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Volume 39, Number 2 | JANUARY 21, 2013

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PRACTICAL PRODUCTION TIPS FOR THE PRAIRIE FARMER

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Fungicides and plant health Some fungicides do more than just control disease

BY GERALD PILGER

F

armers are well aware of the value of fungicides in protecting crops from plant diseases. But some fungicides promise even more.

Crop protection companies now promote the plant health benefits of certain fungicides. They claim that using these fungicides can result in higher yields, even in the absence of disease.

GROUP 11 FUNGICIDES The fungicides being promoted for having plant health benefits are the Group 11 Qol strobilurin fungicides. The active ingredients of this fungicide group were first derived from wood rotting mushrooms in 1992 and the first fungicides of this group launched in the U.S. in 1996. Today there are about two dozen Group 11 fungicide products sold in North America (eight with registration for use in Canada) for use in a wide range of crops.

Headline, a BASF product registered for the use in Canada in cereals, peas, chickpeas, beans, lentils, flax, soybeans, sugar beets, potatoes, oilseeds, and grasses and legumes grown for seed, is the fungicide most often associated

by Canadian farmers with plant health benefits.

BASF has coined the term AgCelence to promote these benefits to growers. Jason Leitch, BASF fungicide brand manager, says, “Research has shown the use of AgCelence fungicides results in greener leaves, stronger stems, increased root development, reduced plant stress and better

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utilization of nitrogen. The plant is more efficient in converting nutrients into yield.” According to Leitch, farmers are getting an average of three more bushels of canola per acre because of the AgCelence benefits of a Headline application in canola.

Leitch says that all BASF fungicides which have the active ingredient pyraclostrobin provide farmers with AgCelence benefits.

Besides Headline, this includes Headline Duo for use in peas and lentils and Twinline in cereals. As well, BASF will be offering two new fungicide products that promise plant health benefits in 2013.

Priaxor DS is a premix of the Group 11 fungicide pyraclostrobin (the active in Headline) and a brand new Group 7 active, Xemium, for use in peas, chickpeas and lentils. Leitch says: “Priaxor is

Crop protection companies are promoting the benefits of fungicides, claiming they can result in higher yields. seed treatment marketed with the claim that it provides plant health benefits. Insure Cereal is a cereal seed treatment with three actives.

Group 11 pyraclostrobin is combined with a Group 3 active, triticonazole, and a Group 4 active, metalaxyl — both of which are already components of a number of popular seed treatment products. Leitch says the addition of pyraclostrobin in the Insure Cereal premix results in better emergence and increased seedling vigour. “It provides a jump start to the crop.”

“Most researchers have no doubts this group of fungicides offers plant health benefits.” — Dr. Paul Vincelli able to move around in the leaf so it provides more consistent, continuous control of disease. Growers will also see larger pods, more consistent seed size, improved harvestability and up to three bushels per acre more yield.”

The other new fungicide BASF will be marketing is a seed treatment product: Insure Cereal. This is the first Group 11 seed treatment registered for use in cereals in Canada and the only strobiliurin

NOT ROCKET SCIENCE Dr. Paul Vincelli, plant pathologist at the University of Kentucky, has studied Qol fungicides and says: “Strobiliurin fungicides have a number of physiological effects on plants and most are positive. Most researchers have no doubts this group of fungicides offers plant health benefits. However, this is not rocket science and the outcome

is not guaranteed. The hardest question to answer is how often these benefits occur.”

In 2011, Vincelli compared the plant health benefits of Headline with another popular fungicide in field scale, repeated, randomized trials. In fact, the trials were so big that the fungicides were flown in by aircraft.

According to Vincelli, there were real, substantial differences noted in two of the three trials.

In Trial 1, there was no difference in the yield of the white corn but there was a slightly better straw strength in the Headlinetreated areas.

Yellow corn treated with Headline yielded 20 bushels more than the control and had better straw strength in Trial 2.

There was a 27-bushel improvement in the Headline-treated yellow corn in the third trial.

All of the trials were disease free so Vincelli attributes the improved straw strength and yield to the plant health benefits of the strobiliurin fungicide.

Still, Vincelli is of the opinion that the likelihood of disease should be the criterion farmers use in deciding whether or not to use a fungicide rather than potential plant health benefits. “University plant pathologists will say disease risk is the best indicator of economic benefit from fungicides.”

In This Issue

Vincelli also says farmers should time their application of fungicides for disease control.

“The best time to put on a fungicide is the early reproductive stage. I can’t convince myself to go earlier. We see no measureable long-term disease control from earlier applications.”

Finally, Vincelli warns farmers of the high risk of resistance development to Group 11 fungicides.

“Strobiliurin fungicides are very susceptible to resistance development. However, in just the last few months we have identified a genetic quirk in some fungi that development of high resistance to strobiliurin fungicides is lethal in itself to those diseases. However, fungi can certainly develop moderate levels of resistance to strobiliurin fungicides.”

SYNGENTA’S GROUP 11 FUNGICIDES BASF is not the only pesticide manufacturer marketing Group 11 strobiliurin fungicides. However, most of the other companies in the market have made a decision to promote their products only on the basis of their products’ performance in combating disease. Part of the reason for this is Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency’s (PMRA’s) stringent documentation » CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

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

2

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

5

Crop Advisor’s Casebook

14

Columns ........................... 16 Machinery & Shop ............ 25 FarmLife ............................ 31

7200R John Deere

SCOTT GARVEY PAGE 24

Alberta puts ER trailers on the road

LISA GUENTHER PAGE 35

Cattleman’s Corner .......... 35

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JANUARY 21, 2013

Wheat & Chaff STAMPEDE

BY JERRY PALEN

LEEANN MINOGUE

I

was concerned when my husband brought home a snowmobile for our sixyear-old. Then I found out the neighbours are teaching their second-grader to weld.

THE SNOWMOBILE

Just out of curiosity, have you people ever earned enough money to pay taxes?

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HEARTS

Ask for hearts

Obviously, nobody asked me first.

It showed up in the back of the truck one day when my husband came home from town.

I protested, but it was too late.

Our six-year-old had already seen it.

“It’s perfectly safe,” my husband said. “It doesn’t even go more than five miles an hour.”

I wasn’t convinced. Lots of things can happen at five miles per hour.

“It’ll help him develop balance,” my husband argued. “For when he gets a bigger machine.”

I wasn’t sure that letting him do something dangerous so he’d be able to do something even more dangerous was the best parenting strategy.

“See? Look here. The sticker right on it says he’s old enough.”

Actually, the sticker said “not for children under six,” but I could see my husband’s point.

“And look, he has to hold this button down with his thumb the whole time. If he gets in any trouble, he’ll let go and the engine’ll quit right away.”

One of our neighbours bought that same model for his little girl. She started out by going in circles around their house. When her dad noticed she was always circling counterclockwise he went outside, said, “Here, let’s try the other way,” picked up her machine by the handle on the back and turned her around.

He was halfway back inside when he heard the thump.

With all that button-pushing with her thumb, the girl couldn’t remember to move the handles when she wanted to make a right turn. She crashed into their house.

IT’S RELATIVE So far, my little boy hasn’t been hurt. He’s having a great time.

He’s got a well-fitted helmet, the speed on the snowmobile is set to a pretty low limit and the motor is quiet enough that we can hear him shouting “woo hoo!” as he rides around the yard.

But, I’m still a little stressed.

I was looking for sympathy during coffee with some neighbours, “Sue” and “Jim,” but there was no sympathy coming. Instead, they told me about their eight-year-old’s new desk.

“He made it himself,” Jim said.

I was thinking, “This is one self-motivated kid. He’s going to ace elementary school.”

Then Jim said, “It’s made out of steel. I showed him how to run the welder.”

What?

“I think he’s starting to get the hang of it.

(Don’t write in. I know. This is ridiculous. But Jim assured me he was standing right there the entire time, the kid had the correct safety gear, and I know that the boy is mature for his age. Sue looked a little sheepish, but she’s normally pretty sensible, so I’m sure she’s not letting Jim put the kid in too much peril.)

THE THINGS WE DO Traditionally, most rural kids have learned to drive and operate shop tools sooner than city kids.

There’s more space for them to practise. There’s often more time, with at least one parent working on site.

And let’s face it — it’s convenient having an extra person

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.

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PHOTO: LEEANN MINOGUE

The sticker on this machine says, “not for children under six.”

in the yard who can fill the car with gas.

Whether you agree with it or not, we are far from the first generation to allow this sort of thing.

My father-in law was eight when he first seeded the family’s crop.

That’s right. Eight. His father was sick. There were no other options.

My father-in-law had his first quota book when he was 10. He also helped out on horseback, rounding up cattle. When he fell off the horse, he’d have to wander around the field until he found a big rock. He was too small to get back up without standing on something.

Letting eight-year old kids seed the crop on their own is mostly out of style these days. (As far as I know, not even Sue and Jim’s boy is doing this.)

But a couple of years ago I went to a “new combine clinic” with my husband and fatherin-law. Two rows ahead of us, a father, mother and son were sitting together. The kid was 11.

At the coffee break, his father told everyone that this would be the boy’s third year running the combine.

The kid looked small enough to need a rock on the seat beside him to keep him from tripping the switch that turns the engine off when you leave the seat.

(You’re welcome to call child protective services about this if you feel the need. But that 11-year old knew way more about the on-board computer than two-thirds of the rest of us.

The kid’s hours of video-gaming might be more relevant to today’s combining experience than my father-in-law’s lifetime on the tractor.)

GOOD OR BAD? Are we doing the right thing?

A kid that learns to run a snowmobile slowly, in the yard, with his dad watching, may not feel the need to race around recklessly when he gets older.

Maybe my husband is right, and this will save the boy from a future accident.

A 10-year old who welds his own desk together is learning some valuable lessons about design, creativity and self-reliance. A kid trusted to run the combine during harvest knows what it means to be part of a team.

But we also know that farm kids have accidents. Lots of them.

Whether this high level of danger is a good thing or not, we need to be careful.

When he’s riding that machine, the boy will be wearing his helmet, with the speed set low. We’ll keep him in the yard — away from roadways, ditches and public trails until he’s old enough to go there legally.

But I don’t have the heart to tell him he can’t ride it. (Not that he can hear me, with all that shouting “woo hoo!”)

I’m just hoping my husband doesn’t come home from town with a mini-bike.

Leeann

JANUARY 21, 2013

grainews.ca /

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Wheat & Chaff Farm safety

Corn varieties

Excavating on the farm is serious business

W

hile farmers don’t necessarily consider themselves construction workers per se, the fact of the matter is that many will periodically end up undertaking construction-like tasks on their farms. And while construction workers can’t step a steel-toed boot onto a construction site without the proper training and understanding of various procedures before they break ground, farmers aren’t necessarily exposed to that vigorous process and may not appreciate the magnitude of risk that comes along with undertaking such tasks without following certain safety procedures.

Take trench and excavation projects. Earlier this year, a Prairie farmer was killed when a trench collapsed on him. He had been digging in water from a dugout when the incident occurred.

His son, along with a backhoe operator, had the grizzly and heart-wrenching task of

weed control

Pre-seed burnoff tank mix

M

onsanto and BASF are recommending that farmers optimize weed control by tank mixing Roundup Transorb HC

with HEAT. “Using multiple modes of action is the best way to improve the control of Roundup brand herbicides and is a proven way to help delay the development and spread of herbicide resistance,” says Joel Johnson, brand manager for western herbicides at BASF Canada.

“HEAT has a unique Group 14 chemistry that provides farmers with a second mode of action for pre-seed burnoff and chemfallow treatments.”

As part of their efforts to promote best stewardship practices, Monsanto and BASF are offering farmers a discount of $0.50 per acre on Roundup Transorb HC when they purchase matching acres of HEAT herbicide plus MERGE. Sean Dilk, weed management technical lead at Monsanto Canada says, “Mixing HEAT with Roundup Transorb HC is an important part of sustainable weed management for reduced tillage operations.”

As a tank-mix partner, HEAT complements the weed management offered by Roundup Transorb HC. By providing the fastest and sharpest burndown, it’s effective in managing tough weeds such as volunteer canola and kochia as well as many other potentially resistant weeds. † BASF

trying to dig him out. The trench continued to cave dangerously as they dug. But it was too late. There was nothing they could do. The impact of the death sent shock waves through their entire family — including the son’s pregnant wife — affecting them emotionally, and financially.

It’s not a task any father would ever imagine for his son. But it happened. So what can be done to prevent future incidents like this from occurring?

The first step is to recognize the risk.

Digging a trench is not just a matter of capitalizing on the fact that you have ready access to a backhoe and lots of space to lay that pipe. Digging a trench means that you have to excavate earth, enter the trench to lay the piping, protect it with gravel, exit, and backfill the earth. To do this safely, you need to follow proper shoring techniques to prevent a cave-in. And trench collapses can occur regardless of

trench depth, soil composition or moisture content.

For a list of proper shoring techniques and excavating guidelines, visit these websites or contact your provincial safety organization.

The Manitoba guide can be found at www. safemanitoba.com (search for “excavation”).

For Saskatchewan’s information, at the Labour Relations and Workplace Safety site (www.lrws. gov.sk.ca), search for the words “safety, evacuations and trenches.” Alberta’s information can be found at humanservices.alberta.ca. Search that site for “excavating and tunnelling.”

Once you have identified proper excavation techniques, establish clear operating procedures on your farm and make sure to communicate this information clearly to anyone who works on your farm. Putting precautions in place could save your life, or the life of someone you love dearly. † From the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association — www.planfarmsafety.ca.

Crop protection

Wireworm control

M

ANA Canada has added wireworm control in cereal and soybean crops to its Alias 240 SC label. Alias contains imidacloprid, the same active as Admire.

“This registration broadens the choice for growers looking to treat their seed with a wireworm insecticide,” explains Andrew Mann, general manager with MANA Canada.

Alias provides early-season protection against crop stand injury caused by wireworms.

The expanded registration includes variable application rates, allowing farmers the flexibility to adjust the rate based on the expected infestation. Alias may be mixed or

applied sequentially with several commonly used seed treatment fungicides to control wireworms and certain seed and soil-borne pathogens in cereal crops.

Alias is a Group 4A insecticide in the neonicotinoid family that controls wireworms through ingestion. Alias is also registered for control of soybean aphid, bean leaf beetle and seed corn maggot in soybeans.

“Alias gives growers the ability to add a wireworm insecticide to the fungicide seed treatment that they would like to use,” says Phil Somerville, product development Manager for MANA Canada. † MANA Canada

Seed treatment

Seed treaters

A

g Growth International Inc. (AGI) and Bayer CropScience Inc. have entered into an agreement to develop and distribute an on-farm seed treater in the North American market.

The new seed treater offers electronic controls, a metering conveyor and peristaltic metering pumps to ensure that the seed treatment is accurately applied. The seed treatment

photo contest

GIVE US YOUR BEST SHOT Last September, twins Fletcher and Maddy Jones went to visit their grandparents’ farm east of Vauxhall, Alta.

The twins had just celebrated their first birthdays, but in this photo, their grandma, Carol Jones, says, “they were also cheering the official end of harvest.”

Carol says she and her husband “raise beef cattle and hay, but also produce very cute grandchildren.”

We’ll send a cheque for $25 to Carol, but since this picture was actually taken by her daughter-in-law, Christine Aikens, Carol and Christine will have to fight over who actually gets the cash.

If you’d like to see your photo on this page and receive $25, 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

market continues to grow in North America and the seed treater was developed to fill a void in precision on farm seed treatment application equipment.

“We believe that future advances in crop production will come from seed development or from on the seed technologies,” explains Brent Collins, director of cereals marketing for Bayer CropScience Inc. in Canada.

“Working with AGI, the industry leader in portable grain handling equipment, will help us bring SeedGrowth technologies to growers and will enable them to accurately apply seed treatment and maximize their returns.”

The launch in Canada is planned for 2013. Demonstration units will be available early in the year and commercial units will be available for sale in the fall of 2013 for the 2014 seed treatment season. †

New corn varieties for 2013

I

n the November issue of “Grainews” we ran a story highlighting new corn varieties for 2013.

Unfortunately, three new offerings from Hyland Seeds were accidentally left off of the list.

Luckily, there’s still time for you to consider these three additional options before you make your spring seeding decisions.

Hybrid: 3093 aturity: 2250 M Western CHU Traits: RR End uses: grain, silage 3093 is a dual-purpose hybrid, suitable for grain/ silage or grazing. It’s adaptable to variable environments, with consistent performance and handles high populations with good moisture conditions.

Hybrid: 4093 aturity: 2250 M Western CHU Traits: RR,BT cb, crw, LL End uses: grain, silage 4093 is a dual-purpose hybrid, suitable for grain/ silage or grazing. It’s adaptable to variable environments, with consistent performance and handles high populations with good moisture conditions.

Hybrid: 4120 aturity: 2300 to 2500 M Western CHU Traits: GT, CB, LL End uses: silage, earlage, high-moisture corn, grazing 4093 is a medium plant with a full canopy. It has excellent digestibility and starch scores. It’s adaptable to variable environments and will handle higher populations. † Leeann Minogue

Bayer CropScience Inc.

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JANUARY 21, 2013

Cover Stories Plant health Klewchuk says growers who use Quilt have noted a difference in straw colour and straw strength between treated and untreated areas of fields. They have reported treated fields stay greener longer, have better standability, and even higher yields. However, Klewchuk insists excellent disease control is a strong reason for using Quilt and that is one factor, along with yield and quality, promoted in its marketing.

Still, it is interesting to note that in the U.S. where regulations governing the marketing of pesticides are less stringent, Quilt is also promoted for its plant health benefits. Syngenta has even coined a term for marketing such plant health benefits: Plant Performance.

» CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

fungicides and plant health requirements and proof of performance before any claims can be made.

Given the inconsistency in plant health responses, most companies have decided not to make these claims of improved plant health or yields for their Group 11 fungicides.

Syngenta was one of the first companies to isolate the strobiliurin active back in 1992 and its research has shown there are four physiological effects within plants that has been sprayed with a Group 11 product.

First, and the only performance claim Syngenta makes when marketing Quilt (which has the Group 11 active azoxystrobin), is very good broad-spectrum disease control.

Syngenta researchers have also noted three other changes within the plant itself which can result in plant growth and yield benefits.

Rob Klewchuk, Syngenta’s technical lead for Western Canada identifies these factors.

“There can be improved C02 assimilation which enhances photosynthesis. Group 11 fungicides seem to help a plant manage C02 and fix the C02 carbon for higher yields.”

“Second, these strobiliurin fungicides preserve green leaf area. Plants sprayed with Quilt stay green longer, which allows the plant to realize its full genetic potential. These plants follow their natural path to maturity more closely — even when stressed by environmental conditions like drought.”

“Third, there is improved wateruse efficiency. These fungicides act as a respiratory inhibitor by reducing loss of water from the leaf.”

Arysta LifeScience products Arysta LifeScience is another company actively marketing a Group 11 fungicide for plant health benefits in the U.S. Disarm, with the active fluoxastrobin, is a Group 11 fungicide registered for use in turfgrasses and ornamentals in the U.S. Online advertisements for this product state: “Disarm is now proven to increase plant health.” Ads also state: “in a new study conducted by a major university, Disarm was also proven to show superior plant health benefits.”

Arysta also markets a concentrated strobiliurin fungicide, Evito, for use in corn and soybeans in the U.S. An Evito online marketing page states: “Evito provides the plant health effect that you have grown to expect; those include increased efficiency of carbon assimilation, nitrogen fixation, and water utilization, among oth-

Headline in canola: increased growth efficiency

1 6 6 6 D u b l i n Av e n u e , W i n n i p e g , MB R 3 H 0 H 1 w w w. g r a i n e w s . c a PUBLI SHER

Bob Willcox Associate Publisher/ Editorial director

John Morriss

Edi tor

Leeann Minogue field Edi tor

Lisa Guenther Cattleman’s Corner Editor

Lee Hart Farml ife Edi tor

Source: This chart comes from BASF, and is based on data collected from BASF’s 2012 AgSolutions Performance Trials, with a sample size of 31.

Sue Armstrong

ers. Plants you treat with Evito will have greater tolerances to adverse conditions and recover more quickly, giving you maximum yield potential.”

It is important to note that Disarm is not registered for use in Canada. In mid-December 2012 Arysta LifeScience received conditional registration from PMRA for Evito 480 for use in cereals, turfgrasses, soybeans, and a number of horticultural crops in Canada.

Evito 480 has the same active as Disarm and Evito. I was unable to confirm with a representative of Arysta LifeScience if and when this product will be available to western Canadian growers or how it will be marketed here.

Produ ction Dire ctor

Use fungicides wisely Research is showing there are definitely plant health benefits that result from using Group 11 fungicides. However those benefits do not always result in higher yields. Disease control should be

the No. 1 reason to use any Group 11 fungicide.

Equally important is preventing the development of disease resistance to Group 11 fungicides by following good agronomic practices.

These include refraining from using the same fungicide product or group more than once per season. Rotate to a different fungicide group each year. Use fungicides that have multiple modes of action or tank mix fungicides with different modes of action if such use is allowed. Follow label directions. Scout fields before and after applications to make sure the use of the fungicide is required and that it worked. If control of disease has not been achieved, consult a plant pathologist.

Editor’s note: as this article was going to press, a spokesperson for Arysta LifeScience confirmed that conditional Canadian registration of Evito 480 has been received, but Evito 480 will not be commercially available for use in Canada in 2013. † Gerald Pilger farms at Ohaton, Alta.

Machinery EDITOR

Scott Garvey Shawna Gibson Desi gner

Steven Cote MARKETING/ CIR CULATION Dire ctor

Lynda Tityk

Ci rc ulat ion manag er

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EXTENDED OUTLOOK FOR THE PRAIRIES Weather Forecast for the period of January 27 to February 23, 2013

Southern Alberta

Peace River Region

Saskatchewan

Manitoba

January 27 - February 2 Generally cold and quite settled, aside from some moderation in southern areas with light snow and blowing.

January 27 - February 2 Generally cold and quite settled, aside from some moderation in southern areas with light snow and blowing.

January 27 - February 2 Mainly cold and fair with a few higher windchills. Milder days with gusty southerly winds in the south bring some snow and drifting.

January 27 - February 2 Bright and generally cold on most days this week, but milder southerlies bring snow and drifting on 1 or 2 days.

February 3 - 9 Bright days and seasonable to milder days are followed by a couple of colder, blustery ones with snow and blowing.

February 3 - 9 Bright days and seasonable to milder days are followed by a couple of colder, blustery ones with snow and blowing.

February 3 - 9 Considerable sunshine aside from light snow and drifting on a couple of occasions. Temperatures trend to the cold side.

February 10 - 16 Temperatures reach thawing on a few days, but it will be cold in the north. Mainly fair with scattered snow. Chance of rain in the south.

February 10 - 16 Temperatures reach thawing on a few days, but it will be cold in the north. Mainly fair with scattered snow. Chance of rain in the south.

February 10 - 16 Fair overall this week with thawing temperatures on a few days. Colder outbreaks bring some snow and drifting.

February 3 - 9 Mainly fair with seasonal to cold temperatures. Blustery at times with drifting. Some snow in southern regions, and flurries in the north.

February 17 - 23 Expect several milder, fair days and thawing in the south with occasional snow, chance of rain.

Cold, some snow in the north.

February 17 - 23 Expect several milder, fair days and thawing in the south with occasional snow, chance of rain.

Cold, some snow in the north.

-19 / -8 Grande Prairie 20.5 mms

February 17 - 23 Blustery winds create fluctuating temperatures and a couple of milder days. Fair skies alternate with snow and drifting. Risk of rain in the south.

February 17 - 23 A couple of milder days with some thawing, otherwise seasonal to cold. Intermittent snow and drifting on 2 days.

-18 / -7 Edmonton

-14 / -3 Jasper

17.4 mms

ABOVE NORMAL

-13 / -2

23.9 mms

Banff

-21 / -10 North Battleford -18 / -6 Red Deer 14.7 mms

-25 / -14 The Pas

-25 / -12 Prince Albert 13.6 mms

12.8 mms

NEAR NORMAL

-21 / -11 Saskatoon 12.9 mms

-19 / -8 -18 / -8 Moose Jaw 13.0 mms Swift 14.7 mms 9.9 mms -15 / -3 Current -20 / -9 Medicine Hat 16.2 mms Weyburn cms Lethbridge 10.319mms 13.4 mms -19 / -9 13.0 mms 26 cms -13 / -2 Estevan -14 / -2 Calgary

Precipitation Outlook For February

15.4 mms

-22 / -11 Yorkton -21 / -10 16.2 mms Regina

14.8 mms

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Precipitation Forecast 16.8 mms

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

February 10 - 16 Variable conditions as milder southerlies and thawing interchange with blustery, colder northwesterlies and snow.

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

-22 / -11 Dauphin

16.1 mms

Much Above Normal Below Much above normal normal below normal normal

-24 / -13 Gimli

20.8 mms

-21 / -11 -23 / -12 Portage -23 / -12 Brandon 19.6 mms Winnipeg 15.6 mms

Melita -23 / -10

14.2 mms

14.8 mms

Temperatures are normals for February 1st averaged over 30 years.

Precipitation (water equivalent) normals for Feb. in mms. ©2013 WeatherTec Services www.weathertec.mb.ca

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The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to Grainews and Farm Business Communications attempt to provide accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis. However, the editors, journalists and Grainews and Farm Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the editors as well as Grainews and Farm Business Communications assume no responsibility for any actions or decisions taken by any reader for this publication based on any and all information provided.

JANUARY 21, 2013

grainews.ca /

5

Features Vertical tillage special

Sorting through vertical tillage, part two Establishing a vertical tillage system on your farm means first getting rid of compaction layers. That may require some deep tillage first

By Todd Botterill

Editor’s note: This is the second instalment of a five-part series. elieve it or not, that old chisel plough of yours in the back yard is a vertical tillage tool, assuming it has spikes on it as opposed to sweeps. This group of tools is used for the first step in the vertical tillage transition, the removal of existing tillage layers.

This group includes disk rippers, disk chisels, heavy chisel ploughs, inline rippers and aerators. Which tool you use depends on how much residue cover you want afterwards, how deep you want to work and how smooth a finish you want to leave. A good rule of thumb with these tools is that just because you can work deeply doesn’t mean you have to, try to set the machine to run one to two inches below your deepest compaction layer to eliminate it without needlessly burning fuel.

Disk rippers and disk chisels are more common to the U.S. Midwest than Western Canada.

These tools are designed to reach 10 to 18 inches deep, and the disk gangs on them bury a lot of residue, leaving a very black finish. The parabolic shanks on these units have a tendency to mix soil profiles and bring deeper soil up, which isn’t always beneficial in our saline soil areas or where topsoil is relatively shallow. Some units offer a parabolic shank or more of a chisel plough shank, with the latter doing less mixing.

Examples of those implements are the Landoll WeatherProofer, Landoll DCD, Case Ecolo Tiger and Salford 9800.

B

Inline rippers

compaction will determine what kind of chisel plough you want.

Our standard chisel ploughs with 600-pound trips may do the job for shallower work. But if you want to work more than six inches deep in harder conditions, you may need to look at 1,000-pound trips or stronger. Remember, though, the the heavier the trip force, the harder the pull!

Implements in this category include the Landoll Chisel Plough, Salford 9700 and Bourgault 9800. † In 2009, Todd Botterill took over the family photo: scott garvey business, which wholesales tillage implements This Smart Till ST101 aerator uses rotating spikes on a gang, B:8.125” across Western Canada for several different fracturing the soil to remove compaction layers in much the same way companies. He lives in his family’s original T:8.125” farmyard at Newton, Man. as an inline ripper.

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Comes out fighting.

Aerator tools Aerator tools use eight-inchlong spikes on a gang to penetrate the soil, with the displacement of the tine fracturing soil much in the same idea as an inline ripper.

Gang angle is usually adjustable to determine how much tillage is done and how much residue is buried. Often, some sort of harrow system is mounted behind the

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Inline rippers or subsoilers (also called no-till rippers) use a straight shank so there is very little mixing of the soil profiles. There is little surface disturbance, so most of the residue cover is maintained.

These units are designed to reach as deep as 18 inches to eliminate deep compaction. They lift the soil and squeeze it between the shanks, thereby breaking up compaction without destroying the soil structure.

As with any deep tillage tool, inline rippers require a lot of horsepower (about 50 horsepower per shank, at least), and they use fuel. This is the ideal tool if you find you have deep compaction layers from large equipment, quite often found in the 10- to 12-inch range. They are typically used in four- to six-year rotations.

Examples of these implements are the Blu-Jet Sub-tillerr 4, AgrowPlow and Great Plains Sub Soiler.

machine for levelling and residue management.

These units offer high working speeds with less fuel use than a ripper. They will remove compaction layers as deep as eight inches, sometimes as deep as 10 inches in the right conditions. This is an ideal tool for removing shallower compaction layers and working headlands and approaches every year.

Typical aerator implements include the Smart Till, Aerway and Gen Till.

Chisel Ploughs using spikes (or specially designed sweeps) can also be used to remove density layers without putting more layers in. How deep you want to work in order to remove the layers and or

6

/ grainews.ca

JANUARY 21, 2013

Features CROP NUTRITION

Fertilizer rates and mineralization Mineralization can be unpredictable and difficult to measure, but it should be taken into account when you’re calculating fertilizer rates

BY LISA GUENTHER

at the University of Saskatchewan and the strategic research chair ineralization is dif- with the Saskatchewan Agriculture. ficult to measure, “So in a typical prairie soil, you but it accounts for may have 6,000 pounds of total a significant por- nitrogen per acre in that top six tion of available nitrogen and inches. And almost all that nitroother nutrients. Taking into gen is in the form of organic mataccount both residual nitrogen ter that has to be broken down and nitrogen mineralization or released, converted, into plant helps calculate accurate ferti- available inorganic forms. And lizer rates. that’s the process that we call mineralization.”

Schoenau says the top six MINERALIZATION 101 inches of Prairie soils can release More than 90 per cent of the anywhere from 10 to 80 pounds nitrogen and sulfur in the surface of nitrogen per acre, depending soil is in the organic form, usually on the circumstances.

1/7/13 AM Page 1 inSEC-WHESK13_GR.qxd the form of humus, says Dr. Jeff 12:09Farmers looking at renting or Schoenau. Schoenau is a professor purchasing new land will want

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to keep mineralization in mind, Schoenau says.

“I think a good measure of that land would be a measure of its organic matter content, because this will give you a very good idea of how much you might expect to become available through that mineralization process over the short term and the longer term as well.”

Mineralization varies between soil zones. For example, black soils, which contain more organic matter, have higher sulfur and nitrogen mineralization than the brown soils.

Grey soils have very low mineralization rates because the organic matter doesn’t decom-

pose easily, says Schoenau.

Sulfur is especially resistant to mineralization in grey soils.

Mineralization can also vary within fields. Erosion lowers the organic matter and reduces the soil’s ability to mineralize sulfur and nitrogen. Generally soil in low spots mineralizes more quickly than knolls. But if low spots are flooded, mineralization slows and nitrogen is lost.

During warm and moist falls, mineralization will continue until freeze-up.

“Which means if you’re taking soil samples very early in the fall, those available nutrient levels may have changed by the time you get around to the

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spring when your crop is seeded and growing and using it.”

Because mineralization involves bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and earthworms, environmental conditions play a big role. Flooded or cold soils shut down mineralization. Warm, moist conditions, and wet-dry cycles boost mineralization.

“Those are the kind of years where you get this continued mineralization of available nitrogen. And oftentimes what it shows up as is unexpectedly high protein in your cereal crops.”

Soil organisms also convert organic sulfur into plant-available sulfate in the mineralization process. Schoenau says soil scientists estimate about one to three per cent of the organic sulfur in the soil mineralizes into sulfate.

“So in a prairie soil, when you do the math on this, it works out to anywhere between maybe five to 15 pounds of sulfur per acre are made available to the crop through this mineralization process.”

If spring 2013 proves to be cold, mineralization rates will drop MANAGEMENT AND MINERALIZATION Farming practices, such as tillage and crop rotations, also affect mineralization.

Researchers studying the effects of tillage and crop rotation in black soils around Indian Head, Saskatchewan, found that both practices affect mineralization. Fields with pea stubble had higher rates of nitrogen released through mineralization than wheat stubble. Land under no till for 25 years had more organic matter, and more nitrogen available for mineralization, compared to land under no till for only five years.

Another long-term study at Indian Head showed that rotations that included clover as a green manure had higher rates

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grainews.ca /

7

Features of nitrogen mineralization compared to fallow-wheat or continuous cropping rotations.

Fertilization influences mineralization, too. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers at Swift Current studied the longterm effects of adding nitrogen and phosphorus, versus the effects of adding phosphorus only, to a continuous wheat rotation. Adding nitrogen increased the organic matter, the mineralizable nitrogen and the available nitrogen.

MANURE AND MINERALIZATION All manures are not created equal.

Adding organic amendments such as manure helps to build soils. But micro-organisms can’t release all the nitrogen in the manure the first year after application.

When liquid swine manure is applied to soil, only about 20 to 30 per cent of the organic nitrogen is mineralized the year it’s applied. Cattle manure’s mineralization rates are much more variable. Estimates for how much nitrogen will be released in the year of application range from 10 to 50 per cent.

The carbon to nitrogen ratio partially determines how much nitrogen will be released the year the manure is applied.

Cattle manure that includes bedding will mineralize more slowly because micro-organisms need to chew through more carbon before hitting the nitrogen.

“Generally, for manures and composts, if the carbon to nitrogen ratio is greater than about 15 or 20 to one, you’re probably not going to get much available nitrogen released from that manure or compost in the year of application. Same with sulfur if the carbon to sulfur ratio is greater than 200 to one.”

It may not be immediate, but over the years, soil organisms will release the nitrogen from carbon-rich manure.

“And so that’s why I think when it comes to managing manure, in some cases to compensate for the low mineralization rate of some cattle manures — penning manures with a lot of straw or wood chips — we may need to be adding some supplemental fertilizer nitrogen in the first one or two years to compensate for that.”

Cattle fed distillers grains excrete manure with more nitrogen than cattle fed barley. Schoenau says the reason is distillers grains have more nutrients.

“So what goes into the animal

— higher nutrient content — ends up coming out the other end as manure with higher nutrient content as well.”

MEASURING MINERALIZATION Predicting how much of a nutrient will be mineralized is tricky. No scientific models and indices used to predict mineralization are perfect.

Combining scientific models or indices with local knowledge about soils is probably the best way to measure mineralization, Schoenau says.

“Some agencies that make fertilizer recommendations do make a prediction of nitrogen mineralization based on an assessment of the organic matter content of the soil sample that you send in.”

Predictions can also be adjusted based on the crop grown in the previous year. For example, roots and nodules

Mineralization can also vary within fields Farmers with disappointing canola yields in 2012 may wonder how much leftover nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur they’ll get back this summer.

“You can expect to get some of that nitrogen in the straw and especially in those canola seeds that are laying on the ground. You can expect to get

protein boost rather than any yield benefits.

Schoenau farms, and has had land that’s dried out in the spring and been kept weed-free. The previously flooded patch had high levels of available nitrogen by the fall, partly because of the humus.

If spring 2013 proves to be cold, mineralization rates will drop, and farmers will likely have to boost fertilizer rates a little to compensate, Schoenau says.

“It’s difficult to measure, not easy to predict, but I think (it’s) something you always want to be thinking about. And especially when you’re thinking about the quality of land, the ability of that land to naturally supply nutrients and how your management practices are liable to influence that over time.”

“And hopefully you’ll prove that contribution and build a more fertile soil.” † Lisa Guenther is a field editor with “Grainews” based at Livelong, Sask. Contact her at Lisa.Guenther@fbcpublishing.com.

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some of that back. How much?

Difficult to predict.”

Schoenau says seeds will release nitrogen first, but because straw has more carbon, farmers won’t get all the nitrogen back in 2013.

But farmers will get back much of the sulfur and phosphorus from the canola residue in 2013.

“And that’s because a portion — typically about half — of the sulfur and phosphorus in crop residues is in a water-soluble form, meaning that it really leaches out of that straw.”

“And in fact with potassium, you’re probably going to get it all out right away because potassium isn’t bound in the organic matter.”

Flooded fields will have lost nutrients to leaching, and mineralization will have slowed.

Crop roots may be able to reach nutrients, depending how far down the nutrients have leached. Cereals that access leached nutrients might see a

from last year’s peas can give a 20 to 40 pound nitrogen credit per acre, if the pea yield was high. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research set in the grey soil zone shows that as much nitrogen can be released the second year after a pea crop as the first year, Schoenau says.

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JANUARY 21, 2013

Features CROP NUTRITION

Baling and fertility To bale or not to bale? Balance the short-term profits against the long-term soil benefits

BY REBECA KUROPATWA

I

n the not-too-distant past, it used to be that farmers gave their straw away for free.

That is no longer the case.

John Heard, of Manitoba Agriculture, Food, and Rural Initiatives (MAFRI), has been doing soil fertility extension work in Manitoba for about 16 years.

These days, Heard said, “There’s an appreciation that there are soil nutrients in straw — about a third of the phosphorous and a third of the nitrogen that the crop takes up, as well as much of the potassium. So a lot of the nutrients are there, although not in a water soluble form, generally released upon the straw’s microbial breakdown.”

NUTRITIONAL VALUE According to Heard, straw’s nutritional value varies. “Environmental and growing conditions determine grain yield and how well nutrients are mobilized from stalk to grain.

Soil fertility level and applied nutrients have a major impact on straw nutrient content.

“From crop harvest, nutrient export derived would be comprised of about two thirds to 80

per cent nitrogen and phosphorous and maybe 20 per cent potassium from the grain.

“Potassium from the straw is fairly water soluble.” Heard says it will wash out readily, replenishing soil reserves. But nitrogen and phosphorous need moisture and warmth to allow the necessary microbial breakdown.”

“Estimating the straw’s nutrient release is tricky,” Heard says. “It’s dependent on the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, temperature, moisture, and microbes. When straw has a high C-to-N ratio, straw removal or burning may increase short term N and S availability.”

Heard says removing straw removes the food supply for soil microorganisms. This slows their growth, decreasing their demand for nitrogen and resulting in less immobilized nitrogen.

“Farmers have learned how to manage this,” Heard says, by “working in some nitrogen by banding it and placing it beneath the residue — the zero till idea.

“When physically separated from the residue, it can be quite efficient — feeding the crop before it feeds the bugs to break down the straw.”

NUISANCE OR NUTRIENTS Some farmers reap more income from selling bales than the straw’s fertility value, but Heard suggested, “There should be pretty good financial enticement to part with your straw.

“Some farmers may consider straw a nuisance if they don’t have the machinery to chop, spread, and work it into the soil.” These farmers are more likely to sell their straw for a profit.

Other farmers want to sell the straw to get it out of the way. While there is fertility there, Heard says, “it’s slow release, not occurring until the following season. Sometimes not early enough for quick growing crops like canola and cereals.

“It’s increasingly difficult to assign values to other benefits of straw, such as maintenance of soil organic matter levels, improved soil structure (including water holding capacity and infiltration), and erosion control,” Heard says.

There are also other benefits association with leaving straw in the field. These include replenishing organic matter and cover, which reduces evaporation, as well its microbial breakdown which helps encourage soil structure.”

Even when straw is harvested, Heard says much of it remains in the field. “The density of the straw from the base of the plant that isn’t harvested is greater than the density of the straw above it — and all that growth is returned.

“Many studies on Prairie black soil tend to show we don’t have much soil degradation, as the initial organic processes levels are high and we still return good residue even in the stubble.

“Farmers who are more leery about exporting straw are those on sandy soil (low in potassium), as potassium is the highest nutrient left in straw. And potassium is three times the price it was 10 years ago and is an expensive nutrient to replenish.

“We don’t need much potassium on our clay soils, but we certainly need it on sandy soils. And if people are harvesting and moving their straw from the soil, potassium is what they’ll end up needing to buy from fertilizer companies.

If you sell your straw, Heard says, buy fertilizer to make up the difference. Or, he suggests, “even better is to sell your straw to the local livestock producer and then get back the manure application for your land.”

“As organic farmers, we choose to not bale crop residue,” said Pat. “We want to return as much organic material to the ground where it was grown (in place/sheet composting).

“The NPK and trace minerals stay right in the field and are slowly released to future crops.

The crop residue in straw particles improves the soil texture, increases the soil’s organic matter, and allows better root zone aeration.

“The layer of chopped straw acts as mulch to reduce wind erosion of the valuable topsoil and improves moisture retention. Moisture stress in plants increases their susceptibility to disease.

“The soil’s improved ability to absorb water decreases the leaching potential, especially in sandy soils. The presence of added straw helps to break up clay particles and to loosen the root zone. The mulch layer helps to regulate soil temperatures and will reduce the heaving that occurs during freezethaw cycles.

Not baling leaves the Pollacks with fewer trips over the field, and less soil compaction. This frees up their time and saves them from buying bales and trailers.

But if you do decide to bale, make sure to make up for the lost nutrients. “Farmers following soil tests will step up their application rates accordingly,” Heard says. “If they’re getting paid for straw, they can use some of those funds to pay for that.” †

CHOOSING NOT TO BALE Larry and Pat Pollock are organic farmers approaching semi-retirement. Their 600 acre farm is northeast of Brandon, where they grow ancient grains and alfalfa hay.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a professional writer in Winnipeg, Man.

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JANUARY 21, 2013

grainews.ca /

9

Features CROP NUTRITION

Chloride response in canaryseed Potassium generally gets more attention than chloride, but new research shows chloride can really increase canaryseed yields

BY LISA GUENTHER

S

askatchewan has half the world’s potash reserves and typically produces 30 per cent of the global supply, according to Saskatchewan’s M i n i s t r y o f t h e E c o n o m y.

Potassium chloride is the most common potash type used. While both potassium and chloride are essential plant nutrients, concerns over potassium levels often trump chloride. But new research shows chloride elicits a significant yield response from canaryseed.

Chloride affects many plant functions, such as photosynthesis, disease suppression, enzyme activation, nutrient transport and stomata activity. Dr. Jim Beaton, a soil scientist and senior agri-coach with Agri-Trend, says chloride also affects plant development.

“It’s been shown that chloride deficiency lowers the rate of cell multiplication in the leaf, and this slows down growth ultimately in the leaf area,” says Beaton.

“But traditionally attention was only paid to the potassium.

And occasionally, of course, there was some concern about the chloride, perhaps where there might have been problems.

But in, fact, chloride was pretty much regarded as a nuisance,” Beaton says.

What makes canaryseed more sensitive to chloride deficiencies than any other crop is also a mystery “And our soil scientists, agronomists, felt that natural supplies in the soil were generally sufficient.”

Plant sensitivity to chloride seems to vary greatly. Beaton says some plants, such as certain legume and soybean varieties, are more sensitive to excess chloride than others.

Researchers have studied chloride’s effect on wheat, barley, and oats, but effects have differed between studies and varieties. New research shows canaryseed consistently responds to chloride by yielding higher.

May, crop management agronomist with Agriculture and AgriFood Canada.

From 2007 to 2009, researchers conducted field experiments at Indian Head, Carry the Kettle, Regina Plain and Stewart Valley, Sask. The experiments included both hairless and hairy canaryseed varieties.

May and his colleagues applied several treatments to canaryseed to see whether potassium, chloride, or both would trigger a response. Chloride rates ranged from 8.1 to 24.4 pounds per acre.

Potassium ranged from 8.9 to 26.8 pounds per acre. Some plots were also treated with potassiumonly and chloride-only applica-

tions, to gauge which nutrient created the response.

Potassium-only treatments didn’t trigger higher yields than plots that received no treatment.

But researchers saw a yield jump of 24 per cent after applying chloride.

“We sometimes get an increase in kernel weight, but most of the increase seemed to be because we were retaining more seed panicle,” says May.

CANARYSEED RESPONSE Both the hairless and hairy varieties of canaryseed responded to chloride.

When other crops do respond to chloride, often the differences

are apparent before seed filling.

For example, researchers have observed a response in winter wheat between the boot and flowering stage. But canaryseed doesn’t follow this trend.

“In canaryseed the response is very consistent. And in canaryseed you will not see any difference between treated and untreated canaryseed until seed filling starts,” says May. May says he doesn’t know whether the yield bump comes from less stress, fewer abortions, or increased fertility. What makes canaryseed more sensitive to chloride deficiencies than any other crop is also a mystery.

The crop’s response was simi-

lar whether the application rate was 8.1 or 16.2 pounds per acre.

Canaryseed also responded when residual chloride levels in the soil were as high as 72.3 kilograms per hectare, May says.

May is working on a chloride response curve for canaryseed, but hasn’t analyzed the results yet.

“But as of right now, I have to recommend that canaryseed growers just use 18 pounds per acre of potash, unless they have residual chloride in the soil in the top six inches that’s 90 or 100 kilograms per hectare or 80 to 90 pounds per acre.” † Lisa Guenther is a field editor with Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Contact her at Lisa.

Guenther@fbcpublishing.com.

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CANARYSEED YIELDS RISE WITH CHLORIDE Canaryseed yields have been shown to increase over 20 per cent with chloride application.

“We had a preliminary experiment back in 1999, 2000, and 2001 where we seemed to get some kind of response from potash. And we had anecdotal comments from growers that seemed to be saying they got a response from potash. And so we decided we’d better find out if there was a response from potash and whether it was chloride or potassium,” says Dr. William

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/ grainews.ca

JANUARY 21, 2013

Features FARMER PANEL

Panel optimistic about 2013

look no FuRtheR than

laddeR

While all is looking good for the coming growing season, farmers say they are familiar with the adage “no one ever lost a crop in January”

BY LEE HART

I

t may be too wet, or too dry in some regions this winter, but farmers contacted for the early January 2013 Farmer Panel are optimistic about the year ahead.

New equipment in the field, changes in rotation, more wheat in rotation and farming more acres, are among the changes farmers have planned for the coming year, say panel members.

Canola is still important, but wheat appears to be making a comeback for a few reasons.

Wheat has been able to handle a wide range of growing conditions, improved varieties are being developed and prices appear to be strong for the coming year. The market is telling farmers to grow more wheat this year, however — and there is always a however — seed supply might be tight. First of all demand is high, and on top of that, high levels of fusuarium head blight in 2012 may affect the amount of good quality seed available. The message here is to line up seed supplies early.

So here are what members of the January Farmer Panel had to say about their plans for 2013:

KRIS MAYERLE TIDSALE, SASK.

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Mayerle has been fighting a series of wet years in that part of central Saskatchewan and it continued in 2012. He says they had between 26 and 30 inches of moisture this past year, and this past December already had a lot of snow on the ground. So, too much moisture might be a concern again come seeding time.

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more young farmers are coming back to the farm, or looking to expand. To keep machinery current and reduce downtime in the field, he may upgrade some of his seeding equipment this winter.

Rotation-wise, he plans to grow more wheat in 2013, he is attracted to some pricing options. Canola acres will be about the same this year, and he sees no major shift in barley and oats. Mayerle will be dropping peas out of rotation, just because it has been too wet and the crop doesn’t handle excess moisture well.

He added hemp to the rotation in 2012 and will continue with that oilseed in rotation for the coming year.

“We had an opportunity to grow hemp for seed in 2012 and we will continue with it in 2013,” he says. “Hemp appears to provide a good return, and it is also a crop that helps to break up the rotation. Our basic rotation is wheat, canola, barley, and oats and it is good to have another crop in there to break up the cycle.”

KEVIN SERFAS TURIN, ALTA. Kevin Serfas, who farms with his brother and father near Lethbridge, Alta. will be cropping more acres in 2013, but doesn’t plan any major shift in rotation.

“Overall we will be looking at about a 10 per cent increase in acres, but we are just going to spread the increase over the crops we produce now,” says Serfas. Their usual rotation includes canola, wheat, barley, and corn for silage for their own farm feedlot.

“We may cutback some on canola and grow more cereals, just because canola isn’t producing the return we expect, but it will still be in our rotation.”

While many farmers across the southern prairies are starting to include grain corn in rotation, Serfas says he doesn’t feel variety development has reached the point for him to include it in his cropping plans.

“I think we need to see grain corn at a consistent 150 bushel yield for it to work,” he says. “I know guys who grow it, but it

JANUARY 21, 2013

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11

Features doesn’t come easy. They got it off this year and it was tough, and last year they were out in the snow and some didn’t get anything. I think we are 25 bushels away from where we need to be. It will come, but it may be a few years yet.”

Looking at changes affecting farm services, Serfas says it will be interesting to see how the buyout of Viterra by Glencore pans out. “I am going to miss Viterra,” he says. “It took them a while to figure things out, but once they did they had a good company going. Now with this buy-out we are starting from scratch, so we’ll see how that goes.”

And he has a wait and see attitude toward the changes in ag retail as well. He’s expecting 50 per cent of the ag retail outlets, will be held by Agrium through their Crop Production Services (CPS) network. “I don’t know how it is going to work, if half of the ag retailers are also the same company that has 20 per cent of more of fertilizer market. That may not be the best situation either, but time will tell.”

Serfas Farms Ltd. at Turin, Alta. will be farming about 10 per cent more acres in 2013, with help of this new 2012 Ford 250 pickup they won as part of a contest run by farm supply company UFA. Pictured from left, Mark Serfas, brother Kevin Serfas, and their dad Herb Serfas accepting the keys from Don Shimek of UFA.

Stuart Manness Domain, Man. Stuart Manness made major changes in his crop mix and rotation in 2012 and he plans to continue that into 2013. Manness, who farms at Domain in the Red River Valley, “slashed canola acres” in 2012 in favour of corn and soybeans.

“Certainly in the last two years corn and soybeans have a better fit with the weather we’ve been having during the growing season,” says Manness. “We are still keeping some canola in rotation, but have switched to these other crops.

“Our weather in the Red River Valley has been from one extreme to the other — too wet, too dry, too hot — and canola just isn’t adaptable to those conditions.

With hot conditions in the summer, soybeans and corn have been doing well.”

Manness has been hiring a custom operator to seed corn and has been renting a corn header for harvest. He is looking to buy a used header for this fall. He has been able to use his conventional grain and oilseed seeding and harvesting equipment for soybean production.

Along with introducing corn and soybeans, Manness also expects to increase wheat acres in 2013 and at the same time will be dropping oats. Manness says he is looking to seed more wheat for several reasons: there are some new, high performing varieties; there are also some attractive contracting programs at the local elevator that interest him; and the crop has yielded well despite the weather.

“That’s one of the big things for farmers, is to see what is going into the hopper of the combine,” says Manness. “If you have something that is yielding well, that probably gives you a lot of direction on what to do next year.

“What we are trying to do with these changes is to better manage our risk. We’re not eliminating canola, just introducing crops that appear to be more adaptable under current growing conditions. We are trying to get a proper balance of crops, in hopes of getting a decent yield and return regardless of the weather. †

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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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JANUARY 21, 2013

Features CROP NUTRITION

Reading soil test results Get the most out of your soil test results by looking at the details on the results page and following these six tips

BY ANGELA LOVELL

F

armers primarily use soil tests to figure out how much fertilizer they need to apply each season. But more value can be gained from those test results.

The first thing most farmers look at is the balance of nutrients.

The soil test outlines which nutrients are deficient in the soil and which ones are sufficient.

The macronutrients nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), potassium (K) and sulphur (S) are the most common limiting nutrients in Western Canada. Calcium and magnesium are generally abundant and so not much of a concern in Western Canadian soils. Most soils contain sufficient micronutrients for crop production but there are important exceptions and in some cases a micronutrient deficiency can be just as devastating as a macronutrient deficiency.

As well as the initial assessment of nutrient deficiency or sufficiency, a number of factors such as soil characteristics (pH, texture, etc), crop type and management should be considered to determine the right source, rate, timing and placement for fertilizer application.

higher the CEC the more clay and organic matter that is present and the more water, fertilizer and chemicals the soil can hold. This information can be important in determining the nitrogen fertilizer source, rate, timing and placement, particularly in sandy soils that have low organic matter.

“Most of our N fertilizer and manure N goes into the soil as ammonium or a source that changes into ammonium quickly such as urea or anhydrous ammonia,” says Dr. Danial Heaney of Random Cross Consulting. “When you are applying high N rates in coarse textured and low organic matter soils there may not be

enough cation exchange to capture the ammonium.”

Clay and organic matter in the soil create negatively charged sites that positively charged ammonium particles can adhere to. The CEC measures how many of those cations are present and that determines how much nitrogen can be held in the soil. If there aren’t enough negatively charged sites the ammonium has nothing to bind to and can be converted back to ammonia (the gas) and be lost to volatilization. “In the context of the Canadian Prairies it’s not usually a huge issue,” says Heaney, “but if you get into soils that have a pH around eight, a

sandy texture and low organic matter and high N rates, you can run into problems.”

ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY AND BASE SATURATION Electrical conductivity (EC) is a measure of soil salinity. When the EC is above two, yield potential starts to decline, particularly in drier soils. Soils with an EC above four are considered saline and yields of most crops will be reduced.

Base saturation is a measurement of four exchangeable cations in the soil: calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium. High base

saturation is associated with better fertility and therefore better productivity. The two main areas of concern with base saturation are the percentage of sodium and potassium held on the CEC. Exchangeable sodium percentages (ESP) should generally be no more than one per cent, but will vary depending on the topography and fluctuations in the underlying water table. Once exchangeable sodium gets to around seven per cent it will begin to cause structural problems with the soil.

Once the concentration gets to 15 per cent sodium, it is considered to be a sodic soil, which will cause significant problems. “Once we

EXPECT MORE FROM Y O U R S E E D T R E AT M E N T.

Soil tests need to be done regularly to track trends

Faster and more consistent germination.

Increased seedling vigour.

SOIL PH This is arguably one of the most important things on the soil test.

A pH measurement above 7.0 indicates alkaline soil. A pH number below 7.0 indicates acidic soil.

For most crops on the Prairies the ideal pH is somewhere in the 6.5 to 8.0 range. The closer soil is to the ideal pH, the higher the yield potential. Western Canadian soils tend to have a pH in the range of 6.5 to 7.5. Soils with a pH of 8 typically contain carbonates (lime) which can tie up nutrients like phosphorus and copper.

The soil pH needs to be considered when determining phosphorus fertilizer rates, says Kory Van Damme, an agronomist with Farmers Edge. “We use the pH to tell us more about how available the phosphate is in the soil,” he says. “On the lower six to seven pH your P is more available in the soil than in a seven to eight pH soil. It’s another characteristic of the soil that helps us to decide how much P we should be putting down. If it’s a high pH we might be inclined to put more phosphate on just because we know it’s not as available as in a soil that has a lower pH.”

Quicker seedling emergence.

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CATION EXCHANGE CAPACITY (CEC) The CEC is the measure of the soil’s capability to hold on to positively charged nutrients (cations) and is generally a good indicator of overall soil productivity. The

Always read and follow label directions.

AgSolutions, and HEADLINE are registered trade-marks of BASF Corporation; AgCelence, and INSURE are trade-marks of BASF SE, all used with permission by BASF Canada Inc. INSURE Cereal and/or HEADLINE should be used in a preventative disease control program. © 2013 BASF Canada Inc.

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Features get into a sodic soil we end up with an issue because once that soil structure is changed it does take quite a bit to remove all the sodium and get it back to where it should be,” says Van Damme.

The base saturation level of potassium may give a better indication of whether K needs to be applied even if the ppm listed on the results page seem to indicate that there is sufficient K for crop needs. “If there is a low percentage of 0.5 or one per cent it means there may not be enough potash on the cation exchange sites to supply the crop during cold, spring conditions or resupply the crop during the growing season even though the soil test says we might have a sufficient K content in the soil,” says Van Damme. Base saturation of K at four to eight per cent is generally an ideal level for most soils.

Organic matter Organic matter can give something of a picture of the history

of the field and past management practices. Land that has been under zero or minimum tillage for a number of years will have a higher organic matter content than soils that are regularly tilled.

Organic matter, along with the clay content of soils is important in determining its water and fertilizer holding capacity. It’s important to remember that the natural breakdown of organic matter (mineralization) is an important source of nutrients like N, P, and S. The percentage of organic matter will vary according to the soil type and it’s important, says Heaney, for farmers to bear in mind what percentage of organic matter would be considered the normal range for the soil zone that their field is in. In southern Saskatchewan an organic matter content of two to three per cent might be considered good, but not so in the clay soils of Manitoba’s Red River Valley, where organic matter should be considerably higher.

Micronutrients Depending on the crop plan, it might be helpful to consider micronutrients like boron in the case of canola and chloride and copper for cereals.

Heaney says farmers need to be cautious with micronutrient soil test results in that they are not highly diagnostic. “They are less reliable at predicting whether you are going to get a crop response,” he says. “If you are testing deficient in macronutrients like N and P and you add the nutrient, you have a high likelihood that you are going to get a response. If you don’t get a response it’s typically because something else has happened, like a lack of moisture.”

Using boron as an example, Heaney explains that the soil test may show low boron levels, but the crops growing in that soil may not necessarily respond to the addition of boron fertilizer.

“For some of the micronutrients the soil test is just part of

Make sure to attach a geo-reference to soil test sites. the diagnostic package so you have to look at other things as well like past management, the crops you intend to plant, are you getting the yields you expect, do they seem to be limited, is the soil of a type where you would typically expect to see

that micronutrient deficiency?

To make a proper diagnostic on micronutrients there are other things that you may have to bring into it.”

Six tips for relevant results Farmers who go to the time and expense of getting soil tests can use these tips to get the most value out of the process.

1. Make sure the lab you (or your agronomist) choose uses testing procedures that have been calibrated for local soils.

“Soil samples can end up in a lab two or three provinces away or in the U.S. It’s not where it’s done as much as whether the tests that the lab uses are appropriate for the soils that the sample came from,” says Heaney.

2. Soil tests need to be done regularly to track trends and help plan for better long-term productivity on the land. Test for the basics (N, P, K, S, pH and EC) once a year to monitor short-term changes and make adjustments for residual nutrients.

3. Add tests for micronutrients to the package every three to four years, or more frequently if low values show up in the tests.

4. Soil organic matter, cation exchange and some of the other properties like soil texture either don’t change or change very slowly. Once they have been measured two or three times to establish a baseline they don’t need to be tested again for five to 10 years.

5. Make sure to attach a georeference to the soil test sites, so they can be sure to sample exactly the same spots in the field from year to year. This way, results give a clear picture of how things are changing over time.

6. Soil tests often include a computer generated recommendation for nutrient rates to target specific crop yields. Consider that recommendation a starting point.

You can really add value by getting some first hand, professional help in interpreting the data. A local agronomist can help interpret soil tests and draw up a long-term plan of action based on what’s going on in the field and they should definitely be a part of the follow-up.

“We sit down with the grower and break it down for them and decide what we need to do,” says Van Damme. “There’s some benefits just being able to be one on one with the grower and I think there is more trust involved because we will stand behind what we give them for a recommendation.” †

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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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JANUARY 21, 2013

Features CROP PRODUCTION

TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY

CROP ADVISOR’S CASEBOOK

BY TOM DOOLEY

I

t was April 2011 when I got a call from Joe, a dairy farmer near Millet, Alta., who grows 900 acres of barley silage and barley for milling in a rotation with canola.

Joe’s frustration reverberated down the line. Continuously poor yields were affecting the purchase value of the land, and before purchasing it he wanted to know if there was a solution to the yield problems he was experiencing.

I asked him to describe the problems further. “I’ve got poor emergence and there’s a wavylooking top to the stand,” he said. “We are deciding whether or not to buy the quarter, but

we want to be sure that we can improve the yields, to make it worth it.”

“I’ll come out and take a look,” I said.

When I reached Joe’s field, I saw that it had been recently worked and the soil was dark grey to black in colour. It had a clay loam texture and a fairly mellow structure.

I noticed that there were multiple gas wells on the land, so I thought it may be a reclamation issue. But we ruled that out as the yields, Joe said, seemed to be poor continuously across the field.

The next consideration was disease — Joe’s crop was in its third year of barley. Disease pressure could be hurting the

yield. But we didn’t see any obvious visual signs of disease pressure — perhaps enough to justify one pass of fungicide, but not enough to explain the problem.

I had one more test up my sleeve Next, we considered the seed itself. I ran a germination test on the barley seed, but sure enough it was 95 per cent, so we ruled that out as well.

But I had one more test up

B

yron, a Welling-area producer, called me last May, concerned about the yellow patches he’d found in his barley field. “I’m unsure what’s causing it. Given the spring we’ve had, it could be caused by frost or excess water, chemical damage or leaf disease,” said Byron. He asked me to pay a visit to his operation to help solve the mystery.

At the field, I noticed the yellow patches occurred mainly on

the outer edge of the field, and there was some major stunting of the plants in these areas. We were able to rule out fertility, frost damage and water stress early in the day. And as soon as I saw some tiny, yellowish, wedgeshaped insects — not even half a centimetre in length — hopping around on the leaves of some of the damaged plants, I knew I’d found the cause of the trouble in Byron’s field leafhoppers!

Leafhoppers can be carriers of aster yellows phytoplasma. The phytoplasma is transmitted to

Tom Dooley Tom Dooley is an area marketing representative for Richardson Pioneer at Wetaskiwin, Alta.

Tom Dooley

HOPPING HARASSERS

CROP ADVISOR’S SOLUTION

BY DUSTIN MILLER

my sleeve — a soil test. “Joe, I think I know what’s eroding your yields,” I said.

Why is Joe’s field yielding so poorly? Send your diagnosis to Grainews, Box 9800, Winnipeg, Man., R3C 3K7; email leeann. 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 subscription to the magazine. The best answer, along with the reasoning which solved the mystery, will appear in the next Crop Advisor’s Solution File. †

the leafhopper when it feeds on plant sap. The sap-sucking insects then transmit the phytoplasma from plant to plant, causing aster yellows disease. Not all leafhoppers carry the specialized bacteria (phytoplasma), but once a leafhopper is infected, it can pass on the disease for as long as it lives.

In the spring, migrating leafhoppers from the United States can carry the phytoplasma north.

The pathogen can also overwinter locally in perennial crops and weeds. Aster yellows affects

Tundra

barley and other crops, such as canola, by stunting plant growth and causing chlorosis.

After discussing the case with a research scientist from Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, we found that there was no economical threshold to spray for leafhoppers. As there was nothing that could be done at this time, the crop recovered as best it could on its own, but yield in these damaged areas was significantly affected.

In the future, Byron may want

to look at spraying for leafhoppers as a possible solution.

Unfortunately, severity of this disease ranges from year to year depending on the size of the leafhopper population, environmental conditions and the number of infected leafhoppers.

In general, it’s a good idea to continuously scout fields early and often in order to determine the cause of crop damage and utilize all resources possible to prevent further issues. † Dustin Miller is a sales agronomist for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. at Magrath, Alta.

Tundra

Trait Stewardship Responsibilities

Notice to Farmers

Fight wheat midge in your fields.

Protect your yields for years to come.

Prairie wheat growers are putting midge tolerant wheat to work fighting wheat midge on their farms. And the Stewardship Agreement is there to preserve it for future generations.

When you buy midge tolerant wheat, the Agreement you sign limits the use of farm-saved seed to one generation past Certified seed. It’s a simple step that keeps the interspersed refuge system at the proper level, preventing a build-up of resistant midge. Protect your yields and grade, and preserve this important tool for years to come.

Contact your retailer or visit www.midgetolerantwheat.ca to learn more about these new varieties and how the interspersed refuge system works.

Monsanto Company is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship® (ETS).

Monsanto products are commercialized in accordance with ETS Product Launch Stewardship Guidance, and in compliance with Monsanto’s Policy for Commercialization of Biotechnology-Derived Plant Products in Commodity Crops. This product has been approved for import into key export markets with functioning regulatory systems. Any crop or material produced from this product can only be exported to, or used, processed or sold in countries where all necessary regulatory approvals have been granted. It is a violation of national and international law to move material containing biotech traits across boundaries into nations where import is not permitted. Growers should talk to their grain handler or product purchaser to confirm their buying position for this product. Excellence Through Stewardship® is a registered trademark of Excellence Through Stewardship.

ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Roundup Ready® crops contain genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides. Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Genuity and Design®, Genuity Icons, Genuity®, Roundup Ready®, and Roundup® are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC. Used under license.

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Features APP QUEST

AG PhD’s fertilizer removal app In this new series, Jay Peterson reviews ag-related apps for iPod and iPhone.

The first app up: fertilizer removal by crop JAY PETERSON

Editor’s note: Jay Peterson has a new iPad. He’s going to be using it to check out apps (software applications) that might be useful on your farm. Let us know if you’re looking for an app for a specific need, or if there’s an Android or Blackberry app you’d like to review. his fertilizer removal app is a great way to quickly look at how many nutrients are

include in the app would be the best comparison for mustard farmers.

From there you simply enter your yield goal for that crop. Ag PhD then shows you the nutrients removed for this yield, giving you the amount taken out in the grain and the amount left in the stover (leaves and stalk left behind after combining), then the total of these two.

The stover is the nutrient concentration at plant maturity. It includes all of the major macronutrients and micro-nutrients needed, which is nice.

Farmers can now easily tailor

micro-nutrient fertilizer packages for their yield and crop goals, making their land more sustainably productive. After you have a yield and nutrient chart that you like it, you can save it to this app. Then you can email the information to yourself or your agronomist for further discussion of your nutrient needs.

Ag PhD’s “Fertilizer removal by crop” is a great little app for your iPad that allows you to play with and try to lock down your nutrient needs for the upcoming year. Find it at www.agphd.com on in the Apple iTunes store.

Price: Free. † Jay Peterson farms near Frontier, Sask.

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T

removed from the soil for a certain crop and yield. It’s useful for working out numbers, and allows farmers to look at maximizing yield based on the amount of fertilizer they have or are willing to add as an input.

The app starts at a crop selection screen where you can choose your crop. When I first used this app, there were only about six different crops available. Now they’ve released an update — with 58 different crops, the app is a lot more useful! While they’ve added canola (which is helpful), mustard is not included. I’m not sure which of the 58 crops

Colours are matched to jpg file - do not know what the pantone colours are

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2012 CL

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JANUARY 21, 2013

Columns OFF-FARM

Things I wish I’d learned 30 years ago Andy Sirski shares seven investing tips and strategies he wishes he’d known when he started investing long-term trends can make us serious money. But short-term moves can ruin or improve the chances of success of our longterm moves.

For example, starting August 1982 many industrial stocks began a 17-year run up. That mostly ended in March, 2000.

During that time industrials such as big box stores and pharmaceuticals made good money for shareholders. That also was the beginning of the techie trend, but with techies, too much of a good thing helped crash the sector in early 2000.

From 2000 to early 2009 we had what some call the lost decade.

Our Canadian banks made money until 2007, but the housing bubble caused governments around the world to tighten rules on banks and they’ve had to boost reserves, which has hurt share prices. That seems to be almost over.

Uranium started a long-term trend some years ago. New production and the uranium catastrophe in Japan in 2010 hurt uranium prices but I suspect the long-term trend will continue up and uranium will be an important source of power in the years to come.

As central banks started to print money, the threat or fear of inflation has pushed up the price of silver and gold. 2012 was the twelfth year of that uptrend. While the price of both has gone up many times, often the shares in those commodities have not. Why?

ANDY SIRSKI

A

s we start a new i n v e s t m e n t y e a r, I sometimes think how our life might be if we had had more financial skills 30 to 40 years ago. Not that I’m bitter. My wife and I and our family are richly blessed and I’ve learned many financial skills over the years.

Still it would have been nice to know more of this stuff before age 60. Better late than never, I guess.

Here are some of the things I wish I’d known.

1. FIND SOMEONE TO TALK TO Most of us have had someone to talk to over the years. But usually it was someone who was trying to sell us something, or someone who had fears of their own and could only give us one side of the story. By “someone to talk to” I mean someone who had failed once or twice, had succeeded in the four aspects of life and had a vision of the future.

I try to be the one my kids can talk to. And I do spend a lot of time with our readers as they learn how to sell covered calls, buy right and protect their portfolios.

2. FOLLOW TRENDS There are long-term trends and short term trends. Following

For one thing most mines are facing rising costs. For another, when a mine takes out a million ounces of silver or gold, that silver or gold is gone. Compare that to farmland where a farmer puts in a crop most springs, nurtures the crop, and harvests it but leaves the soil behind after he takes the crop off.

3. SELL WHEN LOSSES ARE SMALL This lesson would have made or saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars. There certainly are two opinions on this rule. One is that many good stocks have gone up, dropped, and gone to new highs again, so don’t worry about shortterm drops.

The other opinion is that we don’t know which stocks will recover after a drop. Nortel, Enron and now RIM had their day in the sun. Stocks like Microsoft, Nokia, and Intel were high flyers, dropped, and aren’t dead but have not recovered.

It would have paid to use selling rules on every one of those stocks.

I looked up stocks I mentioned in this column in June, 2011. Barrack Gold (ABX), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ), Finning (FTT) and Silver Wheaton (SLW) are all well known and respected stocks.

Here are the prices back in June and as of the end of December: ABX ($46/$34), CNQ ($42/$28), FTT ($26/$24) and SLW($35/$34).

Three selling rules could help you keep losses small. First, sell

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Chad Wonchulanko Central Saskatchewan DSM 306.570.9317

4. SELL COVERED CALLS This is a strategy I wish I had learned years sooner.

By learning to use options, you can make money on a stock whether it stays flat or goes up or down; you can be wrong about the stock and still make money; and, you can limit your risk and make money in a falling market.

Stocks are still one of the businesses where you can start small and learn as you go.

5. LOOK AT START UPS

Immediately available in cold soils Faster emergence; Larger root mass  Higher yields 

■

when a stock is down 15 per cent from its top. Second, sell when a stock has lost you eight per cent.

Third, sell when the daily price crosses the 10-day moving average going down.

The point is, when a stock drops it could be a small correction or a big melt down. If you sell and the price suddenly turns up, at least you have most of your money. If you don’t sell and the price goes down a lot, your shares have to make big returns to get back to even. Most investors are more afraid of missing out on gains than of losing money so their brain makes it hard to sell at a small loss.

I often ask investors who are afraid to sell at a small loss or even a significant loss: if you had a race horse and he broke his leg, what would you do? The answer is usually: “Shoot the horse.”

It’s almost the same with stocks. If the stock is not doing what we expected it to do, be ruthless and start selling some or all of those shares. When a stock has started down, ask yourself: how big a loss can you tolerate before it hurts your attitude, and your portfolio?

Most investors start out thinking they have nerves of steel with their stocks but after they are down 30 or 50 per cent, their nerves turn to mush and they come down hard on stocks. It would be a lot better to sell with a small loss and be wrong than wait for a big loss and have a sour taste for stocks and a big hole in your portfolio.

Leo Lutz Northern Alberta DSM 403.393.0312

© 2012. ALPINE PLANT FOODS CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. “ALPINE” and “ALPINE G22” are trademarks of ALPINE PLANT FOODS CORPORATION.

|

www.alpinepfl.com

I lucked into Consolidated Mining (CLM) just as it was starting to mine and sell iron ore. I started buying at $8, the shares went to $10, dropped to $7 and six months later I sold them for $17.25. My $48,000 turned into $108,000 in half a year.

Then, I found Copper Mountain (CUM). As it was starting up it seemed to run into every start up problem a start up could find. Then the price of copper dropped. I started buying at $5. Shares went up to $7.23 and down to $2.80.

I sold a lot of calls and eventually a lot of puts. I would guess my cost per share is around $4.

As I write, shares are around $4 and the company’s news release on its outlook for 2013 is optimistic.

I could have suffered less mental pain and had more money if I’d waited to buy after the mine was up and running smoothly. Or, without

that kind of patience I could have used my selling rules and been out of the stock as it started to drop. I wish I had learned to sell at a small loss years ago.

6. CONSIDER STREAMERS There are three or four companies in this business: loaning money to mining company, and rather than receiving straight cash back, setting up an agreement to buy silver at a low price, process it and sell it at market.

I own two of these streamers.

One is Silver Wheaton (SLW) which has about 17 contracts to buy silver. SLW share prices appear to be correlated about 95 per cent to the price of silver so you need to buy it right or be prepared to sell calls, or to see the value drop during some parts of the year.

Over the past three years SLW has moved up and down from around $20 to $49 and down to $23 and back to $38. Nimble investors could have bought SLW shares near the lows and sold them near the highs and made more money than the shares are worth.

Franco Nevada (FNV) is not nearly as volatile as SLW and has a larger assortment of properties. Like SLW, FNV operates with maybe 20-something staff and has some very lucrative contracts to buy gold and silver too.

I wish I had learned about streamers years ago.

7. LOOK FOR DIVIDENDS I started out with little respect for dividends, but over time I’ve seen that good, predictable dividends can create a nice cash flow. I can buy a decent dividend-paying stock, and sell calls a bit above the price of the day. This takes some work, but it sure can goose up total returns from our stocks.

LEARNING PRIORITIES The first thing to learn is how to keep losses small. Conquering that monster would help an investor be proud and confident in his or her ability to preserve a lump sum of money.

I think the next priority would be to learn to sell calls, which can bring in cash in rising, flat or falling markets. And then, learn how to sell puts. You can only sell puts in a trading account and you need special approval. Still, you don’t need to own shares to sell puts, which reduces corporate risk.

Done properly on a rising stock, selling puts is one more way to bring in cash.

Another key priority: understand the trends. If you buy a good stock when the trend is against it, you likely stack the odds against yourself. It’s very hard for an individual stock to overcome a sector in a falling trend, so don’t fight it.

I encourage you and your children to learn most of these concepts sooner than later. † Andy is mostly retired. He gardens, plays with granddaughters, travels a bit, manages his portfolio and publishes a newsletter called StocksTalk. In StocksTalk Andy tells what he does with his investments and why. If you want to read StocksTalk free for a month send an email to sirski@mts.net and Andy will set you up for the free month.

JANUARY 21, 2013

grainews.ca /

17

Columns SOILS AND CROPS

Wonder products for the farm The claims marketers make for some products seem too good to be true. Here are five signs that you may be looking at one of these “wonder products” LES HENRY

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eaders long enough in the tooth may remember previous runs at this topic. But, there is a different twist now.

Herbicides and fertilizers have significant hoops to clear before being placed on the market.

Fertilizers are sold by guaranteed percentages of nitrogen (N), phosphate (P205) and Potash (K20).

But, many products appear that magically make the grain stand up straighter, have the vigour of a teenager, grow many more bushels and make you rich.

The new twist to this old tale is that changes have been made to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). In the past, companies making claims that their products would provide a yield increase or another beneficial effect had to prove those claims to CFIA. When a farmer asked me about product X, my first response was to ask for the CFIA registration number.

But, the requirement for corporations to register their products with CFIA has been removed. The marketplace now operates under the system of caveat emptor — buyer beware.

It has been like that in the U.S. for many years and the sky did not fall in so we will survive, but do be cautious. Young farmers use social media and information (and misinformation) flies around at lightning speed.

At the University of Saskatchewan I kept a “wonder products” file. It was a foot thick (30 centimetres for the units-challenged folks). In my fourth year “capstone” course one class period was devoted to allowing the students to peruse that file and comment on the various products and how they were peddled.

Saline soils are a favorite target for wonder cures. In the 1980s we did a “Salt Patrol” job near Langham, Sask., just northwest of Saskatoon. As I was walking with the farmer in a saline patch near a slough I noticed a tote bag in the grass with a bit of product still in it. When I asked the farmer about it he said, “I leave it there to remind me never to fall for such a product again.”

In Manitoba saline soils are very visible after the requisite dry period to flush them to the top — as predicted in this column a couple of years ago.

only be in your pocket once — so they need to take a good handful while they can. “This is a proven product. There is no need for trials, we already know it works.”

3. It is being tested by the government or a university. I had a chap in my office who said his product was under test at the University of Manitoba.

When I asked for the name of the researcher he squirmed but gave it to me. I said “excuse me,” picked up the phone and phoned the U. of M. The professor answered the phone — common at that time, rare today. He said he had a sample in his office but had done nothing with it. I did not accept any product, as the sales-

man would then have told people I was testing it.

4. The salesman is often vague about what is in the product and how it works: “We don’t know how it works but it does.” And, there is no need for any more research, “We already know it works.”

5. Many new things appear in buoyant times — like now — when there are gobs of money on many farms.

KEEP AN OPEN MIND When approached about any new product, my attitude was always to maintain an open mind and try to find out what it was all about and what objective infor-

mation was available. In today’s world that is a much easier task than when I was teaching.

Micronutrients are sometimes the subject of new products, and those I definitely approach with an open mind. When I retired I was sure that there were many new things to be learned about micronutrients. I think often of a wheat plot at the base of Mt. Meru in Tanzania. On that soil, a particular variety of wheat that was up for release would not grow without addition of manganese.

Research on micronutrients is not rewarding because so many negative results are obtained. When a specific micronutrient is needed in

such small quantities, the particular crops and soils where it is most needed can be hard to find.

In general a “blanket” application of many micros is suspect.

Each nutrient has its own particular form and use — blanket placement and timing of a mix of many micronutrients is suspect.

So, in this new world, caveat emptor — buyer beware. † 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. Simply send a cheque for $50 to Henry Perspectives, 143 Tucker Cres, Saskatoon, Sask., S7H 3H7 and he will dispatch a signed book.

Save the N. When surface applying urea, an average of 40% of the nitrogen can be lost into the air before the crop can use it.

Adding AGROTAIN® nitrogen stabilizer can reduce this loss. It is easily blended and differentiates your urea. Help your crops reach their yield potential by using urea powered by AGROTAIN® stabilizer.

WONDER PRODUCTS There are some common threads to wonder products: 1. They cost about $15 to $25 per acre. In days gone by it was about $10 to $15 per acre. The rationale is that a farmer will pay that much for herbicide and even more for fertilizer, so why not pay that for my great Wonder Product?

2. Farmers’ requests to take a small quantity for a trial are refused. The sellers know they will

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©2013 Koch Agronomic Services, LLC. All rights reserved. AGROTAIN® is a registered trademark of The Mosaic Company and is licensed exclusively to Koch Agronomic Services, LLC. AGROTAIN® nitrogen stabilizer is manufactured and sold by Koch Agronomic Services, LLC under an exclusive license from The Mosaic Company. 0113-19604-5-GN

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JANUARY 21, 2013

Columns UNDERSTANDING MARKET BULLS AND BEARS

Make your cropping plan early Getting an early start on your cropping and marketing plan can help you avoid making selling decisions in a last minute panic when the bills come due BRIAN WITTAL

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t’s time to take out the pencil and paper or the iPad or whatever your preferred technology is and start mapping out this year’s cropping plan.

CROPPING PLAN Let’s stick to the basics.

First, determine what you are going to seed where.

Then, estimate your expected yield per acre for each crop (base it on your average yields from the past five years or use your crop insurance area average yield).

It is important not to estimate yield too high when trying to establish your marketing plan this far in advance. It’s better to use a lower yield average and give yourself some flexibility, in case you decide to change out acres at the last minute or you experience an unexpected yield loss later in the year.

Then calculate all of your anticipated costs of production.

Be sure to include input costs, rent, wages (to yourself or to outside help), payments (land, equipment and others) and crop insurance costs. Once you’ve totaled up your expected costs, determine a per acre cost for each crop.

These will be scary numbers, no doubt, but these are the numbers you need to be aware of before you start to make any kind of marketing decisions for the new crop year.

The next thing you need to do is make a list of the dates when you’re going to need cash to pay bills, make payments or pay wages. This will allow you to plan your marketing strategy to meet your cash flow needs.

THE MARKETING SIDE Now it is time to turn to the marketing side of the equation to see what the markets are showing us for pricing potential.

Do some research. What are the markets telling you right now as far as what the future holds for grain prices? Will prices go up or down or stay flat?

Collect and review new crop pricing information from several sources, then estimate an average price per bushel is for each crop you plan to grow.

Use a price that you believe you could sell your new crop grain for right now.

ACID TEST Now it comes down to simple math.

Take your estimated price per bushel and multiply it by the average estimated yield per acre you set earlier to determine your potential revenue per acre for each crop.

Does this number meet or beat your total costs per acre that you calculated out earlier?

A close look at these numbers may influence you to take another look at your cropping plan. You may consider shifting acres to grow more crops that show a better return per acre. But remember — unless (or until) you lock in these prices, there is no guarantee on those returns. Don’t go changing acres based on just this one factor.

your marketing strategy than to not sell any grain. Selling grain to bring in cash can help you avoid paying interest charges to your suppliers or banker.

If you consistently sell at a profitable level and pay off your

high, but when you’re not ready to sell any more physical grain too early in the crop year cycle.

Cash grain values will fluctuate as sales come and go.

If you find a good price early in the year and you sell your

will have more time to market your grain ahead of your cash flow timelines, so you don’t end up making last minute panic selling decisions as your timeline draws near.

Success is about profitability, and that comes from smart marketing decisions that are made based on good market knowledge and not emotions. † Brian Wittal is a Saskatchewan-raised farm boy who has spent the past 32 years in the Alberta Grain Industry. He started Pro Com Marketing Ltd. in 2006 with a focus on helping grain producers better understand the markets and advise them on how to market their grains more profitably. Contact Brian at bfwittal@ procommarketingltd.com.

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NEW CROP PRICES When should you pull the trigger on new crop pricing?

Now that you know your numbers (costs and yields) and you’ve done some market research — or sat down with your marketing consultant (shameless self promotion) — to try to determine what the markets will do over the next six to 12 months, bring up your list of cash flow dates and review those. They will help you determine some of your marketing timelines for the coming year.

Make a list of the dates when you’re going to need cash If the current new crop prices are high enough that you show a profit per acre on paper based on your previous calculations, then consider when you’ll need the cash and start to price some grains to meet those timelines.

If your calculations include all your costs, including wages, and if the numbers are telling you that you are looking at a profit 10 per cent or better above your expenses, you’re in a very good place to start pricing some grain.

The first five to 25 per cent of the grain you price should be focused on meeting your after harvest cash flow needs. This can reduce or eliminate service or interest charges on credit accounts you may have with suppliers (such as crop input suppliers or fuel and machinery dealers) or your lines of credit at your bank.

Now, your market intelligence gathering that you did earlier may have persuaded you that markets were going to go higher as the year goes on, so why would you sell some now?

Well, you need to pay down some debts that are coming due. You need to sell grain to get the cash to avoid paying service charges. These costs can range from 10 to 20 per cent these days, which is no small change!

If you think markets are going to continue to go up as the year goes on it would make more sense to spend a bit of money to purchase call options as part of

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

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bills before service charges accumulate, you’re doing good business and you will be able to continue farming for years to come.

WHAT TO SELL FIRST Deciding which grain to sell this early in the year will come down to the price offered at the time and the risks associated with each of the grains you grow on your farm.

Grains that are traded on a futures market provide better marketing options for a farmer early in the crop year (before the crop is grown), compared to cash market grains like peas, lentils or malt barley. Futures traded grains allow you to access options contracts to price protect yourself when prices are

grain, you have no way of price protecting yourself unless your production contract includes an Act of God clause.

Early in the year you 9-13-2012 may 10:55 AM CALMCL-DMX8127 want to concentrate on selling Marsha Walters futures traded grains, to reduce your pricing risk and 100% delivery 12.9167” x 8” exposure.

Wa t c h i n g b a s i s c o n t r a c t s offered by grain companies early in the year for fall delivery, you can net some very attractive basis levels.

BY DAN PIRARO

Bizarro SBC12149.InVigor

START EARLY The sooner you get your numbers crunched, the better prepared you will be to start marketing your new crop grain.

The sooner you start your marketing program the better. You

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JANUARY 21, 2013

grainews.ca /

19

Columns FARM FINANCIAL PLANNER

Turning a successful farm into retirement income

BY ANDREW ALLENTUCK

THE PLAN

couple we’ll call Liam and Sue, both in their early 50s, have farmed in southern Manitoba for nearly four decades. They have a big stake in the land, for they per-

The couple’s plan is to continue farming for now but to slow down to semi-retirement in nine years.

They will keep most of the farmland for retirement income and then leave it as a legacy for the

A

Income Fund (RRIF) payments of $1,500 per month for the next 30 years, Forbes estimates.

Sue’s $8,000 of RRSP contributions for the next nine years, added to her present RRSP balance of $97,000, would grow to $212,000 on the same basis. That

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decide to sell and invest the proceeds or they could transfer the land at current market value to their children. In either case, they are eligible for the $750,000 qualified farm land capital gains exemption. The farmland owned by the corporation does not qualify for this exemption as an asset sale, Forbes notes.

DEBT-FREE RETIREMENT In retirement, it is important to be debt-free. Interest rates are likely to be higher in a decade.

Therefore their present $114,327 of mortgages on their revenue properties should be paid before rates begin to rise. Given the announced plans of the Bank of Canada to keep rates in a low range until 2014, there is no need to hurry. Interest rates will rise, but it will be a slow process.

Liam and Sue currently spend $36,000 supporting their way of life. By the time they retire in 2022, inflation and additional travel will have pushed up their cost of living to $60,000 per year, they estimate. That expenditure will require $74,450 pre-tax income.

For the most part, they also look the same. Except for their remarkable composure when faced with adverse conditions.

Nothing outperforms InVigor.

sonally own 1,400 acres. Another children. Farmland rents for $50 640 acres are owned by the family per acre per year in their area. farm corporation they formed 20 They want to get the most income SBC12149.InVigor.Face.4 years ago. of out the farm by drawing salary Vigor.Face.4.indd The operation has been success- Grainews income from the farm corporation Insertion Date: October 8, 2012 llow, Black ful, so much so that they have at the upper end of the mid-tier rate.

Crop Science $346,000 of deferred income tax BayerThat will allow Liam to optimize his in PAGE: the 1 corporation. They utilized CanadaBCS12261 Pension Plan (CPP) benefits M: 12.9167” x 8” Bleed: None the 11 per cent low corporate tax and Registered Retirement Savings d (55 Roman, 75 Bold; OpenType) rate to focus on aggressive growth. Plan (RRSP) payouts for the next Looking ahead, they want a diverse nine years of work. A tax accountstream of income for a more stable ing simulation showed that a mixProduction Contact Numbers: 403 261 7161 261 7152 salary and $12,000 and sustainable retirement. ture of403$36,000 To cope with the tax due, Liam corporate dividends would work and Sue consulted Don Forbes, a best for their needs. farm financial planner with Don For Liam, estimated $8,000 Forbes & Associates/Armstrong & RRSP contributions for the next Quaile Associates Ltd. of Carberry, nine years, added to his current Man. The issue is not only tax, but RRSP balance of $128,000, will succession as well, for while the have grown to about $266,000 couple has two grown children, at rate of about 3.5 per cent over neither is interested in continuing the rate of inflation. That would the farm. support Registered Retirement

O-66-09/12-BCS12259-E

would support RRIF payments for Sue of $1,000 per month for the next 30 years.

Liam and Sue should each continue to maximize their contributions to their Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) at $5,500 per year, the new limit that applies beginning Januar y 1, 2013.

Contributions should accumulate to $100,000 in 10 years or $250,000 in 20 years.

The couple should continue to hold their non-registered joint investments of $142,000 in corporate class mutual funds so that any taxable capital gains will be deferred until units are sold during retirement when, presumably, they will be in a lower tax bracket.

For now, Liam and Sue aim to keep the farmland as a source of retirement income. They could

B:8”

InVigor® growers are no different from other growers. They don’t get up earlier, work harder or longer than their neighbours.

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It’s written all over his face.

Capital markets are not immune to fashion trends That income can come from CPP benefits for both of them totaling $11,784 per year at 65, RRIF payouts of $30,000 per year, $12,000 per year from rental properties, and $60,000 per year of farm corporation dividends for total pre-tax income of $113,784.

When both are 67, they can draw Old Age Security (OAS), currently $6,540 per year. That would push total income in their late 60s to $126,864. If pension income is carefully split, reducing individual income to $63,432 before tax, they would avoid the OAS clawback that (in 2012) currently begins at $69,562. Income after average tax of 25 per cent would be $7,929 per month.

The couple’s income will have risen above what they currently earn. They will have the additional cash flow to pay down deferred taxes due on a gradual basis. The process of raising farm corporation dividends from their present level of $24,000 per year to $60,000 per year by issuing taxable dividends will achieve another tax saving.

Individuals are taxed on investment income at a lower rate than corporations. This will be very important when the farming corporation ceases to be active.

There are numerous variables in this plan and some cannot be forecast with accuracy. Tax rates may change in the next nine years and during the couple’s retirement. The OAS clawback rate is likely to rise at about two per cent per year to $86,180 by 2022, but if it rises more slowly,

then some of the couple’s OAS would be lost to tax.

Rents charged by the farming corporation and the value of equipment the corporation may acquire or sell in the next nine years is uncertain. However, the couple plans to control capital costs by not buying any new equipment unless absolutely necessary. Existing equipment will be sold at retirement. At that time, the company will distribute the proceeds to the farm corporation’s shareholders.

INFLATION Liam and Sue also face erosion from inflation. Only about a fourth of their total retirement income will be indexed. The 75 per cent balance of retirement income will come from investments and savings.

To maintain purchasing power for the 30 years in non-farm investments, the couple needs to maintain a stock and bond balance.

Stocks that pay dividends of 2.5 to 4.5 per cent are readily available.

The dividend tax credit adds about 25 to 30 per cent to the value of the dividend when compared to fully taxed interest income.

Government bonds pay very little at present and are likely to drop in price when interest rates rise in what may be a few years.

But corporate bonds with ratings of single A to BBB+, which is in the lower part of the investment grade range, and with maturities of seven to 10 years, often pay 3.0 to 3.5 per cent. In a time of limited global growth, stocks and bonds from companies in consumer staples, such as grocery stores, public utilities, and telecom companies offer sustainable earnings and limited volatility.

The danger in building portfolios is that one tends to look backward and then assume that what worked in the last decade or other period should continue to work.

Today, the market favours large cap dividend paying stocks, though in the midst of the dot com bubble of 1999, dividend stocks were out and sheer growth was in. Capital markets are not immune to fashion trends.

Liam and Sue can avoid market fashions by buying broad market index funds. Exchange traded funds (ETFs) offer a way to buy whole industries, product groups, or entire exchange listings with no selection risk.

Those exchange traded funds that equally weight every stock they hold avoid fashion risk — think back to when Nortel Networks was 30 per cent of the total capitalization of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Equally weighting every stock enables ETFs to dodge the problem of overweighted hot stocks.

If all goes well with the couple’s plans, Forbes suggests they may want to enlarge their legacy for their children and to make significant donations to good causes. † 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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Barricade® II. Raise the bar on your broadleaf weed control.

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Powerful control As with all crop protection products, read and follow label instructions carefully.

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22

/ grainews.ca

JANUARY 21, 2013

Columns MANAGEMENT MINUTE

Succession: Just do it — part three This third instalment of a series on succession planning offers a four-step plan for the retiring generation ANDREW DERUYCK

MARK SLOANE

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s you will recall from parts one and two in this series, succession planning is often most successful if either the older generation or the younger generation takes ownership of developing options to get started.

In part two we walked you through the analysis process from the viewpoint of the younger generation. In part three, we’ll approach the same stuck nut with a different wrench, looking at it from the aspect of the retiring generation.

Vince Lombardi said, “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” This is very true

of farming as well. It’s difficult to get started on a plan to remove yourself from the very thing that you have devoted your life to. As we did for the younger generation, we use a process to break the task down into smaller, easier to comprehend steps.

STEP 1: ESTABLISH A CLEAR PRIORITY Understanding the priority is a crucial first step. Clearly understandings whether retirement or succession is your priority will allow you to move forward in the process. If you have not chosen, you will waiver back and forth delaying everything until someone loses their mind or someone loses interest.

This choice in priorities is not necessarily a choice in action, but identifying the priority becomes a strong compass when navigating the next steps.

STEP 2: DETERMINE FINANCIAL POSITION The retiring generation needs to clearly understand what assets

and capital are at their disposal in this planning process. They must understand not only the value of the asset but also the liquidity.

For example a non-registered savings account and a pension plan may have the same asset value but will have significantly different implications as they cycle into revenue streams.

This step may also include a detailed projection of retirement income sources including Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, pensions, land rental payments, salary, payment for assets or other income.

RETIREMENT

SUCCESSION

surpluses used for retirement planning on a reactive basis.

This step also includes determining how to treat your nonfarming children equitably.

capital. Our fourth article in this series will detail the numerous agreement and approaches that we have seen and the implications of each. †

STEP 3: DETERMINE NEEDS Depending on your answer in Step 1, different areas will inherently have priority in determining needs. For example, if your priority is to retire in the lifestyle that you desire and help children and the farm outside of that plan, your retirement planning will take priority.

If your priority is succession, your planning will start with sustainable farm business planning, B:10.25” with financial T:10.25”

STEP 4: STRUCTURING THE PLAN This step brings all the planning together by deciding what tools, agreements, and structure to assign to the decisions and

Andrew DeRuyck and Mark Sloane manage two farming operations in southern Manitoba and are partners in Right Choice Management Consulting. With over 25 years of cumulative experience, they offer support in farm management, financial management, strategic planning and mediation services. They can be reached at andrewd@goinet.ca and sloanefarms@hotmail.com or 204-825-7392 and 204-825-8443.

Beware Sclerotinia, ‘The Pirate of the Prairies.’

For more information please visit: BayerCropScience.ca/Proline

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

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

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Give no quarter. Factoring an application of Proline® fungicide into your cropping plans will effectively reduce infection rates by up to 80% and keep sclerotinia from stealing your golden treasure.

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If you thought you had seen the last of sclerotinia, you’re dead wrong. Your old foe will be back again this season to plunder your profits and turn your canola crop into a battlefield.

JANUARY 21, 2013

grainews.ca /

23

Columns CAN’T TAKE THE FARM FROM THE BOY

Germinating diversity When it comes to generating new ideas, winter can be the most productive time of year TOBAN DYCK

I

’m trying to spend less of the winter indoors. My wife loves winter and being outside on days cold enough to freeze your tongue to a flagpole. She loves bundling up for walks in our backyard. She also loves bundling up for the 100-metre walk to the garage, a journey I tackle more as a no-toque, no-gloves, unzippedjacket sprint. The takeaway: she loves dressing for the weather and is smart to do so. I see the value but lack the foresight. Whatever the case, the urge to hunker down in front of the television when it’s cold is strong but worth opposing.

Winter is an effective incubator for great ideas. My father and I have not yet fleshed out a succession plan, but we know the farm must diversify. I draw income from other sources and will continue to do so, in hopes of one day being able to invest in the farm and maybe, just maybe, buy some land. But, in the meantime, my wife and I take to the Internet (Twitter, a reference known to those who read my previous column) and farm publications, looking for inspiration.

Farmers are doing interesting things with their land and resources, and with the help of publications such as this one and other online resources, their success stories are available to us. The skills required to run a successful farm are often synonymous with ingenuity, initiative, know-how and the confidence to get things done. These stories of enterprising farmers are not stories of exceptional people (for the most part), but of regular folk who had an idea and acted on it.

Run a rural-based and ruralthemed restaurant, using ingredients grown on your land; build and operate that bed and breakfast you’ve always been talking about; see if there’s a market for the handy contraption you built; find a unique use for lower-priced

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crops. The advice may seem too simple and obvious to state, but I have met many people who have locked away good ideas over fear of rejection, and, for some, the fear of success. I understand and appreciate pausing for a thought or two before diving into a new business or crop, but don’t underestimate the exhilaration of taking that first step. Business, in general, can be very intimidating and many believe that its inner workings can only be understood by the finest minds. Wrong. Every business starts with a simple idea: “Hey, don’t you think it would be neat if…” That’s it; that’s all.

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Spend the short days outside enjoying the cold weather and the long, winter evenings putting together a plan Perhaps not all of you have the time needed to tackle such pursuits, and perhaps some of you don’t need to diversify, but, rest assured, every one of you is sitting on an idea or two that’s been long abandoned or one that is just waiting for the right conditions in order to germinate.

So, spend the short days outside enjoying the cold weather and the long, winter evenings putting together a plan. Take the time to explore what other farmers are doing and perhaps contact them for advice or a chat. More often than not, in the marketplace of ideas, even those pursuing similar projects enjoy the company of potential competitors. But, then again, all this is coming from someone lacking the foresight to zip up his jacket. So, I promise to plan for my next trip to the garage, however small it is. † Toban Dyck is a freelance writer and a new farmer on an old farm. Follow him on Twitter @tobandyck or email tobandyck@gmail.com.

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JANUARY 21, 2013

Machinery & Shop TRACTOR EVALUATION

Assessing the 7200R John Deere tractor Now that the 7R Series tractors have been on the market for more than a year, we follow up with an in-depth look at one of the models from that family, the 7200R SCOTT GARVEY

I

f you take a look at the inside cover of the brochure for John Deere’s 7R Series tractors, the company introduces them this way: “Presenting the all-new 7R Series. Technically it’s a 7, but you’ll call it a 10.”

Now that they’ve been around for a little over a year, we decided to take a close look at one of these tractors and see if those most familiar with it really did feel that way. For our evaluation, we chose to focus on the 7200R, the lowest horsepower model in the series and one that has been popular with prairie farmers.

To find out if the 7200R really does amount to a “10,” we started by looking at what the Nebraska Tractor Test Lab (NTTL) report had to say about it. Then, we talked to an owner, who’s put his tractor to work in the field. But first, lets take a look at what the 7R Series tractors offer.

In all, the 7R models offer engine horsepower ratings from 200 to 280. That makes them big enough to take care of some serious fieldwork. But Deere designed them to be multi-purpose machines, blending the attributes of a row-crop tractor with those of a utility model. And designers integrated some novel engineering into them in the process.

Compared to the large-frame 7030 tractors the 7R line replaced, the new models have a shorter overall length but a longer wheelbase. Their redesigned structural frame includes an integrated engine oil pan that allows for a narrower chassis width where the front wheels pivot, improving the turning radius to make them more nimble in tight spaces.

A totally new cooling system using a push-fan helps make it possible to use a shorter, lowerprofile hood. At the back, a drysump differential reduces parasitic power loss, because finaldrive gears get active lubrication instead of sitting in a conventional oil bath.

The 7Rs were given a CommandView II cab, which is 10 per cent larger than its predecessor on the 7030s. These cabs have better air flow and are available with an optional hydro-pneumatic suspension system. And the “steer-by-wire” ActiveCommand steering introduced on the 8R line also becomes an option on the 7Rs. That varies the number of steering wheel turns required to go from lock to lock, making it possible to tailor steering sensitivity to field or road transport situations.

The 7Rs are also available with a front PTO and they are compatible with new, wider Group 49 tires. A quick-detach H480 front-end loader designed specifically for the 7Rs give these machines that utility tractor capability, but with a whole lot more lifting power.

And to give these tractors extra muscle to lug through tough spots, Deere’s Intelligent Power Management system will up-rate the engine output by up to 30-hp during mobile PTO applications.

So under some load conditions, the 7Rs should punch above their weight, so to speak, when it comes to horsepower ratings.

PUTTING IT TO THE TEST Last April, the NTTL tested a 7200R equipped with an Autoquad, 20-speed, power-shift transmission. Here’s how their test results stack up against Deere’s power-rating claims.

Deere advertises the 7200R has 164 PTO horsepower (the “200” in the model number is the engine horsepower rating. Deere uses this system in most of its model number designations.)

The 7R models offer engine horsepower ratings from 200 to 280 Did the tractor live up to that advertised PTO horsepower rating during testing? Actually, it surpassed it, putting out 169.95 at rated engine speed (2,100 r.p.m.).

At standard PTO speed, (1,967 engine r.p.m.) horsepower jumped to 190.62. That figure climbed higher yet to 197.02 during the maximum power test (conducted at 1,749 engine r.p.m.).

Out on the track, the 7200R managed a top drawbar horsepower rating of 154.77, exerting 11,127 pounds of pull on NTTL’s load car.

When it comes to the 7200R’s appetite, the NTTL data showed it provided 15.16-hp hours per gallon during the drawbar test.

During the PTO tests, it produced 16.54 at rated engine speed. The number jumped again to 17.81 during the maximum power PTO test. (Don’t forget more is better, here.)

PHOTOS: SCOTT GARVEY

Deere has tailored the H480 loader specifically to the 7R Series tractors. By shortening their overall length and extending their wheelbase, the7Rs offer improved manoeuvrability over the long-framed 7030s they replace, making them well suited to loader work.

OWNER’S OPINION So far, the tractor seems to have more than lived up to Deere’s claims. But there’s more to consider when building a good tractor than just horsepower and fuel consumption. The only way to really get a feel for what it’s like to spend a day in one is to use it in the field. So we checked in with Dean Clark of Conquest, Sask., a 7200R owner, to see what he had to say about his tractor.

First, he gives the cab interior high marks overall, summarizing that with the comment, “I’m very impressed with it.” The control arrangement is generally good, but he didn’t like the position of the headland management button and moved it to a more comfortable spot. The GreenStar 2630 monitor gets high marks, too. However, the biggest praise

Introduced in June of 2011, 7R Series tractors were designed to be capable field machines but still have some of the characteristics of a utility tractor, making them just as useful for front-end loader work.

JANUARY 21, 2013

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Machinery & Shop

SFM01_02-8.125x10_GN.qxd

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The steep steps and very large cab door aren’t ideal when it comes to ease of entry, according to our owner’s evaluation. But the cab interior gets high marks as a very pleasant place to spend the day.

Ad Number: SFM01_02-8.125x10_GN Publication: Grainews Trim - 8.125” x 10” Non-Bleed

he offers about the cab is for its quietness. “The noise level is unbelievably low,” he says.

When it comes to cab access, however, he isn’t impressed. The steps are slightly offset from the door making it a little awkward to get in. “I didn’t like that at all,” he says. The overly-large cab door doesn’t get high marks for ease of use, either. That’s a criticism owners of tractors in the 6R line, which use the same cab, have offered as well.

Up front, getting access to the engine dipstick is a little awkward, because the optional fenders on the front wheels partially obstruct it. “If there was no fender there, it would be fine,” Clark explains. All the other daily maintenance points he rates as “very accessible.”

Deere’s cooled EGR emissions strategy, which doesn’t require diesel exhaust fluid use, was a strong selling point for Clark.

“That was huge in the decision,” he says. “I don’t want to fill up another tank.” He’s noticed the 7200R’s fuel consumption rate is much lower than the older tractor he used for similar work before, but he hasn’t calculated it exactly.

When it comes to overall build quality, the only warranty work required so far on his tractor was some adjustments to a cab window which kept popping open.

Based on his experience after a season of use with the tractor, would he buy it again? “Yeah, I would,” he says. “I don’t foresee getting rid of this thing for a long while.”

Next issue we take an in-depth look at Deere’s smaller range of 6 Series tractors. †

The optional front wheel fenders make getting access to the engine oil dipstick a little awkward.

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Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at scott.garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

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JANUARY 21, 2013

Machinery & Shop SEEDING EQUIPMENT INNOVATIONS

SeedMaster introduces new Nova XP Smart Cart models Building on its newest air cart design, Seedmaster now offers models with three different capacities

BY SCOTT GARVEY

W

hen SeedMaster introduced the Nova XP-820 Smart Cart in 2011, it represented a significant design change from the company’s previous air seeder carts. At Canada’s Farm Progress Show in Regina last June, SeedMaster showed farmers two new air carts based on the design of the original Nova XP-820. The two additional models use the same engineering, but they offer smaller capacities.

The Nova XP’s modular design uses independent, 260-bushel poly tank compartments, which allows for changes in capacity by scaling the same basic chassis up or down and adding or removing tanks. “There are three basic chassis,” says Norbert Beaujot, SeedMaster’s president. “There are three capacities and the 40-bushel (small product tank) at the back is option as well.”

Because it is possible to add the 40-bushel compartment to each model, all three chassis have two capacity ratings. At the smallest end of the line, is the 260/320-bushel model. Moving up the size scale is the 520/560, and topping the line is the original 780/820, which is available with one, two or three main compartments.

FLEXIBILITY According to Beaujot, the company is able to offer a lot of flexibility in main-compartment configuration across the full line of Nova XP carts to meet a farmer’s needs. “There are a lot of different choices,” he says. “Whatever the customer wants. We can mix and match one, two, three or four products. And they can be a combination of dry and liquids.”

Underneath, all three models use the same metreing system.

“The metreing portions are identical,” he adds. “The bigger ones (cart metres) are all made with 10 zones for shut-off control. Below 60 openers we go to eight zones.”

SeedMaster also offers a toolbar-mounted canola tank capaBY DAN PIRARO

Bizarro

ble of holding one bag of seed.

“It’s kind of a designated canola tank,” says Beaujot. “That can be bolted onto any toolbar, past, present or future. It’s about 22 bushels. It just holds a mini bulk bag of canola.”

At the Regina show, the company also introduced a stretched version of its drill, which offers a new maximum 100-foot working width. The company claims that

size makes it the largest model available on the North American market. “It’s definitely only for certain farmers,” Beaujot acknowledges. “It’s very manoeuvrable.

There’s no problem getting in and out of fields.”

For more information on the company’s products visit www. seedmaster.ca. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at scott.garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

PHOTO: SCOTT GARVEY

This summer SeedMaster introduced two new versions of its Nova XP Smart Cart. The company now offers three basic size capacities ranging from 260 to 780 bushels. Each one is available with an additional 40-bushel small-product tank.

JANUARY 21, 2013

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27

Machinery & Shop AIR CART EVOLUTION

Deere’s 1910 air cart grows larger John Deere debuted a new, high-capacity version of its 1910 air cart at Canada’s Farm Progress Show in Regina last June

BY SCOTT GARVEY

“

PHOTO: SCOTT GARVEY

John Deere’s largest 1910 air cart grows to 550 bushels, which is a jump of 120 bushels in maximum capacity over the previous line-up.

B

igger” seems to be the word that describes most of the new air seeder technologies introduced at Canada’s Farm Progress Show over the last few seasons. And that fact hasn’t been lost on John Deere. At last June’s show, the green brand introduced its bigger 1910 air cart, which officially hit the market on June 1.

The new 550-bushel 1910 cart is about 22 per cent larger than the 430-bushel model that previously topped out the line.

The new cart has three compartments: two 200 bushel tanks with one, 150 bushel hopper in between them. But the current cart design does not include a small-product tank.

“What we tried to do (with tank capacities) was make it so farmers could do cereal grains

and it would still be useable for other crops you plant less product with,” says Aubrey Grove, product specialist at John Deere Seeding. “For all of our larger John Deere carts, customers have a choice of a 10-inch auger or 12-inch conveyor for loading product in the cart. For the 550 cart, we have beefed up the front axles and made available larger, dual-caster front wheels.”

The larger-capacity 550 cart brings the number of models in the 1910 air cart line to 12, ranging from 195 to 550 bushels. Carts up to the 430-bushel model are available both in tow-between and tow-behind versions. The 550 comes as a tow-behind model only. But all are compatible with Deere’s 1830, 1835 and 1870 hoe drills and 1895 disc drills.

The 550-bushel model offers hydraulic drive — which is VRT compatible — as standard equipment. Hydraulic calibration is also standard. “It’s works very similar to the crank-style version we had on our older carts,” says Grove. “Most of it is done in the cab. There’s just a switch you hold down instead of cranking the metres. But you still have to put the bag under the metre and weigh the seed.”

SECTIONAL CONTROL Deere hasn’t set a launch date for the sectional control feature on the 1910 carts, but it will be offered on future models.

“We had some machines out in the last few years running it,” explains Grove. “We’re still refining it to the point where we hope we can introduce it soon.”

When sectional control does become available, it will have eight separate sections that can be operated independently and still be compatible with the cart’s VRT feature. “We’ll have eight different sections with those three metres with sectional control,” he adds. “You can do variable rate and sectional control.”

The company will make sectional control retrofit kits available for the current 1910 carts. †

You’ve come to trust Meridian for the best SmoothWall hopper bins in the industry… as of January 2013, we’ve merged Meridian, Behlen and Sakundiak brands all under MERIDIAN.

Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at scott.garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

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JANUARY 21, 2013

Machinery & Shop Shop class

“Stitch” welding helps minimize heat distortion This repair to light-gauge steel on a swather frame required careful welding and some fabrication effort

By Scott Garvey

I

n this Shop Class instalment, we tackle a repair to a swather frame. The draper belt rollers on this model install on a short pin that sits inside the front of the frame. But over time, corrosion had weakened the relatively thin steel that held in one of the pins.

When the bearing inside the draper roller seized, the pin, which was now rusted in place, twisted out of the frame. The damage made it impossible to just install a new pin. The frame had to be repaired in order to accept the new part.

You can see the problem in Photo 1. This new roller pin, which supports the bearing on the front of the draper belt roller, should just fit into a keyshaped slot in the frame. But because the original pin was rusted to the frame, it began to twist when the bearing seized. It then ruined the portion of the frame where it mounts. We now need to cut out the damaged

section of frame and weld in a replacement with a new keyshaped slot to hold the new pin.

Note the rust holes in the lower right of the image. We’ll cut that section out, too.

In Photo 2, you can see that the damaged section is now cut out; we used an air-powered cut off tool to do the job. If you look carefully, you can see a vertical and horizontal line drawn on the frame, which will help us correctly position the slot for the roll pin when we install the patch. This will ensure the draper roller will still run in its proper position after the repair.

We used the piece we cut out of the frame as a template to create a repair patch, as shown in Photo 3. To create the key hole, we used two hole-saw bits and drilled into the steel. A rotary Dremel tool was used to finish the slot opening, which merged the two holes together into a keyhole shape.

The next step, Photo 4, was test fitting the repair patch. It will be

welded into place using a butt joint, which meant it had to fit tightly into the opening. The gap in the lower right corner was a little wider than we hoped for. But with a little extra care, it can be filled with weld.

Note how the roll pin now lines up with those positioning lines we drew on the frame with a Sharpie pen.

Because the steel used in the swather’s frame is slightly less than 1/8-inch thick, we don’t want to cause any heat distortion when welding in the repair patch, so we’re “stitch” welding it in. Stitch welding simply means we’re using a series of short tacks.

Running a long, continuous bead would warp the metal. We’ll work around the entire joint and slowly lengthen each tack until the joint is fully welded.

After grinding the weld bead smooth with the surface and spraying a little paint on the bare metal to prevent rusting, the repair is complete. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at scott.garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

photos: scott garvey

Photo 1: This new roller pin doesn’t fit into the frame, as the original pin rusted to the frame, and began to twist when the bearing seized.

Photo 2: We used an air-powered cut off tool to cut out the damaged section. The lines on the frame will help us position the slot for the roll pin when we install the patch.

Photo 3: We used the piece we cut out of the frame as a template to create a repair patch.

FITS MY

COLOR

Gary Martens

Photo 4: The next step was test fitting the repair patch. The roll pin lines up with the lines we drew on the frame.

“I am very impressed by the performance of the BTT openers. They are built with quality and durability in mind.

Most of all these openers just work; and that is what I am looking for.”

Photo 5: We’re stitch welding around the entire joint.

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Photo 6: We finished the repair by grinding the weld bead smooth and spraying on a little paint.

JANUARY 21, 2013

grainews.ca /

29

Machinery & Shop Livestock gear

Haying equipment

introduces 9 Series balers for 2013 Turn your Deere John Deere offers an updated line of balers for 2013 ATV into a feed wagon

By Scott Garvey

J

By Scott Garvey

I

f you’re a livestock producer, your ATV has probably become the most indispensable vehicle on the farm or ranch.

Now, Applegate Livestock Equipment’s Feed Train can make it even more useful by turning it into a mobile feed wagon for smaller feeding chores.

Applegate, a division of Winnipeg-based AGI (Ag Growth International), has added the Feed Train to its product line. “It eliminates the need for costly bucket feeding and can be utilized to transport and distribute many types of feed, pellets or other products,” says Applegate’s sales manager, Aaron Applegate.

The company says efficiency and low cost were prime considerations factored into the design of the feed train. It was invented by company owner, Bob Lutz. “Bob designed this product with the true cattle person in mind,” says Applegate.

The Feed Train has a translucent plastic feed tank, which allows the operator to see how much product is remaining as feed is distributed. It has a 500-pound overall load capacity, which fills through a large 18-inch by 28-inch lid. The four-inch unloading auger has a dualspeed electric controller on a 15-foot line. It lets the ATV operator unload from the seat by selecting one of two different auger speeds.

Low dispenses five gallons of feed in nine seconds. High doubles the rate to five gallons in 4.5 seconds.

The feeder connects to a regular ATV hitch, 12 inches above ground, using a standard, two-inch trailer ball. It rides on 22X11.00X8 tires and has a built-in battery tender and electrical circuit protection.

For more information the Feed Train or to find a dealer, visit www.applegatelivestock. com. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at scott.garvey@ fbcpublishing.com.

ohn Deere believes it’s new baler line-up can help farmers make hay even more efficiently than the company’s previous 8 Series balers could. Deere has replaced its entire line of balers with the new 9 Series for 2013.

The 9 Series includes 12 new models that can put up hay in sizes ranging from 750 pound four-by-four foot bales to supersized five-by-six foot bales that weigh in at 2,200 pounds dry weight.

“We’ve also added silage-special balers to the Class III and Class IV baler line-up, giving customers options for larger bale sizes in silage, especially new five-by-six-foot bales,” says Laura Cobb, senior marketing

representative at John Deere’s Ottumwa Works. “For the 469, 559 and 569, we’ve made them faster and more durable, with faster gate cycles, heavier chains, and larger, stronger shafts, bearings and pickups. In addition, we’ve added adjustable tongues, extended lube drivelines and larger tire options for the 459 and 559 balers.”

The number of optional features available for the 9 Series balers will also grow, giving farmers a lot more choices to consider when they order a new machine. “They’ll have more optional features to choose from to customize their baler to the type of crop they have and the size of bale they want to handle,” adds Cobb. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at scott.garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

photo: john deere

John Deere’s new 9 Series balers replace the previous 8 Series for 2013.

They also offer more models and choices along with heavier components.

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JANUARY 21, 2013

Machinery & Shop KEEP IT GOING

How to build a tandem tractor How the Marshall family came up with their own on-farm engineering solutions to create a home-built, articulated tractor

BY SCOTT GARVEY

K

eith Marshall of Ninga, Manitoba, has had twins in his family since 1967.

Tw i n M i n n e a p o l i s Moline U tractors, that is. Back then his father was in the market for a four-wheel drive tractor but wasn’t able to agree on terms with the local dealer. As an alternative, he decided to find a mate to a Minneapolis-moline model U tractor that was on the farm and connect the two together to make his own four-wheel drive.

“So, he had this brainwave,” says Keith. “He said, ‘why not make a tandem’, and I knew where there was another U.” Keith bought the second tractor.

Then, all he and his father had to do was figure out how to put them together. They’d heard of others doing it, but hadn’t seen exactly how it was done. They had no example to work from.

In an attempt to find another to look at, they even travelled to North Dakota to see a tandem tractor they’d heard about there, but came back without finding it.

In the end, they had to use their own imagination to get the job done. “It was a total stab in the dark,” Keith adds. With the help of a local blacksmith, the Marshalls designed and built their

own pivoting chassis to mate the two Us together into one, higherhorsepower machine.

THE PROCESS After both front axles were removed, one half of a two-section frame was attached to each tractor.

The frame sections were joined together at a pivot point at the rear of the lead unit. “The pivots are the track rollers off a D2 Cat,” says Keith. They allow the two tractors to articulate, like an ordinary four-wheel drive.

Two hydraulic cylinders control the position of the chassis sections to steer the unit, again just like any other articulated tractor.

Converting the standard, factory steering set up to control those cylinders instead of wheels on a front axle was done in an ingeniously simple way.

Instead of the steering wheel rotating up to three or more revolutions to control the angle of turn in the normal way, it now moves only a few inches left or right. The pitman arm on the rear tractor’s factory steering box controls an ordinary hydraulic control valve, which regulates the flow of fluid to the hydraulic steering cylinders.

Turning the steering wheel a couple of inches to the left causes the control valve lever to move,

After retiring from farming, Keith Marshall rebuilt the tandem tractor unit that he and his father originally built in 1967.

“I have overkill of hydraulic capacity.”

— Keith Marshall allowing fluid to flow to the steering cylinders pivoting the frame to the left. Turning the steering wheel a couple of inches in the opposite direction moves the control valve

lever in the opposite direction to reverse the steering direction. How long the steering wheel is held to its maximum position left or right controls how long the hydraulic valve remains open. That, in turn, determines how much fluid flows to the cylinders and how much the frame articulates.

Because both of the current Us each have hydraulic pumps, the tandem unit still has extra hydraulic capacity to control implements behind it. “The way it is right now, I have overkill of hydraulic capacity,” Keith says.

The two throttle controls are linked together with a push-pull cable to control engine speeds on both tractors. But the tractor engines must be started individually. Gear selection must also be manually changed on each tractor.

The hand-clutch lever on the lead unit is engaged and disengaged by a hydraulic cylinder controlled from the rear unit. Initially, the constant pressure on the lever from the engaging cylinder caused the throw-out bushing on the clutch to wear out. To prevent that problem from reoccurring, Keith discovered that taking the engaging cylinder apart and drilling a 1/8-inch hole in its piston allows the pressure to drain off after the clutch is engaged. The

small amount of pressure loss isn’t a problem during engagement because of the relatively light pressure needed to push the hand lever forward.

Both of the original model U tractors the frame was built for have since worn out and been replaced. The current pair were mated only a few years ago as a workshop project. “I put it together (with the new tractors) in 2010,” he says. “I bought one of the tractors and put it together after I retired from farming.”

Keith says the tandem arrangement worked very well for field work on his family’s farm over the course of many years. The tandem tractors actually outperformed another two-wheel drive tractor on the farm that had a higher horsepower rating than the two model Us combined. The current tandem unit, however, doesn’t do anything more strenuous now than march in parades. That’s something the impressive-looking unit is ideally suited for.

Do you have a farm machine you’ve modified or kept working over the year? Send an email to Scott Garvey with a description of your project and we may include it in a future issue. Be sure to include a highresolution photograph.

Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at scott.garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

PHOTOS: SCOTT GARVEY

Building a chassis that allows these two Minneapolis-Moline tractors to work together is an example of farm workshop innovation. The tandem arrangement was originally built in 1967, and it was used on the farm for decades.

The stock steering shaft (coming from the upper right) remains connected to the original steering box without modification. The pitman arm on the steering box, now pointing up, is linked to an ordinary hydraulic control valve (on the left) to control fluid flow to the steering cylinders.

A hydraulic cylinder engages the clutch on the lead tractor. A small holed drilled in the cylinder’s piston allows pressure to drain off preventing damage to the throw-out bushing in the clutch.

Two track rollers scavenged from an old D2 Caterpillar track are used as pivots to allow the lead and trailing tractor to articulate.

JANUARY 21, 2013

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Home Quarter Farm Life SEEDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Farmers need hobbies; what is yours?

Maybe transition planning is stuck because there is no identity or purpose beyond farming ELAINE FROESE

“Retirement is an artificial construct, stop thinking about it. Think about reinvention instead. I know too many people in their 60s who have “retired” from their occupations and are, basically, sitting around waiting to die. There is no moral or religious code calling for the excitement of life to end before life ends.”

— Alan Weiss (a consultant I highly respect)

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ecently at a farm family meeting of siblings we were trying to analyze why the parents were so reluctant to let go of farm asset ownership. I suspect that one of the key factors keeping transition planning stuck is the fact that many farm men do not have an identity, role, or purpose beyond their decades old role of “farmer.” Jokes about carrying a CWB permit book don’t work anymore, as the wheat board marketing system has changed.

Is your dad looking for permission to continue owning a pickup that he can fuel with farm gas or diesel, and does he still want a few cows to keep “busy?”

Remember that you will have more excitement about getting out of bed in the morning when you feel that your life has purpose Last summer my farmer and I bought an ocean kayak that we have to fuel ourselves with our arm power. We have explored many of the local lakes and plan to have more adventures next spring and summer. We also made sure that the craft can support young children who would delight in using it as a floating dock. We also enjoyed the powerboats that our cousins own, but decided a kayak suited our current needs better. Perhaps our son will foot the bill for a fishing or ski boat for fun.

In coaching terms, people let go of old habits and ways when they have something new to look forward to and do. What is it that you need to unlearn?

What new things can you learn this year that would excite you enough to spend less time managing the farm as you transfer decision-making to your successors?

Here’s a possible list of hobbies for farmers: kayaking, golf, hunting, tinkering, volunteering to drive Cancer Care folks, leadership institute work, camp-

ing in Russia and training new leaders (Kingdom Ventures International), building new homes for MDS (Mennonite Disaster Service), politics — local or provincial, ag policy leadership, entrepreneur mentoring or new deal making, starting a completely new business, selling farm machinery, helping at auction sales, reviving a trade such as electrician or welding, art — creating art from “junk,” Oxbow historian clipping from the Producer, flying remote planes or real-life-size planes, working with the poor in Haiti, house parent in a teenage group home, fishing in winter and summer, teaching kids 4-H projects, emcee for community events, writing

your life story, photojournaling, making memory books of photos of the farm, playing in a band that entertains many groups, driving seeders and combines, literacy classes at local school, recycling volunteer, flower planter and landscaper to keep town beautiful, teaching English in a foreign country or in Brandon, cutting rags at the local thrift store, refinishing furniture or repairing things for sale at the thrift store, baking to do random acts of kindness, and helping single moms, cross-country skiing, working in the food bank, feeding the birds, and building amazing feeders.

One of the great things about the Internet is that you can

Google “how to do… any- to donate the things that you thing…” and come up with don’t use or need anymore. That amazing ideas. You might also will create a new space and enerwant to check out vocation gy for a new hobby or latent vacations, elder volunteering, hobby to be reborn.

I sure would like to visit the and chat with your local librarian. There are many workable farmer who told me he is restoring three older cars as a gift for ideas for all types of farmers.

Remember that you will have each of his adult children.

Let me know what hobby is more excitement about getting out of bed in the morning when keeping you alive with delight you feel that your life has pur- for a full and purposeful life.

Remember you have a choice. pose. Find out what “flow” is for you, the thing that you do when Act now. † you lose all track of time because Elaine Froese is a catalyst for courageous you are enjoying the activity to conversations with farm families seeking new roles and conflict resolution. Visit www. the max. I am in flow when I elainefroese.com/contact or call 1-866-848912152A06_FCB Dec. 19, 2012 write, and paint watercolours. I 8311 to speak with her. Go to Facebook “farm family coach.”

Elaine a member of Esso_26535_2012 Hockey Goals &isAssists also enjoy visiting.

Canadian Association of Farm Advisors January is M0219_Mag_D_2_ST a great time to the (www.cafanet.com) and a certified Hudson declutter your house and shop, Institiute coach.

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Dave Jeffries and his sons, Roland and Ernie, know a thing or two about farming. So, when it was time to expand the business, they naturally chose a bank that knew how to help. At TD, they found Agriculture Specialist Vince Puchailo, who helped implement a succession plan. Vince’s understanding of the complex process even impressed the lawyers handling the sale. A personalized approach to agriculture finance, like Vince’s, is something all TD Agriculture Specialists bring. Maybe it’s time you brought one to your farm.

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M0219_Mag_D_2_ST.indd 1

12/19/12 5:14 PM

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JANUARY 21, 2013

Home Quarter Farm Life POSTCARDS FROM THE PRAIRIES

Jack’s take on Isla’s magic eyes…

Let’s just say the fairy tales may need to be rewritten JANITA VAN DE VELDE

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n my quest to ensure that Isla feels at ease wearing her glasses, I decided to have a discussion with my son Jack about making sure he tells her he loves them, and that he looks after her if someone starts to tease her. I started by telling him that Peanut was a fairy-tale princess so she has to wear glasses. That went over extremely well. Here’s an excerpt: Me: Isla’s a princess so she needs glasses.

Jack: Princesses don’t wear glasses.

Me: Yes they do.

Jack: No. They don’t. Only old queens wear glasses. And some old kings, but not princesses.

Me: Well, then, time to write a @#$%ing fairy tale where they do.

Mommy wears glasses.

Jack: I guess mostly old people like you have glasses. You have movie glasses, Grandma in Mariapolis and Grandma in Snow

Lake have reading glasses, Daddy has sunglasses. I guess all old people in the whole wide world have sunglasses.

Me: Yup. A lot of people have all kinds of glasses.

Jack: Why does Peanut have to wear them? She looks funny.

Me: Honey, Peanut has to because her eyes are magic. She needs them to help her see better. Her one eye isn’t as strong as the other, and these glasses are going to help make it better. Most importantly, she needs you to look after her. Promise me you’ll look out for her and help her out if someone’s making fun of her?

Pinky Square? (When we lock pinky fingers, he calls it a pinky square, instead of a pinky swear… it’s far too cute to correct.)

Jack: OK, Mommy. I promise.

Pinky Square. Mommy, are you going to wear glasses until you’re old as Grandma?

Me: Yup. And when I’m a grandma, cuddling your babies, I’ll wear my very best glasses so I can see them perfectly.

Jack: When will you be a grandma?

Me: When you have babies.

Then I’ll be a grandma to your babies!

Jack: Wait a minute... you’ll be a grandma and a mom?

Me: Yup. Jack: Aaaah... that’s hard work.

You said it, son.

The day after this discussion, Peanut was jumping up and down on a chair. Jack just about lost his mind — he turned to her and screeched: “Peanut! Would you quit banging around and be careful? You’re going to hurt your loose eye.”

Apparently he took my request to look after his sister quite seriously.

And with that admonishment, they both turned back to the task at hand and went about their day.

I’m not entirely sure where Jack got this idea from... I suspect the way Peanut’s one eye rolls inward got him to thinking that it’s actually loose. I’ll have to explain to him that there’s no danger of it actually falling out. I’ll also have to explain that this sort of outburst of caring wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I told him to look out for her. At any rate, I suspect his intentions were good, and that’s really all that matters.

Exhibit A. As for Peanut? She’s doing wonderfully with her new specs. I’ll be honest, it was a bit of a tough slog at the beginning. After wearing them for one day, she wheeled up to me on her cart, handed me her glasses and stated: “Me no want these no more, K?” As I looked at her, with her big beautiful eye turned in, my heart started aching all over again.

(See Exhibit A.) I started the dangerous slide into a life’s not fair mood. I was thinking that no two-year-old should have to worry about keeping glasses up on her face.

So I told myself again: Life’s not fair. But life is good.

She’ll only think wearing glasses is a big deal if I let it be one. And it’s not. I know that. I just want her to be happy. I want her to feel

special, not different. I want to hand her the world. I want to protect her from heartache and pain and grief. I don’t want her to have to worry about pushing glasses up on her tiny face while she’s playing, or have the skin on her nose and behind her ears toughen up so it doesn’t hurt. I just want her to be a kid and do kid things and run and laugh and play without worrying about keeping a pair of glasses on her little two-yearold face. I want everything to be perfect for her. But it won’t be.

That’s not the way life works.

And that’s all right. We don’t get to decide what we’re handed, but we certainly get to decide how we make it work. That’s life. And life is good.

The next day, she showed me how she’s making it work. She was stringing beads on her Dora necklace. She can do that now, because she can see. In that moment, I could almost hear her telling me: Wearing glasses is no big deal, Mommy. I got this. That’s life. And life is good. Wearing glasses is no big deal. † 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 to help those less fortunate. For more information, or to order her book, visit her website at www.janita.ca.

FROM THE FARM

Rediscovering the art of knitting Unusual gift request and a fire result in getting out the yarn and needles DEBBIE CHIKOUSKY

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ost of my childhood memories of my grandma were either of her cooking or knitting. I learned how to knit when I was about four years old.

I started with doll clothes that I invented patterns for and as soon as I could read I moved on to “real” articles such as baby sweaters. Life on the farm has been pretty time consuming and I had gotten away from knitting, but an unusual birthday present request from my son and an unfortunate accident with my tea cosy has resulted in yarn and needles being dug out again.

When our youngest son was

turning 18, he requested a sweater made from the wool of his favourite ewe. Since I don’t know how to spin we sent it to a local mill to be processed into knitting yarn. We picked a pattern and I started knitting. It took forever to knit, since he is slightly larger than a baby now, but not long after his 19th birthday I managed to present him with the finished project. What I didn’t know was that not only did he lose 30 pounds since the project started, but also the rib pattern sweater I had chosen was too loose of a knit for 100 per cent wool. Every time he picked it up it stretched. So, one evening after much deliberation the decision was made to start over.

We got books from the library and picked a pattern that was designed for 100 per cent wool and my daughter helped him to unravel his sweater. It was an excellent learning experience though, so not all was

lost. Not only did I discover that knitting with 100 per cent wool is not the same as acrylic because 100 per cent tends to stretch more and is more inclined to lose its shape, but that I had lost a bunch of my old patterns when we moved to the farm.

This became very significant because we set my old tea cosy on fire one morning. I looked up from my work at the computer to see flames shooting out from the side of the tea cosy that was facing the stove element. It wasn’t touching it, just close to it. I quickly threw it in the sink but it was charred beyond repair. Apparently acrylic wool is not at all fire retardant. To some families this wouldn’t have been a big disaster, but we use ours daily — especially this year — since we are enjoying our own mint teas in the afternoon that we grew in the garden and without the cosy, our tea was cold very quickly. That was when I discovered that my patterns were missing. This particular design is my favourite and was my grandma’s pattern but my aunt couldn’t find her copy either.

An extensive Internet search ensued and I managed to meld a few patterns together to make a replacement one that was perfect.

GRANDMA’S TEA COSY

A new tea cosy was made to replace the one that had been burned.

This is made with a double knit broken rib pattern that I believe would even make a good chore hat for those cold winter calf checks. It hugs the teapot snugly so that the tea stays hot for a long time.

SUPPLIES: 2 (50-gram) balls of yarn either matching or two complimentary colours 2 single-point 4-mm needles Darning needle

INSTRUCTIONS: My teapot is 9 inches high and 23.5 inches circumference at its widest point not including handles.

Cast on 49 stitches.

Rows 1 to 45 — K2, P2 to last stitch, K1.

After a few rows, measure the width of your knitting. It should equal half the circumference of your teapot. It won’t matter if it’s a little less, because the tea cosy will stretch a bit. However, if it’s significantly larger, you will need to start again and cast on fewer stitches.

Measure your work at this stage.

It should measure roughly half an inch less than the height of your teapot. You can easily knit a few more rows if you need to.

Row 46 — K2, then (P3tog, K1) until 3 stitches remain, P2, K1.

Row 47 — K2, P2, then (K1, P1) across the row, ending with K1.

Row 48 — K1, then (Sl1, K1, PSSO) until 2 stitches remain, K2tog.

Row 49 — K1, P until last stitch, K1.

Row 50 — K2tog until last stitch, K1.

Cast off as follows: Knit stitch number 1, and then knit stitch number 2. Slipstitch number 1

over stitch number 2, so that only one stitch remains on your righthand needle. Knit stitch number 3. Slipstitch number 2 over stitch number 3, so that you are back to just one stitch again. Repeat this process for the remaining stitches.

When you have finished and the last stitch is sitting alone on the right-hand needle, cut the yarn leaving a short tail. Draw that tail through the last stitch, then drop the stitch off the needle and pull the tail tight to secure it. This completes one side of your tea cosy.

Repeat the whole process again for the other side.

To finish, sew up the two seams, leaving gaps for the handle and spout of your teapot. There will be a small hole at the top of the cosy, formed by the two cast-off edges. You can draw this closed if you want to, but it’s intended for the knob on the teapot lid to poke through. If you draw it closed, you might find the cosy to be short.

This winter we have also noticed that there is really not much on television worth watching, so knitting is an excellent way to occupy a cold winter night. The bigger project (sweater) doubles as a lap blanket while the smaller projects (cosy, slippers, mitts) are great for a quick gift. Our next adventure is going to be to get more of our own sheep’s wool processed for knitting. We are very happy with the softness and quality of the few we have had done and would love to be able to share our wool with others in the future. † Debbie Chikousky farms at Narcisse, Manitoba.

Email her at debbie@chikouskyfarms.com.

JANUARY 21, 2013

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Home Quarter Farm Life

Not just for tools Lee Valley Tools offers woodworking and gardening seminars for everyone

BY EDNA MANNING

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or over 15 years Lee Valley Tools Inc. has been conducting in-store seminars for woodworkers and gardeners, including everything from landscape planning to turning bowls.

“The seminars are a way of providing customers with knowledge and information, and perhaps introduce them to something they may not have tried before. In some cases, they might not have the equipment at home. We provide the equipment and the material,” says Hal Moulton, manager of Lee Valley Tools in Saskatoon.

The seminars are not meant to be a profit centre for Lee Valley and costs are kept low to encourage people to try something new.

The fee covers expenses, and any proceeds are donated to the United Way. Because the presenters are often local professionals or hobbyists, people who take the seminars feel they can contact the instructor afterwards if they have any questions. “Occasionally we’ll bring in presenters that are known nationally to introduce new ideas and keep things fresh,” Moulton says.

Some of the seminars are specifically geared for women, such as the Women in Woodworking class. “We found women are interested in woodworking, but some beginners can feel intimidated in a class with men and a male instructor, as they believe their knowledge on the topic may be limited. By offering a beginner

some skills which he’ll carry with him for the future. It’s also a good confidence builder,” says Blake.

Mackenzie adds that he enjoys the classes because they’re more hands on than textbooks at school.

Hal Moulton has been with Lee Valley for almost 18 years, and appreciates the policies and practices the founder of the company

PHOTO: EDNA MANNING

The fee covers expenses, and any proceeds are donated to the United Way seminar exclusively for women, and with a female instructor, they can learn the basics with more confidence and are more open to asking questions. Armed with the basics they are then more likely to take more focused seminars in a mixed class.”

Parents often bring their children. Blake Hugo and his son Mackenzie have participated in four woodworking seminars. “It allows us to spend some time together and Mackenzie can gain

By 2050, there will be 9,000,000,000 hungry people and less farmland than there’s ever been. On August 19–25, 2013, the world’s youth will gather at the global 4-H Youth Ag-Summit to advance solutions to this growing crisis of agricultural sustainability.

If you’re 18–25, you should send us your thoughts.

We might just send you to Calgary, Canada (expenses paid) to share them with 120 other bright young minds and industry leaders.

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implemented. “Leonard Lee is a man of principle and integrity and highly respected by all who know him,” he says.

Lee was born and raised on a farm near the community of Wadena, and grew up in a log cabin without electricity or running water. He went on to obtain a diploma in civil engineering from B:11.5” Royal Roads Military College in Kingston, Ontario, T:11” and a bachelor of economics degree from Queen’s S:10.25” University.

Instructor Paul Schroeder (l) with Mackenzie Hugo and his father Blake.

In 1977, Lee needed a stove for his workshop at his farm near Ottawa. He remembered the wood-fuelled 45-gallon barrel stove of his youth, and built a stove using castings that would accommodate the barrel and turn it into a stove. He thought it was something other people would be interested in, so put together some mail-order kits and began marketing them that winter. He broke even after the first year and decided to go into business. Lee produced a catalogue, and within a year the business was showing profits. In 1978, recognizing the scarcity of good woodworking tools in Canada, he founded Lee

Valley Tools Ltd., a woodworking and gardening tools mail-order business.

Today, Lee Valley Tools has 15 stores across Canada and employs over 900 people.

“Our reputation is based on three principles that Mr. Lee regarded as important: customer satisfaction, integrity, and treating the customer as a friend.”

In 1997, 59-year-old Lee handed the reins of the company over to his son Robin, and now lives in Ontario with his wife Lorraine.

For information on upcoming seminars in your area, visit www. leevalley.ca. † Edna Manning writes from Saskatoon, Sask.

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JANUARY 21, 2013

Home Quarter Farm Life SINGING GARDENER

Folklore, moonlore, flowers and tomatoes And, oh yes — pig spleen readings TED MESEYTON

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rom a touch of humour to the mystique of folklore and taking a look at brown-eyed Susan (also known as black-eyed Susan). Why I’m growing Tall Tree tomato again this year… it’s all right here!

HE LOVES HORSES, I LOVE GARDENING My 16-year-old grandson Kirk is an avid horseback rider. He lives on a farm surrounded by horses and loves them. What else would I expect? As for myself, I’m no horseback rider so I can’t say I’m back in the saddle again.

But I’m into seed catalogues and dreamin’ away, waiting for seed orders to arrive. I imagine growing rich from the fortunes made by being a gardener. Then I suddenly awaken from my dream and realize it’s only an illusion.

The reality is I’m rich because the garden keeps me in tune with Mother and Father Nature and not because gardening generates a big income. Reminds me of a time when I stood before an audience and one of the attendees said to me: “Hey Ted, I see you’re wearing your golf socks.” I replied: “Wait a minute now Sir. I’m no golfer. I’m a gardener. I’m an executive in overalls. What do you mean I’m wearing my golf socks?” Then came his reply: “Why the socks you’re wearing with the 16 holes in them!”

FOLKLORE AND MOONLORE ARE FASCINATING I, Ted, enjoy studying oldtime traditions and find many just as unique and applicable today as they were way back when. Some folks may of course take them with a grain of salt.

It doesn’t bother me if someone says, “so what,” or, “I told you so.” There’s always an element of the population that might say they’re only legends or something like “nay it’s shillyshally” meaning an utter denial

or refusal. Don’t you just find such an old, archaic expression singular in its kind of excellence?

Regardless, a lot of almost long-since-forgotten techniques and skills from the past still mystify and impress many a layman, gardeners and keepers of the soil. Even some weather people and higher-ups have taken notice. There are still hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of gardeners and farmers who associate planting their gardens and seeding crops in conjunction with the moon’s phase and watching for other signs.

THE MOON LAST CHRISTMAS December 25, 2012 came during the second quarter of a waxing moon following the arrival of the new moon at 2:42 a.m. central standard time on December 13, 2012. Depending on where you live in Canada, Christmas Day arrived during the signs of Taurus and Gemini, whose natures are productive, earthy, moist and feminine; or barren and dry, airy and masculine, respectively. Folklorists and gardeners from previous generations said if Christmas comes when the moon is waxing, that is, increasing in light, “we shall have a very good year to follow.”

On another note, moon signers from previous generations said when a new moon falls on a Saturday, the following three weeks will be mostly wet and windy on and off nine times out of 10. I don’t see such a new moon in my region until Saturday, June 8, 2013 phasing in at 11:56 a.m. central daylight time. Another widely held belief relates to the position of the new moon during February (it begins Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 1:20 a.m. CST) and forecasts whether or not the upcoming growing season shall be wet or dry. It is said that if the moon’s horns point downward at this time, it is emptying its water and the spring and summer to follow shall be wet.

A dry February moon occurs when the horns are pointing upward retaining its water. This indicates that garden and field crops should be planted ASAP as it could be dry. A good pair of

binoculars or stargazing equipment will help you decide. Keep in mind that lunar gardening is not some hocus-pocus or type of magic, nor a cure-all for lazy (is there such a thing?) or poor gardening practices. Although old sayings and beliefs are good to know, we shouldn’t rely on them totally, but that’s for each individual to decide. The long and the short of it is we all aspire to a good gardening and crop year. Here’s a ray of hope that says: When the new moon falls on Monday, or “Moonday,” it is thought to be a good sign and favourable and pleasant weather is at hand. Guess what?

Our next “new Moonday moon” begins on March 11, 2013, a Monday. Something else to ponder! An infirmary in Britain reported that between 1997 and 1999, there was a threefold increase of emergency room patients suffering from animal bites whenever there was a full moon. An average of 40 patients a day rose to 120 whenever the moon was full.

PIG SPLEEN READINGS MADE FAMOUS Do you ever watch “The National” on CBC TV? Just before the end of each newscast there’s a segment called: Only in Canada.

One evening in December, 2012 it featured Jeff Woodward of Regina who has a passion for predicting the weather by observing, feeling and touching the bumps, bulges, indentations, fatty deposits and texture of fresh spleens taken from mature hogs about four to six years old. Jeff is a bit of a pig spleenreading expert and learned the art of interpreting future weather six months down the road from his late Uncle Gus Wickstrom of Tompkins, Sask. Gus was known as “King of pig spleen reading” and would even bite into one.

Gus sometimes claimed an accuracy rate of 90 to 95 per cent with predictions extending over a radius of about 200 kilometres beyond the region from which pig spleens were harvested. His ancestors brought the unusual tradition to Canada from Sweden well over 100 years ago. Today, his nephew Jeff Woodward carries on the tradition and follows in his late uncle’s

SUE ARMSTRONG

LOVE HEARING FROM YOU 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, Man. R3H 0H1. Phone 1-800665-0502 or email susan@ fbcpublishing.com. Please remember we can no longer return photos or material.

— Sue

Shown is rudbeckia grown by Marsha Kusisto of Beechy, Sask. It’s commonly referred to as brown-eyed Susan and what I, Ted, call a longlived perennial that’s heat and drought tolerant in the garden and an enduring cut flower.

PHOTO: TED MESEYTON

I like carrots and potatoes, but how I love my tomatoes, Tall Tree tomatoes where they grow. (Lyrics from: “Lovin’ My Tomatoes,” by the Singing Gardener) footsteps by providing January to June weather readings according to pig spleens. Jeff hinted on TV it could be a wet one.

RUDBECKIA Marsha Kusisto sent a picture with the following in midDecember, 2012. Ted — always enjoy reading your column in the Grainews. Thought you might be interested to see the attached picture of some rudbeckia that is still looking good. I picked them when I was cleaning up the yard before Thanksgiving! I can’t believe it. Do you know the secret to their longevity? Merry Christmas, Marsha Kusisto, Beechy, Sask.

Ted’s feedback: There are numerous members in the rudbeckia family including brown-eyed Susan (sometimes called blackeyed Susan) and are referred to as both an annual that self-seeds readily and as a pay-me-no-mind perennial. Either way it’s tough enough to withstand competition from meadow grasses and weeds.

Black-eyed Susan has also been dubbed a North American native wildflower growing from Mexico through to Canada. Butterflies love the three-inch, long-lasting flowers that generously appear atop metretall (three-feet) plants. The blooms appear generously from midsummer right through to freeze-up. Seed sources for black-eyed Susan and other close cousins include: West Coast Seeds, Delta, B.C., phone 1-888-804-8820; Early’s Garden Centre, Saskatoon, Sask., phone 1-800-667-1159 and Dominion Seed House, Georgetown, Ont., phone 1-800-784-3037.

TALL TREE TOMATO … planting time is coming up in a couple months. Oh I’m lovin’ my tomatoes, Tall Tree tomatoes,

my tomatoes where they grow.

I like carrots and potatoes, but how I love my tomatoes, Tall Tree tomatoes, indoors I’ll sow (on March 19, 20 and 21, 2013 according to the moon). I kinda wangled my way to accomplish harvesting a few hundred Tall Tree tomato seeds. It was a rather timeconsuming task. I planted three seeds as a germination test and two came up. Now I have a couple Tall Tree seedlings on the go since December. I’m keeping them cool in maximum natural light and on the dry side to avoid getting spindly. Tall Tree plants come by their name honestly, easily grow five or six feet high and definitely require support on a strong trellis, but worth the effort. Well-caredfor plants produce solid, red fruits that are juicy, tasty both for fresh eating and home canning. Each fruit can weigh up to a pound (454 grams) and more. One thick slice of Tall Tree tomato between two pieces of bread definitely makes a sandwich. †

This is Ted Meseyton the Singing Gardener and Grow-It Poet from Portage la Prairie, Man. Thanks for joining me on the Grainews Garden Path. Look skyward when you go outdoors evening and daybreak, then make an assessment. An evening pink or red, a morning dull and grey, both help the gardener on his way. An evening dull and grey, the morning pink or red, can bring down snow or rain on the gardener’s head. Do you have a favourite expression and are willing to share? Send it along. My email address is singinggardener@mts.net.

JANUARY 21, 2013

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Cattleman’s Corner ANIMAL CARE

Livestock ER trailers hit Alberta roads Trailers equipped with all kinds of livestock-handling equipment will be used in the event of highway hauling mishaps

BY LISA GUENTHER

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ccidents involving overturned commercial livestock trailers are dangerous. Injured and frightened livestock jeopardize the safety of the public and first responders. But a new fleet of five livestock emergency equipment trailers will give more of Alberta’s first responders the equipment they need to handle stressed livestock at accident scenes.

The livestock Emergency Response (ER) trailers are not set up to treat or haul livestock.

Instead, they contain equipment, such as corral panels, generators, saws, plywood, and snow fence, to free and corral livestock from overturned trailers.

Floyd Mullaney, project co-ordinator, says first responders can contain anything from poultry to cattle with the equipment.

“To me, you’re only restricted by your imagination,” says Mullaney.

“There’s all kinds of tools and equipment in each unit.”

Within Alberta, municipalities along the busy Highway 2 corridor were among the first to use ER trailers. Red Deer County had the first unit a few years ago and Ponoka County soon followed suit. The trailers quickly caught the interest of other municipalities.

Rather than having each municipality put together its own trailer, Alberta Farm Animal Care co-ordinated a provincial program. The council received Growing Forward funding for five new trailers and a

Truckers will hope they never see these units, but they will be a valuable tool in the event of an accident. related livestock-handling course.

Each outfitted trailer cost about $22,000, Mullaney says.

Since there are a limited number of livestock ER trailers to go around, stakeholders wanted to choose high-risk areas. An indepth risk analysis looked at factors such as whether communities were near auction marts, slaughter plants, or feedlots. Stakeholders also examined accident reports.

Ultimately they decided to base the trailers with first responders in Claresholm, Medicine Hat, Westlock, and Vermilion.

Mullaney says each location has a sharing agreement with neighbouring municipalities so the trailers are available to other communities in emergencies. The Alberta Society for Prevention to Cruelty to Animals also has a trailer to help seize distressed livestock during animal welfare cases.

Lakeland College is now putting the finishing touches on an emergency livestock-handling course for first responders. The college is offering the course through its Emergency Training Centre in Vermilion. Mullaney says the course will also be available to other parts of Canada on a costrecovery basis.

Others watching Adele Buettner, executive director of the Farm Animal Care Council of Saskatchewan, says after analyzing accident reports, the council decided there aren’t enough trailer rollovers in the province to justify livestock ER trailers right now.

But the council does provide, and is currently updating, a resource kit RCMP officers use to safely euthanize injured animals at

Alberta’s Farm Animal Care council has unveiled five trailers outfitted with livestock handling equipment to control livestock involved in hauling mishaps on Alberta highways. accident scenes. The information will be included in RCMP training manuals and available at detachments in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Ontario.

The council is also offering an emergency livestock-handling demonstration to first responders and police officers in March, which will be facilitated by Jennifer Woods, who specializes in emergency livestock response.

British Columbia’s Farm Animal Care Council is currently studying the feasibility of putting together livestock ER trailers.

Carolyn MacLaren, general manager of the council, says that though British Columbia’s cattle industry is smaller and more localized, commercial trailer accidents are devastating when they happen.

Areas such as the lower mainland don’t see much commercial livestock hauling, and so emer-

gency equipment trailers wouldn’t be placed there.

“But when we look at KootenayCranbrook, that sort of region, then obviously there’s a demand because that’s where those animals are being transported into Alberta and south,” says MacLaren.

Both Saskatchewan and British Columbia are planning to deliver the emergency livestock handling course Lakeland College is developing.

Mullaney says it’s been a worthwhile project.

“We couldn’t have (the trailers) in the hands of better people. And as far as the training is concerned, I think Lakeland College is an ideal educational institution to deal with this type of course.” † Lisa Guenther is a Grainews field editor based in Saskatchewan. She can be reached at lisa.guenther@fbcpublishing.com.

PASTURE POLITICS

Producer concerned for community pasture future Saskatchewan ranchers urged to get vocal over PFRA pasture transfer

BY LEE HART

S

askatchewan rancher Bryce Burnett is urging his fellow producers to get actively involved in the discussion about the future of PFRA community pastures in that province.

As the federal government proceeds with plans to wind down the long-standing PFRA community pasture program, Burnett says there are too many unanswered questions,about the future of the 60 pastures thousands of Saskatchewan producers rely on for summer grazing.

“The federal government has said producers should now form associations to take over these pastures, that they will have to buy or lease the land, but we haven’t seen any figures on what that would cost,” says Burnett, who ranches with his family near Swift Current.

“Some of this land is owned by the federal government, and some is owned by the provincial government, some of them have oil and gas leases, who would get those? What

about the value of the improvements on the land? There are just a lot of unanswered questions.”

Burnett says the provincial government needs to step up and take over the continued operation of the community pastures.

“Producers need to be talking to their MLAs and they also need to be talking to each other about how this will be handled.”

Burnett runs a purebred Tarentaise and Black Angus operation and has been a patron of the PFRA Swift Current/Webb Community Pasture for more than 30 years. There are 60 patrons (other area ranchers) using the pasture that supports about 1,800 head of cattle over the summer grazing period.

The federal government will be phasing in the community pasture transition over the next five years.

The first 10 Saskatchewan pastures being transferred to patron operation by 2014 include: EstevanCambria; Excel; Fairview; ItunaBon Accord; Keywest; Lone Tree; McCraney; Newcombe; Park and Wolverine.

“It is all well and good to say they will just transfer operation of these pastures to the patrons, but you have to look at it realistically,” says Burnett. “If there are 60 patrons using a pasture, a lot of them are getting older like me and may not want to be investing in the project and many may be younger producers who can’t afford it. Out of 60 you might be lucky to end up with 15 who are actually interested.”

Retaining standards Burnett wonders if a patronowned pasture would be able to maintain the same high standard of pasture management found under the PFRA system. And because the PFRA community pasture was open to all, it afforded many young “startup” producers an economical opportunity to build their herd until they became more established.

In a prepared statement on the community pasture transfer, Burnett said: “The federal government is in

the process of washing their hands of PFRA community pastures. The ideals that structured community pastures for ranchers, conservationists and the public are being ignored because of political ideology rather than the needs of the cattle industry.

“I can understand the federal government’s view as it is evident they have no intent of sustaining the current family farm operation in Western Canada. However, it is time for the Saskatchewan Party government to stand on their own two feet and stick up for the cattle industry. Agriculture is and will remain the basic industry in Saskatchewan as the majority of the population in Saskatchewan is directly or indirectly affected by the sustainability of this industry agriculture — after all we all eat.

“Let us not dismantle the structure of the PFRA community pasture system for the sake of ideology. The majority (we must not forget we live in a democracy) of patrons, conservationists and those affected by these fragile

lands realize the benefits, production and profitability of the present structure, now and into future generations.

“This is an opportunity for this provincial government to step up and keep the lands under one umbrella; it is not necessary to reinvent the wheel. Forming new individual identities for each pasture will only cost patrons more money which they cannot afford and is needless, for less benefits and a significant loss to environmentalists, hunters and wild life and the agriculture industry.

“Patrons cannot afford to purchase lands and assets which they have already contributed to and in most cases already paid for with pasture grazing fees.

“It is time for patrons to come together and let our provincial government grasp the benefits of an existing system for the sustainability of our agriculture cattle industry.” † Lee Hart is editor of Cattleman’s Corner based in Calgary. Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com.

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JANUARY 21, 2013

Keepers & Culls Reminder about proper winter feeding LEE HART

I wrote this reminder on my blog earlier this month, but figured it was worth repeating in print. It is actually three reminders: 1. Make sure you are feeding your cattle properly this winter; 2. If you can’t handle it and feel stressed, there are places to call that can provide help; and 3. If you suspect there is a legitimate case of animal abuse or neglect in your community, the same applies there are numbers you can call to anonymously report it. (see contacts at the end.)

This all stems from an email I received New Year’s Eve from a retired farmer, who in turn had been talking to another producer and the other producer was disgusted with a neighbour who apparently had 100 head of Angus cows that had been on the same pasture since September “no hay, no bedding, and he cuts a hole in the ice once a day so they can drink.” That’s it. That, apparently, was this person’s winter-feeding program. My contact called it “unconscionable.”

Unfortunately these two producers who were discussing this perceived case of animal abuse had also thrown up their hands in hopelessness about reporting the situation — “what’s the point, no one does anything about it anyway.” And that thinking isn’t right either.

Anytime I hear or read about animal neglect cases my first thought is what the heck is wrong with people? There is no excuse. In the best case perhaps the cattle are owned by an elderly or disabled farmer who doesn’t have the ability to feed them, and in the worst case they may be owned by some idiot who is too lazy, or too cheap

to supply feed. Maybe it is not even an idiot — it could be a well-meaning producer under a cash crunch, but too proud to ask for help.

Whatever the reason, situations like this need to be checked out and dealt with. There are no good excuses in any aspect of this issue.

People need to properly care for their livestock, and people suspecting there may be a problem, have at least a moral obligation to report it. This needs to be addressed, first and foremost, for the sake of the animals, and also for the sake of the livestock industry. A valid or even a perceived abuse case that isn’t checked, but comes to public attention, is just handing animalwelfare critics another nail for the livestock industry coffin.

This situation drew a few initial responses. I talked with Heini Hehli, a dairy producer from the west-central Alberta community of Rimbey. He is chair of the Alberta Farm Animal Care (AFAC), a producer-run animal-care organization concerned about the proper care and welfare all classes of livestock.

AFAC has what is known as the ALERT line for producers to call if they are overwhelmed or are unable to feed their livestock; and it is also a line people can call to report suspected cases of neglect.

Hehli says many of the “suspected” cases are unfounded, but nevertheless should be investigated. All calls to the ALERT line are investigated and usually the first person to approach a producer is a local veterinarian.

Meanwhile, I also had an email from Edmonton-area beef

producer Dale Greig, who also urged producers to call if there is suspicion of livestock neglect.

“I have been involved as an Alberta Beef Producer delegate and as an investigator for AFAC for many years. I have investigated many reported abuses and if the situations require help or more severe involvement such as police or SPCA they have been brought into the problem.

“Sometimes the complaint is real and sometimes the complaint is frivolous. They all get checked and if the animals and farmer need help it is provided.

The bottom line is if you suspect a problem get it reported so the issue can get corrected before the animals become in such poor condition they are either dying on the place or need to be put down.

“Tell your farmer friends not to be afraid of reporting potential animal abuse. It will be investigated and corrected if needed.”

Dale Greig – Barrhead, Alta.

And I also had a comment from another beef producer, David, who makes the point that proper winter grazing practices don’t necessarily mean cattle are suffering.

“I hope some of those retired farmers read your articles and read my comments. Cutting a hole in the ice for water is common practice and nothing wrong with that.

“Some ranchers use to let their cows eat snow, this I don’t agree with and is not recommended as they have to eat too much snow to make up volume of water. It

is a lot easier on a person to let those cows drink out of a water bowl especially when it is -25 or colder and the ice gets thick.

“As far as cows out in the fields since September, this is their winter pasture. Some ranchers keep some land set aside for this as winter grazing or swath grazing. These are new practices that they even recommend for various environmental and economic reasons. Some of these retired farmers are used to the old methods where you fed cows in the yard from November to June. And what they see from passing by on the highway is not necessarily the whole story. I have seen cases where you could report seeing the animals out in the fields and wonder what they are eating.

What you don’t see is that the rancher has taken feed out to different areas of the fields usually in the shelter of some bush. The exercise that the animals get from walking is healthy for them also and can help at calving time.”

David Each western province has an anonymous, confidential reporting system. No one, other than the person answering the phone, will know who called and you have done your part.

It is bad enough that someone might have poor management that allows animals to suffer, but at the same time there is that old saying, that anyone who sees an injustice but does nothing about it is equally guilty.

Here’s where you call: In British Columbia — call the

IMPROVED BALE WRAP

“Now... Do ya think you can pull forward a little?”

CONTACT US

Write, E-mail or Fax Contact Cattleman’s Corner with comments, ideas or suggestions for and on stories by mail, e-mail, phone or fax.

Phone Lee Hart at 403-592-1964 Fax to 403-288-3162 E-mail lee@fbcpublishing.com Write to CATTLEMAN’S CORNER, PO Box 71141 Silver Springs RPO, Calgary, Alta. T3B 5K2

What’s the best way to protect the hay quality of large round bales? Until now, the answer has always been easy but not always practical — store bales indoors.

For 2013, John Deere offers producers a better way with B-Wrap, the alternative to indoor storage.

“B-Wrap is rolled onto round bales just like regular net wrap,” says Laura Cobb, senior marketing representative for the John Deere Ottumwa Works. “But B-Wrap protects bales much better than net, significantly reducing storage losses and maintaining nutrient quality of hay.”

That’s because B-Wrap protects bales with a patented material that features Tama SCM Technology.

This material sheds rain and snow, and helps protect bales from ground moisture. Plus, Tama SCM Technology has microscopic pores that allow water vapour inside the bales to escape.

“All bales sweat after they are made,” says Cobb. “B-Wrap allows that moisture to escape. If you have ever covered a new hay bale

with plastic, you’ve seen how moisture condenses where the plastic touches the bale. B-Wrap lets the moisture inside the bale escape, even as it protects hay from outside rain and ground moisture.”

B-Wrap comes in rolls just like net wrap and works in John Deere 7, 8, and most 9 Series round balers equipped for applying net wrap. A John Deere dealer needs to install a simple B-Wrap kit, which allows a baler to switch between net wrap and B-Wrap. For producers baling in the field, switching

B.C. Farm Animal Care Line at 1-877-828-5486.

In Alberta — call the Alberta Farm Animal Care ALERT line at 1-800-506-2273.

In Saskatchewan — For producers recognizing they need help call the Farm Stress Line at 1-800-6674442; to report concerns call the Saskatchewan SPCA 1-877-3827722; and for a wide range of information on proper livestock care, the Farm Animal Care Saskatchewan office at (306) 249-3227.

In Manitoba — call the Manitoba Agriculture Animal Care Line at (204) 945-8000 or toll free 1-888 945-8001.

BE CAREFUL She had been a lovely woman in many respects, but over the last 15 or 20 years patience and tolerance between she and her husband had been greatly strained. She passed away suddenly, and at the end of the funeral service, the pallbearers are carrying the casket out when they accidentally bump into a wall, jarring the casket.

They hear a faint moan. They open the casket and find that the woman is actually alive! She lives for 10 more years, and then dies.

Once again, a ceremony is held, and at the end of it, the pallbearers are again carrying out the casket.

As they carry the casket towards the door, the husband cries out, “Watch that wall!” † between net and B-Wrap takes less than five minutes.

“B-Wrap does cost a few dollars more per bale than net wrap, so most hay producers will use B-Wrap mainly to protect their best quality hay, or hay that will be stored for an extended amount of time,” says Cobb. “Producers involved in our initial field trials reported that hay protected by B-Wrap looked and smelled like the day it was baled, even after spending a winter outside.”

In addition to being used to protect all types of baled hay, B-Wrap can be used when baling crop residue such as straw, cornstalks and peanut hay. “Producers who used John Deere B-Wrap on different types of crop residue have been amazed at how well it protects forage quality, even after being stored outside for an extended period,” Cobb adds. “Some reported their storage losses went from about 15 per cent with net, to as little as two to three per cent with B-Wrap.”

For more information on B-Wrap, contact a dealer or visit www.JohnDeere.com. †

JANUARY 21, 2013

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Cattleman’s Corner CALF MANAGEMENT

Tips on warming chilled calves Proper management will help prevent it from happening, but when it does happen chilled calves need immediate attention

BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

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alves that are severely chilled at birth, without immediate assistance to warm and dry them and make sure they ingest colostrum in a timely manner, have poor survival rates. If a calf gets too cold before it suckles, it may not be able to get the teat in his mouth, and does not obtain crucial energy or antibodies it needs.

Its ability to absorb antibodies from colostrum also diminishes as it becomes colder.

PREVENTING COLD STRESS Dr. Charles Stoltenow, associate professor and Extension Livestock Program director, North Dakota State University, says producers need to be prepared for cold weather and minimize cold stress.

“The No. 1 thing we talk about with producers is the effects of wind and wet on calves,” says Stoltenow. “If it’s severely cold we usually don’t have wet conditions.” Dry cold is not as hard on baby calves as being wet.

“Make sure the cow is on an increasing plane of nutrition in late pregnancy, for optimum milk production. Producers need to provide enough windbreaks in the calving area, and good drainage, so there are no puddles. Often calves get hypothermia due to the freeze/thaw cycle. Get calves up off the cold, frozen ground.”

If there’s no old grass, they need bedding. Stoltenow says bedding with straw or old hay will help keep calves warm and it’s often better to sacrifice old hay to keep calves warm, rather

than thinking it’s needed to feed cows. “Think preventatively,” he says. “After calves have suffered frostbite, it’s too late. After they’ve been in the rain for three days, it’s too late.”

The main goal is to provide cattle with a clean, dry area to calve.

“I am not a big fan of vaccinating the cow to prevent calf scours,” says Stoltenow. “For some producers it may mean they can still allow the calf to come into contact with a contaminated environment. They are not dealing with the main issue. In the battle against cold stress and disease, prevention is important, so you don’t have to skirmish in close quarters. You want to go into battle on your terms, with preventative management.”

BLOCK WIND Providing proper windbreaks is important. Newborn calves dry quickly, and if they can get up and nurse before they get too chilled, they do fine. Newborn calves can withstand a lot of cold if they are dry and have a good milk supply.

If cows are calving on pasture with windbreaks, they manage fairly well. But if calving in an open drylot, cows may not have a lot of room, and should be provided both windbreaks and cover. Calves need to be up off frozen ground.

“I’m also not a big fan of calving barns,” says Stoltenow.

“Congregating all these animals in what we call a pinch point in the system can be detrimental. And if it’s warm in the barn, it will be humid, possibly leading to pneumonia in young calves.

“If you get a pathogen in there like an E. coli, Salmonella, coronavirus or rotavirus, you are exposing all the calves to those.

If you are using a calving barns, cleanliness is next to godliness,” he says.

Never leave calves in the barn more than 24 hours, and aim for it to be just long enough to be completely dry and nursing their mothers. Never put a sick animal in the calving barn.

Always use a separate facility for the sick ones.

WARMING COLD CALVES If there is the odd case when a calf does get chilled, there are many ways to warm up calves.

“Cold calves have been warmed in pickups, garages, bathtubs, and other facilities,” says Stoltenow.

“You can warm a calf with warm water, but the caution here is to use warm water, not hot. Their cold skin is sensitive and you don’t want to burn them, or rub them too much if there’s been frostbite damage.”

Colostrum contains a lot of energy and helps the calf generate body heat. Even if a calf is cold and becoming lethargic, feeding it full colostrum will help it maintain body heat and provide energy to get up and nurse. The temperature of colostrum is about 101.5 degrees, and that in itself has a warming effect on the calf,” says Stoltenow. “All of those things add up to a resilient animal, if we just give him a chance.”

Dr. James England (University

PHOTOS: HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

When calves get chilled the first priority is to get them warm and dry. of Idaho, Caine Center) says the first option when finding a really cold newborn calf might be to put it on the floor of the pickup with the heater running, especially if it is a long way from the barn or an electricity source.

“The main thing is to get him dried off and warm up his feet and legs,” says England. “In many instances you don’t have hot water available to apply to cold limbs. I usually just stick with warm air and getting the calf dry.

If its feet are cold you know the calf is chilled, and you have to get the whole body warm.”

Just breathing warm air, helps a calf to warm. Whether it be in an electrically heated warming box, or the pickup truck heater, “warming the lungs helps

warm the body core, which is just as important as warming the extremities,” he says. England has seen some producers with a small heated warming box mounted on the front of the quad, to carry chilled calves until they can get them into a barn.

If calves are frozen, they can be gently rubbed with warm water, and if just chilled hot-water bottles wrapped in towels, electric banket or heating pad can also be used. Gently rub or massage the calf to stimulate circulation.

The key say experts is to get calves dry, up and moving, and good quality colostrum into them within the first two hours of life. † Heather Smith Thomas ranches with her husband Lynn near Salmon, Idaho. Contact her at 208-756-2841.

8th Annual Family Day Sale February 18, 2013 1:00 p.m. at the farm at Athabasca, AB – Lunch at 11:30 a.m.

SELLING:

150 Red And BLAck Angus 2 YeAR OLd BuLLs stROng set Of 150 cOmmeRciAL BLAck Angus BRed HeifeRs due tO stARt cALving mAY 1st

Sale Managed by:

Whether the calf nurses on it’s own, or has to be tube fed, it is important to get good quality colostrum in them within two hours of birth.

“Sharing in the Excitement of Agriculture” Kelly & Anna Olson: 780-675-4664 Kelly Cell: 780-689-7822 Travis: 780-689-8324 Graham: 780-675-0112

www.olefarms.com

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JANUARY 21, 2013

Cattleman’s Corner PASTURE MANAGEMENT

Top grass management keeps Aussie farm productive Much like parts of Western Canada, forage is stockpiled for year-round grazing

BY KIM NIELSEN

I

t is midsummer down here in Australia, having a month ago just passed summer solstice.

I have brought pen to paper following a most interesting visit with Mrs. Susie Clark, owner of Devon Park, a large grazing property in the southwest corner of Victoria, Australia and just south of our place near Dunkeld.

One of the original and iconic properties of the Western District, the farm sprawls over 6,000 acres of rich volcanic plains. It is Devon Park’s top-notch grazing management and cattle that has drawn me to it, but the fascinating history of the grazing operation ends up a close second.

HISTORIC OPERATION The magnificent bluestone mansion and shepherd’s huts date back to the beginning of Devon Park in 1852. Explorer Major Thomas Mitchell first passed through here in 1836 and the area was rapidly settled shortly after. The Clarkes have owned it pretty much the entire time and is among some of the most prestigious farms in the region, having reached significant prosperity through the raising of wool sheep and the golden eras of soaring wool prices of the 1950s.

Susie Clark’s late husband Jim was an excellent cattleman and horseman and it became a natural shift from their 20,000-head Merino wool sheep flock to pursue their passion for producing top beef cattle and some of the best polo horses in Australia following the woolshed fire in 1996. The Western District is well known for its Polo Cross competitions, using small and tough thoroughbred horses.

The Clarkes perfected the ultimate Polo Cross horse and have sold horses internationally, most significantly to Argentina.

At the peak of their horse breeding they had 70 horses. Although I would have liked to have met the late Jim Clarke and learned more about his passion for growing grass and raising cattle and horses,

I was thoroughly impressed by Susie’s knowledge of the farm and its operation. Despite having a manager and two stockhands to take care of Devon Park’s daily needs, she undeniably had her finger on the pulse of a thriving grazing operation and with much pride took me on a tour in her trusty 60 series Toyota Land Cruiser, the “hearse.”

STOCKPILED FORAGE The first immediate observation for me, considering the time of year, was the abundance of stockpiled forage in nearly every paddock. Not unlike Canada, the growing season in Australia certainly has its ebbs and flows, with the main difference being that the dormant growing season is in the heat of the summer when reduced rainfall shuts plants down.

Summer is when farmers most typically hook their tractors onto bale shredders and lay out supplemental feed or fill the bale feeders like producers would do during the Canadian winter. While it does not freeze in Dunkeld, the cooler 8 C to 10 C winter days and reduced sunlight do reduce growth of forages.

Grazing management does have to take this into account also.

Also not unlike in Canada, any time feeding replaces grazing, costs go up and Susie proudly shared they rarely have to feed. She was quick to mention the grass health improved immensely when they changed from a sheep enterprise to cattle.

Cattle are top-down grazers, she says and in her view sheep are too finicky when they select the plants to graze and can be quite harmful to a paddock’s species diversity.

BUILDING ON 2,500 HEAD Devon Park runs 2,500 mother cows with an aim to increase to 2,900 head shortly. That is impressive carrying capacity, considering in west central Alberta producers aim for two acres per cow-calf pair just for summer grazing of about 140 days. The Devon Park cattle are mainly black, stemming from the brood cows being 1/4 Hereford,

Some of the 2,500 head of Angus-cross cattle grazing the 6,000acre spread.

photos: kim nielsen

Stately home of Susie Clark of Devon Park in Australia.

1/4 Shorthorn and 1/2 Angus and the bulls all Angus.

Most of their Angus bulls come from the Barwidgee Pastoral Co. just a little further south near Caramut www.barwidgee.com.au or Coolana Angus www.coolana. com also nearby, at Chatsworth.

They cross back individual cows to Shorthorn occasionally to maintain the brood cow’s ideal maternal type with deep hindquarters, strong feet, depth of girth and strength in the shoulders. Cruising through the heifer paddocks with 510 firstcalf heifers it was not surprising to see the colour dominance of the Shorthorn with several solid red heifers and the odd roan one.

Devon Park does all its cattle work on horses, a rarity now in Australia unless you are on the large cattle stations up north. Clarkes believe cattle are quieter when handled with horses as opposed to more common motorbikes.

The calving cycle is swift, beginning in June at the start of winter and lasting seven weeks. Of last year’s 500-some heifers they assisted about a dozen with just three losses. The calving paddocks are grazed down hard as a way to spur on clovers as they come on in late winter and spring without the

competition of the grass growth.

The most common legume is subterranean-type clovers common in Europe and which can fix significant amounts of nitrogen. The grass species are predominantly rough fescue and cocksfoot (type of orchard grass) with some ryegrass. The ongoing release of the shorter-lived ryegrasses is a testament to the good grazing management on Devon Park allowing plants to go to seed periodically and germinate during the wetter seasons of winter and spring.

The occasional fertilizer application, mainly on newly scarified and seeded paddocks, uses primarily liquid calcium products with N-P-K and S applied with boom-less nozzles on trucks or tractor-drawn trailers. Susie Clark points to recent Australian research showing benefits from adding molasses to the liquid fertilizer providing energy for the soil microorganisms to mineralize locked-up nutrients. As an added benefit the molasses is also a pesticide that works quite effectively to control the red legged earth mite, which is particularly detrimental to clovers.

During the peak growing season in September/October plant tissue

This great view shows some of the stockpiled forage that will carry cattle through the dry summer season.

samples are commonly taken and analyzed for the status of micronutrients such as boron, manganese, zinc, copper, cobalt. I found the cattle mineral stations noticeably absent from Devon Park’s paddocks, as on many other farms.

Perhaps the farmers’ practice of intensely analyzing the forage and supplementing the plants rather than the cow is the reason.

INTERNET MARKETING Devon Park with its roughly 2,000 calves to market each year has a distinctive volume advantage over other smaller farms and primarily uses Internet marketing through its local livestock agent.

The end destination of the calves when sold in late February varies between backgrounding operations and feedlots depending on the strength of the market and price of feed, not unlike the dictating factors of a Canadian market. The calves are six to seven months of age and the 2012 calf crop averaged 600 lbs., which to me is a pretty good indication of grass quality.

As we cruised through the many paddocks checking water troughs Susie mentioned other planned changes. Despite being in her 70s, there is no lack of ambition. Cross fencing and pasture pipeline water development from Devon Park’s dugouts and water wells will ultimately see 30 to 32 cows with a single bull in separate pastures during a sixweek breeding cycle.

We sat and had cup of tea in the visiting room of the 160-year-old mansion after an equally impressive look at the gardens. What a way to spend an afternoon, a great place to visit, most impressive stock and a top-notch operation offering an insightful look at cattle production in this part of Australia. † Kim Juul Nielsen, retired manager of agricultural services, Clearwater County, Alta. is a summertime resident of Alcheringa, Dunkeld, Victoria, Australia and a Canadian summertime grazier of 4-Clover Ranch, Rocky Mountain House, Alta.

BUILDING TRUST IN CANADIAN BEEF

Cattleman’s Corner

Practical tips for handling antibiotics

T

Advice from a busy-practising veterinarian

he phone rings often in the Coaldale Veterinary Clinic in southern Alberta.

It’s an active bovine practice with a strong feedlot clientele. Dr. Carl Dueck, one of five vets practising in the clinic, knows that the best results come from good systems combined with practical advice that clients actually use.

As part of that business, Dueck works with clients to prepare them for their Verified Beef Production (VBP) audits, and part of that is ensuring effective antimicrobial management efforts are in place. Coming off a hectic fall season, here are his practical tips for handling antibiotics effectively.

Understand the therapeutic power of management. Antibiotics should not be the go-to solution for disease management. The concept of a disease triangle includes the host, the pathogen and the environment, all playing a role in the onset of disease. “A classic example would be scours in calving season,” he says.

“If you calve in a wet, confined area you will

likely have a lot more disease pressure than if you vaccinate the dams, spread animals out, bed them down properly and keep them dry.”

Go to your veterinarian or use seminars and web resources for more information on good management practices.

Don’t overdose. More is not better and some products can become toxic at too high a dosage.

Don’t underdose. Less may not work.

Some products are expensive but label rates are there for a reason. Underdosing will likely not solve the problem and increase chances of developing resistant bacteria.

Aggressive, early treatment. “In our feedlot practice we like to use a fairly potent, longacting antibiotic the first round because we believe it cuts down the chances of having to retreat,” he says. “If you start with a lowercost, less-potent one you may not get effective kill of the bacteria and you will have to treat again. And if they don’t respond after three

Veterinary advice for using animal health products is important in the VBP program.

treatments, stop treating, put them in a warm, comfortable place and let them recover as they will. Continued treatment is just extra expense and can lead to antibiotic resistance.”

Check product expiry dates and storage protocols. Make sure products haven’t expired.

Some, like oxytetracyline, can become more toxic past their due date. And make sure they are stored according to label instructions — in a fridge, at room temperature or away from light.

Use good delivery equipment. No point in spending good money on a product and delivering it with unclean or improper administration equipment.

Send a message to your buyers. Especially for feedlots, make sure buyers know you want cattle delivered quickly, not standing in a shipping station somewhere waiting to make a truckload. There may be a tendency to believe any extra disease pressure can be addressed with an antibiotic when those animals arrive, but that is simply not true.

Reduce fill time in the feedlot. If you can fill a pen in less than a week you will usually have fewer disease problems than if you spread it out over two or three weeks.

Think alliances. More feeders are looking at building industry alliances to get farmdirect calves, preconditioned and feedlot ready. “That is something we see growing, although it is still hard for large feedlots to use this approach to fill pens effectively.”

Work with your vet. “Most of our clients are on a herd health plan that incorporates best management practices for the use of antibiotics, and good records that ensure animals going to market are free of medications.”

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