Country guide east

eastern edition

country-guide.ca

February 16, 2016 $3.50

The

Attitude

To Farm

Strong, StubboRn, like Katelyn Duncan pg. 14

Protect your assets Get more from incorporation PG. 10

CROPS GUIDE After 20 years, what happened to biotech’s promise Read this before you buy that drone Publications Mail Agreement Number 40069240

soil matters………..www.ifao.com tool kit is full of cover crop options. “Crimson clover and annual ryegrass are in about everything we use,” he says.

“Radishes, turnips and rapeseed are in that mix, too. I definitely want a grass in everything we do, and I want to find a legume or a brassica to add to it. Sometimes a legume is just helping the ryegrass grow better. With brassicas, the reason I want them in there is biological – to suppress things like nematodes. If there’s a spot with issues, we want to attack them.”

Dig Deep

To See Cover Crop Benefits Jamie Scott will be a speaker at the Innovative Farmers of Ontario Annual Conference on February 23 and 24, 2016.

“I think the most important thing with cover crops is you have to dig,” Jamie Scott says. “We’re so used to what’s happening on top of the ground. But the root structure of cover crops is where it’s at – the root structure, the nodules. If we don’t dig, we’re not going to see that.”

Jamie spends a lot of time digging in the field for evidence – literally. He’s been committed to cover crops on his 2,000 acre farm in northwest Indiana for the past 10 years, building a thriving cover crop seed business and consulting operation along the way. His farm provides plenty of opportunity to test across a wide variety of soil types and issues.

“A cover crop needs to benefit our farm our soil, rather than just being out there,” he emphasizes.

“Increasing organic matter, of course, is first and foremost every time. Erosion – we don’t want anything to leave our farm. Then there’s nutrientholding capacity and water infiltration. If it rains three inches, that three inches may have soaked in, but if water’s ponding, an inch may have run off.

When we get into summer, that inch is going to give us extra bushels and increased profitability.”

Mix and Match — Scott is constantly matching cover crops to create blends that address specific issues and the wide variety of soils on his farm. His

Scott likes the flexibility of annual ryegrass– it fits well before both corn or soybeans – and the fact it doesn’t tie up nitrogen for long periods. “The carbon/nitrogen (C:N) ratio is higher in cereal rye than annual rye, so once we kill annual ryegrass, it starts to give that nitrogen back faster than the cereal rye does,” he explains. In fact, he says, testing annual ryegrass residue for nitrogen in early spring reveals that the ryegrass cover has a C:N ratio about equivalent to alfalfa.

Beware of Sales Pitches – As a seed dealer, Scott is highly attuned to sales pitches. He cautions growers to be wary of over-enthusiastic claims about cover crops and to do some research to make sure they’re buying the appropriate seed for their needs.

One very important distinction is recognizing the difference between brands and varieties, he notes. Many loads of annual ryegrass and cereal grains are marketed by variety, so growers can expect consistency as they zero in on varieties that work on their operations. On the other hand, radish seed is sold by brand. One bag of radish seed may contain one variety, while another bag of the same brand could contain another variety with very different characteristics.

“The only way to get through that learning curve is to try something,” says Scott. “The results are there.

We’re seeing increased profitability. We tested straight ryegrass, crimson clover/radish, three- and four-way cocktail mixes, and an untreated check, and all five cover crop treatments yielded more than the unplanted control.”

“So even if you’re wrong, you’re right.”

Contents

February 16, 2016

BUSINESS 8

time to drop ‘commercial?’

Yes, you’re a commercial farmer, but saying so may be leading more consumers to conjure up images of factory farms.

10 protecting your assets

These six strategies will make sure you get more than just tax savings from your incorporation.

20 early warning signs of a business in trouble

Whether it’s a farm that’s on the edge, or a business you deal with, it’s never good to be the last to know.

22 high velocity

Karl Gerrand is promsing to shake up not only the old CWB but the entire grain industry with his high-efficiency grain shipping.

26 A focus group?

So you’ve been invited to participate in a focus group.

Should you go? Can you actually make a difference?

30 Guide HR — the dark side for entrepreneurs

Running a business makes you dynamic, energetic and passionate.

But each of those traits has a downside to watch out for.

46 the farm voice in paris

Even if you don’t believe in climate change, our Gerald Pilger says farmers need to be at the table where decisions get made.

48 going political

As agriculture becomes big business, leaders like AGCO’s Martin Richenhagen are expected to take a stand on public issues.

51 a world in flux

With its climate changing, farmers in Central America need more than tourist dollars from snowbird Canadians

54

g uide life — farm etiquette: essential for business success

PG. 14 Young, Smart & Stubborn Even though the odds can seem stacked against them, young farmers all across Canada are finding ways to get their futures started. How are they doing it? In a word, our Maggie Van Camp finds the essential ingredient is attitude.

It may not matter which fork you use as long as you find ways to show respect for the people you deal with.

CROPS GUIDE EVERY ISSUE 6 MACHINERY GUIDE

Great new machinery innovations are coming for forage growers.

56 GUIDE HEALTH

There’s no such thing as an aphrodisiac. But these pills help.

58 HANSON ACRES Even on a Saskatchewan farm, black cats are bad luck.

31 before you buy that drone

A bird’s-eye view can definitely help, but with today’s technology, you’ll still need to keep some boots on the ground.

40 after 20 years

Yes, it has changed how North American farmers grow their crops. But has biotechnology really lived up to its promise?

44 PEST PATROL

Do you have Palmer amaranth on your farm?

OMAFRA’s Mike Cowbrough tells us how to be sure.

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.

February 16, 2016

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: Maggie Van Camp (905) 986-5342 Fax (905) 986-9991 Email: mvancamp@fbcpublishing.com Gord Gilmour (204) 453-7624 Cell: (204) 294-9195 Fax (204) 942-8463 Email: gord.gilmour@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

Writing the book on Canada’s farmers Tom Button is editor of Country Guide magazine I don’t quite mean what you might think by the headline above. I don’t mean writing the book about farmers FOR farmers. I mean writing it to inspire, encourage and empower other business owners and managers across the country.

It’s a thought that comes to me almost every time I sit down to write this column, which I normally do just as we’re pushing the files out the door for the printer.

Check it out for yourself. Take a spin through the business books on the Chapters or Amazon sites. Better yet, restrict yourself to their best sellers. Or best of all, wander through the business section at your nearest Chapters. (It won’t take long. And you’d better hurry or it may not take any time at all!)

The books you’ll see will often fall into two categories. (Yes, I know there are technical books too, but that’s not what I want to talk about.)

The first are the memoir-like offerings from successful business leaders, like the top execs at Fortune 500 companies.

You’ll find them chock full of personal stories about their management challenges and experiences, plus the stories of allies and rivals who they’ve crossed paths with.

The second category come from Harvard, Wharton or other business professors, and they’ll be chock full of stories too, although this time they’re more likely to be organized as case studies.

To those outside the business world (and to many inside it), such books can seem 4 country-guide.ca

a self-indulgence with little or no application, but when you talk to readers, you’ll find that they — like you — are interested in what business leaders think, and how they identify the strategies they want to pursue, and then put wheels under them.

It’s like the question we asked when we decided to make Country Guide into more of a business book for farmers. Agriculture is an amazingly diverse industry, with enormous differences in crops, regions, farm types and more. We had to ask, is it possible to write about a grain farm in southeast Saskatchewan in a way that is helpful to an irrigation farm in southern Alberta or a hog farm in Ontario?

It turns out you can, as long as you get the best possible writers. In fact, you can do it not only because the challenges of HR, tax management, and expansion are, at a strategic level, quite similar, but also because different farms need to be driven by minds with the same attributes, including passion, commitment, innovative thinking, and a deep understanding of value.

I’ll write more about this next issue, but for now, I’d like to leave you thinking of what it would look like if that Chapters shelf was stocked with covers bearing the kinds of faces you see in every issue of Country Guide.

Between now and next time, then, take a minute and let me know what you think.

I’m at tom.button@fbcpublishing.com. Are we getting it right?

Lillie Ann Morris (905) 838-2826 Email: lamorris@xplornet.com Kevin Yaworsky (250) 869-5326 Email: kyaworsky@farmmedia.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 $43 for one year, $64 for 2 years, $91 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. 135 No. 3 Internet address: www.agcanada.com

ISSN 1915-8491 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.

February 16, 2016

Spotlight on Crop AdvAnCeS Crop Advances is an annual report that summarizes applied research projects involving the OMAFRA Field Crop team, in partnership with commodity groups, industry and the OSCIA.

Go to the Research & Resources page at www.ontariosoilcrop.org

Rapid development of forest into farmland

By Lilian Schaer

The project has two main objectives: assessing the soil conditions and crop growth potential after clearing using mulching and subsoiling (clearing away trees and brush, breaking down roots and incorporating woody residue into the soil), and developing a business case to evaluate the economics of various clearing methods.

“We are trying to get more scientific information of the actual mulching effects on soil and crop production,” explains project coordinator Steph Vanthof of the Northern Ontario Farm Innovation Alliance (NOFIA).

“We also want to look at when it is best to use which type of clearing method and develop some Best Management Practices so farmers can make good land management choices.”

How is the research being conducted?

The project was launched in spring 2015 with an initial focus on land preparation.

Two rounds of mulching and subsoiling were carried out at three different sites: a 12-acre plot in Temiskaming District and a 10-acre and a 12-acre plot both in Cochrane.

Soil sampling was completed before the mulching was started and any necessary amendments will be added in the spring.

Surface mulching was completed with the CMI C400L and the CMI Twister II C175, and roots were broken down and woody residue incorporated in the soil using the FAE SFM 225 subsoiler.

Two of the three sites will be put into pasture next year using a clover mix to ensure there is nitrogen in the soil to facilitate the microbes breaking down the wood

Photo: NOFIA - Northern Ontario Farm Innovation Alliance

More and more farmers are turning their eyes to northern Ontario’s agricultural potential. Much of the available land is yet to be cleared so the Temiskaming Crops Coalition and the Cochrane District Soil and Crop Improvement Association are leading a three year research project to help producers bring forested land into agricultural production as quickly as possible.

residue. At the third site, cattle will be used to break down the woody residue through their manure going on to the pasture.

What has the project found?

Although the project is still in its early days, there are already encouraging results.

“We are seeing regrowth of vegetation in Cochrane after mulching. That’s encouraging because we’ve seen other areas where they’ve mulched and had no success in getting growth afterwards,” explains Vanthof. “The hypothesis is that crop growth could be inhibited because of the significant amount of wood material that is being incorporated into the soil as well as higher concentrations of certain chemicals that the woody material may release into the soil. Our contractor has done this before for agricultural sites so we’re trying to see what we can grow.”

Vanthof adds that because of the amount of land being cleared currently in the north, many producers have questions about good clearing methods. And although opinions abound about which is best, the goal is to establish some firm recommendations on best management practices based on results from this project.

Who is funding the research?

This project is funded through a Tier

ONTARIO SOIL AND CROP IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION

Two grant under the new Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) grant structure introduced in 2015. Tier Two grants are supported

by OSCIA and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Some additional funds are provided

by NOFIA and in-kind support by GB Equipment from Drummondville, Quebec in the form of mulching and subsoiling services. OSCIA is assisting with communicating research results.

Where can I get more information?

Visit www.ontariosoilcrop.org for information on this and other Tier Two OSCIA projects.

Land cLearing tips • Leave tree stumps in the ground before mulching to make it easier for the mulcher to “grab” them when passing over the field.

• Subsoiling is more effective and efficient in dry conditions.

• Ideally, mulch in late fall or early winter followed by subsoiling the next summer to allow enough time for the wood

Mission: Facilitate responsible economic management of soil, water, air and crops through development and communication of innovative farming practices

www.ontariosoilcrop.org

Machinery More forage options

By Scott Garvey, CG Machinery Editor

These new concept machines will mean more harvesting choices for forage growers

he giant German farm machinery expo Agritechnica is a glimpse into the future, giving farmers a look at the equipment they’ll be filling their machinery sheds with in coming years.

That includes forage growers. If the machines on display this past November are any indication, they can expect a tidal wave of innovations.

Krone’s Premos 5000 Above: Material in a swath feeds into the Premos 5000 and is compressed through forming moulds by a pair of 800-millimetre rollers.

Krone’s prototype Premos 5000 pellet harvester will provide a way for growers to handle forages the same way they now handle grain — and with some of the same equipment. It’s easy to see why it won a Gold Innovation Award at Agritechnica.

The first ever in-field pelleting harvester, the Premos 5000 picks up swaths behind a tractor the way any other baler does now, but immediately converts

Right: Krone displayed a glass case full of pellets made by the Premos 5000 at their Agritechnica exhibit.

the forage into 16 millimetre pellets. A nine-cubicmetre hopper holds five tonnes of them, which can be loaded into a grain truck and hauled back to the yard or directly to a buyer.

“We can handle it like corn,” said Kai Lüpping, one the technical staff behind the Premos 5000’s development, as he stood beside the machine at Krone’s display during Agritechnica. “It’s not one big bale.”

As material feeds into the Premos 5000, it is crimped between a pair of rollers that force it through extrusion moulds 16 millimetres in diameter. “This innovative system eliminates any energy-intensive pretreatment (chopping, milling),” reads the company press release. “In fact, the energy demand is just half that required by stationary pelleting systems.”

That said, the Premos 5000 will still require a tractor that has in the neighbourhood of 400 horsepower to run it.

Krone says the pellets can be used for more than just livestock feed. For instance, 250 grams of pellets can absorb up to one litre of liquid, making them useful for animal bedding. And because they are so absorbent, they can reduce the amount of manure coming out of a barn compared to typical straw bedding.

The pellets also have a density that is three to four times that of a standard straw bale, so they can be used as biofuel. The company says 2.5 kilograms of pellets have the same energy content as a litre of heating fuel. On-farm biofuel systems are popular in Europe, especially Germany, so Krone has been emphasizing this benefit.

The Premos 5000 is in its third year of development and continues in field trials. Krone expects to have it ready for commercial launch in 2017. As it stands now, Lüpping says the price tag will likely come in at around C$372,500.

Multibaler For operations that rely on silage as livestock feed, Agronic, a company in the Netherlands, offers the Multibaler, which can take regular silage 6 country-guide.ca

February 16, 2016

The Multibaler can be used in the field directly behind a forage harvester or stationary in the farmyard to form and wrap silage into bales.

Photo: Krone

and pack it into a round bale shape and wrap it in plastic. Just like the Premos 5000, it too can work either right behind a tractor in the field or stationary in the farmyard.

Producers can use a forage harvester mounted to a three-point hitch on the front of a tractor to blow the chopped material directly into the Multibaler, which is pulled behind the tractor. The Multibaler drops wrapped round bales of silage in the field, so ensiling can become a one-person operation. There is no need to immediately haul silage to a pit and pack it. The bales can be hauled out of the field later as time permits. When they are broken open, livestock get exactly the same type and quality of feed they would if the silage had been handled conventionally.

Agronic builds two sizes of Multibaler: the 820 and 1210 models, which produce two sizes of bales ranging from 250 to 450 kilograms with the 820, and 600 to 1,000 kilograms with the 1210. PTO drive provides power to the Multibalers, which require only a 70-horsepower tractor for the smaller model and 90 for the larger 1210. The Multibalers can also be ordered with their own on-board diesel power supply for stationary use.

If producers want to sell silage feed, having it wrapped in round bales makes that process along with transport a little smoother.

Depending on the model and features, a multibaler will set you back something north of C$140,000. The company’s website is www.gebknoll.nl. CG

German manufacturer Krone says its Premos 5000 pelleting harvester is the first of its kind.

What’s your Next Move?

Chances are, you have something exciting on the drawing board right now.

Maybe it’s more land, new equipment, higher-value crops or other ways to grow.

Our agriculture banking specialists have expertise and financial products to help you carry out your plans today and build the farm business you want tomorrow.

Go on, make your move.

At RBC® we’re ready to help.

Talk to an agriculture banking specialist today at rbc.com/farmhelp

® /™

™

Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada. RBC and Royal Bank are registered trademarks of Royal Bank of Canada.

February 16, 2016

country-guide.ca 7

business

Time to drop ‘commercial?’

When you call yourself a commercial farmer, consumers may hear ‘factory farm’

By Lisa Guenther, CG Field Editor abels are a tricky business, especially in an agriculture where there is a dictionary full of words you can use to describe other farmers, or that you can use to call yourself.

Are you a farmer, or a producer? Or are you a grower, or a rancher?

More to the point, what do you call yourself that paints a clear picture of who you are for non-farmers and consumers? You’re proud to farm, after all, but you’re also proud that you produce the healthiest, highest-quality food that the world has ever seen, and that you do it in a sophisticated, successful, scaled-up and amazingly productive way.

So what’s wrong with “commercial farmer” as a way of differentiating yourself from New-Agers or from hobby farmers, or from farms that seem like overgrown gardens compared with the way you farm?

Maybe nothing is wrong with it. But maybe it’s time we at least put it through the mill to find out.

So I started asking farmers about it last summer.

As you might expect, they don’t all agree.

Which term do farmers embrace?

First I caught Lane Stockbrugger before he headed back into the field in east-central Saskatchewan where he farms with brother Lance.

The Stockbrugger family has been farming that same land for over 100 years. But taking over the farm wasn’t a sure bet for the Stockbruggers when they were kids. A car accident claimed their father’s life in 1983. Their mother survived the accident and raised her two daughters and two sons on the farm.

Stockbrugger started farming his first quarter over 20 years ago, while in Grade 11. He also went on to work as a marketer, and Lance became a chartered accountant, creating a savvy management team that reflects the complexity of farming today.

Stockbrugger isn’t exactly a fan of “commercial farmer.” Farming isn’t entirely about size these days, he says, because production models are so diverse.

For example, what kind of farm is a grain operation with 1,000 acres?

8 country-guide.ca

“We’ve no idea what his gross profit is per acre because he could be doing very different things than the farmer next to him who farms 10,000 acres,” says Stockbrugger. You run the risk of insulting someone if you call him a hobby farmer, or even insulting an entire industry, he adds.

Mary Jane Duncan was next on my list. She thinks of a commercial farmer as someone who runs the farm as a business, to make a living. Like many ag insiders, she doesn’t see commercial and family farms as conflicting categories.

“We’re watching markets and keeping on top of agronomy stuff. But we’re still all family,” she tells me one morning, just before she hops in the combine.

Duncan’s farm is near Regina, Sask. She shares labour with family, but has her own land and she markets her own grain.

Terminology matters in the beef industry, too.

A commercial cow-calf producer differentiates that operation from a purebred herd, rather than separating hobby and business-oriented outfits. And outsiders shouldn’t assume that every beef producer embraces the descriptor “rancher.”

“We learned quickly that people in Ontario and even to some extent Manitoba don’t see themselves as ranchers. They’re farmers,” says Annemarie Pedersen, a public relations specialist specializing in agriculture.

Canada Beef and the Beef Advocacy Centre tend to stick to beef producer to be more inclusive, she says.

Thus the conversation around which label to embrace is complex enough within the agriculture industry. But it becomes even more nuanced once you involve consumers.

Commercial or factory farm?

Even farmers who see themselves as commercial farmers may not want to identify that way all the time, says Duncan.

There’s a trend right now for consumer-directed TV commercials to portray simple family farms.

They aren’t exactly wearing bib overalls and holding February 16, 2016

business pitch forks, but neither are they acting like the chief executive officers of multi-million dollar businesses, and there’s a reason for that discrepancy between image and reality, Duncan says. Friendly farmers sell better than those who are interested in profit.

There’s a perception that big is bad, she adds, “and that profit is bad. But really, to stay viable in an industry you have to be making some profit.”

Like other farmers, Stockbrugger often finds himself waving the flag as a sort of spokesperson for farmers, and he definitely sees a perception problem with the term “commercial farmer” when he’s talking to consumers.

To that audience, he says, commercial farm can sound “kind of factory-farmish, where accountability is out the window.” Yet the majority of farms are still family-run, he says, and they are highly productive without the negative connotations of factory farms.

The term “commercial farm” risks raising those issues without resolving them, Stockbrugger thinks.

It turns out Duncan and Stockbrugger may be right on the mark when it comes to consumer images of farms.

Based in Kansas City, the Centre for Food Integrity is an industry group that studies consumer trust in food, with a special focus on communication techniques, and it has found that consumers suspect large farms put profit ahead of principles.

This means that large family farms must spend more time talking about their values, the group says.

Canadian communications experts agree. “It’s mind-boggling these days how often food and food issues are in the press,” says Chris Forrest, public relations director with AdFarm.

Forrest doesn’t have a specific recommendation on whether producers should use the term “commercial farmer.” But he doesn’t want to lose sight of the fact that a commercial farm can be a family farm, too. The term commercial farmer “probably comes with an expected level of professionalism that you’re bringing to your career.”

Pederson agrees, yet points to a differentiation that could prove critical. Farmers are at the top of the list of the most trusted professions, she says. Yet when you talk about most trusted industries, agriculture becomes more of a grey area. In many consumers’ minds, the word agriculture triggers images of factory farms, multi-billion dollar companies, pollution, pesticides, and antibiotics.

It’s safe to conclude that the agriculture industry has a perception problem. But it’s not clear that farmers should embrace the “commercial farmer” label with consumers while having to explain at the same time that this doesn’t mean they’re factory farms.

Pedersen asks why it’s up to commercial farmers to differentiate themselves from hobby farmers in the first place. Commercial farmers produce most food.

It turns out, in fact, that none of these questions are easy. For instance, how do consumers perceive the term “rancher?” It should be simple, right?

February 16, 2016

After her work with organizations such as Canada Beef and her own experience talking with consumers, Pederson sees “rancher” a little like a Rorschach test — it reveals more about the person looking at the inkblot than the inkblot itself.

For some people, the idea of a rancher conveys a certain romanticism, Pedersen says. Yet other consumers see ranchers as lawless, and maybe even abusive towards their animals.

Whatever term producers use, part of the challenge will be pulling consumers past those stereotypes. And one model to look at is the Behind the Beef program, which was delivered by the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association.

Farmers know what they mean by commercial farm. But do consumers?

Convincing consumers in cities such as Vancouver that the beef industry can be trusted with animal welfare and environmental issues is an uphill battle, says Pedersen. Behind the Beef hired and trained people to hand out recipes in grocery stores with information on beef production. Pedersen, who helped with the program, said they often chose ranchers.

Consumers were more interested when they could get information on raising cattle straight from the source, Pedersen says.

Producers have to own their stories, she says. And although social media is great for interacting with some people, farmers need to expand their reach beyond Twitter, she adds. “I think the personal conversations are the hardest. But we have to win people over one person at a time.”

Forrest agrees that everyone in agriculture has a role to play in facilitating those conversations. At interview time, AdFarm was preparing to launch License to Farm. The film, funded by SaskCanola, along with the Saskatchewan and federal governments, looks at misperceptions around agriculture.

Forrest hopes the film encourages individual farmers to join the conversation, but those conversations do need to be respectful and fact-based, he says.

“Ignoring people or arguing with them isn’t going to accomplish much. It’s about sitting together at the table and sharing information.”

Duncan says she’d probably reserve “commercial farmer” for an ag audience, even though she identifies as one. With her friends, she doesn’t focus on explaining what a commercial farm is, as they don’t have a good grasp of the business side of farming.

As for Stockbrugger, he’s not going to be labeling himself a commercial farmer anytime soon for any audience. He doesn’t mind the term producer, he says, but there’s more to farming than producing.

The other day, though, he overheard his fouryear-old son tell his sister “I’m going to be a farmer when I grow up.” That seemed to sum it up. CG country-guide.ca 9

business

Protecting your assets These six strategies will ensure you get much more than just the tax benefits of forming a farm corporation

By Angela Lovell any farms that incorporate do so for tax purposes. After all, there are definite tax advantages available to a corporation and its shareholders that are not available to individuals or partnerships.

But farm businesses should be careful that they don’t let the tax tail wag the dog, says Jerry Lupkowski, a senior partner with MNP at its Portage la Prairie, Man. office.

“Tax is hugely important, but there are many more reasons to incorporate a business, such as protecting assets,” Lupkowski says. “We encourage our clients to take a look at the whole picture and make sure they’re not only getting the tax advantages of incorporation but also the creditor-proofing advantages.”

#1

Keep personal and business assets separate

Personal and business assets should be kept separate, and owners must decide which assets will be moved into the corporation and which assets will remain outside of it. Advisers often suggest that farmers keep their land under personal ownership, or in a separate holding company, rather than end up with all their hard-earned eggs in one basket.

“If a farm is properly incorporated, assets such as equipment or farm buildings will be inside the company, but the land remains as a personal asset outside of the company,” says Lupkowski. “This means that if someone accidentally gets run through the combine, it’s the company that gets sued because it owns the combine. It doesn’t mean that the spouse can’t sue the individual who owns the land but the chances are she will not be successful. If the land is not owned by the company, it’s not exposed in the event of this kind of situation.”

One of the first things farm owners have to get their head around when they incorporate is that the corporation is an entity in its own right, and they have to ensure that any business dealings for that corporation are done under the correct, full, legal name.

“If a farmer has incorporated the farm, he or she needs to tell all the creditors, suppliers, the bank, and 10 country-guide.ca

everybody he or she deals with the new operating name for that corporation,” says Lupkowski. “If a farmer has been dealing with the same fertilizer company forever, it’s easy to get too comfortable with saying it’s for Jerry’s Farm, but now it’s no longer Jerry’s Farm, it’s Jerry’s Farm Ltd. So that is the name the fertilizer bill should be made out to, or Jerry could find himself personally liable for that bill instead of the company.”

But it’s not just about credit-proofing, adds Lupkowski. “It affects income taxes too, because if Jerry bought the fertilizer, the company can’t get a deduction for it because it’s not a business expense.

Similarly, if Jerry bought a pickup truck, and it’s really a corporate asset, the corporation could have claimed the GST back if it had purchased the vehicle, but Jerry can’t. So for many reasons farmers should make sure they’re operating in the proper legal setting.”

Farm business owners should never use personal credit cards or personal lines of credit for their business because even if they’ve done a great job of sheltering personal assets, if they run all their input purchases, for example, through a personal credit card, they’re exposing those assets, adds Lupkowski. “The credit card company comes after the individual whose name is on the credit card,” he says. “It doesn’t see the company, even though the farmer bought the fertilizer or chemicals for the company. The reward points aren’t worth losing your house for.”

#2

Protect against dangers beyond your control

Similarly, assets need to be protected as much as possible from unforeseen, catastrophic events — such as BSE, food scares or trade issues — that can devastate the industry. “You weren’t negligent, you didn’t do anything wrong, so you need to ensure you, your family and what you’ve earned over the years are safe should you encounter something beyond your control,” says Lupkowski.

There are legitimate tax advantages to being a director of the farm corporation. Commonly a spouse is made a director so he or she can be paid February 16, 2016

business

a director’s fee to split income. But that can expose personal assets to unnecessary risks.

“You can be an owner or shareholder without being a director,” explains Lupkowski.

“If your business doesn’t succeed and you have your spouse listed as a director, they’re liable to third-party creditors, and things such as unpaid employee wages, GST, PST or payroll deductions. If they have assets outside of the business, it’s maybe a good idea not to make them a director to safeguard those personal assets if things go wrong.”

a shareholder’s #3 Have agreement in place Protecting assets from third-party creditors is one thing, but all too often the real threat to personal and business assets can come from within.

Farm businesses, especially those that only involve family members, can be far too complacent about their business relationships, which means they don’t plan ahead for a situation where things go sour because of a family dispute or marital breakup.

“When things are going well, that’s the time to get all your documents in place because everybody’s willing to work with you,” says Lupkowski. “When things are looking sketchy, it’s too late to fix it.”

“It’s a situation,” he adds, “that’s more common that we would like to see.”

A shareholder’s agreement will help protect everybody when things aren’t going according to plan.

“Often, when I advise clients that they should have a shareholder’s agreement in place they’ll say, but why?

It’s just me and my spouse,” says Lupkowski.

“But if the marriage goes sideways,” he explains, “chances are they’re not thinking to their best business abilities. Emotions are clouding judgment. An agreement sets out how they will work through the situation from a business standpoint."

Such an agreement will cost money to cover having it drawn up properly, and hopefully the agreement will never have to be used, Lupkowski tells clients, “but it’s worth its weight in gold if they ever have to.”

Continued on page 12

the country guide mobile app is ready when you are!

Keep up to date on all the latest agriculture news that matters to you with the new Country Guide mobile app!

INSTANT ACCESS TO: • • • • • • • •

Daily regional news Daily market news Commodity futures Crops news WeatherFarm data Livestock news Machinery tips & reviews Plus much more!

IT’S FREE! Scan the code to get the app – or visit agreader.ca Available for Android devices, iPhones and iPad. Part of the

More great agricultural apps available!

February 16, 2016

network

Sponsored by

country-guide.ca 11

business

Continued from page 11

#4

Negotiate a limited personal guarantee

Borrowing money is a fact of life for most businesses, and it’s not uncommon for a bank to request a personal guarantee to secure a loan or line of credit. But that doesn’t mean anyone needs to feel pressured or obligated to sign on the dotted line.

“All too often people are fearful of the bank, and I really think they need to take a different view of it,” Lupkowski says. “The bank is a partner in the business, and owners need to talk to them when times are good, not only when times are tough.

“Just because they put a personal guarantee in front of you doesn’t mean you have to sign it,” he adds. “If you’re a well-run operation, you’ve got good information, and you’ve got good people on your team, you’ll be attractive to many banks, and you may be able to negotiate a limited personal guarantee up to a certain dollar amount.”

For example, if both you and your business partner have limited personal guarantees on both sides, the bank may agree to have one partner be good for half the debt, and the other partner can be good for the other half.

“ Running a business is risky,” Lupkowski says. “Spend the time now to look at potential liabilities.”

#5

Treat cash an an asset, and protect it

Cash is an asset that most people don’t treat like one.

If the business is successful and cash accumulates, that’s good, but it’s not always best to just let it sit there.

“That cash is the shareholders’ equity, so if you’ve got lots of retained earnings you should strip that equity out into a separate entity, perhaps a holding company, so it’s not at risk should the business not continue to be successful,” says Lupkowski.

It might be necessary to lend some money back to the business once in a while, but if that happens, security for the loan should be properly registered to make sure you don’t end up behind a lineup of unsecured creditors, such as suppliers, if something goes wrong.

“People will say, it’s my company, I control it, I can take the money out whenever I want, and that’s true when times are good. But when times get tough, if you have registered proper security against the assets of your business because you’ve lent it money, it puts you in front of non-registered creditors,” says

12 country-guide.ca

Lupkowski. “The banks are usually going to be in front of you, but at least you’ve got claim against the assets versus just being lumped into the pool of unsecured creditors. It’ll be the best insurance you’ve ever bought, if you need it.”

There should also be activity on the loan from time to time, such as charging interest or taking a small repayment, because loans that sit for more than seven years with no activity are not required by law to be repaid.

The same applies for assets that are transferred into the business. “If you transfer the combine which you own, and which the business has not paid you for, to the business, you should register a General Business Security Agreement on it, which means the serial number of the property is recorded and properly registered,” says Lupkowski.

Parking cash into investments is a good idea, but they also have to be chosen carefully. “From a creditor-proofing standpoint, Registered Retirement Savings Plans are secure and safe, but Tax-Free Savings Accounts are not, which is one more thing to consider when you’re making your investments,” says Lupkowski.

#6

Don’t go to Hawaii on the business

At the same time, a business owner can’t treat corporate cash as his or her own unless it’s paid out as wages or directors fees, which are taxable. “You may own the company but the company owns the cash in the bank,” says Lupkowski.

“People can easily get into trouble from a tax standpoint because if they borrow money from the company to buy a personal asset — say to buy a boat, take a holiday, or to build an extension on their house — that is a taxable transaction.

“You have to make sure all your suppliers, creditors, and everybody knows whether you’re dealing with them on behalf of yourself, or on behalf of the company, so that any assets you have outside the company aren’t inadvertently put at risk because they thought they were dealing with the individual, rather than the company.”

Make sure the business has adequate insurance to cover any accidents involving business owners or employees, whether they occur on or off the farm, and be cognizant of environmental and health-andsafety issues.

“One thing to remember is that you don’t even need to be at fault,” says Lupkowski. Also recognize that if someone decides to sue you, the legal costs can become significant.

“Running a business is risky, so spend the time now to look at potential liabilities and get some professional advice to help lower your risks.” CG

February 16, 2016

L I C O Y P TO U R 6 1 0 2 Soil Organic Matter

Biodiversity

Nutrient Loss in waterways

Carbon Sequestration

Do YOU LOVE YOUR SOIL? He had people working his fields and vineyards in the hills and in the fertile land, for he loved the soil.

2 Chronicles 26:10 The CFFO is concerned about the long-term preservation and improvement of the quality of farmland soil. Good soil stewardship improves yields, prevents erosion and loss of nutrients into the environment, improves drainage and water-holding capacity, and sequesters carbon. Our understanding of soil stewardship is always improving. We want your input on soil-related policy issues.

Biodiversity How resilient is your farm?

Come and discuss how having a more diverse farm can benefit your soil, improve your profits, create habitat, and build your resiliency for the future.

Nutrient Loss in Waterways Do you know where your soil is?

Come and discuss how caring for your soil by keeping soil and nutrients on the farm also helps care for our lakes and rivers. Preventing soil erosion, building soil organic matter, and stewardly application of nutrients save farmers money and help protect our waterways.

Soil Organic Matter Should municipal biosolids be used as a fertilizer to improve soil?

Come out and discuss the benefits and risks of using municipal biosolids as fertilizer on farms. Are there other ways to put this material to use?

Carbon Sequestration What role will agriculture play in the new Cap and Trade system in Ontario?

Come out and discuss the potential opportunities for farmers to provide carbon offsets through farming methods that sequester carbon in the soil.

Please contact Paul Bootsma at paul@christianfarmers.org for more information.

Please check the website at www.christianfarmers.org for dates and locations

business

Trend setters: Young, smart & stubborn

By Maggie Van Camp, CG Associate Editor

ortunately, statistical trends don’t capture stubbornness, optimism and enthusiasm, necessary ingredients for farmers.

Because the trends that the statistics do capture don’t make easy reading.

Below we bring you two inspiring stories of young people meeting the challenge head on. But first, here are those statistics, starting with some numbers from the 2011 Census of Agriculture.

(See table page 18.)

In a mere 20 years, the average age of a Canadian farmer has risen from 47.4 to 54 years old.

It isn’t only in Canada. In many developing countries, the average age of farmers is over 60. The USDA 2012 Census of Agriculture found that only six per cent of principal operators were under 35, while a third were over 65.

Our farm youth have run away from farming.

Here’s an even more frightening way of looking at the numbers. In 1991, nearly 78,000 Canadian farmers were under 35 years old. Two decades later, this number had decreased to only 24,120, nearly a 70 per cent drop.

If it keeps decreasing at a similar rate, by 2031 we will have only 7,500 young farmers in the whole damn country.

On only one out of 10 farms was the oldest operator under 40 years old in 2011, despite all the different types and sizes of farms in all our provinces. In 1991, it was about one in four. Fewer young operators were taking over from the burgeoning cohort of older operators approaching retirement, and today that cohort is five years closer to retirement age.

It’s also true, however, that the spike

14 country-guide.ca

in prices, first for grains and oilseeds and then for cattle and hogs has spurred on the younger generation. As well, clusters of New Age farmers have begun to dot the countryside as more beginning farmers entered the fast-growing local fresh and organic markets.

Suddenly, farmers feel that being a farmer is sexy. Calendars of farmers rival those published with firefighters. According to country singer Kenny Chesney, even tractors can be sexy.

Maybe things weren’t as bad as the numbers seemed. After all, changes in the structure of farms weren’t reflected in those declining statistics of 2011.

Farms were getting bigger and more family farms were incorporated. Today, multi-generational or sibling farms dominate the rural Canadian landscape and the younger farmers involved in these operations are often not considered the main operators.

In the province of big skies and even bigger farms, 11.8 per cent of farmers were under 40 years old in the 2011 census, the highest percentage in the country.

One of those young farmers is 25-yearold Katelyn Duncan who farms with her dad John, sister Mary Jane and brother Landon, just south of Regina. Together they grow about 7,500 acres of grain and oilseed, specialty crops. Katelyn is also general manager of Saskatchewan Young Ag-Entrepreneurs, a networking group of about 200 18 to 40 year olds.

Duncan has been going to farm meetings for seven years and has noticed a lot less grey hair in the crowds lately.

She also says improved grain and oilseed prices have encouraged many young people to come home to the farm. Addi-

February 16, 2016

business

tionally, she says provincial and federal government programs have also helped reverse the trend. She points to all sorts of learning opportunities — mentorship, leadership training, and green funding — and she says the federal GF2, and FCC’s young farmer loan at prime plus 0.9 per cent is good for her age group.

“Our government has done a fantastic job of making funding and programs available for young farmers,” Duncan says.

“However, those opportunities are underutilized. Maybe the young farmers don’t know about the programs, or maybe they just don’t want to do the paperwork.”

New farmers have to face the core challenge, says new farmer, 25-year-old Katelyn Duncan. “It’s a competitive industry. Money talks.”

Governments south of the border have been targeting support for beginning farmers and ranchers since 1992 and have much deeper pockets. The 2014 Farm Act reduces the premiums on buy-up level coverage by half for new farmers, and it also waives the application fee for the noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program and increases the per cent of crop covered for natural disasters. The U.S. now ponies up $25 million more for education and programming for young farmers, it has loosened the terms for beginning loans and grants, and it financially encourages the transition of Conservation Reserve Program land to beginning farmers.

Despite the recent pullback in grain prices and the staggering increase in land and rent prices, optimism abounds around Duncan. “The farms are getting larger, there are fewer players in the game. When you enter farming you have to start small, and work on a succession plan with family,” she says. “But someone still has to run the seeder.”

It’s not necessarily just the number of farmers that helps keep farming and rural living vibrant, she says. It’s whether the young people living and working in rural areas step up to the plate, initiate growth, Continued on page 16 Continued on page xx February 16, 2016

country-guide.ca 15

business

Photography: carey shaw

Continued from page 15

Principal Operators by Age Group, 2007 and 2012 257,705 243,472

75 years and over*

443,571 412,182

65 to 74 years*

608,052 596,306

55 to 64 years 466,036

45 to 54 years

565,401

214,106 268,818

35 to 44 years* 25 to 34 years

109,119 106,735

Under 25 years

10,714 11,878

2012 Census 2007 Census

Number or principle operators Source:USDA NASS, 2012 Census of Agriculture.

16 country-guide.ca

*Statistically significant change.

and fill leadership roles. “We need someone to carry on,” says Duncan. “As long as there’s young people within the ag industry, whether they are involved in a farm or not, they will continue to contribute to the future of agriculture.”

Raised in a web-based world and weaned on social media, this generation wants to access ideas and knowledge immediately. “We need a network to support each other, for people our age to communicate ideas,” says Duncan. “Many people my age want to talk about the same issues, such as land prices and water drainage, and those issues are different than for someone twice our age.”

Companies are competing with farms for bright, young graduates from ag colleges. When Duncan graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with her ag business degree a few years ago, she had job offers from companies she hadn’t even applied to. Most of these jobs had consistent paycheques with less risk and the weekends off. These enticements drew many of her classmates away from farming, especially if they didn’t have an established family farm to go home to.

For many young farmers, one of the main threats to the success of their farms today is debt and equity management. The older generations have been unwilling to exit the industry so land is simply not available to buy or rent. Since farming requires such massive amounts of capital investment, it’s very difficult for young farmers to keep their heads above water, especially competing in an industry dominated by old money and inherited land.

Land is simply not as available and attainable as it was a decade ago, with non-farm investment and aggressive buyers pushing the market. The shift toward renting has been amplified. “It’s a competitive industry,” says Duncan. “And money talks.”

The dramatic change in land prices and ownership, rental rates and the price of quota has definitely dampened the ability to start from nothing.

The shift has been toward consolidation and growth of larger family farms with fewer commercial farms starting up independently.

“I don’t know how it’s possible to start a brand new farm now. I don’t know any here,” says Duncan matter-of-factly.

According to the USDA’s paper Beginning Farmers and Ranchers at a Glance 2013, the number of new farmers who have been on their current operation less then 10 years, regardless of age, dropped 20 per cent in five years.

But within those numbers, the youth situation seems to be swinging back upwards. In 1982, 16 per cent of all principal operators of beginning farms were under 35 years old; by 2007 it had dropped to only five per cent but four years later 14 per cent of principal operators were under 35 years old.

February 16, 2016

business

In their mid-20s, Ryan Taylor and his partner, Robyn McCallum, are about half the age of the average farmer in Canada. Not only that, they also started from scratch a few years ago, near Miramichi, N.B. The 2011 census found that in the Atlantic provinces, only 7.1 per cent of farmers were under 40 years old.

They started out small and slow — with some help from family — with a quarter acre of sweet corn sold at a farm market run by Robyn’s parents. After three years, they’re growing 550 acres of soybeans, oats, wheat and corn, mostly on rented land, and they recently bought their own 50 acres with a house.

They also do about 200 acres of custom work.

Taylor is a certified heavy-duty mechanic. These skills have allowed them to reduce their costs by doing their own repairs, and the extra work has increased cash flow at important times of the year.

They’ve also been able to buy used equipment that he can fix up, and borrow equipment from neighbours in exchange for mechanical work.

McCallum is working on her PhD in biology, researching ways to boost native pollinator and beneficial insect populations in crops at Dalhousie University’s agricultural campus in Truro, N.S. She’s also president of the students’ association and last year her paper won Farm Management Council’s award of excellence on how the agricultural industry can best support young farmers looking to succeed in the global marketplace.

Mentors have played a critical role in their startup. They pointed out land for rent, they provided access to equipment, they opened up new marketing opportunities, and above all else they provided guidance and know-how.

Neighbour John Schenkels trusted them enough to be their first high moisture corn contract, and has been a good friend and a trusted adviser ever since.

Although this enterprise is entirely their own, some of the couple’s farming relatives, such as uncles Dale and Ian Archibald who are dairy farmers in Nova Scotia, have encouraged and guided them.

However, not everyone has been supportive of the farming dream. “I still remember a high school science teacher pulling me aside to seriously question why I wanted to study agriculture, but comments like that have made me stubborn and determined,” says McCallum.

Also, when they first asked for a farm loan, the bank loan manager looked at them as if they had three heads, says McCallum. “They could not fathom why two young, educated people would want to start their own business, let alone an agricultural business.”

Starting from nothing really forced them to have

February 16, 2016

Photography: Victoria Coy Photography

They’re Bucking the trend

top business skills. It was imperative for them to learn how to write a business plan and a budget, and to do cash flows. The process helped them set goals based on a clear vision. Taking these steps, backed up with paperwork, allowed them to access operating lines and it made it easier to apply for grants.

Going forward, they’re working with farm adviser, Len Davies, to really understand their business and build strategy to reach their goals.

The biggest challenge in getting started in farming is access to enough capital and land to operate at a size capable of earning a sufficient profit. A few years ago it was estimated that the average farm asset base for farms producing with $25,000 to $30,000 in gross value was over $800,000.

The couple’s vision is to have a financially viable, commercial farm, so expansion and opportunities are at the forefront of their minds and plans.

Right now the farm is a sole proprietorship under

For Robyn McCallum and Ryan Taylor, the statistics aren’t in control. They’re determined to make their own future.

Continued on page 18

country-guide.ca 17

business

Distribution of farms by age of the oldest operator, Canada and province, 2011 Farms by age of the oldest operator Less than 40 years

40 to 44 years

45 to 49 years

50 to 54 years

55 years and older

Canada

9.9%

6.9%

11.8%

16.2%

55.2%

Atlantic Provinces

w.1%

6.5%

11.5%

15.0%

60.0%

Quebec

10.7%

7.7%

14.4%

18.4%

48.8%

Ontario

9.5%

6.7%

11.5%

15.9%

56.4%

Manitoba

11.5%

7.7%

12.3%

16.6%

51.9%

Saskatchewan

11.8%

6.6%

11.0%

16.1%

54.6%

Alberta

9.6%

7.1%

11.7%

15.8%

55.8%

British Columbia

6.4%

6.2%

10.6%

15.1%

61.6%

Source: Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture 2011 http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/96-325-x/2014001/article/11905-eng.htm

Continued from page 17 Ryan’s name and eventually they plan to incorporate. “We’ve doubled our acres every year since we started three years ago,” says McCallum. “We want our farm to grow to support us both full time and be a good place to raise a family.”

Last year they did custom work on 200 acres that helped make the tractor payments. They also have some land suitable for growing wild blueberries.

Their energy and enthusiasm come from working as a team on a common goal, with each bringing skills, teaching each other and learning continually. This is a classic case of “one plus one equals three,” and a partnership based on mutual respect, hope and love. “Ryan is so supportive to work with, especially with mechanics and equipment. He empowers me to learn and is very patient,” says McCallum.

But it takes flexibility too, she says. “Young farmers must be at the ready to change crops and business practices to meet markets and customer demands.

This is at the heart of any profitable business.”

Last year McCallum attended the Canadian Young Farmer Forum in Ottawa and learned about risk management, financial reporting and business plans. It was the first time she heard other young people talking about how much they wanted to build

18 country-guide.ca

something. She also heard about how to deal with the relationships and emotions around the farm.

Their greatest challenge in farming so far is stress. It’s a big responsibility at 20 years old, with big numbers. Taylor remembers it was a bit unnerving the first time he saw a cheque with four zeroes.

“It changes your way of thinking when it’s your own money out of your pocket going into the ground,” he says. “You have to really want it.”

Many people told them they couldn’t grow corn so far north, but in the last couple of years they’ve successfully grown 2300 heat unit varieties. They’ve improved their field management skills to ensure the

February 16, 2016

business

“ We know we aren’t going to be like other young couples but we are OK with that,” — Robyn McCallum

corn is healthy and that it develops fast enough to mature before frost. However, weather risk is always there and, with experience, they’ve had to learn how to deal with that worry. “I can still remember going outside in early fall and getting that gut sinking feeling thinking we had early frost on our corn… But it was just dew,” laughs Taylor.

They’ve also felt great reward and satisfaction.

Originally they grew the sweet corn because they wanted to buy a hitch wagon for Taylor’s Belgian draft horses, a passion he acquired from his grandfather. Although in the first few years their earnings went directly back into starting their farm, four

February 16, 2016

years later they were finally able to buy a show cart and show hitch wagon.

Farming can be all consuming, and they even tried banning the word “corn” on certain days to make sure they take a break. To relax, they also show draft horses.

“We know we aren’t going to be like other young couples but we are OK with that,” McCallum says.

“Farming brings us joy and allows us to pursue our passion for agriculture, together.” CG For a list of provincial measures specifically targeting young and beginning farmers and farm transfers go to: http://www.farmstart.ca/provincial-measures-specificallytargeting-young-and-beginning-farmers-and-farm-transfers/

country-guide.ca 19

business

Early warning signs of a business in trouble

Whether it’s your farm, or a company or a farm you deal with, it’s never good to be the last to know

By Angela Lovell

nfortunately some businesses will fail. There can be any number of contributing reasons, such as an economic downturn, competition, bad customer relations, bad internal management, changes in markets, government regulations or unforeseen events.

Even so, there are a number of warning signs that could signal the business is in trouble, says Jerry Lupkowski, a senior partner with MNP at its Portage la Prairie, Man. office.

Lack of profitability

Loss of key employees

It’s easy to blame the weather, market conditions or a long list of other factors for a poor month or quarter, but if the business is consistently underperforming from where traditional averages have been, it’s important to look for the real reasons why.

Early warning signs to look for on your income statement include a shrinking gross profit. Given the nature of agriculture, it’s natural that there will be some movement up and down, but ask your accountant or financial adviser where you stack up against other farmers with similar operations. Are your margins similar to the rest of the industry?

A key employee may see the handwriting on the wall long before it’s obvious to the business owner, and they may decide to jump ship. Communication is key. Identify problems and discuss them to help the farm or business retain the valuable people it needs.

More bad debts If the business is seeing an increase in bad debts, chances are it’s going in the wrong direction.

Loss of customers This could be a product issue — for example with crop quality or livestock health — or a customer relations issue. The business is only as good as its customers think it is. The day they leave is the day it’s done.

Cash flow problems If the farm business is borrowing to pay the hydro bill, that’s an early warning sign that all is not well.

So is a buildup of unpaid statutory creditors, so if the business didn’t pay this month’s payroll remittance or GST payment, if it’s been pushed off to the next month, that’s a situation that needs to be addressed.

Remember, directors of a corporation are personally liable for payment of these types of unpaid expenses.

More old receivables If you have a lot of receivables over 90 days, why aren’t your customers paying you? Do you ever ask a new customer to see their balance sheet, or do you ever do a credit check on them? Can they afford what they are buying from you? What if they don’t pay? Can you afford it? Never hesitate to ask for invoices to be paid on time, and if you have to provide an incentive — such as a discount — to collect what’s owed, that’s sometimes what you have to do.

20 country-guide.ca

Bad management There are ways to address a lack of management skills, such as through training or mentoring, but the mismanagement of assets is harder to deal with. The business owner must know where the money is going and what the outstanding liabilities are at any given point. If the owner is also a director, he or she could end up being responsible for certain unpaid liabilities such as payroll deductions, GST or PST.

Litigation If the business is being sued by customers, creditors, employees, unpaid suppliers, or financial institutions, it’s a strong indication that the business is not on track. In such situations, it’s best to react early rather than later, and to take measures to protect personal and business assets.

Bad employee relations This can refer to employee-employer relations or to relationships between business partners. Employees have rights that protect them from discrimination, harassment and unfair dismissal, so business owners must ensure they treat employees with respect. At the same time, employees must understand they are representatives of the business during the hours they are employed, whether they are on or off the farm, and they should act accordingly.

Friction among partners If the business partners aren’t getting along, it’s time to take a hard look. Take it as a sign that you need to think about how you and your partners can go your separate ways without adversely affecting your core farm business. If you don’t begin looking at the alternatives, don’t be surprised when you find out that your partners already are. CG February 16, 2016

Understand the trends, see the opportunities

FCC Ag Outlook 2016 Economy

Commodities

Weather

Technology

Leading industry experts look ahead to the trends, opportunities and emerging technologies that could impact your operation.

Stay up to date and make sound business decisions.

Friday, March 11 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Casino New Brunswick | Moncton Limited seating – register for free today.

fcc.ca/AgOutlook | 1-888-332-3301 Presented in partnership with

Find 100+ free events like this at fcc.ca

36436 E AO-CG East-Full Page ad (Moncton).indd 1

2015-12-01 10:59 AM

business

22 country-guide.ca

February 16, 2016

business

High velocity Karl Gerrand is promising to shake up Canada’s grain industry with high-speed logistics.

Will his competitors play nice?

Photography: VICTORIA ANNE PHOTOGRAPHY

By Gord Gilmour, CG Associate Editor f there’s one thing Karl Gerrand understands, it’s that Canada’s newest grain company can’t afford to be just another “me too” operator.

Gerrand is heading up Global Grain Group, or G3 as it has quickly been dubbed in the business, a phoenix arising from the ashes of the former Canadian Wheat Board with the backing of global grain giant Bunge and the Saudi Arabian government.

Under Gerrand, the company’s goal is to create a pipeline flowing with Prairie grain headed for Vancouver, all carried by dedicated trains cycling back and forth more quickly and efficiently than anything Canada has ever seen Making this happen means investing heavily in a network of modern facilities with loop track loading systems that enable trains to be filled in hours, not days. In fact, they’ll load

so fast, the engines won’t even decouple from the cars, but will rather idle around the track as each car is filled in just minutes. At port, similar logistical systems will unload trains with equal speed, with zero car shunting and lost time.

For railways, this will make G3 their most efficient shipping partner, Gerrand says, which will lead in turn to lower average freight rates and better service for G3 as well as benefits for growers. It will also mean simpler and faster grain movement, which will translate into a greater ability to capture otherwise missed market opportunities.

For the company, it means a key point of differentiation, which Gerrand predicts will pave a path to success.

Continued on page 24

“We believe, coming in as a small player in this industry, we’re going to have to provide a different value proposition to the farmer and the market.”

February 16, 2016

country-guide.ca 23

business

Under Gerrand’s leadership, the key to success will be building the kind of grain presence that CWB backers always wished they had.

Continued from page 23 “We believe, coming in as a small player in this industry, we’re going to have to provide a different value proposition to the farmer and the market,” Gerrand explains during an interview in his office in downtown Winnipeg.

Faster, faster, faster Gerrand says the need for an evolution of the grain shipping model can be seen very clearly in recent events. Just two winters ago the western system groaned under the combined strain of a brutal winter and a bumper crop.

Grain movement was close to a standstill at times, and growers suffered from lost market opportunities and constantly rising costs through shipping demurrage — the penalty a shipper must pay for being unprepared to load a cargo by the agreed upon time.

“The farmer, as you’ll recall two years ago, couldn’t get grain into elevators because they were full and we couldn’t move grain to port because the ports were jammed up,” Gerrand says. “There were upwards of 45 vessels sitting in the Vancouver port area at any one time. All the grain companies were paying demurrage for poor freight efficiency, and that all ultimately flows back to the farmer.”

The heart of the G3 model will be a Vancouver 24 country-guide.ca

terminal elevator with a loop track, and the company is currently in the consultation and evaluation phase of the project, after filing their application with the port. Gerrand says a lot of details remain to be worked out, but early signs are good.

The local government appears keen on the plan, and area residents are willing to give it a look with an open mind. Two key attributes of the project might prevent the rise of project-killing NIMBY-ism, Gerrand says. First there’s the fact the terminal ships grain, which is correctly viewed as a very safe product to ship. Then there are the benefits of the design itself.

“When we explain to them how the loop track will work, and that there won’t be shunting cars back and forth and all that banging and noise, they’re generally very happy,” Gerrand says.

Without building the loop track system at port, it would be impossible for G3 to capture the full efficiency of its model, Gerrand says. He also added that this would hinder any of the company’s competition from going down the same road, even though some are already buildling loop tracks at country positions. The complicated and crowded geography makes replicating this model very hard for any of the other players at the port.

“None of the other companies have room at their existing locations to install a loop track,” Gerrand says. “If you don’t have the west coast port capacity February 16, 2016

business to unload those cars just as quickly as you can load them, you lose the freight value.

To the railways, the value is in keeping that train together and bringing it back without breaking it apart. That’s the real keystone to our model.”

The new G3 strategy This admission reveals one of the true ironies of the evolution of the former CWB. One of its greatest weaknesses might actually turn out to be its unexpected strength.

In the western grain echo chamber, there have always been experts to say the CWB could never succeed because of its lack of physical assets.

It never owned and operated elevators, but instead acted as a central marketing agency for the western wheat and barley crop, with logistics being handled by the established grain handling firms.

Once the monopoly was lost, the story went, it would only be a matter of time before the inevitable obituary would be written and the wake would be held. After all, what incentive would the elevator companies have for playing ball with the new CWB, which was really just another commercial competitor? Sure, it might limp on for a few seasons, but the writing was on the wall.

And building elevators? Not a viable option, according to this thinking. Grain handling assets are expensive and extremely long-lived, it says, and they face a long and slow payback period. It’s not coincidental that until now the recent action in the grain business has been largely financial, as one pool of capital acquired another, and the system continued to rationalize.

But where others saw an insurmountable barrier, Gerrand and his team see an opportunity to build a new system from the ground up, based on a strategy of optimizing every step to remove bottlenecks and ensure uninterrupted flow of grain from Prairie to port.

Which is where the irony comes to the forefront. The reason this works for G3, Gerrand explains, is that while other grain companies try to cobble together the best possible system with their existing facilities through merger, acquisition or legacy ownership, the industry has moved on, especially since today’s larger crops and time-sensitive global markets make moving the grain to port on time and on spec more important than ever.

“We think we’re building the right system for today,” Gerrand says.

What will that system look like? It’s too February 16, 2016

soon to say for sure, but it will be larger than the current seven high-capacity elevators that are in operation in Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan. It will likely expand to something in the mid-to-high 20s, giving the company a bigger geographic footprint to source grain from.

“Most of our future expansion will concentrate on Alberta and Saskatchewan, I can say that with certainty,” Gerrand says. “We’re actually quite well represented in the eastern part of the region.”

In the end, Gerrand sees that footprint placing most growers within striking distance of one of the company’s elevators, i.e. it will be realistic for them to ship a Super B of grain.

Meanwhile, this will also meet the needs of the company in terms of lower risk through geographic diversity and enough capacity to keep trains full and running.

“The railway is not their customer, and I do wonder,” Earl says, “are they looking at it that way?”

The leverage question The size question may be crucial. Does G3 have the scale to get attractive deals from the rail sector? Plus, G3 has two quite large competitors in Viterra and Richardson. They’re unlikely to stand idly by while an upstart company begins to eat up their market share, Earl says.

“They’re big enough to meet this competition without putting themselves at risk. Even with the additional facilities they’re going to be building, G3 is still going to be relatively small — they’ll be about the same size as a Parrish and Heimbecker or Paterson.”

Earl says he’s also a bit concerned at how the company appears to be betting

“ I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade,” says rail expert Paul Earl. “Greater efficiency is always a worthy goal.”

Hurdles in the way It’s an impressive vision, but one observer says success and failure will both be in the details.

Paul Earl is a legendary and, at times, controversial voice in occasionally fractious grain transportation debate. He held senior positions with United Grain Growers, and the Canadian Transportation Agency, and these days is a senior scholar with the Asper School of Business and an associate of the Transport Institute, both at the University of Manitoba.

Earl says greater efficiency in the grainhandling system is always a worthy goal, and G3 is headed down the right track by seeking it. He’s less convinced that it’s going to necessarily result in a lot of benefits for the company or its farmer customers.

“I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade or denigrate what they’re doing, because greater efficiency is always a worthy goal,” Earl says. “What I will say is that there are some questions that I think still need to be answered.”

First and foremost is whether the railways will in fact respond to the incentives that G3 is placing in front of them with better service and lower rates. Earl says they may, but then again, they may not.

heavily on its logistics program and accepting on faith that it will have the sales program to support it.

“In economic theory, we describe transportation as a derived demand,” Earl says. “I just wonder if they’re not looking at transportation to drive sales, rather than sales to drive transportation.”

And then there’s the complicating mix of regulatory and revenue-cap issues, which can prove fraught and sometimes political.

One point both Earl and Gerrand agree upon is the necessity for the financial backers of the venture to take the long view and not expect short-term results.

“These grain handling assets don’t pay back very fast,” Earl says.

Gerrand, who was one of the founders of CanOat Milling, says he’s very familiar with the challenges of attracting capital to agriculture, and in no small part the quality of investors is going to be key to the company’s success.

“It’s not easy to build greenfield projects in the grain industry,” Gerrand admits. “The returns aren’t as attractive in the very short term as other investments.”

But, he adds, “We have some very patient investors who are taking the long view.” CG country-guide.ca 25

business

A focus group?

More companies are asking more farmers to sit in on focus groups. Should you agree? What rules should you expect?

By Angela Lovell

rom the day the first farmer put the first seed in the ground, there’s never been a farmer who didn’t have a wealth of opinions. Nor have there been very many farmers who take much if any persuading to share what they think.

In today’s more sophisticated world, however, the game has changed. Companies want your opinion both so they can design better products that work better on your farm, and also so they can achieve their own objectives, i.e. getting more of your money.

The two go hand in hand.

So if you get a call to participate in a focus group, will you be helping to design a better product or go-tomarket strategy that will help all farmers? Or will you primarily be helping the company’s bottom line?

Equally important, will the focus group actually make a difference? Or will it be a waste of time, helping some marketing agency pad its own fees?

What does a good focus group look like?

We asked some of the people who organize focus groups for their own take on what makes a focus group worth attending.

Ben Graham, managing partner at AdFarm, which conducts focus groups exclusively for the agricultural industry, says farmers can get valuable insight from the quality of the questions that the focus group gets asked.

“We work hard to avoid the obvious or the notso-smart questions,” Graham says. “You’ve got to ask good questions because if you are trying to gain market intelligence, your information is only as good as the questions you ask.”

Farmers can also get insight from whether the organizers seem to understand agriculture. “We certainly don’t do focus groups during seeding and harvest,” says Colin Siren, vice-president at Ipsos Reid, where he conducts an average of 20 to 30 focus groups a year with farmers and others in the agricultural industry. “We don’t contact our farmers on Sunday, and because farmers are typically more available early in the morning, unless they’re a dairy farmer, we tend to do morning focus groups and then a lunch session, whereas with consumers it would almost always be done in the evening when they tend to be more available.”

26 country-guide.ca

Something seems to be working, though, because Canada’s farmers do participate in focus groups.

“My gut feeling is that participation is higher (among farmers) than among the general public because from a farmer’s perspective, there’s a lot more to offer in the discussion than just the incentive that they receive for coming out to the group,” says Siren. “They get some insight into something that might impact how they think about their business.”

How much should they pay?

Farmers generally receive a small cash incentive for participating in a focus group, but that’s less a motivation than an acknowledgement of respect for their time and opinion.

Graham agrees. “It’s not a ton of money — maybe $50, $100 or $200 depending on the need of the group,” he says. “But really, the money isn’t the driver. Farmers have a passion for their business, and their love for what they do gives us a really good opportunity to get involvement.”

That’s the viewpoint from farmers too. “My hope was that I was contributing something to my industry through my presence at the focus group just by being heard, having a voice for someone who was listening,” says Craig Christensen who farms 9,000 acres of cereals and oilseeds east of Calgary and attended a recent focus group.

“I don’t know if I was making a difference, but it felt good to try,” Christensen says. “If I did make a difference I think it was just by helping the facilitators understand what my concerns were for my business and the agricultural industry.”

Focus groups also give farmers a chance to swap notes with their peers and see what other parts of the industry are up to. “There were a lot of different types of farmers in the room but a lot of the concerns were very similar. It seems wherever you go a farmer is a farmer,” says Christensen.

And Graham finds farmers also want to make sure the story isn’t wrong. Agriculture can suffer from misinformation or badly presented arguments, so a chance to set the record straight is a good motivation for many producers to participate in focus groups, he says. “I think part of what motivates producers is the danger of not participating, because February 16, 2016

business

somebody else might put some opinions forward that might hurt their business or agriculture in general and they don’t want to take that risk.”

Why a focus group?

Businesses and organizations commission focus groups for any number of reasons. Sometimes it’s to get a feel for how a new product would be received, or to solicit feedback on issues or challenges that face the industry.

Often the focus group helps to shape arguments or frame positions on a specific topic, or it assists companies to develop the right marketing messages and campaigns.

“If a company has multiple messages about, say, a new product, it wants to make sure it has the right messages in the right order,” says Graham. “Let’s say it’s a fertility product and it’s great on yields, really good for the environment because it’s a controlled-release product. It makes things easier to store and manage on your farm, and maybe it’s easier to apply. So you’ve got this whole long list of messages you could tell the grower.

The beauty of the research is it helps you prioritize that message so that you make sure you lead with the most important message to the grower.”

For Christensen, the focus group was called because an advertiser wanted to better understand their target audience. “I think that could have a potential impact for my business, which would hopefully be better advertising content and delivery, and hopefully help the agricultural industry be better informed about what purchasers of agricultural inputs and products are looking for.”

Effective focus groups Getting the right people in the room is as important as asking the right questions, and there’s a lot of work and effort that goes into filling the chairs.

“A product, for example, might be targeted to mid-size farmers, so in the West I might need to talk to farmers that have between 1,000 and 3,000 acres that are predominately wheat and canola growers.

Part of the recruitment process is to find growers that match that segment,” says Graham. “In Canada it’s tough because of our privacy laws, so we would have to query farmers about how many acres they farm and whether they would like to participate.”

Farmers can also be segmented by demographic or psychographic information. “We may want to talk to progressive farmers. So that’s a little tougher. How do you decide which farmer is more progressive than the next?” says Graham. “We have to build some questions and scenarios and select the appropriate farmers.”

Then, after you have the right people in the room, you need to run an effective program.

That requires a facilitator who can make peo-

The survey says…

If you’re sick of hearing the phone ring, or of getting your email or you mailbox clogged with survey requests, you aren’t alone.

“It’s becoming tougher to get farmers to participate in surveys because it’s so overdone,” says Ben Graham of Adfarm. “There are so many points where surveys are used; there are online surveys, call-in surveys, surveys at trade shows, so we have to think of unique ways to do it. Questions need to be short and to the point. Digital is becoming the best way to do surveys because it’s the least time-sensitive for farmers and the time commitment is a lot less.”

But before you throw that survey in the garbage or hit the delete button, it may be well to remember that surveys are a useful tool for many of the companies serving your needs.

“If you’re a canola seed company and you’re trying to gauge where seed sales are at and how many growers have booked their seed early, a survey is excellent for that,” says Graham. “You can come back and say 50 per cent of growers have booked their canola seed and I’m only at 37 per cent of my sales target. There are a lot of other canola seed companies out there and I’m behind, so I’d better get going. Surveys are useful to see current status or even trends.”

Colin Siren of Ipsos Canada says there is a symbiotic relationship between surveys and other types of research such as focus groups and one-on-one interviews. “Surveys continue to play an important role for those trying to understand the attitudes, opinions and behaviours of farmers,” says Siren, who adds Ipsos maintains a survey panel of 120,000 Canadian farmers. “But we also use qualitative research, like focus groups and interviews because these give you the general direction on an issue, whereas quantitative research, such as a survey, allows us to follow up and quantify how far our client is from achieving their goal or the potential for a new product.”

Continued on page 28 February 16, 2016

country-guide.ca 27

business Continued from page 27 ple in the room comfortable with each other and the process, says Scott Samoleski, vice-president of Street Smart Marketing Strategy Inc., which conducts focus groups for many different industry sectors, including agriculture.

“We usually try to keep our meetings intimate with about six to eight people, and keep the duration to about two hours,” Samoleski says. “We let them know the reason they’re there is to get their opinion, and that the more honest they are, the better. Not only are we learning what their opinion is but we have the opportunity to ask questions and find out why they feel that way, and what would it take to perhaps change their perspective.”

Christensen says he liked the format of the focus group he attended. “It was really well organized, and the questions were fair and pertinent about our issues and concerns for our business and agriculture going forward,” he says. “I really liked the open ended questions because they were designed to encourage open discussion.”

“ It’s ironic that the people with all the decision-making authority are the people that have the least contact with customers.”

— Scott Samoleski Avoiding groupthink Samoleski’s group has developed what he calls a unique style that helps ensure no one person dominates the conversation. “When you are running the group it’s important to make sure that you get everyone’s opinions before they hear other people talk to avoid groupthink,” says Samoleski. “We make sure that people commit to their point of view before we enter into a discussion. We put questions on the table and ask everyone to individually think about what their answers are. Then we go to every single person and make sure that we hear what they had to say.

If we see that people are parroting back what they heard somebody else say, we go back and ask them what they had written down.”

Samoleski’s clients are looking for more than just an information dump from focus group conversations. They want detailed analysis that identifies trends and common issues and provides them with direction. It’s the reason that Samoleski makes audio and videotapes of each meeting. He will carefully analyze the information afterwards and give his clients a better idea which subjects are pushing the emotional buttons of participants.

“When you’re running a meeting, you’re concentrating on the timing, the flow, and making 28 country-guide.ca

sure that you’re getting everything out of people,” Samoleski says. “We turn the audio recording into a written transcript so we know exactly what every person in the room said. The video gives us the degree of expression so we can tell if someone’s skeptical or if they’re passionate or if they’re upset about something.”

Identifying the common patterns from various focus groups allows clients to understand what’s most important to a potential audience. Sometimes there might be one person in the room who really harps on a particular thing, and you think that must be a big deal, says Samoleski. By comparing that meeting against four or five others, however, you can get better insight into whether it’s actually a unique issue to that one grower, or something that seriously affects a number of others too.

Christensen has no hesitation in speakng up about issues, but he knows not everyone is comfortable doing that in a group setting, and his only criticism of the process was that he felt there should have been an opportunity for one-on-one discussions as well. “If you are talking about business concerns and opportunities, farmers typically like to keep that kind of stuff tight to the vest and those conversations don’t happen easily,” he says. “I think a more personal component would have made it easier for some people to open up.”

Get to the decision makers Not all focus groups bring people together in a room. Online groups are also common and have the advantage of being able to connect a wider audience. The Internet also provides some social listening opportunities that can give insight into general cultural or industry trends.

“Often the discussions that are being held in social media spaces about farming are more general than what our clients are looking for,” says Siren.

“But social listening has its place. If you even look at something as simple as Google Analytics you have a baseline to understand the type of dialogue and discussion that’s going on now and compare that to 10 years ago. It’s a very powerful tool, especially when there’s a change in public dialogue or perceptions.”

Social media can sometimes trigger focus groups, adds Graham. “Social media can be a tool to help us mould focus groups because we’ll discover a groundswell of discussion about something, which can prompt the need for more investigation and market intelligence,” he says.

For many of Samoleski’s clients, a focus group helps bring the board room and the farm gate closer together. “What we try to do is put the customer in the boardroom,” he says. “It’s ironic that the people with all the decision-making authority are the people that have the least contact with customers. And the people that have the most contact with customers have the least power to impact change. Part of our role is to try and reduce the gap between executive leadership in a company or organization and what’s happening on the ground floor.” CG February 16, 2016

Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association

SOIL CHAMPION Recognizing outstanding achievements and advocacy in the cause of soil management excellence

Better soil health reduces fertilizer use and increases yields, says Soil Champion

By Lilian Schaer There’s nothing that makes Tyler Vollmershausen happier than sticking a shovel into a field to see what’s happening underground.

That passion for soil is one reason Vollmershausen Farms is the 2016 Soil Champion, an award handed out annually by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) to recognize leaders in sustainable soil management.

Vollmershausens have been farming near Innerkip in Oxford County for six generations.

Today, Doug and Connie, their sons Larry and Brian, and Larry’s son Tyler grow corn, dry beans, and cereals, and keep some of their cereal seed for use as cover crops.

“Our focus is on soil health. As farmers, it is our responsibility to manage the land and look after soil,” says Tyler of their soil conservation efforts that include strip till, no till, and cover crops.

It all started with a presentation by soil expert Dr. Jill Clapperton at an annual meeting of the former Ontario Coloured Bean Growers’ Association where she explained how fall tillage destroys earthworm populations.

“The next year we did no fall tillage and started to see a change. In one presentation, she completely changed the way we view agriculture,” Tyler admits. “Except for a 10 acre patch to be planted to oats in the spring, all of our bean acreage has been seeded with cover crops or a winter cereal cash crop, and we are proud of that. Our nutrients and soils are staying on farm where they belong.”

L-R: Tyler, Brian, Connie, Doug and Larry Vollmershausen deep, with the Soil Warrior uniformly blending the soil and fertilizer to create an ideal seed bed combined with precise nutrient placement.

“The Soil Warrior is extremely efficient and low maintenance. We’re using about a third less fertilizer and we’ve seen a 10 to 15 per cent yield increase compared to our previous conventional practices,” he says.

As well, it makes it possible for two people to handle all the spring field work without needing extra help.

Tyler’s real passion lies with cover crops though.

The Vollmershausens practice strip tillage using a Soil Warrior, a technology Tyler says has helped them reduce their fertilizer usage, boost yields, and address labour issues.

This year, for example, they spread a clover and radish mix into standing six leaf corn, and followed that with rye broadcast into the stover after harvest.

They don’t do any fall passes on their lighter soils, but in fall passes on their heavier land, which makes up about one quarter of their acreage, the machine penetrates 10 to 11 inches into the ground to lift the soil and create a berm, leaving two thirds of the soil surface undisturbed. The raised berm dries out more rapidly in spring, allowing them to get on the land a few days sooner.

“Radish is like Red Bull for earth worms. It’s a brassica and isn’t part of our regular crop rotation so it is feeding a different set of microbes in the soil,” Tyler says. “Our system is simple: keep the soil covered at all times and keep living plant roots in the ground. That’s what’s driving the biology below the soil line.”

A single spring pass on the remaining three quarters of their acreage is about five inches

And although Tyler believes polycultures offer the greatest opportunity to bring biodiversity back, he says there is no one silver bullet mix that will solve all problems or work well on all areas.

Tyler’s soil focus has not gone unnoticed.

He’s twice represented the family business as a speaker at the Southwest Agricultural Conference, as well as presenting at the Innovative Farmers Conference this year and the Precision Ag Conference in 2015.

He’s also active on Twitter as @t_vollmer.

His key advice to other growers is focused on continuous learning, taking part in education events and always asking questions. And for those unsure of making big changes, it’s ok to start with small steps, he says.

“This land needs to support many more generations, so I think it’s necessary for Ontario farmers to evolve, reflect on what we’re doing, and make changes to benefit our soil health and water quality,” he adds.

Details on the Soil Champion award and a more comprehensive profile of the Vollmershausens is available at www.ontariosoilcrop.org.

Grassroots Innovation Since 1939

HR

The dark side for entrepreneurs

By Pierrette Desrosiers, psychologist and coach

ince you are an entrepreneur, some people imagine that you get to do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it.

They think running a business means you can follow your passions and have the freedom to work with whomever you like. Some even believe an entrepreneur can choose to buy almost anything, and that the bank is always there for them.

Such sentiments, of course, are pipe dreams. In reality, you are probably free to work when you want — as long as you log 70 to 80 hours per week. You get to choose what you want to do, as long as it’s among the most urgent of your hundreds of important tasks. You hire someone who is available, even if he doesn’t fit the profile. You endure nights of insomnia because of business worries, and you work long, stressful hours, and then fight with your spouse because you are not there for the kids.

Entrepreneurs are often idealized.

They are perceived as invulnerable, happy, and able to brave all storms. The truth is a little darker.

Michael A. Freeman, former entrepreneur, psychiatrist, and clinical professor of psychology at UC-San Francisco’s medical school found that entrepreneurs suffer more mental health problems than the general population. According to his research: • 4 9 per cent of entrepreneurs suffer from a mental health problem, versus 32 per cent of the general population.

• Almost a third of entrepreneurs suffer from two or more diagnoses.

• 7 2 per cent of entrepreneurs are directly or indirectly affected (through a family member) by a mental health problem, compared to 48 per cent of the general population.

The main diagnoses of mental health problems identified among entrepreneurs are: ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder), depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and addictions (drug, alcohol, sex, technology, or medication).

The traits that make entrepreneurs successful include boundless energy, creative ideas, motivation, strength of character, a high tolerance for risk, and a great desire for independence.

30 country-guide.ca

These same traits, when pushed to the extreme, can lead to downward spirals of stress, resulting in a lack of sleep, too little investment in other areas of life, lack of exercise, and chronic multitasking. In short, the same traits that fuel our entrepreneurs can also consume them.

As Freeman reported, “The people that we admire for being entrepreneurs seem to come from the same gene pool as the people who are kind of socially stigmatized because of mental health conditions,” implying that the traits “must confer some adaptive advantage otherwise they wouldn’t be so highly represented in the population.”

Let’s look at a few character qualities that benefit business owners but that have also been linked to specific mental illnesses.

Creativity and innovation: “Innovate or die” is the mantra of nearly all entrepreneurs. However, this attitude has been linked in several studies with psychosis, bipolar disorder, depression, ADHD, and substance abuse.

Goal attainment and achievement motivation: Pursuing goals is essential to business success but has also been correlated with bipolar disorder.

High risk tolerance: The acceptance of risk is a key ingredient in entrepreneurial success, but it often coexists with bipolar disorder, substance abuse, and ADHD. Since many entrepreneurs pay a high price for their “freedom,” it is critical to stop seeing them as invincible people.

Instead, we need to see their vulnerability.

Some experts even argue that a society that values a strong economy must develop a system to help its leaders hone their strengths. As business creators, entrepreneurs are responsible for a big part of the economy. They create services, products, and jobs.

Supporting stable entrepreneurs creates a stable society.

But, if you’re reading this as an entrepreneur, you know you need to take responsibility for your own long-term success by investing in your mental health. Let’s look at a few key ways you can do that.

Passion is one important ingredient in success, but it’s not sufficient. You need to be able to maximize your sur-

rounding environment by hiring the right people, executing a solid business plan, and adapting when internal or external circumstances change. But most importantly, you need to know yourself — your strengths, weaknesses, and values — and you must be able to manage yourself.

This involves knowing when your personality traits are helpful and when they cross the line, becoming weaknesses.

• Self-assurance can become arrogance.

• Expending too much energy can burn you out.

• Developing too many ideas can result in disorganization and lack of focus.

• Tolerating too much risk can cause financial difficulties.

• B eing too competitive can provoke conflicts.

This leads to an important question: How can you best foster the qualities that make you an entrepreneur while preventing the manifestation of their darker side?

Take time to exercise: It is good for your physical and psychological health and can help you focus, reduce anxiety, and be more energetic.

Take time to eat healthy: Your body is your only vehicle to take you through life.

You can buy a new tractor if your motor is done. If you’re done… you’re done.

Take time to meditate five to 10 minutes a day: It helps you think clearly, solve problems, and appreciate life.

Invest in your close relationships: It will increase your happiness and keep you from becoming a workaholic.

Remember, we are all vulnerable, so find a confidant with whom you can talk about anything and everything. You don’t always have to be strong.

Your self-worth is not the same as your net worth. You are more than your business. 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. Find her at www. pierrettedesroiers.com, or contact her at pierrete@pierrettedesrosiers.com.

February 16, 2016

February 2016

More Yield in 2016 our special issue of proven Bushelbuilding advice

strategies:

Double-cropping, pg. 4 Better rotations, pG. 8 30" rows, pG. 24 New cover crops, PG. 38

Philip shaw looks for a black swan pG. 14 These farms go for soy bedding pG. 18

Trust is earned when performance delivers.

Dow Seeds brings you our best traits, genetics and seed performance. But it doesn’t end there. We’re committed to doing what’s right and treating you right. We’ve added more agronomists to the team and we’ll only recommend products that will perform for you, on your farm. It’s customers first, always.

I work for Dow AgroSciences.

I am Dow Seeds.

@DowSeedsCA

Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) or an affiliated company of Dow

® TM

02/16-43356 CGE

February 2016

page

Double-cropping on a comeback

4

Last call for continuous soys

8

Looking for a black swan

14

Bedding with soy straw

18

A new look at 30-inch rows

24

SCN frustration

30

Keeping the nematode at bay

34

Blending scores big with cover crops — and diversity

38

A Year of winners, and maybe losers

I

n his column starting on page 14, market watcher Philip Shaw tells us to keep our eyes peeled for black swans in 2016. It’s excellent advice, not only because, as Philip points out, a black swan is essential for restoring vigour to soybean commodity markets, but also because a black swan event is increasingly likely.

Rarely have I begun a year feeling less confident of how it will end, and I know that I am not alone in this. We go into 2016 feeling we’re in tipping point territory, where an El Niño-driven weather aberration or a politically driven economic or logistical collapse could make global prices soar, or else good weather and sane politics could create their own black swan, pushing prices down.

I recommend you pause over Philip’s article.

Make of note of his numbers, and use them through the year to help you remember where we have come from.

Soybean Guide, February 2016

There has been a role reversal in agriculture.

Through almost all of my career, we accepted that markets could be energized as much or more by emotion than by fundamentals, but we also agreed that it was often the farmers who were being emotional, for instance, by holding on to crops despite market signals.

Now, it is the farmers who are shrewd and the mob of traders and investors who create critical masses of greed and panic.

The great certainty, I fear, is that even more than most years, 2016 will be a year with winners and losers. Clearly it will be a year that rewards efficient production, which means Canada as a whole should emerge better than our competitors. But that phrase “as a whole” may prove troubling.

Tom Button, CG Editor tom.button@fbcpublishing.com

3

Soyguide

Today, the double-crop odds are even more in the growers’ favour, thanks in part to short-season varieties bred for Western Canada

By Ralph Pearce CG Production Editor

Double-cropping on a comeback W

hen comparing current commodity prices against everything they have to pay for, including land values and rents, plus seed, fuel, chemicals and fertilizer, it’s no surprise that farmers want to maximize their soil’s performance. It’s enough to make double-cropping, especially after cereals, seem like an obvious choice — if only it wasn’t so risky.

Maybe in the extreme southwest of Ontario, the thinking goes, or perhaps in the U.S., but for the rest of us, it just isn’t realistic. To actually harvest enough beans to make it worthwhile, too many factors would have to line up too perfectly.

Well, maybe that’s changing. Today, double-cropping may actually be a little more forgiving thanks to new developments in plant breeding, including the release of early-maturing soybean varieties that are suited to Western Can­ada’s shorter growing season.

In other words, it may be possible to plant a western variety in the East in late June and still get a good stand.

At the very least, there are more farmers who are taking the double-crop plunge, and some have been doing it for quite a number of years.

C ountry G uide checked with two such farmers — Ian Matheson from Embro, Ont., and Mike DonnellyVander­l oo from Thorndale. Each has his own preferences and rotations, but both have been double-cropping for years.

Ian Matheson — Embro The Matheson name has become synonymous with double-cropping. His father Robert began working with it roughly 15 years ago, and since joining the farm following graduation from University of Guelph 11 years ago, Ian has continued the practice with brother Scott. The farm’s rotation follows a three- or four-year continuous corn schedule, followed by soybeans and then wheat or winter barley. It’s after winter barley that the Mathesons double crop their soybeans.

4

“It seems to have become a staple in our program any time following winter barley,” says Matheson, adding that the idea came from Eric Richter, sales agronomist with Syngenta. “In fact, I can’t remember harvesting winter barley without planting double-crop soybeans afterwards, and we’ve been constantly tweak­ing the program ever since, trying to increase our success rate.”

Again, this is considered more a practice for parts to the south and west. In the 1970s, growers in Kent and Essex could get a double crop in after peas or another processing vegetable crop, but everything had to be right, particularly the planting date and available moisture. That only happened once every five or seven years, if that. Yet Matheson now has no doubts about getting reasonable double-crop yields on a regular basis, thanks in large part to short-season varieties such as Syngenta’s S007-Y4s. Bred for the 00 and 000 regions in West­e rn Canada, they could be a boon to double-crop opportunities in the East.

“Even in past years, where the experts have said it’s not likely to grow a harvestable crop, we’ve managed to get an 80 to 90 per cent success rate,” Matheson says.

“It definitely works best in long, open seasons, but it’s not impossible in ‘backward’ seasons, either.”

Planting in late June or even early July, could be a limiting factor. If it’s going to be dry in midsummer, mid-July to early August will be the more likely window when precipitation is at a premium. To mitigate that, the Mathe­sons have tried applying liquid manure prior to planting in those dry years. But part of the challenge there is having to wait for the ground to dry before planting.

“It’s most important to plant into moisture, even if it’s deeper than would be considered acceptable in a full-season situation,” says Matheson. “With April-, Mayor early-June-planted soybeans, there’s time to allow for the seeds to wait for a rain. But not in this instance: the ground is so warm, you can plant deep, find moisture and still get off to a good start.”

Soybean Guide, February 2016

are always planted with the full intention of harvesting them. That means planting and planning for success. He’s had other farmers tell him to cut back seeding rates to reduce the risk, but he’s found the population has to be kept fairly high for the best results, including maintaining inputs, not reducing them.

“With some of the things we’ve learned in the past few years, I’m positive that we can increase our chances even more for a profitable crop,” says Mathe­ son. “We used to be happy if we had more than 25-bushel yields, but I think with the things we’ve learned, we can likely count on close to another 10 bushels on top of that in a comparable year.”

Soybeans are often the choice for double-cropping but edible beans can also work depending on the farm and its management.

Not all farms are alike It can’t be stressed enough that each farm is different, as is each farmer’s practices. This system and this rotation, on this land and with this climate all work together for the Mathesons. Their rotation means the double-crop soybeans precede the return to three or four years of corn. And it’s that first year’s corn that historically has been their best, even better than after straight barley. In the fall of 2015, they also tried aerial seeding of barley back into their double-crop soybeans just prior to leaf-drop. Late in the year, it didn’t appear to be a good catch of barley, but the family’s willing to leave it to the spring just to see if it’s possible to harvest four crops in two years.

Matheson says the primary driver was initially to keep the soil active and growing, instead of allowing it to sit idle for Soybean Guide, February 2016

so much of the growing season. But then he began to wonder if there’s enough time to grow out a harvestable soybean crop, as well.

“I look at what can be spent on some of the current cover crop mixes out there, and we’re not spending all that much more for soybean seed, with what has the potential for a profitable harvest, as well as still having all the benefits of a cover crop,” explains Matheson. “We grew an oat-radish cover crop after wheat in 2015, and after seeing these short-day beans this year, we’re strongly considering trying a few acres of DC beans following wheat in 2016, if our wheat is harvested in July.”

In that sense, these soybean crops are much more than a cover crop. Matheson notes the double crop has its own set of management demands, but the soybeans

Mike Donnelly-Vanderloo Double-cropping is naturally easier if the preceding crop comes off early, and for Mike Donnelly-Vanderloo, who farms east of London, Ont., near Thorndale, that base comes from their crops of processing peas.

In fact, on their farm, they have looked at a number of double-cropping options after the peas.

“Certainly we’ve tried soybeans, we’ve tried Roundup Ready soybeans, we’ve tried nattos, we’ve tried white beans, cranberries and black beans, and each one of them has its own pros and cons,” Donnelly-Vanderloo says. Now with the popularity of 00- and 000-zone soybeans, the options are increasing. “I can’t think of any other crop that’s pushing that northern frontier more than soybeans.”

Donnelly-Vanderloo also acknowledges that soybeans are probably easier to grow than white beans or cranberry beans, which face tight quality parameters and need a contract or a dedicated buyer.

“You have the quality issue, and that can weigh quite heavily on the decision,” Donnelly-Vanderloo adds. “It’s back to that risk versus reward, and often higher risks but also higher rewards. We have a little more leeway than most because we’re coming after processing peas, and that’s where we started about 20 years ago when we had vegetable contracts. We tended to go with the early peas because those helped us with a cash crop rotation of corn, wheat and soybeans, and we’re pretty heavy with edible beans like cranberries, kidneys and blacks and whites. So, peas were a nice fit because you could get them in early.”

Continued on page 6

5

How early?

One year, Donnelly-Vanderloo had to come back from vacation in early March because the ground was fit to plant his peas. The challenge with early peas, however, is that they’re a short-season, 60-day crop and if the rainfall doesn’t come, they can be still profitable, but it’s more of a challenge.

Two decades ago, double-cropping might have been more of an economic goal for Donnelly-Vanderloo to make money off the land while he could. Now, it’s come back full circle where the soil health issue becomes an important facet, along with the economic factor.

“Often, the peas can come off in late June, so now it’s not just the economics, it’s also keeping something growing, plus it’s the challenge of getting two crops in one year,” says Donnelly-Vanderloo. “The ultimate trifecta is if you can get the two crops and get a crop of winter wheat in.

And we’ve done that a couple of years.”

That didn’t happen late in 2015, which was a bit of a disappointment given the length and warmth of the fall, but the peas came off a little later than expected, there was compaction requiring some field tillage, and then a rain event delayed planting.

Facing the decision to go with edible beans or soybeans or peas, it all comes down to the calendar and the available moisture, and the latter of the two is the more important factor with edible beans.

Unlike soybeans, edibles can’t wait for moisture to come. They need to germinate fast. Available moisture is likely the factor that creates the most anxiety when it comes to double-cropping, particularly where germination is concerned.

Donnelly-Vanderloo was leaning towards white beans in 2015 but at the last minute, he decided to try soybeans.

He began researching soybean varieties, first in Ontario but then started looking at available varieties suited to Manitoba.

He found S007-Y4, which he calls “the James Bond variety” and it had done very well in 2014 in the West. So he contacted Eric Richter and asked about seed availability. As it turns out, the variety did well in Manitoba, so Richter asked Donnelly-Vanderloo if he’d be interested in growing the double crop for seed, including a premium.

“The germination was excellent, and everything was perfect for an extremely 6

Photo courtesy of Eric Richter

Continued from page 5

Varieties bred more for Western Canada are opening the door to double-crop soybeans.

uniform seed set,” says Donnelly-Vander­ loo with a smile. “So they’re going back to Manitoba for seed.”

He’s never had a double crop go for seed, but everything played out perfectly.

If the soil was perfect and there had been no compaction from the pea combines (and that’s getting better now that four of the six machines he uses for harvest are tracked), they probably would have gone with cranberry beans.

Cranberry beans are the highest risk, but also carry the highest reward. Edible beans don’t have a large yield drag with later planting, unlike corn. If all systems are good and there’s sufficient moisture, significant yields are possible. Overall, Donnelly-Vanderloo states he can get a profitable double crop four out of five years.

“And only because we have peas, but if you’re talking to growers who are trying to do it after winter barley or — even more challenging — winter wheat, that’ll change the probability,” he says. “It’s a little easier for us, which isn’t to say that it’s going to work. We’ve been burnt too, and we don’t have it all figured out by any stretch of the imagination. And that’s just because we’re fortunate and we have some pea contracts. But there are some years where if it’s not going to click, we’ll just go with a cover crop and keep something growing in the soil.”

As with Matheson, Donnelly-Vander­ loo’s double crop is more than just an elaborate cover crop: there is a goal of getting something marketable from that second planting. Plus it’s not as though he doesn’t plant cover crops. Every wheat acre he plants also gets underseeded with

clover. Where that may change going forward is that he might start looking at cover crop blends. He’s also going to work towards reducing his plowing and tilling, although peas, he notes, are a different type of crop, with different challenges below the soil.

Donnelly-Vander­loo says he actually increases his fertility to continue driving yields. He’s also fielded some questions about seed costs, with suggestions that he drop his populations. But he keeps those higher to compensate for the laterseason planting. He also acknowledges some concerns about pushing a winter wheat crop out of the rotation, in the hopes of driving higher yields from the double crop.

“If you go after the double crop and forgo that crop of winter wheat, you have to be careful,” says Donnelly-Vander­loo, adding that he’s had a few questions about how to increase his organic matter with such active soils. “And all I can say is that I didn’t get the winter wheat in (in 2015), but I did get bin-run wheat seed and put about 120 pounds or two bushels per acre. I put it on with a spinnerspreader and went out with a chisel plow, and in mid-December, you could see a little bit of green. So I’ll let that grow and I’m hoping that come spring, we’ll have maybe six inches, maybe 10 inches that I can burn off and seed into.”

Otherwise there’s a lost opportunity to plant that winter wheat crop with the potential for clover the following summer. But since Donnelly-Vanderloo is also a sweet corn grower, he has a little more flexibility to leave that broadcast wheat in a little longer if he wants. SG Soybean Guide, February 2016

PROTECTS AGAINST THE WEEDS YOU HAVE AND THE WEEDS YOU DON’T HAVE YET. Weeds can be a detriment to your soybean crop. Fortunately, DuPont Canopy PRO pre-emergence herbicide contains two modes-of-action to help manage herbicide resistance and control troublesome weeds. In addition, Canopy PRO delivers broad-spectrum residual activity on tough weeds like velvetleaf, dandelion and annual sow thistle. Even more good news for 2016. Canopy PRO is now registered for control of Canada fleabane TM

TM

TM

TM

including glyphosate resistant biotypes.

Give your crops the protection they need with Canopy PRO. Ask your retailer about Canopy™ PRO today. For more information call the DuPont FarmCare Support Centre at 1-800-667-3925 or visit canopypro.dupont.ca

TM

TM

herbicide

TM

TM

DuPont Canopy PRO

®

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

Member of CropLife Canada.

Unless indicated, trademarks with ®, ™ or

SM

are trademarks of DuPont or affiliates. © 2016 DuPont.

1523 Canopy Brand ad_CountryGuideSoybeanGuide.indd 1

1/22/16 4:07 PM

Soyguide

Continuous soys are tough on the soil, tough on yields and tough on the pocketbook. So why do we still plant them?

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

Last call for continuous soys M

any years ago, Ross Daily, the televison host of “This Busi­ ness of Farming” spoke at a county-level federation of agriculture meeting, and in the course of his speech congratulated growers on their six-year rotations. The audience was frankly bewildered until Daily offered an expla­ nation to clear the confusion.

“You know what I’m talking about: soybeans-soybeans-soybeans-soybeanssoybeans, and then in the sixth year, you plant winter wheat,” said Daily, counting off the years on the fingers of his hand.

“But during the winter, the wheat dies off, and you ask yourself, ‘What can I grow now? Oh yeah! — Soybeans!”

Following his presentation, the federa­ tion president thanked Daily for his sar­ casm-laced lesson about continuous soybeans. When Daily suggested he had maybe exaggerated a little, the federation president replied bluntly, “Not as much as you’d like to think!”

It’s a reflection of what is now a bygone practice, particularly where con­ venience has been replaced with knowl­ edge and new research into agronomic stewardship. But again, perhaps not as much as we’d like to think.

In 2013 and 2014, fall planting condi­ tions for winter wheat in Ontario were poor enough to propel farmers into a sec­ ond or perhaps even third year of soy­ beans, even though most growers today are fully aware of the dangers of two or three years of soybeans.

Message bears repeating Continuous soybeans are not a good idea, especially in the era of glyphosateresistant weeds (even if that risk seems potentially offset by the coming availabil­ ity of the new dicamba-resistant Xtend technology).

“Everybody knows that it’s a bad deci­ sion to grow continuous soybeans for the obvious reasons,” says Horst Bohner, pro­

“Everybody knows that it’s a bad decision to grow continuous soybeans for the obvious reasons.”

— Horst Bohner, OMAFRA

Continuous cropping is an option growers take because of economics and weather more than as a regular practice, says OMAFRA’s Horst Bohner.

8

vincial soybeans specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. “It’s hard on the soil, hard on the soil structure, on organic matter, it removes a lot of nutrients and there’s a whole package of diseases and insects that build with continuous soy­ bean production. Everyone knows they’re playing with fire, but it’s the issue of what might be the lesser of two evils.”

Bohner likens it to speeding on a major highway. Driving at 30 km/h over the posted speed limit might be some­ thing you have to do short term, to pass, for instance. But the longer you do it, the Continued on page 10

Soybean Guide, February 2016

REACHING NEW HEIGHTS with AKRAS R2

Designing the ultimate soybean AKRAS R2 was bred by Elite® and selected from their Western Canadian breeding program because of its excellent yield and industry standardsetting pod height. Higher pods mean easier harvest, fewer pods on the ground and more beans in your bin.

AKRAS R2 also has excellent disease resistance and has an early-to midmaturity, making it well adapted to all soybean growing areas.

Higher pods for easier harvestability

More yield for improved return on investment

TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH ELITE® SOYBEANS FROM BrettYoung:

@BY_Seeds | #BYSoybean15

Visit brettyoung.ca 1-800-665-5015 Elite® is a registered trademark of La Coop fédérée. BrettYoungTM is a trademark of Brett-Young Seeds Limited. 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. This product has 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 glyphosate tolerant. Genuity®, Genuity and Design®, Genuity Icons, Roundup®, Roundup Ready®, and Roundup Ready 2 Yield® are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC used under license. 5032 09/15

Continued from page 8

greater the chance that something catastrophic will occur. The same is true with soybeans: the more consecutive years of soybeans, the higher the frequency and potential for several different management challenges, particularly pest or disease issues such as soybean cyst nematode or white mould.

Yet continuous cropping is not a practice that Bohner believes growers do lightheartedly. Instead, it’s an option in a wet or hard-to-plant fall, or as a hedge against lower corn prices.

So while Bohner believes the prospect

of using dicamba blended with glyphosate will put many growers into a better position to manage weed-resistance issues through the reintroduction of Group 2 chemistries, it won’t be enough to convince them to get back into continuous soybeans.

Besides, there’s also another shift he’s witnessing.

“I actually see a trend back to some conventional varieties by those growers who have resistance problems because they say that they need to use different chemistries anyway,” Bohner says. “And the cost of glyphosate-resistant seed is relatively high, so they’re saying, ‘Why not just save my

Yield lag on continuous soybeans

F

or years, continuous soybeans have mainly been planted out of short-term necessity, not because that’s what the farmer had planned. Soybeans are harder on soils than corn, they leave less res-

idue than corn or wheat, thus impacting soil organic matter, and growers generally underestimate the crop’s nutrient use, thereby mining soils over several years. Add to that the potential for more pest and disease issues, and the practice is simply not conducive to long-term cropping success.

According to Horst Bohner, soybean specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), research done in Wisconsin (among other locations), indicates an initial yield lag in the second and third year of soybeans. But then something interesting happens; the yield loss levels off. Second-year soybeans can lose 10 to 15 per cent off their yield potential. In third-year soybeans, a grower might lose an additional five to eight per cent, so 15 to 23 per cent in total.

But after that, says Bohner, the yield loss levels off in the fourth, fifth and sixth years, and beyond. How much more of a yield hit a grower might take beyond that is harder to predict, and largely depends on SCN and white mould pressure.

What is known is that the longer a grower plants soybeans, the greater the risk of a widespread issue arising — and with a vengeance. White mould might spring up suddenly, or a weather-related challenge, such as drought stress.

“The overall message is that it does plateau for quite a few years, but you’re just losing a good chunk of yield,” says Bohner. “And there’s no technology or seed treatment or fungicide that cures that rotation effect.

All of those things help the crop and there’s more of a benefit to those inputs if you have a lot of beans in the rotation, but they don’t solve the rotation effect and the yield loss.”

input dollar on the seed if I have to spend it on the herbicide anyway?’”

Regardless of issues such as fertilizing soybeans or discussing the dangers (or virtues) of continuous soybeans, Bohner says soybean production really comes down to economics. How low are corn prices, and what’s the cost of nitrogenbased fertilizer? The main shift in soybean acres and its impact on continuous soybean management have largely come as a result of pricing and weather.

Site-specific issues Also important is the local weed spectrum. For Chad Anderson, an innovation such as Roundup Ready Xtend technology has nothing to do with justifying continuous soybeans, it’s about having a solution to glyphosate-resistant Canada fleabane, which is particularly bad in his home county of Lambton. Anderson also refers to Lambton as the recordholder for the most verified cases of Group 2-resistant weed species in Ontario, which he believes creates a better understanding in the region for the dangers of relying too heavily on any technology.

“Growers who adopted tank-mix options in 2015 were quite satisfied with the results, so I think there is some confidence that management can help deal with resistance issues outside of new technologies,” says Anderson, an independent certified crop adviser (CCA) from Brigden. “But this comes at additional input costs which are worrying, given the current grain-pricing complex.

It’ll come down to costs and performance: if the new technologies can deliver comparable or improved yields at costs equal to conventional options, producers tend to lean to convenience as long as yield doesn’t suffer and profit margins are comparable.”

The continuous soybean option has also been appealing in Lambton because its heavier clays are tough on corn, so it’s tempting to alternate soybeans with wheat. There is also little flexibility for growing spring cereals, and there isn’t sufficient livestock density in Lambton to make money growing alfalfa or forages.

That said, Anderson notes that weed management options are much more flexible in corn than in soybeans, with a variety of different groups available to add as tank-mix partners with glyphosate.

More importantly, these options are effecContinued on page 12

10

Soybean Guide, February 2016

Forward THINKING For higher yield potential and better returns, order your soybean seed pre-treated with Optimize® inoculant today.

The LCO technology in Optimize helps your soybean crop by enhancing nutritional availability. Benefit from improved nodule formation, increased nitrogen fixation and enhanced nutrient availability to support root and shoot growth.

Now with up to 220 days on seed,* get the most from your soybean crop with Optimize.

See your local retailer to order or visit OptimizeLCO.ca to learn more about Optimize ST, a new concentrated formulation.

Nature. It’s powerful technology.

Optimize

®

*Time on seed will depend on Optimize formulation and additional seed treatments applied.

Visit OptimizeLCO.ca for specific information.

ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW LABEL DIRECTIONS. Monsanto BioAg and Design™ and Optimize ® are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC, Monsanto Canada Inc, licensee. © 2015 Monsanto Canada Inc. 1405-1 10.15

Continued from page 10

tive in controlling hard-to-control glypho­ sate-restistant weeds.

“The big message I’ve heard from the likes of Mike Cowbrough (OMAFRA) and Dr. Peter Sikkema (University of Guelph’s Ridgetown Campus) is that in soybeans if you miss fleabane and giant ragweed in your soybean burn-down, you’re cooked,” says Anderson. “In corn, you can add several products which will control problem weeds, keeping the seed bank low, which will make corn even more important in the rotation than ever before.”

Changes in cropping practices Through all of the discussion about soybeans and corn, and any long-term potential for fewer wheat acres in the rotation, Bohner echoes others on the need for longer rotations. Despite concerns about wet and tough planting in the fall, or whether wheat can be profitable, the work of Doug Young and Dr. Dave Hooker at University of Guelph’s Ridgetown Campus offers little room for debate about the value of maintaining wheat in the rotation.

“I actually believe that with all of this talk of cover crops in the rotation, the message we’re missing is that winter wheat is the best cover crop there is,” says Bohner. “To keep winter wheat in our rotation is far more important than any other cover crop you can come up with, because it’s in the ground longer and it has the benefits for the other crops.”

But there’s no doubt that crop production in Eastern Canada is in the midst of some interesting changes. In spite of one of the more open autumn planting seasons in 2015, the estimated number of winter wheat acres planted was well below one million (one estimate suggests a little over 900,000) in Ontario.

Thanks to the efforts of plant researchers and breeders, there’s also been a sustained northward migration for soybeans, particularly into central, eastern, and now the Near North region of Ontario and western Quebec. Growers in those regions are benefiting greatly from early-season maturities favoured in parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In the Near North region of Temiskaming and New Liskeard, soybeans represent an option away from canola, where the swede midge has decimated canola production. And yet Bohner still maintains that 2.5 million acres of soybeans is the optimum production level for 12

Despite growth in eastern and parts of northern Ontario, soybean production is more likely to plateau in the next few years.

Area, production and yield of corn, Table 1 wheat and soybeans in Ontario, 2011-15 Corn

Soybeans

Winter Wheat

2,040,000

2,900,000

625,000

2015 (estimated totals) Acres harvested Yield (bu./ac.)

Production (’000 bushels)

170.6

45.5

78.4

348,000

132,000

49,000

1,860,000

3,060,000

775,000

160.9

45.5

77.2

299,200

139,300

59,800

2,210,000

2,595,000

1,045,000

160.5

45.9

80.1

354,600

119,000

83,700

2,210,000

2,587,000

820,000

153.2

48.3

78.4

338,500

125,000

64,300

2014 Acres harvested Yield (bu./ac.)

Production (’000 bushels) 2013 Acres harvested Yield (bu./ac.)

Production (’000 bushels) 2012 Acres harvested Yield (bu./ac.)

Production (’000 bushels)

Source: Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA)

soybeans in Ontario, if we want to keep a good crop rotation.

“Corn yields continue to outpace soybeans, so it’s hard for soybeans to compete w ith a good corn crop,” Bohner says, adding that many growers are disappointed with corn yields of ‘just’ 190 bu./ac. “For those growers who can grow a good corn crop, I believe corn is

going to take more of the acreage than soybeans over the next few years. Corn will go up and soybeans will settle well below three million acres because of the frustration of not being able to get 55- or 65-bushel beans consistently, and the fact that wheat profitability can be questionable, driving more acres into corn.” SG Soybean Guide, February 2016

Lending a helping hand from sowing to harvest

311-02/2016

Our team of agronomists and technicians are in the fields, throughout the season, helping you get the most out of your crops.

Call our experts for great advice !

Eastern Ontario

Montérégie

819 208-0787

514 770-2627

Andrew Hodges Élise Vincent 613 894-5338

Eastern Townships and Montérégie

Hicham Fram, agr.

514 771-3831

Adriana Puscasu, agr.

Laurentians

Valentin Baciu, agr.

514 208-6639

Central Québec

Guillaume Vincent 819 818-7853

Choose Ceresco’s high performance seeds

Come and see us !

March 8, 9, 10, 2016 Ottawa Valley Farm Show

Growing soybean culture

1 888 427-7692 www.sgceresco.com

Soyguide

Looking for a black swan I

Soybean marketing will take strong nerves in 2016, plus the confidence to pull the trigger when the market has given all that it will give

By Philip Shaw

14

n Canada, soybean production has been quite a success story. Where at one time soybean production was concentrated in the extreme southwest of Ontario, now it is an important part of cropping plans in an ever-expanding area. In 2016, however, there are many management challenges ahead for Canadian soybean producers.

Change is our only constant, and as 2016 comes into full view, it appears that changes in the Canadian soybean complex will certainly test our management skills this year.

Our soybean acreage is increasingly shifting to Western Canada even though Ontario is still the dominant player with 2.9 million acres planted in 2015.

Man­itoba had the second-largest provincial soybean acreage in 2015 at 1.385 million acres, which is on a more or less steady up-trend.

Statistics Canada for the first time in 2013 actually recorded Saskatchewan soybean acres at 170,000. This past year, Saskatchewan farmers planted 270,000 acres, and clearly, there is a huge potential in Western Canada that continues to be a focus within the industry. In Quebec in 2015, meanwhile, 778,400 soybeans acres were grown with Prince Edward Island adding another 54,000 acres.

Of course it is one thing to grow soybeans, and it is another thing to market them. There are many advantages and disadvantages to growing and marketing soybeans across Canadian soybean country.

For instance, in Ontario there is a wellestablished soybean infrastructure with both crushing facilities and export terminals on the water. Quebec is closer to salt water than Ontario and this gives it a further advantage. In Prince Edward Island, shipping costs ($60/tonne) to the nearest crusher in Quebec negatively affect the basis, while shipping to the Halifax port is much more preferable.

In Western Canada, however, basis levels are very low for soybeans, just as they are for other grains, since they must be either exported out with only a small percentage being crushed.

The diversity that we have in Canadian soybean country certainly is reflected in the soybean basis levels at which soybeans are moved, bought or sold. Depending on where you find yourself within Canada, basis calculations tell their own local and regional story.

With that as a backdrop, marketing our soybeans is never easy. Our provincial cash markets are different from each other. However, soybean prices are always based on the futures market plus or minus a certain basis level.

Those futures prices for soybeans are determined at the Chicago Mercantile exchange and in 2015 these reached new lows compared to the last seven years. At the end of December 2015, March soybean futures were hovering in the $8.70 area. At the same time in 2014 and 2013, the nearby futures month was $10.47 per bushel and $13.27 respectively. It’s been a long tortuous retreat in the soybean futures price.

The bottom line is, if we’re going to pull out of these bearish trends, we need serious bullish news

How did we get here? The last several growing seasons in the United States and in South America have been benign. For instance, in 2015 on 88.4 million acres of corn, the U.S. yielded 169.3 bushels per acre. This is impressive, but on 85.1 million acres of soybeans, the U.S. also produced 48.1 bushels per acre (Dec. 15 USDA).

Even though demand has been impressive worldwide, the soybean supply has kept up with that demand. This has been accentuated in 2015 and early 2016 with the general bearishness in commodities worldwide.

Continued on page 16

Soybean Guide, February 2016

Keeping soybean fields clean comes down to choosing the right tools.

Save up to $1 an acre with the 2016 Kixor Herbicide Offer.

No matter what soybean system you use, we have you covered. The Kixor® portfolio of herbicides* offers rapid weed burndown with early season control of key weeds. And thanks to the 2016 Kixor Herbicide Offer, you can also save on every acre when you purchase Optill®, Integrity® or Eragon® LQ for use in herbicide-tolerant soybeans. Visit agsolutions.ca/KixorOffer/ad to learn more.

*Herbicides should be stored in cool, dry, locked, well-ventilated areas separate from other pesticides. Do not store near food, feed or fertilizers.

Always read and follow label directions.

AgSolutions is a registered trade-mark of BASF Corporation; ERAGON, INTEGRITY, KIXOR, and OPTILL are registered trade-marks of BASF SE; all used with permission by BASF Canada Inc. © 2016 BASF Canada Inc.

Continued from page 14

The low soybean price environment is also a function of the continuing production coming out of South America, and out of Brazil in particular. For the 201516 production year, the USDA is predicting a 100-MMT crop of soybeans from Brazil, another record. Argentina is set to produce 57 MMT of soybeans. This production along with other production in South America continues to weigh on the soybean complex into 2016.

What lies ahead on the futures price front, and what is it going to take for soybean prices to recover? Or is it a question of soybean prices continuing on a road to lower price levels not seen in quite some time?

By early 2016, the Brazilian and Argen­tinian soybean crops were growing well. However, hot, dry weather and sporadic precipitation has been impacting the Brazilian crop in the large producing state of Mato Grosso. The impact of this may affect the Brazilian supply. Weather will be key in this growing region and may be reflected in market prices early in 2016.

The bottom line, however, is that if we are going to move out of this lowprice environment, we need to get some type of bullish fresh news. In fact, it might take a “black swan” event to get the market moving.

As it is, if soybean production areas in the United States and South America continue to give average to above-average soybean crops, there really is no reason to get excited about soybean futures price values. Under that scenario, it is likely that prices remain in the $8 and $9 range.

However, we all know that agricul-

tural prices are cyclical and there will be some type of production calamity somewhere to change the scenario. Daily market intelligence will always remain key; just as risk management never grows old.

When it comes to soybean prices, the big difference for Canadian producers is the value of the Canadian dollar. With the worldwide meltdown in commodity prices, accentuated by the drop in oil and the appreciation in the American dollar, our Canadian dollar has fallen and not substantially recovered.

This has resulted in Canadian “price optics” completely different than in the United States. For instance, even at such low soybean futures values cash prices ($8.70) in SW Ontario the mid-winter cash price for old-crop soybeans had a positive basis of $2.90, giving a price of C$11.50 per bushel. The new crop (2016) also had a positive basis value of C$2.60. This is different from American farmers who face “price optics” in oldcrop soybean prices of US$7-$8 per bushel.

These Canadian “price optics” are important because the fluctuating value of the Canadian dollar adds another management layer to our soybean marketing. We, as soybean farmers, must anticipate Canadian dollar fluctuations along with soybean futures price values.

For instance, on Jan. 1, 2014 the Canadian dollar was at .9438, the futures price of soybeans was $13.47 with a negative cash basis of -.35. On Jan. 1, 2015, the nearby futures prices were $10.47 with a positive basis of $1.56 at a .8660 Canadian dollar. Heading through 2016, any soybean futures rally will accentuate cash prices especially at these low Canadian dollar levels.

Into 2016, as well, marketing on any futures price rallies will surely be key.

China continues to have a voracious appetite for soybeans projected to import 80.5 MMT in the 2015-16 crop year. This represents a dynamic demand picture even at a time of overabundant supplies. The USDA is predicting 465 million bushels for U.S. soybean-ending stocks this year, but has always grossly overestimated that in the past. 2016 should be no different.

Even without a production calamity in American fields, those ending stocks will decrease. Of course, if there is severe bad weather in a major production zone or a black swan event, inventories everywhere will drop significantly.

So, we hope to see prices rise in 2016, but that won’t necessarily be the reality.

If production levels remain the same around the world, a sideways to down pattern in futures price levels may persist. In fact, the argument can be made that this may be likely. At the end of the day, market-impacting weather will have the last call on how large and impactful soybean supply will be in 2016.

Will our American friends plant over 85.1 million acres next year, even at a time of low prices? U.S. planted acres will make a difference in 2016. Within this tangled web of market factors the value of the Canadian dollar will continue to challenge our cash soybean price management. Will the rains be timely in Brazil and then in the United States? The road ahead in 2016 for Canadian soybean producers is never the same.

The challenge for Canadian soybean producers will be to take the measure of all these different market factors. SG

Trusted “Straight Cut”

CARDALE

We would like to provide complimentary cardale seed to CFGB growing projects

“More Wheat...Less Shatter”

www.seeddepot.ca 16

Less Fusarium & sprouting, better falling numbers Soybean Guide, February 2016

Soyguide

Bedding with soy straw These farmers are learning the tricks to make it work in the field and in the barn

By Amy Petherick, CG Contributing Editor

18

T

here’s been great interest in experimenting with crop residues for bedding, and although no one professes to have a perfect solution, there is a lot to be learned from those with growing experience, which means talking to Darin McDonald, a farmer who has baled it all.

Equipped with a 150-horsepower tractor and either a Hesston or New Holland large square baler, McDonald manages over 500 acres of hay with his cousin on their farm based in Winchester in eastern Ontario.

McDonald says they also keep busy baling hay and straw for several other farms in the area. But in recent years, they’ve been asked to bale soybean residue and corn stalks as well. In fact, he now has some customers who specifically ask for soybean straw.

“Soybean straw is always cheaper, so it doesn’t matter if there’s lots of wheat straw,” McDonald says. “If the soybean straw is cheaper than the wheat straw, people will buy it.” McDonald estimates the cost of soybean straw is about 30 percent less per bale. But it isn’t just the cost that has pushed his production beyond 2,000 to 3,000 bales annually, which is more than they can supply from their farm alone. “Some people prefer it not because of price, but because they say it’s more absorbent,” McDonald says.

“One guy even says there’s fewer flies with soybean straw than regular straw.”

There’s no livestock on his farm, so McDonald can’t share any first-hand experience using soybean straw himself.

But he’s very comfortable describing a high level of expertise in working with it in the field. Compared to other types of straw, McDonald says it’s relatively painless to harvest. “You pick your window and it’s the easiest thing to make,” he says Most of the time there’s no need to rake it. “Well, maybe the odd time you have to rake it, but I mean, if it’s going to rain for a week, who cares, just let it rain and whenever it dries up or freezes a bit, there’s usually a window.”

As the only crop residue he harvests in the fall, he finds the crop benefits from far less humidity in the air and starts off much drier than other straws.

McDonald says soybean residue is consistently the driest thing he bales, normally reading less than 10 per cent on the moisture tester “Frost at night seems to help dry it out,” he adds.

The other thing he likes about harvesting straw so late in the season is that there’s no longer a worry of weeds growing while it’s waiting for you to get around to harvesting. “It depends on the weather but it’s Continued on page 20

Soybean Guide, February 2016

GROUP

14

Get the safest broadleaf control for soybeans.

With a unique Group 14 mode of action, Authority is tough on weeds and gentle on your crop for higher yields and cleaner fields. That’s why Authority’s active ingredient, sulfentrazone, is the number one pre-emergent residual broadleaf weed control in US soybean crops.* SOYBEANS

|

FMCcrop.ca

*Source 2014 Doane Data.

For complete information on Authority and all FMC products please contact your local FMC sales representative or visit FMCcrop.ca. Distributed by UAP in Ontario (1-800-265-5444) and Quebec/Maritimes (1-800-361-9369) or visit UAP.ca. FMC and Authority are trademarks of FMC Corporation. © 2015 FMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Continued from page 18

usually pretty clean in the fall, it’s just a patience thing,” McDonald says.

If there’s a downside to harvesting soybean straw though, it’s yield. “Taller beans yield better for sure; you might get four or five bales to the acre with the right combine, but if they’re short beans, and the wrong combine, you might only get one bale to the acre,” he says.

What kind of combine is the right kind for maximizing soybean straw? In McDonald’s opinion, it’s got nothing to do with paint.

“If a guy has a small head and the combine chews the stalks all up, it’s hard to pick up,” he says simply.

But even with the “the right combine,” McDonald says soybean straw isn’t a revenue generator for the cash-crop operation as much as it can be a cost saver for mixed operations in his area. Since fusarium tends to be so severe, most livestock operators will tell him they’re “growing straw” when they refer to a wheat field. “The wheat isn’t worth anything,” he says.

Jaime Grier runs a mixed operation an hour west of Darin McDonald at Lands­ downe, and he normally relies on purchasing straw rather than sacrificing profitable soybean or corn acreage.

That’s how he came to buy soybean straw from McDonald in 2014 for the first time, since straw from other sources was short and expensive.

“We started off just using it in the pack barn for the heifers, putting it through the bed chopper,” Grier says.

“That worked so well that when we got low on wheat straw in the dairy barn, I started chopping it in the hay shed and taking it in chopped up.”

One day when he didn’t have time to chop it, he just tried shaking out a bale.

“That worked, so we quit chopping it,” he says. It wasn’t as dusty using a fork in the dairy barn as it is running the bales through a bedding chopper, which is about as dusty as combining the soybeans in the first place, Grier says “I don’t think it looks as nice, but it seems to be fairly absorbent… it’s a little prickly, but the cows don’t seem to be uncomfortable.”

Grier had planned on baling some of his own soybean stubble this year, though McDonald warns it will cause more wear on the baler than cereal straw, though less damage than corn stalks. But Grier says he tried putting in some oats for a cover crop last year and now he finds himself with all the straw he could ask for, not to 20

For long-term storage, baled soybean straw needs to go under cover.

Baling in the fall after other field work is done is a major advantage, but yields vary with crop condition mention way more oats than a couple of pet horses are going to eat.

Ivan Peterson, who’s dairy farming not far from McDonald in the Osgoode area, says he started baling soybean straw after finding himself facing similar conundrums seven or eight years ago.

“We don’t grow wheat, so we don’t have any other kind of straw, and we grow 600 to 700 acres of soybeans, so we have lots of soybean straw available to us.”

On average, most years you’d get one to three bales per acre of soybean straw yield. You’d also get somatic cell count (SCC) problems he says. “It’s not our preferred product, I can tell you that,” he warns. Only when they can’t get shavings do they use soybean stubble for bedding anymore. “Shavings are more absorbent and we seem to be able to get the somatic cell count better under control.”

Grier says that at his place, their somatic cell count is usually under 100,000 and it never changed when they started using the soybean straw or when they switched to oat straw. “But our cows have trainers and tail ties, so maybe that’s the difference,” he theorizes.

Peterson says he gave the soybean straw a chance first in his tiestall operation, and second in the new freestall barn with deep pack bedding stalls and robotic

milking units. He agrees that management plays a big role in making soybean straw work on a dairy operation.

“When I milked by myself in the tie­ stall, I was between 100,000 and 150,000 SCC all the time,” he says. Before investing in a robotic barn, he tried to keep his tie­ stall facility operating by increasing from two milkings per day to three.

That meant hiring help, which also meant giving up some control on the milking process, and that’s when troubles with the SCC count started.

But for Peterson, using soybean straw for bedding up heifers doesn’t appear to negatively impact SCC, and he still sees it as a good fit for the operation. So, when shavings are hard to source, he can use soybean straw to get by, chopping 80 bales at a time, storing it under cover, then moving it by skid-steer on a weekly basis.

“You want to keep soybean straw stored inside because it will not keep outside,” Peterson emphasizes. “Those bales rot worse than anything.”

Next year, Peterson is hoping there will be 100 acres of wheat to harvest straw from and save at least some indoor storage space. But he isn’t planning to retire the soy straw completely either. “We’ll still use the soybean stubble,” he says, “there’s more money in selling straw.”

Soybean Guide, February 2016

When late summer and early fall present a period of lower cash flow, Peter­son says wheat can generate some extra revenue and soybean straw can’t.

Not that he’d consider selling soybean straw though. “It’s too valuable on the field for that,” he insists. “I would never sell it off my own farm.”

Jim Christie, who has a robotic milking operation on the other side of Toronto in Tara, Ont., isn’t sure soy straw offers that much value in the field. In his opinion there just seems to be so little volume. He’s become much more interested in canola residue after he started baling up soy straw. This was the first year he’s ever grown canola on the farm and he says it looks like he can get twice as much yield from canola as he did from the soybeans. Plus it comes off earlier, for more of a working window into the fall.

Although it’s too early to say how well it will work as bedding, when we spoke, Christie has already observed several advantages.

“You’d think canola would be a lot of stalk, but there’s a pile of pods,” he notes. “We’ve got a bunch of it big square baled and it chops really fine.

Being hollow in the middle, it just shatters. Soybean stalks don’t; they stay like little wooden sticks.”

Unlike Peterson and Grier, Christie has to pay very close attention to bedding materials because his cows are housed on a compost pack. The materials he uses to feed that pack have changed, but the process remains the same. Every morning, that pack is deep ripped and levelled and every evening, it gets cultivated. Christie says that since they started bedding this way two years ago, they’ve tried using wheat straw and it didn’t decompose very well.

“Because of that waxy coating, even two weeks after you bed up with wheat straw, you can still pick it out of the compost pack,” Christie says. He still uses wheat straw for bedding up the dry cows, but since he had soybean straw for his heifer pack, he tried adding some of it in early on too. “The shredded soybean straw breaks down in a couple weeks and you can’t even pick it out,” he says. Now he’s applying what he’s learned to canola residue.

The trick to producing nice soft bedding is processing. “The first stuff we did, we put through the harvester,” Christie recalls, “but it didn’t break down as quick as sawdust.”

Soybean Guide, February 2016

Last winter, they got a Bale Buster with fine screens. “More or less, instead of chopping it, you’re shredding it,” Christie said. “When you grab hold of it after it’s gone through, you don’t feel any of those stems, it’s nice and soft, and breaks down a lot quicker.”

Christie says he could rely completely on sawdust, which he has experimented with as part of the bedding mix, but he figures it costs five cents per pound with delivery. However, this spring he discovered recycled drywall only costs an esti-

mated one and a half cents per pound, so it now accounts for nearly 50 per cent of the bedding mix.

All that lime keeps the cows nice and clean he says, which could partly explain why using soybean straw hasn’t had a negative effect on his SCC when other farmers have.

In Christie’s eyes, it remains an ongoing experiment on his farm as much as it is on any other operation that’s always searching for the perfect bedding solution. SC

BATCO CONVEYORS. BELT TO LAST. With Batco you can count on quality built equipment that is easy to maintain and will be reliable through your toughest seasons. Batco has an extensive line of products to suit your application including; drive over pits, low profile field loaders and long swing away conveyors.

877.667.7421 | batcomfg.com

21

We’ve been with the Baresichs through 4 hailstorms, 6 floods, 20 frosts, 45 record harvests and 14 grandchildren.

For over 60 years, the Baresichs have grown Pioneer brand products on their farm just outside of Newbury, Ontario. During that time we’ve experienced a lot together and been fortunate enough to play a part in their growth, both as farmers and as a family. ®

,

,

® SM TM

Trademarks and service marks of DuPont, Pioneer or their respective owners. © 2016 PHII.

#neverstopgrowing

Soyguide

A new look at 30-inch rows If you think the case is closed on 30-inch rows, get ready to think again

S

oybean growers near the OntarioQuebec border have tested wide rows, and some have even adopted them already as a way of managing white mould pressure. The disease thrives here. even though agronomists can’t exactly say why. But there’s also more to the 30-inch debate than just mould control.

Based in the eastern end of the province, Scott Banks is an emerging-crops specialist for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs and he recalls that 2014 was a particularly bad year for white mould in his area.

“As a general rule across the east, white mould wasn’t anywhere near as bad in 2015 as the year before,” Banks says. “My experience has been, in eastern Ontario, we might get white mould one out of every four or five years but in western Ontario, they might get it one out of every nine years.”

The problem is, you never know if this year will be a bad year, and when one comes along, it isn’t quickly forgotten. “After 2014, a lot of guys were swearing off narrow rows and moving to lower populations,” Banks says.

Some farms get hit more often, which 24

set the stage for regional research completed this past growing season by Paul Hermans, an agronomist for DuPont Pioneer in the Eastern Ontario and Quebec area.

Some of Hermans’ customers have experienced heavy mould pressure every year since 2012. His solution was to organize a multi-site study to assess what could reasonably be done to manage the issue for these farms that seem to have a perennial problem with the disease.

Working at 11 different locations in the region, Hermans designed a trial which tested field-length strips of Pioneer’s 91Y01 to check its response to planting date, seed population, row width and foliar fungicide treatment.

Every treatment was replicated twice at each location and, to lend some consistency, all were put in with a Cash IH Early Riser 12/23 split row planter.

“This was so I could just shut the 30-inch row spacing and 15-inch row spacing on or off, to make it somewhat easy,” Hermans explains. “If I were to do the same thing with a drill, it’d be too big a plot.”

All the early plantings were com-

By Amy Petherick

pleted before May 7 and late plantings were done 10 to 14 days after that.

Planting population compar isons included 120,000 and 170,000 seeds per acre. He tested 15-inch row widths and 30-inch rows, and he used Acapela or Priaxor for his fungicide tests. Choosing 91Y01 for the trial wasn’t highly scientific, he says. Although it’s a bushier, branchier plant that performs fairly well in the 30-inch row trials that Pioneer conducts before bringing any product to market, Hermans estimates the white mould tolerance of this particular variety is about average. He mostly just picked it because it is the biggest seller in the area and well known.

“We stuck with one variety because it was all the same seed lot,” Hermans says.

“If you look at the size of the trial and all the combinations, if we’d gone to two varieties we’d still be out harvesting those plots.”

There was no selection for high-risk mould environments or high-tolerance management practices. This was just a real field test, Hermans says. Most of the Continued on page 26

Soybean Guide, February 2016

G E N E R AT IONS O F

Firsts in the Field

AND THE FIRST TO BRING SOYBEANS TO WESTERN CANADA Trust in the soybean agronomic leader. We’re first to introduce soybeans to western Canada. Be first to secure the region’s top yielding soybean seed for your field.

QUARRY SEED 888-274-9243

w w w. t hun d e r s e e d . c a

Continued from page 24

fields in the general area have some history of mould, but only one or two may have seen a manure application in recent history. Most locations were simply part of cash crop operations with good growth potential.

“They’re not what I would call lowyielding environments,” Hermans says.

It was no surprise to him that white mould was discovered again at several locations this year. But some of the trial results did surprise him. By full flower, it was hard to visually differentiate between canopy coverage of the two different row widths. At harvest, soybean yields were two bushels per acre higher in wider rows than the narrow ones. Although early planting improved yields overall, the difference between narrow and wide rows was mostly insignificant. Seeding rate also seemed to have little impact and the response to foliar fungicide was mostly similar between 15- and 30-inch rows as well.

“If you look at data from different areas across North America, they would always tell you 30 inches would not yield as much as a 15-inch row,” Hermans says.

“I was most surprised by the 30-inch versus 15-inch row width outcome.”

There were a few factors in 2015 that may have contributed to these exceptional results, he theorizes. The first is that it simply was a tremendous soybean growing year in Eastern Ontario. “Soybean yields were up 15 to 20 per cent above average, which tends to favour a 30-inch row I think,” Hermans says.

That could explain why early planted stands only had an average yield advantage of 1.9 bushels per acre. Another critical consideration is the impact that a frost in late May might have had. “There was one grower who lost 30,000 to 50,000 plants per acre in that one particular field because of the frost, and the early planting dates provided 13 per cent lower stands than the second planting date overall, but you had some variance,” Hermans recalls. “I’m not sure I’d see similar results in another year.”

Hermans says he was also a little surprised by the significantly greater response to fungicide applications than the 1.6-bushel-per-acre response observed in 2013. This time, the average yield of fungicide-treated soybeans was 4.5 bushels per acre more than non-treated soybeans, and there was a positive yield response at nine 26

out of 11 trial locations. Maybe previous fungicide trials which depended on only one application instead of the two recommended rates and timings used in this trial can account for this difference.

Regardless of the reason, Hermans says he feels no need to repeat this part of the trial again in the coming year.

“I feel comfortable enough in the recommendations on the planting date and fungicides. I think we’ve done enough work there to show the value of planting early and fungicide control,” Hermans says. Next year he’s going to do a simple population trial across Ontario and Quebec to expand on the results of this year’s population comparison. “It’s a 50/50 split between the 120,000 and 170,000 populations, but I think you definitely have to look at lower seeding rates to help manage mould.”

A farmer’s input Jon Daly, one of the farmers who participated in the trial, agrees that this is also an area of greater interest for him. If this trial proved anything to him, it was that there doesn’t seem to be any one “catch-all” population recommendation, and he’d be interested to see how lower populations would work for his operation.

“We’ve been planting 30-inch rows already for a number of years,” Daly says. “We’ve been r unning about 165,000 seeds to the acre normally, so I’m thinking we should try backing off on our populations and saving a bit of money on seed.”

Daly says he would also anticipate that it would contribute to white mould Continued on page 28

Soybean Guide, February 2016

THE TRIPLE, TRIPLE THREAT. 3 ACTIVES. 3 MODES OF ACTION. 3 WAYS TO WIPE OUT WEEDS. New TriActor controls the toughest weeds in your premium IP soybeans. Three active ingredients support stronger resistance management. Three modes of action extend control to weeds that show resistance to other herbicides. And three-in-one packaging delivers the ultimate convenience.

Get it all with TriActor. ™

1.800.868.5444

|

Nufarm.ca

Always read and follow label directions.

TriActor™ is a trademark of Nufarm Agriculture Inc. 45833-0116

45833_NFC_2015_TriActor_8-125x10-75_CGE_a1.indd 1

2016-01-15 10:30 AM

Continued from page 26

INTEGRITY SEED LAB LTD

1038 Arlington Street Winnipeg, MB R3E 2G1 • Now offering Vomitoxin Testing for Cereals • Accelerated Aging for Soybeans • Herbicide Tolerance Testing for Canola and Soybeans • We can Test your Seed for Germination, Purity Export Testing etc.

• Contact us for your Seed Testing Needs

Phone 774-1882 Fax 774-1881

www.integrityseedlab.com

Let our service exceed your expectations

control too. “We do have white mould on our farm, but it’s not so big of an issue that I’m worried about it every year.” Daly says that because his crop rotation is mostly two years of corn, followed by one year of soybeans, his risk of white mould is already low.

“In 2009, we upgraded our corn planter and I didn’t want to buy another crazy-expensive machine to do the 300 acres of beans that we did,” Daly says.

“We’ve liked 30-inch rows right from the get-go.”

For Daly, a trial that shows wide rows don’t necessarily demand yield sacrifices is music to his ears. He finds wide rows much easier to deal with, even if it does seem like some years he has to be out spraying from May to August. He’s curious to see just how much a lower planting population would have an impact on his whole system. With two years of corn trash to work through, Scott Banks says tillage practices need to be weighed into the equation too.

“We know you can get as good a yield with a lower population, as long as you’ve got decent soils and you get good establishment. That’s not a huge novelty,” Banks says. “But if you get into a rough seed bed, you have to start bumping up seeding rates. Err on the high side.”

Both Banks and Hermans agree that growers should always be cautious about basing their management decisions on one trial or one year’s worth of data.

While Hermans’ results this past year are extremely interesting, Banks says there is a lot of data available which clearly suggests it really is an anomaly.

Adam McKnight Bud McKnight Tavis Mangin

BRAND • SEEDS

Science with Service Delivering SuccessTM

Seed Corn • Soybeans & Inoculants • Confection & Oil Sunflowers Canola • Alfalfa • Sila-bac® Forage Inoculants • Winter Wheat Turf grass • Hay blends • Precision Trailers • Seed Tenders Belt Conveyors • Portable Grain Moisture Tester (elevator accuracy)

28

Other research Horst Bohner, the soybean specialist for OMAFRA, will tell you the established soybean dogma is that if you go to wider rows, you will give up yield potential, which in turn is best mitigated by planting early. The academic community accepted that after many years of research.

Still, any opportunity that could reduce seed costs is worth exploring, and so he shared his most recent effort to close yield gaps using a combination of management practices at the SouthWest Ag Conference in Ridgetown this past January.

By simply adding strip till to a no-till control in the last growing season in Elora, he could improve the yield of his 30-inch-row beans, where the seeding rate was 120,000 seeds per acre, to closely match the yield of 15-inch-row no-till beans, where the seeding rate was 170,000 seeds per acre. Going a little further, by banding phosphorus and potassium fertilizer in those strips, he was able to get a 3.9-bushel advantage over the 15-inch beans. He also tried applying a foliar fungicide with strip tillage and was rewarded with a 6.2-bushel increase over the 15-inch beans. When beans were grown in both 15- and 30-inch rows using strip tillage, the extra fertilizer, and a foliar fungicide, the wide row beans outyielded the narrow rows by two bushels.

That was really unexpected, but Bohner says in another trial location farther north at Bornholm, those same practices could not reproduce these results. At this site, even applying all three strategies could not improve wide row yields so they matched the no-tilled narrow-row beans, and the additional management practices only improved that advantage further with another 4.5-bushel increase.

“I don’t really buy into the story that you have to grow wide row beans to be able to get the benefit of some of the inputs,” Bohner told the audience. He understands the concept that if you grow wide row beans, they’ll have more opportunity to bush, and individual plants are potentially better fed through this strategy than in narrow rows, but he just can’t prove it consistently with evidence. Some varieties are indeed better than others, he confirms, but even when taking varieties into consideration there are still inconsistencies in performance.

Says Bohner, “It may well work, but I don’t have good comparisons to show that it doesn’t work in narrow rows.” SG Soybean Guide, February 2016

10183_SpillYourBeansAd_VF.pdf

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

1

2016-01-05

9:44 AM

Nematodes continue to rob farmers and frustrate Growers are urged to be more diligent in digging up soybean plants to visually determine the presence of SCN.

agronomists, but a new biological seed treatment may soon help

By Ralph Pearce CG Production Editor

SCN frustration I

Part of the challenge for breeders and researchers is to find the right combination of disease resistance and yield, says Don McClure of Syngenta.

30

t almost plays like a riddle. First are these clues: first confirmed here in 1988; called a disease by some and a pest by others; often ignored until it’s too late; and, impossible to eradicate.

Of course, there’s another clue which should be a dead giveaway. It steals more bushels than any other soybean threat in Canada.

For more than 25 years, soybean cyst nematode (SCN) has been confounding growers, plant breeders, crop pathologists and public and private researchers across North America.

Farmers know its name, and most now know what it looks like and what it can do, and they also understand the need for planting SCN-resistant varieties and for rotating different varieties containing different levels of resistance.

Yet the losses continue.

For much of its first 15 years in Ontario, the disease (as it’s identified by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs), was found primarily in Essex, Kent, and Lambton in the extreme southern portion of the province before infestations started appearing in large numbers in Middlesex, Oxford and points farther east.

By 2007, the unstoppable pest was even confirmed to have spread east of Toronto, which had been considered only a matter of time. Provincial field crops pathologist Albert Tenuta even tried to put a positive spin on the situation, at the time calling it “good news” that it had actually been confirmed, and saying that with its identification, growers could begin using the available means to reduce SCN’s impact.

That hasn’t really happened, however,

largely for reasons that are all too familiar: tighter planting windows, tighter rotations, and tighter operating margins.

All have helped SCN develop hot spots. Worse still, there are signs that SCN is continuing to spread and intensify, and parts of Huron and Bruce counties have been suffering higher concentrations.

Once found, it’s permanent According to Chris Denys, seed care technical lead for Syngenta in Eastern Canada, SCN is permanent. Once it gains a toehold in your soil, it’s there for good. There is no way to eradicate it from your farm.

Now that it has been confirmed in at least 12 counties in Ontario and into western Quebec, that means a lot of growers have a challenge on their hands.

“We expect it’s going to continue to spread, and eventually it’s going to be in all of the soybean-growing areas across Ontario, especially when you see how the populations have shifted to those non-traditional areas that are much farther north, into Huron, Grey and Bruce coun­t ies,” says Denys. “We’re finding some pretty extreme populations up there, sometimes more extreme than what we see down in Kent and Essex.”

That’s a bit of a surprise given the history of soybean production in Grey and Bruce counties and the relatively late spread of soybean production there.

“Part of it may be related to rent and land values, that maybe there’s some reluctance that way, that guys might not Continued on page 32

Soybean Guide, February 2016

Photo credit: Albert Tenuta

Soyguide

SEC_RR2YM-ON1516-M_CG-SoyGuideEAST_SEC_RR2YM-ON1516-M_CG-SoyGuideEAST.qxd 2016-01-18 2:12 PM Page 1

Camaro R2 2675 HU

NEW

Altitude R2 2725 HU

Mirada RR 2725 HU

NEW

OAC Challenger R2 2750 HU

NEW

Venture R2 2750 HU

Absolute RR 2775 HU

Corvette R2 2825 HU

NEW

Volt R2 2850 HU

Dart RR 3050 HU

NEW

Equinox R2 3150 HU

Genes that fit your farm.

866-797-7874

速

ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Always follow grain marketing and IRM requirements. Details of these requirements can be found in the Trait Stewardship Responsibilities Notice to Farmers printed in this publication.

Genes that fit your farm速 is a registered trademark of SeCan.

www.secan.com

Continued from page 30

Research reveals startling SCN numbers

L

ate in 2015, Syngenta Canada published a four-pronged strategy for detecting soybean cyst nematode (SCN). The strategy was

circulated following the release of data that indicated excessively high concentrations of SCN in parts of Huron County and southern Bruce. In some fields, agronomists found concentrations of more than 4,000 SCN eggs per 100 grams of soil, sufficient to cause yield losses of greater than 50 per cent.

Here’s the text from Syngenta, titled “The Four ways to detect Soybean Cyst Nematode.”

1. Know the above-ground symptoms: The most noticeable above-ground symptom may start off as circular patches within the field where soybeans are stunted and yellowed. Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is spread through soil movement, so symptoms may first appear at field entrances or headlands.

2. Pay attention to your yield monitor at harvest: Since many times visual symptoms may not occur, the best time to diagnose SCN is at harvest. Note areas in the field where harvest yields don’t make sense with the field’s history.

want to know when they’re in a situation where they’re renting or thinking of selling the land,” says Denys. He adds that he doesn’t come across that issue much in his travels. “Sometimes it’s just a matter of not being aware of the problem, or they can’t diagnose the problem in the field. You can have 30 per cent yield loss in soybeans due to SCN and not really recognize any above-ground symptom.”

Depending on the field, Denys says SCN losses could be blamed on compaction or a planter problem or water deficiency. Even when you do observe the root feeding, it’s easy to dismiss it as something else, and not SCN. It’s part of a trend that’s becoming a fact of life for farmers as they’re being pulled in different directions. Some of those directions — like precision ag or traceability for consumers — weren’t on the agenda 10 or 20 years ago.

Still, SCN is a fact of life for growers now, and the consensus is getting stronger than ever; more needs to be done to mitigate the damage it can inflict.

Part of the process is to acknowledge key facts about SCN. They may already be known by a large percentage of growers, but they certainly bear repeating: • SCN is the leading yield robber in soybeans, more than the next five diseases combined. Sudden death syndrome (SDS) which can be a “companion disease” to SCN is a distant second on that list.

• Cyst eggs can survive in the soil for more than 10 years, so even opting out of soybeans for a decade wouldn’t eliminate the nematode threat from a field • When reproducing, a single cyst can release 200 to 500 eggs into the root zone, depending on the environment.

• SCN can provide an entry point to other diseases, particularly SDS and brown stem rot.

• Various weed species can be a host to SCN, although most of the susceptible weed species are not found in any significant concentrations in Ontario or Canada (see Table 1).

• Conversely, corn, wheat, alfalfa, barley, oats, canola along with forage grasses, alfalfa, sugar beets, miscanthus and switchgrass are poor or non-hosts for SCN.

3. Visually inspect roots: In August and September, carefully dig up root masses. Gently wash the soil off roots and use a hand magnifying glass to

Table 1

Hosts for soybean cyst nematode (SCN)

Crop plants

Weed plants

Alsike clover

American & Carolina vetch

Bird’s-foot trefoil

Common & mouse-ear chickweed

Common & hairy vetch

Common mullein

Cowpea

Field pennycress

Crimson clover

Hemp sesbania

not always evident, either in the field or on the

Crownvetch

Henbit

roots, the most accurate detection is to have your

Edible beans

Hop clovers

identify the cysts, but beware of only relying on a simple visual analysis since cysts can be difficult to see and may sometimes be confused with bacterial nodules.

4. Have your soil tested: Since visual symptoms are

soil tested. After harvest is an ideal time to test for

Lespedezas

Milk & wood vetch

SCN since egg and cyst counts should be at their

Pea

Pokeweed

highest for the season.

Sweet clover

Purple deadnettle

White & yellow lupine

Purslane

Courtesy of Syngenta Canada

Shepherd’s purse Wild mustard Source: Plant Health Initiative (U.S.) and the North Central Soybean Research Program (NCSRP) (U.S.)

32

Soybean Guide, February 2016

Sources of resistance Another key SCN fact is that there are two primary sources of resistance: PI 88788 and PI548402 (Peking).

PI88788 is the primary source of resistance in up to 95 per cent of the soybean varieties now available across North America, says Denys. The Peking source accounts for most of the remaining five per cent, with a third source — PI437654 (Hartwick or CystX as it’s also known) unavailable in any commercial varieties currently in use.

As Denys points out, one of the reasons why the concentrations in Bruce and Huron counties are so much higher is because those growing regions may not have a wide variety of seed options with resistance available in them.

The issue of resistance is garnering more attention. There are new terminologies too, including HG Type 2, a term that refers to a shift in populations in a field toward nematodes that can thrive on crops that have genes that in past were able to stop them. In other words, you can plant a resistant variety, and a significant portion of the nematodes in the field can still feed on the crop and reproduce.

Don McClure, soybean breeder for Syngenta, also points to the changing definitions surrounding resistance, and how different diseases have different pathways and levels of resistance.

“One variety might have 90 per cent of the plant resistant to the pest, and another variety that’s classified as resistant might have 30 per cent,” says McClure, who’s based at the company’s facility at Arva, just north of London.

“And that’s something that is not well understood. Even though they’re considered resistant, it’s a quantitative trait, so there’s more than one gene involved, and each variety may not have the full complement of resistance genes.”

With such a heavy reliance on the PI88788 source, McClure says, it only makes sense that the industry is starting to see more signs that our defences may be breaking down.

“I don’t think it’s a huge issue yet, but I’m sure there are populations that probably can overcome most of the resistance in PI88788 right now,” says McClure “They’re not widely distributed yet: we’re aware of it and we’re doing everything we can to alleviate that.”

Part of the challenge there is to find the right combination of factors that will meet all needs of the farmer, with superior disease protection plus consistent yield and agronomics all in one package.

Meanwhile, a new seed treatment, Clariva pn will be available for the 2016 growing season. Clariva is a biological, and as such is part of a new wave in the development of traits and bioagents that the pests will have a much harder time getting around.

Billed as a targeted solution to SCN, Clariva releases spores into the root zone that infect and kill any nematodes that come into contact with soybean plant roots. As those initial nematodes die, those ingested spores are released again and help to bolster that protective root zone.

It’s also different in terms of the source of resistance: it’s capable of working on the HG Type 2 populations and the other 10 per cent that the resistance is covering.

Farmers will have access to Clariva pn and can use it in concert with Cruiser Maxx Vibrance Beans or just Vibrance Maxx seed treatments. SG

www.patersongrain.com

Use the Paterson Planning Advantage for your 2016 Crop and ensure your:

 Crop marketing plan fits  Crop varieties are best for you  Agronomy meets production goals  Financing is in place

Ask About our seed check up!

Soybean Guide, February 2016

33

Soyguide

Keeping the nematode at bay

They are tiny world travellers and Manitoba’s Red River Valley could be the next stop on the soybean cyst nematode’s global tour

By Shannon VanRaes Manitoba Co-operator

I

n the middle of the Ian N. Morrison research farm near Carman, Man., an unlikely scene is unfolding as farmers and agronomists crowd around what looks like an old jam jar.

“Careful, we don’t want this to break,” Mario Tenuta stresses, with a bit of a chuckle.

But what’s inside the tightly sealed jar is no laughing matter. Hidden in a tangle of soybean roots is a tiny organism that has the potential to become soybean growers’ next nemesis should it be unleashed in Manitoba.

To date, no cases of soybean cyst nematode have been identified in the province, but the University of Manitoba soil ecologist said it’s only a matter of time before it arrives.

“They poke a hole into the roots, gain entry into that root, and they just stick their head into the root and just start feeding.”

“My take-home message is that soybean cyst nematode is geared biologically to be with soybean, and wherever we move soybean around the world, guess what… soybean cyst nematode will eventually follow, and that’s where we are today in Manitoba,” Tenuta told producers at Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers’ SMART Day last summer.

As soybeans developed in ancient China, so too did the nematode, he explained. And as soybeans moved beyond the Asian continent, the tiny pest went with it.

Continued on page 36

34

Soybean Guide, February 2016

Photos: Shannon VanRaes

— Mario Tenuta

PROTECT YOUR FIELDS WITH GUARDIAN AND GUARDIAN PLUS II. ®

®

Meet the team that’s tough on weeds. Guardian herbicide delivers maximum knockdown and residual activity on hard-to-kill weeds like dandelion and annual sow thistle. And if you’re looking for increased protection, Guardian Plus II herbicide contains an additional mode-of-action designed to control Eastern black nightshade, and herbicide-resistant pigweeds, lamb’s-quarters and common ragweed. Get the protection you need to give your IP and GT soybeans a clean, weed-free start.

Questions? For more information, please contact your retailer, call your local DuPont rep or the DuPont™ FarmCare® Support Centre at 1-800-667-3925 or visit guardian.dupont.ca or guardianplus.dupont.ca ®

®

DuPont™ Guardian

®

DuPont™ Guardian Plus II ®

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

Member of CropLife Canada.

Unless indicated, trademarks with ®, ™ or SM are trademarks of DuPont or affiliates. © 2016 DuPont.

1471 Guardian 2016 Brand Ad_CountryGuideEast.indd 1

1/14/16 1:36 PM

Continued from page 34

“They have co-evolved, folks, co-evolved to the point where the soybean cyst nematode really needs soybeans to survive,” the soil ecologist said.

On the move since 1954 First introduced to North America in the 1760s, soybeans were largely considered a forage crop until the time of the Great Depression when other uses were explored and promoted. The search for better production methods led to the importation of soil inoculum in the 1940s and ’50s, a move that likely stamped the nematode’s passport, ushering it onto North American soil. It was first officially identified in the Carolinas in 1954.

Today, soybean cyst nematode is present across the U.S., including in North Dakota. It’s also found across Ontario and in some areas of Quebec.

It can travel in soil, with birds, on plant material and in floodwaters, making the Red River Valley a likely place for the soybean cyst nematode to appear, he said.

“It has been moving northward up the Red River Valley, and it’s really well documented. In North Dakota, they’ve followed the progression closely, and in the last 15 years it’s worked its way basically into all the soybean-growing areas,” said Tenuta. “Canada Customs are tough to get through — they ask about liquor and they take my venison sausage… they do a really good job. But they really suck when it comes to keeping nematodes and other pathogens out of Canada, so the nematode will come over.”

The Hope

of the Harvest Begins with

the Seed.

Over 60 years of Quality Seed Service Domain, MB / 204-736-2849

www.pituraseeds.ca

Volume 40, Number 15 | SEPTEMBER 30, 2014

$4.25

PRACTICAL PRODUCTION TIPS FOR THE PRAIRIE FARMER

Search news.

Read stories.

Find insight.

www.grainews.ca

SAFER GRAIN STORAGE Whether you’ve got enough storage space this year after last year’s bumper crop or you need temporary solutions, try these four tips

BY ANDREA HILDERMAN

W

1. BRING IT IN DRY

e were probably all expecting a tough harvest, despite hoping for the luxury of good weather and an open fall. Rain, frost and even snow in early September likely mean there will be an even greater need to ensure grain storage management strategies are well in hand.

“Just because you are done combining does not mean you are done managing the crop,” says Joy Agnew, an agricultural engineer and project manager of agricultural research services at the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute in Humboldt, Saskatchewan. “Grain requires regular monitoring while it is in storage to ensure it does not go out of condition — that is going to be the challenge from here on out.”

Considering the value of the inputs and the hours and months of time and effort put into producing the crop, this is good advice. But surprisingly, it is advice that is often not heeded as carefully as it should be.

Grain going into storage should ideally be binned clean and dry. It’s debatable if that will be entirely possible this fall, and if not there should also be the means to either dry the grain or to aerate the bin throughout the storage period and a plan in place to monitor the grain in the bin on a regular basis.

“Temperature cables are very popular and cost effective to monitor the temperature of the grain throughout the bin,” says Agnew. “The cables are put in place before the bin is filled and a reader hooked up on the outside provides a temperature profile of the grain in bin at any time.” This technology, like any other, is constantly advancing. Now there are wireless systems that will send email or text notifications when the temperature rises beyond pre-set limits.

For farmers harvesting damp or wet grain, there will be added work to ensure the grain does not degrade or spoil in storage. “Ideally grain should go into storage dry,” says Agnew. “If that is not possible, natural air drying with the right capacity fans, even

under conditions of high humidity and low temperatures will draw off a lot of moisture. Any airflow through damp grain is beneficial.” Getting the grain cooled off is important to prevent any further degradation in quality. Turning grain in the fall or winter can have beneficial outcomes when it comes to mixing and cooling. Avoid turning grain in the spring when temperatures are on the rise.

0.1 cubic feet per minute (cfm) of airflow per bushel. A 5,000 bushel bin would require about 500 cfm from fans to cool the grain.

Natural air drying requires at least 10 times that amount of air to dry grain in storage — one cfm per bushel of grain or 5,000 cfm for a 5,000 bushel bin.

Aeration fans could never achieve those air flow rates. Moisture removal would be minimal and grain would spoil.

2. KNOW YOUR DRYING CAPABILITY

3. KNOW THE LIMITATIONS OF BAG STORAGE

“The next biggest misconception out there is the difference between aeration and natural air drying,” says Agnew.

“Drying and cooling are very different and it’s critical farmers know this as there is a lot at stake if they don’t.”

Aeration is cooling only and is a valuable part of grain storage management.

Natural air drying, on the other hand, will actually remove moisture from the grain but requires much higher airflows than aeration fans can typically provide.

High capacity fans are required to dry grain in the bin. Aeration requires about

Because of winter logistics problems and the 2013 bumper harvest, many farmers may need temporary storage for their 2014 production. “Grain storage bags are quite popular with farmers in recent years,” says Agnew. “Bags offer a convenient storage option, however, they also require diligent management to ensure the grain is maintained in good condition over the storage period.”

Bags are prone to damage by wildlife so weekly monitoring is recommended

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

In This Issue

Publications Mail Agreement Number 40069240

Wheat & Chaff ..................

2

Features ............................

5

Crop Advisor’s Casebook

6

Columns ........................... 16 Machinery & Shop ............ 26

Protect your crop sale

NEIL BLUE PAGE 15

CALL A FARMER FIRST

Home ec teacher promotes local ingredients » Pg 27

Cattleman’s Corner .......... 35

John Deere’s 9R tractors get new features

FarmLife ............................ 41

SCOTT GARVEY PAGE 36

TAKING TIME FOR OTHERS

Rely on the unrivalled standability of Proven Seed

BREEDING BIG BIRDS

Busy farmers take time for CFGB growing projects » Pg 18

Just how did today’s poultry become so large? » PG 3

Learn more at provenseed.ca or ask your CPS retailer

Publications Mail Agreement # 40069240

october 16, 2014

SerVinG manitoba FarmerS Since 1925 | Vol. 72, no. 42

Forage concerns after wet season High nitrate levels in frost-stressed crops can be fatal for cattle

By Meghan Mast Co-operator staFF

C

attle farmers should test their feed this year because wet weather has compromised the nutritional value in late-seeded cereal crops, and cold weather could make them potentially dangerous, a provincial forage specialist says.

“We’re quite concerned about nitrates this year after the stress that the plants have been under all summer and then with the recent frost and the crops being late,” said Pam Iwanchysko, from MAFRD, during the year’s first StockTalk webinar on September 16.

|

Poor weather impacts wild rice operations Wild rice has been harvested in northern Manitoba for thousands of years, but modern demands may outstrip supplies as the grain increases in popularity

By Shannon VanRaes Co-operator staFF

C

Publication Mail Agreement 40069240

see FORAGE on page 7 »

20 OCTOBER

36

manitobacooperator.ca

$1.75

Murray Ratuski of Shoal Lake Wild Rice Ltd. at the company’s processing facility in the Rural Municipality of Springfield. photo: shannon Vanraes

all it too much of a good thing.

Wild rice needs plenty of water to grow, but heavy rains and high water coupled with cool temperatures has hit producers hard this season, particularly in northwestern Manitoba and northeastern Saskatchewan.

“There’s this little pocket that covers the majority of Canadian production and they had a terrible year. Some of the people I was inspecting, they were going to harvest nothing,” said Stuart McMillan, an independent organic inspector.

“It’s hard to imagine with an aquatic plant, but they got drowned out,” he said. “At some stages of growth it’s really sensitive to rapid fluctuations in water levels.”

Ideally, wild rice needs between three and five feet of water as a growing medium.

“We’ve been calling it a perfect storm,” said Tracy Wheeler-Anderson, owner of Naosap Harvest in Cranberry Portage. “It’s just been a very, very odd year. The water table was high last fall, then we had an abnormal amount of snow and then we had an abnormal amount of rain, so come spring the water levels were way higher than what they normally are.” see WILD RICE on page 6 »

VO LU M E 1 1 , N U M B E R 2 2

High costs slowing cattle herd expansion Canada’s beef cattle industry is poised for expansion, but will high capital costs cause delays?

O C T O B E R 2 7, 2 0 1 4

Big shows offer a chance to reconnect Every year, Alberta’s farm shows attract hundreds of thousands of visitors — and socializing remains the major draw

BY JENNIFER BLAIR

AF STAFF

S

trong prices are signalling that it’s time to start retaining heifers and build the herd — but rising capital costs could cause some producers to hold off.

“There’s lots of opportunities, but it’s costly,” said Rick Dehod, farm financial specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.

A decade of pain and low prices means many producers have other priorities than expanding at the moment, he said.

“A lot of those ladies and gentlemen for the last 13 years have kept their cost of production down, and they’ve really managed their farms well and survived,” he said. “But they’re behind on some of their working capital and some of the things that need to be done.

“I’m sure they’re going to take their profit and meet some personal goals and some farm goals prior to keeping those cows back.”

That’s the plan on Jake Meyer’s farm south of Lethbridge.

SEE HIGH COSTS  page 7

BIG NEW MARKET FOR HORMONE-FREE CATTLE » PAGE 34

THE TIME IS

NOW

YOUR MISSION IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE. You just need to accept it by October 20th.

To date we have received over $45 million of non-binding commitments from farmers who want to participate in this opportunity to build a grain handling and fertilizer distribution company. It is now time to make a full commitment. We have released our offering memorandum outlining the details of this opportunity, but we need your commitment.

The cattle on show are only one of the attractions at Farmfair International.

Before there were smartphones, Twitter and Facebook, farmers perfected the art of social networking the good oldfashioned way — face to face at meetings, trade shows, and conferences during the busy winter season.

PHOTO: FARMFAIR

BY JENNIFER BLAIR

AF STAFF

A

nd that’s still what keeps ’em coming back for Alberta’s two biggest farm shows.

“For agricultural folk, whenever they gather, networking is a major component of what they do,” said Dave Fiddler, show manager for Farmfair International.

The Edmonton event has grown from humble beginnings 41 years ago into one of Western Canada’s largest — and lon-

gest running — farm shows. With nearly 300 exhibitors and 90,000 visitors over the week-long show, Farmfair attracts farmers from across the country who come to talk shop about beef.

“It’s where the beef industry comes to meet,” said Fiddler. “It’s the largest beef event in Alberta, and that is the major draw.”

Over the years, Farmfair has added equine events and sales, entertainment, and competitions to appeal to a broader audience

Network

SEARCH

SEE BIG SHOWS  page 6

The first closing of this offering is currently scheduled to take place on October 20, 2014.

Visit us online or call us toll-free to participate.

FNA.CA/GRAIN or 1-877-362-3276

CENTURY OF SOLUTIONS

AG SCHOOL SAVOURS ITS SUCCESSES  PAGE 2

Participation is limited to accredited investors or those that are otherwise exempt. You do not need to be an FNA Member to participate.

Soybean Guide, February 2016

Seed handling and treatment equipment

Meridian Seed Tenders

Bulk Seed Treating Sites • New or Upgrades • Preventative Maintenance Service • Emergency On-Site Service • Canadian Based Parts Inventory

USC Treaters

Dennis Lange sports protective footwear during a tour of test plots.

Rauri Qually, who farms near Dacotah, Man., said he’s “deeply” concerned about a possible incursion of nematodes fol­ lowing the presentation.

“It doesn’t sound like we have much of a defence against these things,” he said, but added that he’s still meticulous about bio­ security, washing all equipment before it moves to a new location.

Tenuta said that’s the right attitude, adding that producers should keep up biosecurity, making sure equipment coming onto and off the fields is free of soil, especially if it’s travelling between farms or across borders.

As for what the soybean cyst nematode actually does, Tenuta said it essentially hijacks the plant to create it’s own food factory.

“The nematode lifecycle goes as follows: the female has died and she’s packed with eggs inside her, as that soybean root comes up close to that dead female, and she’s called a cyst at this point, the eggs are stimulated to hatch… then they migrate towards the root,” Tenuta said. “They poke a hole into the roots, gain entry into that root, and they just stick their head into the root and just start feeding.”

Presence of the nematode can reduce yields by as much as 20 to 30 per cent, and is often difficult to diagnose.

Rotation and resistant varieties However, it can be managed by crop rotation and resistant varieties.

“And no, snow doesn’t count as crop rotation,” said Dennis Lange, a crop specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.

He added that other edible beans and some weeds can also play host to the soybean cyst nematode.

Gil Martel of St. Leon, Man., has only grown soybean for a couple of years, but said the information was helpful, adding he’s going to take another look at his rotation schedule.

“It certainly gives you something to think about,” he said.

Producers will also have much to consider when it comes to variety selection, as even resistant varieties break down over time, losing their effectiveness.

“I encourage growers to use them, but it is a cat-and-mouse game,” Tenuta said. “Because if the soybean has restart genes, guess what? The nematode evolves.” SC Soybean Guide, February 2016

Meridian Conveyors KSi Applicator/Treater

NEW

Farmchem.com 800.247.1854

website www.seed-ex.com

BEST OPTION BEST PRICING BEST SERVICE

Visit our NEW website to get daily pricing and text messaging

Soybean & Sunflower Contracts for upcoming 2016 Inc.

LIFE IS GOOD! Letellier, MB

204-737-2000

Toll Free: 1-800-258-7434 Email: roger@seed-ex.com 37

Photos: Blake Vince

Soyguide

Blending scores big with cover crops — and diversity More growers are exploring more blends with specific goals in sight

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

Above: Phacelia is generating more interest among cover crop growers, and sourcing has become less of a hurdle for new users.

38

A

t Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show this past fall, the cover-crop focus was on diversity. There was a highdiversity blend, a six-way blend, a Merlin (Ontario) Multi-Mix and a soil-building mix. There was even a cool-season N-fixing blend, just to gauge its potential.

If it seems like a lot to take in, get used to it. Cover crops are getting more sophisticated.

According to Anne Verhallen, soil management specialist in horticultural crops with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), the high-diversity blend alone contains 16 to 20 different seeds and can cost more than $50 per acre.

With so many options and so many purposes, the first question she asks a grower is: “What is it you want to accomplish with a cover crop?”

“I’m definitely seeing more interest; I think I’m seeing more acres, and sizeable acres at that,” says Verhallen, adding there are producers who always plant cover crops and who will continue to do so.

“They’re often the guys that are on the light, sandy soils or those who have early harvested crops and they know they need to do that to maintain their soils.”

But Verhallen is also driving past fields

that have never had a cover crop in the past, yet were in full green at some point in 2015.

There are other reasons why growers gravitate towards cover crops, and Verhallen cites 2012, which was a dry year, that sparked an increased interest in covers in part because so many livestock producers were short on feed. Last fall there were still a lot of cover crops out there, most of which had not been taken as feed.

In some areas, however, covers had been plowed down, and that’s not something Verhallen likes to see.

When farmers invariably come asking, she responds with several different questions of her own, because, as most agronomists, advisers and dealers will agree, the diversity across the farming spectrum is too great for pat answers.

Before she can provide a grower with more information on cover crops and blends, Verhallen needs to know the cropping practices, rotations, soil types, farm location, past crops and what’s coming after the cover crop. And those are just part of the introduction. A grower also has to define what he or she is trying to get out of a cover crop. Is it to keep the soil covered and the soil life active after wheat? Is it part Continued on page 40

Soybean Guide, February 2016

AgDealer.com’s powerful search tools make finding the right equipment easy! OVER 30,000 NEW & USED EQUIPMENT LISTINGS POWERFUL LOCAL, REGIONAL OR NATIONAL SEARCH FUNCTIONS NORTH AMERICA’S #1 AG CLASSIFIED NETWORK!

RIGHT EQUIPMENT » RIGHT PRICE » RIGHT NOW

FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION: 1-888-999-4178

Continued from page 38

of an IPM process to improve and maintain soil health? Is there a short-term remedial need to break up compaction?

Similar to no till, yet different Whether it’s red clover, an oat-radish combination or a diverse blend, the task of winning over growers to cover crops is similar to selling growers on no-till or reduced-till management. Yet it’s also different because some of the drive in working with cover crops is coming from no-tillers or reduced-till growers.

“They find they need ‘something else’ to keep the biology moving along, and no till hasn’t quite got their soil to the levels they wanted it to reach,” says Verhallen.

“And then some people have bought in on the whole ‘more roots, more diversity, more biology’ approach, and seeing that that’s an opportunity for them to harvest the sun and the carbon and put it back in the ground. I really try to sell it as part of a system, and that it’s generally not going to change things in a year or two.”

Some have told her that they’ve raised their soil organic matter by significant amounts in a relatively short period of time. But Verhallen is quick to remind growers that it can take a decade or more to raise soil organic matter on heavier soils.

If a grower is seeing that quick a change, it

might be due to sampling or testing discrepancies, or badly degraded soils.

The good news is that they’re growing cover crops, which means they’ve made the choice to commit to a higher management mindset, and getting started is often the biggest challenge. Some people have a problem with the labour and the time, while others resist due to the seed costs or availability. And others view it as a risk.

“Overall in the system, it’s going to reduce your risk and build a more resilient soil, but on a year-by-year basis, it requires more management, and depending on the year, it may actually increase some of your risk,” says Verhallen. “The mindset is definitely similar to no till — it’s labour, time, dollars, ‘bother’ and risk — and they have to want to do it. With cover crops, you tend to dance in and out of it according to the season and as your time allows you to do it, but if you want to see the benefits from it, it has to be incorporated as part of the system.”

It’s maintenance, not magic One lesson that Verhallen loves to share on breaking down barriers with cover crops comes from Odette Menard, an agricultural engineer and soil specialist with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in Quebec (MAPAQ). Soils, says Menard, are not like a tractor. A grower performs maintenance on a tractor — changes the oil, replaces worn tires — to

Adding more diverse blends of cover crops means more opportunity to address a variety of soil maintenance issues.

40

keep it operating efficiently. But that maintenance doesn’t improve yields, and that is not the case for soil. Cover crops are part of a soil maintenance system, he says. They’re part of a mindset and a whole systems approach.

It’s that same approach that applies to diverse blends of cover crops, especially with the more complex or with more legumes in the mix. With rye, clover, radish or oats, supply or pricing usually aren’t an issue. It’s with the addition of more legumes, like peas or vetch, and some of the different clovers that the costs can add up quickly. Then there are the mixes that include flax, phacelia, sunflower or safflower, which can become expensive and a bit more challenging to source.

Phacelia has grown in its popularity recently, says Verhallen, which means it’s easier to find, but only if you don’t wait too long in a season. Flax is less expensive than some might realize, and its smaller seed size makes it more cost-effective. The same can be said about sunflower, where its larger seed size means a little goes a long way.

“It’s a cover crop!”

Blake Vince is one of those growers who has adopted the “whole process system” approach to cover crops. It was in 2011, following a meeting with Ohiobased farmer Dave Brandt and learning how he uses oats, radish and peas that Vince decided to use cover crops on his own farm. He began with canola, wheat, radish and some leftover soybean seed, just to see how it would perform on his fields. At the time, he had different comments concerning what most believed was a winter wheat crop, noting it looked great in the fall, poor in the spring but a lot better as he was preparing to plant his corn. His response to each comment was the same: “It’s a cover crop.”

Today, he’s noticed a definite uptick in the interest in cover crops, and not just simple covers but complex blends. Just as Verhallen has fielded different questions, Vince has heard different concerns and goals voiced.

“Guys are starting to pay attention where they’re in a two-crop rotation and they’re seeing a yield drag, and they know that the economics aren’t there for wheat,” says Vince, who farms near Merlin, Ont., southwest of Chatham. “Some are starting to experiment with inter-seeding cover crops with their corn, and I’m starting to see guys experiment with fall-planted Continued on page 42

Soybean Guide, February 2016

Better seed Better seedinin in Better seed so many weighs so manyweighs weighs so many www.pioneer.com www.pioneer.com www.pioneer.com

B.B.F. Enterprises Ltd

Representative Name Representative Name Allan Calder Representative Name Letellier 000-000-0000 Manitoba Town 000-000-0000 Town Town 000-000-0000 204-737-2605

The DuPont OvalOval LogoLogo is a registered trademark of DuPont.

The DuPont is a registered trademark of DuPont. ®, TM, SM and service licensedlicensed to Pioneer Limited. © 2012 PHL. © 2012 PHL. ®, The TM, Trademarks SMDuPont Oval Logoservice ismarks a registered trademark of DuPont.

Trademarks and marks toHi-Bred Pioneer Hi-Bred Limited. ®, TM, SM

Trademarks and service marks licensed to Pioneer Hi-Bred Limited. © 2012 PHL.

PR362_BusinessCardAD_template.indd 1

PR362_BusinessCardAD_template.indd 1 PR362_BusinessCardAD_template.indd 1

Phone: 325-4658

06/09/12 12:15 PM

06/09/12 12:15 PM (Situated in the village of Reinland)

06/09/12 12:15 PM

Sellers of Pedigreed Seeds Since 1942 • Wheat • Soybeans • Oats • Corn • Edible Beans • Forage Seeds

RR 1, Box 218, Winkler, MB R6W 4A1 • E-mail: info@ensfarmsltd.com

Rod Fisher R.R. #5, Comp. 111 Dauphin, MB R7N 2T8 Phone: 204-622-8800 Fax: 204-622-8809 Email: rod@fisherseeds.com

Manitoba Distributor for CRS-1 Hemp Seed

www.fisherseeds.com • Special Crop Contracting • Pedigreed Seed Sales • Soybean Seed Sales & Treating

• Industrial Hemp Planting Seed • Grain Roasting / Sterilization • Industrial Hemp Processing

CALVIN PITURA

TOM GREAVES

DOMAIN, MB R0G 0M0 PH. (204)736-2849 FAX (204)736-2838

www.pituraseeds.ca The Hope of the Harvest Begins with the Seed

CEREALS • OILSEEDS • SOYBEANS • SEED TREATMENT • TURF SEEDS

Box 308, Rosenort, MB R0G 1W0 Ph.: (204) 746-8325 Fax: (204) 746-8039

Rick Friesen

Kevin Rempel

rick@friesenseeds.ca • kevin@friesenseeds.ca

www.friesenseeds.ca

• Pedigreed Seed Sales • Processing, Retail

Guy Rouire

Guy Labossiere

Cell: 745-8425

Cell: 750-2292

www.rwayag.com

Toll Free # 866-398-9643

Box 388, St. Claude, MB R0G 1Z0

VanderVeen Commodity SerViCe Ltd. CARMAN, MB. R0G 0J0 Phone 1-800-251-1532

Licensed & Bonded Grain Buyers • Oats • Sunflowers • Corn • Barley • Wheat • Soybeans

Andy, Brett & Jesse Vanderveen Soybean Guide, February 2016

41

Continued from page 40

cereal rye, and those things are starting to get a bit of a toe-hold, although they’re a long ways from common practice.”

Vince echoes Verhallen’s paralleling of diverse blends and cover crops in general to no-till management. It’s not done with a short-term focus, and it requires a mindset which envisions success, not an attitude that surrenders when the going gets tough.

“We shouldn’t have to worry about experimentation with cover crops,” says Vince. “With no till, there was a causeand-effect associated with it, we needed to put the seed in, we needed to make sure the seed was going to grow because we needed to harvest a crop at the end of the year. With cover crops, we should be doing it for a multitude of reasons, one of which, primarily, is its soil-building ability. The benefit is not immediate, and unfortunately that’s what happens with most acquisitions at the farm — with a short-term solution to a problem of some description.”

With cover crops, he adds, you’re buying into things for a net benefit that may not show up for three or five years, whether it’s a subtle increase in production or as a return on investment in the form of an improved quality of products that leave the farm and benefit society.

Vince also uses cover crops to reduce his consumption of inputs, whether they’re fertilizers — and the legumes in his mix will release supplemental nitrogen — or cereal rye that has an allelopathic compound to suppress or reduce weeds.

“But most times, I’m looking at it as a long-term capital improvement strategy for my farm, much like tile drainage,” Vince says. “In today’s agriculture unfortunately, one of the last things a farmer has ultimate control over is how he or she chooses to manage their soil. Everything else is pretty much dictated to them, whether that’s the price of inputs or the commodity market we play in.”

Not a piece of cake When asked to describe the “Merlin Mix” showcased at the Outdoor Farm Show in 2015, Vince emphasizes that it isn’t a time-honoured recipe that stays the same year after year like a cake at a church bake sale. It’s a product of evolution, he says, a combination to which he’ll add or delete a species, simply by what he sees working on his farm from one year to the next.

42

One of the many cover crop blends showcased at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in 2015.

“The mindset is similar to no till — it’s labour, time, dollars, ‘bother’ and risk — and they have to want to do it.”

— Anne Verhallen, OMAFRA In general, Vince works with six legumes for the purpose of building nitrogen and three or four grasses (corn, oats, cereal rye and volunteer winter wheat coming from behind the combine). Then he’ll try flax, sunflower, phacelia, and those are great for pollinators, along with the black residue they leave behind as they decay courtesy of solid tap roots. Finally, those plants have an aesthetic value, helping in some regard to create awareness by drawing attention to their growth.

“It makes people sit up and realize that as a farmer, I care about my environment,” says Vince. “I’m doing something proactively not only for my betterment, but with the ideal that farmers as a whole are invested in everyone else’s well-being.”

He’s even tried fababeans and sunn hemp, although the latter doesn’t hold much promise since it has to be planted before June 21. He’s also worked with millets and other grasses that he’s planted later in the season.

“I have an Excel spreadsheet and I create my own recipe on an annual basis based on availability of seed, and that gets to be a challenge as the popularity of cover crops grows and expands,” says Vince.

“Some things come and go out of the mix because I can’t get my hands on the seed or I can’t get as much seed as I want. When you think of the seed types and shapes,

there’s a range of seeds that are large, like a fababean, down to a forage kale which is the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen or phacelia, which is like iron filings. It’s all about creating this ratio.”

Where sourcing the various seeds can be a challenge, Vince’s spreadsheet helps in mapping but also with the economics of his particular mixes. The spreadsheet function can calculate the cost per pound and seeds per pound needed for his blends.

Vince also credits his diverse mixes for a return of wildlife to his farm. Bobolinks, declared an endangered species in the past 10 years, now nest in his grasslands and there’s anecdotal evidence that deer have been frequenting his cover crops (signs of them chewing on radish and other plants).

“I know that through my careful reduction of costs and capital expenditures, that’s what’s allowing me to remain viable for the long term,” says Vince. “The key thing in all of this is to think differently, and think of it as an opportunity to learn and that we don’t need to be so precise. We can observe changes that occur in our soil, and the best tools for that job are our legs and a shovel, our eyes and our nose. And really, most farmers already have the tools to get started, so it doesn’t require additional capital assets, they just need the aptitude and the attitude to implement it.” SG Soybean Guide, February 2016

PRO 2525R2 Only available in Western Canada from your Legend Seeds Dealer Highest yielding mid season variety two years running in the MCVET trials This PRO has great vigor out of the ground This PRO has high yield potential This PRO has exceptional standibility This PRO has tall plant height Let your professionals from Legend Seeds pick the right PRO for you with PRO 2525R2.

Don’t get caught before they are all gone, contact your nearest Legend Seeds retailer today.

To learn more about Legend Seeds or find your closest dealer, visit

legendseeds.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® technology contains genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, an active ingredient in Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides. Agricultural herbicides containing glyphosate will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Genuity and Design®, Roundup Ready 2 Yield®, Roundup Ready® and Roundup® are registered trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC, Monsanto Canada, Inc. licensee

You’re not just buying seed, you’re investing in your business.

Choosing the right product is only part of your success. You know that knowledge and experience are what help businesses grow.

Richardson Pioneer Ag Business Centres give you access to more than today’s best seeds.

We’re here to help you increase your yields and profitability with expert advice and end-to-end service.

From crop planning to grain marketing, we’re focused on supporting you at every stage of growth. Get more than top varieties.

Partner with a prairie-wide network of agronomic advisors committed to giving your operation the advantage it deserves.

Book Your 2016 Seed Today.

Contact your local

Richardson Pioneer Ag Business Centre.

www.richardson.ca PIONEER® FOR THE SALE AND DISTRIBUTION OF SEED IS A REGISTERED TRADE-MARK OF PIONEER HI-BRED INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND IS USED UNDER LICENSE BY THE UNAFFILIATED COMPANY RICHARDSON PIONEER LIMITED.

By Ralph Pearce ⁄⁄ CG Production Editor

Before you buy that drone Even in precision ag, it’s unwise to lose sight of the ‘fundamentals-first’ approach to good agronomy t can be hard for those of us in the farm sector to contain our excitement when discussing the enormous potential of precision agriculture.

Variable rate applications, variable rate planting, automatic down-pressure sensing, data management, digital imaging and soil sensing… these are just a few of the possibilities in a movement still clearly in its infancy.

Yet there can also be confusion. With each passing month, there’s another new system or another new component on the market, and each one requires a good deal of learning, as well as a good deal of clear thinking in order to figure out how best to integrate it into your overall management system.

It’s a far cry from when yield monitors were first introduced in the mid-1990s. Today, that technology seems primitive, but at the time it was a real struggle to know how to make it actually work for the benefit of the overall farm.

In the intervening years, the industry has turned out more VRT and GPS technology, yet farmers, retailers, agronomists and service providers are still learning the fundamentals.

Despite the parade of newer systems, are we actually making the kind of progress that we could be, and perhaps should be too?

General assumption One shocking estimate comes from a service provider who says that fewer than 50 per cent of growers who have a GPS yield monitor in their combines use that data to manage their fields at the most basic level.

Such farmers might see that in one spot of their field, the crop yielded 225 bu./ac., while in another they only pulled off 175. But they’re not necessarily using that data to manage those zones differently — to plant high-performing hybrids at higher populations in that 225-bushel zone or to cut back on fertilizers and inputs on the 175-bushel area. Granted, variable rate planting with multiple hybrids is still just on the cutting edge, and it takes more time. But it is possible.

That revelation sparks similar questions about other variable-rate technologies. Are we actually getContinued on page 32

But what’s happening below the soil surface? Unlike visual scouting, soil testing and sensing technologies gauge crop performance at the root level.

February 16, 2016

country-guide.ca 31

Continued from page 31

Soil testing undersold

ting the most benefit from soil sensing devices, and are we using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to their fullest extent? Is there another way we should manage soil data? Are we measuring things properly, or to the best of the technology’s capabilities?

Most providers within the precision ag sector are engaged in a game of catch-up with the technology, and to be honest, it’s something of a merry-go-round.

It isn’t enough to be proficient with one or two systems, the challenge is that there are new systems being introduced all the time. The other factor to remember is that there is no one single precision ag tool that can “do it all.” Each is simply a tool.

“Each tells you something different or gives you a little bit more information about an issue or a field,” says Felix Weber, of Ag Business and Crop, based in Palmers­­ton, Ont. For the past six years, he has been an exclusive dealer for senseFly UAVs, and has overseen several upgrades of remote sensing technology. He believes there are several important steps growers must consider as they incorporate the tools, including what the tools are telling them, and how best to use that information.

There’s another danger, says Weber. “Sometimes that tool is oversold… the farmer’s expectation is higher than what the tool can actually deliver.”

Regardless of the system being used — whether it’s a UAV, GreenSeeker, SoilOptix or some other sensing technology — creating that solid foundation is vital to continue building efficiencies. Anecdotally, the fall of 2015 saw more growers calling dealers and labs looking for soil tests on their fields. For many providers, that’s great news, until it’s learned that some growers will take that information but continue with the same fertility program regardless of the results.

That’s something Paul Raymer of Practical Precision in Tavistock, Ont., has seen in his work with growers. But he also acknowledges that in his discussions with retailers and advisers, as many as 80 per cent of the soil tests conducted were either grid or zone sampled. The desire for gleaning more information is there, and that leads to another question.

“What are farmers looking for? Are they looking at going to variable rate?” asks Raymer. “Some are saying yes, and some are just saying that they’re realizing they have to do a better job of soil sampling. But that’s the next step before they start looking for better maps.

If they’re just taking one composite sample of a 25- or 50-acre field, that is not sampling.”

Raymer believes the majority of his customers are saying they don’t think they’re getting enough

Fewer than half of farmers use data from a yield monitor to actually manage their fields.

32 country-guide.ca

February 16, 2016

PRECISION AG information out of traditional sampling and that they’re looking for something more. The trick is to get people grid sampling before they start looking for that “something more.”

“I think there’s more of that reluctance to change to the technology and actually start doing something, and working with a consultant who’s going to be encouraging them to do that,” says Raymer, noting that farmers can be reluctant to change. “I’m not sure if the technology was introduced too early. Most planters come out now with the capability of doing variable rate: the technology is there but is there willingness to make the change to use it?”

Willing to learn, but…

Yet it’s not to say that farmers are failing in adopting the technology, which is something that Brian Hall, who works with Weber at Ag Business and Crop, wants to make perfectly clear. The technology was brought to the market with great promise and potential, and many farmers took hold of the technology and tried to incorporate it. Some didn’t understand the value, others became frustrated with the attempt and returned to their old ways.

Hall speaks of some farmers who would gather yield data for one field — and for only one year — before deleting that information.

“It’s not just the fault of the farmers. We haven’t done a good job of helping farmers understand how to use the information generated by the technology,” says Hall, formerly with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). “When yield monitors first came out they were generating maps, and farmers had two or three years of maps and people were saying, ‘How do we use this information now?’ So there was this lag-time of not only the technology but the application as well and farmers began to lose interest because they were paying for a service that wasn’t helping their bottom line.”

What might also be required is more research to confirm some of the recommendations coming from the data gleaned from the fields or the soils. But that’s an added challenge given the ebb and flow of new systems and technologies, and the subsequent slowdown to establish learning curves and familiarity.

Hall also makes a very interesting point about most of what growers do in a field being visual: the growth of a crop, tillage, the management of weeds, pests and diseases, the harvest — they all have a visual component. But with precision ag, things aren’t as readily apparent. Soil testing, fertility programs, electro-conductivity, pH and soil organic matter — they’re all sub-surface elements that are measured but seldom seen. And like no-till farming, there is no one- or two-year visible payback.

That can take five, eight, even 10 years, which often means the overall value is diminished in the chase for short-term improvements.

Raymer had a similar run-in early in 2015 with a group of seed growers. As he outlined the treasure trove of data and information that a 30-inch grid February 16, 2016

sample could yield, one grower complained that such measurements would cost him “at least $4 to $5 per acre per year for your basic 15-map package.” What wasn’t as apparent was the value of the information being gleaned from the soils, particularly as a benchmark, and then using that as a guideline going forward. That value went far beyond just $4 or $5 per acre. Yet when prices are good, money flows easily, be it on a new truck, a new tractor or a land purchase.

“When things are tighter, where are farmers cutting back?” Raymer asks. “The fundamentals should always be there and that should be part of someone’s annual costs.”

Weber echoes many of Raymer’s experiences, stating that a grower’s frustration with earlier attempts makes it that much harder for the farmer to trust the technology, and convince him of the overwhelming value that these tools provide. Unfortunately, the perception remains that once a farmer brings advanced technology to his operation, using precision ag technologies will be simple. But the harsh reality is that expectations are often too high.

“When we actually can use the data and make money or save money with it, it becomes harder to engage the farmer to try it again,” says Weber. “It’s great to have a new tool, and it’s the same with the UAVs. We have to be very careful: there are limitations to it, but this is going to be a great tool down the road if we use it properly.”

“ The expectation the farmer has is higher than what the tool can actually deliver.”

— Felix Weber, Ag Business & Crop

The most powerful tool Weber adds that too often, agriculture becomes bogged down with size as opposed to value. Farms are definitely getting bigger, and amidst the concerns about time management, planting and harvesting windows and seed and input costs, farmers are losing sight of profitability and the per-acre return. To a degree, it doesn’t matter whether they’re farming 200 acres or 5,200, the key is what each acre is returning.

“The most powerful tool we have in the tool box is our ability to observe,” adds Hall, saying that farmers can choose from high-tech or lowertech tools. The point is to record those observations and then actually use them, he says. “We got into this stage where we’re thinking that we could manage the whole field uniformly. And we’re going back the other way now, where we’re saying, ‘OK, we’ve been managing them uniformly, we recognize there are big differences across a field and we have to start measuring those.’” CG country-guide.ca 33

THE REAL STORY OF AG

36818 E AMTE Cattleman Country Guide 6pg.indd 1-2

THE REAL STORY OF AG

Keep it in the family Let’s tell the story of family farms Feeding the world is not just a big responsibility, it’s big business – with a world population over 7.3 billion, it has to be. However, many consumers don’t associate large-scale business with family business, even though 98% of

Canadian farms are family-owned and operated. As a result, many consumers don’t trust their food supply. We need to make sure the story of the family farm is being told, and that “big” doesn’t mean “bad.”

We all have stories we can share, whether you grew up on a family farm, or you work in an industry that serves farm families. Look for opportunities to tell the real story of Canadian agriculture, whether it be online, in the grocery store or at the dinner table.

Here are some talking points to get you started: 98% of Canadian farms are family farms Almost all of the farms in Canada are family-owned and operated, and producing healthy, sustainable food is their first priority. Remember, farmers feed their own families the food they produce.

Family farms have evolved They look different today than they did 50 years ago. But that doesn’t mean our food supply isn’t safe and healthy anymore. New technology has allowed farmers to do more with less, making agriculture more sustainable today.

Farmers protect the environment because they want to pass their business on to the next generation.

Farming is a complex business Families must manage food safety and traceability, detailed budgets and accounting, marketing, employees, everchanging technology, and more. Modern farms must be run as a business, and it makes good business sense for many family farms to incorporate. As a company, farms can minimize taxes. Plus, family members can own shares in the company, making it easier to pass the farm from generation to generation. But their business structure doesn’t change the fact that family members work side by side every day, bringing to life their shared passion and dedication for producing safe, healthy food.

We’re in this together Everyone in the industry needs to work together to help improve perceptions. By being open and proactively communicating with the public about how we grow food and why we operate in the ways we do, we can maintain consumer trust and continue to produce high-quality, nutritious food in ways that are efficient and sustainable.

2016-01-14 10:22 AM

THE REAL STORY OF AG

Social starters The importance of family is something everyone can understand and relate to, whether you’re in ag or not. It’s common ground that can start a conversation.

Visit AgMoreThanEver.ca/resources to find a collection of photos that you can easily share on social media to start or support conversations about family farming.

The land is my

lifestyle and my

livelihood, but it’s also my

legacy.

Photo credit: CR Photography (Chantal Rasmuson) Pictured: Nate and Colin Rosengren

Providing safe, healthy food for my family is important to me too.

I love ag for the life it gives my kids now…and the opportunities it gives in the future.

That’s why I farm.

Photo credit: Aimée Ferré Stang

Or, even better, share your own pictures and make your story personal.

(photo by Jerri Judd)

36818 E AMTE Cattleman Country Guide 6pg.indd 3-4

THE REAL STORY OF AG

What are others saying?

“My farm is a family farm. It is 100% owned by myself, my husband and his two parents. We love everything about agriculture with a fierce passion. We have never, ever, sold a product that we wouldn’t happily serve to our children. Every decision on the farm takes more than just finances into consideration. Our number one goal is to leave a farm to our children that is both environmentally and economically viable.”

– Adrienne Ivey, Saskatchewan rancher

“Agriculture is a fast-growing business, and it has to be run as a business. It involves family, of course, but we’re always looking at the latest research, we’re looking at what practices are evolving in other countries, and we’re adapting those practices so we can become more efficient to get our product into the marketplace.”

– John Thwaites, Ontario fruit and vegetable grower

2016-01-14 10:23 AM

Looking for more?

Watch The power of shared values webinar featuring Charlie Arnot, CEO of the Center for Food Integrity, who shares three simple steps to gain consumers’ trust by tapping into the power of shared values. Charlie helps bridge the divide between science and consumer perception and offers great insight into creating messages that are proven to resonate with consumers.

Visit AgMoreThanEver.ca/tag/webinar.

The power of shared values

AGvocate Challenge There are 2.1 million Canadians working in agriculture and agri-food. Imagine the impact we could make if we all made a commitment to improve perceptions of agriculture.

There are simple ways you can start being an agvocate today.

Just choose to do one of the following: 1. Search the hashtags #FutureFarmer, #AgMoreThanEver, or #Farm365 and find a positive post to retweet.

2. When you overhear a misleading or inaccurate conversation about farming, find an appropriate time to share your story.

3. Dedicate one day to volunteer at an event that promotes agriculture such as Open Farm Days or Ag Literacy Week.

4. Tell a friend or co-worker about the need to speak up, and ask them to take the agvocate challenge.

36818 E AMTE Cattleman Country Guide 6pg.indd 5-6

We all share the same table.

Pull up a chair.

“We take pride in knowing we would feel safe consuming any of the crops we sell. If we would not use it ourselves, it does not go to market.”

– Katelyn Duncan, Saskatchewan

“The natural environment is critical to farmers – we depend on soil and water for the production of food. But we also live on our farms, so it’s essential that we act as responsible stewards.”

– Doug Chorney, Manitoba

“The welfare of my animals is one of my highest priorities. If I don’t give my cows a high quality of life, they won’t grow up to be great cows.”

– Andrew Campbell, Ontario

Safe food; animal welfare; sustainability; people care deeply about these things when they make food choices. And all of us in the agriculture industry care deeply about them too. But sometimes the general public doesn’t see it that way. Why? Because, for the most part, we’re not telling them our story and, too often, someone outside the industry is.

The journey from farm to table is a conversation we need to make sure we’re a part of. So let’s talk about it, together.

Visit AgMoreThanEver.ca to discover how you can help improve and create realistic perceptions of Canadian ag.

2016-01-14 10:23 AM

By Ralph Pearce ⁄⁄ CG Production Editor

After 20 years Has biotechnology really lived up to its promise? armers were practically guaranteed that we were entering a whole new era in agri-food production. Because of something called transgenics, we were going to have higher yields, lower costs, and all sorts of unimagineable farm efficiencies, not to mention that, thanks to this technology, we’d be able to feed the world.

But 20 years later, have all those promises been kept?

To be fair, world hunger isn’t a simple target. Who knew in the mid-1990s that 40 per cent of the U.S. corn crop would be going to ethanol production?

Nor, perhaps, did we understand in the early days that it would take so long to get biotech traits into the hands of the world’s subsistence farmers so they could benefit too.

By 2012, for instance, Dr. Chris Mallett of Cargill was arguing that it would have to be not only enhanced technology, but also cheaper credit, better access to nutrients, and better agronomic expertise that would need to come together to help the farmers of the world’s developing countries do their part to end global hunger.

Meanwhile in North America, after two decades of planting biotech crops, most growers are grappling with uncertainties. Yes, farmers have seen tremendous advances in yields and weed control thanks to biotechnology, but they are also facing the downsides, such as the spectre of weed and pest resistance.

And we haven’t even mentioned the sometimes vigorous consumer demand for greater food safety, accountability and traceability.

Are these mere bumps in the road? Or should we be re-evaluating the biotech record?

Rather than apologizing for bringing biotech developments to farmers, most farmers and scientists point to societal benefits like the sustainable, dependable production of high-quality, affordable food.

40 country-guide.ca

February 16, 2016

crop technology

A little of both?

Ken Nixon, a farmer from Ilderton northwest of London, Ont., is a long-time advocate of biotechnology, and he agrees that in the early days, the return on investment with the science was simple and obvious.

Bt hybrids blazed a trail for insect control, and there was also herbicide resistance in soybeans and then in corn, providing an open door for no-till farming. It had been easy to justify the benefits. But then weed resistance began creeping into the picture.

“The flip side comes on two issues,” Nixon now sees. “How quickly we became dependent on them (biotech traits) is alarming, and secondly, how quickly some of these advancements were essentially rendered useless by overuse.”

Push back also came from further up the food chain, but it was met with a failure to acknowledge that biotechnology was bringing little or nothing for the consumer.

Indeed, a jaded public might even resist traits that are for the public good.

A recent example of this can be seen in reports from the Florida citrus industry, where production has fallen to its lowest level in 50 years because of greening disease (huanglongbing).

It appears that biotechnology could produce an answer, yet growers in the state are reluctant to use it out of fear of a consumer backlash, raising the possibility that the market may run out of oranges and orange juice in five to 10 years, despite the possibility of a biotech solution.

“Both the developers of these innovations and the primary users of them (i.e. the farmers) maybe got the cart before the horse,” says Nixon. “How we promoted this down the food chain wasn’t the healthiest either, basically saying, ‘The government has approved it, and you’re going to take (it) and you’re going to like it!’”

“You can’t scroll back time, but in some respects, I wish we would have been a bit more accommodating to the concerns of people,” Nixon says. “Maybe we’d be having a little less of a hard time trying to have people accept these now.”

OK, …but — Then there’s the prospect that consumer acceptance won’t come unless there’s a certain amount of give on the part of agriculture.

As much as farmers and stakeholders may denounce consumers for being scientifically illiterate, there’s a case to be made for farmers and the industry as a whole ignoring the concerns of consumers.

Trish Jordan, director of public and industry affairs with Monsanto, has spent years trying to undo the damage of informational stonewalling by the agrifood industry. What she’s learned is that a far more effective strategy is to search for shared values.

February 16, 2016

That approach, she says, creates opportunities for dialogue and for learning — on both sides.

“We’re not just talking to farmers, who really are our only customers, we’re actually reaching out and reframing our story and telling that story with new audiences, which are consumer audiences,” says Jordan. “Clearly, they view us as a significant player in the whole food business or food chain... that was a learning process for us as well.”

Even with farmers, Monsanto and its competitors are doing a better communications job. Monsanto, for instance, tried to be much more transparent when recently releasing its Roundup Ready Xtend system.

At its exhibit at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in 2015, for example, Monsanto’s Genuity division not only introduced the technology, it also went into detail about the many aspects of stewardship that go with growing crops in that system. From ground speeds to nozzle types and even rinsing procedures, Genuity talked about how the entire package needs to come together in order to delay resistance.

As for the suggestions that more of this sort should have been done for earlier technologies, Jordan refuses to get too regretful about the past.

“Here’s the thing — everybody gets super smart in hindsight, and I have always said that I will never apologize for Monsanto focusing on its customers,” Jordan says.

“The tools we brought to those farmers do have a societal benefit in terms of sustainability, the environment, and a varied plate of high-quality, affordable food,” Jordan says. “Those all have benefits, but what we didn’t do is, we didn’t understand that we had to reframe how we talk about it.”

Jordan also points out that it can be a challenge to communicate about new traits in a context where con-

When Genuity launched its Roundup Ready Xtend technology at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in 2015, it offered an extensive information-based strategy to avoid resistance issues, another sign of change in the industry.

Continued on page 42

country-guide.ca 41

The benefits of biotechnology have been undeniable to farmers, in spite of challenges from resistance.

Continued from page 41 sumers often don’t understand that for farmers, sustainability must be both environmental and economic.

At the same time, though, farmers may not have understood that consumers want more transparency.

There has been a sea change in attitudes about food, and consumers want to know more about how their food is grown and processed.

Stating that non-farmers just don’t understand what it’s like on the farm, and getting into arguments and telling consumers that they have no right to tell farmers how to farm, just didn’t help get the dialogue going.

“People started asking questions and they wanted to know more about their food,” Jordan says. “We’ve really embraced that. All we’re saying now is that we’re going to engage in these conversations, we’re going to show up in places we haven’t shown up before, and please, welcome us to have a conversation about food and agriculture and the environment.

We want to be part of that conversation versus having an argument all the time.”

She knows the conversations won’t always be simple. For many consumers, “big” is bad when it comes to food production, while small is good, just like “high tech” can be a term that comes with a lot of baggage, while “natural” seems too good to question.

Amid those red flags, however, Jordan and others are seeking to start the conversations.

“The key is to help consumers understand that the tools that we offer to farmers to help them have a better harvest or to feed better-quality ingredients to their animals really do contribute to making a balanced meal, with lots of choices and more accessibility,” Jordan says.

“What we’re trying to help consumers understand is that this isn’t a choice of food scarcity versus food quality. We want everyone to have both, and so do farmers.”

42 country-guide.ca

Education mixed with inevitability Having those discussions with consumers is essential to biotech’s continued success, biotech insiders says. But so is helping farmers understand the need for that dialogue, and most companies are getting involved, says Collin Phillip, business director for Eastern Canada with DuPont Pioneer.

“We’re definitely interested in helping consumers understand where their food comes from and how it’s produced, and we support a number of initiatives to do that,” Phillip says. “Our experience has been that the more people know, the less fearful they are of biotech.”

Asked about where the world of biotech applications will eventually find its balance with consumer concern, Phillip is uncertain just how things may play out. Like Jordan and Nixon, he agrees that the seed, trait and chemical companies were a little late coming to the table to take part in those discussions.

Even so, Phillip says he’s encouraged by the support the technology is receiving from science advocates, editorial boards and consumers who have done their homework.

“The ag biotech industry has grown rapidly in the last 20 years, and I think it’s going to continue to grow, with biotech products that do a better job of increasing a farmer’s productivity, sustainability and meeting challenges consumers care about,” says Phillip. “Growers have seen tremendous success with ag biotech products, and that’s helping them sustain and grow their farm. I don’t think that’s going to change.” CG

February 16, 2016

THE ONTARIO AGROLOGIST A conversation with Shawn Damen, P.Ag. Monsanto Canada, situated in Lucan, Ontario.

Tell us about your background and experience in an industry where professional accreditation and accountability for science-based recommendations is voluntary.

utilize technology in agriculture. It

conversation is so important as when

really is up to each and everyone of

people don’t understand something

us to help educate and inform those

often their initial reaction is fear. Once

not involved in agriculture of all the

we can create the understanding

I have been very fortunate to work in

positive and exciting things modern

fear disappears and we can have

agriculture and food my entire career.

farmers are doing. Certainly being

a much more effective dialogue.

It’s a wonderful opportunity to have an

part of the Monsanto organization

impact and contribute to the solutions

the topic of GMOs and their use in

needed to help feed an ever growing

our food comes up quite frequently.

population while protecting the earth

I believe the science and safety of

Tell me more about how you use your credibility, through your OIA designation, to address fear and misunderstanding in the ag sector.

and its resources for generations

GMOs is proven but I don’t believe

to come. My P.Ag. designation

we can counter all of the emotions

recognizes me as a Professional

surrounding this issue with scientific data

Agrologist and allows me to be part

alone. When I have a conversation with

of an organization that ensures its

someone who has some concerns re

members demonstrate professionalism,

GMOs I will often use an ethics-based

ethical practice, and a commitment

perspective. I tell people that I work

to continued education. The ethical

with a group of amazing people at

and accountable practice rooted in

Monsanto, a team of dedicated people

the P.Ag. and the T.Ag. designations

in technical development, research

are vital today. My P.Ag. ensures I use

and product management with a

sound and defendable science. Just

focus on providing the most abundant

like a P.Eng. or medical designation,

and safest food possible. The truth is

my P.Ag. ensures I conduct myself with

there are excellent people looking to

integrity and I don’t believe you can

help, not to hurt. So I open the curtains

build solutions and relationships without

and shed light on sound science and

the foundation of credibility and trust.

leverage my credibility and public

Social media seems to create a lot of fear and distrust, especially related to GMOs. Tell us more about some of the misunderstandings that you hear. Is sound science being ignored today?

accountability associated with my P.Ag.

Monsanto has produced a series that shows how we collaborate with farmers, researchers, non-profit organizations, universities and many others to tackle agriculture’s biggest challenges, and we’re working to develop a broad range of solutions to sustainably grow enough for a growing world. You can view them at: www.discover.monsanto. com. Personally, I have always found that the first step in addressing any issue starts with having a good conversation.

As P.Ags we are in a great place to lead that conversation. We are the ones held to national standards just like any other regulated profession. We have the proven science education, we have ongoing learning, and we have ethical and professional practice

It is important today to try to set the

codes. As professionals, Professional

record straight, to highlight such things

and Technical Agrologists are in a

as advancements in treatments for

place of respect and trust. So when I

The vast majority of the people we

diabetics only possible through GMO

speak to someone at a dinner party,

interact with today have little to no

advances; and the higher yields

on a plane, at a restaurant or at my

experience with where their food

needed to feed a growing global

kid’s school, I reduce the fear through

comes from and who grew it for them.

population through safer products

sound and easy to understand science

This creates a real potential gap in

that use fewer resources than those

and support it through my credibility

understanding of how and why we

that were previously in use. The

as an accountable professional.

www.oia.on.ca

CropsGuide # PestPatrol

with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA

ave a question you want answered?

H Hashtag #PestPatrol on twitter.com to @cowbrough or email Mike at mike.cowbrough@ontario.ca.

Do we have Palmer amaranth in Ontario?

How do I tell it apart from other pigweeds? hankfully, Ontario does not have Palmer amaranth, a pigweed species that in the U.S. is resistant to five different herbicide modes of action (Table 1). However, we do have waterhemp, another pigweed species that is often confused with Palmer amaranth and that is resistant to three herbicide modes of action (Table 2).

Waterhemp has only been found in Essex, Lambton and Bruce counties. It should be pointed out that when the species was identified in Bruce County, the landowner aggressively removed all plants before they set seed. Subsequently this species has not been seen in the area since it was first discovered in 2002.

So let’s get specific about how would you know if you have either waterhemp or Palmer amaranth instead of the more common redroot and green pigweeds.

Step 1: Does the stem have hair? If the answer is yes, you can rule out either waterhemp or Palmer amaranth. Redroot pigweed has a very hairy stem (Figure 1), green pigweed’s stem is comparatively less hairy but a cluster of fine hairs exists near the top of the plant (Figure 2). By contrast, waterhemp and Palmer amaranth have hairless stems (Figure 3).

Step 2: If the plant’s stem is hairless, is the leaf stem (called a petiole) longer than the leaf? If the answer is yes, it’s most likely Palmer amaranth (Figure 4).

1

The hairy stem of redroot pigweed.

44 country-guide.ca

2

The sparsely short-haired green pigweed stem.

Step 3: Send it to a taxonomist to confirm. If you really think you have Palmer amaranth, that would be a very significant find and it’s a species that we would not want to see spread very easily. You can contact me and I will co-ordinate having the plant identified by a taxonomist.

Table 1. Herbicide and herbicide groups that populations of Palmer amaranth are resistant to in the U.S. (source: weedscience.org) Herbicide

Herbicide Group

Pursuit, Classic, Pinnacle

2

Treflan, Rival, Prowl H2O

3

atrazine, Sencor

5

glyphosate

9

Reflex, Valtera, Authority

14

Table 2. Herbicide and herbicide groups that populations of waterhemp are resistant to in Ontario Herbicide

Herbicide Group

Pursuit, Classic, Pinnacle

2

atrazine, Sencor

5

glyphosate

9

3

The hairless stem of waterhemp.

4

The long petiole (leaf stalk) of Palmer amaranth, which is much longer than other pigweed species found in Ontario.

February 16, 2016

g n i d l o H

c i f f a ui sp to ru t i

. t h g i s of

Looking to drive up the quality and yield of your soybeans and winter wheat? Go with Stratego® PRO fungicide – and get ready to cause some serious gridlock. While you may not end up too popular out there on the road, you can count on protecting your crop from devastating diseases including white mould… and harvest healthier, higher-yielding soybeans and winter wheat.

Learn more at cropscience.bayer.ca/StrategoPRO

cropscience.bayer.ca or 1 888-283-6847 or contact your Bayer representative.

Always read and follow label directions. Stratego® is a registered trademark of Bayer Global.

Bayer CropScience Inc. is a member of CropLife Canada.

More than the best products.

Great rewards.

Ask your retail about our program.

business

The farm voice in Paris Maybe we really can have an effective voice in global climate-change talks, even if we can’t agree whether climate change is real

By Gerald Pilger

limate change is a divisive topic. People either believe man-based climate change is real and that action must be taken immediately to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or they reject the premise that mankind is responsible for climate change and they argue passionately that action is not only not warranted or needed, but that it also won’t do anything to make our weather better.

Typically, it seems a person’s views are either black or white. There is little grey in climate change.

Yet neither position sits well with Don McCabe, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

He takes a different approach altogether.

“Whether farmers believe in climate change or not,” McCabe says, “they need to have a voice in making the rules. Farmers need to be part of the solution. Ag needs a voice at the table.”

McCabe is that voice for Ontario farmers. Not only has he attended the last three United Nations Conference of the Parties (global climate change conferences), he was a panel member in two events at the breakthrough global meeting in Paris last December called COP21.

McCabe says his role was to bring North American farmers’ needs and solutions to the delegates of the 195 countries represented at that meeting.

It was clear, he says, that there would be policies coming out of that meeting to address climate change. “There will be new rules, and farmers need to have a part in the making of those rules.”

While McCabe acknowledges that agriculture is part of the problem, he sees no conflict in arguing that it can be an even bigger part of the solution.

He points out, for instance, that agriculture is all about the connection between the living and

46 country-guide.ca

non-living worlds. Farmers understand the carbon and nitrogen cycles that produce the food and fibre the world relies on. They understand soils and the sequestration of carbon in those soils.

McCabe feels agriculture needs to be recognized for what it has already achieved, and farmers need to be given the tools, technologies, and policies to further reduce greenhouse gases and to curb the impact of climate change.

However, McCabe believes there are roadblocks.

North American agriculture is unique. Globally, there are half a billion farmers, 70 per cent of whom are women who farm one hectare or less.

Second, the average consumer does not know what farmers do, and there is no time for them to learn.

Third, McCabe is concerned that governments and companies could barge ahead without understanding the impact their actions could have on farmers. Fourth, there will likely be new costs imposed on farmers arising from new policies and regulations, which means that input costs could rise.

McCabe lists a number of things Canadian farmers need to do now: • Get familiar with the new terminology • Get a grounding on the science • Listen to the signals the supply chain is sending • Understand what the customer expects • Talk about sustainability in a way that is engaging and that the public will listen to • Understand what they are being asked to sign on to • Stay on top of their businesses Most importantly, McCabe says government must hear from agriculture. “Farmers must be a part of the solution. It is very important that farm organizations be involved in climate change policy. There is a whole new world in the bio-economy.”

February 16, 2016

business

Chris Perry, a fourth-generation farmer from southern Alberta also believes farmers need to look at the big picture.

“Agriculture is an enormous user of energy and resources. We need to be sustainable. We need to define the role ag plays in climate change,” says Perry.

This was the message Perry presented at COP21.

Perry was a panel member at the Field to Market Event at the Gallery of Solutions, a side event to the main climate change meetings in Paris last December. The purpose of the event was to inform COP21 participants how agriculture is working to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

Perry participated in that panel at the request of Pepsico, a major sponsor of the event. Perry’s farm is a supplier of potatoes, sunflowers and other crops to Pepsico, and the company recognized him as a leader in sustainable agricultural practices in part because of his use of varied crop rotations as well as precision agricultural practices, and also because of his investment in an on-farm biogas production facility. Pepsico wanted him to tell COP21 delegates about his innovative and sustainable farming practices.

Perry admits his motivation for investing in sustainable agriculture is as much altruistic as it is economic. He firmly believes he must leave the land in better shape for future generations than it was when he began farming. That is why he is constantly searching for best practices that he can incorporate.

Pepsico recognizes the increasing desire by consumers for the products they buy to be produced in a sustainable manner. Perry says farmers need to consider this consumer demand as well. “We have to be aware of consumer trends. Farmers have to know who they are selling to and what it is they want.”

Perry says companies like Pepsico want to buy from growers who strive to meet consumer demand for sustainable production. “Companies want to know how sustainable your production system is,” Perry says. “It is not enough to just be compliant; it is what you are doing over and above requirements.

It is extremely important both for farmers and food companies to be seen by consumers as the epitome of food.”

Perry also believes it is crucial for farmers to be at the table when climate change is on the agenda.

“Agriculture needs to be recognized for what it is doing and what it can do to mitigate climate change,” Perry says. “We have to be on the bandwagon.”

Also sitting on the panel with Perry was Keith Alverson, a farmer from South Dakota and member of the National Corn Growers Association. Alverson spoke of the ability of soils to sequester carbon. He told delegates about South Dakota State University

February 16, 2016

Politicians need to know how much we are already doing to return carbon to our soils, and to keep those soils healthy and productive. Our control of the soil must not be jeopardized research that shows 60 per cent of their soil’s carbon had been lost between the time when the land was first broken and 1984.

However, with the introduction of no till and other modern farming practices, carbon sequestration in South Dakota soils increased by 24 per cent between 1985 and 2009.

Alverson pointed out modern farming practices can also mitigate some of the problems that climate change could otherwise create for farmers.

The sequestration of carbon results in better soil health and promotes higher yields. Zero tillage also helps farmers adapt to the drought and the heavy rains that increase in frequency as a result of climate change.

In a South Dakota Corn Growers’ new release Alverson is quoted as saying: “Corn growers not only have the ability, but an obligation to play a role in the world’s collaborative effort to address climate change. Regardless of your beliefs, the world is getting warmer and farmers need to consider best management practices to improve their soil health, which in turn will benefit the soil and climate for future generations.”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was the keynote speaker at the Field to Market Event and he summed up the need for input from agriculture in the development of policy on climate change: “The science is clear: climate change impacts global food security.”

While COP21 likely did nothing to change an individual farmer’s belief whether climate change is real, man-made, natural, or a hoax, it did open the eyes of delegates to the impact agriculture can have on climate and greenhouse gas emissions.

Instead of arguing over the premise of climate change, it is time for farmers to unite to meet the demand by the public for actions that reduce the risk of climate change.

Agriculture can provide solutions that consumers are demanding. More than that, there is a market for sustainable agricultural solutions that farmers can capture. CG

country-guide.ca 47

business

Going political AGCO chief Martin Richenhagen fields unusual questions at a corporate press conference in Germany

By Scott Garvey, CG Machinery Editor uddenly the discussion became political, turning AGCO’s Fendt-brand press conference during last November’s Agritechnica machinery show in Hanover, Germany, into one of the most unique I can remember attending.

Standing on stage with a German journalist who was acting as event host, AGCO CEO and president Martin Richenhagen eventually found himself talking about larger political and moral considerations around the Syrian refugee crisis and the need to address world hunger.

Granted, the influx of Syrians was a major concern in Europe at the time, but no one I spoke to expected it to come up as a topic in a press conference intended to launch new tractors and to discuss corporate affairs.

But maybe we shouldn’t be surprised, Richenhagen is one of the most unusual CEOs in the industry, despite his assertions to the contrary at the same press conference.

“I think I’m a very normal, average manager,” Richenhagen said, speaking in German. “I try to keep things simple and walk the talk.”

Yet when the journalist emceeing the event asked, “What are your weak points?” Richenhagen’s initial response suggested he isn’t so average after all.

“My hair,” he said to a round of laughter from the 300 or so journalists in the room. “I’d like Donald Trump’s hairdo.”

Then he followed up with a more serious response.

“Well, what are my weak points?” he mused.

“Sometimes I’m a bit too open, and maybe I crack a joke where it’s not really suitable. But I don’t really want to change. That’s my personality. I don’t want to be a very reserved or distant person or manager. I want to be a straight-up guy.

“I recently met some farmers who I studied with during my student years and they said you haven’t really changed much. But I am a little heavier.

“I try to be authentic. Somehow, it’s not difficult for me. I am what I am. That’s what you’ll have to accept for a few years yet. The supervisory board would like me to continue (as CEO) until 2020. I accepted, so my sales partners and customers will have to live with me for a while.”

I’ve been to many events and press conferences 48 country-guide.ca

Martin Richenhagen fields reporters’ questions during the 2012 grand opening of Fendt’s Marktoberdorf, Germany tractor assembly plant.

Photo: AGCO over the years where Richenhagen has spoken. I’ve even interviewed him a couple of times. This kind of casual monologue has become his trademark, putting everyone at ease.

Conversely, some CEOs and senior corporate executives seem to strike fear into the hearts of their lieutenants. I can remember one occasion where an executive walked into the room at a press event in a way that was a little reminiscent of that scene in Star Wars when Darth Vader strides out of his space ship as nervous Empire officers scramble to accommodate him.

Although his position commands respect, I’ve never seen that kind of thing happen around Richenhagen.

The intent of the AGCO press conference at Agritechnica was to discuss what’s new with its GerFebruary 16, 2016

business

On display at Agritechnica, the Fendt 1000 tractor will be launched in North America early this year, wearing both Fendt and Challenger badges.

Photo: Scott Garvey

many-based Fendt brand. The big announcement for European editors was that Richenhagen intends to make it a full-liner brand which, along with Massey Ferguson and Challenger, would make it the third such line for AGCO. Fendt dominates the German market, but so far hasn’t threatened to take North America by storm, although some of the high-end features common to that brand have been engineered into AGCO’s other machinery marquees.

Richenhagen revealed this integration is about to ramp up still further. Early in 2016, the rigid-frame 1000 Series, 500-horsepower Fendt tractor that the company debuted in Germany last year will be integrated into the Challenger product line in North America. That was the big take-away for North American editors.

“The Fendt 1000 will be launched in North America in 2016,” Richenhagen said. “In North America, the Fendt 1000 will be yellow and green. We have a loyal green customer base, mainly in Canada and Pennsylvania. We also have very strong Caterpillar dealers who want to have that product in yellow, Challenger branded. It might say ‘made by Fendt’ or ‘engineered by Fendt’ or something like that.”

“What you should know is the Fendt 1000 was designed for the North American market from the very beginning,” added Rob Smith, one of Richenhagen’s senior executives who briefly shared the stage with him. “From 2007 and 2008 on, the concept was to be extended to North America.”

February 16, 2016

When the floor was opened up for questions, Richenhagen was asked by a British journalist how many full-liner brands farmers of the world can support.

In typical fashion Richenhagen didn’t flinch, throwing out what sounded like an honest response, this time in English.

“In the past, in the ’50s in Germany, we had almost 200 independent tractor brands,” he said.

“And they were supported by the small country of Germany, before reunification, when we had only 50 to 60 million people.”

“In the world, we basically have only three global full-liners. Global means full-liners being present on all continents including Africa, including South America, and they are CNH, John Deere and AGCO. I think this is pretty OK. I think there is space for one, two, three more. So I wouldn’t exclude the smaller players, especially the mid-size Europeans, from becoming more global players. Or the new guys coming from Asia who want to enter Europe and work on broadening their line.”

“So I think this is all in the (best) interests of the farmer, because competition makes sure that we do our homework properly, and that product development is the focus of most of the companies.”

Richenhagen’s emcee then took a forward-looking approach and asked him, “Where do you see AGCO 25 years from now?”

Continued on page 50 country-guide.ca 49

business

Martin Richenhagen and a German emcee shared the stage during an AGCO press conference in Hanover, Germany, in November.

Photo: Scott Garvey

Continued from page 49 “I think we will be a world market leader, although we don’t know in which segments yet,” he responded. “I would like to be the (overall) world market leader, with the resulting (profit) margin.

Our chances are good for organic growth and market growth, because we have some competitors that aren’t doing their job very well.”

“Is AGCO planning any more corporate purchases?” the emcee pressed him further.

“We know there are some companies that are for sale, for example Antonio Carraro in Italy, or some others that are already insolvent in Germany,” he replied.

“We have to look closely to see if there is a pearl out there that’s yet to be discovered. There may be some possibilities for the coming year, but I can’t say more.”

As mentioned earlier, after discussing his corporate news, Richenhagen found himself delving into political matters, particularly the Syrian refugee crisis. Needless to say, that kind of discussion at a machinery press conference is rare.

“I think Germany has so far done something quite positive,” he said. “We are starting a new millenium by not destroying something, instead doing something positive. That’s good for Germany, and it’s something we didn’t do in the previous centuries.

Other countries, America for example, are impressed with how we’ve acted.”

“I’d change the laws in Germany and allow asylum seekers to go to work immediately,” he added.

“We’d like to employ them and send their children to school as soon as possible.”

50 country-guide.ca

In fact, the brand has already hired a small handful and is housing about 100 at company facilities in Germany.

“Today we have about 100 asylum seekers who live here, and we offered to accept 400 more because we have the space,” he said. “In the past we received rent payment from the community, but I said this is not ethical. We have to do without it. We are providing the accommodation for free. We have a football (soccer) field at our facility and we offered it as well, because it’s better that children play football than just hang around.”

Actually, Richenhagen has been publicly discussing global inequality and world hunger for a long time, and he has created initiatives like the anual AGCO Africa Summit in Berlin, which aims to help facilitate positive change on that continent. I can remember asking him at a 2012 press conference in Minnesota why he wanted to help develop agriculture in Africa.

“I’m glad you asked him that,” one of the company’s PR agents told me quietly after the event wrapped up, explaining it was personally important to him.

“We have to do something more and ask why this situation has come about,” Richenhagen told the crowd in Hanover in November, delving further into the topic of inequality. “We have a very fast-growing world population and we have to make sure that all children are fed suitably and have access to school.”

“A billion people in the world are suffering from hunger, and we have to do something about it.” CG February 16, 2016

business

At first glance, the vegetation still looks green and lush, but Trenia Arana knows that the land’s moisture is evaporating.

A world in Flux

In Central America, where so many Canadian farmers vacation in winter, a changing climate means its farmers need more than tourist dollars

By Stephanie McDonald, Canadian Foodgrains Bank renia Arana speaks of the knot she feels in the back of her neck, caused by the tension of trying to figure out what to do about her family’s situation in the midst of a drought dragging through its second year in western Nicaragua. For the past decade, Arana has been farming full time, but six months ago she went to work as a housekeeper in the nearby town of Jinotepe.

“When I saw how things were going with the drought, I had to go to work,” she says. Now, her 11-year-old son tends the family’s gardens before he goes to school each day at noon. A neighbour stops in to check on the farm when he can.

On the day I meet Arana, she’s home with her nineyear-old daughter. She’d asked for the day off from her employer to meet with me. Her husband has worked in neighbouring Costa Rica for the past 18 years, returning home once every month or two. So it’s up to Arana to prepare, seed, weed and harvest the family’s seven acres of land. Most of it is dedicated to corn, beans and sorghum, but for the past number of years February 16, 2016

she’s also been growing fruit trees — coconut, mango, orange, lemon, papaya and passion fruit.

Arana tells me that it’s been two years since she’s harvested anything, due to the drought. She can count on one hand the number of rains in the past year, none of which were significant. She lives an hour’s drive south of the capital city Managua, in what’s known as Central America’s “Dry Corridor.”

Traditionally, farmers in Nicaragua depended on two rainy seasons in the year. Rain would start in early May, and the crops would be planted. A three- to four-week dry window in August allowed the crops to be harvested before the rains began again in early September and the second planting. The first crop cycle is the smaller of the two, but having a harvest is vital for food and to produce seed for the second planting. The second cycle is in the hurricane season when more rain is expected and, in turn, a bigger harvest.

But, that was before. Their agricultural calendar is in disorder now, and scientists blame climate change.

Continued on page 52 country-guide.ca 51

business Continued from page 51

High altitude farming

The rain has become less predictable, and when it does come, there isn’t enough, and it has been made worse by El Niño.

“Before, the rainy seasons were a lot better,” Arana says. “We’d get 25 to 30 hundred-pound bags of corn, 20 to 25 bags of beans and 20 to 30 bags of sorghum.”

Arana was able to plant in both cycles in each of the last two years, but says that she got next to nothing for her efforts. “We wasted our money,” she says.

“We’re in debt because of the drought. I don’t know how we’re going to pay it off. We have enough for food and to send the kids to school and that’s it.”

Arana’s story isn’t unique among smallholder farmers in central Nicaragua. Of the 13 farmers I met during my recent trip to Nicaragua, nearly all spoke of having to purchase food, reducing their meal sizes or cutting out foods that were no longer affordable to them, and needing to search for work off the farm. In recognition of the severity of the drought, the government of Nicaragua, with help from the World Food Programme, increased school meals for children from one to two a day.

The United States Agency for International Development’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) issued a food security alert for Central America and Haiti last fall, calling the drought in the region one of the worst in recent decades. Total rainfall between January 1 and September 10 of 2015 was the lowest in the past 35 years. The alert from FEWS, stating that approximately 2.5 million people in the region were already in need of urgent food assistance, was released on October 16, World Food Day, an annual day to raise awareness of issues of hunger and food insecurity.

Drought is on the mind of every farmer I meet. But, like anywhere in the world, there are always some who are able to escape the worst of what the climate throws at them. At 49, coffee farmer Felipe Pastrana is one of these, and to thank for that is his farm’s location at 1,600 metres above sea level, near the community of Monzonte, close to Ocotal in Nicaragua’s northwest.

“We’re at high altitude so we always get shade and rain,” he says.

Pastrana is temporarily immobile when we meet.

A motorcycle accident led to a broken leg, a cast and crutches. We sit in rocking chairs inside the coolness of his house. Music carries in from the next room. I presume if it wasn’t for his bad luck I wouldn’t have been able to meet him. He gives the impression of a man who doesn’t sit still for long.

Pastrana owns about 78 acres of land. He’s recently given just under nine acres to each of his three adult children who manage their portions on top of day jobs.

Of the 52 acres he has left, seven are in coffee. Pastrana says that coffee farming has become more technical and better managed in the years since he took over from his parents. He has a field that was planted 17 years ago that is still in production, but the plants are normally renewed every 12 years as yields start to decrease.

“Where I have my farm, it’s cool, so we start the harvest in February and we go through April. We’re the last ones to harvest here because we’re at the highest elevation.” Harvest on coffee farms at lower altitude will start in November and finish in January. Pastrana has four full-time workers and hires 20 more for the harvest season. The temporary workers are also farmers, but at a smaller scale, who have already finished their own harvest before going to work on the larger farms.

There are essentially three harvests, with the coffee being picked at different maturities. First is the select harvest, followed by the main harvest and then finally a clear-cut harvest, where everything is taken including the green berries. Each takes about three weeks.

A typical harvest for Pastrana is 100 bags of 100 pounds each from his seven acres. His export quality beans are sold to a business in Ocotal. The beans are delivered de-pulped and dried. At the plant they are redried and prepared for roasting.

Tasters at the processing plant will drink a cup of coffee made from his beans and score it out of 100 points to determine what price he will be paid. The highest Pastrana has been able to achieve is 93. “To get good points you have to harvest the coffee when it’s not fully red, but when it’s turning red. If you harvest coffee and it’s mixed, if you have under-ripe beans mixed with over-ripe beans, they lower your points,” he explains.

“We’ve had three consecutive years of receiving the prize for highest quality in Nicaragua, but when it comes time to sell, they give us the same price as local market coffee,” Pastrana says. “They make a huge profit off of us.”

Despite the uncertainty, the company he sells to offers a better price than he’d get elsewhere in the

At harvest, 25 workers depend on Felipe Pastrana’s 78-acre farm.

52 country-guide.ca

February 16, 2016

business area. Other businesses will only pay a flat rate for beans, Pastrana says, then separate the best coffee from the lower quality, market it and keep the profit.

The trade-off is that he doesn’t get paid up front, but only when the coffee is exported. He delivered his beans to the plant in April and when I met him in September he still hadn’t been paid. In 2015 he earned US$305 per hundred-pound bag, before taking out US$50 for taxes, transport, customs fees and insurance.

“Here the businesses will pay me $255 for a hundred-pound bag. But in Japan they resold it for $800 for the same market quality. If you look at the margin of profit they are making, most goes to the business. We are just left with a very small profit,” Pastrana says.

Pastrana keeps a portion of his harvest to sell roasted and ground to those in town.

He sells it for five cordoba a bag (C$0.25), which makes eight cups of coffee.

While his high altitude coffee plants have been largely spared from the effects of the drought, he says the lack of rain is “a big problem” on his land at a lower elevation where he grows beans and corn. “Those are things we use in order to feed our workers and now we have to buy them because we can’t produce it.”

Conservation agriculture Head 150 km southwest and you’ll arrive where Guillarmina Castro farms in Pavón, close to Somotillo. Here, Castro and her husband Hector Guevaro are facing problems similar to other farmers working in the country’s Dry Corridor — they cite the lack of rain as their No. 1 challenge — and yet, something different was happening on their approximately 38-acre farm.

Castro lived through the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and is now watching as another climate event plagues her community. She says that they’d only had two really good rains in the previous eight months. Nearby rivers that once flooded regularly have gone dry. Despite the hardships, a new way of farming has provided hope.

For the past three years Castro has been adopting conservation agricultural practices, with support from local and international aid groups, including the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. The three main practices — minimal disturbance of the soil, crop rotation, and soil cover — are seen as particularly useful in dry areas, trapping what precipitation does fall.

February 16, 2016

As the soil gets drier, Guillarmina Castro looks to import agronomic strategies like no till.

“We get better yields and can produce with less rain,” Castro says.

Castro’s husband Hector readily admits that it’s his wife who is the motor behind the farm and proudly shows off what she’s accomplished. On a tour of their garden (interrupted by a too-curious and hungry neighbour’s pig that had to be chased away), I’m shown the rich soil, mulch and planting stations with three corn plants in each. It was easy to forget how little rain there had been as we walked through the farm. There were no telltale signs of drought that I had seen in other farmers’ fields.

It is through donations to the Foodgrains Bank, primarily from rural Canada, that this work in Nicaragua is able to happen. “Growing Projects” across Canada see a group of farmers setting aside a piece of land, and planting and harvesting it as a community or a group of churches working together.

Proceeds from the sale of the harvest are donated to the Foodgrains Bank and in turn are funnelled into work overseas, such as projects teaching conservation agriculture in Pavón. In 2015 there were 260 “Growing Projects” and other fundraising events across the country. Each project is unique, with some donating the proceeds of wheat and others pumpkins.

It is farmers helping farmers.

Agronomists currently work with 187 farmers in the region to help them adopt conservation agriculture practices. While the amount of land each owns differs, by any measure, the farmers are small-scale and wholly dependent on the climate. Farmers are

encouraged to first try the method with a portion of their corn or bean crop, but Castro has embraced the concept.

In addition to corn, she’s growing pole beans, cassava, watermelons, tomatoes, and green peppers using the three conservation agriculture principles. So far she’s converted just under half an acre of her farm, with plans to increase it to three and a half acres.

“It’s more work. I can’t convert it all in one year. The hard part is making the planting stations,” Castro says. Previously, she would scatter seed on the land.

She is now more deliberate, planting three seeds in evenly spaced stations.

As climate change causes an increase in extreme weather events, what was traditionally known as subsistence agriculture is fast turning into survival agriculture in some parts of the world, including Nicaragua. Farmers like Castro have had to adjust to an increasingly arid climate and try new practices. In an imperfect situation, she is adapting and finding reason to be hopeful.

When I ask what her neighbours think of what she is doing, Castro says, “Some laugh at you. Some like it.” But as soon as she learned about it she could see the advantages. In what appears to be the new normal in Nicaragua’s climate, she sees it in her own terms: “the only option for survival.” CG Stephanie McDonald is a senior policy advisor at the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. She visited Haiti and Nicaragua in September to study the impact of climate change. country-guide.ca 53

life

farm Etiquette:

Essential for business success If you stick to these six rules, it won’t actually matter which fork you use

By Helen Lammers-Helps ou may think that etiquette is all about using your napkin at a formal dinner or the rules for making introductions at a cocktail party. And you’d be right… to a point. Those are certainly aspects of etiquette, but Jay Remer, known as Canada’s Etiquette Guy, says etiquette actually goes far beyond knowing some list of good manners.

Every interaction involves etiquette, says Remer who, although based now at St. Andrew’s, N.B., is no stranger to farming, having been part of a large dairy farm in New York state for 10 years.

Etiquette, Remer says, is a code of conduct that allows us to interact with one another without ruffling any feathers. “Connecting with one another is one of the drivers of being human,” he explains. “Etiquette allows us to communicate civilly with one another.”

Over the many years that Remer has been teaching etiquette, he has developed the Six Pillars of Civility, a framework that can guide our behaviour.

The six pillars are compassion, humility, awareness, responsibility, gratitude and encouragement.

These are his “Principles for Action” and Remer believes they are important not only for formal interactions, but also for how we behave day-to-day with our families and our business and community connections, both on our farms and beyond.

#1: Compassion Compassion isn’t as easy to understand as we might think. In fact, it can be downright difficult to understand and apply. When should you be compassionate? What degree of compassion should you show in what situations?

It’s important to get the answer right. Compassion is essential for any good relationship.

“When our friends and loved ones experience negative emotions, we can greatly help them to work through these difficult times by being present, which is one way of showing compassion,” Remer says.

However, this does not mean that it’s our job to fix their problems.

Then take the concept one step further. As hard as it may be to accept flaws in our loved ones, we are often even harder on ourselves, Remer says.

54 country-guide.ca

“Compassion for ourselves is the single most missing element today,” Remer says. “We expect ourselves to be superhuman.”

Instead we should allow ourselves to make mistakes, and then we should forgive ourselves, learn the lessons that the error can teach us, and move on.

#2: Humility “Humility reminds us all that there are no big shots,” says Remer. “No matter what our professional position or achievements, no matter our social station, and no matter our wealth or education, we all have great value.”

Remer says good leaders are measured by their ability to make their employees feel valuable. This begins with the etiquette of our personal interactions with them. Do we demonstrate respect, or are we always trying to keep them in their place?

#3: Awareness In our fast-paced, time-starved lives, too often we are unaware of the people and events around us and how we affect them, says Remer.

“We’re too busy to congratulate a friend for achieving a milestone, we forget birthdays and anniversaries, we don’t take the time to write simple thank-you notes and we don’t bother to RSVP to invitations,” says Remer.

Remer says these simple acts are valuable for sustaining the many connections needed for a healthy society. “The dynamic is essential to maintaining a healthy productive work environment as well as in familial and social situations.”

#4: Responsibility “Taking responsibility for our commitments is necessary for the society we live in to survive in a civil way,” says Remer.

In our interactions with others, the trick is to discern what is our responsibility and what is not.

“Too often,” says Remer, “we take on the burden of other people’s responsibilities, when in fact it may be none of our business.”

Ask yourself: Are you being helpful? Instead, maybe you’re being nosy, judgmental, and controlling.

February 16, 2016

life

#5: Gratitude There’s a reason why “thank you” is one of the first phrases we teach our children, says Remer.

Showing gratitude is a cultural cornerstone.

Unfortunately, these days, we take too much for granted, he says, including our health, access to food and shelter, good friends, a comfortable lifestyle and the list goes on.

We don’t feel grateful. We feel instead that we somehow deserve all these things.

Yet gratitude is critical, both in the home and workplace.

“Employees work far more effectively when the work they are doing is appreciated,” Remer points out, and he encourages us to stop and notice what is around us, and to see the goodness in the people we meet each day.

#6: Encouragement There is no better way to build healthy and successful personal relationships or to maintain a vibrant community or workplace than by encouraging one another, says Remer. “It is like the gasoline in our car or the food in our body.”

Without encouragement, there will be a toxic, fearbased environment in the home, school or workplace.

Each month Remer receives about 50 emails (which he tries to answer personally) from people seeking his advice on how to handle difficult situations. Not surprisingly a lot of them have to do with family, especially in-laws, he says.

Thinking of how the Six Pillars apply to our situations can help us solve our relationship problems, he believes, and he gives examples of how these principles can be applied in real life situations. For instance, if you know someone who is experiencing a difficult situation, show them compassion. “Don’t tell them to ‘suck it up.’”

When there is conflict, be aware that each person has been shaped by their own experiences, which will influence how to do things. When emotions run high, people may get facts and feelings mixed up, making up stories that become part of the facts in their own minds. Staying aware and mindful will help you discuss the problem in a calm way.

The growth of our children can be stressful too.

“There’s a fear of the unknown,” Remer says. We focus so much on our children and how their behaviour isn’t exactly the way we’d like it to be, that we become ungrateful ourselves and revert to childish behaviour.

Instead Remer encourages us to take responsibility for our own stress and think through how we respond to others. “Avoid meddling in your adult children’s lives,” he urges.

February 16, 2016

It’s a different world, and the expectations on today’s farmers are higher than ever, says ‘‘Etiquette Guy” Jay Remer Remer has one word of caution. Following the Six Pillars of Civility will stand you in good stead when interacting with others, but the individual rules of etiquette do change with time. “Etiquette is a moving target that requires flexibility.”

If you’re still wondering which fork to use at a formal dinner, Remer says you start with the cutlery on the outside and work your way in throughout the meal. Your beverage is the glass on your right, your butter plate and napkin are on your left. However, he paraphrases the manners diva, Emily Post, and says “it doesn’t matter which fork you use, as long as you’re nice.”

And here’s one more tip. If you are having trouble pronouncing someone’s name, there is a searchable database that gives pronunciations here: www.pronouncenames.com/. CG country-guide.ca 55

h e a lt h

Sex life is important

By Marie Berry

ou have probably seen the ads on television about erectile dysfunction or ED drugs, and you may wonder if this is a new condition. It’s not, but many people don’t want to talk about it (so they just tolerate or ignore the symptoms) and many health care providers don’t ask about it.

With the availability of a variety of drugs for ED, however, you hear about the condition more often.

But remember, these are not aphrodisiacs, because such drugs don’t exist.

Sex life problems fall into two categories: low desire or libido, or performance issues of which ED is an example. It’s estimated that about 80 per cent of sex life problems are the result of either a drug side effect or a disease. The other 20 per cent are attributed to psychological causes such as depression or anxiety.

Viagra-type drugs do work, but first explore if other drugs cause your ED Before you rush to obtain a prescription for one of the drugs advertised for ED, it’s a great idea to check if a drug or disease might be the culprit. Antidepressant drugs are notorious for reducing libido. Working with your doctor and pharmacist, you may be able to find an effective drug that causes fewer problems.

As well there are coping strategies such as choosing an effective dose with fewer side effects, or timing doses so they interfere less when you are sexually active. Alcohol is often erroneously considered to be conducive for sex; while it may reduce inhibition, it also reduces the ability to perform.

Health conditions like high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, diabetes, and stroke interfere with blood flow, and you do need a good blood flow for an erection. It’s estimated that men with diabetes are three times more likely to be impotent than those without; and men who smoke a pack of cigarettes daily are four times as likely.

Prostate problems and surgery are associated with reduced sexual functioning. Dementia can be associated with impotence as can Parkinson’s disease because of nervous system changes.

The incidence of impotence increases with age, which may be attributed to increased incidence of disease conditions and use of medications.

The class of PDE5 inhibitors includes sildenafil (Viagra), tadalafil (Cialis), and vardenafil (Levitra), all of which are advertised for ED in men. It is estimated at about half of men between 40 and 70 years have some degree of ED. The drugs act by relaxing smooth muscle in the penis which enables an inflow of blood and an erection. All are considered equally effective, and need to be taken about an hour before sexual activity for maximum effectiveness. Tadalafil is slightly faster acting requiring only half an hour and can be taken at a lower dose on a daily basis.

These drugs require a prescription because you need to be healthy enough for sexual activity. If you have liver or kidney damage, you may not be able to use these drugs, or may need a lower dose.

These drugs are contraindicated if you take nitrates for heart pain or angina because the combination can result in dangerously low blood pressure.

For women, the latest drug for increased libido is flibanserin or the “pink pill” because it is a pink tablet. Taken daily, it acts in the nervous system to enhance libido, but it seems more useful premenopausal than postmenopausal. There seems to be only a modest benefit, and adverse effects include severe drops in blood pressure and fainting. As well, alcohol — even alcohol in non-prescription medications or foods — can worsen this drop in blood pressure.

Your sex life is important. If you are having problems, first check to see if the situation is the result of a drug effect or a disease condition. Also keep in mind that there are some effective drugs for men. We come a long way from Spanish fly!

Marie Berry is a lawyer/pharmacist interested in health and education.

Everyone is always concerned about a good night’s sleep and a whole class of drugs has been developed to help. Some of these may actually cause more problems. Next issue, we’ll discuss the various classes of sleeping pills as well as some natural remedies. Until then, sleep well!

56 country-guide.ca

February 16, 2016

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

CAFA improves the quality of farm advice through continual learning

BY LIZ ROBERTSON, M.A., CAFA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Family/ Personal

E

veryone has access to a colossal amount of information through the Internet and various forms of meetings, courses and literature. Sifting through it all to find what you actually need — and what is correct — is a task all its own.

Fortunately, CAFA’s Farm Update Series is making finding relevant farmfocused planning information easy. CAFA’s Farm Tax, Farm Succession and the Farm Management Updates each offer a oneday farm-focused session of informative presentations by some of Canada’s best farm advisors.

The Farm Tax Update that was held in Guelph in October of 2015 was the first of the series. It had over 200 farm advisors registered to increase their skills and knowledge about farm tax and legal issues.

Coming up in May, the Farm Succession Update: 3 Circle Model — In-Depth will see top farm advisors share their expertise to improve the level of knowledge surrounding the complex and often emotionally charged issue of farm succession. The information is ideal for farm advisors working with clients on transition or managers and families

Ownership

Business

Farm Succession Update 3 CIRCLE MODEL IN-DEPTH

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2016

Ajax ConventionIt Centre working through their own succession. is Ajax, Ontario a day of high-level information on how the process of succession is managed when the farm family, management and ownership are looked at holistically.

With fewer and larger farms and the average age of farmers being over 54 years, there will be many more farm successions in the coming years. The complexity of the process is because it is a family matter and farm business matter and one that inevitably requires a number of professionals to help see it successfully implemented. Continual professional development for farm advisors

is critical to stay current with tax laws and legal issues and to have the resources of other professionals to be able to offer the holistic team approach.

The topics range from blended families, working with multi-generational families, communication styles, strategic planning, sustainability and legal aspects of farm ownership and transfer. Registrants are sure to learn a substantial amount on farm succession and meet other professionals who help guide the process. It is a day invested in increased skills and knowledge for all farm professionals, and as Benjamin Franklin once said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

The event is being held at the Ajax Convention Centre and space is limited.

CAFA is also planning on making the day’s presentations available via live webinar.

Registration forms are online at www. cafanet.com/Conferences.aspx or by contacting CAFA at 1-877-474-2871 or info@cafanet.com.

About CAFA: CAFA is a national, not-for-profit organization dedicated to assisting farm families and businesses by increasing the skills and knowledge of farm advisors.

SAVE THE DATES! February 25, 2016: Focus on farm Women, Guelph, Ont. May 18, 2016: Farm Succession Update – 3-Circle Model In-Depth, Ajax, Ont. & via webinar June 2, 2016: Farm Management Update, Woodstock, Ont. & via webinar Fall 2016: Farm Tax Update

More information available at www.cafanet.com/Conferences

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

Follow us on Twitter @CAFANET

acres

By Leeann Minogue

What’s up with that darn cat?

On the farm, small problems have their own way of getting big ome days it was hard to tell if Buddy, the Hanson’s collie, had amazing herding instincts, or if he was just a jerk. When he spotted Buddy nipping at a cat in the middle of the yard, Dale’s first instinct was to give the dog a cuff. “Cut that out, Buddy! You’re six times the size of that cat.”

Later, when Dale, his son Jeff, and Jeff’s four-year old son Connor were walking from the cleaning plant to the shop, Buddy did it again.

“Guess I didn’t smack that dog hard enough before,” Dale muttered.

Jeff considered lecturing his father about dog training, but he knew that as much as Dale complained about them, he liked having animals outside on the farm. Dale’s idea of a “cuff” was probably something most people would see as a gentle swat.

But then Jeff saw another reason not to lecture Dale.

“Hang on, Dad,” Jeff said. “I think Buddy’s herding that cat.

“What?” Dale said.

“Watch. Every time the cat gets out in the open, Buddy tries to turn him back toward a building.”

Connor let go of Jeff’s hand and ran for the weigh scale. Buddy ran after him and gently tugged on the sleeve of the boy’s red snowsuit.

“Daddy!” Connor hollered. “Buddy’s got my arm!”

“Buddy, get over here,” Dale called, and the dog came running, leaving Connor on the scale, laughing at the metallic sound it made under his snowboots.

“See?” Jeff said. “That dog’s protecting Connor and the cats. Haven’t you heard all those coyotes howling the last couple of nights? I think they’re pretty close to the yard.”

“Huh,” Dale shrugged. “You might be right.”

Intrigued as they were by the idea of Buddy being so useful, because it was 30 below, Jeff and Dale didn’t stand outside to see if the dog would do it again. They took Connor into the heated shop.

With no barn or livestock on the farm, the Han58 country-guide.ca

sons didn’t have a large herd of free-range cats like some farmers. While Dale could see the value of having a few cats around to keep the mice under control, he wasn’t interested in running a cat shelter in his heated shop. He kept their herd down to three or four cats — enough to do some hunting, but not so many that they couldn’t have names. If anyone asked Dale, he told them it was annoying, having cats underfoot when you were trying to work, and disgusting to have to keep a litter box in his shop for those cold winter days. But when he was working alone, he’d sometimes look down and realize he was accidentally petting one of the darn things.

“Blackie, come and play,” Connor yelled when the friendliest of the three current cats on the Hanson farm poked its head through the hinged cat door.

“He’s my favourite,” Connor said, running with the cat while Dale made coffee.

“Good thing someone likes these cats,” Dale said.

The next morning, Dale was telling his neighbour, Brian Miller, about his amazing herding dog over coffee at Dale and Donna’s kitchen table. “Not that the world would notice if a coyote ate one of two of those cats.”

But by that afternoon, Dale and the rest of the Hansons realized that one cat would indeed be missed.

“Blackie!” Connor’s little voice was hoarse from calling for his favourite cat. He was starting to cry, and his nose was running.

“Come inside, before those tears freeze on your face,” said Connor’s mother, Elaine. “We’ll find Blackie tomorrow.”

They didn’t. By noon, Connor had worked himself into a full blown crying fit.

“I knew I should have done something about those coyotes,” Dale said to his wife.

Dale found the old cat carrier at the back of the shop, drove to the local Humane Society and picked out a cat that looked enough like Blackie, he thought, to fool Connor. At first he felt lucky to be able to see the vet right away to have the cat neutered. He felt february 16, 2016

less lucky when he got the $180 bill. “At least it included ‘complimentary IV,’” he grumbled to himself.

When he got home he phoned Jeff. “Come out to the shop,” he said. “Bring Connor.” But Jeff wasn’t home. “I’ll be about 15 minutes,” he said. “I had to run down to Estevan.”

Then Dale heard another car drive in the yard. “That’s Kym,” Dale’s wife Donna said. “Let’s go.” Donna called her daughter-in-law. “Bring Connor out to the shop,” Donna said. “Tell him we’ve found Blackie.”

“What?” Dale said.

“Kym had some extra cats. One’s black, so she said she’d bring it over.”

Dale fumed, wondering if he might be able to get a refund from the vet. They put on their parkas and went outside.

When Connor and Elaine got to the shop, Kym let out the replacement cat. The cat took one look at them, then bee-lined to the top of the highest shelf in the shop and refused to come down.

“Come on, Blackie,” Donna coaxed.

“That’s not Blackie, Grandma” Connor said. “It has white on its tail.”

Sure enough. They could see the impostor tail hanging down from the shelf. Buddy stood underneath, barking at the cat.

Kym fled the scene, just in time to wave to Jeff on his way in. “I found him,” Jeff told his young son. “Blackie was just taking a little vacation.”

Jeff reached into the backseat of his truck and pulled out a fully black cat. “Found him on Kijiji,” he whispered to Dale. “Down in Estevan.”

“Is that Blackie?” Connor scrutinized the cat.

Before Connor could decide, this cat darted off into a corner, ducking behind some standing shovels. Connor tried to reach it, but he knocked over the shovels and hit the cat.

The cat howled and burrowed deeper into the corner. Buddy ran back and forth between the two cats, unable to decide which to bark at first.

It was Dale’s turn to save the day.

“That wasn’t Blackie, Connor,” he said, pulling the newly neutered cat out of his truck. “I’ve got him here.”

But as Dale pulled him out, the new cat clawed Dale’s wrist, drawing blood. Dale dropped the cat. Jeff tried to grab it, but the cat scratched Jeff’s thumb hard enough to make Jeff bleed too. The angry cat hissed and hid under Dale’s truck. Buddy came over to bark at this cat too.

“Blackie’s gone for good,” Connor started to cry, big tears rolling down onto his red snowsuit.

Then they heard a knock on the shop door. Brian Miller came in, holding up a black cat.

“Missing this guy?” he asked.

“Blackie!” Connor yelled. The cat leapt out of Brian’s arms and ran to the boy.

“He must’ve climbed up underneath my truck to get warm,” Brian said. “Rode all the way to my place. Just noticed him today.”

Buddy gave the cowering cat one more loud bark, then ran to Blackie and licked his head.

“Damn cats,” Dale said. “We’ll have to bring the dog into the house and let a couple of coyotes spend the night in the shop.

Leeann Minogue is the editor of Grainews, a playwright and part of a family grain farm in southeastern Saskatchewan. february 16, 2016

While studying for the ministry, I lived in a large stone building on the campus of the University of Saskatchewan. Vina was the housekeeper. She complained constantly about her husband. What a rascal he must have been! At least, according to Vina he was a rascal. I never met the man but I listened as she described his bad attributes. As an idealistic theological student I tried to help. I moralized: “You know, Vina, you married him for better or for worse.”

“Yes,” she responded, “but he don’t get no better!”

Many things don’t seem to be getting better. How do you respond when you get your life to where you want to be, only to encounter a difficult situation? The unplanned challenge might be low commodity prices, an economy that does not meet your expectations or family members who disappoint. You find a job but it is not as fulfilling as you thought it would be. You hoped to accomplish great things but life becomes routine. You finally have enough money, but not nearly enough health. After you have lived long enough to acquire some wisdom, no one is eager to hear. You join a church with hopes of changing the world, and you are invited to come on Saturday to wash the Sunday School floor. Marriage day brings a wonderful euphoria, and then we find it is not so fun to share the clothes closet and stay home when our partner is sick.

The question for each of us is, “What am I doing to make things better?” In turn, it leads to another question, “What kind of legacy do I want to leave on this earth?”

Sometimes we are inspired to move beyond our comfort zone and journey into uncharted territory. Occasionally we come to an unexpected turning point in our life. Events, circumstances, chance meetings just happen and open a new chapter of adventure.

We open ourselves to new possibilities then find ourselves on a road that tests the limits of our character. The test, handled wisely, will probably also give meaning and purpose to life. Robert Frost writes about such experiences in his poem, “The Road Not Taken:” Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference.

We only pass through this life once, so we might as well make the most of the opportunity. Occasionally I meet people who are fulfilling their “Bucket List.” They have a list of things they want to accomplish before reaching death’s door, and they are actually doing them.

I met a man on the train between Montreal and Saskatoon.

He was crossing Canada in its entirety by train. It was something he had always wanted to do.

Many of us become so anxious about the future, we forget the present. Jesus teaches us that the gift of life is to be shared with others. If we keep it to ourselves, we are not rewarded as richly. If our priority is giving to others, the benefits are enormous. Generosity and giving are the keys to an abundant life, a fulfilled life, perhaps even a successful life. Psychologist William James said, “The great use of a life is to spend it for something that outlasts it.”

What is success? Success is leaving this earth a little better because we have been in it. Success is letting a little more love warm cold hearts, a little more light shine on a dark world.

Success is living courageously and compassionately.

Suggested Scripture: Proverbs 22:1-12, John 10:10b-18 Rod Andrews is a retired Anglican bishop. He lives in Saskatoon. country-guide.ca 59

RETHINK HOW PRODUCTIVE

YOU CAN BE. WE DID. We rethought every inch of the new Case IH 2000 series Early Riser® planter with your productivity in mind.

We applied Agronomic Design™ principles to make it simpler, faster, more durable and more productive.

And we provided you with a bundle of industry firsts — from our rugged new row units that create the only flat-bottom seed trench to our state-of-the-art in-cab closing system — that give you even more control. The result is unmatched accuracy and emergence for a better plant stand and, ultimately, yield. Start rethinking productivity today at caseih.com/newearlyriser.

©2016 CNH Industrial America LLC. All rights reserved. Case IH is a trademark registered in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates. www.caseih.com