The Right Bearing at the Right Place Gets the Grease

By Harry Siemens where the market is.

Kurt Shmon owns Imperial Seed in Winnipeg, MB and his Twitter profile shows he built the company on honesty, hard work and treating people with respect.

“There’s no better industry than agriculture, and I think the sky’s the limit if we work together,” said Shmon.

In a Twitter discussion, Shmon said most people can sometimes be their worst enemy. Many good producers keep moving forward but as witnessed on Twitter at times an impersonal response to some of the things that are going on but it’s still said.

He referred to one of the growing problems for farmers, weed and insect resistance.

“We play a very strong role in properly rotating our herbicides and insecticides to reduce that risk,” he said. “Unfortunately, sometimes we focus on the result, which is we try to put as much bank in our pocket as possible but there are consequences.”

Shmon said farmers need to be aware of decisions and sometimes a little less money per acre in the short term can benefit them in the long term. Watching the rotations, making sure not to go canola on canola just because that’s

Weed resistance with some long-standing products begins when farmers overuse those chemicals but keep the rotations too tight.

“We have many good producers but there are certain things that just aren’t right and make us guilty,” said Shmon.

Shmon, whose company produces and markets forage and turf seed production contracts and offers a complete line of forage, turf, and cover crop seeds, said the word regenerative Ag gets tossed around lots and maybe gets lost in the shuffle.

“I think that terminology, Regenerative Ag and stuff like that gets beat to death and I think we’ve lost perspective on what it is or it’s gone all over the place,” he explained.

He added that even with good with policies and discussion, sometimes despite the great job of existing practices, farmers need to be open to this change despite feeling it might not be good.

Instead he hopes farmers keep an open mind and instead of saying it won’t work, maybe ask, “How can I make it work?” He finds that challenging because of what some of those new practices would do to erosion when farmers grow beans with less cover left on the soil.

“I’m out there in the forage and turf seed industry, so I’m constantly battling the commodities for pricing in acres,” said Shmon. “And I see some of the values that my crops bring. I’m just driving through portions of prairie here where we have a lot of soil erosion through the beans, the types of crops we’re growing.”

He believes the crops he raises and sells can greatly benefit these producers because of the stubble they create; it’s more than bare ground. He said that there are living roots in that soil until it freezes up which helps with wind and water erosion quite well.

“But again, sometimes things are working for us and we stay with it and we’re afraid to come outside that box at times,” said Shmon.

When it comes to the issue of sustainability, Shmon thinks every producer wants to do the very best he can.

“I believe everyone has good intentions on leaving it better than what we’ve got and many producers are feeling the same,” he said.

He sees it demonstrated in other ways with preven- tive maintenance. Producers have their million-dollar combines green-lighted by their dealer because it needs to be ready next harvest season. Many producers rely on their soil. They understand that soil, that dirt is what’s making them the money. So everyone’s doing the best they can he said.

“But we did a lousy job of segregating it and saying ‘oh, well that’s bad.’ Some areas have to have different practices to be successful,” said Shmon.

He pointed out that just because what works in southern Saskatchewan, it may not work in southern Manitoba and that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

With the current sustainable policy discussion in Ottawa, there are many lobbying groups that have upset farmers.

“We must do better at getting the right people where we need them to represent us,” said Shmon. “I know how the whole lobby effort works, and the squeaky wheel gets to the grease, but you have to be at the right place and the right bearing. If you’re the wrong bearing and you’re speaking, you’re still not going to get your grease.”