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FIELD MEDICINE

CONSERVATION CASH

Researchers look to native plants in war on cancer » PG 2

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McDonald’s pilot project ramps up Alberta visit of McDonald’s global CEO signals a sea change in the beef industry

The damage is done — but how much worse will it get?

It’s not a writeoff yet, but recovery potential is limited and a late harvest seems inevitable, says crop expert

By ALEXIS KIENLEN AF staff

I

t’s full speed ahead for McDonald’s “verified sustainable beef” project.

The country’s largest buyer of beef is finishing up the first phase of its groundbreaking pilot project in Canada, and earlier this month the head of the global fast-food giant paid a visit to Alberta to get a first-hand look.

Recently appointed CEO Steve Easterbrook visited CL Ranches just west of Calgary and Southern Cross Livestock near Crossfield.

“Being as he’s brand spanking new to the job, the sustainability team, which is headquartered in Chicago, really wanted to give him the opportunity to see first hand what they’re up to here in Canada,” said Cherie CopithorneBarnes, CEO of CL Ranches and chair of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef.

“That was really important because he comes from more of a business side of things and really had no exposure whatsoever to what they’re doing with the sustainable pilot project.”

Easterbrook — who has vowed to “shape McDonald’s future as a modern, progressive burger company” — was keenly interested in

Cattle graze along the Porcupine Hills, north of Lundbreck, earlier this month. While the area west of Lethbridge is dry, most of the province was in the red zone as of June 9 — which means moisture levels are below one-in-six-year levels. PHOTO: WENDY DUDLEY, GRAPHIC: AFSC

By JENNIFER BLAIR AND ALEXIS KIENLEN

see VERIFIED } page 6

AF staff

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fter one of the “driest Mays on record,” producers across the Prairies are wondering how their crops are going to fare this growing season.

It’s not looking good.

“The crops are going to be substantially smaller than they have been over the past few years,” Bruce Burnett, CWB crop and weather specialist, said in an interview June 15.

“It’s too early to write things off totally, but if we get a few more weeks of dry weather, crop production is going to drop dramatically.”

An early start to seeding had many farmers hoping for an early harvest.

That isn’t likely to happen, said Burnett.

“We have the crops in the dry areas

70 CROPS:

growing very slowly because they’re trying to conserve moisture, and they’re not developing as they would normally,” he said.

“We’re at a point now where we’re going to be harvesting a later-thannormal crop with, in many cases, below-average yield potential.”

Scattered rain showers across the province in the middle of June offered some relief to growers, but “one-tenth to two-tenths of an inch every week is just not enough.”

“There has to be at least 25 to 50 millimetres in these dry areas. Anything less is really not going to do enough.”

Early-seeded crops have emerged, he said, but are growing slowly. In some cases, producers are seeing spotty emergence or no emergence at all.

“They look reasonable for the growing season that they’ve had, but the

see DRY TIMES } page 7

AND STILL GOING STRONG } PAGE 18

news » inside this week

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inside » IT’S THE PEOPLE YOU MEET Outstanding Young Farmers praise ‘free’ advisory network

JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

livestock

crops

CHECKOFF WOES

CARE TO SWITCH?

columNists Laura Rance

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Brenda Schoepp

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The only constant is change in food biz

SWAMP FEVER FEARS New cases may up pressure for more testing of horses

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Fresh thinking for the beef business

Daniel Bezte Research suffers as ABP rebates millions of dollars

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Advocates say there’s good money in organic grain

Why south-central Alberta is a hail hot spot

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Cancer-fighting drugs in your pasture?

University of Lethbridge researchers have already found one native plant — buffalo beans — that offers early promise

By ALEXIS KIENLEN AF staff

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lants you see every day in your pasture could contain valuable components for cancer-fighting drugs.

Scientists from the University of Lethbridge recently found that buffalo beans, a plant commonly found in pastures in the south, contain compounds that may be beneficial to people fighting cancer.

“We’ve always been interested in my lab in looking for new cancer drugs because we need better drugs to help patients,” said Roy Golsteyn, a cancer researcher at the university.

“It’s a pretty tough climate (in southern Alberta) and the growing conditions are not the easiest in the world, so plants have to build up defences to all sorts of things.”

Many plants use chemicals to keep them from being eaten by animals or by insects, and so researchers analyze these com-

pounds with an eye to finding a new use for them.

That’s the case with buffalo beans, which are only found in southern Alberta, northern Montana and Saskatchewan.

It’s a short plant with small yellow flowers, which eventually turn into beans, and has a fast growing cycle. And while the hardy native prairie pasture plant is one of the earlier species to bloom, cattle don’t find it palatable and avoid eating it.

People should, too.

“We also know that there was a case study at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary where it was documented that children had eaten the buffalo bean plant and were quite sick because of it,” said Golsteyn.

“That’s bad for the people who had eaten it, but scientifically, it turns out to be quite interesting because it means there are chemicals in it that affect human health.”

Scientists at the University of Lethbridge conducted a series of tests on the buffalo beans. They’ve harvested leaves from the plant

Buffalo beans are toxic, but that’s a good thing when looking for compounds that could fight cancer. SUBMITTED PHOTO and added extracts from these leaves on growing cancer cells.

The extracts killed cancer cells, and were found to resemble other types of cancer drugs.

“We’re on the way to propose that there are chemicals inside this plant that should be studied as a real cancer drug,” said Golsteyn.

He and the members of his lab are in the third year of a project to investigate native plant species in Alberta.

They’re finding new plants to test just from having conversations with people.

“Usually these plants will be toxic,” said Golsteyn. “But the relationship between toxicity and medicine is always just the dose.

If an animal eats it, it will eat too much of it.

“There’s a lot of good medicines out there that were first identified as toxic, but if you give the correct dose, these things could save lives.

Got an interesting native plant in your pasture? Researcher Roy Golsteyn would like to hear from you.

The No. 1, 2, or 3 cancer drugs are from plants.”

Anyone who has an interesting native pasture plant — no matter where they live in the province — can contact him, said Golsteyn.

His email is roy.golsteyn@uleth. ca. akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

Ag groups launch bee initiative Bees Matter is offering free seeds for pollinator-friendly gardens — and information on bees Staff

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new program called Buzzing Gardens is offering Canadians free seeds to plant pollinator-friendly gardens.

The program is an initiative of Bees Matter, a group consisting of chemical and agricultural groups including CropLife Canada, Bayer CropScience, Syngenta, the Canola Council of Canada, the Canadian Seed Trade Association, and the Canadian Honey Council.

“The agricultural community recognizes the importance of pollinators, like honeybees, that are responsible for one in every three bites of food we eat,” said Greg Sekulic, the canola council’s agronomy specialist in Grande Prairie and spokesperson for Bees Matter.

“The Buzzing Gardens program is our way of helping Canadians get involved in supporting honeybees, just as the agriculture community has always done.”

A free Buzzing Gardens seed packet with enough seasonal and perennial seeds to plant a five-

This poster on bee health is one of several on offer at the Bees Matter website. GRAPHIC: BEES MATTER square-foot garden can be ordered at www.beesmatter.ca.

The website also offers information on “the complexity of honeybee health.”

Bee deaths have become a hot topic in recent years, and prompted the Ontario government to bring in rules that will slash use of acreage

planted with neonicotinoid-treated corn and soybean seed by 80 per cent by 2017. That move has been widely condemned by most farm groups, which note that bee numbers are increasing nationally, particularly in the West, where neonictreated canola seed is the norm.

“Most bee health experts agree

that there is no single factor affecting honeybee health,” Bees Matter states in its Buzzing Gardens press release.

“Instead, parasites like the deadly varroa mite, diseases, harsh weather, incorrect use of pesticides, and inadequate nutrition all affect honeybee colonies.”

Correction The front page photo accompanying a story in the May 25 edition of Alberta Farmer (‘Crackdown on shipping unfit animals working’) shows a worker using an electric prod to unload hogs.

This picture was a file photo chosen by the newspaper and was not taken at the Western Hog Exchange.

The exchange follows the National Farm Animal Care Council’s Code of Practice for pigs, which forbids the use of electric prods as a primary driving device.

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ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JUNE 22, 2015

NOT WORKING: Alberta’s foodprocessing industry needs a big fix If the province wants a vibrant food industry, it will ‘have to do things differently,’ says expert

By JENNIFER BLAIR AF staff / Calgary

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lberta’s food-processing industry faces a grim future without a “disruptive intervention,” says an agrifood industry veteran.

“Current approaches toward innovation and growth — particularly in the food industry here in Alberta — are not working,” said Jerry Bouma of Toma & Bouma Management Consultants.

“If we seek success and want to grow this industry, we’re going to have to do things differently.”

Alberta’s food-processing industry has been lagging behind other sectors for over 20 years, said Bouma, who spoke at the Conference on Food and Innovation in late May. “Our industry — food and agriculture — is definitely second tier in Alberta. It’s way down there relative to energy,” he said. “It’s sort of an afterthought, a poor country cousin. No one’s excited about agriculture and food.”

In 2004, the government of Alberta launched a strategic plan that was meant, in part, to ramp up food production in Alberta.

The mantra became 20:10 by 2010 that meant “we’re going to achieve a $20-billion value-added sector next to a $10-billion production sector by the year 2010.”

That didn’t happen, said Bouma.

“We thought 2:1, how hard can that be?” he said. “Back in 1995, the ratio was about 6:6 – $6 billion farm production and $6 billion food processing. In 2015, it’s about $12.5 billion to about $12.5. The ratio hasn’t changed at all. It’s still 1:1.”

And though it may look as though the outputs on both sides have doubled, Alberta’s “real growth is probably less than 15 per cent” once population growth and inflation are factored in.

“Relative to our population growth and economic growth, we’ve gone backwards.”

Wake-up call

In Canada, food manufacturing is the No. 1 employer and top contributor by GDP, at $103 billion in 2012, said Cornelia Kreplin, executive director of sustainable production and food innovation for Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions (AI Bio).

But only 40 per cent of agricultural commodities produced in Canada are converted into value-added products, she said.

That number is much lower in Alberta.

“Three-quarters of what Ontario produces is actually value added in terms of exported product,” said Kreplin. “When we take a look at Alberta’s performance, most of what we export is dominated by agricultural commodity sales.

“Maybe the time has come to say we’ve got to get serious and we’ve got to get things done differently.”

Jerry Bouma

Cornelia Kreplin “We do have an opportunity to increase food manufacturing in Western Canada.”

In 2012, AI Bio contracted the Conference Board of Canada to review opportunities in Alberta’s food-processing sector. Its review found “Alberta’s food business motivation to innovate is, in many cases, much less than motivation in B.C. and Quebec.”

That was a wake-up call for Alberta’s food sector, said Bouma.

“We’re in this province thinking we’re leaders in entrepreneurship with a can-do spirit, yet this firm comes along and tells us that, within the food sector, we’re not even average.

We’re at the bottom, relative to our provincial counterparts.”

Driven entrepreneurs

And why is that?

Well, said Bouma, food manufacturing is a “tough, tough business.”

“The food business, from a business perspective, is not very enticing,” he said. “It’s terribly competitive, the margins are tight, and it’s so easy to copy.”

Look at thriving Alberta food businesses — such as Heritage Foods, Big Rock Brewery, and the Little Potato Company — and you find “intense personal drive and differentiation were the key success factors.”

“They were led — and in many cases, founded — by a very driven individual who exemplifies leadership and tenacity that you’ll find nowhere else,” said Bouma. “And in almost all cases, they’ve either developed a new product line or introduced a new product category that clearly differentiates them.”

But these companies are already going “flat out” to keep up with growth.

“Those companies that are best placed and best suited for exponential growth are, in

fact, maxed out, and it’s hard to attract the managerial and the business talent to enable that.”

Innovation model

A new framework for food innovation could fix that, said Bouma.

Presented at the conference, the proposed Food Research Project Framework is based on the “model of innovation” that led to the creation of the Internet — the U.S. government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

“What makes it different from what we’ve done so far? It’s built on capability and proactivity — getting the right people led by a vision and a mandate,” said Bouma. “It’s focused on the market: Where’s the growth opportunities? What are the companies that can really grow with the right kind of management teams and structures?” jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

It’s wait-and-pray time Pastures and hayfields have been hardest hit but AFSC analyst still expects a ‘slightly below-average crop’

By JENNIFER BLAIR AF staff

T

he conditions across Alberta can be summed up in three words: It’s awfully dry.

“As of Tuesday, we’ve been getting some moisture here in central Alberta, which has been a nice break, but I don’t know how general that moisture has been,” AFSC risk analyst James Wright said in an interview June 12. “We haven’t had much for moisture all spring. Since the snow left, it’s been pretty dry.”

The following weekend brought a smattering of rain and showers in parts of the province, but not the good soaking that so many areas need.

In an Alberta Crop Conditions report released June 9, almost half (43 per cent) of the province reported poor surface soil moisture levels. Those levels are “particularly bad around Edmonton,” Wright said from his Agriculture Financial Services Corporation office in Lacombe.

“They’ve got the highest amount of the poor and fair conditions, but we’re pretty bad here too in central Alberta,” he said.

But one of the hardest-hit areas is the north Peace, where

moisture levels have been low for the past three years.

Despite the low surface soil moisture levels, deep-seeded field crops are doing “reasonably well — probably about as well as you could expect,” said Wright.

“You’re able to plant those down into moisture,” he said.

“You’re planting those at two to 2-1/2 inches, so you can get those into moisture and they can get a reasonable start.”

It’s a bit worse for the shallowseeded crops, but not much.

“You have to seed those at an inch or less deep, so you’re into the dry soil conditions. They’re a little more dicey, but still not too bad for the time being.”

The pastures, on the other hand, are doing “real, real bad.”

“They’ve really been taking a pounding from the heat and the dry weather,” said Wright, noting an early-June heat wave “really dried things out.”

That had 49 per cent of farmers reporting poor pasture conditions and hay crops are facing “significant damage.”

“We’re about what would normally be two weeks away from starting first-cut hay, and basically everywhere in the province that’s not irrigated is going to have a very short crop on this first cut.”

Despite the dry conditions,

TABLE 1: Seeding Emergence as of June 9, 2015

“I think we can get through this year, even if we didn’t get a lot of rain, with a slightly below-average crop.”

James Wright

Wright isn’t overly worried about the crops yet.

“Farmers here have become very good at being able to manage soil moisture. I think we can get through this year, even if we didn’t get a lot of rain, with a slightly below-average crop.”

He estimated it would take two more dry years before conditions were as bad as the punishing drought of 2002.

And aside from praying for rain, there’s “not an awful lot we can do” to manage these dry conditions, he added.

“That’s one thing about farming — you’re at the beck and call of Mother Nature. Whatever she deals you, you have to deal with.” jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

% Emergence South

Central

N East

N West

Peace

Average

Spr. Wheat

93.8%

94.4%

99.8%

99.8%

98.1%

96.7%

Barley

95.5%

88.8%

93.2%

93.2%

90.5%

91.9%

Oats

94.5%

82.1%

94.9%

94.9%

89.5%

89.6%

Canola

88.8%

93.9%

98.6%

98.6%

95.6%

93.7%

Dry Peas

98.4%

97.7%

100%

100%

99.8%

98.9%

Average

93.6%

92.7%

97.9%

97.9%

96.2%

94.7%

Last Week

83.0%

75.0%

85.5%

82.6%

84.4%

82.0%

Source: AF/AFSC Crop Reporting Survey

TABLE 2: Surface Soil Moisture Ratings as of June 9, 2015

Surface Soil Moisture (%) Region

Poor

Fair

Good

Excellent

Excessive

South

24.1%

39.8%

32.9%

3.1%

0.1%

Central

58.3%

34.4%

7.3%

0%

0%

Northeast

58.1%

31.5%

10.4%

0%

0%

Northwest

60.7%

37.1%

2.1%

0%

0%

Peace

18.1%

42.3%

35.0%

4.6%

0%

Average

43.4%

36.5%

18.5%

1.5%

0.1%

Last Week

29.8%

42.7%

25.4%

2.1%

0%

Source: AF/AFSC Crop Reporting Survey

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JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

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

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

Harmony Beef owner offers a different — and welcome — view

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

CIRCULATION manager Heather Anderson Email: heather@fbcpublishing.com

PRODUCTION director

It’s been a trail of broken dreams for smaller beef plants, but Rich Vesta has a compelling story on why his plant will be different

Shawna Gibson Email: shawna@fbcpublishing.com

Director of Sales Cory Bourdeaud’hui Email: cory@fbcpublishing.com

BY LAURA RANCE

national ADVERTISING SALES Jack Meli Phone: 647-823-2300 Email: jack.meli@fbcpublishing.com

Local ADVERTISING sales Crystal McPeak Phone: 403-646-6211 or 403-360-3210 Email: crystal@fbcpublishing.com

classified ADVERTISING SALES Sharon Komoski Phone: 1-888-413-3325 Fax: 204-944-5562 Email: sharon.komoski@fbcpublishing.com

ADVERTISING Co-ordinator Arlene Bomback Phone: 204-944-5765 Fax: 204-944-5562 Email: ads@fbcpublishing.com

PUBLISHER Lynda Tityk Email: lynda.tityk@fbcpublishing.com

Associate PUBLISHER/ editorial director John Morriss Email: john.morriss@fbcpublishing.com

president Bob Willcox Glacier FarmMedia bwillcox@farmmedia.com 204-944-5751

The Alberta Farmer Express is published 26 times a year by Farm Business Communications.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

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

Manitoba Co-operator Editor / Balzac, Alta.

T

he view is different out here — and it’s not just the scenery.

Granted, Co-operator staff had the rare opportunity earlier this month to visit with ranchers in and around Calgary that were specifically selected by our Alberta Farmer colleagues specifically because they do things a little differently.

Nevertheless, it was an eye-opener listening to beef producers who see healthy soil as the foundation of their commercial success. Or chefs and meat cutters at Canada Beef Inc. who are demonstrating new ways to keep beef on the menu in Canadian and international kitchens.

Or Rich Vesta, an American entrepreneur with a story that could turn any skeptic about the prospects for more domestic meat processing on the Canadian scene — and there are more than a few — into a believer.

Vesta recalls sitting in a beef industry conference at which the keynote speaker referred to Alberta as the “home to world-famous Alberta beef — known only in Alberta.”

“That was a defining moment for me. There is a story here to be told and it hasn’t been told,” he said. “Part of the reason is, you’ve got American companies marketing all your cattle.”

Vesta, who made his fortune as the guy U.S. meat processors brought in to get struggling plants back on track, is hoping — no planning — to change that.

There was lots of buzz when he bought the mothballed Rancher’s Beef plant just outside of Calgary in 2013. The plant, built for $80 million in 2005 in response to the BSE crisis,

hasn’t cut any beef since it went bankrupt in 2007.

He renamed it Harmony Beef and announced plans to spend $18 million in renovations and open a plant capable of processing 800 head a day and employ 325 people by June 2014.

Circumstantial evidence would suggest Harmony Beef is on the road to broken dreams just like every other effort to get a small- to medium-scale export-accredited meat processor up and running in Western Canada.

It is now June 2015. Renovation costs are estimated at $20 million. Vesta says he is now targeting early 2016 for opening. As he toured us around the facility we saw lots of construction workers, new equipment, and cutting-line configurations that defy conventional thinking — but no sign it will be receiving any cattle or shipping any beef any time soon.

There’s a wastewater treatment permitting issue that needs to be resolved. Meanwhile, the City of Calgary is making noise about not wanting a slaughterhouse so close to town.

It all sounds sadly familiar, except for one thing — Rich Vesta.

Vesta readily concedes that if someone asked him about the feasibility of building a new plant in Western Canada today, he’d say “absolutely not.” But he didn’t have to build this plant, and although he won’t disclose what he paid for it, it’s safe to assume he and two sons paid cents on the dollar. That’s often the way it goes in business.

Vesta was drawn to this plant by the fact that it has extraordinarily ‘good bones.’ It was built to meet European standards at the outset. As well, it’s located in the heart of Canada’s cattle-feeding sector.

In Vesta’s world, big is not beautiful. There will be no 250-head-per-hour high-speed cutting lines. Once a carcass is on the hook, it will move only six feet every 30 seconds.

He says it is more efficient. Workers at each station have more time, which increases the proportion of the carcass that makes its way into the higher-value cuts instead of trim. It also improves food safety and reduces worker strain.

“We have an obligation to use every ounce of that animal — not every pound, every ounce,” said Vesta, who learned meat cutting from a Dutch master butcher in his home town in Illinois as a teenager. “He taught me dignity and respect for animals once they were harvested.”

It’s about money too. One of the many anecdotes he shared from his years working for the likes of Packerland, Smithfield and JBS, was how his cutting methods could add $60 to carcass values.

Vesta has similar ideas around carcass size.

He’ll be paying premiums and discounts to attract the size of cattle that produces the cuts needed in the food-service sector. Hint: Carcasses that tip the scale at 925 pounds won’t be the ones getting a premium.

If Vesta nails higher cut-out efficiency and right-size carcass size, the production from his plant will be competitive in the commodity beef market as well as specialty markets or export to Europe, Asia or the U.S. He might also help rewrite the rules in the beef value chain.

“From my perspective, there is a need to do some things a little differently in the beef business,” he says.

Amen to that. laura@fbcpublishing.com

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Plants may run out of time to grow under climate change Canada is among the few regions that could see increased production under global warming UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA

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key potential ‘benefit’ of global warming — namely, that plants at northern latitudes will thrive in a warmer world — is challenged by a new study released by University of Hawaii scientists.

The prevailing assumption ignores the fact that plants in the north will remain limited by solar radiation, curbing positive effects of warming and additional CO2 availability. In addition, that same warming could surpass plant temperature tolerances in tropical areas around the world, and further be accompanied by drought.

“Those who think climate change will benefit plants need to see the light, literally and figuratively,” says Camilo Mora, lead author of the new study that shows climate change will lead to overall declines in plant-growing days by the year 2100 due to a mixture of warming, drought, and limited solar radiation.

“A narrow focus on the factors that influence plant growth has led to major underestimations of the potential impacts of climate

change on plants, not only at higher latitudes but more severely in the tropics, exposing the world to dire consequences,” said Mora.

Using satellite-derived data, the study identified the ranges of temperatures, soil moisture (water availability) and light (solar radiation) within which 95 per cent of the world’s plant growth occurs today. The researchers then used climate projections to count the number of days in a year that will fall within these suitable climate ranges for plant growth in the future.

Although the study did find that warming trends will increase the number of days above freezing at higher latitudes by seven per cent, these same locations will remain limited by light, a trend that has been missed by previous studies that focused on temperature alone.

“Regions at higher latitudes will likely have less frost and snow on the ground in the future, but many plants will not be able to take advantage of those warmer temperatures because there will not be enough sunlight to sustain their growth,” says Iain Caldwell, a co-author of the study.

The same warming that appeared to be a positive influence on plant growth at higher latitudes was found to be detrimental to plants in tropical regions, where conditions will become too warm and dry for most plant growth.

Overall, the entire planet could see about an 11 per cent reduction in the number of days with suitable climates for plant growth, with some tropical regions facing a reduction of up to 200 days per year by 2100.

The new study goes further to assess where people will be hardest hit by the changes in the number of plant-growing days and found that approximately 2.1 billion are highly vulnerable to the projected changes. These 2.1 billion people currently live in countries that depend heavily on plants for food, jobs, and revenue and have minimal capacity to adapt because they are poor. Yet they could lose 30 per cent or more of their current plant-growing period.

“Climate change will have disproportional impacts on the poorest in the world,” says Micah Fisher, another co-author of the study. “Our analysis showed dramatic potential human impacts

on the Sahel and on certain Pacific islands. If subsistence farmers in the Sahel lose half of their growing days for plant crops, then how are they supposed to feed their families or generate income? Will they be forced to move? And worse yet, could this be cause for future conflict?”

Despite the potential for hardship under ongoing emissions, the study found that some northern regions, predominantly in China, Russia, and Canada, will likely experience improved climatic conditions for plant growth.

“Our study provides important policy implications,” says Mora. “It suggests that we should make better friends with the Canadians. Not to make light of the situation, but imagine the political leverage that climate change could give to some countries if they gain the power to feed the rest of the world.”

On a more positive note, changes in suitable plant-growing days were negligible under strong and moderate mitigation scenarios, suggesting that even modest reductions in emissions could prevent such drastic changes and their associated consequences for ecosystems and people.

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ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JUNE 22, 2015

Constant change is the only sure thing in the food business The environment was once the big thing, but then came animal welfare, local, gluten free, additives, food safety and more

By BRENDA SCHOEPP AF columnist

T

he ‘mobile global food table’ is a phrase I use to capture the constant shift in consumer trends and food demand.

I picture it as a round table without edges that can be placed indoors or out. Sometimes there are chairs and sometimes there are chopsticks. Always there is change.

I’ve taken notes over the last decade in regards to the moving target of meeting consumer demands and the task of creating value-added foods for our domestic and export supply. At one point, the primary concern of the consumer was the environment.

During that period, for example, we did things to show our resolve like shifting from plastic grocery bags to cloth reusable ones.

Then the environment sifted to the bottom of the concerns — animal welfare took over followed by antibiotic resistance, overall food safety, and food additives.

Everyone wants safe food. I know I do and being a farmer, I am especially conscious of the product I produce or create. Like farmers everywhere we pay atten-

tion to what our buyers want to eat. Just when we thought they were satisfied with the level of food safety regulations, our hungry crowd began to rethink food.

Trends developed, morphing into things like food trucks which shifted away from bricks and mortar commercial kitchens. The tastes changed from chocolate to olives and from new takes on North American heritage meals to exotic textures and flavours.

Ground beef became the cut of choice and chicken wings flew off the shelf. Beverages became the new fashion and a lot of people walk with their coffee or fashion drinks as an accessory.

Later, children’s nutrition started taking the spotlight along with smartphone apps so one could find food and food service. Online ordering of food and groceries exploded. Food eaters also decided that the reality of food miles did not make sense and neither did supporting a farmer 15,000 kilometres away. So the local movement took hold. The idea of shopping for local is lucrative as sales from farmers’ markets in Canada last year topped $1 billion with a total economic generator of $3 billion (the equivalent of the value of the beef industry). At this point in his-

tory, folks are committed to local and to organic, with 58 per cent of consumers now buying organic goods.

Our consumers are committed to information. In the past, they were reluctant to pay for items that had a healthy ingredient list. The new generation demands transparency when it comes to food ingredients. They will also pay for foods they deem healthy and walk away from those foods they deem to put them at long-term risk.

Sugar was the first soldier to fall with many processors now pledging not to use high fructose and refined sugars. A constant on the list is GMO product. The industry may not win this one as powerful as the Monsantos of the world are. This issue has had amazing staying power despite the fading of other concerns.

As most households in Canada are single households, single-serving meals are popular.

Low-glycemic demand is rising as diabetes becomes a national problem. Gluten-free offerings are trending upward. I was at a catered event this winter where the entire offering was gluten free — and delicious. Fat is now a good thing and the panic on cholesterol is a quiet rumble. Organic

and natural foods continue to be in the five fastest-growing areas.

Our multicultural demographic has a strong influence on food and shelves today carry an assortment of vegetables and fruits for the growing population. It also means the meat counter has changed as well as the spice rack.

I’ve noticed in my travels that the hot meals in places such as travel lounges are diverse and almost always are curry based with meat as part of the meal but not the principle ingredient. A new U.S. study found consumers are doing just that — putting meat in with the rest of the meal as a source of protein as they shift from building a meal around meat. This suggests the demand for veggies will continue to increase and young innovators are flocking to this type of farming in Canada.

Food service, even fast food, is trying to keep pace with consumers’ needs. When you are too slow on the creation of a menu that consumers want, you fall hard.

As an example, burger outlets are desperately trying to outsmart initiatives like A&W’s brilliant hormone-free campaign. But that ship has left the port and those clients will be difficult to recapture. So the competition is trying to tie in sustainable and local in

the same sentence to reassure customers.

Sustainability is a word so worn down that it has become meaningless. To think in terms of sustaining is yesterday’s news.

Science and technology will fight to keep food on our plates and balance the needs of consumers.

So while they create and grow drought-resistant and salt-resistant plants on our drying planet, they also are compelled to do it without striking the fire on the GMO debate.

Looking to the future and way ahead in the discussion is the regenerative model of nutrientdense foods. The consumer is not there yet — but I am because we cannot ask the world’s farmers to produce more. The cost to the future is too high. But we can solve a lot of competitive and consumer demand problems with this food differentiation in Canada. Bringing our commitment to high-quality Canadian food to the mobile global food table reserves our place.

Brenda Schoepp is a farmer from Alberta who works as an international mentor and motivational speaker. She can be contacted through her website www.brendaschoepp.com. All rights reserved. Brenda Schoepp 2014

Think a big new West Coast terminal is good news? Think again Expanding storage capacity just helps the big grain companies depress the price paid to farmers

By Jan Slomp

G

3 has announced it may build a new grain terminal at the West Lynn terminal on the North Shore of Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet.

G3 is the joint venture of U.S.-based multinational grain company, Bunge Ltd., and the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Co., owned by the Saudi government.

It was given the assets of the now-privatized CWB in early April in return for a promise to invest $250 million in the company.

While some are cheering the news of another port facility, in fact, it is more evidence that ending the farmer-directed single-desk Canadian Wheat Board has made our grain system less efficient and has allowed grain companies to become more powerful and profitable.

The single-desk CWB co-ordinated transportation from country elevator to port vessel so that the existing port facilities were well utilized and grain moved on time, even ahead of schedule. For example, the CWB co-operated with different terminal owners to achieve efficient loading of 50,000-

to 60,000-tonne Panamax vessels, since no single elevator company was, or is, big enough to load them in one shot. Singledesk efficiency often resulted in despatch payments, the bonus paid by vessel owners for fast service. Because the single-desk CWB sold grain on behalf of farmers, we also received the dollar benefit thus earned.

Bottlenecks

The 2013-14 bottlenecks were not caused by lack of terminal capacity, but resulted from the lack of co-ordination due to the destruction of the wheat board’s single desk. The grain companies actually benefited immensely from the logistical problems by using transportation delays to justify devaluing farmers’ grain with wide basis charges, while pocketing millions in excess profits.

More terminal capacity, whether inland or port, worsens farmers’ position when the added storage capacity is under the control of the grain companies instead of farmers.

G3 and the “Big 3” — Cargill, Richardson and Viterra — would all benefit from the proposed West Lynn facility, as it enables them to store larger quantities of grain,

which increases the buffer between farmers in the countryside and their end-use customers. This “holding tank” creates room and time for grain companies to widen their margins by buying from farmers as low as possible, then controlling the outward supply to maximize the selling price to customers. Like captive supply in the beef sector, expanding grain company storage capacity just helps depress the price paid to farmers.

Like captive supply in the beef sector, expanding grain company storage capacity just helps depress the price paid to farmers.

Land locked

No doubt G3 can afford to build an expensive new terminal. It was just given the assets of our CWB, is partly owned by one of the world’s wealthiest governments, and stands to make billions selling landlocked Prairie grain to the former customers of the single-desk CWB. Agriculture Minister Ritz promotes high yields and trade volumes that benefit multinational corporations, yet we know from our single-desk CWB experience that prosperity for Prairie farmers comes from efficiently moving and selling “enough” volume for premium prices, while putting the money into farmers’ pockets.

It is painful to hear our government talk about adding value and developing export markets for grain companies after unilaterally destroying an institution that did exactly that on behalf of farmers — especially after handing its remaining assets to a company jointly owned by the state of Saudi Arabia, a country notorious for human rights abuses.

Jan Slomp is the president of the National Farmers Union and farms near Courtenay, B.C.

6

Off the front

june 22, 2015 • Albertafarmexpress.ca

McDonald’s Corporation president and CEO Steve Easterbrook (centre) and McDonald’s Canada president and CEO John Betts talk to Graeme Finn (right) on a tour of his ranch near Crossfield on June 9. PHOTO: MCDONALD’S VERIFIED } from page 1 what he saw and heard, said Jeffrey FitzpatrickStilwell, senior manager of sustainability with McDonald’s Canada.

He pointed to Easterbrook’s visit to Southern Cross Livestock where rancher Graeme Finn has made soil health his No. 1 priority.

“They were right down there in the dirt, talking about how he preserves the topsoil and stuff,” said Fitzpatrick-Stilwell. “That’s really what we wanted to expose Steve to. It’s a lot more than the animal itself — beef sustainability goes beyond that. It’s about the grass that they’re grazing and the grains that are being grown for them. It’s a much bigger picture.”

Following the visit of Easterbrook — who was accompanied by World Wildlife Fund CEO Carter Roberts and top officials from McDonald’s and Cargill — the company announced that 19 Alberta ranches have been verified and 100 cattle organizations from B.C. to Ontario have signed up to participate in the next phase of the pilot project. Participants include producers, feedlots, and processors.

McDonald’s plans to end the pilot next April and hand off the project to the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, whose membership includes beef producers, processors, retailers, restaurant chains, and environmental organizations.

“We haven’t decided as the Canadian Roundtable how it will keep progressing but at the end of April 2016, when the McDonald’s pilot project is over, if it just dies, then it has been an immense failure for the industry,” said Alberta rancher Bob Lowe, a member of the advisory committee on the McDonald’s pilot.

“There are a few of us who don’t plan on letting that happen if we have anything to say about it.”

Copithorne-Barnes took the opportunity to explain to Easterbrook how sustainability has long been a top priority at her family’s ranch, which was established in 1887.

She said the roundtable is up to the task of carrying on the work begun under the pilot project.

“The indicators that McDonald’s is developing are being shared with us, so we know the status on those indicators and we will be the ones who add the indicators from the life-cycle analysis (being done by consulting firm Deloitte),” said Copithorne-Barnes. “We will combine the best of both worlds. To be frank, we can’t be as finite as what McDonald’s was hoping to do. We have to have a basic plan that people are comfortable with answering and it’s not going to be too onerous.”

One of the key lessons for his boss was hearing that Canadian beef producers want “a credible way to talk about the positive things that they’re already doing,” said Fitzpatrick-Stilwell.

“The pilot is helping them verify best practices that they assumed they were already following, but it’s also helping them identify some areas of opportunity,” he said.

Copithorne-Barnes echoed that view, saying the verification process got her thinking differently about some of the things she’s doing on her ranch.

The McDonald’s pilot project is still looking for interested cattle producers. Any size of operation is welcome. For more information on the pilot project and how to participate, visit www. vsbpilot.ca. akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

How the ‘verified sustainable’ process works

By ALEXIS KIENLEN AF staff

McDonald’s has started verifying producers, as part of its promise to start selling sustainable beef in 2016.

Here’s what’s been happening on Alberta farms so far: • Earlier this year, McDonald’s said it had a list of 40 “indicators” that will be used to rate a beef operation. The indicators — which cover areas such as animal care, environmental stewardship, and food safety practices — were jointly developed with livestock industry officials.

• Nineteen Alberta ranches have gone through the pilot process and have been verified. The evaluation is easy and takes about four hours to complete, said Cheri Copithorne-Barnes, chair of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and one of the ranchers who has been verified.

• The process is being conducted by Where Food Comes From (www. wherefoodcomesfrom.com), an independent third-party food verification company based in Colorado.

• Producers get a score ranging from one (entry) to five (excellence). A dozen of the indicators are classified as critical and participants must get a score of at least three (achievement) on each of those indicators in order to be verified as sustainable.

• None of the 19 operations has actually seen their overall score yet. That’s because Where Food Comes From is analyzing the pilot project to see which indicators worked well, and which need tweaking. As well, consulting firm Deloitte is finishing up a “lifecycle analysis” of beef production, which will also be factored in. Once

that process is complete, Where Food Comes From will then rescore all the verifications it has done to date.

Findings so far

One of the guiding principles of the process is that McDonald’s would not dictate what producers could or couldn’t do, but would work collaboratively with the beef sector.

As part of that process, three members of an advisory committee (Copithorne-Barnes, Page Stuart from Alberta Cattle Feeders, and Bob Lowe from Alberta Beef Producers) have followed up with pilot participants.

“The process of verifying is designed to be a learning experience,” said Lowe, a Nanton-area rancher. “So far everybody who has gone through the process says it has been just that. It’s been a way of showing off your production. That’s kind of the mindset that the people who have been verified have fallen into.”

The pilot has also prompted McDonald’s to change some indicators, which were designed to be “outcome based.”

But that can be challenging, said Jeffrey Fitzpatrick-Stilwell, senior manager of sustainability with McDonald’s Canada. He gave the example of greenhouse gases.

“There isn’t a way that everyone accepts to measure outcomes of carbon capture or sequestration, even though we know grasslands are a major carbon sink,” he said. “We’ve toyed with some of the wording on that (and) how to make it applicable to producers. It’s hard for them to demonstrate how they’re achieving a positive outcome around greenhouse gas mitigation when you can’t point to what you mean by that or what examples of that could be.”

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7

Albertafarmexpress.ca • June 22, 2015

DRY TIMES } from page 1 yield potential is being impacted every day that we remain dry,” said Burnett. “Even if we do get some rains here over the next two weeks, the amount that the crops can recover in terms of yield is probably limited.”

Crops that were seeded later, like canola, are “particularly bad.”

“There’s some canola fields that have one or two plants emerged, and the rest of the field is waiting for the first rain,” he said. “In those circumstances, if we do get the rains, the crops are going to be so late that they’ll probably be damaged by frost in the fall.

“We’re starting to run out of calendar time for some of these fields.”

Stunted pastures

Alberta Agriculture and Forestry release

E

ncouraging and protecting natural enemies can be an excellent way to control pest populations.

“Everybody is familiar with ladybugs and lacewings as voracious, pest-consuming beneficial insects,” said Dustin Morton, commercial horticulture specialist with the Alberta Ag-Info Centre.

“But fewer are familiar with how natural enemies such as hover flies, ground beetles, and even yellow-jacket wasps contribute to a healthy integrated pest management (IPM) plan by reducing pest numbers.”

Using beneficial insects or natural enemy populations is based on three basic principles in agriculture: augmentation; classic bio-

logical control or importation; and and importing it into its adopted conservation and enhancement. range.

“Greenhouse producers are “This type of biological control perhaps most familiar with the has historically been controverconcept of augmentation where sial as it often involves importing a crop is either inoculated with a foreign species that can itself a natural enemy or inundated potentially become a pest,” said with it,” said Morton. “Beneficial Morton. “Given how risky this insects that were reared in a lab or process can be, it’s generally not collected in a field are introduced undertaken at the producer level.” to an area such as a greenhouse The final method, conservation or field. While this technique is and enhancement, is where most commonly used in greenhouse field growers will see a real benefit situations, it’s less applicable to in their operation, he said. field growers, as most beneficial “Most fields generally have insects used in this way aren’t much larger populations of bentypically capable of overwinter- eficial insects than pests,” he ing. Furthermore, they can be said “However, these beneficial an expensive prospect for field populations can be substantially growers given how mobile many reduced during the process of killof these insects tend to be.” ing pests.”

Classic biological control or One of the easiest ways to proimportation generally involves tect these beneficial insects is to looking at a pest’s native range, avoid the use of pesticides that finding a natural enemy of it there may harm them.

B:8.125”

“Using selective pesticides, selective applications (that is, applying only to areas of concern) or timing applications to a time when beneficial insects are not active, such as early morning, can help reduce losses. Similarly, minimizing cultural practices like soil disturbance, burning, and timing irrigation better can also all go a long ways to making a field more hospitable to natural enemies.”

As with most topics, knowledge is power, said Morton.

“The more producers know about natural enemies, the better they can manipulate the environment to make it more inviting for them. By incorporating a few new techniques into their operation, growers can better protect these natural enemies and ensure a crop yield that reflects it.”

T:8.125” S:8.125”

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InVigor® is a registered trademark of the Bayer Group.

Bayer CropScience is a member of CropLifeCanada.

0-66-06/15-10284122-E

T:10”

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

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jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

Tweaking your pesticide applications and field management can boost the populations of beneficial bugs

S:10”

It’s the same story for pastures and hayfields, said Grant Lastiwka, forage specialist for Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

“The situation isn’t good,” he said. “We have got a situation where we’re looking at a pittance on pasture and in hay stands, compared to what we should have.”

In an Alberta Crop Conditions report released on June 12, AFSC reported pastures were performing poorly in most of the province, with the exception of southern Alberta and some of the Peace Country.

But there’s still some hope, Lastiwka said. Compensatory plants will try to make up the loss once moisture arrives. And unlike field crop producers, grazers have some options to weather the dry conditions.

“We have to make some decisions in dry conditions,” said Lastiwka. “We know that it will rain, but until such time, we want to allow those plants on the majority of our forage land to be able to come back and be the best they can be.”

In some pastures, he said, producers may want to hold off on grazing until enough production is in place. Producers can also choose a pasture as a “sacrifice area,” where certain pastures aren’t grazed until fall.

Because of the high prices, it’s also a good time to invest in pasture fertility.

“If it really rains in July, I would look at getting out there with some fertilizer and other things, knowing I would get compensatory growth and that I want to exploit it to its fullest potential,” said Lastiwka, adding that a blend of nutrients will work best.

“Many of the older hay stands have been down for quite a while, and investing in them might mean another hay cut or a fall grazing. As soon as we get the moisture for fertility to work, it is an option that is a profitable one.”

But each operation will need to manage their pastures differently, he added.

“Everybody will have a different set of options, based on what they have and they need to take different moves with what they have.”

For field crop producers, the options are more limited, said Burnett.

“Farmers are going to have to start thinking about crop insurance, and if they have a diversified operation where they have some cattle, they’re going to have to look at cutting some of this crop up for feed,” he said.

“We’ll just have to wait and see what happens here.”

Getting the good bugs on your side

8

JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

IN CONTROL: Consumers driving changes in the food sector Transparency in food labelling and no GMOs are among the top consumer food trends AF staff

T

he relationship between consumers and their food is no longer ‘from field to fork,’ says the former VP of innovation for Loblaws.

“It’s actually from fork to field,” said Paul Uys, who spoke at the Conference on Food Innovation in late May. “Consumers are increasingly driving the food supply chain. It’s all about connecting with consumers, their lifestyles, and values.”

And right now, consumers value transparency in food labelling. In its list of Top 10 food trends to expect in 2015, market research company Innova Market Insights put labelling at the top of the list.

Pasturing insured hayfields AFSC release

This spring has experienced low precipitation rates and windy conditions in many parts of the province that may be contributing to poor forage growth. Some Agriculture Financial Services Corporation clients may wish to pasture insured hayfields prior to haying being general in the area.

Clients wishing to pasture their insured hay acres prior to haying being general in their area will need to contact AFSC and request approval to use the hay crop for an alternate use and a pre-harvest inspection.

At the discretion of AFSC the client may be given the option, to place a sufficient number of exclosures that are fenced off, and representative of the field. The placement and maintenance of these sites and associated costs are solely the responsibility of the client. When AFSC declares haying being general in an area, OFI will then complete a pre-harvest inspection and the average yield potential will be based on these fenced-off exclosures for that field.

A minimum of two sites per field and up to 40 acres is required, and a minimum of one site for every additional 40 acres is also required. Clients may build sites from material they have on hand; AFSC’s recommendation is to use eight- to 10-ft. steel panels, gates or round bale feeders.

These will have to be solidly secured to the ground and, if needed, wrapped with material such as page or cement wire to protect the site from livestock grazing.

Clients with questions or concerns about the policy or procedures should contact their local branch office.

“Consumers, retailers, industry, and regulation drive greater transparency in food labelling right now,” said Innova market analyst Joanna Clifton, who also spoke at the conference.

“Clear label claims are tracked on nearly 25 per cent of food and beverage products globally, with manufacturers increasingly highlighting the naturalness and origin of their products.”

In recent years, consumers have been “scrutinizing” labels and shifting their shopping habits towards foods that have more transparent “clean label claims” — such as no artificial ingredients, additives, or hard-to-pronounce ingredients.

And nowhere is that more evident than in the meteoric rise in GMO-free labelling.

“Consumers are increasingly driving the food supply chain. It’s all about connecting with consumers, their lifestyles, and values.”

“GMO free is the fastest-growing new trend, with a compound annual growth rate of 49 per cent,” said Clifton.

“Several large companies in

the U.S. and other countries have announced no-GMO commitments, which may translate into a more global trend.”

Almost half of consumers surveyed by Innova said buying GMO-free food is very important to them, she said. That points to a greater trend toward consumers wanting to know how their food is produced.

“Clear and transparent labelling will be key to upholding and regaining the confidence of today’s consumers in a food industry that’s become overly complex in its supply chains and ingredient sourcing,” said Clifton.

And while scientific consensus is that GMOs are safe, consumers aren’t buying it just yet, said Uys.

“Science versus ideology is going to continue to happen,” he said. “As strong as our belief in science is, there are times when it’s just going to be a tough sell.”

Even so, agriculture needs to “get ahead of those issues” and keep advocating for facts in the face of pseudo-science.

“We increasingly hear that Gwyneth Paltrow and Dr. Oz and the Food Babe need to be held accountable, and retailers can’t do that — they don’t have the right reputation,” said Uys. “We need to rely on fully qualified scientists to hold those types of people accountable. We need non-biased, reputable scientists to stand up for the facts.” jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

healthy crops.

HEALTHY PROFITS.

Fungicide: optional add-on or necessary yield enhancer? their yields to the next level, growers need to have fungicide as part of their standard management program, just as they would expect to include herbicide.”

When commodity prices are high, it’s easy to justify investing in crop inputs to maximize yield. When commodity prices drop, however, many producers look for ways to save.

Fungicide applications are often among the first inputs to be omitted. But is the decision to drop your fungicide based on good economics and sound science? Not unless you’re growing in near-drought conditions, according to new research from Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD).

ARD researchers planted small plot trials at five locations around Alberta to test the return on investment of a fungicide application. In the second year of a four-year trial, the side-by-side comparisons of wheat grown with and without fungicide showed definitive results: in all but the driest sites, fungicide application offered a net economic benefit, with returns ranging from $14 to $110 per acre.

Throughout the 2014 growing season, the three sites in southern and central Alberta received between 10.4 and 16.7 inches of precipitation—average or above average for the area. This moisture supported both strong crop growth and high disease development.

The two wettest sites—one moistened via precipitation and one via irrigation—saw a yield increase of 22 to 37 per cent from a single application of fungicide versus the untreated control, and 30 to 48 per cent from a dual fungicide application. The trial site in northern Alberta that faced near-drought

“

“I think the data from our trials might convince those growers who are still on the fence,” says Dr. Sheri Strydhorst, an agronomy research scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development and the lead researcher in the fungicide trials. “If the risk factors for disease development are there and they want to take © 2015 UFA Co-operative Ltd. All rights reserved. 130499

Always read and follow label directions.

Astound®, Fuse®, Quilt® and Tilt® are trademarks of a Syngenta Group Company.

All other products are trademarks of their respective companies.

If they want to take their yields to the next level, growers need to have fungicide as part of their standard management program.

“

By JENNIFER BLAIR

conditions, on the other hand, had little yield response—not surprising given that conditions were not conducive to disease.

According to the study, a single fungicide application cost $18.41 to $25.59 per acre.

Based on that cost and a wheat price of $4.68 per bushel, ARD’s Production Crops Economist, Rawlin Thangaraj, calculated the net economic benefit of a single fungicide application was between $75 and $77 per acre at the trial site hit hardest by disease.

With two applications of fungicide at the same location, at a total cost of $44 per acre, the net economic benefit was $92 per acre. At the irrigated trial location, net economic benefit was even higher: $103 to $110 per acre for the early and late single fungicide applications respectively.

“When you have warm, moist conditions that suit disease development and you’re growing a variety that doesn’t have really strong disease resistance, you will see a tremendous yield response from the use of fungicide,” says Strydhorst. “In those types of conditions, a fungicide’s return on investment will be huge even at lower commodity prices.”

9

Albertafarmexpress.ca • june 22, 2015

Majestic giants threatened by Dutch elm disease Here are tips for spotting this devastating disease and preventing its spread Alberta Agriculture and Forestry release

A

Dutch elm disease can cause leaves to wilt or droop, curl and become brown in early summer. PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Protect your crops from yield-destroying diseases with a fungicide solution from UFA. UFA carries a wide variety of effective treatments including:

To learn more about how we can help you get the most from your crop’s potential, contact your local UFA customer account manager, or our customer service centre at 1-877-258-4500 (option 1), or email customer.support@UFA.com

UFA.com

lberta Dutch Elm Disease Awareness Week is from June 22 to 28.

“American elms are planted extensively in Alberta and throughout the years have become the tree of choice for the Prairies with good reason,” said Janet Feddes-Calpas of the Society to Prevent Dutch Elm Disease (STOPDED) executive director.

“These giants with their height and broad vase-shaped canopies have given them tremendous esthetic value. They are tough, can endure extreme heat, cold and drought, yet retain incredible beauty.”

However, all elm species that grow in Alberta have an Achilles heel.

“They are prone to DED, which is a deadly fungus. This fungus clogs the elm tree’s water-conducting system, causing the tree to die in a short period of time. The fungus is primarily spread from one elm tree to another by elm bark beetles.”

Leaves on a DED-infected elm will wilt or droop, curl and become brown. This appears in mid-June to mid-July. Leaves on trees infected later in the season usually turn yellow and drop prematurely.

Leaf symptoms are accompanied by brown staining under the bark.

All suspicious elms must be tested in a lab, a service STOPDED funds.

Monitoring for the beetles is done annually throughout the province by STOPDED. The smaller elm bark beetles have been found throughout the province in low numbers and now the banded elm bark beetle is found in larger numbers throughout the City of Medicine Hat and area.

What can you do to help?

• B e aware of the Alberta elmpruning ban between April 1 and Sept. 30. The beetles are most active at this time and can be attracted to the scent of fresh tree cuts, possibly infecting a healthy elm.

• Keep your elm trees healthy and vigorous. Water elms well from April to mid-August. To allow the tree to harden off for the winter, watering should be stopped midAugust followed by a good soaking or two before freeze-up.

• Remove dead branches and trees as they can provide beetle habitat, but only between October 1 and March 31.

• Dispose of all elm wood immediately by burning, burying or chipping.

• Report all suspect trees to the DED hotline at 1-877-837-ELMS. A confirmed DED tree must be removed immediately to prevent further spread.

What you shouldn’t do:

• Transport or store elm firewood at any time. DED and the beetles are declared pests under Alberta’s Agricultural Pests Act making it illegal to do so.

• Bring elm firewood into Alberta.

Firewood is confiscated at all the Alberta-Montana border crossings.

• Do not prune elms between April 1 and Sept. 30.

To report a DED suspect elm tree or for more information, call the STOPDED hotline at 1-877-837ELMS or go to www.stopded.org.

“Our elms are a treasure that we cannot afford to lose,” said Feddes-Calpas. “DED can be prevented.”

NEWS » Markets

}Inspection

10

JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

CFIA looking for feedback

French fear drop in N use

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is seeking feedback on options to change food labels and the food labelling system. Specific options, such as revising the format of best before dates, expanding food class names (such as vegetable oil or flavour), and changing the required contact information for food dealers are proposed in an online survey seeking comment. Other areas in the survey cover service delivery, policy development, and roles and responsibilities. The questionnaire can be found at www.inspection.gc.ca/labelling. The online survey concludes on June 30. — CFIA

French grain companies and agronomists are pushing farmers to rethink fertilizer use and choice of seed in an effort to halt a drop in wheat protein. A slippage in protein levels below the 11.5 per cent threshold widely used by millers in domestic and export markets led to an industry agreement last year to promote higher-quality grades.

“Grain growers backed off in the face of more restrictive regulations and used less nitrogen fertilizer,” said Luc Pelce of the crop institute Arvalis. Arvalis and others are encouraging farmers to apply nitrogen in smaller but more regular doses. — Reuters

Weather, loonie’s rally both bearish for canola WILD CARD } USDA’s supply-and-demand outlook put pressure on wheat

By Phil Franz-Warkentin

I

CE Futures Canada canola contracts briefly hit some fresh highs on June 8, but spent the remainder of the week ended June 12 trending lower as the advances proved unsustainable.

Both the old-crop July and new-crop November contracts started the week on a firm footing, climbing above the psychological $500-per-tonne mark on Monday.

However, by Friday’s close they were well off those highs, and posting losses of $11 to $12 per tonne on the week.

Some of the selling pressure was tied to weather forecasts calling for some muchneeded rain in dry parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The precipitation that did come was welcomed where it hit, but was also not as widespread as initially forecast and more moisture will be needed.

While what little rain there was contributed to the selling pressure in canola, conditions remain less than ideal, and the continued production uncertainty should remain a supportive influence going forward.

A rally in the Canadian dollar was another bearish influence on canola during the week, contributing to the move off the contract highs. The currency was up by over a cent compared to its U.S. counterpart, which makes exports less attractive to global buyers.

In the U.S., wheat futures saw a similar pattern as canola, briefly hitting some nearby highs before spending the rest of the week trending lower. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s monthly supply/ demand report was partially to blame for the backtracking in wheat as the government forecasts beat trade expectations.

U.S. wheat production in 2015-16 is now forecast at 2.121 billion bushels, which compares with the 2.026 billion bushels grown the previous year and an earlier estimate pegging the crop at 2.087 billion bushels.

USDA also raised its U.S. and world ending stocks projections. World wheat ending stocks for 2015-16 are now forecast at 202.4 million tonnes, which compares to the already historically large 2014-15 carry-out of 200.4 million tonnes.

Soybeans finished narrowly mixed on the week, while the bias was lower in corn.

The U.S. soybean crop was 79 per cent seeded as of June 7, behind the five-year average of 81 per cent complete. With more rains in the forecast heading into mid-June, traders started to express concern that some intended acres may end up unseeded.

However, many analysts also pointed to the old adage that “rain makes grain,” and noted production prospects remain

Photo: Thinkstock relatively favourable for the U.S. crop.

USDA left its production estimate for the U.S. 2015-16 soybean crop unchanged at 3.85 billion bushels.

USDA’s ending stocks estimates for both 2014-15 and 2015-16 were revised lower, which should be somewhat supportive. However, global supplies for the oilseed are still very big, with 93.2 million tonnes forecast to be available at the close of the 2015-16 crop year. That would be nearly 10 million tonnes above the forecast for the current marketing year.

Seeding is virtually complete for the U.S. corn crop, with condition ratings holding steady at 74 per cent good to excellent for the past three weeks. USDA also left its corn production estimate for the year unchanged at 13.63 billion bushels. While that would be down slightly

from the 14.22 billion bushels grown the previous year, it is still historically large.

The overall trend likely remains lower in both corn and soybeans, with a weather scare needed to provide a bullish catalyst. Market participants have given

up on a spring rally, and are now waiting on a summer weather rally.

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

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

11

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JUNE 22, 2015

Surprisingly few ‘busy bees’ make global crops grow Conservation of wild pollinators can’t be based on economics alone UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

A

major international study suggests that only two per cent of wild bee species pollinate 80 per cent of bee-pollinated crops worldwide. The study is one of the largest on bee pollination to date.

While agricultural development and pesticides have been shown to produce sharp declines in many wild bee populations, the study shows these ‘busy bees’ can remain abundant in agricultural landscapes.

The study gives a powerful economic rationale for conserving wild bees. It calculates the value of wild bee pollination to the global food system at $3,000 per hectare of insect-pollinated agricultural land, a number in the billions globally.

But the findings also offer a warning to conservation advocates hoping that economic arguments can justify the preservation of all species. Moral reasons are still needed, researchers say.

“This study shows us that wild bees provide enormous economic benefits, but reaffirms that the justification for protecting species cannot always be economic,” says Taylor Ricketts of the University of Vermont.

“We still have to agree that protecting biodiversity is the right thing to do.”

Fifty-eight researchers worldwide conducted the three-year study, led by Prof. David Kleijn of the Netherlands’ Wageningen University.

The study advances understanding of wild bees’ crucial role in the global food system.

About two-thirds of the world’s

most important crops benefit from bee pollination.

Wild bees’ agricultural value is now similar to that of honeybees, the study finds. Honeybees are no longer considered wild in many regions due to their intense management.

One reason to preserve bee biodiversity is securing the future resiliency of global pollination systems, Ricketts says.

Previous studies associate biodiversity with more stable pollination services over time.

The study includes 90 individual studies of nearly 1,400 crop fields across five continents (North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and South America).

Regular monitoring found nearly 74,000 individual bees from nearly 785 wild bees species on crops. Of 20,000 known bee species, roughly two per cent pollinated 80 per cent of crops.

The contribution of honeybees is well known, but bumblebees and their fellow wild bees are major pollinators, too, says a new study. pHOTO: thINKSTOCK

Learn the ins and outs of grain grading Alberta Wheat Commission release

Alberta Barley, the Alberta Wheat Commission and the Alberta Canola Producers Commission are holding a one-day workshop on July 28 to help producers get the best grade for their grain.

Making the Grade will be held at Olds College and include hands-on sessions from experienced industry speakers on barley, wheat, and canola grading and agronomy.

“Over the last year, each of the commissions have received requests from producers for a course that would enable better understanding of grain grading and factors affecting quality,” said Terry Young, a director for the wheat and canola commissions and member of the wheat subcommittee of the Western Grain Standards Committee.

“We created Making the Grade to address those knowledge gaps. And by having the commissions working together, we can ensure producers are getting the best value possible in a one-day seminar.”

The event will have three concurrent workshops with speakers from the Canadian Grain Commission, Rahr Malting, and the Canadian International Grains Institute.

The workshops will focus on hands-on malt barley grading; wheat grading and how grade affects end-use in international markets; and canola grading and crushing.

An agronomy session will cover topics like harvest management, late-season pesticide applications, grain storage and more.

Seating is limited. The earlybird registration fee is $75 until July 14, and $100 after.

Producers can get complete details and can register on any of the host commission websites or by going to www. eventbrite.ca (search for ‘making the grade’).

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news » livestock

JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Bison symposium in Saskatoon

Beef cow investment video

The 1st International Symposium on Bison Health takes place on June 24-26 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Bison vets, animal scientists, and industry experts will offer their insights and discuss the latest research findings, with a focus specifically on health and disease issues that impact the bison industry. The symposium is also intended for bison producers. Topics include handling and processing, reproduction technologies, breeding evaluation, and brucellosis prevention. There will also be a tour of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine’s Native Hoofstock Centre. — www.bisonhealth.ca

A video of the beef cow investment session from Cow-Calfenomics risk management series is now available at Alberta Agriculture and Forestry’s website. In the 35-minute video, business development and risk specialist Bruce Viney looks at four areas to consider when evaluating the investment potential of beef cattle. They are: profitability (cost of production and break-evens), risk (market, financial, and production), sensitivity analysis (what if prices change, markets change, or interest rates change?) and effects on cash flow. Go to www.agriculture.alberta.ca, search for ‘farm manager’ and click on the YouTube link. — AAF

Hefty checkoff rebates put squeeze on Alberta Beef Producers Marketing and research are suffering because one-third of voluntary checkoffs are being rebated, say officials

BY ALEXIS KIENLEN AF STAFF

C

heckoff refunds continue to hobble Alberta Beef Producers, which had to give back $2.5 million in the past year, mainly to cattle feeders.

“The $2 service charge that we have here would be sufficient if we were able to invest it all, but we lose about a third of it,” said Rich Smith, the organization’s executive director.

“These are issues that hurt the competitiveness of the industry. It’s a substantial amount of money that we think could be invested in a wide range of industry initiatives that would address marketing and research.”

That not only impacts Alberta producers but also affects their ability to keep up with their counterparts in other countries, said chair Greg Bowie, who ranches near Ponoka.

“The nations that we compete with are doing a better job of finding dollars to put into their research and promotion,” he said. “We have to come up with some way to commit funding to those areas.”

The checkoff rebates reduced the organization’s reserve funds and prevented it from funding multi-year research projects, he added.

“We can’t commit to a five-year project, when we have no idea what the refund rates are going to be five years down the road,” said Bowie. “We’ve got everything so tight that we don’t have the reserve funds to set aside. Six or seven years ago, we set aside $1.5 million for feed grain research.

We don’t have that option today.”

Fewer dollars have been allocated this year for research (most of which goes through other groups), although it is working with the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency to fund forage research and has also contributed money for work in feed grains and the beef science cluster.

“We’ve worked hard to get a greater degree of leverage with our research dollars,” said Smith.

“The other thing that we’re able to do that many research funders aren’t able to is provide funding for research infrastructure.”

“These are issues that hurt the competitiveness of the industry.”

Rich Smith

More research and marketing dollars would help address the ‘disturbing’ drop in herd numbers, says Alberta Beef Producers Photo: Thinkstock Cutting costs

Cutbacks have become the order of the day. The organization had a $754,000 deficit in the 2013-14 fiscal year, but managed to post a $49,905 surplus in the 2014-15 fiscal year (which ended March 31).

Part of that came from trimming administrative costs.

“We’ve been adjusting for five years to the situation of having reduced revenue, so we’ve been really careful with our staffing, always looking to gain efficiency,” said Smith.

This year’s budget is $4.9 million, and allocates money to trade advocacy and operating reserves.

“As far as trimming anything more, we’re as lean as we could possibly get,” said Bowie.

But the surplus is not a signal that the organization has turned a fiscal corner, but a function of how cash flows to long-term projects.

“The year-to-year position with respect to excess or deficit is mostly related to what

has happened with the money we’ve set aside in past years, rather than reflecting substantial changes in revenue and expenses of that particular year,” said Smith. “It’s a valid accounting procedure, but is not an accurate reflection of our overall financial position because so much of it is related to previous decisions.”

Future prospects

But while balancing the books is critical, there are bigger issues, particularly finding more research funding and addressing the low cattle herd numbers.

In its Grassroots newsletter earlier this month, Alberta Beef Producers called the latest decline of cattle numbers “a disturbing trend for the Canadian market.”

While U.S. numbers increased 1.4 per cent, the Canadian herd fell by 2.5 per cent.

“The percentages are one thing, but the actual numbers are something else,” the newsletter stated.

“Beef cows and breeding heifers are the basic foundation of the herd as production originates here. Canadian cow numbers went from 3.9 million decreasing to 3.82 million or a drop of 78,900 head.

For the U.S., cows went from 29 million to 29.7 million or more specifically an increase of 608,000.”

The report also noted the number of Canadian breeding heifers fell by 8,000 (to 531,100 head) while American numbers jumped by 226,100 (to 5.78 million head). There is a mix of factors behind this — including the country-of-origin labelling law and producers cashing in on high prices — but “from a positive standpoint, refining cow herd production programs such as pasture/forage and health management can show a considerable amount of payback,” the newsletter states.

Their members also said they want to see more funding for the organization and backed a non-refundable checkoff dur-

Greg Bowi ing a planning review last summer and at producer meetings in the fall, said Smith.

“Producers are saying that we need to take a look at how we address this loss of revenue through refunds, and we’re looking at different strategies for doing that,” said Smith.

The organization will be talking to government and industry partners on how to address the situation, but “we don’t have anything firmly in place yet,” he added.

Any additional money from a provincial levy, a lower refund rate, or a non-refundable checkoff would go to research and marketing, as well as industry collaboration, he said. akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

13

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JUNE 22, 2015

Preventing negative side-effects of vaccinations beef 911 } Vaccinating is a great tool, but producers need vaccination

protocols and should be ready to deal with their negative effects By roy lewis, dvm

T

here is now a multitude of vaccines on the market for all facets of the beef and dairy industry.

Vaccinating has become part of the biosecurity program on your farm, ranch or dairy. It is good for our industry as it controls disease, minimizes antibiotic use, improves production, and decreases death or losses from abortion.

But producers need to develop vaccination protocols with their herd veterinarian and, where possible, avoid some of the pitfalls that occasionally come with vaccinations. They are leukotoxic effects from gram-negative vaccines, allergic reactions, vaccine site infections, and poor immune response from a myriad of factors.

There are vaccines for viral infections and those for bacterial infections. The bacteria come in two forms called grampositive and gram-negative.

Gram-positive are ones like clostridial diseases and anthrax and these don’t produce leukotoxins. Gram-negative bacteria are most of the other bacteria we vaccinate against such as the respiratory pathogens and E. coli used for scours prevention and to control E. coli mastitis in our dairies. Some of these bac-

teria are worse than others for their leukotoxic effects, so one needs to avoid the use of too many of these bacteria at the same time.

The leukotoxic effect causes rapid breathing, foaming at the mouth and can lead to abortions in pregnant cattle and death. If cattle do recover, they may be chronic poor doers and susceptible to other diseases. They talk about not stacking (vaccinating) more than two of the most powerful leukotoxin-producing bacteria at the same time. Whether you get a reaction depends on a few other factors which add into the equation.

We see more of these leukotoxic effects in dairy cattle because the sector uses more of the gram-negative vaccines and also because dairy cows are under the production stress of milking. There are also some genetic lines that seem more susceptible.

Potential parasitism, poor nutrition (micro minerals lacking), and the potential of having slight acidosis (grain overload) all increase the odds of having a leukotoxic reaction when vaccinating.

It is important to know the more serious bacteria to avoid this stacking. E. coli, vibrio and salmonella (more seen in U.S.) are at the top for severity. Histophilus, foot rot, pink eye and

pasteurella (pneumonia) vaccines are in the middle group with leptospirosis vaccines in the least leukotoxin-producing category.

When giving these vaccines the effects are cumulative so if you are in the situation of needing to give lots of gram-negative vaccines, your veterinarian may have you spread out vaccines by a week or more.

Vigorously shaking vaccines when you rehydrate them (versus swirling) can release more leukotoxins. These leukotoxins also increase as the vaccine ages or if it gets too hot or too old. All of these factors underscore the importance of proper handling of vaccines.

Fortunately these vaccines are often given at different times such as foot rot and pink eye vaccines given in the spring before turnout and E. coli scours vaccines given in late pregnancy. Ask your veterinarian if you need help sorting out vaccination protocols, as they will be aware which vaccines result in the leukotoxic stacking effect.

Vaccines also can have adjuvants to enhance the immune response and allergic reactions in some herds are a possibility.

So just as we get allergic reactions to some antibiotics, the same can happen when vaccinating. This is more common with the killed bacterins and

killed vaccines versus the modified live vaccines. Be aware this can happen and always have a bottle of epinephrine, as well as an antihistamine and even dexamethasone (steroid), on hand if your vet advises it.

Generally these allergic reactions happen very soon after the injections and one sees rapid breathing, swelling or puffy eyes depending on the degree of allergic reaction. Keep in mind the treatment may need to be repeated a few times.

It is good practice to take a walk through any recently vaccinated cattle to check for reactions. Although they are very rare, in my experience, when they occur you often get multiple cases. It may have to do with vaccines used in the past, but something else has helped trigger the response and that is often very hard to determine.

The good news here is that, if caught in time, the majority of allergic reactions can be saved and it makes you ever vigilant for next time. Remember to keep the epinephrine around any time you are injecting cattle with anything and check them closely shortly after vaccinating the herd for any unusual clinical signs.

Vaccine reactions can turn into infections. To avoid infections change needles frequently, make sure the syringe has been

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cleaned prior to starting the day, don’t vaccinate through manure, and use the propersize needle. And if at all possible, don’t vaccinate in a rain shower as water can wash dust and debris into the needle hole.

With any investigation we see in the pharmaceutical business regarding abscessation with vaccination, it invariably involves vaccinating in a rainstorm or shower. I realize when we start vaccinating a herd, we must finish — but watch the weather forecast before determining what day to process on.

This may save these vaccine infections.

Poor immune response depends on the stress level, nutrition, exposure to organisms, and parasitic burden. Just remember a good vaccination program can be overwhelmed by poor management and exposure to lots of organisms. Vaccination does not guarantee disease will be nonexistent and we often say with vaccination we are trying to get 80 per cent protection in the herd.

Use vaccination as an adjunct to good management to increase productivity on your farm. Select the right vaccines by consulting with your veterinarian.

Roy Lewis practised large-animal veterinary medicine for more than 30 years and now works part time as a technical services veterinarian for Merck Animal Health.

14

JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Briefs Chambers new co-chair of labour task force Alberta’s Mark Chambers has been elected the new co-chair of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Labour Task Force.

The task force is developing an action plan to tackle industry labour shortages, an initiative of the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council with support from more than 60 partner organizations.

“The agriculture industry needs more workers,” said Chambers, a production manager with Sunterra Farms, a family-owned 60,000 hog operation headquartered in Acme, which also has a processing facility in Trochu.

“Labour shortages are affecting current operational success. Finding workers to work and live in small rural communities is very challenging. We need more workers to meet current production demands and to take advantage of export opportunities offered by new free trade deals.”

The other co-chair of the task force is Mark Wales, an Ontario vegetable and grain farmer.

— CAHRC release

Organic Beef Mentorship program taking applications The 2015 Organic Beef Mentorship program is open for applications.

“Organic Alberta offered the program last year with four pairs of mentors and mentees,” said Melisa Zapisocky, livestock manager with Organic Alberta.

“The program was a big success and we’ve decided to offer it again this year.”

Under the program, selected transitioning producers, including those considering organic certification, will be paired with experienced organic producers. Participating mentees do not have to be certified organic at the time of the mentorship.

The mentorship program includes a site visit by the mentor to the mentee’s farm. Mentors are paid for up to eight hours of their time (plus mileage) to provide oneon-one coaching. Mentees pay a $100 fee.

The program runs until Dec. 31, but Zapisocky said she hopes to get participants in place over the summer.

To find out more, call Zapisocky at 587-5212400. — AAF

foal and butterfly

This month-old Gypsy Vanner foal checks out a butterfly, not realizing it is not real. The butterfly was on a sign on the grounds of the Spruce Meadows equestrian complex near Calgary, where the filly lives. Photo: Wendy Dudley

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Hesston 8400 1994 21ft Draper E014240 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

MacDon 2930 1996 30ft 960, Single Knife 1725 eng hrs E012437 . . . . . . . . . . . .

MacDon 9352i 2005 30ft 972, Double Knife, Triple Del. E012026. . . . . . . . . . . . .

$49,900 $56,750 $64,900 $64,900 $62,250 $62,250 $64,900 $54,900 $49,900 $13,500 $26,900 $59,900

MacDon 4952i 2006 30ft 972, Double Knife, Triple Del. E013760. . . . . . . . . . . . . $64,900 MacDon M105 2013 25ft D65, Single Knife, Triple Del. 125 eng hrs E014431 . . $129,900 MacDon M150 2008 35’ D60, Double Knife, Trans, Triple Del, Swath Roller 1100 eng hrs E014297 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $101,900 MacDon M150 2010 30ft D60 360 eng hrs E014784 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $110,000 MacDon M150 2011 35ft D60 430 eng hrs E015040 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $119,000 MacDon M155 2012 35ft D65 E014782 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $129,900 MacDon M155 2012 35ft D65 E012951 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $129,900 MacDon M155 2013 35ft D65, Tow Kit 520 eng hrs E014782 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $135,000

DISCBINES/HAYBINES/RAKES: NH 1411 2003 10ft Sidepull E014170 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $11,900 NH 1411 2007 10ft Sidepull E014948 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $14,500 CIH DCX131 2004 13ft Hydroswing, Shockpro Hubs E014308 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17,900 CIH 8360 12ft Hydroswing E013769 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4,250 NH 1475 2006 16ft Hydroswing E014022 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17,500 NH 1475 1997 14’ Hydroswing E015537 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $8,500

BALERS: NH BR780 2004 Auto Wrap, 2.07m P/U E007642 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

NH BR780 2005 Auto Wrap, 1.5m P/U E009687 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

NH BR780A 2006 TW/NW, 2.07m P/U E007409 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

NH BR780A 2007 Auto Wrap, 2.07m P/U E014919 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

NH BR7090 2010 Auto Wrap, 1.5m P/U E007406 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

NH BR7090 2010 Bale Command, Twine Wrap, 2.07m P/U E014063 . . . . . . . . . .

NH BR7090 2011 Bale Command, Twine Wrap, 2.07m P/U E012632 . . . . . . . . . .

NH BR7090 2011 Auto Wrap, 1.5m P/U E014224 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

$13,900 $14,900 $18,900 $13,900 $19,900 $19,900 $19,900 $22,900

CONSIGNMENTS: REM 2700 Grain Vac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $19,500 JD 9600 2830 Threshing Hours 4165 eng hrs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35,000 JD 925 25’ Auger Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10,000 JD 2520 Tractor, Loader, Backhoe, Disc, Mower, Rear Blade, Wood Chipper. . . . $28,000 NH L230 2013 Skid Steer with bucket & Forks, Full Load, Heat & A/C, High Flow Hyds, 2 Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $54,900 JD 930 10’ Side Pull Disc Mower Conditioner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4,500

*FOR COMMERCIAL USE ONLY. OFFER SUBJECT TO CREDIT QUALIFICATION AND APPROVAL BY CNH INDUSTRIAL CAPITAL CANADA LTD. SEE YOUR NEW HOLLAND DEALER FOR DETAILS AND ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS. CNH INDUSTRIAL CAPITAL CANADA LTD. STANDARD TERMS AND CONDITIONS WILL APPLY. DEPENDING ON MODEL, A DOWN PAYMENT MAY BE REQUIRED. OFFER GOOD THROUGH JUNE 30, 2015, AT PARTICIPATING NEW HOLLAND DEALERS IN CANADA. OFFER SUBJECT TO CHANGE. TAXES, FREIGHT, SET-UP, DELIVERY, ADDITIONAL OPTIONS OR ATTACHMENTS NOT INCLUDED IN PRICE. © 2015 CNH INDUSTRIAL CAPITAL AMERICA LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NEW HOLLAND AGRICULTURE IS A TRADEMARK REGISTERED IN THE UNITED STATES AND MANY OTHER COUNTRIES, OWNED BY OR LICENSED TO CNH INDUSTRIAL N.V., ITS SUBSIDIARIES OR AFFILIATES. CNH INDUSTRIAL CAPITAL AND NEW HOLLAND CONSTRUCTION ARE TRADEMARKS IN THE UNITED STATES AND MANY OTHER COUNTRIES, OWNED BY OR LICENSED TO CNH INDUSTRIAL N.V., ITS SUBSIDIARIES OR AFFILIATES.

15

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JUNE 22, 2015

Learn how to benefit from sainfoin A new sainfoin variety called AC Mountainview will allow producers to add alfalfa to their pastures without fear of bloat Alberta Agriculture and Forestry release

A

new variety of sainfoin is the focus of an upcoming training session in Lethbridge on July 21 and 22.

“AC Mountainview has the ability to regrow more quickly than older varieties,” said Grant Lastiwka, a provincial forage and livestock business specialist. “Having a non-bloating, early growth and good regrowth legume is certainly something that is viable for many grazing operations.”

Including sainfoin in a grazing system offers several benefits, he said.

“What we’re looking at with legumes is the ability to fix nitrogen, and to grow during the August summer slump period to help out the forage grazing quality. The natural tannins in sainfoin are a bloat preventive. That is why we are looking at AC Mountainview sainfoin in a mix with alfalfa to greatly reduce

Canada ‘will retaliate’ if COOL isn’t scrapped, says Ritz

the risk of, or even eliminate, bloat.

Alfalfa is known for high productivity but is seldom used to its potential as a pasture species because of fear of bloat.”

The new sainfoin variety will help with getting more productivity and profitability per acre out of pasture, said Lastiwka.

“With the addition of a legume like AC Mountainview, with its ability to reseed itself, we can look at potential longevity, and increases in productivity and average daily gain. If you increase productivity by a half, or even a third, our profitability doubles or better. Now, who would not like to run more cattle on the same acreage and make more money doing it?”

The training sessions in Lethbridge will look at incorporating sainfoin into grazing systems with alfalfa.

“This one-day training session will provide livestock producers with innovative options to reduce bloat risk on high legume pastures,

“Who would not like to run more cattle on the same acreage and make more money doing it?”

Grant Lastiwka

improve productivity, and develop grazing systems that deliver greater profitability,” said Lastiwka. “Participants can decide whether they want to attend on the 21st or 22nd as we are running this one-day workshop twice, with each day having the same agenda.”

For more information, go to www. agriculture.alberta.ca and search for ‘sainfoin training.’ To register, call 1-800-387-6030. The registration deadline is July 10.

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Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz is warning Canada will play hardball with American politicians who block legislation to scrap the U.S. country-of-origin labelling (COOL) law on beef and pork imports.

Canada formally asked the World Trade Organization earlier this month to approve slightly more than $3 billion a year in retaliatory tariffs on American food and consumer products. Ottawa says it hopes to be able to impose the tariffs by late summer.

Several American senators are balking at legislation in the House of Representatives to repeal COOL. “Canada will retaliate against products from their states,” Ritz said from Washington.

He said hopefully that will deliver the message that Canada will only be satisfied with the elimination of COOL, not some watered-down version of it.

Ritz was in the American capital for two days of meetings with politicians and American farm and business leaders opposed to COOL. He said Mexico will seek close to $1 billion worth of retaliatory tariffs on American imports.

“The only way for the United States to avoid billions in immediate retaliation is to repeal COOL,” said Ritz.

Ottawa is likely to target beef, pork, California wines, mattresses, cherries and office furniture, officials said.

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} forecasts

JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

El Niño expected to hang around

Two degrees is too much

El Niño will likely last into next year, longer than previously expected and potentially roiling crops and commodity prices, says the U.S. Climate Prediction Center. The agency pegged the chances of El Niño weather conditions continuing into the Northern Hemisphere’s 2015-16 winter at 85 per cent. Japan’s weather bureau now also says it sees the possibility of El Niño lasting into the winter. The event, the warming of Pacific sea-surface temperatures, can have devastating consequences for global agriculture, triggering heavy rains and floods in some regions and scorching heat in others. — Reuters

The world’s poorest countries plan to push hard for a new global climate change deal, due in December, to address the losses and damage already being caused by worsening extreme weather and rising seas. The current goal of limiting global temperature rise to 2 C “is too dangerous for too many of us,” said Giza Gaspar Martins, an Angolan official who leads negotiations for the least developed countries. The target needs to be revised down to 1.5°, he said. Poor nations say wealthy polluting nations should pay compensation to those suffering the worst impacts. — Reuters

When it comes to hail, not all parts of the Prairies are equal South-central Alberta and south-central Manitoba get the worst hailstorms — but for different reasons

BY DANIEL BEZTE

S

o far in our look at different types of severe summer weather, we’ve looked at heavy rainfall warnings and heat warnings.

I was going to take a break from our examination of severe summer weather for this issue and examine some of the unique weather events that have taken place across the world over the last month or two. But I think the timing is just right to begin our look at the most prevalent of severe summer weather — thunderstorms and the hail they can bring.

First of all, when it comes to thunderstorms, we need to clarify something right off the top. I have discussed this several times in the past, and I know everyone doesn’t read my articles. But it still makes me crazy when I hear people getting all worked up about a severe thunderstorm watch and then being upset about how inaccurate the forecast was when no thunderstorm happened. A severe thunderstorm watch is when conditions are favourable for severe thunderstorms to take place. It does not mean that severe storms have formed and will hit your area — when that happens, a severe thunderstorm warning is issued.

Severe thunderstorms can bring almost all of the major types of severe summer weather, but one of the most devastating is hail. While tornadoes usually get most of the attention, and they can be truly devastating, they are rare. Just ask around — very few people have ever seen, never mind felt, the full impact of a tornado. I know I have never experienced one. Ask the same question about hail and pretty much everyone will have a story about a big hailstorm, or two… or three!

Unless the hail occurs in March or early April, I don’t think there is a single farmer or gardener who thinks hail is neat or cool. I used to be one of those who loved hail — until I

owned my own car, house, and had a vegetable garden!

Just how often can you expect to see hail across the Prairies?

Over most of the Prairies it would be one to three times a year. There are hot spots that can see hail upwards of five times per year and they are in south-central Alberta, extreme southern Saskatchewan, and south-central Manitoba.

By far the most active area is in south-central Alberta, and in particular, Calgary. Looking at the most expensive hailstorms across Canada the vast majority has occurred in Alberta, with a few bad ones in Manitoba. Looking at the dates for the most destructive hailstorms and we find that with only a few exceptions, all occurred in July.

The big question is: Why does Alberta in particular, and then southern Manitoba, see so many bad or damaging hailstorms compared to the rest of the country? Well, for Alberta it has to do with topography (or the lay of the land), whereas in Manitoba it has more to do with its closer proximity to Gulf moisture that can help to fuel really big storms.

Hail forms when a particle passes from the warm (liquid) part of the cloud into the cold (freezing) part of the cloud. When this occurs, any water on the particle freezes and you now have a small hailstone. Most thunderstorms produce hail, the question is whether or not the temperatures in the storm and the updraft are such that the hailstones will make it to the ground before they melt.

If a hailstone forms and just keeps going up to the top of the thunderstorm it wouldn’t accumulate much ice and will remain small. For hailstones to get really big they must go back into the warm (liquid) section of the storm, pick up more water, then go back up into the cold section of the cloud so the water can freeze. Repeat this cycle a number of times and you can get some really big hailstones.

In Alberta, the higher terrain allows for lower freezing lev-

This map shows total amount of precipitation for agricultural Alberta during the 30-day period ending on June 7. The map does a nice job of capturing rainfall from thunderstorms that have been firing up along the foothills, bringing near-average amounts of precipitation to that region. Over the rest of agricultural Alberta it has been a dry period, with most locations receiving anywhere from five to 25 millimetres.

cutline

els in the atmosphere, which means hailstones don’t have much chance of melting on their way down — so they can be fairly large. In Manitoba, the deep Gulf moisture allows storms to get very high with strong updrafts, which can keep hailstones aloft for long periods of time, allowing large ones to develop.

When it comes to hail, size really does matter! Pea-sized hail will do little, if any, damage to structures and plants, while golf ball-sized ones can literally destroy everything in their path.

When it comes to measuring hailstone size, things become a little strange. That is, you don’t usually hear that the hail will

Object Pea Marble Grape Ping-pong ball Golf ball Egg Pool ball Tennis ball Baseball Grapefruit Softball

Diameter 5 mm 10 mm 15 mm 40 mm 45 mm 50 mm 60 mm 65 mm 70 mm 100 mm 115 mm

be around 50 millimetres in diameter. Instead, you hear that the hail was the size of a golf ball or an egg. Of all the

things we measure in regards to weather, hail has by far the most descriptive measurements. The table to the left shows some of the more common descriptive terms used for hail and the approximate size that the hailstone would be.

In the next issue I think we’ll take that break from severe summer weather to explore some of the unique weather happenings from around the world.

Daniel Bezte is a teacher by profession with a BA (Hon.) in geography, specializing in climatology, from the U of W. He operates a computerized weather station near Birds Hill Park. Contact him with your questions and comments at daniel@bezte.ca.

17

Trim: 10.25”

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JUNE 22, 2015

} barley

New guide to feed barley BARLEY GRAIN

The Barley Grain Feed Industry Guide is a new publication from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in conjunction with Alberta Barley. The 34-page guide was compiled by ruminant nutrition expert Tim McAllister of Ag Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre and post-doctoral researcher Sarah Meale. It features work of leading researchers in feed barley breeding, processing, and feed use in ruminant, swine, poultry and aquaculture production. It can be downloaded at www.albertabarley.com (search for ‘feed industry guide’). Paper copies can be obtained by emailing sduhaime@albertabarley.com. — Alberta Barley

FIRST

Feed Industry Guide

EDITION

2015

RUMINANTS | POULTRY | SWINE | OTHER LIVESTOCK & AQUACULTURE

EDITED BY: TIM MCALLISTER, PH.D., SARAH MEALE, PH.D., AGRICULTURE AND AGRI-FOOD CANADA

The money’s good. But is organic for you?

By JENNIFER BLAIR and LORRAINE STEVENSON Staff

see MONEY } page 19

Demand for organic grain is growing at a sizzling pace and the sector fears it will lose market share if it can’t up production

By JENNIFER BLAIR and LORRAINE STEVENSON

Staff

S

teven Snider was just 16 years old when he realized conventional farming wasn’t for him.

“I was spraying a wild oat herbicide on a field, and I got drift poisoning,” said the Edberg-area farmer and owner of Little Red Hen Mills.

“For three days, I was sick as a dog. That kind of changed my mind. I thought, if that’s doing that to me, why am I using it?”

That incident triggered the start of a nearly 30-year career in organic farming for Snider, who grows certified organic wheat, barley, oats, and rye for milling.

“Where we started and where we are today is an incredible journey,” said Snider.

And it hasn’t been an easy road to travel.

“When we got into organics, it was 10 years before the market was actually profitable,” said Snider.

“There were 12 of us, and we met in a basement in Vauxhall.

We did it on principle. We didn’t do it for monetary gain.”

Since then, interest in organics has exploded — at least for consumers, said Becky Lipton, executive director of Organic Alberta.

Trim: 15.58”

There’s money to be made in organics, says the executive director of Organic Alberta.

“From a business perspective, organic production does make sense,” said Becky Lipton. “If you’re looking on how to expand your operation, organics do provide a lot of opportunities on that end.”

While yields can be substantially lower — as much as 18 per cent less — premiums of 30 per cent or higher in recent years have more that offset that drop, a recent global study by Washington State University found.

So why aren’t more conventional producers making the switch to organics?

It’s a lot more work, says veteran Alberta organic farmer Steven Snider.

“There’s more tillage, there’s more field time, there’s more operations that way,” he said. “Your scouting becomes more critical, and your knowledge curve is different. You can’t resolve problems by picking up a can and reading a label.

There’s other tools you have to use.”

As well, you have to get past “myths and theories that aren’t necessarily practical in application,” he said.

“To sort out what works from what doesn’t is tough,” he said. “Every producing region is different, and some practices do work well and some don’t.”

Age is another factor.

“Organic production has a steep learning curve,” said Laura Telford, an organic specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. “It’s a completely new way of thinking so it’s not really the best time of life to make a major change in your business model.”

But the work is “manageable,” said Lipton.

Organic is booming — and the push is on to get more growers

Producer Steven Snider hopes a new Prairie-wide organics program will dispel some of the misconceptions about organic production.

PHOTO: Courtesy STEVEN SNIDER

“In Canada, we see 58 per cent of all consumers buy organic on a weekly basis. It shows the strong demand for organic products,” said Lipton, adding demand for organics is actually higher in Alberta than other regions in Canada.

“In Alberta, we have 13 per

cent of the total share of organic sales in Canada, but we only have 11 per cent of the population.”

The growing success of the organics market is driven by the consumer, said Snider.

“The first rule of business is

see Organic } page 19

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JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

After 70 years, farming still puts a spring in his step Manitoba farmer Jack Pawich says some things about farming never change

BY ALLAN DAWSON

Staff / Cartwright, Man.

H

ow does a southern Manitoba farmer end up pumping gas for Elvis Presley?

Serendipity.

But it was love of farming and a lot of hard work rather than luck that resulted in the 90-year-old farmer sowing his 70th crop this spring on the farm he was raised on, now operated by his son Randy and daughter-in-law Donna.

“I just love working the land,” Jack said as he sat at the kitchen table one cold, cloudy day in May. “I look forward to it every spring.

“It gets in your blood.”

Jack enjoyed being his own boss, but he also knew the wage-earner’s life. In the early years, that’s how he supported his farming addiction. It’s also how he met Elvis.

In March 1957 Jack was working at a gas station in North Hollywood when Elvis Presley stopped to fill his Cadillac. “He gave me a $20 tip.”

He picked lemons in San Bernardino, sold Watkins products in North Hollywood and worked at a General Motors assembly plant in Long Beach. He hawked encyclopedias, but quit because he didn’t like high-pressure sales.

There were many other jobs — waiting tables at a Winnipeg Salisbury House, bus building at Motor Coach, delivering packages for Eaton’s, working in lamps and shades for the Hudson Bay, working at a tool company in Los Angeles, building boilers in Toronto, selling cars and farm equipment, and assembling Massey Harris combines in Toronto — where he insisted they be built right.

“One guy said to me, ‘What the hell do you care? You’re getting paid.’ I said, ‘I’m a farmer from

out west and I want that pulley on straight.’”

For a while Jack delivered beer in Winnipeg from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m., then drove a taxi until 2 a.m.

“I held two full-time jobs,” he says. “But when I started farming, I put $200 on a tractor and paid for it before they delivered it. In them days a tractor was $1,500. It was a lot of money, but I owned the tractor before it come to the yard.

Jack started working fields with horses at the age of 14. He remembers being scolded by his uncle — “a great horseman” and veteran of the Boer War and the First World War — for working the team too hard. As now, Jack was in a hurry.

One day his father told young Jack to harrow a field. Instead of the horses, Jack used his dad’s gasoline-powered Case tractor, which was reserved for powering a threshing machine.

When confronted by his dad, Jack declared: “‘If I have to drive those horses I’m leaving tomorrow, I can’t do it.’ And that’s how I got to drive the tractor.”

At 21, Jack was about to join the RCMP but decided five years of northern patrols wasn’t for him.

So in 1947 he took some agricultural courses in Brandon, where he learned more than farming.

Jack first spied his future wife Eileen at a dance, but as the drummer in David Alexander’s Agricultural Quartet, he was sidelined.

Their paths crossed on the street one day. “I said, ‘You were the best dancer on the floor.’” Jack knew a few moves having been coached by a sister who was an Arthur Murray dance instructor.

Jack and Eileen were married 58 years until Eileen passed away several years ago. They had three sons and a daughter.

“Do you know why I liked farming?” Jack asks. “Because… it was the greatest place to raise kids.”

In 1947 Jack Pawich (second from left) played in David Alexander’s Agricultural Quartet while studying agriculture in Brandon. It’s also where he met his future wife Eileen. PHOTO: SUPPLIED For about 18 years, Jack custom combined in the United States. His American competitors were skeptical of the air-cooled, German diesel engines in his combines.

One hot Kansas day, Jack bet them a case of beer his machines would outlast their water-cooled, gas-powered combines.

“Two o’clock in the afternoon one gasoline engine went down and then another and another,” Jack says. “We were the only two left working that afternoon because it got so hot.

“I knew (German Army Field Marshall Erwin) Rommel had those air-cooled engines in his tanks (in North Africa during the Second World War) and if they could run in the desert they could damn well run down here.”

Jack has seen lots of change, including the weather. Springs were earlier and warmer in the 1950s. But falls were earlier too.

The baler and herbicides really changed farming, Jack adds. So did canola.

“Canola was actually a lifesaver for the farmer to pay his bills,” he said. “In the ’80s grain dropped to really low prices. And it was dry.”

Although Jack didn’t seed his first crop until 1945, he grew up during the Dirty ’30s. Times were tough then and again in the 1980s. Jack and his son Randy were expanding and like so many others, were clobbered by record-high interest rates peaking at more than 21 per cent.

Times have been good in recent years, but Jack warns young farmers to be careful.

“Right now it’s harder than it ever was to start farming,” he says.

“The price of land has got out of reach. You got to start small.

“Be careful when buying new machinery. Don’t buy stuff you can’t pay for. Stay with the old stuff as long as you can because things can change quickly. Prices can go down and you can’t cover it.”

There’s so much more to tell, but there isn’t space. Good thing Jack is writing a book about his life.

He celebrated his 90th birthday Jan. 21 in Las Vegas with his companion Evelyn Ginter and some relatives. They took him to see an Elvis impersonator.

“He did a good job,” Jack says. allan@fbcpublishing.com

Attention Growers

Announcing changes to pesticide return programs–

and they’re as easy as 1-2-3.

NEW

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RETURN TO RETAILER

Return all bulk pesticide containers to your crop inputs retailer. Do not return any bulk containers to municipal collection sites.

NEW

Obsolete Pesticides

HOLD ON FARM

Cartwright farmer Jack Pawich, 90, has done many jobs over the years, but farming remains his passion. PHOTO: Evelyn Ginter

Store all obsolete pesticides safely on-farm until called in for scheduled pick up at designated collection sites.

UNCHANGED

Small Pesticide Containers

RETURN TO MUNICIPALITY

Continue to return small pesticide containers (under 23L) to your local municipal collection site.

REMEMBER: Triple rinsing containers is essential!

These changes are now in effect and more detail can be found at cleanfarms.ca. Thank you Alberta growers for your cooperation and leadership in ag-waste stewardship.

Ninety-year-old Jack Pawich seeded his 70th crop this spring near Cartwright. PHOTO: ALLAN DAWSON

19

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JUNE 22, 2015

Organic } from page 17 the customer’s always right,” he said. “What we’re providing is a product that consumers asked for and are willing to pay a premium for. It’s a specialized product for a niche market, and it has demand.”

Can’t keep up

But supply just hasn’t been able to keep up with demand, said Lipton.

“We’ve had a lot of our companies, both in Canada and the United States, come to us and say, ‘We’re concerned that we’re not going to be able to continue to grow in order to meet this demand,’” she said.

In 2013, Alberta had over 350 organic operations, including producers and processors. And that number has risen by more than 10 per cent annually since then, she said.

But that’s not enough, especially on the primary production side.

“There is such huge demand, and the demand is growing so fast,” she said. “If we’re not able to supply enough food ingredients in order for companies to be able to expand, we will potentially lose part of our market share.”

Ottawa recently pledged $1.2 million for a Prairie-wide project aimed at strengthening the organic sector, with organic food processors and others chipping in another $1 million.

That money for the Prairie Organic Grain Initiative, which will be housed at Organic Alberta, will “increase quality and quantity of organic production, as well as profitability” for all of the Prairie provinces, said Lipton.

“What we’re trying to do through this program is show the

“As the market continues to grow, we want to be the go-to place to get your highest-quality organic grains.”

Becky Lipton

world that we can supply amazing grains and food ingredients on the Canadian Prairies and that we’re able to scale up to meet the demand,” she said. “As the market continues to grow, we want to be the go-to place to get your highest-quality organic grains.”

Dispelling myths

Ottawa’s funding pledge is an important step forward for the entire organics industry, said Snider.

“It’s exciting to see that the organic industry is growing and to get recognition from the federal government at that level.”

The funding is divided into three streams — one to attract new growers; one to improve

mONEY } from page 17

quality and quantity of existing organic production; and one for market development.

A key part of attracting new growers will be dispelling the myths surrounding organic production, said Lipton.

“There’s this perception that it might be unmanageable or that it’s too labour intensive or that you may lose money if you go into organics. I would say all three of those things are misconceptions.”

But there is a learning curve, said Snider.

“There’s always a challenge with information transfer and training and getting the proper connection to someone who knows what they’re talking about,” he said.

“That’s where I think this grant is key to trying to grow the industry and provide funding for research and training new producers.”

So is getting the word out “that there is money to be made in organics and that we have the resources to be able to support them through the process,” said Lipton.

It’s a message that will be listened to by many young farmers because they see a business opportunity, predicted Manitoba organic producer Darcy Hickson.

“I think that’s where we’re going to see the greatest push for organic farm production,” he said. “Young producers are going back home to farm and the farm families aren’t saying, ‘Oh good, let’s turn the farm organic.’

“But they are saying, ‘Here’s a couple of fields to try this and implement some of the things you’ve learned.’

“They’re going to be the ones who are going to piece the organic puzzle together and show us all how to do it,” he said.

“If you’re willing to diversify and adapt and learn, the resources and the research are out there to be able to help producers through the transition,” she said, adding that the transition period is at most three years.

The new Prairie Organic Grain Initiative will help on that front, but there’s a lot of work to be done on educating growers on best practices in organic production, said Telford.

The goal in organic production isn’t to maximize yields, but rather optimize them, and right now “we’re not even close,” she said.

“There’s a long way that we could go towards providing education and transferring success stories to organic producers that can help them dra-

matically increase their yields and grain quality.”

When the premium for organic grain dramatically shrunk after the 2008-09 recession, hundreds of Prairie producers quit farming organically, Telford noted. To prevent a repeat of that, organic yields have to be higher, she said.

“If you can get a yield that is 75 per cent of conventional, I think that would really provide some buffering,” she said. “If those who left organic during the recession had got those yields, I think they’d still be in it today.”

Still, said Lipton, “organic production really is a great opportunity.”

“The barriers are not unbearable. These are things that can be tackled and managed.” jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com lorraine@fbcpublishing.com

Food giant wants organic acres to double staff

General Mills is one of the processors investing in the Prairie Organic Grain Initiative (POGI).

The Minnesota-based multinational is increasing its focus on health-conscious consumers. It wants to double natural and organic sales to $1 billion by 2020, so it’s backing efforts to get more grain farmers to go organic.

“The organic food market has been growing rapidly, which

jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com lorraine@fbcpublishing.com

has made sourcing certified organic ingredients increasingly difficult,” General Mills said in a press release announcing its $50,000 contribution to POGI. “We are focused on doubling the amount of organic farming acreage in North America by 2020,” said Beth RobertsonMartin, senior manager of natural and organic sourcing.

“POGI is one way we’re ensuring the long-term sustainable supply of these ingredients.”

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NH CR9070, 2011,525 sep hrs, gps . . . . . . . . . . . . . $235,000 NH CR9070, 2011,550 sep hrs, gps . . . . . . . . . . . . $235,000 NH CR8090,2013,400sep,dsp,gps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $335,000 NH CR9090 Elevation,750sep, gps, 2012 . . . . . . . . $335,000 NH CR9060, 2008,940 sep hrs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $175,000 NH CR960, 2005,1130 sep hrs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $129,000 JD 9600,1989, stored inside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $34,500 NH 840CD-30 like new,cross auger . . . . . . . . . . . . . $69,500 NH 840CD-30, header height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $59,500 Macdon 973-36’ header,pur,trspt, cross auger (2) . . $39,500 HoneyBee sp36 hdr,CIH adptr,2011,4 in stock . . . . . $58,000 NH 971-30’,header,batt reel, trspt (2) TR-TX adptr $9,500 JD 230-30 auger header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4,500

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0% 36 MON USED 4WD TRACTORS

NH T9.450HD ,2013,1000PTO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $265,000 NH T7.235,2260hrs,ldr,3pt,2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $131,000

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2009 Case IH PS Sprayer, Good cond., 1600 gal,100’, dual wheels,ISO control

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NH T7.235,2575hrs,ldr3pt,2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $129,500 NH T7.200,1650hrs,ldr,3pt,2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $129,500 CIH Puma 140,1000hrs,PS,2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $110,000 CIH 430 Steiger,2007,2600hrs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $185,000 CIH 9270,6300hrs,PS,20.8R42 duals . . . . . . . . . . . . . $65,000 CIH MXU135,6600hrs,ldr,3pt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $45,000 NH 8160, loader,grpl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $45,000 NH T7050,PS,3100hrs,CVT,ldr,grpl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . $125,000 NH T7.235,2013.PS,ldr,grpl,4 hyd,1750hrs . . . . . . . $135,000 NH T7.200,2013,1650hrs,ldr,grpl, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $129,500 NH 846 6200hrs,12 spdd std,14’ blade. . . . . . . . . . . $49,500 NH 9030, 7500hrs, ldr/grpl, EE PTO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $39,500 Steiger Panther 1000, PS, 14’ blade . . . . . . . . . . . . . $58,500 NH L220 Skid Steer,500hrs,CAH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $37,500 NH l175 Skid Steer,1200hrrs,cah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25,500

SWATHERS

Premier 2952i-30’ 1020hrs,06. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $72,500 NH H8040-30’,2 roto shears,Trimble easy pilot, 2013.410hrs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $129,500 Macdon M105-25,2013,290hrs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $115,000

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2013 New Holland T7.200 Tractor, MFD, 1640hrs, 130HP, Excellent cond., 840TL loader, 4 mech remotes, 3 point, ps, 540/1000pto

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Westward M155-30’,AS,2 roto shears, canola roller$139,500 Westward 7000-25’ 1992 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $19,500 Heston 8100-25’,pur,2 shears2125hrs . . . . . . . . . . . $24,500 Prairie Star 4620-25’ PTO swather, kear shear . . . . . . $9,500 Westward 3020-25’ pto swather,pur . . . . . . . . . . . . . $9,500 Westward 3020-25’ pto swather,pur . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7,500 Swath Rollers available 8” steel & polly . . . . . . . . . . . $1,200

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Westfield Storm seed treater,10x41,like new. . . . . . $26,500 Sakundiak HD8x1600 24hp,mover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6,900 Sakundiak HD8x1600,24hp,mover,clutch . . . . . . . . . . $8,900 Sakundiak HD10x140038hp, mover,clutch light kit $13.900 Sakundiak HD10x1200,31hp,mover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $9,500 Sakundiak TL10x1200,mover,31HP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7,900 Sakundiak HD8x1200,mover, sweep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . $8,000

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20

JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

4-H Canada unveils new clover logo

FEEDING FRENZY

Changes to logo reflect the evolution of 4-H programming, say 4-H officials

BY LORRAINE STEVENSON staff

T

he iconic four-leaf clover that has symbolized 4-H for 50 years in Canada now sports a maple leaf in the centre.

The new logo for the Canadian 4-H program unveiled this month marks a “progressive new era,” said Shannon Benner, executive director of the national organization.

It is part of a larger effort updating the youth development program to keep up with interests of today’s youth while training them for future employment opportunities, particularly in areas of technology and science, officials say.

“The very pillars of the 4-H program — hands-on learning, youth leadership development, enrichment of rural communities — will now help youth meet the unique challenges and opportunities they face in our changing rural communities and in an employment sector focused on innovation and technology,” Benner said in a press release.

4-H’ers now take on projects such as rocketry, chemistry,

PHOTO: 4-H CANADA robotics, auto mechanics, and veterinary sciences. There’s been a marked shift over the years away from more traditional projects areas — with the exception of livestock projects.

“4-H has really been examining the areas that youth are showing the greatest interest in these days and science, technology, engineering and math have come through very strong,” said Jennifer Austin, marketing and communications director for 4-H Canada.

Eight per cent of all current projects held by the 25,000 4-H’ers across the country now have some kind a science-based focus, the organization said.

There’s been plenty of discussion about taking the 4-H program into cities, but no specific initiative to take it there.

“Our roots are in rural Canada,” said Austin. “We feel that there are a lot of opportunities there to engage with youth. We

will build our foundation stronger first before we start adding on to it.”

Adding a maple leaf to the 4-H clover logo is an example of the organization’s continued commitment to patriotism and service to the country, said Randy Mowat, vice-chair of the 4-H Canada Foundation and chair of the task force that came up with the new logo.

“Our work was guided by the cornerstones of honouring 4-H’s core values, respecting the heritage of the organization, and evolving our logo to reflect 4-H’s proud history and legacy while also signalling our optimism about the future,” he said.

“The foundation of 4-H... public speaking and leadership, community and growing really good people and good leaders for the future... that will never change.”

These pine siskins are feasting on a feeder full of niger seed, on a farm near Priddis, Alta. Photo: Wendy Dudley

lorraine@fbcpublishing.com

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21

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JUNE 22, 2015

Frosttolerant quinoa gaining ground in the West But stiff competition from South America

BY JADE MARKUS

COMMODITY NEWS SERVICE CANADA

The only western Canadian quinoa processor has increased its acreage of the crop this spring, but competition from South America has prevented as much expansion as it hoped.

Michael Dutcheshen, general manager at Northern Quinoa Corp.

(NorQuin) said the company has gained 430 acres this season, which brings total acreage of the crop in Western Canada to 5,500.

NorQuin said in June last year it hoped to double operations for this summer after jumping from 1,600 acres to 5,070 in 2014.

“South America has been planting a lot of quinoa, and that has driven down prices as a result, which also affects things on this end,” Dutcheshen said.

Dutcheshen said quinoa can be a difficult crop to grow.

“It’s a special crop, and you’ve got to treat it like a special crop,” he said. “It’s a downside to getting more acreage, because you can’t just get any farmer to do it. They need to be a little more committed, a little more experimental.”

NorQuin operates in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Most growers have planted already, and their crops are starting to emerge.

Quinoa, which is native to South America, is often mistakenly called a grain, but it is actually classified as a pseudo-cereal. It has been dubbed a ‘superfood’ by some, and is one of few plant-based foods that act as a complete protein, according to Medical News Today.

One of quinoa’s other benefits is its resilience in cooler temperatures.

“One of our farmers lost about 60,000 acres (of other crops) to a frost, but the quinoa that he planted survived,” Dutcheshen said.

Dutcheshen said NorQuin wants to show consumers that quinoa can be versatile. He said most people are familiar with eating it like rice, but it can be ground into flour or turned into protein bars or crisps.

“Quinoa is becoming more popular, but the demand has got to be built up a bit first.”

G3 to study building grain terminal at Port Metro Vancouver A position on the West Coast was one of the deciding factors in its bid for CWB

BY ROD NICKEL

Winnipeg / Reuters

G

3 Global Holdings says it will study the feasibility of building a grain terminal at Port Metro Vancouver by 2019, which, if completed, would boost competition among Canadian grain handlers vying to buy farmers’ crops.

Winnipeg-based G3, which agreed in April to buy a controlling stake in grain handler CWB, will consider building at Lynnterm West Gate on the North Shore of Canada’s busiest port, with leaseholder Western Stevedoring as a partner.

It would be the first new grain

terminal at the port since 1968.

G3 is a partnership between U.S.-based oilseed processor Bunge Ltd. and Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Co. (SALIC).

G3 is considering a design to handle longer trains than at any other Canadian port terminal, with shorter unloading times, said G3 chief executive Karl Gerrand. Those features may make the terminal more efficient for deliveries, he said.

“We’re definitely breaking the mould on what has been the standard for the industry for decades.

We’re trying to invest in efficiency that creates more system capacity and provides better access to export markets.”

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G3’s Vancouver terminal plan was the deciding factor in the CWB selling it a stake, said Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.

Ottawa currently controls CWB. “This was one of the assets they brought to the table and no one else was prepared to go that far.”

While it may address some transportation issues by building more port capacity, the terminal may create others, said Mark Hemmes, president of Quorum Corp., which monitors grain transportation for Ottawa.

The North Shore is home to grain terminals owned by Richardson International and Cargill Ltd. Canadian National Railway Co. owns the track, although Cana-

dian Pacific Railway Ltd. can also access the area.

CN spokesman Mark Hallman said its rail line is nearing capacity and CN is working with the port and governments to address the North Shore’s “last mile bottleneck.”

G3 is among several grain companies boosting capacity, following transportation snags that occurred while moving the record-large 2013 harvest.

Gerrand said G3 and Western Stevedoring needed to resolve issues like permits and hold talks with the community and the province’s native peoples.

The study may take six months, with possible construction starting in summer, 2016.

22

JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL

A male evening grosbeak shows off his vivid yellow courtship plumage, on a ranch near Millarville, Alberta. Photo: Wendy Dudley

GM opponents on the firing line CBAN’s campaign doesn’t sit well with industry groups

BY ALEX BINKLEY AF contributor

Canadian farm groups and industry organizations are taking aim at the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) and its claims that genetically modified crops cause more harm than good.

CBAN’s Inquiry 2015, funded in part by the Tides Canada Foundation, says herbicide sales have increased since the launch of GM crops and takes particular aim at glyphosate.

However, spokespeople for Grain Growers of Canada, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Monsanto, and CropLife Canada say the crops have allowed them to produce more food with less damage to the soil.

Irmi Critcher says her 4,000-acre farm in B.C. began growing GM crops “from the start because we saw a real benefit. They help us do a better job of controlling weeds and protecting our land.” About one-third of its annual planting is GM while the rest is conventional.

They can also be grown in combination with conventional crops such wheat, barley and oats, which are not GM, giving farmers more choice in selecting rotation crops, said Critcher, a member of the board of Grain Growers of Canada.

CBAN is “an anti-technology activist group with absolutely no scientific expertise,” said Monsanto spokeswoman Trish Jordan.

“It has a long history of using fearmongering about plant biotechnology and pesticides to raise funds.”

23

Albertafarmexpress.ca • june 22, 2015

A highly destructive weed to be feared

K

notweed has been spotted in recent years in Trochu, Sylvan Lake, Leduc, Parkland County, Grande Prairie, Calgary, and Waterton National Park. There has also been a report of visitors to B.C. returning with a clump of roots to transplant into their garden. This prohibited noxious weed is very destructive, and can grow through cracks in concrete, brick and asphalt. Houses have been deemed worthless after their foundations were penetrated by this plant.

Local authorities should be contacted if knotweed is discovered, as it grows vigorously through extensive rhizomes and can regenerate from small root pieces.

It can be recognized by its bamboo-like stem, a sheath at its nodes, and is often mottled with

Contact your local fieldman at www.aaaf.ab.ca

Municipal leaders say cities and towns should be an election issue Federal parties urged to pledge support for better roads, improved public transport, and public safety

This knotweed plant was found in Trochu in June 2014.

BY LORRAINE STEVENSON staff

PHOTO: NICOLE KIMMEL

red/purple marks. It is also fast growing and quickly forms large colonies.

If you think you have spotted this plant, contact Nicole Kimmel, (780-422-0885, nicole.kimmel@ gov.ab.ca) for assistance in obtaining help for proper disposal.

For more information on noxious weeds: www.abinvasives.ca

M

ayors and municipal leaders, working with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, have unveiled a pre-election vision laying out the pressing needs of Canadian communities they want the next government to make a priority.

Strengthening Canada’s Hometowns — A Roadmap for Strong Cities and Communities calls on Ottawa to partner with municipalities to create local jobs and spur economic growth while building livable, safe and environmentally

sustainable communities, an FCM news release said.

It’s also designed to be a guide to compare how federal parties’ election promises stack up.

“Compare federal party platforms to see which party will be the best partner for their community and improve quality of life in their hometown,” federation president Raymond Louie said in a release.

The road map was put together after extensive consultation across Canada where Canadians shared their ideas for what will make life in both smaller towns and larger cities better, and identifies key areas where greater focus and investment are needed.

Basic needs for good housing and clean water “should not be an issue in a country like ours,” the document says, adding that safer roads, improved public transport, and public safety are also top priorities.

The road map also calls for increased investment in clean energy, more energy-efficient building construction, and improved public transportation systems.

The document was launched at a municipal leaders’ convention in Edmonton earlier this month.

It can be downloaded at www. fcm.ca. lorraine@fbcpublishing.com

Shining a spotlight on the shortage of farm workers Agriculture is creating tens of thousands of jobs but one-third may go unfilled

BY ALEX BINKLEY AF contributor

L

abour shortages on Canadian farms are bad and getting worse, industry officials say.

“We estimate that 74,000 agriculture jobs will be created by 2022, but without changes, one-third will go unfilled,” said Mike Hoffort, CEO of Farm Credit Canada.

That number is a rough estimate, but the Canadian Agriculture Human Resources Council is undertaking four research projects to determine both the number of workers and the kinds of skills the sector requires.

This sort of labour market intelligence will allow evidence-based policy to be developed so the industry can “drive progress and find meaningful solutions,” said Portia MacDonald-Dewhirst, the council’s executive director.

Changes to the Temporary Foreign Workers Program hasn’t made the task any easier, said Humphrey Banack, an Alberta producer and first vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

“Our challenge is finding enough skilled workers to operate modern machinery,” he said.

His organization plans to work with other groups to bring more attention to the issue in the coming months, he added.

The four research projects by the human resource council are: Creating an in-depth national labour supply-and-demand forecast; identifying the jobs and skills needed; preparing an action plan for training workers for agriculture occupations; and identifying barriers to women in the agricultural workplace.

“Before you can fix a problem you have to know exactly what your problem is,” said council chair Mark Wales.

24

JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

No matter what the crop — canola, alfalfa, grass, small grains, lentils, or peas — New Holland H8000 Series Speedrower® windrowers deliver capacity that can’t be matched by any other machine. Not only do you have the power to drive the widest variety of headers, you also get outstanding visibility, comfort, and header control – giving you a SMART choice in the ultimate crop-cutting PLUS machine.

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PHENOMENAL PHENOMENAL CAPACITY AND IN-FIELD CONTROL. CAPACITY AND No matter what the crop – canola, alfalfa, grass, small grains, lentils, or peas – New Holland H8000 Series Speadrower® windrowers deliver capacity that can’t be matched by any other machine. Not only do you have the power to drive the widest variety of headers, you also get outstanding visibility, comfort, and header control – giving you a SMART choice in the ultimate crop-cutting machine.

IN-FIELD CONTROL.

• 126 hp to an industry-leading 226 hp • Smooth Discbine® headers up to 18’ wide — the widest available • Reliable draper headers from 21’ to 36’ • Proven Haybine® sickle headers — 12’, 14’, 16’ and 18’ • Comfort Ride™ cab suspension for a smooth ride • Optional chassis suspension for ultimate productivity in the field

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SPRING SUSPENSION, Optional chassis suspension ultimate CAB for DELUXE UPGRADE, productivity in the field MOUNTED ROLLER, HB36 DOUBLE KNIFE DRIVE SOLID REEL, FORE/AFT REEL, STORAGE TRANSPORT. HUMBOLDT

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ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JUNE 22, 2015

More clubroot confirmed in Manitoba, but mostly at low levels Unlike Alberta, spore counts are relatively low

BY ALLAN DAWSON

The next step is to prepare licensing and farmer-protection regulations for feed mills and then consult again

Staff

Forty-eight Manitoba fields are confirmed to have clubroot spores, a soil-borne, potentially destructive canola disease, up from 13 found in a survey done last year.

The results were expected and officials predict they’ll find even more with additional sampling. The good news is the number of clubroot spores in most infected fields is low — under 80,000 per gram of soil — meaning longer canola rotations, sanitation and resistant varieties can keep the disease in check, said Holly Derksen, a plant pathologist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.

In Alberta, where clubroot was first detected in Western Canada in 2003, it’s not unusual to find a billion spores per gram of soil.

“We are nowhere near the situation in Alberta,” Derksen said. “That was the whole purpose of this project — to find it at these low concentrations and be able to give growers the information so they can manage it long before it gets to those really high levels.”

CGC finds consensus for producer protection, licensing of feed mills

BY ALLAN DAWSON Staff

FIle Photo Manitoba farmers needn’t be alarmed by the latest results, but they should pay attention, she said. And they should test every field that has grown canola to know whether clubroot is present and to what extent.

“Our message is get tested,” Derksen said. “The half-life of (clubroot) spores is four years so with a fouryear rotation you cut the concentration in half. If a field is already quite low you could see a drop from a yellow (1,001 to 10,000 spores per gram of soil) to a green (zero to 1,000).”

The province is offering Manitoba farmers who participate in a biosecurity plan a rebate on the $125 test, cutting the cost to $25. allan@fbcpublishing.com

T

he majority of grain industry respondents to a recent Canadian Grain Commission consultation wants western Canadian feed mills to be licensed and required to post security covering grain purchased from farmers.

“Most stakeholders agreed there should be some kind of licensing of facilities to provide some kind of producer protection,” said commission spokesperson Rémi Gosselin.

“Our priority now is to work on some licensing requirements and get some feedback from the sector.”

The commission’s ultimate goal is to license western Canadian feed mills and include them in its farmer protection scheme.

While feed mill licensing is a top priority, the commission isn’t sure how long it will take, Gosselin added.

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Feed mills are currently exempt from the Canada Grain Act, which means unlike grain elevators, they are not licensed by the commission nor required to post security to cover what farmers are owed when they deliver grain. In 2012, a Manitoba feed mill and hog-producing company, went into creditor protection, leaving grain farmers owed an estimated $1.5 million. That prompted Keystone Agricultural Producers, the province’s main farm group, to lobby for licensing.

The commission received 43 formal submissions that were received from a diverse range of stakeholders, including 53 feed mills, commodity and producer organizations.

A majority, with the exception of some commercial feed mills, supports licensing “large commercial feed mills, recognizing small and on-farm feed mills operate differently than large commercial mills.”

However, many commercial feed mills say licensing is unnecessary and would constrain already tight profit margins.

Instead of buying grain directly from farmers, feed mills might buy from grain companies to avoid licensing and farmer protection requirements.

Several respondents suggested the commission conduct a costbenefit analysis of licensing feed mills.

The producer protection proposals will be based on what’s currently in place for grain elevators, Gosselin said. Grain companies are required to post security to cover farmer liabilities. That can be done by posting a bond, a letter of credit, insurance or even cash.

If Bill C-48, which is currently before Parliament, becomes law, the commission would be allowed to replace the protection program with a fund companies would contribute to based on their risk of failing to pay farmers. However, C-48 might not pass before the fall election. That means the current plan would continue until it is replaced by future legislation. allan@fbcpublishing.com

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26

JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Thought Keystone XL was controversial?

How about a manure pipeline?

Even the pork council which funded the pipeline feasibility study expects no one would want one running by their home

BY RON FRIESEN AF contributor

W

ith an increasing number of railway spills causing environmental and human health risks, underground pipelines are touted as a safer way of transporting oil, natural gas and chemicals.

Now, it appears, you could add manure to the list.

A new study suggests it might be possible in Manitoba to send 60 million gallons of liquid hog slurry a year through a buried pipeline up to 35 miles long.

The purpose would be to transport nutrients from municipalities with surplus manure to places that could use it, according to the study by the Winnipeg firm DGH Engineering for the Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative.

The project, while technically feasible, would be enormously expensive, costing close to $43 million. It would also face significant hurdles, such as securing rights of way and alleviating public opposition to manure flowing underground past people’s homes.

But the fact it is being considered at all suggests alternatives to transporting manure in Manitoba may eventually have to be considered, said Mike Teillet, sustainable development manager for the Manitoba Pork Council, which helped fund the study.

“We didn’t really think it was going to be viable, but we thought we needed to look at it,” Teillet said.

File Photo The project is in response to surplus soil phosphorus in southeastern Manitoba’s livestock alley, where many of the province’s hog farms are located.

“We knew it was technically feasible. We wanted to get a costing on it,” said Teillet.

The study looked at a 14-inch-

diameter high-density polyethylene pipeline buried along public road allowances. The design includes a two-million-gallon surge tank and a pumping station at the starting point with two booster pumps along the way. Three storages, each with a two-million-gallon capacity, are at the end.

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The capital budget calls for a $42-million mortgage with annual payments calculated for both 10and 25-year paybacks. The cost to pump manure through the pipeline would be 11 cents and seven cents a gallon for 10 and 25 years respectively, dropping to two cents a gallon after the mortgage expires.

It would cost another 1.5 to four cents a gallon to pump manure from hog farms into the pipeline and from the pipeline to receiving fields at the other end.

The project, which would operate only during the application season, would require a general manager, a maintenance technician and a support worker.

Despite the cost, transporting manure through an underground pipeline could work, the report concludes.

“The use of a pipeline to transport manure a distance of 35 miles appears to be technically feasible, notwithstanding a manure pipeline of this scale appears to be unprecedented,” says the report.

But it adds that public concerns about potential spills could make it hard for the project to receive an environmental licence.

“Even though we have sewer lines all over the place, people would probably object if they had

“We knew it was technically feasible.”

Mike Teillet

one of these things running down in front of their house.”

A current provincial moratorium on new hog operations, plus tougher regulations on manure handling, could render the idea moot anyway, said Teillet.

But if the industry ever starts to expand again, it may have to look at other ways of transporting manure besides trucking it, which is hard on roads and carries the risk of accidental spills, he said.

The idea of transporting manure by pipeline is new in Canada but not unheard of elsewhere. DGH engineer Charles Liu, who prepared the study, said he has spoken to a company in Wisconsin trying to develop a commercial project. Some hog operations in Europe pump liquid manure from a lift station through a pipeline to a digester.

DUC opens Strathmore office Ducks Unlimited Canada has opened a new office in Strathmore.

It will house an expanded number of wetland restoration and conservation staff and will complement DUC’s current network of personnel who already work in southern and central Alberta with landowners, communities and municipal governments within the counties of Acadia, Cypress, Wheatland, Foothills, Newell, Paintearth, Taber, Willow Creek, Vulcan, Rocky View,

Starland, Stettler and Special Areas.

The role that wetlands play on a landscape has become more recently understood and discussed following the floods of 2013 in southern Alberta.

In times of increased moisture, wetlands help reduce the harmful effects of flooding by absorbing excess water and by filtering pollutants to improve water quality. In dry years, wetlands play an important role in drought prevention. — DUC release

27

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JUNE 22, 2015

Proposed food label changes are promising, food groups say The goal is to make it easier for consumers to make informed choices about healthy eating

By Alex Binkley AF Contributor

P

roposals from Health Canada to clarify nutrition labelling and draw attention to the sugar content of foods are steps in the right direction, say dietitians and food processors.

The proposals released June 12 by Health Minister Rona Ambrose are open for public comment until Aug. 29. Once finalized, it’s expected to take five years to fully implement them.

“We will be looking carefully at the proposals and engaging dietitians across the country in developing our response to the proposed changes,” says Marsha Sharp, CEO of Dietitians of Canada. “Clear, consistent and easy to read nutrition information makes it easier for consumers to identify foods best suited to their health needs.”

The proposals “make it easier for Canadians to make informed decisions about healthy eating,” said Harriet Lee, spokeswoman for the Canadian Diabetes Association. “By providing nutritional information that corresponds to realistic serving sizes, grouping sugars in ingredient lists and including health claims on fruits and vegetables,

governments are empowering Canadians to make healthier choices. Providing Canadians with clear and transparent information about the foods they eat is an important component of promoting a healthy diet and preventing Type 2 diabetes.”

A good beginning

Chris Kyte, president of Food Processors of Canada, called the proposals “a good beginning” while Phyllis Tanaka of Food and Consumer Products Canada, backed proposed improvements to the nutrition facts table on food products.

“Research shows that the table is the most trusted tool Canadians use every day to help them make more informed food choices,” she said.

Health Canada launched consultations on food labelling changes last summer. A frequent complaint it heard was the lack of standardized servings in the facts box, which make it hard for shoppers to compare products.

Also being addressed are requests for consistent placement for allergen information so consumers can quickly identify products they should avoid. Manufacturers would be required to list all food colouring agents by their common name in the facts table. “This will allow consumers who have sensitivi-

ties to specific food colours to avoid those ingredients when shopping for food.”

Mobile app

Sugars would be grouped together in the nutritional table ingredient list along with a percentage of daily value for total sugars. The values will reflect the most recent nutrient recommendations, the department said.

The proposals include allowing a health claim on pre-packaged fruits and vegetables to “make it easier to let Canadians know about the health benefits of eating fruits and vegetables,” the department noted.

The department also plans to develop a My Food Guide mobile application and the Eat Well Plate as online tools to accompany Canada’s Food Guide.

“The Eat Well Plate will help Canadians visualize food proportions, and encourages them to make half their plate vegetables and fruit. The new My Food Guide mobile application will help Canadians access healthy eating information any time, anywhere. The My Food Guide app allows individuals to create an easy-to-use customized Canada’s Food Guide and will help them understand Food Guide servings and types of foods to choose for a healthy diet.”

U.S. egg prices to hit record high due to bird flu-USDA Grocery store prices have climbed 112 per cent since May

BY TOM POLANSEK Chicago / Reuters

T

he average price of a dozen eggs in the United States will climb to a record high this year due to the nation’s worst-ever outbreak of bird flu in poultry.

The USDA, in a monthly supply-and-demand report, increased its forecast for the price of Grade A large eggs in New York in 2015 to $1.60 to $1.66 per dozen. That is up from its May estimate of $1.30 to $1.36, and tops last year’s average price of about $1.42, which was a record high, according to USDA data.

Eggs will average $1.73 to $1.87 per dozen in the fourth quarter of 2015, it forecast.

Nationwide, more than 47 million chickens and turkeys have been killed in the past six months because of bird flu or are set to be culled to prevent the spread of the disease. Most are hens in Iowa, the top U.S. egg-producing state.

The impact of the losses is expected to stretch into next year.

Consumers are already feeling the pinch.

At a Mariano’s grocery store north of Chicago, signs affixed to refrigerated cases said the company had to raise egg prices because of the outbreak. They featured charts illustrating a 112 per cent jump in egg costs since May. “Prices for all egg sizes in all regions across the country are up due to the avian flu and a reduction of the national flock size, which has led to a shortage of eggs,” said James Hyland, a spokesman for Mariano’s owner Roundy’s Inc. In New York, restaurant chain europa cafe told customers it raised prices 10 per cent for egg sandwiches, omelettes and other breakfast foods containing eggs. In Texas, burger joint Whataburger has reduced the hours it serves egg products.

Imports may help compensate for reduced domestic production. The USDA pegged 2015 egg imports at 41.4 million dozen, up 32 per cent from its May forecast and 26 per cent above 2014 imports.

Still, total supplies are expected to drop four per cent from last year to 8.1 billion dozen, according to the agency.

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JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

™

Who’s Coming? Ag in Motion Exhibitor Profile Ag in Motion, Western Canada’s only outdoor farm expo, is proud to offer farmers interactive exhibits, field demonstrations and crop plots from a wide diversity of exhibitors. A sample of Ag in Motion exhibitors will be featured in our “Exhibitor Profile” series, to inform you about some of the companies you can expect to see at this summer’s expo, July 21-23.

Ag in Motion Welcomes Monsanto Canada

C

urious about soybeans? Wonder how soybeans fit into your crop rotation?

Monsanto Canada will be showcasing the next step in soybean technology, the Roundup Ready® Xtend Crop System, alongside the newest canola hybrids and early corn hybrids during the inaugural Ag in Motion farm expo, July 21-23.

The Monsanto display plots are designed to spark new thinking about rotations and to introduce the latest offerings from Monsanto BioAg. The lineup of DEKALB® brand canola, corn and soybeans for western Canada will also be on display.

Visit the Monsanto and DEKALB brand experts to learn about the latest in weed management solutions, or whatever your agronomic concern may be. No one knows DEKALB varieties and best management practices better than the DEKALB agronomy team.

If the potential benefits of applying an inoculant

to canola, pulses or soybeans is intriguing, Monsanto BioAg will have its product offering on display.

Or perhaps the alliance between Monsanto and Novozymes has brought questions to mind. Monsanto BioAg representatives are ready to talk about what the future of microbials means to Canadian farmers.

There’s no other place you can find all of these solutions or experts in one stop.

Headquartered in Winnipeg, MB, Monsanto Canada is part of the larger global Monsanto Company. Monsanto is committed to bringing a broad range of solutions to help nourish the growing world by working to find sustainable agriculture solutions that help farmers conserve natural resources, use data to improve farming practices, use water and other important resources more efficiently, and protect their crops from pests and disease. Only through collaborating with farmers, researchers, non-profit organizations

and universities can the world’s biggest challenges be tackled effectively.

To learn more about Monsanto, visit: www.monsanto.ca or follow them on Twitter @MonsantoCda, where you can find more updates on their plans for Ag in Motion.

Roundup Ready 2 Xtend™ soybeans have received regulatory approval in Canada, regulatory approval in other key export markets is still pending. Commercialization is dependent on multiple factors, including successful conclusion of the regulatory process in key export markets and the registration of new soybean varieties in Canada. The information presented herein is provided for educational purposes only, and is not and shall not be construed as an offer to sell until all necessary regulatory obligations are met.

ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. DEKALB®, Monsanto and Vine Design®, Roundup Ready 2 Xtend™ and Roundup Ready® are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC, Monsanto Canada, Inc. licensee. ©2015 Monsanto Canada Inc.

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ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JUNE 22, 2015

FEDS FUNDS RESTORATION EFFORTS

DOWN THE DRAIN

Ottawa will spend more than $13 million under the National Wetland Conservation Fund over the next three years to provide support for more than 80 projects across Canada. The funds will support projects that restore degraded or lost wetlands; enhance degraded wetlands; identify areas where restoration should be prioritized; monitor restoration results; and encourage stewardship and wetland appreciation. The federal funding will “support the protection of existing wetlands and the creation of new wetland habitat,” said Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq.

— Environment Canada

About 64 per cent of wetlands in southern Alberta have disappeared since settlement and an estimated 0.3 to 0.5 per cent of remaining wetlands are lost each year because of drought, population growth, industrial development, land use changes, management practices and policies. Alberta wetlands are divided into a white and a green zone. The white zone covers land within the south and south-central area of the province (roughly from Edmonton down) and includes primarily privately owned land. The green zone is generally northern Alberta and includes primarily Crown land. — Ministry of Environment and Parks

What’s it worth? New project aims HEARTLAND to nail down the value of wetlands

Running the ruler on what works best

Staff

To answer the question ‘What is a wetland worth?’ the Alberta Land Institute will be going high tech in the Nose Creek watershed project.

The province uses letter grades — A, B, C, and D — to rate the functional value of wetlands. To assign a grade, project officials will employ a type of aerial scan called detailed light detection and ranging (LiDAR), which uses lasers and an analysis of the reflected light. (It’s widely used for things such as mapping ocean bottoms and surveying forests.)

Coupled with state-of-theart data modelling and analysis techniques, “this new tool won’t just be able to grade current wetlands; it’ll also be able to predict what the potential value of currently dry (or drained) wetlands could be if they were restored,” the land institute states on its website.

And even after wetlands are restored, researchers will keep watch.

“There’s never been an opportunity to scientifically monitor one of these wetlands closely enough to see how its performance compares to a naturally occurring counterpart,” the institute says. “Thanks to the models that allow us to value existing and potential wetlands, we’ll now be able to do something unprecedented: Follow newly restored wetlands from their creation, and assess their contributions to a watershed in objective, quantifiable terms.

“We’ll also be able to test different variations when it comes to restoring wetlands. Should we leave buffer areas around wetlands? Are wetlands more successful if certain types of plants are introduced? The wetlands we restore as part of this project will become living laboratories, and the lessons we learn during the restoration process will be applicable for future restorations across Alberta, and beyond.”

For more, go to www. albertalandinstitute.ca, search for ‘living wetlands,’ and click on Project Backgrounder.

Innovative new project features a reverse auction in which producers ‘bid’ on the compensation they’d want for giving up acres

BY JEFF MELCHIOR AF contributor

W

etlands often present a difficult choice for producers — keep them for their environmental value or drain them for the sake of the bottom line.

Until recently, converting wetlands to croppable land was commonplace, and even encouraged by government projects that paid farmers to drain them.

Wetlands advocates know it will take compensation to reverse that trend. But how much money does it take to convince farmers and other landowners to restore drained wetlands?

“I can’t go on Kijiji and discover the value of an acre of wetlands,” said Shari Clare, an ecologist and adjunct professor in the University of Alberta’s resource economics department. “This reverse auction will help us do that.”

A reverse auction is at the heart of a new project in the Nose Creek watershed in Rocky View County just north of Calgary. Landowners will be given an assessment of the value of their dried wetlands and, if they want to participate, they’ll make a ‘bid’ — how much they would want to be paid if the land was restored and taken out of crop production.

“We will be accepting bids early in 2016 and will be selecting winning bids by March,” said Clare. “The restoration of wetlands for those winning bidders would happen in the fall of 2016.”

The cheapest bids won’t necessarily be accepted, as the value of the wetland is also factored in. The criteria for determining ‘the best’ wetlands is based on four factors: biodiversity, water quality improvement, water storage, and carbon sequestration.

“When we get the bid we’re going to look at the environment benefit score and compare the price people are asking for,” said Clare. “It’s the most efficient use of our budget to buy the wetlands with the highest environmental benefit score for the lowest price.”

Mixed reaction

Grower sentiment towards wetlands projects in Rocky View County is “mixed,” largely due to controversy over delayed grazing commitments over the past several decades, said Tim Dietzler, agricultural fieldman for Rocky View County.

The project launch in March featured a simulated reverse auc-

The Nose Creek watershed is home to farms, ranches, acreages, and spillover urban development from Calgary (the area in grey just south of the watershed). PHOTO: SUPPLIED

“I can’t go on Kijiji and discover the value of an acre of wetlands.”

Shari Clare

The Nose Creek watershed project is aimed at creating a new model for wetland restoration, says Shari Clare, shown here conducting a wetland fish survey using minnow traps. PHOTO: COURTESY SHARI CLARE tion — and revealed a wide range of perspectives among attending producers.

“Among the 20 people who were there, the bids ranged from 30 to 50 per cent above the going rate of rental land in the area to zero — there were a couple of individuals really interested in having wetlands on their land,” said Dietzler.

Bob Janzen, a producer who lambs out 70 ewes on his 100-acre farm north of Cochrane, attended the launch. Although his land is outside of the project boundaries, he said if he had the opportunity to participate he probably would.

“The way they were doing it sounded very interesting to me,” said Janzen. “My goal would not be so much restoring wetlands as trapping water.

“We have several springs on our property, a fair bit of lowland. I’d like to build a little bit of a dam and hold some of that water to maintain some water year round on the property.”

Interested landowners will be given help to identify all of the costs

involved in restoring their wetlands, including long-term profit loss if the landowner deems it necessary.

“We want landowners to consider everything when formulating their bids because we really want them to come out of this process feeling like they’ve been treated fairly,” said Clare.

‘Kicking the tires’

If the project achieves the hoped-for results, it could be a model for other wetland restoration efforts.

One of the project partners, the Alberta Land Institute (an affiliate of the University of Alberta), wants to evaluate the effectiveness of what it calls “market-based instruments.” “(The data we collect) could be used to help inform the development of other market-based instruments for the management of other important ecosystems, like native grasslands for example,” said Clare. “We’re kicking the tires on the effectiveness of using market-based instruments as policy instruments to manage environmental resources in Alberta.”

Project partners will be talking to landowners in the Nose Creek watershed this summer and recruiting individuals to participate, she said.

They will also be emphasizing that the goal isn’t to buy land and participating landowners will retain the access rights to their restored wetlands.

“Once restored, the wetland will be regulated under the provincial wetland policy, as well as the Water Act and Public Lands Act, where applicable,” she said.

The project has attracted a number of sponsors including the U of A, University of Western Ontario, Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions, Rocky View County, the City of Calgary and Ducks Unlimited.

The money to repair the wetlands comes from the provincial wetland compensation fund.

It’s part of a larger effort called Alberta’s Living Laboratory Project and in many ways that is exactly what the watershed will become in the context of this experiment.

“The Nose Creek watershed experiences a wide range of land use pressures,” said Clare. “We’re trying to learn as much as we can about what drives (wetland management) decisions and working in a watershed where we have intensive agricultural operations, ranches, acreages, and urban development gives us a large number of uses.

“If we were to run this study in a watershed where there was only ag production we would come out with less understanding of what people are willing to accept as payment for wetlands.”

30

JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Spate of new cases may up pressure to combat ‘swamp fever’ in horses Many consider Western Canada to be lax in its efforts to eradicate equine infectious anemia, but that may soon change

BY DIANNE FINSTAD AF contributor

A

smattering of new cases of equine infectious anemia in Alberta and Saskatchewan may intensify the pressure to implement new, and costly, measures to control the potentially devastating disease.

Four cases of the disease (typically called EIA or ‘swamp fever’) have been found in Alberta and two in Saskatchewan this year. The first three Alberta cases were in the Rocky View, Ponoka, and Grande Prairie areas and involved single animals while the latest, confirmed in May and made public earlier this month, involved seven horses in the Pincher Creek region. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency would not reveal details of the cases, except the three individual cases were discovered when the horses were tested “for a variety of reasons” (such as a condition of sale or because it was going to be exported).

“It’s a difficult situation,” said Dr. Renaud Leguillette, an associate professor at the University of Calgary’s faculty of veterinary medicine and a member of a national equine disease surveillance committee.

“It’s such a smart virus, that’s been here for centuries. It can hide, and will keep living quietly in a horse, which will act as a reservoir and a source of contamination for other horses. With wild, unchecked horses, EIA is not easy to eradicate.”

However, horse owners should not be alarmed, he added.

“A small reservoir does put the horse population at risk, but how

Dr. Greg Evans

“People shouldn’t panic, because it’s a lowprevalence problem.”

high is the risk? People shouldn’t panic, because it’s a low-prevalence problem.”

Testing issues

Equine infectious anemia is a reportable disease. It is not transmitted via horse-to-horse contact, but is easily spread by horseflies, deer flies, and other bloodsucking insects. And since it stays with a horse for life, infected horses must either be put down (which is mandatory if they show “strong clinical signs”) or permanently quarantined.

In Eastern Canada, a larger portion of the horse population travels to shows and events, and so having a Coggins Test (screening for EIA) is a matter of course.

“Management of the disease there is different than here in the West, primarily because of the type of horses. There’s also a history of monitoring for it in the East,” said Dr. Greg Evans of the Moore Equine Veterinary Centre near Calgary and a member of the health and welfare committee for Equine Canada.

Most competitions, and even

Photo: Thinkstock

some stables, in Eastern Canada require testing. In the West, competitive horses are usually tested, but many ranch and pleasure horses are not. As well, pastured horses might encounter some of the same deer fly and horsefly populations as the feral horses, which many consider to be a reservoir for the virus.

But testing and monitoring requirements here may be poised to change.

The CFIA is currently reviewing those and has sent out a proposed risk management and control strategy for stakeholder comment.

It is also working with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine on a retrospective study, looking at EIA testing and cases in Canada between 2009 and 2012. The agency says the project will look at surveillance and outbreak patterns, as well as possible risk factors.

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BASSANO Wednesday July 8, 2015 Community Hall 11:00 am - 2:00 pm

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Changes coming?

The two initiatives will influence “future policy decisions specifically related to surveillance and options for control,” a CFIA spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“The big question is, who would pay for increased surveillance and testing?” said retired Ponoka veterinarian Dr. Gary Harbin, who saw just one case in 43 years of practice (a draft horse that displayed no symptoms).

A Coggins Test typically costs $70 to $100, so there is a significant economic consideration.

Evans has not seen a single case in his 13-year career, but said some view Western Canada as the untamed frontier for EIA, with no real desire to deal with it.

“We have to protect international trade and travel,” said Evans. “If EIA gets more frequent, there could be push-back from our partners. It’s something we have to be cognizant of as an industry because we don’t want to eliminate the ability of our horses to travel.”

The goal should be to eradicate the virus, he said.

“It’s been done in other places.

But it would require a significant increase in the number of horses under surveillance, and change in the way we do surveillance.”

Getting an overview of the presence of the virus in Western Canada’s population would mean testing large herds of horses on pasture, at auction markets, and possibly in the wild. The latter would be a daunting, and controversial, effort

Dr. Renaud Leguillette

since the wild horses would have to be rounded up and then kept confined while the blood tests are being processed.

But the horse industry needs to be proactive, said Evans.

“It behooves us to examine what we could or should do better,” he said. “It’s better for everybody if we can eliminate the stigma.”

What that might involve isn’t known at this point as the CFIA’s proposed risk management and control strategy hasn’t been made public.

But some jurisdictions have taken aggressive measures. In some areas of the U.S., every horse sold must have a clean Coggins Test. Other areas impose regional travel restrictions. Another possibility is mandatory testing for any rescued, rehomed wild horses — something the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association has twice recommended to authorities.

And it’s likely most or all of the cost of any additional testing will fall on horse owners.

“In Ontario, testing is considered part of the yearly health maintenance,” said Evans. “It’s considered part of the owner’s health budget, and is entrenched in the horse culture there.”

Depending on the results of the CFIA’s program review and recommendations on EIA control, that might not be a choice.

What is equine infectious anemia?

• Non-contagious but infectious disease of horses, donkeys and mules; • Viral disease which affects the animal’s immune system, something like HIV in humans; • Symptoms include fever, anorexia, muscle weakness and wasting, swelling of the underside of belly and legs; • Horses infected with the EIA virus carry it for life; • Transmitted by larger bloodsucking insects, mainly horseflies and deer flies.

Contaminated needles and surgical instruments can also spread the virus;

• Infected horses don’t necessarily show symptoms, but will still be ‘carriers’ and thus, a risk to other horses; • No treatment or cure for EIA, and no vaccine to prevent it; • Diagnosed by testing a horse’s blood, with the original test developed by Dr. Leroy Coggins in 1970; • EIA is found around the world. It’s been in Canada since the 1800s; • Control is based on voluntary testing, identification and destruction of infected animals.

31

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JUNE 22, 2015

Buy out quota with a retail price premium?

New study raises concerns about growth promotors

A former Liberal MP and a University of Calgary researcher are calling for an immediate phase-out of quotas Staff

But beef official says what happens in a controlled lab setting doesn’t necessarily happen in nature

BY SHANNON VANRAES STAFF

M

ore research has emerged suggesting that growth promotors used in cattle feeding may persist in the environment longer than previously thought.

Indiana University researchers found that while the synthetic testosterone known as trenbolone acetate or TBA breaks down in sunlight, darkness allows it to revert back to a 17-alpha-trenbolone compound.

“This means that, instead of permanent removal in sunlight, the compound would be expected to persist in stream environments, returning to its earlier form overnight in the dark, shallow stream bed where stream water mixes with groundwater, known as the hyporheic zone,” they say in a release.

“These compounds have the potential to disrupt entire ecosystems by altering reproductive cycles in many species, including fish,” said Adam Ward, lead author of the study and a professor at the school.

“We expect impacts that extend through the aquatic food web.”

Other compounds could also behave in similar fashion, leaving Ward and his co-authors questioning if regulators are looking at the long-term impacts as they govern the use and approval of such products.

TBA is regulated by Health Canada, which said it regularly reviews the quality and efficacy of approved veterinary products.

In an emailed response to questions, the federal department said that “as part of the Chemicals Management Plan, Health Canada is currently prioritizing certain regulated products under the Food and

Drugs Act to identify those that may pose significant harm to human health or to the environment. TBA is included in this list of substances being prioritized.”

The impact of the hormone on aquatic life is part of that prioritization, the email stated.

The findings aren’t of concern, said Melinda German, general manager of the Manitoba Beef Producers.

“I can appreciate the study and what they’re looking at, but for me it’s not a concern,” said Melinda German. “What they’ve found is under very specific conditions, it was a laboratory experiment, it wasn’t done in nature… and we know nature doesn’t work under these very precise conditions, so interesting, but it’s not of concern to me at this time.” shannon.vanraes@fbcpublishing.com

*For commercial use only. Offer subject to credit qualification and approval by CNH Industrial Capital Canada Ltd. See your New Holland dealer for details and eligibility requirements. CNH Industrial Capital Canada Ltd. standard terms and conditions will apply. Depending on model, a down payment may be required. Offer good through June 30, 2015, at participating New Holland dealers in Canada. Offer subject to change. Taxes, freight, set-up, delivery, additional options or attachments not included in price. © 2015 CNH Industrial Capital America LLC. All rights reserved. New Holland Agriculture is a trademark registered in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates. CNH Industrial Capital and New Holland Construction are trademarks in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates.

D

rop the price of milk to the U.S. level, but then add a temporary premium to compensate dairy farmers for the loss of their quota.

That’s the plan proposed in a recent Globe and Mail opinion piece by Martha Hall Findlay and Jack Mintz of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary.

Hall Findlay is a former Liberal MP and leadership contender who has been a frequent critic of the Canadian supply management system.

Their plan is similar to one they say was used to phase out supply management in Australia.

“Compensation and transition payments were funded by maintaining and collecting a small portion of the system’s existing price supports for a limited period of time. Some farmers cashed out for a decent retirement; those who stayed in the business became more efficient and more productive,” Hall Findlay and Mintz wrote.

They propose an immediate phase-out of import quotas, which would bring the price of milk to the U.S. level.

“A more gradual approach would also delay Canadian

farmers’ ability to begin exporting, and allow competitors from Australia, New Zealand and the United States to secure and consolidate their export-market shares,” they wrote.

They acknowledge that would eliminate quota value, which they say is “somewhere in between” full value of $23 billion (based on $30,000 per cow), and a Conference Board of Canada suggested “book value” of between $3.6 billion and $4.7 billion.

Compensation would be through a “Fairness for Farmers Fund,” financed by a “Transition Price Supplement” (TPS) or premium over the U.S. price level.

“For consumers to benefit immediately, the TPS must be low enough that the retail price (the transition price) is still lower than current supply-managed prices. The lower the TPS, the longer the transition period — and the higher the TPS, the shorter the transition period,” Hall Findlay and Mintz wrote.

They quote 2012 retail milk prices of $1.62 per litre in Canada and $0.92 in the U.S. “Even with an additional 25-cent supplement per litre, the price to consumers would still be significantly lower than it was under supply management,” they wrote.

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32

JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Community news and events from across the province

Outstanding Young Farmers what’s creates cross-country connections up

By JENNIFER BLAIR

Send agriculture-related meeting and event announcements to: glenn.cheater@fbcpublishing.com

AF staff / Olds

I

t can be tough to find your fit as an up-and-coming farmer — that’s where Outstanding Young Farmers comes in.

“I always looked at Outstanding Young Farmers as a graduate program for people past 4-H,” said regional chairperson Steven Snider. “This is a great place for that generation to connect across all sectors.”

The 35-year-old program recognizes innovative farmers under the age of 40 through a national awards event, where farmers from across the country come together to share ideas and build the industry.

But the heart of the program lays elsewhere.

“It’s a great opportunity to network,” said Snider. “If you have a problem on your farm, sometimes you don’t want to talk to your neighbour. But you can call your friend one or two provinces over and get that input.”

That’s been the No. 1 benefit for 2011 Alberta winners Tara and Matt Sawyer, who operate a mixed farm near Acme.

“Our opportunities with it have been endless,” said Tara. “The personal connections have been very important for our family.

We’ve been fortunate to travel across the country on more than one occasion to meet up with Outstanding Young Farmers, and they’ve welcomed us with open arms.”

The group is like a multi-generational family, she said, with the “seasoned alumni” supporting and mentoring the industry up-and-comers.

“When we have an issue, we have people across the country

June 23: Farming Smarter field school (also June 24 and June 25), 211034 Hwy. 512, Lethbridge. Contact: Claudette Lacombe 1-403-901-9637 June 23: canolaPALOOZA, Lacombe Research Station, Lacombe. Contact: Alberta Canola Producers 780-454-0844 June 23: Alberta Agriculture Pulse Crop Walk, near Barrhead (also June 24 near Bon Accord and June 25 in Vegreville). Contact: Christy Hoy 780-422-3825 June 23: Grass, Profit and Quality of Life (Don Campbell); Little Hall, Brownvale (also June 25 in Grovedale). Contact: Peace Country Beef & Forage Association 1-780-835-6799

The Outstanding Young Farmers program has been “nothing but a blessing” for her family, said Tara Sawyer, who won the 2011 award with husband Matt. PHOTO: JENNIFER BLAIR we can call who have been there, done that, and have a suggestion or a solution from their personal experience,” said Sawyer.

“No one else really has that kind of advisory panel for free.

That, for our family, has been an advantage.”

The program’s participants are ambassadors for all agriculture, said Snider.

“What the Outstanding Young Farmers program does is find those stories that truly represent what our industry is about,” he said. “If we don’t create the message, someone else will for us.”

Sawyer agrees.

“You aren’t going to find anyone who’s more positive than the Outstanding Young Farmers family on where Canadian agriculture is, where it’s going, and what is possible,” added Sawyer.

“We are the experts in our field,

“Our opportunities with it have been endless.”

Tara sawyer

and we want to get the true story out. Our passion for farming has grown into a passion for spreading the Canadian ag story.”

The Alberta chapter of the OYF program has received a boost from Pomeroy Inn and Suites.

“If the person making the reservation requests it, $3 from every room night at the betatest hotels in Grimshaw, Veg-

reville, and Olds will go back to Outstanding Young Farmers of Alberta,” said Alan Boivin, the hotel chain’s director of operations in Alberta.

The support — the company has also donated $2,000 — was welcomed by Snider.

“We had hit lean years, and having sustainable funding to keep our program strong is always key.”

The pilot test will run until May 31 next year, when the program will hopefully be expanded to all Pomeroy properties in Alberta and B.C., said Boivin.

The Outstanding Young Farmers program is also looking for nominees to represent Alberta in 2016. For more information, visit www.oyfalberta.com or call 403-224-2077. jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

Reporter’s Notebook

Foolish footwear choices — and other crop walk lessons

By JENNIFER BLAIR AF staff

I

learned a lot on my first crop walk four years ago. No, I can’t remember who presented or what they spoke about, but I learned a lesson that day that has carried me through every crop walk since.

There I was, standing at the edge of a field just outside of Lacombe, a few days after a rainstorm had come through. The fields were still muddy… and I was wearing flipflops.

Trudging through gumbo in boots is bad enough, but flip-flops are way worse. Especially when you’re wearing plastic biosecurity booties.

The crop walk veterans had a good laugh at my expense, and I figured I had learned my lesson: No flip-flops on crop walks. Easy.

At my next crop walk a few weeks later, this time near Barrhead, I proudly displayed my brand-new rubber boots. The veterans just shook their heads, and before long, I understood why. You see, the conditions at the Barrhead site were very different from the ones in Lacombe. Very dry, and very hot.

I could have got away with wearing flipflops on that tour, or at the very least, running shoes. Instead, I spent my morning tramping about with big sweaty boots chafing my calves and storing every bit of heat that the day produced.

That’s when I finally learned my lesson: Be prepared for anything.

I like to think I’ve learned a lot since those first catastrophic crop tours. I’ve learned what time of day to spray for weeds (midday), how to identify ascochyta in pulse crops (tan leaf spots with tiny black specks), and which wheat varieties respond best to plant growth regulators (AC Harvest and CDC Stanley, to name two).

And I’ve learned to always bring my crop walk survival kit. It includes sunscreen, bug spray, water, map, hat, and jacket, but also two recharging devices: one for the cellphone and one for me (granola bars are my preference).

And there’s always a choice of rubber boots or comfortable shoes. But the flip-flops? You can leave home without them. jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

June 24: Organic Transition Workshop, Tofield Community Hall, Tofield. Contact: Melisa Zapisocky 587-521-2400 June 24: SARDA Summer Field School, Donnelly Sportex, Donnelly. Contact: SARDA 780-837-2900 June 24-25: Technical Large Animal Rescue, Pomeroy Inn & Suites, Olds. Contact: Kristen 403-652-5111 June 25: Peter Donovan Alberta Series, Westlock, (also June 27 in Bonnyville, and June 30 in Oyen). Contact: North Peace Applied Research Association 780-836-3354 June 25: peacePALOOZA, Beaverlodge Research Centre, Beaverlodge. Contact: Alberta Canola Producers 780-454-0844 June 29: Controlled Traffic Farming Field Day, Hillsboro Farms, Cleardale. Contact: Kaitlin 780-835-6799 July 3: Nurturing Healthy Land, Growing Wholesome Food and Practising Enduring Stewardship; Ruzicka Sunrise Farm, Killam.

Contact: Holistic Management Canada 204648-5622 July 7: Passing the Farm to the next Generation, Tamara Ranch, Red Deer. Contact: Holistic Management Canada 204-648-5622 July 16: How to Measure Soil Health Field Workshop (Jill Clapperton), Halborn Hall (51132 RR 13, Parkland County), Halborn. Contact: Tina 780-727-4447 July 21: Sainfoin Training: Improving the Profitability of Livestock Grazing (also July 22), Lethbridge Research Centre, Lethbridge.

Contact: Ag-Info Centre 1-800-387-6030 July 21: HortSnacks in the Field, Erdmann’s Gardens and Greenhouses, Vimy. Contact: Ag-Info Centre 1-800-387-6030 July 22: Farming Smarter Medicine Hat Field Day, Cypress County Site, Medicine Hat. Contact: Jamie 403-381-5118 July 23: Building Soil — Creating Land (Christine Jones), two farm locations near Airdrie and Olds (also July 24 in Oyen, July 28 in Rycroft, July 29 in Manning, July 31 in Morinville, Aug. 4 in Bonnyville, and Aug. 5 in Castor). Contact: Fiona McCarthy 403-335-3311 ext. 143 July 28: Making the Grade workshop on grain grading; Olds College & Pomeroy Inn on Campus, Olds. Contact: Alberta Canola Producers 780-454-0844.

July 28: Planned Grazing Using High Stock Density to Improve Profit, Lucends Ranch Ponoka. Contact: Contact: Holistic Management Canada 204-648-5622

33

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JUNE 22, 2015

Cleaning, crown thinning, raising, and reduction are four main reasons for tree pruning.

PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

Tips on the whys and hows of tree pruning

*For commercial use only. Offer subject to credit qualification and approval by CNH Industrial Capital Canada Ltd. See your New Holland dealer for details and eligibility requirements. CNH Industrial Capital Canada Ltd. standard terms and conditions will apply. Depending on model, a down payment may be required. Offer good through June 30, 2015, at participating New Holland dealers in Canada. Offer subject to change. Taxes, freight, set-up, delivery, additional options or attachments not included in price. © 2015 CNH Industrial Capital America LLC. All rights reserved. New Holland Agriculture is a trademark registered in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates. CNH Industrial Capital and New Holland Construction are trademarks in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates.

But less is often best as you can always prune more later Alberta Agriculture and Forestry release

T

here are many reasons for pruning a tree, says provincial tree specialist Toso Bozic.

Cleaning is the removal of dead, dying, diseased, crowded, weakly attached, and low-vigour branches from the crown of a tree.

Crown thinning is the selective removal of branches to increase light penetration and air movement through the crown.

Thinning opens the foliage of a tree, reduces weight on heavy limbs, and helps retain the tree’s natural shape.

Raising removes the lower branches from a tree in order to provide clearance for buildings, vehicles, pedestrians, and vistas.

Reduction reduces the size of a tree, often for clearance for utility lines.

There are some basic principles that need to be followed, said Bozic.

“These include removing dead, damaged and diseased wood. Select the main scaffold branches or main stems that you want to keep. Remove weak crotches, crossed branches, suckers and water sprouts (shoots from the trunk or older branches).”

When pruning, cut back to branch collar to leave the smallest wound possible, he added.

“And it’s important to keep in mind that less is often best — you can always prune again next year.”

While small-tree pruning can be a fun thing for beginners to do, a professional tree pruner or certified arborist should be contacted for major tree pruning or removal, said Bozic.

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SMART. SUPERIOR COMFORT. USED EQUIPMENT SMART. 612989

$27,900

• Optional sealed and pressurized cab with heat and air conditioning 2010 Massey Ferguson 1375 • Glide optionConditioner, for a smoother ride Discride Mower

$16,000

2006 New Holland 499 Mower Conditioner, Good cond.

• Hydraulic quick Goodcoupler cond. option for fast attachment changes

Funding available for business skill training Business Management Skills Program will cover 75 per cent of tuition fees or the cost of hiring an instructor for a group

612989 684308 • Quick servicing with daily checkpoints under rear hood and door, and if full access is needed, the entire cab tilts forward

$12,000

T

he Business Management Skills Program is now accepting applications.

“This program helps agricultural producers, new producers and processors, agri-processing industry staff, and producer groups improve their business management skills through timely training and targeted skills development,” said Stephanie Kosinski, business opportunity grant specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

The Growing Forward 2 funded program aims to increase industry profitability; foster skills needed to adapt to industry changes and embrace opportunities; and increase business development and sector sustainability.

“Under the program, 75 per cent of tuition fees or the cost to hire an instructor for a group skill training

course is eligible for reimbursement,” said Kosinski. “Individuals can apply for multiple projects to a maximum of $10,000 per individual for the life of the program. Groups can apply for multiple projects to a maximum of $20,000 per application and a maximum of $40,000 for the life of the program.”

Applications under $500 will not be considered, and travel costs are not covered. Post-secondary courses offered by a degree-granting institution for credit are not eligible, nor are courses offered by institutions used to acquire a professional designation. Conferences, seminars, and speaker series sessions are not eligible.

“Applicants will need to submit a learning plan, noting learning outcomes and documented costs,” said Kosinski. “Proof of completion of the learning plan is required before reimbursement is made.”

For more information contact the Ag-Info Centre at 310-FARM (3276).

708844

$95,000

2000 New Holland 688 Round Baler Good cond.

Alberta Agriculture and Forestry release

684303

New Holland 200 Series skid steer loaders are the SMART way to work, offering operators the most comfort and the best visibility. The Super Boom™ cab provides ample leg and foot room. Visibility is excellent in all directions. To the front, the threshold is lower for better sightlines to the bucket edge, and you have a clear view to the bucket at full height by looking through a see-through area of the roof. Rear visibility is best in class with the large rear window, low engine hood and no rear frame towers to get in your way. Work the SMART way with a New Holland skid steer.

TRACTORS Kubota ZG20, ‘04, mower . . . . . . . . . . . . .$3,900

2008 New Holland H8080 Mower Conditioner-SP, 1230hrs, Good cond.

Case IH DCX 161, ‘07, 15’ disc mower $19,800 MF 1375, ‘10, 15’ disc mower . . . . . . . $27,900

© 2014 CNH Industrial America LLC. All rights reserved. New Holland Agriculture is a trademark registered in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates. NewNH Holland Construction a trademark. in many other 499, ‘06, 12’ishaybine . the . . .United . . . .States . . . and $16,000 Exmarkowned Pioneer, ‘12, 60” mower . . .its. subsidiaries . .$4,900 countries, by or licensed to CNH Industrial .N.V., or affiliates.

IHC 234, ‘86, hydro, 15 hp, 450 hours. . . .$4,300

NH 2300, ‘99, 18’ header . . . . . . . . . . . . .$9,000

NH TM125, ‘00, FWA, FEL, 100 hp . . Coming In

NH 688, ‘00, bale comm., 17, 694 bales $12,000

NH T6070, ‘07, FWA, FEL, 120 hp . . . Coming In

NH 688, ‘00, w/auto tie . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10,000

SPRAYERS & SEEDING

OFF ROAD UTILITY

FC 2340 variable rate air cart . . . . . . . . $19,500

Kawasaki 4010 Trans, ‘10, w/winch, windshield. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$6,800

FC 5000 57’, w/3450 TBH air cart. . . . . $46,000 NH P2070, ‘11, 60’ precision drill . . . . $112,000 JD 1895, ‘04, 36’ disc drill w/ FC 2340 cart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $89,000 FC 67-120’, ‘98 sprayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$5,800

HAYING EQUIPMENT JD 1600A, 14’, mower conditioner . . . . . .$6,900

Kawasaki 4010, ‘14, Mule, 302 hrs . . . . . .$9,500 Kawasaki Teryx 750, ‘13 . . . . . . . . . . . . $11,000 Arctic Cat XTZ1000 Prowler, ‘11. . . . . . . .$9,900

MISCELLANEOUS Renn RGU1214, ‘11, 12’ bag extractor $35,000 Rem 2700, ‘08, grain vac, 283 hrs . . . . $14,500

Claresholm, AB 403-625-3321

1-800-852-7270 www.challengernh.ca

34

JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

1-800-665-1362 • abclassifieds@fbcpublishing.com

inDEx Tributes/Memoriam Announcements_ Airplanes Alarms_&_Security_Systems ANTIqUES Antiques_For_Sale Antique_Equipment Antique_Vehicles_ Antiques_Wanted Arenas AUCTION SAlES BC_Auction AB_Auction_Peace_ AB_Auction_North AB_Auction_Central_ AB_Auction_South SK_Auction MB_Auction_Parkland MB_Auction_Westman_ MB_Auction_Interlake MB_Auction_Red_River_ Auction_Various_ U.S._Auctions Auction_Schools AUTO & TRANSPORT Auto_Service_&_Repairs Auto_&_Truck_Parts Autos Trucks Semi_Trucks Sport_Utilities_ Vans_ Vehicles_Various_ Vehicles_Wanted BEEKEEPING Honey_Bees_ Cutter_Bees Bee_Equipment Belting_ Biodiesel_Equipment_ Books_&_Magazines_ BUIlDING & RENOVATIONS Building_Supplies_ Concrete_Repair_ Doors_&_Windows_ Electrical_&_Plumbing Insulation Lumber_ Roofing_ Buildings Business_Machines_ Business_Opportunities_ BUSINESS SERVICES Crop_Consulting Financial_&_Legal_ Insurance/Investments_ Butchers_Supply_ Chemicals Clothing/Work_wear_

Clothing/Western_Specialty_wear_ Collectibles_ Compressors_ Computers_ CONTRACTING Custom_Baling_ Custom_Feeding_ Custom_Harvesting_ Custom_Seeding_ Custom_Silage_ Custom_Spraying_ Custom_Trucking_ Custom_Tub_Grinding_ Custom_Work Construction_Equipment_ Crop_Inputs Dairy_Equipment_ Electrical_ Engines_ Entertainment_ FARM MAChINERy Aeration_ Conveyors_ Equipment_Monitors_ Fertilizer_Equip_ Grain_Augers_ Grain_Bins_ Grain_Carts_ Grain_Cleaners_ Grain_Dryers_ Grain_Elevators_ Grain_Handling_ Grain_Testers_ Grain_Vacuums_ Hydraulics_ Irrigation_Equipment_ Loaders_&_Dozers_ Parts_&_Accessories_ Potato_&_Row_Crop_Equipment_ Repairs_ Rockpickers_ Salvage_ Silage_Equipment_ Snowblowers/Plows_ Specialty_Equipment_ Machinery_Miscellaneous_ Machinery_Wanted_ hAyING & hARVESTING Baling_Equipment_ Mower_Conditioners_ Swathers_ Swather_Accessories_ Various_ COMBINES Belarus Case/IH Cl_ Caterpillar_Lexion Deutz Ford/NH_ Gleaner_ John_Deere_ Massey_Ferguson_ Versatile_ White_ Combines_Various Combine_Accessories

SPRAyING EqUIPMENT Sprayers Spray_Various_ TIllAGE & SEEDING Air_Drills_ Air_Seeders_ Harrows_&_Packers_ Seeding_Various_ Tillage_Equipment_ Tillage_&_Seeding_Various_ TRACTORS Agco_ Allis/Deutz_ Belarus_ Case/IH_ Caterpillar_ Ford_ John_Deere_ Kubota_ Massey_Ferguson_ New_Holland_ Steiger_ Universal_ Versatile_ White_ Zetor_ 2-Wheel_Drive 4-Wheel_Drive_ Various_ Fencing_ Firewood_ Fish_Farm_ Forestry/Logging_ Fork_Lifts/Pallet_Trucks_ Fur_Farming_ Generators_ GPS_ Health_Care_ Heat_&_Air_Conditioning_ Hides/Furs/Leathers_ Hobby_&_Handicrafts_ Household_Items_ Iron_&_Steel_ lANDSCAPING Greenhouses_ Lawn_&_Garden_ lIVESTOCK Cattle Cattle_Auctions__ Angus_ Black_Angus_ Red_Angus_ Aryshire_ Belgian_Blue_ Blonde_d'Aquitaine_ Brahman_ Brangus_ Braunvieh_ BueLingo_ Charolais_ Dairy_ Dexter_ Excellerator_ Galloway_ Gelbvieh_ Guernsey_ Hereford_ Highland_

Holstein_ Jersey_ Limousin_ Lowline_ Luing_ Maine-Anjou_ Miniature_ Murray_Grey_ Piedmontese_ Pinzgauer_ Red_Poll_ Salers_ Santa_Gertrudis_ Shaver_Beefblend_ Shorthorn_ Simmental South_Devon Speckle_Park Tarentaise_ Texas_Longhorn_ Wagyu_ Welsh_Black_ Cattle_Composite_ Cattle_Various_ Cattle_Wanted lIVESTOCK horses Horse_Auctions_ American_Saddlebred_ Appaloosa Arabian_ Belgian_ Canadian_ Clydesdale_ Draft_ Donkeys_ Haflinger_ Miniature_ Morgan_ Mules_ Norwegian_Ford_ Paint_ Palomino_ Percheron_ Peruvian_ Pinto_ Ponies_ Quarter_Horse_ Shetland_ Sport_Horses_ Standardbred_ Tennessee_Walker_ Thoroughbred_ Warmblood_ Welsh_ Horses_For_Sale_ Horses_Wanted_ lIVESTOCK Poultry Poultry_For_Sale_ Poultry_Wanted_ lIVESTOCK Sheep Sheep_Auction_ Arcott_ Columbia_ Dorper_ Dorset_ Katahdin_ Lincoln_ Suffolk_ Texel_Sheep_ Sheep_For_Sale_ Sheep_Wanted_

display Classified

• Minimum charge — $15.00 per week for first 25 words or less and an additional 60 cents per word for every word over 25. Additional bolding 75 cents per word. GST is extra. $2.50 billing charge is added to billed ads only.

• Terms: Payment due upon receipt of invoice.

• 10% discount for prepaid ads. If phoning in your ad you must pay with VISA or MasterCard to qualify for discount.

• Ask about our Priority Placement • Prepayment Bonus: Prepay for 3 weeks and get a bonus of 2 weeks; bonus weeks run consecutively and cannot be used separately from original ad; additions and changes accepted only during first 3 weeks.

• If you wish to have replies sent to a confidential box number, please add $5.00 per week to your total.

Count eight words for your address. Example: Ad XXXX, Alberta Farmer Express , Box 9800, Winnipeg, R3C 3K7.

• Your complete name & address must be submitted to our office before publication. (This information will be kept confidential & will not appear in the ad unless requested.)

• Advertising copy deviating in any way from the regular classified style will be considered display and charged at the display rate of $34.30 per column inch ($2.45 per agate line).

• Minimum charge $34.30 per week.

• Illustrations and logos are allowed with full border.

• Advertising rates are flat with no discount for frequency of insertion or volume of space used.

• Terms: Payment due upon receipt of invoice.

• Price quoted does not include GST.

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

•

AGREEMENT The publisher reserves the right to refuse any or all advertising for any reason stated or unstated.

Advertisers requesting publication of either display or classified advertisements agree that should the advertisement be omitted from the issue ordered for whatever reason, the Alberta Farmer Express shall not be held liable. It is also agreed that in the event of an error appearing in the published advertisement, the Alberta Farmer Express accepts no liability beyond the amount paid for that portion of the advertisement in which the error appears or affects. Claims for adjustment are limited to errors appearing in the first insertion only.

While every endeavor will be made to forward box number replies as soon as possible, we accept no liability in respect to loss or damage alleged to a rise through either failure or delay in forwarding such replies, however caused, whether by negligence or otherwise.

(2 weeks prior)

ORGANIC Organic_Certified_ Organic_Food_ Organic_Grains_ Outfitters_ Personal_ Pest_Control Pets_&_Supplies_ Photography_ Propane_ Pumps_ Radio,_TV_&_Satellite_ REAl ESTATE Commercial_Buildings_ Condos_ Cottages_&_Lots_ Houses_&_Lots_ Land_For_Rent_ Land_For_Sale_ Mobile_Homes_ Motels_&_Hotels_ Resorts Vacation_Property_ Farms & Ranches British_Columbia_ Alberta_ Saskatchewan_ Manitoba_ Acreages/Hobby_Farms_ Farms/Ranches_Wanted_ Pastureland_ RECREATIONAl VEhIClES All_Terrain_Vehicles_ Boats_&_Water_ Campers_&_Trailers_ Golf_Carts_ Motor_Homes_ Motorcycles_ Snowmobiles Recycling Refrigeration Restaurant_Supplies Sausage_Equipment_ Sawmills_ Scales_

COMMON SEED Cereal_Seeds_ Forage_Seeds_ Grass_Seeds_ Oilseeds_ Pulse_Crops_ Common_Seed_Various_ SEED/FEED/GRAIN Feed_Grain_ Hay_&_Straw_ Feed_Wanted_ Grain_Wanted_ Hay_&_Feed_Wanted_ Seed_Wanted_ Sewing_Machines_ Sharpening_Services_ Silos_ Sporting_Goods_ Stamps_&_Coins_ Swap_ Tanks_ Tarpaulins_ Tenders_ Tickets_ Tires_ Tools_ TRAIlERS Grain_Trailers_ Livestock_Trailers_ Trailers_Miscellaneous_ Travel_ Water_Pumps_ Water_Treatment_ Welding_ Well_Drilling_ Well_&_Cistern__ Winches_ CAREERS Career_Training_ Child_Care_ Construction_ Domestic_Services_ Farm/Ranch_ Forestry/Log_ Health_Care_ Help_Wanted_ Management Mining_ Oil_Field_ Professional_ Resume_Services_ Sales/Marketing_ Trades/Tech_ Truck_Drivers_ Employment_Wanted_

MAiL TO: Alberta Farmer Express, Box 9800, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 3K7 FAx TO: 403-341-0615 PhOnE in: Toll-Free in Canada 1-800-665-1362 OR (403) 341-0442 in Alberta

NAME_ ___________________________________________________________ ______PHONE_#_______________________________ ADDRESS_____________________________________________ ______TOWN_____________________________________________ PROVINCE____________________________ _____POSTAL_CODE__________________________

All classified ads are non-commissionable.

advertising deadline Wednesday noon

Livestock_Equipment_ Livestock_Services_&_Vet_Supplies_ Miscellaneous_Articles_ Miscellaneous_Articles_Wanted_ Musical_ Notices_ On-Line_Services_

CERTIFIED SEED Cereal_Seeds Forage_Seeds Oilseeds Pulse_Crops Specialty_Crops

AD ORDER FORM

adveRtising Rates & infoRmation

RegulaR Classified

lIVESTOCK Swine Swine_Auction_ Swine_For_Sale_ Swine_Wanted_ lIVESTOCK Specialty Alpacas_ Bison_(Buffalo)_ Deer_ Elk_ Goats_ Llama_ Rabbits_ Emu/Ostrich/Rhea_ Yaks_ Various_

Even if you do not want your name & address to appear in your ad, we need the information for our files.

PLEASE_PRINT_YOUR_AD_BELOW_ ______________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CAUTION The Alberta Farmer Express, while assuming no responsibility for advertisements appearing in its columns, exercises the greatest care in an endeavor to restrict advertising to wholly reliable firms or individuals.

However, please do not send money to a Manitoba Co-operator box number. Buyers are advised to request shipment C.O.D. when ordering from an unknown advertiser, thus minimizing the chance of fraud and eliminating the necessity of a refund where the goods have already been sold.

At Farm Business Communications we have a firm commitment to protecting your privacy and security as our customer. Farm Business Communications will only collect personal information if it is required for the proper functioning of our business. As part of our commitment to enhance customer service, we may share this personal information with other strategic business partners. For more information regarding our Customer Information Privacy Policy, write to: Information Protection Officer, Farm Business Communications, 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1.

Occasionally we make our list of subscribers available to other reputable firms whose products and services might be of interest to you.

If you would prefer not to receive such offers, please contact us at the address in the preceding paragraph, or call (204)-954-1456.

The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to Alberta Farmer Express and Farm Business Communications attempt to provide accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis.

However, the editors, journalists and Alberta Farmer Express and Farm Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the editors as well as Alberta Farmer Express and Farm Business Communication assume no responsibility for any actions or decisions taken by any reader for this publication based on any and all information provided.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CLASSIFICATION__________________________ ❏ I would like to take advantage of the Prepayment Bonus of 2 FREE weeks when I prepay for 3 weeks. _

No._of_words_______________________x____$0.60____x_____No._of_weeks___ ______________ __=____ ______________ _ Minimum charge $15.00 per week

❏

VISA

❏

MASTERCARD

Card_No.___/__/__/__/____/__/__/__/____/__/__/__/____/__/__/__/____

Add $2.50 if being billed / Minus 10% if prepaying ________________ Expiry_Date___/__/_____/__/

Add 5% GST ________________

Signature_________________________________________________________________________ _

TOTAL _____________

35

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JUNE 22, 2015

ANNOUNCEMENTS

BUILDINGS

BUILDINGS

JULY 25TH- 26TH 2015, LEDUC, ALBERTA; On the grounds of Leduc West Antique Society; IH Collectors, Ch 38 will be hosting their 9th annual show.

We will be joining Leduc West annual exposition www.leducwestantique.com w/member collectors IH trucks, machinery, household items & anything marketed by IH. Membership annual meeting w/banquet & guest speaker. More information available from show chairman Bernie Yakimyshyn, (780)464-1030. www.ihc38.com

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

BUILDING & RENOVATIONS Building Supplies ALUMINUM PICKET RAILING SUPPLIED & installed, $30 linear ft., white, black, yd bronze.

Phone (403)330-5673.

$29,418

BUILDINGS STEEL STORAGE CONTAINERS, 20-ft & 40-ft. Wind, water & rodent proof.

1-866-517-8335, (403)540-4164, (403)226-1722 magnate@telus.net

BUSINESS SERVICES BUSINESS SERVICES Crop Consulting

FARM CHEMICAL / SEED COMPLAINTS

When you go with steel you get the right deals!

Pioneer One Steel Buildings

Call toll free 1 (877) 525-2004 or see us online at www.pioneeronesteel.com

Barb Wire & Electric High Tensile Smooth Wire

SPOOLER

We also specialize in: agricultural complaints of any nature; Crop ins. appeals; Spray drift; Chemical failure; Residual herbicide; Custom operator issues; Equip. malfunctions.

Licensed Agrologist on Staff.

For assistance and compensation call

Back-Track InvesTIgaTIons

1-866-882-4779. www.backtrackcanada.com

CAN BE CONVERTED TO:

FARM MACHINERY FARM MACHINERY Fertilizer Equipment PRE-OWNED BUNNING MANURE SPREADERS Bunning MK4 - 105 - 2008 model yr - $47,000.00 excellent condition; Bunning model 180 wide body 2010 yr, sprung draw bar, 710 rubber, excellent condition - $ 65,000.00. Central Alberta Machinery Sales & Service Ltd. Ken Lendvay, Red Deer, AB. (403)550-3313 kflendvay@hotmail.com

FARM MACHINERY Machinery Miscellaneous 4640 SPRAY COUPE 2001, 80-ft booms, 400-gal. tank, 2,450-hrs w/front & back crop dividers. Trimble 250 w/Auto steer. $49,900. Ph: (780)662-2220.

ACREAGE EQUIPMENT: 3-PT. CULTIVATORS, Discs, Plows, Blades, Harrows, Etc. (780)892-3092, Wabamun, AB. AGCO FINANCE CANADA LLC will offer the following repossessed equipment for sale to the high-est bidder for certified funds, plus applicable sales tax: Equipment: MF 5450 Tractor S/N: C114004; MF946 Loader S/N: JX7361311; Hardee Bale Spear S/N: JLA24366. Date of sale: Jun. 23, 2015. Time of Sale: 11:00A.M. Place of sale: Agriterra 52nd St. & Highway 13 Lougheed, AB T0B 2V0. Equipment can be inspected at place of sale. The equipment will be sold AS IS, without warranty. We reserve the right to bid.

For further information please contact Kent Torgalson (780)993-1140, Ref-erence Number: 1283706.

MF 820 TANDEM DISC, 33-ft, $9,000; 1992 NH L785 skid steer, 57hp, 70-in bucket, 3,430-hrs, pallet forks, $7,000. Call:(403)665-2341, Craigmyle, AB. RETIREMENT SALE: NH 575 small square baler overhauled completely in 2008, then stored inside, has hyd tongue & tension, excellent condition, $8,500. Phone (403)932-5522

RON SAUER

MACHINERY LTD. (403) 540-7691 ronsauer@shaw.ca

(3) CIH Late Model High HP Tractors, 1 with pto .......... CALL Wanted - 30’ to 40’ JD 9450 Hoe Drills, complete with mover .................................................................... CALL 40’ Morris 3100 Hoe Drills, mover and hitch ............$10,000 946 Versatile Ford Tractor, 5,000 hrs, 24.5 x 32 D....$50,000 275 MF Tractor & Loader, diesel, multi power, 3 pth, new 18.4 x 30 rears, looks and runs great.................... $13,000 B275 IHC Tractor & Loader .....................................$3,500 New NH 1060 TBT Air Tank, on duals ................... $85,000 (1) NH P1060 TBH Air Tank, as new .................... $69,500 35’ 4590 EEZE-ON Double Disc, good condition .... $36,000 44’ 820 F.C. Deep Till Air Seeder, harrows ................. CALL 2320 F.C. TBH Air Tank, complete with 320rd tank ......... CALL 40’ 340 F.C. Chisel Plow & 75 Packer Bar, P30’s... $33,000 62’ F.C. S75 Packer BAR P30’s, good condition .... $13,500 48’ F.C. S75 Packer Bar, P30, as new ....................... $35,000 2003 4300 IHC Service Truck, 466 diesel, 5 speed Allison auto, crane, compressor, welder, nice ................ $50,000 51’ Degelman Landroller, as new.... ...................... $40,000 Degelman Dozer Frame MF 4000 Series 4WD .....$1,000 41’ Flexicoil 300 B Chisel Plow, 3 bar harrows ..... $12,500 Flexicoil 6 Run Seed Treater....................................$1,000 100’ 65XL Flexicoil Sprayer, complete with windguards, elec. end nozzles single tips, auto rate, excellent condition ... $12,500 225 DOW Kello-Bilt Tandem Disc, 28” smooth front & rear blades, 10.5” spacing, oil, bath bearings, as new ........ $62,500 47’ 820 Flexicoil Chisel Plow, 4 bar harrows ......... $67,500 New E-Kay 7”, 8”, 9” Bin Sweeps available ............ Call 13 x 70 Farm King Grain Auger, spout complete with Brehon elec. winch & swing, full bin alarm .................. $10,500 8” Wheat Heart Transfer Auger, hydraulic drive .......$1,500 New Outback RTK BASE stn.......................................... Call New Outback MAX & STX Guidance & mapping........In Stock New Outback E-Drive, TC’s......................................In Stock New Outback E-Drive X, c/w free E turns.................In Stock New Outback S-Lite guidance ...........**In Stock** $1250 New Outback VSI Steering Wheel Kits .................. In Stock Used Outback E-Drive Hyd. kits .................................. $500 Used Outback S2 Guidance, reconditioned ..................$1,000 **NuVision (Spray Air) & Meridian-Sakundiak Augers, Outback GPS Systems, EK Auger Movers, Belt Tighteners, Bin Sweeps & Crop Dividers, Kohler, Robin Subaru & Generac Engines, Headsight Harvesting Solutions, Greentronics Sprayer Auto Boom Height, Kello-Bilt Discs**

TracTors TRACTORS Various

IHC 885 c/w loader, 3 pth JD 2130 with loader, 3 pth JD 7130 FWA, with loader 3 pth JD 7600 FWA, 740 loader with 3 pth JD 7800 FWA, with 3 pth JD 7810 FWA, 740 loader Clamp on Duals, 20.8x38-18.4x38 FINANCE, TRADES WELCOME 780-696-3527, BRETON, AB Round up the cash! Advertise your unwanted equipment in the Alberta Farmer Express classifieds.

Roll up Silage Roll up & unroll lay Plastic & Grain OR flat plastic water Bags; hose (up to 6” diameter 11” flat) Features:

• Hydraulic Drive (roll or unroll); • Mounts to tractor draw bar, skidsteer, front end loader, post driver, 3 pt. hitch or deck truck (with receiver hitch & rear hydraulics); • Spool splits in half to remove full roll; • Shut off/Flow control valve determines speed;

Works great for ...

• pulling out old wire (approx. 3 to 5 minutes to roll up 80 rod or ¼ mile)

Big Tractor Parts, Inc. Geared For The Future

STEIGER TRACTOR SPECIALIST

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

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

• Swath grazing or rotational grazing

The Level-Winder II

Rolls wire evenly across the full width of the spool automatically as the wire is pulled in!

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

HEAT & AIR CONDITIONING

Call for Local Dealers in Sask., Alta. and B.C.

Central Alberta Machinery Sales & Service Ltd Ken Lendvay 403-550-3313 Red Deer, Alberta e-mail: kflendvay@hotmail.com www.levelwind.com

FARM MACHINERY Machinery Wanted

SPRAYING EQUIPMENT Sprayers

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

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

SPRAYING EQUIPMENT Sprayers

S670/680/690 JD Combine low hrs 4730 JD Sprayer, 100 ft.

854 Rogator SP Sprayer, complete with JD auto steer, swath pro Special 450 CIH Quadtrac with big pump 554 Rogator Sprayer SP 4840 JD 2WD, low hours, new tires GOOD SELECTION OF JD & CASE SP SPRAYERS AND 4WD TRACTORS

“LIKE MANY BEFORE, WE’LL HAVE YOU SAYING THERE’S NO DEAL LIKE A KEN DEAL” • Phone: (403)330-7847 • Cell: (403)504-4929 • Email: kendeal@shaw.ca

REAL ESTATE

SEED/FEED/GRAIN Grain Wanted

REAL ESTATE Land For Sale 18-ACRE LOT FOR SALE. Located in NW Montana. Lincoln County Hwy-56, in the cabinet mountains. Easy access to a private pine wooded paradise with a blue ribbon trout river. 549-ft river frontage, fishing, hunting, kayaking, floating. Build your dream cabin surrounded by mountains! Land is set up for 1 or 2 lots, private financing available. $199,000. Call Mark (507)402-7405.

REAL ESTATE Farms & Ranches – Manitoba

CANADIAN FARM REALTY MANITOBA FARMS FOR SALE

OppOrtunity tO GrOw is in ManitOba FOR SALE: 6500 acre grain farm.

2 yard sites.

Over 400,000 bushels grain storage and located in Southern Manitoba.

Call Stacey Hiebert 204-371-5930 www.CanadianFarmRealty.com Royal LePage Riverbend Realty If you want to sell it fast, call 1-800-665-1362.

BUYING:

HEATED CANOLA & FLAX • Competitive Prices • Prompt Movement • Spring Thrashed

“ON FARM PICK UP”

1-877-250-5252

BOW VALLEY TRADING LTD.

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

Green or Heated Canola/Flax

1-877-641-2798

1-800-665-1362

COMMON SEED

Stretch your ADVERTISING DOLLAR!

Alberta Farmer Express classifieds, 1-800-665-1362.

COMMON SEED Oilseeds

TRAVEL

We are looking for heated or damaged Canola seed, send quantity and price to: Sheenenergy@gmail.com

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

SEED/FEED/GRAIN Grain Wanted

The Icynene Insulation System®

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

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

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

RURAL & CULTURAL TOURS Italian Villa ~ Oct 2015 Spain & Portugal ~ Nov 2015 European River Cruise ~ Multiple dates Australia/New Zealand ~ Jan 2016 Costa Rica/Panama Canal ~ Jan 2016 Tanzania/Zimbabwe ~ Jan 2016 South America ~ Feb 2016 India ~ 2016 *Portion of tours may be Tax Deductible

Select Holidays 1-800-661-4326

www.selectholidays.com

WANTED: MASSEY 36 DISCER, anywhere, will pick up. Call (306)723-4875 or (306)533-3309 WANTED: NH BALE WAGONS & retrievers, any condition. Farm Equipment Finding Service, P.O. Box 1363, Polson, MT 59860. (406)883-2118

www.penta.ca

1-800-587-4711

HAYING & HARVESTING

LIVESTOCK

HAYING & HARVESTING Baling Equipment

LIVESTOCK Cattle – Red Angus

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

HAYING & HARVESTING Various FOR SALE-1991 HESSTON 4655 inline square baler-good condition $7000. New holland 1033 square bale retrieving wagon-good condition $4000. Can be delivered to Edmonton. (780)285-2009.

AG EQUIPMENT

DEALS ON THE GO!

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

Cleveley Cattle Company (780)689-2754.

LIVESTOCK Cattle – Hereford HEREFORD BULLS, YEARLINGS & two year olds, dehorned, & polled, excellent quality, low birth weights suitable for heifers, catalogue online at couleecrest.ca Coulee Crest Herefords, Bowden, AB. (403)227-2259 or (403)588-6160.

Prairie-Wide Display Classifieds

MORE OPTIONS TO SAVE YOU MONEY

Buy one province, buy two provinces or buy all three.

Great rates whatever you choose

LIVESTOCK Cattle Various SCAN TO DOWNLOAD THE APP »»

Combines COMBINES Accessories RECONDITIONED COMBINE HEADERS. RIGID & flex, most makes & sizes; also header transports.

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

REGISTERED POLLED HEREFORD & Black Angus 2-yr old bulls, no grain. Double N Ranch, Sundre AB. Call Gerald or Shelley (403)638-2356, www.doublen.ca

ORGANIC ORGANIC Organic – Certified WANT THE ORGANIC ADVANTAGE? Contact an organic Agrologist at Pro-Cert for information on organic farming: prospects, transition, barriers, benefits, certification & marketing. Call:(306)382-1299, Saskatoon, SK or at info@pro-cert.org

Contact Sharon

Email: sharon.komoski@fbcpublishing.com

36

JUNE 22, 2015 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

AS FEATURED ON 700191

2013 NH TG230 TRACTOR,

230 HP, 480/80R46 duals, 12’ leon blade, powershift, deluxe cab (7245M1) HI LINE FARM EQUIPMENT LTD., WETASKIWIN, AB

76,500

$

888-644-5463

570995

2010 MF 9895 COMBINE,

MAV chopper, Dual 520 85R x 42 Michelin front tires, 750 65x26 rear tires TROCHU MOTORS LTD., TROCHU, AB

403-442-3866

249,000

$

709862

691978

2011 JD 6430 PREMIUM TRACTOR,

2996 hrs, 540/1000 pto, 24/24 trans, 3pt, dual scv, L/H Reverser (7040) KEYSTONE AGRI-MOTIVE (2005) INC., STEINBACH, MB

888-388-0742

89,750

$

697847

688472

WWW.GREENLANDEQUIPMENT.COM

2009 KRONE BIGM II MOWER CONDITIONER-SP,

Diesel, new Circle C rollers

NOBLE EQUIPMENT LTD., NOBLEFORD, AB

403-824-3020

212,000

$

2014 NH T9.450HD TRACTOR,

610 hrs, 450 HP, 710/70R42, 1000PTO, mega flow, GPS, excellent condition.

LINDEN AGRI CENTRE LTD., LINDEN, AB

403-546-3814

295,000

$

711340

SEEDMASTER 60-12 AIR DRILL, 60’, 12” Spacing, 5 Plex

VALLEY SIDE SALES INC., CHAMBERLAIN, SK

306-638-7712

69,000

$

2011 MILLER G75 CONDOR SPRAYER, 1455 hrs, 120’ Boom, 1200 TANK, 6.7 l engine, 4WD, Raven Autosteer, Ultraglide

GREENLAND EQUIPMENT LTD., CARMAN, MB

204-745-2054

149,000

$

699094

2011 JD 7930 TRACTOR,

180hp, IVT trans, 46”dls Mich.1800hrs, SL FEL, 3ph, grapple WHEATBELT SALES (2003) INC., WADENA, SK

306-338-2588

175,000

$

700087

2013 JD 8310R TRACTOR,

IVT, ILS, 552 Hrs, Premium Cab, ActiveSeat, 60 GPM Pump, HID Lights, Michelin 480/80R50’s.

Mint. We install your choice of tire package.

AGRIQUIP ONTARIO, GADS HILL, ON

519-616-1296

257,500

$