out of colostrum. He was stronger by evening and trying to get up. Lynn helped me tube him in the middle of the night.

It was a team effort to get nutrients into this premature calf, but in the end it didn’t make it.

That fence was old when Lynn and I moved onto this ranch in 1967. Now the posts are rotting off, the net wire is saggy (we propped the fence with steel posts) and rose briars had overgrown it. We are rebuilding that fence, and the old fence between the field and the horse pens where Rubbie and Veggie lived for nearly 30 years, and where Sprout and Shiloh now live. Sprout can stay in the creek pen until we get that side rebuilt. Robbie and Nick worked on the fence Friday and got the rest of it taken down and hauled off.

Saturday was very warm. Our tractor started without being plugged in. It was used to take a new big bale to the heifers and load the feed truck. Strong winds in the afternoon made it necessary to tie the barn doors open, however, so

the props wouldn’t fall down. We are still trying to get the dirt floor dried after the snow slid off the roof and made a big ice pile behind the barn, seeping into the back of each stall. With the doors open and airflow through there, it’s drying out.

Yesterday we gave the heifers another training session in the barn, and sorted off the earliestto-calve cows in the field above the house. It’s easy to sort by feeding hay on both sides of the gate and then quietly bringing the ones we want, with one person guarding the gate to make sure we don’t get extra volunteers. GN

• Step 1, day zero — the cattle are run through the chute and the CIDR placed in the vagina. They are also given a shot of one of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GNRH) products that are on the market. This product will get a follicular wave, started allowing the CIDRs will induce cyclicity on those cows. Tuck the tail neatly inside the vulval lips.

• Step 2, day seven — the CIDRs are removed and a prostaglandin is given at the regular dosage.

• S tep 3 — The animals are given a second shot of GNRH when AIed, which is right on 52 to 56 hours after the prostaglandin shot with heifers and 60 to 66 hours with cows. The heifers respond essentially 10 hours quicker and that is why the shorter breeding time. The real

advantage of this program is the timed AI. However it's more expensive and the cattle are run through the chute a total of three times, including the one to inseminate them.

All three programs have merit, but discuss with your veterinarian which one he/she would recommend for your circumstance.

The goal is to get as high a conception rate as possible in a short period.

Conception rates with all these programs depend on attention to detail, but should be very close to those achieved by breeding off natural heat cycles. GN

Heather Smith Thomas is a long time Grainews columnist who ranches with her husband Lynn near Salmon, Idaho.

Contact her at 208-756-2841.

Roy Lewis is an Alberta-based veterinarian specializing in large-animal practice.

He is also a part-time technical services vet for Merck Animal Health.

home quarter farm life

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

39

SEEDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Who will be at your table this Easter?

Hospitality is a good way to draw people together and build understanding Elaine Froese

www.elainefroese.com

W

atching the snow fly and hearing the wind howl is great motivation to have visions of Easter breads, tulips, lilies and folks gathered to celebrate.

I attended a gathering last weekend where we were reminded again about the importance of hospitality to draw folks together and build understanding.

A farm transition consultant has the habit of asking clients what kind of Christmas they are envisioning after the transfer of the farm has been executed. It cuts to the heart of strong farm families. Strong families celebrate. Anxious families phone me the week before the big three: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. Are you longing for a better experience around the ham and scalloped potatoes this year? So am I. Our family is very small since siblings live in other provinces, and few

are close by. The ham is always too big, so I invite folks to join us at our table. Breaking bread together is a great way to really get to know what is happening in the lives of others.

This winter has been long and interesting; very full. The common theme from young farmers is a heart cry to ask for magical solutions to draw the older generations to the table just to talk about change, creating certainty, and their futures.

Separating the celebration side of family with the chores of the farm is hard to do. Perhaps this is the year that you invite a few more folks to the table to create a more festive fun group, and the conversation will be kept light due to the mix of family and friends.

I am not asking you to avoid having the tough conversations, but perhaps you need a “warm-up” party where the clan gets used to the idea of sharing a meal together without any agenda except to enjoy each other’s company. Maybe the theme for your family this year is to build bridges and reach out to each other to create a

better atmosphere for sharing expectations of your future.

Easter is a season for transformation. Jesus rose from the dead and his resurrected body signals to Christian believers that eternal life is real, death has lost its sting. What transformations are you hoping for this Easter?

What incidents or stories are you carrying around that you take responsibility for? What can you learn from what you are feeling for your family right now? Do you sense that the time is right to extend the olive branch and ask for forgiveness of past wrongs?

Sometimes during a family meeting as the coach I will ask, “What is your model of forgiveness?” The family may be dumbstruck with no answers to that question. Or they may say, “We don’t know how to do it, or where to start.”

Gary Chapman’s book When Sorry is not Enough, is a good read for practical ways to apologize, change behaviour, and make things right. You can also read my blog at www.elainefroese.com/blog How to

say sorry at harvest. The Bible is the best resource for learning more about forgiveness.

Spring is a wonderful time of year when the new growth pokes through the tired winter ground and the air smells fresh and invigorating. I encourage you to enter this new season with hope and expectation that the climate of your farm’s culture can change for the better. We all get to choose our responses and we do not have to just quickly react without thinking. Ask yourself, “What’s the main thing we need to focus on this spring to have better relationships?

“It might be addressing the topics or issues that people are avoiding talking about, what I call the “undiscussbulls.” Or is it asking for help to create more certainty for everyone’s future and the farm’s legacy?

The first step is to call people to the table. The second step is to have a process for sharing without interruption and listen well. The third step is to note what the key themes are, and act on creating solutions for the problems exposed, and the opportunities in front of you all this season.

Lastly, keep a positive attitude. Don’t cloud your thinking into a downward negative spiral.

I enjoyed reading Patrick Lencioni’s book The Advantage, where he talks about the importance of culture

and good organizational health. He has some key questions to consider as you take the pulse of your team: • Why do we exist?

• How do we behave?

• What do we do?

• How will we succeed?

• What is most important right now?

• Who must do what?

These are great questions for your family to focus on as you approach seeding and the intense times of work ahead. Easter’s message is about the unconditional love of God, given to us as a free gift in His Son Jesus. Jesus models for us the way of forgiveness.

My definition of success includes richness of relationships with people and with God. I hope there are many gracious and joyful folks sharing the Easter bread and chocolate at your table this year.

What are you going to do now to make sure that spirit of engagement happens? GN Elaine Froese enjoys celebrating Easter with paska bread, Ukranian Easter eggs, and planting barley seed on Palm Sunday.

Share your stories with her at www. elainefroese.com/contact. Invite her to share her practical tool box for empowered farm families at your next event. Like her on Facebook at Elaine Froese Farm Family Coach. Buy her books for your mom.

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40

home quarter farm life

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

PRAIRIE PALATE

Will your family be ‘schpocking’ at Easter?

This ancient game of cracking hard-boiled eggs traces back to Russian tradition

I

n some parts of the world, the new year is celebrated at the spring equinox.

This makes perfect sense. At the equinox, the days get longer, the sun gets warmer and things start to grow again.

Spring is nature’s new year. OK, OK, it’s still half winter here, but a New Year’s celebration would pick up our spirits, if not melt the snow.

In centuries gone by, agrarian cultures of Europe celebrated the spring equinox because it was so important to the farming cycle. These spring celebrations often included eggs, sometimes painted red like the rising sun, a symbol of fertility and rebirth. The old Saxon goddess of fertility and spring was Eostre, etymologically related to the old words for east and dawn.

Her companion was a rabbit who, once a year at the spring equinox, was miraculously able to lay eggs. Sounds familiar, though I am glad the rabbit now brings eggs of chocolate and marshmallow sponge.

In my family, we celebrate Easter with a

cial Easter breakfast that included potato salad (potato, carrots and peas), slices of ham and a red hard-boiled egg. The kids at the next table were schpocking!

The other thing I can tell you about this part of Ukraine is that, more than 2,500 years ago, it was colonized by Greece. Former Greek colonies, now in ruins, dot the Black Sea coastline of Romania, Russia and Ukraine. Aha, the picture began to coalesce.

The egg-cracking game was not a German tradition but a Russian tradition, and well before that, a tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church. I am, of course, open to further information and interpretation if any readers of this column have their own experience with this odd and ancient game.

As for the egg, it’s no surprise it was associated with spring in ancient and Christian times, since the hens start laying again when the days get warmer and the sun comes back. So here’s a simple oldtimey recipe to celebrate the early days of spring. GN

Creamed eggs

photo: amy jo ehman

Amy Jo Ehman

friendly egg game called schpocking. I don’t know where this name originates (perhaps my great-great-great-grandfather made it up) but the game itself is ancient. Here’s how it goes: Everyone picks a coloured hard-boiled Easter egg. We pair off in twos. Then we tap our eggs together, little end to little end, and big end to big end, squaring off against each other until just one egg is left unbroken. We have a little trophy in the shape of a bunny that the winner keeps for the year.

This game of cracking hard-boiled eggs together is very old in some parts of the world, much older than Easter itself, so how did it get to my dinner table? Growing up, I asked all my friends if they schpocked at Easter. No. As an adult, I asked my German friends (as my ancestors were German). No. I asked a Greek friend who did know the eggcracking game, but this did not solve the mystery as my family originates nowhere near Greece.

Then, two years ago, I was in Ukraine at Easter time, that part of Ukraine along the Black Sea where Russian roots are strong.

My ancestors, though German, lived in the Russian part of Ukraine before immigrating to Canada in 1891. The hotel served a spe-

2 tbsp. butter 4 eggs Salt and pepper

1 tbsp. cream Sprinkle of chopped parsley

Melt butter in a frying pan on medium-low heat. In a bowl, scramble eggs lightly and season with salt and pepper. Pour into the pan. Cook eggs slowly, lifting and stirring until they are just cooked but still moist. Remove from heat. Stir in cream. Tip the eggs into a serving dish.

Sprinkle with parsley. Serve with buttered bread or toast.

Amy Jo Ehman is the author of Prairie Feast: A Writer’s Journey Home for Dinner, and, Out of Old Saskatchewan Kitchens.

She hails from Craik, Sask.

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home quarter farm life

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

41

NURSE LOVES FARMER

How to have the perfect seeding baby During seeding on the farm may not be the best time to have a baby but it all worked out

BY SARAH SCHULTZ

E

ver since we had our second baby boy after harvest in 2012, I wondered if we would have just one more. Maybe we’d get a little girl to add to our family, or maybe we were just perfect as we were with our two little boys. We hemmed and hawed for 2-1/2 years unable to actively commit to a decision and just decided to let whatever would happen, happen. Not long after that we found ourselves pregnant at the end of the summer, and this pregnancy and baby would be very different than our previous two. As much as we possibly could try to plan, we had our first baby in January and our second baby was due in November. The perfect time for grain farmers to have babies — in the winter when there’s really not much going on, on the farm! This baby, however, was due during one of the busiest times of the year on a grain farm: seeding.

Baby Schultz No. 3 was due on May 7 and I knew it was going to be a whirlwind of a time with two older brothers in school, spring sports starting and, of course, seeding all the acres on the farm with a husband and father working 16-hour days. Not exactly how I would have envisioned having our last baby, but we were very happy and excited nonetheless. Our first baby was four days overdue and our second baby came exactly three weeks earlier than him... so with our third baby, it felt like a complete gamble as to when he or she was going to make their appearance.

The spring of 2016 was very dry for us where we farm in Wheatland County, so the guys were out in the fields earlier than they ever had been on April 15. I was 37 weeks pregnant, feeling like a ticking time bomb, and was thankful for every day I didn’t have the baby! In my mind, I figured it would be ideal if the guys could plug away with seeding and maybe even be done by the time this baby came! It didn’t take long for the weight (literally) of the third trimester to catch up to me and had me willing this baby out, not giving a care to what was going on in the field. I just didn’t want to be pregnant anymore and I made that evident to my husband, who jokingly told me, “You know, every day that you don’t have this baby we get five per cent closer to finishing seeding!” Not my idea of a funny joke.

Two weeks later on a Saturday afternoon, just after lunch the contractions started. I’d been having weeks of irregular contractions, so I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I started timing them just in case. An hour went by of regular contractions and I decided to call my husband to see where he was seeding that day and to let him know that there was a possibility that we would be having to go to the hospital. We just assumed it would happen in the middle of the night like it did with our other two babies, so I was having a hard time believing these contractions could be leading up to some-

thing. I had also called my motherin-law, child care for our two boys, to let her know not to go too far (she has a busier social life than me) because things might be happening.

They were farming about 10 minutes away at my brother-in-law's house and she was just going to deliver lunch but would be back soon.

After I called the hospital at 4 we decided it was time to go. My mother-in-law came over to watch our boys. I kissed them and told

them I was going to the hospital to have the baby, and it made the most sense for me to drive our truck to meet my husband where he was farming to save time. I texted him that I was on my way and that we had one-quarter tank of gas (which was more than enough fuel to get us to the hospital 45 minutes away), and he scolded me for not having a full tank. So, I made a quick pit stop at the farm to fuel up while I was in

labour and having contractions, just to be stubborn and make my husband feel bad, quite frankly!

We got to the hospital by 5 and welcomed our third baby boy into the world just after 8 p.m. We reflected that it really couldn’t have gone more perfectly to have our seeding baby — over half the land was already seeded, my husband got in a full day’s work, we went to the hospital, had a quick and uneventful delivery and he got to go home in

time for bed and get up and go back to work the next day.

So there you have it. That’s how to have the perfect seeding baby! GN Sarah Schultz is a nurse who fell in love with and married a farmer. She’s embracing her role as farmwife and mom raising three boys on the family grain farm in Wheatland County, Alberta. She’s often seen with her camera in her hands and blogs about their life on her blog Nurse Loves Farmer.

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42

home quarter farm life

Grainews.ca / april 11, 2017

SINGING GARDENER

A rose to celebrate Canada’s birthday Plus, some good sources for tomato seeds

singinggardener@mts.net

S

ome who haven’t heard me sing have asked: Do you really write and sing your own songs? My answer is — Absolutely! My latest one commemorates Canada’s 150th birthday. I call it: “That’s Who We Are.” This page includes an Alberta reader’s experience with water dowsing; a subject I covered several times in past Grainews issues.

Did you note the date of this Grainews issue? It’s Tuesday, April 11, 2017. What’s so special about said date? It’s right at the point of the full moon. Also, April 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 are five of the very best fruitful spring days for seeding and/or transplanting tomatoes, peppers, annuals, perennials, herbs or what have you for good growth and sturdiness.

The three days of April 11, 12 and 13 are also ideal for working with the moon’s energy for planting gooseberry, grape and strawberry plants plus rose bushes outdoors, along with ornamentals and fruit-bearing trees, shrubs, perennials and vines such as honeysuckle, hops and clematis. To help promote strong tree roots, stir in a small handful of Epsom salt or whole oat grains into the bottom of each planting hole.

Top all this off with the Canadian Shield rose, released by the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre to coincide with Canada’s 150th anniversary this year.

Hey! I haven’t tipped my hat yet and bid you welcome, so let me do that right now!

WATER DOWSING This is the fourth and final mini story from a letter by mail sent from a reader in Alberta. “Our well was old, wooden casing, hand dug. We got a dowser. He came with a handleless shovel against his stomach, blade pointing away. When he found the stream, the shovel motioned up and down. He counted the beats, said water about 200 feet. It was right under a power line. Another dowser came using a forked branch. He saw the look on my face sort of unbelieving, I guess. He took my hand — the other was to hold the forked branch.

When we crossed the stream, the same one, the stick began to turn in my hand so powerful, I could not hold it. It pointed down. I wish I could tell you we drilled a well and got lots of water, but no — a big power line was being planted in our pasture, a four-foot auger made holes to set the legs in. We watched it working probably going down eight feet.

When the hole was drilled I looked in,

MARCH 8, 2017 EMAIL “Hi Ted: In a January 23, 2012 Grainews article I read about (business name withheld) but cannot get in touch with them using either phone number or email address. I am looking for some Russian 117 seed, Red Belly and Regina Yellow seed. Do you have any idea of where I could get these seeds? Thanks for your help. We are located in central Alberta close to Red Deer. (Signed) Harold Huising. Sent from my iPad” Note from Ted: The firm Harold is asking about is no longer in business.

Here are some alternate suggestions to his inquiry. The two following named seed outlets are good sources for heritage, historical and heirloom open-pollinated tomato varieties.

Heritage Harvest Seed Box 279, Carman, Man., R0G 0J0 Phone 204-745-6489 www.heritageharvestseed.com.

Check out their website for dozens of hard-to-find tomato varieties, many veggies, herbs and flowers.

Among substantial listings are Russian 117, Russian Big Roma and Russian Prince. The latter-named variety “produces beautiful one- to two-pound pink tomatoes with great taste on vigorous vines. In Prince George, B.C. these tomatoes are grown in the greenhouse because of their short season.” As for Russian 117, here are just a few of its attracting qualities. Huge heart-shaped flatbottom fruits are very dense and meaty with all-purpose uses from sauces to stewing and fresh eating.

Another seed source not to be overlooked is: Prairie Garden Seeds Box 2758, Humboldt, Sask., S0K 2A0 Phone 306-682-1475 Email prairie.seed@sasktel.net.

Jim Ternier and his daughter Rachelle Ternier garden without agricultural chemicals and have encouraged home gardening and seed saving since 1986. Their catalogue of open-pollinated, untreated and non-GE veggie seeds is vast.

As for tomatoes, I’ll name a few.

Early Alberta has its origins by way of a Mr. Fruno of Edmonton in 1941, which came about from a cross between Golden Bison and Bounty.

If you’re looking for long-keeper storage tomatoes, you’ll be interested in the following: “The first two varieties have very firm, mediumsize fruits that keep well into the winter and were bred by Tim Peters Seed & Research. Ruby Treasure has scarlet-red fruits, some of which may ripen. Winter Gold is picked green and ripens yellow over the next few months. Plants are very compact. Clare’s tomato is similar to one out there called “Mystery Keeper” an excellent storage tomato.

Plants have dense foliage hiding incredible fruit production of this variety. When cut open, insides are quite red in colour, compared to the outside which is often a lighter pink/ yellow/cream colour. Keeps for months!”

CANADIAN SHIELD ROSE This is a must-have rose for gardeners to celebrate our nation’s 150th birthday. What a beauty! It’s tough, dependable and hardy in Zone 3. Ask for Canadian Shield at your local/ regional nursery or garden centre.

Rosarians will be happy to know its foliage is resistant to black spot and powdery mildew. Corn Hill Nursery at Corn Hill, N.B., and Jeffries Nurseries at Portage la Prairie, Man., each agree that Canadian Shield is the triumphant result of decades of work by many Canadian breeders. It produces stunning deep-red double roses with glossy reddish-green foliage that shows virtually no disease damage, even late into the year. At maturity it reaches a height of 1.25 metres (four to five feet), so give it some space to achieve maximum potential.

EARLY-BIRD PLANTING Depending on weather and where you’re located, April is the month many gardeners begin picking rhubarb stalks, cutting asparagus spears and seeding carrots, parsnips, parsley, peas, radishes and leafy greens outdoors. May might be considered the reward month and one of the most pleasant times in the garden after enduring March’s snow and wind. If you’re planting potatoes this month, April 21, 22 and 23 are especially good for root crops growth. Next month the best days for planting spuds are May 19, 20, 23 and 24, 2017. GN

Ted Meseyton is the Singing Gardener and Grow-It Poet from Portage la Prairie, Man. Be cheerful, hopeful and seek the best. Let the sparrows chirp and the crows caw. I’d rather hear the geese honk than an impatient driver behind me. singinggardener@mts.net.

PHOTOS: COURTESY VINELAND RESEARCH AND INNOVATION CENTRE

Ted Meseyton

about four feet down was water. That would make a good well, I said. The power company men asked if we needed a well — answered yes. Got a culvert — power company drilled the hole 16 feet, dropped the culvert in.

Husband punched holes, lots of water but not good quality.”

Brief notes from Ted: That concludes the writer’s letter who asks her name not be printed. When it comes to water dowsing, either you have the gift or you don’t. About one person in 10 possesses it. Often, some among the other nine who don’t, are quick to conclude that the one who has the gift is a fake. Experience also seems to tell us the power is inherited by son from mother and passed on from father to daughter.

Canadian Shield rose bush is the first introduction in the 49th parallel series developed by the Canadian Nursery and Landscape Association in conjunction with the Vineland, Ontario Research Station. It produces large and awesome deep-red roses with up to 50 or more petals each, throughout summer and into fall.

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