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Big world grain crops ease tight supply Records } USDA

forecasts biggest-ever global crops by charles abbott

TRACEABILITY: Canada Beef’s president questions the benefits

reuters

he world is harvesting its largest-ever wheat, corn and rice crops this year, easing tight supplies that drove world food prices to record levels earlier this year, the U.S. government forecast Dec. 9. With the abundant harvests, including a record wheat crop in Australia, world stockpiles will gain a modest cushion after successive years of razor-thin stocks. The U.S. soybean inventory would climb to the largest in five years. Larger harvests will further dampen market prices that are already at their lowest in a year. China led the sharp five per cent expansion in world corn production this year, the U.S. Agriculture Department said in an update of the world crop outlook. Chinese corn production is up eight per cent from a year. Record yields and favourable weather created a mammoth crop of 191.8 million tonnes. “There’s nothing here that is bullish,” said analyst Roy Huckaby of The Linn Group in Chicago. “They shut down consumption all over the place.” World wheat production is up six per cent this season from 2010-11 with a record 28.3 million tonnes in Australia. Rice output is up 2.4 per cent and soybeans are down 2.4 per cent although Brazil has a huge crop of 75 million tonnes that will allow it to beat the U.S. as the top exporter. In the face of competition from Brazil and Argentina, U.S. soybean exports are forecast down two per cent from the November estimate. The U.S. stockpile would rise to 230 million bushels, larger than traders expected and the largest year-end supply since 574 million bushels in 2006-07. The U.S. corn stockpile would be fractionally larger than thought a month ago but still the smallest in 16 years.

Appeal:

raceability has been the Holy Grail of the beef business since the BSE crisis, but Canada’s top beefmarketing official says foreign buyers aren’t asking for it and the whole concept needs a second look.

by sheri monk af staff | calgary

“My question is who are we doing this for? ” Canada Beef Inc. president Robert Meijer said in an interview. “Who’s asking and how are we validating this? Because nobody is asking me. I was in Asia, and I was directly asking consumers about traceability and they had no idea what I was talking about and it wasn’t the language barrier. They fundamentally couldn’t understand why I was asking them about traceability.” Meijer’s questioning the demand for traceability raised eyebrows — and earned the applause of some attendees

— when he spoke at the recent annual general meeting of Alberta Beef Producers. “All I was trying to do (at the meeting) was just validate what I heard, saw, observed while I was in a key market, in a key region that apparently we continue to hear wants this robust traceability,” said Meijer. “That’s not what I heard, and that’s not the perspective I got.” Meijer said Asian buyers and consumers are looking for the same thing domestic customers are. “They want quality, they want integrity, they want food safety, they want honesty, and they want to trust the people who they are doing business with,” he said. Meijer was careful to note his job with

“My question is who are we doing this for? Who’s asking and how are we validating this? Because nobody is asking me.” Robert meijer president, canada beef inc.

Canada Beef is to sell beef and to bring back market intelligence, not to form policy. As a result, it is the marketing agency’s responsibility to accurately reflect all the factors influencing demand, and he said traceability wasn’t even on the radar screen. “Do they need to know that if a package of meat came from High River, that the package of meat can be traced back to a specific carcass and to a specific farm to a specific producer? That didn’t seem to be anything of any interest to any consumer that I was talking to. I talked to some consumers, some mothers, at a grocery store about traceability and half of them didn’t even know what I was talking about.” Traceability as it pertains to health protocols has merit, but as part of a foodsafety regiment rather than a marketing tool. “We see value in the animal health component of traceability, the RFID, and we’ve got CCIA and the tags,” he said. “I get really worried about

see traceability } page 6

FEDERAL PLANS FOR CWB IN LEGAL LIMBO » PAGE 3

news » inside this week

inside » farmers get “green” report card Modern farm practices use less fuel and improve soil

DECEMBER 19, 2011 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

livestock

crops

columNists

Optimism returns to the hog sector

Fusarium solution in sight?

bernie peet Genetic selection for pigs becoming economic

Roy Lewis Firearms for butchering or euthanasia

Research after the CWB Who will fund GIGI and new variety development?

IN BRIEF

But ag minister encourages insurance signup

Scientists have a better understanding of the disease

daniel bezte

A look at weather during Christmases past

Videos share story of living on the land

Where (not) to see William and Kate

SPEAKING UP } Producers share stories about their farms,

by natalie huet

passions and stewardship in video series

paris/reuters

A French restaurant where diners cannot see what they are eating, often spill their wine and must conduct conversations while staring into pitch darkness has proved such a success in Europe that it is making a foray into the Americas. After expanding from Paris into London, Moscow, Barcelona and St. Petersburg, the “Dans Le Noir” chain, staffed by blind waiters, will open an outlet in the neon-lit tourist hub of New York’s Times Square this month. Dans Le Noir, French for “In the Dark,” is not the first restaurant of its kind, although it has spread the fastest, having served more than a million people at its restaurants and temporary venues in Warsaw, Geneva and Bangkok. Dans Le Noir uses visually impaired waiters to guide patrons past heavy black curtains into a pitch-dark dining room where they are served a surprise two- or threecourse menu. Mohand Touat, 46, found his first job at Dans Le Noir’s Paris restaurant four years ago. He heads to work cautiously, holding a white cane, but once inside he flits from table to table as diners shout for him to come and help them, “I dropped my fork” being a frequent cry. “In the dark, we’re the ones serving as guides, so we’re sort of switching roles,” Touat said. “I feel good here.” The first permanent Dans Le Noir restaurant opened in Paris in 2004, followed by London in 2006. The London manager said that Prince William and Kate Middleton had come several times, noting that it may be one of the few places “where they can escape from paparazzi.”

by alexis kienlen af staff | edmonton

group of Alberta producers has found a new way to help bridge the gap between farmers and consumers by using cuttingedge multimedia technology to tell very personal stories. Six videos created by producers had their debuts at the recent Farmfair and their work is winning rave reviews. “These are not done at a filmmaking studio,” said Norine Ambrose, executive director of “Cows and Fish.” “These are produced by these individuals and I think you’ll be rightly impressed with what these folks were able to create.” Each of the two- to threeminute-long videos has a producer doing a voice-over while family photos are shown and music plays in the background. “Everyone thinks we’re nuts,” Holly LaBrie says at the start of her video entitled “Call me crazy.” “Who wants to work that hard and that much to raise some beef.” The video by the Didsbury producer then goes on to

detail both the tribulations that come with beef production and how the family cares for its cows and land. “The crazy part is hoping that the way we raise our beef and take care of our land has value to you,” LaBrie says in the video. The producers who made the videos were all involved with “Cows and Fish”, a non-profit organization that works with ranchers to promote healthy riparian areas through improved grazing and management practices. Funding for the REAL Beef initiative (REAL stands for Ranchers Enhancing Alberta’s Landscapes) came from Alberta’s Rural Community Adaptation Grant Program and the W. Garfield Weston Foundation. The videos were made at a 2-1/2 day workshop in the faculty of social work’s centre for digital storytelling at the University of Calgary in November 2010. It was an intensive, but fruitful, learning experience, said LaBrie. “Everybody had a different take and a different slant on things,” said LaBrie. “When you watch the videos as a whole, you get an amazing story.”

“These are not done at a filmmaking studio. These are produced by these individuals and I think you’ll be rightly impressed with what these folks were able to create.” Norine Ambrose

One of the goals of the project is to open and create a dialogue between producers and consumers. “We’ve always been working to share good news agriculture stories, and share the positive things that are happening,” said Ambrose. “One of the things we were missing was building the connection between the producer and the consumer. We often talk to urban audiences, but we realized that we needed to get the two together and focus on building that bridge.” “It’s important that these

Still shots from Holly LaBrie’s videos, which show day-to-day life on a beef operation.

stories are told, as they create valuable connections between rural and urban communities,” added Agriculture Minister Evan Berger after viewing the videos at Farmfair. “These films also highlight a very important point. Alberta’s ranchers are proud stewards of the land.” Another group of producers created their own videos in November 2011. The videos will be shown during “Cows and Fish” presentations and at trade shows. See the REAL Beef project on www.cowsandfish.org.

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • DECEMBER 19, 2011

Federal plans for CWB in legal limbo NO CHANGE  A defiant agriculture minister vows to press on with plans for an open market “There was a right way to make this change and the government didn’t do it.”

A parliamentary expert says federal plans to change the Canadian Wheat Board are likely on hold until the courts have had their final say on a ruling in favour of opponents.

Could have repealed

BY ALLAN DAWSON STAFF

“The federal government can get the legislation through Parliament, but they won’t be able to implement it as long as it’s before the courts or the courts have agreed with the opponents,” said Ned Franks, who specializes in parliamentary procedure at Queens University. Federal Court Justice Douglas Campbell ruled Dec. 7 that Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz broke the Canadian Wheat Board Act by introducing into Parliament Bill C-18, the Marketing Freedom Act for Grain Farmers, which proposes firing the board’s farmer-elected directors and creating an open market as of Aug. 1, 2012. In a written decision, Justice Campbell said under Section 47.1 Ritz had a statutory duty to first consult the CWB board of directors and get farmers’ approval for the change through a plebiscite. His failure to do so “is an affront to the rule of law,” Justice Campbell wrote.

Headed to the Supreme Court?

The case is likely headed for the Supreme Court of Canada, said Peter Russell, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto. He is among those questioning whether C-18 will receive royal assent until appeals have been exhausted. Asking the Governor General to grant the bill royal assent puts the Queen’s representative in an awkward position, Russell said in an interview. “The Federal Court ruling doesn’t make the law itself unconstitutional but makes the introduction of it into Parliament illegal,” he said. “I’m sure (Governor General) David Johnston is thinking about this. He has a legal background and a good legal mind. I hope he has some good people to talk to. He certainly has to make a judgment call.” While Johnston doesn’t have to sign a bill into law, effectively veto-

Wheat board chair Allen Oberg speaking to reporters outside Federal Court in Winnipeg Dec. 6. ing it, that has never happened in modern times. Russell agreed Johnston would prefer the government not ask him to give C-18 royal assent until the appeals have been exhausted. Last week Liberal Leader Bob Rae issued an open letter asking the Governor General not to sign the bill until the issue had been clarified in the courts.

Appeal procedure

The ruling, which the government is appealing, didn’t prevent C-18 from passing. However, opponents of the legislation say they will ask the courts to declare the law invalid because it was introduced illegally. All Federal Court rulings are automatically eligible for appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal. The next avenue of appeal is the Supreme Court of Canada, which must grant leave to appeal before a case will be heard. “It’s the fruit of a poison tree,” said Anders Bruun, the lawyer representing the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board, one of the groups that took Ritz to court. The wheat board debate has expanded beyond the single desk versus an open market to include the rule of law, the role of the judiciary and Parliament and democracy itself, Bruun said. The other groups that went to court against Ritz were the wheat board itself, the Producer Car Shippers of Canada, Council of Canadians, ETC Group, Public Service Alliance of Canada and Food Secure Canada.

Wheat board chair Allen Oberg said the board is considering all legal options to force the government to let farmers decide the board’s mandate as outlined under 47.1. Ritz remained defiant in the face of the ruling and prospect of more legal action. “Well, we fundamentally disagree with the declaration of the court in this particular situation,” he told reporters Dec. 7. “I can tell you at the end of the day, this (court) declaration will have no effect on continuing to move forward for freedom for western Canadian farmers.” Contrary to Justice Campbell’s

PHOTOS: ALLAN DAWSON

interpretation, Ritz said he believes Section 47.1 only requires the government to consult when adding or removing crops to or from the board’s single desk and not when eliminating the single desk altogether. “We still are convinced that Parliament has the right to introduce, amend or appeal legislation, period,” Ritz said. On that point, Bruun agrees. Justice Campbell’s ruling doesn’t undermine the supremacy of Parliament, he said, but it does confirm the minister is not above the law. “The government, in not complying with the law, is taking a step down the road to anarchy,” he said.

Observers say the government could have amended the current wheat board act to remove Section 47.1 and then repealed the act, ending the single desk without having to consult. When asked why the government doesn’t do that now, Ritz said: “Well, by repealing the act, you get two birds with one stone.” Oberg said the wheat board’s actions have been vindicated. It wants the government to hold a vote now. “If they had chosen to take that path to begin with a lot of farmer money and a lot of taxpayer money could have been saved,” he said. The Friends of Canadian Wheat Board launched its legal challenge before the government introduced C-18 but the government went ahead anyway. As a result any market uncertainty is the government’s fault, according to Oberg. Proper process is important to democracy, Russell said. “When you hurry the whole process and don’t have adequate deliberations and... if you just brush that aside you’re really not respecting the parliamentary process,” he said. Government lawyers argued Justice Campbell’s ruling would be moot because it couldn’t stop C-18 from passing. But Justice Campbell wrote his ruling has two “meaningful effects.” One is to reveal the lesson that consulting, as the law required, could have avoided court action. “The second and most important effect is that the minister will be held accountable for his disregard for the rule of law.”

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DECEMBER 19, 2011 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

EDITOR Will Verboven Phone: 403-697-4703 Email: will.verboven@fbcpublishing.com

PRODUCTION director Shawna Gibson Email: shawna@fbcpublishing.com

Trade negotiations: No need to pit farmers against farmers

AsSistant PRODUCTION manager Farrah Wilson Email: farrah@fbcpublishing.com

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

Overblown } Supply management may be unfairly

treated by free market producer groups

CIRCULATION manager Heather Anderson Email: heather@fbcpublishing.com

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

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www.albertafarmexpress.ca or email: subscription@fbcpublishing.com At Farm Business Communications we have a firm commitment to protecting your privacy and security as our customer. Farm Business Communications will only collect personal information if it is required for the proper functioning of our business. As part of our commitment to enhance customer service, we may share this personal information with other strategic business partners. For more information regarding our Customer Information Privacy Policy, write to: Information Protection Officer, Farm Business Communications, 1666 Dublin Ave., Wpg., MB R3H 0H1 Occasionally we make our list of subscribers available to other reputable firms whose products and services might be of interest to you. If you would prefer not to receive such offers, please contact us at the address in the preceding paragraph, or call 1-800-665-0502. The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to Alberta Farmer Express and Farm Business Communications attempt to provide accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis. However, the editors, journalists and Alberta Farmer Express and Farm Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the editors as well as Alberta Farmer Express and Farm Business Communications assume no responsibility for any actions or decisions taken by any reader for this publication based on any and all information provided.

By will verboven

ttendees at the recent Alberta Beef Producers annual general meeting received some enlightening perspectives on trade issues from industry officials. For many it proved to be an exasperating experience as it showed that in trade politics, things are not always as they seem on the surface. It also showed that as big as we think we are in agriculture, we are at times bit players in the greater scheme of global trade. Those in attendance also found out, some to their chagrin, that issues such as the impact of supply management on trade discussions isn’t what they assumed or have been led to believe. For many years the trusting producer has been told that one of the biggest impediments to Canadian trade discussions has been supply management commodities. The implication was that if Canada gave up the tariff protection that supply management provided, all kinds of new agriculture trade deals would just fall into our lap. We were told that at almost every trade talkfest in the world Canada was shunned because of its support for supply management. We were told that at every free trade negotiating session supply management was the main stumbling block. As it turns out that isn’t quite true. Those of us that who ruminated over the ag trade file for years had found out years ago that the supply management issue at trade discussions was of minor concern to our trade partners. That was mostly due to the reality that almost every trading country in the world has politically sensitive farm production that they want to protect. It also did not amount to a lot of trade potential. The approach on the issue was more to let

sleeping dogs lie by both sides. But that didn’t stop misguided free trade booster organizations from fear-mongering that if supply management wasn’t dismantled, all Canadian agricultural trade as we know it would end forever. The reaction to that was the unleashing of the most fearsome farm lobby ever seen in Canada by the supply management groups. To this day government support for that sector is rock solid — at least publicly. Those folks could write a book on how to run a successful lobby, they are masters of the game.

Bigger fish to fry

The meeting also learned that in the ongoing Canada-EU free trade negotiations, supply management has not yet been discussed as EU negotiators are interested in much bigger fish such as access to Canadian and provincial governments procurement contracts. In light of that, being able to sell tariff-free highbrow French cheese doesn’t seem all that important. The meeting also found out that even if the EU grants more market access, they have the devilish ability to prevent real access by using non-tariff barriers. Beef exports to the EU are all but non-existent thanks to technical hoops and quota shenanigans perpetrated by diabolical EU bureaucrats. It would seem totally foolhardy to give up supply management tariffs for a much larger beef import quota that can’t be realistically accessed by our exporters. Your humble editor was once told by an EU agriculture commissioner in Brussels that North American beef would never receive easy and open access to Europe. So far no one is willing to bet against that statement. The meeting was also told that the biggest threat to Canadian beef exports is the lack

of a free trade agreement with South Korea. Officials stated that without an agreement that included beef, Canada could be locked out of that market as the Americans have an agreement which in time will give them tariff-free meat exports to that country. In this case supply management is again not part of the discussion, apparently the Canadian auto sector is the main roadblock to an agreement. The reality in trade discussions is that supply management is not the deal breaker as some would like us to believe. Even free trade Americans become more humble when they bring up the topic and are then reminded of their own government Farm Bill and its dairy price scheme, and the cyclical dairy cow buyout program. Besides even if we had full and open free trade with the U.S., I would suggest that they would never allow milk and eggs to be imported. All of this enlightening information on trade and supply management at the ABP meeting was somewhat ironic being that four resolutions at the meeting involved supply management concerns, they implied that its continuance hampered trade talks on beef access to foreign markets. Those resolutions resulted in spirited debate by delegates. But such discussions also have a habit of arousing animosity between neighbours, pitting protected supply management farmers against fellow farmers who have to take their chances with the free market. Farmer against farmer is never a harmonious situation. Considering the realities of the minor role of supply management in trade talks, perhaps the beef industry needs to call off any intention of pursuing this non-existent trade hurdle. It would seem that it is only an issue inside Canada and a dubious one at best.

Contingency fund belongs to the CWB, not farmers Outside money} There should not be a transfer of excess funds

from the contingency fund into the pool accounts by jeff nielsen

Former CWB director, Olds

tatements regarding the recent increase to the CWB’s contingency fund once again point to the seriousness of misleading information being promoted by the “group of eight” directors of the Canadian Wheat Board. The board submitted a request to Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz in the spring of 2011 to increase the contingency fund ceiling to $90 million. This initial increase was made for crop year 2010-11 and since then, it became apparent that another request would be needed to ensure the amount allowed into the contingency fund would accommodate the 2011-12 crop year. These funds are generated when farmers sign up to use the PPOs (producer payment options) and are fees for risk management to ensure the fulfilment of contrac-

tual obligations. The programs were introduced due to a call from producers for the ability to market their wheat or barley outside of the pool accounts. These programs attempt to mimic an open market while maintaining the single-desk status of the CWB. Substantial use of these PPO programs shows that producers understand and accept that a basis that includes fees for risk and administration is the cost of doing business in the PPO programs. With that being said, it should be fully acknowledged that any excesses or profits incurred by the CWB in its execution of those contracts belong to the CWB. This is really no different than if a producer signs any commodity contract with any other player in the grain trade in Western Canada. Since these are not transactions done in any of the pool accounts, there should not be a transfer of excess funds from the contingency fund into the pool accounts.

Any suggestion that the excess in the contingency fund should go into the general pool accounts is false and goes against the policy in place that the board of directors and management has accepted and supported all along. The funds generated are the property of the corporation (the CWB) and must be protected from the “group of eight” who show contempt for producers who participate in PPO programs. It can be argued that the costs associated with these programs are excessively high. However, due to serious losses the CWB incurred in the PPO programs back in crop year 2007-08, changes to how the CWB administered the PPO program had to be implemented. Increasing the fees for risk management was prudent to ensure that there would not be a repeat of the losses experienced in the 2007-08 crop year. With marketing freedom, no doubt the CWB will have to adjust the options

offered to farmers to make them more competitive with the grain trade. As to the excessive television, Internet, print media focused on Eastern Canada — even passing postcards out in Toronto subways — it once more proves that this group of individuals is not focused on representing western Canadian farmers. The board did not hold a vote to allocate $1.4 million for the ad campaign. Taking extreme liberties with board decisions shows how dysfunctional these eight directors have become. And furthermore it shows how they have broken the code of conduct directors of the CWB are supposed to follow. It’s time to move forward. It is time to allow our farms, businesses, communities, to have a strong future in all aspects of agriculture. Jeff Nielsen resigned as a farmerelected director of the Canadian Wheat Board in October.

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • DECEMBER 19, 2011

CHRISTMAS:

More than Santa and spending REALITY CHECK  We’ve bought into a vision of what life

should be, without stopping to ask what it would become BY SHERI MONK

AF STAFF | PINCHER CREEK

wice I’ve played the Grinch at Christmas. Once in 1986 for the school play, and once in 2004, when I told my son there was no such thing as Santa Claus. It had been an interesting year for me, personally, professionally, and politically. It had been a year of shifting paradigms, revamped beliefs and a renewed commitment to living life on my terms. The night I killed the myth of Santa, I picked up my boys, who were almost five and two at the time, at day care before heading to the mall for some Christmas shopping. I was perfectly in sync with all the other parents, decorating overstimulated children in snowsuits, boots and tuques, pretending we were happy to see them when all we truly desired was a stiff drink and a soft bed. As I tried to painlessly insert tiny thumbs into tiny mittens, I absorbed the escalating war of wills going on all around me.

It was like preschool on the Gaza Strip. The kids, wound up like nine-day clocks, were ready to explode without provocation and their parents, desperate to win at any cost, were pulling out the heavy artillery. “Get your boots on right now or Santa isn’t going to bring you any presents this year!” Dressed, we filed into the dark night, piled into the cold car and fought traffic on icy streets. After cursing until I found a parking spot, I trudged through the slush with a toddler in my arms and one holding my coat until finally, we were in the mall. Immediately, we were assaulted by fluorescent lighting and “Merry Christmas, Baby” by the Beach Boys. It was then that I saw the longest line I had ever seen. With trepidation, I joined the queue. Hundreds deep, with parents yelling at their kids to stand still, to be quiet, to act like anything but a child while they waited an impossibly long time in an impossibly long line… and for what? Why, Santa Claus, of course.

It was absurd. Waiting to meet a stranger pretending to be a makebelieve character to perpetuate a lie and the most obscene part of it was that the kids didn’t even want to do it. Most were crying, half were scared and all of the parents were angry, at least until they got to the very front of the line at which time they had to act sympathetic and sweet in front of the mini-skirted Mrs. Claus with the camera. Shell shocked, I made it to the food court because it was far past the supper hour and we hadn’t even been home yet. Mercifully, we found a table and I could take the toddler off my aching hip. I pushed my four-year-old’s pizza to him across the plastic table, and I watched him take his first bite. “There’s no Santa,” I said. “I’m sorry for lying to you.” He chewed, thoughtfully, and kept eating, seemingly unperturbed. “Why did you?” he finally asked. My generation and the one before it, the baby boomers, were raised on fantasy, especially those

of us insulated by cities. At first, everyone was just trying to put as much distance as they could between their new lives and the old realities of the Second World War and the Great Depression. So when the television age dawned, and when credit became easier to get, they all just bought into that vision of what life should be, without stopping to ask what it would become. Now, happiness is a bigger, flatter television or a thinner, shapely wife and everyone wants easy to get even easier. And if we can afford it, we escape by vacationing in a fairy-tale-like Disney World, or on a cruise ship with 14 swimming pools, but not a drop of real ocean. At Christmastime, that’s when we have to pretend to be our happiest, and yet no one ever asks if we really are. But that’s not life, and that’s not living. There is no success without strife, you can’t walk without first falling, and you can’t know love without first knowing loss. You cannot feel pleasure without having known pain, or joy without grief, and

My generation and the one before it, the baby boomers, were raised on fantasy, especially those of us insulated by cities.

there is no life without death. That’s the deal. Seven years ago, I vowed we would be different and a big part of that was escaping the city and its watered-down, plasticized way of living. There have been sacrifices and it hasn’t always been easy, but easy isn’t what I wanted. I needed authenticity, and seven years later, life feels real again. We have a real Christmas tree in our living room, we haven’t been anywhere near a mall, and when I say “Merry Christmas,” I actually mean it. There’s not a single thing in my life that I’d rather escape than embrace. So, from our house to yours, have a very Merry Christmas.

Global warming — big risk. Taking action — zero risk NO DOWNSIDE  Farmers have nothing to lose by taking steps to reduce fuel use and improve their soil BY DARYLL E. RAY AND HARWOOD D. SCHAFFER

he United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban, South Africa was the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UNFCCC that brought together representatives of the world’s governments, international organizations, and civil society. The deliberations were made all the more urgent by a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on the second day of the meeting that 2011 is one of the warmest on record, despite the occurrence of a La Nina event that exerts a cooling influence on weather. In addition, the report said that the 2011 extent of Arctic sea ice was the second lowest on record. At the present time, it appears that the debate about climate change has moved

from whether or not it is happening to one of whether or not it is caused by human activity or is the result of natural processes. The purpose of this column is not to argue about the science. Rather our concern is what should farmers make of all of this and what impact might it have on their operations. Continued global warming could have a significant impact on agriculture and where certain crops are grown. We are told that we will see an increase in extreme weather events — longer droughts in traditionally droughty areas, an increase in heavy rain events, and a shifting of crop zones northward so that Canada and Russia might produce more corn and soybeans, while U.S. and EU farmers will have to shift to warm-season varieties and warm-season crops. This brings us to a set of questions that we often ask. One, “suppose the WMO is

… our concern is what should farmers make of all of this and what impact might it have on their operations.

correct and we are experiencing anthropogenic (human caused) climate change and we do nothing, what is the worst thing that can happen?” Two, “suppose we engage in activities to mitigate human caused climate change and it turns out that human activity has nothing to do with the rise in global temperatures and decrease in Arctic sea ice that we are seeing?”

What’s the downside?

In the first case, by not reducing carbon emissions in our farming operations and not engaging in farming prac-

tices that increase carbon sequestration in our soils, we contribute directly to global warming. In addition, by turning away from farming practices that increase carbon sequestration — practices that also increase the ability of the soil to resist erosion and increase the absorption of water — we put ourselves at risk of increased erosion during the fewer but heavier rain events that are predicted. In addition, we may be unprepared for the shift in crop mix and the associated infrastructure that would be required. On the other hand, if we reduce our use of fossil fuels and engage in farming practices that sequester carbon in our soils, and it turns out that global warming is the hoax that some claim it to be, what is the worst thing that can happen? We have spent less money on increasingly expensive fossil fuel. We have created a soil that has greater carbon

content and can hold more water and other plant nutrients. Our yields may be down a little, but our costs are lower as well. And the infrastructure that we have built up to handle our present crop mixes still works well. Part of our response to issues where the answers might not be as clear as we would want them to be is to understand that our response needs to be an engagement in risk assessment, looking at the worst-case scenarios and determining which set of risks we want to take and how we respond. At this time, not all farmers agree on the science behind climate change, but all need to engage in a risk assessment exercise and determine what response they are going to make on their farm. To do nothing is to make a choice. Daryll E. Ray and Harwood D. Schaffer are with the Agricultural Policy Analysis Center (APAC) at the University of Tennessee

OFF THE FRONT

TRACEABILITY  from page 1 promoting and marketing our good product based on something like that. I see that as a marketing tactic and some might find it interesting, and some might be able to use it to their advantage. But in terms of value for the industry, I really struggle with where the value is.”

Cross-Canada program needed

Part of the issue, Meijer said, is how traceability is implemented, because for Canada Beef to market it as that basis, it must be universally implemented across the country. That would require making traceability mandatory, and be a cost burden to the industry. “I am not advocating for a mandatory traceability system, what I am saying is if you feel that you’ve got to go there, then it better be mandatory and all players better play by the same rules and everybody’s supplier had better be audited and there’s a great cost to that system.” Meijer also questioned whether gate-to-plate traceability is even possible. “If you look at it from a pack-

DECEMBER 19, 2011 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

inghouse point of view, when the carcass is broken down and the offal and the heart and the liver and the tongue and the pieces of meat go everywhere, it comes to Cryovacing and it gets boxed, how is it that we’re going to be able to track that back to a carcass and to a farm? I wish somebody would explain that to me.” Meijer said he is unaware of any cost-benefit analysis ever having been done to determine whether a payoff even exists if Canada were to try and create a demand for traceability. It’s not too late for the Canadian cattle industry to have an honest, objective look at the situation, he said. “It’s easy for these things to pick up momentum, it’s like a little snowball rolling down the hill, it’s pretty easy for it to get to be a runaway,” he said. “I just think we owe it to ourselves to basically stop the dialogue, ask the right questions, assess the value and make a decision. And if we make the decision that traceability is important, then we have to make some decisions in that we can’t go half way. We have to go all the way. That means everybody is in, or we’re all out.”

Supply management debated at ABP annual THREE CS  Consultation, compensation, courts to be the

approach on land-use framework BY WILL VERBOVEN EDITOR | CALGARY

With a couple of years of intense wrangling and acrimony over the refundable checkoff behind them, Alberta Beef Producer (ABP) delegates might have been looking forward to a more mundane annual meeting earlier this month. But while this year’s improved cattle prices and generally good pasture and hay and feed yields put delegates in a positive mood, there were some lively debates over a wide variety of sometimes-contentious resolutions. Delegates were informed of new policy initiatives that cover director/delegate responsibilities, behaviour and removal. John Kolk, in charge of the governance review, said that this type of policy was a “a journey” for most organizations. He noted that as organizations evolve, incidents and experiences causes policies to be developed that may not have originally seemed necessary. Delegates also heard from government representatives that a ministerial level review group has been established to re-examine the land-use framework issue. Director Greg Bowie

ABP executive 2012 cutline: Alberta Beef Producers new executive (l-r) Dave Solverson (Camrose) vice-chair, Doug Sawyer (Pine Lake) chair, and Greg Bowie (Ponoka) finance chair. LES DUNFORD reviewed ABP involvement with the issue and said that positive actions are happening. He said that the ABP has taken the “Three Cs” approach — “consultation, compensation, courts” — to resolving the matter. Four related resolutions on supply management caused considerable debate with one being passed and three defeated or withdrawn. The concern was that supply management may be causing trade barriers

to Canadian beef exports. This caused some friction between delegates and the Alberta Milk representative. A subsequent resolution suggested the opening of discussions on the topic between the two sides. (editorial, page four). Rob Meijer, president of Canada Beef Inc., surprised many of the delegates with his perception of the cattle and beef industry traceability issue (story, page one).

Attention AlbertA FArmers: if you have not yet contracted your 2002 to 2011 carbon credits,

time is running out! RETROACTIVE CREDITS WILL BE ELIMINATED

WHAT IT COSTS

Carbon credits generated from 2002 to 2011 will no longer be accepted by Alberta Environment after January 1, 2012. If you haven’t contracted your retroactive credits by January 1, 2012, then you will miss out on the opportunity forever.

As a Terra Verde client, you will not only receive the highest net payment for your offsets, but you will also enjoy a commission fee of only 15%3. There are no additional costs to the Contract, hidden data collection fees or complicated credit formulas.

ACT NOW If you have not yet contracted your eligible credits generated from 2002 to 2011, you still have time! Terra Verde has just opened its 2011 Series IX Contract to Producers wishing to sell their retroactive credits. The application process may be easier than you think.

DON’T MISS OUT If you have not yet contracted some or all of your eligible credits, Terra Verde urges you to do so now.

WHAT IT’S WORTH TO YOU

Why wait?

Producers who sign up with Terra Verde can expect to be paid approximately $11 net per tonne1. For example, a 3,000 acre farm could net anywhere from $30,000 to $52,0002.

Call terra Verde today to get started.

1-866-949-1962 info@terraemissions.com www.terraemissions.com Depending on final sale price achieved. Based on tonnes generated from 2002 to 2011. 3 Plus verification costs of approximately 2%. 1 2

Albertafarmexpress.ca • december 19, 2011

THE

BioBaler

Demonstrated for first time in Western Canada as wood-fibre harvesting option by tony kryzanowski af contributor

our eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. That really is a round baler being pulled behind a tractor through a juvenile hardwood stand and creating round bales. Canadian Wood Fibre Centre (CWFC) researchers recently demonstrated the “BioBaler,” a patented juvenile-hardwood baling system developed originally by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in collaboration with the CWFC and Laval University in Quebec City. The system requires no additional special equipment and the BioBaler can be pulled by a standard 200-horsepower tractor to produce wood-fibre round bales, weighing between 250 and 400 kilograms, that are similar in appearance to straw ones. The BioBaler, which is now being manufactured commercially by Quebec company Anderson Group Inc., is suited for stands containing fibre with stems no larger than 10 to 12 centimetres thick. The round bales can then be loaded onto a flatbed truck for transport, just like straw or hay bales, or stored on site to dry even when exposed to the elements. “That’s what we think is key

to using this technology,” says Tim Keddy, CWFC’s wood-fibre development specialist. “Outside of the baler itself, there’s no new infrastructure needed for a farmer or forestry business to run this operation and it gives farmers use of their equipment at different times of the year when it would be sitting idle.” Creating this sort of valueadded biomass product is important to forestry companies, which increasingly rely on green fuel or creating raw material for production of bioproducts in their business model. According to Anderson Group, each bale contains about one megawatt per hour of energy, depending on the type of vegetation. The BioBaler can produce up to 40 bales per hour on plantations and 15 to 18 bales per hour in natural environments. It can handle different species of shrubs and trees and be transported from one field to another without special regulations. The bales can be stacked on a conventional 53-foot-long trailer, with about 40 bales per load, handled with standard equipment at the receiving site, and because of their dimensions, easily stored in the field or at a power plant site. They also dry naturally, which is important for energy production. It takes about eight weeks

of warm weather post-harvest to decrease moisture content from 50 to 55 per cent to between 20 and 25 per cent. The BioBaler is versatile, and able to produce bales from natural forests, under power lines, and in short-rotation wood crops.

Power for the grid

Alberta Pacific Forest Industries (Al-Pac), a large pulp producer in Athabasca, has asked CWFC to use the BioBaler as part of a study to identify possible options for acquiring an additional 50,000 green tonnes annually of biomass from existing regenerating managed aspen stands. The company already uses 500,000 green tonnes in its boiler, with about 75 per cent coming from wood residues collected from its wood yard. The biomass fuel is used to generate power for the pulp mill, as well as for the provincial grid. Upgrades made to the Al-Pac boiler will require an additional 50,000 green tonnes of biomass to be consumed annually. CWFC is harvesting fibre from managed stands ranging from less than 15,000 stems per hectare, between 15,000 and 25,000 stems per hectare, and more than 25,000 stems per hectare to evaluate the most economical sites and harvesting methods. The sites were harvested

The BioBaler can be pulled by a standard 200-horsepower tractor (above) to produce wood-fibre round bales, weighing between 250 and 400 kilograms (right), that are similar in appearance to straw ones. last winter and the bales hauled to the pulp mill. Post-harvest assessment has been completed and researchers are now conducting long-term regeneration assessments on the harvested sites. CWFC will present its findings to Al-Pac this fall. Keddy says the centre has been evaluating a variety of methods to economically harvest juvenile hardwood stands located near forestry operations for nearly a decade. Researchers have also been studying options for harvesting biomass from power line and pipeline easements where, at present, much of the vegetation is simply mulched on site. Private landowners currently supplying Al-Pac with a portion of their wood supply could also substantially benefit. At present, they are growing aspen trees for pulp, which take about 80 years to grow. However, after that crop

is harvested, they could choose to bale the regeneration and produce another cash crop from the site on a much more frequent harvesting cycle. As part of its study for Al-Pac, researchers are evaluating the economics of different removal rates. A control site of no removal is being compared to sites with 50 per cent and 100 per cent removal rates, comparing regeneration, post-harvest growth, and total volume per site. The estimated cost of the machine is between $140,000 and $150,000. For more information on CWFC research related to woody biomass harvesting of juvenile hardwoods from managed stands in the Boreal Plains region and the BioBaler, contact Tim Keddy at (780) 435-7212 or tkeddy@NRCan.gc.ca, or Derek Sidders at (780) 435-7355 or dsidders@nrcan.gc.ca.

NEWS BriefS Citing economy, Cargill cuts 2,000 jobs

Russia to build new grain terminal on Pacific coast

reuters U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. said it would let go of 2,000 of its employees globally, citing a continued weak global economy. Minneapolis-based Cargill, one of the world’s largest privately held corporations, said the job cuts affect 1.5 per cent of its workforce of 138,000 employees located in 63 countries and will take place over the next six months. “At this time, we do not have any breakdowns. We do know they will not be concentrated in any one city, country or region,” Lisa Clemens, a Cargill spokeswoman based in Minneapolis, told Reuters. The company said the workforce reductions were made on recommendations from various business units and was not a “uniform across-the-board” cut. Cargill added it was making internal structural changes, following a review of its global energy, transportation and metals operations.

moscow / reuters Russia’s state grain trader, the United Grain Co., will build a new US$160-million grain export terminal on the Pacific coast with a capacity of five million tonnes per year. The terminal is to be built by 2014 in the deep sea Vostochny port located in the Nakhodka bay, part of the Sea of Japan, and connected to the rest of the country by the Trans-Siberian railway. Currently Russia has only two ports – Novorossiisk and Tuapse on the Black Sea – capable of loading big vessels. A substantial part of its grain is exported by small vessels via river ports in southern Russia. UGC is participating in building a third deep sea port of Taman on the Black Sea with a capacity of six million tonnes. Russia is forecasting its grain exports may rise to 41.5 million tonnes by 2020, compared to the 20 million to 25 million tonnes expected in the current crop year.

The Central Alberta Rural Electrification Association (CAREA) is a consumer-owned, rural utility, spanning 16 counties and providing electricity to over 8,300 services – including farmers, oil and gas companies, commercial and industrial businesses and much more. When the big Investor Owned Utilities wouldn’t bring power to the rural areas back in the 1940s, farmers stepped up and got the job done – and the REAs were born. Today, being a CAREA member is more than just a time-honoured tradition. It’s a way of life. Members are involved in the association and have access to CAREA’s financial statements each year. Any savings CAREA collects are distributed right back into the hands of the members, rather than filling the pockets of corporate stockholders. It is CAREA’s mission to deliver efficient energy services, and the association’s vision is to be rural Alberta’s leading energy service provider. For more information, you can visit carea.ca.

“We feel fortunate to have CAREA to depend on for our power needs.” M. Dulaney-Brecknock, CAREA Member

DECEMBER 19, 2011 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Who will handle research and promotion after the CWB? BEYOND MARKETING  There is no consensus on who or what will replace the CWB at a national level BY MADELEINE BAERG AF CONTRIBUTOR | CALGARY

“The process has moved so fast that it’s leaving so many gaps on collateral things, and it’s leaving a power vacuum.”

he end of the Canadian Wheat Board marketing monopoly leaves several questions to be answered. The CWB has been instrumental in a wide range of key grain-industry functions — challenging trade actions, collecting and distributing checkoff dollars for new variety development, test-marketing new varieties and other overseas market development work. Industry officials differ on whether there will be a smooth transition to whoever will carry on. Some, like Greg Porozni, chairman of the Alberta Grains Council, argue that farmers will feel little effect over the long term. “You have to remember, the monopoly is the only thing that is going to change,” he says. “The wheat board is still going to be there. The industry will have much more of a team approach, rather than the wheat board being all things to all people. We will possibly have a void in the short term, but I don’t think it will last very long. If there are any issues, industry will work it out.” Lynn Jacobson, president of the Alberta Soft Wheat Producers’ Commission, disagrees, noting that a voluntary board representing only some farmers can’t shoulder the costs for everyone. “Some people think it’s a simple change to get rid of the wheat board. It’s not just marketing. It’s market development, research, a

LYNN JACOBSON

Canadian International Grains Institute (CIGI) staff show off products from its pasta test plant. The wheat board has been the largest funder of the Winnipeg organization which shows customers how to use Canadian grains. LORRAINE STEVENSON whole handful of things the wheat board did and won’t do any more,” Jacobson says. “Why would the wheat board shoulder all the cost and responsibility and let everyone else off easy? Jacobson sees a “huge hole” opening in the research and promotion efforts. “The process has moved so fast that it’s leaving so many gaps on collateral things, and it’s leaving a power vacuum. Someone will fill it, but will it be good for farmers? Maybe, maybe not.”

Richard Phillips, executive director of the Grain Growers of Canada, agrees with Porozni that the void can be filled, but says it will take a lot of effort and some pain en route. “The biggest message is one of urgency. It’s possible that producers could suffer as we work through this, and that adds urgency. People need to set aside their differences and work together or we’ll all get burnt.” All three agree that producer groups, industry and government will need to work together on trade

action. Phillips says any trade action will be best if it is producer led; Porozni says trade action is likely and should rightfully be industry led and financed. Jacobson worries that the government won’t pull its weight. “Our (producer) groups don’t have the expertise or the money to defend against (U.S. trade) action,” says Jacobson. “It’s going to have to be a shared jurisdiction… we’ll all have to step up and put some money in. Without that we’ll be shut out of things. My concern? I just don’t know if the feds are willing to stand up.” Jacobson is also concerned about risk management, and whether an effective system through Winnipeg’s ICE futures exchange will be in place by Aug. 1.

Producer groups will change

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All three agree that a change to the board will likely bring about change and consolidation within producer associations. Phillips sees a national wheat organization similar to those for canola and pulses. Already, the soft white and winter wheat grower associations are in the process of merging to become an Alberta wheat com-

mission. All going well, the new commission should be approved by the government by March, says Phillips. Porozni says he hopes for a united front. “As a farmer, I see a lot of value in the Canola Council. Within two to three years, I see a Wheat Board of Canada forming.” However, a national, or even a western Canadian wheat organization is still many more steps away, as Saskatchewan and Manitoba have not yet even begun work on any kind of provincial wheat body. “The big problem is we don’t have the organizations in place now that are going to be able to handle all of the kinds of problems that are going to come up,” says Jacobson. And, of the groups that do exist, “It’s going to be very hard for them to work together because they’ve been working so independently.” The Alberta Barley Commission is rallying support for a Barley Innovation Council which would represent barley nationally. Despite some early discussion, the likelihood of a combined cereal council developing in the near future is slim, says Phillips, as wheat and barley’s interests are too divergent. Phillips says regardless of their views on the board, it’s critical that farmers start setting aside their disagreements and work together. “If you don’t want to, pick up your toys, go home, and pout. It was what it was, it’s done, so now what? Now we have to work together and come up with solutions.”

WHAT’S UP Send agriculture-related meeting and event announcements to: will.verboven@fbcpublishing.com January 11: Good for Health Good for Business, Enjoy Centre 8:30 am, St. Albert. Call: AGINFO 800387-6030 January 12: Safe Think Agriculture Course. Location TBA, Airdrie. Call: ASTEC 780-753-2905 January 13: 5th Annual Stable Owners Seminar, Capri Centre 1:00 pm, Red Deer. Call: Robyn 403420-5949 January 13: Safe Think Agriculture Course. Location TBA, Raymond. Call: ASTEC 780-753-2905

January 13/15: 30th Annual Horse Breeders & Owners Conference, Capri Centre, Red Deer. Call: Robyn 403-420-5949 January 17/20: 2012 Banff Pork Seminar, Banff Centre, Banff. Visit: www.banffpork.ca January 18: Cattle Behaviour, Stress, & Handling, Olds College Alumni Centre, Olds. Call: Laura 403-652-4900 January 19: 2012 Tiffin Conference, Lethbridge College, Lethbridge. Call: Kathy 403-329-7212 January 28: M.C. Quantock “Canada’s Bulls” Bull Sale, 450 bulls, 12 noon, Lloydminster Exhibition Grounds, Lloydminster, Alta. Call Mac or Pat Creech 1-800-561-2855

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • DECEMBER 19, 2011

NEW ICE CONTRACTS

OCCUPY GRAIN TERMINALS?

ICE Futures Canada will begin trading new milling wheat, durum and barley futures and options contracts on Jan. 23, 2012, pending the enactment of Bill C-18, which will end the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly over those grains. The first available contracts for all three commodities will be the October 2012 futures and options, and will be modelled on ICE Canada’s canola futures and options. All three contracts will trade in $0.10 per tonne increments, with each wheat and durum contract representing 100 tonnes, and barley 20 tonnes.

Anti-Wall Street demonstrations disrupted grain loading at an export terminal in Portland, Oregon, last Monday, but facilities elsewhere in the key grains shipping corridor reported no disruptions, industry sources said. Demonstrators marched on several West Coast ports last Monday, blocking roads and seeking to hamper port operations in a bid to call attention to U.S. economic inequalities. Grain terminals elsewhere in the U.S. Pacific Northwest did not report any disruptions last Monday.

Oilseed supply projections weigh on ICE canola futures ABUNDANT WHEAT  Ample worldwide supplies also put futures under pressure BY DWAYNE KLASSEN

anola futures on the ICE Futures Canada trading platform were narrowly mixed during the week ended Dec. 9. The nearby January and March futures suffered some minor losses based on the huge sell-off seen when the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its latest supply/demand projections. The estimates raised U.S. soybean ending stocks by a larger-than-anticipated level and confirmed that global oilseed stocks were in ample supply. An increase in hedging by elevator companies late in the week, as canola began to trickle into the cash market, also helped to weigh on those contracts. A lot of the activity seen in those months consisted of spreading with commodity fund positions being rolled out of January and into the March future, ahead of January becoming a cash delivery month. Support in canola was associated with talk of fresh export business with China as well as the steady demand from domestic processors. The Statistics Canada production survey, pegging canola output at a record 14.165 million tonnes, failed to have much of a bearish impact on prices. Western barley futures on the ICE Futures Canada platform remained dormant. Cash bids for feed barley in Western Canada, meanwhile, continued to hold firm levels. Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) soybean futures experienced some significant declines, with most of the losses coming late in the week ended Dec. 9. Much of the liquidation was initiated by the bearishly interpreted USDA supply/ demand report which put U.S. soybean supplies at a higher-than-anticipated level. Large global oilseed supplies further depressed prices. The buying back of previously sold posi-

tions restricted some of the downward price action in soybeans. Efforts were also made to talk up dryness concerns in the soybean-growing regions of Brazil and Argentina. While there was some support derived from this talk, reports out of both countries indicated the crops were doing just fine. CBOT corn futures, meanwhile, were narrowly mixed during the reporting period. Some weakness was seen in the two nearby contracts while the deferreds were steady to fractionally firmer.

Lots of feed wheat

Much of the weakness came from the continued lack of demand for U.S. corn from the export and domestic sectors. The fact feed wheat supplies in the U.S. remain abundant and cheaper also continued to add to the bearish price sentiment. The USDA report also did few favours for corn. The covering of short positions provided some support for corn, as did sentiment that values were due for an upward correction after experiencing some sharp declines. Wheat futures at the Chicago, Kansas City and Minneapolis exchanges were lower on the week. The continued ample supply of wheat on the global market continued to be the main undermining price influence, with the lack of demand from the export sector for U.S. wheat adding to the downward price slide. There were few surprises in the crop production survey released by Statistics

Canada last week, with the numbers for all wheat and canola being bumped up as anticipated. Canola production at 14.165 million tonnes was definitely large and was seen putting some downward pressure on prices on a longer-term basis. However, it was noted, with demand from export and domestic sectors running at record or near-record levels, the record-large canola crop will be needed. Before the release of the crop survey by StatsCan, analysts were working with canola carry-out at the end of the 2011-12 season in the one-million-tonne area. With production coming in about 1.1 million tonnes larger than what was forecast back in early October, the first thought is that ending stocks will also be up. There is some truth to that, but with the record export pace and record demand from domestic processors, the jump in the ending stocks outlook should be minimal at best. Some individuals were now working with Canadian canola ending stocks at the end of 2011-12 only being in the 1.2-million- to 1.5-million-tonne range.

U.S. export demand trimmed

Not to be outdone, the USDA also released new supply/demand tables on Dec. 9, and its projections generally fell in line with pre-report ideas. Poor foreign demand and ample global supplies trimmed U.S. export forecasts for soybeans and wheat. U.S. soybean exports are now expected to total just 1.3

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

billion bushels in the 2011-12 marketing year, a 25-million-bushel drop from USDA’s November forecast. The lower U.S. exports, combined with an expected 10-million-bushel drop in the soybean crush this year, means U.S. soybean ending stocks will be 35 million bushels higher than the agency predicted a month ago. The new forecast for soybean ending stocks is 230 million bushels, up from 195 million. The USDA cut its forecast for U.S. wheat exports by 50 million bushels to 925 million. “Larger supplies in several major exporting countries and relatively strong domestic prices, supported by the tight domestic corn supply-and-use situation, are expected to limit opportunities for U.S. wheat in world trade,” the USDA said. The USDA raised its forecast for U.S. wheat ending stocks to 878 million bushels, up from the November prediction of 828 million. The USDA left its forecast for U.S. corn exports unchanged at 1.6 billion bushels, but raised its prediction for ending stocks by five million bushels. Despite the domestic data for the U.S. crop, participants put much more significance in the global numbers from the USDA. For instance, global ending stocks of corn, soybeans and wheat continue to rise. In the case of corn, it was pegged at 127.2 million tonnes, up a greaterthan-expected 5.6 million tonnes from the November report. Soybeans, at 64.5 million tonnes, were up almost a million tonnes and, at a whopping 208.5 million, wheat was up 5.9 million from the November report, essentially highlighting once again that the world is literally awash in wheat. Dwayne Klassen writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

DECEMBER 19, 2011 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

NEWS

FEELING ITS OATS

How about these cash rental rates?

A young chestnut horse feels its winter oats as it goes for a dash through drifts of new snow in a pasture north of Turner Valley, Alta. PHOTO BY WENDY DUDLEY

new eVeReST 2.0. RelenTleSS on weedS. eaSy on wheaT.

Agri Marketing magazine reports that a speaker at the recent U.S. National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual meeting said he expects cash rents in the U.S. Midwest to rise by an average of 25 to 35 per cent. “Last year’s rent negotiations were being completed when we were looking at corn prices that appeared to be headed for $3.50. They are now in the mid$6 range,” said Jim Farrell, president and CEO of Farmers National Co. Another professional farm manager reported on two recent cash rent auctions. In Hardin County, Iowa, 136 acres with a 78 CSR (corn suitability rating) rented for $515 per gross acre. There were 12 registered bidders, and four were still in at $500/acre. In Kossuth County, Iowa, 78.9 cropland acres with a 70.5 CSR rented for $475/acre. There were five registered bidders, with four still in at $400.

The federal government has announced funding of nearly $3 million to the University of Manitoba to study cost-effective greenhousegas mitigation practices for the cattle sector. The University of Manitoba will use the investment to study greenhouse gasrelated effects in three priority areas: converting crops from perennial to annual grasslands, long-term crop rotations of 10 years, and allowing cattle to graze during the winter rather than keeping them in a confined area. Results of this research will lead to the development of new beneficial management practices (BMPs) that will have a substantial impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the cattle sector. A government release said farmers who adopt these new BMPs can also benefit economically from improved feeding efficiency because two to 12 per cent of the energy of feed consumed by livestock is lost as a greenhouse gas. Funding for this project is through the Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Program (AAGP), a five-year, $27-million initiative that focuses on the development of on-farm greenhouse-gas mitigation technologies.

A new formulation with advanced safener technology built in gives new EVEREST® 2.0 an extra measure of crop safety in a wide range of conditions. EVEREST 2.0 is easy on wheat, but relentless on weeds, giving you Flush after flush™ control of green foxtail, wild oat and key broadleaf weeds. It’s highly concentrated, so you’ll use less product. And with a flexible application window and exceptional tank mixability, nothing is easier to use. EVEREST 2.0. What a difference one generation can make.

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eaSy on wheaT

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To learn more, visit www.everest2-0.ca Always read and follow label directions. EVEREST and the EVEREST 2.0 logo are registered trademarks of Arysta LifeScience North America, LLC “Flush after flush” is a trademark of Arysta LifeScience North America, LLC. Arysta LifeScience and the Arysta LifeScience logo are registered trademarks of Arysta LifeScience Corporation. ©2012 Arysta LifeScience North America, LLC. ESTC-162

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Feds fund livestock greenhouse-gas study

11-12-09 12:58 PM

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • DECEMBER 19, 2011

France’s highest court annuls GMO ban SAFETY CLAUSE  Sarkozy is studying whether to impose new restrictions BY SYBILLE DE LA HAMAIDE PARIS / REUTERS

Genetically modified maize (corn) is unlikely to make it into French fields next year despite the lifting this week of a ban on a U.S. strain, as evidence rises that France will launch new restrictions, observers said Nov. 29. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Nov. 28 the government was preparing a “new safety clause” to forbid sowing of MON810 produced by U.S. giant Monsanto, after France’s highest court overturned the country’s ban on the only GMO maize authorized for cultivation in the EU. “The French government keeps and will keep its opposition against the cultivation of the Monsanto 810 maize on our soil,” Sarkozy said during a visit in southwestern France. France’s State Council justified

Agricultural demand fuels Deere results, outlook GROWTH  Company

sees sales up 16 per cent in 2012 STAFF

Deere & Co. reported a 46 per cent rise in earning for its fourth quarter and projected “substantial growth” for 2012 amid strong global farming conditions. “Farmers in the world’s major markets are continuing to experience favourable incomes due to strong demand for agricultural commodities,” the world’s largest maker of farm machinery said in a press release. New product launches also boosted its quarterly results, the company said. Moline, Illinois-based Deere posted net income of $669 million, or $1.62 per share, for the fiscal fourth quarter that ended Oct. 31, compared with $457 million, or $1.07 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 20 per cent to $8.61 billion due to strong equipment sales. Last month, Deere rival Agco Corp. posted stronger-thanexpected third-quarter results and raised its full-year outlook for the fourth time. CNH Global, which also outpaced analysts’ forecasts, said full-year revenue growth would be at the upper end of its prior forecast of 15 per cent to 20 per cent. Deere said sales outside the United States and Canada rose 31 per cent in the latest quarter. Agricultural and turf equipment sales rose 18 per cent and are expected to rise 15 per cent in 2012. Construction and forestry machinery sales increased 34 per cent during the quarter and are expected to increase 16 per cent in 2012.

its decision to annul the ban saying that the government did not give enough evidence to justify it, knowing that an EU country can only unilaterally ban a GMO if it can scientifically prove its risk for human or animal health or the environment. Sarkozy, who will face re-election in April although he has not made his candidacy official, said Ecology Minister Nathalie KosciuskoMorizet and Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire were working to implement a new ban on Monsanto’s MON810 that would be based on scientific elements. GMOs are unpopular in many European states, with France one of the most outspoken against what some have termed “Frankenstein foods.” Even if maize growers are mostly in favour of GMOs, this political uncertainty should prompt them to hold off planting. “Now that the government says

it will put all its energy in putting a new ban, we can forget about sowings next spring,” maize growers’ group AGPM chairman Christophe Terrain told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Paris.

Already in French food

Farmers generally buy their maize seeds by February to sow in April, which leaves them little time to be reassured on the future of GMO maize. “Farmers are very prudent people. They will not grow something they are not sure they will be able to sell,” said Patrice Gollier, chief executive of French farm co-operative giant Invivo. Pierre Pagesse, chairman of Limagrain, the world’s fourthlargest seed supplier through its subsidiary Vilmorin, said that even if French growers wanted to sow GMO maize next season they would have a hard time finding seeds developed for European

conditions due to scant local research. “They would not find, even in the United States, varieties adapted to Europe to do so,” he said, stressing that developing new crop strains took decades. Europe’s top farm researcher INRA said last year it had abandoned work on GMOs due to widespread distrust and even hostility by European consumers. Pagesse also stressed how French people were opposed to GMOs but at the same time had no problem eating meat from animals fed mostly, if not only, with genetically modified grains. “Today we already find this technology in our food, if not directly in human food, in feed for animals that end up on our plate,” he said. Most of the maize and soybean imported for animal feed into the European Union is genetically modified.

“The French government keeps and will keep its opposition against the cultivation of the Monsanto 810 maize on our soil,” NICOLAS SARKOZY PRESIDENT OF FRANCE

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DECEMBER 19, 2011 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Cultivating excellence

The Canadian Wheat Board 2011-12 Scholarship recipients

University of Alberta – Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences

Lakeland College – Agricultural Sciences

Diane Comeau, Sherwood Park, AB Third year

Taylor Heck, Sceptre, SK First year

Todd BergenHenengouwen, Picture Butte, AB Third year

Kayla Spitzer Barrhead, AB Fourth year

Nadia Toppin, Sherwood Park, AB Fourth year

Ian Stolee Calgary, AB Fourth year

Olds College – Agricultural Management

Maryanne Callsen Flaxcombe, SK Second year

Neil Themig Water Valley, AB Second year

Kevin Finster Valleyview, AB Second year

Brian Huisman Barrhead, AB First year

Eric Olson Radville, SK First year

Melissa Turner Springside, SK First year

University of Lethbridge – Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Karen Jorsvick Olds, AB Second year

Travis Paulgaard Provost, AB Second year

Jennifer Jones DeWinton, AB Third year

Maurissa Umscheid Milo, AB Third year

Jesse Oseen Enchant, AB Fourth year

Kristine Burgess Maple Creek, SK Fourth year

University of Saskatchewan – College of Agriculture and Bioresources

University of Manitoba – Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences

Glen Crosson Welwyn, SK First year

Breanna Fradette Radville, SK First year

William Dodd Lanigan, SK First year

Jodi Christopher Swift Current, SK Third year

Jessica Good Argyle, MB Second year

Evan Schmidt Elm Creek, MB Second year

Martin Boettcher Brussels, ON Second year

Jo-Lene Gardiner Clearwater, MB Second year

Justine DeNure Maple Ridge, BC Third year

Ashley Pilon Hudson Bay, SK Third year

Natalie Preston Vauxhall, AB Third year

Blake Weiseth Shaunovan, SK Third year

Branden Burns Pilot Mound, MB Third year

Diana Dunlop Dunrea, MB Third year

Tyler Podolsky Tolstoi, MB Third year

Nolan Giesbrecht Winkler, MB Third year

Dustin Brons Lake Lenore, SK Fourth year

Katelyn Holba Goodsoil, SK Fourth year

Brendan Kessel Balgonie, SK Third year

Mandy Lajeunesse Prince Albert, SK Fourth year

Serena Klippenstein Trevor Calvert Sanford, MB Carberry, MB Third year Third year

Andreas Zinn Springstein, MB Fourth year

Conrad Nagel Mossbank, SK Fourth year

Breanna Perrin Rosthern, SK Fourth year

Justin Shepherd Moosomin, SK Fourth yearr

Shaun Vey Wakaw, SK Fourth year

The Canadian Wheat Board is pleased to support the education and development of agriculture students. We extend heartfelt congratulations to this year’s winners and welcome them to the field.

Ian White President & CEO

RITZ FUNDS CANADIAN MALT BARLEY BRAND

STAFF

dozen years ago fusarium head blight researchers from across Canada and around the world gathered in Winnipeg at the end of November to talk about a thorny crop disease. While fusarium wasn’t unknown in past decades, it exploded in the early 1990s and had caused major crop losses for several years. By 1999, a few growing seasons into their fight, the plant pathologists and breeders were realizing just how tough a challenge they were facing, and that co-operation and sharing information would be key. The result was a recurring workshop that saw them gathering under one roof and swapping information and ideas. One of the speakers at that inaugural 1999 meeting was Marcia McMullen of North Dakota State University, where the fungal infection was causing enormous production problems under another name — scab. The land grant university’s extension pathologist recently made a return appearance at the biannual workshop’s seventh outing. Running through the main points of her presentation by way of introduction and the recent 7th Canadian Workshop on Fusarium Head Blight, she paused a moment to reflect. “As you can see, we’re still talking about most of the same issues today,” she said.

Resistant varieties would be the ultimate solution for controlling FHB. Some progress

That’s not to say there’s been no progress for all that hard work, but rather is a good indication as to just how complex this issue has been for the research community, stressed conference chair Andy Tekauz, a senior research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Cereal Research Centre in Winnipeg. He also stressed that recently real breakthroughs have begun to appear. “Things are really coming along a lot faster now, because of some of the new technologies we have available to us,” he explained. Those tools can run the gamut from molecular marker technology to more and better analytical equipment and even to major projects like a study that’s mapping the entire fusarium genome. It’s all combined to suggest that there may finally be light at the end of the tunnel for the first time in a good long while. “There’s a real sense of optimism amongst researchers that hasn’t

Pioneer brand CORn hybrids for Alberta

been there before — well, maybe it was there in the early years, but it faded fairly quickly,” Tekauz said. “It’s back now, and I think for good reason.”

Resistance

Already researchers have found some level of resistance using traditional breeding methods. Now new non-traditional approaches are showing great promise at hurrying up the process, Tekauz said. “These non-traditional outsidethe-box approaches are beginning to yield tangible results,” Tekauz said. He also acknowledged that the lessons learned about this approach to breeding resistance would likely pay off for decades to come as it has provided much greater insight into how the wheat plant develops and expresses resistance naturally. Another major cause for the recent advances is that researchers — at times notoriously protective of their intellectual efforts — have

increasingly recognized that when it comes to fusarium research, the short answer appears to be that more brain power is always better. More and more they’re widely sharing and disseminating information amongst themselves and working together. “That’s definitely been a major change in recent years, and you can see it just by looking at the papers we’re seeing at this workshop — the number of them with multiple authors is quite remarkable,” Tekauz said. Scientific advances aside, however, the real bottom line for grain growers in the region is going to be when resistant varieties without yield penalties become widely available. There Tekauz remains positive, if somewhat philosophical. “We heard one of the breeders tell us today that we’ll have resistant lines within five years,” Tekauz said. “We were saying the same thing 12 years ago, but of course it didn’t come to pass. But now I think it’s like a rolling stone gathering speed, and things are going to happen a lot more quickly and all that work on the different facets of it is really coming to a head, and we’re going to be seeing a lot of progress.” That growing optimism is becoming widespread through the research community, and NDSU’s McMullen echoed it when summing up her presentation, saying that while more research and continued funding was necessary, she felt it was important because researchers “may be on the brink of finding the breakthrough solution for FHB.”

proving ground.

BY GORD GILMOUR

Roundup Ready is a registered trademark used under license from Monsanto Company. All purchases are subject to the terms of labelling and purchase documents. ®, TM, SM Trademarks and service marks licensed to Pioneer Hi-Bred Limited. © 2011 PHL.

wheat plant expresses natural resistance

PROGRESS  Scientists now have a better understanding of how the

The

End may finally be in sight for long fusarium fight

www.pioneer.com/yield

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has pledged over $575,000 from the federal AgriMarketing program for the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC), the Malting Industry Association of Canada and the Brewing and Malting Barley Research Institute to maintain existing markets through activities such as branding, technical marketing and communications. The branding is expected to help highlight Canada’s commitment to quality in malting barley and to “allow the industry to use a consistent and common marketing strategy with foreign buyers.”

 RESEARCH

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • DECEMBER 19, 2011

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DECEMBER 19, 2011 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Biodiesel plants seen as boon for Alberta

ALL EARS

Two plants } One in the High Prairie region and the other in Smoky Lake County by adam johnston

commodity news services canada

Canada’s biodiesel industry is about to get a boost with two new plants scheduled to be built in Alberta, and that’s seen as translating to good news for farmers seeking to diversify their revenue. Lynn Jacobson, vice-president of Alberta’s Wild Rose Agricultural Producers (WRAP), said the announcement of Michigan-based The Power Alternative (TPA) and a consortium of Alberta financial backers building two biodiesel plants will be good for the rural Alberta economy. The total capital cost for each plant is $30 million, with one to be built in the High Prairie region in the province’s northwestern Peace region, the other in Smoky Lake County, northeast of Edmonton. The creation of the two plants is a good step in the right direction in adding some value for the canola industry, he said. The plants being built this winter will use lower-grade canola to create biodiesel, TPA chairman James Padilla Sr. said in a recent release. The new plants are expected to create economic windfalls of about $200 million a year each, creating the potential for Alberta to become a North American leader in biodiesel, the company said. The target is for the first of the two plants to be operational producing 66 million litres of biodiesel a year by no later than the end of 2012 or beginning in 2013, according to TPA’s release. Besides the potential of using biodiesel for co-generation with coal plants, other opportunities for products made by the new plants may include creating aviation biofuel or biochemical products for farmers, TPA said. With the new biodiesel plants coming, wheat acres could be lost as farmers will be more likely to grow canola, Jacobson said. However, despite the market potential for the new biodiesel plants, farmers will be unwilling to grow canola for less money, he said. The food market for canola will still drive values, rather than demand for biodiesel, said Jacobson.

A young buck mule deer and does are all ears as they browse in a scrub thicket, east of Longview, Alta. Photo: Wendy Dudley

T:17

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7.4”

Albertafarmexpress.ca • december 19, 2011

Western grain farmers get “green” report card Sales pitch } A proven record of using fewer resources can help improve markets for Prairie grain by allan dawson staff

Western Canadian agriculture is helping to feed the world while improving its ecological footprint, a newly released report says. “This is the cornerstone of what we need to be telling consumers in Canada and consumers around the world,” said Gordon Bacon, CEO of Pulse Canada, as he released the Canadian Field to Market Sustainability Project released Dec. 1 during the GrowCanada conference in Winnipeg. Pulse Canada was one of the organizations involved in the 120-page study that compares the impact eight crops had on Western Canada’s environment between 1986 and 2006. “This is the story I want everybody to remember and feel really good about. For eight crops, in every environmental category

across the board, improvement year after year.” The report entitled, “Application Of Sustainable Agriculture Metrics To Selected Western Canadian Field Crops,” cost about $164,000 and took a year to complete.

Eight crops, same story

It looked at spring durum and winter wheat, canola, oats, peas, lentils and flax — the crops using four “metrics” or “environmental indicators”: land use, soil loss, energy use and climate change. Environmental improvements came from increased zero till, improved nutrient management, growing more crops in rotation, less summerfallow and higher yields, Bacon said. “(Increased yield) is where technology is coming in and paying dividends,” he said. “It’s technology and all the service providers that are allowing us to produce more for less.” For example, between 1965 and

2010 spring wheat yields jumped 66 per cent. During the same period there was a 23 per cent decline in spring wheat area harvested. Taken together spring wheat’s land use efficiency, as expressed in a unit of spring wheat, improved 38 per cent, the study says. Canola yields between 1965 and 2010 were up 93 per cent, while harvested area grew to more than six million hectares from 500,000, resulting in land use efficiency improving 45 per cent. “As was the case with all other crops, improved yields accounted for this improvement,” the study says.

Less soil erosion

There was a dramatic drop in soil erosion for all crops studied between 1981 and 2006 because of a change in tillage, the report says. “The adoption of no till in cereal production has had the greatest impact on soil erosion across

Practices such as zero till and nitrogen-producing pulse crops have helped reduce Prairie agriculture’s environmental footprint. Canada, owing to the large share of cropland producing cereals,” the report says. Bacon stressed results for different crops should not be compared to each other or the same crops compared between Canada and the United States, where a similar study has been done. What’s important is the trend of a specific crop over time.

Most of the lengthy report documents extensive research and modelling used to measure the impact those eight crops had on the four indicators. “We wanted this to be very transparent,” Gord Kurbis, Pulse Canada’s director of environment, said in an interview. The study is modelled after the Field to Market project co-ordinated by the Keystone Center in the United States. It released a report on the impact a number of American crops had on the environment in 2009, Bacon said.

Benchmarks

T:10”

Food companies are increasingly using environment benchmarks to reach consumers. Most of the impact occurs on the farm where food is produced. Other indicators that could be added include biodiversity and water quality, which is linked to nutrient management, Kurbis said. “We have opportunity now to make sustainability one of the cornerstones of marketing of Canadian agricultural products to Canadian consumers, to government and our customers around the world,” Bacon said. Bacon said Canada’s grain industry needs to set up a body to manage and fund the impact grain production has on the environment. While some federal funding is available, he called on farm groups CropLife Canada and the Canadian Fertilizer Institute to help, he said. The study was supported by Pulse Canada, the Canadian Wheat Board, the Canadian Canola Growers Association, General Mills, the Flax Council of Canada and Ducks Unlimited Canada. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada helped with funding through its AgriFlex program.

“(Increased yield) is where technology is coming in and paying dividends. It’s technology and all the service providers that are allowing us to produce more for less.” 11/11 - BCS11026

Gordon Bacon Pluse canada

DECEMBER 19, 2011 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Peace Country-area ranchers win stewardship award HABITAT HELPERS  Spirit View Ranch home to over 200 species STAFF

Japan plans hearings on beef import restrictions AGE LIMIT  Report says

Japan will allow beef from Canadian and U.S. cattle 30 months of age or younger STAFF

Japan’s planned review of its domestic and import regulations for beef could bode well for Canadian producers’ access to that country’s beef market, federal officials say. Canada’s Agriculture Department reported Dec. 9 that Japan’s review includes plans for public hearings and a risk assessment by that country’s Food Safety Commission will be conducted on each exporting country. “We welcome Japan’s decision to review their import policy on beef and we expect by taking a science-based approach to this process, Japanese customers will benefit from expanded access to Canada’s safe, high-quality beef,” Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in a release. “We will continue to collaborate with Japanese officials so that this review proceeds as quickly as possible and so that our beef producers can continue to strengthen their bottom line through increased trade.” “We welcome this development and look forward to Japan making an informed decision, based on scientific evidence,” International Trade Minister Ed Fast said in the same release. Japan originally shut its ports to Canadian beef in 2003 following the discovery that May of Canada’s first domestic case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in an Alberta cow, and clamped down on U.S. beef later that year. Japan agreed in late 2005 to reopen to Canadian beef and beef products, but limited its imports to beef from cattle 20 months of age or younger. The announcement follows a report in late October from the Tokyo-based Kyodo News agency that Japan would soon draft revised rules to allow beef from Canadian and U.S. cattle 30 months of age or younger. The draft rules would pave the way for the eased restrictions to take effect sometime in the first half of 2012, Kyodo reported. The news agency said proposals to raise the age ceiling were “believed to reflect Tokyo’s intention to adhere more strictly to scientific grounds and to seek to ease restrictions imposed by many countries on Japanese farm products over fears of radioactive contamination in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear crisis” in March.

Christoph and Erika Weder of Spirit View Ranch are the winners of the Alberta Beef Producers’ 2012 Environmental Stewardship Award. “The judging team was impressed by the amount of environmental improvements that have been done in the short amount of time they have been there,” said award chair Greg Bowie. In 2003, the Weders moved north from the Camrose area to Rycroft in the Peace Country. The young ranching family puts a strong emphasis on minimizing impacts to the land in order to leave it in better shape than when they began ranching. “They focus on the big picture, not only growing more grass

but encouraging biodiversity to thrive and carrying that through to the cattle they raise and the beef they produce,” said Bowie. Over 100 wetlands have been restored on the ranch with the help of Ducks Unlimited, providing habitat for ducks and geese, and retaining moisture that increases forage production. A recent wildlife inventory counted 150 bird species, 45 mammals, seven amphibians and one reptile species at the ranch. “The earth is not just habitat for wildlife and birds,” said Erika. “It’s our habitat too and we have to look after what we have in front of our doorstep. We want to make sure we keep it, we preserve it, we look after it and that’s what we do. “I really believe that livestock production and grazing manage-

Christoph and Erika Weder winners of 2012 ABP Enviro Stewardship Award. LES DUNFORD ment systems like we encompass with beef production is one of the most sustainable long-term agriculture production systems,” added Christoph. “It doesn’t take a lot of resources going into it and allows for biodiversity, and soil and water conservation and habitat. It’s

something to be proud of as a rancher to be able to sustain all of that for the next generation.” “It isn’t a one-step process for Christoph and Erika. Their message of environmental stewardship is carried through their practice from start to finish,” noted Bowie.

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • DECEMBER 19, 2011

Cattle rustling, returns to U.S. West HIGH PRICES  Picking off cows at $2,000 per head beats robbing a convenience store BY LAURA ZUCKERMAN SALMON, IDAHO/REUTERS

Cattle rustlers, casting aside saddle and spurs for modern horsepower, are roaming the West with fourwheel drive and GPS technology in a resurgence of livestock thievery considered a hanging offence on the old frontier. State livestock officials said the increase in cattle crimes was linked to the slumping economy, soaring beef prices and the advent of handheld global positioning systems that allow rustlers to more easily navigate the wide-open range. They said contemporary thieves may find it more convenient and lucrative to pick off a couple of cows, worth as much as $2,000 a head, than to rob a convenience store. “When the market is extremely high, the bad guys come out,” Idaho state brand inspector Larry Hayhurst said.

Hayhurst said the incidence of cattle gone missing under suspicious circumstances in Idaho during the past three months had already surpassed the 250 such reports he received for all of last year. That coincides with spikes in cattle thefts in Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming and elsewhere. Regionwide tallies for rustling are hard to come by because no uniform reporting system or central database exists. However, western state livestock agencies have put the value of cattle deemed lost, stolen, strayed or in questionable ownership in recent years in the tens of millions of dollars. In Montana alone, investigators have recovered more than 7,300 stolen or missing cattle worth nearly $8 million during the past three years, numbers believed to account for just a fraction of the problem, officials said. “What you see as far as figures

from livestock departments is a drop in the bucket from what’s been going on,” said Kim Baker, president of the Montana Cattlemen’s Association.

Riding the brand

For ranchers in the open-range states of the West, the livestock brand — a symbol of ownership imprinted on the animal’s hide — is considered a cow’s only return address. Brands provide vital clues for western agricultural inspectors who are required to verify ownership of livestock when it is sold, shipped for slaughter or transported over certain distances. But in a region where several hundred brand inspectors oversee millions of cows on rangelands stretching across some of the nation’s most rugged and remote terrain, there are many ways to beat the system, said Rick Wahlert, veteran brand inspec-

John Wayne rounds up the boys to chase down some rustlers in the 1935 movie “The New Frontier.” tor with the Colorado Agriculture Department. Today’s rustlers bear little resemblance to the varmints of yore, whose crimes prompted the formation in the western United States of cattle associations that

paid a bounty to bring cow thieves to justice. For starters, rustlers are now equipped with trucks and trailers that allow them to easily haul cattle to distant slaughterhouses and auction barns where rebranded animals may draw less suspicion. Western livestock owners who turn their cows out in the spring on sprawling grazing allotments they lease from the federal government expect to lose up to three per cent of their stock to injuries, illnesses and predators. But any such losses, or any missing animals suspected of having been stolen, typically go unnoticed until late fall, when ranchers gather in their herds and sort out which animals will be kept for breeding, put up for sale or go to slaughter. Moreover, cattle can end up categorized as lost or missing, rather than stolen, even though evidence may suggest theft, said Terry Fankhauser, vice-president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. “We’re ruling out alien abduction,” he said. The recent comeback in cattle rustling has stockmen on edge across the region. After 200 cattle went missing last year in a four-county area of western Idaho, Tom Blessinger, a rancher north of Boise, said he was writing down the licence plate numbers of any unfamiliar vehicles he sees. “That’s a lot of meat,” he said. “This isn’t a case of the cowboy with the good horse and the dog. This is too many.” In October, authorities in Montana and Nevada broke up a multi-state cattle-rustling ring in an investigation expected to bring criminal charges against suspects in Oregon, Nevada and Washington state, said Blaine Northrop, enforcement supervisor with the Nevada Department of Agriculture. The livestock bust has so far netted 61 head of cattle. Officials said livestock thieves typically know how to handle animals and how to elude the industry’s safeguards. “Just anybody off the street can’t walk in and steal a cow,” Wyatt Prescott, vice-president of the Idaho Cattle Association said. Once snatched, cows are hard to get back. Recovery rates for stolen cattle can be as low as 10 per cent. Two years after the fact, authorities are still searching for rustlers who stole 21 cows and an equal number of calves from the Cross Ranch in northwestern Montana, and owner Mary Cross said her operation continues to suffer the effects of the thefts.

DECEMBER 19, 2011 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Tours allow Alberta farmers to explore rural China ALBERTA CONNECTION } Though most Chinese farmers work small plots of land, agriculture

is developing and cattle from southern Alberta have been shipped to China by sheri monk

“It looks primitive, 60 per cent of the people are on farmland yet, farming their small plots.”

af staff | lethbridge

Modern-day China evokes images of huge cities, a red-hot economy and a massive population, but many do not realize the country remains a largely agrarian nation of small-scale farms. That prompted John Calpas and Dr. John King to begin China Ventures, an annual trip to explore the country’s culture and agriculture. The initiative began when Calpas, a longtime provincial employee was developing agricultural courses for producers at the University of Lethbridge, and King was working at the Lethbridge Research Centre. “A lot of eyes were on southern Alberta’s successes, including China’s,” said Calpas, who with King, put together several western Canadian agricultural tours for Chinese visitors. “That put us in contact with middle management, universities and institutes, and senior level decision makers over there which triggered all kinds of invitations to come to China.” The pair put together their first China tour in 2000. “We visited integrated agricultural industries such as a rapeseed-processing plant, a flour mill, meat-slaughtering operation, a tea plantation and that sort of thing,” said Calpas. “And so the success of the first one with a group of 24 just kept us going and going and going and we do one annually.” King has accompanied each group,

john calpas china ventures

The tour group from 2011 poses together for a memorable photo in front of the Great Wall of China. photo: garry zamzow Calpas attended the first trip and one in 2006, but due to his wife’s failing health, is unable to travel now. “We’re just two individuals who put this together on our own,” said Calpas. “I do all the promotion and orchestrating for people to go and Dr. John King makes all the arrangements in China and travels with them. “It’s primarily farmers, semi-retired farmers or where there’s a multiple farm family. We haven’t had too many young folks go, the average age would probably be 60.”

The next tour includes visits to subtropical orchards, a silk-spinning farm, and a terra cotta factory. And, as always, there will be plenty of opportunities to observe grassroots agriculture. “China is a country of huge, modern cities and very modern highway transportation corridors, but in the rural areas, they don’t have small towns like we do and secondary roads,” said Calpas. “It looks primitive — 60 per cent of the people are on farmland yet, farming their small plots. They all live in aggre-

gated small community villages and every little village has their mayor and their leader and then they gravitate out there to their individual plots. “They’re pretty self-sufficient, you couldn’t plug them all into cities, there wouldn’t be jobs and there wouldn’t be facilities so it’s a basic survival system which needs to be appreciated.” In more remote areas, there is still land that is not cultivated because of a lack of infrastructure. Change is coming, but not as quickly as in the nation’s industrial sector. “It’s evolving,” said Calpas. “We’ve even got an auction market here in Lethbridge and some farmers from Picture Butte and southern Alberta who have shipped cattle there and have taken machinery there, and even have contracts on a large scale and are farming in Inner Mongolia. “So we have lots of networks and connections with China.” For more information on the tours, contact Calpas at 403-320-1774.

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ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • DECEMBER 19, 2011

Agco buys into booming grain-storage business

getting ready to haul another load

Ethanol } Growth in

biofuel contributes to annual U.S. growth of 5-7 per cent

by christine stebbins reuters

The boom times for U.S. agriculture in 2011 have focused on soaring land and crop prices, bumper harvests and biofuels, but a recent deal has spotlighted a quiet industry that’s booming: grain storage. Agco, the world’s thirdlargest farm equipment manufacturer, recently finalized its purchase of grain-storage manufacturer GSI Holdings for $928 million. Analysts estimate annual revenue of the global grain storage sector at $3.5 billion. “It’s historically grown above GDP as farmers have tried to maximize the potential yields of their crops, store on-site in hopes for better prices. So it has grown at a five to seven per cent growth rate,” said Adam Fleck, a Morningstar analyst, who said he is initiating coverage of the sector after the Agco deal. The U.S. farm economy is the healthiest it has been in years as record income is allowing farmers to pay off debt and buy land, machinery and facilities to store more crops. Analysts agree and are bullish on the sector. “The growth potential of the industry, a lot of it is going to stem from emerging markets. South America is a great example — which is a large grain-producing region,” said Fleck. “Agco is looking at double-digit type growth in that region.” In recent years some big investors have begun playing in the grain storage business. Omaha-based firm Gavilon — owned by Ospraie hedge fund, George Soros and others — has bought grain-storage facilities from Oregon to Ontario, attracted by soaring crop demand, especially from the massive demand created for corn-based ethanol production. U.S. grain storage capacity has expanded 12 per cent, or more than two billion bushels, since 2005, coinciding with the jump in ethanol. Needs have included rail and storage for 200 ethanol plants which consume about 40 per cent of the annual U.S. corn crop of more than 12 billion bushels. Other major row crops, including soybeans and wheat and sorghum, add another five to six billion bushels annually to permanent and temporary storage needs.

Kenton Adamcewicz (right), visits with Keith Foster while loading winter wheat on his farm east of Rosebud. Foster was transporting Adamcewicz’s wheat to a Cargill grain handling facility near Carseland. photo by kevin link

The All-New S690 More power to you

Good looks, brains and a whole lot of brawn We didn’t just redesign the new S-Series combines, we broke the mold. Beginning with a new Class 9 combine, the S690. It boasts 543-hp at rated speed and 617-hp* at its peak power, making it one of the most powerful combines on the market. Big and nimble, it can easily handle 40-ft platforms including the new 640FD HydraFlex™ Draper. And the 400-bushel capacity grain tank and new grain cleaning system, keep you moving through harvest at maximum capacity without compromise. Comfort and convenience are top priority too. The new cab is like nothing else – 30% more interior space, integrated refrigerator and armrest display, and the best view in the industry. Better still, JDLink™ is standard on all the S-Series combines. This is a new era of harvesting from John Deere. Be a part of it. Visit your John Deere dealer today to learn more about the all-new harvesting solutions waiting for you. *At 1900 RPM.

50044-2_S-series_Wheat_1pg_8.125X10_US-CA.indd 1

www.JohnDeere.com

8/18/11 1:57 PM

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ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • DECEMBER 19, 2011

SEED/FEED MISCELLANEOUS Grain Wanted

BUYING: GREEN CANOLA

SEED/FEED MISCELLANEOUS Grain Wanted

• COMPETITIVE PRICES • PROMPT MOVEMENT • SPRING THRASHED

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

BOW VALLEY TRADING LTD.

WE BUY DAMAGED GRAIN Wheat, Barley, Oats, Green & damaged Canola

1-877-641-2798

Market Your

DAMAGED CANOLA

NEW WOBBLE BOXES CIH 4000/5000 $1495 JD 200/900 $995; MD old style $1275; MD new style $1695; NH 71C/ 72C/73C74C $995, CIH 1010/1020 $1550 OEM Quality. Used and rebuilt also available. www.combineworld.com 1-800-667-4515.

FARM MACHINERY Salvage

STEIGER TRACTOR SPECIALIST

RED OR GREEN 1. 10-25% savings on new replacement parts for your Steiger drive train. 2. We rebuild axles, transmissions and dropboxes with ONE YEAR WARRANTY. 3. 50% savings on used parts.

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

FARM MACHINERY

COMBINE WORLD 1-800-667-4515, www. combineworld.com 20 min. E of Saskatoon, SK on Hwy. #16. 1 year warranty on all new, used, and rebuilt parts. Canada’s largest inventory of late model combines & swathers.

FARM MACHINERY Haying & Harvesting – Baling

Tillage & Seeding

WANTED: Jd 7810 c/w fel & 3pth; sp or pto bale wagon; JD or IHC end wheel drills. Small square baler. (877)330-4477

FARM MACHINERY Tractors – Massey Ferguson

Geared For The Future

ENTERTAINMENT SPIRITUAL PSYCHIC PREDICTIONS, TAROT cards, palm readings, past life readings, revealing the past, explaining the present, unfolding the future! Spiritual reader will help you in all problems in life! Such as, love, any type of business transactions, private and confidential readings, and also call for one free question. (403)510-2902

FARM MACHINERY Tractors – Various

Big Tractor Parts, Inc.

HEATED CANOLA

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

FARM MACHINERY Parts & Accessories

FARM MACHINERY Tillage & Seeding – Air Drills

BALE MASTER

to a

JD 2210, LDR, 3PTH, MFD JD 4430 c/w loader JD 4240 c/w loader JD 4455, FWA JD 6410 fwa, c/w loader, 3pth JD 7200, ldr, 3pth FWA, Steiger ST 270, 4WD Thomas 173 HL skidsteer 14’ Schulte rock rake Clamp on duals, 20.8x38-18.4x38 IHC 5600 DT 33’ 158 & 148 JD loaders Willmar 500 Fertilizer spreader FINANCE, TRADES WELCOME 780-696-3527, BRETON, AB

MF 1805 4WD TRACTOR, duals, fair condition, open to offers. (780)919-9985, Vermilion Area.

FARM MACHINERY Loaders & Dozers 1995 CATERPILLAR, D5C-lgp, 6-way blade, cab, canopy, winch, 8500 hrs, good condition, $45,000. (780)963-3850, Stony Plain, Ab. EZEE-ON Heavy loader, 2130 model, 8ft bucket, mounts to fit JD 7000 series, loader like new, Excellent condition (780)674-5516, or (780)350-7152, Barrhead, AB

FARM MACHINERY Machinery Miscellaneous 2002 JD 1820, 45-FT., 10-in. spacing, double shoot, dutch paired row, 3-1/2in steel, $30,500; 1998 Agco Star, 8425, 425-hp, 3,400-hrs, duals, auto steer, $51,500; 2004 Hesston 1365 discbine, 15ft 3in. steel rollers, swivel hitch, 2pth or draw-bar adaptor $13,000; 2004 McHale 991B bale wrapper, $9,500; (403)6652341, Craigmyle, AB. ACREAGE EQUIPMENT: CULTIVATORS, DISCS, Plows, Blades, Post pounders, Haying Equipment, Etc. (780)892-3092, Wabamun, Ab. DEINES FRONT MOUNT, ZERO turn mowers, w/flip up decks, 03-20HP 72in. reconditioned; 1-04 60in., 240hrs; 1-2010 60in., 140hrs; very good condition. See KIJIJI. Call Dean 1-800-886-9429 JD 7721 COMBINE, $3,900; JD 9340 press drills, 30ft, c/w grass attachment, $3,500; Case WDX 1101 SP swather, 25ft header, triple delivery, pu reel, $49,000; Terragator 1803 floater sprayer, 90ft booms, $29,000; (780)621-6704 LELY BROADCAST SPREADER, MODEL L1250, 3pth, 1400/lb capacity, seeds grass cereals and fertilizer, as new, $1,800; 15-1/2ft x 42in. Landroller c/w hyd. drag, holds water, exc. conditon. $3,200; (403)9313977, 403-888-4270

FARM MACHINERY Tractors – Various

LICENSED & BONDED

company

MILLIGAN BIO-TECH

1-866-388-6284

www.milliganbiotech.com

BALE HANDLER 3 POINT HITCH Built to Last 5 yr. Warranty Mikes Welding

Phone: 403-638-2393

BUSINESS SERVICES

FARM MACHINERY Haying & Harvesting – Various

CASE IH 8500 AIR HOE DRILL 36-ft., hyd. drive fan, loading auger, steel packers, 7 inch spacing, $9500. 780-910-6221, Westlock, AB

FARM MACHINERY Tillage & Seeding – Various

BUSINESS SERVICES Crop Consulting

CONTRACTING CONTRACTING Custom Work SUPER CARBIDE PRODUCTS AT VW Mfg. Many products in stock! VW Mfg, Dunmore, AB, See our website: www.vwmfg.com or call (403)528-3350.

ENGINES ASSORTED DEUTZ AND OTHER diesel engines. KMK Sales, (800)565-0500, Humboldt, SK.

White 700, 65 HP Diesel, 3094 Hours, 3PTH, P/S, $8800

1984 International 784, 67 HP Diesel, New Clutch, 3PTH, 540 + 1000 PTOs, IHC 2250 Loader, $11,500

1998 John Deere 5410, 65 HP Diesel, Low Hours, 3PTH, $23,500

www.doublellindustries.com 780-905-8565 NISKU, ALBERTA

FARM CHEMICAL SEED COMPLAINTS We also specialize in: Crop Insurance appeals; Chemical drift; Residual herbicide; Custom operator issues; Equipment malfunction; Yield comparisons, Plus Private Investigations of any nature. With our assistance the majority of our clients have received compensation previously denied. Back-Track Investigations investigates, documents your loss and assists in settling your claim. Licensed Agrologist on Staff. For more information Please call 1-866-882-4779

1997 John Deere 6300, MFD, 80 HP, 11125 Hours, Turbo Diesel, L/H Reverser, $19,500

BUY NEW PU REEL GET $1000 in-store credit. For MF, CCIL, IH 4000/5000 or Hesston swathers starting at $4800. Promo good up to January 15, 2012. 1-800-667-4515 www. combineworld.com

Combines FARM MACHINERY Combine – John Deere

JOHN DEERE 9350 DISC DRILL 40-ft., factory transport, hyd. markers, JD grass attachment, rubber press wheels, shed most of the time, $8000. 780-910-6221, Westlock, AB

TracTors FARM MACHINERY Tractors – John Deere

2 JD 9870 COMBINES, loaded, GS 3 auto track, 26ft auger; 2010 900hrs, 615P header, $255,000; 2011 450hrs, PW7 header, $315,000; (403)818-2816

1998 7810 FWD, L/H reverser, w/power quad, w/JD 740 loader, always shedded, grapple fork and joy stick, w/8ft silage bucket. (780)674-5516, 780-350-7152, Financing Available. Barrhead, AB.

Combine ACCessories

2009 JD 8130 FWA, 3pth, 60/gal per min. hyds. duals, front fenders, GS2 auto track, 1150/hrs, $135,000. (403)818-2816

FARM MACHINERY Combine – Accessories

JD 7810, MFD, CW 741 loader, has IVT trans. 5000hrs, 3PTH, shedded, excellent condition. (780)990-8412

RECONDITIONED COMBINE HEADERS. RIGID and flex, most makes and sizes; also header transports. Ed Lorenz, (306)344-4811 or Website: www.straightcutheaders.com Paradise Hill, SK.

FARM MACHINERY Tractors – Kubota

JD 6400 FWA, w/FEL, grapple JD 4450 2WD, P/S JD 9400, 9420, 9520, 8970 JD 9860, 9760, 9750, 9650, 9600 JD 9430, 9530, 9630 CIH 8010 w/RWD, lateral tilt, duals 900 hrs. CIH STX450 c/w PTO Case STX 375, 425, 430, 450, 480, 500, 530 CIH 8010-2388, 2188 combine TM190, FEL, 3PT 9680-9682 NH, 4WD 3630 Spray Coupe

CIH 435Q, 535Q, 450Q, pto avail. JD 4710, 4720, 4730, 4830, 4920, 4930 SP sprayers CIH 9770 w/CM & duals CIH 3185, 3230, 4260, 3150, 4420 sprayers CIH 3185 sprayer, auto steer, boom shut off 90-ft., 921 hrs, hyd. tread adj. CIH Skidsteer 440 & 430 Rogator 1064-854-664 Selection of Combine Headers & Haying Equipment

•Phone: (403)526-9644 •Cell: (403)504-4929

USED KUBOTA Utility Tractors (780)967-3800, (780)289-1075 www.goodusedtractors.com

Watch your profits grow! Advertise with AFe Classifieds Place your ad today by calling Maureen at

1-888-413-3325

DECEMBER 19, 2011 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

FARM MACHINERY Machinery Miscellaneous 50’ Flexicoil #75 Packer Bar, 1/yr as new .............Call 51’ 2009 Flexicoil 5000HD airdrill, 10” spacing, 5.5” rubber packers, SC, 5” spread openers......................Call 45’ 2002 Flexicoil 5000HD airdrill, 10” space, 4” rubber packers, DC .............................................................Call 2320 Flexicoil TBT airtank c/w seed treater .........................................................$25,000 2320 Flexicoil TBH airtank w/320 third tank .......................................................................$22,500 51 Flexicoil Bodies c/w gen. SC 4” carbide spread tip openers, like new .................................................. $3,500 9352I I Westward Swather, 2005, 800hrs., PU reel, 30’, 972 header, roto shears ..........................................$65,000 4952 I 30’ Prairie Star swather, 2005, 800hrs, 30’, 972 header, roto shears, header mover ...................$65,000 810H 25’ Hesston grain table - PU reel ..................Call 910 - 14’ MacDon hay table & crimper.........$10,000 2-CIH WD1203 swathers 2011, 240hrs, 36’ headers, PU reel, roto shears, header transports, 1yr..........................................................................$105,000/ea. New Sakundiak 10x1200 (39.97’) 36HP, Kohler eng. E-K mover, P/S, electric belt tightener, work lights, slim fit Eco Hopper..........................$18,000 New Sakundiak 8x1400 (45.93) auger, 27HP Kohler, E-Kay mover, P/S, electric belt tightener, work lights.....................................CNT$16,600 Used Sakundiak 8x1200 (39.97’) auger, 25HP Kohler Wheatheart mover & clutch ................... $8,750 RETIRING - CASE 8480 rd baler 1200 bales ($17,000); Case 8330 9’ haybind ($7,000); Tram 10 ton farm wagon ($3,900 ); All low hours, shedded. field ready. Older reel rake ($500); 92 GMC 2500 150K km 2wdr Rcab safety inspection ($3000); 09 Silverado 2500 Gas LTZ 30K km 4wdr Ccab Full Warranty til 2016 07 ($39,000). 780-963-1155. Spruce Grove AB. RETIRED FROM FARMING, MOST machinery shedded, 1998 Peterbuilt, 460 Cummins, 18spd, w/36ft tandem Doepker grain trailer $75,000; Rock picker, $1,500; (403)586-0978, Torrington, AB

FARM MACHINERY Machinery Miscellaneous Used J208x51’ Wesfield auger, 25HP Kohler Wheatheart mover, like new.............................$7,000 Used 8x33 Buhler Farm King Auger 20HP Kohler, exc. cond......................................................$3,500 New E-Kay 7”,8”,9” Bin Sweeps...........................Call 2002 7000HD Highline bale Processor, c/w twine cutter, always shedded...........................$8,500 2004 2620 Haybuster Bale Processor, 1000 PTO all hyd. drives, like new ...................$8,000 Cattalac #360 Mixer/feed wagon, scales, always shedded, like new................................................$14,000 New demo Outback baseline X ..................$6,500 New Outback JD STS Hyd. Kit ........................$1,000 New Outback S lite guidance .............................$900 Used Outback 360 mapping...............................$750 Used Outback S guidance....................................$750 Used S2 Outback guidance.............................$1,000 WANTED: 60’ Vibrashank cultivator 50-70’ Heavy Harrows

Ron Sauer Machinery Ltd. (403) 540-7691 **Flexi-Coil, Westward MacDon Swathers, NuVision augers, Sakundiak, Farm King, Outback GPS Systems, EK Auger Movers, Sweeps, & Crop Dividers, Degelman** Sales Rep for George’s Farm Centre

ronsauer@shaw.ca

WANTED: NH BALE WAGONS & retrievers, any condition. Farm Equipment Finding Service, P.O. Box 1363, Polson, MT 59860. (406)883-2118 WANTED: Small square balers and end Wheel Seed Drills, Rock Pickers, Rock Rakes, Tub grinders, also JD 1610 cultivators (403)308-1238

430 FARM AID FEED wagon, used very little, excellent condition, (780)889-3798, Heisler, AB

LIVESTOCK Livestock Equipment 5’X10’ PORTABLE CORRAL PANELS, 6 bar. Starting at $55. Storage Containers, 20’ & 40’ 1-866-517-8335, (403)540-4164, (403)226-1722 JIFFY 220 SILAGE BUNK feeder, always shedded, excellent condition, $6,000; (403)227-4403, Innisfail SHAVINGS FOR BEDDING Britewood Industries manufactures high quality pine shavings & super compresses them into 4X4 bales. Call for truckload quotes or for a dealer in your area. www.britewood.ca. sales@ britewood.ca Tony (250)372-1494, Ron (250)804-3305 STEWART HAIR CLIPPER; CIRCUITEER hog blower/ dryer; Calf puller; Burdizo, tatoo set, ear labeling tools; Scrotum tape; (403)227-4403, Innisfail, Ab.

PERSONAL COUNTRY INTRODUCTIONS, MATCHING YOU with down-to-earth country people like yourself, personal interview, criminal check required, in business since 1989! 1-877-247-4399

REAL ESTATE Farms & Ranches – B.C.

REAL ESTATE Farms & Ranches – Alberta NO GOPHERS NO BADGERS! 1/2 section, cow/calf operation, complete set of buildings, Hay & pasture, 70/Ac cultivated, Excellent Water, Evansburg area. (780)727-2919 200 COW RANCH, CYPRESS Hills area, 500 deeded, good crop & hayland, Chinook climate, 640 ac. Alberta lease, plus 2 separate grazing leases, good set buildings w/treed yard site, good water, gas well revenue, Must Sell, (403)937-3901

LAND TRADER ADVERTISING means world wide exposure. Sell it yourself, save commissions. One time fee of $189.-that’s all. Visit www.landtrader.ca call Shelley toll free 1-(877)729-4841. Free information brochure available

SEED / FEED / GRAIN

The Icynene Insulation System®

BUYING ALL TYPES OF feed grain. Also have market for light offgrade or heated, picked up on the farm. Eisses Grain Marketing 1-888-882-7803, (403)3508777 Lacombe.

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ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • DECEMBER 19, 2011

shots for livestock workers

New ABP executive

Seasonal flu shots for livestock producers, their families and workers can help prevent the spread of influenza viruses between people and animals, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency recommends. The federal agency’s public recommendation applies also to veterinarians, service personnel such as feed truck drivers and workers handling inseminations and livestock vaccinations, as well as anyone visiting hog operations. Several flu viruses can be transmitted between people and animals, and between different species of animals, the agency said.

At this month’s annual meeting of Alberta Beef Producers, Doug Sawyer of Pine Lake was elected chair. Other board members are Dave Solverson (Camrose) vicechair, Greg Bowie (Ponoka) finance chair, and directors Brent Carey (Stavely), Greg Bowie (Ponoka), Brian Chomlak (Beauvallon), Rick McKnight (Jarvie), Howard Bekkering (Vauxhall), Bob Lowe (Nanton), Brian Edge (Cochrane), Judy Fenton (Irma), Charlie Christie (Trochu), Adam Moseson (Ferintosh), John Buckley (Cochrane), Larry Delver (Calgary), Mark Francis (Taber) and Roland Cailliau (Valleyview).

“There’s more than one reason for us to be optimistic in this sector…”

Optimism returns to hog sector BETTER DAYS } Agriculture minister delivers message of hope to pork producers

Profits are currently forecast to be near $17 per head, which is the highest since 2006.

by alexis Kienlen af staff | leduc

he mood was optimistic at this year’s Alberta Pork annual general meeting, but it was of the cautious sort. “I think we’re on the upswing,” Agriculture Minister Evan Berger said in his address to attendees. “There’s more than one reason for us to be optimistic in this sector. As a result of stronger prices, hog receipts rose seven per cent. Market analysts have projected that the pork industry

is going to have another profitable year in 2012. Profits are currently forecast to be near $17 per head, which is the highest since 2006.” But feed and other input costs, and a shortage of labour continue to be issues, but Berger said the province is doing what it can to support the pork industry. “One major focus for our government has been working closely with trade partners to push for broader market access for Canadian pork,” he said. Alberta officials have joined Canadian Pork International

“There’s optimism, but we’ve got a long way to go to pay off some debts and improve stability. We still have some operations that are shutting down, but we can feel the optimism too.” Jim Haggins

in South Korean trade talks to advocate on behalf of Alberta and Canadian pork. “South Korea is an important market and Canada is the second-largest supplier of pork to the Republic of Korea,” said Berger, adding the government is also involved with European Union trade talks. “We’re not focusing on just one market. We’re looking at enhancing this through all of these markets.” Berger also praised the recent ruling that the U.S. country-oforigin labelling (COOL) legislation is in violation of the WTO trade agreement. “Mandatory COOL labelling has disrupted North American efforts and our marketplace for the past few years,” said Berger. “It’s had a serious effect on our cattle, hog, beef and pork exports in the U.S.” Berger also spoke enthusiastically about the new swine traceability system, the first of its kind in the country, and said it will give Alberta producers an advantage with international customers.

Evan Berger urges producers to take advantage of the Hog Price Insurance Program Photo: HPIP He also urged producers to take advantage of another Albertaonly program, the Hog Price Insurance Program (HPIP). “Although the uptake of HPIP is slow due to recent high hog prices, HPIP is a great risk management tool that will help support producers,” he said. “When prices are high, that’s a good time to invest in that price insurance program. It’s time to take the risk off the table, and invest in profitability.” Berger also said his government has tried to ease the labour woes in the sector by making changes to the Temporary Foreign Workers program. Jim Haggins, chairman of

Alberta Pork, confirmed the mood has improved for pork producers. “There is some optimism as we’ve had a decent fall, pricingwise,” said Haggins. “Today’s price may not be a profitable price for everyone in the industry today, depending on the cost of production. But for mid-December, it’s a strong price, compared to what we usually experience at this time of year. “There’s optimism, but we’ve got a long way to go to pay off some debts and improve stability. We still have some operations that are shutting down, but we can feel the optimism too.”

DECEMBER 19, 2011 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Genomic selection set to boost porcine genetic progress PEET ON PIGS  The cost of analyzing DNA samples has come down dramatically BY BERNIE PEET

he science of genomics is increasingly being used by pig-breeding companies and organizations around the world to speed up genetic progress. Genomics is the study of the genomes of organisms and a genome is defined as the sum total of all an individual organism’s genes. Thus, genomics is the study of all the genes of a cell or tissue, rather than individual genes. The pig genome has recently been sequenced and hundreds of thousands of genetic markers have been identified. In recent years the cost of analyzing DNA samples has come down dramatically, making it commercially viable to use the new technology in breeding programs. The DNA analysis involves measuring 60,000 points on the animal’s chromosome and this information can be used to identify genetic variation. The genetic markers or single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are especially

valuable in measuring traits with low heritability such as piglet survival, or traits measured late in life such as sow survival and traits that are difficult to measure such as robustness. While this new technology has been used for a number of years, its increased accessibility and lower costs have led to an acceleration in its uptake. This will result in faster genetic progress and consequently improved performance and higher margins for producers. Genomic selection complements existing conventional measurement and selection methods rather than replacing them, points out Hans Olijslagers, chief technical officer at TOPIGS in the Netherlands. “Although at first I thought that once we could see inside the genes of pigs then existing techniques would no longer be needed, the opposite is true,” he explains. “The old techniques are essential if genomic selection is to be a success. In traditional breeding we collect a lot of data about the performances of animals and link these to bloodlines. That

“This new approach enables us to obtain much better results more quickly for traits such as survival rate, feed conversion and environmental impact.” NICOLAJ NØRGAARD DANISH PIG RESEARCH CENTRE

enables us to specifically select characteristics. With genomic selection we look at the gene pattern of the animal and then see if we can link its gene structure to its performance.”

“Turbocharger of progress”

Olijslagers calls genomic selection the “turbocharger of progress,” due to its ability to boost genetic gains. “Once you have the link between genes and various aspects of performance, you can make predictions about the performances of an animal based on its DNA. That allows you to search more accurately for the right animals, which means you can make far faster progress in the selection process,” he says. Olijslagers notes that the big benefit of genomics is to boost genetic gain in characteristics with low heritability. “The number of teats a sow has can be counted quickly and also has a high heritability,” he explains. “There genomic selection will only have a limited added value. Characteristics such as disease resistance, meat quality and sexrelated characteristics are far more difficult to measure. For example, at present it is difficult to measure the breeding value of a boar for female fertility. A boar does not give birth to a litter of piglets, and so you have to wait for its female offspring. Furthermore, fertility is a late-in-life characteristic with a low heritability. All of that is set to change with genomic selection.” In Denmark, the industry

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breeding organization DanBred has announced that it will use genomic information in all breeds and for the entire range of traits in the Danish breeding objective. It expects this to increase genetic gain by 20 per cent annually. Denmark is the first country to apply DNA information in its breeding program, it says. “Currently, breeding is based on mating the best boars and sows with each other to create genetic gain in the next generation,” says Nicolaj Nørgaard, director of the Danish Pig Research Centre. “The challenge is to pinpoint the animals which are genetically the best. Now this approach is changing due to genomic selection that is based on DNA testing. “Genomic selection boosts all the traits within the breeding objective,” explains Nørgaard. “This new approach enables us to obtain much better results more quickly for traits such as survival rate, feed conversion and environmental impact. “In applying genomic selection, only the DNA of the best animals will be tested, resulting in approximately 2,000 animals per breed being tested each year,” Nørgaard says. “The actual test is carried out by hair extraction from the animal, which then is sent to a laboratory in the USA.” He notes that the use of genomic selection in pig breeding was made possible by collaboration between the Danish Pig Research Centre, two Danish universities and the University of Beijing, which resulted

Hans Olijslagers, chief technical officer at TOPIGS. in sequencing the DNA of pigs. The information forms part of the underlying basis for the DNA chip manufactured by American company Illumina, which is applied in breeding today. The financial benefit of applying genomic selection is worth approximately 34 cents more per finisher per year, according to DanBred. “In recent years, the breeding program has resulted in an expected gain in production of approximately $1.82 per pig per year. It is expected that this gain will increase to $2.16 by the time the effect of genomic selection has reached its full impact on production.” Bernie Peet is president of Pork Chain Consulting of Lacombe, Alberta, and editor of Western Hog Journal.

Accident claims life of U of A livestock professor BY KEN MATHEWSON

Lian Yang, 34, a visiting professor in the department of agricultural, food and nutritional science at the University of Alberta, died suddenly after an accident on Saturday, November 12, 2011. The U of A reported that Yang suffered a medical emergency while swimming alone and subsequently drowned. He was rushed to the University of Alberta hospital, where attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful. Yang was working with the U of A’s Livestock Gentec centre in collaboration with the Gansu Agricultural University in Lanzhou, China. He had focused his research on the application of genomics to meat quality and its use to improve crossbred performance. “Lian had a wonderful background for joining Livestock Gentec,” said Graham Plastow, CEO of the centre and co-leader of Yang’s project. “He joined our team to learn about the application of genomics to livestock and he was particularly interested in beef, as it is

Lian Yang, visiting professor at the University of Alberta. U OF A WEBSITE one of the most important sectors in Gangsu Province. He was quickly asking the very best questions.” Yang is survived by his wife Xiaojuan and four-year-old son Farui.

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • DECEMBER 19, 2011

Firearms for on-farm butchering or humane euthanasia Beef 911 } Care must be taken to avoid lead fragments

in livestock and game animals used for meat By roy lewis, dvm

here is always a right and wrong way to do most things and in order to properly put down an animal for butchering many things need to be kept in mind. The procedure should cause immediate cessation of brain activity and for this the shot must be accurate and with enough calibre to do the job. The calibre of the gun will depend on what species, age and size of animal as well as the distance to be shot. Too large a gun also has some drawbacks for safety of co-workers and we want to ideally keep the bullet and its shrapnel in the head area where it will be discarded. This article will review some major points to keep in mind when butchering and may bode well for wildlife hunters to read as well. Often hunters’ butchering jobs can use some improvement as well. First off, whomever is using the firearm should have completed an FAC course on firearm safety. They need one to carry the gun and this course teaches some valuable lessons in firearm safety. In preparing this article I have realized there is lots to know if planning to make an informed decision on how to properly and humanely put down an animal.

Location of the shot is key so be patient and wait until you have the ideal shot. Even a minute or two taken here will eliminate many problems down the line.

Although it’s not mandatory, I personally feel using a captive bolt which a lot of veterinarians now use to put down cows is a dangerous weapon and it would be wise to complete an FAC course for it as well. It is training worth having. Location of the shot is key so be patient and wait until you have the ideal shot. Even a minute or two taken here will eliminate many problems down the line. Your goal is with one shot to render the animal brain dead. The bullet must penetrate the brain to cause enough damage and ideally not exit out the bottom. You must always judge the species, size and age, as the skull thickness and bone plus hardness will vary.

Correct calibre important

Too large a calibre for the use intended causes other issues that butchers and especially hunters want to take heed. Too large a velocity bullet may blow out the bottom of the skull and head down the neck and spine where it is starting to get into meat which may go for human consumption. The small fragments of lead which break away from the main bullet inadvertently could get ground up and result in increased lead levels in the meat.

This of course is even more true when hunters shoot deer for instance from quite a distance. If the bullet hits a bone and fragments there will be a showering of lead into the surrounding muscles. Since most wild game is processed into either ground or sausage or jerky it can inadvertently have these fine lead fragments mixed in. It is very important to trim a wide area around bullet tracks for that reason. This area will have lots of hemorrhage in it anyway so by removing this area you are improving the meat quality and also are removing lots of the metal fragments. Most wild game is consumed by the hunter’s family, who may be at increased risk if exposed

chets. With bison a study which was just completed they found a .223 was fine on up to two-yearold heifers. Soft-point slugs also do an adequate job. For larger bison or when shooting at a distance the calibre varied from a .357 for older ones up to a .300 magnum when shooting from a distance. A study at the Lacombe Research Station found that when recovering the slugs from the shotgun, from 70 per cent down to 30 per cent is the total weight of the recovered slug was all that was found. The rest is obviously lost as small fragments around the bullet path. We see this very prominently if X-raying dogs that have been shot. It will look like a

multiple times. Some bullets are steel and may not have lead in them.

Minimal stress

The beauty of butchering using guns, if they are utilized properly, is that the animal can be shot outside their flight zone in a familiar pen before it becomes agitated from handling. This results in a very humane end and totally stress-free meat. This should be an advantage over long-distancehaul cattle that must stand overnight at a large kill facility. It has been found by staff at plants which utilize firearms that are discharged in close confinement that shields should be put in place to protect against rico-

starburst array on the X-ray from the small and larger bits of lead (or other metal depending on the composition of the bullet) which break off as the bullet flies into its target. More work needs to be done on this subject but whenever butchering be critical of your shot and try and use the best matched gun for the job at hand. There are other bullets out now which contain copper instead of lead. They may see more use in the future. Roy Lewis is a large-animal veterinarian practising at the Westlock Veterinary Centre. His main interests are bovine reproduction and herd health.

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DECEMBER 19, 2011 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

What is Christmas anyway? STRAIGHT FROM THE HIP  We need to understand

our privileges and find ways to share them BY BRENDA SCHOEPP

hristmas festivities are in full swing and there is sure to be an abundance of food. Tables will be piled with goodies on fancy dishes, leftovers will be made into soups and sandwiches, and garbage bins will fill with unfinished plates — a disposable holiday. And whilst we groan under the weight of our consumption a good share of the world will wake up without and wonder, Just what is Christmas anyway? You may have heard the analogy of the global village. If we proportionately fit all the people in the world into a village of 100 persons it would look like this: 57 would be Asian, there would be 21 Europeans, the number of North, Central and South Americans would total 14, and Africans would be least represented at eight. Only about onethird would be Christian, so the question “What is Christmas anyway?” is a valid one.

The shadow of hunger would reach this little global village even though there is enough food in the world to feed it, so 80 of our global residents will live in poverty and 70 will also be illiterate. The heart, soul and body of the hungry will not survive the land grabs by other countries that are done in the name of prosperity, for it only ensures interdependence as only one of the 100 has a university education and only one owns a computer. Nor can these people be saved through increased agricultural production when the infrastructure to distribute or sell food is missing, the political will is dead and there is a severe scarcity of money in the household purse. And while we wrap ourselves in quilts and curse the snow, the world around us struggles with a 50 per cent increase in desertification on already arid lands that forces our little village to move or perish. Half of the people in the world are already suffering from malnutrition and hunger, and

one million will die each week as a result. The wealth of the world is held in a few hands. For example, five companies trade most of the food worldwide and they have the power to withhold shipments if they so desire, such as occurred in 2008, spurring the illusion of a food shortage and driving up prices. Control and wealth are interwoven into the nature of life — in our village, 59 per cent of the wealth would belong to six people and they would be Americans. True agricultural wealth as we know it is in the production of food and with the growing population of the world today, those that can produce, process and market the food will have sustained riches. With our Canadian agricultural holdings, large or small, we are rich beyond belief compared to the rest of the world. The land is our bank. Going back to our global village, if you have a little something in your bank account and perhaps a few coins in your pocket, then

you would be one of the eight persons of wealth. Just the fact that you have a place to sleep, clothes on your back, and food in your stomach puts you in the minority. As an Albertan in the year 2011 it is highly unlikely that you are living in fear from war, that you are starving at this time, that you have been imprisoned without cause or been tortured lately. And unlike the 500 million people who suffer this fate every day, we are not only free but we are fearless of the future and that in itself is quite a blessing. We have an obligation to the next generations to face basic truths about our fundamental freedoms and consider our future, the protection of our beliefs, culture, and food production systems. This discussion may seem a world away — but it is our world. From a global perspective we are wealthy beyond description for we have our land and homes and our freedom to read, write, protest, borrow, save, worship, travel, access health care and

Just the fact that you have a place to sleep, clothes on your back and food in your stomach is a privilege that 75 per cent of the world will never know.

justice, shop, sleep and eat. As difficult as it may be to see Christmas through the hollow eyes of someone who has never known it, we should embrace our time of celebration, generously share it and be genuinely grateful. Brenda Schoepp is a market analyst and the owner and author of Beeflink, a national beef-cattle market newsletter. A professional speaker and industry market and research consultant, she ranches near Rimbey, Alberta. beeflink@telusplanet.net

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ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • DECEMBER 19, 2011

Brazil soy forecast trimmed Brazil will turn out 73.1 million tonnes of soy in the 2011-12 season, consultancy AgRural said Dec. 12, half a million tonnes less than its November view due to the smaller area it now expects to be planted. The consultancy maintained its November forecast for average productivity at 2.94 tonnes per hectare, down from 3.12 tonnes per hectare in last year’s record season. Some key soy states have been much drier than usual of late and the weather outlook remains uncertain. — Reuters

Crop-friendly rains in U.S. Rain and some snow were expected in the U.S. Midwest and Plains last week and this week, and temperatures will not be cold enough to harm the dormant winter wheat crop, an agricultural meteorologist said last Monday. John Dee, meteorologist for Global Weather Monitoring, said 0.40 inch of rain was expected in the far-western portion of the Plains hard red winter wheat region last week and from 0.35 to 0.80 inch elsewhere. Heavier amounts of from 0.50 to 1.00 inch were expected in the Midwest. The rainfall, while slowing any remaining late harvest of corn and soy in the Midwest, will add valuable soil moisture to the Plains States which suffered through a devastating drought over the summer. — Reuters

What are the chances of being snowed in at Christmas? history } A look at the records shows there’s a possibility of just about anything

by daniel bezte

ith Christmas and the holiday season just around the corner, my thoughts, at least partly, turn to snowstorms. That’s right, snowstorms. At this time of the year I always have a secret hope or wish that there will be a big snowstorm over Christmas. I’m not sure why I have these feelings. I know that a big storm at this time of the year would cause all sorts of problems and hardships, but deep down inside I guess I just wish that I could be stuck at home for a few days. No pressure to go anywhere because you can’t, plenty of food available, family around you, and new presents under the tree. A perfect time to be forced to sit back and just relax — at least until you have to dig yourself out. In the past I have looked into December snowstorms and in particular Christmas snowstorms, but this year I tried to dig a little deeper and have expanded my look to cover all

major centres across the Prairies. Unlike most reports you hear nowadays, I have included weather records that go right back to the late 1800s. Some people feel that these records are either inaccurate or no longer relevant, but I think that they are still important. I have included a table that shows the maximum and minimum temperatures recorded in °Celsius along with the maximum snowfall for December 24, 25, and 26 for Winnipeg and Brandon in Manitoba; Regina and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan; and Edmonton and Calgary in Alberta. If you examine the table you’ll see that if you are looking for a place to go in the Prairies to experience a really warm Christmas, then Calgary would be the place for you. While all of the other centres have seen some nice warm Christmases in the past, not one of the major centres comes close to Calgary’s record highs. The year 1999 was a really warm one across the entire Prairies with record warm temperatures being

records prairie weather for dec. 24-26

Winnipeg Dec. 24 Dec. 25 Dec. 26

Max. 3.9 5.4 2.8

Year 1953 1999 1956

Min. -47.8 -40 -38.9

Year 1879 1879 1883

Ppt 15.2 9.4 30.5

Year 1929 1938 1916

Brandon Dec. 24 Dec. 25 Dec. 26

4.4 7.2 4.8

1953 1999 2005

-41 -40 -39.4

1983 1902 1891

5.1 15.2 7.6

1938 1938 1976

Regina Dec. 24 Dec. 25 Dec. 26

4 6.1 6.1

1999 1943 1898

-40.6 -39.4 -39.3

1884 1933 1990

9.7 7.1 13.5

1950 1959 1916

Saskatoon Dec. 24 Dec. 25 Dec. 26

5 4.5 4.4

1928 1895 1928

-37.8 -38.9 -41.7

1917 1933 1934

12.7 7.6 9.9

1938 1922 1959

Edmonton Dec. 24 Dec. 25 Dec. 26

10.4 8.9 10

1999 1987 1999

-41.7 -39.4 -38.3

1880 1880 1880

25.4 17.8 21.1

1938 1938 1955

Calgary Dec. 24 Dec. 25 Dec. 26

17.6 14.8 13.8

1999 1985 1999

-36.1 -35 -35.6

1983 1886 1886

5.1 10.2 10.2

1937 1923 1923

This map is created by Environment Canada, although I do a fair bit of cleaning up of the map to make it easier to read. The amount of snow cover is approximate, as true amounts can change fairly quickly over a small area and this can make it fairly difficult to map accurately. Alberta, which is normally fairly difficult to map, was extremely hard as amounts varied rapidly over small areas. With the relatively warm temperatures so far this month across the Prairies, combined with little in the way of snowfall, it’s not surprising that a good portion of the Prairies had less than five cm of snow on the ground or even no snow last week. I’m dreaming of a green Christmas?

set in every major centre except Saskatoon that year. If you want a chance at seeing some really cold weather during this period then you could pick pretty much anyplace, as all have seen Christmases colder than -35 C, although Winnipeg comes out the winner here with a bonechilling -47.8 C on Christmas Eve in 1879! Interestingly, when you examine the precipitation records for these three days you’ll notice that the Christmas period has been a relatively dry, storm-free period, but there are a couple of exceptions. Winnipeg did see a heavy dump of 30.5 cm of snow on Boxing Day back in 1916, but the record for biggest Christmas snowstorms has to go to Edmonton. Back in 1938 Edmonton recorded over 25 cm of snow on

If you are looking for a place in go in the Prairies to experience a really warm Christmas, then Calgary would be the place for you.

Christmas Eve and then a further 18 cm of snow on Christmas Day for a total of 43 cm of snow. Christmas Eve, 1938 started off nice in Edmonton with temperatures climbing to around +4 C before the snow moved in. By the 28th of December the temperature had plunged, with overnight lows falling into the low -40s C. This same storm tracked southeastwards across the Prairies, bringing with it record one-day snowfalls to

Saskatoon, Brandon, and Winnipeg. While I am sure there have been plenty of stormy days near Christmas across the Prairies, very few really big storms have occurred. Looking at the present long-range forecast this year doesn’t look like it will break the trend. Whatever weather you do end up with I hope it is what you wanted, if not, then remember the season and try to make the best of it!

DECEMBER 19, 2011 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

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