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Volume 42, Number 15 | SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

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PRACTICAL PRODUCTION TIPS FOR THE PRAIRIE FARMER

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DO IT WITH

DRONES photo: thinkstock

Harvest timing, fertilizer application, elevation mapping — drones are putting new information in farmers’ hands

By Staff

armers are buying drones, but often they can’t use the technology to its full potential, says Matt Johnnson. And new drone operators need to research the options available and safety requirements before flying, he adds. Johnson owns M3 Aerial Productions, based in Winnipeg. A math teacher by profession, he started using drones for real estate photography. But after doing more research, he realized the technology provides more return on investment in the agriculture industry. In 2016, he launched the agricultural side of the business. Farmers can buy their own drones or hire someone like Johnson to fly their fields. “I can show them what’s going on in their crops, and they have to be able to interpret it,” he says, adding he’s not an agronomist.

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While Johnson has worked with individual farmers, he prefers to work with agronomists or seed companies. This summer he did some work with General Mills, the University of Manitoba, Alliance Seeds, the Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association and independent agronomists.

How it works Johnson typically uses a fixed-wing drone called the AgEagle RX60. The drone has a GoPro camera with a special lens to take infrared imagery. It flies about 500 feet above ground level in a grid pattern, snapping a photo every 1.5 seconds. That creates about 500 pictures per quarter. After flying the fixed wing, he might use his quadcopter to zoom in on specific areas in the field. Johnson then uploads those images into a program that stiches all the images together, pixel by pixel, into one

cohesive image. The software also creates a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which paints the field in a spectrum ranging from red to green. Plants that are healthy — growing and photosynthezing — show up as green on the imagery. Red areas indiciate plants that aren’t photosynthesizing as much, and so are likely struggling for some reason. But green patches can also indicate weeds, Johnson says, so it’s important to compare the imagery to “the truth on the ground.” This spring, Johnson flew a canola field with two different drones, using multiple sensors. “And the results that we got were very interesting because there was less growth happening in a strip about 200 feet wide that went right across the quarter section, right above where an underground pipeline was.” An agronomist would need to diag-

nose the specific problem and offer remedies. Johnson says they couldn’t see any differences within the crop with the naked eye, perhaps because the crop was at the six-leaf stage. Johnson thinks NDVI imagery could also help farmers with harvest timing. He flew some trial plots this summer, close to harvest. While some plots looked like they were ready to harvest, the NDVI imagery revealed that they were still actively growing. Other areas appeared yellow on the NDVI, which was a green light for harvest, he says. Johnson sees NDVI as potentially helpful when making short-term decisions such as where to apply fertilizer. He could also see it helping with longterm planning if farmers collected NDVI of crops just before harvest each year. Along with NDVI, farmers could also

In This Issue

» continued on page 4

Wheat & Chaff .................. 2 Features . ........................... 5 Crop Advisor’s Casebook . 6 Columns ............................ 21 Machinery & Shop............. 34 Cattleman’s Corner .......... 43

Northgate Terminal

sharing a sprayer

Lee hart page 12

Sarah hoffman page 22

FarmLife ............................ 49

/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Wheat & Chaff STAMPEDE

BY JERRY PALEN

Leeann Minogue

“Give her two of these and then make sure you’re out of the corral in 30 seconds!”

s of today, we’ve had our combine parked for six days while we wait for the sun to come out and dry things up. We haven’t had a lot of moisture for the past few days, but an ongoing drizzle has kept the ground too wet for us to get near the field. Consider this an update — not a complaint. Before this weather set in, we banked three weeks straight of ideal harvest conditions. That doesn’t happen every year. And, during those three weeks, breakdowns were minimal, nobody got hurt or sick and we managed to bring in the peas, the lentils, and a good chunk of the canola. Things rolled along like clockwork and everyone seemed to be having a pretty good time. I know 2016 hasn’t been this way for everyone. Some of you have been fighting rain and bad weather all through the season. Here’s hoping the weather has

cleared, some quality production is still waiting out there and nobody has any break downs for the rest of the harvest.

News from the columnists Several Grainews columnists have had eventful summers. Let’s start with the good news. Our semiregular columnist, Sarah Weigum, got married this summer! She’s married a farmer and changed her name to Sarah Hoffman, but don’t worry — she’ll still be contributing to Grainews and she’ll still be farming. Sarah’s husband has his own farm in another community. I’m looking forward to hearing how she manages the chaos of commuting between the two farms. In this issue, Sarah’s written about how she manages to share equipment — a sprayer, no less — with one of her neighbours. Find it on page 22. Also in the “good news” category: Toban Dyck and his wife are making a change. They’re moving from their temporary trailer into the farm house where he grew up. This makes their relocation from downtown Toronto to rural Manitoba a permanent move! Read all about it on page 29.

The latest installment from longtime columnist Les Henry is on page 30. How long has he been writing for Grainews, you ask? Oh, not too long. Just 40 years. That’s right. This fall will bring Les’s 40th anniversary of writing for Grainews. We’re impressed and grateful, and still trying to figure out how to celebrate such an accomplishment. For this issue, Les has written a column about some of the first combines he operated. When I hear anyone complaining about having to spend too much time in the field this harvest, I’m going to refer them directly to page 30 — Les reminds us that the first combines he ran didn’t have cabs. “Goggles were a must on a windy day,” he wrote. And now the bad news. Longtime financial columnist and onetime Grainews editor Andy Sirski had a stroke at the end of August. As of September 11, Andy was still in the hospital in Winnipeg, but emailed to say he was recovering nicely, and expects to be returning home soon. Don’t worry, Andy submitted this issue’s column before he fell ill. Find it on page 21. † Leeann

contact us Like ours, our neighbour’s combine has been parked for the past six days while we all wait for the sun to show its face.

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hearts

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

Sprayers in action

e asked for photos of sprayers this summer, and boy did we get them! Several Grainews readers submitted photos of their sprayers in action, hoping to win a copy of the Case for Kids book, Planters and Cultivators with Casey and Friends. It would have been impossible to choose a winner, so I put the names in a hat for a random draw. Kim Alexander is our winner. Kim also sent some information. She wrote: “Bob Alexander is the owner/operator of our 2,900-acre grain/oilseeds/pulse farm. Our son Travis is also interested in farming and is growing his own farm, with us. We farm in the Peace River, Alberta, area.” Great photo, Kim! Your book is in the mail. Leeann

Like us on Facebook! Grainews has a Facebook page. Find, read and comment on blog posts easily and with a thumbs up!

Find us on Twitter: Lisa Guenther is @LtoG Lee Hart is @hartattacks Scott Garvey is @machineryeditor

photo: kim alexander

Leeann Minogue is @grainmuse

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Wheat & Chaff Farm safety

Protect your health for the future W hen we talk about safety, we often talk about immediate consequences. For example, getting too close to a running power take off can result in immediate, and often catastrophic consequences. It’s important to talk about preventing these life-altering incidents, but it’s also important to talk about how exposure to things in your environment can affect your health, weeks, months or even years down the road. We make decisions daily that can affect our future selves. We’ve all taken a minute to either thank or criticize our past selves for things we’ve done or not done. Why not set yourself up for a healthy future? Environmental exposures that occur on and off the farm can affect our hearing, our respiratory function, and our bones and joints This advice isn’t meant to capture all of these hazards, but is to get you to start thinking about what you’re exposed to. One of the most wonderful human functions is hearing. The boom of a wellplaced slap shot, the hum of a finelytuned engine, and the pure laughter of a baby are all small joys that we enjoy when

our hearing is optimal. Unfortunately, many people experience hearing loss due to noise exposure. This loss is entirely preventable. (If you’ve already lost some hearing, you can retain what you have.) But you have to make a commitment to make some changes. Here are some easy tips to protect your hearing: • Recognize when you are being exposed to excessive noise. This isn’t always easy, sometimes you might not expect a task to be noisy, but if you can’t carry on a conversation with someone three feet away without yelling, it’s a good idea to remedy the situation. • Control excessive noise. Maybe you need a new muffler? • Create a noise barrier. Close the window. • Select the quietest tool or equipment. • Lastly, select the best and most effective hearing protection. Ear plugs and ear muffs work only if you use them consistently and correctly. Breathing is a good thing. Keeping our respiratory health in tip-top shape means being aware of the hazards that occur on the farm. Unfortunately, farmers and

farm workers have the potential to be exposed to a tremendous variety of respiratory hazards. Some of the most common respiratory hazards include: grain dust, crop protection residues, waste and waste byproducts from insects and animals, and exhaust and fumes from equipment and tools. The health consequences from exposure to these respiratory hazards are long and complicated, and vary in severity from mild to catastrophic. Keep these tips in mind: • Decrease the generation of dusts and gases by improving management procedures or through engineering controls. For example, reducing the distance grain falls when unloading. • Remove any contaminants in the air. Have good ventilation! • Use the right kind of personal protective equipment (PPE). Make sure the PPE fits, is comfortable and most importantly, wear it! (And replace it once it becomes dirty or worn.) These tips do not take into account confined spaces which are very hazardous and require extensive training and equipment Creaky bones, sore knees and hip and achy backs are all too common in the

Agronomy tips… from the field

Plant stand counts: part of next year’s plan

eeding rates are important to achieving your target plant stands, and fall is a great time to check your fields to see how your stand fared. If you’re unhappy with your yield, assessing the plant stand can help you prepare for next season. Plant counts are pretty easy to do after harvest, and you can take a number of counts throughout the field to see if you hit your target. There are two reliable plant count methods, according to the Canola Council of Canada. The first involves using a 50 cm by 50 cm square or a hoop with an inside diametre of 56 cm. Count the number of plants and then multiply by four to get the number of plants per square metre.

farming community. Farmers start out young and strong, but eventually all that repetitive lifting, kneeling, stooping, twisting and shoveling catches up resulting in conditions like arthritis, repetitive strain injuries, tendonitis, muscle inflammation and chronic pain. • Try to vary your posture, especially when bending over or when your hands are over your head. • Practice good lift hygiene. Lift properly and keep the load close to your body. Ask for help for heavy loads or use a mechanical solution. • Use well-maintained, proper tools for the task. Let the tool do the work. • Limit your exposure to vibrations. On older tractors, use vibrationdampening seat cushions. Take breaks. It’s easy to forget that each thing that we do can affect our future health. Reminding ourselves that although we may not immediately feel the effects of bad decisions, it can damage our health and vitality in the future. For more information about farm health and safety, please visit casa-acsa.ca. † Canadian Agricultural Safety Association, www.casa-acsa.ca.

You might be from the Prairies if... By Carson Demmans and Jason Sylvestre

The second method is to count plants in one metre of seed row. Take the number of plants in the row, multiply by 100 and then divide by the seed row spacing in centimetres. Remember, your plant stands can be affected by several factors, including frost, insects, weed pressure and disease. Think back to the season. Did you take all steps needed to achieve your yield potential? Some issues, like frost, are out of your control. But insect and disease pressure can be managed more effectively with the right seed treatment and crop protection products. † This Agronomic Tip was brought to you by Christine Spasoff, agronomic service representative with Syngenta Canada.

Your family’s winter home is an ice fishing shack.

Photo contest

GIVE US YOUR BEST SHOT Kelly Sidoryk sent us this great photo. “We ranch near Lloydminster,” Kelly wrote. She took this photo on the first day of yearling turnout. Thanks for sharing this, Kelly! We’re mailing you a cheque for $25. Send your best shot to leeann.minogue@ fbcpublishing.com. Please send only one or two photos at a time and include your name and address, the names of anyone in the photo, where the photo was taken and a bit about what was going on that day. A little write-up about your farm is welcome, too. Please ensure that images are of high resolution (1 MB is preferred), and if the image includes a person, we need to be able to see their face clearly. † Leeann

/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Cover Stories New technology » CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Do it with a drone use drones for digital elevation mapping. Johnson says that based on conversations he’s had at farm shows, frmers seem more interested in digital elevation mapping than NDVI.

Drone options Farmers considering investing in their own drones need to keep a few things in mind when weighing the pros and cons of different models. Johnson sells fixed-wing AgEagle drones (now distributed by Raven Precision), but he’s also a fan of eBee’s fixed-wing drone. The AgEagle is more rugged and handles windy conditions, he says. “It’s had some pretty rocky landings.” The eBee has a styrofoam body and is less sturdy, but one of its advantages is that it takes to the sky more easily. You just hold

it and shake it to launch. “The propellor starts and then you just throw it,” Johnson says, The AgEagle, on the other hand, needs a slingshot to launch, which requires a little more setup time. Quadcopters are also an option. They can take high-resoloution photos from a few feet above the crop, capturing the striations on the plant leaves. They can also fly as high as 400 feet, snapping general pictures to correlate with the NDVI. But a fixed wing can cover ground much more quickly than a quadcopter, and use much less battery power, Johnson says. In fact, a quadcopter would probably take about three batteries to cover one quarter, he says. “And three batteries cost close to a thousand dollars. As the technology improves, drone prices are dropping. Johnson’s quadcopter, a DJI Inspire 1, is a $10,000 to $12,000 touch, but it includes a $5,000 sensor and eight batteries. The fixed wing was $25,000, he says.

Not a toy It’s easy to get carried away with a new drone, says Johnson. “But it’s not a toy. It’s an aircraft.” People using a drone for work or research, or flying a drone over 35 kg, generally need a Special Flight Operations Certificate from Transport Canada. Johnson’s certification allows him to fly up to 500 feet above ground level, which edges manned aircraft space, he says. People without a certificate must keep their drones within 300 feet of ground level. Johnson recommends farmers or others interested in flying drones check the safety information and regulations on Transport Canada’s website. Drones can be a risk to other aircraft, especially low-flying cropdusters. Johnson checks in with NAV Canada, the agency that manages air space, before each flight. Sometimes NAV Canada has him file a Notice to Airmen, which tells pilots where and when he’s operating, how

high he’s flying, and what the drone looks like. But Johnson doesn’t think all cropdusters check the notices. Quite often a cropduster has flown through the quarter his drone is on, coming in as low as a hundred or two hundred feet. “They’ve never had to worry about (drones). They’re flying in rural areas that other planes are not operating in.” So before flying, Johnson also checks if there are air strips or cropdusters in the area. “I coordinate with them, let them know exactly where I’m going to be operating and when I’m going to be there.” Johnson thinks farmers and other drone operators should do their research before flying. “If it keeps going the way it’s going, something bad is going to happen.” For more information on drone safety and regulations, visit Transport Canada’s website at https://www. tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/opssvs/ flying-drone-safely-legally.html † Grainews Staff

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The yellow machine is a fixed-wing drone called the AgEagle RX60, worth about $25,000. The DJI Inspire 1 is a quadcopter, worth $10,000 to $12,000.

Matt Johnson is the owner of M3 Aerial Productions, based out of Winnipeg. Farmers can buy their own drones, or hire someone like Johnson to fly their fields.

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In this digital image of a pea crop, the green area shows a depression where weeds flourished.

The eBee is a fixed-wing drone with a styrofoam body. It takes to the sky easily.

Quadcopters can take high-resoloution photos from a few feet above the crop, capturing the striations on the plant leaves. They can also fly as high as 400 feet, snapping general pictures to correlate with the NDVI.

Growing feed

Feed corn silage to maximize potential Breeanna Kelln

oth dairy and beef producers aim to feed their animals the best quality, most efficient feed that will yield the best returns for their operation. Corn silage is a popular option for many producers. Corn silage is a nutritious feed option with high yields, and allows for a greater amount of energy per

bite, increasing nutrition and energy intake for the animal. Producing corn silage allows farmers to grow a high yielding crop with increased quality best suited for their operation. In Western Canada, corn silage is usually two to three times higher in starch than other feed options. Starch contributes to energy in the ration; energy is usually the most limiting nutrient in Western Canadian rations. Corn silage

offers an energy-packed feed to increase production efficiency. Follow proper agronomic practices to ensure that the corn crop produces the highest yielding, highest quality feed to maximize performance. Balance rations property. Do a feed test and work with a mineral provider or nutritionist to ensure nutrient requirements are met. Proper corn silage harvest and storage is important to ensure the

crop maintains its quality right until feed out. A forage additive can be used to help maintain quality and give added success. Corn silage allows for increased energy efficiency and increased quality which is directly correlated to increased productivity and a better bottom line. For more information on corn silage, talk to a local seed rep. † Breeanna Kelln, livestock information manager, Western Canada, DuPont Pioneer

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Your next issue! You can expect your next issue in your mailbox about October 18, 2016

The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to Grainews and Farm Business Communications attempt to provide accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis. However, the editors, journalists and Grainews and Farm Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the editors as well as Grainews 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.

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Features

Grain marketing

Lock in sales with a special contract Looking for a way to differentiate your crop from the rest of the pack? By Dilia Narduzzi

re you looking for ways to change your marketing situation? Differentiate your product from everything else at the elevator? Signing special contracts with specific companies is one way to do this. Avena Food pays its contact holders premium prices for gluten-free oats. Warburtons, a U.K. bread company, pays premiums for specialty wheat grown by contract holding farmers. You may have a neighbour growing Nexere canola. Nexere canola is a canola hybrid that came out of Dow Agricultural Sciences in the mid-1990s. It produces a unique end product, an Omega 9 oil that has a “higher oil stability” and therefore a “longer frying life,” says Mark Woloshyn, Nexere canola brand manager for Dow Agrosciences Canada. It’s a healthier oil than the hydrogenated oils that came before (these oils created trans fats, which are now banned in the U.S. and are likely on the way out in Canada too). Companies like A&W, Frito-Lay and others in the fast food and packaged product industries are the end buyers of the oil that comes from Nexere canola, says

growers. To discuss Nexera contract options, farmers need to contact Dow AgroSciences or seed distributors. Contracting for the 2017 crop began on August 23, but there may still be room for more contract growers.

Taking the time Unlike some special contracts, Nexere canola contracts don’t require farmers to do anything particularly special. Farmers have to be willing to “follow high standard agronomic practices like you would for growing elite hybrids: we want growers to seed early into good growing conditions, we encourage fungicide use, we want top growers that

perform well. We have a stake here we need that oil for the enduse customer,” says Woloshyn. The main on-farm complications are storing the Nexere canola the grain separately from other canola, and sometimes, waiting longer than usual for a delivery opportunity. If you don’t want to be tied to a particular contract or if you already have a relationship with a grain marketer, specialty contracts like Nexera won’t be for you. But there are obviously some important pros to consider. Profitability is the big one. “We want to be the most profitable canola on the grower’s farm,” Woloshyn says. Nexere canola does sell

for a premium price because it is going to a specialty market. In some cases, crop insurance contracts will insure special crops at the higher contracted rate. Jordan Kambeitz of Kambeitz Farms near Regina has been growing Nexera for about five years now. He was initially attracted to Nexera, he says, because of the inroads they’ve been making with their healthier oil. Beyond that, he says, “it is competitively priced for seed cost, understanding that in ideal growing conditions it might give up a little bit of yield compared with some of the other competitive hybrids that we grow, but the premium associated with it generally takes care of that. We’ve been left with

similar margins when having to deal with less product to store and move. I wouldn’t be growing it if it wasn’t profitable.” Some advice to other farmers, Kambeitz says, is consider what you’ll be planning to grow in future rotations beyond Nexera. For example, the Nexera’s Clearfield system (which Kambeitz is using now) may not work if you plan to grow peas or lentils next year because the chemical profile of the Clearfield doesn’t work well rotationally with those crops. Find more information on Nexera’s website: nexeracanola. ca. † Dilia Dilia Narduzzi is a freelance writer in Dundas, Ont.

MONSANTO CANADA INC 10.0000X4.0000 000070698r1 4C1ST RIGHT HAND PAGE/COVER STORY

They have end-use customers lined up Woloshyn. Nexere canola is an example of a special contract — the canola you’ll grow for Nexera is different than other varieties, and you need to sign a contract before you put it in the ground. Nexera has an established value chain and it’s a closed system — they produce only as much canola as end-use customers need, and Dow Agrosciences works with the whole value chain. In other words, they have customers lined up for the product before the growing season starts and they grow enough canola to meet those sales. Nexere canola is not grown “on spec.” Dow works with contractors who “are in dialogue with the end-use customers and will negotiate oil agreements for the Omega 9 oil: time, place, delivery, price, and terms,” says Woloshyn. Once the contractors know what the end-use customers want, they’ll go into Western Canada and will start contracting with growers,” says Woloshyn. “Growers will then sign a production contract to grow the Nexere canola for any of the contractors.” For every specialty crop, there is a special process to becoming a contract grower. Avena takes applications from potential oat

One thing’s invigorated in the neighbour’s field: the cleavers. You smoked yours weeks ago. Because when it’s time to harvest, YOU’RE not burning daylight on clean-up duty. You can wait to work, or you can get to work.

ALWAYS FOLLOW GRAIN MARKETING AND ALL OTHER STEWARDSHIP PRACTICES AND PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Details of these requirements can be found in the Trait Stewardship Responsibilities Notice to Farmers printed in this publication. ©2016 Monsanto Canada, Inc.

/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Features

Crop Advisor’s casebook

Oat crop colour conundrum By Ashley Klassen

t was the second week of May in 2015 when Dan, a producer who farms 4,000 acres in northern Alberta, finished seeding his oat crop. Initially, the crop had emerged and progressed well. However, in late May, Dan felt uneasy about the seedlings’ colour. He told me the seedlings looked good after emergence, but were pale in colour. A few days later, he noticed the growing points were white and leaf tissue was pinched and chlorotic. “I don’t think it’s frost; it could be a nutrient deficiency,” he told me. “But we used a pretty good blend.” In the field, I noticed some interesting developments. For one, the plants in the headlands and overlapping areas showed fewer symptoms than other regions of the field. In addition, plants on hilltops and knolls were exhibiting more symptoms than hillsides and low spots. In fact, there were many elements to consider in this case. For example, Dan was using a new drill, which was similar to his old one, but there were differences in rate calibration, seed placement, etc. This particular field was also new to Dan, and he didn’t get a chance

to have his soil analyzed prior to seeding. Any recommendations for this field were based on similar fields in the area — and they weren’t overly similar, either. Dan follows a three-year rotation plan of peas, canola and cereal (wheat, barley and oats). Alfalfa hay had been grown on this field for several years, increasing the field’s likelihood of nutrient deficiencies. Because the field was in an area with a short growing season and the crop was seeded earlier than average, we also had to consider frost damage. Luckily, Dan’s farm is situated close to a weather station, so accurate data would not be a problem. One by one, we eliminated many of the above considerations as the cause of the plant discolouration. For example, accurate weather data eliminated frost damage as a factor. Dan’s fertility program, in addition to my previous experience with similar situations involving lighter soils (in which tissue testing was performed) convinced me nutrient deficiency was not the causal agent, either. Meanwhile, the lack of a consistent, distinct pattern to the affected areas ruled out mechanical issues. At the time, this area had received little in the way of precipitation. The dry weather, in

Ashley Klassen is a sales agronomist for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. at Lamont, Alta. combination with the field’s sandy soil, was the strongest clue to solving Dan’s oat crop complications. If you think you know what’s causing chlorosis in Dan’s oat field, send your diagnosis to Grainews, Box 9800, Winnipeg, Man., R3C 3K7; email leeann. minogue@fbcpublishing.com or fax 204-944-95416 c/o Crop Advisor’s Casebook. The best suggestions will be pooled and one winner will be drawn for a chance to win a Grainews cap and a oneyear subscription to the magazine. The answer, along with reasoning that solved the mystery, will appear in the next Crop Advisor’s Solution File. † Ashley Klassen is a sales agronomist for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. at Lamont, Alta.

The oat plants’ growing points were white and leaf tissue was pinched and chlorotic.

CASEBOOK WINNER This issue’s Casebook winner is Simon Rosa Mandel. Simon farms (he grows a mix of pulses and cereals) and ranches in the Municipal District of Acadia, near Oyen, Alta. In 2016, he said they had “amazing rain.” Simon, we’re renewing your Grainews subscription for a year and sending you a Grainews cap. Thanks for reading and thanks for entering! Leeann Minogue

Crop advisor’s solution

Caution with herbicide carryover By Andrea Astleford

n June of 2015, Dwayne, a producer who operates a 3,000-acre farm near Hanley, Sask., asked me to sort out his pea puzzler. He noticed some pea plants in one field’s headlands and around the shelterbelts were flashing light yellow and turning white at the growing points. When I examined the field, I found the top two to three nodes were light yellow in colour, as were the plants’ leaf edges in the affected areas. Dwayne thought the problem

Tundra

might stem from an inoculant mishap or herbicide damage from spray drift. However, we ruled out both of these potential causes. There was no pattern to the symptoms, eliminating a fertilizer or nutrient-related deficiency as the problem’s source and no in-crop herbicide had been applied to this or any surrounding fields that growing season, so spray drift was not the cause. Still, the plants looked as if they had been damaged by herbicide. It had been a dry year in the Hanley area up to that point, following a few

moist years. Most producers in this area are used to excess moisture — so herbicide carryover isn’t top of mind. Yet, that is exactly the problem we were dealing with. After confirming with Dwayne that a residual herbicide had been applied to this field the year before, I told him there was nothing he could do but wait to see how the pea plants handled the stress. And, fortunately, they handled it very well! The damaged pea plants grew out of the yellowing within a week and returned to health.

When using residual herbicides, it’s important to exercise caution when planning the following year’s crop. Always consider what may occur if the necessary rainfall isn’t obtained. It’s prudent to grow crops with more tolerance after using residual herbicides. For Dwayne, the problem’s outcome couldn’t have been better. Since the plants outgrew the injury quickly, and only a small proportion of the plants were affected, the field’s yield appeared normal. † Andrea Astleford is a regional sales agronomist for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. in Saskatoon, Sask.

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Features

Crop research

7 tips for on-farm research tests Looking for the best information about new products? Test it on your own farm By Staff

This summer Bayer ran field-scale fungicide trials testing early, ideal, and late applications of Folicur and Prosaro on AAC Brandon. The trials included seven treatments and an untreated check.

1. Don’t go it alone Heard advises farmers to find an on-farm testing coach rather than trying to do it on their own. “It’s really hard to have the discipline to do it on your own and to collect the needed information to make it research, not just a demonstration,” he says. That includes helping with in-season measurements, collecting data at harvest, and analyzing statistics. Another plus is the coach can work with different growers, organize the same test at different sites, and pool the results. Pooling data from different environments bumps it to the next level of research, Heard says. Farmers should look for a coach with a track record, Heard says. Ideally the coach should “understand the discipline of research. But also the intricacies of fieldscale farm equipment.”

2. Know what you’re working with Troy Basaraba is a market development specialist with Bayer CropScience. This summer he ran field-scale fungicide trials testing early, ideal, and late applications of Folicur and Prosaro on AAC Brandon. Basaraba’s trial includes seven treatments and an untreated check. Each treatment, along with the check, is duplicated within the same field. Bayer has been running field-scale fungicide trials, with cooperating farmers, for nine years. Basaraba says farmers who want to run their own trials should learn about the product first so they fully understand it. Heard compared getting a product to the on-farm testing stage to getting to the Olympics. First it has to go through the Olympic trials. “In the research world, you’d call that doing a literature search.” Before testing something, it’s better to see if someone else has researched it, and whether “there’s a shadow of a chance” that it will work, Heard says. “I’ll save my onfarm tests for some legit things.” A good source for research papers on agricultural products is http://extension.agron.iastate. edu/compendium/index.aspx.

3. Keep things simple and avoid distorting results “The thing about field trials is that they can be very complex or they can be really simple,” says

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2016-09-08 8:49 AM

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s that shiny new product likely to work on your farm? To separate the heifer dust from the cream of the crop, farmers need to take a hard look at the research behind the marketing claims. John Heard, soil fertility specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, says the best way to learn about good research “is to bruise your knuckles by becoming an on-farm tester.” Here are seven tips for conducting those tests and evaluating ag research.

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Features

John Heard, soil fertility specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, and his colleagues are taking flag leaf samples for nitrogen, and using sensors to flag fields that might benefit from a nitrogen application.

» CONTINUED FROM Previous PAGE Basaraba. It’s much easier to reap reputable, consistent data from trials with fewer variables, he adds. It’s also important to make sure every aspect is treated fairly in these trials, Basaraba says. “If we do this treatment at 10 gallons and another at 15, obviously we know there will be varied results.” Field topography also comes into play. “So when you are in some of these areas that have rolling topography, then you have to have a second look with regards to where to place the trial in the field in order to minimize some of that variability,” says Basaraba. Basaraba also looks for consistency in plant population, plant staging, and growth. “Obviously, it is not going to be perfect because we are in a commercial field and you will see some variations.”

Heard agrees that farmers should keep it simple. Creating complex field trials, with several treatments, for example, risks distorting results. Do that, and you’ll learn nothing from the trial, Heard says. “Yes, we want to know more things that just what we’re testing. But that doesn’t mean that farmer needs to bear the burden of all of the wheat sector’s questions,” says Heard. Small plot trials are the place to test several treatments. For example, Dr. Don Flaten with the University of Manitoba has been running small plot trials with 30 or more treatments on wheat, Heard says. Researchers then cherry-picked a few of the most promising treatments for on-farm trials. One treatment included a base rate of nitrogen plus 30 lbs., and another included the base rate plus 60 lbs.

Those two extra base rates require 12 strips per field, Heard says.

4. Replicate, replicate, replicate A grower who does a test on one field in one year “should expect to be scoffed at the same way that a researcher is scoffed at” for submitting a paper with only one site, one year, says Heard. Researchers strive to have a minimum of two sites in two years, he added. The more comparisons and strips, the better, says Basaraba. “I don’t think there is a need to go over four replications but if you can do two to four in the same field, that would be perfect.” Basaraba explains that duplicating the strips within the same field helps make sure the land isn’t influencing results. “If the

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Part of the fun of research is figuring out how products might work under different conditions, says John Heard. two untreated strips are consistent, we know that there is no land gradient or anything like that.” Replication helps agronomists identify consistency, Heard says. If a product seems to boost yield by six bushels an acre on one farm, Heard wants to know the probability of it bumping yield across 10 or 20 farms, he says. “There are lots of products out there that will work one out of four times, one out of five times,” says Heard. Multiyear trials also reveal trends, Basaraba says, and the data becomes more predictable. “As I have summarized the data for the past three years, it is actually a little eerie how the data from 2015 and 2014, very much line up with our long term numbers,” he says. Heard says replicating treatments and analyzing stats can be

very frustrating for farmers new to on-farm research. They might see, for example, a four bushel gain with a treatment, only to have the statistical analysis report it’s due to chance. “After you’ve done a few of those, you become pretty ruthless with people if they stand up at meetings and talk about two, three bushel differences being real,” says Heard. When looking at other research, Heard advised farmers to ask to see the stats. One trick to watch for is people cherry-picking their best sites. Look at the scale of the experiment and whether the differences are small, Heard says. Basaraba also suggests farmers ask questions. “Look to see if there has been replication in the same field. That is the biggest thing to show the true consistency of a product.”

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5. Report the failures Successes are great, but it’s also important to report the times a product doesn’t work, says Heard. One recent example is the work the Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers’ inoculant work. They evaluated whether there was an economic return in using in-furrow inoculants, in addition to seed-applied, in soybeans grown on ground that had seen at least two previous soybean crops. Results from 2013 and 2014 showed an economic return to the double inoculation only three out 17 times. The grower group is still analyzing 2015 results, according to the Manitoba Pulse website. “They’ve taken heat over that to no end,” says Heard. There’s an advantage to having a grower group leading some of this to find out “the true chances of things working or not,” Heard adds. Part of the fun of research is figuring out how products might work under different conditions, Heard says. Right now Heard is looking at how to influence yield and protein levels in wheat through nitrogen application. He and his colleagues are also taking flag leaf samples for nitrogen, and using sensors, to flag fields that might benefit from a nitrogen application. That type of scouting could help farmers make better decisions, he says.

6. Watch for weasel words When reviewing marketing claims, Heard advises farmers to watch for “weasel words.” One example is “tested by Agriculture Canada,” he says. It implies endorsement, but that doesn’t mean Agriculture Canada found any benefit to the product. It’s also important to note the federal government doesn’t require efficacy testing anymore. That shifts the onus of proof onto the product manufacturer, Heard says.

Troy Basaraba, market development specialist with Bayer CropScience, is proud to co-ordinate field-scale trials. “I think that it is about as close to real life as we can get,” he says.

Handles the toughest diseases. And climates.

7. Follow through “The more that you can go back, take a walk through the field and look for visual difference the better,” says Basaraba. “Then of course it is best to take the trial all the way to yield.” Basaraba says scales are better for measuring yield differences than yield monitors. And Heard agrees, saying weigh wagons are still the standard for on-farm research. Heard hopes to be able to calibrate yield monitors so they’re reliable enough for research one day. In fact, this summer he and his colleagues looked at in-field calibration of yield monitors in their wheat studies. Once that calibration is done, they’ll do direct comparisons of the strips through weigh wagons and yield monitors to test the calibrated yield monitors. As for Basaraba, he’s pleased with the on-farm fungicide trials have progressed over the years. “The level of pride I have in regards to our program is unbelievable. It is all done field scale. It is all replicated. I think that it is about as close to real life as we can get.” † For results from Bayer’s fungicide trials, visit www.cropscience.bayer.ca. The Fungicide DST Map is under the “Grower Tools” menu.

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1AgCelence

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Always read and follow label directions. AgSolutions is a registered trade-mark of BASF Corporation; AgCelence, and INSURE are registered trade-marks of BASF SE; all used with permission by BASF Canada Inc. INSURE CEREAL should be used in a preventative disease control program. © 2016 BASF Canada Inc.

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Features grain storage

Grain storage value comparison An Alberta Ag report crunches the numbers to help you make bin buying decisions By Mark Halsall

photo: leeann minogue

s farms increase in size and average yields increase, farmers are considering adding new storage facilities or replacing older ones. There are a number of different options. Corrugated bins have long been a familiar sight on Prairie farms and represent the tried and true method, according to Ryan Furtas, a research economist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. Smoothwall bins are being used more often, particularly in bin yards, Furtas says. Grain bag storage systems are the new kids on the block, having really taking off in popularity in the last decade or so. The question for growers is which grain storage option delivers the best value? Grain storage costs can vary significantly depending on whether the storage is temporary or fixed solution, and the types of structures used. Numbers in the table on this page come from a recent report by Alberta Agriculture and Forestry called “Grain Storage: Cost Comparisons.” The first three options shown in the table are 5,000-bushel steel bins either on gravel or concrete bases. The study didn’t calculate the costs of larger bins. For these three different kinds of structures, purchase price along with site preparation and set-up costs represent the biggest portion of the total investment cost. Grain bagging systems don’t require fixed structures but do involve a sizable investment in bagging and extractor equipment. In addition to facilities and equipment, farmers must be mindful of other cost considerations when choosing a grain storage system. “By accounting for depreciation, spoilage, interest, repairs and maintenance, an operation can evaluate the entire cost of the storage options being considered,” states the Alberta Ag report. According to the report, the cost of financing should not be overlooked: “If the investment in a storage system has a high upfront cost and money needs to be borrowed, a substantial amount of cash can be lost to interest. The high cost of interest on a system may not make sense for a particular operation. As well the lost opportunity of using that

Alberta Ag found grain bag storage to be the most expensive of the options studied. However, it is a good solution for farmers who only need temporary storage. money for an alternative investment needs to be considered.” Another key consideration is depreciation, the decrease in potential economic value as capital assets age. For its report, Alberta Agriculture calculated depreciation using Canadian Revenue Agency classes of depreciable property. Other aspects when assessing storage options are salvage value (the part of the investment that can be recouped through resale) and the cost of maintaining facilities and equipment. Furtas says it’s important to consider repair and maintenance costs at the start because some storage systems are relatively maintenance free while others require more upkeep. He notes the latter applies to grain bagging systems because there is equipment involved. “With the grain bagger, you have moving parts. It could be anything from a flat tire to something more significant going wrong that’s going to cost you in terms of repair and maintenance,” Furtas says. Spoilage costs are also key. According to the Alberta Agriculture report, grain bagging systems will typically have some grain spoilage while fixed storage bins usually provide relatively unspoiled product. “Once there is a hole in the bag, spoilage can occur very quickly,” the report states. “Damage and punctures

can occur to the bags from wildlife, trees and human activity (snowmobiles).” When the costs are added up, Alberta Agriculture estimates that corrugated bins are the most economical solution for grain storage, with the smoothwall hopper on concrete option slightly more expensive primarily due to higher initial investment and interest costs. “Despite the extra cost smooth walled bins are dual purpose and can be used for fertilizer and seed, giving greater flexibility,” states the Alberta Agriculture report. The table shows the grain bagging system as the most expensive option. That’s due to the sizeable investment for the bagger and extractor equipment and as well as high spoilage and depreciation costs and low salvage value. Plastic grain bags account for the high packaging costs associated with this option. A number of recycling programs in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba with collection sites that will accept used grain bags at no cost to producers. In areas without these facilities, used grain bags often end up burned or buried in farmers’ fields or carted off to landfills. According to the Alberta Agriculture report, high winter snowfalls can make it difficult to access filled grain bags stored in fields. Furtas points out that if a snow isn’t regularly cleared around

grain bags, a quick snowmelt could result in wet and mucky spring conditions, increasing the risk of spoilage. Both Furtas and the Alberta Agriculture report stress that costs aren’t the only consideration for farmers choosing a storage system. Other considerations include the farm’s future plans, existing systems and labour availability. It also cites longevity as a consideration, stating that grain bins can last 30 to 40 years with proper maintenance and care. In Furtas’s view, grain bins probably represent a safer option because of risks associated with operating grain bagging machinery. However, grain bags may make the most sense for growers who are planning to grow their operation or require lots of flexibility. “The grain bag system definitely allows you to go up and down in scale,” Furtas says, “whereas (with storage bins) you risk a bit of underutilization and if you happen to go over you may have to rent a grain bagger on top of that just to cover off the surplus.” Furtas says space is another consideration. “Every farm is unique it seems like. Some people have a nice bin yard or lots of room to expand and other farmers don’t necessarily have that.” † Mark Halsall is a freelance writer based in Winnipeg. Contact him at halsall.mark@gmail.com.

GRAIN STORAGE COST COMPARISON (BASED ON 5,000 BUSHEL BINS) CORRUGATED BIN

CORRUGATED BIN

SMOOTHWALL BIN

Hopper on gravel

Flat bottom on concrete

Hopper bottom on concrete

Purchase, site prep and set-up costs

$16,750

$18,750

$26,250

Equipment cost (bagger & extractor)

$16,000

Financing cost (5% interest on 60-month loan)

$2,216

$2,472

$3,472

$2,116

Amortized cost

$18,966

$21,222

$29,722

$18,116

Depreciation

GRAIN BAG SYSTEM

10%

20%

$15,480

$11,852

$16,592

$15,367

$335

$375

$525

$800

40%

30%

60%

10%

$6,700

$5,625

$15,750

$1,600

Packaging cost ($350/year for bags to store $5,000 bushels/year)

$5,250

Spoilage cost (0.5% @$5/bushel for $5,000 bushels/year)

$1,875

Repair & maintenance costs

Salvage value

Total investment cost over life span to store 5,000 bushels/year

Life span (years of use)

$28,081

$27,824

$31,089

$39,808

Total annual cost for 5,000 bushels of storage

$1,123

$1,113

$1,244

$2,654

Source: Alberta Agriculture and Forestry

CARGILL LTD. 15.2500X5.0000 000071311r1 4CFAR FORWARD

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kind of canola

The Cargill logo, ®VICTORY and ®VICTORY Hybrid Canola logo are registered trademarks of Cargill Incorporated, used under license. Genuity,® Genuity and Design,® Genuity Icons, Roundup Ready,® and Roundup® are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC, used under license. Always follow grain marketing and all other stewardship practices and pesticide label directions. Details of these requirements can be found in the Trait Stewardship Responsibilities Notice to Farmers printed in this publication. ©2016 Cargill, Incorporated. All rights reserved.

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Features

Grain marketing

It’s built... and they’re coming Grain is moving south at Northgate where an abandoned Sask. hamlet once stood By Lee Hart

photos: lee hart

new Canadian-built grain export terminal at Northgate in southern Saskatchewan is booming these days. Actually, the Northgate Commodities Logistics Centre about 60 km southeast of Estevan hasn’t seen too many slow days since the first railcars started rolling south in January 2015. Officially opened in May 2016, the 2.7 million bushel capacity grain terminal which has rail service connecting to BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) Railway is moving about 100 railcars per week, with a wide range of commodities headed to not only to U.S. markets but into Mexico, Europe and Asia. On any given day this fall, anywhere from 50 up to 200 grain trucks from Saskatchewan and Manitoba farms within a 200 km radius of Northgate, are delivering to the facility built around the long-abandoned hamlet of Northgate where Highway 9 crosses the Canadian/U.S. border. The Northgate terminal is built along one of the few rail-crossing points along the U.S. border in Western Canada.

Jason Labossiere, left and Curt Larsen between trucks delivering grains, oilseed and pulse crops to the Northgate terminal in southern Saskatchewan.

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The apparent success of the venture can be credited to a couple different features says Jason Labrossiere, facility manager — the company is now contracting a wider range of commodities‚ and it offers very competitive prices. Depending on the end-use market demand often enough the company can even offer price premiums. Announced as a $90 million project, Ceres began construction of the Northgate facility in 2014. With two-parallel 11 km (seven mile) rail loops, it is designed as a multi-commodity rail-handling facility. While the grain terminal was first, Ceres is also now moving about 150 railcars of propane per month from the facility. Plans continue (as the oil patch picks up) to also export about 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day from site. Construction is also now underway on a 26,000-ton fertilizerstorage facility for the Wichitabased Koch Fertilizer for distribution to its Canadian dealer network. The fertilizer warehouse should be completed by May 2017. And there are future plans for the facility to be a distribution depot for other oil and gas commodities and perhaps even farm machinery.

busy from the start In the fall of 2014 with the twin-loop rail track in place, and only two 280,000 steel grain storage bins on site, the company had a pilot run shipping railcars south. More steel bins were added in phase one in 2015, with the main concrete structure completed in phase two and opened in early 2016. “Even with the initial transloader and only two bins we managed to move about 1,200 rail cars of commodities into the U.S. between January and October 2015,” says Labrossiere. The grain-handling complex today consists of six steel bins, each with capacity for about 280,000 bushels (a total of 1.7 million bushels). There are three bins on each side of the one million bushel main concrete “house.” The concrete terminal is the main receiving point for grain trucks. It handles cleaning and sorting of commodities,

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Officially open in May 2016 the Northgate Commodities Logistics Centre is moving 100 railcars per week and has capacity for 2.7 million bushels of grain storage. which are then transferred to the steel bins, before being loaded into rail cars. Initially as Northgate opened its doors it offered contracts for grains and canola. Today it offers a wide-range of contract options for all wheats, oats and canola and has recently added contracts for yellow peas, lentils, rye and flax. “About the only thing we don’t handle is malt barley,” says Curt Larsen, a senior contract manager.

Grain trucks move through the double drive lanes at the Northgate grain-handling facility.

GET REWARDED WHEN YOU CHOOSE THE CANOLA SYSTEM DESIGNED FOR REAL LIFE IN THE WEST.

Market reach

Lee Hart is a field editor with Grainews based in Calgary. Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com.

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The little known Ceres Global Ag is a Toronto based-company specializing in grain storage, handling and merchandising. What gives the company its marketing reach is ownership of the Minnesota-based Riverland Ag Corp. Riverland owns nine grain storage and handling assets in Minnesota, New York, and Ontario having total capacity for 47 million bushels. Riverland Ag also manages two facilities in Wyoming. From its Northgate vantage point, Ceres connects with the BNSF railway, the largest rail company in the U.S. BNSF has direct access to 28 American states, numerous Pacific and Gulf ports, and Mexico along a 32,000 mile rail network, including more than 45 crude-by-rail destinations. And it also has secondary or interline connections with many other U.S. interior location and Atlantic ports. Once a commodity is in a railcar at Northgate, it can reach any number of U.S. or foreign markets. In Western Canada along with Northgate, Ceres also has 25 per cent ownership in the Stewart Southern Railway Inc. — a 130 km-long southern Saskatchewan short-line railway. “We’ve had excellent service from BN Rail — the railcars are here when we need them,” says Labossiere. “And we’ve also had excellent support from our customers in southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. We offer very competitive pricing and have been taking delivery in a timely manner and occasionally have even called early so producers aren’t waiting. We have the markets. We are open for business.” †

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CALCULATE YOUR REWARDS TODAY Your rewards accumulate with your qualifying-product purchases. The more you buy, the bigger your reward cheque. For full program details and to calculate your potential rewards, visit RealFarmRewards.ca *Monsanto will not issue a cheque for amounts less than $100. **Payout to a maximum of 2x of Genuity® Roundup Ready® canola acres purchased. 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. These products have been approved for import into key export markets with functioning regulatory systems. Any crop or material produced from these products 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 these products. 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. Compatibility tests are conducted with registered seed treatments to ensure the viability of our inoculants is not compromised by pesticides and other seed treatments. Cell-Tech™, Genuity®, Optimize®, Real Farm Rewards™, Roundup Ready®, Roundup Transorb®, Roundup WeatherMAX®, Roundup Xtend™, Roundup® and TagTeam® are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC, Monsanto Canada, Inc. licensee. BlackHawk®, Conquer® and GoldWing® are registered trademarks of Nufarm Agriculture Inc. Valtera™ is a trademark of Valent U.S.A. Corporation. ©2016 Monsanto Canada Inc.

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Features

Forage weeds

2. Absinthe This weed is also “an extremely prolific seed maker,” Turnquist said. One plant can produce up to 50,000 seeds. “It likes disturbed areas, but it likes wellmanaged pastures as well.” The plant can thrive

3. Common tansy Common tansy is a perennial that likes moisture. “It will grow right along a waterway,” Turnquist said. Farmers who have had a bit more moisture than they would like may have another issue to contend with — these plants are toxic. To find this weed, look for fern-like leaves. Like absinthe, this plant is very aromatic. It spreads through root growth, and is also “very prolific seed spreader,” Turnquist said. Turnquist expects this seed to spread over the winter when plants are disturbed by snowmobiles. 4

photo: leeann minogue

Leafy spurge “has a milky sap,” Turnquist said. That sap can be harmful to livestock, and irritate human skin. You can expect to start seeing this perennial in early May. It spreads with a creeping root system, but also by seeds. A large leafy spurge plant can produce up to 130,000 seeds. When they’re mature, Turnquist said, the seed pods “will explode and they will shoot seeds approximately 15 to 16 feet.” Seeing this happen is quite impressive, she says. “Someone should make a YouTube video.”

5 photo: rachel turnquist, saskatchewan agriculture

1. Leafy spurge

photo: leeann minogue

he benefit of attending of Saskatchewan Agriculture’s Crop Diagnostic School at Swift Current last July was having the opportunity to get an up-close look at problems farmers face every season. One of the experts on hand was Rachel Turnquist, a regional forage specialist with Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Agriculture. Turnquist gave us a look at what she calls the “three worst” forage weeds in Saskatchewan. While you might have different choices for the three worst weeds on your farm, there are definitely three that you don’t want. “These are all very aggressive,” Turnquist said.

anywhere, and once it settles in, it will spread, especially in areas that are overgrazed. It grows to be about a metre tall, and smells like sage. Yes, this is the same plant used as an ingredient in alcohol (the plant is also called absinthe wormwood). Some semi-reliable sources say this liquor was behind the madness that led Van Gogh to cut off his own ear. Don’t try brewing it at home.

1. Rachel Turnquist is a regional forage specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture. She presented her pick for the three worst forage weeds at Sask Ag’s Crop Diagnostic School in July. 2. As you can see from the photo, to avoid spreading leafy spurge in the Swift Current area, Turnquist brought some plastic-wrapped plants to Crop Diagnostic School. 3. Absinthe is very aromatic, and can thrive anywhere. 4. The common tansy is toxic, and may spread over the winter. 5. Leafy spurge has a milky sap that can be harmful to livestock.

The spread of disaster All three of these invasive weeds were brought to the prairies intentionally. Leafy spurge was packed along as an ornamental plant; absinthe was brought for medicinal purposes and to brew alcohol; tansy came along for cooking and medicine. Canadian settlers brought a lot of innovation, ideas and energy to this country. It’s too bad there weren’t Canada Customs agents checking their suitcases for plants when they came on shore. †

photo: leeann minogue

By Leeann Minogue

photo: leeann minogue

The three worst forage weeds

Leeann Minogue is the editor of Grainews.

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Features

Tax planning

Changes coming to capital gains taxes 2017 federal tax rules changes are right around the corner. Are you prepared? By Ron Friesen

f you are a farm business owner considering a sale of capital assets such as land or quota in the next few years, there are some proposed tax changes coming into effect that you should know about today. Two changes have been approved as of the March 2016 federal budget announcement. These will take effect in the near future and could cost agriculture operations significantly. Here is a brief look at what is coming: The first is a change to the way quota is taxed when it is sold. This affects all those in the dairy, egg and poultry meat supply-managed sectors. Scheduled to take effect

on January 1, 2017, the Eligible Capital Property (ECP) regime changes could significantly impact the amount of money a farm owner pockets after selling, making it more critical than ever to plan today to minimize taxes tomorrow. The second change relates to the small business tax rate that will apply to large farm tax structures. This change will go into effect in the fiscal year following the announcement in March 2016. There are many farms on a December 31 year-end that will still have time to investigate their options. These changes may impact both the ongoing tax burden for the farm operation and the structuring of a sale of a farm business. Some operations may want to go to market now

so they have an opportunity to take advantage of the lower tax burden in 2016 versus 2017. For others, creating an internal gain on the disposition in 2016 may be advantageous. A third change we are preparing for has yet to be announced but is rumoured to be in the works and could have a significant impact on a large number of farm businesses. The capital gain inclusion rate could be increasing. Currently, 50 per cent of capital gains realized personally in excess of an individual’s capital gain exemption are taxable, but this B:11.5” could increase to as much as 67 to 75 per cent with the potential. ThisT:10.25” may impact farms S:10” that are set up as companies as well and could be announced with the budget in Spring 2017 or earlier.

This change will have a significant impact on anyone that owns farmland, especially if the value of that land has increased by enough to exceed their capital gains exemption amount. My advice to anyone who is thinking of selling some or all of their land holdings in the next few years is to consider triggering a sale before this inclusion rate change comes into effect. In my office, tax specialists are meeting with clients and asking them if they want to deliberately trigger a gain (sale) and take advantage of the 50 per cent while it is still in effect. If our client is considering triggering a sale in the next two or three years, we are recommending they look at complet-

ing the transaction now to reduce the tax burden on capital gains. The best place to start is talking to a tax specialist and learning more about these changes, verifying your current exemption limits and the ramifications to your bottom line. Pencil it out: For land, look at listings. Know how much gain you’ve got, then work on a plan to mitigate the tax burden. For quota, look at the purchase price, the tax deductions taken over the years, and estimate the recaptured depreciation and capital gains on a sale. The only good news here is that there is time to mitigate the potential tax consequences. † Ron Friesen, CPA, CA, is a Business Advisor, Taxation Services with MNP. He can be reached at 306.664.8324 or email ron.friesen@mnp.ca.

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Features

Ask the Expert

Solving problems with life insurance Life insurance, combined with fixed value corporate shares can solve succession problems By Angela Lovell

his month, I asked the experts a very direct question: “Can my incorporated farm business pay my personal life insurance premiums?” The answer was reasonably clear: Certainly, your farm corporation can pay your personal insurance premiums, but in general you will pay personal income tax on the premium amounts because they are a personal benefit to you. That’s not to say there aren’t a few exceptions where a corporation can pay your life insurance premiums without personal tax consequences, but they are limited. One instance is where a bank or financial institution requires a corporation to take out life insurance on its principals to guarantee a bank debt. “If a farm corporation were to borrow $500,000 to buy land, and the bank made the farmer get a $500,000 life insurance policy to cover that bank debt, he or she could deduct the full amount of the premiums because in that case there’s a business reason for getting life insurance. Otherwise you can’t deduct the premiums against your taxable income,” says Matt Bolley, specialty tax business advisor at MNP. The other instance is when the corporation is the beneficiary of the life insurance policy. “Let’s say a farmer takes out a life insurance policy for $500,000 and the

beneficiary is named as the corporation. The corporation can make those payments out of the farm earnings, with no personal tax consequences to the farmer,” says Bolley. Why it’s beneficial to do this is because corporations typically pay a much lower tax rate on income than individuals. “Farm corporations typically pay 10.5 per cent tax on income, and so the farmer is in essence keeping 89.5 cents on the dollar after the corporation pays tax on its earnings,” says Bolley. “An individual, who might have an average tax rate of 25 per cent, has only 75

cents on the dollar to pay that life insurance premium.” The key point to keep in mind is the corporation has to be the beneficiary. You can’t take out a policy on yourself, make the kids the beneficiaries, and then have your business pay the insurance premiums without the tax man calling.

Life insurance as a transition tool No matter who pays the premiums, life insurance isn’t just something you take out to make the bank happy or provide for

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loved ones in the event of your untimely demise, it can also be a valuable tool as part of a succession plan. There are two main reasons why farmers might use life insurance as part of their transition planning, says Bolley. The first reason is tax issues. As an example, if farmers have assets that aren’t considered farm property, such as land they have rented out to neighbours, or other rental properties or assets that aren’t used in farming, these assets can’t pass on to the next generation without incurring tax. “What farmers will do is have life insur-

ance available so that when they pass away, the life insurance is there to pay the tax, so it avoids the scenario where a beneficiary may have to go out and sell the asset in order to pay the tax on it,” says Bolley. The second reason that farmers typically use life insurance is as a method to give funds to non-farming children. “The biggest dilemma in farm succession planning today is how to take care of the non-farming children without causing issues down the road for the farming children,” says Bolley. Twenty years ago, the solution was pretty well always to split up the land and give some of that land to the non-farming kids so they had an asset, which they usually rented to the farming child. This gave non-farming kids a source of income from the land, and the farming child could keep using the land, and everybody felt they were fairly treated. The problem today is that this scenario doesn’t work very well when land can be worth $3,000 an acre or more. “With the temptation of the large dollar amounts, for a lot of farm families it’s very difficult for the non-farming children to pass up the opportunity to cash in on the land value,” says Bolley. “If the farming sibling can’t come up with the money to buy the land, and if they don’t have the ability to get more credit from the bank, the land could end up being sold

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Features to pay the non-farming kids their share of its value.” That uncertainty for kids who want to stay on the farm has steered some families away from using land as the equalizer, and instead using insurance, which the farm corporation can pay for from earnings, as long as the shareholder structure is set up correctly. Typically parents decide on the amount of money they want the non-farming child to inherit and take out a life insurance policy for that amount through the farm corporation. Then they gift fixed valued corporate shares worth that amount to the child. Fixed value shares never increase or decrease in value, regardless of the farm’s performance. They are always worth the same amount as the day of issue. Once parents gift the shares, all parties usually sign a unanimous shareholders agreement, which binds all the shareholders. The non-farming child agrees not to touch the fixed value shares until Mom and Dad are both deceased. The farming child agrees to pay the insurance funds to the non-farming child as soon as the corporation receives them.

are comfortable giving away land to non-farming children, and the farming children are comfortable with that arrangement, they maybe don’t need any life insurance. If they want the whole farm, including land, to go to the farming child, then that’s where life insurance would come into play to provide cash for the non-farming children. But, says Bolley, don’t buy insurance without doing the share restructuring and putting written agreements in place. “You never want to assume the worst about a family dynamic, but there are lots of families that have had issues for one reason or another that came out of the blue,” says Bolley. “If you don’t protect yourself, then you could leave yourself open to not having anything to live off of down the road.” There are definitely some tax advantages to life insurance, and it can be a sound and important part of an overall succession plan

for sure, but probably the best advice is to buy early. The earlier that you buy life insurance, the less expensive the premiums will be on a whole life policy, and the sooner you can get insured.

There can only be fairness, not equality “We’ve run into issues with insurability when people put it off,” says Bolley. “I’ve had clients come into my office who are healthy people today, but who had a minor health condition five years ago, and the insurance company says based on your age and this condition, we won’t insure you. All of a sudden the plans go out the window.”

It’s crucial to get the right type of life insurance, adds Bolley. “I know some clients who have bought term life insurance and when they reach 70 it’s so expensive they have to give it up, and they’re back to the drawing board because they didn’t buy the right type of insurance to meet their objectives,” he says.

New tax rules coming soon Finally, there are some new tax rules coming into effect January 1, 2017 that will reduce the amount of life insurance proceeds that can be paid out of a corporation tax free to redeem fixed value shares held by another family member. “Currently, most of the life insurance proceeds in this situation would come out of a corporation tax free as a capital dividend account, and just a small portion would be considered a taxable dividend to the person receiving the funds,” says Bolley. “Those

rules are changing and the taxable portion is going to increase.” The amount that will be taxable is based on a number of complex factors and circumstances, and will vary from policy to policy, so people should talk to their insurance company to find out how the current rules will compare to the new rules in relation to how it will affect their life insurance policy after the new year. “I wouldn’t advise anyone to run out today and buy insurance if they have no need for it but if they think that life insurance is definitely part of their plan, or they’ve discussed it with their advisers and they’ve recommended insurance, now is the time to go buy it because it’s going to still be a good tool, but it’s a far more tax effective tool today than it will be after the end of this year,” says Bolley. † Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist living and working in Manitoba. Find her online at www.angelalovell.ca.

Using advisors Because every farm is different, Bolley always advises clients to have as many people around the table as possible to make sure they choose the right kind of insurance that fits their situation. “Bring your accountant, lawyer, financial advisor and insurance broker to the table and decide what you want to happen when you pass away,” says Bolley. Then you need to assess how much the farm is worth and based on that value, what you think is a fair amount to give to a non-farming child. Every family will doubtless have different opinions on what the number should be, but the main thing to remember is that in distributing cash and assets there can only be fairness, not equality. “The nonfarming child is going to have a fixed valued asset when they walk away versus the farming child has something that could be hugely valuable,” says Bolley. “But as we’ve all seen in the farming sector, there can be tough times and the value of the farm asset itself, for farming children, is in so far as they can continue to make an income from it to support their family. In most cases they aren’t going to liquidate the asset for many years, if ever.” Tax liability is also a consideration. In most cases when farm families pass farm assets on to immediate family there is zero or minimal tax liability for the next generation if they continue to farm. In this case parents don’t need to worry about life insurance to cover taxes. But what happens if the succession plan involves a nephew or a niece? “The Income Tax Act doesn’t let you gift a farm to a niece or a nephew on your death,” says Bolley. “That person would have a bigger tax bill to pay, so whatever tax bill your assets would incur today, should be the starting point to get at least that amount of life insurance to help cover it.” In reality, it comes down to deciding what the family is comfortable with. If Mom and Dad

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Features

Tax planning

Five ways to avoid payroll fines Just hired your first employee? Don’t get stuck paying fines for filing errors By Leeann Minogue

ave you recently hired an employee for your farm? Are you doing your own payroll and bookkeeping? If so, I’m offering you an opportunity to learn from my mistakes. There is a lot of information available about conducting job interviews, creating job descriptions and deciding how much to pay employees. However, it’s hard to find a simple checklist of the practical, hands-on things you have to do to legally hire an employee. None of the steps are hard, but, as I’ve learned, there are many ways for the best-intentioned farm employer to get things wrong. You’ll be filing paperwork with at least three different government agencies, each with its own deadlines and Byzantine website. There are financial consequences for small mistakes. I’m not claiming this is a complete list of ways to avoid fines or problems, but it’s a start. There are probably steps I’ve missed. I’ll be paying for that.

1. Watch out for WCB fines While we are not legally required to carry Workers Compensation for farm employees in Saskatchewan, we wouldn’t be without it on our farm. This program is great, but it’s also a paperwork minefield. There are several ways to be fined by Workers Compensation for faulty paperwork. Once you’ve signed up and talked to WCB staff about your initial payment, there is more paperwork. Every year, you must send in a statement showing your total payroll (they call it the Employer’s Payroll Statement, EPS). You must do this by February 28, even if that date has nothing to do with your corporate year end. Once you’ve enrolled in the program, this rule applies to you even if you run for a year with no employees. If you miss this deadline, you’ll be fined. The other complication that can arise with WCB is estimating your payroll before the start of the year. You give them a value, and they use it to set your premiums. If, during the year, you hire more employees or increase employee hours and your payroll increases up to twice what you’ve estimated, you will be fined for underestimating. It’s not hard to

make this mistake in a seasonal business with a variable number of employees. You can avoid the fine by adjusting your estimate online. Just don’t forget.

2. Get the deductions right The Canadian Revenue Agency has come a long way. These days, they have a slick website to calculate payroll deductions — no more leafing through those thick books of small-print tables! Find that easy-to-use calculator by searching online for “Payroll Deductions Online Calculator.” You can even use it to print reasonable-looking pay stubs, if you’re not using accounting software. If you’re using accounting software, you likely won’t need that online calculator. AgExpert calculates deductions quite nicely, and also prints an adequate pay stub. However, make sure your AgExpert deductions are correct. The first few times your pay your new employee, check your software deductions against the CRA’s online calculator. If they don’t match, you may find you don’t have the updated payroll package on your AgExpert software. You may need to phone the AgExpert support line to make this work.

3. Remit those deductions Once you take the deductions off your employees’ paycheques, you need to remit that money to the CRA, plus your share of the employees’ Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance. You have until the 15th day of the month after payday. If you forget to make that payment, or if you were confused by the remittance process, the CRA will not want to hear about your troubles. You can expect a response along the lines of, “Just pay the fine, Ma’am.” Now, I’m in the habit of remitting my deductions as soon as I made out the employee paycheque. Sure, I’ve foregone a little interest by not waiting until the absolute deadline, but one late fine certainly outweighed that. At first, I was confused by the process. You may notice that the CRA web page titled, “Remitting Payroll Deductions” has no link to the actual site where you remit payroll deductions. Neither does the “Make a payment” link on the main “business” page. After an exasperating

afternoon, I phoned the CRA for some navigational help: Go to “My business account” (there are directions about setting one up), and you can make a payment from there. Oddly, you won’t be asked for much information about which tax you’re remitting — they don’t want to know how much is for EI, CPP, or taxes. They won’t even ask for your employees’ names. They only want to know the amount of your gross payroll, and the amount of your payment.

4. Send out those T4s I like to submit my own personal tax returns early, so I never make employees wait for their T4s. I prepare them in early January and get them out right away. That’s not why I was fined. After you provide those forms to your employees, you must also submit them to the government. I did this online. First, I downloaded the file AgExpert creates for this purpose, and then I used the CRA website to upload the file. Unfortunately, we had two employees that year. I thought I had chosen the “Summary” file to send in information for all employees. I only sent information for one employee. This fine hurt. I’d tried so hard.

5. When employees leave While I wasn’t fined for this, I was surprised to find out I’d been doing it wrong. When you let an employee go (even a summer student at the end of the season), as well as a T4, you must send that person home with a Record of Employment (ROE). A summer employee heading back to school might not notice if she doesn’t get one, but if you lay someone off and they hope to collect Employment Insurance, they need this form. Right away! AgExpert will create one of these for you, but it will take a little coaxing. You must go to “Payroll Setup” (which doesn’t seem obvious), then under the “Employees” section, select the correct employee. Then, find the small second tab that says “Payroll Information” and hunt down the tiny button labeled “ROE” — it’s near “Date Terminated.” The Service Canada website has a long, easy-to-find document explaining how

There are many payroll pitfalls. to fill out the form. That should be relatively straightforward. If you have weekly or semi-monthly pay periods, you have five days to submit this information to Service Canada. If you’re on top of things, you can send a paper copy of that report home with your employee on her last day. You will also need to file your copy with Service Canada. If you want to do this electronically, make sure you have a few extra days the first time you do it. I had three days to spare when I completed my form and had it ready to file. Then I realized that I needed to register with Service Canada. Before they would allow me to do this online, they needed to use Canada Post to mail us a letter with my new authorization code. The letter was addressed to the “Chief Executive Officer,” so they could feel sure our farm’s senior management knew what I was up to. This practice is in place to prevent EI abuse, but it can also cause honest firsttime employers a little grief. But now that you know, you can plan ahead. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve made so many mistakes on my way to learning this process. Here’s hoping you can get some value out of my errors! † Leeann Minogue is the editor of Grainews.

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Features

Tax planning

Get the most from your accounting Accrual financial statements provide the best for management decisions

ccrual is the way to go with farm financial statements, according to a farm accounting spe-

cialist. “Cash accounting only measures cash, and that has nothing to do with profitability,” says Beverly Johnson, a partner at KPMG Enterprise in Saskatoon. Accrual accounting is the measure of profitability, she says. Johnson has been a farm accountant for 30 years. She’s also a professional agrologist, and farmed with her family on a mixed operation near Hanley for several years. Years ago farmers tended to do their annual statements on a cash basis, but most of Johnson’s clients use accrual statements now. They often keep their books on a cash basis, and then convert to accrual themselves, often with the help of accounting programs such as Ag Expert. Alternately, they have an accountant do it for them. “Investments have always been big in farming but we’re talking millions and millions now. They have to be able to know profitability just to make decisions. Do I buy more equipment? Do I rent land? What can I afford to pay for rent?”

Excellent farmers know their numbers Accrual financial statements allow farmers to drill down to see which crops were more profitable or which fields performed better. Farmers can also evaluate the operation’s profitability and do yearto-year comparisons, she adds. To Johnson, accrual accounting forms the basis of good management. Cash financial statements can misrepresent a farm’s true profit, Johnson says. She compares it to only looking at what’s in a farmer’s bin when his crop is still in the field. Farmers might not do accrual accounting on paper, “but they know what they’ve got in the bin. They know what it’s worth. They know what they’re going to sell.” Accrual accounting makes sure the financial statements capture that thinking, she says. That allows farmers to benchmark their operations so they can be compared to other farms, and get the information they need to make critical decisions. It’s also about managing risk, she says. “And one way to manage your risk is to have a good handle on the financials.”

Tax versus management accounting When it’s time to pay income taxes, there are some differences between accrual and cash systems. For example, accrual removes the flexibility to manipulate income. And under accrual accounting, you expense inputs when you use them, whereas cash allows you to prepay for two years in advance.

“What I would say is don’t let your management accounting system drive tax decisions. To me, those are two different things,” says Johnson. Instead, Johnson encourages farmers to do accrual statements, and then manage taxes based on information pulled from those statements. Farmers can make the best decisions by knowing their true profitability. Managing taxes then becomes one of those decisions, she says. There are a few things farmers can do to make year-end smoother, too. Johnson recommends taking some time at year end to take stock of inventory in the field, in the bin, and the inputs that have been purchased but not yet used. It’s also

a good idea to know what grades you’ve got in the bin and what the net price will likely be, she says. Farmers need a fairly detailed analysis of what’s on-hand for yearend, but they shouldn’t be scared off from doing it, Johnson says. People tend to think of accounting as precise, but it involves estimates, too, she says. “Don’t stress over it. Just do it on a timely basis. Be as accurate as you can. That’s better than doing nothing.”

Finding an advisor Agriculture is like any industry, Johnson says, in that you have some people who are “stellar” at managing the business side, while

others are stronger at producing and shop work. The excellent farmers know their numbers, she says. “They can make that extra five bushels an acre, which makes a huge difference to their overall profitability. That’s what it’s all about.” Farmers who aren’t as strong in the marketing and financial department need to hire someone who is, just as they would hire an agronomist, Johnson says. “You might pay for it but you’re minimizing your risk because you’ve got millions on the line. Would you buy a $5 million to $10-million business and not manage it, not watch finances?” A farmer should look for an advisor who can explain things in

a way the farmer can understand, Johnson says. Rather than peppering the conversation with accounting jargon, the advisor should speak the farmer’s language. The farmer should feel comfortable speaking to the advisor. A good advisor will also help the client understand what the information means to her farm. The advisor should understand the client’s operation and objectives. Understanding trends is also important, Johnson says. “So if your costs per acre are constantly going up and your margins are shrinking, why is that?” † Looking for a farm accountant or other professional? The Canadian Association of Farm Advisors lists accounts, insurance brokers, and many others at www.cafanet.ca.

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/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Features

Crop production

Reduce your malt barley risk Plant barley on field pea stubble, limit fungicide and reduce nitrogen application By Julienne Isaacs

the yield and quality distributions that we got from the field data. Sometimes we got bad conditions or good, but mostly we got the average. Then we looked at how often you get good returns or bad based on production systems,” explains Smith. They looked at three residue types (field pea, canola and barley), two fertilizer rates (50 per cent and 100 per cent of N soil test recommendations), and two fungicide treatments (no fungicide and fungicide applied).

hat are the biggest risks on producers’ radars when it comes to growing malting barley? Some might say yield losses, some might say disease, and some might say reduced kernel quality or high protein levels — or a combination of all of these problems and more. New research customizes malting barley systems based on producers’ levels of risk aversion. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada bio-economist Elwin Smith and research scientist Kelly Turkington teamed up to analyze profitability in malting barley production systems over time. They analyzed 21 site-years of field data from a variety of systems over three years, looking for the impacts of production systems on net returns. The sites, seven in total, were spread across a large area from the Peace River region of Saskatchewan to the Brandon, Man. region. “We simulated returns from

Get better yields The researchers’ most surprising result was that the best barley yields tended to be grown on field pea stubble, as compared to canola or barley stubble. “There’s always been a concern in terms of protein levels in malt barley, and any practice that has an impact on protein could be detrimental,” says Turkington. “We hear this concern from colleagues in Australia, that they don’t recommend planting barley on a pulse crop, and that was the general feeling here also.”

Producers have traditionally veered away from planting barley on field pea stubble due to the risk of increasing soil nitrogen fertility to the point that protein levels increase, making malting barley unacceptable to maltsters. But Turkington says they did not see this in the field to a problematic extent, especially when a 50 per cent rate of nitrogen was used. A 100 per cent nitrogen rate following field pea generally resulted in slightly reduced net returns. Following canola or barley, net returns were marginally higher at a 100 per cent nitrogen rate. Fungicide applications tended to increase yield and quality, but benefits were equal to costs. Smith says that due to the design of the study, fungicides were used regardless of field conditions. He recommends that farmers make fungicide decisions based on environmental conditions or what they spot in the field. Turkington agrees. “We’ve worked with fungicides since the late 1990s, and invariably

your response is strongest when you have frequent rainfall and moderate temperatures and a disease issue building as the crop is coming out of stem elongation into flag leaf emergence,” he says. “If you’re just spraying as an insurance policy based on advertisements in the farm press, you may not necessarily see that economic response as frequently as you would want.”

The results Turkington and Smith suggest that the best returns result when producers plant on field pea stubble, apply nitrogen at a 50 per cent rate, and apply fungicide at the flag leaf stage. They caution against planting barley on barley, as this increases the risk of plant diseases and reductions in stand establishment, yield and quality over time. These recommendations can be tailored to different levels of risk aversion. More risk-averse farmers can eliminate fungicide applications, reducing the possibility of a downside on returns,

especially when barley is planted on a non-host crop such as field pea or canola. This also helps manage the risk of fungicide resistance developing among pathogen populations. “A very risk averse producer selecting system FP-50-No [field pea, 50 per cent N, no fungicide] would give up, on average, $28/ ha ($11.33/acre) to have lower risk,” the researchers write in the study. They argue that producers choosing to plant malting barley on canola or barley stubble will find it more profitable on average to plant on canola than barley stubble ($81/ha, or $33/acre). For producers who do not have pea stubble, the preferred system is to plant malting barley on canola stubble, use a 100 per cent nitrogen application rate, and apply fungicide. For those highly averse to risk, the best system is to plant malting barley on canola stubble, use a 50 per cent nitrogen rate and don’t apply fungicide. † Julienne Isaacs is a Winnipeg-based freelance writer and editor. Contact her at julienne.isaacs@gmail.com.

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SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Columns Off-farm income

Notes from the Great Wall Last January, Andy and his wife Pat spent a little over two weeks in China, visiting their son, who is teaching English in Beijing. While I didn’t get a chance to visit a farm in China, I did have a chance to talk to some farm women who were working at a food store at the foot of the Great Wall. One of the woman I spoke with did not want to tell me her name. She said she came from a farm and her parents, in their early 60s, were still farming. They grow three main high value crops. One was corn, which they sell to buyers. A second crop was apples, which they eat. Their third crop was grapes, which they sell to a winery. Over the years, the woman says her parents switched from growing wheat, barley and oats — which are seen as low value crops — to growing these higher value crops. They also grow sorghum for feed for their animals. Qing Zhom’s parents also farm, growing a similar mix of crops. Qing Zhom told me that farm families were allowed to have two children while the typical family in the village was allowed to have only one child. We had trouble understanding each other so the interview was short. Vicky was an older woman, divorced with a 19-year old son. Her parents had died and she used an interesting word. She said the farm they lived on was “re-allocated” which means the land was given back to the village. “What happens then,” I asked? Vicky said a committee in the village then assigns the land to another farmer who would expand his farm and work the extra land. We have to understand that no one is allowed to own farmland in China. Farmers get a 70-year lease, as do home owners. After the 70 years are up or the farmer dies, the land goes back to the village, and someone else gets the right to farm the land. During my trip I learned that most small farmers hire custom operators to seed and harvest their crops. Government “crop buyers” visit farms after harvest to try to buy the crops. They don’t have to try very hard —there are few other ways to sell crops. These small farmers don’t own much equipment, don’t need much storage and have limited need for marketing strategies. † Andy Sirski

Use puts to secure your portfolio A two-step strategy to insure your portfolio while you earn extra cash ANDY SIRSKI

n the past, I thought I could figure out which way the market was going. Now, I’m not so sure. But I can use puts as insurance to protect the value of my stock portfolio. First here’s what I want to accomplish: I want a portfolio that makes $1,000 a week, has downside protection and uses a teachable system I can share with Grainews or pass on to someone else to run my family’s portfolio in case something should happen to me. And, if the system could work for small investors so much the better. Here is it: I buy 3,000 shares of Silver

Wheaton in the U.S. market. As of September 4, this would cost just a little over C$100,000. You could start with less, if you preferred. After that, I used a twostep process. Step 2: On August 26, 2016, I bought a put two months out, for October 2016, with a strike of $23. The cost was about $0.50/share, or $1,500. If you think of it as price protection, it’s a cost of less than $200 per week for each of the eight weeks. Then, I sold a weekly call (in the U.S. market) for about $0.40/share, or $1,200. Over the eight weeks, the profits from the weekly calls less the $1,000 for the cost of the insurance will net me about $8,000. As the two months pass, you

can roll over the puts and buy puts two or three months out or go on to Step 3. Step 2: As share prices get closer and closer to a peak, say $US31, I’ll buy a far out put, say April, 2017 for probably about $4,500 (the April put isn’t listed but it will be by then, or I’ll buy the closest put), and keep selling weekly calls at the money for $1,200 a week. Now for some what ifs: • If the calls are exercised and the shares are sold, I can buy them back and keep going. • If you don’t have the money to buy 3,000 shares, buy fewer. You do need a critical number of shares to make this work. • If you don’t like the currency risk of working in U.S. dollars,

some Canadian shares offer weekly calls. • Make money faster by using 4,000 or 5,000 shares. † Andy Sirski is mostly retired. He plays with his grandchildren, runs a small tax business, manages his family’s investments and also publishes an electronic newsletter called StocksTalk. If you want to read it free for a month send and email to sirski@mts.net.

SENDING BEST WISHES Andy Sirski had a stroke at the end of August. As of September 4, he was recovering nicely in a Winnipeg hospital. Best wishes for a speedy recovery Andy! Leeann Minogue

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/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Columns Open field

The neighbours that spray together… How we make sharing a crucial piece of farm equipment work on our farm sarah Hoffmann

“

’m not dead, I’m just married!” These were my words to Grainews editor Leeann when she wondered if I was writing another column anytime soon. That was several weeks ago. Being married and also farming in two different locations has certainly blown my hair back these last several months. The logistical challenges, not to mention the challenges of two people getting used to different styles of farm management have not been minor, although they are

not the topic of this column. That might be better suited to a cup of coffee around the kitchen table. However, being part of a new farming community did prompt this column. Having new friends and neighbours has given me reason to both scratch my head and nod appreciatively as I observe how they run their businesses. It’s also given me a chance to explain how we run things on our farm. One area that has prompted questions is that of joint equipment ownership. We share a picker truck with one neighbour, a heavy harrow with another and our high clearance sprayer with a third. The last item is the one that elicits the most raised eyebrows when I tell fellow farmers in my husband’s community. It’s

one thing to share a piece of equipment that doesn’t get called into action during the crunch times, but a sprayer? My dad and our neighbour bought a sprayer together the season before I moved back to the farm, so it’s the only way I’ve farmed and I often take for granted how well the system works for us. Yes, spray windows can be short when skirting prairie cloudbursts and crop and weed conditions that change rapidly, but we’re on our seventh season and second machine. Here’s how we’ve made it work.

not been brand new, but they’ve been reasonably late model, low hour machines. Nobody likes fixing when she should be working and since cranky pieces of equipment don’t break down “fairly,” it’s best to have equipment that is in good condition. Otherwise, it’s easy for one person to feel like he or she is always the one fixing. Of course, the cost of major repairs, should they be needed, are shared.

1. Own good equipment

It’s very important to be on the same page in terms of maintenance and care for whatever piece of equipment you share. This spring we traded the Case

My dad contributed this point to my column. The two sprayers we’ve owned in partnership have

2. Pick a like-minded partner

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4410 sprayer that we shared with our neighbour in on a 4430. Our sprayer partner put a mini corn broom in the cab of the new sprayer and ever since the first acre, I don’t think he’s finished a spray job without sweeping out the cab. I’ve done likewise, motivated at least as much by guilt of leaving the cab worse than I found it than by my own sense of fastidiousness. It might seem like a finicky little thing, but it’s an indication of a bigger philosophy of care for your investment that means oil is checked daily and changed on time; broken parts are replaced as soon as possible; the machine is regularly put in the shed at night.

3. Keep things in perspective Both owners farm around 2,500 acres and there’s no reason that a machine with 120 foot booms, a 1,200 gallon tank and the capacity to glide across the field at 12 to 15 miles per hour can’t spray 5,000 acres per season. That said, there are times when I don’t get to use the sprayer the exact hour that I want to and I’m sure my neighbour feels the same way at times. But, I remind myself that if the cost of the machine wasn’t being spread over 5,000 acres, I certainly couldn’t afford a machine as large and comfortable as the one we have. If I had to spray my farm with a pull-type sprayer or a smaller machine that I had to fill more often, I still wouldn’t be getting to every field as quickly as I wanted.

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4. Communicate, communicate, communicate This is one piece of advice that applies to joint owners of equipment and newlyweds alike. Every spray season is different. Last year with dry conditions it didn’t really matter if I sprayed today, I could probably spray tomorrow. This year was different. Both my neighbour and I seeded our entire farms in about a two-week span, so our crops were basically all ready to spray at the same time. With adequate moisture and warm conditions, weeds grew quickly and windy days limited the available hours of good

By jonny hawkins

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SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Columns

photo: sarah hoffman

Sarah Hoffman shares a picker truck, a heavy harrow and yes, even this sprayer with various neighbours.

spraying conditions. Our spraying schedule was very dynamic this year. My partner and I usually talk at the beginning of the week during herbicide application season and make a rough plan. From there it’s often daily or even more frequent check-ins to decide on the next most important job. Sometimes I would start spraying peas in the morning before it got too warm and then I would clean up and he would spray Liberty on canola and then we’d be back to cereals by evening. I felt like I did a lot more clean outs this year than last, but there was very little downtime during the two weeks of herbicide spraying and everything got done on time. When it comes to cleaning out, communication is key. What herbicide was used last? Were the tank, booms and nozzles triple-rinsed if moving on to a sensitive crop? Hauling water is another area where good communication and collaboration result in happy farmers. We usually keep the water trailer parked at a central location and fill from there and while we don’t tender water to the field for each other, one of us can go load up and be back to the filling spot while the other is spraying. There’s probably a lot more that could be said about sharing equipment, but those are the key points for us. It is possible to share a critical piece of farming equipment as long as both owners have the right mindset. † Sarah Hoffman, formerly Sarah Weigum, grows pedigreed seed and writes at Three Hills, Alta. Follow her on Twitter: @sweigum.

By jonny hawkins

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/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Columns Soil and crops

Some combines I have known While we’re thinking harvest, Les Henry remembers some combines he’s loved

ith harvest sputtering off to a slow start we all have combines in mind. My barley (malt, I hope — perhaps wishful thinking) is safely in the bin and dry. It was my great pleasure to run Curtis Block’s S 680 for a few hours in that crop. For me, that marked 61 continuous years of running combines. I’ve watched the advance of technology from the seat of many of them. I’ll start with my first experience in 1955 on Brunswick Farm, near Milden, Sask., where I was raised. My father had poor eyesight and hired operators to run his combine. When I was 15 he decided I was old enough to do the job. Dad hired a local person to spend an afternoon with me to show me how to operate and set the machine. The day was cloudy and damp. All these years later I remember Mick Hurlburt (senior) remarking that it really was not a great day for thrashing so the final sample had some unthreshed heads.

Oliver 30 That first combine was an Oliver 30 Grain Master. The Milden area was littered with them — local dealer Lew Dugan was a great salesman. It had a 28-inch cylinder and 12-foot header. It was powered by a six-cylinder flat head Continental magneto ignition engine with a nice “throaty” rumble under load. The Oliver 30 was designed as a straight cut and worked well in that mode. The table canvas delivered the material to a cross conveyor with a raddle that delivered the material to the cylinder with little turning. By the time I came along in 1955 all crop was swathed (15 feet) and picked up with a crude drum pickup with steel teeth. We had few rocks in our clay soil but one dark night a fist size rock went in, lodged in the cylinder and instantly killed the motor. Sudden silence. It bent three rub bars that had to be removed, taken to town to get straightened, and put back in. Running lights were those provided by the 55 MH tractor plus a 100 watt six volt bulb hung on the operator’s platform and connected to the tractor battery. Removal of the rub bars waited until morning. Swaths went in as a narrow ribbon so not all of the 28-inch cylinder was properly utilized. The capacity was small and travel speed was low in a good crop. We often joked that you had to put up a stick to make sure you were moving. Barley and oats thresh much easier than wheat so we could speed up a bit. I remember a long day when Dad and I binned almost 1,000 bushels of barley. That would take an hour or less with modern machines. There was no unloading auger so all dumps were a stop and snug the truck in close to dump by gravity. We had “modern” conveniences of hydraulic table lift with the tractor and a remote thresher engaging lever that could be reached from the tractor seat so it was a one man (or in my case boy) job. The main limitation of that combine was the 90 degree turn in the cross conveyor. If the cylinder plugged, we had to remove the cross conveyor to get at the cylinder. I have not-so-fond memories of

Cockshutt 132 After three years of the Oliver 30 I was finished high school and Dad traded the Oliver for a used Cockshutt 132 self-propelled combine. It had a 15-foot header and pickup attachment. There was only one table and the reels were removed and pickup attached to the same table — a several hour job for me. Today, a change from pickup to straight cut header is a few minutes’ job. One year Dad was in hospital so a local lad was hired to truck. Many dumps were taken on the fly, with the combine operator (me) using hand signals to guide the truck driver. It was a thrill to be able to do it. I had learned the trick as a 14-year old truck driver taking dumps from a Massey 27. The 132 had a 32-inch cylinder with separating area of the same width. The 137 was the same combine but with 37-inch straw walkers. The 132 had hydraulic table lift and a hydraulically driven variable speed mechanism activated by a foot pedal. The operator platform was low down and the operator sat right in the dust kicked up from the pickup, auger and feeder chain. Goggles were a must on a windy day. At that time we swathed most of the cereal grains but straight cut the flax. Flax was always seeded late and matured late so it was an October job. Cool weather with not much dust and a nice job. Straight cutting flax is a favourite of mine, but I have not had a chance for many years.

The first combine I ran, back in 1955, was an Oliver 30 Grain Master. The capacity was small and travel speed was low in a good crop. There was no unloading auger.

Case K12 Another combine I have operated to straight cut flax was a Case K12. It had the operator’s platform on the right hand side. The elder Mr. MacGregor near Zealandia, Sask., had a field of flax to combine on a Thanskgiving weekend in October 1958 and hired me to run his Case K12 while he trucked. It was a nice clean crop, the combine worked well and it was a fun job. It had a manual variable speed mechanism with a pull lever with notches but it worked fine. The good part of that job was that I made $100 for a weekend’s work — big money in those days, $850 in today’s dollars. In 61 years many changes have taken place in combines but one thing has stayed much the same. It takes about half an hour to fill the hopper (grain tank) with an ordinary wheat crop, 20 minutes for barley and less for oats. And it is still a thrill to see the crop feed in and the grain pour in the hopper and then to the truck or cart. This is No. 1 in a series; the second part will come later in the winter. † J.L.(Les) Henry is a former professor and extension specialist at the University of Saskatchewan. He farms at Dundurn, Sask. He recently finished a second printing of “Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water,” a book that mixes the basics and practical aspects of soil, fertilizer and farming. Les will cover the shipping and GST for “Grainews” readers. Simply send a cheque for $50 to Henry Perspectives, 143 Tucker Cres, Saskatoon, SK, S7H 3H7, and he will dispatch a signed book.

The second combine I ran was a self-propelled model: a Cockshutt 132. Because the operator sat right in the dust, goggles were a must on a windy day.

photo: www.yesterdayscombines.com

les henry

Dad holding the flashlight while I dealt with that issue. But, at that age anything is possible. I ran that combine for three years and was always happy to pick up the last swath. My sister Mona and her husband Roy Gates farmed nearby. Roy would sometimes come along with his “huge” Massey 90 to help. It was a great joy to see him pull in and know the job would be much smaller.

I couldn’t find a picture of the picture of the Case K12 but this SP-12 is likely the U.S. version of the same machine. I ran this machine for Mr. MacGregor from Zealandia, straight cutting flax.

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Columns Understanding market bulls and bears

Bumper crops bring on the bears World events and good world production are putting pressure on grain prices Brian wittal

everal world events are underway that could impact markets. The U.S. Federal Reserve is still saying it will raise interest rates this fall. This would further depress the Canadian dollar, which should help on the price competitive side of things when we’re selling our grains into world markets. Earlier this summer, the effects of Brexit on world markets were still a big unknown. After the initial jolt immediately after the vote, the reality of the situation is that nothing much has changed and markets have been little affected so far. However, it could be another story altogether when the actual separation takes place. A bigger issue is Canada’s ongoing dispute with China and their demand to reduce the canola import dockage maximum from 2.5 per cent down to one per cent which could virtually shut off shipments to China altogether. This is not a good scenario as we ship about 40 per cent of our can-

ola to China yearly. Since China backed off its initial September 1, 2016, deadline to implement this change during our Prime Minister’s August visit, the problem has been postponed, but is not yet resolved. Chinese crushers prefer to crush Canadian canola as the oil yield and meal quality is much higher than what they get from locally grown rapeseed. Many see this low dockage requirement as a political manoeuvre by the Chinese government to slow canola imports and force local crushers to buy rapeseed from government stocks to reduce the carryout of the large rapeseed inventories the government currently holds. Regardless of the reason, implementing low dockage requirements would slow down exports of Canadian canola to our No. 1 customer in a big way. We could be sitting with excess stocks come year end, which won’t help canola prices improve any time soon.

Global production It’s also important, of course, to keep an eye on global crop production. Overall, world crop production looks to be average to above average.

The EU crop overall looks to be about average, but some countries such as France are experiencing fairly major production losses due to weather, which will allow imports into the EU from the former Soviet regions.

Keep an eye on global crop production Russia’s production continues to grow year over year. Russia is able to sell very aggressively due to its low currency valuation. This has helped push wheat futures down to 10-year lows. Grain prices have fallen between 15 and 30 per cent over the past three months mainly due to the above-average world production, and world supplies that will be more than adequate to carry us through to the next crop. Add to that a slumping world economy which reduces overall demand for grains and we have a situation where we are building world grain inventories to record levels that will likely take two

or more years to work through before we see any kind of a real price rebound. The North American harvest is underway. The United States Department of Agriculture and Statistics Canada are both predicting an above average crop. This will not help market prices. Excess rains across parts of the Prairies has caused some production and quality loss issues and the most recent Stats Canada report showed a smaller than expected canola production estimate which was somewhat supportive to canola futures for a day or two but not long. Weather conditions across much of the Prairies have been excessively wet through July and August and forecasts are not seeing any real change to this for the fall. If this wet weather persists we will face a lot of harvest quality issues, which won’t help improve returns to producers.

Your harvest strategies With the forecast for a wet, cool fall and early cold winter, focus on getting your grain in the bins as fast as possible to maintain quality to maximize returns per acre from that crop.

What are you harvest management capabilities in a wet year? Do you have enough aeration or drying capacities? Can you get your grain dried elsewhere, and at what cost? Is there a market for tough grain near you? What are the discounts? These are all questions you need to ask yourself. Harvesting grain tough may be a better strategy than leaving it in the field to dry and losing quality to weather conditions. You can always dry tough grain later, or take a delivery discount at the elevator, which should be cheaper than a grade discount. See what grain companies are quoting for drying costs this fall, or ask about tough and damp discounts rates are. Do the math and see what makes the most sense. If the crop is as big as many are predicting, and if overall quality is poor, the only thing that is going to differentiate your grain from the rest (and hopefully improve your net return per acre) might be the quality of the grain in your bin! † Brian Wittal has 30 years of grain industry experience, and currently offers market planning and marketing advice to farmers through his company Pro Com Marketing Ltd. (www. procommarketingltd.com).

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SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Columns Guarding Wealth

Heading to the colonies After Brexit, some Brits may be taking a look at Canadian farmland

By Andrew Allentuck

I will wake the rooster and be the one who decides when it’s time to quit. I will succeed by working with whatever Mother Nature provides and place my respect where it is earned. I will actively pursue perfection.

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ritish farmers’ interest in moving to Canada is rising in the wake of the U.K.’s June vote to leave the European Union. The Economist, a British newsweekly, reported that the urge to move somewhere else among all residents of the United Kingdom is at “an all-time high,” spiking dramatically as it became obvious that Britain’s membership in the EU would eventually be history. Among the expected casualties of the secession, farmers are expected to be badly hit. And they know it. Some are testing Canada for a fresh start. There are already relocation inquiries from British farmers, who stand to lose much or most of their income when EU agricultural subsidies end. Canada is relatively close to Britain compared to other Commonwealth countries such as Australia, and cannot be seen as the “enemy,” as some characterize the EU. “We will see some British farmers coming,” says realtor Murray Gibbons, a specialist in farm properties in Waterford, Ontario, an hour’s drive southwest of Hamilton. “We have had inquiries from them.” The inquiries are just a trickle so far, but more will come, Gibbons says. The majority of farmers are not yet ready to quit Britain’s meadows. The British way of life is different from Canada’s vast distances from town to town and, of course, they don’t have our bitter winters. Yet the incentives to leave Britain are potentially huge. Those farmers who stay put will have to survive life without EU subsidies. Some will move to subsistence farming as a way of surviving a decision to stay. Some will leave in order to preserve their standard of living. “As much as 55 per cent of U.K. farmers’ total income comes from supports by the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) direct transfers to farmers,” notes Lucia Zitti, an economist for the National Farmers Union, the largest farm lobby and research group in the U.K. “That means less than half of farm income is from sales in markets. In the heavily subsidized sectors such as livestock and grains, if EU income supports are removed, farms will not be viable.” It would not be affordable for an independent U.K. to match EU CAP subsidies, says a major agricultural research firm, Agra

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Europe, a specialist in the EU subsidy system. Once the U.K. or England (the Scots might choose to leave the U.K. in order to remain with Europe) leave the EU, EU subsidies will be lost. There are further EU subsidies for very undeveloped regions of the U.K., such as Cornwall in the southwest where per capita incomes are less than 75 per cent of the EU average. To maintain farm incomes at present levels, an independent British government would have to make up lost EU subsidies when Brexit turns from political direction to policy. How farmers are compensated by an independent government will depend on what Parliament does to make up for lost income. Farm prices may have to rise. That would make them less competitive with subsidized foods still coming from the EU. Lenders might stiffen credit conditions for farmers with stressed incomes. It might even be harder for British farmers to buy seed and fertilizer. There may also be new rules and restrictions on workers from Eastern Europe who travel to Britain to work during harvests. If the U.K. makes a complete break with the EU, which seems in the cards, the outlook for farming without compensating payments to make up for the loss of subsidies is gloomy. One estimate is that only the most efficient tenth of British farmers would be able to survive without subsidies.

The price of freedom If there is free trade and no direct payments from the EU, the U.K.’s National Farmers Union estimates that farmers would have estimated average annual losses of 24,000 Euros (C$34,000) — 50 per cent of their total income, Zitti says. “If World Trade Organization model of price stability is adopted, British tariffs which penalize imports would be cut by half,” Zitti says. “With no direct subsidy payments to British farmers, losses would rise to 36,000 Euros (C$51,900) per farm. That would be about 75 per cent of present farm incomes.” Farming of many crops would have to end, she adds. Another possibility is that much of the ag sector’s losses could be made up by redirection of the pay-

» continued on page 28

/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Columns » CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27

photos: thinkstock

Heading to the colonies

Ontario realtor Murray Gibbons says we’ll see some British farmers relocating to Canada after Britain leaves the European Union.

ments that the U.K. government will no longer pay into the EU farm subsidies program. However, farming accounts for only one per cent of British GDP; the ag sector does not have a lot of muscle in making government policy. Moreover, there is no certainty that the government could make up with domestic subsidies what is lost by ending of EU subsidies. After all, 40 per cent of the EU’s budget goes to agriculture. Funds of that scale would be hard for the British government to match. British farmers may have no choice but to take up other work or emigrate if they cannot compete with products from farms still subsidized within the EU. Ironically, British farmers who want to export to the EU will still have to comply with all EU labelling and packaging rules.

Land prices

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Not surprisingly, the price of farmland in the U.K. fell this year, according to Frank Knight, a real estate agency. The price decline before the Brexit vote was 3.2 per cent during the three-month period from December 31, 2015 to March 31, 2016. That was the largest drop since the end of 2008. Savills, a global property agent headquartered in the U.K. expects farm property prices to fall over the next few years: 4.5 per cent in 2016, 3.8 per cent in 2017 and 1.7 per cent in 2018. The market for U.K. farmland is relatively illiquid. Farmers are holding on for a while to see what happens, Zitti says. Yet other parts of the U.K. property market have seized up. A few large real estate trusts have been squeezed by unitholders who want to sell out. The funds, which own office towers and shopping centres, have cut payback by as much as 17 per cent from clients’ present unit values or have stopped redemptions entirely, reported The Economist. Abundant land at relatively low prices will attract British farmers to Canada, says Dan Mazier, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, the Manitoba farm lobby and research organization. “British farmers may come to Canada seeking a more stable business model,” Mazier says. Yet British farmers would be exchanging supply controls for quotas in Canadian supply management. They could go to market gardening and turn out premium priced fruits and vegetables in southern Canada. But scaling up for grain farming could be a challenge. Even so, our land is cheap compared to theirs. The average price of British farmland is the equivalent of about C$14,400 per acre. Cash from the sale of a British farm could buy a Canadian farm for as little as a few thousand dollars an acre for western cultivated grain land. Moving from the U.K. to Canada would not be easy, warns Don Forbes, a farm financial planner in Carberry, Manitoba. “There are relocation costs, immigration issues and differences in farming practice, but the laws are similar. Heading out to what were once ‘the colonies’ would, in a sense, be history repeating itself.” † Andrew Allentuck is author of “When Can I Retire? Planning Your Financial Future After Work” (Penguin, 2011).

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Columns Can’t take the farm from the boy

Making the big move Toban Dyck

hings are changing for my wife and me. We moved back to the farm in our 30s with a rough plan for how taking over the family operation could unfold. That was in 2012. That plan has changed, and it’s currently unfolding. At least, in part. I’ve been here before. I know how to compose myself. I don’t know what will come next, but I do know that once the world stops spinning, things will come into focus. Right now, my days are a series of fast-paced, blurred, disparate actions. Right now, I’m caught up in change and I don’t know where I’ll land. This column is about farming. But this column is also about change. We’re in the thick of it. The meat. And right now, it feels too real to take lightly and too surreal to consider seriously. I know what white mould looks like in soybeans. I didn’t before 2012. I can identify symptoms of root rot, water stress and bacterial blight on soybeans, as well. I couldn’t before 2012. And, if you remember from a previous column, I know with an unsettling degree of intimacy, what gophers can do to a crop. (I also know how to manage that problem — I’d say more but I don’t know who’s listening in on this conversation.) I didn’t before this year. I out myself as a green, new-toit-all farmer on a regular basis in this column. But at what point should that change? I have an off-farm job in the ag sector now, surrounded by smart people who know lots about growing crops, transporting crops and developing sound policy surrounding crops. And I’ve learned a thing or two.

will look like once all that pushing comes to an end. The rewards, I’m hoping, are innumerable. The challenge, though — and it’s not a small one — is to replace the thoughts and questions that bounced around our heads for four years with new, longdistance goals. Change is hard. I’ve become so used to being a green farmer that I’m not sure how to compose myself as a producer who knows a thing or two. We’ve become so used to living in a mobile home on the farmstead that to live in the main house with no one else around will seem quite foreign to us. You push toward something for so long that a breakthrough is barely recognizable and is as terrifying as it

is rewarding. Pushing becomes normal. It becomes comfortable. Our life as farmers is starting to look very different, this much I know. My family home, my family yard, will be in our hands. It is this blend of excitement and nerves that is causing my world to spin, my world to seem uncertain in a good way, my world to seem blurred and full of disparate actions. Our wheat yielded well. Our soybeans are ripening at a healthy pace and are poised to do well (knock on wood). And I will need to start picking up boxes for moving. These are facts. They help ground me. Next time we talk, I’ll have harvested the soybeans I planted on 120 acres of recently-broken pastureland;

photo: toban dyck

Living in limbo is hard, but so is making a huge change

Toban Dyck’s wheat yielded well. Toban and his father are running the equipment — Toban stepped out of the truck to take this picture. I will have harvested the soybeans on the other 110 acres I rent; and I may have purchased 80 acres of farmland. Oh yeah, and we’ll be living in my childhood home. It’s scary only because it’s very real. My wife and I could not be more excited and grateful. We

don’t know what this change will bring, but we’re still full of the same giddy joy we had when we first moved back to the farm four years ago. † Toban Dyck is a freelance writer and a new farmer on an old farm. Follow him on Twitter @tobandyck or email tobandyck@gmail.com.

“We provide safe, quality food to the consumer. We can be honest and transparent because there’s nothing to hide.” Ravi Bathe, Agvocate Poultry and Berry Producer

The big change My parents bought a house in town. My wife and I will be moving from the mobile home we purchased through Kijiji in 2012 to the home I grew up in. My trumpet is exactly where I left it 20 years ago. The night table I made in school is still there, too. For four years, I have written this column from that mobile home. For four years, I have mowed my patch of lawn and my parents mowed theirs. All of this is about to change. I will write this column and others from my dad’s old office, looking east over the machine shed, workshop, and a half-section of soybeans. We now own the farmstead. The yard is now our responsibility. It’s a large step for everyone. It was four years of limbo. We were happy — very happy — but we had no idea what would happen next nor when it would happen. For four years, my parents, my wife, and I pushed towards discerning what the opening stages of this succession plan could look like. One (me) gets used to pushing and being in limbo. One (me) forgets to think about what life

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/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Columns Hart attacks

A sober message about sobriety Eat, drink, be merry, but there are some times when we need to get serious By Lee Hart

t was about 30 years ago this fall I drove a good friend to an alcohol treatment centre in Indian Head, Sask. I didn’t even know at the time he had a drinking problem. But he did and his employer did. So he went for a 28-day, dry out, getyour-head-on-straight treatment program. Pine Lodge is still there. I drove past it about a year ago. My friend had a hell of a journey over the following 30 years. He stayed sober for a while, was in and out of a couple of other treatment programs but always went back to drinking. He lost his job. Lost the respect of friends and co-workers, his marriage was in constant and often insane turmoil, police called, nights in drunk tanks, impaired driving charges, some great days, even some great weeks here and there and then back into the ever declining, chaotic world of an alcoholic. And eventually the disease killed him. He couldn’t get honest with himself, and face the challenges of living life on life’s terms. Fear took him to an early grave. A great guy, a great mind, a great talent all gone too soon. In the last 10 to 15 years of his declining condition I got pretty involved in the world of alcoholics and alcoholism. I don’t want to sound like an addictions guru. I really don’t have a clue. But here are a few things I have come to believe about alcoholism.

• Alcohol will kill you. If you’re an alcoholic, and only you can decide if you are, there is no cure. Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. Are their indicators? Is alcohol causing a problem in your life? If you drink when you don’t want to, or if you drink more than you intend when you do start drinking there’s a chance you’re an alcoholic. But it’s not hopeless, there is an effective solution — a 12-step program of recovery for alcoholics. • Denial and fear are the biggest enemies of alcoholics. “Oh, I don’t have a problem, it’s not me, it’s everyone else. If you had to live with this person or the pressures I have, you’d drink too”. Or, “I just like to drink, I can quit anytime I want, I can manage this on my own, I don’t need anyone’s help.” Or “I can’t be an alcoholic, I’d be a loser, what would people think?” • As big, tough, mean, as independent, as wise, as smart, or as successful as you think you are, alcohol will rob the alcoholic of everything they consider important — family, home, money, business or career, respect, a working brain, their health and it will eventually leave them dead in a ditch. It is a chronic, progressive and fatal disease. • If you are living with an alcoholic, you can’t fix them. Love, threats, nagging, violence — nothing can fix an alcoholic until they decide they are ready to ask for help.

There are three outcomes of alcoholism: jail, insanity and death. Get help for yourself or someone you love.

One in five is too many A poll taken by Mainstreet Research in late August found that one in five Saskatchewan residents thinks it’s OK to drink and drive, as long as you’re on a quiet road, and not going far. Eight per cent of the survey respondents said they had driven under the influence. Keep in mind — these are the people that are not embarrassed to tell the surveyors the truth. We all know farm living isn’t always convenient, especially when it comes to getting home after a couple of glasses of wine with dinner, or a night at a friend’s bonfire. We can’t hop on the subway or hail a cab. This is probably the issue at the root of the survey results. But convenience isn’t everything. Over the years, drunk driving has touched every farm community in one way or another. Don’t be on the stupid side of this survey. Plan a ride, spend the night, ask a friend, or call your kids to pick you up. We don’t want to lose any Grainews readers. Staff

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Columns • Treatment centres, and there are many across the country can’t cure alcoholics. They can help. They can provide the alcoholic with a vital opportunity to get their mind clear, get their right thinking back on track, get them pointed in the right direction, but ultimately those serious about recovery need to follow up with a 12-step program for alcoholics. The program is about learning to change you, not anyone else. It is a lifelong process. You do it one day at a time, and you can live a pretty wonderful life, but you can never lose sight of the recovery program. • You’re an alcoholic, get over yourself. It is a disease. There is

no shame in being an alcoholic. If you had virtually any other chronic ache or pain or discomfort, you would probably seek medical attention — get some help, ask for help. You’re doctor can’t heal you, but he or she for starters can point you toward the solution. I have talked to students attending the University of Calgary medical school and they want to learn more about how to deal with alcoholics and alcoholism. There is no medicine that works. • Farmers can’t be alcoholics. Is that true? I know a couple. But look around, maybe it’s a husband, wife, daughter, son or some other family member.

Maybe it is the farm worker, the fertilizer dealer, the crop consultant, the elevator operator, the banker, accountant, lawyer, RCMP officer, your local veterinarian, the bus driver, a teacher or school principal — get the picture? No one from any walk of life is immune from the disease. • Surrender. If you think you have a problem with alcohol, surrender. You can’t beat it on your own. You have to concede to your inner most self you have a problem and ask for help. And help is out there by the truckload. “Surrender to win” is the adage. As one alcoholic priest T:10.25” wrote, “no one in the history of mankind in any battle has ever

surrendered to die... they surrender to live.” I get on a soapbox sometimes because I hate what this disease does to people. Occasionally I have a chance to talk to inmates at the Calgary Corrections Centre, one of the jails on Spy Hill in Calgary. They aren’t bad people. They’re young men mostly who have done stupid, criminal, harmful things to people or institutions in society and yes they need to face the consequences. But virtually every one of them can trace their circumstance back to a problem with alcohol or drugs or both. The three outcomes of alcoholism: jail, insanity and death.

If you think you have a problem with alcohol, get some help. Ask for help. Go online and Google it. Find a meeting for a 12-step recovery program for alcoholics near you and grab on. Chances are there is a group meeting tonight or tomorrow within 15 minutes of where you live. You are always welcome. Taking a chair at that first meeting may be the most difficult thing you ever do, you’re no different than anyone else. But it can also be the most valuable step you take — it can save your life, give you a life back. † Lee Hart is a field editor with Grainews based in Calgary. Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com.

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/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Columns Agronomy management

Seven steps to accurate soil testing Get your money’s worth from your fertilizer by using good soil test practices But only about 10 per cent of Prairie farmers soil test regularly. You likely do not need to soil test every one of your fields, each year. But testing selected fields each year is a wise decision to assist with your fertilizer planning to ensure you are spending your fertilizer dollars wisely.

Ross McKenzie

any Prairie farmers spend $250,000 or more on fertilizer each year. Are you getting your moneys worth? Applying fertilizer nutrient that is not needed is a waste of money. If you don’t apply a needed fertilizer, you’ll see a loss in yield and revenue. Soil testing can provide an excellent picture of the nutrient levels in each field and can be very useful in fertilizer planning.

photo: thinkstock

1. Go out with the sampler

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If you don’t normally go out to the field with the person taking your soil samples, you should. Here’s why: 1. Getting out in the field gives you a close up look at your soils. View the depth of top soil and subsoil, view the structure of your soil and develop a sense of the soil variability in each field. 2. Ensure the right fields are sampled. 3. Ensure soil samples are taken from representative areas of your fields. No one knows your fields better than you! 4. Ensure that the correct depths are sampled and at least 20 soil cores are taken from each field to get a good representation of each field Riding along with the soil sampler can be a great learning opportunity and ensure the sampling is done correctly.

2. Sample in late fall Soil sampling just before spring seeding gives the most accurate measurement of soil nutrient status. But spring is often too short and rushed to allow for soil sampling and analysis in time to develop fertilizer plans. Fall sampling is often the most realistic. Some fertilizer dealers, labs and agronomists are promoting soil sampling right after combining. They often state there is not enough change in soil nutrient levels over the winter to worry about. In some cases, this is correct, such as when soils are dry between harvest and freeze-up. Or, if combining isn’t completed until early October. But, if soil is warm and moist for four to six weeks after harvest, 20 to 40 pounds of nitrogen per acre or more can be released in a fertile soil. Significant release of N and other nutrients will impact nutrient levels and should be taken into consideration to make good fertilizer decisions. Soil sampling right after combining may not always give the best information. I much prefer sampling in late fall after soil temperature has dropped to 5 to 7 C. Hopefully this will more closely represent conditions in the spring. But remember that soil fertility is very dynamic and nutrient levels may change depending on environment conditions. My concern with late fall sampling is that availability of nitrate-nitrogen (NO3--N), phosphate-phosphorus (PO4-P), potassium (K+), and sulphate-sulphur (SO4-2-S) can fluctuate from fall to spring, particularly if soils are moist with warmer than normal conditions. Excessively wet conditions in spring can lead to denitrification. Also, nitrate and sulphate are quite mobile in soil and may leach downward under wet soil conditions, particularly in sandy soils.

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Columns Generally, I do not recommend sampling frozen soils because of the difficulty in obtaining representative sampling depths.

3. Know the common sampling methods Many prairie fields have undulating to rolling topography resulting in soil variability. This is a major challenge when deciding how to take representative soil samples. If you have rolling topography, work with your agronomist to help you decide how to sample each field. There are three more common sampling methods: 1. Random sampling of a whole field. This works best in fields with relatively uniform soil and topography. Take representative soil samples throughout the entire field, but make sure to avoid unusual areas. 2. Sampling soil/crop management zones. This works best in fields with variable soil and topography. Map uniquely different zones based on soil characteristics, topography, and/or crop yield potential, then take representative soil samples within each management zone. This method works well in fields with variable soil. Each management zone can be randomly sampled or benchmark sampled. Consider working with an agronomist to prepare a soil/crop management zone map for each field. 3. Benchmark soil sampling. Sample a one- to two-acre area that is representative of the majority of the field or soil/crop management zone. Sample the same area each year. When a field is variable in soil or topography, three or more benchmark locations may be needed to represent the different field areas. When selecting soil/crop management zones use crop yield maps, aerial photos, topographic maps, soil salinity maps and/or satellite imagery information. Also, use your personal field knowledge and observations of crop growth differences (crop establishment, vigour, colour and growth) and landscape/ topography of each field to identify where different soil types occur.

six-inch depth, as these nutrients are much less mobile in soil. Some agronomists prefer to only sample one or two depths making the sampling process simple and faster. If only the zero to six inch and six to 12 inch depths are sampled, you don’t know of the amount of N or S that may be present in the subsoil. This information is important. After the 20 soil cores are taken, be sure to thoroughly mix each composite sample and layout the soil samples to completely air dry to stop nutrient changes. If moist soil samples are sent directly to the lab in sealed bags, soil microbes can alter the levels of plant available N, P and S causing incorrect estimates of soil nutrient levels. Or ship the soil samples in coolers to the lab over night.

6. Test for the right nutrients The important plant available macronutrients to test a soil

sample for are nitrate-nitrogen (NO3--N), phosphate-phosphorus (PO3-P), potassium (K+), and sulphate-sulphur (SO4-2-S). Determine plant available N, P, K and S in the zero to six and six to 12 inch depths and test for N and S in the 12 to 24 inch depth. Normally, there is no need to test for plant available calcium (Ca+2) or magnesium (Mg+2) as these nutrients are very rarely deficient in Western Canada. You can also test for the soil micronutrients copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), boron (B) and chloride (Cl). Testing for micronutrients every year is only necessary if one or more micronutrients are in the marginal or low range; otherwise testing every five years is fine. Also, the tests for B and Cl are not that reliable. Often soil analysis levels are interpreted as low for B or Cl, but crops do not respond to added fertilizer. The problem is with the soil test methodology and critical levels used, resulting

in unnecessary fertilizer recommendations. Determining soil organic matter, pH (a measure of soil acidity/ alkalinity) and electrical conductivity (E.C., a measure of salinity) are useful to monitor soil chemical properties of your fields. Some agronomists may recommend determining Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and determining base cation saturation ratios. Research has shown this is not a useful determination for making fertilizer recommendations for most soils or crops in western Canada. Finally, make sure the soil testing lab uses the correct soil test methods. For Alberta farmers, all soil test P calibration has been with the Modified Kelowna method since 1990, Alberta samples should be sent to a lab that uses this method. For Manitoba farmers, all soil test P calibration has been with the Olsen method (also referred to as the Bicarb method). For Manitoba farm-

ers, use a lab the uses the Olsen method. For Saskatchewan farmers, either method can be used to determine soil P. Other soil test P methods, such as the Bray method, have never been calibrated to Western Canada soils. It is my opinion that other methods that have not been calibrated for Western Canadian soils should not be used.

7. Get unbiased recommendations The process of soil test interpretation is the next step in the process. A fertilizer salesperson working on commission may not be your best source of unbiased advice. Make sure you seek the advice and opinion of one or two independent agronomists when developing your fertilizer plans for next spring. † Ross H. McKenzie, PhD, P. Ag., is a former agronomy research scientist. He conducted soil, crop and irrigation research with Alberta Agriculture for 38 years. He has also been an adjunct professor at the University of Lethbridge since 1993.

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4. Sample at least 20 sites I suggest taking a minimum of 20 soil sampling sites for each field, management zone or benchmark area. More sites means the samples will be more representative of your field. A common mistake is only taking six or seven soil cores from a field or management zone. This is not enough and can result in unreliable information and inaccurate fertilizer recommendations.

5. Sample at three depths Various sampling depths are suggested by agronomists. My preference is to separate each soil core into depth intervals of zero to six inches, six to 12 inches, and 12 to 24 inches. Place samples from these three depths into three clean plastic pails. Do this at each of the 20 sites sampled. Sampling three depths will give a good picture of the amounts of each nutrient and where the nutrients are located. Most of the soil test correlation research for nitrogen and sulphur in Western Canada has been done with sampling to 24 inches. For phosphorus and potassium, most soil test correlation research has been with the zero to

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/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Machinery & Shop Grainews in the field

When paired with the Gigant carrier, Heliodor 9 models offer a maximum working width of about 52.5 feet.

Updated compact discs from Lemken By Scott Garvey

urrounded by a group of Englishspeaking farm writers, Lukas Voss, a product specialist at Germany-based equipment manufacturer Lemken, walks around one of that brand’s Heliodor 9 compact discs in a farm field in Hungary in late June. The field demos were part of an international press event, held to show off Lemken’s 2016 equipment line. “It (the Heliodor 9) has the smallest discs but widest working widths,” he says about where that implement fits into the brand’s tillage offerings. “We’ve had this machine on the market since the beginning of this year. The Heliodor 9 replaces the Heliodor 8.” When paired with the Gigant trailing hitch system, the Heliodor 9 can be ordered with a maximum working width of 16 metres (about 52.5 feet). The Gigant carrier connects four independent, 4-metre Heliodor 9 implements together on two separate sections that can fold forward for road transport. The Heliodor 9s mount on the Gigant carrier via a three-point hitch linkage, and each hitch has a centre pivot to allow the Heliodors to follow ground contours independently. That enhances the system’s ability to easily follow irregular field surfaces. “In the bigger systems, we call them the Gigant systems,” says Voss. “We start with eight metres and go to 16 metres. In the previous years, we stopped at 12 metres. Now we have one more machine. The reason for it is farmers asked for more hectares per hour.” As part of the design update from the previous Heliodor 8 Series, the new 9 Series also gets 45 mm larger disc diameters, bumping them up to 510 mm. “In the Heliodor 8 generation we had 465 mm discs, and now we have 510,” he continues. “So that means we can work a

bit deeper. And also we have now a bit more bearing material.” Discs on the Heliodor mount to the frame with an individual linkage rather than a gang arrangement, so each disc can ride over obstructions, like stones, independently, while the others remain at the proper operating depth. “That’s something we have in all our compact discs,” Voss says. “Our objective is to have perfect ground penetration. So the machine will adapt to ground conditions.” All discs in each row face the same direction. The first row moves soil to the left. Discs in the second row face the opposite direction and move the soil back to the right. That, according to the company, improves the Heliodor’s ability to crumble and mix clumps and organic material. “The disc angle is 16.5 (degrees),” says Voss. “But they have a second angle, 10 degrees, to the ground. So they do not only cut the soil, they lift it up. They throw the soil a bit higher to get better mixing. That’s especially important in dry conditions.” With independent disc connections, the Gigant System allows farmers to set the working depth of the discs directly behind the tractor tires a little deeper to compensate for the tire tracks. That ensures a level field surface behind the implement. “In plowed ground you always have wheel marks from the tractor,” explains Voss. “That means you have to go deeper to eradicate those marks. But going deep means more pulling force and higher diesel consumption.” “Now we can go deeper with only some discs. When a farmer orders a Heliodor, he can say what his (tractor) wheel track width is and we can let down those discs more than the others. That means we can go faster and we don’t need to move so much soil.” “The idea for this Heliodor from the beginning was we wanted to have a machine you could use in different conditions. The

photos: scott garvey

The Heliodor 9 debuts along with an addition to the Rubin 12 Series

High field speeds and disc angle create mixing action by throwing up soil. main focus of this machine is shallow stubble cultivation. We use this implement also for seedbed preparation. It has the ability to level the field. When we have a lot of organic material we can use this machine for mixing it. With the high speed of the disc, we have a high mixing rate. That is why we can use this machine for a lot of different conditions. That’s why we have the Heliodor 9 in our product range.” But for producers who want a more aggressive tillage implement, Lemken offers the Rubin 12 compact disc. “Farmers wanted a machine that they can work deep in a field with a lot of organic material,” Voss says. “Farmers would use a cultivator in these fields, but with tines you have trouble with the organic material, because you don’t cut it. With the Rubin 12 we cut it and mix it in.” With a disc diameter of 736 mm, the Rubin 12 can work as deep as 20 cm. And

unlike the Heliodor, the Rubin 12 uses a symmetrical disc configuration. “On the Heliodor 9 all discs in each row are arranged the same way,” says Voss. “Here, on the Rubin 12, we have a different arrangement of the discs. We have a symmetrical disc arrangement. The benefit is we now have no side forces. Because of the disc angles, machines normally want to go to one side. In this machine we don’t have that problem with side forces, because we a 100 per cent symmetrical disc arrangement.” The Rubin 12 also has tine harrow teeth between the disc rows to help further break down clumps and mix organic material in with the soil. The Rubin 12 is available in working widths up to seven metres (23 feet). “We have a higher mixing intensity and it can handle more organic material,” says Voss. † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Machinery & Shop

Designed to be effective in stubble cultivation, the The Gigant System folds forward for Heliodor 9 can leave a level field surface after each pass. a narrow road transport width.

The Rubin 12 is now available in a 7 metre (23 feet) working width.

Harrow tines between the disc rows help break up and mix surface material.

By removing a few bolts, the Rubin 12 can be used without the rear roller/packers.

Lukas Voss demonstrates how to adjust the position of the harrow tines on the Rubin 12.

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/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Machinery & Shop

Tillage

Familiar brands, new tillage implements By Scott Garvey

ith a renewed interest in tillage all across the prairies and the need to deal with higher levels of corn residue in fields across the U.S. Midwest, it’s no surprise there were some new tillage tool introductions at the U.S. Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, in August. Here’s a look at what the familiar brands had at their exhibits.

Versatile Hitched to one of its new 360 FWA tractors, Versatile proudly debuted the new Viking vertical tillage tool at its display on the

show grounds. The company will also retail this machine in its Farm King implement line as the VT3000 “This is what we would consider a third generation vertical tillage tool,” said Trevor Jubinville, product manager for precision seeding and tillage. “The early adopters of this (VT) technology offered discs with a zero-degree gang angle. The next phase of innovation came when companies took a tandem disc and changed the gang angle slightly — but it was fixed — and put some different blades on it. With this third generation machine, we can change the gang angle from zero all the way to 16 degrees in four degree increments.”

The “third generation” Viking vertical tillage tool from Versatile will also be available under the company’s Farm King brand as the VT3000.

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photos: scott garvey

John Deere, Case IH and Versatile all showed new equipment at the U.S. Farm Progress Show

The idea behind the adjustable gang angle is it gives the machine a wider range of uses. Set at zero to four degrees, the Viking can be used at higher speeds in the spring to warm and dry out seedbeds. At higher angles it does a better job of chopping and burying residue in the fall. And it can sink down up to five inches if a producer wants that kind of aggressive tillage, but that will put some heavy demands on the tractor, forcing it to supply eight to 10 horsepower per working foot. “What makes this machine different from the others is, number one, that adjustable gang angle.” Jubinville adds. “Second, it’s a heavy-duty machine. It’s an eight by four main frame with six by four cross members of half (inch) wall tubing. So it’s heavy. It’s going to come in at 800 pounds plus to the foot. You need the weight to go into those hard fields in the fall.” For this model year, the gang angle adjustments must be made manually, but Jubinville says the company is working on a hydraulic adjustment feature that will likely show up as an available option sometime in 2017. Available working widths are 28-1/2, 32, 34 and 36 feet. “The blades are 6.5 mm (thickness) standard,” said Jubinville. “We don’t offer a thinner blade. We offer eight or nine inch blade spacing with 22 or 24 inch blades. The eight inch spacing is going to work real well with a 20 or 22 inch blade. Nine inch is going to work well with a 22 or 24 inch blade.” The gangs turn on heavy-duty bearings that the company warranties for seven years. Said Jubinville, “The idea is we’re not trying to force guys into a one-size-fits-all solution. We’re genuinely trying to offer something that’s going to perform well in a wide variety of conditions.”

Case IH Christopher Lursen, tillage marketing manager at Case IH, may have felt he wasn’t exactly the centre of attention at Case IH’s exhibit during the show. Only a few steps away was the concept Magnum robotic tractor which became a people magnet, attracting a non-stop crowd around it. But the brand did have a new tillage implement to show. The 255 Tiger-Mate field cultivator was just released prior to the

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Machinery & Shop show, and it will be available for delivery in time for spring 2017. It can be ordered in working widths all the way from a 22 to 60 feet. Up front, the cultivator uses a floating hitch for better ground contouring, and at the rear there are three soil re-consolidation packages to chose from. “There are three options,” said Lurson. “There’s the four-bar coil tine, a two-bar coil tine with a roller crumbler, which is typically used in prairie soils and a threebar spike with the Tiger crumbler.” The 255 uses five rows of shanks to allow for improved residue flow and ensure all the soil is touched by a shovel. “I think the biggest story with this machine is the productivity,” he added. “This machine is now capable of up to 10 m.p.h. Before, the max was eight. We’re not going with larger widths, it’s about trying to get more out of the machine we have. At 10 m.p.h. we’re looking at about an acre per minute with this 60-foot machine.” To get that speed, the shank design required some changes over those on the previous model. “We increased the amount of spring force on it by about 20 percent and also increased the shank thickness to hold the shank steady,” Lurson said.

John Deere At the green brand, the story was centred around an updated implement with more digital technology to control it. Deere now has its 2730 mated with an updated version of TruSet, which controls the implement through a screen in the tractor cab. Previously, it required a GreenStar 2630 monitor, but now it can be used with its own controller, so anyone with an older John Deere tractor or one from a different brand can still get all those adjustment features. “We’re now expanding the tractor compatibility,” said Nathan Kramer, product line marketing manger. “We’re going to have the TruSet compatibility kit. That allows us to take hydraulic flow from the tractor. All the brains will be built within our controller. We’re offering more advanced technology and features to really optimize the performance of our (tillage) tools.” When the 2730 and TruSet pair up, Deere believes that combination gives growers an implement that can meet a wider variety of demands and offer precise, sitespecific tillage that can be adjusted on the go. It is even capable of storing pre-sets to make on-the-go changes even easier. “This (development) journey really started about three or four years ago when we reached out to our customers when we were in the final development of our combination tool,” Kramer said. “They wanted a machine that could size residue and distribute it evenly across the entire width of the machine.” “With its four fully independent areas, starting with its front disc, ripper points, closing discs and our rear harrow attachments, it really gives us the ability to control a lot with our TruSet technology. We can adjust them all independently from one another. The TruSet technology can really ensure depth accuracy to 1/10 of an inch, in the cab on the go.” † Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

Viking gang angles can be adjusted manually from zero to 16 degrees.

The Case IH 255 Tiger-Mate field cultivator is capable of field speeds up to 10 m.p.h.

Settings on the John Deere 2730 combination tillage tool can be changed in-cab and on the go.

Shank thickness and spring tension has been increased to allow for faster field speeds.

An updated version of John Deere’s TruSet control allows for individual row adjustments on the 2730.

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/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Machinery & Shop

U.S. Farm Progress Show

Less common tillage implements A look at implements from brands that aren’t exactly household names in Canada By Mark Moore

f you get a thrill out of attending as many farm shows as you can reasonably get to in a season, you’ve likely noticed a few uncommon equipment brands displaying their wares. At the U.S. Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, in August, Mark Moore made a point of stopping by exhibits from a couple of those relatively uncommon marquees to check out the tillage equipment they offer North American farmers.

The Kongskilde 9200 Series works 1- to 1.5-inches deep without extra weights, so soil can be mixed with cut residue. With a five-way adjustable gang angle, trash can be cut through in one pass, making the UFO ideal for both spring and fall use. The adjustable feature allows the UFO to be set to an aggressive angle in the fall, and prep soil in the spring at a lesser degree. The unit uses what the company calls its triple-action

Danish firm Kongskilde offers its 9200 Series vertical tillage implement to North American farmers in working widths from 11 to 43 feet.

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SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Machinery & Shop

U.S. Farm Progress Show

A brand new bin sweep from GSI GSI introduces its Direct Gear Drive Power Sweep to boost durability and reliability By Mark Moore

Mark Moore of Moore Communications is a freelance journalist and photographer based in Wisconsin.

photo: mark moore

SI is introducing its new GSI Direct Gear Drive (DGD) Power Sweep to boost the durability and reliability of grain bin unload equipment, as well as significantly improving performance during the unload phase. According to a company spokesman onhand at the Farm Progress Days, held recently in Boone, Iowa, the new design has cut the number of moving parts in the centre well, resulting in easier maintenance, less downtime and more efficient clean out. GSI will offer the DGD Power Sweep in its 15to 48-foot bins with 8-inch augers, and in 24- to 72-foot bins with 10-inch augers. The units feature a heavy-duty gearbox with an internal clutch, meaning fewer moving parts. A single piece back shield with torque tubing provides greater sweep auger rigidity. A design upgrade lets the sweep get closer to the floor and to the bin wall for more complete clean out. An optional control can be added, so if the centre well gets plugged, the closest adjacent intermediate well can still operate to empty the bin. Longer lasting steel roll bearings are in all wells, instead of nylon, allowing for smooth operation. The Power Sweep will be available in January from GSI dealers. †

Top: GSI’s new GSI DGD Power Sweep boosts the durability and reliability of the brand’s previous offering. Bottom Left: The new design lets the sweep get closer to the floor and to the bin wall for more complete clean out.

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SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Cattleman’s Corner The markets

Good thing consumers are eating High beef and pork production continues to weigh on the market Jerry Klassen Market Update

ed and feeder cattle prices continued to trend lower in August and early September as the market absorbs the year-over-year increase in beef production. Alberta packers were buying fed cattle in the range of $133 to $136 in late summer; values we haven’t seen since January of 2014. Feedlot margins continue to erode and the industry has now experienced a solid 12 months of negative margins, sometimes exceeding over $300 per head. Buying power for feeder cattle has deteriorated and demand has shifted due to lower incomes from the feedlot sector. During the first week of September in central Alberta, larger-frame medium-flesh Angus-based steers averaging just over 800 pounds were trading for $175. At the same time, 600-pound Charolais-based steer calves were struggling to hold above $205 in the same region. These markets have adjusted to the year-over-year increase in the 2015 U.S. calf crop. The U.S. July and August slaughter was 300,000 head above last year. On the flip side, consumer demand for beef appears to be improving, which should cause cattle prices to slowly strengthen during final quarter of 2016 and stay firm until March of 2017.

NO SLOW DOWN IN PRODUCTION Each month, I include projections for quarterly U.S. beef and pork production. Once again, I want to draw attention to the 2016 third-quarter estimate of 6.48 billion pounds which is nearly 400 million pounds above last year. September will have the largest weekly average production levels and we’ll only see supplies decrease in mid-October. I often tell producers this is the most important piece if information when making your marketing plan or hedging program. In 2017, the lowest production occurs in the first quarter followed by sharp year-over-year increases in the second and third quarters. U.S. consumers continue to increase food spending. Year-todate at home food sales were up 4.1 per cent over year-ago levels during the summer; away-fromhome food spending was running 7.8 per cent higher than last year. These positive numbers are largely due to the healthy labour market. Since the end of the recession, we’ve seen 2.1 million jobs added each year and this trend is expected to continue. The August U.S. unemployment rate came in at 4.9 per cent under the long-term average of 5.8 per cent. In addition to growing employment levels, wage growth has experienced a 2.3 per cent rise over the past year. Consumer behaviour suggests as income increases, the first thing they like to do is eat out. After this craving is satisfied, then they save up for additional material items or

a fresh experience such as travel. Keep in mind most consumers gain three to five pounds on average during the holiday season of November and December.

LOWEST MARKET POINT AHEAD The lows for the fed cattle market are expected to occur in September and first half of October. I’m expecting the fed market to percolate higher in November and December. In January, beef consumption usually decreases but then surges in March. The highest prices for fed cattle will likely occur in March. In April, weekly beef production on both sides of the border will slowly increase the

U.S. QUARTERLY BEEF PRODUCTION Quarter

2013

2014

2015

Est. 2016

Est. 2017

6,172

5,868

5,664

5,935

6,050

6,517

6,183

5,857

6,187

6,470

6,608

6,179

6,068

6,480

6,710

6,420

6,021

6,109

6,360

6,570

Total

25,717

24,251

23,698

24,962

25,800

market will function to encourage demand through lower prices during the summer and early fall of 2017. Feeder cattle prices are expected to follow a similar pattern. I’ve advised many cow-calf producers to hold onto their calves through the winter. If you are holding yearlings, this may be the year you

look to finish the cattle yourself or in a custom feedlot so that you will receive the most value. My dad always said you can work outside during the day but the money made on the operation is sharpening your pencil in the evenings doing your market analysis and developing your marketing or feeding plan. Feed barley was trading

in Lethbridge at $158/mt in early September. Large supplies of barley and alternate feed grains will be burdensome throughout the crop year. This will result in lower costs per pound gain and be supportive for feeder cattle through the winter. There won’t be a “home run” strategy this year because U.S. beef production during 2017 could be 1 billion pounds above 2016. † Jerry Klassen is manager of the Canadian office for Swiss-based grain trader GAP SA Grains and Products Ltd. He is also president and founder of Resilient Capital — a specialist in commodity futures trading and commodity market analysis. Aside from owning farmland in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, he’s a University of Alberta graduate who grew up on a mixed farm feedlot operation in Southern Alberta, which keeps him close to the grassroots of grain and cattle production. He can be reached at 204 504 8339.

/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Cattleman’s Corner animal health

Determine the risk level of feeder calves Roy Lewis animal health

here are many factors to consider when bringing in calves to feed to minimize BRD (bovine respiratory disease). It is still the number one cause of morbidity and often mortality in our feedlots. Knowing the history of the calves at weaning time, distance transported, vaccination and health history, as well as upcoming weather conditions will help you determine level of risk. Independently each pen or group of calves needs a risk category ranging from low risk to ultra-high risk in order to determine how they should be handled. The overall goal is to prevent a disease outbreak and high death loss by implementing management changes to get top performance from your calves. If we can determine risk level ahead of time that gives us a head start in battling the respiratory and other pathogens we know the calves may be exposed to. The final step is making the economic calculation of preventative cost in terms of vaccines, labour, or metaphylactic antibiotics versus treatment and potentially higher death loss. As with most things in farming this is a gamble and of course there are always unknowns that can blindside us.

HANDLING PROCEDURES In bringing in calves, or for that matter feeding your own calves, there have been many factors which increase risk and we need to manage or handle these as best as we can. Try and ask yourself

the question ahead of time. What is the risk level of this group of calves to developing respiratory disease and are there any management changes I need to do to mitigate or minimize this risk. High-risk calves for developing BRD are generally considered those presenting with one or more of these points. 1. They have been commingled because they were sourced from an auction market or mixed at home. Once a group has settled avoid adding in more calves. The quicker a pen is filled with animals sourced from a minimal number of original owners the better. 2. Extended transport times where calves become stressed and dehydrated. Loading and unloading are more where the stresses come in but if there are huge distances during transport, such as bringing in cattle from one or more provinces away, in my opinion tips these calves to ultrahigh risk. The more locally we can derive cattle the better. That ‘s not always possible since where calves are raised and fed can be two totally different areas of the country. Think about using electrolyte solutions such as ”destress” before transporting long distances. 3. Bad weather or wide temperature swings can create severe stress. Watching the weather channel may help but you need to buy when you can. The farther the distance travelled the more likely these temperature fluctuations are going to happen. 4. The on-arrival procedures such as castration, dehorning and branding all have their stressors. The cattle industry is always under scrutiny from an animal welfare perspective for these procedures. In most cases castration is done way ahead of weaning. Polled bulls are eliminating horns or the calves are dehorned early. Dehorning in

the feedlot these days generally involves tipping the few horns that are left. If financial institutions and feeder associations or grazing reserves did not require branding there would be little of that done anymore. If you need to brand minimize size and number of characters as much as possible. Better analgesics (pain killers) and anti-inflammatory drugs are being commonly administered that will help minimize stress in these painful situations. 5. Calves recently weaned with no or a poor (unknown) vaccination history. The old preconditioned programs where calves have already been weaned a month is ideal. The greater pressure we have from respiratory pathogens, the more important the protection measures. This includes the viral as well as the bacterial components of the BRD complex. Don’t forget the clostridials and histophilus in your vaccination protocols. 6. Lightweight calves or nutritionally compromised or parasitized (internal parasites that suppress the immune system) may also carry an additional level or risk with them. To me calves under 400 pounds would be considered ultra-high risk. The 400- to 500pound weight calves are high risk. And with 600-pound or heavier calves the risk levels depends on the other categories mentioned earlier. Veterinarians will vary in their opinions here.

DETERMINE RISK LEVELS If calves fall into any one of the above categories they are considered high risk. Low risk is essentially your own preimmunized calves, weaned at home in a situation where they know where their feed and water is. Weaning older, heavier calves and weaning in good weather with either

photo: file

Knowledge of how weaning was handled is useful information

How calves are managed after weaning as well as transportation can play a big factor in their health risk level once they get to a feed yard. fence line or some other type of soft weaning is considered low risk. It is ideal to remove the cows from the calves that have access to a ration they are familiar with. Even in these situations pulls for respiratory disease can climb and you reach a point where treating them with antibiotics may become necessary to thwart an outbreak. With high-risk calves, the question is what to do with them when they are received at the feedyard. Your herd veterinarian will have a protocol for what they believe best. Again it may vary pen to pen. Most would consider giving the necessary vaccinations and processing and covering with metaphylactic antibiotics. The newer macrolide antibiotics last a long time in the lungs and they are a completely different family to our treatment antibiotics. Usually the label will state they are for the control of BRD or to use in cattle at high risk of developing BRD. This is where know-

ing the risk level of the calves coming into your feeding pen is critical in deciding which ones to treat. In the past antibiotics were given in the feed but they needed to be given for a long period and are hard to manage in large feedlots in order to avoid residues. Treating with macrolide antibiotics come with a cost and require labour so this is where the risk benefit has to be considered in the equation as well. Our experience has shown that with feedlot veterinarians assessing the pens and using the appropriate vaccination, deworming and metaphylactic treatment protocols, BRD levels can be drastically reduced. In the future other antimicrobial treatments as well as earlier detection of BRD and even more comprehensive vaccine programs will hopefully reduce mortality and morbidity even further. † Roy Lewis is an Alberta-based veterinarian specializing in large-animal practice. He is also a part-time technical services vet for Merck Animal Health.

REPORT FROM DOWN UNDER

Holistic approach is working BY KIM NIELSEN

y wife Helen and I took a six-day course a couple of years ago learning the principles of The Savory Institute’s holistic management as they apply to grazing. In a nutshell, the course taught the process of decision-making and planning that give land managers the insights and management tools to understand nature in the restoration of pastures. The intent was to look at the “whole,” making better, moreinformed decisions that balance social, environmental and financial considerations. While I had heard about Holistic Management and attended tours and visited farms in Alberta that practised HM, this in-depth course was the first time I was in an audience of keen graziers exploring HM.

I was also motivated to learn more about grazing in this part of the world as we had just bought our Australian farm and intended to graze some cattle knowing full well it would be entirely different from grazing up on our 4-Clover Ranch near Rocky Mountain House in west-central Alberta. The course was held in the Western District of Victoria, sponsored by the Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Authority. The resulting friendship of likeminded folk led to the formation of a “grazing club” that was later named South West holistic farmers.

SETTING VALUES FOR HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT While we were all eager to roll up our sleeves and delve into the grazing portion of the course, there were some well-spent hours creating our own individual “holistic

context” defining the decision-makers, people resources, land resources and financial resources. The holistic context would also set out the purpose for our farming venture, define our values, identify strategies to create each value, set actions to create them and build a vision for what success would look like in 20 years. Values would be set for people, land and finances. I had been involved with strategic planning process before while working with the Ag Service Board and staff at Clearwater County in Alberta but it felt quite different implementing similar steps on your own operation. Nonetheless it was a very good exercise and a very important component of the course. Since the course we have had a chance to put the theory to practice on our own farms. The subsequent

» continued on page 46

photo: kim nielsen

Management changes for the growing conditions producing benefits

This is a dramatic fence line contrast showing two types of grazing systems. On the left is the pasture of a neighbouring sheep operation with season-long grazing. On the right side of the fence is Kim Nielsen’s pasture used for rotational grazing for yearlings. His pastures get about 180 days of rest between grazing.

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/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Cattleman’s Corner Rancher’s Diary

Problem predators, dry conditions

AUGUST 18

e continue to have water problems. Idaho Department of Water Resources sent a letter to all water users on the creek saying all headgates must now be lockable. We welded angle iron onto ours and made them lockable, but the neighbour just below us (who shares a second right with us) still has not. Michael’s and Carolyn’s dog Fred was bitten on the nose by a rattlesnake. Fortunately they give their dogs rattlesnake vaccine each spring, or the swelling would have killed Fred. It was still bad enough they had to give her dexamethasone and antihistamine for several days to bring down the swelling. On the weekend elk hunters were driving up the creek just before dark and saw two huge cougars on our upper place. The biggest one was stalking Carolyn’s old mare. It was right behind her and the two yearlings, creeping up on them as they grazed. One hunter took photos and another shot at the cougars to scare them, and then heard kittens mewing in the brush. They told Michael and Carolyn about the big cats, and they brought the horses down to the corrals next to their house. They found their missing calf. He has a broken shoulder and was living in a patch of brush up on the hill. Carolyn got him down to the field. His mother is the mean cow that tried to knock Carolyn down in the ditch this spring. Last week we sent Thunderbull to the sale. He weighed 1,840 and brought 96 cents per pound. Michael brought their yearling bull to our place and we put him with

» CONTINUED FROM PAGE 44

Holistic approach is working visits to see the transformation has been very enlightening as we discussed challenges and solutions. It was inevitable that there would be changes on our farms and the HM course listed seven testing questions that we needed to ask of ourselves before implementing them. There would be very lively debates on: 1. Cause and effect: Does the change/action address the root cause of the problem? 2. Does the change strengthen the weak link socially, biologically and financially? 3. Which change provides the greatest return in terms of the holistic context for the time and money spent? 4. Will the change contribute to covering the overheads of the business? 5. Will the change be an appropriate use of energy or money respecting the holistic context?

AUGUST 30 Last week I put new front shoes on Ed and Dottie. Andrea changed water daily and took Dani to crosscountry practice and Charlie to drivers’ education classes. We are still short of water mainly due to people using more water than they are allowed. Last Monday we rode with girls to check fences and gates and went into high range. Coming home through the middle range Breezy tripped on a hillside when

6. Will the change lead towards or away from sustainability as described in the holistic context? 7. Will the change give you a mental picture you feel comfortable with respecting your cultural and social values?

MANAGING FOR CONDITIONS We have had two very dry years and, while the end of the current El Niño appears to be in sight, all of us in the South West Holistic Farmers group have faced some real struggles in the transition towards Holistic Management grazing. The southwest of Victoria receives roughly 700 mm (about 27 inches) of rain annually but most falls in winter. The summers are hot and dry. With the right species and pasture management pastures can grow year-round although only very slowly during winter. In the absence of summer rains the plants go dormant. While our ranch up in Rocky Mountain House only receives 520 mm (about 20 inches) on average there are benefits from the lack of evaporation during the

Other than a badly bruised leg, Sam appears no worse for wear after Breezy took a tumble during a ride checking cattle on pasture. the ground gave way on her blind side, and somersaulted down the hill. It looked for a second like she would roll right over Sam, but that good old mare did a major contortion to twist herself around and get up, to keep from squashing that girl. Sam’s leg where she hit the ground was hurting, but Andrea helped her get back on and we rode home, with Sam’s leg dangling. Breezy travelled slowly and carefully those three miles so as not to jar Sam. She’s an incredibly smart old mare. Andrea took the kids to town, to take Charlie to his graduation from drivers ed and took Sam to have her leg X-rayed. It’s just badly bruised and not broken! Wednesday our friends from Canada, Pete and Bev Wiebe, arrived and that evening we had a birthday dinner for Charlie. The next day Andrea and girls and I took Bev for a ride. She hadn’t been on a horse for many years and wanted to ride, so we took her to the 320 and had a picnic and let our horses graze. This past weekend we moved the cows to the field by Andrea’s house. We’ve been rotating them around the various pastures, hoping the green feed will last until we sell the calves.

long winters. Suffice to say on the Allan Savory Brittleness Scale, our environment is without a doubt much more brittle on our farm in Australia. The more brittle the environment the slower the dead vegetation breaks down and standing dead vegetation will oxidize and not form part of the crucial buildup of litter and soil organic matter. These phenomena require a different approach to grazing than we practice on 4-Clover Ranch with much longer rest periods between grazings, while at the same time ensuring an adequate animal impact during grazing on the litter left behind to create the soil contact for mineral cycling and to avoid the oxidization losses. The rest period we are striving towards is somewhere between 150 and 180 days. The long rest period caused many of the participants to rethink their livestock management with marked destocking, reducing the number of mobs of sheep, changing calving times and increased stock densities. Overgrazing and soil losses are phenomenal issues across our farming community. Many producers

Predator problems and other wildlife hazards are taken in stride at the Thomas Ranch in Idaho. This neighbour’s calf appears to the victim of a pack of wolves which has been roaming the range. Another day a cougar family was stalking some horses on pasture. And a couple rattlesnakes have been unwelcome guests around the farmyard as well.

SEPTEMBER 8 Andrea went to Idaho Falls for cortisone shots in her neck and back, and took it easy for a few days to not strain her back. Lynn changed some of the water for her, though it’s difficult for him to get around. Michael hauled two loads of barley straw (big square bales) on our flatbed trailer from a neighbour. We may get some barley hay from him, too. Last Thursday Andrea and Carolyn drove to Mud Lake to watch Dani’s first track meet and cross country run. That afternoon lightning started several fires above our ranch in heavy timber. Four helicopters flew all afternoon and evening with buckets of water from the Lemhi River to dump on the fires, and smoke jumpers were lowered into that area by helicopter. They dumped more water on it Friday and got it controlled. We had rain Sunday night, the first good rain we’ve had in many weeks, with snow on the mountains. School started Tuesday. That afternoon Andrea and I made a fast ride on Sprout and Dottie to

check 320 fences and gates. The range cows across the fence are starving, but haven’t got into our fields yet. The neighbours don’t realize the only way to effectively use the range and not abuse it or the cows, is to keep water troughs working and ride frequently to make sure things are taken care of so the cows can use ALL the grazing areas. This dry year it didn’t help that they let their cows into the high range two weeks early and now they’ve run out of grass. Yesterday morning after Andrea took the kids to the bus she heard our cows bellowing and saw them running down off the hill to the field. She grabbed our 22 rifle and hurried over there and discovered two big wolves going through the cows. She shot at them and possibly nicked one. We moved the cows from that field (they were all ganged at the gate wanting to get out of there) and brought them to the field below the lane — the last green pasture. We hope it will last until we wean the calves and preg check the cows. † Heather Smith Thomas is a longtime Grainews columnist who ranches with her husband Lynn near Salmon, Idaho. Contact her at 208-756-2841.

photo: kim nielsen

heather smith thomas

our yearling to winter them here again. Sam and Dani rode with me to check the 320 gates and fences. Up in the timber we had to move a fallen tree off the trail. Sunday Andrea and I rode Shiloh and Dottie to check fences again (the range cows are pressing our fences hard because they are already short on feed). We made a loop through the high range and found a big calf of Millers freshly killed, hindquarters eaten, and the carcass of a smaller calf. We took photos of both calves and sent them to Fish and Game, and called John Miller to tell him. We rode again the next day and by then the big calf was almost completely eaten. A rancher eight miles up the Lemhi lost several cows this spring to a pack of nine wolves and the government trapper hunted them by helicopter and managed to kill six but the other three got away. Maybe they killed the cow of Millers we found dead on the low range earlier this year. Tuesday we moved the old grey horses to our back yard to graze. That night Rubbie was squealing at Rishiam so Lynn and I put a hot wire along the fence. As I was coming back to the house in the dark I heard a rattlesnake in the tall grass. It went under the old water tank so Andrea and Robbie came down and found it with a flashlight and Andrea killed it with shovel.

photos: heather smith thomas

Wolves, cougars and rattlesnakes among natural threats

These are some of the yearlings Kim Nielsen pastures on his land in Australia. Following a holistic management rotational grazing system (and if the rains come when they are supposed to) he hopes to be able to double carrying capacity. offset the losses by adding inputs either in the form of reseeding pastures as often as every four years and annual applications of fertilizer. It is a difficult decision for many to destock when worried about the future loss of income. On the other hand increasing the production inputs create a loss of income as well. One of the repeat comments from grazing club members were the satisfying and therapeutic rewards in seeing the positive response in the pastures. This creates a quality of life compo-

nent that holistic management often talks about. The common denominator from everyone was a desire to move away from the highrisk, high-stress lifestyle of highinput, high-cost systems. Holistic Management has a more defined focus on enterprise profit more so than getting sidetracked and preoccupied by the gross returns. † Kim Juul Nielsen, retired Manager of Agricultural Service, Clearwater County, Alta is a summer time resident of Alcheringa, Dunkeld, Victoria, Australia and is Canadian summer time grazier of 4-Clover Ranch, Rocky Mountain House Alberta.

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Cattleman’s Corner Better Bunks and Pastures

Mouldy feed is dangerous for beef cattle Moulds that aren’t always visible can cause irreversible damage PETER VITTI

ecently, I walked with a beef producer into a hayfield cut a few days earlier and since had been rained on a couple of times. When I lifted a swath in the middle of the field the hay was dark brown on top and still green underneath. The producer said he was going to bale it tough that afternoon, because the weather forecast called for rain that evening. It wouldn’t surprise me if these bales will be mouldy when he cuts them open these bales this winter. That shock on a cold winter morning should remind us: moulds/mycotoxins found in forage, grain and feed byproducts are a constant threat to beef cattle health and performance. As a result, people should learn the types and effects of specific moulds/mycotoxins that affect beef cattle, and sample and test suspect feed. If warranted, corrective action can be taken.

NOT VERY PALATABLE One of the first lessons I learned is mouldy feeds are unpalatable to cattle. They often contain substantial mould levels with lower feed digestibility and reduce overall nutrient content. At their worst, a variety of moulds/mycotoxins cause mycosis (fungal infections) or cause mycotoxicosis, which encompass abnormal metabolism, damage organs, infertility and literarily can shut down the cattle’s entire immune system. Of the many moulds in nature, three major ones pose the greatest beef feed threat. Aspergillus fluavus produces aflatoxins, fusarium moulds produce vomitoxin and zearalenone, and penicillium fungi produce related penicillium mycotoxins. Our Prairie climate does not favour the growth of aspergillus moulds and therefore aflatoxins are of little threat to local home-grown forages, silages, and grains. This contaminate grows under high ambient temperatures coupled with high humidity and sometimes in drought conditions. The only real threat might be contained in dried distillers grains brought up from the southern United States. Fusarium-derived mycotoxins are more of a threat to our livestock than aflatoxins, because fusarium moulds grow in cooler conditions. The fusarium mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON), commonly referred as vomitoxin, became widespread in Manitoba during the early 1990s, when a few years of cool summers and damp harvest weather favoured its growth in barley and wheat kernels. Since then it has spread to all three Prairie provinces.

AFFECT OF MYCOTOXINS Field trials fed up to 66 ppm DON in dairy lactating rations did not result in significant adverse effects, aside from feeding lower grain quality and therefore feeding lowerenergy dairy feed. Other research

has shown one ppm DON reduces dry matter intake and disrupts feed digestibility, which led to a 1.5-2.0 kg drop in milk production. Some German work showed fusarium interferes with protein digestion in the rumen, which leads to higher ammonia levels. However, zearalenone, another fusarium mycotoxin, mimics estrogen hormones can directly lead to infertility in beef cattle. Zearalenone-contaminated corn has been shown to cause erratic or silent heats, reduce conception rates and cause physical anomalies such as swollen and prolapsed vaginas, and spontaneous abortions. Furthermore, zearalenone causes liver damage and suppression of the immune system. Other fusar-

ium mycotoxins such as T2 and fumonium will cause reproductive and health problems in cattle but are seldom found in our feedstuffs. Unlike aflatoxins and fusarium mycotoxins, penicillium mycotoxins are a result of poorly stored feed or poor bunk management rather than challenging field conditions. They are not only suspect in causing reproductive problems in cattle, but also can hamper feed digestion. One University of Minnesota experiment added graduated concentrations of patulin (a penicillium mycotoxin) to artificial fermenters containing rumen fluid collected from experimental cows. Researchers found the addition of patulin to these cultures sig-

nificantly reduced organic matter, fibre and protein digestion of an added pelleted diet as well as depressed rumen microbe populations. Other studies show these mycotoxins can only be partially metabolized by rumen bugs.

TAKE IT SERIOUSLY Luckily, most people are apprehensive when feeding visible mouldy feed to their beef cattle. However, they should realize not all mould contamination in forages, grain or protein concentrates are visible or consistent throughout individual bales or truckloads. If a one or more feed ingredient (including the final beef diet) is suspected for mould, a mould-count

test is recommended to conduct any initial investigation. This lab test counts the number of mould spores for any given feed sample. Mould count tests are inexpensive, but their information is also limited. They show the presence of mould, but fail to reveal the presence or extent of any mycotoxins. Testing feed is a good thing, yet the final decision to feed mouldy feed to beef cattle comes down to common sense. The goulden rule for me is to avoid feeding contaminated feed to beef cattle, especially to young calves, replacement heifers and pregnant cows. It’s that dangerous. † Peter Vitti is an independent livestock nutritionist and consultant based in Winnipeg. To reach him call 204-254-7497 or by email at vitti@mts.net.

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/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Cattleman’s Corner Dairy Corner

Twofold impact of heat stress Reproduction setbacks may take longer to correct than milk production problems BY PETER VITTI

his summer in the eastern Prairies seemed to be hotter and definitely more humid than in previous years. I noticed this year in particular had many August nights when the humidex barely fell below 25 C. In talking to dairy producers, some had the same experience and also noticed their heatstressed cows’ milk production as well as reproduction performance fell hard with this rising humidex. While I am confident milk production recovers as we approach cooler days, dairy reproduction often takes a little more time to bounce back and might

be a significant problem for some dairy barns well into the fall. Fortunately, dairy producers can take some post-summer steps to finally get their cows bred. That’s because failure to get a heat-stressed cow pregnant with a calf creates “holes” in even the best dairy breeding programs. The literature is littered with studies that show the effect of heat stress upon dairy conception rates and upon their unborn fetuses. Here are few cited examples: • University of Wisconsin (1999) showed conception rates among dairy cows fell steadily from 40 to 15 per cent as April spring weather progressed into heat in July. The researchers also found recorded conception rates steadily increased

starting in August, but did not return to over 40 per cent until November of that year. • University of Barcelona (2008) analyzed 11,000 inseminations in four dairy herds over three years. They recorded the THI (re: a temperature-humidity index of above 72 is generally considered to cause heat stress in dairy cattle); seven days before and three days after insemination. Specific results showed that high THIs recorded three days before insemination yielded lower conception rates. Ovulation failure was nearly four times greater during hot weather compared to cooler periods. When temperatures fell below 20 C, conception rates increased. • University of Florida (2011)

reported calves born to heat-stressed dairy cows had a higher death rate at birth (4.1 per cent versus zero per cent), higher rates of leaving the herd as replacement heifers (20.5 per cent versus 4.9 per cent) and even had a higher failure rate to complete a first lactation (57.1 per cent versus 77.8 per cent) compared to calves born to artificially cooled mothers. Evidence in the first two citations is backed by the facts that dairy cows have two to three follicular waves during an estrus cycle and heat stress may retard growth and impair their function. It seems the number of follicles in heat-stressed cows does not vary, but less follicles are ovulated due to less essential hormones being released to cause

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ovulation. There is also earlier emergence of the dominant follicle (contains the egg or ovum), which causes further negative changes in ovarian and follicular function. Other study dictates once the cow’s egg is fertilized, a developing embryo is still vulnerable to heat stress until it is 40 days old. That’s because a heat-stressed cow redistributes blood flow away from her body core, which includes her uterus carrying the embryo, in order to maintain a constant body temperature. As a result, if the uterus temperature rises to +40 C (normal body temperature is 38.6 C), dairy cow conception rates fall on average 10-15 per cent because of early embryonic death.

TAKE STEPS TO REDUCE IMPACT In looking back to our own summer, the ramifications of such important heat stress evidence indicate one should have done everything possible to cool cows during heat stress. This means providing plenty of cool drinking water, reformulating dairy diets to improve dry matter feed intakes, and improving barn conditions through better sanitation, ventilation and possibly setting up a sprinkler system. As the hot weather ends, it is important to make frequent barn walks. Look for any signs of active estrus in supposedly pregnant cows. Such observations (e.g scratched tail head, restlessness) are signals that cows bred during heat stress and could have not caught, suffered an early embryonic death, or even aborted later on. I also think dairy producers should review seasonal breeding records from years gone past. Some producers might find some of the same cows with chronic reproductive problems after a tough summer. Kansas State University (KSU) suggests dairy producers go one step further and use estrous synchronization techniques on their cows during the summer and early fall for successful breeding program. KSU showed heat-stressed anestrous cows (cows that did not show visible signs of estrus) assigned to a timed scheduled breeding program had a 40 per cent improvement in pregnancy rate at 27 days after insemination. Such success is promising for dairy producers struggling to get their heat stressed cows pregnant by 90-100 days post-partum, so they can maintain a desired 12.5to 13-month calving interval. Failure to get fertile cows bred for one or two more cycles due to late summer heat disrupts the predictable flow of newborn calves and early lactation milk production. Combating heat stress that impacts otherwise good dairy cow reproduction should not end once the days become cooler. The burning effects of our hot and humid weather upon dairy cow reproduction may be still be with us, so sound strategies should be put into place. † Peter Vitti is an independent livestock nutritionist and consultant based in Winnipeg. To reach him call 204-254-7497 or by email at vitti@mts.net.

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Home Quarter Farm Life SEEDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

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/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Home Quarter Farm Life

Still going strong after 50 years Leafcutter bee pioneers ‘still learning’ after all that time

hen Henry Braul and his brother John decided to take a risk and invest in leafcutter bees to pollinate their alfalfa seed fields near Rosemary, Alta., “we were the only ones,” he says. “Everyone was watching us and smiling behind our backs.” Braul bought his first batch of larvae in three two-gallon pails for $700 from his neighbour, Bob Asher. It was the late 1960s. At the time, only Asher and another neighbour, Eric Dick, had made the investment in leafcutters. “The bees came originally from Parma, Idaho. Bob was a honeybee keeper and got interested in these leafcutters, and then we got interested and bought some bees from him. We started very small. We didn’t know much and learned as we went along,” says Braul. The Brauls got a lot of help from researchers at the Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, especially Gordon Hobbs, who had developed a way to domesticate a wild leafcutter bee for the pollination of alfalfa crops in 1964. Alfalfa seed was an attractive cash crop, “and in those years they were always looking for alternatives,” says Rich Braul, Henry’s son, who now runs the family’s 320-acre operation. “You can’t get alfalfa seed without pollination, so that’s why we use these bees. They’re a lot more efficient than honeybees in alfalfa. A leafcutter bee pollinates almost every flower it visits.” “You never do anything without investing something,” adds Henry. “We weren’t really expecting too much the first years — it was an experiment. A couple of times we almost quit, but we kept on going, and now the industry is very big.” Leafcutter bees are ideally suited to Western Canada, according to Rich, and the industry has grown with the advent of their use in hybrid canola seed production. The Brauls use the leafcutter species Megachile rotundata, a European bee used around the world due to its efficiency as a pollinator. But they’re also a pleasure to work with. “They’re very good pollinators, and they’re easily domesticated,” he says. “Bumblebees are good pollinators, but they’ll fight each other.” Also, leafcutters won’t sting unless provoked. “And all they do is reproduce while pollinating your crop,” says Rich. “They can double or triple their numbers in a season.

“Their life cycle is just one year. You hatch the larvae in spring and release them in shelters in the field where the nesting material has been placed. They line the tunnel with leaf pieces, provide the cell with nectar and pollen, and lay an egg. The egg develops into a larva, which spins a cocoon around itself, and overwinters in this form. The bees only live six to eight weeks in the summer, then they’re finished,” he says. “So then you take the nesting material in with all the larvae, extract the larvae from it, keep as many as you need for next year, and sell the excess.” The Brauls’ business is threefold: alfalfa seed, leafcutter bee larvae — and manufacturing custom machinery they’ve developed over the years to automate the extraction process. The nesting material is made of wood boards grooved on both sides and stacked to create long, thin tunnels roughly the size of pencils, or Styrofoam blocks with the tunnels moulded into them, Rich says. Leafcutters then use these tunnels to create half-inchlong cells in which they seal their eggs. In the fall, the Brauls bring the blocks in, dry them and then use a custom-built “guillotine-type” machine to push the cocoons out of the grooves. “Once the cocoons have been pushed out, they are stuck together in long ‘pencils,’ which need to be broken up into individual cells, so we built a machine to do this,” says Rich. “More recently we also started building conveyors to bring the cocoons from the extraction machine up to the cell breaker screening machine for processing loose cells.” Each year, the Brauls process about 1,300 of these blocks between December and March. The dormant larvae, still encased in cocoons, are sold to leafcutter bee brokers who in turn sell them in the U.S. and to Canadian seed canola producers. The Brauls take pride in their operation and value being able to do the work themselves; they’ve been able to stay small by excelling in a niche market. “It’s been a good crop for us, and the whole area benefits from this crop,” says Rich. “In Rosemary, we share a lot of information between farmers. We’re still learning. There are so many variables with alfalfa and leafcutter bees and there is a lot of information to share. I think this has really helped the industry do well here.” †

Henry (l) and Rich Braul stand in a leafcutter bee shelter.

photo: courtesy rich braul

BY JULIENNE ISAACS

Julienne Isaacs writes from Winnipeg, Man.

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SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 grainews.ca /

Home Quarter Farm Life FLAPPER PIE

PRAIRIE PALATE

Grandma’s prize-winning flapper pie

’ve been going through a box of my grandma’s souvenirs and so I can tell you that, in 1957, she won first prize for her flapper pie at the Saskatoon fair. She also won red ribbons for her saskatoon pie, cherry pie with lattice crust, toffee, chocolate cake (layer), four fruit loaf and Best Light Cake made with Magic baking powder. The prize for this latter category was a $6 hamper of brand-name baking products. Other prizes ranged from $2 to $5. Altogether she took home a purse of $23. (Adjusted for inflation: $200!) I know this because Grandma made a note in the 1957 Prize List for Women’s Work and for Handicraft, which was also tucked into her souvenir box. She had entered, no word of a lie, a total of 21 baking categories. Which means she did not win ribbons for her apple pie, lemon pie, shortbread cookies, chocolate brownies (iced) or afternoon tea dainties (four varieties, two of each) although I fondly remember all of the above. My grandma did not teach me to bake, but she taught me to love baking. That magical alchemy of disparate ingredients that, when stirred together in the cauldron, come out greater than the sum of their parts. Flour elevated to clouds. Eggs elevated to love.

such as that of the pioneers moving west. A recipe for graham cracker pie was included on the package. It had a crust of graham crackers with a custard filling of eggs, milk, sugar and butter. It was the perfect pie for farming pioneers because the key ingredients were readily available on the farm. General stores stocked graham crackers and, for special occasions, a pinch of cinnamon could be bought for a few cents more. It was quick, frugal and delicious. My girlfriend who grew up in Kansas fondly remembers her mother’s flapper pie, so it was not a Canadian invention so much as a Prairie favourite. However, the name remains a mystery: when did graham cracker pie become flapper pie? We might surmise it was during the flapper era of the 1920s, but I have not yet come across a definitive explanation. But the name caught on. Flapper pie made its way into the hearts and recipe books of families across the plains, a staple at fall suppers and baby’s first pie. Although it is considered a bit old fashioned now, it is for many of us synonymous with a grandma’s love. There are different versions of the basic recipe, some with less sugar, some with or without cream of tartar, some with cinnamon in the cracker crust, some thickened with flour, so feel free to consult Grandma and follow your heart. † Amy Jo Ehman is the author of Prairie Feast: A Writer’s Journey Home for Dinner, and, Out of Old Saskatchewan Kitchens. She hails from Craik, Sask.

Filling: 1/3 c. sugar 1/4 c. cornstarch 2-1/2 c. milk 3 egg yolks, lightly beaten 1 tsp. vanilla photo: amy jo ehman

Amy Jo Ehman

My grandma put love into everything she baked because she baked it for others, and when we took seconds (and thirds) we were in turn expressing our love for her. She also taught me to always always save room for dessert. However, I began this retrospective with Grandma’s flapper pie because it’s particularly intriguing to me. Unlike saskatoon pie, chocolate layer cake and four fruit loaf, there are no “flappers” in flapper pie. Where did this name come from? What is the origin of this simple but elegant pie? When I mentioned flapper pie on Facebook, I discovered I have two kinds of friends: those who: a) love flapper pie or, b) never heard of it. Some claim it’s a western Canadian invention. The Canadian Food Encyclopedia describes it as a “grahamcrusted, custard-filled pie and longtime Prairie favourite.” Digging deeper, I learned that graham crackers were invented by a 19th century Presbyterian minister named Sylvester Graham who preached a vegetarian, low-fat, low-sugar diet rich in whole grains. He particularly believed that bread should be homemade with natural whole grain flour, not manufactured in a factory with chemical additives and artificially whitened, as was common during the Industrial Revolution of his day. By 1900, graham crackers were sold commercially by the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) which promoted it as good food to take on long journeys,

Crust: 1-1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs 1/4 c. melted butter 1/4 c. sugar

Meringue topping: 3 egg whites, room temp. 2 tbsp. sugar 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar Pinch cinnamon

Mix crust ingredients. Scoop out 2 tbsp. and set aside. Press crumbs into the bottom and sides of a pie plate. Bake at 375 F for 8 minutes and cool. For the filling, blend sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan. Slowly whisk in milk. Cook over medium heat until it bubbles and thickens, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir a spoonful of hot mixture into the egg yolks, whisk quickly and pour back into the saucepan. Boil for two minutes, stirring, until quite thick. Stir in vanilla. For the topping, whip egg yolks and cream of tartar to soft peaks. Gradually add sugar while whipping to stiff peaks. Pour filling into graham cracker crust. Top with meringue, ensuring it touches the crust all around. Mix the reserved 2 tbsp. of graham crumbs with cinnamon and sprinkle over top. Bake at 375 F for 6-8 minutes, until meringue is lightly brown. Watch carefully. Cool pie and refrigerate a few hours before eating.

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/ grainews.ca SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

Home Quarter Farm Life SINGING GARDENER

Lots of tomato info and a recipe ted meseyton

owdy folks. Ted here! The last time I stood up in front of an audience someone said to me: What are you going to talk about? I said: About five minutes. Well good people, it’ll take you all of five minutes to read today’s column and absorb its contents. It has a whole lot to say about tomatoes including a recipe. I also shine the spotlight on homemade toothpaste and good info about a not-so-well-known method to look after your gums and breath. You may want to sit at the table longer while sipping on a cup of tea and reread this a second or third time. I’d join you in a cup if I were there. Suggest to your neighbour gardener who might seek to borrow your copy that he or she can subscribe to Grainews by phoning toll free 1-800-665-0502. Reminds me of that old song that says, “Give me five minutes more, only five minutes more, only five minutes more of your time.” Love having you with me as always on another journey of words, so here’s that tip of my welcoming hat to one and all, be you in Emo, Ont., Teulon, Man., Gull Lake, Sask., Spirit River, Alta., Canyon, B.C., and anywhere in between or beyond.

FROM MY EMAIL IN BOX August 2016. Hi Ted, Thought I would send you some photos of the tomatoes I am picking out of my garden. They are Hungarian Hearts and this spring I could not find the seeds in any of my seed catalogues. Another case of discontinuing seeds of an excellent variety. Fortunately I had some seeds left from previous years. The largest one weighed in at one pound, six ounces (628 grams). They are extremely mild and barely have seeds. I produce tomatoes every year. I start them according to your moon information in later March. I have a small greenhouse that is overflowing with started plants. My garden is situated on the south side of a patch of old bush but the sun shines on it and it gets lots of heat with no wind from the north — east and west. This year, while the rest of Alberta was getting downpours we were very dry in June but had a half-inch in July and another inch and a half in August with a few showers of one-eighth inch or less. It is the perfect climate for tomatoes, cucumbers and corn. I’ve had blight in the past and a few leaves get infected at other times. I trim the suckers off the plants diligently and stake

them up. I also grow Jetsetters, Big Beef and 9904s as well as the Hungarian Hearts and a few plants of the Sweet Baby Girls and Golden Cherry. I have been growing the 9904s for 30 years or more and they are available from Stokes. Thank goodness they keep this seed for sale as the taste is superb. My family and others enjoy the surplus. I usually have and I do can several jars along with two recipes of salsa that we like. I could send you the recipes for the salsa. I make Tomato Cheese Bake (recipe is in The Best of Bridge Cookbooks) and of course lots of Greek salad. But the best treat is toast and tomato every morning. I am also the gardener who is looking for the Annabelle potatoes. My garden is located northeast of Edmonton — in the Bonnyville/Cold Lake area. I am two hours north of Edmonton (Lakeland area of Alberta) — near Vermilion and Vegreville. (Signed) Louise Plante Ted says: Thanks so much Louise for sharing your gardening experiences with us. Haven’t yet located a source for Annabelle seed potatoes, so let me mention a fingerling salad potato called Lindzer Deleketess that I recommend. Seed of same for 2017 season is available from: Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes, Bowden, Alberta T0M 0K0, phone 1-877-224-3939, www. seedpotatoes.ca. Next, here’s the recipe that Louise sent along for fast and tasty Tomato Cheese Bake and how to make it follows: 4 large tomatoes sliced Salt and pepper to taste 1/2 cup (125 ml) mayonnaise 6 green onions, chopped 1 cup (250 ml) cheddar cheese, grated (about 1/4 pound) 1 cup (250 ml) mozzarella cheese, grated (about 1/4 pound) Method: Arrange sliced tomatoes in a shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to suit. Spread mayonnaise over tomatoes and top with green chopped onions. Cover with the two cheeses and bake at 350 F (180 C) for 25 minutes. Serves six.

TWO RELIABLE CANADIAN TOMATO SEED SOURCES Here’s what Tatiana tells me. Hi Ted, We do not have Hungarian Heart seeds. But we have lots of other heart-shaped and Hungarian varieties in our catalogue, if you are interested to take a look — http://tatianastomatobase.com/ seed-catalog/html/. You can order online. Cheers. Judy Newman, administrator, Seeds of Diversity, www.seeds. ca wrote the following: To our knowledge, and recent research, Hungarian Heart is not sold in Canada. We have only one sample in our collection and it hasn’t been adopted to save it yet. This is a good example of why our work is so important. People Protecting the People’s Seeds — for 31 Years.

photo: courtesy louise plante

Plus, how to look after your gums and a toothpaste recipe

This is one specimen of Hungarian Heart tomatoes grown by Alberta gardener Louise Plante and among her favourites. Seeds of this highly productive variety first arrived in North America from Hungary during years 1899 to 1901. Louise says fruits seldom crack, are topnotch for fresh eating and canning, plus make superb sauce.

TOMATO HOME REMEDIES These are provided for your information. The decision is yours to try any or none at all. There are no guarantees as to effectiveness, nor how well they may perform. If you feel something might help, you be the judge or discuss alternatives with your health-care provider. Fresh tomato season is still with us and here are exterior ways to use them. Cut a tomato in half and gently run the halves over the skin on your face for a few seconds. Let the residue remain there for a minute or so and then rinse off with clear water. It is a Johnny-on-the-spot treatment for facial acne, so noticeable benefit will take time. Or, try a tomato facial mask if you’re not in a rush as it’s more effective and helps clear away even a stubborn case of acne. Soak a ripe tomato in warm to hot water long enough so the skin peels off easily. Remove tomato seeds, mash the remaining pulp into a paste and apply onto the face the same way as with any other facial mask. Let it dry completely or remain up to an hour then rinse off the tomato mask. If you feel a tomato mask is time consuming here’s a third option. Make a tomato face wash essence by combining a tablespoonful of fresh tomato juice with four drops of fresh lime juice. Soak it up with a cotton ball and spread the combo onto the affected skin area. Let it remain for five minutes and then rinse it away. Tomatoes help balance the skin’s pH, an essential step in prevention and treatment of any facial skin breakout.

GARDEN FRESH PEPPERMINT TOOTHPASTE — MAKE YOUR OWN Yes — you can make your own using just three ingredients you have in the house plus the cool, clean taste of some fresh homegrown peppermint leaves. Here’s how. Ingredients include the following: 2 tablespoons fresh peppermint leaves cut up in pieces 1/2 cup water, preferably distilled 1 teaspoon cornstarch 1 teaspoon sunflower seed oil Method: Place cut peppermint leaves in a small saucepan and cover with distilled water. Bring to a gentle boil for 2 minutes then remove from heat and let it cool. In a separate dish, mix together cornstarch and sunflower seed oil until smooth. Strain off the brew from the peppermint leaves. Slowly add the cornstarchoil mixture to the mint tea while stirring well. Over medium heat bring the combo to a boil and then remove completely from the stove element, allowing it to cool. Stir well and store finished toothpaste in a clean jar of appropriate size.

of one bottle cap of 3 per cent hydrogen peroxide (H²O²) plus 1/4 teaspoon of table salt. The user first dips a toothbrush into the peroxide-salt mixture and then into some baking soda. According to the dentist and his supporters this little-known concoction not only prevents the recurrence of gum disease but eliminates bleeding gums and mouth odours as well. In my view one reason this method was deemed controversial at the time might have been due to increased sales of table salt, H²O² and baking soda and less toothpaste sold. As for yours truly, it’s time to pick up my guitar and sing a longtime original song: “Gardeners Love to Party.” Gonna sing and swing and tap my toes and stay out late ’til cows come home and for dessert eat Smarties... and on and on it goes. †

GIVE GUM DISEASE A BRUSH-OFF The best way to keep your teeth (we all need a good set of them when chomping at corn on the cob) is to take good care of your gums. The following is known as the Keyes System; devised by Paul Keyes, D.D.S. a number of years back. The controversial approach calls for dental scaling and planing by a dentist followed by daily home brushing using a mixture

This is Ted Meseyton the Singing Gardener and Grow-It Poet from Portage la Prairie, Man. I invite real-life gardeners to write to me about anything they grow in their garden. A wise gardener knows that a tomato is a fruit of the vine but never uses it in a fruit salad. Steve sent along the following; phrased after the gym he attends. I decided to change calling the bathroom the John and renamed it the Jim. I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning. Peace and carrots — I am your friend Ted. My email address is singinggardener@mts.net.

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