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Volume 41, Number 6 | MARCH 3, 2015

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PRACTICAL PRODUCTION TIPS FOR THE PRAIRIE FARMER

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Seed survival still stumps

By Lee Hart

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hat’s killing those canola seeds before a seedling can get out of the ground?

That could very well be a 64 million or perhaps billion dollar answer for Prairie farmers looking at seed priced at about $10 per pound and anywhere from a 20 to 50 per cent seed mortality rate.

But you can’t necessarily blame seed or equipment for the poor performance.

Even with good-quality seed and properly adjusted equipment used to seed the crop into almost ideal seed bed conditions, the results of crop emergence are all over the board, says Blaine Metzger, a researcher with Alberta’s AgTech Centre in Lethbridge.

The AgTech Centre has looked at the issue in the past couple of seasons, and hopes to continue the work to pinpoint what is affecting canola seed survival, says Metzger.

“The fact is there appear to be so many variables,” says Metzger. “We have used one type of opener on replicated plots to seed canola and in one plot the emergence was 80 per cent, and then used the same piece of equipment on another plot and the emergence was 50 per cent.” In fact, in their research they

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have used eight different openers all on the same air seeding system — from minimum to high disturbance openers — and found the same degree of variability.

“You can get losses due to seeding depth and seed placement, seed that didn’t germinate because it was mechanically damaged.

Fertilizer damage and seeding speed is an important factor, too” says Metzger. “But we found that losses due to any one of these factors in itself wasn’t enough to account for situations where there was 50 per cent seed mortality. It is frustrating, because just when you think you might have something, the next plot proves you wrong.

So we’re thinking if it is not the seed and equipment it has to be an environmental effect.”

Metzer says he had focused on canola because it has such variable seed survival. But large-seed crops such as cereals and pulse crops can also experience 20 to 30 per cent seed mortality.

Tracking seed placement and depth, and counting seedlings is a labour-intensive process. Metzger needs as many as eight technicians and summer students spending a lot of time on their knees to determine where the seeds are and whether they survived.

» continued on page 4

photo: courtesy of alberta agtech centre

Seed killer still at large. Several suspects behind high mortality, but no arrests

It’s a lot of tedious work to looking into seed survival by digging into a seed row after seeding to count seeds, measuring spacing between seeds and confirming seed depth.

In This Issue

Wheat & Chaff .................. 2 Features . ........................... 5 Crop Advisor’s Casebook . 8 Columns ............................ 16 Machinery & Shop............. 24 Cattleman’s Corner .......... 30

Stubble soil moisture map les henry page 16

Build a better workshop

FarmLife ............................ 33

scott garvey page 24

Cardale seeddepot.ca for free seed offer

Consistent Yields & Protein Less Sprouting* - Weathering Best Fusarium Performance Semi Dwarf Faster Harvest Speeds Easier Straw Management *Better Falling Numbers

Working Hard to Earn Your Trust

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/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Wheat & Chaff STAMPEDE

Diversification

BY JERRY PALEN

Leeann Minogue

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Write, Email or Fax SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES: Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (CST) 1-800-665-0502

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Ask for hearts

When you renew your subscription to Grainews, be sure to ask for six Please Be Careful, We Love You hearts. Then stick them onto equipment that you, your loved ones and your employees operate. That important message could save an arm, a leg or a life.

t’s getting really close to that time of year. One last round of farm policy/ag research/ farm management meetings, a little more time to change spring plans and then it will be time to get back outside and get things ready for seeding.

Some farmers prefer harvest — the relief of actually getting that crop safely into the bin and finally knowing how the growing year has turned out. But for other farmers, it’s all about seeding. Before you actually get that seed in the ground, anything could happen. This could be the year that every field is a winner, all of the weeds and diseases can be beaten and the prices are high come fall. Every spring is a chance to start again — this time with a lottery ticket that’s sure to be a winner.

I’m sure it’s this feeling that keeps us out here year after year. It’s like having one more chance to make New Year’s resolutions, but this time, actually keep them.

There are a million things that can go wrong once that seed gets into the field, but for this one glorious short time, there’s still the possibility that everything will go just right. For now, we’ve got a bumper crop ahead with perfect weather.

No bugs. Hail free. Enjoy it.

Seeking advice If you’re still finalizing your seeding plans, Lee Hart is willing to help. He’s interviewed several experts for advice about seed survival.

Typically, Lee Hart chooses a topic and then goes to a handful of farmers for their advice, and turns it into what we call the “Farmer Panel.” But in this issue, Lee has gone to the experts — researchers and agronomists who focus on seed survival — and created an “Expert Panel.” Lee has found experts from across the Prairies and gleaned a lot of good information.

In early February, I went to the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers regional workshop in Regina.

This year’s meeting was well attended, and all of the southeast Saskatchewan farmers in the room seemed very interested in the presentation on fababeans.

One of the big reasons for this interest in new crops became very clear when the talk turned to apanomyces.

Across the Prairies, disease is becoming more prevalent, and especially so in areas where it’s been wetter than usual. (I know that many Grainews readers have not had the wet weather we’ve been living with in the southeast.

See for yourself on Les Henry’s annual stubble moisture map on page 16). This wet weather hasn’t been great for everyone, but it has been great for apanomyces — a fungus that has been causing troubling yield losses in field peas and lentils. (We’ve got a story on aphanomyces by Melanie Epp on Page 9. She opens that story with exactly the news you don’t want to hear: There are no in-crop solutions to root rot in peas and lentils.)

Aphanomyces isn’t new, said Faye Dokken-Bouchard, Saskatchewan Agriculture’s provincial plant disease specialist, at the SPG workshop. “It’s just that we didn’t find it or didn’t have it in Saskatchewan until 2012.”

“The last few years, when we’ve had wetter conditions overall, have allowed the pathogen level to build to a level where we’re seeing symptoms in the field and we’re taking more notice of it.”

Aphanomyces are also known as water moulds. “As the name suggests, they like, or in fact they need to have water in order to survive and to complete their life cycle. In the absence of water, or in the absence of a susceptible host, they will survive in the soil,” Dokken-Bouchard said. Some research says they can survive for up to 20 years.

So, we’re going to be dealing with this one for a very long time. Bunyamin Tar’an, a plant breeder at Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre, told SPG delegates that the long-run solution to aphonomyces in peas and

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Find us on Twitter: Leeann Minogue is @grainmuse Lisa Guenther is @LtoG Lee Hart is @hartattacks Scott Garvey is @machineryeditor It’s almost time to get things tuned up and ready to go.

SOME FOOD FOR ROTATION THOUGHT OLD ROTATION

NEW ROTATION

1

Cereal

Cereal

2

Oilseed

Oilseed

3

Cereal

Cereal

4

Lentil or Pea

Lentil or Pea

1

Cereal

Cereal

2

Oilseed

Oilseed

3

Cereal

Cereal

4

Lentil or Pea

NOT Lentil or Pea

Source: presentation by Dr. Bunyamin Tar’an, Saskatchewan Pulse Growers regional workshop, Regina, Sask., February 2015.

lentils will be genetic — new varieties with inbred resistance. But in the short run? Your best defence is a long rotation. And this means a rotation even longer than you might be thinking.

Short rotations are not a good idea with wet weather, Tar’an said. “Under these conditions, you really have to modify the way you do rotations on your farm.”

Then he put up a slide that he’d labelled “Some food for rotation thought.”

On the left hand side of the chart (shown in the table), he put up a generally recommended fouryear rotation: cereal, oilseed, cereal, then lentil or pea. “This is the old rotation under normal conditions,” he said. Then he put up the right side of the table. Switching pea or lentil with something else in the second turn through the four-year cycle could work “to cut the cycle of the root rot disease.”

By Year 8 of the rotation, “go with something else, not lentil or pea,” Tar’an said. “Unless the forecast is true, and we get a drier year.”

“Chickpea is a not a host for this aphonmyces,” Tar’an said.

Fababeans are another option for farmers looking to bring a new crop into their rotation.

Tracking an eight-year rotation is going to require some interesting planning, and some detailed records. Welcome to the new normal. † Leeann

MARCH 3, 2015 grainews.ca /

Wheat & Chaff Farm safety

Be the difference as a medical professional

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ot only do farmers face the potential for injury on the farm, they are also at risk for illness. Farmers face illnesses related to livestock, grain and chemicals and this exposure doesn’t stop at the end of the workday — farmers also live in their workplace. It’s this exposure to the workplace 24 hours a day, seven days a week that can create specific health and safety concerns for farmers and their families. Medical professionals like doctors, nurse practitioners and mental health workers have a significant role to play in the health and safety of Canada’s farmers. These professionals are uniquely positioned to be farm health and safety champions.

Access to health care in rural areas can be limited. Oftentimes farmers and their families have to travel a great distance to access even primary care.

In many rural areas there is a chronic shortage of health care providers. These are a few of the barriers that farmers

and their families face when addressing health concerns. So what can health care professionals do to be farm health and safety champions?

Effective health care of farmers and their families includes a focus on personal health, wellbeing and illness prevention as well as treating illnesses and symptoms. Medical professionals are often perceived as authority figures with great knowledge. Information about health and safety means a great deal when coming from someone who is trusted and knowledgeable.

Understanding the unique health and safety issues of farm life is another means of keeping farm families healthy and safe. Livestock can cause illnesses like salmonella and influenza; overexposure to crop protection products can result in health issues ranging from cholinesterase suppression to headaches and diarrhea; grain handling can expose farmers to Hantavirus and respiratory impairments. Physical hazards are just one piece of the many

health and safety concerns that farm families can have. Other health and safety concerns can include risk-taking behaviours, mental-health issues, physical activity and the management of chronic diseases. Asking about these hazards and concerns at appointments can lead to discussion of prevention and management tactics or to a quicker and more accurate diagnosis of symptoms.

Speaking the same language as farmers and their families is also an important part of being a farm safety and health champion. For example, understanding what an auger or silo or chaff are can create a connection and provide an appreciation of the day-to-day lives of farm families. This also can give health care professionals an insight into the variety of hazards faced by farmers and their families.

Lastly, advocating for the health and safety of farm families within the health care field is one of the best ways health care professionals can be farm

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Glen Blahey, Canadian Agricultural Safety Association Canadian Agricultural Safety Association — www. casa-acsa.ca.

Weather Lore

Agronomy tips… from the field

2014 weather; 2015 agronomy

safety champions. Farm safety and health champions help keep those who grow our food healthy and safe and this, in turn, keeps our society healthy and food-secure.

CASW 2015 is presented by Farm Credit Canada and brought to you by the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture with assistance from the Government of Canada through Growing Forward 2, a federal, provincial and territorial initiative. In 2015, CASW sponsors include long-time corporate sponsor Farm Credit Canada, Imperial Oil and their Esso Branded Retailers, Ag for Life, Canadian Fertilizer Institute, Dupont Pioneer, Viterra and Brandt.

Canadian Agricultural Safety Week is March 15 to 21, 2015. For more information about how you can “Be the Difference”, please visit agsafetyweek.ca. †

You might be from the Prairies if...

By Carson Demmans and Jason Sylvestre

Groundhog history … If the groundhog is seen sunning himself on February 2, he will return to his winter quarters for six more weeks of winter.

hether it was a late start, an unusually wet growing season or possibly even September snow, there was a lot of weather in 2014 that most of us would rather forget. But let’s not do that too soon. Last year’s weather could have lingering consequences that extend into 2015’s cropping plans.

For one thing, the weather resulted in poorer crop quality across much of the Prairies. So for those anticipating using farm-saved seed in 2015, seed testing should be considered essential because of the increased risk of seed-borne infections. Armed with lab results, you can make an informed decision on whether farm-saved seed or certified seed fits your need. (In either case, a seed treatment should be a priority.)

If you go the farm-saved route, be sure to test your seed for germination and vigour, which could have taken a hit along with reduced seed quality. Knowing your seeds’ germination results, you can calculate seeding rates that will improve the density of your stand.

Of course, the risk of higher soil-borne diseases should also be a consideration after last year’s weather. Rotating crops is the best solution, but you might need to consider the use of fungicides too. †

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roundhog day, originally Candlemas Day, a feast day of the Church comes to us from Europe. It falls about one week after the coldest day of the year. Maybe that was why it came to be seen as a day of reckoning weather wise. At any rate, several sayings alluding to that day’s forecasting ability were created. Although they varied in wording they were in agreement on one point: A sunny Candlemas day was a sign of lots more winter. In fact it was said that on Candlemas Day, a shepherd would rather see a wolf enter his stable than the sun. †

If Candlemas be fair and clear, There’ll be two winters in the year.

This agronomy tip is brought to you by Rob Klewchuk, technical lead, western canada for Syngenta Canada Inc.

Your second car is a snowmobile.

Photo contest

GIVE US YOUR BEST SHOT This entry came from Barry and Noreen Schnuth of Cabri, Sask.

They said, “We have had horned owls nesting in our farmyard for a few years. We have evergreens and they like to nest in them.

We usually can find the nests, so we can watch the babies grow.

“This past year we kind of knew the area where the nest was, but we couldn’t see it. Then one night we saw the three baby owls trying to fly. In this picture, all three baby owls are in a willow tree here in the yard. We are now retired but still living on our farm.”

Thanks for sharing this beautiful photo! We’re mailing you a cheque for $25.

Send your best shot to leeann.minogue@fbcpublishing.com.

Please send only one or two photos at a time and include your name and address, the names of anyone in the photo, where the photo was taken and a bit about what was going on that day. A little write-up about your farm is welcome, too. Please ensure that images are of high resolution (1 MB is preferred), and if the image includes a person, we need to be able to see their face clearly.

Leeann

Shirley Byers’ book “Never Sell Your Hen on a Rainy Day” explores over 100 weather rhymes and sayings. It is available from McNally Robinson at: www.mcnallyrobinson.com.

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Cover Stories Seed and seeding » CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Closing in on seed survival While the AgTech Centre research has yet to crack the case of what is causing seed mortality, Centre engineers and technicians have made several observations about seeding through this project and others over the years.

Facts and mysteries about seeding Seeding is not as straightforward as farmers and the researchers at the AgTech Centre might like.

Consider these facts.

• Even with a canola seed batch with a germination test of 99 per cent, AgTech Centre researchers achieved only 50 per cent seed

survival and plants emerging in some seeded plots.

• Mechanical damage to seed, seeding too deep, seed that is off the seed row and didn’t make proper seed-to-soil contact and fertilizer damage are all factors that can affect seed germination and emergence. But overall, these appeared to only account for about five per cent of reduced emergence.

• Seeding speed can affect seed survival and germination. AgTech research has shown increasing travel speed from four to six miles per hour can reduce germination/ emergence by 10 to 15 per cent.

Slower is better.

• The new precision planters do a pretty good job, but they aren’t perfect in terms of seed placement. The AgTech Centre compared a precision seeding system on a conventional air drill to

a disc-type precision planter, also known as a vacuum planter, row crop planter or corn planter.

• Precision planters had as much as one-half inch variability in seeding depth, compared to an older-style rigid shank opener that had as much as much as one-inch variability in seeding depth.

• Precision planters also had their challenges with consistent seed spacing in the rows.

Depending on temperature and moisture at seeding the precision planters could develop static electricity, which would hold small seed crops such as canola in the mechanism and then drop a small clump of seed in the seed row. In some plots, researchers found more clumps of seed with the vacuum planters, than with conventional air seeding system.

Manufacturers are redesigning

planters to reduce the risk of static electricity.

• Looking at seed row spacing and seed bed utilization (SBU), the Centre has conducted research comparing eight-, 10- and 12-inch row spacing with a shank-type air seeding system with wide openers, to results from a seeding system with narrow disk type openers.

A five-year project showed the most consistent top yields were produced on eight-inch row spacing, with a shank-type system where seed was distributed over a four-inch spread in the seed row.

Metzger’s not recommending people abandon disc type seeding systems in favor of shank-type systems. While the wider openers had higher SBU, they were also more variable in seeding depth. † Lee Hart is a field editor for Grainews in Calgary, Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com.

1 6 6 6 D u b l i n Av e n u e , W i n n i p e g , MB R 3 H 0 H 1 w w w. g r a i n e w s . c a PUBLI SH ER

Lynda Tityk Associate Publisher/ Editorial director

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Edi tor

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Glacier farmmedia

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1. This is one of the hoe-type air seeding systems evaluated for seed placement

by Alberta’s AgTech Centre. Of the eight systems tested, researchers say equipment was not the issue affecting canola emergence rates. 2. Blaine Metzger, right, and technician Joel Hubert, use this portable fan to demonstrate the variability of product distribution through an air seeding manifold. 3. Field research shows precision planters like this vacuum planter do a good job of seed placement but are not perfect for depth control and seed spacing.

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Tundra

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Features Soil management

Back to tillage after wet years With extra rain, tillage is back in style in some areas. First, evaluate the risks of erosion and salinity. Then, consider dealing with compaction

By Lisa Guenther

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oggy springs and summers have made tillage fashionable again in some parts of the Prairies. Some see tillage as a means of drying saturated soils. Others hope to relieve compacted soils through some sort of vertical tillage.

But is tillage an effective solution to these problems? And do the potential benefits outweigh the risks?

Tilling to warm soils

seeding before soil is dry enough true vertical tillage implements. to support the equipment.

Faster soil movement has the poten“The challenge is not actually tial for higher erosion, she added. causing the compaction in the The University of Wisconsin’s first place,” said Riekman.

Discovery Farms looked at shallow Farmers should keep in mind vertical tillage on five Wisconsin that 80 per cent of compaction farms. Researchers concluded that happens on the first pass, Riekman “aggressively designed vertical tillsaid. She suggested making sure age implements will disturb more tractors aren’t over-ballasted. soil and surface residue” than Running tires at the rated pres- other designs. sure is also important. Riekman said Machines with aggressive when tires are at the rated pressure, blades and rear attachments and they don’t cause any more com- gangs angled at more than 180 paction than tracks. Often tires are degrees disturb soil and crop resiover-inflated for the field, she said. due more than other vertical tillAs for vertical tillage, Riekman age implements, the Wisconsin warns that many units are actually researchers noted. Conservative T:8.125” more like high-speed diskers than and shallow are key words when

using those implements in fields likely to suffer soil loss, the reports states.

Making two or more passes with vertical tillage implements can boost soil disturbance and reduce residue, similar to tandem disking, Wisconsin researchers noted.

Aggressively designed vertical tillage equipment will move soil laterally on the first pass, they added.

One shallow pass with non-concave coulters didn’t move much soil laterally.

Riekman said researchers haven’t found any fracturing below the coulter. As well, one of Riekman’s

» continued on page 6

T:10”

Farmers dealing with sopping wet soil might want try tilling, Dr. David Lobb told delegates at the Manitoba Agronomists conference in December 2014. Lobb is with the University of Manitoba’s Department of Soil Science.

“Crop residues shade the soil and keep it moist. You have a cool, moist environment which usually delays seeding,” said Lobb. Since tillage buries crop residue and exposes soil to air, it should help warm and dry it, Lobb explained.

But research into using tillage to manage wet soils hasn’t yielded conclusive benefits. Some studies have shown tilled soils tend to be slightly warmer and dryer than no-till soils, Lobb said. But differences are often insignificant and results are inconsistent, he added.

Farmers might see some small improvement by managing extra moisture through tillage, he said.

“But what’s going to override how wet your soil is isn’t the tillage system so much as the weather. If you have wet weather, you have wet soils.”

Tillage brings risks to the Prairie pothole region and the Red River Valley, Lobb said. For one, it accelerates soil erosion. Without residue cover, farmers will more likely see wind and water erosion. Tilled hilltops are more likely to erode.

And in the Red River Valley, “tillage is actually what fills in a lot of those surface drains, particularly at the field edges where you get a bit of damming,” said Lobb.

In wet years, water draws salt to the soil surface, causing salinity.

Tilling those areas can increase salinity, said Marla Riekman, land management specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. The salinity caused by tilling around wetlands can outweigh potential benefits such as drying, she added.

Lobb said tilling to eliminate ruts is a good way to keep fields operational. But tilling when soils are still wet will make the problem worse. Instead, he suggested targeted tillage when the soil is slightly frozen. “You can actually level out those ridges and ruts a little bit.”

Minnesota’s website notes. A little compaction can also cut water loss from the soil.

But in wet years, yields drop with any increase in compaction, the University of Minnesota notes, because it leads to more denitrification. In dry years, some soil compaction boosts yields. But too much soil compaction cuts yields in dry years, too, according to the university.

Tillage, raindrops and minimal crop rotation can all cause some form of compaction, the University of Minnesota notes.

But wheel traffic is the major cause, as machinery grows heavier and farmers are pressured to start

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But slightly compacted soils promote good contact between seed and soil, the University of

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/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Features Expert panel

Many hazards to seed survival Want to increase your seed survival rates? Find out what these experts say

By Lee Hart

L

ike most things in life, there is no simple answer to what causes seed not to germinate or the seedling to die before it gets out of the ground. Alberta’s AgTech Centre in Lethbridge has been looking at mechanical factors such as seed placement, seeding depth and seeding speed as likely suspects playing a role in reducing canola crop emergence rates by as much as 50 per cent. But, AgTech researchers also recognize there are plenty of environmental factors that fit into the equation too.

So the question was posed to crop production specialists across Western Canada: “What do you think is the biggest or couple of key factors affecting seed survival?” The answers were varied whether they were talking about small seed crops such as canola or flax, or large seed crops such as cereals and pulses.

Farmers can do their best to mitigate the risk of reduced crop emergence, but often Mother Nature holds the trump card. One important point from several of the specialists was to start with good quality seed and do your calculations to determine the weight of a 1,000 seed count, to at least insure you’re getting enough seeds in the ground to achieve a target plant count.

Doon Pauly Alberta Agriculture Agronomy Research Scientist Doon Pauly, agronomy research scientist with Alberta Agriculture in Lethbridge, says there are a wide range of factors affecting seed germination and seedling emergence.

Cereals and other large seeded crops are more forgiving when it comes to soil depth and seed placement. He would expect with a good quality seed batch with 95

per cent germination test, seeded into moisture, he should get 90 per cent emergence. “If you have reasonable moisture you can probably seed anywhere from threequarters to two inches deep and probably be fine,” says Pauly.

A small seed crop like canola is less forgiving. Again, he says if you can place the seed at onehalf to one inch deep and seed at three miles per hour, “you can probably have good confidence in that seeding depth.” If the seeding speed increases to five miles per hour there is bound to be more variability in seed placement.

Openers perform differently as well. With a knife-type opener for example, most seed will be in the seed row, but there might also be some seed spread off to the edge of the seed row and be outside the packer wheel. With poor seed-tosoil contact, or buried 1.5 inches deep it probably won’t germinate.

Just by the nature of the agriculture industry today, farmers aren’t

always able to seed under optimal conditions. They have 5,000 to 10,000 acres to seed and they have to get going. Seeding early may mean they seed into cold, damp soil which isn’t conducive to germination, but on the other end of the scale they know there is a yield penalty with some crops if they’re trying to seed after the middle of May or into early June.

Less than optimal seeding conditions is an important factor.

Soils can be too cold and damp, with pulse crops for example a slight crack in the seed can allow a pathogen to infect the seed, conditions can turn dry, and depending on soil type soils can crust over.

“Farmers don’t always have the luxury of waiting for ideal conditions, and as conditions change many also don’t have the luxury of choosing between two of three different types of seeding systems or openers to better match the conditions,” he says.

Pauly says if the crystal ball works

YOU WON’T FIND photos: file

Murray Hartman, Alberta Agriculture oilseed specialist, talks to farmers at a Lethbridge field day about proper practices for producing canola.

» CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

Using tillage in a wet year colleagues and a summer student used a penetrometer to see whether vertical tillage cut compaction in a field. Three weeks after the field had been tilled, they couldn’t find any signs that compaction had been decreased, she said.

Subsoilers also fall into the vertical tillage category, but they’re meant to dig deeper into the soil profile and fix deeper compaction issues.

“Will it help? Maybe. But the end game is we’re trying to gain yield here,” said Riekman.

Farm trials in Iowa found subsoilers had a 50 per cent chance of bumping yield high enough to offset costs, she said. Subsoiling is very expensive, Riekman noted, partly because it takes a lot of fuel to run the implements up and down the field. Rather than working the whole field, farmers should focus on headlands and other areas that are more compacted, she suggested.

The University of Minnesota’s extension website also noted that although subsoilers can break hard pans, subsoiling doesn’t boost yield consistently or for long periods of time. Irrigated loamy soil is one possible exception, the university noted.

There may be several reasons for the lack of yield gain, such as recompaction, insufficient depth of subsoiling, high soil moisture levels while subsoiling, or worsening of soil properties because of subsoiling, the university’s website states.

Subsoiling can help by shattering a hard pan, Riekman told delegates.

But farmers shouldn’t go more than an inch below the hardpan, she added. Going too deep might create more compaction, she said.

The University of Minnesota suggests the following steps for successful subsoiling: 1. Make sure there’s actually a compaction problem. Do visual crop symptoms match wheel traffic? Is there standing water in wheel traffic patterns?

2. Make sure subsoiling will loosen up the compacted layer.

3. Soil should be dry and fracture to the shank’s depth during subsoiling.

4. Use controlled traffic to avoid more soil compaction.

The University of Minnesota has soil compaction information online at www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/tillage/soil-compaction/.

U n i v e r s i t y o f Wi s c o n s i n ’s Discovery Farms research is available online at http://www.uwdiscoveryfarms.org/, under “Our Research,” “Cropping Systems and Soil Conservation.” † Lisa Guenther is field editor for Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Contact her at Lisa.Guenther@ fbcpublishing.com or on Twitter @LtoG.

at all, he expects that as the cost of seed increases the industry will focus more on refining and improving seeding equipment to improve seeding accuracy. “Many producers are out there today with massive machines that are 60 and 80 feet wide, with carts carrying tonnes of product so it is pretty hard to call that a precision instrument,” he says. “Some of the machinery researchers working with these large air seeding systems described it as a ‘controlled spill.’ But as seeding costs increase manufacturers and producers will pay more attention to the seeding operation itself.”

Murray Hartman Alberta Agriculture Canola Specialist Murray Hartman, Alberta Agriculture canola specialist points to some older, yet comprehensive research affecting canola emergence and after a wide range of factors and conditions were

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MARCH 3, 2015 grainews.ca /

7

Features

Jeremy Hummel, with the University of Lethbridge, says cool soils can give disease and insects more opportunity to infect seeds. analyzed the number one deal breaker turned out to be moisture (or lack of it).

“This research considered all types of factors from soil type, to soil texture, to weather, to seeding dates, soil temperature, different types of seeding systems and types of seed. And after looking at all that, the No. 1 overwhelming factor affecting emergence came down to moisture,” says Hartman.

“And it isn’t necessarily the moisture you have just before or right at seeding, but more importantly what happens 10 days to two weeks after seeding.”

He says farmers can seed into dry conditions, but if they get moisture in the next 10 days the crop should be fine. Conversely they may seed into cool, wet soil, but then if the weather turns warm immediately after, the crop should

also do well. “So it isn’t necessarily about what conditions are like on the day of seeding, but what happens in the next 10 days after seeding that will impact the success of the crop,” he says. “That’s the real driver.”

While ideally canola should be a shallow-seeded crop, farmers have to weigh the situation, he says. If it is late spring, the soil is dry yet warm, seeding two inches deep to

reach moisture, is probably a better option than seeding one-half inch deep into dry soil.

“With moisture the big factor, farmers don’t have a lot of control,” he says. “And there are a lot of ifs and buts to be considered.

If it is early May and conditions are a bit dry chances are you can expect rain in the next week or so, so the best option might be to seed shallow. If you are seeding in late May, it might be best to seed a bit deeper to find the moisture.”

Hartman says regardless of how farmers are seeding, the real measure is how many plants are coming out of the ground. His cut-off minimum is four plants per square foot and ideally farmers should target eight to 10 plants.

“Farmers ask me what they are doing wrong because they aren’t getting the emergence or crop stand they expected,” says Hartman. “And I tell them if they are getting six, seven or eight plants per square foot they are doing okay. Regardless of whether they are seeding three or eight pounds of seed per acre, if they are getting six to eight plants that will certainly produce a good crop.”

He says specialists have revised their thinking from the original canola production manual which called for 17 to 18 plants per square foot. That’s too high for canola varieties of 2015. “If farmers are getting 15 plants per square foot today, perhaps they need to cut back on their seeding rate,” he says. “But, what is more common is producers seeding four pounds per acre and getting three plants per square foot. That will produce a crop, but my advice is to increase the seeding rate so there is a minimum of four plants per square foot and preferably more in the seven, eight, to 10 plants per square foot range.”

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Anastasia Kubinec, oilseed crop specialist with Manitoba Agriculture considers soil temperature and soil moisture as the two factors most affecting canola stand establishment.

“You are going to get a higher percentage of seeds germinating if you have a warmer soil temperature,” she says. “And along with that you need proper soil moisture. There is a sweet spot there that is sometimes hard to find or doesn’t last very long, but ideally you don’t want the soil too dry or too wet.”

The longer seeds sit in cold soil the more susceptible they are to disease and insects, says Kubinec.

In cool soils, seeds can germinate, but if they are slow growing the seed treatment wears off and disease or insects can kill the seedling. And she has seen years when seeds germinate but then conditions turn dry and the seedling just dies.

Seeding rate wise, she says her advice changes depending on the point of the seeding season. If it is early in the season, with cool damp, less than ideal conditions she would advise farmers to increase the seeding rate. Whereas

later in the season — mid May and beyond — if soil conditions are warm perhaps they can cut back a bit and still achieve that optimal crop stand.

John Heard Manitoba Agriculture Crop nutrition specialist John Heard, crop fertility specialist with Manitoba Agriculture says obviously, if farmers can wait for warm soil conditions they will probably have the best chance of good stand establishment, but in real life that isn’t always possible.

In his area of expertise, he says, fertilizer placement is always a balancing act. Farmers need to place fertilizer as close to the seed as possible without causing seed or seedling damage.

“Some crops are more sensitive than others,” says Heard. “But generally if you have good moisture conditions in the seed bed the crop is better able to tolerate fertilizer than if you have drier conditions.”

He says as a general rule, with seed placed fertilizer — nitrogen in particular — a crop will recover from 15 per cent loss in the stand due to fertilizer damage. “It can handle that loss, cereals will tiller more, and canola plants will expand their plants and crops will still maintain yield,” he says.

“But again it depends on soil moisture. If it is too dry losses will be higher.”

Jeremy Hummel University of Lethbgridge Plant and soil sciences Jeremy Hummel, a researcher and instructor in plant and soil sciences at the University of Lethbridge says seeding under less than optimal conditions might give crop pests the advantage.

Hummel, who has a specialty in insects and diseases, says seeding early into cool soils will increase the risk of seeds and seedlings being exposed to root rot and damping off type pathogens.

“It will depend on the crop and type of seed, but even if the seed is well placed in the soil under cooler conditions it will be more susceptible to pathogens,” says Hummel.

“The longer it sits there the higher the risk of being infected with soil borne diseases — root rots are the big one — and insect pests can also be an issue.”

Seed treatments will help to reduce losses, “but I hesitate to call it a guarantee”, says Hummel.

“Peas and other large pulses are particularly susceptible to disease under cool temperatures. If the seedling doesn’t break the soil surface and start growing, the seed treatment may not be enough to prevent mortality.”

With soil temperature being a big factor, he says it becomes a balancing act for farmers to get the crop seeded within a limited time frame and still have optimal conditions. Early seeding allows the crop to use soil moisture, often puts the crop out of sync with pests that may come along later in the year, and helps avoid the risk of a killing frost in the fall. Those benefits have to be balanced against the risk of having a slow emerging crop affected by soil borne disease or insect losses. † Lee Hart is a field editor for Grainews in Calgary, Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com.

8

/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Features Crop Advisor’s casebook

The mystery of sickly durum wheat

By Ashley Kelly

I

n late July, I got an anxious phone call from Terry, who grows 3,500 acres of durum wheat, canola, flax and peas at his farm about 100 kilometres south of Regina, Sask.

Terry was worried about the sorry state of his durum crop — the plants were looking extremely unhealthy and he feared nothing could be done at this late stage to bring the crop back.

I assured Terry I’d come out right away to have a look. When I arrived at one of the affected fields, I could see right away the durum was in pretty poor shape, with a large number of small, sickly looking plants scattered throughout a thin crop stand.

Terry was at a loss to explain what was going on with his durum crop, but suggested extreme environmental stress as one possibility. “It’s been such a wet year,” he said. “I wonder if that has anything to do with it?”

Walking into a durum field, I noted the symptoms were most noticeable as the crop started to head out through to the soft dough stage of the plant. The affected plants were all stunted, with small heads (some of which were black and sooty), brownish stained lower stems and bottom leaves that had turned completely yellow. I was able to pull plants out of the ground very easily and I observed there was virtually no root mass.

Terry said the same symptoms were occurring in all his durum fields, even though other

The affected plants were all stunted, with small heads, brownish stained lower stems and yellow bottom leaves. There was virtually no root mass. durum crops in the immediate area that were at the same stage looked completely healthy, with vigorous growth and optimal plant stands.

I questioned Terry about his fertility program, and also asked about his crop protection measures since I had detected a large amount of tan spot on some of the affected plants. However, I knew there had to be much more to the problem than just leaf disease.

If you think you know what’s behind Terry’s sickly durum

plants, send your diagnosis to Grainews, Box 9800, Winnipeg, Man. R3C 3K7; email leeann. minogue@fbcpublishing.com or fax 204-944-5416 c/o Crop Advisor’s Casebook. The best suggestions will be pooled and one winner will be drawn for a chance to win a Grainews cap and a oneyear subscription to the magazine. The answer, along with the reasoning that solved the mystery, will appear in the next Crop Advisor’s Solution File. † Ashley Kelly is a sales agronomist with Richardson Pioneer Ltd. at Corinne, Sask.

Casebook winner

T Ashley Kelly is a sales agronomist with Richardson Pioneer Ltd. at Corinne, Sask.

he Casebook winner for this issue is Glen Schott. Thanks for reading, Glen, and thanks for entering!

We’re renewing your Grainews subscription for a year and sending you a Grainews cap. †

Leeann Minogue

Crop advisor’s solution

Pesticide drift causes drooping canola flowers

By Dustin Miller

J

oe, a mixed grains farmer near Spring Coulee, Alta., called me in July and asked me to come out to look at his canola fields. The crop wasn’t doing very well in some areas of his fields and he wanted my help to figure out what was wrong.

When I arrived at Joe’s farm, I was taken out to one of the canola fields where some plants looked stunted and were dropping flowers. It was happening in the lowest part of the field and followed a draw that also went through an adjoining wheat field, where the crop was fine. The draw continued from the wheat field onto a

Tundra

second canola field, which had plants exhibiting similar symptoms in the low areas as well.

Joe wondered if poor seed was to blame, but the damaged canola crop didn’t follow a pattern suggesting this was the case. Similarly, there were no straightline patterns indicating a problem with chemicals in the tank when the canola fields were sprayed with Roundup the previous month.

The indications were that this was in part a Mother Nature problem. When Joe told me that a wheat field just to the north of the first canola field had been sprayed with a broadleaf pesticide in June and described the weather conditions that day,

it confirmed my suspicions about what was causing the canola damage.

On the day of that spray application, it had been on the cool side and there was no hint of wind. Joe told me the worker who applied the pesticide reported that it had stayed suspended in the dead calm air rather than settling to the ground, indicating a temperature inversion was occurring. From the damage pattern, it was pretty obvious that the suspended chemical had eventually drifted southwards, following the draw that ran though the adjoining canola and wheat fields.

It was this pesticide drift that had damaged plants in the lowest areas of the

Tundra

canola fields but had left the wheat crop unharmed. Unfortunately for Joe, there was nothing to be done to salvage the damaged crop, and he ended up with a zero yield for the affected areas of his canola fields.

To prevent problems like this on their farms, growers should always be keenly attuned to the weather and avoid spraying crops when the temperature conditions are ripe for an inversion. Similarly, farmers should keep a close eye on the wind to make sure the chemicals they are applying are going precisely where they should be. † Dustin Miller is a sales agronomist with Richardson Pioneer Ltd. at Magrath, Alta.

MARCH 3, 2015 grainews.ca /

9

Features Crop management

Weed management in soybeans With high seed prices, farmers will be tempted to lower soybean seeding rates

By Michael Flood

S

oybean farmers have been facing a growing threat to their bottom line: rising seed costs. Seeds for the very popular glyphosate resistant cultivars have increased in price by $47.75 an hectare (or 230 per cent) since they were first introduced in 1996. This trend is likely to continue given soon-to-be-introduced varieties with new herbicide resistant traits as well as increased soybean planting across the world.

The rising costs have, so far, been more than compensated for by soaring prices for soybeans in the past few years but that trend will not continue forever; eventually farmers will begin to feel the pinch and will increasingly want to find ways to boost yields while reducing their use of the glyphosate resistant seeds.

Lower seeding rates A natural solution is to reduce seeding rates. Evidence from many recent studies shows this can be done without significantly reducing yields. For instance, soybeans have been shown to produce 20 per cent more branches per plant at lower seeding rates (under 250,000 seeds per hectare) than at higher rates (near 450,000 seeds per hectare). Simply put, each plant is able to develop more fully when it has more space in which to grow and faces less competition from its neighbours. That means a higher overall soybean yield.

Unfortunately that lower plant density can make the plants more vulnerable to weeds. Common Canadian Prairie weeds grow more aggressively and compete more ferociously for water and nutrients than soybeans. The main way soybeans compete is to form a thick canopy, which starves the competing weeds of the sunlight they need to drive their metabolism. Less dense planting means a less dense canopy, and a less dense canopy means a more welcoming environment for weeds.

This in turn reduces soybean yields and cuts into the profits farmers would have enjoyed through savings on seed.

Dense soybeans canopies are a part of integrated weed management (IWM), an increasingly important practice as common weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to growing season applied glyphosate.

This would seem to leave soybean farmers at an impasse.

Pre-season herbicides Recent research by scientists at the University of Wisconsin shows a way to a relatively low cost solution, a way to seed less densely without worrying about weeds reducing your yield. The study is titled, “Can Soybean Seeding Rate Be Used As An Integrated Component Of Herbicide Resistance Management”, and was published in the OctoberDecember 2014 issue of Weed Science. In the article, these scientists, led by Ryan DeWerff, studied the effects of combining pre-season residual herbicides with lower seeding densities.

The researchers found that early season weeds are a substantial competitor with soybeans. These can

take away vital water from the vulnerable growing plants, as well as reduce the availability of soil nutrients. If these weeds are also resistant to glyphosate (very possible in fields where glyphosate is regularly applied) and other common weed killers then they will become strongly established and significantly reduce yields later in the season. Denser soybean plantings were not very effective at suppressing these weeds.

In contrast, pre-growth herbicide treatments with metolachlor and fomesafen (sold under the brand name Prefix from Syngenta) were very effective at suppressing early season weeds and allowed the soybeans to enjoy the greater potential to develop in a less dense canopy.

Fewer weeds in these plots also lowered the number of plants that could become resistant to herbicides, an important factor for farmers looking to achieve integrated weed management in their fields.

The scientists concluded that pre-season residual herbicides use produced maximum yields with fewer plants per hectare than late season applications. This is good news for soybean growers wondering how to control weeds this season while economizing on seeds. Though the research was done in Wisconsin, results should apply to soybean farmers everywhere. † Michael Flood (www.michael-flood.com) is a business writer and columnist. You can reach him at michael@michael-flood.com.

photo: leeann minogue

Dense soybeans canopies are a part of integrated weed management.

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/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Features Crop disease

Minimizing the impact of Aphanomyces There are no in-crop solutions to root rot in peas and lentils. But there are ways to minimize your risk of losing yield to Aphanomyces

By Melanie Epp

Identification

No in-crop soluation

Post-harvest, pre-planting

iven the wet springs and dry summers we’ve seen in recent years, Aphanomyces euteiches — Aphanomyces root rot — has become a real problem for pea and lentil growers.

First confirmed in Saskatchewan in 2012 and then in Alberta in 2013, the disease has been slowly creeping across the country, destroying crops in its wake. Making matters worse, the disease has the ability to live in the soil for up to 12 years where it continues to build up until environmental conditions are just right. Growers with Aphanomyces in their fields will want to take steps to1/22/15 miniSEC_KIND14_T_GN.qxd mize its impact.

The first step in managing any disease is identifying it, says Dr. Syama Chatterton, pulse crops pathologist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

“Unfortunately, symptoms of the two types of root rots are very difficult to distinguish,” she says. Not only will fields that have experienced flooding or high levels of water saturation show symptoms that look like root rot, but they also Aphanomyces root rot also exhibits similar symptoms as Fusarium spp.

“If a grower suspects root rot in a field the best action is to send samples to a testing lab for confirmation of whether or not Aphanomyces euteiches is the causal agent,” says Chatterton. SeedtestingPMlabsPage in Saskatchewan and 1:25 1 Alberta, she says, offer this service.

Once root rot has been diagnosed there is unfortunately no in-crop solution. There are no fungicides that can help manage root rots, says Chatterton.

“Foliar-applied fungicides will not penetrate the soil surface to reach the roots and thus do not have activity in the roots,” she explains.

“Seed treatments have efficacy in reducing early season root rots caused by Fusarium spp., Rhizoctonia solani and Pythium spp., preventing seed-borne diseases. However, there are no seed treatment products registered for Aphanomyces root rot, and active ingredients found in registered seed treatments are not effective against Aphanomyces.

Without in-crop solutions, the only action growers can take is post-harvest or pre-planting.

“Once it is confirmed that you have Aphanomyces root rot, decisions need to be made prior to planting your next pulse crop in that field,” she says, explaining that a field that is found positive for Aphanomyces will require a longer rotation of up to six years.

Beth Markert, seed growth specialist with Bayer CropScience, agrees. “A four-year crop rotation will no longer suffice,” she says.

Markert offers a number of other techniques that could help manage the disease. First, she says, clean all equipment before moving on to the next field. Opt for a healthy, high-germinating seed, good fertility and a heavy seeding rate in order to establish the crop early on.

“Although no seed treatment on the market can prevent Aphanomyces root rot, it is still recommended to use a seed treatment to prevent any other diseases coming in, as Aphanomyces root rot opens the plant tissue up for diseases such as Fusarium and Rhizoctonia to follow in it,” says Markert.

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Although Aphanomyces root rot affects the entire legume family, peas have a different strain from lentils and chickpeas, so growers can switch from one crop to another. Finally, says Markert, avoid stressing the crop. ‘If you don’t need to spray, then don’t,” she says.

“Fusarium and Aphanomyces like low pH fields. You could raise the pH in your field by putting a lime precipitate down for multiple years to break the disease cycle.”

“If you need to plant peas, then choose a field with good drainage and sandy soils so the water does not sit in your field too long, as Aphanomyces is a water mould,” Markert concludes.

Since Aphanomyces is relatively new to the Prairies, there have been almost no field trials focusing on potential management options that fit with the growing practices of the region.

Chatterton and her team at AAFC have planned field trials to test the ability of soil amendments and seed treatments to reduce root rot severity for 2015 and 2016. † Melanie Epp is a freelance farm writer based in Guelph, Ont.

All those pathogens

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phanomyces is just one type of the many pathogens that may be present in your fields. Saskatchewan Agriculture’s provincial plant disease specialist, Faye Dokken-Bouchard, spoke to delegates about pathogens at the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers regional workshop in Regina in February.

“You might have all of the pathogens present, but maybe one is going to cause a bit more of a problem in a given year because of the conditions.”

Dokken-Bouchard presented a table showing the conditions favoured by some of the more common pathogens.

“They all like to have moisture, but there is a little bit of difference in how much they really need,” she said, or when they will really thrive.

“All of these pathogens could cause disease outside of the optimum, but under those optimum conditions they’ll be able to cause more damage and reproduce more and build up more in the soil for future years.” †

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MARCH 3, 2015 grainews.ca /

11

Features Crop nutrition

Copper applications have limited impact Researchers say non-targeted copper application does not increase micronutrients

By Julienne Isaacs

T

he importance of micronutrients, including boron (B), chloride (Cl), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), zinc (Zn) and nickel (Ni), has come under the microscope in recent years. Some researchers say a lack of micronutrients can cause yield loss.

According to Tee Boon Goh, a specialist in soil chemistry and mineralogy at the University of Manitoba, and Rigas Karamanos, a senior agronomist with Koch Fertilizer Canada, ULC, copper is an essential element for wheat growth. Goh and Karamanos are the co-authors of a pamphlet entitled “Does addition of copper increase the macronutrient content of wheat?” recently presented to the Manitoba Agronomists’ Conference at the University of Manitoba in December, 2014.

Goh and Karamanos identify copper as essential to wheat because it is involved in a number of plant functions, such as electron transfers, chlorophyll production, protein synthesis and respiration.

Copper deficiency can have severe impacts on wheat yields.

“Copper deficiency in wheat produces characteristic symptoms of yellowing and curling of young leaves, pigtailing of leaf tips, limpness or wilting, delay in heading, aborted heads and spikelets, head and stem bending, as well as stem melanosis disease in certain wheat cultivars,” says Goh.

to the addition of copper to the soil’s macronutrient content.

“Claims that application of copper (either foliar or soil applied) increase nutrient content and in particular protein content are unfounded,” Goh and Karamanos concluded in their report.

“Micronutrients are essential elements; however, unless there is a deficiency in any given micronutrient, they contribute little to improving nutrients that are required in higher quantities, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur,” says Karamanos. “As a matter of fact, when soils are deficient in copper, correction of the deficiency resulted in a decrease in macronutrient concentration and protein content, as a result of a simple dilution effect.”

This is not to say that the targeted application of copper is not important in deficient soils.

Goh says that a large body of research in Western Canada clearly shows that targeted application of micronutrients, including chloride, copper, zinc and manganese, based on valid soil test criteria, contributes to significant yield increases.

The key word is “targeted”: nontargeted applications of copper in wheat results in no benefit to the crop. Untargeted copper applications, says Goh, “are a waste of money on expensive material.”

protein content in wheat is based on crops achieving “better health.” But they say “plant health” is a contested notion with many definitions.

“Although there are numerous studies on the general health definitions and health criteria in human medicine, plant health is not a well-defined and often misused term,” says Goh. For consumers, Goh says, plant health may refer to crops free of pesticides and other chemicals with high nutritional value, whereas for regulators, it means crops free of heavy metals and toxins, for example.

Plant health “For the producer, ‘plant health’ According to Goh and means crops achieving their full Karamanos, the claim that cop- genetic potential, but even this T:8.125” varies depending on the type per can be applied to increase

of crops. Plant health measures a wide spectrum of perceptions about the ‘fitness’ of a plant for varying objectives of groups of people and the debate is still on,” he says.

“This work addressed the impact of copper on other macronutrients from a plant nutrition perspective and in particular its effect on the nitrogen content, which is the main component of protein for which farmers are compensated,” says Karamanos of the study. “Any extrapolation to a loosely defined ‘plant health’ would be non-scientific at this point and only lead to confusion.” † Julienne Isaacs is a Winnipeg-based freelance writer and editor. Contact her at julienne.isaacs@gmail.com.

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A waste of money on expensive material T:10”

The researchers tested the hypothesis that copper can be applied in an effort to increase macronutrient uptake, and in particular nitrogen uptake, and subsequently high protein in the wheat seed. They took into account 47 experiments that had been conducted on a total of 2,648 separate plots, and examined the impact of copper on protein levels (where measured), or the macronutrient tissue content in each of these 47 previously conducted experiments.

Wheat is sensitive to copper Goh and Karamanos chose copper as their focus because, while lack of any of the micronutrients will cause yield losses in wheat, the crop is particularly sensitive to copper and manganese, and there is a large volume of research conducted on copper. “It is estimated that there are close to five million acres of deficient or potentially copper deficiency soils in the Prairies,” says Karamanos.

The study, almost exclusively funded by Western Cooperative Fertilizers Ltd. (Westco), showed 18 significant yield responses and 21 non-significant yield responses

*Contest begins February 4/15; ends March 30/15. Open only to farmers in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba. Prizes: 1 ball cap ($25) to first 200 entrants; 3 Grand prize trips (approximately $4,559); three 3-piece luggage sets 2nd prizes (approximately $550). For entry methods and prize allocations, see full rules at expresscontest.dupont.ca.

As with all crop protection products, read and follow label instructions carefully.

The DuPont Oval Logo, DuPontTM, The miracles of scienceTM and Express® are registered trademarks or trademarks of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. E. I. du Pont Canada Company is a licensee. All other products mentioned are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies. Member of CropLife Canada. ©Copyright 2015 E. I. du Pont Canada Company. All rights reserved.

12

/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Features seeding

When you have to broadcast seed Broadcasting seeding is always a last resort for canola growers. But if you have to do it, here are some suggestions to increase your odds of getting decent yields

By Melanie Epp

T

ypically, broadcast seeding in canola is considered questionable at best.

But it comes to mind when weather causes delays.

“Broadcast seeding is acceptable as a last resort late in the seeding season under wet conditions,” says Murray Hartman, oilseed specialist with Alberta Agriculture.

“Wet soil can plug up openers and packer wheels, and the seedbed can be smeared, which impedes good seedling emergence.”

Since working wet fields can cause soil compaction, waiting is always the best option, unless it’s already near the end of May. “There are custom broadcast seeders,” Hartman suggests.

Making sure the crop is in on time may also be important in order to qualify for crop insurance deadlines. In Alberta, for instance, canola must be seeded before June 20 in order to qualify for yield insurance. It is recommended, however, that the crop is actually in the ground by May 31, otherwise grade coverage could be limited.

Crop insurance actually depends on establishment, says Hartman.

“Broadcast canola does not automatically quality for crop insurance,” he says. “The established stand may need to be inspected and meet crop density standards before it can be insured. If the crop does not grow and the ground is too wet to seed, the grower could be eligible to receive an unseeded acreage benefit. Rules for unseeded acreage benefits vary by province.”

ola are lower as compared to seeds that are drilled into moist-packed seedbeds. A higher seeding rate can compensate for this. “It also provides more margin for error if the seed and fertilizer ratio doesn’t stay consistent as the floater tank empties,” says Hartman. “A floater with two tanks — one for seed and one for fertilizer — should eliminate this particular risk. Consider seed size in grams per 1,000 kernels and estimate seedling survival when setting the seeding rate.”

Fields with poorer conditions are better suited to lower-priced seed in order to allow for increased seeding rates and the higher risk of crop failure.

Fertility practices will differ with broadcast seeding, too, says Hartman. He suggests doubling the phosphorus rate, since canola needs early access to phosphorus and phosphate drills and seed are not always close enough for timely access to fertilizer. Hartman warns growers to account for higher nitrogen losses — broadcast nitrogen has a higher risk of denitrification. On saturated soils, nitrogen fertilizer efficiency can be especially reduced.

“Enhanced efficiency nitrogen fertilizers, such as ESN or Agrotain, will reduce these losses,” he says.

“Although harrowing after broadcasting is still recommended to

get these fertilizer products into the ground.” Although this can increase overall costs, it may be worth it in less ideal conditions.

Apply the blended seed and fertilizer as soon as possible after blending or utilize a floater with two tanks, one for fertilizer and one for seed.

Consider a split fertilizer application, says Hartman. Broadcast seed first and see what gets established; if the crop gets established, then top up with broadcast nitrogen and sulphur, he says. Top dressing applications should also be made as soon after emergence as possible, he continues, since early nutrient access is important for optimal yields.

It is still possible to obtain adequate yields The good news is that establishment is somewhat controllable, especially if certain situations are avoided. For instance, avoid planting into fields with poorly distributed heavy crop residue, or into fields that require large amounts of fertilizer. Hartman says they make poor choices because nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium efficiency suffers greatly when left on the surface.

On average, yields on broadcastseeded fields will be five to 10 percent less than fields that are drill-seeded. “In wet conditions, broadcast seeding can equal or better drilled methods if there is more than two or three weeks delay needed to achieve the drilled seeding,” says Hartman.

Tips for broadcast success Hartman says that broadcast seeding should only be considered if it is already late in the seeding season and wet weather has greatly delayed seeding progress. Fields should be harrowed soon after seeding to cover the seed and fertilizer.

Often, germination and seedling emergence rates for broadcast can-

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FS:8.2” F:8.7”

Finally, if weeds are an issue and there’s considerable growth in the field, a herbicide application should be made pre-seeding to prevent weeds from adding to fertilizer losses. “Canola seed laying on the surface can be affected by some herbicides used in herbicide tolerant canola,” he concludes. “This is another reason to harrow after broadcast seeding.”

While broadcast seeding certainly isn’t first on the list of recommendations, it does provide an additional option. And with proper management it is possible to obtain adequate yields. † Melanie Epp is a freelance farm writer based in Guelph, Ont.

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MARCH 3, 2015 grainews.ca /

13

Features Crop production

Crop rotation impacts canola yields A new Ag Canada study finds that increasing the number of years in your rotation between canola crops can raise your average canola yields

By Michael Flood

C

T:17.4”

anola is one of the biggest crops in Canada and it’s only getting bigger. In the five years from 2008 to 2013 Canadian farmers went from growing 10 million to 18 million metric tonnes, nearly doubling the canola harvest. With market demand anticipated to only increase in years to come, driven by a rising global demand for vegetable oils and other canola products, the same land is going to have to yield ever more bushels per acre.

Raising canola yields on the same land requires more inten-

sive cultivation as well as rotating canola more frequently than in the past. This strategy carries significant risk of heavy losses as many canola pests and diseases are capable of overwintering in fields and on surrounding vegetation making them harder to control.

To test out the possible effects of this more intensive cultivation, researchers from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada undertook a series of trial to see what happens.

This team, which includes Neil Harker of the Lacombe Research Centre in Alberta, recently published their results in the Canadian Journal of Plant Science under the

title “Canola rotation frequency impacts canola yield and associated pest species.”

The research To study the effects of more intensive cultivation the scientists conducted six years of trials at five sites across the Prairies using glyphosate and glufosinate resistant canola, treating them with the recommended amounts of herbicide each season. Each field had previously grown no-till wheat, barley, or oats. In different fields, they tested different rotation rates, alternating canola with various crops on one- and

two-year intervals. After five years, researchers collected and analyzed the data, looking for the effects of temperature and precipitation, weed densities, blackleg disease levels, root maggot damage and canola yield.

“In terms of the number of sites,” Harker told us, “and the way it was conducted there hadn’t been a study quite like this before.

To make this more useful we conducted an all-phases study, which means that if we had wheat in one year and canola the next we also had canola in that first year and wheat the next.” The all-phases nature of the research helped the research team eliminate single-

year effects, like weather that may have just been, by chance, better for one crop rather than another.

The results Among the major results of the study was the finding that canola seed yields were not hurt significantly by decreasing the years of rotation between crops. At the same time, canola yields always improved when wheat or field pea were followed by barley between canola plantings. So while there was not significant loss with intensive cropping, yields were higher with rotations, as was expected.

“What stood out to me the most,” Harker said, “was how consistent the improvement in production was with years between canola crops. In other words as you go from zero years (between crops) or continuous canola you had yield improving constantly as you put both one year and then two years between them.”

As for diseases and pests, the study confirmed what was long suspected, that growing canola intensively invites increased yield losses due to predation. “As you went from zero to two years,” Harker said, “you had pests, whether they were insects or disease, decreasing.”

Growing canola intensively invites increased yield

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Without a year or two of rotation between canola persistent pests proved highly resilient and hurt yields significantly. Another result of interest was that higher yields were produced at sites that had relatively uniform precipitation (no extremes of wet or dry) and generally cooler temperatures. If you live in a region that regularly experiences cooler than provincial average temperatures this may be another reason to consider canola planting.

While high frequency rotation of canola may be profitable in the short term it will be highly risky in the long term. To ensure sustainable production (and a profitable farm) the researchers recommend that farmers balance high immediate-income low diversity cropping with lower immediate-income, higher diversity systems. This can be accomplished by not using your entire farm for intensive cropping but only a portion, retaining one area in longer-term canola rotation.

Managed over several years, rotating the areas of higher intensity cultivation, can yield strong returns for the careful farm manager.

Harker and his colleagues plan to continue the study for three more years. In addition to seeing how the trends they’ve identified continue they will be working with economic specialists to calculate the effects of different rotation strategies on a farmer’s bottom line. †

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Michael Flood (www.michael-flood.com) is a business writer and columnist. You can reach him at michael@michael-flood.com.

F:8.7”

14

/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Features Farm management

How to fire farm employees Nobody wants to fire employees. Learn how to do it kindly

By Patty Milligan

F

arms are unique places of employment: they are often family businesses, they are not unionized, the work is often seasonal, they sometimes house their employees, and they are exempt from some provincial employment standards. As grain farms on the Prairies grow, so do their number of employees. While some farms still get by with a workforce made up of family members and neighbours, for many operations, managing employees has become much more complicated.

On top of these complexities, ongoing labour shortages have made it hard to find good peo-

ple. Some workers move across provinces to take up jobs. A small number of grain farms have started hiring Temporary Foreign Workers. Managing employees can be overwhelming, especially when most farmers’ primary concern is farming and taking care of the land.

To navigate human resources, some operators have turned to consultants. Allam Farms Partnership operates farms east and northeast of Edmonton where they primarily grow wheat and canola. With one to two full time employees through the winter, seven to eight in the spring and eight to nine in the fall, juggling human resource issues can be difficult. Chris Allam, who manages the farm with his

parents and brother, says “HR is one of the toughest areas to get a handle on. We need all the help we can get.”

Through their partnership with FamilyFarms Group, Allam Farm Partnership gained a mentor in Dave McLaughlin, an HR/Labour Specialist based in Manitoba.

McLaughlin works with farms primarily across the Prairies. He helps them with all matters related to managing employees — including termination.

is made. McLaughlin says, “In a way, a job description is part of the termination process.” Most job descriptions are too vague.

Farmers would also do well to use contracts with clear terms of employment including an end date if the position is seasonal, and then, once an employee is in place, provide necessary support, training, and management.

warnings to face-to-face meetings to suspension.

The goal is not to punish, rather to correct the behavior. Each step must be clearly documented; if the behavior doesn’t change, then termination may happen in a fair, professional manner.

Progressive discipline a must

Firing starts with hiring

Progressive discipline is a best practice McLaughlin urges farmers to adopt. It means ongoing negative behaviours are met with increasingly serious responses — from verbal warnings to written

McLaughlin strongly advises farmers to do (and document) everything they can to save an employee’s job. First of all, a written record of those steps provides protection against possible future complaints. Firing can be costly especially if the employer must pay several weeks worth of pay. Recruiting a new hire is also costly — you have to place the ad, interview candidates, hire, complete paperwork, and train all over again.

Finally, many farms operate within tightly-knit communities.

Farmers have to deal with relationships, especially if they are hiring family, friends, or neighbours.

McLachlan encourages farmers to be aware of their reputations: “You are creating your own brand. If you are compassionate, then you become an employer of choice.

But if you terminate for bad reason, that is going to get around.”

For McLaughlin, firing an employee is a last resort. It comes only at the end of a series of steps that starts even before the hire

Many reasons to avoid firing

Know the laws If you must fire someone, know the laws.

Each province sets its own Employment Standards that govern the way that you can fire an employee. An employer needs to know the provincial laws. Each province publishes useful resources online: • Alberta: Employment Standards: Toolkit for Employers • Saskatchewan: Rights and Responsibilities: A Guide to Employment Standards • Manitoba: A Guide to Employment Standards in Agriculture While farm/agricultural workers are exempt from some employment standards, they are not exempt from those related to termination. There are two exceptions. First, in Manitoba, family members employed on family farms do not require termination notice (those employees who are not family members do). Second, in Saskatchewan, workers in a family business — one that employs ONLY immediate family — are exempt as well.

The most common routes

Increase your yields by using Authority and removing weeds early Kochia and cleavers were put to rest by a group 14 mode of action with extended residual weed control. Lamb’s quarters, redroot pigweed, wild buckwheat and others met the same fate. Authority is registered in peas, flax, soybeans, chickpeas and sunflowers. www.fmccrop.ca

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14FMC028_Authority AB Farmer Express, Grainews, MB Co-operator Junior Page (8.125” x 10”)

An employer who terminates an employee is legally bound to give them notice or pay-in-lieu of notice. The number of weeks of notice depends on the amount of time the employee has worked for you and it varies from province to province. (See table.)

Termination Notice/Pay-inlieu of Notice is not required in some situations. For instance, seasonal workers do not require termination notice or pay-in-lieu if they knew when hired that the job would end with the season.

MARCH 3, 2015 grainews.ca /

15

Features However, if a seasonal employee is terminated earlier than planned, termination notice or pay-in-lieu must be provided. When calculating the number weeks, consider each season a year for seasonal employees. For clarification on other situations, check your provincial Employment Standards branch.

Firing for just cause An employee can be fired without termination notice or payin-lieu of notice if there is just cause. On farms, McLaughlin says, just cause is usually related to theft or insubordination. Other serious breaches constitute just cause, but the burden of proving it is on the employer. According to McLaughlin, “not a good fit” just doesn’t cut it especially if an employee has moved from another province or country.

If “just cause” is based on a particular event, then the employer has to be able to show that the event was investigated properly, that it was serious enough to warrant firing, and that that the employee was treated fairly in the process.

If “just cause” is the result of an ongoing pattern of negative behaviours, then the employer has to be able show through written documentation that adequate measures were taken to correct it along the way.

Incompetence is also a possible “just cause” but, McLaughlin warns, it is difficult to argue. For instance, if the employee has worked on the farm for some time and the farmer did not take steps to address his or her incompetence during that time, then it could not be used as grounds for termination. This brings us back to the job description: the farmer has to be able to show that the employee knew from the get-go what jobs he or she would have to perform.

Proceed with the termination and don’t keep the employee on the farm. The longer the employee stays, the more disruptive he or she could be. If the employee will be working out the notice period, you’ll need to figure out how to negotiate the weeks ahead.

Jessie Radies, Local Food Associate with Edmonton Northlands says, “Throughout my career I’ve fired hundreds of people, and honestly, having a cheque, letter, and Record of Employment ready is the easiest.”

Get your ducks in a row In order to fire someone the “right” way, farmers need to put human resource policies in place in all areas. McLaughlin feels confident that farmers will get better at it: “They are compassionate people. And they are professional.

I tell them, ‘You can terminate with compassion.’” † Patty Milligan is a freelance writer based at Bon Accord, Alta.

NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF PAY-IN-LIEU OF How long has the employee worked for you?

Alberta

Saskatchewan

Manitoba

3 months or less

13 weeks or less

30 days or less

none

More than 3 months but less than 2 years

More than 13 consecutive weeks but 1 year or less

At least 30 days but less than 1 year

1 week

2 years or more but less than 4 years

More than 1 year but 3 years or less

At least 1 year and less than 3 years

2 weeks

4 years or more but less than 6 years

More than 3 years but 5 years or less

At least 3 years and less than 5 years

4 weeks

6 years or more but less than 8 years

n/a

n/a

5 weeks

8 years or more but less than 10 years

More than 5 years but 10 years or less

At least 5 years and less than 10 years

6 weeks

MoreT:8.125” than 10 years

At least 10 years

8 weeks

10 years or more

B:8.125”

S:8.125”

Uncover the problem.

Termination day

For more information, visit BayerCropScience.ca/Pardner

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

Always read and follow label directions. Pardner® is a registered trademark of the Bayer Group. All other products mentioned are trademarks of their respective companies. Bayer CropScience is a member of CropLife Canada.

R-66-02/15-10284119-E

T:10”

Pardner® herbicide is now registered as a pre-seed, tank-mix partner with Roundup® WeatherMAX® herbicide and other similar glyphosate technologies for control of all volunteer canola, even if they’re resistant to other herbicide groups.

B:10”

Even though it looks the same, it’s not.

Volunteer canola can provide a host for dangerous diseases, steal nutrients and limit the yield performance of your crop.

But moving forward, this doesn’t need to be a problem.

S:10”

Some farms have more than one manager to deal with employees.

If, for instance, a husband and wife team runs the farm, then they need to be on the same page.

McLaughlin advises employers, agricultural or otherwise, not to fire an employee on a Friday.

Choose a time earlier in the week and preferably earlier in the day.

Invite the employee in to sit and talk. The goal is to be clear, neutral, quick, and kind. The privacy and dignity of the employee need to be protected even at a difficult, possibly angry, moment.

The conversation will be familiar to the employee. Firing usually won’t come as a surprise if the employer has taken the necessary steps along the way. Remind the employee of the process you’ve gone through together — the verbal warnings, written warnings, and/or suspensions he or she has received. And be clear that you haven’t seen the necessary changes in attitude or behaviour.

McLaughlin believes the employee should have one more opportunity to speak: “Ask ‘Is there something you’re not telling me?’ An employee may open up and tell you something you are unaware of, that might change your opinion. It could be a medical issue, or a family issue.” If not, make sure you have the letter of termination ready. It should outline the process leading up to termination.

Number of weeks required for notice or pay-in-lieu

16

/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Columns Soils and crops

Stubble soil moisture map Les Henry’s annual stubble soil moisture map shows, for the most part, an overall rise in the water table across the Prairie region les henry

T

he situation as of freezeup 2014, brought a few changes. My red pencil was not used even in Alberta and “super wet” is back as it was in 2010 and 2012. “Super wet” is for areas that had significant rains on top of that needed to bring the entire soil profile to “field capacity.” The end result of that situation is a rise in the water table.

Daphne Cruise of the government of Saskatchewan’s Ag Knowledge Centre in Moose Jaw alerted me to a situation on their farm at Stalwart, Sask. — just west of Last Mountain Lake north of Regina. They have a significant turkey operation that uses a lot of water; the water comes from shallow bored wells. After the big

summer rains the lowest elevation well started to flow. I looked up the water well and e-log data and found a significant shallow intertill aquifer. The entry of water at higher elevations brought up the water level so a well at lower elevation flowed.

The flow was handled by directing it to a nearby slough — but it was an interesting phenomenon.

It is always fun to get the data and figure out Mother Nature’s plumbing system that makes it all happen.

The grey areas on the map are the super wet category which includes Weyburn east, where our fearless editor farms. She can tell me if I have it wrong*.

The map is based on the Alberta and Manitoba Soil Moisture Maps from their provincial government websites and on rainfall data. Rainfall data and some local soil probing is used for Saskatchewan.

The Saskatchewan rain data is from the Saskatchewan Agriculture

Crop Reports that come from farmers dumping rain gauges.

It is a good database and the Saskatchewan GIS folks are very good at making maps. Through the Moose Jaw Ag Knowledge Centre I am able to access any map I want. A soil moisture map cannot be made without a very large number of stations with good and complete records.

Many areas are off to a fair start As for Manitoba, it may be heresy but I did use the orange pencil for a small area on the U.S. border. That is based on the rain records for the Morden, Winkler, Altona and Emerson stations. The Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development website has

daily rain records for many stations from April to freezeup. I just scanned down the record pretending to be an annual cereal/pulse/ oilseed crop and looked for excess that would give storage for next year. Finding little excess and very low fall rain, I put it in the “dry” category. Readers can tell me if I am wrong.

With corn production on the rise in Manitoba, the water left over for next year might be reduced. Most of out regular crops are pretty much done using water by late July to early August — depending on seeding date.

But, corn will use water well into August, leaving less “calendar” to add water to the soil for next year.

The orange/green line in the Saskatoon-north area was hard to place, but it generally follows the area mapped as “dry” last year.

In a mid-July field day in clay soils near Saskatoon the crop was sucking hard on the third foot to keep alive. Daytime wilting was observed.

On my Dundurn farm high water tables are still providing sub-irrigation so the soil moisture at freeze-up is more than usual.

There is more year-to-year carry over than we have experienced in more normal rainfall patterns.

So, there you have it — many areas are off to a fair start. May the sun shine upon you and the rain come when needed and the amount needed. Wishful thinking for sure. *Editor’s note: Les Henry does not have this wrong at all. After our epic flood of 2011, there is still much more water here in southeast Saskatchewan than we would really like to see. † J.L.(Les) Henry is a former professor and extension specialist at the University of Saskatchewan. He farms at Dundurn, Sask.

He recently finished a second printing of “Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water,” a book that mixes the basics and practical aspects of soil, fertilizer and farming.

Les will cover the shipping and GST for “Grainews” readers. Simply send a cheque for $50 to Henry Perspectives, 143 Tucker Cres, Saskatoon, Sask. S7H 3H7, and he will dispatch a signed book.

STUBBLE SOIL MOISTURE: NOVEMBER 1, 2014 (General guide only — check your own fields in spring)

VERY DRY DRY MOIST

Stubble has essentially no moisture storage below 6 inches

Sandy Soils Medium Soils Heavy Soils Wet to 12-24” Wet to 6-18” Wet to 6-12” (About 1 to 2 inches of available water) Sandy Soils Medium Soils Heavy Sils Wet to 24-48” Wet to 18-30” Wet to 12-24” (About 2 to 4 inches of available water) Will include local areas with no dry layer

WET

No dry layer in sandy, medium or heavy soils (Sandy = 4, Medium = 6, Heavy = 8 inches of available water)

GrandePrairie Prairie Grande

SUPER WET

Excess rain - water table rise

Edmonton Edmonton Lloydminster Lloydminster

PrinceAlbert Albert Prince

NorthBattleford Battleford North

RedDeer Deer Red

Melfort Melfort

Saskatoon Saskatoon Drumheller Drumheller Calgary Calgary

Base map courtesy of

Manitoba Agriculture Data Source: Environment Canada

Lethbridge Lethbridge

Yorkton Yorkton

MedicineHat Hat Medicine

Regina MooseJaw JawRegina SwiftCurrent CurrentMoose Swift Weyburn Weyburn

Brandon Brandon

Portage Winnipeg Portage Winnipeg

Estevan Estevan

Prepared by Les Henry, January 19, 2015

MARCH 3, 2015 grainews.ca /

17

Columns Off-farm investing

Money rotates among stocks On oil prices, cash, and the hazards of ownership during earnings reports ANDY SIRSKI

I

n the February 10 issue of Grainews I wrote that the price of oil will go up at some point while the price of gold will go down. The problem is that this sort of rotation has been more and more common and will likely continue for a while, but for different reasons.

The price of gold and silver usually moves up and down during the year with the seasons.

As I have written before there is no fundamental reason for the price of gold to go up after the Chinese New Year and until jewelers start buying the stuff a few months ahead of the wedding season come fall.

Oil, however, has become a victim of the supply and demand equation. In this case supply is much larger than demand. As I write on February 7, there are apparently 400 million barrels of oil in storage, the most since the 1930s.

Storage will be full by sometime this spring That industry will likely keep putting more oil into storage for a few months because speculators can sell oil in the futures market for $10 a barrel more six months out than today’s price, and it only costs about 65 cents a month to store a barrel of oil.

Of course storage will be full by sometime this spring. In the meantime the number of drilling rigs is dropping week by week around the world but mostly in the U.S. So while the price of oil could go above $50 per barrel for a few more months the odds are that storage will be filled sooner than drilling slows down. Plus, there seems to be no incentive yet to shut down existing oil wells. The drop in supply is due to depletion in oil wells and a drop in rig count. When and if companies shut down wells the supply of oil will drop in a hurry.

The price could well have to drop to $40 a barrel and stay there for a few months before existing producing wells would be capped. Of course speculators can change the ups and downs every month or so and that is hard to predict.

I think I understand and can work with the seasonality of the price of gold and silver but I think that is a lot harder to do with the price of oil. I’m tempted to buy some oil stocks but so far have not.

Back to cash As of February 6, I’m back to all cash except for 1,000 shares of Input Capital. Here’s what

happened. All through January I was having a good time making money selling weekly calls on 2,000 shares of Barrick Gold (ABX) and 200 to 400 shares of Gilead (GILD). On roughly $65,000 worth of shares I picked up $5,000 for the month which was about eight per cent. And, I had 14 wins out of 15 trades.

Then earnings reports came out for Gild on Tuesday, February 3.

Since I did not think shares would drop I held my 400 shares. The company had good earnings, is offering to pay a dividend come spring and says it will buy back $15 billion worth of shares. Then GILD said it plans to offer deep discounts on its Hepatitis C drugs and its share prices dropped.

I watched for a few days and bought back my calls for a few pennies per share and sold out. I might be back, but for now I will watch.

Watch earnings reports I hope I learned my lesson.

Please learn from my mistakes. I am going to write down the date of earnings reports and as we come to that date and I hope I will have the common sense to sell those shares. These days it seems that if good news is expected on earnings, the price of shares will go up.

After earnings are announced the market feels earnings are never enough and down go the shares.

If the company misses its

expected earnings, the shares get whacked down hard. It seems to be a no win situation. To avoid that risk I hope I never again to own shares during earnings report.

Barrick Gold (ABX) On Friday, February 6, the U.S. came out with its labour stats for January. The number of jobs was up and unemployment numbers were down. Of course many say those number are all cooked up since many jobs are part time or come with low pay and people who have stopped looking for work are not part of the unemployed.

Cooked up or not, the price

of gold dropped $30 on the spot and shares of ABX dropped to $12.40. I bought the calls back for pennies and sold those shares too. Again, I made good money on ABX all throughout January and I intend to keep it. As I wrote earlier, the price of gold is coming closer and closer to the end of its “in-season.” Maybe this was the beginning.

Overall, in January I picked up something over $5,000 and gave back about $1,200, which still is pretty good return. † Andy is mostly retired. He plays with granddaughters, does income tax and manages his family’s investments. He also publishes an electronic newsletter called StocksTalk where he tells what he does and why. If you want to read it free for a month send an email to sirski@mts.net.

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/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Columns Reporters notebook

Running a ranch of her own It’s not new for women to be involved in agriculture. Lisa Guenther’s grandmother was ranching on her own in Saskatchewan in 1959

By Lisa Guenther

W

hen my grandmother, Mar y Guenther, was 30 years old, her life changed drastically.

Mary and her husband, Chuck, were ranching south of Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, and raising six kids. In 1959, Chuck’s tractor rolled, killing him, and Mary was widowed. But instead of giving up and moving to town, she kept on ranching.

My grandmother was interviewed several years ago for an anthology called A Voice of Her Own. The book includes interviews with western Canadian ranch women. It should be required reading for anyone who thinks agriculture is solely a man’s world.

It’s certainly not today, and it wasn’t 50 years ago, either.

Farming and ranching have always been family affairs. As my grandmother put it, “women on farms and ranches have always done what needed to be done.” In her day, that meant working in the fields, milking cows, cooking for threshing crews and driving teams.

Today’s farm women are just as busy I’m sure, running combines and pulling calves. Others might hold an off-farm job, all while managing farm finances, gardening, cooking, volunteering, caring for elderly parents and doing a good chunk of the child care.

But for years Statistics Canada’s data collection methods excluded most married farm women from being counted. Before 1991, each farm could only report one farm operator. So with the exception of widowed women or the rare single female farmer, the stats ignored women who shared in the daily farming decisions.

This is a shame, because although the gender split isn’t even, it’s not as skewed as people might think, either.

In 2011, 27 per cent of farm operators were women, according to Statistics Canada. That’s over 80,000 female farmers. Most were on farms with two operators or more, but 10,740 were sole operators. These percentages have held steady since 2001, when women made up just over 26 per cent of farm operators in Canada. And the farm women who don’t see themselves as operators make important contributions, too. Family farms are usually partnerships, not solo acts.

Then, of course, we have the women working in other areas of the ag sector, in everything from plant breeding to finance.

No double standards I don’t remember my grandmother complaining much about anything, including her own experiences of discrimination. I know she had good friends. In the book she mentions her neighbours, Lloyd and Irene Coleman, as supportive. And I’m sure there were others.

But not everyone liked what she was up to. In the book, she noted her father warned her that hired men wouldn’t like working for a

women. “Some of them I remember very fondly and some I don’t,” my grandmother said.

Not much stopped her, though.

She persisted on that ranch, which one local has told me was probably the windiest spot in the Cypress Hills. She embarrassed her mother and mother-in-law by writing prochoice letters to Chatelaine. She raised her family as she saw fit, and that meant no double standards for her five sons and one daughter.

“If I wasn’t going to make the boys do dishes, I didn’t make her do dishes. If the boys were going riding, she went riding,” she said.

“I felt right from the start that my daughter was going to have to look after herself just as well as any of the boys, and there wasn’t very much her brothers ever did that she couldn’t.”

My grandmother was born just when things were really starting to change for Canadian women.

Some women had gotten the vote about a decade earlier, my grandmother pointed out in the book.

Emily Murphy was declared a person by the British courts a year before my grandma’s birth.

And my grandmother took full advantage of the opportunities those early feminists gave her generation. She went to RM meetings, even though she was the only woman there at first.

She was membership chairman of the Shaunovan constituency in the 60s. When the boundaries changed, she became president of the Maple Creek constituency.

She served on the SaskTel Board of Directors.

Women today Things have changed since my grandmother was a young woman.

Although it would be nice to see a few more female faces on some boards, it’s not unusual for women to hold leadership positions these days. And though some might view the typical farmer as a man in overalls holding a pitch-fork, most of us in the industry understand this isn’t an accurate picture.

My own experiences in agriculture have been generally positive, too. I’ve heard others say one of the best things about this industry is the people, and I agree. For me, sexual harassment on the job has been rare since my early 20s, and nothing as severe as we read about in the media.

But I don’t want to pretend we live in a utopia, either. Sexism and violence still exist in Canadian society, and it must still happen in our industry as well. An Angus Reid survey reported a million Canadians — mostly women — reported being sexually harassed at work between 2012 and 2014, according to the Toronto Star. A 2011 Statistics Canada release noted that women are 11 times more likely than men to be sexually assaulted and three times more likely to be criminally harassed. This is based on police reports, so it’s hard to know how many crimes go unreported.

Rural communities aren’t immune, either. A 2010 Statistics Canada report noted that fam-

ily violence rates are generally lower in metropolitan areas than small cities, towns and rural areas.

Women and girls are more likely to be the targets of family violence, although men and boys are victims, too.

I don’t cite these statistics to be a killjoy, but to point out that we shouldn’t be complacent. We still have big problems to deal with. And there are a few among us who’d like to push us into the dark ages.

Mary Guenther died 10 years ago this February. Her generation’s greatest legacy is the knowledge that it’s a woman’s world, too.

A Voice of Her Own was published by the University of Calgary Press in 2005. Details available by searching the title on uofcpress. com. † Lisa Guenther is field editor for Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Contact her at Lisa.Guenther@ fbcpublishing.com or on Twitter @LtoG.

Lisa Guenther’s grandmother, Mary Guenther, kept on ranching when her husband was killed in an accident in 1959.

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MARCH 3, 2015 grainews.ca /

19

Columns Financial markets — the basics

Investing in financial markets In Part 1 of this new series on financial management basis, Andrew Allentuck explains how to choose a manager for your money

By Andrew Allentuck

W

arren Buffett, the tycoon from Omaha who became America’s second richest billionaire after Bill Gates, quipped that investing is simple but not necessarily easy.

The simplicity is understanding relatively few things very, very well. The job entails both researching each business he buys and having the guts to stick to rules he traces back to Ben Graham, a professor of classics at Columbia University who invented securities analysis. He was Buffet’s teacher and mentor and also a man who got rich following principles of understanding balance sheets and income statements.

Anyone can do what Buffet and Graham do, but it does take a lot of study. The alternative is to hire fund managers or portfolio manag-

ers who, presumably, have studied Graham or other investment principles and let them invest for you.

At this point, the path to money management comes to a fork in the road. There are many varieties of financial planner, each with a few letters of designation, many with useful skills and some with motivations that are harmful to their clients’ wealth.

You can go down that road or take the other branch of the fork, which is to study accounting, economics, math, some financial history and perhaps financial or engineering specialties for sectors which attract you — say banking or energy. This is labour-intensive, but it will give you the tools not just to invest, but to judge the work of those you hire to handle your money.

You might ask, “Why bother?” If your farm is profitable and produces a return on your equity in the busi-

ness of, say, eight or 10 per cent a year or more, you are probably beating the long-term average returns from financial assets. For retirement purposes, building up a farm and making use of the complex but flexible accounting rules for productive and profitable farms and the ability to make use of up to $800,000 of capital gains on qualified small business corporation shares provides both tax shelter and inventive to stick to the business you know and stay out of the ups and downs of financial markets.

The problem with sticking with farming is that, of course, there are good and bad years. Farmers have almost no control over the prices they receive, weather is unpredictable and bugs, vermin and government rule changes can wreck the best laid plans.

Reducing the risk of exposure to the whims of weather, the markets, the odds of exposure to tran-

sient diseases like BSE and more requires diversification. And there is no diversification as broad as what financial markets offer.

Financial markets The government wants you to invest in financial markets.

Registered Retirement Income Funds must be invested in financial products. You can’t put real estate directly into an RRSP, though you can borrow from an RRSP to buy a home — many do it to get a down payment. The home, if it is your principal residence, can be sold with no tax on capital gains. It’s an easy and entirely legal way to invest and get a tax break.

The trouble with financial markets is their complexity. It takes a lot of knowledge to understand stocks and bonds, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, options, tax rules and international currency markets. Financial advisors are available to help you invest your money at banks, mutual fund vendors like Investors Group, accounting companies and life insurance and annuity brokers. Most of these advisors take a slice of your money and in many cases, it is hard to know what you are paying. There are few grading systems for advisors, so it is hard not just to find one who is good at picking stocks or funds, but also to find one who is worth what they charge.

You can find advisors at banks, investment firms, insurance brokerages, independent mutual fund dealers, or through professional associations such as the Institute of Advanced Financial Planners (visit www.iafp.ca). Many of these people earn their living from commissions and fees paid by the companies whose products they sell.

Finding fee-only financial planers is harder. See www.moneysense. ca/directory-of-fee-only-planners for an excellent list together with their fees and specialties.

Let’s consider fees. The average management fee for an equity mutual fund in Canada is 2.6 per cent of net asset value of the portfolio or fund per year. For 10 years, you will pay 26 per cent, for 20 years of management, 52 per cent.

If you add compounding of what the advisor gets and what you lose, the numbers are even higher.

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from the fund. What the advisor gets, you lose. In some cases, the advisor is worth the fee. In many cases, the advisor offers relatively little beyond hand holding and guidance through a menu of mutual funds. There is change in progress, for regulators and the mutual fund industry are preparing to make the fee structure more visible. Trailer fees paid to advisors out of funds will be more visible.

They will show that the more you have under management in a fund, the more you pay. But the labour of advising a client for a $100,000 portfolio is not substantially different from advising for a $150,000 fund, though the advisor’s remuneration is 50 per cent higher.

It takes a lot of knowledge to understand stocks and bonds You can pay lower fees by hiring an independent investment advisor. These people usually want to get $500,000 under management.

They charge an average of one to 1.5 per cent of assets under management. They get no sales commissions and most of these people have far more demanding qualifications than mutual fund sales people, such as being Chartered Financial Analysts.

There are also questions of honesty, both in the strict sense of accounting for money and not pocketing client funds for personal use and the more subtle sense of providing value for the client. Large mutual fund companies and chartered banks, credit unions and trust companies will not steal your money. But they can lose it in unfortunate investments or fritter it away with excessive fees.

The history of client losses through theft are littered with names of big thieves — Ponzi and Madoff, for example. Today, if you choose to use an independent money manager, it is vital that you understand who is the custodian of your money. Most money managers have a trust company act as custodian of your cash, stocks , bonds, funds or other assets. The advisor tells the custodian what to do. Cheques are written to the custodian and the custodian pays the client when he or she wants money.

The advisor never gets his hands on client money directly. If an advisor asks for a big cheque made out to him personally, head out the door.

Understanding the rules of investing and the economics and accounting of money management provide comparable protection. It is far harder for an advisor to bamboozle a client well versed in financial markets than a naïve client who comes with money, trust and a lack of understanding. † Andrew Allentuck’s latest book, “When Can I Retire? Planning Your Financial Life After Work,” was published in 2011 by Penguin Canada.

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/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Columns Understanding market bulls and bears

Currency and the wheat basis Grain companies are blending their currency conversions into the wheat basis.

For western Canadian farmers, this is not pricing transparency at its best Brian wittal

A

s I explained in my last article maybe we aren’t being ripped off with the wheat basis, but it looks to me like we are being misled (ripped off) with the currency conversion being calculated within the basis!

Let me expand on this with some numbers and facts so that you can decide what transparency means and how we can achieve it in wheat pricing in Western Canada.

When you look on the major grain companies’ websites to see their western Canadian bids, this is what you will find something like this. For CWRS, for example, the posted futures value (let’s use $5.75 per bushel) is exactly the same number as the corresponding U.S. Minneapolis wheat futures value, which you would say is how it is supposed to be, right? Hold that thought for a moment.

Next, we’ll look at the basis they’re offering, which right now is fairly attractive at +$0.40 per bushel. So simple math would mean you take the futures value and add the basis to get a net price offered to you for delivery of that grade: $5.75 + $0.40 = $6.15 per bushel delivered to Lethbridge.

What the grain companies tell you is that they are including the currency conversion in their basis, and that’s why the futures value on their pricing sheet is exactly the same as the Minneapolis futures. That seems like a good answer. Or is it?

When I look at the pricing sheets from a U.S. grain company just across the border this is what I see: A futures value of US$5.75/ bu. + a US$0.15/bu. basis, for a net price of US5.90/bu. I convert that to Canadian dollars and I get a value of $7.31/bu. ($5.90 x 1.24), delivered to Sweet Grass, Montana. This is $1.16/bu. more than the Lethbridge bid! Mind you this U.S. bid is for CWRS with 14 per cent protein, so to be fair we must deduct $0.15/bu. off the price to match our base grade of 13.5 per cent, so now there is only $1.01/bu. difference in prices.

The U.S. futures value of $5.75/ bu. is set on the futures markets and posted for all to see. Open and transparent.

Currency exchange is also traded on the futures markets and posted for all to see. An $0.80 Canadian dollar converts to a U.S. dollar by using a factor of 1.24. Open and transparent.

The net price of $6.15/bu. is the price the Canadian grain companies offer to you. It’s open for all to see, but it’s not transparent as to how they arrived at that number.

Doing the math Let’s apply some logical steps and simple math to this scenario and see why we have this discrepancy.

We have determined that the U.S. futures value converted to Canadian dollars is $7.31/bu.

The next important step is to figure out what basis the Canadian grain companies are offering. That is pretty easy. You take the futures price and subtract the net price they’re offering — the difference is the basis. So we take the futures price (US$5.75 x 1.24 = $7.13) less the net price ($6.15), and we get a -$0.98/bu. basis.

How come these numbers don’t match the grain company’s posted basis numbers of +$0.40/bu? Good question.

To be polite, I will say that the grain companies are using “lazy math” to establish their prices for wheat at this point in time.

Don’t get me wrong — the basis levels they are offering are attractive and one may want to lock them in before they decide to change their math and readjust their basis calculations to correctly and transparently reflect the true converted futures values to the market place.

Let’s follow this math through using the grain companies’ methodology and apply the currency conversion to the basis as they say they are doing and see what we come up with.

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If we take the currency conversion difference between the US$5.75/bu. futures price and the equivalent Canadian value of $7.13/bu., we have a difference of $1.38/bu. The grain companies are saying that they’re doing the conversion in the basis, so that value should show in the basis as +$1.38/bu. The posted basis that they show is +40c/bu. so there is a difference of $.98/bu. Why? The only thing I can take from this is that the grain companies are taking the extra cash to offset their risk in the marketplace or just for profit.

Now to be fair ,I can see why the grain companies don’t want to post this as a -$.98/bu. basis. It just doesn’t look good and they would get too much flack from producers asking why their basis is so wide.

The last time basis levels were this high was about a year ago when weather and transportation issues forced a halt to grain movement and the grain companies widened basis out to stop the flow of grain coming into their facilities as they could not sell or move it and they didn’t want to own a lot of product at a time when there was so much risk in the markets.

Today conditions are far different from a year ago so why is the basis back to these levels?

Maybe other market conditions are forcing companies to set such a wide basis. The only justifiable reason I can come up with for such

a wide basis would be that they don’t have any sales in place, so they are taking additional protection to ensure that the wheat they buy now is at a profitable level in case the markets should fall before they can sell it.

If that’s the reason, they should post a transparent basis and send the right signal to the marketplace instead of playing a shell game with currency exchange and basis levels just to make themselves look good. In fact, it looks like they are taking a bigger piece of the pie and trying to hide the fact.

How are we going to get transparency in pricing? By being diligent and taking the grain companies to task when they fall back to using “lazy math” to determine their price offers. Give us proper market signals, don’t hide behind the basis.

If that doesn’t’ work then I guess we will have to push governments to legislate mandatory methodology for pricing grains in Canada that will give producers and buyers relevant and transparent market signals.

It’s the open market at work, but for the benefit of who?

Keep your pencil sharp and don’t be afraid to ask questions when something doesn’t look right. † Brian Wittal has 30 years of grain industry experience, and currently offers market planning and marketing advice to farmers through his company Pro Com Marketing Ltd. (www. procommarketingltd.com).

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21

Columns Can’t take the farm from the boy

Sharing equipment to grow profits Is it a good idea for two or more farm operations to share equipment? There are pros and cons Toban Dyck

T

hirteen thousand dollars divided by two is less than $13,000. We can agree on that, correct?

The same amount divided by three is even less.

We used a 45-foot conveyor to unload our seed soybeans last fall. It took less than a cigarette to fill our tandem. I don’t smoke, but I know it takes about seven to nine minutes to burn one down. The conveyor was fast, and seductive. I wanted one.

We still speak of our seven-inch, electric auger with the respect it deserves after faithfully serving our farm for many years, but we sound forced now. Its 30-minute load time doesn’t hold a candle to the marvelous things that conveyor could do: drive itself, operate with little horsepower and run whisper quiet.

Our farm is small — too small for an expensive conveyor used almost exclusively to load trucks.

But we could share one with other small farms in the area.

Two or three farms could share one combine, self-propelled sprayer, and an attractive lineup of other implements.

Sharing terrifies me, to be honest. But it’s not a stupid idea. Its pros and cons deserve to be explored:

Two minds are better than one The first point, and perhaps the least convincing for you seasoned lone operators, is that two minds are better than one. My only artillery here is anecdote. In every job I’ve had, every venture I’ve been a part of, collaboration has resulted in greater things that I would have been capable of alone. Farmers, in my experience, are often very sure about things. They have to be.

It’s a good thing. But, and only because they are human, they are often wrong. Two minds can be

wrong, too, but the odds are more attractive. Collaboration is difficult — it really is — but worth it.

Community is tied to my/our life on the farm. The word is mentioned often. We need to find community here, and this would be one way to do it. It’s too easy to operate in a vacuum when you’re physically distant from others. Band together.

But half of a used one puts it in reach, when the time comes.

The specifics of how this can be done, and some farms are currently practicing the sharing model, are up to the individuals involved, and their accountants. I’m only unpacking theory here. I don’t yet own anything, and these decisions are not yet mine to make. But this shouldn’t weaken the idea.

People want to own things, and have a hard time wrapping Purchasing power their minds around how two or I may not have $13,000 to three people could own one tracspend on a conveyor, but $6,500 tor. Ownership is a difficult concould work. Our sprayer is in cept to strip down. I generally good condition, but it won’t be want things for myself, once in forever. A high-clearance, self- a while conceding to share them propelled would be nice, and with my wife. I would have an something I’ve only admired in initial, knee-jerk reaction to only T:8.125” classified ads and dealer lots. owning 75 per cent of a combine

There are countless complications and questions

Toban Dyck is a freelance writer and a new farmer on an old farm. Follow him on Twitter @tobandyck or email tobandyck@gmail.com.

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Farmers with few acres should want to acquire more acres. I hear this often. I get it. Growth makes sense, and I’m not averse to it. I want our farm to survive, grow at a rate comfortable for everyone on it and become as efficient and profitable as it can be. And, heck, sometimes small is okay, even best.

Sharing some of the financial load and farm-related responsibilities with others may be what will save and preserve the small farm, which many speak of as though fated to a corporate buyout. The idea of farm sharing is interesting in theory, complicated in practice, I imagine. And it has come up a few times since I moved back to the area.

The sharing concept, as it’s been articulated to me, is this: take two farms, their acres, machinery, storage and throw them into one basket. My land in this hypothetical scenario represents 75 per cent of the kitty, meaning I pay for 75 per cent of the fuel, labour costs, equipment costs, you get the idea. The farmers involved would decide together which acres of the land in the basket would be seeded first, basing this not on who owns the land, but on what is ready first. The same rubric would apply to spraying and harvest. It would apply to everything.

and then having to share it with others. What if they scratch it?

Smoke in the cab? And a thousand other questions.

I understand there are countless complications and questions associated with a farm moving in this direction. To be honest, I don’t know if this is the direction our farm will go. We’re not facing buyouts. Our end is not in sight. But growth, in terms of buying more land, seems far from possible right now. Sharing is an efficiency that could potentially increase profits in a way similar to an increase in land base. I just wanted to plant the bug in your ear. Think about it. †

22

/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Columns Open Field

Export sales mission to Asia Sarah Weighum travels to Japan to learn more about international ag sales sarah weigum

I

f it hadn’t been such a rainy harvest, I may not have found myself on a flight to Tokyo last November.

I can’t remember if I was waiting for a shower to dry up or the snow to melt, but one morning in early September I read an article in one of the farm papers that highlighted an upcoming trip for businesses wanting to export food and food ingredients to Japan and Korea. I have been co-ordinating our farm’s export business for a couple years, but in 2014 our major Korean buyer severely reduced demand. The trade mission seemed like an opportunity to pursue new opportunities to export clean, packaged grain, ready for food processing.

The trade mission was organized

by Alberta Agriculture in conjunction with the British Columbia and Saskatchewan agriculture departments. Between harvest and mid-November I created promotional material, had it translated into Japanese and Korean, booked flights and hotels and collected clean grain samples to show prospective buyers. My boyfriend, Curtis, who is also a farmer, joined me for the adventure.

After touching down in Tokyo and taking a couple days to adjust to the time change, we met up with the other Canadian exporters at the Canadian embassy for a day of introduction to the Japanese market.

We learned from both trade commissioners and Japanese business people that food safety followed by cost are the two most important factors to Japanese consumers. Vegetable oils, beef and bottled water are products in high demand.

We visited a warehouse where home-delivery grocery orders are processed. An amazing bar code system stores individual food packages in crates and compiles them to match the customers’ order forms with an employee loading all the goods into one final crate for delivery to its destination. According to the warehouse managers, they make about 50 mistakes in one million orders. One of the trade officers from the Alberta-Japan office pointed out that that is the level of precision the Japanese expect when doing business.

The next day the embassy hosted a day-long trade show.

Japanese buyers visited the show and a lunch reception gave us the opportunity to mingle with them. The staff from the embassy and the provincial offices are well-connected and made sure to introduce us to as many relevant buyers as possible.

That night we took the bullet train to Osaka and had a similar trade show and reception the following day.

The trade mission was billed as the Western Canada Food Expo and it happens every two years.

Most of the Canadian companies

in attendance were exporting ready-to-retail foods like potato chips, candy, camelina oil, pork, rolled oats and honey. Many of the buyers at the Tokyo and Osaka expos were from grocery stores, restaurants, and other retail outlets and they wanted to buy ready-to-eat and ready-toprepare products.

Buyer feedback We did have a couple of traders and food manufacturers express interest in importing Canadian grains. Fababeans sorted to particular sizes were of interest, as were green peas for snack foods.

Several buyers asked about nonGMO soybeans for food process-

ing. There were also a couple of companies interested in importing flax, but flax has two strikes against it in the Japanese market: cyanide and GMOs. I had no idea before I traveled to Japan that there are naturally occurring cyanide compounds in flax. We all know cyanide is poisonous, but as the saying goes, “the dose makes the poison.” There is no evidence of the cyanide content in flax harming any humans, but the Japanese will reject a shipment if the cyanide content is more than 10 parts per million. This standard is based on research on the cassava plant, which also contains cyanide. Cassava is a staple food in some parts of Africa and when

consumed exclusively for an extended period of time the cyanide content can cause a paralytic disorder. Ten parts per million is considered a safe level of cyanide compounds in cassava.

It doesn’t make much sense to impose the same standard on flax, which is consumed in much smaller amounts than cassava, but this is good example of Japanese regulators prioritizing food safety. According to the trade commissioner I talked to, most raw flax contains 10 to 20 parts per million of cyanide, if a shipment were to arrive in Japan and test over the limit, it would be sent back at huge cost to the exporter. The only way around the cyanide problem is to roast

the flax, which one Regina company is doing.

The other problem I mentioned is GMOs. In 2009, Japan found a trace amount of genetically modified flaxseed in a shipment.

(A genetically modified variety of flax had been developed in Saskatchewan but was pulled from the market. However, not before trace amounts were found in a number of Canadian flax varieties.) Because GM flaxseed is not approved for human consumption in Japan, the load was rejected and all subsequent flax shipments destined for food are to be inspected until enough shipments pass the test that random testing can resume. Even if a lot of flax passes a Canadian

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Columns

Left: Sarah Weighum at the Japanese embassy. In Japan, Sarah learned that food safety and cost are the two most important factors to Japanese consumers. Right: In Japan, Sarah Weighum visited a warehouse where home-delivery grocery orders are processed.

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GMO test, concerns remain that trace amounts will be detected on the other side of the Pacific.

Despite the supposed purging of GMO seed from the Canadian flax crop, exporters remain in a catch-22 situation. Canadian exporters are loathe to send a shipment to Japan in case it gets rejected, so the Canadian system can’t build up the good credit it needs to avoid intense scrutiny.

Another thing we learned is that all imports of wheat and barley to Japan are co-ordinated by their ministry of agriculture.

Every year the government asks food processors to estimate their wheat and barley needs for the year. The country’s small domestic production is subtracted from this amount and then the government tasks private grain traders with bringing enough grain into the country to meet the demand. Part of the mark-up on the imported wheat and barley is used to subsidize domestic production.

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There are naturally cyanide compounds in flax

It’s kind of a reverse Canadian Wheat Board: instead of a single desk buyer, Japanese food processors essentially have a single desk supplier. And it means that Canadian exporters can’t sell directly to a Japanese food processor.

If it sounds challenging to do business in Japan, that’s because it is and the staff from the Canadian embassy didn’t sugarcoat this reality. It can take a long time and many emails and visits to ink a deal. The trade-off? The Japanese desire for a long-term business relationship.

As one commissioner said, “The Japanese aren’t looking for a one night stand, they’re looking for a marriage.”

In my next column I’ll take you to Korea, where we experienced kimchi, Korean BBQ and an onslaught of keen Korean grain buyers. † Sarah Weigum grows pedigreed seed and writes at Three Hills, Alta. Follow her on Twitter: @sweigum.

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Machinery & Shop Build a better workshop

How to install an overhead garage door Installing an overhead garage door may not be the easiest project you’ll ever tackle, but doing it yourself can save a hefty installation fee. Here’s a hands-on account

By Scott Garvey

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here’s more to it than you’d think,” commented a friend who used to be a contractor and building supplies retailer. We were discussing what’s involved when installing an overhead garage door in farm workshop.

After just finishing my own installation, I had to wholeheartedly agree with him. But getting a quality overhead door installed may be one the best improvements any workshop can get, especially if it involves upgrading from the sliding door types.

One of the problems with sliding doors is it’s difficult to get them to seal to the wall to keep cold winter air out and heat in.

Overhead doors do that pretty well. So for that reason we decided to swap out a pair of sliding doors on our workshop for something better. And to save about $1,000 in installer fees, we tackled the project ourselves.

Based on our experience, here are our tips for anyone contem-

plating a do-it-yourself overhead door installation.

The tips If you’ve never tackled an installation like this before, make sure you have all the instruction sheets you need before beginning.

When our door arrived, there was a box full of jumbled hardware but no instructions and no materials list. So, it took a couple of phone calls and a wasted day trying to get them.

Even after tracking down instruction sheets, laying out the door sections and hardware on the ground, before trying to put anything together, was helpful in understanding how things should fit together. Take your time here and understand the process before you begin.

There are a couple of ways to tackle the job. Both require setting the bottom door section (with rollers attached) in the opening, centring and levelling it. Drive a framing nail into the jamb on each side and bend

them around the door section to hold it in place when you’re satisfied it’s in perfect positon.

You may have to place a shim under one side of the bottom door section if your concrete sill isn’t perfectly level. Keeping the door and tracks level and plumb is critical.

From here, there are two ways you can go. You can continue stacking sections and holding them in place with nails until all are in place and level all the way to the top. Or, you can install both vertical tracks after placing just the bottom section.

If you go with the second option and install the tracks first, installation of additional door sections requires you attach a hinge on one side and pivot the roller into the track as you stack the section on the one below it. Then slip the opposite roller and hinge into the track and slide it down onto the door section to attach it.

If you’ve shimmed one side of the door, be sure to shim the bottom of the vertical track on that side as well. The tracks on both sides of the

door need to be level or the door will bind when you try to raise it.

The vertical track is designed to tilt back, away from the wall.

To compensate and keep the door fitting tightly to the wall when it’s closed, hinges will progressively place the roller about 1/4-inch farther back from the door on each section. The rearward angle of the track allows the door to pull away from the jamb as it’s lifted, eliminating any drag. Each hinge will have a number stamped into it to indicate where it’s placed on the door. The higher up the door the hinge is mounted, the higher number it will have.

Once the door sections and the vertical track are in place and properly levelled and plumbed, install the horizontal tracks and temporarily secure them to their mounting points on the ceiling with a rope. There is pre-drilled aluminum angle iron available just for the purpose of mounting tracks to the ceiling, but it likely won’t be included with your door kit. Building supply stores carry it.

Measure carefully to ensure both horizontal tracks are square to each other and at 90 degrees to the wall in order to prevent binding when the door is raised. Depending on your particular door and the type of lifting mechanism, the horizontal tracks may need to be level or tilted slightly upward.

The tensioner spring used to help raise the door needs to be manually wound the appropriate number of times to give the proper lift assistance. Check your instructions for the proper tension. Winding them the necessary amount for a large shop door will involve a little sweat.

Overall, this type of installation is not a one-man job. You’ll need at least one helper. If you have a friend who has installed a door before, do your best to convince him to come over for the day and give you a hand.

Having someone on site with experience doing this job will definitely help. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

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photos: scott garvey

1. Changing the doors on a farm shop from the sliding type (left) to a roll-up version (right) can be a useful upgrade if you intend to heat the building in the winter. 2. To ensure the door will roll up properly, the vertical sections of the tracks need to be level and even with each other at the start of the curve to the horizontal portion or the door will bind. 3. Each hinge is numbered.

Place those with lowest number on the bottom section and progressively install the next highest numbers as you work upward to the top of the door. 4. Perforated angle iron is available from building supply stores to mount the horizontal tracks to a secure point in the ceiling.

MARCH 3, 2015 grainews.ca /

25

Machinery & Shop Keep it going

Keeping the old Cat running On his ranch near Turtle Lake, Wilfred Hamm is still using his 820 John Deere and D4 Caterpillar

By Lisa Guenther

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ilfred Hamm has a large collection of old and antique farm machinery, and much of it is still used on his ranch near Turtle Lake, Saskatchewan.

Wilfred uses an 820 John Deere for cultivating summer fallow. The 820 John Deere is a two-cylinder diesel. It has a four-cylinder pony engine which runs on gas. Wilfred says the John Deere always starts, and requires little maintenance, other than oil changes. Wilfred and his son, Paul, both weld, and can tackle many repair jobs on their own.

But the John Deere’s six-volt generator doesn’t work anymore, and Wilfred can’t source another one. This means that after a week or so of work he has to recharge the battery.

The old JD isn’t the most comfortable ride — in fact, Wilfred’s the only one who uses it regularly.

It’s quite loud, so he has to wear hearing protection. But it does have power steering, and Wilfred says he can run it for half the cost of his newer tractor, which has front-wheel assist and an airconditioned cab.

photos: lisa guenther

Left: The Hamm family originally used this D4 Cat in their sawmill, and they still use it to put up wood to heat their shops, as well as one home. Right: The JD 820 Diesel has a four-cylinder gas motor that starts the diesel engine. Wilfred says it always starts.

The little cat This D4 Caterpillar is still used on the Hamm ranch, near Turtle Lake, Saskatchewan.

Wilfred Hamm says he originally bought the Cat to skid logs.

Wilfred and his family used to run a sawmill, and they still mill their own lumber for corrals and farm buildings. They also use the Cat to bring in wood to heat one house and two shops on the ranch. The dozer blade comes in handy when clearing snow or brush.

The D4 Cat pre-dates hydraulics, and so a cable winch lifts the dozer.

Breaking cables aren’t a problem, Wilfred says, as they replace the cables once they start to fray.

The engine is a four-cylinder diesel. It has an electric start pony engine, which runs on gas.

The D4 was bought second-hand several years ago, but Wilfred says the only issue he’s had was a leaky radiator, which he replaced. †

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/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Machinery & Shop Build a better workshop

How to pick the right fire extinguisher for a farm shop There is more than one type of fire extinguisher.

Find out which type is best to keep your farm shop safe

By Scott Garvey

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n any typical farm workshop there are always flammable materials inside, such as liquids like oil and gasoline or greasy rags and ordinary wood and paper. In the same space is a variety of potential ignition sources, a welder or grinder that can throw sparks, the electrical systems of vehicles or machines stored inside, even gas-flame torches.

The risk of fire is very real, and more than a few farm shops have burned to the ground. The best way to ensure yours doesn’t go up in smoke is to start by having a fire extinguisher on hand. But there is more than one type and not all work on every type of fire. Here’s a look at your extinguisher options.

First of all, fires are classified by the type of material burning.

Class A fires are fuelled by ordinary materials, like paper, wood or some

plastics. Class B fires involve combustible fluids like gasoline and oils. And Class C fires are electrical.

There is also a Class D fire, which describes burning metals, like magnesium. But it’s unlikely the average farm shop will ever experience one of those.

Class A, B and C fires, however, are high on the probability list.

So every workshop should have extinguishers that can cope with all three. An ordinary dry chemical extinguisher will handle that job, just look for an ABC rating, which will be displayed on its body.

Dry chemical extinguishers smother a fire with a powdery, non-toxic agent that can leave you with a big mess to clean up afterward. But at least you’ll still have a shop that needs cleaning.

And if you spray dry chemical into the engine bay of a vehicle to suppress a fire, you may find you have to remove and clean the carb (if it’s an older machine) along with other components to try and get rid of residual chemical.

An alternative to the dry chemical type is a carbon dioxide (Co2) extinguisher. The Co2 displaces oxygen in a small area, putting the fire out that way. A benefit to this type is it does not leave a big residue mess, making it ideal for engine bay flare ups. A disadvantage is it is not rated for Class A fires. The high-pressure gas cloud it creates can scatter burning material, actually spreading a Class A fire.

If you need to extinguish your own burning clothes or a coworker’s, the dry chemical extinguisher is better suited for that. Co2 will work, but it can also cause frostbite to skin, adding to injuries.

And because it displaces oxygen it can cause suffocation if you surround yourself with it. You really don’t want to pass out in the middle of fighting a blaze.

There are also still Halon extinguishers on the market, which use Halon 1301 or Halon 1211 gas.

These gasses have been identified as long-lasting ozone depleting agents, but manufacturers are allowed to use existing stocks in new extinguishers. They work in a manner similar to C02, stopping the chemical reaction involved in a fire.

It’s best to avoid buying cheaper, small, plastic-bodied extinguishers, opt instead for a five or 10 pound steel-bodied, recharge-

Tundra

Keep an eye on the pressure gauge to ensure an extinguisher is still usable. This one no longer has stored pressure and needs servicing. able types. These good-quality extinguishers also have a pressure gauge that will clearly indicate if they are still serviceable.

Where to put them Mounting ABC extinguishers at eye level near exits is a good idea.

That way in the event of a fire your escape route and path to an extinguisher location are the same, so making a fight or flight choice won’t involve going away from an exit — and safety — to find an extinguisher. If the fire is of a size that you can tackle it with an extinguisher, you’ll still have your escape route at your back if things get out of hand.

If you have a designated repair area in your shop where you could experience a Class B or C fire, placing a Co2 extinguisher near there will provide quick access to deal with small flare ups without leaving that dry chemical mess I mentioned earlier. You’ll still need ABC extinguishers near the exits to fall back on, though.

But it’s important to remember this: if the fire is large and flames are already lapping at the ceiling or the building is rapidly filling with smoke, getting out is probably your only sensible alternative.

After successfully suppressing a workshop fire, keep a close eye on things for quite a while in case of a flare up. And if you can safely move the problem material outside, do it. If fire flares up again, at least your shop won’t be at risk.

And when using an extinguisher, discharge the contents fully to ensure a blaze is out.

Once activated, an extinguisher

photos: scott garvey

Selecting a steel-bodied five or 10 pound extinguisher like this one is a good choice for a farm workshop. But keep them in serviceable condition. This one has been neglected and won’t be of any use in a fire.

won’t hold pressure over the long term any more, anyway. It will need to go to a service facility to be refilled.

According to Leonard Sharman, senior media advisor for Cooperators Insurance, having extinguishers in your shop won’t guarantee you an insurance discount. But, he suggests, demonstrating you’re prepared for fire in your shop may result in an underwriter offering you a discounted premium. “It is a factor that the underwriter takes into account when reviewing the policy,” he said in an email. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

MARCH 3, 2015 grainews.ca /

27

Machinery & Shop U.S. Farm Progress Show

New grain storage products from GSI A new high-capacity bin and belt conveyor are the latest from AGCO’s GSI brand

By Scott Garvey

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GCO’s grain storage and handling brand GSI had a couple of new products to introduce at the U.S. Farm Progress Show in Iowa last August. It added a new 40-Series, four-inch corrugated high-capacity grain bin and VersaLoop round tube chain conveyor to its list of products.

GSI carried forward some of the features of the 2.66-inch corrugated 40-Series bin, which it launched in 2013, and integrated them into its new 4-inch corrugated bin line. The new design allows bins to be built taller than the 2.66 version yet sit on a smaller footprint. Diametres range from 30 to 72 feet; and they can be built up to 21 rings high, providing a maximum capacity for the new 40 Series of 282,000 bushels.

“We now have a much more comprehensive bin offering along with additional features, such as 2-ring walk-through doors,” says Greg Trame, GSI’s global product manager for storage.

Roof panels on the new 40 Series have been redesigned, and the bins are also available with the optional Z-Tek roof that can withstand higher snow loads. They have larger flat tops and are rated for up to 50,000 pounds of peak loading to accomodate a wider array of handling equipment.

Chain conveyor can move up to 6,000 bushels per hour The new 40 Series bins also use an updated, rolled structural base angle that prevents water from entering at the base of the bin, and base stiffener boots that are powder-coated so they won’t rust.

“These and other upgrades bring farmers many of the same rugged features that were originally designed for commercial bin environments,” Trame adds.

The new modular VersaLoop round chain conveyor can move up to 6,000 bushels per hour on inclines of up to 60 degrees with a minimum of supports.

Trame says installing the VersaLoop conveyor is an easy way to replace an auger. “It’s quieter, doesn’t wear like an auger and also moves grain more gently and efficiently,” he says. “And, with its round tube design, it offers excellent clean-out compared to loop conveyors with square boxes.”

The company claims the VersaLoop offers easy maintenance, because it uses a direct drive system with no belts to repair or replace. Also, the motor, gear box and chain take-up are all located at one end of the tube, providing easier access than loop conveyors that have these service points at both ends.

For more information go online to GSI’s website, www. grainsystems.com. †

photos: agco

Left: New four-inch corrugated 40 Series bins from GSI offer up to 282,000 bushel capacity on small footprints. Right: The VersaLoop offers easy maintenance and can move up to 6,000 bushels per hour.

Tomorrow’s success starts here and the key is in John Deere equipment

Before you turn the ignition on another canola season, make sure the machines in your shed can get you from one destination to the next, and not just a stop or two along the way. John Deere equipment and services are a complete solution you can trust to get you from seeding, through application, and into harvest.

Start your season off strong with a new 9R/9RT Series Tractor paired with precise air-seeding tools – combined they give you the power and productivity to set the stage for higher yields. Ensure your canola gets consistent application coverage, acre after acre, thanks to our impressive line of self-propelled sprayers. On the back end, get some of the best harvesting options in the business with a John Deere Windrower or S-Series Combine to pull as much revenue out of your feld as possible.

Want to know the whole story? Visit Deere.ca/Ag for more information on the full John Deere suite of technology for high-performance canola production. Nothing Runs Like A Deere™.

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Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

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/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Machinery & Shop New equipment

Kubota launches the M7 Series An entirely new line of tractors raises the orange brand’s horsepower limit to 170

By Scott Garvey

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ore than a few head of Prairie cattle look forward every winter to seeing one of Kubota’s the orange machines bringing them out feed bales each day. But with a top horsepower rating on the brand’s most powerful model at the start of 2014 that kept it in the utility segment, the range of duties these tractors could perform was limited.

Now, Kubota executives plan on having their equipment — not just tractors — make a much bigger impact in the ag machinery market. They’ve started growing the size of their tractors with the introduction in October of the three-model M7 Series.

Built in France, the new 130, 150 and 170 horsepower models will make it to Canadian shores by mid summer.

“We’ll start to see that tractor mid year, probably July or August we’ll start to get equipment on the ground in Canada,” says David Webster, general manager for marketing and sales in Canada. “Then we’ll be doing some local events to help dealers expose their customers to the machine.”

The M7 Series is a new design for Kubota tractors, both inside the

cab and out. The company claims all the driveline components have been specifically engineered to work together for maximum fuel efficiency. And designers have paid attention to ergonomics to make the cab and controls much more comfortable for the operator.

The control layout inside the cab includes a new, multifunction joystick that controls speed, direction and three-point hitch operation. A new touch screen monitor provides data on a number of functions.

The M7 tractors were introduced a few weeks earlier in Europe than here, and they are more likely to appeal to farmers as tillage tractors there. In Canada and the U.S., brand marketers expect to target primarily livestock and hay producers, although it will appeal to some as a primary field tractor.

“We have much larger tractors here (in North America than in Europe),” says Todd Stucke, VP of ag and turf for Kubota in the U.S. “This tractor fits their market very well.

There is more market opportunity.

It fits us very well too, especially in that livestock, hay market and it also allows us to step into that row crop market.”

To further pique livestock producers’ interest, the brand is now offering some haying equipment, and there is more to come. Kubota

recently acquired Norwegian manufacturer Kverneland, which has been producing haying and tillage equipment for decades. Some of those implements are already available through Kubota dealers.

“One of the biggest things we’ll be introducing is the silage baler,” says Webster. “We have a 4x5, 5x5 (round) baler that we offer now in a couple of different models. And we offer those in silage configurations as well. We don’t have a 5x6 baler yet, which is probably more applicable to customers in Western Canada, in the prairie provinces. But that’s something I expect to see in our product line in the coming years.”

Although executives won’t reveal the timeline for the introducing additional products, they emphasize that there will be more to come.

And they think western farmers will like what they see, with future products tailored to meet the needs of larger producers. “...As we look at getting into larger farming operations, we’ll definitely continue to see product-line expansion, evidenced by the M7 tractor that was introduced,” adds Webster. “And we’ll definitely see that product line continue to grow. The company isn’t done there.” †

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photos: kubota

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Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

1. Introduced to North American dealers in October, the new M7 Series offers three models that top out at 170 horsepower. 2. Along with the new, larger tractors, the company is also offering a growing line of Kubotabrand haying equipment. 3. Kubota will eventually add more round baler models to its Canadian equipment lineup, including a 5 x 6 model sometime in the future.

fielding life’s needs.

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For the latest specials, visit your local OK Tire or oktire.com

MARCH 3, 2015 grainews.ca /

29

Machinery & Shop Canada’s Farm Progress Show

Aftermarket concave wins Innovation Award Sunnybrook Welding introduces CR Tri-Frame concave for NH combines

By Lisa Guenther

rub bars to concaves to rotors. The them. Boronized equipment modular concave for CR model wears better than steel and cuts New Holland combines, which the co-efficient of friction of the was granted a Sterling Innovation concave’s underbelly by about Award at Canada’s Farm Progress half, according to Foster.

Show last June, is just the comThe award-winning concave pany’s latest offering. was designed specifically for Sunnybrook’s modular concave New Holland combines, but the design also cuts waste, Foster says. “technology crosses over to every With a typical concave “You throw combine out there,” he adds. The 500 pounds of steel into the scrap company is currently replicating bin for the loss of three or four the technology for other models. ounces of mass when we call it Farmers can pick up a dull,” he says. “With this system Sunnybrook concave through you’re able to change out a small most New Holland dealers. For piece.” more information, visit sunnyWhen the people at Sunnybrook brookwelding.com. † photo: lisa guenther Welding started designing the Lisa Guenther is field editor for Grainews based The modular CR Tri-Frame concave for NH combines garnered concave, they decided to boron- at Livelong, Sask. Contact her at Lisa.Guenther@ Sunnybrook Welding a Silver Innovation Award at Canada’s Farm Walinga7614FAd_VF.pdf Walinga7614FAd_VF.pdf 1 fbcpublishing.com 8/13/2014 9:49 AM Twitter @LtoG. 8/13/2014 9:49 or on Progress Show last1 June. ize surfaces instead of chroming

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unnybrook Welding’s new CR Tri-Frame concave design slashes changeout time by at least half, claims Gerald Foster, the company’s president and CEO. The key, he says, is the modular design.

“So instead of replacing the whole frame, we have a segmented underlay to the concave that bolts in, in three different pieces,” Foster explains. “And each one of those three pieces has three reversible, replaceable segments in it.”

Sunnybrook Welding produces combine components compatible with all the major equipment brands. Their products range from

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Cattleman’s Corner The Markets

Downsizing is over — the cow herd is rebuilding Next fall’s feeder market may adjust to larger calf crops in Canada and the U.S. Jerry Klassen Market Update

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estern Canadian fed and feeder cattle prices have come off the historical highs over the past month as the market starts to factor in growing beef supplies and beef demand stagnates.

It appears U.S. second quarter beef production will be larger than earlier anticipated given the yearover-year increase in cattle-onfeed inventories. Longer term, it appears that cattle inventories are expanding as producers respond to the record-high prices. Feeder cattle values may have reached an exasperation point this past fall. A sharper heifer-retention rate resulted in an abnormally tight supply situation and feedlot margins for the spring will move into negative territory given the price of fed cattle.

Macro conditions have supported the Canadian cattle complex. The weaker Canadian dollar has enhanced demand for all classes of cattle and beef products while weaker energy prices have given the average consumer a 1.5 to four per cent increase in disposable income.

The USDA estimated the Jan. 1 cattle inventory at 89.8 million head, up one per cent in comparison to Jan. 1, 2014. The number of beef cows showed a year-over-year increase of two per cent while beef replacement heifers were up four per cent from last year. Calves born in 2014

totalled 33.9 million head, up one per cent from the 2013 calf crop of 33.7 million head. Looking at past historical patterns, we could see the calf crop jump by four to five per cent in 2015 given the number of beef cows and heifer retention projections. The inventory contraction phase has come to an end in 2014 and we have turned the corner looking towards an additional two to four years of herd rebuilding.

U.S. cattle on feed inventories as of January 1 were 10.690 million head, up one per cent from last year. Fed cattle marketings during December were down five per cent from December of 2013 while placements were down eight per cent. I don’t focus to hard on the placements because this can be delayed due to factors such as dryer pasture or market conditions. The most important is the on-feed number and fed-cattle marketings. Feedlots have held back on marketings and overall on-feed numbers are higher, which will result in a year-over-year increase in secondquarter beef production.

ALBERTA AND SASKATCHEWAN NUMBERS Alberta and Saskatchewan feedlot inventories are running three to five per cent below year-ago levels. The industry experienced a larger export program of feeder cattle resulting in lower on-feed numbers domestically. For January, the number of cattle slaughtered in Canada was down five per cent from last year while beef production was down two per cent.

We’ve seen an increase in slaughter weights offsetting a portion of the number of cattle slaughtered.

photo: file

As these southern Alberta cows wait for spring to arrive, figures show a one, two and even four per cent increases in some aspects of the U.S. beef cattle herd are clear signs that the beef industry contraction phase is over, and the North American beef herd is beginning to be rebuilt.

Alberta packers have been using contracted supplies but I feel the domestic market is rationing demand away from export channels due to the lower on-feed numbers. Canadian fed cattle exports during January were down 50 per cent compared to year-ago levels. This may be a signal we should see stronger basis levels in the second quarter which is somewhat counter seasonal. However, it is a positive factor for Canadian producers when U.S. supplies are growing. Alberta fed cattle prices are quoted near $185 whereas U.S. destined cattle bring $180 to $183 back to the feedlot.

The demand equation is vulnerable to a weakening profile.

U.S. pork and broiler production will expand by nearly one billion pounds each in 2015. Consumers may have a marginal increase in disposable income due to lower energy prices but people are always price conscious, especially when products are equally healthy.

Another factor to consider is the unemployment rate has been declining, dipping to 5.6 per cent, which is under the longerterm average of 5.8 per cent. The unemployment rate can be misleading because there are apparently 30 million Americans out of work or severely underemployed, which the surveys doesn’t take into account. In any case, if we don’t see this change or improve,

beef demand is not improving but stagnating or deteriorating.

Fed cattle prices are expected to trend lower in the second quarter due to larger beef production and stagnating demand. Feeder cattle prices are expected to come under pressure as fed cattle values drift lower. Secondly, I’m still somewhat bullish on feed grain prices for western Canadian feedlot operators later in spring, which will narrow the feeding margin structure. Next fall, I’m expecting the feeder market to adjust to larger calf crops in Canada and the U.S. † Gerald Klassen analyzes cattle and hog markets in Winnipeg and also maintains an interest in the family feedlot in southern Alberta. For comments or speaking engagements, he can be reached at gklassen7@hotmail.com or call 204 899 8268

Better bunks and pastures

How much mineral are your cows eating?

Some guidelines on how to calculate a herd’s consumption from different sources PETER VITTI

P

utting out free-choice loose mineral to nursing cows isn’t a particularly difficult job, but it is an essential one.

It’s a recommendation that I have made for years, because we need to maintain or elevate their post-calving mineral status that helps cows cycle before the start of the breeding season and conceive early within weeks of letting out the bulls. In addition, we should feed cattle mineral in proper feeders and then monitor its consumption by cows to assure they are eating sufficient mineral.

Unfortunately, many people follow the feeding directions on the mineral bag’s feed label, but really don’t check how much their cows are consuming on a daily basis. In many cases, they feed too little, which could allow a possible macro- or trace-marginal deficiency to develop and could easily lead to poor pregnancy rates. Others dump in too much, where they are constantly digging out uneaten rock-hard mineral, which is wasteful.

Once, I received a call from a veterinarian near Edmonton saying one of her clients, a 300 cow-calf operation, thought they had a copper deficiency in their herd, because many cows had little heat activity a couple of months after calving and often failed to catch during the breeding season. Within a few minutes

of our conversation, she said the herd showed subtle symptoms of a copper deficiency and asked me if it made sense to significantly increasing the copper levels in a commercial mineral her client was feeding.

Without judgment on the herd’s copper status, I asked how much mineral was being fed daily to this cow herd. The vet replied didn’t know, but her clients visited their cattle grazing pasture about once a week and assumed they put out a couple of bags of this commercial mineral. At the end of our conversation, I gave her the best recommendation for feeding most commercial low-salt beef mineral; feed 50 to 100 grams (two to four ounces) per head per day. For a 300 cow-calf operations: (70 g x 300 cows x 7 day)/25-kg bag equals six bags on a weekly basis.

KEEPING TRACK For producers who wish to keep track of the exact amount of mineral their cattle consume on a daily basis, adjusted within these guidelines; the calculation to determine cattle mineral intake is a straightforward procedure: (1) count how many cows and estimate how much total mineral is to be fed to them, (2) fill each mineral feeder with one bag of mineral, (3) come back a few days later, (4) estimate or measure the amount left in each feeder, and (5) do the following calculations.

• (7 feeders (for 300 — cows) x 25 kg mineral) — (about 1/3 of the mineral leftover) = 117 kg • 117 kg/300 cows/3 days = 130 g per head per day.

•4 .6 ounces (divide grams by 28) per head per day.

Given this conversation, there is likely a built-in variability in how much mineral cattle actually eat. We target between 50 to 100 grams, but a small portion of the herd will either consume inadequate or too much mineral, but the bulk of the cow herd should consume the approximate recommended amount.

Some producers mix salt with their purchased mineral, in order to either increase or decrease cow herd mineral intake. It is common to mix 1/3 salt with 2/3 mineral, and feed it, accordingly. Although this is a sound practice, producers should check the rest of the cows’ diet and make sure that cattle don’t avoid

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MARCH 3, 2015 grainews.ca /

31

Cattleman’s Corner ANIMAL HEALTH

Refresher on pulling a calf Even if you have easy calvers, it’s a skill worth perfecting Roy Lewis animal health

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roducers need to understand the proper use of a calf jack or hand-pulling techniques during a difficult calving, as different malpresentations need to be dealt with slightly differently.

When pulling, be cognizant of the stress this puts on both the calf and cow. With more producers selecting for ease of calving in their breeding program, pulling is a skill less needed but one still worth perfecting.

A successful “pull” can mean the difference between a live calf versus a dead one, or a cow which breeds back on time versus one which retains her placenta, has vaginal tears and never rebreeds.

The very first decision is about when to intervene — vaginally checking out a cow and initiating a helping hand. The rule of thumb is to wait one hour in cows and 1.5 hours with heifers once they show strong uterine contractions with no progress. Exceptions to this rule are when cows or heifers are uneasy, bawling, or nesting for an extraordinary period of time.

These are also signs of how some malpresentations, torsions and breech births present themselves.

If you have a maternity pen it is easy to simply run them in and check them. You can avert a disaster and often save both calf and cow. With a higher percentage of twins born in some herds, malpresentations are more common than one might think. By now all farmers should have either a commercially made maternity pen calving chute or home made device, which accomplishes the same thing. The principle when pulling is you must be able to restrain the cow to clean and check her.

At the same time, while keeping her head caught she must be able to lay out in lateral recumbency with enough room behind to fully manipulate the puller. Choked down at the end of a rope is not the proper position to pull a calf.

CLEANLINESS IS KEY Of paramount importance is cleanliness. Before examining the vagina make sure the whole perineal area is washed with warm water and surgical soap. Endure, Betadine, Hibitane are designed to not be irritating to the sensitive mucosal surfaces like the inside of the vagina. You can purchase a small container from your veterinarian — they are not costly and will last a long time. Ordinary soaps, which irritate can lead to infections potentially scarring and possibly a delay in rebreeding or even result in an open cow.

Keep yourself clean. Ideally wear a calving suit or at least minimally put on full-arm obstetrical gloves.

Keep them held in position on your arms with a towel clamp or I use wide elastic bands. This keeps you clean and dry and the cow protected. Take a few minutes to do these procedures. It calms the cow down and you are then prepared when pulling ensues.

It is important to first determine the positioning of the calf. Make sure it is presented properly. You always want three things in the pelvis. Two front legs and a head for a forwards presentation or two back legs and a tail in a backwards presentation.

Attaching the chains properly can avoid damage to the calf’s legs and feet. This is especially true when a routine pull turns into a hard pull. Again take time and double loop above and below the fetlock. Make sure the links are laying flat and the pull of each wrap should be lined up. I prefer the pull to come off the bottom of the leg.

I personally like one long chain,

which can be double looped on both feet. The only time I single loop is with a small malpresented calf or with twins where I absolutely know it will be a light hand pull. Calving straps are an alternative. My only issue with straps is they are harder to keep clean.

Always keep the calf jack close and have it cleaned and well serviced. It is a good idea to do maintenance and check operation of the jack at the start of calving season as it may be rusted stiff or worn out. This is again where some farmers’ efforts to keep the whole process of assisted calving sterile falls down. I have seen some pretty grungy calf pullers over the years. Take a few seconds to quickly wash especially the breech (part which goes around the cows back end) and hang it to dry. The breech straps should keep the puller just nicely below the bottom of the vagina when pulling. Keep the calving area and maternity pen clean and periodically disinfect with Virkon disinfectant to keep bacterial and viral contamination low.

BE PATIENT With the actual pull, only advance with the cow’s contractions. You have a bit of time here so don’t get in a rush. The cow’s contractions will greatly reduce the force you need to use. Apply lots of sterile lubricant. This is a cheap product, which can be purchased at the veterinary clinic.

The lubricant is especially helpful when applied over the head in a tight pull. It minimizes friction in the vagina, which is where tears result. With long calvings or when the cow has been examined frequently the vaginal vault dries out so don’t hesitate to use lots of lubricant in these circumstances.

You will be amazed at how much easier the pull becomes. Apply lots of lubricant over the o.b. sleeves as well to minimize friction this keeps your arms from

This diagram shows the presentation of a backward calf. While assisting the delivery of a backward calf starts out on pace with the cow’s contraction, once the feet and tail are past the pevlis there isn’t much time to waste. fatiguing when doing manipulations or applying the chains.

Pull in a slightly downward motion following the natural curvature of the calf. This is easier if the cow is lying down. With a standing cow you can only get about a 45° angle on the puller.

Always keep an eye on the tension of the chains. It is very easy in the heat of the moment to overpull, pull way too fast and injure the calf or cow.

Remember calf pullers can exert 2,000 pounds of pulling power, which can cause great damage in the wrong hands. Two good-sized people should be able to pull a calf by hand otherwise if it is too big a caesarean section may be needed. With today’s labour shortages on farms producers are often by themselves and the use of a puller greatly reduces fatigue by allowing a slow pull, timed with the cows contractions.

BACKWARD SITUATIONS Backward calves are pulled pretty much straight back. Again you can take your time making sure the tail is down between the legs. Pull slowly until the tail and hips are presented out the back end. It is about at this time the calf’s umbilical cord breaks and the calf must be extracted fairly fast. This is the only time you will ever see me pulling a calf fast.

Keep in mind cows cannot deliver as big a calf backward as they can forward. If you see the dewclaws pointing skywards the calf should be assisted immediately as many found stillborn calves are the result of too long a delivery with a backward calf. † Roy Lewis is an Alberta-based veterinarian specializing in large-animal practice. He is also a part-time technical services vet for Merck Animal Health.

feed management

Feeder helps reduce hay waste Designed to encourage eating of small amounts all day

BY LISA GUENTHER

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troll through the trade show at a farm conference, and you’ll quickly find people who saw a need for a product for their own livestock and turned it into a business. The Jubinville family is one example.

“My dad invented the feeder and then my brother and I saw how well it worked and we decided to turn it into a business,” says Clayton Jubinville, who has displayed his feeder at several shows including Agribition in Regina last fall. Clayton’s father, Leonard, has a history of creating equipment such as a deer-handling system.to improve his bison and whitetail operation, Today Clayton and his brother Delton own HayBoss Feeders, a

company that sells livestock feeders designed to cut hay waste.

The feeder is suitable for horses, sheep and goats, along with exotics such as llamas, alpacas and deer. A platform and roof keeps the hay off the ground and out of the weather. Netting holds the bale in place and keeps animals from pulling out and trampling large chunks, Jubinville says. “It just saves the hay. Makes them eat small amounts, all day.”

HayBoss offers netting with two-inch or inch-and-a-half holes, along with one-inch inserts.

Smaller holes make animals work harder for feed.

How much horse owners will save on feed depends on whether the horse is an easy keeper and how the product is used, Jubinville says.

For example, square bales in the two-inch netting wouldn’t slow down the horses but would eliminate waste, but netting with smaller holes would slow feeding further.

Jubinville says they created the product to cut feed waste, but discovered afterward that there are health benefits linked to continuous feeding in horses. The equine digestive system is designed for continuous eating, and so allowing horses to eat small amounts all day, rather than a couple of big servings, is optimal.

The Jubinvilles offer a 30-day, money-back guarantee and a oneyear warrantee on the frame and all moving parts. Nets last between two to five years, says Jubinville, depending on the number of animals being fed and how aggressive

they are. The feeder frame should last a lifetime, Jubinville says.

Other net feeders offer the same health benefits for horses, but HayBoss offers a few extra benefits. The feeder can be used on a fence line, allowing producers to feed two pens with a single feeder.

The net also retracts automatically. All the metal is galvanized.

Every round bale feeder comes with floor extensions and wood skids, for loading ease and general sturdiness.

“We consider it the Cadillac of net feeding,” says Jubinville.

For more information on HayBoss Feeders, visit www.haybossfeeders.com or call 1-844-HAYBOSS (429-2677). † Lisa Guenther is field editor for Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Contact her at Lisa.Guenther@ fbcpublishing.com or on Twitter @LtoG.

photo: lee hart

Clayton Jubinville demonstrates a HayBoss Feeder with the door open. When closed, livestock can only access smaller bites of feed through the netting.

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/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Cattleman’s Corner Rancher’s Diary

From ice to flooding — one extreme to the other heather smith thomas

JANUARY 18 ndrea took Dani to Sun Valley for her hockey tournament this weekend. With all the kids in hockey, on different teams, it’s a challenge to get them to all their games. Andrea finds rides for them with other team members when she is taking one of them a different direction, since their dad won’t take them to tournaments, even when it’s his weekend to have the kids.

Lynn and I help out all we can, with money for gas and lodging.

They take food along, so they don’t have to buy meals. One nice thing about the Sun Valley trips is that Andrea and kids have been able to stay in a room furnished by the Seventh Day Adventist Church, making those trips less expensive.

Here at home it’s been cold.

Jasper, one of the dogs tethered near the heifers, got loose, so we bought a new dog tether. The deer are getting bolder, eating with the heifers in spite of the dogs. When I went to do chores that evening there were seven deer lounging in the field waiting for me to feed hay.

Today Michael took two big bales of straw up to the cows.

With all the ice, it’s hard to get around with our big tractor.

A

JANUARY 26 Michael spent several days working on Andrea’s old car — the Eagle she bought from neighbours when she was in high school in the mid 1980s. She’s getting it running again, to have a spare vehicle for Em to drive to work and hockey practice. Em has a full-

» CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30

How much mineral are your cows eating? or gravitate toward mineral feeders, because something is excessive or lacking in the forages or other feed.

We should also realize there are some seasonal and regional factors beyond our control. For example, low mineral intakes often coincide with springtime, where high-quality grasses sprout in lush pastures. In other cases, high mineral water sources drunk by cattle are also notorious for curbing mineral consumption.

PRACTICAL MEASURES Luckily, there are a few practical measures within our reach.

For example, it is always a good idea to have enough mineral feeders for the whole herd. One standard recommendation is one feeding station for every 30 to

time job, and also takes the kids to hockey practice in the evenings on days that Andrea can’t. Sam and Em both had birthdays this month; Em turned 17 and Sam is 12. These kids are growing up fast!

We couldn’t find our tractor chains; we haven’t used them for several years and don’t know where they ended up. Michael’s tractor chains were easier to locate, but frozen in the ice. He chopped them out of the ice and helped Lynn put them on our tractor. This made it a lot easier to load the hay and straw bales without getting stuck.

Friday, Em went to her hockey tournament in Missoula, Montana with a teammate, Lynn took Charlie and Dani to the hockey rink here and Andrea took Sam (and a teammate) to her tournament in Sun Valley.

They had fun and enjoyed seeing a snow sculpture created with a chain saw.

FEBRUARY 3 Last week Michael worked on Andrea’s pickup, and helped Lynn build a new fence along the ditch in the lane to the calving barn. After putting in the new culvert last fall and cleaning out the ditch, it’s very deep and we don’t want calves falling in when we’re taking them to and from the barn. The young cows (heifers and second calvers) are not competing well with the older cows that push them away from the alfalfa hay, and are losing weight. We decided to move the young cows to heifer hill where they can be fed separately.

We needed a feeder for big straw bales. Michael chopped one of his old round bale feeders out of the ice on the upper place and brought it down with his tractor.

Then we brought the cows down to the corral Sunday morning.

Michael and Carolyn gave them their pre-calving vaccinations and another round of delouse pour-

50 cows. They should be placed where cattle make frequent visits. Moving mineral stations closer to water sources generally increases mineral intake by cows, while moving feeders farther back from the water will often decrease mineral intake.

Mineral feeders should also be checked often. Some beef specialists suggest producers visit them every three to four days, while others say a weekly trip is fine.

It seems the more visits made to a mineral-feeding site, the better the chances of achieving optimum mineral intake. If cattle are allowed to run out of mineral, they often overcompensate and fill up on available mineral. In contrast, cattle tend not to eat leftover hard mineral or overeat fresh mineral when feeders are frequently stocked.

Last, the actual mineral feeders should be checked on occasion.

Even though each should contain enough good-quality mineral and be easily accessible to all cows, it should protect the

on, then we sorted off the heifers and a few of the skinniest young cows and took them to heifer hill.

Sam didn’t have a hockey tournament that weekend, so she helped sort cows. Andrea wasn’t here to help because she’d taken Charlie to his hockey tournament.

FEBRUARY 12 We had more snow last week and Lynn’s pickup got stuck when he took Charlie home from the bus. The kids had supper with us, and Dani made a calving calendar, with due dates for the cows (calving in April), to put on the wall. Every year we make a calving calendar, and Dani likes to circle their names as they calve.

Cold weather has taken a toll on 29-year-old Veggie and he became so stiff he could hardly walk. I started giving him “bute” daily, dissolving the pills in warm water and mixing it with molasses, squirting it into his mouth. It reduces pain and inflammation, and by the next day he was walking better, and not so lame.

Last weekend Andrea took Emily to her hockey tournament in Sun Valley. The weather warmed and snow melted—slush on top of ice in our driveway.

Michael spent two afternoons with tractor and blade, trying to make our driveways safer. It thawed for several days, and snow melted off the low country, flooding fields, ditches and roads. Now instead of snow we have mud! It washed big gullies across our county road.

My brother Rockwell Smith and his wife Bev brought a big trailer from Boise, the first load of things they are moving. They are selling their house and moving to a rented house here at Baker (two miles from us), while their new house is built this spring on the upper place. Lynn and Robbie helped them unload boxes from the trailer.

mineral from water, wind and sunshine. Water dissolves many soluble trace minerals such as copper sulphate. A strong wind will easily blow away small nutritious particles, while sunlight degrades a mineral’s vitamin content. Well-designed feeders should also be durable to stand up to years of cattle abuse as well as survive our cold climate.

By replacing one or two damaged mineral feeders, putting enough loose mineral in all feeders, and occasionally checking out how much minerals are being consumed; helps most post-calving cows meet their mineral and vitamin requirements. It supplements essential mineral and vitamins of the rest of the cows’ diet in order to get them ready for the upcoming breeding season. It’s all part of a sound feeding program, which rewards such effort with cows that are pregnant with profit. † Peter Vitti is an independent livestock nutritionist and consultant based in Winnipeg.

To reach him call 204-254-7497 or by email at vitti@mts.net.

photos: heather smith thomas

Fog is just starting to lift off a field where cows are being fed this winter.

First there was snow and then very icy conditions, and soon after this photo was taken it started to rain which resulted in some areas flooding.

Veggie, the 29-year-old horse stiffened up badly during a cold spell, although a daily dose of “bute” (Phenylbutazone) helped to improve his movement until warmer temperatures prevailed.

Readers have been enjoying my new book Horse Tales: True Stories from an Idaho Ranch, so I am starting my next book, Cow Tales from an Idaho Ranch.

Monday it rained, with more flooding. Andrea shovelled ditches along her driveway to divert the water that was making deep ruts. With the snow melting, the cows are grazing again.

There was still some grass under all that crusted snow. We haven’t put out straw for more than a week. We’re feeding the alfalfa hay on top of the straw where the feeders have been so the cows won’t tromp the fine leaves into the mud. † Heather Smith Thomas ranches with her husband Lynn near Salmon, Idaho. Contact her at 208-756-2841.

Mineral feeder

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hile there are good commercial mineral feeders on the market, these are a couple of simple homemade designs featured on the Saskatchewan Agriculture website. The roofed mineral or saltbox keeps minerals dry and is easy to construct. Face the opening downwind for additional rain protection. Covered inside corners reinforce the joints and allow cattle to lick the box clean. To prevent overturning the feeder, anchor the base skids to four stakes driven into the ground, or extend the legs into postholes and backfill.

The barrel-style mineral feeder is constructed from a 45-gallon drum and used car parts. Wind rotates the drum by means of the weather-vane so rain is not driven into the opening. The drum pivots on a concrete base, which must be heavy enough to prevent overturning by cattle or wind. †

MARCH 3, 2015 grainews.ca /

33

Home Quarter Farm Life SEEDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Does having fun farming matter?

What is the culture of your farm workplace and how much fun are you having?

Elaine Froese

W

hen I attend conferences I like to sit close to the platform to have an uninterrupted view of the speaker. My mission is to learn, so I take notes on my laptop or scrawl on a paper.

I also make sure that I introduce myself to my tablemates, “Hi, I am Elaine Froese,” as I extend my hand for a firm handshake. This is not a game, it’s purposeful networking that has enhanced the fun in my life, and provided fodder for these columns over the past two decades.

March 15, 2015 is the 20th anniversary of my first column in this paper. When I took over for Marie Salway’s “Butter Side Up” column that she had written for 17 years, I thought, “Wow, that’s a long time.”

Last December at Agri-Trend’s Digital Farm Forum, I took my preferred spot at the centre-front table to hear Mario Pilozzi, the former CEO of Walmart Canada sharing his lessons on leadership that we could apply to growing our farms. He sat at the table and introduced himself simply as Mario Pilozzi, no fancy titles. He spoke casually with notes

in one hand, no PowerPoint, and in a gentle manner. He said the two most important points for farmers to focus on was to pay attention to strategy, and to culture.

His Walmart boardroom was not the “Ritz,” the folding chairs and simple table did the job, and did not cost a lot. Mario had started his career with Woolco, and moved up the ranks, but he never lost sight of the importance of connecting to people and watching dollars. Mario wanted to create a great culture for all of his staff.

I coached a young farmer who showed me the large-font mission statement he had created after I challenged him what kind of farm he wanted to be a part of. The words that stuck out for me were, “We will work hard to grow the best products possible, and we will have fun doing it!” I am curious to ask you, what is the culture of your farm workplace? How much fun are you having as you travel quickly through the seasons of agriculture?

“Are you kidding Elaine? Who said work is supposed to be fun?”

I just did.

When we are “in flow,” according to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi we lose all track of time because what we love to do is aligned with our task. We have a purpose that is being honoured in our work and play. I lose track of time when I

write, when I visit or host people.

I am wired to communicate, be positive as an encourager, and to seek out more learning. Reading books in one sitting is fun for me.

You may plant the same crops this year, herd the same cows, and drive down the same roads, but are you having fun? Did you ever stop to think about what ruts you might be stuck in that are not serving the culture of your family well?

In our book Farming’s In-Law Factor we mapped out the culture of agriculture, the norms of behaviour that we take for granted as farmers. Some folks think the culture of their family can never change, but I would beg to differ.

Creating a happier, healthier workplace doesn’t happen by accident, it is intentional. It really starts with the attitude of each team member and how they choose to interact with all the players of the day. We have a new employee who smiles a lot and waves hello to recognize my presence. That small gesture makes me feel good. What gestures do you display that make you fun to be around?

Another piece of culture is how you decide to solve problems.

Do you embrace new ideas from many people, and collaborate on solutions, or does the tension rise when a certain “leader” enters the conversation. Today may be the

day to sit down and create a list of ways to have fun on your farm: • Smile more.

• Acknowledge work well done with a “thank you” or high five.

• Tell funny jokes, and stop using sarcasm as a form of humour.

• Invite times of celebration like special snacks for staff birthdays.

• Go to the lake on a workday as a farm team.

• Hire a graphic artist to make your walls talk with positive quotes like, “This farm serves our family,” and, “Life is not a dress rehearsal.”

• Have more picnics in the field or on the tailgate. Eating together adds joy to the family connection, especially when you have young children who don’t see Dad enough.

• Plant trees in memory of special events; you can never have enough trees!

• Talk openly about what is your favourite role and activity on the farm, and why. It might be even more fun if you had better tools or more leeway to make decisions.

• Stop avoiding the tough conversations and deal with issues before they explode. Fun things happen when people aren’t carrying heavy weights of unrealistic expectations and they are free to be who they were meant to be.

• Be intentional at paying attention to your feelings. What

makes you feel satisfied and joyful? For some farmers just seeing straight rows and good emergence brings job satisfaction. For others it might be the verbal affirmation of the farm staff or jobs done without being asked.

Farms with a strong culture of fun are attractive to new employees. You might want to ask Colleen and Grant Dyck of Artel Farms in Niverville what their “secret sauce” is.

Artel: (ahr-tel’) noun: A group of people working together towards a common goal.

Grant might just tell you that he models fun and respect to his staff.

People come to their operation looking for work in a culture that has a great reputation.

Lots of seminars will talk about strategy for more yields, better balance sheets and success financially. I think it’s time we started measuring the fun factors on our farms and the degree of work/life balance that creates energy to grow well together.

What is the culture of success that you need to focus on in order to have more fun on your farm? † Elaine Froese, CAFA, CHICoach coaches from her farm home in southwestern Manitoba. Playing games with her “adopted” grandchildren and painting (art) are two ways she plans to have more fun on her farm this spring. Buy her books at www.elainefroese. com and follow her on Twitter @elainefroese.

Tell her what you do to have fun on your farm.

EXTENDED OUTLOOK FOR THE PRAIRIES Weather Forecast for the period of March 8 to April 4, 2015

Southern Alberta

Peace River Region March 8 - 14 Look for changeable conditions this week as sunny, pleasant days alternate with occasional rain or snow. Chance of heavy precipitation. Seasonal to mild.

March 8 - 14 Look for changeable conditions this week as sunny, pleasant days alternate with occasional rain or snow. Chance of heavy precipitation. Seasonal to mild.

March 15 - 21 Mild to cool temperatures with several windy days. Sunshine mixes with occasional heavy snow and rain.

March 15 - 21 Mild to cool temperatures with several windy days. Sunshine mixes with occasional heavy snow and rain.

March 22 - 28 Temperatures vary through the thaw/freeze cycle. Fair apart from rain or snow on 2 or 3 days, chance of heavy in places.

March 22 - 28 Temperatures vary through the thaw/freeze cycle. Fair apart from rain or snow on 2 or 3 days, chance of heavy in places.

March 29 - April 4 Generally sunny and seasonal to cool. Expect a few days with a mix of sun and cloud or overcast skies, along with snowy conditions.

March 29 - April 4 Sunny and seasonal to mild, but on cooler, windy days expect rain or locally heavy snow.

-12 / 0 Grande Prairie 18.6 mms

March 8 - 14 Temperatures vary with some highs well above zero in the south but with sub zero lows. Sunshine interchanges with heavy snow. Risk of rain in south. Windy. Cold in east and north.

March 15 - 21 Seasonal to cold with thawing in the south and west. Sunny on many days, but expect some heavier snow. Risk of rain in south. Windy.

-11 / 0 Edmonton 17.0 mms

15.7 mms

-8 / 4

21.5 mms

March 15 - 21 Temperatures vary from thawing to sub zero lows. Windy. Sunshine alternates with heavier snow or rain in south. Snow and cold north.

March 22 - 28 Mild, blustery, thawing. Some rain or snow on 2 or 3 days. A weather system threatens heavy precipitation.

March 29 - April 4 Unsettled on a few days as sunshine alternates with rain or snow. Variable temperatures.

At times windy.

March 29 - April 4 Thaw/freeze cycle and often windy. Fair, but expect rain or heavier snow on a couple of days this week.

-12 / -2 North Battleford -11 / 1 Red Deer 16.5 mms

-15 / -2 Prince Albert 18.2 mms

17.3 mms

-12 / -2 Saskatoon 16.0 mms

-14 / -3 Yorkton

-16 / -4 The Pas

23.6 mms NEAR NORMAL

-14 / -2 Dauphin

-8 / 3 Calgary

Forecasts should be 80% accurate, but expect variations by a day or two because of changeable speed of weather systems.

March 8 - 14 Temperatures lean toward the cold side, but some melting in southern areas. Sunny days alternate with periodic snow, and possible rain in the south.

March 22 - 28 Fair with thawing, but a couple of cooler, frosty, windy days bring rain or heavy snow.

-16 / -3 -13 / -2 25.6 mms 25.7 mms -11 / 0 Gimli Regina 22.6 mms -11 / -1 Moose Jaw 16.5 mms Swift 18.1 mms -12 / -1 14.7 mms -13 / -2 Portage -12 / -2 -7 / 5 Current -11 / -1 Medicine Hat Brandon 26.3 mms Winnipeg 19.5 mms Weyburn 19mms cms 20.5 mms Lethbridge 16.0 23.1 mms NEAR 16.8 mms -11 / -1 26.0 mms 26 cms -7 / 5 NORMAL Estevan Melita -14 / -1

Banff

Manitoba

Precipitation Forecast

NEAR NORMAL

-7 / 4 Jasper

Saskatchewan

19.9 mms

25.0 mms

Precipitation Outlook For March Much Above Normal Below Much above normal normal below normal normal

Temperatures are normals for March 15th averaged over 30 years.

Precipitation (water equivalent) normals for March in mms. ©2015 WeatherTec Services www.weathertec.mb.ca

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/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Home Quarter Farm Life FROM THE FARM

Create a character cake What better way to celebrate an event than with a special cake Debbie Chikousky

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hen our children were growing up my husband and I used to make character cakes for their birthdays.

We had a pile of fun and most of the cakes the children still remember. We made cakes from rented novelty pans; there are lots for purchase at Bulk Barn.

We also made ones that were pieced together. This was what my daughter and son chose to do when they made me a character birthday cake a few years ago.

They chose to make a penguin because I adore penguins. They are the cutest, fluffiest creatures when they are babies, and then they grow up into sleek and shiny adults.

When making a cake that will be cut up and pieced into a character cake it is important to use a recipe that is a firm crumb cake.

This is our favourite:

BUSY DAY CAKE (Family Circle Library of Cooking) Preheat oven to 350 F. 2 cups flour 1-1/2 cups sugar 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 cup soft vegetable shortening 3/4 cup milk 2 eggs 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla Grease a 9x9-inch baking pan and lightly dust with flour. Tap out any excess. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and short-

ening in a medium-size bowl; stir in milk until blended; beat at medium speed with electric mixer for two minutes; add eggs and vanilla; beat another two minutes. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake in moderate oven (350 F) 30 minutes; or until centre springs back when lightly pressed with fingertip.

Cool cake in pan on wire rack.

To make the penguin you need one 13x9-inch cake plus two cupcakes. Since this recipe is for a 9x9-inch cake it must be increased by 1/2 to use it for a 13x9-inch pan. This will allow for the two cupcakes that must be baked for the feet.

Once baked and cooled cut two curved triangles off the top of the cake. These are to be used for the wings which are glued with frosting onto the cake. Then decorate with icing.

We used blue because we didn’t have black food colouring. (If black is desired it is much easier to turn chocolate icing black than white icing.) Then the cupcakes were iced and placed for feet. The beak was made on saran wrap, frozen, and then placed on the penguin’s face.

The hardest part of these cutand-glued cakes is the decorating of the cut sides. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to pick crumbs off. The trick is to seal them with a crumb coating.

Crumb coating is a very thin layer of icing that will “glue” any crumbs down. The key is thinning your icing to a consistency that will not tear your cake as you spread it on. When thinning your icing start with small amounts of water until you reach the desired consistency. Start by spreading a thin layer of this icing onto the cake. Don’t worry if there are crumbs in the icing; this is expected. The icing layer

is so thin that you will see the cake and crumbs. Smooth the icing as best as you can and let it dry. The crumb coat needs to be dry to the touch before you put the final layer of icing on. Once the crumb coat is completely dry, you are ready to continue icing and decorating. At this point you would continue icing the cake as you normally do. The crumb coat will hold in all of the loose crumbs and make the penguin’s head look nice and smooth.

BUTTERCREAM ICING (double for penguin cake) /2 cup solid vegetable 1 shortening 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 4 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar (approximately 1 lb.)

2 tablespoons milk In large bowl, beat shortening and butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.

Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Gradually add milk; beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk. Add food colouring of choice.

The addition of grandchildren into our lives will mean pulling out the old pans and revisiting all those birthday experiences.

Little did we know that we were building such precious memories by making special cakes all those years ago. Hopefully we will have lots of fun with all our events to come too! †

photo: courtesy debbie chikousky

LOVE HEARING FROM YOU Do you have a story about a farm or home-based business? How about some household management tips? Does someone in the family have a special-diet need? Share some of your meal ideas.

SEND THEM TO FARMLIFE 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, Man. R3H 0H1 Phone 1-800-665-0502 Email susan@fbcpublishing.com Please remember we can no longer return photos or material. – Sue

Debbie Chikousky farms at Narcisse, Manitoba.

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35

Home Quarter Farm Life POSTCARDS FROM THE PRAIRIES

Life’s secrets, according to you…

What’s your secret to leading a fulfilling life?

Janita VAN DE VELDE

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hat’s the motto you live by? In the teachings of Confucius, he referred to three basic elements required to create a positive human interaction — kindness, humanity and respect.

I think that sums it up for me. If you can radiate a compassion for all those you meet, then I believe you will feel fulfilled.

I also believe you must extend these gifts and generosity of spirit to yourself, because if you don’t, then I’m afraid your cup will never feel full.

getting over things as quickly as they come. And don’t compare — it makes you ugly.

Just be. I’m starting to sound like the Dalai Lama. I need to do a better job of this because I’m a worry wart.

Live joyfully.

Live and love today as if there’s no tomorrow.

Work hard, contribute to your community, savour the present and engage others.

You get the life you build, not the life you’ve been told you deserve.

Every day has only 24 hours — use them all.

Here forthwith are your secrets to leading a fulfilling life.

Treat everyone with the kindness and respect they deserve.

At a minimum, leading a fulfilling life requires breathing and being in the moment.

Work hard, play hard.

I have three: It’s all good. Will this matter in five years? Every day above ground is a good day.

Live well, laugh often, love much.

Do the right thing — in everything we do this is always the best way to live.

My life is truly a gift not to ever be taken for granted. It is my responsibility to continually strive to live my best life, to honour that gift.

Enjoy every moment, even if it is not the first thing you want to be doing. Make the most of it, because you can’t ever get that moment back.

Try to make the world a better place than it was when you got here.

Not dwelling on hardships and

Remember that everything works out.

One day at a time.

Your life is what you make it.

I think it’s the belief that I can do whatever I want and I am completely responsible for my own life.

Help others, every day and in every way you can.

Be OPEN. Open to others, and open to life as a source of learning and love.

Try to be the best that you can be.

Be thankful, be grateful, be kind, have integrity, practise honesty, laugh and try to appreciate life at its fullest.

Be grateful, because tomorrow might not be as good.

My motto at the moment is Silence. It’s a source of great strength. Another motto I have is Dig Deep. It’s a constant journey and you need to stop and remind yourself to stay focused. That’s the hard part, isn’t it?

Work hard for what you want and appreciate what you have.

I haven’t figured out yet how to put this into a motto, but basically I put myself in a bubble and don’t let negativity in. I have just really started learning this in the last few months, but I block out any negative thoughts, feelings, words from others. I replace that with the positive opposite.

Do what you love! One life, one chance.

You have to be true to yourself, be authentic and don’t settle. Take ruthless care of yourself — your kids will thank you for it.

Make things better and leave this place better than when you came.

Treat others how you want to be treated.

There are four things you can’t recover: the stone after the throw, the word after it’s said, the occasion after it’s missed, the time after it’s gone.

Be the leader and not the victim in your own life. Happiness is a choice you make for yourself — no one else can provide that for you.

So long as you put your family first, your own satisfaction will follow.

Always do your best!

My motto: begin with a question — it’s the door to answers.

When there’s a decision to make, then choose what you know you won’t regret later. There is actually always an obvious choice — it’s just hard to make yourself choose it.

Surround yourself with good people, people who make you feel good about yourself and are fun to be around. People who you love. When you die, no one will talk about how big your house was, or what kind of car you drove, or how much money you had. They will talk about what kind of friend you were.

Be grateful always — you woke today, healthy and able. There are others who didn’t.

Try new things; learn from others.

Faith, Family, Friends.

There are so many! My favourites: People who know better, do better.

If you don’t have time to do it right, you must have time to do it over.

Are you rowing the boat, or just rocking it? There is no reality, only perspective.

Respect. Above trust, love, friendship, mercy and all else… respect.

Be grateful for what you have, help others and make a difference in some way. Mother Teresa said: “We may not be able to do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Do that.

Don’t let anyone into your life who doesn’t like or agree with the person you are. Always stay true to yourself and be free to do what you wish.

Keep it simple, that’s my motto.

Love and laugh as much as possible and keep things in perspective.

Always be thankful and don’t be afraid of failing. That’s how you grow. If a person never fails, it means they aren’t moving ahead.

Take time to enjoy the small things, because not everyone has that luxury.

Being filled with the wonder and awe in His presence — this has really changed the way I live my life. I take time to appreciate and enjoy the everyday beauty, big or small, in the world He created.

The smell of rain, the sound of the wind in the trees, the sunset, the sound of my mom’s voice, my baby’s smell… I find it very therapeutic. †

Always remember that God is in charge.

I try not to dwell on what I didn’t do. I try to help people and to be honest.

I learned this from another mom: J.O.Y. Jesus first, then Others, Yourself last.

Live each day like it was your last because it is a gift, or they wouldn’t call it the present.

Don’t let your past dictate who you are, but let it be part of who you have become.

Make everything an adventure.

Every day, every job, every trip, every assignment should feel like part of the adventure.

Bring people together and the energy will be AMAZING.

Keep your nose out of other people’s business.

Janita Van de Velde grew up on a farm near Mariapolis, Man. She holds a bachelor of science degree in agricultural economics from the University of Manitoba, and has worked for a financial institution since graduating. She lives in Regina, Sask., with her husband Roddy and their children Jack, Isla and James. Her first novel, Postcards Never Written, was the recipient of the Saskatchewan Reader’s Choice Award and also listed by CBC as one of the top funny books in 2009. She donates a portion of proceeds from the sale of her book to World Vision to help those less fortunate. For more information, or to order her book, visit her website at www.janita.ca.

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/ grainews.ca MARCH 3, 2015

Home Quarter Farm Life SINGING GARDENER

All about grapes Ted’s important tip — grapevines always need pruning ted meseyton

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hen grapevines aren’t pruned, the result is usually very few grapes or no grapes at all. Get out the pruners. You may also need lopping shears and a pruning saw. The tools should be of good quality and make sharp cuts without shattering vine tissue. If you think it’s all about grapes — you’re right!

I, Ted, love to tip a welcome to my family of Grainews readers. In the caricature I’m wearing my Tilley hat. It’s right at home on top of my head. During personal appearances I mostly wear my alternate one-ofa-kind Singing Gardener cap. I may show a sketched image of the S.G. cap one day soon. When my headgear pieces retire, none will be put out to pasture on the crown of my scarecrow. It’s quite content with an old straw hat.

In Prairie and short-season climates, hardy grape varieties should be planted where protection is received from northerly winds. I know what the northwest wind does to my body and how my three

Canadian flags remain straight forward at attention when strong winds blow. If you don’t have a sturdy south-facing wall or fence, grapevines may be planted in rows that run north to south. Ideally, plants should be spaced about two metres (six feet) apart or more. If you have the growing area, rows can also be two metres (six feet) apart. Vines in rows may be staked the first year or two, but ideally they should be supported by a sturdy three-wire trellis. When experimenting with less hardy grape varieties for your hardiness zone, provide the best microclimate spot with protection that you have available. Consider tender grape varieties as a trial in progress during any effort to establish their hardiness.

GRAPEVINES REQUIRE PRUNING If I were standing before a group of grape growers regardless of their expertise or lack of it, I, Ted, would repeat several times: Grapevines Always Require Pruning. Then I’d ask the class to repeat those same four words back to me. Without correct pruning, don’t expect an abundant harvest of handsome grape clusters. You’re more apt to wonder why there are no grapes at all. The importance of grapevine pruning can’t be overemphasized.

When neglected for even one year, the lack of yield can be quite disappointing. The most common remark I hear is: “I don’t know how to prune grapevines.”

There are several ways to tackle such a task and here’s one preferred approach called spur pruning.

Train a vine to follow the shape of a ‘T’ secured to a sturdy trellis

wire (see sketches). Depending on age of the vine (two years, three years or four years and older) select two, four or six of the largest oneyear-old laterals that grew off the main trunk called a cordon. In horticulture a cordon is a vine or tree whose branches are pruned in such a fashion to bear fruit.

Laterals can project straight up or outward in either direction at approximately 45- to 90-degree angles. Each one-year-old lateral (cane bearer spurs) is pruned back to two to four buds. Always keep in mind that pruning stimulates new growth and up to 80 per cent of what grew last year is eventually removed. Each bud will produce two to four large clusters of grapes and they often ripen earlier. Be careful not to damage the scale leaves that cover and protect the soft and spongy buds in the joints.

Major spur pruning, trimming and shaping is done on milder days during very early spring. It’s sort of like a close ‘brush cut’ and is timed to when the outdoor daytime temperature remains close to 0 C or slightly higher. Grapevines begin to come out of dormancy, once the daytime temperature rises to 10 C to 12 C (50 F to 54 F) and higher.

A second pruning is what I call the ‘midsummer special’ when vine growth is really rampant. I prefer to do both sets of pruning during dark of the moon when there’s the least amount of vine sap bleeding. If you prune really lengthy sections of grapevines during summer, they can be easily twisted into really attractive wreaths for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Do it while vines are still soft and pliable before they become too stiff and brittle, otherwise you may want to soak them first in water so they become more flexible.

Always keep in mind it is not whether you should or whether you shouldn’t prune grapevines.

Instead, it is always — when shall you prune them? Keep practising this art until you become skilled at it in the vineyard, be it large or small. Times will vary of course, depending on climate in your area of the country.

SOME GRAPE VARIETIES

What’s wrong with these two grapevines? They were lightly trimmed only once during a 10-year span. The short answer: These vines are desperately in need of being pruned and simplified with annual pruning to follow thereafter. This includes removing all the thin, tangled and spindly growth along the main trunks and laterals, plus the twiggy stuff growing up from ground level. The vines are also planted far too close together, restricting air movement.

… to search for at nurseries, greenhouses and garden centres this spring. Colour and hardinessrated zone is shown in brackets: • Beta — (grandfather of all hardy blue grapes, best for jams and jellies, self-pollinating, 3).

• Bluebell — (large blue grapes, self-pollinating, 3B). Permit me, Ted, to say this is the finest grape

photos and illustration: courtesy ted meseyton

Here’s a classic picture going back awhile when l, Ted, had full facial hair while picking Bluebell grapes. The beard is now gone and Bluebell is still my favourite grape. See my Ode to Bluebell.

I’ve grown for over 10 years. It’s completely hardy here in my Zone 3 without any protection whatsoever. Large berries are sweet and flavourful right off the vine and close to Concord style. Bluebell makes excellent grape juice too.

• Eona — (white grape berries, known to make a decent white wine, 3B).

• Fredonia — (large blue fruit of good quality, 3B).

• Frontenac — (self-pollinating blue grape, makes good red wine of depth and character, 3B).

• Frontenac Gris — (similar to Frontenac, light coloured, reddishgreen skins, self-pollinating, 3B).

• Kandiyohi — (immense blue grape berries, self-pollinating, 3).

• Kay Gray — (white berries, self-pollinating, 3).

• Manitoba Native Wild Grape — (also known as native grape with small blue seedy berries, but occasionally some pure-white grapes, good for naturalizing and jelly, 2B).

• Marquette — (a superior red wine grape, 3B).

• Minnesota 78 — (sweet and large reddish blue similar to Beta, 3).

• Prairie Star — (self-pollinating sweet, pinkish-white grapes, 3B).

• St. Pepin — (sweet white grapes, excellent right off the vine, also for fresh juice or wine making. Needs a pollinator, 3B).

• Valiant — (dark-purple black grape berries that ripen end of August to early September, good eating variety, 2B).

GRAPE LEAVES Most of us are familiar with cabbage rolls. Dolma is a famous culinary Arabic word meaning ‘something stuffed.’ Grape leaves are filled with well-seasoned combinations of meats, vegetables and rice that are eaten both hot and cold. Making dolmas has been a standard part of Near Eastern cookery for centuries.

Fresh grapevine leaves can be prepared in advance for immediate use, or frozen for later on. Drop fresh, cleaned grape leaves into boiling water for three to five minutes to make them soft and pliable. Remove grape leaves from heat and rinse in cold water.

A favourite Greek recipe is Stuffed Grapevine Leaves with Lemon Sauce. It calls for ground lamb, onions, rice, various seasonings, chicken broth, eggs and lemon juice. A spoonful of mixture is placed on the centre and each grape leaf is folded to enclose the filling in a fashion similar to cabbage rolls.

Gotta go. That’s the end of today’s word journey. †

ODE TO BLUEBELL (By Ted)

Shown are before and after sketches that give a good idea how frazzled grapevines should be groomed. Think of it as a severe haircut. Elsewhere on this page look under: “Grapevines Require Pruning.”

ot grapes of Gilbert, N nor grapes of wrath, But lead me to the grapevine path, Bluebell you truly are a prize, Taste and colour so grand in size, Bluebell eaten out of hand, And grape juice that is truly grand, Y ou do me proud, your vines sustain, Grant me more grapes next year again.

This is Ted Meseyton the Singing Gardener and Grow-It Poet from Portage la Prairie, Man. A feature in the esteemed British Journal of Nutrition reveals that eating a handful of natural, dried plums or prunes every day will help prevent fractures and osteoporosis in the elderly. Doesn’t that inspire all of us to plant plum trees this spring? Pembina plum is one of the best known for Zone 3 fruit growers. However, there are a few other Prairie-hardy varieties that include Brookgold Japanese plum and Brookred hybrid plum both rated for Zone 2 and Toka hybrid plum for Zone 3. My email address is singinggardener@mts.net.

See the lAteSt in the FielD

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