Manitoba cooperator

Page 1

Radical reform

Continued volatility

The food system needs a rethink » PG 49

Beef market not smoothing out » PG 13

SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | Vol. 75, No. 1 | $1.75

January 5, 2017

Old is new in hog barn approvals

Three million acres of Manitoba soybeans by 2022?

Public opposition has not gone away after a decade of no development

Continued growth is possible, even probable, but there will be other factors weighing in against continued runaway growth

BY RON FRIESEN

BY ALLAN DAWSON

Co-operator contributor

Co-operator staff

T

I

he first application under a new protocol for approving hog barns in Manitoba has run into an old problem: local opposition. The Rural Municipality of Oakview council last month turned down an application for a 6,000-space feeder/finish operation near Rivers even though a technical review committee

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See HOG BARNS on page 7 »

f the trendline continues soybean acres in Manitoba could easily top three million acres in just five more years — but don’t necessarily bet the farm on it. That’s the message Manitoba Agriculture pulse crops specialist Dennis Lange brought to the recent Manitoba Agronomists’ Conference on Dec. 14 at the University of Manitoba. He foresees the potential for greater competition from other crops and the reality of growing soybeans in areas on the frontier for the crop as possible factors tempering the runaway growth of recent years. “We are going to be looking at competition from other crops because we only have 9-1/2 million acres of cropland in Manitoba, so those acres have to come from somewhere,” Lange said. “To get another million acres we are going to have to see another big shift in these crops as well. “Are we going to have tighter rotations if we have two million acres of soybeans? What about volunteer control of such things as (Roundup Ready) canola? That’s always an issue with growers.” Spring wheat and canola acres vary every year, but not a lot. And smaller-acreage crops don’t have many acres to lose, Lange noted.

This field of soybeans was still green on Sept. 23, 2013 and would’ve been damaged if there had been frost then, says Manitoba Agriculture pulse specialist Dennis Lange. While the farmers grew early-maturing varieties a cool summer and lots of rain delayed crop maturity. One of these years some of Manitoba’s soybeans will be damaged by a fall frost and likely slow the pace of soybean expansion, he said.   PHOTO: DENNIS LANGE

Red spring acres have been stable and feed wheat and Prairie spring wheat acres, which are relatively small, have jumped in recent years. But soybeans have likely taken acres from winter wheat, which dropped 75 per cent to 134,000 acres in 2016 compared to 2012. Some canola acres may have also gone to soybeans. In 2014 and 2015 canola acres fell below two million, but gained back ground in 2016, coming in at 3.2 million. Soybeans are a long-season,

heat-loving crop and Manitoba hasn’t had an early killing fall frost for at least six years, Lange said, something that has encouraged growers to take on the risk, but eventually it will catch up to them. He showed the meeting a photo of a green soybean field, taken Sept. 23, 2013 near Roblin, to illustrate his point. “Some years, you’re going to have a frost then,” he said. “That concerns me when you have soybeans that green at that stage. Growers were picking the right varieties,

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but it was very cool during the growing season and they had some good rainfall and that kept things a little greener longer. “That may slow progression down to some degree to hit that three million acres if we do get an early killing frost.” In 2004 a frost in August resulted in a province-wide average soybean yield of eight bushels an acre. In 2005 soybean acres fell 41 per cent to just under 96,000. See SOYBEANS on page 6 »

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