Agripost July 28 2017

The AgriPost

“Visit the Villages” Tractor Trek Raises a Record

July 28, 2017

Heritage Harvest Welcomed as New Addition to Foodgrains Bank

By Elmer Heinrichs Growing projects are a huge part of fund-raising for food aid by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank here in Manitoba and in other provinces as well, said Harold Penner, Regional Coordinator of the church-based relief agency.

Crops, including lots of soybeans, earmarked for Foodgrains bank are currently growing, and progressing well on about 5,000 acres of Manitoba farmland.

Penner also expressed a big thank-you to all who joined in the effort to raise money for famine relief in June while the extra 1:1 match from the Federal government was in place.

He pointed out that the Foodgrains Bank will have an information booth at the annual Manitoba Threshermen’s Reunion, following up on last year’s Harvesting Hope Guinness world recordsetting harvest.

This partnership resulted in a new growing project Heritage Harvest on 70 acres of MAM land, and Penner hopes it will be successful this year and in years to come. Income will be shared, and used to promote our agricultural heritage and the work of providing food for people in the developing world.

Harvesting of Foodgrains project crops will begin in early July.

A record number of entries turned out for the 2017 Visit the Villages Trackor Trek with 63 units raising $53,000.

By Les Kletke The 2017 Eden Tractor Trek is in the record books after raising a record $53,000. The previous nine events had raised over $1.5 million but the 10th anniversary was the largest fundraiser to date.

Armin Ens the man who came up with the idea of trekking through southern Manitoba villages is far from done. “We

have visited 26 villages over the years, and if you add Altona, Winkler and a Hutterite colony that means we have visited 29 communities,” said Ens. “We keep getting invitations to more, we are getting requests to move out west.”

He does not rule out visiting communities west of Winkler though Mennonite villages are much scarcer going that direc-

tion, or even the possibility of a third Trek. Currently there are Tractor Treks based in Winkler and Steinbach.

When Ens conceived the event, he wanted the rules to be simple.

Tractors had to be over 40 years old, and the event would wind its way through the Mennonite Villages across the RM of Rhineland to the a destination that would change from year to year.

This year’s event attracted a record 63 tractors. Along with the drive in the countryside, drivers and their tractors were eligible for several awards. Their age groups of tractors were evaluated by a panel of three judges on features such as smoothest running, quietest running, best restored and best modified.

When the Trek reached Winkler drivers had the opportu-

nity to participate in the Tractor Olympics where they faced challenges like Backing up a 4wheel trailer, Blind man’s leap, driving while wearing a welding mask, chain fold, slow race and the balance beam.

Eden Mental Health facility has been the beneficiary of the funds raised by the event and the organization’s new CEO Analyn Einarson was on hand to

thank the drivers and volunteers at the banquet. She took the opportunity to speak in both languages of the area, English and German.

Armin Ens was content to enjoy the meal at the end of the day but it will not be long before he is working on Tractor Trek 2018. He already has the request for villages that would like to see the event go down their street.

July 28, 2017

The AgriPost

The AgriPost

July 28, 2017

CAFTA Urges Canadian Government to Push Ahead with TPP

Negotiators from eleven Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries met in Japan recently.

As negotiators from eleven Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries met in Japan recently, the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA) strongly urged the Government of Canada to make every possible effort to implement the TPP as soon as possible. It is a necessary step for agri-food exports to meet the $75 billion annual target set in the 2017 Federal Budget.

“Export driven agri-food can deliver growth and jobs by increasing our exports to $75 billion by 2025,” said Brian Innes, President of CAFTA. “But there’s no way we can deliver growth if we don’t have competitive access to the markets that matter. The TPP is critical because it includes Japan, a market that demands $4 billion of our agri-food exports every year.”

Canadian agri-food exporters have built a high-value and stable market in Japan, based on competitive access with other exporters. It is an important market for many agri-food exports, especial-

ly for canola, pork, wheat, soybeans, beef, malt, and barley. Key competitors for Canada’s agri-food exports to Japan already have, or will have, preferred access to the Japanese market putting the existing $4 billion in Canadian agri-food exports at risk and limiting further growth.

Australia has had preferred access since 2015 when their agreement was implemented and the EU just announced that they have concluded their negotiations with Japan.

“We’re witnessing the start of a train wreck,” said Innes. “There’s still time, but watching other countries implement trade agreements with a key market like Japan while Canada has no agreement will cost us jobs and limit our growth.”

The meeting in Hakone, Japan, offered the opportunity for government officials to work on how the agreement can come into force without the US. Several TPP countries such as Japan and New Zealand have already passed legislation to implement the

agreement. A productive meeting in Japan will pave the way for trade ministers of the TPP-11 to sign off on a revised agreement at their scheduled meeting in November. There is increasing evidence that this will be good for Canada.

A recent report by the Canada West Foundation affirms what CAFTA has been urging for some time, that the TPP will be positive for all member countries, even if the US does not participate.

The Art of the Trade Deal: Quantifying the Benefits of a TPP without the United States predicts trade expansion and economic growth across the 11 countries. In fact, in many cases the net benefits of implementing the TPP including Canada will actually be greater than the original TPP with the United States.

Negotiations of the TPP, with the benefit of strong US leadership, were completed in 2015. CAFTA was an active and strong supporter of Canadian participation and has always recommended its

adoption by Canada. Innes noted that the TPP also secures favourable access to markets with growth potential such as Vietnam and Malaysia, while also setting a framework for open and stable trade in the Asia Pacific that other countries can join in the future.

CAFTA enthusiastically supports the ambitious trade negotiation agenda of the Federal government, including a Canada-China free trade agreement and modernized NAFTA. It is important that Canada seize all available opportunities to enable growth. “Implementing the TPP will take much less time compared to pursuing a multitude of bilateral deals which have not yet begun,” said Innes. Innes added that the TPP is a trade agreement designed to expand in membership. Shortly following the completion of the deal, other Pacific nations indicated interest in joining the TPP, including Korea and several ASEAN members such as the Philippines and Thailand.

Back By Popular Demand

By Joan Airey The Manitoba Women’s Institute is once again sponsoring the “Manitoba Rural Women’s Day” because of the extremely high interest in the 2016 event. The event will be held in Minnedosa Saturday October 14 and October 28 in Komaro.

“There is a full day planned with three speakers and a

Fireside Chat. We will have a display area featuring organizations that focus on the topic Mental Health. Keynote speakers will be Keith MacPherson who has a special ability to motivate the masses and win over even those who might otherwise neglect their health and wellness. Elaine Froese who empowers families to communi-

cate and resolve conflict, she is a farm family coach. Also Vicki Olatundun who was recognised by Canadian Living magazines one of forty women across the country who it sees as being a ‘Change Maker’ in making Canada a better place. Vicki launched her book Unleash your Crazy to Win: How Overcoming Infertility Led to Business Suc-

cess,” said Debbie Melosky, a spokesperson for the 2017 planning committee, Manitoba Women’s Institute.

The Fireside Chat in Minnedosa and Komaro will have different participants and the displays will vary.

More details are available at mbwi.ca and on their Manitoba Rural Women’s Facebook page.

Read the Agripost online at www.agripost.ca

The AgriPost

July 28, 2017

Round-up, Roundup

Don’t say the B word Everybody knows how you don’t say Shut Out to a goaltender when a game is happening, who then takes one into the third period of a hockey game, or after the 6th inning you don’t even talk to a pitcher who has a hot hitter going. I can only imagine if you mentioned the word to him, you would be blamed not only for the possible loss of the No-hitter but everything bad that happened to him in the week following. I am sure that every sport has its superstitions and you don’t want to be the one who breaks the spell by saying the offensive words taking away exactly what the individual is trying to achieve.

I remember an instructor from my University days who used to say that your biggest crop is the day that you seed, and it can only go down from there. If things were to stay ideal (and they seldom do), you would only get the crop you expected. “Now the problems are going to start,” we would say. “And your yields are going to decrease.” It seemed a harsh message at the time but its reality sunk in. There is nothing you are going to do to that crop once it is in the field that will increase the yields from the targets that you had in the budget.

Agronomists will tell you that the possibly yield of a crop is determined much earlier than the stage we are at now, but for all indications it looks like that potential is pretty good.

While we may think, we are heading to the third period or the seventh inning or whatever stage we want to call it for the 2017 crop, things look pretty good.

Of course, we all know better than to count our chickens before they hatch or in cropping terminology, “It is a long way from in the bin.”

I am not going to be held responsible for any and everything that goes wrong with this crop from here on, never the less I will refrain from using the B –word, but things do look pretty good.

The one thing that ensures a less than great crop is those missing patches, where the low spots drowned out or the hills dried off, that is the case in most fields this year. An even stand across the field, that is the first factor in contributing to a great crop, the yield monitor should not be hitting zero at any place in the field those really hurt the average.

The year has been a bit of dry one, and my lawn has more than a few brown spots where the grass chose to retreat but those are the years that we typically get or best crop, seldom on a wet year, something about losing those puddles.

I wasn’t going to say it but here’s hoping that this one fills and you get it in the bin, because it does look like a … Good one.

Penner’s Points

By Rolf Penner

With harvest right around the corner, expect the usual litany of complaints about farmers spraying Roundup on their wheat.

That makes it timely to revisit “The Truth about Glyphosate and Wheat,” a blog post from Nurse Loves Farmer written by Sarah Schultz in 2014. She does an excellent job of explaining why farmers do it and, more importantly, why it’s perfectly safe.

A farmer may choose to apply pre-harvest glyphosate for many reasons. It can help speed up the harvest, a real value given Canada’s short growing season. That can make the difference between having wheat graded number 1, number 3, or even feed. It’s also a big help in controlling stubborn weeds like Canada thistle and quack grass.

It’s important to remember that the application takes place when a crop is already fully mature, usually 7 - 14 days before harvest. If applied too early, it has the potential to reduce yields and risk lowering the quality of the grain. Ideally, grain seeds are already down to 30% moisture or less when the glyphosate is sprayed. That means it doesn’t move into the grain from the plant.

A common misconception is that farmers do this because it supposedly gives them a higher yield.

“This is completely false,” Schultz points out. “The yield of the crop is already determined because the wheat has stopped growing, their job is done, the plant is dead. When the plant isn’t green anymore, that means photosynthesis cannot occur or transport nutrients. Spraying glyphosate won’t magically create more kernels of wheat that late in the game to create higher yields.”

How safe is this practice? Very. Both Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency set and monitor maximum residue levels. Those levels are way below that which could cause any problems. We are talking about lower than plain old vinegar and a toxicity level that is ten times less than caffeine.

What if you did consume some glyphosate, let’s say by accident? It would get excreted through one’s urine and feces in almost exactly the same state as when it was consumed. Also noteworthy is that it doesn’t stay in the body and accumulate over time either.

So what does it do in plants? Droplets pass through the plant cuticle and into cell walls. From there it moves to the growing points stopping a specific enzyme pathway, the shikimic acid pathway. Here’s the important part, this shikimic acid pathway is only found in plants and a few microorganisms. You won’t find it in human beings, so there’s no way it can affect human amino acids or bodily functions.

Sarah makes another good point, “We don’t just spray herbicides recklessly and certainly not needlessly. We aren’t going to spend money on expensive herbicides if we don’t need to; just think about that for a moment. As a business, which our farm is, we want to make a profit and not lose it. We see the accusation constantly that our crops are ‘drenched’ and ‘doused’ in glyphosate. I assure you, they are not.”

She’s right. Farmers want to do the right thing. They want to grow food that’s healthy and safe and, if they weren’t doing that, then they would change how things are done. It is frustrating being constantly accused of being up to no good. When it comes to pre-harvest Roundup, farmers have the facts on their side. They shouldn’t let anyone else tell them otherwise.

Proud to Be a Canadian Living in Winkler

One hundred and fifty years old or should I say young?

Looking across the border to the US, 241 years old, but reflecting on our recent travels to Europe, we sat and walked in houses and churches dating back to the 12-century and more. We worshiped in one of the last Gothic churches in Switzerland dating back to the 12 century with a beautiful pipe organ, the musician moving between his saxophone, the piano and finally the pipe organ.

While proud to be a Canadian, I’m just as proud to be living in Winkler and having the privilege of walking through the Bethel Heritage Park almost every day.

As one reviewer of the park said about the park, a true Heritage Experience!

Besides the beautiful fountain, pavilions and stage, there is a walkway through history with Cairns depicting those who gave their lives during the world wars, for those serving as conscientious objectors, COs and the history of immigrants who first established Winkler. A centerpiece is an oak tree planted from a seed of an Oak tree in Russia where many of the immigrants came from.

While the country Canada provides the framework for the Provinces and Territories, Winkler afforded our fore fathers and mothers to set up shop so to speak, to give us the impetus to educate, worship, and the wherewithal to earn a living. Many

of those who came before us as depicted on the plaques in the walk through of the Park, gave their lives, fasted and prayed, and through hard work, sweat, and tears made it happen.

I’m so thankful for our country Canada, our province of Manitoba, and in the community, we live. Why? Because those who came before us put God first, sacrificed everything in some cases so we can have what we have today, freedom, the ability to work at what we want and can, recreate, and worship in the church of our choosing. When I look back, growing up on a farm and farming with my father and brother for some years, July 1 was the turning point in several ways.

Yes, it is the beginning of the second half of the year, the seventh month and for the most part summer recess for those going to school.

Spraying for weeds is well underway, wheat began heading out and of course, the fields turned yellow with the blooming canola.

For my brother Jack and myself and the Plum Coulee Braves fastball team, July 1 was also a form of celebration because of the ball tournament in Morden. There was nothing quite like it, a time to get together, play ball, and when finished, watch others play fastball and baseball players of all ages highlighted.

From 1958 to 1968, our fastball team minute’s record and held by Melvin Klassen one of the original Brave members shows that our team won that tournament five out of ten years.

No small feat considering the calibre of the ball teams coming from Winnipeg, North Dakota and of course southern Manitoba.

July 1, and the actual 150th birthday of Canada has come and gone, but celebrations will continue throughout the summer and the year.

May I remind you once again, we live in the best country in the world, Canada, and let’s not take our freedoms and work ethic for granted. In some cases, our ancestors came from countries and areas where they in some case had taken those same freedoms for granted.

Many left with the shirts on their backs, and not nearly all family members were able to come together or even come. Some stayed, and others gave their lives so others could go.

Yes, God bless Canada, God bless Manitoba, and God bless our homes as we continue to be faithful to Him.

The AgriPost

Low Prices Cure Low Prices

By now, everyone is likely aware of what has happened to wheat prices this spring and early summer, especially since mainstream media started reporting on this a few weeks ago. More specifically, what has happened to spring wheat prices, since winter wheat and other lower quality wheat prices have not been impacted to the same extent.

Although we at IntelliFARM had been saying eight months ago that wheat prices should be moving upwards through 2017, nobody else really seemed to believe that or jump on that train of thought with us. When others in the industry did start to take notice, was when both the USDA and Stats Canada released their initial 2017 acreage estimates on March 31 and April 21, respectively.

The USDA estimates showed a decrease in total expected wheat acres from 50.2 million in 2016, to 46.1 million in 2017. This

certainly got the trade’s attention, as it seemed that the years of low wheat prices had finally done their job of affecting potential supply.

Stats Canada estimated total wheat acres would be virtually unchanged from 2016, at 23.2 million, but that was down from 2015’s total of 24.1 million acres.

Now the trade was definitely paying more attention, as the big drop in acres in the US and level acres in Canada meant that any production issues could put the supply side of the equation into a troublesome spot.

It wasn’t until the end of May and early part of June that things really started to heat up though (literally). A large portion of the spring wheat grown in the US is seeded in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington State. In early June, things started to get quite warm and dry in those areas, which was resulting in a potentially large drop in spring wheat production,

without having Canada to rely on as a backup source given our own growing issues in western Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Although we were expecting wheat prices to rally, seeing our cash prices go from $6/bu most of the winter, to over $9/bu by the end of June, was a phenomenon to behold. All of a sudden, everybody was wishing they had grown more wheat this year, and every farmer had nothing but good things to say about it, a far cry from what we’ve heard regularly over the last four years.

Our concern today, however, is that wheat prices have peaked. That’s not to say they can’t go higher, however when you consider that Minneapolis futures rallied over $3/bu US in six weeks and have since failed, I’m certainly inclined to say this is a possibility. I also looked back over the last five years, and noticed that wheat futures did this in 2012 as well, in the middle of one of

“The amendment will allow MWBGA to continue providing leadership for continuity of funding to wheat and barley variety development, as well as tackle other important research and market development related questions,” said Fred Greig, Chair of the MWBGA. “The MWBGA will also continue working with its fellow wheat and barley commissions in setting funding commitments with former WCD recipients Western Grains Research Founda-

tion (WGRF), the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi) and Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC).”

The designation amendments were submitted to the province after membership approved a resolution at the 2016 Annual General Meeting to authorize the Board of Directors to proceed with the regulatory changes that would be required to complete the transition of the funding obligations currently undertaken by the West-

Food Fear: A Call for Action

By Brenna Mahoney

the worst US drought years.

Wheat futures peaked out in July that year, in spite of drought conditions getting worse through August and September.

While I don’t think prices will fall back to where we were last winter, our suspicion is that these price levels will be buying a lot of acres for 2018 as farmers look to break up rotations now that wheat is at a profitable level again.

I’ve often said to clients that wheat is one of those crops that is exciting and euphoric for a brief moment in time, and then it turns dismal for the next few years. I think we may have seen or are in that euphoric stage, and if so, we know what comes next.

Brian Voth is the president of IntelliFARM Inc, working with farms to create customized grain marketing plans and carrying them out. For more information visit intellifarm.ca or call 204-3243669.

Single Check-Off Deductions Coming for Barley and Spring Wheat The Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association (MWBGA) announced the transition to single checkoff deductions for spring wheat and barley, a move that will improve efficiency and effectiveness at no extra cost to farmers.

Starting August 1 there will no longer be two levies applied to both spring wheat and barley grown in Manitoba. The MWBGA deduction will be $1 per tonne for spring wheat, and $1.06 per tonne for barley.

July 28, 2017

ern Canadian Deduction (WCD) to the responsibility of the MWBGA. The WCD on spring wheat and barley is ending July 31, 2017.

Winter Cereals Manitoba, Inc., the spring and barley commissions in Alberta and the barley, spring wheat and winter wheat commissions in Saskatchewan have already received regulatory amendments to move to single check-offs administered by their respective commissions.

As I scrolled through my Facebook this morning, I came across a treasure trove of misinformation and fear mongering. Some of my friends writing in the comments how they agree that our food system is a big conspiracy and we are the test subjects.

I may roll my eyes like most of us that work in agriculture and think this is a hopeless mound of Trump-like “alternative facts”, but this is something that is impacting our children, friends, wives, brothers, husbands, and even parents. The peddling of fear from people like the Food Babe or David Wolf has sometimes only one degree of separation; it can be coming from within our circle of trusted sources.

This past week a friend of mine contacted me with a question. After a lunch with friends, she was told dairy in all forms is not good to give children. They recommended that alternative milks, like almond or rice, would be better. She was then left wondering if it would be better for her baby, who has just turned one to have organic milk, or if conventional milk, which she and her husband already drink, would be good enough, or no dairy at all. As a nurse who works in a children’s hospital, she left this lunch with a lot of insecurity and felt like an inadequate mother.

I get these questions a lot as in a previous life I managed a health food grocery store and now work in agriculture. I do think consumers have the right to choose whatever they want, but they should do so with all of the right information. This is why I never want to put someone down, but open up a healthy dialogue of, “Where did you hear that?” and, “May I offer you some feedback from what I know?”

Farmers, as well as industry experts, can be the trusted source that people come to seek out. We may not always have the answers. However, it is important to always help those with questions to find the right sources. Our instinct may be to avoid these topics all together, especially with friends, as it can be awkward and uncomfortable telling them that watching a documentary on Netflix, or several, does not make their sister-in-law an expert, and that they should be speaking to a health professional or nutritionist.

I do feel like my own food evolution has a lot to do with my openness with friends and whoever may come my way to talk about the food dilemma that a lot of people are facing.

It usually comes down to, “To eat or not to eat, that is the question.”

It can be hard to remember that most consumers do not have a farmer in their circle, or any of those direct contacts. Those of us who work in agriculture should never take for granted that all we have to do when we have questions is pick up the phone and call a farmer, talk to a scientist, discuss public trust surrounding these issues with anyone in the agricultural value chain. We all need to become that source of trusted information for others.

Our urban lives have pulled us away from the land, and the realities of modern agriculture. This is why I believe that as an industry we must rally together, and truly share our passion and experience with the people in our lives. If I had a farmer sit with me a few years ago and say to me, “Ask me anything about agriculture and farming, and I will answer it or find you the answer,” I would have been thrilled.

I now know because of my experiences over the past year, that modern agriculture has a good story to tell. As a consumer, I want farmers to have all of the best tools at their disposal. It has been shown that people trust farmers, not farming. Drawing the lines together so that modern agriculture is connected back to farmers will help build some much-needed bridges.

I trust our food system and feel like we are getting better and smarter as an industry every day, taking opportunities to be innovative, sustainable, and efficient. I think that the confidence we all share within our industry should give each one of us the courage to have challenging conversations with people about food, and see our “wins” as something even as simple as a second thought about their sources, or even just listening to what you have to say. We don’t need to change people’s minds; this is about sharing and building trusting relationships.

The fear around food must end. Bridges need to be built, and much like a drop in a pond, that ripple effect can help shape what information people have to make informed choices, with real science, real facts, and with the people they trust.

Brenna Mahoney is Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations with Cereals Canada.

July 28, 2017

The AgriPost

The AgriPost

July 28, 2017

Record Canola Crop Seen in July Outlook

By Elmer Heinrichs

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), after incorporating data from Statistics Canada June farm survey, reports Canadian producers seeded a record amount of canola, exceeding the area seeded to wheat (all varieties combined) for the first time.

In its July 2017 crop outlook, it said the unharvested grain in western Canada from the 2016 crop was an issue that affected seeding in some regions. However, in total, the area seeded to field

crops in Canada is expected to increase modestly compared to last year.

The higher area seeded to oilseeds and wheat ex-durum is expected to more than offset the lower area seeded to durum, peas and lentils.

For 2017-18 seeded corn area increased by eight per cent from last year. In eastern Canada, corn is four per cent over the previous 10year average.

Manitoba continues to expand its corn and soybean areas and for 2017 planted

Strengthening our Trade Ties with Mexico

By Les Kletke While the US president talks about restrictions of NAFTA, Canada and Mexico are moving ahead to build strong agricultural trade relationships.

The two countries are already strong trade allies with a balanced trade position and producing complimentary crops. Over 90% of the canola seed that is imported to Mexico originates in Canada and 95% of all avocados consumed in Canada come from Mexico.

“We are stronger together; working with the United States we have created trading relations that is the envy of the world. The North American Free Trade Agreement has created a more competitive, prosperous and integrated agriculture and food industry across North America,” said Agricultural and Agri-Food, Minister Laurence MacAuley at the conclusion of the Bilateral Agricultural Meetings in Calgary recently.

Currently Canada imports $2.4 billion of food annually while Mexico imports $2.3 billion of Canadian food products.

While trade numbers typically deal in the values of exports and imports between the two countries, the talks in Calgary dealt with issues that could have greater impact on farmers. “The meeting in Calgary provided a valu-

Mexican Ag Minister José Calzada.

able opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to continue collaborating in the areas of common interest such as science and technology, which is helping advance key areas of research including climate change and developing more disease resistant wheat potato varieties. As a region and bilaterally, we have also coordinated in the areas of plant and animal health, trade of biotechnology products and improved regulatory cooperation,” said MacAulay.

Manitoba Pulse Growers have been working with Mexican associations for several years to build a relationship with bean growers and processors in that country. Several grain companies have established lasting markets for Canadian wheat that moves south by rail, much of it originating in Manitoba.

At the conclusion of the meeting in Calgary the Mexican Secretary of Agriculture, José Calzada and MacAulay issued a joint statement saying, “We recognize the importance of expanding this type of collaboration, including through the CanadaMexico Consultative Committee on Agriculture and the Canada-Mexico AgriBusiness Working Group, to help insure favourable market access conditions and increased trade of our agrifood products within North America and globally.”

record corn acres, 19 per cent higher than 2016 and 65 per cent higher than the previous 10-year average. Growing conditions in eastern Canada have been poor, with conditions in Manitoba being near normal.

Seeded oat area has increased due to stronger-thanexpected new crop pricing with production of 3.5 metric tonnes (Mt) forecasted. Manitoba producers increased their oat area by 44 per cent.

Canadian farmers have seeded a record 9.2 million

hectares (Mha) to canola, a rise of 12 per cent from 2016-17. For the first time in history, the areas seeded to canola surpass the areas seeded to all wheat including wheat, ex-durum and durum to become the largest crop planted in Canada.

Soybean planted acreage is estimated at a record 2.9 Mha, surpassing all Canadian crops except canola and wheat ex-durum, to become the third largest crop planted in this country. Manitoba and Saskatchewan grow most of

the soybeans in western Canada, 43 per cent of the total.

The AAFC said that for crops, at this stage, it assumes average or trend yields despite dry conditions in parts of the west, and excess moisture conditions in some

regions of eastern Canada.

In general, it expects world grain prices will be pressured by an abundant world supply of grain, but sees the impact on grain prices in Canada mitigated by the low value of the Canadian dollar.

July 28, 2017

The AgriPost

The AgriPost

The Case for a National Strategy on a Comprehensive Ag-Food Policy Agriculture industry leaders met with federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers recently during the Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s (CFA) annual Industry-Government FPT Roundtable in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where they explored priorities and strategies to grow the sector.

Discussion topics included the next Agriculture Policy Framework (APF), which is set to begin on April 1, 2018 with efforts focused on creating a National Food Policy and NAFTA trade negotiations.

Celebrations around Canada’s 150th birthday continue in many communities, and farm leaders proudly highlight that agriculture is positioned to bring greater prosperity to Canadians, both in urban and rural areas.

“We’ve got the land, resources, technology and expertise to become world leaders in this industry. And we’ve reiterated to governments that investments in strategically designed programs will allow our producers to compete for a larger share of export markets. This includes tools needed by sectors that rely on the domestic market such as the supply managed industries,” said CFA President Ron Bonnett.

The current suite of APF programs, under Growing Forward 2, expire on March 31, 2018, and CFA directors were pleased to present their views as the new APF is now in the final stages of federal-provincial-territorial negotiations. CFA and other organizations that are part of the AgGrowth Coalition are advocating for a review of business risk management programs that would make them more effective and responsive to farmer needs.

Other APF requests relate to supporting young farmers and new entrants into the industry, and accounting for newly identified priorities that governments will add to the next APF. “Farm groups are eager to learn how we can work with governments toward the long-term success of our industry, as envisioned in the 2017 Federal Budget and the Federal Advisory Council on Economic Growth report, the Barton Report,” added Bonnett. “CFA has been calling for a National Food Policy as a means of mapping out

a whole-of-government approach that would integrate and coordinate policies link to food and agriculture.”

CFA presented the ministers with its A Food Policy for Canada discussion document that describes a range of recommendations to this end.

The roundtable was preceded by the CFA summer board meeting, at which members established priorities in a range of areas, including labour, trade, climate change, transportation, as well as consumer trust.

Board members also heard comments from Scott Vanderwal, Vice-President of the American Farm Bureau Federation, who offered remarks on the importance of maintaining a strong Canada-US trade relationship.

He noted that the AFB values their ongoing dialogue with Canadian farmers and that the two organizations share views on issues such as labour requirements and the need for regulatory harmonization.

Canada’s Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Frederic Seppey, provided an overview of government’s initiatives leading up to NAFTA re-negotiations. Looking ahead, CFA remains committed to working in partnership with all orders of government as they prepare to implement the next agricultural policy framework, proceed through international trade talks, and explore the options for a national food policy.

July 28, 2017

Good Quality First Cut But Quantity Lacking

By Les Kletke Peter Fehr is satisfied with the quality of feed he put up so far this year but it is much less in volume than he normally gets from a first cut.

“We just did not get the warm weather to get things off to a good start, and we were short of moisture,” says Fehr who produces hay for market and feeds the low quality production to his beef herd.

He normally sells his first cut alfalfa and that will be the case this year because of the quality.

“The weather was

good and allowed us to get some good quality bales that should bring a good price, especially if it stays dry.” Fehr has 200 cows at Grunthal and pastures them through the summer and uses his lower quality feed to get them through the winter.

“There is always some hay that gets rained on or something before we get it baled and wrapped so that goes to our own herd.”

He expects that if things stay dry in the western part of the province and North Dakota he might be moving some product westward.

“With the difference in the dollar right now we can de-

liver a good quality product into the US and be very competitive in that market,” he says. For now he is taking a cautious approach to marketing his first cut that he knows will bring a premium.

“If things stay dry prices might move up and if we don’t get a rain we might have a lot less hay for a second cut,” he says. “With things being this late we most likely won’t get much of a third cut so we might not have to move our hay very far to find a market.”

While he has been marketing hay for more than a decade, he says the business keeps changing.

“There are no two years the same and you just never know where your market might be,” says Fehr. “A couple years ago were looking at a drought in Western Canada and rumours of hay prices reaching the sky were all over the place. It never happened. We will wait and see how much hay there is and who needs it.”

Transportation costs have become a bigger part of his business.

“With the cost of fuel we are better off to sell our feed locally and take a bit lower price than trucking it across a state.”

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July 28, 2017

The AgriPost

The AgriPost

FCC Advises to Review Your Borrowing Strategy

By Harry Siemens When the Bank of Canada raised its interest rate modestly on July 12, Farm Credit Canada (FCC) advised farmers and agribusiness operators to take the opportunity to review their financial strategies since this is the first increase since 2010.

J.P. Gervais, FCC’s Chief Agricultural Economist, said the reasons for this change in direction are many with some implications “Well, the Bank does release at the same time as the announcement the reasons why it believes that it’s a good thing actually to be moving up its key interest rate,” said Gervais. The main reason is that the Canadian economy is increasing and growing at a reasonable pace he explained.

“All the additional, excess capacity that we accumulated since the oil shock of 2014 when throughout the year we had oil prices drop quite a bit. What that triggered is somewhat of a recession, especially in the western part of the country. Some businesses laid off workers others

lowered their investments.

And that slowed down the entire Canadian economy,” he said.

Gervais said the economy has moved on beyond the oil shock. The Bank of Canada said the economy is now growing at a very reasonable pace, so that it expects that by the end of 2017, or sometime in the first half of 2018, the economy will be moving at an average pace.

“So it will either absorb all the additional capacity that we accumulated and hence, at that time, we should have an interest rate that’s more in line with what a reasonable interest rate would be,” he said. “So that’s the reason why the Bank is starting to raise interest rates now. It does also acknowledge that inflation is not that high in Canada. So typically, when the economy’s growing fast, you would see inflation pick up, and price levels move up, too. And so that’s perhaps one of the reasons why we’re not likely to see another rate hike anytime soon. But that’s something to be thinking

about; that the Bank could be raising interest rates. It did on July 12, and it could raise interest rates again before the end of this year in 2017 and perhaps even once more into 2018.”

He went on to say, if a business has a loan that’s priced on a variable rate, that variable rate is usually tied to the prime rate that is tied to the Bank of Canada rate.

“Hence, Bank of Canada rate went up, prime rate went up, and so your variable rate in that case would have gone up as well as early as the next day following the Bank of Canada’s announcement.

That means higher borrowing costs,” he said. “It’s not the end of the world. We’re talking about a quarter of a per cent, .25 per cent. It’s not that big of a deal. We have historically low interest rates on a downward trend for interest rates for a long time.

But it does, increase a little bit your borrowing costs.”

Gervais said one rate hike does not make this a trend, but people are so accustomed to see interest rates go down

in Canada and stay down for a long period. He recommends reviewing the financial borrowing strategy. “What is the mix of loans that I have in my business? In my operation? Do I need to convert some of these loans from variable rate to fixed rate,” said Gervais.

“That can be done almost at any point in time. So those are the questions that a business needs to be asking because it may be that sometime later in 2017 we have another rate hike. And maybe then another one in 2018. Then it starts to add up and now you want to make sure that you address what’s the right strategy for you.

What’s the risk profile that you want to have when it comes to interest rate risk? Do you want to see everything float and everything vary? Or do you want to lock in some rates now, knowing that perhaps down the road they’ll be higher?”

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Hope for Crops Becoming Slimmer

By Les Kletke The hope of an above average crop is rapidly disappearing in Western Manitoba and Don Johnston fears that, for much of his crop, the die has already been cast.

“If we get a rain now it would help and it would keep the rest of the crop from deteriorating but the potential has already been cut,” says Johnston who farms 3,000 acres at Elkhorn.

He is hopeful that his soybeans will come through the dry conditions and at least give him a near average crop. It is only his second year of growing the crop and he is not sure how it will handle the drought.

“We used to have sunflowers in the rotation for years like this,” he says. “They handle the drought and seem to do well but we have not had the experience with soybeans. We have only produced them once and we did not run into these conditions.”

Johnston says he moved away from sunflower and canola because of high nitrogen costs, and last year was happy with the switch to beans, so this year he decided to put about a third of his acres into the crop.

“We had good luck last year and it seems that every one is going in that direction, so we increased our bean acres,” he says. “We will just have to wait and see what happens.” In his mind there are two scenarios - a rain could help ease the problem overnight, or soybeans will face a real evaluation of how they handle drought conditions.

“We have seen wheat come through years like this, and while the yields are down somewhat, we usually have a higher protein on the dry years,” he says. “We have not given up yet but we are at the point where the crop is starting to back up and if we get some hot windy days that could be a problem sooner than later.”

Johnston says his canola looked good early and he had a good stand that came into bloom and showed promise.

“But it was not blooming long enough and we did not get the cool nights that canola likes,” he says. “Instead we got hot dry days and that had the flowers drying up too quickly.”

Johnston remains optimistic that a good soaking rain could take the crop that remains to its potential, “but it has to be soon.”

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July 28, 2017

The AgriPost

The AgriPost

For Three Sisters this is One Day of Fun

Debbie, Angela and Brenda Klassen make the Tractor Trek an annual part of their summer.

By Les Kletke For three sisters the Tractor Trek through the villages has become an annual event that can be traced to their childhood, now providing a day of fun. “No matter where life takes us, we will always be farmer’s daughters. The die cast tractors we played with as children are on display in our homes now, no longer the source of entertainment they used to be, but at the Tractor Trek we again have the opportunity to play with tractors,” said Debbie Klassen who is an accountant in Winkler for most of the year.

Her sister Angela is a high school teacher in Winkler, and Brenda is an interior decorator in Winnipeg. The three acknowledge that Dad, George does enjoy having his daughters home and playing with the big toys. “We don’t enter the Tractor Trek for Dad, but we are able to enjoy it because of him. He makes sure his tractors are ready for us and he is there to help us out if anything should go wrong.”

While the three make the event an annual occurrence they make sure, they get further afield as well. Last year the sisters and a friend visited Switzerland and in a show of team unity all were wearing hats from a mountain resort in that country.

They did not just drive the route through the villages they also participated in several of the Tractor Olympic events, including the Blind Driving portion where a driver wore a welding mask while driving a prescribed distance.

“I was not sure of the distance so I practiced on a course

5 feet shorter at home,” said Brenda.

“That hurt me a bit, but it is all in fun.”

Father George participated in the backing 4-wheel trailer completion and made short work of the event obviously having done the backup task more than a few practice runs. The family also made a few trips to the Awards table during the evening banquet, with Brenda picking up the award for best-unrestored

tractor in the class.

They said the Tractor Trek keeps growing because of families like theirs. Dad has the tractors and gets them ready for the event in July but his daughters keep coming back because they enjoy the event, and while it raises money for a good cause, they have a lot of fun along the way.

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Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) Found in Manitoba’s Horse Population The Equine Disease Communication Center advises that between June 14th and July 18th, ten cases of EIA in Manitoba have been confirmed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The affected animals so far were non-symptomatic carriers so they could have been part of Manitoba’s horse population and spread the virus to other horses over some time.

There may be more cases (as more were mentioned on social media) but they have yet to be officially confirmed.

Many shows and facilities, though not all, are now requiring proof of negative testing from all entrants.

Those organizations that have yet to require testing may lose participants who have no wish to put their animals at risk of exposure.

There is no cure for EIA. Although most infected horses show no symptoms, they remain contagious for life, endangering the health of other horses. Testing is the primary means of controlling the spread of this condition. The test to be used is called a Coggins test.

This test must be taken and performed by a CFIA accredited veterinarian. The test will take approximately 4-7 days to be returned. The test provides a positive result or a negative result. If negative the horse does not currently have antibodies to the virus and is considered uninfected. If positive then the horse has antibodies indicating virus in their blood and the test would be reported to the CFIA as required by law.

Prevention is through fly control and limiting contact with infected horses. Biting flies are the main mode of transmission. Other modes of transmission are re-used needles, blood to blood contact or semen.

Fly spray, fly nets, fly sheets and good biosecurity are all means to prevent spread.

Horse owners are encouraged to test their horses even if they are normally just kept at home, and to retest later in the season if attending shows and events with other horses.

Visit Manitoba Horse Council’s website for updates and resources at www.manitobahorsecouncil.ca.

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The AgriPost

July 28, 2017

CRSB Seeks Feedback on Sustainability Indicators for Beef Processing

The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB) has launched a public consultation to solicit feedback on its sustainability indicators for beef processing to ensure sustainability challenges and opportunities for this sector are addressed.

The consultation runs to August 29. Comments will be reviewed and written responses to each comment will be summarized in a report posted on the CRSB

website following the consultation. Following refinement, a subsequent 30-day round of consultation is expected this fall.

“With guidance from a committee of diverse industry expertise, the CRSB has developed sustainability indicators for beef processing that nicely complement the work already done for beef production,” said Cherie CopithorneBarnes, Chair of the CRSB and cattle producer west

of Calgary, Alberta. “I am sure we will continue to receive a broad range of feedback that will help us build a robust framework that is practical for the industry, and satisfies consumer demand.”

Page Stuart, an Alberta cattle feeder and Tim Hardman, Beef Director with the World Wildlife Fund, co- chaired the committee that developed the indicators. “Committee members from across the beef value

chain contributed diverse perspectives.

Dynamic discussions enabled us to reach consensus on a series of indicators encompassing all five principles of sustainable beef that will help the processing industry to continually improve its sustainability practices,” said Hardman. “Based on previous feedback, we have incorporated guidelines in the indicators that show how the scoring system is applied. We hope

this will help users assess their level of performance and facilitate continuous improvement,” commented Stuart. “I look forward to the feedback we receive over the next 60 days,” she added.

All relevant materials can be found at crsb.ca/publicconsultation-english.

Since 2014, the CRSB has worked collaboratively through its multi-stakeholder membership to promote sustainability across

the beef industry. Developing a verification framework is part of this work, and the indicators reflect what will be measured to verify sustainable practices. With the completion of public consultation on sustainability indicators for beef production completed earlier this year, the focus has shifted to indicators for beef processing. Note that the current scope of the indicators applies to primary processors only.

Hooked On Angus Breeding

By Les Kletke A taste of the World Angus Congress was enough to get one Manitoban hooked on the event and she plans ‘to attend as many as she can in the future.” The event is held every four years and the most recent one was in Scotland.

Rayna Syrnyk of Ethelbert was part of the Canadian delegation of Junior Angus breeders that were there to compete in various judging competitions, but she says it so much more than just the judging.

“It is the contacts you make and the discussions with people from other parts of the world about what works in their systems and things that we might try here,” she explains. Syrnyk says that being in the historical home of the Angus breed showed her what the traditional cattle looked like.

“I was surprised at the difference ¬¬in various breeds,” she says. “Our cattle in Canada tend to look more similar across the breed lines.” She credits genetic selection for the type of cattle that work in Canadian systems with the more look-a-like appearance of Canadian cattle.

Syrnyk was only home for a couple of days from her Scotland sojourn when she headed off to Lloydminster for the national meeting of the Canadian Junior Angus Association where she was returned as president for her second term. The short turn around kept her from preparing an animal for the show ring but she did pick up a friend and his heifer in Rocanville, Saskatchewan on the way.

Her own operation has 120 cows, 80 purebred Angus and 40 commercial cows which she uses for embryo implants. She does her own AI work and relies on her father Ray for some help when she is at school in Winnipeg. Ray concentrates on the farm’s 3,500 acres of crop land.

Syrnyk says she has been building her herd since she was 11. She got a pony and spent one year in the 4H horse club but her brother was in the Beef Club and the next year she made the switch and it was not long before she bought her first heifer at an Agribition Prospect Sale.

She has one more year of study to earn her undergraduate degree at the Asper School of Business and plans to do a Masters in Business Administration before beginning work in agriculture but she plans to keep building her herd on the home farm.

Highlight of the trip to Scotland… “I bought some cows with embryos in them this spring and I got to visit the farm in Scotland where they came from, “she says.

“That was pretty neat.”

Raina Syrnyk has just been returned for her second term as President of the Canadian Young Angus Breeders.

The AgriPost

Early August Combining Likely

By Elmer Heinrichs Above normal temperatures throughout most of the province continued to advance crops.

Weather permitting, combining of rye and winter wheat will begin in late July or the first week of August and the first spring wheat should coming off soon thereafter.

While rain fell in most areas in the week to July 17, Manitoba agriculture in its crop report suggested central and western regions would benefit from even more rain.

While disease and insect pressure remained low, producers continued to monitor crops as the growing season progresses. In dryer areas, moisture is needed for pastures and hay crop regrowth.

Warmer temperatures have advanced crops and improved growth in central regions. Most areas received trace amounts to 10 mm of rain, with a few eastern locations receiving more. A few areas have enough moisture, but much of the region would benefit from timely rains to aid in pod development.

Altona Farm Production Advisor Dennis Lange reported adequate rain and most crops, including cano-

la, soybeans, corn and edible beans look promising.

Fall rye is drying down, and harvest will start in the last week of July. Winter wheat fields, now in the soft to hard dough stage, are also drying down, with most spring wheat barley and oats flowering.

The latest seeded fields are just heading and beginning to flower. Most of the fungicide applications are done as fields recover from localized heavy rains and wind events.

As flowering declines on early fields, canola is podding. Some mid-to-late planted canola suffered from heat and lack of moisture, with some heat blasting evidence.

Colour and growth in corn has improved with the rains and warmer temperatures.

Tasseling is in progress, but some fields continued to struggle due to the earlier cold and dry conditions and some experienced lodging with the high winds and quick rain in the GlenboroTreherne areas.

Sunflowers are starting to flower, as are edible bean fields, while flax and pea fields are coming out of flower and producers begin applying fungicides where

risk of disease exists.

Soybeans are flowering and most of the crop has grown through iron deficiency chlorosis symptoms. Root rot is being reported especially in fields with tighter rotations.

Eastern regions reported significant precipitation events with rains and thunderstorms. Average rainfall amounts ranged from 18 to 25 mm, and in excess of 75 mm in a few areas. With warm, sunny and humid conditions, and more showers, the crops continued to advance. In-crop herbicide and fungicide applications are almost finished. Very little insecticide has been applied, as insect populations have been low.

Spring wheat has moved through the soft dough stage, with tassel development underway in corn. Efforts to alleviate iron chlorosis symptoms continued but parts of some fields will not recover. Sunflowers have budded, with low disease and insect pest levels thus far. Haying continues and producers have put up about half to three-quarters of their feed requirements. With the timely rains, the livestock has plenty of grass. Pastures are in fine shape.

Industrial Hemp Vote Launched for New Research Agency

Producer members of the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance are developing an application to the Federal Government for the establishment of a Promotion and Research Agency (PRA). For the application to be accepted, the majority of Canadian hemp producers must support the establishment of the agency.

The sponsors of the application will be surveying Canadian industrial hemp producers to determine the level of support for a producer directed PRA. Producers who applied for a cultivation license to grow industrial hemp over the past three years should receive a survey.

Much like commissions and boards in other crops, a hemp PRA would collect a levy on the primary delivery of hemp.

Meetings with close to 120 hemp producers across Cana-

da in the spring of 2016 demonstrated there was strong support for a PRA. Producers at those meetings voted 95 % in favour of a mandatory refundable levy of 0.5 % of the value of sales of industrial hemp seed and fibre. Governed by an elected producer board, the PRA would invest funds in research, promotion and market development activities for the benefit of producers and the entire hemp industry.

In many cases, funds collected through levies can be leveraged with federal and provincial programs or industry partners on specific projects and research. “Hemp is currently produced in nine provinces across Canada, so we feel a national agency is the best approach for producers across Canada to invest in and grow their industry,”

said Don Dewar, Chair of the producer committee proposing the application. “We are excited about the potential of hemp. It grows well in all agricultural regions of Canada, great strides have been made in developing varieties that perform well agronomically and are easier to harvest, and most importantly, the processors are working hard to develop domestic and international markets for hemp based products.”

The survey will be conducted this month and the committee plans to have the application into Ottawa this fall contingent on producer support. The survey takes less than 2 minutes to complete so please give us your opinion on this opportunity for producers to invest in their industry by voting at hemptrade.ca.

July 28, 2017

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The AgriPost

July 28, 2017

Small Town… Big Show

By Joan Airey Harding Agricultural Fair was held July 21 and to celebrate a group of local young people decided to drape their horses with Canadian Flags and dress as Mounties.

They looked very impressive in the Costume Class of the light horse show led by MLA Doyle Piwniuk into the show area for the Grand Opening of the Fair later in the day.

The riders taking part were Dylanne Smith, Kirby Smith, Hudson Bond, Avery Routledge, Ricki Hill, Rudy Rond,

Jaylin Hill and Elllie Slimmon.

Harding Community definitely has some hard working rural people because the town population is under 25

yet they host the largest fair on the milk run. At all times, four show rings were going with light, heavy and miniature horses and other livestock events. In addition, they had

37 cow-calf pairs in the commercial pen class.

With seven dedicated volunteers, they served a cool plate lunch at noon and supper to several hundred people.

A group of local young people decided to drape their horses with Canadian Flags and dress as Mounties.

Export Delays for Hog and Beef Producers Under CETA

By Harry Siemens Unresolved outstanding issues are expected to delay the full benefits for Canadian agriculture in Canada’s free trade deal with Europe.

Earlier, the groups set September 21 as the implementation date for the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) involving Canada and the European Union.

Brian Innes, the President of the Canadian AgriFood Trade Alliance said the agreement will mean about one and a half billion dollars in increased Canadian agri-food exports to Europe but outstanding issues will delay the full benefits of the agreement.

“On day one certainly some of the tariff concerns we’ve had around canola oil, around quota concerns that we have on low protein wheat, those things enable us to export right away,” said Innes. “Where as other things that we gained in the agreement like access for beef and pork have some difficulties associated with them, primarily around food safety recognition between Canada and Europe. While some of our beef plants will be able to export once they have the required certification there are some inconsistencies with the way Europe looks at certain provisions in our processing plants and the way that Canadian regulatory officials see those same requirements.”

He said that means that not all of Canada’s current beef and pork processing plants will be able to meet European requirements on day one. Canada needs to make still further efforts to enable processing facilities here in Canada to meet European requirements. “There are potential barriers around crop inputs like crop protection products and biotechnology traits that we include in our canola, corn and our soybeans that are potential barriers but the main concerns do revolve around those meat processing recognition requirements,”

said Innes. He said it remains to be seen how much of the negotiated quotas Canada will be able to use in the near term.

Ron Davidson, the Director of International Trade, Government and Media Relations with Canadian Meat Council is hopeful a key technical barrier blocking the export of Canadian pork into Europe can be resolved prior to the implementation of CETA. Davidson said two key technical barriers, health mark labelling and antimicrobial intervention, would delay commercially viable access to Europe for Canadian beef and pork. “The first one pertains to where the health mark is placed on packages of meat that are going to Europe,” he said.

“This is of concern because when we have an animal; only pieces of it will go to Europe. Other parts of the animal go elsewhere. If we are putting the health mark on the boxes at the production plant before they go into cold storage. This causes a problem for our companies because the product that is not going to Europe is going to have this health mark on it so we wish to be able to place the health mark on immediately before the product goes to Europe.”

Davidson thinks that industry can resolve the issue but is surprised it has not already been done. The antimicrobial interventions is particularly of concern to the bovine sector, the beef producers and to only some pork producers. That is because the European Union has not approved all of the antimicrobial interventions that we have in Canada and they will not permit the importation of meat products using those interventions until Canada has achieved European approval.

Davidson said the antimicrobial intervention issue is unlikely to be resolved by the September 21 implementation date, which means beef producers won’t be able to take advantage of commercially viable access to the EU for quite some time.

The AgriPost

Co-op Community Spaces Funds Agricultural Research Near Brandon Co-op is pitching in to help the Manitoba Beef & Forage Initiatives (MBFI) in a research farm with three sites near Brandon. The research farms will receive $125,000 in funding from Co-op Community Spaces, a funding program supporting recreation, environmental conservation and urban agriculture projects.

“Co-op Community Spaces is an exciting program that is making a difference across western Canada and we’re delighted to see it come to Brandon,” said Lorne Zacharias, General Manager with Heritage Co-op. “Heritage Co-op is supported and owned by members and customers throughout southwest Manitoba, so it’s important that we give back and make investments in our community and people, which is what Co-op Community Spaces is all about.”

In 2017, individual projects were eligible to receive up to $150,000 through Coop Community Spaces. In total, 27 organizations are being supported through the program. Combined, these groups that include non-profits, charities and community service co-operatives have received $2 million for their community projects.

Since launching in 2015, Co-op Community Spaces

has provided $4.5 million to more than 60 projects across British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

The funding will help support the construction of the Learning Centre of Excellence at the MBFI’s Brookdale site for producers, industry leaders and the public including students to better understand on-farm research, food production and agriculture’s role in rural and urban

communities.

The MBFI will also utilize the new facility to provide hands-on training in crop and livestock production, farm product marketing and workshops around safe animal handling. “This is just wonderful news,” said Ramona Blyth, MBFI chair. “MBFI is a centre of agricultural innovation engaging in science-based research to benefit valuable ecosystems, improve pro-

ducer profitability and build social awareness around the beef and forage industry.”

Blyth said that MBFI’s role is to support a community of collaborative stakeholders to advance agriculture’s future, and connect with the next generation. “We are really looking forward to working with the great people at Coop Community Spaces and celebrating their support,” said Blyth.

From left to right: Don Guilford (MBFI Management Committee Chair); Katherine Kingdon (COOP Corporate Secretary); Ken Jenner (Heritage Coop President); Lorne Zacharias (Heritage Coop General Manager); Robin Hamilton (Ducks Unlimited Canada Agronomist); Ramona Blyth (MBFI President); Glenn Friesen (Manitoba Agriculture, MBFI Management Committee); Duncan Morrison (Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association, MBFI Management Committee); and Brian Lemon (Manitoba Beef Producers, MBFI Management Committee).

Time to Step in and Fix the Churchill Railway

By Les Kletke Ian Robson knows it is time to fix the railway to Churchill immediately although the problems run much deeper.

“The Pools were created for farmers to have a share in the marketing of their grain,” said Robson. “They are gone and we have been at a disadvantage since then. A bigger problem is we no longer have a government agency that looks after the marketing of our grain and steps into to make sure that debts are paid.”

Robson farms at Deleau and is the National Farmers Union (NFU) Regional Coordinator for Manitoba. He questions the information that has been released by Denver based OmniTRAX who purchased the port of Churchill and the rail line.

He believes they purchased the rail line for the value of it as salvage. “The port and the rail line should be taken back by the Federal government,

operated and minted for the public good as originally intended. A significant portion of the northern economy depends on this rail system,” he said. “The Federal government has created a silly situation by selling an asset which has left us in the present conundrum of a private company not willing to fix the damaged rail line and yet wishing to create a capital gain form selling this asset to potential indigenous buyers who will have the same problems the private company had.”

He maintains the line should not have been privatized.

“This asset needs to be kept and operated by our government. Like any highway, it creates value from being operated by the government.

More private carriers could be attracted to run the trains upon the line and more potential could be gained,” he points out.

The NFU has always opposed the sale of the rail line

to a private company, particularly a foreign owned one.

“It is clearly evident that they are unwilling to maintain the tracks and have both the rail line and the port up for sale.

They stand to make a capital gain from doing so as well as having received public dollars for 5 years in order to continue shipping grain,” he said.

Robson said while an active shipping program through Churchill would significantly lower transportation costs for farmers in eastern and central Saskatchewan as well as the Swan River area of Manitoba it would have the added benefit of alleviating the congestion on shipping routes to the west coast.

The $60 million cost of repairs first reported by OmniTrax is not supported by photos taken by a couple of American motorcyclists who recently rode the rail line to Churchill documenting each breach and marking it with

a GPS. The photos show 14 washouts, but the line is now dry and “looks fixable”. VIA Rail staff apparently were eager to speak to the Americans as the photos did not support the information they had been receiving from OmniTRAX, whom they rent track from. In addition, Keewatin Rail Company, the Indigenous-owned northern Manitoba railway, said it could repair the line within 45 days, not including bridgework, for approximately $2 million.

York Factory First Nation Chief Ted Bland said he does not believe the repairs will cost $60 million. “I don’t believe that. I don’t think it’s going to cost that much,” said Bland. He further noted that OmniTrax might be including regular maintenance that has not been done on the line and is expanding the scope of the damaged area beyond what was actually flooded last May.

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July 28, 2017

The AgriPost

Manitoba Signs onto New Five-Year Agricultural Partnership The Manitoba government has signed onto the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, which sets out a new five-year agricultural policy framework beginning in April 2018.

“Our government is pleased to enter this new agreement and we look forward to the anticipated growth and advancement of agriculture in Manitoba as a result of this continued partnership,” said Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler. “The Canadian Agricultural Partnership will strengthen Canada’s position as a leader in the global economy and greatly enhance opportunities for the sector in our province.”

The ministers of agriculture reached the new agreement today on the key elements of a new federal-provincialterritorial agriculture policy framework during the Annual Meeting of Ministers of Agriculture held in St. John’s, Newfoundland, from July 19 to 21.

The Canadian Agricultural Partnership is a five-year, $3billion investment that will

come into effect on April 1, 2018. The new framework will focus on six priority areas which are science, research and innovation to help industry use science and innovation to improve resiliency and increase productivity, open new markets and help farmers and food processors improve their competitiveness through skills development, improved export capacity, underpinned by a strong and efficient regulatory system, continue to help the sector reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions, protect the environment and adapt to climate change by enhancing sustainable growth while increasing production, support the continued growth of the value-added agriculture and agri-food processing sector, ensure there is a firm foundation for public trust through solid regulations, improving assurance systems and traceability and enable proactive and effective risk management, mitigation and adaptation to create a resilient sector.

Under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, business risk management programs will continue to help producers manage significant risks that threaten the viability of their farm and are beyond their capacity to manage.

Governments responded to industry concerns regarding eligible coverage under AgriStability, ensuring a more equitable level of support for all producers.

Governments further committed to engaging in a review that explores options to improve business risk management programming. The review will recognize the important role played by all programs in the risk management plans of producers given the diversity of the sector.

The review will also have an early focus on market risk as it relates to AgriStability addressing concerns regarding timelines, simplicity and predictability. Ministers will be presented with options for consideration based on early findings of the review.

The Original Hi-Boy

By Les Kletke William Reimer knows there were other High Boy tractors manufactured but for him the 504 International was the original hi-boy sprayer. “I bought it about 20 years ago and used it to spray my corn and sunflowers,” said Reimer who farms at Blumenfeld.

He bought the tractor after it sat for several years and was on its way to the scrapper. It was brought into Canada by the Winkler Cannery. “The cannery has been gone for a lot of years,” he said. “And they did not buy it new. When I took it apart to rebuild it I found a lot of red dirt under the rad so it must have worked in the southern US, someplace where they had red dirt.” He dismantled and rebuilt the tractor, saying it was mechanically sound.

He ended up removing some extra parts that were used to support the pea swather, which is what it was used for before the cannery.

He purchased it to spray his row crops and said the tractor has served him well.

“Some people have trouble with the torque amplified but

it has always worked well for me,” he said. “Though I only used it for spraying, so it did not have to work too hard.”

During the rebuilding process, he did have some challenges finding the sheet metal sides to complete the restoration but a few trips to wrecking yards provided the parts. Today the tractor is used only for Tractor Treks and parades.

His next project is a converted Farmall M grader. “It was used as a grader by the town of Winkler and the licence plate on it was 1947,” said Reimer who hopes to get it into his shop this win-

ter. “The serial number on it is 100, so I don’t know if they only built one, but the conversion kit is from Motor Coach,” he said.

He is not sure on the conversion kit but thinks the grader requires some extra reinforcing and the unit bears the marks of the time. “There are several bars added to it where it broke,” he said. “It is not done for appearance; it was all about beefing it up to make it stronger.” He thinks the conversion kit may have started as a pull type grader, which was then used to replace the front end on the Farmall M.

William Reimer and his Hi Boy International that now is relegated to Tractor Treks and parades.

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Rare Taskmaster Shines in Agricultural Fair Parade

1952 David Brown Taskmaster, originally built to tow aeroplanes and cargo in England.

By Joan Airey In celebration of Canada’s 150th at the Oak River Agricultural Fair Parade Tom and Jean Ryall, who live at their farm west of Rivers, drove their 1952 David Brown Taskmaster.

It was originally built to tow aeroplanes and cargo in Meltham Yorkshire England.

Originally painted hunting

pink (red), their machine is #250 of 392 built between 1948 and 1952 and when new this one was supplied to the Royal Canadian Air Force in Montreal, Quebec it was repainted their colurs. Only one other of these tractors is known to exist in Canada.

The tractors were commonly known as Tugs. They were based on the Cropmaster agricultural tractor but used a

4-speed gearbox instead of a six speed. In addition, a different back axle was used along with Girling drum brakes and David Brown’s own brakes.

After the parade, Tom enjoyed participating in plowing matches and at other times, judging contests. Both Tom and Jean travel round the world to plowing matches when not at their farm.

Manitoba Canola Growers Awards Five Scholarships Manitoba Canola Growers recently announced their 2017 high school scholarship winners with five $1,000 scholarships awarded to deserving students from across Manitoba.

The $1,000 scholarships

are available to students who are from a farm that is a member of the Manitoba Canola Growers and are planning to attend postsecondary education in any field within two years of graduating. Students sub-

mitted their applications, which were then judged by an independent panel, based on academic standing, canola connection, references, essay submission and school and community involvement.

Left to right: Naomi Best (Harding) is planning to attend the University of Saskatchewan to take animal bioscience, Kate Letexier (Fisher Branch) plans to attend the University of Manitoba to take agriculture and food science, Carrie Livingston (Starbuck) will be attending the University of Manitoba to take part in the Asper School of Business, Ashlyn Pizzey (Binscarth) will attend the University of Saskatchewan to take agriculture and bioresources and Cole Thomas (Hartney) will be attending the University of Manitoba to take arts.

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July 28, 2017

Help Reduce Summertime Blues in Heat-Stressed Beef Cows

By Peter Vitti I find that heat-stressed cattle are easy to identify. Recently, I drove past a group of beef cows crowding on a small bare mountain of dirt under a blazing sun. They simply looked depressed. Not one animal was grazing and their calves were listless and not nursing. All tails were swatting away flies and some cows were lame.

As I drove away in my airconditioned truck, I thought of associated heat-stress summertime blues suffered in many cowherds such as flies and ticks, pinkeye, foot rot and the negative effects of untreated gut worms, which seems to pop up with great vengeance. Therefore, I recommend that producers implement a specific plan for each of these problems during the summer, while helping their beef cows and calves deal with heat-stress in general.

That’s because respectable university studies confirm that heat-stress in cattle, stimulates an abnormal metabolic condition, which makes cattle very susceptible to these forementioned summer problems.

Researchers theorize that in the cow’s body, dietary and cellular nutrients are oxidized into a series of essential compounds necessary for vital functions, but many harmful compounds are also formed.

These harmful compounds known as “free radicals” are highly unstable oxidants, and thus interfere with the other normal processes of the body, which include reproduction as well as immune function against disease.

In the latter, I can understand how heat-stressed immunity in cattle is linked to non-reproductive problems, which most people and myself seem to witness every summer. Highlights of a few these specific problems

as well as some preventive/ corrective actions are as follows: - Flies and ticks – Horn flies and deer ticks plague our cattle each summer and only add to the pressures of general heat-stress/oxidative stress. That’s because they live on the cattle and are biting pests. For example, horn flies use their mouthparts to pierce and suck blood from its cattle host taking up to 20 - 25 blood meals, daily. Both horn flies and ticks are known vectors in many blood-carrying diseases such as anaplasmosis. Most horn fly and tick control programs still utilize two timeless chemicals, namely: organophosphates and pyrethroids in ear-tags, back-rubbers and direct pouron chemicals.

- Pinkeye – Oddly enough, the healthy bovine eye has natural defence mechanisms to prevent pinkeye disease caused by Moraxella bovis bacteria, yet an infestation of face-flies, compromised immune system, and fuelled by heat-stress may cause highly contagious outbreaks. Prevention programs for pinkeye employ similar insecticide and non-chemical controls to those used on horn flies and ticks. However, specific programs differ, since face flies spend only about 10% of their adult-life on the cattle’s head. In addition, some producers also keep their cattle out of tall grass pasture and overgrown bush, which tends to reduce the incidence of eye irritation and onset of pinkeye.

- Foot-rot - Often this problem shows up in cattle after a stretch of hot and rainy weather. Cattle hooves standing on constant wet pasture become relatively soft and pliable, which causes the skin of the coronary band and inter-digits to crack, chap and eventually open to infection.

The culprits - anaerobic (lives without oxygen) bacteria called Fusobacterium necrophorum, but also may include strep- and staphorganisms. All are found in soil, manure and even from the contents of the cows’ rumen. Fortunately, foot rot is relatively easy to control, if caught early.

Antibiotic treatments can get animals back on their “feet” within 3 - 4 days with correct drug therapy.

Other problems such a cow’s gut filled with brown stomach and cooperia worms only complicate and compound the negative effects of heat-stress, coupled together with the other above cited problems.

When producers look for an effective de-wormer, they usually find the accompanied product advice varies in and how many times and when to treat cattle. Tradition dictates to treat cattle when the greatest numbers of worms are still in beef cows, not yet shed on the ground. This means that cow-calf operators should de-worm cows just prior to their release on pasture and thus months ahead of hot seasonal weather.

Aside from such specific aspects of the summertime flies and ticks, pinkeye, foot rot and worms, we should still help the grazing cowherd deal with general heat stress of summer in the first place. This means provide a good source of clean cool water and cattle should have access to trees and shade where possible.

It could mean making some changes to rotational pasture systems or making sure salt and a good mineral program are in place.

It could even mean driving out more frequently and seeing if the cowherd is doing okay.

Bustling 1912 Brandon The Manitoba Agricultural Museum’s collection contains a copy of a photograph taken for a promotional book of Brandon circa 1912. The photo is taken off the 8th Street Bridge and looks east at the CPR yards. As usual, there is a wealth of detail in the photograph.

In the distance is the 1st Street Bridge spanning over the yards and the Assiniboine River.

This bridge was notable for a ramp in between the yard and the river that allowed vehicles on the bridge to access the area between. The ramp ended in a T intersection on the bridge.

Most notably is the Western Canada Flour Mills Company (WCFM) complex, which can be seen on the north side of the CPR yard with the bridge in the background. WCFM was the result of Kelly Milling amalgamating in 1903 with Parrish & Lindsay. Two years later, this company merged with Lake Huron & Manitoba Milling Co. and became known as the WCFM. Andrew Kelly came to Brandon in 1881 from Ontario and built a flourmill with several partners. An oatmeal mill was added in 1883. The mill burnt in 1884 and was rebuilt, increasing capacity to 400 barrels of flour a day and 150 barrels of oatmeal a day. As well as being President of WCFM, Kelly served a term as Mayor of Brandon (1890-1891), was a director of the Great Western Life Assurance Company and served as President of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange (19121913).

WCFM also operated a flourmill at Goodrich, Ontario and a line of elevators across all three prairie provinces. In the early days of the Prairie, grain trade it was common practice for flourmills to operate their own line of elevators in order to obtain the volume and grade of wheat that a company needed for flour milling. In the early pioneer era, flour millers found buying and holding high quality stocks worked better rather than relying on buying quality wheat in sufficient quantities when it was needed.

Other w e l l k n o w n millers,

which also owned lines of elevators, were the Ogilvie Milling Company and the Lake of the Woods Milling Company.

The Brandon flourmill ceased operations in the 1930s.

Western Canada Flour Mills sold its Manitoba elevators to the Manitoba Pool Elevators in 1938, which operated the elevator at the mill site for some years. On the left side of the photo, the second elevator is a WCFM elevator.

In all likelihood, this elevator accumulated wheat for the Goodrich mill and if WCFM was purchasing grain for the Brandon mill from the area farmers, it would have been delivered directly to the Brandon mill.

The ramp off the side of the 1st Street bridge would be ideal to accommodate traffic to the mill and may account for this somewhat unusual feature on a bridge. However, back then, most traffic was horse drawn and an intersection on a bridge would pose fewer problems with slower moving traffic.

There was also another flourmill in Brandon, Maple Leaf Milling. This operation was on the south side of the CPR yard around 16th street. It closed in the 1920s and was demolished.

It is interesting to note the elevators on the south side of the CPR yard were a different design, being rectangular in shape with a cupola running with the team track.

The photo also shows an enclosed structure running up the side of the elevator, perhaps containing the leg. Photos of other elevators of this design show the scale and pit covered only by an awning. While dust could more easily escape, rain combined with wind would have been a problem. These elevators also appear to have been originally powered by steam and by 1912; the Brandon elevators would have been converted to gas engine or hydro power. The design is usu-

ally seen in earlier photos and seems to have been built in the 1880s and early 1890s.

The rectangular layout combined with a leg at one end may have posed issues in filling bins further from the leg, which would account for the design falling out of favour. By 1900, the square design with a cupola and leg centered on the elevator had appeared and by 1920, it evolved into the “Western Standard Elevator” design, which most companies built with minor variations after this date.

Also of note is the long line of coal sheds on the north side of the yard. There were also coal sheds further to the east and on the south side of the CPR yard.

Coal sheds were a common feature of most prairie villages, towns and cities at this time as coal was a common fuel for domestic heating. An industrial user of coal usually had a railway spur in the operation taking complete cars of coal.

Most Manitoba farmers heated with wood if they had access to trees however many rural villages had coal sheds.

On the right side of the photo are a several warehouses and visible in the far distance is the Empire Brewing Company, which operated in Brandon from 1899 to 1931. There was also a second brewery in Brandon, the Brandon Brewing Company operated on the north side of the CPR yards but further to the west and opposite the Maple Leaf flour mill. This brewery closed in the 1930s.

The passenger railcar in the left corner of the photo belongs to the Sells-Floto Circus that was in operation in the early 1900s touring North America with side shows such as the two headed man, Pasqual Pinon.

The Manitoba Agricultural Museum is open year round.

For further information and hours of operation, visit the website at ag-museum.mb.ca.

The AgriPost

July 28, 2017

History Becomes the Future

By Les Kletke Alain Philippot was about to quit farming, when his son told him that he was ready to come back to the farm and work at taking over the St. Claude dairy that has been in the family for three generations. “We had gone so far as to purchase a lot where we would be building away from the farm and I was ready to start a new career,” said Philippot. “Now we are considering transition plans to the 4th generation, it is exciting.”

The Philippot Family is featured in a book recently released by the Dairy Farmers of Canada, Deeply Rooted for a Strong Future.

Alain is a living example of the title. He is on the homestead that his grandfather had at the beginning of the century. His grandfather started farming there in 1912 and was well established by the time the Great Depression hit. “He was fortunate to be established by that time and

bought enough land to start 6 sons in farming and gift 5 daughter’s cash to get started,” he said. The expansion and starting his sons meant that Alexis sold his purebred Holsteins to secure funding for the expansion.

“When I came back to the farm I decided to go back to the registered cattle, and we have been a purebred herd since,” he said. Today the family milks 68 cows and has a section of land with 350

cultivated acres. “We have a large pasture and we use the rest of the land for forage production. Some years we have enough to sell and recently I have been short of labour so I have rented some of it out. We will have to rethink that.”

Philippot’s son Nicholas is returning to the farm after studying agronomy at the University of Manitoba.

“He decided he wanted to do something where he got his

hands dirty and could see the accomplishment at the end of the day,” said Philippot.

“Farming certainly does that, though it is changing.”

Looking at the progression from his Grandfather’s time he said, “My grandfather lived in the time when farming was an art, then it became more scientific in my father’s time, in my time science took over and for my son it is about data and the algorithms.”

Climate Varies All the Time

By Harry Siemens Dr. Tim Ball is no stranger to Manitoba, to farmers, or to agriculture being a historical Climatologist, author and public speaker.

Dr. Ball explained the talk circulating about arctic ice and windy weather, especially in the month of June. “This is the distortion.

They talk about fake news.

You can have fake news not only regarding deliberately false news, but also regarding what the mainstream media choose to report, and it can create a distortion or a fake image of the world,” said Dr. Ball. “And of the things, that’s been going on is the cool temperatures in the north and the ice has already started to reform at the North Pole, and it’s two or three weeks ahead of schedule. And the other thing that people will have noticed, particularly across southern and central Canada, is cold temperatures but also quite windy. It is trapping the heat, and then, they focus on the heat in Phoenix and Arizona, all of that stuff. But when you look at it, they have not been setting records. In fact, it was warmer last year, but of course, with Trump shift-

ing things away with dropping the Paris climate agreement, they’ve got to distort the news again.”

When questioned about the almost daily information reported about receding ice fields and that the polar bears may not have anyplace to live and why people should believe his expertise, he said, “Well it’s a very, very legitimate question, and I get that after I make public presentations, why should we believe you? And I say, I’m not expecting you to believe me. All I’m telling you is some facts. You can check them out for yourself, and then the bigger question that you have to ask yourself is, ‘Why are we not hearing these things?’’”

“And part of the whole global warming issue has been the deliberate attempts to deceive people, and one of the ways that they’ve done this is that they take common events and present them, without actually saying it, as if they’re abnormal.

When you put things into the historical context, and of course, that’s my expertise, is reconstructing past climates and understanding how much the climate has

changed in the past. You see that what’s going on today is well within normal patterns of weather, but, of course, that’s not what they want to present,” Ball explained.

Dr. Ball said he received an email from his nephew recently who keeps challenging him over this with a graph showing the temperature is going up in one place and in another, the temperature is going down.

“Yeah, one of the things you have to realize you can create any temperature trend you want just simply by picking a start and end point of your graph,” Dr. Ball continued. “And that’s one of the things they’ve done.

For example, they show the temperature going up since 1880, and then showing it at the highest readings today.

Well, of course, because the temperature’s been going up since 1680, but they don’t tell people that, it is part of an ongoing trend. So it’s akin to the mainstream media. They’re at the point now where people say, ‘Oh, did you say that’ and I say, no.

They took my words out of context.”

He said they are taking information out of context

because they have a story to tell, not the truth to relate.

“The temperature started to level off and had gone down slightly since about 1998, and they called this the pause or hiatus,” he said. “Initially, these people that were pushing global warming due to human Co2 told me you need at least 17 years of records before it has any statistically meaningful trend.

Well then, the 17 years without any increase in temperature came, and now we’re into 21 years without any temperature increase. And one of the things that have happened is that, because of Trump pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, of course, that means he’s also gonna pull out all of the government funding for climate research.”

“Another thing we know is that what’s important in the Arctic isn’t just the temperature; it’s the wind patterns.

The wind patterns farmers are noticing in southern Manitoba is the fact that over the last two or three years is the movement of Arctic ice, the amount of open ice, and also the formation of the ice; none of this information gets out to the public as I said.”

Philippot said that recent increases in production quotas have made expansion feasible and he and Nicholas will have to sit down and look at what makes sense for them in the future. “The supply management system has been good for us in that it allowed us to make a living without being constantly in the expansion mode, but we will see what the future brings,” he said.

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July 28, 2017

Put Common-Sense into Dairy Close-Up Dry Cow Diets In recent years, there has been a trend toward more practical dairy dry cow feeding programs. I believe that it has taken us away from the real purpose of feeding a dairy cow just before she calves. While some of these programs have worked on dairy farms, others have backfired and caused many feed intake and metabolic problems in cows right after calving and well into early lactation.

In this case, I am a conservative nutritionist. I like to keep my feeding programs of the faraway dry cows (40 – 60 days before calving) and the close-up dry cows (21 days before calving) separate. Dairy research has proven that they are biologically different animals. So, when I design a diet for close-up dry cows, it is my intent to meet their specific pre-calving nutrient requirements and use it as a transition tool to lactation diets that will be pushed-up in front of them, after calving. It’s a common-sense ap-

proach to good dairy nutrition and performance for the rest of their lactation.

Such a successful close-up dry cow diet dovetails into most early lactation feeding programs. From a nutritional requirement standpoint, the former should first carry about 40 – 50% eNDF (forage fibber) as well as a modest amount of dietary energy that falls between relatively low values recommended for faraway dry cows and high energy-enriched early lactation diets, namely about 0.60 – 0.65 Mcal/lb. (dmi, basis).

I also balance the close-up dry cow diet with 14 – 15% protein.

I build a pre-calving diet in this way with the central theme of maintaining good rumen health and function (by providing adequate effective forage fibber), yet the cow takes in enough available dietary energy and protein to meet her respective energy-driven vital functions. It’s also my proactive plan of reducing the cow’s susceptibility to abnormal

body fat mobilization after calving, which if ignored leads to crippling ketosis.

Untreated clinical ketosis includes a rapid drop in body condition, loss of appetite, decreased milk production, and yes, acetone-smelling breath. Most veterinarians will tell us that such clinical ketosis is relatively rare in dairy cows with the majority of ketonic symptoms in afflicted cows being hidden or subclinical in nature. Rather, these latter cows suffer from a higher than normal incidence of displaced abomasum, retained placenta, mastitis and weakened immunity. Subclinical ketosis has also been linked to milk fever and reproductive problems. Cows with subclinical ketosis often lose about 25% of their potential milk production per lactation.

At this point, the cow’s energy intake of my closeup diet relies heavily upon the close-up dry cow’s dry matter intake during these last 21 days before calving, which has a natural decline

of at least 30% from the day of dry-off until the day of calving. In this manner, I target a close-up diet to be fed at 1.25 – 2.0% of her body-weight or about 11-12 kg per cow (DM, basis), so a visual body condition score of 3.5 – 3.75 (1 = thin to 5 = obese) is maintained by calving. Needless to say, I do not want to improve BCS of thin cows or put obese cows on a diet. Such management might be done in the faraway dry or waning lactation periods.

Once, I have these dry matter intake values in place, I design a specific feeding program for close-up dry cows that encompass them.

Subsequently, I first choose the proper transition forages that are palatable, modest in energy, mold-free and low in potassium. They can then be coupled with different grains and other feedstuffs (including a complementary mineral – vitamin pack) in order to meet the specific nutritional needs of the precalving transition cow.

Such transition diets are straightforward to put together, which could mean a faraway dry cow diet (all grasstype forages) supplemented with a little early lactation TMR (re: some silage, grain, mineral, vitamins). Or more complex rations containing a pre-measured recipe such as 10 – 15 lb. of mixed hay, 5 to 8 lb. of corn or barley, supplemented with 1 – 2 lbs. of soybean meal or distillers’ grains and finally adding 0.25 – 0.50 of a close-up cow dairy premix.

In recent years, I have recommended to many dairy producers forgo making up their own on-the-farm grain portion of the close-up dry cow diet and replace it with palatable commercial transition pellets. It’s more expensive to feed the concentrate portion of the diet in this fashion, but saves time and is more practical. For example, well-balanced pellets can be mixed into a respective TMR or fed right on

top of any laid-down forage.

There is also less waste and little chance of fine-ingredient separation.

Using my own experience, I too have designed a few practical transition formula pellets over the years. One of which is a 16% mediumenergy/no salt formula that contains only palatable feedstuff ingredients. It also has feed additives that help improve rumen digestibility of the complimentary forages of the entire feeding program as well as help reduce the incidence of ketosis.

In any case, a total close-up dry cow diet (forage + concentrate) is neither a faraway dry cow nor lactating dairy diet. It might be similar to both, but it is a specifically designed diet for close-up dry cows in order to transition them to become profitable milking cows. That just makes common sense!

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Malters Show How It’s Done

By Joan Airey With staff, Canada Malting Manager Wayne Moffat from Norman Siding west of Rivers participated in many agricultural fairs this year with a 1946 Massey Harris owned

by C. Graham Farms Ltd. Rocanville, Saskatchewan.

Greg Black of Oak River drove the tractor pulling a wagon owned by Moffat showing how farmers years ago hauled malt barley.

Canada Malting Co, Ltd began in 1902 by the amalgamation of three malting companies in Ontario. In 1906 the first modern malt house was built in Montreal becoming the largest in North America.

Canada Malting is the largest malt company in Canada, producing approximately 450,000 metric tonnes of malt per year for brewers and distillers around the world.

In 2009, UMH (consisting of Canada Malting, Great West-

ern Malting, Bairds Malt and Barrett Burston Malting) was purchased by GrainCorp, an Australian grain handler and marketer. The acquisition led to the creation of GrainCorp Malt and transformed GrainCorp into an international agribusiness with operations in Australia, the US, Canada and the United Kingdom. Today GrainCorp Malt is one of the world’s largest producers of malt for use in the brewing and distilling industries.

Parade entry showed how farmers years ago hauled malt barley.

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