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Canada picked for sustainable beef pilot

EXCLUSIVE: McDonald’s working with CCA on ambitious project to make Canada the first country to supply it with sustainable beef

PHOTO: LAURA RANCE

By Alexis Kienlen af staff

M

cDonald’s has chosen Canada over Australia and Europe as the site of its first pilot project in its ambitious quest to serve only “sustainable beef” in its massive global restaurant empire, Alberta Farmer has learned.

The exact terms of the pilot — or even a definition of sustainable — have yet to be finalized, but the fast-food giant has the backing of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, and it’s working with the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB), an organization the CCA founded last year.

“It is still in the preliminary stages, so there are a lot of details to be worked out, but everyone is on the same page,” said Ponoka seed stock producer Greg Bowie, who is chair of Alberta Beef Producers and a CRSB member.

“They’re working with industry to come up with something that is sustainable long term, for the entire industry.”

Bowie and others are quick to say that McDonald’s, the largest buyer of Canadian beef, has steadfastly pledged it won’t impose rules on how to raise cattle. Instead, it has promised to work with producers,

take heed:

feeders and packers to create practical guidelines on environmental stewardship, animal health and welfare, and food safety — a process that will likely stretch into next year.

“A lot of these things are going to be things that producers are doing anyhow,” said Bowie. “They’re just going to come up with a means of proving that the producer is doing it.”

The pilot project could have major benefits for Canada because it is the first partner to be selected by McDonald’s, which grabbed the attention of the global beef industry six months ago by announcing it would begin sourcing verified sustainable beef in 2016.

“Whether that’s from Canada, or from anywhere else, they will start buying verified sustainable beef, whatever the definition is,” said Pine Lake cow-calf producer Doug Sawyer, a CCA director and past chair of Alberta Beef Producers.

“What we have to do now is put a definition to this and do it. We’re poised in Canada to capitalize on this.”

Jeffrey Fitzpatrick-Stilwell, manager of sustainability with McDonald’s Canada, declined an interview request. But a company email sent to CRSB members in March stated it “has secured support from

the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association for a global McDonald’s project to take place in Canada.”

While most producers may not have to change their production practices, they will have to provide a lot more information about what they do — and the foundation of the new system will be a highly detailed database able to track a host of information on millions of head of cattle.

“One of the advantages to Canada over other countries is that we have our traceability system, we have BIXS 2.0 coming out, and we’ve got a very good environmental system put together,” said Sawyer. “We’ve got our new animal welfare codes of practice. We’ve got almost all the pieces there.”

Senior officials from McDonald’s headquarters and its Canadian arm toured Alberta last summer and returned again in mid-May, visiting the JBS and Cargill slaughter plants, the company’s hamburger production facility in Spruce Grove, and cattle operations. CL Ranch near Calgary, one of the province’s oldest and most prominent cattle operations, hosted both tours and the first one resulted in CEO Cherie Copithorne-Barnes being asked to head the CRSB.

see SUSTAINABLE BEEF } page 6

McDonald’s decision to pilot its sustainable beef program in Canada is a win for producers, says ABP president Greg Bowie. photo: supplied

First-time horse buyers need to watch for pitfalls } PAGE 24

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news » inside this week

inside » INSIDE STORMS BREWING A primer on the coming thunderstorm season

MAY 26, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

livestock

crops

columNists

SMALL BUT DETERMINED

CALCULATING GOOD STEWARDSHIP

15

NEWS ‘Horsing around’ reduces stress in youth Washington State University release

New research from Washington State University reveals how youth who work with horses experience a substantial reduction in stress — and the evidence lies in kids’ saliva.

The results are published in the American Psychological Association’s HumanAnimal Interaction Bulletin this month.

“We were coming at this from a prevention perspective,” said Patricia Pendry, a developmental psychologist at WSU who studies how stress “gets under the skin” and the effects of prevention programs on human development.

“We are especially interested in optimizing healthy stress hormone production in young adolescents, because we know from other research that healthy stress hormone patterns may protect against the development of physical and mental health problems.”

Her work is the first evidence-based research within the field of human-equine interaction to measure a change in participants’ levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

Three years ago, Pendry led a research project to engage students in Grades 5-8 in a 12-week equinefacilitated learning program in Pullman, Wash. She designed and implemented an after-school program serving 130 typically developing children over a two-year period that bused students from school to the barn for 12 weeks.

Children were randomly assigned to participate in the program or be wait-listed.

Based on natural horsemanship techniques, the program provided 90 minutes weekly to learn about horse behaviour, care, grooming, handling, riding and interaction.

“We found that children who had participated in the 12-week program had significantly lower stress hormone levels throughout the day and in the afternoon, compared to children in the wait-listed group,” she said.

There’s more to McDonald’s pilot than meets the eye

Infrastructure is the weak link in global agriculture

23

4

brenda schoepp

SUPER BUGS Experts fear ‘world is headed for post-antibiotic era’

Glenn Cheater

Sangudo Custom Meats has a can-do attitude

11

Roy Lewis Environmental calculator being tested

17

When to ship, when to treat, and when to convalesce

U of A at forefront of effort to create super-kibble University has expertise in what’s good for Fido and Ginger — and will soon have a new $1.5-million machine for making better kibble

By Alexis Kienlen af staff / edmonton

A

n increasing number of North Americans now view their pets as their children — and that’s not only made the pet food industry a very big business, but is changing what goes into their feed bowls.

“Just like you see an increasing emphasis in the human population relating to food and health, the same is being translated to the pet population,” said Ruurd Zijlstra, professor of swine and carbohydrate nutrition at the University of Alberta.

To help Alberta companies tap into the growing interest in healthier pet food, the university will soon become the first in the country to acquire a single-screw extruder — a.k.a. a kibble maker.

The $1.5-million machine uses heat and pressure to “basically turn the food into its own glue” so plant- and animal-based ingredients are bound together.

While smaller than commercial versions, it’s big enough to be scalable for commercial application, and Alberta pet food makers using it for product development will also be able to tap into the university’s expertise. Five years ago, it started an animal health science program, which includes a “companion animal nutrition” component.

“It’s not that out of the box to move from pig nutrition to dog nutrition,” said Zijlstra. “When you’re talking about the big picture, they’re all monogastric species.

Dogs and pigs make different sounds, but the inside of the gastrointestinal tract is relatively similar to a human gastrointestinal tract as well.”

However, as is the case with their personalities, cats are very different from dogs when it comes to their digestive process, as they are true carnivores and differ metabolically.

But both the dog and cat markets are ripe for the pet version of functional foods.

“You can think of ingredients to include to get a better gut health or something that can be included — particularly when animals are getting older — that might help with prevention of kidney disease, etc.,” said Zijlstra.

“On the research side, you can think of potential opportunities such as how do we include a wider matrix of pet food ingredients and still end up with a kibble that has a shelf life of one year.”

Pet food and feed companies will be able to use the extruder for product development, research, and testing. It’s expected

Ruurd Zijlstra, a professor of swine and carbohydrate nutrition at the University of Alberta, said the new pet food extruder offers a lot of possibility for researchers and pet food companies. Photo: courtesy University of Alberta some will partner on projects with U of A researchers, who will also be conducting their own studies, such as development of novel animal feeds. The machine, to be delivered this fall and be operational by the new year, will be housed at Agri-Food Discovery Place on the south campus.

Its purchase was funded by Western Economic Diversification, Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency, Champion Pet Foods from Morinville, and Ontario’s Elmira Pet Products. akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

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ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • MAY 26, 2014

Not a baa-d idea: Sheep to replace lawn mowers in Edmonton cemetery Lawn-munching sheep have become an institution — and tourist attraction — in Fort Saskatchewan

Kathy Playdon, a shepherd from near Stony Plain, has been grazing her sheep in Fort Saskatchewan since 1992. photos: supplied

By Alexis Kienlen

“It brings the community down to our parks and they get to talk to the shepherds and watch the dogs work.

It’s a wonderful, fun experience for everyone who comes down.”

af staff

I

f Brian McDonald’s vision comes to fruition this year, St. Stephen’s Cemetery in north Edmonton will be maintained by four-legged, woolly grass eaters instead of lawn mowers. McDonald, sales manager for the cemetery, wants to use sheep to graze part of the 40-acre burial ground.

“We have to do quite a bit of maintenance on it, so I thought, ‘Instead of cutting the grass, why don’t we get some natural grass cutters?’” he said. “It’s just land that used to be farmland, so why not use that for that purpose?”

In addition to grass maintenance, using sheep means McDonald wouldn’t have to spray for dandelions.

“I would love to see this happen, because then you get the natural fertilizer as well,” he said.

“They’ll be able to just rotate right through because we have quite a bit of space.”

Only a small portion of the area is actually used for burials.

McDonald has talked to several interested sheep producers since learning about Fort Saskatchewan’s long-running sheep grazing program.

Back in 1992, the city used 450 sheep to graze the rail line area running through the community.

“When they moved the rail line out, all that land was rough and not easy to maintain, so we brought in the sheep to maintain it,” said Diane Yanch, culture and historic precinct supervisor with the City of Fort Saskatchewan.

The sheep were a hit and were

Diane Yanch

A young sheep enthusiast leads the parade to welcome the sheep back to the City of Fort Saskatchewan. invited back for several years. As the land was developed, it looked like the friendly lawn munchers were no longer needed. But residents had become fans, and so the sheep were brought in to graze Fort Saskatchewan’s parks each summer.

“Now we have about 50 to 60 sheep that come and hang out with us in the summer and it’s become more of a tourist attraction, as well as maintaining the grass and the museum grounds,” said Yanch.

On June 7, the sheep will be welcomed back with their own festival and parade. In September, community members are invited to a farewell picnic in the park, and the sheep are paraded

through the downtown before they go back to their farm for the winter.

“It brings the community down to our parks and they get to talk to the shepherds and watch the dogs work,” said Yanch. “It’s a wonderful, fun experience for everyone who comes down.”

It’s also worked well for Kathy Playdon, owner of Brightbank Farm near Stony Plain, who has been with the project since its inception. Back in 1992, Playdon was raising more than 400 sheep on her 40-acre property. The Fort Saskatchewan project gave her extra grazing acres, and helped reduce the crowding at her place after spring lambing. She currently has about 70 adult sheep

and 240 lambs this year. The younger ones stay at her place during the summer while most of the older sheep go to Fort Saskatchewan. Separating the babies from the adults makes weaning easier.

“It also gets the sheep off the property so I have enough pasture for everybody, which is nice,” said Playdon, who has been raising sheep since the late 1970s. “And I get to go to Fort Saskatchewan and babysit the sheep and visit with the public. We get people from all over the world, who all like to come and see the sheep.”

Fort Saskatchewan’s woolly lawn mowers are white Finn sheep, and some have been urban grazers all their lives. They enjoy

being petted, and especially like treats.

“They like almost any vegetable that comes from the IGA and we’re right in behind Sobeys so anybody carrying a grocery bag past the sheep usually gets inspected,” Playdon said.

While Fort Saskatchewan’s sheep program is the most famous and longest running, there are several smaller initiatives throughout the province, said Margaret Cook, executive director of the Alberta Lamb Producers. Sheep and goats have been used to graze ski hills throughout the province, since they can easily get to places that two-legged groundskeepers can’t.

Cook said she has no way of knowing if sheep grazing is growing in popularity, since there may be projects that she hasn’t heard about. akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

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MAY 26, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

EDITOR Glenn Cheater Phone: 780-919-2320 Email: glenn.cheater@fbcpublishing.com twitter: @glenncheater

Reporters Alexis Kienlen, Edmonton 780-668-3121 Email: akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

McDonald’s pilot could usher in overdue reforms

Jennifer Blair, Red Deer 403-613-7573 Email: jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

PRODUCTION director Shawna Gibson Email: shawna@fbcpublishing.com

The fast-food giant’s bid to use only ‘sustainable beef’ may finally force the industry to share data and work together

Director of Sales & Circulation Lynda Tityk Email: lynda.tityk@fbcpublishing.com

CIRCULATION manager Heather Anderson Email: heather@fbcpublishing.com

By Glenn Cheater

national ADVERTISING SALES James Shaw Phone: 416-231-1812 Fax: 416-233-4858 Email: jamesshaw@rogers.com

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Publications mail agreement number 40069240 Canadian Postmaster: Send address changes and undeliverable addresses (covers only) to Circulation Dept., P.O. Box 9800, Winnipeg, MB R3C 3K7

Editor

D

id A&W’s “better beef” campaign pop into your head when you read the front-page story on McDonald’s picking Canada for its first-ever “sustainable beef” pilot?

Did you think, ‘Oh goodie, more paperwork.’

And, of course, you must have noted McDonald’s is not offering premiums for this program. That’s a point made repeatedly by senior company officials in a very well-researched (and very lengthy) article at greenbiz.com on the sustainable beef initiative.

So more hoops for producers to jump through and no extra money. It’s the same old story, right?

But there just might be something very different going on here.

In the same greenbiz.com story, McDonald’s officials also repeatedly insist that producers who participate in its program will be able to boost their profitability.

That’s likely why the company sent a link to the article to members of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef a couple of months back. (Type ‘sustainable beef’ in the greenbiz.com search box and look for the article by Joel Makower.)

My first thought was this is crazy talk.

Doing extra stuff takes time and costs money, so sustainable beef will be more expensive to produce.

But my second thought was McDon-

ald’s and its corporate partners in the global sustainable beef initiative — JBS, Cargill, and Walmart — know a thing or two about finding efficiencies. And they do it by recording and tracking everything, and then mining that vast pool of data to find a better way.

Details on McDonald’s sustainable beef pilot are scarce, but the idea seems to be to take the newly relaunched Beef InfoXchange System (BIXS 2.0) and add data from an enhanced Verified Beef Production program. VBP’s website states that in addition to adding modules on animal care, environmental stewardship, and biosecurity, it will also be incorporating “existing materials” from the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef.

There’s not much in the way of existing materials at this point, just guiding principles. Environmental protection and animal health and welfare are two of them, but so is efficiency and innovation.

It’s pretty easy to see how efficiency and innovation figures into the original concept for BIXS — by sending back carcass data to producers, they could get some idea of how well their breeding, feeding, and other management programs are working.

But how might that work for something such as animal welfare?

Well, imagine this new enhanced BIXS — let’s call it 3.0 — had transport data loaded in. Want to bet that some smart cookie couldn’t find a way to use that data to figure out which trucking companies do a better job of reducing stress during transport and therefore minimize shrink? Wouldn’t you like to know that?

Actually, most producers would just like to know the basics and get carcass data back. It’s a complaint that comes up over and over again in the recently released straw man followup report conducted by Toma and Bouma. The duo conducted in-depth interviews of more than three dozen industry leaders and experts. (It, along with an FCC survey of cattle producers, is available at www. strawmanbeef.ca.)

Not surprisingly, there were a lot of comments about the “high level of mistrust” between the feedlot and producer sectors. Many pointed to the unwillingness of the feedlot sector to share carcass data with the producers as the symbol of a fractured system.

Well, that’s going to change in a hurry if the McDonald’s pilot goes ahead as envisioned. In order for it to work, there has to be a system-wide sharing of data.

And once it’s out there, that big pool of detailed data will be mined — whether it’s to evaluate the performance of a trucking company, or a feedlot, backgrounder, or cow-calf operation.

How this will play out is still an unknown.

Obviously McDonald’s is keen to placate consumers who fret that beef production is bad for the planet or uses poor animal welfare practices.

It’s a radical — albeit entirely unproven — concept that beef sustainability could lead to greater efficiencies and improved profitability for the entire industry.

But wouldn’t it be a kicker if an effort to placate consumers ended up doing that?

ISSN 1481-3157 Call

Bees are causing a buzz for all the wrong reasons

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All producers need to protect bees, which pollinate roughly one-third of all crops grown worldwide

www.albertafarmexpress.ca or email: subscription@fbcpublishing.com At Farm Business Communications we have a firm commitment to protecting your privacy and security as our customer. Farm Business Communications will only collect personal information if it is required for the proper functioning of our business. As part of our commitment to enhance customer service, we may share this personal information with other strategic business partners. For more information regarding our Customer Information Privacy Policy, write to: Information Protection Officer, Farm Business Communications, 1666 Dublin Ave., Wpg., MB R3H 0H1 Occasionally we make our list of subscribers available to other reputable firms whose products and services might be of interest to you. If you would prefer not to receive such offers, please contact us at the address in the preceding paragraph, or call 1-800-665-0502.

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By laura rance

Editor, the mantioba co-operator

B

ees rank right up there with climate change these days for the volume of studies and stories that cross a farm newspaper editor’s desk.

Sometimes the two are even linked, such as the prediction that aggressive Africanized honeybees are moving north as median temperatures rise. In fact, this year, they’ve been found in Colorado for the first time and it’s believed they survived the winter.

The USDA recently launched a livestream blog of honeybees at work in a rooftop apiary on its Washington headquarters — but it’s about as mesmerizing as watching corn grow.

No less exciting is following the Senate agriculture committee as it considers the decline of bees and possible connections to neonicotinoids.

Far more interesting is watching how this issue plays out between honey farmers and their crop-producing neighbours. On that front, it’s been gratifying to observe that for the most part, they’ve been handling this sticky affair like good neighbours should.

Of course, bees are getting all this attention

because they are necessary to our survival — and we’re losing them. Bees are the prime pollinators of roughly one-third of all crops grown worldwide.

Disappearing bees might also be like the proverbial canary in the coal mine. After all, the phenomenon of colony collapse disorder (CCD), which causes bees to leave their hives never to return, appears to be caused by several factors related to modern farming ranging from loss of diversity, a lack of good nutrition, parasites and insecticides.

The links between bee losses and neonicotinoids appear to be getting stronger, which is why new guidelines were issued last year and manufacturers have modified the product to reduce the risk.

Pesticide manufacturers are looking into the issue too, although their research results tend to highlight the multiplicity of issues buzzing around bee health, such as the effects of varroa mites, and a shortage of natural forage.

One of the latest studies found exposure to two widely used neonicotinoids appears to harm honeybee colonies during the winter, particularly when it is abnormally cold.

According to these researchers, the neonics are causing some other kind of biological breakdown in bees that in turn leads to CCD.

In two replicated trials, bee populations in the test hives treated with neonicotinoids showed significantly higher rates of mortality than untreated hives, particularly when it was cold.

Science, by its every nature is never conclusive, so we expect the quest for a better understanding of bee losses will continue.

But in the meantime, honey farmers and crop producers have to figure out a way to coexist in a way that doesn’t erode the mutual benefits of their codependance.

Among the best management practices being developed are ways to reduce the risk of exposing bees to pesticides. Those practices include assessing each and every time whether an insecticide-treated seed is the right tool, or whether another strategy such as diverse crop rotation can reduce pest pressure.

If a producer is using an insecticide-treated seed, they are urged to control flowering weeds prior to planting to avoid attracting pollinators while reducing the competition for water and nutrients. As well, provide pollinator-friendly habitat away from active fields.

These BMPs aren’t onerous. Implementing them could in fact save a farmer money, as well as the neighbour’s bees. That’s a win-win. laura@fbcpublishing.com

5

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • MAY 26, 2014

Infrastructure is the weak link in agriculture around the globe straight from the hip } We produce enough food to feed a growing

world, but getting it to consumers is getting more difficult By brenda schoepp

T

he infrastructure in Canada to get farmers’ product to market is broken.

Canadian farmers are not alone, as this is a concern worldwide, especially right after harvest. In most countries, piles of product sit by the road in the sun waiting for a pickup by the local truck. In some countries, such as Australia, lack of on-farm storage does not allow for a marketing plan. And in others, such as Canada, there is stiff competition for transportation.

In every corner of the world there is a lack of infrastructure or an overwhelmed transportation system. According to The Economist, the estimated cost to fix this global infrastructure problem is $57 trillion. Very few countries or commodities are lining up to foot that bill.

Today, we technically produce enough food to feed a growing world, but do not have a vested interest in the development of infrastructure and market access projects to support production.

This delivery uncertainty can impact access to credit and land.

Farmers need to know they are in control of the marketing and delivery of their product rather than hope it will sell and sell well.

This shift must occur at all levels of government and be a prominent part of food policy and food security policy. Until there is a societal appreciation of agriculture that holds in reverence the hands that produce food, infrastructure will be the failing point in agricultural production.

When we look at delivering farm product right through to food processing around the globe, there is a great concern over the dwindling rural population. When folks leave for the city they take their votes with them and this weakens the power in the rural landscape. Tax dollars once spent to strengthen rural communities end up in urban programs and the margin narrows on improved rural infrastructure.

Whether it is getting a load of grain to market or bags of flour to port, the logistics in an infrastructure-deficient area are complex.

The situation is compounded

when production increases. We saw this very scenario in Canada this year with the difficulty moving a record crop through a system that was not equipped to handle grain and oil at the same time.

Technological advancements may address the lack of infrastructure and the shortage of labour in certain areas at certain times. In Canada, the food-processing industry uses robotics extensively, as does the dairy industry and manufacturing. This works well in countries where energy is readily available. However, in many countries, the inconsistency in power and fuel availability is a greater risk than the labour shortage. In India for example, more than 90 per cent of food processing is done by women earning approximately $2 per day. Indigenous equipment is not heavily used because of purchase cost, the ongoing cost of operation and challenges in obtaining parts for maintenance. Each country and region has its own set of challenges. In many areas, the solution lies in

on-farm storage or in cold storage for processed foods.

The need for functioning systems is profound. The pull of the city wage has left many farms without helping hands. This massive movement of rural children and workers from the country to the city has created a myriad of challenges.

Intense global urbanization will see 80 per cent of the world’s population living within 60 kilometres of a shore by the year 2020. Rural families are deeply impacted by urbanization and the loss of labour, support and local economies, and must go further afield for basic supplies or to market product. In some countries this is a safety risk.

During my travels, the one consistent problem was the shortage of labour in the country for the production and processing, marketing and transport of agricultural crops and food. Aggressive immigration or migrant worker programs solved the basic labour needs, but did not ripple over into the areas of first and second manager positions nor address the fact that the infra-

structure system failed. We can bring in workers and they are welcome, but the need is also in training those for management positions so that as farmers and food processors we get a break and can formulate a succession plan. And even then, when we do the best we can and produce the ultimate crop, cow or can of food, the infrastructure still trips along with no real assurance to agriculture. Countries that develop systems for the movement of product as a priority, such as the Netherlands, are world leaders in food exports.

We need a functioning system for agriculture in moving product within and from our country.

Until we make this happen, infrastructure will be the failing point in agricultural production.

Brenda Schoepp is a Nuffield Scholar who travels extensively exploring agriculture and meeting the people who feed, clothe and educate our world. A motivating speaker and mentor she works with young entrepreneurs across Canada and is the founder of Women in Search of Excellence. www.brendaschoepp.com

Who is Cereals Canada (and why should you care)?

One of the first steps is to develop a clearer understanding of the quality characteristics that will draw a premium

By Cam Dahl

President of Cereals Canada

F

armers today, no matter what they are producing, belong to or support a number of agriculture associations and organizations. These industry groups are working on your behalf and as a farmer, you are better off because of their work.

However, I am likely biased on this assessment. When does it become too much? Does Canadian agriculture really need all these organizations?

These are valid questions for farmers to ask. Let me answer these questions from the perspective of one of the new kids on the block, Cereals Canada.

Cereals Canada is a national organization that invests both producer and company funds. So how do these investments directly benefit your farm?

The cereals sector in Canada is currently undergoing a time of transition, following the end of the Canadian Wheat

Board’s marketing monopoly. This has resulted in gaps in industry co-ordination, and Cereals Canada was created to fill these gaps and to co-ordinate efforts across the entire country.

Cereals Canada provides an opportunity for the industry as a whole to guide the growth and development of Canadian cereals research, market outreach and customer support. Our goal is to ensure a profitable and vibrant future for all links in the cereal value chain.

Terms like “value chain” are often used as catchphrases that don’t really have a lot of meaning. So what do we mean by value chain? You are a critical part of the cereals value chain. Farmers make up one-third of the membership of Cereals Canada’s board, which has equal representation from producer organizations, grain handling, export and processing firms, and crop development and seed companies. Each sector also pays one-third of its budget.

This equal representation is both deliberate and important because every-

one is better off when the industry works together on common goals rather than retreating to their individual silos and viewing everyone else as a competitor.

That approach will quickly lead to duplication, wasted efforts and investment flowing to other commodities and other countries.

In the past, issues in the Canadian cereals sector have become politicized with strong irrevocable positions taken by the various “sides” during the debate of the day. This has not always served the best interest of the value chain as a whole. It is our goal to focus on solutions that will maximize the sector’s competitive advantages.

Cereals Canada has also been established to co-ordinate market development and innovation efforts. One of the first steps is to develop a clearer understanding of the quality characteristics that will draw a premium from the market and what customers are willing to pay that premium.

It is these quality characteristics that

are demanded by our customers that should be the primary focus for both market development and research.

Canada has a strong reputation for high-quality products in the international marketplace. This time of transition in the cereals sector presents an opportunity to build on the Canadian brand in both international and domestic markets.

Taking advantage of these marketing opportunities will increase the value of Canadian cereals for farmers, grain marketers and crop development companies, while delivering strong value to our customers.

That is the ultimate goal for Cereals Canada — ensure that cereal grains are profitable for all involved. I want to see farmers choose to grow cereals because of strong profit margins, investment in innovation flow into Canada, and our customers coming back year after year because Canada consistently delivers what they want. This is how success for Cereals Canada will be measured.

Off the front

6

may 26, 2014 • Albertafarmexpress.ca

SUSTAINABLE BEEF } from page 1 She also said it’s too early to talk about specifics.

“Even McDonald’s to this point can’t define clearly enough what they are asking for,” she said.

“Even though there’s a timeline when they want to get this project started, they want to make sure all the steps are in place and it’s done correctly.”

One of those steps involves changes to the Verified Beef Production program. Program officials announced earlier this year that the on-farm food safety program will add modules for biosecurity, animal care, and environmental stewardship.

“What we’re looking at now, while we’re redoing BIXS 2.0 and the Verified Beef Production, we’re going to have to add some layers in there on the environmental side and work the codes of practice into it,” added Sawyer.

The Canadian pilot is also waiting for the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef to issue a set of principles that will guide development of specific protocols.

That group was set up two years ago when McDonald’s, Cargill,

“The whole point is to understand and recognize that we don’t have time to add on a bunch of layers to what we already do.”

Cherie CopithorneBarnes

JBS, Merck Animal Health, and Walmart partnered with environmental organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund to address beef production issues involving soil and water quality, energy use, animal welfare, and nutrition. It will put forward principles for sustainable beef following a meeting in Brazil in November.

Both the rules for sustainable beef and the verification process have to be practical, said Copithorne-Barnes, adding she emphasized that again during the most recent visit by McDonald’s officials.

“The whole point is to understand and recognize that we don’t have time to add on a bunch of layers to what we already do,” she said. “Our No. 1 priority has to be the welfare of these cattle.

And they saw that. They got that.”

They also got a good look at real-life ranching, she said.

“We’re almost done calving here, but we had just come through 12 inches of snow the weekend before, so things aren’t quite looking beautiful here,” she said.

“You can see the mud and you can see the cattle are kind of sad looking because the weather has been so horrible. The whole point of that was to show them that life around here isn’t always green grass, rolling hills and everybody’s always happy.”

Bowie said he is confident everyone working on the pilot “wants to make sure it’s done right.”

“They’re going to take a little bit of time to develop each step, make sure it’s correct, and talk to all of the parties involved,” he said.

Canada is a logical choice, he

added, because it has a pristine environment compared to other countries, and the vast majority of the 66 million pounds of Canadian beef purchased by McDonald’s is fed in Alberta, which simplifies things.

Producers who have attended the meetings feel the initiative is going in the right direction, both Bowie and Sawyer said. While McDonald’s presence at the table is important, the goal is to develop a Canadian program that all restaurants and retailers can use, said Sawyer.

“We have everybody covered,” he said the day after attending a May 13 meeting on the initiative. “Everybody who has anything to do with a McDonald’s hamburger was at that meeting yesterday.”

McDonald’s won’t be paying a premium for sustainable beef, but having the company promote awareness of “all of the good things that we do every day to make ourselves sustainable” will benefit all producers, said Sawyer.

“We can’t do that ourselves.

We don’t have the budget or the money and nobody wants to listen to us. But if we can partner with our value chain — companies like McDonald’s or whoever that is — they have millions of dollars in advertising to tell our story.”

Some of that is already happening.

Alberta ranchers Dave Solverson and Bob Lowe have already been featured in McDonald’s campaigns. Lowe (who has sat on the CCA’s environment committee) is in a YouTube video entitled “Where McDonald’s Canada gets our hamburger patties from,”

McDonald’s sustainable beef program will boost consumer confidence in Canadian beef, says Pine Lake producer Doug Sawyer. PHOTO: SUPPLIED which got over 90,000 hits, while CCA president Solverson and daughter Joanne were featured on tray liners.

“This is the kind of stuff we need in our industry, and the only way we can do it is to partner with the people using our products,” said Sawyer. “That’s why this is such a valuable opportunity here.”

Bowie agrees.

“Any time you get an increase in consumer support and sales for your product, there’s a benefit that goes back to all levels of the industry,” he said. “Everybody

will benefit if this thing is done in the right manner.”

McDonald’s will “be putting together a communications package pretty soon” to provide producers with more information, said Copithorne-Barnes.

“McDonald’s has to decide what it is that they want,” she said. “Our role in this isn’t really to say how this pilot project is going to look, because they are going to have to tell us what they need first.

“We’re waiting on that one.” akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

Increased disease pressure, weed competition a possibility for crops this summer The cool, wet spring could mean increased disease pressure and weed competition later in the growing season

By Jennifer Blair af staff

T

he cool, damp weather of early spring delayed seeding across Alberta, but “it’s still early,” says a crop specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.

“Last year, more than half the (canola) acres were seeded after May 20,” said Neil Whatley.

“We’ve got lots of time until freeze-up in the fall. There’s no use panicking or even thinking about that right now.”

The cool spring helped prevent evaporation from the soil, so most of the province went into the spring with above-average soil moisture levels, he said.

“Soil moisture conditions are good,” said Whatley, adding that he’s not aware of any flooded areas yet.

But the cool weather also kept soil temperatures down, and “a person doesn’t want to seed into too cold soil.”

Southern Alberta producers have experienced the greatest delay “simply because they usually get going earlier,” he said. “They’re about five to seven days behind average.”

Central Alberta was “a little behind, only maybe five per cent or so,” while areas in the north were right on track.

But if some crops are still behind

file photo schedule, producers may need to start making some tough decisions about their cropping options, said Colin Bergstrom, president of Point Forward Solutions. “(When) seeding dates start getting late, you might see a switch out from wheat to canola or to barley — something a little shorter season.”

Some acres that were slated for faba beans — a long-season crop — were cropped to something else, but most of the producers he works with were half-finished seeding as of May 20.

“I wouldn’t say anyone is anywhere close to hitting the panic button yet.”

Weeds and diseases

But with seeding nearly done, producers will need to start thinking about the growing problems they’re likely to face because of the cool, damp spring, which also delayed pre-seed burn-off.

“If pre-seed burn-off of weeds did not happen, then you have to try to get them after seeding but

before emergence,” said Whatley.

“If that doesn’t happen, there will be a problem with too many weeds in the crop.

“You’d have to get in there pretty quick with post-emergent, and with all the other work that has to be done, that’s a little difficult to do sometimes. There could be a little bit of extra weed competition this spring if the burn-offs didn’t work out right.”

Disease pressure could also hit harder in a year like this one.

“In many parts of the province, we’ve had three to four years of cool, damp springs and higherthan-average disease,” said Whatley. “There’s a fair bit of disease out there waiting to germinate.

“This cool, damp spring, especially for a fungal disease like ergot, will leave the cereal crops at risk again, if preventive measures aren’t taken.”

Scouting for disease will be critical as the crops start to establish, said Bergstrom.

“If your crops are having to emerge with those kinds of conditions, scouting them for any potential problems obviously takes on greater importance,” he said.

“You want to make sure you’re vigilant in doing what you can to protect the crop as it tries to establish.” jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

7

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • MAY 26, 2014

DNA testing gives true ‘gate to plate’ traceability for beef consumers A new beef cattle traceability system could give consumers what they’ve been asking for — if the fragmented beef industry gets on board

BY JENNIFER BLAIR AF STAFF / RED DEER

A

new high-tech beef traceability using DNA testing is ready to roll — but the “fragmented” beef industry will need to start sharing information in order to make it work, says its developer.

“There’s limited flow of information either back or forth,” said Kajal Devani, director of breed development at the Canadian Angus Association, who developed the system with support from ALMA, Livestock Gentec, and the University of Alberta.

“We really need to share information so we can produce beef more efficiently. If we had a system that facilitates this information flow, we might increase our sustainability as an industry.”

Unlike the current national traceability system, which tracks beef cattle through radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, Devani’s system uses DNA to match a cut of meat with the animal it came from — addressing a major flaw in the current system’s traceability.

“It’s not really from gate to plate. It’s from gate to abattoir, and then it stops.”

The RFID tag also “doesn’t give the consumer any information,” she said.

“This is the age of information.

Every consumer wants to know more, and the RFID tag doesn’t give them that information.”

The DNA system provides information back to producers as well, showing them which bulls have sired high-performing calves and allowing for adjustments to a ranch’s breeding program accordingly.

But because the industry is

PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

“The retailer, the food industry, the packer — they’re big players, and they’re going to get most of that benefit.”

“Every consumer wants to know more, and the RFID tag doesn’t give them that information.”

Consumer confidence

KAJAL DEVANI

so fragmented, the producer “doesn’t always get the return.”

“It’s really difficult to tell a producer to invest in this for the greater good of the industry, but the guy who’s actually going to get the cash in his pocket is somebody else down the road,” said Devani.

Groups such as Heritage Angus Beef, however, are already seeing a benefit from the system.

“These producers wanted a way to audit the product that was being slapped with their label at the retail store,” said Devani.

“Their product sells for quite a premium, and they wanted a way to protect that brand and reputation for quality they had developed.”

Working with Heritage Angus Beef and other Canadian Angus Rancher Endorsed branded beef programs, Devani sampled calves at the farm and steaks at the packing plant, matching the

meat with the animal it came from using DNA testing.

But only 37 per cent of the beef sampled was from their calves.

“They did the math and realized that a lot more product was being sold with their label than they could ever have with their cows, and they wanted a way to verify that,” she said.

“Anybody can slap a label on anything. This system can actually give you confidence in that label you’re paying extra for.”

Sampling every piece of beef at the packing plant isn’t economical, though. Devani determined that, for 95 per cent confidence in the origin of the meat, only a small proportion — roughly a quarter of the calves in one test she did — needed to be sampled.

For 99 per cent confidence, the proportion was higher, at around

one-half in the test she did, but still within a more reasonable range than full testing for producers.

“I can’t sell a traceability system to a producer if I say you also have to sample every piece of meat and pay for a DNA test on it all,” she said.

But despite the cost — a single DNA test runs at $12 a head — the Canadian beef industry will need to start heading in this direction if it wants to stay competitive in the global marketplace.

“The world’s doing traceability,” said Devani. “Everybody else is doing it, and we need to do it too, or we’re not going to be able to access markets that are starting to demand it, like China and Europe.” jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

SPRAYING OFF LABEL

COSTS YIELD

Spraying herbicide on Genuity® Roundup Ready® canola, above recommended rates or outside the application window,

can cost you 3 bushels per acre or more in yield.

ALWAYS FOLLOW GRAIN MARKETING AND ALL OTHER STEWARDSHIP AND PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Details of these requirements can be found in the Trait Stewardship Responsibilities Notice to Farmers printed in this publication. Monsanto and Vine Design® is a registered trademark of Monsanto Technology LLC, Monsanto Canada Inc. licensee. ©2013 Monsanto Canada Inc.

8

MAY 26, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

TO SPRAY

No visible disease present

No visible disease present

No visible disease present

No visible disease present

Leaf disease on upper leaves and/or flag leaf

–

Leaf disease on upper leaves and/or flag leaf

–

FL

AD TIMING E H

NG

EAF TIM I

L G A

When scouting your crop, starting at flag leaf stage, please consider the following steps to determine whether to spray or not.

The only time you shouldn’t spray is when you have a poor looking crop and you are not in an area where fusarium head blight (FHB) is present.

If your crop doesn’t look good, but there is FHB present, a fungicide application can still pay and safeguard the yield and quality of your grain. Do some calculations and if your potential disease risk and expected return exceed the cost of application – you should protect your crop with a fungicide.

S PR AY

S PR AY

If your crop looks good, you will definitely want to protect your investment with a fungicide application. Which product will provide the most bang for your buck?

It depends on crop staging, current disease pressure and potential disease risks. Here is a quick chart to help make your fungicide decision easier.

Leaf disease only (lower to mid leaves)

Leaf disease only

Leaf disease only (lower to mid leaves)

Leaf disease only

S PR AY

S PR AY

To see how It Pays to Spray in your area visit BayerCropScience.ca/ItPaystoSpray BayerCropScience.ca/ItPaystoSpray or 1 888-283-6847 or contact your Bayer CropScience representative.

Always read and follow label directions. Folicur® and Prosaro® are registered trademarks of the Bayer Group. Bayer CropScience is a member of CropLife Canada.

FS:10.55” F:10.8”

T:21.6”

9

Albertafarmexpress.ca • may 26, 2014

NOT TO SPRAY POTENTIAL FOR FHB?

WHAT SHOULD YOU SPRAY?

†

GAIN IN YIELD* SPRING WHEAT

+ 4.7 bu./ac.

NO

Even when you can’t see disease symptoms, there is no such thing as a disease-free crop. A good crop is worth protecting – consider spraying an application of Folicur® EW or Prosaro® applied at head timing to help ensure top grade, quality and yield.

Folicur EW 3/4 rate, flag leaf OR

+ 5.7 bu./ac.

Folicur EW full rate, head OR

+ 8.4 bu./ac.

Prosaro, head

+ 2.4 bu./ac. + 3.0 bu./ac.

Folicur EW full rate, head OR

+ 4.2 bu./ac.

Prosaro, head

NO

Leaf disease damage to upper leaves or the flag leaf can cause irreparable injury to your crop and immediate action is required. Spray Folicur EW and reassess at head timing to determine whether a Prosaro application is required.

YES

Spray Folicur EW and re-assess at head timing to determine whether a Prosaro application is required. Consider following up with an application of Prosaro at head timing to help ensure top grade, quality and yield.

+ 9.5 bu./ac.

Folicur EW 3/4 rate, flag leaf

+ 4.5 bu./ac.

Folicur EW 3/4 rate, flag leaf

+ 7.0 bu./ac.

NO

When leaf disease is limited to lower/mid leaves at flag leaf timing, Bayer CropScience would suggest re-assessing at head timing and as disease pressure warrants, protect both your flag leaf and your head by spraying either Folicur EW or Prosaro.

Folicur EW 3/4 rate, flag leaf OR

+ 7.0 bu./ac.

Folicur EW full rate, head OR

+ 10.0 bu./ac.

Prosaro full rate, head

+ 5.2 bu./ac.

YES

Whenever you are in an FHB area, you should spray Prosaro or Folicur EW at head timing. However, if leaf disease is limited to the lower/mid leaves you have the ability to make your Prosaro or Folicur EW application at head timing to protect against both leaf disease and FHB.

Folicur EW 3/4 rate, flag leaf OR

+ 5.5 bu./ac.

Folicur EW full rate, head OR

+ 8.2 bu./ac.

Prosaro, head

C-51-06/14-10191928-W

F:10.8”

T:15.5”

YES

There is no such thing as a disease-free crop. Even in the absence of disease symptoms, the mere fact that you are in an FHB area means you need to protect your crop. Apply Prosaro or Folicur EW at head timing.

Folicur EW 3/4 rate, flag leaf OR

*Gain in yield based on multi-year wheat Demonstration Strip Trial (DST) results in Western Canada, 107 replicated trials, 2008-2013. Results compared to yield of untreated check. †Yes FHB means yield data is derived from DST trials where both %FDK and DON ppm levels were greater than zero, indicating FHB was present within the trial. †No FHB means yield data is derived from DST trials where both %FDK and DON ppm were zero, indicating that no FHB was present within the trial.

T:21.6”

10

MAY 26, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Study says California drought to cost economy $1.7 billion

TWEETING THE BLUES

Nearly half a million acres to be idled in the Central Valley, thousands to lose jobs SACRAMENTO / REUTERS

C

A robin sings the blues as cold and snow have delayed the arrival of spring across much of southern Alberta. Forecasters are predicting a warm and dry July and August, which should have birds singing a different tune. This robin sits in an aspen, still not in leaf, during a recent snowfall near Priddis, Alta.

PHOTO: WENDY DUDLEY

> Empty Pesticide Container Recycling Program

There are many reasons to rinse. #1

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Helps keep collection sites clean

#3

Use all the chemicals you purchase

#4

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#5

Endangered jumping mouse sparks watering hole furor Authorities says delicate ecosystem surrounding a natural spring also needs protection ALBUQUERQUE / REUTERS

A

New Mexico dispute over a rancher’s right to give her cattle access to a watering hole on federal land escalated after a county official condemned as “tyranny” the federal government’s refusal to open an access gate.

In the latest dispute over federal control of public land in the U.S. West, commissioners in rural Otero County have voted to defy the federal government and open a gate in the fencedoff parcel.

The U.S. Forest Service says the fence has been in place for decades, protecting a delicate ecosystem surrounding a natural spring as well as an endangered species of mouse from being trampled by cattle.

Representatives for the county met on Friday with federal officials, seeking on behalf of the rancher to allow some 200 head of cattle into the 23-acre area.

They later said they were “frustrated and disappointed” by the session.

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10901A-CFM-5Reasons-QRTPage-AFE.indd 1

alifornia’s drought will cause thousands of workers to lose their jobs and cost farmers in the state’s Central Valley breadbasket US$1.7 billion, an economic study predicts.

The most populous U.S. state is in its third year of what officials are calling a catastrophic drought, leaving some small communities at risk of running out of drinking water and leading farmers to leave fallow nearly a half-million acres of land.

“We wanted to provide a foundation for state agricultural and water policymakers to understand the impacts of the drought on farmers and farm communities,” said Richard Howitt, a University of California professor and the report’s lead author.

As many as 14,500 full-time and seasonal jobs could be lost as a result of the drought, and 410,000 acres may be left unplanted in the San Joaquin Valley alone, the analysis showed, as farmers enter the growing season with about two-thirds of the water that they need.

By comparison, a drought in 2009 led to the fallowing of

4/2/14 11:55 AM

270,000 acres of cropland and the loss of 7,500 jobs.

“Everyone is trying to get a handle on how bad it’s going to be,” said Dave Kranz, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation.

Most farmers in California rely on irrigation rather than rain, many purchasing supplies from federal and state projects that pump from the San JoaquinSacramento River Delta. But less water than normal is available from those sources this year.

Many are turning to other suppliers or to groundwater wells on their property, Kranz said, but the study showed that pumping from wells will cost farmers an additional $448 million.

California Governor Jerry Brown, who blames the drought in part on climate change, said the state would do everything possible to help farmers weather the drought.

“We’re going to be steadfast in the state of California in doing everything we need to do to make agriculture work, to use our water as carefully as possible,” said Brown.

To make more water available to farmers, his administration has eased some environmental protections for endangered fish, and allowed flexibility in some water rights regulations.

“While the county contingent respectfully discussed that the U.S. was violating the law in their current actions, the federal government was unwavering in its belief that it lacked the authority to stop violating the law and open the gates,” said A. Blair Dunn, a lawyer representing the county.

County Commissioner Tommie Herrell complained in the statement that the Forest Service had been unwilling to open the gate for 30 days while the sides worked out a longer-term solution, and called that refusal “nothing short of tyranny.”

The U.S. Forest Service has said an old barbed-wire fence was recently upgraded in cooperation with the rancher, and allowed room for a watering canal for the cattle without disturbing protected land. It also says there are other watering holes on the rancher’s 28,850-acre grazing allotment.

The Forest Service says the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse was expected to be listed as an endangered species in June, which would mean those 23 acres would be considered a critical habitat.

11

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • MAY 26, 2014

Higher bacon prices coming

Chinese cuisine with an alberta twist

Consumers should be prepared to spend even more for bacon over the next few months. Western Canadian hog producers are enjoying “some of the best prices they’ve ever seen for this time of year” because of tight supplies caused by the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, said Tyler Fulton of Hams Marketing. Although retail prices are rising, packers are experiencing short-term pain, as the prices they receive for the pork are not enough to pay for the animal, said Fulton. He predicts pork prices will rise another 15 to 20 per cent over the next few months.

Alberta beef and pork were front and centre at the recent Chinese Restaurant Awards event in Vancouver. The sixth annual event — part of the Chinese Master Chef program — showcased Alberta meat to a group of national and international chefs, as well as food-service operators. Six top chefs from China and Hong Kong created dishes such as roast pork belly in white jade and pan-fried Alberta beef skewers with cumin powder. The Chinese Master Chef program was created by Alberta Livestock and Meat Association and Cross Cultural Marketing Inc.

Small-town meat shop creating a name for itself Innovative marketing and can-do attitude a recipe for success for the little meat shop that could

By Alexis Kienlen af staff / sangudo

S

angudo Custom Meats is a small operation in a tiny town — but it’s the little meat shop that could.

“We figure that if you’re not growing, you’re dying,” said Kevin Meier, who owns and operates the business with partner Jeff Senger.

“If you do 10 different things and nine of them are failures, but one of them sticks, then it’s worth it.”

Thanks to its unique marketing approach and its innovative animal-handling system, the business is now the biggest employer in the hamlet of 325 an hour’s drive northwest of Edmonton.

Meier, 40, grew up in Sangudo, and remembers when the town used to be bigger than Mayerthorpe. But over the years, businesses closed and people moved away.

“I’m working away, out in Whitecourt and out in the (oil) patch and I’m watching this little town just implode,” said Meier.

A few years ago, about 30 concerned citizens formed the Sangudo Opportunity Development Co-operative (SODC) to revitalize business in the town, increase volunteer action and acquire government support for programs to better the town. When a 27-year-old meat-packing business came up for sale, a plan was developed and Meier, who had a retail meat-cutting licence from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology came on board. He was joined by Senger, 37, who was also working in Whitecourt as an accountant, but wasn’t happy with his career.

“With all 30 people, we could really push the meat shop,” said Meier.

So he and Senger purchased the land, building and business, and then convinced the SODC to buy it back and act as landlords.

The two parties hatched a deal so the rent stayed low, with the co-op getting a six per cent share of profits.

“That way we have the whole group selling the meat shop, because they wanted to grow their interest rate so their ROI

Sangudo Custom Meats opened four years ago, and has been part of the revitalization of the town of Sangudo. photos: alexis kienlen (return on investment) gets better at the end of the year,” said Meier.

Hiring spree

Business was so good, Senger and Meier were soon overwhelmed by the workload and began adding staff.

“Pretty soon we had seven people hired out of this tiny little community,” said Meier. “That’s a big percentage out of 300.”

They focused on hiring young people in order to entice them to stay in the community.

“We want to get them to buy a house in town, realize they have a job here, stay here and earn a living,” said Meier.

Senger became the sales manager and began talking to businesses and restaurants in Edmonton, leaving Meier to run things back in Sangudo. They began selling meat to Edmonton-area restaurants and developed different kinds of sausages and jerkies.

“At first it was just little things, but pretty soon the orders got bigger and bigger,” he said. “All of a sudden, running to the city became our second business.

That’s when the business started to feel more like a business. Jeff was selling and I was running the crew.”

The guys started buying the

local 4-H champion each June and began giving a 20 per cent discount off cut and wrap off every 4-H animal brought to their shop.

“I brought my stock trailer, and I offered to take the beef home, store it at my place and fed it until we had room to kill it,” said Meier. “My dad would hold onto it, and we’d slowly chisel away at it, killing about eight at a time.”

In the first couple of years, the shop processed wild game from September to December.

“The first two years were ballistic. We wanted to make money and we didn’t care about time, so we just asked everyone to bring it all in.”

Eventually, the workload proved to be too much, so Senger and Meier made livestock from local farmers their priority.

“Now if we have a slow week with killing, we bring in a few deer and a few moose,” he said.

January to June was the slow season, so Senger and Meier searched for something to kill during this time. They found out winter was the peak season for elk. A year after opening, Senger and Meier received a grant from Growing Forward to redevelop their handling system.

Handling revamp

The existing handling equipment was outdated and poorly

designed, and was dangerous for both animals and employees.

“The animals were scared to death back there and every kill day was nasty,” said Meier.

Working with elk farmer Don Bamber and bison rancher Neil Hochstein, Meier and Senger designed a system equipped to handle both elk and bison.

Their current system includes slider gates, pusher panels, and strong steel, enabling them to handle beef, lamb and pigs easily and effectively.

The system uses many of Temple Grandin’s design principles, including round corners and solid wood panels. Senger’s father-in-law, an electrician, created a lighting system that could be adjusted to suit the preferences of each animal.

When animals are slaughtered, they are held in a padded hydraulic squeeze and killed using stun guns that knock the animal out in seconds.

“It goes in, disrupts their brain and the animal just drops,” said Meier.

The new system was so efficient that it enabled Sangudo Custom Meats to increase its kills from eight cattle to 18 each kill day.

Senger and Meier are proud of the way they operate and

“We figure that if you’re not growing, you’re dying. If you do 10 different things, and nine of them are failures, but one of them sticks, then it’s worth it.”

Kevin Meier

are open to letting anyone see what they do. They even host guest kill days and open their kill floor to viewers.

“We’ve been really transparent and have invited people in so they can see what’s going on,” said Meier.

Curious customers and chefs have been invited to watch as animals are slaughtered and meat is cut.

The duo also collaborated with Kevin Kossowan, the coowner of Shovel and Fork, a group which teaches people skills like butchery and foraging. Sangudo Meats showed participants how to kill and butcher pigs, cattle, and alpaca.

“A lot of them were chefs, and they brought all this food and stuff and it was this big smorg.

It was wild,” said Meier.

The two men would eventually like to move to more managerial roles and further expand the business. Future plans include creating a new kitchen for more processed meats, and developing smoked turkeys. akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

12

MAY 26, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Co-op model a winner for Edson foresters By banding together, co-op members have achieved the holy grail of a guaranteed wood supply

By Tony Kryzanowski af contributor

L

ogging and sawmilling to supplement either a grain or cattle farm income has deep roots in Alberta.

A group of Edson-area farmers has taken that model to a new level with the formation of a timberbased co-operative that provides them with what is often described as the holy grail of a supplemental farm income — a guaranteed wood supply.

What’s particularly intriguing about what the EDFOR Cooperative has accomplished is that the province of Alberta, which has control over the provincial Crown wood fibre supply, is often reluctant to make long-term commitments. But it has actually agreed to help the Edson farmers out.

A guaranteed wood supply is critical, said co-op president John Nyssen, who has been a member since its founding in 2005. He has been producing wood products on the family farm for as long as he can remember, but every year there was always the question of how much wood he could access.

“Right now, it’s my primary income,” says Nyssen, who also raises cattle north of Edson and notes his forest allocation and sawmill has gotten him through years of poor cattle prices.

The co-op has 45 harvesting and seven manufacturing members.

Most were longtime subscribers to the province’s commercial tim-

Logstream Ltd. operator Omer Rivard sorts logs that will be manufactured into fence posts. photo: tony kryzanowski ber permit program, which allowed them to bid on a wood allocation annually, but with no guarantee that they would earn one or where it would be located.

But together, they have been allowed to purchase a highly val-

ued guaranteed wood supply from the province. The Alberta government agreed to sell EDFOR Cooperative a standing timber quota, which amounts to about 78,000 cubic metres annually in the Edson area — largely spruce and pine in

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the sawlog diameter range, with some deciduous wood mixed in.

Given its success, the EDFOR group is a model for other groups of Alberta farmers with Crown timber supplies in their midst facing the same challenge of acquiring a consistent wood supply. The co-op offers its members the services of a fully qualified forester, as well as administrative support.

“The co-operative’s function is largely to manage the harvest, to see to it that all silvicultural liabilities are taken care of and also to allocate, lay out, engineer, design and accommodate the harvest of 1,100 cubic metres per member per year of the primary cut,” says David Cobb, the co-op’s manager/ forester.

It is held to the same standard as forestry companies in harvesting and reforestation of timber, and helping members meet their obligations is a big part of Cobb’s job.

Members, who pay a fee based on their allocation, can either harvest their wood allocation and sell it or use the wood to manufacture products like timbers, corral fencing, posts, flooring, and firewood.

The level of experience ranges from very experienced forestry individuals to relative greenhorns, and from hand fallers to fully mechanized loggers.

The goal when allocating timber is to manage the entire area in a holistic manner so that the

Members, who pay a fee based on their allocation, can either harvest their wood allocation and sell it or use the wood to manufacture products…

timber resource stays healthy and sustainable.

Sandra Plangger, co-owner of Logstream Ltd. describes the co-op as, “its own family of people with the same interests and outlooks.”

Plangger and husband Tony have been members for four years, and custom cut lumber up to 20 feet long, primarily bridge decking and timbers for the oilfield sector, as well as fence posts. Plangger says one of the benefits of membership is that they are usually allocated an area where the log profile matches their needs for custom cutting and fence posts.

Wood allocations are handled in the most equitable way possible — a draw from a hat each fall. Prior to the draw, Cobb will have an idea of how many ‘buddy’ working groups there are and how many individuals there are, and will make that many group and individual blocks available. The ‘Group’ and ‘Individual’ draws are handled separately. Members will pick a chip from a hat, and based on their priority number from the draw, they will choose a harvesting site from the map drafted by Cobb.

New members are carefully vetted to ensure that they understand their obligations in exchange for a wood supply and how to properly manage their area. The co-op’s board is responsible for ensuring members comply with their obligations.

“We have a five-step disciplinary process that is used from time to time to help members to understand the need to be environmentally conscious, to work in conjunction with the operating ground rules, and also to operate within EDFOR’s bylaws,” says Cobb.

Policies and disciplinary procedures have helped to keep the organization stable, he adds.

“We still make mistakes,” Cobb says, “but we try not to make them twice.”

13

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • MAY 26, 2014

Sick cattle: When to treat, call the vet, or pull the plug BEFF 911  Make an informed decision, but do it sooner rather than later

BY ROY LEWIS, DVM

W

hen first assessing sick mature cattle, there are four main choices or treatment streams to choose.

Is it a treatable condition in which a positive response is likely? Is this a condition where the animal can be shipped for immediate slaughter? If the condition has gone past the point of return and the animal should be put down, or, in the case of cattle, does it qualify for BSE testing?

Finally, is it a condition just needing convalescence and tincture of time to improve? Patience is a virtue if the condition falls into this category.

More times than not, the situation falls into one of these categories, and the decision is to treat, call the veterinarian, or pull the plug.

Animal welfare and quality of care must be kept at the back of your mind. Also drug withdrawals and beef quality assurance rules must be followed. Purebred cattle with higher value may be assessed slightly differently, but one must still bear in mind the prognosis, which means the odds the animal will respond to treatment and recover.

Generally cows, and especially bulls, are tough and resistant to most infectious diseases (like pneumonia or histophilus) either through vaccination or natural exposure and resistance over time. Most conditions come about on an individual basis; somewhat related to age and wear and tear.

question then becomes what is the problem and can it be treated?

Conditions such as wooden tongue, lumpy jaw, kidney infection, metritis, mastitis, retained placenta, localized peritonitis (hardware disease) and certain types of lameness can often be successfully treated. Your veterinarian — especially if he or she is examining the animal — can best advise the type and length of treatment. Both are key in the final outcome.

Conditions such as pneumonia or other respiratory issue such as emphysema, heart failure (fluid in the brisket), massive peritonitis or diarrheic conditions may not respond as favourably and a decision to stop or go forward must be made.

Some may respond, but if there is no improvement after one or

two treatments the prognosis is rather grim.

Lameness can result from injuries and bad feet, or be caused from sand cracks and stifle injuries. The majority of these either need work on the feet or time to heal. Only the true foot rot or hairy wart disease will really respond to antibiotics in any major way.

Make sure you know what you are treating before proceeding. A lot of time and money is wasted treating lame conditions that simply need time or perhaps a foot trim, but often don’t need antibiotics.

Downer cows are another issue, which need close, prompt attention. A very thin or debilitated cow that has gone down most invariably will need to be put down.

However, a cow in reasonable shape that has gone down sud-

denly or had a recent calving issue has a very reasonable chance of responding. Many are calcium, phosphorus or magnesium imbalances and can be treated with a favourable response. It’s best to call in a veterinarian in this instance as the products respond best if given intravenously. A veterinarian can best rule out other causes of downers such as a broken leg or spine, acute mastitis, metritis or toxemias and septicemias (blood-borne infections).

Treatment varies considerably in these other conditions.

You will find making an informed decision regarding health of your individual mature animals is better made earlier rather than later. You will also find if antibiotics are used, often the older less expensive products such as tetracyclines, penicillins

and sulphonamides may still give effective treatment. There is also one newer prescription product (given at the base of the ear) called “Excede” which is long acting (seven days) and has a very short withdrawal. So if treatment is ineffective the animal can be shipped after three days.

Your goal should be deciding when to ship, when to treat, and when to convalesce. Don’t prolong treatment in hopeless cases where animal welfare issues come into question. Consult with your veterinarian when in doubt, as each new condition can be quite unique.

Roy Lewis is a Westlock, Alberta-based veterinarian specializing in largeanimal practice. He is also a parttime technical services vet for Merck Animal Health.

The protective mechanism for flight animals is to hide sickness as long as possible before they become prey.

Because of economics, farmers may ignore treatment for some cases where we can get resolution of the problem. There is also the labour-savings component, but with today’s long-acting products the labour to treat animals daily is generally not required. In many cases a one- or two-shot regime can alleviate the problem.

The question is the decision by yourself, or with your veterinarian, whether the odds are good at getting a favourable outcome (either complete recovery or recovery enough where shipping for salvage is possible).

As with anything, the quicker you catch the problem the odds of getting a response improve.

Mature animals may take longer to show clinical signs, and the protective mechanism for flight animals is to hide sickness as long as possible before they become prey. This is especially evident with bison or elk, but is somewhat true for cattle as well.

Signs such as weight loss, last up for feed, slow deliberate gait, and head down are all general signs of a health problem. The

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14

MAY 26, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Drought sends California cattle to Texas The beef industry in the U.S. is becoming increasingly mobile as cattle move large distances to feeding and slaughter

BY P.J. HUFFSTUTTER AND TOM POLANSEK REUTERS

F

Cattle are auctioned off at Cattlemen’s Livestock Auction in Galt, California. California’s drought has led many ranchers to sell their cattle, often to buyers farther east, as grazing land becomes barren and hay becomes scarce and expensive. PHOTO: REUTERS/MAX WHITTAKER

or decades, ranchers from the east have brought their livestock to California, where mild winters and lush natural pastures created prime conditions for fattening beef cattle.

No more. In the midst of the worst California drought in decades, the grass is stunted and some creeks are dry. Ranchers in the Golden State are loading tens of thousands of heifers and steers onto trucks and hauling them eastward to Nevada, Texas, Nebraska and beyond.

“If there’s no water and no feed, you move the cows,” said Gaylord Wright, 65, owner of California Fats and Feeders Inc. “You move them or they die.”

The exact head count for livestock on this cattle drive is not known. But a Reuters review of

state Agriculture Department records filed when livestock cross state borders indicates that up to 100,000 California cattle have left the state in the past four months alone.

California has shipped out cattle before, but the current migration is far bigger and includes more of the state’s breeding stock, which give birth to new calves and keep operations running year after year, said Jack Cowley, a rancher and past president of the California Beef Cattle Improvement Association.

That could be doing outsized damage to the nation’s 18thlargest cattle herd, since California ranchers will have difficulty rebuilding once the drought breaks, said cattle ranchers and area livestock auctioneers.

“We spend a lifetime building the herd the way we want,” said Cowley. Two weeks ago, he sold 18 per cent of his breeding herd, or 200 cattle, to an operation in Nevada because he did not have enough water. He expects he will need to sell another 200 cattle.

Beef prices already are at record highs, and increased transportation costs and rising uncertainty about where — and how many — future cattle will be raised and processed are adding upward pressure, industry analysts say.

The national cattle herd is at a 63-year low because high grain prices and drought during the past several years have encouraged producers to send animals to slaughter early and to reduce herd sizes.

The California exodus also underscores a little-noticed development in the U.S. beef industry: the evolution of an increasingly mobile livestock herd, which must travel evergreater distances to feedlots and slaughterhouses as the industry consolidates.

Wrenching consolidation

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The last major slaughterhouse near the California-Mexico border, National Beef Packing Co.’s plant in Brawley, California, plans to close on May 23. The drop in available cattle sparked the move, National Beef said, and some ranchers in southern California say they will need to cross state lines in order to reach the next-closest packing house.

The Brawley plant could process 1,900 head of cattle a day, or about two per cent of U.S. slaughter capacity, according to industry analysts. But with feedlots closing in the region, the plant couldn’t be assured of a steady supply of livestock.

“The fact is, this migration cycle is going to bring about even more consolidation,” said Curt Covington, senior vice-president for the Ag and Rural Banking Division at Bank of the West.

The top destination appears to be Texas, long the nation’s largest cattle-producing state.

Buyers this year have hauled in more than 47,400 California cattle, a 71 per cent jump over the previous year’s first quarter, according to state Agriculture Department data.

Nebraska, home to more cattle in feedlots than any other state, also has joined in. More than 14,000 California cattle arrived in the first quarter of this year, compared to just 542 cattle that made the trek in the same period of 2013, according to state records.

15

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • MAY 26, 2014

EU to meet Kyoto target

El Niño bad for wheat, good for soy oslo / reuters The expected El Niño weather phenomenon will hurt corn, rice and wheat yields but boosts soybeans, according to a new Japanese-led report.

Researchers produced a set of maps linking yields of major crops to El Niño, a warming of the surface of the tropical Pacific Ocean that can trigger downpours or droughts.

The study found corn yields fell 2.3 per cent in El Niño years compared to normal in 1984-2004, rice was down 0.4 per cent and wheat 1.4 per cent. Soybean yields rose 3.5 per cent, with rainfall patterns favouring big U.S. and Brazilian harvests.

athens / reuters The European Union will cut its carbon emissions in 2020 by a bigger margin than pledged under the Kyoto Protocol for Climate Change. The target was to reduce emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels. Officials say a 24.5 per cent drop is now expected. Environmental campaigners welcomed the news, but urged the EU to “pile pressure on other big emitters into taking more action.” EU member states remain split over a more ambitious European Commission proposal to cut carbon emissions by 40 per cent in 2030.

Time to start thinking about thunderstorms The first thing to know is the difference between a severe thunderstorm watch and a thunderstorm warning

By Daniel Bezte AF contributor

F

or this issue’s article I was supposed to continue our look into how to become your own weather forecaster. However, if you are anything like the kids in my classes at school then I know most of you did not do any homework!

So, I’m going to give you a twoweek extension and we’ll cover that topic in the next issue. In the meantime, with warmer temperatures finally starting to show up I think it’s time to do our yearly look at thunderstorms.

To start off with, I need to talk about one of my weather pet peeves, which is when people mix up weather watches and weather warnings. Basically, when we are talking about thunderstorms, a severe thunderstorm watch is when the potential exists for severe thunderstorms to occur. This means that severe thunderstorms have not yet formed. There may be some thunderstorms around, and you need to be wary of them, but so far none of them have become severe. A severe thunderstorm warning means that severe thunderstorms have developed and conditions, which meet the severe criteria, have been recorded either directly by observers or by radar. When you hear a warning, it means you need to take immediate precautions.

Severe thunderstorm watches are typically issued when all the ingredients for severe storms are in place, but forecasters are not sure where, or sometimes even if, thunderstorms will develop. An analogy you can use is a pot of water on the stove. If you turn on an element, put on a pot of water, eventually it will boil, but the big question is: Where will that first bubble form and break away from the bottom of the pot? That would be our thunderstorm, you knew it was going to form, exactly where is the hard part.

So, just what are the ingredients for severe thunderstorms? First of all you need rising air, and to get that you need heat, or rather, you need a large difference in temperature between two areas. There are a couple of

ways you can achieve this difference in temperature. One way most people are familiar with is to have a very hot day. But just having a very hot day does not mean that there is a large difference in temperature. To get thunderstorms on a hot day you need to have cool air aloft (up above the ground).

When this occurs, the hot air at the surface begins to rise and encounters cool air as it continues to rise up. This means that our rising air will remain warmer than the air around it and will continue to rise up. The cooler the air around it, the faster it goes up, the faster it goes up, the stronger the storm (typically).

Now, sometimes we can get severe thunderstorms when we don’t have particularly warm air at the surface. Two different scenarios can play out when this happens that can still lead to severe thunderstorms. The first scenario would be that there is very warm air a few thousand feet up from the ground. This warm air then has cold air above it, and just like the hot day on the ground, this warm air in the upper atmosphere can rise up giving us elevated thunderstorms.

The second scenario is when there is a strong contrast of warm and cool air at the surface, or in other words, we have some type of front cutting through an area. On one side of the front it is cool and on the other side it is warm. The cold air acts like a wedge and forces the warm air up. Sometimes this occurs when a cold front is moving into an area, so the day starts off warm and then the cold air pushes in lifting the warm air up in front of it, giving us thunderstorms. The other way is when warm air is moving into a region. The day starts off cool and then storms develop as the warm air rises up over the cool air as it moves into the region.

Now, simply having a big difference in temperatures will not give you a thunderstorm, or at least, will not give you a severe thunderstorm. There are still a couple more ingredients needed.

The next key ingredient is water vapour, or humidity. It takes energy to evaporate water, so the more water vapour there

photo: thinkstock is in the air the more potential energy there is. To get at this energy the water vapour needs to be changed back into a liquid form, it needs to condense. As our warm air rises, it cools, and as it cools, water vapour will begin to condense. When it condenses it releases the energy it absorbed when it evaporated. This energy is released in the form of heat.

Our rising air is cooling as it rises, but not as fast as the air around it, so it continues to rise. Then condensation starts

taking place, which releases heat into the air. This makes our rising air even warmer than the air around it, so it rises even faster. Now it is starting to sound like we have everything in place for a severe storm… but not quite.

If you have air continually rising up, eventually the amount of air accumulating up at the top of the storm will become so great that it just has to fall back down again, wiping out the storm in the process. To get around this prob-

lem we need some kind of vent at the top of the storm that takes away all the rising air that is accumulating there. We need a strong jet stream of air over top of the storm, which will help to “suck” away the accumulating air.

There, we now have the key ingredients for a severe storm, but like any good chef, Mother Nature has additional ingredients she can use to make some storms truly awesome — something that we’ll explore in the months ahead.

This issue’s map shows the total amount of precipitation that has fallen across the Prairies so far this growing season. Pretty much all of Saskatchewan and western Manitoba have seen above- to well-above-average precipitation. The rest of Manitoba and much of Alberta have seen near-average amounts, with the only dry region being over extreme west-central Alberta.

16

MAY 26, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

As third generation farmers, the Jefferies look to us for next-generation advice.

TD is committed to helping farmers build for the future.

Dave Jefferies and his sons, Roland and Ernie, know a thing or two about farming. So, when it was time to expand the business, they naturally chose a bank that knew how to help. At TD, they found Agriculture Specialist Vince Puchailo, who helped implement a succession plan that involved Dave’s brother. Vince’s understanding of the complex process even impressed the lawyers handling the sale. A personalized approach to agriculture finance, like Vince’s, is something all TD Agriculture Specialists bring. Maybe it’s time you brought one to your farm.

Visit a branch or tdcanadatrust.com/agriculture ®

The TD logo and other trade-marks are the property of The Toronto-Dominion Bank.

0004404_M4256_2A.indd 1

2/20/14 6:48 PM

New website for Environmental Farm Plan

The sustainability calculator’s output shows how a producer’s practices stack up against provincial averages. “The smaller the number, the lower the impact,” said Serecon’s Markus Weber.

By Jennifer Blair af staff

H

(Graph: courtesy Serecon)

for when we have the calculator refined.”

Serecon identified five areas — soil erosion risk potential, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, land use efficiency, and soil carbon release — to allow producers to see how their on-farm sustainability efforts measure up.

“These things are meaningful for consumers but also meaningful in terms of actual environmental impact,” he said.

Camrose grain farmer D’Arcy Hilgartner has been using the calculator since February, and so far, the work he’s put into it hasn’t been “onerous.”

“It wasn’t that hard,” he said.

“There was no data that I was required to collect that I wasn’t already collecting.”

An Alberta Pulse Growers director, Hilgartner became involved in the project to be “part of the conversation” about sustainability with big food companies and retailers.

“We’re well aware that sustainability is a big buzzword for the multinationals, whether it’s Walmart or General Mills,” he said.

“All farmers would like to say they’re sustainable and our practices are such.”

Big food companies increasingly view sustainability as key to holding on to customers — and farmers have to do their part, said Hilgartner.

“It’s not so much that General Mills will say, ‘We’ll give you 50 cents more per acre for your oats if you meet this sustainability criteria.’ It’s more likely they’re going to say, ‘If you don’t do it, we’re not going to buy your oats.’”

Still, being able to see how your efforts to be sustainable stack up against your peers is useful information, he added.

“Your farm has to be sustainable in order for you to have long-term profitability,” he said. “We can all mine our farms for a small period of time and still make a profit, but eventually that catches up to you.”

Serecon’s calculator goes beyond other sustainability calculators that track things such as climate and soil data to estimate greenhouse gas emissions and fuel use because it also measures factors — such as the potential risk of soil erosion — that can vary widely within a few miles, said Weber.

“None of that was based on actual farm level data,” he said. “You need to look at smaller geographies.”

Using Serecon’s tool, producers can input their own farm, field, and

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Trim: 15.5”

undreds and hundreds of producers” are needed to help fine tune a new environmental sustainability calculator before it’s ready to launch.

The open-source calculator is the latest development in the growing trend to demonstrate to consumers that farmers are taking steps to reduce their environmental impact and being good stewards of the land.

Companies such as McDonald’s and General Mills are placing a higher priority on sustainability and “it isn’t just a catch-phrase,” said Markus Weber, agriculture consultant with Serecon, which developed the calculator.

And “just saying something is sustainably sourced” is no longer good enough, he said.

“There has to be some quantitative element because there’s this need for objectivity and credibility,” he said.

The calculator will also keep western Canadian producers in sync with similar efforts south of the border.

“We want these companies like General Mills to be able to adopt sets of indicators in both countries, because essentially, we are one market in many respects,” said Weber.

Serecon has been testing the calculator with about 20 farmers and now wants to add scores of additional producers before launching a final version, he said.

“What we do have at this point is 60 crop-year fields in the system,” said Weber.

“We’re saving the big ask…

“

crop data into the calculator, which spits out graphs and detailed data showing the level of sustainability on their farms.

“All the data that goes into this thing is driven by actual on-theground farm data,” said Weber.

Now Serecon needs to build its data base so it can develop benchmarks that will be meaningful for producers.

“We’ll refine it over the coming year to have regional benchmarks rather than just comparing yourself to the province, which isn’t always very informative,” said Weber, who expects the calculator to launch for wider use after the 2014 crop year data is in.

“Once we have these regional benchmarks, we feel there’s enough value to farmers to be able to compare themselves to their region that there will be more interest in entering data.”

Hilgartner is keen to see those benchmarks, and how his management practices — which include direct seeding, using newer equipment, and working with variable-rate technology — compare.

“I don’t think coming out of this is going to necessarily drive a producer to make changes,” he said. “Sustainability is part of it, but economic drivers are going to be a bigger one.

“On my farm, it’s not going to change a lot of the practices. But it gives me an opportunity to tell my story.”

The sustainability calculator can be downloaded (either in Excel or hard-copy format) at www.serecon. ca/resources/calculator.

PROVING GROUND.

Big food companies are demanding farmers prove they are reducing their environmental impact

The

Are you a good steward of your land? There’s an app for that

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The DuPont Oval Logo is a registered trademark of DuPont. ® TM SM , , Trademarks and service marks licensed to Pioneer Hi-Bred Limited. © 2014, PHL.

The Alberta Environmental Farm Plan’s new website at www.albertaefp.com is live and mobile friendly. “The website features farmer stories, articles, videos and Twitter feed,” says Ashley Steeple of the Agricultural Research and Extension Council of Alberta.

“The new site makes it easier to find an EFP technician in your area and get started on completing an EFP.” The planning process helps producers identify and address environmental risks and opportunities by completing an EFP workbook. A web version of the EFP workbook will be released later this spring.

TM

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ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • MAY 26, 2014

18

MAY 26, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Late blight a concern again this year There were multiple outbreaks of aggressive and destructive pathogen in fields and market gardens last year ALBERTA AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT RELEASE

O

ver the last few years, there has been a great deal of concern in Alberta surrounding late blight, a serious disease that affects mainly potatoes and tomatoes. This year appears to be no different.

“This disease is caused by a fungal pathogen called Phytophthora infestans,” said Robert Spencer, commercial horticulture specialist at the Alberta Ag-Info Centre in Stettler.

“The favourable conditions for disease development, combined with the presence of the pathogen, have resulted in multiple outbreaks of late blight in commercial, market garden and urban potato and tomato crops throughout parts of Alberta. For 2014, this disease continues to

be a risk for all solanaceous crops (potato/tomato family) grown in Alberta.”

Late blight is found in most potato- and vegetable-growing areas of Canada, although does not occur every year on the Prairies. It can also affect eggplants, peppers, petunias and some related solanaceous weeds, such as nightshade and wild tomato.

Late blight is an aggressive disease that, if left unchecked, can cause significant and rapid crop losses in fields, greenhouses, and potato bins.

The risk of introduction comes from either infected transplant material (tomatoes or other host crops) or infected seed potato stock (either imported or carried over). During the season, if spore loads build up, there is a risk of introduction of the pathogen via windblown transfer.

“Initial symptoms of late blight are typically noted on older leaves, appearing as dark, water-soaked areas (lesions), sometimes with yellow edges, that move in from leaf tips/margins, becoming brown and brittle within a couple days,” said Spencer. “Late blight lesions are not contained by the leaf veins. Lesions may also develop on plant stems and on potato tubers and tomato fruit. Late blight develops most quickly in warm, wet/humid conditions and can spread very rapidly through plantings. Plants may be rapidly defoliated, die and yields can be significantly reduced.”

Potato tubers may be infected by spores produced on the foliage which are subsequently washed into the soil. Infected tubers may have irregular, sunken lesions (often first found

“Early detection is critical for minimizing the impact of the disease and preventing further spread and significant outbreaks.”

ROBERT SPENCER COMMERCIAL HORTICULTURE SPECIALIST AT THE ALBERTA AG-INFO CENTRE IN STETTLER

around the eyes) and cause rot and a reddish-brown discolouration of the internal tissues.

On the Prairies, late blight does not form an overwintering spore, but overwinters on living tissues, such as infected seed potatoes, cull piles, volunteer potatoes or tomato transplants.

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grium reported a steep fall in firstquarter profit, hurt by a colder-than-usual winter across North America and a drop in fertilizer prices.

As the cold weather caused transportation problems and delayed spring planting in some areas, net earnings from continuing operations for the first quarter fell to $12 million versus $146 million a year ago.

“Agrium’s first quarter is traditionally our seasonally lowest earnings quarter and this was exacerbated this year by the record cold winter across North America,” said chief executive Chuck Magro. “However, farmer sentiment is positive this spring and we are now seeing good demand for crop input products and services.”

Agrium’s fertilizer rivals, PotashCorp and Mosaic — have also reported sharply lower quarterly earnings.

Mosaic posted a 43 per cent drop in profit, due to weaker potash and phosphate prices, and said it would cut 500 jobs.

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ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • MAY 26, 2014

Dome put over polluted pesticide factory to contain stench An inflatable cover the size of three football fields is designed to keep odour under wraps beijing / reuters

A

company in the eastern city of Hangzhou, China has constructed a massive inflatable dome over the site of a closed-down pesticide factory.

While it covers an area the size of roughly three football fields, the 20,000-square-metre polyester dome still covers less that half the contaminated zone, according to reports.

The factory was shut in 2009, but the stench emitted by the soil still forces nearby residents to cover their mouths and noses, according to the state media. The cause of the odour was not given.

Decades of unrestrained economic growth has hit China’s environment hard, and anger over pollution has triggered protests that have helped make its leadership more sensitive to the risks.

Reports of contaminated soil have become commonplace, and last month the Environment Ministry estimated that roughly 16 per cent of China’s soil contained higher-than-permitted levels of pollution, including cadmium, mercury, arsenic, chromium and lead.

Last month, China announced its first pilot project to treat metal pollution in soil and prevent farmland from further contamination, but critics say the efforts are underfunded and inefficient.

Brief Africanized bees moving north denver / reuters / Africanized honeybees have turned up in Colorado, surprising scientists who previously doubted they could survive winters at northern latitudes.

A peach grower contacted authorities last month to report abnormally aggressive behaviour at a beehive on his orchard in Palisade, Colorado, about 45 miles east of the Utah border.

The fact that the bees were found in the spring suggests they survived through the winter, said Bob Hammon, an entomologist with Colorado State University.

Sometimes dubbed “killer bees” because of the aggressive way they defend colonies and hives, the Africanized bees first arrived in the Western Hemisphere in the 1950s.

While the venom from an Africanized honeybee is no more potent than that of a European honeybee, the risk of multiple stings makes the Africanized bees especially dangerous.

A plot of contaminated land measuring 20,000 square metres is seen covered by a polyester fibre tent designed to reduce the smell of pesticides in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, May 13, 2014. According to local media, the area used to be the site of an insecticide factory. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer

Today’s top ag stories: www.albertafarmexpress.ca

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MAY 26, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Food companies find it tough to raise prices Ninety-four per cent of consumers said they would remain cautious about spending going forward

By Lewis Krauskopf and Lisa Baertlein

new york / los angeles / reuters

photo: thinkstock

Canadian truckers face steep fee increase at U.S. border Trucks move almost two-thirds of the goods travelling between Canada and the U.S.

By Alex Binkley AF contributor

A

doubling of border-crossing fees announced by the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will drive many small trucking lines out of business or prevent them from taking shipping to the U.S., the Canadian Trucking Alliance is warning.

The move could affect the export of everything from agri-food products to manufactured goods, with trucks moving almost two-thirds, by value, of Canadian trade with the U.S.

“The proposed increases are ludicrous,” says David Bradley, president and CEO of the Canadian Trucking Alliance. “They would be considered so at any time, let alone in the current economic climate. At a time when Canada and the United States are supposed to be working to implement the Beyond the Border Action Plan, APHIS comes along with a proposal that is beyond reason.”

Carriers and shippers have until June 24 to comment on the APHIS proposal, which says the current border-crossing fee, imposed in 2002, doesn’t cover the cost of inspection services.

Trucks using a transponder to be identified at a border crossing would see their annual fee rise to US$320 a year from the current US$105. Trucks without a transponder would face a per-crossing increase of 53 per cent.

Any trucking company moving goods into the U.S. has to have a transponder in every truck, said CTA vice-president Jennifer Fox. For a small operator with 20 trucks, that means more than $6,000 in extra costs, which is too much to absorb in one year especially with the higher fuel and other costs. “It’s an astronomical increase for small and medium companies.”

R

ebecca Sumrow is one of the customers food and restaurant company executives have in mind when they consider raising prices to offset higher costs as meat and milk soar to record highs.

The 30-year-old from San Clemente, California, was out of work for a short time last year and saved money by moving in with her boyfriend and cutting back on clothes shopping and dining out.

Though she now has a good job working for an investment firm, she’s maintaining her frugal ways.

Consumers “have gotten really good over these last four years at stretching a penny,” said Pat Conroy, a consumer products expert with Deloitte LLP. “Our hypothesis was that this thing was going to leave a scar, not a bruise. So far, we’ve been right,” he said.

According to Deloitte’s annual survey of food shoppers, 94 per cent agreed they would remain cautious and keep spending at the same level even if the economy improves. That’s about the same percentage as it was in 2010 in the aftermath of the credit crisis.

Faced with little choice but to boost prices to cover the spike in costs for products like milk and meat, food companies and restaurants often are taking

extra care to justify or soften the increases.

Cold cuts and bacon

Kraft Foods has raised, or will soon increase, prices on about 45 per cent of the products in its portfolio, including cheese, cold cuts and bacon. McDonald’s eliminated its “dollar menu” last year to give it flexibility to raise prices to offset high costs for meat and other ingredients.

Chipotle Mexican Grill is one of the few companies expected to have the power to raise prices due to its popularity with higherincome diners. The burrito chain is increasing menu prices this quarter, but only after giving customers a benefit by removing almost all food ingredients made with genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. “You’re hearing that they want to, but the question always becomes: Can it stick?” said Prudential Financial market strategist Quincy Krosby. “What the consumer has been very good about is going on strike.”

That’s happening now in the dairy aisle. As U.S. milk prices go up, shoppers buy less, according to Dean Foods Co., the largest U.S. milk processor. Fluid milk industry volumes fell 2.1 per cent in the first quarter, according to Dean.

“There are certain price thresholds that we can’t cross, or it starts to impact the demand,” said Dean chief executive Gregg Tanner.

Vermont becomes first state to mandate GMO labelling Governor says people ‘have the right to know what’s in their food’

By Carey Gillam reuters

V

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ermont became the first U.S. state to mandate labelling of foods made with genetically modified organisms — a law expected to be challenged in court by some food and agriculture companies.

The law, set to take effect July 1, 2016, sets the stage for more than two dozen other states that are currently considering mandatory GMO labelling.

“Vermonters will have the right to know what’s in their food,” Governor Peter Shumlin told cheering supporters in a speech on the state House steps. “We are pro-information. Vermont gets it right with this bill.”

The Grocery Manufacturers Association said it would file suit in Federal Court to try to overturn the law.

Consumer groups and lawmakers supporting mandatory labelling say there are concerns about the safety and the environmental impacts of genetically engineered crops, and labels would help consumers easily distinguish products containing GMOs so they can avoid them if they wish.

The consumer sentiment has pushed a growing number of U.S. food companies to start using non-genetically modified

ingredients for their products because of the consumer backlash against GMOs. But the move away from GMOs has upset the food and agriculture industries, including the makers of genetically modified corn, soybeans, canola and other crops widely used in packaged foods. They say their products are proven safe, and that mandatory labels will imply they are unsafe, confuse consumers and increase costs.

“Scientific bodies and regulatory officials around the world recognize that foods made from genetically modified crops are as safe as their non-GM counterparts,” said Cathleen Enright, executive vice-president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). “GM crops have enabled farmers to produce more on less land with fewer pesticide applications, less water and reduced on-farm fuel use.”

BIO, a trade group whose members include Monsanto Co., Dow AgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical Co., and other biotech seed companies, said food costs for an average household would rise $400 per year due to mandatory labelling.

BIO and the GMA are backing a proposed federal law that would nullify Vermont’s labelling law and any other mandatory labelling of GMOs in the U.S.

21

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • MAY 26, 2014

HAY, HOW DO YOU DO?

Two horses come muzzle to muzzle while sharing their hay, in a pasture near Turner Valley, Alta.

PHOTO: WENDY DUDLEY

Scientists make ethanol without corn or other crops The process converts carbon monoxide gas into liquid ethanol using copper electrodes

BY WILL DUNHAM

WASHINGTON / REUTERS

S

cientists have developed a new way to make liquid ethanol efficiently without using corn or other crops needed in the conventional method for producing the biofuel.

The scientists said April 9 their process turns carbon monoxide gas into liquid ethanol with the help of an electrode made of a form of copper. They said the new technique may be more environmentally friendly and efficient than the current method.

Critics say that growing crops for biofuels is energy intensive and takes up vast tracts of nonagricultural land, using too much water and fertilizer. They also say diverting corn and sugar to make biofuels pushes up food prices.

The United States leads the world in ethanol production, with 13.3 billion gallons in 2013, followed by Brazil’s 6.3 billion gallons, according to the Wash-

PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

ington-based Renewable Fuels Association, which represents the U.S. ethanol industry.

A group of scientists led by Stanford University chemist Matthew Kanan described the new method in research published in the journal Nature. Kanan said a prototype device could be ready in two to three years, enabling an assess-

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ment on whether the process can become commercially viable.

“I emphasize that these are just laboratory experiments today.

We haven’t built a device,” Kanan said. “But it demonstrates the feasibility of using electricity that you could get from a renewable energy source to power fuel synthesis — in this case ethanol. There are

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some real advantages to doing that relative to using biomass to produce ethanol.”

Ethanol fuel generally is produced at high-temperature fermentation facilities that chemically transform corn, sugar cane and other plants into liquid fuel.

Kanan and his colleagues built an electrochemical cell — a device consisting of two electrodes that were put in water saturated with carbon monoxide gas. One of the electrodes was made of a material they call “oxide-derived copper.”

When voltage was applied across the electrodes, the carbon monoxide gas was converted into ethanol, they said.

The researchers hope to take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it to carbon monoxide, which then would be fed into the copper-oxide catalyst.

The researchers hope the catalytic cell would be powered by a renewable energy source such as solar or wind.

Chemist Aaron Appel of the Pacific Northwest National Lab-

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oratory, a U.S. Department of Energy government research lab, said that the work from Kanan’s group demonstrates “a remarkable improvement in selectivity and energy efficiency” for the production of ethanol from carbon monoxide.

Appel was not part of the study but wrote a commentary in Nature on the findings.

Advocates call ethanol a green energy source that, compared to gasoline, reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. Ethanol last year directly supported more than 86,000 U.S. jobs in fuel production and agriculture, the Renewable Fuels Association said.

Last November, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed cutting the amount of ethanol required to be mixed with the gasoline supply, responding to pressure from the petroleum industry. It marked the first planned cut to renewable fuel targets written into a 2007 U.S. law.

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NEWS » Markets

}asia grains

22

MAY 26, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Kazakhstan boosting grain export

China grain imports to fall

astana / reuters Kazakhstan — Central Asia’s largest grain producer — is on track to export nine million tonnes of grain by the end of the current marketing year on June 30.

Kazakhstan’s exports of grain by rail rose to 7.66 million tonnes between July 1 and May 10, from 6.07 million in the same period a year earlier. Sowing has started in the country’s main Grain Belt in the north and the area sown to grains is expected to be 15.9 million hectares. That’s unchanged from last year, though the area sown to wheat would shrink by 300,000 hectares.

beijing / reuters China will post another bumper grain harvest this year, after subsidies and other incentives encouraged farmers to expand acreage. That’s led to a lower estimate for imports amid a record level of stocks and moderate growth in consumption, said the China National Grain and Oils Information Centre. Combined wheat, corn and rice production is expected to hit 552.14 million tonnes — up 1.7 per cent from last year, while imports of the three grains are expected to fall by 34.3 per cent to 11.5 million tonnes, the centre said.

Demand may be behind improvements in July canola Old-crop stocks are large, but are they being delivered?

By Phil Franz-Warkentin

I

CE Futures Canada canola contracts saw some mixed activity during the week ended May 16, moving up in the nearby July contract and down in November as the old-crop/new-crop spread switched to an inverse.

While old- and new-crop Chicago soybeans have been running at an inverse for many months, the fundamental situation remains completely different for the Canadian market, making the recent activity in the futures a bit of an anomaly.

By all accounts, old-crop Canadian canola supplies are incredibly large, with three million tonnes likely being carried over into the 2014-15 marketing year. So why are the nearby futures suddenly above the new crop?

Spillover from soybeans is one easy explanation, but likely not the full story in this case. Rather, the latest strength is thought be derived from an increase in demand for canola itself.

Supplies may be large, but farmers are busy with things other than making deliveries these days. In addition,

logistics across the Prairies continue to show some improvement, allowing end-users to finally take advantage of canola prices that are still relatively cheap.

Concerns over seeding delays, particularly in Alberta, but also in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, are supportive for the bull spreading as well. Seeding delays raise concerns over new-crop production, which is always supportive, but they also imply that old-crop stocks will need to tide the commercial buyers over a little longer than normal.

In the U.S., much of the attention in the soybean and corn futures remains

on planting weather across the Midwest.

Seeding delays earlier in the spring had caused some concern, but conditions were finally starting to co-operate and producers made good progress in recent weeks. Soybean and corn futures were mostly lower during the week, and are expected to continue to take some direction from the seeding pace for the time being.

Wheat gets weather boost

All three U.S. wheat markets posted big losses during the week, dropping off their nearby highs as the dry southern Plains finally saw some rain and the cold

For three-times-daily market reports from Resource News International, visit “ICE Futures Canada updates” at www.albertafarmexpress.ca.

northern-tier states warmed up to allow for some spring wheat planting.

The U.S. winter wheat crop remains in dire straits, with only 30 per cent rated good to excellent in the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Spring wheat is still a blank slate, although seedings have been running behind normal in the northern-tier states.

Canadian spring wheat plantings are also running a little behind, but moisture conditions in the North American spring wheat-growing regions are said to be looking relatively favourable for the crops when they do go in the ground.

Canada’s winter wheat crop is much smaller than seen in the U.S., but what’s there is reported to be looking good as it emerges.

In addition to shifting weather conditions, grain and oilseed markets continue to keep an eye on the situation in Ukraine as well. The region is a major grain producer and the threat of disruptions to grain movement or production has the potential to move the markets.

Phil Franz-Warkentin writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

photo: file

23

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • MAY 26, 2014

‘Superbugs’ that can overpower antibiotics are spreading — WHO With antibiotic resistance rife across world, a WHO expert says ‘world is headed for post-antibiotic era’

By Kate Kelland london / reuters

T

he spread of deadly superbugs that evade even the most powerful antibiotics is no longer a prediction but is happening right now across the world, say UN officials.

Antibiotic resistance has the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country, the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report. It is now a major threat to public health and “the implications will be devastating.”

CFA joins coalition supporting plant breeders’ rights bill

“We have a big problem now, and all of the trends indicate the problem is going to get bigger,” said WHO official Keiji Fukuda.

Using data from 114 countries, the WHO said superbugs able to evade even the hardesthitting antibiotics — a class of drugs called carbapenems — have now been found in all regions of the world.

“The world is headed for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades can once again kill,” Fukuda said.

Drug resistance is driven by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics, which encourage bacteria to develop new ways of overcoming them.

For gonorrhea, a dangerous sexually transmitted disease that infects more than a million people across the world every day, antibiotic treatments are failing fast as superbug forms of the bacteria that causes it outpace them.

At least 10 countries — including Austria, Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Japan, Norway, South Africa, Slovenia and Sweden, now report hav-

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HIV and AIDS — and a similar number in Europe.

In some countries, because of resistance, carbapenems now do not work in more than half of people with common hospital-acquired infections caused by a bacteria called K. pneumoniae, such as pneumonia, blood infections, and infections in newborn babies and intensive-care patients.

Resistance to one of the most widely used antibiotics for urinary tract infections caused by E. coli — medicines called fluoroquinolones — is also very widespread.

INTRODUCING

Group says farmers’ ability to save seed not affected by legislation

he Canadian Federation of Agriculture has joined a coalition of farm and seed industry groups supporting controversial changes to plant breeders’ rights.

The CFA wasn’t included in the Partners in Innovation when the coalition was formed last year to support C-18 the Agriculture Growth Act. While it supported the breeders’ provisions, the country’s main farm group was seeking clarifications to other provisions in the legislation before endorsing it.

“The legislation strikes a good balance between giving developers the ability to see a return on their investment and research efforts while also preserving the right for farmers to save and condition seed for their own use,” CFA president Ron Bonnett said. “It’s a win-win situation and key to continued growth for the agriculture sector.”

The Partners coalition, which now has 17 member organizations, is locked in a noisy public debate with the National Farmers Union, several environmental groups and the United Church of Canada, which say the bill will make “it much more difficult (for farmers) to save and reuse seed forcing them to pay more for seed.”

ing patients with gonorrhea that is totally untreatable.

Only a handful of new antibiotics have been developed and brought to market in the past few decades, and it is a race against time to find more as bacterial infections increasingly evolve into “superbugs” resistant to even the most powerful lastresort medicines reserved for extreme cases.

One of the best-known superbugs, MRSA, is alone estimated to kill around 19,000 people every year in the United States — far more than

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MAY 26, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Community news and events from across the province

Whoa — don’t rush in when buying your first horse

what’s

up

First-time horse buyers can be tripped up in many ways, says trainer Roy Sturgeon

BY JENNIFER BLAIR AF STAFF / LACOMBE

R

oy Sturgeon goes on Kijiji four or five times a day to find his next horse. And with the lifetime of horsemanship under his belt, he can afford to be a little less picky than the average buyer.

“Most of the horses I buy, I buy thinking there’s some sort of hole in them that I’m going to have to fix,” said Sturgeon, a former jockey and owner of Flying Cross Ranch near Lacombe, where he keeps close to 40 horses.

For first-time horse buyers who lack his experience, fixing a problem horse isn’t an option.

“People make it an emotional, impulsive buy,” said Sturgeon, who has ridden “over a million horses” in his lifetime.

“They’ve got a 12-year-old daughter who watched “Heartland,” and they’re going to tame the wild stallion. It doesn’t work that way.”

A lot of people buy a young horse because “they’re going to grow together,” but that’s the wrong approach, said Sturgeon.

“Unless you have a trainer on staff — which most people don’t — you are in a lot of trouble,” he said. “You’re basically putting one idiot on top of another.”

First-time buyers often turn their noses up at an older horse, but in many cases, “they know more than the person that’s on them.”

“I don’t care if they have three or four months left in them. For some people, that’s the horse they need.”

Another problem is buying “too much

Roy Sturgeon

PHOTO: SUPPLIED

horse” because they like the breed or look of the animal.

“Every person in the world imagines themselves riding something, and that’s fine,” he said.

“But if you want to barrel race, you don’t have to have a quarter-horse. If you’ve got some fat old crossbred paint and you’re comfortable and safe on it, that’s more important.”

Not asking for a trial period to see how the

Reporter’s Notebook

Ag research isn’t always pretty — but it’s always pretty interesting

BY JENNIFER BLAIR AF STAFF / RED DEER

T

he first thing we were asked when we entered the barn at the University of Alberta’s Dairy Research Technology Centre was, “No pictures, please.”

But Harold Lehman, who manages the facility, had a good reason for it.

“Most people will see these pictures and not have any context about what’s going on,” he told the group of urban and rural media. “We’d rather people come here and learn for themselves.”

That’s understandable when you’re talking about dairy cows with holes in their sides.

Fistulas (as I learned the holes are called) are one of the uglier — but necessary — sides of livestock research, he said. Research-

ers surgically create them in order to measure feed efficiency and digestion.

Animals chosen for the procedure are usually high performers, and fistulated cows are both quite healthy (often living as long as their on-farm counterparts) and comfortable.

As Lehman walked us through the facility, introducing us to newborn calves who sucked at our gloved hands and showing us a high-tech feeding system, his care of and passion for his charges were clear.

“If you don’t love your cows, we don’t need you here,” he said at one point.

No, ag research may not always be pretty. But the commitment these researchers have to bettering their piece of the industry is pretty remarkable. jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

horse handles in different environments and situations is another common error.

“If you haven’t tried this horse enough, that horse may be really good for the first week, and all of a sudden, these horses don’t work.

Then you’ve bought a $500 to $15,000 lawn ornament.”

Horses are always at their best in their own environment, and are generally well exercised and well tended before the buyer comes to visit.

“A horse in a ring, you can do almost anything with it,” said Sturgeon. “But you get him outside… it’s a totally different horse.”

Some sellers even tranquilize a horse with bute (short for phenybutazone) or Atravet before a showing — a practice Sturgeon calls “chemical warfare.”

“Tell them you want to take a blood sample of this horse,” he said, adding that a seller who refuses is a red flag.

“In reality, the blood test is more money than you’re ever going to spend, but you’ll bluff most people.”

Finally, be wary of too low a price, said Sturgeon, who once spent $12,000 training a $600 horse.

He recommends one or two years of regular horseback-riding lessons to “work some things out” before committing to buying a horse.

“A lot of people have this romantic notion of loping majestically across the Prairies, and it takes a lot to get to that point,” he said. “At the end of the day, they’re a 1,200-pound animal that will hurt you if things go wrong.”

Send agriculture-related meeting and event announcements to: glenn.cheater@fbcpublishing.com May 29: Farming Smarter Crop Walk, Lethbridge. (Also June 5, 12 and 19.) Contact: Jamie 403-381-5118 May 31-June 2: 4-H Expo, 5521 - 49 Avenue, Lloydminster.

Contact: Corinne McGirr 306-825-5571 June 4-6: Rocky Mountain House Agricultural Society ag tour.

Visits to various operations in southern Alberta, including Bar U Ranch, Waldron Ranch, and honey wine operation. Contact: Case Korver 403-729-2185 June 5: Water Well Workshop, Flagstaff County, place t.b.a.

Contact Melissa 780-422-1791 June 6-8: All Breed Horse Show, Ag Society Grounds, Valleyview.

Contact: JoAnn Clarke 780-524-3473 June 14-15: English Horse Shows, Exhibition Park, Cold Lake. Contact: Tina 780-594-0667 June 21: Breakfast on the Dairy Farm, Van der Sluys Dairy, east of Olds. Contact: Arie VandenBroek 403-507-9129

jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

Jess Verstappen wins top 4-H honour

BY ALEXIS KIENLEN AF STAFF

J

ess Verstappen, a 17-year-old from High Prairie, is the 50th person to win the 4-H Premier’s Award, the highest honour that can be given to an Alberta 4-H member.

“4-H is a great organization to be involved in because of all the things you get out of it,” said Verstappen. “Not only is it a lot of fun, and you meet a lot of people, but you also learn a lot of different skills that help you out.”

Verstappen joined 4-H at age 13 after moving to Canada from Holland. She’s served as president, vice-president, and treasurer for the Coyote Acres branch in the East Peace district. She has completed beef, sheep and horse projects each year; has been active at the provincial level; and participated in the 4-H provincial sheep show and Summer Synergy in Olds. Verstappen helps her parents, Louise Liebenberg and Eric Verstappen, raise sheep, guardian dogs and a small group of cattle on their family farm, The Grazerie. Next year, she’ll be studying environmental sciences at Lakeland College.

“Jess is a wonderful example of the 4-H program and what involvement in 4-H does for our young people,” said Marguerite Stark, 4-H branch head with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. “It gives them confidence and great communication skills. It creates caring people who love to give back

Jess Verstappen receives the 4-H Premier’s Award from Rod Carylon of the Rural Development division of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. PHOTO: SUPPLIED to the community, and are great mentors for young people.”

Verstappen was also named one of 14 4-H Alberta ambassadors who exemplify leadership, communication, and personal development skills. The others are Paige Haupt (Medicine Hat), Stephen Tokariuk (Lethbridge), Quinci Jones (Olds), Joshua Manor (Calgary), Louise Erskine (Camrose), Amy Belec (Westerose), Aaryn Lynham (Stettler), Lowell Nelson (Morrin), Shea-Lyn Eddleston (McLaughlin), Amanda Palsitt (Two Hills), Lee Morey (Rochester), Lisa Reich (Tomahawk), and Lisa White (Beaverlodge). akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

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ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • MAY 26, 2014

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Published by Farm Business Communications, 1666 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1 WINNIPEG OFFICE Alberta Farmer Express 1666 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1 Toll-Free in Canada 1-800-665-1362 Phone 403-341-0442 in Winnipeg FAX 403-341-0615 Mailing Address: Box 9800, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 3K7 • •

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26

MAY 26, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

BUILDINGS

BUILDINGS

FARM MACHINERY Machinery Miscellaneous

HEAT & AIR CONDITIONING

1999 CAT 460 1,400 sep. hrs, rake up $69,000; Road King ground loadstock trailer, 8 x 42.5-ft, will haul 25 cows, $8,000; 2013 Highline 651 Bale Pro, chain floor, twine cutter, big tires, $15,000.

Call:(403)665-2341, Craigmyle, AB.

The Icynene Insulation System®

ACREAGE EQUIPMENT: CULTIVATORS, DISCS, Plows, Blades, Post pounders, Haying Equipment, Etc. (780)892-3092, Wabamun, Ab. QUONSET NEW, 35X52X18; JD 2420 DSL, 25-ft & 16-ft hay; JD 7410 FWA, w/loader; MF 860 p/u & 20-ft straight cut; Ford 5000 w/loader; Vac, sewer tank & pump; Rotex SR7 power parachute for parts; Chev tandem gravel box & hoist; C7 tree farmer skidder; Bison head squeeze (complete); 2004 Rumblebee shortbox; 24-ft dual axle cattle trailer gooseneck, like new. Cyclone PTO Fert spreader; Skid mount Cummins motor w/transmission; D343 CAT motor for parts; Bantam C366 w/471 Track hoe for parts; 21-ft Carter Hart PU/reel; MH 13-ft 26 run seed drill w/fert, like new; 1-tonne truck hoist; Ford 6-ft, 3-PT angle blade for 40-HP & bigger tractor; CAT IT 28G loader, 2.5-yd. (306)236-8023.

40’ X 60’ X 16’ RIGID FRAME STEEL BUILDING

$28,418 When you go with steel you get the right deals!

FARMING

Pioneer One Steel Buildings

IS ENOUGH OF

Call toll free 1 (877) 525-2004 or see us online at www.pioneeronesteel.com REAL ESTATE/RENTALS Land For Sale WANTED: ACCESS TO LAND in Central AB for gopher hunting purposes, willing to travel. Phone (780)542-0323.

A GAMBLE...

FARM MACHINERY Sprayers Fast Sprayer 963P, 3Pt Hitch

Advertise in the Alberta Farmer Express Classifieds, it’s a Sure Thing!

BUSINESS SERVICES BUSINESS SERVICES Crop Consulting

FARM CHEMICAL SEED COMPLAINTS We also specialize in: Crop Insurance appeals; Chemical drift; Residual herbicide; Custom operator issues; Equipment malfunction; Yield comparisons, Plus Private Investigations of any nature. With our assistance the majority of our clients have received compensation previously denied. Back-Track Investigations investigates, documents your loss and assists in settling your claim.

Licensed Agrologist on Staff.

For more information Please call 1-866-882-4779

FARM MACHINERY HAYING & HARVESTING Baling Equipment WANTED: JD 7810 c/w FEL & 3-PTH; sp or PTO bale wagon; JD or IHC end wheel drills. Small square baler. (403)394-4401

FARM MACHINERY Haying & Harvesting – Various 2007 LANDINI TRACTOR VISION 105, 540 & 1000 PTO, FWA, 105-HP, 2,360-hrs, loader, grapple, bale fork, 3 remotes, 3-PTH, asking $44,500.

Phone: (403)502-0995.

2008 NH 1475 HAY conditioner, 16-ft, 1000 PTO, asking $23,500, like new condition; 2008 JD 568 round baler, net wrap, wide pick-up, 1000 PTO, 4,550 bales run through, like new condition, Asking $35,000. Phone:(403)502-0995.

Combines COMBINES Combines - Various

100 Ft boom, Triple Nozzle Bodies at 20-in spraying, 450 Raven Controller. Always stored in shed. $20,000. Keith:(780)212-4855 kwguay@mcsnet.ca

1-800-665-1362

FARM MACHINERY Sprayers

FARM MACHINERY Sprayers

JD 9400, 9420, 9520, 8970 JD 9860, 9760, 9750, 9650, 9600 JD 9430, 9530, 9630 Case STX 375, 425, 430, 450, 480, 500, 530 CIH 8010-2388, 2188 combine CIH 435Q, 535Q, 450Q, 550Q, 600Q pto avail.

JD 4710, 4720, 4730, 4830, 4920, 4930 SP sprayers JD 9770 & 9870 w/CM & duals CIH 3185, 3230, 3330, 4430, 4420 sprayers

9280 12 speed with 80% rubber 4720 JD Sprayer w/ boom track autosteer, 4700 90 ft very clean 4955 JD low hrs, 3 pth, very clean S680 JD combine low hrs 936 Versatile

“LIKE MANY BEFORE, WE’LL HAVE YOU SAYING THERE’S NO DEAL LIKE A KEN DEAL” • Phone: (403)526-9644 • Cell: (403)504-4929 • Email: kendeal@shaw.ca FARM MACHINERY Tillage & Seeding – Tillage MORRIS B3-48 RODWEEDER, $650; Morris 519-ft csisel plow, single wing $950; CCIL circulra harrow, 3 ring 27-ft $350, 1 ring, 10-ft $200 Phone:(403)782-2545.

TracTors FARM MACHINERY Tractors – Various 1982 JD 3140, 148 loader bucket w/3-PTH, sale #514292-CD, 18.4x34 rubber, c/w $4,200 work order, $14,000. Phone (780)675-4784.

COMBINE WORLD located 20 min. E of Saskatoon, SK on Hwy. #16. 1 year warranty on all new, used, and rebuilt parts. Canada’s largest inventory of late model combines & swathers.

1-800-667-4515 www.combineworld.com

Combine ACCessories FARM MACHINERY Combine – Accessories RECONDITIONED COMBINE HEADERS. RIGID & flex, most makes & sizes; also header transports.

Ed Lorenz, (306)344-4811 or Website: www.straightcutheaders.com Paradise Hill, SK.

FARM MACHINERY Parts & Accessories

NEW WOBBLE BOXES for JD, IH, MacDon headers. Made in Europe, factory quality. Get it direct from Western Canada’s sole distributor starting at $1,095. 1-800-667-4515. www.combineworld.com

GOOD SELECTION OF JD & CASE SP SPRAYERS AND 4WD TRACTORS

Degelman 10 ft. Snow Pusher Blade JD 2950 complete with ldr. with 3 pth hitch JD 7200 FWA, 740 ldr. with 3 pth hitch JD 4240 complete with ldr.

JD 4020 c/w ldr. & new motor JD 2550, FWA CASE IH 485 ldr. with 3 pth hitch JD 7700, 740 ldr.

JD 7800, 740 ldr. with 3 pth hitch ST 250 Steiger, tires new 20.8 x 38 2012 CAT 272D Skidsteer, 800 Hrs Clamp on Duals, 20.8x38-18.4x38 158, 148, 265, 725, 740, 280, JD ldr.

FINANCE, TRADES WELCOME 780-696-3527, BRETON, AB

Big Tractor Parts, Inc. Geared For The Future

STEIGER TRACTOR SPECIALIST

RED OR GREEN 1. 10-25% savings on new replacement parts for your Steiger drive train.

2. We rebuild axles, transmissions and dropboxes with ONE YEAR WARRANTY. 3. 50% savings on used parts.

1-800-982-1769 www.bigtractorparts.com

• Sprayed foam insulation • Ideal for shops, barns or homes • Healthier, Quieter, More Energy Efficient®

www.penta.ca

1-800-587-4711

LIVESTOCK LIVESTOCK Cattle – Angus REG YEARLING RED & Black Angus bulls, various BWs, born Jan-Feb, quiet, semen tested & delivered, $2,500. Also Unregistered yearling Red Angus heifer bulls, born Apr, light BW, quiet & semen tested, $1,800. Darrell & Lorraine Davidson (780)888-1374 or (780)888-1087 Lougheed, AB.

LIVESTOCK Cattle – Red Angus

LIVESTOCK Cattle – Limousin WILLOWCREST LIMOUSIN. REASONABLY PRICED guaranteed yearling & 2-yr old Limousin bulls for sale. Quiet, polled, semen checked, delivery available, 27-yrs in the business.

Call Harvey (780)623-2468.

LIVESTOCK Cattle Various

BOW VALLEY TRADING LTD.

WE BUY DAMAGED GRAIN Wheat, Barley, Oats, Peas, etc.

Green or Heated Canola/Flax

1-877-641-2798

BUYING:

HEATED & GREEN CANOLA • Competitive Prices • Prompt Movement • Spring Thrashed “ON FARM PICK UP”

1-877-250-5252

CANOLA WANTED Buying Tough, Heated, Green, Canola, Freight Options, Prompt Payment Bonded and Insured

CALL 1-866-388-6284 www.milliganbiofuels.com TIRES

LIVESTOCK Horses For Sale HAVE SEVERAL H.B. QUARTER horses, young quarter horses that need to be broke or are broke to ride. Also 2 half Gypsy-Vanners.

Phone (306)435-3634, lv msg.

LIVESTOCK Livestock Services & Vet Supplies Horse & Bird feed Cleaned & bagged, black oil sunflowers, 36-lbs & 50-lbs bags. Great for bird & horse feed! One of the cheapest & healthiest feed sources! Delivery can be arranged. Cheaper than buying in store!

(204)324-3658 m_kehler@hotmail.com

ORGANIC

(403) 540-7691 ronsauer@shaw.ca

Bioriginal Food & Science Corp., based in Saskatoon, is actively buying Organic Flax from the 2013 crop year.

**NuVision (Spray Air) & Meridian-Sakundiak Augers, Outback GPS Systems, EK Auger Movers, Belt Tighteners, Bin Sweeps & Crop Dividers, Kohler, Robin Subaru, Generac Engines, Headsight Harvesting Solutions, Greentronics Sprayer Boom Auto Height, Kello-Bilt Discs**

BUYING SPRING THRASHED CANOLA & GRAIN “On Farm Pickup” Westcan Feed & Grain 1-877-250-5252

TOP QUALITY POLLED HEREFORDS & Red Angus Bulls for Sale. 2-yr olds & weanlings, Thick easy calvers. Cutbank Cattle Co. Mick Kubinec, Three Hills (403)442-2564

RON SAUER

846 Ford Versatile Designation 6, 4WD Tractor 1990, newer 18.4 x 38 dualled tires,12 speed manual, 4 hyds., 6036 hrs., looks & runs good .............................. $27,500 555 JD Crawler Loader, 250 hrs. on rebuilt engine, good condition ................................................... $17,500 8070 AC, awd, fwa, with duals ............................. $22,500 275 MF Tractor, diesel, multi power, 3 pth, new 18.4 x 30, front weights, looks and runs great ....................... $12,500 B 275 IHC Diesel Tractor, 3 pth, pto, runs good ......$3,500 51’ Degelman Landroller, only done 3,000 acres, as new.... .......................................................... $40,000 Degelman Dozer Frame MF 4000 Series 4WD .$1,000 31’ Flexicoil B Chisel Plow,3 bar harrows, extensions to 41’ incl., excellent condition ............. $12,500 Flexicoil 6 Run Seed Treater .............................. $1,000 134’ Flexicoil S68XL Sprayer, 2007, suspended boom, auto rate, joystick, rinse tank, triple quick jets, auto boom height, electric end nozzle & foam marker............. $39,500 100’ 65XL Flexicoil Sprayer, complete with windguards,elec. end nozzles single tips, auto rate, excellent condition .............................................. $12,500 30’ 8230 CIH PT Swather, PU reel, nice shape, . $10,000 25’ 8225 CIH PT Swather, PU reel, nice shape .... $9,500 25’ 1200 Hesston PT Swather, bat reel, good .... $5,500 10 Wheel MATR (Italy) Trailer Type V-Hayrake, hyd. fold, as new.................................................. $5,000 14 Wheel Enorossi V-Hayrake extra contour wheels, as new .............................................................. $11,500 8 x 1000 Sakundiak Auger, new 30 HP Koehler engine, Hawes mover, gear box clutch, spout ....... CNT $9,000 8 x 1200 Sakundiak Auger, 25 HP Koehler engine, Hawes mover, clutch, runs good ................................... $8,500 7 x 1200 Sakundiak Auger, 18 HP Koehler engine, looks and runs good, ......................................... CNT $3,500 8 x 1400 Sakundiak Auger, 25 HP Robin engine, Hawes mover, clutch, spout, excellent condition, ...........CNT $10,000 New E-Kay 7” Bin Sweep .............**In Stock** $1,785 New E-Kay 7”, 8”, 9” Bin Sweeps available.........Call 8” Wheat Heart Transfer Auger, hydraulic drive.. $1,500 New Holland Trimbal EZ Guide 500 Monitor ....$1,700 New Outback S3, guidance & mapping ....................$3,000 18.4 x 30, tractor tire & tube .....................................$500 New Outback MAX & STX guidance & mapping ...In Stock New Outback E-Drive, TC’s .................................In Stock New Outback E-Drive X, c/w free E turns ............In Stock New Outback S-Lite guidance ............ **In Stock** $900 New Outback VSI Swather Steering Kit...........In Stock New Outback E-Drive Hyd. kit, JD 40 series ........ $1,000 Used Outback E-Drive Hyd. kits..............................$500

BUYING HEATED/DAMAGED PEAS, FLAX & GRAIN “On Farm Pickup” Westcan Feed & Grain 1-877-250-5252

41 REGISTERED RED ANGUS BULLS Quiet, Easy Calving, Low to Moderate Birth Weights, Good Growth, E.P.D’s available Guaranteed Breeders (Vet Checked & Semen Tested). Excellent Bulls for Heifers or Cows.

Cleveley Cattle Company (780)689-2754.

ORGANIC Organic – Grains

MACHINERY LTD.

SEED/FEED/GRAIN Grain Wanted

New 30.5L-32 16 ply, $1,995; 20.8-38 12 ply $795; 24.5-32 14 ply, $1,495; 14.9-24 12 ply, $486; 16.9-28 12 ply $558; 23.1-30 12 ply, $1,495; 18.4-26 10 ply, $890; 11R22.5 16 ply, $299.

Factory direct. More sizes available new and used.

1-800-667-4515. www.combineworld.com

TRAILERS Trailers Miscellaneous 50 FLAT-DECK SEMI-TRAILERS, 7 heavy lowbeds, 8 gravel trailers, pictures, prices, www.trailerguy.ca Saskatoon/Aberdeen. Phone (306)222-2413 TANDEM GERRY’S BOOSTER, $7,900 OBO; 16 wheel Whillock jeep, $8,900; Bottom dump Super B grain trailer, $19,500; TA belly dump, $15,900; (403)704-3509.

If interested, please send an 8lb sample* to the following address: Attn: Sandy Jolicoeur Bioriginal Food & Science Corp.

102 Melville Street Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7J 0R1 *Please state the Variety & Quantity for Sale

For more information, please contact Sandy at:

306-975-9251 306-975-1166 purchasing@bioriginal.com

REAL ESTATE REAL ESTATE Land For Rent WANTED: ACCESS TO LAND in Central AB for gopher hunting purposes, willing to travel. Phone (780)542-0323.

TRAVEL

AGRICULTURAL TOURS NWT/Yukon/Alaska ~ July 2014 Midwest USA/Branson ~ Oct 2014 Panama Canal Cruise ~ Nov 2014 Dubai to Cape Town Cruise ~ Nov 2014 Australia/New Zealand ~ Jan 2015 Kenya/Tanzania ~ Feb 2015 South Africa/Zambia ~ Feb 2015 South America ~ Feb 2015 *Portion of tours may be Tax Deductible

Select Holidays 1-800-661-4326

www.selectholidays.com WATER TREATMENT

RECREATIONAL VEHICLES RECREATIONAL VEHICLES Campers & Trailers 2011 Alpine, 39-ft- 5th wheel trailer for sale: 4 slides, best sub-zero package in industry, sat dish, 7500w Cummins gen, king size bed: $54,900. With 2011 GMC 3/4 T Denali. 6.6 diesel eng., Allison trans, 56,000-km w/5th wheel hitch. Will sell as a unit: $105,000, OBO. Must see! Photos avail.

(403)357-9541 garybourne66@gmail.com

SEED / FEED / GRAIN

FARM MACHINERY Machinery Wanted

SEED/FEED MISCELLANEOUS Feed Grain

WANTED: NH BALE WAGONS & retrievers, any condition. Farm Equipment Finding Service, P.O. Box 1363, Polson, MT 59860. (406)883-2118

BUYING ALL TYPES OF feed grain. Also have market for light offgrade or heated, picked up on the farm. Eisses Grain Marketing 1-888-882-7803, Lacombe.

Hit our readers where it counts… in the classifieds.

Place your ad in the Alberta Farmer Express classifed section. 1-800-665-1362.

FEED GRAIN WANTED! ALSO buying; Light, tough, or offgrade grains. “On Farm Pickup” Westcan Feed & Grain 1-877-250-5252

LAKE AERATION EQUIPMENT OEM Medical Compressors $299.95 1/2" Polypipe $60.00/100 ft.

Lineal or Single Diffusers

FRESH WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS LTD PH 780-356-2928 www.fwtsltd.com fwtsltd@gmail.com

27

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • MAY 26, 2014

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 OVER 1,100 REPORTING STATIONS

More stations, more data, more forecast tools for farmers

A n extensive, live-updating network that gives you current and 7 day forecasted weather data for your farm or surrounding area  ANALYZE WEATHER

Weatherfarm gives you the tools to stay constantly informed about the weather on your farm – and in your region.

WeatherFarm is supplied by a growing dedicated network of more than 1,100 professionally maintained monitoring stations, most owned by farmers, with current conditions updated throughout the day.

WeatherFarm gives you a full set of accurate weather-monitoring tools that show you detailed forecasts, current conditions and historical comparisons.

Detailed local weather maps can show accumulated rain, maximum temperature and minimum temperature for a specific day, week or month.

WeatherFarm’s exclusive Analyze Weather function allows you to view a growing set of data points over a wider area to see where the most rain fell, where it’s the hottest and more.

WeatherFarm is dedicated to the Canadian farming community. Our focus is on growing and improving our weather services based on the feedback we get from our network of farmers who own stations... and from you.

For more information on WeatherFarm or purchasing a weather station please call:

1-855-999-8858 The fArMer’S foreCAST Toolbox

info@weatherfarm.ca

weatherfarm.com

FEATURE A nalyze weather feature allows you to compare temperature, wind speed, precipitation, humidity, pressure and dew point from nearby stations or across a region  RADAR & SATELLITE

View current radar & satellite images showing precipitation, rain accumulation and more  HISTORICAL DATA

A vailable to the public for five days, and for weather station owners, up to one year  MAPS

A vailable by province across Western Canada, showing recent and historical data on maximum temperature, minimum temperature and rainfall  PHOTO COMMUNITY

Submit your weather photos to be included in our Photo of the Week feature. Visit our website for details.

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MAY 26, 2014 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Bon Voyage, Sclerotinia!

For countless ages, sclerotinia “The Pirate of the Prairies” has ravaged the countryside, butchering canola yields and plundering grower profits. But now, thanks to Proline® fungicide, the hunter has now become the prey.

A single application of Proline can reduce sclerotinia infection rates by up to 80%.

Say goodbye to sclerotinia and enter for a chance to WIN* 1 of 3 - $5,000 travel vouchers.

For more information visit BayerCropScience.ca/EndOfPirates

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BayerCropScience.ca/Proline or 1 888-283-6847 or contact your Bayer CropScience representative.

Always read and follow label directions. Proline® is a registered trademark of the Bayer Group. Bayer CropScience is a member of CropLife Canada. *Contest will be subject to eligibility requirements. See online for contest details, contest ends June 27, 2014.

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