GNN120402 by Farm Business Communications

Volume 38, Number 9 | April 2, 2012

$4.25

PRACTICAL PRODUCTION TIPS FOR THE PRAIRIE FARMER

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Controlling weeds in dry conditions Most of the Prairies saw little rain last fall and had very little snow cover. Get ready for the challenge of managing weeds in dry weather BY ANGELA LOVELL

here are very different considerations for managing weeds under dryer conditions. Some herbicides may be less effective and crops are generally less competitive. With winter precipitation levels already well below normal, if the dry conditions of last summer and fall persist into this spring, farmers may have some decisions to make when it comes to their weed management programs this year. “Under dry conditions your agronomics under planting become even more important because you’re not going to get the crop competition under drier conditions that you would under good growing conditions. That’s going to put more of a premium on your weed management program,” says Len Juras, crop protection research and development scientist with Dow AgroSciences Canada Inc.

WEEDS IN DRY WEATHER Weeds are more challenging to control in dry conditions than in wet. Just as crops need moisture to grow, so do weeds. But when moisture is limited, weeds use internal survival mechanisms to help them retain as much moisture as possible. “If we get dry conditions, what happens in a general sense is weeds tend to harden off,” says Juras. “So they grow more slowly. Their cuticles (the waxy protective covering of the leaves) and their tissues get thicker and less responsive. It’s tougher for a herbicide to get into the plant. And once it gets into the plant, its metabolism changes so it’s harder for the herbicide to get to the active sites it needs to target.”

WHICH WEEDS? During dry conditions, how likely is it that farmers will see different weed species emerging than they had under wetter conditions? “With the extremely wet years

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that we’ve had, we’re going to need more than one dry year before we see a major change in weed species,” says Eric Johnson, weed biologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) at the Scott Research Facility in Saskatchewan. “In fact, if you look at data from our longer-term studies, we tend to have high weed populations in the spring when we have above average rainfall in August. That wasn’t the case last year, so I don’t expect that the weeds will be as prevalent during burn-down unless we get a lot of snow and rain in the spring. So perhaps not as many winter annual-type weeds are a possibility, and we may see a delay in their emergence.” Perennial weeds on the other hand, unless they’ve been managed

manage them as a part of an ongoing program, they won’t tend to be as big an issue as they could escape to be,” he says. Zero- or minimum-till systems may also help with drier conditions by retaining moisture in the soil. “Under conservation tillage we tend to have a pretty good start to the season,” says Juras. “So I expect that the usual customers will come up, but it will be what happens after that which will determine weed management strategies.” It’s likely that annual weeds in the C4 class, which originate from arid areas and are better adapted to drought, will be more prevalent during dry weather conditions. This includes plants such as kochia, Russian thistle, lambs quarters, redroot pigweed, green foxtail and barnyard grass.

Systemic herbicides will generally be less effective under hot, dry conditions, which reduce a plant’s metabolic and transport processes in the fall, might have an advantage if there is little spring moisture. “There’s likely still going to be lots of subsoil reserve moisture even if there are surface shortages, so you are may see perennials doing quite well because they are already rooted and tapped into that soil moisture that is down below,” says Clark Brenzil, Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture weed wpecialist. “They’re going to have the jump right away, if we happen to have a dryer than normal spring.” Perennial weeds need to be controlled in the fall when they’re laying down their growth for the following year, adds Brenzil, although most farmers do tend to manage them on an ongoing basis as part of their overall weed management strategy. “If you don’t wait until they’re out of hand, and try to

“C4 plants have an adaptive system that allows them to photosynthesize down to very low carbon dioxide levels,” says Brenzil. “The way that a plant gets carbon dioxide into its leaves in order to photosynthesize is it allows it in through the stomata (pores) in its leaves, which also allow moisture to escape. A C4 plant can close its stomata to reduce moisture loss while still continuing to photosynthesize. This allows it to draw down the carbon dioxide inside the sealed leaf to much lower levels even while the stomata is closed, giving it an advantage over a plant without the same C4 system.” In dry conditions, weed germination can be hampered by lack of moisture, just as with crops, which

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PHOTO: KEITH TOPINKA, U. OF ALTA.

Typical drought symptoms in canola, with the bluish wax building on the newer canola leaves as the plant tries to retain more moisture under drought. In volunteer canola, herbicide droplets may roll off the waxy leaves, or not penetrate the leaves as well. Some weeds also develop waxy leaves under drought stress.

PHOTO: KEITH TOPINKA, U. OF ALTA.

Water-deprived plants are shown on the left, versus properly watered plants on the right. Growth is slowed when canola plants are deprived of water, and the crop offers less competition to weeds.

In This Issue

Wheat & Chaff ..................

Features ............................

Crop Advisor’s Casebook

Columns ........................... 22 Machinery & Shop ............ 36 Cattleman’s Corner .......... 40

Mix it up to avoid herbicide resistance LEE HART PAGE 6

Weed control in flooded acres

DANELL VAN STAVEREN PAGE 10

FarmLife ............................ 49

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APRIL 2, 2012

Wheat & Chaff Farmers across the Prairies are looking out at snow-free fields, worrying about drought and generally preparing for a dry growing year in 2012. Since this issue focuses on weed management, Grainews asked Angela Lovell to write an article for the cover about the challenges we might face when we’re trying to control weeds in a dry year. This seems completely ridiculous. Last year, snow was piled up to the top of our trees for most of the winter. In the spring, it rained and it rained and it rained. It was way too wet for us to get into the field. (With the exception of 4.8 acres Brad managed to seed before he got stuck — on top of a hill.) We were canoeing in the back of the yard. I have photos. And yet, it’s dry. At a family wedding last weekend, a whole crowd of farmers who’d driven to Saskatoon from west-central Saskatchewan gathered at the back of the banquet room, shaking their heads and looking worried about soil moisture. Even here in the soggy southeast there’s been very little snow all winter. What little spring run-off there’ll be seems to have already ran. With the warm weather, the water level in our dugout has fallen as some has soaked into the soil already. On windy afternoons we’re already seeing great clouds of dust when oilfield trucks drive by our farm on the gravel road. If it doesn’t rain, at least here in southeast Saskatchewan we still have a good deal of soil moisture to start things out. Something good has to come from last year’s fiasco. But that won’t be the case for everyone.

by Danell van Staveren, one of my neighbours whose farm was also affected by flooding last year. Danell has interviewed local agronomist Greg Gerry, who suggested several things to think about in a year following a wet year like 2011. (For the interested — our farm is four miles south of the Schurko farm pictured on page 10). Another problem that will make weed control more challenging for some farmers is the confirmed emergence of herbicide-tolerant kochia in Alberta. Some farmers are directly impacted. But even farmers who don’t have an immediate problem with kochia resistance are paying more attention to potential resistance situations. Grainews field editor Lee Hart has written an article about this — it’s featured on page 6. What these articles have in common is that they all provide suggestions for dealing with weeds in conditions that are different from “normal.” But really, after the last few years, it’s very difficult to be sure what “normal” is. So, I suppose that means that 2012 will be a very normal year. Farmers will deal with quickly changing weather conditions, and keep the recent past mind as they make decisions about what to do this year. Being wary of herbicide tolerance and taking time to learn more about how different products work together will become one more thing that farmers do automatically. There are all kinds of ways that adjusting to constant change has become the new normal. One day herbicide tolerant weeds are making the news, the next day the headlines are about Viterra. We constantly invest in new machinery, and new technology to install in the machinery. Canadian Wheat Board changes are shifting the way we sell wheat. Would your greatgrandparents even recognize the job you’re doing today?

A NORMAL YEAR

FUN WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

As Angela Lovell has written, weed management becomes more challenging in a dry year. Many weed control products are designed to work while the weed is growing. If it’s too dry for the weed to grow, the herbicide can’t do its job. Crop competition also plays a big part in weed management. If the crop can’t find enough moisture to grow, it’s not going to be a very strong competitor. For those of us who dealt with floods last year, whether it’s wet or dry in 2012, last years’ water may have left behind some special weedcontrol challenges. On page 10, we have an article about this, written

As the fill-in for Lyndsey Smith (regular Grainews editor, currently out on a maternity leave), I’m trying to do the things Lyndsey would do if she were here. I’m making arrangements with freelance writers, trying to make sure we have relevant content for upcoming issues. I’m dealing with the production staff in Winnipeg to be sure the text and photos get onto the right pages on time. I’m writing a few articles of my own and attending industry events to keep up-to-date. All of this is a challenge. So far, about four months in, it’s great fun. And your paper is still showing up in the mailbox.

LEEANN MINOGUE

Write, Email or Fax SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES: Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (CST) 1-800-665-0502

U.S. subscribers call 1-204-944-5568 or email: subscription@fbcpublishing.com If you have story ideas, call us. You can write the article and we’d pay you, or we can write it. Phone Leeann Minogue at 306-861-2678 Fax to 204-944-5416 Email leeann.minogue@fbcpublishing.com Write to Grainews, 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, Man. R3H 0H1

HEARTS

Ask for hearts When you renew your subscription to Grainews, be sure to ask for six Please Be Careful, We Love You hearts. Then stick them onto equipment that you, your loved ones and your employees operate. That important message could save an arm, a leg or a life.

TAX CREDITS

Tax credits rise on Prairie wheat, barley checkoffs

heat and barley growers whose money stayed in the Western Grains Research Foundation’s checkoff fund during 2011 can expect a relatively larger tax credit for their buck. Prairie farmers — other than Alberta barley growers, who pay into a different checkoff fund — will see their WGRF checkoff money eligible for federal Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR+ED) tax credits at rates of 84 per cent for wheat and 83 per cent for barley. That’s up from 74 per cent for wheat and 69 per cent for barley on WGRF checkoff contributions made during 2010. The WGRF calculates the available tax credit based on the portion of the total checkoff money going directly to support eligible research. Farmers who don’t opt out of the

WGRF checkoff pay in at rates of 50 cents per tonne for barley and 30 cents per tonne for wheat. The SR+ED tax credit is earned at a rate of 20 per cent for individuals and 35 per cent for Canadian-controlled private corporations. So for example, if an individual Prairie farmer put $300 into the WGRF’s wheat checkoff in 2011 and did not opt out, he or she would get a federal tax credit of $50.40 ($300 x 0.84 x 0.20), the WGRF explained in a release. If filing his or her 2011 taxes as a corporation, the same farmer would get a tax credit of $88.20 for his or her WGRF wheat checkoff. WGRF checkoffs — for 2011, at least — are deducted from the Canadian Wheat Board’s final payments to eligible Prairie producers. † AgCanada.com

Like us on Facebook! Grainews has a Facebook page. Find, read and comment on blog posts easily and with a thumbs up!

Find us on Twitter: Lyndsey Smith is @grainewsgal Lee Hart is @hartattacks Scott Garvey is @machineryeditor Leeann Minogue is @grainmuse

But I have to admit, I’m not amazing anyone in the social media department. As “@grainewsgal,” Lyndsey has hundreds of Twitter followers and enjoys tweeting regularly and keeping up with others’ tweets. To date, I’ve sent exactly two tweets from my “handle” (“@grainmuse”). I haven’t yet figured out how to tweet from my phone, and my original plan to update daily using Hootsuite is still just a distant dream. There are all kinds of farmers and ag organizations using Twitter. I’m not quite one of them — I’m still lurking on the edges, reading the discussion. These farmers are sharing news, trading opinions, and asking each other technical questions about crop production and machinery. Just because I can’t get the hang of this doesn’t mean that Grainews isn’t providing you with highquality Twitter content. You can follow “@AGCanadadotcom”. This comes straight from Farm Business Communications — the publisher of Grainews, Country Guide, Canadian Cattlemen, le Bulletin in Quebec, Manitoba Co-operator and Alberta Farmer. @AGCanada.com is quick on the draw when it comes to posting news about Viterra’s future, or the Saskatchewan agriculture minister’s decision to step down from the cabinet in the next shuffle. It’s a good place to get news on the go. In case, like me, you’re not hooked on Twitter (yet), I’d like to point out that a couple of Twitter regulars have recently posted comments about the Grainews app. Taylor Synder, a farmer from Glendon, Alta., who tweets as “@FarmerBoy9870” tweeted that he’d just downloaded the Grainews app. “Finally starting to get some decent ag apps,” he tweeted (using, as required, less than 140 characters.) Another regular Saskatchewan tweeter who calls himself “dirt farmer” and goes by “@michwoll” says, “Just received an update from the rather excellent Grainews app reminding me that the markets reached $600/t.” So don’t worry — you don’t necessarily need Twitter to keep on top of the news. If you have a smartphone, you can always try getting yours from the free Grainews app. I’ve just downloaded it onto my Android phone. I suppose I’m biased, but I think we’re providing a great service. As for tweeting — my other work is going to slow down to a more reasonable pace over the next few weeks. I’m sure you’ve noticed that during the winter months Grainews appears in your mailbox more frequently than it does in the summer. That’s because we suspect you have more time to read during those long winter nights. As you start to head back into the field, we’ll gear down and send you a bit less reading material. As compared to four issues in March and two in April, you’ll see one single issue in May, one in June, and then one July/August summer issue before we pick up speed again with monthly issues in early fall. Perhaps I can use some of my extra time before Lyndsey comes back in August to finally figure out what and how to tweet. Leeann

APRIL 2, 2012

grainews.ca /

Wheat & Chaff Farm safety

Winter wheat

Dress for the job. Safely

nless you’re trying to impress the cows, you probably didn’t think twice about what you put on this morning. After all, it was early and you weren’t expecting company. As long as the clothes were clean and comfortable, what does it matter what you wear to farm? Well actually — it matters a lot to your safety. Start at the top. Your head. After all, that’s where planning farm safety should start so make sure it’s well protected. Head injuries are common on the farm and tend to be serious. Duh. Just how much protection from hard knocks can a ball cap really provide? Okay — the cap’s perfect. The colour’s right. The brand’s yours. The brim is finally shaped to your liking. But if there’s any possibility something could fall on your head or vice versa, hang up your cap and put on a hard hat. Leave your cap on the hook when you’re spraying chemicals too. It’s safest to wear a wide-brimmed hat that’s impervious to liquids. And make sure the brim is wide enough to keep chemical spray from drifting down on your

face or the back of your neck. Better yet — invest in a hat with flaps. Do you really care if somebody laughs? For sure, you’ll have the last one. And don’t forget sunglasses and safety glasses. Sunglasses are important because they lessen eye fatigue. Safety glasses can save your sight. Wear them when you know you should. And even though you may have heard a lark this morning, your truck/tractor/ATV shattered the silence and started raising the noise level for the day. As a general rule, whenever the noise level reaches 85 decibels, you need ear protection. If you need to raise your voice to be heard an arm’s length away, the noise is probably loud enough to damage your hearing. For instance, inside your tractor cab, no worries. But if your tractor doesn’t have a cab, use ear plugs or muffs. If your tractor is idling inside the shop, protect your ears. Squealing pigs, a table saw, a hand drill, a chain saw or a grain dryer can easily exceed 85 decibels. Check out http:// www.casa-acsa.ca/print for ear plug and ear muff fitting instructions.

So moving on down — no matter the colour scheme, keep clothing tight to your body. Loose-fitting clothes are a definite no-no. If you plan to stay in the sun most of the day, wear long-sleeved cotton clothing. Natural fibres allow the skin to breath and offer protection from the sun’s harmful rays. Just don’t wear a hoodie or sweats with long draw strings that hang from the neck or waist. Those strings are made of extremely strong nylon or other artificial fibres that don’t rip or tear easily. If they catch in an unprotected augers or PTO … And throw away those athletic shoes unless you’re slated for a track meet somewhere on the farm. Steel-toed boots are de rigeur on the job. And one more non-fashion statement — leave neck chains and rings in the house. Rings hang up on bolts and sharp corners — just about anything found around a farmstead. Don’t risk losing a finger. Your spouse will understand! Dress for the job and you’ll keep it. Plan. Farm. Safety. † From the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association — www.planfarmsafety.ca.

Ont. winter wheat breaking dormancy early

armer-than-normal temperatures in Ontario are reported to have helped the winter wheat crop in the province break dormancy earlier than usual. “There is certainly some wheat green-up with growth dependent on the region of the province,” says Peter Johnson, a cereals specialist for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture. However, while the crop has come out of dormancy earlier than anticipated, the real concern is if there is a sudden stretch of cold weather. “Once winter wheat breaks dormancy it is less cold-tolerant than when it is in its dormant state,” Johnson said. Winter wheat is still reasonably cold tolerant and if temperatures only decline into the -4 C region one night or even -8 C one night, damage will be minimal. “But if we start getting into a string of temperatures hitting lows of -12 or -13 C, that would be bad for the crop,” Johnson said. The crop was seeded in less

Grain transportation

Of that total, about 97 per cent of the cars were filled with CWB grain. Producer cars are rail hopper cars that farmers can order to load themselves at a rail siding or a loading facility located closer to home than the nearest grain terminal. Most producer car loading facilities and connecting shortline railroads are owned by farmers in co-operatives or joint ventures. “There will be some bumps in the road, but we’re excited,” said Conrad Johnson, chairman of Great Western Railway and president of the Saskatchewan Shortline Association. “It will take a little work, but we see our movement increasing — not decreasing. “We’re seeing an extreme amount of interest from smaller companies, some we’ve never heard of, who would like to source specific qualities of grain from

AgCanada.com

Crop protection

Prairie shortline railways look to new reality he looming end of the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk for marketing wheat, durum, and barley in Western Canada on Aug. 1 may lead to changes to the shortline railways in the region. The shortlines predominantly move CWB grains, but industry participants expressed confidence in their viability and the continued use of producer rail cars along those lines. Many of the 14 shortline railways found across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta primarily deal with moving producer cars, which are loaded by farmers marketing grain through the CWB. In 2010-11 farmers loaded 12,784 producer cars, just short of the record set two years earlier, according to CWB data.

than ideal conditions in the fall, he said, and in turn there were areas in which the stands were questionable. “Planting of Ontario’s winter wheat was done under extremely wet conditions in October, with some areas too wet,” Johnson said, pointing out that winter wheat is a dryland crop. “Anytime that you have the soils water logged or saturated, wheat is not happy.” Johnson said the crop as a whole has certainly spent more of the winter under less than perfect conditions than growers would have liked. Wet conditions have done more to hurt the crop than the lack of snow cover during the winter, he added. “There is no reason to expect that we will not have a good winter wheat harvest in Ontario due to the absence of snowfall during the dormancy period over the winter,” Johnson says. However, the saturated soil conditions are a totally different story, with some winterkill expected, he said. †

specific areas along our line,” said Johnson, noting producer cars are able to provide traceability for customers looking for identity-preserved grain. Most of the interest is in moving wheat and durum, but Johnson said pulses and other special crops were also moving along the line in dealer cars, rather than the traditional producer cars. “There will be some shortlines that don’t survive in the new environment, but they likely wouldn’t survive no matter what the environment,” said Johnson adding that “it will be different, but it will be all right.” For people who like the old system of selling producer cars through the board, that system will still be there, said Johnson, and the only difference will be that now each car will be going to a specific sale,

rather than the general pool. That means farmers will need to show more discipline in loading what they want. With CWB wheat and durum accounting for most of the grain moving on the shortlines, it remains to be seen whether farmers will want to continue dealing with the new voluntary CWB, said Matt Enright, grains manager with Alberta-based Battle River Railway. “If they are, we’ll continue to move quite a bit of Wheat Board grain,” said Enright. His railway is also working on partnering up with other grain companies to move non-board grains, and have moved small amounts of canola in the past. “It could boil down to whether or not the farmers want to deal with the (new voluntary) CWB.” † AgCanada.com

Lower prices for Astound

yngenta Canada Inc. has decreased the price of its canola fungicide, Astound, by $2.00 per acre. The new suggested retail price is $22.16 per acre. In addition, Astound also qualifies for a further savings through the Syngenta Partner Program. Astound is the only canola fungicide with two modes of action (Group 9 and Group 12), providing a better resistance management package while also delivering contact and systemic control of sclerotinia stem rot. Sclerotinia stem rot is the most economically significant disease of canola in Western Canada. Yield loss due to sclerotinia is roughly one-half of the percentage of infected plants in the field. The average sclerotinia infection in canola is 12 per cent of the field, equating to a six bushel per acre yield loss. † Syngenta Canada News, www.syngenta.com.

photo contest

GIVE US YOUR BEST SHOT This photo came to us from Tara Body. Tara and her husband Brad operate Howling Hills Quarter Horses near Luseland, Saskatchewan, where they raise Hancock and Driftwood horses. This photo was taken last year. When Tara sent this in on March 20, there was a foot of new snow on the ground at their farm. Thanks for the photo, Tara! A cheque for $25 is on its way to you. Send your best shot to leeann.minogue@fbcpublishing.com. Please send only one or two photos at a time and include your name and address, the names of anyone in the photo, where the photo was taken and a bit about what was going on that day. A little write-up about your farm is welcome, too. Please ensure that images are of high resolution (1 MB is preferred), and if the image includes a person, we need to be able to see their face clearly. — Leeann

/ grainews.ca

APRIL 2, 2012

Cover Stories Weed Management result the weeds are going to be harder to kill,” says Brenzil. Trying to decide which herbicide product to use will start with careful and early scouting to determine which weeds are emerging and likely to become problematic. “You really have to know your weeds during drier conditions because mistakes can cost you a little bit more,” says Juras. Once weeds are identified, it’s down to choosing a product that offers good control. “On the product label I look at weed control versus weed suppressed, height and leaf stage,” says Juras. “If a product can control wild buckwheat at the one- to two-leaf stage then I maybe tend to stay away from it, but if I have something that says it can control up to five- or six-leaf stage then I have a little more comfort that that product is going to perform under more challenging conditions, because it has an innate ability to control that weed more easily.” Systemic herbicides will generally be less effective under hot, dry conditions, which reduce a plant’s metabolic and transport processes, making it difficult for the herbicide to penetrate and move through the plant. Contact herbicides (such as those in Groups 5, 6, 7, 10 and 14) which are applied to foliage, only kill plant tissue in the immediate vicinity of where the spray droplet lands. They can be more effective than systemic herbicides in dry conditions, but this can also lead to crop injury, especially during the first few hours after spraying. Timing herbicide applications can be trickier under dry conditions. Farmers must find the balance between applying early

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controlling weeds in dry conditions also means that crops will be less competitive than usual against weeds. Exceptions are Russian thistle and kochia, which, because of their different physiology, can geminate at lower moisture levels than crop plants. Kochia has evolved to be able to draw water out of saline and dry conditions and Russian thistle, when it germinates, has a miniature plant already well developed inside the seed, which means it can emerge within just a few days even when conditions are dry. Green foxtail is another weed that may become more prevalent with reduced moisture. Because it doesn’t compete well with cereals under wet, cool conditions, many farmers have opted to skip spraying their green foxtail in recent years and allowed the crop to suppress the weed. During drought conditions, thinner, stressed crops may not be able to out-compete green foxtail.

Control Options Under dry conditions weeds can be harder to control for a number of reasons. Almost all herbicides carry a warning stating that they are more effective when weeds are actively growing. Under drought conditions weeds are not actively growing, so sometimes herbicides simply won’t work as well. “If you’ve got drier conditions, then the likely case is that both crops and weeds are under stress. As a

1 6 6 6 Dubl in Ave n ue , W in n ipe g, MB R3 H 0 H1 www. g ra in e ws . c a PUBLISHER

Bob Willcox Associate Publisher/ Editorial director

John Morriss

Editor

Lyndsey Smith (on leave) acting Editor

Leeann Minogue Cattleman’s Corner Editor

Lee Hart Farmlife Editor

Sue Armstrong Machinery EDITOR

Scott Garvey Pr oduction Director

Shawna Gibson Designer

Steven Cote photo: saskatchewan agriculture

This kochia plant grew in Saskatchewan in 2002, a hot, dry year. The barley in the field is short, and not very competitive. It’s allowed the kochia to gain a foothold in a spot where there was a gap in the seeding. enough to prevent weeds from out-competing the crop, but not too early, when weeds could be too small for the herbicide to be effective. As a general rule of thumb spraying at the earlier end of the recommended leaf stage range for a particular product is recommended wherever possible. In most cases a spring burn-off will get producers of to a good start, especially if winter annuals or early annual weeds are starting to emerge. “Typically what happens under drought conditions is that your early germinators tend to get established and as it gets progressively dryer they have the advantage because they have germinated and established, so you

typically don’t get a second flush,” says Juras. “Farmers will probably help themselves quite a bit by making sure they have a good burn off under drought conditions because they want to save any available soil nutrients and moisture for the crop.” If winter annual or earlygerminating weeds are allowed to grow they will use up these resources and they will not be there for the crops. University of Saskatchewan research has shown that an early spring burn-off yielded higher than later burn-off, even if the crop was not seeded immediately after. In areas that have little residual

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MARKETING/CI RCULATION Director

Lynda Tityk

Circulation ma nager

Heather Anderson H e ad Off i c e 1666 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg, Man. R3H 0H1 Phone: (204) 944-5567 Fax: (204) 944-5562 Advertising Sales

Cory Bourdeaud’hui Phone: (204) 954-1414 Fax: (204) 944-5562 E-mail: cory@fbcpublishing.com Advertising Services Co-ordinator

Arlene Bomback Phone: (204) 944-5765 Fax: (204) 944-5562 E-mail: ads@fbcpublishing.com Printed in Canada by Transcontinental LGM-Coronet Winnipeg, Man. Grainews is published by Farm Business Communications, 1666 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3H 0H1. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240.

EXTENDED OUTLOOK FOR THE PRAIRIES Weather Forecast for the period of April 8 to May 5, 2012

Southern Alberta

Peace River Region April 8 - 14 Fair overall but weather systems bring rain or snow on 2 or 3 days. Seasonal to occasionally cool and blustery. April 15 - 21 Generally pleasant with seasonal to occasionally mild temperatures. Intermittent rain or snow falls on a couple of days.

April 8 - 14 Sunny skies but a weather system brings some rain or snow. Temperatures fluctuate. Blustery.

April 15 - 21 Generally pleasant with seasonal to occasionally mild temperatures. Intermittent rain or snow falls on a couple of days.

April 15 - 21 Mild temperatures on many days under sunshine. Scattered shower activity on 2 or 3 days, with a possibility of heavier snow in some areas.

April 15 - 21 Pleasant and warm on many days aside from scattered shower activity. A weather system threatens with heavier snow on 2 days. April 22 - 28 Variable weather and temperatures. Blustery. Some heavier rain or snow.

April 29 - May 5 Sunny and windy on most days. Some snow or rain, with a chance of heavy snow or rain on 2 days.

April 29 - May 5 Sunny and windy with fluctuating temperatures. Scattered rain or snow.

-3 / 10 Edmonton

-3 / 10 Jasper

21.2 mms

ABOVE NORMAL

-3 / 9

32.4 mms

Banff

-2 / 9 North Battleford -3 / 10 Red Deer 22.9 mms

-2 / 11 Calgary

25.1 mms

0 / 13 Medicine Hat cms Lethbridge 26.019mms 35.9 mms 26 cms -1 / 12

-4 / 8 Prince Albert 22.2 mms

-5 / 6 The Pas

19.7 mms

-3 / 9 Yorkton

Precipitation Outlook For April

27.4 mms

21.7 mms

-3 / 9 Saskatoon

-4 / 9 Dauphin

ABOVE NORMAL

-4 / 7 -2 / 11 20.3 mms 31.7 mms -2 / 11 Gimli Regina -2 / 10 Moose Jaw 20.4 mms 39.2 mms Swift 24.3 mms -2 / 10 -3 / 9 Current Portage -2 / 10 -2 / 11 Brandon 40.4 mms Winnipeg 24.7 mms Weyburn NEAR 35.4 mms 35.9 mms 28.9 mms -2 / 11 NORMAL Estevan Melita -4 / 10 33.3 mms

Subscription prices: For Canadian farmers, $46.20 per year or $72.45 for 2 years (includes GST). Man. residents add 7% PST to above prices. U.S: $43.00 per year (U.S. Funds). Outside Canada & U.S.: $79 per year. ISSN 0229-8090. Call 1-800-665-0502 for subscriptions. Fax (204) 954-1422. Canadian Postmaster: Send address changes and undeliverable copies (covers only) to PO Box 9800, Winnipeg, Man. R3C 3K7. U.S. Postmaster: Send address changes and undeliverable copies (covers only) to 1666 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg, Man. R3H 0H1. Grainews is printed on recyclable paper with linseed oil-based inks. Published 18 times a year.

Precipitation Forecast 22.1 mms

Forecasts should be 80% accurate, but expect variations by a day or two because of changeable speed of weather systems.

Manitoba April 8 - 14 Weather disturbances bring a couple of wet or snowy days this week. Otherwise, sunshine and seasonal to mild temperatures prevail.

April 22 - 28 Changeable and blustery. Scattered heavier snow or rain on a couple of days.

April 29 - May 5 Sunny skies and milder temperatures. Cooler, windy outbreaks are expected to bring rain or snow.

April 29 - May 5 Mainly sunny skies and milder conditions. Cooler, windy outbreaks will bring rain or snow.

19.8 mms

April 8 - 14 Fair skies but weather systems bring rain or snow on 2 or 3 days. Seasonal to occasionally cool.

April 22 - 28 Seasonal to occasionally cool, blustery. Scattered heavier snow or rain.

-3 / 9 Grande Prairie

Saskatchewan

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

33.5 mms

Much Above Normal Below Much above normal normal below normal normal

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APRIL 2, 2012

grainews.ca /

Features Weed Management » CONTINUED FROM Previous PAGE or surface moisture early on, it may be a case of wait and see. “If it’s dry, farmers will have to evaluate if they need that early application,” says Neil Harker, research scientist, weed ecology and crop management at AAFC’s Lacombe Research Centre. “They might want to delay their herbicide application if it’s very dry and the crop is up but there are no weeds yet and wait for some timely rains to get those weeds going. Most herbicides have very little residual activity so if you spray and there’s not much weed material there it’s of little value.”

Application considerations 1. Application rates: The number one thing to remember is to not cut application rates. “When the crop’s not growing as well and the weeds are under stress, you had better keep your application rates high and follow the application

parameters in terms of water volumes,” says Johnson. 2. Water volumes: Spray coverage becomes much more of an issue in dry conditions when using contact herbicides. Using the highest recommended water volumes and maintaining larger droplets will help ensure better coverage and efficacy. Even systemic herbicides under drier conditions will perform better at higher water volumes. 3. Water quality: Water quality deteriorates in drought conditions, so using sloughs as a water source may affect some herbicides. Saskatchewan Agriculture’s website gives information about how herbicide effectiveness can be reduced by some water sources. Water quality factors of main concern are cleanliness and mineral ion content. “Water that is not clean and contains suspended silt and organic matter can reduce the activity of the following herbicides: diquat (Reglone, Reward), paraquat (Gramoxone) and glyphosate (Roundup, Rustler,

Credit, Factor, Glyfos, Maverick, Renegade, Touchdown, Vantage). It is important to use only clear, clean water for mixing these products. It should be noted that the same kind of inactivation can occur when these products are applied to plant surfaces that are covered with a layer of dust. Dust kicked up during the spray operation may also result in reduced control, especially directly behind the sprayer,” says the website. 4. Adjuvant application: The plants’ defences to moisture loss, like a thicker wax layer or more hairs on leaves, also act as barriers for the herbicide to reach and penetrate the leaf surface, so it’s equally important to apply adjuvants at the maximum recommended rate to help the spray stick to the leaf and not run off. 5. Temperature: In-crop applications with contact herbicides should be avoided during the hottest part of the day to prevent crop injury, which can occur at temperatures above 27 C. Spraying

in the evening will lessen the risk of crop injury and allow more time for uptake and diffusion of the herbicide in the target weeds before they are activated by sunlight the following morning.

Herbicide residue Herbicides break down in warm, moist soils through microbial and chemical processes. When the soil is dry, these processes slow down or sometimes stop. Herbicides that have residual characteristics in the soil can have higher-than-normal carryover following application in dry years. Even if fall moisture is received, after residual herbicide has been applied during dry summer conditions, there is a risk that herbicide carryover could affect the following crop. So it may be advisable to choose herbicides without residual characteristics if soils are dry and a dry weather pattern is already well established at the time of spraying.

Other considerations “If there is a risk that we’re looking at reduced soil moisture, farmers need to make sure they build a healthy root system on the crop plant,” says Brenzil. “That means don’t skimp on the starter fertilizer. And phosphorus in particular will get it off to a quick start.” In a dry year some crops may be so stressed that they will end up as livestock feed. Herbicide applications during the growing season, however, may restrict options for grazing or forage uses. Feeding restrictions on many herbicide labels have not been developed. If there is a chance that the crop will end up as forage, farmers should check the product label or check with the manufacturer or a local agronomist. † Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist living and working in Manitoba. Find her online at www.angelalovell.ca.

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APRIL 2, 2012

Features WEED MANAGEMENT

Mix it up to reduce herbicide tolerance It’s doing the same thing with the same products year after year that increases the risk of herbicide resistant weeds

he discovery of glyphosate-tolerant kochia in southern Alberta is a wake up call for Western Canadian farmers to pay particular attention to proper herbicide rotation, and also to get back to the basics of good agronomic practices, say weed and herbicide specialists. While this is only one case of glyphosate-tolerant kochia, more are likely to follow. Glyphosate has been a very cost effective tool for producers, particularly over the past 25 years in the move toward direct seeding and zero-till cropping systems. It is an option farmers do not want to lose. “The discovery of a glyphosateresistant kochia is a bit alarming,” says Neil Harker, a weed research scientist with Agriculture and AgriFood Canada (AAFC) at Lacombe, Alta. “It is the first case of glyphosate resistance on the prairies, and it is found in a major weed species that already has common resistance to Group 2 herbicides, so it is a concern. And I think it behooves us to pay more attention to proper herbicide rotations and to increase crop diversity.” The news of a glyphosate-resistant weed doesn’t mean farmers should stop using glyphosate pre-seeding or in-crop, but it does mean farmers need to look at all the tools in the proverbial herbicide and management toolbox to reduce the risk or spreading resistance. “It is a wake-up call for producers,” says Hugh Beckie, a research scientist specializing in the weed resistance with AAFC at Saskatoon. “Glyphosate resistance is fairly common south of the border, so we knew it was coming. It is no great surprise. But it is a wake up call to how growers use glyphosate in their cropping systems so we can preserve the effectiveness of the herbicide as long as we can.”

MIXING IT UP Mix things up — that sums up the general management strategy in dealing with herbicide resistance. Use different herbicide groups and different combinations of herbicides, grow a wider diversity of crops, and apply herbicides at different times of the year to avoid repetition and trends that weeds adapt to. Brian Wintonyk, agronomist with Dow AgroSciences at Calgary

says management strategies will differ depending on whether farmers are already dealing with cases of herbicide resistance, or whether they are trying to prevent it. “If a producer already has some herbicide resistant weeds in their fields the consequence of that is a need for some significant management,” says Wintonyk. “And if you don’t have any resistance problems, then what do you have to do so you don’t get it?”

DOUBLE WHAMMY Using two herbicides is one approach all specialists recommend. At the pre-seeding burnoff stage, producers are urged to tank mix glyphosate with some other herbicide. It could be as basic as tank mixing with 2,4-D, however producers need to know their weed spectrum and use whichever “second” herbicide is most effective. “Some general figures in the industry suggest of all producers using a pre-seeding herbicide, about 20 per cent use glyphosate tank mixed with a second herbicide and about 80 per cent just use straight glyphosate,” says Bob Blackshaw, a weed research scientist with AAFC at Lethbridge, Alta. To reduce the risk of weeds

What are the odds? BY ANGELA LOVELL

lyphosate-resistant kochia is currently isolated to a small area in southern Alberta, but farmers should be conscious of the fact that it could spread. “Resistance is a numbers game,” says Clark Brenzil, Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture weed specialist. “When a resistant biotype either gets brought in from somewhere else or evolves on the parcel of land that it’s on, what happens is you have got one plant in perhaps a billion, but it always starts with one very, very rare plant.” A herbicide resistant biotype can percolate along, unnoticed for several years, gradually buildbecoming resistant to glyphosate, he recommends a tank mix with another herbicide group. In the case of kochia, in particular, using something like 2,4-D, a Group 2 product, may not be the best option since kochia can become resistant to Group 2 her-

It’s a

BY LEE HART

ing up as a proportion of the population. Once it gets to the point where the farmer notices it, it has probably already been through the combine a number of times and spread throughout the field. “Producers need to manage for minimalization, because as long as your resistant weed population is a very, very small proportion of the total population it’s not a production concern, but you want to keep it at a level where you can’t see it. If resistance evolves to the point where a producer can see it in his field, the game is pretty much over for that particular herbicide group. He’s got two years left before it’s field wide.” Farmers should also resist the

bicides. But the point is to look at your weed spectrum and look at effective options that can be used for weeds that are there and are compatible with the crop to be planted. With kochia expanding its range across Western Canada,

temptation to become too complacent about weeds that have already developed some resistance elsewhere. “A big key to beating resistance is to resist the impulse to break away from your herbicide rotation in order to save a couple of bucks one year,” says Brenzil. “Once you do it one year and don’t see any resistance showing up, it’s tempting to get trapped in that cycle of repeating that over and over again, and eventually you get to the point where kochia is at right now with Group 2 resistance. Group 2s were a great herbicide on kochia but they aren’t any more. So we have now lost that tool and there are a finite number of tools in the toolbox.” †

Blackshaw urges farmers to consider using a relatively new group — Group 14 herbicides — such as Heat and Cleanstart in combination with glyphosate to reduce risk of developing herbicide tolerance. Blackshaw also says post-

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APRIL 2, 2012

grainews.ca /

Features

These innocent-looking kochia plants are just emerging. The photos have been supplied by Keith Topinka, research associate, biosafety of transgenic crops, at the University of Alberta. harvest weed control is another opportunity to apply a glyphosate tank mix to deal with the weed spectrum. It takes the pressure off glyphosate to do all the weed control work. “As we deal with the risk of herbicide resistance, weed control will become more expensive as different chemistries are used in different combinations to lower the risk,” he says. “It also means producers will need more advanced planning. They will need good records of treatments that have

been made in past years, and will need to look ahead three or four years to use the right combination of products, in the proper rotation with crops.”

IN-CROP TREATMENTS Wi n t o n y k s a y s p r o d u c e r s also need to pay attention to in-crop herbicide treatments in cereal crops as well. Research has shown using two compatible herbicides in one application to tackle weeds is more effective

than using different herbicides at different times. One objective of combining two products such as Simplicity and Attain, Simplicity/Frontline/2,4-D, or Simplicity and a new version of Attain being called OcTTain XL, and Tandem/2,4-D ester, is to cover a wider weed spectrum and give producers more options. But, perhaps even more importantly is to combine two products with different chemistry effective on the same weed, to reduce the risk of developing herbicide tolerance.

Wintonyk also urges farmers to learn more about growth and reproduction patterns of weeds on their land. With kochia, for example, one plant can produce as many as 14,000 seeds and the majority will germinate a year after seed production. Also, kochia seeds don’t germinate as well if the seed is one or more inches deep in the soil. He’s not suggesting farmers revert to tillage for weed control, but he says in some circumstances, in some areas it may have a fit.

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GOOD AGRONOMICS Harker along with others also emphasizes the value of following good agronomic practices which helps control weeds and risk of herbicide tolerance. Greater crop diversity and maintaining optimum plant stands are important practices he says. He understands farming economics, but says back-to-back cropping or even two-year rotations of crops such as canola can increase the risk of developing herbicide tolerance. “We are better off than some areas of the United States where their rotations can be Roundup Ready corn, followed by Roundup Ready cotton and then Roundup Ready soybeans,” says Harker. “Using glyphosate after glyphosate after glyhphosate year after year puts a huge selection pressure on weeds for glyphosate resistance.” A cereal/canola rotation isn’t as bad, but he encourages farmers to use all three herbicide-resistant canola systems which helps reduce the selection pressure of glyphosate. Along with cereals and oilseeds, he also encourages the use of pulse crops in rotation, and where possible the use of winter cereals such as winter wheat, fall rye and fall and winter triticale to extend rotations and change the seasonal timing of herbicide applications. “Farmers need to have a look at all the practices of an integrated weed management system,” he says. “Maintaining higher seed rates is also important to improve weed control. Higher seeding rates and healthy plant stands help to suppress weeds and also promotes more even crop maturity and reduced green seed.” While many canola growers are looking to reduce seeding rates to reduce the cost of seed, “I think we need to resist that temptation,” says Harker. In an ideal situation thinner stands can be productive, but if stressed by frost, excessive moisture or drought those thinner stands aren’t as competitive with weeds, and if weeds flourish it may mean farmers are applying two or three treatments of glyphosate to control weeds — more glyphosate increases the risk of herbicide-resistance. † Lee Hart is a field editor for Grainews in Calgary, Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com.

/ grainews.ca

APRIL 2, 2012

Features CROP PRODUCTION

CROP ADVISOR’S CASEBOOK BY JORDAN LEE

ill, a farmer who grows 3,000 acres of wheat, barley, oats and canola south of Melfort, Sask., had acquired another quarter in the spring of 2011. The new quarter had a history of canola-cereal rotations with canola yields in excess of 40 bushels per acre. Bill had high hopes for a great return on his new investment when he seeded the quarter with canola that spring. Bill began to suspect something was wrong at the beginning of June when he noticed the leaves of the two-leaf-stage plants were cupping and the leaf margins were turning purple. As the crop progressed to the four-leaf stage, the symptoms appeared to be worsening. “My crop looks sick,” Bill told me during a phone call in mid-June. He asked me to visit his farm to confirm what he thought was a chemical injury to his crop. “Could be a drift problem,” he said. Bill’s crop looked sick. Although the whole field was affected to some degree, the symptoms were more severe and occurred more

CRUSHED HOPES FOR BUMPER CANOLA CROP?

often on knolls and hilltops than lower-lying areas. Chemical drift could not be responsible for the damage, I told Bill, because of the widespread nature of the symptoms throughout the field. Although certain herbicides can cause symptoms in canola plants that are similar to those we were observing in Bill’s field, records indicated that herbicide injury due to residuals in the soil was also unlikely. However, I thought examining the field’s history might turn up some clues to explain the plants’ leaf cupping and purpling. The soil was sandy loam, and Bill had applied a 90-25-0-10 blend fertilizer on the field — fairly standard for the area. It had been a wet spring, so at this point we couldn’t rule out a problem due to saturated soil. However, because the symptoms were more severe on the hilltops, this scenario was also unlikely. The key to solving this casebook, I thought, was in these details — a historically highyielding field with sandy loam soil and a canola-cereal rotation. What Bill was experiencing in his field was also a growing prob-

CROP ADVISOR’S SOLUTION BY DANIELLE HUEBNER

hree important clues pinpointed an insect pest problem in one farmer’s field in the Manitoba Sunflower Belt last June. This Melita farmer also found out that the species of pest affects if, and how much, damage will occur in a crop. Joe is one of a number of southern Manitoba farmers who grow sunflowers in rotation. Producers in the sunflower belt grow over 90 per cent of Canada’s sunflower crop. Joe, who also farms wheat, canola and rye, asked me to visit his 2,200-acre operation one morning in early June after he discovered patches that were almost completely devoid of sunflower plants in one of his fields. The size of his operation keeps Joe hopping. He explained he hadn’t checked this field since he planted it. “I’ve been so busy

with seeding and spraying, I didn’t have the time to scout,” he said. As a result, he couldn’t be sure whether poor seedling emergence or another cause altogether was to blame for the missing plants. I assured him immediately that poor germination was not the cause of the damage because of the patchlike appearance of the affected areas, as well as the fact that his other fields of sunflower plants were developing normally. Three important clues led me to believe Joe had an insect problem in this sunflower field. First, most of the patches were located on the hilltops and south-facing slopes in the field. The small holes and notches in the leaves also fit the profile of insect damage — they were actually insect bite marks. Finally, the presence of plant carcasses just inches away from the damaged rows, and the stubs of stems sticking out above the

Jordan Lee lem in many other fields across Saskatchewan and Alberta. “You’ve got to act,” I said. “This problem is only going to get worse if you don’t do something about it.” Will Bill’s hopes for a bumper crop be crushed? What’s causing the plants’ leaves to cup and the leaves’ margins to turn purple in Bill’s canola field? Send your diagnosis to Grainews, Box 9800, Winnipeg, MB, R3C 3K7; email leeann.

The leaves of the two-leaf-stage canola plants were cupping and the leaf margins were turning purple. As the crop progressed, symptoms were worsening. minogue@fbcpublishing.com; or fax 204-944-5416 c/o Crop Advisor’s Casebook. Best suggestions will be pooled and one winner will be drawn for a chance to win a Grainews cap and a one-year subscrip-

tion to the magazine. The answer, along with the reasoning which solved the mystery, will appear in the next Crop Advisor’s Solution File. † Jordan Lee is an area marketing representative for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. in Melfort, Sask.

KEEPING INSECT THRESHOLDS AT BAY soil surface indicated an insect infestation. “This stem has been chewed off,” I said to Joe, as I pointed out a stem stub. I dug with my trowel gently along the row. Hidden in the dirt, a half-inch below the surface and right beside a freshly chewed plant stem, I found what I was looking for — a redbacked cutworm! Cutworms only feed at night, hiding beneath the soil surface during the day. This is why they are so difficult to see — you have to go hunting for them. They prefer hilltops and slopes of hills because these areas warm up quickly in the spring — which explained the heavier damage in these areas of Joe’s field. There are many different species of cutworm and not all of them are harmful to crops. Redbacked cutworms, named for the two dull red stripes that run along the larvae’s backs, can be

one of the most damaging cutworm species to crops. The larvae feed on the leaves, making small holes, and the adults feed on the stems, often severing them and killing the plants, or weakening the stems, causing the plants to wilt. Fortunately for Joe, when I examined his field I didn’t think the damage caused by the cutworms was severe or widespread. Joe sprayed the field late that night with chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate insecticide. Later in the season, at harvest, his yield was not seriously affected. He’d caught the problem early enough. The insect threshold for the crop also determines whether there will be economic damage to that crop — in sunflowers, that threshold is approximately one redbacked cutworm per square foot. This threshold varies among crops. Since an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,

I also recommended that Joe scout his fields after germination, during emergence and during early growth to monitor for the appearance of cutworms and population levels, watching for that threshold value. Joe should also pay close attention to crop rotations — certain crops can host cutworms. I also warned him to watch out for emerging cutworm populations in reduced-tillage fields. Trash carryover from previous crops can serve as a host environment for cutworms. Finally, Joe, and all growers in the sunflower belt, should be prepared to spray an insecticide if they are located in an area with repeated cutworm problems. These management practices will help growers keep populations of damaging cutworms at bay. † Danielle Huebner is an area marketing representative for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. in Antler, Sask.

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APRIL 2, 2012

Features WEED MANAGEMENT

Weed control after a flood

Many farmers saw flooded acres in 2011. Special care will be needed to control weeds and manage these fields this year BY DANELL VAN STAVEREN

t may only occur every 300 years, but farmers in southeast Saskatchewan and southwest Manitoba spent 2011 dealing with the worst flood since the West was settled. An estimated six million acres in the two provinces went unseeded due to the flooding. Even though waterlogged fields could not be planted, they were anything but barren, and now pose several management issues for the spring of 2012. “We had a lot of weeds,” says Greg Gerry an agrologist, owner of Precision Agricultural Services, and a farmer near Griffin, Saskatchewan, an area severely affected by the flood. He goes on to say, “We buried a lot of weeds, we are going to have a lot of weeds to kill, but we don’t have new weeds.”

WEED CONTROL TOOLS Although it is possible that flood waters could have washed in weed seeds currently not found in the affected fields, Gerry sees this as an unlikely possibility. The greater problem by far is the bank of weed seeds that has been created when

The Schurko family’s flooded farm near Griffin, Sask., in the spring of 2011. weeds have been allowed to grow and mature unchecked due to the wet conditions. The quantity of weed seeds is concerning. The greater the quantity, the more flushes of weeds that will be able to grow come spring. Field work last fall, such as cultivating, and putting weeds through the combine to reduce the straw residual, may have contributed to the problem. “The seed bank is buried, so the problem is going to be ongoing. There are a lot of tools to control the weeds. With a warm spring there will be a lot of

flushes. Burn-off will be essential,” says Gerry. The “tools” to control weeds referred to by Gerry, are, of course, farm chemicals, such as glyphosate. Gerry recommends farmers look at using glyphosate with an add-on such as Express Pre-Pass, or glyphosate and Heat for spring burn off. For in-crop control of weeds, such as wild oats, Gerry recommends spraying with Everest. He’s cautioning farmers to be aware of what weeds they have in their fields, so they can use the

Flooded fields in southeast Saskatchewan, near Griffin Sask., in 2011. right product to eliminate their specific weed problem. Gerry says, “Perhaps because we had so many weeds, it created more awareness of what is out there. We are seeing harder to kill weeds such as cleavers and catchfly.”

OTHER POST-FLOOD PROBLEMS Being aware of the potential weed problems caused by the flood of 2011 is going to be an important part of field management for the spring of 2012, how-

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ever, Gerry cautions farmers in the affected regions to also be aware of several other potential problems they may be facing this spring. One of those potential problems is crusting. Crusting occurs when the structure of waterlogged soil breaks down and forms a compact layer on the surface. Crusting not only impairs the movement of air and water in the soil, but can also impair the emergence of seedlings. Seeding into crusted soil may be an issue, although this

» CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

APRIL 2, 2012

grainews.ca /

Features Diversification

New sea buckthorn variety By Lisa Guenther

ea buckthorn berries are brimming with vitamins, along with high levels of beta carotene, omega-3 oils, and flavonoids. The fruit can be found in a range of food and skin care products in health food stores. The plant is drought hardy and resistant to diseases and pests, making it a tempting option for fruit growers or other crop producers looking to diversify their farm income. H o w e v e r, s e a b u c k t h o r n berries cluster tightly against the stem, making them extremely difficult to handpick and impossible to harvest mechanically. Numerous thorns also complicate the process.

“It’s like a cob of corn. Trying to get each piece off individually is very difficult,” explains Betty Forbes of Northern Vigour Berries. Growers must cut the branches and freeze them to remove the berries, a labour-intensive process that drives up costs. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers recently announced that they will be releasing a new variety of sea buckthorn this year that can be hand-picked or mechanically harvested. AC-Autumn Gold is nearly thornless, and the berries are on long stalks, making them easier to harvest. The berries are also twice as large as other varieties. Forbes is glad to see new varieties and thinks automation will

be better for the entire industry. “There still is that problem of the existing crops. I guess my goal is to definitely help all the people who have already planted. Of course, we have to look to the future and putting in new varieties, but I think we have to work with both.” Kathie Fedora, spokesperson for the Manitoba Seabuckthorn Growers Association, hasn’t had a chance to evaluate the new variety, but she is cautiously optimistic. “If this new variety still retains the resilience of the old variety, but adds in a far more favourable harvest condition, we would have a winner.” † Lisa Guenther is a communications specialist in LIvelong, Sask. Find her online at www. brickhouse.ca.

Sea buckthorn is an option for fruit growers or farmers looking to diversify.

» CONTINUED FROM Previous PAGE can usually be solved by harrowing prior to seeding. Another potential concern for seeding this spring is residual products in the soil. Farmers must remember what they sprayed on their fields last summer and fall to control weeds. If a crop that is sensitive to a certain residual is planted on a field with that residual, the results may be disastrous. For example, if metsulfurson, a residual broad leaf herbicide, was applied in the summer of 2011, lentils could not be planted on this field, as it would destroy the crop’s root system. Deficiencies in nitrogen and sulphur can occur in waterlogged soil. “Don’t assume you will have nitrogen because the field stayed fallow last year,” Gerry warns. He says that under wet conditions nitrogen becomes mobile, and will find its way to the surface where it will gas off into the atmosphere. Also, certain microorganisms have the ability to obtain oxygen from nitrites and nitrates in waterlogged soils, therefore further reducing the quantity of nitrogen. Sulphur may suffer a similar fate in wet soils, as excess moisture allows the sulphur to leach from the soil. Gerry recommends that farmers soil test last year’s flooded fields to learn the amount of fertilizer in the soil, and determine what requirements each field has for the pending growing season. Farmers in the flooded areas may encounter some insect problems they would likely not typically encounter. One example is the flea beetle. Flea beetles are heat sensitive. An increase in the number of black summer fallow acres means an increase in temperature in those fields, which could translate into an increase in flea beetle numbers. “We may see higher flea beetle numbers then we’ve seen in years,” says Gerry, “Guys aren’t ready for that because we aren’t used to summer fallow.” Whether the issue is weed control, crusting, residuals, nutrient deficiencies, or insect pests, farmers in Southeast Saskatchewan and Southwest Manitoba will still be feeling the effects of the 300-year 2011 flood as they prepare for the 2012 growing season. †

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*Contact control only **Contact control with 900 gae/ha of glyphosate only. Always read and follow label directions. PRE-PARE and the PRE-PARE logo are trademarks of Arysta LifeScience North America, LLC. Arysta LifeScience and the Arysta LifeScience logo are registered trademarks of Arysta LifeScience Corporation. All other products mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective companies. ©2012 Arysta LifeScience North America, LLC. PREC-099

Danell van Staveren writes from a farm near Griffin, Sask. 0000-1140_PREPARE_Gameboard_CANv3 8.125x10.indd 1

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APRIL 2, 2012

Features WEED MANAGEMENT

Scouting soybeans takes planning, time and effort Rob Park of Carman, Man., says farmers shouldn’t take soybean management lightly BY HARRY SIEMENS

oybean acres keep climbing in Manitoba because they’re doing better than edible beans, especially in the last three wet years, and they cost less per acre to grow. Rob Park, a farmer, seed grower and consultant near Carman, Man., says farmers shouldn’t treat soybeans as idiot proof.

SOYBEAN EXPANSION Park left a job as an oilseed specialist and in management, left MAFRI to tend to his farm full time three years ago. Then, he looked for a way to replace his off-farm income. “I expanded the seed production in a different kind of way from what we used to do,” he says. “With soybeans taking off in the last while, we focused on soybean seed production — doing select seed foundation, registered and certified seed production.” Park says there’s the potential for soybeans to set another new acreage record this year. “How quickly the seed sold this

Beware the pirate of the prairies

year and how short the supply is tells us that we will press to that one million acres, this year possibly,” he says. “That will be a new record.” Another reason for Park’s optimism when it comes to soybean acre expansion is that more and more farmers are talking about 25 per cent or a third of their acres going into soybeans. How high those acreage numbers become depends on whether the industry gets earlier maturing and higher yielding varieties. “The maturity is the Achilles’ heel to where things can expand into western Manitoba and the north,” says Park. “We have people going with retail outlets into Russell, Roblin, Souris west, and north of Brandon making for a huge area, but we need to be strong yielding and we need to be early.”

SCOUTING While still staying on top of what is going on in his fields, Park employs a professional agronomist to look after the day-to-day detail because of the other seed work he does on and off the farm.

“Ultimately I’m responsible for all the decisions and I need to see it with my own eyes too,” says Park. While it’s impossible to do so every time, or even every year, ultimately a farmer needs to look at the entire field. ark crisscrosses while roguing, zigzagging in the shape of a “W,” and making some random walks to see what’s there. He spends a great deal of time and makes many miles on his four-wheeler looking at conditions during different parts of the growing season. “I’m always looking for something. A weed, insect or disease, but for all three at the same time,” says Park. “I’m looking for, generally, where is the competition? What is the limiting factor to the plant? And what is competing against it for nutrients, sunlight and for space. Sometimes that’s weeds, sometimes insects, and leaf diseases.” When he sees a problem, Park implements a solution, putting in a scheduled herbicide application, timing an insecticide application to take out soybean aphids, or possibly doing a fungicide application T:10.25” to maintain good plant health.

PHOTO: HARRY SIEMENS

Rob Park of RJP Seeds Ltd. of Carman, Man., says farmers must make sure they take growing soybeans just as seriously as any other crop. Scouting fields is vital to manage weed, disease and fungus control. Park suspects soybeans are 99 per cent Roundup Ready in the southern Manitoba market. The glyphosate products work well. Other products like Pursuit take care of volunteer canola and grassy control products take care of some volunteer corn.

BE CAUTIOUS “Just on the cost side, with fertilizer prices about to shoot back up again, it makes very good sense to grow soybeans,” Park says. “Some will look at a crop like soybeans versus canola, but canola has seen strong prices too.” Going forward, Park says farmers must be cautious and not treat soybeans lightly when it comes to crop management. “Some say it’s idiot proof —spray Roundup an few times, its done,” Park says. “That maybe okay for

now, but once we start to see a presence of soybeans in Manitoba for a long time, we must be watching for the next test that’s coming,” he says. “Everything has its test once it’s been around for awhile.” There are diseases that soybean farmers will need to watch for that have not been seen here before, such as soybean rust. Another potential problem that already effects soybean growers in the U.S. and Ontario is soybean cyst nematoad, a roundworm that infects that root of the soybean and can have a devastating impact on yield. “It may never be a problem here, but if we grow millions of acres of soybeans in Manitoba, it will find its way here,” Park says. † Harry Siemens is a farm journalist, freelance writer, speaker, and broadcaster living in Winkler, Man. Find him at www.siemenssays. com, harry@siemenssays.com or 204-325-5215.

clerotinia – the scourge of Saskatchewan, Manitoban menace, the annihilator of Alberta. Sclerotinia can lay waste to your canola,

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APRIL 2, 2012

grainews.ca /

Features Weed management

Go early for best weed control in spring wheat and durum Many farmers focus on pulse and canola acres, leaving spring wheat and durum until later in the season. This could be compromising returns By Robert Klewchuk

hen the weather co-operates, later seeding of cereals can be fine. But cool and wet spring conditions such as those experienced in the last few years, can delay weed emergence. A pre-seed burn-off to clean a field before seeding is not effective at eliminating weeds that haven’t emerged yet. By the time farmers seed their cereal crop, they are going into fields with only part of the early weed population addressed. As well, late herbicide application has always been the trend in wheat and durum. The rationale is that weeds must be managed first in pulses such as lentils (which are typically less competitive) and canola (often a higher value crop), before turning to cereals. Late seeding and late weed control can compromise cereal crops’ yield and quality.

particularly when it comes to wild oats, which remain the No. 1 challenge for cereal growers and are pervasive yield-robbers. Any weed that isn’t completely dead after an application is still stealing fertilizer, moisture, space and light from the cereal crop, so be sure to select a herbicide that delivers a fast, thorough performance to remove that competition immediately. 3. Tank mixing. Choose a grass herbicide that offers a high level of tank-mix flexibility so that a broad-

leaf herbicide that addresses the specific weed spectrum in the field can be added into the sprayer. 4. Plan ahead. Managing herbicide resistance should always be a consideration, so plan crop rotations ahead and keep certain active ingredients for those crops that require them. For example, most growers use a Group 2 product on their pulses, so if a pulse crop is going to follow a wheat crop, select an herbicide with a different mode of action for weed control in the wheat. Look

one, two and three years out and save the best weed control option for the crop that will need it. 5. Start thinking about disease. Early herbicide application in cereals gives farmers an opportunity to also get ahead of leaf disease. Scout the crop before application and if early signs of disease exist, include a lower rate of fungicide in the tank mix. Disease management should always be part of the weed control decision tree, but is particularly important if you’re pushing rotations.

Fortunately for cereal growers, there is a wide array of herbicide options available, and companies are launching new products every year. By applying the same weed control thinking and practices typically reserved for pulses and canola — that is, go in hard and early — to spring wheat and durum, farmers stand a better chance of ending the season with a highly marketable crop † Robert Klewchuk is Syngenta Canada Inc.’s technical lead for Western Canada.

Five considerations What holds true for other crops also holds true for cereals: earlyseason weed removal is key to yield. If the crop is under any stress, if it is being challenged for nutrients, moisture or light, it will dial itself back and not produce as well as it could. Farmers should consider the following: 1. Agronomic practices. Start the spring wheat and durum crop off right with good quality seed. Plant at the right depth and rate, and into optimal soil conditions. Use a seed treatment to help get consistent and strong emergence. A cereal plant that is healthy from the get-go, when it’s young and yield potential is set, should have a higher yield and quality at harvest. 2. Herbicide choice. Take the pressure off cereal crops by using a pre-seed burn-off with a nonselective product. Time the burnoff according to weather conditions to ensure it is as effective as possible, then seed the wheat as soon as feasible to give it a chance to germinate before other weeds emerge. When it comes to in-crop weed control, early weed control is key, By Dan Piraro

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APRIL 2, 2012

Features WEED CONTROL

Managing herbicide-resistant weeds in pulses Research continues into new ways to manage herbicide-resistant weeds in pulses BY ERIC JOHNSON

or the past two years, the Pulse Science Cluster (funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and pulse industry organizations) has provided funds for a group of scientists to develop new strategies for managing herbicide-resistant weeds. In addition, Saskatchewan Pulse Growers (SPG) has provided five years of strategic funding to develop weed control strategies for pulses. With this funding, the Pulse Science Cluster is focusing on managing Group 2-resistant wild mustard, kochia, and cleavers, but some work is also being done on chickweed and spiny annual sow-thistle. We are also using this funding to evaluate herbicides with alternative modes of action for controlling wild oats. Although there are a number of herbicides available to do this, there are really only four modes of action, with heavy reliance on Group 1s.

GROUP 14 HERBICIDES The two groups of herbicides that we are focusing on are Group 14 (PPO inhibitors) and Group 15 (inhibitors of cell growth and division). Group 14 herbicides that are currently registered in Western Canada are carfentrazone (Aim, CleanStart), sulfentrazone (Authority) and saflufenacil (Heat). Our studies have found that Authority is quite effective in controlling cleavers at label rates

on soils with less than five per cent organic matter. Results on soils with higher organic matter have been variable and more work is required to determine a rate structure for these soils. Cleavers is not on the Authority label, but it is hoped that enough data will be generated for submission in the next year or two. Higher rates of Heat applied preemergence in field pea are also

Flumioxazin is another Group 14 soil-applied herbicide that we have tested periodically over the last decade. Recently, Syngenta has been evaluating the product in field pea, with plans to register it within the next year, and we also evaluated fall application in lentil this past year. Preliminary results indicate that lentils were tolerant to fall application and it provided suppression to control

Authority is quite effective in controlling cleavers at label rates on soils with less than five per cent organic matter being investigated, although not enough data has been generated to draw conclusions. Authority is registered for use in field pea, chickpea, flax, and sunflower and is very effective on kochia, so it would be beneficial to use in lentil, which is generally sensitive to it. Bert Vandenberg, lentil breeder at the Crop Development Center (CDC), feels that there should be a tolerance gene somewhere in the lentil germplasm, as there is tolerance in other grain legumes. Screening of lentil germplasm for tolerance to sulfentrazone (and other Group 14 herbicides) in the past three years has found that there is considerable variation in tolerance within the germplasm tested (see Figure 1). Breeding efforts are underway to develop lines with high levels of tolerance.

Figure 1: Variable tolerance to sulfentrazone.

of kochia, wild mustard, lambs quarters and redroot pigweed. Fluthiacet-methyl is another PPO inhibitor but unlike Authority or Heat, it is a post-emergence herbicide. Studies have investigated lentil and field pea tolerance to the product, and while in both crops we see some initial burning, it typically disappears within weeks. Further testing is required to determine if this injury results in a yield penalty (see Figure 2). In a limited number of preliminary trials, fluthiacetmethyl provided acceptable control of kochia and suppression to control of wild mustard. It is not likely a standalone product but could be a potential tankmix partner for Solo or Viper for controlling resistant weeds, or as a mix with Sencor to broaden its weed spectrum.

PHOTOS: KEN SAPSFORD, U. OF SASK.

PRECIPITATION AT SCOTT May

June

---------------------mm--------------------2010 2011

121 32

146 81

Long-term avg.

60 SOURCE: ERIC JOHNSON, AAFC

Figure 3: Wild oat control with pyroxasulfone at Scott in 2010-11.

GROUP 15 HERBICIDE The final product we are screening is a Group 15 herbicide called pyroxasulfone. It is also a soil-active product, and its activity is dependent on soil moisture and rainfall. Although the product has activity on both broadleaf and grass weeds, we are focusing on wild oat control, which has been variable and dependent on rainfall (see Figure 3). In 2010, wild oat control was excellent at all rates when precipitation levels were above normal. In 2011, the control was not as good with normal levels of precipitation, but these results are a bit mislead-

ing as there was no appreciable rainfall for about five weeks after application, which limited its activity. Future research will investigate timing of application to determine if fall application causes more consistent results. As of now we have a few products that may potentially lead to future registrations. This type of research requires long-term time investment, but we hope to have some of these technologies in farmers’ hands within the next two to five years. † Eric Johnson is a weed biologist for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. He can be reached at eric. johnson@agr.gc.ca. This article was originally published in the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers’ “PulsePoint”. It is reprinted with permission.

PHOTO: ERIC JOHNSON, AAFC

Figure 2: Leaf burn on lentil from fluthiacet-methyl application.

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APRIL 2, 2012

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Features Crop production

Organic Practices for conventional producers Even farmers who have no intention of going organic can learn something from successful organic practices By Kiel Moorehead

rganic farming has become mainstream and is an ever-growing market. What can conventional farming learn from organic farming? Larry and Pat Pollock are certified organic farmers, farming 600 acres just east of Brandon, Man. “We take great pride in the grains that we produce each year,” said Larry Pollock. “Organic farming does have its challenges, but the rewards are there.” The Pollocks grow different types of cereal grains like barley, rye, oats and spelt (an ancient wheat grain). They also produce forage seed and alfalfa. Larry has been farming for 46 years, and has been growing organic crops since 1998. The Pollocks also sell organic vegetables to local farmers markets.

reduction in fertilizer and fuel has saved us so much without jeopardizing our yield production.” Green manure plow down also provides carbon from the plant material that is needed in the soil structure to hold nutrients. Plant material being worked into the soil from the previous year’s crop also provides organic matter. Implementing a green manure plow down into a crop rotation provides great competition towards any weeds and diseases.

Other tips Other organic-style tips include seeding early and heavy, crop scouting often, and harrowing to reduce weeds.

Crop scouting allows farmers to address problems early. Harrowing reduces weed growth to give crops a better chance. The Pollocks believe everyone, organic or not, should follow these practices. They’ve learned from trials and tribulations. It took time for them to find out which practices work for them, but they would never go back. “If I knew what I know today 10 years ago, I would have gone organic years sooner,” said Larry. As trends come and go, all farmers should take a step back and “think organic” more often. † photo: buzz communications Kiel Moorehead is a second year Agribusiness Larry and Pat Pollock scout one of their spelt fields on their farm just east student at Assiniboine Community College in T:8.125” Brandon, Man. of Brandon, Man.

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Green manure plow down Joanne Pollock recommends that conventional farmers practice a “green manure plow down.” This involves seeding an annual legume every third year in a crop rotation. The legumes grow until the flowering stage, then the plant material is worked into the soil. “The legumes fix the nitrogen in the soil, which is so important in having good growth,” says Joanne. Green manure plow down offers nitrogen to the soil without the farmer having to add it in the liquid or granular forms. The Pollocks have noticed a huge change in their input costs since they added a green manure plow down practice. “Our costs have dropped dramatically since going organic,” explained Larry. “The

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The Pollocks believe the most important practice conventional producers should try is a diverse crop rotation. “You want to make sure that no insects, diseases, or weeds become adapted to the area,” said Larry. “A good crop rotation will always keep pathogens and pests under control. You want to be careful when selecting your rotations in making diverse decisions for any particular field.” Joanne Thiessen Martens, an assistant agronomist at the University of Manitoba, agrees that a diverse crop rotation can help conventional producers manage their problems. “All producers should create a four to six year crop rotation that should include cereals, oilseeds, legumes and perennials like alfalfa,” she says. “You want to plant crops that have different habits in growing in order to upset any problems the field may have. This can include cool to warm temperature crops, and even fall seeded crops like fall rye and winter wheat.” The Pollocks have definitely noticed the difference that comes from using a diverse crop rotation on their organic farm. “When you look across the field, the difference is astounding. The amount of weed pressure has decreased and we have been able to take care of any problems when they are little,” says Larry.

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APRIL 2, 2012

Features SEEDING

New opener means faster seeding, no hairpinning This farmer is impressed with a disc system that works through all crop residue and adds 25 per cent more acres seeded per hour BY LEE HART

R PHOTOS: PILLAR LASERS

Klassen’s Flexicoil tool bar seeding system, equipped with Pillar disc hoe openers, seeding the 2011 crop.

etrofitting one wider seeding tool bar with newer, simpler disc openers has made it possible for Jody Klassen to eliminate a second air seeding system and cover more ground in a day on his north central Alberta farm. This spring will be the second year that Klassen, who crops about 5,400 acres of grains and oilseeds near Mayerthorpe, northwest of Edmonton, Alta., has gone to the field with a unique Flexicoil 7500 tool bar equipped with Pillar Disc Hoe Drill openers. Klassen says the simpler, low maintenance design of the double shoot opener does an excellent job

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of placing seed and fertilizer, easily works through crop residue and allows him to travel faster. “With other systems maybe you can seed at four to five miles per hour, but this works well at up to 6.5 miles per hour,” he says. “And with the extra width I can seed 20 to 25 per cent more acres per hour and still get accurate seed placement.” Klassen had been using two older Concord drills one equipped with Dutch openers and the other with low draft Atom Jet openers. Both were paired row seeding systems.

SIMPLIFY SEEDING To simplify the seeding operation, Klassen bought a 70-foot Flexicoil 7500, and replaced all shanks with the Pillar Disc Hoe Drill openers. “It is a not a fully independent link system, but is about two-thirds of the way there. It is one of the few, if not the only one like it in Western Canada. It does a nice job of seeding and really improves my seeding efficiency.” He has set up the system with two air tanks, one forward and one behind, with a total of six compartments. Along with the seed, the two tank system can blend fertilizer in the field. The Pillar Disc Hoe Drill opener was designed by Dick Friesen, president and founder of Pillar Lasers, a welding and fabrication company based in Warman, Sask. (Find more information at www. pillarlasers.com.) Friesen who worked for another seeding system manufacturer in the past, began working on design of the Pillar Disc Hoe Drill opener about seven or eight years ago and has been manufacturing them for about six years. “It is loosely based on the Barton disc opener, but is much simpler in design and for maintenance,” says Friesen. “It is a very accurate seed placement system, it can operate at higher speeds which is what farmers like about disc systems, but we have eliminated the issue of hairpinning in crop residue. “We’ve kept it simple — there are only three moving wheels. It has very good wearing ability, but if you need to service it, you can dismantle any component in one to two minutes, whereas with the original Barton system it could have been a one to two hour job.”

UNIQUE DESIGN Friesen says the Pillar system is the only double shoot disc system, certainly within the price range. Fertilizer is applied through the disc as it cuts through the soil and is placed about 1.5 inches below and to the side of the seed row. The seed comes down through a wing beside the disc. Seed exits through the back of the wing directly onto the seed bed. Just above the wing is a heavy duty plastic or polymer plate referred to as the seed ski that holds soil in place over the seed until all is firmed up by the packer wheel. An easily accessible gauge allows producers to set and lock in depth control using the packer wheel. “The system has very accurate seed placement and is packed on row, and leaves a very nice finish to the field,” says Friesen. “It looks

APRIL 2, 2012

grainews.ca /

Features good, but also makes it much easier at harvest to have a nice level field.” It is the design of the double shoot system that eliminates the hairpinning problem with crop residue, he says. The system can work through any height of stubble, even tall stubble left behind from a stripper header, without hairpinning. While the opener can be adapted for certain makes of tool bars, Friesen has begun manufacturing his own system. He is already making a 40-foot seeding system and will be field-testing a 58-foot wide seeding system this spring. “Farmers like wider systems to cover more ground,” he says. “While we are not as wide as some manufacturers the fact that a producer can seed at higher speed does increase seeding efficiency.” The opener works equally well with all seed sizes ranging from grass seed to the large pulse crop seed. And the disc system also works very well for seeding into sod, says Friesen.

OTHER CHANGES Along with the new seeding system, Klassen is simplifying seeding plans for 2012 and dropping peas out of the rotation this year. He’ll divide his farm between wheat and canola. Generally, since he’s had good success with peas, he plans to include them in rotation in 2013. With the new seeding system designed for variable rate technology (VRT), he also will be intro-

This closeup view of the Pillar disc hoe opener shows the disc that places fertilizer, the wing to side of the disc that places seed. The white plate above the wing is the seed ski, followed by a packer wheel at the rear. ducing VRT to about 10 per cent of his farm in 2012. Working with long-time crop consultant, Geoff Doell of Growth Agronomics of Westlock, he’ll be using variable rate fertilizer application with canola seeded on wheat stubble. “It is somewhat expensive to get started with VRT, so we are starting with just a portion of the farm,” says Klassen. The fields selected have had repeat soil testing over the years — site specific testing that is geo-referenced, so they have tested the same areas for several years. Along with yield data, they are also looking at the history of tissue testing of crops on these fields to help in developing the fertilizer prescription.

“You might say we are bit old school in that we’re not using all the reference mapping that some VRT prescriptions use,” says Klassen. “But we feel this will give us a good handle on productivity of different sites where we are using VRT. Initially we are going to focus on nitrogen, since it is a key nutrient and then look at other nutrients as we go.” Klassen, who farms northwest of Edmonton, says timing of seeding is critical in his area — the earlier the better. In an ideal year he’d hope to be seeding by April 25 although often it is first week of May. † Lee Hart is a field editor for Grainews in Calgary, Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com.

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APRIL 2, 2012

Features CROP POLLINATION

Alfalfa Leafcutter Bees Leafcutter bees are vital to alfalfa production. Learn how these bees do their jobs BY ANDREW LINDSAY-HAWKINS

lfalfa leafcutter bees (Megachile Rotundata) were first imported to Canada (into Southern Alberta) by G.A. Hobbs in 1962. From a small beginning they have expanded into a much larger area covering approximately 36,000 acres in Saskatchewan, 13,500 acres in central and southern Manitoba and 24,000 acres in the Peace River, Brooks and Lethbridge areas of Alberta in 2011. At one point these bees covered more than 200,000 acres in Western Canada Most of the leafcutter bees are produced on alfalfa in the three provinces; the acres involved are small compared to other crops. Alfalfa flowers won’t set seed unless they’re cross-pollinated and tripped. Leafcutter bees are used in alfalfa as they tend not to move far from where they’re released unless they’re short of food.

LEAFCUTTER BEE LIVES The life of a leafcutter bee is short. Males live two to four weeks; females live six to 12 weeks. The bees are stored as larvae

in cocoons, and take 18 to 24 days to change into adult bees. The cells are placed into incubation trays and placed in to an incubation chamber for hatching. This room is kept at 30 C; steps are taken to eliminate a parasitic wasp that hatches

The huts are placed with a range of two to five acres per hut during the incubation period. At approximately 15 to 18 days the males start to emerge from the cocoons. At about 19 to 21 days, the first females emerge. Then, the trays are taken to the field where they are opened up and placed in the huts. The later females hatch in the heat of early summer. The release of bees into the field is timed for when the alfalfa reaches ten per cent bloom. The huts are placed with a range of two to five acres per

hut, depending on hut size, bee numbers per acre, and whether the land is irrigated. The female bees cut small sections of leaf or petals from crops or weeds to build bee cells in the nesting material supplied. When the bee has formed the base and sides of the cell, she collects pollen and nectar to provision the cell, and then lays an egg on top of the nectar. She uses additional leaves to seal the cell. The male bees pollinate the flowers as they’re feeding themselves. Their only other task is breeding females — not building cells. Once a cell is complete, the bee starts building the next cell. This continues throughout its life. At the end of the season, or when the cells are over 80 per cent full, the nest blocks are removed from the huts in the field. Meanwhile, the eggs inside each cell have hatched. These larvae eat the nectar and pollen, grow and spin cocoons. The cells are placed in a temperature controlled room at 15 C long enough to ensure the larvae are fully developed before the temperature is reduced. Once the cocoons are fully dried, they T:10.25” 3”) nest block are removed from(10’the

PHOTO: ANDREW LINDSAY-HAWKINS

A leafcutter bee hut with nesting blocks in late summer. and processed for use on the farm next season or packaged for sale off the farm. Leafcutter bees usually reproduce 1.5 to two times the number of bees released into a field. The extra bees harvested during the winter are usually sold off the farm.

BEE ECONOMICS Over the last ten years, cocoon prices have ranged from $5 to $110 per gallon (10,000 healthy cocoons). Usually, two to five gallons per acre are used in alfalfa fields. This allows good

pollination and reasonable reproduction for the bees. The value of seed and bees produced are significant for the farms involved and contribute greatly to Western Canadian agriculture with their value to pollinating other crops, especially hybrid canola in Southern Alberta. In 2011 the market value of alfalfa seed and bees at the farm gate was approximately $20 million in Saskatchewan alone. † Andrew Lindsay-Hawkins is a member of the Sask Leafcutters Association board of directors and the owner/operator of Aotearoa Holdings Ltd.

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APRIL 2, 2012

Features Soil management

Cattle on crop acres Whether you have cattle or not, Kevin Elmy says there are many benefits to grazing cattle on your land By Kevin Elmy

here has been a lot of talk about soil health. Lots of people don’t know what is meant by this, but are still trying to make the soil healthy. There are soil additives and techniques being discussed, but one of the quickest and most efficient ways to improve soil health is to get animals grazing it. The Prairies were once a natural nutrient cycle of plant growth and animal grazing that sustained itself for thousands of years. Maybe it’s time to revisit getting animals walking on our land.

agronomic problems like hard pan. Having animals graze off the growth accelerates microbial activity in the soil. Concerns about weed resistance, soils not responding well to fertilizer, compaction, low organic matter, high fertilizer prices, or low commodity prices could all lead farmers in this direction. There’s an opportunity to “trade” acres with a livestock neighbour — they graze on your crop ground, you get the accumulation of nutrients. This way, nutrients on the grazed ground are utilized and not leached away, and the livestock producer can graze a

piece of ground where nitrates are not going to be a concern.

Corn, hay and pasture People who know me will be rolling their eyes to see I’m still talking about corn grazing, but it has done wonders for our soils. A corn crop producing 15 to 20 tonnes per acre being returned to the soil by livestock grazing has immensely improved my soils, without a big fertilizer bill. Corn roots are deep rooted which helps cycle deeper nutrients in the soil, it

B:17.4 photo: kevin elmy

Your neighbours may be looking for ways to extend their grazing season.

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“I don’t want cows” “But I’m a grain farmer. I don’t want to have cows.” A neighbour may have cows and be looking at extending their grazing season. Land does not have to be taken out of production to produce grazing opportunities — stubble and residue grazing works well, along with grazing of cover crops or chem-fallow, if you watch which chemicals are used. Check with the chemical companies for registration on grazing restrictions. Or produce a corn crop for grazing purposes, or produce hay with the intention of getting the hay put up custom or on shares. On crops that produce a lot of straw, look at fall grazing. The animals will nose through the trash, looking for grain, green growth, and straw. The more that goes through the animal, the quicker the straw breaks down and decomposes, releasing its nutrients. The animals will go into grass sloughs and clean them up. If supplemented with hay, it will be importing nutrients into the field which will reduce your fertilizer bill the next year.

Cover cropping Cover cropping is another way to produce biomass for livestock grazing. The use of cover crops is a relatively new concept, based on mixing up a bunch of different crops, allowing them to grow, then either letting them rot in the field, or harvesting them with livestock. Cover crops allow farmers to cover the ground, break up weeds, insects and diseases, and solve other By Dan Piraro

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grows late into the year which keeps microbes alive longer, and the cows do well on it. This is at the other extreme of residue grazing for intensity. Corn will take a lot more grazing days per acre for the animals to eat than residue grazing. Hay and pasture is the more traditional way of creating forage for livestock. A legume crop will fix nitrogen for the next few crops in rotation when taking the forage crop out, create some internal drainage, build some organic matter, and will help with insect and weed problems. A high grass stand will build organic matter faster, but has the baggage of not fixing nitrogen. Adding some legume to a grass stand will help the nitrogen situation and help improve the feed quality. Harvesting a pasture is more straightforward than hay. Turn cattle into the pasture and let them do their thing. For hay, the question arises — do you purchase equipment or get everything contracted out? The answer depends on acres, other uses for equipment, long term goals and other factors. Getting the work done by the potential hay buyer may cost more in the short run, but the work will be done the way the customer wants it done. The goal is to find someone you can work with. Whether you agree on a ten-year hay price that averages out highs and lows, or just agree to set the price year to year, both parties have to be happy for the arrangement to work. Some of the problems you may encounter are compaction, forage over-production, lack of livestock in the area, farm retirements or livestock liquidation, partnerships gone bad, or rising profitability of grain farming. Each has its own set of headaches. All has its own resolutions, pitfalls, and opportunities, like any other crop we grow. Managing our soils, creating “new” opportunities like custom grazing and reducing risk on both sides of the fence will help foster local growth and better utilize our land base. † S:10”

Land doesn’t need to be taken out of production to produce grazing opportunities.

Kevin Elmy operates Friendly Acres Seed Farm, along with his wife, Christina, and parents, Robert and Verene, near Saltcoats, Sask. Contact him at 306-744-2779 or visit www.friendlyacres.sk.ca.

/ grainews.ca

APRIL 2, 2012

Columns Guarding wealth

Judge a stock’s worth by its risk Volatile stocks tend to bring higher returns. But not everyone has the stomach to hold an unstable portfolio By Andrew Allentuck

here are good reasons to be cynical about investing in stocks or mutual funds, or exchange traded funds that hold stocks. Investing is about buying low and selling high. But just what is low and what, precisely, is high is usually clouded in uncertainty. To a cynic, the idea of judging companies’ values by their balance sheets, income statements, price to earnings ratios, price to sales ratios and the other bits of arithmetic that are supposed to guide the investor between the pillars of greed and fear is foolish. Some companies trade for huge multiples of earnings, some for low ones, some at high prices in spite of crummy balance sheets, and some at low prices though they have good balance sheets.

Look at volatility There is another way. Analysts who crunch numbers and, often, have no particular interest or even knowledge of a business in

which they invest, like to evaluate risk as measured by volatility. The more a stock jumps up and down, the more volatile and therefore the more risky it is. The less it jumps, the less risky it is. All this is sensible. If a stock followed a smooth path, investing would be almost risk free apart from worries about inflation and taxes. Let’s take some examples. Research in Motion (RIM) was a $10 stock ten years ago, a $140 stock in 2008, and is down to $15 — with no dividends to cushion the pain. Worse is Yellow Media Inc. (YLO), publisher of the Yellow Pages. It was $10 at its initial public offering in 2003, hit $16 in 2006 and is now down to about a dime — one per cent of its price when it went public — as its business model has been crushed by web search engines such as Google. It would take a miracle for either company to return to its former highs. Each is a victim of downward price mobility. And a source of pain for those who bought it on the theory that, if it was a good buy at $100 for RIM or $5 for Yellow

Pages, it must be a great one at $50 or $3, respectively. How about companies with upward mobility? A good example is Apple Inc. (AAPL), which was virtually a penny stock in 2002 and, as I write this story, is trading at about US$500, up about US$80 since early January. Apple is now a colossus with the sum of the value of its shares greater than that of Exxon Mobil, formerly the biggest stock B:10.25” on Wall Street. But how long willT:10.25” it last? Remember

Nokia (NOK), the Finnish cell phone company? Its shares were US$40 in 2008 and trade for US$5 today. Celebrities come and go, but volatility is forever. Each of these stocks has or had celebrity status and each, save for Apple, today’s wonder child of the market, fell because investors saw its prospects dim. Sharp analysts may have seen the trouble coming, but predicting the future — whether it’s cell phone sales or the wreckage

Google would cause to Yellow Media — isn’t easy. But each stock had a volatile past and, as the old saying goes, the faster they rise, the harder they fall. Volatility is the tale.

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Columns its share price to drop by twothirds), most pipelines have a steady business unaffected by the price of the oil they carry. Enbridge Inc. (ENB), for example, has gone from $20 in the fall of 2009 to $40 today with few wobbles along the way. TransCanada Corp. has risen from $30 in early 2009 to $40 or so today with relatively minor wiggles, though more than Enbridge’s wobbles. Some of these price moves can be explained by how much companies owe on the balance sheets and their equity-to-debt leverage, and others by public reaction to oil spills. In the case of uranium producer Cameco Inc. (CCO-TSX), $50 in 2007 and $23 today, problems with a leaky mine in Saskatchewan and the Japanese disaster last year explain much of the loss. But Cameco has a solid asset the world needs and its price will recover. Yet the uranium business, which has political

overtones as well as all the other problems that go with mining, is never going to be as steady as the steady business of moving oil.

CHOOSE YOUR RISK LEVEL We come now to the essence of the problem: How much risk do you want in your portfolio?

good return. For example, global small- to mid-cap equity mutual funds lost 12 per cent in the 12 months ended Jan. 31, 2012. They made 13.8 per cent per year compounded annually for the three years ended Jan. 31, lost 3.9 per cent per year for the five years ended Jan. 31 compounded annually, and made 4.2 per cent per year compounded

But along the way, small caps rocketed and swooned far more than large caps. An average investor watching his or her asset soar and plummet might have been tempted to sell either type of fund, but the temptation would surely have been greater for the more acrobatic small cap funds.

MEASURING VOLATILITY

The old saying is that risk and return go together. Take on more risk and you should have a higher return The old saying is that risk and return go together. Take on more risk and you should have a higher return. That theory has no clock on it. You could buy a portfolio of jumpy small caps and have to wait decades to see a

annually for the 10 years ended Jan. 31, 2012. In the end, they beat global equity funds — the large capitalization companies — which made a humble 0.4 per cent per year for the 10 years ended Jan. 31, 2012.

The astute investor can save a lot of grief by checking a couple of vital measures of stock volatility. First, look at “beta,” which is the amount by which the price of a stock or a mutual fund or other asset fluctuates compared to its benchmark. Many websites such as globefund.com show beta for each mutual fund. A fund with a beta of one fluctuates as much as the market, for example, the Toronto Stock Exchange, but no more. If beta is less than one, it fluctuates less. If beta is more

than one, it fluctuates more than its benchmark. The PEG ratio (price/earnings over growth of earnings) is also worth considering. If a stock has a price to earnings ratio of 10 and is growing its earnings at 20 per cent per year, its PEG ratio will be 10/20 or 0.5. When the ratio is below 1.0, the stock looks like a good deal and often is, though the reason needs to be explored. Some companies with undependable earnings have low PEG ratios because investors just don’t feel that their rates of growth of earnings are dependable. Put beta together with the PEG ratio and you should be able to tell which stocks will keep you awake at night. Volatility is risk and the premium or discount you pay to buy into risk is a measure of what you can win or lose. † Andrew Allentuck’s latest book, “When Can I Retire? Planning Your Financial Life After Work,” was published in 2011 by Penguin Canada.

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Easter Lily BY TED MESEYTON

he Easter lily has long been viewed as a floral symbol of purity. Easter symbolizes life, joy and holiness. Easter is the mighty hymn of the ocean and the orchestra of the grain fields and forests whose notes are written on every leaf and inscribed in the grass and each flower. †

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APRIL 2, 2012

CANADIAN GRAIN COMMISSION — 1912-2012

MARKING A CENTURY OF SERVICE

n April 1, 2012, the Canadian Grain Commission celebrates its 100th anniversary. The employees of the Canadian Grain Commission join with me in thanking the hardworking staff at Grainews for producing this publication to commemorate a century of service. To survive a century is quite an achievement. But our longevity is not what is noteworthy, as you will see as you read about our past. No, our true achievement is our role in the growth of the Canadian grain industry. For 100 years, we have collaborated with Canadian grain producers and other members of an industry that has shaped Canada’s society, economy and landscape.

The Canada Grain Act, which guides us in delivering our mandate, was passed by the Canadian government to meet the needs of grain producers. Through the Act, we work to establish and maintain standards of quality for Canada’s grain, regulate grain handling in Canada, and to ensure that Canada’s grain is a dependable commodity for domestic and export markets. Grain producers still have rights that were initially granted to them under the Act in 1912. Producers can dispute the grade and dockage received at a licensed primary elevator and ask our inspectors to provide a binding decision. Producers are also guaranteed the right to ship their grain using producer cars. In 2011, producers loaded over 12,700 cars with

grain, demonstrating how valuable a right this is to them. Finally, producers are still offered payment protection for deliveries to licensed primary elevators. While we celebrate our past, we also look to the future. We are a vibrant organization, ready to take on new challenges. We draw strength from a proud past while we evolve to meet changing demands. Along with the dedicated employees of the Canadian Grain Commission, I look forward to another century of collaboration with our stakeholders to assure to the continued success of Canada’s grain industry. Elwin Hermanson Chief Commissioner

CGC guarantees Canadian grain quality worldwide Quality assurance makes Canadian grain superior BY RON FRIESEN

he owner of Singapore’s largest bakery chain sits in a high-rise office tower gazing out over the world’s busiest ocean port. Any day now, a ship carrying wheat from Canada is scheduled to arrive and unload its cargo for milling. The baker is already planning his production and quality-control program for months ahead, based on grain from halfway around the world he has never laid eyes on, much less inspected. But he isn’t worried. He knows he will almost certainly get exactly the right kind of wheat with the precise specifications he requested. He also knows that, if there’s a problem with the bread when it emerges from the oven, Canadian officials will step in to provide technical assistance. Canada is one of the only countries in the world able to provide wheat sight unseen to an overseas buyer with the assurance that it’s what he paid for and will perform the way he wants. That fact is due in large part to the Canadian Grain Commission, a federal agency responsible for regulating the country’s grain handling system. How the CGC provides customers with what the industry calls “the best wheat in the world” is a story spanning 100 years this month.

PURPOSE REMAINS The world was a very different place in 1912 when the Board of Grain Commissioners, the CGC’s forerunner, was formed with a mandate to administer the new Canada Grain Act and enforce regulations for grain inspection. But then, as now, the purpose was the same. The Board of Commissioners would see that farmers would be guaranteed fair treatment for the grain they delivered. They would receive the correct grade with the correct bushel weight. If there was any disagreement, the CGC could investigate and, if warranted, uphold the farmer’s complaint. “The Canadian Grain Commission is an unbiased third party that ensures that all players who have a stake in the grain are treated fairly. That balance

would not exist if there were no Grain Commission,” says Elwin Hermanson, chief commissioner of the Canadian Grain Commission. “You have a disciplined system for putting grain into the market and you don’t have to deal as often with bad outcomes.” Implicitly, that means end-use customers are treated fairly, too. A regulated, co-ordinated system involving farmers, the CGC, grain handlers and marketers ensures it. Farmers produce the grain, grain handlers market the grain and establish the price; the CGC certifies grades and quality and provides technical expertise and support to overseas customers. “A customer in the U.K., for example, can have confidence that when he buys No. 1 Canadian Western Red Spring wheat with 13 per cent protein, when it is shipped, that the Canadian Grain Commission will certify that everything loaded on this boat constitutes No. 1 CWRS 13.0,” explains Hermanson. Satisfying customers at the end of the supply chain may not have been uppermost in the minds of the Board of Grain Commissioners when they first set about their work a century ago. Protecting farmers from unfair treatment by railways, grain dealers and milling companies by enforcing regulations was the main emphasis (see related story). But as Canada’s grain exports expanded, especially after World War II, customers began to demand that, if they were buying wheat from so far away, it had better be what they ordered. Of course, European millers buying wheat from Western Canada could (and did) come over to observe the harvest. But they still needed to know for certain that what was in those vessels leaving Montreal was what they had purchased.

QUALITY GUARANTEE Thus was born the “certificate final” — a document signed by the CGC’s chief grain inspector certifying that the vessel was loaded with grain equal to the customer’s order. It is, in effect, a guarantee by the Government of Canada that what you buy is what you get. Guaranteeing a specific qual-

ity for each load is a remarkable achievement, considering the grain is grown over a vast area under varying conditions that can range from flooding in one part of the Prairies to drought in another and delivered to over 300 country elevators owned by competing grain companies. That’s because the system works co-operatively to produce the right product. Any grain exported through a terminal elevator in Canada must be inspected by the CGC as it goes into the terminal and as it’s loaded on to the vessel. To ensure the grain going into the cargo hold is what the customer requested, samples are taken continuously during loading. A quality check occurs for every 2,000 tonnes, so a load to fill a 20,000tonne vessel would be tested 10 times as the grain goes in. What if, for example, nine samples are of the right stuff but one is not? The certificate final will say so. “We cannot order the vessel unloaded,” says Daryl Beswitherick, the CGC’s program manager for quality assurance standards. “But what we will tell the grain company is that 2,000 tonnes that went on did not meet specifications. If they remove it, and continue to load grain that meets the quality that was sold, we will certify the whole lot as making spec. If they choose not to remove it, we will certify that 2,000 tonnes did not meet specification. “The vessel would be able to sail. But what the customer would know when they receive their certificate final is that there are two different qualities within the hold of that vessel. “If you’re loading wheat or barley or peas, the procedure is the same.” How often is a vessel loaded with the wrong grain? “It’s fairly rare that instances like this occur,” says Beswitherick. If it does happen, it’s up to the shipper and the customer to come to an agreement prior to the vessel leaving the port. Sending it back isn’t practical because the cost for offloading the vessel would be prohibitive. The cost of having an unsold cargo afloat is not practical either. The customer is not left high and dry. The checks and balances of the Canadian grain system extend all the way from the Prairie grain fields to the end user’s bakery.

A prize-winning Board of Grain Commissioners display in Italy in 1932.

COMPLAINTS INVESTIGATED If, for example, a customer feels the protein strength of the wheat in his shipment is not as expected, he lodges what’s called a cargo complaint. The CGC retains a sample from each shipment for six months. It will take part of the sample in question and test it in the CGC’s Grain Research Laboratory in Winnipeg to determine if the grading was correct. The commission can also mill and bake that sample in its lab to see if there really is a protein problem, as the customer alleges. If the sample performs as expected in the lab, the problem may be at the customer’s end. Perhaps there’s something wrong with his flour mill or the baking process. But if a cargo complaint turns out to be justified, the system works to try and correct it. It may be that the grade and content of the shipment are right but, for some reason, the protein isn’t performing as it should. Perhaps the reason is an agronomic one, because soil and weather conditions under which wheat is grown can affect protein functionality. In that case, the CGC may go over and help the customer work with the grain to produce the desired quality in the final product. As a result, if an Indonesian buyer blends No. 2 CWRS 13.0 with Australian soft white wheat and Turkish flour to produce steamed buns or noodles, he can rely on the wheat from Canada even though he’s using other products in the mix. “So that buyer in Indonesia can say. ‘When I buy this, I know I’m going to be able to use it in such a manner in my plant to upgrade the other ingredients I’m buying’,” Hermanson says. The above process — inspecting,

grading, certifying and providing customer support — holds true for any of the 21 official grains listed by the Canada Grain Act, whether cereals, oilseeds, pulses, mixed grains or other crops.

FARMER INPUT It’s important to note that farmers, who grow those crops in the first place, are directly involved in helping to shape Canada’s grain grading system. Every spring and fall, the Western Standards Committee, a 26-member industry committee, which includes 12 grain producers as well as processors and exporters, meets to discuss grading issues and make recommendations to the Commission about grain grades and standards. According to a recent CGC statement, the committee works to “make sure changes to the grading system reflect the interests and concerns of all stakeholders in Canada’s grain sector, including producers.” The committee “constantly review(s) Canada’s grading system so that it continues to be relevant to the grain sector and to buyers of Canada’s grain,” says the statement. The committee employs subcommittees to collect information about grading issues for specific crops. There are four subcommittees for wheat, barley and other cereals, oilseeds and pulses. Chuck Fossay, who farms at Starbuck, Manitoba, sits on the wheat subcommittee. He says the group looks at all grading factors to distinguish one class of wheat from another. Those can include bushel weight, protein levels, allowable levels for fusarium head blight, or dockage.

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Congratulations Canadian Grain Commission on

100

years of quality assurance

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APRIL 2, 2012

CANADIAN GRAIN COMMISSION — 1912-2012

Fair treatment for Western farmers began 100 years ago Federal agency brought peace to the Prairie grain war BY RON FRIESEN

t was more than a century ago but bitter conflict between farmers and the early western Canadian grain industry still resonates in the childhood memories of old-timers like Harvey English. “It was highway robbery. That’s what it was in those days,” says English, 94. “They were just stealing everything off the farmer that they could possibly steal.” English, whose uncle homesteaded the family farm near Rivers, Manitoba, remembers his father once talking about a producer who delivered a load of wheat to the local elevator and received 88 cents a bushel. A week later, English’s dad took wheat to the same elevator and learned the price was now 44 cents a bushel. Like other grain growers, he felt at the mercy of grain companies and their take-it-or-leave it attitude. “Nobody seemed to have any backbone to get out and do something for the farmers at that particular time,” says English, who farmed until 90 and was still out on the combine last fall. “It was terrible.” Western Canadian farmers, who either applaud or chafe at government regulations in today’s grain

» CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24 LEVEL PLAYING FIELD By setting such standards, the CGC creates a level playing field for farmers when marketing their grain to different buyers, Fossay says. Say, for example, the minimum

sector, can little appreciate what their ancestors experienced in the early days of settlement. The grain trade, if not exactly Wild West, wasn’t far removed. Buying, grading and inspecting grain were largely unregulated, farmers felt exploited and emotions often ran at a boiling point. The mood among Western grain farmers at the close of the 19th Century was one of “outrage, indignation and frustration,” according to Jim Blanchard, a University of Manitoba librarian and local historian. “There was no doubt in their minds that the CPR, the grain dealers and the milling companies were formed into a monopoly designed to cheat them,” wrote Blanchard in his 1987 book The History of the Canadian Grain Commission. “There can be no doubt that there were abuses in Western Canada — this was inevitable in a situation where the railroad and the grain trade held all the cards and the farmer held none.” The tumultuous days of the early 20th century gave rise to the farm movement and the formation of producer organizations with political clout. But what really made the difference was the eventual response by the federal governweight for No. 1 CWRS is 60 pounds per bushel. A buyer looking for a heavier weight might demand 65 pounds per bushel. In that case, the producer could say, “sorry, the CGC says the minimum weight for that grade is 60 pounds and if you want more, you’ll have to pay a pre-

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ment to demands by Western farmers for fair treatment.

“MAGNA CARTA” That response culminated exactly 100 years ago with the passage on April 1, 1912 of the Canada Grain Act — sometimes called the Magna Carta of the Western grain grower — and the creation of what is now the Canadian Grain Commission, a federal agency, to administer it. It was a watershed in the history of agriculture in Western Canada. In the words of former CGC chief commissioner G.G. Leith: “Then, as now, the Commission’s purpose was to protect farmers’ interests and, through the Canada Grain Act, to provide a legislative framework for a fast-growing grain industry.” Of course, grievances between Prairie farmers and the grain industry are as old as agriculture in the West. But it’s hard to overstate the anger producers felt in those days at what they saw as unequal treatment by grain companies and the railways. It was, as Blanchard puts it, “a state of undeclared war between the two factions involved in the grain industry.” Complaints were many but they generally centred around four main ones: prices, dockage, mium.” And the CGC will back up the farmer. “So you’re not dealing with four different buyers who have four different standards for the grain you’re showing them,” says Fossay. “You may be dealing with four different buyers but there’s one standard set by a third party.” Grading and inspection are only one part of the puzzle for ensuring grain quality. Another important piece is the variety-registration system, in which the CGC plays a central role. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency administers the variety registration system, and the CGC is responsible for evaluating new varieties from a quality perspective coming forward out of co-op trials for registration. Once a year, in Saskatoon, Banff or Winnipeg, the Prairie Grain Development Committee (PGDC) meets to receive data from the Grain Commission on those varieties and assess whether they are good enough to be registered, based on quality factors. Other committee members will study other factors such as disease and insect resistance and agronomics. (The committee also meets in Eastern Canada, with the CGC playing the same role.) With spring wheat, for example, the quality of a variety has to meet a certain end-use specification. Therefore, as producers make their seeding choices, they know that each variety has certain attributes from a quality, disease and insect resistance, and agronomic perspective. For their part, buyers can expect that a new variety within that class will perform in a certain manner. Beswitherick says the system has very rigid requirements. If a variety is to be registered, it has to be equal to or better than a certain standard set by the PGDC.

weights and the ability of producers to ship their own rail cars. There were actually three prices: the “street price” (offered by the elevator on delivery), the “track price” (received after loading a rail car and then selling it), and the “spot price” (the one at the terminal where grain was sold on the world market). What angered farmers most, according to former University of Manitoba history professor Gerald Friesen in his book The Canadian Prairies: A History, was the spread in prices between street and track prices, probably three to four cents a bushel. Farmers were usually forced to accept street prices because, as Friesen says, “they could not fill a boxcar within a particular variety and grade of grain within the limited time permitted by the rail companies.”

EXCESSIVE DOCKAGE There were other legitimate grievances, as a Royal Commission appointed in 1899 to investigate the industry discovered. The Commission found that “a vendor of grain is at present subjected to an unfair and excessive dockage for his grain at the time of sale.” It also determined that “doubts exist as to the fairness of

the weights allowed or used by the owners of elevators.” Finally, it said elevator companies enjoyed an unfair monopoly “by refusing to permit the erection of flat warehouses where standard elevators are situated” and thus being able “to keep the price of grain below its true market value to their own benefit.” The only solution was legislation to regulate the industry, “there being no rules laid down for the regulations of the grain trade other than those made by the railway companies and the elevator owners,” the commission’s report concluded. The result was a federal statute in 1900 titled the Manitoba Grain Act. The act was well intentioned and pushed all the right buttons. It created the post of Warehouse Commissioner to administer the statute. It established rules for handling grain. It set standards for weights and measures. It required grain-handing facilities to be licensed. And it enshrined in law a grain producer’s right to load and ship his own rail car. The problem, as farmers learned, was in getting the cars they were legally entitled to. It soon became

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Grain Commission reinspection staff provide independent, third-party analysis of grain grades and quality. “So a customer who buys registered varieties in a CWRS class knows that, if there are new varieties in there, they’re supposed to be at least equal to what he’s used to getting, or better than he used to get.” Although the registration process is the same for all crops, quality parameters can vary. Beswetherick notes that criteria for canola, for example, are not as stringent as for some of the wheat classes.

CHANGE CONTINUES Right now, all this is happening against the backdrop of one of the most significant developments in the recent history of the Canadian grain industry: the impending removal of the Canadian Wheat Board’s single sales desk for wheat and barley. How a post-monopoly environment will affect the Canadian Grain Commission is uncertain. Some believe business will continue more or less as usual, only without a CWB monopoly. Others

have serious doubts because the CWB and the Commission are closely linked. In the meantime, the CGC itself is under the microscope. Suggested changes to the Canada Grain Act would eliminate mandatory requirements for inward inspection and weighing at licensed terminals and transfer elevators. Grain handlers themselves would report inward grain grades and weights. Some worry the changes, if implemented, would limit the CGC’s role as an independent arbiter and compromise assurance of fair payment to farmers — the very reason the Commission was formed in the first place. “Regardless of changes proposed, we remain committed to the Canada Grain Act,” explains Hermanson. “That means that, through grain quality and quantity assurance as well as grain safety assurance, we will continue to ensure a dependable commodity both domestically and internationally, for the benefit of producers and the grain industry as a whole.”

APRIL 2, 2012

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CANADIAN GRAIN COMMISSION — 1912-2012 » CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE evident the railways’ practice was to allocate cars to grain companies before granting them to individual farmers.

LANDMARK CASE It wasn’t until 1902 that a landmark court case upheld the right of farmers to access producer cars. Brought by the newly formed Territorial Grain Growers, it accused the station agent at Sintaluta, Saskatchewan of not complying with the law by giving cars out of turn to elevators. The court ruled in favour of the farmers. The railways may have had to supply producer cars but they didn’t have to like it. Glen Franklin, who farms at Deloraine, Manitoba, says his grandfather once shipped a producer car around 1911 which mysteriously disappeared from the system. Tracked down after more than a year, the car was finally unloaded, Franklin’s grandfather got paid, but he never did receive an explanation. Did the car vanish on purpose? “It was certainly a possibility, I suppose,” Franklin says. Part of the problem with continuing inequities lay with the Manitoba Grain Act itself. For one thing, it applied only to “the Inspection District of Manitoba,” since Saskatchewan and Alberta were not yet part of Confederation. By the time those jurisdictions achieved full provincial status in 1905, they were producing more wheat than all of Manitoba, though technically not under the statute. But a greater problem was that the railways and grain companies, the Sintaluta case notwithstanding, paid little attention to the Act, says James Zastre, a Canadian Grain Commission community relations officer. “There were these rights that were given to producers under the Manitoba Grain Act but most felt that the grain companies and railways ignored them. Many producers felt they had no voice, they had no organization at the time and most of them probably didn’t even know they were being denied any rights,” Zastre says. It was a critical period in the history of Western Canada. Although the Liberal government of Wilfred Laurier had a strong interest in settling the West, large chunks of it were still virgin territory. Many immigrants, lured by the promise of cheap land, came from politically oppressed countries and harboured a deep suspicion of elevator companies telling them the grade of their grain. How could you encourage people to come to Canada and homestead in a remote corner of Saskatchewan if you couldn’t guarantee them fair treatment for the crops they grew?

THE CANADA GRAIN ACT Worse still, there appeared to be no avenue for complaint. You took a wagonload of grain to an elevator and immediately felt at the agent’s mercy. If you didn’t like his decision, you could take the grain back home. You didn’t know what your rights were because nobody had told you. Communication was sometimes difficult because of cultural differences and a language barrier. The very sociology of the Prairies in those days cried out for a solution. That solution came in the form of the Canada Grain Act of 1912. It built on its predecessor,

An early scene at Wolseley, Saskatchewan. Farmers in the early days of grain production believed they were at the mercy of elevator agents for grade and price. the Manitoba Grain Act, only with teeth. Zastre says the pre-1912 approach to solving problems was piecemeal — single-issue approaches for resolving multi-faceted grievances. Different authorities had different responsibilities. There was no single message to give to producers who felt they were being wronged. The Canada Grain Act changed that. All matters regarding grain industry regulation were combined under one umbrella. Now you had a package deal simultaneously looking after a lot of things related to the industry. You also had a federal government telling farmers they had a right to fair treatment under the law. And if you felt you still weren’t being treated fairly, an independent tribunal served as an arbiter. In short, the Canada Grain Act served two purposes, Zastre says. It provided solutions to problems. And it let people know, through their farm organizations or otherwise, that they had rights backed by the law of the land. “It was an avenue of communication,” says Zastre. “I don’t say the Commission was out there spreading the word. But there was somebody that people knew they could talk to.” Adds Doug Langrell, CGC corporate development advisor: “The commission, as a federal organization founded by an act of Parliament, gave a kind of sanction to the rights of farmers in a way that UGG or any of the Pools could not.” Indirectly, this helped immigration because it drew on the role of government that appealed to people coming to Canada in the first place, says Zastre. It enabled government to say, here are rights you didn’t have back home. Grain companies had less leeway in making decisions because now there was oversight.

PRODUCER CAR PROTECTION Producer cars were one example. Episodes such as the railway losing Franklin’s grandfather’s producer car were not uncommon. But the Board of Commissioners, as the CGC was originally called, put a stop to that, says Zastre. The Commission ensured that cars were properly numbered and recorded by an independent body. If producer cars were not distributed the way they were supposed to be, someone was watching and something would happen.

Another change occurred when the government began building inland grain terminals. Facilities at Moose Jaw, Saskatoon and Calgary were constructed soon after 1912. Suddenly, there was less shipping pressure after the harvest season because more grain could be stored on the Prairies. There was less urgency for farmers to sell their grain immediately for fear prices would be lower if they waited. How did grain companies and other major players accept all this regulation? Zastre says the industry struggled against some provisions, especially those in the Manitoba Grain Act. But the 1912 legislation brought a kind of peace to the sector. It was no longer an unregulated market in which anything went. That was a blessing for farmers.

But in a strange sort of way, it was a double-edged sword also benefiting grain companies because it helped ease the cutthroat environment which prevailed before, says Langrell. “Companies were not always in fair competition for farmers’ grain,” he says. “While they certainly wanted to get the grain for the best price from farmers so they could pass it on for the best margin or profit, they couldn’t risk significantly undercutting the competition.” Having standardized procedures also helped. Sampling was a good example. In the old days, a company could take a pail of grain from the back of a farmer’s wagon and that was the sample, like it or not. Now the commission set a procedure for sampling grain. You took

a probe into a boxcar or truck and extracted samples at five points — one in the middle and four from each of the corners, two feet in. That was an advantage to both the farmer and the company, says Zastre. The farmer knew his grain would be sampled consistently in a certain way. It was also an advantage to companies because it meant there was one less thing to argue about and they could get on with the business of buying and selling grain. “It helped pour oil on the waters,” Zastre says. “There was less disruption. Producers could be sure they were getting a fair deal. If they felt they weren’t, they had some avenues for appeal. And the grain companies knew the other guy had to do the same as they were doing.”

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APRIL 2, 2012

CANADIAN GRAIN COMMISSION — 1912-2012

Quality assurance through world-class research stands the test of time The Canadian Grain Commission’s Grain Research Laboratory has been assessing and improving the quality of Canadian crops for more than nine decades BY VAL OMINSKI

he bright blue paint on the Allis Chalmers roll stands looks conspicuously out of place among the gleaming modern metal in the pilot-scale flour mill on the 16th floor of the CGC Grain Research Lab. Miller Dave Turnock thinks they are about 80 years old and have also seen duty at the lab’s former location in the Grain Exchange Building. They may even have been housed in the very first Grain Research Lab, located in a postal station on Main Street and Magnus Avenue in Winnipeg’s North End. The CGC Grain Research Lab is that kind of place — where new research and technologies are

building upon past efforts in order to provide quality assurance for Canada’s evolving grain industry.

THE GRL’S EARLY DAYS When the Board of Grain Commissioners (now the CGC) was formally established in 1912, a beefed-up inspection and grading system was introduced. The board-wanted a research lab to oversee moisture testing, to test wheat quality through milling and bread baking activities, and to test flax for oil content. By June 1914, the Grain Research Lab was up and running with a staff of five. F.J. Birchard, the first director (chief chemist), was a crusty and

A.E. Birchard, the Board of Grain Commissioners first chief chemist, pushed for a scientific method of evaluating grain quality.

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determined individual who began by setting acceptable levels for moisture in grain, thus helping producers get more reasonable prices for damp grain. He also expressed concerns about the grading system, and questioned whether grade prices actually reflected the value of the grain. This was good news for farmers — but not so for the rest of the industry. Birchard’s research was caught up in ongoing disputes between the grain trade and producers, with the result that the federal government shut the GRL down in 1923. A stubborn Birchard continued to work in the empty lab, until — as a result of lobbying from farmer groups and members of Parliament — the GRL reopened. It coincided closely with the move to the Grain Exchange Building in May of 1927, where the lab joined the CGC’s Winnipeg offices. Once back in business, Birchard undertook a number of programs that would help establish the quality of Canadian wheat and define the GRL: • extensive protein testing of red spring wheat, beginning in 1927; • quality testing of samples from all grains and oilseeds moving to market; • monitoring of moisture tests done by inspectors • limited quality testing of new varieties; • participation in grain-drying research with three Prairie universities. Birchard also began sending the results of the GRL’s quality testing program to Canadian and foreign millers, and pushed for enhanced use of these publications in a variety of languages. This marketing tool is still a cornerstone of the CGC quality assurance program today. Birchard’s final contribution was a trip in 1932 to Italy, in order to demonstrate the lab’s quality assurance work, promote the use of Canadian wheat, and gather market intelligence. As the 1930s unfolded, the GRL continued to gain prominence under the leadership of its new director, W. E. Geddes. It acquired the Durum Research Lab and its durum milling and pasta-testing equipment from the University of Manitoba — including a spectrophotometer for studying pasta colour. It began work, in conjunction with the Associate Committee on Grain Research, to test promising new varieties of wheat and barley. It also began working with other national and international organizations to research rust resistance and test new Canadian rust-resistance varieties, among other projects. The GRL played an important role in helping to establish the new wheat variety Thatcher in the marketplace.

It was, however, able to study the effects of long-term storage on grain sitting in terminals and bins due to a lack of customers. An entomologist was added to the team, insecticides were used, and for the first time, the GRL began testing for chemical residues. In 1942, the GRL acquired the Malting Barley Lab from the National Research Council. After the war, with J. A. Anderson at the helm, staffing was brought back to its full contingent and research flourished once again. Work was done on dough qualities, reactions that cause durum colour to fade during processing, and compounds that increase the viscosity of barley. Work continued also on graindrying research, and in 1951, when the harvest was wet and large numbers of farmers dried their grain for the first time, the GRL tested all farm-dried grain for milling and baking qualities. It also provided a free sample-testing service that helped farmers adjust their grain dryers. In 1954, Anderson spelled out the five priorities for the lab as it moved into the second half of the 20th Century: • assessing the quality of each new crop and informing domestic/foreign customers; • recording the quality of all grades of grain at port providing lab services to the inspection branch; • collaborating with plant breeders in the development and testing of new grain varieties; • serving as the main centre for research into the quality of cereal grains. He noted that research was most important, because ”the improvement of all other services depends upon progress in research.” Today, almost 60 years later,

these priorities still continue to define the Grain Research Lab. Another major contribution of Anderson’s was his yearly overseas travel with the Canadian Wheat Board to promote Canadian grains and oilseeds, both to existing customers and to potential ones such as China. G. N. Irvine, who would eventually succeed Anderson, worked with the CWB to train the grain technical officers in the Canadian Wheat Board’s newly created technical services and marketing department. When he became director in 1963, he increased the amount of time he — and other staff members — spent overseas providing technical support to the CWB. As well, to further bolster market development, Irvine established a technical services section within the GRL to study problems or potential problems in milling and baking of Canadian wheat in foreign countries. As the 60s moved toward the 70s, the GRL’s work in the testing of new varieties, an essential step prior to licensing, gained international respect — so much so that it collaborated with the U.S. Crop Quality Council to test the quality of American varieties.

A NEW ERA A move in 1973, along with the rest of the GCG head office, into a modern building near the famed corner of Portage and Main heralded a new era of research, technology, achievements, and expansions for the GRL. Keith Tipples, who became director in 1979, was a vital part of these exciting times. His work included a pioneering study of wheat protein strength, which enabled the lab to do more meaningful evaluations of

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THE WAR YEARS AND BEYOND During World War ll, the lab continued its protein survey, moisture measurement and quality testing functions, although due to limited resources and staff, little new research could be undertaken.

Allis Chalmers roll stands in the CGC lab have been in use for at least 80 years.

APRIL 2, 2012

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CANADIAN GRAIN COMMISSION — 1912-2012 » CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE bread-baking qualities and potential new varieties. Tipples also showed how the level of alpha-amylase enzyme found in wheat can affect quality — depending on the end products and specific baking methods used. Some markets such as Japan require sound top-grade wheat with a very low enzyme activity, whereas for other markets such as China, the moderate enzyme activity of No. 3 CWRS wheat may be perfectly satisfactory for their end uses. In a recent interview, Tipples said that this and other research meant a different approach to looking at quality in wheat. “We developed new areas of expertise, which allowed us to develop more sophisticated techniques of measuring quality,” he said. With the overhaul of the grading system in the early 70s, the lab worked with inspectors to relate the physical appearance of wheat to the quality required for its end use. If a particular type of damage did not negatively affect end use, there could be more tolerance to this damage. “In this way, we maximized the amount going into the top grade, while protecting top quality,” he said. Another important highlight during this time were the achievements of the residue analysis section. “This was a new, state-of-the-art lab that could provide detailed reports of toxic residues in parts per billion,” Tipples said. “It assured buyers and users that Canadian grain was free from unacceptable levels of heavy metals, pesticides and mycotoxins.” During this era, new momentum and equipment were added to the GRL’s flour mill, so that it could replicate, on a pilot scale, milling techniques of customer countries. This enabled the evaluation of Canadian wheat in foreign pasta, noodle and bread making. Also during the 70s, a new oilseeds section — which had been created in response to the growth in rapeseed production — had almost immediate success when

it developed a rapid procedure for estimating erucic acid. This allowed for segregation of new, low erucic acid varieties. Shortly after, Jim Daun, who worked in rapeseed and canola research at the GRL for 31 years, established specifications for glucosinolates and erucic acid — thereby helping to create the official definition of canola. He also developed a method of glucosinolate measurement; he was recently recognized by the Canola Council of Canada for his work.

are doing extensive work in DNA identification, and have become a world leader in this area.” In 2009, the GRL used its DNA expertise to mitigate a crisis in the Canadian flax industry. The terminated GMO variety Triffid had somehow made its way into European shipments and the commodity was quickly shut out of the EU marketplace. “We worked with industry to develop a protocol for DNA testing in a matter of weeks,” said Burnett. “The border re-opened to

During the Second World War, the lab continued its protein survey, moisture measurement and quality testing functions, although due to limited resources and staff, little new research could be undertaken. The development of near-infrared technology for reliable rapid protein analysis in wheat was another world first, said Tipples. Protein segregation had been introduced along with the new grading system, and this technology revolutionized the process. (See related article.) When Tipples retired in 1998, Bill Scowcroft led the GRL into the 21st Century.

THE GRL TODAY Blue Allis-Chalmers stands aside, if Birchard and some of his immediate successors were to visit the Grain Research Lab today, most of it would be unrecognizable to them. For example, wheat and barley variety identification is no longer done on a visual basis. Both DNA identification and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, a technology that uses electric currents to create protein profiles for comparison purposes, are being used to monitor varieties as they move through the system, said Peter Burnett, current GRL director. At port, it means variety segregation can take place, and cargoes can be certified for classes of wheat and varieties of barley. “We developed the technology to do this,” Burnett said. “We

Canadian flax, and we can assure that all flax going to Europe is GMO free.” Another industry-response development at the GRL is a new pulse section, created as a result of the recent increase in pulse acreage, Burnett noted. One aspect of its research, the measurement and comparison of the cooking quality of peas from different samples, has led to the invention of the Mattson cooker, which can cook individual kernels. This invention is now being used by research labs around the world. Also in pulse research, image analysis is being investigated as a way to provide accurate photographs as reference for lentil grading. It is anticipated that this technology will address the problem of colour fading that occurs over time in actual samples. Image analysis is also being used to count the undesirable colour specks in noodles and pasta. Grain-safety testing and monitoring at the GRL is more important that ever as a result of changing world standards, but now in addition to pesticide, mycotoxin and heavy metal testing, the GRL regularly tests for fallout from nuclear accidents — something

Nancy Edwards: keen for the challenges of wheat research

Carlot inspections taking place at the CGC’s original inspection room at the Winnipeg Grain Exchange building. that would have had early GRL researchers scratching their heads in puzzlement. Another recent GRL achievement, said Burnett, has been its work with breeders to develop low cadmium-accumulating varieties of durum wheat in order to meet international food safety standards. Differentiating protein in wheat is now routine work, as a result of the 20 near infrared machines in use at the GRL. In addition, this technology is now being used to differentiate chlorophyll in canola to protect oil quality. In the area of barley research, Marta Izydorczyk and her team are using a rapid visco analyzer to predict how long malting barley will retain its ability to germinate.

This in turn predicts how quickly it must be used after harvest and how long it can be stored. These wide-ranging research activities all contribute to the GRL’s mandate, as set out in 1954, of surveying the annual harvest for quality, monitoring export shipments, and assisting in variety evaluation. While so much has changed in the way this is done, the basic premise of providing quality assurance has remained the same. Like the blue roll stands, the Grain Research Lab has served the CGC and the Canadian grain industry solidly and consistently over the years, helping to enhance and maintain Canada’s reputation in the international grain marketplace.

Congratulations Canadian Grain Commission on

100

years of quality assurance

Her career path has focused on better understanding processing qualities in wheat and durum BY VAL OMINSKI

hen Nancy Edwards, a biological technology grad from Red River Community College, joined the Grain Research Lab as a technician in 1976, little did she know that one day she would be the scientist responsible for the lab’s bread wheat research group. Edwards went on to achieve her PhD in Food Science in 2002, thanks to the support and encouragement of now-retired GRL scientist Jim Dexter and other lab colleagues. She built upon a decadesold tradition that started after the Second World War, when staff with potential and interest were encouraged to further their education. The difference is that they were all

men; Edwards became one of the first female scientists at the GRL — and she did it while holding down her job. In 2005, she was promoted to her current position, where she is responsible for quality evaluation of wheat, as part of the GRL’s annual harvest survey. In addition, she monitors CWRS cargoes leaving from the East, West or Churchill terminals and produces class profiles for marketing support. Edwards has done groundbreaking work identifying baking and dough-mixing characteristics of durum wheat — not for traditional pasta making, but for bread making. She looked at durum lines from 14 different countries, in order to identify which proteins could make a variety suitable for bread-baking quality.

The end result could be new markets for Canada’s durum wheat crop. “I work on puzzles all the time,” Edwards said. “For example, the bread-baking qualities of durum were not what I expected — and I needed to ask ‘why.’” Edwards also assesses new bread wheat lines for quality characteristics, as a member of the wheat, triticale and rye quality evaluation team that is part of the Prairie Grain Development Committee. She has recently created a new method for presenting data that makes her team’s job easier. Her next big project might not be yet known, but it could involve absolutely anything that affects the processing quality of wheat. “There’s always a new challenge around the corner, waiting to be solved,” she says.

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APRIL 2, 2012

Canadian Grain Commission — 1912-2012

Breaking into grain inspection was tough, but the rewards were worth it Women have risen through the ranks in grain-inspection field BY VAL OMINSKI

ebbie Pankewich has come a long way since she walked the decks of ships at Thunder Bay and sampled outgoing grain cargoes by hand. Hired in 1979 by the Canadian Grain Commission to work in the weighing program, by 1982 she was one of a small group of female “pioneers” working in the inspection program. Traditionally, both disciplines had been a man’s domain — and Pankewich knew she was on ground-breaking territory. “The microscope was on you and you had to prove yourself to other staff and to management,” she said. “For me, it was a motivating factor.” Over the next 30 years, that motivation took her up the corporate ladder, first in Thunder Bay, then on to Winnipeg where she eventually established the national monitoring program that reviews the work of grain inspectors across the country. When Pankewich moved on to Montreal, and then to Vancouver as manager of inspection services for the eastern and western regions respectively, it was fitting that her replacement was also a woman whose early days included hand-sampling in the inspection program before working her way up. Laurie Campbell was the first female grain inspector on the Prairies.

“I was a rarity in what some might consider a man’s world — I was in the last part of an era,” Campbell said. “It was tough walking into an elevator, but once they learned I was a farmer myself, it was much easier.” Initially hired in 1986, by 1998 Campbell had become manager of Inspection Services for the prairie region, and in 2009, when the region was amalgamated into what is currently the central and western regions, she moved into her present position as manager of the national monitoring program. She is adamant about the importance of inspection and grading, and the way they are done. “You either have an aptitude for it or you don’t,” she said. “But you also have to develop a very unique skill set that needs to be constantly honed, to be sure you stay sharp. “You look at a kernel of wheat and you have be able to distinguish between degree of damage and the direct correlation to qualities for milling and baking. Because of Canada’s reputation for producing top quality, we can export grain to customers based on a simple document attesting to this quality — something that a lot of countries currently can’t do.” The inspection process starts when automatic grain-sampling systems take representative samples from each rail car going into a given port. Samples are first cleaned to assess dockage, and preliminarily inspected for

Laurie Campbell, the CGC’s first female inspector on the Prairies, was hired in 1986. moisture and protein. Then a grain inspector visually assesses and assigns the sample a grade which forms the basis of payment to the producer. Grain is exported using a similar process,

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and all information is stored electronically. Gone are the days of inland (primary) elevator inspection on grain destined to port — and in the very early days, of breaking the seal on rail cars, climbing in overtop the grain, and thrusting a probe down to acquire samples. Gone, too, are the days of hand-sampling aboard ships. According to Pankewich, not just the physical work of the job, but also the health and safety regulations have evolved. Back in her day, she said, “only the fittest would survive.” Many moved on. She stayed, and today she manages an inspection program with

“The microscope was on you and you had to prove yourself to other staff and to management. For me, it was a motivating factor.” — Debbie Pankewich over 175 employees who grade all grain moving in and out of west cost port facilities, and at service centres in Calgary and Saskatoon where farmers can bring or send samples for personalized grading at a nominal cost. Campbell, meanwhile, runs the lab that checks the work of these and all other CGC grain inspectors from across Canada. She and her staff select graded samples from approximately three per cent of all railcars that go into ports, and a larger percentage from export cargoes, reviewing the grading that has been done in order to make cer-

tain current grain standards and guides have been met. This process helps ensure that grain is consistently graded the same way, regardless of where across Canada it is being done, and also helps identify any training needs that may be required by inspectors, Campbell said. “The process is not to point fingers, but to ensure our inspectors have the training and skill they need in order to provide consistent grading and analysis,” she said. To maintain consistency in the lab, equipment is precisionchecked each day before use — including the machine that exactingly divides down all components of samples, the screens used to separate dockage, the protein testers and the moisture meters. Precision scales are calibrate every day, and even the grading lights have an expiry date because they affect how the grain will be seen. Despite her obvious passion for her job, there is a downside, said Campbell — and it’s that she no longer deals directly with producers. “I really miss having that faceto-face contact and assisting them in understanding the grading system,” she said. Campbell is still farming herself near Teulon, Manitoba, and said she is grateful to the CGC for allowing her to work her vacation schedule around her farm work. Pankewich, too, is appreciative of the opportunities afforded her by the CGC. During her various capacities, she has travelled domestically and internationally to promote the quality assurance programs that make Canadian grains so reputable worldwide. “The CGC has allowed for growth, development and movement,” she said. “I’ve loved the opportunities and the challenges — and I’ve taken them and ran with them.”

APRIL 2, 2012

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Columns ANYONE CAN START FARMING

Six things to consider when shopping for a bull Last year, the Chikousky family did some last-minute bull shopping DEBBIE CHIKOUSKY

hen I was growing up, what attracted me to the farm life was the way you woke up every morning not knowing what was going to happen. As an adult, there are times that this aspect of farming is not my favorite. Last spring’s bull-buying extravaganza would be a good example. We had known that last breeding season would be our last for our herd sire. He was getting older, we had retained many daughters, and we had managed to breed a replacement. Our son’s first 4-H cow was an Angus cow unrelated to the rest of our herd. She showed good conformation and longevity so we had artificially inseminated her with Gridmaker semen. My husband got his wish and she gave us a bull calf. He would have been happy with a heifer too, but this calf enabled us to grow our own replacement bull. The rest of the plan was to participate in a semen buy that Nerbas Brothers were organizing on some very exciting grass genetics being imported from New Zealand. We thought we had this covered. Our old bull would last one more year until the bull calf was ready to service the herd and the new semen would fill in the blanks. Then we discovered our bull couldn’t breed anymore. Sometime during the summer pasture season he must have injured himself. Unfortunately we didn’t know, so we not only had to go bull shopping, which meant having to pass on the semen deal, we also had a lot of open cows that we had bought hay for. At first we thought his penis had just been frost bitten, which the vet said would heal. But after a long rest we started to try and use him on some cows, and he could no longer perform. It was a sad day when we had to ship this bull to auction. We honestly thought we would never find another one so calm and easy to handle, that fit our management system. Ever since we first had cows we have bought our bulls from the same breeder. As luck would have it, last spring he was sold out when we finally admitted to ourselves that our bull was finished. We had to shop. Here are a few things we learned. 1: The future matters. Decide exactly what the future of his calves will be. For example, are you planning on keeping replacement heifers? If so, buy one that can improve on the maternal characteristics of your cows. If not, explosive weight gains from birth to weaning weight could be a good selling feature. 2: Personality counts. On our farm personality is a huge deciding factor. If an animal is aggressive or hard to handle it usually lands in our freezer, so spending thousands of dollars for a grumpy bull wasn’t going to happen. A bull is always an animal to be

careful of, but we did manage to find one that the owner handled without much worry. 3: Think about age. We needed a bull that could come home and hit the ground running. We needed approximately 50 cows bred in six weeks, so a yearling wasn’t a good idea. We bought a long two-year-old and he walked off the trailer and bred a cow. Which made my husband ecstatic. The rule of thumb is 30 cows for a two-year-old bull. Our plan was to leave the new bull with the cows for about two weeks then move them to pasture, splitting them between the new bull and our yearling bull. 4: Match management systems. We couldn’t find an Angus bull within our price range that wasn’t being fed grain. We don’t feed

grain to our beef animals, and we’ve learned that when we have purchased breeding stock that had been raised on a grain ration they do not perform well here. When we found a bull grown on only forage we bought him. 5: Look at the budget. This probably should be number one, but most people have a bit of wiggle room on price limits. Be realistic. A decent straw of semen costs about $25 and we expect to get a minimum of two years service from a bull. So 50 cows at $25 each, times two is $2,500. Then there is $1,200 salvage value of the bull (1,500 pounds times $0.80/ pound). Even a small herd could support a $3,000 bull. 6: Don’t wait for an emergency. We learned from this disaster that we should always be

watching for genetics that can improve our herd, just in case — whether it is a good deal on semen or an unrelated cow that could add to our herd. It is a good idea to keep watching. 7: Artificial breeding is an option. While we were bull shopping, my husband started artificially breeding cows as we saw them in heat. I am mentioning this because I believe it is an underused tool in beef herds. We actually had our first set of twins from artificial breeding this year. A lot of breed organizations run classes to teach farmers how to breed cows on the farm and it has been a very useful tool for us. It allowed us to start breeding without a bull, and enables us to use genetics we couldn’t otherwise afford. Our conception rate on

12 cows was 10, so we were very happy with that. As luck would have it last spring, though, our new bull was home for about two weeks and hurt his leg due to mud. This was very frustrating for all of us. We are now in the beginning of calves from him so at least we know he bred more than the one my husband saw him breeding before he got hurt. Our breeding plan for this year is a little more relaxed. We’ll use the new bull for the majority of the cows with the now fully functional young bull we raised for clean up. We also have a tank with lots of semen to choose from if any problems should arise. † Debbie Chikousky farms with her family at Narcisse, Man. Visitors are always welcome. Contact Debbie at debbie@chikouskyfarms.com.

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2181 REF GN FE.indd 1

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/ grainews.ca

APRIL 2, 2012

Columns SOILS AND CROPS

Variable rate fertilizer

In the third in a series of three articles on precision agriculture, Les Henry gets down to the nitty gritty details of variable rate fertilizer LES HENRY

ariable rate fertilizer (VRF) is probably the input that is talked about the most.

MANAGEMENT ZONES The starting point to VRF is establishing management zones within a field. That can take many forms. Pretty pictures of past crop performance is one way to divide your field into zones. But, maybe the areas that grew really good crops last year are already very fertile and need less nitrogen rather than more. When it comes to setting variable rates, nitrogen is the input most often varied, because it costs the most and is used the most. Another way to establish zones is to spend thousands of dollars doing soil tests from dozens of individual sites established in a pre-determined grid. Then, you can return to the grid each year using GPS. I have never been a fan of grids. I think a much better way is to know the plan Mother Nature had in establishing the individual soils within a land type and to use that to establish individual soil boundaries based on soil properties. Then, you can test each zone to get information about current available nutrient status. Grids may have merit in a very uniform land type, where the objective is to determine where old manure dumps from adjacent farmyards are located. A much simpler way to locate old farmyards would be old air photos. In Saskatchewan, old Municipal Assessment sheets could be used but they are not now accessible. I hope to change that. Across the Prairies, probably the best source of old farmyard locations is the collection of 1:50,000 topographic maps — most of which are interpreted from air photos old enough to still locate old farmsteads. These topographic are easily available at the click of a mouse. (See http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca.)

FERTILIZER RESIDUE The first thing we must realize with fertilizers is that they are like elephants — they have a long memory when applied at high enough rates. At many of our current rates, there will be residual effects.

Tundra

Farmyard, feedlot or liquid manures also have very long memories. In data from Rothamsted, England (established 1843), manured plots were still producing double the yield of barley compared to un-manured plots 30 years after manure applications ceased. The residuals from manures and fertilizers is the reason I never conducted a fertilizer experiment on a university or Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research station. Long term experiments are just now starting to pay off by showing the true long term residuals. I will expand on that in a future article.

SOIL TESTING Soil testing will be important in any VRF plan. It is important that we realize that soil test levels of nutrients provide an index of the availability of that nutrient. Soil testing is not like a dipstick in a crankcase. It is not as simple as crop need – soil test = fertilizer to apply. We must also remember that soil testing is only validated by soil test correlation work. To prove that a soil test works requires dozens of field experiments over several years, on soils testing from very low to very high for the nutrient in question. Much soil sampling is now done with set GPS-located sites that are returned to each year. That will remove a lot of the variation — as long as you’re sure the right locations are used. And care is required to ensure that the work of procuring the sample in the same location each time does not make changes to that site. If GPS sampling is done within management zones, enough sites must be sampled to get a true average of that zone. I never have much faith in one soil sample.

PHOSPHORUS Let us deal with it one nutrient at a time, starting with phosphorus (P). P soil test correlation has been going on for 50 years in Western Canada. Using the most common current P soil test it works like this: • Soil Test P < 10 pounds of P/ acre or less: 75 per cent chance of response • Soil Test P > 60 pounds of P/ acre or more: 25 per cent chance of response • Soil Test P in the middle range: response in any given year is crap

shoot, about 50 per cent chance of a response. That is why I have always said, “P fertilizer is an investment in the land, and in the long run it will pay off in spades.” But in Weyburn loam and similar lands, soil test P could be very useful. First, sample the knolls and confirm very low P, then put on a little extra P every year (or put on a big batch once when price of P is right). Then, pick out the very high-testing arable sloughs and leave P out altogether. In the middle grounds, put on the usual old middle rate every year whether it is needed or not. In the long run it will pay. The P soil test is valuable for documenting historical manure applications. At very high soil test P values, no more P fertilizer should be used until the test comes down. When

crankcase in the past and it has worked not too bad. With the great increase in N fertilizer use in the past 20 years, there are now times when Tank 2 is supplying a lot of N (that is, mineralization of N from the soil organic matter). That is a result of continuous cropping, higher N application rates and zero tillage that helps to retain any N excess to current need. Most folks that have been continuous cropping with zero till for decades find they can grow better crops with much less N fertilizer. But, at the moment we have no good way of estimating the quantity and timing of flow of gas from Tank 2. So, I see limited gains from VFR for nitrogen fertilizer until some of those issues are solved. I am sure there are already professional agrologists out there who

and well supplied soils. The probability of response in the mid ranges is less well defined than for P. Many of our soils are still well supplied. The areas of seriously K-deficient soils in northern sandy Grey and Peaty soils were defined many years ago. Almassippi soils in Manitoba and Carrot River soils in Saskatchewan are the two most K-deficient soils in Western Canada — or were. K fertilizers applied in the past 30 years will have changed some of that. Individual agrologists are identifying soils marginal in K where crops are benefiting from application. We did find interactions of K with diseases of wheat, and more of that is likely being identified. I see no big advantage to VRF for K on a broad scale; some serious research would be required to prove any value.

SULPHUR

At very high soil test P values, no more P fertilizer should be used until the test comes down the Saskatchewan Soil Testing Lab opened in 1966 there were few high soil test P values, and in almost every case the high P level could be related to past manure applications. I remember a field next to a dairy farm that was off the scale on every nutrient, but especially P.

NITROGEN N is a little more complex. In much of Western Canada rainfall variations from year to year are still an important determinant of how hard the trucker works in the fall. And, the soil water at seeding plus growing season rain (or the probability of it) has been used very effectively to refine N fertilizer recommendations. And, the plot thickens. Think of N as the fuel in your half ton that has two tanks. In Tank 1 is the real stuff — gas that has an immediate bang every time you press the pedal. Tank 2 is bigger than Tank 1, but the gas supply from Tank 2 is metered out at an unknown rate with unknown timing. Better make sure Tank 1 doesn’t run too low to avoid walking. The amount of Nitrate-N to two feet in a soil is like the gas in Tank 1 of our pickup. We’ve used the nitrate test like a dipstick in a

have made headway on the moisture-N interaction front. Measuring the available soil water as of freezeup is easy — and that information can be used all winter in planning. Water in the soil is like money in the bank. Of course the huge water excesses of recent years in southeast Saskatchewan and elsewhere makes that statement nonsense — but it usually does apply in much of Saskatchewan and Alberta. With low organic matter eroded knolls, an extra dose of N could still be needed, depending on the history of N fertilizer. VRF could easily supply that extra N where needed. And, in soils with great accumulations of topsoil from past erosion, reducing N rates in those areas could pay well. I think we have reached the stage on many soils where residual N from past fertilization is coming out as mineralized N to meet more of the needs of current crops. A soil test that will measure N that will be mineralized in the early part of the growing season would be a big boost to VRT for N.

POTASSIUM Potassium (K) is a special nutrient. Routine K soil tests work well to establish seriously K-deficient

Tundra

The sulphur (S) soil test in garden patch agriculture (small plots) works great. But, in the field it is less useful. S does vary considerably within fields of very flat land. But the routine test may not always sort it out. The problem is the natural soil gypsum that is in the subsoil in many soils. One core sample in with a load of gypsum in a collection of 30 samples will make the composite soil test read lots of S — when much of the area does not have enough S. If the soil test says S is needed, then it is needed. If the soil test says S is not needed, it still may be needed in parts of the field. I expect with some more detailed soil testing it may be possible to vary S fertilizer over a field — some folks may already be doing it. When I do any soil testing on my farm I always take 30 cores to make up a composite and can duplicate N, P and K easily but not S.

INNOVATION NEEDED In summary, variable rate fertilization is not as simple as it might first seem and it will take an innovative approach and knowledge of individual land types to succeed. † J.L.(Les) Henry is a former professor and extension specialist at the University of Saskatchewan. He farms at Dundurn, Sask. He recently finished a second printing of “Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water”, a book that mixes the basics and practical aspects of soil, fertilizer and farming. Les will cover the shipping and GST for Grainews readers. Send a cheque for $50 to Henry Perspectives, 143 Tucker Cres, Saskatoon, SK, S7H 3H7, and he will dispatch a signed book.

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Kochia is a highly prolific seed producer. In addition to spreading seeds through the wind, kochia is a tumbleweed. It can travel quickly and cover great distances – dispersing seeds along the way. Once pollen from glyphosate resistant kochia crossbreeds with other plants, the genetics responsible for the resistance can be passed on. Farmers and seed producers throughout Western Canada are being urged to reevaluate their burndown practices – and target kochia with products that offer a different mode of action. “Agronomists and scientists have preached the importance of rotating herbicides. But for whatever reason, this practice has largely been forgotten when it comes to glyphosate. Taking the proper steps now will help slow the spread,” Deveson says. Nufarm, a Calgary-based herbicide manufacturer, has recently introduced two new products that are proven to eliminate kochia in a spring burndown application: CleanStart® and Authority®. As Group 14 products, both provide an effective means of controlling glyphosate tolerant kochia plants.

CleanStart®: Kochia control ahead of all key crops. CleanStart® has become recognized as an advanced burndown solution for safe control of kochia and a broad spectrum of weeds ahead of pulse and canola crops. But what is not as widely known is that CleanStart is also registered for wheat, barley, flax, soybeans, potatoes, corn and oats… which makes it ideally suited for addressing glyphosate resistant kochia in most key crops grown on the prairies.

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Do your part to fight resistance. Herbicide rotation is an essential part of any weed management strategy. As we’re starting to realize, this applies to glyphosate as well. Ask your retailer or crop advisor about these and other options for early season kochia control.

Fighting resistant kochia in-crop. If you miss it at burndown Deveson says Nufarm has two exceptional products for taking down kochia (including glyphosate resistant plants) in cereal crops. Estaprop® is one of the best products available for controlling kochia in-crop. It is a very well established Group 4 chemistry known to clean up even heavily infested fields. Lately, there has been much talk surrounding Nufarm’s launch of Enforcer™, which contains two proven modes of action to battle all types of kochia. “Moving forward, Enforcer may emerge as the best in-crop broadleaf product for fighting the spread of glyphosate resistant kochia,” Deveson concludes.

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APRIL 2, 2012

grainews.ca /

Columns Hart attacks

Who ever thought “pink slime” was a good idea? Scientists are making great progress in finding new ways to make protein in the lab. But Grainews field editor Lee Hart won’t be having it for lunch anytime soon By Lee Hart

ere are two “meat” items I can’t wait to sink my teeth into — petri dish burger fortified with pink slime. Boy, if that combo doesn’t whet the old meat lover appetite I don’t know what will. Sometimes I think science and technology is out to sink the meat industry once and for all. On one hand we have a Dutch researcher who has come up with a process to marry stem cell material from a bovine with serum from a horse fetus and he gets that mixture to grow in a petri dish (in vitro) and become muscle tissue or meat.

is that messing around with these odd-ball products can easily rattle public confidence and perception of the agriculture and food industries. Frankenfood walks again!

Consumer interest Generally, I believe, most consumers are complacent. They just want good quality, healthy, reasonably (or cheaply) priced food. But when you get agriculture critics and the media peeing their pants over these so-called hazardous materials, the good old complacent consumer doesn’t know what to think. They hear something about it on the news, or their favorite TV talk show so it must be true. Obviously it is everywhere. And who handed

the critics and the fear-mongerers the ammunition — the science and technology of the agriculture and food industry. I remember 10 or 15 years ago the British Columbia dairy industry got nailed with a consumer backlash when it was revealed some producers were using bovine somatotropin (BST), or a bovine growth hormone, to enhance milk production. That news lit up the switchboards of dairy processors as fearful consumers called in, and some mothers claimed their kids were sick from drinking milk with enhanced BST. That ended the use of BST in B.C. And it was science and technology that figured feeding animal protein back to animals made

sense on paper, but nobody has to explain to Canadian beef producers the horrific impact of one case of BSE or mad cow disease. Maybe we shouldn’t do that anymore. Certainly science and technology has a vital role in agriculture and food production, but there has to be some common sense applied as well. Just because we can do it, doesn’t mean we should.

but it applies widely to agriculture. “If agriculture is doing something now that makes you squirm at the thought of showing it to your wedding guests, then maybe you shouldn’t be doing it,” said Grandin. What a great litmus test. My daughter’s wedding is coming up this spring, and who isn’t interested in saving a few dollars. But somehow I think any reception dinner that features dishes with pink slime or in vitro meat just wouldn’t fly. To heck with the budget, we’re sticking with good old fashion, tried, true and trusted gourmet, allnatural hot dogs — it’s the way nature intended us to eat. †

Feeding guests There is a line that Temple Grandin, the noted U.S. livestock behaviour specialist, used in a recent talk in Lethbridge, Alta., that I will probably repeat often. She was talking about animal handling and welfare issues

Lee Hart is a field editor for Grainews in Calgary, Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com.

Pink slime

Have we really run out of the capacity to grow a healthy beef animal, finish it on grass or grain, knock it on the head, and then cut good recognizable cuts of meat off the carcass. With the “slime” product do we really need to be sweeping the floor and emptying the garbage can to get every last ounce of protein or anything else picked up by the broom? Products that by most standards might simply be better used as cat food? And is there such a protein shortage that society needs to be funding research to grow petridish meat? Maybe the day will come when these materials will be critical to sustaining life, but I don’t think we are there yet. (In all fairness the report on producing in vitro protein said it would cost about $31,000 to make enough meat for one burger, so I don’t expect to see it on fast food restaurant menus any time soon.) As I said earlier, these products are probably safe, but the bigger issue

New seed-applied nutrient technology Awaken® ST enters Canadian market

Rancona

Bare Seed

Awaken ST & Rancona

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has approved a new liquid nutrient seed treatment for use on wheat, oats, barley and corn. Awaken ST is manufactured by Loveland Products and available from UAP Canada Inc. as part of its Nutritionals portfolio of products. Awaken ST is a patented, seed-applied nutrient that includes 6-0-1 and 5% zinc plus boron, copper, iron, manganese and molybdenum. “Awaken ST puts nutrients where a germinating plant needs them – on the seed,” says Eric Gregory, Western Product Manager with UAP Canada Inc. “It’s a unique, nutrient-based product that helps develop a larger, more extensive root system, quicker emergence and greater plant biomass for improved plant health and vigour. All of this supports the goals of progressive growers in pursuit of maximum yield and return on their crop inputs investment.” In independent research and CFIA registration trials, Awaken ST increased stand establishment, biomass and yield. Research conducted in 2009 at North Dakota State University on hard red spring wheat showed a significant

30 Days after Emergence Awaken ST pushes root hair development and increases plant biomass.

increase in plant emergence and an 8 percent yield increase when compared to untreated seed. Gregory explains that the patented zinc ammonium acetate compound found in Awaken ST is the key driver behind both the plant and soil effects of the product. In the plant, zinc boosts auxin production, which promotes cell division and increased lateral root growth. “Improved lateral root growth means more root hairs. In terms of nutrient and water uptake we know that root hairs do all the heavy lifting,” says Gregory.

Awaken ST on HRS Wheat

Awaken ST on HRS Wheat 75

60 Plants/2 ft row

Protein shortage?

Bushel/acre

And then in the good old U.S.A., the Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved or renewed approval for the use of semi-waste beef products, fondly referred to as “pink slime” in school lunch programs. This “pink slime” stuff apparently has been around for 20-plus years. It is boneless lean beef trimmings, exposed to ammonium hydroxide to kill pathogens, and then used as filler in burgers and other products. One concern about pink slime is that it might not always be 100 per cent meat. Think about it. Some meat packers and restaurant chains say they no longer produce or use pink slime, but do you know who or which ones? I don’t. And obviously someone is still cranking it out if the USDA is planning to use seven million pounds of it in school lunch programs. I am not a particularly squeamish eater, and I dare say likely neither of these products is harmful. Probably if I was eating a burger made with either I’d never know the difference. You get enough ketchup and onions on a burger and they’re all great. But is the industry really at a point where we need either of these products in development or used in commercial food trade?

55 50 45 40

65 60 55 50 45

Awaken ST Source: Dr. Joel Ranson NDSU 2009

Check

Awaken ST

Check

Research at the University of Wales showed that the zinc complex found in Awaken ST stimulates 44 percent more auxin production in the plant than other forms of zinc. Zinc and the other micronutrients in Awaken ST are also essential in the photosynthetic process of the plant to help maximize growth and yield. Ammonium acetate acts as a soil extraction agent releasing nutrients that are tied up in the soil. Together, the zinc ammonium acetate complex provides increased plant growth and improved nutrient uptake from the soil, ultimately providing improved plant health and vigour.

applied with traditional seed treating equipment, and is a seed safe, low dust-off formulation. “We know there aren’t any mixing issues with Rancona® Apex, and the other popular seed treatments all look very good, too,” says Gregory. Proposed mixtures should be evaluated in a jar test before full scale use. Awaken ST is packaged in 2 x 9.46 litre jugs per case with one case treating approximately 180 bushels of wheat seed.

Easy to use Awaken ST is available in a convenient, easy flowing, clear liquid. It may be applied on its own, blended or applied sequentially with traditional fungicide and/or insecticide seed treatments. It can be

Source: Dr. Joel Ranson NDSU 2009

Awaken ST is a registered trademark of Loveland Products Inc. and Rancona is a trademark of Chemtura Canada Co/Cie. UAP Canada is a member of CropLife Canada. 02.12 12009

www.uap.ca

/ grainews.ca

APRIL 2, 2012

Columns Management minute Warkentoohard’s balance sheet Current Assets Crop inventory

$350,000

Pre-paid expenses

$130,000

Agri-Invest

$40,000

Term Assets

Current Liabilities Operating line

$50,000

Term Liabilities

Machinery

$450,000

RRSPs

$200,000

Buildings

$250,000

Land

$1,500,000

Total Assets

$2,920,000

Mortgage debt

$200,000

Total debt:

$250,000

Net worth

$2,670,000

Warkentoohard’s potential tax liability Sale of crop inventory, prepaids

$480,000

Disposal of RRSPs, AgriInvest

240,000

Recaptured depreciation on machinery and buildings

450,000

Total taxable income

$1,170,000

Potential tax liability

$510,280

This calculation assumes that all assets are transferred or disposed of in one year.

Where do I go from here, Part 2 In the installment, Andrew DeRuyck and Mark Sloane look at a retiring couple’s options ANDREW DERUYCK MARK SLOANE

ben and Shirley Warkentoohard got a bit of a shock last time we met with them they found out that if they both died tomorrow that the equity they planned to pass on to their children would be $500,000 less than they anticipated. It quickly became apparent that Iben’s plan to farm until he grew tired of it and then quit was going to greatly compound the existing problem. His strategy throughout his farming career was to defer tax and keep that capital in his business to support the very growth used to defer the tax. Iben and Shirley are now 91 per cent equity with no growth anticipated and

the option to simply quit would be very expensive. Iben and Shirley up to this point have filed their income tax on a partnership basis. For the last five years they have kept their taxable income at the top of the bottom bracket. When Iben and Shirley turn 65 they will begin receiving their Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security, which will add to their taxable income. This will mean that in the future they will be able to take even less from the farm without paying significant tax. Taking out the RRSPs in addition to claiming the farm income while paying a reasonable amount of tax would be challenging. This is without consideration given to selling any term assets off the farm.

Iben and Shirley did not realize that once their taxable net income reaches $67,000 it starts to reduce their Old Age Security benefits on a prorated basis. This prompted Iben to consider winding down the farm over the next two years to avoid losing his Old Age Security. The reality of the income stream that would be generated by the current assets alone over the next two years is $250,000 per year ($125,000 each). There may be some minor deductions along the way such as hydro and fuel, insurance and building repair. One thing is for sure. It will generate a significant net income. After the two years IBen and Shirley would be sitting on significant investment. The interest on this will be taxable, further compounding the problem of taking RRSP’s out. Iben and Shirley can delay taking out RRSP’s but at age 71 these RRSP’s must be converted to a RRIF and they will start to come out as the investment is drawn down. So what are Iben and Shirley’s options?

Three options The first and perhaps the simplest is to purchase a $ 500,000 life insurance policy that would payout upon their deaths. The proceeds would pay the tax bill. This way Iben and Shirley could sleep at night knowing that the full value of their estate would be passed on to their 18 children. Although the equity is preserved in the estate, the insurance cost is significant, given their age, and still represents a cash drain out of the farm. In the short run this makes sense to manage risk. However, as a long term solution it is an inefficient means of managing the tax. The second option is to slowly wind down the farm over 10 years. They would reduce their acres by about 10 per cent each year and, over time, reduce the deferred tax liability in their current assets. They would be exposed to the risk of unexpected death which would derail their plan. They would also be exposed to potential income volatility. Land rent from the acres not farmed would also contribute to income, but would be taxed. The last option is be to incorporate, either by rolling in a partnership interest including all farm assets or by a section 85 rollover in which assets including inventory, prepaids and equipment are rolled into the company. The advantage to this structure would be that in the event of an untimely death the assets would not all be taxed in one year. In addition, the desired income could be drawn out as required in a much more controlled manner with much less volatility. The disadvantage is the increased cost of accounting and level of complexity. Now Iben and Shirley now have some thinking to do. †

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APRIL 2, 2012

Columns OFF-FARM INVESTING

How to build weath Andy Sirski explains how you can build wealth with lots of money and no knowledge, or a little money and lots of knowledge ANDY SIRSKI

ong time Grainews readers know I left home with almost no money and no knowledge about how to make money work for me. I had to learn this as I went through life, worked at a busy job, helped raise five children and planned for retirement with no guaranteed pension. We’re comfortable, so I think we did most things reasonably well.

We were also fortunate from another angle. My wife and I usually lived within our means. We lived in an old home in a nice old neighborhood, within eight minutes of downtown, 14 minutes from the airport and 20 minutes to the University of Manitoba. We drove and still drive old cars, but our kids all have a good education and no student loans. Are all of our kids going to retire rich in 30 to 35 years? I don’t know. Some hope to do that sooner. They could because they certainly have the information about how to build wealth close by — me. I did not have anyone with much knowledge to work with.

I had to find the knowledge, save some money and have the courage to risk my cash. Over time, we built some wealth and our own private retirement plan. Many people have little knowledge on how to build wealth and seem to have no inclination to get the knowledge I can only hope they will have lots of money to work with. The question is: how do we build wealth? Is it with some money and lots of knowledge or do we skip the knowledge and hope to have lots of money come our way? I don’t know where you are on that scale of knowledge and

money, and maybe it doesn’t matter all that much. But I do wonder about your children. Will they have lots of money and no knowledge, or will you try to help them have knowledge so they can build wealth with however much money comes along?

PUSH THE BOARDS TOGETHER Imagine two four-by-four boards cut at a 45 degree angle. Place the angled cut so the cuts are aligned, with the thin tip of one board touching the thick end of the cut on the other board. If you do nothing, the two boards are just as thick as they were before.

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If you pull the boards apart you’ll create a crack between the boards and the wind can blow through there. But watch what happens if you push the boards together so they climb the angle. The joint where the boards meet gets thicker and thicker, up to a point where you have a spot where the boards are two boards high. I equate this to the magic of compound interest rates or compound growth. Now, let’s call one board knowledge and one board money. Sitting flat there is no growth — you have what you have. It’s like investing money these days at two per cent interest per year. Then start to bang the end of one board or the other and you get a thicker and thicker joint. Bang on the money board and it grows. Bang on the knowledge board and you get growth. Bang on both and you get faster growth. I hope this makes sense. We can be quite sure most farm kids will have money. Farm kids have a work ethic, and most will get a decent skill and or education. But will they have the board called knowledge? Will they have the skill to make their money grow at a respectable rate of return so they can have a nice life and a nice retirement without too much personal sacrifice? Will they have the discipline to live within their means and build knowledge and wealth? They can, but it might help them along if you as parents or grandparents can help them learn.

23/02/2012 8:14:57 AM

As I was growing older, I did not have the knowledge I have today about making money grow. And I didn’t have a whole lot of money either. Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) at that time allowed only small contributions, not the large ones allowed now. We didn’t have a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) where money earned interest tax free. But we had high rates of interest, so the magic of compound interest helped money grow. How is that? If you divide the number 72 by the rate of interest earned, you’ll get the number of years it takes for your money to double. Or close, at least. For example, divide 72 by a typical rate of interest back then — say nine per cent. Money would double in eight years. Over an investment career of 30 years, your first slug of money could be expected to double almost four times. So $1,000 could grow to $2,000, then to $4,000 and then to $8,000 in 32 years. Even if it took eight years for the first batch of money to grow to $10,000, that lump would still have almost three more times to double. If a person had $10,000 by age 30, the money could grow to $20,000 then $40,000 and finally to $80,000. Back in my day, and maybe yours, it was very hard to have

APRIL 2, 2012

grainews.ca /

Columns $10,000 contributed to an RRSP by age 30 partly because we didn’t have the money and partly because the contribution room was so small.

TODAY’S SAVINGS TOOLS These days, most people have several tools that can help them build wealth. First, they can contribute a lot of money to an RRSP and deduct that from their income tax and get a big refund. Second, wages are higher — even if life costs more, disciplined spenders can usually save good money. Next, investors with RRSPs can borrow some or all of that money and use it to buy their first house. Then, they pay themselves back year by year. I’m not totally convinced that this is a good longterm idea but if the money is there, why not? The money in an RRSP that was deducted from income tax and had sheltered gains can come out tax free and be used to help buy a home that will likely go up in value to create tax free capital gain. Not a bad deal. Since 2009, most Canadians can set up a TFSA and put up to $5,000 a year into the plan (you could have put away $20,000 up to 2012). All of the money gained or earned within the TFSA earned will be tax free while in the plan and when it comes out. The TFSA contribution limit is $75,000 lifetime per person, but if you compound $5,000 a year at eight per cent, contribute $5,000 a year and compound the entire cumulative value for 15 years, then consider another 15 years with no additional contributions, you will have a pile of money. All tax free gains. The $75,000 will not be deductible like RRSP contributions, but when it comes out it will not push up income so old age pension is clawed back. While we had the benefit of relatively high rates of earned interest on our money, these new investment programs can help people build wealth a lot faster than we could. Parents or grandparents can also put money into a Registered

Education Savings Plan (RESP). While that money is not tax deductible going in, the government tops up the contribution by 20 per cent, which kick starts the plan. Because most students will be in a zero or low tax bracket when they take that money out for post secondary school, it can

expect our money to grow faster and faster. But don’t expect to become an expert investor in a week or so just because you suddenly had a bright idea. Recall Janita Van De Velde’s article in the February 13 issue of Grainews. She was writing about The Velveteen Rabbit

One of the best things parents and grandparents can leave their descendents is knowledge all come out of the RESP at zero or low tax. This reduces the odds of your kids graduating from university with big fat student loans. While interest paid on student loans is a tax deductible expense, student loan payments of $300 a month will boosts the demands on a young graduate’s cash flow.

WHERE IS THE KNOWLEDGE? While there are many investment vehicles to use to save money for college, a house and or retirement, the rate of return might be very low for the unskilled investor (or for what I call dumb money). If money earns two to four per cent annually for the next ten years, it will not grow very quickly. At the beginning of this article I asked the question: build wealth with lots of money and no knowledge or build wealth with little money and lots of knowledge? Of course there are readers with lots of money and knowledge. There are also readers who have no money and no knowledge. Life is not going to be easy for them. And there are people who are getting the knowledge and I’m pretty sure will eventually find the money. What is the sweet spot in life? I think it is some knowledge and some money. There is what I call the magic of compound knowledge. Learning gets easier as we learn more. Then we can

and the beat up old toy horse, and what it takes to become a loved toy. I translated that idea into the question: what does it take to become a good investor? It will take some time, some experience, likely some money, perhaps some bad experiences. But it will not happen by accident. Becoming a

decent investor needs a starting point. And the education might never end. Odds are you and your children might have to flush some old investment ideas and replace them with new ones. But if you are not happy with your past investments, doing the same old thing and expecting better results is not likely the way to improve returns. You and your children might have to read new stuff. Books like The Wealthy Barber by Dave Chilton, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and Get Rich with Options: Four Winning Strategies Straight from the Exchange Floor by Lee Lowell can open minds and help shorten learning curves. I’ve also found a book by Larry Winget called You’re Broke Because You Want to Be: How to Stop Getting By and Start Getting Ahead. We use a very specific strategy to merge stocks with creating cash flow by selling covered calls. Some of our stocks are like milk cows and others are like growing steers.

This strategy can be used in a trading account, in an RRSP, or in a TFSA, but it will take some new knowledge. I’m not saying you have to learn this from me but if you’re not happy with past returns, or if your children want to start developing investment knowledge, someone will have to do some study work. Many parents or grandparents even help their busy children with their investments to get the accounts going, in hopes that the kids will start to learn sooner or later. One of the best things parents and grandparents can leave their descendents is knowledge. Unfortunately knowledge is hard for a lawyer to write into a will. It will have to come from you while you are still able to read, talk and think. So it might be a good idea to get started now. † Andy Sirski is mostly retired. He writes, plays with grandchildren, keeps his Datsun running, gardens and manages his investments. Andy publishes a newsletter called StocksTalk where he explains what he does with his investments. Read it for free for a month by typing “StocksTalk.net” at www.google.com, or email andy at sirski@mts.net.

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APRIL 2, 2012

Cattleman’s Corner Management

BIXS is about better marketing BY LEE HART

ore information on production practices and carcass quality in the hands of cow-calf producers, cattle feeders, and packers is going to change standards in the Canadian beef industry, says a southern Alberta feedlot operator. Knowing a ranch’s production practices, being able to track calves through the feedlot and ultimately to carcass quality at the packing plant will change how beef is produced in this country. So says John Schooten, who along with family members operates Schooten and Sons Custom Feedyard at Diamond City, Alta., north of Lethbridge. “As this system develops we will see the industry producing less commercial beef,” says Schooten, who has been feeding cattle for more than 35 years. “As producers we will know what we have to sell. And with the genetic information available, such as EPDs and DNA markers in our seedstock, we will be able to adjust breeding programs as needed. “We’re competing with the rest of the world in beef and with other meat sectors as well, so we have to become as efficient as possible, and produce not only highquality, but high-yielding beef.” One valuable tool in achieving that, he says, is a program recently launched by the Canadian Cattleman’s Association (CCA) — the Beef InfoXchange System, better known as BIXS.

Connect the dots As BIXS becomes fully operational, it will connect the dots through the whole beef-production chain, says Schooten. It will allow him as a cattle feeder to have a much better idea of the type of cattle he is buying and who is producing those cattle. And being able to track these cattle through to slaughter will let the other end of the production chain send information back to feeders and producers on carcass grade, yield and overall quality. Schooten says the combination of science, technology and information will create a new era of

relationships in the beef industry. Tools such as improved livestock genetics, EPDs and DNA markers can be used to produce desired traits in cattle. At the same time improved grading technology used by packing plants can better identify carcass quality. He points to the new digitalimaging system, known as the e+v camera, which has been tested in major Canadian beef-processing plants. The unit is designed for use with a moving rail, allowing it to photograph and analyze the rib eye area of the carcass between the 12th and 13th ribs as it passes by. The camera measures grade fat, and rib eye width and depth, and calculates a lean yield percentage, lean yield grade and marbling score. And now with BIXS that information can be relayed back to feeders and producers. “A cow-calf producer participating in the BIXS program, for example, can enter information on the system about his breeding program, the age of calves, the health status of those calves and vaccination protocol for the cow herd,” says Schooten. “Eventually as those calves come into my feedlot, which is on the BIXS program, I can see how they perform and see what kind of average daily gains they have. When they go to the packer then I can receive information back on yield and carcass quality of those cattle. “So if I have a nice group of healthy calves that feed well and produce a high-yielding, highquality carcass then I will want to continue to buy calves from that producer,” he says. “Knowing how well those cattle grade is key information. Those cattle that fit market needs are going to be worth more to the packer and that translates into a premium being paid back to the producer. As more of the industry begins using the BIXS program, I see more of these direct relationships between producers and cattle feeders.” Schooten says there hasn’t been a widely available tool in the beef industry that could provide a twoway flow of information through the beef production chain until BIXS. And it is a tool that is verified and can be trusted.

photo: bill sherwood

BIXS program administrator Larry Thomas says the more information a producer provides, the more it benefits the marketing of cattle.

photo: janet kanters

John Schooten, centre, with two of his four sons (Justin, left, and Shane), says that as more of the industry begins using the BIXS program, there will be an increase of direct relationships between producers and cattle feeders.

Common goal “The industry has downsized considerably in recent years,” he says. “And for a long time it was everyone doing their own thing. But now we are starting to see all sectors in the beef-production chain working toward the same goal. We all have to be working to produce the most efficient, high-quality, high-yielding beef that we can. And at the end of the day, we all have to be producing what the consumer wants. “What does the packer need, what does the retailer need and what does the consumer want? As an industry we have to be focused on that,” says Schooten. “We have to use the genetic tools available to us, and measure those results with carcass grading. And with BIXS we will get information back through the system of what we are producing and what the market wants, and hopefully we can adjust our production to supply what the market is telling us.” The two-way information flow will benefit all sectors of the industry, he says. The cattle feeder will be able to learn more about the type and quality of cattle he is buying from cow-calf producers, and the packer will provide a report back to cattle feeders and producers on how those cattle performed. BIXS can also provide packers or “the market” with an opportunity to send a message back to feeders and producers about specific markets for cattle with specific carcass quality and traits to see if those cattle can be supplied. “I don’t see the packers ‘telling’ ranchers what they have to produce, but at the same time there will be some producers who see a market opportunity and will use BIXS to produce cattle for that market, whether it be a specialty meat market, or requirements of the EU market or other foreign market,” says Schooten. While he feeds a wide range of crossbred cattle in his 15,000head feedlot, Schooten points to a high-quality beef opportunity featured at the recent Canadian Feedlot Conference he attended in Lethbridge.

Produce for markets “Certified Angus Beef is a good example of a program that has a demand for a specific type of beef animal,” he says. “Through BIXS, the industry will be able to identify those types of marketing opportunities. Not everyone will produce the exact same cattle that will have the same carcass quality and yield, but it will be able to identify cattle that best fit different market opportunities. “While we will always have commercial beef production, we will now have tools available to know what we are producing and be able to produce for specific markets as well,” adds Schooten. “As the system develops, those producers registering their cattle on BIXS will have an opportunity for premiums, while those producers who aren’t on the system may be producing commercial beef and will not receive grade and performance data.” BIXS, which is a web-based program found at www.bixs.cattle.ca, was launched in mid-2011 after two years of development and industry testing. Cow-calf producers across Canada are being urged to register their cattle on the free and completely confidential BIXS program. Minimum information requirement includes the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) ear tag number and date of birth of each animal, which can be the starting date of the calving season or the actual birthday of each calf. Producers are also asked to indicate if they have a Verified Beef Production (VBP) operation. And they are also encouraged to provide their Premise ID. Aside from the basic information, producers also have the option to provide a wide range of other information, says Larry Thomas, BIXS program administrator. That can include breed/ cross, colour, castration date, brand/location, dehorn date, details on the vaccination program, parasite control and more. Information is key “The more information a producer provides, the more it ben-

efits the marketing of those cattle,” says Thomas. “More information gives the cattle feeder a better sense of the type and quality of cattle he or she is buying, and the more information also aids in a ‘search’ of the BIXS database if a feeder is looking for specific type of cattle or production practice.” It is a confidential system, so the feeder can’t identify a producer, but a search on the system can alert a producer that a feeder is looking for cattle that match the description of his calves, and then he has the option of whether to contact that feeder. The process is being designed so cow-calf herds registered on the BIXS program can sell calves into a feedlot that also participates in the BIXS program. Finished cattle are processed at packing plants that also participate in the BIXS program. Carcass data on individual animals from those plants can then be relayed back to feeders and producers. While the major beef packing plants in Western Canada are on board with BIXS, software that allows for the seamless transfer of information of BIXS data into commonly used feedlot computer systems is just now being finalized. Beef producers can enroll their herds on BIXS now, and feedlots will be joining the program as the software link in the process becomes available in early 2012. Thomas says the initial carcass data available to feeders and producers will include slaughter date, hot carcass weight, carcass sex, grade of fat depth, carcass yield, carcass marbling and carcass grading. “As beef herds are registered on BIXS, we begin to develop a pool of cattle in BIXS, but it is a first-walk/then-run process,” he says. “As more cattle join the system we expect to see a wide range of marketing opportunities develop as information flows up and down the whole beef-production chain.” † Lee Hart is editor of Cattleman’s Corner based in Calgary. Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com.

APRIL 2, 2012

grainews.ca /

Cattleman’s Corner BETTER BUNKS AND PASTURES

The pros and cons of late-spring calving PETER VITTI

growing trend has developed among beef producers who raise cattle in the snow belt. Many cow-calf ranchers have adjusted the calving season until much of the snow has melted and the first green blades of grass have shot up. For many late-spring advocates, there just seems to be something natural about allowing beef cows to give birth on pasture instead of in a drylot pens. The practice also supports a substantial cost savings by calving the cow herd on pasture. Consider the potential savings for a 250-beef cow operation by replacing all the drylot forages and half of the supplemented barley grain in a drylot lactation ration with one month of grazed May pasture. The grass pastures in late spring contain enough forage volume (dry-matter basis) to support the cow herd’s general feed intake and contain early vegetative growth of substantial energy and protein value (note: some barley might be fed on pasture to meet all energy needs).

BIG SAVINGS The calculations for potential savings of a late-spring calving season for a 250-head herd are as follows: • Total feed intake of 15 kg = 600 kg x 2.5 per cent of body weight, 15 kg = 14 kg of mixed hay @ $60/mt + 1 kg of barley @ $200/mt. • One month winter feed cost = $ 0.84 + $0.20 or $ 1.04 x 30 days. • Total monthly feed cost savings (250 cows) = $ 7,800.

With these significant savings, remember turning cows out to calve on pasture is only part of the overall feeding program. Consequently, the following practical suggestions should be implemented in a late-spring calving cow herd: • Maintain good cow body condition score for breeding. Cows achieving a BCS of 2.5 to 3.0 had fewer days to first estrus, greater signs of estrus and higher rates of conception, while calves born to these optimal cows had lower pre-weaned mortality rates, and achieved higher weaning weights of 50 to 60 lbs. at the end of the pasture season. In contrast, thin cows (BCS < 2.0) have been known to have delayed first service conception and their newborn calves tend to be less thrifty. • Achieve optimum trace mineral status — copper, zinc, manganese and selenium are particularly important for good beef cow immunity/health, fertility and basic body functions. Too often, they are either low or marginally deficient in soils/ cattle forages or are bound up by antagonistic elements. The best nutritional remedy is to feed a well-balanced commercial beef mineral in order to keep cows healthy and help them return to good re-breeding performance. • Implement a creep feeding program. On average, weaned calves from a spring calving operation weigh about 100 lbs. less than winter-born counterparts at any comparable time. Therefore, it makes sense to provide a nutritious calf creep feed on pasture through the summer. It allows late-spring calves to play some “catch-up” with earlier calves and supplies nutrients when milk production from cows slows down. • Provide TLC to first-calf beef heifers. Without the interference of very cold weather, putting

late-spring first-calf heifers on a high plane of nutrition allows them to grow and might allow thin animals to put on some critical body condition. Assuring they are in proper body condition helps them achieve better rebreeding success.

CHALLENGES Aside from the potential winter-feed savings and not having to calve the herd during very cold weather, a late-spring calving season is not without its natural challenges. For one thing; unexpected spring snowstorms and cold rains can chill newborn calves, which are particularly vulnerable to pneumonia. Similarly, frequent muddy conditions and thawed manure piles provide a catalyst for contagious intestinal scours

that could lead to high calf mortality. Fortunately, most spring calves can remain healthy if their mothers are able to escape poor spring weather by going into shelter such as a pole barn with lots of clean, dry bedding. Another adverse consequence of late-spring calving is that 80 days later your breeding season tends to fall upon the hottest days of July and August. Heat stress of both cows and bulls is a major reason behind an extended breeding season, which the following year leads to an extended calving season beyond 70 days. University and extension research has clearly proven heatstressed cows are more likely to remain open, because they are less likely to ovulate, have irregular estrus cycles, may have poor conception rates, and suffer from

a high rate of early embryonic deaths. Similarly, these “dog days” of summer can literary sterilize otherwise fertile bulls for the next couple of months. Luckily, most episodes of heat stress amongst the beef herds in Western Canada last for only a few weeks during a typical Prairie summer and can be largely regional in scope. No matter how the weather turns out in the late spring or summer for spring calving and the subsequent breeding seasons, or even how much actual winter-feed costs are saved, the real success story of a latespring calving season is based upon the total income generated from the amount of saleable pounds of weaned calves sold. † Peter Vitti is an independent livestock nutritionist and consultant based in Winnipeg. To reach him call 204-254-7497 or by email at vitti@mts.net.

THE MARKETS

Bloom fades on rosy cattle market JERRY KLASSEN MARKET UPDATE

.S. wholesale beef prices made 8 1/2-year highs during the first week of March and wholesale choice beef traded just over $198/cwt, while select reached over $195/cwt. Higher beef prices caused the fed cattle market to trade $130/cwt in the U.S. Southern Plains. Alberta fed cattle prices topped out at $117/cwt as the stronger Canadian dollar tempered additional strength. However, wholesale beef prices came under pressure during the last half of March as demand failed to sustain the market at the higher levels. Packers continue to cut back on the weekly slaughter pace but this behaviour has done little to increase beef prices. Retailers are featuring pork and chicken in an effort to attract the consumer. Higher gas prices and other income constraints have

limited consumer spending on food products and more specifically higher-priced beef. Feeder cattle prices have been slipping lower throughout March due to negative feeding margins in Canada and the U.S. Higher feed grain price forecasts for summer have also put feeder cattle buyers on the defensive. Total U.S. cattle-on-feed numbers have been running above yearago levels by two to five per cent throughout the fall and winter period. However, total steers and heifers only as of January 1 totalled 14.021 million head, which is only up 0.73 per cent in comparison to last year.

SUPPLIES HOLD DOWN PRICE Cows continue to make up 19.5 per cent of the slaughter mix but industry comments suggest that few U.S. cows are moving into feedlots. Longer term, this will result in lower ground-beef production and higher average carcass weights. Carcass weights were running at 788 pounds in mid March, up from 771 pounds last year. The higher carcass weights are causing

analysts to increase beef production forecasts and this has also tempered the upside for fed cattle and beef prices. The USDA increased secondquarter beef production estimates on the latest report. Given the larger on-feed numbers and higher carcass weights, there is potential for further upward revisions for the April through June timeframe. Larger-than-expected supplies will continue to weigh on the fed cattle prices. In Western Canada, the number of steers one year and older on January 1, 2012, totalled 467,000 head on feeding operations, down 1.5 per cent from January 2011; heifers for slaughter were 325,000, up 3.5 per cent from last year. It is important to note the number of calves on feeding operations under one year old which were 376,000 head — up a whopping 19 per cent or 61,000 head over January of 2011. This is going to pressure the fed-cattle basis in Western Canada from May through August. Tighter yearling supplies last fall cause feedlots to buy more calves. This is also resulting in

lower demand for replacement cattle from major feedlots during March because these operations are carrying larger numbers from last fall.

MORE EXPENSIVE BURGER Ground beef prices are running 20 per cent higher than last year while the average consumer disposable income is only up four per cent from 2011. The USDA reported that “at home” food spending was up 4.6 per cent over last year and “away from home” food spending was up 8.9 per cent. It is difficult for consumers to spend more on beef products given the current income constraint. While North American beef supplies will decline in 2012, pork and poultry supplies will increase, causing consumers to switch to lower-cost protein. Restaurants are also starting to serve lowervalued cuts of meat and smaller beef portions. The choice select spread has narrowed from $15/cwt in January to $4/cwt in March reflecting greater demand for lower valued products.

The market is rationing demand at the current levels. U.S. feedlots have not experienced positive margins since April 2011. Western Canadian operations experienced positive margins last fall but periods of negative margins throughout the winter. Looking forward, Alberta fed cattle prices need to exceed $121/cwt to breakeven in June given current feeder cattle values. U.S. corn stocks will drop to bin-bottom levels and the 2011-12 Canadian barley carryout will also be historically tight. Rising feed grain values will add pressure to the feeding margin structure. In mid-March, a small group of medium flesh exotic steers weighting 573 pounds sold for $179/cwt in central Alberta. Charolais-cross steers averaging 686 pounds were $167/cwt landed in a southern Alberta feedlot. These are still very high prices but I believe the feeder cattle market will grind lower in the second quarter of 2012. † Gerald Klassen analyzes cattle and hog markets in Winnipeg and also maintains an interest in the family feedlot in Southern Alberta. For comments or speaking engagements, he can be reached at jkci@mts.net or 204 287 8268.

/ grainews.ca

APRIL 2, 2012

Cattleman’s Corner REPORT FROM BIG MUDDY

Recalling good and bad winters at 92 BOYD ANDERSON

FEBRUARY 27, 2012.

his has been an “open winter.” That saying refers back to the time of the early settlement of the West when the open range areas of western United States and also Western Canada were being settled by homesteaders and ranchers. If the winter had very little snow and mild weather, the winter would be referred to as an open winter. During an open winter, the livestock (sheep, cattle and horses) could graze on the open range (grass) and no feed or very little was needed to winter the animals. I can remember when as a young boy, I listened to our neighbours, my Dad and grandpa talking about an open winter or a hard winter. At that time, it was hard to gather feed for the winter. My Dad sometimes seeded a crop of oats or rye and he could sometimes get threshed straw from some of our farmer neighbours. Other times, we trailed cattle to the farming areas north of us, like Assiniboia, Limerick or Lafleche where crops were better. Some cattlemen even put the cattle on rail cars and sent them to Manitoba. During the dry ’30s, the govern-

ment and the railroads assisted with the cost. The winters were hardly ever the same and all the cattlemen did their best to get feed stocked up ahead for a hard winter. As I said, has been an open winter. The cattlemen who have grass for winter grazing have fed very little. Over at the Big Muddy ranch, my grandson has not fed any range cattle at all. He does feed range pellets. Lloyd, at home here, feeds a little on the stormy days and most of the cattlemen are having an easy time wintering their cattle.

GOOD YEAR FOR CATTLEMEN This past year has been a good one for us cattlemen. We had a good summer. There was lots of rain, an abundance of good grass and hay. Prices were good for both cattle and grain. We received over $1,200 per head for our yearling steers at 18 months of age. All other classes of cattle were all a recordbreaking price and now we are having a nice winter. Never have I seen so many bales stocked up around the countryside. I had coffee with a bale trucker who has made many trips this winter trucking hay to Texas. This is most unusual for our area to be hauling hay away down there. Over the years, it has been good for both countries to sell a product both ways. In a few days, March 1, I will have a birthday and I will be 92. I believe

my readers will agree that I have seen a lots of seasons come and go. I was the fourth child and my birth took place in a homesteader’s tar-paper shack 15 miles south of Lafleche. My Dad and mother were ranchers on the south side of Wood Mountain area. They had an adobe house and there they raised 12 children. The first was born in 1913. The day I was born was a cold, windy March blizzard. The nurse, Mrs. Meeker, was there alone with my mother. My Dad was at home five miles away caring for my three older brothers. Mrs. Meeker had let the fire go out because she only had a stove pipe through the wall. However, Mama told me later that everything went well and five days after my birth, Dad took Mama and I home to our adobe house on Rock Creek. My three older brothers did not like the attention I got from my mother. Gene, aged four, said “Put that baby in a sack and take him back to Meeker.” (the nurse). The years went by; some good years and some not so good ones. My Dad’s plan was to break horses and sell them to the farmers for them to use in farming their land. The horse business was good for a while and then the usage of tractors became common. The next thing to happen was the 1929 world market crash followed by an extreme drought. These put together gave my Dad lots of problems. His family continued to

grow despite drought and very low prices for his products, which were mostly cattle and horses.

SHEEP TO THE RESCUE Dad’s ranch was right on the Montana border. Dad took note of how Montana ranchers were coping with the drought and poor markets for horses and cattle. Dad noticed that many ranchers in Montana had sheep along with their farming and cattle. Dad went to the feeder show sale in Moose Jaw and in 1931, he came home with one ram and 20 female sheep. I was 11 at this time and he made me the sheep man of the family. Dad continued to buy more sheep every fall and by the winter of 1933-34, his herd was up to 500 head. That year in the fall of 1933, he rented a set of buildings (a tworoom shack and a small barn) and here he planned on keeping the sheep over winter. I left school in early November and went to the place to live with the sheep. This deserted farmyard was surrounded by a half section of Russian thistles and beyond the field of thistles was a very abundant growth of grass (prairie wool). The sheep bedded down around the barn. I, along with my dog, Fritz, lived in one room of the house. We had a coal and wood stove, a table and a good thick mattress on the floor with lots of good

woolen blankets. Fritz slept with me and we were warm at night. I had a radio and listened to the news and hockey games. I was located five miles from Dad’s home place. I stayed there until February 20. At that time, there was a good thaw in February and I herded the sheep home on February 20. The sheep did well that winter and helped Dad meet the expense of running the ranch. The cost to Dad for keeping the sheep on this abandoned farm was food for me and the dog, and wood for the fire to keep us warm. Two tons of loose feed for the sheep — a mixture of wheat and thistles, and of course batteries for the radio, was all I needed. In two and a half months, I was home twice. That winter showed Dad and I how sheep could stand the cold. They needed someone like me to guide them and protect them from a bad blizzard or to keep them safe from the coyotes. Dad had very good sheep. They were Rambouillet and were very hardy and had lots of wool to keep them warm. I kept sheep for over 25 years and I have the greatest admiration for them. I will be 92 years of age in three days. I believe that I have lived through a very interesting time. Now, I am starting to move my land and livestock down to future generations. † Boyd Anderson is a mostly retired rancher from Glentworth, Sask. and has been a columnist for Grainews for many years.

RANCHER’S DIARY

Upside down treatment appears to work HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

FEBRUARY 24

fter more computer problems, our friend Steve Dahl decided my old computer was hopeless and he refurbished a newer computer for me. I’m still getting used to it (because it does things a

bit different than my old one) and catching up on article deadlines. The good thing about the computer problem is that when Lynn took my old one into town the second time for Steve to work on, Steve talked him into trying his inverter table, to see if it would help his bad back and pinched sciatic nerve. Lynn has had back pain for a long time, and pain/numb-

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ness in his left leg for several years due to pressure on the sciatic nerve. Steve has had sciatic problems for 30 years, but using the inverter table (hanging upside down for 20 minutes a day) has helped, to where he only needs to stretch his back about once a month, and his sciatic pain is gone. Steve loaned Lynn his inverter table for a week, and Lynn was amazed at how much it helps. After the second day, he no longer had any pain in his leg, for the first time in about five years. He stopped taking pain pills, and cancelled his appointment with the doctor who wanted to give him another cortisone injection into his back. We ordered our own inverter table, and Lynn uses it for 20 minutes every morning, hanging not quite upside down — and reads a book while he’s hanging. This stretches his spine (like traction, only a lot easier!) and takes pressure off the compressed/ damaged disks in his back that were hurting the sciatic nerve. Last Saturday it was snowing hard all morning and too slippery to get up the new road with the dump truck, even with chains on, so Michael brought the backhoe down here and spent that day smoothing out the rocks he’d hauled, working on the new road, and started widening it, to make it safer. Andrea and Rick helped us round up the cows, and we gave the pregnant heifers their precalving booster shot. These last few days have been stormy, but Michael was able to keep working on the road with the backhoe,

even in a blizzard. We ran out of diesel (using the backhoe and dump truck so much this winter) and had our barrel filled again; the cost of diesel is horrendous!

MARCH 6 We had more snow last week and finally started feeding our cows. They’ve done very well this winter with supplemental protein, grazing the big hill behind Andrea’s house. But that grass is about gone now, and with snow covering the rest, it was time to start feeding hay. Rick, Andrea and Lynn hung the rest of the gates in the new second-day pens by the calving barn, and Dani helped. She used a big wrench to turn the nuts onto the bolts for the hinges. Afterward, she helped me do chores so she could see the heifers again. Yesterday was our wedding anniversary, so Lynn and I finally used the gift certificate (for a local restaurant) that was given to us by elk hunters last fall who camped here at our place.

MARCH 16 Last week Michael had to work on the dump-truck brakes, and found that it had been running all this time with just one. After he got the brakes fixed, it’s like a new truck! He also went up to Leadore two mornings, to IV a calf for one of his rancher friends. The calf had scours and got chilled in a snowstorm, and was too weak and dehydrated to benefit from oral fluids. But the IV fluids helped, and the calf recovered.

Saturday our friends Pete and Bev Wiebe from British Columbia came to visit, on their way home from a series of trips — to Africa, and then several weeks spent in the southern part of the U.S. helping build houses for people who lost their homes in hurricanes. They enjoy helping other people and have made this a major part of their lives. We always enjoy visiting with them when they stop here for a few days on their way to or from these journeys. This trip they were delighted to see Andrea’s new house, and we celebrated Pete’s birthday Sunday night with dinner and a cake that Emily baked. Monday Lynn and Michael set railroad ties for gate posts, and hung new gates across the 160 road. Tuesday it was horribly windy (and blew one of our neighbour’s sheds apart). Michael had planned to put a new fan belt on the backhoe but it was much too windy (blowing dirt around) so he waited until the next day to fix it. Yesterday he and Lynn changed the oil in the dump truck and had to make a quick trip to town because we had the wrong oil filter. We’ve only got a few more loads of rock to haul for the road project until we get a chance to put some finer material on for the top surface. But now we need to finish up a couple ditch projects before high water. We’ll also be bringing the cows in soon to the calving pasture. They will all be calving in April, and some udders are starting to fill. † Heather Smith Thomas ranches with her husband Lynn near Salmon, Idaho. Contact her at 208-756-2841.

APRIL 2, 2012

grainews.ca /

Cattleman’s Corner Animal health

Tricks to grafting a calf BY ROY LEWIS

ince the beginning of time a common procedure in spring calving is cross-grafting calves onto surrogate mothers. It used to be if a beef cow had lost her calf, a new calf was bought from a dairy, but that brought with it the risk of exposing the beef herd to new infectious organisms such as scours. With a lot of the exotic breeds, instances of twinning can reach the five to 10 per cent range with many cows twinning year after year. This creates an ideal opportunity to steal one twin (provided both were born alive) and get it sucking on a foster mom. The cow is thus productive and most beef cows only have enough milk for one calf.

especially if many animals are calving in a small area. It is easy for young heifers to get confused about which calf is theirs.

Older calves If older calves die and grafting is desired, the situation becomes more difficult. It is best to skin the dead calf and tie the hide over the back of the new calf. This extra effort in skinning usually makes the grafting procedure go smoothly. Take the largest piece of hide over the midsection of the calf. It is not necessary to skin out the legs and neck. After a few days the smell will become great, the hide will fall off, and generally the grafting will be successful. Older calves can even be hog-tied for awhile. Their struggling and bawling will attract the cow and may initiate bonding.

Often producers will keep a few cows to serve as calf donors. They are really culls but were pregnant when examined. Especially if these cows were bred early, the opportunity may present itself to steal their calf and graft it on to a younger more productive cow which has lost her calf. When deading with twin calves, steal the calf the mother is not accepting as well, or if this appears equal select the freemartin heifer in the case of mixed-sex twins.

Too many twins If you’re ending up with more twins than you can handle, there are several options available. Bottle feed one calf until the opportunity to graft arises; you can sell or lease the calf to a neighbour; and you can also have high-

producing nurse cows available for just this purpose. The nurse cows usually need some dairy blood in them and they can often raise three or four calves quite easily. These cows will usually let anything suck so grafting multiple calves onto the same cow is not a problem. If possible it is nice to have them calving early with their own calf so they are heavily producing when you need them. Some producers will purchase three teaters or slow milkers from a dairy for this purchase.

Be careful A big caution here though is make absolutely sure the management of the dairy fits closely to what you are doing. Isolate the cow and her calves for two to three weeks to minimize the spread of any disease.

Talk to your veterinarian if there is anything he/she would recommend testing for before bringing a dairy animal onto your premise. If purchasing a calf for grafting, the same precautions apply. Make sure the management of the operation is similar to yours. Beef calves will provide a higher return the next fall. But be absolutely sure to isolate the pair for at least two weeks. The last thing you want is for a calf purchase to introduce scours to your herd. Be absolutely sure the calf got a good suck of colostrum when first born. If at all possible try not to purchase calves off farm. Others may keep a potential surrogate cow milking in the hopes an extra twin will come along. These strategies allow producers to make good productive use of twins and orphans and can make productive cows out of ones destined to be culled. † Roy Lewis is a practicing large animal veterinarian at the Westlock Veterinary Centre, north of Edmonton. His main interests are bovine reproduction and herd health.

Graft early With the surrogate mother, the ideal time to graft a new calf with her is right at birth, if the cow has not had time to lick her dead calf. Most producers will have the twins close at hand so they can immediately be thrown in with their new mother. It’s easiest to rub the afterbirth or fetal fluid of the cow all over the graft calf to change the scent. Leave a large amount of the tissue and liquid draped over the calf. This will usually fool even the wisest of cows. Heifers are generally easier to fool than the wise multiparous cow, but placing the cowcalf pair together in a small pen is helpful. Watch for telltale signs of bunting or kicking indicating the match is not going well. Often mothers do not accept one twin as well as the other, so if you need to keep them together, keep them in a small area. Once turned out into a larger pen or field, if the calf hasn’t been fully accepted, it is likely to be abandoned. Fortunately twins do get very inventive at stealing from other cows. They usually suck from behind while the cow’s own calf is nursing. In cows that are hyper or with young heifers, mothering can even be a problem with their own calf. This is where a few handfuls of grain placed over the calf’s back or the use of a commercial product “Calf Claim” can help with the bonding process. Some producers apply a perfumelike product over the calf and around the cow’s nose to trick their scent. One of the most common causes of death of young calves on large ranches is abandonment, By Dan Piraro

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/ grainews.ca

APRIL 2, 2012

Machinery & Shop Shop equipment

Need a lift? Rotary Lift’s heavy-duty hoist is up to almost any lifting job By Scott Garvey

Rotary lift offers a heavy-duty vehicle hoist designed to lift up to 144,000 pounds (65,000 kg). That should be enough to lift any farm machine.

CANADA

he sight of a Peterbilt highway tractor resting four feet above the ground made Rotary Lift’s display one of the most eyecatching at this year’s Manitoba Ag Days event in Brandon. The heavy-duty Mach4 hoist that kept the truck elevated at Rotary Lift’s booth uses moveable, independent lift columns that can be connected wirelessly to each other. A set of eight can raise a machine weighing up to a wopping 144,000 pounds (65,000 kg). Each column has a lift capacity of 18,000 pounds (8,182 kg). The Mach4 hoist columns can raise a heavy truck or tractor up to 69 inches (1.75 metres). “For any jobs with clutches or drivelines, it takes half the time (to make repairs),” says Kevin LaFlamme, heavy-duty products manager for Rotary Lift. Because the columns function independently, there are none of the steel cables typically required to mechanically link all the lifting points on permanently-installed lifts. The electronic controller on each Mach4 column will automatically work with the others to keep lift points within one inch of each other, preventing the load from becoming unstable or falling off. They are also capable of compensating for uneven floors. Although inputs on one control panel will control all the other columns at the same time, the system allows for independent operation of just one or any pair from any point around the vehicle. That allows The Mach4 to adapt to unique lifting requirements. “They’ll stay within one inch of each other, or you can isolate one,” says LaFlamme. The Mach4 also has a position memory feature for quick operation of repetitive lift cycles.

Because the columns are on wheels, they can be moved into a corner of the shop and out of the way when not in use, so only a minimum of floor space is taken up when the hoist isn’t needed. “It’s great for people with in-floor heating,” adds Jason Thiessen of Keller Equipment Supply, a Rotary Lift retailer in Winnipeg. “You don’t have to put bolts down (into the concrete floor).” That could risk puncturing a heating line. Each lifting column uses its own deep-cycle marine battery for power so there are no electrical lines to trip over or get damaged. “On a full charge they’ll last 20 to 25 complete cycles,” he adds. “They’re also completely waterproof, so you can use them in a wash bay.” The Rotary Lift columns aren’t restricted to use on the large diameter wheels common on heavy trucks or tractors; the adjustable lifting arms can accomodate even small tires. “You can go down to a nineinch rim,” says LaFlamme. To make the Mach4 more versatile, an optional frame lift attachment is available, which allows just two columns to lift a lightduty pickup truck. And a driveon deck rated for 60,000 pound (27,000 kg) loads is also available for use with four lift columns. The system requires very little maintenance. “Just check the hydraulic oil level and change it every two years,” says Thiessen. Adding a Mach4 hoist to your shop will cost about $40,000 for a set of four columns. Theissen adds that factory lead time to have a set delivered is about 25 to 30 working days, but Keller Equipment normally keeps at least one system in stock for immediate delivery. For more info visit www.rotarylift. com or www.keller.ca. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at scott.garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

Two post or four?

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he two main styles of vehicle lifts on the market today are two- and four-post lifts. Which one do you need? “There is no perfect lift,” says Bruce Buckborough, co-owner of Babco (wwww.babco.ca), a Canadian vehicle lift distributor. “There’s not one lift that will work better than another.” Picking one style over the other means assessing your needs and considering what you want to do to vehicles you’ll be lifting. “The advantage of a two-post is price,” says Buckborough. “The space it takes up and access to the undercarriage of a vehicle (is better).” But he adds that some people don’t feel comfortable trying to properly position the lift arms used on a two-post hoist, which needs to balance a vehicle. The four-post design is easier to operate. “A four post is easy to drive onto,” he adds. Anyone can do it. But once you lift it (a vehicle) up on a four-post, how do you get the wheels and tires off? So you need a rolling jack,

there’s another $1,325. Some brands can be over three grand.” That adds additional cost to the lift style that is already the most expensive. How much lift capacity do you need in a farm shop? “A 14,000 pound lift will get a one-ton dually on it,” he explains. A four-post lift with that rating will run in the range of $4,600 to $6,000. In contrast, a two-post version will start at about $3,200. Buckborough adds his company has sold several heavy, fourpost lits to farmers with 27,000 pound lift strength. Hoists with this rating are capable of lifting a grain truck. Expect to pay $14,000 to $25,000 for something this size. At the small end of the capacity scale are the hobbyist lifts offered by several companies. But Buckborough advises against buying one for a farm shop, they just won’t have enough lift capacity for most farm vehicles. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at scott.garvey@ fbcpublishing.com.

APRIL 2, 2012

grainews.ca /

Machinery & Shop SHOP EQUIPMENT

How to safely operate a vehicle lift Having a hoist in your shop can be a real advantage, but be sure you understand how to use it properly. Here are some safety tips to consider

BY SCOTT GARVEY

s with every tool in the farm workshop, there are risks to those who don’t know how to use them properly. Probably nowhere is that more true than with a vehicle lift. That means if you decide to buy one — or already own one — your first consideration should be learning how to make sure a vehicle stays put on the lift for as long as you need it to.

TOP TEN TIPS To help you do that, we’ve looked at information from a variety of automotive industry sources and picked our top-ten list of tips on how to safety use a lift. Here they are: 1. Always wear safety glasses when doing overhead work of any kind. Dirt and debris will almost certainly fall in your face as you work on a raised vehicle. So protect your eyes, and that doesn’t mean just wearing your ordinary eyeglasses. They won’t provide enough protection. Use proper safety glasses. 2. Keep children and others who don’t understand the dangers away from work areas near a vehicle lift. 3. Always check to make sure a vehicle won’t exceed the hoist’s maximum weight rating before lifting it. 4. When using a frame-engaging hoist, take care to ensure a vehicle is balanced on the supports before lifting it. Remember that heavy items in the bed of a pickup could affect its centre of gravity, creating an unbalanced condition when the truck is raised. Remove any load that could cause a problem. To test for balance, raise a vehicle a few inches off the ground and gently try to rock it. If it’s stable, continue the lift. It not, lower it and reposition the supports. Remember, too, that removing a major component or installing one could alter a vehicle’s balance when it’s on the lift. Placing high-reach supports with an adequate strength rat-

ing under the front and back will help stabilize a raised vehicle and keep it from tumbling down. They will also help keep a vehicle stable if you are doing something that might cause it to rock or shake. 5. To be sure the lift arms are correctly placed under a vehicle before raising it, use a reference guide to determine where to correctly place them on the particular vehicle you’re working on. The Automotive Lift Institute publishes one for all light-duty vehicles produced in the last 20 years entitled “Vehicle Lift Points For Frame Engaging Lifts”. It’s available online at www.autolift.org.

Do not use the lift as a jack 6. Do not use a hoist to lower a vehicle onto jack stands. The stands could push the vehicle off the lift supports before it is properly settled. 7. Do not use the lift as a jack. That could create an unbalanced load that a vehicle lift isn’t designed for. 8. If you’re using a platform hoist, ensure the wheels of a lifted vehicle are blocked to keep it from from rolling. And use approved wheel chocks, not blocks of wood you might have lying around. They may not generate enough friction on the platform to keep the vehicle in place. And never place blocks between lift arms and the vehicle on frame-engaging hoists. 9. Take the time to properly learn how to use your hoist safely, and use common sense. Think about what you’re doing and analyse the potential risks ahead of time. 10. Don’t try to repair or modify a hoist. Home repairs could invalidate a warranty or create an unexpected failure. †

PHOTO: SCOTT GARVEY

Working on a truck or tractor raised on a hoist means standing under hundreds of kilograms of dead weight. Making sure the machine is held safely in place should be your first consideration. TW 4 inch - 6 x 6.625 -_AGI 12-02-16 3:31 PM Page 1

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

Lift safety course on DVD

epending on what province you farm in, you may be obligated by provincial workplace health and safety regulations to provide training to any employee using specialized equipment in your farm shop. Aside from increasing the likelihood of an accident by not doing so, you may be prosecuted if a worker gets injured. The Automotive Lift Institute (ALI) offers a training DVD that farmers can use to educate employees on safe operation of a vehicle hoist. The DVD, hosted by NASCAR drivers Kyle and Richard Petty, covers the basics of use. It also includes forms that can be printed out and used to give employees a written exami-

nation to keep on file, proving workers have been trained. Bob O’Gorman, president of ALI, says the DVD course is recognized by U.S. health and safety regulators as acceptable training for shop workers, so it’s likely to be considered sufficient training in Canada, too. It can be ordered directly from ALI’s website www. autolift.org for U.S.$78 plus shipping costs. Even if you don’t have employees but have a lift in your own shop, the DVD is a great learning opportunity. Given the short time required to watch it and the potential benefits it provides, it’s bound to be money well spent. Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at scott.garvey@ fbcpublishing.com.

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/ grainews.ca

APRIL 2, 2012

Machinery & Shop SHOP EQUIPMENT

Tips on how to shop for a vehicle lift There are several models available from a variety of companies, here are some things to consider when evaluating them BY SCOTT GARVEY

miliar and product support may not be real or user friendly after f you’ve had enough of lying the sale.” Bruce Buckborough, a co-owner on the floor underneath farm trucks and equipment when of Babco, the Canadian distribumaking repairs or performing tor for BendPak-brand lifts, agrees. oil changes, a vehicle lift might be “There are a lot of cheap lifts on in your future. But before you go the market,” he says. “The only to the nearest retailer and pay good way to get a cheaper lift is to take money for one, you really need metal out. 90 to 92 per cent of a to do your homework. Finding a lift’s cost is metal.” So low-cost may good-quality lift that will work reli- also mean less capable. “There are some guys out there ably and safely should be your that are simply bringing in containmain objective. ers,” says O’Gorman. “They have no perceived liability or responsiALI STANDARDS bility for the product. Pretty much “The first thing to do is become everyone in the automotive induseducated,” says Bob O’Gorman, try is inundated by (advertisements president of the Automotive Lift from) manufacturers primarily Institute (ALI), the association from Asia who are simply trying to that establishes standards and cer- move containers (full of product).” “But it’s not simply off-shore tifies hoists sold into the North American market. “Sadly, today’s issues,” he adds. “There are comautomotive lift market in both panies here in the U.S. that make Canada and the U.S. remains very product and fail either by not much a buyer beware environ- knowing or by making a business ment.” So far, compliance with decision not to have their prodALI standards is only voluntary, uct evaluated and demonstrate which means there are some lifts compliance with current national out there that haven’t proven their standards.” So judging the quality of a lift design and aren’t certified. “With global market boundaries based on the country it was made being removed in recent years and in isn’t any kind of assurance it the proliferation of internet mar- meets current industry standards. keting and sales, today’s automo- Instead of looking on a sticker for tive lift consumer is literally flood- the country of origin, looking for ed with a variety of manufacturers ALI’s certification is a better idea. “The number one (consideraand distributors selling automotive lifts throughout Canada and tion when buying) would be getthe United States,” he continues. ting an ALI approved lift,” says “Often those distributors and the Buckborough. “You know what WF MK or - 6 models x 6.625 -_AGI 5:13 you’re PM Page 1 getting that way.” brands of lifts12-02-22 are unfa-

“If you (as a manufacturer) want to produce a reputable product that bears our (certification) mark, our program requires you have to be legally responsible for it,” says O’Gorman. “Certainly you can have it made overseas, but it has

If you decide to buy a vehicle lift, O’Gorman recommends you let an expert install it to be made to controlled drawings, stress calculations and quality measures that a North American entity is responsible for.”

PARTS AND SERVICE If there is a stable North American company and dealer network backing the lift, getting parts and on-going service is much easier. But with some brands on the market, that isn’t the case. Some importers or retailers simply add their own brand name to lifts and sell them that way, which doesn’t give you any useful background details on the actual manufacturer or its practices. “If I had a Babco private-label lift, says Buckborough, “I’d be buy-

ing from this factory in China today, and that factory in China tomorrow. The parts won’t swap out.” That isn’t a concern with products from established namebrand manufacturers. If the real manufacturer has no permanent presence in North America and doesn’t have a website detailing specific information about the company, its products or after-sales support policy, you may want to give it a pass. It seems most manufacturers understand the marketing value of having an ALI certification decal on their equipment, and a few have even gone so far as to fraudulently use it. O’Groman says ALI keeps track of those incidents, and it works to protect consumers by publishing a list of firms proven to have falsely displayed or claimed to have certification on its website. “I find some guys are selling (no-name brands) and saying anything to get someone to buy,” says Buckborough. If you are seriously considering a particular make and model of lift, you can use the ALI website to confirm it has received certification. It’s possible to query certification records by both manufacturer and model number.

ALI has also kept track of some manufacturers’ claims of being certified by fictitious associations, which seem solely intended to create consumer confidence. A list of the phoney organizations that have been identified so far can also be found on the ALI website. “Our website is more like a library,” says O’Groman. And consumers as well as others frequently use it as a reference. “It sees 60,000 visits per month,” he adds. If you decide to buy a vehicle lift, O’Gorman recommends you let an expert install it. “ALI recommends if you’re a farmer or mechanic do what you’re good at and let the experts do the lift installation,” he says. “The reason comes down to proper operation of the product, making sure it’s set up correctly and doing a final inspection before accepting it for use by your employees.” “They’re not that hard to install,” says Buckborough. But he quickly adds if you have employees using the lift, you may be required by provincial health and safety regulations to have it installed by a certified technician. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at scott.garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

BIGGER Stronger faster PHOTO: SCOTT GARVEY

Two-post vehicle lifts offer excellent access to a vehicle’s undercarriage and wheels, but using one safely requires knowing where to place the lift arms for proper balance.

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A four-post lift is easiest to use. Anyone can drive a vehicle onto the platform and safely raise it. But wheels cannot be removed without further jacking up the vehicle while it’s on the platform.

APRIL 2, 2012

grainews.ca /

Machinery & Shop NATIONAL FARM MACHINERY SHOW

New JCB Fastrac

JCB has expanded its line of agricultural tractors with the “new generation” 8000 Series model

BY SCOTT GARVEY

.K.-based JCB was among the pioneers in developing capable field tractors that could also manage some serious speed on roads. Although these yellow tractors have remained relatively thin on the ground in Western Canada, they have found favour with many custom operators, such as those offering ensiling services. The Fastracs have the power to pull dump wagons across a field and the speed to get them back to the farmyard quickly. This year JCB used the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky, to debut updates to its relatively new 8000 Series tractor line. Unlike the original Fastrac models that looked a little like a truck, the 8000 Series has the more familiar appearance of a standard, rigid-frame MFWD tractor. And the company has added a new flagship model to that line with the introduction of the 306 horsepower 8310. The 8310 and smaller, 279 horsepower 8280 both use Interim Tier IV-compliant, 8.4litre SISU engines, which are built by AGCO. “SISU engines are ideal

to the tractor’s computer system include a “one-touch” headland management system and in-field cruise control, both of which are controlled by a new touch screen with quick-link keys. For more information on JCB products, see www.jcbamericas. com. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at scott.garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

PHOTO: RAY BIANCHI, CLASSIC FARM PHOTOS

JCB, which is based in England, used the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky, as the venue for the North American debut of its new 306 horsepower, model 8310 tractor.

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for the full-load duty cycles which the Fastrac 8000 Series endures,” says Ray Bingley, agricultural general manager for North America, “allowing the machines to operate to their full potential while delivering fuel savings of up to 10 per cent.” The new generation of 8000 Series JCB tractors have been given a variety of improvements that make them more productive and comfortable to operate. Most notable among those changes is a quieter cab, which has seen a five dBA reduction in noise levels to a pretty respectable 68.7. The tractors also come with a mechanical steering linkage that is GPS auto steer ready. They have full suspension, with revised geometry, along with a braking system that allows them to safely hit 70 kilometres per hour on the road. That gives them one of highest road speeds of any field tractor currently available in Canada. And they come with a standard on-road cruise control, which can be set to maintain road speeds between 20 and 70 km/h. The new 8000s also get an updated CVT transmission and improvements to its “Drive mode” software. Other changes

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10/24/11 2:40 PM

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APRIL 2, 2012

Machinery & Shop CLASS PROJECT

Project F-250, part seven The pickup project moves into the final stage and we start spraying new paint BY SCOTT GARVEY

t’s been prepped, washed, sanded, wiped, degreased, masked and cleaned again, now it’s time to put color on the truck. But it’s in an ordinary farm workshop with no special facilities, such as a dedicated paint booth, and commercial automotive paint isn’t for the doit-yourselfer.

GETTING READY The urethane automotive paint, which is widely used in the autobody business, uses a two-part formula that contains isocyanates (cyanide); applying it requires a fresh-air, protective breathing mask and a proper ventilation system to pull air down and out of the booth. We don’t have that in a farm shop, so we had to find

an automotive paint with good durability but no toxic risk when applying it. We think we found that with Dupli-Color’s Paint Shop Finish System (www.duplicolor.com). It’s a lacquer-based automotive paint that comes pre-reduced and ready to spray. All you have to do is pour it in the gun, just exactly what we need. The main protective gear required when spraying it is a good mask with the proper filters. Cover as much of your body as you can; wearing painter’s coveralls is a good idea along with safety glasses to keep wet paint off your skin. And while professional automotive spray guns can cost hundreds of dollars, we picked up a $50 version at Princess Auto and used the shop’s existing air system to power it, however, the piping already

had a desiccant filter installed to remove moisture. If the set up in your shop doesn’t, you’ll need to add it. Water from condensation in the air flow would contaminate the paint and cause problems. But overall, there are no high-end tools for this project. If you’ve never used your spray gun before, do a little practicing with it first to ensure you have the spray pattern set correctly. The gun’s instruction sheet should tell you how to do that. Use a 50 per cent overlap when spraying the paint on to get even coverage. We cleaned the floor around the truck to remove all the sanding debris and dirt so we don’t stir up dust while spraying the paint. Fortunately, lacquer-based paints dry very quickly, so there isn’t a lot of time for floating dust to stick to it.

APPLYING THE PAINT The Dupli-Color paint is a three-step process. First, spray on the premixed primer as a base for the new paint. The paint and primer comes in onequart containers. The F-250 was given one coat of primer, which took about two and one half cans. Then it was time to spay on the color; in this case we’re going with a base coat of yellow. But part of the hood will get a black accent. The truck was given three coats of yellow. Once it dried, after a couple of hours, the truck was remasked and the black was sprayed on the hood. The final step was to spray two coats of clear, which will give the base colours a permanent gloss.

BACK ON THE ROAD After removing the masking and reinstalling all the parts we took off of it, the truck is ready for the road again. This last phase of the project was by far the most costly. Each can of Dupli-Color product was

about $25 plus tax. About 15 cans were used on the project. So the price this time is roughly $400. Even at that, it’s only a small fraction of the cost of a professional re-spray at a body shop. Having a professional shop do all this work would have amounted to a bill of several thousand dollars, likely well more than the truck was worth. Doing the job ourselves added more value to the truck than the cost of the materials. It did, however, take a lot of man hours. That explains why a body shop bill would be so high. There are a few minor imperfections in the new paint, but you have to look hard to find them. That’s about what we expected. So, job done. What do you think; was that money and effort well spent? Have you recently resprayed a truck, tractor or other machine and want to compare your results to ours? If so, email me with a thumbs up or thumbs down on the final look, and let us know what you’ve been up to in your shop. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at scott.garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

Here’s how our costs stack up: Installing a new radio:

$130

Adding new paint-in bed liner:

$140

Painting the wheels and hubs:

$20

Fixing rust:

$30

Adding textured liner to the lower body:

$25

Prepping the truck for paint:

$35

Final paint job:

$400

Total cost for Project F-250:

$780

Look at the difference. This is the F-250 after it rolled out of the shop compared to how it looked before it went in. The only thing left to do now is reattach the chrome “F-250” trim pieces.

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The truck is ready to have black base coat for the hood applied. It had to be re-masked to prevent any overspray on the new yellow paint.

APRIL 2, 2012

grainews.ca /

Home Quarter Farm Life SEEDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Your deepest needs We all want to be loved, forgiven, whole and alive ELAINE FROESE

once asked my Sunday school class, a faithful group of farmers and rural folks, “How do you find out what someone really needs?” They shared their thoughts on listening deeply, spending time with people to build relationships, and relying on God to give wisdom. We’ve learned how we are all shaped differently by our experiences in life, and yet every person can show love by connecting to someone and pointing the way to a relationship with God. At Easter time I am excited to share in the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Years ago I attended the film “The Passion.” The small brown pamphlet (www.thepassionofchrist.com) I found at the back of the theatre is something that none of the film’s critics will discuss. It offers answers to your deepest needs: • Pure love,

• Everlasting life, • Complete forgiveness, • Ultimate wholeness. “Our greatest felt needs are to be loved, forgiven, whole and alive,” writes Brian Mavis. A relationship with Jesus will meet your deepest needs. Readers tell me that they appreciate the times I use scripture, and share the good news of the Gospel. I have written many things this winter about the struggles farm families are facing, yet what sustains those who have faith? I believe that the resurrected life of Jesus gives us “a reason to hope and not just cope.” My friends who are coping with a serious illness were encouraged when their doctor said, “You will make it, you are people of faith.” I received a phone call from a frustrated farmer who wonders if he will ever be happy. His needs are to be loved, forgiven, and feel whole and alive. As a Christian I have the greatest treasure, the knowledge that God loves me unconditionally, and that when I die, I will have eternal life in heaven. My sins are forgiven, and my purpose in life is to serve God and tell

others about His love for them. Could you offer to pray for those distressed folks whose phone calls you receive? As a farm family coach I often ask permission from the family circle to pray for them to ask for wisdom and blessing as they work hard to

you are truly curious about who Jesus is, I encourage you to read a recent translation of the Bible, and start with the book of John. I like the “Message” translation as it uses today’s language. I also encourage you to find a small group to study your questions

I received a phone call from a frustrated farmer who wonders if he will ever be happy transfer the farm business to the next generation. Rarely do people decline prayer. Billy Graham told his readers: “Jesus Christ can come into your heart and forgive your sins, cleanse you and change you. Christ stands ready to give hope to everyone. Christ’s truth can make you free.” John 8:31-32 says, “If you hold on to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” If this is the first Easter that

about Christ, and be connected to Christian people who also struggle, yet know God’s goodness in their lives. Call the pastor of your local church, and find out how to get connected. Go to an Alpha course (www. alphacanada.org). I’ve done a lot of speaking over the years about living an intentional life, or finding balance in a complex world. Some people think “balance” should be replaced by the word “integration.” Whatever you call it, people need to have a sense of

wholeness. My pamphlet from “The Passion” talks about the followers of Jesus being devoted to Him because He took the broken pieces of their lives and gave them the peace of His life. Jesus said, “Peace, I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” — John 14:27 (NIV) When I was 15, (40 years ago!) Jesus met my deepest needs and I committed my life to a relationship with Him. May you find your deepest needs met this Easter, as you accept the gift of eternal life from a loving God who conquered death, and gives us hope. He is risen indeed! Celebrate well this year with your family. Show your love and appreciation for each other. Love God. Love people. Serve the world. † Elaine Froese plants barley seed on Palm Sunday, to have green shoots of “Easter Grass” for Sunday’s Easter eggs. Plant it in a 9x13-inch glass dish in good soil, water well, and cover with plastic wrap until sprouts appear. Then delight the kids with how fast the barley grows in seven days! Use as an altar decoration on Easter Sunday. Reach Elaine at 1-866-848-8311 or www. elainefroese.com.

Understanding growing zones As you get ready for another growing season keep this info in mind NATIONAL GARDEN BUREAU

ardeners can be conservative or adventurous, traditional or daring. The conservative or traditional gardener chooses plants they know will grow well in their garden. They depend on these plants for a successful garden year after year. The adventurous or daring gardener wants to push the limits and grow plants that are not commonly found in their area. For these gardeners success (and failure) is part of the fun of gardening. Both types of gardeners can benefit from understanding zone maps and hardiness ratings when choosing perennials that fulfil their garden aspirations and annuals that add seasonal colour.

Hardiness zones or ratings are listed in gardening magazines, reference books, plant catalogues and on seed packets. Each zone is determined by a 12.2 C (10 F) difference in the average minimum temperature. Zone 1 is the coldest and Zone 11 has the warmest winter temperatures. A plant listed as hardy in Zone 4 indicates it should survive winter temperatures as low as -34.4 C (-30 F). A Zone 9 plant is hardy only to -6.6 C (20 F). Some references provide a range of zones in which the plant will grow. A plant listed as hardy in Zones 4 to 9 means it will grow in all of those zones. However, there are many factors that affect a plant’s ability to grow in a particular climate including exposure, altitude, moisture, soil type and

even snow cover. These conditions create variations between and within zones. While it’s unlikely that a plant listed as hardy in Zone 7 would survive in Zone 4, you may

and light can be used to place plants where they have the best chance of growing. Trees and buildings provide shade and protection from strong winds, while south-facing fences and

Your garden may have a microclimate that’s not typical of the actual zone where you live be able to grow plants recommended for warmer zones. Your garden may have a microclimate that’s not typical of the actual zone where you live. Variations in temperature, moisture, soil

walls absorb heat to create a warmer microclimate. You may be able give plants special attention to help them survive out of their recommended zone. The garden could be

in a protected location, grow plants in a warm south-facing garden and make sure plants are covered with mulch or snow during the winter. Another option is to move plants into an unheated garage or another protected location that doesn’t get as cold as the outdoor temperature. Some gardeners may also move tender plants indoors during the winter months. Your local garden centre will be able to help you identify your zone information. No matter what type of gardener you are, your choice in plants may seem almost endless. Knowing about hardiness zones can help you make the right selections for your garden. † Founded in 1920, the National Garden Bureau is a non-profit organization.

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APRIL 2, 2012

Home Quarter Farm Life POSTCARDS FROM THE PRAIRIES

Feeling bored? Comfortably numb? Why not try something you can’t do here in the Prairies

May I suggest getting up close and personal with a great white shark. Part One JANITA VAN DE VELDE

he following is a true story. There’s no need to judge; I’m fully aware I should seek psychiatric help. Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was this girl. She was a small-town Prairie girl, who found herself in the most horrifying of situations. (OK, in case you’re not following, the girl was me.) I found myself on a boat, just off the southern tip of Africa, where the mighty Atlantic and Indian oceans collide. There were 12 of us, plus two instructors. As the boat cruised out into open waters, the instructors reviewed the basic safety procedures for how to behave on a boat. I don’t think any of us were paying much attention. We were too busy trying to read and fill out the waiver forms that were being passed around. I

think they were trying to keep us distracted so we wouldn’t think too hard about what we were about to do. By this point, anyone with half of a brain who had been paying attention would have been asking for their money back. After about 30 minutes, the instructor cut the motor and we were left floating out in the middle of nowhere. We all started to giggle nervously, and made banal comments as we got our cameras ready, anxiously scanning the water around the boat, as if a shark might break the surface at any moment. The instructors started to dump rotten fish remains into the water, along with pails of blood and other unmentionable gore. They wedged a huge tuna head onto a hook and threw that overboard as well. And for the final touch, bags of liver were attached to the sides of the boat. When beaten with a stick, these tasty little appetizers drip oil into the water. Apparently the scent of the oil attracts the sharks and gets them really worked up. Although it’s a clever trick, one would assume

that a bored, somewhat docile shark would be scary enough. There was really no need to work one up into an oil-slicked frenzy. And then, we waited. And waited. And waited some more. In between throwing pails of fresh chum into the water every few minutes, the instructor explained to us that we might not see a shark for a while, if at all. Sometimes

Sharks close their eyes right before they attack their prey as a defence mechanism to avoid eye injury should their meal decide to fight back they appeared right away, and other times it could take hours before you saw a fin slice through the water. All told, I was getting a little bored, so I started to take pictures of the seagulls. They had appeared out of nowhere when the

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bait was being thrown overboard. Some were circling lazily through the air, while others were floating on the water, getting their fill of the recently tossed buffet. We were told to watch the birds because they would sense the sharks long before we did. If they started to make a mad scramble and take flight, then chances were good that a shark was not far behind.

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After approximately two hours, 43 yawns and 17 photos of dirty, nasty seagulls, the birds screamed in horror and took flight. Then someone shouted the anticipated word: “SHARK!” I jumped up, grabbed my camera and starting running around the boat, trying to position myself for a good shot. The boat wasn’t big enough for 14 people to be scampering around, and minimal adherence was being paid to the safety rules we had recently covered. People were running into each other, taking hits to the head from elbows and camera apparatus, as everyone jockeyed for position. Had someone been sailing by at that exact moment, they might have thought we were engaged in one of those crazy country line-dance sequences. Just as I was bending over to retrieve my lens cover, I saw the grey shadow stream by in the water. What a magnificent creature! A shiver went through my entire body as I momentarily weighed in on my insignificance as a creature on this planet. The instructor noticed that the shark was advancing towards the tuna head, so he yanked on the line to pull the bait closer to the boat. The shark followed his meal, lunging out of the water to get it. Sharks close their eyes right before they attack their prey as a defence mechanism to avoid eye BY DAN PIRARO

Bizarro

injury should their meal decide to fight back. When going in for the kill, they close their eyes and they don’t stop advancing until their snout hits the target. That’s their signal that it’s time to eat. Row upon row of razor-sharp teeth ripped into the fish head, and then as fast as it appeared, it vanished into the depths of the sea. The instructors then got the metal viewing cage ready. They briefly inspected all of the doors, hinges and cables, and then dropped it into the water from the back of the boat. There were flotation devices at the top of the cage, so the opening was above the water. Once in the cage, you would be about 10 feet below the surface. This was just deep enough to take impressive photos, while close enough to the surface for someone to have a fairly successful shot at retrieving your body parts. The instructors were ordering us to line up in pairs. They wanted the first two people to put on the wetsuits and be ready to jump into the cage as soon as they saw the next shark. Personally, I would have preferred to get into the cage when there wasn’t a shark circling the boat, but there was only so much air in the oxygen tanks, so they didn’t want us down there until they knew there was something to look at. I didn’t dare ask what would happen if the shark bumped into the boat as someone was leaning over to step into the cage. I think I knew the answer to that one. And it involved a missing torso. Within minutes, the next shark lunged up at the tuna head, and then dove down and slammed into the empty cage, sending it flying on its cables like a feather in the breeze. Seeing this vicious attack on the very thing that was supposed to protect them, the couple who had been first in line muttered a string of obscenities, shook their heads, removed the wetsuits and graciously handed them over to the people behind them. Everyone was starting to look ill, as we silently weighed the pros and cons of jumping into the cage: PROS: Get really cool photos before you die. CONS: Probable anal leakage episode, painful limb removal, death, a grieving family and the sheer embarrassment of explaining your colossal stupidity to Saint Peter upon arrival at the gates of heaven. To be continued… † Janita Van de Velde grew up on a farm near Mariapolis, Man. She holds a bachelor of science degree in agricultural economics from the University of Manitoba, and has worked for a financial institution since graduating. She lives in Regina, Sask., with her husband Roddy and their children Jack, Isla and James. Her first novel, Postcards Never Written, was the recipient of the Saskatchewan Reader’s Choice Award and also listed by CBC as one of the top funny books in 2009. She donates a portion of proceeds from the sale of her book to World Vision. For more information, or to order her book, visit her website at www.janita.ca. Follow her blog at www.postcardsneverwritten. blogspot.com. It’s her yet-to-be-rated material. Consider yourself warned.

APRIL 2, 2012

grainews.ca /

Home Quarter Farm Life

The Garlic Garden BY EDNA MANNING

f anyone had told Anna and Darrel Schaab 10 years ago that they would become garlic farmers, they would likely have had a good chuckle. Although Darrel grew up on a farm, both he and Anna were working at jobs in Yorkton when they launched their new venture. In the spring of 2005 the couple purchased a small farm north of Yorkton and they tossed around various ideas on how to generate revenue from the land. It had to be something that didn’t require many acres or a large investment in machinery. It was during this time that Anna happened to purchase some garlic from a local producer (Bob) and the idea came to be. “We didn’t know anything about growing garlic and Bob was willing to assist. It turned out that we live in a great location for growing garlic,” said Anna. Garlic is grown throughout the world in various climates. “The most obvious difference between growing garlic in a warm climate versus a cool climate is the type that is grown. Garlic can be divided into two main cultivars, hardneck and softneck. The hardneck varieties are better suited to cooler climates while softneck varieties (like those found in the supermarket) are generally better suited to warmer climates. Since we live in a cool climate, we grow hardneck varieties,” said Darrel. “In addition to the ideal climatic conditions that allow us to grow some of the most flavourful garlic anywhere, we also liked the fact that garlic has a longer shelf life than many other crops like fruit and vegetables,” said Anna. When properly cured, garlic will last for several months. Most of their garlic is planted in the fall, although spring planting is an option. They’ve found that it is necessary, however, to plant before the end of April if planting in spring, to give the plants time to mature before fall. Planting is labour intensive but, “Even though each clove is planted by hand, we have designed an implement that people can sit on which makes a furrow to place the garlic clove into and then also covers the furrow,” said Darrel. Winterkill is a concern with fallplanted garlic. This region usually receives sufficient snow cover for protection. Also, when it snows in the fall, it will usually remain until spring. This means they do not require a layer of mulch for protection. For added insurance, however, the Schaabs provide a snow trap to ensure good snow cover for protection. “The cool weather we have in early spring causes the plants to be stressed and this results in an even stronger-flavoured garlic than it otherwise would be. In fact, the same variety of garlic when planted in two different locations with different climates can taste differently. Garlic has a way of acclimatizing and adapting to a certain extent to the environmental conditions in which it is growing,” said Anna. Summer months are spent caring for the crop, whether it be controlling weeds, ensuring adequate moisture or eliminating unhealthy plants. “We do require extra help at seeding and harvesting,” said Anna. “It’s

amazing to see how many people from all across Canada want to come and help, just for the experience of working on a garlic farm.” “Our preference is to use as few pesticides as possible. Many of our customers are concerned with what they eat, as are we. The decision to not use herbicides on our garlic crop is an easy one since they are very limited anyway,” said Darrel. The same can be said for pesticides to control insects and disease that affect garlic. The Schaabs have learned that the best way to reduce the pressures of disease and insects is to follow good cropping practices and ensure that the quality of the seed is optimal. Over the years the Schaabs have experimented with different types of fertilizers including dehydrated alfalfa pellets, manure, synthetic fertilizer and cover crops for green

manure. “All have worked well, and all have their advantages and disadvantages,” said Darrel. “In the future we will be making more use of green manure crops for our nutrient requirements, eliminating the need for synthetic fertilizers.” The Schaabs harvest their garlic in early August when the leaves begin to turn brown. They built a machine that lifts the plants from the soil, but excess soil tied to the roots has to be removed by hand so as not to damage the garlic head. The garlic is then cured in a drying shed for about a week before it’s ready to go to market. The majority of the crop is sold as fresh garlic. It is marketed all across the country although most is sold at farmers’ markets in Yorkton, Saskatoon and Regina, as well as a number of retail locations throughout Saskatchewan and Alberta. A small portion is held back for

photo: courtesy of darrel and anna schaab

The Schaabs have a successful garlic business on their small acreage. processing, and they process all of their garlic products themselves. The dehydrated products include flakes, granules and powder which are all 100 per cent garlic with no preservatives added.

For more information, visit the Schaabs’ website at www. yorktongarlic.com, or email thegarlicgarden@imagewireless. ca. † Edna Manning writes from Saskatoon, Sask.

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APRIL 2, 2012

Home Quarter Farm Life SINGING GARDENER

For the love of tomatoes

Find out which variety is the earliest, which is the best keeper, and some growing tips TED MESEYTON

hat’s the world’s earliest tomato? It’s Latah! Name a good storage tomato? Try Mystery Keeper! Greg Wingate of Mapple Farm in Weldon, New Brunswick has both. Latah is a distinctive tomato that has one great edge. It grows and produces ripe fruit in short-season areas where other so-called early tomatoes failed. Mystery Keeper is an outstanding storage tomato. For the love of tomatoes, read on and find out why so many gardeners are eager to grow them.

IN A BUSY WORLD … it’s an inspiring sight to walk by a garden filled with tomato plants. Oh, but someone says, “I live in the high North where frost comes early.” Not to worry whether it be Old Crow in the Yukon, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador, the northern reaches of Manitoba at Thompson and other great cities such as Yellowknife, Prince Albert, Grande Prairie, Prince George and beyond. Latah produces fruits of the vine ensuring a tomato crop throughout Canada’s short-season districts, even when seeds are sown as late as May. Selling Latah tomato seeds is Greg Wingate’s claim to fame and he can be reached by mail at Mapple Farm at 129 Beech Hill Road, in Weldon, N.B. E4H 4N5, or send an email to greg@ mapplefarm.com.

HERE’S WHAT GREG HAS TO SAY Over the years, he’s tried hundreds of different varieties, searching for a good early tomato. His conclusion — “Latah is in a class by itself.” It’s given thousands of Canadians who live in the upper northern sections of the nation an opportunity to grow and harvest ripe tomatoes. Greg has an uncan-

ny way of fine tuning his harvest by selecting seeds only from those Latah tomatoes that ripen first. Latah is a low, bushy variety that pumps out slightly flattened, good-textured fruits that are two to three inches (5.0 to 7.5 cm) in diameter (larger than a cherry tomato but smaller than a medium tomato). Transplants set outside during mid- to late June are capable of putting out harvestready fruits by the end of July. No pruning is required. In three words Latah is “an exceptional find.” I, Ted, also grow Latah tomatoes even though my home turf area around Portage la Prairie is not a short-season region. Yes — I grow them to satisfy the urge for that very first taste of early vine-ripened tomatoes, while later varieties are still maturing. To all gardeners out there who are challenged with late-spring and earlyautumn frosts let me say it can be done — grow some Latah tomato plants and bring in a harvest.

MYSTERY KEEPER … is an outstanding long-keepertype storage tomato and seeds are also available from Mapple Farm. Because it’s a storage tomato, Greg tells me Mystery Keeper “isn’t meant to be eaten in season, so there’s no pressure on the gardener to get them started and set out in the garden extra early.” The object is to pick these fruits just after their colour begins to lighten up a bit from the greenest stage. Obviously, harvest would need to be completed before a killing frost hits. Like other storage tomatoes, Mystery Keeper ripens from the inside out. That in itself takes a bit of getting used to. The exterior skin may still be olive, orange or pink but once cut open, you’ll find ripe, red tomato flesh inside that’s a touch more acid tasting than other varieties ripened on the vine.

MILLIE’S MATRIMONIAL CAKE In 2008, I introduced Grainews readers to a recipe called Millie’s Matrimonial Cake made with green tomato filling instead of dates or

prunes. It revived memories of an email I received back then. Dear Ted: I grew Latah and Mystery Keeper tomatoes you wrote about and ordered seed for both and started my own plants. I would certainly grow the Latah again. They were smaller in size than I first realized when I bought the seed but they were full of tomato flavour, very juicy, and early. I had the earliest tomatoes I ever have had. Now it may have been that I had grown the plants myself and they were more mature when I planted them. I don’t know. I had tomatoes ripening by the end of July and the plants produced right through early Sept. I think they were worn out by then. I had a steady supply of Latah all summer. I ate loads of tomato sandwiches and used more of them to make juice. When I picked my Mystery Keeper tomatoes, I had more than two boxes. Several are on the pink side but most have just started to turn colour. I haven’t sliced any open yet. I have too many of other kinds to eat up right now, and I don’t think they have ripened enough. I thought I’d wait to try them in a couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see what they taste like and how long they last. I enjoy your writings. Bye for now. J.S.

TED TOMATO TIPS Indoor-started seedlings can quickly become leggy and weak when there’s not enough light, soil is kept too moist, or room temperature is too warm. Here’s just one of many simple secrets in my arsenal for strong and bountiful tomato plants. Once seedlings are no more than an inch high and show their first true leaves, do this simple exercise. Brush your hands very lightly for a few seconds back and forth over tomato seedlings, touching just enough to sway the leaves. Repeat this process twice each day. Research confirms that such stimulation produces stronger and healthier plants. Even a slight breeze blown from a small fan or your breath; or brushing

PHOTO: TED MESEYTON

Latah tomato seeds were first developed for cool-weather climates in Atlantic Canada, but now are also grown in many short-season regions of our provinces and territories throughout North America. Latah even withstands the heat of longer and more southerly degree days exceeding 38 C (100 F). with a small, clean, artist brush will do the same thing. This will encourage a large return of fruit at harvest time. Keep doing this until tomato seedlings are ready to be transplanted.

TRACE MINERALS MAKE A DIFFERENCE Experiment and prove it yourself. Most plants and especially tomatoes require over four dozen different mineral substances for optimal performance. One of the best ways to provide micronutrient supplementation is via seaweed and kelp fertilizers applied as frequent foliar sprays according to label directions. Such sea products also contain hormones, amino acids, chlorophyll and proteins. These work together to reduce plant stress during drought and coolish weather times and provide some resistance against marginal frosts.

WHEN TO SPRAY Wait until young tomato transplants have enough leaf growth to absorb nutrients via foliage. Plants set out in the garden absorb foliar nutrients best in the morning on cloudy days, but don’t apply if rain is imminent. You can experiment with foliar feeding your tomatoes and other vining crops such as melons and squash at different stages, but the following is a good guideline. First application can begin during flowering, then at fruit set and every 10 days or so afterward, right up ’til harvest begins. You’ll

SUE ARMSTRONG

LOVE HEARING FROM YOU

PHOTO: COURTESY THE ORGANIC FARM, PORTUGAL COVE, N.L.

Here’s what M.R. of Portugal Cove-St. Philips, N.L. says about Latah tomato: “I’ve been trying to grow tomatoes on the Avalon Peninsula since 1977. I rarely ever saw a ripe tomato. Before we bought Latah seeds, we had given up trying to grow tomatoes outdoors. It was late September before we got tomatoes from any other variety claimed to be short season and fruits were always green. We can certainly vouch from our own experience that growing Latah demonstrates very exciting tomato-growing prospects in Newfoundland. Fruits tasted good and were over 80 per cent crack free.”

Do you have a story about a farm or home-based business? How about some household management tips? Does someone in the family have a special-diet need? Share some of your meal ideas. Send them to FarmLife, 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, Manitoba R3H 0H1. Phone 1-800665-0502 or email susan@ fbcpublishing.com. Please remember we can no longer return photos or material. — Sue

see the difference. Look for products such as Organican dry or liquid seaweed concentrate, Garden Pro Organic Kelp Meal, Gaia Kelp Meal 1-0-2, Kelpman Liquid Kelp, Liquid “B” Seaweed Organic Pure Liquified B.C. kelp and other seaweed products at your local garden centre or inquire at West Coast Seeds, Delta, B.C., phone 1-888804-8820 or Early’s Garden Centre, Saskatoon, 1-800-667-1159.

CULTIVATE PROSPERITY … with a garden. Gardening energizes, improves optimism, adds zest for life and sustains physical and mental well-being. Don’t believe me? Then dig in and discover it for yourself. Learn how a home garden helps prune away the high cost of imported store-bought produce. Fresh localgrown food can be the purest form possible because you’re in control of what goes into the soil and on the plants. Homegrown nurtures and sustains health and provides exercise while fostering joy and happy thoughts. There’s nothing more precious in life than health and wellness of mind, body and spirit. Gardening unleashes a mighty tool that helps keep it that way.

WE CAN’T CONTROL THE WEATHER … but at least I can sing about it while strumming on my git box. Here are some lyrics from my “Weather Song.” In spring new life begins again, The scenery is a delight, Wherever we go across this land, There are happy people left and right. In summer we’re the land of the midnight sun, And the temperature climbs to 35, From north to south the mosquitoes come, Watch out for them or be eaten alive. After all this is Canada, Where the winter’s cold, and the summer’s hot, Like it or lump it, we’re gonna have weather, Whether or not. † This is Ted Meseyton the Singing Gardener and Grow-It Poet from Portage la Prairie, Man. Spring season always seems to start, when I hear music in my heart, and April’s tune is sure to say, nice weather is finally here to stay. The meadowlarks and robins sing, their melodies are odes to spring, sweet trills at last once more repeat, blue sky above, green grass beneath. My email address is singinggardener@mts.net.

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