Grainews

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MACHINERY

Farm-testing the new F-350

Poor cereal seed across the Prairies

Scott Garvey takes a new Ford truck home and puts it to work 22

Angela Lovell finds poor-quality cereal seed in most areas 10

Volume 42 · number 8 march 28, 2017 · $4.25 Practical production tips for the prairie farmer www.grainews.ca

By Angela Lovell

Crop management

MANAGING YOUR HAIL DAMAGE

T

he Prairies suffered a record number of hail events in 2016, which means hail insurance claims are also at record levels, with more than $528.6 million paid out to western Canadian farmers.

Manitoba has set records for hail insurance claims two years running.

The Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC) received 3,747 payable hail claims in 2016 and has paid out $43.6 million. That topped the record 2,783 claims in 2015 that cost $31.1 million in payouts.

Alberta Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) paid out a total of just over $361 million for 6,022 claims for hail damage in 2016 under its straight hail and hail endorsement programs.

Meanwhile, Saskatchewan insurers had paid out in excess of $124 million for over 11,001 claims by October 2016, which is also up significantly from 2015.

photo: Allan Dawson

Hail rescue products show little impact in new trials; hail timing is the key damage driver

The Florence Nightin gale Effect When hail hits it often provokes a “Florence Nightingale” response, as See hail damage on Page 4 

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wheat & chaff

Grainews.ca / march 28, 2017

CONTENTS

3

Getting close to the end Leeann Minogue

leeann.minougue@fbcpublishing.com

J

ust when you think the Prairie winter is over, there’s one more hurdle.

In my case, it’s some pretty terrible weather. I’m writing this on Day 2 of the March blizzard. It’s also Day 2 of school bus cancellation, and the second day that our cats have refused to come out of the shop because it’s just too nasty outside.

My husband tried to get to town today but

gave it up after a few miles — there was just too much snow drifted up over the grid road.

In Weyburn, according to my Facebook feed, wind has blown the roof right off of my favourite Vietnamese restaurant. I think it’s safe to say we’ve had almost enough winter for this year.

In your case, the last hurdle of winter is looking at the end of my winter-themed photos. I promise, this will be the end of it, and then we can get on with spring and seeding.

Here’s to longer days, green grass and a warmer sun.

Leeann

The value of spring-threshed canola Brian Wittal helps you figure out what to do with your spring-threshed canola 18

Lower target plant stands With new varieties, farmers might hit optimum yields with lower plant counts 6

Maybe not on your farm Les Henry puts today’s precision ag under the microscope 20

Machinery & Shop . . . . . . 42 Cattleman’s Corner . . . . . . 47

photo: Brad Barlow

Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Crop Advisor’s Casebook.18 Columns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

FarmLife. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

GET IN TOUCH

My husband took this photo the day after the blizzard, after he’d had time to plow some snow around the yard. We think this snowbank is 15 to 20 feet high. It wasn’t there before the two-day wind set in.

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STORY IDEAS & SUBMISSIONS If you have story ideas, call us. You can write the article and we’ll pay you – or we can write it.

Phone Leeann Minogue at (306) 861-2678 Fax: (204) 944-5416 Email: leeann@fbcpublishing.com Write to: Grainews, 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1

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news bits

YOU BE THE JUDGE Last summer Grainews machinery editor Scott Garvey led a panel of judges through the UTV Challenge. We tested out the latest UTVs, then put them on display at Ag In Motion, the outdoor farm show near Saskatoon.

We had so much fun we’re doing it again. But this year: it’s telehandlers. Scott is rounding up a selection of machines for the judges to put through their paces.

And, this year, you can join the judges. Send us a picture of the loader tractor you’re using on your farm now (telehandler, loader, forklift, mother-in-law, whatever you’re using — we’re not going to judge you).

From these entries, we’ll draw three winners to join us as guest judges on the AIM grounds, testing telehandlers on Monday, July 17. These winners will join Scott, me and the rest of the judges for dinner that evening, spend the night on us at the Delta Bessborough in Saskatoon, and and be given $50 to spend on gas. Plus, they receive tickets to see the AIM farm show (AIM runs from July 18 to 20 this year).

Email your photos to leeann@fbcpublishing.com. We’ll make the draw on May 8.

Leeannw

wheat & chaff

4

Grainews.ca / march 28, 2017

farm safety

Maintain augers and create work zones to prevent entanglements

A

n auger in good condition is critical when it comes time to move grains and feed around the farm. Augers can also be some of the most hazardous machines on the farm, especially if they haven’t been properly maintained.

Although Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting statistics have identified runovers as the top cause of agriculture-related fatalities, the number of reported entanglements remain too high on that list and continue to be an area of concern.

To prevent injury, consider establishing a work zone specifically for operating augers. Posting a few signs will help to make it

clear to all farm workers and any visitors to keep away from an active work zone where augers are regularly in use. Make sure the work zone is level, the ground is clear of debris, and supports are in place for anchoring the intake or discharge end before operating.

Signage should emphasize the importance of keeping clothing, feet, hands and hair clear of moving auger parts. Also be sure to include immediate shutdown procedures, reminding all grain auger operators to disconnect from the power source in the event of an emergency stop.

For farmers who do not use grain augers as frequently, it can be easy to forget about repairs or

general maintenance between uses. But remembering to fix obvious hazards and getting reacquainted with an auger ahead of harvest activities could prevent a close call or an injury.

Before the busy season starts, check that all safety guards are in place, secured, and that they won’t impede proper function.

Have a look at all the safety decals and get replacements for anything that is no longer legible or is missing completely. Some grain auger distributors make these available, free of charge.

Inspect the winch system for wear and tear, ensuring that there is enough cable to wrap around the winch drum at least three

many intake guard and auger driveline design flaws.

When you are moving grain, it is easy to become distracted by the quality of the crop, or preoccupied with thoughts about managing the flow of harvest traffic.

So, when you pull out the combine for its pre-harvest inspection, go over your augers while you’re at it.

Make sure your work zone is set up properly every time you check for empty grain bins. Don’t let a momentary lapse in concentration put the safety of you, or someone you love, at risk around a running auger. GN Amy Petherick for the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association.

The last of the natural curlers?

photo: Leeann Minogue

Give us your best shot!

times when the auger is down.

Check that the cable anchor, fasteners, belts and any chains are all sufficiently tight.

Grease the machine as directed in the owner’s manual and top up oil levels in the gearbox. Several equipment manufacturers offer copies of grain auger owner’s manuals online, for farmers who never received a paper copy or have misplaced it since the previous season.

Be aware that any augers manufactured in Canada prior to 2012 were subject to different safety guidelines than newer models on the market. A new Canadian safety standard for portable augers used on farms addressed

Nevin Lowes sent us this picture of his family farm: Ja-Lyn Farms Ltd., near McAuley, Manitoba. Nevin wrote, “We have a mixed grain and cattle farm with 4,500 seeded acres and roughly 1,500 cow-calf pairs. Harvest went pretty well — got a little wet but we got done just in time before the last wet weather came in.” Nevin took this picture with his drone. Very impressive!

We’re sending Nevin a cheque for $25.

Send your best shot by email to leeann@fbcpublishing.com or through Twitter at @GrainMuse. Please send only one or two photos at a time, and also send along some information about where and when you took the photo, or even something about your farm. Photos with larger file sizes look better in the paper.

— Leeann

Griffin held its annual ladies’ bonspiel in late January. I’m not much of a curler anymore, so I only subbed for one game. Well, most of one game. And it was probably my last — I’m scared off of the sport since the second on our rink fell and hit her head, and had to be strapped to a backboard and taken off the ice by paramedics.

(She was fine, they said, after she was seen by doctors in Weyburn and Regina and given a CT scan.)

One of the spectators in the stands told me that Griffin is one of only two Saskatchewan ice rinks that still has natural ice (the other one, he said, is in Osage.) Could this possibly be true? Is there really a whole generation growing up curling without worrying about avoiding the lumps in the ice where the roof drips? Or not knowing the excitement of heaving the rock with all your strength down heavy ice when it’s 2 C, and all you’re really hoping is that the rock makes it over the hog line? Not knowing how hard it is to sweep when you’re wearing so many clothes you can hardly move because it’s -30 C, but nobody wants to concede the game that will determine the “B” side bonspiel winner?

If you still have natural curling ice in your community, I’d like to hear about it. Please send a photo.

Leeann Minogue

cover stories

Grainews.ca / march 28, 2017

5

Crop management

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farmers try to figure out what they can do to restore or save their ravaged crops. That can lead to emotional rather than economic decisions, and farmers may be tempted to try some of the growing number of new products.

“There are an increasing number of products with hail rescue claims and I’m hearing more often from farmers that they’d like to know if there’s any merit to them because it’s very emotional when they are dealing with a nice crop and it gets injured,” says Ken Coles, general manager of Farming Smarter. “They want to make decisions about how to manage that damaged crop based on real evidence.”

To date, a lot of the evidence about whether these products actually make a difference to a hail-damaged crop has been anecdotal, says Coles. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency doesn’t require any efficacy testing for some nutrient-based products, which means companies can make certain claims as long as the product doesn’t harm the environment.

Coles has just completed the first year of a research project at Lethbridge and with SARDA (Smoky Applied Research and Demonstration Association) at Falher, Alberta to evaluate some of the products — fungicides and micronutrient blends — that carry hail rescue claims. Coles tested the products against untreated check plots in wheat, peas and beans to see what effect they have at different levels of hail damage and different plant growth stages.

Interestingly, it was the Alberta Pulse Commission who first stepped up to the plate with some funding for Coles’ project, probably as a result of some interesting stories from growers who had good results using a strobilurin fungicide on hail-damaged pea crops.

Coles had been seeking funding for a hail damage project for several years, but there was a perceived challenge in simulating hail damage effectively for a field-scale experiment. “To study this on a field scale is difficult because hail isn’t even,” says Coles. “It can be severe on one part of the field and taper off until it’s quite light within the same field. The other thing that bothered me was, how do to know that an applied rescue product wouldn’t have had the same impact on the crop without hail?”

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First on the priority list was building a hail simulator that would be representative of actual hail damage in the field, and would convince funders that the project was worthwhile. Past simulators had always been projectile based, throwing rocks or ice, and hadn’t done a great job of replicating actual hail damage. Coles worked with a team led by Ralph Lange at InnoTech Alberta, based in Vegreville, which had been working on developing a simulator for several years, and had found the thing that worked best to simulate true hail damage was flailing a dog chain.

Coles mechanized the concept and designed a rotary hail machine

photo: Courtesy Ken Coles

 hail damage from Page 1 1666 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg, Man. R3H 0H1 www.grainews.ca

Ken Coles of Farming Smarter designed a rotary hail machine to mimic the impact of hail damage on a growing crop.

The machine uses chains, and is adjustable to produce different intensities of hail from 100 per cent defoliation to very slight damage levels around 25 per cent.

that uses chains, and is adjustable to produce different intensities of hail from 100 per cent defoliation to very slight damage levels around 25 per cent. “A local company built one and it worked really well. It was inexpensive to build, and we were able to effectively replicate different levels of damage, which gave us the ability to go ahead with the study,” says Coles, who had the chance to test the simulator in 2015 on some actual canola plots. The Alberta Financial Services Corporation is providing funding for the canola component of the project, which isn’t using any rescue products, to get a better understanding of yield potential after various levels of hail damage.

In 2016, the Alberta Wheat Commission also provided funding for a wheat component to the project.

Timing matters more than severity Although results from 2016 are very preliminary, the biggest take-home message is that timing and crop stage during a hailstorm is vitally important. “We are discovering that the level of damage doesn’t matter nearly as much as the timing of damage. It differs for different crops but hail is going to be more manageable in a crop, and there is a better opportunity for the crop to recover and produce yield, with an early hail,” says Coles. “We haven’t seen much potential for crops to recover with later hail damage. I think it’s going to be a matter of understanding when the damage happened, and whether the crop was at a particularly vulnerable stage to determine if there is a chance of recovery.”

In both canola and wheat, Coles saw significant recovery and regrowth, even in severely hail-damaged plots that received no rescue products, when the hail was received in mid- to late June (up to the earlyheading stage). In plots that received

hail damage by mid-July there was very little recovery and significant yield losses. Coles saw little difference in the wheat plots that had received the fungicide (Prosaro) or the micronutrient product (Alpine G22) which both carry hail rescue label claims. “We did see glimmers of possibilities of the rescue product working in certain circumstances, for example, after the June 29 hail treatment, the plots with the fungicide application seemed to have cleaner leaves and there was less tan spot than on the untreated check plot. But I am cautious in jumping to any conclusions about these products until we have more years of data.”

They could be fertilizing the weeds Helping farmers manage hail damage In the future it could be possible to collect remote-sensing data using drones or satellites and develop an algorithm to predict the extent of hail damage and recovery potential for a particular field that farmers could use when negotiating hail insurance claims. But that’s still a bit of a pipe dream, and in the meanwhile, Coles is focusing on producing hard data about hail damage and plant recovery that will help farmers make better management decisions.

“We’re going out and beating up crops in a consistent and replicated way. It’s really controlled and hard to argue with,” says Coles. “Damage is damage and when we’re able to statistically pull out differences in even something as simple as the crop timing that gives us a lot of

power and confidence in what we can say because we are taking a science-based approach.”

One of the biggest challenges with a hail-damaged crop is with split maturity, says Coles. “A hailstorm can result in more tillering, so farmers will have half of their crop mature and ready to harvest and the other half is behind,” he says. “There isn’t really any good advice out there about how to manage that except for traditional farmer experiences. We are hoping that we can eventually provide some insight into whether to desiccate or not based on the likely yield potential of the crop following a hail event.”

Weeds also become an issue following a hail event, as they compete with new plant growth. “In particular in wheat, when you get a later hail it opens up the canopy so light can penetrate, which gives an opportunity for weeds to take off,” says Coles.

“If somebody suggests spraying micronutrients or nutrients on at that stage, they could be fertilizing the weeds, which could be a negative consequence of late application.”

As hail claims increase, so do premiums for hail insurance, which means farmers will continue to invest more and more money in these programs to try and offset the cost of hail damage. Meanwhile, Coles and his team are working hard to try and come up with recommendations that can make an economic impact and help relieve some of the stress when farmers experience hail damage. “Hail is really complicated, and just being able to get out there, and study, and observe and see what happens we hope will shed light on other management practices that farmers can use,” says Coles. GN Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist living and working in Manitoba. Find her online at www.angelalovell.ca.

6

FEATURES

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

Crop management

Murray Hartman talks plant stand establishment during CanolaLAB at Lakeland College in Vermilion, Alberta

Lower canola target plant stands

By Lisa Guenther

N

ew canola varieties and changing economics have pushed target plant stands lower, says Murray Hartman, oilseed specialist with Alberta Agriculture.

The “economic sweet spot” is now four to six plants per square foot, Hartman told farmers and agronomists at the Canola Council of Canada’s CanoLAB in Vermilion, Alberta.

Hartman recently reviewed published trial data looking at canola plant density. Based on that review, he determined that farmers can achieve optimum yield at a much lower plant density than with older varieties.

Combine that with the higher cost of hybrid seed, and it only made sense to lower plant stand recommendations.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean farmers should cut back on seed. “I’m talking plant count. Not a seeding rate,” said Hartman.

Dan Orchard, agronomist with the Canola Council of Canada, stressed that “if you don’t know what your plant density is, on average, in your field, you don’t know if you need to seed heavier or lighter.”

Emergence is going to change every year, Orchard said. By documenting emergence each year, farmers can compare poor emergence to previous years, and figure out what’s going on, he explained.

Very few farmers physically count plants and track that information year to year. Hartman said farmers tend to get behind with so many fields to scout. Volunteers in short rotations also make it tricky to get an accurate plant stand count, he added. Counting volunteers in an area where a farmer had a seeding miss is one way to figure out actual plant stand. Hartman also recommended counting volunteers between rows.

Orchard says farmers should look into having their agronomists do plant stand counts. “And if not, then the

farmer needs to keep records because I think it will pay huge dividends.”

Advantages of a thicker stand Hartman said the revised four to six plant stand target is “kind of an economic minimum.” There are many reasons a farmer might want to bump the plant stand density on a particular field.

Farms with consistent frost problems might want a higher seeding rate.

A thicker plant stand also defends against some insects such as flea beetles and root maggots. However, more plants won’t help with a cutworm problem, as the nasty little creatures will take out whole patches.

More canola plants also mean fewer weeds. Most canola growers have weeds under control in their fields, Hartman noted. But farmers concerned about herbicide resistance might favour a thicker plant stand.

Denser plant stands also have some advantages when it comes to harvest, Orchard said. For example, farmers who straight cut might want a thicker stand. More plants also anchor swaths better than lighter stands, which might be a concern in windy areas.

And a thicker stand means more even crop maturity, which simplifies harvest timing. Orchard pointed out that swath timing recommendations are based on seed colour change on the main stem. However, thinner crops will have more yield on the branches.

There’s a data gap on fungicide applications to control sclerotinia in uneven crops with plenty of branching, Hartman said. But based on an educated guess, he thinks crops with lots of branching, and more yield on the branches could suffer late infections if conditions are right. Orchard pointed out that insect thresholds and herbicide application timing recommendations are also based on thicker plant stands.

But does a thin stand decrease sclerotinia?

“The problem with sclerotinia is that it doesn’t want to co-operate with trials. We can very rarely get good data. For the most part, the impact of seeding rate and row spacing has been minimal on sclerotinia,” said Hartman. He added that sclerotinia does spread more quickly when plant stands are so thick that there is stemto-stem contact.

Farmers facing a shorter growing season might be concerned about days to maturity and green seed counts. Hartman reviewed a large scale Canola Council trial.

When plant counts dropped to four to six (from seven to 10), there was a two-day increase in days to maturity. Plant stands of two faced a week or two-week increase in days to maturity.

As for green seed count, a stand of four to six plants did see more green seed. “But usually it’s not enough where you actually lose a grade,” said Hartman. Dropping below four plants will likely drop a grade as well, Hartman said.

It’s not unusual to see gaps in rows, especially in fields with heavy residue.

Hartman said Agriculture and AgriFood Canada researchers found that canola crops with gaps need more plants to fill in those holes and hit yield potential, compared to uniform stands. Farmers with heavy wheat crops would likely want to bump seeding rates, unless they change their residue systems, he added.

Other ways to boost plant count Farmers will need to figure out how much more they need to spend on seed to get an effect that’s worth it, Hartman said. But buying more seed isn’t the only option.

Canola seed typically runs from 50 to 70 per cent emergence, Hartman said. “If you’re only at 50, can you jump to 70 by changing some of your management? Absolutely."

Slowing down while seeding is one

option, Orchard said. “But logistics trump agronomy.”

If excess residue is affecting emergence, removing straw is an option, Orchard said. A lot of the carbon is below the soil, so there isn’t much of a penalty for removing excess straw, he added.

Factoring in seed size and seeding depth can also boost emergence. On display in a tub were three rows of plants of different seed sizes. Half the tub was seeded at half an inch, and the other half at 2.25 inches. The large seed produced larger cotyledons, which covered the ground more quickly.

Orchard suggested taking a look at thousand kernel weight when picking up seed. Farmers might want to plant larger seed first, assuming that seed will be placed deeper. Other potential spots are weedy fields or poor seedbeds where a farmer might accidently seed deeper.

Seed-placed fertilizer is another potential area for improvement. Some farmers who are placing a little too much fertilizer with the seeds still get good yields, Hartman said. But there’s a cost to killing seed in the ground, he said, and farmers could use that money elsewhere.

Orchard has seen 50 per cent of the seeds burned in one field. The farmer had accidentally shut off the seedplaced fertilizer for about 300 feet, and he had double the plants in that stretch, Orchard said.

Orchard advises farmers and agronomists to strike it off their list of potential problems before they start seeding. A seed-placed fertilizer problem is tough to diagnose after the fact.

“You can barely find the seed behind the drill, let alone three weeks later when everything’s gone,” he said. GN Lisa Guenther is field editor for Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Follow her on Twitter @LtoG.

photos: Lisa Guenther

With newer canola varieties, farmers can hit optimum yields with lower plant counts

Seed sizes matter when you’re seeding deep. Seed in Row 1 was three grams per 1,000 kernels. Row 2 was five grams, and Row 3 was 6.2 grams. The front half of the tub was seeded at 2.25 inches, and the back was seeded at half an inch.

Counting plants The key to knowing whether you need to boost or can cut your seeding rate is counting seedlings. The Canola Council of Canada suggests hitting the field 10 days after seeding if conditions are good. If it’s been a cool spring, give the crop 15 days.

Farmers and agronomists can use a hoop with an inside diameter of 56 cm, the Council states. Alternately, a 50 cm x 50 cm square will work. Both those options work out to 0.25 metres squared. After counting the plants within the hoop or square, multiply by four to figure out the plants per square metre.

A person can also use a metre stick to count the seedlings in a metre of row. Multiply that number by 100. Divide by the seed spacing (in cm) to figure out seedlings per square metre.

To convert plants per square metre to (approximate) plants per square foot, divide by 10.

Lisa Guenther

FEATURES

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

7

Crop management

Winter wheat stands: how thin is too thin?

Give you winter wheat crop time to fill in. Assess your stand in May

By Lisa McLean

I

f you’re used to growing spring wheat, your winter wheat stand in May might seem a little lacking.

That’s to be expected, says Paul Thoroughgood, an agronomist with the Western Winter Wheat Initiative.

“With winter wheat, growers need to be patient,” he says. “Winter wheat out-yields spring wheat by a sizeable amount most years, but you need to give it time to fill in the blanks.”

The crop had plenty of opportunity to acclimate for cold tolerance after ideal fall weather, with a gradual move in to winter. Thoroughgood notes as long as there’s no prolonged, nasty cold in March once the crop has deacclimated and snow cover has disappeared, there’s no reason to expect a significant amount of winter kill in most areas.

How thin is too thin?

What else can you do?

Fusarium too, needs to be on the Stripe rust has been on grower radar. Though winter wheat often radars of late, particularly in the escapes fusarium, Thoroughgood western Prairies. Thoroughgood notes there’s a lot of inoculum out says it’s been a learning experience there now. watching people learn to manage the “Timing fungicide applications disease. will be important to making sure we “Sometimes they use fungicide hit that window to control fusarium application, but many of the vari- in winter wheat,” he says. eties we’re growing today have He notes milling markets have resistance. They show infection in been depressed for winter wheat for the fall, but in the spring they the past couple years. In many T:7.875” don’t,” he says. instances domestic feed and etha-

nol plants have been paying a significant premium for low vomitoxin wheat, like winter wheat, which is a higher net price than CPS and CWRW milling prices. GN Lisa McLean is a communications freelancer specializing in agriculture.

Follow her on Twitter at @lisamclean.

For resources about growing winter wheat, visit www.growwinterwheat.ca

I will be a trailblazer by recognizing opportunity and embracing the future. I will meet challenges head-on, adapt and overcome. I will continually challenge the status quo and place my trust where it is deserved.

T:10”

Thoroughgood says May, about halfway through spring seeding, is the time to assess winter wheat fields. Is it uniform or patchy? Winter kill, when it happens, is rarely uniform across the field — it often strikes on hilltops or on lower areas where water ran and froze solid. If bare patches aren’t too large, there’s a chance the crop will fill in.

“A patchy stand is the hardest decision, but in most instances it pays to keep the crop there unless it is too large of an area that was winter killed,” says Thoroughgood. “But if there’s no active growing plants in the middle of May in an area the size of a city block, dead is dead.”

So when is replanting a patchy field the right thing to do? Thoroughgood says it comes down to calculating how much is missing. Spraying a crop out and reseeding later in the year may still result in a lower-yielding field.

That’s because winter wheat typically produces 15 to 40 per cent higher yields than its spring wheat counterpart. It has been one of the highest net income producers amongst cereals for the past four to five years But the potential for weeds on a dead patch may be the deciding factor.

“At some point the number of dead areas that are going to grow weeds becomes too high to tolerate economically or aesthetically, and then a grower needs to terminate the field,” says Thoroughgood.

While the optimum plant stand for winter wheat is 20 plants per square foot, but a stand of 10 to 15 plants can still produce a profitable crop.

you’ve got a questionable crop, if you spread fertilizer and then you end up terminating the crop, the nutrients will still be there for the crop you seed in its place.”

Once winter wheat gets past the five-leaf stage, it will have taken up most its nutrients.

“Growers waiting to apply nutrients may be disappointed with yield,” he says. “It’s a no-lose scenario of putting your nutrients on early, and it’s an all-lose scenario if you wait.”

Don’t wait to apply fertilizer Thoroughgood says a common mistake he sees in spring is when growers hold off on applying fertilizer. He notes some growers hold back when conditions are dry because dry spring weather is hard on winter wheat. But timing is everything, and the sooner the crop gets those nutrients, the better of it’ll be.

“It’s important growers are mindful of fulfilling the fertility requirements of the crop,” he says. “The reality is if

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crop advisor’s casebook

The secret of the swooping birds

By Charisse Garland

L

The plants looked healthy. The crop was completely headed out and around the milky stage, with no signs of disease or abnormal growth on the plants’ leaves, stems or heads. What was attracting the beetles?

ast July, Henry, a Saskatchewan farmer, watched as a throng of birds swooped in and out of his durum wheat field.

When he scouted the field, he also found some “black bugs,” which prompted him to give me a call.

“You need to look at my durum,” he said. “Birds are swooping, so there must be something in the crop they’re trying to eat.”

Henry farms 2,500 acres of canola, durum and peas southwest of Tompkins, Sask. It was mid-July when he invited me out to his operation to determine what was attracting so many birds to his durum crop.

From the road, the field looked normal. We couldn’t see any abnormal patches or growth. Still, an above-average number of birds were circling and swooping the crop.

Up close, the wheat plants looked healthy. The crop was completely headed out and around the milky stage, and we didn’t find signs of disease or abnormal growth on the plants’ leaves, stems or heads.

When we checked the crop for insects, we found some mosquitoes and dragonflies, but nothing out of the ordinary, except for a noticeable lady beetle and lady beetle larvae population. Lady beetles are

beneficial insects because they prey on other insects that feed on crops — often regulating these pest populations.

Likely, the lady beetle adult and larvae population were the reason birds were circling and swooping the field. But what was attracting the beetles?

I knew farmers in this area, including Henry, harvested hay earlier than average this year because of favourable moisture and growing conditions. That fact, in addition to the presence of the lady beetle population in the field, were two big clues to which pest was making a meal out of Henry’s durum wheat crop.

What’s the reason for the noticeable lady beetle population, which, in turn, is attracting birds to Henry’s durum wheat field? If you think you know, send your diagnosis to Grainews, Box 9800, Winnipeg, Man., R3C 3K7; email leeann @fbcpublishing.com or fax 204944-95416 c/o Crop Advisor’s Casebook. The best suggestions will be pooled and one winner will be drawn for a chance to win a Grainews cap and a one-year subscription to the magazine. The answer, along with reasoning that solved the mystery, will appear in the next Crop Advisor’s Solution File. GN Charisse Garland works for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. in Swift Current, Sask.

Charisse Garland works for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. in Swift Current, Sask.

Casebook winner Josefine Bartlett’s mysterious crop circles inspired a record number of entries to our Casebook contest!

Some answers weren’t too serious — these ranged from fairies to Fraggles (you’d have to be familiar with the kids’ TV show from the 1980s to laugh at that). Allan Liggins from Coquitlam, B.C., had the correct answer, fungi, but he took it one step further, and suggested that if these particular fungi happen to be edible or hallucinogenic, the mushrooms might be worth more than the canola!

We drew a winner from the correct submissions. That winner is Isaak Bergan from Sanford, Manitoba. Thanks for entering Isaak, and everyone else. Isaak, we’re sending you a Grainews cap and extending your subscription for a year.

You could be a winner next time. If you know the answer to this issue of Casebook, email me at Leeann@fbcpublishing.com.

Leeann Minogue

Crop advisor’s solution

Fusarium wilt and risk management

By Alan Mittelstadt Although the soil of an Alberta producer’s field was almost saturated when I visited his farm in early July of last year, I felt confident his pea plants were not drowning. However, I thought the excess moisture contributed to favourable disease conditions — a warm, moist environment and a susceptible host, but which pathogen were we dealing with?

Rick, who owns a farm west of Hussar, noticed his plants were turning brown and dying in patches, not just in low-lying areas, but randomly throughout the field, including slopes and hill tops. He noticed these symptoms shortly after he applied a broad-spectrum fungicide the last week of June.

In addition, when I examined the affected plants’ roots, I found they were rotting. The roots were yellowish-brown to medium brown in colour.

When I checked the roots of healthy-

looking plants, they, too, were brown and dying off. No nodules were found on any plant roots.

Although no phosphate fertilizer was used, 50 pounds of anhydrous ammonia (41 pounds of actual nitrogen) was applied prior to seeding, as adding nitrogen in the spring had been a routine practice on this farm for years. However, no soil tests were performed.

It may have been the lack of phosphate that contributed to the roots’ weakened state, as their ability to take up and use excess moisture would have been adversely affected.

Also, the addition of nitrogen could have impaired nodulation, causing this element to be deficient at that stage, and responsible for weaker roots, overall; thus, rendering the host susceptible to pathogens, but which one?

Fusarium root rot, which is caused by a variety of fusarium species, was eliminated because the roots were yellowish-

brown in colour and not the characteristic black-brown of Fusarium-infected plants. Other root rot pathogens, such as aphanomyces and rhizoctonia were also ruled out because telltale symptoms, such as pinched off roots in rhizoctoniainfected plants or the development of caramel-coloured roots in aphanomycesinfected plants, were missing.

In addition to root colour and random patch distribution in the field, two symptoms that allowed me to pinpoint the responsible pathogen included the yellowing of leaves from the plant’s base upwards and, upon scraping the root’s surface, the presence of orangered vascular tissue. Fusarium wilt, caused by fusarium oxysporum, was the disease responsible for the dying plant patches in Rick’s field.

That spring, Rick used a pea variety rated fair for fusarium wilt resistance, which he seeded on canola stubble.

Going forward, I recommended Rick avoid seeding peas on canola stubble,

as the pathogen has the potential to build up from the canola crop. It is best to grow peas on cereal stubble, while maintaining good control of broadleaf weeds and volunteers. At harvest, Rick’s yield was 10 to 15 bushels per acre due to the fusarium wilt infection.

I also advised Rick to continue using seed treatments with fungicides and insecticides, especially for protection against pea leaf weevil.

In addition, I recommended he apply phosphate fertilizer to his pea crops. Ideally, he should apply a blend of MicroEssentials SZ with Aspire (0-0-58-0.5B), as pulses are known to respond positively to zinc, and boron improves root growth in broadleaf crops. Bigger, stronger roots can handle the abiotic stresses of excess moisture and drought.

Using the correct source of fertilizer is important for nutrient stewardship, and is part of the 4Rs: right source, right rate, right time and right place.

In addition, field sampling and soil testing, to assess the soil’s fertility for an effective nutrient management plan, is beneficial.

Those test results would allow Rick and his crop advisor to choose the best fertilizer program for the crop, thus preventing situations such as the over-application of nitrogen to peas, which can impair nodulation and weaken roots.

Root rot pathogens, such as fusarium and aphanomyces, can be found working in combination with each other. This can make it difficult to distinguish which pathogens are affecting the crop. Soil can also be tested for the presence of pathogens, such as fusarium oxysporum, aphanomyces and rhizoctonia, making disease diagnosis and management easier and more effective. GN Alan Mittelstadt works for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. in Hussar, Alta.

FEATURES

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

9

Ask the Expert

How do I interpret my seed test?

Know what you’re looking for before you take your seed to the lab for spring testing

By Angela Lovell

F

ollowing a wet growing season that caused all kinds of disease issues across the Prairies, which reduced the quality of cereal seed in all three provinces, seed testing is coming to the forefront as seed growers and farmers want to find out what they can expect from their seed for the upcoming season.

“Although everyone has always known about seed testing, there’s more focus this year on what labs can actually do in terms of assessing seed quality,” says Sarah Foster, president and senior seed analyst at 20/20 Seed Labs which has labs in Manitoba and Alberta.

“We’ve all got huge amounts of data that goes back several years to support any kind of environmental conditions that we have because every year, it’s something different.”

Germination is Number 1 The most important test that a farmer, agronomist or seed grower can do is a germination test, says Foster, followed by seed vigour and then health. “I don’t think we have done as good a job as we could of educating people about which tests are needed to assess seed quality,” says Foster. “Farmers all expect to get the best out of their seed, and a lot of times if they buy a bag of seed with a blue tag on it they take it for granted that all the work has been done. Most times it has. But they still need to understand what goes on behind that blue tag.

“I would urge farmers to have a germination test done on their seed because it’s a huge value for very little money, and they can get the vigour, and fungal screen to test for disease, and a whole package of tests for around $260.”

A germination test determines the maximum germination potential of a seed sample. The seeds that germinate are normal seeds that have the root and shoot structures required to produce a viable plant.

But there are other things that producers should take note of in the germination test report.

the dormancy has broken with the cold period,” says Gelech.

Abnormal cereal seeds in a sample can be a result of a number of different factors such as frost damage, heating in the bin or seed-borne diseases. “The key thing is to find out the reason behind those abnormal seedlings,” says Gelech. “When germination is borderline, the analyst will put in the analyst comments section of the report,

the reason for the results. So if the analyst comment on the seed test report is primary infection observed, that’s a key indicator that there’s a seed-borne fungus in the germination test that is causing the abnormal seedlings.

Once you understand what is going on, informed decisions can then be made.”

Dead seeds are dead and unable to germinate at all.

Seed labs will also put the meth-

Test Seed Any Time

test seed right off the combine,” he says. “This year I would recommend anyone testing seed does it early. Don’t wait until April to get it in this year because if they need to buy fresh seed some varieties are going to sell out fast and are not going to be available.” GN

One popular myth is that seed must be frozen before it can be tested, but that’s simply not true says Bruce Carriere, president of Discovery Seed Labs in Saskatoon. “You can

Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist living and working in Manitoba. Find her online at www.angelalovell.ca.

ods and procedures they’ve used on the report — for example the temperature at which the germination test was conducted — which gives an indication of the growing conditions the seed will respond to.

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Understand Classifications “If growers understand the significance of the different classifications on their test report, they will also understand what that opportunity for that crop is,” says Holly Gelech, vice-president of sales, marketing and client services at BioVision Seed Labs.

If cereal seed tested in the fall shows a high amount of fresh seeds, those seeds are considered dormant, and there is a probability that those seeds, through the winter period, will complete their maturation process. “I would advise anyone who has a high fresh count to retest the seed in February to see if

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Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

Seed quality

Poor quality cereal seed on deck for 2017 Cereal quality is down across the Prairies, but pulse and soybean seed looks good for 2017

By Angela Lovell

F

armers across the Prairies will remember 2016 as the year when they had frequent, above-average moisture right through the growing season, delaying both seeding and harvest in many cases.

All that moisture means there will be some poor quality cereal seed around for the 2017 season, although the quality of pulses like peas and fava beans are good, as are soybeans.

Cereal quality Manitoba wheat seed samples tested last fall from the 2016 crop have an average germination of around 86 per cent, compared to the usual average of 92 to 95. Some samples have tested as low as the 70s and low 80s. Germination in barley samples is similar, averaging around 87 to 88 per cent compared to 93 per cent in a normal year.

In Alberta it’s much the same story, with wheat samples showing an average germination of around 87 per cent.

In Saskatchewan six to seven per cent of wheat samples tested are usually below 75 per cent germination, but this year that number is more like 45 to 50 per cent.

The situation is far worse with durum wheat seed in the province. “This is probably the ugliest durum crop we’ve seen in 25 years,” says Bruce Carriere, president of Discovery Seed Labs in Saskatoon. “The average germination on durum wheat samples this year is 65 to 67 per cent. In a normal year we see about seven to eight per cent of durum samples under 85 per cent, and this year it’s 70 per cent that are below that number. Only two per cent are above 95 per cent, the usual germination average.”

Barley seed in Saskatchewan is doing quite well in terms of germination, adds Carriere, but fall-

ing numbers on many samples are low, which indicates the seed may not remain stable. Carriere suggests growers test barley samples again in March to ensure that the germination hasn’t declined.

Durum wheat seed may be a lot harder to find Pulses and Soybeans As soybean acres continue to climb in Manitoba, average germination of samples has also been increasing from 82 per cent in 2012 to just over 94 per cent for 2016 samples, said Holly Gelech, president of sales, marketing and client services at BioVision Seed Labs Labs in her presentation about seed quality to the Manitoba Agronomists Conference in Winnipeg in December.

The wet conditions at harvest that are bad for cereals favour soybeans and other pulse crops like peas and faba beans. Soybean are dicotyledons, so they have two seed embryos that hold the reserves needed for germination. If conditions are hot and dry during harvest — as they were the previous two years — the seeds are subject to mechanical damage, which causes abnormal seedlings and reduces germination. In 2016, with rainfall at harvest, soybean crops generally came off with higher moisture content and suffered less mechanical damage, resulting in higher germination potential.

Although not yet as big a crop in Saskatchewan as in Manitoba, soybean seed samples in that province also had good germination levels this year and few disease issues.

Pea seed samples in all three provinces are showing some of the highest germinations in five years, again largely thanks to the moisture at harvest, which prevented

mechanical damage. In Saskatchewan, pea samples are showing a higher than normal incidence of ascochyta fungus, which growers can help to suppress with a seed treatment.

Lentils are a huge crop in Saskatchewan, and seed quality is a mixed bad depending on region.

Some areas, for example around Kindersley and Rosetown, produced no seed at all. South-central areas have lots of seed, with high germination and low disease pressure. “Lentils need to have some heat stress around late June to early July in order to set seed, and some areas had so much moisture there was no stress, which isn’t normal,” says Carriere. “There will be some good lentil seed around this year but farmers may have to drive to find it.”

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Dormancy and Seed Stability in Question Labs across the Prairies are also reporting issues with dormancy in cereal crop seed this year. “We’ve had this issue once before in 2007, when the germination was testing really well but the vigour was very poor,” says Foster. “Average germination in wheat this year has been between 85 and 90 per cent, which barely makes the minimum, and tells you that there’s an issue as a result of either immature seed, dormancy, heating or frost, and we’ve had all of them. But when we do a vigour test, even though the germination is hovering around 85 per cent, the vigour is only 60 per cent or less. A textbook case is 90

per cent germination and 80 per In fall samples with low vigour cent vigour — you never want more that Foster’s lab has retested for than a 10 per cent spread. When clients, germination has fallen by the vigour is this low it means that 50 per cent. Most seed labs are the germination is definitely going recommending that farmers and to drop over the next few months.” seed growers retest for germinaThe problem is a product of tion in the spring or even earlier, environmental conditions rather and don’t leave it too late to make than genetics, adds Foster. There sure their seed has made it are two types of dormancy. One is through the winter and is still a result of immature seed that viable. was harvested too soon, and in “If they haven’t re-tested it that situation adding a growth already, they should because they stimulant breaks the seed dor- need to be sourcing new seed if mancy. The second type of dor- the quality has declined,” says mancy is a result of too much Foster. “They can’t increase their moisture, so the seed hasn’t dried seeding rates enough to overcome down. It won’t rot, but just the poor germination because the remains dormant, reducing its quality just isn’t there. The seed T:7.875” potential to germinate. doesn’t have the components

that are necessary for germination to take place.”

Thousand-kernel weight (TKW) is another important test that growers may want to get along with the germination re-test. “Seed size is so important,” says Gelech. “Canola bags come with a TKW already on the package, and kernel count is also very important for soybean due to size variability. In cereals, there is definitely a move towards adding TKW testing to the analysis as customers are targeting specific plants per metre when seeding.” GN Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist living and working in Manitoba. Find her online at www.angelalovell.ca.

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which has labs in Manitoba and Alberta, says 95 per cent of the samples coming in from Manitoba are testing positive for fusarium graminearum, as are 73 per cent of Saskatchewan samples, and 24 per cent of Alberta samples. “It’s the highest it’s been since 2014,” says Foster.

“Part of the reason is that we got both early infection and late infection with Fusarium because of the environmental conditions. We’ve also seen a higher incidence of root rot in barley.”

Fusarium graminearum infection in Manitoba wheat samples tested so far in their lab, says Gelech, have infections averaging 18.5 per cent compared to three per cent in normal years. “We even analyzed one oat sample that was infected at 34.5 per cent. It is a bad year for seed-borne pathogens in Manitoba,” says Gelech.

Disease also plagued Saskatchewan’s durum crop last year, mainly fusarium, not necessarily fusarium graminearum, but other fusarium species that infected the crop in the fall, when wet conditions continued to be a problem.

Issues other than disease are also causing some seed quality issues, but they are all a result of environmental conditions during the harvest season. “In barley, particularly, we saw some presprouting,” says Gelech. “Once the seeds start to sprout, they’re not going to germinate again so we have low germinations in some barley, although not all.”

Gelech says their Manitoba lab is also seeing some frost-damaged seeds from northern areas of the province, as well as some chemical damage from pre-harvest herbicide applications. Chemically damaged seeds may sprout, but seedlings have abnormal and insufficient root development.

On the whole, says Carriere, any Saskatchewan seed crops that came off before the first rainfall in early August are good quality, but anything after that date declines rapidly in quality and value because of seed-borne pathogens like fusarium. Although there should be enough wheat seed to go around for the season ahead, he predicts any wheat varieties that offer some fusarium resistance will sell out quickly.

But durum wheat seed may be a lot harder to find. “This is the second year in a row we have had such terrible durum problems and although seed growers carried seed over for one or two years, most of that is gone already,” he says. “There are going to be a lot lower durum acres in Saskatchewan for sure this year.”

There will likely be more farmers using seed treatments this year due to the high incidence of seed-borne pathogens in seed lots. Carriere says seed treatments have been growing more popular every year and he thinks that may be the reason why fusarium graminearum wasn’t as big an issue in Saskatchewan cereal crops as other fusarium species last season. “This is probably the first year we saw the average levels of fusarium by crop district a little bit lower than usual and I think a lot of that has to do with seed treatments,” he said.

11

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12

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

Grain storage

Safer grain storage with automation?

PAMI tests a new Australian system that controls fans based on outside weather The air’s capacity

By Leeann Minogue

W

ith more large bins on the farm, safe grain storage has become more important. And keeping grain from heating or spoiling is more complicated than it would seem.

“The chance of spoilage really depends on two things. It’s both temperature and moisture,” said Lorne Grieger, the Prairie Agriculture Machinery Institute (PAMI) vice president for Manitoba operations at CropConnect in Winnipeg in February.

When you’re pushing air through the grain in the bin, the greater the difference between the air outside and the grain in the bin, “the greater the effect on the grain, the greater the moisture removal.”

If you’re bringing in grain at a high temperature or a high moisture level, storage will be risky. “For safe storage conditions, 15 C is kind of that temperature that you want to shoot for, for either your cereals or your oilseeds.”

Greiger described safe storage as a two-step process. The first step is to even out the temperature in the bin.

Aeration, Grieger says, “is essentially cooling.”

The recommended airflow rate to remove temperature variation is 0.1 to 0.2 cubic feet per minute per bushel (cfm/bu.). “At the recommended air flow rate, it takes about eight days to get the bin to equalize.”

That is, about 200 hours of drying.

The next step is removing the moisture in the bin, through natural air drying, or near ambient drying.

For this, the recommended airflow rate is 1.2 cfm/bu., or 10 times higher than aeration.

“It’s a pretty complex relationship, but really, if the air has the capacity, it will dry as it’s going through the bin.”

At 1.0 cfm/bu., it will take seven to 14 days of continual fan operation to dry wheat from 16.5 to 14.5 per cent. “Again, it depends on ambient conditions.”

Grieger’s general recommendation: “is typically, to run your fans continuously.”

AIR’S CAPACITY TO HOLD MOISTURE

The effectiveness of aeration depends on the air’s ability to take up water. As shown in the chart, if it’s 30 C outside, with a relative humidity of 50 per cent, “the air actually has 15 grams of water in it, so it can take up another 15 g.” If your grain is tough, Greiger says, “that can really be beneficial.”

However, if the outside temperature starts to drop, the air’s capacity to hold water decreases. “That’s where the benefit of having a higher air temperature can come in.”

The equilibrium moisture content is the moisture level where your grain will stabilize, given the outside temperature and relative humidity. For example, from the chart, if the outside temperature is 15 C, with a relative humidity of 65 per cent, “if you can blow that air throughout your bin,” your grain will stabilize at 14.5 per cent moisture. If the temperature and relative humidity stayed constant, your grain would remain at 14.5 per cent moisture, whether it went in the bin with a higher or lower moisture content.

The challenge, of course, is that the temperature and relative humidity change throughout the day.

“There’s really four scenarios that we’re looking at,” Greiger said.

If you have warm air and warm grain, “that’s going to be a drying scenario.” The air can suck up a lot of moisture. “The dryer the air the better, really.”

If you have warm air and cool grain, the grain will re-wet. Some of the water that was in the air will be released into the grain.

Cooling air and warm grain “is really good for short-term drying, until the grain cools down.”

If both the air and your grain are cool, “you might get some drying out of that, but really, the difference is so small at that point, that it’s a very slow process.”

A novel fan system With larger bin sizes, farmers have a lot more at stake. So, Greiger said, PAMI continues to test new methods of storing grain.

In 2016, PAMI tested a novel fan control system, Aeration Master, developed by Aeration Control Aus-

Temperature

Water holding capacity

Relative humidy

Actual water in air

Capacity of air to take up water

30 C

30g

50%

15g

15g

20 C

2g

65%

13g

7g

10 C

8g

75%

6g

2g

Total

25,717

24,251

23,698

25,213

Source: Lorne Greiger, PAMI

TEMPERATURE Air Temperature

Grain temperature

Warm

Cold

Warm

Drying

Quick drying, until grain cools

Cold

Wetting, until the grain warms up

Some drying, moisture transfer

tralia. The Aeration Master (AM) uses the basic concepts of air temperature and relative humidity and applies them to what’s inside the bin, turning aeration fans on and off automatically, depending on outside temperature and relative humidity. “It’s a touch-based system that can control up to eight different bins at one time.”

PAMI ran a study to compare the AM fan control system with running fans continuously. They installed the system in Manitoba, east of Selkirk.

For this research, PAMI installed the AM system on one bin, and used another bin as a “control,” running fans continuously. Both bins were 6,500 bushel flat-bottom bins with fully perforated floors and 7.5 hp fans.

The Australian AM system comes with its own weather station to measure outside conditions. For information about the grain inside, the AM system relies on user input — you input how much grain you’ve put in the bin, the temperature, the moisture content, the airflow rate inside the bin and your target grain moisture level. This system does not use cables to measure conditions inside the bin.

The grain in PAMI’s 2016 study went in the bins at 14 per cent moisture, and PAMI wanted to cool the grain from 23 to 17 C. The study began on August 30, 2016. During the study, Greiger said, “we saw the temperature range from

9 to 28 C.” There was also a high variation in relative humidity over the study period, as the long weekend brought a two-day rain with almost 100 per cent humidity.

With high outside temperatures, it took quite a while to bring the grain down to 17 C. During the 28-day study, the AM system turned the fan off and on eight times, running the fans a total of 28 hours. The continuous-fan system was turned off during the twoday rain, but otherwise ran for 124 hours during the same period.

Over the month, the AM system dropped the temperature to 19 or 20 C, but no lower. However, “because the fan was controlled,” the temperature of the AM-controlled bin was much more stable during the test period. The AM system also kept the moisture content in the bin more stable.

The lack of sensor cables means few things can go wrong with the AM system. However, because it runs on predictions based on outside air temperature, it does give users the feeling that they’re dealing with a “black box” — not knowing what’s going on inside that bin could be stressful. “You don’t have that feedback to know what’s going on with your grain,” Greiger said.

The AM system also requires more initial management. Users need to

Summer canola storage This is the time of year when farmers start to have questions about summer canola storage, said Lorne Greiger, PAMI’s VP of Manitoba operations at CropConnect 2017.

Farmers wonder if they should leave it alone, turn on their fans, or turn the canola. PAMI tested all three of these options in trials in Saskatchewan in 2014 and 2016.

The canola going in to the bin was dry in both tests.

In both of these two trials, Greiger said, they found that “both the turned and aerated bins had some unstable conditions that could have resulted in spoilage.”

Temperatures were more stable in the bins they left alone.

When bins are aerated, a warm front moves through. When bins are turned, as warm grain from the top funnels into the center, there is a warm core left adjacent to the cool grain.

Given the information drawn from these two bins, under these particular trial conditions, PAMI’s best advice is: “leave it alone.”

Leeann Minogue

input the grain moisture and temperature when you put it in the bin. If the system has the bad information, it won’t run the fans correctly.

Over the study period, the AM system ran a lot fewer hours, which would mean lower operating costs.

It also kept the grain at a more constant moisture and temperature.

“This is one test under one set of conditions,” Greiger cautioned.

PAMI will be looking at the AM system further, and adding heat to the system. GN Leeann Minogue is the editor of Grainews.

For more information about the Australian Aeration Manager system, visit aerationcontrol.com.

EQUILIBRIUM MOISTURE CONTENT FOR WHEAT Relative Humidity

C

35

40

-2

11.5

12.2

2

11.1

11.9

5

10.9

11.7

8

10.7

10

50

55

60

65

70

13.0

13.7

12.6

13.4

14.5

15.3

16.0

16.9

14.1

14.9

15.6

16.4

12.4

13.1

13.8

14.6

15.3

16.1

11.5

12.2

12.9

13.6

14.3

15.1

10.6

11.3

12.0

12.7

13.4

14.2

13

10.4

11.1

11.8

12.5

13.2

15

10.3

11.0

11.7

18

10.1

10.8

11.5

12.4 12.2

22

9.9

10.6

11.3

11.9

26

9.7

10.4

11.1

28

9.6

10.3

11.0

Source: PAMI. Find charts for other crops online at Pami.ca.

45

75

80

85

17.7

18.7

19.8

17.3

18.2

19.3

17.0

17.9

19.0

15.8

16.7

17.6

18.7

14.9

15.7

16.5

17.4

18.5

13.9

14.6

15.4

16.2

17.1

18.2

13.1

13.8

14.5

15.2

16.1

17.0

18.0

12.9

13.6

14.3

15.0

15.8

16.7

17.7

12.6

13.3

14.0

14.7

15.5

16.4

17.4

11.7

12.4

13.0

13.7

14.4

15.2

16.1

17.1

11.6

12.3

12.9

13.6

14.3

15.1

15.9

16.9

FEATURES

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

13

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Leeann Minogue

W

hile sudden death syndrome in soybeans hasn’t yet been a scourge on the Prairies, it has spread across Ontario and it could be on its way to a soybean field near you.

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FEATURES

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

Precision farming

SO MUCH MORE THAN JUST A RAIN GAUGE

Farmers Edge weather info service connects the dots of precision farming data

By Lee Hart

I

f you thought GPS and auto steer was a step forward in farming, check out the precision farming package Farmer’s Edge is launching this spring in Western Canada based around its on-farm, “field-centric,” precision weather data system.

The weather station is just part of an overall integrated data collection package called Smart Solution.

Weather information combined with crop production information (seeding and fertility rates for example) and satellite imagery of your growing crops produces a unique management tool.

With these on-farm weather stations, feeding information into computer models — predictive modelling programs — a farmer in theory can go fishing for a few days and receive an alert on his cell phone that says they need to have a look at the south-half of field No. 9 because it is at risk of a wheat midge outbreak.

Or, you might receive an alert — weather and crop conditions are favourable, be prepared to be spraying for sclerotina or treat for some other crop disease.

Or in a different scenario there was a major weather event (downpour) over another quarter section of crop, and the alert advises that field could use another 40 pounds of nitrogen to maintain yield.

In still yet another real life example, Farmer’s Edge had one customer with a large canola acreage hit by a spring frost. The precision weather data service told him some of those acres were hit by -4 C temperatures on consecutive nights. He knew those acres needed to be re-seeded. He called crop insurance, they said they would be out to look, but it might take a week. The farmer couldn’t wait, he reseeded the affected acres. When the crop adjuster did arrive, the farmer showed him the weather data and the adjuster agreed, “I can’t argue with that,” so the re-seeding was covered by insurance.

MORE THAN JUST WEATHER The on-farm weather stations aren’t just collecting weather information, they can also provide more

accurate weather forecasting services as well as contribute to recommended prescriptions for agronomic attention to the crop.

The weather stations tie into the bigger data collection system on the farm, says Wade Barnes, CEO of Farmer’s Edge. With the whole package, the precision weather data, becomes the key to having a better handle on how your crops are performing today and providing advice on whether some type of action is needed.

Farmers Edge rolled out its fieldcentric (field or farm based) weather service at a farm show in San Antonio, Texas earlier this winter. That launch was specifically tailored to supply service to farmers in the U.S. Corn Belt who start planting ahead of Canada. The company will be launching a pilot system tailored for cereals and canola in Western Canada this spring. The remaining pulse and oilseed crops will be added later.

“To my knowledge no one else on the planet has this type of ag data collection system in the field with this level of accuracy,” says Barnes.

“Some producers have said “I don’t need all this data,” but anyone who has given it a try has quickly decided they don’t want to farm without it.”

The weather stations are just one part of the Smart Solution package, which Barnes says is being offered initially at a cost of $2 per acre. Farmers signing up for Smart Solutions receive an installed and operational weather station for each 2,500 acres they are farming. Each station collects expected information such as temperature, precipitation, humidity, and wind speed. The weather service also provides a weather forecasting service provided by the highly regarded technology giant IBM. Along with weather, the Smart Solution package also includes data collection from all field equipment called CanPlug. CanPlug, which can connect with the on-board computer system in all field equipment — tractors, seeding systems, field sprayers, and combines — collects all the data from these operations.

That includes seeding dates, seeding rates, fertilizer application rates, herbicide and fungicide application rates, by field and by soil zones in

Smart Solutions collects all the data on seeding operations, for example — what and when it was seeded, fertility, in-crop treatments all by field and by soil zone.

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each field. Along with the crop input information, CanPlug is also monitoring the real-time movement and efficiency of each piece of field equipment — you can see how many hours they ran and how much fuel it consumed per acre, for example.

Along with all that agronomic information Smart Solutions also includes satellite imagery of your cropped acres during the growing season — infrared imagery as well as vegetative imagery called NDVI. This eye-in-the-sky can reveal a wide range of information of how your crop is performing in the field.

This on-farm Farmers Edge weather station is an important link in making use of all the data available in an era of precision farming technology.

IT ALL LINKS TOGETHER So put it all together. Smart Solutions collects all the data on seeding operations, for example — what and when it was seeded, fertility, in-crop treatments all by field and by soil zone.

You’ve got current weather information for your farm, as well as an accurate weather forecasting service, and you’ve got satellite imagery revealing often subtle changes in plant performance in a field. Smart Solutions feeds all that data into a predictive computer modelling program for that crop, be it wheat, or canola or peas or lentils and overall the computer model can assess how your crop is doing, identify any particular risks, and alert the farmer to any particular actions that need to be taken.

Farmers tie into all this information through a software program called FarmCommand, which is accessible from your desktop, laptop or mobile device. FarmCommand provides access to a wide range of information including real-time fleet management — you can see what piece of equipment is working, where it is working, how fast it working and more. It also provides access to the field-centric weather information, satellite imagery, and harvest information.

15

FarmCommand can be tailored to provide a number of different alerts that come through to your computer or smart phone.

“In theory you can be a thousand miles away and receive an alert that some action might need to be taken on some part of your crop,” says Barnes. “The producer can attend to it, or he can alert his crop consultant or agronomist — they are alerted to the fact that based on all this information some part of your crop is at risk, or conditions have changed which need to be looked at on the ground.”

The weather stations are collecting information from roughly a 10 to 12 mile radius — information most relevant to your farm — rather than some other services that might be 100 miles or more away.

Farmers Edge Smart Solutions data collection and analysis service compliments the company’s original Smart VR Solution — its variable rate technology services.

The Smart VR Solutions includes extensive soil sampling of your farm, developing zone maps according to soil types, and then developing variable rate prescriptions for different crop inputs based on the production capability of each zone. Smart VR Solution service costs $3 per acre.

“For about $5 per acre ($2 for Smart Solution and $3 for Smart VR) we feel we are offering the most comprehensive precision farming packages to Western Canadian farmers,” says Barnes. “This is the digital information age and by using the data that is available it allows farmers to make better precision farming decisions for their farm.” GN Lee Hart is a field editor with Grainews based in Calgary. Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com.

Herbicide-resistant weeds

Farmers talk about weed problems

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he Weed Science Society of America, along with the United Soybean Board and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, held a series of meetings to give U.S. farmers a chance to talk about their experiences with herbicide-resistant weeds. “We decided it was time to focus on the needs and concerns of those making or influencing weed management decisions, rather than rehearing what weed scientists think,” said WSSA spokesperson Michael Barrett in a press release.

The farmers who attended these meetings raised several concerns. One major concern was the cost of implementing herbicide resistance prevention practices before there is a weed resistance problem — growers are reluctant to bear the costs of prevention before it is necessary, especially when commodity prices are low.

Farmers said that individuals can’t solve this problem, but as the WSSA press release said, “there is not a clear idea on how to work together.”

Those farmers at the meetings were wary of the idea of implementing regulations to control herbicide-resistant weeds, but “there is some is some acceptance that some regulations may be needed to get everyone playing by the same rules.”

Zero-tolerance policies, participants said, “should apply to everyone, including landowners, native seed producers and departments of transportation responsible for highway medians and rights of way.”

Many farmers at the meetings said they are hoping that new chemicals will be developed that will control herbicide-resistant weeds. GN Leeann Minogue

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Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

Hart Attacks

The wacky world of decision-making When there is too much information, there must be an app for that

By Lee Hart

photo: University of Alberta

H

ere’s one “flypaper” email list you want to avoid — the Conservative Party of Canada.

I made the mistake back in Stephen Harper’s days as prime minister — it might have even been during his first term — but I sent a donation to the Conservative Party. The pitch was if I sent even a minimum amount I could claim a tax refund. So I did and since then they have never left me alone. I don’t think I have even ever voted Conservative since. But they had my contact information and obviously shared it around.

In the past year I couldn’t count how many phone calls and now emails I get on a daily basis all looking for support for the party in general or donations for one of the 287 people running for leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada. I exaggerate, it is only 14 running but even that is too many. (Each candidate can spend up to $5 million on their leadership campaign. So far they have all done it without my help. I’m afraid if I send someone a dollar they will want to move in with me.)

But with that number in the race for the PC top job, I am throwing my support behind the federal NDP party. So far they only have four people running for leadership of that party. If it creeps up to more than

Former Prime Minister Kim Campbell at the University of Alberta.

six, then I am throwing my support to the Green Party of Canada.

I don’t know which of the Conservative Party leadership hopefuls I would support. First of all 14 is too many people to be in the running for anything, unless it is the Miss America Pageant. It simplifies it to some extent that half of the people running I have never heard of, so I can discount those.

And for the other half, putting their names on a board and throwing a dart to see which name it hits might be as good a decision making tool as any.

Maxine Bernier sent me the first email of all candidates with his first statement saying he wants to dismantle supply management in Canada’s dairy and poultry industry. A brave move by a Quebecer. And I like Kevin O’Leary because he too agrees that 14

is too many to be on the leadership ballot. I don’t know if he would be a great party leader or prime minister but he would shake things up a bit.

One candidate in an email this week asked me, “Are you a real Conservative?” and quite frankly, the answer is no. I don’t have any definable political leaning. I usually wait until general election time and then decide based on which candidate I like the most — who strikes me as being a fairly honest and trustworthy person and who has good hair?

Truth is I usually get frustrated with who ever is in power at the moment and then after they are out of office I learn to like them more. Right now if I had to pick a Conservative leader I would go with Kim Campbell. She is Canada’s first and only female prime

minister. She was only prime minister for about four months in mid 1993, so I think she deserves another shot. I see her on the news from time to time and she seems like a plain speaker. She’s a sturdy gal who could probably put young Mr. Trudeau over her knee and give him a good spanking when he needed it.

With 14 people in the running the Conservative Party needs an app to help me decide who’s on first.

ABOUT MAKING DECISIONS While the Conservatives wear me down with emails trying to help me decide on a leader (even though I am not even a party member), I continue to be impressed with how technology is working to help farmers make decisions.

Elsewhere in this issue is a story about how the Manitoba-based ag consulting company Farmers Edge has developed computerized predictive forecast models (not the ones used in the last U.S. election, but better ones) to help farmers decide if some action is needed in their crop.

Farmers Edge started out in the variable rate technology business.

Let’s map out a field by zone based on variation of soil types and fertilize at different rates accordingly.

That was pretty progressive.

But now they have ratcheted up the precision farming business to a whole new level. In real simple terms, they take weather information, soil

type, seeding date, fertility rates, tractor and field sprayer operating information and overlay all that with satellite vegetative imagery (which can tell you what you ate for breakfast just by looking at your skin tone) and come up with a prescription that says this quarter is a little low on nitrogen, or that half section is prime for disease and so on.

There was a time when a person might read Grainews and be amazed by someone who rigged up three old push-type lawnmowers to the side of a riding mower and got that quarter-acre of lawn in front of the house mowed in 15 minutes.

Now we are talking about onfarm weather stations hooked into IBM’s world wide weather forecasting systems, monitors connected to every piece of field equipment, all viewed by a satellite 400 miles above the earth, taking pictures as it travels past at a speed of 16,000 miles per hour that can tell you whether a three millimetre long wheat midge is about to attack your crop.

I wonder if they can modify this system so the next time I am rushing to get out the door it could at least narrow it down to the room where I might find my glasses, which I just saw five minutes ago. GN Lee Hart is a field editor with Grainews based in Calgary.

Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com.

Reporter’s Notebook

Leaving your livestock to a farm-sitter

By Lisa Guenther

H

ow do cattle producers manage to leave for winter holidays if they aren’t working with extended family?

It’s a conundrum producers have likely faced since they first domesticated cattlebeasts. Several years ago, while I was still living in Edmonton, I remember hearing about a guy, Frank Campbell, who was setting up a farm-sitting service. Basically his website, called AgriConnect, was like a match-making service for producers and farm-sitters. I poked around on the Internet, and couldn’t find any sign of life for AgriConnect in the last few years. If anyone has recent information they’d like to share, I’d be interested in hearing what happened.

I think finding the right person to farmsit is tough, especially if you have livestock to feed. It’s not necessarily the regular chores —mthere are ways to make those easier. It’s finding someone able and willing to trouble-shooting problems.

I’ve dealt with yearlings escaping, sick/ injured animals, frozen water troughs (the same one freezes every time), the furnace not working, and probably some other stuff I’m forgetting.

I think the most memorable wreck was the old jet pump failing while I was farmsitting. Keeping it primed and running was about as stressful as you might imagine, considering it supplies water to the house and all the livestock.

To-do list before you hit the beach If you have someone who’s not involved in the day-to-day livestock operation coming in, you need to know that anything that could go wrong probably will while you’re gone.

Make sure your cow-sitter knows where all the medication and other animal first aid stuff is located. Replace any expired medication and stock up on clean syringes and needles, if need be. If any animals were looking a little off before you left, let the cow-sitter know to keep an eye out for them. You might want to give them an idea of when to call in a knowledgeable neighbour or the vet.

Chances are high that some piece of equipment or gate that seemed perfectly fine will fall apart after you leave. It’s also a given that anything that seemed a little worn out will also fail while you’re gone.

You can’t predict every disaster, but you can beef up the weak points in any system.

I have (purposefully) never really learned how to run the tractor, which makes me a mediocre cow-sitter. But if it’s set up in advance, bale-grazing works perfectly. I call the cows, lead them to the next paddock, and open the gate. They are quite happy to follow along most of the time.

Not always, though. For some reason, they ignored me today, so I sent the dog to round them up. Usually he gets the job done, but today he kept herding them the wrong way. The cows were across the coulee and in the bush, so I didn’t realize what was happening at first (and maybe this was why the dog was confused).

Of course, I was also dealing with a frozen watering tub today, and behind on deadlines.

It’s always vital to have people to call in case of a cowpocalypse. If it weren’t for good neighbours (and sometimes my husband), me and the cows probably wouldn’t have survived the parental vacations. So make sure your farm-sitter knows who to call for help, and that the neighbours know you’re away. GN Lisa Guenther is field editor for Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Follow her on Twitter @LtoG.

photo: Lisa Guenther

Before you get on the plane, you're going to have to find someone to feed and watch those cows

This horse cut himself somehow in the pasture during a blizzard. That mess on his leg is snow and frozen blood. I thought I might have to bandage and wrap it. However, the wound was barely visible — it’s under the dot of ice in the second picture. He wasn’t lame, I couldn’t find any foreign material in the wound, and the leg didn’t swell, so I left it alone.

This is just one example of the things that only seem to happen when I’m farm-sitting.

columns

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

17

New markets

Mustard T is on the menu

Lisa Guenther

here are many ways to use mustard. Smear it on rink burgers and hot dogs. Grind it. Use it in flour.

Add it to tuna casserole.

“We took it one step further when we looked at mustard components,” says Carol Ann Patterson.

“Protein, the oil, the bran itself or

the dietary fibre and fibre. Where it could go and what research had been done on those particular components moving forward.”

Patterson is the owner of The Pathfinders Research and Management.

Sask Mustard contracted her to review the existing science on mustard components and identify research gaps.

The end goal is to find new markets for mustard components.

T:9.875”

“Definitely there’s opportunity, but it’s a road to an opportunity,” Patterson told media after her presentation at the Sask Mustard annual general meeting. To get the product to market, farmers, industry, and researchers will have to work together, she added.

Patterson identified a few potential opportunities for mustard. One was bio-actives, which are “chemicals that have some antimicrobial activity.”

These antimicrobials might be used in processed food such as fermented sausage, dry cured ham, or meat patties to control pathogens.

Using mustard protein in the food ingredient market, or using mustard bran as dietary fibre are other potential opportunities Patterson has identified. GN Lisa Guenther

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Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

Guarding Wealth

When will the stock market bubble pop?

Stock markets are soaring in spite of increasing risks. If this is a bubble, will it last?

By Andrew Allentuck

W

hen is a bubble a bubble?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a bubble as “a significant, usually rapid, increase in asset prices that is soon followed by a collapse in prices… typically arises from speculation or enthusiasm rather than intrinsic increases in value.”

The question is vital right now, for one of the best guides to the value of shares traded in the United States, the Case Shiller Cyclically Adjusted Price Earnings ratio, CAPE for short, which smooths the ratio of share prices to their earnings, is now at 29.3 as reported by GuruFocus Stock Research. That is 75.4 per cent higher than the historical mean of 16.7. Leaving out the smoothing effect of cyclical adjustment and using the present p/e for the S&P 500, which is 26, the market is still floating where the air is rare and the fall to earth will be long and steep.

The Case Shiller p/e is a meaningful ratio. When it is very low, as it was in the first quarter of 2009 at 13.3 when the market had crashed more than 50 per cent from its 2007

peak, it was a good time to buy. Now, with the CAPE more than twice as high, it is arguably a good time to sell. Clearly, the market has a different view, for stocks are rising as I write this story.

Bubbles are psychological indicators of investor mood. They show enthusiasm, not value of underlying assets. For example, the present Toronto real estate market has surged more than 20 per cent in the last year, the fastest pace in the last 30 years. This is good for existing owners who can use their inflated house prices to sell, then move up to fancier digs with even bigger mortgages. The property bubble is a benefit to real estate agents as well.

Price and intrinsic value get separated when bubbles expand. The fall to earth is even more dramatic than the inflation of the bubbles. In midOctober, 1987, major indexes of market value in the U.S. fell more than 30 per cent. That led down of all world major market. By October 19, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 23.6 per cent, Hong Kong’s Index was down 45.8 per cent, the worst show on the planet.

Many villains were identified including computer trading, then a

novel concept that later led to day trading by amateurs, use of derivatives — also a factor in the 2008 disaster, lack of bids for stock offered — a sure sign of fear, trade deficits and sheer overvaluation.

The essential question we have to ask now is whether the present valuation of the market — and it does not matter if you look at Toronto or New York or Hong Kong, Paris or London — reflects reasonable expectation of good business or it is just investor enthusiasm with cash taken out of bonds that are now falling in price. Note that that the total value of bonds is many times larger than that of stock, though no one knows how much larger given that most bonds issued seldom or sometimes never trade and that there is no central price board as there is for stocks on the TSX or the NASDAQ.

Building a bubble There are many tales of past bubbles that show, in retrospect, how foolish investors can be. The most famous is the Dutch tulip bubble that popped in 1637, ruining many investors late to the game who sold their homes to buy tulip bulbs.

They ignored the supply side of the

equation. Tulips can make more of themselves, after all. The South Seas Bubble of 1720 was a collection of wacky schemes to import walnut trees to England from Virginia, to improve fishing off the coast of Greenland by unspecified means, and “a company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.”

Think back to Alberta blind pools a few decades ago in investors tossed money into pools with no knowledge of how it would be used.

Think of the Dot Com bubble from 1998 to 2000 when anything with a dot in the name flew and you realize that history has no monopoly on hope in excess of reality.

Back in 1998, a company that wanted to publish classified ads online with a bit of editorial content in fields like “used laboratory glassware,” VerticalNet.com, saw its stock value rise to 800 times estimated earnings per share. Some companies with no earnings, no e in the p/e equation, were high fliers.

Sense went out the window because buyers did not know what they were buying. Bank stocks, old hat, fell as the newfangled stocks soared. We know the rest.

So we come back to the present level of major U.S. and Canadian stock markets. It looks like a bubble, but is it? Earnings of banks are strong and falling interest rates should expand the difference between what they have to pay for money to lend, which seldom rises much, and what they loan it for, which rises quickly. Life insurance companies can price their products more attractively when cash in their accounts earns more in bonds paying higher interest rates.

So is the run up in stock prices now a genuine bubble?

How big is a bubble?

A study by William Goetzmann of the Yale School of Management reviews 21 stock markets since 1900.

Professor Goetzmann defines bubble as a doubling of market average stock value followed by a 50 per cent fall. So an index rise from 100 to 200 is a doubling and the 50 per cent fall brings it back to 100. On that basis, a doubling in just one year happened just two per cent of the time and a 50 per cent fall in the next year happened only in Austria in 1923-24, in Continued on the next page 

Understanding market bulls and bears

The value of spring-threshed canola

Will it be worth salvaging and selling the canola left out in your field this winter?

Brian Wittal

bfwittal@ procommarketingltd.com

M

any growers across the Prairies are facing the reality of canola that’s been left out in fields over winter.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been talking to players in the canola buying and processing industry to find out who will buy spring-threshed canola, and to learn about some of their concerns.

Major grain companies Reps from the major grain companies were all consistent, saying that they will be open to buying spring-threshed canola if the quality is there. What does that mean? When it comes to grading canola it’s fairly easy to determine quality by rolling and counting a number of 100-seed crush strips.

Determining the number of green, damaged or sprouted seeds will quickly establish a grade.

It becomes more complicated when you have to consider factors such as excreta, mould, mildew or heated seeds, and the odour that may be present because of these factors. All of these factors can affect the quality of end products

— both the oil or meal — making the products unsaleable into many end use markets. Tolerance for these grading issues is very tight.

Grain companies are prepared to buy some spring-threshed canola because they will need to blend it into the rest of the canola they are shipping. The severity of the degrading factors will determine how much or how little they can blend into the rest of the canola they’re shipping and remain within export grade specifications. If the quality of the spring-threshed canola is poor, they won’t be able to blend as much of it away as they may like, limiting the amount they’ll be willing to buy and the price they’ll be willing to pay.

Another consistent comment was that they will need to see good representative samples before they will commit to buying anything, and purchases will be on a load-by-load basis, meaning if a load does not closely match the representative sample or if they don’t like the quality of a particular load, they will reject it.

As for price, no one will quote a price until they see the actual unload grade. Then, they’ll have to confirm the price with the head offices — it could be a moving target every day.

I suspect there will be a lot of variance in prices between companies, and from day to day at each facility, while they try to figure out how much they are willing to buy.

Crushing facilities I connected to buyers from four of the major crush facilities across the Prairies, and their message was consistent. They are not interested in buying spring-threshed canola!

Their main concern is the risk that blending damaged or lowquality spring-threshed canola into their stocks could taint or contaminate their oil or meal. World oil markets are very competitive and losing a customer over tainted oil is too big a risk, for very little reward or gain.

One crusher said that even if they got spring-threshed canola for free it wouldn’t be worth the risk.

Bio-fuels Milligan Bio Fuels in Foam Lake, Sask., told me that they will require very good representative samples for testing before they will commit to taking any springthreshed canola.

There are a few things that they will be looking for, one of which is excreta in the canola. Depending on the severity and the size of the excreta they can remove some or

maybe all of it through aspiration when cleaning, but if there is too much they may reject the load.

They will be testing for Free Fatty Acids (FFAs). FFA’s impact the quality of the oil that is produced, which is a real concern to the end use customer. The percentage of FFAs is higher in sprouted and damaged canola.

On average, according to the Canadian Canola Growers Association, FFA levels in Canadian No. 1 canola average around 0.20 per cent. On sprouted seed, FFA levels can be higher than one per cent. FFA in canola can also be high if temperatures are high during the growing season.

Milligan Bio Fuels only needs a 300 gram sample to do a proper FFA analysis. They encourage producers to go out and hand thresh a sample now and send it in to see if you have a product they are interested in buying. You can send samples to Milligan Bio Fuels, Box 130, Foam Lake, Sask., S0A 1A0.

the difference in quality. I believe (but was unable to verify) they will do a FFA analysis as well so this would be another avenue for producers to be able to get an idea as to the quality of their canola.

Contact Twila at the CGC at 1-204-983-2289 to receive sample envelopes.

What to do?

The Grain Commission

My best suggestion is to go out now and hand thresh some samples from different fields and send them either Milligan Bio Fuels or the CGC for an FFA test so you have an idea of the quality of the canola you will be taking off this spring.

That will help you determine what your marketing option(s) might be.

Then, you can decide whether your canola is worth salvaging or not and make plans accordingly. You’ll have limited time this spring to take it off and then get the ground seeded again in a timely manner.

I certainly hope the quality of your spring-threshed canola is better than what most suspect it may be. GN

The Canadian Grain Commission is doing a survey of spring-harvested canola. They would like producers to send samples of spring-thresed canola as well as samples that were harvested last fall so they can do some comparative analysis to see

Brian Wittal has 30 years of grain industry experience, and currently offers market planning and marketing advice to farmers through his company Pro Com Marketing Ltd. (www.procommarketingltd.com).

columns

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

 Continued from the pervious page

Argentina in 1976-77 and Poland in 1993-94.

You could say the 100 per cent rise followed by a 50 per cent fall is too perfect. If we loosen the standard for what is a bubble, then there are more cases of ups not followed by a big down.

So are we in a bubble now? Every

bubble rests on some foundation.

Today’s is the humble concept of business as usual. The new Trump administration in the U.S. promises to deregulate business, to make life easier for banks that want to do more business with less capital stuck on their balance sheets and, along the way, to pay even larger bonuses to their senior managers.

There are deals with Russia either

afoot or denied and import clamps going on Mexican imports. The outlook is clouded by lack of knowledge. Nobody has seen the laws that are going to be changed, but markets in the U.S. and Canada, among others, are flying.

Trump’s populism has no definite plan. The outlook for reduced trade caused by import fences of one sort T:9.875” or another is a negative influence. But

business economists in Canada are optimistic nonetheless. BMO Capital Markets, for example, suggested in a February 9, 2017 report that the new administration “will more good than harm for the U.S. economy.”

BMO expects Canadian exports to rise in 2017 and GDP growth to rise two per cent in 2017. BMO discounts a trade war that has been suggested

by Canada’s minister of external

19

affairs if the U.S. imposes higher tariffs or renegs on NAFTA. Nobody knows what is to happen, but it is certain that risks are up. There is no reason for stocks to soar. The market run up looks like a bubble, smells like a bubble and probably is a bubble. GN Andrew Allentuck is author of When Can I Retire? Planning Your Financial Life After Work (Penguin, 2011).

T:11.4529”

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columns

20

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

photo: credit name

Soils and crops

If someone comes knocking on your door to propose a variable rate perscription, be sure you’re ready to ask some hard questions before you sign up.

Precision ag may not work on your farm In the field, precision ag does not yet live up to the hype that has surrounded it

Les Henry

I

f we go into a farm meeting and ask how many are using auto steer almost all hands go up. If you ask how many are using variable rate only a few respond. The uptake has been slow and many techies think that farmers are slow adopters. Guess what folks: if it works farmers are all over it like a dirty shirt. The hype around precision agriculture has not been followed up with results.

In essence, precision ag is really about farming individual soils rather than the entire field. I am a firm believer in the concept.

The science The scientific journal entitled Precision Agriculture started in 1999 and is now up to Volume 18. In today’s world it is all available at the click of a mouse. In early issues many of the papers dealt with the fancy technology that could be used to make pretty maps but with little agronomy attached to it. A review of recent issues shows a shift in emphasis — not to agronomy but to complex mathematics.

In recent issues we see such titillating titles and phrases as “An experimental simulation of moisture distribution and its uniformity within the soil profile under laboratory conditions.” What does a lab have to do with field variability?

“Multi-variate adaptive regression splines” and “classification and regression trees analysis (CART)” leaves one wondering what application is possible.

“Assessing the potential of an algorithm based on mean climatic

data to predict wheat yield” was an interesting title but within the article the authors admitted that “unknown future weather remains the main obstacle to reliable yield prediction.” Really, who would have thunk it!

Some years ago I had someone ask me what algorithm I used to make my annual Soil Moisture Map. My answer? “The one between my ears.”

Precision Ag: The starting point The first thing to realize is that one size does not fit all. What works on nearly level thick, black Ellerslie clay loam at Edmonton is not likely to provide much useful information on dark brown Weyburn loam at Saskatoon with sharp eroded knolls and numerous sloughs intermixed with “normal” soils on midslopes.

In almost all the scientific papers I have read or heard regarding precision agriculture, the land or soil type is seldom if ever mentioned. Basic information about the soils, topography, agronomic history and area climate should be the starting point.

Yield maps from combine data can be useful but a single year of data does not cut it. In a dry year much of the yield might come from lower areas that tend to gather more runoff. In a very wet year those same low areas may be drowned out and much of the yield comes from midslopes and hills. If the yield varies within a field we must know why it varies to plan a precision ag strategy.

Pretty coloured maps based on satellite imagery from various years may highlight differences based on averages over a number of years but average is exactly

what we are trying to get away from with precision ag.

EC mapping to find management zones Many believe electrical conductivity (EC) mapping can aid in the delineation of management zones.

In past years there have been a wide array of fancy instruments that promise to make a map based on several indirect methods. EC mapping seems now to be the most common and the EM38 is the unit I see used most often.

This old scribe likes to think he has tromped over more acres with an EM38 in hand than most. I am a huge fan of that instrument. It was my great pleasure to take an EM38 to the field with the person who invented it: Duncan MacNeil of Geonics Ltd. — a Canadian Company with headquarters in Mississauga. I would not even think of doing any soil investigation without an EM38 and I personally own one.

The theory is simple. The EM38 uses an ordinary nine-volt battery to induce an electromagnetic field and then measure the earth’s response to that field. In the vertical position it “sees” to about four feet and in the horizontal position to about two feet — just right for agriculture.

But it is a measurement of EC, which is affected by temperature and moisture. Clay soils hold more water than sand so clays will give a higher reading if both are moist to depth. The main application of EM38 is the mapping of saline soils. If salts are high, moisture will be high by definition and high readings will be obtained. The main application of EM38 has been as a salt meter for various parts of a field.

A no-brainer for variable rate is to map the very saline areas and make the fertilizer application = 0 in those areas, and perhaps up the seeding rate as well. Even better, if there is a large enough area, plant it down to salt-tolerant forage and quit annual cropping.

In non-saline environments an EM38 can make a soil texture map if all soils are at field capacity moisture and moisture is not present. The point is: the EM38 always gives the right answer, but it is up to the user to interpret what that answer means.

The modern EM38 used in precision ag is a single instrument that does vertical and horizontal readings in one pass and can be hooked up to give a map of a piece of land.

At the same time as EC is mapped a topographic map can also be made. This is where technique comes in. Various mappers may use various spacings to do a grid map of a quarter section. Grids are for folks that do not understand the landscape. It is all about water.

That little slough that holds water in spring needs to be mapped by dedicated passes.

CropPro Consulting of Naicam, Sask., uses such an approach in their patented SWAT (Soil Water and Topography) method. I have no financial interest or have done no consulting with CropPro but have had many fruitful discussions with principal Cory Willness and have learned a lot from him.

Nitrogen I recently found a piece of work done in the Peace River contry by SARDA (Smoky Applied Research and Demonstration Association) that found that both EM38 and Veris instruments worked well to

map soil texture (and moisture) but the zones did nothing to provide variable rates for nitrogen.

Nitrogen is still the big cost and still the big return. For years I have been begging for some research entity to look at the simple matter of leaving a fall soil sample that is at field capacity moisture sit in the soil bag for a month and then send it in. I think that the N mineralized during the growing season offers more potential profit than most variable rate schemes in present use.

Conclusion If someone comes knocking on your door to propose a variable rate “prescription” some questions you should ask are: 1. Have you done your homework; do you know the soils and landscapes of this area?

2. What plan do you have to accommodate what we have on this farm?

3. What nutrient, pesticide or other input or management practice do you intend to vary?

4. If you think perhaps our soil/ landscape may be a poor candidate for precision ag will you admit it?

With some of the very big farms today it may even be necessary to have more than one approach on different parts of the same farm. GN J.L.(Les) Henry is a former professor and extension specialist at the University of Saskatchewan.

He farms at Dundurn, Sask. His book, “Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water,” mixes the basics and practical aspects of soil, fertilizer and farming. To order a signed copy, send a cheque for $50 (includes shipping and GST) to Henry Perspectives, 143 Tucker Cres, Saskatoon, Sask., S7H 3H7.

columns

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

21

Can’t take the farm from the boy

Monitoring the mainstream media When city newspapers get ag information wrong, it causes a problem for all of us Toban Dyck

tobandyck@gmail.com

R

eal estate, housing prices, parking, city planning — these kinds of headlines litter my mainstream newsfeeds.

Then, out of the blue, a national outlet runs a negative story on GMOs or hormones in beef, or agricultural byproducts contaminating a water or food source.

My ag news feed is very different.

Its writers know the industry, and, generally, keep from commenting on the goings on of the city.

There is a stark contrast between the coverage of agricultural news outlets and the coverage we see in mainstream media. This is a problem, if sources such as international and other mass-market organizations decide to tackle ag issues only when it is convenient to do so. And they do this all the time. So, yes, the lack of regular ag coverage in mainstream media is a huge problem — a huge problem that is partly responsible for the public’s lack of trust in large-acre farmers and the agriculture industry in general.

To make real headways on the issue of public trust, agricultural coverage has to become a regular part of the news landscape. The public must have constant access to the goings on of the agricultural industry.

Full disclosure: I also write an agbased column for the Financial Post, which is a major outlet taking a step in the right direction. But that is just one column in just one paper.

About two years ago, someone from a major news outlet approached me about writing a column about things happening outside of Winnipeg. I met with the editor of the section in which my column would potentially run. It was a disappointing meeting and a telling one. The whole encounter smacked of condescension. But, more so, it was indicative of a larger problem with agricultural coverage.

And it gave credence to the lack of faith many farmers have in mainstream media, especially when it attempts to educate its readership on issues it often doesn’t know much about.

This particular editor had trouble envisioning a rural perspective being able to produce anything relevant to this outlet’s readership, which is largely urban.

The commitments of this particular news outlet became clear before my first sip of beer: it cares about agriculture when farmers are to blame for something; when politicians make an announcement; or when the chef of the day decides to get his or her food from a hobby farm located 10 kilometres outside of city limits.

There were a few things about that meeting that put me off: first, the condescension. Then, the fact that I was put on the spot to justify

the relevance of a column I was first approached to write.

If a major news source has mandated to limit its coverage of ag issues over concerns of relevance to its readers, then its reporters and writers should not be able to comment on such topics. But this happens all the time. And it’s been a huge disservice to the ag industry.

These editorial mandates are the beginnings of misinformation.

And not only that, public trust in

agriculture will continue to deteriorate if the outlets that reach the most people continue to publish the dribble of writers who know nothing about the industry.

The problem is that agriculture is perceived as niche news only relevant to those directly involved in it.

Agriculture is relevant to everyone.

On something as basic, as fundamental as agriculture is to everyone on this planet, relevance should be assumed. Ag is for all of us. Cover-

age of a downtown development in Regina may not be of interest to someone living in the suburbs, but such a story could get above-thefold treatment in that person’s daily paper, based solely on the fact that it’s happening in that reader’s city.

Well, agriculture affects your city, your province and your country. We grow the food you eat. We steer a sizeable part of the economy. And we’re smarter and more complex than you think.

If our mainstream newsfeeds could be a balanced and trusted mix of urban and rural coverage, perhaps the chasm between the city and the farmer would begin closing; perhaps the public’s trust in the agriculture industry would galvanize into something more closely representing understanding and support. GN Toban Dyck is a freelance writer and a new farmer on an old farm. Follow him on Twitter @tobandyck.

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machinery & shop

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

Grainews practical test

Farm testing the new F-350 Powerstroke

photos: Scott Garvey

We spent a week putting Ford’s newest one-ton diesel pickup to work in an on-farm test

This F350 lariat diesel with a 160-inch wheelbase was equipped with a range of high-end options that made it a very comfortable truck to drive.

By Scott Garvey

I

n March Ford invited Grainews to put one of its newest F-350s equipped with a 6.7 litre Powerstroke diesel to an on-farm test. We gladly accepted the challenge and spent a full week evaluating the truck.

In the process we added over 500 kilometres to the odometer reading. But we didn’t cover all that ground just using the truck to run into town to pick up the mail. We wanted to get a feel for how it would handle all the jobs farmers actually make trucks do.

Our four-wheel drive F-350 arrived equipped with that V8 turbo diesel under the hood (a $9,950 option), which is rated at a pretty impressive 440 horsepower and 925 pound-feet of torque. The Powerstroke uses a graphite engine block that is lighter than cast iron. So it helps give this truck a roughly 60-40 weight distribution between the front and rear axles. (We ran the truck over a Commercial Transport Patrol weigh scale to calculate that number.) That’s pretty well balanced for a pickup with a massive diesel under the hood at the front and an empty 6.5-foot bed at the back. And that balance gives it pretty good stability, especially when travelling over gravel roads with washboard surfaces.

The F-350 came with the Lariat trim package, which means it had no shortage of high-end features, such as heated and cooled leather seats along with a locking compartment in the centre console to store valuables. And for those who can’t leave “stock” vehicles well enough alone and love to add driving lights or other electrical

The Powerstroke diesel and six-speed transmission didn’t even seem to notice this trailer load behind it, proving the truck is a capable towing rig.

The eight-inch LCD screen can display views from up to seven cameras, providing cross-traffic and trailer jackknife alerts.

Supporting a trailer tongue weight of 310 kilograms at the hitch, the rear suspension height had virtually no noticeable change.

The rear seats fold up to provide cargo space. There are additional storage compartments under them as well.

machinery & shop

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

gizmos, there’s a bank of six, factoryinstalled auxiliary switches ready to be wired into any add-on circuits. So no need to stress at the thought of drilling holes in a brand new dashboard.

There is also a myriad of digital safety features. The adaptive cruise control wouldn’t let the truck get too close to traffic ahead, throttling it back to keep a safe following distance after catching up with slower vehicles. Veer across a fog line and the steering wheel starts to vibrate to alert you to the fact you’re leaving the driving portion of the road.

Then there is the camera display on the dash that provides a 360-degree view around the truck to help prevent bumping into vehicles in a parking lot or hitting something when backing up. Given the size of this truck, that’s a pretty handy feature. There’s even a cross traffic alert to let you know there is a vehicle moving behind you when backing up. The monitor also has a jackknife alert. That helps prevent turning too sharply when backing up a trailer. It’s particularly useful for low flat deck trailers that are impossible to see out the back window.

One problem with the rear camera, however, is it often gets obscured.

During the testing week snow occasionally obstructed the camera lens.

We had the same problem with mud accumulations on a gravel road when we road tested an F150 with the same feature last summer. Realistically, though, there isn’t much that can be done to prevent that problem, although the front-mounted camera gets its own washer system that activates with the windshield washer.

The trailer load we put behind the F350 amounted to only about one third of the truck’s 6,800 kilogram (14,960 pound) trailer tow rating, but it gave us a sense of what it was capable of. The Powerstroke diesel barely seemed to notice our 2,300 kilogram (5,060 pound) load behind it. And with a 310 kilogram (682 pound) hitch load, the rear suspension height seemed virtually unchanged.

When braking with the loaded trailer behind and the six-speed transmission in Load-Haul mode, downshifts seemed to get more aggressive, adding a fair amount of engine braking to help slow the truck down with minimum brake effort.

The FX4 Off-Road package also included engine braking as part of the Hill Decent Control feature.

With all of that packed into this truck, we expected to like it, and we did. This F-350 certainly didn’t disappoint when it came to comfort and capability.

So what was there to gripe about with this truck? Well, not much.

Really, the only thing that made us cringe a little was the MSRP. The test F350 had a window sticker price of $96,163, plus freight, taxes and miscellaneous surcharges. That puts the total asking price somewhere around $107,000 in this part of Saskatchewan.

So, the Powerstroke F-350 could be a pretty useful piece of kit to add to a farm fleet, especially for anyone who expects to spend a fair amount of time towing or hauling. It’s just that capability like that comes with a pretty healthy price tag. GN Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at Scott.Garvey@ fbcpublishing.com.

23

OUR ROAD TEST FUEL ECONOMY RESULTS L/100 km

Want to add more lights or electrical add-ons to this truck? These six auxiliary switches are already installed, just wire new components up to them.

Like most new vehicles, the F350 doesn’t need an actual ignition key.

Just keep this fob in your pocket and press the start button.

City:

23.5

10

Highway at 110 km/h

12.6 to 13.5

17.4 to 18.6

Towing

14.9

15.8

This switch allows drivers to select one of three pre-programmed settings for the adjustable seat and steering wheel positions.

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machinery & shop

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

New equipment

NEW COMPACT TRACK LOADER FROM ASV

The new mid-frame VT-70 compact track loader from ASV LLC uses a vertical lift loader linkage for applications requiring continuously level loads.

Minnesota-based brand strengthens its offering after return to the marketplace

By Scott Garvey

M

innesota-based ASV has introduced its first mid-frame, vertical lift compact track loader, the Posi-Track VT-70. It features a vertical lift loader linkage capable of extended reach while maintaining level bucket loads, which is useful for loading pallets.

ASV says it has incorporated the company’s patented Posi-Track rubber track suspension into the VT-70’s design. That’s a system it has also been producing for Caterpillar-brand machines. The singlelevel suspension uses two independent torsion axles per undercarriage that smoothen out the ride. The VT-70 also includes ride control that dampens the load in the bucket to limit material loss and improve operator comfort.

The company claims its track drive system improves performance on steep slopes and reduces the risk of track derailment. ASV now uses an open-rail and drivesprocket design to turn the tracks, which apparently results in a longer sprocket and bogie life along with easier and faster undercarriage cleaning than its previous design. All rollers with mechanical face seals are maintenance free.

The VT-70 comes standard with 15-inch-wide tracks that have an average ground pressure of only 4.6 p.s.i. A 16.5-inch track is also available. It lowers effective ground pressure to 4.2 p.s.i. ASV says its tracks have a 1,500- to 2,000-hour service life, and it’s so confident in them that it offers a two-year, 1,500-hour track warranty.

Under the chassis there is 13 inches of ground clearance to reduce the risk of getting hung up in uneven or soft ground.

The VT-70 is powered by a 65 horsepower Kubota 2.4-liter turbocharged diesel engine. It’s Tier 4 Final compliant, relying on a diesel oxidation catalyst so there is no regeneration process or diesel exhaust fluid required.

To make service easier, the VT-70 has a swing-out door and cooling system along with a three-panel hood arrangement that allows full access to the engine.

The VT-70’s auxiliary hydraulic system is available with an optional 28.4 g.p.m. high flow rate and 3,300 p.s.i.

Rated operating capacity is 2,328 pounds (1,058 kilograms) and the tipping load is 6,650 pounds (3,022 kilograms). The machine is only 66 inches (1.67 metres) wide and has a 10.5-foot (3.2 metre) lift.

For more information, visit www.asvllc.com or www. positrack.com. GN

Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.

Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

Photos: ASV

24

A swing-out door and cooling system along with a three-panel hood arrangement allows full access to the engine.

Who is ASV?

By Scott Garvey Minnesota-based ASV was originally formed in 1983, and its first product was a pickup-sized tracked truck designed for off-road use. One of the two founders, Edgar Hetteen, had been previously responsible for launching off-road vehicle manufacturers Polaris and Arctic Cat. ASV introduced its first tracked loader in 1990, and in 1998 began building rubber-track undercarriages for Caterpillar’s compact equipment line. In 2007 Terex took over the brand and added ASV-built track loaders to its equipment brand offering in 2011.

In 2015, under a new joint ownership arrangement, ASV once again began marketing equipment under its own brand name. The company currently has dealers in all three Prairie provinces.

The VT-70 interior includes joystick controls and an LCD display monitor.

machinery & shop

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

25

GSI introduces a “Quiet” grain dryer

By Scott Garvey GSI, a division of AGCO, used the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky, to introduce its new grain dryer, dubbed the Quiet Dryer. The

company claims it is up to 50 per cent quieter than the majority of axial-vane fan models now on the market. They add that it is also quieter and more energy efficient than centrifugal fans.

GSI thinks the Quiet Dryer will appeal to anyone who is sick of listening to the

constant drone of fans at harvest time. And that could be especially useful to those who have neighbours close by.

To achieve the lower noise levels, the fan uses fewer blades to create less noise, and a less-open design and heavier-duty construction to muffle sound. The dryer was field tested through 2015 and 2016 on farms in both the U.S. and Canada. For 2017 it will be offered in 12- to 26-foot single heater, T:9.875” single module versions.

In a press release announcing the Quiet Dryer’s introduction, Jarod Wendt, GSI grain conditioning engineering manager, noted that some competitive portable dryers offer reduced noise. But they often do so by sacrificing efficiency or capacity. In contrast, he says, the GSI Quiet Dryer fully maintains grain quality, dryer capacity, flame quality and a proper air-heat mix for efficiency.

Scott Garvey

photo: GIS

Grain handling systems

The new Quiet Dryer from GSI has noise levels up to 50 per cent quieter than conventional dryers.

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machinery & shop

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

New equipment

Sprayer updates from John Deere

Photos: John Deere

Carbon fibre booms, new cab and more technology for John Deere's 4 Series

By Scott Garvey

L

ast August John Deere gave everyone a heads up that its 4 Series sprayers would eventually be available with new carbon fibre booms, but it didn’t say when they would hit the market. In February at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky, the company made it official. Starting in June, 120- and 132-foot (36.6 and 40.2 metre) booms can be ordered as a factory option for Canada- and U.S.-bound machines. (Deere has been offering them in Brazil for a few years now.)

“The strong, durable and lightweight material reduces boom wing weight by more than 35 per cent, and overall machine weight, minimizing negative effects to the soil or crop,” said Doug Felter, marketing manager, in a press release. “The booms are corrosion resistant and their simple design makes them easy to clean and maintain. Using the 132-foot boom can increase spraying productivity by eight per cent compared to the 120-foot boom.”

But the booms aren’t the only new feature 4 Series sprayers will get. The updated CommandView III cabs will also debut on 2017 4 Series machines, offering what the brand calls a “customizable workspace.”

“The CommandView III cab comes equipped with the John Deere 4600 CommandCenter that enables producers and ag service providers to efficiently capture, manage and transfer data,” adds Felter. “The redesigned CommandARM features a multi-function handle to give operators additional ways to customize their work environment.”

The cab also gets a ventilated leather seat that can swivel up to 15 degrees.

To help owners keep track of a sprayer’s performance while it’s working in the field, Deere also introduced the new John Deere Connect Mobile App, which is designed to provide real-time data on a “nozzle-by-nozzle” level.

“It’s managing the job at a micro level to make macro improvements,” said John Mishler, production and precision ag marketing manager, in a separate release. “The result is a better understanding of the job being performed. Data is saved on the iPad, so it goes where you go. At any time, or in any location as the data is saved, you can quickly review past work.”

When used with 4 Series Sprayers, operators can use the app to view mapping of job quality information, which includes as-applied rates, rate deviation, spray pressure, and ground speed. In addition, Connect Mobile delivers highdefinition documentation for

Photos: ASV

Starting in June, farmers can order a 4 Series John Deere sprayer with a 120- or 132-foot carbon fibre boom.

The CommandView III cab will be available with the 4600 CommandCenter monitor and programmable joystick control.

ExactApply Nozzle Control, and provides real-time estimated droplet size information.

“This ensures on-target application, mitigating the risk of product drift and avoiding the need for re-application,” Mishler added. “You can more quickly see and react to any problems and optimize job performance.”

The app also lets operators quickly compare data layers from previous production steps with what’s seen when scouting fields.

“This information can help growers better understand what might have caused what they’re seeing in the field,” said Mishler.

The app also provides sprayer operators with more information

options to view inside the cab on the machine’s 4600 screen. And the app can be used with Deere seeding equipment too. Eventually, the company expects to expand the app’s use to harvesting equipment as well. GN Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact him at Scott.Garvey@fbcpublishing.com.

cattleman's corner

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

27

livestock management

Pain management in cattle Several products are effective, but pay attention to timing

BY LISA GUENTHER

TIPS FOR USE Both Metacam and Meloxicam contain meloxicam as an active ingredient, and both are approved for treating cattle. But label claims and administration do differ.

Right now castration is Meloxicam’s only label claim. Olson says they pursued that label claim because castration is the most common painful procedure done on calves. “We could never provide label studies for every known painful condition.”

Olson says producers can use Meloxicam off-label under veterinarian direction. They need to purchase it through a veterinarian, as it’s a prescription product.

Meloxicam comes with an oral dosing gun. Producers who process calves on the ground can get another dosing gun with a hook-shaped tube that goes in the mouth to make it easier to administer. Olson says either dosing gun administers Meloxicam in seconds.

Metacam has several label claims, including pain relief from scours, dehorning, mastitis, and abdominal surgery (C-sections). It’s also an anti-endotoxin, meaning it works against the poisons released by bacteria during infections. Metacam drops the fever and controls pain from scours.

“It allows the animal to feel better,”

photo: Lisa Guenther

T

here’s no doubt that some routine procedures such as castration are painful for cattle. Fortunately, researchers are figuring out how producers can mitigate pain with products on the market today.

Dr. Eugene Janzen of the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine has been studying pain mitigation in beef cattle for several years. He says non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as Metacam and Meloxicam Oral benefit young calves after banding or surgical castration.

“The calves would move around a whole lot better. They would mother up. They would suckle.”

Dr. Doug Myers, a technical services vet with Boehringer Ingelheim, says they’ve seen a “groundswell of support from the ranching community” for Metacam 20, a product approved for pain relief in cattle.

“It’s really sold itself,” says Myers.

“I would say the producers have talked about this among themselves maybe even more than the veterinarians have.”

Dr. Merle Olson, founder of Alberta pharmaceutical manufacturer Solvet, says they designed Meloxicam Oral after producers requested an affordable pain control product for calves. The cost of treating a calf during processing is under $2 per head, he says.

“Our mission is to make sure animals in pain have pain control,” says Olson. He adds Meloxicam Oral has been “very well-received.”

Firing up the branding irons at a branding in southern Saskatchewan. The beef industry is finding ways to mitigate pain, but challenges remain.

says Myers. “And some of those animals may not need an antibiotic.”

Animals with bovine respiratory disease are also in pain, he adds, so sometimes those animals are treated with Metacam as well.

Metacam can be injected subcutaneously by tenting the skin on the neck. Vets can also administer it with an IV during surgeries.

Producers should look to veterinarians for off-label use of Metacam, says Garner Deobald, territory sales manager for Boehringer Ingelheim.

Boehringer has tech services vets who can be consulted about potential issues, he says.

Contraindications, or negative effects, are one good reason to check with a vet before using either product off-label. For example, Myers says producers shouldn’t use Metacam on scouring calves that are flat out and can’t get up, as they’re likely hypovolemic (low on blood due to loss of body fluids).

Dosage for both products is based on body weight. Both Myers and Olson say they haven’t had any reports of ill effects from overdosing their products. Metacam has been tested at five times the label dose for three times the licensed treatment rate, Myers says. Producers would have to exceed that very high dosage to harm an animal.

Both products control pain for days after administration: Metacam for 72 hours in ruminants, Deobald says. Meloxicam’s label indicates therapeutic pain relief for 56 hours.

RESEARCH SHOWS LIMITATIONS The research has proven that NSAIDs such as Meloxicam Oral and Metacam Oral reduce pain after a procedure. But there’s a big stumbling block for cowcalf producers hoping to reduce pain during a painful procedure such as castration.

“If you’re going to give the medicine at the time of the procedure, that’s like going to the dentist and getting him to block your teeth and then he immediately starts drilling,” Janzen says.

When researchers dosed the calves

with an NSAID well ahead of time, the calves showed less pain during the procedure. That’s good news, as Janzen could see dairy producers administering an NSAID before disbudding calves. But right now it’s likely not a practical option for cowcalf producers during processing.

Using castration bands on older calves also poses challenges. If a producer or feedlot operator is stuck

banding a 500- or 600-lb. calf, the pain is “pretty difficult to medicate away,” Janzen says. The problem is that the real pain sets in once the band breaks the skin, about 15 to 25 days after banding.

Surgical castration requires more skill and comes with complications and risks. However, for older calves in the feedyard, it’s the best way to go, Janzen says. “You can find combina-

tions of pharmaceutics that just eliminate the pain completely.”

Researchers are also studying how effective NSAIDs are in situations other than castration. Dr. Claire Windeyer of the University of Calgary is using NSAIDs on cows and calves as part of a study on dystocia (hard calvings), Janzen says.

And Janzen has plans of his own.

“The elephant in the room has to be branding,” he says. “I mean, disbudding is painful, the castration is painful. But it’s not anything like branding. And how are you going to medicate away the pain of branding?” Janzen plans to look at medicating two-month-old calves during branding this year.

Researchers seem to have quite a bit of support within the beef industry. Janzen sometimes speaks to 4-H clubs, and the kids are very aware of pain in animals, he says. And during producer meetings, Janzen fields questions from producers on how to reduce pain.

“And it turns out lots of times we don’t have an answer for them,” he says. “So I think that’s why it’s appropriate to keep looking.” GN Lisa Guenther is field editor for Grainews based at Livelong, Sask. Follow her on Twitter @LtoG.

Consultation on Canadian Grain Commission user fees We are proposing changes to our user fees. The new fees would begin when our next 5-year fee cycle starts on April 1, 2018.

Tell us what you think We invite Canadian grain producers, farm groups, licensed grain companies, and industry associations to give input on • the proposed fees • our services and service standards • how these changes may affect their business • the approach to changing our fees

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cattleman's corner

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

calf management

Protecting calves through vaccination Best to consult with veterinarian on what’s right for your farm

N

ewborn calves gain temporary (passive) immunity from disease when they ingest colostrum, since this “first milk” contains antibodies. After a few weeks or months this temporary protection diminishes, so calves must build their own immunities.

Vaccinating at the proper time can help protect them until weaning age.

Vaccinating them too soon, however, may not stimulate much immune response. If the calf still has maternal antibodies in its system, these interfere with building its own immunities.

Dr. David Smith of Mississippi State University says many producers may not think about why they are giving vaccines, or when.

“We have our hands on calves at branding, so this is usually when people vaccinate.” That’s not necessarily bad, but we do need to think about the problems we are trying to solve.

“For most producers, the problem they are trying to solve is to prevent calves getting sick after they are weaned, as they go into a backgrounding phase or into the feedlot.

Calfhood vaccines are generally given to try to stimulate some immunity to protect calves at weaning time.”

Also, it’s standard practice to vaccinate against clostridial diseases (blackleg, malignant edema, redwater, gut infections caused by Clostridia perfringens, and others) because these deadly diseases may be a risk to calves at any age.

Calfhood diseases include blackleg and some of the other clostridial diseases like enterotoxemia (caused by several different types of C. perfringens) and pathogens that cause scours, along with respiratory diseases like pneumonia.

“Each rancher needs to tailor their vaccine program to protect against the diseases that affect calves on his/ her ranch,” says Smith.

This may mean vaccinating the cows prior to calving, to give calves instant temporary protection against certain types of scours.

Smith says that in some situations you can’t vaccinate the calves quickly enough because they might ingest the pathogens (nursing a dirty udder, or born into a dirty environment) at the same time they are ingesting their first colostrum. They wouldn’t have time to mount an immune response from vaccination, but the antibodies in colostrum can protect them.

If producers are seeing scours problems early in very young calves, they may need to vaccinate the cow so she can give the calf immediate

protection. Some of the other problems occur later or long term.

NO OPTIMAL AGE For respiratory disease, Smith says research still doesn’t show the optimal age for vaccination, since calves in some herds get what has been termed “summer pneumonia” while they are still nursing age.

“It is important to work with your veterinarian to determine a vaccine strategy,” he says. “In our recent study of summer pneumonia in herds across the Midwest, about one out of five herds (20 per cent) have problems with summer pneumonia in calves on any given year.

“Half of the battle is figuring out when you can get your hands on the calves (or the cows) to give vaccines.

The other half of the challenge is determining the most appropriate thing to be doing.”

Vaccination is just one strategy for prevention.

“We also need to address management practices, such as making sure that cows and newborns mother up well and the calves get timely and adequate colostrum intake,” says Smith. “We also need to be cautious about introducing new cattle (and new pathogens) when calves are susceptible, and minimize the opportunities for calves to share pathogens with each other.”

photo: heather smith thomas

Heather Smith Thomas

If producers see scours early in very young calves, they may need to vaccinate the cow so she can give the calf immediate protection.

Some diseases such as clostridial infections are difficult to address with management so vaccination becomes an important tool to protect against these diseases.

“The clostridial vaccines are very effective, and good insurance,” Smith says. The only problem is if you are fighting an enterotoxemia in calves that is caused by a type of C. perfringens that is not covered in the vaccines. The typical seven-way, eightway or “enterotoxemia” vaccine only contains types C & D, yet some intestinal disease in calves may be caused by type A or B. A producer could lose calves in spite of vaccination. If this happens, they need to work with their veterinarian to figure it out.

No two ranches have the exact same situation.

“A ‘typical’ production system doesn’t fit everyone,” says Smith.

“People calving in sheds have different risks for calfhood diseases than those with cattle calving out on dry hillsides or clean pastures. This is why you need to talk with your local veterinarian who knows your operation and understands your unique challenges and your own herd and management.” GN Heather Smith Thomas is a longtime Grainews columnist who ranches with her husband Lynn near Salmon, Idaho.

Contact her at 208-756-2841.

calf management

Hard to beat the value of good colostrum Watch for blood infections such as septicemia

By Heather Smith Thomas

C

alves sometimes develop systemic infection in which bacteria or their toxins get into the bloodstream and travel throughout the body.

Some types of toxin-forming bacteria (usually gaining entrance to the body via the GI tract, after damaging the gut lining and slipping through it) cause rapid death. The calf goes into shock when internal organs are damaged and start shutting down.

Any blood-borne infection may become life threatening if bacteria or their toxins damage vital organs. In some instances the infection may localize, creating internal abscesses, or may settle in the joints — causing a painful arthritis (“joint ill”).

Dr. Steve Hendrick, with the southern Alberta Coaldale Veterinary Clinic just east of Lethbridge, says calves (because of the type of placenta in the cow) are unable to get antibodies from the cow’s bloodstream and are born without any antibodies to protect them from disease.

“Thus they need to obtain the needed antibodies from the cow’s colostrum,” says Hendrick. “Many

people don’t realize how critical this is — to make sure the newborn calf has adequate colostrum.

“Ideally it should come from the dam because hopefully she has been in the environment the calf will be born into (unless the cow was purchased just before calving), exposed to pathogens the calf will face and has the needed antibodies in her colostrum.”

Producers can use a commercial supplement if necessary, in cases where the cow dies before the calf can suckle, or doesn’t have any milk. But, colostrum harvested to create commercial products comes from a different environment, Hendrick says.

“It’s best to use colostrum from your own cows. Many calves that develop septicemia are calves that didn’t get enough antibody protection from colostrum.”

KEEP CALVING AREAS CLEAN Even if they did, sometimes their immunities are overwhelmed if they are born into a filthy environment and develop navel infection. Calves may be exposed to a high dose of pathogens. It’s important to make sure calves are born in a clean environment.

“Clean bedding is good prevention

against navel infection, especially if the cows are confined rather than calving on large grass pastures,” Hendrick says.

Those who calve early in cold weather, or are calving out heifers, generally have them confined so they can watch them closely. It takes more diligence to make sure that area is clean.

“We often see calves born in dirty conditions, and have to suckle a dirty udder,” Hendrick says. “This increases the number of pathogens the calf will ingest, and there are also more pathogens that will come into contact with the raw umbilical stump. There’s a huge challenge to the immune system.”

Infections can get into the bloodstream from any location of the body, even the respiratory system. With septicemia, the big challenge is treating the systemic infection. If treatment isn’t started early to halt the infection, some internal organs and/ or joints may be damaged.

“Septicemia is ‘blood poisoning’ and simply means bacteria in the blood,” says Hendrick. Signs of septicemia may include weakness and dehydration. The calf may be unable to get up, with signs of shock — pale gums, cold feet and cold ears. The

heart may be beating fast, trying to get blood to vital organs as everything starts shutting down.

If the calf is young and sick and has swollen joints, check the navel for signs of infection such as swelling, heat, a thick umbilicus, or pus discharge. A common cause of septicemia is navel ill. Infection from the umbilicus gets into the blood and travels to other tissues. A healthy calf that had good colostrum may still get an infected umbilicus but will generally wall it off as a local abscess and is not as likely to get septicemia. The joints are a common location for bloodborne infection to localize — the joints swell and become painful and the calf is lame.

WORK WITH VETERINARIAN It’s important to work with your veterinarian when early signs are noticed (lame calf, or very sick calf), because the earlier you treat the calf, the better the chance of halting the infection before it causes extensive damage or makes it impossible to save the calf. Your veterinarian can advise on the proper antibiotics because there are several that could be effective.

“These infections tend to filter into

some of the smaller blood vessels like the capillaries, particularly in the joints or where the bones are growing (ends of the bones),” says Hendrick.

This may result in a chronic arthritis.

It’s difficult to get enough antibiotic into those areas.

He urges producers to monitor young calves closely to make sure they are up and moving around, and not stiff or lame. If they look sluggish or sore, you have a serious problem.

“Hopefully you can catch them before they get to this point,” he says.

Prevention is preferable to having to treat calves or risk losing them. A clean environment, adequate colostrum, and adequate nutrition for the cow herd are crucial factors.

“If cows don’t have good condition and are not passing good colostrum to their calves, you are fighting an uphill battle,” Hendrick says. “Some producers try to give every calf a long-acting antibiotic at birth, and this might be a short-term help, but is not a good solution. Antibiotics are not a cure-all for sloppy management and poor conditions.” GN Heather Smith Thomas is a longtime Grainews columnist who ranches with her husband Lynn near Salmon, Idaho.

Contact her at 208-756-2841.

cattleman's corner

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

29

Soil health

Managing the carbon crop The objective is to return more carbon to the soil than is released

BY SEAN MCGRATH

O

ne of the best parts of writing for Grainews is the people who contact me to question/ disagree or express some interest in an aspect of a story I have written. I confess I have sometimes written pieces just to engage healthy discussion. I have always had an interest in the “global warming” debate and have a lot of concerns about how the arguments are being framed on both sides of the discussion.

Since I am in confessional mode, I will also say up front that I believe in man-made global climate change based primarily on a stack of reading from all sides of the issue that is just over four feet high. With some caveats I am also not 100 per cent opposed to a carbon tax (please read on for an explanation).

In the new carbon era that is emerging — either by consensus or edict — I think it is important that as producers we at least understand the basics so we can engage in the conversation and also understand the tremendous power that agriculture has to deal with the issues.

between one of the carbons and a hydrogen we have ethanol. A bunch of carbon bonded together can make coal, and if we compress that coal under a mountain we wind up with diamonds. The point is that a lot of the taxing issues surrounding climate change involve the form of carbon, rather than the fact of carbon.

Because carbon makes four bonds and is a stable molecule it is the basis for all life on earth. In other words, the plants, the bugs, the cows and the farmer are carbon-based life forms.

What does that mean? Well, carbon is like the framework of a house. It is used for the joists, studs and rafters to which other molecules of life are attached to build a living being.

It is also a tremendous way to store energy, as each of the four bonds a carbon molecule makes hold energy.

When we burn a piece of coal, the heat actually comes from breaking those bonds. The reason that the carbon tax is higher on coal than on natural gas is that burning a pound of coal breaks more carbon bonds than burning a pound of natural gas.

GLOBAL WARMING

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The global warming role of carbon is primarily when it is in the form of OVERSIMPLIFIED CHEMISTRY carbon dioxide gas. Our sun does not Carbon is a pretty straightforward come with a thermostat, so increaselement. Every carbon atom can form ing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere four bonds. This can be with another helps to trap solar heat next to the carbon or with another element. earth, melting ice, increasing evapoWhat a carbon bonds to is very impor- ration and creating a myriad of other tant in determining its form. The cli- effects. Since it is about minus 40 C mate change debate is largely about as I am writing this, (early winter) it is what carbon is bonded to, so the a bit tough to argue against global chemistry matters. Carbon bonded to warming and warming is probably two oxygen molecules is carbon diox- not an accurate description of what ide. Two carbons hooked together and we need to be worried about. Even bonded to six hydrogen molecules is2017-01-30 “man-made SEC-MAV17-T-GR_SEC-MAV17-T-GR.qxd 3:23 PMclimate Page 1 change” is a natural gas. If we throw an oxygen in poor description of the concern. The

real concern around climate change is increased volatility. In other words, increases in the volume and scale of weather swings and events.

Increased evapotranspiration and more liquid water on our planet may create larger rainfall events.

Changes in sea level and salinity of our oceans due to the melting of freshwater glaciers (polar ice caps), as well as temperature changes deep under the ocean may affect ocean currents, which drive nutrient flows and wind patterns. These changes may affect where, when and how much rain falls from the sky, what temperatures happen in different locations and the speed that these things swing back and forth.

Increased severity and length of drought events may occur in some areas. In a nutshell the concern is that on a local level climate change can create havoc faster than we can adapt to it.

SO WHERE DOES THE FARMER FIT? As farmers and ranchers, we have to ensure we are more than just victims of the carbon tax. We do break carbon bonds when we burn diesel in our tractors, gasoline in our trucks and coal in our shops.

Fossil fuels are a way to store solar energy from the sun by converting it into carbon bonds. When we break these bonds we change carbon from a stable/stored form back into carbon dioxide that insulates and warms the Earth.

As producers we may ourselves be dealing with increased volatility in managing our way through the weather. Our managerial skill sets and risk management capabilities are going to be tested and we can

probably expect our crop insurance premiums to rise. Fortunately, the very opposite of this is also true from a farming perspective. Our job as ranchers or farmers is to capture as much solar energy as possible and convert it into carbon bonds.

Our plant populations grow by combining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere with water from the soil and using solar power to create new carbon bonds to build more forms of carbon such as soluble sugars and fibre. These sugars are then pushed around the plant, sent to roots and soil microbiota where they are further solidified and stored as “organic matter.”In short our job is to convert carbon dioxide into stored carbon.

If we are effective carbon managers, over the course of a growing season our plants will convert more carbon dioxide to solid carbon forms than we will release in our operations.

The only effective way to do this is to ensure optimal plant growth, which in turn leads to enhanced production and hopefully profits as well.

This is the great news as it means that farmers should be a source of great hope for the world. As producers, we need to understand the science and forms of carbon as well as the power of what our plants do very clearly so that we can communicate that message repeatedly and effectively to policy-makers and the general public.

Agriculture is one of the very few industries in the world that offers a potential solution to the carbon issue. When done right it is nothing but a win-win scenario. Looking ahead there is a lot of work going into the next step, which is measuring our carbon balance, particularly on perennial grasslands.

In other words, how much carbon are we converting into its gaseous form versus how much as we converting into more solid forms.

The truth is that we may not like some of the answers from this work and may have to change some practices but it is essential if we want to have a public argument about the solution that agriculture offers to the climate debate and want to receive payment for our contribution to the public solution.

A tax is designed to change behaviours and I can honestly say without a doubt I have seen a lot of behavioural change in Alberta in the last couple of months. Our own thermostat has been dropped a degree or two and our lights are turned out a lot quicker.

That said, I have also seen a lot of carbon tax dollars wasted on ineffective, non-solutions to the issue such as solar panels on roofs and shutting down of power plants.

I truly believe farmers and ranchers are one of the most efficient and effective solutions to the carbon form issue since converting carbon dioxide to stored carbon is actually our job definition. If we can effectively sequester carbon, measure and prove what we are doing, I think we are more than entitled to our portion of the carbon tax revenues. I can support that scenario. GN Sean McGrath is a rancher and consultant from Vermilion, Alta. He can be reached at sean@ranchingsystems.com or (780) 853-9673. For additional information visit www.ranchingsystems.com.

Editor’s Note: This is part two of a two-part series on soil health.)

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Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

The markets

Understanding feeder cattle options Using a “put” option to avoid margin calls MARKET UPDATE Jerry Klassen

I

n the previous three columns on feeder cattle marketing, I’ve discussed hedging feeder cattle production using the feeder cattle futures market. Many producers hesitate to use a futures market because of the cash flow requirements. When you sell a futures contract, there are margin requirements and most brokerage companies will require a minimum account balance so that the position can withstand a couple of margin calls.

A broker has the authority to liquidate a position if the client does not meet margin calls in a timely manner or if they simply feel that the producer will not meet the call.

Some companies require the broker to cover the margin if the client fails to meet the call. There is no messing around with margin calls. Therefore, to avoid margin requirements, producers can use options on the futures market

USING PUT OPTIONS There are two types of options but in this article, I will only discuss

THE CONTRACT IS ALSO FOR 50,000 POUNDS AND IN U.S. DOLLARS. Strike ($)

Put Price ($)

Total Premium Cost ($)

126

6,100

3,050.00

124

4,975

2,487.50

122

4,025

2,012.50

120

3,250

1,625.00

118

2,575

1,287.50

“put options” because this is the option producers will use to hedge feeder cattle production. Buying a put option can be compared to buying insurance. A premium is paid for a certain amount of price coverage and if the futures price falls below the strike price, a payout is generated. The strike price is the designated price for which put options are traded. The Western Livestock Price Insurance program works on a similar principle but in this article, I will discuss the put options on the feeder cattle futures markets.

Above are option quotes for the May feeder cattle futures contract. The May options expire on May 26 2017 and the May feeder cattle futures are currently trading at $122.40. The contract is also for 50,000 pounds and in U.S. dollars.

I’ve bolded/underlined the $122 because this strike is called “at the money” because the value is closest to the actual futures prices. Strike prices below futures market are called “out of the money” and the strikes above $122 are called “in the money.” I don’t want to go into too much detail on option values because we’ll leave that to the professionals. For now, it is important just to understand “in” and “out” of the money put options.

When a producer buys a put option, the only money at risk is the premium cost. There are no margin calls from just buying and then selling options. This alleviates the fear of endless margin calls.

For simplicity, I’ll work through an example in U.S. dollars on how to use options to hedge production. One can simply take this a

step further with one calculation of the exchange rate but it is important that producers understand the mechanics.

A producer buys in 550-pound steers in January to sell as 825pound steers in early May. A put option can be used to establish a price floor, which is calculated by subtracting the option premium and the basis from the strike price. In this case, I’ll use the strike of $118 minus the estimated basis of $3, minus the option premium of $2.575 which equates to $112.425. The price floor is $112.425.

In the first case, we’ll say that the futures strengthen to $126.50 in May. When the futures market is above the strike price at expiry, the option has no value and is considered “out of the money.”

The producer would sell the cattle in the cash market and assuming the basis stayed the same at $3, the net price received would be $126.50 minus $3 minus the option cost of $2.575 equals 120.925.

In the second case, the futures market drops to $109.25 so the option would be considered “in the money” and would have a value of

$8.75, which is strike price minus the futures price. ($118 minus $109.25 equals $8.75) The net price to the producer would be the futures of $109.25 minus the basis of $3 plus the net gain on the put option of $6.175 ($8.75 minus $2.575) which equals $112.425. This is exactly the floor price mentioned above.

The producer can rest comfortably because there are no margin calls while ensuring a price floor. Of course there is a cost to this peace of mind, which is the option premium. We’ve all seen how prices can change in a short amount of time so this is a viable way to ensure price protection. GN Jerry Klassen is manager of the Canadian office for Swiss-based grain trader GAP SA Grains and Products Ltd. With a strong farming background, he is also president and founder of Resilient Capital —a specialist in commodity futures trading and commodity market analysis. He can be reached at 204 504 8339.

Editor’s Note: This is Part 4 of a series on the basics of feeder cattle marketing.

new technology

Producing clean bison genetics New ‘washing’ techniques could benefit cattle industry as well

BY ANGELA LOVELL

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enetic research in wood bison may have wider implications for wildlife conservation and for the Canadian livestock industry. Scientists have developed tools using assisted reproductive technologies such as cryopreservation (freezing), artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfer which could help increase dwindling wild bison populations and prevent the spread of disease.

Canadian wood bison is an indigenous species that is perilously close to losing too much of its genetic diversity to be able to survive for the long term. Past efforts to preserve the species included interbreeding them with Plains bison and domestic cattle, which produced hybrids that don’t contribute to build wild bison genetics.

In addition, 30 to 60 per cent of the remaining wood bison population carries cattle diseases such as brucellosis and tuberculosis (TB).

A NEW PRESERVATION STRATEGY For the past 10 years, the Wood Bison Research Group which includes scientists at the University of Saskatchewan and Agriculture &

Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) has been working to develop tools for producing and preserving clean, disease-free wood bison germplasm.

Gregg Adams of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine

“We have produced over 400 wood bison embryos and have over 100 preserved in liquid nitrogen tanks. From initial studies, we now know that we can wash the semen, embryos and

We have eliminated the possibility of disease transmission, so our research is very beneficial for the bison industry and it will also be well taken by the dairy and beef AI industry too.”

BENEFITS FOR LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY

Muhammad Anzar, AAFC

(WCVM) in Saskatoon is the principal investigator on the project and has recently been working on techniques to “wash” brucellosis pathogens from embryos and semen.

Once washed, embryos and sperm no longer carry the disease, and therefore can be used to regenerate a healthy wood bison population quickly through embryo transfer and AI.

semen fit for AI. Semen is conventionally frozen in a medium containing either egg yolk or milk to protect the sperm cells against cold shock. However, there is a risk that disease pathogens can hitch a ride in these animal proteins added to the semen extender.

“The technique that I developed for the cryopreservation of semen is without adding egg yolk or milk in the semen extender,” says Anzar.

“The advantage of this ‘clean’ semen is that it is as good as using egg yolk, which is a common extender, but it’s free from any external pathogens or micro-organisms.”

eggs free from brucellosis organisms,” says Adams.

“The summer of 2016 showed proof of concept was complete with the birth of three, live, healthy bison calves from the transfer of in vitro fertilized embryos and one from a frozen embryo.”

AAFC scientist Muhammad Anzar is a project lead on the development of frozen bison

This new technique has the potential to be applied elsewhere.

“We have eliminated the possibility of disease transmission, so our research is very beneficial for the bison industry and it will also be well taken by the dairy and beef AI industry too,” says Anzar.

Many countries such as Japan and Europe have regulations that require any imported livestock semen and embryos to be free of pathogens. The risk of disease transmission is certainly the main limiting factor in the exchange of

Plains Bison

bison genetics worldwide, as countries looking to improve their herd’s genetics do not want to import these potential biosecurity hazards.

And the research could help wildlife conservation efforts come full circle and reverse a chain of infection that they helped cause in the first place. “Elk and bison are the two main wildlife reservoirs for brucellosis and TB in Canada and U.S.,” says Adams. “Elk are infected from bison and it’s from elk that there have been documented cases of transmission to cattle. This is a reasonable strategy to begin the clean up process, to improve the genetic diversity of the bison species and to prevent the possibility of infection of our healthy livestock with these diseases.” GN Angela Lovell is a freelance writer based in Manitou, Manitoba.

home quarter farm life

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

31

SEEDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

How do we come to the table to talk?

Procrastination and fear of conflict can hold us back from talking about farm transition and legacy Elaine Froese

www.elainefroese.com

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armers often stop me in the hall of conferences to ask deeper questions that are keeping them awake at night. The most common question is, “Elaine, how do we even get people to the table? My parents are refusing to talk, and my grandparents are even more stubborn!”

Farm families are stuck because they give in to procrastination and fear of conflict. If you want something really, really badly, how persistent are you willing to be to get answers to your “burning questions?” Love does not read minds.

Legacy will not happen unless you commit to act, get clarity of expectations for each generation, and set accountable timelines. Everyone MUST do the work of talking.

So let’s dig in with practical approaches.

1. What do you want? Name your income stream for the next 20 to 30 years as founders, and as young parents. What do you need (not want) for family living expenses? The dollar data is important for all generations.

Grandparents may be holding tight to gold, cash and land because they survived the Depression and have money “security” issues, or power and control issues. Do you know what it cost you to live in 2016? Check your bank statements.

2. Where are you going to live?

If Founder Dad can’t give up access to the shop and Mom wants to be off the main yard (Grand Central Station of activity) then you have a spousal fight on your hands. Each couple needs to be

clear about where and why they want to live at a certain spot. If a new house needs to be built for under $300K, who is paying for that? Notice I gave you a budget for the house, because farm homes don’t make money.

3. How are you going to service debt? The founders don’t want to burden the next gen with crazy debt. Merle Good’s presentation at FarmTech talked about creative equity sharing with corporations, so that the parents have cash flow and shareholder loans. Most

Does Mom want to travel with a girlfriend? (Dad loves to farm, not much travel for him!) Does the daughter-in-law or the son-inlaw have a voice in the transition plan at the beginning stages? Who is going to take over the financial role of bookkeeping? Who is the ultimate decision-maker for management? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each farm team player? Roles and responsibilities change as we age, so pay attention to the spoken expectations of your farm team.

Remember, job descriptions, per-

Legacy will not happen unless you commit to act, get clarity of expectations for each generation, and set accountable timelines. founders I meet don’t expect their business heirs to buy the whole farm (they can’t afford to) but do expect some debt leveraging. It also helps if founders have the “personal wealth bubble” beyond the farm assets to draw income from and gift to non-biz heirs. So, what level of debt are you willing to service? Have you been to your lender of choice as a young farmer to see what you can manage?

4. What will your roles be as the farm grows? How big is big enough? Does Granddad want a position as wise elder, and can he transfer assets with a warm hand rather than a cold one? Does Grandma want a life estate in her house, and then move to more care in a seniors’ home when she needs it? Does Dad want to become the hired man again?

formance appraisals worked on the oilpatch, and now those same skills need to be transferred to your farm to be more professional and aware.

5. What do we tell the non-farm heirs to help them understand that they aren’t getting a raw deal? I don’t make these questions up, these are real questions folks ask me as a coach. The fairness issue is about how the estate will be handled, and what legacy opportunities the farm succession or business continuance plan will give the non-business heirs. What do you owe your children? What support is, or has, the farm cash already given to the family? Is there greed and entitlement issues that need to be talked about openly? A college education is worth $200K if it was paid for by parents.

6. How to we protect our hard-earned wealth from spousal breakup? Do you have separate farm corporations that partner? Divorce fear keeps people in the dark for decades. I have seen this happen where the parents don’t transfer assets until they see what happens for the first 25 years, and even then there is no guarantee that the marriage will last. My encouragement is to have a culture of love and respect for all family couples, and let everyone voice their farm vision.

Non-farm kids can also add insight and great wisdom to the planning conversations. See my blog on divorce.

7. Download the farm family tool kit at www.elainefroese.com.

You need to have a tool box to work from. If you start here, you’ll have my coaching on paper to start getting organized to have more robust conversations. You have to talk and listen respectfully to each other. The talking is the work. A recent client relayed to me that her lawyer was impressed by how many issues were clear to the family BEFORE the lawyer visit, so much so that the family saved hundreds of dollars in fees because they came to their adviser table prepared.

8. Talk to yourself about all of the points above. Get clear on what your needs, wants, and expectations for transition and legacy are. “I think, I feel, I need, I want…” is a good script. Then date your spouse and talk with them. It helps if couples are aligned with what they value and envision for the next chapter of their lives. Then set a date for a family transition exploration meeting. Neutral zones like boardrooms at the accountant or

a hotel work well, unless the family home is workable. Bring your flip chart, a talking stick, post-it notes and your best character. Hire a facilitator if you want to ensure the dialogue is kept safe and respectful. Hire a babysitter to care for kids off site. Meet for three hours with the first two hours to explore the issues, and the last hour to craft a “next-steps” list. Photograph the flip chart notes with your smartphones. Email the action list to everyone, and set target dates for completion of all the action items. Set a date for the next meeting. Set a $50 fine for those who cancel. Families who meet regularly are 21 per cent more profitable, so get going!

9. Build a binder to organize all of the vital plans you are chomping away at. The action list, accounting/tax, wills/ estate, lifestyle plan (income streams, financial plan) insurance, business plan (vision for the farm), etc. This planning binder will be your “go to” document holder as you build your team of advisers and have more meetings to get clarity.

For our 1992 succession this took six months and only three meetings. For our 2017 succession, we’ve had one meeting with our coach so far, and we are moving off the main yard in 2020. Ravage my website www.elainefroese.com/ store. I want to hear your success stories: www.elainefroese.com/ contact. GN Elaine Froese empowers farm families to talk, resolve conflict and build amazing legacies for their farms and families. She farms in SW Manitoba with her husband Wes, son Ian and DIL Kendra. Her fourth book, Building Your Farm Legacy, will be out soon.

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home quarter farm life

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

PRAIRIE PALATE

Make an old-time Strawberry Pudding

Strawberry Pudding

Amy Jo Ehman

A

century ago, Canada was at war.

The battle for Vimy Ridge took place on April 9 to 12, 1917, during which 3,600 Canadians lost their lives and thousands were wounded.

Back in Canada, families supported the war effort in many ways, including in their kitchens. They were encouraged to be frugal, eliminate kitchen waste, preserve fresh food for wintertime and cut down on those items needed in large volumes for our troops and allies overseas: flour, sugar, butter, beef and pork. In other words, to cook more beans and less beef, substitute whole grain flours for refined white flour, use bacon drippings in place of butter and vegetable shortening in place of lard. Baking with fine white sugar was discouraged in favour of using brown sugar, syrup and molasses instead.

Even peeling a potato became a patriotic act: to cut the peels as thinly as possible so as to waste none of the flesh. And it goes without saying that leftovers were never, ever to be tossed away.

A new law in Canada made it illegal to stockpile or “hoard” foods such as flour and sugar. At the same time, a law banning margarine was suspended from 1917-23 due to shortages of butter caused by the war.

In Ottawa, the federal government created the Canada Food Board to appeal to home cooks and suggest ways in which they could achieve parsimony and patriotism in equal measure. It produced a series of illustrations, like comics, published in newspapers to remind home cooks what was at stake. For instance, one illustration calculated the cost of wasting sugar: if every Canadian wasted a teaspoon of sugar every day for a year, at 10 cents per pound, it would equal the value of 265 airplanes at $15,000 each. Another illustration warned against wasting bread, by which “waste” included overeating and throwing away the crusts: one ounce of bread per day per Canadian would fill 17 ships in the course of a year.

The food board issued a directive to “Public Eating Places” such as restaurants and university cafeterias: to use no more than two lbs. of sugar per 90 meals served (cheaper “yellow” sugar not white) and, for every four pounds of

white flour, to use at least one pound of alternative flour such as oatmeal, corn and whole grain.

The board also encouraged farmers to produce more food with a series of colourful posters bearing titles such as “Canada’s Beef Opportunity,” and “Canada’s Butter Opportunity.” For instance, the beef poster stated that Britain buys $1,077,154,000 worth of beef annually, of which just $29,680,000 came from Canada. The bold print states “Speed up — We must do better.”

This recipe for Strawberry Pudding appeared in the Saskatoon Daily Star in August 1918 during the First World War. The original instructions were brief, assuming everyone knew how to steam an old-fashioned pudding. I did not, however, I looked it up in a modern cookbook and this method works well. I made the pudding a second time, cooking it in six 250-ml jelly jars, as shown in the photograph. If using jelly jars, cut the cooking time in half. GN Amy Jo Ehman is the author of Prairie Feast: A Writer’s Journey Home for Dinner, and, Out of Old Saskatchewan Kitchens. She hails from Craik, Saskatchewan.

photo: amy jo ehman

The recipe first appeared in a newspaper in 1918

1 c. brown sugar 1 egg 1/4 c. soft butter 1 c. milk 1 tsp. vanilla 2/3 c. flour 1 tsp. cream of tartar 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/4 tsp. cinnamon 2/3 c. sliced strawberries Strawberries and whipped cream for serving

Before you start, choose a pudding bowl and a pot in which to steam it. The pudding bowl should have a capacity of at least 6 cups. It should be heatproof and fit inside the pot.

The pot should have a lid. Rip a piece of tinfoil to cover the pudding bowl and smear it lightly with butter. The foil should wrap over the bowl but not hang down too far. Lightly butter the inside of the bowl. Put the bowl into the pot. Add water to the pot to come halfway up the bowl. The water should not touch the foil. Trim the foil if necessary. Remove the bowl.

Put the pot on the stove, place the lid and heat the water to a gentle simmer. While the water is heating, make the pudding: Cream together the brown sugar and egg. Add the butter, milk and vanilla. Blend well. Stir together the dry ingredients and mix into the batter. Stir in the strawberries. Pour the batter into the pudding bowl. It should be half full; the pudding will expand in cooking. Cover with the prepared tinfoil. Place the pudding bowl into the simmering water, put the lid on the pot and simmer 2 hours. Do not lift the lid for the first half-hour, after which you can check the water level and add more water if needed. Remove the pudding from the water and leave to cool. Tip the pudding out of the bowl. Serve it flat-side down, garnished with whipped cream and strawberries.

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33

FROM THE FARM

Controlling pests on the farm We use homemade repellents based on foodstuffs and essential oils

B

efore we moved to a farm my experience with controlling pests was limited to the occasional housefly. Country living showed us that there are many pests that need to be controlled, but due to an assortment of pets and family with many chemical sensitivities, conventional sprays didn’t always work. The result has been a compilation of recipes based on foodstuffs and essential oils that although still need to be used with caution seem to control most of the pests adequately for our family.

Flies This fly repellent spray has been used by us on our sheep to stop flystrike. It has a strong smell when you first spray it on, but the smell will fade as the mixture dries.

Fly spray 1/2 c. witch hazel 1/2 c. apple cider vinegar 30-50 drops of essential oils (any combination of citronella, clove, lemongrass, rosemary, tea tree, cajeput, eucalyptus, cedar, catnip, lavender, or mint)

photo: DEBBIE CHIKOUSKY

Debbie Chikousky

their coats, avoiding the face.

Reapply when the smell starts to dissipate. To keep this as potent as possible store out of sunlight for up to six months.

We keep cheap lint rollers at the door to scoop up ticks before coming in the house.

Cutworms Use crumbled-up eggshells in the garden to control cutworms. They are very high in minerals so they help to feed the soil plus they are irritating to the cutworms. Over the winter we save the shells in used coffee cans which can be lidded when full and put in the garage to freeze. If there is any old egg in them, this way there is no odour. In the spring sprinkle them over the garden and till them in. Throughout the summer the shells can go to the compost pile. Another help in controlling cutworm damage to tomato plants is to put a toothpick on two sides of the plant. The cutworm is unable to circle so it cannot damage the plant.

Ticks The easiest method of keeping ticks off the pets was to use collars or pour-on products, but the first time we used one on our dog she reacted and almost died.

Thankfully there are alternatives.

Keeping cheap dollar store lint rollers at the door so that we can quickly scoop off ticks before coming in the house is very helpful. We use a tick repellent so they do not want to climb on our clothes, and purchase our essential oils from https://www.newdirectionsaromatics.ca/.

Tick spray 1 tbsp. vodka or witch hazel 40 drops rose geranium essential oil 1/3 c. distilled water Mix vodka or witch hazel with essential oil in a spray bottle. Add distilled water and shake. It is recommended to only apply essential oils to your clothes. This mixture also works on pets, sprayed only on

Combine and put in a spray bottle. Shake and spray making sure not to contaminate feed or water.

Natural rat/rodent repellent (Dr. Myles H. Bader 1,001 Secret Household Formulas & Money-Saving Tips) 1 tsp. oil of peppermint 1 tsp. chili powder 1/2 oz. Tabasco sauce 1 pint cold tap water Cotton balls Mix together all ingredients (except the cotton balls) in a medium bowl. Place about 10 drops of the mixture on a cotton ball and place the cotton ball anywhere a rodent problem exists or drop it down a gopher or mole hole. Rodents are allergic to peppermint and spicy peppers.

This recipe worked very well for around chicken houses, down rodent holes, and to deter them from coming into our cold room. The mixture can be painted onto door/window frames to make a physical barrier.

When using essential oils around animals caution must be exercised.

There are some that are very toxic to certain animals and not others.

Tea tree oil is toxic to cats for example. Although the reactions are usually due to undiluted use of oils directly onto the skin (which is not recommended for humans either), exercise caution. A website that has tables for easy reference on toxicity is http://www.optimumchoices. com/animals_essential_oils.htm.

With a bit of knowledge there are excellent tools to help keep our lives a bit more pest free! GN Debbie Chikousky farms at Narcisse, Manitoba.

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home quarter farm life

Grainews.ca / MARCH 28, 2017

SINGING GARDENER

Start asparagus plants from seeds Plus, what is Paruresis and some tips if you have it Ted Meseyton

singinggardener@mts.net

READER’S LETTER CONTINUED “I have a good asparagus patch but grass and weeds keep working their way in. Every few years I spray it with Roundup before the asparagus comes up. I have a computer, did not think myself capable of writing you online. I only got the computer on my 80th birthday or about then so we (computer and I) are not the best of friends. Thank goodness for a computer-savvy friend who comes when I call HELP. If you share any part of this letter, please do not print my name. Thanks again for your column.” (name withheld) Granum, Alta.

Ted says: Savvy means “practical know-how.” For example, we might say so and so “has letterwriting savvy,” or has “good gardening savvy.” The final part of said reader’s letter follows in Grainews April 11, 2017 issue.

GROWING ASPARAGUS FROM SEED First, a quick reference to companion planting. Tomatoes, parsley and basil

PHOTO: COURTESY W.H. PERRiN

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ate March and early April are the times of year I begin scratching around the soil to see what’s popping up besides dandelions and daffodils.

Depending on weather, I may soon plant, or will have already planted a short row or two of radish seeds in a sunny sheltered microclimate spot.

I share a short excerpt from a letter that mentions asparagus.

Have you ever wondered why eating asparagus makes human urine smell downright strange?

Got a haircut February 20 during the 4th quarter dark of the moon. I told my lady barber there’s a connection between the moon’s energy and gardening, hair growth, clipping finger- and toenails and a whole lot of other things. She was as excited as a kid, eager to learn more. Readers wanting their hair to grow faster should consider getting it cut during increase of moonlight especially on March 29, 30, 31 and April 1, 4, 26, 27, 28. Hair won’t grow as fast when cut during receding moonlight with best dates being April 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23 and 24, 2017.

My signature tip o’ the hat extends hello and welcome everybody. So glad you love to read the printed word. Thanks for joining me on this Grainews page.

Start your own hybrid Guelph Millennium asparagus from seed. Plants have good cold tolerance and produce high yields of very uniform 100 per cent male spears.

are good buddies that help shoo away pests if planted in close proximity to asparagus. Tomatoes also get along with chives, carrots, dill, onions, marigolds and nasturtiums, but do keep tomato plants away from fennel and potatoes.

My son “Chris the Accordion Guy” is also a prolific songwriter and wrote a tune titled: “Missing Out.” Although the lyrics don’t mention asparagus I’d suggest that gardeners without a bed of asparagus plants are “missing out.”

A well-maintained asparagus bed can produce for 20 years or more and grows to its own tune. On a hot day stalks can increase in length by six inches. Reminds me of competitive gardeners who grow giant-size gourds and pumpkins, some of whom suggest you can actually watch them get bigger one day to the next.

You have two options with asparagus — buy rooted plants or start your own from seed. As to the latter, expect to do your first cutting during the third year of growth. A variety that caught my eye is Guelph Millennium developed by Professor Dave Wolyn and his research team at University of Guelph’s plant agriculture department.

Guelph Millennium was named seed of the year in 2005 in recognition for sustained high yields and quality. Said variety now comprises more than three-quarters of the Ontario market. Better yet, this cool-tolerant asparagus has become popular among producers as far away as B.C. and the U.K., having also gained popularity for other traits. While sandy and light soil is ideal for most asparagus, Guelph Millennium has performed well in heavier land, including virgin soils. This has allowed producers to expand into areas that previously were not ideal for growing asparagus.

Seeds for Guelph Millennium asparagus can be purchased from

W.H. Perrin, Laval, Que., H7P 5R9; www.whperron.com or phone 1-800-723-9071 and also from West Coast Seeds, Delta, B.C., V4L 2P2, www.westcoastseeds.com or phone 1-888-804-8820.

WHY DOES URINE SMELL AFTER EATING ASPARAGUS? Believe it or not, according to studies, some of us are actually spared from the not-so-pleasant scent coming from urine after eating asparagus.

A sulphurous compound called methyl mercaptan is contained within the fibres and juices of asparagus. This harmless but pungentsmelling gas has been described as having the stench of rotting cabbages, rotten eggs, smelly socks and decaying onions and garlic.

When the digestive system breaks down asparagus, byproducts are released that cause the characteristic, not entirely pleasant odour.

No wonder rotten eggs are used in an anti-deer repellent formula that is sprayed onto tree limbs and branches, along fence posts and outskirts of gardens to discourage wild animal intrusions.

HUMAN URINE AS PLANT FOOD Does it pose a risk to human health?

Since way back when, animal and human urine and solid animal wastes have been used to improve and return essential nutrient value back into soil. Such practice has a long history of use in many parts of the world. Let’s take a peek at human urine collected from healthy people who are not taking any prescription medication. Human urine is characteristically high in nitrogen and other water-soluble elements discharged from the body. Historically it’s been shown to have little chance of carrying or spreading infectious agents into soil. That is to say — using human urine in the garden

turns something that’s a waste into something useful. Is this a way to help replace some commercial plant food products?

You can speed up composition of homemade compost by adding full-strength urine to the compost heap as an accelerator to hasten and break down plant material. Heat is generated by nitrogen in urine that helps neutralize and eliminate any foreign bacteria that may be present. Once the resulting compost has ripened, spread it over soil as an enhancer and around garden plants.

As a plant food, make your own blend of urine and water. Never use it full strength. For example, dilute one part of full-strength urine with 20 parts plain water.

An option is to stir one-quarter cup of three per cent hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into each fourlitre jug of prepared solution and let marinate for an hour, then apply around a few wild weeds, annuals and perennials including flowers. Wait 48 hours and do a thorough inspection of treated plants for any negative effects such as yellowing, drooping, dried or burned leaves. Should anything adverse appear, discontinue use and flush treated plants with clear water.

If you decide to experiment further, dilute the next batch with one part full-strength urine to 30 parts of water. Continue increasing the dilution of urine in water until you find the right balance that works best for your plants.

Keep written notes as to combo and results. Home gardeners who’ve already tried human urine in a plant food mixture are encouraged and invited to share their formula, experience and results with readers.

Human urine diluted 50/50 with plain water eliminates, discourages and fights fungus and

mildew that deposits on stems, branches and leaves of bushes, low shrubs and on some annuals and perennials. Lightly mist from a spray bottle onto affected parts but do not use as a plant food as 50/50 dilution is too strong and will burn. Remember, fullstrength urine is a weed killer.

Most of us have seen dead spots on lawn grass caused by dog urine.

Here’s an important point to remember regarding use of human urine as a plant food ingredient that’s been applied to edible produce or fruit. Before serving, donating or selling any such homegrown veggies, herbs and fruit to your family, friends or others, be sure to inform them of such practice and wait for their reaction.

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS PEE SHYNESS? Bet your bottom dollar there is.

It’s medically known as Paruresis and is commonly called shy bladder syndrome, social phobia and cognitive hang-up. The major symptom is characterized by an individual’s inability to urinate in public washrooms when others are around or standing nearby.

Although it’s more common among men, women can be affected too.

A guy offered this helpful tip. “I stick a finger into my ear as if I have an itch. This distorts background noise and I can focus on urinating.” Another said, “I’ve found that abdominal breathing really helps me to stay focused and calm down. When I breathe in, I make sure that the air goes all the way down to the lowest part of my lungs and I push my belly out.

Shallow breathing only into my upper chest makes it worse.”

Learning how to relax the pelvic area and doing Kegel exercises at home are beneficial. Professional physical and biofeedback therapists are available to teach behavioural techniques to help individuals overcome such a challenge. GN

This is Ted Meseyton the Singing Gardener and Grow-It Poet from Portage la Prairie, Man. Most places in Canada had lots of snow if not an overabundance this past winter. The Russians have an old folk saying: Snow in the fields means grain in the granaries. Soviet scientists have found that to be true. The more snow, the better the harvest! Could this be a bumper year for Canadian farmers? singinggardener@mts.net

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