The Agri Post
January 30, 2015
For a Great Crop It’s All About the Water By Les Kletke
Weaker Looney Helps Us Compete By Harry Siemens After seven lean years as a hog producer and making some changes going forward, it is good to see some big profits returning to the pig business, said past Chair of the Canadian Pork Council and an Alberta mixed farmer. Jurgen Preugschas who has farmed since 1970, said following seven lean years in the pig business, he hopes there will be seven good years. “That would be a genuine pleasure, but I’m also a realist,” he said in a conversation at the recent Banff Pork Seminar. “It is certainly better because we’ve recovered some of our losses in this past years, certainly unprecedented profits.” Preugschas said with 2014 behind it feels great but he knows the industry will need to manage really, really well to be competitive globally. Not everyone came through those seven lean years. Preugschas and his son did, but not without significant changes to their operation. “Unfortunately, a lot of families went out of the business. Some lost their operations, some lost their homes, and that to me is the most difficult part,” he stressed. “We were fortunate in being able to sweat through it, changing our operation to where we now custom finish for OlySky now and that is working very, very well.” Preugschas outlined what brought them to that decision, knowing that things down the road could turn around, and any higher profits would not necessarily accrue to them, if they fed pigs for someone else. “Well, the banks were a big help in that decision. You can only borrow money for so long. And even if the equity is there, enough is enough,” he said. “So we had to take a real strong hard look at things. In our total operation, we had to sell some land to meet our commitments and acquire a contract with OlySky to custom finish pigs. My son is a partner with us and he’s is very happy with this setup in terms of having, regardless of where the prices are, a monthly income that we can live off of.” The Preugschas family operates several farms, in-
“We will need more than one year of profitability before we see a major expansion taking place,” said former Chair of the Canadian Pork Council, Jurgen Preugschas to an audience at the recent Banff Pork Seminar.
cluding one where they custom finish pigs, called Pigs Are Us Inc., a 9,000 hog finisher unit. Their home farm is the breeding unit and part of Peak Swine Genetics. They do not have sows anymore on the home farm because of the biosecurity issues even though it is three miles apart because of traffic flowing back and forth. He said that he feels optimistic about the future. “We always have to take a look at where do we fit in as an exporting nation with the world,” Preugschas said. “Certainly, the much weaker Canadian dollar is a very positive thing for us today, down at under 82 cents whereas a year ago we were at par. So that helps us in Canada to compete with the world and get us back in line; our packers and everyone back in line with our relatively high wages that we have to pay, and other higher costs like energy, with some of our regulatory costs much higher than many other countries.” The weaker dollar allows Canadian producers to be more competitive and the outlook is relatively positive except in the area of new expansion. “I think with what we’ve gone through here in Canada especially, it is harder on us, than say the American producers, so our expansion is going to happen with a little more thought and a little slower than it will possibly in the US,” said Preugschas. “We will need more than one year of profitability before we see a major expansion taking place.”
Rigas Karamos who spent time at the University of Manitoba is now with Koch Fertilizers in Edmonton told the audience at St. Jean Farm Days in January that water is still the most important part of producing a crop. Karamos does not downplay the value of a good nutrient program in producing a crop. “But it is all about the water,” he said. “Things may change in the future as new varieties have different rates of water requirements and we might see varieties that can produce great yields with lower moisture requirements, but water use is going to remain the prime component of producing a crop.” He said that change is going Rigas Kamaros says water to continue in crop production is still the determining factor but at varying rates. “In 1973 in producing a crop and the when I started working in crop has only two choices Manitoba I carried a large cell ground water or rain water. phone that might work in some areas. Today there are phones a fraction of the size but not all changes happen at that rate. The organic matter in the soil does not happen at the same rate as Apple products 1, 2, or 3. We need to be aware of the conditions in the soil and base our crop expectations on that.” He went on to explain what many producers might think as the obvious but may not relate to their crop expectations. “There are two sources of water during the growing season, the ground water and what comes from either rain or irrigation,” he said. “That amount of moisture is what limits crop production.” He went on to explain that ground water usage is what is important during times when producers are surprised by their yields during dry years. “Often farmers are surprised at yields but what is happening is that ground water is being used and unless it is replenished it will not be there for subsequent crops.” Kamaros advocated the use of a simple instrument called the Brown Probe to find the level of soil moisture. “It is a ½ inch rod with a 5/8 inch ball bearing on the end and as far as you can push it in the ground tells you how deep the soil moisture is,” said Kamaros. He recommends that producers consider the level of soil moisture when determining their nutrient program for the year and targeting yields. “Soil fertility is important but knowing the moisture available is a critical part and until we have different seed varieties it remains the key issue,” he further added.
1