AgriPost December 29 2017

The AgriPost

December 29, 2017

Big Changes at St. Jean Farm Days Over 33 Years

MacAulay’s Successful China Agricultural Trade Mission

Minister MacAulay and Philip A de Kemp from the Barley Council of Canada at the industry signing ceremony between Barley Council of Canada and Chinese company Wahmix.

See Full Story on Page 2...

Thirty-three years ago, when a group of four St. JeanBaptiste area farming couples and the Morris Ag Rep started the first St. Jean Farm Day (one day), there was nary a soybean to be seen in the fields of southern Manitoba, and corn was only starting to be grown in some areas, depending on heat units.

Today, over two million Manitoba acres are in soybeans and the direction is still up. Soy and corn are starting to dominate the agricultural landscape, says Gilbert Sabourin, whose parents Gilles and Lucille were on the founding committee.

Soybeans dominate the first portion of Wednesday morning at the 2018 edition of St. Jean Farm Days, Wednesday, January 10, so farmers who grow or are thinking of growing them in 2018 should make sure they get there early – not just for the presentations, but for the Continental breakfast and to make a start at visiting over 60 commercial exhibits. Doors open at 8 a.m.

That’s another big change from the early years, notes Gilbert, when the few exhibitors were chemical companies. “Now,” he says, “it’s everything under the sun.”

It’s his job every year to design a way to shoehorn all those tables and displays into the St. Jean Centennial Hall, and it’s not easy. This year, there are several new participants and more on the waiting list, and they’re not all strictly agricultural, either.

Back in the meeting hall, the Wednesday morning program will segue into farm succession planning, then after lunch – flavourful homemade soups and sandwiches from the Knights of Columbus – and a short meeting of the National Sunflower Association of Canada, the afternoon program will focus on new weed and disease pests, crop economics, and a market outlook for 2018.

Farmers looking for professional, area-specific agronomic advice heavily oriented toward nutrient topics shouldn’t miss the January 11, Thursday morning’s three presentations, followed, after lunch, by another on managing herbicide resistance. The second day wraps up with another major market outlook presentation.

Besides the breakfasts, coffee snacks, and hearty soupbased lunches, participants can socialize over a late afternoon reception following the program on Wednesday. And thanks to sponsors and volunteers, the price tag for each day is still just $6 at the door – or $10 for a couple. That’s the one thing, Gilbert Sabourin notes, that hasn’t changed in over 30 years.

St. Jean Farm Days is organized by a committee consisting of Gilbert Sabourin, Monique Papineau Lafond and Brunel and Jennifer Sabourin and the current Morris representative of Manitoba Agriculture, Farm Production Extension – Crops Specialist, Ingrid Kristjanson.

The committee is assisted by a host of of local volunteers, including the Knights, a group of retired farmers and community members.

December 29, 2017

The AgriPost

MacAulay’s Successful China Agricultural Trade Mission Continued from front cover...

Minister MacAulay meets with AQSIQ Minister Zhi Shuping in Beijing and signs International Cooperation Work Plan.

According to Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Lawrence MacAulay the 10day visit to China recently was a success and finished with a series of promotional events and meetings that raised the profile of Canadian agricultural products to our second-most valuable agrifood export market.

The three-city mission will help Canada reach its goal of growing global agri-food exports to $75 billion by 2025 by providing Canadians and processors new opportunities to grow their businesses.

“China is a fast-growing market. More and more Chinese consumers are looking for the safe, high-quality food that Canadian farmers and processors deliver. The Government of Canada is working to get even more of our quality food products on Chinese store shelves and e-commerce platforms, creating good, wellpaying jobs in Canada and helping to strengthen our middle class,” said MacAulay.

China’s economic success and increasing number of middle class consumers translates into rising demand for value-added agricultural products, including proteins and edible oils.

From Shanghai to Guangzhou to Beijing, the Minister strengthened Canada’s position as a strong agricultural trading partner, and took every opportunity to showcase Canada’s safe, high-quality food

products to one of the world’s most competitive and desired markets for agriculture.

Through meetings with his counterpart, Minister Han Changfu, and with Minister Zhi Shuping from China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), he set a path for continued stable trade for agricultural products, including canola and meat.

Minister MacAulay assists a chef at a cooking demonstration hosted by the Canola Council of Canada in Guangzhou.

Canadian Genetics in Demand

By Les Kletke When George Aldamidze arrived at the Canadian Western Agribition in Regina, he had a shopping list.

Aldamidze is from Poland and was one of a record number of international visitors at this year’s Canadian Western Agribition in late November.

“We are looking for good genetics,” he said. “We know that Canadian cows work in our system. He acknowledged that Holstein genetics stem from Holland and that would be closer for him and his counter parts but he likes the Canadian genetics and developments that Canadian dairymen have made to the breed.

The transportation issue has been all but eliminated with sales of embryos and semen being the mainstay of the genetic business. “We know that we can purchase genetics

and have them in our country with little problems,” he said.

“We are no longer forced to buy live animals to upgrade our country’s cattle.”

His shopping list also included beef genetics. “We are here to look for Angus cattle as well,” he said, “We have used Angus cattle in our programs and know that the Canadian genetics work well for us.”

While the trip to Agribition was the cornerstone of his visit to Canada and he was looking to attend the breed sales, Aldamidze was also looking to make some deals in the barn. He hoped to establish relationships with breeders that would lead to private treaty transactions.

He also saw the possibility of expanding his trip to Manitoba if he struck the right relationship with an exhibitor in the barn. “We have

an extensive list of cattle that we are looking for,” he said.

“We will travel to the farms to see the animals if we think they can contribute to our programs at home.”

For him the trip to Agribition was twofold to provide a shopping place for the cattle he was looking for but also to establish relationships that would be useful in the future.

“We have a large demand for genetics to improve our cattle and we think Canadian genetics are a good fit,” he said. “We plan on working with Canadians well after this visit.”

This was the first year for Agribition to be housed in the new expanded facilities at Evraz Place and it drew record numbers of international visitors and approached record numbers for the breed sales held in conjunction with the event.

The AgriPost

Pork Quality Lacking Says Judge at Hog Days

By Harry Siemens Organizers of the Brandon Hog and Livestock Show said the success of the 2017 edition indicates a bright future for hog production in Manitoba. The one-day event on December 15, the Brandon Hog Livestock show brought pork producers and their service and equipment suppliers together.

One of the organizers, Ron Bazylo said the attendance at this year’s event suggests the pork sector is very stable.

“We have over 135 exhibitors, way up from just over 100 in previous years. The exhibitors show everything from the equipment they have to offer, even including some vehicles. People involved in the feed industry, animal health products, various things like insurance, and a huge array of different displayers on hand,” said Bazylo.

This year’s winners were first place, Waldheim Colony at Elie, second place Barickman Colony at Cartier, and third place went to Sky View Colony at Miami.

Judge Bob Mckay said when judging and assessing pork quality there are three critical factors, colour, texture, and marbling. “Color’s important because it’s the first thing the consumer sees when they go to the grocery store. Studies show when you put dark pork and light pork in a display case, consumers will take the light pork because they think it’s from a younger animal, and they won’t take the dark pork because it’s from an animal that’s much older,” said McKay. “Well, they’re all killed at the same age. Pale pork means that it’s going to ooze moisture, it’s going to cook more on drying, it’ll be very tough to eat. So very undesirable.”

Mckay said marbling makes, the meat taste good that each pork cut needs a little bit.

“Without some marbling, it’s like eating cardboard. The texture is important because if it’s loose and wet, that means the cell membranes are breaking down, and it’ll cook out very dry.”

He went on to say that, the quality of this year’s pork is probably the worst year for colour. “I have never seen a situation where the average score on 32 hogs was 1.3 points out of 10 for color.

December 29, 2017

CN Rail’s Resources Not Able to Meet Demand

By Harry Siemens

This year’s winners at the Brandon Hog and Livestock Show were first place, Waldheim Colony at Elie....

second place Barickman Colony at Cartier...

1.5 out of 10 for marbling,” he said. “Texture was good, it was 9.1 out of 10, but the colour and the marbling just weren’t there and it’s a flashback to what we saw in the early 1980s. We’ve gone too lean and damaged our carcasses. So a lot of work needs doing on restoring our meat quality.”

When asked how do these quality criteria correlate with what the consumer is looking for in the meat case, Mckay said if one asks the consumer what they want, they do not want any fat on the meat.

and third place went to Sky View Colony at Miami.

“They want pork devoid of marbling, relatively inexpensive that they can eat. The trouble is, if you take the marbling out, people are not going to like it,” he said. “What we see with our eyes, is not what we desire with our palettes, and if we want a nutritious meal of pork, you need some marbling; you can’t have membranes breaking down, and cellular fluid coming out. You just can’t. It’ll dry out, and it’ll taste awful.”

Mckay had a message for today’s breeding companies.

“Carcass evaluation is always

a good idea. If we ignore it, we’re going to have expensive dog food, cause nobody is going to eat it. We export the bulk of our pork. If we’re producing a product that people don’t want, they’re not going to buy it. That’s the risk.”

The winning Colonies donated portions of their money to charities of their choice with first prize going to the St Bonfire Hospital, second to Children Hospital in Winnipeg, and third going to Boundary Trails Hospital near Winkler.

The Alberta wheat producers concerned with a lack of grain movement said bottlenecks in Federal legislation and rail capacity are holding up grain transport at a crucial time. Rail companies are failing to get nearly half of Alberta’s wheat to market and Ottawa is dragging its feet in passing legislation to ensure they do, said Kevin Auch, Chair of the Alberta Wheat Commission (AWC).

David Przednowek, Director of Marketing-Grain, said it is worth sharing a couple of statistics to put things into perspective. “A good place to start is going back and taking a look at what we’ve done over the past couple months. For example, in November, grain movement is not as high in CN as it was last year. Last year was exceptional, record performance, everything pretty much going right across all corridors, terminals being fluid, very fluid network, and we achieved record results, September through April last year,” said Przednowek. “You take a look back and put into perspective last year, everything going right, no derailments, no challenges on the network. We moved about 5,800 hoppers per week on average in November. This year we had our third best November ever. It’s not the same as last year. We moved just over 5,000 hoppers. So there’s a difference, but there are some significant differences between how things looked last year versus how things look this year.”

After November, performance fell below 5,000 per week levels, for a couple of reasons. “We certainly had our share of mainline derailment and outage incidents almost on a week after week basis that it caused some challenges regarding imbalances in the flow of hoppers in and out of the west coast,” said Przednowek. “In October windstorms in Alberta that knocked out the main line between Saskatoon and Edmonton for four days, and that screwed things up. It took a long time to recover from that. We’ve had some challenges moving in and out of the west coast regarding mudslides putting the main line out of action into Vancouver. That happened a couple of weeks ago.”

Include several derailments causing stops and starts in the supply chain it made it difficult to recover, indeed, CN has not been anywhere near that 5,000 per week level over the latter half of November and into December.

He said the central theme of this year is an uptake in demand for freight movement across some different commodity segments on CN competing with strong grain demand. Those other commodities have also stepped up and some of those strong uptakes and demand were very sudden.

Przednowek said CN cannot automatically flip a switch and bring extra resources to bear into the network to deal with the demand because the lead-time is about nine to 12 months. By the end of 2017, CN hired about 3,500 people and plan to add another 2,000 in 2018. “You just can’t put people out on the railroad and expect them to run trains. We must do it safely and efficiently,” he said.

CN brought 22 new high horsepower AC locomotives online early November, another 40 by December 31, and another 60 by the end of January with most of those assets going into the western region where they see the most robust demand said Przednowek. With the economy, strengthening for other commodities rail traffic in 2018 will remain competitive for all goods he noted.

Even though by the end of 2017, CN hired 3,500 people and plans to add another 2,000 in 2018, David Przednowek said CN is unable to keep up with demand because the lead-time is about nine to 12 months.

December 29, 2017

Something New with Goats and a Yoga Mat The New Year is upon us and it is that time of resolutions and fresh starts and everything that people vow to do better as we start a new calendar.

I do not claim to be a soothsayer or viewer of the future, if I could do that I would not be spending my time penning another column for the farm audience, well perhaps I would because this is what I enjoy doing and would still do it even if not paid but don’t tell my boss that. I cannot tell which fads are going to be fads and which ones are going to develop into full-blown parts of our future.

In the past, I have missed badly on some things I thought would work and did not see the popularity of some things coming. I am not alone; there is the story of the President of the American Telegraph Company saying that the telephone would never be more than a novelty. There is one trend that will be hitting us from the west coast that I am fairly sure will not catch on, and if it does, I don’t see it lasting long.

Don’t invest in a goat yoga studio! That is my advice for 2018. Yes, it is a trend on the west coast and yes they are opening up and moving east, so we will be set upon by the Goat Yoga People and this is for real. I had the opportunity (I use the term loosely) to see Goat Yoga at the Canadian Western Agribition in Regina last month, and to be truthful I don’t understand it or why you would want to.

Many of you familiar with the body of a long time farm reporter who has concentrated on cheese and beef for his research will find this hard to believe, but I do own a yoga mat and have participated in a series of classes. I can attest to the value of the art form and wish that I had the dedication to become more of a practitioner, but Goat Yoga is not going to fly.

The demonstration area at Agribition was crowed and drew its limit of participants for every session, I chose to observe but did ask a colleague who took part about it after and her reply was as expected.

“Why do I want to put my face down on a mat that has had a goat poop on it just before?” she said. She continued with her description, but this is a family paper.

What happens is that a number or kids (small goats) are allowed to wander around the area where the participants are trying their best to achieve the intended yoga pose. The idea is that you find this peaceful and can pet the goats and talk to them as you achieve inner peace. It may work it California, it is not going to fly on the prairies, I am pretty sure.

I don’t know what the trends of the New Year will be and what the next greatest idea in our industry will be but my advice is don’t invest in a yoga goat studio.

I would think that nitrogen fertilizer will show a much better return in 2018.

The AgriPost

New Year, New Tax Talk

With a new year full of hope and promise here in Trudeaupia one of the things we have to look forward to is more hand wringing over some kind of carbon tax. It will likely vary from Province to Province but the bottom line is that the Federal Liberals are looking to make carbon related things more expensive in 2018.

Never mind that south of the border taxes are being cut drastically with companies already paying out impressive Christmas bonuses and making plans for capital investments. We Canucks once again have to figure out how to tighten our belts and make do with less all while competing in a global economy that isn’t interested in reducing its carbon footprint the slightest bit.

Here in Manitoba, the plan is for a carbon tax just not one quite as severe as the Feds would like. We are told that it will be “half” as bad. Then again Trudeau also promises to levy his own tax on provinces who don’t meet his standard. So we might just be cutting two different cheques to two different levels of gov-

ernment. That sounds fun!

Saskatchewan has its own ideas and they don’t include any kind of carbon tax. “This plan is broader and bolder than a single policy such as a carbon tax and will achieve better and more meaningful outcomes over the long term,” according to Dustin Duncan, Saskatchewan’s Minister of Energy and Resources. This smells like a potential lawsuit coming.

Speaking of lawsuits, New Brunswick has decided they’d rather just rename their existing fuel taxes as carbon taxes.

They get extra marks for both creativity and chutzpah for this one.

Mark Milke tried to inject a little sanity into the debate recently in Maclean’s magazine suggesting Canada look to Texas of all places for something that actually reduces carbon emissions without kneecapping the economy. What they’ve done is replace coal with natural gas for electricity production and there’s a ten year track record to show that it works.

No tax, no job losses, no crazy regulations. So there’s no way the Liberals are going

Penner’s Points

By Rolf Penner

to touch this with a ten foot pole. Heck that kind of thinking might lead to a pipeline somewhere.

Speaking of sanity, someone else who’s been burning the midnight oil (pun intended) trying to get people around the world to listen to common sense is Bjorn Lomborg.

He’s one of these people who is cursed with the ability to “do the math”. He’s fond of something called cost/benefit analysis, and well… it doesn’t look good. To him the “climate cure is worse than the disease” it’s basically, “highcost, low-effect gestures”.

Lomborg points out that, “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN’s climate panel, estimates that in about 60 years, global warming will cost the planet between 0.2% and 2% of GDP. That’s a problem, but it’s not the end of the world.” He goes on, “The best estimates thus show that global warming right now has about a zero net cost. (The most pessimistic study finds a cost of 0.3% of GDP, the most optimistic a net benefit of 2.3%.) That will rise to 2%

in a half-century, and to 3-4% early in the twenty-second century, if we don’t act.”

What we need according to Lomborg is, “smarter, cheaper options” than the ones that are currently on the table. He has even put together a team of economists to come up with them. After crunching the numbers they suggest more spending on research and development (R&D) and estimate that doing so could save $11 worth of climate damage for every dollar spent.

It’s already clear that Canada is a drop in the bucket when it comes to global emissions.

If we ceased to exist tomorrow carbon emissions around the world would continue along their merry way without even noticing. So why are we shooting ourselves in the foot with expensive, inefficient, ineffective taxes? We should be focusing on R&D for green energy and adaptation strategies to changing climate. As an added feature, those are way more interesting things to talk about.

New Crop Missions Meet with Customers

By Drew Baker Organized by Cereals Canada, the Canadian Grain Commission and the Canadian International Grains Institute (CIGI), the 2017 New Crop Missions will visit 18 countries, each of which are Canada’s top customers for wheat. Our first stop is with the millers in Canada and the US. It is often forgotten that our most important customers are on the North American continent.

The New Crop Missions are truly a team effort. Canada is unique in presenting the entire value chain to customers and, as a farmer; I am honoured to have represented Canadian producers on this year’s missions.

As a Director on the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association, CIGI and Cereals Canada I get to directly

work with the value chain and see how valuable it is to continually work together.

Through November, I met with customers in Japan, Korea, China and Singapore. The Team also met with officials from Government Agencies and had one-on-one meetings with large buyers.

On these missions, I told our story, answered questions about sustainability, farm practices, and how we as farmers make cropping decisions. I was on hand to address questions on storage practices that impact food safety requirements. I believe it is important to highlight the technical advancements that help Canadian farmers be as productive as possible, as well as ensuring that we are sustainably managing our farms.

Quality this year has been

outstanding. Over 95% of Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) crop is in the #1 and #2 grades. Over 90% of the 2017 Durum crop is in the #1 and #2. This is a good news story.

Delivering the technical data on the 2017 crop was only half of the job. It was also important that we listened to our customers to ensure that the as an industry we are moving to address any concerns.

This is how we strengthen the Canadian competitive advantages of, consistency, quality, and cleanliness. The demands of our customers are the key driving force for Canadian research and innovation.

What has all of this meant to me personally? I believe this opportunity has given me more information on how important those decisions I make on my farm are. An

example of this would be ensuring I am spraying at the right time, delivering what I declare, and overall being engaged with what are current and potential market access issues. I would recommend that every producer look at the keepingitclean.ca website and canadianwheat.ca. As a proud, sustainable, Canadian producer I am always looking at how I can do things better, and more sustainable and profitable for both me and my farm, as well as for the industry as a whole.

Drew Baker is a Manitoba producer, a Director on the Boards of the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association, Cereals Canada and the Canadian International Grains Institute.

The AgriPost

Commodity Groups Release Amalgamation Report In a watershed moment for agriculture in Manitoba, the five commodity groups that in May of 2017 began exploring an amalgamation have recently released a summary report highlighting the potential path towards a new, grassroots and farmer-driven organization.

The release of this report launches a consultation period for farmer members of the organizations to become involved in the process.

“Commodity groups need to be farmer-driven. They need to be run by their grassroots,” said Myron Krahn, President of Manitoba Corn Growers Association. “This report shows how amalgamating would not only maintain our connection to farmers from across Manitoba, but also how it would improve it.

From better research capability to a greater potential to leverage research investments, we’ll have more impact as an amalgamated group. Togeth-

er we can be better.”

The potential board structure, governance structure, core functions, legal process and timeline of this potential amalgamation are all laid out in this summary report, which changed and adapted as the steering committee received feedback from their farmer members over the past few months.

The report is the result of nine months of meetings between board and staff representatives from Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers, Manitoba Flax Growers, the National Sunflower Association of Canada, Manitoba Corn Growers and Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers and Rob Hannam of the consulting firm Synthesis AgriFood Network. It serves as a roadmap, the destination of which is a farmer-driven, grassroots organization that will reduce overlap, increase impact and deliver more value to Manitoba farmers.

Regional meetings and presentations are planned for January 2018 so that farmers across the province have an opportunity to hear the proposed plan and ask questions, in-person.

Dates and Locations for meetings and presentations are, St. Jean Farm Days presentation January 10 at 1 pm, Dauphin, meeting on January 11 at 1 pm, Stonewall on January 12 at 10 am and Brandon Ag Days presentation on January 16 at 3 pm.

In addition, this report will be discussed at each involved commodity group’s Annual General Meeting, which will be held during the CropConnect conference on February 14 and 15, 2018.

Manitoba farmers who grow the crops represented in this amalgamation process are encouraged to get involved and “have your say.” The report will be available at the temporary website set up for this consultation period at mbcrops. ca. Feedback from farmer members is welcome and encouraged through email directly to Rob Hannam at rob@ mbcrops.ca.

Yes, a Soybean Processing Plant has Merit in Manitoba Through the years I’ve seen what people thought were good projects come and go meaning they’d call me, send me information, talk to me on the phone. Of course, you have the ones that took an even keel approach to a great idea, moved it forward with the proper background and legwork, and today are flourishing, or sold out to a larger firm.

That is why when the Westman Opportunities Leadership Group (WOLG) contacted me more than a year ago I took notice. First, I looked at the concept, the goals, and the validity of the project. For the most critical part of any proposed plan, a new concept has only as much merit as the people involved.

When almost a hundred movers and shakers showed up at the recent workshop cohosted by the WOLG and the University of Brandon to discuss the merits of a laying out a plan to attract investment to build a world-class soybean processing plant in Manitoba, I attended.

If you look back to 2000 when Manitoba farmers grew only 20,000 acres of soybeans and bounced that up to 2.3 million in 2017 and a 2,500 tonne a day soybean plant will need

just under a million acres every year, it excited me. In Saskatchewan, farmers grew 800,000 acres of soybeans in 2017, and with ever increasing and improving seed varieties, what they called fringe areas several years back for growing soybeans, are no longer.

A consultant from Cincinnati, Ohio had some thoughts in an interview that sounded pretty reasonable especially with the provincial government that is for some reason not too keen right now on this proposed project.

Bob Stroup said, “If they listen to the various factors that I brought up, which are, one, control of the soybean supply, which in my opinion requires the formation of at least a coop or some organization, who pledge a percentage of their soybean production. They need to have that. The other thing they need is the driver that I know of here, is the desire on the part of the government of Manitoba to accelerate the growth of the swine industry.”

You see the reason for a soybean processing plant, and it has merit in Manitoba, as a successful entity is the fact Manitoba pig producers need to buy the processed meal from this proposed plant instead of trucking it in from the US. We even have soybean pro-

ducers in the Red River Valley that may not have interest either. Well here is what I told the group to help wrap up the meeting in Brandon. “I drove the two hours from Winkler to come to this meeting today.

I’ve been kept informed and tried to help wherever I could as a media person. Being in my 47th year as a farm journalist, I’ve seen many of these so-called projects come and go. I’ve seen a lot of people where I get calls and letters and whatever else and say, ‘You know what? We’d like to do this, can you do a story?’

And, sometimes I did, and sometimes I didn’t.

When I was alerted to this story, and I saw the names of the people involved in the original organization, I knew that these people weren’t just doing this for fun. And so I congratulate, first of all, Ray Redfern, President, and all the rest of the people, because I don’t know all of you, but I know most of you. Just because all in the Red River Valley aren’t entirely on board with this project yet, I am. For soybean growers in the Valley, it may not be as urgent because we’re so much closer to some of those markets in the south.

So, I would just encourage you to keep plugging along with this, one brick at a time,

because this isn’t just something to sniff at, something to smile at, because you people are giving your time, and for many of you it’s a labour of love.

Having watched the agricultural industry for all these years in Manitoba, we are the most blessed people in the entire world. I think we need to take it forward to make sure that all of the areas that are talking about are going to be involved. Whether we will all benefit, we don’t know, but at least have us all included so that we have no secrets and we can move this thing forward. Good luck, everyone.

Claude Vielfaure, President of HyLife said of the attempt by the WOLG to attract investment to build a world-class soybean processing plant is excellent. “We use a lot of soybeans, and it’ll increase, obviously, how much soybeans farmers produce so we think it’s going to be a positive thing.”

December 29, 2017

Omnitrax Not Solely to Blame for Derailing Port of Churchill

By Ian Robson For over 100 years, the Port of Churchill on Hudson Bay was the gateway to northern Manitoba and communities in Nunavut Territory.

Served by 820 km of rail line from La Pas, Manitoba, it shipped western grain to European markets until the Port was stranded, then closed and the hundreds of remote northern communities along the railway line were left isolated as the Port and railway’s private owner, Omnitrax, failed to repair the tracks after flooding in early 2016.

Despite the strategic importance of Churchill, North America’s only Arctic deep-water port, the rail line from La Pas was never easy to operate. However, the severe problems of today are predictable results stemming from two catastrophic blunders made by the Canadian government.

While opinions vary on railway privatization, it is unforgivable that Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s government allowed CN, a Class 1 Railway, to sell the Churchill line to Omnitrax in 1997 without requiring the new owner to uphold the statutory common carrier obligation to move duly loaded cars to their destination in a timely fashion. At the same time, the Federal government upgraded Churchill’s port facilities, and then gave them to Omnitrax.

The second catastrophic blow to Churchill occurred when Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismantled the farmerelected board of Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) in 2011, ended its single desk selling authority and later gave its assets to G3, a partnership of US-based Bunge and the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company.

Under the CWB‘s single desk selling and aggregation advantage, all four western ports, Churchill, Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Thunder Bay, were utilized strategically. Grain grown in the Hudson Bay route catch basin was predominantly marketed at vessel volumes through the Port of Churchill by the CWB. This lowered handling, transportation costs to farmers, and in years of bumper crops, it alleviated congestion to the west coast.

Anticipating Churchill would be in trouble without the CWB’s orderly marketing powers, the Harper government threw private grain companies up to $25 million dollars with a five-year, $9.20 per tonne freight subsidy to help Omnitrax and camouflage the fall-out from destroying the CWB. It isn’t surprising that once the subsidy ended, the grain companies quit using Churchill, as private companies cannot be expected to act beyond their own self-interest.

The single desk CWB served farmers with transparent higher net prices and lower transportation costs. At the same time, the CWB served all of Canada by strategi-

cally utilizing our geographical resources, which was possible as a result of being the marketing agency for the whole western wheat crop and having strong relationships with international buyers. The dominos have fallen.

The tracks need two decades worth of proper maintenance, farmers are paying higher freight rates, other routes are more congested, there are more greenhouse gas emissions, Churchill is suffering economic losses, and northern communities are cut off from essential services. Dominos will continue to fall as private grain companies avoid Thunder Bay, the next-most-expensive shipping route, further congesting the over-utilized West Coast corridor. One can only guess at the nightmare scenario if an earthquake hits Vancouver.

Canada has lost a third of its railway track miles in the last three decades. Abandonment has definitely increased profitability for CN and CP, but their gains should not be seen as an increase in overall efficiency of the transportation system. Farmers pick up the cost of trucking further to main line terminals, with triple the greenhouse gas emissions per mile compared with rail transport.

In the 1880s, the public gave private railway companies millions of acres of land including the mineral rights in return for agreeing to move freight at regulated rates. CN and CP have become very profitable businesses as a result. Thus, abandonment of railway lines cannot be simply a rail company’s decision without the public being compensated somehow. Governments have been far too lax in upholding the public interest in this matter. It is time they sharpened the pencil!

As for Churchill, the solution lies not in suing Omnitrax for its very predictable failures, but in working with northern Manitoba First Nations and nationalizing both the line and the port facilities to restore the Port of Churchill as an essential fourth western grain-shipping route. Climate change will likely make it an even more strategic and commercially attractive port and, and an active port will revitalize the town as a base for government services to support new tasks that will be needed in the north.

Ian Robson farms grain and cattle with his family at Deleau, Manitoba. He is on the National Farmers Union Board of Directors.

December 29, 2017

The AgriPost

The AgriPost

Treating Parasites in Cattle Boosts the Bottom Line

By Harry Siemens In response to new research on parasite resistance in western Canadian beef cattle, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture Livestock Specialists, in partnership with Merck Animal Health, identified the need to examine and demonstrate the prevalence of parasite resistance and the effect of using a strategic deworming program in three Saskatchewan backgrounding lots.

The livestock industry uses a pour-on dewormer onto cattle. The animal’s bloodstream absorbs the product to control various parasites that occur in feedlots and out on the range.

Naomi Paley a Regional Livestock Specialist, Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture in Yorkton, demonstrated the product on several farms at three different locations across the province including backgrounding operations at Swift Current, Ituna, and one at Langenburg.

“One, at what the level or the prevalence of parasite resistance that we saw in background cattle. Two, the good old Ivermectin pouron, a mainstay in the North American cattle industry, for the last 25 years,” said Paley.

“It’s been the wonder drug, a one-shot deal, the easy to administer, the pour-on right down their back, and it took care of everything. It took care of internal parasites; it took care of lice and everything. And so, it’s been revolutionary for the livestock industry for the last 25 years.”

However, after continued use, uneven applications and inconsistent absorption, cattle will sometimes get low

levels of the active ingredient in all the Ivermectintype pour-on and resistance sets in. The parasites start to build up a resistance.

“So over the last 25 years resistance is happening, and we have good research to say it’s becoming more of a problem, specifically in western Canada and in our cattle here. And that’s why we wanted to take a look at this and see what’s happening in our backyard,” she said. “We did a sideby-side demonstration, two pens of cattle at each location. One pen received the regular pour-on Ivermectin, and the second pen of cattle with Ivermectin, and SafeGuard Fenbendazole. The difference between it and Ivermectin is a different active ingredient and mode of action. The reason that we treated both with Safe-Guard and with Ivermectin is the Safe-Guard does not get the lice on the outside of the animals. This product only focuses on internal parasites, so that’s why we covered our bases by using both in the demonstration.”

Primarily, they looked at fecal egg counts by collecting at the time of treatment, and sent these off to a lab to look at fecal egg count for the number of live and active parasites. Two weeks later, they collected fecal samples again to look at what was left behind, how effective were the drugs in both of those treatment groups.

“Essentially, we had substantial and statistically significant differences between the two treatment groups.

The groups treated just with Ivermectin still had significant numbers of parasites that survived the treatment and causing production losses; causing low rates of absorption, poor gains, and so on,” said Paley. “The ones

treated with the Safe-Guard and Ivermectin had virtually zero fecal egg counts; a very, very low level after treated with the fenbendazole, the Safe-Guard product.”

She said the bottom line over the three different farms between the Ivermectin treated group versus the Safe-Guard treated group is an average of 15 pounds. The calves treated with the SafeGuard gained 15 pounds more on average versus the ones that just had the Ivermectin treatment.

“The cost of the SafeGuard suspension product is $3 a head. Net return to using that treatment, part of the deworming strategy, $33.83 a head, quite significant,” said Paley.

SafeGuard oral suspension administered to a steer at Evergreen Cattle Co. near Ituna, Saskatchewan.

Photos supplied

by Naomi Paley.

Backgrounding calves in the demonstration trial at Whitehall Cattle Co. near Swift Current, Saskatchewan.

A Calmer Fifth Round of NAFTA Negotiations Held in Mexico City from November 17 – 21, NAFTA negotiations resumed recently after a longer break between negotiating rounds. The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA) was on hand for the negotiations to represent its members.

On the second day of negotiations, the office of the US Trade Representative released updated negotiating objectives to conform to its current demands as is required by US law. The updated objectives include increased market access for agriculture.

The main message on behalf of CAFTA members was to modernize the deal where possible while focusing on maintaining access to the North

American market. According to CAFTA, the deal has been a great boon for Canadian and North American agriculture and there is an opportunity to build on existing wins and make trade throughout the continent more competitive for agri-food exporters.

While in Mexico, CAFTA met with US and Mexican industry counterparts.

Following up on the tense atmosphere of the fourth round of talks, the fifth round was described as “calmer.”

Broadly, negotiators tackled technical discussions, slowly made some progress in a few areas but remained far from reaching a breakthrough on the most contentious issues.

A Trilateral Statement at

the conclusion of the rounds highlighted that progress was made across multiple chapters, but wide gaps remain overall. Much of the fifth round talks focused on the rules of origin, procurement, labour standards, supply management, food safety, dispute settlement and the five-year sunset clause.

The sixth round of talks is set to take place January 23 to 28, 2018 in Montreal.

Recently the USDA updated agriculture forecast noted that in fiscal year 2017, US agricultural exports totaled $140.5 billion, representing the third-highest level on record.

“Much of this expected success can be attributed to

robust sales to our East Asian and North American trading partners,” said US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

“China is again shaping up to be our top market, while Canada and Mexico remain our second- and third-largest markets, respectively. We’re expecting exports to grow in the coming year to all of our top three markets.”

However, concerns over the renegotiation of the NAFTA persist in the US agricultural sector. The industry is worried that the Trump administration is positioning itself to withdraw from the trade deal and continues to advocate the importance of NAFTA. The negotiation deadline has been extended to March 31, 2018.

December 29, 2017

Manitoba Farm Safety Program There To Help

By Joan Airey The Manitoba Farm Safety Program (MFSP) was established in 2016 to provide workplace health and safety to the agriculture sector in Manitoba and it is administered by Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) with funding from Manitoba Agriculture GF program for the first two years.

Currently MFSP has three staff, Keith Castonguay Director, Morag Majerison is their Safety Consultant, and Renee Simcoe is the Outreach Coordinator. The Farm Safety Committee (FSC) has met four times in 2017 with representation from many different farm organizations. Committee representatives were Kevin Scott (KAP), Cal Diiks with Manitoba Egg Producers, Chuck Fossay for Manitoba Canola Producers, Henry Holtman, Dairy Producers of Manitoba, Peter Penner, Manitoba Beef Producers, Sam Connery-Nichols (KAP), Melie Morgan, Vegetable Producers, James Hofer, Manitoba Pork, Patrick Friesen, Manitoba Corn Producers and Rita Cyan a Worker Representative.

“Current activities and Services are on farm consultations for exposure level checks of noise, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. We do barn inspections using infrared imaging. That is with an electrician who checks the wiring with infrared imaging to make sure it is safe and won’t cause a fire.

And recently we are developing a safety manual for Manitoba Egg Farmers. We are looking into first aid courses and are consulting with St. John Ambulance on how courses are delivered according to most common injures by the producer groups.” said Renee Simcoe.

Farm Safety is working

with insurance companies to get better insurance premiums for barn owners who have their barns safety checked. In addition to direct farm safety, they have had farm and ATV safety training for grades 4 - 6 at progressive Ag Days in several areas of the province.

“We are working with 4-H members to set up a safety program for them and we have some safety tips on the 4-H calendar this year. We are hoping for each 4-H club to have a safety officer who will make sure the activity they are doing whether showing cattle or horses that they know how to do it safely.

We will host a conference for the safely officers to attend where they can take training and take part in other activities. And their 4-H achievement books would have a place for a safety report to be completed for Achievement Day,” said Simcoe.

“There will be a Farm Safety Workshop at the Delta Hotel in Winnipeg on January 23, 2018. You can register on-line for it at manitobafarmsafety.com and there is no charge.

The morning will be speakers from Manitoba 911, RCMP and Manitoba Emergency Responders.

In the afternoon there will be mock scenarios-emergency calls and a working session preparing an emergency plan for your farm,” continued Simcoe.

MFSP is looking for real Manitoba farms photos to add to their collection.

Whether you are a professional photographer or not they want to see your photos as long as they are not displaying wildly unsafe behaviour. The lucky winner will receive two one-day passes to the 2018 Royal Manitoba Winter Fair. For details on the contest check out their website and on Facebook.

Renee Simcoe, Outreach Coordinator for Manitoba Farm Safety Program, explains to attendees at the Manitoba Farm Women’s Conference what services they provide to farmers and ranchers.

December 29, 2017

The AgriPost

The AgriPost

A Beef Cow Cull Plan is Good for Profit

By Peter Vitti Most producers have walked through their cowherds after the weaning season and picked out candidates for a cull group. Many of these are first calf heifers and cows that were preg-checked and found to be open, while a smaller group were culled due to poor feet, legs and other structure defects. Even a few cows destined for the packers were simply old cows with too many teeth missing or too mean to keep around.

As an advocate of such continuous herd improvement, I believe picking out culls is just the first step. A flexible feed and management plan should then be put into place throughout the winter and spring in order to take advantage of the best revenue opportunities, whether cull cows are sold right away or fed out in the upcoming months.

To better illustrate my point, I recently asked two commercial producers what they did with their cull cows after segregating them from the rest of the cowherd. Both cow-calf operators calve out their cows during the first week of May

on pasture and run the bulls within a 60-day breeding season that encompasses both July and August. 600 – 650 lb calves are weaned by the end of November. From this, point forward, most similarities between these two operations, ends.

In the first cow-calf operation, the producer runs a 400 Angus-Simmental cows and he keeps back about 40 replacement heifers and backgrounds the remaining calves to about 800 lbs before they are sold. His group of cull cows are sold within a month after they are grouped together.

This producer told me that his cull cows are either open (not pregnant) or in thin body condition. It has been his decision over the years, not to put more feed/money into them, because a cold prairie winter often stalls precious weight gains. Even if they were given the chance to gain 200 lbs, he felt it would not offset the nominal selling price at the auction market.

The other producer runs a 300-whiteface Hereford crossbreed operation. He

keeps back about 35 replacement heifers and finishes his cowherd’s weaned calves in a feedlot. He culls his cowherd, twice a year. The first culls consist of about 30 open cows after the calves are weaned and the second group is 15 - 20 individuals, put together within weeks after the calving season ends; hard calvers and cows that were breeding season stragglers. All cull cows are put in their own pen during an 80-day feeding program to gain 250 lbs and then sold at cull-cow prices.

I appreciate such tabletop information given to me by both producers. Despite the different ways that each producer gathered, handled and eventually sold their culls, they return to one common goal; draw the best cull cow revenue.

Consequently, I put together a spreadsheet (below) to determine the current breakeven selling price of cull cows. It draws whether to sell them immediately (producer #1) or keep them for 2 - 3 months, so more saleable weight is added (producer #2).

The parameters of my

Fair Access to Crown Lands Welcomed

By Elmer Heinrichs Manitoba Beef Producers (MBP) is welcoming the announcement that the provincial government has taken steps to modernize crown lands regulations.

Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler announced this week that the regulations were modernized as part of Manitoba’s efforts to ensure compliance with the New West Partnership Trade Agreement. MBP President Ben Fox said many of the changes laid out in the new agricultural crown lands leases and permits regulation are welcomed.

Manitoba recently signed on to the New West Partnership, and Eichler said, “Modernizing access to agricultural Crown lands helps fulfil our commitment to this agreement by modernizing the way these lands are allocated and providing greater transparency.”

The new Agricultural Crown Lands leases and permits regulation will amalgamate two separate regulations related to forage leases, hay and grazing permits, and cropping leases.

It will change how producers will acquire Crown lands for grazing and haying from the current model to a new tendering system. The new process will be consistent with how agricultural Crown land is accessed for other uses, like growing crops, and will ensure prices paid by producers more accurately reflect the market value of these leases and permits, the Minister added.

Eichler noted industry consultations will be held in the coming year, with the shift to a tendering system for all agricultural Crown lands expected to be in place for fall 2018.

spreadsheet are based upon: (1) feed mature beef cows (1,350 lbs) in order to gain 250 lbs, (2) feed them a typical beef cull cow diet of barley silage, mixed hay, barley and a vitamin-mineral premix, (3) estimate cull feed efficiency = 9 lbs dry matter diet/lb gain or ADG = 3.23 lb/head/d (4) set yardage = $0.45/head/day and (5) breakeven cull cow selling price is based on live bodyweight.

An illustration is included below.

Again, I set up this spreadsheet to calculate the breakeven selling price on adding 250 lbs on cull cows sold on a live weight basis, only. Historically, cull cow prices have been the lowest in the months of November, December and January and at their highest level in March, April and May. Prices for the summer months follow the average cull cow price for the year.

For those producers that forgo marketing cull cows in this way and interested in selling them directly to the packers on a rail-grade basis, it be should kept in mind that cull cows have significantly lower dressing percentage (45 – 50%) compared to regular commercial beef steers and splayed heifers. This disparity is often due to a higher bone to lean/body fat body ratios and higher rates of unsalable cutouts (due to lesions and bruises) in cull cows.

They also have a higher rate of condemnations due to high rates of morbidity (sickness) such as inspector-confirmed liver abscesses.

Despite these best auction or rail-grade opportunities, and whether they are sold immediately or fed for a couple of months, there are about 15 - 20% of the cows in most cowherds for one reason or another should be culled.

With a trend toward larger cow-calf operations, the absolute number of culled beef cows is significant on many farms. Therefore, producers should have a good beef cow cull plan in place that can improve their cull prospects for profit.

December 29, 2017

The Benefits of Extending the Forage Cycle into Winter

By Les Kletke Jonathon Bouw had a great presence at Canadian Western Agribition without even attending the event. Bouw alongside his parents, brother and other family members operate Edie Creek Angus at Dugald is known for his customized grass fed beef, is the poster boy for Union Forage, an organization that promotes forage mixtures to extend the grazing season.

Roger Meyers is one Bouw’s counterparts and raises cattle at Minton, Saskatchewan where he has a commercial and purebred herd of Gelbvieh cattle. “Our goal is to extend the grazing season,” said Meyers, “We have found that we have been able to do that, and we are able to have cattle grazing year round.”

He anticipated the next question, “Yes it seems strange but we can do it with some outside the box thinking,” he said. “We have switch to a different forage mix rather than the traditional forages, and we have to do some things with the animals.”

He used the example of having horses uncover swaths for grazing after a snowfall. “Ben Stuart is the head of the company and really believes in the concept so at his farm in Alberta he uses a couple of horses to uncover the swaths after a snow fall and lead the cows in grazing,” he explained and pointed out that the cost

of the horses is minimal, considering the savings it provides in equipment and labour costs.

Meyers goes on to say that having the animals grazing is not only cost efficient but does a better job of spreading the nutrients in the field.

“Research says that about 80% of the nitrogen from animal waste is contained in the urine that is lost if the animal is in a feed lot, so when they are grazing more of the nutrients are returned to the field and spread.”

Meyers is confident that the extended grazing practice will gain more followers as price of land continues to increase. “We are looking at this practice as growing two crops on the land and that is a real benefit when you consider the cost of land and expansion,” said Meyers.

On his farm, there is silage, some barley and immediately after it comes off the field, it is seeded to forage that can be grazed later in the year. “We then have calves grazing on the forage and that reduces the stress for the calves,” he said describing the cycle.

Meyers went on to say that, the entire program has to be viewed as a holistic approach. “It is not just one component that fits into your farm, it is a total approach and requires a different way of thinking, but he has found it very beneficial and is still learning.”

Jonathon Bouw (pictured on a poster) has converted to an intensive forage program that extends the grazing season at his Dugald farm.

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December 29, 2017

The AgriPost

The AgriPost

December 29, 2017

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What’s The Real Dirt on Farming?

By Joan Airey Myrna Grahn, PHEc Manager of the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Discovery Centre with the Faculty of Agriculture Food and Sciences spoke at the recent Manitoba Farm Women’s Conference in Brandon. She has delivered the real dirt on farming program to university students, school groups and to the public for the past year at the Discovery centre.

“Through tours, displays and presentations, the centre helps connect students and the general public to where our food comes from,” said Grahn.

She asked the audience, “Do you known what Food Freedom Day is in Canada?” Food Freedom Day is in early February, this being the day that the average Canadian has earned enough income to pay his or her individual grocery bill for the whole year. Canadians on average spend only about 10 cents of every dollar on food. For comparison the Portuguese spend 17.3 per cent of their income on food, the Russians 28 per cent and the Nigerians an astounding 56.4 percent. If you would like to learn more facts about our Canadian food, go to the website for The Real Dirt on Farming.

“Farmers live where they work and breathe the air and drink the water there. They want to leave their land in even better shape for the next generation. They take pride in growing safe, high quality food. They eat the same food the consumer does. We want the consumer to realize this

when they leave the Discovery Centre,” said Grahn.

“Do you know that about ninety-seven percent of Canadian farms are family owned and operated? Some larger Canadian farms are incorporated and these farms generally have several family members working in addition to paid employees. Chemical residues are set and tested by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency limits are set at up to one thousand times below the ‘no effect’ level there is no such thing as zero. Did you know modern testing equipment can detect residues as tiny as at one part per billion? That’s equal to one second in thirty-two years,” said Grahn.

In Canada, growth hormones are sometimes used in beef to help cattle convert the feed they eat into muscle more quickly. This helps animals develop lean meat and reduces resources less feed and water with less manure.

In Canada, growth hormones are not used in pork, poultry or dairy. It is important to note how little hormone (which is typically estrogens) there is in beef.

Antibiotics are used to treat diseases such as pneumonia, prevent disease in stressful time and enhance production by preventing disease.

All dairy, beef and sheep have mandatory tagging programs for traceability and quality assurance which means lots of paperwork so that food can be traced from the farm gate to your plate.

“Animals are kept indoors to protect them from weather, predators, and diseases

making animal management more efficient.

There are many barn types and styles, many that are designed with comfort in mind.

Caring for animals has been the core of what farmers do for generations, 24/7, three hundred and sixty five days of the year. It’s hard work but farmers and ranchers who choose to work with animals do so because they en- The Real Dirt on Hormones! joy it. The better they take care of the animals On why farmers use pestithe better they thrive,” said cides, she said it is, “To help Grahn. increase yields food quality, Grahn asked, “Did you affordability and reliability. know all food regardless of Canada’s safety standards how it’s grown must meet are among the worlds most the same inspection and food stringent with independent safety standards?” She ex- research, applicator safety plained that under Canada and residue monitoring. Isn’t GAP, Certified Organic food it common sense that farmers must meet an additional would be careful with pestistandard set by the Organic cides as they work where Standards Council. Organic requirements can include grown without man-made fertilizers, pesticides, GMOs, growth hormones or medications. Some of the reasons more farms aren’t organic is the labour-intensive tendency for lower less reliable yields but farmers who are organic may recover extra costs by earning premium prices. Remember no matter how food is grown it must Myrna Grahn, PHEc addressed meet the same food safety the Manitoba Farm Women’s standards she noted.

Conference in Brandon recently.

Grain Industry Needs Senate to Pass Bill C-49 Now Grain Growers of Canada (GGC) is calling on the Senate of Canada to pass Bill C49, The Transportation Modernization Act as quickly as possible. This Bill will give grain farmers and shippers important tools that will create a more accountable, fair and efficient rail transportation system to prevent major backlogs. Growers are concerned that without these powers in place, there will be increasing delays and costs in getting grain to market.

“International customers are always looking to Canada for our top-quality grains and oilseed products, but over the years our reputation as a

reliable supplier has been put into question, in large part due to our rail logistics system,” said Jeff Nielsen, GGC President. “We are anxious to have the C-49 measures in place as they will not only give us some competitive options but will allow shippers to hold the railways accountable when they fail to meet their contractual service obligations.”

The grains sector in western Canada is now into its most critical time as the value chain works together to move another very large crop. “We are already experiencing signs of deteriorating service,” continued Nielsen.

“With car order fulfilments decreasing, growers are becoming increasingly concerned we will find ourselves in another devastating grain backlog like we experienced in 2013-14.”

To rebalance the relationship temporary measures were put in place to address the 2013-14 grain crisis, including extended interswitching distances up to 160km. Those provisions expired in August 2017 and shippers have been left with no meaningful tools to secure accountable, fair and efficient service from the railways. Bill C-49 contains legislative amendments that

will give shippers permanent tools, including access to reciprocal penalties, long haul interswitching and improved data collection and transparency.

“The measures contained in C-49 have been a long time coming for the grain sector,” said Art Enns, GGC VicePresident. “We cannot afford another year without provisions in place that are critical to rebalancing commercial relationships and creating a more competitive and efficient rail environment. Grain farmers across Canada urge the Senate to do the right thing and pass Bill C-49 as quickly as possible.”

they are used? Pesticides are very expensive so they would use only the amount needed.

Extensive testing has been done before the pesticides go on the market.”

“We’re all busy but if fifty farmers took ten minutes a

day five days a week informing the consumer about the food they produce it would be like having a full time employee with a lot more credibility informing the public about the Real Dirt on Farming,” summed up Grahn.

New Regulations for Livestock ManagementTake Effect January The changes to the Livestock Manure and Mortalities Management Regulation (LMMMR), which take effect January 1, 2018, have been approved and implemented to provide clarity and modernize regulations, said Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires recently.

“Our government recognizes the important balance of maintaining strict environmental oversight while supporting sustainable growth in the livestock industry,” said Squires. “Following extensive consultations, the Department of Sustainable Development has taken steps to modernize regulations without compromising our commitment to environmental protection.”

Changes to the regulation will improve clarity for both producers and department officials, while maintaining some of the country’s strictest regulatory requirements and environmental protection measures for livestock operations. Pig operations will now be subject to the same robust legislation as other livestock sectors.

These amendments align with recent changes to The Environment Act under red tape reduction legislation and continues to balance environmental protection with economic development, the minister noted.

Manitoba conducted extensive public and industry consultations in the process of developing changes, which include empowering front-line staff to respond more quickly, reducing notification and processing steps for permits, increasing transparency by placing more information on the public registry, harmonizing setbacks from surface water courses with the Nutrient Management Regulation, removing in-season nitrate limits, improving variance options to enhance biosecurity measures for industry, levelling the playing field by clarifying permit requirements for seasonal feeding areas and outdoor confinement areas for small pig operations and monitoring of operations such as livestock drinking water samples based on risk, rather than mandatory samples for all large operations.

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December 29, 2017

The AgriPost

The AgriPost

December 29, 2017

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No Change in the Support Prices for Butter and Skim Milk Powder

Get Your Goat and Go to the Mat

Goat yoga was a popular new feature at Canadian Western Agribition, and instructor Lou Ellen Murray said the occasional accident with the animals is part of nature.

By Les Kletke While true animal rightists believe that animals should not be used for the entertainment of humans and protest circuses and rodeos for that reason, they stayed away from the Goat Yoga demonstration at Canadian Western Agribition in Regina. They may have been one of the few groups that did because the demonstration proved one of the most popular with a full slate of participants at every session.

The instructor who led some of the classes, Lou Ellen Murray auditioned the six goats early in spring and uses them as part of her classes in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan where she operates a yoga studio that provides both Goat and regular yoga. “That is just part of nature and part of the experience,” she explained

to one young participant who was voicing his concern that one of the animals had nearly pooped on him.

Agribition has billed itself as an opportunity for humans to get up close and personal with animals and has long had a large educational component; goat yoga takes it to a new level. The practice was started on the west coast and has spread eastward to where Murray and her partner offer classes in Maple Creek. She did not offer a definitive opinion on whether it would become popular in Manitoba but did not rule it out. “The idea is to become a bit closer to nature,” she said. “Instead of being concerned about how you look, this helps you concentrate on the purpose of yoga and if

your goat comes by it is okay to take the time to pet it and pay attention to it.”

Most of the participants were having problems with becoming one with the little animals who were extremely well behaved. The participants spend more time being concerned about the animal making a mess on their yoga mat and while they did get the occasional petting, it was clear that most people found their trip across the mat as somewhat

evasive. Many were concerned about the animals marking their territory.

It seemed unlikely that goat yoga will be the next big exercise trend. There was an obvious dearth of goat breeders in the area who would not necessarily raise animals for an up and coming goat yoga studio. In fact, the stands seemed void of goat breeders and most of the crowd was content to view the class from a distance and comment on the novelty.

The Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC) has announced its decision to maintain the current support prices for butter and skim milk powder. As of February 1, 2018, the support price for butter will remain at $8.0062 per kg and the support price for skim milk powder will remain at $4.5302 per kg.

“Despite a small reduction in the cost of producing milk in Canada, we feel that for the sake of the industry’s stability, it is best to leave the support prices of butter and skim milk powder where they currently stand,” said Alistair Johnston, CDC Chairman.

The margin received by processors for butter purchased by the CDC under the Domestic Seasonality Program will remain unchanged. Carrying charges collected by the CDC to pay for the storage of normal butter stocks will also remain unchanged.

The support price for butter is used by the CDC when buying and selling butter under its Domestic Seasonality Program. This program balances seasonal changes in demand on the domestic market.

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The AgriPost

Reduce Clinical Milk Fever in Fresh Lactating Dairy Cows Clinical milk fever is a particular insidious metabolic disease in freshened dairy cows. I have witnessed that on some dairies, it’s not a significant problem, while next-door neighbours are plagued with downer cows one calving after another.

In other dairies, milk fever doesn’t show up for months and then it shows up with a vengeance. From years of experience, I have concluded that milk fever, hypocalcaemia or calcium deficient status exists in some form in all fresh cows at different levels. Its reduction in problematic dairy herds comes down to implementing a milk fever protection plan.

In my last case with milk fever, I received a phone call from a dairy producer who milks about 200 dairy cows, who hasn’t seen a clinical case for over a year and then within a few weeks has three vet-confirmed cases.

All were 4th plus lactation cows. Two of these downer cows responded to Ca-Mg infusion and were put on the milk-line, while the last one never got up and died.

On any given day, the dairy producer feeds about 18 - 20 close-up dry cows on their own straw pack, segregated away from the faraway dry cows and lactating cows.

They are fed 21 days prior to calving a transition diet consisting of 15 lbs of lactation diet refusal, 8 lbs of a 16% transition cow pellet (my formulation) and the remainder, good quality grass hay. He does not implement any post-calving oral calcium treatments. In the last few months, a string of 25 - 28 dairy cows have been in the close-up group.

In order to take corrective action, I took a few minutes to review my own working knowledge of calcium metabolism in transition dairy cows. Namely, a pregnant dairy cow just prior to calving requires large amounts of calcium for the production of about 10 litres of colostrums, which literarily drains her blood of calcium.

Consequently, the lowest concentration of blood calcium occurs within 12 to 24 hours before calving and usually returns to normal status within 2 to 3 days after calving.

During this critical time, most fresh cows cannot absorb enough dietary calcium from their small intestine, so they must rely upon bone mobilization in order to elevate calcium levels into their bloodstream. This cal-

cium-resorption ability of the close-up dry cow is regulated by her parathyroid hormones (PTH), which must be primed a few days ahead of calving, otherwise she is a candidate for milk fever.

Although the natural incidence of clinical milk fever has been shown to be about 5% in most herds, it does not affect all fresh cows within a given herd, equally.

Research has shown that 1st calf dairy heifers rarely get milk fever (less than 1%), because they have lower colostrums and early milk production; thus, lower calcium requirements compared to mature cows (5th lactation, as high as 10%). These young heifers also have a higher level of PTH, which seems to prepare them for rapid bone mobilization of calcium.

With this science background, I can continue with my investigation to discover the probable cause of these triple milk fevers to appear after a year of absence. A list of substantial milk fever risk factors found was: - Modest amounts of dietary calcium – A planned calcium deficiency in close-up dairy cows often cause PTH to be released and stimulate bone mobilization to release adequate calcium.

University studies demonstrate that feeding less than 10 g/head/d calcium (a dry cow requires 40 g/head/d for maintenance) is effective in preventing milk fever. However, this producer was feeding a substantial amount of haylage and may have shortcircuited this process.

- Dietary potassium levels were significant - Potassium contributes to alkaline blood that suppresses bone calcium mobilization. Keeping dietary potassium levels to less than 0.65% for close-up dairy cows has been shown to control milk fever and other fresh cow problems.

Although, forages in this case were not tested, it is plausible that high levels of potassium were provided from haylage and even from the large amounts of grass hay being fed.

- Low feed intake issues – There is about a 30% natural decline in dry matter intake from the start of the faraway dry period to calving. During my barn walk, it did seem the close-up dry cow pen was a bit crowded with limited bunk space. Therefore, it is reasonable to speculate that with this recent in-

flux of close-up dry cows, there would be competition for fresh feed and some of the cows maybe forced to eat leftovers – lactation diet/grass hay without any close-up pellets.

From these points of milk fever predisposition, I made three practical recommendations. First, the producers should sample and then analyze the entire transition diet for calcium and potassium, so I can make necessary adjustments to their close-up dry cowfeeding program.

Second, the producer should give each fresh cow a tube of calcium oral gel/paste (containing calcium carbonate, calcium chloride and other bioavailable calcium) after calving. It is my understanding that cows can absorb an effective amount within 30 minutes of supplementation.

Last, I recommend that if the number of close-up cows remains high, the producer might consider splitting up his sole close-ups into two groups to allow more loafing room and bunk space.

As a dairy nutritionist, I have taken a serious and conservative approach to this case and others concerning clinical milk fever. My final concessions encompass a milk fever protection plan rather than prevention plan.

That’s because the incidence of clinical milk fever is often baffling; caused by dietary and management factors and even when corrected doesn’t eliminate milk fever in its entirety. I believe my approach “works” when the incidence of milk fever in a particular dairy herd is reduced or in the above examination doesn’t happen again for a long time.

Agricultural Trade Partnership with Mexico Strengthened Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and AgriFood, recently concluded a two-day visit to Mexico City to strengthen bilateral relations and promote trade opportunities.

Canada was also recognized as an international Guest of Honour at Alimentaria, an important Mexican food and beverage trade show that attracts over 300 companies from more than two dozen countries. The Minister toured the trade show with Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto and Mexican Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food, José Calzada. Canada showcased its high-quality food products and promoted its strong bilateral relationship with Mexico. The Minister’s visit was part of Canada’s efforts to grow global agri-food exports to $75 billion by 2025.

Mexico is an important market for Canadian agriculture and agri-food, with $1.7 billion worth of agri-food products shipped last year. Further, over 12% of Mexico’s imported beef comes from Canada, as does 97% of their imported canola.

While in Mexico City, MacAulay held his fifth official meeting with Secretary Calzada, to promote ongoing trade between both countries. Building on continued collaboration, the Minister de-

livered remarks at a keynote conference with around 500 attendees, including influential Mexican government and industry stakeholders.

The Minister also participated in a roundtable discussion with key Canadian and Mexican industry officials, where they exchanged ideas on increasing bilateral trade opportunities and further strengthening their integrated trade relationship.

They discussed the ongoing negotiations of the North

American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the importance of maintaining a strong and integrated North American agricultural supply chain. Travelling with the Minister were members of Canadian industry, including the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, the Canadian Sheep Federation, Canada Beef and the Canadian Pork Council.Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

FCC Steps Up for New Manitoba Beef & Forage Learning Centre Construction of the Manitoba Beef & Forage Initiatives (MBFI) Learning Centre has received a boost with the generous donation of $25,000 from Farm Credit Canada (FCC).

“Through FCC’s AgriSpirit Fund, we are proud to be a partner in the construction of the Learning Centre,” said Wilco van Meijl, Director of FCC’s Brandon District office, at the recent cheque presentation that took place at the farm.

“As a beef producer myself, I am looking forward to the great things that will come out of this facility.” The MBFI Learning Centre is under construction at the Brookdale Research Farm and is scheduled to be completed by the next growing season in 2018.

The Learning Centre will be used to engage stakeholders and bring them into a comfortable learning environment that operates hand-in-hand with MBFI’s farm and interactive cattle-handling facilities. The new Centre will include a meeting room with modern teaching

equipment, food prep area, office space, and an interpretive gallery. This facility will have far-reaching visibility and will be used year-round by local clubs, producer peer groups, MBFI partners, partnering organizations, sponsors, universities, colleges, and elementary and high school students.

“This is very important do-

nation at a key juncture for the MBFI Learning Centre,” said Ramona Blyth, MBFI President. “As anyone can predict, a project of this magnitude needs a lot of generosity from the farm community and we are thrilled to see FCC step forward to help us reach our greatest potential with the Learning Centre as a key part of MBFI.”

Manitoba Beef & Forage Initiatives was the recipient of a generous $25,000 donation from Farm Credit Canada recently. The funds will go towards the construction of MBFI’s Learning Centre at its Brookdale Research Farm. From left to right: Ken Gross, Ducks Unlimited, Kristelle Harper, MFGA representative, Ramona Blyth, MBFI President and Manitoba Beef Producers Director; Joyce Wilyshyn, FCC relationship management associate, Wilco Van Meijl, FCC Brandon District Director and Glenn Friesen, Manitoba Agriculture.

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Pulse Exports to India in Jeopardy

By Dan Guetre Canadian Pulses exported to India are now subject to a 50% increase in duties as a temporary fumigation order extension has expired and India has withheld a new extension.

“The Government of Canada is deeply concerned and disappointed with the recent regulatory and tariff decisions made by the Government of India affecting Canadian pulse trade,” said Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food in a statement.

“We have been steadfast in our efforts to find a mutually acceptable way forward with the Government of India to provide stable, sustainable access for Ca-

nadian pulse exports to India.”

“In addition to efforts by Government of Canada senior officials to seek a longterm solution, we have also been actively engaged with our counterparts directly, most recently during the Government of Canada’s mission to India by Ministers Champagne, Bains, and Garneau. Despite these efforts, progress has stalled and a solution to this important issue remains elusive,” added MacAulay.

In June, India extended fumigation exemption orders for Canada, the US and France. However, while the US and France received six-month exemptions, Canadian exporters were only

Mark Your Calendar for Annual MB Ag Days Show Time It is that time of year again, be sure to check your mail boxes as the Manitoba Ag Days show guide will soon arrive. In one month, Brandon will be hustling and bustling with excitement as the 41st Manitoba Ag Days rolls into the Brandon Keystone Centre.

“The event is a three-day exposition focusing purely on agriculture. We are ‘100% Pure Farm’, attracting over 50,000 visitors,” said Andrea Guthrie, Media Coordinator Manitoba Ag Days. “Each year the show has remained proudly committed to ensuring that all exhibitors, speakers and presentations are strictly agriculture-related. Visitors from all over Canada, the northern United States and overseas attend this world class event!”

“We are ecstatic to announce that we have officially partnered with the Brandon Curling Club and the Keystone Centre to secure the extra square footage of the curling rink for the next five years. Last year’s curling rink transformation was tremendous success and had such a positive impact on the show that there was no question we needed to make it happen again. Keep

in mind with the additional space you can expect to see some adjustments to exhibitor space and location, so you will want to make sure you review the interactive maps online and plan your trip ahead,” said General Manager, Kristen Phillips.

Back by popular demand, this year’s show will feature 14 new inventions in the “Inventors Showcase Competition” and 17 new products in the “New Products Competition”. Bull Congress is jam packed once again with 35 entries. Near and dear to everyone’s day-to-day life is safety. This year there will be 10 participants in the farm safety exhibits.

To review the full schedule and show guide visit agdays. com ahead of time. The lineup features over 60 speakers presenting in the FCC and MNP theatres throughout the duration of the show. “This year’s program is packed full of fantastic speakers.

We asked our audience what they wanted to hear about and worked hard to find the speakers to fit their needs.

You can expect real and important topics focusing on economics, innovations, agronomy and livestock,” said Phillips.

granted three months.

Further, Canadian exporters may also be singled out a bit harsher than other global exporters. “Other trade partners have received extended derogations to December 31, 2017, indicating that India is applying discriminatory treatment to Canada,” said MacAulay.

In 2016, Canada’s exports of pulses, including dry

peas, to India were worth over $1.1 billion and accounted for 27.5 percent of Canada’s global pulse exports.

India, as a signatory of the World Trade Organization Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures that sets out the basic rules for food safety and animal and plant health standards. Basically,

the Agreement allows countries to set their own standards as long as the regulations are based on science.

In addition, the Agreement states that a country’s regulations should not arbitrarily or unjustifiably discriminate between countries where identical or similar conditions prevail.

Under its Plant Quarantine Order of 2003, India

required the fumigation of pulses with methyl bromide at 28 °C before import into India is permitted. Science shows that Methyl bromide is an ozone depleting substance. Also due to climatic conditions in Canada, this does not allow for the fumigation at the required temperature during winter months.

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Ever Increasing Soybean Acres and Yields

By Harry Siemens Mr. Bean aka Dennis Lange, Industry Development Specialist-Pulses shared with a Westman Opportunities Leadership Group workshop in Brandon recently the history of soybean production in Manitoba and Saskatchewan and its future.

Lange said it is one thing to tell Manitoba growers they will hit 3 million acres by such a date, but often those same people do not consider the challenges that might drop those acres back.

Back in 2000, Manitoba grew around 20,000 acres of soybeans. Most were conventional soybeans because the Roundup Ready technology did not come into play until about 2003 when growers first planted the first Roundup Ready soybean varieties suited to their growing region.

“Those varieties a little bit too short for North Dakota, but a little bit too long for Manitoba, and didn’t have a great fit.

We could grow them. Fields were okay. We were looking, roughly, in that 30-bushel range, so still okay, but tiny acres,” he said.

In 2004, a challenging year for soybean production in Manitoba with no heat and adding in the frost on August 20 the average yield was only 8 bushels an acre. In 2005, a very similar spring, but a better growing season and yields were 21 bushels per acre. Still not high, but the crop was moving up.

The year 2011 proved a daunting year with July and August very dry. Soybeans do not like it dry during that period and yielded 26 bushels an acre.

Then a significant milestone was reached in 2013, a million acres in Manitoba, breaking a record for yield at 39 bushels an acre that year. Very similar returns in 2015, with 39 bushels an acre. “We move into 2016, lots of rainfall in July and August and the soybean yield last year, 42 bushels an acre,” said Lange. “If you look at a ten year average, and a ten

year average is sitting at about 35 bushels an acre. We got rid of the ‘04, 05 in that ten year average, so it makes those numbers look a little better.

And the five-year average is sitting at 38 bushels an acre.”

In 2017, based on just over 2.26 million acres planted in Manitoba, his projections are for about 34 bushels an acre.

Less than last year, because of how dry it was. “Pretty much every grower I talk to, whether it’s out west or in the valley, you ask them what their yields were like, and the same growers will say it’s anywhere from, say, 25 to 45 bushels an acre. So, again, still a pretty good number, but with the dry conditions that we saw last year, if it wasn’t for the fact that we had a lot of moisture last year, this number might be even lower,” he said. “For 2016, roughly about 1.8 million metric ton production of soybeans in Manitoba.”

Taking into consideration farmers planted 2.26 million acres in 2017 and the dryness reduced yields from 2016, Lange projects 2018 Manitoba soybean acres to level into that two million acre range.

While farmers in the Red River Valley grew most of the soybeans several years ago, the acreage keeps growing and shifting.

He divided Manitoba into traditional and non-traditional areas from where farmers first started to grow soybeans drawing a line from Portage la Prairie down to Morden, across to the Ontario border, in 2016.

This represented about 55 per cent of the soybean acres in Manitoba or roughly, 45 per cent for the rest of Manitoba.

In 2011, that traditional area was 95 per cent of the acres and only 5 percent out west, and he expects 2017 to be an even 50-50 split adding the biggest reason is the development of the new varieties. The early maturing varieties have helped growers in the western side of the province grow soybeans successfully. It also helped that there was no killing frost in seven years.

Dennis Lange, Industry Development Specialist-Pulses told participants at a Westman Opportunities Leadership Group workshop in Brandon recently about the history of soybean production in Manitoba and Saskatchewan and its future.

The AgriPost

Plan Ahead for All Three Crop Scenarios

By Les Kletke Mel Penner’s presentation to the Manitoba Canadian Association of Farm Advisors (CAFA) update could provide a template for any operation as they head into another production cycle.

Mel Penner suggests planning three scenarios for the farm, a poor crop, an average crop and a bin buster and having a financial plan in place for each situation.

Penner is a principle of H and M Farms with operations in Altona, Pettersfield and Austin. He has moved to a mentorship role as the next generation takes over operation of the 30,000-acre grain farm and hog operation.

Penner said a system that has worked for their farm is to have plans with three very different scenarios. “We do a plan with a crop failure,” he said. “Because it can and does happen you have to be ready for it, and having a plan in place reduces the stress when it does happen.” Those in the audience agreed that it would reduce the stress with a financial institution if a farmer came in with a plan of what they would do if the crop was less than average. “Then we have plan B which is a normal crop,” he said. “We work on the cash flow and a system for growth if we have a normal crop.”

Penner acknowledged that it would be easy to be carried away and come up with some very optimistic crop budgets based on the yields of 2017. “We also have a plan for what we are going to do if we have a big crop,” he said. “It is best to have some type of plan in place for this scenario so you don’t get caught up making decision on the spur of the moment that is not good for the long term viability of your farm.”

He went on to outline some of the challenges that their farm went through during a rapid expansion period. “You have to be thinking outside the box at some of those times, because traditional thinking does not fit when you are growing rapidly and costs are changing,” said Penner.

He was clear that human resource issues were one of the biggest challenges in a large-scale farm. “When you are a two-person operation you decide things at the kitchen table and both jump to it, that does not happen when you have a group of employees who may not have the same dedication to the operation as you do,” cautioned Penner.

Penner said that while they concentrate on canola, corn and soybeans they have kept other crops in the rotation for spreading the workload and to take advantage of market situations.

Motivational Speaker Had Audience Laughing

By Joan Airey Katie Dilse’s infectious perspective sparked inspiration and kept her audience laughing while seeing the lighter side of farm life no matter what goes wrong.

At the Manitoba Farm Women’s Conference, she shared some of her experiences on their family farm near Scranton, North Dakota. She described combining in their area with the drought of 2017 as bad, and two acres of combined flax would fit into a coffee can.

“I love the roar of the engines of semi-trucks, the feel of the heavy pull, air ride seats and Jake brakes. It’s my favourite job. One dry, hot harvest day, our neighbour’s wheat field caught on fire. Reacting quickly, I hit the road with the water truck to help the fire department. Unfortunately, my trailer caught fire on the way to the fire. Operator error? Equipment malfunction? That’s part of my story. And the flaming moment was all caught on film in the Great American Wheat Harvest movie,” commented Dilse.

“Life is a mess of roads! Take the back road, the high road, the rough road, or the main road. It all depends on the situation. We just need to take the wheel, and press on. Be fully aware of how we got here. And where we’re headed. We must share the road, get connected and drive with dependability. Enjoying every mile, and all the lessons of every mile marker. Travel with conviction, purpose meaning and impact. Eyes on the road ahead.” Dilse said.

While sharing her experiences on the farm she commented that what is ahead is far more important than what is behind. “Get behind your wheel of life and give it all you’ve got.”

“Dedicating a life to agriculture takes a very special

person! You are equipped with a second-to-none work ethic!

Make sure you take time to celebrate the smallest victories with your day! Celebrate the gift you bring to the world,” said Dilse.

When I asked her as a farm woman from North Dakota what she thought of the Manitoba Conference her reply was, “I absolutely loved it! It was renewing, connecting, dancing, learning, and growing. The feeling of profound sisterhood has impacted me far greater than I have ever experienced. This conference brings together so many unique, strong women!

It was invigorating!”

“My Grease ZERKS necklaces!!!! Oh how I love them! They have empowered many!!! Duane, our parts man at John Deere, designed and artistically created the necklace!” commented Katie Dilse during Manitoba Farm Women’s Conference.

The AgriPost

Harvest Was Larger than Expected

By Elmer Heinrichs Canadian farmers harvested larger crops than expected this autumn, reaping record canola output and surprisingly big wheat and durum crops, according to a Statistics Canada (StatCan) report on December 6.

Dry weather in some areas over the summer and a late harvest in western Canada made the size of crops for the world’s biggest canola exporter uncertain, but autumn weather was generally dry and beneficial for big yields.

Canola production topped 21.3 million tonnes, eight per cent higher than StatCan’s September estimate, and more than 1 million tonnes larger than the average trade estimate in a Reuters survey.

The StatCan report was based on surveys with 26,800 Canadian farmers conducted from October 20 to November 13. Canadian farmers reported increased production

of canola, soybean, oats and corn for grain in 2017, while wheat and barley production was lower than in 2016.

Despite producers’ concerns about drought on the Prairies and heavier than average precipitation in parts of eastern Canada this summer, farmers reported that yields had improved from their preliminary expectations.

Total wheat production declined 5.5 per cent to 30.0 million tonnes in 2017. Harvested area edged up from 2016 to 22.2 million acres, while average total wheat yield declined 3.6 bushels per acre to 49.6 bushels per acre. Manitoba farmers reported that wheat production rose 3.6 per cent to 4.4 million tonnes in 2017.

Although harvested area declined 8.2 per cent to 2.7 million acres, a 12.6 per cent rise in average yield to 59.8 bushels per acre drove the production increase.

Canadian farmers report-

ed producing 21.3 million tonnes of canola in 2017, up 8.7 per cent from 19.6 million tonnes in 2016. This was the result of a record high harvested area of 22.9 million acres, up 14.1 per cent from 2016. However, farmers reported a 4.9 per cent decrease in average yield to 41.0 bushels per acre, down from the record high set in 2016. Manitoba farmers reported that canola production rose 20.7 per cent to a record high 3.1 million tonnes. This was the result of a record average yield of 44.0 bushels per acre, up 12.8 per cent from 2016, combined with a 6.9 per cent increase in harvested area.

Corn for grain production in Canada rose 6.8 per cent from 2016 to 14.1 million tonnes, the second highest corn for grain production on record, following the 14.2 million tonnes posted during the bumper crop of 2013.

Here in Manitoba farmers re-

ported an 8.7 per cent rise in corn for grain production to a record 1.3 million tonnes.

This was mainly the result of an 18.2 per cent increase in harvested area to a record 390,000 acres, as the average yield fell 8.0 per cent to 128.2 bushels per acre.

Nationally, soybean production reached a record high once again in 2017, up 17.8 per cent from 2016 to 7.7 million tonnes. Average yield however fell 11.5 per cent to 39.1 bushels per acre, while harvested area reached a record high 7.3 million acres. In Manitoba, farmers reported record soybean production for a sixth consecutive year, up 26.9 per cent from 2016 to 2.2 million tonnes in 2017. This was entirely the result of a 45.1 per cent increase in harvested area to a record 2.3 million acres, while the average yield fell 12.6 per cent from 2016 to 36.1 bushels per acre.

Westman Group Moves Manitoba’s Soybean Processing Plant Forward

By Harry Siemens Westman Opportunities Leadership Group (WOLG) and Brandon University organizers of a recent co-hosted workshop will discuss Manitoba’s emerging opportunity to attract a soybean processing facility to the Province. The recent growth in acres planted to soybeans is impressive and work now is underway to attract significant private sector investment to build a processing plant here.

The focus on November 16 in Brandon was to discuss the opportunity, learn more about the soybean value chain and understand the benefits a facility like this could bring to Manitoba’s economy.

Dr. Allan Preston, VP for the WOLG, a former chief veterinary officer in Manitoba, a deputy minister of agriculture and President of Preston Stock Farms at Hamiota was a farm leader at the conference. “I was blown away, as were most of my counterparts with the quantity and quality of attendees. We had over 90 people there, representing a wide swath of local government, provincial and federal government, private producers of organizations like Manitoba Pork Council and Canada Soy,” said Dr. Pres-

ton. “I don’t want to sound too knowing about it, but it was an outstanding conference and certainly achieved the results beyond what we had anticipated.”

He shared some of the behind-the-scenes feedback and feelings he received from the meeting participants. “I think people feel the timing is right, that there is a need right now within both the soybean production sector and the consumer sector, primarily the pork industry. The timing is right to take advantage of the expanding soybean acres and retain some of this processing capacity at home,” said Preston. “I think everyone is a little bit nervous these days as to trade negotiations with our good friends and neighbours to the south, and if we can keep some of our processing at home here and keep our soybean meal here at home, that takes away some of the potential trade in terms of moving raw product south and process product back north.

So, again, in summary, I think the behind-the-scenes message was the timing is right, the opportunity exists, let’s get our act together and see if we can encourage some of the big players to come to town and consider setting up a mill.”

Dr. Preston said the next step on several issues coming out of the Brandon meeting is following up with interest expressed by some municipal government representatives and meeting with them to see if they can find a way to support the WOLG process financially. “And the second step, we’ve have lots of moral support coming to us from both the province and the federal government. We need to work at translating some of that moral support into some dollars to keep us moving forward,” he said. “We’re all volunteers, but we do have some consultants working for us and we need some dollars coming in the door to keep this process moving so that interaction with government is step number two.”

Preston said several speakers at the conference carried significant weight, and probably take away from this internal politicking in Manitoba. The first was the Soy Canada representative Ron Davidson who made it abundantly clear that processing capacity in western Canada was a must, and that they were fully supportive. The second leader was Andrew Dickson with the Manitoba Pork Council, the organization that is going to consume this product.

As one of their board members said when the WOLG first met with them, it is a no-brainer.

“We should have that processing capacity in western Canada.

So, the province of Manitoba and more specifically the Department of Agriculture either join on now or later, but the train has left the station.”

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Provincial Hog Industry in Good Shape

By Harry Siemens The ever challenging world of supply and demand keeps challenging the pork industry in Canada said Tyler Fulton, the Director of Risk Management with h@ms Marketing Services.

“Demand for pork will be a key factor influencing hog markets moving through the first quarter of 2018,” said Fulton. “The availability of hogs for slaughter projected by the US Department of Agriculture in its September Hogs and Pigs Report is running significantly below those forecasts.”

He said wholesale pork prices have been holding steady with some variation based on cuts so packers are willing to give what they get. “It appears as though we’ve overestimated hog supply and so if we project that forward maybe we’re going to reduce the total production that we’re looking at,” said Fulton. “This is good because we’re finding on the demand side in particular exports have not been keeping pace with the growth in production. We’ve seen great numbers coming from domestic pork demand but mediocre or steady numbers only from the pork export side.”

Fulton said the big question is how well do those two balance up. If the hog supply starts to balloon and the industry is not clearing the market, that has price implications, especially in the winter months when they need to be consistently clearing the market of all production.

He said with the new plants coming on stream in the US increased competition for hogs may narrow up packer margins resulting in a better profit environment than otherwise have thought. “Most producers have a large portion of their production already hedged and, when I say that, I’m talking about independent hog producers in western Canada and so they’ve been pretty active and are in at very competitive prices,” he said. “The recommendations right now, given we see some new contract highs come in for the spring of 2018 and even the summer, we’re advocates of covering off roughly a third of a producer’s production in that spring summer time frame at those previous contract highs.”

For many producers that relates to about the benchmark level of about $200 per pig, which is good profitability for that time of year and mitigates that uncertainty pertaining to demand and production risk, he added.

In the meantime, the PED virus is easing. The Office of Manitoba’s Chief Veterinary Officer reported that at the end of the year, the province’s pork sector is well on its way toward eradicating PED out of Manitoba.

Dr. Glen Duizer, said since April 80 sites in southeastern Manitoba, including 25 sow herds, 16 nurseries and 39 finisher operations were infected by PED. He said no new cases since October 24 have been seen. “At this point, we have 24 presumptive negative farms, and we would have 24 transitional farms. So, of the 80, 48 of them are confirmed to have reached a stage where the disease is being cleaned up.

Of those 48, 24 of the farms have reached a point where all animals, all staff areas, all contact areas, pretty much everything outside of the manure handling and the manure storage is considered negative for PED,” he said.

“We are happy to progress that far. We have a pretty good expectation over the next four to five weeks we’ll have a significant number that will move on through transition to ‘presumptive negative’, so we expect that to continue to move in the right direction,” he added.

Dr. Duizer said with everything working out the way it is right now, if it stays on that path, Manitoba should have all hog farms from the outbreak reach a presumptive negative status by the end of March 2018. There is concern over what will happen next year in that April, May, June period when the outbreaks typically occur.

Free Infrared Barn Inspections Dr. Allan Preston said several speakers at the conference carried significant weight including Andrew Dickson with Manitoba Pork Council and Soy Canada representative Ron Davidson who made clear that processing capacity in western Canada was a must.

The Manitoba Farm Safety Program is offering a free infrared barn inspection to help you determine where the hot spots are in your barn. The focus is on electrical wiring, motor and fan bearings, and anything else, which may be a potential source for ignition.

For questions, or to set up an appointment, call Keith at 204-293-9646.

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PAMI Study to Improve Pulse Crop Storage and Profitability As the tonnage, and value, of pulse crops grows, so does the need for better information to help producers protect their investment when the grain is in the bin. It is a knowledge gap Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI) is working to fill with a two-year study into the management of stored pulses.

“There has been some baseline work done over the years to establish drying and wetting characteristics of pulses, but it’s never been validated or widely adopted,” said Dr. Joy Agnew, Project Manager with PAMI Agricultural Research Services. “Given the amount of pulse crops we see today, it’s critically important updated information is available to producers.”

The goal of the PAMI research is to validate equilibrium moisture content (EMC) charts for peas and lentils, to assess airflow rates on natural air drying, and to determine resistance to airflow in pulses, information that will help producers minimize the risk of over drying, she said. An additional goal is to collect baseline data on how repeated wetting and drying cycles affect seed quality.

The first year of the twoyear project is complete, said Agnew. It involved testing various airflow rates in benchscale bins of both lentils and peas, but also had an important on-farm component.

“We had Saskatchewan producers who allowed us to install gauges in eight fanequipped bins, and then they

submitted data whenever they ran their fan, or filled or emptied the bin,” she explained.

The information collected included static pressure across the fan, grain depth and volume, and moisture content.

Next year, the bench-scale research will be repeated to confirm the year-one findings, and the on-farm trials will be expanded. “We have no trouble finding co-operating producers for this work,” said Agnew. “Our research at PAMI is always driven by producer need and they’re very anxious to get these results so they can make sound storage decisions that mitigate any downgrading of their pulse crops.”

A preliminary look at yearone data shows “airflow rate definitely affected drying

rate,” she said. “We’re also seeing that kernels from the middle of the bin had a poorer germination rate than those near the plenum but again, next year’s trials will confirm these and other findings.”

Agnew reiterated that upto-date information is the best way to avoid spoilage and maximize profits. “Given that the three Prairie Provinces produced over eight million tonnes of lentils and peas in 2016, and that the cost of over drying can be 20 cents per bushel or more, the potential lost revenue runs into the tens of millions of dollars every year. With this study, we want to give producers confidence they’re making appropriate storage management decisions and reducing their risk of loss.”

Cause for Concern in Stored Cereal Grain Bins

By Clair Langlois It is not unusual for the first reports of insect pests in stored grains to come at this time of year when early deliveries of grains are starting to take place in larger numbers. But what seems unusual this early winter season is that many producers without a previous history of such problems are finding insect pest issues in their otherwise good condition grain bins, so it is important to bring this issue to the attention of all producers storing cereal grains this season.

It is well understood that the length of time cereal can be safely stored will depend on the condition it was harvested at and the type of storage facility being utilized. Grain binned at lower temperatures and moisture contents can be kept in storage for longer periods before its quality will deteriorate. As a lot of cereal in Alberta went into storage under warm conditions this fall, it had plenty of time to attract insects to these bins while insects were still actively flying and searching for food sources. Another large part of the province had the

opposite situation. That grain went into storage rather tough and that too is an attractive environment for insects to get started in a bin. It seems this year both ends of the harvest condition spectrum where effectively attracting these stored grain insect pests.

It is important that everyone check their bins for insects now if you have not already, and continue to check throughout the storage period, whether you are storing grain in the southern regions where grain went in dry and warm, or in more northern regions where it went in tough and damp. Deliveries could be rejected at the point of sale if any live insects are found, so check thoroughly before delivering to elevators.

The use of fumigant aluminum phosphide products is normally a good option as it controls all stages of these insects, but any grain below 5 °C prevents its use, as it is no longer effective. Even if the grain temperature is above 5 °C, the length of time varies for the fumigant to work, so a temperature between 5 – 11 °C requires 10 days of exposure to the fumigant.

Remember too, that the purchase and or application of a fumigant requires a Farmer Pesticide Certificate with a Stored Grain Endorsement.

Please visit agric.gov.ab.ca for further details.

As for other options, they too have limited effectiveness. Diatomaceous earth is ineffective below 0 °C as insects are not active. Use of pneumatic grain augers or grain vacuums to load or move grain does help but are not consistent solutions, as they may not kill all pests while passing through.

At this time of the year, this leaves really only one reliable option, exposure to cold air desiccation, which can effectively kill stored grain pests if left exposed to such temperatures long enough.

Delivery of your affected grain may have to be postponed to use this method, but

it does works. The chart explains length of time needed per temperature range of the grain in storage to offer effective control.

Clair Langlois is a Cereal Extension Specialist with the Government of Alberta.

If you find insects in your stored cereal grain, usually Rusty Grain Beetle (Cryptolestes ferrugineus) is the most common culprit but not always, and then your options at this time of year are limited due to temperatures of the stored grain and the air temperatures within it.

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The Latest HyLife Expansion Sets the Company Apart on the World Stage

By Harry Siemens Earlier this year, HyLife of La Broquerie, Manitoba announced plans to build a substantial new feed mill in Killarney. Company President Claude Vielfaure said it will be identical to their original feed mill west of Steinbach and will accommodate their growth plans.

In the fall of 2016, HyLife announced a $125 million investment and expansion of the company’s Neepawa processing plant. Part of that was a feed mill at Killarney and several finishing barns. “This feed mill is going to be a 250,000 tonne-ayear feed mill so it’s going to feed a lot of pigs and we already have a lot of pigs in the area,” said Vielfaure. “We want to increase hog production to the point where we can operate double shifts at the Neepawa processing plant. We continue to work on that side. We’re working with government and municipalities to try to find the right sites that are going to be conducive to building finishing barns.”

Fast forward to December 2017 Vielfaure said they have almost finished the processing plant, built two finishing barns and nearly finished the feed mill at Killarney. “The plant is going well on schedule, and we’re looking at sometime in the springtime of starting up the new cut floor for the future. Yeah, it’ll be awesome,” he said. “We’re adding about 100,000 sq.ft. to the whole plant. A big part of that is a new cut floor, so we’re going to be closing down our old cut floor and repurposing it for other stuff, so we’re going to have a brand new cut floor, hopefully, operational sometime in April or May.” HyLife processes about 6,800 hogs per day on a five-day week and with the new expansion, the goal is to get to 7,500 or just under 2 million pigs a year. This year that number is closer to 1.7 million. “Once we finish this expansion, we are going to be world-class and compete with anybody,” he said.

“Well, it’s about the quality of the meat. It’s about shelf life.

It’s about the technology we’re going to be using. All of that, we’ll be world-class where we’ll be right up front compared to most other competitors. We’ve had a strong focus in Japan, and have grown the market share there very well over the years. The demand is there for more, and we are sold out, so we’re finding ways of getting more meat. Also, to sell in Japan, your quality has to be second to none, so we’ve focused on that and a little bit of the reason we’re making such a big investment in Neepawa is to continue to be leading edge on everything.”

When asked if they are getting the number of hogs needed to meet the growing demand Vielfaure pointed out that two main provinces supply hogs to HyLife. “We’ve worked through the numbers over the last year, and as the construction is going to end and we’re going to increase, we have our hogs lined up for it. They come from anywhere in Manitoba, and some from Saskatchewan,” said Vielfaure.

The feed mill at Killarney is well on its way to completion and is a replica of the feed mill built in the southeast of Manitoba a year and a half ago. Right now, it is scheduled to open sometime in early fall or late summer next year. “We have built two 10,000 head finishing sites that we’re going to be putting pigs into barns very soon, and then we had the open house that was sometime in November,” he said. “About the potential of maybe building more pig sites, we want to grow, yes. That’s part of the feed mill, it’s in a location, so obviously we want to grow around the feed mill for transportation and feed costs, makes a lot of sense, so we continue to look for potential sites that we could build and get more pigs from.”

Market Access Secured for Pork to Argentina After a 15-year ban, the Government of Canada has successfully restored market access for Canadian pork exports to Argentina, “effective immediately.” This restored access will provide significant

new opportunities to Canadian pork exporters in the important and emerging Argentinean market, with industry estimating an export value of up to $16 million annually.

Argentina suspended Cana-

dian hog exports in 2002 because of not meeting certain import requirements. According to the ban on Argentine imports, Canadian producers’ were using ractopamine, a beta-agonist growth promo-

tant, as a feed additive.

Currently the top exports of Canadian agricultural products to Argentina include durum wheat ($3 million), alfalfa ($2.4 million) and dairy bovine semen ($2.4 million).

Claude Vielfaure, President of HyLife of La Broquerie, Manitoba said the new feed mill at Killarney is an exact replica of the one they built recently in southeast Manitoba.

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December 29, 2017

The AgriPost