Country guide west

Too loyal to your machinery brand? 39 | 8 steps to your farm’s HR strategy  34

western EDITION / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / March 1, 2018

If you build it...

Ontario’s Martin family scores with businesses based on their success in the field  14

Unconventional

Young farmers succeed with ideas too out there for their parents  10

CROPS GUIDE Should you support new PBR rules?  57 This robot to cut drought losses  60

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6 MACHINERY

Deere strengthens its tractor promise European farmers get first look at extended 6R series and innovative fuel guarantee.

Inside country guide / Vol. 137 Issue no. 4 / March 1, 2018

Business

57 CROPS GUIDE

20

Taste the future Their farm is a leader in technology, so why have the Grenkows gotten involved in value adding?

26

Hiring refugees This plan to find farm jobs for Syrian refugees is spreading across the country.

28

s marter than you think You’ll be impressed by what our kids are learning about business in today’s ag colleges.

34

e ight steps to your hr Strategy Getting professional about your human resources will pay on big farms and small.

37

alue add v step one: evaluation So, you think you’ve got a great value-add idea that will score big in the market.

How do you know?

57 PBR not so simple 60 Probing drought stress in corn

39

the heart of the deal Canada’s farmers are incredibly loyal to their equipment dealers.

Maybe it’s time to look around.

42

inners and losers w Columnist Gerald Pilger takes a look at high-yield contests and decides to have nothing to do with them. Here’s why.

Guide Life

68 P reserve those family memoires 70 Health 71 Hanson Acres 72 Reflections

64

f arm travel More farmers are travelling the world on specialized farm tours that help them return home energized and eager.

14 B2B partnering Instead of waiting for the next opportunity to drive up their laneway, Ontario’s Martin family looks for — and finds — ways to build profit-enhancing business opportunities that start with their productivity in the field, and then go miles beyond.

10 Unconventional Facing high land costs, more young farmers are getting their start with offbeat crops and even stranger marketing ideas. The question is, do they still deserve the support of conventional farmers?

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COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / MARCH 1, 2018

3

EDITOR’S NOTE

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

Looking toward

a tough decision

It’s natural to want the farm to stay in the family, just as it’s natural to want your children to have the same chances you have had.

But is it realistic?

Of all the tough issues facing agriculture at this moment, perhaps the toughest is evaluating whether the next generation has the aptitudes and attitudes they’re going to need if they’re to make a success of their career in farming, and if they’re to be a reasonably safe bet as the guardians of critical family assets.

When I speak to classes at ag colleges, I tell the 18- and 19-yearolds that while Mom and Dad used to have sleepness nights worrying about the crop in the field, the dark circles under their eyes now are from worrying whether the kids have what it takes to take over the farm.

“They’re watching you,” I tell the students. Then I ask, “What are they seeing? And what should you be showing them?”

I worry about the boys. I’m surely not the first to notice that when boys hit their teens, they seem to lose their brains and with them any outward sign of ambition.

They’d rather play electronic games than worry about school. If they’re going to tackle something that takes smarts, it’s tweaking the truck rather than sorting out what a career path might look like.

It doesn’t help that our schools seem unconcerned about their boys losing ground. If you take two students, one a boy and one a girl, and put them into high school at the same time in almost any province in Canada, there’s nearly a 50 per cent better chance the girl will go to university.

This, we’re told, has nothing to do with teaching methods.

4

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

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

I’m not downplaying the obstacles that girls face and the burdens that they must deal with, and I hope I’m not leaving that impression at all. It’s just that for Mom and Dad on the farm, Jason’s marks in Grade 11 probably aren’t that great an indicator of how he will perform when higher function returns in his mid-20s.

ADVERTISING SALES

The solution appears to be — both for our girls and our boys — to put more expectations on them earlier, and to insist on more opportunities to stretch their wings, including off-farm employment.

Publisher: Lynda Tityk lynda.tityk@fbcpublishing.com

At the same time, mentorship is more important than ever, and today’s parents must train their kids in skills that they themselves were never trained in. The business demands on farmers have evolved too fast for their own parents to have understood many of the skills their children would need.

At Country Guide, we consciously write about young farmers in practically every month, and in this issue, I’d particularly recommend you read “Smarter Than You Think” on page 28.

Look for more in the next few issues too, but before spring arrives, why not set yourself a challenge: Come up with two ways that you’ll help your kids this summer that never would have occurred to your parents. And then sort out how to put them into practice.

And maybe you should tell the kids too.

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

Sales Director: Cory Bourdeaud’hui cory@fbcpublishing.com (204) 954-1414 Fax (204) 944-5562 Kevin Yaworsky kyaworsky@farmmedia.com (250) 869-5326 Lillie Ann Morris lamorris@xplornet.com (905) 838-2826 Advertising Services Co-ordinator: Arlene Bomback ads@fbcpublishing.com (204) 944-5765 Fax (204) 944-5562 Glacier FarmMedia LP President: Bob Willcox bwillcox@farmmedia.com

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

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The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to Country Guide and Glacier FarmMedia LP attempt to provide accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis. However, the editors, journalists, Country Guide and Glacier FarmMedia LP cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication. Use or non-use of any information is at the reader’s sole risk, and we assume no responsibility for any actions or decisions taken by any reader of this publication based on any and all information provided.

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machinery

Deere strengthens its tractor promise More models and a unique fuel guarantee to boost Deere’s European presence

By Scott Garvey / CG Machinery Editor

S

everal years ago, John Deere was one of the earliest brands to give the digital component of its equipment a strong emphasis. Without a doubt they were ahead of all the major brands, which have since recognized the growing importance of that technology.

Now, Deere is again getting ahead of curve by using the data that can be captured and shared through its digital JDLink system for another unique purpose: It’s giving customers in Europe fuel-use and uptime guarantees.

Deere can use JDLink to keep track of customers’ tractor performance and monitor their fuel consumption. With that data, the company can offer buyers a fuel-use guarantee.

Buyers of 6R, 7R and 8R tractors in Europe will actually get a money-back assurance that their tractors will meet fuel-use targets “Customers will be refunded during the first full year of ownership if total fuel consumption has exceeded the John Deere target level,” reads the program announcement.

“And that’s not all — if the operator achieves a higher fuel efficiency than the target level, owners will receive an efficiency bonus equal to twice the cost of the fuel saved.”

“If we don’t meet it, we pay you back,” Thomas Höglmeier, segment manager for John Deere, explained to journalists during the Agritechnica machinery show in Hanover, Germany. “We measure it with our telematics. Fuel represents 50 per cent of (European) contractors’ costs.”

Contractors (or custom operators as we’d call them) are a big target customer group for Deere over there.

To lure them over to the green brand, this isn’t the only guarantee Deere is willing to make. It will also ensure tractors keep working and not go down for repairs.

“Arable farmers aren’t so much focused on fuel,” Höglmeier said. “They focus on uptime.”

To qualify for that uptime guarantee, buyers will have to opt for a full maintenance contract. But that’s one more aspect that allows owners to know exactly what their yearly equipment costs will be. And mechanics will be around to make periodic inspections to keep machines going.

“Dealers are doing in-field visits optimizing our machines,” added Höglmeier.

If a tractor does go down, the dealer will have to provide owners with a backup replacement to keep farm operations going.

Deere claims its engineers have done so much test-

Photo credit: John Deere

John Deere added the 6230R and 6250R to the top end of its 6R line in Europe.

Expect to see them become available here soon.

6

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

Like the guarantee programs, the new 6Rs are expected to soon appear on this side of the Atlantic.

These models offer a high horsepowerto-weight ratio of 31 kilograms (68 pounds) per horsepower at their base chassis weight of 9.3 tonnes, but they can be ballasted up to 15 tonnes for heavy fieldwork. That pushes the ratio up to over 130 pounds per horsepower to improve traction.

These models use an updated version of Deere’s AutoPowr transmission. When roading, the AutoPowr achieves a 50-km/ hr-road speed at just 1,630-engine r.p.m.

Or it will do 40 km/hr at 1,300 r.p.m. to save fuel. Power comes from a 6.8-litre PowerTech PSS six-cylinder diesel with dual turbochargers. Deere claims this engine-transmission combination and its “advanced DPF and SCR” emissions systems offers a two to three per cent improvement in total fluid consumption. CG

SEE THE

Photo credit: Scott Garvey

ing on individual components, that they can predict the typical life cycle of many different parts. Customers who buy the service agreement will see local dealership mechanics coming out to replace parts based on that schedule, even if they’re still working.

“We can predict part life and replace them just before they fail,” said Deere’s Georg Lanschied during the same presentation. “We’ve tested this a lot so we can be sure we’re not replacing parts for no reason.”

So far, this guarantee has only been announced in Europe, but there is a strong likelihood it will soon appear in Canada and the U.S. as well.

And just like this announcement, Deere also debuted two new 6R Series tractors at Agritechnica for the European market. The 6230R and 6250R offer 230 and 250 horsepower, respectively, pushing the top end of the 6R lineup significantly from its current 215-engine horsepower limit.

This German sign at Deere’s Agritechnica display announces the fuelcost guarantee program, promising owners a money-back guarantee.

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BUSINESS

Unconventional Maybe it’s time to take Canada’s new crop of non-conventional farmers a lot more seriously

By Madeleine Baerg

C

hange is coming to Canadian agriculture, and judging by the numbers, it’s coming fast.

Our country’s food supply, our rural landscape, much of our GDP and a major part of our national identity all depend on Canadian farmers.

But the average age of those farmers has now reached 55, with more farmers over 70 years than under 35.

A major transfer of land ownership and farm management is widely forecast as the older generation exits.

But who is ready to step into agriculture’s driver’s seat?

And are we willing to give the new farmers the support they need — especially the ones who don’t quite fit our preconceived notions of a “real” farmer?

Stuart Oke and his partner Nikki Tesar have just finished their first season in the direct-marketing vegetable business. Though each has a decade of experience on other farms, the experience of operating their own agribusiness for the first time has been fun and nerve-wracking in turns, a rollercoaster that Oke wouldn’t trade.

And it’s been busy. Ultra busy. Not only have they started a brand new business, purchased equipment,

For Oke and Tesar, farming vegetables on a relatively small scale is the only affordable path into farming.

Besides, they love it.

10

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

built infrastructure, stretched every dollar of input capital, and built up their direct market list and their wholesale clientele, along the way they’ve also found time to successfully coax top-notch vegetables from the five rented acres in St-Andre-Avéllin, Que., that they call Rooted Oak Farm.

This farming couple doesn’t measure their land by the hundreds of acres or their production in hundreds of tonnes. They’re not born-and-raised farm kids: both grew up in urban centres. And they haven’t been in the farming game long enough to prove their business model. So, do they count as “real” farmers?

But here’s the stumper. If we’re asking that question, are we part of what’s holding Canadian agriculture back, slowing down the growth of a profitable and healthy consumer-based sector?

Oke and Tesar believe they’re as real as the very biggest of conventional farmers. They’re investing time and money into the land; they’re fully committed to their agri-business, they’re working to promote agriculture, and they’re looking forward to a long future on the land.

“I certainly sometimes run into the opinion that because we’re not a large-scale commodity farm, we shouldn’t be taken as seriously. But farmers take all shapes and sizes today,” says Oke.

Photography: oke farms

“Small-scale farmers, organic or otherwise, have been around long enough now that we’ve proven this isn’t a flash in the pan or a fad,” Oke says. “Lots of farmers out there can prove their success. There’s money to be found and a lifestyle to be lived… there are lots of different scales for people to be successful in agriculture.”

Given the skyrocketing costs of farmland, equipment and inputs, a commodity operation is no longer a reasonable dream for many young farmers. Oke and Tesar are just two of a whole subset who are getting started in small-scale, low-acreage, high-intensity, direct-toconsumer production.

But what do we know about new farmers like this farming couple? Surprisingly little, actually.

Julia Laforge, now a post-doctoral fellow at Lakehead University, is a geographer fascinated by socio-nature relationships and the role of knowledge and social movement in Canada. For her PhD research, she wanted to study the experiences of new farmers. But she quickly realised that there has been unexpectedly little public or academic research into who those new farmers are.

So, together with the National New Farmer Coalition, Laforge created a survey for new farmers that looked into everything from their backgrounds and their priorities to the stumbling blocks in their way.

In February and March of 2015, the survey went to Canadian ag organizations of all types, university ag faculties, and social media (“pretty much everyone we could think of,” says Laforge). Within a month, 1,326 young farmers from four self-identified categories (new, aspiring, experienced and exited farmers) completed the online query.

Respondents farmed or aspired to farm in all parts of Canada. Most, but certainly not all, were under the age of 40, and almost all operated small farms. Interestingly too, 68 per cent of respondents identified as not growing up in agriculture. In the “new farmer” category, the number was even higher: a whopping 86 per cent of respondents weren’t farm bred.

According to Statistics Canada, there are just over 40,000 farmers in Canada under age 40. Obviously, 1,300 surveys from a possible 40,000 young farmers isn’t representative of the whole group.

But, says Laforge, the results “certainly capture… something.” And that something may have a fundamental impact on the future of Canadian ag.

“I look at those numbers — 86 per cent of new farmers not being from a farming background — and I think, how can that not be some kind of demographic change?

It’s such a contrast to what we expect. There are so many implications of that in terms of training, land ownership, everything. If we don’t have a good handle on who young farmers are, we need to take a step back and say how do we get a better idea? It definitely warrants more followup.”

One thing that’s clear, she says, is that this group feels ignored by government and industry.

“We had an open comment section at the end of

the survey. One of things I wasn’t expecting was a lot of comments saying ‘thank you.’ Respondents said things like ‘I feel really validated,’ and ‘I’ve never had opportunity to share before.’ There was a lot of resonance with what we did,” says Laforge. “Small-scale farmers, especially those who farm only part time, face challenges of being identified as farmers. That devalues a whole sector of food producers who really need support.”

Studying the survey results, Laforge says she felt both optimistic for agriculture’s future and sad about opportunities that have already been lost.

Laforge sees opportunities to better meet the needs of new farmers of all kinds. The respondents indicated that they did not know much (or, often, anything) about financial supports and education opportunities available through each province. Any business training they did manage to find they reported as being prohibitively expensive. Industry infrastructure like processing Continued on page 12

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / MARCH 1, 2018

11

BUSINESS

Even a small non-conventional farm can involve prohibitive startup capital.

facilities and marketing opportunities was frequently described as inadequate, unavailable or difficult to access. And most respondents had little or no idea of what provincial extension is or how to access it.

“There are a lot of challenges but they aren’t insurmountable. There are opportunities to build supports that could make a real difference,” says Laforge.

Amanda Wilson, co-ordinator of policy and community with Food Secure Canada, agrees that the demographics of Canadian agriculture are changing and that industry and government need to respond.

“We need to shift our understanding of who new farmers are. They aren’t just young kids from rural backgrounds whose parents farmed. Some have had careers elsewhere and are interested in getting out of the city.

A growing number are immigrants who had extensive farming background in the country they came from. The kinds of sup-

NEW

1257781_1_DAS_Paradigm_2018_Preseed_EB_15-125x5.indd MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

1

ports and tools these farmers need won’t necessarily be what works for large-scale, commodity producers.”

One of the big issues is that government isn’t yet responding to the changing priorities, operating structures and business models of new farmers.

“We need more concrete steps to support the diversity of farmers,” Wilson says.

For example, she says, last fall, the federal government announced a new loan program for new farmers. While excellent news, the loan was only accessible to new farmers operating at large scale.

“There are whole swaths of new farmers operating at small scale,” says Wilson.

“We need to make sure programs and supports are equally accessible to all. We need to appreciate the diversity of agricultural practices. We want to see our food system move in the direction of sustainable, diverse and secure.”

Knowing the federal government is to release a new Ag Framework in 2018, Farm Secure Canada gathered various industry voices in 2015 and 2016, with 22 food and farming organizations signing off on a policy brief that calls on government to better invest in the next generation of farmers.

Specifically, the Farm Renewal Brief recommends: • The creation of a farm renewal, business development and labour pillar in the next ag policy framework to address the diversity of new entrants to farming.

• Supporting programs to protect farmland that are accessible to all farmers.

• Increased access to start-up capital and financing.

• Training opportunities that are financially accessible to new farmers.

• Supporting best farm business management practices.

Instead of not taking new farmers seri-

ously, government, industry and other farmers should strive — actively, consciously, and passionately strive — to see new farmers succeed, the group says.

“We need to figure out from a government program and policy perspective how we can help farmers not only start up a farm but grow and sustain a farm over the long term,” says Wilson.

“It’s really important to help farmers make that first step, but then we need to ask: how do we help them take second and third steps so that their businesses are sustainable, not just ecologically and socially but financially too.”

Stuart Oke agrees. When he isn’t working to build his farm, he’s busy as youth president of the National Farmers’ Union, a role that suits his commitment to other farmers and to co-operative and collective action.

Oke knows firsthand exactly how challenging farm startup is, and he wishes he

and Tesar didn’t have to tackle each hurdle so entirely alone.

“None of us want handouts, but we are looking for supports because there are very real barriers to getting into agriculture,” he says.

Education and training opportunities are sorely lacking for aspiring farmers, he says. And banks are too risk-adverse to lend capital.

“We’re not asking government to throw money around. But, for example, in Quebec you can take a business plan to an organization, get a stamp of approval, and then take that stamp to any bank and the government will underwrite your loan. That’s just one example of what a program could look like at a federal level,” he says.

For himself, Oke is contagiously enthusiastic. “We’re full steam ahead,” he says.

“We’re looking at big expansion in the years ahead.” CG

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BUSINESS

B2B strategic partnering For the Martin farm in Ontario, building connections with other businesses is a winning formula

A

t nine years old Quentin Martin became one of five siblings who were shareholders of their family’s Master Breeder pedigreed Holstein farm, which his parents incorporated in 1965.

“They gave all of us common shares,” says Martin,“which meant at nine years old I was sitting at the table with the feed salesman and the banker asking goofy questions.”

His father, Abner, had a deep curiosity and a willingness to try new things, says Martin, so he often partnered with other businesses and left the dairy farming to the children. By the time Martin graduated with two degrees and came home to farm with his siblings, the power of trusted partnerships and being open to opportunities was fully engrained in their farm.

The strategy was clear. Begin with a strong core business. Then find solutions and partner with good people where few tend to tread.

14

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

Now, building with others is in their blood and a part of how they operate, and it has become a launching pad for their farm and their value-added businesses. Martin says over the years relationships have been the number one reason for their successes, enabling them to build and grow.

“Follow the people, not the money,” he says.

Today Cribit Seeds and Wintermar Grains are registered businesses inside the corporate parent business called Wintermar Farms (1989) Ltd. The 1,500-acre seed farm near Waterloo, Ont., and its several value-added businesses support 15 employees and a few seasonal staff. Brothers Quentin and Keith Martin, Keith’s sons Craig and Jason, and son-in-law Andrew are all part of the ownership/management team.

The original business has undergone five ownership transformations over the years. First, two sisters were bought out and in 1989 one of the brothers, Denis, and his wife Helen decided to go dairy farming on their own, so the family butterflied off the dairy.

Photography: David Charlesworth

By Maggie Van Camp / CG Senior Business Editor

Watch for win-win opportunities, and be ready to build on them, advises Quentin Martin Although it took two years to settle, the transition was amicable and legal. That guideline of putting the family relations first became their anchor and their starting point for how to do business. “Denis said, however we do this, let’s all be able to go to the family dinner together,” says Martin.

Martin and brother Keith began focusing more on cropping and decided to expand seed production and the processing plant, which at the time was a secondary enterprise to the dairy farm in a small shed ducttaped to the side of a Quonset. “All along the dairy enterprise was still the focal point that gave us the opportunity to incubate other enterprises,” says Martin. “… beef in the ’60s, cow-calf in the ’70s and corn cribs did not stick long term… but seed did.”

A few years later Cribit Seeds became a shareholder in a little soybean seed company in Guelph named First Line Seeds. “We were a fledgling seed company displaying in a little tent at the plowing match in Bruce County. I still remember Peter Hannam (from First Line) came in and asked if we could talk.”

It was a turning point for them and for crop farmers in this part of Ontario with First Line Seeds developing some of the first Roundup Ready shorterseason soybeans. Eventually, the shareholders sold First Line seeds to Monsanto.

However, Cribit Seeds kept its partnership with DeKalb and today is still both a dealer and a processor.

They’re also members of Secan and a few years ago Martin was chair of this national seed organization.

By hiring people and or having arrangements with other businesses to do the bulk of sales and marketing for them, they are able to remain focused on their core strengths of production and processing, earning a reputation for the quality and cleanliness of their grain and seed.

Also crucial is their partnership strategy.

Ed Rigsbee, in his book The Art of Partnering asks: “Do I see the world as a zero-sum game — meaning for me to win, you have to lose? Or, do I see the world as full of possibility, where we can work together and build a bigger pie?”

The Martins believe in this win-win approach.

For example, they identified their niche as spring grains rather than trying to squeeze into the saturated commercial soybean and corn seed business. “We are not trying to get it all,” says Martin. “We don’t need everything to be able to make money, we just need to do our part well.”

Continued on page 18

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / MARCH 1, 2018

15

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BUSINESS

Last year’s gross revenues from farming activities, including custom and contract work for their growers, was about 20 per cent of their total farm revenues and about 40 per cent of their gross came from processing and marketing seed. They grow about 1,500 acres of pedigreed seed — soybeans, oats, barley and soft white wheat and contract some rye production.

Their biggest area of growth has been a value-added business, largely due to the blossoming craft-brewery business in Ontario. Over the last 15 years the foodgrade processing unit has grown to be 40 per cent of their gross revenues.

Relationships and timing Many years ago Martin remembers having a discussion with Keith and Craig about their long-term strategy and how the seed business was great, but the season was too limited and the risks too high with inventory and unpredictable weather. They concluded that

if they focused only on grain farming, their risk exposure would be too high. Nor would they be getting maximum use of their capital investments.

Shortly after this discussion, they had an opportunity to buy the roasting and processing equipment from a company they were supplying with cleaned whole grains.

“We made the move into the 98 per cent,” says Martin.

In 2004, they built a new facility, bought the processing equipment and made a fiveyear deal with the small company in Fergus, Ont., that it would continue to do the marketing. Eventually, that legal agreement evolved into a hug-and-handshake deal because of their long, close relationship and both parties knew they needed each other to be successful.

Martin Gooch, CEO of VCM International in Oakville, Ont., says value chains are about meaningful relationships and farmers should look for partners with the same

attitude as them. “They look to solutions.

They’re visionary and they don’t get stuck on the negative. They’re the type of people you want to partner with,” says Gooch.

Eventually, the small Fergus marketing company sold to a larger company with whom Wintermar Farms now has a legal business agreement to continue to process and sell them barley, oats, rye, soft wheat and oats.

A key business strategy — to go where few were, namely spring grains in Ontario — enabled this niche value-added business. This year, between the seed and the food processing plant, they will contract and take in production from over 10,000 acres, including their own production.

Plus sometimes good business is just good timing. University of Guelph researchers, Alfons Weersink, Mike Von Massow and Kevin Probyn-Smith found between 1985 and 2015 the number of breweries rose to 640 from 10. Most were craft breweries due to the demand for

Craig and brother Quentin Martin saw a gap in small-grains research that they could build into a business opportunity 18

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

local anchored food experiences and tax rules that provided a further disincentive for growth beyond a certain size in most Canadian jurisdictions.

“We stumbled into the industry 10 years ago and have ridden the wave,” says Martin.

On-farm research Early in the ’80s, the Martin brothers began looking harder at spring grain research in Ontario. “There was little work being done in breeding oats and barley, and we were losing the genetic race to keep these crops as viable alternatives to soybeans and corn,” says Martin.

So a dozen years ago they started doing their own on-farm small plot research. In 2011 they took on a significant two-year seed treatment and foliar study with some support from Grain Farmers of Ontario and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada GF2 grant money. Although it was compli-

cated and difficult, they learned a lot and it opened doors to more partnerships in research with OMAFRA, the University of Guelph, SeCan and other companies.

Perseverance and determination are other characteristics Martin says they’ve needed as seed growers. “I’ve learned with growing seed that it really takes three crop years to see if something will work. The first years could be outliers,” he says.

Although sometimes things don’t work out, there’s always a lesson in the failure, he says.

And you need to know when to call it quits even though you’ve invested into the concept and the relationships. Such as the Martins’ failed side business of making and selling prefab corncribs to dairy farmers back in the ’80s. That experience taught them how important business structure was to liability mitigation and gave them the “Cribit” name. CG

“It’s all of our responsibility to speak up for agriculture.”

Emmett Sawyer, Agvocate 4-H Member and Farmer

Be somebody who does something.

Be an agvocate.

Learn more at AgMoreThanEver.ca.

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / MARCH 1, 2018

19

BUSINESS

taste the future D

By Shannon VanRaes / CG Field Editor

The operation didn’t just jump from buckets to robots, however. The farm’s move to greater automation had been hard eased by decades of business decisions designed to build more flexibility into the operation.

“We started with the strap-buckets and then the stepsaver and then we put the milk line in,” Dawne reminisces. “I remember, it was $8,000 back in 1978 because every single person thought that we were nuts and it was waste of money and a terrible thing to do.”

As early adopters of technology, Lloyd says scepticism is something they’ve encountered and learned to anticipate.

“Even when we decided to go with robots or an automated voluntary milking system… at the time that was Continued on page 22

Photography: Chris Procaylo

awne and Lloyd Grenkow finish each other’s sentences, if not each other’s thoughts. “Working with family? I love it,” Dawne says, giving her son Lloyd a bit of a sideways glance and a laugh. “Really, though, you give your blood, sweat and tears to it, but everybody does. And everybody benefits.”

Dawne founded Grenkow Holsteins near Stonewall, a half-hour north of Winnipeg with husband Allan Grenkow in 1978, milking 42 cows with strap-buckets — a far cry from the sleek milking robots used by the Grenkows today.

“It’s amazing to see,” she says. “When they are ready to go in for milking, there is never a big herd, there is just one or so, then they will finish and go on their way, and then another cow will just get up, say ‘oh, okay’, and then it goes in to be milked too.”

Why is a farm that’s noted for its technological innovation suddenly getting involved in an enterprise producing Middle Eastern ice cream?

20

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BUSINESS

not quite acceptable yet; it wasn’t the norm,” Lloyd says.

Now, eight years after they made their move, Manitoba is leading the country in automated milking systems.

Today, the farm milks between 100 and 110 cows at any given time, but both Dawne and Lloyd say expansion was only possible because of increasing automation. With just Dawne, Allan and Lloyd managing the farm and doing chores, it’s a tight operation, run with precision.

“The reason we got to where we are today is probably because you and Dad took chances back then on automation,” says Lloyd, turning to Dawne. “We’re here now because of automation, because if we weren’t able to automate like this, we’d be an old facility and maybe that would have been the push to do something different, different farming or maybe even another industry.”

The farm doesn’t rely on hired help, although Lloyd’s sister lends a hand when she can and there are other relatives who pitch in from time to time. Dawne says that while bringing in employees has worked well for other dairy producers, the size of their operation hasn’t lent itself to hired help. Likewise, the farm’s proximity to Winnipeg means there are a lot of job postings to compete with when looking for employees.

22

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

Lloyd estimates that automation in their dairy barn does the work of close to two people, but says it’s not quite a quid pro quo. While the operation isn’t spending money on additional salaries, automation doesn’t come cheap either, and robots still require maintenance, care and attention.

Still, the benefits are clear.

“Before, it took all of us to get 68 cows down and we would spend most of the day doing labour, simple tasks,” Dawne says. “Now, with the same work crew, we’re able to do 100 or 110 cows. We’re not quite double what we did, but we can do almost twice as much with the same work force and have a little better lifestyle throughout the day. We have more flexibility because of the automation.”

Lloyd jokes that his three young kids still say he spends too much time at work, but the flexibility lets him spend time with them when it’s important. That same flexibility also makes it easier to handle the cropping side of the business.

And while technology is still at the forefront of business and planning decisions, the Grenkows are also making investments in social license. You might even call them “delicious” investments.

“You’ve got to try the Salty Carl… it’s salted caramel and it’s pretty amazing,” says Lloyd, referencing one of the many ice cream flavours made with milk from the Grenkow farm through an arrangement with Chaeban Ice Cream in Winnipeg.

A portion of the milk produced on the farm goes directly to the small-scale processor, which shares information about the milk and the farm it comes from with customers, emphasizing the local nature of the product and touting the high quality of Canadian dairy products.

“They were looking for a local producer so they could use their milk and market it as being loca,l and they picked us,” Lloyd says, noting the farm’s proximity to Winnipeg likely played a role in the decision as well.

“Of course, I like to think we’re friendly, happy people to work with,” he adds with a chuckle.

But in terms of finances, partnering with a local ice cream manufacturer doesn’t change the Grenkow’s bottom line. Under the supply managed system, milk is sold at a constant price regardless of its end destination.

“To do this, so our milk goes directly to him, is more of a nice social bonus,” says Lloyd. “But there is no financial incentive, there’s no bonus to ship our milk to Joseph (Chaeban) and make more money… everyone is the same, every producer gets paid the same.”

At the end of the day, partnering with a small processor was an important chance to connect with the broader community and show how much care dairy farmers put into their product. Given that milk is normally pooled, Lloyd also says it was a neat opportunity for friends and family to taste something made with milk from their farm.

“It was exciting because we really felt like we were a

With a direct line to the Grenkow farm, the husband and wife team of Joseph Chaeban and Zainab Ali produces ice creams like Abir Al Sham, flavoured with rosewater and cashews part of it,” says Dawne. “We went to the open house and we met the family, they came to the farm… we met his dad who was a very interesting, very funny, cheese-maker from Africa. I don’t care where you are in the world, if you meet another dairy farmer… you can sit there and talk and talk.”

Chaeban was born to Lebanese parents in Germany and his father studied cheesemaking in Europe before opening a cheese factory in Tunisia. The younger Chaeban then picked up the trade, moving to Winnipeg with his Syrian-born wife to work at Santorini Dairies. He then made the leap to ice cream with business partner Darryl Stewart, a man he meet through the South Osborne Syrian Refugee Initiative while helping his wife’s extended family flee civil war.

Chaeban says he knows how much work goes into milk production, and he knew from day one that having a relationship with the farmers supplying his small plant would be key for him and his customers.

“It is very hard to say thank you to Manitoba farmers if you do not put a face to it,” he says. “Now people coming into my shop know exactly where the milk is coming from and I can tell them about the hard work they are

doing at this farm and how good the quality of the milk is… I know it’s only one farmer, but it’s going across the whole board indirectly this way.”

For Henry Holtmann, vice-chair of Dairy Farmers of Manitoba, every small processor that opens its doors offers an opportunity for producers to engage in the broader community and further cement their social license to operate.

“We want to tell our story and… our biggest asset is the people that produce the product, so I think it creates engagement and brings us closer to our customers by having these small processors and producers talking one-on-one,” says Holtmann, who farms near the Grenkows. “And yes, maybe we can’t get our message out to the masses this way, but every story, big or little, every contact is important in building support.”

For those who are sceptical of supply management’s ability to support small processors, Lloyd sees the partnership between the Grenkows and Chaeban Ice Cream as proof positive that there is room for everyone to thrive Continued on page 24

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / MARCH 1, 2018

23

BUSINESS

in the supply managed system. He adds that it’s not about asking why small processors should enter a supply managed system, it’s about asking, “why not?”

“Of all the different processors out there, Joseph (Chaeban) is on the same level as any other processor, so if small processors like Joseph want to buy milk and make a product, they can do it, supply management is not a restriction to what you can do,” Holtmann says. “If everybody communicates, anybody can process anything

knowing they get a great product because it’s a supply managed product, so it’s great for producers, consumers and everybody.”

Holtmann says that dairy boards across Canada hold back a certain allocation of what is called discretionary milk, specifically to facilitate small- and medium-sized projects.

“If somebody comes to us with an idea, we’re able to support them,” he says. “And we don’t mind if they want to come on stream with a traditional product, but we

2457793-1 MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA DAS_SimplicityMatters_Black_15-25x6-5_CGW_a1.indd

1

are very much interested in specialty products… that may be something that’s behind a single-source farm, or a totally new product or maybe a new process. These are all things we want to encourage, and supply management has that built into the system.”

Lloyd adds that supporting small processors also helps build processing capacity across the milk pool. For several years, Manitoba had been lacking in processing capacity, but over the last year new plants have opened, both large and small.

“You’re not driven by profit, you’re not saying, ‘Well, I’m going to end it here to make more money,’ but it’s something that makes the whole industry better,” says Lloyd, adding that at the end of the day, having a healthy industry with a solid social license to operate is good for the farm’s bottom line.

To that end, Grenkow Holsteins has also opened its doors to the public during the province’s Open Farm Day in years past.

“I’d like to do it again, but it is a lot of

work,” Dawne says, noting it was Lloyd’s young son Connor who first suggested they take part so his friends could see what dairy farming is all about. “But what I loved about it, what I really, really enjoyed, is because of our location, there are so many young families that come out from the city, and we just love to show them, you know, that this is what it is like on the farm. People really don’t know what a dairy is like, what it does; you’re distanced from the farm.”

Already four generations deep, the Gren-

kows say it’s too early to know if there will be a fifth generation of dairy farmers in the future. But they do know what direction they’d like to see their farm move in the coming years.

More automation could mean more cows, more time or both, and Dawne adds it could also draw those younger generations of Grenkows towards farming. “I wouldn’t want them to work like we worked,” Dawne says. “That’s not to say they shouldn’t work hard, but hard in other ways.” CG

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BUSINESS

Hiring refugees A small non-profit in Belleville, Ont., has helped 90 Syrian refugees find good jobs on farms and in the ag and food sector.

Now other regions across Canada are replicating their model

By Maggie Van Camp / CG Senior Business Editor

S

hortly after coming to power in Ottawa, the federal Liberals announced Canada would help relocate displaced Syrians, and the program has proved widely popular. Across the country, over 350 communities have welcomed more than 40,000 Syrian refugees.

In the midst of it all in 2015, details on how this relocation would be achieved were scarce. Even so, in the town of Belleville, Ont., the executive director of Quinte Immigration Services (QIS), Orlando Ferro, began preparing for a major influx.

Based on his experience with refugees in 1999 during the Kosovo crisis, he expected Ottawa would fly refugees to military bases, including a major Canadian Forces base in nearby Trenton. That’s where the Kosovars had arrived and it’s where Ferro’s team at QIS worked with other stakeholders to help with that relocation process.

When the Syrian refugees began going through the assessment process, there was a surprise. Nearly a quarter had farm and food backgrounds Assuming the Syrian refugees would be handled similarly, Ferro’s team started mobilizing the community and several stakeholders with community meetings, planning sessions and two information forums about Syria and its culture, religion, demographics and the profile of the types of refugees they would be receiving.

A total of 29 presentations were made at service clubs, churches and community groups, and over 600 people attended those forums.

Looking deeper into the profiles of the expected refugees, Ferro noticed almost a quarter had an agricultural background. Further research backed this up, with one government report indicating 24 per cent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon had worked in agriculture.

Ferro made a link with his region’s employment needs. This part of Ontario is a mix of urban and rural, 26

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

with a rapidly developing wine industry. A few years ago, the Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Council pegged the gap between supply of and demand for farm workers at 60,000, and said farming’s job vacancy rate is among the highest of any sector in the economy.

Ferro’s vision was to create a program focused on finding employment in agriculture and in food processing for the Syrian refugees arriving in Trenton. He presented the plan to a local immigration partnership group and the stakeholders accepted and applauded the idea.

Canadian Red Cross offered to fund a pilot project (nearly $100,000 over two years), with in-kind contributions from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and settlement agencies across the provinces.

By May 2016 the QIS started putting in motion a strategic plan for the project, providing the refugees and other immigrants information about farming and food production in Canada, and matching them with jobs in the agri-food sector.

They called their project “Farmers Feed the World” a name inspired by “Farmers Feed Cities” bumper stickers.

Ferro also knew having Arabic-speaking staff was essential to the success of the project so they trained and certified Arabic-speaking professionals to act as interpreters.

To find and hire Arabic-speaking personnel was a challenge in this area, and they needed to recruit and train volunteers quickly. It took a few months to create a professional crew, but they had them in place for the refugees’ arrivals.

“In projects like this it is essential to have no communication barriers,” says Ferro.

The vision was to link these two very different groups to help the refugees find work and settle into their new country. And about 90 of the 150 refugee participants found work.

It was a pilot project and QIS soon discovered what doesn’t work for agriculture.

For example, they organized a refugee information session attended by 150 refugees, with support from OMAFRA and other stakeholders, and put together a panel of experts in different areas of work from self-employment to seasonal labour and full-time employment. However, the event interfered with planting season.

“Most of the agricultural jobs are seasonal,” says Ferro. “We needed to recruit, assess and prepare a con-

tingent of potential farming workers and food processing staff with the proper skills in time.”

However, this session was a needed preliminary step. It was here that assessments were started with individual interviews, and staff noticed many of the refugees had literacy challenges. They had lived for most of their lives in remote agricultural regions in Syria and needed support, training and help writing their resumés.

Just before the harvest season, QIS hosted a skill-match session, bringing together the assessed refugees (with their resumés put together by Ferro’s staff during the assessment process) with about 14 employers plus Prince Edward County officers representing 17 micro-farmers and employers in food processing. In all, 127 refugees attended and QIS interpreters assisted them during the interview process with potential employers.

From the session, many of the refugees were hired by farms or by food processing plants. Another group was trained and certified by the Health Unit in food handling and started catering services and working in Middle Eastern restaurants.

One lesson they learned was that harvest coincides with the religious holiday of Ramadan. “The workers were fasting during the day and very weak to perform the activities required during the harvest season,” says Ferro.

It was also a two-way learning process.

Just in time for the harvest, 18 workers who were previously selected for farming labour attended a bus tour of local farms and wineries organized by the county. It literally gave them the lay of the land before they started working on it.

Feedback from the employers indicated that many of the Syrian workers had additional skills not captured during their first assessment or on their resumés, since the target was only agricultural work. Many had skills in construction and other types of manual labour.

Recently, the project expanded beyond the region with a launch of an interactive website. It contains information about agriculture in Canada translated into Arabic and informational videos taken during the QIS information sessions in Belleville. “The manuals were developed and published by OMAFRA and we obtained the copyright licenses for the translation,” says Ferro.

The pilot project will officially close at the end of March but QIS is negotiating with another funder to maintain the support through the interactive sections of the website until the end of 2018.

This will also give the Syrian refugees

access to their Arabic-speaking staff as needed for a little longer.

Similar initiatives have started in Atlantic Canada, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and several other regions in Ontario have replicated this model. CG

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Photo: Deb Deville

BUSINESS

Smarter than you think Here’s what your kids come home having learned about business at ag college. It’s much, much more than even a few years ago

W

hen Colin Penner enrolled as a student in the University of Manitoba’s agricultural diploma program 10 years ago, he had to prepare a business plan for his farm. Today, he is back at the U of M as an instructor, teaching other students how to complete today’s planning assignments, which are miles ahead.

Preparing a farm business plan is part of the capstone courses in management planning in today’s ag schools.

At the end of their U of M diploma course, for instance, students defend their plan to a panel of farmers, agronomists, bankers, lawyers, scientists and teachers.

“The objective is for them to understand the farm,” says Penner. “A lot of students that come from the farm know how to drive the tractor and do the labour side of things well, but lack knowledge in the management and financial areas. We want to bring them up to speed about how to be a good manager and understand how the farm’s finances work.”

Ag students in the diploma program at Olds College in Alberta also have to prepare a business plan, but they aren’t allowed to base it on their home farm. Instead, students have a choice of farm operation such as a grain or mixed farm, cow/calf operation or value-added or quotabased farm, but they must begin from scratch.

28

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

By Angela Lovell

“The students choose what type of farm they want to start and then we give them the land base that they’re going to use,” says Mark Fournier, an instructor at Olds College. “They can’t take over their own operation because they know that one already, so they have to research the area, land prices, the equipment that they’re going to need and the loans and programs that are available to get started.”

“We wanted to make sure that there are no shortcuts for any of them,” says Fournier. “They actually have to research everything from scratch.”

Fournier says students not only gain the knowledge to research a brand new farm operation, they also understand the costs and amount of funding required, and the risks involved in starting a farm from scratch. The completed business plan also provides direction. “The value of a business plan is that everybody knows what’s happening and what the key priorities are, so when they’re making decisions, either as a farm family or as individuals, they know what those decisions should lead towards,” says Fournier.

There are many vital components to any business plan and Penner’s students focus first on defining the goals Continued on page 30

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BUSINESS

and objectives of the farm. “The first-semester students have to work on the overall vision and a mission statement,” says Penner. “We ask them where the farm is going and what do they need to do to get there. What are their two-, five- and 10-year goals? Maybe for some the shortterm goal is to get a job or graduate from university. The five-year goal may to establish themselves in the ag industry, and take over the farm 10 years from now. Because things change so much, they need to do crop budgets and plan for the future every year, but if they have an overarching vision of where they want to go, that helps to steer them into making informed decisions in the future.”

Understanding the finances Finances are another big focus in preparing budgets for enterprises that become more diversified as students look at different ways to add value to farm operations. “We’re seeing the traditional enterprises like wheat, canola, soybeans, oats, corn and cattle, but we are also beginning to see some unique budgets coming forward,” says Penner. “I recently marked a budget on a maple farming enterprise as part of the farm. The objective is to figure out if something will fit on the farm. Will it be profitable?”

Fournier also focuses heavily on financial planning, and makes sure his students understand the differences between the types of plans, such as funding proposals for operating versus enterprise plans for new initiatives such as land purchases, new farming methods or technologies, or different crops or livestock.

“There are also plans that are designed to help struggling farms, so if they are at a point where they’re not overly profitable and it’s going to be a bit of a crisis, then they’ll need to work their way out of it,” says Fournier.

“At that point they’re not looking from scratch, they’re looking from a point of usually very high loans and they need to plan for how they’re going to cope with that.”

Cash flows play a big part in these financial pictures and Fournier encourages students to do a 36-month rolling cash flow so every month they are looking at least two years out. “When we are doing our business plan in class I have them do a 36-month cash flow statement, and at all points, they have to have money in the bank, including a line of credit, just so they can eat,” he says.

What’s interesting is that often, halfway through the semester, students realize that out of their team of three, only one person can work on the farm full time and the other two have to go get full-time jobs just to make a go of it.

“That’s quite an eye-opener for them,” says Fournier, who doesn’t award any marks for profit in his course.

“Grades are awarded on the best researched and most realistic plan, not the most profitable plan. If their final conclusion says that here’s the entire plan and as we have it thought out, it’s not going to be a profitable farm, and we cannot advise starting it, there’s full marks for that because that’s why we do business plans.

“If it’s not feasible on paper, if they can’t get it to 30

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

work in black and white, then why would they risk millions of dollars and years of their life to run something into the ground. If the plan shows it’s going to be successful, fair enough, but what do you need to do that’s different if it’s not?”

In most cases, getting a farm enterprise off the ground involves a high demand for cash. Fournier recalls a former graduate whom he ran into who figured out he’d be better off working at Tim Horton’s than getting into a quota system as he’d hoped to do.

“He did a full business plan and realized he would need about $250,000 to put down in equity before he could actually make a living wage off of the farm,” says Fournier. “At that point in time, he was going up north to try and make his $250,000.”

The bigger picture Looking at the bigger picture and how everything on the farm ties together is something that Penner’s students often struggle with. “They come to realize that it’s not just driving tractors, or hauling grain, or buying fertilizer. It’s the whole picture and how everything ties together,” says Penner.

That often extends to the industry as well. Fournier says he’s surprised at how little students pay attention to the larger agricultural industry and how they fit into it. “It amazes me that they know what they and their neighbours have done in the past, but when I ask them what has happened the last five years in Alberta or Western Canada or across Canada as a whole, they often have trouble with that,” says Fournier. “So it’s breaking them out of that mindset to not look just at their particular farm, but to look at the overall industry that’s probably the biggest hurdle I’ve come across. To see that, yes, their farm is important but it’s part of a bigger system and we have these micro/macro trends that will have an impact on them.”

Part of the reason for planning is to try and anticipate the unexpected, which is why Penner includes a stress test as part of his students’ business plan project.

“We tell them to think of something that they don’t think is ever going to happen on the farm, and consider how the farm would handle this stress,” Penner says. “As an example, what if the neighbour decides to sell their farm and it’s the same size as theirs; can they afford to double in size? What happens if they have a crop insurance year? What happens if they have another year like we had this past year, where crop yields in some areas were through the roof? How does that affect the farm? It’s about looking at what they’re doing now, but planning for the future, and for a best-case scenario, and a worstcase scenario, and for things that come out of left field.”

Fournier’s program also tries to prepare students for some unexpected pitfalls, and he says one of the biggest fears he has is increasing interest rates. “Our students have never known a period of rising interest rates.

They’ve always known incredible low interest rates so for

Photo: Chris Procaylo

them this is the norm,” he says. “In all probability they will, over their lifetime, see interest rates at least double and if they don’t factor that into their long-term loan payment decisions, we could definitely see some struggling farms in the future.”

Help with transition A big component of the business plan project at both U of M and Olds College is transition planning, and that begins with equipping the students so they can start to have a conversation with their parents and begin to understand the family farm operation better.

This is often the hardest part of the transition process, and can be a stumbling block to creating an effective business plan.

“One of my assignments is to go home and ask your parents if they have a will,” says Penner.

“The succession plan starts there. Being able to discuss finances with parents is difficult because the parents have worked hard for years to build the operation and sharing it with an 18-year-old or somebody that wants to move from the tractor into management, that’s a tricky conversation. Our goal is to start that conversation.”

It’s not unusual for some students to come back frustrated at first because their parents just don’t want to have that conversation, but as they progress through the business planning process and demonstrate their ability to understand complex management issues, and share that knowledge with their parents, in many cases the attitudes and relationships change.

“Often, what we find is that as the conversation goes on between the students and the parents, the parents

They come to realize that it’s not just driving tractors or hauling grain,” Penner says. “It’s the whole picture.” sit back and say this kid is showing initiative and really does understand what’s going on,” says Penner. “The students are smart. They start to figure things out on their own and it really opens that dialogue and is a positive experience.”

At Olds College, succession planning is part of the finance component of their program because a big part of the process is figuring out how the next generation will finance the farm transition.

“The incoming generation needs to know all the tax rules and regulations and what vehicle they’re going to use to pay the last generation out, and whether it’s a family trust, or a corporate farm and who’s going to own the land,” says Fournier.

“If there are multiple kids, what role are they going to take, who’s going to be the boss, who’s going to live in the big house, and what roles are off-farm siblings going to play? These are things that any long-term farm plan should have. So we are trying to give our students some high-level tools to help them open up discussions over the next few years with their parents about farm transition.”

Continued on page 32

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / MARCH 1, 2018

31

BUSINESS

A lifelong value Penner has many students come back and tell him that these exercises have helped them make decisions and weather challenges on their own farm years later.

“The students get a good grasp of their operation and when there’s an opportunity to expand the farm or to step in and be a manager, I’ve had a number of students say, this has really prepared me, this has really been a useful exercise,” he says. “It’s neat to have students emailing

me a couple of years after the fact and say, ‘Can I get your spreadsheet because I want to do something at home on the farm and I remember using this and it worked well’.”

Fournier says the biggest feedback he gets from students about what the program has taught them is how hard it is to make a profit and how expensive farming really is. That causes them to get realistic about farming in a big hurry.

“In the first year they are often talk-

32 57770_1_DAS_Paradigm_2018_Time_EB_G4A_15x6-625_a2.indd MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

1

ing about new equipment, but when they’re doing the business plan, most of the equipment is coming from Kijiji, it’s equipment that’s five or six years old because they learn that getting this older, less costly equipment is the only way they can get enough money to eat,” says Fournier.

It takes a lot of time and effort to write a comprehensive business plan, which is why they shouldn’t sit on the top shelf and gather dust. “When peo-

ple are getting started, they should do a larger plan and update it on an annual basis,” says Fournier. “Needs are always going to change and they need to know what’s the cash position, the loans position, what needs to change, is there new equipment that needs to come in, how is that going to be dealt with, so they can address all these needs on a proactive ongoing basis.”

Because the bigger picture is so important, it’s vital that students get out in the

industry and make connections, build relationships and never stop learning.

“I tell my students to go to as many workshops and seminars as they can, learn what the changes are, look how people are adapting to changes. Then make those contacts and start incorporating those into their yearly operational plans,” says Fournier. “Forming relationships in order to navigate the challenges of the future is essential because the industry is changing so fast. You don’t necessarily have to be leading

the industry but you need to be talking with those who are leading the industry to see what’s working and what’s not.

“I advise my students to be involved in different things. It doesn’t need to be all ag-related but if they are on a Co-op board, or the curling rink board, or part of an organization, they’re going to be in leadership with other tremendous leaders and will learn from them and be encouraged by them to keep learning and to keep working at it.” CG

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BUSINESS

Eight steps

to your HR strategy Getting professional about HR is a strategy that pays whether the farm is big or small, and whether workers are family or hired

By Angela Lovell

T

he labour gap in Canadian agriculture continues to widen and is expected to double by 2025. That’s prompting more farm businesses to focus on recruiting and retaining employees.

At the same time, with employment standards constantly changing, and with considerations such as health and safety and workers compensation to think about, some farms are beginning to develop a human resource (HR) strategy to help them find the right people and then to keep them.

Farm businesses lag behind other industries when it comes to looking at HR strategies, policies and practices.

That’s partly because many are still family operations, while others are just reaching the point where they need to hire outside employees.

It turns out that all farms, regardless of size or structure, and whether they are family-run corporations, partnerships or sole proprietorships can benefit from some HR planning.

“Human resource planning should be part of overall farm business management just like planning for production and marketing,” says Khosi Mashinini, a farm business management specialist with Manitoba Agriculture. “A strong and effective HR plan will strengthen the people side of the business, which includes hiring and retaining high-performing employees.”

Mashinini speaks often on HR, and presents tips for developing a HR strategy based on Manitoba Agriculture’s workbook, Human Resource Management for Farm Business. The workbook is available free online (see list of resources below), and outlines a step-by-step process for developing a HR management strategy for any farm size or type.

1. Self-Evaluation The recruitment process can’t begin until the business knows what it’s looking for. Mashinini recommends completing a self-evaluation to help the business identify what it is currently doing in terms of HR and what it needs to start doing. The self-evaluation helps the farm to identify its HR priorities and to develop objectives with timelines.

34

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

“The goal is to recruit and retain good employees for the business,” Mashinini says. “You want to hire people who fit into your business culture and ensure everyone understands the role of the new person coming in. You also have to consider the benefits you as an employer will offer.”

2. Creating an Identity Developing an identity for the farm business before beginning the recruitment process helps to set it apart as an employer of choice and attract people to want to work for it. “What is your farm all about and what are your beliefs and values?” asks Mashinini. “How are you different from the farm two miles down the road?

Creating a marketable identity and reputation helps you differentiate your business when you are recruiting new employees and lets them know why you are unique and the benefits they will get from being your employee.”

3. Recruiting The next must-have is a job description that clearly identifies the job’s duties and responsibilities. It should also outline the skills and experience needed to do the job, including any educational or licensing requirements.

The job description should include what conditions the employee can expect to be working under. Not only does a job description give candidates a clear idea of what the position is, it also helps keep the employer focused during the interview process to make sure their questions are relevant to the position and the skills they are seeking.

There are many ways to get the word out about the vacancy, including local and industry media, social media, posters in local businesses and government job sites.

But don’t underestimate the value of networking, talking with current employees, neighbours and others in the industry to help find the right candidate. Mashinini advises “antenna recruiting” — always observing the people around you and looking for people who could make good employees now or in the future.

4. Hiring The hiring process is important because an employee should add value to the farm business, so hiring the right person is critical. “A bad hire can affect your business’s bottom line, staff morale, equipment and assets,” says Mashinini.

A standard hiring process can save time and help ensure employers choose the right person for their business. That process should include everyone on the farm who will be involved in interviewing candidates and/or responsible for supervision.

Review applications all at the same time to compare them. If there are a lot of qualified candidates, consider drawing up a shortlist and conducting a brief, pre-screening interview by phone with them. “A brief 10-minute conversation to ask them why they are interested in the job and what they know about the farm will help you learn more about them so you can weed out any candidates that may not fit,” says Mashinini.

Once the final interviewees are decided, the interview process should not exceed an hour and the candidate should be doing most of the talking. It’s important to ask all candidates the same questions to make it possible to compare them fairly. Also make sure you have the job description and the interview questions printed out ahead of time. Behavioural questions, such as those that ask candidates to give examples of their prior experience in specific situations, give a better understanding of the candidate’s capabilities and the way they are likely to handle or react to different scenarios.

Always make the employment offer to the chosen candidate in writing and ensure both the employer and employee sign it when the candidate accepts the offer.

5. Orientation and Training The first day on a new job can be daunting, which is why an orientation process that makes the new employee feel welcome can be an important first step in developing an employee who will be happy and productive.

Besides introducing them to the crew, the orientation should ensure the person knows what their job is and understands the processes involved and the employer’s expectations of them. They need to know who to ask for help and understand how to do the job safely. An employer should answer Continued on page 36

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BUSINESS

any questions that the employee has, which may not all be directly related to the actual tasks they will perform. A new employee may want to get a feel for how they will fit into the farm, what it will be like to work there and who they take orders from.

Most new employees will need training, so a step-bystep plan that is well thought out ahead of time will save a lot of time and confusion. It’s important to cover everything they will need to know to do the job and make sure they understand it fully. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that if you are only hiring family members they don’t need training. They may have grown up on the farm, but don’t necessarily know how to do some tasks. As well, if there are other non-family employees, it’s important to make sure they are all treated the same way and don’t perceive that the relative is getting special treatment.

6. Motivating employees Regular staff meetings and a commitment to ongoing communication are key to retaining employees, as is a plan for ongoing training and professional development that can help keep them motivated and offer opportunities for promotion if that’s what they are seeking.

In fact, motivating employees and monitoring their performance is another key aspect of any HR strategy.

“Motivated staff create a positive, productive working environment and are much more likely to remain with the business,” says Mashinini.

Motivation always begins with a competitive salary but “fair” salaries might also include paid sick and vacation time that is above and beyond the minimum standards, or flexible working hours. Motivators can be things like salary and health benefits, or can be more intrinsic such as good communications and showing respect and appreciation for what employees do. What motivates one employee may not motivate another, so it’s important to put yourself in their shoes, says Mashinini. “Think of what you would like and how you would want to be treated,” she says.

Employers should do a performance review at least once a year because employees don’t perform to the best of their capabilities if they don’t know what the employer expects from them. “Many times employees

Resources for developing an HR strategy • Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council HR Toolkit hrtoolkit.cahrc-ccrha.ca

• Manitoba Agriculture Human Resource Management for Farm Business in Manitoba www.manitoba.ca/agriculture/business-and-economics/ business-management/pubs/interactive_e1.pdf

• Farm Management Canada HR webinars, articles and tools fmc-gac.com

36

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

ask two common questions: what is my job, and how am I doing? Providing feedback that shows you appreciate and value what they do is a primary and ongoing responsibility for supervisors and farm owners,” says Mashinini. She suggests employers immediately recognize the efforts of employees, especially when they are going beyond what is expected.

“Whenever you are giving recognition, don’t just recognize the high-performing employees,” Mashinini says. “Look for opportunities to encourage everybody, because when employees feel encouraged they are happier, more productive and will stay longer with you.”

7. Resolve conflicts Conflicts may arise between employees, or between employees and managers or supervisors, or among family members involved in the farm operations. Employers need to deal with such conflicts swiftly.

“If conflict is not addressed it can lead to low morale, decreased production and damage to the reputation of your farm business, and may lead to constant turnover of employees,” says Mashinini.

In some cases it may be necessary to impose some kind of disciplinary action, but first it’s vital to understand the situation. Speak to each person involved in the conflict separately and listen objectively to their perspective, without taking sides. Then bring them together to discuss the matter. “Show them how their behaviour is affecting the business operation and put the emphasis on the employees or whoever is involved to create a conflict solution,” says Mashinini.

“Write it down and get them and the employer to sign the document so there is a record in case anything happens in the future. Sometimes the conflict is a simple misunderstanding, which is why it’s important to have good communications and a conflict resolution strategy to fall back on.”

8. Create manuals Developing an employee and standard operating procedures manuals provides clear, “how-to” instructions about how the farm business is to run and provides guidance to employees when their supervisor or manager isn’t available to help them.

The employee manual states what the farm business expects from its employees and what they can expect from the business in return. The standard operating procedures set out the steps and tasks to get different jobs done on the farm. All too often this knowledge ends up in someone’s head and not on paper, so it’s vital that this experience and knowledge is written down for employees who aren’t familiar with how things are done on the farm.

“An HR strategy is more than just hiring and retaining people,” Mashinini says. “A strategy should align with the farm’s goals and improve the quality of the people that it hires. A solid and strong HR plan will provide positive results for the farm business.” CG

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------ head ------

flag leaf

10 years of return on investment 2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Folicure®

+3.7 n=8

+2.7 n=18

+7.1 n=16

+8.5 n=6

+4.7 n=20

+7.5 n=4

+4.1 n=4

+3.2 n=6

Prosaro®

+5.7 n=3

+6.5 n=21

+12 n=12

+9.6 n=18

+6.9 n=20

+9.1 n=18

+6.1 n=13

+4 n=7

+7.7 n=3

2017

10- year avg.

+6.1 n=4

+5.0 n=86

+6.5 n=10

+7.7 n=125

+7.2 n=10

Prosaro XTR no trials conducted

2016

losing money

breaking even

making money

Numbers expressed as gain in bu./ac. versus the untreated check.

Source: Bayer grower-co-operated replicated DSTs (2008–2017). “N” represents the number of trials in each case.

Assumes $6/bu. wheat price and $5/ac. application cost. Note: Not all products are included in every trial.

Bayer cro p Science / Country Guide Special Supp le m e nt

3

Clubroot oozes on, but sclerotinia is still No. 1 Canola diseases are a challenge that can be managed, but you need to get out of your truck and do some scouting | By Clare Stanfield

W

at seeding and for the two weeks immediately following.

Get out of your truck, he says, walk into the fields and really look at the plants, do emergence counts and check for disease problems. If something looks wrong and you aren’t sure what it is, check with an agronomist.

“The next most important time to scout is at flowering when you assess yield potential and make spray decisions,” he says.

Get out again before harvest to assess crop maturity and scout for diseases on the stems. It’s a good time also to check for clubroot galls on plant roots.

“If you’re going to grow canola in a tight rotation, the tradeoff is spending more time in the field,” he says. “If you don’t want to do that, then use longer rotations.”

ith all the canola acres out there, are we creating a monster when it comes to disease?

Yes and no, says Clint Jurke, agronomy director with the Canola Council of Canada. “There’s an understanding that diseases are going to get worse over time,” he says.

“And with more acres there’s more risk. But there are ways to manage it — if farmers are willing to put in the work.”

And that’s the crux of the matter, really. Not that anyone has a “seed it and forget it” attitude toward what is usually their No. 1 moneymaker, but Jurke thinks farmers do need to step up their scouting activity, overall disease surveillance, and budget the necessary time to do that properly because knowing exactly what’s going on in your fields is key to managing it.

He says the most critical time to be in the field is right

Manitoba Clubroot Distribution

Cumulative Testing (2009-2016) Manitoba clubroot distribution • Cumulative testing (2009-2016)

Legend Spores in Soil Per Gram Not tested

MinitonasBowsman

Swan River West

0 - 1,000 1,001 - 10,000 Mountain

10,001 - 80,000

Lakeshore

HillsburgRoblinShell River

Grahamdale Gilbert Grandview Plains

Dauphin West Interlake

Ste. Rose

Riding Mountain West

BifrostRiverton

Fisher

Alonsa

McCreary RussellBinscarth

Gimli

Rossburn Harrison Park ClanwilliamErickson

Yellowhead ElliceArchie

Symptoms Observed

Kelsey

Mossey River

Ethelbert

GlenellaLansdowne St. Andrews

WestlakeGladstone

MintoOdanah

Oakview

Alexander St. Laurent

Rosedale

Prairie View Hamiota

Armstrong

Coldwell

St. Clements

Lac du Bonnet

Rockwood Woodlands

Pinawa Brokenhead

Riverdale

WallaceWoodworth

Whitehead Pipestone

Sifton

North CypressLangford

Elton

Portage La Prairie

North Norfolk

East St. Paul

Cartier

Cornwallis

SourisOaklandGlenwood Wawanesa Grassland

BrendaWaskada

BoissevainMorton

DeloraineWinchester

Springfield

Whitemouth

Headingley Taché GlenboroSouth Cypress

Victoria

Grey

Norfolk Treherne

Macdonald

Prairie Lakes

Lorne

KillarneyTurtle Mountain

CartwrightRoblin

Morris Thompson Roland

Argyle

Louise

Pembina

Stanley

Ritchot

Ste. Anne

Montcalm

Rhineland

De Salaberry EmersonFranklin

La Broquerie

Map created on January 24, 2017 Piney Stuartburn

Though symptoms have not been severe, Manitoba Agriculture has been testing soil for the clubroot pathogen since 2009, and it’s evident in about 15 per cent of fields.

4

Bay e r c r o p Science / Country Guide Special Supplement

Reynolds

Hanover

Dufferin

Two Borders

West St. Paul

St. François Rosser Xavier

Source: Manitoba Agriculture results from soil and canola plant tissue analysis from 2009 to 2016

Stop ignoring clubroot “There’s been a lot of complaining about clubroot in areas where it wasn’t assumed to be,” says Jurke. “And some growers have had a cold shock finding out they have to treat this disease more seriously, because once it’s established, you’re not getting rid of it.”

Programs to monitor and test for the presence of clubroot are a bit of a patchwork across the Prairies. Alberta takes a targeted approach whereby surveys of canola and mustard crops are conducted annually to produce clubroot incidence maps. To date, nearly 40 counties have been identified as having clubroot.

Saskatchewan relies on volunteers stepping forward to have their fields surveyed. Only about 100 fields were soil tested for this pathogen last year, which does not provide a full and accurate picture of the problem, particularly when five of the infested counties identified in Alberta are right on the Saskatchewan border.

Manitoba is the only province to systematically test the soil itself for the presence of the clubroot pathogen, offering perhaps the clearest window on clubroot incidence and distribution. “A bit less than 15 per cent of Manitoba fields have the clubroot pathogen,” says Jurke.

“It’s a good indication of how widespread the pathogen is.”

So, what to do? Two things: first, use clubroot-resistant seed — even if you don’t believe you have the pathogen in your soil. Jurke says he would love to see 100 per cent clubroot-resistant seed use — that’s how bad this disease can get. “Seed supply is pretty good now, but we’ll see susceptible varieties for the next few years yet.”

Second, get political. Jurke suspects that one reason more Saskatchewan, and perhaps Alberta farmers as well, aren’t eager to have testing done on their land is fear of regulation. In Alberta, for example, some municipalities have imposed a five-year (sometimes more) rotation restriction for known clubroot fields. “This is beyond what provincial management plans and researchers advocate,” says Jurke, adding it may make farming more difficult for some.

“Assume you have clubroot — if not on your land then on your neighbour’s land,” he says. How would you want this handled? “Constructively engaging with your municipality to determine appropriate plans and actions that you and other farmers can work with. Very aggressive regulation does not appear to have worked to stop clubroot spread.”

Blackleg masquerading as root rot There’s was a feeling last year that root rot was a bigger problem than blackleg. Not so fast, says Jurke.

“We have observed that tighter rotations tend to favour pythium and rhizoctonia, but overall, the numbers for root rots caused by these pathogens are lower than in the past,” he says.

He thinks the perception that root rot is a bigger problem than blackleg reveals a misunderstanding of the latter. “Root rot doesn’t cause blackleg, but blackleg can cause root rot,” he says.

So while it pays to keep an eye on your blackleg situation as a potential risk indicator for root rot, there are, he says, actions you can take this spring to mitigate root and seedling disease overall.

Damping off (pythium) for example, is a real risk when planting early into cool, damp soils in a tight rotation. “So plant a little later, plant into warmer soils and your damping off problem goes away,” says Jurke. “Or if you have to go earlier, up your seeding rate to make up for seedling loss to damping off.”

It always comes down to boring old best management practices because even though canola genetics are getting stronger all the time, and even though seed comes pre-treated with fungicides, that little canola seed can only be asked to do so much in poor spring conditions.

“It’s common for us to be called out to fields with a complaint about the seed,” he says. More often than not, the seed’s failure to establish was due to agronomic decisions, such as seeding too deep or too thin, into soils that were too cold, and so on.

Blackleg stem damage. New variety labels specify which blackleg gene to which they are resistant.

A graphic illustration of how sclerotinia can cut yield. While resistance is being incorporated into some varieties, spraying is still the best control.

Photos: Canola Council of Canada

So what about blackleg?

“The industry came together last February and some seed companies are now using the new labels,” says Jurke. “From a farmer’s point of view, the more information they have to work with, the better decisions they can make when choosing a variety.”

Along with the usual “resistant” or “moderately resistant” rating, the new labels tell growers which specific blackleg-resistant gene is carried in a variety.

Tests of old canola residue can tell them what particular race of the blackleg fungus is in a field and, armed with those two pieces of information, growers can select a specific canola variety that will be able to grow in that field.

It’s a huge step forward for blackleg management in Canada. “Incidence of blackleg has increased over the last five years, but it’s still considered a minor disease in Canada in terms of yield cost,” says Jurke. “Everywhere else in the world, blackleg is the No. 1 disease, and it’s still an ongoing trade issue. Our resistance has been pretty good, but there are signs of it breaking down.”

If farmers are going to continue to grow canola in tight rotations, and there’s no sign of that stopping anytime soon, blackleg-resistance labelling and race testing are going to be the new normal.

Sclerotinia Sclerotinia remains the No. 1 yield robber of canola. “There’s a lot of good research being done and new disease monitoring methods, but it still comes down to spraying,” says Jurke. “Resistance is getting better and better, but it can’t replace a spray yet.”

Of course, the trick to an effective fungicide application is timing, and there’s some new tech out there that can help. Jurke mentions a company in Saskatoon offering a test for early detection of sclerotinia.

Using a kit provided by the company, farmers pluck a representative sample of canola flower petals, send them in and get the results back within a day indicating whether or not a spray is warranted.

Another company he’s heard of is developing nanotechnology sensors that can be placed right in the canola field to detect pathogen levels, then link that to local weather data to provide a spray recommendation.

It’s all very interesting, and Jurke definitely sees a role for this kind of tech as part of an overall disease management plan. “You can effectively manage for just about every canola disease,” he says. “I think our industry is in really good shape to find new solutions.” 

Bayer crop Science / Co untry Guide Special Supp l e m e n t

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Seed treatment and field sanitation key for lentils Even if conditions are not as bad as last year, lentil growers still need to be on the watch for root rot diseases | By Clare stanfield

T

he afterglow of 2016’s International Year of Pulses sure didn’t last long — 2017 started with wet soils in most lentil-growing regions, leading to a high incidence of root rot and prices took a hit from trade problems with India.

Even so, lentils will still be going into the ground this year with the heady days of 50-plus cent lentil prices behind us (for now, at least). So growers will be considering management choices a bit more carefully, particularly when it comes to disease control, since fungicides can be one of the pricier crop inputs.

One place they shouldn’t pull back, however, is seed treatment. Aphanomyces euteiches, which was first identified in 2011, is a leading cause of root rot in lentils. Similar to the clubroot pathogen, aphanomyces is a water mould that shows its teeth only in wet growing conditions. It’s incredibly destructive and, again like clubroot, once it’s in a field, it’s in to stay.

“In terms of root rot, aphanomyces is a bigger player in lentils than fusarium,” says Syama Chatterton, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge. While she estimates the pathogen to be present in most pulse-growing areas, there is a pattern. “We found anywhere from 50 per cent presence of disease in fields in the north, to zero per cent toward the southern pulse regions, where it was drier in 2017.”

And that is the key. Aphanomyces is highly dependent on weather, so in Alberta and Saskatchewan in 2016, when it was pretty wet throughout the season, aphanomyces was a problem throughout the year. In 2017, in areas where conditions were very dry, there was much less aphanomyces present. And while the real economic losses occur in spring when lentil plants go down to root rot, Chatterton says that late-season outbreaks are important to note since they can indicate trouble areas you need to watch.

“If you see a yellow patch in your crop in July and you suspect it might be aphanomyces, dig up some roots and send them in

then rather than wait until harvest or next spring,” she says. “It can be harder to sample in the right place if you leave it for later.”

Getting the roots for testing is important. “From my own experience, it’s best to get fresh roots rather than soil,” says Chatterton. “Identification of aphanomyces is not as easy as it can be for other pathogens because it’s so hard to isolate — it needs a DNA test, and fresh roots are better for that.”

Best management protocols are still being developed for aphanomyces, but if you know you have it in your field there are a few things you can do now.

First, use a seed treatment. “Lentils are particularly susceptible to seedling blights,” says Chatterton. “Seed treatments are particularly good at protecting against that.” It’s easy to focus only on aphanomyces since it’s the newest bugaboo, but don’t overlook the usual troublemakers — fusarium, pythium and rhizoctonia — which are covered by most lentil treatment products.

Second, stay clean. “Farmers with aphanomyces should use the same sanitation practices as with clubroot,” says Chatterton. “I know they seem impractical, but they are important to limit disease spread.”

Third, step up your record-keeping. “Aphanomyces never really goes away, and we’re still trying to figure out how long a break is needed to let inoculum thresholds decline sufficiently,” she says. “Right now, we’re saying six to eight years.” That may seem extreme, and it’s only a recommendation for now until further research can be done.

“In lentils, we’re really starting from scratch with this disease,” says Chatterton, adding that the Crop Development Centre (CDC) in Saskatoon is working on resistant cultivars, but the nature of this pathogen makes that a more difficult task than with other pulse diseases.

“And maybe it doesn’t matter so much whether you identify what the disease actually is, because the treatment is still the same. What’s critical is finding those lesions on small plants.”

Sabine Banniza CDC

This photo shows sclerotinia white mould-infested pods on the left and a botrytis grey mould-infested pod on the right.

Photo: Cheryl Cho

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Bay e r c r o p Science / Country Guide Special Supplement

Foliar disease: timing truly is everything The season may have started pretty damp everywhere last year, but things dried up nicely in Saskatchewan, says Sabine Banniza, plant pathologist with the CDC. “It means lentil seed quality overall is very good this year.”

That’s good news in that healthy seed tends to lead to healthy plants. But foliar disease is a constant reality for lentil growers and Banniza has some advice.

“Early in the season, look for anthracnose and ascochyta,” she says. “It’s important to spray for them before the canopy closes, at about eight to nine nodes. And if it gets wetter later in the season, botrytis and sclerotinia are the ones to watch for.”

All well and good, but what exactly are you looking for? Banniza agrees that it can be very difficult for anyone, even experts, to spot tiny disease lesions on young lentil plants before canopy closure — they are that small.

And maybe simply identifying the presence of foliar disease — any foliar disease — should take top billing over exact identification. “Even I can have trouble distinguishing an ascochyta lesion from an anthracnose lesion,” she says.

“And maybe it doesn’t matter so much whether you identify what the disease actually is, because the treatment is still the same. What’s critical is finding those lesions on small plants.”

Indeed, Banniza says the right application timing is probably more important than the specific product used, particularly if you have to wait a few days for a targeted fungicide product to be delivered. Most farmers have a broad-spectrum fungicide on hand and they should just use it if timing is right. But is there a resistance risk in using broad-spectrum fungicides over more targeted ones?

“Companies have worked hard at this and, for the most part, most fungicide products are mixes, which helps address the resistance issue,” she says. “If I were a grower and I had a disease problem, I’d be more worried about the right application timing than making sure I had a specific product.”

Late-season diseases, like sclerotinia and botrytis grey mould, are a tougher call. “It requires looking into that famous crystal ball,” says Banniza. It’s the eternal question of whether or not it’s going to rain because outbreak of these diseases is almost entirely dependent on there being moist conditions in the field. The trouble is that rain often comes once the canopy has closed and when you spray then, only the top pods and new growth are protected.

There are a couple of defensive strategies. First of all, assume the sclerotinia and botrytis pathogens are already in your lentil field — because they probably are.

If your crop looks like it’s going to be bushy and heavy, you can comfortably predict disease will be a problem should the rain come. “In that case, you can spray a bit earlier, before the canopy closes, and know you’ll get that two to three weeks of protection,” says Banniza.

And while there are lentil cultivars with some genetic resistance to these diseases, Banniza advises growers to keep an eye on them. “If you’re growing a variety with partial resistance and disease comes into the crop all the same in a big way, we’d like to know about that,” she says. “Resistance is not completely durable and can erode over time. If that happens, we’d like to know about it so we can collect isolates and see what’s happening.” 

Ascochyta leaf lesions.

Photo: Sabine Banniza

Anthracnose symptoms in lentils.

Photo: Sabine Banniza

Bayer crop Science / Co untry Guide Special Supp l e m e n t

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Do fungicides pay when it’s dry?

Examine the ‘disease triangle’ — the host, the pathogen and the environment | By Jennifer Barber

L

ast season brought a much-needed respite from disease for growers in Western Canada. Despite dry weather across much of the Prairies, cereal yields were high, prices were good and the yield- and quality-robbing effects of fusarium head blight were at a minimum. Mother Nature co-operated and management measures were able to stay on top of most diseases.

So were fungicides an unnecessary expense, and would they be if it’s dry again this season?

“If you have the inoculum in the soil, which most areas now do, it pays to spray a fungicide,” says Troy Basaraba, senior field marketing specialist with Bayer Canada. “A foliar fungicide application should be part of an integrated management approach to dealing with disease. As part of our field-scale fungicide demonstration strip trial (DST) program, we monitor the moisture levels throughout the season, as you may see one set of weather conditions up to application time, and another after.

“We have found with both normal and wet moisture conditions, a foliar fungicide will definitely pay for itself and generate a positive return on investment. However, even in situations where moisture is less than normal, we have seen on average that fungicides are still providing yield and quality protection to pay for themselves.”

The disease triangle As part of its decade-long field-scale cereal fungicide research program, Bayer has looked closely at the impact of moisture on disease. The results have shown that on average in most cases, there was a positive return from fungicide.

However, Basaraba says growers need to look closely at the disease triangle to help determine whether to spray.

“Growers know you need three things when considering

“In 2017, we conducted 52 fungicide trials and 44 of those trials took place under the conditions we qualified as dry. We still got a really good yield response with a fungicide application when you compare them to the untreated check.”

Troy Basaraba Bayer Canada

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Bay e r c r op Science / Country Guide Special Supplement

their risk for fusarium — or any disease for that matter,” he says. “You need a susceptible host, the disease pathogen, and a conducive environment including moisture and temperature.

It doesn’t have to be a lot of moisture — high humidity can be enough for those spores to release. Our research has shown that if cereal growers have the pathogen, they need to be proactive and manage for the disease every year.”

With the spread of pathogens west and north over the past 25 years, disease is being found in more and more areas each year. Bayer trials took place across all soil zones on the Prairies, over areas of differing disease pressure and with a variety of weather conditions.

Bayer analyzed results on three moisture levels using Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada seasonal weather data for the area where the trial was located: dry – less than 85 per cent of normal, normal – 85-115 per cent of normal and wet – above 115 per cent of normal. “In 2017, we conducted 52 fungicide trials and 44 of those trials took place under the conditions we qualified as dry,” says Basaraba. “We still got a really good yield response with a fungicide application when you compare them to the untreated check.”

ROI calculator Fungicide performance was analyzed over 10 years of trials.

When it was sprayed in 57 trials with normal moisture conditions, Prosaro averaged an 8.8 bu./ac. response compared to the untreated check, and in 39 trials where it was wet it was still an 8.7 bu./ac. increase vs. the untreated check. However, in 29 trials with low moisture, Prosaro averaged a 4.3 bu./ac. yield response, which either paid growers a little in the end, or they broke even.

Bayer’s website (www.cropscience.bayer.ca) has a “grower tools” section with a return-on-investment calculator for growers to see how much, or how little return on investment they can expect under differing situations. The calculator was developed based on results of the trials in different provinces. Growers enter the crop, the fungicide and the estimated commodity price to see how much value they will see at the end of the season. The calculator is based on yield but does not determine lost value from downgraded fusarium-damaged kernels.

“When it’s dry and the crop is coming to fungicide time, it can be more difficult to make the decision on whether or not to spray,” says Basaraba. “The approaching weather is truly an unknown, so consider how much disease you have had in your fields, and look at the long-term average for weather.

Dry environments make it tricky as you won’t always see a big difference, but in cereals in particular you’ll still likely get a noticeable response from a fungicide application.” 

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Always read and follow label directions. Proline® is a registered trademark of the Bayer Group.

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0-68-01/18-10913240-E

Staying on top of sudden death syndrome Management includes a combination of field selection, scouting, variety selection and fungicides | By Jennifer Barber

S

udden death syndrome in soybeans continues its march through fields in southern Ontario, and growers across the country are watching and waiting for the pathogen to arrive. The ominously named disease lives up to its moniker — its impact on yield can be devastating, with annual losses of 10-60 per cent in Ontario. The good news is that it can be managed.

“If you ever see a field with sudden death syndrome (SDS) you need to scout every year soybeans are grown as it will not go away once it is in the soil,” says Albert Tenuta, field crop pathologist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. “But each year we are developing more tools to deal with the disease — from seed varieties to seed treatment fungicides. While we have nothing currently available that will eliminate the pathogen, growers have the ability to manage the disease and reduce its impact on yield.”

Shorter-season varieties have allowed soybean expansion to the West. It is now Manitoba’s third-largest crop, and acreage is spreading well into Saskatchewan. While these newer areas are still in the honeymoon period of disease development, the potential increases with each harvest.

“In southwestern Ontario, not only is SDS spreading to new locations, but it is expanding within fields that initially showed very low levels of infection,” says Tenuta. “While the weather varied throughout Ontario in 2017, in general it was wet and cool early, which set up the disease for development in July when the temperatures warmed up. It was drier in the lighter soil regions, but the early season moisture allowed for SDS to take hold.”

Most SDS damage is below ground, so digging up roots is an important way to scout for the disease. Symptoms in-crop are mostly visible post-flowering, when the veins on the leaves stay green while the connecting tissues turn bright yellow, then brown, and eventually fall away from the leaf, leaving the veins behind.

SDS has yet to be confirmed in eastern Ontario, Quebec, or the Prairies but it is approaching Manitoba from the south and it’s only a matter of time before it arrives. Manitoba conducts an annual survey to track the disease.

“While we see soybean plants that have damage similar to SDS, they have ultimately had other causes. It’s a tricky disease to identify, but we are continually looking for it.”

Holly Derksen Manitoba Agriculture

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Bay e r c r o p Science / Co untry Guide Special Supplement

Foliar symptoms of sudden death syndrome.

Photo: Angie Peltier, University of Illinois

“In 2017 we looked at almost 70 soybean fields in all soybeangrowing areas of the province,” says Holly Derksen, field crop pathologist with Manitoba Agriculture. “We do a lot of outreach during the year and take samples of any suspect crops. While we see soybean plants that have damage similar to SDS, they have ultimately had other causes. It’s a tricky disease to identify, but we are continually looking for it.”

Corn not affected, but a host SDS can be controlled through management. There are several varieties available with good partial SDS resistance, which is the first step. While Ontario growers have experience with these varieties, they have not yet made it into the official Manitoba seed guide. Growers can look to manufacturers’ seed guides to find out which varieties might work in their area.

Rotation is important but recent research has shown that a corn/soybean rotation is not entirely effective. While SDS doesn’t affect corn, it is a host for the pathogen, which will overwinter on the crop residue and in the soil.

While previous seed treatments were ineffective against SDS, ILeVO seed treatment, launched in 2017, is showing high levels of efficacy against the fungus that causes the disease. ILeVO permeates the roots and young seedlings and they move at a high concentration into the cotyledons and unifoliate before seedling in the seed zone.

This protects the seedling and root system against the SDS fungus.

“Overall trials have shown that an integrated approach works well to manage the disease,” says Tenuta. “This is the first year we have used ILeVO and even though some growers still saw symptoms of the disease, its onset was greatly delayed, past the point where the disease would have an impact on yield. When you

compared the results to the untreated check, the crop may not look that different at harvest but the yield was quite higher.”

There are other measures that are already best management practices for most farmers. “Some other things you can do to manage for disease include seeding into well-drained soils in order to reduce the seed’s exposure to cooler, moist soils,” says Derksen.

“Growers should also avoid soil compaction and maintain proper fertility and pH levels to help reduce the disease impact. Staggering planting dates can also help manage disease; however, that can be challenging in areas with a shorter growing season.”

SCN is a partner Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is also a problem for soybean growers, and often accompanies SDS. This disease has been in Canada for more than half a century but is still limited to Ontario and a few fields in Quebec. The parasitic roundworm is also difficult to diagnose, and is often identified when there is significant unexplained yield loss. The impact from SCN is greater than the next five diseases combined.

“Fortunately for growers we now have 25 years of varieties with different levels of resistance to SCN,” says Tenuta. “We work closely with breeders to anticipate some of the disease issues that will impact soybean growers here and as it spreads into the Prairies, and there are constantly new varieties coming into the market.”

Tenuta adds that growers should also be rotating their SCNresistant seed varieties in order to reduce the risk that the nematode population will adapt to the variety or one type of genetics. “We are already seeing SCN adapt to bypass some of the varieties, and plant breeders are continually working to develop new varieties and new sources of resistance,” he says. “When it comes to disease, growers should review their seed order every year to make sure it has the appropriate disease package for their fields.”

Most SCN damage happens below ground, where the cysts overwinter for several years. Early detection is key as lower populations are easier to manage.

“SCN is a companion disease for SDS — where you see one you will almost inevitably see the other, although SCN can occur on its own” says Derksen. “The nematodes nibble on the roots of the plant and provide a great vehicle for SCN. You need to collect roots every year to know how big a problem these diseases are.”

SCN may arrive first Derksen says that while both diseases are prevalent south of the border in North Dakota and Minnesota, SDS is most common in the most southern areas of those states, and depending on soil movement could take a while to move north. “We think we will see SCN before we see SDS,” she says.

Both diseases move through soil, so cleaning equipment and practising good soil biosecurity, especially when bringing in soil from the U.S., can help. However, soil also moves through floodwaters, through wind and by birds so preventing all soil movement is not possible.

“An integrated approach is key for managing for these diseases,” says Tenuta. “The pathogen is constantly evolving so we need to change our practices as necessary. Watch your rotation, pick the best variety with the most complete disease package, use a seed treatment and scout. I can’t stress enough how important it is to be aware of what is in your field. You need to break up the disease cycle whenever possible to help reduce the impact of SDS, SCN and other diseases on your crop.” 

An integrated approach to fusarium management A combination of practices is the best long-term strategy | By Jennifer Barber

T

he relatively dry season on the Prairies last year kept fusarium outbreaks low, but a return to better weather could reignite the disease.

“The biggest thing that affects a fusarium outbreak is the weather, and that’s the one thing we can’t do anything about,” says Brian Kennedy, grower relations and extension co-ordinator with the Alberta Wheat Commission. “What is in our control is how we manage for the disease, and that management starts at the very beginning of the growing season.”

Integrated management approach Fusarium head blight (FHB) is tough to manage. The disease is primarily caused by the pathogen Fusarium graminearum, and can cost growers between $50-$300 million each year.

An integrated approach to disease management will minimize damage now and in subsequent crops, says Kelly Turkington, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lacombe, Alberta. “With the tools we have available to us today we can’t fully control fusarium in cereals.

Growers need to have realistic expectations on how much control they are going get, and employ a variety of measures to mitigate against the risk for a disease outbreak.”

Here are some ways growers can reduce the impact of fusarium on their cereal crops: • Know your risk. You need a sufficient quantity of infested crop residues combined with favourable weather for the disease to affect your field. If you or your immediate neighbours have had high levels of disease in the past, then odds are it will be a problem.

“If you don’t have the pathogen well established in crop residues in your field or neighbouring fields, then you may want to be cautious about introducing it. However, for most growers now, the pathogen is established on crop residues and it isn’t so much a concern regarding introduction as it is in terms of seed health, stand establishment and fusarium head blight development during the growing season,” says Turkington.

“You need to be concerned that your seed will germinate at suitable levels and if it does, will it emerge strongly without damage from disease. If you have a higher rate of seed infection, or perhaps infested crop residues in the soil, you can end up with poor germination and seedling emergence which could put your crop at greater risk of poor stand establishment.”

Continued on page 14 

Bayer crop Science / Country Guide Special Suppl e m e n t

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• Choose varieties wisely. Seed should be tested to understand infection levels so as to avoid introduction into the crop where possible. While genetics have come a long way, the levels of resistance are not as high as, for instance, canola’s resistance to blackleg. “The use of fusarium head blight-resistant varieties needs to be considered alongside other management measures,” Turkington says.

• Consider a seed treatment. Growers should consider a fungicide seed treatment, especially in areas where the FHB pathogen is well established in crop residues in or on the soil. Seed treatments can also protect crops from other soil-borne problems, or if the seed source has higher-than-ideal levels of disease.

“If you choose a seed treatment, make sure you are using it at the recommended rate, using application technology that will get you proper coverage,” says Troy Basaraba, senior field marketing specialist with Bayer Canada. “To get a good seedling, you need the crop to come out of the ground healthy and strong, and a seed treatment can help protect that initial germination.”

• Know your rotation history. This year, if seeding year three of a cereal/canola/cereal rotation, then the 2018 cereal field would be in the same field as the high-infection 2016 growing season. Chances are that stubble from 2016 has a higher rate of infection, even after a dry season last year. The fusarium pathogen may also have blown in from adjacent fields. Knowing what was in a nearby crop can also help you determine your risk for a disease outbreak in season.

“Rotation, when it comes to fusarium, can be difficult because the pathogen lives for a long time in infested crop residues,” says Turkington. “Fusarium can also survive on all small-grain cereals and corn, and it is these crops that are important in terms of infested crop residues. While we recommend at least two years between host crops, growers with well-established problems should consider extending the rotation out even further to reduce the amount of residue-borne inoculum in or on the soil. However, this may not be practical or desirable given our current cropping options and commodity prices.”

• Consider early seeding. This can help the crop flower a bit earlier, before the conditions for a fusarium outbreak are at their peak. Studies have shown that winter wheat has fewer issues with fusarium, likely because it flowers earlier in the summer.

“We don’t have all the information we need to fully recommend early seeding as you do have some risk from leaving the crop in the ground longer, and that can expose it to more soil-borne pathogens,” says Kennedy. “But if the crop comes into flower before the hottest and most humid part of the summer, it should reduce the timing for exposure to the greatest amount of inoculum.”

• Bump up your seeding rate. A high seeding rate will help promote crop uniformity, which can also help timing a foliar fungicide application. Cereals seeded at a higher rate have less tillering, meaning more of the plants will come into head emergence and/or flowering at the same time and provide a more uniform target for fungicide.

“You will get the best bang for your buck if you aim for first flower, and the more main stems you can target the better your result,” says Basaraba. “A uniform crop will come into flower at the same time, allowing you to better manage the window of infection and simplifying the timing for a fungicide application.”

• Look at local risk maps. All three Prairie provinces have developed fusarium risk maps which can help growers decide the risk of an outbreak in their area.

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Bay e r c r o p Science / Country Guide Special Supplement

“These risk maps are intended as a tool to help decide whether conditions are favourable for fusarium infection and thus the potential need to apply a foliar fungicide,” says Turkington. “They can also provide some indication as to whether or not conditions are favourable for the fungus to produce the spores that cause infections. If based on the maps the risk is moderate to high, as your crop progresses from the flag-leaf stage and into head emergence, you can use this information to decide how urgent the need is to line up chemical and an applicator so that you can make a timely fungicide application after head emergence.”

• Time your fungicide application carefully. An application of a foliar fungicide needs to be combined with using a resistant variety and lengthening the interval between host crops to get the best reduction in fusarium. Unfortunately, using a fungicide, even when using a combination of strategies, may only provide suppression at best, which is why proper application and timing are so important.

The decision to spray needs to be made before there are any visible signs of damage. Current fungicide label recommendations suggest an application when 75 per cent of the heads are out of the boot to when 50 per cent of the heads on the main stems have visible anthers. New research is looking at whether the window for application can be extended beyond the stage when 50 per cent of the main stem heads have anthers showing, without losing more to FDKs and DON if a fungicide is applied later.

“You want to hit as many heads as possible before the spores infect the plant,” says Turkington. “Recent research is showing that waiting until all heads are emerged, perhaps four to seven days post-flowering, may not compromise control, and could indeed improve control. The challenge can be making sure you have your pre-harvest intervals correct with a later application, and that you are still following the labelled product recommendations.”

• Aim for best possible coverage. While timeliness is a factor when trying to get a lot of fields covered as quickly as possible, it’s important to still apply fungicides properly.

“Growers need to spend more time thinking about how to get the best response from their fungicide,” says Basaraba.

“Manage your application speed and nozzle choice to attain the best coverage possible. Keep your boom heights low, your water volumes high, your spray droplet as medium to coarse, and angle the spray pattern to target as many heads as possible.”

• Manage your harvest for future success. The success of different harvest management strategies are not fully known, but some growers are approaching harvest to leave as little infected debris on the field as possible.

“With wheat, some growers are cranking up their combine speed to help blow out the fusarium-damaged kernels, keeping them out of their grain but that does leave them in the field,” says Basaraba. “Chopping up and distributing residue will encourage decomposition and may help with disease management along with the other strategies.”

Current wisdom for managing fusarium involves taking many steps in order to have a big impact on the disease. This integrated strategy builds on each tactic to reduce the various risk factors for disease development.

“The biggest thing that impacts a fusarium outbreak is weather, but that is something you can’t predict,” says Turkington.

“You can’t rely on one thing to stop the disease, but you can rely on a number things to reduce your risk when the weather is not in your crop’s favour. 

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C-55-03/18-10906650-E

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Value add

Step one: Evaluation You’ve got a great idea for a new product.

Or maybe not

T

here are many reasons why farmers are drawn to value adding. You might have excess capacity in the field or the barn, for instance, or maybe if you milled grain into flour, you could retain good staff by providing year-round positions. Or maybe you’re wondering if an on-farm market could solve your problems by creating an opening for a young family member to join the business.

The list goes on and on with plenty of other examples of how producing a more finished product can add economic value to a commodity.

But “value adding” requires a different skill set than growing and selling a commodity. And it starts with the most valuable skill of all. How do you sort out whether your idea for a value-added product is viable?

Sima Gandhi, who teaches a Market Feasibility Bootcamp at Food Starter, a launch pad for new food prod-

By Helen Lammers-Helps

ucts and food companies in Toronto, shares some of the concepts she covers in the 12-week course.

Gandhi, who is also an innovation consultant and entrepreneur, has been involved in entrepreneurship education for the past four years. While being an entrepreneur comes with many challenges, she says that being a “foodpreneur” comes with an extra layer of complexity due to all the rules and regulations that must be followed, such as nutritional labels, sanitation practices and packaging requirements.

If you are already selling direct to consumers, you know what your customers are asking for. But what if you don’t have that direct connection with potential customers — how do you evaluate your idea without investing a lot of time and money?

Continued on page 38

Common “foodpreneur” pitfalls In her work as an innovation consultant and instructor for the Toronto Food Starter Market Feasibility Bootcamp, Sima Gandhi regularly sees would-be food entrepreneurs making these mistakes: • Underestimating what it takes to create a successful business venture. Too many people who have developed a product think they can get it onto grocery store shelves in just a few months. Unfortunately, they don’t understand how grocery stores value their shelf space. If you go to the grocery store, you will usually see a whole line with a variety of flavours. “One product does not make a business.

Making the product is the easy part these days.”

• Being too emotionally invested in an idea and having feedback only from family and friends. You need to seek unbiased input from outside your own network.

make more sense. Ask yourself, what is your vision?

Do you want your business to be big or small? To sell locally or nationally? What is your exit strategy?

• Being unaware of the rules around selling food made in your own kitchen.

• Not knowing your costs. There’s a big difference between making a batch on your kitchen stove and going into production.

• Not having thought about your end goals. Many are too attached to manufacturing and selling their product themselves when selling or licensing the idea may

• Not talking to partners and families. Launching a business will have a big impact on their lifestyle and finances too.

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / MARCH 1, 2018

37

Value Adding

The Value Proposition Matrix (from Sima Gandhi) A simple grid can help you identify the values you offer to your customer. The questions to ask are: • What does your customer have before having the product?

• What does your customer feel before having the product?

• What does the customer have after having the product?

• What does your customer feel after having the product?

Example: PRODUCT: Plant-based protein (meatless meat) Before

After

Have

Environmental concerns, health concerns

Tasty meat alternative

Feel

Worried about how their consumption has an impact on the environment

Good about the difference they are making with their food choices

Spending time on social media is one easy and lowcost way to see how much momentum an idea has, says Gandhi. Look at related groups online and how many members they have. What are people talking about? This will also help you identify the key language your target community is using to describe your product.

However, it’s important to ensure that the market you are trying to hit is more than a fad. In Gandhi’s opinion, trends around health, aging, fitness, convenience and indulgence will have some staying power.

Gandhi has also identified what she considers to be movements, or ideas with some permanence.

The awareness of grains, fast and slow carbs and ancient grains falls into the movement category, she says.

Other movements include an awareness of the health concerns of sugar and a move to eat more “natural” foods.

These are foods captured by the comment: “if it wasn’t on your grandmother’s plate, don’t eat it.” Gandhi also sees plant-based proteins continuing to gain momentum.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of looking at what you can make instead of what the customer wants and needs.

Gandhi recommends using the Value Proposition Matrix to help ensure that your idea, as she puts it, “solves a pain felt by a community of people.”

In order to transmit the value of your innovation to the user, you need to clearly identify your product/service, identify your target customer and describe the value you provide. This needs to be specific to help you better market your product.

Once you know your target market, Gandhi recommends creating an avatar that represents the consumer.

She sees her customer as a female, with a mid- to highrange income, who is concerned about nutrition. By imagining what this ideal customer does on her typical day, Gandhi gains insights into how to market her utensil.

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MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

Gandhi illustrates how the process works. Being concerned with health and fitness, this client likely does yoga which means that following the marketing of Lululemon, a popular brand of yoga wear, will shed light on what appeals to this target market. “It’s a blunt, easy way of understanding the values of a community,” she says.

With food products, going to stores and even to farmers markets will help you get a feel for your market, continues Gandhi. “See who buys your product, give out samples,” she says. “Or go to the grocery store and ask if you can stand in the aisle and ask questions.” Gandhi looked at marketing a tool to help rinse quinoa, so she stood in the quinoa section at her local grocery store to ask shoppers whether or not they washed their quinoa before cooking.

“Women did, men didn’t, … that helped her define her target market as women,” she explains.

Sometimes it’s helpful to think beyond the obvious.

One client brought back an artisanal pasta concept after visiting Italy. What goes better with pasta than wine?

Sampling the pasta at local wine bars is a creative way to validate the market.

Doing a competitive analysis of your product will help you determine where your product fits in the market. By doing a comparison of serving size, price, available flavours, etc., you can see if there is a gap in the market. For example, a few years ago no one was making a single-serving-size gourmet frozen pizza, points out Gandhi. She notes that market gap has since been filled.

Her final message is encouraging, however. The timing is good for farmers who want to move their product up the value chain. The enduring interest in knowing where our food comes from is creating opportunities for farmers locally, while the internet and online sales have made it easier than ever to market products globally. CG

Resources • Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, direct farm marketing resources: www.omafra.gov.on.ca/ english/busdev/directfarmmkt/index.html

• AMI’s Transition Smart for those shifting from production to processing: takeanewapproach. ca/programs/#transition

• Georgian College: www.georgiancollege. ca/community-alumni/entrepreneurshipcentre/food-entrepreneurship/

• Food Starter provides a range of services to help entrepreneurs commercialize and sell their food products: www.foodstarter.ca • Strategyzer — Lean startup resources: strategyzer. com/canvas/value-proposition-canvas

• Innovator Lab — blogs and ideas for working on your startup: www.InnovatorLab.ca

The heart of

the deal How significant is the local dealer in determining what you buy?

By Scott Garvey / CG Machinery Editor

O

ne evening a year or so ago I sat in a hotel lounge in rural England with a couple of other ag machinery writers. We were gathered there for a machinery event and were all staying in the same hotel. We spent part of that evening discussing the differences between farmer perceptions of machinery in the U.K. and North America.

The number of dedicated farm machinery-focused publications in the British Isles is very large. Here in Canada, on the other hand, it’s pretty small. That, said one British editor, was hard to believe. Why, he wanted to know, are there so few?

Often farmers I speak to here seem to know a lot about “their” brand, but not necessarily much about what’s on offer under other marquees. By contrast, farmers I’ve spoken to in the U.K. seem able to quote a wide variety of specifications about many of the machines on the market there.

Of course there are many exceptions to those rules, but they do seem to be a reasonably accurate generalization.

Are Canadian farmer’s machinery choices influenced most strongly by what’s on offer at their favourite local dealer?

Photo credit: Scott Garvey

Although the explanation for the differences calls for a bit of speculation, I wonder if it’s down to one simple reason: brand loyalty. Or maybe that’s better stated as dealer loyalty.

In the relatively wide-open spaces in Canada, are farmers’ relationships with local dealers, which aren’t exactly on every street corner, the deciding factor in the question? Are farmers here more likely to buy machinery from the best dealer available, regardless of where the brand technology and efficiency stands on the engineering scale, and then display nothing more than a passing interest in other colours?

A recent survey conducted in 2017 in the U.S. by Farm Equipment magazine, a publication that caters to North American ag equipment dealers, offers some support for that idea. Granted, it’s not a solely Canadian survey, but farmers on both sides of the 49th parallel often seem to share a lot of opinions on the topic of equipment.

FE’s survey found that roughly 75 per cent of producers considered themselves “brand loyal.” That’s a big number. What’s more, farmers who report less than $1 million in annual revenue say they start the machinery buying process by looking first at the same brand they already own 74 per cent of the time. That number jumps to 82 per cent for producers who gross more than $1 million annually.

But there were some exceptions to farmers’ desire to keep a consistent colour across their fleets. When it comes to hay and forage equipment, 31 per cent of those in the under-$1-million income group opted for something from a different brand. For the over-$1-million category, that number fell to 24 per cent.

For tillage equipment purchases, 47 per cent in the lower-income group chose a different brand, while that number increased to 53 per cent for the other producers. That could be a reflection of the surge in imported short-line tillage brands in recent years that have significantly pushed the technology level in that equipment category. And, you could argue, these short-lines caught the major brands sound asleep on that front.

The survey also asked producers how willing they’d be to switch mainline brands.

Continued on page 40

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / MARCH 1, 2018

39

Given the current very difficult economic environment in the U.S., roughly half said they would, and the main reason revolved around — you guessed it — dealers. The over-$1-million group named dealership service and repair, while the lower-income group cited parts availability.

Those reasons make sense when you consider that lower-income producers often keep machines longer, and that getting parts for older equipment isn’t always easy, while larger farmers typically run more modern fleets and need to keep them running to cover big acres in a short amount of time.

Both groups’ desire for better overall engineering was secondary to those concerns. And both of those primary reasons hinge, at least in part, on local dealerships.

Jim Walker, vice-president of Case IH, said he recognizes the critical role dealers play in putting the red brand’s equipment

into farmers’ yards. And that role may even increase as the industry evolves.

“When we look at our brand advantage, at the end of the day the local dealer network is going to be the differentiator of the future,” he told a group of machinery writers in August. With fewer and fewer producers, and with technology becoming more innovative, he said, “the distribution is going to be the difference in the marketplace.”

That point of view seems to mirror what the FE survey revealed. So, Walker said, manufacturers need to offer very strong support to their dealer networks, particularly with prompt parts delivery.

“Parts distribution is very important,” Walker said. “When you’re in the agricultural business, you can go one of two ways: you can have a third party that’s very good at logistics and management of parts do it for you when you’re growing as a business. Or, you can do it yourself and have full control

Photo credit: Case IH

BUSINESS

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over it. We (CNH) do that with 59 different parts distribution centres around the world on five different continents. We’re very happy with our fill rate. We’re consistently either at or above the average of that industry.”

Building the right kind of dealer network is also key, he noted. Initially, Case IH broke away from the pack when it came to the kinds of dealership chains other brands were fostering. It allowed the formation of mega-dealer networks like Titan in the U.S. and Rocky Mountain Equipment in Western Canada.

“When you look at our global distribution network, we have over 3,000 dealers of all brands and over 1,200 in North America we’re certainly proud of,” Walker went on.

“When you look at that model we employ with the dealer network, one of the facets of moving to a product marketing concept is that you have a new relationship, if you will, or a new focus in your relationship with

customers and dealers. And that’s the B-to-B (business-to-business) relationship.

“By that I mean Case IH might own the dealer agreement, but we have to depend on a dealer network to sell our products. The dealer might be independently owned, but they have to rely on us for innovative products. Finally, the customers may be independent, but they have to rely on that dealer to provide leading-edge technology solutions for their problems and, certainly, the product support.

“It’s mutually beneficial and very much an interdependent process and business model. That’s where we’re at today. We have quite a bit of resources and planning going on that will focus on how we drive that interdependency.”

Walker notes that the red brand has made a big acknowledgement that dealers are often the deciding factor in growing the brand’s sales in its strategy.

“The key in [our vision statement] is the customer focus is very prominent and the dealer focus is very prominent,” he said.

“Three of the five drivers in our new strategic plan have to do with dealers, the first one being to enhance our interface.”

Walker noted that “interface” enhancement involves many things, from technology to training and product support. And both the manufacturer and the dealer need to be on the same page with the same goals and objectives.

“Next is to achieve alignment with our dealers,” he explained. “In essence, we have to be going at this battle in the marketplace in unison. We have no benefit of driving the strategic plan to a place the dealers don’t want to go. The third and final of the three is focus on dealer capabilities and health.

“Clearly having a dealer network that is well capitalized to invest in training, personnel, capitalization, to be able to run and grow the business is paramount for us.” CG

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41

guide opinion

Winners and losers We should take a much harder look at those yield contests

T

he following is my opinion. Enough said.

This started out as a column that was going to extol the farming abilities of some of the winners of canola growing contests. But as I talked with farmers about how they achieved their amazingly high yields, it became clear to me the highest yield isn’t really the story, especially for a strategic business publication like Country Guide.

In my opinion, the real story is about contests that may encourage farmers to make poor agronomic, economic, environmental, and sustainable decisions in the sole quest of yield.

I’m not criticizing the farmers. They can’t be blamed for pursuing the opportunity that these contests put in front of them. But frankly no one comes out of this looking very good.

For example, in one yield contest a producer made four in-crop applications of fungicide. How are multiple passes of fungicides justifiable from an agronomic or environmental perspective?

Farmers are warned about fungicide resistance, yet the honour and prizes that come with winning such contests pushes some farmers to use multiple passes of a very limited number of fungicide actives in the quest for the highest yield. More importantly, since most fungicides are preventive rather than curative, can a producer even judge if repeated passes were warranted or whether they were effective?

By the same token, contests that focus strictly on yield encourage growers to apply insecticides regardless of the economic threshold levels of insect infestation.

Worse, many insecticides are non-selective. How many beneficial insects are being killed, not because a canola crop is economically threatened, but rather in the hope a grower might get a yield increase by controlling any and all insects?

A huge concern of the general public is nutrient runoff into watersheds. Unfortunately, most growers trying to maximize yields likely start their quest for the record by increasing fertilizer without even questioning if the

42

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

By Gerald Pilger

soil cation exchange capacity is capable of holding such high fertilizer levels.

Excessive fertilization in Denmark has already led to government regulations limiting the amount of nitrogen fertilizer which can be applied in a year, and as a result, crop yields in that country are actually dropping.

We are being closely watched by environmentalists and government regulators to ensure farmers follow sustainable, safe and effective application of fertilizers and pesticides, yet these contests offer wonderful prizes for the producer who harvests the highest yield with little regard to the practices used to achieve those yields or the economics of production.

Even more troubling is that the ag industry, media, and even agronomists and crop advisers then celebrate farmers who may have used questionable practices to achieve those yields, and then encourage other farmers to try and match those winning yields without detailing the sustainability or the economics of the practices used.

Instead of responding to environmentalist concerns about modern farming practices, we are actually offering them ammunition for their battle against the farming industry.

But it is just a learning exercise!

Sponsors will say their contests are all about exploring the potential of the crops we grow. They’ll say they are intended to be a learning exercise to encourage farmers to try new products, to adjust inputs, or to try new farming techniques that may lead to increased production across the entire farm in the future.

But is this really a valid argument? When you throw open your cheque book and maximize the application of all inputs across the field, how do you know the effect of an application of any particular product? Is the addition of that micronutrient package really giving you that yield boost, or was it the top dressing of N, or a sulfur rate higher than you have ever applied before.

Continued on page 44

SOIL CONSERVATION COUNCIL OF CANADA CONSEIL CANADIEN DE CONSERVATION DES SOLS SOIL CONSERVATION COUNCIL OF CANADA CONSEIL CANADIEN DE CONSERVATION DES SOLS

The face and voice of soil conservation in Canada Le visage et la voix de la conservation des sols au Canada

Renowned scientist chosen for conservation award L. B.Thomson Conservation Award Recipient

T

he Soil Conservation Council of Canada (SCCC) has announced that Dr. Harold Steppuhn is the 2017 recipient of the L. B. Thomson Conservation Award. Dr. Steppuhn will be presented with this honour at a future event to be held this winter in Swift Current, Sask.

“The L. B. Thomson Conservation Award is presented annually to recognize individuals, organizations or others who have made outstanding contributions to improving soil and water conservation at the regional level in Canada,” says Alan Kruszel, Chair of the Soil Conservation Council of Canada. “Dr. Steppuhn’s lengthy career in agricultural research in Canada and abroad makes him a deserving recipient of this award.”

Dr. Harold Steppuhn is the 2017 recipient of the L. B. Thomson Conservation Award

Dr. Steppuhn’s career as a scientist with Agriculture and Agrifood Canada (AAFC) spanned more than thirty years. He worked tirelessly, always keeping in mind projects

that would benefit “producers”. His most notable achievements during his tenure with AAFC focused on dealing with the challenges of managing saline soils. Over the years, Harold and his teams were largely responsible for the salt tolerance characterization and salinity tolerance screening of most agricultural crops grown on the prairies. He was a leader in producing AC Saltlander Green Wheatgrass and several salt tolerant alfalfa varieties, which have given producers more tools for combatting salinity. His expertise was integral to major irrigation water quality projects, resulting in the hand-book entitled “Sodicity Hazard of Sodium and Bicarbonate Containing Waters on the Long-term Productivity of Irrigated Soils”, which is still an invaluable resource for irrigation specialists across the Canadian Prairies and the Northwestern USA. Dr. Steppuhn is retired but remains active in advancing the frontier of agricultural science in Western Canada and around the world.

Soil care and protection is everyone’s responsibility – YOU CAN HELP Your support – with a membership, donation or sponsorship – promotes sustainable agriculture, contributes to a more informed public and increases collaboration among farmers, industry, governments and other agencies with a common goal of creating and maintaining soil health for future generations.

Your participation in the Soil Conservation Council of Canada will strengthen Canada’s success in securing reliable and sustainable productivity for our vital soil resource. Go to www.soilcc.ca for more information or email your questions to info@soilcc.ca.

info@soilcc.ca

204-792-2424

www.soilcc.ca

@soilcouncil

guide opinion

The goal of successful businesses is to maximize profit and efficiency rather than output.”

I am all for trying new varieties, or adjusting input rates, or trying new ideas, but to get any meaningful data, you can only adjust a single variable at a time to truly know the effect of such a change, not only on yield but on costs and returns as well.

Furthermore, I question if yield should be the ultimate goal farmers strive for. Over the last decade, I have participated in field-scale trials with three different companies comparing top-yielding canola varieties. It has given me the opportunity to try new and upcoming canola varieties as well as to compare the best varieties from multiple companies under large-scale, real farm conditions.

One lesson I learned is the top-yielding variety is not necessarily the best variety for my farm. There are a host of other plant characteristics that I consider just as important as yield potential, including early season vigour, plant size, green seed counts, length of growing season required, shattering, disease resistance, and especially harvest-ability. I have tested some really high yielding varieties which I would never consider growing because they are so tough to harvest.

Farming is a business, and few businesses succeed by focusing solely on production. The goal of successful businesses is to maximize profit and efficiency rather than output.

When the stars align Most farmers are familiar with the graphic of a barrel with knot holes at various levels, each representing a particular nutrient or input. The yield potential of the crop is limited by the input which is in shortest supply (lowest hole in the barrel). By plugging the lowest hole in the barrel (by increasing the nutrient in shortest supply), the farmer will increase yields.

Unfortunately, not all holes can be plugged. Too often it is an environmental factor which is limiting yield, so increasing inputs may not have any effect on yield. Too little or too much rainfall can play havoc with cropping plans and eventual yields. For instance, canola is very sensitive to hot temperatures when flowering and there is little farmers can do if we have extremely hot weather at the wrong time, just as there’s little they can do if we get a late spring or early fall frost. Should farmers really try to maximize yields each and every year? Or should they adjust their expectations based on environmental factors. Instead of fertilizing for that 80-bushel crop in a dry spring, should they fertilize for 40 bushels and add nutrients in-crop if timely rains present the possibility of that 80-bushel or more crop?

In reality, is winning a high yield contest a reflection 44

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

of best farming practices or more a reward for being fortunate enough to farm in an area where environmental conditions are ideal that year? Is a high yield contest really about best management, or is it more a reward for an act of God? Every farmer with a combine yield monitor has likely seen places in their fields where the stars have aligned and yields are double the field average.

Let me repeat. In no way am I faulting the farmers participating in a yield contest. The prizes for winning most yield contests are very attractive and the farmers participating likely will not be financially hurt by excessive spending on a small number of qualifying acres in such contests.

On the other hand, if this sounds like a rebuke of the contests, well, it is. As I mentioned earlier, farmers are increasingly subjected to scrutiny by both the public and governments, and farmers should not be enticed by a prize into questionable farming practices.

Instead, I challenge companies that truly want to assist farmers to run a contest to identify not the highest yield but rather the most efficient and profitable farm practices. Instead of number of bushels per acre determining the winner, how about profit per bushel of canola harvested? Let’s see if that newest variety with the hefty price tag actually delivers more profit per bushel harvested. Does that additive product add as much to the profit per bushel as it does to the yield?

And why stop at just one crop? The best contest would be a whole farm analysis. Think of the learning potential! Is the farm operation that leases new equipment every year actually more profitable than the farm running older equipment? Let’s find out how the 2,000acre farm actually compares to the 20,000-acre farm on a profit-per-bushel basis.

With today’s computing power and data collection we could even tie in environmental data like degree days and rainfall amounts to see the impact of things farmers cannot manage on the bottom line.

The big question is who would sponsor such a contest. What if the most efficient or profitable farm was not using the newest varieties or the latest products on the market? What if the most profitable farm did not upgrade equipment annually? What if the most efficient farms were not spending money on crop and market advisory services? What if the biggest farm turned out not to be the best when judged by the bottom line?

Such a contest may or may not be a tool for a sponsor to sell new seed or equipment, higher rates of input, or advisory services. But it sure would be interesting to see the numbers! CG

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

www.cafanet.ca

The Next Generation Shannon Lueke, Pag, CaFa, Farm management ConSuLtant, mnP LLP

F

or the first time in history, many businesses have three or even four generations working side by side — Baby Boomers (born before 1965), “Generation X” (born before 1977), “Generation Y” (born before 1996), and “Generation Z” or “iGens” (born after 1996).

Couple these multiple generations with the industrial, agricultural and technological advances over the last 60 to 70 years and you can imagine the tensions to be managed!

Primary producers are exposed to this, maybe even more so than other sectors. Most farms are family-run businesses and with transition planning, generational tensions are a significant source of conflict. It is difficult for parents to let go and embrace the next generation’s leadership and management style, but they must if they wish their legacy to continue. Although it was the same with the generation before them, this time it seems different. We hear complaints about lack of work ethic, shifting in priorities, lack of commitment and too much risk-taking.

Elaine Froese wrote a good blog about “10 things millennial farmers want in life.” Among

the list were “to be heard,” “to use their head more than their back,” “be globally smart,” and “stay wired.” I revisited this blog today, pondering the tensions I see every day with our multi-generation farm clients. No doubt these are the things that millennials want, but is it a result of the generation they were raised in or changes in our society in general?

This list of “wants” directs me to the parents who were emailing me from Arizona, complaining about their son’s “laziness” over a decision to have some grain custom-hauled rather than doing the work himself. His “lame excuse” (as they put it) was that he was busy attending a conference for a few days. The grain hauling could not be held off and he felt the conference was an important learning and networking event. The parents did not understand the importance of the conference, just viewing it as a social event, so why were they paying for someone to haul the grain?

Conferences are important (not all, but some). Social networking, both face to face and online, are crucial for today’s farmers.

We are in a society where we are continually “marketing” ourselves and our business. The competition is fierce as we are participating in an ever-reaching global market where producers must be in tune with what is happening globally and understand how it

affects them locally. As our society advances, consumers are asking for more accountability from their food supply, even though they may be more removed from it than ever before.

This means farmers must be conscious of environmental sustainability and traceability while still maintaining profits. Technology is accelerating at a rate that will seemingly be almost difficult for the human mind to keep up with, especially in agriculture. The costs and risks are higher, but profit margins remain the same. And this son has the added burden of securing the return on his parents’ retirement fund while trying to build his own.

I don’t think there has been a time in history where the current young generation was worse off than the one before. Society, and our standard of living, is always improving. The learning curves are more difficult to work though, especially when they span three or four generations at an increasing pace. I mentioned the parents emailing me from Arizona. Could you imagine what their parents (or grandparents) would have to say about them spending almost half the year down south? Should they not be working hard every day while they are still able? After all, that’s how they did it…

CAFA’s FArm UpdATe CoNFereNCe series: March 8 Infinity Convention Centre, Ottawa CAFA’s Farm Planning Update April 12 Ivey Spencer Leadership Centre, London CAFA’s Farm Women’s Update June 7

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

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A special supplement brought to you by Canadian Forage and Grassland Association

Forage & Grassland Guide is produced in partnership by the Canadian Forage & Grassland Association (CFGA) and Glacier FarmMedia LLP and distributed through Country Guide, Canadian Cattlemen and Le Bulletin des agriculteurs. It focuses on forage and grassland issues of importance to crop and livestock producers across Canada.

Don’t call it ‘cover,’ call it ‘feed’ How sacrificing some silage yield can gain another six to 10 tons of forage per acre

By John Greig

T

om Kilcer says farmers are missing an opportunity to create greater value from cover crops by using them in a carefully planned winter forage system. He’s promoting a system that gives up some yield in corn silage planted after the winter forage in order to gain overall total yield over a whole growing season.

Kilcer, a longtime Cornell University extension educator who now runs his own consulting company, Advanced Ag Systems, talked about double cropping in northern forage areas at the Canadian Forage and Grasslands Association conference last November in Guelph, Ont. “Winter forage is cover crops on steroids,” he said.

He listed several advantages of winter forages, including the ability to produce more to fill the popular higher-forage diets for dairy cows, increasing dry matter produced per acre by 25 to 30 per cent and having the ability to harvest quality forage before spring grasses or legumes are ready.

Planting forages in the fall also helps change the timing of spring planting, moving some of the seeding to later in the season.

Not only can the winter forage make up for any difference in planting later-season corn, but subsequent crops showed yield increases. Corn over a three-year average increased in yield by eight to 15 per cent, soybeans were up eight to 15 per cent and nitrate in drainage water was reduced

46

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

Tom Kilcer recommends triticale as a cover crop with high feed value, and says to manage it as a feed crop, not just a cover, using seed treatment and good seed. Photo: University of Nebraska

from 21 to 38 per cent. Surface water infiltration increased by seven times.

Those are numbers that are not surprising from other cover crop research, but Kilcer goes further in promoting the value of winter forages as a double crop that pays, producing six to 10 tons of forage per acre.

Treat it like a feed crop

“The first thing you need to understand is we are not growing a cover crop, we’re growing a winter forage,” he said. Kilcer does most of his work with triticale as his winter forage of choice. Use a seed treatment and good seed, he says, as you’re growing a crop you need for feed, not just a cover.

The most important factor is to

get the forage crop planted on time.

Where Kilcer does most of his work, that’s 10 days to two weeks before winter wheat in the fall.

His research found a 20 per cent increase in yield for forages planted September 9 versus October 5. The key is to get tillering happening before the triticale goes dormant in the late fall. Bonus heat units in the fall and nitrogen are helpful to get that fall tillering.

Fertilizer also had an effect only if the crop was planted early, with a 14 per cent increase in yield to manure if planted in early September, versus no response if planted in October. Be Continued on page 48

Forage & Grassland Guide

2018

Plant smart for optimum production Strategic grass planting can optimize forage results

by Trudy Kelly Forsythe

Agronomists and plant breeders have done a lot of work to select specific characteristics when it comes to developing new varieties of forages, and they’ve made great strides with traits like rust resistance, persistence and salt tolerance. More recently, however, they’ve been looking at forage quality and, more specifically, forage digestibility.

Peter Ballerstedt, the forage product manager at the grass seed research and marketing company Barenbrug USA, explained why when he presented on the next generation of highly digestible forages at the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association’s 8th annual conference in Guelph last November.

“We have two types of carbohydrate in any ruminant ration,” he said. “We have to have the non-fibrous carbohydrate (NFC) and we have to have the fibre carbohydrate (NDF). Both have to be there in order for the ruminant to function properly.”

Indeed, properly balancing the two is critical for the health and production in beef and dairy cattle. For example, a two to three unit change in fibre digestibility in dairy cows has shown a one pound increase in milk yield.

However, while grass is a great source of digestible fibre, not all grass is created equal. There are differences between

CANADIAN FORAGE & GRASSLAND ASSOCIATION www.canadianfga.ca Ph: 506-260-0872

species and even variations between varieties within a species.

Producers have some different options to consider when looking for varieties with high digestibility, including soft leaf fescue varieties, a new perennial rye grass variety and orchard grass varieties.

Ballerstedt explained that meadow fescue provides an excellent opportunity to increase milk production and weight gains, especially in mixtures with other grasses, while true Italian rye grass is suitable for short-term pastures for dairy but especially for finishing grass-fed beef and when used as haylage.

“Italian is like winter wheat,” said Ballerstedt, adding it requires fertilization for reproductive development. “If you plant it in the spring, it will grow all summer long without making a seed head so you have the highest quality feed available but without reproductive development."

Whatever producers decide, Ballerstedt said they need to ensure what they’re growing gives them the greatest potential for improvement.

“There’s nothing so expensive as cheap seed. If you’re going through all the expense to do the cropping work to get the seed bed prepared, don’t try to save the money on the seed.”

That’s because the cost farmers incur

PETER BALLERSTEDT

from a seeding failure is not from the additional seed they then need to buy, but is from what they’ve done to their grazing rotation.

“It’s all lost feed production you’ve just incurred. It’s from the fact that now you’re not in the optimum window to make that planting. So you just buggered yourself up to save a couple pennies on seed.”

A special supplement brought to you by Canadian Forage and Grassland Association

Continued from page 46 careful top-dressing manure onto the crop too late in the spring. Kilcer told a story of a farmer who did so and the crop ended up being a “slimy, maggoty mess in the bunk.”

There’s no doubt that waiting for the winter forage to come off means planting later corn, and Kilcer says that for every five-day, shorter-season corn that has to be planted, there is a reduction of 1,680 kg/ha of corn silage yield. That usually is offset by the winter forage yield of 4,479 to 8,958 kg/ha.

Rye is a popular cover crop and in some areas it is also used as a winter forage crop, especially on dairy and beef farms, but Kilcer prefers triticale over rye because there’s less chance of triticale lodging in a heavy crop, and triticale’s quality decreases slower than rye.

Winter forage crops like triticale and rye can yield much more than what farmers are used to with alfalfa.

They are high-sugar, and need to be laid out wide behind the haybine.

Then, he recommends tedding, with ground speed down and RPMs up to get the heavy crop spread out properly. Chop it long, at least 2.5 cm, as it is a high-sugar, high-energy crop.

Similar to brown mid-rib corn, winter forage can fall apart fast in the rumen, hence why it should be cut longer.

There’s still a lot to learn about double cropping. There is concern that there’s an alleopathy effect of winter grains on corn that will decrease yield in the next crop. Kilcer is in the middle of a research project looking at this effect, but he says that there are options to strip till or zone till which appears to move the alleopathy effect away from the crop in the strips.

Other crops like alfalfa, red clover and soybeans can be no tilled directly into winter forage stubble, he says.

Kilcer is also looking at other options for double cropping that include dwarf sorghum, grain sorghum and BMR forages. n

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MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

Spurge purge tests bovine palates Goats and sheep can eat leafy spurge.

Can cattle be trained to do the same?

by duncan morrison

More than 1.2 million acres are infested with leafy spurge in Manitoba alone, with an annual estimate loss of over $40 million. Photo: Jane Thornton

L

ike a parent convincing kids to eat their vegetables because they’re good for them, Jane Thornton is trying the same approach with getting cattle to eat leafy spurge.

“Contrary to popular belief, leafy spurge is a very nutritious plant, comparable to alfalfa in quality,” Thornton says. “If cattle can become accustomed to eating leafy spurge it may have nutritional benefits and also bump up pasture quality late into the season when most grasses have dropped in feed value.”

Thornton is a Manitoba Agriculture pasture and forage specialist working on a spurge management project at the Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiative (MBFI) research farm on the outskirts of Brandon

in western Manitoba, where spurge invasion has been a major problem.

Control efforts had another setback this year with the announcement that distribution of Amitrol, the only chemical registered for leafy spurge control, will be discontinued this year.

Other methods have been attempted over the years, including insects and grazing by sheep and goats, which apparently don’t mind the taste of leafy spurge.

However, cattle do. Some studies suggest this is due to chemicals in the plant that don’t agree with the cattle’s digestion system. The MBFI project is looking at whether it’s possible to train them to eat it, perhaps by incorporating eating Continued on page 50

Forage & Grassland Guide

2018

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Continued from page 48 schedules that allow their digestion system to build up tolerance.

“Either way, it is clear that cattle can incorporate leafy spurge as a minor portion of their overall diet,” says Thornton. “Although exactly how much is unknown. And that is exactly what we are trying to get a handle on.”

The system in the study was developed by Kathy Voth, a graduate student of Fred Provenza of Utah State University, who has been researching the system for over 35 years.

Thornton says the key is more than a matter of taste but a complex system of the gut speaking to the brain in something called biofeedback. “If the eating experience provides the gut with positive nutrient experience then the brain will register this effect and the animal will have learned a positive association with a certain food.”

If successful this practice could have a number of added benefits such as reductions in leafy spurge infestation, increased pasture carrying capacity, increased pasture diversity and increased cattle nutrition.

Major economic problem

Considered the most noxious of all weeds, leafy spurge first arrived on the Canadian Prairies from Eastern Europe on board early settlers’ ships that were unknowingly carrying contaminated seed.

Spurge quickly gained a major foothold on pastures and fields in Western Canada, and spread continues as the weed has no natural enemies.

According to a 2010 Economic Impact report by Brandon University’s Rural Development Institute, 1.2 million acres in Manitoba are infested with leafy spurge. Much of that infestation can be found in and around pastures, woodlands, riparian areas and rights of way. Some of these

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MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

areas can be difficult to access with large spraying equipment. But even if they were, chemical treatment can be hit and miss and expensive.

Standing around two feet tall with an extensive root system, leafy spurge has yellowish-green flowers and contains a whitish sap-like fluid, which is the cause of the palatability problem. While goats and sheep don’t seem to mind it, cattle do and tend to avoid areas of pasture where leafy spurge plants proliferate. This lost grazing capacity is considerable — the Brandon University study estimates the value of the lands affected, chemicals needed and other indirect impacts of the difficult weed at $40.2 million a year. n

The challenge is to have cattle develop a positive association with the nutritional benefits of leafy spurge.

Photo: Jane Thornton

MBFI up and running Livestock partnership includes government, industry and environmental interests The leafy spurge research project is one of 25 projects underway this summer at the Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiative (MBFI) research farm located at three sites near Brandon, Man. MBFI leaders and partners say they have been encouraged by the quality of the research and the interest of the producers in the farm’s first field season. The projects were showcased at two events this summer: McDonald’s Canada’s Producer Day and Manitoba Agriculture’s Hay Day. “MBFI is committed to improving the public’s knowledge of the critical role the beef industry plays in sustaining both the Manitoba economy and in managing valuable ecosystems,” says MBFI president Ramona Blyth, a beef producer from MacGregor, Man. “Advancing and understanding the long-term profitability and sustainability connections for Manitoba’s beef and forage producers will be showcased at our research farms.”

MBFI is a partnership between Manitoba Beef Producers, Manitoba Agriculture, Manitoba Forage & Grassland Association and Ducks Unlimited Canada.

“Cultivating partnerships between beef producers, governments, and private stakeholders interested in advancing the industry is a key foundation of our MBFI objectives,” says Blyth.

“Increasingly, there is great deal of interest in our commitment toward enhancing the profitability of beef and forage production by evaluating foundational research to the ranch level and transferring the knowledge gained to producers.”

For more information: www.mbfi.com.

Forage & Grassland Guide

2018

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Putting science into grass management The Grazing Response Index scores foliage removal, grazing period and recovery time By ray ford

W

hen it came out of Colorado in the 1990s, the Grazing Response Index (GRI) was strictly at home on the range. Now Ducks Unlimited Canada’s Jodie Horvath says that, with a few tweaks, the grass management tool can help graziers on Western Canada’s tame pastures, too.

“When you’re a farmer, a lot of things feel out of your control, especially with the weather,” says Horvath, a DUC conservation programs specialist and Saskatchewan grain and cattle producer. The GRI “helps you realize there are things you can control, including the number of animals you put out, where they go, and how long they’re out there — so you do have some decision-making available to you.”

With the backing of the Saskatchewan Forage Council and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Horvath tested the index during three years of grazing at DUC’s Touchwood Hills Conservation Ranch north of Fort Qu’Appelle. “There aren’t a lot of ways to measure and grade how we’re doing on our tame pastures,” she says.

“I thought the GRI would be something really practical that we could implement easily on a farm for the average producer.”

health of the plant,” says Mae Elsinger, Brandon-based range management biologist with Agriculture and AgriFood Canada. “It’s about damage to the plant, recovery from damage, and the overall health by the end of the year.”

Plants are like solar power systems, she adds — the more leaf area bitten off, the less solar energy the plant captures. When growing leaves are repeatedly chomped, stressed plants are forced to draw stored energy from their roots, like an underpowered solar system draining its storage batteries. As the grass weakens, it’s shaded out by less palatable or weedy species. The result is a less productive pasture.

Horvath’s major challenge was adapting a system designed for native range grasses into one that works for

cool-season domesticated species.

When the GRI was brought into Canada, researchers at British Columbia’s Thompson Rivers University tested the approach on common range grasses, including bluebunch wheatgrass, rough fescue, and pinegrass to ensure what works in Colorado is applicable north of the 49th parallel.

Elsinger says the same detailed lab work hasn’t been done on tame species, including the alfalfa, meadow and smooth bromes featured in Horvath’s test pastures. But she adds experienced managers know tame pastures behave differently from native range.

“Tame forages have evolved under a totally different system,” Elsinger says. While Prairie grasses were occasionally trampled, grazed, or burned Continued on page 54

Putting grass first

The GRI focuses on three aspects of grazing and pasture growth: grazing intensity — the amount of leaf area that is bitten off by grazing animals; the frequency — how often leaves are bitten off as the plants try to regrow; and the plant’s opportunity to regrow — the rest and recovery pastures get after grazing.

GRI grades “how the grazing pattern in a particular year affects the

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MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

Above: The GRI focuses on three factors: grazing intensity, frequency and the plant’s opportunity to regrow. Left: Pegged to the ground with bent rebar, the exclusion cages are strong enough to shield the grass inside, even while cattle scratch themselves on the cage.

Forage & Grassland Guide

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Continued from page 52 — sometimes severely — they probably had extended rest periods. Tame species developed in Europe and Asia under thousands of years of regular and repeated grazing, so “these grasses have just adapted to higherintensity grazing than native grasses.”

The new tame version of the GRI reflects this. When it comes to grazing intensity, the tame GRI defines “light” grazing as taking up to 60 per cent of the stand, compared to just 40 per cent for range. Ditto for “opportunity for regrowth,” where a six-week rest for a tame pasture is equivalent to a range receiving a “full season” of rest after grazing.

Finally, there’s the frequency of grazing. The range GRI awards top marks for a once-over rotational grazing system, but in most of the West, “the way we manage our tame pastures is often different than the way we manage our range pastures,” says the Saskatchewan Forage Council’s Laura Holmyr, who ranches near the U.S. border. “A lot of times we have two or maybe three times over” for tame pastures.

To allow multiple passes on tame pastures but prevent tame plants from being bitten too many times in any one pass, the updated GRI tracks the longest period livestock graze a single paddock. Assuming it takes seven to 10 days for a plant to regrow to the state where it can be grazed again (a timeline adopted from the original GRI), graziers earn a positive score for restricting a grazing session to seven to 10 days in any one pasture. Leaving the beasts in for more than 21-30 days, on the other hand, draws a negative score.

Holmyr adds managers may want to tweak this seven- to 10-day rule to fit their own knowledge of local plant growth. “Personally, at my place, we would never leave our cows on tame pasture for seven days, unless it’s August and nothing is growing. We always move them in four days or less.”

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MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

“Have I been degrading this resource? Have I been improving it? What can I maybe change to do some more regenerative-type grazing instead of taking, taking all the time?”

— Laura Holmyr Graziers using the index need to note the in and out dates for each pasture, and track how much of the stand is being grazed on each pass. When estimating grazing intensity, it’s best to compare with an ungrazed stand nearby. Areas near ditches, fence­rows and neighbouring fields may be an option, but Horvath used grazing exclusion cages borrowed from AAFC. Pegged to the ground with bent rebar, the cages are strong enough to shield the grass inside, even while cattle scratch themselves on the cage.

By comparing what’s in the cage to an “average” grazed area five metres away, “it’s a great comparison as to what they’re actually removing, and that was an eye-opener for me,” says Horvath. “Honestly, you think the animals have removed only about half, or there’s lots of grazing out there yet. But when you have those grazing cages they really provide an important visual.”

Filling out the scorecard

After that, it’s a matter of working out the annual scorecard for each pasture.

For example: • H ave the plants in Field A been grazed at less than 60 per cent of their foliage? Score one.

• Were cattle on the field for less than seven days during their longest grazing period? Score another one.

• Did the field get six weeks of recovery time between grazings? Score two.

• Add up the total, and congratulations, Field A has maxed out at the highest possible score, four.

But say Field B got different treatment. It was intensively grazed (with cattle removing more than 85 per cent of the foliage) for a score of minus one. The cattle also spent at least a

month in the field on their longest grazing session, so that earns another minus one. And though the field got a month between grazings, giving it “some chance” in the opportunity for regrowth score, that still only merits a zero.

At the end of the year, Field A has earned a four, while B is suffering with a minus two. If this treatment continues, B will eventually become rundown. Options include giving B a little more TLC, and increasing the pressure on A, or subdividing pastures to get a better handle on grazing intensity by reducing time on any one paddock and boosting rest periods.

GRI “works especially great in a rotational system where you have the flexibility to make adjustments,” Elsinger says. “If you have one big pasture and your animals are grazing season long from May to October and you get GRI results you don’t like, you’re not going to have much flexibility to change, unless you adopt cross-fencing.”

The GRI “gives you a starting point for how to improve things, and an indication of the trend over time,” Laura Holmyr says. “Have I been degrading this resource? Have I been improving it? What can I maybe change to do some more regenerative-type grazing instead of taking, taking all the time?”

At the very least, Jodie Horvath adds, the GRI is a simple way to inject more science into the art of pasture management. Sometimes, she adds, better management “is the one piece of control you have, when things feel out of control.”

To learn more about the GRI for tame forages, visit the Saskatchewan Forage Council’s website at www.saskforage.ca. n

Forage & Grassland Guide

2018

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Forage testing more complicated, but rations more accurate Forage testing has evolved significantly in the past three to five years, with more precise tools for livestock ration development

By John Greig

F

orage quality evaluation has moved from rule of thumb to rule of rumen.

Mark Bowman, a ruminant nutritionist with Grand Valley Fortifiers in Cambridge, Ont., told the annual meeting of the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association in Guelph last November that forage testing has evolved significantly in the past three to five years, with more precise tools for livestock ration development.

The major innovation is different measures of digestion of forages in the rumen. Labs now use actual rumen fluid drawn from cows to determine rates of starch and fibre digestibility over varying times, as well as the rate of passage of fibre through the rumen.

The actual tests are supported by complex computational models which give nutritionists and farmers the data to work with.

Some of these new measures have led to the reintroduction of more grasses in dairy diets, versus alfalfa and the move to higher-forage versus grain diets.

Thirty years ago there were just rules of thumb, Bowman said. Forages were fed at about two per cent of body weight per day. For example, a 750-kg Holstein cow should get 15 kg.

“Today it’s a lot more complicated,” he said. Now rations are built from complex forage reports derived from comprehensive lab tests. There are formulation models that drive much of the decision-making on rations in the background.

Ration formulators have for years

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Forage quality benchmarks Alfalfa

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15

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Chart courtesy Mark Bowman, Grand Valley Fortifiers

looked at neutral detergent fibre (NDF) as the standard measure of cell wall and cell contents — essentially how difficult it is for the cow to digest the forage.

“When we want to feed the cow, we are really feeding the rumen,” Bowman said. “As forage quality goes down, there’s only so much you can do to compensate.”

Today, there are numerous tests relating to NDF, such as dNDF (NDF digestibility). Labs also now test for uNDF (undigestible NDF). There are also other lab assays tested through NIRS (near-infrared spectroscopy).

Then there are more complicated ration formulation models available for nutritionists to use. Acid detergent fibre (ADF) continues to be used.

Dave Taysom of Dairyland Laboratories Inc. told the CFGA meeting

that uNDF is the undigested NDF residue after fermentation at a given length of time. It is accompanied by the time that the digestion is tested, such as uNDF240 for a test that has been run for 240 hours, or uNDF48, for a test that’s been run for 48 hours.

At one time the measure of digestibility was lignin. Even when low-lignin alfalfas were developed, they still looked similar to each other in lignin levels, but there is significant difference when one looks at the uNDF levels, Taysom said.

When Bowman gets a report back from the lab he first looks at the plant carbohydrate fractions, the cell wall and the cell contents. Protein is important economically, but “I can always feed more soybean meal,” if the protein level is low, he said.

Corn silage is also a major forage for dairy cows, providing energy and fibre. Testing has shown that fermenting corn silage before it’s fed will mean more digestible starch.

Bowman said that he likes corn silage to be fermented six months before it’s fed. If you only wait 30 days, then there will need to be more digestible starch put into the ration, likely through high-moisture corn.

That six-month storage is a challenge for many farms without more smaller silos.

Bowman said silage in a bag can work, “But if a farm uses tower silos, they’ll need two. Some producers just don’t have that.” The bottom line is that the higher the forage level in the ration, the cheaper and less risk the ration will be. n

Forage & Grassland Guide

2018

PG. 60 H ere’s a drought-testing robot that shows how technology will evolve.

PBR not so simple New regulations give PBR regs more teeth, but breeders still want you to follow the law out of self-interest, not fear

By Ralph Pearce / CG Production Editor

W

hen Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) got a major facelift two years ago, the seed trade in Canada responded with information campaigns saying that all was for the best. Upgrades in intellectual property protection weren’t a cash grab, farmers were told. Instead, they showed the international community that Canada takes property protection very seriously.

That recognition, its backers said, would lead to more research and to new varieties, new markets and new premiums that would benefit our farmers as well as downstream users.

Now, a couple of years later, the general feeling among those in the seed trade is that while grower support for the new PBR legislation is improving, there’s still a considerable amount of work to do.

In the world of government regulations, PBR is tied to the UPOV 1991 convention, an international agreement that protects the intellectual property of plant breeders as they develop new varieties “for the benefit of society.”

UPOV 91 is the most recent update of the convention, and Canada’s recent round of PBR updates brings the country’s regulations up-to-date with most other countries around the world.

The big difference between PBR 91 and its predecessor is that in addition to providing new opportunities for breeders and farmers, it also creates new obligations for the entire value chain. For instance, elevators and processors can still purchase the harvested product from saved seed, but may take on financial liability if the breeder can prove they weren’t fairly compensated due to illegal sale or use of the seed.

By the numbers Currently, 669 agricultural (non-ornamental) varieties are registered under PBR regulations in Canada: 294 (or 44 per cent) are protected under the UPOV 78 convention, with varieties that still exist in the system. There are also 116 varieties (17 per cent) protected under the latest upgrades — UPOV 91.

Most of the varieties covered by PBR are from the public sector, and most are cereal varieties.

It’s also about creating a perception that we have a strong intellectual property environment here in Canada.”

— Anthony Parker, Plant Breeders’ Rights Office, (CFIA) Another 259 (39 per cent) are in the system, pending approval under the revised UPOV 91 legislation.

In Canada, the public breeding sector is the biggest user of PBR, with the University of Guelph, the University of Saskatchewan and Laval University as the biggest applicants. That’s worth knowing.

The idea that PBR mainly helps multinationals is a misconception, says Anthony Parker, commissioner with the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). He says it’s also a tool to support breeding through Agriculture and AgriFood Canada (AAFC), through the provinces and universities, and through small- and medium-sized enterprises as well.

“Taxpayers and farmers contribute money in the development of those varieties, and that’s the most compelling reason to protect them,” says Parker. “It’s also about creating a perception that we have a strong intellectual property environment here in Canada to attract foreign varieties. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t benefit from varieties from other countries.”

The fact that most PBR varieties in Canada are public also frames it in a different context. Public breeding in Canada usually translates to the development of cereal varieties (although there have been — and still are — some outstanding soybean varieties to come out of public-sector programs).

Brent Derkatch, past president of the Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA), points to differences between Eastern and Western Continued on page 58

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / MARCH 1, 2018

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crops Guide

Canada, and the impact this can have on the uptake of PBR. Cropping demands and markets are two of the larger factors, he says. In the East, corn hybrids and traited soybean varieties require the use of certified seed. The infrastructure in the East is also geared towards production of those crops.

In the West, there’s a traditional reliance on cereal varieties, and subsequently, a tendency to rely on saved (bin-run) seed. Canola hybrids require certified seed, and there’s a growing migration of soybean and even corn production in Western Canada. Yet old habits die hard.

“There’s a long history — generations of farmers — who are familiar with the practice of saving and reusing, or even trading seed with their neighbours,” says Derkatch, who is director of operations and business development for Canterra Seeds. “It’s hard to say for sure if there’s a significant difference in the West versus the East as it relates to understanding PBR. The markets are very different in the two regions, so there are a lot of factors at play.”

Derkatch credits farmers for knowing how products perform on their farms. What’s harder is to identify how much yield is coming from genetics versus other agronomic practices, since there have also been important gains through precision agriculture, fertilizers and fungicides.

It’s also why Derkatch believes the understanding of PBR at the farm level is quite low, and why the industry needs to continue to communicate that intellectual property protection is important for everyone. Genetic improvement is one of many important tools producers need to remain competitive on a global scale.

Phil Bailey also advocates for continuing education on plant breeders’ rights. Earlier in 2017, he toured Quebec with Lorne Hadley, executive director of the Canadian Plant Technology Association (CPTA), visiting with most of the primary seed companies in the province, explaining PBR and UPOV 91, and their implications.

Unlike other provinces, notes Bailey, Quebec growers are required to plant certified seed in order to get crop insurance. It’s almost as

Transgenic corn and soybean crops require the use of certified seed, meaning PBR is less prominent in those sectors.

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MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

though there hasn’t been a need to protect varieties in Quebec using PBR, because crop insurance is doing the job.

“But what we’re finding now is that slowly, and it’s still not anywhere near what the West or even Ontario sees — there are some cracks in the armour where larger farmers are not taking out crop insurance on 100 per cent of their acres,” says Bailey. “And they’re starting to do a little bit of this farm-saved or custom-cleaning, so it’s extremely important for us as an industry to start educating them on PBR and UPOV 91.”

Plant breeding is a long and expensive process, Bailey says. Farmers investing their hard-earned money today in the form of check-offs or seed royalties through certified seed purchases aren’t going to realize a return on that investment in one or two years. Improvements through modern plant breeding technology will undoubtedly help shorten the time for variety development, yet it still requires a longterm commitment — and patience.

More teeth in new law It turns out the 2015 upgrade also has more teeth when it comes to dealing with growers, elevators or processors who use seed illegally.

For example, SeCan is conducting an education program at the same time that it has also taken legal action when it feels its PBR rights aren’t respected.

Todd Hyra, SeCan’s business manager for Western Canada, has been the point person for dealing with two interests in Saskatchewan — one a grower and the other a grain broker. In both cases, the violators agreed to a cash settlement, and one of the businesses agreed to a proactive education plan to avoid future transgressions.

Interestingly, the Western Grain Elevators Association has created a system where the person delivering the grain states they acquired the seed legally. Hyra says this has been a major step for the grain handlers, and not all were onside since they didn’t want customers to be taking that responsibility. Yet it raises that discussion with their customer.

“Seed and grain sometimes don’t mix, and it may not have been a blatant infringement in the West, but sometimes there was confusion or a lack of familiarity with seed regulations and requirements from a grain perspective,” says Hyra. “We talk about the need to educate, and that’s still front and centre.”

Not every transgression becomes a showdown either, and that’s where open discussion and understanding the regulations’ impacts are so important, notes Hyra. He had one grower contact him recently, conceding he’d violated the rules under PBR and UPOV 91.

That led to a productive, non-aggressive conversation with the grower, who willingly signed a declaration, acknowledging what he’d done wrong, and in doing so, avoided legal proceedings.

“It was such a nice process to have it all done between the two of us, and it cost a little bit of my time, and was no cost to him,” says Hyra.

Where next?

For Derkatch and Parker, the course ahead for PBR under UPOV 91 is simple: continued diligence in spreading the word across the country.

“With the modernization of our PBR Act under UPOV 91 rules, Canada becomes a more attractive place for companies to invest and to complement the great variety development work that’s also done within the public sector,” says Derkatch.

“I’d rather farmers understood the reason why it’s important, rather than viewing it as a penalty or a disincentive,” says Parker. “We want to encourage positive behaviour.” CG

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crops Guide

Probing drought stress in corn The potential for measuring, modelling and helping improve production is astounding

By Ralph Pearce / CG Production Editor

T

he design and creation of a new robotic device for phenotyping plants is a doublesided boon to agriculture. On one hand, it is indicative of the enormous potential of the autonomous systems now in development for farm applications. On the other, it’s a huge leap forward for researchers and plant breeders and their ability to develop corn hybrids (and other crop varieties) with better tolerance to different environmental stresses.

Dr. Gui DeSouza, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Missouri at Columbia, is part of a multidisciplinary team that has been working together for five years to perfect this technology. DeSouza and students — particularly Ali Shafiekhani — from his Vision-Guided and Intelligent Robotics (ViGIR) Laboratory have worked with several others to develop this system, in co-operation with the National Science Foundation.

Work began back in 2013 on a robotic unit that originated with a grant proposal tied to another application.

In March 2014, the university was awarded a multimillion dollar grant to study climate change and corn’s ability to grow under drought conditions.

By 2015, DeSouza and his team, which included Felix Fritchi and other researchers from the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and the Danforth Plant Science Centre in nearby Creve Coeur, were working on a small robotic unit that could move easily and quickly through a field. That work was a progression

It’s better to train people to analyze the data, and understand what the robots are collecting.”

— Dr. Gui DeSouza, University of Missouri at Columbia

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from similar imaging and collecting done in a greenhouse setting. The next year, they added a tower unit to the system, with a mobile robot design that was a little bigger, carrying a camera that could record three-dimensional (3D) images of plants.

The 2017 growing season is the second year for the tower and the third for the mobile robot unit, with the 2018 and 2019 growing seasons still part of this particular project.

They are breaking new ground. There is no commercial technology in use anywhere for this particular purpose.

The tower is capable of detecting portions of a field down to a 60-foot radius where stress could be affecting growth, including drought or heat stress. Then it guides the robotic unit into that section of the field to take photos and collect specific measurements at three different heights before returning that data to the laboratory for the development of 3D models of the plant.

Temperature, humidity and gas exchange rates are just three of the properties detected by the current design “Both the tower and the mobile robot collect 3D data of the field, so we collect 3D models and create 3D models of the plant,” says DeSouza, noting the extraordinary capability for capturing images from different angles under different conditions. “In the field, you have wind or other changes. You take one snapshot from one viewing angle, and take the next one for the next viewing angle, and the plants can change shape. So creating 3D models from deformable objects like that is a very big challenge in computer science.”

Considering the capability of collecting different data sets from different heights, and its ability to take thousands of phenotypic measurements from across a field, it’s easy to grasp the enormous potential this technology holds. Three-dimensional modelling of this sort can help provide researchers and plant breeders

precision farming

with volumes of invaluable field-based data, to be used in the development of various stress-tolerant hybrids or other crop varieties. DeSouza’s research has concentrated on the robotic unit’s applicability in corn and soybean, but many other crops could be candidates for such in-depth modelling.

The mobile robot unit (with the tower in the background) is capable of taking phenotypic measurements of a corn plant at three different levels, without damaging the plant.

Sky’s the limit What really sets this technology apart is its adaptability. Multiple towers can be brought to a field to cast an even wider perspective on a crop’s performance. It also allows for greater efficiency in taking these measurements, and unlike unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones, this robotic unit can take measurements any time — day or night.

“Field phenotyping used to be done — and is still done — by humans, but they have to go into the field to collect data by hand and it’s a lot of stress,” says DeSouza.

“They can’t collect the amount of data that we need to make the conclusions and to address the questions that we’re trying to address. It’s a lot better to train people to analyze the data, and understand what the robots are collecting, than to just collect the actual data.”

It’s not that DeSouza is trying to replace workers or create a level of social uneasiness. Instead, he believes they’re creating the system that eases the workload for people while increasing the efficiency of testing conducted on plants.

That’s the goal — to employ the robots that can collect the data, in a quantity and quality that has never been achieved before, especially in the field. There’s been a lot of work done in the greenhouse, where it’s easier to deploy or install equipment, and where something like 3D modelling is much simpler, because there are fewer environmental variContinued ON page 62

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crops Guide

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photos and images courtesy of Dr. Gui DeSouza, University of Missouri at Columbia

3D Model Created using images collected by Vinobot

23 DAP

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The final images are combined to create a threedimensional model of a plant — or plants — for further analysis in the lab.

The tower directs the mobile robot unit to specific areas of the field where drought stress has been detected for data gathering and retrieval.

ables that can have an impact on the measurements. But in the field, the challenges are much larger and more variable.

In the field, they can also collect data from 3D images, including physical traits such as leaf angle, leaf area, and distance between leaves, because those are distinct, important factors in corn. DeSouza is also looking to do similar work in soybeans, where they can measure pod size, seeds per pod and number of pods on the plant. It’s conceivable that, as with UAVs, different traits or properties could be detected, simply by changing filters on the cameras, adding even more potential to this technology.

Nutrient uptake, weed intensity, insect thresholds or the progress of diseases — all have the potential to affect a crop’s development. And all could be incorporated into data collection at varying times of a growing season.

Initially, this information is being looked to as a valuable resource for researchers and plant breeders, but it could eventually be of use to in-field personnel too, including agronomists and farmers. Unlike soil testing, the frequency or area of sampling isn’t an impediment. In fact, as the frequency of sampling and imaging increases, the cost per acre shrinks while the data collected are far more comprehensive in their scope and detail.

“Also in the past, doing field phenotyping was usually a destructive process, because the person had to grab the corn plant, take it out of the soil and bring it back to a place where you could do the measurements,” says DeSouza. “You had to have a lot more plants to be able to afford every measurement. But now, we don’t have to do that. We can send out the robot at a certain date of the plant’s growth, and then again a few weeks later, or at the end of the season.”

They actually came up with the idea for the tower because the use of UAV approach was becoming more complicated with the need for certified flight plans

filed ahead of time. Curiously, the primary goal for this design — not surprisingly given that DeSouza works in the department of electrical engineering and computer science — was to achieve autonomous movement. As a result, they can collect more observations and then correlate them with the biology of the plants.

“There’s no end to how we can adapt the current system and evolve it,” DeSouza says. “We want faster robots, we want robots that can do specific tasks, more autonomously, more efficiently, and go to the plant site to do the same thing. Once we address those questions about how the plant behaves in the field relative to the greenhouse, then we want to study the genotype of the plant. We want to study how we can breed different plants that will respond to those stresses that we observed before, and create new types of plants that can tolerate different stresses.”

The climate is changing, adds DeSouza, and there are more extremes of weather, be it drought stress or excessive moisture. By all indications, the Corn Belt in the U.S. Midwest is migrating farther north, while parts of the Canadian Prairies are becoming more conducive to growing corn and soybeans. The summer and day cycles remain the same but that doesn’t mean corn production can simply shift to those northerly regions: growers and the industry must still learn to deal with the conditions as they arise.

“We are always trying to get better and improve, and again, the population is growing, we have to feed more people and the demands are pushing us further,” says DeSouza. “Even during the process, it’s not that we’ll wait until 2019 to disclose the results — there are other groups that we work with. We report to the NSF constantly, with how people can access the data and how it’s formatted, how they can interpret the data and how they can download them.” CG

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

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BUSINESS

W Farm travel It’s a world full of farms, and more and more Canadian farmers are signing up for travel opportunities to experience them

By Shannon VanRaes / CG Field Editor

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ords like “holiday” and “vacation” just weren’t in her parents’ vocabulary when Lu Inkster grew up on her family’s Ontario cattle farm in the 1950s.

Her parents had immigrated to Canada from Belgium after the Second World War, and to them the concept of taking time off was both foreign and unattainable.

“People like my mom — who came from a large family — they were peasants, they really were, they didn’t expect to have a holiday,” says Inkster. “For her, a holiday was when you didn’t have to go to work on Saturday and Sunday, and instead you got to clean your house and get groceries. That was her idea of a holiday.”

If they were lucky, the family used the three-day-turnaround between selling their finished cattle and receiving more by train to visit relatives living a few hours away in Detroit, Michigan. Even then, one parent usually stayed behind to watch over the farm, says Inkster.

Nor was Inkster alone.

Growing up on a dairy farm near St. Claude, Man., Alain Philippot didn’t hear the word “vacation” around the house much either, so he knew his decision to take over the family dairy operation would mean sacrificing travel until the farm transition was finished — a process that would take years.

“I cried, really, when I decided I was going to take the farm,” says the thirdgeneration dairy farmer, who returned to the family farm in the early 1980s. “I knew everything I was going to give up for the next 10-plus years, because my parents weren’t going to change while I was going to farm with them… and the generation before us, they did not take time off, they didn’t take weekends off.”

Today, attitudes have changed and most producers see value in taking time off from work, but leaving agriculture behind still proves difficult for some. Even when producers leave their own operation, farming can remain top of mind.

Lawrence Rowley knows this better than most. The owner of Calgary-based Leader Tours specializes in providing farmers with winter vacations — to other farms.

For several years now, Rowley says, the market for overseas farm tours has been

steadily growing, with producers seeking to combine warmer weather and new cultural experiences with an invigorating dose of farming and agronomy.

“Demand seems to be getting a bit stronger every year,” says Rowley, who grew up on a farm in New Zealand. “I think people enjoy the fact that they can go and visit a farm, someone else’s farm, and see how things are done.”

His group tours also include cultural experiences, historic sites and local food, but he says the farmers he caters to have a specific mindset when they hit the road.

“They don’t want to go and sit on a beach in Mexico,” Rowley says. “They are looking for something that is a little different, and people love travelling with people with a similar background and a similar mindset.

The group actually gels very well, because they are very much in the same industry and so a lot of people come back as very good friends.”

Tours to Australia, New Zealand and Argentina have been consistently popular, but Spain and Portugal have drawn a lot of interest in recent years, so much so that Leader Tours has partnered with forage associations in Alberta and Manitoba to provide tailored group tours examining forage production in those countries.

What’s the farm reaction?

Already, the Spain and Portugal forage excursion has proved so popular that three tours have been filled this winter alone. Originally, only one had been planned.

“I think what you’re seeing is probably a reflection of our smaller world,” says Duncan Morrison, executive director of the Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association, which has partnered with Leader Tours.

“People are connected by technology, I mean we can access what the markets are in Europe online… and certainly with social media people can keep up to speed with what’s going on in Ireland, England, Spain, Portugal, Australia, but I still believe that farmers like to hear from farmers directly, and I think they like to get their boots on the ground to see it for themselves.”

Select Holidays was one of the first tour companies to see the potential demand for farm-centred tours.

Founded in Innisfail, Alta., by farmers Lawrence and Loretta Layden in 1981, it’s now operated by David and Brenda Layden and offers tours to destinations like Romania, China, Japan, India, Peru, Costa Rica, Hungary, Sweden, Denmark and France.

“The big thing that we do on our tours is we go to actual farms. You stand in the farmer’s field, the farmer is there, you ask all the questions you want. It’s fascinating,” says Brenda Layden. “We get our best feedback from our trip to India… people go with an open mind, but are absolutely just blown away with all the agriculture that there is in India and how much they really, truly do enjoy that tour.”

You need to see other things,” says beef farmer and frequent traveller Tim Oleskyn. “When you come back, you have that vigour, and you can say, ‘Yes, let’s get back at it.’”

The age factor Although the market is changing, older farmers, retired farmers and soon-to-be retired farmers still travel the most, and are most likely to tour other farms while travelling.

“The majority of our clients are retired farmers,” agrees Brenda Layden of Select Travel.

Lawrence Rowley of Leader Tours finds that many of his clients fit the same profile. “They’re probably sort of semi-retired; kids are sort of taking over the operation of the farm. They have some time and a bit of money to travel.

So it’s really more 50-plus that we’re getting,” says the tour operator. “But then if we do a trip to Germany for Agritechnica… we do get a mix of ages on that one, because it’s something that even the younger farmers or anyone who’s in agribusiness would like to attend. So it really depends on the destination, but in general I would say 50-plus.”

In Rowley’s experience, younger farmers tend to aim for a quick, warm getaway, where they’ll think less about their farm business and more about their family.

Duncan Morrison of Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association notes that unlike many professions, farming is a lifelong pursuit. And while reminiscing in the local coffee shop used to mark the end of a busy harvest or even a career, older farmers now want more out of retirement and a way to stay involved in agriculture, mentorship and exploration. Often that means combining their interests and touring farms abroad.

Continued on page 66

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / MARCH 1, 2018

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BUSINESS

More farmers are travelling Farmers are more interested in travel than ever before, according to the travel industry. Whether it’s independent travel, adventure excursions, a family cottage, a resort visit, traditional bus tour or a cruise, more farmers are seeing a benefit from getting off the farm now and again.

Greater financial stability and changing attitudes towards farming could be part of the generational shift that’s seeing more producers take vacations. While farming knowhow was once gleaned by working on the family operation, post-secondary education is now a given for most young producers.

“The people who really farm, farm for a living, those people have now gone to university or college,” Lu Inkster says. They’ve lived a different life and have different expectations, she says, “so I think the farmers now see more of a value in that, in seeing the world and having time off.”

Even if a producer never sets foot on another farm while travelling, investing in vacation time and travel can have real benefits for their farm business in the long run.

“Though we have busy schedules,” Inkster says, “it’s important to make time for work-life balance… this contributes to increased happiness and greater emotions of productivity and positivity.”

“Taking a vacation is one of the best forms of relaxation,” says Beverly Beuermann-King, a work-life balance expert. “Though we have busy schedules, it’s important to make time for work-life balance… this contributes to increased happiness and greater emotions of productivity and positivity at work.”

According to the 2017 Expedia Vacation Deprivation Report, 94 per cent of respondents felt less stressed and 95 per cent felt happier after returning from a vacation. A further 89 per cent said they were more focused on their work post-vacation.

According to the Expedia report, 62 per cent of those employed in agriculture feel they are “vacation deprived,” second only to those employed in the food and beverage industry. Comparatively, only 47 per cent of people employed in financial or legal work felt deprived of vacation time.

The study also found that age was a significant factor, with younger respondents taking less vacation time than older respondents, even if the time was technically available to them.

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Relaxing, per se, isn’t on her clients’ agendas either. They certainly don’t want the stress of booking accommodations and transportation, she says, but they don’t want to lounge around either. They want new experiences and fresh perspectives on farming — and questions about fertilizer application, market prices, insect predation and soil type are all commonplace during farm visits.

“It’s the neatest thing after we’ve visited a farm and people get back on the bus,” she says. “There is just a buzz of conversation… it’s so interesting to see.”

While still considered a niche in the travel market, there are enough agricultural tour providers to support an international industry association — Agricultural Tour Operators International. And interest is only expected to grow in coming years.

“You need to see other things,” says Tim Oleksyn, who operates a cow-calf ranch between Shellbrook and Prince Albert, Sask. “When you come back you have that vigour and you can say, ‘yes, let’s get back at it’. Every time we have a rest, we come back and it just improve things vastly.”

While not one for organized tours, Oleksyn says he too finds himself visiting farms and talking to farmers when he travels. In Quebec, this could mean stopping to watch a silage operation. In the Caribbean it might be a macadamia nut or banana plantation, or even a poinsettia nursery.

But there’s yet another benefit to getting off the farm, he says, and it’s one that he feels shouldn’t be overlooked.

“People want to hear our story too, and that’s amazing,” says the rancher. “It gives you an opportunity to tell that story and you don’t have to embellish it, you get to be honest and share your passion and how you do what you do.”

While the perception may remain, farming is no longer a provincial or isolated undertaking. It’s a worldwide pursuit, Oleksyn says, and producers should expand their world view whenever they have the opportunity.

“Never stop learning, never. It’s so important,” he says.

But even as the value that producers put on vacation time and travel has increased, finding a way to make it all work with livestock, crops, family and even off-farm commitments remains a challenge, especially for younger producers.

Philippot says he books vacations a year in advance and only after confirming extra help is available.

“We kept our farm fairly small and it kept things simple so that I can leave, so it’s not a really big operation,” says Philippot, noting they only have one employee, but bring in a second person if they are going to be away. “And when we take a winter vacation, we don’t go during the coldest months, we go towards the end of winter, the last week of February or the first weeks of March, so that we’re not leaving employees in the worst time.”

Every summer, the Philippot family spends one week in Clear Lake, Man., while Alain and his wife Michelle try to go somewhere warm for a couple of weeks every other winter. But he emphasizes that it takes a lot of planning and determination to make it all work.

“If you make it a priority and you make a concerted effort, it can become that way, but you really have to decide to make it a priority and decide to make it work.

You also have to find someone you trust to replace you,” Philippot says.

Even then, it’s hard to let go.

“It’s always there in the back of your mind all the time,” he says. “The thoughts never leave you. I can never just shut it off… you can be anywhere in the world and when it is time for milking, you’re still on higher alert and you’ve got your phone right close to you, just in case.”

Strong networks of friends, neighbours, family and employees, along with regular communication, are key to making time away from the farm possible, Oleksyn says. So is accepting that things might be done differently while you’re away.

“You have to allow that not everything is going to get done exactly like you would want it to get done,” he says. “But then again, it might get done better than you would have done it.”

And if you do plan to visit other farms while you’re travelling, Rowley also suggests checking in with your accountant before hitting the road.

“It can be a tax writeoff, or part of it can be, if you’re doing something for your operation. So if you can count it as a business trip, it’s worthing checking on,” he says. CG

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life

Preserve those family memories Got a jumbled box of old photos you’ve been promising to organize ‘someday’?

Daina Makinson shares her secrets for getting the job done, and enjoying it too

W

hen faced with a loose box of old photos, we all feel at sea. The pictures might all be of our family over the generations, but how can we link all the individual photos into some sort of overall sequence, or fit them into some sort of order that helps us put each photo into a context we can understand?

Our usual first impulse is to put the photos into a timeline. But that may not be so easy, says certified photo organizer Daina Makinson from Guelph, Ont. You’ll likely find that many of the print photos can’t be dated.

Instead, she recommends sorting them into “stories” such as people, places, holidays, etc. She suggests writing category names on index cards, laying them out on the dining room table, then picking up a bunch of photos and sorting them into piles accordingly.

If a pile gets too big, you can subdivide it into subcategories, say Makinson. For instance, the “people” category can be further subdivided into immediate family, cousins, and grandparents. Holidays can be subdivided into Christmas, Halloween, etc. If a photo fits into more than one pile, don’t get stuck, Makinson warns. “It doesn’t have to be perfect.”

Makinson also recommends “editing” the number of photos you save as you go along. “Not all photos are worthy of keeping,” says Makinson, who uses four criteria when deciding if a photo should go.

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By Helen Lammers-Helps

• Does the photo evoke an emotion?

• Does the photo tell a story?

• Does the photo have historical importance?

• Is it the only one? (A blurry photo of Uncle Fred is worth keeping if it’s the only one you have of him.)

If you don’t know who is in a photo, and no one else knows who it is, Makinson says you shouldn’t feel obligated to keep it.

If you have doubles of a photo, Makinson suggests sharing them with others. Keep the doubles in a basket by the door to give to visitors as they leave or include them with your Christmas cards, she suggests.

Once you’ve made your piles, the photos can be scanned and made into photo books using a site such as www.blacks.ca for convenient display and sharing.

Digital copies should be backed up but don’t throw out the originals, warns Makinson. The original photos are still the most reliable form of backup since digital files can become corrupted or outdated. The originals are best stored in an archival box in a fireproof safe or archival location, she says.

What if your photos are in sticky back magnetic albums? Cindy Sinko, archives technician at the Stratford-Perth Archives in Stratford, Ont., recommends removing photos, if possible, from such albums because the acid leaches into the photos and the plastic sheeting tends to stick to the pictures.

Working with old photos and documents From Cindy Sinko, archives technician, Stratford-Perth Archives, Stratford, Ont. When it comes to storing papers and photographs, the storage conditions are critical. Heat will make paper brittle and dry while moisture can cause mould and mildews to grow, and invite insects which can eat away at the paper.

Avoid storing photos and papers in garages, attics or basements. An interior room of the house where fluctuations in temperature or humidity are minimized is best. Keep documents and photos away from the light which can cause the writing on paper documents and photos to fade. Beware of mould which can be dangerous.

Organize your photos so they tell a story, Daina Makinson says Before dismantling albums or scrap books, she advises taking a picture of them. But also be cautious. If photos cannot be easily removed, it is better to leave them be.

If you want to put some of the old photos on display so you can enjoy them every day, Sinko recommends following some steps to minimize damage to the photos. First of all, use ultra violet filtering glass or acrylic in the frames. Limit the amount and intensity of light the photo is exposed to by using a lower intensity of light, turning off lights when not in use, and placing shades on windows to block the sunlight. For best results, seek the advice of a professional framer.

Those digital photos What about the thousands of digital photos lurking on your hard drive? Makinson’s method for managing digital photos starts with gathering them into one folder. She then recommends using special software to remove duplicates.

Using the date stamp associated with each digital photo, the pictures can be sorted chronologically.

Keep only the best photos, Makinson recommends, and rename these files with the names of the people or places in the photos which allows you to use the search function to find them more easily in future. Other photos can be moved to another folder.

All photos should be backed up, ideally in more than one location, to prevent loss in case of fire, flooding, etc. Makinson also likes to create photo books with digital photos to make it easier to enjoy them and share them with others. CG

When handling family papers and photos, be sure to have a clean, clear workspace before taking the items out of storage. Don’t eat, drink or smoke around originals. Wash your hands before handling paper and don’t apply any lotion, which can stain paper. Wear nitrile or cotton gloves when handling photos.

Remove fasteners such as staples, elastics and paper clips. Store papers in archival quality boxes and enclosures. Folders and papers used should be acidfree — acid is the enemy of paper made from wood pulp because it causes the strands in the cellulose in the paper to break down into smaller pieces.

Don’t crowd the papers in file folders or boxes, and make sure the items fit in the enclosures.

If possible, remove photos from sticky back albums since the acid leaches into the photos and the plastic sheeting tends to stick to photos. Unwaxed dental floss can be used to remove stuck photos. A small metal spatula heated by a blow dryer could also be used. If photos cannot be easily removed you are better off to leave them be.

Use mylar sleeves for paper documents such as deeds, wills, letters, post cards, newspaper clippings, marriage, baptismal or death certificates, receipts, and diaries. These allow you to handle and view the documents without touching them.

Never use scotch tape or pen on photos or documents. Use only acid-free glue such as a UHU glue stick.

Resources To find a professional photo organizer in your area, go to the Association of Personal Photo Organizers www. appo.org.

For DIY courses, check your local community college, school board, library or other community organization for courses and workshops.

Archives Association of Ontario (AAO) has several tip sheets on how to clean and store paper documents and

photos, as well as training opportunities, aao-archivists.ca/aaoresources#PracticalAids.

The American National Archives has tip sheets on preserving photos and documents, www.archives.gov/ preservation/family-archives.

A Smithsonian Institute video shows how to remove photos from magnetic sticky back photo albums, www. si.edu/sisearch?edan_ q=preserving%2Bphotos%2Bvideos.

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / MARCH 1, 2018

69

GUIDE LIFE health

By Marie Berry / lawyer & pharmacist

ANTIBIOTIC STEWARDSHIP — IT’S EVERYONE’S JOB

A

ntibiotic stewardship refers to a bundle of strategies to reduce antibiotic resistance.

The aim of this stewardship effort is, yes, to treat infections effectively resulting in better health, but also to use the right antibiotic at the right time for the right infection, since this is a key measure for curbing future resistance.

You may think this is a job just for health care professionals, but I would like to persuade you otherwise. The general public, you included, have a role to play.

The risk of antibiotic resistance rises when bacteria are exposed to antibiotics unnecessarily. Such unnecessary exposures gives them additional opportunity to screen their structure against the mode of action of the antibiotics.

With over 25 million prescriptions for antibiotics written each year in Canada, and an estimate that 30 to 50 per cent of them are unnecessary, bacteria definitely have a chance of being exposed to antibiotics needlessly.

Farm readers know without my telling them about concerns that antibiotics used in animals may end up in the food chain. However, there are other ways that bacteria are unnecessarily exposed to antibiotics.

Antibiotics are only effective against bacterial infections, and when they are used to treat other types of infections such as viral infections like a cold or the flu, antibiotic resistance can result. When

antibiotics are taken other ways than prescribed, or when they are shared among family or friends, or even used without a prescription, bacteria can be exposed and be screened for resistance.

Ideally, you want to have a diagnosis of a bacterial infection, follow your prescription directions exactly, and/or use non-antibiotic measures for your symptoms.

Two resistant infections have become more common and more difficult to treat in recent years.

Methacillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus or MRSA is the diagnosis of about one in 12 infections in a hospital setting, but of recent concern is the increased incidence in the community, that is, communityacquired MRSA. The bacteria itself is very common, with 20 to 30 per cent of people having it normally on their skin, and sometimes in their nose without any infection.

It is when MRSA infects a wound or the blood that it becomes difficult to treat. Methacillin is ineffective because the bacteria is resistant, and more potent antibiotics need to be used, and may need to be administered intravenously.

The other infection that has become resistant to the usual treatment is vancomycin-resistant enterococcus or VRE. Enteroccoci are bacteria that normally reside in your intestines, but they can cause infections in the bowel, urinary tract, and blood stream.

A weakened immune system or a wound may result in the spread.

And, again, the bacteria has developed a resistance to the normally used vancomycin. Other antibiotics need to be used.

Unfortunately, there are a finite number of types of antibiotics available, so there may be no antibiotic that is effective in treating a resistant infection. The option is to use more potent antibiotics with potential adverse effects, or even a combination of several antibiotics. Longer courses of therapy and sometimes hospitalization are needed.

You can play a role in antibiotic stewardship. Use antibiotics appropriately and reduce your risk for bacterial infections by practicing proper hygiene such as washing your hands after going to the washroom, before eating, and after coming in contact with potentially contaminated objects.

Make sure you take care of any cuts, scrapes, and wounds carefully, and remember to not use antibiotics for viral infections like coughs, colds and the flu. CG

Marie Berry is a lawyer/pharmacist interested in health and education.

Next Issue You only have two eyes, so you want to take care of them. Next issue, we’ll look at some common conditions that can affect eyesight and some ideas on how to best take care of your eyes.

70

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

GUIDE LIFE Hanson Acres

By Leeann Minogue

E

laine was rushing to get her four-year-old daughter Jenny out the door so she could pick up her son Connor after school. “Come on, kiddo. Connor will worry if we’re not there when the bell rings,” she said.

By March, Elaine was counting down the days until the end of hockey season. Two practices a week plus a game most weekends was a lot of time at the arena and in the car for a first-grader. But Connor loved it, so what else could she do but drive him to the rink?

She was already running late.

Earlier in the afternoon, she’d chopped up vegetables and beef to stew in the crockpot. Then she’d worked on reconciling the farm’s February bank statements. One typo entering the phone bill had made the process take at least 30 minutes longer than usual. That meant Jenny woke up from her nap before Elaine was finished filing the quarterly GST report. Elaine sent Jenny to play in her room while she checked the numbers one more time. When she finally hit “send” to file the numbers with the CRA and get their refund in the works, Elaine realized the house was oddly quiet.

“Jenny?” she called.

“I’m in my room. Like you said,” Jenny answered.

“Sorry, honey…” Elaine began.

Then she got to the door of Jenny’s room. And tried to calm down before she shouted.

“Jenny,” she began. “I thought we agreed you were only going to paint at the table. With a grown-up.”

“You were busy,” Jenny said. “I thought it would help if I played by myself.”

Elaine’s husband Jeff came in while Elaine was still assessing the damage.

“The good news is we’ve got a big GST refund coming,” she said.

“The bad news? We might have to spend it replacing Jenny’s carpet.”

“I had to use blue,” Jenny

Hanson Acres

So much to do In which the idyllic farm lifestyle meets too much reality

explained. “I was painting a nice sunny day!”

“Are you still going to town?” Jeff asked.

Elaine checked the time on her phone. “Oh no! I have to go right now!”

“Can you stop off at Home Hardware?” Jeff asked. “I need a couple of belts for the cleaning plant.”

Elaine looked a little frazzled, so Jeff tried to make it simple. “I’ll text you the details and a photo,” he said.

Jeff put Jenny into her snowsuit while Elaine brushed her hair and changed her sweater. But when Elaine was ready to go, Jenny was out of her snowsuit again.

“I should’ve asked her if she had to go to the bathroom first,” Jeff said.

“Between snowsuits and hockey, I’ve had about all I can take of winter,” Elaine said.

Soon Jenny was re-dressed and Elaine had found her shopping list and put on her own jacket. Elaine picked up Connor’s hockey bag and went outside.

By the time she got the hockey gear in the back and Jenny belted into her car seat, Elaine was really running late. “We’d better drive fast, Jenny,” she said. “Or Connor will be standing outside the school doors all alone.”

As she was getting into her SUV, Elaine’s cellphone rang. It was her mother-in-law, Donna.

“Hi Elaine. Does Connor have hockey today?” Donna said.

“Yep,” Elaine answered, holding the phone in one hand and turning the key to start the ignition with the other.

“Could you pick me up some milk while you’re in town? Dale’s taken a sudden liking to oatmeal.”

“Sure,” Elaine said, backing out into the driveway.

Bang.

The air bag exploded out of her steering wheel in a rush and hit Elaine in the face. She couldn’t see, couldn’t hear. Then she remembered Jenny.

“Jenny, are you okay?”

“Yes!” Jenny yelled from the backseat. “What happened?”

Elaine groped her way free of the air bag, opened the door and got out of the SUV. It didn’t take long to figure it out what she’d hit. It was the Co-op fuel delivery truck. Right in her own driveway. On its way to fill the Hanson’s tanks with diesel.

What were the odds of such terrible timing?

The driver, Jim Hart, was already out of the cab. “You alright?” he asked Elaine, before he bent down to look at the damage on his truck.

Jeff came out of the house. “How did this happen? Didn’t you see him?”

“Look at this,” Jim said. “The door to my hose reel compartment is all smashed up. I don’t think I can even get these hoses out.”

“Nothing’s going to catch fire, right?” Elaine asked.

“Only because your vehicle’s too low to hit the tank,” Jim said, grinning.

“Jeez,” Jeff said, looking at the fuel truck. “Don’t think I can fix this in my shop.”

“Probably not,” Jim said. “I’ll Continued ON page 72

COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA / MARCH 1, 2018

71

GUIDE LIFE

Reflections

by Rod Andrews retired Anglican bishop

have to take it back to town. Hope you don’t need your tanks filled right away.”

“We’ll get by for a few days,” Jeff laughed. “I can’t exactly complain.”

While the adults were talking Jenny had unbuckled herself and climbed out. “What happened?”

“Your mom forgot to look behind her,” Jeff said. “You okay, kid?”

“It was scary,” Jenny said.

Dale had noticed the commotion from the shop and came over to see what was going on.

“How did this happen?” he asked.

Elaine just shook her head. “I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t looking.”

“I guess not!” Dale looked to Jenny. “Must’ve been exciting, hey Jenny?”

“Yeah!” she told her grandfather.

Donna came running over from her house on the other side of the yard. “I heard the crash over the phone!” she said, panting. “I was so scared! Is everyone okay?”

“Connor’s going to be jealous!” Jenny said, giggling.

“Connor!” Elaine said. “Now I’m really late. And what am I going to do about that air bag?”

“Never mind the air bag,” Jeff said. “You took off the whole bumper! We’ll have to call the dealership!”

Elaine groaned.

“Why don’t you take the rest of the afternoon off,” Jeff said. “Jenny and I’ll take Connor to hockey in my truck.”

“Thank you,” Elaine said. “I think I do need a break.”

“Come on Jenny,” Jeff said. “Let’s get Connor’s hockey bag.”

Elaine texted a friend who had a son in Connor’s Grade 1 class. “Heather will drive Connor over to the rink,” she told Jeff. “You can meet him there.”

That night, after Jeff and the kids came home from town and they’d eaten beef stew, and put Connor and Jenny to bed, Elaine sat next to her husband on the living room couch. Jeff was using his iPhone to google “blue paint beige carpet.”

“I feel so stupid,” Elaine said. “I don’t know how it happened. I could’ve killed Jenny. What if I did something like that in town? Do you think there’s something wrong with me?”

“No,” Jeff said. “There’s nothing wrong with you.

You’ve got a lot going on.”

Elaine smiled. “Remember when I was single and I worked as a chemical rep? And the hours were so long, and I was so exhausted by the end of the week?”

“Yeah,” Jeff said.

“That was like a beach vacation compared to this.”

“Would you want to go back?” Jeff asked.

“Not for a second,” Elaine said.

Leeann Minogue is the editor of Grainews, a playwright and part of a family grain farm in southeastern Saskatchewan.

72

MARCH 1, 2018 / COUNTRY-GUIDE.CA

“W

ho are we, and why are we here?” These could be theological questions, the musings of a philosopher, or questions asked at a political rally. Would you guess the questions are posed by a rapper at a beach party in Mexico? He chants quickly, but periodically he slowly repeats his refrain. His questions, posed in a deep, gravelly voice are “who are we, and why are we here?”

I reflect that life is really a search for answers to these two questions. Our quest starts early in life. Children astonish their parents when they begin asserting their individuality. The search for meaning continues through every decade of life. As the years roll by, the questions “who are we, and why are we here” remain. The answer is often elusive.

The next morning I notice a middle-aged man rolling his wheelchair while collecting breakfast at the hotel buffet. He sits alone. I ask if I may share his table. We eat a leisurely Mexican breakfast of omelets and refried beans. His name is Chris. He got his first job, working in the kitchen at a hospital, when he was 17. On his way to work early one morning a drunk driver smashed into his car causing serious injuries. Chris spent many months in a hospital. He has not been able to walk since. I ask how he would answer the rapper’s question? He tells me how grateful he is for family and friends. His generous father never stopped supporting him. “I am so thankful,” Chris said. “I love everyone and every thing.”

After breakfast, my wife Jacqueline and I board a local bus for downtown Puerto Vallarta. We strike up a conversation with a couple from Montreal, people about our age. They are also exploring. First, we attend Sunday Mass in the large cathedral overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The scripture lessons are about the Holy Family: Joseph and Mary and their baby, Jesus. After the service it is time to introduce ourselves.

“We are Joseph and Mary” they tell us. “We are Rod and Jacqueline,” we reply. Joseph speaks several languages. He becomes our tour leader. He searches out good places to shop, leads us to important tourist sites and bargains for taxis. We spend the sixth day of Christmas with Mary and Joseph in a crowded city, much as Bethlehem would have been during the obligatory registration.

Back at the hotel we receive an email from Emiley and Lucas, a young couple who farm with family at Borden, west of Saskatoon.

They share their joy. A baby girl, their first child, born between Christmas and New Year’s. I recall their wedding day. They were married at Emiley’s family farm near Davidson, Sask. I presided at the wedding and observed their happiness first-hand. The love they felt on their wedding day is now shared with a beautiful child.

The answers to our questions about the meaning of life do not come suddenly. There are setbacks and challenges along the way.

Each person searches differently. We follow many paths in our search. Each of us answers the questions “who are we, and why are we here?” in our own way. The answer is in the people we meet and the experiences we have. The small events of every day, and connections to people like Chris, Joseph and Mary, Emiley and Lucas and their baby, help us make sense of life.

“Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly and leave the rest to God.” Suggested Scripture: Psalm 8, Ephesians 3:14-21 Rod Andrews is a retired Anglican bishop. He lives in Saskatoon.

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