Country guide east

Learn from how the big guys change  8 | Stop misinformation on sight 40

eastern EDITION / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / January 2017

ChangE Makers

CG launches its new series on farmers changing the face of agriculture 14

Bounce, don’t break

Finally, hard research into the strategies that will make your farm more resilient  10

CROPS GUIDE An easier transition to variable rate  25 Better spring cereal options for 2017  28 Publications Mail Agreement Number 40069240

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6 MACHINERY

NH gets a tillage implement line Purchase of Kongskilde brand is seen as proof that NH is determined to grow its market.

Inside country guide / Vol. 136 Issue no. 1 / JANUARY 2017

Business

28 CROPS GUIDE

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l ead change, don’t just manage it Learn from the book that revolutionized how business keeps up to date.

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ounce, don’t break b Finally, here’s research that proves how you can make your farm more resilient.

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The next big step At an age when other Canadians would think of retiring, Elgin and Joan Craig launch their new farm venture.

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steps to go 8 Chris Jentsch grows his farm by betting against the crowd.

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etting big on china b Is AGCO making the right choice, investing big in manufacturing in China?

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t op financial tools for farmers RBC’s Gwen Paddock begins her new column on farm management.

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ow much is enough? h Having the right amount of working capital becomes more crucial on today’s farms.

But how much is enough?

25 Getting started

at variable rate

28 New in spring cereals

30 Pest Patrol 32 Weather

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Guide Life 42 44 45 46

F riendships for your life Health Hanson Acres Reflections

efore you believe it b Learn the SMELL test to evaluate everything you read, before you let misinformation damage your farm.

22 Change Makers

Country Guide launches its new series on how farmers are driving big changes in what it means to be a producer in Canada, and how these farmers are finding new opportunities to grow sustainable, profitable operations.

If only consumers knew what’s going on in our fields!

22 New again For Manitoba’s Jason and Laura Kehler, success means learning to adapt traditional farm values of family and sustainability to the modern realities of big operations and bigger opportunities.

Our commitment to your privacy At Farm Business Communications we have a firm commitment to protecting your privacy and security as our customer. Farm Business Communications will only collect personal information if it is required for the proper functioning of our business. As part of our commitment to enhance customer service, we may share this personal information with other strategic business partners. For more information regarding our Customer Information Privacy Policy, write to: Information Protection Officer, Farm Business Communications, 1666 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1.

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COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

3

EDITOR’S NOTE

1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1 (204) 944-5765 Fax (204) 944-5562

Listen to the science of 2017 If the Brexit vote didn’t prove it, the Trump election did. Voters are losing faith in their governments, which is one more reason to worry about the regulations imposed on ag

EDITORIAL STAFF Editor: Tom Button 12827 Klondyke Line, Ridgetown, ON N0P 2C0 tom.button@fbcpublishing.com (519) 674-1449 Fax (519) 674-5229 Senior Editor: Maggie Van Camp mvancamp@fbcpublishing.com (905) 986-5342 Fax (905) 986-9991 Production Editor: Ralph Pearce ralph.pearce@fbcpublishing.com (226) 448-4351 Field Editor: Lisa Guenther lisa.guenther@fbcpublishing.com Field Editor: Shannon VanRaes shannon.vanraes@fbcpublishing.com Online Editor: Greg Berg country-guide.ca Design & Layout: Jenelle Jensen

The science of listening is almost beyond belief. Based at their Purchase, New York headquarters, 60 specially trained communication experts manage what is called the MasterCard Conversation Suite, backed up by a team of researchers, marketing specialists and lawyers.

With software from Domo and Percolate among others, the MasterCard team monitors a 40-foot LED screen that updates every four minutes, feeding into a labyrinth of smaller screens.

With all that computing power, MasterCard tracks the use of 6,000 key words by 1.3 billion people speaking in 26 languages in 43 major markets around the world, prompting the technology to almost instantaneously participate in three million social media conversations while triggering more formal responses to an additional 36,000 print messages a year.

As I say, it’s almost beyond belief, and perhaps it can seem more than a bit alarming too, but it’s an indication of how serious big business is getting about not just monitoring what the public is saying, but actually listening to what they are saying and participating in their conversations.

Listening, it turns out, is a major scientific focus these days, and it’s only getting bigger as traditional polling gets more of its biggest calls so wrong.

These businesses know their futures hinge on public confidence, so the London School of Economics, for instance, has added Australian expert James MacNamara to its prestigious faculty, largely based

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JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

on his background in what he calls organizational listening.

MacNamara delivers a dose of reality. Companies, industries and organizations invest heavily in what they think is communication, but actually is only talking. In his research, between 80 and 95 per cent of communication budgets are spent on putting out key messages, MacNamara says. Pennies get spent on listening, usually on surveys designed to back up what the sponsor already believes.

Maybe this sounds familiar in agriculture circles?

It isn’t rocket science after all, MacNamara says. The strategy of constant talking and not listening doesn’t work any better when you’re dealing with the public than it would if you tried always talking and never listening at home.

Canadian agriculture certainly does not have the $250 million that MasterCard is said to be spending on its listening tactics, but agriculture does have access to much of the same science, and can use strategies that make sure consumers know they are actually being listened to, via tactics ranging from ombudsmen to social media.

ADVERTISING SALES Sales Director: Cory Bourdeaud’hui cory@fbcpublishing.com (204) 954-1414 Fax (204) 944-5562 Lillie Ann Morris lamorris@xplornet.com (905) 838-2826 Kevin Yaworsky kyaworsky@farmmedia.com (250) 869-5326 Advertising Services Co-ordinator: Arlene Bomback ads@fbcpublishing.com (204) 944-5765 Fax (204) 944-5562 Glacier Farm Media President: Bob Willcox bwillcox@farmmedia.com Publisher: Lynda Tityk lynda.tityk@fbcpublishing.com Editorial Director: Laura Rance laura@fbcpublishing.com Production Director: Shawna Gibson shawna@fbcpublishing.com Circulation Manager: Heather Anderson heather@fbcpublishing.com Contents of this publication are copyrighted and may be reproduced only with the permission of the editor.

Country Guide, incorporating the Nor’West Farmer and Farm & Home, is published by Farm Business Communications. Head office: Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Printed by Transcontinental LGMC. Country Guide is published 13 times per year by Farm Business Communications. Subscription rates in Canada — Farmer $45 for one year, $67 for 2 years, $95 for 3 years. (Prices include GST) U.S. subscription rate — $35 (U.S. funds). Subscription rate outside Canada and U.S. — $50 per year. Single copies: $3.50.

Publications Mail Agreement Number 40069240.

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

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

The science is that good, and it’s getting better. We just have to commit to using it.

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

This isn’t about who’s right and who’s wrong. It’s about opening up the channels so we can have that discussion. Shouldn’t every major farm meeting this winter have consumers on the agenda?

Call toll-free 1-800-665-1362

Are we getting it right? Let me know what you think at tom.button@ fbcpublishing.com.

Subscription inquiries: subscription@fbcpublishing.com U.S. subscribers call 1-204-944-5766 Country Guide is printed with linseed oil-based inks.

PRINTED IN CANADA Vol. 136 No. 1

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ISSN 1915-8491

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

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

www.cafanet.com

Fertilizer and irrigation for the thriving farm advisor in 2017

BY JOHN MILL, LL.M., CAFA

T

he turning of a new year gives us cause to reflect on what helped us thrive in the past year. If you are a farm advisor, then networking and education are your fertilizer and irrigation. If you could benefit from a consistent stream of quality farm advisors to network with and learn from, then CAFA (Canadian Association of Farm Advisors) is for you.

CAFA is unique on the farm landscape because it is open to all farm advisors from all backgrounds. The express purpose of CAFA is networking and education for farm advisors.

This purpose is expressed through monthly chapter meetings, educational workshops and updates for farm advisors.

Farmers look to advisors for guidance on dozens of issues and many times problems are interconnected and overlap. Farmers cannot afford the time or the money to canvass many advisors. A good farm advisor does that for the farmer, either to answer a few questions or to refer the farmer to another expert.

If you are really looking to thrive in 2017 then volunteering with CAFA is the way. Let me share my experience.

Last year an opportunity came up to do a Farm Tax Update in Ontario. As a tax lawyer I have been attending tax conferences for decades, so I know what they look like.

To organize the Farm Tax Update, I copied the format used by other successful tax conferences. I then contacted 12 experts who were CAFA members and each agreed to speak on one topic. The Farm Tax Update was easy to organize because CAFA has such a strong and thriving membership that there is no need to go outside for speakers. Next to chapters, conferences really are the ultimate in networking and education.

Based on the Farm Tax Update we developed the Farm Succession Update and the Farm Management Update. Together with the Farm Women Workshop that CAFA had already been running we had four dynamite workshops each of which can be held in different provinces.

They were all successful, revenue positive and very well-reviewed. In fact last year in Ontario, CAFA experienced the highest annual increase in membership in its history.

Continued promotion of these types of updates is the true engine of CAFA outreach and membership growth.

Theseupdates are the prime example of the type of activity that promotes both networking and education. Last month at the second CAFA Farm Tax Update we had a larger crowd in the room and a sharp increase in webinar attendance. This trend will continue for all of our updates as the CAFA membership continues to produce quality products.

If you are a farm advisor and you really to want to thrive in 2017 then your best option is to volunteer with CAFA. Join a chapter or start a chapter. Attend an Update or start another one and by 2018 you will be really glad you did.

CAFA MEMBERS ARE THE MOST VALUABLE AND TRUSTED FARM ADVISORS IN CANADA January 25: New Parkland Chapter inaugural meeting, Yorkton, SK: Contact Delores Moskal delores.moskal@yourlink.ca or 306-795-7519 February 9, 2017 Farm Succession Update, Red Deer. Join farm advisors for professional development and farm-focused in-person networking. http://www.cafanet.ca/farm-succession-agenda-reddeer/ March 23, 2017 Farm Succession Update, Ottawa. Finally, an information day in Eastern Ontario focusing farm succession! Plenty of great insights and a unique networking opportunity. http://www.cafanet.ca June 8: Woodstock, ON: CAFA’s ever popular Farm Update. Details announced soon.

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

Follow us on Twitter @CAFANET

machinery

NH gets a tillage implement line The blue brand follows the recent industry trend of growing through acquisitions

By Scott Garvey / CG Machinery Editor

T

he race for major manufacturers to broaden their product lineup by buying short-line brands is picking up even more steam.

Mid-autumn, CNH Industrial announced that it was about to bring the Danish Kongskilde implement brand, owned by DLG Group, into its fold under the New Holland brand.

“The acquisition of the tillage and hay and forage activities of Kongskilde adds a key product range that will further broaden New Holland Agriculture’s product offering within the agricultural machinery sector,” said Carlo Lambro, New Holland’s brand president, in an October release.

But this was just one example of many through the course of the last few months where a larger brand has gobbled up another equipment firm to expand its own product offering.

Earlier in 2016, John Deere announced its purchase of high-clearance sprayer manufacturer Hagie, saying that it intends to incorporate Hagie sprayers into its own product range while still allowing the brand to sell under its original name, at least in the short term.

And that hasn’t been Deere’s only deal. As far back as November 2015, it announced it was taking over Precision Planting LLC from Monsanto. Although that deal stalled a couple of months ago due to intervention by the U.S. Department of Justice, which alleges the deal would unduly limit competition in the planter industry. Deere is fighting the ruling in court.

In October, Deere also announced that even under its ownership, Precision Planting would still make its technology available to Ag Leader and other brands. That may be a concession to appease regulators so the deal will proceed.

Building on the 2012 purchase of Norwegian implement manufacturer Kverneland, Kubota announced in May it had purchased Kansas-based Great Plains Manufacturing, which produces seeding and tillage equipment. Just like Deere’s Hagie deal, Kubota will allow Great Plains to continue as a stand-alone name for now, while it incorporates the equipment into its own brand offering.

“For the foreseeable future, all five of Great Plains divisions will continue to operate as they have with their infrastructure intact and with respect to the distinctiveness of the brands, trademarks and operational

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CNH Industrial, parent company of New Holland, has announced it is in the process of purchasing Danish implement brand Kongskilde. The implements will be sold through NH dealers and give the blue brand its first line of tillage equipment.

Photo: CNH

strengths,” said the initial press release from Kubota.

“This acquisition will strengthen our ability to deliver high-quality products to our customers and continue our strategic growth into new markets,” said Kubota Canada president Bob Hickey in the same announcement.

Those “new markets” Hickey that referred to include agriculture, where the brand has declared it eventually wants to be a full-line player.

Now, New Holland’s acquisition of Kongskilde’s “grass and soil activities” allows it to stretch its product line and grow into new market segments as well.

Although sister brand Case IH has long had an extensive implement line, NH hasn’t.

The blue brand already has one recent acquisition under its belt that increased its presence in the grains sector, namely the purchase of sprayer manufacturer Miller-St. Nazianz. The Miller design has been integrated into the NH line as the front-boom Guardian sprayer.

NH has long had a solid reputation in the hay and forage equipment sector, but senior management thinks the Kongskilde acquisition will move that further forward too.

“The acquisition of the tillage and hay and forage activities of Kongskilde adds a key product range that will further broaden New Holland Agriculture’s product offering within the agricultural machinery sector,” said Lambro, in the same press release. “In the meantime the

NH’s Jarrod Angstadt explains the features of the Guardian front boom sprayer to media members during the U.S. Farm Progress Show in Iowa in August. The Guardian was originally designed and built by speciality manufacturer Miller-St. Nazianz. In 2014 that company was purchased by CNH. Photo: Scott Garvey

Kongskilde dealer and importer network will remain the reference point for their customers. This agreement will provide growth opportunities and create a strong platform to develop the Kongskilde business and its brands, and we will also gradually integrate their products in the New Holland portfolio.”

So, under CNH control, Kongskilde implements will

be sold through a much wider distribution network than the Danish firm had on its own.

“We are satisfied that there will be a new strong owner of Kongskilde Agriculture,” said Kim Balle, chairman of Kongskilde and COO of DLG Group. “CNH Industrial will continue to service Kongskilde grass-and-soil customers and end-users, while developing the business further.” CG

deck for our story on our November Machinery Guide said, “Two transmissions drive AGCO’s CORRECTION: The new 1000 Series.” Clearly, it should have said, “Two transmission outputs drive AGCO’s new 1000 Series.” Country Guide apologizes for the error.

Growing Soybean Culture

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

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book review

Lead change, don’t just manage it Leading Change John P. Kotter Harvard Business Review Press, 2012

T

wo decades ago, Harvard professor John Kotter revolutionized how we should think about change, and in the first edition of Leading Change, he laid out an eight-step process for how to transform a business.

Although he mainly targets large organizations, Kotter’s thinking seems equally pertinent on today’s farms, especially with its core recommendations warning us not to give in to complacency, and to drive change by changing the culture first.

Generally, humans and the organizations we create prefer the status quo. So to make big change we first need to accept that things need to improve. Then leadership needs to create urgency and motivation, as well as the structures that will pull the new vision through an organization.

Kotter could never have predicted the incredible amount of change in the last 20 years, with new technologies, international economic integration and domestic market maturation. Yet he did foresee what they would mean for businesses, ramping up competition and the need for all of us to be constantly improving.

In the preface to the 2012 edition of Leading Change, in fact, he gives that idea the weight of a core belief, saying “A globalized economy is creating both more hazards and more opportunities for everyone, forcing firms to make dramatic improvements not only to compete and prosper but also to survive.”

Just think how globalization has had an impact on the agricultural industry in the last couple of decades. We have seen unprecedented price fluctuations for land and commodities, new disease threats, the constant shifting of trade agreements and political policy, the unbelievable consolidation of buyers and input suppliers, population increases and, more recently, the crazy currency swings.

Kotter says that up until the 1990s most large successful businesses were

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By Maggie Van Camp / CG Senior Editor

built on management hierarchy, often with a large middle management component, and they had an inwardly focussed culture of producing more. In these businesses, tradition often trumped change, even when leadership knew that the future didn’t look bright.

Kotter says this engrained the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, setting companies up for possible failure because they felt they didn’t need to consider any largescale transformations.

Instead these businesses tended to work on smaller changes in isolated departments, addressing only shortterm goals.

But there can be good news for farmers, however, because they’re in a better position to set things right.

That’s because, in theory, smaller businesses can adopt and make big changes more easily because they have less bureaucracy and because their leaders tend to be connected to the hands-on work.

“Flatter and leaner structure encourages more acceptance of change,” says Kotter. “Simple structure allows for more teamwork, less ego, less independent silos, and most importantly, more daily communication between employees that’s honest and there’s more trust.”

Still, Kotter’s concept that change must be led and not just be managed rings very true for businesses of any size, including farms. He says the transformations that are successful are 80 per cent due to leadership and only 20 per cent due to management. And they don’t happen overnight.

Kotter then lays out his eight-step approach to making big change. But he also warns that it takes commitment. Even if you work your way through every step, you need to anchor your new approaches into the business culture. Otherwise, the business will revert to its old ways and your efforts will be wasted.

“The hearts and minds of all members of the workforce are needed to cope with the fast-shifting realities of the business climate,” says Kotter.

So he says changing a business needs to be driven by a sensible, inspiring vision that tends to be outwardly focussed, such as improving customer service and satisfaction (quality, new products, delivery, and price).

That vision has first to be possible, and also significant enough to motivate people and create the urgency needed for it to be sustained for years. Eventually, the vision becomes part of the very culture in which the company operates.

Yet the change vision must be simple enough that you can articulate it in under five minutes.

To create, sell, and manage change, Kotter says a business leader needs to build a guiding coalition of powerful, smart people who accept the need to change. The leader also needs to guide the formulation and writing out of the new vision, and they need to spread the word, ensuring it considers the impacts on customers, investors, and employees.

Kotter says it takes strong communication to keep everyone on track, and the guiding coalition needs to talk about the vision again and again and again. Print it out, pin it up, write about it, and always talk about it in meetings and while hiring and training.

To keep everyone motivated along the way, there must also be short-term wins. Also when making big changes don’t declare victory too soon, not until the change has become part of the business’s culture. And recognize that even when it becomes “the way we do things around here,” the new vision has to be reinforced.

Kotter says that if it all seems too daunting, you should pause and honestly ask yourself what will happen if you keep on your current path and if you don’t accommodate the trends swirling around your business.

Will you still be in business in 10 years? CG

John Kotter’s 8 steps to change 1. Establish a sense of urgency. Identify key trends and what they mean for your business.

2. Create a guiding coalition of effective, powerful people and advisers who deeply understand the need to change.

3. Develop a vision and strategy that you can use to align and inspire your team.

4. Communicate this change vision. People won’t make sacrifices unless they’re dissatisfied with the status quo and think that transformation is possible.

5. Empower everyone, including employees, for broad-based action. Identify and eliminate obstacles that block the changes.

6. Generate short-term wins with a six- to 18-month timeframe.

7. Consolidate gains and produce more change.

8. Anchor new approaches in the culture. Show your team how their behavioural changes have helped.

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9

BUSINESS

Bounce, don’t break What makes some farms so resilient in tough economic times? Finally, this New Zealand research finds some answers

By Maggie Van Camp / CG Senior Editor

A

ustralia and New Zealand have had their fair share of agricultural challenges.

They’ve known fires, tsunamis and cyclones, to name a natural few, and they have suffered from the politics of export markets, not to mention supply-demand crashes in world prices for wool, beef and milk.

And that’s without mentioning droughts which, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, are increasing in duration, frequency and intensity, making their fire seasons even longer and their extreme heat even more extreme.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, the country’s earnings on exported milk have been on a roller coaster since 2008, taking a nasty fall in 2014 and hitting a terrible low this past summer.

So what better place could there be for learning about farm resilience?

In fact, it’s there that Nicola Shadbolt is farm and agribusiness management professor at New Zealand’s Massey University, and where she is a world-class expert on farmer resilience, which she defines as the ability of a farm to adjust either within a system (as with buffer capacity) or across systems by adapting or transforming their operation.

Shadbolt knows about managing farm risk firsthand as her family farms about 5,600 acres with five equity partnerships, feeding sheep, deer, milk cows or beef cattle. “We grow grass and feed it to what’s the most profitable,” she says.

So her research started from her personal observations that for farmers, risk can be positive and motivating, and that farmers are already good at mitigating risk. In fact, they do it all the time, and they often see threats as opportunities.

“They (farmers) like to crack something, to stand

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New Zealand farm management prof started with her knowledge that, contrary to what many experts say, farmers already excel at managing risk. Then, she asked, which of their strategies are working best?

Six habits of highly resilient farmers In 2010 David Gray, a development officer with the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA), did a small study of four farms that were consistently more profitable and better at dealing with climate change.

Gray found six common characteristics within these resilient farms.

The farmers Gray looked at were constantly looking for relevant changes or trends, and they tracked emerging opportunities and threats. They found market opportunities by following business trends such as prices, costs, demand shifts, and supply chain issues such as community attitudes towards animal welfare, organic or “green” products, desire for local products and regulations. up and take a punt,” Shadbolt says. “It’s why they are in the business. They like to create opportunities... they get a buzz from it.”

Although scores of experts seem intent on teaching farmers how to manage risk, it’s actually the farmers who are the experts. It’s what they do every day.

“When they get up in the morning, they manage uncertainty — whether it’s floods, droughts, markets, weeds, people, machinery, disease, weather or a combination,” Shadbolt says.

So instead of teaching farmers how to manage risk, the Kiwi farm management research team assumed farmers are resilient by definition, and they launched a survey and they dug into a comprehensive economic database from over 1,000 dairy farms in New Zealand to order to learn how they do it.

Over the last nine years, they’ve qualitatively looked at the resilience of individuals and also quantified big populations of data, sort of like heat maps layered on top of one another to identify groups (or hot spots), and then asked why some farmers were more resilient than others.

It happens they did the research during a time of extreme market volatility in world milk prices, so it proved ideal for finding answers to explain why some farms and farmer owners are better able to survive turbulence. Most farm studies are done in average economic conditions.

“During this time frame we took these great swags of data and found indicators of success,” says Shadbolt.

Resilience refers to what a farm business learns from and how it responds to shocks, both negative and positive, over time, and the research found it’s best measured by analyzing operating profit margin (OPM), says Shadbolt.

OPM is a measure of operating efficiency, and although it varies from year to year, it can be benchmarked against peers to see if a farm is doing all right in the current larger environment.

Low-cost isn’t always best One of the Massey team’s first studies into resiliency compared the OPM of lower-input against higher-input farms. They focused on the buffering capacity, or the ability to “bounce without breaking” of pastoral dairy systems in New Zealand, one of the lowest-cost milk production systems in the world.

This study found short-term optimization and long-term adaptability

These farmers also tracked natural environmental issues (weather and climate, biodiversity, invasive species, soil health and salinity) and adjusted not only their production techniques but also their business plans.

These resilient farmers also had supportive and trustful relationships with fellow farmers, suppliers, service providers and their family and employees, which meant they had ready access to information to make informed decisions. Their information flow and social capital was high.

All members of the farming family and employees had a shared understanding about what would be achieved, by when, and how. By having everyone fully informed and engaged, this increased their creativity and flexibility for dealing with change or even a crisis.

These farmers were also prepared with contingency plans to cope with realistic, if unlikely, scenarios, and when a disruption occurred, a non-standard approach was readily available. Although it caused some cost redundancy, often the fall-back was worth it.

These farmers were better prepared too because they were in the habit of constantly trying new things to see if they worked or if they would be better way to do things.

Those small experiments helped the farmers adapt to change in the future.

When larger-scale changes were needed, Gray found, they already had information and experience about the options.

Continued on page 12

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

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BUSINESS Watch mortgage rates This past fall several Canadian banks announced increases to their housing mortgage rates. Is this just a post-U.S. election reaction or a long-term adjustment to record-low mortgage rates?

David Clarke, vice-president and investment advisor for RBC Wealth Management and RBC Dominion Securities Inc. in London, Ont., says farmers need to be aware of this trend and how it could potentially have an impact on their business’s debt-handling capacity and long-term plans.

But, other than Bank of Canada announcements, what other factors should we follow?

“The banks’ fixed rates are influenced by the bond market,” says Clarke. More specifically, the price of bonds change according to the outlook for the economy, in Canada and the world, particularly the U.S. Beyond market conditions and interest rates, the factors include things like consumer debt levels, unemployment and housing.

As well, Clarke says recent weakness in long-term U.S. bond prices suggests higher long-term interest rates in the U.S. Craig Klemmer, senior agricultural economist with FCC, says current changes to mortgage rates are related to movements in the U.S. economy and the future outlook overall, as the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to continue its focus on interest rates through 2017. And while it’s important to look at both Canadian and U.S. bond markets, he says increasing Federal Reserve key interest rates also have an impact on bond values.

Increased interest rates increase expected bond yields for Treasury Bonds and push all bonds yields higher.

“Market expectation of the U.S. Federal Reserve increasing interest rates in December are very high and now we are beginning to see bond yields increase, despite no announcement,” says Klemmer at the end of November.

If you are waiting to hear if the Bank of Canada or Federal Reserve are going to raise rates, often the bond market has already responded and begun pricing in a part of the changes in fundamentals, says Klemmer.

The decision between locking in a rate and/or using a floating rate should match the long-term strategic plan of your business. Although long-term mortgage prices are different for each customer depending on loan characteristics and risk profile, generally, in the last decade rates have declined and remain historically low. So variable rate loans have been low risk but is that about to change?

“There is no right strategy for managing debt allocation between fixed and variable loans. It is all about one’s risk tolerance,” says Klemmer. “Having a balance between fixed and variable rate interest products minimizes ones exposure to market fluctuations.”

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weren’t actually linked to whether a farm was low-input or highinput. Instead, it was the farms with systems in the middle of the range that were best at responding both to favourable and to unfavourable conditions. They were able to improve and protect results in both cases.

In other words, it wasn’t necessarily low or high cost of production as much as having the ability to accommodate change that made them more resilient.

Farms with consistently stronger OPMs were more flexible so they could withstand shocks, Shadbolt says. “They achieve the best they can, depending on the year.”

Researchers also found that debt level did not necessarily determine efficiency. Instead, resilience was tied to more efficient management, particularly of labour and production.

The recipe for resilience Not surprisingly, the most resilient farms generated more profit per unit of output, they managed expenditures in line with prices, they had higher return on assets, and they produced more per hectare and per labour unit.

Also, these farms actively managed their debt-servicing capacity, so they were more cash liquid and generated more discretionary cash for investment and personal draws.

That doesn’t mean not spending at all, Shadbolt explains. It means understanding cash flow and using it wisely.

“Farmers respond to better prices with cost spending, and it’s okay to be responsive, flexible,” she says. “I hope this research will change the way we advise farmers about risk, and it will encourage farmers to be more agile, to do partial budgets.”

The team also looked at attitudes toward risk, strategy and debt. In 2015, Shadbolt and Femi Olubode-Awosola published a paper called Resilience, Risk and Entrepreneurship. “What are the things that make them (farmers) able to keep the ship stable in spite of rough seas?” asks Shadbolt. “What can other farmers learn from them?”

The researchers identified categories of farmers based on their attitudes to risk, ranging from gamblers to those who are cautious. The gamblers were likely in growth stage with their businesses, they perceived mostly upside risk from uncertainties, they produced to full capacity, they didn’t prefer to keep debt low as a risk management strategy, and they were less likely to use practical planning steps.

At the other end of the spectrum were the “experienced but cautious” farmers who were less likely to be actively growing, saw both the upside and the downside of risk, and played it safe by not producing to full capacity.

Between these two groups, however, were the “competent conservative” farmers who managed debt (mostly kept it low) and used practical planning steps.

Contrary to what much of the literature says about risk attitudes and farmer behaviour, the researchers found the most successful group of farmers were actually quite risk neutral, but they had a strong business focus and strong business skills, and they were able to manage high levels of debt.

Armed with a positive attitude to change, these farmers could successfully adapt to changing conditions.

Resilient farms rely on the resilient qualities of human beings, such as flexibility, motivation, perseverance and optimism, says Shadbolt. “You can’t separate the farm business from the farmers,” she says. “I’m a firm believer that people can change, can learn.” CG

Resilience in the Midwest

prepared to seize profits when they appear, instead of waiting for the largest profit margin possible, which may never come.

Over his career as a professor at Virginia Tech University and as a farm economic guru, David Kohl has seen some epic farm failures. But he has also admired farmers who have survived and even thrived during tough times.

But Kohl says it’s not all about hedging and buckling down; it’s also about being prepared for opportunities. “Producers have many opportunities to seize greater control of their destiny by using good old-fashioned business planning,” says Kohl. “This starts by exploring why you are in business, where your business is now, and where you want it to go in the future. One must plan not only for the next two years, but also the next decade.”

With the recent drop in grain and oilseed prices, some midwestern farmers are once again treading water in the bottom of the trough, and there are reports of some big farms sinking toward bankruptcy.

Farm family spending on the rise

2006

$50,000

2015 over

avg.

$90,000

Kohl says resilient farmers crunch the numbers and make the tough decisions, instead of just relying on expanding to improve gross income. “More money will be made behind the computer and pushing the pencil with an eye on the production component than producing your way to profitability,” he says.

In the short-term, one way Kohl recommends for getting a handle on operating expenses is to renegotiate leases and consider using flex-lease agreements tied to margins.

It’s also time to look closely at your input costs and at pre-booking savings. The upper tier of profitable businesses seem to be spending $50 per acre less, on average, than the lower tier, according to the University of Minnesota’s FINBIN data (www.cffm. umn.edu/products/FINBIN.aspx).

Also in the FINBIN data is a pretty clear indication of how family living expenses can have an impact on a farm’s bottom line. The top profit segment of farms in the data reduced family withdrawals by more than $25 to $30 per acre last year.

Farm family spending has been on the rise. In 2006, family living averaged about $50,000, but nine years later the same category was over $90,000.

Kohl says it’s better to have an honest conversation with family about budgets and credit cards before it becomes a problem.

During low margin times, the top-level grain and oilseed farmers reduce their capital investments, specifically on machinery and equipment, says Kohl. In addition, they’ve already diversified and invested when they had excess cash flow, and that’s paying back now. “Shed unproductive assets,” recommends Kohl.

In the longer term, marketing successfully through turbulent times means being

Kohl adds that a well thought-out plan for success allows you to better communicate what you’re thinking, planning and anticipating.

Because of that, you can present a more favourable case to lenders, accountants and investors, and you’ll be better positioned to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

With the volatile economic times, beginning and established farmers both need to test their business plans against “what if” scenarios.

Start with the operating budget and establish a broad set of assumptions, such as prices, costs, interest rates, and currency exchange rates. Blend these scenarios together to create the most likely situations and then develop strategies for what to do in each situation.

It might also mean looking at land purchases and leases, especially since 70 per cent of American farmland is expected to change hands by the year 2025 because of age demographics in the sector, says Kohl.

“The land ownership structure of agricultural businesses in the future will be much different than that of traditional farms, including rent and lease of land and other assets, and strategic alliances with major players in the industry,” Kohl says. “Many producers will control assets rather than owning them.”

But he says managing debt is more imperative than growth. Borrowed capital should provide needed working capital reserves for growth, instead of just constraining the business and flexibility.

“Big is no longer the key to success,” says Kohl. “Get efficient before you get bigger.”

Also keep a clear head when dealing with stressful situations. “Find ways to improve and maintain good physical health,” adds Kohl. “The strengths of the mind, body and spirit are the most important components in your business plan and in life.”

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

13

Change Makers T

oday’s farmers are change makers. Re-inventing our farms has become normal.

So Country Guide asked top ag journalists from across the country to interview farmers who excel at change, taking their farms in very different directions with an eye to finding their best opportunities.

Their stories start this month and will continue through the winter. As you’ll see, our Change Makers are inspiring and insightful, and they are also gritty and determined.

They’re young and old, from small and large operations, managing crops and livestock.

These farmers push the boundaries, find solutions, and change negatives into positives, and they fill us with optimism for the future of agriculture.

Drive on.

The next

big step

As a couple, the Craigs’ decision to transform their farm and leverage new opportunities has opened up a new future

E

lgin Craig’s farming career began with change.

His parents, William and Dorothy Craig, had started Craigcrest Holsteins in 1950 near Brampton, within sight of Toronto. Then, 26 years later, when Elgin and his brother David joined the business, the family picked up and moved an hour west near the town of Arthur.

The move made the Craigs one of the first families to leave the Brampton area, with his parents seeing the move as an opportunity to slow down and escape the city on their own terms.

Now, Elgin and wife Joan have been wrestling with similar questions about their own career paths. But, in keeping with growing numbers of farmers across the country, their decisions are proving radically different.

For Elgin and Joan, this isn’t a time for stepping aside as much as it’s a time to find new farming ventures into which they can invest their passion and all the knowledge they have accumulated through their decades of experience.

But for a moment, let’s get back to that original move to Arthur, because it was also a chance to upgrade. “The buildings were terrible, the fencerows were wide and thick, and land in Arthur was cheap,” Elgin recalls. “Our parents helped us start, but they didn’t give it to us.

David and I started out with an income-sharing agreement, then after four years we developed a partnership, and within 10 years we started a company.”

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JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

At the new location the farm thrived, emerging as a leader in production, earning Gold Seal Awards from the Dairy Farmers of Ontario for an entire decade, along with major wins at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair and World Dairy Expo.

Their cattle received multiple All-Canadian and AllAmerican nominations, and the “Craigcrest” prefix earned international recognition through Craigcrest Rubies Gold Rejoice, a heifer that won both Junior Champion at the World Dairy Expo and Reserve Junior Champion at the Royal in 2010, later placing first again as a Senior twoyear-old at both the World Dairy Expo and the Royal.

Perhaps most telling are the farm’s three Master Breeder Shields. The first was shared by William and both sons in 1987, then by David and Elgin in 1997, and finally by Elgin and Joan in 2013.

For a farm to earn three Master Breeder Shields is rare in Canada, but it’s even more unusual for this award to be presented to different owners each time.

It suggests this family knows how to excel through changes that it undertakes deliberately and strategically.

Elgin says he and his brother always talked about the changes they could see having an impact on their business, and since David was five years older, it wasn’t a surprise when he felt ready to retire from farming first.

“We always thought about it, we knew where we were going,” Elgin says. “We actually booked one year before we had the sale. The market was good and it’s all about

Photography: David Charlesworth

By Amy Petherick / CG Contributing Editor

You have to look at what makes sense ahead of you,” says Joan. “Life is full of so many changes, some you’re ready for, and some are unexpected.”

The Craigs’ chose the Canadian breed Speckle Park for their rarity, and traits including meat quality.

timing; in 2001, we had the second-highest herd dispersal in Canada.”

Herd dispersals for the purpose of dissolving a business partnership aren’t always so amicable, but to the Craigs, the decision to sell the business made good sense to everyone.

The only thing the brothers didn’t sell was the land, and Elgin and Joan continued to farm. “When BSE came along, I’d had a nice business selling animals to the U.S.,” Elgin says. “We got caught with 120 heifers.”

Having survived 24 per cent interest rates in the ’80s with his brother, Elgin had learned long before the BSE crisis that breeding good cattle in a well-managed business pays a lot of mortgage. “I’d gone

to college, taken economics and all that, but those realities certainly molded my mind around the economics of farming,” he says, “A lot of people got doom and gloom, but I knew the only way to get out was to buy quota and milk our way out.”

It was a decision Joan could get behind wholeheartedly.

“When you talk about being proactive for change, I think you have to look at what makes sense ahead of you,” she says. “Life is full of so many changes, some you’re ready for, and some are unexpected.”

Joan talks of how she grew up on a beef and cash crop farm, but her heart was in teaching.

Continued on page 16

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

15

Change Makers She took a few years away from her career when their kids, Stephanie and James, were little, and helped on the farm throughout all the years that Elgin and David farmed together.

“I would help host international guests, fill in on weekends, help with advertising… I often say I was like a cheerleader,” she says. “When I look back now, I realize how important those roles were. They are part of farm success.”

The couple decided together to get back into dairy. “Although Joan had her own career in which she kept advancing, some of those attributes that she had really helped us in farming,” he says. “Sometimes when you’re always doing something, you can’t see the trees for the forest. She looks at it with a different set of eyes, and that positivity, even on the worst days, was one of the great things.”

BSE was devastating. Elgin says and it was a terrible time for a lot of farmers when fresh cows were selling for $175. However, he says it had also been difficult to manage the challenges of high interest rates back in the ’80s. Instead, they’ve always chosen to find

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JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

“Embrace the changes that are necessary,” Elgin says. “When you start looking at some of those challenges, there is always an opportunity, though it may not be immediate.” the positives in even the negative things that happen in life. “You can decide to conquer that challenge, and embrace the changes that are necessary,” Elgin says he has learned, “and when you start looking at some of those challenges, there is always an opportunity, though it may not be immediate.”

After one year off, Elgin and Joan were back in the dairy business. “I think what’s important is that we set goals,” Joan says.

As a couple, they sat down together in 2003 and settled on five sets of goals for their new venture together. “One of them was to be able to show at the World Dairy Expo — and we did,” Joan says. “And then, another was to work on a Master Breeder shield — and we did that too.”

Then they saw another opportunity.

For the first time since BSE, October 2014 brought good cattle prices. “There were Americans in Canada looking to buy cattle,” Elgin says, “and our dollar had started to come down.” In June of that year Joan had retired from teaching and Elgin was starting to feel the demands of managing the herd more keenly as he got older.

At what may have seemed like the peak of all their successes, Joan and Elgin had another herd dispersal sale in October 2014.

“We took about six months to rest, we did a little bit of traveling, had a nice chance to be able to talk about things, and what we wanted to do,” Joan says. “Neither of us really liked the word retiring. We feel like

we’re pretty young and we were always changing within our careers, and kind of prepared ourselves for change.”

Elgin still loved dairy cows and Joan knew her husband had incredible knowledge in cattle. He had always been very good at explaining the various aspects of the dairy business and encouraged her questions. In 2015 they sat down to write out a list of what they wanted to do next, plus a very long list of the things they didn’t want to do, which eliminated a lot of options.

“I don’t care what career you’re in, it’s not easy to leave that career,” Elgin says, “and all I ever wanted to do was to farm. But, there comes a point in your career where you need something new, something different that keeps you young and your thinking vital.”

Today, Elgin credits his brother with introducing them to the breed of beef cattle they now have on their farm. “The idea came over a family dinner,” he recalls. “I really did miss cattle. We threw the breed names out and my brother said, ‘There is a breed called Speckle Park; I don’t know much about

them, but they win all these carcass competitions.’ I’ve been in the animal industry all my life and I’d never heard of it. Neither had Joan, so, the two of us got on Google.”

Joan says she found it fascinating that Speckle Park was only the second breed of beef cattle in Canada to be granted distinct breed status, and that women had played a major role in the beginning of the breed.

“There are so many impressive qualities, including the animal’s temperament, meat quality, maternal abilities, the fact that they finish well on grass, and that they are quite beautiful to look at,” she says.

They watched a sale online. They posted a message to Facebook that they wanted to see some herds and, to their surprise, they received some invitations. They flew to Alberta and visited ranches there and in Sask­atchewan. They also attended the Canadian Speckle Park 2015 annual meeting. They took the Environmental Farm Plan course and a traceability course together, and followed that with a biosecurity course.

“Even though we’ve been married for awhile and farming for quite awhile, this really is the first time we’ve been figuring things out together on a daily basis,” Joan admits.

Elgin and Joan made the decision to develop a purebred and commercial Speckle Park herd. So far they’ve grown their herd to include 80 cattle. They’ve also decided to renovate their 40-year-old dairy barn to handle cattle in entirely new ways. “We have learned so much and we find it exciting,” Elgin says. “There is not a lot of data, no genomic evaluations and it is in herd records that management decisions are made.”

They find themselves embracing the changes required for new technology, a different breeding program, and different cattle management systems for hous­ing and rotational pasture management. They know that mastering it all will be important to their future success, and they remain undeterred.

Explains Joan, “I think you build confidence that you can adapt to change when you practice it.” CG

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COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

17

Change Makers

8 steps to go

H

arvest was wrapping up when I arrived in wine country. Up and down the valley, grape growers were breathing almost audible sighs of relief as final bins were hauled from the vineyard to crush. Seemingly overnight, the valley had shifted from the vibrant oranges, golds and deep purples of fall to the browns and greys of coming winter, and November’s heavy clouds were crowding in.

As the season’s last straggling carloads of tourists packed up for home, locals were battening down, slowing up, tucking in for the coming quiet of winter.

Well, most locals, anyway. But definitely not Chris and Betty Jentsch.

After 30 years operating on adrenaline, willpower and undiluted ambition, the Jentsches don’t seem to have a slow gear, especially now with an estate winery to keep afloat, making 24-7 their way of life every day of the year. *** Ambition and success have a glow to them: a shininess and heat that make bystanders want to step in close in hopes that something rubs off. Maybe that’s why I’ve been looking forward all week to sitting down with Chris and Betty. More likely, it’s because I’ve never quite shaken my 10-year-old-self ’s impression of the largerthan-life Chris Jentsch.

I remember, 25 or 30 years ago, riding shotgun beside my dad in an old red five-ton flat deck we called Old Snort. As we pulled up at Chris’s cherry packing plant — a brand new, teal blue warehouse that seemed impossibly big for just one farmer to fill and run — I asked my dad why Chris would want his own packinghouse when virtually all of the rest of the valley’s farmers shipped to the local co-ops.

My dad glanced sideways at me and said, “’Cause he’s Chris.”

Then, he added, “No one works like Chris. No one can keep up with him. He’s either going to be the most successful farmer in this valley or he’ll destroy himself trying. Either way, it’ll be quite the show.”

To a little kid, everything about Chris seemed huge: linebacker shoulders, hands that could pick four apples at a time, a booming laugh and (reportedly) a temper to match. But it wasn’t his bear-like size or high-energy personality that made him then — and now — a well-

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JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

By Madeleine Baerg

known name in our little town. Chris’s claim to smalltown fame has always been his work ethic, his stomach for risk, and an ambition and vision that skate the thin edge between the admirable and the outrageous.

That combination — together with the logical brain and calm voice of his college sweetheart and now wife Betty — have carried Chris through enormous change and volatility in the tree fruit and grape markets. *** Chris and Betty waited for me in the office at the top of the hill. Though I hadn’t seen him in 20 years, he was just what I remembered: a little too big to fit easily into an office chair; a little too energetic to be constrained by indoors; a whole lot of graciousness and warmth.

At 53, he’s a tornado of energy. With harvest wrapped up just the day before, he’d jumped from intense manual labour in the vineyard to equally intense administrative and managerial catch-up. While we chatted, he deftly stickhandled phone calls, staff drop-ins and emails (300 so far today, he reported, courtesy of a wine club’s recent recommendation). The multi-tasking is a vital component of the success of their operation, even if the smartphone looks like a child’s toy in his huge hands.

Betty laughed as I suggested she join us. “Unh-uh,” she says, shaking her head. “Chris is the talker.”

And so, with the most spectacular of panoramas spreading out behind him, he talked. I couldn’t help thinking that the picture-perfect vineyard — each plant manicured, each row arrow straight — oozed romantic history as though it’s been in place forever.

In fact, this vineyard was orchard barely a dozen years ago. How that came to be is a lesson in industry history and change management. While some of those changes had been deftly planned over the years, others have been foisted on the couple.

As Chris says, “We’re here. We’re surviving. Like 10,000 other farmers across this country, we’re doing what we need to stay in the game.”

“As I say to my three girls, if you want to be successful you need three things: you have be able to recognise when you need to change, you have to have the capacity to change, and you have to be able to maximize the parameters at hand. If you’re a dinosaur, you’re not going to make it.”

Photography: Shari Saysomsack Photography

Trail-blazers? mavericks? gamblers?

Success for Chris and Betty Jentsch is all about winning at change

Step 1: Take advantage of your youth Chris and Betty come by farming naturally.

Both were raised by orcharding parents right here in the valley, and they’ve lived the seasonality and the intensity of farming every year of their lives.

After dropping in and out of college a time or two (“We got two diplomas between the two of us,” Chris says of himself and Betty. “They just both happen to be in her name.”), Chris committed himself to fulltime farming. Right away, he bit off more than anyone thought they could chew, renting and operating first one, then two, then a handful of local orchards.

But something didn’t sit right.

As Chris came to realize, the real money in farming rarely flows to the farmer.

“There’s this thing in me that says you need to value add,” Chris says. “Farmers do so much work but get such little return.

You carry all this risk and do this incredible amount of labour yet margins are so, so tight. When I got into growing fruit in the late 1980s, I didn’t want to just send fruit to the co-op and let a board make all the decisions for me. I wanted to come up with a better way to add value.”

Drive through the Okanagan today and you’ll find countless independent fruit retailers, fruit packers, and fruit wholesalers dotted along every highway, lane and back road. Back in the 1980s, though, value adding and selling independently was a brand new concept. In fact, until just a few years before, it wasn’t even legal for independents to sell fruit.

As Chris and Betty got into farming, the industry started to test the concept of private sales. To the two new farmers, forging their own path seemed the obvious right step.

So, 25-year-old Chris headed to the bank with what would become one of many loan requests.

“When you’re young you can work 24 hours a day and it’s exciting. Banks are willing to invest in youth. That’s when you have to jump on making something happen,” he says.

The bank approved a sizable loan to build a packinghouse building and equip it with high tech sorting line equipment. Then Chris started renting orchards “all over the place” so he’d have fruit to fill up his new building.

Step 2: Swim against the tide As Chris and Betty got rolling in the late 1980s, the cherry market was falling hard.

The market, already heavily saturated by heavy planting, struggled under a glut of cherries caused when canned cherries fell out of consumer favour. Not surprisingly, farmers started to cut their losses by pulling cherry trees.

Chris started planting them. Lots and lots of them.

Talk to Chris for two minutes and you’ll realize this is a man with his finger on the pulse of the industry. His success is built on more than just understanding and reacting to his industry: he seems able to anticipate consumer and marketing shifts before anyone else sees them coming.

“The commodity price for old-style, June cherries was falling through the floor.

But if you could get your cherries out late, like July, we could see that there was this window in the market that was wide open,” he says. “And export conditions were

favourable: Taiwan especially was starting to import a lot of cherries.”

They opted for new, high-density, lateproducing varieties like big, solid Lapins; heart-shaped, black-skinned Staccato; and bright red, extra-late-ripening Sweethearts.

The move proved almost immediately successful.

Meanwhile (one quickly learns there’s always a “meanwhile” in Chris’s world), Chris was pushing dirt on the first properties he’d purchased. Huge quantities of dirt.

Through the early years of farming, ravines were used as dumping grounds for all manner of garbage. Chris bought unfarmable, garbage-filled ravine land, then recontoured it, “folding it” into something something usable. While Chris insists he wasn’t the first to use big machinery to reshape the farming landscape, his ability to see what others didn’t added significant value to his operation.

Continued on page 20

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

19

Change Makers Step 3: Make yourself a front-runner Then entirely unexpectedly, Chris’s father died of a massive heart attack during routine surgery. To keep his mom at home, Chris and Betty subdivided his parent’s property and then bought out the family orchard: almost 60 acres of prime, sandy-soiled, southeasterly exposed, rolling hill.

Right away, he started converting the home lot’s apples into cherries. Aided by the provincial government’s treefruit replant subsidy program, Chris and Betty soon had 55 acres to cherries — a daunting task to manage, pick and pack.

While labour shortages are the bane of virtually every independent packer, being an industry front-runner means you beat the labour crunch.

“Labour problems come after a commodity starts to peak. We were in early so we didn’t have an issue. We had 30 people in the warehouse — predominantly older, retired packinghouse women — and they were awesome. And in the orchard we had a transient picking force of 50.”

Meanwhile, cherry packaging technology started to explode. From labourintensive sorting lines, technology shifted to automated, optic sizing. The Jentsches

knew staying ahead meant investing in serious infrastructure, so they made capital upgrades so big and so gutsy that they became a topic of great discussion among more conservative growers.

The move proved correct and the dollars followed.

Yet Chris knew it couldn’t last.

“We weren’t going to be the only ones who found that late-variety window. Americans started planting later varieties and at higher elevation, and those cherries started to sweep over our little window. I could see the writing on the wall in 2004.

“I knew the heyday was over.”

Step 4: Know when to change directions With their young cherry orchard just reaching peak productivity in 2004, Chris and Betty made an impossibly hard call.

“You have no idea how difficult it is to fire up a ’dozer and rip out picture perfect cherries. That was tough,” Chris recalls. “But it’s either in or out for me. I found a buyer for the packing line equipment and then we pulled the whole works of the trees out.”

Of course, Chris had a plan.

“By 2004, the vineyard industry’s renaissance was already in play. So grapes it was.”

Chris and Betty talked about opening a winery right from the get-go but Betty (wisely) recognized how overwhelmingly massive the undertaking would be, so the two opted to grow their grapes for existing wineries instead.

The grapes grew fantastically on Chris and Betty’s premium, southeasterly facing slopes. Demand proved steady. All seemed smooth.

Once again, Chris knew it couldn’t last.

Step 5: Above all, be brave As farmers up and down the valley jumped on the grape bandwagon, apples, cherries, sagebrush fell victim to the push for more vineyard. Good land and increasingly marginal land alike all suddenly sprouted posts, wires and young grapevines.

As grape production shifted into oversupply in 2012, demand suddenly dropped precipitously. From one month to the next, independent growers — even some contracted growers — couldn’t move their crops.

For sale signs popped up everywhere.

Grapes left hanging on vines slowly dropped to the ground over the winter, a depressing reminder of the sharp market downturn.

Chris knew the storm would hit them

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too. Still, it was a serious kick when, in May of 2013, Chris and Betty found themselves with no buyer for their coming crop.

“Our plan was to be happy just growing grapes. But then suddenly, you couldn’t even give away your grapes,” says Chris.

“It’s hard to believe in yourself in times like that. There was a lot of pain in the industry. Even though you know success comes in ebbs and flows, when you can’t move your crop, it’s hard.”

It was a make-or-break time for the industry and individual growers.

“We had to do something. Otherwise we would have lost it all; we couldn’t have survived,” he says. “We had a warehouse and we had grapes, so we decided to open a winery.”

“If we’d known then what we know now…” Betty looks up from her computer to interject, before trailing off and shaking her head.

“As usual, ignorance saved the day,” Chris says. “If we’d known what was involved we’d gladly have opted out of the farm and done something else. But we didn’t know, so we jumped in. And the prime directive — to make the farm profitable — that was a constant. We didn’t know anything about winemaking at all but we knew the winery was an extension of value adding.”

Step 6: Keep on keeping on, despite uncertainty The investment required to start up a winery, between the capital costs of winemaking and bottling equipment and the variable

costs of winemaking expertise, is more than daunting. But the dollars and cents proved worse than just that.

Whereas the average farm family gets paid for its commodities at least annually, that isn’t how it works in the wine business.

Investment doesn’t translate into immediate income because wine takes time to sell.

“A well-oiled corporate winery might be able to carry the costs for four years. When you’re a mom-and-pop, a Betty and Chris, it’s a whole lot harder to stay afloat until the dollars start coming in. I naively thought we’d bang out some wines and sell to a bulk market. When that wasn’t possible, we realized we needed to build a brand and convince people to invest in our product. That’s no easy feat. Here we are competing against great big marketing machines — and even at that level, those guys struggle too.”

What has played in Chris and Betty’s favour is a little timing, a little luck, and that unflagging, never-say-never work ethic.

A year before deciding to invest in a winery, Chris and Betty had found themselves with grapes on their hands as market demand slowed.

“I didn’t want to dump them,” says Chris.

“Betty thought I was crazy, but I decided to crush them at a custom crush facility upvalley.”

The crush produced 1,700 cases — a very small run by industry standards. Though expensive by the bottle to produce, the upside of the run was that it introduced Chris and Betty to the regulatory side of

wine production and allowed them to work through some of the myriad winery startup tasks, from brand development to label creation to administrative organization.

And it officially gave them their first vintage.

Step 7: Believe in what you do Chris and Betty are three real years into building CC Jentsch Cellars. It’s a labour of self, of love and of tireless commitment in more ways than one.

The CC Jentsch name references Chris and Betty’s middle names (Carl and Coelho). The wine names themselves — “The Chase,” “The Dance,” “The Quest” — play on the theme of the couple’s enduring love story.

Today, they see light at the end of the startup tunnel.

“We’ve approached the winery the same way we approached sending fruit to the final customer. The buyer has to feel that they got good value. It’s not that first sale that will carry the day, it’s when they come back and want to buy more.

“Every wine bottle is our ambassador. We need people to buy it again and again.”

Step 8: Always look forward What’s next for Chris and Betty Jentsch and their CC Jentsch Cellars?

“We’re always looking ahead,” says Chris.

“Tomorrow morning, we could wake up to a -25 C morning and we’ll have to start all over again. So all the options are open.” CG

SEEKING NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2017 Canadian Conservation Hall of Fame

Nominees can be anyone who is a proponent of Canadian soil conservation and health and has made a significant national contribution to the health of Canadian soils.

For further information or to make a nomination visit soilcc.ca or email info@soilcc.ca.

Nominations close February 28, 2017. info@soilcc.ca 204-792-2424 www.soilcc.ca @soilcouncil COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

21

Change Makers

New again Yesterday’s values can still guide their farm today, Jason and Laura Kehler are discovering, but only if those values are re-engineered for efficiency, and for a new business climate

By Angela Lovell

22

JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

Photography: Sandy Black

H

arvey Kehler had a measured way of making sure his son Jason was going to know the family business literally from the ground up.

At just 11-years-old, Jason got assigned to the potato line at Kehler Farms near Carman, Man., working the job that’s perhaps crudely but accurately called “picking dirt.”

By 16, he was cultivating and discing, and at 18 he was operating the harvester.

And soon there would be more.

At just 23, Harvey decided Jason needed some skin in the game, and he turned over a 20 per cent share of the business to him.

The year was 1998.

“He said you need some ownership,” Jason recalls, “so that’s where I started.”

Harvey seems to have known his son was ready, and Jason responded.

“That same year, I bought a semi-truck and started my own business trucking in the winter time,” Jason says. “I paid the truck off as fast as I could and saved up a bunch of money to put back into the farm.”

But one lesson of farming is that everything doesn’t always fit neatly with our plans.

Jason is a fourth-generation farmer, but only the second at the current farm, which Harvey and his brother Rob had purchased in the 1960s. (His grandfather’s original homestead was about 70 kilometres south, near the U.S. border at Rosetown, Man.)

Harvey and Rob had farmed together all along, but with little warning, at just the same time that Jason was getting his first taste of management, Rob decided it was time to pull out. “Rob’s abrupt departure from the farm was a real shock to us,” says Jason. “I had to grow up quick.”

“It was awkward being a young guy, trying to manage people who were older than me,” Jason says. “Looking back on it now, I realize how many years it’s taken me to get comfortable in my role.”

He wonders now if he was actually ready, but he also knows he wasn’t in a position to back away from the challenge, even if it was in his character (which it isn’t), especially one that was going to teach him to embrace change instead of fighting it.

In fact, it’s a trait that has helped keep up the growth of the 5,600-acre farm he now runs with wife Laura.

“Our philosophy is to always have an open mind about whatever comes down the pipe,” Jason says. “If you don’t embrace change, you’re not going ahead, you’re going backwards.”

Bigger, and just as good Following Jason’s stepping into full management, the farm has expanded rapidly. Since 2013, they have increased total crop acres by 48 per cent, including a doubling of their processing potato acres. They’ve also purchased three quarters of land, and installed four quarters of drainage tile.

“I recognized that to maintain a spot in the potato business, we were too small,” says Jason. “We weren’t generating the revenue we needed to spend enough money on the business.

“My dad was always a precise farmer more than a volume farmer. It was important to him to have everything perfect. I think we’ve done a good job of maintaining those values as we have grown.”

Jason took advantage of the opportunity to purchase some equipment, storage, land and potato contracts from a local producer who was exiting the industry, expanding his potato production from three irrigation circles to five.

Again though, he had to be ready for change when the opportunity demanded it, rather than exactly according to plan. The following year, in 2014, another potato farm came up for sale. “You can’t always let these opportunities pass you by, so we decided to take it on,” says Jason, who secured contracts for the new production.

Jason and Laura admit they had a few

We still want to be cutting edge… but I also want to be responsible, and start to pay down debt and set the farm — Jason Kehler up for the kids.” sleepless nights as the business rapidly expanded and cash flow became tight, but took comfort in the support and backing of their banker and accountant.

“With such a rapid expansion, the numbers didn’t always look good but they had faith in us,” says Jason. “They knew we could do it and told us that. We needed that encouragement at times.”

Jason also gives credit to his father, who was a more conservative manager and had left the farm in a good position for Jason and Laura to take over and expand. “Our debtto-equity ratio was good when we took all this on,” says Jason. “That was largely a result of Dad’s management over many years.”

His father also had the benefit that comes from time and perspective, and he remembers his father telling him something he’ll never forget. “He said, ‘It’s pretty cool to buy a combine when you’re 20, but once you’re my age, you’ll realize that you have to pay for it.’”

“I’m 40 now and he’s right, the romance of buying machinery is gone.”

Focus on Sustainability Originally from Ohio, Laura comes from a multi-generation farm family. She has a masters degree in food science from Oklahoma State, and worked for Tyson Foods and Nestlé before meeting Jason in 2007 and moving to Manitoba the following year.

Laura left her job as a food scientist at the Food Development Centre in Portage la

Prairie to work full time on the farm after their second son was born.

Laura’s background in food science has come in handy, as the potato industry is subject to multiple workplace and food safety programs. These include the HACCP-based food safety program CanadaGAP, plus regulations governing chemical management, pest control, the Environment Farm Plan, the Potato Sustainability Initiative, Manitoba’s Workplace Health and Safety regulations, Workers Compensation, and many others.

Increasingly, food companies such as McDonald’s are responding to customer feedback with initiatives that require benchmarks and reporting procedures for potato producers to verify that they are using sustainable production practices.

“Sustainability for me is making my farm better, doing what I can to be efficient, and I want to do it for the betterment of the farm, and the land and the environment; that’s just who I am,” says Jason. “Politically, it helps us with our relationship with the McDonald’s of the world, but that’s not why I do it. For me it’s about being better.”

Workplace health and safety regulations take up a lot of time, as the Kehlers provide training for things like first aid and skid loader operation. They’ve also developed a safety team, plus written policies about everything from smoking in vehicles to working in confined spaces such as grain Continued on page 24

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

23

change makers

Setting up for generation #5 Although necessity catapulted Jason into a management role on the farm at an early age, his dad didn’t find the full transition process so easy.

“He came from a different place. He started with 80 acres and did an amazing job to build the farm up to 2,800 acres, and he had a different set of ideas that he worked with,” Jason says, admitting, “We pushed him pretty hard to finally get a generational plan going.”

When Jason was 30 and itching to take on more, his dad was 57 and was still in full gear.

He wasn’t ready to let go. “I hope it will be easier for me because we had kids when I was older than my dad did, so by the time our kids are old enough to start taking over, I’ll be at the point where I’m ready to let go a little more,” he says.

The Kehlers have two children (Paisley, five, and Wyatt, three), and their goals are already shifting to include this fifth-farming generation.

“Through my 30s, my goal was just expansion, and now that I’m 40, I’m saying to myself this won’t last forever,” says Jason. “We still want to be cutting edge; we still want to be ahead of the curve as far as technology is concerned and growing techniques. But I also want to be responsible, and start to pay down debt and set the farm up for the kids. Up until now, I’ve been setting it up for me. Now it’s not about me anymore; it’s about the next generation.”

bins, and they hold quarterly safety meetings with staff.

These changes were costly to implement. “The first year that we initiated the Workplace Safety Program we spent almost $30,000 to implement it,” says Laura. “It doesn’t cost as much to maintain it but there are some ongoing costs, for example fire extinguishers are required in every piece of equipment with a cab — two in each combine — and in every building, and they all have to be tested annually and replaced every few years.”

Not that they disagree with the concept of safety. “It’s definitely made everyone more aware of safety,” says Laura. “As experienced farmers and operators, we may know how to operate equipment safely, but the rules are written in a way that makes you think about 24

JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

the least experienced employee you might have, which is good.”

Mostly, say the Kehlers, all these programs involve a ton of paperwork, but they also help them assess their practices and find new, efficient ways to do things.

Thinking Outside the Box The Kehler family has a tradition of thinking outside the box. Jason’s grandfather was one of the first producers in Manitoba to grow sugar beets in the 1940s, followed by sunflowers and then canola.

Jason meanwhile was one of the first producers in his area to adopt variable rate (VR) fertilization, which he now applies to all his crops. “I did it out of a desire to get better,” he says. “We were always having quality issues in our potatoes. In the potato busi-

ness, quality is by far more important than quantity. If you don’t have consistent quality, you can’t market your crop.”

Since adopting VR fertilization, the Kehlers have achieved more consistent, evenly maturing crops because they are applying different rates of fertilizer based on mapping of the different soil zones in the field. “We’re improving our quality and it comes from striving for a better bottom line, and to do a better job farming, but it’s also environmentally sustainable,” says Jason.

With all the soil testing they do, Jason knows they’re much more efficient in their fertilizer use, getting bigger yields while not increasing their fertilizer costs. “We’re getting a bigger bang for our buck and that’s a huge asset to our farm,” he says.

Next Jason is interested in explor­i ng variable rate irrigation, which comes with a $30,000 to $40,000 price tag for each pivot.

The Importance of a Marketing Plan Another thing that’s changed is Jason’s mindset on marketing his crop. “We sit down every year and develop a marketing plan. You can’t make a marketing decision based on a one-week period,” he says.

The Kehlers understand that it’s crucial to know their cost of production on all their crops, and determine what their profit margin is, so they can make good marketing decisions.

“Don’t get caught up in what you sold for last year. If you know you’re making money with corn at $4.25/bushel, sell some, maybe not all, and don’t worry about it,” says Jason.

Jason and Laura won the title of Manitoba’s 2016 Outstanding Young Farmers (OYF), and headed to Niagara Falls in November for the national finals. It was a surprise to learn it was their accountant who had nominated them. “It made us feel really good that he had the confidence,”says Jason.

OYF has been a great experience, the couple says, particularly because they have met so many other alumni of the program who are progressive farmers and strong advocates of agriculture, something that is important to them both. “I’ll do anything I can to represent agriculture in a positive light, whether it’s hosting a school tour or talking to a group, because it’s something dear to my heart,” says Jason.

“There’s such a small percentage of the world that is involved in agriculture,” says Jason. “For me the biggest thing is to listen to people’s viewpoints. That gives you the opportunity to explain the real facts about our practices.” CG

January 2017

Ready for spring

Gord Green Grows better crops with better links to farm orgs PG. 6

These monitors and controls take charge of planter down-force...............Pg. 9 Silage outshining baled forage on more western farms..........Pg. 12 Biomass co-op looks to build stover market...........Pg.14 Philip Shaw: Surging demand creates price optimism..................Pg. 21

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12/12/16 4:26 PM

Cornguide

Corn yields still on the rise W Check out the numbers when you use interpolated data to even out our year-by-year weather swings

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

hat if we could peer into the future and catch a glimpse of where our agriculture is heading? How would such a view shape the development of plant breeding and advances in technology, and maybe even the impact on farmers?

A University of Guelph PhD student is working to develop a new yield model, first for corn production but with an eye to also using it for soybeans, wheat and forages (the four largest crops by area in Ontario).

Qin Xu is working on the model with help from Dr. Glenn Fox, who co-authored a similar study in the 1990s with Dr. Brad Rickard, to determine whether grain yields in the province had reached a plateau.

The answer then was “No.” And more than 20 years later in year two of a threeyear study using historical data at the county level dating back to 1950, Xu is finding the same answer.

“One of the purposes of the model is to do simulations of the effects of possible future changes in temperature and precipitation levels and timing,” explains Fox, who’s a professor of agricultural and natural resource economics in the depart­ ment of food, agricultural and resource economics.

The research is actually a sort of revisiting of work into the longevity of advances

in innovation. Fox remembers such debates as a student in the 1970s, and then it returning in 1990s when there were real questions about whether the pace of technological change could be sustained.

“It’s sort of an ‘evergreen’ question: is technology slowing down in agriculture?” says Fox. “There are implications for a lot of things — global food security, farmers’ well-being, economic and social development — and it would appear, based on visiting these data at different points, that agricultural technology continues to advance in Ontario and Canada. Does that mean it’s going to go on forever? No, but each time we check in, it seems to be continuing to advance.”

The current model is based on an econometric model. Using data gathered across 29 counties from 1950 to 2013, the model will simulate the future effects of climate conditions and other factors of crop production, but it will estimate longterm effects that will span 50 years — from 2020 to 2070.

In order to make that model as realistic as possible, Xu started out by estimating four crop yield functions — for corn, soybeans, wheat and hay.

“Actually, one of the goals of my study Continued on page 4

”It’s sort of an ‘evergreen’ question: is technology slowing down in agriculture?”

— Dr. Glenn Fox, University of Guelph

Corn Guide, January 2017

3

is to consider what agricultural water use policies might be needed under different climate change scenarios,” says Xu, whose husband is also a PhD candidate, working on herbicide management in edible beans. “So in the later stage of my thesis, I may come up with several possible policies in agriculture and examine which policy could bring better water-use efficiency in all of agriculture, and then to compare it to crop insurance.”

There are some unique and innovative developments taking shape in this study.

One is the use of a new climate interpolation computer model developed by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). In order to make this crop yield model as comprehensive as possible, it’s important to have a thorough dataset from as many locations across Ontario as possible. The challenge there is that when you look back to 1950, there weren’t many weather stations from which to garner temperature and precipitation data. Here’s where the computer model from NRCan comes in handy.

“It interpolates for locations that don’t have a weather station nearby,” says Fox. “They’ll use multiple weather stations to interpolate and basically create a synthetic observation point, based on elevation and distance and other characteristics. To our knowledge, no one has used these data to look at crop yields in the way Qin is doing.”

Thus far, Xu’s work has yielded some surprising results, including the optimal definition of “growing season,” which identifies it not by calendar date, but by temperatures. Among four different temperature ranges, the optimal definition occurs when a growing season starts and ends at -2.2 C, generally around the end of April and lasting to the middle of October.

“I’m trying to screen which one could better explain the actual yields we have now and is quite consistent with the growing season we have for corn,” says Xu. “Is that at the end of April or at the beginning of May, and to October in the fall? We have found the first day after the last occurrence of -2.2 C in the spring and ends on the preceding day of the first occurrence of -2.2 C in the fall.”

“We actually haven’t attempted to model any change in climate between 1950 and 2013,” adds Fox. “We’re basically treating that as the reference period and treating it as a period of homogeneous climate, recognizing that that’s probably 4

Qin Xu, a PhD student from the University of Guelph is developing a model for estimating the impact of future climate conditions on corn yields.

When would it make sense for more Canadian growers to irrigate their corn? not true, but we’re not measuring any sort of trends of changes. What we’re planning to do is to take the coefficients that were estimated in the model and then take several of the climate change projections and run those through the model to see what effect that would have on yields over the simulation period, from 2020 to 2070.”

What this project isn’t addressing are the agronomic factors that have become standards in corn production, such as planting density or seed depth. At its core, the research is trying to determine models for climate-related practices, including irrigation, and how those relate to increasing corn yields. In the U.S., similar research has been used in models with updated data for calculating crop insurance premiums.

Xu and Fox aren’t measuring the effects of any one particular technology. There is a time trend in the model which picks up the net and cumulative effect of all technologies that have been implemented in past decades. But those could include biological, chemical or mechanical technologies that have come to the fore from 1951 to 2013. And there have been some significant changes in corn production, including planting densities, genetic improvements of hybrids (and other crops, as well). But it’s the combined effect of all of those that Fox and Xu believe is captured in the timetrend variable.

One of the other hoped-for features of the simulation models that Xu is building is that it will give farmers the option to use irrigation in these future scenarios during abnormally dry periods. Part of her research has determined that corn yields would be higher with greater levels of both precipitation and solar energy during the growing season. On the other hand, higher precipitation levels before the growing season tend to cause a reduction in yields.

Fox notes there isn’t much irrigation that goes on in Ontario field crop production now compared to what takes place in the U.S. But some observers have suggested that in the future in Ontario, farmers might want to use irrigation more. So the models being developed by Xu could determine the extent to which irrigation practices give rise to water-use conflicts.

“The challenge with innovation is that it’s inherently unpredictable — because you’re imagining something that doesn’t exist,” says Fox. “So at any point in time, it’s really sort of a glasshalf-empty-glass-half-full scenario, but if you look at the half-empty part, we don’t know what the next innovation is going to be, and what happens if it isn’t — what happens if there is no next innovation?”

For now, that’s not a concern. CG Corn Guide, January 2017

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12/2/16 11:10 AM

Cornguide

Farm organizations are as important as ever for farmers who want to keep producing president Gord Green

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

F

or Gord Green, “ag in the classroom” is a 24-hour-a-day, sevenday-a-week, 365-day-a-year opportunity, whether the classroom that he happens to be in at the moment is in the field, in a lecture hall, at a community centre or on a bus tour.

In any setting, Green wants to learn, and he has made it a key strategic goal of his operation.

It’s one of the reasons why Green speaks so highly of the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA).

For him, the association represents a constant opportunity to share new ideas and concepts with peers and like-minded individuals.

“I started going to meetings when I was kid with my dad,” says Green, who’s currently the OSCIA president. “You tag along, and other kids maybe did a little too, so I started off that way and I was always a member when I was farming.

Then in the 1980s, someone approached me to be a local county director and I did that for 10 years. A few years went by and I was asked to be a director for the provincial board and that was 2008 or 2009.”

A fifth-generation crop and livestock producer, Green, his wife Laura and his son David, farm the family operation — named Greenholm Farms near Brooks­ dale, between Embro and Strat­ford, Ont. His great-great grandfather began farming in 1843, with Gord starting his career in 1977, farming alongside his dad.

A few years later, he began slowly taking over the farm, and nearly 40 years later, the same thing is happening with David slowly succeeding Gord (although he keeps the books to monitor the business at various levels).

6

The

big lesson Laura also helps out feeding the calves, but her role is part of the succession planning too, and she is trying to step back from those duties.

Together, they own 750 acres and rent 75, and are blessed with what can be a very forgiving Bennington silt loam soil.

Green holds to a four-year rotation, with two years of corn (one year silage, the next year grain corn), then soybeans followed by either wheat or a forage. He also milks 210 cows at any one time, and has 15 head of beef cattle, as well. Interest­ ingly, there’s also an anaerobic digester on the farm, with a Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program contract for it.

Unique learning experience Time can be a hard-to-find commodity with both dairy and field cropping operations, yet for his involvement in OSCIA, Gord is only too happy to free up what is required. Maybe it means spending fewer hours than he’d like on other activities, but he feels the benefits he derives from his time with the association are undeniable.

“It’s a general information sharing organization and that’s where all of the newer ideas on cropping come from,” says Green. “It’s the material that’s presented at annual meetings, and that kind of stuff intrigues me, so I’ll always look forward to the meetings and get the latest information. People share their information very well in the organization, so if somebody’s doing something unique and they’re getting bumper yields, they’re more than happy to talk about it if you ask them.”

Growers perform their work on small plots or there’ll be a number of different

farmers working on the same thing, so everyone learns from those relationships.

What makes his involvement in OSCIA even more enjoyable and beneficial is the depth of involvement of the Oxford County SCIA. There’s a bus trip every year that Gord and Laura try to join, as well as information meetings through spring, summer and fall. As an example, the fall meeting occurs the night before the start of Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show and features explanations of why local fields yielded as they did, or what’s coming for soybean harvest. As with other county chapters, there’s usually a host of locally conducted crop trials on members’ farms.

It’s another opportunity for shared learning, and Green gravitates towards that because he’s always looking to improve his operations, whether it’s through innovation in the milking parlour or trading ideas and suggestions with like-minded farmers.

“If I do something, I like to do it because it’s the best way to do it,” says Green. “I started farming with my dad, and we were conventional tillage and plowing, and you’d go to the meetings and hear about no till, especially no-till wheat. They tried that and it worked, and they had their own drill, then rented on and then went back to their own. But then I went to a few meetings and heard about the advantages of not burning off organic matter, and I decided that we’d better try no till, so one crop at a time I got into no till about 20 years ago.”

The process was a one-crop-per-year progression, with no-till corn being the Continued on page 8

Corn Guide, January 2017

Photography: David Charlesworth

at their best, says OSCIA

Corn Guide, January 2017

7

most worrisome. Green finally settled on strip till for corn, and they’ve been doing that ever since. He’ll even no till forages in because he’s tried it and it works for him, year after year.

He may not do everything that dedicated no tillers subscribe to but he’s tried different practices and found what works best for his farm.

“I like to think I’m innovative but there’s also a danger where sometimes you can be on the bleeding edge and not on the leading edge,” says Green.

“There’ve been leaders before me who’ve developed these ideas, and they’ve shared their information and I thought it had merit, so I’ve tried it and I’ve been doing it. There are other approaches I haven’t tried yet, and maybe I will and maybe I won’t. But I’m watching and seeing how they’re getting along it.”

Always willing to try A perfect example of a “tried-andtested” practice at Greenholm Farms is the use of cover crops. After corn silage, Green plants forage rye and harvests that in the spring for feed. After wheat, he plants oats which he harvests for feed in the fall. They could use a more complex mix for cover crops but forage rye and oats both yield well for feed, and they’re both a decent cover crop. Other species and blends may do better at breaking up a plow pan, but for what he needs out of cover crops/forage crops, he’s getting it.

“I think some of the fundamentals like forages and a good crop rotation are very valuable,” says Green, noting the importance of a return to the basics of farming,

while also paying attention to technology, including precision ag systems. “Maybe we’ve let some of those slide in the past.

It’s simple to have one or two crops, so we tended to gravitate towards that — and some of the technologies like Roundup Ready allowed us to. But the more crops we have in the rotation, the better.”

When he talks about some of the newer technologies like split applications of nitrogen using Y Drops, he’s interested in learning more, even though he has yet to try the system. One of the reasons he hasn’t is due to the age of his equipment as well as the rolling topography on the farm. He could pay more for a system that can adjust to the terrain, but isn’t prepared to make that investment right now.

For one, he has manure that he’s applying, which releases nitrogen in a manner that’s more effective for his management needs, plus something like split applications of nitrogen can run into his hay cropping schedule.

It all comes back to what’s best for Green’s farm, his farming practices, and his time management situation.

As Green begins to slowly scale back his involvement on the farm, he considers what’s ahead for the industry and sees the impact that government and consumerbased special interest groups are having.

Even though he concedes that accountability is increasingly important, the way the rules are changing isn’t always for the better.

“We have to demonstrate that we’re being responsible, but that takes time and resources,” says Green, and even though it can increase the stress levels for farmers, it’s

a fact that’s hard to sidestep. “We were doing a good job before in the dairy industry, as far as producing the product. But now we have to do a lot of paperwork to show that we’re managing that way, as opposed to before when we did it our own way and they didn’t pay attention to it.”

Green believes that to be the case across the agri-food industry, and even if cash croppers aren’t seeing the same accountability freight train approaching in the distance, it really is coming. What concerns him even more is that some older farmers are exiting the industry in order to avoid staying and incorporating any new directives.

“They’re leaving for the wrong reason, and it’s almost like they’re being regulated out of the business,” he says.

Still, he’s focused on the tasks at hand, which means more learning and perhaps even broadening that definition of “the classroom.” He considers himself a conventional farmer, in that he uses sciencebased practices and technologies, including fertilizers and herbicides. But it’s well within reason that conventional farmers could learn a thing or two from organic producers, and vice versa. There are also opportunities to learn from other sectors, such as horticulture, or from other regions, other countries, from government extension personnel or university trials.

“Always have your eyes open and be watching and learning,” Green says. “Be willing to try new things, or at least be willing to consider them. Learn from others and mentor others. I think we can learn a lot from each other.” CG

“Always be watching and learning,” Green says. “Be willing to try new things, or at least be willing to consider them.”

8

Corn Guide, January 2017

Cornguide

Manage down-force New monitors and individual-unit controls give growers a better shot at top yields

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

I

t was in March 2012 that Dr. Fred Below of the University of Illinois first published his list of the seven wonders of highyield corn production, revolutionizing how North America’s farmers and agronomists think about corn management.

Is it time to shake up that list?

Even keeping in mind the differences between growing conditions south of the border and in Canada, it’s stunning to see how much has changed in just five years, and it’s arguable that Below’s “group of seven” should maybe be expanded today to as many as nine or 10 critical parameters affecting performance and yield.

Some of those new factors might even surprise you.

As precision ag systems continue to flex their muscles, with everything from yield monitors to variable rate systems to data management platforms, there’s a case to be made for boosting the importance of planter down-force as a factor in improving emergence and ultimately yield.

Try starting with a comparison to electronic technology. Less than 20 years ago, computer manufacturers and Internet service providers tried to convince consumers that everyone except a rare straggler was already hooked up to the Inter­net. Perception didn’t equal reality, however, as Internet usage among businesses was actually only about 50 per cent at the time, while consumer usage was thought to be roughly half of that.

The same phenomenon is colouring the uptake of precision ag systems: the number of users hasn’t mushroomed the way some manufacturers and dealers have suggested.

Yet one of the challenges in wider use of precision ag systems is the very definition and varied availability of different precision systems. Some farmers have managed to keep their choices limited to yield monitors and auto steer while others are delving into variable rate fertilizer systems (Y Drops, for one) or UAV monitoring. That kind of choice can be daunting — even intimidating.

Much the same is true with down-force. Seed dealers and advisers are realizing there’s a greater impact from “proper” down-force on a planter. Yet there are many systems to address that goal, from a simple spring system to pneumatic to hydraulic or even fully automated systems that adjust down-force as many as three times per second per row unit.

“The precision guys have been incredibly successful with that concept, so much so that we’re all putting those kinds of systems on our planters,” says Steve Hosking, product specialist with AGCO Canada. Nor are they alone. Deere, Case, and Kinze along AGCO’s own White planters have been incorporating new downpressure systems in the last few years.

Corn Guide, January 2017

This is a representation of the SeedSense 20/20 monitor and the information it provides, including population, down-force, ground contact and loss per acre (middle of the fourth column).

Photo: AGCO Canada

“With this monitor, it spells out what needs to be adjusted back at the planter.”

— Steve Hosking, AGCO Canada The advances in down-pressure have been enhanced beyond spring, pneumatic or hydraulic systems, but what’s impres­sed Hosking the most are the advances in monitoring systems that measure everything that is affecting the seed-drop by the row unit. An operator will see real-time percentages of population, singulation, down-pressure and seed spacing, including skips, doubles and misses. The new systems warn when the row unit starts to bounce, so the operator should probably slow down to get better seed placement. They even go to the extent of showing the operator the value of the lost crop in dollars and cents if they don’t correct the adjustments that are causing the inefficiencies.

A grower can even have electric drives that provide variable rate and swath controls that are individual to the row unit. It has improved performance to the point where the operator in the Continued on page 10

9

Top Seven Yield Factors for Corn

I

n March 2012, this was the list of Dr. Fred Below’s seven most influential factors in driving corn yields. How much will this change in 2017?

1. Weather 2. Nitrogen 3. Hybrid selection 4. Previous crop 5. Plant population 6. Tillage 7. Growth regulators

“This kind of technology makes sense to (the farmer).” — Steve Hosking, AGCO Canada tractor knows exactly what’s happening in the rows behind him With all these technologies, there’s little doubt the grower has better control over their seedbeds than ever. Even if they still got out of the tractor and dug for seed, there’s little chance they could ever tell how many skips and doubles there are, or how much the row unit has been bouncing.

It’s that kind of information that has improved the performance on planters, providing operators with information that allows them to make the necessary adjustments to plant the seed at the depth and spacing they want.

Precision ag means precise data Does a grower become a better farmer just by buying new electric drives for a planter or having automatic down-pressure sensors on each row unit?

Not without proper instruction and a level of familiarity. But once those are achieved, there’s certainly the opportunity to advance efficiency and improve production.

The overall trend in precision ag planting has been slow in its adoption — much like other systems — and some of that has to do with the age of farmers, many of whom struggle with efficiency on a computer. Now, when talk to turns to using a monitor, Hosking says the adaptability changes.

“With this monitor, it’s more of a hands-on concept, spelling out what needs to be adjusted back at the planter,” Hosking says.

“The average farmer is pretty good at operating machinery, and this kind of technology makes sense to them. It seems that it’s being more readily adopted than other precision technology that has come along before it. Maybe that’s why it’s taking off and it’s such a big news story.”

If there is an impediment to its rate of adoption, the biggest one is the price of corn, especially when it’s around US$3.50. Hosking 10

believes that if we were at the price levels of two to three years ago, more growers would be making more purchases of this type of equipment. Farmers do want this technology, he insists; they are struggling to pencil it out right now in the current marketplace.

Control the controllable Adding precision ag adds one more component in the production spectrum that is readily controllable — unlike the weather. Everything else — nitrogen levels, hybrid selection, population, tillage — are all aspects that growers control. For Tom Snyder, controlling the controllable in the form of down-force can come at a basic level or at several advanced levels. The first, most important step is paying attention to the down-force.

“It’s going to be an advantage, just simply the act of paying attention, and saying, ‘We’re going to be more actively adjusting our down-force according to conditions,’” says Snyder, owner of Grand River Planters in Caledonia, Ont. “Tech­nically, that can be done without a monitor, as far as making adjustments with the tools that we have and making changes accordingly. The reality is that it gets us part of the way down the path. In order to do it properly, an automatic control down-force system is going to get us further.”

Snyder has an AirForce system that controls things planterwide, and that’s still better than making manual adjustments according to field conditions, because it’s going to react as it goes through the field. The next step is to go to a faster-acting hydraulic system that’s still either planter or sectional control, but the ultimate really is an individual row control that senses each row and then controls each row.

“I don’t think any of those options are bad, it’s just a matter of setting your sights on the end goal and then deciding how you’re going to get to that end goal,” adds Snyder. “It could be incrementally or it could go all-in and go to the Cadillac system right off the hop. None of those answers is wrong.”

They’re not wrong, but Snyder also acknowledges the adaptability of the individual plus the unique properties of each farm.

Grower A may be in a situation where they don’t need a downforce control system, and then it becomes a cost or an expense instead of an investment. However, Grower B might be in a spot where the numbers are telling Snyder that they really should invest in a DeltaForce system and that they are going to get a good payback, and that it will be an investment and not an expense.

“From our standpoint, in our operation, what we do with growers is we’ll have the down-force conversation,” says Snyder.

“The reality is that I don’t know his situation well enough to say, ‘AirForce is the answer for you,’ or ‘DeltaForce is the answer or something in between is the answer.’ What I do tell them is to get a monitor in their cab that tells us what their down-force is currently. And then with that data, it’s really about collecting information and making an informed decision.”

The one thing Snyder has learned from his dealings is that when a grower starts to measure performance first — not control it — it can be a real eye-opener to the farmer or the operator as to how much variation there is within a field or even within a known soil type across the field. There’s so much variation in some fields that even with Snyder’s four-row planter, he can still see differences from row one to two to three or to row four.

Although he agrees that precision ag has been slow from a planter/down-force perspective, Snyder points to automatic control systems, where the uptake hasn’t been “aggressive” but it’s Corn Guide, January 2017

GROUP

14 |15

P R E- E M E R G E N T

been encouragingly good. “Definitely the move to measuring it — the first step in that journey — we’ve had really good uptake with that,” says Snyder. “Growers are looking at that aspect, what it’s really looking at, and then learning what’s our next step, what’s our biggest payback or that ‘lowest stave on the barrel’. The reality is that if a grower is looking at down-force, that’s a good thing, but if his soil pH is down around 5, we’re going to tell you to get that pH fixed first.”

If down-force isn’t the grower’s primary limiting factor, then perhaps it’s not the best move for them to make at this time.

Growers don’t need to just “jump in” with both feet and try to incorporate all aspects of a precision ag system. That course has the potential to be too daunting or overwhelming. There’s also a little bit of resistance to the learning and familiarity, yet one of the biggest trends Snyder is seeing is that no matter what system you’re using to get that data in front of you, there needs to be a clear understanding of what the data are telling you.

“Precision Planting, for instance, telling you what your downforce numbers are probably is a different language than what the John Deere system is and that’ll be different from the AgLeader system,” says Snyder. “But the message to the grower really needs to be that whatever the system you’re choosing, you have to know what the numbers are, and that really puts the onus on the dealer.

It’s a considerable hurdle and a very important point: it’s wrong to assume growers understand a system just because they may be ready to purchase it. Snyder says it’s good to know that people have their strong points — and their weak points — and sometimes people need a little help defining both.

“I think it’s something that we didn’t pay enough attention to (in the past),” says Snyder. “There are always going to be the growers who pay attention to their details and probably do those field-to-field adjustments. But the reality is that there are a lot of planters out there that haven’t been adjusted since they were delivered from the dealer. The industry as a whole is paying more attention to down-force. Does that mean everyone’s changing their down-force on every field? No, but I think it’s becoming one of those factors we look at.”

What’s ahead?

Are there further enhancements coming or is the better course of action a matter of getting more farmers to make a move on down-force systems? That’s a tough question. There are those growers who led the charge to get automatic down-force systems on their planters and they’re likely to develop more sophisticated systems. That approach isn’t for every grower though. Still, it’s likely having more growers pay attention to down-force and its impact on planting will be a benefit to the whole industry.

Right now, Snyder has a DeltaForce system that reacts three times per second per row. If he has a grower who’s on the fence about down-force systems, Snyder says he doesn’t need the top of the line. What he does need is to understand what down-force is and how it changes in the field.

“It’s about educating and working with growers, and everyone’s situation is so different,” says Snyder. “As a dealer, I have no right to push a grower in a direction that’s just going to cost them money and not give him a return. Even if it gives them a return six years from now, it’s not fair to them to have that conversation that starts with step one that’s going to give you 12 bushels using DeltaForce. Maybe just paying attention to down-force will give them four bushels. Well they’ll be better off with that four bushels in year one than spending all of that money on Delta­Force.” CG Corn Guide, January 2017

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11

Cornguide

Corn silage moves west The prospect of more tons per acre and fewer worries about harvest weather is prompting some cattle producers to park the baler

By Angela Lovell

H

igh land prices and persistent problems with haying weather in Western Canada are prompting more cattle producers to consider corn silage. Acreage has increased steadily in for the past five years, especially in Alberta where producers seeded 110,000 acres of silage corn in 2016, up from 70,000 acres in 2012.

“New genetics have made corn a via­ ble, consistent option for Western Can­ ada,” says Nicole Rasmussen, DuPont Pioneer’s area agronomist for Alberta and British Columbia. “Before, hybrids just weren’t early enough, but with advance­ ments the last few years, producers can grow more silage of consistently high quality, and it’s more economical per acre than growing cereal silage.”

Manitoba Agriculture estimates corn silage production costs for 2016 at $31.40 per wet ton, compared to $38.93 per ton for barley silage and $35.98 per ton for alfalfa/grass silage.

“When you have expensive land, would you rather utilize hay at 4.5 tons per acre or corn at 12.5 tons an acre?” asks Ray Bittner, a livestock specialist with Mani­toba Agriculture.

“Corn silage is much more energy dense than hay or cereal silages, so adding fat deposits to cows in winter or gain on calves is easy, and it’s not hard to supple­ ment the lower protein in the ration.”

Rasmussen says energy is the most important and expensive part of feeding cattle. Corn silage averages 66.4 per cent energy content TDN (total digestible nutrients) per ton compared to 65.5 per cent for barley silage and 60.4 per cent for alfalfa/grass silage.

Calculate silage costs Manitoba Agriculture has an online tool that can help producers calculate and compare their silage production costs at www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/business-and-economics/financial-management/cost-of-production. html#forage.

12

“The more energy that’s in the silage, the less grain a producer has to feed, which is a cost benefit and is easier on the animal’s system,” Rasmussen says. “If a producer does a good job putting up barley silage, he gets 15 to 18 per cent starch, whereas good corn silage in Alberta has 25 to 32 per cent starch.”

Silage convert André Steppler, a cattle producer near Miami, Man., started growing silage corn five years ago and says he will never go back to making hay.

“Corn silage has been hugely positive for us,” says Steppler, who first tried it because he wanted more consistent feed quality for his 1,000 purebred Charolais cows, bulls and yearlings. With high land prices and rental rates, he wanted to get more tonnage per acre.

“Corn silage is allowing us to do a better job of supplying nutrition and a balanced ration to our cattle, and we have a product we can control at all times so that the rumen environment is always what we want and we don’t risk damaging any animals because of the way they are fed,” says Steppler, who averages 15 to 19 tons of feed per acre.

“The quality of the feed is also better.

In a year like this where we had rain every other day it would have been virtu­ ally impossible to get high-quality forage put up through hay bales.”

Steppler acknowledges there are some risks with growing only corn silage. An early frost could wipe out his winter feed source, but he tries to mitigate that by choosing a variety that is well within his maturity window — around the 2200- to 2300-heat unit range.

“We are more interested in having energy in the pile because we can add straw into our rations to give us extra tonnage,” says Steppler. “We are looking at the most amount of energy we can produce within the means of our heat units. That’s how we determine what we are going to grow.”

Corn Guide, January 2017

Custom contractors in demand Most corn growers on the Prairies use custom contractors to chop and ensile their corn. The cost to chop and pack a good crop of corn silage is around $6.50 to $7.50 per ton, says Peter Gilbraith, a custom silage contractor from St. Claude, Man. Custom operators can leverage their equipment costs over a much longer sea­ son, chopping alfalfa silage in May, June and July, making barley silage in July and August, and corn silage right up until November.

“Most corn should be cut in Septem­ ber and October but when frost comes in early September, the custom operator may have 40 days of corn silage work and only 10 good days before the corn gets too dry,” says Bittner.

“The last corn chopped will be overdry and ensile poorly because of the poor ability to pack the air out. The other end of the issue is that a custom operator will try to start chopping the first corn as soon as a producer will let him, so often the first fields will be harvested too wet, and then the piles weep moisture and the silage does not ensile well in the pile caus­ ing protein losses and severe feed intake limitations.”

Unfortunately, there are not enough custom silage operators to go around.

Gilbraith is turning work down as more and more producers turn to corn silage to replace hay.

Steppler uses a custom contractor to chop and pack his corn silage, which has freed up a lot of time previously spent baling, and is much cheaper than doing round-baled hay.

Since Steppler began growing corn silage a lot of his neighbours have fol­ lowed suit, but they’ve had to collaborate with each other to try and make sure they get high-quality silage off at the right time.

“We all try to sow the same variety at the same time so that when it comes to the cutter coming all our fields are done at the same time,” says Steppler. “The big­ gest disadvantage of corn silage is to make sure your corn is cut when it needs to be cut. This year everybody was lucky but if we ever got a frost in early September everybody would need their silage done Corn Guide, January 2017

“Local testing is really important because the performance of corn hybrids differs by environment, so a product that does well in Manitoba may not necessarily do well in Alberta.”

— Nicole Rasmussen, DuPont Pioneer right away and it would be a disaster because there are just not enough custom guys doing it.”

Pick the right hybrid Most grain and silage hybrids are inter­changeable, but what’s important for producers to understand is that half of the silage yield and most of the energy comes from the corn ear, so producers shouldn’t necessarily exclude hybrids that are for grain. What’s more important is to look for hybrids that have been tested and proven to work locally.

Pride Seeds has a silage program called Total Ration Solutions which identifies corn hybrids by maturity zone for basic agronomics as well as the high energy and digestibility desirable for silage.

“Local testing is really important because the performance of corn hybrids differs by environment, so a product that does well in Manitoba may not necessar­ ily do well in Alberta,” says DuPont Pioneer’s Rasmussen. “Producers should have a realistic idea of what their heat units are for their area and pick a product that fits, and understand that each com­ pany’s heat unit ratings are different.

“There is something called relative maturity and it’s kind of industry’s way to standardize ratings, but many of the rat­ ings are for Eastern Canada and they don’t correlate to Western Canada. It’s important for producers to get out and look at test plots and make sure the prod­ uct is proven in their area.”

It’s important for producers as well to match a corn hybrid for the long-term average heat units in their area, not just jump into a potentially unsuitable hybrid on the basis of a couple of good years.

“There can be a temptation to be more aggressive and go with a later hybrid, especially if you were basing that decision on a year like this one, where we didn’t have a killing frost until later in the sea­ son,” says Dave Den Boer, manager of product development and agronomy for Pride Seeds. “But that’s unusual, and to be risk free, a producer needs to know what

heat units they normally get in their region averaged over three or more years.”

Hybrids should consistently reach har­ vest maturity just before frost, so selection is one of the most important manage­ ment decisions in silage production.

Silage characteristics Breeders are always looking to improve both yield and quality of corn hybrids whether it’s for grain or silage, but there are certain agronomic characteristics that make a variety better for silage.

“We look for the same basic agro­ nomic factors such as strong emergence, leaf disease resistance, stalk strength and harvest maturity,” says Den Boer, who adds Pride Seeds and other companies will have new corn hybrids in each matu­ rity group for both grain and silage in 2017.

“Our job isn’t done unless the farmer is putting more beef on the rail, or more milk in the tank,” says Doug Alderman, vice-president of sales and marketing for Pride.

“We test all maturities of corn for Goss’s wilt because it’s something we’ve seen as far north as Red Deer and Lacombe in yield-damaging amounts,” says Rasmus­ sen. DuPont Pioneer has released some of the earliest corn hybrids on the market in the last couple of years and is adding new resistance traits. “We’re putting resistance to corn borer in all maturity groups as well with our Optimum AcreMax trait pack­ age,” he adds.

The potential for corn as a silage crop in Western Canada is growing, especially as producers can maximize their land base by growing more tons of feed per acre and potentially freeing up some acres for other crops, or to increase their herd size.

But beef and dairy prices will have to make the investment worthwhile.

“We can do all that we can agronomi­ cally to help producers grow corn,” says Alderman. “But at the end of the day, producers have to be in the cattle business to support the silage market ” CG 13

Cornguide

Bales would be left at the edge of a field to await transportation to the processing plant in Sarnia.

A biomass co-op

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

Farmers need to invest now if the the new corn-stalk project is to go ahead

14

F

armers aren’t negative or pessimistic by nature, but they are realists.

When it comes to business proposals, they’ve heard terms such as “sure-fire” and “can’t-miss” before, not always with good cause.

So, do those terms work for the proposed corn biomass co-op?

You decide, but it appears there may be a good case for the new farmer-driven, farmer-centric co-op venture now taking shape in southwestern Ontario. At least, that’s the pitch that the Cellulosic Sugar Producers Co-operative (CSPC) is making in discussions it is now holding with farmers who could be potential partners in the venture.

If and when the processing plant is built near Sarnia, the co-op would then merge the talents and expertise of AGRIS Co-op, Comet Biorefining and Bioindust­ rial Innovation Canada, along with participating farmers.

Initially, the plan is to use two-thirds corn stover and one-third wheat straw,

with an annual demand for 75,000 tonnes of biomass to run the new processing facility. The co-op will handle all removal activities. It will flail-chop the stover, bale and stack it, and truck the bales off the farmer’s fields. (In order to be cost-effective, those farmers will be located within 100 km of the proposed plant in Sarnia.)

Project leaders are looking to get 55,000 acres under contract to generate $11 million in funding from their farming partners. Comet Biorefining has raised its own equity with 70 per cent of the total $70 million value, with the rest being held as commercial debt. There are also three lenders working together on due diligence, including Farm Credit Canada, Libro Credit Union, and the Business Develop­ment Bank of Canada.

On the farmer’s part, participating in the co-op will require a commitment of 100 acres minimum. Then, in exchange for an initial investment of $200 per acre, farmers will receive $25 per tonne for corn stover (at approximately 1.5 tonnes per Corn Guide, January 2017

“When you vertically integrate your business… you have that ability to not just be a price-taker anymore.” — Dave Park, CSPC president acre) and $40 per tonne for wheat straw (at approximately 1.2 tonnes per acre), all adjusted to 15.5 per cent moisture.

That’s roughly $62 per acre annual return, comprised of $42 from the removal of corn stover (or wheat straw) from the field, and another $20 for the value of the high-purity dextrose that’s processed from the plant and sold to enduse customers.

With back-of-the-envelope math, that means a four-year payback on the investment, after which the farmer keeps essentially all of that annual return.

Double the opportunity It’s a significant development, both in economic and environmental terms. A co-op venture, as many farmers know, reduces risk and provides stability in a variety of farm transactions. But with this venture, participating farmers will also help themselves and their soils by removing up to 30 per cent of their corn stover, which could help alleviate some challenges with residue management.

For most of the last five years, growers have been doubly challenged by trends that have seen higher plant populations as a way to boost yields, combined with improved genetics in corn hybrids that have strengthened stalks. Together, that means farmers are leaving a thicker mat or tougher, longer-lasting residue that makes it difficult to maintain no-till farming.

Production practices are also lengthening the growing season, keeping corn healthier for longer periods, says Dave Park, a Lambton County farmer and president of the cellulosic sugar co-op.

“This is a way to lessen our costs by having the co-op take over some of those fall practices that we would normally carry out,” says Park. “Then we can get back to more no till that some farmers — myself included — have gone away from in recent years because we haven’t had as much success no tilling into corn stalks as we once did.”

It’s also a way to add value to the current corn crop while farmers vertically integrate themselves by partnering with Comet Biorefining, for the opportunity to not only be the raw material suppliers but also be part of the ownership group of the Sarnia plant.

Corn Guide, January 2017

It’s a strategy, Park says, that will move farmers up the value chain. “By inserting ourselves into the value chain, we’re vertically integrating ourselves, and when you vertically integrate your business, it removes risk from a portion of it,” he says.

“You have that ability to not just be a price-taker anymore, you’re moving yourselves up a couple of rungs on the ladder, and that vertical integration will give us more consistent returns and take some of the ebbs and flows out of the market.”

Park was one of four representatives of the co-op to speak at a pair of demonstration days, held in November on two different farms in Lambton County, one near Forest on the farm of Brad Goodhill, and the other at Chuck Baresich’s farm north of Bothwell. Each day’s exhibit attracted roughly 70 attendees, with demonstrations geared to showcase the machinery the co-op will purchase, taking the tasks of baling, stacking and transporting out of the hands of the farmer.

The machinery included a Hiniker flail chopper which makes two passes to create a 40-foot windrow, an AGCO/Hesston 2270 HD baler which creates 3x4x8-foot bales averaging 1,200 pounds, and a ProAg bale stacker that retrieves and stacks the bales at the edge of a field.

Asked about their progress lining up the various business interests for consideration as partners, Park says that once

the project’s backers decided on the technology used by Comet Biorefining, things began falling into place. But in order to conduct due diligence in business, some things take more time.

But the wait is over, Park now says, and he sees this next step of attracting investment from farmers and building the value chain with those participating growers as a critical phase, and one that will bring important benefits to those growers.

“If we don’t try, we’ll never know, and certainly this is about building a market, and these things sometimes aren’t an easy road to go, but they do build momentum,” Park says. “For all of those people who say it won’t work, there are just as many who say it will. The reality is that we’re going to give this a good effort, and I think it will go — I do see some merit in this project.”

The process In the past, there have been some concerns about bale quality because of the length of time the bales sit in the field, often in wet conditions. But according to Andrew Richard, chairman and chief technology officer with Comet Biorefining, the end-produce is high-purity dextrose, and one of the main ingredients in the processing of the stover is water.

Continued on page 16

After the flail chopper makes its second pass, the windrowed stover is ready for baling.

15

Richard says that in tests at one of Comet’s European facilities, bales from southern Ontario were collected in spring, and they were quite wet. Yet the results showed little reason to be concerned about moisture content or length of time between baling and processing.

The Comet process, says Richard, is “quite forgiving.”

As for targeting dextrose as the endproduct, Richard notes the Sarnia plant, once complete in 2018, would produce 27,000 tonnes annually, a relative drop in the bucket in the North American biosugars market, which he estimates at somewhere between two and three milion

The CSPC initiative — Just the Facts Key factors for successful cornstalk baling: • Bale density.

• Uninterrupted baling.

• Bale weight of 1,200 to 1,400 lbs.

Harvesting requirements: • Past grain harvest on fields having corn grain yields greater than 150 bu./ac.

• Crop rotation to avoid using the same fields every year.

• Variable stover harvest rate from one to two tonnes/ac.

• Cover crops during rotation.

Harvest protocol: • Producer contacts CSPC when grain has been harvested to schedule stover removal.

• Flail chopper creates 40-foot windrows (two 20-foot passes).

• High density baler creates 1,400-lb. bales.

• Stacker will temporarily stack bales at the edge of the field.

• Bales will be removed from the edge of the field within 120 days.

16

tonnes. World-wide demand, he says, is roughly 12 million to 13 million tonnes per year, with most of that met with dextrose or cane sugar.

“We are the only cellulosic sugar company that is taking this approach with dextrose, and we did it because we wanted to be able to hit an existing specification,” says Richard. “We wanted to compete with corn-based dextrose, and then we put a process around it to compete cost-wise as well as quality-wise. Corn dextrose is sold into an existing large market in North America — about four million tonnes — for chemicals and some food uses.”

Most of the existing chemical companies as well as the emerging ones — such as BioAmber, which is trying to build a different route through succinic acid and butanediol — all use corn-based dextrose.

That means anyone wanting to supply them with dextrose must hit precise specifications. But at least they know exactly what they have to achieve.

“When you think about emerging markets in bioplastics or the types of products that would replace petroleum, such as what BioAmber is trying to do, that market is as big as you can imagine — tens of millions of tonnes, if not more,” says Richard. “At that point, you need to compete, not just on the quality of the material, but the cost. That is very dependent on the conversion technology and it’s dependent on oil processing.

Everyone likes $100 oil better than $50 oil: for us, neither one is really an issue.”

The value statement More than just adding value to a bushel or an acre of corn, the co-op will provide an ownership opportunity. That’s an important facet for Jim Campbell, general manager of AGRIS Co-op, based in Chatham.

Campbell knows the numbers, and is fluent at incorporating them into his conversation: $200 per acre invested, $62 per acre annual return, 55,000 acres to be contracted, 75,000 tonnes of material required, $70 million total value of the co-op and the plant.

But then he adds another number that he believes is particularly important: 100 per cent. That’s the percentage of the co-op that will be owned by farmers.

“When you’re done, you will own the co-op — it will be 100 per cent farmerowned — there will be no other equity in the co-op except for you,” Campbell says.

“Then the co-op is going to turn around and invest in the plant, and when we’re

done that, the co-op will own about onethird of the plant.”

It’s not just another commodity being sold at the local elevator, adds Campbell.

Through their involvement with the co-op, farmers will enter the value stream.

Campbell understands that value chain scenario: it’s part of what’s made AGRIS Co-op the success it is, and why farmers invest in co-operatives, as well. Yet the proposition comes down to two simple questions: does removing some corn stover from a grower’s field make sense, and does investing $200 for a $62 annual return also make sense? That’s the ultimate decision Campbell puts before farmers.

It’s also a challenge that’s been placed before Jay Cunningham, CSPC’s business development manager. As the project moves from winter into early spring, it’s his task to entice farmers to contract with the co-op before spring planting in 2017, enabling the stockpiling of corn and wheat bales during the summer and fall, and awaiting final construction of the plant in early 2018.

“The challenges I see are getting out and getting the correct information out to as many producers as we can,” says Cunning­ham, who’s worked for years in agricultural business and financing, and is also a farmer. “Farmers are going to look at this and say, ‘This has been a challenge, with the heavy corn stover and getting more so with the genetics, the fertilizers and the yields we’ve been getting.’”

It’s also an opportunity to fix a problem and get paid for it at the same time, he notes. And it’s an exciting new opportunity to go into a new field, much like the sugar beet growers in Kent and Lambton counties did 20-plus years ago, and have a new market for something that normally gets plowed down anyway.

What’s impressed Cunningham through the early going is not the few objections he’s heard, it’s the questions, and some really good questions, he says, particularly about taking corn stover from the field. No matter how dense the mat of residues may be or the long-term impact of plowing or knifing it into the ground, that stover represents soil organic matter. But the fact that the process only takes 30 per cent from the field must be understood.

“Everyone’s farm is going to be different,” he says. “If it makes sense for you, on your type of ground and with your operation, and the way you till and the way you plant, then we’d be happy to discuss it with you.” CG Corn Guide, January 2017

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Cornguide

Corn and the environment can work hand-in-hand, and thanks to our farmers, in many cases, they already do

By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor

Improving nature E

very harvest season, word spreads quickly about yield. And happily, that trend line is up, with growers taking off phenomenal yields whenever the weather is halfway co-operative.

But can today’s yields co-exist with a healthy environment?

It’s a question that is getting asked more and more. And for the most part, it seems, the answer is a solid “yes.”

That’s not to say the job is done.

Agriculture, like any industry, needs to keep pushing environmental care and accountability; it can’t rest on its laurels.

But we also shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that our progress on the environment over the last couple of decades has often been as amazing as our progress on yields.

Indeed production and the environment actually go together quite nicely, says Paul Sullivan. In his view, there’s nothing better for the soil and the environment than an optimal-yielding field that’s been managed around its limitations and seasonal stresses.

Partly, that’s because it so often makes sense to farm with the environment in mind, says Sullivan, a certified crop adviser from Kinburn, Ont. For instance, it doesn’t make sense to over-apply nutrients, whether you’re looking at it from an environmental or an economic viewpoint.

It’s true with soil management and other agronomic decisions too, Sullivan says. For instance, the movement to reduced tillage, the uptake of Roundup Ready and other transgenics, and the adoption of precision ag systems may all have been good for the farmer’s bottom line, yet they have also created benefits for the environment too.

Sullivan agrees that agriculture has done plenty to boost production and safeguard the environment, but he also applauds the industry for being open to more changes in practices. He points to soil erosion as just one area that requires constant monitoring.

“One of the biggest things that plagues agriculture, and it’s probably no

Higher productivity has been the key motivator in agriculture for years, but that doesn’t mean today’s yields are coming at the expense of the environment. In fact, high yields can be good all around.

18

Corn Guide, January 2017

different than anything in human nature, is that we’re pretty resistant to change,” says Sullivan. “We would rather stay with the status quo and complain about it than make some changes or try something different.”

In agriculture, there’s also a difference among generations. Sullivan works with young people who are more inclined to look at a bigger picture than their parents or grandparents might, and are always looking forward as opposed to wanting things to be the way they were.

Environmental awareness is not new Dr. Darren Robinson maintains that growers have done a very good job embracing practices that not only boost production but keep environmental health in sight. He believes the majority of growers are good at striking a balance between production and putting in place management tactics to reduce or eliminate environmental impacts, and he sees the reduction in the use of fertilizers and inputs in the past 20 years as a signal that growers are mindful of their effects on the environment.

“Some of the practices that growers used years ago might have had negative environmental impacts,” says Robinson, an associate professor specializing in weed management at Ridgetown Campus, University of Guelph, where he has watched the agri-food industry make its adjustments when needed.

“At the time it was more of a lack of understanding — we didn’t know that was happening,” Robinson says. “When we acquired the knowledge, changes happened. Growers are the practitioners but I believe the whole ag community — and that includes people such as myself, and in extension and at the retail end — didn’t have the awareness and knowledge of those things.”

In some cases, such as with transgenics and chemical formulations, there have been challenges with continuous usage. If it’s glyphosate resistance that’s being discussed, Robinson says that occurred because of the selection pressure put on populations that already had resistance to it. The same thing occurred with the Group 2 chemistries, and atrazine before them.

“The tendency in business, and in anything we do, is that you find something that works well, is really efficient and reduces the time that it takes to complete Corn Guide, January 2017

Can higher production co-exist with monitoring and maintaining the environment?

The answer seems to be “Yes!”

“The industry can’t continue to function without doing things that make sense for the farmer’s bottom line.”

— Paul Sullivan, certified crop advisor (CCA) a task,” says Robinson. “Across the board, that’s what we do, and it doesn’t matter if it’s agriculture or any other industry. But telling growers to not rely on something that works really well is a little analogous to telling someone they can’t use a Phillips screwdriver to turn a screw with a Phillips head, and that they have to use a slotted screwdriver. It still works, just not as well.”

It doesn’t mean that farmers have to abandon the technologies they’ve come to rely on, it just means they have to adjust

and adapt to the shifts that naturally evolve — even after a few years.

Karen Jacobs is another advocate for the co-existence of high production agriculture and environmental sustainability.

She echoes Robinson and Sullivan in their observations, adding that some environmental considerations, such as improving soil health, have shown direct positive effects on increasing yields.

Continued on page 20

19

“Other environmental considerations may require a small amount of land to be taken out of production, but the benefits often outweigh the costs,” says Jacobs, environmental outreach specialist with Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA). “Planting a buffer strip along a waterway can improve water quality both on the farm and downstream, and may offer other benefits such as providing some habitat for wildlife or acting as a windbreak.”

Jacobs sees the production-tied-toenvironment approach as being different for each farm and for each farmer based on their practices. Some may have the knowledge, resources and confidence to push their environmental goals while others may be satisfied with reaching more baseline environmental considerations.

Jacobs runs down the list of programs geared towards environmental stewardship, which in many ways can enhance production, directly or indirectly. Some were developed years ago, such as nutrient management plans and environmental farm plans, and they could also be a stepping stone to other funded programs.

There is also the Farmland Health Check-up (part of the Farmland Health Incentive Program (FHIP)) and the Soil Health Check-Up (part of the Soil Health Improvement Program (SHIP)) that can provide CCA-guided planning which can then trigger government funding for onfarm measures.

Those programs work, Jacobs says, because farmers adopt them.

“Producers should be praised for their stewardship efforts,” Jacobs says, adding that as an industry, farmers and stakeholders need to be more comfortable talking about everything that’s being done. “And we need to push that message outside of our own circles to allow it to reach a wider audience. Farmers can continue to demonstrate their respect for our resources by being open to new ideas, testing them for practical application and adopting those that make that specific farm business more sustainable.”

More still to be done Most people in agriculture agree that there is more that can be done to spread those positive messages about on-farm practices, especially to consumers who know so little about the realities of modern-day farming.

Sullivan believes agriculture can do much more to aid in the process of keeping the public better informed, first by 20

The development of a matrix of technologies has made no till a viable, profitable choice for many growers, while also helping the environment.

being up front about the tools of the trade, and then to challenge those sources that misrepresent the facts about farming.

“What we should be doing is promoting the technologies we have, what they are, what they do and why we use them,” says Sullivan. “Consumers don’t necessarily like change either. They get something and they want to keep getting it. When they get information about something, when they get it once, it’s hard to change their opinion.”

But Sullivan is optimistic. He points out when he was in school 30 years ago, there was no emphasis on justifying things that were being done — no question about why, it was just the way things were done. Now when students get out of school today, they’ve been taught that they have a responsibility to communicate what they’re doing and what’s happening within the industry.

“It becomes a continuing movement within our industry to communicate to the end-user,” says Sullivan. “We don’t understand the consumer any more than they understand agriculture, and the more we talk back and forth, the better we’re able to understand each other and realize where things are coming from. In

most cases, that’s where things fall off the rails, when we don’t understand something and we immediately condemn it.”

Even in the last three to five years, as the number of people who advocate for agriculture continues to rise, the focus has also been shifting, so we’re doing a better job of talking to consumers in terms that they understand.

Robinson also agrees with the advocacy angle, and that farmers need to be more involved in sharing the positive stories and being up front with consumers on why they use herbicides and GMOs or high-horsepower tractors. Granted, that’s a bigger challenge than 20 years ago, when most of the newer technologies simply didn’t exist.

The important thing, as Robinson sees it, is that the advocacy must come across as an explanation, not as some kind of self-congratulation.

“An audience is more likely to listen to advocacy if we do it in a positive way and show the value of what the agri-food community does for society at large,” Robinson says. “Farmers deserve the recognition, but I would worry that if it comes across as praise, it might not be received the way we want it to be.” CG Corn Guide, January 2017

Cornguide

Finding hope in 2017 It’s easy to be pessimistic due to global corn stocks, but demand is setting new records too. So consider posting some standing market orders, and watch prices daily

By Philip Shaw

E

very year farmers go to the field hoping for something better than last year, and even though now is the dead of winter, plans are being made to raise a successful corn crop in 2017.

For eastern Canadian farmers, corn has earned its status as the “go-to” crop for the region. A few years ago, this was because the price was quite high, but lately it has more to do with productivity.

In 2015, the Ontario corn crop yielded roughly 170 bushels per acre. And in 2016, despite drought in many parts of the province, the overall yield is still likely to finish in the 160 bushel per acre range.

Over the last 20 years, corn productivity has been climbing by approximately 2.3 bushels per acre per year. However, in the last five years this productivity rate has been accentuated upward, largely thanks to genetics.

Of course, productivity is a vicious cycle; the more corn we produce, generally speaking, the more corn we find on the world and Ontario corn markets, pushing the price lower. It’s a never-ending conundrum, as we saw again in 2016 when U.S. and worldwide corn production increased.

So as we look into 2017, corn producers face a challenge of abundance. In 2016, the American farmer produced a record crop of corn, which is weighing on our corn futures market. Despite not having highly profitable signals to plant corn in 2016, those U.S. farmers produced a record crop of 15.226 billion bushels, according to the November USDA crop

Corn Guide, January 2017

report. The U.S. had an average yield of 175.3 bushels per acre, another record.

The new record (15.226), when compared to the 2015 total of 13.601 billion bushels, seemed almost science fiction in its magnitude.

This big crop in the United States forced an early low in the corn market of $3.14 on August 30. Corn futures prices rose after that into late October only to fall to $3.37 on December 2. Needless to say, this big crop continues to weigh on corn futures prices. Projected ending stocks for the 2016-17 corn-marketing year have ballooned to 2.403 billion bushels.

With that as a backdrop, producers in Eastern Canada have a great challenge as they look out into 2017. How many acres should be planted to corn in 2017, especially at a time when soybean prices have been more buoyant? What are the factors that will affect the market in 2017, perhaps pushing the corn futures price higher? How will the Ontario cash corn market be impacted in 2017, especially at a time of a low Canadian dollar? What are the other market factors aside from supply and demand that may play a role in the price of corn in 2017?

It is easy with those large supply numbers to be somewhat pessimistic on corn for 2017. However, the one shining star within the corn complex is record corn demand at 14.610 billion bushels as of the November 2016 USDA crop report.

Continued on page 22

21

This demand is higher than 2015 corn production and continues to grow, which is a very good thing because it is preventing futures prices from going lower on the year when we have had record crops. It is also a very good thing because the growth in corn demand will not be easily slowed when corn production is curtailed someday through some type of weather-related event.

In times of big surplus, that reality can seem so far away but, in fact, it will happen at a certain point. This record demand will eventually help the corn price, although getting there may be an adventure.

Part of our jigsaw puzzle may be put in place this coming winter with the production of corn in Brazil. USDA is currently estimating the corn crop growing in Brazil to 83.5 MMT, but many private estimates within Brazil are higher. Argentina is also set to produce more corn this year, and those two areas in the southern hemisphere will be important to watch this winter as their crop matures. This production coming out of South America may have a further impact on the futures price.

South America, parts of the Black Sea region and a few other countries have an impact on the price of corn in some parts of the world through their exports.

However, the United States is by far still the largest producer of corn in the world and the largest corn exporter.

Looking ahead into 2017, the number of U.S. acres that get planted to corn will have a big effect on corn prices. In 2016 American farmers planted 94.5 million acres of corn, which was significantly higher than the year before where they planted 88 million acres. In the spring of 2016 there was little price incentive to plant that much more corn, but it was done anyway. How might this manifest itself in 2017? Will the American farmer plant just as much corn? Or more? Or much less?

An argument could be made in the late fall of 2016 that there would be more soybeans planted versus corn in 2017. The reason for that is that soybean futures were $2 higher than at the same time in 2015 for an extended period of time in the late fall of 2016. With record soybean yields coming off the fields in 2016 and with significantly higher soybean futures prices, an argument can be made for a switch to soybeans in 2017.

22

Huge recent growth in corn demand is stable Of course, at this early stage it is difficult to say. With corn productivity jumping on an annual basis, those price incentives might not be as powerful as they once were in the decision-making process, and good planting weather can also do wonders for spring corn planting.

But then, too, there are lots of unknowns ahead, including how the Trump administration will deal with ethanol and any changes in the renewable fuel standard. There is also concern how agricultural trade might be affected under a Trump administration.

In the late fall and especially after the Trump election, the value of the U.S. dollar has strengthened significantly. Eco­nomic growth rates in the United States are rising and this has also caused the U.S. dollar to rise. With the possible interest rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve, this will likely strengthen the U.S. dollar further. A stronger U.S. dollar is a headwind for corn futures prices as it makes it more expensive in foreign currencies. In fact, a higher U.S. dollar is mostly a negative for agricultural commodity demand. As we go into 2017, this remains a concern.

In Eastern Canada, our US$0.75 dollar as of early December has helped Ontario cash grain prices go over $4 bushel. Earl­ier in 2016 Ontario had an import basis for corn. However, a crop that was deemed damaged in Ontario from drought has been much better than expected, and

Ontario basis levels have dropped partly because of that.

With the ending of the Ontario Ethanol Growth fund on December 31, 2016, those plants will lose their subsidies.

However, the Ontario ethanol sector is strong because of the support they had received, and will likely be healthy into the future.

Last year Ontario planted 2.015 million acres of corn and in 2017 will likely plant that again or more, especially since wheat acres are down slightly from 2016 levels. As of early December 2016, new crop cash prices for corn are approximately $4.60 per bushel on a December 2017 futures value of $3.77.

As we look into 2017, the challenge for eastern Canadian corn farmers is to measure all of these market factors. A production calamity somewhere in the world will likely be needed to shed much of the burdensome supply within this market. 2017 weather in the prime U.S. corn-growing areas will likely determine the size of the crop again. On that path, there will be much uncertainty as the crop is made.

That means there will be many marketing opportunities for Ontario farmers, who, at the same time, must factor in the volatility of the Canadian dollar.

As winter goes along the possibilities may become clearer. Standing pricing orders are always useful. Daily market intelligence is key. CG Corn Guide, January 2017

Here’s to farmers who don’t believe in man’s work.

At DuPont Pioneer, we believe in growth. Growth of crops, people and the communities we’re proud to be part of.

Here’s to all the men and women who never stop growing.

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PG. 28 With new oat, barley and wheat varieties, spring cereals are expected to solidify their acreage in the East.

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Getting started at variable rate A new computer system may help farmers find their optimum path into precision farming

We need to make it fast and painless, so the learning curve is almost zero.”

— Sarah Lepp, Niagara College

I

By Ralph Pearce / CG Production Editor

t seems nothing ever happens fast enough in our society, not with Internet connections or email replies, and not with the adoption of technology on the farm. At least, that’s the complaint from the manufacturers and service providers who say farmers just aren’t buying into precision farming fast enough.

Of course, from many farmers’ points of view, the issue looks entirely different.

Why should they adopt a technology when it’s still so time-consuming and costly?

When GPS-based y ield monitors arrived in the early to mid-1990s, they were an easy sell to growers. Not only was the technology supposed to track yields and print out detailed maps, it was also supposed to help by defining specific acres in a field that would benefit from specific management.

At that point, “variable rate” became a buzzword, with assurances that it was

coming, and that growers needed to be ready for its arrival, and the talk turned to variable rate spraying, liming, fertilizing, planting — even manure applications.

Unfortunately, the technology couldn’t develop as fast as the concepts or the expectations.

As the 2000s became the 2010s, conditions changed for farmers as well. Costs for land and machinery increased, commodity prices became more volatile and farmers had to cope with an increasingly intrusive consumer sector bolstered by government interventions in farming practices.

Add to this whole scenario the generational shift on our farms and the changing genetics of our major crops, and it’s clear why this variable rate situation can get more complicated, not less.

That’s the setting against which a group CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

25

crops Guide

1. This screen capture shows the difference between raw data on a field (left) and the “clean” version (right) on the PAAO crop portal.

2. This screen capture is the raw data on its own, taken from the PAAO crop portal.

3. The goal of the PAAO crop portal is to enable comprehensive yet quick analysis and tool sets to enable farmers to be profitable.

Images courtesy of Niagara College

(Farmers) needed a tool set to look at and process the data, and actually do something with them.”

— Sarah Lepp, Niagara College from Niagara College is trying to introduce a new computer-based system to enable farmers to input their own data, including any maps they’ve generated and other information pertaining to their farms, to create a variable rate “tool set.”

Dr. Michael Duncan and Sarah Lepp are part of that team, working with Ian McDonald, Nicole Rabe and Ben Rosser from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). The Precision Agriculture Advancement for Ontario (PAAO) project is a three-year initiative, with funding from the Grain Farmers of Ontario.

Duncan is a professor at Niagara College as well as the industrial research chair for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and Lepp is the senior research associate with Niagara College.

The two have been working on the program’s “crop portal” in an effort to empower growers to do much of the work of analyzing their farming practices themselves. The work is slow for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a reluctance on the part of many farmers to plug their farms into a new computer-based management tool that has so many working parts.

It’s one thing to own a yield monitor and have those numbers available, but it’s

26

JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

another to pull together those data points with other properties of the farm, “clean” that data, and then generate the analysis.

Even then, the grower still has to evaluate the date and decide whether it makes sense to invest the money necessary to put the resulting plans to work, which may require yet more computer programs and more new machinery.

In the end, maybe it’s easier to just stick with the status quo, or maybe shell out a bit more for a certified crop adviser (CCA).

Or is it?

By the numbers There’s an important question when considering the use of computers on the farm: What are people using them for?

According to the 2011 Agricultural Census, the percentage of farmers using computers for “farm business” was 59.6 per cent (122,697 farms out of 205,730 reporting).

In 2006, Statistics Canada reported 106,409 farms using a computer for farm business.

The challenge here is one of quantity versus quality. Is a computer used for accounting?

For tracking weather? For pricing new or used equipment? Or monitoring commodity prices? How much time is spent on Twitter or Facebook? How many farmers are

using their computers for analysis of yields, soil types, fertility levels and topography, and then generating a comprehensive field map analysis that helps them manage their fields variably?

At the other end of the digital communications spectrum, Ipsos conducted a survey in 2015 and found 86 per cent of commercial farmers read websites and online content for farming while 80 per cent used smartphones.

For all of the positive numbers from surveys though, it’s the anecdotal evidence that Duncan encounters — of an unwillingness to invest time and effort in learning to manipulate data through a computer program — that is most telling. He admits that it does take time for someone to familiarize themselves with the hardware and the software, but beyond the time or any investment costs, there’s the mindset that creates the first barrier.

“It’s a huge paradigm shift,” says Duncan, referring to the generational thinking on many farms. “‘Grandpappy put down blankets, I put down blankets, and we’ve been profitable all these years’. Typically what happens is that the farmer will say, ‘Don’t even talk to me about technology, I don’t want to hear about it’.”

What often happens during that same conversation is that the farmer will direct Duncan or Lepp to talk to their son, who often runs through the make and model of the systems he’s researched — and would love to have. The question at that point is often whether Dad will sign the cheques.

precision farming Defining variable rate If establishing the level of computer adoption and usage rates is a barrier, Duncan contends another important barrier is to define variable rate and show the computational process, and what it means to change from the old paradigm to the new. A simple model of the variable rate computational process includes: • Gather your data (ideally, multiple years of data).

• Upload into a program.

• Clean the data by removing outliers and unlikely values.

• Grid the values using an interpolation scheme like “kriging”or “nearest neighbour.”

• Apply a classification algorithm to the resulting map that divides the field into management zones.

• Upload soil chemistry/recommendation maps to show nutrient levels in various parts of the field (every four years or so).

• Assess the yields in each zone and begin to create a prescription based on the yield found in the zone.

• Upload your list of fertilizers and nutrients.

• Assign or let an algorithm assign fertilizer values to the zones based on yield and/or current nutrient levels in the zone.

• Capture the resulting prescription map.

• Convert the map scale to match the variable rate spreader you have.

• Upload the prescription to the spreader (usually through a dealer API like John Deere’s APEX).

• Apply the prescription.

• Collect the “as applied” (the actual values the spreader is capable of laying down).

• Compare as-applied maps with prescription maps.

• Adjust applications if needed.

• As you do this year-over-year, keep track of the raw data and generated maps to find usable patterns.

• Back up your data — one day you will realize this stuff is gold.

• Find a secure location for your data SD cards.

• Collect crop with yield monitor to create raw yield map.

• Compare results with as-applied, any additions, and the prescription map.

• Assess financial gains/losses.

• Start at one and adjust levels as needed.

Remember, this is the simple model.

Companies such as Trimble and John Deere also recognize the sheer mass of calculations involved that are beyond the capacity of most home computers. That’s why Trimble and Deere offer their services via Cloudbased technology. But it’s important to stress that the PAAO project is based on building a system that does all of this for the farmer and by the farmer. There’s no aggregation or selling of data with this technology. Farmers learn how to use the computer program to build their own analytical tool and recommendations for their own farm.

Getting started the toughest part At first glance, the crop portal is an impressive sight, with a variety of tables for farmers to input their data. It’s not just a database, however. Lepp emphasizes that it processes yield data and analyzes its place among available details and other information, such as topographical maps or soil test results — whatever a farmer has at their disposal.

“It’s more than just a database, and originally, the PAAO project wanted just a database to drop data, but that wasn’t enough,” says Lepp. “They needed a tool set to look at and process the data, and actually do something with them. The next step was to expand the tool set, to be able to do different calculations on layers and different years of data or work on both elevation and yield data together to create products. That’s what we’re working to expand out into.”

The other aspect that’s important from Lepp’s perspective is what this system provides in terms of visualization. It’s one thing to have a table of soil test results or year-over-year yield data. But when those data points or test results can be combined with a visual guideline or recommendations, that’s when the system begins to attract attention.

Is this complicated? Is it time consuming? Yes — at least in the beginning, concedes Lepp. It’s far more complex than anything else that exists out there — and it’s a system that lets the farmer maintain their own information for their own use. She also agrees that it can be very intimidating, and she’s spent hours talking farmers through the process. Some farmers opt to hire a CCA

to do this for them, and that’s great: one way or another, those growers are adopting variable rate technology on to their farms. That they’re hiring a professional to do it in no way diminishes its value or the impact the technology can bring to their farms.

The worst-case alternative is to have all of this information, but not use it to any of its potential. It’s been estimated that more than half of growers with a yield monitor look at the final results, perhaps take a picture of the screen or memorize the numbers, and then hit “delete”. Those are lost opportunities. And investing in new technologies — be they computer-driven or systems that are installed in-cab — may not be as overwhelming as the time needed for a person to familiarize themselves with new technology to the point where it becomes a benefit in terms of on-farm efficiencies.

It’s similar to upgrading from a typewriter to a computer (but on a much larger scale). Is the typewriter simple? Yes. Does the computer take up more time to assimilate and incorporate into a familiar and manageable process? Yes. But in the end, the efficiencies are undeniable. The same is true with smartphone technologies: how many farmers have smartphones that they’ve learned to use? And those took time, as well, but the benefits seemed undeniable.

It’s the same with the PAAO project and its crop portal, but farmers are asking how can they afford to adopt new technology.

But, says Lepp, “At $4 for corn, the farmer can’t afford not to invest, because he’s breaking his back to make $4 — and that’s where we come in. We need to make it fast and painless so the learning curve is almost zero. We’re trying to lower that learning curve to nothing so that it’s easy, it’s quick and they do it almost instantaneously.” CG

Additional information The crop portal for the Precision Agriculture for Advancement in Ontario (PAAO) project can be found at cropportal. niagararesearch.ca/. It requires a user to register, but if you have questions as to its use and process, you can call Sarah Lepp at 905-735-2211 (ext. 7182) or email slepp@niagaracollege.ca.

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

27

crops Guide

New in spring cereals They may not be large-acre crops, but their growers are dedicated

By Ralph Pearce / CG Production Editor

P

roduction of spring wheat, oats and barley follows some rather rigid realities from one year to the next. It’s true that spring cereals are a tougher sell across most of Eastern Canada; there are more acres of soybeans or corn than there are of spring cereals combined. Yet it’s also a fact that those who do opt for spring wheat, oats and barley, and also rye, are good at growing them. They also have the buyers for their products, whether it’s hard red spring wheat varieties, a malting barley or an oat variety destined for food processing.

Add to that the recognition of value in the spring cereals sector. In 2015, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada hired a cereal breeder responsible for developing Eastern Canada varieties, while the University of Guelph created a chair of research for wheat development.

Also as reported in 2016, there are emerging market

opportunities for malt barley growers in Eastern Canada. In spite of any in-season challenges to growing the crop, the consumer’s thirst for new taste sensations could have a longer-term impact that convinces more growers to try their hand at growing malt barley.

Even within the spring cereal sector, those who look for opportunity are likely to find it. To help inspire new directions and perhaps spark conversations, Country Guide offers this “What’s new?” feature on some of the newest spring cereal varieties. In all, four companies are showcasing their latest varieties, including two barley varieties, two oat varieties and two hard red spring wheats.

Remember to talk to your company representatives or retailers for more information on these varieties and others as the calendar continues turning towards the planting season ahead.

Eastern Ontario producers will benefit from Easton, one of two new hard red spring wheat varieties available for 2017.

Photo courtesy of C&M Seeds

28

JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

crop management Bramhill Seeds AAC Purpose is a new two-row barley, and is an exclusive for Bramhill Seeds. In the 2015 OCCC trials, it showed at two cm taller than Kings at 90 cm with excellent standability.

Purpose is a variety that is easy to thrash. It has a one-year yield average in 2015 OCCC trials of 98 per cent.

AAC Vitality is a new six-row barley with a limited supply for 2017. Vitality has a slightly longer day maturity — four or five days longer. In the 2015 OCCC trials, it showed at 98 per cent of yield. It is a taller variety at 99 cm.

AAC Almonte is a new oat variety, also with a limited supply for 2017. It is a tan hull oat. AAC Almonte has excellent yield numbers — one-year of 111 per cent, twoyear of 116 per cent and three-year of 112 per cent. The 2015 OCCC trials report its height at 118 cm.

C&M Seeds Easton is a new hard red spring for the 2017 spring wheat season. It has proven to have

very high yield potential during four years of testing. This variety features excellent yield potential, improved fusarium tolerance and short straw allowing for intensive management. Easton fits best into the eastern Ontario production region but has strong numbers in midwestern Ontario as well.

Elite Seeds Dakosta is an awned hard red spring wheat variety suitable for milling or feed. It offers strong grain and straw yields, and also scores high for test weight. Official baking tests showed that Dakosta produces very good bread volumes and has high protein and falling numbers. Dakosta has above average fusarium head blight tolerance and it responds very well to a complete intensive management package.

SeCan Yield potential is touted by Secan for AAC Nicolas, its new milling oat variety. AAC Nicolas has out-yielded trial checks by 20

Yielding 20 per cent higher than trial checks, AAC Nicolas is a white milling oat that’s accepted by Quaker Oats.

Photo courtesy of SeCan

per cent in the last three years, and offers exceptional yield potential for Quebec and Northern Ontario producers. This white milling variety also has good lodging resistance and is approved by Quaker Oats. CG

Watch AgCanada TV and be inspired AgCanada TV web series informs and motivates farmers Gain a new perspective on your farm, your family and your future with this informative video series from Farm Credit Canada.

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Exchange Rates and Their Effect on Canadian Exports

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Ag Industry Scores Viral Victory Greg Peterson, from Peterson Farm Brothers, discusses his success using various forms of social media to promote agriculture.

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COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

29

Crops GUIDE #pesTpatrol

#PEST PATROL with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA Garlic mustard control Are there any herbicides that I could use to control garlic mustard on the farm?

G

arlic mustard is an early flowering weed that’s highly visible at the edge of farm woodlots and around buildings and grain bins in the spring. Although garlic mustard is rarely found competing in agricultural crops, it can invade forests and displace native wildflowers including trillium.

Promising research by Dr. Stephen Murphy (University of Waterloo) demonstrated that planting fast-growing, shade-tolerant native plants like bloodroot at nine to 11 plants/m2 greatly reduced garlic mustard. This would be a preferable long-term approach to reducing garlic mustard in farm woodlots.

However, preventing its spread into woodlots from perimeter areas can be challenging. Competitive plants like bloodroot aren’t easily established, and manual removal of the mustard is not always practical due to the sheer volume of plants. Ideally, a farmer could choose a field crop herbicide, mix a small amount and spot apply.

Unfortunately, very little information on garlic mustard’s sensitivity to herbicides exists. In the spring of 2016, I evaluated five common field crop herbicides to see if they controlled garlic mustard while leaving desirable vegetation (e.g. native grasses).

Making a spray bottle solution: Take a two-litre pop bottle and calculate the amount of herbicide needed for a 1.5-litre spray solution (see example). A syringe is great for measuring small amounts of herbicide and adjuvant (Figure 1).

Example: Eragon LQ is applied pre-plant to winter wheat at 145 ml/ ha with Merge at 1,000 ml/ha and at a water volume of between 100 to 200 l/ha. Here’s how to make up your 1.5-litre spray bottle batch.

First, figure out how many pop bottles it would take to cover one hectare, i.e. 200 litre ÷ 1.5 litre = 133 bottles.

Second, calculate how much Eragon LQ should be added to the bottle, i.e. 145 ml/ha ÷ 133 = 1.09 ml Eragon LG. Finally, calculate how much Merge to add, i.e. 1,000 ml/ha ÷ 133 = 7.5 ml Merge.

Thus, prepare your 1.5-litre spray bottle with 1.09 ml of Eragon LQ and 7.5 ml of Merge.

Test results: Of the five herbicides applied prior to flowering, glyphosate and Eragon LQ (Figure 3) were best at controlling garlic mustard. Unfortunately, glyphosate also controlled other surrounding vegetation, resulting in Canada thistle emerging from shoots and taking over. Native grasses thrived in areas where Eragon LQ was applied. Pixxaro and 2,4-D reduced flowering and seed production while Callisto bleached leaf tissue but did not reduce flowering or seed production. CG

H ave a question you want answered? #PestPatrol on twitter.com @cowbrough or email Mike at mike.cowbrough@ontario.ca.

30

JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

Figure 1. The system used to make a small batch of herbicide for spot spraying: a two-litre pop bottle, spray nozzle and 10 ml syringe.

Figure 2. Garlic mustard in flower during mid-May.

Figure 3. Complete death of garlic mustard two weeks after an application of Eragon LQ + Merge.

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Crops GUIDE weather

Mild owy / sn wet eriods p

** he Col av d at y sn tim ow es

COOLER THAN NORMAL

ld Coowy sn

MILDER AND WETTER THAN NORMAL

MILDER THAN NORMAL

COLDER AND SNOWIER THAN NORMAL

**

NEAR-NORMAL TEMPERATURES NEAR- TO ABOVE-AVERAGE SNOWFALL

**

ER AL LD ORME I M N G ON AN RA ATI H T AVEIPIT EC PR

un M pe set ild rio tle ds d

NEAR NORMAL

Cold w o sn y spells

Ontario

National January 15 to February 18, 2017 highlights

Jan. 15-21: Cold air and fair skies prevail, but expect a couple of milder days as well, with the milder days bringing some light snow, heavier near open waters.

Clear and very cold in the north.

Jan. 22-28: Mainly fair with fluctuating temperatures this week. A few higher wind chill days are followed by milder days and occasional snow. Chance heavier snow in places. Clear and very cold in the north.

Jan. 29-Feb. 4: Changeable weather as fair skies exchange with occasional snow. Risk of rain in the southwest regions. Blustery winds at times causing a few higher wind chills. Cold with some snow north.

Feb. 5-11: Seasonable to cold with a few bright days this week but milder intrusions bring snow or rain to the south on a couple of days. Chance of heavier precipitation. Flurries and cold in the north.

Feb. 12-18: Frequently sunny throughout with seasonable to occasionally milder temperatures. Blustery from time to time. Snow falls on a couple of days with a risk of rain in southern regions.

Quebec

Jan. 15-21: Cold air dominates the province in spite of minor warming in the south with seasonable temperatures. Fair overall aside from some snow on two to three days in southern regions. A few higher wind chills.

Jan. 22-28: Expect several cold, blustery days this week with higher wind chills although a couple of milder days bring on some snow, chance heavy in a few areas. Settled and very cold in the north.

Jan. 29-Feb. 4: Temperatures vary as disturbances move through. A few brighter days will interchange 32

JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

with snowy ones. A few higher wind chills. Slight chance of rain in the south. Clear, cold in the north.

Feb. 5-11: Generally fair and sunny on several days apart from intermittent snow on a couple of occasions. Temperatures fluctuate and at times trend to the mild side. Cold in the north with flurries.

Feb. 12-18: Although cold temperatures linger, anticipate a few pleasant days with melting. Fair overall apart from periodic snow on a couple of days. Slight chance of rain in the south. Cold to seasonable in the north.

Atlantic provinces

Jan. 15-21: Temperatures fluctuate with several colder days although some highs reach melting in coastal areas. Fair overall but snow falls on two or three occasions. Heavier snow likely in western regions.

Jan. 22-28: A weather system brings snow on a few days this week, mixed with rain in coastal areas. Chance of heavier snow in a few regions. Temperatures vary from cold in the west to mild east. Windy at times.

Jan. 29-Feb. 4: Seasonable temperatures but a couple of windy, colder days bring high wind chills.

Intermittent snow on several days, occasionally heavy near open coastal waters. Mostly clear and cold far north.

Feb. 5-11: Heavy snow threatens many windward coastal areas. Otherwise, fair bright skies alternate with periodic snow inland. Temperatures vary from milder to seasonable. Brisk winds from time to time.

Feb. 12-18: Unsettled this week as sunny, bright days give way to occasional snow. Rain is likely in coastal regions on two or three occasions. Strong winds on a few days lead to variable temperatures.

January 15 to February 18, 2017 The relatively mild, dry weather pattern that has been influencing much of Canada is expected to give way to a colder weather regime in the early months of 2017. As a result, temperatures will return to more seasonable values. They will also be accompanied in a few areas by occasional heavy snow and blustery winds that will generate higher wind chills and drifting. In contrast to these wintry conditions, weather systems moving through British Columbia and the Atlantic provinces will produce milder-thannormal temperatures and dump heavier-than-usual precipitation over the western and eastern edges of the country.

Prepared by meteorologist Larry Romaniuk of Weatherite Services. Forecasts should be 80 per cent accurate for your area; expect variations by a day or two due to changeable speed of weather systems.

Betting

big on

China While the war of words heats up between Beijing and Washington, AGCO is becoming a major player in the Chinese economy

By Lilian Schaer

O

ne of the world’s largest farm equipment manufacturers is predicting a bright future in China, and it is putting its money behind that belief. AGCO, parent company of well-known brands Massey Ferguson, Fendt, Valtra, GSI, and Challenger, has opened a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Changzhou to serve both its international needs and what it sees as growing opportunities in China.

It also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to expand its distribution network across the country right to the village level.

Those investments come at a time when farm machinery sales are falling in almost every global farm equipment market, and have been for at least the last couple of years.

The tractor sales market, for example, sank around the world in the first nine months of 2016, according to data from the Agrievolution Alliance, including declines of six per cent in Europe, 29 per cent in China, 17 per cent in Brazil, 19 per cent in Russia and 24 per cent in Japan.

The decrease is driven by a global fall in farm incomes, Agrievolution says in a report it released in November at the International Agricultural and Gardening Machinery Exhibition held in Bologna, Italy.

However, even in that context, the Asia Pacific region is leading the global agricultural machinery Continued on page 34

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

33

BUSINESS

The Suxin Yuanwei agricultural machinery company in Jiangsu Province has entered into a strategic partnership with AGCO to help distribute its products. So-called “experience stores” let customers test tractors; the company has 40 locations across Jiangsu Province, a strong agricultural region north of Shanghai.

AGCO relies on a dealer network in more populated areas for equipment sales and after-sales service, and has launched a partnership with Alibaba Group to reach rural users through e-commerce and local Alibaba service centres.

34

JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

market, says a market analysis released earlier this year by research firm Technavio. In fact, it predicts annual sales will hit US$74 billion in the region by 2020, due largely to subsidies and increasing demand for mechanization.

That’s certainly the case in China, where generous government payments and land reform policies are driving mechanization, technology adoption, and the creation of larger farms.

“Agriculture is probably the most important sector in China, given the size of the country,” AGCO vice-president and managing director of China Fred Yang told a meeting with international ag journalists in Changzhou in September.

The country’s five-year economic plans switched their primary focus from industrial development to agriculture in 2004, sparking significant change in the sector. Large agricultural machinery cooperatives started forming to consolidate land into larger parcels more suitable for farm equipment use.

A central government incentive program for agricultural machinery purchases provides a 30 per cent subsidy for each machine, with some local governments topping that up with additional funds of up to 20 per cent in some areas.

Of China’s three largest crops, wheat production is now 90 per cent mechanized, corn harvest mechanization has risen from 40 to 60 per cent in the last three years, and rice paddy planting is approaching a mechanization rate of 40 per cent.

AGCO has a relatively new footprint in China, establishing AGCO China in 2008, but its Valtra brand entered the market in 2001. The almost 200,000 square metre facility in Changzhou opened in August 2015, and is the manufacturing base for the new Global Series Massey Ferguson tractors for both China and AGCO’s international markets.

The Asia Pacific region represents five per cent of AGCO’s global business, compared to its largest market of Europe and the Middle East at 56 per cent, and North America at 25.6 per cent.

But that doesn’t mean AGCO can just walk in and do business the way it does in other regions.

“It’s a completely different type of farming here than in Europe. We manufacture different products for each region and distribute them differently. In China, our focus is on Massey Ferguson,” Gary Collar, AGCO senior vice-president and general manager of Asia Pacific, told the same meeting.

“China is a diverse market, and it’s a mistake if you treat it all as one — you need to take a tailored approach to be successful in China,” Collar said.

A lot of that diversity stems from China’s size and geographic differences. The country covers five time zones, six climatic zones — from deserts to rainforests — and up to 18 different types of soil conditions. Large, modern farms dominate the northern regions, whereas small farms looking to increase yields and productivity are still common in the south.

“China has 22 per cent of the world’s population and nine per cent of the arable land, so mechanization and global-leading farm yields are absolutely critical to a stable farm economy,” Collar said.

Overall, the central government’s continued emphasis on larger farms and more scale means future growth in the 70+ HP tractor category and in new combine harvester technology, representing a tremendous opportunity for AGCO, according to Collar.

“The government’s current five-year plan has a focus on locally made machinery, which means that if we want to compete in China, we will make our product in China,” Collar said.

Currently, the Changzhou factory’s production represents about 10 per cent of the Chinese market, but AGCO hopes to increase that to 25 to 30 per cent as the market continues to grow.

The Global Series tractors are expected to start qualifying for the government subsidy in early 2017, which will open new opportunities for AGCO in China, predicted Sun Lei, AGCO’s director of business process, China.

Meanwhile, AGCO has been busy preparing itself for that milestone, developing its distribution channels throughout the country.

In addition to Changzhou, the company boasts three other manufacturing sites in China, alongside three parts warehouses, three engineering centres and six sales offices. These are supported by an extensive regional network of dealers that can help meet growing demand from Chinese farmers for quality, reliability and service.

“We’ve built a branded ‘experience store’ so customers can come in and try the tractors,” said Yingfu Xu, vice-president of Suxin Yuanwei AM Co., Ltd, an agricultural machinery company in Jiangsu Province that has built a strategic distribution alliance with AGCO. Jiangsu Province is located north of Shanghai, and with a population of 80 million people, it’s one of China’s leading agricultural areas with approximately 2.5 million arable acres.

“Chinese farmers have high requirements for farm equipment, and brand is crucial,” Yingfu said, adding that in addition to sales, his company also offers agronomy seminars for big AGCO clients in the region as a way of helping boost efficiency and production volumes.

Outside of the larger centres, AGCO has launched a unique partnership with Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba to reach customers in rural markets.

AGCO products are being marketed through cun.taobao.com, an Alibaba platform that offers products and services to rural villagers.

Alibaba’s network of operation centres in 100 counties across China provide after-sales service and technology support for Chinese users of AGCO products, helping the company do a better job of reaching customers across the entire country.

“Distribution is an important part of our vision, and this new partnership with Alibaba is a very innovative approach to rural markets,” Yang said. “We’ve put people in 10,000 cities who can reach customers we wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise.”

According to Alibaba Group, approximately 600 million Chinese live in rural regions. They represent a largely untapped opportunity for e-commerce, with China Internet Network Information Centre data showing fewer than one in three rural residents use the Internet.

In October 2014, as part of the Rural Taobao initiative, Alibaba announced it would invest C$1.7 billion over the next three to five years to build 1,000 county-level Taobao rural operations centres and 100,000 village-level rural service centres to boost rural e-commerce development.

Such moves make Collar confident of AGCO’s future in China,

AGCO’s Gary Collar says their new Changzhou plant is AGCO’s largest, at nearly 200,000 square metres, and manufactures Massey Ferguson tractors for both the company’s Chinese and international markets.

pointing to the country’s relentless drive to adopt technology and modernize its agricultural sector, and a GDP growth that, although slowing compared to previous years, was still achieving 6.6 per cent year growth in 2016.

“Even though China’s economy is slowing, other economies would be jealous of those numbers,” Collar said. “We have to keep the economy in perspective. China is diverse and challenging, but also quite a fun market to be in.” CG COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

35

business

By Gwen Paddock / Senior Director, Agriculture, RBC

Top financial tools for farmers January is a great time to review the financial tools that help you make the best decisions

F

or many of us, the new year is a time of reflection. It’s an opportunity to take stock of where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re going, both personally and professionally.

This is certainly important for farmers, as January is a good month for a detailed review of the administrative side of the operation — from the business plan to the budget — and to determine what you want to accomplish, and how.

But what are some of the most important financial tools that we should be using as we prepare for the year ahead?

While they may not be new, the following tools remain relevant to a farm operation’s success.

Start with a plan A good place to start is with your written business plan. Contrary to what some may think, this isn’t something that you write at the outset of your venture and then file away. If your business plan is something that has been gathering dust in your drawer, or hasn’t been looked at in more than a year, chances are it will need tweaking or even an overhaul.

Now is the time to revisit your strategy and vision for your operation, and to ask yourself the following questions: • Does my plan still reflect my goals for the farm or agribusiness?

• Has my vision for the business changed?

• What does the financial forecast look like for the coming year?

The business plan serves as your roadmap and is an important doc-

36

JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

ument not only for you, but also for any potential investors, banks or financial institutions, whether you’re a startup farm or if you have been in business for years and you’re looking to grow.

Good quality accrued financial statements While cash accounting is a simple way to maintain records, it does not provide management with the information necessary to measure profitability and make solid management decisions.

Instead, you want a financial dashboard that can be used to benchmark and monitor farm performance and that is based on good quality accrued financial statements.

This is the only true report on how your operation is doing financially.

There’s a misconception that this statement is only required for the bank’s annual review process.

First and foremost, farmers should use accrued financial statements for their own purposes. Farm financial measures can be used to track liquidity, solvency, profitability, repayment capacity and financial efficiency.

With good information, financial ratios can also be useful in making decisions on business expansion or contraction, and to judge the financial success of the business.

Depending on the objectives you want to achieve (taken from your business plan), you’ll also be able to determine which key financial ratios to track, and which to monitor in order to evaluate your progress from year to year.

Cost of production All farmers need to know how much it costs to produce that pound of beef or bushel of wheat.

It’s the only way you will know the market price you need to achieve to cover your costs and generate a profit. Once you’ve determined your cost, you can analyze the expenses or costs that contribute to your cost of production and identify which activities have the greatest impact.

Now is a good time to review all the factors that go into your cost of production, from salaries and machinery to feed or new technologies, and look for ways to adjust your costs to increase efficiency and improve profitability.

Knowing your cost of production is also a key component of effective marketing and risk management plans.

Risk Assessment Identify what risks your operation faces, evaluate those risks, and determine strategies to manage them.

There are many types of risk in agriculture, but generally they fall under the categories of business, financial and strategic risks.

Production, commodity prices, input costs, environmental regulations, changing technology, managing family or non-family labour, leverage, interest rate fluctuations, foreign exchange fluctuations, working capital, and trade are all risks that may or may not be present in your operation.

Once you have analyzed your risk exposure, you will be in a posi-

tion to consider the best strategy for managing each risk. A good understanding of your risks makes you more likely to base your decisions on fact or analysis rather than emotion or instinct.

This is especially important now since prices and the climate may be more volatile, and operations are bigger.

Budget Finally, the budget is a shorterterm plan that will give you a picture of the financial health of your farm. A key to success is to plan projections for the year ahead and track actual results aginst projections on a regular basis.

When something is off, you’ll know why right away. Now is the time to review the budget and get

comfortable with the numbers, before you get busy planting and working in the fields.

Other tools farmers can use involve relationships and people resources. Depending on the operation, some rely on a business advisory board or committee of individuals whose business acumen and views they value and trust.

Also becoming quite popular is the peer group. This could be a number of farmers from your geographical region — or even across the country — that are in the same commodities. This approach has been very effective for some farmers to benchmark themselves relative to their peers, and to help them identify areas of strengths or weakness.

Finally, your banker is a good resource for providing insight into

the business from a balance sheet and income point of view, and what kind of management criteria they are looking for. CG

Gwen Paddock, senior director, agriculture at RBC is a specialist in agribusiness. Since earning her B.Sc. with a major in agriculture economics she has been working with agriculture clients. A farmer at heart, Paddock was raised on a beef cow-calf farm outside Guelph, Ont., and participated in 4-H and Junior Farmers. www.rbcroyalbank.com/ commercial/agriculture

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37

BUSINESS

How much is enough?

It’s happening on more farms. Is your working capital reserve dangerously low?

By John Greig / CG Field Editor

I

t’s no surprise that as farms get larger and more complicated, they need more working capital.

There must be money available to handle large expenses, and to manage your way through cashflow swings brought about by volatile commodity prices.

Besides, in an era when it is so costly to grow or expand, it’s prudent to have more cash on hand for when an opportunity does arise.

The question is: What level of access to cash is right for you, and how do you monitor it?

Working capital is easily defined, says John Molenhuis, business analysis and cost of production specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs. Simply add up your current assets, then subtract current liabilities.

“Current assets” are all assets in cash or easily converted to cash, inventories and prepaid expenses.

“Current liabilities” in this context are due that year, including operating lines and the portions of loans that must be paid in that time frame.

“It shows you how much is available to pay what per cent of your expenses,” Molenhuis says.

Calculating working capital can give you a metric that helps to monitor your operational health.

Larry Martin calls it “current ratio”: the ratio of current assets over current liabilities.

“I don’t think about working capital as much as the current ratio, and what I tell people is that you should be looking at a current ratio of two times assets versus liabilities,” says Martin, a principal of Agri-Food Management Excellence, and a long-time consultant to farms and agriculture businesses on financial management.

Farmers not directly exposed to commodity price risk, such as those in dairy farming who have a priced product to sell every day (and therefore more regular cash flow) can get away with a lower current ratio and lower working capital.

Poultry farmers are in between. They have a product they have to grow before they are paid, but they have predictable pricing because of supply management.

Sharon Ardron, a farm management specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, also has a background in financial lending, so she brings to the discussion some understanding of the influence that banks have on working capital.

She also likes using current ratio as a good and easy measure of the health of working capital in a farm business.

38

JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

“It’s a buffer against bad things,” says Martin. “The more you have the better.”

Martin says he had a client who forward contracted all his durum wheat to be graded No. 1 or No. 2, but in that particular year, none of his crop graded that well.

Yet he had a very healthy current ratio of 16 to one at one point, so he was able to work through the situation.

Other farms with less working capital would have been at greater risk.

This past year, the early snowfalls on the Prairies provided a good example, Martin said at the time. “Guys are having a huge problem. They can’t get into the fields to get canola to fill contracts. These are the kinds of risks they are running this year.”

Be proactive in a year like that one on the Prairies.

Ardron says a temporary bulge on an operating line of credit may be necessary, and a $250,000 operating line of credit may need to move up by $75,000 for a couple of months, until the crop is off and can be sold. She advises talking to a lender before trouble arises.

Volatility in the red meat markets was also challenging in late 2016. Farmers with more working capital will have more flexibility to weather the declines in prices and take advantage of rises in prices.

Not having enough working capital can also limit short-term profit opportunities.

Molenhuis uses the simple example of an identitypreserved soybean contract that becomes available at planting and looks good for your farm. IP soys usually require more inputs, but if there’s not the working capital available, then the opportunity can be missed.

How much working capital do you need?

So what’s the number? How much working capital does a modern commodity-producing farm need?

Extension documents in Canada and the U.S. talk about a 25 per cent working capital buffer, but Martin and Molenhuis both say that as farms face larger risks, more working capital is needed, closer to 35 or 40 per cent.

“Because market prices are so volatile and input costs are rising all the time, we’re suggesting a higher buffer,” says Molenhuis. “Thirty-three to 35 per cent is a better buffer in case corn prices really tank, so you have some reserves in there.”

Ardron says that working capital needs vary so much among different commodities that identifying one percentage is challenging. Instead, a farm business needs to

identify what that number should be based on the commodity they are selling on that farm, and they need to monitor it.

She also warns that working capital needs to increase along with farm size. “Sometimes farms grow at an explosive rate and they almost get starved for cash, and then it becomes hard to meet their obligations in the short and medium and long term.”

But it isn’t only fast-growing farms that get in trouble. A farm that grows slowly can have the issue creep up on them, suddenly finding that they hadn’t been paying enough attention to the way their working capital needs were growing.

Make it a regular part of your financial management to monitor your working capital, Ardron recommends.

And if your accounting systems or skill set doesn’t allow for that, then fix it.

“Maintaining good financial records is the base of it all, with good quality data and timely data,” she says.

Some farms will be required by their lending institution to provide financial health ratios. Knowing those ratios will also help with day-to-day management of working capital.

“All producers need to plan diligently for their working capital,” Ardron says, if not for their own understanding, then to make sure their operating line is at the right scale for the number of acres being cropped.

Monthly monitoring is likely enough, she says, although the ability should be there to check when needed, especially around periods when there are bills due and crop has not yet been sold.

Martin says he sees a large variation in working capital on farms, as measured by the current ratio.

If you don’t have enough If you don’t have enough working capital, what do you do?

Refinance, take short-term debt over longer-term, and liquidate assets, says Molenhuis. That’s not where any farm wants to be, but when working capital gets too low, you will likely have little choice but to find ways to generate more of it.

On the other hand, maintaining health and growing working capital will mean the opportunity to invest in opportunities when they arrive, whether that be more land or other business growth and diversification. CG

Want to know what’s next in agriculture?

Watch This Country Called Agriculture and be informed.

This Country Called Agriculture is a new on-demand

Start watching now at AGCanada.com/TCCA TCCA CURRENT EPISODES Sept 15 – 30 Ag for Life and ATCO Electric speaking about awareness and working safely around power lines

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

 Production and marketing

 New technology

 Exporting

 Food production  Ag innovations

 Alternative energy & fuel sources

 Renewable energy

 AND MORE

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39

BUSINESS

Before you believe it Because our vulnerability to misinformation is growing every day, the easy-to-use SMELL test needs to become like an app that we turn on every time we connect to the web, listen to a radio, or even talk to each other

By Gerald Pilger

I

f our food looks bad, tastes bad, or smells bad, we won’t eat it. Why don’t we treat information the same way? If information “smells” bad, shouldn’t we be wary of consuming it as well?

Dr. John McManus believes so, and he has developed the SMELL test for determining the validity of news and information.

McManus earned a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Michigan and a PhD in communications at Stanford, and in his latest book Don’t Be Fooled: A Citizen’s Guide to News and Information in the Digital Age, he laid out a SMELL test that we all can use, based on five criteria: Source, Motive, Evidence, Logic, and Left out.

Assessing these five criteria will allow you to evaluate any information for credibility.

“Source” simply refers to where the information is coming from. Is it an accredited institution, organization or recognized news outlet? Is it from a published writer or author? Or is it the work of a blogger? Can you even confirm the identity of the writer?

“Motive” asks why the information is being presented. Is it simply to inform? Or is the presenter trying to persuade you to do something, perhaps to purchase or sell?

Or is the information intended simply to entertain.

“Evidence” refers to factual support within the information itself. How is the information verified? Is there peer-reviewed support for the information in the article?

Is the information referenced? In short, how does the presenter back up their facts?

“Logical” means asking yourself whether the information make sense. Does the evidence actually support the conclusions presented in the information?

That leaves “Left out” which can be the toughest test of a presentation. Is the information complete? What is the presenter not telling you? Is only one side of an issue pre40

JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

sented or supported? Are omissions merely an oversight, or is it an attempt by the presenter to influence you?

McManus’s easy-to-read book expands on each of these five criteria and illustrates them with examples of recent news events and how they were presented to the public.

It should be required reading before anyone posts or re-posts anything online.

In fact, the SMELL test is needed more than ever.

In September I wrote of a world-wide movement to ban glyphosate based largely on misinformation. In subsequent articles, I tried to inform readers of how to address the glut of misinformation that is behind the push not only for a glyphosate ban, but for the banning of GMOs and many other modern farming practices.

I also reported how little attention farmers and their organizations are paying to the misinformation that is attacking our agricultural industry.

Opposition to glyphosate continues to grow. Since I wrote the September article on the push to ban glyphosate, the Italian ministry of health has instituted sweeping new restrictions on the use of glyphosate, including not only a ban on what are often called cosmetic uses, but also on its use preharvest.

Especially troubling for Canadian growers is that Coldiretti, Italy’s largest farmer organization, immediately called for a ban on imported wheat from countries where glyphosate is used as a pre-harvest treatment.

In announcing the move, Coldiretti president Roberto Moncalvo said, “Italy is at the cutting edge in Europe and in the world with respect to policies regarding food security and environmental safety, but we will not be able to defend our citizens if we don’t block imports from countries that continue to use glyphosate pre-harvest.”

Moncalvo is now pushing the Italian government to regulate wheat used for pasta coming from the U.S. and Canada because of the use of glyphosate pre-harvest. This would have an impact on durum exports from Canada.

Meanwhile misinformation continues to spread. On November 15, 2016, the Food Babe made a number of unsubstantiated claims based on a report published by Food Democracy Now about the toxicity of glyphosate. She went on to imply that Monsanto and the FDA have conspired to conceal glyphosate residues in food.

Her assertions attracted the attention of Snopes, an organization which investigates urban legends and misinformation.

Based on investigation, Snopes labelled these Food Babe’s claims as false.

Last year, Snopes also rejected the article entitled “Half of All Children Will Be Autistic by 2025, Warns Senior Research Scientist at MIT” posted on the website “Alliance for Natural Health.”

The article stated: “One in two children will be autistic by 2025 due to the use of glyphosate (Roundup) on food crops.”

Snopes rated the claims made in the article as unproven and concluded: “No published research exists to prove (or even suggest) a link between glyphosate and autism. No evidence was presented in the article to provide context for why glyphosate (or GMOs) would be any more likely to account for the presumed increase than other environmental factors.”

Yet for every claim, article, or post made that is discredited by an organization like Snopes there are many more which are not fact checked and are accepted as fact by consumers.

The Internet is providing a good living to talented fake news writers who profit from ads on their sites. National Public Radio, the American media syndicator for about 900 public radio stations, recently tracked down one very successful fake news entrepreneur.

They even asked: “What can be done about fake news?” The answer given by the fake news writer was: “The consumers of content have to be better at identifying this stuff. We have a whole nation of mediailliterate people. Really, there needs to be something done.”

The interview is an eye-opener for anyone wanting insight into the fake news world. The NPR story aired November 23, 2016 and can be accessed by searching for “We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs.” CG

IFAO CONFERENCE 2017

February 21 and 22, 2017 — Lamplighter Inn, London

Here’s a conference with a difference. More opportunities for direct contact with speakers in breakout sessions and opportunities to share with Ontario’s most progressive farmers at a banquet followed by a host bar and networking session. This is a conference that sends you home with more than general concepts and novel ideas. You will have the opportunity to ask “how will this work within my operation?” and start the process of fleshing out how these new concepts could be implemented on your farm.

Building Resilient Farming Systems — Steve Larocque

Steve manages over 60,000 acres of cropland and has collaborated with innovative farmers all over the world on topics from controlled traffic farming, fence-row farming, inter-row sowing, row-loading nutrients, side dressing nitrogen to managing high residue. He has incorporated aspects of these techniques on his own farm to build a farm system that can handle floods, drought, cold, heat, wind and other abiotic stresses that reduce yield potential, resiliency and profitability.

Moving From Sustainable to Regenerative Using No-Till Systems Tom Sewell, UK Farmer, Nuffield Scholar Over the past 5 years Tom has moved from a shallow cultivation "min-till" system to 100% low disturbance no-till today. A component in his success was a cross-slot drill which he built himself. Tom will describe the reasons for his wholesale shift to no-till and the obstacles and challenges faced along the way.

The Real Scoop on Cover Crops Cameron Mills, Cover Crop Guru and Veteran No-Tiller

After more than a decade of using cover crops on his 3,500 acre Indiana no-till farm, Cameron Mills has the experience to say what works and what doesn’t.

Mill’s experience has taught him that adding cover crops must be well thought out.

He will take you through the ins and outs — the primary aspects you need to consider to make cover crops a beneficial part of your cropping system.

The War Against Wireworms: How Integrating Strategies Helps Dr. Christine Noronha, Researcher, Ag Canada, Charlottetown

How to develop a strategy to control wireworms using several different methods: monitoring, insecticides, crop rotation and trapping female beetles. Dr. Noronha will discuss the best timing and methods to reduce wireworm populations. Along with the feasibility of using these procedures and current research results.

Chris Kutz – Experiences in Twin Row Winter Wheat and Relay Cropping Soybeans Farmer Panel on “Cover Crops: What I Learned When It Went Sideways.”

Chris Swidersky and Kevin Aitken — Innovative Grazing and Effect on Soil Quality

For complete agenda or to register go to www.ifao.com

life

Friendships for your life For more and more of us, loneliness is a serious health risk

By Helen Lammers-Helps

I

n the farming community, being independent is a point of pride. However, too much independence is actually bad for your health if it leads to social isolation.

The research is clear. Multiple studies over the past three decades have shown that loneliness kills. It’s as bad for your health as smoking, being obese, having high blood pressure, or not exercising, and it can cut 15 years off your life expectancy.

With a sharp rise since the 1980s in the number of people reporting that they often feel lonely, loneliness has been declared a major public health concern.

But it’s even worse than that. Loneliness is not only bad for our health, it can also be as painful as extreme hunger or thirst, says Montreal clinical psychologist Susan Pinker, who delved into the issue of loneliness in her 2014 book, The Village Effect.

When I contacted Pinker, she told me there’s a reason why loneliness hurts so much. Historically, being on your own put an individual at great risk, so our species evolved a desire to seek out company and to be social.

Our survival depended on it.

It’s important, however, to differentiate between loneliness and being alone, says clinical psychologist and York University professor Ami Rokach, who also authored a book on loneliness. We are all different in our need for social contact, he says. Some very extroverted people require a lot of social contact while introverted people may need less.

“But we all need it to some degree,” Pinker agrees.

Rokach adds that there are shades of loneliness, and not everyone has the same experience. Some people experiencing chronic loneliness will get very, very busy while others will become demanding, angry and critical.

Chronic loneliness can also lead to depression which makes it even harder to reach out to others, he says.

Why are more people than ever reporting feelings of loneliness? Pinker points to several societal changes that are having an impact. First, there are many more people living alone today. In 2010, 10 times more of us lived alone than in 1920.

Also, in order to pursue better jobs or education (or new farm opportunities), people are more often separated geographically from their families.

Even the day-to-day contact we used to have when shopping and banking has been replaced by doing these transactions online at home. Meals can be ordered online without even picking up the phone. Even when we are out in public, people are often scrolling through their social media feeds instead of interacting with those around them.

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In addition, we are working longer hours, we’re less likely to know, or socialize with, our neighbours, and we’re spending more time on the Internet.

Electronic communications including Facebook, Twitter, texting and email can help maintain our social networks but they are not a replacement for face-to-face interaction, says Pinker, who says that when you can’t meet people face-to-face, talking on the phone or via Skype are the next best things to in-person contact.

Changes in farming and the rural landscape further add to the potential for loneliness. In many areas, rural communities are shrinking, neighbours are farther apart as farm sizes increase, automation means fewer people are needed on the farm, and we drive farther to shop and use other services.

Contrast that with the early days of farming in Canada when neighbours got together to build barns, stitch quilts, chop firewood and harvest crops. Sometimes many hands were needed for the work but people also got together for companionship, says Dr. Catharine Wilson, a professor in the history department at the University of Guelph.

So, we know loneliness is bad, and we know a lot of people are suffering. But what can we do about it?

At the individual level, Rokach says the first thing you must do in order to tackle your loneliness is to accept that it is affecting you. Although there is a lot of stigma around loneliness, Rokach emphasizes that it is normal to feel lonely sometimes.

“It’s a part of being human,” he says. Unfortunately, the stigma causes people to feel badly about themselves and prevents them from reaching out, he continues.

Next, Rokach recommends trying to understand the reasons for your loneliness. For example, those who are chronically ill often become socially isolated.

Rokach has specific advice for those who feel disconnected from their spouses. Being lonely inside your marriage is one of the most painful kinds of loneliness, he says. He advises couples to invest in their relationships so partners continue to grow together.

Our society values money and professional success, which takes its toll on relationships too, he says. “If you are feeling disconnected from your partner, run to a therapist,” he says, adding that if you wait too long it will be difficult to save the marriage.

People should avoid using alcohol or drugs to help them cope, says Rokach. “These things are ineffective,” he says. Instead, it is better to get involved at work, at school and in your community, he says.

If you want to increase your network of social ties, Pinker says the best thing you can do is to get involved

in something that requires weekly attendance. Join a choir, a hiking group, a sports team, a bridge club or a religious group, or meet informally with a group of friends at the local coffee shop at the same time each week, she suggests.

This can be a little more challenging for introverts (who make up about 30 per cent of the population) but even activities that are normally solitary can be done in groups, such as a crafter’s night or a book club.

“We should be structuring social contact into our days much the same way we plan for physical exercise,” says Pinker.

We can also increase our face-to-face and phone contact with our work peers by “saving email and texts for figuring out logistics,” she says.

Communities can also play a role in reversing the loneliness trend. It should start when our children are young, says Rokach. “We should be teaching our children in kindergarten about compassion and inclusion,” he says.

Community programs that connect the young and the old will benefit all involved. Children gain a broader perspective while the seniors benefit from having someone listen to them.

Community builder Doug Griffiths, author of the best-selling book Thirteen Ways to Kill Your Community, has seen many examples of rural communities across Canada reducing social isolation. Libraries can serve as community hubs by offering craft and technology workshops and creative spaces. For example, the Owen Sound and North Grey Union library in southern Ontario is creating a Maker Space where people can come together to use new technologies such as 3D printers, record a video using a green screen, or learn to sew and how to fix things.

These programs bring like-minded people together from the community and surrounding areas.

Grey County has also established Launch Pad, the Youth Technology & Activity Centre, in Hanover, Ont., to provide a safe learning environment for youth living in rural communities to explore skill-building opportunities. The space includes a learning kitchen, a

Resources Books:

• The Village Effect (Random House Canada, 2014) by Susan Pinker • Loneliness, Love and All That’s Between (Nova Publishers, 2013) by Ami Rokach • Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection (2008) by John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick • 13 Ways to Kill your Community, 2nd Edition, by Doug Griffiths, offers practical, implementable steps that can be taken to bring a community back to life. Available at www.13ways.ca/ Online Ted Talk Videos: “The Lethality of Loneliness” by John Cacioppo, University of Chicago Neurologist www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0hxl03JoA0

“Why we all need to practice emotional first aid” by psychologist and author, Guy Winch www.ted.com/talks/guy_winch_the_ case_for_emotional_hygiene

computer lab, a place to socialize and opportunities to learn trade skills.

In Nova Scotia, Pulse Pictou County is an initiative that aims to form a cohesive community among young working people living in the county. They offer activities geared towards professional development and networking, community development and betterment, athletics and wellness and, most importantly, social activities.

In Camrose, Alta., there is a lively seniors’ association that ensures lots of opportunities for seniors to connect and mingle. This, in turn, draws more seniors to want to live there, says Griffiths.

The advantage of this “Village Effect,” says Pinker is that it “not only helps you live longer, it makes you want to.” CG

Trait Stewardship Responsibilities Notice to Farmers Monsanto Company is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship® (ETS). Monsanto products are commercialized in accordance with ETS Product Launch Stewardship Guidance, and in compliance with Monsanto’s Policy for Commercialization of Biotechnology-Derived Plant Products in Commodity Crops. 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. Roundup Ready 2 Xtend™ soybeans contain genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate and dicamba. Agricultural herbicides containing glyphosate will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate, and those containing dicamba will kill crops that are not tolerant to dicamba. Contact your Monsanto dealer or call the Monsanto technical support line at 1-800-667-4944 for recommended Roundup Ready ® Xtend Crop System weed control programs. Acceleron® seed applied solutions for canola contains the active ingredients difenoconazole, metalaxyl (M and S isomers), fludioxonil and thiamethoxam. Acceleron® seed applied solutions for canola plus Vibrance® is a combination of two separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients difenoconazole, metalaxyl (M and S isomers), fludioxonil, thiamethoxam, and sedaxane. Acceleron® seed applied solutions for corn (fungicides and insecticide) is a combination of four separate individuallyregistered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin, ipconazole, and clothianidin. Acceleron® seed applied solutions for corn (fungicides only) is a combination of three separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin and ipconazole. Acceleron® seed applied solutions for corn with Poncho®/VoTivo™ (fungicides, insecticide and nematicide) is a combination of five separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin, ipconazole, clothianidin and Bacillus firmus strain I-1582. Acceleron® seed applied solutions for soybeans (fungicides and insecticide) is a combination of four separate individually registered products, which together contain the active ingredients fluxapyroxad, pyraclostrobin, metalaxyl and imidacloprid. Acceleron® seed applied solutions for soybeans (fungicides only) is a combination of three separate individually registered products, which together contain the active ingredients fluxapyroxad, pyraclostrobin and metalaxyl. Acceleron®, Cell-Tech™, DEKALB and Design®, DEKALB®, Genuity and Design®, Genuity®, JumpStart®, Optimize®, RIB Complete®, Roundup Ready 2 Technology and Design®, Roundup Ready 2 Xtend™, Roundup Ready 2 Yield®, Roundup Ready®, Roundup Transorb®, Roundup WeatherMAX®, Roundup Xtend™, Roundup®, SmartStax®, TagTeam®, Transorb®, VaporGrip®, VT Double PRO®, VT Triple PRO® and XtendiMax® are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC. Used under license. Fortenza® and Vibrance® are registered trademarks of a Syngenta group company. LibertyLink® and the Water Droplet Design are trademarks of Bayer. Used under license. Herculex® is a registered trademark of Dow AgroSciences LLC. Used under license.

Poncho® and Votivo™ are trademarks of Bayer. Used under license. ©2016 Monsanto Canada Inc.

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

43

GUIDE LIFE health

By Marie Berry / lawyer & pharmacist

Do you need an injectable for diabetes?

D

iabetes is a metabolic disease, which means it is associated with a problem in the way your body metabolizes a substance. Specifically, in the case of diabetes your body has problems with a carbohydrate, i.e. glucose.

In 2010, it was estimated that 2.7 million Canadians were living with a diagnosis of diabetes, and that over the next 10 years this number would almost double.

Unfortunately too, about one million Canadians have diabetes but do not know it and have not been diagnosed.

Good management of diabetes is possible with a combination of oral drugs, but can include injectables…

You may need to try several regimes, but you are sure to find one that works The pancreas produces insulin, which is the hormone in the body responsible for carbohydrate metabolism. With diabetes, your pancreas either doesn’t produce enough or any insulin or, alternatively, your insulin doesn’t work as well as it should.

At one time, there was no cure for diabetes, but in the early 1920s Banting and Best worked with dogs and discovered that insulin recovered from healthy pancreases could be injected into animals with diabetes and the disease could be controlled.

This research lead to the use in people of insulins derived from pigs and cattle sources. Diabetes was no longer a death sentence.

Insulin must be injected. It cannot be taken orally because the digestive process destroys the molecule. However, today science has developed a wide variety of insulin pens, needles, and delivery devices including pumps that make insulin injections comfortable.

Today, insulins are also synthetically manufactured in large facilities and are very similar to the insulin that would naturally occur in your body.

Currently, insulin is commonly used along with oral drugs in the treatment of diabetes even when your body has its own supply of insulin. Used earlier and in combination with other drugs, this translates into better control of diabetes.

There are lots of insulin choices.

Rapid-acting analogues include aspart, glulisine, and lispro and are intended to be used after eating when your body needs to metabolize carbohydrates. Short-acting or regular insulins are also intended to be used after eating. Intermediate-acting insulins, such as NPH, are designed to be injected less frequently throughout the day, and long-acting basal analogs, for example detemir and glargine, have the advantage of needing only one daily dosing.

There are also pre-mixed insulins which combine shorter- and longer-acting insulins. The idea is that your insulin use should mimic what your pancreas would normally be doing.

Keeping a blood glucose log will keep you up-to-date with how your body is managing and it may enable you to make insulin dosing adjustments. Too low a blood glucose (i.e. hypoglycemia) is the

notable adverse effect of insulin.

You don’t feel well, and you may be nervous, anxious, shaky, irritable, confused, lightheaded, clammy, sweaty, and chilly.

Boosting your blood glucose is the treatment, and 15 millilitres sugar (about three packets), 3/4 cup of fruit juice or soft drink, or even 15 millilitres of honey is recommended to reverse hypoglycemia.

One other group of diabetes drugs also needs to be injected, again because digestion will destroy it.

These are the GLP-1 or glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists which stimulate insulin production in the pancreas and reduce your liver’s ability to produce extra glucose.

Exenatide and liraglutide are the two products available in Canada, with the former requiring twice-daily injections and the latter once-daily ones. They can initially cause nausea which may diminish with time, but they can also reduce your appetite and result in some weight loss.

Good management of diabetes is possible with a combination of oral drugs, but can include injectable ones like insulin and the GLP-1 receptor agonists. You may need to try several regimes, but you are sure to find one that works for you. CG

Marie Berry is a lawyer/pharmacist interested in health and education.

Next Issue You are probably amazed by the wide variety of bandages available for treating cuts and scrapes. Some may have antibacterial or antiseptic agents right in them, and others have easy-to-remove adhesive strips. Next month we’ll have a look at some of the newer products and give you some tips to cope with minor wounds.

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JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

GUIDE LIFE Hanson Acres

By Leeann Minogue

“I

t hink you need more sunscreen,” Dale told his wife, as he stood up and moved his lawn chair aside.

“I’m fine,” Donna said, barely looking up from her sudoko puzzle.

“No, this desert sun can really bake a person,” Dale insisted. “And that glare off the side of the trailer’s probably making it worse. You don’t want a sunburn.”

Donna just laughed. “I put on more sunscreen about 10 minutes ago. I know what you’re up to. You don’t have to make up excuses. Go on inside and call Jeff again. See what’s happening on the farm. But don’t keep him too long. He’ll stop taking your calls.”

Instead of relaxing in the sun on their second day in the Yuma trailer court, Dale had been pacing around their site. Day 1 had been busy. He’d hooked up the water and sewer, checked the appliances, set up yard decorations and taken a tour of the trailer court. After supper he’d helped Bill and Edna, the older couple in the site next door, put together a new barbecue.

“We were worried about your dad when we heard he’d had that stroke,” Bill had said to Dale. “Too bad he’s not up to coming down, but it’s nice that you’re using the spot.

Ed prepaid for this season. Someone might as well use it.”

“We’re not ready to retire,” Dale had said. “But there’s no point leaving Ed’s trailer in the shed all winter.”

“Maybe you can give me a hand with my trailer slide tomorrow,” Bill said. “It’s sticking a bit on the north side.”

“I can help you tackle that.”

Dale was happy to have a pro­ject to look forward to.

But the next morning, Bill and Edna had headed out in the car before Dale got outside, and they hadn’t been back all day. With Ed’s trailer in order, Dale didn’t know what to do with himself, and Donna wasn’t helping.

Dale went inside and called home again, to make sure Jeff was all right on his own. When he

Hanson Acres

Signed up for a full January

It’s supposed to be a vacation, isn’t it? came back out into the sun, Dale looked grim.

“Everything OK at the farm?”

Donna asked “It’s cold.”

“It’s January in Saskatchewan.”

“No. Really cold. Too cold for the school bus. Jenny’s preschool class was cancelled because the teacher didn’t want to drive to town. Mark couldn’t get to work this morning — his truck wouldn’t start, but Jeff didn’t need him anyway. The Harmons were supposed to bring their durum for Jeff to clean, but they couldn’t get their auger running.”

“Doesn’t sound like we’re miss-

need to do something other than work on the farm. Someday we really are going to have to retire.

Then what will you do?”

Dale didn’t know, and he wasn’t ready to think about it.

“We’re not even old enough to come to Arizona,” he complained.

“There’s probably a state law against people as young as us spending a whole month here.”

“We’re older than you think,” Donna said. “There’re lots of people our age here.”

Dale glared at her, then went back into the trailer to get himself a glass of iced tea. He brought one out

You would find a club to join aleady,” Dale said, not really sure whether he was irritated or happy ing much,” Donna said, frowning down at the page as she tried to figure out whether the missing number in the corner was a six or a two.

“Well, no. But there’s lots we could be doing. What if our water pipes freeze? What if the furnace quits?” He checked the weather app on his phone. “Look at this Donna.

The system’s going to hang over the yard until at least Thursday.”

“Jeff ’s in the yard,” Donna said.

“He’ll call if anything happens.”

“I suppose,” Dale said. He sat down in his lawn chair. Then stood up again.

“It’s easy for you,” he said.

“You’re always going on vacation.

You know how to behave. How to keep busy all day.”

Donna shook her head and looked up at him. “You’re going to

for Donna, who took it from him with a smile.

“Why don’t you go down and see what’s happening in that activity centre?” Donna asked. “Edna told me there’s a woodworking room in there.”

“I don’t know,” Dale said. “I’ve never really pictured myself woodworking.”

“Have you ever pictured yourself doing anything that didn’t involve a tractor?”

Dale had no answer for that.

“You could rent some golf clubs and see if your swing’s improved since your last game. That was back in about 1997, wasn’t it?”

“I don’t think enough time’s passed yet,” Dale said.

Continued ON page 46

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / JANUARY 2017

45

GUIDE LIFE

Reflections

by Rod Andrews retired Anglican bishop

“I think there are a few men out on the pickleball court. Maybe you could try that.”

“Pickleball?” Dale asked, with such a loud snort of derision that Donna gave up.

“You’d better figure out something to do. I’m going to the book club meeting in the activity centre at two o’clock. I haven’t met any of the women, but I’ve read the book, so I’m sure they’ll let me sit in.”

“You would find a club to join already,” Dale said, not really sure whether he was irritated or happy that his wife could adjust so easily.

After Donna left, Dale paced some more, stalking back and forth over the small cement plot alongside Ed’s trailer.

On Dale’s eighth pass, a side-by-side out on the street caught his eye. And his ear.

“That thing doesn’t quite sound right,” Dale called out to the driver.

“You’re telling me,” the man replied, pulling to stop in front of Ed’s trailer. “I was just taking it home to take a look at it. It belongs to a guy down at the end of the street, but he doesn’t know how to fix anything.”

“This is the same make as the one we’ve got at the farm. We’ve had a lot of trouble with ours too. I could probably give you a hand,” Dale offered.

“I could use the help. Hop in. Where’s your farm?”

Dale climbed into the passenger side and explained his farm location.

“I grow corn and soybeans straight south of you, down in South Dakota. Name’s Ken Wolfe. So what are land prices doing up your way?”

The two men finished fixing the side-by-side well before they finished the conversation.

“A few of the guys gather for pre-dinner cocktails every Tuesday,” Ken said. “Why don’t you come along?

You’ll fit in fine. There’s a farmer from Iowa who’s always wrong about corn futures, and a rancher from Alberta who doesn’t think Trump should’ve won the election. They can get pretty worked up, but it gets me out of the trailer while Muriel’s hosting her quilting group.”

Donna came home from the book club to an empty trailer. She looked up and down the street in both directions, but didn’t see Dale.

Then she looked at her phone, lit up with two new texts. The first was from Jeff. “Dad must be adjusting to desert life,” he’d written. “He’s not answering his cell, and I had a question about the cleaning plant belts.”

The next note was from Dale. “Made dinner plans for us to go out for fish and chips. Can you find my sneakers? We’re signed up for a pickleball tournament after the meal.” CG Leeann Minogue is the editor of Grainews, a playwright and part of a family grain farm in southeastern Saskatchewan.

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JANUARY 2017 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

T

he earth rests in silence under a blanket of snow. The vastness and quietness of the earth at night grip me. The landscape seems empty and motionless until I glimpse the light of a distant farmhouse or the hopping of a rabbit.

If silence is a gift, we rarely treat it as such. We clamour for noise.

Returning home I turn on the TV to get the latest on the 24-hour news channel. Beeps tell me the microwave cycle is finished, or the laundry needs to be removed from the dryer.

Even a graveyard is not silent. I worked with a church committee that had a hard time making a decision. The best choice would have disturbed the parish matriarch, long dead. She was in control from her burial place.

Ron Lawford taught safe driving courses for seniors. He recommended making three right turns to avoid one potentially dangerous left turn. His mantra before changing lanes was “mirrors, shoulder, signal.” I presided at Ron’s funeral in October but he continues to speak to me as I manoeuvre my pickup in traffic.

In earlier times a minister would ride a saddle horse from town to town, leading church services. One of these circuit riders met a man who challenged him — “You have an easy job, all you have to do is think about God all day.” The minister argued, “Being quiet and thinking about God is not so easy. If you can be quiet and think about God for one minute, I will give you this horse.” The man, incredulous, accepted the challenge. A half-minute passed and the man seemed to be in deep contemplation, until he blurted out, “Does that include the saddle?”

I flew from Yellowknife, Northwest Territory, to Norman Wells on the Mackenzie River, a distance of several hundred miles. When the weather deteriorated I became anxious and tried to contact a flight service specialist. I was out of radio reach. Finally a reassuring voice in my headset told me the weather ahead was good. The break in the silence was a relief.

Last summer the school was closing in Gleichen, Alta. A long-time resident of the town, Vern Hoff, wrote to the Strathmore Times: “For the first time in 127 years, the clanging of a school bell will not pierce the early September air in Gleichen.” Across those years, Gleichen had been a thriving town on the main CPR rail line, and that school bell had been heard despite regional rebellions, foreign wars, nationwide depressions, local disasters, fabulous growth, explosive expansion in agricultural production, thousands of lively sporting events, hundreds of memorable entertainment moments and a dozen decades of happy, comfortable living.

More than six generations of wonderful people had lived their lives to the familiar ringing of that bell, Vern said.

“It’s not just the end of an era, but a silent requiem for a once thriving community hub,” he wrote. “Let’s hope a better future will return that welcoming sound and the venerable institution it symbolizes…

Until then it’s a sad silent September, the first in Gleichen.”

Robert Greene is a retired Anglican priest who lives in Calgary. He often conducted services in a southern Alberta town. An elderly gentleman attended every week. He religiously turned off his hearing aid before Bob’s sermon, sat in silence, and turned it on when the homily ended. Bob queried him: “Why don’t you listen to my sermons? I work hard to prepare them.”

“Well,” the old timer drawled, “it saves on the batteries.”

Suggested Scripture: Psalm 46, Isaiah 40:28-31

Rod Andrews is a retired Anglican bishop. He lives in Saskatoon.

CHRISTIAN FARMERS FEDERATION OF ONTARIO 642 Woolwich St. • Guelph, ON • N1H 3Y2 Voice: (519) 837-1620 Fax: (519) 824-1835 Email: cffomail@christianfarmers.org Web site: www.christianfarmers.org

CFFO Annual Convention 2016

By Suzanne Armstrong

T

he CFFO hosted our Annual Convention and Banquet on Tuesday November 29, focusing on “Emerging Opportunities for Ontario Agriculture.” This year our speakers for the day focused on innovation in small and medium sized farm businesses.

Our Keynote Speaker was Dean Glenney, who shared his innovative “Fencerow Farming” methods.

Glenney farms his family farm in Dunnville, on Haldimand clay soil. Our Vice-President Richard Blyleven, who is one of Glenney’s neighbours, reminded the audience that the average corn yield for the county is only 127 bushels per acre, while Glenney has been able to achieve yields as high as 301 bushels per acre. Glenney described plowing as equivalently devastating to crop farming as a barn fire is to a livestock operation. He strongly advocated letting the worms and soil organisms do the plowing, and minimizing traffic by running all equipment in the same tracks in the field. By combining his no-till with intercropping rows of corn and soy beans, he has been able to achieve these award winning yields.

Our afternoon Panel Speakers included Jeffrey Linton, who runs Linton Pasture Pork, Jim Eby who runs a Guernsey breed micro-dairy called Eby Manor, and Thorsten Arnold, general manager for Eat Local Grey Bruce. All have combined

innovative farming techniques with local marketing to fulfill emerging or niche markets with local consumers.

Jeffrey Linton, having improved his animal husbandry skills abroad, returned home and started his pasture pork business. His methods of raising pigs outside grazing on cover crops and the undercover growth of wooded areas have many health benefits for the pigs and environmental benefits too. Linton was pleased to discover that this method also resulted in rich tasting meat with good colour and marbling.

Jim Eby, on the other hand, knew the distinct characteristics of milk from the Guernesy cow breed, including the naturally golden colour and creamy taste, and the higher milk fat content which makes for better tasting skimmed and whole milk. However, in marketing his milk he made some decisions to appeal to his consumer, including selling the

milk in glass bottles, and going GMO free.

Although Thorsten Arnold had significant local support through early memberships for the Eat Local Grey Bruce food cooperative, he still finds challenges in working to adjust consumer behaviour from the grocery store expectations of the same foods year round, to seasonal fresh local produce.

All four speakers fielded many questions from interested audience members, and provided excellent food for thought about the opportunities for different types of innovation on small and medium sized farms.

Our president, Clarence Nywening, and Vice-Presidents Richard Blyleven and John Kikkert were all acclaimed for another year on our CFFO Executive Board.

Director Peter Peeters from East Central was re-elected for another two-year term, and John Bos from Wentworth-Brant was newly elected onto the Board as well.

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