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OCTOBER 2012 Land of opportunity Soybean outlook Planter versus drill Western breakout Fall weed control Full speed ahead Greasing the market

page 4 8 10 14 18 20 22

Corn’s political. Soys aren’t

Y

es, I know it seems a sweeping generalization to say that corn is a political crop, and that soybeans aren’t. Still, the facts increasingly support it, and they should give pause to farmers who have been swinging strongly in corn’s favour, thinking corn will be the decade’s horse to ride.

Start by looking at our Gord Gilmour’s interview with former Saskatchewan Premier Grant Devine in the business pages of this month’s COUNTRY GUIDE. Devine, who has been a lot closer to the levers of power than any of the rest of us will ever be, is certain about it. Washington will drop ethanol, no matter who’s in the White House. Devine is an optimist. He hopes that ethanol’s demise will be so gradual, there will be little price impact.

But the loss of a four-billion bushel market will always be a big thing.

That’s what market analyst and farmer Philip Shaw wrote in our CORN GUIDE last month. Let me quote “If the market wakes up one day and learns that the renewable fuel standard has been suspended, the price of corn will drop precipitously… the corn market in the U.S. and the world will face a paradign shift back in time.”

Devine and Shaw deserve attention Soybean Guide, October 2012

because neither has a bias. We hear too much from the pro-ethanol lobby as well as from farm groups that have bet on ethanol. Objective views are rare.

Soybeans get justifiably knocked these days because their trendline yields haven’t kept pace with corn. Yes, soys can gut it out in a tough year, but on most farms, most years, there’s no comparison. The yield gap favours corn, and it is getting wider all the time.

So what justifies our confidence in soybeans? It’s the soybean itself. Soymeal makes a near-perfect pig ration, and we’d far rather bet on China’s demand for meat for its new middle class than on ethanol’s support from a small group of fickle U.S. politicians.

Besides, despite the decades of promises about special end-use traits in corn, there’s been little progress. Compare that to soybeans, which are already being released with modified oil profiles, and where the prospects for food and industrial uses are unending… without government support.

It all means that our No. 1 research priority should be higher soybean yields.

Corn will be our support for decades, of course. But soybeans will be our future.

Tom Button, CG Editor 3

soyguide

Land of N

Bargain land prices, surprising yields and new markets are fuelling a big push by farmers like David Schill to open up Ontario’s corn/soy frontier

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

ot so long ago, southwestern Ontario was considered the province’s agricultural heartland. Then a generation ago, central and eastern parts of the province laid claim to the title. Now the crown be shifitng again?

Whether they’re in the Temiskaming region or if they’re north of Sudbury or around Thunder Bay, Ontario’s northern farmers have thrived in pockets, hearing from time to time that they are actually south of most Prairie farmland, and that they should get ready for the world to discover their real potential.

The fact is, though, the explosion has been a long time coming, and for most farmers in most other parts of the province, the north is all too easy to ignore.

Yet corn and soybeans genetics are doing better farther north than many may realize. And now, as commodity prices create extra incentive, interest is building in what’s happening in places such as New Liskeard or outside of Thunder Bay. And it isn’t just because land prices are far lower there than in Lambton or Oxford counties. Instead, it’s because more people are learning one of the better-kept secrets in the province: that farming works in Northern Ontario, i.e. the real north, not just the middleground around Orillia.

At $4,000 an acre, crop land is being purchased by farmers from southern Ontario, who are then migrating north after learning what’s feasible.

For instance, what began as one man’s drive to invest in land in Northern Ontario is now a full-time farming venture for his son. David Schill is reaping the benefits of his father Larry’s longterm strategic vision. In 2002, the Schill family first purchased land just north of Earlton, in the heart of the Temiskaming region, primarily as an investment. Now, it’s David’s operation to manage.

Primed for growth “My wife and I moved here in 2004 and since then, we’ve continued to purchase and rent land and expand our operation,” says Schill, who now manages

4

10,200 acres, 6,000 of which are his. “My dad is always looking to further the investment, and with me he knows the job is going to be done right.”

This year, Schill has about 2,500 acres of soybeans and 1,000 acres of corn, and as with most farmers who are growing corn in the region, he’s selling the corn mainly to local dairy and feed operations.

Soybeans, on the other hand, are mostly identity-preserved varieties or seed, which means they face a long truck journey, heading south.

“There just isn’t enough volume in Temiskaming for a processing plant to be economically feasible,” says Schill. Nor is there a lot of hope that such plants will soon be built, even for the region’s larger crops. Schill notes there have been feasibility studies for local canola processing, but there isn’t a steady enough supply of canola to justify a processing plant, even though the region generates about half of the canola grown in Ontario.

For soybeans and corn it’s complicated because even if it made sense to crush soybeans for oil or convert corn to ethanol, you’d still be left with the soymeal or the DDGS from the ethanol plant that would have to be trucked out of the region.

But those concerns aren't putting the brakes on cash crop development.

Schill agrees that there’s been considerable investment in the region, both from farmers in the south selling their operations at higher land prices and looking to reinvest in the north, and from speculators who are amassing pools of money and bidding on land.

According to Terry Phillips, an agronomist with Co-op Regionale de NipissingSudbury, land prices are attracting farmers to the Temiskaming region, but so are yields.

Phillips points to Lee Laframboise, a dairy producer in the Earlton area who harvested 225-bushel corn in 2008, admittedly a good corn year for most parts of North America.

Continued on page 6

Soybean Guide, October 2012

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“The big change in the last 10 years has been the influx of larger farmers.” — Terry Phillips

Continued from page 4

Along the way, farmers and agronomists are quickly learning corn and soybean agronomy so the region is on a scientific par with anywhere else in the traditional corn belt. In a field near Verner, about midway between Sudbury and North Bay, for instance, Philips was initially puzzled by yellow soybeans in midsummer.

It turns out the area been fairly dry, so the beans hadn’t developed adequate roots.

Then, when the rains came and the crop experienced a major growth spurt, the roots couldn’t keep up with the potash demand.

That forced the crop to cannabilize its upper leaves, meaning Phillips was getting his first local look at potassium deficiency.

And the learning process continues.

What’s particularly interesting about the region is that the 2012 canola crop in the north is being challenged. Phillips, the vice-chair of the Ontario Canola Growers’ Association, notes flea beetles and Swede midge are making their respective marks on the crop in his region.

With canola’s high cost of production, combined with the area’s growing confidence in soybeans, Phillips is forecasting between 15,000 and 20,000 acres of soybeans for the Temiskaming district in 2013.

Long, long days “The big change in the last 10 years has been the influx of larger farmers, 6

including Mennonite farmers,” says Phillips. “And farmers in general are much more modern than they have been. In the past, you had the large dairy guys who were keeping up with new technology and new iron. Air drills, three years ago, were pretty novel, and were purchased by the 10,000-acre growers.

Now, you have farmers who are farming 800 acres and buying air drills. And we’re looking more like Western Canada, where you have mile-long fields.”

Not only are the fields getting larger, but there are signs of more consolidation in the region and for the first time, many farmers are applying fungicides to oats, canola, spring and winter wheat and now soybeans. There are even a few farmers who have applied 28 per cent on their corn, marking the first time that most have used that input.

Looking at a map of Ontario, it’s easy to dismiss the thought of growing corn or soybeans in Temiskaming with its 2100 crop heat units or in the Thunder Bay regions with its 2300 to 2500. But what these areas lack in heat units, they make up partly in hours of sunlight.

It turns out those long days can really pay off.

“Some growers here have been trying to work with growing degree days (GDD) to convert the measuring stick for weather criteria,” says Phillips, noting that there’s been some interest in that, as well, in Saskatchewan and Manitoba — and

On the other hand For all of the optimism and eagerness to grow corn and soybeans the one key drawback is the lack of local processing markets.

For corn, the processing shortfall may not be a huge issue, since much of the crop is grown and fed to livestock. For soybeans, however, there’s only one way to the south, and that’s down Highway 11.

Other drawbacks include an expanding farming district, in terms of land area, but a diminishing pool of potential farmers, all because the local mines are reopening and expanding their sphere of influence. Rates for miners can start at $19 per hour and rapidly climb all the way to $50 and beyond.

That means new farmers must come from the south, says Phillips. Yet they are coming.

In the Thunder Bay district, there is a similar corn and soybean expansion.

According to Tarlok Singh Sahota, director of research and business with the Thunder Bay Agricultural Research Station, the region has been better known for its cereals and forages. But it does have a history of corn production, as far back as the 1930s while soybeans were introduced to the area around 2000. There are also growers who are trying chickpeas in the district.

In all, the Thunder Bay growing region is roughly 27,000 acres, with a good portion still taken up by cereals and forages. Sahota notes that within a 35 km radius of the research station, he can find 15 different varieties of barley, which he believes to be one of the most diverse concentrations for a single crop in all of Canada. The big challenge in the region however, is frost, especially for soybeans.

“Soybeans were not here before 2000 because the longer day varieties didn’t suit the Thunder Bay climate or the conditions for the season, which is around 90 to 100 days,” says Sahota. He adds that some growers have managed to hit the 40-bushel per acre mark with their soybean yields. “Our killing frost normally comes around September 8 and sometimes there can be frost even in June. But since 2004 while I’ve been here, we haven’t seen any killing frost between May and early September.”

On the corn side, the crop fell out of Soybean Guide, October 2012

Photo credit: Allan Dawson

again, they’re farther north. “They have those long days, too. They have a temperate climate with a large land mass, and they’re usually harvesting before we are.”

favour, largely due to wet fall conditions.

Farmers could grow decent short-season hybrids, but couldn’t get into the fields at harvest. A few farmers tried it in the 1970s and then again in the early 1980s.

But what turned the tide for an increase in acres was the introduction of tile drainage in the area, through the late 1990s and into the early 2000s.

“Here, we don’t get more than 140 bushels, and the farmers were growing corn only for silage,” says Sahota. “Only after 2007, a few farmers started growing corn for grain but that’s feed grain, it’s not intended for human consumption.

Because the moisture content is high, they were able to harvest by November, and the moisture at that time is usually 20 to 30 per cent.”

That’s the other unique feature about crops grown in the Thunder Bay region, similar to the Temiskaming district.

They stay where they’re grown. Sahota says that most of the soybeans grown in the region are harvested, roasted and either fed to livestock or sold to another livestock farmer, similar to corn.

From Sahota’s perspective, the expansion has been made possible mostly

because of the focus on genetics by the seed companies as well as public breeding programs. Dave Harwood, technical services manager for Pioneer Hi-Bred, agrees that corn and soybean production in parts of northern and northwestern Ontario have been helped significantly by genetics, both in terms of trait developments and pushing the hybrids and varieties into earlier planting windows.

Genetics first “We are advancing earlier corn hybrids all the time, not by leaps and bounds — it’s not as though we’ve dramatically changed the thermal long-season requirement of corn that has created a huge paradigm shift,” says Hardwood.

“But incrementally, we’ve done it.”

The advent of Bt corn in 1996 improved the economics of corn production and enhanced its stability, both with stronger stalks and increased stress tolerance. Then following the launch of the initial Bt hybrids, there was the creation of earlier-season hybrids, that helped improved production spread further east in Ontario, and now to the north and northwest.

Much the same scenario has taken shape within the soybean sector, with glyphosate-tolerant varieties providing the springboard for further innovation.

“I think it comes down to growers understanding what it takes to grow soybeans successfully, understanding that early planting of soybeans is appropriate,” says Harwood. For years, convention held that with soybeans, growers needed to wait for higher soil temperatures. “But we know more now.”

While some might see the lack of local processing, or big shipping costs to reach the south as factors that will hold back northern development, Harwood disagrees. He recalls the optimism following the end of the federal Crow Rate, and how it shifted some of the economics of growing crops in some of the main cereal production areas of the West.

Now, Harwood sees something similar taking shape in other regions, including Ontario and the Maritimes, and even some zones in the West.

Says Harwood: “It’s going to be fun to watch over the next 10 to 15 years who has the most accurate vision of the way it’s going to play out.” SG

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Soybean Guide, October 2012

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soyguide

Soybean outlook I

2012 has almost been a fairy tale.

Now, can we farm happily ever after?

By Philip Shaw

8

have grown soybeans since I can remember. As a child in southwestern Ontario in the 1960s, hoeing soybeans was a rite of passage. There weren’t many herbicides back in those days so my summers were spent pulling weeds in the never-ending battle to keep the fields clean.

At that time soybeans were restricted to the deep southwest of Ontario. In 2012, the situation could hardly be more different. Ontario has 2.64 million acres of soybeans grown right across the province. Of course, with the adoption of Roundup Ready technology, the battle of the weeds has ended for many growers too, although there is also a booming non-GMO food-grade soybean business in the province,where you might see soybean growers walking through fields picking weeds as in the days of old.

Corn may often be referred to as king but 2.64 million acres in Ontario don’t lie.

Ontario farmers like to grow soybeans.

Statistics Canada has pegged the 2012 crop at 39.4 bushels per acre. By the time you read this, you will have a better idea whether the very dry weather in parts of the province did even more damage, or whether the late rains did more good than expected. In 2011 the Ontario soybean yield was 44.9 bushels per acre, which itself was down from 46 bushels per acre the year before .

With corn enjoying the limelight because of its robust industrial demand, sometimes soybeans get overlooked. This was the case this past March when USDA initially projected 95.5 million acres of corn to be planted in 2012, with 73.9 million soybean acres.

The soybean projection from USDA sent soybean prices higher. Brazil and Argentina had just come off a poor production year and the world needed soybeans. That March 73.9-million-acre planting intention number from USDA was eventually changed to 76.08 million acres of soybeans planted in the United States in 2012. With normal yields, the United States was set to renew world soybean stocks, which had dwindled after the poor South American crop.

The rest of the story in 2012 has almost become legend. The worst drought to hit the United States in more

than 50 years has redefined the supply and demand balance sheet for grains around the world. Simply put, that forecast for replenished soybean stocks didn’t happen, with hot and dry U.S. weather impacting the soybeans in a similar fashion to the severity with which it shrivelled the corn crop.

The USDA March soybean yield projection of 40.5 bushels per acre had slipped to 36.1 bushels per acre by August 10 and was ratcheted down again on September 12 to 35.3 bushels per acre. This put 2012 U.S. soybean production at 2.634 billion bushels, down from the 3.056 billion bushels produced last year. This has pushed down the soybean stocks-to-use ratio to 4.3 per cent and has redefined price direction for the immediate future.

The effect of the drought in the United States on price movement has been striking. For instance, on June 1, 2012 the November soybean futures contract closed at $12.58 a bushel. On September 12 after the release of the USDA crop report the same contract closed at $17.45 a bushel, having previously reached a high of $17.89 a bushel on September 4. Cash prices to Ontario producers had been plus $16 a bushel for many weeks leading into the 2012 harvest.

With soybean prices at or near record levels, Ontario soybean producers who got moisture in 2012 are poised for a healthy revenue year.

Part of the 2012 soybean price story can be told by the problems in Brazilian and Argentinian soybean fields coming out of the winter of 2012. Brazil had expected a crop close to 80 million tonnes but ended up with 66.5 million tonnes, while Argentina was expecting a crop close to 55 million tonnes, but ended up with the crop of 41 million tonnes. This put a supply constraint in front of the market going into the U.S. growing season, and now with the U.S. crop damaged, prices will force demand to be rationed.

With the South American new crop about to be planted, the world will be awaiting its supplies starting in March of 2013.

World soybean supply is a real problem in 2012 because of China's insatiaSoybean Guide, October 2012

ble demand for soybeans, projected to be 59.5 million tonnes in the 2012-13 crop year. In other words, even at current price levels, Chinese soybean demand is inelastic, which means Chinese demand for soybeans does not change drastically as price moves.

It's extraordinary, and the world will wait and see where soybean futures prices may go. There is an obvious constraint coming ahead in the winter of 2012-13 as American soybean supplies dry up and South American supplies reach export facilities in March of 2013.

Yes, prices have been at or near record levels, but the supply and demand dynamics are in place for explosive price movement. At a certain point demand will have to be rationed aggressively, but as of September 12, 2012 USDA report, we are not there.

This price projection into 2013 means Ontario soybean producers are well positioned. Having prices near or at record levels is something that many farmers dream of. The challenge is always getting a good crop at a time when prices are high. These production challenges for Ontario soybean producers are very real, even aside from the droughty production areas in 2012.

Soybean yield drag is one problem. The emergence of glyphosate-resistant weeds is another.

Based on Ontario provincial yield testing, soybean yields are increasing at 0.32 bushels p er acre p er year.

Meanwhile, provincial corn yields in Ontario are increasing by 2.0 bushels per acre per year. This means corn yields are increasingly outpacing soybean yields, which puts the Ontario soybean producers at a disadvantage when considering planting decisions. Many producers find that corn gives consistently better yields over time, and this belief is being substantiated by research results.

Soybeans also benefit from extending the rotation to four or five years, up from the current two or three, which would also see acres be reduced.

Those clean soybean fields garnered through Roundup Ready technology may also be disappearing, which in theory could put a damper on soybean plantings. New glyphosate-resistant weeds have been identified in Ontario, and weeds such as resistant giant ragweed and Canada fleabane thrive despite glyphosate applications. Even so, new management strategies are being Soybean Guide, October 2012

develped to combat these new problems, and future technologies such as dicamba and 2,4-D resistant soybeans may help as well.

Whatever happens in the field, however, robust global demand is likely to continue. As well, noncommercial speculative demand within the soybean market bring huge pools of investment capital into play, accentuating trade volume and making for higher highs and lower lows. Today, the volatility in a sin-

gle trading session is sometimes greater than an entire year's volatility a generation ago.

For now, with memories of 2012 setting the stage for more global acres in 2013, the challenge for Ontario soybeans producers is to figure out just where they fit within this dynamic market. In my book, world demand for soybeans will be strong, and Ontario producers are well positioned to take advantage of it. SG

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soyguide

Planter VS. drill For Eric and Max Kaiser, the answer is clear. Their planter is better… because of their crucial modifications.

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

10

Photo credit: Shay Photography

I

nput costs are surging. The price of land, equipment, fertilizer, seed and just about any other inputs you can name are all surging. But then, soybean prices aren’t exactly at year-ago levels either.

Now the question is, has the economic environment changed so much that some of our tried and true practices are suddenly locking us out of top profitability?

In particular, does the combination of higher priced seed and the booming economic payback for maximizing the performance of that seed justify the switch from no-till drills to planter units?

The topic has been a candidate for research in Ontario by both the University of Guelph and the Ontario agriculture ministry, and it’s also a popular subject for a number of growers across the province, many of whom are members of the Innovative Farmers Association of Ontario.

One of those is Eric Kaiser, who farms 900 acres near Napanee, Ont. Kaiser is often at the centre of a knot of farmers at IFAO meetings and other gatherings where farmers are bouncing ideas and opinions off him, and he seldom turns down an opportunity to share what he knows and what he does on his farm.

Kaiser is also the first to point out that his conditions work on his farm.

They won’t necessarily work on other farms, and he makes no apologies for that, nor does he expect his equipment configurations to be adopted with the same kind of success that he sees on his operation. Still, it’s hard to get good on-

farm information on such production questions, so it’s worth putting his experience into the mix.

Kaiser farms on Napanee clay, a tough, very dense soil type and one that few would think would be a candidate for notill farming. Yet he makes it work on his farm, where he runs three 300-acre fields with a rotation of corn, soybeans and wheat followed by a cover crop. Kaiser also has chicken manure, which he spreads on his wheat stubble in August.

Again, he concedes that the conditions under which he farms and the equipment

he uses work for him. All of his land is in one location, it’s systematically tiled and he never grows one crop continuously.

And the bottom line on all his management? He uses a planter unit for all of his crops — even wheat.

“The big advantage with planters is that they singulate the seed and plant each seed into an ideal environment, just like they do with corn. And it’s just about that simple,” says Kaiser.

That separates planters from drills, Continued on page 12

Soybean Guide, October 2012

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Continued from page 10

which many agronomists refer to as controlled spill devices. “They do not do a uniform job of distribution, which means you need more seed, and with very few exceptions, a planter will do an adequate job of providing uniform depth of seed,” Kaiser finds. “Those two — the singulation and the planting environment — are the biggest advantages for the planter.”

It’s important to emphasize that Kaiser works with a planter unit of his own design. It’s a White 6600 planter but it’s been configured to very specific row widths. For corn, Kaiser’s planter is set for six 30-inch rows. When he’s done planting, it’s reconfigured to 17 nineinch rows for soybeans and wheat.

“The only hitch is that we can’t plant corn and soybeans at the same time, but because we’re all in one location with limited acreage, it’s all ready at the same time,” says Kaiser. He can also plant all of each crop in six days, which often works out to six consecutive days, as wheat, corn and soybeans all were this year.

“We plant all of our corn, and then we physically transform this thing from six 30s to 17 nines.” Kaiser says. “The other advantage with the row-unit planter is that it’s much more suitable for no till than a drill, particularly for soybeans.”

Would a similar system work with split parcels of land, say, three tracts totalling 2,000 acres but separated by 20 kilometres? “Absolutely,” says Kaiser.

“You need two planters anyway, so you’ll have three units — your drill, your corn planter and your soybean planter,” he lists. “Then you can plant corn and soybeans at the same time, and if you have a large enough acreage, chances are you have enough people to do it. I realize that for the majority of those in agriculture, planting wheat with a row unit is going to be more than a challenge, because you can’t buy a planter unit that will plant narrower than 15 inches, and there will be a yield penalty for wheat at 15 inches. That’s why we built our own.”

REDUCED COST The use of the planter also allows Kaiser to reduce his planting populations, thus saving on seed costs. In past, he’s planted soybeans with populations as low as 105,000 seeds per acre and now routinely plants at 130,000. He’s also planted population plots at the request of Marion Calmer, a consultant and farmer who plants soybeans at 12

75,000 seeds per acre. Then again, notes Kaiser, Calmer farms on what he calls some of the best soil in the world, near Alpha, Illinois.

Aside from the concern about planting populations and row-width configurations, Horst Bohner, soybean specialist with the Ontario ag ministry believes the debate over planters versus drills is pretty much settled. Based on research he’s done across three years, he’s convinced the proof is in: planters outperform drills in most situations.

“The key is that we have to talk about the same row width, and when we’re talking about 15-inch rows, there is definitely a small advantage to the planter unit,” says Bohner. “Both in terms of plant survival, so in other words, you get a higher percentage of what you feed it in terms of plants per acre, and there is a small yield benefit.”

Bohner’s research was conducted in 2008, 2009 and 2010 with six trials altogether, including different seeding rates and using both a drill and a planter (the full report on this research can be found at

www.ontariosoilcrop.org/docs/v7soy52010.pdf). Bohner holds to the notion

that planter units with 15-inch rows perform the best both from a yield perspective and an economic point of view.

“When we started this, we thought, because of the accuracy of the seeding depth and placement, we would show a significant benefit, and that’s what really convinced us,” says Bohner. “With increased seeding costs, the old technology of the drill was not the way to go anymore.”

The problem is that the yield advantage can be very small, especially when you compare 15-inch rows to 7-1/2-inch drills. “I’m still a big proponent of using a planter,” Bohner says. “And if I’m producing fields commercially, I would definitely go for a planter unit.”

The other question on Bohner’s mind is whether a 30-inch row from a planter could compete with a drill. The accepted answer in the past had always been “not a chance,” because it was thought that a farmer would be giving up too much yield potential with the wide row.

“There’s too much ground not being covered early in the season, and the University of Guelph did some work on that,” says Bohner. “Depending on whether you’re talking about no till or conventional tillage, there can be up to a 4.0 bushel advantage to going to intermediate (15-inch) or narrow (7-1/2inch) rows over wide rows (30-inch).”

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In 2012, Bohner is conducting some trials working with 7-1/2, 15 and 30-inch rows in an attempt to “take back” some of the 30-inch disadvantage through better fertilizer placement, or even by adding some nitrogen in order to get the soybeans to close the canopy faster.

“It could make the argument that if you’re going to invest in one piece of equipment, we know that we want to plant that corn very accurately, could you use that same piece of equipment and plant your soybeans as well?” asks Bohner.

There is also some interest in 30-inch rows, particularly in eastern Ontario, where there’s a significant challenge from white mould, as well as further north into the Dufferin County region.

COMING FULL CIRCLE For Bill Deen, associate professor and researcher with the University of Guelph, a return to planters is history repeating itself. When soybeans were introduced to Ontario, they were primarily planted in wide rows, using a planter. Then no-till practices and no-till drills were introduced at about the same time.

“The two really occurred simultaneously, and one of the reasons we saw a real interest initially in no till was because by using the no-till drill, we went to narrower rows and that gave us a yield increase,” says Deen, who is conducting Soybean Guide, October 2012

research with Bohner examining the planter-versus-drill question, including how it interacts with residue levels and other parameters. “I think there is some movement away from the no-till drill, and so I guess the question is, is that movement away from the drill justified, based on lost yield, or is it associated with the drill?”

Deen acknowledges the success of a grower like Eric Kaiser, adding that his numbers are hard to argue. But he also states that Kaiser has nothing to compare it to, he’s citing his numbers under his practice and his on-farm conditions, something that Kaiser readily acknowledges.

“In terms of the concept of uniformity of emergence, I think Eric’s right, that on average, you tend to get more uniform emergence because you have better depth control, better seed-soil contact, and better seed-furrow closing,” says Deen. “And I believe it when Eric,says that if you can guarantee uniformity of spacing, so the field is uniform, then you can probably get away with populations close to 100,000 seeds per acre, because I think there are a lot of population response curves that indicate that yield doesn’t start dropping off until you’re around 80,000 to 90,000. And my guess is that if you can maintain uniformity, yes, you can get away with considerably lower populations.” SG 13

SOYGUIDE

Western breakout After huge gains in the Red River Valley, soybeans may be ready to compete in drier parts of Manitoba, and beyond

By Allan Dawson

14

Y

ou would probably have thought you were in southern Ontario, not Manitoba, if you had been dropped in the middle of Red River Valley this past summer. It would have been an easy mistake to make, for one simple reason. There were soybeans everywhere you looked.

Nor was it an illusion. Statistics Canada says Manitoba farmers seeded a record 875,000 acres to soybeans in 2012, making soys the third-largest crop in the province behind canola at 2.73 million acres and wheat at 2.2 million.

What’s even more remarkable is that until 1998, Manitoba didn’t officially produce soybeans. A few farmers were experimenting, but there were too few acres to be picked up in the federal stats, although Manitoba Crop Insurance Corporation records show 118 farmers insured 10,932 acres that year, with an average yield of 30.1 bushels an acre.

Fastforward 14 years and industry officials say Manitoba soybeans are racing ahead, with forecasters expecting the provincial crop to approach one million acres in 2013. That would be a 14 per cent increase over this year’s plantings, which were up 26 per cent over 2011.

“I think soybeans can get to a million acres and maybe more eventually,” says Bruce Brolley, crops expert with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives’ (MAFRI).

But, says Brolley, “they will always have to compete for a spot in the farmers’ rotation.”

Soybean acreage going from zero to a million in less than 20 years might seem like an overnight success, but there were lots of challenges, including a false start in the 1980s.

Brolley, who is originally from Ontario, was convinced that Manitoba had a great fit for soybeans and started touting the crop when he signed on as a new MAFRI agronomist in 1997.

“In the early days it was hard to be taken seriously,” Brolley recalls.

It turns out, however, that the crop had four things going for it. Improved varieties, lower production costs and the crop’s ability to tolerate excessive soil moisture better than most other crops are among the reasons cited for the rise in soybean acres in Manitoba.

Topping the list, though, is the crop’s ability to generate more dollars per acre.

First, farmers had to be shown the crop’s potential. That’s where MAFRI and the Manitoba Pulse Growers Association played a role, working with farmers willing to experiment.

Then, when MAFRI began scientifically demonstrating soybeans’ suitability, crop insurance, now known as the Continued on page 16

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Continued from page 14

Ma n i t o b a Ag r i c u l t u r a l S e r v i c e s Corporation, improved and widened its soybean coverage.

This wasn’t the first stab the province had taken at the heat-loving oil and meal seed that originated in east Asia. According to a MAFRI report, soybeans were grown here in the early 1900s. The next big push came in the early 1980s, but Baldur Stefansson, one of the fathers of canola, questioned why Manitoba Agriculture was experimenting with soybeans. He pointed out the obvious. Manitoba farmers already had an oilseed and meal crop well suited to their growing conditions — canola.

And he was right, at least for a while.

Earlier-maturing Ontario soybean varieties, such as Maple Amber and Maple Presto were a bust in Manitoba. They often didn’t mature early enough and even when they did, yields were poor.

A dozen years later the experimenting started anew. But this time was different.

The new batch of early varieties were better adapted, although the crop still faced a credibility challenge.

In 1995 only a few hundred acres of soybeans were grown in Manitoba, including those seeded by Agassiz Seed Farm Ltd. at Homewood. Murray Froebe, who owns and operates the farm and seed business with his father Earl, was looking for another crop to add to the rotation. The Froebes grew edible beans, but found that tough to do on some of their heavier clay lands.

Murray, who had recently returned with a degree in agriculture from the University of Guelph, used his Ontario contacts to source Alta soybean seed for some plots.

The results were promising, so they grew more. By the late 1990s, the Froebes were retailing certified soybean seed, including OAC Prudence, and buying the resulting crops for food-grade exports to Japan.

Soon, Roundup Ready soybeans were introduced and they now dominate production. Non-GM soybean production is now a niche market.

Standard rotation What started off as an experiment, became a novelty, then a special crop and is now mainstream, Froebe says.

“In the last three years soybeans have become a standard part of the rotation,” Froebe says. “Farmers in this area (Red River Valley) aren’t dabbling in them anymore, they’re committed to them. They are buying the flex headers. They’re talking about buying planters or air drills that will handle soy16

beans… and they’re capitalizing accordingly. They are in it for the long haul.”

So what happened? Lots.

By the mid-1990s a few farmers took another look at soybeans and found, at least in the Red River Valley, which is usually warmer and wetter than other parts of the province, they could get a crop by growing earlier-maturing varieties from Ontario and the United States.

As the acres grew, so did interest among soybean seed companies. They began testing more varieties for their Manitoba fit, Brolley says. Variety registration rules also changed, making registration easier and spurring more research. In fact, some of today’s varieties were developed specifically for Manitoba.

Inoculants improved too, and Roundup Ready varieties made weed control simple. Improved production resulted in better crop insurance coverage, reducing farmers’ production risk.

Plus, as production grew so did interest among buyers.

“What’s helped fuel soybean’s expansion is we’ve reached that critical mass where elevator companies got involved for the commodity soybeans and that fuelled the fire for shipping a lot of soybeans out of Manitoba at good freight rates and thus made them more competitive against other crops,” Froebe says.

In 1998 Manitoba soybean yields averaged 30.1 bushels an acre, which is close to the current five-year average, even though plantings increased almost 80 fold.

Moisture tolerance Moisture tolerance is a big factor too.

“It’s kind of a comfort for guys who know they’ve got something that can tolerate different types of weather,” Brolley says.

Manitoba’s average soybean yield is not much lower than canola’s 34.6 bushels an acre. But averages can be misleading. In wetter areas, such as the regional municipality of Brokenhead, northwest of Winnipeg, the five-year average soybean yield is 27.1 versus 24.7 for canola.

Soybean yields and prices have been competitive with canola, but in 2012 soybeans cost 24 per cent less to grow, according to MAFRI’s cost of production estimate. It puts soybean’s variable costs at $176.45 an acre compared to $231.80 for canola. The biggest difference is fertilizer costs, which it pegs at just $11 an acre for soybeans versus $83 for canola, mainly because soybeans fix their own nitrogen.

While there’s agreement that soybean acres will continue to increase in Manitoba, opinions vary about their

expansion into western parts of the province that are typically drier.

“They need varieties that depend a little less on water so the guys further west can start growing them,” says Kyle Friesen, an Altona-area farmer and president of the Manitoba Pulse Growers Association.

“I think that’s what will determine how many acres we have here in Manitoba.”

Brolley agrees. Canola is still king in the southwest, he says.

“Even though you can grow it, in some areas, you may not want to from a profitability standpoint,” says Doug Wilcox, the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation’s manager of agronomy and program development.

“Just because you can grow it doesn’t mean you should.”

New Normal?

Froebe is more hopeful. “We have a 1,200 acre soybean customer in Boissevain (in the southwest) and they’ve been fighting water,” he says.

“They struggled getting their crop in this past spring. So what is the new normal?

It looks like southwest Manitoba and southeast Saskatchewan is getting higher rainfall in the past few years. And that’s going to fuel the expansion. With the high price of fertilizer, guys are looking at the risk of putting canola in.”

Besides, canola performance is sometimes disappointing. Despite what looked like a bumper canola crop, many yields were below trend. Extreme heat at flowering plus a myriad of diseases are being blamed, and these lacklustre canola results could push farmers to grow even more soybeans next spring, says Froebe.

Although many soybean crops this year needed more rain, he expects some of the later-maturing varieties that did get some rain in early August will yield quite well.

Still, it’s hard to argue that soybeans are a sure thing. The crop has definitely had some hiccups. In 2004, the coldest growing season on record, the Manitoba crop averaged just eight bushels an acre.

The next year plantings fell 38 per cent to 95,330 acres, but the year after that hit almost 350,000. In 2007 acreage fell to 208,267 acres but farmers harvested a record average yield of 36.4 bushels an acre. Plantings have been going up every year since.

Yet soybeans have also demonstrated incredible tenacity, and Brolley for one thinks it’s too early to say they’ll always be a Western niche. Says Brolley, “Soybeans have shown they are a crop that’s here to stay.” SG Soybean Guide, October 2012

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soyguide

Fall weed control 2012 shows big wins for hitting some weeds in the fall

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

F

or Ernie and Gary Taves, who grow corn and soybeans on their family farm in the Wheatley, Ont. area, fall herbicide applications are almost automatic, particularly as they try to control dandelion and wild carrot.

“We don’t do it every year with every field, but every field, every year has to be considered,” says Ernie. “We’ve done it several times on hundreds of acres. Those weeds have become very challenging and very costly to control in the spring. In the fall, the control has been very good.”

Fall is a season of contrasts. The days are short but the list of jobs is long. There are soybeans and corn to harvest, wheat fields to plant, and fertilizer to get down, to name just some of the big jobs ahead.

Mix in some mixed-up weather, and

it’s already a challenging picture. So do you have time for fall weed control too?

Ernie Taves for one is beginning to look at the time-crunch issue as more a matter of perception than fact, adding that applications in the fall can make some weeds much simpler to handle come the spring.

Still, he agrees the advantage has to be big enough to make the time investment in the fall worthwhile. And he believes it is. For instance, Taves remembers when a sprayer malfunction meant a strip didn’t get sprayed in the fall, leaving a small triangle of unsprayed ground that was all too easy to find all through the next year.

During the ultra-early spring of 2012, crop advisers and Ontario government agronomists often talked hopefully about the prospect of fall weed control when they

saw dandelion and chickweed break out in midwestern Ontario, and with more horsenettle and ground cherry coming on.

Dandelion has been mentioned by a growing number of farmers, dealers, advisers and extension personnel, with fall herbicide applications being considered a better management practice.

Depends on the weed Peter Sikkema believes fall weed control comes down to a matter of knowing your enemy. There are some weeds, such as dandelion, where it makes perfect sense to use fall weed control, while with others there’s much less of an advantage.

“We can just get better control of dandelions with a fall application of glyphosate than we can in the spring,” says Sikkema, a professor of weed science at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown Campus.

“Depending on the weed species, emergence pattern and a weed’s sensitivity to herbicides, that will dictate whether or not you should go with a fall weed control program or one for the spring.”

Dandelion has become a troublesome weed for many growers across the province,

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Soybean Guide, October 2012

and it’s an easy candidate for a fall herbicide application. Much the same is true for chickweed. A full rate of Refine in the fall (or the spring) is sufficient for control. But what about something more difficult, like ground cherry or horse nettle? Those species have been on the list for some growers who have approached Sikkema for advice, and they are weeds that require a little more consideration, particularly when the rotational crops are factored into the situation.

“If it’s after winter wheat or sweet corn or processing peas, and you have good weed growth in the late summer or early fall, you’ll have a lot of green foliage that will absorb and translocate the herbicide, so you’d be much better off to spray in the fall, because horse-nettle doesn’t come up until later in the spring,” Sikkema says. “Usually, that is after we put on our burndown .”

In any case, fall weed control needs to be combined with long-term planning.

“If you choose to put on Guardian, which is Roundup plus Classic, for dandelion control in the fall, I think it’s an excellent herbicide and it does a really good job on dandelions,” Sikkema says.

“However, you are locked into growing soybeans the next summer.”

Canada fleabane Unlike dandelion, Canada fleabane — a growing issue in southern Ontario because of its spreading resistance to glyphosate — may be less of a candidate for fall application. Sikkema notes that Canada fleabane emerges every month of the year with the exception of January. If growers have a problem with glyphosate resistance in that weed and wanted to clean-up the seedlings in the fall, they could opt for glyphosate with Eragon.

“The downside with that is that you’re going to have more seeds germinate between your fall application and planting next spring, so you’re going to have to repeat the application with the exact same herbicides,” says Sikkema. “In that situation, there’s no real benefit to the fall application compared to the spring, and in fact, the spring is better.”

Rob Miller is another advocate of fall applications, and he acknowledges that the convenience of Roundup Ready cropping systems has influenced application practices. A field biologist with BASF, Miller agrees with Sikkema’s assessment that fall applications depend on the weed species in question, and he points to perennials such

as dandelion, sow thistle and wild carrot as good candidates for fall control. He’s also seen chickweed in some of his company plots, and concedes that with the warm spring in 2012, it was a bigger problem than in many previous years.

“With the use of Roundup Ready crops during the last 10 years, there’s been a shift in weed control so we’ve naturally selected for these tough-to-control weeds that glyphosate struggles with,” says Miller, adding that it’s a challenge to shift the grower’s mindset away from conventional practices, such as spring herbicide applications following nitrogen. “We need to look at production as a whole and ask, ‘What’s more important: your weed control or getting the nitrogen on in the spring?’”

“If we can provide residual weed control in the fall, those winter annuals don’t get as established in the fall, so come spring time, it allows you more flexibility to get your nitrogen on the wheat,” Miller says. “Then you can spray your in-crop herbicide to better coincide with your fungicide. It provides greater flexibility and you won’t have to rush out there, because those weeds won’t be as wellestablished.” SG

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19

SOYGUIDE

Finally, Ontario is getting its new soy processor, just in time to open major new markets for Canada’s soybean growers

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

20

Full speed ahead F or more than a generation, Ontario’s soy sector has led the globe in extracting value out of the identity preserved (IP) soybean trade, with delegations steadily crossing the Atlantic and Pacific to sell buyers on Ontario’s ability to deliver world-class quality and even better purity.

At the core of that business, however, has been the assumption that “IP” is synonymous with “food grade.”

Now, it looks like time for a re-think, with a new processing plant slated for the province that may help capture even more value for Ontario’s soybean growers.

In 2005, Monsanto launched its new food-grade soybean line called Vistive, a trans fat fighting specialty oil bean targetted directly at processors and consumers.

The product of years of development, Vistive was supposed to usher in a new era for growers, especially since Ontario’s soil and climate appeared to enhance the low linolenic oil profile that was Vistive’s key selling point.

Despite that promise, Vistive fell victim to what an increasing number of observers have been thinking has been hampering Ontario’s soy industry all

along. We don’t have right-sized processing capacity for an IP-based crop.

Instead, any Vistive soybeans grown in Ontario had to be shipped for processing to a plant in Michigan, in much the same way that IP food-grade varieties that might have had markets in Canada were often shipped offshore raw because we didn’t have a facility that could do the value-add.

Now, all of that is expected to change with the construction of an Ontariobased oilseed processing facility, along with something of a revised definition of IP for growers.

Final details have yet to be announced, but according to Jeff Schmalz, president of Guelph-based Soy 20/20, the strategic plan is set, the investors are committed and the equipment has been sourced.

Before the end of 2012, Schmalz says there should be an announcement about the start of construction on the first of two phases, which will see the building of a large oilseed crush facility, similar in nature to the two existing crush plants in Ontario.

The second facility will be smaller, but will have the ability to process smaller, identify-preserved runs.

Both are owned by the same principal,

Soybean Guide, October 2012

and it’s hoped the announcement on the construction of the second plant will be made early in 2013.

“What it’s going to enable us to do, for example, is to plant 25,000 acres of higholeic soybeans and process them here, and keep the feedstock in Canada, and sell those outputs domestically,” says Schmalz.

Schmalz says this type of development has been part of his strategic plan for about five years. “We’re talking to a company that supplies all of the vegetable oils to one of the largest retailers in Canada, and they want to be able to deal with us too, because they’re very interested in selling unique oils to their customers. And I love the sound of that, because our farmers are going to make another couple of bucks on top of Chicago.”

ON TOP OF CHICAGO The second plant would help Ontario look beyond the food-grade market.

Specifically, Schmalz is talking about fatty acid profiles and their particular fit for industrial uses. Depending on the year and commodity prices, at least 75 per cent of the soybeans grown in Ontario go the conventional crush route, with the oil ending up as vegetable oil or margarine and the meal going primarily for feed.

But with the new processing facility, soybean growers will tap a new industrial market for oils that can be sold to downstream processors to be turned into lubricants, surfactants, waxes and floor coatings, to name just a few of the innovations.

As promising as that sounds, however, the task before Schmalz and Soy 20/20 is to identify what’s best for Ontario growers. To go chasing after all 20 categories that have been defined as potential markets for higholeic soybean oil is simply not an option — there aren’t enough soybeans grown in North America to do that. The only logical course of action is to go after those top three or four categories that make the most economic sense. Hence the narrower focus on the so-called industrial uses.

While Ontario doesn’t yet have any high-oleic varieties on the market, that will soon change. The first high oleics are being grown in the U.S. this year, and there will be more in 2013.

Schmalz expects Canadian varieties will be available by 2014.

“You have 80 million acres of soybeans in the U.S., give or take a few million, and I’ve heard estimates of up to 30 to 35 million acres that will be high oleic within five years,” says Schmalz, noting that a large portion of that crush will go to the frying market, which is another coveted Soybean Guide, October 2012

end use. “A smaller and more profitable niche would be the whole lubricant space.

Surfactants is another one — the surfactants market is worth $10 billion a year, so when you look at these petroleum-based industries, the size of the markets is staggering and they’re all different markets.”

IT’S ABOUT TIME For Martin Gooch, the announcement of a processing facility for Ontario is long overdue. As the director of value chain management with the George Morris Centre in Guelph, Gooch believes that too much of the focus for Ontario agriculture and agri-food has been on commodity crops, with too many lost opportunities.

“It’s endemic to Canada, not just to agriculture, and that can take years to change,” says Gooch, blaming a lack of strategic leadership in the industry and at the government levels as well.

Gooch points to research as well, which often focuses more on how to increase the yields of commodity crops than on how to develop high-value strains of those crops. “We don’t encourage seed firms and breeders, in my opinion, to invest money in developing varieties that will solve the marketing issue.”

“In developing such new markets, you’re adding value to agriculture and to the rest of the chain,” Gooch argues. “But to do that, you need strategic thinking and a program that supports that concept, and by and large, we don’t currently have that.”

With the details surrounding the plant’s construction being finalized, much of the process that Gooch describes is moving forward, and Gord Surgeoner is another of those individuals applauding the opportunity. As president of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, Surgeoner has watched many “breakthroughs” develop and then fade in the face of cumbersome and delayed regulatory limitations or disputes over novel trait claims.

And then there’s this processing facility and businesses such as Smart Earth Corporation that are breaking new ground and seeing positive results from their efforts.

“Identity-preserved crush will be a huge opportunity for Ontario,” says Surgeoner, agreeing with Gooch and Schmalz. “You have to have all the pieces of the puzzle together, and this has always been a missing piece in Ontario.”

In an ideal world, Soy 20/20’s goal for Ontario agriculture would be to push production of identity-preserved soybeans to 100 per cent. But that would require Ontario to import crush beans to satisfy

existing oil and soybean meal demand. In 2012, that notion is a tough sell with the prospect of growers earning $17 or more per bushel, for conventional crush.

But we don’t live in an ideal world, and that’s okay with John Cowan. As vice-president of strategic development for the Grain Farmers of Ontario, he’s happy to see the processing facility being built in the province. However, he believes that growers will never stop growing conventional soybeans.

“First of all, if you produce something IP, and it doesn’t make the quality that the IP requires, you still need a place to put it,” says Cowan. “Also, you’re not going to get every farmer to grow IP. No matter what you talk about with IP, there’s extra work, and there’s extra work right from the seed side all the way through to the grain elevator and the handling process, because that’s what IP is all about, and not everybody’s interested in it.”

From Cowan’s perspective, the Grain Farmers of Ontario has three distinct ways of looking at crop production: growing for a current market, growing for a segregated market or growing to meet a new market. In the case of the processing plant in Ontario and the impact it may have in attracting growers to plant high oleic soybean varieties, the process can touch on all three streams.

“We’re going to make a new market,” Cowan says. “There are all kinds of possibilities.”

ALL KINDS OF POSSIBILITIES Often, government assistance is perceived as a necessary step in establishing new businesses, but Schmalz is pleased to note that no such support has been sought at this point.

“Ours is a vision of where we need to be in the next 15 years,” Schmalz says. “We need to change agriculture, in a positive way. We need to make our farmers more money, and we need to spawn some new, next-gen businesses.”

From that perspective, the oilseed processing plant is just a start. It will open the doors for specialty markets for IP soybeans, including both food and non-food uses.

And it will continually push revenues for farmers..

“As exciting as the last 10 years have been, I think the next 10 years are looking even more exciting,” says Cowan.

“Ontario needs to keep pushing and keep in the forefront. The Ministry of Agriculture has something called ‘Open for Business,’ and I’d like to prove it — not just say it but actually show it.” SC 21

soyguide

Greasing the market G

New lubricant has

exciting market potential, but will

producers benefit?

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

22

et set to welcome EcoLube to the shelves of a store near you.

Announced last June, the spray formulation is a penetrating lubricant to rival products such as WD-40, with one significant difference. EcoLube is a socalled green substitute, derived from vegetable oil. That means soybeans.

Indeed, Eco-Lube has attracted the attention of the Canadian soybean industry and the Grain Farmers of Ontario, which has provided some financial support, as well as several retailers.

Meanwhile, a campaign is underway to get EcoLube shelf space with major retailers, with much of that campaign focused on consumers. For instance, the public will be getting a chance to see EcoLube up close at the Cottage and Life Show, Oct. 26 to 28 in Toronto.

According to the company’s website ( w w w. s m a r t e a r t h l u b r i c a n t s . c o m ), EcoLube displaces moisture, is long-lasting, prevents corrosion and dissolves rust. It's also environmentally friendly, has no unpleasant odour and will not stain most surfaces or fabrics.

In short, Eco-Lube outscores WD-40 one key trait.

Still, overcoming a market leader in any sector is a daunting assignment.

“Any time you have an incumbent leader like WD-40 — and they’ve done a fantastic job marketing their product — the retail channel isn’t really that interested in looking at other products,” says Jack Grushcow, owner of Smart Earth Corporation, the manufacturer of EcoLube. “They like to have their section leaders.”

In short, WD-40's solid reputation and an established leadership provide little incentive for change. Even talk of environmental benefits and superior performance may not be enough.

Yet Gruschow, who also ow ns Linnaeus Plant Sciences, Smart Earth’s parent company, isn't giving up that fight. “The performance is superior to WD-40,” he says. “People who go to their cottage can spray this on a boat or on a dock, or in the house around children or pets. These are the things that people are starting to consider.”

Pro g re s s h a s b e e n s l ow, b u t Gruschow is determined, and he's persistent, which may make sense consideri n g t h e m a r ke t f o r p e n e t r a t i n g lubricants in Canada is estimated at $40 million annually.

Tapping 10 per cent of that market would be a huge gain for Smart Earth Corporation. And the demand for traitspecific soybeans — high oleic varieties, in this case — would be a significant boost for Canadian growers.

Realistic forecasts Some voices suggest keeping our optimism a bit in check. Kevin Marriott farms near Petrolia, Ont. and is also a director with the Grain Farmers of Ontario. He recalls the days of the Ontario Soybean Growers, and he talks about the heady sense of “can’t miss” optimism that ballooned behind biodiesel. That’s why, although he believes in EcoLube, he prefers the “slow and steady” approach of introducing the product with the belief that it's going to take time and effort to build consumer acceptance.

“I don’t want to be negative. In my mind, this particular product is very environmentally friendly and effective,” says Marriott. “What it will also do is help our education process for people, making them more aware of how good soybeans are for the environment.”

Marriott also thinks products such as EcoLube could help farmers score points in the food-versus-fuel debate.

“It’s a great idea, it’s just going to take time,” says Marriott.

Start somewhere Another individual who’s been working behind the scenes to set the stage for new soy products is Jeff Schmalz. As president of Soy 20/20, he has been watching, working to line up the right people to manage a growing list of possibilities.

Schmalz says it hasn’t been easy in the last five years. What often begins with great promise becomes bogged down in issues about finances, government regulations or even a lack of vision by hopedfor participants.

Soybean Guide, October 2012

But Schmalz believes he is connected with the the right person in Grushcow, the right company with Smarth Earth Corporation, and the right product with EcoLube.

“We’ve been working with Jack Grushcow for at least three years on getting soybean oil into some lubricants,” says Schmalz, whose five-year strategic vision for Soy 20/20 has expanded to several industrial product lines that he believes hold great promise. “We’ve analyzed the category and believe that over time, there’s a significant opportunity, so we’ve partnered with Jack and started with this lubricant, and there are plans to do greases and other products to develop a number of offerings for consumers.”

EcoLube is being manufactured using high-oleic soybeans, based on varieties that were planted in limited quantities in the U.S. this year. It’s expected that high-oleic production will expand in 2013 and then move north to Ontario in 2014. By then, it’s hoped that Ontario’s new processing plants will be up and running, and ultimately driving demand for higher-value identity-pre-

“What it will also do is help our education process for people, making them more aware of how good soybeans are.”

— Kevin Marriott, GFO

served soybean varieties. It’s also hoped that EcoLube will be the first of many such success stories that will help Ontario growers grab more of the green market.

“We did strategic plans both in our food business and our bio-products area,” says Schmalz, noting that lubricants like EcoLube came out number one on a list of 20 different opportunities. Surfactants, waxes, polyester resins, cosmetics and hydraulic fluids were some of the other top scorers.

The question became, what makes the most sense for Ontario and Canada?

“This is a harbinger of things to come,”

Schmalz says. “This is one oilseed variety and there are others in the pipeline that we need to be able to crush and process in the province. That’s the way to link the whole value chain and that’s the way you’re going to get wealth to farmers, through premiums.”

It’s easy to dream big but Schmalz is careful, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the specialty processing plant has yet to be built. On the other hand, he has reason to be optimistic. Many of the sectors he’s identified as part of the end-use markets for high oleic soybeans show excellent market potential. Grushcow notes the value of the market for WD-40 is some $20 million per year in Canada alone. And the market for surfactants is as much as $10 billion annually.

For now, Grushcow is going to start with EcoLube and with a strategy that may target soybean producers as their best customers by going after shelf space in stores where farmers shop. It may be ironic, but it may also work, Grushcow says. “That may be the first place we look to develop retail distribution.” SG

Grower tried, tested and true in 2012

Apply foliarly at the 3–5 leaf stage (trifoliate). Can be combined with other foliar applications.

Soybean Guide, October 2012

GRO-ROOT XTRA SPECIAL SOY RESULTS (TWO-YEAR AVERAGE)

58.276

INCREASE OF 10.1 BUSHELS PER ACRE 48.185

Contains auxin & cytokinin (present as Kinetin).

Increases number of pods.

Increases crop yield.

4 SITES / YEAR ONTARIO AND QUEBEC (2010 & 2011) Control – Bu/Acre

Single application at 3-5 leaf stage – Bu/Acre Studies conducted by FarmForest Research

orders@kams.ca 1.877.821.1684

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