AgriPost September 25 2020

The AgriPost

All Eyes on Frost Affecting Manitoba’s Pulse Crops

Three pulse crops showing signs of frost damage (top, right, right below).

By Harry Siemens Hard freezing temperatures -1°C to -5°C occurred on September 8 from the western edge of central Manitoba, following the escarpment in the west. Patchy, light freezing temperatures reached into the Interlake and surrounding Winnipeg area. Light freezing temperatures hit parts of southern Manitoba on September 9 as well.

According to the Bean Report on September 9 by the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers (MPSG), crop damage depended on how low temperatures were, for how long, and the crop’s development stage.

Soybeans at R6 to R7 and

edible beans at R8 are susceptible to frost damage.

Many soybean and dry bean crops in the province have reached maturity levels that are safe from frost. However, later-seeded fields and longer-season varieties that are still green are susceptible to damage.

The damage affects the soybean harvest that was just around the corner for earlyseeded soybeans and earlymaturing varieties.

Dry bean harvest is underway for some market classes.

Early yield reports are 2,000 lbs/ac, on average, for pinto beans and 1,800 lbs/ac, on average, for small red beans.

Remaining edible bean crops

Photos by Harry Siemens

range from R8 (beginning maturity) to R9 (full maturity).

Farmers swathed black beans or desiccated in anticipation of frost while frost affected dry beans at R8 in western regions. Field pea harvest has wrapped up in most areas of the province, with only a few later-seeded acres remain.

Faba bean harvest begins as crops now reach full maturity, and Lentils are at R7 to R8 in western Manitoba.

Cassandra Tkachuk, a production specialist with MPSG, said some of the early yield reports on peas are at an average of 50 bushels per acre, but as high as 80 to 90 bushels per acre.

Continued on Page 2...

September 25, 2020

Agriculture Carries the Day in Global Affairs Canada “State of Trade”

The Office of the Chief Economist at Global Affairs Canada recently released Canada’s State of Trade: The Early impacts of COVID-19 on trade.

From the outset, Mary Ng MP of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade noted that, “As COVID-19 swept the world, many countries responded by closing their doors to trade in an effort to protect their people. But COVID-19 should not, cannot be used as an excuse to stop trading or to turn inward.” She added. “Trade remains crucial to the prosperity of Canadians.” These messages are most welcome given the increase in protectionism we are seeing around the world.

The “State of Trade” report finds that the pandemic-related slowdown in global trade has mostly impacted Canada’s automotive, electronics, energy, and machinery sectors.

In contrast the agriculture sector continued to carry Canada’s export-oriented economy. Agricultural exports increased in March 2020 compared to the prior year. Agriculture exports rose by 13%.

Led by higher exports of oil seeds up by 60% as canola seeds (71%) and soybeans (58%) both posted dramatic increases, and exports of vegetables rose 49%. The increase was supported by pulses (62%) and potatoes (77%).

Other agriculture products such as preparations of cereals and fats and oils also recorded significant growth. Like exports, imports of agriculture products increased in March as well, up by 8.2%, supported by increases in imports of fruits and nuts (14%) and meat (34%). Overall, Canadian agriculture exports were up 8.5%, and imports rose 4.1% during Q1 2020 compared to Q1 2019.

The report also noted that recovery in China is good news given it is Canada’s second largest agrifood export market.

While the report provides a brief overview of Free Trade Agreements such as Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), it did not delve into reviewing the actual outcomes negotiated and what the promised benefits were versus the current realities now that these agreements are in force.

September 25, 2020

The AgriPost

All Eyes on Frost Affecting Manitoba’s Pulse Crops

Soybeans showing frost stress.

)Photos by Harry Siemens

With the emphasis on protein from plants, farmers are looking for higher protein pea varieties. “We collect data on protein, one of the more marketable traits. I can’t speak to the specifics of what various plants are being looked at, but higher protein is desirable in the marketplace,” said Tkachuk.

She said many edible bean fields before the frost were still maturing, and she is wondering how this will affect the soybeans’ maturity. Farmers are now looking at desiccation timing in beans and assessing the need for late-season herbicide. Decisions will have to be made on troublesome weed patches that pose a risk of staining seed and whether there is uneven maturity across the field.

“Consulting with your buyer to confirm which products are acceptable is the big thing this year since more companies are saying ‘no’ to pre-harvest glyphosate in beans,” said Tkachuk.

Tkachuk said soybeans would be ready soon. Analysis will be done on the regional variety of testing trials that happen each year in several locations across Manitoba. Companies will be submitting these trial varieties for third-party testing, and the data is then sent to Seed Manitoba and the Pulse and Soybean Variety Guide. Each year the MPSG conducts maturity ratings at the different sites.

“To determine what date each variety reaches maturity and differences appear

Continued from Page 1..

Cassandra Tkachuk, a production specialist with Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers said some of the early yield reports on peas are averaging 50 bushels per acre, but as high as 80 to 90 bushels per acre in Manitoba.

among the sites is largely driven by the moisture differences, but also other environmental conditions at each site,” she said. “The more mature soybean fields now are the earlier varieties that are wrapping up, whereas the lagers are the longer season varieties.”

Tkachuk said that in the principle, the longer the growing season for the variety, the higher the yield potential. The longer season varieties do yield more, but it has to work for the farmer’s location.

The farmers in the shorter growing season areas outside of the Red River Valley and the southern portion of Manitoba would turn to those shorter season varieties otherwise, the soybean crop faces either spring or fall frost, especially fall frost that can destroy a crop.

She encourages farmers to always watch for the next Bean Report newsletter, which goes out biweekly throughout the season. To check out the Bean Report visit Manitobapulse.ca.

Wheat Crop Second Largest

By Elmer Heinrichs Canadian farmers grew less wheat in 2020-21 than earlier thought, according to updated production estimates which Statistics Canada released September 14. However, the country’s wheat crop would still be the second-largest on record and well above the five-year average.

Using yield models based on satellite imagery, total wheat production in the country for 2020-21 is now forecast at 34.145 million tonnes. That compares with the August estimate of 35.348 million and the year-ago level of 32.348 million tonnes. Winter wheat was left unchanged from the previous month, at 2.849 million tonnes, but

both durum and other spring wheat were revised lower.

Statistics Canada now sees durum production at 6.134 million tonnes, down from 6.926 million in August but above the year ago level of 4.977 million tonnes. Other spring wheat, at 25.162 million tonnes, would be down from both the year-ago reading of 25.67 million tonnes and the August estimate of 25.935 million tonnes.

Farmers on parts of the Prairies have had to contend with excessive rain and lower than average temperatures in earlier summer and above average temperatures in August. Canola production only saw a small adjustment from August, with the 19.393 million tonnes largely un-

changed from the previous estimate of 19.403 million tonnes. Canada grew 19.477 million tonnes of canola in 2019-20.

Nationally, soybean production is projected to decrease 1.4 per cent year-overyear to 6.0 million tonnes in 2020, but in Manitoba, higher yields will push soybean production increasing 2.6 per cent to 1.2 million tonnes.

In the pulse crops, forecasted pea production was lowered to 4.36 million tonnes, from 4.996 million in August. Lentils, meanwhile, were raised to 3.065 million tonnes, from 2.805 million.

Canada grew 4.237 million tonnes of peas in 2019-20 and 2.242 million tonnes of lentils.

The AgriPost

Hog Numbers Up While Price Hovers at Break Even

By Harry Siemens

Bob Kleinsasser, hog boss with the Suncrest Colony near Steinbach, said production is going reasonably well with no issues and lots of pigs.

“But if the prices don’t improve, how much longer can you go on? It’s getting to be the point where at breakeven, you can’t make a living,” said Kleinsasser.

He said the weanlings or isoweans had no market for four or five months. They have squeezed them through the colony system, but there is no room for pigs coming up. “We sold 1,700 weanlings for $10 each and 700 for $13, which is a loss of $10 a pig. The market hogs yield around $160, $165, depends on the weight,” said Kleinsasser. “It will pull us through, that’s it. So hopefully, the market will turn around, and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

While COVID-19 dealt them several positive cases within the colony’s population, the lack of movement between people helped clear up some animal disease issues. Without a doubt, COVID-19 helped because there are fewer people moving from one barn site to another. In his opinion, it boils down to employee sharing, which spread most of the PED virus.

When COVID-19 saw an outbreak in Brandon affecting some employees at the Maple Leaf Foods processing plant this caused concern for the colony and other hog farmers who supply the plant. “If we don’t ship for a week, two max, it would back up our system causing issues with weaning and where to put the small pigs if the big ones don’t go, we’re glad the plant remained open, it’s all figured out and blown over,” he said.

While union bosses called

Bob Kleinsasser said the weanlings or isoweans had no market for four or five months.

Photos by Harry Siemens

for Maple Leaf to close the plant, Health Canada and CFIA officials walked through the plant doing a thorough inspection. It impressed him how Maple Leaf handled the situation, kept employees apart to make sure everything worked out in the end.

In an earlier article, Manitoba Pork general manager Andrew Dickson detailed how the AGM discussion focused on a made-in-Canada hog price. Kleinsasser said that it needs a lot of work.

“So, I can’t say too much about it.”

The Suncrest Colony opened back in March 2016, as one of the first new hog barns after seven years allowing an 800 sow-farrow barn that uses open group housing with 125 sows per group at 28 sq ft per sow. “I love the system, so impressed how it turned out,” he said. “It took several years to figure everything out.”

When asked what are the key things that make it work for him, he said, “Make sure they’re big enough, and they have to be. Usually, when they were in a stall, you could get away with not being as fussy on size. She’s got to be 300, 350 pounds when you breed the sow.

And then I think after that,

she’s gone.”

When visiting the full barn in 2017, training the sows and barn workers was essential. Today Kleinsasser said it’s one of the easiest things to do.” With two groups of 15 sows always training, it’s within 14 days, they’re ready to go. The kinks are out of that one,” he said.

Suncrest Colony also changed the weanling time from 20 to 21 days for weaning age closer to 26-27 days.

For the sows, their primary time is between 21 and 26 days. “I think she’s more ready after 26 days than she is after 20,” he said. “And then hopefully we’ve cut the days to market by a week or so.”

Kleinsasser said overall, the benefit also improved the animal welfare and the work environment for the employees, is excellent.

Bob Kleinsasser, hog boss with the Suncrest Colony near Steinbach, said production is going reasonably well with no issues and lots of pigs.

The COVID-19 outbreak in Brandon, affected some employees at the Maple Leaf Foods processing plant which caused concern for the Suncrest Colony and other hog farmers.

September 25, 2020

The AgriPost

September 25, 2020

Harvest Twitter If you haven’t gotten onto twitter yet to find out what’s going on with your fellow farmers you’re definitely missing out. From humours one liner’s, to weather, markets, breakdowns and general complaints... there’s no end to what you’ll find farmers jabbering about in the “twitterverse”.

- Is it fair game to steal parts off ur nieghbors combine with no rad that hasn’t moved all week?

- So I’m hearing of Nitrogen applications happening in MB already in the RRV. Anybody know what soil temps are?

- Be the couple that embarrasses your kids.... life is short.

- Food price increases in Canada outpacing general inflation in all parts of country since 2000.

- It’s worse in the East.

- Never ask questions to a guy missing a shirt pocket.

- We’ve all heard the saying we work in acres not hours as farmers. But at harvest I find to save my sanity I have to judge the success of the day in the bushels I put in the bin.

- The zero till guys are getting a jump on fall work.

- Oat Growers Technique to reduce dehulling when combining. I’m still newbie to growing oats.

- Sure could use a rain soon.

- Check for bearings out elsewhere in or near the pitman drive section. Once slop gets established they literally shake themselves apart.

- Unapproved but popular Bt eggplant currently grown across India does not contain the GMO trait developed by Mahyco released in Bangladesh, says new paper.

Now, who could have developed the complex Bt gene now being used illegally by

farmers across India?

- I’d do anything for my kids. Then put down the donut and lift something heavy.

- The sky looks like its on fire with today’s sunrise in Saskatchewan.

- I need to borrow a cassette from every person on Twitter. What would you lend me? Aaaaaand go!

- Farmers don’t give up. We push through adversity, and when knocked down, we get back up. It’s the way we were raised.

- Brazilian corn farmgate price 17% up MOM and 80% up YOY, also reaching new nominal record values.

Additionally to the devaluated FX, farmers unwilling to sell in the spot market also pushed corn prices up – Rabobank.

- My Dad took his final journey yesterday. Love you, papa.

- What kind of flax should I

grow next year??

- With #Harvest20 now well over halfway complete for #SaskAg, continued warm, dry weather is needed. The majority of crop damage this week was due to frost & wind. Farmers are busy combining, swathing, hauling bales and moving cattle.

- Dad stays up in the combine till 5 am and still wakes up to have morning coffee with me. What a legend (and arguably crazy).

- My dad grew up in the city and started farming in his late 20s with money he saved long haul trucking.

Not sure that’d be feasible now.

- What a sweet auger tractor!

- How do you think an urban consumer might answer the question, ‘what has a bigger impact on the environment: a car or a cow?’

- Crop circles? No, French farmers putting on a great

Penner’s Points

side show at the Tour de

By Rolf France.

Penner Soybeans looking a little beat up after light frost this morning.

- Have you ever stayed awake all night watching the markets?

- It’s amazing what farmers can wreck in a short couple weeks of harvest! Doesn’t matter how well prepared a guy is!!!

- Got bears? Are we the only ones with bears in our corn? Not sure if we have a corn field or corn maze. I’m guessing more a bear sanctuary! I wish I didn’t fly the drone.

- Literally ran the wheels off the cart today.....

- Looking for recommendations on a good DIY metal paint for my old trailer. Keep in mind I’m not a body guy, I just want to patch a couple

rusty spots.

- Wind storm of September 7/20 blew #canola swaths really bad. Trying a flex header to scoop up as much as possible.

- Arborg area canola swaths are a disaster. Rolled up into beaver huts. Standing pod shatter canola looks to have dropped 15-20% pods.

Standing oats are bad.

That’s just a random sampling. Farmers have carved out their own unique place on twitter. They’re talking to each other and the world in way they never have before. Unfiltered and raw, the good, the bad and the ugly, it’s all there and you should be too.

A Theft Warning and Reflections

As I sat down to write my monthly Siemens Says column, I received this note from a stranger. “Hello Harry, I hope you can share some information. There is some grain theft taking place in the Pembina Valley area. Hopefully, if you could share this, farmers will be even more diligent about monitoring their grain bins and keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. Does anyone else have more info on this? One person had one bin completely emptied and another partially emptied of canola just combined.”

It is interesting how nothing is sacred in this world,

not even your newly harvested canola crop worth at least $11 a bushel. Maybe easy pickings to come up with a super bee, auger or evacuator and a few minutes, depending on the bin’s size, a trip to the elevator further away and cash in the pocket.

It could be anyone, for that matter, but most likely someone who may do this for a living. Just be aware that this is going on and can happen to anyone almost anywhere.

On a positive side and I believe we need to hear more positive things as things around aren’t always going the way we want them to go.

Yet, there is strength, and there is hope in authentic relationships and friendships.

As many of you know, I lost my wife two years ago, yet I have found the strength to move on, often alone, often with individual family mem-

bers and often with select friends who chose to stick with me.

My friend sent this to me some time ago about a mutual acquaintance, Rob, who has since passed on. The reason I share this with you is I had the same feelings towards the same man, and I too went to visit him before he left this earth. Rob was such an encouragement, such a blessing in his final months, weeks, and days on this earth.

Anonymous, but from a friend written some time ago, “I have someone I know through business over the last 15+ years who is now in St. Boniface Hospital in the palliative care ward. He and the doctors don’t know how much time he has left... weeks to maybe a year. My first interaction with this man was not pleasant. I thought

he was arrogant and a smart ass. I avoided him as much as possible, and this lasted five years.

Then one day, we ended up in a meeting together, and I noticed a change. Maybe I changed too. I am friends with him on Facebook, and I keep seeing his posts about living his last days. Thursday, I posted, ‘You are an inspiration to me.’ Friday, he tried to call me. I was shocked. We talked last night, and he reminded me that in that meeting, which is now ten years ago, I told him that I liked the changes he had made and that I now liked him, and I admitted I had not liked him before.

He said last night; you have no idea what you said and how it affected me. He said I was so encouraged because I didn’t like who I had been either. He was encouraged

that someone noticed he had made changes!

Since then, we have ended up in different meetings, maybe once every few years.

And I’d say we are friends but not close. He asked me to come to see him next week.

‘I want some one-on-one time with you.’ I’m quite humbled and very honoured to be invited to come to see him.”

What’s the meaning of all this? Be careful how I judge people; however, tell them the truth when the time is right. Be open to correction from others to me.

You never know what impact your actions and words can have on those we interact with.

My friend felt he should send this to a few people... some of you know this person, others have never heard of him.

No Agreement Reached in Seed Sector Amalgamation Recently during a seed sector vote four out of five organizations vote in favour of amalgamation.

Over the last couple of months, members of five Canadian seed organizations

have voted on an amalgamation proposal to become one new national seed organization, Seeds Canada. One organization, the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association, did not vote in favour. This result is

disappointing, and the boards of each participating organization will now consider how to move forward.

The five organizations are the Canadian Plant Technology Agency (CPTA); the Com-

mercial Seed Analysts Association of Canada (CSAAC); the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association (CSGA); the Canadian Seed Institute (CSI); and the Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA). Over the

past five years, these groups have worked together on a vision to create the next generation seed system in Canada.

The boards of each organization will reconvene to determine the next steps.

The AgriPost

Manitoba Harvest Progressing Well

By Elmer Heinrichs Farmers have been making significant progress with harvest due to decent weather and hope to finish the balance of the canola, soybeans and potatoes, before moving into sunflowers and grain corn.

According to Manitoba Agriculture’s September 15 crop report, 56 per cent of crops are harvested, slightly below average, with yields ranging widely for all crops depending on a variety of conditions. Canola yields have disappointed farmers with the crop affected by heat blast and wilt.

Early morning frosts in September affected crops in the west and southern portions of Central regions.

Sunny conditions however have allowed for good harvest progress, winds were moderate and allowed farmers to put in some long harvest days.

The wheat and cereal grain harvest for the most part is complete in the Red River Valley and north of the Trans-

Canada highway. West of the escarpment wheat harvest is progressing with about 80 to 90 per cent done. Yields reported range from 60 to 100 bushels an acre with quality in the top two grades.

Most barley fields are harvested with yields ranging from 70 to 120 bushels an acre and good quality; most oat fields are also harvested with yields from 95 to 170 bushels an acre, averaging 140 bushels with good bushel weight.

Many farmers are slowly moving into the later crops.

But harvest of later cereals and oilseeds continued west of the escarpment where crops are mature. Straw is being harvested from many cereal grain fields.

Corn fields over the escarpment were touched by frost and burned tissue is drying down prematurely, possibly causing lighter bushel weight at harvest time. Canola harvest is over 75 per cent done with yields ranging from 40 to 50 bushels an acre with good quality grain.

Dennis Lange, a pulse specialist with Manitoba agriculture, said growers have harvested some fields of edible beans recently with light red kidneys yielding 1,800 pounds an acre, pintos, around 2,000 pounds an acre. Manitoba has about 185,000 acres of edible beans, with 95,000 acres being pintos.

The soybean harvest is still in its initial stages, but Lange feels confident they’re likely to yield in the 40-45 bushel range.

Manitoba’s potato harvest is underway with production appearing to be lower, according to a September 4 provincial potato report from Manitoba Agriculture’s plant pathologist Vikram Bisht.

Significant progress was made across Eastern regions through mid-September with overall harvest estimated at 50 per cent done. Wheat yielded from 55 to 70 bushels an acre, with good quality. Oat yields ranged from 100 to 130 bushels an acre with good quality.

The canola harvest was about 75 per cent complete to mid-month, with significant progress expected as the harvest continues. Canola yields range from 25 to 50 bushels an acre with good quality, but overall average yields across the east are below 35 bushels an acre and were disappointing.

A few early fields of soybeans, for seed production, have been harvested, corn has sustained some frost damage which may affect bushel weight, and sunflowers are drying off with growers planning desiccation likely by month end.

Across the east, harvesting of second-cut beef hay was almost complete with near average yields, with thirdcut alfalfa dairy hay harvest almost complete. Producers remain concerned about feed supplies for overwintering and are baling straw or making arrangements with other producers for feed. The harvest of corn for silage is underway with the grain corn harvest starting soon.

The Blessing and Curse of Interesting Times These are indeed interesting times, and there will be little argument when this year draws to a close that it provided more than a few incidents that would fall into the interesting category. That is an understatement on two counts – few and interesting.

“May you live in interesting times” is an expression erroneously purported to be from an ancient Chinese curse designed as a blessing, but as we draw to the final quarter of this year it is becoming obvious that the uninteresting times, of certainty and predictability are

indeed much more favourable than this which can only be described as a fruit basked upset on a good day.

This is not a storm that will blow over, this is the reality of our world now and we are not going back to the way things were in 2019 any more than we are to the way things were in 1919. Our world has changed and for some that change is a terrible thing and for others it provides opportunity.

These conditions have proven the correctness of Charles Darwin’s theory about evolution, No, I don’t mean about evolving from monkeys which is what he usually gets credit for, but Darwin said that the species that is most likely to survive is not the strongest but those most willing to adapt

to change.

If indeed that is the case, farmers should be safe and have a good future, because they are one of the segments of our race that has accepted and even driven change more than most. I have used this space before to outline the changes my father went through in his life going from horses to tractors with air conditioning, and now auto steer seems to be a given. Out industry has had its share of change!

The curse is not going away...we will continue in interesting times but who will struggle and who will thrive?

Some are going to find ways to change that will improve their operations and their bottom line, others are going to wonder what happened and long for the good old days of 2019, and yes

that is what these days are now. They are as the distant past as the 1980’s and a lot of current producers don’t remember those days either.

We thought we were being bombarded by information before, but that has only increased and the pandemic has accelerated the number of methods that we receive information. While Ag Days has announced cancellation for January there are countless other ways of getting information and it is getting more detailed about your farm.

The opportunities are there, the first and most difficult decision is how to get the information you can count on…

Interesting times? Not enough for you, well there is an election year for our neighbour to the south and it’s getting really interesting.

September 25, 2020

Helping Organic Growers Meet Canadian Demand The Federal government has announced that $640,000 from the Canadian Agricultural Strategic Priorities Program (CASPP) will go to the Canadian Organic Growers (COG) to help get more Canadian consumers buying Canadian-made organics produced locally by Canadian organic farmers.

The announcement was made during Canada’s National Organic Week, an annual event to showcase and celebrate organic food farming and products across the country. The demand for organic foods in Canada continues to rise, and there are many hard-working and entrepreneurial organic food producers across the country. However, much of the Canadian demand for organics is met by imported products.

“Demand for organic food is growing rapidly and we want to ensure that it is Canadian producers who are benefitting from that increased demand. Our government is focused on ensuring Canadians have greater self-sufficiency and sustainability in our food supply system, and this investment in the organic sector strategy will help us get there,” said Marie-Claude Bibeau, MP of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

With this investment, COG will develop a strategy to identify and find solutions to organic supply chain barriers so that Canadian organic producers can realize their full economic potential and more Canadian consumers can buy locally produced Canadian organic food.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, 13% more Canadians are buying local food more often and almost three-quarters are deliberately buying Canadian.

“As we stand at the juncture of the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis, the launch of this collaborative, industry-wide project is vital for Canadians.

Gaining an understanding of the barriers that exist between organic farmers and consumers will help the organic industry meet the growing demand for organic food in Canada and abroad, and play a prominent role in Canada’s economic recovery,” said Gillian Flies, President, Canadian Organic Growers Board of Directors. “This project will also help Canada advance action on climate change through its support for sustainable agriculture practices and the Canadian farmers on the front lines of the climate crisis.”

Strategy recommendations will be assessed and evaluated by an independent industry-wide national advisory committee and a final report will be published that will explore investment opportunities to meet domestic demands and recommendations on how to best seize the opportunities. The report will also help quantify the economic and environmental benefits of increasing domestic organic production and supply chains.

Annual retail sales of certified organic products in Canada are approximately $6.38 billion. They have increased by almost $3 billion since 2012. Approximately 5,800 certified organic and transitional producers are working on 3.3 million acres of land in Canada.

September 25, 2020

The AgriPost

Harvests Underway for Foodgrains Projects

By Elmer Heinrichs

Groups of farmers working in local communities across Manitoba are now harvesting a variety of crops which will

be sold with the proceeds donated toward the work of responding to world hunger.

“It’s exciting to see that harvest 2020 is fully under-

way. Rains slowed harvest activity, for a time but farmers across Manitoba have been busy swathing and combining crops in many parts of the province,” said Gordon Janzen, regional representative for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. “From reports I have received it appears that harvest progress is slightly slower than other years, but the weather so far has been quite favourable for harvesting,” added Janzen.

When asked about yields, Janzen said, “They’ve been looking very good. I think most of our project coordinators have been quite pleased.

It’s not a bumper crop but it’s still a good one.”

The Crossborders growing project near Koala was the first to harvest with 10 combines, nine trucks and 4 grain carts, combining 275 acres in just three hours on August 21. “It was truly a community event,” observed Janzen.

The Whitemud growing project near Gladstone began combining 130 acres of canola September 1. The project is spearheaded by Jeff Harder and Roland Unger, together with Jake Hamm, of Brandon. Also in early Sep-

Combine operators, tractor operators and truckers worked together on September 18 harvesting a 300acre field of canola at the Common Ground growing project near Rosenfeld with proceeds from the sale of the crop to be donated to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank for world food aid.

Harvesting at Rosenfeld.

tember, volunteers from the Gardenland growing project near Winkler combined a quarter section of canola.

The project harvested 7,261 bushels from the 160-acre field, said Marv Thiessen, coordinator for the project.

Other recent harvests were Safari project harvest-

Photos by Elmer Heinrichs

ing 50 acres of wheat near Lorette, Hope project near Arnaud harvested 160 acres of wheat, Scratching River project near Rosenort combined 60 acres of wheat, and Arborg Community project harvested 75 acres of canola.

The Common Ground project near Rosenfeld and the

grow project at Killarney were both harvested on Friday, September 18.

Proceeds from the sale of the crops are augmented by proceeds from the Federal government. The Canadian Foodgrains Bank is a partnership of 15 Canadian churches and church-based agencies.

Program Empowers Women Leadership in the Ag Sector COVID-19 has magnified systemic issues and longstanding inequalities, and the Government of Canada is working towards providing equal opportunities for all Canadians.

Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and AgriFood, recently held a virtual roundtable discussion with women entrepreneurs from across Canada’s agricultural food chain, focusing on the opportunities and challenges that exist for them in the agriculture and agri-food sector.

“Over the past several decades, the proportion of female farm operators has continued to increase. While this progress is positive, women remain underrepresented in the sector and continue to face significant barriers,” explained Bibeau.

Over the past several decades, the proportion of female farm operators has increased. In 1996, women represented 25.3% of farm

operators. By 2016, that proportion had risen to 28.7%, accounting for 77,830 female farm operators.

During the roundtable, Bibeau announced that Farm Credit Canada’s Women Entrepreneur Program has already helped 1,391 women with loans, totaling more than $994.5 million. This is already nearly double the $500 million amount initially announced in March of 2019 for this three-year program, demonstrating the entrepreneurial spirit of hundreds of women in Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector.

“FCC is proud to contribute to the success of women entrepreneurs who want to become more deeply involved in the agriculture and agri-food industry, said Michael Hoffort, Farm Credit Canada President and CEO. “The response to our lending and learning programs, specifically tailored to the individual needs of women entrepreneurs has been tremen-

dous and will undoubtedly contribute to a stronger and more diversified industry.”

This program is part of the federal Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, a $5-billion investment. In agriculture, there are over 75,000 female farm operators, representing some 28.7% of all farm operators in Canada, a number which continues to modestly increase. The Women Entrepreneurship Program is expected to increase this proportion.

Also during the roundtable, Bibeau, in her capacity as the first-ever female Minister of Agriculture and AgriFood, highlighted her personal commitment towards greater inclusion of women in the agriculture and agrifood sector. She stressed the need to overcome barriers to equality that research shows include work-life balance, skills training, networking and mentorship, access to information management, and financial barriers.

The AgriPost

A Spot of Tea for Your Soil

By Les Kletke Ken Sabatier said the concept is relatively simple but it is one that is being overlooked on a lot of Manitoba soils.

“We don’t pay much attention to the biology of the soil,” he said. “We do a good job of adding nutrients to produce a crop but in many cases we overlook the biology of the soil and that could have a dramatic impact on improving soil heath.”

Sabatier is the Director of Operations for Overton Environmental (OEE) based in Manitoba focusing on creating sustainable crop inputs and implementing organic waste management solutions. One of the crop solutions is a liquid biological amendment under the brand name EcoTea (Engineered Compost Tea). EcoTea is a

product that aids in the biology of soil by helping to break down crop residue and turn it into usable nutrients for soil. It is certified for organic production as well.

Sabatier does not promote the product as a wonder chemical that will produce magic results but rather encourages farms to try some tea on their soil and see the result. “There is some skepticism about biological products and farmers have been told great stories before but we encourage them to try some Eco tea on their own and see the results.” he said.

Sabatier said that is what convinced him. “I tried some Eco tea in box of soil in my shop and was amazed at the results, I could see the impact it had in breaking down soil residue and turning it to soil,” he said.

The Stalks on the right had EcoTea applied, and the ones on the left were as-is in the soil. These stalks were part of an in-house demonstration taking soil and stalks from the same field, putting them in different tubs at left at 10 degrees C for 30 days and this was the result.

Biological growth produces exudates that increase soil and moisture adherence to the plant matter (the biology) hence why the one set of stalks have soil stuck to them and the others don’t.

Sabatier formerly worked with a major grain company before moving to OEE. He noted that EcoTea may not be attractive to major distributors. “There job is to sell input and EcoTea does not provide the same return for them,” he said. “But it is a tool that farmers can use to improve their soil health. We all know that when you turn over a shovel of soil and see a bunch of earth worms, a healthy soil is the beginning of a healthy crop. That is what this product does, promote life in the soil.”

He said the product fits in most crop production regimes but is not a perfect fit for zero tillers. “It does require some incorporation,” he said. “It is a living product and we have to get those organisms into the top inch of soil, so we have to have some light incorporation or at least a pass with a heavy harrow.”

The product is new to the market and trials have not yet been completed on how often the EcoTea would be beneficial if applied. He does not expect that it would require and annual treatment.

The product is available in a dry seed dressing but is primarily applied in fall in 10 gallons of water per acre.

The suggested retail cost is $12 per acre but some retailers have incentives which bring the price down to $10 per acre.

Viterra and STARS Team Up To Launch Calendar Campaign Fundraiser Viterra once again is teaming up with STARS to sponsor its 2021 fundraising calendar. This marks the sixth consecutive year that Viterra has partnered with STARS by covering the full printing costs of the calendar.

This initiative is STARS’ second largest fundraiser, with more than 60,000 calendars sold annually. The calendars will be available for purchase at Viterra facilities across Western Canada.

“We’re very pleased to be continuing our sponsorship with STARS, which has had a tremendous impact in the lives of patients in rural communities, including our

employees, our customers and their families,” said Kyle Jeworski, President and CEO for Viterra North America.

“We’ve worked closely with this world class organization since 2015, and are proud to help patients share their stories and support STARS in raising awareness so that they can continue their lifesaving work.”

The campaign is entering its 28th year and has raised millions of dollars to date. “STARS is grateful for Viterra’s generous support, especially during these difficult times, when many of our fundraising events have been postponed or can-

celled,” said Andrea Robertson, President and CEO of STARS. “We are grateful for Viterra’s ongoing partnership to continue our calendar program, helping STARS stay operational and providing world-class, lifesaving emergency medical care to patients who need it most.”

The calendars will be available until December 4 at most Viterra locations, as well as online at starscalendar.ca. Those interested in purchasing a calendar, or making a donation to STARS, can contact their local Viterra facility for more information.

September 25, 2020

Aunt Sally’s Farm Set for Comeback

By Elmer Heinrichs Aunt Sally will be making a comeback at Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park Zoo. Aunt Sally’s Farm, the petting zoo exhibit that closed decades ago, is being rebuilt and officials say the exhibit will be ready to open next spring.

“The new Aunt Sally’s Farm will offer a modern zoo experience inspired by those wonderful memories so many of us share of the original exhibit,” said Assiniboine Park Conservancy CEO Bruce Keats.

Next year, the park will open a revised version of Aunt Sally’s Farm, an attraction that closed in 1993 after 34 years of introducing city kids to farm life.

The new Aunt Sally’s Farm will reflect modern standards for animal welfare and care, encourage playful encounters between children and animals, and inspire the same awe and wonder that many of us fondly remember

about the old exhibit.

The new farm, set to open in spring 2021, will feature goats, llamas and other domesticated animals, along with playgrounds and a

rainbow bridge.

Fans of the first farm will be happy to hear the wishing well from the original Aunt Sally’s will also be returning.

September 25, 2020

The AgriPost

Germany Reports ASF and Countries Respond with Ban

By Harry Siemens The German industry has lost overnight export business to South Korea and Japan, and China.

“There is little reason why the Chinese accept German assurances of ‘only wild pigs’ because the Russians and others will then say they

can also supply,” said Dr. John Carr, an international livestock veterinarian and consultant living in Australia. That was Dr. Carr’s rea-

Dr. John Carr, an international livestock veterinarian and consultant said that if we assume a 100 kg carcass per pig, then China imports 53 million pigs a year, and the Germans were exporting 6 million pigs to that country.

soning only a day before the Chinese government pulled the plug on Germany.

On September 10, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reported an outbreak of wild boar African Swine Fever (ASF) in Brandenburg, Germany, which was the country’s first occurrence. “To protect the safety of our country’s animal husbandry and prevent the spread of the epidemic, under the Customs Law of the People’s Republic of China, we forbid the import of pigs, wild boars, and their products directly or indirectly from Germany,” said China’s statement.

Dr. Carr said the Chinese import about 5,300,000,000 kg of pork a year. Germany aimed to supply about

640,000,000 kg of pork, about 12 per cent of the Chinese requirements. “If we assume a 100 kg carcass per pig, the Chinese import 53 million pigs a year, and the Germans were exporting 6 million pigs,” he said.

On September 9, Germany finds the first ASF case in a wild boar found dead on Poland’s border. Tests were run using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test, a molecular biology technique by which a laboratory can duplicate a few DNA molecules into thousands or millions of copies of a special DNA sequence. Confirmation of the presence of African Swine Fever was made the following day.

Dr. Carr said although China banned imports from Germany, China still requires pork which is a significant opportunity for the ASF free world, Canada and the United States. On the other hand, the EU’s impact as a pig producing area will be

tremendous.

In Germany finishing pigs come from Spain, Denmark, and the Netherlands. But if Germany cannot sell 6 million pigs this market will collapse impacting these countries, especially Denmark, which cannot handle the piglets it produces. Departures from Germany before the ban date can strengthen the quarantine of pigs, wild boars, and the release of their products can occur after passing the quarantine.

Further, no one can send or carry Germany’s pigs or wild boar products into China. Interceptions of these products will be destroyed.

The statement said, “Anyone who violates the above regulations shall be dealt with by the customs under the relevant provisions of the ‘Customs Law of the People’s Republic of China’, the entry and exit animal and plant quarantine law of the People’s Republic of China.”

Chinese pigs.

Dr. Carr said although China banned imports from Germany, China still requires pork which is a significant opportunity for the ASF free world, Canada and the United States.

The AgriPost

September 25, 2020

Fallout from ASF Ban on Germany’s Pig Exports Drops EU Market Price

By Harry Siemens In a candid interview with Dr. John Carr, an international livestock consultant and veterinarian, right after Germany discovered its first wild boar were infected with African Swine Fever (ASF), the Germans could be looking at flooding the European market with 8 million pigs this year.

Why, because Germany is the number one producer of pork. “But the German market is interesting because they don’t make pigs anymore, they farm them from Spain, Holland, and Denmark,” he said. “I can’t sell them, so I am not buying them. So, this disaster is not German, but much more widespread. But the Danes, the Dutch, and the Spanish no longer have the finishing capacity to handle these animals.”

Dr. Carr said the Danes have gone into breeding like North Carolina, lots of breeding, no finishing, but the Germans finish the pigs, if the Germans have just lost their number one purchaser, the market drops.

In an updated article in the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB)

by Bethan Wilkins, Senior Analyst, she wrote that China, Singapore, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, Japan, South Africa have so far placed a ban on German pork imports.

Dr. Carr has instructed the British to push the sales exports. But, the British have problems because, if the price of pig meat from Denmark collapses then, “The British will buy Danish bacon because we like it. So, you take out one part of this, because the price would still fall. But Canada, I would argue, is a net exporter to China. China’s going to come looking for pork. She needs six million pigs this year.”

Dr. Carr said now is the time for Canada to pay some of the COVID19 costs down with the export of pigs.

Photos by Harry Siemens

Wilkins in the AHDB wrote that pig prices in Germany fell sharply in response to the outbreak of ASF. The Agricultural Market Information Company (AMI) quoted from the Association of Livestock and Meat Producers in Germany, the VEZG that the price was €1.27/kg or $1.98 for the week ending September 23, the same as the previous week, but 14 per cent down on the €1.47/kg quoted price from the week ending September 2.

She writes that the loss of most export markets outside of the EU presents significant challenges with carcass balance, particularly for offal products. Staffing levels also remain a difficulty in German processing plants.

Low priced pork from Germany is undercutting other suppliers within Europe.

Dr. Carr said now is the time for Canada to pay some of the COVID-19 costs down with the export of pigs. “Because, if you can ship the pigs from Canada to China, you can raise the price because the customer is desperate.”

While China gets many pigs from the US, Carr said there are some ifs remaining because of the number of pigs needed in China. The Chinese today are looking

Dr. John Carr and Harry Siemens on Skype in a candid interview just after Germany discovered its first wild boar infected with African Swine Fever that could result in flooding the European market with 8 million pigs this year.

at a 12 per cent reduction in imports and short about 6 million pigs worth of pork.

The trouble is the numbers are so fluid because the German exports to China have nearly doubled this year, because of ASF. In all Chinese imports rose to over 100 per cent because of ASF. Dr. Carr looks after more than 150 thousand sows in China and knows full well the task of rebuilding the Chinese breeding herd most consumed by the Chinese people during the original ASF outbreak. “I think five years is not unreal. It could be 10; it could be 20. But, I think to give them five years. I’m going to be producing pigs in a year, at full production probably by ‘22.

Then, we’ll be selling gilts to set up new farms in ‘23, ‘24, ‘25. I’ll be a player,” he said.

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September 25, 2020

The AgriPost

The AgriPost

Review Highlights Modest Increase in Farmland Values Average farmland values in Canada are once again showing modest increases for the first half of 2020, although the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has yet to be weighed, according to a review by Farm Credit Canada (FCC).

The national average for farmland values increased an average of 3.7 per cent for the first half this year. This increase is in line with midyear results over the past five years, which showed singledigit increases for the full year.

“Given the global economic situation during the first half of 2020, Canada’s farmland market is showing remarkable resilience in the face of adversity and uncertain times,” said J.P. Gervais, FCC’s chief agricultural economist.

“Changes to production and marketing plans induced by the pandemic have had a definite influence on profitability, yet the demand for farmland remained robust.”

FCC’s review showed lower 12-month increases in average farmland values for most provinces over the last 12 months compared to last year’s average, with the exception being in Alberta (8.5 per cent compared to 3.3 per

“Be ready to seize the opportunities, they will be there.” This is the advice from a North Dakota market analyst about marketing this year’s crop. Ray McKay was one of the speakers at this year’s Big Iron Show in Fargo, North Dakota. According to McKay there will be opportunities in the next year although there will not be a huge run up in prices as there was a couple of years ago.

“There are a lot of things going on in the world that could cause the markets to react but looking at the overall world supply, we are probably not going to see a big jump in prices,” said McKay who concentrated his comments on soybeans and corn markets. These two crops have long been a staple of American agriculture for a long time. The crops have grown substantially in acres in Manitoba in recent years as well.

Strategies Help Minimize COVID-19 Processing Slowdown

By Harry Siemens

Average farmland values in Canada are once again showing modest increases for the first half of 2020

cent) and Saskatchewan (7.9 per cent compared to 6.2 per cent). In general, the pace of farmland value increases over the past six months was slightly higher in western provinces and slightly lower in central and eastern parts of the country, with the exception being New Brunswick.

Average farmland values have increased every year since 1993; however, increases were more pronounced from 2011 to 2015 in many different regions. In 2015, the average increase was 10 per cent, and since that year, Canada has seen more mod-

erate single-digit increases in average farmland values.

Low interest rates, the limited supply of farmland in the market and confidence among producers in the farmland market appear to be the main drivers behind the 2020 mid-year increase.

“Despite supply chain disruptions that have impacted some sectors, such as red meat, the pandemic has so far not significantly affected the agriculture land market,” Gervais said. “In fact, the grain, oilseed and pulse sectors have performed well in the first half of 2020, support-

ing the slightly higher rate of increase in western Canada.”

Crop receipts, excluding cannabis for the first six months of 2020 are 1.6 per cent higher than for the same period last year.

Gervais recommends farm operators should continue to exercise caution, especially in regions where the growth rate of farmland values significantly exceeded that of farm income in recent years. He also recommends operators maintain a risk management plan to protect their business from unpredictable circumstances.

Monitor That Volatile Market and Be Ready to Sell

By Les Kletke

September 25, 2020

“The good marketers have been doing this for years but with the economics of today it is even more important to know your cost of production and be ready to sell when the market gives you a profitable return,” he said. “I know that farmers like to concentrate on growing things and then selling them, but today you have to know your breakeven point and be ready to take a profit when it is there.

It is unlikely you are going to hit the top of the market, but you have to concentrate on getting a return that will keep you in business for the next year.”

McKay analyzes market conditions for farmers primarily in North Dakota and Minnesota. He said that crop yields have been good this year. “And the corn looks promising.”

He said that there were some areas that felt the brunt of summer storms and rainfall was excessive, “But those

are small pockets and we will get a good crop off when all the numbers are in.”

He said that uncertainty is the main characteristic of the current market and that usually means volatility. “That volatility means there will be movement in the market and it is critical that producers are ready to sell when the

price moves up,” he said.

“This is not the market of the past when you could look for seasonal movement in the market and expect to market your crop at a particular time of the year and hit a high; this is about being ready and selling some crop when the market returns give you a profit.”

Tyler Fulton, the director of risk management with HAMS Marketing Services, said a range of strategies helps minimize the impact of COVID-19 related slowdowns at the Maple Leaf plant in Brandon, MB. Uncertainty over the impact of COVID-19 on pork processing capacity continues to pressure live hog markets.

Fulton said a number of the bigger plants in the US had to deal with the effects of COVID-19 far earlier with some complete plant shutdowns in May. For the most part, western Canadian processors did not see any negative impacts from COVID-19 until mid-August. At Maple Leaf in Brandon, it impacted a relatively small number of the employees.

“I think we have more information than we did back in May and better prepared,” he said. “Maple Leaf took strong action in advance of the current issue to make some contingencies and deal with it better.”

Fulton said producers are looking at shipping hogs to places they may not have shipped before, and that’s partly the role of HAMS Marketing, to find a home for those hogs.

“When they are ready, there’s a whole just-in-time system in place, and when there’s a disruption, we need to find another location for them,” he said. “It’s all hands on deck to clear some of that supply.”

That means moving hogs out of province or to other plants within the province into provincially inspected plants that typically do a relatively small number of hogs.

Fulton said there is no doubt Maple Leaf is seeing a reduction in production, but the signs are good that they will get back up to speed quickly.

On the matter of hog prices Fulton encourages producers to watch for rallies in the futures market over the winter months that could allow them to reduce their losses. Fulton said summer pricing has failed to deliver anything even close to profitable production, although futures crept back up a little. “We could start setting some targets if we get another eight to ten percent rally from October through February, I think that would be a good trigger to re-enter the market,” he said. “Not many producers took protection at these levels because they are quite unprofitable, and, if we do see a recovery, then I would say producers would probably get back and try to cover off some of that risk.”

Fulton said it would provide some certainty and instead there would be possibly a smaller loss than otherwise expected with the cash market.

He said the US continues to deal with record-setting hog numbers and anticipates moving an additional six to eight percent more pigs through the late August to early December run-up. “The peak tends to come in late November early December, so we’ll be looking at larger hog supplies and likely continued pressure on prices.”

Fulton said export demand was in a lull from its peak, but year-to-date compared to a year ago or any year previous, North America moved out more pork than ever before. “We’re talking record-setting pace largely because of larger volumes to China. However, long disruptions caused long periods where we saw below a year ago volume levels,” he said. The price did not keep up with the demand though mainly because China took so much pork earlier on when the price was better than what domestic prices were.

He said domestically in North America, there is evidence that demand performed reasonably well, but it is still tough to measure because of such disruption in the flows. The volumes slowed going through foodservice restaurants with far more going through the grocery chains.

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September 25, 2020

The AgriPost

The AgriPost

Canadian Pork Industry Approaching Precipice

With outbreaks of African Swine Fever in many countries and now Germany a two-pronged approach in government help is needed for the File Photos struggling industry.

By Harry Siemens Rick Bergmann, president of the Canadian Pork Council on behalf of Canada’s 7,000 pork producers, urged the Federal government to make targeted enhancements to fix AgriStability. Hog producers face unprecedented volatility and loss due to COVID-19, and fixing AgriStability is essential to help farmers stay in business as they struggle to produce a high-quality, affordable protein that Canadian families want and need.

With outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF) in many countries and now Germany makes for a two-pronged approach for much needed government’s help. Twopronged to enhance a protective system to keep ASF out of Canada and secondly to help the struggling sector, which would generate $25 billion annually to the Canadian economy.

Bergmann said many countries have succumbed to ASF, which has devastated production in those countries. With the latest case of ASF in Germany causing many countries to ban its hog exports this has the Canadian hog industry concerned.

“We need to do whatever we can in preventative measures because we know the cure is so much more costly than the prevention,” he said.

“If it comes to Canada, it will devastate a lot of family farms. That’s our concern, where we’re talking with the federal government and the minister of agriculture to the critical importance of being fully engaged with the pork sector.”

The Canadian industry struggles to stay afloat because of the fallout from COVID-19 and now with ASF in Germany, this is forcing China to look elsewhere for pork.

Bergmann said China buys astutely. There are 90 to 100 different countries around the world that are knocking on Canada’s pork door. “We need to step it up to ensure we can prevent African Swine Fever from entering Canada.”

He said the current hog price at breakeven at $165 to $170 is not as bad as weanling producers getting $10 per weanling. Hog farmers already spend millions of dollars on biosecurity. The hog industry would be part of the economic gain if government helps.

The year 2020 was supposed to be a positive year for the thousands of farm families that produce pork. Then COVID-19 hit. After a brief period of sharp price increases for their hogs, producers saw some of the steepest, most profound declines the market

has ever recorded.

“Forecasts made in June 2020 project that pork producers will lose $20/hog for every hog they sell in 2020.

For Canadian pork producers, the total loss will be more than $500 million,” said Bergmann. “The impact of COVID-19, including the increased volatility of the markets and the other risks that farmers face, are not felt equally by all producers.”

Vertically integrated producers and processors can mitigate some of the market volatility. Other producers can use private risk management tools, like hedging, but the availability of these tools is limited. Regional differences also impact producers in various ways.

“For example, Quebec prices hogs differently than the rest of the country, mitigating the impact of COVID-19, but even that system is under pressure,” said Bergmann. “For western Canadian producers, there is extreme volatility and loss and will likely lose more than $45 a hog compared to the 5-year average. Losses for isowean producers, those that sell piglets can be even more significant.”

That is why the imperative is so great to fix AgriStability. It is supposed to support producers who need it most when they need it most he

Rick Bergmann, president of the Canadian Pork Council on behalf of Canada’s 7,000 pork producers, urged the Federal government to make targeted enhancements to fix AgriStability.

said. Bergmann said there is a growing consensus that hog farmers will feel the pandemic’s impact for years to come.

“Producers need to know that the government will be a partner with them throughout the entire period of increased volatility and loss,” he said.

“Therefore, the government must make these critical, targeted changes for the remaining two years of the Canadian Agricultural Partnership program. Inaction will severely impact the $25 billion industry and the hundred thousand Canadians employed in the pork value chain.”

September 25, 2020

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New Operations Manager for Glenlea Research Station The Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences recently announces the appointment of Jay Bourcier as operations manager for the University of Manitoba’s Glenlea Research Station.

Bourcier will provide leadership in the operations and maintenance of the research station in support of the research, teaching and outreach goals of the Faculty.

He will be responsible for managing staff, facilities and equipment at the 500-hectare station, which includes modern livestock and cropping systems as well as key outreach infrastructure.

“We are excited to have Jay assume the official role as manager,” said Martin Scanlon, dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences. “The Glenlea Research Station plays a crucial part in providing our students with opportunities to experience hands-on learning, and enabling our faculty to undertake research with significant value to producers in Manitoba and beyond. Glenlea continues to be an award-winning operation which sets the standard for animal care and whole farm biosecurity, and serves as a strong foundation for our programs.”

“I couldn’t be more excited to move into my new role,” said Bourcier. “With its infrastructure, and skilled and dedicated support staff, Glenlea has become an exemplar in agriculture across Canada. With industry support and the outstanding academic staff at the University of Manitoba, I plan to develop the station into a unique training and learning environment for students and producers within our province while continuing to be innovative in research practices and outreach. The potential for Glenlea moving forward is boundless.”

He brings extensive experience to the Glenlea Research Station role, having served in a variety of roles at the station since 2006 including poultry unit supervisor, livestock research coordinator and as acting manager since December 2019. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Integrated Studies with a concentration in Animal Science from the University of Manitoba.

The Glenlea Research Station provides the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences with facilities and services necessary for its teaching, research and outreach programs and is the site for major infrastructure associated with the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment and the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre, an innovative and interactive agricultural education facility. The Dairy Farmers of Manitoba Discovery and Learning Complex, opened in 2018, complements the research station’s programming.

Located south of Winnipeg on Highway 75, the station includes a dairy unit, a swine unit, and a beef feedlot. The site also houses long-term sustainable cropping systems plots, including Canada’s longest running organic cropping systems study and a greenhouse gas field emission site. The station also provides management for poultry barns located at the Fort Garry Campus.

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September 25, 2020

The AgriPost

The AgriPost

Feed Supply Looks Good

By Les Kletke Abe Peters said his feed supply looks good but since it is still in field there is no guarantee getting it into his yard.

“When we have it in the bunker we know we have it,” said Peters. “We know better than to count on it until we have it packed down.”

Peters and his son feed 300 commercial cows that calve out in late spring. “We moved calving to later in the year and it seems to have helped with making things a bit easier for the cows.” he said. “That is another crop we are not sure of but they will be going to market soon.”

Peters will sell at the fall market run in late September or early October. “So far we have lots of grass so we will leave them on pasture for a bit yet.”

Peters and his son have been selective with genetics building a herd with strong Angus influence. “They seem to work well in our system of feeding corn silage through the winter and getting them out on pasture in the spring.” he said. “We’re trying to minimize the work load and get the cow-calf pairs out on the grass early if the pasture permits.” They rotate the animals through several paddocks on their land near Gardenton.

Peters said that the heat of summer helped with corn production and the crop is looking good heading into cutting. He is hesitant to put on estimate on the yield but is confident he will have a good supply for the winter.

“Predictions are for a cold winter and that takes more feed,” he said. “In Manitoba we are always going to have a cold winter.”

He said his cow herd is relatively young so he is not too concerned about replacements though he has considered holding back more heifers this year for the herd numbers. “We like the genetics we have so we might keep a few females back and

add to our cow numbers but this is about what we can handle and we can to consider what our pasture will carry,” he said.

He acknowledged that further dividing the pasture and utilizing more rotational grazing program would give him added capacity. “We could do that and carry a few more cows,” he said. “But we are not sure how much we want to expand. We will see how the market is when we are selling our calves. We will sell the females later in the run and might hold a few more back. It looks like we will have the feed this winter, but it is not in the bunker, yet.”

Sunflowers Not Only Great for Selfies and Bird Feed

By Elmer Heinrichs Perhaps you have seen a queen or a group of queen contestants standing in a blooming field of sunflowers posing for a selfie picture? At Altona the sunflower festival committee sought to provide such an opportunity with a two-acre field of the yellowblooming sunflowers.

There is also a field just west of Winnipeg that you may have seen in photographs, perhaps many times.

Maybe these farmers should be charging for its use. There is just something about the combination of tall plants and the brilliant yellows that touch us all.

Manitoba farmers grow about 90 per cent of the sunflowers seeded in Canada. This year, that is about 93,000 acres or about 37,600

hectares. That is quite a jump from last year’s acreage, and actually the largest in some time. The demand for sunflowers is strong and the prices they are fetching on world markets are also strong.

There are two types of sunflowers, those that are used as snacks and those that are used both to extract the oil and also in the bird seed industry. The world price basis in Manitoba is around 30 cents a pound for confection sunflower seeds. When the seeds are crushed to separate the oil, those seeds bring seven or eight cents a pound less.

According to the industry, it is actually the bird feed sector which is driving demand and price. It seems demand has really peaked during

the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of people were staying home, watching the birds in their backyards and feeding them to increase the numbers sighted. All those farmers who decided to seed some extra acres to sunflowers made the right call this year.

The industry has not always been as vibrant as it is now.

Processing of sunflowers began in Altona in the 1940s.

Originally known as Co-op Vegetable Oils; the processor has had several owners over the years. It is now owned by Bunge, a large international grain company, and currently is a major crusher of canola.

There are several other facilities around the province to process the seed into oil, or to prepare and package the seed for bird or human consumption.

This year’s crop of sunflowers is progressing well.

But farmers know that no matter how tall the crop, or how yellow the head, there is really only one thing that counts, and that is seed production.

The seeds started to fill out in August so they had a long way to go. The sunflower plants are now drying down and are among the last to be harvested. Grain buyer Ben Friesen, with Scoular Canada, at Winkler, said, “The crop is looking good with potential average to above average yields. The more heat we get, the faster we can get them off, starting in very late September and early October.”

Farmers are keeping their fingers crossed for a bumper harvest and excellent prices.

September 25, 2020

Research Gives New Insight into Stress During Transport

By Harry Siemens

Pork producers, swine transporters, and regulatory authorities will reap the benefits of research to assess the effects on pigs of long-distance versus short-distance transport.

The Prairie Swine Centre and the Universities of Saskatchewan and Guelph with support from Swine Innovation Porc and the Agriculture Development Fund Saskatchewan, scientists are tracking the effects of stress during transport on weaned pigs.

When stress happens it results in physiological changes that could compromise the health of the animal. According to the researchers this affects not only the welfare of the pig but the ability to have efficient production systems and increases in antibiotic use.

Dr. Yolande Seddon of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine knows transport stresses the piglets, but the key is to guard against the ride causing further distress for the piglets. She said that pigs are very resilient and many walk off the truck and look good.

“WE regularly transport animals, but then understanding how our practices might be influencing gives us a greater appreciation,” said Dr. Seddon. “In turn, we can adjust animal care to ensure that the pigs receive the support to overcome a stressor such as transport for example.”

She believes this information can be used to update best practices on how to transport pigs and possibly used to support legislative regulations.

Dr. Seddon said by understanding how the practices influence pigs it will be easier to determine when to intervene. “When we have more data, we can look at intervention strategies to see how we can reduce the amount of physical stress to the pigs.”

She said they are collecting more data from trips that are going up to 36 hours to assess short versus long trips and to increase the sample size.

If the research can identify more factors influencing the stress response outside of normal reference ranges, that creates a physiological change in the animal that needs reversing that is where they would look at intervention strategies to see how to reduce the pigs’ amount of physical stress.

Rivers Area Farm in “Maybe Next Year” Country

By Les Kletke “We have been in ‘next year’ country for a while,” said Ian Gough when asked about this year’s crop. “We have some harvest but overall this year is a disaster.”

Torrential rain that caused severe damage to infrastructure took its toll on his farm at Rivers.

“The rain was just too much, you can’t have drainage that will handle that kind of rain,” he said. “So we lost a lot of the crop just to the rain, and then the flooding that resulted took more of a toll. We have been in ‘next year’ country since

the middle of summer.”

Gough said the crop that did survive, is yielding an average crop, but it was a small percentage of his farm. “With today’s margin you have to get a crop on every acre, and we probably lost 2/3 of out crop with the rains and subsequent flooding so that does not leave much to cover expenses and get started for next year.”

He said that he did not have much permanent damage on his farm. “That is the good thing, we did not have a lot of soil erosion and gulley wash outs,” he said. “So we have minimal long term

damage, but there is a long term cost when you have a year with no crop that is hard enough to recover from.”

He said his wheat yield was about average but finds it hard to put an exact number on the yield because of fields loosing portions of acres to excessive water.

“There was ponding in every field and the crop was lost so we did not get any real yield numbers but what was there would have been at least an average crop,” said Gough.

Gough concentrates his production on wheat and

canola with some soybean acres. “We see that the soybeans came through the tough conditions better than we thought but maybe we just had our expectations low enough.” he said. “We will have to wait and see on the yields there; we are just beginning to harvest the soybeans.”

He is planning to take off the soybean crop and then concentrate his efforts on preparing his land for next year. “That is about all we can do, and we have to be ready for next year and hope we don’t get a 100 year rain two years on a row.”

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Dr. Yolande Seddon of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine knows transport stresses the piglets, but the key is to guard against the ride causing further distress for the piglets.

24

September 25, 2020

The AgriPost

Masks Become an Essential Part of Daily Life

By Joan Airey Whether one has to venture out for work, groceries or a medical appointment these days we are required to wear a mask to protect our well-being.

Pat Dyck, a retired farm woman found regular masks caused people’s glasses to fog up so she created a mask with a wire piece fitting over the nose to help prevent this

from happening.

“I came across a pattern and found with some alternations it helped prevent my glasses from fogging up.

Demand among friends and word of mouth has brought it to the point where I’m sewing masks eight to ten hours a day,” commented Dyck.

Dyck started ordering material and now has over fifty

different patterns available to make masks such as for children’s favourite hockey teams to go with any outfit.

“Friends who make their home in Mexico told us they find it really hard to get masks down there so I have shipped some to them,” said Dyck.

Dyck’s masks can be found on Facebook at 3D Designer Masks by Pat.

Blake Airey wearing a mask designed and made by Pat Dyck. The photograph shows how the mask can be fitted to the child with the elastic around the ears.

Photos by Tanya Airey

The AgriPost

Aircraft Drones Help Farmers Fight Grasshoppers in Manitoba

By Harry Siemens Manitoba farmers who used to spray the outer edges of fields for grasshoppers are finding out this year, that it does not necessarily always work.

Robert Klassen of Sandford said not only has he sprayed his entire crop for these pesky insects; he has sprayed some individual fields twice.

A recent Manitoba Agriculture crop report said grasshoppers are a concern in cereal and soybean fields, and move into forage fields after crops have been sprayed.

With higher grasshopper populations and other insect population building Manitoba Agriculture said farmers should monitor fields closely for populations and communicate with a pesticide retailer about product availability.

Matthew Johnson, president of M3 Drone Services Ltd. of Winnipeg, is using drones to spot grasshopper infestations in crops across southern Manitoba. “This means the grasshoppers continue eating their lunch long enough to say cheese for the camera,” said Johnson.

He said it could be challenging to get accurate insect population counts by walking through a field because it disturbs grasshoppers, making them flutter around. With a drone, Johnson can get a high-resolution image without moving the plants too much to get an accurate count.

M3 Drone Services is working with producers to help them identify infested fields, and to what extent, so they can determine whether they need to apply an insecticide.

In a recent flight of a fixedwing aircraft, this journalist viewed the crops from the air which provided a much better view and crop assessment.

Yet, Johnson said with a drone he gets down real slow and looks at the canopy from just a few feet up to get highresolution shots.

He said the farmer will get a snapshot before the grasshoppers fly away from both one or two meters up off the crop because he is able to zoom in and software provides a count of all the visible insects in the picture.

In one flight, he found 17 grasshoppers within about a square metre, which is a pretty big problem. That picture was just on the top of the crop canopy. If grasshoppers are under the canopy those are a little bit tougher to count he said. “When walking through the field, it gets tough to count any; you just see a flutter a lot

Matthew Johnson, president of M3 Drone Services Ltd. of Winnipeg, uses drones to spot grasshopper infestations in crops across southern Manitoba because they can fly over a field without disturbing the plants. Johnson’s drone pilots select 160-acres which are then divided into 16 samples of 10 acres each in order to get an idea of what the grasshopper spread is in the field.

of the time.”

M3 Drones Services has a network throughout Canada that includes 50 drone pilots all across the prairies. They offer drone crop inspection services in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, southern Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic provinces.

“With the grasshopper inspections, the way it works is that we’re doing an inspection on about 10 acres at a time,” he said. Johnson’s pilots break up a 160 acre filed into 16 smaller 10 acre chunks; take a picture once in each of those spots to get an idea of what the spread is in the field.

“The client can analyze the picture, or we can do it for them at a separate cost because it is a little bit timeconsuming,” he said. “We’re able to determine then in each picture, create a heat map that shows how the spread of the grasshoppers looks across the field.”

What spurred Johnson on to do this a Manitoba crop test update that came out on June 24, indicating that grasshopper nymphs are at high levels in some areas. Manitoba Agriculture recommended control around field edges, but going deeper into a field or two showed Johnson, that the grasshoppers have extended deeper into the field. He said that M3 Drone Services provided it services this year in response to this particular infestation.

Johnson said that drones are much more than meets the eye when it comes to precision agriculture. “It is just one of the many applications of drone technology,” he said.

“Most people have no idea what these little machines are truly capable of.”

M3 Drone Services inspects crop fields for grasshopper population count in 10-acre sample sizes.

September 25, 2020

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AgriStability Needs a Fundamental Change NOW Dear Ministers, On behalf of Canada’s 7,000 pork producers, I am writing to urge you to make targeted enhancements to fix AgriStability. Producers are facing unprecedented volatility and loss due to COVID-19, and fixing AgriStability is essential to helping farmers stay in business as they struggle to produce the high-quality, affordable protein that Canadian families want and need.

The year 2020 was supposed to be a positive year for the thousands of farm families that produce pork. Following years of market disruption, driven by factors outside of our control, such as the US-China trade war, market fundamentals were improving, and it looked like it would be a profitable year.

Then COVID-19 hit. After a brief period of sharp price increases for their hogs, producers saw some of the steepest, most profound declines the market has ever recorded. Forecasts made in June 2020 project that pork producers will lose $20/hog for every hog they sell in 2020, for Canadian pork producers the total loss will be more than $500 million.

The impact of COVID-19, including the increased volatility of the markets and the other risks that farmers face, are not felt equally by all producers. For example, vertically integrated producers and processors can mitigate some of the market volatility. Other producers can use private risk management tools, like hedging, but the availability and accessibility of these tools are limited.

Regional differences also impact producers in various ways. For example, Quebec prices hogs differently than the rest of the country; mitigating the impact of COVID-19 but even that system is under pressure. Western Canadian producers are very exposed to extreme volatility and loss and will likely lose more than $45 a hog compared to the 5-year average.

Losses for isowean producers, those that sell piglets to be grown by others, can be even more significant. Some isowean producers have seen their piglets become worthless and have struggled to find any buyers at all.

Government’s response to COVID-19 may have helped some small businesses, but the program response is not enough to address the significant loss facing pork producers. For example, the wage subsidy can help, but salaries, wages and benefits, represent approximately 8% of an average farm’s operating expenses so the wage subsidy is often not enough to make a difference on a hog farm. That is why the imperative is so great to fix AgriStability. It is supposed to support producers who need it most when they need it most. Unfortunately, it is a broken program that offers too little support to make a difference when farmers are facing a financial disaster like they are with COVID-19.

Farmers across Canada have long called for the payment trigger so that they are not pushed to the brink before AgriStability kicks in.

Pork producers support efforts to have the trigger raised to 85% so that farmers can have confidence the program will be there when they need it.

Pork producers are concerned that the cost of increasing the trigger to 85% has created a barrier to movement at the FPT table. As a result, while the pandemic drags on and more farms are pushed to near financial collapse, there has been little action from governments to help them stay in business. Inaction cannot be an option, the consequences on Canadian farm families will be too severe, and therefore we believe the time has come to consider alternatives.

There are other ways to fix AgriStability. Its fundamental challenge is that it does not provide enough support when farmers are facing significant loss. A simple solution would be to leave the trigger at 70% but increase the compensation rate to 85%. Doing so would retain AgriStability as a disaster program, respect Canada’s trade obligations, significantly reduce the cost to governments, but still provide additional support to those who are facing extreme loss.

Increasing the compensation rate to 85% will make a significant difference for those producers who need it most. It will increase payments by 20%, but ensure those payments are only received by those facing substantial loss.

There is a growing consensus that the impacts of the pandemic will be felt for years to come. Producers need to know that the government will be a partner with them throughout the entire period of increased volatility and loss. Therefore these critical, targeted changes must be made for the remaining two years of the Canadian Agricultural Partnership program. Inaction will severely impact 25-billion-dollar industry and the hundred thousand Canadians employed in the pork value chain.

The Canadian Pork Council is willing to work with governments to explore how they can offer the backstop that pork producers need.

We look forward to continuing to work with governments on these changes, but the time for discussion is running out. Without meaningful action, governments will soon be faced with the impacts of hog farms of all production types going out of business. Governments need to act now before the consequences are too severe.

Sincerely, Rick Bergmann, Canadian Pork Council Chair and Manitoba producer

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September 25, 2020

Your Drinking Water Shouldn’t Be At Risk

By Dr. Jon Gerrard You may have read about a proposed Silica Sand Processing Facility at Vivian, about 6 km east of Anola. The facility is supposed to process sand that will be pulled out of the ground through boreholes drilled over a huge area which covers 85,000 hectares of claims and much of the largest aquifer in Manitoba – the Sandstone aquifer of the Winnipeg Formation.

That aquifer serves and provides a livelihood for much of southeast Manitoba. People, farms and businesses rely on it for water in the RM’s of Springfield, Tache, Ste Anne, Ritchot, De Salaberry, Hanover, La Broqurie, Emerson-Franklin, Morris and MacDonald.

Residents have expressed serious concerns about the mine and the facility. Very fine silica sand can be a health hazard when you breathe it in. There are concerns that boreholes could allow pollution to get into the aquifer. There are further concerns that the materials pulled to the surface in the mining process could rust and contaminate waterways and the aquifer itself.

CanWhite Sands Corporation has acknowledged they are using a new process which they are currently experimenting in the Aquifer. The company is on record as saying they, “Teed to develop a new extraction methodology that has never been done before.”

This is raising red flags.

Right now, the sand, water and other minerals above the aquifer are in layers. Boreholes will punch down through all the layers. One of the layers has sulfides, heavy metals and a type of iron ore - pyritic oolite – that when stirred up and exposed to air will begin to leach and rust.

This acid mine drainage, has polluted many mine sites in northern Manitoba, including on Black Island, at Hollow Water First Nation, where silica sand was mined from 1929 to the late 1980s. The acidic and poisonous metals are still leaching and turning waters red today.

This is bad enough if it is happening above ground – where runoff can flow into fields, streams and lakes, including the Brokenhead and Lake Winnipeg. If the contamination occurs in the ground – in the sand, porous stone and water of the aquifer itself, there is no real way to clean it up.

With all those concerns, you would think the province would concentrate on approving the mine first.

Instead, they are putting the cart before the horse by putting the sand processing facility up for environmental review first. The mining portion is set for a review after – even though the facility would be useless if the mine isn’t approved.

Let’s be clear here – we support mining, jobs and growth, especially in rural Manitoba. Growth and jobs have to be on top of, and in addition to, the existing economy and jobs in fishing, agriculture and more. There are plenty of examples across Manitoba where a short-term business left behind a mess, and the rest of us have to pay to clean it up – if it gets cleaned up at all.

No matter where you live in southeastern Manitoba, this project could have an impact on your job, your water, your business and your taxes – especially if you’re a farmer or a fisher.

Considering the downside risks, this project needs to have a full public review. We have called for the mine and the processing facility to have a Clean Environment Commission review together, and for the Federal Government to do a review as well.

Quality economic development means we shouldn’t be cutting corners or ignoring residents’ legitimate concerns.

If you are concerned or have questions about this proposal, you can write to the province’s Minister of Sustainable Development the Hon. Sarah Guillemard or to the federal Minister of Environment the Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson. I am also available for your comments or questions at jon.gerrard@leg.gov.mb.ca.

Dr. Jon Gerrard is the Manitoba Liberal MLA for River Heights.

The AgriPost

ASF Surveillance Pilot Project to Focus on Rule-Out Testing

By Harry Siemens A new foreign animal disease surveillance effort will help speed up the detection of African Swine Fever (ASF) in pigs should it arrive in Canada.

CanSpotASF is part of a suite of African Swine Fever preparedness activities under the ASF Executive Management Board.

Canada West Swine Health Intelligence Network manager Dr. Jette Christensen explained that CanSpotASF is a broad collaboration involving the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Pork Council, and the Canadian Meat Council. Other stakeholders include the provinces, the pork boards, provincial laboratories and the Canada Swine Health Intelligence Network, the umbrella for all regional networks in Canada.

Dr. Christensen said CanSpotASF has a specific goal to enhance surveillance and protect the swine sector from the impact of ASF. It consists of several surveillance tools that can be phased in, with the first tool launching in the third quarter as a pilot project.

“We will use it for about a year, evaluate, and then improve on that specific tool with a long name ‘Risk-Based Early Detection Testing at Approved Laboratories’,” she said. “In short, that’s to rule out testing at laboratories approved to test for ASF.” The idea is to improve the early detection to help minimize the impact of ASF should it ever occur in Canada.

A new foreign animal disease surveillance effort will help speed up the detection of African Swine Fever in pigs should it arrive in Canada.

File Photos

Dr. Christensen said early detection of African Swine Fever would help speed up containment.

To rule out testing in a potential hot spot offers an added line of defence with minimal risk of disrupting the day-to-day production of pork and the one-year pilot project represents enhanced surveillance. “We’ve estimated that the number of eligible cases that we would select from is about 700 per year in Canada but don’t expect to test all 700 cases, maybe half; but this is still to be determined,” she said.

CanSpotASF knows that the test used in laboratories is an excellent test and, if they tested all 700 samples per year, it is expected that there would be one false positive case in 14 years. What they do not know is if that is the first case or the last case in those 14 years.

Even if a false positive oc-

curs, there will be movement restrictions for 48 to 96 hours for that producer while CFIA investigates the case positive or negative status before going back to normal. Dr. Christensen said if they find a positive case, the story is different, and the CFIA will go into full combat mode to contain and control the disease.

International livestock consultant and veterinarian Dr. John Carr from Australia said this is standard practice. It is a feature of all tests. There are false positives and the government has a standard operating procedure in place so that any potential spread of the virus can be checked.

“The advantage we have today is we often have other tests we can apply,” said Dr. Carr. “In China, especially in the early days, I had a lot of false-positive cases because the lab picked up the virus from the lab! Not from the samples. Our tests can be

Canada West Swine Health Intelligence Network manager Dr. Jette Christensen explained that CanSpotASF is a broad collaboration involving the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Pork Council, and the Canadian Meat Council.

way too sensitive also!”

Dr. Christensen said anyone can access the information on CanSpotASF through the National Farmed Animal Health and Welfare Council web site.

Higher Yield Doesn’t Mean More Money

By Les Kletke Yields that would have been record setting a decade ago are now required on most crops.

“Even a couple of years ago we would have been overwhelmed by the yields that now just cover our costs,” said Brad Friesen who farms at Kane.

Genetics have improved in all crops but the cost of seed has kept pace and in some cases surpassed the increased yield. “The cost of our canola seed has increased dramatically,” he said. “Sure the potential is there for a bigger crop but we still have to deal with the down side and the

potential of bad weather.”

He is hesitant to mention numbers when speaking of his canola yield this year but does not show surprise at talk of a 60 bushel per acre for canola. “A few years ago, I would have laughed at that and called it coffee shop bushels but now, I believe that it is possible,” he said. “But a lot of times guys are talking about their best yields not their average, and we have to pay the expenses on all our acres not just the best fields.”

As of September 18 he had only begun his soybean harvest and said the crop looked promising but he was

not cashing any checks yet.

“We had a dry spell last summer and then it got very wet through harvest,” said Friesen. “We did not believe we would leave crop out in the field and we did.”

He said that some canola stayed out over winter and gave him little return in the spring. “We harvested it but that certainly did not give us the return we need to cover the costs of putting the crop in the ground,” he said. “We do have the potential for better crops than we did even a few years ago but we still have to contend with the weather both for production and to allow us to get the

crop off.”

He believes in the adage that your crop has the highest potential at seeding and goes down from there. “We can do all the budget numbers and be ready for the potential crop but lots of things happened to that crop through the growing season and they all reduce the potential, there is nothing that raises it above your expectations from the spring.”

So far the 2020 crop has come off well and he is pleased with the progress that he has made, but he still casts a cautions eye to the soybean fields that are waiting for the combine.

The AgriPost

Beware of Things Swimming in Beef Cows’ Drinking Water

By Peter Vitti Once, a university professor told our beef science class that there are things swimming around in most beef cows’ drinking water that weren’t fish. As an undergraduate, I envisioned snails and frogs being sucked up by thirsty cows, but I soon realized that he was talking about the many undesirable things not visible to the naked eye. To this day, I recommend that beef producers provide an adequate supply of high-quality water to their beef cows, which has been proven to promote health and production.

Afterall, water is the most important nutrient for beef cows (and their calves, replacement heifers and breeding bulls). That’s because, it makes up at least 65% of their entire bodies. It also constitutes 85 - 90% of gestation fluids and of milk for her newborn calf. Subsequently, the basic water requirement for an average 1100 lb. (500 kg) beef cow is about 10 - 12 US gallons (re: 40 - 45 liters) per daily. However, this amount is influenced by the outside temperature, dry matter content of forages and other feeds, milk production, salt and mineral consumption, drinking-water temperature and finally its quality.

The following table gives an overview of how much water given the common summer and autumn temperature that beef cows and other cattle should drink in order to meet their basic daily needs (see Table 1).

Table 1

Cow standing in water fountain.

Looking for such a highvolume source of water is easy compared to finding high-quality water for cattle.

That’s because water quality is judged on so many different levels. Here are a few of primary parameters in order to determine the quality of water for beef cattle: - Total Dissolved Solids (TDS): TDS provides an overall evaluation of water quality in a single index. Salinity (dissolved salts – carbonates, chlorides, bicarbonates, sulphates, nitrates, phosphates and fluorides) makes up a large portion of TDS. TDS of less than 3,000 mg/ml is considered safe for mature dairy cattle.

- Hardness: This second parameter usually has no effect

on actual water safety for cattle. However, it can result in the accumulation of scales (magnesium, manganese, iron and calcium carbonates) and lead to clogging of pipes and cause waterers not to properly work. Water with more than 120 mg/L as CaCO 3 is considered hard water.

- Water pH: Water should fall between 6.8 – 7.5 for cattle.

Although, there is little research about the adverse effects of mildly alkaline water upon cattle, it has been from my own experience that when I acidify water; pH > 8.0 down to 7.4 – cattle tend to drink more water and then seem healthier to me.

- High mineral concentrations: High concentrations of sulphates, and trace minerals often bind essential nutrients, thereby increasing their dietary levels. In addition, high iron water has also been implicated in causing E. coli and other bacteria populations to thrive. On a practical note - HMC decreases loose cattle mineral or salt intake on pasture or drylot.

- Nitrates and Sulphates: Nitrate toxicity from water is relatively low on most western farms. However, a potential threat may exist when modest nitrate levels are found in water, and cattle are

also consuming high nitrate forage. Likewise, high sulphates in water are dangerous to cattle and their “rotten-egg” smell usually limits water intake. They are also linked to a high incidence of polioencelphia.

- Bacterial and algae contamination: Since most water is contaminated with bacteria, the amount and type of bacteria fed to cattle should be determined. Pathogenic E. coli, coli form bacteria (including fecal) and salmonella counts should be zero. Given that most bacteria bloom when favorable growing conditions exist; can cause an unwanted outbreak ranging from temporary diarrhea to serious health issues. Common algae pose little threat to cattle aside from relatively rare blue-green algae blooms.

This is useful information that made a beef producer (150 cow-calf pairs) that I know - decide to dig a new well as a good source of water for his cowherd. He said that he is tired of maintaining an older aeration system for a few dugouts or seasonally treating them with copper sulphate. His own hope in this new venture, is that he won’t have to dig too far down to find lots of highquality water.

September 25, 2020

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The Need to Increase Efforts to Prevent ASF Entering Canada

By Rick Bergmann An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure has taken on new meaning over the last six months. COVID-19 has taught Canadians that prevention, including social distancing, masks, and hand washing, are small steps that can make a big difference in the fight against a virus.

Canada’s pork producers have been thinking a lot about prevention over the last three years since African Swine Fever (ASF) started to have a major impact around the world. Now producers are asking the Federal Government to invest an ounce in a pork pandemic prevention plan to help avoid the devastating consequences and high cost of the cure.

ASF is a highly contagious viral disease that results in significant production and economic losses wherever it is found. While initially isolated, ASF has spent the last three years spreading across eastern Europe and Asia.

The devastation that ASF has brought with it has been considerable. Estimates are that ASF has caused China’s hog herd to shrink by 40%, about 180 million hogs. It has caused pork prices to skyrocket, led to shortages and has devastated rural communities where countless jobs have been lost as farms, processing plants, feed, and input suppliers have all had to shut down as they have tried to control the virus.

The consequences of an ASF detection in Canada would be devastating. If ASF is detected, several things will happen almost at once, with the impacts felt immediately.

First, quarantines will be established, and an eradication plan will be put in place to try and stop the disease. An aggressive eradication effort is core to the plan, but it will require a significant mobilization of resources. The eradication plan alone will cost millions.

Second, the border will close. Canada’s beef farmers suffered through a border closer because of BSE, something that still has lingering consequences almost 20 years later. ASF will be worse, much worse. Canada exports $ 4 billion of pork, 70% of our production, to more than 90 markets around the world. Every single one of those markets will likely slam its borders shut the day that ASF is detected in Canada.

Third, as borders close and exports stop, processors will be forced to cut capacity or close completely. Regardless, jobs will be lost. Canada’s pork processors provide tens of thousands of good middle-class jobs across Canada. Every single one of them will be at risk if ASF is detected.

Fourth, as processors stop processing, pork producers will be left with no market for millions of pigs. Farmers will go out of their way to limit the fallout, but it will be severe. Financially they see businesses they have poured their soul into losing value overnight. Their income will disappear. In the meantime, an animal welfare crisis will be created as farmers figure out what to do with millions of pigs that no longer have a market. The financial and animal welfare crises will lead to a mental health crisis.

If we are lucky, the borders will start to open in months, and recovery will be able to start, but it will take years before Canada recovers. However, Canada’s pork value chain will never be the same.

The cost of the cure will be counted in billions. Eradicating the virus, income support for tens of thousands of out of work Canadians, aid for the thousands of farm families who will struggle through the fallout will be significant. All of this will need to happen as billions of dollars in economic activity simply disappears.

It’s estimated that the economic impact could exceed $50 billion dollars and kill the family farm.

To say the impact will be devastating is an understatement.

That is why an ounce of prevention is worth so much.

Canada’s pork producers and government have already invested significantly in prevention. Farmers have and continue to spend millions across the country to improve on-farm biosecurity.

In Budget 2019, the Federal Government confirmed an investment in the Canada Border Services Agency to deploy more detector dogs across the country. There has also been a significant investment in financial and human capital as governments and industry plan and prepared for ASF. But more can and needs to be done to prevent the high cost of the cure.

That is why Canada’s pork producers are calling on the government to use Budget 2020 to invest $50 million over three years in a seven-point pork pandemic prevention plan. The plan will boost biosecurity and traceability, prepare response programming, improve communications, engage with small-scale producers, increase research, and appoint a Chief ASF Officer. Investing in these targeted activities can make a big difference in the fight to prevent ASF. Canadians now know why prevention is worth so much. Pork producers hope that the government hasn’t forgotten this lesson when it comes to ASF. Rick Bergmann is a Manitoba pork producer and Chair of the Canadian Pork Council.

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The AgriPost

September 25, 2020

Getting to the Root of the Problem Roots play a vital role in crop plants. They take up water and nutrients for the plant and keep it held firmly in the ground. But not all roots are the same.

Different plants have different kinds of roots that help them survive in their environment. Two well-known examples are carrots and cactus. Carrots have a long taproot that penetrates deep into the soil. Cacti usually have shallow roots. These allow them to quickly soak up the little rainfall they receive in the desert.

Can studying roots lead to better crops? It’s a question that researchers from Pennsylvania State University set out to answer, focusing on beans. They know that crops like beans are critical for feeding a rapidly growing population.

“Grain legumes are critical for global food security, but achieve low yields in most areas,” said Jonathan P. Lynch, a professor at Pennsylvania State University. “This is especially true in areas of the developing world that experience drought, heat, and low soil fertility.”

Breeding is a way to improve how crops perform in different environments. However, looking at the roots for beneficial characteristics for breeding is rarely done. “Optimizing how plants get resources from the soil in stressful environments is important for increasing food production, but specific breeding objectives are ill defined,” Lynch said. “We sought to test hypotheses about the link between root system architecture and life strategy in order to generate breeding targets.”

In their study, they analyzed the root systems of several kinds of beans and other legumes, like chickpeas.

This allowed them to see tradeoffs and to determine what kind of root characteristics would perform better in certain environments. This can help plant breeders devise better plants.

Roots explore both the topsoil and subsoil. Nutrients like phosphorus and potassium are more present in the topsoil, while water and nitrogen are usually deeper in the soil. They observed that many crops focus on one or the other of these soil layers, which results in a trade off.

“Root architecture is an important component of crop adaptation to environments where water and nutrients are lacking,” Lynch said. “We suggest that root phenotypes capable of balancing topsoil and subsoil exploration would be useful.”

The researchers say that breeding programs could use trait-based selection on root characteristics they are interested in. They could then use various techniques to get well-adapted plants with stronger primary roots or longer root hairs, for example. “Everyone knows that roots are important for crops, especially in poor soils and in dry conditions,” Lynch adds. “However, very few crop breeders actively select for these root characteristics because it can be difficult. This paper is one of a growing number by our team and others showing how specific root characteristics are associated with crop resilience under stress.”

Lynch said his personal goal is to improve food security in developing nations where 850 million people are chronically malnourished and with the human population expanding, the problem will only increase.

Grain legumes have the potential to help address this problem because they are good for the soil and humans. They take nitrogen from the air and make it usable in the soil and are rich in nutrients humans need like protein, iron, and zinc. “It is important for us all to recognize the magnitude of the challenge represented by assuring food security for 10 billion people in a degraded global environment,” Lynch said. “We must do what we can to help the next generation of agricultural This typical soybean root system was scientists meet grown at the Apache Root Biology Research Station in Wilcox, Arizona. this challenge.”

Photo by James Burridge

Take Advantage of Caramelized Alfalfa Haylage in the Lactation Diet

By Peter Vitti Every autumn, I redesign a number of lactation dairy diets based upon the latest forage analysis. While reviewing many results, the most challenging forages tend to be caramelized alfalfa haylage. That’s because some of its nutrients for high milk production are unavailable to dairy cows, yet they love to eat it. Rather, than dump it into a refuse pile, I have learned to treat caramelized alfalfa haylage like other forage by supplementing these lacking nutrients in the lactating dairy diets.

In this way, dairy producers can take advantage of such sweet-smelling forage.

Like any other ensiled forage, caramelized alfalfa haylage goes through the basic fermentation process in order to become preserved. For example, on a recent farm visit, I stood at the edge of the bunker-silo and watched semi-trucks unload chopped wilted alfalfa (65 – 70% moisture) into layers onto a concrete pad. Then this fresh green mass was packed with 4-wheel-drive tractors and finally covered with a thick plastic sheet and split-tires.

Unfortunately, preserving alfalfa is very susceptible to things going wrong while fermenting. It often happens when chopped-alfalfa is put up with less than 60 – 65% moisture. Subsequently, such dry forage allows excessive oxygen to become entrapped

within its forage mass and thus extends the short aerobic-bacteria respiration phase to go on, sometimes for weeks. Since, alfalfa does not have a lot of soluble sugars compared to ensiling corn or barley crops, its short carbohydrate supplies are consumed at an alarming rate and lots of heat is produced.

When temperatures of this nature exceed 75C (170F) during ensiling, it leads to a process (still aerobic) called the ‘Maillard Reaction’ in which heated forages’ carbohydrates and proteins bind together, and thus renders a large portion of crude protein in the feed as bio-unavailable to dairy livestock. Producers that open up a pile of caramelized haylage will usually notice its sweet aroma and brown-caramel color. And, when they mix it into the dairy TMR diet – cows tend to gobble it up.

Consequently, this summer, I am working with a 200-cow lactating dairy herd that put up some exceedingly dry haylage (20% moisture) and this is the mainstay of his forage supply for 2020 – 2021. When the uprightharvester was opened up, it was clear that we had caramelized forage on our hands.

So, when its analysis results came back, I first looked at the crude protein analysis and ADIN (acid detergent insoluble nitrogen) levels, from which I could calculate the ADF-CP (re: measure of

crude protein unavailable to the dairy animal) and the ACP (re: adjusted crude protein, available for animal production, which is calculated when the ADF-CP is greater than 10% of the tested CP in forage samples).

From a crude protein of about 18% and ADIN value of 0.98%; left us with ACP value of about 13.6% protein. I then rebalanced the lactation diet in which, I did three things; 1. Limit-fed this caramelized forage to 50% of the total-fed forages (from 65% in the previous diet), 2.

Offset its unavailable protein with more 2nd cut alfalfa hay of 21% crude protein and soluble protein of 53% (of CP) and 3. Increased the amount of corn versus barley grain fed in a 60:40 ratio to adjust for some challenging dietary NEL issues of 1.15 Mcal/kg in the caramelized haylage.

I also took into account that NDF digestibility of this caramelized haylage was not significantly affected by heating or caramelization, which follows similar dairy research on the same subject.

This last remarkable fact and sweet-smelling palatability caused the general lactating cows to increase dry matter intake of the new re-formulated lactation diet by 2 – 3 kg to 25.7 kg per head per day.

As a result, milk production remained consistent, however milkfat increased from 3.73 to 3.89%. Whether, this positive butterfat response is due to the above reformulation of the lactation diet or something unrelated to the diet is anybody’s guess.

Never-the-less, this is a good testimonial that we necessarily should not abandon caramelized haylage, simply because some of its dietary protein is unavailable to lactating dairy cows. If another similar situation popped up, I would still treat it the same way; watch out for remaining ACP as well as its other essential milk/milkfat nutrients and at all cost, avoid moldy caramelized haylage. As it passes these stress-tests, I would have little reservation adding caramelized haylage to the mainstream diet of most lactating dairy cows.

TMR w caramelized haylage

New Website Launched with Prairie Insect Pest Information The Prairie Pest Monitoring Network (PPMN) has launched a new website, Prairiepest.ca. The PPMN is a prairie-wide insect pest monitoring group that provides valuable information, predicts insect risks, monitors insect populations and offers information to growers and agronomists to help them scout for pests, time their scouting activities and to make decisions about using chemical controls.

“We are really excited to be launching this new website,” said Dr. Meghan Vankosky, a research scientist in the field crop entomology department with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and CoChair of the PPMN. “The goal of the network has always been to provide impor-

tant and timely information to growers and agronomists.

This new website helps us to improve communication and engagement with the industry.”

The PPMN was developed 24 years ago after insect researchers at western Canadian universities, provincial agriculture departments and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada identified the need for a more coordinated approach in monitoring insect populations and conducting entomological research.

“The new site expands the functionality of the previous PPMN Blog,” said Jennifer Otani, pest management biologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and other Co-Chair of the PPMN. “The new site design allows users to quickly

and easily navigate the site to find the information they need.”

The PPMN also provides free weekly updates via email during the growing season. The updates alert subscribers to risks of major pests, offers tips on scouting methods and provides information on when in-field scouting activities should be conducted. Producers and agronomists across western Canada have found this local, scientific information critical in making informed crop production decisions.

“The PPMN is a valuable resource for farmers, agronomist and scientists,” said Garth Patterson Executive Director, Western Grains Research Foundation. “WGRF is pleased to support the PPMN in the de-

velopment of this new website. Producer groups, including the Western Grains Research Foundation, SaskWheat, Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, SaskCanola, Prairie Oat Growers Association, Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers, Manitoba Canola Growers, and Alberta Wheat currently collaborate with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, through the Canada Agricultural Partnership, to fund the PPMN. Many other organizations have been involved over the years to support this valuable initiative. Pest issues are prairie-wide, so it makes sense to have a prairie-wide perspective.”

To view the new site and to sign up for weekly updates visit Prairiepest.ca.

The AgriPost

NorBin Retrofit Changes Hopper Bin Aeration Forever

By Harry Siemens Three brothers originally from Mexico, Adolf, Frank, and Albert Zacharias while setting up grain bins in western Canada over the years heard from farmers directly how they needed a more effective hopper, bottom bin aeration system.

For the next three years, the Zach Brothers worked fulltime setting up bins, while spending time in the evenings, weekends, and holidays developing the NorBin Hopper bottom bins. The brothers came up with a full-floor air system as a retrofit called the NorBin. It is designed to fit in the farmer’s existing hopper.

“It eliminates unaerated pockets in your stored grain, changing the hopper bottom bin aeration forever,” said Frank in a recent interview in their shop in Winkler. “We make our hoppers out of 100 per cent galvanized steel, and it comes in four different sizes: 18, 21, 24, and 27 feet, and its custom-designed to suit the farmer’s needs.”

When setting up grain bins and hoppers across the Prairies, farmers want hopper bins. They hate shovelling and often run into problems with the existing systems.

However, Frank said many of the existing hopper bottoms remove the shovelling but often the grain spoils where they aerate in the middle of the bin, but not on the sides.

The choice is between flat bottom bins with a sound air system where farmers have to shovel to clean out the bins.

The other alternative could be a galvanized hopper bottom, a partial air control system and protruding bolts.

Frank said that once they realized those were the options, they saw how good it would be for if a farmer could have all three features, galvanized hopper bottom, a full-circulation aeration system and without protruding bolts.

No problem with the galvanized hopper bottom, but getting full aeration, is quite another. “One hundred per cent of the grain should get ventilation. If ten, 20, or even 30 per cent doesn’t get ventilation, some grain will spoil,” said Frank.

After three years of design and development, the Zach Brothers believe that their NorBin product achieves what farmers want. “Our tests prove it works and people like it,” said Frank.

Frank said one NordBin is up at the Blumenort Colony near Plum Coulee for trials and testing. “We know it holds up, and their flow is

NorBin Full Floor Aeration System is designed to be retrofitted in the farmer’s existing hopper.

The NorBin eliminates unaerated pockets in stored grain changing hopper bottom bin aeration forever, said Frank Zacharias in their shop in Winkler.

good, and they like it.”

Frank said that a farmer in Minnesota had two new competitor bins set up the year before. He called for two NorBin air systems after $36,000 worth of soybeans spoiled in his two new bins.

When the Zack Brothers designed the system, their tests showed some of the existing aeration systems at the centre of the hoppers pushed the air in and up and not sideways towards the bin walls. That means a significant amount of grain remains unaerated.

Marketing advisor Jim Mi-

chnik said the Zach Brothers built the new aeration system under the NorBin brand name. He added that the NorBin has computer-simulated airflow testing that physically tests the airflow in the bin.

“We have mapped out the bin in a circle with spatial separations and take an airflow test directly on top of the grain,” he said. “We physically know with a calibrated air tester, how many feet per minute we’re blowing through the top of the grain surface. The critical factor is the number of aeration per-

forations that we provide in the bin and the distribution of those perforations are over the entire hopper.”

Adolph said no grain sits on a flat non-perforated sheet assuring all grain in the hopper gets airflow. Their aeration system has two floors, the bottom and the perforated floor.

While working on introducing larger sizes, the largest current NorBin system is 27 feet in diameter, the brothers are developing other sizes, including 30-foot, 33-foot, and 36-foot diameter hoppers.

September 25, 2020

Early Frost Hard on Gardens

By Joan Airey This morning I woke to another -3°C, which is early for Manitoba. We don’t generally have frost till September 23-26 in our area. When it warms outdoors I’m patiently waiting to check my greenhouse to see if it managed to survive the frost. I had cucumbers growing in the green house all summer so we’ve had a long season of fresh ones, plus peppers and tomatoes. The peppers and tomatoes growing on the patio have been moved in the greenhouse at the last frost warning.

The 2021 Prairie Garden, “Flowering Shrubs, with a Special Feature on Roses” will be available for sale after its virtual launch at McNally Robinson on November 18, so for those people who can’t usually attend something in Winnipeg will hopefully be able to watch online.

Prairie Garden is embracing online event launches as well. “We have put up information about our next book on the website. The home page has a description theprairiegarden.com, and a sampler is at theprairiegarden. com/uploads/1/2/0/8/120870572/2021-prairie-gardensampler,” commented Rita Campbell with the Prairie Garden Committee.

Prairie Garden’s guest editor Dr. Philip Ronald plans to shine a spotlight on useful and beautiful shrubs in for the 2021 edition. He was raised in the Canadian prairies and educated in plant breeding horticulture at the University of Manitoba and the University of Saskatchewan. He currently divides his time between teaching ornamental horticulture at the University of Manitoba, managing Riverbend Orchards, a 20-acre fruit farm.

He also provides support to the research and marketing programs at Jeffries Nurseries. Dr. Ronald resides near Portage la Prairie with his wife and family.

Most people are cleaning up their garden produce this week from beets to potatoes. To help plan for next year’s garden in the fall, I received some great advice from Gus Hendzel who was with the horticultural department of Brandon University a number of years ago.

He used to remind me to make sure the potato tops were not left on the garden so there was less chance of potato bugs been carried over from one garden season to the next.

This year I had problems with some of my onions getting a dry rot in the garden. A fellow gardener told me she mixes one or two tablespoons of ammonia in a garden watering can with water, then she waters down the row before she plants her onion sets. Hope I remember to do that next spring as I hate pulling a giant onion to find it has rotted. This spring I put one tablespoon of bone meal and one of Epsom salts under each tomato and we had a fantastic crop of tomatoes.

Blake and I have started some carrots growing on the deck, which we planted earlier this fall along with radishes. I’ll let you know if they get to mature.

I had cucumbers growing in the green house all summer so we’ve had a long season of fresh ones, plus peppers and tomatoes.

NorBin Full Floor Aeration System.

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September 25, 2020

Food-Grade Wheatgrass Variety Released for Use Wheatgrass is packed with beneficial nutrients, which makes the crop a popular superfood. And now, more farmers will have access to growing this beneficial crop.

Historically, wheatgrass has been used as a crop in animal feed. However, a partnership between The Land Institute and the University of Minnesota changed that.

The University of Minnesota recently released the first food-grade wheatgrass variety for public use. Now, this eco-friendly and cost-effective crop can be commonly grown as human food, too.

“The Land Institute has been breeding intermediate wheatgrass since 2002,” said James Anderson, a professor at the University of Minnesota. “Developed using germplasm provided by The Land Institute in 2011, this variety of wheatgrass is the first to be available for public use.”

The new variety, called MN-Clearwater, was produced by crossing seven wheatgrass parents with desired qualities. These qualities include high grain yield and seed size, which are ideal for farmers. Breeders have been successful in the domestication of this perennial crop that provides benefits to both farmers and the environment.

“Because wheatgrass is a perennial, it’s known to be a soil builder,” said Anderson. “It provides soil cover throughout the year.”

Soil coverage prevents soil and nutrient runoff during heavy rainfall. Wheatgrass also has deep, dense roots that capture nutrients before it gets into groundwater.

This helps to protect groundwater-based water systems.

Other benefits of this new wheatgrass variety compared to other crops like corn and soybeans are less soil loss from the field; fewer chemicals and fertilizers entering the groundwater system; and improved carbon storage.

There are also economic advantages for the farmer growing wheatgrass. As a perennial crop, wheatgrass uses less fertilizer and machinery than annual crops.

“Wheatgrass can lower the growth of certain weed species,” explained Anderson. Natural weed control also reduces potential costs for herbicides.

For farmers, the big advantage is that they only must plant once every three years and will have multiple harvests off of the one crop.

“But the farmer isn’t the only one who benefits,” noted Anderson. “As the first food-grade wheatgrass, food processers and consumers can see a benefit, too.”

End-users are always searching for new items. MNClearwater wheatgrass provides new flavors and nutritional properties that can be added to food products.

The harvested wheatgrass goes well with wheat-based products. It can be used as a replacement for wheat, but it is best used with it. By using both wheat and wheatgrass as ingredients, the product can maintain its baking and functional properties while offering new flavours.

The first registered food product using the MN-Clearwater wheatgrass was a beer from Patagonia Provisions, and other products include several locally brewed beers and a limited-edition cereal from Cascadian Farm.

MN-Clearwater wheatgrass spikes prior to their pollen shed.

Photo courtesy of Prabin Bajgain

The AgriPost

Despite COVID-19 Challenges ASF Preparedness Advances

By Harry Siemens Dr. Egan Brockhoff, the Veterinary Counsel with the Canadian Pork Council, said amid the turmoil surrounding COVID-19, the risk posed to the North American swine sector by African Swine Fever (ASF) has decreased.

Although African Swine Fever continues to spread throughout Asia and parts of Europe, North America remains ASF-free. Dr. Brockhoff, also a member of the Swine Innovation Pork Coordinated African Swine Fever Research Working Group, said COVID-19 appears to have slowed human movement of ASF. “We think the level of risk to North America dropped because of fewer travellers entering the country from infected zones,” he said. “We look at other things though like feed ingredient risk. No question there is other avenues for the virus to enter the country, and contaminated feed ingredients remain one of those.”

In the face of COVID-19, the industry speaks about the importance of biosecurity when bringing people into pig barns. The pandemic in many ways, allowed dusting off some of those biosecurity protocols bringing people into barns. “Also, take a closer look at how we handle

employees that maybe had flu-like symptoms, weren’t feeling top drawer that day and closely review how we handle that,” said Dr. Brockhoff.

He said with many influenza prevention protocols in place for years, COVID-19 probably gave them a chance to understand what it takes to protect pigs from a new angle. That brings a lot of value to the biosecurity conversation.

Dr. Brockhoff said despite the COVID-19 challenges the federal-provincial governments have, there is still activity on ASF preparedness.

From his perspective, the global ASF virus continues to spread throughout those countries that were already positive for the disease.

However, the rate of infection appears to have slowed Porcine Epidemic Diarrhoea (PED) caused by a coronavirus, as human movement is restricted. “We always say this is a human-driven disease, and of course with less movement, certainly less opportunity for the virus to move with it.”

The Canadian Pork Council hosted an online meeting over two to bring all the emergency operations centres together. “To make sure all still on the same page,

discuss challenges and opportunities that everyone’s facing, continue the ASF preparedness side, making substantial progress,” said Dr. Brockhoff.

He said they are much better prepared than two years ago with the emergency operation centers in place. And they are working on everything from humane euthanasia methods to disposal, understanding where to dispose and where not, what type of disposals, how we are going to man and staff those different events. Good conversations are occurring on business risk management, understanding how to potentially zone, working on compartmentalization projects as well.

Should ASF break in a facility, the infected premise does not concern him; they will take care of it. “It’s all the other 98 per cent of hogs in Canada that worries me the most. How do we handle and manage those? And that’s still, I think is a big elephant in the room that we need to do work on,” he said.

Going forward, Brockhoff said there is no question that ASF continues to circulate throughout the world. Producers need to focus heavily on their external biosecurity, especially around the introduction of food items that

may contain the foreign animal disease.

“Continuing to focus your efforts on feed biosecurity security and making sure your feed ingredients are ideally North American sourced,” he said. “But if they can’t be, make sure there is a quality assurance program to ensure you’re buying as safe as a product as possible.”

Dr. Brockhoff said there is other concerning foreign animal diseases, not only ASF. “The great thing around COVID-19 is there’s much research to show that this is a virus that doesn’t enter pigs.

It’s a virus that pigs can’t shed. It’s a virus that doesn’t cause disease in our pig population. If workers get sick, pigs stay healthy.”

Dr. Egan Brockhoff, the Veterinary Counsel with the Canadian Pork Council, said amid the turmoil surrounding COVID-19, the risk posed to the North American swine sector by African Swine FeFile photo ver has decreased.

Good Crops a Boon for Exports

By Elmer Heinrichs The Manitoba grain harvest is well underway. It is shaping up to be a solid average harvest, affected by the lack of rain earlier in the growing season. But conditions here were not as dry in Saskatchewan and Alberta, so the combined prairie grain harvest could be the best in several years.

In fact Statistics Canada, in its latest 2020 outlook, projected that Canadian farmers were harvesting the second largest wheat crop ever. Some in the grain industry are already predicting that this will be year of good prices and strong exports. They think it will be a year to mark in the history books.

Farmers always want to

have a good crop and strong prices. And they agree it is always best to have a lot of buyers. But before all those forecasters get carried away with their expectations, it is good to look at what the Canadian grain export business looks like, year-in and year-out.

The Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) is the federal agency which oversees the grain export business. The CGC documents the export trade in detail. Canada is one of the leaders in selling grains around the world. It is fairly easy to get a snapshot of the industry activities. As an example, a few years ago, in the first two months of the crop year, our country exported grain to 50 countries.

This included such major

buyers as the US, the UK, China and Japan. In that time frame, we exported to Congo, Costa Rica, Kuwait, Portugal and the United Arab Emirates. During that same two months, this country exported 16 grains, including wheat, barley and canola, but also mustard, chick peas and triticale.

We also exported the products resulting from processing here at home, such as wheat flour, vegetable oils, or canola meal. Add it all together and Canada is one of the great trading nations of the world.

It has been said many times that we produce far too much grain and livestock for our relatively small population. We have to export or the agricultural industry as

we know it would die. And export we do. And not just to the 50 nations counted in that two-month span. Over the course of a year, Canadian grain will find its way to almost every country in the world.

The amount of grain sold, and the list of countries who buy is dependent on the size of the harvest here and elsewhere in the world. It also depends on the export price.

Every year, there are more and more grain varieties in the export sales book.

There is a strong probability that this will be a very good year for Canadian grain exports. Several areas of the world are having production or other problems leaving Canada in a position to benefit.

The AgriPost

CAFTA Open Letter to Ministers on Three Years of CETA Re: It’s time for Team Canada to finish the job with the EU and finally secure the promise of CETA Dear Ministers Ng, Freeland, Champagne and Bibeau: As September 21 officially marked three years since the coming-intoforce of the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), agri-food exporters remain gravely concerned that the EU is not respecting the spirit of the commitments it made when negotiations concluded.

The need to resolve these issues couldn’t be more urgent, especially as the federal government remains focused on combating the spread of COVID-19 while protecting the economy. As a trading nation, our road to recovery cannot be successfully navigated unless we unblock our major trade routes. There is no greater example of this urgency than the failure of CETA to provide the real and commercially viable market access Canada was promised.

In 2017 when the agreement was implemented, the Canadian agri-food sector was promised transformational access to the EU, a high value market of 500 million people.

The removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers alike was to increase Canada’s exports by nearly $1.5 billion annually. CETA had also included commitments to work together to advance a number of non-tariff issues related to technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, regulatory cooperation, origin pro-

cedures, biotechnology, trade distorting subsidies among others.

However, CETA has now been in force for three years and it has failed to deliver on its promises for Canada’s agri-food exporters. This outcome results from the EU Commission and EU member states continuing to maintain a wide range of barriers, imposing new barriers or failing to reduce those that were to be lowered or eliminated altogether through CETA. Our agrifood exports to the EU should be much higher.

These trade inequities are having a direct impact on Canadian farmers and food manufacturers.

Specifically: - For beef and pork producers, constraints include the EU not recognizing the effectiveness of meat processing; - For canola, farmers’ sustainability practices have yet to be recognized despite 4 years of diligent work and substantive engagement with EU officials; - For grain growers, the call for predictable and science-based import tolerance processes for crop protection products remains largely unanswered; - For food manufacturers, production and trade distorting subsidies on sugar in the EU make our exports of sugar-containing products among other processed foods uneconomic; - As for Italy’s country of origin labelling (COOL) for pasta which discriminates against Canadian wheat exports, it is unquestionably offside from both the EU’s CETA commitments and EU law and presents

the danger to spill over to other products and regions.

The end-result since CETA’s implementation has been an overall deterioration of Canada’s agrifood trade balance with the EU. There is a significant danger that if left unchallenged, these trade barriers will be replicated on other commodities and in other jurisdictions, both inside and outside of the EU. Not enforcing the deal and strongly advancing Canada’s export trade interests is an invitation for other countries to not respect their own trade commitments with Canada.

This does not bode well in a world with creeping protectionism and flagrant disrespect for trade rules.

We appreciate that you all have repeatedly raised these issues with your EU counterparts since your government came to power. However, for the agrifood sector to truly help power Canada’s economic recovery, we believe a strong and assertive response from Canada is needed now, especially since new EU food and agriculture policies such as the Farm to Fork strategy could exacerbate existing barriers and potentially create new ones which would harm Canadian exporters further. We cannot afford to let the EU stand in the way of Canada’s economic recovery.

That’s why we believe the federal government should immediately deploy the Team Canada approach, mobilizing concerted efforts to defend Canadian trade interests and resolve the lack of respect the EU is showing to abide by the spirit

of the CETA. This approach has achieved remarkable results by successfully concluding the CUSMA and twice removing U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods, not to mention successfully resolving issues that had threatened CETA itself a few short years ago.

We believe the Team Canada approach will help convey the message to the EU that is must respect the spirit of CETA, a pact that was to stand as the gold standard of 21st century trade. Furthermore, this agreement was held up as an example that ambitious win-win outcomes could be negotiated that would generate mutual, two-way benefits. Now more than ever, we need Canada and the EU to show the world that free and open trade is vital for global recovery and that protectionism will be poisonous to these efforts. The time has come for Canada to be forceful in seeking a resolution to issues that continue to undermine Canada’s access to the EU as envisaged under the CETA. We thank you again for your support for our sector and we look forward to working with you to ensure that Canada’s export-oriented economy is able to take advantage of the access to global markets that will be crucial to ensuring we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic stronger than ever.

Sincerely, Dan Darling CAFTA President

September 25, 2020

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Local Producer Spotlight:

Colette’s Creations Brought to you by the Stuartburn Emerson-Franklin Local Food Initiative.

For Colette Leclair sewing has been a passion since the birth of her first granddaughter 14 years ago. “The first item I made was a simple baby quilt, and from there many more quilts ensued, for family and friends,” said Leclair.

“With the price of fabrics going up, I wanted to do smaller items and maybe sell a few at local craft sales to fund my fabric addiction. The first bag I learnt to make was with Colleen Copeland at the Emerson seniors’ centre using strips of cotton fabric,” said Leclair.

“This first bag is still in use as my computer tote, when heading to the campground in spring. I am a visual learner so ‘You Tube’ has become my go-to for bag tutorials. My favourite bag designer is Sara Lawson from SewSweetness.com. Her patterns and easy-to-follow tutorials have led to this bag addiction.”

Leclair now makes many more types of bags, wallets, cosmetic totes and other related items. During the winter hours she spends her time at the sewing machine customizing bags. “I try to never use fabrics twice for the same bag pattern but have used scraps to make wallets and coin pouches,” she said. “During the summer I tend to slow down on sewing but this year at Sunset Oaks campground I’ve sewn many face masks due to the pandemic. I’ve also had time to make 5 backpacks with matching lunch bags for my grand kids.”

Leclair’s bags are versatile products that use various types of fabrics from 100% cotton, cork, leather, flannel, and fusible foam for structure. “I take pride in the work I do. For me, when a bag is done and I see the reaction of the owner, that is payment enough,” she said. “Mostly I charge for fabric and materials but my time is free. For me, it’s a happy place to be sitting at my sewing machine and creating something for others to enjoy.”

You can find Colette Leclair’s products on her Facebook page “Colette’s Creations” or call 204-2090113(cell); 204-758-3958(home).

She will also be at the next Corner Farmers’ Market on September 16.

Leclair makes many types of bags, wallets, cosmetic totes and other related items.

Collette Leclair

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September 25, 2020

The AgriPost