The Agri Post
February 26, 2016
Tough Times Call for Good Management By Les Kletke
Rare Triplets Born By Harry Siemens A cow having triplets is very rare, for sure. The odds for a cow having triplets is about 1 in 105,000, but for this cow to have three females, three of the same gender, the odds are about one in 700,000, said Dr. Kerri-Rae Millar, a mixed animal veterinarian at the Morden Vet Clinic. Dr. Millar commented on what happened to her brother Jay Sprott, a cow calf producer at Miami, whose Red Angus Simmental 1,500 pound cow had 3 healthy female calves, 90, 80, and 70 pounds on Feb 11, 2016. “I have been fortunate enough to deliver a set from a dairy cow, diagnosed on ultrasound, a set in another dairy cow, and have my own brother have a set within the last 8 months, specialist no, lucky vet yes,” she said. Her brother, Sprott was not anticipating this at all. He had gone out to the barn, moved her into a maternity pen, and when he came back there were three calves, all healthy. “They were all born by themselves which is also fairly unusual with triplets, too. Quite often they get tangled up and sometimes need a little help,” said Millar a vet based in Morden.
Jay Sprott, cow-calf producer from Miami said the female triplet calves are almost invaluable as top-notch replacement heifers.
“Lots of reasons when a cow has twins for being born dead, or born weak and then dying,” said Dr. Millar. “Especially to have three that are alive, strong and healthy is pretty awesome. Getting a picture in the morning of three healthy calves’ sure beats getting a call at three in the morning asking for help.” Sprott, Dr. Millar’s younger brother calves out about 400 cows and raises his own feed, corn silage and alfalfa. Asked when he knew this cow was going to have triplets, he said
he did not. “She had the first one, weighing about 90 to 95 pounds, put her in a pen by herself and figured that would be a pretty good year for her,” he said. “Lo and behold I come out in the next check and she’s had another two calves, all three up sucking and everything.” Sprott, who is 29 years old and a seasoned cattle producer of 12 to 15 years said the Red Angus Simmental cross cow did not look any bigger than she normally was, and after having three calves,
did not look smaller, weighing maybe 1,500 pounds. With three calves, 90, 80 and 70 pounds, that is a lot of weight he admitted. Sprott loves farming, loves the animals especially, has farmed all his life, starting into the cattle business buying one for 4-H, at 10 years old, kept on expanding since then. “When I graduated from the Ag Diploma course at the University of Manitoba in 2007, I quickened the expansion, and expanding since then,” he said. He farms with his parents Rick and Lynn Sprott, making the cattle his project, but converting more and more of the crop land into cattle land. “When I’m converting grain land into to cattle production, I mean I’m using it to grow corn silage, alfalfa for hay and annual ryegrass also for hay,” said Sprott. “I also seeded 160 acres of pasture that’s close to my yard so I can rotational graze for my fall cows and calves them out in mid August to October. We have a base of 960 acres that could be used for grain production and I also have another 180 acres of alfalfa for hay, which I rent from other grain farmers that they use for their own rotation in their grain operation. I have native pasture at
The new president of the Manitoba Canola Growers Association said the next couple of years would require good management to make a profit on any crop. “We are at a time where we will need to make decisions on the best economic return from crop inputs not just maximizing yield,” said Chuck Fossay who was elected President at the Association’s recent meeting in Winnipeg. The remainder of the executive includes Clayton Harder of Narol as Vice President, Brian Chorney from Selkirk as Secretary and Jack Froese of Winkler as Treasurer. Fossay said that while he expects genetics of the crop to keep increasing at much the same rate they have seen in recent years, it might not be in the producer’s best interest to target maximum yields. “With prices of the past years we have been targeting higher yields and we might find that our best return is at 45-50 bushels an acre instead of 60,” said Fossay. “That is something we might have to look at as an association and making recommendations about where the best return for producers is.” He said that while current prices are lower than what they have been in recent years there is still a possibility to turn a profit on the crop. “Depending on the input costs that producers have they should be able to see some positive returns but the margins are tight,” he said. Fossay cited budgets from a presentation by Dr. Michael Boelje at Crop Production Days and said while it seems strange, for a producer it is best to lock in prices that minimize loses. He said, “Locking in losses, might be the best strategy for you if you cannot pencil out a return, at least it should be close to break even.” According to Boelje’s presentation high land costs is one of the reasons producers in the corn belt would not be able to see a profit this year. “We are also having some of those concerns with land prices though not to the extreme of American farmers but there is a real concern out there about rent prices especially when land lords hear of profits the past couple of years, but those are not the case going into 2016,” said Fossay. Fossay said that canola producers are seeing the advantage of the lower Canadian dollar. “There is no doubt that is our advantage at this time and if the dollar stays around 72 cents (US) we should be alright but again everything depends on the weather,” acknowledged Fossay.
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February 26, 2016
The Agri Post
Charolais Show Bull of the Year
JMB Renaissance 444B, owned by Judy Hart and Bert McDonald (JMB Charolais, Brookdale, MB) and Travis and Nicole Foot (Footprint Farms, Esther, AB) was awarded the coveted Charolais Banner B.O.S.S. Show Bull of the Year Award for 2015. The Banner of Show Sires (B.O.S.S.) award system, developed in 1984, is administered by the Charolais Banner and is a proven method of keeping track of show ring winnings. Point shows are spread evenly throughout Canada to ensure fairness. JMB Renaissance 444B excelled in the show ring and was named National Junior Champion Bull at the Canadian Western Agribition and Grand Champion Bull at the Manitoba Ag-Ex. Renaissance, a polled bull sired by KCF What-A-Boy 104Y out of a G4 Acres Stimo 156S daughter, can be viewed at jmbcharolais.com. Semen packages are available.
Triplets continued...
Jay Sprott, runs a 400 cow-calf operation near Miami, Manitoba and one cow just gave him a set of triplets all female, all health and born naturally.
Miami, Lariviere and Langruth.” While not dwelling on some of the real bad years in the past, the last number of years being in the cattle business is good he noted. “Really nice. Hopefully it stays at least like this for quite a few more years,” he added. “I like working with the animals, it’s fun. Hopefully, the cattle market stays strong so I’m able to keep doing it and make a good living.”
1,500 pound Red Angus Simmental cross cow gave birth to 3 female calves, 90, 80, and 70 pounds.
The Agri Post
Tough Times Not as Bad as the 80s By Les Kletke The Keynote presenter at CropConnect warned producers that tough times are coming in the business of crop production. “It is not normal to make 300 or 400 hundred dollars an acre and that is what happened the last couple of years,” said Michael Bohlje Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and the Center for Food and Agricultural Business at Purdue University in Indiana, US. “We have seen a run up in land prices accordingly.” He went on to say that at a land auction in Iowa last year, the cash rent reached $500 an acre and a producer had to pay two years rent up front. “The landlord suspects the fellow won’t have the money so he got his rent up front, good for him,” said Boehlje. “But that does not pencil out when corn is below $4 a bushel.” He then said he had locked in his soybeans at what guaranteed him a loss but that that was the best he could do this year. “I will stay in business at that level,” he said. “I might not if I wait for the market to go down.” He fully expects a correction in the market place but does not expect it to be as drastic as the crash in the 1980s. “Farmers today are not as leveraged and not as many of them are as extremely extended,” he said. “That is a case of the tail wagging the dog, that won’t happen in this correction because we have farms with equity that will buy land when it comes to the market and it will not crash as drastically.” He expects that land prices could fall by as much as 20%. “Rent prices tend to lag behind so we will not see as drastic a correction as soon but they will come down to more reasonable levels,” he said. Boehlje also has a farm operation in Iowa and said that his local John Deere dealer has 8 new planters in stock. “And when I talked to him, he said he expects to have 7 next year. I think he is optimistic to believe he will sell one.” “We are seeing machinery prices off 40% from last year. There are good deals on used equipment and you can buy a one-year-old combine that still has a lot of life in it for 40% less than last year. That is a good deal if you can afford it and if you need it.” He warns about buying equipment because it is a lower price than last year. “Do you need the machine and can you cash flow it?” asked Boehlje who pulled no punches with the audience and told them, “To write these things down, you have a better chance to remember it.”
February 26, 2016
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February 26, 2016
The Agri Post
You’re Safe It looks like I am going to be staying in this corner of the page, there was thought of me going to a place with another kind of pages. The Upper House in Ottawa attracted my attention and I
was considering applying but my application has not arrived and upon careful consideration, I am content to stay here and not pursue appointment to the Senate. There was also thought of going into production agriculture with the new relaxed rules regarding cannabis production. I called a few friends from university days who I know had been involved with production and research of product use
at the time and they did tell me that if plant breeds had done their work anywhere it was indeed with this crop. “Oh man that stuff is 100 times stronger than it used to be,” said one of my buddies who asked not to be named. “Ordinary weed is way better than it used to be.” He lost his train of thought in what I can only imagine was a cloud of smoke. I called another friend who I knew had a more agronomic bent to him and THC production. This was a guy who did not watch his profits go up in smoke. He knew what he grew and marketed it properly. Long before the talk of getting close to your customer and not selling a commodity he was about customer relationships and delivered what the customer wanted when he wanted. This guy was a master of just in time delivery before it was a phrase in most company’s logistics department. “Don’t bother,” he said. “The market is gone and when the government gets into it their won’t be any margins left.” “What about producing for the legal market and cashing in on the new government rules?” I asked thinking it would be like getting in on the ground floor of lotteries was a few years ago. “Don’t do it,” he said. “The real margins are going to be gone. There is no money in a crop that has that many producers, the government is going to turn it into a commodity, you might as well grow alfalfa.” I continued on with the economic discussion but to no avail, he was sure this was not going to be worthwhile. So it looks like I am going to be continuing doing the same thing I have for the last decade or two, and filling this corner of the page with my views on the industry of food production. I was just that close to get into the recreational business but I guess it was just too late. Not much, hope for that Senate appointment if they don’t send me an application. Hey Justin how about some follow up on those promises?
Intensity and What Else The Ag industry and my role in it continues to intrigue me as the ball keeps rolling on. I keep writing about it, eluding to it - There’s something in the air, that’s different, and I’m not sure I can put my finger on it, quite just yet. There’s an intensity amongst producers, a self-determination that almost gives me goose bumps when in its midst. The whole realm of marketing, processing, distribution of those commodities farmers grow, and entering the global marketplace like never before. Every farm conference has some expert talking about social media and how people can use it more effectively, to reach further and further yet making the world smaller and smaller. Dr. John Carr is a livestock vet consultant who hangs his hat in Australia because that is where his wife can work from best. John is a hog’s best friend because he actually loves hogs, and his goal, while making sure the producers make money, is to give that hog the best life possible in the six months it spends on this earth. What I like about him is the fact he has a great balance because in the end when it’s all said and done, we can do all kinds of nice things for the animal, but if the producer loses out, we have nothing. Dr. Carr feeds pigs in about eight or nine countries around the world meaning he is the consultant for producers in those areas making sure the pig’s welfare is looked after while doing the best for the producer. I chase after Dr. Carr using email and Skype and find him in all these different places, henceforth articles about him appear in this publication from time to time. While attending the CropConnect Conference in Winnipeg, I waited for Dr. Carr and his assistant Gerry from, Taiwan, as they were to leave Brandon at 9 am and arrive in Winnipeg at 11:15 so I could interview them both. You see, John had to catch a flight to Ukraine at 2 pm. While it all worked out, some tense moments, but good stuff that I will print here in future articles. Jerry from Taiwan says the hog industry in Canada, the parts he was able to see in a week, are very impressive, especially how farmers look after their pigs, and making sure they have the highest biosecurity protocols to not only keep the pigs safe, but to keep the diseases from spreading. This ‘thing’ I started writing about at outset is turning the Canadian farmer into an even better farmer, one who looks after the land and environment, uses the best research and technology, to keep the land safe, make a profit, and most important of all, feed the world with great, healthy, safe food. I’m somewhat suspect, and yes I still come from an older school, but initially all the scrutiny from do-gooders, environmentalists, safe food police, and the like made me nervous because I don’t want our farmers and farm leaders to capitulate too much. But I’m beginning to sense that maybe, just maybe, all this intensity, somewhat self-inflicted, but also intensified from the outside is telling us, the farmers we’re ok - we’re doing it right. And we’re coming out on top because we are doing it right. I don’t say that from an arrogant viewpoint, I’m saying that from practical applications and reality. Farmers are the best inventors, researchers, and adaptors when it comes to making it more efficient, and more cost effective. To be continued…. A producer from Miami, although somewhat tongue-in-cheek complained how doing away with the CWB monopoly is driving up land prices. While hard to grab real numbers and make the comparison, this farmer says he’s convinced removing the monopoly did it. In his case, it hurts because he wants to see his son start farming. How could removing the monopoly of the CWB raise farmland prices, you may ask. With farmers having the ability to sell their crops where they so choose, and growing the crops that can make them the most money, and not having the old crony CWB people around to harass them for wanting to be their own bosses. I use to call it paralysis by control, now intensity because of freedom. Wow - this one too shall be continued…
Foodgrains Bank is Hopeful as it Looks Toward Summer of 2016 By Elmer Heinrichs The Canadian Foodgrains Bank is hoping for another successful year as they anticipate this year ’s summer Grow Projects across Canada. Amanda Thorsteinsson, communications officer with the Foodgrains Bank said that it was formed in direct response to the famine in Ethiopia some 30 years ago and has evolved. Currently, they do a variety of work there, including responding to different emergencies. In Ethiopia, they are responding to three projects, including the El Niño drought that is happening right now. “But a lot of what we do, is helping smallscale farmers who own oneand-a-half to three acres of land in Ethiopia, adapt to changing weather conditions and learn to grow
enough food to feed their families for the entire year,” said Thorsteinsson. The Canadian Foodgrains Bank was founded in 1983 and is a partnership of 15 church and church-based agencies working together to end global hunger. Approximately 40 countries are being helped by the organization through relief aid, agricultural projects, training and nutrition programs, education and advocacy. Harold Penner, regional representative for the Foodgrains Bank recalls, “I came home from India in 1969 to see piles of wheat all over the prairies, and people and farmers were talking about how to get this grain to people in need.” Then, when the CFGB was formed, the 1984 famine in Ethiopia became its first major response. Presently there are ap-
proximately 250 growing projects across Canada. Last year 5,750 acres of Manitoba land was devoted to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank Grow Projects, where Manitoba boasted between 35-40 projects. The annual growing projects contribute approximately half of the donations received by the Foodgrains Bank. Each year, the Canadian government provides them with $25 million in matching financial support. Thorsteinsson said projects are decided on by a project officer, which the Canadian government may match on a four-to-one basis. She adds that the Foodgrains Bank is overwhelming grateful for the support they get from Canadians, especially in rural Canada. “The way growing
projects come together as a community, to show love to their neighbours overseas, is incredible to see and we are very grateful for this support.” Today, 30 years later, the Foodgrains Bank is still involved in Ethiopia. Of the 42 countries in which it is working, no country has more projects than Ethiopia. Currently, 14 different projects worth almost $4.6 million are operating throughout the country.
The Agri Post
Pro Science? Talk to Farmers
and are therefore more enlightened. But as Campbell tells us, “Urbanites are more likely to accept fad medicine; more likely to believe organic food has no chemicals; less likely to vaccinate their children; more likely to believe electric cars are more efficient than gasolinepowered ones; and more likely to believe natural gas fracturing is polluting water.” Instead of showing an appreciation for scientific proofs, these views are more in line with treating important issues like the latest fashion trends. Who knows more about how to use all sorts of data and measurements to optimize a specific process than farmers? How about
Campbell points out that there is also a rural and urban divide when it comes to tackling disease. He talks about the Zika virus that is by Rolf now in the news because Penner it’s causing birth defects in rolfpenner@agripost.ca South American children. In the United States, they have some of the same mosquirunning a business on toes that carry this disease, Hank Campbell from the margins so thin they don’t and pretty much as soon as American Council on Science seem to even exist? Or the news started to spread and Health has written a figuring out how to grow about Zika, urban elites great new column on the more and more food with joined in a chorus of rural/urban divide. Urbanites “less environmental strain,” “anything but DDT” to like to think of themselves as fewer inputs and even less tackle the problem. smarter than the rubes that land than ever before, all Rural folks, who are the live out in the sticks. But while the global population most affected by mosquiwhen it comes to respecting keeps increasing. Its farmers toes and therefore the science, rural folks are miles using science and the disease potential generally, ahead of their city cousins. scientific method who do all have different thoughts. The old tripe is that city of this. We do it so well that “They are just fine dwellers tend to have more the rest of the world pretty whacking mosquitoes with education, make more money much takes it for granted. chemicals and many of them know there is no ecological daisy chain where losing a few mosquito species would make any difference at all in our ecology.” A number of urbanites on the other hand have a mythical belief . . . in The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is designed to entrench the interests of foreign corporations the century-old philosophy at the expense of our sovereignty and democratic processes. Its Investor State Dispute Settlement that there is a ‘balance of (ISDS) mechanism gives foreign corporations the right to sue our government if they believe future nature’ in which, as Ron profits will be reduced as a result of democratically enacted measures. ISDS puts a chill on public Bailey writes in The End of interest regulation, easing foreign corporations’ access to resources and commodities. The TPP also Doom: Each participant in has more insidious ways of overturning democratic decision-making and the climax ecosystem imposing a corporate-friendly agenda. One is its attack on our supply supposedly is fitted tightly management system. into niches as a result of Supply management is a Canadian innovation that ensures subsidies coevolving together. Once are not needed to keep farmers in business and ensure the population has achieved, the climax state is enough dairy, eggs and poultry. It is built upon three pillars: import exquisitely balanced unless controls, cost-of-production pricing to farmers and producer discipline disturbed.” to ensure enough, but not too much, is always produced. Science tells us otherwise. If the TPP is ratified, the border will be opened wider, increasing The issue has way more to imports, primarily from the USA. The implications for the dairy sector do with who gets someare severe. By Jan Slomp where and survives. Just The TPP would immediately allow imports equal to 3.25% of Canada’s because disease-carrying current fresh milk supply, with increases of 1% (compounding) per year mosquitoes exist and have for the next 18 years. 80% of these milk imports must be processed in Canada, and would likely be survived a long time does mixed with Canadian supplies. not automatically make Imported US milk may contain synthetic Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH). This drug was them important. Yet this is banned for Canadian dairy herds in the late 1990s, the outcome of a democratic process involving what urban elites often citizens, scientists, dairy farmers, and the Senate. The ban is based on clear evidence that the drug mistakenly believe. Just like increases disease and suffering of cows. It is more difficult to assess human health effects of their mistaken fear of DDT, consuming milk from rBGH-induced cows, however many consumers remain wary and avoid it. The that just because the TPP includes a commitment for Canada and the US to discuss their food safety rules for dairy with government banned it DDT a view to harmonization. If the TPP is adopted, the difference between Canadian and US milk will must be dangerous. be diluted, and potentially disappear. The DDT ban has way NAFTA opened Canada’s doors to high protein milk components produced in the USA. The TPP more to do with political would remove all tariffs on US whey after 10 years. It would also allow New Zealand to increase grandstanding than sound dairy exports to the USA. In turn, even more of the US’s excess milk protein would be dumped into science. Forty years ago a Canada. This causes a number of problems. book called Silent Spring Butter is popular again after decades of being blamed for high cholesterol. In the 1970s the dairy sector had to adjust production to avoid creating butterfat surpluses. Margarine with trans fats is now seen as the unhealthy choice, and consumers are switching back to butter and whole milk. Today, dairy faces a structural milk protein surplus. The cost of removing surplus protein components eats into farmers’ returns for milk. Processors have new ways to separate proteins from fluid milk, which they market as Milk Protein Isolates (MPIs). MPIs are added to certain dairy products to increase yields. Separating milk components, then processing, storing and transporting them to reintroduce them in other foods is a drastic departure from fairly simple fermenting or cultivating whole milk into butter, cheese, yogurts and quark and a practice that may ultimately undermine consumers’ confidence. Processors can import MPIs tariff-free, and due to the world-wide structural surplus, they are very cheap. This leaves dairy farmers in Canada with even more surplus skim milk powder and higher costs to get rid of it, putting pressure on the farm gate price. Thus, the TPP reduces dairy farmer incomes by exacerbating the butter-protein imbalance in addition to taking away a portion of our domestic fluid milk market. Our system ensures milk is produced and processed in every province, within a reasonable distance from both farmers and consumers. More intense, capital intensive processing to make protein components with longer shelf life would promote larger, centralized plants and eliminate dairy farming in less populated regions, namely the Maritimes, northern Ontario, interior BC and Vancouver Island. A vicious circle would ensue, eroding supply management and concentrating production and processing. Centralization would also impair climate change mitigation. Supply management minimizes GHG emissions by keeping production and processing close to where products are consumed. Supply management is a treasure of Canada’s agriculture policy and the envy of dairy farmers around the world who suffer with price volatility, debt, uncertain markets and unfair contracts. The TPP is a direct assault that cannot be cheered because it might have been even worse. Jan Slomp is the President of the National Farmers Union. Formerly an Alberta dairy farmer, he now farms near Courtenay, BC.
Penners Points
TPP Attacks Democracy and Supply Management
February 26, 2016 kicked off the chemo-phobia fad with help from a song by Joni Mitchell. They got an early victory with DDT and have unsuccessfully been trying to duplicate the results ever since. Scares have been manufactured over alar on apples, glyphosate, atrazine and GM crops, just to name a few. The urban elites would probably be surprised to know that, even though DDT is still banned in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency regularly shows foreign governments how to spray it for mosquito control and even inside homes in some cases. Rural people on the other hand are probably the least
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chemo-phobic, Campbell reminds us that , “The marketing hook for 2-4,D after World War II was that it could ‘replace the hoe’ and farmers, the ones working the hoes, have embraced science ever since. Urban people are terrified of chemical spraying; rural people know it is essential.” Farmers have always looked to science for progress and, to be fair, urbanites usually do as so well. But not nearly with the same consistency. Campbell hopes that the Zika virus “Will get everyone looking at data objectively once again.” That would be nice, but the odds are probably against it.
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February 26, 2016
The Agri Post
Family Farm Invests in New Corn and Grain Drying System By Harry Siemens
Korey Peters of Randolph, Manitoba farms as part of a family grain and hog farm, Herbsigwil Farms Ltd. raising pigs and diversified crop on 5,000 acres.
Korey Peters of Randolph, Manitoba farms as part of a family diversified grain and hog farm called Herbsigwil Farms Ltd. on 5,000 acres. Recently they decided to diversify even more by investing in a Brock corn and grain drying system. “We’re putting up a dryer system for corn, with some options leaving the canola screens in it, so we can dry some other crops, too,” said Peters, who left a music teaching in 2012 to return to the family farm, this time as a partner. “We’ve been getting into corn a little bit more and more over the last few years. Buying a planter a few years ago, this doubles up for soybeans, a rotary combine and a corn header last year.” While corn acres were around 300 acres in 2015, their intention is to increase that to 800 to 1,000 acres in 2016. The new drying system going in this summer is a continuous drying system, with an 8,400 bushel wet bin that will continuously fill the dryer and then a 1,000 bushel little surge bin connected to a forced air system, piped to whichever bin they choose. Peters said the farm grows a combination of grain and feed corn, but the farm’s location has several feed mills close by, Hylife and Maple Leaf and HyLife is building a new feed mill at Kleefeld only four miles away. He sees this as an opportunity to sell feed corn to those feed mills, in addition to their grain. Making a conscious decision to get more into corn is something they have talked about for a few years. Being in the hog industry and having manure available for application it made sense to go into corn since they can apply the manure. “Obviously we wish we’d done it earlier when the corn price was at record high levels, but I was just coming back to the farm at that point, now it seems like the next step in the production for us,” said Peters. “It stretches out our harvest a little bit; we’re looking forward to it.” The farm’s cropland also includes winter wheat, canola, soybeans and spring wheat. “We’re cutting back our winter wheat acres, soybeans are up, and corn will be up too,” said Peters. “Soybeans, corn, canola, and more spring wheat
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with the new varieties of spring wheat coming out, which are so good, we’re into spring wheat a little bit more. We use to do a lot more winter wheat, 3 or 4 years ago, about 1,400 acres, but started to cut back.” This year, their rotation is 1,000 acres of beans, 1,000 of corn, canola 1,500, while winter wheat will be down to about 450 acres, which they planted last fall and the rest will be spring wheat. Coming back to the family farm was a difficult transition from teaching he said but would not change the decision. “It’s been great! I still get asked it from time to time, most recently at the Young Farmers conference in Winnipeg how it’s going and do you miss it,” he said. “Yes I miss some things, where vacation comes in exactly opposite times from summer to winter. The summer is a little busier and the winter a little slower, allows me to continue my professional development as I call it going to conferences, also gives me time off to go on vacation.” Peters added that his golf game has suffered in summer, but for him being on the family farm is worth it.
The Agri Post
February 26, 2016
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February 26, 2016
The Agri Post
Winterkill Threatens Russian and Ukraine Crops By Harry Siemens Mike Lee is a crop consultant, operating a website called Agronomy-Ukraine, a view of farming and agribusiness from the Black Sea region including Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Lee is active on Twitter, has a team of crop scouts who help him with crop tours at strategic times of year to report to his website, by subscription only, to get accurate and up to date crop reports from that region. In a recent interview, Lee said recent mild temperatures and rain has melted snow cover across central and southern Russia and eastern Ukraine. “As temperatures returned to more seasonal averages last week the melt water, which had pooled and failed to drain through the frozen soil, turned to ice,” he said. Several issues going on here that are worth noting he explained. “Rain on snow is not a good thing, it speeds up thawing but it also collapses the structure reducing air spaces between ice crystals which are what gives snow its insulating property,” said Lee. “A bit like very old loft insulation that has lost its integrity and is now half the thicknesses it was when it went in twenty years ago.” Lee said then there is ice, which has the real capacity to do some damage. Melt water and rain collected into low-lying depressions was unable to drain through frozen soil before temperatures dropped and it turned into ice. “Where snow has melted completely the ice is obvious but we also are finding ice when we dig through the snow,” he said. “Ice that has formed beneath the snow is, perversely, insulated from any rise in temperature and in all probability will be around now until the snow thaws sometime in March.” “At this time we don’t have verifiable information for Ukraine but based on what we see near the Russian Ukraine border and anecdotal evidence suggest there is a similar issue in eastern Ukraine,” Lee said. “We won’t be able to fully assess the extent of any damage and yield.” He said the market has not picked up yet although he
“We crop tour Ukraine and Russia so you don’t have to,” said Mike Lee an international crop consultant, operating a website called Agronomy-Ukraine.
Mike Lee at AgronomyUkraine reports on Black Sea agricultural news, weather risks, winterkill putting Russian and Ukraine wheat at risk.
does not think it is catastrophic at this stage, but right now, the crops are fairly exposed, with ice caps starting to form, never good for winter crops, and still a lot of winter to go. Lee said things in Ukraine are carrying on as before. The conflict in eastern Ukraine, while not settled down in the rest of the country things are progressing as normal. “Still a chronic shortage of cash, no realistic credit terms available, businesses are mostly working at generating and conserving cash,” he said. “Prices across the board in farm commodities are down, which is not helping things. The exchange rate, the same as in Canada relative to the United States dollar is also making the commodities, wheat in particular, favourable on the wider market.” While not certain, he thinks Russia still has the export tax in place and are quite keen to expand their exports next year. “I think going forward into this year, 2016 and 2016 harvest, I think we will see both Ukraine and Russia exporting quite competitively because they need to generate cash dollars to bring
into the country, particularly Ukraine. Russia does have oil to sell, although prices there are low too,” said Lee. “Ukraine will continue down the road of increasing exports and pushing.” Lee said it is interesting in Ukraine, where this year, they have embarked on a policy of deregulation across the agricultural sphere. “There was a lot of dead wood legislation and archaic procedures, and processes in place with no purpose whatsoever,” said Lee. “The new minister of agriculture pursued a very vigorous deregulation policy and have removed many of the old rules and regulations and simplified procedures in particular for imports and exports, imports of fertilizers and exports of grains, commodities, and so on.” He sees Ukraine continuing forwards with the backing of the west. Russia will do it because they can export competitively because of the exchange rate differences on the rouble. “The problem is they will continue to export into a marketplace that is already over subscribed with stocks and commodities,” he added.
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Make Sure Good Copper Status Exists in Your Pre-Calving Beef Cows By Peter Vitti Recently, I gave a dinner presentation to a group of beef producers and outlined the importance of feeding a good mineral program to pre-calving cows. Afterwards, I was surprised by the number of questions about the possibility of a copper deficiency hidden in their beef cattle. With the calving season approaching, only weeks away, we all agreed that our cattle mineral feeding programs must assure pregnant cows receive all the copper that they need. With much of this discussion that centred on feeding copper, it’s interesting to realize that cows before calving require it only in very small amounts. Beef cattle should consume a daily total of 125-140 mg copper in order to satisfy all their vital and performance functions. After it is consumed, absorbed, and retained copper does not become part of any final structural component in the body (aka 99% of calcium is found in bones). It sits in many enzyme systems as an invisible “on/off switch”, which are involved in many vital chemical reactions. In most subsequent copper deficient cases, beef cattle fail. They do not consume enough copper in their feed (primary deficiency) or excess antagonistic nutrients such as molybdenum and/or sulfates in the feed (or from water) tie up biologically usable copper (secondary deficiency). As a result, the deficiency symptoms can be very subtle and often similar to other nutrient deficiencies or even are associated with non-feed related issues. Here is a practical checklist broken into three categories that I use to investigate the possibility of a primary or secondary copper deficiency in any pre-calving cowherd: - General – Lethargic cows and calves, poor milking cows (slow growing calves), unexplained morbidity (sickness) or mortality (deaths), higher incidence of injury, poor growth on replacement heifers, failure to maintain overwinter BCS, poor hoof condition. - Health – Higher rates of scours, respiratory (pneumonia) and other common cattle diseases, greater susceptibility to bacterial, viral and other disease, poor response and recovery from disease, higher rates of treating cattle, higher rates of sudden death, poor vaccination takes (including measured titres). - Reproduction – Silent heats in cows and heifers, high percentage of open cows, high incidence of early embryonic deaths, difficult calving season, poor calving percentage, post-calving problems, delayed or failure to recycle after calving and getting rebred and spread-out calving/ breeding seasons. From this checklist, if a producer suspects an underlying copper deficiency in his/her cowherd, before calling a veterinarian to take blood samples and send them away for copper testing - Stop right there! I suggest that forage samples (and pasture – when available) are tested first. Test for copper as well as sulphur, molybdenum, calcium and zinc. This is good first-step advice. A few years ago, I worked with a feed mill, who supplied a typical loose cattle mineral to a cow-calf operator, whose cows had suffered from poor pregnancy rates and other aliments for many years. We suspected some type of trace mineral deficiency (not necessarily copper at the time) in several of the owner’s pastures, because his troubles seem to originate from a specific area of the farm. Forage tests came back and showed that their molybde-
Canada Gains Market Access for Live Breeding Cattle and Swine to Georgia Ag Canada has secured export market access for live breeding cattle and live breeding swine to the country of Georgia. Under the agreement, Canadian cattle and swine breeders can immediately begin exporting to this market. Georgian breeders also benefit by gaining access to Canada’s world-class animal genetics. Canadian industry estimates that the total gains from access to this new market could be worth up to $2.5 million annually. In 2014, two-way trade between Canada and Georgia was $90.3 million, with Canadian exports to Georgia totaling $14.2 million and imports from Georgia totaling $76.1 million.
num level was 5.0 ppm (dm. basis), which could significantly tie up dietary copper in the total cattle diet. As a result, the feed mill fortified copper to the mineral in a more biologically available form (chelated organic copper) and adjusted the total dietary copper fed; to a ratio of at least 2:1 copper to molybdenum in the diet. By blocking the inference of molybdenum, these cows responded with higher conception rates in the following breeding season. In this particular case, we didn’t take any blood samples for copper testing, but this practice is common amongst veterinarians, when determining copper status in a cowherd. Blood collection is simple to do and copper analysis is relatively inexpensive. One should keep in mind that since blood pulls copper from the liver (re: liver stores most of the copper in the body), testing blood/serum copper levels is only a good screening tool in the most advanced deficiency cases. Although, liver copper levels are the most reliable test for
verifying poor copper status in cattle, the downside of taking liver biopsies is high degree of stress to the animal, time-consuming, expensive and the results taken from sick animals are questionable. Regardless, the general recommendation for correcting a verified copper deficiency in many cowherds can be a straightforward matter of feeding cattle a well-balanced commercial mineral containing supplemental copper. The NRC copper requirement for young and mature cattle is no more than 15 mg/kg of diet (dm. basis), which takes care of the beef animals’ basic copper requirement and also takes into account the antagonistic effects of upon dietary copper by moderate molybdenum or sulphur levels in forages, other feedstuffs or water. Therefore, a purchased mineral containing 1.500 - 3,000 mg/kg of dietary copper and fed at 50-100 grams per head per day should prevent or solve most copper deficient problems.
The Agri Post
Tips to Survive the Most Difficult Times
Micheal Boehlje of Perdue University told those attending CropConnect there are tough times coming in agriculture and gave them tools to prepare. Photo by Les Kletke
By Les Kletke Michael Bohlje is clear about tougher times coming in agriculture. Boehlje is a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and the Center for Food and Agricultural Business at Purdue University in Indiana, US and was the opening Keynote speaker at CropConnect in Winnipeg in mid February. “We are in a cyclical business,” he said. “We saw some good years but it is not normal for producers to make 3 or 400 hundred dollars an acre. Those times don’t last and they didn’t this time either we are already seeing a down turn.” Bohlje said that he has already locked in this soybean prices for this year. “At loss, you may be surprised at that but I don’t see we are going to get above the cost of production, and I think this is the best that I can do to minimize my losses. He offered eleven management tips to survive the difficult times and to be around for the next boom. 1. Intense cost control. “You have to be aware of your costs, not your costs per acre,” said Boehlje. “Your costs per bushel. That is what you are selling and you need to know when you are making money. This is a tool to use for management decisions as well as marketing. You have to have a handle on what it
costs to grow a crop and what you should be doing to get more for it.” 2. Margin management. “Be aware of things like seed costs and if you are getting a good return from spending extra money. There are all kinds of traits included in seed today, but are they what you need and are you getting a good return on the extra cost of buying that seed.” 3. Seed was only one of the examples he cited and said that enterprise analysis was a critical management tool for deciding which parts of the farm were making money and then breaking it down to see what was making money in those operations. 4. Execution of Procedures. He is clear farms need an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). “You can not be doing this haphazard in this environment. You have to do things in a set way and determine a way that is the most economical.” He acknowledged that agriculture is a business that requires changing gears on the fly but there needs to be a set procedure that anyone can follow. 5. Buying right. “Two things affect your bottom line, where you sell but where you buy is just as important. Make sure that you buy your inputs at the right price.” 6. Logistic Management. “You need to be aware of
the cost of transportation of the items on your farm, too often this is over looked but contributes a great deal to the cost of operation a farm,” said Boehlje. 7. Holistic management. His holistic approach to farming seems at odds with his strong view of enterprise analysis but he explained, “You need to manage the entire farm as one unit, and to be making decisions that are long term for the good of the entire operation. The entire farm has to be profitable to stay in business and that is going to be the challenge for the next couple of years. 8. Debt/Capital ratios. “Know how much debt you’re carrying and how much you can afford,” said Boehlje. “You might have to reduce your debt to survive.” 9. Simplify and automate. “This relates to cutting costs, you have to keep you labour costs down. Is there something you can do to make the operation simpler, or that you can automate? Look at those costs long term and if you can afford to make the changes,” he said. 10. Do fewer things better. “You have to figure out what makes you money and do it better and more of it, “said Boehlje. “You cannot do all things and your neighbour might do some things better than you. Know your strengths and work on them.” 11. Data management. “Have the data from your farm and use it to analyse what works for you. There are so many ways to collect data and programs to analyse it, use them and make the tough decisions on your farm with your data and a sharp pencil not you hear,” said Boehlje. He is optimistic about agriculture and said good times will be back but not in the next two or three years, and they will not last forever. “Good times normally last about half as long as bad times, so be ready to take advantage of the good times when they are here and put some money away to weather the next storm that is coming,” he said. “We are in a cyclical business.”
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For a Big Impact Do the Little Things Right “Hoping for unicorns and settling on good enough are very real when it comes to under-performance on your farm’s bottom line.”
Kristjan Hebert says doing the small things right can make a big difference on the bottom line of your farm. Photo by Les Kletke
By Les Kletke Doing the little things, right can have a big impact on a farm’s bottom line. Doing the little things better can have a major impact on the bottom line. Kristjan Hebert who operates Herbert Grain Ventures in southeastern Saskatchewan has established himself on the agriculture meeting circuit for a talk called Baby Steps to Bigger Profits: The 5% Rule. Herbert tells audiences that increasing yield and marketing by 5% and decreasing costs by 5% at the same time can have a 117% impact on the bottom line. Herbert who was a finalist for the Saskatchewan Outstanding Young Farmer in 2013 has been on the speaking circuit since completing the Texas A & M executive agriculture program and was one of the presenters at Crop Connect in Winnipeg in February. Dr. Danny Klinefelter of the TEPAP program at Texas A & M calls, “Hebert one of the most progressive young famers he knows.” His message is simple and his delivery direct. “Have a plan, know your cost of production, and lock in profit.” It is the mainstay of his message and he walks producers through examples that support his calculations. Most producers agree they could do things 5% better or save 5% on their costs but are supersized to find the total impact of the small changes. “Hoping for unicorns and settling on good enough are very real when it comes to under-performance on your farm’s bottom line. Let’s focus on small improvements, balancing perfection and logistics, and aiming for excellence. The simple results will surprise you,” he said. Hebert is an advocate of you knowing your farm’s own numbers and comparing them to benchmark numbers rather than working with recommendations from general farm numbers. In his opening remarks, he began the presentation by telling producers they should read Good to Great and start to put some of these practices into place on their farms. Judging by the standing room only crowd that was on hand for his presentation in Winnipeg a lot of farmers plan on taking the baby steps to making bigger profits in 2016.
Farming Forecast Remains Strong In the 2016 release of the Canadian Agricultural Outlook Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada reports the forecast of farm income in the agricultural sector for the previous and current calendar years (2015 and 2016), and looks ahead ten years to longer term trends that could impact the agriculture sector. Farm incomes are forecasted to reach record levels for Canadian farmers in 2015, and to remain above average for 2016. A projected increase in both crop and livestock receipts contributes to these strong income levels for the sector in both 2015 and 2016. An increase in global trade and greater demand for agricultural commodities by developing countries present opportunities to further grow the Canadian agriculture sector. Net cash income in 2015 is estimated to increase by 6% over 2014 nationally, reaching a record $15.0 billion. Average farm-level net operating income in 2015 is forecast to be $77,287, which is 8% higher than 2014. A decline of 9% to $13.6 billion is expected in 2016, still 14% higher than the 2010-2014 average. Average net worth per farm is expected to reach $2.7 million in 2016. In the 2015 Canadian Agricultural Outlook, the projections for Manitoba showed a decline in both total cash receipts and total family income by 7%. For Saskatchewan total cash receipts was forecasted to grow by 1% and total family income to increase 5%. The low Canadian dollar has improved the competitiveness of Canadian agriculture and food products in export markets, contributing to higher farm cash receipts. Livestock receipts in Canada are expected to increase by 2% to $26.2 billion in 2015 and crop receipts are expected to have increased 2% to reach $30.7 billion in 2015, and remain virtually unchanged at $30.6 billion in 2016. Even lower crude oil prices are significantly reducing farmers’ diesel and gasoline expenses.
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Suncrest Colony Opens New Hog Barn in Manitoba
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Making Room for Bigger Hogs By Harry Siemens
The Suncrest Colony is the first to open a new hog in years in Manitoba, also opening the first new sow barn with sow group housing in line with the new regulations under the new Pig Code.
By Harry Siemens A new hog barn is set open in the province with an Open House on March 4 at the Suncrest Colony just off the intersection of highways 59 and 52. Colony Hog Boss Bob Kleinsasser describes it as a 800 sow farrow to 80 pounds using open group housing with 125 sows per group at 28 square feet per sow. “Our sow barn is shot, 50 years old, and we are 500 sows, farrow to finish right now,” he said. “We’ll finish as many as we can and the rest we’re selling as Isoweans and once we get this new barn a little bit paid down, it is not cheap to build, we’ll build a new finisher barn, too.” When asked how much the new sow barn cost the Colony, “Way too much,” he said. One of the biggest cost factors was the exchange rate that, added 20 percent more than what
they had figured on from the time they started moving dirt back in May 2015. “Most of the equipment and materials come from the US, even if it comes from overseas, like our Big Dutchmen electronic sow feeders; still need payment in American dollars,” said Kleinsasser. “We’ll sell the Isoweans, paid in American dollars, and that is why we’re doing it otherwise we’d look for a barn to finish them here.” While preferring to finish them in Manitoba, it is impossible to find a finisher barn here because Maple Leaf has tied up every available barn in the country. Kleinsasser said that right now their plans are to ship the Isoweans in bigger batches of 1,200 piglets through Provista’s Proline Pork Marketing. To do this the colony has to collect four weeks worth of pigs to make one truckload of
1,200. Additional freight costs are $2,000 to the US whether they ship 500 pigs or the 1,200. “We’ll be introducing pigs into the barn in about four to five weeks, seal off the sow end and then start breeding, while continuing to build the farrowing and nursery section, which will take another three to four months to do,” he said. While some companies are converting existing barns to the new required group housing, Suncrest Colony felt it might work better with a new building where they can start from scratch. Long term planning seemed the best course over the long run helping the Colony to build new instead of rebuilding their old barn. “Seven years ago we built a new lagoon, a manure storage that included enough animal units to almost double our production,” said Kleinsasser. “If you have the animal
units, manure storage you can actually build a new facility.” However, if a producer wants to increase the number of animals and does not have the animal units to apply that manure to the land, he said it is impossible. “If you have 300 sows for example and you want to go to a thousand sows, you can’t build because you have no manure storage,” said Kleinsasser. “We lost 100s and 100s of producers because their barns were too old, and didn’t have the manure storage to increase production. The province will not give the permit for the lagoon to do so.” In Suncrest Colony’s case, they also have 9,300 acres of land to apply and incorporate the manure. In addition to the hogs, the colony is well diversified running a 22-cow dairy, 20,000 layer chickens and 20,000 breeder broilers.
As producers plan for and market bigger hogs combined with the ever increasing need for processing capability the industry has seen many changes in how pigs are raised but at the end of the day, making sure the consumer not only gets what they want and ensuring the larger body perceives they are getting it right is the ultimate goal. Dr. Mike Brumm, the President of Brumm Swine Consultancy said, to accommodate today’s heavier market weight hogs, pork producers need to be looking at increasing the size of their feeders. Brumm explained since 1977 in the United States, producers have added 1.3 pounds per year to the carcass weight of market hogs and extrapolates that 15 years from now the pig is going to be 20 to 25 pounds heavier than today, so feeders need to be bigger. “Number one, the biggest point on a pig, dimension wise, is the shoulder width,” said Brumm. Your code of practice has a table on feeder width, on shoulder width, and basically it said, at today’s sale weights, our feeder holes need to be at least 14 inches or 35 centimetres,” he explained. “If they’re less than that, big market weight pigs can’t all get in the feeder holes because they’re just too big.” Brumm said the second dimension is from the front edge of the feeder to where feed is presented, because as the pig grows bigger its nose gets longer. In 1997, Harold Gonyou at the Prairie Swine Centre determined that 10 inches or 25.5 centimetres from the front lip to feed presentation on a dry feeder was correct for a 97 kilo or 215-pound pig recounted Brumm. “Remember we’re selling a 127 kilo pig in the US on average today. That means we’ve got to make these feeder spaces bigger,” he said. “Whether they’re the wet-dry shelf or a dry feeder, we’ve got to make the eating activity of a pig enjoyable, have a quality eating experience.” Dr. Brumm said this is a sure bet, pigs next year will be bigger than this year.
Goat Traceability and Identification to be Implemented The federal government has ear marked up to $255,487 in order to help the goat industry prepare for mandatory national identification and traceability requirements. This funding, under the Growing Forward 2 AgriMarketing Program (Assurance Systems stream), will help the Canadian National Goat Federation (CNGF) implement a plan for a mandatory identification and traceability system under the 2015 amendment to the Health of Animals Regulations. “I am very pleased that CNGF has received this funding, which will allow us to put in place the necessary components for goat producers for when traceability regulations come into effect,” says Beth Peers, President of the Canadian National Goat Federation. There are approximately 225,000 goats in Canada on 6,000 farms. The primary exports are meat, cheese, and live animals.
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Demand for Brown Sugar Produce Skyrockets By Joan Airey “Over the past sixteen years, one of the most difficult areas in growing my market garden business has been hiring reliable seasonal staff to assist with tasks in the garden such as weeding and harvesting. Productivity in any business increases when the workers have a stake in the business, whether it is profit sharing or ownership. The family model works well because it provides continuity and allows each person to contribute from their skill set. One person does not have all the skills necessary for a business, so a lot can be gained from partnership,” said Stephanie Dillon of Brown Sugar Produce. “So I was ecstatic when Teri, our daughter and her husband Jon made the decision to return to join the family business. This filled the immediate needs of workers for the upcoming season, but also provided me with a succession plan. From working together this year, we’ve been able to identify each of our areas of strength and plan to make the best use of each person’s skills and interests as we move the business forward to the next generation.” “Mom started supplying restaurants with produce since our very first Chef, Ilse Mohn, who was the Chef at Lady of the Lake, found us at the Farmers Market. We have been supplying Lady of the Lake for more than fifteen years with Wild Flour Café coming on board when it opened. Remington’s has taken product occasionally for over twelve years, but with the addition of Chef Mike Gareau to their team this year and plus myself and Jon to our farm, we had more capacity so they began ordering vegetables regularly this season. Prairie Firehouse opened in December 2015 and have been giving us weekly produce orders,” said Teri Jenkins. Starting in 2016 Brown Sugar Produce plans to introduce a standard weekly delivery called “The Veggie Lovers’ Club” which operates like a CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) program. Customers will sign up in the spring for a 16week delivery that they will pick up from a central location in Brandon. They ex-
pect this will help make things a bit easier for them in the busiest part of the season (not having to take individual orders and deliver to homes) and allow them to spend more time on the farm growing the veggies. Jon, Teri’s husband was born in Prince Edward Island and some of his first memories are of spending time in his dad’s large garden. Jon eventually moved to British Columbia to work on an organic farm. Following that, he worked getting his carpentry apprentice in Calgary and for an organic produce retailer where he met Teri. In 2012, they moved to Nova Scotia where he worked on a large organic farm with 300 acres of produce crop production. Since they came to Manitoba, he has been working at Patmore Nurseries in Brandon and producing crops for Brown Sugar Produce at his and Teri’s farm near Rivers. “There is a much higher demand for fresh, local produce in Brandon than I expected. When we arrived Stephanie already had a large group of loyal customers, and that has continued to grow this season as we have increased our production. I find it amazing how connected people feel to the farm through our social media pages. Sometimes I meet customers and they feel like they already know me because they follow the farm on Facebook. Being able to connect with your customers in this way is essential, as our busi-
ness is all about relationships. Teri is usually the one behind the camera, so the rest of us get our photos taken often,” said Jon Jenkins. The main farm near Brandon uses organic methods as much as possible, which means limiting the use of chemicals. Using natural fertilizer, composted cow manure, planting less intensively, and the use of tractor cultivation and hand tools to control weeds, as well as the use of things like row covers to exclude pests. Joni and Teri plan to certify their farm near Rivers within the next few years. “My dad Paul Dillon ran a used farm equipment business, Harvest Salvage in Brandon for nearly twenty five years before selling it eight years ago. He helps with the business management, accounting, big-picture planning, equipment maintenance and repair, infrastructure, and some of the tractor work. Though he doesn’t get much time to do it, he prefers Harley drag racing and collecting rare motorcycles to farming,” said Teri. “In direct marketing, any avenue where we can interact with our customers outside of a market setting is critically important. Social media works well because of the ease of posting photographs and information and reaching a wide audience of people who “Like” us as well as potential customers, often family and friends of existing customers. In the digital age, so-
Prairie Firehouse Café’s Teri Jenkins and her mother Stephanie Dillon delivering vegetables for Prairie Firehouse’s Grand Opening in December co-owner Chef Rebekah Roberts.
cial media is the new word of mouth. Interactions happen a lot more often and reach a larger audience more quickly which means it’s important to always be providing new and intriguing content to engage our audience. Because we are a local family business, relationship marketing is also a key part of what we do. Social media is a great way to make sure people feel connected to the farmers who are producing the food
they eat. We can show people how the food is produced, when new crops are available, where we are going to be when and receive immediate feedback from our customers. For me, the point of social media on our farm is not to sell what we are producing, it’s to share why we are doing it, which can range from things that I see or do in my day to day work that are exciting , educational and even just funny! With the addition of
a smart phone to the tools on the farm this winter, we have also joined the social media platforms Instagram (Instagram.com/ brownsugarproduce) and Twitter@brownsugarfarm. We have a website brownsugarproduce.com and on Facebook,” said Teri. Brown Sugar Produce has a variety of garden produce available year round. Teri spoke at the recent Small Farm Conference in Brandon.
KAP Calls for Better RRural ural Services Keystone Agricultural Producers’ 32nd annual meeting concluded recently after the passing of 19 resolutions, including a call to the federal government for a universal producer payment security program for all commodities. As well, delegates passed two resolutions addressing poor rural cell-phone service. Rural Manitobans, said many delegates, pay the same price for cell service as others in the province, but receive substandard service due to a lack of towers or poor signals. Delegates also called for Manitoba Hydro upgrades that will meet the needs of modern agriculture at a reasonable cost. Some used the example of a farmer who could not use his welder to fix farm equipment while his children had the computer turned on. Other resolutions addressed inadequate flood compensation as a result of the 2014 flood, taxes on family farmland transfers, the need for forage research to address soil salinity and understaffing at Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. During the meeting, Dan Mazier was acclaimed as president. A farmer from Justice, he served his first term in the position last year and was vice-president before that. Justin Jenner, a Minnedosa farmer, and Glenn Young, a producer from Cypress River, were acclaimed as vice-presidents.
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Too Much Meat Pressures Beef Market Outlook By Les Kletke
There is too much meat in the market place according to Brad Magnusson who delivers the crops and livestock outlook for Manitoba Credit Unions. Photo by Les Kletke
It was not only the high price of beef that caused consumers to back off on their purchases but the over supply of other meats in the North American market at the same time as beef prices were escalating. This is the word from Brad Magnusson who delivered the Market Outlook for Catalyst Credit Union Ag Day on behalf of several Credit Unions across Manitoba. “There is a great deal of chicken and pork that is being carried over and is contributing
to the slow down in beef sales,” said Magnusson a Market Analyst with Magnusson Consulting Group. He said these factors would have a much longer impact than if it was merely a run up in prices that had consumers backing off of beef purchases. “People are also over estimating the impact of the increase in cow numbers in the US,” he said. “Certainly they are a factor but they are not the only factor in the market place. The market has to deal with the excess of pork and chicken that are in freezers at this time and has to clear the market.” He said that the beef industry is
heading into a critical time of the year in terms of marketing. “When the barbecue season begins in the US the beef industry has to be ready to take its share of the market and if it does not get a good start to the barbecue season that can have longer term impacts through the summer and that is not going to be good for the return to cattle producers.” Magnusson said the unknown is how much pork and chicken will be discounted to compete and take its place on the grills of America. “There is a lot of protein in those freezers and the industry wants to move it, so their might be some deep discounts in the stores, but traditionally the barbecue season is about beef and when the price is high consumers shift to a lower price cut. We might not see the back yard grill have as many steaks, it might be more hamburgers but people like to barbecue beef,” he said. He pointed out that higher processing amounts and some restricted trade are factors causing the glut. “There were record kills of pork in December of 2015 and that is in the market now, we also have the restriction of trade to Russia, and Russia buys a lot of meat from North America but that is not happening now. That meat is in the market place,” he said. Magnusson does not ignore the increase in cattle numbers in the US herd but said it is not the only factor affecting prices at this time. “We are seeing cow and heifer numbers up across the US and that will mean more beef eventually,” he said.
What to Consider When Renting Farmland Lower commodity prices in recent years may have slowed the pace of farmland value increases, but the cost of renting land has been slower to react, according to J.P. Gervais, Farm Credit Canada’s (FCC) chief agricultural economist. “This makes the question of whether to buy or rent land even more complicated and it’s one of the most common questions I’m asked when presenting for industry and FCC events across Canada,” Gervais said. “There is no single answer, only a number of considerations.” As commodity prices decline and input costs increase, the temptation is to discontinue renting land. However, not renewing a lease may mean shutting the door on the opportunity to farm that land again in the future. As a renter, there are a few basic steps to follow when considering your options. “Knowing your cost of production and making projections about revenue are critical in determining your ability to pay for rented land,” said Gervais, adding that producers should also factor in fixed costs, such as equipment, when considering a lease. Next, producers need to discuss the situation with their landlord to see if they can agree on a price adjustment that reflects the economic conditions. “As in any negotiation, consider putting yourself in the shoes of the opposite party to help in reaching an agreement,” Gervais said. “Landowners may be reluctant to reduce cash rents, and choose to wait for more significant downturns in market conditions before doing so.” Some other considerations for leasing farmland include: - How much of a premium are you required to pay to retain control of the land until the outlook of better net returns? The premium is defined as the difference between the actual cash rental rate and the rental rate that you need to break-even. - How does paying a premium affect your farm’s liquidity? Successive years of negative returns can drain your working capital and challenge your overall farming operation. Set a target for working capital equal to 30 per cent of your planned expenses. “Balancing the need to secure land for the long-term and managing the financial health of your operation is a difficult exercise,” Gervais said. “Nobody can predict the future with accuracy. The only available option is to run scenarios and position your business to be able to take advantage of future opportunities and face emerging challenges.”
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Manitoba’s Ag Minister Proud of Accomplishments By Harry Siemens Despite the recently introduced additional 11-step program to apply for a permit to build a new hog barn in Manitoba in certain areas, it will still take renewed confidence from the financial institutions and other investors to make it happen. Ron Kostyshyn, Manitoba’s Agriculture Minister said a pilot project introduced last April offers the opportunity to build the barns required to meet the needs of the province’s processors for hogs while safeguarding the environment. In April 2015, the Manitoba government approved the ‘Pig Production Special Pilot Project Evaluation Protocol’, a plan under which pork producers in Manitoba can apply for permits to build new or expand existing swine barns. Kostyshyn speaking to reporters as part of Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon recently, said in partnership with Manitoba Conservation and Manitoba’s hog producers, the pilot product calls for a two-cell manure storage system in place of the anaerobic digester philosophy to deal with nitrogen and phosphorus and other environmental safeguards. “In partnership with Manitoba hog producers and the Department of Conservation and other stakeholders, we’ve seen some noticeable changes,” he said. “Concentration levels have been reduced in order to apply and there’s always the buffer zone of applications in designated areas from waterways and opportunities.” Kostyshyn said there is recognition that environmental sustainability is possible and, in talking with Manitoba’s hog producers, there is an interest in building new barns under the pilot project adding the next challenge is attracting the investment required to build new barns. When asked about the state of the hog industry in Manitoba over the last four years, he calls that a moving target. “We know supply and demand plays into that, obviously with the COOL somewhat being on the radar screen right now, will that accelerate the price for hog production or hog prices in the province of Manitoba; I’m hoping it does,” said Kostyshyn. “Also we have to maintain the operations of the HyLifes and Maple Leafs when we move into further hog production in Manitoba. We continue to work with labour forces, with employees down at Maple Leaf, but there is also a shortage of hog numbers to process.” He hopes to see the province maintain 100 percent operation at the plants and continue to provide more jobs in the local market. When asked if he sees any new signs of increasing investments from hog producers he said, “We’ve had conversations with the Manitoba hog industries and they are out looking, researching for investors in barns, and putting in more hog operations.” “The reality as we all know is that a lot of the hog barn infrastructure is getting up in age and the industry is talking to us, to investors, is my understanding. So we’re hoping to see that continues to happen.” Kostyshyn said price guarantees are always the driving force at the end of the day for the financial investors who want a fair return on their investments. “Now the opportunity and whether we will have more barns is I think just a matter of the hog industry working with other agencies to make it become a reality indefinitely,” he said. He also noted that he does not view the new regulations as hampering the industry or food production in the province. “I don’t think you should use the word hampered, but more the due diligence, environmental sustainability, and the Save Lake Winnipeg bill are there to do just that,” he said. “But I think there is an opportunity geographically throughout the province of Manitoba that can accommodate sustaining hog barns in the province, and still do it in a safe environmental manner in partnership for all of us.” “At the end of the day, we appreciate the hog industry and we as government, will do anything we can to work with it, and provide some financial stability in the long run,” he added.
The Agri Post
How to Market Grain and When to Market Has Changed By Les Klekte Bran Magnusson is neither a proponent nor opponent of the Canadian Wheat Board and what has developed in the Canadian grain marketing system since the Board was removed as the single desk seller of Canadian grain. He said the marketing of grain has changed for Canadian farmers and it has resulted in more on farm storage being built that allows farms to get grain to delivery points at different times of he year. “We used to see the Board come into the market place in late November and buy a great deal of grain, when they called for deliveries at that time,” he said, “They would sell that grain and come back to farmers with delivery calls in February.” Magnusson said that now marketing has moved to later in the year and farmers have built larger storage facilities with access to good highways. “The most common types of loans that farmers are taking is to build bin yards close to highways,” said Magnusson a former employee of Manitoba Credit Unions who still works closely with Credit Unions. He said the strategy is somewhat self-fulfilling. “As grain companies wait for the crop to come off in South America before making offerings, grain farmers are holding the crop and the market patterns move in that directions.” He said the charts show that the majority of marketing happens later in the year and that is a trend that will continue, as we are more aware of crops in other parts of the world. He advised farmers to take advantage of higher price offerings that come about from various reasons. “You see the highest prices from grain companies in the early days of trade shows,” he said. “Go to Farm Progress Show or Ag Days for Tuesday morning not Wednesday afternoon. Often by then they have filled their requirements and prices have dropped off.” Magnusson advises farmers to be aware of even slight movements in
Brad Magnusson tells producers that marketing patterns have changed since removal of the CWB. Photo by Les Kletke
price and take advantage of any run up in prices. He also advised that farmers should be marketing anytime they can lock in a profit. “Over 80% of the grain not priced is sold in the lowest quadrant of the market,” h1e said. “Producers wait for a higher price and then sell
after the peak has passed. Get ready to sell, be in a position to sell, know what your costs of production are and then when you make a profit sell.” He said that many producers would now be happy to take the prices that were offered at harvest. “How many of
you would be happy to sell the crop for what you could have gotten at harvest time?” he asked a group of producers at a Catalyst Credit Union meeting, “Those are options we have to be aware of and be in a place to take advantage of, the way grain is marketed has changed.”
The Agri Post
High Somatic Cell Counts Rob Good Health and Milk Production
By Elmer Heinrichs
Somatic Cell Counts as related to Milk Loss Estimated milk loss (lb/year)* 400 1,000 1,300 1,400 1,600 1,700 >1,700 *based on 14 – 15,000 lb milk/cow/year
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Ag Canada Sees More Pulses and Special Crops
In the last year, I have reviewed in detail the somatic cell count (SCC) records from dozens of DHI-monitored and robot barns. As a result, I re-educated myself as to the dynamics of reducing high SCC in any particular herd in order to achieve a lower incidence of mastitis and higher milk production. My first review started with an average 125-cow dairy barn, whose monthly herd SCC seem to hover just below the milk-board penalty of 400,000/ml with some top milk producers topping 3 to plus 9 million SCC. In six months of evaluation, I would like to take the credit that I put together a fantastic SCC-fighting nutrition and management program, but that is not what happened. This producer was forced to cull out about a dozen persistent culprits that scored SCC over one million and now maintains a herd SCC of about 225,000/ml. In addition, the herd’s milk production increased by 2.5 kg. This individual’s case is not unique, because it is no secret that high SCC bulk tank records rob this dairy and others of otherwise good health, milk production and revenue. Consider the following relationship between SCC and milk production outlined in the following table (Philpot and Nickerson, 1991):
SCC (cells/ml) 100,000 300,000 500,000 600,000 800,000 1 million >1.6 million
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% milk loss 3 7 9 10 11 12 >12
In addition to these milk production losses, there is also a loss of milk quality to the milk that is produced by high SCC cows. White blood cells from high SCC milk contains natural enzymes that breakdown valuable milk protein and fat. As a result, milk processors do not want high SCC milk because casein protein levels are significantly lower, which negatively impacts such milk end products like cheese yield. There is also some evidence that SCC deterioration of milk leads to reduced fluid milk storage life. Nobody should argue with this evidence that lowering SCC leads to higher milk production. However, I have learned that all available SCC records whether they come from DHI, robot or any other SCC record keeping system should be routinely reviewed, so an effective plan of action can be taken. Consequently, here are some my own revelations to effectively combat high SCC in lactating dairy cows that I learned by examining many recent SCC reports: - It’s a “numbers game” - A high milk-producing cow with a modest SCC count can produce the same total amount of cells as a modest milk-producing cow with a high SCC count. For example: A 40-kg cow x 200,000/ml SCC = A 20-kg cow x 400,000/ml. Their contribution to the bulk tank should be the same. Similarly, a 10-kg cow x 200,000/ml is a lower contributor. - There is a Million SCC club - I always take note of the lactating dairy cows that score 1M SCC/ml and more. Their SCC multiplied by milk production often yields a substantial SCC contribution to the bulk tank. On the DHI records, these cows are reported on the HSLST. On the robot records, I find similar cows by transferring and sort them on my excel spreadsheet. - There are a few “bad” apples - Never was a cliché so true to me. For example, if one looks at the same HSLST sheet, their biggest SCC violators make the biggest contributions. I know of cases where the dairy producer is milking several hundred cows, and less than a dozen cows contribute up to 40% of his bulk tank SCC. I know of a couple of cases where the highest SCC cows were culled and the whole herd SCC easily dropped 100,000 points. - Impact of corrective action - Culling or therapeutic treatment of dairy cows in the Million SCC club has a significant impact on the rest of the herd. I also found that implementation of a solution that reduces SCC in the second highest group of SCC cows with records of 200,000 - 800,000/ml will also lead to lower whole herd counts. That’s because, these cows have relatively high milk production, which gives them modest control of the bulk tank. - Law of diminishing results - The first 50,000 cell/ml of an individual cow SCC record denotes shed body cells, while the rest of the record is white-blood cells fighting infection. Therefore, lowering the SCC of a herd by the same rate with a SCC of 200,000/ml versus another herd with a SCC of 300,000/ml can be more difficult to achieve in the former. Like myself, I believe that many dairy producers can start reducing high SCC in their dairy herds by a periodic review of all their available SCC records and apply some of these revelations in an effective corrective manner.
For 2016-17, area seeded to field crops in Canada is forecast to increase for oilseeds and pulse crops while the area seeded to grains remains relatively flat compared to 201516, reported Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in its February outlook. In western Canada, the area in summer fallow is forecast to continue its downward trend, which will open up some area seeded for crops. Total crop production is forecast to increase slightly to 84.7 metric tonnes (Mt) but total crop supply will decrease slightly due to lower carry-in stocks. What is noteworthy is that the production and supply of grains and oilseeds (G&O) in Canada is forecast to decrease slightly while the production of pulses and special crops (P&SC) is expected to increase significantly. In general, world grain prices are expected to be pressured downward by abundant supplies of grain globally but the impact on grain prices in Canada will be mitigated by the low value of the Canadian dollar.
For 2016-17, area seeded in Canada is expected to decrease marginally as a 24 per cent increase for winter wheat is more than offset by a 2 per cent decline for spring wheat. In western Canada, spring wheat has competition from durum, oilseeds and pulses, which is expected to limit the seeded area. Production is forecast to increase by 5 per cent to 23.3 Mt because of higher yields. Although small compared to Ontario and Quebec, Manitoba is the largest corn producer in western Canada and had near record yields in 2015. Similar to barley and oats, rye area is gaining in eastern Canada although total areas are small when compared to western Canada. The high price of rye over the past two years, and low input costs, are making rye an attractive cropping option. For the crop year to-date, movement of Canadian canola is brisk on support from strong export buying, active crush pace and the devalued Canadian dollar. Exports to-date are 17 per cent ahead of last year due to strong Chinese, Japanese and Mexican buying.
Canola prices are forecast about $20/t higher than last year on support from the lower Canadian dollar and tightening world vegetable oil supplies. For 2016-17, seeded area for canola is forecast to increase by 4 per cent, to 8.4 million hectares on attractive returns compared to other field crops. For soybeans, domestic processing of soybeans should see a record 2.0 Mt, up 12 per cent from last year on strong demand for meal and oil. For 2016-17, dry pea seeded area is expected to rise by 14 per cent from 2015-16 to a record 1.7 Mha because of higher potential returns relative to other crops, good logistical movement and solid export demand. The area seeded to dry beans is forecast to fall marginally from 2015-16 to 0.11 Mha due to lower potential returns compared to other crops, particularly soybeans and corn. For the current crop year, grain prices are expected to average slightly higher than the 2014-15 level, with the exception of durum, oats and flaxseed. For lentils and, to a lesser extent, peas, prices have averaged significantly higher than last year.
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Smart, Savvy and Safe Farm Kids The value of hard work, a sense of responsibility and pride in a job well done are characteristics that all parents want to nurture in their children. There is nothing more gratifying than seeing your child accomplish great things through hard work and determination. Farm kids are lucky because they see firsthand how to accomplish tasks successfully, be stewards of land and livestock, and take pride in hard work. However, raising a successful, smart and savvy farm kid doesn't have to come at the price of their safety. Discussions concerning the issues of farm safety and children often can be controversial and emotionally charged, but there is one point that everybody agrees on, the death of even just one child is a horrific tragedy. It’s important that parents and caregivers understand that children aren’t miniature adults. Even the most advanced eight-year-old is still a child. And these wonderful young people don’t have the experience, physical strength or understanding to always make the right choice, handle large equipment
or be entrusted with complicated farming tasks. Children grow and progress through different stages of physical, mental and emotional development. Physically, children are different than adults. Some children are big for their age, that’s true, but their stamina, strength, and fine motor skills are still developing. Mentally, children don’t always understand consequences of risky behaviour. Even the most mature child doesn’t have the life experience or critical thinking skills to always make the best choices. Emotionally, children haven’t developed the skills to balance impulses against risk or to always know when to ask for help. Take a critical look at your child. Do they always make the best choices? Are they always physically capable of doing mundane tasks? Do they act impulsively? All children do impulsive things, aren’t always physically up to the task and sometimes make poor choices. It’s up to parents and caregivers to establish boundaries and guidelines, not just in everyday life, but also
when it comes to farm safety. Risk taking is an important part of growing up. Children that take age-appropriate risks and engage in age-appropriate tasks stand a better chance of growing up into skilled, capable, and confident adults. The North American Guidelines for Children’s Agricultural Tasks is an excellent resource that parents and caregivers can use to guide decisions about what kinds of farming tasks are ageappropriate. These are guidelines, you know your child best, but remember to take into consideration that parents often overestimate their child. Be critical and be truthful about your child's ability when determining what tasks are appropriate. Children’s safety on the farm just doesn't end with assigning appropriate farming tasks. It also depends on their role models and decisions that those adults make regarding safety on the farm. According to the Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting, there were 248 agricultural fatalities among children and youth in Canada under 15 years of age. Although 71% of the
agricultural fatalities among children were work-related, in 8 out of 10 cases, the victim was not actually doing the work. These young victims were killed by someone else who was engaged in agricultural work. So what can we do to prevent these untimely deaths? First, we have to rethink “tradition”. Farmers are often on the forefront of new and exciting ideas, after all, it was farmers who championed minimal tillage and moved away from the traditional black dirt of summer fallow. The same kind of thinking needs to be applied to safety on the farm. It might be “tradition” to allow extra riders on the farm equipment. And it might be “tradition” to have children around farm machinery, but that doesn’t mean it has to be this way. Build new traditions. Talk about the farm equipment, teach children how they work, show them the proper safety gear, explore your farm together in a safe and controlled way. Keeping children safe doesn’t mean that they can’t be involved in the farm. Instead, it means that your children will be around to be the next generation of farmers, who will in turn carry on the tradition of a successful farming operation. Our children are our greatest accomplishment and joy. Let them learn, run, jump, play and work. But let’s make sure they do it at acceptable risk levels. Take the time to understand the risks farm children face and how to nurture our future farmers in a healthy and safe way. For more information about Keeping Kids Safe and Canadian Agricultural Safety Week, visit agsafetyweek.ca.
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Close Call Still Teaching Family Respect for Farm Safety By Amy Petherick Teaching kids to respect hazards is an important part of raising children safely on the farm and much can be learned from close calls. Growing up on the family farm near St. Malo, the Racine children experienced their own close call while playing in a large truck. All five kids had free range of the family’s grain farm and made toys of anything they could find. Monique Racine remembers how their imagination knew no bounds and how fearless they were. “When I was a kid, we weren’t afraid to take a hammer, and nails, and just put them into a piece of wood,” Monique recalls. “I remember taking a drill and drilling holes in aluminum bowls!” During the harvest season of 1986, everything changed. Monique and her younger brother, Patrick, took lunch to her father and older brother in the field. As they had done before, she and Patrick were playing in the truck box where the wheat was being unloaded. Patrick remembers waving hello to his brother in the combine as it unloaded into the truck box around him. He hadn’t yet realized his body was already stuck in the grain. He vividly recalls suddenly struggling to pull his arms out of chest-high wheat and looking over to see Monique was worse off. “The wheat was above Monique’s nose and eyes already, so I got my left arm out to scoop enough wheat away from her mouth and nose constantly,” he says. “The pressure of the wheat on my chest was so heavy, I was trying to breathe so hard but I couldn’t, so I panicked... it was a nightmare.” Outside of the grain box, his father, Emile, had returned in another truck to take the next load of wheat from the field and had expected to see the two younger kids around. Emile is not sure what it was that made him think they might be in the back of the truck. “I came to the field to see no kids in the truck, and I just panicked,” he explains. “I automatically went to the back of the truck, opened the gate, and they both came out.” Patrick says he can clearly remember Emile was “as pale as a white wall” as he knelt down to check them both over. “They were both OK but that was a very close call,” Emile says. “After that, I told them that they had to stay home.” No one was allowed to play on equipment anymore and Monique says none of the kids could see the fun in it after that anyway. The new farm policy became ‘if you can’t count five heads in the yard, you can’t start up or move equipment.’ Emile bought two way radios shortly after that so there could be more communication about where the kids were supposed to be and fortunately, they never had another close call after that. Now that the kids are grown and bring the grandchildren to the farm, those safety policies are as important as ever.
The Racine children. (Left to Right Standing): Joanne, Marc and Roxanne. (Left to Right Sitting): Monique and Patrick.
Patrick says maintaining eye contact is a good policy but he’s learned the value of conducting walk arounds too. He’s moved away from the farm and says it’s a mandatory practice on his construction worksite. Fatal accidents in the past have proven the equipment is simply too big to see everyone from the cab. In his opinion, walk arounds ensure you really know your surroundings as an operator. “Where I work, you walk around, make sure there’s no one behind you, and no one near the equipment,” he says, “no matter what.” Monique says their family had to learn their commitment to safety the hard way and she’s determined to teach her four year old daughter without another close call. If constant supervision isn’t a guarantee, Monique says she won’t let her daughter be in a position where there’s a potential safety risk. “If she’s going to go in the shop where there are chemicals, I know her, and curiosity’s gonna take over.” That’s why Monique strongly believes it’s ultimately up to parents to ensure the safety of their children. If that means insisting on hazards being put under lock and key, dedicating a babysitter to constant supervision, or simply declaring ‘no-go’ zones, than that’s what she believes parents should do.
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The Agri Post
Building Your Farm Team By Les Klekte Donald Cooper knows a lot about team activities and as the former head of Cooper Sporting Goods he was in Winnipeg to talk about building a strong team. His presentation at CropConnect in Winnipeg
in mid February drew a large crowd with his closing keynote address, it standing room only. Cooper advised farmers to build their employee team with the same care that any business would go about getting the right employees and having them
in the right positions. While Cooper grew up in southern Ontario in a family that operated one of the county’s most successful sporting goods manufacturers, he has worked extensively in the agriculture industry as a consultant and business coach. “We
are not talking about someone who you might hire to run the combine for a couple of hours during the busiest time of the year but someone who is a part of your organization on an ongoing basis. Someone who is doing the work that will impact your business long term.” Cooper said one thing that is often overlooked for employees is the history of the farm business. “Make them aware of the history of your farm, how long you have been in business and where you want the business to go,” said Cooper. “You can not expect them to understand your intentions if you do not tell them about your business.” There is another advantage and perhaps just as important. “They feel apart of the team when you tell them things about your business and what your intentions are. They feel they are a part of your successes and that makes for engaged employees,” said Cooper. Cooper’s presentation entitled Creating a Top Producing Team was full of anecdotes about his own business life and included successes and failures. “There are some things that don’t work but we have to learn from them and not repeat the mistakes,” he said. Cooper is now in his later 60s, has no intention of slowing down and will be back in Manitoba to speak to several more agricultural groups before spring. He drew another parallel with the agricultural community, with not retiring. “We do what we enjoy doing, I have just spent 3 months developing a new book and I loved every minute of it,”
Donald Cooper says building a team of employees on your farm means keeping them informed. Photo by Les Kletke
he said. Cooper called on several examples of intergenerational organizations that paralleled farm transfers. “We have to prepare for the next generation
but that does not mean leaving an operation completely. It is about building a team within a family and with the employees of the organization,” said Cooper.
Dairy Research Targets Cardio-Vascular Health Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay announced recently that the Government of Canada is funding an additional $1.75 million in the dairy research cluster to further increase milk production and improve our understanding of the health effects of dairy fat. The funding will enable
the Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) to tap into research conducted by AAFC scientists, bringing the total investment under the research cluster to $13.75 million. The cluster, launched in 2013, brings together scientific expertise in key areas such as sustainable milk production, dairy genetics and genomics and the nutrition of milk products. Funding will help support research into two specific activities, enhancing the energy of forage crops to maximize milk production and studying the impact of dairy fat products such as cheese on cardiovascular health in humans. “Canada’s dairy sector is among our largest food industries and contributes significantly to the country’s economy, said MacAulay. “This new investment in research will help boost milk yields and help maintain consumer confidence in the nutritional value of dairy products.” The Canadian dairy industry has $6.07 billion in farmgate sales, $15.4 billion in sales in the processing sector, and supports 112,000 jobs.
The Agri Post
Government Set to Review Temporary Foreign Worker Program
Miles Beaudin, the Manager of Quality Assurance and Labour programs with Manitoba Pork said swine farms located closer to the larger urban centres tend to have less difficulty filling vacant positions than those located in more remote areas.
By Harry Siemens Two things do not work well together, a shortage of animals to process and lack of workers to do the processing. That is the case under the former Federal government, which changed the rules. Now, the government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said it will review those rules announcing plans to launch a fullscale review of the recently revised Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Ron Davidson, the Director of International Trade, Government and Media Relations with the Canadian Meat Council, said three key changes to the program have hurt meat processors. He points to the annual reductions in the allowable number of foreign workers from 30% down to 10%, the reduced period of time foreign work-
ers could remain in Canada from 2 years to 1 year and in the renewal from 2 years to 1 year. “We believe that we should be able to have access to foreign workers when demonstrably we have proven that there are not sufficient Canadians ready and willing to do the work and we have lots of evidence of this,” said Davidson. “We have scoured the country for years, for new immigrants, for refugees, for unemployed, for aboriginals, for youth to work in our plants and most of the workers in the plants are from Canadian origin but they just aren’t sufficient.” He believes, when there is a demonstrated chronic long term shortage, that processors should be able to access sufficient foreign workers to keep the plants sustainable and competitive in the international
SeCan Reaches Settlement with Farmer SeCan announced recently the settlement of a Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) case against Harvey Marcil of Pasqua Farms of Moose Jaw for unauthorized sales of PBR protected varieties CDC Bethune flax and AC Strongfield durum. “Having an individual profit while perpetuating an industry problem was taken very seriously,” said SeCan’s Todd Hyra, Business Manager for Western Canada. While full details of the settlement are not available, the parties have agreed to a cash settlement of $150,000, and a declaration there will be no additional unauthorized sales. This is the largest individual settlement for SeCan to date. The largest prior settlement was $120,000 in 2013.
market place because under the current system not only are the plants suffering but everybody in Canada is suffering the impact of not being able to fill these positions. Davidson said plants today are missing opportunities to produce more value added products and export those products because they are operating with empty positions making the timing of the review very important. “It’s even more important as we look forward to the opportunities that will be created by the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the new trade agreement with the European Union,” he said. While Davison talks about processing plants, the same thing holds true for hog barns in areas that are more rural as the need for workers in every barn getting into full processing increases. Miles Beaudin, the Manager of Quality Assurance and Labour programs with Manitoba Pork said swine farms located closer to the larger urban centres tend to have less difficulty filling vacant positions than those located in more remote areas. Manitoban pork producers have identified accessing qualified labour as an ongoing challenge. Beaudin said in response, Manitoba Pork has successfully lobbied the Federal government to maintain access to the Temporary
Foreign Worker Program and identified two recruiters qualified to recruit temporary foreign workers, hired a human resources specialist to evaluate labour needs and made changes to its web site to allow producers to advertise on farm jobs. “We have a variety of positions starting at entry level and at that position we call them animal care technicians,” he said. “Then we have supervisor roles for breeding and farrowing, we have farm managers and we have some general management positions. In total, we have approximately 25 hundred on farm jobs involving the care of swine. There’s approximately 100 to 200 positions that come available every year. Some producers are having no difficulty at all. It appears to be dependant on location where the farms are.” Beaudin said farms closer to Steinbach, Winkler, and Winnipeg are having less difficulty while others are having more difficulty. He advises producers seeking workers to advertise through all available mediums, including the national job bank. “In the event they can not find people domestically, after several weeks they can request a labour market impact assessment and once approved will be able to recruit workers through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program,” he added.
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Scholarship Awarded to Manitoba Angus Youth
Raina Syrnyk of Ethelbert, Manitoba was awarded with a Canadian Angus Foundation Legacy Scholarship of $2,000 recently in Ottawa at the eleventh annual Guiding Outstanding Angus Leaders (GOAL) Conference held in midFebruary. Raina Syrnyk is pursuing a double major in Finance and Accounting at the University of Manitoba and intends to obtain an MBA (master’s degree in business administration) from the University of Toronto, eventually establishing a career in the agricultural industry from a management and financial position. “I chose to pursue a commerce degree because I believe that there is a lot to be learned and applied concerning the efficiency and effectiveness of agricultural practices. In the future, feeding the world will be an ongoing challenge and by maximizing our efficiency
together, we can minimize the gap between supply and demand,” said Syrnyk. The GOAL Conference promotes leadership skills within the Angus breed. Junior members from all over the country attend this three-day event held in a different Canadian location each year. During the event, Juniors hear from nationally recognized speakers, participate in workshops designed to improve their leadership skills, get involved in teamwork activities, and develop beef and industry knowledge. Participants are also given the opportunity to network and socialize with fellow Junior Angus members. Highlights from the event included touring the Parliament Buildings, presentations from agriculture advocate J. Scott Vernon, PhD and about the McDonald's Verified Sustainable Beef Project as well as skating on the Rideau Canal and a Haunted Walk tour in the frigid temperatures. The Canadian Junior Angus Association is a group of Angus enthusiasts under the age of 21. GOAL is an annual networking and interactive function organized by the Canadian Junior Angus Association. It rotates throughout the country every February.
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The Agri Post