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A P R I L 2 0 13 E D I T I O N

PLANNING THE NEXT CROP — AND BEYOND

FOCUS ON

MACHINERY WHAT’S COMING TO THE MACHINE SHED OF THE FUTURE?

ALSO INSIDE LAST MINUTE CROP PROTECTION REGISTRATIONS YOU NEED TO KNOW GETTING BETTER SEED SURVIVAL IN YOUR CANOLA

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The complete solution. Grassy and broadleaf weed control for wheat and barley, no tank mixing. For more information, please visit BayerCropScience.ca/Tundra

BayerCropScience.ca/Tundra or 1 888-283-6847 or contact your Bayer CropScience representative. Always read and follow label directions. TundraÂŽ is a registered trademark of the Bayer Group. Bayer CropScience is a member of CropLife Canada.

C-59-02/13-BCS13027-E

CROPS GUIDE

EVERY ISSUE

4 6 24 34 38

Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s note

Machines can remake farms and whole societies.

Gleanings

Notes from around the industry.

FEATURES

26 32

Crop protection

Key last minute registrations you need to know.

Markets

Wheat may have dipped down but the trend is up.

COVER PHOTO: DAVE REEDE

GrainWorld 2013

FOCUS ON MACHINERY

Veteran grain reporter Richard Kamchen files from the 2013 edition of GrainWorld.

Cigi relaunches course in support of western Canadian farmers

12 LEASE OR BUY?

A popular CWB course for growers has gotten an open-market reboot.

More than 1,000 words A look at quality testing in seed development.

APRIL 2013

How to improve canola seed survival

Some tips for getting more of your canola seed up and growing.

NEW FRONTIERS WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR FARM EQUIPMENT?

SOMETIMES THE KEY QUESTIONS REVOLVE AROUND TAXATION.

14 FIELDBOTS

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS COULD BE DECIDEDLY HIGH TECH.

18 EYE IN THE SKY ONE MANITOBA MANUFACTURER IS TAKING A MILITARY APPROACH TO CROP SCOUTING.

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CROPS GUIDE

APRIL 2013

EDITOR’S NOTE

PL A N NIN G T HE NE X T CRO P — A ND BE YO ND

www.agcanada.com

Technology marches

dvances in farm machinery can have truly profound impacts. Take the horse collar, for example. As one theory puts it, the invention of the first modern horse collar in the Middle Ages ended slavery by making it economically nonviable. The nut of this argument is that horses can’t pull enough without a horse collar to justify their titanic appetites — they’d eat like 10 men and pull like five. But with a horse collar they’d suddenly eat like 10 men and pull like 15, making slaves more expensive to keep and employ than horses. Whether this theory is ever proven correct, it does illustrate an important truth — that agriculture and the way it’s structured can change the overlying society. As I’ve edited the articles in this issue that have focused on farm machinery, I have developed a suspicion we may be headed for a new era that’s going to be as big a departure as moving from hand sowing and reaping to horsepowered mechanization. This new wave will undoubtedly be powered by computers, satellites and other Information Age wizardry. And I suspect — though here I should probably admit that I don’t really know what I’m talking about — that the key drive will be to reduce or even at times outright eliminate the remaining flesh and blood cog left in the agricultural machine… the human operator. It makes sense, actually. Humans might be pretty amazing machines themselves, capable of performing near-impossible feats. But we’re also fallible, exhaustible, distractible flesh and blood. We make mistakes, we cause accidents and we’re inefficient.

Other people are aware of this and they’re working on taking the most fallible piece of equipment — the big nut that sits behind the wheel — out of the driving equation. Probably the highest-profile project is the Google self-driving car, though no doubt others are working on it. It’s happening back on the farm too, with one European company already demonstrating an autonomous driverless grain cart. As this technology starts to become real world, it’s going to fundamentally affect how farms look and operate. But another issue is beginning to make me scratch my head a bit too. Have we entered an era where changing technology beyond the farm gate could have huge impacts on farms? By this I mean unexpected ‘black swan’ technologies that could totally disrupt agriculture. For example, there’s already chatter that the 3-D printing systems might be adapted to become something called “food printers” that would look and act a whole lot like the food replicators on “Star Trek,” using T cells to create food from scratch. Never happen? Well, 3-D printing is already good enough that authorities are worried about the potential to build your own firearms at home. Recently one test project built a working bicycle, complete with ball bearing wheels. Or here’s another one that’s even closer to reality — test tube meats. They’re already being produced on a minuscule research scale. What’s that going to mean to a grain grower in Western Canada? Tough to say for sure, but if they’re able to grow pork and beef without feed grains, the result might not be pretty. ■

G O R D G I L M O U R gord.gilmour@fbcpublishing.com

CROPS GUIDE

APRIL 2013

EDITORIAL STAFF Editor: Gord Gilmour (204) 453-7624 Cell (204) 294-9195 Email: gord.gilmour@fbcpublishing.com

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CROPS GUIDE is printed with linseed oil-based inks. PRINTED IN CANADA Vol. 02 No. 04 website: www.agcanada.com The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to CROPS GUIDE and Farm Business Communications attempt to provide accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis. However, the editors, journalists, CROPS GUIDE and Farm Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the editors as well as CROPS GUIDE and Farm Business Communications assume no responsibility for any actions or decisions taken by any reader for this publication based on any and all information provided.

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Gleanings g r a i n

i n d u s t r y

Flax processor to check out byproduct’s marketability By Lisa Guenther, Grainews

Researchers hope to turn a bitter byproduct of flaxseed oil into the sweet taste of profit. The omega-3 fatty acids in flaxseed oil make it a popular health food product. A few years ago a company selling flax oil approached Martin Reaney, CEO of Prairie Tide Chemicals in Saskatoon, to eliminate the bitter flavour in the flax oil. Reaney pinpointed a peptide that caused the bitterness. “We developed a method of refining flax oil to remove the bitter flavour. And then when we found out what it was it seemed like it might be potentially very valuable, so we patented the technology for recovering the bitter flavour out of flax oil,” Reaney said. The process by which the flavour of flax and flaxseed oil is improved churns out a waste byproduct of peptide-rich concentrates and pure peptides — “and we’re now trying to commercialize that,” he said. Bioactive peptides are short chains of biologically active amino acids, such as insulin. Synthetic peptides are used in skin-care products, health foods, and pharmaceuticals. Natural flax peptides could potentially be used in such products as well. The federal government recently announced its Agricultural Innovation Program will put up $200,000 to help Prairie Tide develop ways to recover the peptides, understand how they work and ensure they are safe in their concentrated, purified form. Prairie Tide, a spinoff company from the University of Saskatchewan, will extract and supply the peptides to universities and other companies. Universities will do some of the early testing, and companies will find ways to use peptides in consumer products. Saskatchewan farmers grow 20 per cent of the world’s flax supply, and 70 per cent of Canada’s flax. It’s hoped the project will benefit farmers by opening new markets to the flax industry and encouraging product innovation. “This is the middle of a long road, and we hope this is a model for getting technology from the university and out into industry. So we’re working very hard to try to make sure that other technologies developed in universities can also be made to increase the value of crops and increase the industrial processing here in Canada,” Reaney said.

CROPS GUIDE

APRIL 2013

n e w s

Poor durum premiums in North Dakota may dissuade acres By Phil Franz-Warkentin, CNS Canada

Durum bids in North Dakota have lost their premium over other spring wheat in recent weeks, which will likely lower seeding intentions for the crop, according to an official with the North Dakota Wheat Commission. Durum prices are fairly close to spring wheat values right now, and the lack of a significant premium will likely dissuade some growers from seeding the pasta-making crop, said Erica Olson, marketing specialist with the North Dakota Wheat Commission. Current durum bids in the US$7.75 per bushel area were in line with spring wheat pricing, “which doesn’t help durum acreage at all,” she said. “It will be tough for durum to gain acreage this year, because of the price issue… and because some producers are turning away from durum due to the risk (of growing it),” said

Olson, noting durum acreage in the state would likely be steady or lower compared to 2012. Durum stocks in the U.S. and worldwide are “fairly good,” according to Olson. She said U.S. exports were picking up, but there was no real big demand to boost prices. While durum may be lacking a premium over spring wheat, wheat acres in general are facing competition from soybeans and corn in North Dakota, said Olson. Wheat area was going down in the eastern part of the state, but holding steady in the west, she said. Snow cover was described as good, but if producers are worried about another dry year, spring wheat and durum would see renewed interest. North Dakota farmers seeded 1.35 million acres of durum in 2012 and 5.35 million acres of other spring wheat, according to USDA data.

Alta. farms’ diesel discount cancelled in budget A “distribution allowance” that gave Alberta’s farmers a six-cent-per-litre break on diesel fuel for farm use is a casualty of the recent provincial budget. Finance Minister Doug Horner ’s 201314 budget eliminates the farm fuel distribution allowance portion of the province’s Farm Fuel Benefit Program, ending a benefit which cost the province an estimated $32.5 million in 2012-13. The six-cent-per-litre fuel distribution allowance on marked diesel, renewable diesel or heating fuel will not be applied to any fuel purchased after 3:15 p.m. budget day, the province said. Bulk fuel suppliers must “immediately” adjust prices charged on farm fuel to reflect the discontinued allowance, the province added. Alberta farmers taking part in the benefit program will, however, continue to get their nine-cent-per-litre tax exemption on marked (“purple”) gasoline and diesel, 6.5-cent-perlitre tax exemption on eligible propane costs, and 1.5-cent-per-litre tax exemption on eligible aviation fuel costs. Eligible producers must be “actively and directly farming by controlling farming assets and making the day-to-day management decisions,” must have commodity production worth at least $10,000 (or $5,000 to $9,999, if the farmer’s only other significant sources of income is CPP or OAS), and must renew their eligibility every three years. In his speech Thursday in the legislature, Horner said the province’s latest budget “is changing the way we invest in agriculture” and will focus ag spending on “programs and initiatives that will grow our industry, and ensure it’s sustainable and internationally competitive.” “With the federal government scaling back income support programs for produc-

ers” and the end of the fuel distribution allowance, Horner said the province “can focus on research and innovation, on food safety, and on building the value-added side of our industry and opening new markets and new opportunities for our producers.” In all, including the end of the diesel allowance, the budget cut $44.8 million from the Agriculture Ministry’s operating and capital budgets. According to representatives from the Alberta Barley Commission and Alberta Wheat Commission (AWC) — who learned the budget details in a recent conference call with provincial Ag Minister Verlyn Olson — the ag budget cuts include 30 jobs, among them six senior ministry positions and three from Alberta Financial Services Corp., the provincial ag financing agency. Cuts were also made in the budgets for the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (ALMA) and for irrigation and farm water programming, the commissions said Friday. AWC chairman Kent Erickson said there’s never a good time for ag budget cuts, but two years of good grain pricing will make the cuts easier for producers to handle. “The government had to make cuts and it’s nice to see that they were not too harsh with the line items that were removed,” he said in a separate release Friday. n

Give us your input If you have a milestone you feel should be noted in our regular Gleanings column, please send the information, along with an electronic photo of any individual noted in the item, to Crops Guide editor Gord Gilmour at:

gord.gilmour@fbcpublishing.com.

FOCUS ON MACHINERY

New frontiers It’s unlikely the farm equipment of tomorrow will simply follow today’s trend of the same but bigger BY RON FRIESEN

hen agricultural engineer Danny Mann joined the University of Manitoba as a young academic in the late 1990s, LED light bars were the big technological breakthrough for guidance systems on sprayers. But, as Mann kept hearing anecdotally, farmers had trouble adjusting to red and green lights telling them where to drive. “They were accustomed to looking out the windshield ahead of the vehicle, picking out a marker and driving toward that,” says Mann, today head of the U of M’s biosystems engineering department. “Now, instead of looking out, you were focusing on this display right in front of you. Some people were driven to distraction. They were following it so closely, they were not paying as much attention to the sprayer as they normally would have.”

“Uptake for producers is so high that (precision agriculture equipment) is almost standard.” — Nathan Gregg, PAMI How things have changed since then. Today, guidance systems are as natural as breathing to the average producer. So much so that manufacturers are now making the technology standard on their equipment instead of optional. “We rarely ship a tractor without precision agriculture equipment installed on it,” says Paul Manaigre, director of engineering for Buhler Versatile Inc. in Winnipeg.

“Two years ago, it was optional. But it turned out the demand was so high, it just became standard.” When guidance systems first appeared, the feeling among some farmers was that they weren’t really necessary and only people with a lot of money would buy that fancy stuff. Now, what was considered new age only a few years ago has become mainstream, commonplace and widely accepted, especially in the last three to four years. “Even if manufacturers weren’t going to make it standard on new equipment, I think the uptake for producers is so high that it’s almost standard,” says Nathan Gregg, project manager of applied agricultural services for the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute in Humboldt, Sask. Part of the reason technology is moving ahead so quickly is that the software is vastly simpler than it used to be, says Manaigre. “Before, they were fairly complicated and harder to understand and navigate. Now they’re one-button approach,” he says. “Basically, I could teach a Grade 6 person how to use this. It’s two buttons, really.” Two technologies derived from the electronics revolution of the last 20 years are having a profound effect on agriculture. They are Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Together they are drivers for precision farming. The list of things they do includes: yield monitoring; variable-rate fertilizer and spraying; yield, weed and salinity mapping; highprecision guidance; records and analysis. Working in combination, they are powerful management tools for a progressive commercial producer. But are these advancements really essential? Or are they bells and whistles — nice to have but not need to have? Ask farmers and they’ll say precision agriculture, once optional, is now almost essential because of tight financial margins.

Continued on page 10 CROPS GUIDE

APRIL 2013 7

S:18”

L AG

EAF TIM I

TO SPRAY

AD TIMING E H

The only time you shouldn’t spray is when you have a poor looking crop and you are not in a fusarium head blight (FHB) area.

If your crop doesn’t look good, but you are in an FHB area, a fungicide application can still pay for itself and safeguard the yield and quality of your grain. Do some calculations and if your potential disease risk and ROI exceed the cost of application – you should protect your crop with a fungicide.

If your crop looks good, you will definitely want to protect your investment with a fungicide application. Which product will provide the most bang for your buck? It depends on crop staging, current disease pressure and potential disease risks. Here is a quick chart to help make your fungicide decision easier.

No visible disease present

Leaf disease on upper leaves and/or flag leaf

–

Leaf disease on upper leaves and/or flag leaf

–

Leaf disease only (lower to mid leaves)

Leaf disease only

Leaf disease only (lower to mid leaves)

Leaf disease only

To see how It Pays to Spray in your area visit BayerCropScience.ca/ItPaystoSpray BayerCropScience.ca/ItPaystoSpray or 1 888-283-6847 or contact your Bayer CropScience representative. Always read and follow label directions. Folicur® and Prosaro® are registered trademarks of the Bayer Group. Bayer CropScience is a member of CropLife Canada.

S:18”

NOT TO SPRAY

YES

WHAT SHOULD YOU SPRAY?

Even when you can’t see disease symptoms, there is no such thing as a disease-free crop. A good crop is worth protecting – consider spraying an application of Folicur® EW or Prosaro® applied at head timing to help ensure top grade, quality and yield. There is no such thing as a disease-free crop. Even in the absence of disease symptoms, the mere fact that you are in an FHB area means you need to protect your crop. Apply Prosaro at head timing.

YES

Spray Folicur EW and re-assess at head timing to determine whether a second fungicide application is required.

+ 4.6 bu./ac. Folicur EW 3/4 rate, flag leaf OR

+ 9.4 bu./ac. Prosaro, head

+ 1.8 bu./ac. Folicur EW full rate, head OR

+ 3.1 bu./ac. Prosaro, head

+ 9.8 bu./ac. Folicur EW 3/4 rate, flag leaf

+ 4.4 bu./ac. Folicur EW 3/4 rate, flag leaf OR

+ 8.5 bu./ac. Prosaro, head

+ 7 bu./ac.

When leaf disease is limited to lower/mid leaves at flag leaf timing, the damage is negligible. Re-assess at head timing and if you still only see leaf disease you can spray either Folicur EW or Prosaro.

Folicur EW 3/4 rate, flag leaf OR

+ 7 bu./ac.

Folicur EW full rate, head OR

+ 10 bu./ac.

Prosaro full rate, head

YES

Whenever you are in an FHB area, you should spray Prosaro. However, if leaf disease is limited to the lower/mid leaves you have the ability to make your Prosaro application at head timing to cover both leaf disease and FHB.

+ 5.8 bu./ac. Folicur EW full rate, head OR

+ 8.5 bu./ac. Prosaro, head

C-51-03/13-BCS13012-E

S:11.5”

Leaf disease damage to upper leaves or the flag leaf can cause irreparable injury to your crop and immediate action is required. Spray Folicur EW and re-assess at head timing to determine whether a second fungicide application is required.

GAIN IN YIELD*

*Gain in yield based on multi-year wheat Demonstration Strip Trial (DST) results in Western Canada, 2008-2012. Results compared to yield of untreated check.

FHB AREA

focus on machinery

Continued from page 7 Take guidance systems, for example. Before they came along, farmers would overlap passes on a field by a foot or two during seeding or spraying so as not to miss a strip of land. Studies subsequently showed there might be a 10 to 15 per cent area overlap in a field. Now, using guidance systems, producers can avoid overlapping and thus save 10 per cent or more on seed, fuel, fertilizer and herbicide costs. For producers operating on narrow financial margins, that saving can mean the difference between profit and loss. “When you start adding all of that up, it makes sense,” says Mann. “There is a convenience factor but I don’t think that’s what’s driving it. I think it’s the reduced input costs.” The rapid rise of guidance systems raises another question: what other technological innovations can be expected as farm machinery continues to evolve? Are driverless tractors the next frontier? Will we even need farmers out on the land? Will producers of the future direct equipment from a computerized control room rather than a tractor cab? Perhaps not. But the fact that these questions are being asked at all indicates such things are no longer the stuff of science fiction. Mann says he has seen videos of tractors running up and down fields with no operator in the cab. One prototype applying herbicide in an orchard didn’t even have a cab. Manaigre doesn’t believe technology will ever eliminate the need for human hands to guide equipment. But he concedes the days of just building a tractor and running it are gone.

“ There’s a convenience factor, but I don’t think that’s what’s driving it. I think it’s the reduced input costs.” — Danny Mann, University of Manitoba

10 CROPS GUIDE

APRIL 2013

“Is it simple? No. Does it mean that manufacturers need to understand their markets and customize their tractors to the application? Absolutely.” Electronic technology isn’t the only focus in innovative farm machinery. Another is the emphasis on size and power. As farms consolidate into ever-larger operations, equipment grows in size to fit the bill. A four-wheel-drive tractor today can have up to 600 horsepower. Manaigre says he has seen 800-hp tractors and heard of some up to 1,000 hp. While some applaud the trend toward bigger and stronger equipment, others express reservations about it. Gregg thinks some of these behemoths may be approaching the limits of practicality — difficult to transport and too big to fit some fields. He wonders if farm machinery preferences could shift back to smaller, more compact units. That’s what Gregg and others are picking up from farm focus groups which PAMI hosts. “For the last five or 10 years, size and horsepower have been the name of the game. Farmers have been asking for it, manufacturers have been all too happy to produce it. That definitely has been the focus,” he says. “I don’t want to say the end is in sight. But I’m starting to hear some tremors among producers that it’s not all about that anymore. I’m starting to hear more talk about how we can do it better and focus on some of the precision aspects. “People are starting to look at some of their margins and say, maybe I can do this smarter instead of bigger.” Mann says automation may change the work responsibility of the operator but doesn’t eliminate it. Consider robotic milking parlours in dairy barns, for example. At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be anything for a farmer to do — the cows do all the work. But the producer, although not directly involved in the task of milking, is still very much in charge as a supervisor, making sure things run as they should. The same applies to auto steer systems. Because they no longer have to worry about overlapping while spraying or seeding, producers do not need to sit with their hands on the steering wheel. Instead, they have time to pay more attention to monitoring the equipment and ensure it’s running efficiently. Mann says researchers may have to look at ways to change the cab environment to reflect this new reality. Machinery designers and manufacturers might spend more time figuring out how to integrate the operator into the machine. “Maybe it doesn’t make sense for the operator to be facing forward. Maybe the operator should actually be facing backward for a front-row view instead of having to turn around,” says Mann. “Or maybe there should be cameras and monitors to give operators a view of things they wouldn’t otherwise be able to see from the tractor cab.” Older farmers who have been working their fields for decades have an innate sense of the land and how it performs. They know where the chronic alkaline spots and weed patches are. The machines do not. Will advancing technology diminish the human instinct for farming? Mann doubts it. He points out the same fear was once expressed about assembly lines. It was thought that robots would replace human hands and assembly plants would not need employees. In fact, industries learned that the level of expertise actually decreased with fewer people involved. The human element still remained essential, even if it was applied differently. “Even with precision agriculture, there’s still all kind of information you can’t generate about your land. It’s something very different from what the old farmer would have learned driving the fields,” Mann says. n

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focus on machinery

Lease or buy?

Tax advantages may tip the balance

o lease or not to lease — that is the question facing farmers this spring as they consider their machinery options for the coming year. A quick check of sticker prices at the local farm implement dealership explains why. A new combine with a windrow pickup can cost over $350,000. An average-size four-wheel-drive tractor goes for $325,000. A high-clearance sprayer retails for nearly $300,000. A good self-propelled swather is worth at least $150,000. Farm management specialists say machinery is a producer’s largest single operating expense after fertilizer and chemicals. For some farmers, leasing expensive equipment rather than buying it outright can make financial sense. But it all depends and producers should consider carefully before deciding whether to lease or purchase. “Any time anyone is looking to lease or buy, they need to talk to their professional financial advisers, especially with larger transactions,” says Rick Battistoni, a chartered

BY ron friesen accountant and partner with the accounting firm MNP in Winnipeg. “What it really comes down to is planning.” Tax implications are often a major factor in deciding whether to lease or purchase equipment. While there’s no hard and fast rule, Battistoni says farmers who lease may do so because it may give them an income tax advantage, depending on how the lease is structured. This can be especially true for a producer who is in a taxable situation and needs tax deductions. An example is a large commercial producer looking to expand his operation by buying more land. Lease payments are considered an operating expense and are therefore tax deductible, just as fertilizer, fuel and chemicals are. Loan payments, on the other hand, are not tax deductible, although interest charges are. Rather than having capital tied up in machinery, a producer may choose to lease it, thus freeing up cash for other purposes, such as buying land. For such producers, investing equity in land rather than having it tied up in equipment makes sense.

“ Any time anyone is looking to lease or buy, they need to talk to their professional financial advisers, especially with larger transactions.” — Rick Battistoni, MNP Lease payments are often larger than loan payments. Interest rates for lease agreements can be higher, too. But Battistoni says there may be a tradeoff when it comes to paying tax. As an example, let’s take a piece of equipment worth $100,000. Leasing agreements often run for shorter periods of time than loans do. If you lease that unit for three years, it may cost you more in payments over a shorter time frame but you get an “accelerated” tax writeoff. If you take out an eight-year loan for that equipment, you can depreciate it during that time and maybe receive a similar tax deduction, but it takes you longer to get it. And a dollar today is worth more than a dollar eight years from now. Here’s another example. Let’s say a producer has deferred tax payments until he can’t defer them any longer and his tax bill has snowballed. Leasing could be a way of eating away at the snowball because lease payments are tax deductible. Yet another way in which leasing can be used as a strategic tax advantage involves the small business tax deduction. A business’s first $400,000 in annual net taxable income is taxed at a favourably low rate (in Manitoba, it’s 11 per cent). Anything above that amount is taxed at a higher rate. Some large commercial producers may need all the tax benefits they can get to remain under that limit. “Leasing rather than buying can manage some of that risk because leasing doesn’t figure into the taxable calculations,” Battastoni says. “You can either stay under the $400,000 limit or at least minimize the grind on it.” 12 CROPS GUIDE

APRIL 2013

Because a lease is not a loan, it is not officially a debt — just a commitment to pay. As a result, a lease shows up on a producer’s financial statements as an operating expense rather than a liability. Battistoni says this can work in favour of a producer who is looking to borrow money from a lending institution. If he’s leasing, he might have a better debtto-equity ratio than if he already has a loan and is carrying a debt load. This could aid his chances of getting credit. “Leasing is not just for taxable guys. It’s also for those looking for help with the covenants they have with their banks,” says Battistoni. “Leasing can also help with cash flow — you have more flexibility with a lease than a conventional loan.” Terry Betker, a private farm business management consultant in Winnipeg, says leasing can give producers access to the newest equipment with the latest technology. This can be important in an era of tight financial margins when precision can spell the difference between profit and loss. For example, a new air seeder can band fertilizer closer to the seed than an older unit, thus giving emerging plants a jump on weeds — an important consideration in an age of herbicide resistance. Also, depending on the contract, new leased equipment may be covered by warranty — also important if something breaks down and a replacement unit is needed quickly. Very large producers using a lot of equipment may sometimes lease it all one year and flip it the next in favour of an entirely new fleet. Betker says that can make sense if an operator deals exclusively with a single dealer. Not only is the dealership able to offer a preferred rate, the parent company may do as well.

Renting or hiring custom work can be an alternative to buying or leasing farm equipment. Sometimes that approach may work well. But Harold Froese, an agriculture consultant with Access Credit Union in Oak Bluff, Man., says a lot depends on timing and availability. Custom combining is a good example. An advantage of custom work is that producers do not have to deal with the cost of ownership. But custom combining works best in the U.S. Midwest, where harvest season is usually long and dry. In Western Canada, harvesting has a narrow window and fall weather can turn on a dime. The custom harvester, who has contracted with the producer in advance, may show up on time but in the middle of a rainstorm. A similar situation can be true for other farm applications. For example, Froese notes that the window to spray canola for sclerotinia is even narrower and a custom operator may not be available to apply fungicide at precisely the right time. “If you’re relying only on custom work, getting someone when you need them can be tough,” he says. Froese says his institution uses an average benchmark cost of $250 to $300 an acre for a grain and oilseed farmer to own or lease machinery. That figure can be a good indicator of whether a producer has too much or too little invested in equipment. “If you have too little, it could suggest that your repairs B:10.5” will be higher because you may have more downtime,” says Froese. “On the other hand, if the investment T:10” is too high, it’s a cost to the farm because you’re tying up S:9” capital which the farm has to generate.” n

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Fieldbots It’s not happening yet — but the age of autonomous farm robots is likely just over the horizon By Gord Leathers

ven in this high-tech, high-automation age there’s only one place where you might find a fully autonomous working robot on a commercial farm. Some dairy barns house the Lely Astronaut, a robotic arm that cleans the udder, attaches the cups and extracts the milk while the cow eats her ration. It can milk about 70 head of cattle three times a day and, despite a hefty price tag, it saves a small dairy operator a lot of time and labour. It’s the capacity to save farmers labour that makes farm robotics an exciting prospect for Tony Grift, an associate professor of agriculture engineering at the University of Illinois. “There’s a lot of back-breaking work in agriculture that no human being should be doing at all,” he says. “The milking robot, has been commercialized and then there are some grafting robots where you take a plant such as a pear tree and graft an apple on it.” There’s no shortage of large robots in the manufacturing sector and precision assembly line work was one of the first places to automate. In today’s automotive plant, lines of robotic arms weld, paint, glue and assemble because they’re really good at repetitive and, many would say, boring tasks that require heads-up precision. But there are more complex jobs that still require the human touch. “I went to the GM plant in Kansas City, Kansas and they make 3,000 cars per day and so when it comes to automating things like putting in windshields, the robot gets the windshield, puts on the glue and sticks it in there,” Grift says. “But the carpet in the trunk, that’s still a human being doing that and that’s mainly because it’s so hard.” And it’s hard for a number of reasons. It’s relatively easy to program a robotic arm to bend to that certain angle and reach to a precise distance so it can clamp and weld an automobile chassis. Handling a piece of carpet, moving into an awkward, confined space and then applying glue and setting the rug is not as straightforward. But, given time and funding we can probably automate just about anything and that includes many farm operations. The Japanese are heavily involved in getting working robots into greenhouses picking fruit and tending vegetables. Getting robots out of the buildings and into the fields is the big step that Grift, his colleagues and grad students are tackling. In his native Netherlands he did his undergraduate degree in cybernetics, robotics and industrial automation. He never thought about farming until he got to North America. “When I left university in the Netherlands I transitioned into agricultural engineering research and it was quite natural to apply control theory and other automation technology to agriculture,” he said. This technology is in its infancy right now and we’re just beginning to understand what it can do. It has to prove itself to be effective and it must be cost effective before farmers will adopt it — but they’ve done this before. They certainly took to autosteer, the GPS-driven navigation aid that increases the precision of the passes. Once 14 CROPS GUIDE

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In a perfect future small, solarpowered robot scouts would work their way through fields, sensing problems as they developed we have the software, we may see cabless tractors or autonomous combines following a programmed route while the farmer stays home and does more management tasks than field work. Grift is taking the time to develop robots that can perform more complex jobs. About five years ago the U.S. Department of Agriculture came up with the Specialty Crop Research Initiative and he received funding to develop a robot to thin fruit trees. “What you have to do with fruit trees like apples and peaches is you “thin” the blossoms, take a number of them off, because if you leave them all on the tree you will have a lot of apples but they’re all going to be very small,” he explained. “So we bought an industrial robot and tried to come up with a mechanism that would take those excess blossoms off the tree.” Although they couldn’t get it to work they walked away with a couple of important concepts. The first was the problem with a standard industrial robot. The task set for it was too complex and this outlines one of the basic problems with robots. You have to break every part of the job into its basic parts and program all of the optional steps. You can teach a five-year-old how to thin blossoms in a few minutes but that’s because a child already has the basic software. It understands a few simple instructions and the underlying software (which was millions of years in the making) handles all the subtle variations. The other problem is sensors, getting the robot to see. Our five-year-old child has a pair of top-notch, colour-sensitive stereo sensors that we call eyes, connected to a brain that understands that a moving blossom is still a blossom. A

Continued on page 16

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Continued from page 14 robot may find that blossom but as soon as it changes position because the wind moved the branch or the sunlight changes the shadowing, the robot might not recognize it anymore. This all must be added to the software. Outside is a highly variable and subtle environment and it’s not easy for a robot to understand. “So we tried to come up with a mechanism that would allow us to take those blossoms off the tree but it really wasn’t successful at all, mainly because people underestimate how complicated this thing really is,” Grift said. Although we might still see robots working in the orchard, plucking every second blossom in order to encourage the tree to grow larger

fruit, Grift and his assistants looked at other ways to put field robots to work. They thought about crop scouting and weed control. “In agriculture all our problems come in patches, a weed problem over here, a disease problem over there, an insect infestation somewhere else and a drought over there,” Grift went on. “Chemical weed control is becoming a really big problem because certain weeds have become resistant to glyphosate so there’s a new interest in mechanical weeding.” The first problem they had to solve was the most obvious one. A scout has to move through the field to find weeds, so this robot had to be mobile. They tried three different models that addressed three different approaches. One was AgBo, a fairly sophisticated robot with a

laser scanner guidance system and independent steering so it can move forward, backward or sideways. Another was AgTracker, a simpler machine with skid steering and infrared sensors. It was just as tough and robust as AgBo but much cheaper to build. “So the basic weeding robot would have a way of getting itself through the fields, which is not that hard and then it has implements that allow it to deal with weeds,” Grift explained. “We proposed mechanical implements and I think some thought about blowing them away with fire or something.” One grad student devised a simple blade cutter that would also inject the injured weed with a herbicide.

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A third robot type, and perhaps the most unusual was the AgAnt, a small machine that walks through the field on four legs. Built as a “thought provoker” the AgAnt doesn’t work alone. Like its insect namesake, it roams the field with several other robots. These swarm bots, or flock bots, have the ability to talk to each other. “It makes a lot of sense to take multiple robots, 20 or 25 or so, and let them go into fields and tackle problems as groups where they’re needed,” Grift says. “This goes back to robotic synergy. You can have multiple robots work together in a field but it would be even better if you could get those robots together to develop behaviours.” In theory these flock bots could log on to the

Internet for a weather report and decide if it’s a good day for weeding. If it is they would move into the field and look for whatever weeds they were programmed to recognize. Once they found a weed they could deal with it or, if they found a patch of them, they could call for help and have the other bots come to their aid. In addition to that, the best robot weeders could be selected among the troop and used to reprogram the ineffective ones. Essentially, lines of programming would act very much like DNA in a living organism. These robots could become better through some form on selection based on performance. “So what you do is get the high-performing ones and you mate them with the mediumperforming ones and you mix their DNA, so

to speak,” Grift says. “You can just look at the binary strings that come up in a computer program and you can mix and match parts of these things and you can do crossover.” In a perfect future small, solar-powered robot scouts would work their way through fields, sensing problems as they developed. Large, soil-compacting sprayers could stay in the shed unless absolutely necessary because disease, weed and insect problems could be nipped in the bud before an outbreak. Inputs such as pesticides could be used in very small but concentrated doses that would be good for the environment as well as the farmer’s pocketbook. “It really is taking an artificial ecosystem and putting it on top of a biological ecosystem and making them work together,” Grift says. ■

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FOCUS ON MACHINERY

Eye in the sky The world’s first agriculture UAV is a product of Stony Mountain, Man. BY GORD LEATHERS

ometimes the best way to get information is to start right at the top. Usually that refers to metaphorical heights within an organization — but there’s a crop scout aid manufactured in Stony Mountain, Man. that takes that statement a whole lot more literally. The Crop Cam is an electric-powered model airplane with a digital camera that provides air photos for a variety of crop diagnostics at a very reasonable price. “It’s a small, light, easy-to-fly power glider that can carry a payload up to one kilogram in which we’ve put an autopilot,” explains Micro Pilot marketing vice-president Pierre Pepin. “What makes it revolutionary is that it’s the first inexpensive UAV.” UAVs, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have become stock and trade in the military and many U.S. Army or Marine units have a small airplane that they can launch to show them what’s over the next hill. It’s really a extension of the very first military use of airplanes and that was for reconnaissance during the First World War. Farmers still make use of this sort of thing with aerial photo services flying full-size planes with large-format cameras. Nothing shows a farmer what’s going on in his fields quite like an aerial photo. A detailed photo mosaic can help detect crop damage as it’s happening due to any number of factors like crop disease as well as depredations by insects or wildlife. It can show the effects of water or wind erosion and regular monitoring may be used to evaluate crop vigour and help predict yields.

“The problem with aerial photography is that everyone’s crops are coming up at the same time.” — Pierre Pepin, MicroPilot/Crop Cam Farmers certainly understand the value of scouting from the air. They’re also keenly aware of how much it costs. A full-size Cessna equipped with a large-format camera is not cheap under any circumstances, whether you’re buying, renting or commissioning. Since it’s a busy time for aerial photographers and these things are time sensitive, the photos may not be done when they really need to be done. “The only way to scout the entire field is through aerial 18 CROPS GUIDE

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photography and the problem with aerial photography is that everybody’s crops are coming up at the same time,” Pepin said. “The people who offer the service are probably not available exactly when you need them and, because the growing season in Canada is relatively short, you don’t want it done next week or the week after that. You need it now.” Because of the recent advances in electronics, digital cameras have very good resolution so putting a small camera onto a model glider makes a lot of economic sense. The price for the package comes in at approximately $7,000 and it comes with ground control software. It doesn’t come with radio control equipment, a laptop or a camera. “We give you a list of stuff you should go and buy at your local hobby shop because we don’t supply everything,” Pepin adds. “But other than that you charge the batteries and you can fly it almost immediately.” There are three fundamental components to the Crop Cam. It starts with the flight control software that a scout or farmer loads on to a laptop. The software allows the user to download a map of the survey area. The GPS points where the plane should fly are plotted on to the map and the altitude at which the plane should fly is entered into the program. The points at which the infrared trigger should fire the camera shutter are also plotted. Once the groundwork has been done the scout starts the engine, throws the plane into the wind and it spirals up to altitude and begins its run. The computer directs the radio control on the ground and navigates the plane through its flight points as it snaps digital pictures. “So you launch the aircraft and it flies back and forth over your field the same way a tractor would drive it,” Pepin said. “And when it’s done it comes back over the point where it was initialized, the autopilot shuts off the engine and the aircraft glides to a stop.” Once that’s done the memory card is removed from the camera and the digital images are fed into the computer. From here a scout may interpret the images or run them through another program like Assess and analyze them that way. The aircraft itself is a powered glider manufactured in the Czech Republic and the Crop Cam people perform several modifications to it so that it will perform as a UAV. Crop Cam is, in fact, a subsidiary of Micro Pilot, a company that got its start designing hardware and software to guide small aircraft for a variety of purposes.

Continued on page 20

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focus on machinery

Continued from page 18 NASA has commissioned Micro Pilotequipped craft for surveying and the Spanish air force equips the Scrab, a jet powered drone target, with an autopilot made in Stony Mountain. The Crop Cam was a way to take a decent, ready-made airframe and make it into an affordable UAV. The aircraft is about four feet long, has a wingspan of eight feet and weighs about six pounds. It has a brushless electric motor with a lithium polymer battery that can keep it in the air for almost an hour. With a little training on the software, anyone can fly it. The third part of the system is the camera and the original design suspended a small

COULDA

Pentax digital camera under one wing. They rigged an infrared LED trigger that would trip the shutter on command. The resulting images show the area in surprising detail and this is only going to get better as camera resolutions get better. They’re also georeferenced in conjunction with the onboard GPS sensors. “It started with some very basic amateur compact cameras,” Pepin said. “Now people are buying cameras where people remove the infrared filter and basically it becomes a near-infrared camera which is very useful for agriculture.” The sky really is the limit as far as uses go. Not only are professional crop scouts starting to invest in Crop Cam as another tool in their arsenal, Pepin spoke of other

SHOULDA

ways that people have made good use of this technology. Apparently a quarrying company that supplies crushed rock used the Crop Cam’s georeferencing capabilities to survey a huge gravel pile. Once they had accurate dimensions they were able to calculate the volume of rock and, by extension, its economic value. Another one, a freelance cinematographer, mounted a small video camera under the wing and angled it down so that it could see forward. He programmed the little plane to fly along the old Berlin Wall where, because of extensive landmine placement, there are acres on acres of untouched forest growing. He sold the video to the BBC for a major documentary. n

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NEWS Whole Foods seeks GMO disclosure on all its food by 2018

B:20.5” T:20” S:18”

The Reuters news service recently reported that organic and natural grocer Whole Foods Market will require all products sold in its U.S. and Canadian stores to carry a label by 2018 saying whether they contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The U.S. is the world’s largest market for foods made with genetically altered ingredients. Many popular processed foods — including soy milk, soup and breakfast cereal — are made with soybeans, corn and other biotech crops. Whole Foods — whose 340-plus stores in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. include four in the greater Toronto area and four in Vancouver — said the prevalence of GMOs in the U.S., coupled with a lack of labelling requirements, has made it very difficult for retailers

to source non-GMO options and for consumers to identify them. “We are stepping up our support of certified organic agriculture, where GMOs are not allowed, and we are working together with our supplier partners to grow our non-GMO supply chain,” Walter Robb, co-chief executive of Whole Foods, said in a statement. The U.S. does not require safety testing for genetically modified ingredients before they go to market. The food industry says the products are safe, but critics say there is not enough independent research to make that determination. While the U.S. and Canada still have no GMO labelling laws, more than 60 countries do, the company said, noting several U.S. states are considering mandatory labelling initiatives.

“We’re responding to our customers, who have consistently asked us for GMO labelling and we are doing so by focusing on where we have control: in our own stores,” Robb said. The announcement from Whole Foods comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears to be on the path to approving genetically engineered salmon. At the same time, consumer groups are working at the state and federal level to require labels on products that contain GMOs. Dozens of countries already have genetically modified food-labelling requirements, with the European Union imposing mandatory labelling in 1997. Since then, genetically modified products and crops have virtually disappeared from those markets. n

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WGRF RESEARCH UPDATE Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) is a farmer-funded and -directed non-profit organization investing primarily in wheat and barley variety development to the benefit of western Canadian producers. Through investments of over $57 million, WGRF has assisted in the development and release of more than 100 new wheat and barley varieties over the past decade and a half, many of which are today seeded to large portions of the cropland in Western Canada. WGRF also invests in research on other western Canadian crops through the Endowment Fund. In fact, since 1981 the WGRF Endowment Fund has supported a wealth of innovation across Western Canada, providing over $26 million in funding for over 230 diverse research projects.

Farinograph absorption and why it matters BY CLARE STANFIELD

hen the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) decided to reclassify some winter wheat varieties back in 2010, it likely had no idea that the entire Canadian wheat marketing system would be so completely altered by the time those new classifications came into effect on August 1 of this year. The new class, Canada Western General Purpose (CWGP), which replaces CWRW Generic, was created in response to producer and market demand for a more definitive reflection of the milling quality and consistency of some varieties of Canada Western Red Winter (CWRW) wheat. So, as of August 1, 2013, CWRW Select will continue to indicate red winter wheat with a minimum of 11 per cent protein and high milling quality, while CWGP will indicate wheat below 11 per cent protein and with lesser and less consistent milling quality. Now, all that sounds marvellous, doesn’t it? CWRW Select was always going to wind up top dog on the winter wheat pricing ladder, but now, growers with CWRW Select to sell can go directly to a milling and baking market that wants, and is ready to pay top dollar for, highquality wheat. Not so fast, says Harry Sapirstein. In a Canadian market still dominated by hard red spring varieties, CWRW still has one big quality hurdle to clear before the real money can be attained. “The red winter wheat class, whether grown in Canada or the U.S., has a long-standing issue with a quality measure called farinograph absorption, or FA,” says Sapirstein, associate professor at the University of Manitoba’s department of food science. “The price differential between spring and winter wheat reflects lower protein in part, but it also takes into account the considerably lower FA in CWRW wheat, which can be a major disadvantage for bread making.” The potential to narrow that price spread is why, with funding from Western Grains Research Foundation, he is looking into a strategy to increase FA in red winter wheat. Making the connection FA is a standard industry measure of water absorption in flour, and is a key determinant of bread-making quality. In a nutshell, the higher the FA, the more loaves of bread can be made from a given amount of flour. “In typical years, red spring wheats have an FA of 67 to 68 per cent,” says Sapirstein. “On average, the FA in winter wheat is eight to 10 per cent lower. That’s a big difference. If we could improve that by only four or five points, up to around 63 or 64 per cent across the board for CWRW that would generate a significant economic benefit for producers,” he says. 22 CROPS GUIDE

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But FA is a quality of flour, not wheat. So the trick is to find out what it is about the wheat kernel that, when milled, influences FA, and if that can, in turn, be manipulated through plant breeding. “FA can be influenced by a number of factors,” says Sapirstein. “Those include protein content and grain hardness, which in turn affect the level of starch damage in flour. More protein and higher starch damage will usually result in higher FA. But the protein content and starch damage of CWRW varieties is not that much lower than that of its CWRS counterparts,” he says. “So there must be one or more other components in flour that could be responsible for the low FA of CWRW, and my target is the so-called pentosan fraction, which is the dominant fibre in wheat and is mostly contained in the bran.” Pentosans are non-starch polysaccharides that reside in cell walls. Very large, molecularly speaking, they act pretty much like sponges and can absorb a lot of water. That wheat pentosans have high water absorption capacity (compared to gluten and starch) has been known for decades. But the connection to FA in refined flour has not been well studied, says Sapirstein. Given that pentosan content in flour is, on average, low, its relevance to FA may not seem to be all that important. But it turns out that a little might go a long way. In hard red spring wheat, for example, with about 14 per cent protein content and about 67 per cent starch content, pentosan content can account for about two per cent of refined flour by weight, says Sapirstein. While the starch and protein can absorb up to half to two-thirds their weight in water, pentosans can take on 10 to 15 times their weight. The upshot is that the higher the pentosan content of flour, the higher the FA should be. As he worked on GxE (gene-environment interaction) studies in spring wheat, Sapirstein began to identify that connection. “The data seemed to support the notion that if we’re looking at factors related to FA variation in spring wheats adapted to Western Canada, we’re looking mainly at pentosans,” he says. “I know Rob Graf, who’s a winter wheat breeder, thought that we should study the relationship between pentosans and FA in his material,” he says. “It’s a win for science because we have no information as to how our red winter wheats differ in pentosan content in relation to FA, and it could be a tremendous win for the new CWRW Select wheat class, and producers, if that connection could be established and exploited through breeding.” Selecting for pentosan content To achieve the long-term goal of improving FA in CWRW wheat, Sapirstein needs to find a way to help wheat breeders select for pentosan content much earlier in the breeding process.

In a nutshell, the higher the FA, the more loaves of bread can be made from a given amount of flour. “Pentosan content has never been selected for as a trait,” says Sapirstein. “Turns out it’s highly inheritable and relatively unaffected by the environment, compared to FA or protein content. It’s an ideal trait to select for if you want to affect its content in wheat or flour.” So, just start selecting wheat for pentosan content and you fix the FA problem, right? Again, not so fast, says Sapirstein. Remember that FA is a quality of flour, not wheat, so ultimately, it’s the flour that needs to be tested to see if the wheat is delivering on the breeding promise. The trouble is that, currently, about 100 g of flour are needed to do a proper, industrystandard FA test. “In a breeding context, you don’t have enough wheat to do that until the F8 or F9 generation and, by then, there’s no more variation to exploit and FA is fixed,” he says. Sapirstein wants to test for pentosan content in earlier generations, ideally at F2 and F3, using a small-scale test requiring as little as a kernel amount of flour, and which could be done early enough in the breeding process to be a useful selection criterion for end-use quality. “We have the test, a relatively straightforward assay, that we have adapted for small-scale use with as little as five milligrams of flour,” he says. “If we find a line,

or lines, with high pentosan content, then we have the genetic parental material for breeding.” Sapirstein is working closely with Rob Graf to test established and experimental lines of CWRW wheat for pentosan content and FA, plus other factors possibly related to FA. “So far, we’ve been working on a preliminary set of CWRW genotypes harvested in 2011 to set up our methods,” he says. “When that’s done, we have about 40 lines of 2012 harvest material to test and another set of the same genotypes that will be harvested by this August. And, if necessary, we’ll screen more lines.” When they identify suitable genetic material, traditional plant breeding could give us new high FA CWRW wheats in about 10 to 12 years. “We may be fortunate, too, and find a parental line already being used in cultivar development that has high pentosan content and high FA,” says Sapirstein. “That would allow us to screen progeny for high pentosan content, which could shorten that timeline.” While we’re still a number of years away from commercial CWRW varieties that offer higher FA as a selling feature, Sapirstein is keeping his eye firmly on the prize. “When it does happen, that will be big news and help to increase the price of CWRW Select wheat for growers and the value of the class in the marketplace.” n

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CROP PROTECTION

Newest ways to control weeds

new spring season means a long list of new herbicides are available to western Canadian growers. You may have already heard about many of these, information on others will be included in the various crop guides and brochures available, but those which were registered in the last few months, after most publications went to print, may not catch your attention. And that’s a shame, since some of the newest products registered as well as others that will undoubtedly

Warren libby President of Savvy Farmer

become available before planting time may be ideal candidates to control the specific weed issues you will face on your farm this year. There isn’t room in this issue to list all of the new products available for 2013, since in just the last six months alone, 97 new crop protection products have been registered and hundreds of other products have added treatments to their labels. The products here are ‘hot off the press’ herbicides relevant to western growers and worth considering among the other options available.

Axial BIA Herbicide

Topline Broadleaf Herbicide

Registrant Syngenta Canada Inc.

Registrant MANA Canada

Description P ost-emergent herbicide for control of annual grasses in cereals

Description Broadleaf weed herbicide containing florasulam and MCPA ester

Description Broadleaf weed herbicide containing fluroxypyr and 2,4-D ester

Mode of Group 1 Action Crops Spring wheat (excl. durum), barley

Mode of Group 2, Group 4 Action Crops Wheat, barley and oats

Key Pests Wild oats, green foxtail, yellow foxtail, Controlled barnyard grass, volunteer oats, volunteer canary seed, and proso millet

Key Pests Broad spectrum weed control including Controlled cleavers, hemp-nettle, wild buckwheat, and volunteer canola

What Makes This Interesting? Axial BIA provides the same level of control of most annual grass species Axial 100EC but without the need to add a separate adjuvant. That means fewer jugs, less hassle, and fewer mixing errors. In my books, simple is almost always better.

What Makes This Interesting? MANA is positioning Topline as a proven herbicide, available at a fair price without the need to participate in rebate programs or product bundles. More Information: http://www.manainc.ca/web/index.html

Crops Spring wheat, durum wheat and barley Key Pests Broad spectrum of broadleaf weeds Controlled including kochia, cleavers, chickweed, and wild buckwheat, including Group 2-resistant biotypes and glyphosateresistant kochia What Makes This Interesting? With two Group 4 active ingredients, Rush 24 offers an effective option where cleavers, kochia and wild buckwheat are a problem, including Group 2-resistant biotypes.

Blackhawk Herbicide Co-Pack

Priority Herbicide

Registrant Nufarm Agriculture Inc.

Registrant MANA Canada

Registrant Arysta LifeScience Corporation

Description Pre-seed burn-down herbicide co-pack containing carfentrazone-ethyl (Aim) and 2,4-D, to be mixed with glyphosate

Description Pre-seed or post-harvest burn-down herbicide containing florasulam effective on a wide range of hard-to-kill broadleaf and grassy weeds when used in combination with glyphosate

Description Pre-seed or pre-emergent burn-down herbicide containing flucarbazone (Everest) and tribenuron-methyl; to be mixed with glyphosate

Mode of Group 4, Group 14 + Group 9 when Action mixed with glyphosate Crops Spring wheat (including durum), barley, winter wheat and soybeans Key Pests Kochia (including Group 2 and Controlled glyphosate-resistant biotypes), volunteer canola (all biotypes), narrowleaved hawk’s beard, Russian thistle, shepherd’s purse, pigweed, flixweed What Makes This Interesting? Blackhawk provides a unique burn-down option with Groups 4 and 14 activity added to Group 9 glyphosate, claimed to provide faster and more complete weed control than other add-ins with glyphosate. This looks like a good solution to fight the spread of resistant biotypes.

Mode of Group 2, + Group 9 when mixed with Action glyphosate Crops Wheat (spring, winter and durum), barley and oats Key Pests Broad spectrum of broadleaf weeds Controlled and grasses when tank mixed with glyphosate What Makes This Interesting? Allows growers the flexibility to mix florasulam with their preferred brand of glyphosate rather than buying their florasulam and glyphosate in a co-pack. More Information: http://www.manainc.ca/web/index.html

More Information: http://www.nufarm.ca/CA/Home

Inferno Duo Herbicide

Mode of Group 2, + Group 9 when mixed with Action glyphosate Crops Wheat (excluding durum) Key Pests Dandelion, hawk’s beard, foxtail barley, Controlled volunteer canola (including Roundup Ready canola), wild oats and green foxtail + a wide range of weeds controlled by glyphosate What Makes This Interesting? Inferno Duo contains two Group 2 active ingredients working together with glyphosate to provide effective control of hard-to-kill broadleaf weeds, plus residual control of wild oats and green foxtail. More Information: http://www.arystalifescience.ca/ ca-agriculture/products.html

Enforcer D Herbicide

Enforcer M Herbicide

Registrant Nufarm Agriculture Inc.

Description Post-emergent broadleaf weed herbicide containing 2,4-D, fluroxypyr and bromoxynil

Description Post-emergent broadleaf weed herbicide containing MCPA ester, fluroxypyr and bromoxynil

Mode of Group 4, Group 6 Action Crops Spring wheat and barley Key Pests Wild buckwheat, cleavers, kochia, Russian Controlled thistle, stinkweed, narrow-leaved hawk’s beard and redroot pigweed

Mode of Group 4 Action

More Information: http://www.manainc.ca/web/index.html

More Information: http://www.syngenta.com/country/ ca/en/Pages/home.aspx

24 CROPS GUIDE

Rush 24 Co-Pack

Mode of Group 4, Group 6 Action Crops Spring wheat (including durum), winter wheat and barley

Enforcer M Herbicide

Mode of Group 4, Group 6 Action Crops Spring wheat (including durum), winter wheat and barley

What Makes This Interesting? Nufarm claims Enforcer controls larger, more established weeds and is particularly effective against Russian thistle, stinkweed, narrow-leaved hawk’s beard and redroot pigweed. Also controls Group 2-resistant weeds, and glyphosate-resistant kochia.

Key Pests Wild buckwheat, cleavers, Controlled kochia, hempnettle, chickweed and Canada thistle

What Makes This Interesting? Nufarm claims Enforcer controls larger, more established weeds and is especially effective on hempnettle, chickweed and Canada thistle. Also controls Group 2-resistant weeds, and glyphosate-resistant kochia.

More Information: http://www.nufarm.ca/CA/Home

APRIL 2013

Viper Adv Herbicide Registrant BASF Canada Description Post-emergent herbicide containing imazamox and bentazon (Basagran) Mode of Action Group 2, Group 6

Do you have a crop protection issue you’d like Warren to write about? Send any suggestions to gord.gilmour@fbcpublishing.com.

Crops Dry field peas, dry beans Key Pests Controlled Broad range of broadleaf weeds and annual grasses, including herbicide-resistant biotypes What Makes This Interesting? With Group 2 and Group 6 modes of action, VIPER ADV provides an attractive herbicide resistance management tool with both contact and systemic activity in a 100 per cent liquid formulation. More Information: https://agro.basf.ca/West/Products/Product.html B:10.5” Warren Libby is president of Savvy Farmer, a web-based service for farmers and crop protection dealers. He previously held leadership T:10” positions in several crop protection companies and is the former chairman of CropLife Canada. S:8”

Beware of leaf disease. Unchecked, leaf disease can reduce cereal crop yields by up to 40%.

Folicur EW – the most trusted disease protection you can get. Visit BayerCropScience.ca/ItPaysToSpray to see how Folicur EW is performing in your area.

BayerCropScience.ca/Folicur or 1 888-283-6847 or contact your Bayer CropScience representative.

Always read and follow label directions. Folicur® is a registered trademark of the Bayer Group. Bayer CropScience is a member of CropLife Canada.

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Folicur® EW delivers exceptional leaf disease control, including rust, tan spot and septoria leaf blotch. Additionally, its wide window of application also provides outstanding suppression of fusarium.

GRAINWORLD Veteran grain industry reporter Richard Kamchen attended the 2013 GrainWorld outlook conference in Winnipeg this winter and filed the following reports to CROPS GUIDE that highlight some of the key questions and issues facing major grain crops going forward.

Can oats go back to the ball?

ats have become the derided house servant or unwanted stepchild in many farmers’ eyes, but fundamental signals suggest the potential for a Cinderella-like change in fortune for the once-popular cereal crop. “Oats are a sleeper crop with good price potential,” says Randy Strychar, president of Ag Commodity Research in Vancouver. Speaking in Winnipeg at the annual Wild Oats GrainWorld conference, Strychar said all indicators point to a major bull oat market moving forward, pointing to near recordhigh CBOT oat futures and tight CBOT oat spreads, with the potential for steady spread inversions into 2013-14. He noted western Canadian cash oat prices are within C$0.20 a bushel of record highs, and forecasted to remain above the averages into 2013-14. With net returns for Canadian oats near the bottom, Strychar predicted record-low oat plantings in 2013 at 2.66 million acres, which represented a significantly lower

area forecast than fellow speaker Brenda Tjaden Lepp’s 3.2 million acres. With lower plantings will come smaller oat supplies, and Strychar predicted that without aboveaverage yields, Canadian oat ending stocks would plummet to a record low of 312,000 tonnes in 2013-14, down from 2012-13 forecasts of 443,000 tonnes, both well below the average. He also forecast Canadian oat stocks-to-use ratios to continue decline, again falling to near record lows into 2013-14. He added commercial U.S. oats stocks are down as well, slipping to five-year lows and heading lower. “North American oat millers are just getting by with current supplies, and 2013-14 will tighten significantly for them,” Strychar said, adding he expected North American oat mill demand April forward will be good with supplies continuing to tighten. Without increases in commercial and onfarm feed demand, the North American oat market is likely to slide into a “contracted crop,” Strychar said. A free trade agreement

currently being negotiated between the EU and Canada could represent the lifeline the North American oat market needs, he added. But a finalized agreement could still be months or years away. Global oats markets are becoming a concern as well as world oat area and production are just off record lows, with 2012 EU-27 and North American oat area achieving record lows. Strychar said oilseed area is cutting into grains, and that oats as a per cent of world oat area have been steadily declining for the last 50 years, from 6.2 per cent in 1962 to a measly 1.1 per cent in 2012. Part of the problem for oats is declining feed demand for the crop, both commercially and on farms, as improvements in animal nutritional requirements resulted in endusers looking for more complex, convenient pelleted feeds. Oats use in food, including breakfast cereal and snack bars, though, will continue to see slow but steady increases moving forward. ■

Flax not recovered from European ban

hrinking Prairie flaxseed production isn’t causing much concern among buyers as greater international competition cuts into Canadian sales. Flaxseed acres are likely to rebound 12 per cent in 2013 from last year to 1.1 million acres, but remain well off average and only half of what they were five years ago, according to a GrainWorld outlook from FarmLink Marketing Solutions. FarmLink’s senior market analyst Jonathon Driedger said it’s been a difficult few years for flax, particularly since the detection of Triffid in a Canadian shipment to Europe in 2009. That closed Canada’s access to the EU, which had previously been taking about 70 per cent of Canadian flax. Europe consistently bought 400,000 to 450,000 tonnes a year, and that trailed off to almost nothing, rebounding marginally to over 50,000 in 2012-13. Meanwhile, flaxseed pro-

26 CROPS GUIDE

APRIL 2013

duction in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan boomed, which filled the European demand from which Canada was shut out. In the face of that competition, Prairie exports into Europe will remain a challenge, Driedger said. Cushioning the European disaster has been new export demand from China, which went from insignificant to now an annual 150,000 tonnes. Driedger forecast continued strong Chinese demand for Canadian flax , but questioned if it would be steady and predictable buying. The shift from Europe to China affected flax logistics here, for when European demand dominated, exports to Thunder Bay surged seasonally in the fall and early winter. But by shipping out of the West Coast to China, no seasonal limitations exist. The improved Chinese demand also impacted farmer bids and contracts to meet sales, with old-crop bids having reached $15 to $16 a bushel. The

past couple of years, bids spent most of their time between $13 and $14.40/bushel. “If prices are going to stay at these (old-crop) levels next year, then we will need to see other oilseed markets stay very high as well,” Driedger said in an interview. “Certainly flax has some of its own dynamics in play as well, but I don’t think it can completely divorce itself from these other markets either.” Despite climbing demand from China — including steady growth in flax for human consumption — Driedger anticipated Canadian flaxseed ending stocks to rise in 2013-14. With production rising almost 70,000 tonnes to 557,000, and a small decline in exports, Driedger expected ending stocks to reach 148,000 tonnes, up from 91,000 a year ago. “Our expectation for lower exports in 2013-14 is tied to slower European movement, on the assumption that the Black Sea crop will likely rebound next year. If they fal-

JONATHON DRIEDGER, FARMLINK MARKETING SOLUTIONS: DIFFICULT FEW YEARS FOR FLAX.

ter again, then we could see another year of better movement to Europe,” Driedger said, before explaining “better” is a relative term given sales would still be far below what would have been considered a historically normal amount only a few years ago. ■

Wheat producers urged to grow for a diverse marketplace

heat acreage is set to climb in Western Canada, but analysts are urging farmers to plant a greater amount of lower-protein, higher-yielding varieties to better meet consumer demand. FarmLink Marketing Solutions chief analyst Brenda Tjaden Lepp forecast Prairie spring wheat area to rise 3.2 per cent from 2012 to 17.5 million acres, and added there’d be a shift into mid-grade varieties. That’s something Lawrence Yakielashek would like to see become a trend. “Wheat is not wheat; it’s very complex,” said the president of Alfred C. Toepfer (Canada). He pointed out wheat fills a variety of different end uses, like various breads — french bread, bagels, focaccia — as well as pasta and noodles. What’s consumed in North America is not necessarily what’s eaten elsewhere in the world, and farmers need to ask themselves if they’re growing what the wheat buyers want. Do they really want CWRS? If

the end-user wants a product with maximum 10 protein, why grow 12? With forecasted domestic consumption of 8.6 million tonnes in 2013-14, Canada will need to export another 15 million tonnes. About six million to seven million tonnes of that will be for higher-premium markets like Japan, U.S., Indonesia, China and Sri Lanka, which means eight million to nine million remains for markets for which Canada will face stiff competition. Wheat output in countries like Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia and India has been growing, Yakielashek pointed out. Having produced 75 million tonnes of wheat eight years ago, India grew 94 million tonnes in 2012-13, and could grow around the same amount again in the new crop year. And India has said it would like to export one million tonnes a month, Yakielashek said. “The world wheat buyers want to buy not only CWRS, they want to buy CPS and white

BRENDA TJADEN LEPP, FARMLINK MARKETING SOLUTIONS: WHEAT ACRES TO RISE, SHIFT TO MID-GRADE VARIETIES.

Continued on page 28

SPRAYING OFF LABEL

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Spraying herbicide on Genuity® Roundup Ready® canola, above recommended rates or outside the application window,

can cost you 3 bushels per acre or more in yield. 10630-MON-RR Spray-CROPS-GUIDE-8x5.75.indd 1

ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW GRAIN MARKETING AND ALL OTHER STEWARDSHIP PRACTICES AND PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Genuity®, Roundup Ready®, Monsanto® and Vine Design® are registered trademarks of Monsanto Canada Inc. Licensee. ©2013 Monsanto Canada Inc.

CROPS GUIDE

2/27/13 11:42 AM

APRIL 2013 27

GRAINWORLD

Continued from page 27

DALE HEIDE, DELMAR COMMODITIES: SASKATCHEWAN COULD BE SURPRISING LEADER IN COMING SOYBEAN CHARGE.

Saskatchewan soy acreage set for dramatic rise

estern Canada could see an explosion in soybean acres in the next five years, but the province leading the charge may be an unexpected one. Manitoba farmers have been rewriting the province’s soybean area record books in recent years, seeding a record 578,000 acres in 2011 and then topping that with 844,660 acres last spring, according to Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation figures. This spring, a new record may be set at around 1.1 million acres possibly going in the ground. It’s Saskatchewan, however, that seems to have all the future growth potential. Only 70,000 acres of soybeans were planted there in 2011, and that could climb to 90,000 this year. But Saskatchewan soybean area might reach an astonishing four million acres in five years, Dale Heide, president of Delmar Commodities, predicted at this year’s Wild Oats GrainWorld conference. “A lot of the growth will be determined by the registration of some earlier-maturing varieties which are still unregistered,” he added in an interview. “I could see four million, but that would be five years out, and will certainly be determined by market influences such as price.” Heide said it’s conceivable that in the next five years, Western Canada could seed and produce more soybeans than Eastern Canada. While Manitoba is close to its soybean-acre highs, Heide believed the province still has some expansion room left, saying 1.5 million acres is a likely peak. These soybean production gains in untraditional growing areas seem to be a trend in other regions of the world as well. Improved genetics and agronomics are playing a large role in greater soybean acres in the Black Sea region, according to Aaron Brown, an oilseed merchandiser and trader with Alfred C. Toepfer (Canada). He also noted increased soybean acres in the northern U.S. “Warmer weather patterns as well as shorter-season varieties led to this opportunity, as well as excellent returns,” Brown said. ■

28 CROPS GUIDE

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wheat… It’s those bread products and those noodle products, they don’t need the CWRS, and the guys who need them, don’t pay for them,” Yakielashek said. “So how do we get into those markets? We’ve got to price the CWRS into those markets if we want to sell them, and for the most part, a lot of international mills will do blending.” While Canada is a significant wheat exporter, it’s also a small player in many of these other markets. By contrast, U.S. farmLAWRENCE YAKIELASHEK, ers will grow a little bit of everything during A.C. TOEPFER CANADA: WHEAT a typical growing year, meaning that when a ISN’T JUST WHEAT IT’S A VERY tender comes up, the U.S. sellers will always COMPLEX CROP AND MARKET. have something to offer, he added. Even domestic demand will rise for those lower-protein wheats as the ethanol industry continues to grow to meet demand, said Don O’Connor, president of S&T Squared Consultants. Ottawa requires five per cent renewable fuels in gasoline on average, and the western provinces have their own mandates, with Saskatchewan blending at nine per cent and Manitoba requiring 8.5 per cent. To meet the gaps between production and demand, Alberta and B.C. have imported ethanol from the U.S., O’Connor said, estimating imports at around 350 million litres. Ethanol plants here process wheat and he pegged their annual demand at a million tonnes, adding the plants prefer high-starch, lower-protein wheats like Prairie Spring, Soft White and winter wheats. An additional advantage to the producer is the plant specifications aren’t as tight as food applications, which translates into reduced risk of quality downgrades. Many also offer contracting programs and some pricing flexibility. Net-net, the plants provide farmers a stable domestic market, as well as rural development and valuable co-products for the livestock sector, O’Connor said. The benefits can be pencilled out into larger returns. The spreads between premium and feed-quality wheats have been very narrow, with returns per acre actually being significantly higher for the latter thanks to higher yields. As an example, he estimated white wheat gross returns at $638/acre and CPS at $480/acre, versus $340/acre for CWRS 13.5 per cent. Mike Krueger, president of Fargo’s The JOHN GRIFFITH, CENEX Money Farm, said overall the wheat marHARVEST STATES: DURUM ket would stay extremely volatile until MARKET TO TIGHTEN ON early summer when growing conditions DECLINING U.S. AND EU become clearer. He expected smaller U.S. PRODUCTION, NORTH HRW area, explaining a number of growAFRICAN PRODUCTION AND ing regions remain in too rough a shape DEMAND PIVOTAL. from drought to recover. U.S. wheat could range as wide as $7-$12/bu., depending on weather, he said. DURUM While western Canadian spring and winter wheat acres are seen climbing, Tjaden Lepp said a lack of strong price signals and premiums will cut into durum wheat acreage, which she predicted would fall 8.1 per cent in 2013 to 4.3 million acres. John Griffith, senior durum merchandiser for CHS Inc., said durum production needs to remain strong to service exports, especially in light of declining output in the EU and U.S. EU production could drop to minimal levels of 7.8 million tonnes in 2013-14, while U.S. production falls 20 per cent to 1.77 million tonnes, he said. “We’re running tight globally on durum and probably will con-

tinue to tighten up a little bit,” Griffith said, calling for world 2013-14 closing stocks to reach 6.8 million tonnes, down from 7.2 million a year ago. Pivotal to the durum market will be production and demand from the North African regions of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Algeria is the world’s largest durum importer, typically buying 2.5 million to three million tonnes a year, making it a key area of the world to be watching. Griffith said that as a whole, growing conditions in Algeria have improved. Morocco’s demand in 2012-13 was very good, especially for No. 1 CWAD, but their buying could diminish somewhat in the next crop year as some of Morocco’s durum

We’re running tight globally on durum and probably will continue to tighten up a little bit.

— JOHN GRIFFITH, CENEX HARVEST STATES

areas should produce more durum given greater precipitation. Part of the reason for such good demand for Canadian durum in 2012-13 was Spain’s poor output, which was almost cut in half. Conditions there, however, are better as precipitation is almost back to normal in Spain’s major durum-growing regions. For durum to again return premiums to

farmers will depend heavily on other grains going down, O’Connor said. “Declining adjacent markets provide the best opportunity for durum to gain greater premiums and therefore increase production longer term.” Prices could also move dramatically with production swings given inelastic durum demand. ■

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CROPS GUIDE

APRIL 2013 29

GRAINWORLD

Demand seen absorbing rebounding oilseed production

n expected rebound in newcrop canola and soybean production risks canola prices falling below the highs of 2012-13, but almost insatiable world and domestic oilseed demand should track rising output and allow canola to remain a profitable crop for western Canadian farmers. Cargill market analyst David Reimann told Winnipeg’s annual Wild Oats GrainWorld conference that canola reached “unbelievably high levels” in 2012-13, which should be taken as a warning sign. Assuming these current levels can be sustained is risky thinking, and he strongly urged farm-

DAVID REIMANN, CARGILL: ASSUMING CURRENT CANOLA PRICES CAN BE SUSTAINED IS RISKY THINKING.

ers to sell any old-crop supplies they have while the market is still screaming for deliveries, or else possibly cost themselves money. “There’s really only a handful of months in history that we’ve been at this kind of price level or higher,” Reimann pointed out. Global canola production has seen significant growth in the last decade, although it’s flattened in more recent years due to weather issues. That may change in 2013-14. The world oilseed complex has been tight, especially in North America. While resulting high prices have tried (and failed in certain cases) to promote demand rationing, they’ll also encourage greater oilseeds plantings in 2013-14, according to Aaron Brown, an oilseed merchandiser and trader for Alfred C. Toepfer (Canada). “We’re estimating world rapeseed/ canola production next year at 65 million tonnes, which would be a new record,” said Brown. “However, we’re only one disaster away from further tightness in this market.” Analysts are expecting a drop in Canadian canola-seeded acreage — 7.1 per cent less from a year ago to 20 million acres, according to FarmLink Marketing Solutions chief analyst Brenda Tjaden Lepp — but they add production could still rise if yields improve over last year’s below-average levels. Reimann said it’s safe to predict 15 million tonnes of Canadian canola next year, and possibly much higher, depending on yields. Output will likely climb elsewhere as well, with Brown expecting greater yearover-year rapeseed area in Ukraine and Europe. He added that Australian farmers are also planting more canola, with dramatic growth there evident the last three years. “Many doubted that canola can be grown in some of the dryland regions. However, better agronomic knowledge and

Learn more by visiting

www.savvyfarmer.com

new varieties and some timely rains have led to the growth,” Brown said. Although so much more supply is often automatically a bearish signal, experts predict export and domestic crusher demand will absorb the extra production. Citing Agriculture Canada data, Reimann said Canadian ending stocks will rise but remain tight in the next crop year at 600,000 tonnes. “The message is carry-out will remain very, very tight next year. Even with good yields, we’re still looking at a four per cent stocks-to-use ratio,” Reimann said, calling such a low ratio “absolutely astounding” compared to historical levels of 16-22 per cent. Ag Canada’s estimated 350,000-tonnecanola carry-out for 2012-13 will require severe demand rationing to achieve. Either that or find more canola than was reported. Reimann explained farmers have a history of underreporting their canola production to Statistics Canada, leading to upward revisions over the last 10 years. If that’s the case again this crop year, it might provide some padding. But tight domestic canola supplies and low stocks-to-use ratios aren’t an automatic signal for better prices, Reimann warned. While we tend to focus on Canadian factors like supplies and the loonie, history reveals nothing impacts canola more than the soybean complex. And we are not in the same boat as last year. SOYBEANS U.S. growing conditions appear improved versus last year as winter weather patterns shifted moisture west and north, Reimann said. USDA predicted farmers would harvest 3.41 billion bushels of soybean in 2013, up from just over three billion a year ago. South American production is set to

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30 CROPS GUIDE

APRIL 2013

Aaron Brown, A.C. Toepfer Canada: Oilseed rapeseed production climbing in Ukraine and Europe, canola acres on rise in Australia.

recover from last year’s drought-cut crops as well. Private crop forecaster Informa estimated 2013 Brazilian soybean production at 84.5 million tonnes (versus 66.4 million last year), and Argentinian soybean output at 51 million tonnes (up from only 39.9 million a year ago). And production in Paraguay and Uruguay is seen recovering as well. “Going forward, we’re anticipating much higher global output for soybeans in the U.S. and around the world in 2013-14. Global production should rise to a record 278 million tonnes,” said Brown. “Countering that, we expect global use to rise further, driven by increased demand for oil and meal in Asia. We’re anticipating both world crush and exports to be at record levels next year.” Brown noted a significant meal deficit in 2012, and expected that in 2013, meal production would rise with larger canola and soybean crops around the world. Asia will continue to be the focal point for growth. Similarly, vegetable oil was in deficit in 2012, Brown said. The shortage of soyoil exportable surplus in 2011 and 2012 led to deficits in the market, and although palm oil exports tried to make up for some of the decline, the market still had a shortfall. World

veg oil use continues to grow at a strong pace, with India importing record amounts of veg oil, and growth in China and the rest of Asia remaining large, Brown said. No matter what production is, soybeans will find somewhere to go and China is the driving force behind that demand, despite the market consistently underestimating China’s import appetite, said Mike Krueger, president of The Money Farm grain-marketing advisory service in Fargo. The fact is the country consumes nearly two-thirds of soybeans traded, so if you’re bearish China, get bearish everything else, he added. Not all demand is on the rise, though. EU imports have increased over time with demand from the biofuel sector, but Brown said biodiesel production dropped in 2012 after hitting a record in 2011. While that was partly due to a shorter crop, it also partly reflected the rising food-versus-fuel debate. The tightness in oilseed stocks led to the EU, the biggest user of biodiesel in the world, to import more ethanol and biodiesel, as well as use cooking oils. Brown predicted biodiesel exports out of Argentina would plunge to a four-year low as domestic mandates increased and biodiesel tax advantages lessened. And while U.S. mandates have risen and subsidies have been maintained, there’s no guarantee oilseeds will be subsidized forever given the shaky U.S. economy. Large subsidy costs and alternative feedstocks are risks to the oilseeds that have benefited from this sector, Brown said. Krueger called for unprecedented price volatility and the possibility of extreme soybean price ranges of $10-$20. If production falls short, those highs could be reached, he said. “It’s all about weather.” Another wild card factor is government interference, which will continue to influence world oilseed prices, for good or ill. Brown said former Soviet Union nations have used security issues to influence export bans, which has led to changes in trade flows. Brown also noted international trade barriers created to benefit domestic production and control reserve stocks, and tariffs and export taxes used as economic stimulus for

some cash-strapped regions. The ultimate costs of those taxes are borne by farmers, and he’s seen it leading to strife and civil uprising in past years, especially in South America. On the flipside, to counter civil uprising, Brown revealed some political nations under a great deal of unrest have used stockpiling as a way to keep people happy, leading to increasing strategic reserves, which has benefited oilseed prices. n

Trait Stewardship Responsibilities

Notice to Farmers

Monsanto Company is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship® (ETS). Monsanto products are commercialized in accordance with ETS Product Launch Stewardship Guidance, and in compliance with Monsanto’s Policy for Commercialization of Biotechnology-Derived Plant Products in Commodity Crops. This product has been approved for import into key export markets with functioning regulatory systems. Any crop or material produced from this product can only be exported to, or used, processed or sold in countries where all necessary regulatory approvals have been granted. It is a violation of national and international law to move material containing biotech traits across boundaries into nations where import is not permitted. Growers should talk to their grain handler or product purchaser to confirm their buying position for this product. Excellence Through Stewardship® is a registered trademark of Excellence Through Stewardship. ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Roundup Ready® crops contain genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides. Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Genuity and Design®, Genuity Icons, Genuity®, Roundup Ready®, and Roundup® are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC. Used under license.

CROPS GUIDE

APRIL 2013 31

combine to customer

Cigi relaunches course in support of western Canadian farmers BY ellen goodman

he Canadian International Grains Institute kicked off 2013 with courses focused on the needs of farmers and industry that included a relaunch of the Combine to Customer Course for western Canadian farmers in February. Cigi held the former week-long program several times each year on behalf of the Canadian Wheat Board for more than a decade. However, only the name remains the same for the new three-day course. “We have retained a type of program that farmers found beneficial in the past that has the continuity of the former course but is different in its scope and range of topics which have been broadened extensively,” says Dave Burrows, Cigi vice-president of client relations and communications. “We restructured the course in support of farmers as an opportunity to discuss the various issues facing farming today and in the future. They were able to focus on areas that affect them like variety registration and transportation, and engage with senior industry representatives.” The Combine to Customer participants, who were invited by industry and producer organizations, attended classroom sessions and hands-on demonstrations at Cigi. Presentations were given by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canola Council of Canada, Pulse Canada, CN Railway(s), plant breeders, exporters, grain companies, and the soybean, seed, and malting barley industries. The Canadian Grain Commission provided an overview of its

Cigi’s former head of baking technology Tony Tweed makes a return engagement to talk to growers as part of the organization’s rebooted “CtoC” grower seminars.

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future plans as well as a demonstration on grain inspection and grading. The participants visited Cigi’s technical areas for end-use processing demonstrations to find out more about customer quality requirements. “We were able to bring in senior managers as presenters such as a representative from CN in Chicago who spoke about the role CN plays in grain transportation,” says Earl Geddes, Cigi’s CEO. “The farmers also heard from senior speakers from government where they had a chance to discuss AAFC’s Growing Forward 2 Program, and spent time in our technical areas to get a better sense of how their grain is used by customers around the world.” Continuing to offer a Combine to Customer course is an important way for Cigi to provide farmers with an understanding of what customers desire from Canadian field crops, he says. “This program provides education and awareness and helps improve the level of debate about the future quality profile of western wheat. It also helps the farmers decide on what wheat classes to grow if they want to focus on a specific market with a grain company.” Geddes says that the course focused extensively on the new marketing environment, including how exporters deal with customers and the rules and procedures of the grain companies when marketing farmers’ grain. The program received positive feedback from the participants and Cigi plans to hold more of the courses in the upcoming year, says Geddes. “The participants gave us strong suggestions on how they wanted Cigi to be able

to provide them support in the marketplace in future. One of the strongest recommendations was not only to have more Combine to Customer courses but also to communicate in new ways so that more than 20 farmers at a time can understand the value of what Cigi is doing with customers both in promoting their grains and supporting customers’ activities.” A series of Cigi programs targeted for a wide range of customers and markets has been approved for this spring and early summer by its two Cigi Program Advisory Committees, one comprised of farmers and the other, exporters. The on-site programs include an Asian noodle short course, one-week milling programs and technical exchanges customized for customers from Malaysia, Indonesia, North Africa, Japan, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean; a six-month milling program for staff from the Grain Silos and Flour Mills Organization

of Saudi Arabia; and an international milling program held annually for customers from a number of countries. In addition, technical programs on noodles and pasta will involve visits to China and the U.K., and on wheat to South Korea. “The program advisory committees are giving excellent direction to Cigi in terms of reviewing program proposals and offering guidance on priorities,” says Geddes. “The programs that have been approved for the first four months of our new business year as of April cover a wide perspective of activities and have a global reach. These programs will enable the Canadian industry to promote, position and support Canadian field crops for a vast array of food B:10.5” product uses in every corner of the globe.” n T:10”

For moreS:8” information on Cigi’s programs and other activities, visit www.cigi.ca.

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Quality screening

his issue we continue our visit to the Monsanto Canada research facility at the University of Manitoba, where photographer Ryan Fennessy was recently granted access to document some of the important behind-the-scenes work that goes into developing that latest canola variety.

In this issue weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll look at the quality testing that happens which will determine if a line continues forward in the development process.

1 A & B Following harvest plants

from the variety plots are individually bagged and stored, then hand thrashed to retrieve the seed.

2 T he samples are then catalogued and stored for a two-stage oil quality testing procedure. Quality testing is a vital step because oil quality parameters for canola are very strict and if a new line canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t meet them, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no point in continuing to develop it.

3 The first rough cut at testing is done using near-infrared technology, which uses light waves and the way they interact with the material being tested to measure certain attributes. Here a technician prepares a sample for the NIR

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4 5

machine, seen to his right. This test will provide a decent estimate of oil protein content, moisture, oil content, chlorophyl-level, saturated fatty acids and glucosinolates.

4 At this stage, if the NIR profile

warrants it, further and much more accurate and in-depth testing will be performed using gas chromatography, which sees a sample vaporized, allowing the chemical compounds it contains to be measured with great accuracy. Here samples are prepared using a chemical extraction system under a fume hood.

5 The completed samples are of uniform volume to ensure the analytical numbers are comparable.

6 The gas chromatography equipment takes longer and is more expensive than NIR but delivers extremely accurate measures of the same quality parameters.

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canola agronomy

How to improve canola seed survival Of all the canola seeds put in the ground each spring, typically only 40 to 60 per cent survive to become plants. These tips will help you increase this number, and get more from your seed investment Canola Council of Canada agronomist Shawn Senko says high seed survival often means a healthier stand that matures earlier, which lowers the risk of high green seed, and can reduce weed and insect management costs. Photo courtesy: Shawn Senko

B Y j ay w h e t t e r

alf the canola seed put in the ground in Western Canada each spring survives to become plants. The other half amounts to nothing. This is an average. In some fields it might be 75 per cent or more. In others, 25 per cent or less. Given the seed investment you make every year, you may find the tips below provide a worthwhile boost to seed emergence. “Canola is such a small seed, some mortality is expected,” says Bob Blackshaw, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Lethbridge, Alta. “However, if we could push average emergence from 40-60 per cent up to 60-85 per cent, that would have huge advantages for growers.” With high seed survival, growers could seed large-seed hybrids at five lbs./ac. and be assured of at least seven plants per square foot — a stand that has a better chance of reaching its yield potential. “A robust stand will mature earlier, which reduces the risk of high green seed in the harvest sample. It will canopy faster to be more competitive with weeds, thereby reducing the need for a second herbicide application. And the crop could lose a couple plants

Try the new Diagnostic Tool The Canola Council of Canada has a new online Canola Diagnostic Tool at www.canoladiagnostictool.ca. To test the tool today, start with a problem you encountered in 2012, and work through the questions to see what potential causes the tool provides. Read the cause descriptions and “ways to confirm” to determine which cause is most likely.

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per square foot to insects and still maintain its yield potential, possibly reducing the need for insecticide,” says Shawn Senko, Canola Council of Canada agronomy specialist. The common first recommendation to increase canola seed survival and improve crop establishment is to seed shallow. Canola placed 0.5 inches to one inch below the packer furrow will reduce days to emergence and reduce the seed energy required for emergence. Seedlings that emerge quickly have more vigour and are well established by the time fungicide and insecticide seed treatments lose their effectiveness, improving survival. AAFC research found that seeding at 1.5 inches was consistently negative compared to seeding at 0.5 inches — unless soils are very dry, Blackshaw says. In very dry soils, seeding deeper to reach moisture has advantages over shallow seeding into dust. The same study also found that seeding at 1.5 inches can extend emergence by up to 10 days compared to seeding at 0.5 inches. An important companion to shallow seeding is consistent depth row to row. For some drills, the overall average may be three-quarters inch, but the range could be zero inches to 1.5 inches. Too shallow or too deep both contribute to seed and seedling mortality, and seeds that do emerge have highly variable emergence dates, creating an uneven field. Factors that contribute to consistent seed depth include seeding speed, residue management and drill maintenance. “At higher ground speed, you start losing depth control,” Blackshaw says. The ideal speed will vary by drill and soil conditions. In general, at higher speeds, rear openers throw more soil over the front rows, making seeds in front rows slower to emerge — if they emerge at all.

Residue becomes a factor if parts of the field have a couple inches of straw and chaff and other parts have none. At shallow depth settings, drills may not work properly in these conditions. Seed placed in residue may germinate but seedlings will most likely die before their roots reach soil. “A combine that can spread straw evenly over the width of the header or, if necessary, a pass with the harrows to spread residue can greatly improve seed placement,” Senko says. Blaine Metzger, seeding equipment specialist with the AgTech Centre in Lethbridge, says to check drills — old and new — to make sure they’re level front to back and side to side. Tire wear and tire pressure can also throw off level settings. Metzger then checks each opener and shank trip. Worn openers can have poor soil flow and stubble clearance, which affect seed placement and packed seed depth, he says. “Even those openers worn less than others may be worn to a point where they’ll have poor penetration, give poor seed placement and have poor seed and fertilizer separation,” he says. Worn shank trips can mean poor penetration and may inconsistently trip in and out of the ground, causing variable seed depth placement, Metzger says. “Newer-style, independent link opener systems have variable shank trip and penetration adjustments, and should be adjusted according to soil conditions.” Worn seed distribution hoses and manifolds can also affect equal distribution and product flow, he adds. More drill settings Drill setup can influence three other factors in seed survival — seed and fertilizer separation, seed condition as it enters the soil, and packing.

Nitrogen fertilizer placed in the seed row can increase seedling loss due to toxicity and salt effect. Safe rates of seed-placed nitrogen range from zero to 50 lbs./ac. depending on soil type, soil moisture conditions and seedbed utilization. “The best practice is to place only phosphate fertilizer with the seed at rates up to 30-40 pounds of MAP per acre, if needed, then put the rest of the N and other nutrients away from the seed row,” Senko says. Seed damage can be a hidden factor with air drills. A sock test can show how seed looks when it reaches the opener. Remove one or more hoses from their openers, tie the hose up to the frame so it doesn’t get damaged, then duct tape a tube sock to the end to collect seed. Count damaged seeds carefully. Even though the yellow split or cracked seeds will show up vividly in the sample, they may only represent a couple per cent of seeds. If excessive damage has occurred, lower the fan speed or add air braking devices to slow seed velocity at the openers. To set packing pressure, assess soil type and moisture and make changes field to field when necessary, Senko says. Generally, you want to reduce packing pressure in wet conditions to limit hard crusting, and increase packing in dry conditions to seal the soil, improve seed-to-soil contact and conserve moisture in the seed row.

Soil temperature and moisture “Moisture before and after seeding is the No. 1 factor in canola emergence,” Blackshaw says. Growers can’t influence the weather but they can use practices such as zero tillage to conserve soil moisture. Warm soil also has a big influence on seed survival. “But waiting until soil reaches 10 C in the seed zone may mean growers delay too long and miss the clear yield advantages of early seeding,” Senko says. “The best plan is to seed early and rely on shallow seeding, proper fertilizer placement, drill maintenance and other factors to increase seed survival — if these steps are necessary on your farm.” This raises a good point. Some growers already have a system that achieves the seeding efficiency and plant stand they’re looking for. But if you’re not getting the stand establishment you expect, and you’re not getting the desired return on your seed investment, make plant counts part of your spring scouting plan. Calculate how many canola seeds you planted per square foot or square metre, then go out a few weeks after seeding to see how many emerged. You may find your system is working, but your seeding rate is just too low. Or, if seed survival is very low, you may look at the weather conditions or the B:8” listed above to see other controllable factors what might have goneT:8” wrong.

Seed survival factors — at a glance • Seed 0.5 to one inch deep • Check various seed rows in the field to make sure depth is consistent • Level the drill and replace worn parts • Limit seed damage in the drill • Limit seed-placed fertilizer • Pack according to soil conditions • Spread residue evenly

“In the end, whether 50 per cent of seeds emerge or 75 per cent, canola can compensate and yields may be similar in both cases,” Blackshaw says. “But poor seed survival and uneven emergence — which often go together — mean bigger plants and uneven crop staging. These make fungicide timing and swathing timing more difficult, and can increase green seed at harvest.” The yield may be there, but the quality isn’t and input costs to reach those yields are higher. “These side-effects do translate into dollars and cents,” he says. n Jay Whetter is communications manager with the Canola Council of Canada. He’s also editor of the CCC’s free Canola Watch agronomy newsletter. Go to www.canolawatch.org and find the sign-up box down the right column.

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Beware Sclerotinia, ‘The Pirate of the Prairies.’

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MARKETs

Wheat’s short-term trend down, long-term trend up

By David Drozd Senior analyst and president, Ag-Chieve Corporation

he wheat market has been under pressure since prices peaked in July 2012. So what has changed since last sum-

mer’s high? W h e a t f utures prices have declined $2.50 per bushel and cash prices have declined $1. The $1.50 difference in price is due to a better basis and a lower Canadian dollar. We have an open market and it has been working as well as anyone could have hoped for. The $40-pertonne improvement in basis levels since harvest is an indication of strong export demand and year-todate producer deliveries are two per cent ahead of last year. Wheat is now cheaper than corn on the nearby futures contracts at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and this anomaly never lasts for long. USDA, in its February supply-anddemand report, estimates a global wheat carry-out of 176.73 million tonnes in 2012-13, a 10 per cent reduction from the 196.54-million-tonne carry-out in 2011-12. In fact, world wheat ending stocks have declined in each of the past three years. Technical indicators such as the RSI and stochastics are in an oversold position. The funds have gone

from having a net long position in wheat to a net short position, while the commercials have been adding to their long positions and getting out of their short wheat positions at the CBOT. Herein lays the potential for a short-covering rally. From a technical perspective, the short-term trend is down and the long-term trend is up. Chart analysis can be used to determine the price trend and where support and resistance to the trend may be anticipated. Support is illustrated as “A” in the accompanying chart. Within the major trend there is a series of prominent peaks and valleys that can be of several weeks’ duration. The lesser swings are the intermediate trends. Finally, there are small fluctuations within the intermediate moves that are the minor trends. Over the past 30 years I have witnessed on numerous occasions where the news was incredibly bearish and the hype was for prices to continue the short-term downtrend, but instead prices turned up with the major uptrend on the long-term charts remaining firmly intact. I was reminded of this in early January 2013 when the canola futures market dropped down to $575 per tonne. Many in the industry

CBOT Wheat Monthly Nearby (Chart as of February 28, 2013) 1560 1430 1260 1130 960 830 660

A Line of Support Line of Support

91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13

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530 360 230 60

were expecting prices to go lower, but they instead bounced off an area of support (the lower boundary of the uptrending channel, which depicted the major uptrend on the monthly chart) and quickly rallied $75 to $650 in only four weeks. The wheat market is in a similar situation now. Given the shortterm downtrend, the news is incredibly bearish. However, prices are approaching a major uptrending line of support “A” on the monthly chart.

“ Wheat is now cheaper than corn on the nearby futures contracts at CBOT and this anomaly never lasts long.” I’ve also illustrated a very similar line of support that was challenged for six years (2000 to 2005) without being breached. Back then, wheat prices were unprofitable at $2.95 per bushel and I recall meeting farmers in Saskatchewan who were willing to rent their land out to anyone who would cover their taxes. During those days, I remember explaining at farm meetings I held across the Prairies that this line of support would soon be the foundation for higher prices. In January 2006, prices turned up and rallied until they peaked at a new historical high in 2008. This is a classic example of the benefit of understanding trends, both short and long term. n David Drozd is president and senior market analyst for Winnipeg-based AgChieve Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the writer and are solely intended to assist readers with a better understanding of technical analysis. Visit Ag-Chieve online for information about grain-marketing advisory services, or call us toll free at 1-888-274-3138 for a free consultation.

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