Farm Forum Spring 2019

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LIVING SUCCESSION PLAN ANCHORS THIS FAMILY FARM Technology

Business

Production

Farm Life

Tech helps these young farmers balance work and home life

Bayer offers innovative, tailored solutions for farmers

Tips to help corn growers fight disease and boost yield

Author touts new approach to build strong communities

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FARM FORUM / SPRING 2019

CONTENTS

COVER STORY

Living succession plan anchors this family farm /22 FEATURES

FARM LIFE

BUSINESS

Editor’s Note / 4 Soybean shows promise as alternative prairie crop / 25

Author touts new approach to build strong communities / 6

PRODUCTION

The new realities of weed management / 28

Tips to help corn growers fight disease and boost yield / 12

Bayer offers innovative, tailored solutions for Canadian farmers / 8

TECHNOLOGY

Tech helps these young farmers balance work and home life / 19

FA R MFOR UM.CA / SPR IN G 2019

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EDITOR’S NOTE

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EDITOR Sherry Warner CONTRIBUTORS Trevor Bacque Jennifer Barber Joy Gregory Terry Hockaday Clare Stanfield and Genesis Studio DESIGN/PRODUCTION Glacier FarmMedia LP Farm Forum is published seasonally by Bayer CropScience Inc. CONTACT FARM FORUM AT: Bayer CropScience Inc. Suite 130 160 Quarry Park Blvd. SE Calgary, AB T2C 3G3 T. 1 888-283-6847 F. 1 888-570-9378 E. farmforum@bayer.com www.cropscience.bayer.ca Contents of this publication are copyrighted and may be reproduced only with written permission of the publisher, Bayer CropScience Inc. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher.

Publications Mail Agreement Number 40743517 Registered in Canada Copyright 2019 WEBSITE www.farmforum.ca Return undeliverable copies to: Bayer CropScience Inc. Suite 130 160 Quarry Park Blvd. SE Calgary, AB T2C 3G3

PHOTO: GENESIS STUDIO

I

’m always fascinated when we bring a group of seemingly unrelated stories together in an issue of Farm Forum and they all end up having the same underlying theme. In this issue that theme is “taking a new approach to doing business.”

Our cover story revisits the Hilton family, who were featured on the cover of Farm Forum 30 years ago. When Spencer and Lynne Hilton became partners in the family farm in the late 1990s, they started a new way of growing the business and ensuring its continued success.

Their strategy has a number of key components including a living succession plan that welcomes new talent and ideas, an emphasis on clear communication, a commitment to protect the land, innovative marketing and using social media to build their brand. Turn to Page 22 to learn more.

Jill Ebbett and Robert Anderson also challenge conventional thinking about how to run the family farm. The winners of the Outstanding Young Farmers’ Program award for the Atlantic region don’t buy in to the idea that you need to work from sun-up to sundown to be successful.

The couple use technology to farm smarter and create balance in their work and home life. For more on their story turn to Page 19.

Ontario producers are looking at different ways to fight disease in corn. Along with using fungicides and always keeping an eye on the weather, another option they are exploring is using cover crops. Blake Vince, a corn grower near Chatham, ON, wrote his thesis on this very topic. He plants his corn directly into a cover crop blend that includes kale, hairy vetch, cereal rye and purple top turnip and says this practice is the reason his corn crop has very low DON levels. To find out more turn to page 12.

Herbicide resistance is a real concern for prairie farmers and according to John Kowalchuk, farmers will need to diversify their crops as environmental and agronomic pressures will make growing traditional prairie crops very challenging. That’s why Kowalchuk has been experimenting with soybeans on his farm in central Alberta. He says that taking on this challenge has not only provided him with a viable alternative crop but has made him a better farmer. Turn to Page 25 to read his story.

Since Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto was approved last July, the company has been working hard to restructure to better serve its customers. Bayer’s new approach is based on trust and transparency.

The acquisition enhances both Bayer’s product offering and its range of innovative solutions for Canadian farmers. Turn to Page 8 for more on this story.

Rounding out this issue is a story about new ways to approach building strong communities. In his book, 13 Ways to Kill Your Community, Doug Griffiths, long-time rancher and former Alberta MLA, outlines a host of attitudes and biases that prevent people from doing what they set out to do in their “community”, which he defines as any group with a common focus. With respect to the agricultural community, Griffiths says that failing to engage youth, living in the past, becoming complacent and not taking responsibility are sure ways to “kill your farming community.” Turn to page 6 to find out more on this interesting topic.

— Sherry

PUBLISHER Bayer CropScience Inc.

ON THE COVER Lynne (middle) and Spencer Hilton (far right), their two boys, Dane (left) and Reid, along with Spencer’s sisterin-law, Lianna, challenge conventional views on succession planning.

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FARM LIFE

Author touts new approach to build strong communities

BY JOY GREGORY

D

oug Griffiths is making waves across the pea fields and corn stalks of rural Canada. A longtime rancher, former Alberta MLA and author of the book, 13 Ways to Kill Your Community, Griffiths has a reputation for tough talk about how community leaders contribute to the demise of their own rural municipalities.

But Griffiths’ message doesn’t stop where the paved streets end and the fields begin. “I didn’t call the book, ‘13 Ways to Kill Your Town.’ I used the word ‘community’ because people don’t live in towns or cities, they live in communities.

And those communities could be just as easily defined as neighbourhoods, volunteer organizations or commodity groups.”

Griffiths disbursed his cattle herd in 2010, the same year the book was published. Five years later, he left politics.

Now, between his consultancy practice and work as an instructor with the Executive Education program at the University of Alberta School of Business, Griffiths spends his days thinking, talking and travelling.

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His fans call him a “community therapist.” Griffiths didn’t choose the moniker, but he likes that it doesn’t reference strategic plans or economic development. While an economic development guru might leave clients with a hefty report about what they need to do to attract people and business to their communities, Griffiths takes a remarkably different approach: he challenges listeners to be honest about how their attitudes and biases prevent them from accomplishing what they say they want to do.

A message to youth A failure to positively engage youth is the first item Griffiths notes when asked how his “13 ways” (see inset box) is relevant to the farm community. Griffiths doesn’t regret his experience teaching or his time in the Alberta Legislature. But the farm kid in him does wonder if his life choices would have been different if he’d received more positive messages about the future of agriculture.

“Farming is one of the most complex and important businesses that our society is

going to depend on moving forward. We’ve got to stop dumbing it down and saying that the ‘smart’ kids have to go off and do something else. We need smart people in agriculture. We need to start talking about this business as if it’s valuable,” insists Griffiths.

History shows that youth bring enthusiasm and new ideas to the farm and those new ideas have been good for farmers and the farm community, says Griffiths.

“There are new products to grow. There are new ways to use the land. There are new ways to do agriculture.”

Honesty and the attitude check Several other items on Griffiths’ list of 13 ways harken directly to issues with attitude and honesty. “Live in the past”, “become complacent” and “don’t take responsibility”, for example, are attitudedriven problems rooted in negative, often dishonest, messages, says Griffiths.

He believes people — and the communities they inhabit — are held back by the human tendency to speak

negatively about what we do or where we are. “There’s this notion that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence,” says Griffiths. “But I can tell you, after being in politics, living in the city, doing this consulting work and being a business owner, the grass is green where you water it.”

He warns that a negative point of view can be contagious. “You can write all the reports you want but if people don’t believe that what they’re doing is valuable, then there’s no point,” he says. “When a group of people decides to fail, then it can’t be successful.”

In the agricultural community, this manifests in a tendency to stick with the status quo. One of the complaints Griffiths has heard from the cattle industry over the last few years concerns how A&W ads focus how the beef and chicken used in its products is produced.

He thinks those insulted by the message missed the point. “(The ads) opened a conversation with consumers — and consumers liked it,” says Griffiths. A lot, apparently. Information released by the fast-food chain links the ads to increased in-store sales and an uptake in new store openings.

“We don’t need to jump on every bandwagon, but we do need to consider how our businesses are going to change,” notes Griffiths. He cites Sobeys as an example of a family business forging new ground. The country’s second-largest food retailer is headquartered in Stellarton, NS, a community of 4,208 people, and not (as some might assume) in a major urban centre.

Momentum goes both ways Self-deception and living in the past perpetuate the negative consequences of complacency and a failure to take responsibility for what needs to be done.

“At the core is changing the lies we tell ourselves,” says Griffiths. “When we say it’s too late to do anything now, no young people want to live here, we can’t do anything to help our seniors, no one wants to shop here, there’s no future in agriculture, we create and recreate those realities.”

Although the example is not ag-related, Griffiths thinks Lancaster, Pennsylvania exemplifies what’s possible when a community turns a potential problem into an advantage. Lancaster, with less than

“Farming is one of the most complex and important businesses that our society is going to depend on moving forward … we need to start talking about this business as if it’s valuable” Doug Griffiths RANCHER, FORMER ALBERTA MLA AND AUTHOR OF 13 WAYS TO KILL YOUR COMMUNITY

13 Ways to Kill Your Community 1. D on’t Have Quality or Quantity of Water

8. Live in the Past

2. Don’t Attract Business

9. Ignore Seniors

3. Don’t Engage Youth

10. Be Short-Sighted

4. Deceive Yourself

11. Ignore Newcomers and Immigrants

5. Shop Elsewhere

12. Become Complacent

6. Don’t Paint

13. Don’t Take Responsibility

7. Don’t Cooperate For a fuller explanation of these points, visit 13Ways.ca/books.

60,000 people, now tops the lists of places seniors want to live in the U.S. While Lancaster’s leaders could have identified an aging demographic as a precursor to urban decline, they turned the equation around.

There, municipal and business leaders created a plan to serve and grow the community’s senior population. “The biggest economic boom right now is from young families moving there to serve retired seniors,” says Griffiths.

Griffiths wants to see the ag community identify some of the particular challenges in their community, then use that information

to shine light on new ideas. He says doing so can open the door to opportunities in value-added production, encourage young people to bring post-secondary education back to their farms and spark cooperative ventures between farmers and consumers.

To get that started, he urges farmers and commodity groups to get together and talk honestly about their communities. It’s as easy as asking people what’s wrong and then challenging them to see what’s right.

As Griffiths says: “What really holds us back is the idea that we are alone, and the reality is that we share these challenges with others.” FF

FA R MFOR UM.CA / SPR IN G 2019

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BUSINESS

Bayer offers innovative, tailored solutions for Canadian farmers

BY JENNIFER BARBER

T

he new year brought a new structure for Bayer’s Canadian agriculture business. The acquisition of Monsanto, approved last July, provided Bayer the opportunity to rethink how it operates the business and how it speaks to its customers. Some difficult and complex changes were needed, but in the end, the company is now fully prepared to support growers and retailers through the upcoming growing season and beyond.

“From an organizational perspective, we had 8

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a lot of work to do before we could get everyone in the positions they needed to be in,” says Al Driver, country division head for Bayer’s Crop Science division in Canada. “By the middle of January, we were the first country in the Bayer framework to have our entire sales, marketing and market development teams in place, top to bottom, to start training everyone on our products and services. I feel like I have over 200 new friends coming into this year, and it’s time to get to know each other better.”

Al Driver (right), country division head for Bayer’s Crop Science Division in Canada, is pictured here with agronomist, Darryl Whittington.

A STRUCTURE BASED ON CUSTOMER NEED Getting the organizational structure in place was a key milestone for the company. The initial goal was to minimize disruption to customers while, at the same time, make sure people were put in roles that fit the company’s long-term objectives.

This involved some tough resourcing decisions, but Driver is confident that, right now, they have people where they need to be in order to be successful going forward.

“Customers, whether retailers or growers, are our main focus, making sure they have the products they need and the support we have committed to as we approach seeding,” says Driver. “We identified all of our territory boundaries in a way that we can offer growers the best possible service. Each territory has a single sales representative responsible for the entire portfolio, with a team of agronomists, marketing specialists, seed growth experts and climate teams backing them up.” »

FA R MFOR UM.CA / SPR IN G 2019

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BUSINESS

Al Driver COUNTRY DIVISION HEAD BAYER’S CANADIAN CROP SCIENCE DIVISION

10

Driver says to ensure customer ease, sales representatives will have all the tools needed to take ownership of their territories. Lines of communication have been set up so that answers are easy to find. He says those lines of communication work both ways as growers have made it clear it’s important to them to involve the public and other stakeholders in conversations about modern agriculture in order to increase trust in Canadian food systems.

TRUST IS PARAMOUNT “It’s clear to us that trust is extremely important in how we do business,” says Driver. “It’s hard to innovate without a social license to operate. The fact is, globally, we need to figure out a way to feed close to 10 billion people by 2050,” he explains.

“In most people’s lifetimes in Canada, we have not seen any food shortages, so it’s easier to criticize how we reach that goal. It will be our job to help address public perception through transparent discussion about our processes and the regulatory environment in which we do business.”

Driver says everyone in the company is well aware of the need to involve the public and other stakeholders in conversations about agriculture, knowing it is critical that it builds trust in food

FA R M FO R U M .C A / S P RING 2 019

and in those who produce it. He points to public perception around glyphosate herbicide, and the ongoing need to prove the product is safe, as an example of where trust has been an issue.

“The recent re-evaluation of what was to have been the final decision on the safety of glyphosate

by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) shows what we are up against,” he says. “Over 160 countries approve the use of glyphosate and, as Health Canada states: ‘No pesticide regulatory agency in the world currently considers glyohosate to be a cancer risk to humans at the levels at which humans are currently exposed.’ But there is a subset of the population that has not accepted the scientific evidence no matter how it is approached,” he says. “It is our role to stand behind our technology so farmers have the tools they need to be productive.”

A FOCUS ON TRANSPARENCY One way Bayer is building trust is by providing as much information as possible to customers and consumers. To that end, the company recently published over 300 documents on glyphosate in its research efforts as part of its Transparency in Crop Science website, www.cropsciencetransparency.bayer.com.

PHOTO: GENESIS STUDIO

“We feel we have created an organization that will help positively shape the future of Canadian agriculture”

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

As well, Driver is a spokesperson for modern agriculture as Chair of CropLife Canada. And Bayer remains a strong supporter of Ag in the Classroom and advocates for agriculture as part of grower organizations across the country.

Driver adds that Bayer and Monsanto brought together large amounts of research data and put it into the digital arena for easier access. “We can now present all of our data in a transparent manner,” says Driver. “Farmers need to have access to information and have tools available to use it wisely. Digital tools such as Climate FieldView will help them handle the variables on their farms in a way that they can manage their inputs and other resources more effectively.”

TRUST ESSENTIAL FOR INNOVATION Driver says that trust will also be a necessary component in helping the industry innovate to compete globally and to create solutions to farming and food concerns. He says that the recent consolidation in Canadian agriculture is ultimately a positive development for growers and consumers and that in the current regulatory environment, most innovation will come from companies that have the capacity and expertise to invest in research and development, and work through the steps required to bring new concepts to market.

“In Canadian agriculture, we now have four main companies, similar to Bayer, that are well resourced to meet the demands of consumers, growers and regulators,” says Driver. “They are motivated to innovate while still maintaining a competitive environment for their products and services. Canadian agriculture is now in a really good position — it is able to compete on a global scale because we have a sustainable industry that can keep up with changing technologies.”

Globally, Bayer has committed to invest over $3.03 billion CAD (€2 billion) each year in agriculture. Driver says this level of investment would not have been possible without the current scale of the combined company.

“We are already seeing some of those investments come to fruition,” he says. “We’ve recently received approval for our TruFlex canola Roundup Ready trait, allowing increased flexibility for canola growers. We would never have been able to work through all of the regulatory requirements for approval as quickly as we have without the resources we have today. We’re excited to launch TruFlex as our first product offering this spring.

“I am proud to be leading an enthusiastic team that is ready and excited to exceed our customers’ needs,” says Driver. “We feel we have created an organization that will help positively shape the future of Canadian agriculture.” FF

“Farmers need to have access to information and have tools available to use it wisely.

Digital tools such as Climate FieldView will help them handle the variables on their farms in a way that they can manage their inputs and other resources more effectively”

FA R MFOR UM.CA / SPR IN G 2019

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PRODUCTON

Tips to help corn growers fight disease and boost yield

BY TREVOR BACQUE

Continued on page 14 »

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Overly wet weather can contribute to high levels of fusarium graminearum, which causes gibberella ear rot in corn, pictured here.

PHOTOS: BOTTOM, BAYER CROPSCIENCE, TOP, GETTY IMAGES

W

here you live in Ontario paints a picture of how your 2018 corn harvest played out. If you farm west of Toronto, you probably want to talk about something more pleasant — like a root canal.

Last year’s wet mid-season weather in southwest Ontario contributed to well above average levels of fusarium graminearum that causes gibberella ear rot (GER) in corn, and which led to well above average vomitoxin, or DON levels.

In a normal year, DON levels could range anywhere from zero to six parts per million (ppm), however certain samples in 2018 showed 10, 20 and, in rare instances, 50 ppm. Government data from early February showed that 3,000 damage reports were filed and $25.5 million had been paid out in various production and salvage claims related to corn.

PRODUCTON

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“Corn yield will be better if you’re doing wheat/soybeans.

That’s probably the best rotation … your highest risk is going to be corn on corn” Derek Freitags MARKET DEVELOPMENT LEAD/EASTERN CANADA BAYER

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Looking ahead to 2019, it’s a level planting field again and producers have reason to be optimistic. Information sharing about what has and hasn’t worked is a fantastic tool for hybrid corn producers, according to Dale Cowan, senior agronomist and sales manager with AGRIS Co-operative, an Ontario-based company that provides agricultural innovations and solutions to its clients.

THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT FUNGICIDE APPLICATIONS “We know which (corn) hybrids are susceptible,” he says. “Avoid them or grow them in limited acres up to the level of risk assessment.”

Cowan says producers should also aim for crop uniformity as later-emerging corn may be susceptible to GER, causing high DON levels. A healthy plant program will mitigate risk and can be accomplished through well-timed fungicide applications.

According to Cowan, using a fungicide program has reduced instances of DON caused by GER by up to 50 per cent. “It won’t eliminate it, it will suppress it.”

For example, the current school of

thought is to target fungicide application in corn just prior to tassel emergence, around mid- to late-July, with a Group 11 fungicide if leaf disease is visible or predicted to become an issue. What Cowan suggests is using the option to apply a Group 3 fungicide at silk emergence, around late July or early August, which is said to be the best protection against GER. This will also provide you with some foliar disease protection.

Given those options, the question is: Is it possible to combine the two modes of action into a one-application solution?

“We’re looking at combinations and mixing the two classes together,” says Cowan, adding that research conducted during 2019 may help producers determine the best possible application timing for future crops.

WEATHER MATTERS While many equate late planting dates to no DON, Cowan says that’s just noise.

“Planting date doesn’t have anything to do with it,” he says. “It’s all about the weather at flowering or silking, and your hybrid choice.”

Continues on page 16 »

PHOTOS: RIGHT, BAYER CROPSCIENCE, TOP, GETTY IMAGES

PRODUCTON

Gibberella ear rot.

FA R MFOR UM.CA / SPR IN G 2019

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PRODUCTON THE POTENTIAL OF COVER CROPS One of those things some producers are exploring, including Blake Vince, is cover cropping. The Chatham, ON producer is a genuine cover cropping evangelist and his 2013 Nuffield Canada thesis, Conserving Farmland With Cover Crops and the Importance of Biodiversity, centred on the positive effects of cover crops and biodiversity in various agricultural settings.

At his farm, 2018 was business as usual and he had no issues with DON in corn, while many nearby suffered. He planted his corn directly into a cover crop blend that included kale, hairy vetch, cereal rye and purple top turnip. He believes this agronomic practice is a primary reason his corn crop was below 3 ppm DON with zero downgrades at his elevator.

“I’m working to perfect a system of planting corn into living green cover crop,” he says. “As I walked across the field, the ears were hanging straight down, and the husks were open. When ears hang down, moisture doesn’t accumulate and grain toxins are not as likely to develop.”

Vince observes that producers hold physical grain yield as the No. 1 success factor while, in his mind, financial yield should be the primary objective, even if

that means lower actual grain yield. To achieve this goal, he thinks it will require a dramatic shift in thinking to help bring back greater soil diversity and ward off issues such as DON. “No soil was formed with a collection of monocultures,” he says. “It was formed with a collection of diversity of plants and grazing animals. We’re trying to get away from monocultures in this diverse cover crop blend.”

Vince believes a greater diversity of hybrids will make everything better, which is why he currently imports 95 per cent of his seed from the U.S. His best advice is for producers is to get as much information as possible.

“The farmer’s best tool is to ask the tough questions to seed suppliers and their peer groups as to what hybrids they’ve had the most success with in 2018 and if there were any trends,” he says. FF

2013 Nuffield Canada thesis, Conserving Farm Land With Cover Crops and the Importance of Biodiversity, by Blake Vince: www.farmforum.ca/ covercropthesis

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCK

Derek Freitag, a market development lead for eastern Canada with Bayer, tends to agree that a watchful eye mid-season may be the key to a successful year.

Freitag says that targeting the plant at silking for ear rot and DON will make a positive difference, but at the end of the day, the biggest potential barrier to a successful corn crop is a favourable disease environment.

A key recommendation is to scout different hybrids from suppliers, note their various sensitivities and select a mixture of hybrids with various fusarium tolerance levels (he says he’s seen as many as five at one farm), then plant them at various times to spread the risk.

Freitag says another strategy is to maintain a healthy crop rotation. “Corn yield will be better if you’re doing wheat/ soybeans,” he says. “That’s probably the best rotation, but will introducing more crops lessen GER? I don’t think so, but your highest risk is going to be corn on corn.”

Make sure that your planter is set up for even depth for the most uniform emergence and look for opportunities to have the best possible stand establishment by working with your agronomy provider. “There’s a lot of tools out there, we have to look at all those tools from planting all the way to harvest,” he says. “It’s not ‘plant it and forget it.’ There are many things to do.”

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TECHNOLOGY

Jill Ebbett and Robert Anderson pictured here with their four girls from L to R: Charlotte, Olivia, Cathryn and Jeneva, are the 2018 Outstanding Young Farmers’ Program award winners for the Atlantic region.

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Technology helps these young farmers balance work and home life

BY JENNIFER BARBER

J

ill Ebbett and Robert Anderson have many goals for their potato seed farm, and they all centre around the idea of using technology to farm smarter. The idea of working from sun-up to sundown didn’t work for them, so they adapted their farming practice to find a better balance for themselves, and still produce a high-quality product for their customers.

“We are hardworking people but the idea that being a farmer had to look a certain way never made sense to us,” says Jill. “Family vacations are a priority to us. We don’t want to work every evening and Saturdays, and we never bought into the idea that, as farmers, you have to constantly work. Since our early days on the farm my husband Robert and I have established a more balanced work and home life — we work hard and also take time to enjoy each other and our family.”

In order to keep their farm productive and successful while still maintaining balance, the two are always looking to innovative products and technologies on their East Glassville, NB potato farm. They have identified a number of tools to help them reach their goals while meeting their customers’ needs. These are some of the reasons they were named the 2018 Outstanding Young Farmers’ Program award winners for the Atlantic region.

THE VALUE OF NEW TECH Robert is the fourth generation to farm his family’s registered potato seed operation. The couple took over management in 2000 and have been constantly upgrading the facilities ever since.

They implemented a GPS system to help track and manage crop production, and they invested in two new potato storage facilities supported by a computerized storage management system to keep the potatoes fresher and ready for shipping. The storage technology is a new take on ice block technology, which has been used for many years, except today the ice is replaced by Styrofoam surrounded by concrete to prevent temperature fluctuations, thereby improving overall quality.

“With the computerized storage management system, the fans turn on and off when the temperature is right,” says Robert. “I no longer have to go into »

FA R MFOR UM.CA / SPR IN G 201 9

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TECHNOLOGY the storage shed four or five times a day and turn the fans on and off on my own.

I can look at my smart phone and adjust anything I need from wherever I happen to be. That’s been an incredible time saver.”

Jill says one of the most exciting innovations was the decision to plant whole seed. They purchased a new shaker sizer grading system that was installed two years ago to allow them to better size seed for whole seed planting. “Before we made the investment, Robert collaborated with other farmers to test the technology,” she says. He worked closely with his customers to make sure he was delivering what they wanted and expected.”

FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY While much of their upgrades have made them more productive, they have also implemented processes that continue to make them more sustainable. For example, the couple has reforested 3,000 acres of woodland and continue to plant native spruce trees wherever land unsuitable for planting has been cleared.

“Soil health is important to all farmers, but especially potato farmers,” says Robert.

“Not a piece of our land is flat and our soil is very shallow so we manage every inch.

We manage our crop rotations to maintain soil fertility and moisture where we can,” he explains.

“We terrace the rolling fields and we use a reversible mould board plow across the hills to roll soil up and work against gravity. We do contour ploughing to help control erosion and work hard to build soil organic matter.”

CUSTOMER-DRIVEN DECISIONS Robert says their goal is to produce what their customers are asking for, not what they are most comfortable growing, which sometimes means making changes. Today there is an increased demand for virus-free potato seed in two to three different sizes, so that is what Elite has been supplying.

“We start shipping in the winter to Florida and then follow the Eastern seaboard up north into Maine,” he says. “Then we ship again in early spring around the Maritimes.”

Potatoes take up more of their time than just on the farm. Jill works full time for McCain Foods where she manages the Customer Service for Canada and Export department, while Robert is an active member of the New Brunswick Potato Technology Initiative Board.

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They also parent four young girls — Olivia (9), Cathryn (7), Jeneva (5) and Charlotte (3) — so finding that balance between farming, work and home life hasn’t always been easy.

“It has been a journey,” says Jill. “In my early years on the farm I thought to myself, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ It’s a lot of hard work. I am most proud of my husband, how he has taken over the business from his father using generations of knowledge passed down to him and aligning it with his own vision and today’s farming needs.”

The two hope that someday, one or more of their girls will take over the family farm if they choose. “I think it’s exciting for them to have the opportunity to work on the farm and run their own business,” says Jill.

“Once upon a time that meant they would marry someone who wants to farm and while that could still happen, I want them to know I believe in them — any one of them could make an excellent entrepreneur and it’s terrific to watch women rise up in a profession dominated by men.”

In the coming years, Robert would like to see more diversification on their farm. “We explore everything we can to make our land produce for the long term,” he says. “We are also looking at different cover crops, compacting the soil better, and at unique rotations. We’re not so much looking to get bigger, we are looking to get more integrated for better time management.

We want to spend more time managing the business and less time working for the business.” FF

“Family vacations are a priority to us.

We don’t want to work every evening and Saturdays, and we never bought into the idea that, as farmers, you have to constantly work” Jill Ebbett

HAVE A BREAK THROUGH SEASON All growers know one thing: there are no guarantees in the field. With unpredictable weather, infestations, or just bad luck, yields vary from year to year. But, with the #1 cereal seed treatment they don’t have to. That’s why we’re constantly innovating to continually protect your potential from everything that may come your way. Because when your seeds emerge stronger, so do you.

• EMERGE STRONGER • cropscience.bayer.ca/RaxilPRO

1 888-283-6847

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®

C-52-03/19-11119611-E

FARM LIFE

LIVING SUCCESSION PLAN ANCHORS THIS FAMILY FARM

BY TERRY HOCKADAY | PHOTOS BY GENESIS STUDIO

T

he cover story on the 1989 Harvest Edition of Farm Forum featured a pair of young kids, Dane and Reid Hilton, part of a successful family farming operation at Strathmore, AB. Today those youngsters have returned, the fifth generation to help drive a new era of the family business.

A lot of things have happened since that photo. Reid, for instance, has learned to put his boots on the right feet. They were on backwards on that cover photo as his family likes to remind him.

The story in that issue 30 years ago was focused on things such as innovative soil management on the just over 3,000 acres the family farmed. Today many of those fundamentals remain but the business thinking has evolved into a very modern, open framework with more partners, more than 13,000 farmed acres and more business relationships.

GROWN FROM QUALITY Like most good harvests, this one started with good seed and developed with care.

Spencer and Lynne Hilton, Dane and Reid’s parents, thought bigger and challenged conventional farm succession planning when they became partners in the family farm in the late 1990s. That set the stage for Spencer’s younger brother Sterling and his wife Lianna to become partners.

Dane became a full partner on the management team after that, and Reid is starting into that process now. Other family members are involved in related valueadded businesses.

The family business philosophy has been driven by a need to think differently about how farms grow today. What follows are five examples of that thinking.

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1. Living succession plan.

Watching young talent leave the farm for greener pastures has been a major motivating force. The Hiltons realized that unless there was opportunity for young people on the farm, they would simply go elsewhere.

The family brought in outside help to shape succession planning options. They learned that effective succession planning really never ends. Today they have a living succession plan that says to potential new partners: We are ready to hear your ideas.

It also means being ready to consider partnerships earlier because, unlike the old days, young people are not prepared to come back, work and “hope things turn out.” That said, clear expectations of partners are important.

“Just because you are a Hilton you don’t get to come back automatically,” says Dane, who spent time managing a company in the oil patch, overseeing teams of people and big equipment. “It’s a big business and

“Just because you are a Hilton you don’t get to come back automatically.

It’s a big business and you have to bring some skills to become a shareholder” Dane Hilton

All grown up. Dane (left) and Reid Hilton hold the 1989 Harvest Edition of Farm Forum, which pictured the two on the cover. Below: Dane and Reid in their on-farm machine shop.

you have to bring some skills to become a shareholder. You have to bring value, make a more efficient and better company.”

Another realization, he says, was that business success today is more than basic farming skills; young people may dream of being involved but not everybody wants to be a machine operator.

Reid, who is a pilot and works in the airline industry, likes the “anything is possible” attitude the family has today. “It’s good to see we are more than fieldwork, that there are new opportunities and we are not afraid to branch out from basic agriculture,” he says.

2. Clear communications, management roles.

A lot of work has gone into building an effective management team with responsibilities clearly defined around skills, such as equipment and people management, agronomy, financial planning and business management. »

FA R MFOR UM.CA / SPR IN G 2019

23

FARM LIFE One responsibility that each position takes on is team communications.

A farm office anchors that; weekday meetings drive day-to-day activities.

Longer-term planning is tackled through monthly and quarterly meetings with an assigned secretary to take minutes.

Cell phones and community calendars with need-to-know networks help keep everyone in the loop, keep message volumes manageable and ensure messaging is targeted.

And there’s something of real pride for the family. Women have been involved as equal partners on the farm’s management team from the start — long before it was commonplace in farming.

3. Protect the land.

If there is a source of pride that transcends the five generations of Hiltons who have farmed this land, it’s their approach to soil and land management.

They have been leaders in conservation tillage for decades. The land they farm is networked across 100 miles and involves many different landlords.

“We manage land like we own it and that reputation has been a big factor in attracting renters,” says Dane. “That’s

important because today more people are hanging onto farmland as an investment, and maintaining a strong land rental base is essential to expansion in this area.”

4. Innovative marketing.

In so many cases, the Hiltons have been successful due to creative marketing efforts and a little luck on the timing front.

The family’s reputation as a supplier of high-quality malt barley and for highquality land care worked in their favour when the Canadian Wheat Board was disbanded. They were one of a network of malt barley growers asked to supply a contract to a large malting company.

That malting company emphasizes the ability to trace malt used in a specific beer back to the field where it was grown.

That field-to-glass thinking was ahead of its time and has been a solid success story. The Hiltons also have a contract with Rogers Foods in Nelson, BC, for wheat.

The value-added, locally grown culture led to the establishment of an offshoot company to reach the craft beer and malt market. Origin Malting and Brewing, in nearby Strathmore, is managed by Reid

Pictured L to R: Spencer, Lynne, grandchild Easton, Reid and Dane.

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and Dane’s sister Meleah and brother-inlaw, Kyle Geeraert.

5. Build the brand.

One new effort to build the farm brand is drone footage. Reid, Spencer and Meleah capture the farm and farming activity in all seasons. Those visuals, run on social media and on a screen at Origin’s taproom, help keep renters engaged and market the farmland-care model.

For Reid, today’s value-added, buy local farming is all about connections, helping people understand the decisions made to get food to the grocery store.

“We want to do whatever we can to make it more tangible,” he says. Farm tours help. Social media connects young farm people with young people in urban centres and there is great potential through Origin.

TRUST AND ENERGY Ultimately the biggest opportunity to grow the family brand is the people behind it. Dane and Reid Hilton have returned, determined to work together, respect and build on each other’s skills and add new energy to the family business. Good for them, good for agriculture. FF

PRODUCTON

Soybeans show promise as alternative prairie crop

BY CLARE STANFIELD

H

is real name is John Kowalchuk, but many call him Mr. Soybeans. And he comes by the moniker honestly.

For four years now, he’s been planting, growing, harvesting and, most importantly, studying soybeans on his Rumsey, AB farm, which is roughly 90 kilometres east of the No. 2 highway, about half way between Calgary and Red Deer. Not exactly soybean country.

“I’ve been growing yellow peas for about 20 years,” says Kowalchuk. “But we have aphanomyces here, so I wanted to try something new.” So why soybeans in an area with iffy heat units and definite moisture limitations? Well, you could say Kowalchuk loves a challenge, but it’s much more than that.

As he sees it, farmers are going to need to diversify their crops some day soon.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but he thinks there will come a point when the environmental and agronomic challenges facing many key prairie crops are going to mean they can’t be grown in the usual way.

He wonders, for example, what will happen when clubroot, which nearly surrounds his area, makes profitable canola production next to impossible. Genetic resistance to clubroot is part of the answer, but resistance breaks down over time so it’s a continual cat and mouse game where breeders try to stay ahead of disease and disease always adapts.

So Kowalchuk’s work with soybeans isn’t just about finding an aphanomycesproof alternative for his pea acres, it’s about finding a profitable oilseed alternative for canola, which is a pretty bold idea — one that took some selling on his part.

FINDING A BELIEVER “It was 2013 when I started thinking about soybeans,” says Kowalchuk. “I did a lot of research, talked to a lot of people but no one would sell me any soybeans.” He called seed companies and suppliers across the country, but the prevailing view at the time

John Kowalchuk, aka Mr. Soybeans, has spent the last several years, studying soybeans and how to best grow this non-traditional crop on his farm near Rumsey, AB, located about half way between Calgary and Red Deer.

was that soybeans would not grow in his area, plus there was no local distribution system to easily get product to him, so no one would touch it.

Finally, in early 2015, a local DEKALB dealer said he could help and talked to Kowalchuk about running a variety trial.

“I said that if I was going to do that, I didn’t want it to be just one year,” he says. “If we were going to do this, I wanted to do it for five years.” In other words, he wanted to collect some meaningful data on soybean production.

“I got the soybeans the day before I planted them,” says Kowalchuk, adding that it was a local UFA dealer that finally

managed to deliver them. That first year, he planted a 10-acre variety trial and a 30acre commercial field of his own. “I had 2260 in the main field and the plot had four DEKALB varieties. Some of them should never have made it given our heat units, but I took them all to maturity.” He’s proud of that last fact, as he should be.

EXPERIENCE IS THE BEST TEACHER This spring, Kowalchuk will plant his fifth 10-acre variety trial with six to seven varieties to test, and his fifth commercial field of soybeans (40 acres). He says he’s learned a lot about growing this crop in »

FA R MFOR UM.CA / SPR IN G 2019

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PRODUCTON this region over the last four years and he’s amassed a huge amount of data.

“I’m working on the agronomics for my area,” he says. It’s not just about seeding dates and depths, either. He’s recorded, for instance, that air temperature at seeding time is highly influential and specific.

“Having a constant 18 to 20 degrees for that first week after seeding is important so that the first moisture is warm.”

Ground temperature, he says, will stay fairly constant, but warm air means warm rain and dews which the plants read as signals that it’s “safe” to grow. “It’s like if there’s cold moisture right off the bat, they start to protect themselves and save energy that would otherwise go to plant and pod development,” says Kowalchuk.

“It’s like they have a little computer in there, or a memory that tells them when it’s safe to use that energy to grow.”

Soybeans are always his last crop in — sometimes seeding as late as the last week of May — to give the ground time to warm up sufficiently. He’s taken to seeding soybeans in the afternoon, when the ground is at its warmest. And he pays attention to the soil type he seeds into.

“I have three kinds of soil here,” says Kowalchuk. “In the first year, I put soybeans on sandy light soil. Since then, I’ve put them on what I call intermediate soil, which is getting into the heavy clay, but is still light enough and has fairly good organic matter. I have heavy clay here, too but I’ve not tried the soybeans on that because it is too cool.”

He tracks everything, including daily heat units and moisture levels since he started this venture, posting it all to his Twitter feed — @KowalchukFarms — for all to see. He’s also never grown a profitable soybean crop, but he’s come close.

“What I see right now is late season moisture is the limiting factor,” says Kowalchuk. “Earlier in the season, I’d put my soybeans up against anyone’s, they look so good. But in central Alberta, the tap turns off by the late season.”

Except in 2016. As many will recall, that year saw a lot of late season rain and even snow. Kowalchuk says he got 16 inches of rain that fall, and his soybeans loved it. “I combined at the end of October and they came off dry. I had a 36-bushel average for the 80 acres I planted. It was the only time I had those pod clusters at the top of the canopy, and the yield monitor pushed 70 bushels in some places.”

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In 2016, late season rain produced pod clusters at the top of the canopy (which do not form without this late shot of moisture) and pushed Kowalchuk’s yield to 70 bu/ac in some places.

WHY DO IT? First of all because he can: Kowalchuk already had the equipment to handle soybean production. “I have 10-inch spacing on my air seeder and can single shoot inoculant and seed,” he says. “And I already had a flex straight cut header for my peas and I had the roller.” The flex header makes a big difference since soybeans have a lower pod height than peas.

He also has access to crop insurance on what is, effectively, an experimental crop.

The New Crop Insurance Initiative (NCII), introduced by Alberta’s Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) in 2015, encourages non-traditional crop production.

“Any new crop you want to try, you can try it,” says Kowalchuk. It’s not perfect, he says, but it’s something, which is more than a lot of western soybean growers get.

The marketing is easy, too. He got $11.40/bu for last year’s soybeans from a processor not far away in Lethbridge.

“The reason I liked soybeans was because they had a consistent, established market, whereas with crops like flax and faba beans it’s harder to find buyers in some years.”

But second, and most importantly, he does this because he fervently believes it’s necessary to develop more crop options.

“We need the economics of a canola in our rotations,” he says. “Maybe soybeans can be it. Not yet maybe, but 10 years ago, who’d have thought that soybeans could grow in Saskatchewan? Who’s to say that in 10 years we won’t see genetics get even better for yield and early maturity?”

Will soybeans be the money maker for western farmers that canola is today? Over the four years of growing them, Kowalchuk has averaged 25 bushels per acre, which isn’t great compared to the 50-, 60- and even 70-bushel crops Ontario can produce.

But if breeders could put late-season drought tolerance in short-season western varieties, yields here could move into a profitable range. The shorter season and lower heat units mean yields will always be a bit lower than Ontario, but maybe our expectations of what a good yield is need to be adjusted.

As Kowalchuk points out, 20 years ago, a 30-bushel canola crop was totally acceptable. “Our expectations are so high now,” he says. “Maybe the high-side potential of soybeans is not as high, but the low side is not as low, either.” Indeed, Kowalchuk says if he could get a consistent 30 bu/ac yield, that would be sufficient to make soybeans a regular part of his rotation.

There’s a third reason Kowalchuk does this, one that wasn’t quite expected when he started out. He says that everything he’s learned and observed through growing soybeans had made him look at his other crops in a new light, pay attention to practices that he used to not think about at all and apply what he’s learning where it makes sense.

“If you really want to challenge yourself as a farmer, grow a crop you’ve never grown,” he says. “It’s taught me to be a better farmer.” FF

STRAIGHT UP WILD OAT CONTROL Wild oats hanging above the crop canopy are like a billboard for poor weed control.

Varro® herbicide provides outstanding control of wild oats and other problem grass weeds to keep your wheat field looking great all season.

Varro – wild oat control that’s worth talking about.

cropscience.bayer.ca/Varro

1 888-283-6847

@Bayer4CropsCA

Always read and follow label directions. Varro® is a registered trademark of the Bayer Group.

Bayer CropScience Inc. is a member of CropLife Canada.

#AskBayerCrop C-60-03/19-11119611-E

WHAT’S NEW WITH BAYER PRODUCTS

W

hen the first herbicideresistant wild oat crop was found in Manitoba close to 50 years ago, the news was received in western farming circles with just mild alarm.

“We’ve come a long way since then and it’s good to see the entire industry coming together to help manage the risk of herbicide resistance development” says Jon Weinmaster, Crop and Campaign Marketing Manager, Cereals with Bayer.

The specifics vary by region in terms of key weeds and herbicide Group resistance, but the solutions are almost always the same: maintain a diverse crop rotation; promote crop competition with weeds; rotate herbicide Groups; use herbicide tank mixes that contain different herbicide Groups; scout often; keep good records; till strategically; and manage weed escape patches to keep them from going to seed.

The most recent strategy to join this list is early weed removal. On the surface, it seems like a logical plan to take weeds out as early as possible to protect yield. But growers know it's not always that simple.

LESSONS FROM THE U.S. The fact is that weed control is way more complicated than it was 10 years ago.

“Growers in Canada are getting very good at understanding their weed spectrum and realizing any resistance problems that currently exist, or have the potential to develop,” says Weinmaster, “by working together as an industry we will all continue to get better at managing the risk of herbicide resistance development.”

It’s better here than in some areas of the world where herbicide resistance

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has become such a critical problem that growers are making crop choices based on what they can grow, not what they’d like to grow.

“There are areas in the Southern U.S. where growers have run out of herbicide options,” says Weinmaster. “And it’s not uncommon for growers there to hire people to hand weed fields, at an enormous cost.”

Growers are encouraged to protect the herbicide tools they have by not overusing them and short crop rotations make this difficult. However, the economic imperatives of growing high-paying crops in short rotation are very real, and farming economics are tough — growers know they need to make money when they can.

With what we’ve seen in the Southern U.S. we also know the realities of not being able to grow a crop at all if the weeds can’t be controlled, says Weinmaster.

“The financial impact can’t be ignored,” he explains. “It’s really easy to think you’re okay, that you’ve got a handle on it, until you don’t. There is a great video on Mixitup.ca of Ford Baldwin, a U.S. grower discussing the need for increased herbicide and crop diversity. It’s a good reminder for us here in Canada.”

THERE ARE SOLUTIONS “We take herbicide resistance very seriously at Bayer,” says Weinmaster.

“We want to make sure our customers have the tools they need and continue to be profitable while keeping herbicide resistance at bay.”

On the early weed removal front, Olympus™, Velocity m3, Luxxur® and Varro®

herbicides are great options for wheat, says Weinmaster. “We know that early weed control, both early at the weed stage and early at the crop stage, is a good practice.

“Still, we recognize that most in-crop herbicides available in Western Canada only control emerged weeds, so there needs to be a balance between spraying as early as possible but also having as many weeds emerged as possible."

This is a big part of why two-pass weed control is becoming more popular and more economical. New Olympus herbicide from Bayer is part of a two-pass system approach. It's applied pre-plant or preemerge followed by Varro or Velocity herbicide in-crop, providing flushing control of foxtail barley and best in-class wild oat control.

The new lineup of Bayer herbicide products offers growers a lot of combinations and permutations for effective herbicide tank mixes where more than one mode of action is applied in a single operation. “It keeps weeds on their toes,” says Weinmaster. And with Roundup® and Roundup Xtend® now in the portfolio, growers have some new preseed and post-harvest options to use with Bayer's strong in-crop herbicide products.

“We’re here to help,” says Weinmaster. “I encourage people to think about practicing early weed removal this year, and also to visit Mixitup.ca to learn more about herbicide resistance and how it’s being managed in North America. And if they have any questions, or want advice on devising an integrated weed management (IWM) plan for their farm, our field staff are always ready to help.”

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

The new realities of weed management

ALL THE CHEMISTRY YOU NEED

// THREE MODES OF ACTION // POWERFUL ALL-IN-ONE FORMULATION // CONTROLS 32 DIFFERENT BROADLEAF AND GRASS WEEDS cropscience.bayer.ca/Velocity

1 888-283-6847

@Bayer4CropsCA

#AskBayerCrop

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WHAT’S NEW WITH BAYER PRODUCTS

Does it pay to spray? Yes!

D

o you approach fungicide season wondering whether or not you should spray? If so, you’re not alone. The question of return on investment (ROI) on fungicide use is a perennial one and Bayer is here to help with eleven years of real-life, in-field, grower-cooperator trial data that you can use to make spraying decisions.

Visit ItPaysToSpray.ca to view Bayer fungicide demonstration strip trial (DST) results collected since 2008, involving seven different crops in almost all areas across Western Canada.

You can refine your search by crop and location. Want to see how applications of Prosaro® XTR fungicide increased wheat yields in central Alberta or how Delaro® fungicide performed against the competition in pulses? Use the interactive map on ItPaysToSpray.ca to find this information and more, or download the 2018 Trial Results Booklet.

There are 407 field-scale, side-by-side replicated trials that include an untreated check for accurate ROI comparisons between using and not using a fungicide.

The numbers tell the tale — a fungicide application consistently maximizes crop quality and yield, and in all but the most extreme low disease situations it provides a return on investment.

BACKED BY PEOPLE Our team of market development agronomists work alongside growers to develop and monitor fungicide DST trials.

These grower-cooperated trials ensure the correct application and timeliness of fungicide products. We also can assess disease levels pre- and post-application

and monitor results, from seeding to harvest.

The result is a wealth of local knowledge shared by Bayer that’s especially helpful if you have questions about whether a fungicide application is right for your farm and how to use it for best results.

So if you’re still asking yourself if you should use a fungicide this year, let us help you with some real-time data. Consult your local retail, Bayer representative or visit ItPaysToSpray.ca.

Everything you need to know about the 2019 BayerValue Program The 2019 BayerValue™ program is back and bigger than ever. With new seed trait technologies, more ways to qualify and the largest selection of participating products, you’ve never seen a BayerValue program like this. Now it’s even easier to save on the technologies and innovations you’ve come to trust with the savings you want.

With new qualifiers like TruFlex™ canola with Roundup Ready® Technology and Acceleron® BioAg™, Western Canadian growers can save up to 18% on their favourite Bayer products.

Learn how to maximize your savings at cropscience.bayer.ca/BayerValue or by contacting your local retail.

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FA R M FO R U M .C A / FALL 2 017

From the innovators at Bayer who have brought you game changing technology in the past, comes the next generation of seed technology.

DEKALB® TruFlex™ Canola with Roundup Ready® technology enables more flexible spray timing and enhanced weed control.

When Mother Nature decides to crank up the winds - or rain for days, be confident that you have more time to spray DEKALB® TruFlex™ Canola… because you have the wider application window, with up to as many as 14 more days, without sacrificing yield potential.

See your seed retail today and be among the first to try DEKALB® TruFlex™ hybrids on your farm or visit DEKALB.ca to learn more.

with Roundup Ready ® Technology

ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Roundup Ready® Technology contains genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, an active ingredient in Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides. Agricultural herbicides containing glyphosate will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate.

FA R MFOR UM.CA / FA LL 2017

Roundup®, Roundup Ready® and TruFlex™ are trademarks of Bayer Group, Monsanto Canada ULC licensee. ©2019 Bayer Group. All rights reserved.

4

See the bigger picture with Climate FieldView Climate FieldView™ is your data partner supporting the decisions you make all season long

I

magine capturing, recording and storing all of your field data in one central place and being able to access it from any device. Well, the technology exists in the Climate FieldView™ platform from Bayer.

Currently available in Canada, the U.S., Brazil and Europe, Climate FieldView is a widely adopted digital agriculture platform that allows growers to analyze and visualize multiple layers of data all in one place. Growers can then use the data they’ve collected to optimize their key decisions, making operations more efficient and manageable either in-season or in preparation for next season.

The platform also enables growers to share appropriate information with trusted

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partners — agronomists, retailers or other business partners — to further enhance the decision making process.

Denise Hockaday, head of Climate FieldView explains, “Collecting and using field data for future planning and inseason decision making is not a new idea.

Generations of growers have kept field notes in notebooks, spreadsheets, binders and other formats.

“That said, it wasn’t the most efficient system and it definitely didn’t let you see the bigger picture. With Climate FieldView you can bring all of your field data together in one place and in a digitized format giving you the ability to have it right in front of you when you’re making your most important decisions, wherever you are.”

HOW DOES CLIMATE FIELDVIEW WORK? With FieldView, it’s easy to get real-time data and historical data into your account.

ClimateFieldView.ca allows you to bring in your historical field data while the FieldView™ Drive paired with the FieldView™ Cab app allows you to live stream your field data from your equipment to your iPad using bluetooth, so you can keep a detailed record of whatever pass you’re making in the field.

See your field maps build in real time and begin to see them from anywhere using the FieldView app on your Apple or android device. You can choose to share your operation, farm, or individual fields with or without yield data with business partners and agronomic advisors.

WHAT’S NEW WITH BAYER PRODUCTS

“This platform is designed around our vision to provide growers with personalized insights powered by data science through an easy-to-use, integrated platform that seamlessly combines their on-farm data with additional data we collect from the soil, field and atmosphere and ultimately, empowers more informed decision making.”

“Growers using the platform today, love being able to have a bird’s eye view of the entire operation and see how fields are progressing or alert them to potential issues. Furthermore, by sharing their information with others, they can respond quickly and appropriately to any changes in season. The software is very intuitive and easy to navigate,” adds Hockaday.

LET YOUR DATA DRIVE YOU From planning in the winter to harvest in the fall, Climate FieldView helps you make more informed decisions all year long.

• Satellite imagery and scouting Field health imagery can help you identify and address potential issues before they impact yield with in-season and historical field imagery.

Use scouting maps to spot potential issues within a field and identify the areas of highest and lowest biomass.

Vegetation maps feature advanced colour mapping to understand the level of crop growth across your operation and prioritize which fields to scout or harvest first.

Drop field pins and create regions to make note of and monitor potential pests, disease, and field issues, and share them with your trusted partners.

The FieldView™ Drive is an in-cab hardware device that plugs into your equipment’s CAN diagnostic port, capturing both machine and field data.

It connects your equipment to your iPad via Bluetooth, monitoring and displaying your data as you pass through your fields.

product and field performance in your operation so you can make the best decisions for next season.

Identify a region on your field map to generate a field region report and use this information to determine the impact on yield such as population, seed product, speed, planting date, seed treatment, and elevation.

• Trials Map and track your seed and crop protection products as you perform your trials to fine tune the efficiency of your operation. Design, conduct and manage your own field trials using historical field data to maximize your yield potential and profitability.

• Prescriptions FieldView allows you to create your own seeding or fertility prescriptions.

Use multiple data layers to easily create customized seeding or fertility rate prescriptions prescriptions with manual scripting.

Advanced scripting uses your historical field data combined with proprietary field testing results, to generate corn population planting scripts tailored to your unique yield or profitability goals. All scripts are fully customizable and have shown a 2.5 bu./ac. increase compared to growers who planted the same population across their fields.*

• Yield analysis tool Use yield analysis features to compare

• Field level weather Plan more efficiently with field level daily

weather reports in the app or sent directly to your inbox to decide which fields are workable based on precipitation and wind speed. Keep an eye on changing conditions with hourly precipitation updates and monitor your fields with historical and season-to-date amounts.

GET THE MOST OUT OF EVERY ACRE With Climate FieldView the possibilities are seemingly endless. Not only does it simplify your field data management, it makes it easier to track field and product performance either in your office or directly on your mobile device so you can fine-tune your practices to further increase your profitability. * Based on 14 trials performed in Canada in 2018.

To find out more about FieldView, talk to your local Bayer representative, FieldView dealer, or visit www.climatefieldview.ca .

FA R MFOR UM.CA / SPR IN G 201 9

33

Early disease control is key for winter wheat

W

inter wheat is a popular crop across all wheat growing regions of Canada, but in Ontario, winter wheat is grown on more acres than any other cereal crop. Indeed, according to Ontario Ministry of Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), acres seeded to winter wheat in 2018 more than doubled the acres seeded to all other cereal crops combined.

One reason is that winter wheat has proven itself to be an excellent rotational partner in soybean production systems.

Long-term rotation studies conducted

by OMAFRA have borne out what many growers already know — that including winter wheat in the rotation can help maximize soybean yields.

That doesn’t mean winter wheat is just a means to an end. Good agronomics, from seeding practices to weed and disease control, will ensure that winter wheat achieves the highest yields it’s capable of and the grain quality you need to maximize your return on investment. And that starts with early disease and weed control.

“Winter wheat is more susceptible to leaf disease than its spring counterpart,” says Jon Weinmaster, Crop and Campaign Marketing Manager, Cereals with Bayer.

Eastern Canadian research continues to show that the best recipe for winter wheat is a T1 fungicide application at herbicide timing followed by T3 at flowering.

This gives you control of all your early season leaf diseases like septoria, powdery mildew and rust until you spray a T3 at flowering to protect against fusarium head blight (FHB) and late season leaf diseases.

It’s a formula that’s proven in winter wheat to provide the best yield returns, comprehensive leaf disease control right through until harvest, and fusarium head blight protection.

Early weed pressure is also a big issue in winter wheat. “If you didn’t have the time to control weeds in the fall, then you need to pay close attention this spring,” says Weinmaster. “Even if you did get time to spray winter annuals last year, you still need to scout winter wheat early for weeds and take action.”

Weinmaster says that an early T1 application of herbicide and fungicide together can help set your winter wheat crop up for success. “You want to get in early before the canopy closes so you get full herbicide coverage on weeds and good fungicide penetration on lower parts of the plants,” he explains.

Stratego® PRO fungicide tank-mixed with Infinity® herbicide or Infinity FX herbicide is a great option. “Stratego PRO provides long-lasting, broad-spectrum leaf disease control including powdery mildew and septoria, which are usually the first diseases to show up in winter wheat,” he says.

“And our Infinity herbicide brands provide growers with multiple modes of action for broadleaf weed control.

While early leaf disease and weed control is important, we all know we also need to protect against fusarium head blight with a T3 fungicide application from a registered FHB product,” says Weinmaster. “Prosaro® XTR fungicide from Bayer is the number one fusarium head blight product in Canada. Our portfolio is complete and it performs.”

For more information on any of the Bayer products listed consult your local retail or Bayer representative or visit cropscience.bayer.ca.

BayerValue/Hot Potatoes What’s New with BayerValue/Hot Potatoes?

The 2019 BayerValue / Hot Potatoes® Rewards Program provides you with the ability to save up to 12% on your favourite Bayer brands. But it doesn’t stop there, with a wide range of new seed trait technologies, a host of new innovations and 50+ qualifying products your rewards add up quickly.

MAXIMIZE YOUR SAVINGS What would my rebate be? Here’s an example with just corn.

Combine 300 acres of any VT Double PRO® RIB Complete® corn hybrid with 300 acres of Converge® XT broad-spectrum corn herbicide and 300 acres of Proline® corn fungicide for FHB will get you a rebate of over $1,600! You’ll have the corn hybrid that meets your needs, powerful broad-spectrum weed control from Converge XT and DON reduction from Proline — the number 1 FHB fungicide in corn.

Tough to beat that.

For complete offer details, please visit cropscience.bayer.ca/BayerValue.

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FA R M FO R U M .C A / S P RING 2 019

Sencor® STZ herbicide for potatoes lets you spend less time worrying about weeds, and more time enjoying the little things. Things like taking in the stars, meeting the school bus, or pausing to pat the dog. We call those Grower Vacations. And with the weed control of Sencor STZ, you can discover more of them knowing you’re protected from all major weeds.

So enjoy your own vacation, even if it’s just for a few minutes.

Find out how at GrowerVacations.ca

cropscience.bayer.ca

|

1 888-283-6847

|

@Bayer4CropsCA

|

#AskBayerCrop

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

THE END IS HERE FOR FOXTAIL BARLEY

Introducing the Olympus System, the first step in controlling foxtail barley and wild oats. Simply apply Olympus™ with your pre-seed application of Roundup® and follow in-season with Varro® or Velocity m3 for season-long control of foxtail barley and other tough grass weeds.

WHEN YOU PURCHASE MATCHING ACRES OF VARRO OR VELOCITY M3 Ask your retail for details

cropscience.bayer.ca/Olympus

@Bayer4CropsCA

1 888-283-6847

#AskBayerCrop

Always read and follow label directions. Olympus and Varro are registered trademarks of the Bayer Group.

Bayer CropScience Inc. is a member of CropLife Canada. Roundup® is a registered trademark of the Bayer Group, Monsanto Canada ULC licensee. ©2018 Bayer Group. All rights reserved. ™

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