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Noxious weeds in crosshairs of new website HELP WANTED }
New program needs organizations to start mapping their data, and volunteers to confirm species identification
THE OPEN MARKET: Good for bin salesmen
Basis } U.S. experience suggests farmers will be in for dramatic
fluctuations, and may want to store more grain
by sheri monk
af staff / pincher creek
T
here’s a new weapon in the war against noxious weeds. The Alberta Invasive Plants Council has launched a website in a bid to battle plant invaders. The website features EDDMapS, the Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System, developed by the University of Georgia Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health to document the spread of invasive species. Essentially an online, ever-changing database of real-time information, the easy interface allows users to submit their sightings of invasive plants. Users can visit www. eddmaps.org/alberta to register or simply learn how the system works. Kelly Cooley, owner of CoolPro Solutions Environmental Consulting near Pincher Creek, served as project lead for getting the initiative off the ground. “We were very excited to get the project up in Canada,” said Cooley, who has been part of the invasive plant community since the 1990s. “The vision of it was always a truly North American system and I think that’s still what they’re trying to do.” Streamlining detection between Canada and the U.S. should help to co-ordinate timely responses to new threats. Cooley said the biggest challenge was giving the program Canadian context for its application in Alberta (which is the first province to develop its own EDDMapS version). “You had to make sure that everything was in the political and legal speak of Canada and Alberta rather than the U.S. model. The political systems are obviously quite different,” he said. Fifteen species were selected as targets for the pilot project:
Go long bins. That’s the advice of farmer Vaughn Cone, who says producers being able to store more grain will reduce risk in the new open market for wheat, durum and barley. photo allan dawson by allan dawson staff / moose jaw
B
uy or lease bins. That was the advice given to farmers attending the recent Farming for Profit conference who are wondering how to manage the increased risk that comes with an open market for wheat, durum and barley. “Storage will be king,” Moose Jaw farmer Vaughn Cone told the event organized by University of Florida agricultural economist Andy Schmitz.
“It’s about when they (grain companies) are going to need our grain, not when we want to deliver it. And if you want to deliver it when they don’t need it, be prepared.” Cone, who farms 8,000 acres, said he is leasing another four 25,000-bushel bins. Increased delivery flexibility was one of the advantages touted by open-market supporters for killing the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said farmers wouldn’t have to start their trucks and augers during the bitter cold in January.
There will be flexibility, but in an open market prices will signal when farmers should deliver, said Frayne Olson, an agricultural economist at North Dakota State University. Grain companies typically use the basis — the difference between the cash and futures price — to encourage or discourage deliveries, he said. Usually the basis is widest, resulting in a lower price to the farmer, at harvest time when elevator companies are flooded
see BINS } page 6
see WEEDS } page 6
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CATTLE PRODUCTION PRACTICES ARE UNDER REVIEW } PAGE 3