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Volume 39, Number 13 | JULY / AUGUST 2013

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PRACTICAL PRODUCTION TIPS FOR THE PRAIRIE FARMER

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Fababean update Seed grower Sarah Weigum’s first time seeding and spraying fababeans taught her a lot of lessons. She’s willing to share

PHOTOS: SARAH WEIGUM

With good moisture at seeding time, it didn’t take long to find sprouted beans in the seed bed.

BY SARAH WEIGUM

I

n the April issue of Grainews I wrote about a new adventure on our seed farm — growing fababeans. Now it’s the first week of July and the beans have begun to flower.

We picked up our fababean seed from Benci’s Seed Farm on April 30. Ideally we would have planted them before then, but considering all the snow we had in March and April at Three Hills, Alberta, we were quite pleased to be seeding the fabas by May 3. If we’d known we were going to grow fababeans when the winter started, or if we’d known how long winter was going to last, we might not have pushed all the snow from our yard out into that field. But since we aren’t soothsayers, we had to wait a few extra days for the piles to melt.

Before seeding I was concerned about how well the large seeds would move through our drill,

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especially because we have a paired-row opener. Fortunately, it was a non-issue and we hit the target of 250 pounds of seed per acre with only one plug.

The one issue we had with seeding was a minor one. We use granular inoculant with our peas so it slipped the collective mind that we needed to apply a peat-based, faba-specific inoculant to the treated seed as it was going into the air cart. Luckily, I noticed the box of inoculant in the shop before the drill pulled into the field.

“We don’t want to screw this up,” was my dad’s pragmatic response when I notified him of our omission. So we unloaded the cart and reloaded it while shaking on the self-stick inoculant, which is a rather unscientific process on our farm. Since we don’t have a metering system, we just eyeballed the right amount of product to seed.

Since seeding, I have learned

that the same granular inoculant that we use for our peas is now registered for fababeans as well, so that should make things simpler in future years.

THE GROWING PLANTS With good moisture in the soil it didn’t take long to find sprouted seeds in the seedbed. We didn’t do a pre-seed burn-down because there was no weed or volunteer emergence before seeding. We considered applying Heat before emergence, but decided there wasn’t enough pressure from the volunteer canola to warrant a trip over the field.

On June 5 we sprayed Odyssey DLX at 40 acres per case and 10 gallons of water per acre. We also sprayed Basagran on June 26 for control of annual sow thistle.

Odyssey DLX was given approval for minor use on fababeans in Februar y 2013, although

I know a few fababean growers who have been using it for several years. Christine Headon, regulatory products manager for BASF, said that the request for minoruse approval was originally put forward in 2003. BASF requested additional phytotoxicity tests before supporting the application.

“We don’t want to add a use to our label that would disappoint our growers,” said Headon.

With BASF’s support Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada submitted the application to the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, which requested further residue tests to establish maximum residual levels, before giving final approval.

Since spraying I’ve noticed some discolouring on the leaves.

I’ve been told it is not fungus, but likely herbicide burn. Mark Olson, pulse specialist at Alberta Agriculture, says that research still needs to be done on all chemis-

In This Issue

tries used on fababeans. He says some varieties of the same crop respond differently to the same herbicides. Fortunately, our plants seem to be growing out of whatever stress they experienced.

During the summers many fababean growers watch for lygus bugs which attack the mature plant, piercing the seeds with their mouth and leaving dark brown spots on the seeds. More than one per cent knocks the beans down from a No. 1 grade, according to Canadian Grain Commission guidelines. Because we are growing the beans for seed purposes, we are not as concerned about getting the No. 1 grade on the appearance of the seeds, but we will be scouting to make sure we do not have excessive pest populations. The lygus bugs tend to move into fababean stands as canola fields dry down and are swathed. » CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

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

2

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

5

Crop Advisor’s Casebook

8

Columns ...........................

9

Machinery & Shop ............ 16 Cattleman’s Corner .......... 28

A new crop year in Australia

KIM NIELSEN PAGE 14

Clean Seed sees a new way forward for drills SCOTT GARVEY PAGE16

FarmLife ............................ 35

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JULY / AUGUST 2013

Wheat & Chaff STAMPEDE

BY JERRY PALEN

LEEANN MINOGUE

K

“

eep away from the windows!” my husband yelled. “The glass could break.”

“Maybe we should all run into the bathroom,” our six-year old said, jumping up and down with excitement. “There’s no windows in there.”

Good suggestions. But I was too busy taking pictures.

THE STORM

“It fits you perfect! It’s the cheapest one they make.”

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Phone Leeann Minogue at 306-861-2678

Our July 13 hailstorm lasted for about 10 minutes. We’ve described the hailstones as “as big as tennis balls.” (I heard one reporter say they were “the size of grapefruit,” but I have to admit I didn’t see that.)

It was a scary 10 minutes.

Before it stopped, I was starting to wonder if we were in one of those climate change thriller movies, where a handsome scientist and his girlfriend scramble to save the world.

We weren’t the only ones worried. Many of our neighbours heard the “whoosh” of a tornado, and rushed down to their basements. (I can’t imagine how they took any decent photos from there.) We didn’t hear that at our place — too busy shouting about windows, I guess.

By the time the storm ended, we weren’t sure we even wanted to go outside for a better look.

Once we did, we wished we hadn’t.

We lost about 80 per cent of our crop during that 10-minute storm.

Several of our fields look like

someone went over them with a lawn mower. The rest just look kind of sad.

THE PERSPECTIVE The week before the storm, Brad had been running flat out, trying to get everything sprayed at the right time. We’d worried that spraying one canola field a day late might have lost us some yield.

Now, we wish he’d just taken a week or two off and gone to the lake, and saved us the cost of the chemicals.

Instead of rushing around with the sprayer, now Brad’s wandering the yard, making lists of things to add to our insurance claim: a handful of broken windows, new shingles for the roof of the house and dents on the roofs of a couple of sheds. Now, instead of waiting for just the right weather conditions to apply fungicide, we’re waiting for a crop insurance adjuster to come out and write off most of our fields so we can heavy harrow them.

Two years ago, we thought things couldn’t get worse. Spring run-off and heavy rains flooded our land. Brad managed to seed 4.8 acres (no, not a typo) before he got stuck on a wet hilltop and gave it up. We didn’t harvest at all in 2011.

This year, we have a couple of fields left unscathed, and some that may bounce back to a just slightly below-average yield by the end of the season. And yet, this hailstorm seems even harder to live with than the Great Flood of 2011.

There are a few reasons for this.

• We had a pretty good crop coming. On the morning of July 13, we went out to take photos of the canola. We tried to guess when it would be ready to swath, so we could arrange to have my uncle

from Ontario come out and give us a hand. When you don’t seed anything, you don’t have time to get your hopes up.

• Because our crop looked pretty good this year, we’d invested in it.

The upside to not seeding at all is that you have minimal input expenses.

• The 2011 flood left most of the farmers in our area in exactly the same boat (huddling in groups on the sidelines of the kids’ soccer practices, commiserating with each other.) But hail is random.

Some of our neighbours didn’t even get any rain. Others had more damage than we did.

• In 2011, we had weeks and weeks to adjust to the fact that there wasn’t going to be a crop.

This year, everything changed in 10 minutes.

THE FUTURE Brad and I were married in 2002. This is my 11th year on the farm. We’ve had The Year of the Early Frost (when, not only did we lose a lot of crop, we had to live with the smell of frozen coriander hanging in the air around the yard for weeks). Then there was the Great Flood of 2011. And now the Hailstorm of 2013.

This seems like the kind of trouble I could have avoided if I’d just married a nice accountant.

But we’re not ready to call the Ritchie Brothers just yet. Anyone who reads Grainews knows that, in the long run, the good years are bound to outweigh the bad.

The chance to live a life where every day can bring something completely unexpected (sometimes great, sometimes not) is well worth the risk that comes as part of the package.

Leeann

Fax to 204-944-5416 Email leeann.minogue@fbcpublishing.com Write to Grainews, 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, Man. R3H 0H1

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Before. We took this shot on the morning of July 13.

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This is what’s left of what was once headed After. This was the canola on the afternoon of July 13. spring wheat. That’s our yard in the background.

July / AUGUST 2013

Wheat & Chaff Farm safety

Stay safe when working with huge bales

T

o the urban passerby, bales are picturesque.

But for farmers, large bales can turn into life threatening wrecking balls if proper handling procedures aren’t followed. Large bales range from about 800 to 1,500 pounds for the predominant round variety, to between 1,000 to 2,000 pounds for their larger square cousins.

There are some downsides to these huge bundles. Firstly, their size and weight is unforgiving, ensuring that any improper handling technique could have serious consequences. Secondly, in the case of round bales, they are unstable. Like a wheel rolling down a hill, the utmost care must be taken when handling round bales to ensure they stay put.

Glen Blahey is the agricultural safety and health specialist for the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association. “The majority of injuries occur when bales are being placed onto or removed from transport vehicles, or when an operator is lifting the bales incorrectly, either with improper spearing techniques or lifting the bales beyond their centre of gravity. If a bale falls, it could crush the operator or anyone nearby. So handlers need to ensure they are lifting correctly and that their operating space is totally clear of bystanders,” he says.

In 2013 so far, there have been three media reports of men in Canada being killed while transporting bales and another two of men incurring serious injury. In February, an Ontario man was struck by a falling hay bale while handling it with a front-end loader. He eventually died of his injuries.

In May, a man in British Columbia was injured when a bale gave way and struck him while he was repairing the wrapping on a bale of hay being moved from the field to a barn. He suffered nonlife threatening injuries.

For more information on safe bale handling contact CASA at info@casa-acsa.ca or FARSHA at farmsafe@farsha.bc.ca, or visit agsafetyweek.ca to learn how to develop a complete farm safety plan. †

Safe bale transport

T

here are four main stages of bale transport, each with their own risks.

1. Lifting: Improper lifting can cause vehicles to rollover or bales to roll or fall off of lifting equipment.

• Ensure adequate operating space clear of all bystanders.

• The lift capacity on a front end loader or telehandler must be greater than the bale being moved. If not, the vehicle could overturn.

• Always use proper loading systems when lifting with frontend loaders. Buckets should not be used. Double spears work well but beware of single spears.

They should not be used unless they are supplemented with a stabilizer to keep the bale from rotating and giving way.

• Always pierce round bales in the centre of the load. If it’s too low it could rotate forward along the spear pivot point, breaking free from handling equipment and rolling onto anyone in its path. Too high and it could rotate back and crush the operator.

• Never lift beyond the centre of gravity of a bale. If a bale is lifted too high, it could roll the vehicle or fall off.

2. Loading: Loading too quickly can unsettle already placed loads.

• Ensure there are no bystanders near the transport vehicle, especially the opposite side of the vehicle being loaded.

• Stack bales in a tight, pyramidal format to provide support during transport.

• Do not push bales too hard onto the vehicle. This could cause bales on the opposite side of the vehicle to fall off.

• Secure bales with straps in both directions as per regulations across most of Canada to protect motorists while on the road.

3. Transport: Visibility and blind spots can create multiple roadway hazards for both transport drivers and motorists.

• Plan your route and be aware of traffic conditions.

• Use proper warning lights and consider using a pilot vehicle to help warn motorists of upcoming (especially left) turns.

4. Unloading: Unloading should be done cautiously to avoid unexpected bale movement.

• Select a location for unloading that has even, hard ground with adequate space for maneuvering.

• Clear the area of bystanders.

• Determine whether the load has shifted during transport. Make adjustments to reduce the risk of bales falling.

• Remove all straps carefully and do not begin unloading until the truck driver is clear of the site.

• Ensure your unloading equipment is adequate for the weight of the bales and height of the bale stack.

• Unload from the top, working down as you go.

• Pierce bales carefully so as not to push bales off the opposite side of the vehicle. † CASA

Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA).

Crop production

Surveying the damage

A

ccording to the Canadian Crop Hail Association, both Saskatchewan and Manitoba experienced their worst hail activity of the summer (so far) on July 13. Hail claims in Manitoba are still within the five-year average, and Saskatchewan claims are slightly below the five-year average.

In Alberta, there have been more than 1,000 claims — above average. Hail has been reported somewhere in Alberta every day between July 4 and July 22. †

Weather Lore

Bright bees

B

ees will not swarm before a rain Bees will stay home or fly very short distances before a rain because they just can’t go any further. Their navigations systems are shut down.

Bees navigate with respect to polarized light from the sky. Before a rain, high cirrus clouds loaded with ice crystals scatter the sun’s rays and destroy the polarization. Bees can’t figure out where they’re going so they stay home.

A fogged in bee is a frustrated bee. Those little insects live to get out and gather nectar. If they’re forced to stay indoors while that honey crop is waiting outside they can get very cranky. †

Shirley Byers’ book “Never Sell Your Hen on a Rainy Day” explores over 100 weather rhymes and sayings. It is available from McNally Robinson at: www.mcnallyrobinson.com.

photo: joanne schurko

Bruce Schurko takes a look at hail damage to his wheat field near Griffin, Sask., — a result of the July 13 storm.

photo contest

GIVE US YOUR BEST SHOT Bridgid Cowan sent in this photo. Her email said: “This is our 14-month old son, Avery Cowan, with his great grandpa, Art Cowan, and their matching tractors. Art is 81, and Avery will be the fourth generation working on Cowan Farms in Hartney, Man.” Thank you so much for sending this, Bridgid! We’ll send you a cheque for $25.

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

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You might be from the prairies if...

You consider three miles of visability to be a little foggy.

Agronomy tips from the field

Time for herbicides

W

ith harvest just around the corner, herbicides aren’t high on everyone’s list of priorities. But the fact is that a late-season herbicide application can have huge benefits.

Pre-harvest glyphosate applications — usually on cereals — are a great opportunity to manage fields challenged with perennial weeds such as Canada thistle.

Nutrients move to the roots of perennial weeds at this time of year and glyphosate piggybacks along, making a pre-harvest application an excellent control tool.

Pre-harvest desiccant applications can be essential to quickly drying down pulse pods and green plant material, protecting yield and grade at harvest.

Note: Glyphosate is great for weed control, but it won’t provide the fast drydown that a desiccant will.

Post-harvest glyphosate applications are used on the stubble of crops with dense canopies, such as canola. With the canopy gone, you can control tough perennials like dandelions plus winter annuals so they can’t get an early jump on next year’s crop.

You can accomplish a lot with a late-season herbicide application. Give them the consideration they deserve! † This agronomy tip is brought to you by David Forster, agronomic service representative for Syngenta Canada Inc.

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JULY / AUGUST 2013

Cover Stories CROP PRODUCTION

1 6 6 6 D U B L I N AV E N U E , WINNIPEG, MB R3H 0H1 w w w. g r a i n e w s . c a PUBLISHER

Lynda Tityk ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/ EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

John Morriss EDITOR

Leeann Minogue FIELD EDITOR

Lisa Guenther CATTLEMAN’S CORNER EDITOR

Lee Hart FARMLIFE EDITOR

Sue Armstrong MACHINERY EDITOR

Scott Garvey PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

Shawna Gibson

By 2-1/2 weeks after seeding, the plants were well established.

Shaking on the self-stick inoculant can be a rather unscientific process.

» CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

FABABEAN UPDATE SELLING THE BEANS For commercial growers looking to market their product in Alberta, Chris Chivilo, CEO of Parkand Commodities, said he usually buys beans under 15 to 20 per cent total damage and colour sorts them to make a No. 1 or 2 grade.

Chivilo urges growers harvesting fabas this fall to look into their marketing options before they get in the combine. His facility is already booked to 90 per cent capacity through November.

“Nobody expects farmers to sell all their fabas before they come off the fields, but let everyone know to at least start talking about how much they’ll need to move, and when, so shippers can

make plans for moving them,” he wrote in an email.

Chivilo projects prices to be in the $7 per bushel range for feed beans and $8 per bushel for edible grade through harvest. I won’t be selling my beans until spring, but I have already had two growers speak for a significant portion of my projected production. A lot can change between now and next spring, but interest this early is encouraging.

As well as managing marketing risk, farmers need to manage their risk in the field as harvest draws near. Although fababeans are determinate, Olson said he has seen them start flowering again if they get a late August rain.

Growers should have a plant to desiccate their field in the first two weeks of September or a few days before a forecasted frost.

According to the Alberta Agriculture factsheet put out

by Olson and colleague Sheri Strydhorst, a fababean crop that has 90 per cent black pods is considered to be physiologically mature and ready for desiccation. Olson encouraged growers to focus on the lower pods where the majority of production comes from, rather than waiting too long for the top pods to ripen.

“The pods shouldn’t split,” says Olson, “but if you have a cycle of wet, dry, wet, dry you may see some shelling.”

Alberta Agriculture research shows that higher seeding rates can hasten maturity. Futhermore, research shows that, depending on growing conditions, increasing the seeding rate from 32 plants per square metre to 65 plants per square metre can increase yield from four to seven bushels per acre.

While this year’s crop is already in the ground, it is valuable to know that the negative effects of late

seeding may be partially negated by increased plant population.

Olson acknowledged that increasing the seeding rates from the recommended four plants per square foot to six is not without challenges, considering the large size of most fababean varieties.

Many growers tout the moisture tolerance of fababeans, With eight inches of rain since seeding, we are putting that theory to the test. So far the stand looks healthy. I wish it was a bit more even height-wise, but overall, if we can avoid hail and an early frost I am optimistic about the future of this crop. I look forward to updating readers post-harvest.

Editor’s note: Watch future issues of Grainews for a final update on Sarah Weigum’s fababean experience. † Sarah Weigum grows pedigreed seed and writes in Three Hills, Alta. Follow her on Twitter: @sweigum.

FARM MANAGEMENT

FNA’s spokesperson says their goal of getting the best possible deal for farmers doesn’t always make them popular with input supply companies

S

askatchewan farmer Jim Mann started Farmers of North America (FNA) in 1998 in a bid to make farming more profitable. Mann rounded up interested farmers and began approaching input supply companies to form mutually beneficial partnerships, by lowering transportation and transaction costs.

“And they told him to take a hike,” says Bob Friesen, FNA spokesperson.

Friesen says it’s difficult to work with Canadian input supply companies to this day “because they see FNA for what FNA is. FNA wants to try to reduce the price as much as possible for farmers, and so they don’t really like us.”

MEMBERSHIP But Jim Mann persisted, and today FNA has 10,000 members in Canada. FNA doesn’t own any bricks and mortar, but is a farmer-membership organization that links farmer members and input supply partners, said Friesen.

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Farmers of North America

BY LISA GUENTHER

DESIGNER

“They basically hire us to buy for them.

And we offer those products (to) them — ranging from chemicals to fertilizer to bins to tires and ear tags and parts,” says Terry Drabiuk, vice president of operations at FNA. A yearly membership costs farmers $625.

FNA charges $1,675 for three years, and $2,625 for five, says Drabiuk.

“They could use one program and get it back instantly,” Drabiuk says. He added how quickly farmers recoup membership costs depends partly on which programs they access.

FNA has spot priced and spot sourced fertilizer, Friesen says. After spot sourcing a fertilizer batch, FNA develops a program and delivers the fertilizer to members.

FNA is now planning to build its own fertilizer plant project, with the help of farmer investors. Friesen says they’re approaching the fertilizer plant differently than their spot pricing programs.

“We’re not doing it to introduce competition. We’re doing it simply to accrue benefits for the farmer investors. We don’t

want to destroy the marketplace for fertilizer,” says Friesen.

FNA and its non-profit arm, FNA-Strategic Agriculture Institute, aren’t afraid to lobby for regulatory change, either. At the 2013 Canadian Farm Progress Show in Regina, Friesen encouraged farmers to sign and send in letters asking the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) to speed registration of generic pesticides.

Friesen says the objective wasn’t to criticize pesticide or fertilizer companies, but to make farmers more cost competitive.

“Even on that pesticide issue, we’re not trying to eliminate the exclusive marketing protection that basic registrants have, the innovators have, when they register an innovative product. They can keep that protection. We also want to pay them fair compensation for the data that’s relied on,” says Friesen.

“But after that, that’s when the PMRA should really put an effort into expediting the registration of generics.” † Lisa Guenther is a field editor with Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Contact her at Lisa.Guenther@fbcpublishing.com.

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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.

July / AUGUST 2013

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5

Features Farm management

Farm labour shortages Labour shortages are especially problematic for potato growers, and many other Prairie farmers are also feeling the squeeze

By Julienne Isaacs

T

his year, many prairie potato growers will face labour shortages during the busy harvest season. The reasons are complex, but the result will be the same: greater stress for human resources managers on commercial potato farms and longer hours for all hands on the fields.

The situation

Employment insurance Potato growers across the country have also been expressing concerns about recent Employment Insurance reform, which requires that workers to travel up to 100 kilometres and accept jobs which pay as little as 70 per cent

lay them off for the summer with According to Kuhl, who also the hope that they can recall serves as chairman of the board them in the fall, so there’s con- at Peak of the Market, many cern that this practice won’t work large-scale Manitoba growers as effectively as it has in the past,” rely on seasonal migrant labour explains Keith Kuhl, president and because Canadians are simply CEO of Southern Manitoba Potato not applying for available posiand president of the Canadian tions. Southern Manitoba Potato, Horticultural Council. he says, continues to hire sea“It’s one of the areas that sonal workers from Mexico we’re in discussion with the and Belize, most of whom hold government on at the national Canadian citizenship while maklevel through the Horticultural ing their permanent residence in Council, and we’re hopeful we their home countries. can find ways to work with the “Most times the reason that government to ensure the needs [growers are] bringing people in of the community are addressed from other countries is that even T:8.125” on an ongoing basis.” if there were Canadians available,

Julienne Isaacs is a Winnipeg-based freelance writer and editor. Contact her at julienne.isaacs@gmail.com.

N I I N O J

on real

FOOD FOR THOUGHT THE TABLE

4-H Canada and Bayer CropScience believe the agricultural leaders of tomorrow can help find sustainable solutions for the world’s growing need for safe, nutritious food.

That’s why we’re gathering 120 bright minds, ages 18-25, from around the world to share their perspectives at the 4-H Youth Ag-Summit in Calgary. From August 19th-25th, 2013, these delegates will be tasked with identifying actionable agriculturally sustainable solutions to feed a growing world.

IS SET

Let’s talk change. To find out what topics are on the table and join the growing conversation, please visit facebook.com/youthagsummit.

T:10”

“If I got three skilled applicants today I’d hire them on the spot,” says Edwin Klassen, human resources manager for Kroeker Farms, which produces conventional potatoes, along with potatoes, hemp, corn and onions in its organic division, near Winkler, Man. “Right now the labour market is very tight. I’m getting very few quality applicants for hire,” says Klassen. “I’ve been in this position for five years and in the past I would very often have had a list of anywhere from 10 to 20 applicants who would want to be grading potatoes, and since last summer that list is down to two or three.”

On an operation as large as Kroeker Farms, a large workforce is needed year round, but particularly in the busy spring and autumn months. “I know that other potato growers and cereal farms are drawing labour from Winkler, Morden and other areas as well,” says Klassen. “Quite a few grain farms are operating 10,000 to 20,000 acres, so they have a workforce of a dozen or more. They’re all looking for the same skills — guys who can operate equipment or repair a piece of equipment.”

Klassen says their operation has a pressing need for workers who can multi-task in the shop, as well as welders and truck drivers, but seasonal positions are hard to fill locally.

Training for some positions can take up to two years, but most farm labour positions are not considered “skilled” jobs by the government, which makes hiring seasonal migrant workers more difficult.

“I tried to get a skilled landleveling person from Belize last year but the government denied the applicant based on it being an ‘unskilled’ position,” says Klassen. “But the people we use on our land-leveling crews have to operate computerized tractor and GPS systems and be able to level land within inches, and this particular individual had been doing this in Belize for a number of years.”

of their previous hourly wage.

Announced as part of 2012’s March budget and implemented in January this year, the changes have many growers worried that labour shortages will be exacerbated this harvest.

This is especially true in the Prairies, where potato operations compete with cereal growers and other major industries for quality applicants.

“Some of the new EI rules mean that if people are laid off from a job, they need to continually be looking for new employment. I know there are some farms that will hire people for spring then

they won’t do the kind of work that’s required by these farms,” says Kuhl.

Kevin MacIsaac, general manager of United Potato Growers of Canada, says that regardless of whether the positions are skilled or unskilled, short-term positions are difficult to fill on most potato operations, unless growers are able to hire migrant workers. “If it was for a year-round job it would be easier to hire people,” he says.

“The three most critical things to harvesting a potato crop are good weather, good equipment and good labour. It’s a pretty important factor in getting the crop harvested.”

For Klassen and other prairie potato growers, besides harvesting countless high-quality spuds, finding good labour might be their biggest challenge this fall. †

6

/ grainews.ca

July / AUGUST 2013

Features Crop production

Growing winter wheat for profit Winter wheat may be a profitable option

By Leeann Minogue

S

ome farmers see winter wheat as a last resort, or just a way to spread out harvest work. But according to numbers published by the Prairie provincial governments, winter wheat can be one of the most profitable crop options.

For many farmers, this comes as a surprise. Paul Thoroughgood, a Ducks Unlimited regional agrologist, says this is because “We’ve been programmed for generations to grow CWRS or CWAD.” But, lately, the gap between winter wheat and spring wheat prices has narrowed, with winter wheat getting closer to spring wheat prices. “We’ve seen a narrowing in that spread,” Thoroughgood says.

Winter wheat can often outyield spring wheat, Thoroughgood says. “The yield advantage more than makes up for the price disadvantage.”

Crop budget estimates released

by Prairie provincial governments

this past winter help to make Thoroughgood’s point.

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan Agriculture publishes per acre cost of production estimates annually, for each soil zone. (To find the full data, go to www.agriculture.sk.ca, and search for “crop planning guide.” There is a pdf available for free download, or an Excel spreadsheet where you can insert numbers personalized for your own farm.)

Saskatchewan Agriculture’s winter wheat numbers (shown in the “special crop” section of the document) are calculated for the black soil zone. As you can see in the table, Saskatchewan Agriculture estimates a return of $162.31 per acre for winter wheat, compared with only $66.70 for spring wheat. (Canola shows up as only slightly more profitable than winter wheat, at $166 per acre.)

Of course crop price numbers will change from day to day, and production costs will be very differ-

ent from year to year and farm to farm. In this table, the main difference in profitability between spring and winter wheat is the yield estimate: 58 bushels per acre for winter wheat, and only 42 bushels per acre on spring wheat. (These numbers are for stubble-seeded crops.)

Fertilizer cost estimates are higher for winter wheat, but the higher yield makes up the difference when it comes to revenues.

Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives (MAFRI) also publishes detailed estimates of production costs and revenues. MAFRI produces estimates for both eastern and western Manitoba. This table shows only the numbers for eastern Manitoba.

To find these numbers online and learn more about all of the data sources, at www.gov.mb.ca, search for “cost of production,” then look for the “Crop production costs” for eastern or western Manitoba.

In this table, winter wheat in

Durum Wheat

Winter Wheat

Canola Invigor

Canola Nexera RR

A. Operating Costs

REVENUE PER ACRE: Yield (bushels)

$26.00

$28.00

$22.00

$53.44

$54.63

Fertilizer

$76.70

$73.50

$91.00

$97.55

$97.55

Herbicide

$26.45

$26.45

$7.22

$11.25

$5.33

Fungicide

$21.63

$16.25

$18.44

$36.60

$36.60

Variable Expenses/acre

Insecticide

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

Seed

Fuel

$17.95

$17.95

$19.27

$17.26

$17.26

Fertilizer - Nitrogen

$10.00

$10.00

$8.00

$10.00

$10.00

Crop Insurance

$10.08

$13.21

$10.96

$16.87

$16.87

Other Costs

$7.75

$7.75

$7.75

$7.75

$7.75

Land Taxes

$4.35

$4.35

$4.35

$4.35

$4.35

Interest on Operating

$5.53

$5.43

$5.20

$7.01

$6.88

Total Operating

$206.44 $202.89 $194.19

$262.08

$257.22

B. Fixed Costs

$97.27

$97.27

$97.27

$97.27

$97.27

C. Labour

$26.25

$26.25

$26.25

$26.25

$26.25

$329.96 $326.41 $317.71

$385.60

$380.74

Total Costs

Price (per bushel) Gross Revenue per acre EXPENSES PER ACRE:

- Phosphorus - Sulphur and Other

Leeann Minogue is the editor of Grainews.

Spring Wheat

Malt Barley

Canola

Winter Wheat

42

63

38

58

$7.15

$5.40

$12.00

$6.70

$298.87

$340.20

$453.60

$389.94

16.80

15.75

57.50

20.00

42.00

39.00

42.00

45.00

15.00

15.00

15.00

15.00

0.00

0.00

8.00

0.00

18.23

16.37

19.13

9.30

- Insecticides/Fungicides

3.06

0.00

1.54

0.00

- Seed Treatments/Innoculants

4.60

5.16

0.00

5.75

17.00

17.00

18.00

14.00

7.15

7.15

7.15

7.15

Custom Work and Hired Labour

18.25

16.25

16.25

15.00

Crop Insurance Premium

9.90

10.96

21.71

13.76

Utilities and Miscellaneous

5.99

5.99

5.99

5.99

Chemical - Herbicides

Machinery Operating - Fuel - Repair

REVENUES: Price ($/bushel)

Alberta Agriculture’s Crop Enterprise and Return Calculator operates online. You choose your soil zone, then select four crops you’d like to compare, and it generates estimated cost of production numbers.

For stubble seeded crops in the dark brown soil zone, Alberta Agriculture estimates that winter wheat will provide a contribution margin of $34.08 per acre (the contribution margin is revenue less variable expenses). Winter wheat does not look as attractive as other options based on

SASKATCHEWAN, BLACK SOIL ZONE: PER ACRE COST OF PRODUCTION ESTIMATES

Seed & Treatment

Machinery Operating

the these numbers. Spring wheat compares at $49.32 per acre, and canola at $39.89 per acre.

In this case, the winter wheat yield used by the Alberta cost of production calculator is 36 bushels per acre, versus 33 bushels per acre for spring wheat.

Find this calculator at www. agric.gov.ab.ca. Click on “decision making tools” near the top of the page, then scroll down to “Crop Production” to find a link to the “Crop Enterprise Cost and Return Calculator.”

Paul Thoroughgood says that, for experienced winter wheat growers, these estimates for Manitoba and Saskatchewan are “not a surprise.”

As well as working for Ducks Unlimited, Thoroughgood farms near Moose Jaw, Sask. “Winter wheat’s been one of the more profitable crops on my farm,” Thoroughgood says.

“If flax looked that profitable every one of us would have been planting flax like mad.” †

Alberta

Manitoba

EASTERN MANITOBA: PER ACRE COST OF PRODUCTION ESTIMATES Wheat

eastern Manitoba comes out well ahead of other options, with a per acre revenue of $233.25, as compared with $95.38 per acre for spring wheat.

Winter wheat comes out this far ahead, in spite of a lower per bushel revenue, because of the yield advantage: an estimated 71 bushels per acre as compared to 51 bushels per acre for spring wheat.

Interest on Variable Expenses

3.32

3.12

4.46

5.81

161.30

151.75

216.73

156.76

$8.34

$7.95

$7.76

$11.92

$13.17

51

43

71

36

36

Gross Revenue / acre $425.34 $341.85 $550.96

$429.12

$474.12

FIXED EXPENSES PER ACRE:

$70.87

$70.87

$70.87

$70.87

Revenues per acre

$43.52

$93.38

TOTAL EXPENSES:

$232.17

$222.62

$287.60

$227.63

RETURNS PER ACRE*:

$66.70

$117.58

$166.00

$162.31

Yield — bu. per acre

$95.38

$15.44

$233.25

Source: Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives. Find it online at www.gov. mb.ca. Search for “cost of production,” then look for the “Crop production costs” for Eastern or Western Manitoba. Please see original source for disclaimers and background information about this data before using it for planning purposes.

Total Variable Expenses (D)

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture. Find is online at: www.agriculture.sk.ca (search for “crop planning guide”). Please see original source for disclaimers and background information about these numbers before using them for planning purposes.

C NOLA M.D.

grainews.ca/DIAGNOSEIT

JULY / AUGUST 2013

grainews.ca /

7

Features CROP PRODUCTION

When winter wheat is Plan B A cold spring left unseeded acres. Time to look at winter wheat

BY LEEANN MINOGUE

I

t’s been several years since there’s been any winter wheat grown on our farm.

But 2013 brought such cold, wet spring weather, we didn’t seed all the land we’d hoped to seed.

Winter wheat seems like a good option for those last two quarters.

Larry Durand is a winter cereals agrologist with Ducks Unlimited at Humboldt, Sask. Durand refers to a situation like ours as “forced fallow,” and says there are other farmers in this same situation. “There’s still some land out there that has that potential, that hasn’t been seeded for a year, or maybe for a few years.”

While Durand says this midyear game change isn’t the optimum situation for planting winter wheat. If your land is too wet to seed in May, “it’s potentially going to have too much moisture again next spring,” when the crop is in the field.

However, under the circumstances, Durand says, “it’s not a bad management decision for that parcel of land.”

In fact, he says, some winter wheat growers who started out growing it as a last-minute decision “really liked it. Now they’ve become regular winter wheat growers.”

Since we haven’t grown winter wheat in a while, I asked Durand for an update — a quick overview of what has changed, and what we might want to consider before it’s time to seed.

NEW VARIETIES In the last five or six years, the removal of the requirement for kernel visual distinguishability (KDV) has led to the release of quite a few new varieties of winter wheat. The adoption of the General Purpose class has, Durand says, “really opened up the floodgates a little for winter wheat variety registration.”

Durand says that some of the newly registered General Purpose varieties have good yield advantages over milling quality varieties. “We might start seeing more of a trend toward some of these General Purpose winter wheats.”

There are also several new varieties of Canada Western Red Winter (CWRW) wheat on the market, some of which have just been registered last fall. These varieties can usually give farmers a premium of about $10 a ton, plus protein payments on higher protein winter wheat. Also, CWRW can be sold as either a milling product, or into the feed or ethanol market.

PREPARATION To get your fields ready for winter wheat during the summer, Durand says “The ideal situation is to seed into good standing stubble that will trap some snow and give it a good blanket for the winter.”

Ideally, you should disturb your fields as little as possible. Leaving standing stubble in the field will help to trap snow, which will protect the crop over the winter.

Generally, Durant advises, “Try to avoid traffic on that field as much as possible.” This is especially important when it comes to stubble that’s a year or two old, as it will be more brittle and prone to breaking.

For weed control, chem fallow will be more beneficial than tillage. And, Durand says, “It might not be a bad idea to let the weeds grow a bit before you spray them.”

Dead standing weeds will help trap moisture over the winter, and if your fields are wet in the summer, growing plants can help to use up some of the excess moisture.

SEEDING DATES Optimal seeding dates will always depend on your location and specific weather conditions.

But Durant says that, typically,

“The optimum time to seed winter wheat is that last week in August, or the first week of September.”

It is going to be challenging to plan winter wheat seeding around our harvest operations. Durant generally suggests trying to seed sometime between August 20 to September 15. But, farmers will need to prioritize. “If you have to cheat by a couple of days it’s not the end of the world.”

What you want, he says, “is to have a well established plant going into the winter months. Ideally, you want to have about three leaves or better so the crown of the plant is nice and thick.” That’s the point where plant growth will resume in the spring.

“It is possible to seed too early,” Durant says. If your winter wheat crop grows too much in the fall, you may have disease issues, a decrease in winter hardiness, or the plants might take up too many nutrients in the fall season.

FERTILITY As with all crops, farmers are using several different approaches to fertilizing winter wheat. Durand says, “You can talk to 10 different winter wheat growers and they’d probably have 10 different approaches to their fertility program.”

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When you’re planning fertilizer for your crop, Durand points out two factors that make winter wheat a little different than spring seeded crops.

The first thing to keep in mind is that you’ll need more fertilizer. In Saskatchewan, Durand says winter wheat outyields spring wheat by about 25 per cent, on average.

The second factor is timing.

Farmers growing spring seeded crops will put down most of their fertilizer during or before seeding. With winter wheat, most of the fertilizer goes down during or after seeding.

OTHER FACTORS Ducks Unlimited has been funding research into winter wheat agronomy. A couple of new research results stand out for Durant.

First, he says, “We’re seeing more positive responses to things like seed treatments. It’s probably more important than we initially thought.”

Another factor that can make a difference is the use of foliar fungicides. “Most years, winter wheat will escape fusarium,” Durand says, “But not all years.”

Ideally, the weather would cooperate every year, and every Prairie farmer would be able to go with Plan A every time. But in this case, it’s good to know that Plan B looks like a good solid plan. Maybe one day, winter wheat will be our Plan A. † Leeann Minogue is the editor of Grainews.

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8

/ grainews.ca

July / AUGUST 2013

Features Crop production

Crop Advisor’s casebook

ELUSIVE CULPRIT CAUSES WHEAT FIELD TO BROWN

By Carl Geisbrecht

W

ith his crop at the very early stages of emergence, a local farmer had been keeping a watchful eye on his wheat field. Guy was alarmed to see patches in the field turn more yellow by the day, so he decided it was time to call the office for assistance.

Guy, who farms a mix of canola, wheat and oats southeast of Swan River, Man., was concerned the entire field would soon be ruined. “My wheat crop is going downhill and fast,” explained Guy. “Could you take a look at the field? I think it must have a disease, but I’m unsure.”

Guy’s early growing season routine included post-emergent herbicide scouting, and during his daily field walks Guy had noticed that the yellow patches in the wheat field were now turning to a brownish-orange colour.

After arriving at the field, I walked across it and could see the plants were at the two- to threeleaf stage. It was apparent that the lower leaves of the plants were browning off around the edges, while newer leaves exhibited little to no damage. A more noticeably damaged area was on a sandy ridge across one side of the quarter section. Another area — a corner of the field with more heavily textured soil — had considerably less plant damage.

In terms of the history of the field, there was very little data on previous usage to go

Carl Giesbrecht, Swan River, Man., Richardson Pioneer Ltd. on. Guy indicated this was the second crop on this particular field since he rented the land a year ago. The previous crop had been canola with a fertility package of 100-30-0-15, while this year, Guy’s fertility blend on the wheat field was 80-30-15-0.

The area had received plenty of rain so I knew that a shortage of moisture wasn’t to blame. I had a hunch about what could be causing Guy’s problems in this field, but it required some further exploration. I explained to Guy that the best way to zero in on a possible cause would be to take both a tissue sample of the damaged plants and a soil sample for testing.

If my suspicions proved correct, I was certain all of Guy’s hard work and money invest-

ment in his wheat crop could be salvaged since the field was at an early stage of growth.

What was causing Guy’s wheat field not only to turn yellow but start to die off? 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 that solved the mystery, will appear in the next Crop Advisor’s Solution. † Carl Giesbrecht is an area marketing representative for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. at Swan River, Man.

Casebook winner

T

his issue’s winning entry came from Peter Hofer, from the Dinsmore Hutterite Colony in

The lower leaves of Guy’s wheat plants were browning off around the edges. Newer leaves showed little or no damage.

Crop Advisor’s Solution

Saskatchewan. We’ll be renewing Peter’s subscription for a year, and mailing out a Grainews hat.

Thanks for entering! †

MAKE SURE TO READ PRODUCT LABELS

Leeann Minogue

By Terry Moyer

Take control of your marketing The Wild Oats Grain Market Advisory provides: • news and statistics that affect prairie markets • analysis making sense of the market action • specific strategies for marketing wheat, durum, oats, malt and feed barley, canola, flax, lentils, peas, mustard and canary • detailed farmgate prices for each of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba • futures and options quotes

Wild Oats, every Tuesday, keeps you on top of the markets without drowning you in market noise. It’s one page of news, one page of analysis and marketing strategies and two pages of numbers.

The cost is $295 a year. Delivery is by internet, fax or mail. Subscribers can call for personal marketing advice at any time.

Subscribe even if you have another marketing service, and it’s good.

You can’t have too many opinions on the market.

Terry Young, who farms at Lacombe, Alberta: “Wild Oats works for me.”

To subscribe call 1-800-567-5671 or on-line at Canadagrain.com

A

t the beginning of July, a farmer located 20 minutes southwest of Winnipeg called me with concerns he was having about one of his soybean fields. Roger, who farms 5,500 acres of wheat, winter wheat, soybeans and sunflowers, said he’d noticed large yellow patches developing in his soybean field over the past two and a half weeks. The field was at the R4 stage, when the pod is threequarters of an inch in the top four nodes.

“My crop is turning a yellow colour,” Roger explained over the phone. “I think it may be suffering from an iron or zinc deficiency. Could you come out and take a look?”

When I arrived at the field, I found Roger standing in the middle of a large, irregularlyshaped yellow patch. “This problem is definitely becoming larger,” he said, adding that he’d been scouting regularly for increasing signs of the problem. “At least 30 to

40 acres of my 200-acre field is already affected.”

The discoloured areas, caused by chlorosis, indicated that the soybean field was clearly under stress of some sort, but nothing stood out immediately as a possible cause. I reviewed local rainfall and temperature reports from the past couple of weeks, but there had not been any extreme weather events over that period.

Roger was sure that a deficiency within the soil structure, such as a lack of zinc or iron, was to blame, so I took soil and tissue samples for testing. I also conducted a field test by shaking some affected plants over a white board. The source of the damage became immediately apparent as a number of small, translucent, orangecoloured spider mites spread all over the board.

When I turned over a soybean leaf, I could see the stippling caused by the mites, which strip, chew and suck the chlorophyll out of the plants, turning the leaves a yellowish colour.

When I asked Roger about his field management practices, he explained that four weeks previously he had sprayed a pyrethroid insecticide for soybean aphids, a known problem in the area. I knew then that the type of insecticide he’d applied was the cause. This pyrethroid insecticide kills natural enemies of spider mites and most likely caused the flare-up of the mites.

“Unfortunately, the damage done in this field is irreversible,” I told Roger. In the end, he lost about eight bushels per acre in the affected areas.

To help avoid spider mite infestation in the future, I recommended that Roger use a dimethoate insecticide. This will help prevent infestations of both soybean aphids and spider mites, not just one or the other. If Roger had sprayed his crop earlier using the correct product, he would have eliminated both yieldrobbing pests at the same time. † Terry Moyer is a regional sales agronomist for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. at Lanmark, Man.

JULY / AUGUST 2013

grainews.ca /

9

Columns UNDERSTANDING MARKET BULLS AND BEARS

Market dynamics Now that the crop is in the ground and growing, weather can have a big impact on markets

BY BRIAN WITTAL

AROUND THE WORLD As of right now, a huge U.S. corn crop is expected and the bean crop is at or above average.

Wheat in some parts of the U.S. experienced drought again this year, but the area affected is not near as big as last year. Overall, wheat production should be up.

Argentina is harvesting its second corn crop — said to be a bumper crop. The earlier soybean harvest in South America was above average.

Crops in Europe, the Former Soviet Union region, China and Australia are mostly doing well.

THE MARKETS How do you try to build a marketing plan around all of this?

World supplies should rebuild themselves this year. This has become fairly evident when you look at the 15 to 25 per cent drop in prices that we’ve seen from old crop to new crop values.

The major marketing risk factor I see is weather uncertainty.

Remember, you’re trying to

PRICING STRATEGIES Here are some pricing strategies you can use to secure profits.

1. Wait. Avoid pre-pricing until harvest, so you know what you have to sell. The big risk here would be if we have a bumper crop on the Prairies and futures values drop drastically — you would lose out on locking in some earlier profitable values.

2. Price small amounts. Preprice small portions of your anticipated crop at profitable levels as the growing season progresses.

The risk here is if you end up short on production you could be at risk of having to buy back your contract.

3. Hedge. Use a traditional hedge strategy to lock in your futures values. You need a trading account and funds to put the

Seek Treatment

contract in place plus additional monies for potential margin calls.

4. Use options. Use options contracts with or without prepricing contracts to set floor prices and reduce delivery/pricing risk.

You need a trading account and funds to put the contracts in place.

Use put options to set a floor price and not have any delivery commitment risk.

Use call options to protect any pre-priced tonnage so that, in the event of a production loss and rising market prices, the call option will protect you so you can buy out your contract with no additional risk.

Weather markets can be extremely volatile. You need to be prepared to react when prices dictate you to do so.

Have your marketing plan ready to execute on a moment’s notice. † Brian Wittal has 30 years of grain industry experience, and currently offers market planning and marketing advice to farmers through his company Pro Com Marketing Ltd. (www.procommarketingltd.com).

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H

ow have the markets changed since spring?

Let’s start by looking at Prairie weather to date: March/April: Late snows left ample moisture but threatened to delay seeding and/or potentially reduce acres seeded.

April/May: Warm weather allowed for quick seeding.

June: Excess moisture flooded some areas and made spraying a bit of a mud fling at best. Crops were under water stress.

July: Heat of 30+ degrees brings thunderstorms with more rain and severe hail.

With the amount of ground water out there, we can expect more of this type of weather cycle (hot days followed by storms).

secure profits, not trying to pick the tops of the market. When prices are profitable, lock them in to your advantage.

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

Scan here for the latest information on varieties.

10

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JULY / AUGUST 2013

Columns FARM FINANCIAL PLANNER

Young farmers plan farm growth, family Looking at their options early will help ensure a bright financial future for this young farm couple

BY ANDREW ALLENTUCK

O

ut on the Prairies of western Manitoba, a couple — we’ll call them Herb, 30, and Sally, 28, are building their lives on a 500-acre farm they own and Herb’s 17 per cent share in a 2,500 acre family farm. Sally has a town job — she works in a bank and pulls down an $80,000 a n n u a l s a l a r y. H e r b t a k e s $12,000 per year from his own farm and another $18,000 per year from the family farm. Their combined income is $120,500.

Their business is cereals, edible beans and 80 beef cows. The two farms, both organized as family farm corporations, are profitable, but the couple has a $128,000 debt to Sally’s parents for money borrowed to buy their $200,000 house. Add in $80,000 of other real estate including a rental home that brings in $300 per month of income and take off $52,000 of other loans, and with their Registered Retirement Savings Plans and other registered assets and they have a net worth of $473,400. Not bad for a young couple just starting life together.

THE PLAN Their plan for now is to pay off their debts and build up their bank accounts for the kids they expect to have one day. They appreciate the financial complexities of their lives. To sort out their choices and to build a strategy for managing them, Herb and Sally asked Erik Forbes, an associate with Don Forbes Associates/Armstrong & Quaile Inc. in Carberry, Manitoba, for guidance.

The couple’s choices, Forbes says, are extensive. But they have done the right thing, using an operating corporation as an umbrella over the farm. The corporation pays tax at a rate of of just 11 per cent. The money that would otherwise be taxed at higher personal rates stays in the company and can be used

to invest in equipment or other assets to grow the farm. The farm’s assets will be exposed to capital gains tax when sold, but, as Forbes notes, there is an $800,000 personal lifetime superexemption that can shelter much capital gains tax.

In several decades, when the couple retires, it will be easier to sell land than shares in a personal corporation. So future purchases of land should be in the couple’s personal names. They can lease the land they own to the corporation.

“This couple has made an excellent start.”

— Don Forbes

The problem with using the corporate umbrella is that money is hostage to income tax which is payable when drawn as salary. But tax can be minimized if money is transferred to RRSPs, as, in fact, Herb has done. Sally uses her own RRSPs for her combined farming income and bank salary.

Life, in the financial sense, has several well defined stages. The first, buying a home, has been achieved with a relatively small debt. Next comes family formation and, finally, retirement.

THE CHILDREN Saving up for post-secondary education for children will be facilitated with Registered Education Savings Plans. If they deposit $2,500 per year per child, get the Canada Education Savings Grant of the lesser of 20 per cent of contributions or $500 per child and obtain a three per cent return after inflation, by each child’s 18th birthday, the account would have $67,240 per child, enough for tuition and books at any local institution for four years.

ABIC 2

There are no children yet, but Herb and Sally need to make sure that if either passes away prematurely, the children to be will not be without resources. To that end, Herb should get a 10-year term insurance policy with $1 million in death benefits.

He does not smoke and, at his age, the premium would be only $50 per month. The policy would cover outstanding balances on loans to Herb and/or his corporation.

Sally has $150,000 in term coverage as part of her employment benefits.

She should increase the coverage with a policy of her own. If she were to buy $500,000 of death benefits, then at her age as a non-smoker, the annual premium on a 10-year level term policy would be $20 per month.

RETIREMENT Planning retirement 30 years in the future is speculative, to say the least, but it nevertheless illuminates the process by which Herb and Sally will move from the beginning of their financial lives to the time at which they can switch from toil to leisure.

At present, Herb and Sally have $33,000 in their RRSPs and $29,000 in their Tax Free Savings Accounts. If they add $6,188 this year and increase their contributions at three per cent after three per cent annual inflation and maintain this savings flow for 30 years, then at Herb’s 60th birthday, the couple will have $2.7 million in combined RRSP and TFSA deposits.

Their non-registered funds, currently $30,000, would rise with contributions and interest to approximately $72,000 in the same period. The combined sums, $2,772,000, could generate $83,160 at three per cent per year or $6,930 per month before tax.

At age 65, each would be entitled to Canada Pension Plan payments that can be estimated at 86 per cent of the maximum

13

This farm couple found a way to buy a home with very little debt. $1,012.50 per year or $860 per person, $1,720 per month total.

At age 67 each would be entitled to receive Old Age Security, currently $546 per month for total income of $9,742 per month.

After 20 per cent average income tax, they would have $7,794 per month to spend.

There are many risks in this projection. Retirement income depends on the couple maximizing RRSP and TFSA contributions each year, Forbes notes.

Security for the family, at least in the early years of children’s lives, will depend on purchase of what is now very inexpensive term insurance. Their RRSP and TFSA investments must grow efficiently, that is, without excessive investment or management costs.

Exchange Traded Funds are part of the answer as are higher fee mutual funds that the couple may choose for their strategies or their track records. The couple must have wills prepared along with enduring powers of attorney which can assist either partner to run the farm if one is incapacitated.

A final challenge will be the integration of Herb and Sally’s own farm with their inter-

est in the larger family farm.

Succession plans for the larger farm should be integrated with their own both for tax reasons and to ensure family harmony.

A plan to distribute shares of the family farm at the death of any owner should be considered as well.

A trust structure to hold shares of the family farming corporation would allow the continuation of the family farm without sales of actual land or other assets. The trust could also be used to control the flow of income and tax exposure. The trust or a series of trusts might, subject to suggestions by the Minister of Finance that family trust structures used for income averaging may be subject to review, also reduce aggregate taxes paid by family members.

“This couple has made an excellent start to good money management habits which will last them a lifetime,” Forbes says. “By starting now with good financial strategies, they will be prepared when, inevitably, financial challenges occur.” † 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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JULY / AUGUST 2013

grainews.ca /

11

Columns SOILS AND CROPS

Trouble in Science Land A broken research funding system encourages short-term thinking combined with research funding cuts is bad news all around LES HENRY

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his piece is not just about agriculture but includes the broader scientific community.

I see trouble brewing in science and fear that research funding will be further cut, to the detriment of our long-term health and welfare.

You have all seen the picture of the elephant with a few folks scattered around the various parts describing what the beast looks like. Nobody stands back and describes the whole beast. And that is because they get rewarded for picking ever smaller pieces of the elephant and studying it in ever more minute terms.

The funding system drives the piecemeal research reports. Our National Research Councils give funding only to those folks who publish lots of papers. Post docs and grad students are hired to do pieces of work to get more papers published so they can get more money so they can publish more papers so — you get the picture.

If you don’t play the game, you don’t get the money.

A SOLUTION LOOKING FOR A PROBLEM Some of the really high priced equipment can lead to a solution looking for a problem. The University of Saskatchewan has a Synchrotron. A scientist may say, “Maybe I will work the weekend when beam line is available. If I’m lucky I might get a paper out of it.”

Hmmm… Maybe we have a problem here. Please do not get me wrong — fancy equipment has done many good things for society, but it is not all gravy.

And, when first discovered, lasers were a solution looking for a problem!

BASIC AND APPLIED RESEARCH The governments that provide the money are looking for real solutions to real problems. All of my research at U of S was of that variety. But if all research was of the type Les Henry did in his heyday, we would be dead in the water down the road. Many of the problems I was happy to solve were solvable because of the basic research done by my colleagues.

Their counsel was (and is) invaluable. I still rely greatly on colleague Dr. Eltje deJong (soil physicist) to help understand soil moisture.

We need a balance of folks: some that look for an answer for the sake of an answer, but also

folks that can do something with that answer.

When you get disgusted with funding cuts for research, think about where the decisions are made. Mostly by bureaucrats.

The politician says, “Cut your budget.” The bureaucrat says, “Hmmm… I’ll cut that ‘stuff’ that doesn’t produce papers so I can continue to get all that NSERC (National Science and Engineering Research Council) money to continue to publish papers to continue to…” You get the picture again.

There are those that read this that will say it is just sour grapes from a tired old fossil who never published much anyway. And it is true — I published very few papers

and some of them were very long.

I would have been much better to chop them up into smaller parts — five short papers rather than one long paper. But I refused to play the game, and managed quite well.

My dismal publication record was why I self published Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water. It will soon go to a third printing, and not a nickel of government money in it — all paid for by you folks who shell out good money to buy it.

Thank you very much.

So, when you see research funding cuts, think about how the decisions are made and urge our politicians to take a close look at how the system really functions. † 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.

SNAPSHOTS OF MOVING PICTURES The piecemeal approach encourages short-term work — do just what is required to pump out another paper. In agriculture we must have longer-term studies to know what kind of path we are putting ourselves on when we change practices. That kind of work must be funded by us all — by government. Industry is not going to do it, and for the most part universities have not been noted for it (plant breeding is an exception).

Research has been more of a federal issue than provincial, although provincial governments do fund a lot of university research.

So, that leaves the feds. I must admit to not fully appreciating federal long-term crop rotation research until recent summaries of decades of work have given us serious soil fertility lessons. Case in point: federal long-term studies at Swift Current show that phosphorus fertilizer recovery in grain is 98 per cent over the long term. In dry climates, nitrogen fertilizer recovery in grain is over 100 per cent.

(That is because free-living nitrogen fixation, lightning and other factors are enough to support 15 bushels per acre in the long term with no added nitrogren fertilizer.

With thousands and thousands of research papers published, massive quantities of data are produced and far fewer people take the data and boil it down to what it means to society. And, that is why our politicians are getting tired of pouring ever more dollars into producing ever more data.

“Drowning in data and starving for information,” is a quote from Weyburn farmer Norm Flaten that I have used often.

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JULY / AUGUST 2013

Columns OFF-FARM INVESTING

Off-farm investing Andy Sirksi is spending his summer learning about bull put credit spreads and bear call spreads ANDY SIRSKI

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t’s been a busy month. I’ve learned how to do bull put credit spreads and, more recently, bear call spreads. I can make some good cash without owning the shares.

SPREADS The is a little more complicated than selling covered calls on stocks I own. However, I think it’s a natural step forward for anyone who has learned how to sell covered calls.

I have shown readers how to start doing spreads with as little as $10,000. Even $5,000 could be enough to get going. A trade often needs from $1,000 to $2,500 of equity (margin money). If you can harvest $100 or more per spread, you can see the potential.

Before you can do these spreads, your trading account needs to be approved to sell naked calls and puts. The amount of money in the trading account is not the issue.

The experience and knowledge of the person applying is the issue.

The main benefit of doing spreads is to drop the amount of margin money needed per trade.

The amount of margin money needed is set by how far apart strike prices are on the stocks you choose to do spreads on. Stocks that have strike prices $2.50 apart would need $2,500 of margin money per 1,000 shares. Stocks that have strike prices $1 apart would need $1,000 of margin money per 1,000 shares.

I must caution you that doing spreads is not a buy and hold strategy. It takes more work than just owning a stock, or selling covered calls. But generally you can make decent money as long as the stock moves in the general direction you choose and or doesn’t move much at all.

I must warn you that most of the financial industry does not do spreads — likely because it does take more work. But as I understand it, professional traders do spreads all the time, whether it is on commodities, currencies or stocks. Plus, these decisions are totally reversible so I can back out, change my mind or go from bull to bear to bull quite easily.

Andy Sirksi has moved from buying stock to selling covered calls to doing spreads.

I also must stress that it is a lot safer to make a little less per trade per spread than to try to make as much as you can and face the danger that you will either have to deliver shares or buy them if the spreads go against you.

I often do spreads into the nearby month. Each spread would need about $900 per trade for the shares that have strike prices $1 apart and about $2,250 per 1,000 shares for stocks that have strike prices $2.50 apart.

It stands to reason that $10,000 could handle at least three larger spreads and maybe eight or nine smaller spreads. Money earned in a trading account would be taxed as capital gain, which is only half taxable.

I have done spreads on Disney (DIS), Home Depot (HD) and Potash Corp (POT) with very good success. Spreads I did on Phillip Morris (PM) and F5 Networks

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(FFIV) took more work but still worked out.

A lot of U.S. stocks now have weekly options. These can help you bring in extra money, but I find they’re a bit fast for me. Still, if I can pick up $100 after commissions using $900 of margin money for one week, it seems I should learn the skill.

I used to sell naked puts on stocks, and made a lot of money on stocks like TCM from last October to April. But naked puts take a lot of margin money. I do not do naked puts anymore.

Learning how to do spreads could certainly speed up the accumulation of wealth, and would goose up cash flow for anyone.

CAUTION When you do a bull put spread you are guessing that the shares will go up, or at least not down.

Choosing stocks with a rising MACD (moving average convergence/divergence) improves the odds that you will choose the correct direction. Likewise, if you’re doing bear calls, choosing stocks with a falling MACD can make it easier to be right.

Once you get some practice you can likely do a bull put and a bear call on the same stock. You just have to be far enough away from the price of the day so you’re not stuck buying the shares.

U.S. TAX LAWS A year or two ago the U.S. government passed a law that all American citizens must file a U.S. tax return regardless of where they live.

Last September the U.S. government adjusted its tax laws so citizens could file back taxes voluntarily and not pay any penalties.

It’s better to file the return voluntarily. In most cases a person needs to file the last three returns and financial information for the past six years.

RECENT EVENTS

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Bombardier (BBD.B): I’ve been loading up on BBD.B since shares were $4.06. My average cost now is $4.32. The stock pays about 2.5 per cent dividend, which looks secure. The company is selling and building a new airplane that burns less fuel and holds passengers and baggage more efficiently than many other planes. Brazil’s plane builder is also selling and building similar planes and is getting a lot of that business. Still it looks like Bombardier will sell

enough to have a business. The plane is almost ready for its first test flight and when that happens these shares should pop up.

Tesla (TSLA): This is a totally electric car. The inventor and builder is selling them direct to customers and building the system for recharging or exchanging batteries. The company did a lot of things correctly since early 2013 and shares have jumped from around $20 to $126. I captured some of that and might just buy 100 shares or so and let them do what they do.

Franco Nevada (FNV) and Silver Wheaton (SLW): I used to own both but own just FNV now. It looks like SLW took on some extra debt, so on this rebound FNV has outrun SLW. Canola streamer: Some months back I wrote about a canola streamer. I put in $10,000 and watched as we received a stock certificate for 10,000 shares with stated value of $1 per share. In July the inventors of this streamer will be using a shell company to take the streamer public, so these shares will then trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange. I will let you know how it goes.

Heinz (HNZ): Years ago I bought a couple of shares of HNZ and signed up for their dividend reinvestment program. A few months back Warren Buffet’s company bought HNZ lock stock and ketchup so I have to do the paper work for them to pay me for our shares. The shares were $45 or so when I started, and we now have 12 or 15 shares that will bring us $72 or so per share. The gain in price is nice. The increase in the number of shares comes from reinvesting the dividends into more shares quarter by quarter.

Cameco (CCO): Uranium stocks might be coming into style soon.

Yes, Japan still has problems but it sounds like they will start up their reactors soon. Russia plans to stop selling recycled uranium from its rockets, but some say it will just sell the stuff to other countries instead of the U.S. Cameco’s Cigar Lake mine is scheduled to open soon. I have 1,200 shares and they are up a couple bucks. I will likely sell those shares and buy a naked call when I think CCO is ready to go.

My heart and prayers go out to our readers in various parts of the country that have been hit with high water, fires, explosions and other tragedies. I hope you can pull through these tough times. † Andy Sirksi is mostly retired. He gardens, plays with his granddaughters, manages his portfolio and publishes a newsletter called StocksTalk. 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.

JULY / AUGUST 2013

grainews.ca /

13

Columns MARKET MINUTE

Considerations for additional storage Here are six options to consider, if you’re thinking of adding some more bin space this summer ANDREW DERUYCK

MARK SLOANE

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e’ve noticed a common theme underlying recent calls from our clients.

Many are looking for advice about adding grain or fertilizer storage.

The future is full of uncertainty.

Will the crop yield as expected?

Will the commodity prices shrink and drag fertilizer with them?

What will the fertilizer market do in the next 12 months? How secure is your rented land base?

Tell us the answers to these questions and the answer becomes crystal clear. But without that, storage decisions are a balance between commodity or input price risk and long-term financial viability.

Consider an aggressive young farmer named Serge Forwerd.

Forwerd has been farming cereals and oilseeds for seven years; he’s leveraged profits and cash to grow his farm quickly and aggressively.

Forwerd rents a high proportion of his land base. He’s operated profitably in the past, but is growing tired of his annual storage challenges. He runs older combines and has found that maintaining older harvest equipment and constantly shuffling grain inventory is stretching him thin at harvest time. He has identified that for his current land base, he is approximately 80,000 bushels short on storage space.

Considering his short-term challenges, it would seem like an easy decision for Forwerd to add the required storage. However, with his aggressive growth, he’s positioned at only 56 per cent equity, with fixed charges that are 180 per cent of the area land rent.

He realizes that the rent he is currently paying on land is significantly less than the recent coffee shop talk, and although his relationship with his landlords is very good, he’s concerned about adding grain storage today for land that may not be in his operation tomorrow. In addition to rendering this grain storage useless, the loss of rented land would increase the fixed charge carrying cost per acre of his existing farm, further threatening longer term viability.

quality storage with short-term minimal cost. However, they don’t solve the storage issue in the long run, and they are more labour intensive to load and unload. If you are in an area prone to wildlife damage, there may be additional storage risk as well 3. Build more steel flat bottom bins. Larger steel flat bottom bins can offer a cost advantage but require a significant outlay of capital or the implications of long term payments. They are not easily sold should cash be needed or rented land lost. These bins offer the option of aeration and better storage of tough grain.

4. Build hoppers. Hopper bins carry a premium price with initial investment which could be offset by less depreciation than with flat

bottom bins. The aeration gives the farmer the option to harvest tougher grain. The impact that hoppers have on long-term payments and leverage is even greater than the steel flat bottom bins.

5. Grain rings. Grain rings offer significant storage with very little investment compared to bins.

However, the option of aeration is eliminated and the risk of spoilage is greater. They also represent more work to unload and clean up.

6. Pile in the field. With favourable weather conditions, this option may work, although risk of spoilage is higher and unloading and clean up is far more labour intensive.

The decision to add grain storage is a difficult one on highly leveraged farms. Adding storage may increase the price achieved

for commodities, but it doesn’t matter if the long-term risk from additional payments proves to be too great.

STORING FERTILIZER The second situation we wanted to highlight was Norman Nutrients, a grain farmer that is always on the hunt for a good deal on fertilizer.

He has operated at approximately 85 per cent equity, and cash doesn’t limit his ability to make short-term business decisions.

Nutrients normally pre-buys his fertilizer, but he doesn’t have enough storage for all of his urea and phosphate requirements. He was satisfied with the price he paid last summer for nitrogen but when compared to the price he can

secure now, he can save approximately $100 per mT. The cost of adding quality, hopper fertilizer storage is not far from that $100/ mT and as such the decision to add additional storage to take advantage of a good nitrogen price seems to make sense. This is based on the assumption that the cost of production and commodity margins are similar to exactly one year ago, a speculation that may or may not prove to be true by October. † 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.

THE OPTIONS We identified the following options for him to consider before he surges onward.

1. Timely marketing.

Proactively market commodities at target price levels to ensure early movement at profitable pricing. This required movement of commodities into the system at a time when basis levels may not be favourable may force the farm manager to sell at a lower price than what otherwise may be obtained.

2. Grain bags. Temporary, disposable grain bags can offer good

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July / AUGUST 2013

Features Crop production

A new crop year in Australia The problems faced by Australian farmers are a lot like the ones we have here. But they’re worried about heat, not frost

By Kim Nielsen

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anadian farmers face a short growing season, and are challenged to complete harvest before the arrival of winter.

Farmers in Australia deal with climatic challenges as well, but in Australia the biggest challenge is the summer heat. It’s a race to get the grain in the bin before the scorching summer temperatures impact plant growth.

Beat the heat Aussies beat the risks of crop deterioration and shriveled grain from soaring temperatures by seeding in the fall (or autumn, as they call it), which takes place while Canada is experiencing spring.

The crops that are going in the ground during the autumn months of April and May are not winter crops like fall rye or winter wheat that need cold temperatures to vernalize so they will produce seed.

Instead, Australian farmers plant regular spring varieties of cereals and oilseeds. Seeding in autumn is almost a guarantee of going into soils with reliable moisture.

The crops get off to a good start and, in the absence of hard frosts, they stay vegetative right through winter before really kicking into gear when increased sunlight and warmth come back in the spring time of September.

It has been extremely hot and

Seeding near the Goyder Line, Peterborough, South Australia. dry this summer and fall across a lot of Australia and the long awaited “autumn break” seems to have escaped us.

The autumn break is the first significant rain to assure good crop germination and emergence.

Ideally it will come no later than April 25. (Coincidentally, April 25 is Anzac Day in Australia, a day to remember Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in wars and peacekeeping conflicts.)

This year, we didn’t get significant rains until well into May, and many farmers had already seeded into dry soil to get their acres covered, with hopes of eventual rains.

PART OF YOUR FARM’S FINANCIAL PLAN

It is critical to have good crop development before the colder soil temperatures of winter slow the crop down. The winters here in Australia are very mild compared to Canadian winters but occasional frost does occur (although rarely causing significant damage).

Spring frost on flowering canola is probably the greatest risk.

Australian equipment Seeding equipment in Australia is pretty similar to Canada with either hoe or disc drills on smaller farms and air seeders on the larger spreads.

Canadian farm equipment is well recognized here, with Bourgault

and Seed Hawk seeders common on many of the larger farms.

While equipment is similar, there are slight nuances of difference when it comes to fertilizer.

Seeding into fall and the wet season of winter with water logged clay soils poses some challenges with nitrogen losses. Quite often, a split application of nitrogen fertilizer is the norm.

It is common to apply 80 to 100 pounds of mono ammonium phosphate of 10N-21.9P-0K-1.5S per acre at seeding time. On our own farm, we are trying something new this year with an additional five pounds of Humate per acre in the fertilizer. Humate is a carbon product that enhances phosphorous uptake and frees up soil bound nutrients (learn more about this at www.humates.co.nz).

Much of our soils in the Australian state of Victoria are volcanic basalt soils, high in iron and aluminium and slightly acidic. Liming is quite common to neutralize the soils and prevent release of soil bound aluminium which ties up phosphorous or causes plant toxicity. The Humate fertilizer amendment also buffers acidification.

Another difference is tissue sampling, used to guide the decision to add nitrogen in the spring and other micro nutrients such as manganese, zinc or copper. If soil moisture is good and there are prospects for a decent crop, additional nitrogen will come in the form of 32 per cent liquid urea, applied with trace elements if needed.

In recent years it has become popular to add calcium to this fertilizer cocktail as well, giving a boost to root development and plant vigour. A typical rate of the liquid 32 per cent urea is 12 litres per acre with eight litres of calcium, all applied with a field sprayer. If timing allows, a herbicide can go into the mix as well.

Australian yields These fertilizer rates appeared low to me in a Canadian context, but they can sustain some surprising yields if the rains are timely.

In December and January I helped harvest wheat, barley and oats in the Pura Pura district of Victoria, just east of us. I saw some fantastic yields. The bar-

ley crop averaged 128 bushels per acre, across 1,500 acres, with some fields yielding 165 bu./ac. The wheat was closer to the long term average with a consistent yield of 75 bu./ac. (across 2,000 acres).

In mid-May I returned from a camping trip into the Australian Outback, up in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, 1,600 kms north west of where I live in Victoria.

Rains had fallen in the Outback as well and farmers were seeding with renewed optimism. This is very dry country with annual rainfall in the 200 mm range.

I crossed the famous Goyder Line north of Burra, South Australia. This line was drawn by surveyor general George Goyder to guide settlers arriving in droves from Europe. North of this line, Goyder recommended grazing only, south of the line some annual cropping.

This line was established in 1865 but largely ignored due several years of above average rainfall. Then there were disastrous consequences, not unlike what happened during the dirty 30s in Canada in the Palliser Triangle. Ruins from many farmsteads are scattered all the way up into the Flinders ranges. Today, more modern equipment and direct seeding is testing the Goyder line again. I saw the optimism for a good crop year that I hope will come to fruition for these gutsy stubble jumpers. They have since received more rains and things look positive so far in areas with borderline potential for cropping.

Here in Victoria we saw sporadic showers in early May but not until May 20 did we finally get some decent rains. The Echidna oats we had seeded on our own farm into slightly moist soil on May 6 and 7 came through okay, and with more June rains to the tune of 80 mm, they are thriving in the clay loam volcanic plains soils. There is good soil moisture well north into Victoria, and some parts of Eastern Victoria are actually flooded.

We are cautiously optimistic. It is a long way from the December harvest and when spring and summer arrive, the ground can dry up in a hurry. † Kim Juul Nielsen, retired manager of agricultural service, Clearwater County, Alta, is a summer resident of Alcheringa, Dunkeld, Victoria, Australia and a Canadian summer grazier of 4-Clover Ranch, Rocky Mountain House Alberta.

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JULY / AUGUST 2013

Machinery & Shop CANADA’S FARM PROGRESS SHOW

Clean Seed sees a new way forward for drills The CX6 Trident blends air seeder and planter technologies, for more precise seeding

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his is the next jump beyond air drills,” said Colin Rosengren, vicepresident of agronomic practices and protocols at Clean Seed Agricultural Technologies.

He is also a Saskatchewan grain and oilseed producer.

He was referring to the CX6 Trident Crossover Drill his company currently has under development, which it displayed at Canada’s Farm Progress Show in Regina.

The company’s aim is to move dry-land seeding technology forward by a step comparable to the move from discers and hoe drills to air seeders, he explains. And he believes the CX6 does that.

“This is a completely different machine,” Rosengren said. “It’s more like a planter, which is why we’re calling it a crossover drill.

It’s a multi-product, single-pass planter in a way. We’re metering at the individual openers, which means we can then do things like turn compensation, individual point shut off and even variable rate across the width of the machine.”

One other feature offered by this system is the ability to alternate between two different seed varieties according to a prescription map. At the Show, the company demonstrated a program that used two of the six metres to switch back and forth between different canola hybrids while still applying

nitrogen, phosphorus, potash and sulphur at the seed row.

“We’ll be down to the foot of accuracy,” said Rosengren.

“Getting rid of the air distribution manifold will increase precision, because manifolds are fairly random in how they divide product.

They’re not perfect.”

“Right now farmers feel like we’re very accurate, because when you finish a field you’ve used a certain amount of product,” he added. “But if you go down to the square-foot level, you’d find areas of your field where your rate was wildly off what you wanted.”

Although the “pods” of the CX6 look like standard planter row openers from a distance, there are some major differences. Each one is designed to accept product flow from a six-compartment central

PHOTOS: SCOTT GARVEY

Executives at Clean Seed Agricultural Technologies call their new CX6 Trident seeding system a “crossover” design, because it incorporates a mix of air seeder and planter technologies. It was on display at Canada’s Farm Progress Show in Regina.

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JULY / AUGUST 2013

grainews.ca /

17

Machinery & Shop tank through a typical air delivery system. But the flow of each product is metered at the opener, and there are six metres in each pod which are driven electrically and controlled using BlueTooth wireless connections. That means there is no mammoth wiring harness to deal with.

“There are central-fill planters right now, but the openers themselves are all set up for single shoot,” explained Rosengren.

“Some of them have options for liquid fertilizer or whatever, whereas we’re going to have a typical seed boot that people are used to, in fact we’re going to have three placements on it instead of two, which is kind of the standard. Then you can have six different products placed anywhere you want on the opener.”

This summer, Clean Seed Agricultural Technologies will be assembling a full prototype 60-foot drill equipped with CX6 pods designed to go into field trials. The unit will be equipped with six separate central tanks designed to feed the openers. “It will be a single toolbar with a mounted tank to fill the mini hoppers (in the pods) on demand,” he added.

“At the openers there is a small cup full of seed or product. It (the feed from the central tanks) just keeps them full.”

Seed is metered using the company’s innovative foam rollers, which can handle any size seed. Rosengren says these meters have been in use in the company’s other drills for several years and have proven to be very durable Along with a working prototype drill, the company is also working on developing a unique seed tender that can transfer product on the go. “You’ll stop and hook up a cart, just like the anhydrous concept,” said Rosengren. “Tie the hoses together and it’ll transfer on the go. Then after the 10 or 15 minutes it takes to transfer those six products, you’ll drop that extra cart and it can be picked up by a semi tractor.”

The CX6 pods are set on a parallel linkage suspension system made of cast steel for strength, but many of the metering components are made of a lightweight plastic, which Graeme Lempriere, CEO of Clean Seed Capital Group, said have also proven to be very durable while still keeping weight down. As he stood at the company’s CFPS display he commented that a CX6 Trident Crossover Drill could retail at a price that is competitive to most conventional air drills already on the market.

At CFPS farmers were clearly impressed with the concept.

The CX6 pods won The People’s Choice Innovation Award. “It’s no surprise to me to see the Clean Seed group win this award,” said Rob O’Connor, manager of the CFPS. “They were the subject of a lot of buzz among show attendees and the media.”

“We were very proud to launch our technology at Canada’s largest agriculture show,” said Lempriere, in a press release. “It’s been 10 years of development to bring us to the point of launching our products to the audience that matters — the farmer and industry as a whole. Winning this award is a triumph for our family starting with my father who developed the technology.” † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at scott.garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

Up to six different products can be metered at the CX6 opener. It can also alternate between two different seed varieties according to a prescription map.

The unique opener boot on the CX6 Trident includes three different product delivery ports, which can delivery six different input products at any of the three openings.

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JULY / AUGUST 2013

Machinery & Shop CANADA’S FARM PROGRESS SHOW

Morris introduces new seeding equipment Executives say extensive customer feedback and field testing were key in fine tuning the final design of three new market-ready products

BY SCOTT GARVEY

“

I

t’s all culminated at one time for us,” says Morris chief operating officer Don Henry.

“Our disc drill has been a five year project, same with the air carts. And the other big one is our Input Control Technology. We’ve been working on that for over three years.”

Now, all those products are ready to enter production. Morris chose to hold a media event on the grounds of Canada’s Farm Progress Show in Regina in June to introduce them and unveil a new corporate paint scheme for its air carts.

“This product launch is quite a significant event for us because

we’re really turning over 50 per cent of our technology, said Casey Davis, president and chief executive officer of Morris, during the event. “So we’re pretty excited about it.”

While reporters stood nearby, executives literally pulled the wraps off an all-new, 9 Series cart wearing a two-tone paint scheme as camera shutters clicked. “We wanted to do a facelift (on air carts),” explained Henry. “Our Eight Series has been out for seven years and there were some things we needed to update. Farmers were asking for that.”

But while the grey-over-red 9 Series carts have a new look and a new model number designation, they also sport a host of

updated features based largely on customer input gleaned during their development phase. Henry said engineers spent a lot of time talking to farmers, dealers and others about what they wanted in new cart design.

THE 9 SERIES Building safety into the new cart was one of the main considerations.

The 9 Series was built around the concept of “one farmer working alone all night” says the company’s press release. Engineers included features that minimize fall risks and make access easier. “The new stairway and walkway improve access to the tank lids, and ascending or

descending the stairway is similar to how stairs are used in a house,” said director of research and development, Jack Lesanko.

The 9 Series carts sizes range from the smallest model, the 9365, with two 185-bushel compartments, to the four-compartment 9800, which is divided into 265-, 133- and 284-bushel segments.

Deciding to offer an 800-bushel cart was also the result of input from end users. “We needed feedback on that,” says Henry. “The consensus in the marketplace, from our dealers, from our customers, from our grower council was around that 800 bushels is right.”

The 9 Series carts are also available with another of the new

products Morris introduced this year, Input Control Technology (ICT), which minimizes seeding overlap. The company has shown this feature at the CFPS before, but just as a prototype and not ready for market release.

After getting farmer feedback on that design too, Henry said Morris finished tweaking it and is now confident it is ready to go into production. The ICT system is controlled by a Topcon X-30 monitor.

“You know what, it pencils out,” Henry said. “As a farmer I know what my variable costs are per acre.

If my overlap is, say, seven per cent, I can pencil it out and probably pay for it (ICT) in one year. The challenge we have as a manufacturer is it’s got to work. There’s some serious technology here.”

ICT controls use the same fluted roller design Morris has relied on for seed metering in all its carts for several years. ICT simply uses actuators to engage and disengage individual roller sections. This system allows for immediate response in stopping and starting seed flow.

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Just like the ICT, visitors to CFPS in previous years have also seen the company’s Razr disc drill shown as an unnamed prototype, again to get farmer feedback. Four examples of that drill have been in field trials on three continents for a few years now. It offers farmers faster working speeds by using a walking beam opener to better follow ground contours, and its available with 7.5-, 10- and 15-inch row spacings.

“We had some discussions before last year’s Farm Progress Show: are we ready to release it?” explained Henry. “When we talk about the Razr that’s commercially available this year, we found out with the four units we had out, one in Australia, one in Russia, one in Kazakhstan, one in Canada, that there was still some tweaking we needed to do.”

This year those tweaks have been made and the drill is about to enter production.

But did those previews of ICT and the Razr take away a little of the buzz that now surrounds their official launch to the marketplace?

If they did, Henry thinks it was still worth it to show the prototypes to farmers ahead of their introductions.

“We were able to explain what we were thinking and doing, and as a result were able to get some great quality feedback,” he said.

“As a developer, we could have put our blinders on and said we’ve got a great product here. We’re going to hide it from everyone and splash it at the show. That’s a high-risk thing to do. If it doesn’t go as planned ayou’ve put a lot of time and resources into it. But we’ve allowed the market to see it.

We got the feedback, and we incorporated that into our design.”

For a video look at the new Morris products, watch the E-QuipTV episode at www. grainews.ca/videos. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at scott.garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

JULY / AUGUST 2013

grainews.ca /

19

Machinery & Shop

PHOTOS: SCOTT GARVEY

All-new 9 Series air carts sporting a two-tone paint scheme were the centrepieces of Morris Industries’ display at this year’s Canada Farm Progress Show in Regina.

Redesigned stairs and walkways make the new 9 Series carts safer and easier to access.

Morris believes simple system design, three years of R&D and ample customer feedback Shown at the 2011 and 2012 CFPS as a concept machine, the new Razr disc drill is finally being during the design phase has made their Input Control Technology a reliable system. introduced to the market in 40-, 50- and 60-foot working widths.

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July / AUGUST 2013

Machinery & Shop Canada’s Farm Progress Show

Public debut of the Versatile DeltaTrack Versatile gives farmers their first official look at the brand’s new four-track tractor design at CFPS in Regina

By Scott Garvey

R

ather than just bolt aftermarket track systems to an existing wheeled tractor on the assembly line and market it as a “me too” product, Camoplast and Versatile’s own in-house engineering staff joined forces to create a ground-up tractor design equipped with four tracks. The result of that collaboration is the new, three-model line of Versatile DeltaTrack machines.

“We’ve worked with a company called Camoplast,” says Versatile’s Ryan Shust. “They’re experts in track systems.”

And even though Versatile originally made its mark with the articulated tractor concept, Shust says it wasn’t a given that the company’s first foray into the tracked segment would be with the fourtrack design. “We actually looked at two-track systems. We looked at four-track systems,” he says.

“This DeltaTrack system is the culmination of all our research. We looked at the advantages and disadvantages and this is the route we took.”

The DeltaTrack system Walking around the tracked 450DT tractor on display at Canada’s Farm Progress Show in Regina (DeltaTracks get a “DT” tacked onto their model number), Shust points out some of the redesigning engineers had to do to a standard high-horsepower trac-

photos: scott garvey

Versatile chose to introduce its belted DeltaTrack models to the public at Canada’s Farm 450, 500 and 550 horsepower DeltaTrack models are available with 30- and 36-inch wide belts.

Progress Show in Regina in June. tor chassis in order to give the DeltaTrack models the same performance specifications as their wheeled brothers.

To give DeltaTracks the same turning radius, the shape of the tractors’ fuel tanks had to be altered to eliminate interference with the rear tracks. And because one turn of the axles creates less forward movement on the DeltaTrack mod-

els than on wheeled machines, the driveline gearing had to be changed to keep travel speeds consistant.

“They have the same road speeds as a tire model,” notes Shust. “That’s very important.”

Shust says the company also wanted the DeltaTrack models to conform to the brand’s easy service philosophy. “Versatile has always been know for serviceabil-

ity,” he adds. “That’s our way of thinking: serviceability and ease of maintenance.”

As an example, if track replacement is required, the tractor’s own hydraulic system is used to remove and reset tension on the belts by simply tapping into the rear remotes. That allows for on-farm servicing. And the tractors’ final drive components can be serviced without removing the tracks.

The track systems use a positive drive system with 8.5-inch-wide lugs on the underside of the rubber belts, which means they are driven like a chain rather than relying solely on friction. And the large diameter drive sprocket engages several of those lugs at once to distribute the torque load.

Along with that, the idler wheels also have a larger diameter to create less wrap stress on the belt, reducing parasitic power loss and extending belt life.

The midrollers and idlers in the track assembly pivot side-to-side as well as front-to-rear to deal with uneven terrain, minimizing shock and vibration transfer to the tractor chassis. The track assemblies have reinforced attachment points at the frame, which provides

added strength to handle those shocks that do make it through to the chassis.

“Camoplast dealt with that specifically,” says Adam Reid, Versatile’s director of marketing.

“Camoplast took all the knowledge they had in tracks and put it into this (the DeltaTrack). These are the most advanced track systems available right now.”

“We’ve had DeltaTracks in field trials for a couple of years now,” Shust adds. “We tested them in areas tough on tracks, (including) in fields that are very steep.

Side loading is a good test on tracks. Every farmer who tested a DeltaTrack wanted to buy it after, without exception. That’s very telling.”

Available with 30- or 36-inch wide belts, DeltaTracks will begin full production this fall in 450, 500 and 550 horsepower models.

Like the brand’s other high-horsepower models, DeltaTracks will get that power from an Interim Ti e r 4 - c o m p l i a n t C u m m i n s QSX, 15-litre diesel mated to a Caterpillar TA-22 16-speed powershift transmission. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at scott.garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

By not positioning a midroller directly under the track system pivot point, the belts, themselves, absorb some shocks from uneven terrain. That also minimizes point load stresses on the soil underneath the tractor.

July / AUGUST 2013

grainews.ca /

21

Machinery & Shop Canada’s Farm Progress Show

Haukass wins award for new bale grapple A family-run farm machinery manufacturer created quite a buzz at the 2013 Farm Progress show

By Lisa Guenther

H

aukaas Manufacturing Ltd., based in Mortlach, Sask., received a Gold Standard Award for its rotating bale grapple, and a Sterling Standard Award for its trailer mount conveyor at Canada’s Farm Progress show in Regina in July.

The trailer mount conveyor is designed to make filling the air seeder during spring seeding more efficient, allowing farmers to side unload from a semi-trailer without putting an auger under the trailer.

“It’s very fast. It will keep up to a 10-inch auger or a 15-inch conveyor,” says Beric Haukaas, head of sales and marketing. The conveyor runs off the hydraulics of the truck’s wet kit, and can be operated from the driver’s side. It’s mounted with a bracket system that fits between the two bellies under the trailer, Haukaas says.

“It’s confined to the dimensions of the trailer, so going down the road (is) not an issue. Your ground clearances are not tampered with.”

Haukaas says they’ve been prototyping the trailer conveyor for two springs now, and hope to hit the retail market in early 2014.

“We feel that the conveyor itself functions quite well, so our biggest challenge right now is just adapting it to all the different (trailer) makes and models. And once we get that, we’re going to go into production,” says Haukaas.

Rotating bale grapple Haukaas Manufacturing’s rotating bale grapple, the latest addition to its bale handling system, attaches to the front-end loader of a tractor or skid steer.

“It will handle two round bales, and it will twist them 90 degrees. So when you’re stacking in a mushroom formation in your stackyard, you can do so easily,” says Haukaas. He adds that stacking in mushroom formation — where the first bale is placed flat on the ground, and the second is placed on top, round side down — uses less space, and keeps wildlife from climbing up bale stacks and contaminating the hay.

The rotating grapple also cuts the trips to and from the trailer in half.

Haukaas says the bale grapple should be available by August.

Haukaas Manufacuring is currently working on different attachments so the grapple can be fitted to any front end loader.

“We’re finding out here at the (Canadian Farm Progress) show too, that there are a lot of universal mounts,” says Haukaas.

Haukaas says ther bale handling system started with the bale cart, which is designed for gathering up bales in the centre of the field or near the approach.

Haukaas says after bunching bales in two rows, people can drive a semi between rows.

“And then with our grapple line, you can grab two bales and

load them on that trailer. So if you have a 53-foot trailer — and we load pipe-style — you can fit 30 bales on in seven minutes, haul that home, and unload and rotate them, stack them, in 12-1/2 minutes. So we just made hay hauling extremely efficient.”

Haukaas Manufacturing has also designed a bale rack system for 53-foot trailers.

“So we’ve really gone from start to finish with the bale handling system and just made it a one-stop shop for those producers.”

Haukaas Manufacturing has

other products, including levelling shovels to scatter rodent hills in hay fields and bin door inserts to ease grain augering from old style bin doors.

Haukaas says he, his father and grandfather all come up with ideas for new products.

“We’re a family-run business.

Thirty-two years strong. And necessity is the mother of innovation, and that’s just how it happens,” says Haukaas. † Lisa Guenther is a field editor with Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Contact her at Lisa.

Guenther@fbcpublishing.com.

Come see us at Canada’s Farm Progress Show Regina, SK June 19-21, 2013 Booths: 70128 & 70130 Credit Union EventPlex and 8304 - Lot D

photo: lisa guenther

The Haukaas rotating bale grapple won the Gold Standard Award at Canada’s Farm Progress Show in Regina in June.

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July / AUGUST 2013

Machinery & Shop Canada’s Farm Progress Show

Bourgault expands its 7000 Series cart line The tow-between L7800 becomes the third air cart added to the relatively new 7000 Series

By Scott Garvey

B

ourgault has expanded its 7000 Series line of air carts, which it launched with the introduction of the high-capacity 7950 model in 2012. This year, the company added two additional models. During the winter, the company announced the introduction of the 7700, which was meant to replace the previous 6700 model. At Canada’s Farm Progress Show in Regina in June, Bourgault expanded the Series again and debuted the L7800 tow-between version.

The L7800 boasts an 800 bushel capacity split between four compartments, plus an optional 40-bushel small product saddle tank. Beside the saddle tank is a pallet storage area to keep additional canola bags stored and ready to add.

This cart is the first in what Bourgault is calling its “Leading” design. Translation: tow-between configuration.

The L7800 gets the “L” in its

model number to indicate that.

“This is the first ‘Leading’ cart design in the 7000 Series,” says Bourgault’s Haydon Rice.

The L7800’s uses the company’s flex-tank design, which means the contents of one its compartments can be metered out with the product in either adjacent tank and increase working time between fills. That also gives growers some flexibility, allowing them to get just the right mix of inputs on board.

Those inputs get metered out using Bourgault’s newest metering system, the PDM Pro, which is available on all the 7000 Series models. The L7800 can be equipped with up to five different metering augers and seeding rate control comes from a Topcon X-30 monitor. “It (the monitor) is laid out very well,” says Rice. “Switching from single shoot to double shoot is the same as you’d expect from any other Bourgault system with our Class A distribution system.

You can put any product down any line.”

Design improvement The L7800 also offers some design improvements intended to help make life a little easier for tractor operators. To start with, hitching up to this cart should be a breeze. A hydraulic hitch jack connects to the tractor remotes and adjusts the hitch height from the tractor seat, which eliminates the need for manual jacking.

Getting access to the tanks’ loading hatches is now easier, too. A stairway directly above the hitch means operators don’t have to walk around a drill or the tractor to get up on the cart.

The stairs are just a few steps away from the cab door. “There’s no more climbing ladders,” says Rice. “You get to walk up stairs. It makes it easier for carrying pails.”

And the L7800 rides on 850 80R38 tires. That keeps its footprint relatively light and helps minimize compaction in the field. “They’re the same size as the tires on our 7950 tow behind,” explains Rice. “So we’re able to keep our tire pressure and

photo: scott garvey

Bourgault’s new 800-bushel, tow-between cart, the L7800, includes an easy-access stairway above the hitch, making climbing up to loading hatches safer and easier. ground pressure to 18 p.s.i. We’re able to carry a lot of weight, a lot of product, and keep our ground pressure down.”

The L7800 also uses 7-inch distribution lines. “It’s for increased capacity, pushing product out for the large drills we’re producing these days,” he adds. To get product in, the L7800 comes with a standard, remote controlled, 12-inch loading auger. “It’s very handy and user friendly,” says Rice.

Bourgault also joins the ranks of seeding equipment manu-

facturers now offering sectional control technology. The company just introduced its new system at the Regina show. Like the L7800 cart, sectional control will be available in limited quantities for the 2014 season and in full production for 2015.

For a video look at the L7800 cart and Bourgault’s new sectional control system, watch the E-QuipTV episode at www. grainews.ca/videos. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor at Grainews.

Contact him at scott.garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

EXTENDED OUTLOOK FOR THE PRAIRIES Weather Forecast for the period of July 21 to August 17, 2013

Southern Alberta

Peace River Region July 21 - 27 Sunshine dominates apart from a few showers or thunderstorms on a couple of occasions.

July 21 - 27 Sunshine dominates apart from a few showers or thunderstorms on a couple of occasions.

July 28 - August 3 Pleasant temperatures and mainly sunny skies aside from showers or thunderstorms here and there.

July 28 - August 3 Pleasant temperatures and mainly sunny skies aside from occasional showers or thunderstorms in some areas.

August 4 - 10 Warm and sunny but cooler days set off scattered showers or thundershowers. Frost threat at higher levels.

August 4 - 10 Warm and sunny but cooler days set off scattered showers or thundershowers.

August 11 - 17 Mainly sunny skies with seasonal temperatures. Scattered showers or heavier thunderstorms on a couple of hotter days.

August 11 - 17 Sunny with seasonal temperatures. Scattered showers or heavier thunderstorms on a couple of hotter days.

9 / 22 Grande Prairie 61.8 mms

Manitoba

July 21 - 27 Sunshine prevails with seasonal to warm temperatures. Sporadic thunderstorms are expected in a few areas.

July 21 - 27 Sunny. Pleasant temperatures.

Showers or heavier thunderstorms pass through on two or three days.

July 28 - August 3 Sunny with comfortable temperatures. Hotter days will set off heavier thunderstorms.

July 28 - August 3 Variable temperatures. Sunny days interchange with a few showers or thundershowers.

August 4 - 10 Pleasant temperatures but cooler outbreaks bring showers or thundershowers on a couple of days.

August 4 - 10 Changeable weather and temperatures this week. A few showers or thundershowers.

August 11 - 17 Sunny skies. Seasonal to warm.

A couple of hotter days set off showers and heavier thunderstorms.

August 11 - 17 Sunny overall aside from scattered showers or heavier thunderstorms in places.

Seasonal to warm.

Precipitation Forecast 9 / 23 Edmonton 67.0 mms

8 / 22 Jasper

50.6 mms

ABOVE NORMAL

7 / 22

51.3 mms

Banff

11 / 24 North Battleford 9 / 22 Red Deer 64.8 mms

10 / 23 Calgary

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

Saskatchewan

48.7 mms

11 / 27 Medicine Hat 19mms cms Lethbridge 30.6 42.9 mms 26 cms 11 / 26

11 / 23 The Pas

10 / 23 Prince Albert

49.3 mms

11 / 24 Saskatoon 36.8 mms

58.6 mms

57.5 mms

NEAR NORMAL

11 / 24 Yorkton

11 / 24 Dauphin

12 / 24 11 / 26 57.5 mms 63.3 mms Gimli 12 / 27 Regina 11 / 25 Moose Jaw 79.8 mms 40.0 mms Swift 34.8 mms 13 / 25 11 / 25 Portage 12 / 25 Current 11 / 27 Brandon 78.8 mms Winnipeg 38.2 mms Weyburn 69.3 mms 75.3 mms 47.4 mms 12 / 27 Estevan Melita 10 / 26 53.2 mms

81.2 mms

Precipitation Outlook For August Much Above Normal Below Much above normal normal below normal normal

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

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

JULY / AUGUST 2013

grainews.ca /

23

Best of Grainews

Management practices can reduce fusarium Weather conditions drive fusarium head blight, but the right management strategies can help

BY LISA GUENTHER

F

usarium head blight has plagued eastern Canadian farmers for decades. Over the years the disease has spread into Western Canada, and the Canadian Grain Commission has found the fungus as far west as northern British Columbia.

The right management practices will reduce fusarium levels most of the time. But even farmers who do everything correctly are at the mercy of the weather.

“It is very much a disease that is driven by the environment. And now in Manitoba, it would probably be safe to say that if you have the right weather conditions, (there will be) fusarium head blight on your cereals (unless you protect with a fungicide),” says Dr. Jeannie Gilbert, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). Gilbert specializes in fusarium head blight and leaf spot pathogens.

Fusarium overwinters on crop residue. Wheat and corn are both susceptible and should not follow each other in the rotation if fusarium is present. Gilbert says seeding a crop like soybeans into wheat or corn stubble is a better option.

“There has been some suggestion that canola may not be such a good crop to (follow wheat). But it’s not a direct host of fusarium graminearum, and it would be preferable to do that than putting wheat back into your wheat residue, or wheat back into corn residue,” says Gilbert.

Other cereals, such as barley and oats, are also susceptible to fusarium. Oats may not look as diseased, but Gilbert says fusarium species have been isolated from kernels and high levels of deoxynivalenol (DON, also known as vomitoxin) have been detected in Manitoba oats at times. Fusarium graminearum is the only species that spawns the mycotoxin DON. Two-row barleys are less susceptible to fusarium than six-row barleys, Gilbert says. There are also some newer wheat varieties such as 5602HR, Carberry, and Waskada, which are rated moderately resistant. Saskatchewan farmers haven’t seen as much fusarium, and susceptible varieties like Lillian have been grown regularly, Gilbert says.

“And while (Lillian) grows extremely well in years when you have no conditions for fusarium development, it will get very, very diseased in a year when you have rain.”

Richard Marsh, cereal specialist with Syngenta, says farmers with fusarium problems should consider a variety rated moderately resistant (MR) or at least IR for fusarium.

“We hope in the future that we’re going to have varieties with a lot more natural protection against fusarium.” Marsh says more varieties with even better fusarium suppression are in the pipeline.

These symptoms are typical of fusarium.

FUSARIUM PROBLEMS ARE DIFFERENT IN SASKATCHEWAN Management strategies for Saskatchewan farmers will depend partly on which fusarium species has infected their fields.

Dr. Myriam Fernandez, a cereal pathologist with AAFC in Swift Current, and her colleagues survey fields for fusarium head blight every year. Fernandez says there is F. graminearum in the Indian Head area this year.

“But in Saskatchewan, the main FHB pathogen has been fusarium avenaceum.”

Fields under reduced tillage seemed to have more fusarium F. avenaceum doesn’t produce DON, and so is not monitored by export markets. However, F. avenaceum does produce other harmful mycotoxins. It will also attack cereals, pulses and even oilseeds. Saskatchewan also has other fusarium species, but so far they are at low levels, says Fernandez.

Between 1999 and 2002, AAFC researchers surveyed nearly 900 cereal fields in eastern Saskatchewan, looking for links between agronomic practices and fusarium.

High fusarium head blight levels, caused by F. avenaceum, were found in wheat and barley crops that followed pulse crops.

However, F. graminearum lev-

High fusarium levels were found in wheat and barley crops that followed pulse crops.

els dropped in cereals seeded into pulse stubble. Researchers think the higher levels of F. avenaceum in cereals following pulses may be linked to root and crown rot.

“Even in a dry year, you might not get FHB, but you will still get survival of the fusarium pathogen in the roots and the crowns… So in the following year, if conditions are right for FHB, you’re going to still get FHB.” The surveys suggested links between tillage and fusarium.

Fields under reduced tillage seemed to have more fusarium.

“The more residue you have on the ground, the more fusarium survival there is going to be,” says Fernandez.

Fernandez cautions that researchers weren’t able to pinpoint cause and effect relationships in the surveys. For example, though cereals seeded into canola stubble had fusarium head blight, Fernandez can’t say what caused the FHB. “We have not been able to completely understand the mechanisms. It could be factors related to the crop and to the survival of the different pathogens in the residues and in the roots. And it could be due to the glyphosate. It could be due to the high nitrogen levels in the crop because people tend to apply more nitrogen in the canola crop compared to people who practice wheat after wheat.”

FUNGICIDE APPLICATION TIMING IS CRUCIAL Syngenta released Fuse, a new fungicide, in limited quantities this year. Fuse is a Group 3 fungicide that suppresses fusarium and

Management strategies will depend on which fusarium species you’re dealing with. controls several cereal leaf and rust diseases.

Marsh says farmers should apply Fuse at the early flowering stage.

The main stem will usually flower before the tillers, making it difficult to time application.

“You have to make a bit of an estimation as a grower or an agronomist. Probably go with main stem because… main stems give you your biggest yield,” says Marsh.

Often plants are at different stages of maturity across the field. Marsh says many people will scout for flowering plants.

Once plants are starting to flower, they’ll try to spray within 12 to 24 hours.

Farmers need to make sure the fungicide covers the entire head. Effective forward-backward facing nozzles help ensure good coverage, but driving too fast

can reduce coverage. Marsh says there are new nozzles coming out designed specifically for controlling fusarium that also allow farmers to drive a little faster than older models. Calibrating the sprayer and correcting the boom height also help ensure good coverage.

Marsh says fungicides won’t stop fusarium 100 per cent.

Rotation, residue management, variety selection, seed care, and using clean seed are important management practices.

“If you don’t do those first five steps correctly, coming in with a foliar fungicide, you’re probably not going to be very happy with the results. You have to have an integrated management plan.” † Lisa Guenther is a field editor with Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Contact her at Lisa.

Guenther@fbcpublishing.com.

24

/ grainews.ca

JULY / AUGUST 2013

Best of Grainews

Controlling wireworms Not all of the more than 30 wireworm species cause damage

BY SHANNON MCARTON

A

s crop threats go, wireworm is one of the most difficult to predict. Its fickle behaviour, from feeding choices and patterns to life-span, makes it near-impossible to determine populations or geographic distribution. What we do know is that wireworm problems are increasing.

Wireworms are among the most significant early-season stressors for many crops in Western Canada, posing a threat to early stand establishment. They seem to prefer cereal crops, but also have a taste for pulse crops and canola.

What makes these tricky little worms so difficult to understand?

To begin with, there are a lot of them. There are more than 30 species of wireworm, all similar in appearance and behaviour.

Correct identification can be difficult, but is important to building a control strategy.

Wireworms are the larval form of click beetles. They can live in the soil for several years, seemingly indifferent to adverse conditions.

This makes them very hard to spot and harder to manage. Adult click beetles overwinter in the soil, emerging in the early spring to lay between two and 400 eggs by early June. Larvae hatch within a threeto seven-week period and can live for three to five years by feeding on roots or germinating seed.

The larvae are usually reddish-

brown, although sometimes white or yellow. They are slender with hard, smooth, jointed bodies and three pairs of legs behind the head.

Larvae go through a pupation period of about one month, the white pupae contained in earthen cells in the soil. Full-grown larvae vary in size from 1/2- to 1-1/2-inches.

They emerge as adult click beetles, ready to overwinter in the soil and perpetuate the cycle. Adults range from 1/4- to 1/2-inch in length, black-brown in colour and hardshelled. The adult click beetle does not damage crops.

“Not all wireworms cause serious problems,” says Shane Thomas, agronomist for GMac’s Ag Team at Kindersley, Sask. “Out of about 30 species, just a few of them

can be economically significant.

The problem is that if you have more than one species, it’s likely to include the one that can hurt you. It’s best to be prepared.”

The wireworm’s ability to survive in the soil over several years means an infested field can host several generations at different life cycles at one time.

As the soil warms, wireworms migrate to within a few inches of the surface to feed on fledgling plants. Hot, dry weather will drive them into the soil, as deep as three feet. Damp, cool weather pulls them to the surface; colder weather drives them back down.

Soil conditions that favour wireworms are diverse and variable.

Cereal crops are susceptible, as is

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recently broken sod. Well-drained, silty soil is very attractive, and wireworms love the safe haven of summer fallow, with higher levels. Soil with high levels of carbon dioxide as organic matter decomposes, as in heavily tilled soil, attracts wireworms to the surface. Anything that has been tilled for 10 years or more will see higher levels of damage.

“Lindane was the only treatment that actually killed them.

Following the Lindane ban, other products came along that will suppress them for a few weeks, allowing the crop to advance beyond the vulnerable stage. You’ll never totally get rid of them, but the goal is to keep them under control until your crop gets past them.”

Feeding activity is influenced by availability. Their love for carbon dioxide released by germinating seeds pulls them to the surface to feed just as crops are emerging.

They will move back down into the soil in times of poor food supply, surviving for up to two years.

Their underground nature can make it hard to identify wireworm damage. It is often mistaken for dry conditions, cutworm damage or a miss with the seeder. Wireworms feed on germinating seed, roots and seedlings, killing some plants and damaging others and making them vulnerable to disease.

Some signs include wilted discoloured plants that still have a root, stems that are shredded, but not severed and dead seedlings or hollowed-out seeds. Beware of row sections missing in stands that appear healthy in all other respects, because wireworms have a tendency to feed along crop rows. Thin stands or plants with green outer leaves but dead central leaves might also signal wireworm damage.

Waiting to spot the damage in the emerging crop may indicate you’re too late to attack the problem.

“Seeding good quality seed with high germination, maybe increasing the seeding rate, that’s a good line of defence,” says Thomas.

“Treat the seed, and focus on quick, even emergence. The faster that crop can get a good start, the less damage will be done.”

Some feeding is required for the worms to ingest a lethal dose of insecticide, so some feeding damage will be evident as the treatment does its work.

If you suspect populations, dig into the soil to look for them.

They’ll move quickly away from the light, but if soil temperatures and germinating seed have attracted them to the surface, you’re likely to spot them by digging at the right time.

Bait balls are useful for assessing populations. Mix one to 1-1/2 cups of oatmeal or wheat flour with two tablespoons of honey and another half cup of water until the mixture forms a ball. Put the bait balls into the ground directly, or in an old sock or mesh bag.

Bury the bait balls four to six inches deep, and be sure to mark the spot so you can retrieve them later. It will take about a week for the balls to decompose and create the carbon dioxide that will attract the wireworms. Check back in seven to 10 days to see what you’ve got. To get a good read, you’ll need about 20 bait balls, evenly spaced over an acre.

Once in a field, wireworms are there to stay. But they can be controlled. † Shannon McArton is a grain farmer and freelance writer from southern Sask.

JULY / AUGUST 2013

grainews.ca /

25

Best of Grainews

Nitrogen application in canary seed At a January meeting, canaryseed growers heard two sides of the nitrogen story

BY MELANIE EPP

F

armers sitting through the presentations at the Canaryseed Development Commission’s afternoon session at Crop Production Week in Saskatoon in January may have left the hotel wondering just how much nitrogen to apply to their canaryseed crops this spring.

During the course of the afternoon, a federal research scientist and a Saskatchewan agronomist presented two very different views on the effectiveness of nitrogen on canaryseed.

LIMITED NITROGEN RESPONSE Bill May, Agriculture and AgriFood Canada research scientist, told farmers that adding nitrogen doesn’t produce lower yields, nor does it increase yields.

“Our findings, in general, are that canary seed does not respond strongly to applied nitrogen fertilizer in most situations,” says May. “Most situations would be on the typical black, dark brown soils that we test canaryseed on. Occasionally we get a significant response to nitrogen. We did last year at Swift Current.”

The key word here is “response,” not yield. While the application rate was increased from 10 to 90 kilograms per hectare (about nine to 80 pounds per acre), the yield increase was minor.

“The yields were low because they were only increased from 10 to 15 bushels. At Melfort, the yield actually went down as the nitrogen rate increased, which isn’t something we typically see, but it’s not impossible,” says May. In years that receive plenty of moisture throughout the growing season, fields that are low in organic matter will see a small nitrogen response. Otherwise, May feels that 30 kg/ha (27 lb./ ac.) is more than enough nitrogen.

“I would actually rather guys put nitrogen on crops that are more responsive to nitrogen and not up the nitrogen rate in canaryseed,” he says. “You’d be better off putting a little extra nitrogen on canola because it will respond to it, whereas canary seed is not going to respond to that extra nitrogen very often. It’s not an economical response.”

“There are better ways to spend your money,” he continues. “I would rather guys spend money on chloride in canaryseed than on nitrogen.”

Farmer and Canaryseed Development Commission Board member Larry Frisky says his experience has been similar to May’s. “I do use fertilizers,” he says. “I’m stronger in using fertilizers like phosphate and potash, and less nitrogen, perhaps, than what my neighbours use. It appears that as soon as we fertilize a little heavier, the crop falls down, it doesn’t fill properly and we have lower yields.”

Frisky relies on his soil tests for answers. If there are, say, 10 pounds of available nitrogen in the soil, he’ll add an additional 40 pounds of nitrogen for a total of 50 lbs. Likewise, depending on what his soil test says, he’ll add

20 to 25 pounds per acre of actual phosphate and about 20 pounds of potash.

“Canary seed becomes a very reasonable crop to grow, and my experience is that it stands up well,” says Frisky. “I don’t get great big huge yields, but I get higher than the area average yield from this way of doing business. It works for me.”

ADDING MORE NITROGEN Pat Toner, a sales agronomist at Emerge Ag Solutions in Eston, Sask., also spoke at the January meeting.

To n e r p r e f e r s a d i f f e r e n t approach with canaryseed. “Rather than speak to nitrogen specifically,” he says, “I like to speak

towards the whole issue with a balanced nutrition approach.”

Over the course of the past three years Toner has submitted canaryseed and canaryseed straw for laboratory analysis and from that he’s developed a nutrient profile of both the harvested grain and the remaining trash.

The objective of the project is to build a canaryseed crop uptake and crop removal chart. Similar charts are available for other commercially grown crops in the industry, but are not readily available for canary seed.

Toner’s findings show that harvested canaryseed removes about a 1-1/2 pounds per bushel of nitrogen in the form of harvested grain.

It also removes approximately .45 pounds of phosphorus (or a phos-

phate equivalent) and .14 pounds of potassium and sulfur.

“Every crop needs nitrogen to live and to build its energy, and to just arbitrarily say ‘no nitrogen application’ is a bit risky, especially if you’re dealing in some stubble land that may have run out by a large crop in the year previous,” says Toner. “I’m trying to create an awareness that in growing a canaryseed crop we have to be assured that that crop will have two pounds of nitrogen available per bushel of the yield goal.”

That nitrogen might already be in the soil, so farmers should see what their soil tests reveal. But don’t stop with nitrogen. Toner says you should look at your ammonium levels as well. “Bear

in mind that our organic matter releases nitrogen over the course of the growing season as well,” he says. “A lot of tests sometimes miss the ammonium aspect of the soil profile.”

“One thing we did agree on was the benefits of chloride,” Toner says. “I think there are benefits to be had from a potassium chloride application — 24 pounds per acre of chloride or less.”

Whatever your solution, one thing is clear: look to your soil test for answers. Your soil’s organic matter content — or lack thereof — will strongly affect the amount of nitrogen available to your crops. † Melanie Epp is a freelance writer who specializes in writing web copy for small businesses. She is based in Guelph, Ont., and can be found online at melanierepp.com.

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JULY / AUGUST 2013

Best of Grainews

Managing herbicide resistance We can’t avoid or ignore herbicide resistance — learn how to manage it

BY LISA GUENTHER

“We’re now hearing of resistance issues with other weeds, particuorty-three per cent of farm- larly wild mustard in the Yorkton, ers think herbicide-resistant Rosetown, Moose Jaw areas. A lot weeds have taken root on of those are focused in the areas their farm, according to a where we grow lots of lentils and recent Ipsos Reid poll carried out lots of pulses. So that Group 2 for BASF Canada. Ipsos Reid also component is very frequent in the reports that 47 per cent of surveyed rotation,” Brenzil says. farmers believe glyphosate alone Dr. Hugh Beckie’s research isn’t effective for controlling weeds. shows kochia, wild oats and green “Glyphosate resistance is here foxtail are most likely to develop in Canada. And it will continue to herbicide resistance in the brown increase as time goes on. And the soil zone, says Eric Johnson, weed pace of that will depend on how biologist with Agriculture and we manage it,” says Clark Brenzil, Agri-Food Canada. Farmers in the provincial weed specialist with Parkland region should watch for resistant wild oats, green foxtail, Saskatchewan Agriculture.

Herbicide-resistant kochia has and cleavers.

Glyphosate is a Group 9 herbibeen grabbing headlines, but it’s SFM07_17-8.125x10-GN.qxd PM Page I 1also develbut resistance not the only weed farmers need 7/17/13 to cide, 2:17 oping to other herbicide groups. keep an eye on.

F

Farmers shouldn’t count on Group 2 herbicides to control kochia, either, Brenzil says.

“Once a weed is resistant to a chemical family, it will always be resistant to that chemical family.

There’s no penalty to being resistant and there’s no going back,” Brenzil says.

MANAGING HERBICIDE RESISTANCE Chem fallow is a major source of glyphosate-resistant weeds. Other areas that aren’t cropped, such as driveways, irrigation channels, and fence lines, are also potential reservoirs.

“If you’re going to chem fallow, you better be tank-mixing the glyphosate with something else.

Something very effective,” says Johnson.

By pre-seed burn-off time, 60 per cent of the kochia has already emerged. “That early emergence emphasizes the need for early season weed control,” says Johnson.

“Because we have some late emergence, we also maybe need some residual control, if possible, particularly in crops that aren’t that competitive, like lentils.”

Rotating herbicide groups can also help slow resistance. Farmers need to make sure they rotate chemical groups rather than switching to chemicals within the same group. But even so, resistance can develop.

“You’re still applying a fair amount of selection pressure when you’re just applying one

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(herbicide) at a time, even though you’re rotating it,” says Johnson.

Tank mixes with two or three different active ingredients do a better job of delaying resistance.

“It’s difficult, then, for that plant to develop resistance to all three,” says Johnson.

If weeds have developed resistance to a chemical, it shouldn’t be used in the mix. Farmers should rotate tank mixes year to year as well, if possible.

When farmers are picking their herbicides, Brenzil suggests starting with the crop with the fewest options. “Pick your herbicide for that crop. Move on to the next most limiting crop, and keep the process going, trying not to repeat groups as you go along.”

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“You want your crop to be your best herbicide,” says Johnson.

Weeds grow best in crops that are similar to themselves, so adding diversity to the rotation keeps weeds from becoming entrenched.

“If you keep doing the same thing over and over again, you’re increasing the probability of not only resistance, but you just give the weeds an advantage. So what you have to do is keep switching things up in your management,” says Johnson.

Farmers should physically remove any weeds they think are resistant. Brenzil recommends working these pathes under. “Don’t wait to find out if you’re wrong because it expands so quickly out of that patch stage to the entire field, that you’ll have lost the race before you even get started.”

More weed seeds also promote resistance. A chaff catcher, which is an old technology, can help cut the seed bank. Australians can now use a machine, called a Harrington Seed Destructor, to grind seeds coming out the back of the combine. Brenzil says they’ve had to develop the machine because some areas in Australia have no other options.

Swapping land with a livestock producer once in a while is also a strategy. “You’ll get the benefit of weed control. He’ll get the benefit of the increased phosphate on the land to improve the growth of his forages when he moves back to his land. And everybody wins,” says Brenzil.

Tillage may become a useful tool in some situations, such as chem fallow, Johnson says. “I don’t think we’re at a point yet with resistance where we have to do a lot of tillage, but it’s something that may have to be considered.”

Farmers can evaluate their own risk for developing glyphosate resistance by visiting weedtool. com. The website, developed by Monsanto, has farmers answer 10 field-related questions before spitting out a risk rating.

Above all, farmers need to keep in mind that herbicide resistance is here to stay. “As long herbicides are used for weed control, you will have herbicide resistance continuing to develop,” says Brenzil. † Lisa Guenther is a field editor with Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Contact her at Lisa.

Guenther@fbcpublishing.com.

JULY / AUGUST 2013

grainews.ca /

27

Best of Grainews

Glume blotch or fusarium?

The symptoms of glume blotch are often mistaken for fusarium

BY ANGELA LOVELL

G

lume blotch is a cereal disease that thrives in wet, humid growing conditions. It has generally been more prevalent in Ontario, but it does occur across the Prairies. Glume blotch symptoms on harvested grain can be confused with the fusarium damaged kernels (FDK) caused by fusarium head blight, and can negatively affect the quality of grain, especially wheat, and cause downgrading.

Glume blotch symptoms on wheat kernels are caused by septoria infections, and are very similar to those caused by fusarium. The septoria damaged kernels, however, do not contain mycotoxins that would be found in kernals damaged by the F. graminearum pathogen.

spotting on winter and spring wheat in central parts of the region and wheat leaf spotting was also quite severe in breeding nurseries, probably due to wet, warm conditions during May to July, but the symptoms could have been due to other leaf disease pathogens such as tan spot.

Some wheat varieties are moderately resistant to glume blotch. Seed treatments and foliar fungicides are available, but farmers should spray only in co-operative weather. Leaf and glume blotch development will be arrested during dry weather.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR SEC_MOAFLO13_GN.qxd Symptoms of leaf and7/16/13 glume

blotch may first appear as small

spots on the lower leaves of seedlings, although symptoms might not be detectable at the seedling stage depending on weather conditions. These spots grow into larger, yellow, lens-shaped lesions which later turn reddish brown.

They become grey or greyishbrown and speckled as tiny black or brown fruiting bodies develop.

Septoria produces lesions that can be confused with tan spot, which has oval, tan-coloured lesions, however the presence of pycnidia indicate Septoria leaf spots.

On the chaff or glumes, brown marks start at the tips, develop downwards and later produce pepper-like brownish dots, which are characteristic of septoria glume 7:36 PMInfection Page 1can also occur on blotch. the stems at the joints or nodes.

U.S. data recommends a fungicide application if 25 per cent of the leaves have one or more lesions in three or five spots sampled in the field. If the disease is present, but this threshold is not reached, farmers are advised to watch weather forecasts, because the disease can spread rapidly during periods of heavy rainfall.

Recommendations from North Dakota State University indicate that it’s not economical to apply fungicide unless there is significant leaf disease present. Yield reduction will be anywhere from 10 to 40 per cent when the flag leaf is affected. †

PHOTO: JEANNIE GILBERT, AAFC

Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist living and working in Manitoba. Find her online at www.angelalovell.ca.

The septoria leaf and glume blotch pathogens can overwinter on seed or crop residue, on volunteer wheat and the leaves of winter wheat.

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Ron Howard, a plant pathologist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, says leaf blotch is usually more common than glume blotch, since leaf material is available for infection for a longer period of time.

Most leaf spot diseases require temperatures between 15 to 30 C, with an optimum of 20 to 25 C and periods of high relative humidity or leaf wetness for 48 hours or more.

The pathogen that causes glume blotch occurs later in the season because of the timing of head emergence. The septoria leaf and glume blotch pathogens can overwinter on seed or crop residue, on volunteer wheat and the leaves of winter wheat.

Dark-coloured fruiting structures present on old infested residue release spores that are spread by wind and cause early spring infections. Later in the summer, infection is primarily caused by rain-dispersed spores. Rain splash helps spread the disease, which is favoured by high humidity and temperatures between 20 and 28 C. The fungus cycles progressively on the crop as it develops, causing lesions which produce the fruiting bodies, releasing spores spread by rain splash to cause new lesions that begin the cycle all over again.

Stubble mulching and minimum till may increase the incidence of this disease, but short rotations, susceptible varieties and favourable weather conditions are the main risk factors for glume blotch development.

“Leaf diseases, in general, were quite prevalent in wheat fields across the Prairies from 2010 to 2012 because of higher-thannormal levels of precipitation,” says Howard.

Historically, glume blotch has been most severe on Red Spring and durum wheat in Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan. Although it has shown up in plant surveys over the past two years, incidence and severity of glume blotch has been low in Manitoba, which has experienced generally dryer conditions. northwest Saskatchewan had very high levels of cereal leaf diseases such as septoria and tan spot in 2012 and at the heading stage glume blotch was present in many wheat fields sampled in the region.

Alberta surveys in mid-July to early August found severe leaf

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JULY / AUGUST 2013

Cattleman’s Corner GRAZING MANAGEMENT

Don’t let cows plan their grazing

BY ANGELA LOVELL

C

ows are very poor managers of grass. So if all you are doing is opening the gate and turning them out to graze for the summer, they won’t make the best use of land resources and achieve the productivity derived from a pre-planned grazing system, says Blain Hjertaas.

Hjertaas, a holistic management instructor from Redvers, Sask., spoke about planned grazing at a two-day workshop hosted

by Ducks Unlimited Canada in association with Manitoba Grazing Clubs in Minnedosa, Man. earlier this year.

Attendees learned how to plot a grazing plan and calculate the number and size of paddocks needed to cover the season, the carrying capacity of the paddocks, and the length of time each can be grazed and still allow sufficient time for the grass to recover before returning to graze it again.

REST PERIOD “The key to success is to protect your recovery time,” says Hjertaas.

“That means from the time grass is eaten off you have to make sure there is nothing else grazing that pasture until that grass is back to maturity.” That’s where the planning comes in, Hjertaas says. “You have to move the cattle or the sheep or whatever it is you are grazing in such a way that what-

PHOTO: ANGELA LOVELL

Blain Hjertaas urges producers to develop a grazing plan that is flexible based on growing conditions. ever recovery time needed for the grass is achieved.”

Hjertaas says that could be 50 days or 90 days depending on the time of year. With planned grazing producers need a plan that ensures livestock aren’t returned to that paddock for that recovery period.

It’s a fairly simple concept once people get their heads around it, says Hjertaas, but creativity is needed to design a planned grazing system that will work on each farm. Participants at his workshops bring an aerial map of their farm and Hjertaas helps them to figure out how to divide pastures and calculate how to move the cattle through the system.

He says it’s useful for a producer to start with an idea of the average forage production of pastures over the last couple of years. With that informa-

tion it is a simple mathematical calculation to figure how many days the herd can spend in each area based on the number of animals, the land available, and an estimate of how much grass each animal eats per day. Once the calculations are done the producer can plot the moves to maximize the grass productivity and pasture recovery time.

Hjertaas says it’s important for producers to remember no plan is set in stone and flexibility is needed to allow for what actually happens in any given year.

“At first it’s theoretical because we don’t know what is actually going to be out there,” he says. “But what is important is to protect the recovery period.”

Depending on actual growing conditions cattle may stay for a longer or shorter period in each pasture before being moved. “You adjust as you go,” he says.

TEST THE SYSTEM Another key aspect of the plan is availability of water. Hjertaas always encourages producers to try their system for a few years using temporary fences and portable water sources to make sure it works before they invest in any major or more permanent infrastructure.

“Planning it is really cheap,” he says. “You can play around with paper and it doesn’t cost much but time. Once you start taking a backhoe or a water drill out there then it becomes quite expensive.”

Planned grazing isn’t just about the land and the animals. It’s also about planning for the people running the system.

“When you start your grazing plan put in all your production events like when you turn bulls out and take them in,” says Adele Popp, a workshop attendee from Erickson, Man. “But you also include life events in the plan as well. That includes plans for a holiday or family wedding or any other event that could affect the dates of your grazing plan.”

Popp attended a planned grazing seminar several years ago, which introduced her to the idea of the grazing chart — a component of planned grazing that allows producers to fill in actual production numbers as the season progresses to compare with the projected production figures from the grazing plan.

“That’s why I went to Blain’s workshop because I had never

actually completed a grazing chart and we spent a whole day working on it,” she says. “I have been collecting grazing data for years but I have never done anything with it. Now that I know how to do the grazing chart I can plug in those years of data and move forward from there. Every year you make changes but when you actually have the numbers it’s proof of what is or isn’t working and it helps you to tweak the system better.”

Popp says she has increased forage and beef production tremendously since adopting planned grazing, but there is always more to learn and being able to learn about the experiences of other producers at workshops is always valuable in helping to refine the system a little bit more.

Planned grazing isn’t a quick fix. It’s a system that encourages abused land to slowly heal itself.

As the land gets healthier it captures more solar energy and soil microorganisms begin to better cycle nutrients and minerals such as zinc, copper and boron, making the grass more nutritious and animals healthier. As soil organic matter increases, productivity and carrying capacity also go up. It is common for producers to be able to double their carrying capacity after a few years of planned grazing, which proponents say is a good economic incentive to get out the paper and pencil. † Angela Lovell is a freelance writer based in Manitou, Man.

ANYONE CAN START FARMING

Tips for managing milk fever DEBBIE CHIKOUSKY

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ack in the day when people farmed to feed themselves as well as make a living, everyone had a milk cow. As little as 20 years ago people were still shipping cream from as few as five cows to help with the monthly bills. Then big business got involved. Now the people with a burning desire to have their very own milk cow come from many backgrounds, but few grew up with dairying.

I understand this desire because it is how we have managed to feed our family and get ahead with our farm. We have milked some type of animal since 1995 and fed everything from baby calves to pigs on our surplus milk. We were extremely blessed to have a neighbour that used to ship cream so getting educated on the care of a dairy animal was easy. Our first milk cow was a Jersey.

Others who are increasingly interested in owning milk animals again are livestock producers wanting to avoid milk replacers.

Producers were leery about milk replacer ingredients so the logical choice was to have a few milk cows for nurse cows. From a cost basis, dairy cows are well worth keeping. Our cows cost approximately $500 a year for feed and

PHOTO: DEBBIE CHIKOUSKY

There are many benefits to producing milk on a mixed farm, but you also have to learn how to manage the animals. veterinary care. Their own calves should bring us that much income at the year end. Then if we were able to use surplus milk to feed another two calves each for the summer, the income from those calves would be profit.

For all the positives that could be listed about including dairy animals in a livestock operation there are also negatives. The most common issue we help people through is treatment for milk fever.

MANAGING MILK FEVER Milk fever (hypocalcaemia) occurs when a cow is unable to meet the calcium demand for colostrum and milk production.

Milk fever is also a possibility for beef cows, sheep and goats.

There are three stages of milk fever, based on clinical signs. Stage One milk fever often goes unobserved because of its short duration (< 1 hour). Signs observed during this stage include loss of appetite, excitability, nervousness, hypersensitivity, weakness, weight shifting, and shuffling of the hind feet.

Clinical signs of Stage Two milk fever can last from one to 12 hours.

The affected animal may turn its head into its flank or may extend its neck. When looking at an animal from the rear her neck will take on an “S” shape. The animal appears dull and listless; she has cold ears and a dry nose; she staggers when walking; and muscles trembling and quivering are evident. Other signs observed during Stage Two are an inactive digestive

tract and constipation. A decrease in body temperature is common, usually ranging from 96 F to 100 F. The heart rate will be rapid exceeding 100 beats per minute.

Stage Three milk fever is characterized by the animal’s inability to stand and a progressive loss of consciousness leading to a coma.

Heart sounds become nearly inaudible and the heart rate increases to 120 beats per minute or more.

Cows in Stage Three will not survive for more than a few hours without treatment.

Ensuring cows can mobilize calcium efficiently in the early stages of lactation will improve your herd’s overall health status, and your farm’s bottom line. The most critical period for a dairy cow is the transition from late gestation to early lactation. In these five to six weeks many changes trigger substantial hormonal changes. At the same time, the cow’s metabolism diverts nutrients toward milk production. To further complicate the early transition period, her feed intake is at its lowest around calving time, and will not reach its maximum until several weeks after she freshens.

LIMIT CALCIUM INTAKE Our veterinarian has recommended we feed absolutely no feeds containing calcium during this period. It is very easy for a dry cow to meet calcium needs from feed. Our vet’s theory is if we can push the cow to start taking her

calcium from her body instead of her feed early, then we have a better chance of a smooth transition from dry to milking.

The next part of the protocol is calcium paste that is administered orally within six hours of calving.

Only take the amount of colostrum needed for the calf. The calf is not left with the cow since taking more colostrum may lead to a calcium deficiency. At each milking we take a bit more and we continue with calcium supplementation along with increasing the calcium in her feed until she exhibits no milk fever symptoms.

We have also been experimenting with a transition cow feed purchased from a local dairy supply.

Probably the most important part of managing milk fever though is a working relationship with a veterinarian.

We have had a beef heifer down after calving that wouldn’t even try and get up. We were standing behind her and noticed the “S” neck. Her ears were also cold. We gave her a dose of oral calcium paste and she was up and bright within 10 minutes. It is truly amazing to watch the immediate success of the treatment.

When purchasing a dairy animal finds out if they have had to be treated for milk fever before. If so, then be prepared. With a bit of preparation and taking the time to study your animal’s behaviour milk fever can be easily managed.

It is well worth taking the time to learn how to manage milk producing animals on the farm. † Debbie Chikousky farms with her family at Narcisse, Manitoba. Visitors are always welcome. Contact Debbie at debbie@chik ouskyfarms.com.

BUILDING TRUST IN CANADIAN BEEF

Cattleman’s Corner

MEAT PROCESSoR TALKS BROKEN NEEDLES, BUCKSHOT IN MEAT Workflow disruption, product loss and a hit to beef’s reputation

You get to know a thing or two about meat processing and product quality when you’ve been at it for 65 years. That’s the history of Winnipegbased Smith’s Quality Meats.

A family-owned, federally inspected plant, the company has built a reputation for quality and a loyal clientele over those years. Today product sales include corned beef for Safeway in Western Canada, sausages for Sobeys in Manitoba and fresh and frozen meats into Co-op channels in Northwest Territories.

Andy Van Patter, Smith’s operations manager, knows that anything that threatens that reputation, threatens the company. Broken needles and buckshot pellets certainly fall into that category.

He gives producers a look inside the issue in his plant with a plea for their understanding of three main things. This is an ongoing issue. It costs big.

And producers are a key part of the solution.

pellets during hunting season and more sporadically throughout the year,” he says.

INCIDENCES CONTINUE Despite efforts to prevent the problem, incidences of broken needles continue to occur.

One example at Smith’s was a non-detectable needle that passed through their metal detector unnoticed. It ended up in a deli product and the deli hit it with its meat slicer.

“That needle was about half an inch long and definitely could have caused an injury if someone had eaten it with a meat cut,” says Van Patter.

Buckshot pellets in meat are a growing issue.

Pellets show up deep in meat. It doesn’t appear to be accidental in many cases with a significant number showing up in the rump area.

“We’ve had two broken needles the past two years. We’ll have about 10 incidences of buckshot

PRODUCER HELP CRITICAL “Think what a half-inch needle could do stuck in someone’s throat,” says Van Patter. “Then imagine if this happened to your own family or friends.

“We need every beef producer’s help to manage this.”

Inject in the neck. “Our broken needles are showing up in the rump which means producers are not following recommended injection protocol.”

Use detectable needles — because they allow metal detectors to do their job.

Be judicious about who you let hunt on your land and consider setting restrictions to avoid buckshot incidences.

COST IS SUBSTANTIAL Van Patter says the company looks at broken needles and buckshot as separate but related problems.

Obviously, needles have more capacity to injure so they are the highest concern.

But many producers would be surprised at the buckshot incidences.

The cost for managing these is significant, says Van Patter. To find a broken needle in a roast, for example, the only way is to keep cutting it in half and check each half until you find it. That often means lost product and lost time in the plant.

There’s a hit to beef ’s reputation. Problems hit social media quickly and every recall shows a beef consumption drop that affects every producer, he says.

The beef industry doesn’t want an injection error ending up on the dinner plate.

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REV-XS Grain News QSHere.indd 1

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Keepers & Culls JBS working hard on a clean operation LEE HART

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don’t know if JBS Canada at Brooks, Alberta is running the best meat-packing plant in North America but I sure see a company working hard to be as efficient and clean as possible in a bid to get a good-quality, safe meat product out the door.

Some people might say, “buy that Hart guy a lunch and he’ll say anything you want to hear…” but that is only partially true. A free lunch is always appreciated, yes… but I was impressed that JBS opened the doors of the plant to media and other guests recently and said, “come have a look at what we’re doing.”

Cargill had a tour of its plant at High River, Alta. maybe 15 or 20 years ago, in the days when Barb Isman was head of communications, but since then I don’t recall any invitations for a look inside.

Portions of the old Lakeside Packers and XL Beef plant have been there a long time. It was started in 1966 and has expanded into what they call a state-ofthe-art operation. Right now the plant processes about 3,800 head of cattle per day (they want to increase that to at least 4,000 per day). It has 2,400 workers split over two shifts. They produce

30,000 boxes (one-ton boxes) of beef product per day, and JBS supplies meat cuts under two brand names, the Blue Ribbon brand which is produced from cattle under 30 months of age and the Packerland brand which is from cattle over 30 months of age.

A tour of the plant revealed, to me anyway, a hive of organized confusion. There are miles of conveyor belts with work stations every four feet, manned by hundreds of heavily armed workers (meat hooks and knives) slicing and cutting an endless flow of meat cuts.

A slash here and a slash there and one piece of meat or bone is thrown up onto another conveyor going one direction or dropped through a slot to catch another conveyor going in a different direction.

Offal and trim go in this direction, primal cuts go there, boneless beef inside round and ribeye roll go yet somewhere else. It all looks like just raw beef to me, but everyone has a specific job on a specific cut and hopefully at the end of the day it all ends up in the right box for shipping.

And everything is monitored.

There are cameras throughout the plant that capture every activity in processing and shipping. Each of the one-ton combo boxes of offal and trim are sampled thoroughly with probes and tested for any bacteria and nothing leaves the plant until

a “clean” test is received. The plant not only has metal detectors in all stages of the operation, but all meat passes through an X-ray type machine to further insure there are no foreign materials getting through.

In the walk through I was on it was obvious that worker safety, cleanliness and food safety are priorities.

Maybe the place falls apart once the “visitors” are gone, but somehow I doubt it. This isn’t like your average household where you can get away with doing a major cleanup just before company arrives. For these guys their reputation, and credibility is on the line with each box of meat that goes out the door. The industry and consumers are all too familiar as to what can happen if a bad batch of meat hits the market — it can be a real killer in every aspect of the word.

Company officials didn’t give out a lot of details, but they did say the amount of rejected meat is down to one-quarter of what it was under previous owners.

CFIA has the details.

Bill Rupp, president of JBS USA Beef and Willie Van Solkema, president of JBS Canada, avoided criticism of the previous owners of XL Beef plant, and simply said later at a news conference that there was a good system in place when JBS bought the plant, they just brought in the no-shortcut JBS protocols used

“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 Email lee@fbcpublishing.com Write to CATTLEMAN’S CORNER, PO Box 71141 Silver Springs RPO, Calgary, Alta. T3B 5K2

in all 10 of their North American processing facilities and applied them at the Brooks plant.

Rupp said even though the Brooks plant is an older facility, it is still a “valuable asset” and the company plans to be in the beef business in Canada for a long time. With a downsizing cattle herd in North America he says the greatest challenge to operating efficient plants and expanding production is finding enough cattle. And he was hopeful cattle producers will begin rebuilding herds soon.

As far as lunch goes, it was excellent too. They served BBQ burgers, salads and a great sixmonth anniversary cake, on the front lawn of the plant. To be honest I did have a couple criticisms of their operation, but then they gave me a JBS ball cap too, and now I forget what those points were. I’m obviously easily distracted.

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT

Ranchland count triples grizzly numbers

BY MIKE LAMB

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here are nearly three times as many grizzly bears frequenting the eastern slopes of southern Alberta as the province estimated only six years ago.

That’s a “bare minimum” says Andrea Morehouse, a University of Alberta wildlife doctoral student in a recent talk at Beauvais Lake Provincial Park, near the heart of the study area that extends from the Montana border to Highway No. 3, a distance of only 50 air miles.

Morehouse and a team of wildlife technicians have been monitoring “bear rubs” and taking hair samples for genetic analysis for the past three years.

The first year’s results (2011) identified only 51 individual grizzlies using Alberta provincial forests. But when the study was expanded last summer to deeded ranch and agricultural lands east of the Rockies, 122 individuals were identified by Wildlife Genetics International of Nelson,

B.C from 4,200 submitted hair samples.

Morehouse says it is likely some grizzlies in the region never used the study’s rub objects, which often include trees strung with barbed wire snags.

The Alberta Government in 2007 estimated there were roughly 50 grizzly bears roaming the same region, and 700 across the entire province. Some consulting biologists argued there were even fewer.

BEAR POPULATIONS INCREASING Morehouse says her work, which continues through 2015, is already more complex than the province’s assessment in 2007, and added Alberta grizzly populations are likely increasing, just as they are in Northwest Montana.

She relied on hair samples collected on 831 natural and artificial rub objects that are monitored and cleared two to eight times a year. Still-cams and videos are also used at some rub sites for additional identification.

The study is somewhat biased in favour of male grizzlies since they tend to rub more frequently than females, Morehouse says.

Her findings showed 72 individual males and 50 females took part in back-scratching activities. Of the hair samples taken only 36 per cent came from black bears, which may suggest the smaller, less aggressive bears are moving out of the area.

Highway No. 3 is used as the northern boundary for the study because it’s believed grizzlies south of the highway come from a different gene pool than those to the north of the artificial barrier.

It’s believed many of Morehouse’s study bears regularly move between Canada and the U.S.

BEARS MOVING EAST Her study also shows Alberta grizzlies, like their Montana counterparts are moving increasingly eastward onto their historic prairie habitat. They are moving “way far east,” she said, and onto prairie habitats were

PHOTO: ANDREA MOREHOUSE

A trail cam photo of a female grizzly and cub and rub object (tree with barbed wire) in the background. residents seldom see any type of bear.

As such they are also creating some new challenges for ranchers and farmers. Livestock depredation and granary and chicken co-op raids are common lifestyle habits among some grizzlies, and Morehouse says her study may

help determine if “problem bears” are genetically linked.

Morehouse and her crew of wildlife technicians are in the midst of collecting this year’s hair samples, the results of which will be known a year from now. † Mike Lamb is a freelance writer based at Burmis, Alberta.

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Cattleman’s Corner THE MARKETS

Cattle market looking positive JERRY KLASSEN MARKET UPDATE

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he cattle and beef markets appear to have many factors working in favour of higher values in the latter half of 2013. Low feedlot inventories and contracting meat production will occur while the U.S. economy moves into full-fledged expansion which should result in stronger prices for fed cattle.

Feedlots are currently carrying feeder cattle that were purchased approximately $20/cwt below year-ago levels and with lower feed grain prices in the fall period, we could see significant equity rebuilding in the feedlot sector. This will take some time to trickle down into the replacement market but feeder cattle prices are expected to trend higher throughout the fall.

STRONG POSITIVE INDICATORS

A BEEF I D A

C. N

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The overall economy will likely move into a major inflationary period over the next year as energy prices continue to climb higher.

Equity markets are near record

highs and there has been a tremendous amount of wealth made over the past year, which bodes well for consumer spending and beef consumption into the winter of 2013.

Alberta and Saskatchewan on feed numbers have been running three to five per cent below yearago levels throughout the fall period. There is potential for a sharper year-over-year decline in the latter half of 2013 due to stronger feeder cattle exports to the U.S. Canadian feeder cattle and calf exports to the U.S. were running 61 per cent above last year from January 1 to June 29. Year-todate Canadian beef production is running 10 per cent behind last year and this trend is projected to continue for the rest of 2013.

U.S. on-feed inventories as of June 1 were also down three per cent in comparison to June 1, 2012; July and August surveys are expected to show a similar year-over-year decline. Despite the lower on-feed numbers, beef production is coming in larger than earlier anticipated due to heavier carcass weights. Secondquarter beef production for 2013 was actually higher than last year and third-quarter production will only be marginally lower. The market moves into a major supply change in the final quarter of

ANNUAL FORUM 2013

lg a r y, A l b er

sale beef prices which will translate into stronger fed cattle prices.

STRONGER U.S. ECONOMY The U.S. economy is moving into a full-fledged expansionary phase unlike what we have seen in the past. Consumer confidence is at a five-year high and unemployment levels are expected to drop under the psychologicalhump of seven per cent in the final quarter of 2013. Housing prices have jumped 10 per cent over last year making Americans feel more wealthy and with equity markets at all-time record highs, consumer spending is projected to increase in the final quarter of 2013 and first quarter of 2014 enough to stimulate a sharper jump in economic expansion. Interest rates are poised to strengthen and crude oil prices could reach $120 per barrel in the fall period as U.S. crude inventories decline.

This will support the equity and cattle markets, which are all highly correlated during expansionary phases of the economy.

FEEDER PRICES UP Feeder cattle prices have been trading $20/wt to $30/cwt below year-ago levels throughout the

summer. Auction barns in Western Canada have been extremely quiet making the replacement market ill defined. Given the overall environment in Western Canada, we look to the U.S. market for price discovery and indications for the fall period. In early July, the USDA reported 740-lb. steer calves sold for $156.25 for October delivery in Billings Montana. Given the exchange rate and freight spread, this would make these cattle near $170/cwt in the Lethbridge area.

In the U.S. Southern Plains, calves under 500 pounds are trading at $200/cwt for October delivery and heavier cattle weighing around 800 pounds are trading near record highs for fall feedlot placement.

This provides a strong indication that feeder cattle will move through a fundamental price adjustment, which is due to the projection for abundant feed grain supplies.

Given the crop conditions to date for U.S. corn and Canadian barley, there is potential for record crop size, which will keep feed grain prices under pressure throughout the fall period. † Gerald Klassen analyzes cattle and hog markets in Winnipeg and also maintains an interest in the family feedlot in Southern Alberta. For comments or speaking engagements, he can be reached at gklassen7@hotmail.com or call 204 899 8268.

Canada Beef Inc.

Annual Forum 2013 Building Brand Loyalty – A Commitment to the Brand

t

a

Ca

2013 and first quarter of 2014. The supply situation appears to favour higher prices in the fed market from October through December.

I’ve mentioned in previous articles that the demand equation will be the main influence on the market structure moving forward. September and early October is a period seasonal low beef demand as restaurant traffic moves through a lull. However, retail consumption and restaurant traffic picks up in November and stays strong to the end of the year.

I’m projecting this pattern again this year along with the macro environment, which will encourage overall beef consumption.

USDA data shows at-home food spending in May down 3.9 per cent from May 2012 while away from home food spending was up a measly 2.5 per cent. Official data is not available for June and July but I’m expecting at-home and away-from-home food spending to be slightly higher than last year during the summer months. This marginal year-over-year increase will continue into early fall but in November and December, as athome food spending is expected to jump five per cent over 2012 while away-from-home food spending could be up 10 to 12 per cent. This should result in record-high whole-

You’re Invited!

September 19 - 20, 2013

Join Canada Beef Inc.’s Board of Directors, staff and industry partners as we discuss the importance of having, building and maintaining a strong brand in today’s marketplace.

At the Annual Forum you will hear from our board, marketing team, partners and others on many topics including: • Canadian Beef Brand Mark: what does it represent?

• Industry panel: the value of the brand to our various partners.

• What is on the horizon for Canada Beef Inc.?

We welcome recommendations for individuals to stand as voting delegates for the business meeting.

Thursday, September 19 A full day of presentations and information sessions, followed by a special dinner.

Friday, September 20 The business meeting including a review of the company’s performance and election of the new Board.

The Annual Forum is open to everyone. We hope you will join us.

Thursday and Friday, September 19 and 20, 2013 Sheraton Cavalier, Calgary Alberta Check www.canadabeef.ca/producer for more information.

Please submit by August 15, 2013 for consideration by the governance committee to: tfraser@canadabeef.ca

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Cattleman’s Corner RANCHER’S DIARY

Accident on the trail cuts short a ride HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

Sunday afternoon we took Sam and Dani for their first ride this summer on 27-year-old Veggie and 20-year-old Ed. Andrea rode Breezy and I rode 26-year-old Rubbie.

MAY 28

JUNE 20

ast Saturday Lynn helped our new neighbour, John Miller, work on water troughs on the low range pasture, cleaning out the spring boxes so there would be more flow into the troughs.

That Sunday we had our family all here for dinner — Michael and Carolyn and kids, and Andrea and kids. This was a group birthday celebration for Michael’s family (four birthdays in April) and for Lynn and Andrea (birthdays May 17 and 21).

Andrea and I made several rides on Sprout and Ed, checking the fence around the middle range, fixing broken wires the elk went through, and shutting gates.

Saturday we rode with John Miller to show him the middle range and where the troughs are located, and the ones that need to be fixed. We closed another gate that had been left open all winter. He was hoping he could remember the names and locations of all the troughs, so I told him I would make him a map of the range pastures.

Michael got all their horses shod, reshod Breezy and put new shoes on Ed before he went back to North Dakota to his truck-driving job. Heather is working with Dottie for a while every morning when she comes down to feed the old horses and spends the rest of the day working with the other horses she’s training.

A week ago Andrea and I made a long ride in the rain to check cows, fences and fix another gate. The cows were spread out better in the cool weather and we didn’t have to move any that day. But when we got to the third canyon our horses started snorting and didn’t want to cross the little creek. Sprout spooked and whirled, and tried to bolt out of there. It’s a good thing she’s strong and agile and had brand-new shoes with good traction or she would have fallen down that steep, slippery hill and rolled to the bottom.

Andrea got her stopped and finally got her across. There was a dead bull in the sagebrush along

L

the trail ahead of us — one of John’s bulls. We found out later that the bull died in the creek the day before. John and his boys had brought their team of draft horses to pull the body up the bank and away from the creek. Our horses spooked when they smelled the trail left from dragging the dead bull.

JULY 5 Today is the anniversary of Andrea’s burn accident 13 years ago. Last year we celebrated this day with a picnic ride with her kids. This year the three youngest kids are with their dad this week, so we will have a celebration later, when they come home.

JULY 13 Heather is making nice progress with Dottie. Last week we took her to the new corral Michael built when he tore down our falling-down round corral. Heather rode Dottie in there a few days, working on walking, trotting, turning, stopping. Now she’s riding her around the barnyard and fields and today I rode Ed along with her, to get Dottie used to going with another horse.

Lynn hooked up the swather to our big John Deere tractor and cut hay on heifer hill and the field below it. He turned off the rest of our irrigation water to start dry-

PHOTO: HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

Granddaughter Heather has been working most days with Dottie breaking her in as a saddle horse. ing out the other fields so he can cut them, too.

There were too many cows at Withington trough, with no water, so we herded them over the mountain and down to the Bear trough area. Some of them didn’t want to go the right direction and ran into the brush. Andrea galloped Sprout to chase them out of the brush while I was chasing wayward cows on the other side of the herd.

I heard her holler from the brush, so I galloped around the hill to come see what was wrong.

She’d run into a big tree branch that stabbed a couple of inches into her thigh, clear to the bone, and broke off. The wound was spurting blood so she had her hand pressed over the gash to slow the bleeding. While she held pressure on it, we got bandages from her saddle bag and dish towels (that I use for scarves in cold, wet weather) from my saddle bag. I slapped a big square bandage onto the wound the instant she removed her hand, and we wrapped and tied three scarves around her leg to hold the

bandage in place and create pressure to stop the bleeding.

Then we rode home, and she went to town to the hospital. The emergency room doctor flushed and suctioned out more wood fragments and tree bark, and put some internal dissolvable stitches into the flesh (since her graft skin is fragile and wouldn’t hold stitches very well).

Wednesday she went to the clinic for a checkup and that doctor didn’t like the looks of it and put her on an antibiotic. They took an X-ray to see if there were any fragments left in the wound and checked the bone. There were no obvious fragments. The only things that showed up were staples from the graft surgeries 13 years ago. After the grafted skin “takes,” the staples holding it are removed, but there are always some that end up under the skin — and tend to migrate around through the tissues. † Heather Smith Thomas ranches with her husband Lynn near Salmon, Idaho. Contact her at 208-756-2841.

FORAGE PRODUCTION

Tama launches improved bale wrap system

BY LEE HART

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ohn Deere and bale wrap manufacturer Tama are launching a new product this fall, which they say will elevate the quality of round bale wrap to that of indoor storage.

John Deere will be the exclusive distributor of the B-Wrap system that will include an almost solid layer of material in each bale covering to better protect hay from wind and sun.

The idea says Graham Robson, technical manager for Tama Europe, is to provide an extra layer of material in the wrap to preserve the quality of the hay so it’s as good as the day it was made, even if bales are exposed to the elements. Robson, who is based in England, was in Western Canada recently working with the Canadian division of Tama to familiarize producers with Tama bale wrap products.

Tama isn’t the only bale wrap manufacturer in the world, but it was one of the first and is now the largest manufacturer, with products that include Edge to Edge

More on the web

those s” “famou

plainjans.com

Roper

620-872-5777

gloves m: p l a i nj a n s f ro

PHOTO: LEE HART

This stack of round bales, left, was made with Tama’s Cover Edge bale wrap product, while the single bale, right, was made with a different brand that appears to be the width of the bale in the roll, but tends to contract once the wrap is stretched around the bale. (which covers the full width of the bale) and Cover Edge, that actually wraps over the end of each bale by a couple inches. Edge to Edge wrap is carried by John Deere, Claas, Kuhn and other equipment distributors. Cover Edge and the new B-Wrap products are only available from John Deere.

LIKE INDOOR STORAGE With the B-Wrap product, rather than just the standard net-type material around the bale, B-Wrap will also include a layer of more solid material to protect hay.

One roll of B-Wrap will hold enough material for 35 bales from 60 to 68 inches in diameter. For each bale, the first wrap will be the standard Cover Edge netting,

followed by one complete wrap of the more solid patented material that protects the bale from sun and rain, and the final wrap is another layer of Cover Edge netting. A metal tape attached to the B-Wrap activates the baler knife to cut B-Wrap at the correct length. B-Wrap also has patented fasteners to hold the wrap on the bale. The more solid B-Wrap layer will protect the hay quality from rain and sun exposure, but it also has microscopic pores that will allow moisture inside the bale to escape.

It will be a more expensive bale wrap product, but also provides more value, says Robson. “For the dairy producer or anyone else looking to produce high-quality hay B-Wrap, will protect the bale from

weather exposure, preserving the colour and quality of hay just as if the bales had been stored inside a shed,” he says. “It will also be a benefit to commercial beef producers who know that a certain percentage of their hay crop will be stockpiled.”

Robson says beef producers may choose to use the Edge to Edge or Cover Edge wrap on hay that is to be fed out in the coming winter season, but then use B-Wrap for a portion of the crop that may be stored in the bale yard for two, three, or five seasons or more until it is needed. The B-wrap will protect those bales eliminating the risk of 10 to 15 per cent of the baled hay that may discolour and spoil over long periods of storage.

The Tama bale wrap was devel-

oped in Israel by Israeli farmers and the company has gradually grown with international offices in Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Sweden/ Scandinavia, France, Poland, Hungary and Central Europe.

FOCUS ON WEAVE Robson says years of research and development by Tama engineers has produced a product which is both strong, yet thin, providing more metres of wrap per role.

Robson says the patented material and weave of the netting also ensures bales are properly covered, avoiding “muffin tops” of exposed hay on either end. † 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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Cattleman’s Corner ANIMAL HEALTH

Tips for preventing/treating pinkeye ROY LEWIS ANIMAL HEALTH

T

his past year has seen a huge resurgence of pinkeye and other eye ailments in our practice.

While I may have some of the answers the last year was unique with the lush growth of grass and a very high face fly population. And dry years see producers grazing alfalfa and the coarse stems also cause eye abrasions.

Pinkeye technically is known as infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis (IBK), caused by the bacteria Moraxella bovis and is quite contagious. Young children are sent home from school if they contract the human form as it can spread very easily. Pinkeye is by far the most common eye problem in cattle and worthy of discussion.

organism as they feed on the eye secretions. Fly prevention whether it is insecticidal ear tags, oilers or the pour-ons such as CyLence or the endectocides can be used to substantially cut down fly numbers. They have varying treatment durations so must be applied during the peak fly season June to August in our area.

We have several producers and one community pasture, for instance, applying the pour-on CyLence right as cattle leave the truck to pasture. Decreased fly irritation will give the added benefit of helping prevent the spread of pinkeye and reduce the risk of weight loss. And yes, pinkeye, although not life-threatening, can lead to decreased weight gains.

For fully functional breeding bulls its best if they have binocular vision for depth perception to

see cycling cows so you definitely want both eyes healthy. Calves with large scars on their eyes may yield a decreased price because of this blemish. There is also the danger of working with cattle blind in one eye they are often difficult to sort and a bit spookier as a result of impaired vision. These are all reasons we want to keep pinkeye to a minimum on our herds. A vaccine is available for Moraxella bovis and producers experiencing continual problems will use this vaccine. Breeding bulls are another group it may pay to vaccinate.

TREATING THE INFECTION Treatment involves antibiotics such as long-acting tetracyclines (which get good levels in the tears) or penicillin at low volumes (two to three cc doses) injected into

the conjunctiva of the eye. A good rule of thumb is once the tearing stops the infection is under control and only time will help the white scar to gradually diminish. Treating when there is only a white scar does nothing. Depending on the size of the initial scar it may eventually disappear or leave a white area in the middle of the eye. This diminishes sight but vision around the scar will allow cattle to function quite normally.

TRAUMA GRAZING Several years ago there was a tremendous amount of damage to eyes from trauma grazing tall alfalfa and grass stands. When pastures get lush and ripen off cattle graze through these stands to access the finer new growth. The cornea can be lacerated in these

situations and the same condition as a bad pinkeye is the result. In these situations the injury will not be in the middle of the eye as with true pinkeye, but regardless treatment is the same.

Likewise foreign objects such as grass awns and barley beards will become lodged in the eyes so when treating for pinkeye always have a close look for these foreign objects especially when weather has been very windy. These objects need to be removed before healing can occur.

If possible use fly treatments in the summer and also if possible, select cattle for genetic eye pigment, which helps prevent the disease. † Roy Lewis is a Westock, Alberta-based veterinarian specializing in large-animal practice. He is also a part-time technical services vet for Merck Animal Health.

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FIRST SIGNS Producers initially will notice the eye tearing and the conjunctiva (pink area surrounding the eye) swollen and red. Pinkeye most commonly will affect just one eye.

The theory being immunity will develop making the second eye less susceptible, but I have also seen severe cases where both eyes are involved.

As the infection progresses the cornea (eyeball) becomes cloudy and blue. The pinkeye organism attaches to the surface of the eye and causes an ulcer. This creates pain and the subsequent tearing and blepharospasm (eyelids being clamped shut). The tears concentrate the organism with blinking towards the centre of the eye.

Pinkeye therefore always causes the most damage near the very middle of the eyeball. Occasionally the ulcer will perforate through the globe, releasing the liquid behind the eye. The eye will have a popped-out appearance and all sight will be lost. These cases will not recover and in severe cases the eye will protrude so much it will need to be removed. Other cases of perforation have the eyeball collapsing and shrivelling up into the eye socket.

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SUSCEPTIBLE ANIMALS Any condition that changes the healthy integrity of the eye can predispose cattle to getting pinkeye. Generally, younger animals are most susceptible because exposure implies inherent immunity to the older stock. Sunlight, causing squinting and stress on the eyes, predisposes cattle to pinkeye.

Cattle with dark pigment around the eye such as Black Angus or the goggle-faced Simmentals are less susceptible. Much like the football players that darken the area below their eyes to prevent glare from the sun, when treating pinkeye eye patches or strips of blue jean can be glued over the eye to totally prevent sunlight from causing further irritation. A dark spray can also be applied around the eye on white-faced cattle, giving them a raccoon-like look.

Flies, especially face flies, are real culprits for spreading the pinkeye

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JULY / AUGUST 2013

Cattleman’s Corner BETTER BUNKS AND PASTURES

Holstein steers aren’t average beef PETER VITTI

H

olstein steers are no longer fed as a sideline for the beef market in Western Canada. With the advent of rising feeder and corresponding fat prices for all beef animals in the last few years, the interest of raising Holstein steers has taken onto full-scale proportions by many cattle feeders.

These people have pencilled out a favourable opportunity of taking weaned Holstein calves and putting them through vigorous grower and finisher feeding programs until slaughter. They also know that feeding Holstein steers has its own unique set of rules and challenges, but when overcome, lead to incoming revenue and profits.

Aside from four hooves, many cattle feeders say feeding a Holstein steer is really feeding a different animal compared to a more traditional beef-breed steer.

Holstein steers are large, tall and lean animals, which have thin hides, short hair coats and carry less external back fat. While this makes for an animal less adaptable to our cold weather, it doesn’t

stop them from consuming about 10-12 per cent more feed (dry matter basis) and achieving favourable average daily gains. When they are finished in a feedlot, Holstein steers are usually marketed at about 15 months of age and have large mature body weights of about 1,300 to 1,400 lbs.

It’s these basic fenceline impressions that are augmented by realistic carcass data, which has been collected on finished Holstein feeders. At comparable weights, Holstein steers have less external back fat, less muscling and greater bone-to-muscle ratios compared to beef-type breeds. They tend to have lower yields of desired boneless cuts, yet what lean muscle that is laid down tends to be well marbled. Trim pieces removed from dairy carcasses also yield leaner cut-outs.

Overall, Holstein steers have dressing percentages at the packers that are generally six to eight per cent lower compared to beef breeds.

HIGH ENERGY REQUIREMENT Such “meat and bone” differences exhibited by dairy steers are attributed to a high energy requirement in the first place and the subsequent pathway in which this dietary energy is metabolized. It has been demonstrated by university and exten-

sion field work that Holstein steers require about 10 per cent more energy for maintenance of larger body frames and up-keep of vital functions.

They also showed that growing dairy steers use dietary energy more efficiently for laying down protein tissue and are less efficient in fat accumulation compared to most beef cattle.

This means feeding programs should be designed for Holstein steers that puts them on a higher plane of nutrition compared to those for conventional beef cattle in order to maximize feedlot performance. The most successful Holstein feeder programs are usually broken down into a twophase feeding series; (1) a grower phase, which targets a 2.5- to 3.0-lb. average daily gain for 350 to 700 lb. Holstein steers and (2) a finisher phase that targets a 2.8- to 3.2-lb. average daily gain for 700- to 1,200-lb. (to market) Holstein steers.

The respective initial grower diet should contain a substantial amount of nutritious forages (30 to 50 per cent) supplemented with grain concentrates that supplies a modest amount of dietary energy (50 to 55 Mcal NEg/cwt, DM); given some allowance for young Holstein calves that need to grow in frame size. The second phase diet should contain much

less forage, which makes it largely made up of high-energy grain (80 to 85 per cent) that supplies high dietary energy (62 to 68 Mcal NEg/ cwt, DM). This high-energy diet maximizes good Holstein finisher gains and conserves the number of days needed to reach an economic marketable weight of 1,200 to 1,400 lbs.

OTHER NUTRIENTS Despite the focus upon the high-energy diets to drive Holstein good performance, it is also important to ensure that other essential nutrient levels are met. By the time they enter the feedlot, young animals should get a ration with about a 13 to 14 per cent protein level and then a finisher diet of about 11 to 12 per cent protein.

Calcium levels of 0.6 to 0.7 per cent are respectively recommended with a half a bag of extra limestone often added to the mixer wagon toward the end of the finisher phase. Most of the time, we do not worry about adding phosphorus to both grower and finisher diets, because increasing grain levels tend to supply enough of this macro-mineral.

In contrast, both Holstein grower and finisher diets must contain a strong trace-mineral pack (copper,

zinc, manganese, iodine, cobalt and selenium) and vitamins A, D, and E. These essential trace minerals and vitamins not only are vital to good maintenance and growth of these animals, but also play a vital role in immune function, which helps Holsteins fight disease and remain healthy.

An ionophore such as monensin sodium should be added to the diets at a 22 g or 33 g levels to help improve feed efficiency and prevent coccidiosis.

Here is an illustration of sample diets of a grower and finisher diets for Holstein steers marketed at 1,400 lbs.; coming into the feedlot as 500 lbs. calves and gaining 2.8 lbs./head/day on the grower diet and 3.2 lbs./head/day on the finisher diet.

These are suggested diets only.

Their actual formulation will also be based on individual factors such as weight and health status of incoming Holstein cattle, degree of segregation, desired performance and existing farm facilities and labour resources. Furthermore, the basic cost of the above rations will vary too; calculated at $2.15/head/ day for the grower and $2.71/ head/day for the finisher diets (i.e.: corn silage at $67/tonne and $6/bu. for barley).

Peter Vitti is an independent livestock nutritionist and consultant based in Winnipeg. To reach him call 204-254-7497 or at vitti@mts.net.

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JULY / AUGUST 2013

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Home Quarter Farm Life SEEDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

What to do when things do not work out…

Know the signs for when it’s time to move on and know how to do it ELAINE FROESE

I

t’s summer, and you are wondering if this is the last season for you working on the farm because you are tired of chronic fighting. No matter how hard you have worked at trying to get along and make things work, sometimes the conflict situation cannot be resolved. You need to move on, realizing that you can only control your own actions. To continue in the muck takes endless energy, and it is draining you.

You can’t fix other people. You may try to influence them, but they are stonewalling, broken, or facing mental health issues that are barriers to functioning well. You need to let go.

Look for signs that are telling you it is time to go: • Losing sleep over a long period of time, more than a year, because you have gone through all the seasons of the farm, and nothing has changed. A year is enough time to think things over and make a shift.

• When you cannot stop crying, kicking or have uncontrollable anger or prolonged sadness. Your stomach pains and headaches are signs that your body is not dealing well with internalized stress.

• Your relationship to your spouse or partner, and your children is rocky because of the farm team stress.

• When you cannot stop talking about the fights, and the conversations keep reverting back to the same old story. People who care about you are telling you that they are sick of hearing about it, and they are concerned you are staying in the mess.

• If it is costing you financially. Farming should be profitable, and not a sinkhole for your outside resources.

• If there is chronic conflict on the farm team, ask yourself, “Why am I still here?”

• If you have tried farm coaching, mediation or counselling, using outside interventions, and things still don’t change, it is time to move on.

• The grass is starting to look greener outside the farm fence, so you are starting to see other options for your life. For example, you finish your electrician ticket, and move on to a new career, or you move to farm with your wife’s family.

• You have deep value conflict issues, knowing you cannot negotiate value differences. For example, younger families typically put a high value on work/life balance, while the founders often are workaholics, so the work ethic value will never be negotiated well. You need to accept that core values drive the way people do things and frame their expectations.

• When your vision for the growth or sustainability of the farm is highly different from your business partners, you may see it as time to farm separately or follow other pursuits.

• When a farm team member is violent, abusive, manipulative, or has a huge sense of entitlement, sometimes this is an indicator that you need to leave more quickly, and end that farming relationship.

What do you do next? Step back, and think things through logically: 1. What is really important to you now, and what do you hope to see happen?

Identify where you want to be, and set your current priorities. Example: economic goals, family goals, time goals.

2. What do you want the relationship to the family to look like when you leave the farm?

Know that you don’t have to stay so physically close or emotionally close to them. You get to decide the healthy boundaries of the relationship. You may need some “cooling off” time. If relationships are super nasty, you may not be able to continue any communication or only have very limited contact with certain criteria.

3. What are your options for exiting?

This is tough and complex depending on how intertwined you are with the farm business. My experience is that few farm families have operating or partnership agreements that clearly spell out how one partner leaves the business. Sort out the financial implications of leaving. What will be the assets you take with you? What is your new income stream going to be? Have you updated your resumé or sought assistance from an employment counsellor?

4. Where would you live next?

Many farms own all the houses on the property. Leaving the family business can also mean leaving your house behind. Just the threat of looking for a new home in town, or the next community, may be the tipping point to start a reconciling conversation to force change.

5. How do you want to be family when it is all said and done?

Food safety tips when camping

BY JULIE GARDEN-ROBINSON NDSU EXTENSION SERVICE

I

f you are planning a camping trip, deciding on a menu is fun but can be a food safety challenge. You will need to do some advance preparation to be sure your perishable food remains cold and safe.

• First, think about the accommodations at your campsite. Is there a safe supply of running water at the site or do you need to bring water? Despite what you might see in old movies, food safety experts do not recommend

drinking water from a stream.

That practice could be hazardous to your health.

• Bring biodegradable soap for handwashing and other cleanup.

Disposable wipes or sanitizer can be used for cleaning your hands when water is not available to wash before snack breaks on nature walks.

• Bring a cooler filled with ice, especially if you plan to bring meat or other perishable foods on your trip. Foam coolers are a lightweight option but not as durable as plastic ones. Remember that ice cubes melt much faster than blocks of ice. Try making large blocks of ice

Richness in relationship comes with hard work to make it work, and intentionality. Grandparents long to see their grandkids, and farming sons and daughters who leave, want some kind of connection, on their own terms. What baby steps can you take to build up your emotional bank account with your family? Is your spouse willing to engage in this process with you?

6. What are your timelines and deadlines for each element of the change?

For example, in the next two weeks, “I am writing my resumé, and looking online or asking around for jobs.” Look at new training possibilities; allow yourself to dream.

There are new opportunities. Make an appointment with the accountant to figure out the asset mix and financial implications of leaving the farm partnership. Consider using a counsellor or mediator to define the healthy boundaries you are willing to accept with your family relationships. Write down your goals and vision for the next chapter of your life.

7. Network with friends, and find your support group for this transition.

This might be tricky if all your friends are very intertwined with your business life.

Perhaps professionals, or far-away friends will give a clearer perspective.

8. Grieve the losses and celebrate your successes.

Any time you move into a new phase of your life, you need to let go of things in order to create space for new opportunities.

You may have sadness, anger, and sense of loss as you grieve what could have been.

You have given up all hope of a better past and any dreams that you had for your farm.

Be proud of the accomplishments that you have achieved in your time on the farm, however small they may be.

9. Resist the urge to cave in, if your decision is well thought out and agreed upon with your spouse.

Tough decisions have tough consequences, and this is not going to be easy.

I’d like to hear your stories of exiting well.

Dr. Megan McKenzie and I are working on the book Farming’s In-Law Factor. Contact www.elainefroese.com/contact or call 1-866848-8311. Go to Farm Family Coach to “like” Elaine on Facebook. † Elaine Froese is becoming a mother-in-law in July, and coaching in Australia in August. She is a member of CAFA www.cafanet.com, the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors, and the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. Harvest on her farm is late this year. Take good care of your family, and manage the stresses well.

by freezing water in plastic buckets or even zip-lock plastic bags.

Even plastic soda pop bottles can be filled partially and allowed to freeze to help keep foods cold.

• Keep ready-to-eat foods and beverages, such as fruits, vegetables and canned beverages, in separate coolers away from raw foods, such as meat. Meat juices could drip on the foods or your beverage containers and be transferred into your mouth.

• Do some advance preparation at home. You may want to shape your burgers at home and freeze them in zip-lock bags. In a day or two, they will thaw in an ice-filled cooler. You can rinse and cut up vegetables for snacks in advance, too.

• Pack smart. Use your cooking utensils for multiple uses. Dutch ovens are heavy but versatile for cooking a wide range of foods.

How others might react to your leaving the farm: 1. Foot stomping and door crashing: Anger will erupt, since you have messed up the “status quo.” Anger comes from fear, hurt and frustration with the loss of relationship and power.

2. Exclusion from the will, family gatherings, and “inside family information” may occur when people grasp for ways to inflict hurt or revenge. Threats and bad behaviour are symptoms of a larger problem of not being able to adapt to change and let go graciously.

3. Sometimes people need time to process change and figure it out.

Behaviour may improve a few months down the road when the family reaches a new kind of equilibrium.

4. Relief and gratefulness may be expressed when all is said and done.

Imagine what the neighbours might say, but pay attention to what immediate family is expressing. A middleaged farm woman once thanked me as the coach, for “giving her, her husband back,” once the farm separation was complete.

5. The neighbours are going to talk.

Know what the family script is for the exit — in other words, “What are we going to tell our friends and neighbours?” The more united and positive everyone on the farm team can be, the better the transition. The script is what you have decided to say in one sentence when people ask about what is going on with the farm. Here is a sample script: “We are making changes that benefit all of our family, and we are looking forward to the new chapter for our farm.”

6. Non-farm heirs and siblings will also have an opinion. What is your plan for how much detail and information they need to have?

Nest your cooking pots and cooking utensils inside of each other to save space.

• Consider bringing foods that do not require constant refrigeration such as canned foods and other shelf-stable foods. Pack some canned beans and meat, dried meats, peanut butter, dried fruit, nuts, dried soup mixes, fruit drinks, powdered milk, cereal, crackers, bread and other foods you find in the packaged-food aisles at the grocery store.

• If you build a campfire, be sure to follow the policies of the campground for building and extinguishing the fire. Never leave a campfire unattended, and supervise children at all times when they are around one. † Julie Garden-Robinson, PhD, R.D., L.R.D., is a North Dakota State University Extension Service food and nutrition specialist and professor in the department of health, nutrition and exercise sciences.

PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

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Home Quarter Farm Life

Teamwork at Davison Orchards

Couple opts for hardy animals Ones that could care take of themselves while they both worked off-farm jobs

BY EDNA MANNING

PHOTO: JOAN AIREY

Tamra (r) and Laura Davison with the finished product after an apricot-canning demonstration.

BY JOAN AIREY

F

rom the apples in the orchard to the zucchini in the garden, what the Davisons grow is sold directly to the consumer. Agritourism is a large part of their Vernon, British Columbia business from the Johnny Popper Orchard Tour with Grandpa Bob or Tom, to the famous Deep-Dish Apple Pie from their on-farm bakery or restaurant.

“Our daughter Laura has a business degree and she has taken over managing the bakery and developing recipes using produce we grow on the farm.

My husband Kevin is our technology specialist keeping the 13 computers on the farm running. Our other daughter Leah lives in Alberta and looks after promoting Davison Orchards on Twitter and Facebook and helps keep our website up to date,” said Tamra Davison, marketing director.

Tamra and Laura also run canning workshops. “Laura and I decided to have free on-site canning demonstrations, and began by showing how to can apricots. That means people can eat locally grown fruit year round.

In September we will have a

Harvest Festival with samples and recipes on how to use different melons, etc., another on canning tomatoes and making salsa, and one to show how to can pears and prune plums and how to use squash. The last workshop will be on how to make apple juice, apple salsa and apple butter,” said Davison.

There’s also guided tours for all ages, group tours that can be arranged with three days’ notice, a program for five- to eight-year-olds to be a supervised farmer for a day, and birthday party packages.

Davison Orchards is known for its wide selection of apples that the Davisons have been growing since 1933. These can be purchased fresh and they also make fresh-pressed apple juice that is used in their butters and syrup.

The restaurant serves healthy meals using local foods and the bakery sells pies made with Davison Orchards’ fruit. There is also an on-site store where the juice, jams, jellies and preserves can be purchased.

Davison Orchards is open from May 1 until Thanksgiving.

Visit the website at www. davisonorchards.ca. † Joan Airey writes from Rivers, Man.

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W

hen Ruth and Marcel Gosselin moved to their acreage south of Saskatoon in the early 1980s, they both had full-time jobs in the city, but their farm backgrounds soon had them thinking about purchasing some livestock.

The Gosselins felt it was important to acquire animals that were tough — the kind that could take care of themselves. “I began to do some research, looking into different breeds of cattle and settled on Longhorns because they’d be the easiest to care for while we both worked. That has turned out really well. Although they’re a little slower growing, they calve easily.

In the spring, we take them out to pasture and they’re pretty much on their own. Also, the meat is quite lean,” Ruth said.

As an animal lover, Ruth couldn’t settle for just cattle. She purchased some Welsh mountain sheep. They are small, but sturdy black animals, naturally resistant to disease.

They are also quiet and self-reliant.

“Their history goes back to the mountains of Wales. I’ve crossed them with the Canadian Arcott, a good, solid Canadian breed. I also have some North Country Cheviot, a hill breed originally from the rugged Scottish highlands. These sheep will thrive in adverse conditions and are healthy and long lived,” she said.

Ruth also raises Spanish meat goats which have a cashmere fibre as an undercoat that can be combed out. The money is in the meat, however. Due to the rise of the ethnic population in Saskatchewan, there is demand for goat meat. “I work with different Muslim groups. I sell them a live animal and they do the slaughtering right here,” she says.

Ruth and Marcel butcher their beef on site. Customers are increasingly interested in acquiring beef that is grass fed and

PHOTOS: EDNA MANNING

Ruth Gosselin with Olivia — a pet goat that has become a mascot at the seniors’ home where Ruth works. not stressed by a long trip to the slaughterhouse.

There is also an increasing demand for raw dog food, Ruth said. When they butcher their beef animals, Ruth advertises the bones, and this saves having to dispose of waste which attracts coyotes.

The Gosselins’ two sons, Aaron and Jesse also raise ducks, geese and heritage chickens. “We raise the chickens mostly for eggs. Our sons aren’t keen on eating their friends,” Ruth says. She and the boys go thirds on the sheep and goats. It’s an opportunity for the boys to earn some spending money and learn to pitch in with chores. “Having grown up on a farm, I’m not sure how we would have raised them in the city where you don’t have a chance to experience life in this manner. It gives them empathy taking care of animals and watching them being born and die.”

Occasionally the animals can also be a source of enjoyment for the residents of the seniors’ home where Ruth works. One morning just before Ruth had to go to work, a mother goat gave birth to twins but rejected the smallest female. Ruth quickly tube fed the

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Longhorns are sturdy animals, and they calve easily.

shivering baby, and brought it into the house. Having to rush to work, she bundled it into the car, along with a bottle of milk and headed to the home.

“I got to the home and hustled Olivia (as she came to be known) over to one of the elders, a lady who had grown up on a farm and always loved to hear my stories. I took Olivia to her, placed her on her chest and said, ‘warm her up,’ and left. When I came back an hour later, they were both sound asleep and doing well.

“Olivia has never looked back.

She’s been up and active and busy. She’s a bit of a mascot at the home now,” Ruth said.

Ruth and her family enjoy the animals, which keep them busy.

“I like producing our own food; seeing things grow. It’s a healthy lifestyle.

“Marcel and I are a great team.

He’s good at inventing, designing and building things and I take care of the animals, the garden and the yard.”

Ruth and Marcel Gosselin can be reached at Hidden Spring Ranch, (306) 374-2416. † Edna Manning writes from Saskatoon, Sask.

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Home Quarter Farm Life

Story of Saskatchewan Oxbow retired farmer keeps tabs on the past

BY CHRISTALEE FROESE

M

ichael Bartolf is a walking, breathing historical library.

With shelves, countertops, tables and whole rooms stacked with books, magazines, newspaper clippings and selfmade indexes to many of his collections, Bartolf is far beyond what one would call an avid collector.

If you ask him about the history of Saskatchewan, he has over 300 community history books to point you towards. He also has an index documenting every post office opening and closing date in the province, as well as the land descriptions.

In addition, the 84-year-old retired farmer has also created numerous indexes from The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, The Western Producer, National Geographic and a number of local newspapers. These indexes track all references to anyone who ever came from Oxbow and area, with entries including the publication, date, edition and page number where things like obituaries and feature stories can be found.

“I read about four or five newspapers every week and I watch for anything that is historical. The people can be a day old or 105 years old, as long as they have roots back here in Oxbow, I’ll index it,” said Bartolf.

Collecting historical information consumes almost every waking hour of Bartolf’s day as he rises at 6 a.m. and makes his way directly to his computer. At midnight, he is often found in the same spot in the corner of his document-filled living room.

“Sometimes you’d think he was married to that computer,” laughed Michael’s wife Ruth.

Otto Neuman, chairperson of Oxbow’s Ralph Allen Memorial Railway Museum, said the Bartolfs have made an invaluable contribution to the community both as volunteers and as historical document keepers. He said Michael has spent countless hours at the museum cataloguing donated items, maintaining the building and providing information to visitors who are in search of family information.

“He has spent hours and hours keeping records for the museum and he does a lot of that work at home,” said Neuman.

The most rewarding part for

BY DAN PIRARO

Bizarro

Bartolf is when he can connect visitors with a piece of their past.

His most memorable visitor was a lady from Baltimore, Maryland who travelled to Oxbow two years ago to trace her roots. With help from Bartolf, the woman spent two weeks in the area, eventually finding information about her grandfather, who was the mayor of Oxbow at the turn of the century. Bartolf, through use of historical record-keeping, was able to find the homestead of the family, as well as information about her uncle, a First World War veteran, who was killed in a runaway horse accident involving a binder.

“It’s all in the paper — you just have to open it up,” said Bartolf, who added that he also tracked

another uncle of the Baltimore woman. This particular uncle was a stonemason, so Bartolf was able to take the visitor to one of four buildings in Oxbow that were constructed by him.

One of Bartolf’s most prized possessions is a 100-year-old copy of the Oxbow Herald which he keeps in a plastic covering in a manila envelope.

When asked why he spends his days and nights at his computer documenting the story of Saskatchewan and the area from which he came, Bartolf said, “I drink very little, I hunt somewhat and I don’t go coffeeing. I keep history books.” † Christalee Froese writes from Montmartre, Saskatchewan.

PHOTO: CHRISTALEE FROESE

Michael Bartolf is especially proud of his 100-year-old newspaper.

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JULY / AUGUST 2013

Home Quarter Farm Life SINGING GARDENER

Meet the maple syrup man Plus, info on fly control and health benefits of horseradish TED MESEYTON

using the fly swatter a lot less often now. Read on and find out why.

HAVE YOU GOT A FEW CANADIAN PENNIES SAVED?

H

owdy folks, howdy.

How you all doin’ anyhow? The Singing Gardener (hey that’s me) is back in the saddle again putting pen to paper and keyboard to computer. Time to get reconnected wouldn’t you say?

Made in Manitoba maple syrup is on my agenda, plus how to keep house and barn flies at bay.

I’ll also touch on the goodness of horseradish, but first let me begin with a proverb.

A SWARM IN MAY … is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July is not worth a fly. What does that mean?

Here’s one interpretation. A swarm of bees in May is worth a milking cow and a bundle of hay and in June a swarm is still worth a silver spoon. However, by July it’s too late to store up enough honey before flowers begin to fade and so a swarm of bees in the seventh month isn’t worth a fly. It’s also that time of year when flies like to sneak into the house every time somebody opens a door but I’m

They’re now out of sight when paying for purchases but not necessarily out of mind. Sure glad I saved a tin can full of those brown coppers as they’re sometimes known. All you need is a mediumsize, transparent, zip-lock plastic freezer bag. Half-fill it with water then drop in four to six or even up to 10 pennies and zip it shut.

Securely pin, staple or fasten the bag of water containing pennies to a wall or post by a house, the barn door or any problem area.

Flies that come by will stick around for a short time and then take off. How so? Seems flies regard the pennies as large eyes of some predators searching for food or protecting their nearby nest. Flies and wasps interpret the bag of water with pennies as a threat.

They simply won’t take the risk of being around such perceived danger. Rather than be devoured they take off. Not a believer? Time and again it has worked successfully for other folks. You may want to try it.

THE BOTTLING IS NOW COMPLETED It’s been a good season for Mitch and Linda Omichinski.

Mitch Omichinski who lives near the Hoop and Holler Bend in the RM of Portage la Prairie is a quiet, unassuming, gifted guy. His numerous talents are far reaching and here’s one of them. For example, Mitch really knows his stuff from start to finish when it comes to tapping silver maple and Manitoba maple trees.

Under his belt is held 10 years of experience at converting harvested fluid yielded by trees into luscious, golden maple syrup.

It’s a very labour-intensive and prolonged

Early-, mid-season and late-gathered sap runs have resulted in light, medium and dark tones of final product with a unique and sweetly distinct flavour profile. This year’s pure and luscious Manitoba maple syrup comes in attractive 250-ml and 500ml bottles and 500-ml mason jars. Linda mentioned that many people always thought maple syrup came from Eastern Canada and at first “don’t believe it or aren’t aware of Manitoba-made maple syrup.” In July, Linda appeared on CTV Winnipeg “Morning Live” at the downtown Winnipeg Farmers’ Market with a supply of their own brand of Neighbourhood Maple Syrup.

For inquiries or to place an order, telephone Mitch Omichinski at (204) 428-6800. (See photo of Neighbourhood Maple Syrup bottle with this column and read the label for much more information.)

WHAT A SPRING IT WAS For one thing, there was a lot of snow mould in places on lawns and grasses after the snow finally melted. Then there was all that fluff from cottonwood trees and other irritating pollens leading to sneezing and runny noses. Some folks were left with sinus and head congestion.

Maybe you’re in an area where

process from start to finish. His wife Linda has assisted from start to finish.

The range of sap collected per individual tree ranges between eight and 12 litres with an average of 10 litres. From that volume about 250 ml of maple syrup can eventually be expected. It’s a lot of sap for not much maple syrup, or as Mitch stated, “about 40 to one.”

I, Ted, travelled with Mitch and Linda on a couple of their journeys both in the field and at the Food Development

Mitch Omichinski, checking for amount of Manitoba maple tree sap in a 16-litre pail on Island Park in Portage la Prairie on April 27 during the final run.

Note the snow is almost gone. Once collected, the sap is then congregated into 200-litre barrels.

Mitch described the 2013 sap-gathering season as “tough” when it began, although temperatures were mostly ideal. He expects quantity and quality to be high and up to snuff this year and said, “We got about 12 litres of sap per tree from 960 taps in Portage and surrounding area totalling almost 12,000 litres. I’d have even been happy with a 7,000- to 10,000-litres harvest.”

none of this happened but for others let me ask… How would you like to “kick back” and give your sinuses, immune system and digestive tract some support?

Thanks to horseradish it may be possible, so I’ll share an oldtime folk remedy as I approach the end of my Singing Gardener page. What the heck; I’ve tried it!

HORSERADISH DIGESTIVE AID This simple remedy is highly recommended by old-timers for the relief of dropsy, fluid retention in bodily tissues and other health issues. Years ago, folks were their own green pharmacist and I still practise it. Many already know that nothing clears sinuses better than horseradish. A sports medicine specialist reports that a daily dosage of horseradish is necessary only until allergy symptoms subside.

Check with your doctor if you are on a health-care program or prescription medicine.

2 ounces horseradish root, scraped (I, Ted, use dehydrated, powdered horseradish root (Amoracia rusticana) that I bought at a scoop-and-save health food store) 1/2 ounce whole yellow, brown or black mustard seed (well bruised which can be done with a mortar and pestle) Place horseradish and mustard seed in a heat-proof jar and pour

Centre to get a first-hand look as to what it’s all about. Mitch described this spring as “a very tough season, due primarily to cold weather and snow conditions impeding both going in and getting out. This made it very difficult to access the trees, setting up the equipment and getting the sap out.” By season’s end a strong flow of early-, mid-season and late-harvested sap from generous-giving trees resulted in 2-1/2 times the volume compared to 2012.

three cups boiling water over them and stir well. Cover and let it brew for two hours then strain. The dosage is one or two teaspoons daily and can be increased later according to individual weight and tolerance. During really hot weather this formula can warm the body even more, so be aware of that.

It’s also relaxing for some folks.

This formula may help improve blood flow by dilation and also contributes to a restful sleep. Store the leftover portion in the fridge in an airtight jar. There will be some settling at the bottom so stir up the sediment each time before taking any. †

This is Ted Meseyton the Singing Gardener and Grow-It Poet from Portage la Prairie, Man. Everyone knows that a turtle has a hard shell but are we aware of any hard-shelled fellow human beings? Under everybody’s hard shell is often someone who wants to be loved, respected and appreciated. To love to preach to others is one thing — but to love, respect and appreciate others without preaching is quite another. My email address is singinggardener@mts.

Contains syrup produced from the sap of Manitoba and Silver Maple trees near the Hoop and Holler in the RM, and the golf course in the city of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

We thank all involved for their co-operation in allowing access to trees and properties, and our friends for their help The 2013 season was in short challenging! The deep snow cover and late spring made harvest difficult and delayed.

However the results this year were exceptional in both quantity and quality. In total 960 taps were placed, and the Food Development Centre of Portage was enlisted for processing the sap. Prepared and bottled by Oakman Enterprises, Portage la Prairie (204 428 6800). Refrigerate after opening.

PHOTOS: TED MESEYTON

Mitch and Linda Omichinski prepare for the first step of multi-stage processes.

Raw maple tree sap is sent through a reverse-osmosis process that first removes about two-thirds of the water. The balance is then transferred into large boiling kettles and later transferred again to smaller kettles for further concentration at the Food Development Centre. A number of disciplined steps are required plus a great deal of time and energy to reduce sap into maple syrup.

Shown is the end product whose contents ooze with Prairie goodness. The label on this bottle of Neighbourhood Maple Syrup speaks for itself.

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