Country guide west

western edition

country-guide.ca

October 2015 $3.50

‘ Freedom 52’

They’re Building a stronger farm through early retirement

Beyond the family

Dustin Krahn gets a new kind of FARM start �� PG. 28

CROPS GUIDE Time is now to change cereal varieties

Publications Mail Agreement Number 40069240

Canola growers watch out: flea beetles in 2016

Supporting your success in every seed Only the DEKALB® brand connects you to our team of experts who can help you unlock your seed’s full potential. From breeding and testing to agronomic advice for your region, you can have confidence in DEKALB seeds.

Learn more at DEKALB.ca/canola ALWAYS FOLLOW IRM, GRAIN MARKETING AND ALL OTHER STEWARDSHIP AND PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Details of these requirements can be found in the Trait Stewardship Responsibilities Notice to Farmers printed in this publication ©2015 Monsanto Canada, Inc.

Contents

OCTOber 2015

BUSINESS 10 GUIDE review

Adam Grant tells us the nice guys really do finish first — eventually. As an all-star Wharton business prof, he just might know.

12 hold on tight

The global economy is a mess, but analyst Errol Anderson still sees profitable crop prices for skilful farm marketers.

16 freedom 52

When is right for Mom and Dad to step back? The van Oords think it’s a lot younger than we traditionally thought.

20 the young are on board

Ontario’s Northumberland County has fewer young farmers than other areas, but more on its boards. Amy Petherick shares why.

24 after the tragedy…

It takes legal and financial tools on the one hand, and human relationships on the other to survive a family loss.

32 Finding a new way

A decade ago, they might have been New Agers. Now Lydia Carpenter and Wian Prinsloo have a shrewd business plan.

54 digital pursuits

Machinery editor Scott Garvey brings us some of the latest tools for collecting better data, and analyzing it better too.

58 farm election 2015

You’ve been on the combine, so our Gerald Pilger asked our political parties why they deserve the farm vote.

62 watching for rain in australia

How dry is it? Farmer Warren Hobson’s water storage has a depth of 18 feet, but only one foot of water left.

PG. 28 Not related When more today's farmers look beyond the family to help young people get a farming start, they can also look to the successful approach that farmer Ken Wiebe and hopeful farmer Dustin Krahn are pioneering in southern Manitoba.

64 Guide HR — why smart entrepreneurs do stupid things with money

You may think you make rational decisions about your money management, but psychologist Pierrette des Rosiers isn’t so sure.

66

CROPS GUIDE

guide

life — get more done!

After a day of office work, most of us are disappointed by how little we accomplished. Here's help to improve your efficiency.

37 the risk of tried-and-true cereal varieties

Sticking with older varieties has never been so costly.

40 wheat quality conundrum

Should we worry that it’s harder to achieve CWB quality?

EVERY ISSUE

44 versatility of CWRS key to its global appeal

Our wheat is truly world class, with worldwide demand.

6 MACHINERY GUIDE

46 the future of minor wheat classes

69 GUIDE HEALTH

50 beetles galore!

70 HANSON ACRES Grumble, grumble… Elaine makes another trip to town.

52 mycotoxin detection may get even simpler, cheaper

John Deere launches its new line of four-track 9RX tractors.

Breathe easier by finding the inhaler that’s right for you.

Non-CWRS wheats struggle to find their place on farm.

Flea beetles were everywhere this fall. How about spring?

WGRF-funded research creates quick tool for elevator use.

Our commitment to your privacy 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 Avenue, 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 1-800-665-1362.

october 2015

country-guide.ca 3

desk EDITORIAL STAFF Editor: Tom Button 12827 Klondyke Line, Ridgetown, ON N0P 2C0 (519) 674-1449 Fax (519) 674-5229 Email: tom.button@fbcpublishing.com Associate Editors: Gord Gilmour (204) 453-7624 Cell: (204) 294-9195 Fax (204) 942-8463 Email: gord.gilmour@fbcpublishing.com Maggie Van Camp Fax (905) 986-9991 (905) 986-5342 Email: mvancamp@fbcpublishing.com Production Editor: Ralph Pearce (226) 448-4351 Email: ralph.pearce@fbcpublishing.com ADVERTISING SALES Sales Director: Cory Bourdeaud’hui (204) 954-1414 Fax: (204) 944-5562 Email: cory@fbcpublishing.com Kevin Yaworsky (250) 869-5326 Email: kyaworsky@farmmedia.com Lillie Ann Morris (905) 838-2826 Email: lamorris@xplornet.com

Tom Button is editor of Country Guide magazine

It’s all about values “It isn’t what a person says that counts. It’s what they do.” Everyone on the farm learned this from the cradle, and over the years they’ve come to know exactly how sage this advice really is.

Being in business puts your values into action. It proves, every day, exactly what your beliefs are, and what you believe about those around you.

I suppose, though, it might be the sort of aphorism I should run from. After all, a magazine is all about “saying,” isn’t it? It isn’t about doing.

But, of course, putting together a magazine is just another kind of “doing” too.

And in our particular case, if there’s one thing that I hope our doing this magazine bears out, it’s our belief that the real energy in agriculture doesn’t come out of a science lab or out of some symposium of experts, important though those things can be.

Instead, the driving force in agriculture is the individual farmer, making smart decisions, one decision at a time.

It seems clear to us (and I hope it aligns with your experience of us) that the way to be at the very heart of agriculture is to focus on individual farms and what we can learn from them.

It’s why you see so many photographs of farmers in Country Guide, and why you’ll almost always see the face of a farmer on our cover, even though we get criticized sometimes for printing a cover with “just another farmer.”

4 country-guide.ca

Sometimes in the trace, of course such stories get called profile pieces, or they’re simply labelled as features. But to us they’re more than that. Much more.

I wanted to point that out because October is the issue every year where we write even more than usual about “money management.” But because of our belief in the centrality of the farmer, I hope you’ll appreciate that this year, we’ve chosen to do this a different way.

Money on the farm is never only about money. It’s about the future, or it’s about family, or it’s about opportunity. It’s always about something.

So this year, we have included a story in our Money Management issue where there isn’t any money changing hands at all. It’s the story “Not related,” and it’s about how farmer Ken Wiebe is helping non-family member Dustin Krahn get his start. Clearly, this is a story that points to what I said about doing and values.

Our other stories about the van Oords, about the Connerys, and about Lydia Carpenter and Wian Prinsloo build on this belief too.

I don’t expect any of our readers to believe that everything these farmers are doing is exactly what they would always choose for themselves. But it does give me a chance to express how privileged we feel that such families will share their lives and their values with us. Are we getting it right? Let me know at tom.button@fbcpublishing.com.

Head Office: 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1 (204) 944-5765 Fax (204) 944-5562 Advertising Services Co-ordinator: Arlene Bomback (204) 944-5765 Fax (204) 944-5562 Email: ads@fbcpublishing.com Designer: Jenelle Jensen Publisher: Lynda Tityk Email: lynda.tityk@fbcpublishing.com Associate Publisher: John Morriss Email: john.morriss@fbcpublishing.com Editorial Director: Laura Rance Email: laura@fbcpublishing.com Production Director: Shawna Gibson Email: shawna@fbcpublishing.com Circulation Manager: Heather Anderson Email: heather@fbcpublishing.com President: Bob Willcox Glacier FarmMedia Email: bwillcox@farmmedia.com Contents of this publication are copyrighted and may be reproduced only with the permission of the editor. Country Guide, incorporating the Nor’West Farmer and Farm & Home, is published by Farm Business Communications. Head office: Winnipeg, Manitoba. Printed by Transcontinental LGMC. Country Guide is published 13 times per year by Farm Business Communications. Subscription rates in Canada — Farmer $41 for one year, $61 for 2 years, $87 for 3 years. (Prices include GST) U.S. subscription rate — $35 (U.S. funds). Subscription rate outside Canada and U.S. — $50 per year. Single copies: $3.50.

Publications Mail Agreement Number 40069240.

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

Canadian Postmaster: Return undeliverable Canadian addresses (covers only) to: Circulation Dept., PO Box 9800, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 3K7.

U.S. Postmaster: Send address changes and undeliverable addresses (covers only) to: Circulation Dept., PO Box 9800, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 3K7.

Subscription inquiries:

Call toll-free 1-800-665-1362 or email: subscription@fbcpublishing.com U.S. subscribers call 1-204-944-5766 Country Guide is printed with linseed oil-based inks PRINTED IN CANADA Vol. 134 No. 11 Internet address: www.agcanada.com

ISSN 0847-9178 The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to Country Guide and Farm Business Communications attempt to provide accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis. However, the editors, journalists, Country Guide and Farm Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the editors as well as Country Guide and Farm Business Communications assume no responsibility for any actions or decisions taken by any reader for this publication based on any and all information provided.

october 2015

BETTER START. BETTER HARVEST. Bright golden yellow as far as the eye can see. Now that’s the mark of a truly successful canola crop. But when you plant with seeds treated with Lumiderm, you’ll see the benefits of flea beetle and cutworm protection long before the first hints of yellow begin to grace your fields. That’s because Lumiderm helps get your crop off to a better start. And a better start means a better harvest.

TM

TM

DuPont Lumiderm ™

™

insecticide seed treatment

Ask your seed supplier to include Lumiderm on your 2016 canola seed order.

Visit lumiderm.dupont.ca.

TM

DuPontTM LumidermTM is a DuPontTM LumigenTM seed sense product.

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

Member of CropLife Canada.

Unless indicated, trademarks with ®, TM or SM are trademarks of DuPont or affiliates. © 2015 DuPont.

Machinery

By Scott Garvey, CG Machinery Editor

Photos: John Deere

John Deere’s long-awaited four-track tractors were finally introduced to farmers in August.

New tracks from Deere The four-track John Deere 9RX tractor makes its official debut t a dealer convention way back in August of 2014, John Deere gave farm media a glimpse of what was then its pre-production prototype 9RX tractor, a 9R Series articulated model that rode on four tracks instead of tires.

It made me ask, why break with standard practice? Why reveal a machine not yet ready for production?

The 9RX models also get a new cab suspension system to provide a smoother ride.

6 country-guide.ca

The reason, according to Deere marketing staff, is that farm demand for a tractor in four-track configuration is so high, the brand wanted to reassure its dealers there was a green one on the way.

The 9RX was the most talked about machine at that event, even though company executives made it clear no official release date had yet been set. Those same executives were also tight lipped about the tractor’s specifications.

Fast-forward to August of this year and the tractor made its second appearance at a media event, which was held at Deere’s Waterloo, Iowa, plant. This time, however, after the 9RX rode into the light, it wasn’t quickly ushered back into hiding. This was its official public debut, and it’s now ready for the assembly line.

There are four models in the 9RX line, spanning a horsepower range of 470 to 620.

The two smaller models (the 9470RX and 9520RX) get Deere’s own 13.5-litre PowerTech diesel, while their two bigger brothers (the 9570RX and 9620RX) will rely on a Cummins QSX 15 litre.

Like the other 9R and 9RT (two-track) models, the 9RX tractors get the brand’s e18 powershift transmission with Efficiency Manager. That system provides automated control of the engine and transmission combination to improve power delivery and fuel efficiency.

October 2015

The track modules use Camso 30- and 36-inch rubber belts.

Deere is offering 30- and 36-inch Camso rubber belts on the 9RXs. In its press release announcing the tractors, the company says, “The engine powers a large-diameter drive sprocket and drive lugs that, along with optimally placed idlers and mid-rollers, work to deliver exceptional horsepower to the ground with less track slippage.”

“The 9RX has a superior undercarriage with a positive-drive track system that effectively delivers power to the ground,” said Jerry Griffith, John Deere product marketing manager for its 6-9 Family Tractors in the press release.

“It features the outstanding comfort of

our CommandView III cab with a new cab suspension system for improved ride quality, and it is designed with integrated performance features already available on our 9 Family of tractors.”

The tractors also get a redesigned hydraulic system, which includes up to eight SCVs and delivers a standard 58 gallons per minute (220 litres) of flow, or an optional 115 gallons per minute (435 litres).

“It easily meets the speed and high hydraulic power demands of the large implements our customers often use in the field,” Griffith said.

Deere also announced in August that it has struck a deal with Quebec-based

Soucy Track, so green dealers will retail that company’s S-TECH 012P track modules as a dealer-installed option on 12- to 24-row NT planters.

“This agreement will allow our dealers to provide a track configuration on all 1770NT and 1775NT planter models equipped with hydraulic drive or electric drive,” said Casey Dray, product manager, John Deere Planter Works. “This will increase flotation and optimize planter performance when operating in more difficult conditions.”

Changing the planters from tires to tracks is about a three-hour job, according to Dray. CG

Righ Show. Right Time. Right Location.

NOVEMBER 11 - 14, 2015 For more information visit Agri-Trade.com October 2015

Agri-Trade_2015_CountryGuideWest_7x2.5.indd 2

country-guide.ca 7 2015-08-06 3:10 PM

READY FOR ANYTHING

ALWAYS FOLLOW GRAIN MARKETING AND ALL OTHER STEWARDSHIP PRACTICES AND PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Details of these requirements can be found in the Trait Stewardship Responsibilities Notice to Farmers printed in this publication. ©2015 Monsanto Canada, Inc.

There’s no way to know what Mother Nature is going to throw at you, but there is a way to be ready for it.

With built-in technology that helps you tackle tough weeds in tough conditions, Genuity® Roundup Ready® canola can be the most valuable tool in your field. It’s the foundation for a family of high-yielding canola hybrids that offer diverse disease resistance and enable progressive farming practices such as straight cutting. You can’t anticipate everything, but you can prepare for anything.

Get ready for next season; talk to your retailer about booking Genuity Roundup Ready canola for 2016.

review

Why nice guys do finish first

By Maggie Van Camp, CG Associate Editor

Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives our Success

By Adam Grant Penguin Publ.

dam Grant’s approach to business relationships seems counterintuitive, like it would make you a suicidal little fish in a tank of big, hungry fish, but Grant sets out in his business bestseller Give and Take to prove that good guys really do finish first, eventually. Do you believe it?

Grant is no New Age self-helper. He’s an internationally respected professor of management at the prestigious Wharton School of Business, and his theory is that people approach relationships with a choice of three mindsets — to give, to take, or to match. Some of us start by asking, “how can I contribute?” Others start with, “how much can I get out of this exchange?”

Most people are what Grant terms “matchers.”

We expect our kindnesses to be returned, we like win-wins, and we think fairness is very important.

But then there are takers among us who try to extract as much as they can out of every situation, and there are givers, who shift their frames of reference to the recipient’s perspective.

Most of us will think we know which personality type is likely to succeed in business. We’re so sure, in fact, that we even change our own behaviour, Grant says. “Although many of us hold strong giver values, we’re often reluctant to express them at work.” Basically, we think it’s risky to seem a pushover.

Yet the book points out some unexpected twists that impact high-level business thinking. For example, takers can tend to get sucked into bad decisions, essentially throwing good money after bad because they have a harder time accepting failure and can’t hear the feedback as quickly and efficiently as givers.

Of course, Grant also has his quotable quotes.

“Success doesn’t measure a human being, effort does,” he writes. Or, “Givers advance the world. Takers advance themselves and hold the world back.”

As a journalist, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing many humble business leaders, so the chapter describing what Grant calls the pratfall effect rang very true for me. Essentially, it says that when experts or leaders act more vulnerable, they appear 10 country-guide.ca

more human and approachable, instead of superior and distant.

At one point Grant does concede that there’s a time and place for leaders to be perceived as powerful and strong. However, he quickly adds that in teamwork situations, this approach can often deter people from contributing. Similarly, he says givers tend not to negotiate as strongly as takers and matchers, but find better solutions by seeking advice and asking questions.

Which leads to Grant’s discussion comparing doormat givers to successful ones. Once again, it’s your approach that makes all the difference. Giving without regard to your own needs causes burnout and in the end isn’t as successful. He even goes on to prove that giving without form or limitations isn’t as fulfilling.

It turns out that if you plan your giving, you can actually give more sustainably. By chunking your giving into certain time frames or confining your giving to specific causes, you actually energize your giving and be more successful with it.

He goes a step further and actually quantifies the ideal giving quotient, citing several studies showing that people who volunteered about 100 hours a year are happiest. However, it has to be a choice, not an obligation, and it has to achieve something. It’s the improvement that givers really crave.

Grant also says givers tend to be hard working and that they love to give to people with grit. Those are the folks who stand up to challenges and persistently work their way through them.

But it’s also about being thoughtful instead of too trusting or too timid. Grant says givers need the ability to screen out insincerity and to not confuse being agreeable with being genuinely kind.

It’s also true, he warns, that there’s a fine line between giving and clever matching, although the book struggles to prove any difference.

Grant concludes with outlines of several giving projects, plus websites and initiatives to create an environment of giving as well as techniques for learning how to be a better giver.

It turns out that sometimes you just have to ask and people will give.

His book is an enjoyable easy read, maybe blurring the lines between how community and individuals operate, and between social science and business.

But (I know there’s a joke in here somewhere) this book would be a great gift for Christmas.

It’s the message of the season, but told with business attitude. “If you spend the money on yourself, your happiness doesn’t change,” Grant tells us. “But if you spend the money on others, you actually report becoming significantly happier.” CG October 2015

BUILT TO HANDLE TRASH IN HIGH RESIDUE CROPS

VISIT WWW.FARM-KING.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION OR VISIT YOUR LOCAL FARM KING DEALER.

FARM KING TANDEM DISCS ARE BUILT TO HANDLE TRASH AND INCORPORATE HEAVY RESIDUE. Utilizing a one of a kind floating hitch, Farm King tandem discs leave a more level finish when compared to competitive units. Farm King discs are also built using the best bearings in the industry, so you stay in the field until the job is done. Farm King offers a full line of offset and tandem discs, in addition to a line of cultivators, chisel plows and chisel cultivators. Š2015 Buhler Trading Inc. | info@buhler.com | www.farm-king.com

business

hold on tight The global economy is a mess.

Not even Errol Anderson knows where the pieces will all fall.

What’s a farmer to do?

By Gord Gilmour, CG Associate Editor uckle up. Commodity markets look to be in for a wild ride.

China is experiencing its first major setback since its market liberalization began. It generated 40 per cent of global economic growth last year, so this is troubling. If its engine is faltering, everyone is going to feel it.

Market analyst Errol Anderson tells us commodities are likely to be among the hardest hit because they’ve been among the biggest beneficiaries of China’s growth. Iron ore, copper, steel, coal, grains… all these building blocks of a modern society have been in high demand, translating into investments that have grown supply.

With demand dropping, the future is unclear.

Anderson says he doesn’t want to be an alarmist, but he’s cautioning producers to do what they can to protect themselves. There will be opportunities for good marketers, but they’ll be fleeting.

COUNTRY GUIDE: What’s actually happening in China?

Errol Anderson: You just have

to look at the actions of the Chinese government. They’re clearly very concerned about the slowing economic growth across China that has been occurring for the past two years. In mid-August, they devalued their currency three times in a single week. This is a historic move. They’re doing everything they can to keep their factories going, to keep their exports moving and keep their people employed. And this may be just the beginning. It may take several years of economic restructuring that will heighten market uncertainty for producers, exporters and manufacturers. This situation will definitely impact global commodity markets.

The actions of the Chinese government could set the stage for the threat of a trade war. We’re already in the midst of a global currency war, though central bankers certainly don’t want to say those words.

It’s called stimulus by the central bankers. It’s excessive money printing and a race for the bottom in currency markets. Every country wants a cheap currency to kick-start their exports and drive demand for factories and jobs. It’s happening right

12 country-guide.ca

now. Global currencies are being devalued around the world, and the U.S. dollar has strengthened because of that.

But even the U.S. is starting to feel the effects of increased global competition. Its manufacturing sector is under real pressure.

In China, they’re basically getting an education now on the volatility and economic swings of capitalism. They’ve experienced the good parts over the past 25 years or so with dramatic growth and creation of wealth. Now they’re experiencing a setback, and it’s going to affect a lot of things including how they do business. It’s going to be very interesting to watch. Essentially what you have in China is a controlling government that is seeing a taste for free enterprise among its people. It’s a situation that is a bit perplexing and even frightening for them. Certainly these are uncharted waters.

CG: What is this going to mean to a Canadian farmer?

EA: Demand is king of commodity markets once again, not supply, and that’s going to require a new attitude towards marketing for Canada’s farms.

If you go into this new economic reality believing a market owes you something and that profits are always part of the game, it’s not going to work out very well for you.

You might say, “I got $13 per bushel for my canola last year, and I want it again this year.” With that attitude, you might miss selling canola profitably at $12.

Continued on page 14 october 2015

CUTTING EDGE I W I L L S T R I V E T O W E AT H E R T H E STORM AND PROTECT YOUR YIELD. TO BE READY TO HARVEST WHEN YOU ARE. TO PROVIDE YOU WITH THE ABILITY TO STRAIGHT CUT YOUR CANOLA.

I WILL MAKE YOU PROUD TO GROW INVIGOR 速.

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

Always read and follow label directions. InVigor速 and LibertyLink速 are registered trademarks of the Bayer Group. Bayer CropScience is a member of CropLife Canada.

0-66-08/15-10406655-E

business Continued from page 12 Selling your cash grain into a falling market can be like chasing a rabbit. Falling markets often move very quickly, and you miss a solid profitable opportunity, so you may end up selling that canola at $8 or $9 per bushel.

Canadian farmers tend to focus on the supply side. Our weather conditions affect local supplies, but they don’t move a global market much. And often farmers fail to understand this disconnect.

Also, commodity markets in general are feeling the pressures of global deflation, and in a deflationary environment, demand is king of price direction.

This is a giant economic cycle, and it could take a while, maybe a few years, before economies regenerate and rebalance the law of supply and demand. But for now, deflationary pressures have taken control of the commodity world.

This is a fairly substantial change in market mindset after the past few buoyant years in farming. But it is an unavoidable situation tied to the bigpicture global economic cycle. I have some solid economic contacts in places like Malaysia. They all expect the commodity price meltdown and deflationary pressures right now will take some time to work through, perhaps two to three years of a soft patch.

I don’t want to sound all doom and gloom or like it’s hopeless, but this is the reality markets are now working under, in my opinion. As a producer, you want to be prepared for it and be able to move decisively when opportunities appear.

The profit door will open. But it may slam right back shut. You’ll need to be ready and have a plan in place.

CG: What are the implications for a farmer planning a marketing strategy for this year?

EA:

You’ve heard this before, but growers need a plan. A plan is essential to keep egos and emotions out of the decision-making process. Know your cost of production, know what a profitable price is, and be ready to take it when it presents itself.

Back in my days with Alberta Agriculture, our focus was promoting the concept of trying to market in the top third of prices every year. Now that might sound a bit esoteric — what’s the top third, after all? But what was really 14 country-guide.ca

said is that growers should aim to sell for a profit, rather than trying to hit the peak of the market. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of people try pricing at the top of markets, but few succeed. It’s really hard to predict the top of any market, and most times you only see it in the rear-view mirror. The most likely outcome is that you’ll pass over opportunities for profit and wind up selling into a falling market. And the end result is less income than if you’d made a plan, been disciplined and stuck with it.

Think about it in terms of baseball.

Everyone loves to see a home run. It’s exciting, the fans roar, the player runs around the bases, there’s a big celebration at home plate — that can be pretty heady. Hitting the top of the market is a lot like that — exciting and a bit seductive. But the funny thing is that home runs won’t necessarily contribute to the team getting to the World Series. What makes that possible is consistency. Reliably getting on base, hitting singles and doubles, game after game after game, throughout the year. I think marketing is the same, and more farmers should think about taking a “Moneyball” approach, if you’re familiar with that concept from the book and film, where you build a winning team around journeyman players, not stars.

Growers need to start their marketing plan well ahead of the combine — months ahead — and scan for those pricing opportunities. If you see an attractive futures price or basis, you can lock that in. I would start small and scale up.

Then closer to harvest, when a grower has got a clearer idea of what actual production may be, forward pricing can become more aggressive. Of course there’s the issue of production risk. This is where a commodity trading account can add horsepower to a marketing plan. Put options allow you to lock in a futures selling price for a predetermined premium and in that way act as a price insurance program that you manage yourself. There are no predetermined rules, which are the downside of government support programs. Put options offer growers a lot of flexibility in a marketing plan. This tool offers price protection without production or delivery obligation. But you’ve got to understand them as insurance.

Some farmers understand this strategy, others don’t.

CG: You’ve occasionally mentioned “managing” basis contracts — can you explain that a bit more clearly?

EA: Basis contracts are very valuable tools, but they have some drawbacks, and perhaps the most crucial one is that they can encourage procrastination, because procrastination can be deadly, costing a grower both money and time.

And if basis contracts are not managed, pricing opportunities can be missed.

Also, holding a basis contract too long may eventually force a grower to consider rolling these contracts forward into another futures month. A roll adds time, but does cost the grower some money.

I am really not a fan of incurring the expense of rolling basis contracts. There are other options you can use at this point, and I do suggest them to my clients — strategies like pricing the contract and buying a call option to replace cash grain sales. These calls will increase in value should the futures increase.

And they are a lot less risky than storing grain unpriced in the bin.

The bottom line for dealing with basis contracts in my opinion is: don’t roll them into another month. Enter into them with the intention of executing them and pricing them during the term of the contract. You really want to get in and out within a reasonable time frame and not leave them lingering. Have a target price in mind and then execute them.

If you are still bullish, use other tools in your marketing tool box to reopen your cash price ceiling. If you don’t, you’re going to fall victim to procrastination, incur fees and potentially sell into a falling market — sort of a death of a thousand cuts.

CG: It’s easy to say “wait for profitable opportunities to price grain” but as we’ve discussed in the past, oftentimes there are bills coming due and other imperatives. How can a farmer reconcile the two?

EA: This really speaks to the importance of knowing and using your farm financial situation to set marketing objectives. october 2015

business Yes, there are going to be times when you need cash flow to meet debt obligations, but that doesn’t mean you have to panic sell. You can plan for these needs.

You’ll know when a bill is coming due or when you have to make a machinery or land payment, and you can schedule sales for these, perhaps using some of the available tools from your local grain buyers.

For example, should you see an attractive rally through spring or summer, this would be an opportunity to sign a deferred delivery contract, especially if fall basis levels appear attractive.

And if you sign a deferred delivery contract, you are also effectively reserving space for new crop delivery. And this ensures that the grain delivered early fall is done at profitable levels. This gives you timely cash flow to meet those fall bill payments. And if you are still bullish and want to reopen your price ceiling into the winter market, this may be time to purchase call options to replace your fall cash sales.

This strategy injects cash flow at profitable levels, and if you want to speculate on even higher prices, there are strategies in your marketing tool box that can be utilized through your commodity trading account.

But if you are caught selling off-combine to meet financial commitments, this is really marketing by default. I hate it when that happens — absolutely hate it — because then you’ve lost control.

CG: What are some of the things that can derail pricing objectives? What can growers do to stay on top of these issues?

EA:

Having unrealistic price expectations is a definite problem. It’s like believing the market owes you a certain price when the hard truth is global buyers don’t care about costs. That’s a tough one. But you just have to take one look at other commodities like crude oil, or coal or copper production or coffee to see how this plays out.

Buyers of commodities do not care about production costs. Letting your feelings and ego get involved prevents you from making good, sound business decisions. You need to understand that markets will change, and you need to change with them.

The biggest unknown that none of us can predict is how the current global

economic situation will play out. It has definitely slashed commodity prices worldwide. In one way, we in the grain sector actually have a slight advantage in that we’re playing an outdoor sport — by that I mean a lot of things can affect supply or at least the perception of supply, and this is where we will trigger pricing opportunities through fundrelated buying rallies in the futures.

Compare that to a commodity like coal or steel, where there are far fewer production disruptions, and therefore during periods like these, fewer opportunities to price for profit. Everyone in this industry will certainly be watching how things unfold with great interest over the next few months. Our next discussion in a few weeks could be an interesting one — there will be lots to talk about. CG

BETTER RETURN ON INVESTMENT, LESS WORK NEXT SPRING:

THAT’S SMART NITROGEN. Smart. It’s right there in the name: ESN® SMART NITROGEN®. And ESN delivers benefits that really matter to farmers – like less time spent in the field and better ROI – because it’s all kinds of smart. Here’s what we mean: Science smart.

Apply ESN in the fall and its unique polymer coating safeguards nitrogen from loss mechanisms by releasing it at a timely rate controlled by soil moisture and temperature – perfect for winter wheat.

And ESN is the only controlled-release N source available in broad acre agriculture, which makes it uniquely smart.

Storage smart.

Get ESN now and it goes in the ground not in your bin. And even if you do store it, ESN won’t set up in storage so it has a long shelf life.

Money smart.

Buy and apply ESN in the fall and forget about potentially volatile spring N pricing.

That’s a load off your mind.

WATER MOVES IN THROUGH THE COATING

Time smart.

When you apply ESN before freeze up you’ll have one less big chore come spring. ESN is also convenient to apply.

It’s compatible with no-till operations and it’s easy to blend. It even has a wider application window in both the spring and the fall. You decide when you want to apply it.

Environmentally smart.

By greatly reducing leaching, volatilization and denitrification, ESN protects the surrounding environment.

ROI smart.

ESN’s controlled-release matches crop demand, which can boost yields by an average of 5-10% – and even as much as 30%. That’s more dollars in your pocket.

And that’s the best kind of smart there is!

Ask your retailer about ESN Smart Nitrogen. It’s the smart thing to do.

SmartNitrogen.com

N DISSOLVES INTO SOLUTION INSIDE THE GRANULE

N MOVES THROUGH THE POLYMER INTO SOIL

©2015 Agrium Inc. ESN; ESN SMART NITROGEN; AGRIUM WHOLESALE, GROWING TOGETHER logos and designs are all trademarks owned by Agrium Inc. 10/15-45423 CGW

October 2015

country-guide.ca 15 45423_ESN_Fall_Advertorial_4_58x7_5_CGW_a5.indd 1

9/11/15 2:17 PM

business

Freedom 52

What’s the right age for Mom and Dad to step back? It might be a lot younger than we have traditionally thought

By Maggie Van Camp, CG Associate Editor t is an early fall afternoon, and while their four young children bounce across this picturesque New Brunswick dairy farm, 35-year-old Joas van Oord and his wife Lisa talk about their dreams.

In the barn, that same afternoon, the farm’s 58-year-old patriarch, Maarten van Oord shows off the farm’s new robotic milker, and as he does so, he reveals the contentment that underlies his fine streak of enthusiasm.

Later, as Joas walks down the feed alley, he tells a story of succession and retirement, including not only his father’s but how he too is already planning retirement for himself.

As he talks, his 55 milk cows calmly chew their cuds, waiting to go into the new robotic milking station and produce an impressive average of 39 kgs a day. The quiet, though, is deceptive. This farm may be idyllic with its cows and its tree-covered hills, but it is humming with business smarts and energy.

The van Oord family made their last intergenerational transition a mere eight years ago, when Joas was only 27 and his dad in his early 50s. Now it's time for Joas to look ahead.

“My goal is freedom 52,” says Joas, chuckling a little at the slogan stolen from the advertising campaign of the 1980s. “I want to be able to retire about when my dad did.”

In farm terms, that’s early, of course, but he also believes in an early start, somewhere between 25 to 35 years old, depending on the individual. “You need the energy to go at it, and need a long time to pay down debt,” Joas says.

In 2003 Joas graduated with a degree in agricultural economics and he expressed an interest in taking over the farm, after years of working with his dad and doing relief milking. His four siblings weren’t inter16 country-guide.ca

ested and it seemed like a good fit. But it was too early.

Maarten was only 47 at the time and felt he and his wife Caroline needed three more years to save up enough to retire. That’s because five years earlier their barn had burned down, 46 days after they had finished paying off the mortgage on the farm. They had been debt free for less than two months.

Although it was a financial setback at the time, rebuilding was a chance for Maarten to design a barn to operate as efficiently as possible for the 60-cow milk herd, and also to make it easier to adopt changes going forward.

Joas explains their goal is to match the facilities to the quota, land holdings and labour force, relying on improved production and cost control to push to the next level. This way, they don’t have to hire any staff while keeping their total animal numbers below 100.

It’s a balanced, low-cost-system approach, used by many smaller farms to counter economies of scale. Currently, Joas is down to milking 55 cows to fill 77 units.

Although the farm owns 785 acres, only 150 acres are workable and they rent an additional 37 acres.

They grow all their own feed (corn silage, grass and grain) and add some supplement. They’re also shifting from natural grasses to seeding higher-protein forages.

“We try to match the equipment with the land, the cows, quota and labour,” says Joas. “I also try to have the farm’s business efficiency maxed out.”

Getting started means getting out Instead of coming right back to the farm after graduation, Joas and his new wife, Lisa headed to B.C., and while Lisa completed a two-year program in horticulture there, Joas worked at a ski resort for a year and later found work with Chilliwack farmer and serial entrepreneur Bert Tuytel.

October 2015

business

Tuytel moves through farming enterprises, expanding and selling according to profits and asset values, with individual enterprises including chicken, dairy, cedar trees and ET show cows.

Having a mentor like Tuytel taught Joas about risk management, and also about looking for opportunities. “He’d risk everything and jump in,” says Joas.

“Bert taught me how to pay attention to details and always ask what else you can do with your assets.”

“ There are times in farming when you just have to step up,” says Joas When it was time for Joas and Lisa to come home, it didn’t take them long to reach an agreement with Maarten. Within one year of their starting the process, their lawyer had set up a corporation and a shareholders agreement, and had transferred the assets.

Behind the structure and dollars was trust, and it was guilt free. Maarten had not grown up on a farm in Holland before he immigrated to Canada and bought the rundown place outside of Fredericton, New Brunswick in the early 1970s at 21 years of age. His perspective is that family needs to be happy, first and foremost.

“Every day my dad says, don’t dairy farm for me,” says Joas.

At 52 years old, Maarten sold the farm to Joas based on an FCC evaluation that put quota at $19,000 to $21,000 per unit (they simply agreed to split the difference in the price to $20,000), plus 130 workable acres, barn, house, machinery and the livestock. The farm built a new house for Maarten, about 10 km away.

Joas borrowed $1.1 million from FCC. “But I paid my mortgage off,” says Maarten.

Subsequently, dairy quota values soared up to $30,000 a unit until the P5 boards (including Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick) put a quota price cap at $25,000 per unit. Starting this past August that cap dropped to $24,000.

Verbally, Maarten has also agreed to work for free for 10 years, doing all the cropping and mechanical work, and leavOctober 2015

For Joas and Lisa, a clear retirement goal provides a framework for decision-making all through their farming career.

ing the management and financial decisions to Joas. Although he’s at the farm working every day, and they don’t always agree, father doesn’t criticize or undermine his son. There’s respect and trust between them. “Right away, Dad said: ‘The books and cows are yours,’” says Joas.

This agreed labour term allowed Joas to do some forward labour planning and it allowed Maarten to think about how retirement will look. It’s giving him time to ease into retirement and take up new interests. “I don’t want to be hanging around bugging anyone,” says Maarten.

Farm ownership transition is often the most stressful times of a farmer’s life, says Len Davies, Davies Legacy Planning Group Inc. But it’s so different now compared to when previous generations of farmers retired. A lot of farming parents maybe knew one millionaire when they were young, and now they are all millionaires.

It works better if you allot some time to make this adjustment. “Holidays and hobbies can become habits,” Davies says.

Continued on page 18 country-guide.ca 17

business Plan for retirement early

Continued from page 17

Despite examples like the van Oords, farm adviser and succession planner Len Davies finds that the proactive approach to retirement among farmers is still very rare.

With the cost and scale of farming assets required today, there are many people who want to retire or pass on the farm, but simply can’t afford it. “If the successor is 50 and the child is 21 and you’ve got debt, you’re in a better position to start some planning process than if the successor is 30 and the person retiring is 60,” Davies says.

It’s not all about decreasing the tax implications of transitioning ownership.

Nor is it all about debt or having enough assets. “First,” says Davies, “you need to figure out what you’ll need to live on.”

For that, Davies has a software program to plug in the information. In an hour, he can have a pretty good idea of what the future can look like with pensions, investment income and realistic offfarm living expenses.

Nor is Davies alone. Most financial planners can help you do this, if you ask.

But Davies says you should start asking younger.

“From the time you’re 55, update this every year so you can talk about it with your spouse and truly understand it,” says Davies. “Every time you do it, you’ll get more comfortable with the idea of retirement and what it will look like for you.”

It’s also easier to adjust your plans and adapt to change when you know where you’re going well in advance. By starting to figure this out early, it will give you a realistic time frame for building your savings and off-farm investments, and it will also give you more choices in how the farm can support the retirement plan and succession.

For many farmers, planning for a longer time also allows for an adjustment to the power shift, from being at the centre of every decision to being peripheral and considering others’ needs, even if they’re beyond the farm. Many spouses have different dreams and priorities, such as travelling or living in town. Some farmers have a difficult time giving up all they’ve ever known and the very core of their self-worth.

“If what I do is who I am, then what am I without the farm?” they ask. But, as Davies and other retirement planners point out, having a plan can help you create your own answers to that question, in ways you otherwise might never have imagined.

Another trend Davies sees is the shift in the younger generation’s approach to work-life balance. “It used to be that you farmed and the family took care of itself, but now family is a priority.”

With the vast majority of Canadian parents both working, there’s been a shift toward spending quality time with their kids and their kids’ activities.

“Parents are shocked when their son will shut off the tractor to go to his kid’s ball game,” says Davies.

Through his experiences leading the Young Farmers group in New Brunswick, Joas has heard many horror stories about farm transfers. Most problems start with the older generation either not saving enough off farm for retirement and succession or letting greed and control take over, he says.

Davies often sees the opposite problem. Many older farmers worry too much about whether their son or daughter will make it farming, so they tend to short themselves. He recalls a farmer who was living in a lean-to built on the machinery shed, giving a $2-million farm to his son.

“If the next generation gets something for nothing, then it’s worth nothing to them,” says Davies. “Someone is going to sell the farm someday.”

The process has to be balanced without shackling so much debt to the younger generation that they can’t expand. This is when having a third party crunch some numbers can remove some of the subjectivity.

It helped the van Oords that Maarten has another non-farm income source so he could give Joas a break on the price of the farm.

In partnerships, having off-farm income and savings can cause inequities for retirement and succession planning, and everyone needs to be aware of these factors early on. For example, if one brother’s spouse has a good pension and the other brother’s wife worked on the farm and has no pension, the farm might want to make retirement investments on her behalf.

Another idea to consider with multiple shareholders is to include a trigger in the shareholders agreement stating when growth gets frozen. Otherwise, for instance, a brother-uncle might hang on forever and glean the growth from a succeeding nephew’s effort. If you define

18 country-guide.ca

Maarten provides labour, but knows his job isn’t to call the shots.

“ If the next generation gets something for nothing, then it’s worth nothing to them,” Davies says those points earlier in the shareholders’ farming careers, it’s easier to decide, says Davies.

The van Oord farm bought a lifeinsurance policy on Maarten for the other siblings instead of involving them as shareholders.

Yvonne Thyssen-Post, farm financial adviser based in Nova Scotia says that it’s better to not include non-farming shareholders. “If they are not involved in the farm, they should not be a shareholder,” she says matter-of-factly.

Joas believes all farmers should continue to ask themselves what they want from their farms. “Right now I want to be able to make a living from it, to raise my family and save enough money off farm to retire on,” says Joas.

He also wants to be able to give the farm to his kids, although he realizes that his small farm likely won’t be enough to sustain the next generation, and that in another 30 years they’re going to need to O c t obe r 2 0 1 5

business build a new barn. “This is going to be just a stepping stone for them,” he says.

Although they continually reinvest in improving the farm, they also make sure to include off-farm investments. Joas and Lisa are creating wealth outside of the farm by investing in non-farming land via waterfront property.

“There are times in farming when you just have to step up,” Joas says.

Additionally, they reinvest $1,800 a month farm income in a very secure insurance-investment program that they’ll be able to use for retirement. This amount is about what he’d pay out for debt if they’d maxed the carrying capacity of their dairy farm (30 to 35 per cent). “So it’s like a mortgage payment and soon you don’t even notice it,” Joas says.

Joas also carries critical illness, disability, dental and medical insurance.

“Insurance has to be a major pillar for succession planning, and it’s an automatic way to put money away for retirement,” he says.

“Start planning for succession the first year you start farming,” Joas adds.

“Then it’s just part of the process.” CG

Shareholder agreements Develop a shareholders agreement to help solve the “what ifs” of death, disability, disagreements and divorce. “If you don’t have the business structure laid out, it’s like slipping in the mud,” says Yvonne Thyssen-Post, farm financial adviser from Nova Scotia.

Having a legal structure to deal with these situations lays out a pathway to follow.

Of course, you also want a loving family. In these situations, it is a blessing.

Yes, family and business are two separate things, but having the business details worked out can increase the odds that you’ll maintain a united, loving family because you’ll avoid much of the confusion and many of the complications that can turn into landmines.

With succession, these can be multiplied along generations, over many decades. Thyssen-Post says parents really need to think long term and should try to

look for all possible impacts that succession can have on your family.

Don’t leave out family dynamics when looking at the possibilities. How would Miss Bossypants react? Does someone have the tendency to turn to alcohol, or fall into depression when things go wrong? Does one sibling have a strong competitive nature? Is anyone a control freak?

Next, look at possible scenarios and how the shareholders agreement will manage such situations.

Part of a shareholders agreement is a buy-sell agreement. This tells you how the shares are going to change hands, and it does things like lay out timelines.

Make sure everybody knows what it says and signs off on it, says ThyssenPost. You will still likely need patience and compassion, but at least everyone knows what needs to get done in an emotional situation.

Legal Services forfor Canada’s Agricultural Industry Legal Legal Services Legal Services Services for Canada’s for Canada’s Canada’s Agricultural Agricultural Agricultural Industry Industry Industry Our Agribusiness and Food Group has lawyers from various

For more information, contact:

Our Agribusiness Our Agribusiness Our andAgribusiness Food Group and Food and hasGroup lawyers Food Group has from lawyers has various lawyers from various from various For more information, contact: For more information, contact: For more information, contact: disciplines across Canada offering an in-depth understanding of Wendy A. Baker, Q.C. disciplinesdisciplines acrossdisciplines Canada across offering across Canada an Canada offering in-depth offering anunderstanding in-depth an in-depth understanding ofunderstanding of ofWendy A. Wendy Baker,Wendy Q.C. A. Baker, A. Baker, Q.C. Q.C. legal issues and challenges in agriculture and food production.

National Co-Leader, Vancouver BC legal issues challenges agriculture andproduction. food production. National Co-Leader, Vancouver BC legal issueslegal andissues challenges and challenges inand agriculture in agriculture andinfood production. and food National Co-Leader, Vancouver BC National Co-Leader, Vancouver BC

Legal Services for Canada’s Agricultural Industry wbaker@millerthomson.com

Our expertise and services include:

Our expertise Ourand expertise Our services expertise and include: services and services include: include:

Our Agribusiness and Food Group has lawyers from various • Farm succession planning and estates, tax issues disciplines across Canada offering an in-depth understanding of • Farm succession planning and estates, tax issues • Farm succession planning and estates, tax issues • Farm succession planning and estates, tax issues • Agriculture lending and recoveries legal issues and challenges in agriculture and food production.

• • Sale and purchase of farms/ farm assets • Agriculture lending and recoveries • Agriculture lending and recoveries Agriculture lending and recoveries Our expertise and services include: • • Marketing boards and commissions • Sale and purchase of farms/ farm assets • Sale and purchase of farms/ farm assets Sale and purchase of farms/ farm assets • Land use planning and environmental issues • Farm succession planning and estates, tax issues • Marketing boards and commissions • Marketing boards and commissions • Marketing boards and commissions • • Litigation on agribusiness issues • Agriculture lending and recoveries • Land use planning and environmental issues • Land use planning and environmental issues Land use planning and environmental issues • Food safety, marketing and transportation • Sale and purchase of farms/ farm assets • Litigation on agribusiness issues • Litigation on agribusiness issues • Litigation on agribusiness issues • Marketing boards and commissions • Food safety, marketing and transportation • Food safety, marketing and transportation • Food safety, marketing and transportation Follow our Group’s blog, “The Food Web”, for timely legal

commentary commentary on Agribusiness commentary on Agribusiness on issues.

Agribusiness issues.issues.

Follow our Group’s blog, “The Food Web”, for timely legal commentary on Agribusiness issues. calgary

edmonton

saskatoon

regina

Jeff N. Grubb, Q.C. For more information, contact:

Jeff N. Grubb, JeffA. Q.C. N.Baker, Jeff Grubb, N. Grubb, Q.C. Q.C. National Co-Leader, Regina SK Wendy Q.C. jgrubb@millerthomson.com National Co-Leader, Regina SK National Co-Leader, Regina SK National Co-Leader, Regina SK National Co-Leader, Vancouver BC jgrubb@millerthomson.com jgrubb@millerthomson.com jgrubb@millerthomson.com wbaker@millerthomson.com Carol S. VandenHoek Group Contact, Guelph ON N. Grubb, Q.C. Carol S.Jeff VandenHoek Carol S. Carol VandenHoek S. VandenHoek cvandenhoek@millerthomson.com National Co-Leader, Regina SK Group Contact, Guelph ON Group Contact, Guelph ON Group Contact, Guelph ON jgrubb@millerthomson.com cvandenhoek@millerthomson.com cvandenhoek@millerthomson.com cvandenhoek@millerthomson.com Added experience. Added clarity. Added value.

• Land use planning and environmental issues commentary on Agribusiness issues.

• Litigation on agribusiness issues Follow ourFollow Group’s Follow our blog, Group’s our “The Group’s blog, Food“The blog, Web”, Food “The for timely Web”, Food Web”, for legal timely for timely legal legal • Food safety, marketing and transportation

vancouver

wbaker@millerthomson.com wbaker@millerthomson.com wbaker@millerthomson.com

Carol S. VandenHoek Group Contact, Guelph ON Added experience.

Added Added experience.

Addedexperience. clarity.

Added Added Added clarity. value. clarity.

Added Added value. value. cvandenhoek@millerthomson.com Miller Thomson LLP

Added experience. Added clarity. Added value. millerthomson.com

Miller Thomson Miller LLPThomson Miller Thomson LLP LLP

london

millerthomson.com millerthomson.com millerthomson.com kitchener-waterloo

Miller Thomson LLP

guelph

toronto

markham

montréal

millerthomson.com

vancouvervancouver calgary vancouver calgary edmonton calgary edmonton saskatoon edmonton saskatoon regina saskatoon london reginaregina london kitchener london -kitchener waterloo kitchener -waterloo guelph -waterloo guelph toronto guelph toronto markham toronto markham montréal markham montréal montréal WesternProducerAd_8.25x5.indd 1 6/17/2015 2:23:29 PM vancouver

calgary

esternProducerAd_8.25x5.indd WesternProducerAd_8.25x5.indd WesternProducerAd_8.25x5.indd 1 1 1

Oc tob e r 2 0 1 5 WesternProducerAd_8.25x5.indd 1

edmonton

saskatoon

regina

london

kitchener-waterloo

guelph

toronto

markham

montréal

6/17/2015 2:23:29 6/17/2015 PM 6/17/2015 2:23:29 PM2:23:29 PM

c o u n t r y - g 6/17/2015 u i d e 2:23:29 . c a PM1 9

business

The young are

on board

In Ontario’s Northumberland County, young farmers make up the majority on many commodity and farm boards.

Here’s how we do it

By Amy Petherick, CG Contributing Editor

20 country-guide.ca

With only 75 farmers under age 35, our county boards should be even more starved for young members than those in other counties and districts across the country two per cent of Ontario farmers reside here, and those who do aren’t exactly young, being, respectively, 2.3 and 1.8 years older than the average Canadian and Ontario farm averages.

With only 75 farmers under the age of 35 in Northumberland, youth representation in the general farm population is well below the eight per cent provincial average.

Continued on page 22 October 2015

Photography: deborah deville

here’s nothing like an unexpected dinner invitation to get the attention of a person who is normally responsible for daily meal preparation. The invitation arrived by text, and it didn’t take long to figure out whether to accept. Accept first, I said.

Ask questions later.

When I did ask the question, I was right to think there might be a reason. “Be ready to explain why our executive is so young,” was basically how the next text read in response.

It was time to switch to voice. “Well, someone told the provincial association we have a lot of really young directors on our board, and now they want to meet with us,” explained Ian Laver, president of Northumberland’s Soil and Crop Improvement Association (NSCIA).

I wasn’t really free that week but yes, I promised, I would be there anyway. Not that I had any idea how to explain youth engagement in Northumberland County. But anyone willing to make a rare trip from the hub of Ontario agriculture through the city of Toronto deserved as many brains to pick as we could offer.

Northumberland is an hour and a half east of Toronto on the north shore of Lake Ontario.

Although agriculture is a significant industry here, Northumberland itself is pretty insignificant in national or even provincial terms. Located in the east end of central Ontario, our relatively large county wasn’t home to even 1,000 farms in the last census of agriculture, and two-thirds of these farms reported less than $50,000 in gross farm receipts.

Break things down further and you get 221 cash crop operations, 179 beef farms, 83 dairy farms, and the rest are mostly listed as “other.” Less than

Lead with Seed

What would you do with no seed payments for a year?

Between September 1, 2015 and January 31, 2016, use your AgriCard at any Co-op Agro Centre to purchase your seed and reap the benefits of no payments and no interest until November 2016!

Offer applies to BrettYoung, DEKALB, DuPont D-Series, Nexera and Syngenta. At participating Co-op Agro Centres while supplies last. Offer ends January 31, 2016.

Ask us for details.

Subject to approval by Desjardins Financial Group credit department. If the total amount of a purchase made by way of deferred payment financing is not paid in full on the due date shown on the statement of account, it is automatically converted into a purchase by way of equal installments financing, repayable by equal consecutive monthly payments as to principal and credit charges at the annual interest rate for the equal installments financing plan in effect at the date of conversion. The annual interest rate is currently 11.9% and is calculated from the payment due date shown on the statement of account, until such purchases are paid in full. The number of equal monthly payment plan varies from 12 to 36 monthly payments depending on the balance converted. AgriCard速 is a registered trademark of Desjardins Financial Group.

business

Continued from page 20 Yet, 30 per cent of the directors currently serving on the NSCIA are under the age of 35, including the entire executive falls into that class. On the Beef Farmers’ board of directors, about 40 per cent are around or under the age of 35 and half of the Northumberland Holstein Association’s directors would be under 35, with 85 per cent certainly less than 40. Then there’s also Northumberland’s Dairy Producer Committee, with 70 per cent of its executive all young farmers.

In other words, the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association hadn’t noticed a fluke or some sort of coincidence, but a real trend that seems to be unique.

It might have been a little ambitious to attempt to identify the root cause of a regional trend like this in just one dinner meeting, but as the evening progressed, some concepts emerged clearly. We, as young directors, take our initial cues from the family. Parents, grandparents, or other family members that we respect and admire have been directly responsible for initiating our involvement in farm organizations here.

Being exposed to so much youthful enthusiasm and contagious passion is good for the veterans too.

“It’s great to see so many young people,” they say Many young directors recalled having little choice in attending their first annual general meeting. Some had been living at home at the time but the rest of us were well into building our own independent lives. Yet when families encourage or expect industry involvement here, in general, we seem to oblige by attending as requested. As a result, almost all young directors serving NSCIA are now second-, or even third-generation directors.

But if directors attend their first meeting “just to keep Dad happy,” the consensus is that they keep coming back on the encouragement of their peers.

You can test it for yourself in your own area by looking at where people choose to sit.

When I think back to a number of local meetings held here last winter, new attendees tended not to stray far from the family, while the more veteran young participants often clustered around friendships.

It seems I’m not the only one trying to make the most of every precious minute off the farm and if there’s no “fun factor” in it for me, apparently 22 country-guide.ca

I’m not alone in being more inclined to stay home.

Maybe it’s because of the second jobs, or because non-farming spouses need more help with household chores and childcare, or because of the overscheduled children, but whatever the reason, the entertainment value of farm associations is now a big consideration for my generation.

When the social value is there, and our time constraints are respected, we’re there too.

If there’s also an educational opportunity, however, we’re far more willing to commit our time.

Active directors are some of the first farmers to insist that local research is important, and many of them don’t wait for someone else to suggest an onfarm trial; they just set up their own.

Spontaneous crop tours are common. Farm association meetings are an opportunity to share results or interim observations, and many people will say they don’t want to miss these meetings in case something important is shared.

I always thought this was the same everywhere until I recently learned about the master’s research that Jeff Brick conducted while obtaining a degree from the University of Western Ontario. Jeff wanted to look at what motivates farmers to adopt good land stewardship practices, and through the course of his study, he has discovered that the value of education appears to be diminishing among young male farmers in parts of southwestern Ontario.

“The people in the landscape appear to be very well educated but when you break it down by farm and non-farm, you start to see the trend emerge that farmers have a much lower formal education level,” he explained to me. “There are a shockingly high number of young males, running farms, who haven’t finished high school.”

Jeff says he only measured formal education in his survey, so there’s no way to know what practical or informal supplementation these young men have pursued, and he certainly doesn’t believe his findings indicate farmers aren’t very good at what they do. He’s more interested in why these young men are forgoing formal education, and he hopes further work being conducted by other ongoing studies might reveal whether the phenomena is related to increased employment opportunities for farm youth. If that’s the case, it may explain why my peers are far more likely to be college or university educated.

It’s only natural for a teen doing hard labour for little more than minimum wage to explore their options.

Couple little competition for local scholarship money with relatively lower family farm incomes, and now pursuing a post-secondary education doesn’t look halfbad. Anyone who comes home to the farm after that brings new ideas with them and maybe even a new appreciation for learning opportunities.

Ellen Hondl, an Alberta beef farmer with the Agricultural Youth Engagement Foundation, pointed out to me that when these people sit down together at a table, they will feed off one another.

October 2015

business

“Passion is contagious,” Ellen says simply.

And she’s right. As we swap stories of the challenges we’ve overcome or are working through in planning farm succession, and as we talk about the isolation that can come with being a young farmer, we begin to feel driven to share our experiences with others for the betterment of the community, and no matter what the personal inconveniences, the conversation does become more passionate.

When we meet, we leave the conversation more animated than when we started. It’s refreshing. It’s exciting. It’s

exactly why Northumberland County is embracing young directors.

Let’s face it, the directors who are exiting their positions to make room for “the young upstarts” are not being entirely altruistic. They are coming to the end of careers that were challenged by peak interest rates, extended droughts, depressingly low commodity prices, the BSE crisis, high debt loads, and increasingly volatile markets.

They’re tired. But not tired enough to become retired, so they’ve mostly stayed on as members and mentors for the young people they are nominating to leadership roles.

It turns out, being exposed to so much youthful enthusiasm and contagious passion is good for these veterans too. They get up and say with big smiles on their faces, “It’s great to see so many young people here at this meeting.”

I’m never sure whether they say it as much to encourage us to keep coming back or to congratulate one another for getting us there in the first place. But if they keep speaking up so positively, this phenomenon is just going to continue to grow, and we might have to start warning new directors to be ready for more surprise dinner invitations. CG

You Grow. We Help.

Growing today means carefully considering every input – including advice.

Our agriculture banking specialists know the challenges and rewards of working the land.

Talk to one of our agriculture banking specialists today.

Visit rbc.com/farmhelp.

TM

® / ™ Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada.

October 2015

country-guide.ca 23

business

After the tragedy…

It takes a combination of legal and financial preparedness on the one hand, and human understanding on the other to keep

By Angela Lovell the farm together children, Samantha (27) and Chris (25), who took the reins of the operation.

Unusual arrangement “It’s an unusual arrangement because I am the daughter-in-law running the farm now rather than a child,” says Beth. “I enjoy the farm and the work, and producing food that goes straight from our field to people’s tables. But it’s a way for the farm to continue through the family.”

For Beth Connery (centre), with Samantha and Chris, it’s been essential to recover from Doug’s death as farmers, and as family too.

24 country-guide.ca

October 2015

Photography: Sandy Black

he Connery family thought that it was probably more prepared than most farm families for succession, and in many ways it was. But no one anticipated the sudden death of its two principal farming partners, or that the farm business would transfer to a daughter-in-law.

When brothers, Doug and Jeff Connery died within six months of each other in December 2011 and June 2012, it was Jeff’s wife, Beth and their two

business

Doug’s family wasn’t interested in continuing to farm, so that meant Beth and her kids had to make a fast decision. But it was a definite — and united — choice.

“I asked the kids if they wanted to farm and they said yes. So I said, then we’ll farm,” says Beth. “I had two good managers, and the next day I said there’s a crop out in the field and we have to take care of it.”

Ed and Bev Connery moved Connery Riverdale Farms from its location near the Red River south of Winnipeg to Portage la Prairie in the early 1960s, where the area offered land, water and a microclimate better suited to growing vegetables.

Ed was an innovator, always ready to try new varieties and new technologies, and he had been instrumental in establishing the vegetable marketing cooperative, Peak of the Market. Today the farm covers about 1,000 acres, 650 of which produce asparagus, strawberries, broccoli, carrots and cooking onions, while the rest is in wheat as a rotation crop.

A road map in place Following the decision by Ed (Jeff and Doug’s father) to go into politics in 1986, all members of the Connery family put wills and powers of attorney in place, and they had agreed upon a succession plan in 1986. Some 25 years later, that succession planning was to help them when tragedy struck.

“We were fortunate because we did have some plans in place. There was a buy-sell agreement and everybody knew what it said and we all signed off on it a long time ago,” says Beth. “The documents were almost 30 years old, and they were by no means perfect, but they certainly provided a road map and a way that we could move forward.”

The experience taught her, however, that planning documents, and especially wills, should reflect current realities. “If you’ve got children or if something’s changing in your life and you’re getting married or whatever it is, it’s important to get your will updated,” says Beth. “Review it at least every five years. Pull it out and read it.”

Lots to learn Beth had worked on the farm for 25 years in the office handling the administration, payroll, bookkeeping and human resources, so she had a good handle on the financial situation of the farm and also knew a little about the warehousing side of things. “Jeff was doing all the field stuff so I had a good idea of the rhythm of the farm, although I didn’t know the details of everything,” she says.

One of the hardest things to deal with was the agronomy side of the business, admits Beth. “Getting back into the agronomics was difficult and even now I’m still learning,” she says. “But I think it’s a constant learning process because there’s always something new to learn about fertilizers and seed, and the way we’re treating things, and new irrigation systems. I had to get back into that mindset and look at those things again in a way I hadn’t in a very long time.”

Beth, who had grown up on a mixed farm in the area was able to turn to her neighbours and family for advice, which was a huge help. “I’m blessed with a very large and extended family and friends, so if I needed something I could ask,” she says. “There were a lot of people willing to help and the other growers in the area were very generous when we had questions. Grandpa Ed and his wife, Bev, although they are retired, have also been really supportive and helpful. For me, just knowing that there’s someone there I can ask questions of makes it doable.”

Loss of knowledge A vegetable operation requires lots of people, which meant there were managers in place who took care of most of the immediate day-to-day things. But as time went by everyone realized that the farm had lost a huge amount of knowledge.

The family puts more down on paper now, Beth says, but she admits this does take discipline.

Continued on page 26 October 2015

country-guide.ca 25

business

10 tips

to help prepare for an unexpected farm death

Losing a principal farm partner can cause all sorts of very real and very practical issues and challenges for those left behind.

Beth Connery found herself in the position of running the family farm three years ago when her husband, Jeff and his brother, Doug, who farmed together, died within six months of each other.

Going through that experience has taught her and her two children Samantha and Chris how to prepare for an unexpected farm succession. She shares their learnings below:

Write everything down

Talk

Record everything that happens on the farm, whether it’s on an ongoing basis or at a minimum once a year going through the crops that you’ve grown, which varieties you tried, and what equipment you used. If you tried something new, did it work or not, and why? What was the weather like this season, and anything else that happened over the year. Information that only exists in your head isn’t much use to anyone else.

You have to do a lot of talking because a succession plan does not come together over three meetings. It requires a lot of discussion about how things will work.

Rely on others Rely on the people within your operation who know what they’re doing, and don’t be afraid to ask for help from family, other producers or neighbours. Ask questions if you don’t know something because someone is always willing to share their experience with you.

Have a current will Make sure that everyone has a will and review it at least every five years to make sure it still reflects your situation and what you want to happen. Update your will whenever something changes in your life or there is a major event. Make sure that you have powers of attorney and living wills in place.

Even if you don’t have a full succession plan, at least your will provides a road map for your partner to follow.

Have a succession plan Have some kind of succession plan in place, and make sure that wills are on side with the plan. Talk to your lawyer or your accountant or other advisers for advice and a path to follow. If there is a buy-sell agreement, make sure everyone agrees to it. Anticipate any issues ahead of time and have a plan carefully laid out so you just have to follow the steps. Your goal is to create certainty for those left behind and to help avoid possible conflicts or questions.

26 country-guide.ca

Discuss burial It’s not a macabre topic — and it makes it a lot easier for your loved ones to make the necessary arrangements if they know in advance what your wishes are. So make sure you talk about what you want to happen.

Make a list Make a list of important things such as life insurance policies, RRSPs, TFSAs, bank accounts, or other investments. Include policy numbers, contacts, and their phone number and email. Does the family know your passwords?

Know the finances Have a working knowledge of the farm’s financial situation and bookkeeping system.

Even if you’re not paying the bills and doing the bookkeeping on an ongoing basis, know which bank you deal with, who your lawyer is, who the accountant is, and how to pay the bills.

Make sure you can access the money Talk with the bank about bank accounts.

If they aren’t joint accounts, and you don’t want them to be, make arrangements with the bank so that you can access them, or you may not be able to pay your bills.

Allow Time for Yourself Losing a loved one is stressful. You will need quiet time for yourself. Allow yourself to grieve. You will not have the patience that you normally do, so you need to be kind to yourself and the other people around you.

It's only by coming together that you can find the best path forward.

Continued from page 25

Time to grieve Beth made certain that she found the time to grieve, and says this was one of the most important things she needed to do to help her carry on. “You have to allow yourself to grieve because if you don’t, it will come back and bite you when you least expect it. I quite deliberately made sure I took time for myself,” she says. “My family and the farm bunch were very generous in allowing me to disappear whenever I needed to.”

She had to resist the temptation to throw herself into the running of the farm and overwork herself and others. “Our harvest period is six months long. We need a start of the day and an end of the day because we know we’re going to be doing it for months,” she says. “I had to learn to pace myself as well.”

Talk lots and early Families need to make sure they have discussions about the future of the farm, and what everyone wants, and that they get plans in place as early as possible, because when a tragedy strikes, people are at their most vulnerable and it’s really tough to have to make decisions, says Beth. “It was very stressful… you’ll hear advice not to make any major decisions in your life for a year after a death like that, and I was making big ones within days. There was no way to avoid that, but if you’ve already discussed it ahead of time, and if you’ve thought it out, and have the plans in place, then the urgency isn’t there.”

The Connerys’ next step is to work on the next succession plan, says Beth.

“Now we need to figure out how we’re going to devolve this to the next generation, and how we’re going to put options in for grandchildren.”

Look for the joy As the family prepares for future milestones, the memory of lost loved ones is still with them, but Beth’s final advice is that it’s important to look for the joy.

“It’s there even when things seem to be falling apart and darkest,” Beth says. “It’s there in the memories of the laughter shared and stories told and in the creation of new memories with friends and family… Our loved ones would have wanted us to live and share our lives, not mark time.” CG

O cto b er 2 0 1 5

GET THE NEW COUNTRY GUIDE APP TODAY! Stay up to date on all the latest in agriculture with the new Country Guide mobile app!

INSTANT ACCESS TO: • • • • •

Daily regional news Daily market news Commodity futures WeatherFarm data Livestock news

•

• •

Machinery tips & reviews Crops news Plus much more!

IT’S FREE! Scan the code or visit agreader.ca.

Available for Android devices, iPhones and iPad.

Part of the

Sponsored by

network

business

Not related

Farm hopeful Dustin Krahn gets no land, no equipment and no pay — but thanks to farmer Ken Wiebe, he gets opportunity

By Angela Lovell

Krahn (l) and Wiebe believe their approach could be adapted all across the country.

ou might call it a sort of succession plan in reverse. Young farmer Dustin Krahn isn’t related to Ken Wiebe, the established farmer who has found a way to help Dustin get a leg up.

Meanwhile, though, Dustin is also helping Wiebe’s 22-year-old son, Zack, learn the ropes and get started in farming too.

Are you still following?

It’s a 10-year plan, with a time frame for Krahn to be working 1,000 acres with purchased land as a base for an independent farm operation on its way to becoming a bona fide commercial family farm.

The plan itself isn’t that complicated, and everyone involved seems to think it could be a template for other beginning farmers across the country. But they also agree it does take commitment, great teamwork, and perhaps a more than ordinary amount of faith.

In all, the 28-year-old Krahn and 53-year-old

Wiebe farm 5,300 acres of rented and owned land in south-central Manitoba, with the land spread across a rectangle between highways 3 and 23 from Plum Coulee to Miami.

Krahn himself rents land all over the map, based on some reasoning that many other farmers will recognize. “It’s a 40-minute combine ride one way to some of our fields,” says Krahn. “Our area is very expensive to rent land in right now, and sometimes a 20-minute drive can bring it down to a price that you can afford to rent and make a decent dollar.”

But where he’s different is that Krahn doesn’t own any farm machinery, and he doesn’t get paid for the labour he contributes to the Wiebe farm.

To put it simply, Krahn rents all of his land — currently about 500 acres — and helps Wiebe farm the rest. In exchange, Krahn uses the machinery and infrastructure that Wiebe owns.

“There’s no way with my small acres that I can afford to have stuff like tractors etc., and Ken knows that, so I provide labour and maintain the machinery and so on, and we work my time into a dollar value every year that I contribute to the farm,” says Krahn.

“We don’t ever exchange money. It works out really well for both of us.”

Each is responsible for their own crops, and each purchases his own seed and inputs, although they do co-ordinate their rotations to make it easier for seeding, spraying and harvest. Wiebe grows a lot of wheat and soybeans for seed production, while Krahn tends to grow more commercial crops.

His father owned a small farm and a flax straw business which he sold when Krahn was 10, moving the family to nearby Winkler.

Krahn was always attracted to farming, however, and as a teen he began helping a friend who worked at a feedlot owned by Wiebe’s sister.

When Wiebe’s hired man quit, he phoned Krahn to see if he’d like to come and work for him.

Krahn had just been accepted into the ag diploma

28 country-guide.ca

October 2015

Photography: Sandy Black

Getting started on 200 acres

business

“ When you’re a small farmer,” says Krahn, “ every relationship has to be a good one.” some land,” says Krahn. “At the intermission, I turned around and introduced myself and told him what I could afford to pay.”

Two months later the farmer phoned Krahn back and offered him all 300 acres of his farm to rent. He still farms that land today.

Relationships matter the most

With more farmers open to helping non-family members get started, Krahn and Wiebe know that others may use their model.

program at the University of Manitoba, but he started helping Wiebe nevertheless, working on weekends and learning how to harrow, drive grain trucks, spray and do other farm operations that he’d never done before. After graduating, Krahn got a job as an agricultural sales representative, but he still helped Wiebe whenever he could. Finally, eight years ago Wiebe asked Krahn if he’d like to farm full time.

“I laughed at him,” recalls Krahn. “I said I’m not going to the bank asking for $3 million to start farming. I’d be the laughing stock of southern Manitoba.”

But Wiebe had detected a passion for October 2015

farming in Krahn, and told him that if he could find 200 acres of land to rent, Wiebe would make a deal to get him started in farming. “He put the ball in my court. If I really wanted to do this, all I had to do was find 200 acres,” says Krahn, “but finding 200 acres of land in southern Manitoba is not that easy.

It’s one of the most competitive parts of Canada for land.”

Yet he did find that 200 acres, quite by chance when he was at a hockey game and overheard a bit of conversation in the stands behind him. “The guy was talking about quitting farming and maybe renting

“Because there’s no land between us, we don’t have to fight over which family member gets land or how things get divided up,” Krahn says. “We can just concentrate on farming the land the best way that we know.”

One of the earliest lessons Krahn learned is that good relationships are essential.

“When you’re a small farmer, every relationship has to be a good relationship,” Krahn says. “I need every acre I can get, so I want to keep the guys I rent from happy. The farmer I rented my first 200 acres from is like a mentor to me now. I still farm his whole farm to this day, and we go fishing together, and have built a great relationship.”

Keeping your lenders and suppliers on side is just as crucial, says Krahn, because sometimes you need them to work along with you. “My banker has done huge things for me. There was one time where we had some lease payments due and the grain cheque wasn’t here yet and when I called him he said, no big deal, we’ll wait for the grain cheque to come in,” he says. “That takes a huge load of pressure off your back. You don’t want to burn any bridges in this industry because every farmer talks, and especially with Twitter and social media now it doesn’t take long for every neighbour to know what you did.”

Continued on page 30 country-guide.ca 29

business Continued from page 29

Tips for your non-traditional farming agreement Across Canada, a growing number of farmers who want a next generation to take over the family farm is looking outside the family to find it.

Through non-traditional farming arrangements, farmers who are approaching retirement can pass on their experience and knowledge so that young people who may have anywhere from some to no background in farming — but who definitely have a passion for it — can get started in the business.

Below are 10 tips from Jacqueline Gerrard, associate consultant with Backswath Management at Morden, Man., to help a non-traditional farming arrangement run smoothly.

1. Have an agreement

6. Management decisions

Clearly articulate the agreement between each party, making sure expectations are spelled out. The best time to do this is when things are going well because everything’s fine until it’s not. Get help from a lawyer, professional management consultant, or other trusted adviser to ensure you have a strong foundation upon which to build your vision and goals.

Although each party may make their own decisions about things like crop plans, operating credit lines and marketing, there will be many decisions to make together, potentially including land rental or equipment purchase. Everyone must understand how the whole farm functions and how it performs in terms of profits. They must also understand the utilization of each party’s assets and investments, whether those are in the form of time or money.

2. Develop a clear vision and goals There could be a shared vision, but that doesn’t mean that each party can’t have different goals as long as they are compatible.

Write it down because the vision creates a road map for everyone to follow. Be clear about what everyone wants from the arrangement and how that affects the whole farm.

3. Develop strategies Always think strategically and assess whether the things you are doing or plan to do will enhance the farm’s competitiveness, make best use of resources, and keep everyone on track towards achieving the vision.

4. Review Revisit the vision plan every year, even if the farming arrangement is working well.

Review it to make sure it’s still within the scope of the original vision.

5. Flexibility There needs to be enough flexibility within the arrangement so you can change or adapt the vision and goals as you go along to accommodate different needs or changing circumstances.

30 country-guide.ca

7. Financials Set up the accounting system so each party uses the same ratios to track and measure liquidity and profitability. This will help ensure everyone understands how each component of the operation affects the whole. Talk to an accountant about any tax implications and for advice about how to structure the financials to allow for any “what if” scenarios down the road.

8. Put a number on it Put a value on each contribution that everyone agrees is fair.

9. Contingency plan What if things don’t work out? Perhaps part of the plan from Day 1 is to eventually separate out. Either way, a contingency plan is critical so each party can make that transition a smooth one.

10. Be prepared to rent Renting is probably the only real option for farmers starting out without assets and financial backing. Renting land as opposed to owning it makes more sense from a cash flow standpoint because it’s not tying up capital that’s needed to operate the farm.

Still, it’s the business management side of farming that Krahn admits he often finds the most challenging. “The hardest part for me is managing the money, because here you find yourself at 21 and you have to suddenly manage a $400,000 cash flow and be able to stick to the budget and make sure that there’s dollars to last for 13 months and be able to pay unexpected expenses when they come up as well,” he says, but he quickly adds that cash advance programs have been invaluable at helping him out financially.

“They’re awesome. They’re the best thing that any small farmer can ever have,” he says. “It was the cash advance programs that gave me my start.”

Succession plans now and later With Wiebe’s son Zack coming into the family farm business after completing his agricultural diploma at the University of Manitoba, half the farm is going through succession planning and half isn’t. “Ken and Zack are dealing with succession planning, and I’ll be dealing with it 18 years from now,” says Krahn, who has already attended some succession planning meetings over the past two years because he believes you can never start too early.

“It’s smart to deal with it sooner than later,” Krahn says. “You should start working on it when your kids are six months old.”

Krahn and wife Ashton’s son, Kingston Crew, was 2-1/2 months old this past summer and already seems at home in the combine, so Krahn is hopeful there will be a second generation to take over, and part of his long-term plan is to have his own farm to hand down.

“My 10-year plan would be to farm 1,000 acres and purchase at least one parcel of land and start my own farm that I can hand down to my kids,” Krahn says. “Right now I can make it work where I am. I’m not saying that it’s going to work here in 10 years. I might have to move somewhere else where land is more affordable and I can start purchasing my own equipment. But for right now, my 10-year plan is to raise my family down here and farm as many acres as I can get my hands on.”

Wiebe, who is also a first-generation farmer who started out in 1981, knows O ctober 2 0 1 5

business Krahn’s plans and is right on board with them. “Ken has said right from Day 1 if there’s a piece of land that comes up for sale and you buy it, there’s no hard feelings,” Krahn says. “His biggest fear is that he’s holding me back from pushing my boundaries. He’s not, but he doesn’t want to feel responsible that I let something go because of my contribution to this farm. But I don’t think I’d buy any land without his advice anyway.”

Krahn’s work for the Wiebe farm gets counted, but no cheque trades hands.

Part of the family

Krahn isn’t part of the family but he has such a close relationship with the Wiebes, he’s become almost like a big brother to Ken’s kids and calls Ken’s dad Grandpa, just like everyone else. It’s the open communication and strong relationship that has made the “marriage” work, says Krahn.

“If we didn’t get along, none of this would be possible,” he says. “Ken and I are both married to the farm and we couldn’t operate without Zack now. He’s only six years younger than me but he brings such energy and eagerness to the farm.”

It’s a complete contrast to many farm family situations where a son or daughter

comes in and is resented by other members of the family or employees who have been around longer, and a big reason for that is that everyone feels their opinion counts, says Krahn.

Krahn knows many farmers who want to retire with no children who want to farm, so it’s feasible that other young people could have opportunities to make arrangements similar to Krahn’s if they

can develop a relationship with someone in that situation, and be willing to learn.

That said, Krahn knows he lucked out.

“I’m proud of how I came into this business,” he says. “I’ve been my own boss since I was 21 years old and there aren’t many industries where you can do that. As long as I can make a living for my family I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’m having far too much fun right now.” CG

What’s on the horizon in agriculture?

Watch This Country Called Agriculture and be informed.

This Country Called Agriculture is a new on-demand video series that delivers relevant news & information on the agriculture industry. Host Rob Eirich interviews ag pioneers, professionals and academics that offer insight into today’s trends and what the future holds for agriculture – on and off the farm. Video topics include:  Sustainability  Starting a new farm

 Ag innovations  Renewable energy

 Exporting  Alternative energy

 New technology  Food production

 Production

& fuel sources  AND MORE

and marketing

TCCA CURRENT EPISODES Consumer Benefits from Genomics Rob Eirich talking with Tom Lynch-Staunton of Livestock Gentec, and Colin Coros of Delta Genomics, about the benefits of animal genomics for consumers.

Brought to you by

Start watching now at AGCanada.com/TCCA Or scan the code with your phone to watch.

October 2015

country-guide.ca 31

business

Finding a New way Theirs may be among the smallest loan the Manitoba Ag Services Corporation has on its books, but business is looking up

griculture has always attracted all kinds, including from the fringe.

There have been the hippie back-toearthers of the 1960s and even the New Agers of just a decade ago, all of them dreaming of an escape from the confines of city life partly so they can commune with nature on a handful of acres with a hoe in their hand.

Make no mistake, they’re still coming. But now, maybe there’s something different going on, with new farmers and a very different money sense.

With partner Wian Prinsloo, Lydia Carpenter operates Luna Field Farm near Dunrea in southwestern Manitoba, and they fit the mould of today’s new farmers perfectly. Recent surveys have found an uptick in new farmers who don’t have any background in farming, and Carpenter and Prinsloo are both from Winnipeg. Neither grew up on a farm.

Carpenter and Prinsloo have been farming here for the past four years, raising pastured pork, sheep, poultry and beef on a half section of rented pasture, and direct marketing their grass-fed meat products to customers in Winnipeg, Brandon and surrounding areas.

They’ve also been creating a kind of template that others will likely follow, they believe. “The next generation of people entering into agriculture, they’re really going to have to do this because they’re not going to be able to cash flow any other type of operation,” Winsloo says. “I’m optimistic that this type of farming pays, so if people can discover that for themselves, then more people will do it.”

Carpenter studied environmental science and geography at the University of Winnipeg, earning a master’s degree in natural resource management.

During her studies she became fascinated with sys32 country-guide.ca

October 2015

Photography: Sandy Black

By Angela Lovell

business

tems ecology, rural livelihoods, and food.

After meeting Prinsloo, she decided she wanted to farm and put some of her ideas and theories to practical use.

By the time Carpenter met Prinsloo — who grew up in South Africa and moved to Winnipeg at 15 — he’d spent years learning about farming by working on different farms that he felt would give him the skills he needed. Through those years, he’d also either begged or rented a small patch of land wherever he went to raise pastured poultry which he sold to a growing customer base in Winnipeg.

Carpenter and Prinsloo see their urban upbringing as more of a benefit than an impediment. “Our naiveté and an absence of farm family pressures allows us to ask questions and try new things,” says Carpenter, who adds that mentors — rather than a traditional agricultural education — have been hugely important in helping them learn to farm. “We have sought out people who we respect for the work they’re doing, and there are lots of individuals in our community that we go to with questions.”

The couple’s philosophy is that they don’t need to own the land they farm on, just manage it. But the challenge is to have a secure land tenure agreement that allows them to farm the way they want to long term.

The couple has a rolling, three-yearlease term with McNish that renews every year. “We always know we’ve got three years,” says Prinsloo. “Ideally we would own some of the land we operate on so we could have a stable, long-term base on which to build our home, and from which we could expand our operation. Land is very expensive for those

who want to start farming. For now, we can continue to operate and expand on leased land and will manage the land as if it were our own.”

The couple has realized their first goal of being able to farm full time.

Carpenter gave up her job teaching Continued on page 34

PROVEN

BY EXPERTS

And by experts we mean farmers Proven® Seed is the total, all-around package for canola growers. It’s new genetics — proven by 25 years of groundbreaking research and hybrids with superior agronomics. And with our Proven Performance Trials, growers have access to over 100 canola trials where it counts — on large-scale, producer-managed fields. Like yours.

Now that’s what we call proven.

Secure land tenure agreements “We were farming 80 acres about five miles from here, but we weren’t sure of our land tenure position, so we were trying to think of other options and we realized that working with somebody who shared our vision was going to be important, because they could understand how we’re trying to manage the land,” says Carpenter.

Then they ran into local farmer, Dave McNish, a holistic management practitioner who, along with his son, owns the land and yard site they now rent, and who was actively looking for someone to mentor.

McNish had posted a letter in a newsletter a few years earlier offering an opportunity to work and learn alongside him on his farm. Prinsloo recalled seeing the letter and contacted him to see if he was still looking for someone. He was.

October 2015

Proven® Seed is a registered trademark of Crop Production Services (Canada) Inc. CPS CROP PRODUCTION SERVICES and Design is a registered trademark of Crop Production Services, Inc. country-guide.ca 33

business Continued from page 33

Creating a cash flow stream

English as an Additional Language in Brandon when they moved to their current site, and the only off-farm work Prinsloo takes is casual work as a crop insurance adjuster.

Despite misgivings about losing a steady off-farm income stream, they are not only making a living but also getting a lot of satisfaction from farming.

“We like managing our own business and working for ourselves, and because we feed people there’s a lot of meaning around our everyday work,” says Carpenter. “Farming allows Wian and I to work together, problem solve, learn from others, learn from our environment, and provide our community with healthy food. We’re challenged every day to make decisions that impact how we care for land, animals, family and friends.”

A common challenge for new farmers is that their lack of an asset base means they don’t have security to borrow money from traditional banks and credit unions. Thus they have to find new and creative ways to finance and cash flow their operations.

“We’ve developed some creative ways of creating cash flow for the business,” says Carpenter. Importantly, those include a focus on direct marketing and diversifying into enterprises such as grass-fed lamb and beef and pasture-raised pigs and poultry.

“Our customers cash flow parts of the business.

There are certain things on the farm that we can take prepayment for, like eggs for example, where we provide a regular delivery and people pay six months in advance,” says Carpenter. “The reason we don’t do farmers’ markets is because, instead of

For Carpenter and Prinsloo, realizing their farm dream meant finding opportunities to generate more cash flow.

34 country-guide.ca

October 2015

business standing at a stall for hours, our time is far better spent responding to customers who contact us by phone or email.

I can let them know what we have, and we know that when we deliver a load of food it’s all spoken for.”

They’ve had to borrow money from time to time and that’s often come through non-traditional lenders. “We’ve had private lenders give us small, interest-free loans, and often it’s been other farmers,” says Carpenter. “Some people have also cash flowed us through accepting payment later on things or working out payment plans.”

The couple has been savvy in their marketing approach, which was building slowly through word of mouth, but then snowballed after Carpenter took over the marketing side in 2009 and began to employ social media such as a website and Facebook, which adds efficiency to direct marketing.

They’ve even begun to work with traditional lenders. “We had a loan out with Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation and the person we dealt with said it was probably the smallest loan she’s given,” says Carpenter. “But for us that amount of money could generate quite a bit of cash flow because our margins are better on our value-added, direct-marketed products.”

Carpenter and Prinsloo keep their needs for cash low by having very little machinery apart from an old tractor, a couple of quads, flatbed trailer, stock trailer and a truck. “We don’t hay, and we don’t plant anything. So the cash flow requirements on depreciating assets is minimal,” says Prinsloo.

“We are investing in appreciating assets and using funds to stock the land,” he says. “That way, we’ll have something to borrow against and may be in the position to buy some land in the area.”

Essentially, they’re building equity in inventory, with the idea that they will be able to convert that equity to land equity when the opportunity arises. “The business is already in place,” Prinsloo explains. “And we can demonstrate that we’re creating cash flow from the operation through direct marketing.”

They focus on what they have, rather than what they lack, and they understand their most valuable resource is the soil.

The couple is working to continually improve the land through planned, multispecies grazing. Says Carpenter, “We may October 2015

be referred to as farmers but we like to think of ourselves as land managers.”

“What we try to convey to people consuming this food is that they’re paying for our management and our time,” adds Prinsloo. “Our customers are sharing the responsibility to improve the land. It’s almost like carbon credits in a sense… a lot of people understand that right away.”

As part of a vibrant food commu-

FACT #1: Proven® Seed is the total, allaround package for success in canola and cereal crops. It’s NEW genetics and seed varieties. It’s also 25 years of groundbreaking research — plus leading agronomics, field trials and distribution networks.

FACT #133: The Proven Performance Trials program is the largest retail comparison program in Western Canada.

With over 200 trials in 2015, the Proven Seed portfolio is put to the test by farmers to ensure it performs best where it counts — on largescale, producermanaged fields.

See for yourself at provenseed.ca/performance-trials.

nity, the couple participates in a lot of events such as the annual Growing Local Conference in Winnipeg, and they also host customer and producer tours, like summer Grazing Club tours funded by Ducks Unlimited Canada that this year attracted around 50 producers from across Manitoba to see their planned grazing system.

Continued on page 36

while getting excellent standability and blackleg resistance. PV 533 G is a great choice for your best performing fields. See for yourself at provenseed.ca/canola.

FACT #10: Proven Seed set the bar in standability. New hybrids, like PV 200 CL, build on this world class standard while offering high yield potential and a non-GMO premium contract option with the Clearfield® production system.

IT’S A PROVEN FACT

FAC T # 5 1 : Manage your acres and harvest timing.

PV 531 G brings strong yields, e x c e l l e n t standability and early maturity so g rowe r s can manage harvest windows without sacrifice. Suitable for the short growing zones of the Prairies, this Genuity® Roundup Ready® hybrid lives up to the name Proven Seed.

(that 25 years adds up to a lot of facts)

FACT #88: Clubroot is a potentially devastating soil-borne disease that causes swelling or galls to form on roots in canola, ultimately killing the plant. The next generation of advanced CPS-bred Brassica napus canola hybrids demonstrate high levels of resistance to clubroot pathotype 5X, and will mark a first in the fight against the growing threat of this disease.

FACT #74: Proven Seed has over 25 years of continuous research in Western Canada. The CPS R&D team includes more than 50 dedicated staff in Canada and Australia with three research farms and 35 research sites across the Prairies.

FACT #47: Proven Seed products are only available at CPS retail locations across Western Canada. Your CPS advisor will guide you through seed, fertility and crop protection requirements to find a solution tailored for your farm. Find a retailer near you at provenseed.ca/find-a-retailer.

PROVEN WHERE IT COUNTS — ON A FARM NEAR YOU. See for yourself at provenseed.ca

FACT #46: Proven Seed PV 533 G is a new Genuity® Roundup Ready® hybrid allowing you to push your yield potential,

Genuity® and Roundup Ready® are registered trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC, used under license. CLEARFIELD® is a registered trademark of BASF. Proven® Seed is a registered trademark of Crop Production Services (Canada) Inc. CPS CROP PRODUCTION SERVICES and Design is a registered trademark of Crop Production Services, Inc.

country-guide.ca 35

business

Continued from page 35

Focus on what they have, not lack They are also part of the slow food movement, and Carpenter, along with 14 other Canadian youth delegates has been invited to attend a Slow Food Youth Network this fall in Italy.

Says Carpenter, “The slow food movement creates a certain level of camaraderie around the culture of food that is perhaps missing in North America, but is very strong in other parts of the world. Italy is a good example, where they can see very clearly the ramifications of moving away from the type of food culture that they have. It’s a bigger picture — it’s care for the food. The fact is that life itself should be delicious and it should include family, friendship and eating. Many of our customers are very familiar with these organizations.”

As for the future, the main goal is to continue to make a living off the farm and to continue to grow, but also to get better at the management side of

their business. “We’d like to grow the cow herd but with the current prices that’s a bit of a challenge,” says Carpenter. “Right now we’re putting in some more infrastructure, maybe a pipe water system or some way to increase water-holding capacity on the land. In the next five years, I see we’ll probably take on more land for grazing. This year we had an apprentice with us through the SOIL apprenticeship program. So we could see having a few more people on the farm working with us and helping us out.”

They also believe that the rural landscape needs more new farmers doing what they are doing, and Carpenter talks of “creating an awareness of the opportunities in this type of farming.”

“This is the only way for us to farm. We could never have jumped into a grain operation and been able to have the funds and the cash flow,” Carpenter says. “We’re creating wealth out of the actual management.” CG

Looking for some ag inspiration?

Watch the AgCanada TV video series online now.

Gain a new perspective on your farm, your family and your future with this informative video series from Farm Credit Canada.

INFORMATIVE:

INSPIRATIONAL:

Watch reviews of the latest ag products.

From vehicles, equipment and services to emerging ag technologies.

Listen to such noted speakers as Rick Hanson and many others discuss the challenges and rewards of farm living.

Current AGCanadaTV topics include: 

Know Your Options: Take the Risk Out of Grain Marketing

Tyler Russell, Cargill National Grain Marketing Solutions Manager shares how farmers can mitigate grain marketing risks and go from price takers to price makers.

Trade in the Canadian Agri-food Industry



Hear about the resiliency of Canada’s agri-food industry and its importance in the Canadian economy from FCC Chief Agricultural Economist J.P. Gervais.

AGCanadaTV is sponsored by

Grainews looks at Ford’s all-new, aluminum-bodied F-150



Grainews field editor Lisa Guenther talks with Trevor Boquist about the features on Ford’s 2015 F Series truck.

Start watching: www.agcanada.com/video

36 country-guide.ca

October 2015

By Gord Gilmour, Associate Editor

the risk of tried-and-true cereal varieties Many growers may not realize just how much the agronomic package has improved over the last few years ew cereal varieties sometimes just can’t seem to get any respect.

While many of each season’s new canola hybrids are snapped up well before planting season, new wheats and barleys often linger on the showroom floor, hoping someone will notice them.

That’s an unfair and out-of-date attitude, says respected wheat breeder Ron DePauw, recently retired from the federal government’s Swift Current research station and now a science adviser to SeCan. He told Guide recently that over the past several decades wheat varieties have seen a host of genetic improvements, including significant productivity gains.

“Prior to about 1990, there was a genetic gain of about a third of a per cent per year for CWRS, which is the most difficult market class to breed for because of the end-use requirements,” DePauw says.

“After that we saw those gains begin to grow, and fairly rapidly, until we’re now seeing annual gains that are about double that, at around two-thirds of a per cent a year.”

DePauw says this conclusion comes from serious analysis, in this case a peer-reviewed article in the Canadian Journal of Plant Science by researchers Julian Thomas and Rob Graf, and he says there is an emerging consensus that a new concentration on research in these areas has begun to pay serious Former AAFC wheat breeder Ron dividends to growers.

DePauw says yield gains from new So what changed? In a word, money wheats are now about two-thirds of — and specifically money from producers. one per cent per year.

“This can be attributed to the increase in funding,” DePauw says.

“More funding first increases the number of potential varieties we can screen, and in that way it’s a straight numbers game, but then those numbers have to be supported by good science, which is also very expensive.”

For example, good variety nurseries where the potential new strains are grown out are essential for comparing and contrasting things like yield as well as disease and insect resistance. After harvest there’s also got to be data analysis and further testing to October 2015

compare end-use products — right down to test milling and baking the most promising varieties.

“I always say it takes hands in the pans and boots in the field — you need good, trained, qualified personnel to do this work,” DePauw says.

He also points out that better funding can mean access to the latest tools of the trade in plant breeding, such as genetic markers and other high-tech techniques that are invaluable, particularly in developing self-pollinating non-GMO crops.

Slow adoption All in all it’s a pricey undertaking, but the bump in funding does pay dividends in newer and better varieties. But are growers picking them up quickly enough? The answer seems to be, some are and some aren’t, with two solitudes showing up in annual provincial crop insurance reports.

In Manitoba, many in the seed trade say growers tend to jump on new varieties quickly, perhaps due to their experience with corn and soy genetics or because of higher disease pressure in their wetter and warmer climate. Here, newer varieties like Carberry (registered 2009 but only available to commercial growers in 2012) and Glenn (also registered in 2009) nailed down the top two spots in 2014, and the latest information suggests a similar showing in 2015.

If the story stopped there, it wouldn’t be surprising. But a bit further down the top 10 list, other varieties start to appear — like AC Domain (1993) and AC Barrie (1994). Contrast that to canola, where the idea of growing a 20-year-old hybrid would be unheard of.

DePauw says a large and growing group of cereal growers are starting to sit up, take notice and choose newer and more advanced varieties. Another is sticking with the old way of doing business, where they picked a variety they liked and stuck with it for years, likely using bin-run seed.

DePauw says that while you might get away with bin running for a couple of years, these days pushing that too far could be a mistake because you’re losing the incremental gain from breeding advances.

“It’s now much more significant, and of course it’s compounding every year,” DePauw says. “I Continued on page 38 country-guide.ca 37

“ Having the latest genetics with the best agronomic package for your particular area is like insurance. I understand that to some growers, taking on a new variety is taking on risk — but sometimes the real risk is in — Denise Schmidt, FP Genetics doing nothing.”

Continued from page 37 think a lot of farmers have come to understand this, and are doing a really good job of picking and using new varieties, but there are some who are holding on to these older varieties when there are far better choices out there now.”

Compound interest Perhaps thinking in terms of compound interest is the most helpful way to understanding why wheat variety selection is more important than ever before. As the chart below shows, a small difference in year one, over time, becomes more and more profound. We ran the numbers starting at a baseline of 40 bushels an acre, and looked at what might happen at today’s trendline over time, versus how it might have played out in the past: Year

@.33 annual growth

@.66 annual growth

1

40.13

40.26

5

40.66

41.34

10

41.34

42.72

15

42.02

44.16

20

42.72

45.94

DePauw also points out there’s another equally important issue at play here too that goes beyond raw yield — that’s the better overall agronomic package including disease and pest resistance and the constantly improving end-use quality. He says growers should be looking at a combination of all these things as they’re shopping for their new variety, and balancing this against what they know about their own growing conditions.

Don’t just chase yield Todd Hyra, SeCan’s business manager for Western Canada, says smart growers are looking at the whole question as a matrix, rather than just chasing yield.

When plant breeders produce a new variety, it’s always a delicate balancing act — they need to meet the needs of a number of stakeholders including farmers and end-users. That can mean a good variety is a compromise between yield, end-use traits such as protein, and agronomic needs such as 38 country-guide.ca

Todd Hyra, SeCan’s business manager for Western Canada, says smart growers are looking at the whole question as a matrix, rather than just chasing yield. disease or insect resistance. It all makes for a bit of a question mark upon introduction as to what will be widely adopted by growers.

“It comes down to what those farmers are facing in their local areas, and frequently we see that varieties that meet a very clear-cut agronomic need are the ones that are adopted very quickly,” Hyra told G uide . For example he says short-strawed varieties have been taken up very quickly in areas where lodging is a perennial problem.

“Shave five or six inches off the height of the crop and — straw strength is tough to measure precisely, but say double the straw strength — and suddenly they’re able to go a mile an hour faster when they’re harvesting,” Hyra says. “That’s very attractive to growers, so attractive some might even be willing to give up a little bit of yield to get it.”

Likewise, midge-tolerant varieties took off really quickly, as have solid-stemmed varieties in regions where sawfly has been an ongoing problem. However, at times success can always be the luck of the draw, Hyra says.

“We had a solid-stem durum variety that I thought was really going to take off this year, and it didn’t,” Hyra says. “It will, I’m sure of that, but it just so hapOctober 2015

CEREAL PRODUCTION pens that growers in this region haven’t seen sawfly in real numbers for the past several years, so they’re deciding to stick with other varieties for now.”

That’s understandable, but at least one other seed marketer says growers might benefit from looking at these new traits in varieties as a form of background production insurance.

FP Genetics national sales manager Denise Schmidt says growers who move more quickly will have the best available agronomic traits and will be better prepared for the vagaries of production agriculture.

“We all know how unexpected things get thrown at us in a production season,” Schmidt told Guide. “Having the latest genetics with the best agronomic package for your particular area is like insurance. I understand that to some growers, taking on a new variety is taking on risk — but sometimes the real risk is in doing nothing.”

think you really do have to ask yourself, ‘What have I really got here?’”

Todd Hyra adds that growers can also count on a relatively predictable supplyand-demand effect in the seed market.

“If you’re looking for the hot new variety with a certain trait in the year of introduction, yes, you will likely pay a premium,” Hyra says. “However, if you’re willing to wait a year or two, that premium does disappear relatively quickly.”

Ron DePauw says he’s on the whole quite hopeful that cereals are starting to get a hard second look from growers, as seen in the number of new introductions by seed companies across Western Canada.

“You can see it across the spectrum from all the companies,” DePauw says. “When new varieties are introduced now, the volume is two or three times what it used to be.

I think this reflects growing farmer interest in new cereal crop varieties.” CG

Bin run also has its costs Frequently growers will cite the cost of certified seed as justification for holding on to old varieties, especially during times of tighter margins when pencilling profitability into the cereal equation can be a challenge. However, most seed industry insiders insist the numbers aren’t as clear cut as they might seem at first glance.

The Canadian Seed Trade Association suggests that growers who want to get a clear picture of their cost of seed need to look at the full gamut of costs. First there’s the lost income from the grain you’re retaining for seed, which is the most obvious cost. But you’d have to factor in loading and unloading, transportation, labour and the cost of cleaning, just to name the obvious additional outof-pocket expenses. Then there are other risks, such as liability for inadvertently declaring the wrong variety upon delivery and lost market opportunities that may only be open to newer varieties.

Schmidt adds that while self-pollinating crops do breed relatively true when compared to hybrids, it’s still not as simple as just saying you started with variety ‘Y,’ so that’s still what you have.

“Self-pollinating crops do reproduce relatively truly, compared to other crops; we know that, that’s science,” Schmidt says. “But over time it will be diluted by contamination from other varieties, and after more than two or three seasons, I October 2015

A high yielding, strong strawed CWRS with broad disease resistance.

A high grading, high protein variety with leading root rot resistance.

allianceseed.com 1-877-270-2890 country-guide.ca 39

CropsGuide

By Gord Gilmour, Associate editor

wheat quality conundrum

Changes to the marketing system make providing consistent shipments more difficult than under the days of the CWB t was in 2012 that the first complaints began to trickle in. Buyers long accustomed to highquality Canadian wheat started expressing disappointment in the quality of their shipments.

From nearly a tonne of peas in a 25-tonne wheat shipment to lower-than-expected protein levels and grade divergences, over the next few years the first quiet questions grew to a chorus of concern.

Daryl Beswitherick, who is in charge of quality assurance for the Canadian Grain Commission, told Country Guide the message has definitely got through.

“We’ve heard from our international customers pretty loud and clear over the past three or four years that the gluten strength of our CWRS wheat class is too low,” Beswitherick said.

CWRS is the acronym for Canadian Western Red

Hearth bread made from wheat differing in gluten strength. The loaf on the right indicates a stronger gluten protein composition than the loaf on the left.

Photo: Canadian Grain Commission

“ We’ve heard from our international customers pretty loud and clear over the past three or four years that the gluten strength of our CWRS wheat class is too low.”

— Daryl Beswitherick, CGC

Spring wheat, the world-renowned bread wheat that first made Prairie wheat fields famous.

If you’ve ever chewed a few kernels of wheat, you know about gluten. It’s formed when water is added to wheat flour and kneaded, causing the gliadin and glutenin proteins in the flour to expand and form long strands of gluten. This sticky compound can then trap the gas from growing yeast, causing bread to rise and take on its characteristic texture.

Beswitherick says two main points contributed to the gluten strength issue coming to the forefront — weather and the combination of varieties being grown. Setting protein in wheat kernels is a delicate process — first the crop must maximize yield potential, and only after that will the crop begin to convert soil nitrogen to higher protein levels. This means higher protein in drier years, and lower protein in wetter ones such as 2013 and 2014.

However, some varieties do a better job of maintaining gluten strength than others.

“We had three varieties — Harvest, Lillian and Unity — that had become some of the most widely grown varieties in Western Canada in the CWRS class,” Beswitherwick said. “They also happen to be on the lower end of the gluten strength spectrum.”

Growers liked their yields and agronomics, and in 2011 the three made up 42 per cent of the CWRS acres in Western Canada. That dropped to 22 per cent last year, so it’s declining, but still significant.

This has led to a proposal to drop a total of 25 wheat varieties from the CWRS class and four from the Canadian Prairie Red Spring (CPRS) class on August 1, 2017. That proposal is in the consultation process now, with the grain industry currently responding to the initial proposal.

New reality However, this move only addresses gluten strength. Other challenges still appear to remain, including the reality that the Canadian marketing system has evolved and some of the benefits that buyers got used to may be hard to replicate.

For example, there’s the issue of how grain is drawn to port and boats are filled. In the days of a single sales desk, the CWB was the sole wheat exporter and it drew at will from all stocks at the port elevators Continued on page 42

40 country-guide.ca

October 2015

FIELD TO BIN TO TRUCK GRAIN HANDLING PRODUCTS FROM START TO FINISH

VISIT WWW.FARM-KING.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION OR SEE YOUR LOCAL FARM KING DEALER.

HIGHER INPUT COSTS AND TIGHTER MARGINS REQUIRE A COMPLETE GRAIN MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO MAKE YOUR OPERATION AS PROFITABLE AS POSSIBLE. The complete line of Farm King grain handling equipment ensures you get top dollar for your crop. With decades of grain handling experience, Farm King offers everything you need to get your grain to market after it leaves the combine. ©2015 Buhler Trading Inc. | info@buhler.com | www.farm-king.com

www.farm-king.com

CropsGuide

CEREAL PRODUCTION

The former Canadian Wheat Board often loaded grain from more than one terminal, which meant a more consistent blend of quality. Exporters now load mainly from their own terminal.

These varieties change class in 2017 The Canadian Grain Commission says that it has been determined that the following varieties do not meet revised quality parameters for the Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) and Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR) wheat classes. The CGC will designate these varieties to another class as of August 1, 2017.

CWRS varieties AC Abbey AC Cora AC Eatonia AC Majestic AC Michael AC Minto Alvena Alikat CDC Makwa CDC Osler

42 country-guide.ca

Columbus Conway Harvest Kane Katepwa Leader Lillian McKenzie Neepawa Park Pasqua

Pembina Thatcher Unity 5603HR CPSR varieties AC Formost AC Taber Conquer Oslo

owned by the various companies. Those elevators represented grain drawn from many points across Western Canada, meaning the shipment tended to represent the average quality of the whole Prairie crop.

These days the various grain companies only draw from the stocks of their own terminals, which in turn only represent those areas where they have a collection network. This tends to exaggerate the effect of any regional production differences.

“The grain companies definitely don’t have quite the same blending capabilities,” Beswitherick says.

“The CWB would draw from five or six terminal elevators to fill a single ship at times, versus a single grain company that might just have one terminal it draws from.”

The process was known as “incremental loading” and at least some of the complaints are likely linked to this transition. Under the old system the CWB knew the same customer would return next year for Canadian wheat, giving them a powerful incentive to provide slightly better-than-expected quality.

One grain industry player says this realignment of expectations is only natural under the new system, and is in fact necessary. Brian Hayward headed Agricore United until it amalgamated with Saskatchewan Wheat Pool to form Viterra. He says sticking with the old system would be akin to giving away part of the value of the product.

“No other major wheat exporter in the world does this ‘incremental loading’” Hayward told Guide during a recent email exchange while he was travelling internationally. “It has a cost to shift vessels and it slows loading which is also a cost — both invisible.”

Hayward says the old way of doing business might have encouraged customer loyalty, but that loyalty came at a cost and farmers were never paid for providing better than spec quality. He says overall, the changes to the marketing system have made Canadian wheat growers more competitive, something that more than offsets any hiccups during the transition period.

“The grading system and registration system restricted farmer choice, which was an opportunity cost,” Hayward says. “All in all, Canada has to compete and use market-development tools and invest in key countries.”

Hayward also notes that the complaints were primarily coming from end-use customers outside the country, rather than from internal stakeholders.

“I do not hear a groundswell from farmers to get the CWB back into the fray,” he says. “They are there through G3 (Global Grain Group, the organization the CWB is transitioning into) and that competition is healthy for the industry.”

The CGC’s Beswitherick says the transition really represents a period of learning all around. There will be bumps along the way, but he’s confident they will be worked through, and in fact the work is already well underway. CG October 2015

Photography: Jade Markus/CNS

Continued from page 40

NEW

NEW

What we do, is in our name.

Trust Pioneer ® brand canola hybrids with Pioneer Protector ® traits to give you the peace of mind you need when growing canola. There are two new hybrids this year: Pioneer Protector ® Plus – the first and only canola seed with built-in resistance to both sclerotinia and clubroot.

Pioneer Protector ® HarvestMax – reduces the risk of harvest losses in canola.

To find out more, talk to your local Pioneer Hi-Bred sales representative or visit pioneer.com.

Pioneer ® brand products are provided subject to the terms and conditions of purchase which are part of the labeling and purchase documents. ®, SM, TM Trademarks and service marks of DuPont, Pioneer or their respective owners. © 2015, PHII.

1044 Pioneer Protector ad_Field_CGWest.indd 1

@PioneerWCanada

9/9/15 3:33 PM

CropsGuide

By Mike Kontzamanis, CIGI

Photos: Cigi

In 2014 alone, 49 countries imported 13.8 million tonnes of our CWRS.

versatility of CWRS key to its global appeal CWRS distinguishes itself by producing dough that mixes well with good processing and fermentation tolerance for all baking processes t’s no secret that farmers grow a lot of Canada Western Red Spring wheat. CWRS accounts for more than 75 per cent of Canada’s annual wheat production, and last year a staggering 49 countries imported 13.8 million tonnes. It has a reputation in domestic and international markets for its superior milling and baking quality, but what other key ingredient accounts for its success?

The strength of CWRS is hidden in its sheer versatility and its ability to jump from one role to the next. It’s ideal for the production of high-volume pan breads, it has well-balanced elasticity and extensibility for noodle

CWRS provides the high loaf volume for the pan breads familiar to North Americans, but it’s also a versatile blending flour for lower-volume products such as pitas and chapatis.

44 country-guide.ca

applications, and it can be used as a flour improver when blended with weaker-protein wheat. Quite simply, it’s useful in just about any flour-based end product.

“That’s the thing about CWRS. It’s quite versatile,” says Elaine Sopiwnyk, Cigi’s director of grain quality.

“A lot of times, what millers like about it is that you could potentially make different flours that have different qualities for a number of different end products.”

That versatility is borne out by the fact that countries from virtually every global region import CWRS — from Asia to the Middle East, plus Europe, Africa and North, South and Central America — all with their vastly different product requirements.

Available in three milling grades, CWRS is able to fill that tricky role of being able to efficiently satisfy protein content and quality with each market’s need to balance cost and customer specifications.

Its protein strength makes CWRS excellent in baking applications, as it is used to make not only pan bread but also various flatbreads, including pita, naan, chapati and even some hearth breads.

“CWRS is used a lot for pan breads, typically referred to as “high-volume” pan breads because bakers are looking for really good loaf volume, where the loaf is quite large in terms of height and size,” says Sopiwnyk.

But the bread wheat market is surprisingly diverse, Sopiwnyk adds. “You’d think a loaf of bread is the same everywhere, but it’s not.”

October 2015

cigi There are slight variations in pan breads among different countries due to a variety of factors. For example, different countries like different levels of sweetness in their bread, some have reduced salt requirements, and some processing conditions are unique to a particular region.

Regardless, with its bright flour colour and capacity for high water absorption, CWRS distinguishes itself by producing dough that mixes well with good processing and fermentation tolerance for all baking processes.

For a wide range of noodle and other Asian products, CWRS, with its well-balanced elasticity and extensibility, promises a smooth sheeting process. For markets that prefer pasta made from common wheat, CWRS may be used alone or in conjunction with durum for pasta production.

CWRS is also known for maintaining high flour milling yields with low protein losses. It has a strong but mellow gluten strength that ultimately results in a dough with good balance, making CWRS an ideal wheat “improver.”

“It is used as a blending wheat to improve overall quality while meeting cost requirements,” says Sopiwnyk. “Often, markets have access to domestic wheat or other lower-quality wheat that may have lower freight and overall costs, but these wheats might not have the quality that CWRS has. So in that case, they would blend in CWRS at 20 or 30 per cent to improve the quality.”

While CWRS’s capacity isn’t limitless, the breadth of applications it offers to so many different countries, all with different product requirements, is what gives this Canadian wheat an edge in the global wheat market. CG

Trait Stewardship Responsibilities Notice to Farmers Monsanto Company is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship® (ETS). Monsanto products are commercialized in accordance with ETS Product Launch Stewardship Guidance, and in compliance with Monsanto’s Policy for Commercialization of Biotechnology-Derived Plant Products in Commodity Crops.

Commercialized products have been approved for import into key export markets with functioning regulatory systems. Any crop or material produced from this product can only be exported to, or used, processed or sold in countries where all necessary regulatory approvals have been granted. It is a violation of national and international law to move material containing biotech traits across boundaries into nations where import is not permitted. Growers should talk to their grain handler or product purchaser to confirm their buying position for this product. Excellence Through Stewardship® is a registered trademark of Excellence Through Stewardship.

ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Roundup Ready® crops contain genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides. Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for canola contains the active ingredients difenoconazole, metalaxyl (M and S isomers), fludioxonil and thiamethoxam. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for canola plus Vibrance® is a combination of two separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients difenoconazole, metalaxyl (M and S isomers), fludioxonil, thiamethoxam, and sedaxane. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for corn (fungicides and insecticide) is a combination of four separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin, ipconazole, and clothianidin. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for corn (fungicides only) is a combination of three separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin and ipconazole. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for corn with Poncho®/VoTivo™ (fungicides, insecticide and nematicide) is a combination of five separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin, ipconazole, clothianidin and Bacillus firmus strain I-1582. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for soybeans (fungicides and insecticide) is a combination of four separate individually registered products, which together contain the active ingredients fluxapyroxad, pyraclostrobin, metalaxyl and imidacloprid.

Acceleron® seed treatment technology for soybeans (fungicides only) is a combination of three separate individually registered products, which together contain the active ingredients fluxapyroxad, pyraclostrobin and metalaxyl. Acceleron and Design®, Acceleron®, DEKALB and Design®, DEKALB®, Genuity and Design®, Genuity®, JumpStart®, RIB Complete and Design®, RIB Complete®, Roundup Ready 2 Technology and Design®, Roundup Ready 2 Yield®, Roundup Ready®, Roundup Transorb®, Roundup WeatherMAX®, Roundup®, SmartStax and Design®, SmartStax®, Transorb®, VT Double PRO®, and VT Triple PRO® are registered trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC, Used under license. Vibrance® and Fortenza® are registered trademarks of a Syngenta group company. LibertyLink® and the Water Droplet Design are trademarks of Bayer. Used under license. Herculex® is a registered trademark of Dow AgroSciences LLC. Used under license. Poncho® and Votivo™ are trademarks of Bayer. Used under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Track systems with

Weatherfarm Mobile Available FREE for iPhone & Android

Weather from hundreds of stations available on your smartphone!

The new Weatherfarm Mobile app gives you instant access to an extensive, live-updating network with current and forecasted weather data for your farm or surrounding area.

App features include: Current conditions Hourly, 6 hour and 10 day forecast data  Radar & satellite data  Weather news & facts

Weather alerts Market and ag news  Intuitive interface with large, easy-to-read text  More to Come









The Weatherfarm Mobile app gives farmers clear and comprehensive weather information that is essential to their operation. Download the app today!

For more information please contact us at: support@weatherfarm.com Sponsored by

Get weather on your desktop at weatherfarm.com

October 2015

country-guide.ca 45

CropsGuide

By Pat Keena

the future of minor wheat classes Recent changes in marketing and grading regulations should mean more acres, but non-CWRS wheats are still struggling to find their place t’s a chicken-and-egg standoff. Prairie farmers are enthusiastic about the higher yields from minor classes like Prairie spring, extra strong and winter wheat, but they want an assured market. Marketers say they can sell it — if farmers grow a consistent supply. Then there’s the question or where to spend scarce research dollars.

“Our association wants to get answers to the question of where minor classes of wheat are headed,” says Brent Vankoughnet, executive director of the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association. “First, we want to make sure there is market development investment. How do we continue to make the connection with our customers?”

Vankoughnet says there are also the agronomic considerations.

“Does (a minor wheat class) earn a place in my rotation? Is it competitive? Sure, yield times price equals profit, but there’s more than that to consider.

Are there long-term consequences like excess straw or access to your field as in the case of getting a canola crop off to plant your winter wheat?”

Vankoughnet says wheat acres in Manitoba have been relatively stable over the years, with 90 to 95 per cent falling in the CWRS class and only “ebbs and flows” of the minor classes going in the ground.

“With so much of our wheat in the CWRS class, we don’t want to drop a stitch there in terms of agronomy and market development,” says Vankoughnet. “But we want to encourage options for farmers.”

46 country-guide.ca

Area steady or declining Ethanol plant demand helped increase soft white spring area to 1.2 million acres in 2013, but it dropped to under 800,000 acres in 2014.

Canada Prairie Spring (CPS) acreage has kept near the million-acre mark, but Canada Western Extra Strong wheat area has dropped to under 100,000 acres Prairie-wide in 2014. Most of this wheat is now grown under contract for specific domestic and European markets.

After peaking at 1.245 million acres in 2012, winter wheat area plummeted to just over 600,000 acres last fall. G3 (formerly CWB) weather and crop analyst Bruce Burnett attributes the drop to disease and to later harvests in recent years, which affects farmers’ ability to get winter wheat in the ground.

However, Burnett says yield and quality of the 2015 harvest look good and an earlier harvest this year means the crop is likely to rebound.

Harvey Brooks, general manager of the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission, agreed and says winter wheat is “on the cusp of moving forward.” He also sees potential for CPS. “There’s lots of excitement surrounding CPS Red wheat. If we can demonstrate end-use demand and if farmers can get a good price, good things will happen.”

Todd Hyra of SeCan says there are new CPS varieties that have improved stature and better lodging Continued on page 48 October 2015

NOVEMBER 23-28, 2015

RODEO

Five nights of rodeo action Nov 24 - 28 featuring Wild Horse Racing!

SHOPPING

Shop at one of Western Canada’s largest trade shows just a month before Christmas!

LIVESTOCK

Experience the largest livestock show in Canada featuring cattle, horses, bison, sheep and goats!

For the full schedule of events, visit:

www.agribition.com

CropsGuide

Continued from page 46 resistance. But new varieties need to be further developed by the marketing chain in order to create the critical mass for long-term sales success.

Segregation costs Brooks says the transition from a single desk to multiple sellers has prompted a re-examination of markets and customers’ desires.

“Wheat needs to be competitive. There must be value to the end-user as well as value to the farmer.

There must be high enough volumes to satisfy collection and transportation profitability. Velocity is everything in transportation. Grains are costly to segregate.”

Andy Klippenstein of G3 says the Canadian marketing and collection system is a critical factor in the success of minor wheat classes, since terminals may be reluctant to take ownership of a smaller amount of grain that needs to be segregated and may not fill an entire silo.

“All grain companies want to turn their capacity as often as possible and with the smaller classes, they may be tying up a large silo that is partially filled for quite some time until they actually get the opportunity to ship the product to the end-user,” says Klippenstein.

Ready markets “CPS wheat and winter wheat, from a baking perspective, have seen a significant improvement in varieties over a number of years, delivering superior milling and baking attributes,” says Yvonne Supeene, head of baking technology for the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi). “CPS has good water absorption, fermentation tolerance and volume. It makes excellent pan and hearth breads.”

Supeene says Canada’s winter wheats are perfect for baking baguettes because they contribute the “burst” in the loaf when it is baked to a golden crust and torn in two.

Esey Assefaw, Cigi’s head of Asian products and extrusion technology, says these wheats have the unique medium-protein qualities that buyers in these 48 country-guide.ca

CEREAL PRODUCTION

markets are looking for to produce Asian noodles and steam bread. CPS Red, in particular, delivers the correct elasticity needed in many types of noodles.

For Japanese udon or ichiban noodles, CPS Red provides elasticity that allows the manufacturer to reduce the need for starch, which improves the profit margin for the manufacturer.

Despite having red bran, red winter wheat separates cleanly during milling and produces a white flour, which is prized in the production of Asian bread and steam buns.

Assefaw says the challenge is not quality, but consistent supply. “If we get production, we have sales.

If we have sales, we get production. Somebody has to support red winter wheat or it’s all going to go to the U.S. for other purposes.”

Cigi offers programs and courses designed to attract buyers of Canadian grains and show them how the various Canadian wheat classes can improve the quality and profit margin of their products. This summer, Cigi hosted or attended events reaching out to about two dozen buyers from eight Latin American and Caribbean countries to describe the characteristics of CPS Red and other Canadian wheat.

Alberta Wheat Commission chairman Kent Erickson agrees that adequate production is needed to deliver consistent quality and show buyers that Canada is committed to supply.

“Farmers benefit from higher-yielding varieties of CPS and winter wheat, and they are trying to get more consistent demand from handlers for their production,” Erickson says. While some growers’ agreements with grain companies do exist, “identity-preserved contracts haven’t reached into winter wheat yet.”

SeCan CEO Jeff Reid says recent regulatory changes are allowing for new and exciting varieties of minor classes. “The grain commission is sorting out the wheat classes. Industry is unified about making sure CWRS is tightened up and doing the job that customers want. CPS Red is a great alternative milling wheat and the yield has upside potential.” CG October 2015

Content and Connection North America’s Premier Grains and Oilseeds Conference

Fairmont Hotel, Winnipeg, November 2-4, 2015

www.cerealsnorthamerica.com

Cereals North America 2015 features leading agriculture industry thinkers and innovators from Canada, the U.S., Latin America, China and Europe. The conference will showcase the global grain and oilseed markets and what lies ahead for world agriculture.

Come hear expert analysis of Canada’s crop quality, regional market outlooks from around the globe and discussion about the key influences behind the world’s extreme weather patterns.

For more information, contact: Colleen Purvis - (204) 983-3908 Jean Basse - (312) 972-5858

World-class Speakers: • Daniel Basse, President, AgResource Co. • Bruce Burnett, CWB/G3 Canada Limited • William Tierney, AgResource Company • Karl Gerrand, G3 Canada Limited • Josh Schonwald, Award-winning journalist • Bell B. Chen, Vice President, Asian Markets • Scott Yuknis, Climate Impact Company • Pedro H. Dejneka, AGR BRASIL • Nicolas Kennedy, Euronext • Corey Cherr, Thomson Reuters • Erik Norland, CME Group • Neil Townsend, CWB/G3 Canada Limited • Susan Sutherland, CME Group • Kyle Tapley, MDA Weather Services ...with more to come!

For information on sponsorship or display booths please visit www.cerealsnorthamerica.com

By Jay Whetter

Beetles galore!

It was a busy year for flea beetles in canola. Best practices for 2016 remain seed treatment and good stand establishment he new generation of adult flea beetles was thick on canola fields in August, nibbling pods and capping off what had been a busy year for the costly insect pest.

Bob Elliott, integrated pest management scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Saskatoon, saw a fivefold increase in adults captured in sticky traps in summer 2015 compared to summer 2014. This was on top of a significantly higher spring population.

Late-summer feeding is not usually an economic concern, even with big numbers, but the sight of these clusters had Canola Council of Canada agronomists wondering what 2016 will bring. Flea beetles that hatch and grow into adults through the summer are the generation that overwinters and emerges in the spring looking for young canola plants to eat.

“Flea beetles are the most important — the most costly — insect pest in canola, with just about every acre getting protection through seed treatment and a percentage of those same acres also getting in an in-crop application,” says CCC agronomy specialist Keith Gabert. “The in-crop protection decision

seemed especially common in 2015, with widespread cool and dry spring conditions that delayed crop establishment and left the crop vulnerable for longer.”

The C anola W atch agronomy e-newsletter regularly addressed the heavy flea beetle situation during crop establishment in May. Slow emergence or delayed emergence due to dry soil, cool temperatures and repeated frost stretched the length of time plants needed protection from flea beetles. Unthrifty plants were extra vulnerable. Many fields needed to be reseeded, and many others with just enough plants to make it through had to be sprayed.

“Lower populations of surviving plants meant growers had to pay closer attention to thresholds and were more likely to spray this year to protect that minimum stand,” Gabert says. “So with the high summer population, what will growers face in 2016?”

Entomologists are careful not to read too much into fall numbers. Past research did not show a strong correlation between fall numbers and the spring threat. However, Alejandro Costamanga at the University of Manitoba is leading a Prairie-wide grower-funded research collaboration focused on an integrated approach to flea beetle management. This research will provide improved economic thresholds for flea beetles in different ecozones, identify natural predators, and develop predictive models based on overwintering flea beetle populations, weather and other variables. The researchers believe advances in genomics and data analytics may make this modelling realistic. Results will not be available for 2016.

Plan for 2016

Striped flea beetles (shown) emerge earlier than crucifer flea beetles and current seed treatments tend to be more effective against the all-black crucifer species.

Photo: Deanna McLennan, CCC

50 country-guide.ca

Best management practices for flea beetles remain seed treatment, followed by good agronomy to provide a minimum stand of seven to 10 plants per square foot, and in-crop scouting up to the four-leaf stage to see if foliar insecticide is required.

Even though current seed treatments are not as effective on striped flea beetles as they are on crucifer flea beetles, seed treatment is still an important investment, Gabert says. “And I can’t emphasize enough the value of a well-established stand. A fast-growing even stand is one of your best defences.”

Seed treatment and rapid, even stand establishment set up the crop to withstand most foliar flea beetle feeding that may occur. Thin stands, delayed emergence, and stress such as cool and dry conditions increase the likelihood that a foliar application is needed.

October 2015

CANOLA PRODUCTION “I don’t know if there are currently any better ways to manage flea beetles than what canola growers are typically doing,” says Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development provincial entomologist John Gavloski. “Assessing defoliation to make spray decisions can be tricky, and damage can progress very quickly when weather is hot and calm and flea beetle populations are high. So management strategies that may reduce the need for foliar insecticide applications would be welcome.”

Hopefully in the future new strategies such as incorporating resistant varieties or enhanced control through natural enemies could be part of the management program, Gavloski says.

Flea beetle management in the future

Above: It takes a lot of flea beetles to cause economic loss late in the season and spraying is rarely warranted, but scenes like this in 2015 caught growers’ attention.

Photo: Justine Cornelsen, CCC

Right: Keith Gabert, Canola Council of Canada agronomy specialist, emphasizes the value of rapid emergence of seven to 10 canola plants per square foot as an important step in flea beetle risk management.

October 2015

“We do have new management tools in development that will further help growers with flea beetle management and we hope to bring some of those to market in time for the 2017 planting season,” says Ted Labun, Western Canada seedcare technical lead for Syngenta, the company that makes Helix seed treatment.

Elliott and his team at AAFC have been field testing new chemistries currently under review by the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) and are preparing three scientific papers that will be submitted for publication once the products are registered. The papers will describe seed treatments and mixtures that provide the best control, protection and agronomic improvements when crucifer and/or striped flea beetles are a problem.

They will also describe the impact of temperature and soil moisture on the efficacy of the products against each species.

“Once these new products are available, it will be helpful for flea beetle management if growers are able to choose the most appropriate active ingredient or combination based on their local conditions or their pesticide rotation,” Elliott says. CG Jay Whetter is communications manager and Canola Watch editor with the Canola Council of Canada. To read C anola Watch flea beetle management articles, go to www.canolawatch.org, click the Insects heading at the top and select the “flea beetle” subcategory. While at the site, sign up to receive the free agronomy email newsletter. country-guide.ca 51

CropsGuide

By Clare Stanfield for WGRF

Mycotoxin detection may get even simpler, cheaper WGRF-funded research produces test that can detect fusarium toxins at the elevator

Maria DeRosa has developed a DON test using aptamers, which are synthetic pieces of DNA. Photo: Supplied

t’s a typical kind of research story,” says Maria DeRosa with a knowing laugh. “Something doesn’t quite work and you think, oh no! This isn’t what I anticipated. But then it turns into an opportunity you hadn’t thought of before.”

She’s right, of course. Science is littered with stories of successful accidents, and for DeRosa, an associate professor in the chemistry department at Carleton University in Ottawa, the setback in question was the unexpected difficulty in finding an aptamer for deoxynivalenol (DON) to use in the new mycotoxin tests she and her team were developing.

DON is the toxic compound produced by fusarium infections in wheat and barley.

Backing up a bit, the idea behind DeRosa’s research was to develop better, cheaper mycotoxin tests by using aptamers, which are synthetic pieces of DNA. Because they are made of DNA, aptamers are highly specific to the mycotoxin they are designed to detect, so a DON aptamer will identify the presence of DON with great accuracy. Also, because they can be made cheaply in the lab, aptamers vastly improve the affordability of the mycotoxin tests that elevators currently use.

Then, as now, elevators use lateral-flow assays (LFAs) and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) tests to detect the presence of mycotoxins like DON, ochratoxin A (OTA) and fumonisin B1 (FB1) in grain shipments. But they’re expensive tests, particularly as they’re not very quantitative.

52 country-guide.ca

“Our goal was to have one or two cheap mycotoxin tests that can be used at elevators,” says DeRosa of the three-year, WGRF-funded research project that wrapped up earlier this year. But because finding a good DON aptamer took longer than expected, the team wound up looking at the problem in a new way and coming up with a third test option, one that’s even cheaper and easier to use without sacrificing accuracy.

The aha! moment DeRosa’s research focused on the fact that current LFA tests use antibodies to detect the presence of mycotoxins. She hypothesized that replacing antibodies with aptamers would result in more accurate tests that would provide more quantifiable results at a fraction of the cost.

The research plan had three steps to achieve this.

First, find aptamers for each toxin; second, redesign TLC and LFA platforms to “fit” those aptamers; third, validate the redesigned test platforms (prove they work) using real mycotoxin samples.

It started off well with the team very quickly finding FB1 and OTA aptamers. “We thought DON couldn’t be much more difficult than OTA,” says DeRosa. “But about halfway through, we ran into problems.”

The search for a DON aptamer was briefly set aside while the team continued to develop new LFA and TLC platforms for the aptamer sequences they did have. “The way we were designing the platforms originally, we assumed we’d have the sequences first,” says DeRosa.

It meant they couldn’t even think about developing DON-specific tests until they had the aptamer.

“We got the LFAs to work specifically with this aptamer or that one,” she says. “But we thought, when we do get the sequences for DON, we’re back to the drawing board to develop an LFA that would work with it.”

Which is when the light bulb went on. Instead of starting with the aptamer, why not start with the test platform? Why not create a platform that would work not just with DON, once they found it, but any aptamer?

“Since we had to revamp everything anyway, we thought, can we make this simpler?” says DeRosa.

“So we split our focus. We were still looking for DON aptamers, but we also looked for a modular test platform that we could just snap any aptamer into.” october 2015

WGRF Big words for simple test What the team ultimately came up with is something DeRosa calls a LIANA, which stands for Linker Assembled NanoAptasensors — big words to describe an extremely simple test. She explains that because aptamers are basically DNA, they naturally bind to other bits of DNA. In the case of the LIANA test, aptamers are bound to a linker, a bit of DNA that has natural fluorescence.

When this pairing comes into contact with the specific toxin the aptamer is designed to detect, the “light” goes on.

If no toxin is present, the light stays off.

“This all happens on a piece of regular filter paper,” says DeRosa, adding that the aptamer solution is added to the paper then dried to create the test platform. “When you put a drop of your target on the spot, it breaks up and the light either goes on or not.” A hand-held black light shows the results instantly.

Best of all, she estimates this myco-

toxin test will cost all of a buck. “We could use the paper test as initial screening at the elevator and you can start to make some decisions with the results,” she says. “The Smart TLC test will give even more information,” says DeRosa, adding that test should come in around $10, as will the LFA. All three test platforms have been proven in the lab, which is as far as the WGRF funding was intended to go. “We always knew this grant would not get us to the scale-up point,” says DeRosa.

“We do have DON sequences now, and we’ve moved these ideas to working prototypes,” she says. “I’m really excited about scaling up and getting into the hands of people who are not scientists, ask them what’s easy, what’s hard, what would they change — that kind of thing — do some stringent in-field testing.

“We’re still at the point where I’m convinced we have three platforms that I think we can put in the field,” says DeRosa.

“And that’s why we’re so grateful for the WGRF funding. We had the nugget

WGRF is a farmer-funded and directed non-profit organization investing in agricultural research that benefits producers in Western Canada. For over 30 years the WGRF board has given producers a voice in agricultural research funding decisions. WGRF manages an Endowment Fund and the wheat and barley variety development checkoff funds, investing over $14 million annually into variety development and field crop research. WGRF brings the research spending power of all farmers in Western Canada together, maximizing the returns they see from crop research.

of a good idea but, a lot of the time, people want to know you’ve figured it out before they’ll fund you. But WGRF believed in the idea and gave us the time and resources to figure it out.” CG

A hopper full of best-in-class technology.

Through Western Grains Research Foundation, producers have helped fund research and development for more than 200 varieties of wheat and barley. You most likely recognize more than a few of them, and you’ve probably had some success growing several of them too. Western Grains Research Foundation is a producer-funded and producer-directed organization. Working together, we produce some of the world’s finest and most technologically advanced grains.

@westerngrains westerngrains.com

business

Digital pursuits The list of tools to collect, manage and transfer farm data is growing. Here’s a look at some of the recent additions

By Scott Garvey, CG Machinery Editor

Lehmann If your focus is on gathering more data rather than managing it, drone technology may be for you, and a new contender has recently stepped up with a high-tech offering. France’s Lehmann Aviation (www. lehmannaviation.com) made a move to break into the North American data-gathering market this spring with the launch of what it calls “an efficient and affordable” aerial system for precision agriculture.

Its LA300 drone comes with a MicaSense RedEdge multi-spectral camera.

Suggested retail price for the full flight package is US$8,990.

The LA300AG drone is compatible with the latest version of Lehmann OperationCenter software

for flight preparation and mission control, which is designed to work with Windows8.1 tablets and PCs. The company claims OperationCenter is very user friendly.

To get multi-spectral images of crops, the user just has to set waypoints on the touch-screen map of the area, and OperationCenter will automatically calculate all mission parameters. After the trajectory is sent to the LA300AG via Wi-Fi and the drone is launched by hand, it automatically accomplishes the flight and lands fully autonomously at the chosen site.

The LA300AG can fly for up to 45 minutes at a range of up to 25 km (15.5 miles) and can cope with crosswinds of up to 35 km/h. Together with the RedEdge camera the LA300AG weighs 950 g (two pounds) and has a 92-centimetre wingspan.

Continued on page 56

54 country-guide.ca

October 2015

The Canadian Association of Farm Advisors (CAFA) Inc. is a national, non-profit professional umbrella organization dedicated to assisting farm families and businesses by increasing the skills of farm advisors and consultants.

www.cafanet.com

The Agriculturalization of Professional Advisors

By John Goudy

W

hat do you do if you’re a professional advisor stuck in the office wishing you were out farming? You join CAFA. You bring your skills and your knowledge of finance, tax, accounting, law, insurance, land and business valuation, agrology, marketing or other disciplines to agriculture, and in exchange you get out of the office and get involved in the business of farming. The professionalization of agriculture in Canada is driving a need for the agriculturalization of professional advisors. Fortunately, both for farm families and businesses and for office-bound advisors with a love of farming, CAFA is meeting that need.

Through regular local chapter meetings, provincial and national conferences, and other special events, CAFA professionals stay on top of developments in the agricultural industry and build and maintain a network of connections that enhances the services they provide. Many situations faced by farm businesses present complex challenges that involve multiple disciplines – farm succession planning is a prime example. CAFA advisors who can help in one area have ready access to a network of engaged, educated and experienced farm advisors to fill a role in another area where the need arises.

”Many situations faced by farm businesses present complex challenges that involve multiple disciplines – farm succession planning is a prime example.”

And farm advisors themselves benefit from networking with other professionals who are interested in agriculture. I farm north of London, Ontario, but I mostly practice law (I’m still ironing out the work/ work balance). The vast majority of lawyers I know don’t have a background in farming and don’t share my interest in farming.

CAFA members share my interest. The other professional organizations to which I belong don’t offer continuing education programs on agriculture. CAFA provides that ongoing education.

If you’re a professional advisor itching to get back to agriculture, or an agricultural advisor looking for the support of a professional group interested in agriculture, find your local CAFA chapter and attend a meeting. Come out and listen to a guest speaker and talk to CAFA members about their experience. Then take the next step

Toll free: 1-877-474-2871 Email: info@cafanet.com PO Box 270 • Seven Sisters Falls, MB • R0E 1Y0

and join CAFA. Attend meetings, expand your knowledge, build professional networks and become a certified CAFA farm advisor.

Current, Connected and Certified.

If you’re a farmer in need of professional advice, look for CAFA’s extensive directory of farm advisors all across Canada. You’ll find advisors who share your interest in agriculture and who have the support of a multi-disciplinary network of agricultural advisory professionals. Professional advice for today’s professional farm.

John Goudy is a partner in the law firm of Scott Petrie LLP in London, Ontario. His practice is focused in the areas of commercial and environmental litigation, expropriation law, energy regulation and regulatory offences. John is the author of the blog Law of the Lands – Farm, Energy and Enviro Law – Legal Information for Landowners: www.landownerlaw.blogspot.com.

Follow us on Twitter @CAFANET

business Continued from page 54

Trimble Early this year Trimble announced the launch of its Android-based TMX-2050 display, along with a suite of mobile apps, all of which are intended to allow producers to increase their on-farm connectivity through the brand’s Connected Farm telematics offering.

“The TMX-2050 display provides growers with an environment they are already familiar with since it uses the same Android-based platform used by many mobile devices today,” said Erik Ehn, Smart Machines business area director of Trimble’s agriculture division, in a company press release. “Growers are able to customize the display screen with applications that are most important to their workflow.”

The display includes Trimble’s Connected Farm Scout, Fleet, Productivity, Operator, and Irrigate applications.

Also available on the display is the Connected Farm dashboard, which provides access in one central location to key information such as rainfall totals, weather forecasts, commodity tracking, planting coverage, aerial imaging, irrigation monitoring and control.

Although some Connected Farm applications may require additional purchases of hardware, data plans or service subscriptions, growers will also have access to third-party mobile applications.

John Deere

New Holland

If you run older John Deere equipment that isn’t JDLink-compatible or if you have a mixed fleet, transferring files wirelessly to and from all your machines is now easier. In June, Deere introduced its Mobile Data Transfer device, which can be plugged into the USB port of an in-cab monitor to create a Wi-Fi signal that allows you to use your smartphone to transfer agronomic files wirelessly.

“It eliminates the manual transfer of data,” said Jeff Nolting of John Deere’s Intelligent Solutions Group in a release. “Your phone sends the data to the Operations Centre to give farm managers and trusted advisers immediate access.”

Deere has also introduced the MyJobs app for smartphones. It allows farm managers to plan jobs through the brand’s cloud-based Operations Centre and to send the details of them to each employee’s smartphone in real time.

This spring New Holland added some major upgrades to its PLM Connect telematics system that are also intended to make on-farm data transfer easier. Producers using blue equipment will now be able to wirelessly transfer a variety of real-time data between their machines and the farm office via the brand’s cloud-based PLM Connect portal.

The upgraded PLM Connect features now allow machines to be monitored from the farm office, and settings or operating instructions can be sent to an operator in real time. It also further increases the degree of interaction that is possible between machines at work in the field and a manager in the farm office, so wireless transfer of data, such as yield maps, fuel usage and job status, between the machine and the cloud-based PLM Connect portal are now possible. The information can then be accessed on a PC or tablet. CG

56 country-guide.ca

October 2015

business

Training The Canadian Centre for Unmanned Vehicle Systems in Foremost, Alta., provides 1.5-day training courses to people in all industries, including ag if you decide to bolster your farm fleet by adding a drone — or, to use its more formal name, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

There are federal rules governing UAV operation, and the course will teach pilots how to comply with them.

“We help them navigate that regulatory environment,” says Doug Hanna, a project manager at CCUVS. Other important aspects of flying are also included in the course.

The centre has a dedicated training area in Foremost, but Hanna says it may consider holding courses in other locations if there is a large enough group. For more information check out the website at CCUVS.com.

Come and join us for the

SUMMIT ON CANADIAN SOIL HEALTH Tuesday, December 1 , 2015 11:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Hyatt Regency Hotel, Calgary, Alberta ST

• Hear best-selling author, Dr. David Montgomery, talk about the importance of our soil.

• Learn more about soil health challenges and potential solutions from leading farmers.

• Interact with industry, science and government panelists to learn how these groups are working to improve soil health.

October 2015

Be part of the solution!

Register for the Summit today. soilcc.ca Registration fee: $150.

(Includes 2016 membership) No charge for GrowCanada attendees.

info@soilcc.ca 204-792-2424 www.soilcc.ca Follow us on Twitter

@soilcouncil

country-guide.ca 57

election

Farm election 2015

By Gerald Pilger

What does your party see as the role of government in agriculture?

C� When given a level playing field, Canadian producers are second to none. Government must continue to ensure that farmers have a level playing field and then get out of the way so they can do what they do best — build their businesses, grow our economy and feed the world.

L� Hard-working, skilful farmers and ranchers form the foundation of our food sector. Everyone else’s success in the sector depends on primary producers in the first place. The role of government is to drive the growth and development of a competitive, innovative and sustainable Canadian agriculture and agri-food sector.

ND� The federal government should make the targeted investments needed to promote farm products around the globe and ensure that trade negotiations secure real and meaningful market access for Canadian exporters while protecting the supplymanaged agricultural sectors. We need to work with the provinces and territories to address interprovincial/ territorial barriers to trade.

G� We must strengthen the mandate of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, reduce our dependence on short-sighted and damaging chemicals, encourage the production of quality produce and support local rural communities. The role of the federal government is to co-ordinate across provincial lines, to enforce uniform safety standards based on scientific evidence, and to support our farmers.

What is the biggest issue facing farmers and agriculture today, and what would you do about it?

C� To grow their businesses and our economy, farmers today need to stay competitive in the ever-changing global environment. Farmers must have access to the latest inputs and the necessary market access to ensure their prod58 country-guide.ca

Agriculture seems largely ignored in the run-up to the October 19 federal election. That’s not to say there aren’t some very important issues facing farmers, but harvest time is rarely ideal for worrying about agricultural policies. So columnist Gerald Pilger asked each of the main political parties the following questions about their stances on the issues that farmers seem to be most concerned about. Below are their abbreviated responses.

For their full submissions go to www.country-guide.ca (Search for ‘Farm election 2015’).

C = Conservative L = Liberal

D = New Democrat N G = Green

ucts can reach tables around the world. Equally important is succession planning and ensuring access to stable capital through institutions like Farm Credit Canada. Our party will continue to work with young farmers to ensure they have access to the tools they need to achieve long, successful careers in agriculture.

L� A Liberal government will invest in economic security and growth for the middle class. We will focus on a handful of key issues affecting Canadian farmers and work on finding practical solutions, including improving grain handling and transportation, and designing farm safety net programs with farmers for farmers. We will also stop giving government cheques to the wealthiest families, so we can give more to the middle class and those working hard to join it.

An economy that works for the middle class means a country that works for everyone.

ND� After 10 years under Stephen Harper, family farms are struggling. Farm debt has hit new records every year, growing to more than $84 billion in 2014, but the minister of agriculture has said he is not concerned. Today’s farmers are modern farmers, and they need to be linked to cutting-edge research and market information. Our rural communities need investment and infrastructure, and to be linked to growing urban markets. New Democrats have developed a National Foods strategy and is the only party to do so.

G� The greatest issue facing farmers today is a lack of opportunity. Canada needs an innovative forward-thinking food strategy — one that promotes food security, food safety, and healthy food. We must protect the soil we depend upon.

October 2015

election The Green Party believes strong national leadership is required to promote agricultural sustainability, energy efficiency, and support farm families. This means encouraging the localization and diversification needed to stabilize the food economy without expensive government subsidies, and safeguarding the supply management system.

What changes, if any, do you propose to agricultural risk management programs?

C� Farmers need programs that are bankable and predictable. As a government we have established livestock price insurance and increased investments in crop insurance, which remains a producer’s first line of defence. At the same time we continue to have in place a full suite of business risk management programs to ensure farmers are protected during times of unforeseen market disruptions or natural disasters.

L� Many farmers criticize existing programs as complicated, unpredictable and inadequate. Liberals believe that farmers facing financial hardship through no fault of their own should be given bankable, predictable support to avoid financial catastrophe. Successful Business Risk Management programs are best when designed by farmers for farmers.

ND� Our government should be there when times are tough for the people who feed Canadian families. Instead, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives sold the Canadian Wheat Board to foreign investors. They cut programs like Community

Pastures and Shelterbelt. And the last time the Liberals were in power, their risk management program became a fiasco.

Tom Mulcair’s NDP is the only party with a national food strategy that expands risk management programs.

G� Agricultural risk management programs should be retooled to include measures to encourage responsible agriculture, smaller farms, and further diversification. The Harper Conservatives have done nothing but cut funding for these programs. The current government’s food policy has encouraged farmers to produce bumper crops with little regard to quality, has helped perpetuate a system where farmers are paid little or nothing, and has allowed excess produce to be wasted.

Would you be willing to end supply management if needed to secure a trade deal?

C� Our party understands the value of supply management to producers and our overall Canadian economy. As a government, we have signed free trade deals with 39 countries all while protecting the three pillars of supply management.

Our party has always supported supply management and we will continue to do so.

L� The Liberal Party of Canada supports supply management.

Canada has historically managed to keep supply management while still giving other countries access to our markets. It Continued on page 60

Grow informed.

With the new web series: AGGronomyTV

AgCanada.com is proud to present this new informative web video series.

AGGronomyTV is a series of videos that covers today’s top issues related to soil management and crop production. Video topics include:  New Seeding Technology  Tire Performance  4R Stewardship

 Crop Suitability for

NW Saskatchewan  Plus more…

 Growing Soybeans

Sponsored by

Scan the code or visit the website for more information

www.agcanada.com/aggronomytv October 2015

country-guide.ca 59

election Continued from page 59 doesn’t have to be any different now. The Harper Conservatives conducted TPP negotiations in secrecy without consultation and ignoring the people who do the heavy lifting in our economy. Liberals will act differently, working with farmers and producers to bring back fairness and strengthen the heart of the Canadian economy.

ND� Supply management has proven to be invaluable in ensuring a livable income for dairy, egg and poultry producers without costly government subsidies, but Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are waffling on their commitment to defend supply management at the trade negotiation table. Tom Mulcair has promised that an NDP government will support farmers.

G� The Green Party of Canada will support supply management to keep prices fair for farmers in a time where farmers are under intense global pressure to cut costs and cut quality. American hormone-laced milk and antibiotic-filled chicken could easily flood into Canada. None of that is to say the Green Party would leave the system as is. The high cost of quota has become a liability. We must reduce quota debt costs to keep prices fair for citizens.

What is your stance on the growing of genetically modified (GM) crops?

C� With a growing global population, the world is turning more and more to GM crops to meet the increasing demand for food while using a lighter environmental footprint. Canada has a rigorous, internationally recognized, science-based approach to GM crops. All GM crops must meet Health Canada’s strict standards for human consumption before being approved. Mandatory

We asked: Would you drop supply management in order to sign a trade deal that’s good for other farmers across the country?

60 country-guide.ca

labelling would unnecessarily increase costs to consumers, farmers and businesses. Our policies, which are supported by the majority in the industry, ensure that scientists determine the safety and sustainability of GM crops.

L� Biotechnological innovation has been, and will continue to be, crucial to agricultural competitiveness and productivity. Strengthening our export market is absolutely critical for the health of the Canadian agricultural sector, and a Liberal government will consider innovation and the best interests of our farmers and consumers on these issues. The growing prevalence of GMOs should not come at the expense of the viability of nonGMO and organic strains of crops.

ND� The federal government has a direct role in ensuring that labelling is accurate and trustworthy, and that the public understands the information provided. New Democrats will ensure that food claims and images are clear, factual, informative and not misleading to the public.

The NDP would develop labelling standards that improve consumer choice while ensuring industry has the capacity to comply with consumer-driven change and adopt best practices.

G� The Green Party believes that GMOs may pose a threat to human health and the health of natural ecosystems. Many Canadians want to follow the example of the European Union and ban GM crops. Polls show that eight in 10 Canadians want mandatory labelling of GM foods and food ingredients. At a minimum, GM products must be labelled, giving consumers the right to know and to say no to GM foods. The Green Party will also protect and promote the farmer’s right to save and use non-GMO seed without penalty.

After the CWB, what changes do you propose in the marketing and transportation of prairie grains?

C� Our party was elected to give western Canadian farmers marketing freedom and we were proud to deliver. Western farmers are now able to sell their own wheat and barley to a buyer of their choosing at a time and price of their choosing, just as their colleagues in Eastern Canada have always done. Under marketing freedom, wheat has seen a resurgence across the Prairies, and on-farm incomes are at all-time highs.

While other parties may seek to reinstate the monopoly, farmers have moved on. As a government, we took swift action through Bill C-30 to ensure grain and other bulk commodities can get to market in a timely manner. Thanks to our efforts, grain is moving at record volumes.

L� A Liberal government will work with farmers to fix the power imbalance between farmers and the grain companies and railways left by the abolition of the CWB “single desk.” Liberals had been vocal for years that the future of the CWB should October 2015

election be decided by western Canadian grain farmers themselves in a clear and democratic vote. Canadian farmers deserve a world-class handling and transportation system to deliver into global markets. They don’t have that today.

An external review of the entire Canadian Transportation Act is underway and due to report by the end of this year. This opportunity must be seized to upgrade the deficient grainhandling and transportation system.

ND� Tom Mulcair is committed to making rail transportation safe and fair for producers. Farming infrastructure and rail transportation need to treat all producers fairly and need to enable the efficient storage, transportation and distribution of food.

There needs to be a review of railway service levels and freight tariffs to ensure fair and efficient service for farmers.The NDP is committed to working with farmers to fix the damage from the sale of the wheat board and maintain world-renowned grain inspection infrastructure and the public benefits it generates.

G� When the Harper Conservatives gave the wheat board away to the Saudi-owned Global Grain Group, they left Canadian farmers more vulnerable than ever to economic downturns and price fluctuations. Without the Canadian Wheat Board protections, our farmers are at the mercy of foreign corporations and railways. As Kate Storey, the Green Party’s agriculture critic and candidate for Dauphin — Swan River — Neepawa, said at the time: “We have lost the market protections we built and the wheat board assets we owned. That is not freedom. It is theft.”

Should there be restrictions on foreign and non-farm ownership of agricultural land?

C� While land use is a responsibility of the provinces, our party understands the role that agriculture plays in rural communities across Canada, and the value it contributes to our overall economy. As urban areas expand, all levels of government must ensure policies are crafted so that farmers can continue to have access to the land and farm practices they need to produce the food products found on families’ tables day after day.

L� The Liberal Party of Canada supports provinces’ continued regulation of farmland ownership to ensure a dynamic agricultural sector.

ND� Tom Mulcair’s NDP is committed to protecting the legacy of agricultural land in Canada. An NDP government will work with provinces, territories and municipalities to prevent both domestic and foreign land speculation. The NDP is also committed to working with the provinces to identify major issues in the future of land use.

G� Years of encouraging farmers either to expand or get out of the business has resulted in a massive and unsustainable farm debt. Policies that allow outsiders, such as pension plans, to buy land on speculation have priced farmland beyond the financial means of new farmers. We should be supporting small-scale farmers trying to get out of debt and rebuild a strong, resilient farming community. CG

Plan to attend the...

2015 6 Annual TH

CFGA Conference & AGM November 17-19, 2015 Canadian Forage in the International Year of Soils – Capture the Intensity!

Sheraton Cavalier Hotel, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan The 6th Annual CFGA conference will highlight the profitability of intensive forage production systems and the potential of forages to provide ecosystem goods and services for all Canadians.

Canadian Forage & Grassland Association Association Canadienne pour les Plantes Fourragères

For more information please contact: Canadian Forage & Grassland Association Ph: (204) 254-4192

www.canadianfga.ca October 2015

country-guide.ca 61

business

Watching for rain in Australia Warren Hobson’s reservoir is built to hold 18 feet of water. There’s one foot left

By Scott Garvey, CG Machinery Editor he farmers were smiling. They were attending one of this country’s premier machinery expos in Gunnedah, New South Wales, and the weather forecast was calling for widespread rains across the region. In Australia, that is a reason enough to smile.

Rain in this country is a precious and sometimes scarce commodity. Even a few millimetres can lift farmers’ spirits.

The machinery reps who work the show’s exhibits know the pattern too. Across much of the state, they’re used to seeing the fortunes of its farmers ebb and flow on a five-year cycle that is driven by rain — or the lack of it. For two of the five years, there’s very little moisture and crops are poor. For another two, adequate moisture provides a fair crop. And then there’s that one bin-busting, golden year that makes up for all the others.

Farmer Scott Doyle summed it up as we stood on the edge of a canola field on his 2,000-acre farm about 15 minutes from the city of Tamworth, a four-hour drive north of Sydney.

Pointing due west toward the town of Gunnedah where the Commonwealth Bank AgQuip Field Days machinery show is held every year, Doyle says, “Over those hills, that’s the Liverpool Plains. It’s never gone without growing a crop, it’s good soil, whereas we, if we don’t get rain…”

Doyle doesn’t need to finish the sentence.

In northern Australia, an extended drought and unexpected restrictions on exports of live cattle to Indonesia (their biggest market) have virtually bankrupted large numbers of livestock producers. To the south, by contrast, most of New South Wales has fared much better despite low precipitation in the last couple of years, and this year crops also look good.

At the AgQuip show, there were a few Canadianbuilt no-till drills and air carts on display. Many farmers, including Doyle, have made the switch from tillage to no till in the last decade. It required a leap of faith, just as it did for Canadian farmers.

Scott Doyle runs a mixed farming operation with his brother, Lindsey, near Tamworth, NSW.

Both cattle and sheep are important to many farmers in New South Wales, Australia.

62 country-guide.ca

October 2015

business “I haven’t tilled since I’ve been doing zero till,” Doyle says. “And I’ve been doing it since about 2005. I just jumped off and went into it. And the first year I thought, what the hell have I done, because the crops didn’t yield all that well. But as the system gets going, the yields get better.”

Initially, Doyle’s neighbours were skeptical too, but no till has helped manage their moisture limitations in Australia.

Now, however, other concerns are emerging, and Doyle expects to go back to some tilling in the future. “We will have to till,” he says. “We’ve found diseases and spray resistance. That’s our big thing, because we’re very reliant on Roundup.”

Canola is a winter crop in Australia, and Doyle expected to be harvesting the field by October. However, on this day in late August, there was still some risk of frost, which is a problem that accounts for a lot of lost yield on winter crops across many graingrowing areas of the country.

Across the fence, a herd of black cow-calf pairs were grazing. Cattle can graze year round, but it’s common practice to seed an annual crop and turn them into it to increase their rate of gain.

“That green paddock, that’s oats we put in for winter,” Doyle says, looking off in another direction.

“That tops them off a bit. Then in the summer we put a forage sorghum or a legume in. There are natural grasses, but you need to put a crop in to get the fat score up.”

The Doyle family has farmed this land since it was acquired by his grandfather through a statesponsored veterans’ program. Now he and his brother, Lindsey, are in charge.

Rainwater is collected from the roofs of machinery storage sheds on Quia Station.

They call it a station Warren Hobson’s farm south of Boggabri is still described as a station — “Quia Station” to be exact.

I met him when I stopped at an isolated crossroads in an area of the Liverpool Plains that is made up primarily of broad-acre farms, very similar to Western Canada.

Hobson was making a liquid nitrogen application to a barley field that he had allowed his cattle to graze on earlier in the winter. Farmers in the region generally wait to see what growing conditions are like before committing to a full fertilizer application. With the news of rain in the forecast, it made sense to start topping up inputs.

Hobson uses some tillage to control weeds and deal with other problems as needed. “A couple of tillage passes and a spray each season,” he says.

There is no-till equipment in his shed but glyphosate resistance is a problem, as it is almost everywhere in this country.

The crops in this area looked good as well, but water reservoir levels on Quia Station were running low, especially in dams built to supplement well water supplies for livestock.

“They’re 18 feet deep, but there is only about a foot of water left,” explained Hobson.

Metal or plastic water storage tanks are a comOctober 2015

Warren Hobson farms Quia Station near Boggabri, NSW. mon sight in both urban and rural locations. The Hobsons’ station also uses them to collect rainwater run-off from machinery shed roofs.

The Liverpool Plains actually sit on a large aquifer which feeds deep-water wells and allows these farms to exist. But many farmers think its water supply may be in jeopardy from proposed energy and natural resource development. The pending startup of another open-pit coal mine and proposals for shale gas development in the region are causing concern. Environmental studies made public suggest the risk to the area’s underground water supply is minimal. But locals aren’t convinced.

For them, any risk is too high. Without well water in an already dry region, there is no future for farmers.

The defiant sign Hobson wired up at the entrance to Quia Station, like those at so many other farms in the area, says it all: “Farms not gas. Lock the gate.” CG country-guide.ca 63

HR

Why smart entrepreneurs do stupid things with money

By Pierrette Desrosiers

mart money management flows more from psychology than from math. Even very bright people make terrible financial choices. If we are honest, each of us has a story about how we’ve done dumb things with money.

These irrational choices are often the product of some psychological or emotional impulse.

As leaders, we think we make rational decisions concerning our business’s profitability, but today, I hope you learn one thing: You are not so rational.

“Behavioural finance” and “behavioural economics” explore how money management is more influenced by our emotions than by reason.

We might also think that external factors like interest rates and commodity prices might explain a farm’s success, but let’s imagine two farmers who farm side by side, and who started farming in the same year by buying farms of the same size and value, with approximately the same equipment.

We have all seen it: 30 years later, one may have a net value of millions while the other is bankrupt.

That is when we realize something. A series of microand macro-decisions have led to positive results in one situation, but a negative outcome in the other.

In any business, some of us will be very successful and others will fail, despite similar external environments. Of course, some have very bad luck, but others make too many irrational money management decisions.

Some people desire to be the biggest in their industry and compare themselves to others in their town, province or country. Their decision to invest isn’t really based on the profitability but on the idea that another farmer could get ahead of them, perhaps in the number of acres owned, results by acres, or units of animals.

Any criterion can become a number to compare, like the size of our tractor or the number of cars we have. I’ve even met women who compete to have the most children. If the sister-in-law is pregnant, they decide to have another child.

How can we increase our awareness and implement more rational money habits?

• Reduce your exposure to status-based advertising.

We become frustrated when we see those images of everything that we don’t have. We are bombarded with amazing success stories that influence us whether we want them to or not. The less you are exposed, the less you will use your energy to manage your jealousy and your desire for higher status.

• Avoid temptation. If you want to reduce your equipment investment, stop going to dealerships “just to

look at what is new.” You can exhaust your reservoir of resistance to those promises of happiness.

• Think twice and pause. Ask yourself, “What is the need I’m trying to fill with that ‘investment?’”

How could I fill that need with something else?

• Remember the trade-off. If I invest in X, what do I have to give up? Will you have to say no to other things? People who buy beyond their means through debt give up their freedom to choose in the future.

• Distinguish between needs and desires. We’ve been brainwashed to think we need big farms, big barns, and luxury items to feel worthy and to be respected.

We never have enough. Unfortunately, in agriculture we have been influenced by materialism as much as everyone else; only our vehicles are different.

• Recognize irrational beliefs: 1. “If I earn enough money and own enough of the right stuff, I will earn the love and the attention of others.” False: You can earn attention, but only the attention of the people who judge others by what they possess. And you cannot earn love.

Is this really what you want to be recognized for?

2. “If I possess X, I will be happy.” Think about all the things you possess. If every new acquisition made you happier, you should be very, very happy today. You always go back to your “happiness set point.” If you want to be happier, invest in gratitude, in your relationships, and in benevolence but not in more land, more tractors, or more trophies.

3. “I deserve a brand-new pickup; I work so hard.” It is not a question of whether you deserve it but whether you can afford it (in the short and long terms).

4. “ When I have this, it will make me feel better, greater, and prouder.” Will you still feel so proud when you realize how much it is costing you, and how many other things you could do with that money?

Finally: Ask yourself the Socratic questions: Is it true? Are my choices making me happier?

Is it good? Do the consequences of my money habits make me feel good in the long term?

Is it useful? Are my beliefs and habits helping me reach my goals? Are they aligned with my values?

Take back your brain.We may never be able to be completely rational about our decisions; only a robot could do that. However, we can examine our beliefs and our emotions: pride, guilt, ego, desire, fears etc., all play a role in our decision-making.

You have to choose who drives the bus, and who drives the tractor. CG

Pierrette Desrosiers, MPS, CRHA is a work psychologist, professional speaker, coach and author who specializes in the agricultural industry. She comes from a family of farmers and she and her husband have farmed for more than 25 years (www.pierrettedesrosiers.com). Contact her at pierrette@pierrettedesrosiers.com.

64 country-guide.ca

October 2015

COUNTRY GUIDE SUbSCRIbERS SavE ON WORlDWIDE TRavEl!

You’ve worked hard all year…

Give yourself a

Break

Save up to $600 per person* on a Collette Tour! bOOK today!

across all seven continents: Collette blends incredible destination highlights with places you might never go on your own. With a Collette guide by your side, explore the world without ever searching for the right hotel, navigating a foreign city, or missing a ‘must- see’ – and enjoy pick-up and drive home from the airport†.

With Collette, the whole world is possible.

To view tours like: Canadian Rockies & Alaska Cruise, Shades of Ireland, Legendary Waterways of Europe, Pearls of Asia and 156 other tours across all seven continents, visit www.gocollette.com.

*Mention source code RDG2 and that you are Country Guide subscriber for savings. Savings amount varies by tour and is valid on new bookings only. Savings of up to $600 per person is inclusive of the subscriber benefit and the retail offer. Savings amount will vary on departure date, and is only available on select departures. Space is on a first come, first served basis. Offers can expire due to space or inventory availability. Offers are not valid on group or existing bookings. Other restrictions may apply; call for details.

Travel Industry Council of Ontario, Registration #3206405; B.C. Registration #23337. †Not valid on group travel. Service is offered on all air-inclusive departures when within 100 km radius from most major Canadian gateways. One transfer per room booking. Additional stops are not permitted on route. Other restrictions may apply; call for details.

ConTaCT Your Travel profeSSional or Call 855.373.8687 for deTailS.*

life

Get more done!

Do you spend hours working in the farm office to emerge at the end of the day disappointed with how little you have accomplished?

By Helen Lammers-Helps ou’re not alone. For most of us, the time we spend in the farm office is less efficient and productive than the time we spend on almost any other farm activity. To help, we asked two professional organizers to weigh in with their tested and proven ideas on how to streamline your office procedures to avoid time-wasters and accomplish more.

Rhonda Erb recommends starting with the basics.

The overarching principle of organization is that everything needs a place, says Erb, a professional organizer with a business called Heart of the Matter based in New Hamburg, Ont. It doesn’t really matter whether that organization system is a paper system or an electronic one, she says. The important thing is that it is a system that works for you.

Of course, there are advantages for electronic systems, such as the freedom to work remotely, or having multiple people accessing the same information through a shared platform.

But keep in mind, says Toronto professional organizer and productivity consultant Deanne Kelleher, it’s also critical that everyone be able to use your system, whatever it is.

RESOURCES www.organizemindfully.com There are podcasts

by Mark Dillon who will soon be releasing his book, Organize Mindfully — 7 Steps to Create and Maintain Order in Your Life. www.kaosgroup.com Deanne Kelleher’s site offers tips for organizing the office, kitchen, closets, time, etc. www.gettingthingsdone.com Here you’ll find podcasts on time management by David Allen. Or read his book by the same name. www.peterbregman.com/18-minutes In his book, 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done, author Peter Bregman shares a process for prioritizing your day in three steps that take 18 minutes over a nine-hour workday: Set your plan for the day, refocus every hour, review how you spent your time.

66 country-guide.ca

Sometimes it’s best to put a system in place that everyone is comfortable with now, and then move towards a more high-tech system in two to five years, says Kelleher who is confident that everyone can eventually learn a new system, no matter how old they are.

Erb cautions that if you are relying on electronic systems, be sure you are backing up your computer regularly.

Even then, however, don’t think you will be able to get away from paper completely. Both Kelleher and Erb say the paperless office is a myth, so you are still going to need a way to organize the paper in your life.

Otherwise you can too easily end up simply stacking, instead of filing, says Erb. Research shows that those stacks are time-wasters, even if you’re one of those people who tell yourself that you actually know where everything is. One study found such people touched each piece of paper in their office an average of nine times, she says.

Erb likes to use a Hot File for managing temporary paper such as invitations, flyers, receipts, newsletters, and research on a purchase you are considering. “Open the mail beside the recycle bin,” continues Erb. Then make a decision to file it or toss it right away, she says.

Kelleher developed the Core Four System to tame paper clutter. For this method, take four shoe boxes and label one each: To-Do, To-Pay, To-File and To-Read. Sort the piles of paper into one of the four boxes.

For the To-Do box, write each task down in one place such as a notepad. This lets you see them all in one place. If a To-Do is an appointment, enter it into your calendar.

For the To-Pay file, create a To-Pay folder and put all in-coming bills into the folder until it’s time to pay them. Once paid, bills go into the To-File pile.

Create a larger container for the To-Read pile.

Use a highlighter or sticky notes to indicate information you want to save. Once read, file or scan an item to be saved and recycle the rest.

The To-File pile represents papers you want or need to keep. Create a filing system using titles on hanging folders that make sense to you.

October 2015

life

As new paper arrives, follow the Core Four System to maintain your productivity and reduce stress.

We are all different, and the important thing is to develop systems that work for you. Some people who are very visual will feel more comfortable if information is where they can see it, says Erb. For a farmer client who was very visual and liked to pile papers, Erb created several “hanging piles” on a board using large appropriately labelled magnetic clips. He liked this system, she explains, because he could see them all at a glance.

But this isn’t enough on its own to turn your office mess into a marvel of organization, says Kelleher. Actually getting organized requires behavioural change, which means it takes a lot of effort. Her advice is to evaluate your current systems, acknowledge what you’re doing well, and then choose one area to focus on where you want to improve.

If you need a little help to establish new routines, you can take a course to improve your methods.

However, hiring a business coach or professional organizer will give you more hands-on help to set up processes. The advantage of hiring a third party is that they will see things objectively and will hold you accountable for adopting better habits.

The upfront investment can pay dividends in improved productivity. Lori Straus felt overwhelmed by the huge “to-do” pile she inherited when she was hired to manage a theatre in Waterloo, Ont. She hired the professional organizers at Heart of the Matter to help her develop processes for dealing with the backlog of paper. “It let me get so much more done,” she says.

The biggest challenge, Straus says, was developing new habits. In fact, it took about a month, with followup visits from the professional organizer to ensure she stayed on track.

At the time, Straus says she was working mostly with paper but today, as a writer, she works mostly electronically. She uses the “reminders” option on her Mac computer to set “to-do” dates to work on projects at a later time. She adds notes so she will remember what still needs to be done. (The Outlook email program has similar functionality.) The Mac Automator program is also useful for keeping track of repeat task lists for event planning.

One of the biggest time-wasters for people is spending time on things that aren’t aligned with your goals, says Kelleher. It’s too easy to put our effort into things we like doing rather than the things that would really contribute to the success of their business.

That’s why, Straus says, it’s important to set goals and then monitor your tasks to ensure that they are furthering your goals.

October 2015

Streamline your office

Check out these organization tips from Deanne Kelleher, professional organizer

5 Tips for Managing your email 1. Consider creating a Personal Folder and a Professional Folder. Then add subfolders as required.

2. Create a naming protocol for primary and secondary folders.

3. Create To-Do or Waiting-On folders to hold information that is still in process.

4. Create a To-Read folder to save articles of interest to Evernote (www.evernote.com).

5. If you have more than one person in the office, create a naming convention policy that everyone can implement. Write the details in your Operations Manual.

5 Tips for Desk Space WorkFlow 1. Create an L-shaped working area.

2. Make sure your space is ergonomically correct.

3. Keep essential information and tools within reach.

4. Remove items that are not essential.

5. Schedule time at the end of each day to clean up.

5 Tips for Paper Flow 1. Create a place for in-coming and out-going mail.

2. Use graduated file sorters to easily access daily files.

3. If you can access it online — then do!

4. Put it away after you take it out.

5. Keep present-year financials on file and archive the rest.

A good place to start is with email, our experts agree. Email and social media can be black holes when it comes to time usage. Set aside a block of time for dealing with emails, suggests Erb. The same goes for social media, says Kelleher. Going back several times a day to either, she says, is simply inefficient. CG

country-guide.ca 67

w e at h e r

O ra cca in s / s ion no al w

MILDER THAN NORMAL

**

d Mil ered tt w Sca / sno rain

ld y Co ow Sn

MILDER AND DRIER THAN NORMAL

NEAR NORMAL

**

NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND PRECIPITATION

Cool spells Some rain / snow

R IE R D L D UA ANUS R N DE A IL TH M

M So ild ra me in

COOLER THAN NORMAL

October 18 to November 14, 2015

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Oct. 18-24: Weather conditions are changeable as temperatures swing from mild to cooler. Fair apart from scattered rain on the coast changing to snow and frost at higher levels. Blustery.

Oct. 25-31: Temperatures average near normal in spite of fluctuations. Windy at times. Fair overall but expect some coastal rain changing to a cold mixture of snow or rain inland.

Nov. 1-7: Fair, mild overall but unsettled, windy and wet on a couple of days in the west. Changeable inland with scattered rain turning to snow and a chance of heavy snow in places.

Nov. 8-14: Often fair this week with seasonable to mild temperatures. Disturbances bring windy, wet conditions to the west on one or two days. Elsewhere occasional snow, spotty rain.

ALBERTA Oct. 18-24: Fair overall with seasonable temperatures but cooler outbreaks on a couple of days will bring scattered rain to the south and some snow to the north.

Gusty winds from time to time.

Oct. 25-31: Fair skies dominate although snow falls on a couple of occasions, except rain in the south. Chance heavier snow north. Temperatures vary but lean to the mild side. Blustery.

Nov. 1-7: Mild to seasonable temperatures prevail most of the week. Fair overall but look for snow or rain on a couple of days, possibly heavy in western and northern regions. Windy.

68 country-guide.ca

Nov. 8-14: Generally fair and quite dry this week despite some snow, mixed with rain in the south on a couple of days.

Windy at times. Temperatures average a little above normal.

SASKATCHEWAN Oct. 18-24: Changeable weather conditions this week as temperatures swing from mild to cool. Fair, dry days are interspersed with some snow in the north and rain in the south. Windy at times.

Oct. 25-31: Fair apart from scattered rain in the south on a couple of days changing to intermittent snow in central and northern regions. Seasonable to mild with a few gusty days.

Nov. 1-7: Generally fair this week although heavier snow or rain falls at a few locations on one or two days. Temperatures vary under blustery conditions and often lean to the mild side.

Nov. 8-14: Seasonable to mild temperatures prevail on most days under mainly fair skies. On a couple of cooler, windy days expect some snow, heavier in central and northern regions.

MANITOBA Oct. 18-24: Weather conditions vary this week as fair skies interchange with scattered rain and blustery winds. Mild overall apart from a couple of cooler, wet days.

Intermittent snow north.

Oct. 25-31: Blustery winds create changeable temperatures from mild to cool. Fair

but rain falls in the south on two or three occasions changing to periodic snow in central and northern regions.

Nov. 1-7: Mild and fair on most days this week in spite of intermittent rain or snow in the south on one or two days. Heavier and more frequent periods of snow in central and northern areas.

Nov. 8-14: Fair with highs above zero on many days in the south with some rain or snow on two or three days. Occasional heavier snow in central and northern regions with seasonal to colder highs.

October 18 to November 14, 2015 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS Mild air is expected to dominate most of Western Canada in this period, due in part to the influence of El Ni単o. Typically this type of weather regime, with milder and relatively dry conditions, continues into the winter months.

Indications are that some of the milder and drier weather will spread into Central Canada in November. Until then, however, look for temperatures and precipitation in Ontario and Quebec to average close-to-normal values.

Meanwhile, across most of Atlantic Canada anticipate a favourable weather pattern with less frequent storm activity, occasional mild spells and lighter-than-usual precipitation.

Prepared by meteorologist Larry Romaniuk of Weatherite Services. Forecasts should be 80 per cent accurate for your area; expect variations by a day or two due to changeable speed of weather systems.

October 2015

h e a lt h

Breathing easier with your inhaler

By Marie Berry eing unable to catch your breath is certainly scary, and unhealthy. While you may think of asthma as the most common cause of breathing problems, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD accounts for most shortness of breath among older people. It is estimated that 1.5 million Canadians have a COPD diagnosis, but an equal number may also have the condition and not realize it.

The most common causes of COPD are smoking and air pollution, and it is only after decades of exposure that breathing problems occur. About 15 per cent of smokers will develop the disease, and of people who have COPD, 90 per cent of the cases are attributed to smoking. Combine the requirement of long-term exposure with the aging Canadian population, and you will see that COPD is only going to become more common.

COPD is characterized by shortness of breath or dyspnea, coughing, wheezing, sputum or excess mucus production, tiredness, lack of energy, and increases in chest or respiratory infections. Longterm damage to the lungs makes breathing difficult, although you may attribute your deteriorating lung function just to getting older. Because of this, by the time the symptoms are severe enough for you to go to the doctor, lung damage may already have occurred.

Two types of drugs are commonly used to treat COPD. These are bronchodilators which open up airways, and anti-inflammatory drugs which reduce airway inflammation. These drugs are often used via inhalers, which makes sense because then the medication is delivered directly to the lungs.

Bronchodilators are either anticholinergics or beta-agonists. Anticholinergic medications work through the cholinergic nervous system to relax and open up airways while beta-agonist medications affect beta receptors in bronchial tissue. There are both short-acting formulations such as the anticholinergic ipratropium and the beta-agonist salbutamol meant for immediate relief, and long-acting formulations such as the anticholinergic tiotropium and the beta-agonist salmeterol. It makes sense that you

would use a combination of bronchodilators and a combination of short- and long-acting formulations for maximum effectiveness.

Anti-inflammatory drugs are usually inhaled corticosteroids such as fluticasone. Regular use is needed to keep inflammation controlled. However, you do need to rinse your mouth after inhaling to prevent mouth and throat yeast infections.

Often combination inhalers are used, that is, an inhaler that contains two different bronchodilators or both an anti-inflammatory drug and a bronchodilator. Inhalers are either metered-dose inhalers, which are pressurized canisters able to deliver a specific dose, or breath-activated inhalers, which depend upon an inhaled breath to deliver the medication.

Many types of inhalers are available, both in terms of medication ingredients and delivery systems, but studies show that anywhere from 20 to 75 per cent of people don’t use their inhaler correctly. Obviously, if you count on an inhaler, you need to have good technique and you may need to try several types of inhalers to find one that is effective and that you find easy to use.

It goes without saying that you should read all the instructions before using a new inhaler. Many inhalers have websites and supplemental information that will help. Keep practising your technique, even in front of a mirror, and don’t assume that because you have used your inhaler for a long time, your technique is good! Count out all time periods, because what you may think is a minute may not be a minute. And, if you are having problems, consider using a spacer device, or changing from a metereddose inhaler to a breath-activated one.

To keep airways open, remembering to use your inhaler is key. If you find yourself forgetting, maybe a change to an inhaler with longer-acting ingredients would mean a once or twice daily dosing, although you probably will still need a “rescue” inhaler like salbutamol. And, don’t forget to carry it with you, because you don’t want to be caught short of breath!

Marie Berry is a lawyer/pharmacist interested in health and education.

None of us are getting any younger, and among older people osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis. When the protective cartilage in a joint wears away, stiffness, pain, and even mobility problems occur. Next month, we’ll look at some new approaches to coping with osteoarthritis.

October 2015

country-guide.ca 69

acres

‘It’s my crop too’

By Leeann Minogue

Elaine wonders, why are they all headed toward my SUV? e’re 65 per cent done harvest tonight,” Jeff said as he came in the door at 10 o’clock, a trail of durum kernels falling out of the leg of his blue jeans and onto the porch floor.

Elaine’s eyes widened. Sixty-five? She was feeling 100 per cent done these days.

“That’s great,” she said.

Jeff had been working flat out for the past week, leaving the house before seven and not getting in until well after dark.

“I’d better get in the shower,” Jeff said. “Before I get more dust all over the house.”

The next morning Jeff called from the field. “Do you mind running to the bus depot to pick up a parcel?”

“Do you need it this morning?”

“Yeah, if you can. It’s some important parts,” Jeff said. “For the combine.”

Elaine didn’t really mind. Nobody else had time to make the trip. But she wasn’t sure Jeff understood exactly how long it took to load up an almost two-yearold and a four-year-old for the 30-mile trip to town.

“I feel like a single parent with a job as a courier,” Elaine told her mother on the phone before she left.

“Jeff barely sees the kids during harvest. And he didn’t even mention my birthday this morning. All of the Hansons forgot!”

“It’s a busy time,” her mother said. “You knew you were marrying a farmer when he wore a John Deere cap to your wedding rehearsal. What did you think it would be like?”

Elaine didn’t answer. Of course she’d known it would be like this, but knowing something wasn’t exactly the same as living it every day.

“You don’t have it that bad,” her mother said.

“A pioneer farm woman would have killed for the chance to sit in an air-conditioned car for half an hour on her way to pick up fresh fruit and a current newspaper on her birthday.”

Elaine gave up trying to wring any sympathy out of her mother and packed up the kids to head to the bus depot.

Connor and Jenny were getting used to the trip.

70 country-guide.ca

It was their fourth ride to town in three days. Elaine had rushed in for emergency parts for the combine, the swather and one of the grain trucks. While she was there, she’d dropped off the farm’s year-end paperwork with their accountant, signed documents at the bank, picked up cheques at the grain terminal, mailed bill payments, dropped off grain samples and bought a list-full of groceries for her mother-in-law Donna, who was spending most of her time running the combine.

At each stop Elaine had to unbuckle both kids from their car seats, stop them from running out into the street and haul them in and out of offices and stores.

This morning, after she picked up the package at the bus depot, Elaine took the kids to the fuel dealer’s office to pay their monthly bill. “How’s Jeff’s crop coming off?” Ray asked her as he ran her credit card through the machine.

“It’s my crop too,” Elaine muttered to herself afterwards as she buckled Jenny back into her car seat. “Just because I’m not out in the field doesn’t mean I’m not part of the business.”

“Me too!” Conner yelled. “An’ me,” Jenny chimed in.

Back at home, Elaine was simultaneously unpacking the groceries, trying to keep the kids from fighting, and packing lunches for Jeff, her in-laws and Jeff’s grandfather when her laptop buzzed. It was a Skype call from her friend Heather, a friend from Elaine’s university days.

Heather was Skyping from an airport. “Just called to say happy birthday!” Heather told Elaine. “I’ve been waiting here all by myself with nothing to do for three hours. It’s been hell.” Even on her small laptop screen, Elaine could see that Heather was dressed in business clothes with her hair swept up on top of her head and fingernails that looked freshly manicured.

The very idea of three hours with nothing to do and perfectly clean fingernails sounded more like heaven than hell to Elaine at this point.

“What’s going on behind you?” Heather asked, and Elaine looked at the view of the room behind her, as it displayed in the tiny square at the bottom october 2015

of her screen. She saw a counter stacked with half-unpacked grocery bags, buns, packages of sliced ham, a knife in a mayonnaise jar, sandwich containers and a pile of apples. At floor level, four lunch coolers were lined up. Jenny had unrolled a whole roll of tinfoil and was stuffing it into the coolers, to hear the crinkly sound it made. Suddenly a Nerf bullet flew through the scene at waist height. Connor was aiming at a target on the fridge.

“Just another day in paradise,” Elaine said, trying to make it sound heartfelt instead of sarcastic.

“What are you doing?” Heather said. “Are you running a café?”

“Just making lunch,” Elaine said.

“For the entire province?”

“Jeff. His family. They’re out in the field.”

“They left you alone on your birthday?”

“Somebody’s got to look after the kids and bring all the parts home from town,” Elaine said.

“Somebody who got 87 per cent in third-year calculus?”

Heather asked, raising one eyebrow.

“Very funny,” Elaine said. Then she turned away from her laptop. “Connor, stop shooting Nerf darts at your sister.”

“You know, there’s a job in our Regina office. You’d be perfect for it,” Heather said.

“Are you kidding me? I already have three jobs!”

Then Elaine’s cellphone rang. Jeff. She said goodbye to Heather and took Jeff’s call.

“Did you pick up that parcel from the bus depot?”

“Yes, of course I did,” she said, putting the just-finished sandwiches into the coolers.

“Can you bring it out with lunch?”

“Yes,” Elaine said, trying not to sound as irritated as she was getting. Some birthday.

Elaine packed the kids, the lunch coolers and the package into the SUV, then drove seven miles to the canola field. When she parked in the approach nearest the two combines, her mother-in-law and Jeff’s grandpa Ed each slowed their machines to a stop. Jeff and his father drove over in the grain trucks.

Jeff helped the kids out of their car seats, while the rest of the family made their way through the stubble to Elaine’s SUV. Donna was carrying a plastic container she’d brought down out of the cab.

“Did you remember a lighter?” Donna asked her husband Dale.

Dale pulled one out of his pocket and lit candles on a cake in Donna’s container.

Elaine gaped, shocked, while the family stood around her singing “Happy Birthday.”

“I thought you forgot!” she said when they finished.

“We wouldn’t forget your birthday,” Donna said. “Especially after you bought the icing sugar for me!”

“We know how much you do around here,” her father-in-law said. “We just want you to know how much we appreciate it.”

“We had a secret, Mommy!” Connor said.

“You sure did,” Elaine said, trying not to cry.

“Did you bring that parcel from town?” Jeff asked.

“Yes,” Elaine said.

“Well, open it up. It’s your birthday present.”

Leeann Minogue is the editor of Grainews, a playwright and part of a family grain farm in southeastern Saskatchewan. october 2015

The man seated down from me at the long breakfast table looks familiar. Is he a local or does he “come from away?” A family reunion gathers brothers, sisters, cousins, even distant relatives like me. We spend four days visiting, eating, storytelling, and eating again. Who is this fellow? Is he a family member I have long forgotten?

Breakfast finished, he heads my way. “Rod Andrews — I would recognize you anywhere!” I wonder if that is true. “Give me a name,” I ask, slightly embarrassed. Roy was a classmate in high school. He returned to Canada after a career in research at a university in the United States. He was invited to the reunion.

Not being related, he was reluctant to come. Yesterday, he drove by the meeting place and did not come in. This morning he was welcomed. Because he showed up, he belonged.

The older generation (apparently I am now a member) grew up in the small town of Delburne, Alta. We have common associations and memories. We remember each others’ parents with fondness. The younger generation, scattered in all directions, make the trek to the reunion every three years.

They hear about grandparents they never met. At an informal church service we sing: “God bless the stories we bring collected from the past, And tales of how our lives now flow, and values that will last.”

I reflected on belonging. From the time humans began walking on the face of the Earth, people have been concerned about belonging. Cavemen drew pictures of communal life on their walls. Extended families lived together to take care of each other. Families developed into clans, which developed into ethnic groups who settled land in their corner of the Earth. All this gave the individual a place to belong. The yearning to belong persisted down through the ages.

In recent years we seem more focused on individual freedoms and the right to construct our own lives. We tell young people to pick a college, pick a job, pick friends, pick a place to live, and pick values. We go through life as if it were a cafeteria line where all these things are à-la-carte options. You are free to pick and choose as you put together a life. If you don’t like the life you have now, you can just get back in line and choose again.

It is fascinating to me that we use much of this freedom to find new places to belong. A century ago nobody spoke about community. They just experienced it. Today most of us are actively trying to create a community, friends, and a place to belong — even if it is a virtual place. Why else would Facebook have more than 500 million subscribers? Why else would television keep making new shows about friends, offices, and families?

We may be more individualized than ever before, but we still yearn to belong to others. That is because, whether we realize it or not, we belong to God. The yearning for God is wired into our souls. To fulfil that yearning we need to be with other people. Family, friends and neighbours give us a glimpse of the God in whose image we are made. That is a benefit of worship, a reason why people go to church. By the end of the week you are ready to hear a better story. You are ready to hear about the glorious work of God in your life and in the world in which we live.

Suggested Scripture: Jeremiah 31, Galatians 6:1-10 Rod Andrews is a retired Anglican bishop. He lives in Saskatoon. country-guide.ca 71

Power up your canola.

Save money and unleash yield potential.

Monsanto and BASF have joined forces to offer a powerful combination of products. When you purchase Genuity® Roundup Ready® canola for the 2016 growing season, add PRIAXOR®, LANCE® and/or LANCE® AG fungicides and you could earn up to $4.00/acre in rebates. With PRIAXOR’s continuous blackleg control and the sclerotinia protection of LANCE and LANCE AG, you can increase the yield potential and quality of your canola by keeping disease pressures at bay.

For complete details on this offer, see your retailer or visit powerfulcombination.ca Monsanto Company is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship® (ETS). Monsanto products are commercialized in accordance with ETS Product Launch Stewardship Guidance, and in compliance with Monsanto’s Policy for Commercialization of Biotechnology-Derived Plant Products in Commodity Crops. Commercialized products have been approved for import into key export markets with functioning regulatory systems. Any crop or material produced from this product can only be exported to, or used, processed or sold in countries where all necessary regulatory approvals have been granted. It is a violation of national and international law to move material containing biotech traits across boundaries into nations where import is not permitted. Growers should talk to their grain handler or product purchaser to confirm their buying position for this product. Excellence Through Stewardship® is a registered trademark of Excellence Through Stewardship.

ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Roundup Ready® crops contain genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides.

Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Tank mixtures: The applicable labeling for each product must be in the possession of the user at the time of application. Follow applicable use instructions, including application rates, precautions and restrictions of each product used in the tank mixture. Monsanto has not tested all tank mix product formulations for compatibility or performance other than specifically listed by brand name. Always predetermine the compatibility of tank mixtures by mixing small proportional quantities in advance. Genuity and Design®, Genuity®, Monsanto and Vine Design®, Roundup Ready® and Roundup® are registered trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC, Monsanto Canada, Inc. licensee. AgSolutions is a registered trademark of BASF Corporation; PRIAXOR and LANCE are registered trademarks of BASF SE; all used with permission by BASF Canada Inc. © 2015 Monsanto Canada Inc. and BASF Canada Inc.