W

Volume 40, Number 1 | JANUARY 7, 2014
$4.25
PRACTICAL PRODUCTION TIPS FOR THE PRAIRIE FARMER
www.grainews.ca
Moving the grain
Prairie farmers are dealing with a bin-busting
bumper crop this year. But moving that grain
is easier said than done
BY LISA GUENTHER
W
hen it comes to
moving grain
through a cramped
system, farmers and
grain elevators have more control
than they might realize, says a
transportation manager. And a lot
of it comes down to reliability.
“I want to be that preferred
shipper. I want to be that farmer
that when they say they need
stuff moving, they know I’m reliable,” Chad Jarvis told delegates
at Canadian Western Agribition’s
Grain Expo. Jarvis is Cargill’s
transportation manager.
Statistics Canada’s crop production numbers, released December
4, show Canadian farmers
breached many previous production records. Canada’s canola
yielded 18 million tonnes, up
nearly 30 per cent from 2012.
Wheat hit 37.5 million tonnes
and oats 3.9 million tonnes. Barley
yields topped 71 bushels per acre,
adding up to 10.2 million tonnes.
Corn and soybeans reached 14.2
million tonnes and 5.2 million
tonnes respectively.
With no new mills or crushing
facilities, the domestic market will
only take about 20 to 25 million tonnes, Jarvis said. “So now
we have, for the export orders, a
45 million tonne crop trying to
squeeze through the same lines
the 30 million-tonne crop would
have the previous year.”
“But I think at the end of the
day, it’s a good challenge to have.”
COMMERCIAL
STORAGE LIMITED
Asked why Canadian elevators
don’t pile or bunk grain in the
open like Australia, Jarvis pointed
out Australia has lower moisture
and fewer environmental risks
than Canada.
Paterson Grain has piled and
tarped 40,000 tonnes of winter
wheat outside its Winnipeg terminal. Jarvis said other companies are watching how Paterson’s
experiment turns out.
Under the Canadian Wheat
Board system, grain had to be covered, Jarvis said. The Prairie grain
handling system is, in some ways,
a single-desk legacy.
“The Canadian Wheat Board
had a quota, they had a 25 per
cent push that you go through,
so it really metered out how
much grain would go through
the system at a time.” Jarvis
said this required farmers to
build on-farm storage to main-
Publications Mail Agreement Number 40069240
tain grain quality until it could
be moved.
Only about 10 per cent of
Saskatchewan’s grain can be stored
in the commercial system, Jarvis
said. In comparison, North Dakota
socks away between 40 and 45 per
cent of its grain in commercial
facilities, while Kansas’ commercial storage holds over 80 per cent
of its grain, Jarvis said.
Though Canadian grain handling companies are building
more storage, it won’t reflect the
U.S. system, said Jarvis.
Grain elevators don’t fill their
space right up, either. “The grain
elevators start to feel full when
they’re at 60 per cent full capacity,” Jarvis said.
Usually much of Saskatchewan’s
wheat crop is harvested after the
first killing frost, and grain elevators need to separate different
products, he explained.
Shipping grain that doesn’t
meet the buyers’ requirements
clogs up the system.
“If you’re pouring water
through a funnel, if you start
to get some junk or sediment
sticking to the sides of that funnel, it starts to really slow the
flow. If you have sediment stick-
» CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
PHOTO: LISA GUENTHER
Farmers need to think about what actions are within their control to help
move this year’s record crop, says Cargill’s Chad Jarvis.
In This Issue
Wheat & Chaff ..................
2
Features ............................
5
Crop Advisor’s Casebook
8
Columns ........................... 17
Machinery & Shop ............ 26
FarmLife ............................ 31
Nitrogen stabilizers
LEEANN MINOGUE PAGE 6
Agritechnica
Cattleman’s Corner .......... 35
SCOTT GARVEY PAGE 26
New “Straight Cut”
204-825-2000
www.seeddepot.ca
CARDALE
“More Wheat...Less Shatter”
2
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Wheat & Chaff
STAMPEDE
BY JERRY PALEN
LEEANN
MINOGUE
F
“Mad? Now why would I be mad
about your forgetting our anniversary?”
CONTACT US
Write, Email or Fax
SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES:
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U.S. subscribers call 1-204-944-5568
or email: [email protected]
If you have story ideas, call us. You can write the article and we’d
pay you, or we can write it.
Phone Leeann Minogue at 306-861-2678
Fax to 204-944-5416
Email [email protected]
Write to Grainews, 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, Man. R3H 0H1
HEARTS
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When you renew your subscription to
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Be Careful, We Love You hearts. Then
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operate. That important message could
save an arm, a leg or a life.
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Find, read and comment on blog posts
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or my husband,
Christmas came early
this year — twice.
First, in early December
our seven-year old son brought
home his school portfolio. (In
case you’re out of the loop, a
first-grader’s “portfolio” is a
really thick binder full of all
kinds of photos, pictures and
worksheets that kids bring home
instead of a simple report card.)
For the most part, our son’s
portfolio was filled with the standard Grade 1 reading and printing.
But mid-way through the binder,
we found the hand-drawn picture
you see here. We think the picture
is a combine, and we’re translating the text as, “When I grow up I
want to be a farmer.”
Brad was pleased, to say the
least.
Our son is an only child. Having
just one kid really simplifies farm
succession planning. There’s no
debate over how to treat children
equally, or fairly compensate nonfarming children. (Of course, it
also increases our risk. If you have
three children and one starts robbing banks, you still have two to
include in your annual Christmas
newsletter. We’ve got all our of our
eggs in one basket.)
But in some ways, having
only one child also makes our
farm succession planning situation more difficult.
Brad’s grandfather started
this farm. Brad and his parents
would be very pleased to see the
business continue for a fourth
generation.
In spite of this, we really
try to make an effort to make
sure that our son doesn’t feel
obligated to stay on the farm.
There’s a whole world out there.
If he decides to be a welder in
Northern Alberta or a whalewatching tour guide in Hawaii,
we just hope he’s healthy and
happy. As he gets older, we’ll
work hard to make sure he has
every opportunity. If it turns
out he doesn’t want to farm, we
don’t want him to feel that this
business is something chained
to his leg, holding him back.
For now, though, he’s giving
it some thought.
He might change his mind. Or
maybe he just picked “farmer”
because he thought it would
be easier to draw a combine
than a fire truck. Maybe he was
copying from the kid in the next
desk when he drew this picture.
At any rate, for now, we’re calling it a win, and assuming he’s
proud of his dad and at least
considering the family business
as one of his options.
Find us on Twitter:
FUTURESIM 3
Leeann Minogue is @grainmuse
Lisa Guenther is @LtoG
Lee Hart is @hartattacks
Scott Garvey is @machineryeditor
Brad’s second pleasant surprise in early December was a
great experience at a three-day
grain marketing workshop in
Weyburn.
The course, taught by occa-
sional Grainews contributor
Neil Blue, focused on using
futures and options to limit
income risk on the farm. But
the best part was the FutureSim
3 Commodity Trading program
that the class used during the
three days.
FutureSim 3 is a simulated market experience. At the start of the
course, participants were given
10 envelopes, a (pretend) brokerage account loaded with $50,000
cash, and a list of inventory they
were holding on their farm.
Each envelope included two
months of “pretend” market
information. After they opened
it and had a chance to read
through the market information and charts inside, everyone had an opportunity to buy
or sell futures or options for
several different agriculture
commodities or the Canadian
dollar. They could also fix basis
prices for future delivery, or sell
their grain for cash.
After they made their choices,
they submitted their orders
to the broker — this part was
played by Ken Evans, regional
farm business management
specialist at Saskatchewan
Agriculture’s Weyburn office.
The FutureSim 3 software
calculated commission prices
and margin calls, then tallied
participants’ profits and losses
as markets changed. When
they opened the next of the 10
envelopes, participants could
see how the markets moved
over time, and consider whether
they’d made the right choices.
It’s one thing to learn definitions for market terms like
“put,” “call” and “in the
money.” But it’s a lot more helpful to actually have a chance to
try out these strategies as you
go — especially without having
your own $50,000 on the line
while you learn.
The
FutureSim
3
software is published by Alberta
Agriculture. It was written
by Neil Blue, Lee Melvill and
Doug Walkey. If you ever have
a chance to take a course that
uses this software, take advantage of the opportunity.
THE COLUMNS SECTION
You’ll see a couple of changes in
the Columns section of this issue.
Don’t be alarmed! Les Henry
isn’t going anywhere.
Instead, you’ll see Bobbie
Bratrud’s first column in this
issue, on page 22. Bobbie and
her husband farm in southeast
Saskatchewan. She’s written
occasional article for Grainews.
Now she’s moving to the columns section so she can tell us
more about what’s happening on
her own farm. In this issue, she’s
writing about new opportunities with soybeans and corn. For
the next issue, she’s planning a
column about how she and her
husband are deciding what crops
to seed this spring.
You’ll also find Jay Peterson’s
“AppQuest” in the columns section. Jay farms near Frontier,
Sask. He occasionally writes other
articles for Grainews, in addition
to AppQuest, and I hope he’ll
continue to do that too.
As you may have noticed, not
all of our columnists appear
in each issue. In this issue,
Toban Dyck is taking a break
as he recovers from midwinter
flu. As we move to a mostlyweekly production schedule
in February, many of our columnists will occasionally take
breaks while they do their regular day jobs or get to work on
their farms.
GRAIN TRANSPORTATION
AND COMMENTS
You’ve already seen one article about grain transportation
on Page 1. Grain transportation
is becoming a real bottleneck in
the system with this year’s record
crop. Market analyst Brian Wittal’s
column (page 21) follows up on
this theme with some ideas about
the future of grain transportation.
If you have comments about
grain transportation (or anything else) I hope you’ll send
them in (by email or mail, or
just pick up the phone.)
Happy new year, and best
wishes for 2014.
Leeann
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
3
Wheat & Chaff
Farm safety
Skating on thin ice
R
ecently an Alberta cattle
producer had a run in
with ice that she’ll likely
never forget. It was late
November and a balmy 3 C. She
was moving bales with a tractor
when about 15 of her cattle spied
an open gate, raced through it
towards a dugout on the farm,
and proceeded to fall through
the ice. The woman and her
family spent the next four hours
fishing cattle out of the dugout
with a lariat. One calf died and
her husband broke his hand in a
hitching mishap with a rope and
backhoe. Amazingly, the remaining cattle survived, a few treading
water for about an hour and a
half before they were rescued.
Besides wanting to “kick her
own butt” for leaving the gate
open, she admits that they’d been
talking about fencing off the dugout on the farm for years, but
never got around to it. Her story,
now immortalized in an ag publication, ends with a quote: “If
someone else can learn from my
stupid mistakes, I’d be happy.”
The family spent the next day
setting up temporary barriers to
the dugout.
Her cautionary tale is very
poignant this time of year. Winter
temperatures can fluctuate wildly,
and with children looking for
some entertainment during
winter break, now is a good time
to review the ice safety situation
on your farm.
Begin by assessing the water
bodies on your farm. Do you have
a dugout, manure lagoon, natural
pond or creek on or nearby your
property? What precautions have
you taken to limit access to these
features? It’s advised to fence off
and properly mark water bodies
to prevent kids, animals, wandering neighbours, or snowmobilers from accessing these surfaces
when they shouldn’t be.
Each water body is different.
If you have an aerated pond, it
probably won’t be safe to use for
recreational purposes as the ice
will become increasingly thin
Crop varieties
Soybean
variety news
and dangerous the closer you get
to the aeration system. When
dealing with natural ponds,
springs, creeks or marshes, deep
water freezes much more slowly
than shallow water. Strong currents and organic debris can create thin spots. At the water’s
edge, cattails and tree roots can
slow and weaken ice formation
while rocks, logs and docks can
absorb heat from the sun. If
your water body is near a roadway, or is crossed frequently by
off-road or other vehicles, vibrations might weaken the ice. If
your water body is subject to
salt or other chemicals, this can
also reduce ice strength. Monitor
water quality in the summer
so you have a good idea of the
composition of your pond when
it freezes over.
Once you determine that
your water body is suitable for
recreation, it’s time to measure the ice thickness. Start by
assessing the ice colour. Clear
blue ice is the strongest. White
or opaque ice, which is formed
by wet snow freezing on the
ice, is half as strong as blue ice.
Grey ice is unsafe as it indicates
the presence of water. Try chip-
You might be from the Prairies if...
ping at the ice. If it comes off in
chunks, it’s strong. If it comes
off in thin, crispy pieces, the
ice density is low and probably
not safe. Use an ice auger or
drill to measure the ice at various spots on the pond. Fifteen
centimeters is safe for skating,
walking, or ice fishing alone;
20 cm is safe for hockey games
or skating parties; 25 cm is safe
for snowmobiles and ATVs; and
40 cm is safe for mid-sized pickup trucks.
Once you are ready to clear
the ice, make sure it is strong
enough to support the weight
and reverberations of your
vehicle or machinery. Crosscheck its tonnage against an
ice thickness chart, or consult
with your machinery dealer. If
you’re not confident the ice will
be strong enough to withstand
your equipment, don’t do it, or
find lighter equipment that you
know is safe.
Once you are out on the ice,
bring a buddy to keep an eye
on things from the shore. If
this isn’t possible, tell someone
what you are doing and how
long you will be gone. If you
are clearing the ice with a trac-
tor or front end loader, keep the
door open. If the ice cracks, this
might allow you to escape the
vehicle in time before it submerges. Steering and breaking
on ice is difficult as most twowheel-drive tractors only have
brakes on their rear wheels. This
problem may be exacerbated
when carrying heavy loads of
snow. So go slowly.
Once the ice is cleared and
you’ve warmed yourself up with
some hot chocolate, make sure to
talk to your kids about ice safety.
Children should not venture out
onto the ice without adult supervision and pre-testing of the ice
by an adult first.
Develop an emergency plan in
case the ice breaks. Do you have
rescue equipment near the site
such as a ladder or weighted rope?
Do you have a system in place
to call for help? Does everyone
know what to do if someone falls
through the ice?
Skating is a fun, active way to
spend time with your family during the holidays. By taking a few
extra steps, you can ensure it stays
that way. †
Canadian Agriculture Safety Association —
www.casa-acsa.ca.
Agronomy tips… from the field
Enjoy the show
S
ometime this winter, almost every grower will
reflect on the past cropping season. “What
should I have done differently? How can I
build on recent successes?” are common questions this time of year. For my money, there’s no
venue like a trade show to get answers. Where else is
there so much expertise in one place? So while you’re
enjoying the show, let me suggest you seize the learning opportunity.
Before you go, think about a few things you’d like to
improve upon next year and make a list of them. Then,
determine who will be at the show to provide answers.
Attend the relevant seminars. Ask the different vendors
what’s new and review any trial results to see how new
products and uses can help overcome your challenges.
And be sure to ask the provincial agriculture representatives or members of grower organizations in attendance for a well-rounded solution to your problem.
And don’t forget a notepad and pen. They’re the best
way to retain all the good information you’ve heard.
Trade shows are a wonderful celebration of everything agriculture and a chance to connect with the
community. They’re also a place where a few minutes
of asking questions can save hours of independent
research at home. †
I
n Grainews’ annual fall round-up of
new soybean varieties, we missed these
two offerings from Syngenta which will
be hitting the market for the first time
in 2014.
S00-N6*: This is a high-yielding, Genuity
Roundup Ready 2 Yield variety targeted
to the earliest soybean growing areas of
the Red River Valley of Manitoba, rated
at 2400 heat units. This strong-standing
variety responds well to narrow rows and
offers very good emergence to enable quick
stand establishment and easy harvesting.
*Registration pending.
S007-Y4: A Genuity Roundup Ready 2
Yield variety with high yield performance
that is broadly adapted across Manitoba
growing zones. This early-maturing soybean offers growers dependable emergence, Phytophthora root rot field tolerance,
includes the Rps1c gene for resistance to
races 1-3 and 6-11 and boasts superb standability for easy harvesting. Rated at 2425
heat units. †
You get nosebleeds in higher altitudes.
This agronomy tip is brought to you by Rob Klewchuk, Technical Lead,
Western Canada for Syngenta Canada Inc.
Leeann Minogue
photo contest
GIVE US YOUR
BEST SHOT
Grace Deunk took this picture of her granddaughter, AllyGrace. She says, “Ally’s aunties raise chickens on our dairy
farm to help pay for their university education. This was
Ally’s first exposure to the chicks when she came to visit us
near Leduc, Alta. Her mom, Natasha is showing her the baby
chicks.”
Ally is one excited little girl! We have a check for $25 on
its way to Grace. Send your best shot to leeann.minogue@
fbcpublishing.com. Please send only one or two photos at
a time and include your name and address, the names of
anyone in the photo, where the photo was taken and a bit
about what was going on that day. A little write-up about
your farm is welcome, too. Please ensure that images are of
high resolution (1 MB is preferred), and if the image includes
a person, we need to be able to see their face clearly.
Leeann
Weather Lore
Sunshine in January
S
t. Vincent’s feast day is on
January 22 and according
to this weather adage from
France: If the sun shine brightly
on Vincent’s Day we shall have more
wine than water.
Sunshine on St. Vincent’s Day seems
to have been seen as a good thing. This
verse links St. Vincent’s day with that of
St. Paul’s Conversion Day on January 25:
If St. Vincent’s has sunshine,
One hopes much rye and wine;
If St. Paul’s is bright and clear,
One does hope a good year.
St. Paul fair with sunshine
Brings fertility to rye and wine.
Shirley Byers’ book “Never Sell Your Hen on a Rainy
Day” explores over 100 weather rhymes and sayings.
It is available from McNally Robinson at: www.
mcnallyrobinson.com.
4
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Cover Stories
Soil nutrition
Planning ahead for fertility
1 6 6 6 D u b l i n Av e n u e ,
W i n n i p e g , MB R 3 H 0 H 1
w w w. g r a i n e w s . c a
With consistently higher yields, many farmers across North
America are neglecting the basics: nutrient replacement
By Melanie Epp
W
hen agrologist Matt
Gosling visited
Chris Dennison in
New Zealand he
wanted to know how Dennison
had become the world record
holder for wheat production.
Dennison answered the question
in a simple word: replacement.
When it comes to soil nutrition, Gosling has a similar philosophy: farmers should be monitoring soil status and replacing the
nutrients they use — simple as
that. It is a practice that has fallen
to the wayside, says Gosling, but
one that should be revisited.
Soil nutrition is something
that’s often put on the backburner,
says Gosling. Since yields across
the Prairies have been exceptional
this year regardless of nutrient
management strategy, he’s particularly concerned that a lot of
growers aren’t taking soil nutrition
seriously.
“If we’ve been fertilizing for a
certain yield and we’ve out-shot
that yield for years, we’re really
in a soil depletion trend,” says
Gosling. “Farmers who don’t treat
their soil like a piggy bank or a
savings account are really going to
put their farm in a tough position
here in another five to 10 years of
higher crop removal.”
But farmers haven’t had to take
soil nutrition seriously. Better
genetics and better agronomic
practices — fungicides, growth
regulators and variant-rate technology — mean that yields are
high regardless of nutrient management strategies.
“In some instances, our concept or practice of fertility has
been left 20 years behind where
producers are still fertilizing for
genetics, for yield expectations
and for practices where their fertility hasn’t matched the advancement of all of those other things,”
says Gosling.
“If we’ve removed a big crop,”
he continues, “we have to replace
that big crop with what we’re
going to put in the soil this fall or
next spring.”
Phosphorus depletion is a big
problem all across North America,
says Gosling. Nitrogen, on the
other hand, is pretty much a
renewable resource, so there’s less
concern about nitrogen depletion.
“The potassium situation across
the prairies in the soil is fairly
strong,” says Gosling. “There are
some instances where it is definitely worthwhile putting it down,
especially in different management
practices where they’re taking off
straw or hay as part of their production and we’re removing very high
amounts of potassium.”
Sulphur is a very inconsistent
nutrient in the soil, but Gosling
says that it should be kept at a
consistent rate, if possible.
When we look at the big picture, though, phosphorus is the
one nutrient that has the most
yield-limiting power over the
long term. One bushel of canola,
for example, removes about one
pound of phosphorus.
“If we’re fertilizing with 30
pounds of phosphorus and removing 50 pounds of canola, we’re
depleting our soil of 20 pounds
of phosphorus,” says Gosling,
who thinks phosphorus should be
looked at a lot more intensely by
growers across the Prairies. “We’re
only going to be able to keep that
PUBLI SHER Lynda Tityk
Associate Publisher/
Editorial director John Morriss
Edito r
Leeann Minogue
field Ed itor
Lisa Guenther
Cattleman’s Corner Editor
Lee Hart
Farmlife Ed it or
Sue Armstrong
Machinery EDITOR
Scott Garvey
This photo was taken on Chris
Dennison’s New Zealand farm.
Production Di rec tor
up for so many years before our
soil gets really, really tired.”
Gosling suggests regular soil
testing and a simple Excel spreadsheet to track what has been put
in and taken out. He recommends
that producers review their soil
tests and come up with a nutrient management plan tailored
specifically to their farm’s needs.
Now is a good time to begin planning for next year. †
Steven Cote
Melanie Epp is a freelance writer who
specializes in writing web copy for small
businesses. She is based in Guelph, Ont., and
can be found online at melanierepp.com.
Farm management
» CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
moving the grain
ing at a deeper point or further down that funnel, it has a
greater impact on the flow of
water faster,” said Jarvis.
Railway capabilities
Between CPR and CNR, there
are about 25,000 grain cars.
The railroads tend to allocate
no more than 10,000 to 11,000
cars per week to grain transport,
Jarvis said. Around Christmas,
grain car allocation starts dropping, and could dip to 5,000
cars per week, depending on
winter weather.
It would take grain companies
14 weeks to ship out the 2013
crop if grain companies had 10,000
rail cars each week, Jarvis said. He
expects to see 10,000 car programs
next summer as grain companies
move the remaining crop.
Railways are focused internally,
trying to improve their own efficiency. For example, CNR and CPR
are moving to 100 and 112 car loaders. Grain companies are responding
by upgrading their facilities, Jarvis
said. CNR also upgraded the track
between Saskatoon and Edmonton
to improve winter service.
Railways have brought in more
cars this year, Jarvis said. And one
railway is rewarding companies that
can load cars within 16 to 24 hours
by keeping a locomotive close by.
“As soon as you release your cars
to the railway to pick up, they come
in there, hook up, and start pulling
it off to Vancouver or Thunder Bay
or wherever that’s destined.”
Shawna Gibson
Designe r
MARKETING / CIR CULATION
D irec tor Lynda Tityk
Ci rcul ation manage r Heather Anderson
president
Glacier farmmedia
Bob Willcox
H e ad O f f i c e
1666 Dublin Avenue,
Winnipeg, Man. R3H 0H1
Phone: (204) 944-5568
Fax: (204) 944-5562
Adve rti sin g Sa les
Cory Bourdeaud’hui
Phone: (204) 954-1414
Fax: (204) 944-5562
Email: [email protected]
Adve rti sin g Servi ces
Co- ordinato r
Weather
Farmers are all too familiar with
weather’s trickster nature. But rail
service is vulnerable to wonky
weather, too.
“We found out in Moose Jaw that
rail cars make an incredible snow
fence,” Jarvis said of last winter.
Steel becomes brittle in cold
weather, slowing trains. And train
brakes rely on air pressure. When
the mercury drops, they can’t get
enough air pressure to service all
the brakes on the train. The railways then have to shorten trains
by about 25 per cent or add a
locomotive to increase air pressure, Jarvis said.
Grain-laden cars take one
main rail line, owned by CNR, to
Vancouver. Once emptied, they
loop back on CPR’s south track. This
avoids logistical problems such as
passing time. But each time an avalanche hammers the tracks, trains
stop until the line is cleared.
Even after rail cars have snaked
through the mountains and
arrived in Vancouver, weather
can still wreak havoc. Cargill’s terminal sits on Vancouver’s north
shore; Jarvis said they lost the
equivalent of five full days to rain
hours last year.
Grain companies face stiff demurrage penalties for loading delays. If
a company is given a week to load
a ship, and it rains for two days,
they’re given nine days total to
load, Jarvis explained.
“But once those nine days have
come up, and you’re not finished
loading that boat, it doesn’t matter
how much rain you get. If it’s four
days in a row of rain, you still pay
that demurrage bill for those days.
So it can add up pretty quickly.”
Companies such as Cargill are
looking at ways to deal with rainy
days, including rain shields, tarps
and speeding up loading times.
Loading through feeder holes,
which funnel grain into ships, is
also an option.
But ship captains unwilling to
risk spoilage can force companies to
wait for a break in the weather.
What can farmers do?
“This crop is going to impact
how you move next year’s crop.”
Jarvis said, adding farmers might
want to consider this when contracting forward.
Much of what happens in the
grain transportation system is outside farmers’ control. But farmers
need to think about what is within
their control to help move the crop,
Jarvis said.
“Know what you have on farm.
And when you’re selling and you
tell us you’re going to ship something, ship what you say you’re
going to ship,” Jarvis said.
By thinking of themselves as suppliers, farmers can find ways to
market their grain and get it to the
elevator.
For example, farmers in southern
Manitoba saw rain while wheat was
still in the field, leading to moisture
levels of 14 to 14.5 per cent. Cargill
was shipping that wheat through
Thunder Bay with no issues.
Once Thunder Bay freezes, the
biggest market for that grain historically has been U.S. mills, Jarvis said.
“Well, the States’ mills don’t take
14, 14.5 per cent moisture. They
take 13.5 per cent moisture.”
“So that might be a conversation
you might have with your grain
buyer or your grain company, saying ‘If I dry down my grain, is there
something I can do that’s within
my control that makes my grain
more marketable?’” Farmers need to
figure out whether the benefits outweigh the costs, Jarvis added. “That
grain is going to move at some
point. It’s just you’re just going to
lose that opportunity through those
winter months of that typical U.S.
mill traffic.”
Farmers can also look at contracts that separate price and delivery. “If I get a chance to do a
contract, but I don’t like the price,
what options do I have to do that?”
Contracts might use price floors
or averaging tools to do this. Such
programs can help farmers manage
the risk around getting a crop out
the bin and in the grain elevator,
Jarvis said.
Since the single desk’s end, grain
companies have been learning as
they go.
And each year is different. Last
year’s crop was consistent. Protein
discounts and premiums were minimal, Jarvis said. This year grain
companies are dealing with lower
protein levels and more volatility in
discounts and premiums. Farmers
should work with a company with
a plan, Jarvis said.
Jarvis also suggested, in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek manner, that
farmers work with neighbours to
keep grain flowing.
“If you get a call one time saying
we need to move grain, but maybe
you’re on holidays or you have
some reason not to be there, go
to your neighbour’s with a cup of
coffee and convince him it’s time
for him to move his grain. Because
the reality is you both can’t move
your grain at the same time and get
everything through the pipe.” †
Lisa Guenther is a field editor with Grainews.
Contact her at Lisa.Guenther@fbcpublishing.
com.
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grainews.ca /
5
Features
CROP PRODUCTION
Bleached kernals and HVK
Fall rain can mean bring lower quality wheat and fewer hard vitreous kernels
BY ANGELA LOVELL
A
n untimely rain just
before harvest can
cause wheat kernels to
“bleach” or whiten and
can lead to some loss in quality
that can cause downgrading at the
elevator.
Bleaching of grain kernels is
caused by wet conditions at or
near maturity when alternate wetting and drying causes tiny fissures
because the grain expands when
wet then doesn’t dry back to the
same size.
HARD VITREOUS
KERNELS (HVK)
The Canadian Grain Commission
makes the important distinction
that “bleaching” is not a grading
factor in wheat; rather it is the
percentage of hard vitreous kernels
(HVK) in the sample that determines some wheat grades.
Vitreousness is the natural
translucence of a kernel that is
a visible sign of kernel hardness.
HVK are a grade determinant for
the amber durum wheat class in
Canada and the red spring wheat
classes in Western Canada. Both
wheat classes have different tolerances for the allowable percentage of HVK. Canada Western Red
Spring (CWRS) wheat must have
a minimum of 65 per cent HVK to
be graded as No. 1 and anything
lower than that will be graded
as No. 2. The tolerance levels are
much lower in durum wheat,
which must have a minimum of
80 per cent HVK to make No. 1,
60 per cent minimum for No. 2
and 40 per cent minimum to be
rated as No. 3.
HVK content is related to protein content and milling quality,
which is particularly important
in durum wheat. Non-vitreous
kernels are produced under
cool, wet conditions at or just
before the grain matures and
can also be caused by insufficient nitrogen fertilization.
Flours milled from non-vitrous
wheat will have reduced protein
content and will not produce
good bread. Non-vitreous kernels are not a grading factor in
soft wheats because they have
no impact on end use for most
products, like cookie, pastries
and oriental noodles that are
made from soft wheat flour.
“The reason for the impact on
amber durum is that when you
get a non-vitreous kernel it starts
to get starchy white inside instead
of the usual amber colour,” says
Daryl Beswitherick, program manager of quality assurance at the
Canadian Grain Commission.
“What happens then is that in
the processing of that durum, the
aim is to produce semolina and if
you have the starch in there, the
particle sizes will be smaller and it
will turn out more like flour than
semolina.”
Beswitherick emphasizes that
HVK is not a major down grading factor for CWRS and not all
bleaching indicates non-vitreous
kernels. “It’s possible to get some
samples that have a very whitish
look to them but once you look
more carefully at the kernels they
are still hard and it’s just whitish
on the bran and they are still hard
vitreous,” he says. “When they
become very starchy they become
more orange and are in sharp
contrast to the natural sample colour and are obvious non-vitreous
kernels.”
Determining the percentage of
HVK is still a manual, visual test.
It’s done by separating a 25-gram
sample from a sieved 250 gram
sample. It is then inspected for
the number of kernels that have
natural translucence. There has
been research in Canada and
Australia into development of
machine vision systems to classify
individual wheat kernels as either
HVK or non-vitreous but to date
no system has been commercially
employed.
HVK was originally implemented as an indicator of protein content for wheat, but once
elevators were equipped to do
their own protein testing it was
no longer needed and was eliminated as a grading factor in
other classes of spring and winter
wheat because it doesn’t generally affect the end use quality for
these classes.
LATE RAINFALL
The larger concern with late rainfall on wheat is related to other
problems that can result such as preharvest sprouting, which can cause
lower test weights, lower 1,000
kernel weights and other quality
issues. “When there is an indica-
tion that sprouting has occurred in
the kernel, even if there is no actual
sprout visible, there will be enzyme
changes that negatively affect seed
quality and viability,” says Mitchell
Japp, provincial cereal crop specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry
of Agriculture.
Japp says that there were sporadic reports this season of problems with some bleached grain
in the main durum growing areas
of south central and east central
Saskatchewan due to fall rains,
but doesn’t think it’s likely to be a
widespread problemBle.
There really isn’t much that can
be done once the rain stops except
trying to get the grain harvested
and dried down as soon as possible to prevent further bleaching
or other problems such as mold or
sprouting, says Japp. He does suggest that farmers, especially those
growing durum wheat in regions
prone to late summer or early fall
rains, should consider a variety
that offers some resistance to preharvest sprouting.
Whether it’s referred to as
bleaching or not, the fact remains
that HVK is still a grading factor for certain classes of wheat.
“They still have to meet end use
specifications so there are grading
specifications that they have to
meet and this is one of them,” says
Beswitherick. †
Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor
and communications specialist living and
working in Manitoba. Find her online at www.
angelalovell.ca.
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Publication: Grain News
6
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Features
Soil management
Nitrogen efficiency enhancers
With local production of SuperU about to come on line, Prairie farmers
have a longer list of nitrogen enhancing products to evaluate
By Leeann Minogue
S
uperU, a nitrogen efficiency enhancer, will soon
be more readily available in Western Canada.
In September, Koch Industries
announced that it will begin producing its SuperU at its nitrogen plant in Brandon, Man. Make
that one more nitrogen efficiency
enhancing product to add to the
already confusing list.
Nitrogen efficiency enhancers are used to minimize nitrogen losses. The makers of these
products don’t claim that they
will increase yields or make up
for under-applied nitrogen, but
there is science behind nitrogen
efficiency enhancers, and they
can help lower nitrogen loss.
Nitrogen efficiency enhancers
can be divided into three categories, based on how they work.
1. Urease inhibitors
This category includes Koch
Industries’ Agrotain, SuperU and
Agrotain Plus. Agrotain, says John
Kruse, research agronomist with
Koch Agronomic Service, is “a liquid product that has a unique
solvent that you can actually pour
on to urea.” Typically, this is done
at the retail site. “You would order
your urea and you request that
it be protected with Agrotain. It
comes in a nice green colour.”
Suface-applied urea or UAN can
easily be lost to the atmosphere.
The key ingredient used to battle
this is NBPT (N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoic triamide).
As the category name suggests, NBPT “inhibits” the urease enzyme that causes the urea
to break down into ammonium.
When this conversion is slowed,
there is less volatilization. It’s
not a long-term solution — the
products will degrade after a few
days — but it does give rain or
irrigation time to move the urea
or UAN into the soil before the
reaction takes place.
NBPT-placed products are most
effective in soils that are have
a high potential for volatilization — coarse soils, or soils with
a high pH.
Kruse says using these NBPT
products “drastically reduces the
amount of nitrogen that converts into ammonia gas,” and can
reduce overall nitrogen losses from
40 per cent to as little as five to
eight per cent.
2. Nitrification inhibitors
This category of nitrogen efficiency enhancers includes Koch’s
SuperU and Agrotain Plus, and
Dow AgroChemical’s N-Serve and
Instinct.
In addition to NBPT, SuperU
and Agrotain Plus also use the
active ingredient DCD — dicyandiamide. Like NBPT, DCD inhibits
the enzyme in the soil that converts ammonium to nitrate.
Agrotain Plus is designed to be
added to a liquid nitrogen fertilizer such as UAN. Kruse says, “If a
farmer uses a liquid fertilizer, then
he can protect that UAN from
both volatilization and rapid nitrification by adding the Agrotain
Plus to his UAN. It’s a light blue
powder and it goes into suspension in the UAN.”
SuperU uses both NBPT and
DCD to protect urea from volatilization and nitrification. When
farmers choose SuperU, Kruse
says, urea comes with “both
inhibitors already infused into
the granule.”
Dow AgroChemical’s nitrogen
efficiency enhancers Instinct and
N-serve use a different active ingredient — nitrapyrin. Nitrapyrin
deactivates the nitrosomonas bacteria that help to convert nitrogen, slowing down the conversion
process. Nitrapyrin was discovered
by Dow Chemical scientists in the
late 1950s; N-serve was registered
in the U.S. in 1976.
Instinct and N-serve are not
available in Canada now, but Dow
AgroSciences is looking at market
opportunities. N-serve is designed
for use with anhydrous ammonia;
Instinct is for use with other types
of nitrogen.
3. Controlled release
products
The most common product in
this category is ESN.
ESN is a polymer coating
applied to urea. The coating
breaks down slowly, and allows
the urea to diffuse out over time.
Ideally, the nitrogen release can
be matched to growing plants’
needs. Controlled nitrogen release
is also helpful where there is high
koch fertilizer canada
SuperU fertilizer will be more widely available in Canada through production at the Koch Fertilizer Canada, ULC
facility at Brandon, Man. Canadian distribution will be handled by Koch Fertilizer Canada.
nitrogen loss from leaching or
volatilization.
At a demonstration day in
July, Saskatchewan Agriculture’s
soil and nutrient management
specialist Patrick Moolecki told
farmers that ESN can also be
helpful when it comes to avoiding ammonia toxicity.
“If you are using ESN, you
can actually increase your rates
because of that extra protection,”
he said. “When you are sidebanding you can actually put on all
your fertilizer, as long as you have
enough moisture at seeding.”
Agrium advertises that farmers
using 100 per cent ESN fertilizer
can apply up to three times the
normal safe rate of nitrogen in
the seed row.
Because ESN can be beneficial
to the environment, the U.S. government provides some financial incentive programming to
encourage farmers to use them.
Roy Munton, Agrium Advanced
Technologies’ Saskatchewan sales
rep, says, “Another benefit of
ESN that a lot of people don’t
talk about is that with its coating, it doesn’t take on moisture
ENHANCED NITROGEN EFFICIENCY PRODUCTS
PRODUCT CATEGORY
Product
Active
Ingredient
N
Product
1. Urease
inhibitor
Agrotain
NBPT
Urea 46-0-0,
UAN 28-0-0
X
SuperU
NBPT and DCD
Urea 46-0-0
X
X
Agrotain Plus
NBPT and DCD
UAN 28-0-0
X
X
N-Serve*
nitrapyrin
Anhydrous
ammonia
82-0-0
X
Instinct*
nitrapyrin
UAN 28-0-0
X
Polymer coating
Urea 44-0-0
ESN
*not currently registered for use in Canada
Source: This table is based on a table developed by MAFRI
2. Nitrification
inhibitor
3. Controlled
release
so it runs freely and doesn’t cake
or lump up in storage. It is really
nice to handle compared to other
granular fertilizers.”
Nitrogen replacement
economics
It might seem that farmers
planning to use nitrogen efficiency enhancers could cut back
on nitrogen purchases, spending about the same amount of
money in total.
John Kruse says using these
products is not a direct route to
using less fertilizer. “That’s the
challenge. Every farmer’s field
is different. Every year is different… We don’t necessarily go
out and tout that you can cut
back on your nitrogen. What we
tend to feature is the opportunity for increased yields at level
nitrogen rates.”
Another apparent option
might be to skip the nitrogen
stabilizers and spend the money
on extra nitrogen. But a question and answer presentation
by Dow AgroSciences makes this
point: “If you are adding more
nitrogen than you need to produce a crop, then you know you
are losing nitrogen. Nitrogen
loss cannot be fixed by adding
more nitrogen.”
Dow makes a colourful comparison: “Adding more water to a
bucket with a hole will result in
additional water loss.”
Product effectiveness
X
John Heard is a soil fertility specialist with Manitoba Agriculture,
Food and Rural Initiatives. Heard
has studied these products and says
there is a scientific basis to most
of the nitrogen enhancers on the
market. Sales reps should be able
to explain their products’ processes as part of the nitrogen cycle,
he says. “The onus of proof is on
the marketer of the product. They
better have a good scientific expla-
nation of how it works.” If you
don’t fully understand the science
behind the product claims, Heard
recommends that you ask a certified crop adviser to help you make
the decision.
While the products discussed
here and others on the market
do have a basis in solid science, Heard says, “none of them
are any improvement over right
rate, right time and right place.”
Heard is referring to the four Rs
of fertilizer use endorsed by the
International Plant Nutrition
Institute (right fertilizer source,
right rate, right time and right
place).
Nitrogen efficiency enhancers
aren’t better than best management practices, but if something
should go wrong, such as excess
water, these products can help to
minimize loss. “If you can put it
into high risk situations,” Heard
says, “that’s where you expect
the payback.
“They do work,” he says, “but
they aren’t needed every year.
Unless you’re suffering a lot of rain
or wet conditions you should end
up with about the same yield.”
Heard suggests that farmers think
of these products the same way
they think of insurance contracts:
if you applied them and they
weren’t necessary, that’s probably
a good thing.
And, keep in mind that while
these products aren’t an improvement over best practices, Heard says,
“but they all cost more money.”
As for the expansion of the
Koch Industries operation, Heard
says that, in the past, Prairie farmers had limited access to SuperU.
“Now we’ll have a local source.”
With farmers using more of these
products and losing less nitrogen,
Heard says, “the environment
could benefit.”
Find John Heard’s information
bulletin online at www.gov.mb.ca.
Search the site for “nitrogen efficiency additives.”
Leeann Minogue is the editor of Grainews.
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JANUARY 7, 2014
Features
Crop production
BLACK HEADS IN BARLEY
Crop Advisor’s casebook
By Naomi Darragh
Casebook
winner
I
t was early July when I got a
call from Buddy, who grows
700 acres of canola, wheat
and barley at his farm near
Provost, Alta. A problem had
cropped up in one of his fields
and he asked me to come out
to his operation to have a look
at his barley crop that had just
headed out.
“I’m seeing black heads in my
barley,” Buddy said. “I think it
might be a dusty form of ergot.”
When I arrived at the field, I
could the see the problem was
fairly extensive, with each square
metre containing about eight to
10 barley plants with affected
heads. These heads seemed to
have formed normally — but in
place of kernels was what looked
like black dust.
Buddy said he had checked his
field a couple of weeks after spraying the crop, and that’s when he
noticed the black heads in his
barley. He had assumed it was
caused by ergot because he’d had
difficulty with the fungal disease
in the past. It had also been a wet
spring, which had contributed
to ergot problems in the Provost
area in previous years.
Because the black heads
appeared shortly after spraying,
I asked Buddy about his fertility
and crop protection programs.
He said he was very selective
about the chemicals he uses,
and it was evident the products
he’d chosen would not cause
this kind of injury. However,
Buddy did say that he had not
T
he winner for this edition of Casebook is Wade
Poffenroth. Wade farms
just south of Calgary. Wade,
we’ll be renewing your Grainews
subscription for a year and sending
you a Grainews cap. Thanks for sending in your solution! †
Naomi Darragh
Each square metre of the barley field contained about eight to 10
barley plants with affected heads.
These heads seemed to have formed normally, but in place of kernels
was what looked like black dust.
treated his barley seed prior to
planting.
I had seen this kind of problem in barley fields before, so
I had a pretty good idea what
was causing the black heads in
Buddy’s crop. A closer look at the
Winnipeg, Man., R3C 3K7; email
leeann.minogue@fbcpublishing.
com or fax 204-944-95416 c/o
Crop Advisor’s Casebook. Best suggestions will be pooled and one
winner will be drawn for a chance
to win a Grainews cap and a one-
Crop Advisor’s Solution
By Heather Krahn
J
im, a grain farmer growing canola, durum and
lentils near Regina, Sask.,
called me in mid-August
with a perplexing prob-
lem. Jim was seeing stunted
growth in his stands of durum
wheat, and it was getting progressively worse.
“I’m seeing patches of stunted
plants on headlands and field
edges, as well as on two ridge lines
Take control
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black dust in the infected plants
— which actually appeared to be
fungal spores — helped confirm
my suspicions.
What is causing the black heads
in Buddy’s barley crop? Send your
diagnosis to Grainews, Box 9800,
year subscription to the magazine.
The answer, along with reasoning that solved the mystery, will
appear in the next Crop Advisor’s
Solution File. †
Naomi Darragh is a sales agronomist for
Richardson Pioneer Ltd., in Provost, Alta.
STUNTED GROWTH CAUSED BY SOIL COMPACTION
within the field,” he said. “And it’s
spreading every day.”
A look at Jim’s wheat field indicated there was no link to previous fertilizer or herbicide applications, and that damage couldn’t
be explained by either drought or
excessive flooding, since both high
and low sections of the field were
affected. Other possibilities, like differing soil types or hail damage,
were also ruled out.
However, further inspection of
the damaged areas along the ridge
lines and field edges — and a discussion with Jim about the weather
during seeding and traffic patterns
on his field — revealed some telling clues.
Weather at the time of seeding
had been quite wet, resulting in satBy Dan Piraro
Bizarro
urated soils. Vegetative growth in
the field as a whole had ceased and
the plants had reached the reproductive, grain-filling phase, but in
the affected areas the crop appeared
to be maturing faster. These plants
had poorly developed root systems,
which would obviously hamper
growth during the drier weather
that occurred later in the growing season. As a result, they just
wouldn’t achieve the same growth
potential as the rest of the crop.
Jim informed me that one of
ridges running underneath a
power line was used to turn seeding implements around with their
drills still in the ground. I also
learned a second ridge had once
been a road but had now been
farmed over, and that the field
edges were where seed and fertilizer trucks would park. All this
pointed to soil compaction being
an important factor, and explained
why plant symptoms were showing up in both high and low areas.
Sending tissue samples in for lab
testing confirmed my suspicions.
There was low potassium in the
poor crop sample, likely caused by
soil compaction in the early spring.
Potassium is fairly immobile in soil
and moves by diffusion in soil pore
spaces. Plants with smaller root
systems as a result of compacted
soils are more likely to suffer from
potassium deficiency, since they are
restricted in their ability to access
immobile nutrients like potassium.
In areas with heavy clay soils like
Jim’s farm, compaction can devel-
op when conditions are fairly wet
during seeding, and it would be
particularly evident in areas of high
traffic where compaction had been
established in the past — such as
along the field edges in Jim’s field.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t
much that could be done to correct Jim’s durum wheat troubles
this year, and it was only after
harvest that he’d be able to assess
the final toll exacted by soil compaction on his crop.
I advised Jim to consider early
in-season soil or tissue testing next
year to see if there’s a need to
incorporate more potassium in
his fertility plan going forward.
This would allow him to catch a
nutrient- related problem sooner
— since a well-timed foliar nutrient
application can help compensate
for less nutrient uptake by poor
root systems in areas of the field
where compaction is an issue. In
addition, supplemental potassium
fertilization could be beneficial
in those parts known to be hightraffic areas.
Most importantly, managing
that traffic — especially if it turns
out to be another wet seeding season — is something else that Jim
should definitely keep in mind
for next year. As farm equipment
gets larger and heavier, minimizing
field traffic and having proper tires
or tracks on implements becomes
even more essential to avoid yield
loss from soil compaction. †
Heather Krahn is a regional sales agronomist
for Richardson Pioneer Ltd. in Corinne, Sask.
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
9
Features
CROP PROTECTION
New fungicides for 2014
Six new fungicides came to market in 2013; Acapela for 2014
BY LISA GUENTHER
pulses, and cereals. A 9.6 litre
jug will cover 50 acres of cereals and 40 acres of corn. Rates
for pulses and soybeans swing
from 27 acres to 40 acres per jug,
depending on the disease.
Vertisan is a Group 7 meant to
protect canola from sclerotinia.
It’s also registered for application
on sunflowers, chickpeas, lentils,
field peas, and potatoes. A 10
litre jug doses 20 acres of canola,
14 acres of sunflowers, 15 acres
of potatoes, and between 17 and
25 acres of pulses.
“Further on through the year,
if you get a rainfall event, it’ll
redistribute product throughout
the plant,” said Friday. He said
the fungicide is more active at
the infection point as well.
Syngenta has a new tonic for
NEW FOR 2014
The Pest Management
Regulatory Agency approved
DuPont’s Acapela as a treatment for sclerotinia in canola
in December 2013. Acapela
has been registered for use in
oilseeds in several European
countries since 2010.
With the new label addition, farmers will be able to
dose a wide range of crops with
Acapela. “The grower will have
the flexibility to go from one
field to the next using Acapela
and still get his disease control,”
said Friday.
Acapela has good coverage
and redistribution properties
for canola, and “probably a
longer window of control for
sclerotinia than some of the
other commercially available
products right now,” Friday
said. †
Lisa Guenther is a field editor for Grainews.
Contact Lisa at [email protected].
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C
ompanies released several new fungicides in
2013, and have been
seeking new uses for
existing products.
Bayer CropScience launched
two new products in 2013. One
fungicide, Serenade CPB, leans
on microbes to control disease.
Lipopeptides,
which
are
molecules produced by bacteria,
punch thousands of holes
in the fungal cell membranes.
This destroys the fungus.
The fungicide also contains
compounds that suppress specific
bacteria, Courtney Stephenson,
Bayer marketing communications
specialist, explained via email.
Serenade will control scle-
rotinia stem rot in canola, and
white mold and botrytis blight
in dry beans, navy beans and
pulses. One thousand litres of
Serenade covers 625 acres.
Bayer also released Propulse
in 2013, which controls white
mold, ascochyta blight, and
mycosphaerella blight in dry
and edible beans. Active ingredients come from Group 7 and
Group 3. To spray 40 acres, farmers will need one jug, which
holds 5.1 litres.
DuPont released two fungicides, Acapela and Vertisan, on a
wide scale in 2013. Todd Friday,
market segment manager, said
both fungicides have good coverage and redistribution properties.
Acapela is a Group 11 that suppresses disease in soybeans, corn,
soybeans. Allegro, a Group 29,
was approved to control white
mold in soybeans in July 2013.
Farmers had previously used the
product for late blight in potatoes
and it’s registered for several horticultural crops as well.
Allegro works by shutting down
energy production in the fungus
mitochondria. It works against
late blight, including spores.
Farmers spraying soybeans should
apply between 0.35 and 0.47 litres
per acre.
AgCelence, launched by BASF
in 2013, controls or suppresses
several diseases in peas, lentils and
chickpeas. It’s comprised of active
ingredients from Group 11 and 7,
giving it multiple modes of action.
With the same active ingredient found in Headline, it confers
benefits such as green leaves,
strong stems, and higher yield
potential, states BASF’s website.
Application rates range from 0.3
to 0.4 litres per hectare, depending on the crop and disease.
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/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Features
CROP PROTECTION
Benefits of fungicides on soybeans
When white mould became an issue for Manitoba soybean growers in 2013,
there were many debates about the benefits of fungicde
BY ANDREA HILDERMAN
T
his past season was the
first time in a number of
years, probably since 2010,
that white mould in soybeans has been an issue for growers
in Manitoba. It raised all sorts of
questions about the disease itself,
management practises to mitigate
infection and what fungicides are
available to suppress or control the
disease.
Dennis Lange is the crops
farm production advisor with
Manitoba Agriculture, Food
and Rural Development. “I’ve
been working with soybeans
since 2011 for the department,”
he says. “The 2011 and 2012
seasons both experienced hot
and dry conditions in July and
August and white mould was not
evident. This past season saw
cooler weather at the end of July
with heavy dews and, as a result,
conditions were ideal for white
mould to flourish in both soybeans and edible beans.”
Alex Wahl is the owner/manager of GJ Chemical in Altona,
Manitoba, in the heart of soybean
country. “We heard from a lot of
growers this year who were seeing
white mould infections, as well
as seeing it ourselves during our
scouting activities,” says Wahl. “It
was the weather that promoted
the growth and development of
the disease but it’s definitely a
TOPLINE
PERFORMANCE
concern for a lot of guys going
forward, mainly to get more
information and understand its
impact on the crop.”
BENEFITS FROM FUNGICIDES
Kristen Podolsky of the Manitoba
Pulse Growers Association agrees
with Lange that white mould has
not yet been a noticeable issue
for soybean growers. “Generally,
our growers have seen more leaf
diseases in soybeans,” she says.
“However, fungicides are not widely
recommended or used in these cases
because they don’t seem to be of
economic benefit.”
That didn’t fully answer the question: Does using a fungicide provide
an added benefit or response?
“In all the research I’ve
reviewed from Ontario and out
of the U.S., there is an economic
advantage about one-third of the
time,” explains Podolsky. “This
tells us that growers certainly do
not want to spray in the absence
of disease pressure, and if they
do, the economic response is variable.” That’s for foliar diseases.
The decision to spray for white
mould is even more complicated,
and more risky. “We should recognize that despite white mould
pressure in soybeans this year,
we still saw phenomenal yields,
without spraying.”
The soybean plant itself is not
as susceptible to damage from
white mould as other broadleaved crops grown in the region.
“Yield losses are not what you
would think from looking at an
infected field, which can look
pretty ugly,” says Podolsky. “It
seems the soybean plant is more
tolerant of the infection than,
say, edible beans or canola.”
MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
There are some management
practices for soybean growers to
consider if they are concerned
about white mould or other fungal
infections.
“The industry
is still in the
learning process.”
— Kristen Podolsky
• Wide rows allow for more air
circulation in the canopy versus
solid seeding.
• Paying attention to the architecture of the plant — choosing an
upright versus a bushy plant can be
helpful as well.
• Managing fertility to prevent
lodging can help with harvesting
as well as reducing the potential for
the development of disease.
• Paying attention to crop rotations and not putting soybeans after
soybeans or close to edible beans or
canola will help break the disease
cycle.
• There is anecdotal evidence
that there could be differences
in susceptibility among varieties.
However, varieties are not rated in
registration or other trials for resistance to white mould so there is no
scientific basis for these judgements.
Eric Phillips, product lead for
fungicides and insecticides with
Syngenta Canada, estimates that
about 30 to 40 per cent of the U.S.
soybean crop is getting some sort
of fungicide application in season,
primarily for leaf diseases.
“White mould is not a disease
of major concern in the U.S.,”
explains Phillips. “This is due to
their growing environment not
being conducive to its development.” The fungal disease of most
concern in the U.S. is frogeye rust
or Cercospora leaf spot. Globally,
the most devastating disease in
soybeans is Asian soybean rust.
In 2013, there was one product, Acapela, registered for suppression of white mould in soybeans in
Western Canada. During 2013, but
too late for growers to be able to use
it, Allegro received registration for
control of white mould in soybeans.
Two biological fungicides,
Serenade MAX from Bayer
CropScience and Contans from
SipcamAdvan are also registered for
the suppression of white mould in
soybeans.
“The industry is still in the learning process when it comes to application of fungicides for control of
white mould in soybeans,” says
Phillips. “We recommend applying
Allegro at the R1 or early bloom
stage to R2 or full bloom stage, and
if necessary to follow up 10 to 14
days later at R3 or early pod formation stage.” It is also important
to use sufficient spray volumes to
penetrate the canopy and get good
coverage on the plant. †
Andrea Hilderman has her master’s degree
in weed science and is a member of the
Manitoba Institute of Agrologists. She writes
from Winnipeg, Man.
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All others are trademarks of their respective companies.
Always read and follow label directions. 13047.12.13
PHOTOS: KRISTEN PODOLSKY, MANITOBA PULSE GROWERS ASSOCIATION
PHOTO: DR. VIKRAM BISHT, MAFRD
Top: White mould infection at the base of a soybean stem in 2013. Bottom Left: These two photos show
the extent of a white mould infection in a commercial soybean crop in Manitoba during 2013. Bottom
Right: Petal infection on leaf.
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
11
Features
CROP PRODUCTION
Sclerotinia in Manitoba
Sclerotinia doesn’t just hit canola. Find out
how to avoid this problem on your farm
BY ANDREA HILDERMAN
S
clerotinia is a fungal
stem rot disease caused
by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.
It occurs throughout the
Prairies, but its severity from year
to year is variable as its development depends on the right environmental conditions occurring
at its germination and infection
phases.
NOT JUST CANOLA
Sclerotinia gets most of its
attention as a disease in canola,
but it is also a problem disease in a
number of other crops, including
vegetable crops in Manitoba.
Soybeans, sunflowers, edible beans
and canola are some of the more
common crops grown in Manitoba
that are susceptible to Sclerotinia,
but the disease is known to
infect over 400 plant species
including many broadleaf weeds.
Last season, soybean growers in
Manitoba experienced conditions
conducive to the development
of white mould, caused by the
fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.
“At harvest time, an infected
crop will have sclerotia in the
stems, or heads in the case of
something like sunflowers,”
explains Dr. Vikram Bisht, plant
pathologist with Manitoba
Agriculture, Food and Rural
Development. “Cultivation soon
after harvest to bury sclerotia
to at least a three inch depth
may prevent the overwintering
sclerotia bodies from producing
spores in the following year and
reduce inoculum in the field.
However, that may not prevent
disease altogether, since spores
can blow in from nearby fields.”
Though most sclerotia do not
survive beyond one or two
years, a very small percentage of
sclerotia can remain viable in the
soil for up to five years or more.
In the spring, the sclerotia will
produce mushroom-like structures
called apothecia if soil moisture is
adequate for a long enough period of time. Generally in Western
Canada the apothecia are produced in June — when the crop
canopy, including nearby cereal
crops, is starting to develop and
close over. The apothecia then
produce ascospores, which can be
carried away on winds to infect
surrounding crops. The ascopores
can be carried long distances and
will infect petals in flowering
crops, which provide a food source
the spores need to germinate and
develop hyphae. When the petals
drop down into the canopy the
fungus can then enter the plant
through any kind of wound or
weakness in the stem. The ideal
conditions to stimulate the sclerotia to grow and the ascospores to
infect are high humidity levels in
the canopy of the crop. Anything
that encourages a dense crop canopy to develop, such as planting
in narrow row widths or solid
seeding, high seeding densities,
early planting, high soil fertility
or lodging can also provide a suitable environment for sclerotinia
disease to develop.
The final phase of development
of the disease is the production of
sclerotia. These are hard overwintering bodies that are formed in
the stems or heads of the infected
crop. They can remain in the stubble or fall to the ground and can
remain dormant and viable for
five or more years, waiting for
the right conditions to kick-start
development.
“Crop rotation is important
when trying to manage sclerotinia
disease,” says Bisht. “Short crop
rotations or crop rotations that
include several susceptible crops
will lead to a build-up of sclerotia
in the field. However, reducing the
load of sclerotia in the field will
not guarantee that Sclerotina will
not occur.” Yield losses can be very
significant in some crops, however, soybeans can sustain quite
high levels of the disease without
an appreciable loss in yield. †
Sclerotia, the overwintering bodies of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum germinate
and produce mushroom-like structures called apothecia.
Feel the
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Andrea Hilderman has her master’s degree
in weed science and is a member of the
Manitoba Institute of Agrologists. She writes
from Winnipeg, Man.
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PHOTOS: DR. VIKRAM BISHT, MAFRD
Left: Sclerotia formed in the stem of a canola plant. Top Right: Sclerotinia or white mould infection in
soybean. Bottom Right: A lodged soybean crop with extensive white mould infection.
™ Rush 24 is a trademark of Makhteshim Agan of North America, Inc.
All others are registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Always read and follow label directions. 13048.12.13
12
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Features
CROP MANAGEMENT
Risk of poisoning in silage corn
High levels of nitrates in corn silage can be toxic to animals and humans
BY REBECA KUROPATWA
C
orn silage with high
levels of nitrates can
be toxic to animals and
humans. Nitrates oxidize iron atoms in hemoglobin (in
red blood cells), making it unable
to carry oxygen.
Along with the potential for
increased nitrates comes an
increased risk of silo gas, which can
be fatal. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
is a dangerous chemical asphyxiant produced almost immediately
after plant material is put into
a silo. “Even short-term human
exposure can result in severely
injured lung tissue and sudden
death,” said Joel Bagg, forage specialist with the Ontario Ministry
of Agriculture and Food.
NITRATES: GOOD AND BAD
Nitrates are a part of most farmers’ fertilizer plans, being an essential nutrient especially important
to getting high yields.
An extended period of dry weather
during tasselling and pollination
will hinder corn cob formation and
grain yield by reducing the plant’s
ability to metabolize nitrates and
use them for growth.
“If the situation worsens, leaves
may turn brown and plants can
appear to be dying,” said Bagg. “As
this happens, some farmers attempt
to salvage this corn by using it as
forage for livestock, as corn silage,
green chop, or pasture.”
It is critical to be aware that,
under certain conditions, this corn
can be high in nitrates (NO3), which
can lead to death in the livestock
consuming it.
“The five to seven days following a rainfall after a severe dry
period would have the highest risk
of excess nitrates, so avoid harvesting or grazing during this period,”
heeded Bagg. “This period following the rain is much higher risk
than the dry period itself.”
Although corn is the most likely
forage crop to cause nitrate poisoning, high nitrates can also crop
up in cereals.
Nitrate poisoning symptoms
include rapid or laboured breathing, fast and weak heartbeat,
muscle tremors, staggering, and
death. Less severe symptoms may
include listlessness and other,
more subtle symptoms. Chronic
cases can produce symptoms,
such as poor appetite, reproductive problems (including abortion) and poor performance.
There are ways to reduce nitrates
in corn, so that it can be used and
not wasted. For one, fermentation
reduces nitrates by 25 to 65 per
cent during proper silage fermentation. Bagg recommended allowing at least three to five weeks of
fermentation before feeding. Corn
silage harvested either too wet or
too dry will not ferment as well,
which can result in nitrates levels
remaining higher than normal.
“It’s difficult
to predict
nitrate levels.”
— Joel Bagg
Secondly, the bottom third of
the corn stalk has a much higher
level of nitrates. “If high nitrates
are a concern, the cutter bar could
be raised to leave more of the stalk
in the field,” suggested Bagg.
“To maximize yield and manage nitrate risks, a good strategy
is to harvest at normal cutting
heights, store as silage, analyze fermented silage samples for nitrates,
and then manage dietary levels
through feeding management.”
Bagg recommended caution
when it comes to grazing or green
chopping. “These can be stressed
by dry weather, which may be an
option for some producers facing
feed shortages.”
Bagg said, “It’s difficult to predict nitrate levels. The risk of
nitrate poisoning while green
chopping or grazing this corn is
significantly higher during that
five to seven day period after
a rainfall than it is during the
actual period of dry weather.”
Bagg recommended avoiding
grazing or green chopping during
this period, as nitrate levels can
fluctuate daily within the plant,
making it hard to assess risk.
“Green chopped corn that is not
fed immediately undergoes respiration that converts nitrate to nitrite,
so the risk is increased,” said Bagg.
Field sampling and lab analysis
for nitrates can be helpful, but it is
hard to get a representative sample
as nitrate levels fluctuate.
“In a pasture situation, this high
nitrate risk corn is likely their only
source of feed,” said Bagg. “Turning
hungry cattle to a field of stunted,
cobless corn following a rain that
ends a dry period is very high risk.”
The best time to test for nitrate
concentration is after the fermentation is complete.
As a general rule, NO3-N levels
should be less than 1,000 parms
per million (NO3 levels less than
0.44 per cent) to be without risk.
Levels greater than 4,000 ppm
NO3-N (more than 1.76 per cent
NO3) are potentially toxic and
should not be fed.
Grains and concentrates are
typically low in nitrates. Adequate
non-structural carbohydrates
(NSC) in rumen assist the conversion of nitrate to ammonia, reducing poisoning potential.
According to Morgan Cott,
agronomist with the Manitoba
Corn Growers, silage acres have
remained fairly steady in the province and do not fluctuate a great
deal. “They reflect our beef and
dairy herds, which don’t tend to
fluctuate,” said Cott.
“Nitrate toxicity has been wellknown for a long time and since
most producers use silage piles,
the risk of toxicity is low. The
biggest risk would probably be
for new producers, less educated
in silaging and/with beef/dairy
production.”
In 2012, Manitoba had 273,000
acres of grain corn and 75,000
acres of silage corn. In 2013, the
acreage increased to about 342,000
acres of grain corn and 86,000
acres of silage corn. †
Rebeca Kuropatwa is a professional writer in
Winnipeg, Man.
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T:22”
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
13
Features
Grain markets
Understanding biofuels
In the first of a two-part series, Angela Lovell
cuts through the biofuel business confusion
By Angela Lovell
E
thanol, biodiesel, cellulosic,
second generation, next
generation — even the
terms associated with
biofuels are confusing, so it’s hardly
surprising that a lot of people aren’t
too clear about what biofuels are,
what they can be made from, how
they are made and how likely it is
that biofuels are going to end up in
their car’s fuel tank.
Biofuels are fuels derived from
living plant material. Petroleumbased gasoline and diesel are fossil fuels derived from decomposed
plants, marine algae and animals
that died 300 million years ago and
were gradually compressed underground into oil. Biofuels are produced from plants growing today.
There are two general classifications of biofuels: biodiesel and
bioethanol. These are also referred
to as first generation biofuels.
Biodiesel
T:22”
Biodiesel is generally made from
oilseed crops like canola, rapeseed,
soybeans and corn, but it can also
be made from animal fats and
used cooking oil from restaurants.
Biodiesel is a great alternative
to petroleum fuels because it has
lower greenhouse gas emissions,
has lower particulate emissions,
which improves air quality, and
produces less sulphur oxide and
nitrogen oxide emissions.
The problem with using biodiesel as a fuel in Canadian vehicles is that, just as vegetable oils
become cloudy if you put them
in the fridge, biodiesel begins to
form crystals and solidify when
the temperature drops below
zero. Because of this, biodiesel in
Canada is blended with petroleum
at rates of only five or 10 per cent.
Bioethanol
Ethanol is made from alcohol
produced through fermentation
of starches and sugars in cereal
crops such as corn and wheat. In
the U.S. ethanol is generally made
from corn, while in Canada and
Europe it is made mostly from
wheat or a wheat/corn blend.
One hundred per cent ethanol
can be used as a direct substitute for gasoline in automobile
engines. Brazil is the only country
that offers both petroleum gasoline and ethanol at its pumps.
Brazil switched to ethanol 40
years ago and is a world leader
in re-designing existing vehicle
combustion engines so that that
they can use either 100 per cent
ethanol or 100 per cent petroleum
derived gasoline at any time.
Standard Canadian cars can’t
operate on anywhere near 100 per
cent ethanol, and car manufacturers
are reluctant to make the investment in infrastructure that would
be required for their cars to do so.
Ethanol is limited to a five or 10 per
cent mix in petroleum gasoline in
North America, a level that will not
cause damage to typical engines.
Second generation
The term “second generation
biofuels” generally refers to cellulosic ethanol — ethanol made
from fibrous plant biomass such
as wheat or flax straw, corn stover
or even cattails. Cellulose is one of
the main constituents of woody
material like stalks or after-harvest
crop residue.
It’s fairly easy to extract the
sugars from grains such as corn
or wheat to convert them to alcohol and make traditional ethanol.
Cellulosic ethanol is more difficult to make, because the plant
biomass is much more difficult to
break down.
Imagine cellulosic material as
the cables in a suspension bridge.
It’s made up of long fibres that
are twisted around each other and
bundled together to give incredible strength. Those fibres are held
together with lignin, a natural polymer that forms a glue to bond them
together. Cellulosic fibres are often
used in construction because of this
strength. Hemp fibre, for example
has been used to reinforce concrete.
To break cellulosic material
down to get the sugars out is
complicated, energy intensive and
costly. At least half of the cost of
making ethanol from cellulose is
the pre-treatment that is required
to break up the lignin-cellulose
material to release the sugars to
produce alcohol.
Around the world many people
are trying to figure out how to
break down cellulosic material more
efficiently and at a competitive cost.
Currently there is only one commercial-sized cellulosic ethanol production plant, which was built in
Crescentino, Italy in 2012. Another
plant planned for Brazil could be
operational this year.
Biofuel economics
Most biofuel production around
the world relies heavily on government subsidies. The Canadian
government has announced that
its biofuels subsidy program will
end in 2017. Although there is
concern that investment in the
Canadian biofuel industry may
be hampered without subsidies,
construction of some new facili-
ties seems to be going forward.
U.S. agri-food company Archer
Daniels Midland, for example, is
planning to build a 265-millionlitre-per-year biodiesel plant in
Lloydminster, Alberta, next to its
existing canola crushing plant.
“The bioethanol companies
that make ethanol in the U.S. and
Canada based their business models
on $3 per bushel corn or wheat.
Once a bushel of corn is $6 to $10,
the cost of buying that material is
almost prohibitive for them to make
money,” says Dr. David Levin, associate professor at the Department of
Biosystems Engineering, University
of Manitoba.
“Fuel is a commodity where
you have to make a lot of it and it
has to be low cost. If it costs more
than petroleum, nobody will buy
it because there is no incentive.
That’s why there have been subsidies so companies can make it
at a cost and be competitive with
petroleum fuels.”
At the end of the day, the economic viability of any alternative
fuel is a function of the cost of a
barrel of oil. “When oil to make
petroleum based fuels and other
chemicals is $60 to $90 a barrel,
the cellulosic biofuels are marginal, they can’t compete,” says
Levin. “If a barrel of oil goes up to
$120 or $150 a barrel as it did in
2008, then all bets are off and all
of those alternative fuels become
more attractive.” †
Angela Lovell is a freelance writer, editor
and communications specialist living and
working in Manitoba. Find her online at
www.angelalovell.ca.
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14
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Features
INSECT CONTROL
Identify pests with a new web tool
The Canadian Grain Commission is offering a new online tool
to help farmers identify pests in stored grain
BY REBECA KUROPATWA
A
new web tool has recently been developed to
help identify pests.
Brent Elliot, program/
infestation control and sanitation officer, industry services,
Canadian Grain Commission,
helped develop this new web
tool for identifying insects in
stored grain.
“There are actually two tools
— two identification keys,” said
Elliot.
One identification key is for
stored product beetles found in
Canada and is a comprehensive
list of beetles one may encounter in stored products (predomi-
next one — like, am I having
broccoli or carrots? You continue
in this process until you have a
full plate. With us, that means
you end up with a complete
identification of an insect.”
A farmer who finds a pest or
beetle, can go to the web tool and
compare photos with what he’s
found. The first step would be to
check if the pest or bettle is larger
than one millimeter. The questions continue on from there.
A hand lens (at least a 10x
power lens) is needed to identify the insects, with most being
quite small (most are two to five
mm long). A photo can also be
taken using a smart phone and
the photo can be scaled up on
nantly grain, but also flour and
other substances).
The other identification key is
for stored grain pests. “It’s a very
subtle difference in the title,”
admitted Elliot. “Pests are much
more commonly found either
in a prairie elevator or on farm
situations. And it’s not just beetles. It’s a little easier to use for
the more general public (than is
the other one).”
Elliot and team refer to the
tool as a “dichotomous key.”
He explained, “The simplest way
to think of it is you’re looking
at it and going, okay, what am
I having for dinner tonight —
steak or chicken? You make your
choice and then go onto the
the phone (instead of just on the
insect itself) to get a better view.
“The best thing about this tool
is that, we hope, it will get people
checking their grain more often,”
said Elliot. “From our perspective, the best thing anyone can
do is check their grain regularly
– not only for insects, but also for
heat buildup and mould.”
Elliot and team are working
on developing a glossary of
terms, where users unfamiliar
with a particular item can just
click on it to open up another
information window.
“Beetles are most common
pest, predominantly in grain,
we see in Canada, but other
pests include insects like silver
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fish (sometimes found in elevator grain), moths, mites, and
book lice (very small pests),”
said Elliot.
Once users get an identification, there is a link to information on that specific insect pest
as well as photos to help verify
the identification. This information includes pest descriptions,
lists of similar species, affected
commodities, infestation signs,
damage caused and control
information.
“The type of damage depends
on the pest species and whether
they feed on the seeds internally
or externally,” said Elliot. “The
rusty grain beetle is Canada’s
most common pest. A couple
others you’ll find in stored grain
are the red flour beetle and the
sawed tooth grain beetle.”
The Canadian Grain
Commission uses the terms “primary” and “secondary” pest.
Producers must control a primary pest immediately. These
pests are beetles (like the rusty
grain beetle, red flour beetle,
and granary weevil) that can
feed on whole grains, attacking
grain that is otherwise healthy.
Secondary pests are typically
associated with grain going out
of condition. They may be feeding on the grain or just on storage moulds associated with grain
gone bad. These do not need to
be immediately controlled.
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“Thresholds in stored grain in
Canada are very difficult systems
to sample,” said Elliot. “You’re
looking at a very large, bulk of
grain — thousands of tones of
grain in the system that’s very
difficult to sample.
“So, as far as we’re concerned,
if you find an insect pest, you
have an infestation. The tolerance is one or — in other words
— zero. So, there aren’t different
thresholds for different pests.
You have an infestation or you
don’t.”
Rusty grain beetles are fairly
susceptible to various treatment
methods, which, in Canada,
includes insecticide, fumigation, or removing the grain (as
their larvae feed external to the
grain). “Sometimes, it’s just a
matter of auguring the grain
out of the bin (or wherever it is)
BY DAN PIRARO
Bizarro
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
15
Features
onto a vehicle and then putting
it back to control the population,” said Elliot.
“You can also control it by
cooling it down, which can take a
considerable period of time. If it’s
around 0 C outside, it will take a
number of weeks to control the
population. But, with our cold
Canada temperatures, we can get
the grain bin temperature down
within a week, controlling the
insect population.
“If the temperature is warm,
you’re best bet is probably fumigation — unlike in winter, when
cooling the grain will work better (as fumigating will not work
below 5 Ca).”
Typically,
fumigation
in
Canada is done with an insecticide that has various trade
names. It is a pellet you put
into the grain that reacts to the
air’s oxygen, liberating the gas
(an insecticide), which kills the
pests. It is recommended to hire
a licensed applicator to do this
or to get training yourself.
With a secondary pest, control is desired, but less extreme
measures are needed as these
pests are more an indication
that (a) your grain is going out
of condition and (b) you have
other, more serious problems
(such as mould).
“The best
thing anyone
can do is
check their
grain regularly.”
— Brent Elliot
The long-range goal, according to Elliot, is to go beyond
dealing with adult-only beetles
(which are what the tool currently handles). “We’re now
looking at the immature stages
of the beetles too, as well as
moths and caterpillars associated with stored grain,” he said.
“Pretty much all these beetles can fly. The key with pests,
as there’s such a huge offspring
population, is to bring the bin
temperatures down as fast as you
can (so they can’t reproduce).
“Most producers check their
grain before shipping it. Truckers
and elevator operators do too.
If an elevator operator finds a
pest, the grain is returned to the
producer who has to clean it
up, control the insect pest. The
further it goes into the system,
the larger the problem, the more
expensive it is to control.” †
PHOTOS: CANADIAN GRAIN COMMISSION
Left: Dorsal view, red flour beetle. Right: Dorsal view, rusty grain beetle.
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16
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Features
FARM MANAGEMENT
Agronomists versus agrologists
All kinds of consultants are vying for the chance to sell
advice to farmers. Know what you’re paying for
BY JULIENNE ISAACS
T
he terms “agronomist” and
“agrologist” are often confused in today’s ag industry. From chat forums to
conferences, farmers are presented
with a multiplicity of options for
crop consulting, but even if they’re
used every day, it’s not always clear
which options will best suit an individual farmer’s needs.
Mark Bratrud, a farmer with
consulting experience based near
Weyburn, Sask., believes that it’s
crucial for farmers to know the differences between the professions,
so they can get the right advice
and the best value for their money.
“Farmers really need to under-
stand who they’re hiring,” says
Bratrud. “Specialists can have any
kind of title — agronomist, agrologist, certified crop adviser — but
you have to understand where
that person is coming from, and
discuss with them what you want
to see from them.”
THE DEFINITIONS
The terms “agronomist” and
“agrologist” are not, in fact, interchangeable. By definition, “agrology” refers to the application of science to agriculture. The category of
agrology includes a large number
of job descriptions, from agricultural land management to the protection of ecosystems. In Canada,
agrology is a regulated profession,
and over 10,000 agrologists are registered across the country.
“Agronomists,” by contrast,
apply scientific knowledge specically to crop production.
“Agronomy is a particular type of
work that an agrologist would do,”
explains Jim Weir, executive director and registrar for the Manitoba
Institute of Agrologists, the provincial regulating body for agrologists. “Agronomists are involved
in all the arrangements that go
along with field crop production,
so farmers can get the most value
out of his/her productive land.
“Agronomists have strong backgrounds and are highly educated
in the management of field crops
and everything that goes along
with that,” says Weir. “They can
be relied on by farmers.”
Weir explains that agrology can
be viewed as a blanket category
akin to engineering or law, under
which many other professions
can be grouped. As with law,
individual practitioners must be
regulated with a provincial body.
In Canada, all 10 provinces have
provincial bodies that regulate the
practice of agrology, and these follow the standards outlined in each
provincial act designed to protect
the interests of the public within
its jurisdiction. In Manitoba, the
MIA’s authority comes from the
Agrologists’ Act of Manitoba. Its
mandate is to protect the public
YOUR CROPS.
YOUR CHOICE.
interest through professional regulation, by “overseeing the admission and registration of agrologists
and taking action regarding unauthorized practice.”
A newer national body is
Agrologists Canada, which according to Weir is a kind of “servant”
to the provincial regulatory bodies. “It’s a national body comprised of the 10 provincial regulating institutes, and its purpose
basically is to manage compliance
by the institutions with the agreements on internal trade,” he says.
Most
of
the
provincial
legislation with regard to the
practice of agrology was enacted
several decades ago, but Weir
says that most of the provincial
Acts have been updated and
modernized as necessary. “We’re
always looking at the rules we
have to operate by to make sure
that they’re current,” he says.
As for the regulation of individual practitioners, Weir explains that
the registration process is relatively
simple. Agrologists must meet a
national educational standard and
then complete several non-academic requirements to achieve full
status. Registration grants everyone
security in the knowledge that the
professional is fully qualified.
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Bratrud believes not all professions are created equal, and it’s
in the farmer’s interests to know
exactly who they are hiring and
how the working relationship will
function.
“Know who you’re hiring, and
make sure you understand where
they’re coming from,” he says.
“Are they coming to it from a
sales point of view or are they just
passionate about agriculture and
want to know everything there is
to know about agronomy?”
According to Bratrud, farmers
have ever increasing options for
advice on crop production, including line companies which offer crop
consulting, independent agronomists and crop consultants like AgriTrend which work with large networks of people, to name just a few.
He says his own experience as
a private consultant taught him
there is a grey area in almost
every case where a specialist is
hired, and it pays to spell out
the details of the contract right
from the beginning. “One of the
biggest things we struggled with,
with other producers, was knowing where the boundaries were
— what we’d do and what services
we’d provide,” he says.
Good communication is vital in
ensuring everyone gets what they
need from the relationship. The
farmer should find out whether
and how often the consultant
plans to visit his or her operation,
and what kinds of services they
provide. But even this should
be balanced with a good dose of
perspective on the farmer’s part.
“When we do something on
our farm we’re always looking for
information. I want the complete,
unbiased truth, and then I’ll make
the decisions,” Bratrud says. †
Julienne Isaacs is a Winnipeg-based freelance
writer and editor. Contact her at julienne.
[email protected].
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
17
Columns
Hart Attacks
A new era ahead
for Captain Avadex
Cory Bourdeaud’hui moves on to greener pastures
I
t feels so good to be rid of
Cory Bourdeaud’hui. Not
only did he have a last name
that was difficult to say and
even harder to spell, but no-one
here really knew what the former
Grainews editor did for the past few
years. (Bourdeaud’hui, pronounced
Bor-do-he, is a Belgian name that,
roughly translated, means “man
with a crazy laugh.”)
Cory left Grainews in December
to seek fame and fortune with
Gowan Canada — one of those
well-established international suppliers of crop protection products
that no-one (me anyway) has ever
heard of.
Gowan — distributor of well
respected cereal herbicides such as
Avadex and Fortress — is planning
to raise its profile in Canada and
hired Bordello to be its sales representative in Manitoba. Truth is I
told the Gowan boss, “I’ll mention
your company name and products
in my column if you hire this guy.”
I’ve known Borederee for 13
years. He grew up on the family farm at Bruxelles, Manitoba.
It was a dairy operation for many
years but since his Dad couldn’t get
the kid to help with chores, they
switched over to beef.
Burdaray was a fresh-faced grad
with an ag diploma from the
University of Manitoba — he did
some summer research work at
the Richardson’s farm — when the
then Grainews editor Andy Sirski
hired him as a writer. Standards
were low at the time.
A couple years later he was also
editing some of our seasonal publications and in 2005 he took over
as managing editor of Grainews.
He floundered at that job for
about a year a half until they promoted him to editor in 2006. It
was about that time I really connected with him.
I had worked for Country Guide
for a number of years, then took a
break to work for the ag information agency Meristem Information
Resources, when Bardoruu called
one day — it was more like begging
— to see if I would come back and
work on Grainews. He promised
half the money and probably twice
the work and I said yes just so he
could regain composure.
We worked together for a couple years — I tried to teach him
stuff, but he just kept arguing “this
has to be a publication with useful information for farmers”… he
wouldn’t listen. In 2007 he did the
unthinkable — he left editorial to
join the ad sales team. This isn’t
like casually crossing the floor in
the House of Commons, this is like
Luke Skywalker teaming up with
Darth Vader. In the news business
it is making a deal with the devil.
That’s where I sort of lost track
of him. He’d surface once a year or
so at a company fishing trip, but
otherwise who knew what he was
doing. His business card said he
was the national sales consultant
for Grainews, Country Guide West
and Crops Guide, but how hard
could that be? These publications
sell themselves.
I never trusted Broccolidee 100
per cent, ever since he heartily
laughed as he told of a great practical joke one day in his younger
years when a friend was helping
move a silage pile and the tractor
disturbed some rats. Cory caught
some and hid them in the tractor
tool box, later giving the operator a scare. Oh, yeah that must
have been REALLY, REALLY funny,
Cory… ha, ha, ha. I always kept my
briefcase closed and locked when
he was around.
He was known to be clumsy too,
sometimes falling into the water
on company fishing trips and then
having to find creative ways to dry
his pants. How professional is that?
He never really had a fit here. He’s
personable, bright, energetic, committed to his job, a plain talker with
common sense and has a strong
connection to the agriculture industry. Oh, yeah and a great family
man too. As a lazy, old cynic I have
to ask, is that really the type of person you want in your organization?
But back to my earlier commitment… Gowan, a company
founded in the U.K. 44 years ago,
with offices around the world.
Distributing a range of great crop
protection products, in Canada
exclusively through the UAP
(United AgriProducts) network.
For grain and oilseed producers
A fresh-faced Cory Bourdeaud’hui early on the job as a Grainews reporter.
in particular Avadex MicroActiv
granular and Avadex Xtra Strength
BW liquid formulation, and
Fortress are all Group 8 products
that not only control weeds such
as wild oats, but can be an important tool in dealing with Group 1
and 2 herbicide resistance.
Gowan, he’s your problem now.
All that is left to be said to the new
company and the old editor, Cory
Bourdeaud’hui: “thanks and all
the best.” †
Lee Hart is a field editor for Grainews in
Calgary, Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by
email at [email protected].
“On this farm,
we’re the
experts.”
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12/13-21572-2A GN
By Lee Hart
21572_02A FCC_Gorill_8.125x10_GN.indd 1
2013-12-09 1:44 PM
18
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Columns
OFF-FARM INCOME
Weekly covered calls create cash flow
Andy Sirski talk had an interesting year and learned some
new tricks to grow his portfolio in 2013
ANDY
SIRSKI
T
his past year was very
interesting. Selling weekly
calls has been an easy
transition from selling
monthly calls and, judging from
the returns I’ve made with weeklies
on blue chip stocks, should really
improve my cash flow.
I’ve also learned how to do
spreads on stocks I don’t own. This
strategy takes more thinking and
is not for everyone. But between
using spreads and selling weekly
covered calls, it looks like I can
make well over $1,000 a week on
a fairly small part of my portfolio.
The overall stock market has
been interesting lately. Average
earnings were up about three per
cent while stocks went up well
over 20 per cent as more and more
investors moved money from fixed
income investments to stocks. The
price earnings ratio was pushed
up from 10 to 12 to well over 15.
That’s a 25 per cent rise. You can
see why many buy and hold investors had a very good year.
Investors who followed stocks
recommended by newsletters such
as The Investment Reporter did well.
Investors who had only a small
part of their portfolio in gold and
or silver saw that sector drop, but
other sectors overcame the drop
and helped portfolios do well.
The buy and hold gold bulls got
their egos and portfolios trashed
as the price of gold dropped from
$1,790 an ounce in the fall of 2012
to $1,180 in May/June 2013 with
little recovery. I had considerable
money in gold and silver stocks so
I gave money back to the market.
MOVING AVERAGES
I try to use moving averages as
a guide for selling stocks, especially when stock prices are falling. I’ve learned that it matters
little what people, presidents, fellow investors and so on are say-
ing — all that matters is what my
stocks are doing. Over and over I
find that I do my portfolio a favor
by selling a stock when the daily
price drops through its 10-day
moving average. Yes, sometimes
I get whipsawed but mostly I sell
out near the top. Then I need to
find another stock — sometimes
the same one, sometimes not.
Sometimes it pays just to stay in
cash for a while.
On stocks that I sell calls on, I
try to sell calls above the moving
averages when a stock is going
up or I don’t sell a call at all. On
a falling stock I often sell calls
below the moving averages. That
brings in cash that offsets the
price drop. That strategy kept my
Farm living inspiration, ag business insight.
portfolio flat during the bear market of 2008 while others lost 30
per cent or more.
In late 2012, about the time the
gold bulls were predicting that
the price of gold was going to the
moon, the daily price of gold and
gold stocks was dropping through
their 10-day moving average.
Some stocks dropped a third, some
by a half and some a lot more.
Here are a few examples:
• Barrick Gold (ABX): I sold out
at $43 per share before the price
dropped to around $18.
• Detour Gold (DGX): Its share
price went from a few bucks to $28
then down to under $5.
• First Majestic (FR), Silver
Wheaton (SLW), Franco Nevada
(FNV) and similar stocks lost an
easy third. They might be a good
price now but they sure lost a lot
of value. Likely the best of that
lot is FNV which dropped from
around $62 to $32 and recovered to around $42. It’s a gold
streamer with solid finances and
good thinkers. It lends money to
gold and some silver companies
and takes the commodity back as
payment.
• Input Capital (INP) is a new
kid on the farm. It’s a streamer
that lends money to farmers and
takes canola back in payment. It’s
an interesting concept that has
made money for me.
Selling gold stocks when the
daily price dropped through the
10-day moving average was a great
strategy. About the only precious
metal stock I now own is FR and
I have sold enough calls on those
shares to drop my share cost to
less than what I paid.
SELLING WEEKLY
COVERED CALLS
Gain a new perspective on your farm, your family and your future
with this informative video series from Farm Credit Canada.
Current AGCanadaTV topics include:
 Management Moment: Seasonal Price Trends
Kevin Stewart explores how following season
price trends can help you get the most for
your ag commodities.

Don’t Let Negative Habits
Shape Your Outlook
BY DAN PIRARO
Bizarro
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While some criticize my strategy
of selling weekly calls, it brings in
cash week after week. It limits my
gains, but it brings in cash in up,
down and flat markets.
I started my selling covered calls
career in 2003 by selling monthly covered calls (that’s what the
industry offered at the time). In
2010 the industry tested weekly
calls but I was mostly in Canadian
stocks so I didn’t do weeklies.
Since I decided to sell weekly
calls on some stocks, I’ve moved
my stock portfolio mostly to blue
chip stocks that offer weekly call
and put options. Often a weekly
call might pay me $0.75 cents for
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JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
19
Columns
SPREADS
In late 2012 I started to study
how to do spreads on stocks I do
not own. There are about half a
dozen combinations of spreads
and most are way too complicated for me. But in March 2013
I was finally brave enough to try
doing what are called bull put
(bullish) and bear call (bearish)
spreads. One or two worked well;
then Potash Corp (POT) smacked
me and took Agrium (AGU) with
it. I had one or two other smackers as I was learning how to deal
with a stock that went up or
down more than I expected.
I am criticized now and then
for writing about spreads. It is a
complicated strategy that certainly
takes more mind work than selling
weekly calls. I can only do these
in approved trading accounts and
the brokerage industry will not
approve anyone until the broker is
sure the investor knows the risks
and can handle potential losses.
Spreads are a very small part of
my overall portfolio, but the few
thousand dollars I’ve allocated to
spreads has made me well over a
$1,000 week and I don’t own the
related shares.
I know lots of farmer do spreads
and calls and puts on commodities, crops, currencies and so on.
In a sense I’m just trying to catch
up to them and apply the same
strategies to my stocks.
Spreads might be too much for
busy people, but weekly covered
calls should be doable. A busy person can sell calls two weeks out and
likely make a lot more money than
with monthly calls. I have turned
about 50 per cent of my investing
BY DAN PIRARO
Bizarro
portfolio over to weekly covered
calls, maybe five per cent to spreads,
hold some in interest earning deposits and of course there’s always some
cash that earns nothing.
I have to allocate enough money
to buy them if necessary. If I have
to buy them my cost will drop
to around $2.70 per share and I
could sell calls on them. Trading
OTHER INVESTMENTS
I have found four Canadian
companies that pay a nice dividend and let me reinvest dividends into more shares. Some
even cut the price by five per cent
on new shares. I have 1,500 shares
of Bonavista (BNP) and asked the
broker to reinvest all the dividends
into more shares. BNP should pay
about $105 a month (six per cent
a year) which can buy about eight
shares with no fees. I also sold calls
on the original stocks well above
the price of the day so I expect
some capital gain.
I have been selling what is called
a naked put on Dry Ships (DRYS)
with a $3 strike price a month out.
As I write in early December, that
strategy has pulled in about $250 a
month. I don’t own the shares, but
Managing
a portfolio isn’t
for everyone
at $3.45 per share and with a
decent outlook for the economy,
even dogs like DRYS might work
out. But shipping companies are
risky and are not for everyone, so
I only allocated a small amount of
money to DRYS.
I don’t usually buy options.
I prefer to sell them, which
is like renting out my shares.
Richard Croft mentioned Bank
of America Corp. (BAC) on BNN.
He bought an option for January
2015 with a strike price of $15.
The book value of BAC is around
$20 so he figures this would be
a low risk move. I bought those
call options. If BAC gets back to
its book value my option will
make me good money.
At any one time I might have
a smattering of other stocks. They
include Thompson Creek Mining
(TCM), Bombardier (BBD.B),
AutoCanada (ACQ) and DEE. I sold
a lot of them when I was converting to weekly calls but now I buy
some of them as I get free cash.
I also like stock symbol WEF,
a timber company with trees on
the West Coast and no pine trees.
Pine trees are being destroyed by
the pine beetle and have ruined
the lumber industry in parts of
Western Canada.
This past year I have attended
several half day seminars on
options and watched several
webinars. I see more and
more that we are doing what
sophisticated
professional
investors do. When I think of
that I think: the farmers who use
various options are sophisticated
too. I love that.
Managing a portfolio isn’t for
everyone. I don’t have a financial adviser but if my family
needed one I would encourage
them to contact a fellow classmate from university. His name
is Stan Clark. He likes clients
who have half a million bucks to
invest. His phone number is 1800-661-9442. I don’t make any
money on this but do tell him I
sent you so he keeps sending me
a Christmas card.
I worry less about capital gain
because I know how to create cash
flow in a rising, falling and flat
market and I’m looking forward to
whatever 2014 brings. Happy New
Year to you and yours. Let’s make
2014 a success. †
Andy Sirski is mostly retired. He plays with
his granddaughters, gardens, travels a bit
with his wife, and manages his portfolio.
Andy also publishes an electronic newsletter
called StocksTalk where he tells all win or
lose. If you want to read it free for a month
send an email to [email protected] and Andy
will set it up for you.
Always read and follow label directions. FMC and Authority are trademarks and Investing in farming’s future is a service mark of FMC Corporation. ©2014 FMC Corporation. All rights reserved. F101-032481 1/14 Kochia image by Howard F. Schwartz, Colorado State University, Bugwood.org
the week while a call 10 weeks out
might pay $1.70 or so. My stocks
— mostly U.S. stocks like Bristol
Myers Squibb, Disney, Mosaic and
Ford — are all held in sheltered
accounts so there are no tax implications at this time.
I choose a strike price when I
sell covered calls. Once in a while
stock prices will go up beyond my
covered call prices. When that
happens I usually just buy the calls
back at a loss, sell the shares for a
profit and move on.
Ford (F) has been interesting.
My cost started at around $17.10
per share, but I’ve been selling
weekly calls for weeks to get an
average of $0.12 a week. I need a
critical mass of shares and it does
take work, but that’s still a return
of $5 to $6 per share per year — a
good return on a $17 stock. Plus, I
get a small dividend and over time
should capture some capital gain.
Other, more expensive stocks
usually pay $0.30 to $0.50 cents
per week. It’s been easy on my
mind and good for my accounts.
www.fmccrop.ca
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/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Columns
FORAGE PRODUCTION
Grainews from the beginning
LES
HENRY
T
he original Grainews
was a publication of the
United Grain Growers,
a farmer-owned grain
company that had roots back to
1906 as the Grain Growers Grain
Company. Issue No. 1 was in
October 1975 and was introduced
on page one by Mac Runciman,
who was UGG president from
1961-81. Mac Runciman was a
story all by himself. He was a
popular speaker at the University
of Saskatchewan Farm and Home
Week program. I never missed a
chance to hear his words of wisdom. Mac’s life was chronicled
in the book Mac Runciman: A Life
in the Grain Trade by Paul Earl,
still available if you search on
Amazon.
Mac explained that Grainews
was to communicate with the
members and bring information
about the then-turbulent grain
markets, and the products UGG
offered customers. Originally,
Grainews carried no advertising.
The bills were paid by the subscribers and UGG.
Lindsay Boyes was the first
managing editor. Lin had been
ag rep at Wynyard, where I did
my first regional short course as
a very green soils/extension prof.
I remember his kind words of
advice to this day. If all ag reps
had been like Lin we would still
have an ag rep service.
In 1976 editor John Clark
approached Don Rennie, head of
soil science at the University of
Saskatchewan, to pen a column
on soils. Don asked if I would
like to take it on, and I jumped
at the chance. My first column
in Nov. 1976 was “The 3 R’s —
Nitrogen; What Source, What rate
and What time.” The 4th R, placement, did not come along until
John Harapiak of Westco did the
work to show that deep banding
of urea made it equal to anhydrous ammonia as an N source.
PHOTO: IGNA ARIOU
A 1995 photo shows a youthful Les Henry with the pile of Grainews
from 1976-94. Grainews first appeared in Oct. 1975, and originally
accepted no advertising.
it was the actual stubblejumpers
that carried the day.
Boyd Anderson, rancher from
Fir Mountain Saskatchewan is
the columnist with the longest record. He went on to write
books that are treasured entries
on my bookshelf.
Boyd’s book Grassroots should
be required reading and part of
the curriculum for all Grade 8
students in Saskatchewan. I say
Grade 8 because they would be
14 years of age. At age 14 Boyd
left school in November to live
by himself in a drafty two-room
house to herd the sheep. His only
companion was the sheep dog
and an earphone radio he could
use occasionally. In 3-1/2 months
he was home only for Christmas
and Valentine’s Day. He grew up
fast. City slickers that see wellheeled older farmers and ranchers
should realize how they got there
— hard work, ingenuity, perseverance, stubborn independence and
a love of the land! At age 93 Boyd
still pens the occasional column.
FOR FARMERS, BY FARMERS
CONTROVERSIAL
COLUMNISTS
Grainews was popular and grew
like a weed.
John Clark was aggressive in
recruiting farmers to write about
how they farmed. It soon became
known as a paper written for
farmers and by farmers. The idea
was hugely popular. Hangers-on
like me could talk about soils,
weeds, varieties and the like but
Lyle Walker of Milk River, Alta.
told it as it was and ruffled a few
feathers from time to time. I still
remember a specific column of
his. It was about farming and
the hour-by-hour decisions that
keep the place going. It was set
at harvest time and might well
have been called “The Beauty
of Harvest.” In eloquent prose
Tundra
he described the fine points of
combine operation, of taking the
dumps on the fly and of the decisions also made on the fly.
Harvey Gjesdahl of Birch Hills,
Sask. is a farmer and inventor. His
column was full of original ideas
from his shop as well as fields.
With natural talent for design
and manufacture he made the
first rotary snowplow and selfpropelled swather. In the 1970s it
was my pleasure to visit Harvey’s
farm with a delegation from
China. We were all impressed.
Alf Bryan farmed at Central
Butte, Sask, and his columns were
a treat to read. His column carried the title “I may be wrong
— but…” He followed no beaten
paths or opinions. Alf described
farming as it was with terms he
invented. He described land near
Moose Jaw as “Soft, sweet clay
that the discers cut like butter.”
His imagination was vivid and he
penned some futuristic articles
that only our great great grandchildren will be able to judge. His
“Saskatoon and the Prairies in
2098” was a fun read.
It was my pleasure to visit Alf’s
farm in the 1990s and I enjoyed
tours of the area crops and soils.
Farming was tough then and
Alf was a fighter who did not
give up.
Alf was very well-read. His family brought a library from the
U.K. and he read it all. He could
quote Chaucer, Shakespeare and
made me feel like a dumb prof at
times. He got a kick out of banter-
ing with me through his column
and it was great fun. There was
mutual respect. Alf also went on
the write and publish three books
of his columns and a novel. He
went to his eternal harvest about
a year ago.
That is only a few of the dozens that have spilled words to
paper over the years. All have been
unique as only farmers are. As Alf
would say “Farmers are as variable
as the land they farm and the
weather and markets they endure.”
OWNERSHIP CHANGES
A few years after its inception
Grainews began to accept advertising, which became a big part
of what paid the bills.
United Grain Growers merged
with Agricore to become Agricore
United in 2001 and shortly
afterward its Farm Business
Communications division was
sold to Glacier Media.
Any changes in ownership
have been quite seamless from
the perspective of the columnists
Tundra
— at least I have never felt any
pressure to push any particular
product, policy, politics or point
of view. Freedom is imperative.
In my 37 years of scribbling
on these pages there has been a
long line of editors. John Clark,
Roger Olson, Peter Perkins,
Andy Sirski, Dave Bedard, Cory
Bourdeaud’hui, Jay Whetter,
Lyndsey Smith and now Leeann
Minogue. I can honestly say that
I have never had a serious disagreement with any of the editors
and have always had complete
freedom. Thanks to all who have
fixed up my blunders and made
it easier to read.
Who knows what the future
may hold, but so far it has been a
fun ride. †
J.L.(Les) Henry is a former professor and
extension specialist at the University of
Saskatchewan. He farms at Dundurn, Sask.
He recently finished a second printing of
“Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water,” a book
that mixes the basics and practical aspects
of soil, fertilizer and farming. Les will cover
the shipping and GST for “Grainews” readers.
Simply send a cheque for $50 to Henry
Perspectives, 143 Tucker Cres, Saskatoon, SK,
S7H 3H7, and he will dispatch a signed book.
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
21
Columns
Understanding market bulls and bears
Rail transportation adds to market woes
As grain markets slide downwards, grain transportation is causing a bottleneck
By Brian Wittal
S
The future
What will come from this? My
opinion is that you will see the
railroads and grain companies
lobby the federal government to
adjust, but more likely outright
eliminate the revenue cap and
let the marketplace set the freight
costs for grains, by letting grains
compete with all other products
for track space.
Grain companies want additional
cars to move more grain, which
means more profits for them. The step up and invest in infrastruconly way they will get more cars is ture to make sure we can meet
if the railroads can make as much the ever-increasing world market
or more from freighting grain as demand and not be left behind
they do all other commodities that because of our system capacity
they move. For this to happen the restrictions.
The bad thing about readjusting
revenue cap needs to be readjusted
or eliminating the revenue cap is
or eliminated.
This becomes a very strategic that any increase in freight costs
and profitable business oppor- will flow back to grain producers
tunity for grain companies and and be deducted directly off of
railroads, as they would both your grain cheques. Call it the cost
have the ability to generate more of doing business to get your prodrevenues by moving more vol- ucts to market! You don’t mind
ume. This would be good for the paying for something if you can see
future of the grain industry and a net benefit to your business, such
farmers in general because we as increased market opportunity or
are so reliant on export markets better value for the products sold.
to buy the majority of the grains
In our situation — a bumper crop
we produce. We need to get our without the capacity to move it in
a timely manner — we’ll be forced
product to market in a timely
B:8.125”
to hold grain over into next year. If
manner or lose buyers. We need
T:8.125”
railways and grain companies to there should be another good crop
S:8.125”
world wide next year it is most
likely that prices will continue to
slide as supply continues to build.
If you’re forced to hold grain over,
you’re in danger of having to take
an even lower price next year.
How do we fix this so it is not
farmers who take the brunt of this
risk and loss? That is a question
for someone well above my pay
grade, but a first step would be to
talk to your MLA and MP, to try
to get the provincial and federal
governments to start looking into
what needs to be done to improve
our transportation network across
Canada, as it impacts many sectors
of our national economy. †
Brian Wittal has 30 years of grain industry
experience, and currently offers market
planning and marketing advice to farmers
through his company Pro Com Marketing Ltd.
(www.procommarketingltd.com).
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S:10”
ince harvest has wrapped
up, grain markets have
been acting out an epic
interpretation of a three
act Shakespearean tragedy. There
has been mystery, intrigue, feelings of horror, hurt and betrayal,
and rumours of foul play. That
sums up how many of you may
be feeling as the grain markets
continue on this downward death
spiral about which we are all too
afraid to ask, “how low can it go?”
Prices have been historically
high the past two years and we
want to hold on to them as long
as possible, even if it’s through
tactics like avoidance or denial of
the facts. The world grain supply
has dramatically improved over
the past 12 months. Avoiding this
reality will not make it go away!
Supply and demand are balanced out by price! Too much of
one or the other can impact price
dramatically and we have just had
too much supply. World demand
is still there and growing, but
there is no longer the same concern about there not being enough
grain to meet the world’s demand
as there was during the past two
years, when world production was
down dramatically due to weather
events aroung the globe.
Now, add to this the unfortunate Canadian reality: a bottleneck in our railroad transportation
system that will not allow us to
move a record crop to market over
a 12-month period. As a landlocked nation we are very reliant on railroads to move most of
our import and export products.
This has the system running at
maximum capacity most of the
time. To increase volumes beyond
today’s levels, a lot of money
needs to be spent laying down
new track through the mountains.
That is not a cheap or easy job that
can be done quickly.
If grain volumes for export are
going to continue to increase they
are going to have to compete with
all other products for track space,
and right now grains are at a real
disadvantage when it comes to rail
car allocation because of the revenue cap that is in place. This cap
helps keep grain producers’ freight
costs down, but it also restricts the
total revenues that the railroads
can make hauling grain as compared to other products where
there are no revenue caps in place
— pretty much every other bulk
commodity that they transport. As
publically traded, for-profit corporations, why would the railroads
allocate extra resources to a commodity that will generate them
less revenue than all the other
commodities they handle?
For grains to get enough cars to
get to export position, the revenue
cap is going to have to either be
adjusted or eliminated to allow for
a level playing field from a freight
cost perspective.
Before railroads can build new
tracks through the mountains they
will have to convince their shareholders that they can make a profitable return on such an expensive
venture. They must show projected increases in volumes that will
lead to increases in total revenues
and bottom line profits as part of
their strategy. As an investor, if I
saw a projection for an increased
demand for grain movement but
with a revenue cap in place, I
would not be quite so eager to
spend major dollars building new
track unless I knew I could get the
same return per unit from grain as
I do from all the other products the
railroad hauls.
22
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Columns
FIELD NOTES
Soybeans in Saskatchewan
At a summer plot tour, Southeast Saskatchewan farmer Bobbie Bratrud took a
look at some new varieties and crops that could give her farm a competitive edge
BY BOBBIE BRATRUD
I
f you would have told me 10
years ago that I would not
only be attending a local
plot tour focused on soybeans, but that they would make
up 20 per cent of my farm’s acres,
I would have never believed you.
The changes and advancements
in the varieties of crops we can
grow here are amazing.
Last August I attended Eggum
Seed Sales’ annual soybean plot
tour. I expected to see the usual:
replicated variety and agronomic
trials showcasing soybeans.
What I didn’t expect to see
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Bobbie Bratrud
was the wide diversity of local
farmer interest and experience in
growing soybeans.
One of the major benefits to farming in southeast
Saskatchewan is the large crop
basket we can grow here. Being
able to alter crop rotations
among up to 15 different crops,
based on market outlooks, farmer
expertise or rotational requirements is a huge advantage that
many other areas don’t have. I
see it as a great benefit that can
make our farm more sustainable.
Beans and corn are crops that
are quickly becoming a viable
option for many farms, help-
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ing to provide another profitable
crop option.
The plots showcased eight different soybean varieties with
maturity ratings suitable to southeast Saskatchewan. Replicated
trials were developed, managed,
and brought to yield by Southeast
Research Farm (SERF) out of
Redvers, Sask. There was friendly
competition among farmers as
we estimated each variety’s yield
potential. There was a lot of discussion of how each farmer picked
the winning variety: do you judge
it on overall plant appearance,
plant height, number of pods and
flowers, or seeds per pod?
Learning how new crops set
yield is a challenge for everyone.
There is still a lot to learn before
we can do the quick 50 mile per
hour drive by that we do with
crops we are very familiar with.
I’m still not sure how accurate
my guesses were as the yield
results have not been finalized.
The importance of having
proper inoculant coverage and
rates for the beans is well known
and researched. Beans are such a
new crop to our area and there are
virtually no native rhizobium in
our soils, making the inoculation
even more critical. Eggum Seed
Sales had inoculants trials comparing liquid, granular, a combination of both, as well as one to
triple the recommended rate.
The visual differences between
the trials were obvious, with the
beans looking healthier and a
more lush green colour with the
combination of both liquid and
granular inoculants at increased
rates. With an average bean
plant requiring over four actual
pounds of nitrogen per bushel,
it is obvious how critical proper
inoculation is.
SEEDING RATE
As with all crops it is critical to
find a seeding rate that balances
crop maturity and yield potential.
This is even more of a consideration in beans, where the seeding
rate determines virtually all of
the variable cost that the farmers
are investing in that crop. I consider southeast Saskatchewan at
times on the fringe for bean and
corn production, although this
is changing as higher yielding
short season varieties are becoming available each year.
Seeding rate is a definite management balance between managing seed costs and obtaining
proper maturity to be able to finish off the crop. As beans and
corn become a bigger and more
substantial portion of our crop
basket there is a definite need to
evaluate and compare a planter vs.
solid seeding with a drill. Eggum
Seed Sales is planning to look at
different seeding systems in their
fieldwork in the future.
The main benefit to using a
planter is to be able to decrease
the seeding rate substantially (and
seed cost) without sacrificing plant
maturity. The number of acres a
farmer is planning to seed to beans
or corn will determine if the seed
savings justify the cost of an addi-
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
23
Columns
tional piece of equipment. So far it
is believed that farmers have seen
very little yield difference from
fields seeded with a planter or solid
seeded with a drill. I think a local
trial looking at planters versus a drill
would be interesting and helpful.
More years than not, mid-season
moisture conservation is key to
allowing crops to fill and reach the
highest yield potential possible. This
may be even more pronounced in
beans, which are indeterminate, as
the ability of the plant to continue
to flower and set seed is directly
related to the plant not shutting
down from moisture stress. There
could definitely be a case to be made
for optimizing ground cover and
minimizing moisture losses with
solid seeding versus a planter with
wide row spacing, leaving exposed
soil risking additional moisture
losses. This is something we always
have to consider in our area as
moisture isn’t as readily available as
it is in some more traditional bean
growing climates.
PHOTOS: BOBBIE BRATRUD
Top: The soybeans we grew on our farm in southeast Saskatchewan last year had excellent nodulation. Right: There was a lot of interest in the short
season corn variety TH4574RR at a summer plot tour.
FUNGICIDE
These trials did not look at
any comparisons of treating soybeans with fungicide. There is
very little data showing results
or returns of fungicide application. I look forward to local
growers completing on-farm
field-size trials as well as replicated trial comparisons. Proper
fungicide timing may be harder
to determine due to the indeterminate and lengthy flowering stage of beans. This is an
example of where local data and
results will be important as more
experience in bean production
and pushing yield curves occur.
On our farm, we noticed some
brown spots on our beans last
summer. We decided to do some
trials and spray the beans at midflower with Headline. Marcel
Van Staveren, who farms near
Creelman, Sask., also sprayed some
of his beans with a fungicide. Our
farm saw some favourable results
from the application, however
Van Staverens didn’t see any yield
difference between the treated
and untreated. While the results
were not scientific, they definitely
piqued our interest enough to try
some trials again next year and see
what the results are.
WE’RE GIVING
FWAHROMLE ENERW’ SMETANAINN
A
CORN
Corn production for seed has
been increasing locally over the
last couple of years. Eggums’
plot tour featured some samples of a short season variety
TH4574RR. There was quite a
bit of interest in this variety
because of its ability to mature
and set seed with heat units of
2075 and maturity of 74 days,
which should easily fit our environment.
Soybeans and corn, once
thought to be crops grown in
Manitoba or south of us in the
U.S., have definitely made their
way into our cropping options
in southeast Saskatchewan. As
we gain more experience and
comfort with these crops I’m
sure they will continue to be
a larger portion of our farm.
Additional cropping options
make our farm stronger and
more tolerant to weather and
market risk, improving our
competitive edge. †
Bobbie Bratrud Bobbie Bratrud farms with
her husband Mark near Weyburn, Sask. They
also run Bratrud Ag Advisory Services (www.
bratrudag.ca).
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24
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Columns
FARM FINANCIAL PLANNER
Keeping the farm going
For a multi-generational family farm, it’s continuity rather
than profit that’s the guiding principle for succession
BY ANDREW ALLENTUCK
J
ack and Martha, as we’ll call
them, farm 1,760 acres in
central Manitoba. At the
ages of 67 and 62, they are
thinking of handing over
the reins of their operation to their
son, Bob, who is 30 and already
active in running the farm.
Bob will be the fourth generation of his family to farm. The
farm started at 160 acres in 1911,
the next generation added 320
acres, then Jack added another 320
acres and Bob bought another 320
acres of his own. An uncle died
leaving Bob a further 640 acres.
Bob effectively runs the total of
1,760 acres.
The family has a tradition of
setting up each younger generation to farm the legacy. The effect
is to allow the older generation
to watch the younger, to pass on
skills and wisdom, and to avoid
many of the problems of succession. The plan is as simple as the
tradition.
Farm Financial Planner asked
Don Forbes and Erik Forbes, farm
financial planners with Don
Forbes & Associates/Armstrong &
Quaile Associates Inc. in Carberry,
Manitoba, to work with Jack and
Martha
THE SITUATION
The entire holding, which is
a mix of pasture, hay and feed
corn, has a total value of about
$500,000, assuming that it could
be sold for about $285 per acre. As
well, the couple receives a portion
of beef cattle sales from their herd
of 80 beef cows which give them
$1,000 per month as farm income.
When they leave farming to
Bob, their income will be based on
cattle sales, as indicated, plus two
Old Age Security benefits of $6,612
per year each, total, $13,224, plus
annual Canada Pension Plan benefits of $12,144 combined. The
total, including $12,000 year cattle
income, $37,368 before tax will
leave them with $2,800 per month
after 10 per cent average income
tax. If they continue to spend just
$2,000 per month, their budget
will be in the black and amply
covered, Erik Forbes estimates.
Jack and Martha can supplement their farm and government
benefits by drawing on their financial assets which include non-registered accounts worth $20,110,
RRSPs worth $4,240 and miscellaneous assets worth $7,236. Jack,
turning 65 this year, can begin
withdrawing $2,000 per year from
his Registered Retirement Income
Fund and will receive offsetting
tax credits. That will make the year
withdrawal tax-free. Any capital
gains or interest income on nonregistered accounts will be realized, leaving a small amount of tax
to be paid.
If the total, $31,635, grows
at three per cent per year after
inflation to $36,616 in five years,
then when Jack is 72, he must
take income from his Registered
Retirement Income Fund at about
eight per cent per year. He and
Martha will be able to add RRIF
income of $2,929 for total pre-tax
income of about $40,300. Their
disposable income after 10 per
cent average tax would be $3,022
per month. Their surplus based
on current spending of $2,000
per month will leave them with
monthly savings of about $1,000
per month, Don Forbes says.
The couple
plans to continue
their modest
way of life
The couple plans to continue
their modest way of life without
costly travel. Much of their food
comes from the farm. Jack bags
a few deer each year and the
farm business picks up a few of
their other expenses. Their home
does not need costly repairs.
Even on their modest income of
$2,000 per month, they expect
to put away $500 per month for
the next 10 years for Registered
Educational Savings Plans for
their five grandchildren. Over 10
years, by which time their eldest
grandchild will be ready for university, with the addition of the
Canada’s Annual Ag Outlook Conference
February 24 & 25, 2014
The Fairmont Winnipeg
Get detailed outlooks for all the crops we grow in western Canada.
Speakers include:
Every farmer has been a marketing
genius for the last two years. 2012
saw a good crop and the best prices
we’ve ever had. 2013 saw the best
crop ever grown in western Canada
and still decent prices.
You’ll have to sharpen your pencil
for 2014 however. Two years of good
prices have farmers around the world
producing to the max. Making money
will be a challenge in 2014.
Arm yourself with information on the
market outlooks for the various crops
we can plant in western Canada. Wild
Oats Grainworld 2014 will provide you
with detailed outlooks from traders
who handle the crops.
- Canola - Tracy Lussier, Dreyfus
- Feed Barley – Jim Beusekom, Market Place Commodities
- Durum – John Griffith, CHS
- Red Spring Wheat – Trevor Letkeman, Parrish & Heimbecker
- Oats – Randy Strychar, Ag Commodity Research
- Soybeans – Karl Skold, Bunge
In addition, hear Charlie Mayer on the value of farmers, an
international panel of grain customers, a review of where the seed
industry is headed and Dennis Gartman, publisher of the Gartman
Letter, on financial policy.
Join us at the Fairmont Hotel at the corner of Portage and Main
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lesser of 20 per cent of contributions or $500 per child from the
Canada Education Savings Grant,
that will add up to $85,000,
assuming they obtain a three
per cent return after inflation.
The money, which can continue
to grow with contributions and
gains, can pay for a year or two
of post-secondary education for
each grandchild provided that
the child lives at home or obtains
very economical room and board
near the institution of his or her
choice, Erik Forbes estimates.
OTHER OPTIONS
There is a good deal more that
the couple can do to increase
their income and financial security in retirement. First move
would be to crystallize the value
of their farming business and
arrange a sale to Bob. The farm
must eventually be disposed of
through deemed disposition no
later than the death of the last
parent. If Bob were to pay Jack
and Martha at, say, $25,000 per
year or, though borrowing is not
the family tradition, the entire
$500,000, which they could offset with the $800,000 lifetime
capital gains exemption, then
the income would raise the parents’ income by $22,500 per
year after 10 per cent average
income tax, Don Forbes says.
Gifting the farm to Bob for a
dollar, which is the plan, will
require Bob to provide for his
parents’ future well being. He
will have to cover much the
parents’ living costs, but on the
other hand, if the farm were
sold for fair market value, Bob’s
standard of living would fall.
The farm is 30 miles from the
nearest town and 60 from a hospital. Clearly, the cost of access
will be high and will be Bob’s
to pay. The bill for going to
Trait Stewardship
Responsibilities
Notice to Farmers
town, to doctors or hospitals,
could be $1,000 per month or
$12,000 per year, Forbes suggests. Over the lifetime of the
parents, who have longevity in
their own family histories, the
bill could be quite substantial,
Don Forbes notes.
Getting more money for
the farm would, of course, aid
the parents. They could buy
long term care insurance, for
example. Moreover, the farm
is a single asset and much of
their retirement income will
dependent on its health. If they
could obtain $500,000, they
might invest in a range of stocks,
particularly those that have
paid dividends consistently and
raised them each year for the
last five years. Several dividend
income exchange traded funds
are available with modest annual
management fees well below
one per cent of net asset value.
Diversification is a form of
insurance, Erik Forbes observes.
Yet all that won’t happen, for the
plan is for them to live simply in
town supported by Bob who will
have the farm for a dollar.
For his part, Bob, who will run
the farm, should examine ways
to generate additional income.
The land, presently used mostly
for pasture for relatively few
animals, could support limited
grain production on perhaps a
third of the acreage. More hay
could be produced as well. Bob,
like each generation before him,
has spent a good deal of time
as a tradesman. Today, he is
a skilled machinist. That work
subsidizes the farm. It is the way
the family has run the business
for three generations. Tradition,
not maximizing returns, is the
family’s guiding principle. †
Andrew Allentuck’s latest book, When Can I
Retire? Planning Your Financial Life After Work,
was published by Penguin Canada in 2011.
BY DAN PIRARO
Bizarro
Monsanto Company is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship®
(ETS). Monsanto products are commercialized in accordance with ETS
Product Launch Stewardship Guidance, and in compliance with
Monsanto’s Policy for Commercialization of Biotechnology-Derived Plant
Products in Commodity Crops. This product has been approved for
import into key export markets with functioning regulatory systems.
Any crop or material produced from this product can only be exported
to, or used, processed or sold in countries where all necessary
regulatory approvals have been granted. It is a violation of national
and international law to move material containing biotech traits
across boundaries into nations where import is not permitted. Growers
should talk to their grain handler or product purchaser to confirm their
buying position for this product. Excellence Through Stewardship® is a
registered trademark of Excellence Through Stewardship.
ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS.
Roundup Ready® crops contain genes that confer tolerance to
glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup® brand agricultural
herbicides. Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides will kill crops
that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Acceleron® seed treatment
technology for corn is a combination of four separate individuallyregistered products, which together contain the active ingredients
metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin, ipconazole, and clothianidin. Acceleron®
seed treatment technology for canola is a combination of two separate
individually-registered products, which together contain the active
ingredients difenoconazole, metalaxyl (M and S isomers), fludioxonil,
thiamethoxam, and bacillus subtilis. Acceleron and Design®,
Acceleron®, DEKALB and Design®, DEKALB®, Genuity and Design®,
Genuity Icons, Genuity®, RIB Complete and Design®, RIB Complete®,
Roundup Ready 2 Technology and Design®, Roundup Ready 2 Yield®,
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PRO®, YieldGard VT Rootworm/RR2®, YieldGard Corn Borer and Design
and YieldGard VT Triple® are trademarks of Monsanto Technology
LLC. Used under license. LibertyLink® and the Water Droplet Design
are trademarks of Bayer. Used under license. Herculex® is a registered
trademark of Dow AgroSciences LLC. Used under license. Respect the
Refuge and Design is a registered trademark of the Canadian Seed
Trade Association. Used under license. ©2013 Monsanto Canada Inc.
10801A-Gen Legal Trait Stewardship-Grainews.indd
7/29/13
1
3:56 PM
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
25
Columns
APP QUEST
Field Tracker Pro app
This field tracking app from Farmer-Apps Inc. is easy to use
and allows you to track field operations from the tractor cab
JAY
PETERSON
W
e all know field
tracking over
multiple years
is becoming the
norm in agriculture due to rental
agreement requirements or just
for troubleshooting when things
go wrong. I know it gives me
piece of mind during the year
to know I can look back into
my records and be able to access
information about the field activities I did during the cropping
year. Smartphones have allowed
us to not only start tracking all
of our operations with ease, but
also have this information at our
fingertips all the time. However
there has been a vacuum in this
area — only a handful of farmfriendly applications have been
developed.
One of the latest field tracking apps on the market is Field
Tracker Pro by Farmer-Apps.
Field Tracker Pro is based
through the browser either on
your desktop or smartphone. It
can work with a PC, Mac or any
major smartphone operating
system. Field Tracker uses cloud
technology to allow you to access
your information from any device
once you sign into your account
or one of your managed user
accounts.
under the soil sampling option
in the field details, there is no
main nutrient option for nitrogen. The top three options are for
PH, phosphorous and potassium.
It would be nice to see an addition for nitrogen as I think it is a
major part of Western soil tests.
The rest of the activity selections
include all the most common
operations such as spraying and
seeding but also some that are
more area specific such as irrigation and straw harvest.
Each one of the activity options
allows you to select information
specific to that operation. An
example is that in the spraying
activity you can enter the chemi-
cal you are using, the rate, speed
and pressure. Field Tracker also
makes use of planned usages as
well — you can compare what
you planned to use versus what
you actually used. All of these
activities are then recorded with
the selected date and added into
the activity report for that field.
You can look at this activity report
at any time. This is a fairly simple
point and click in and out system
for entering information.
REVIEW
There are lots of things to like
about this program but there
are some things that could be
added or changed. Two features
I know they’re adding are automatic weather recording for spray
records as well as the ability to
change your records into a printable PDF format.
I think the activity reports get
a bit lengthy when you’re adding
in multiple activities. The information could be condensed down
into a more efficient format. I
could easily see print outs for my
entire year getting over 100 pages.
I would also like to see the ability
to track commodity contracts and
deliveries added to the app.
There are many nice things
about this program. It is simple to use, with easy navigation.
You could be using this program
and entering information within
five minutes. The menus navigate
easily forward and backwards so
you can find what you are looking for or update different parts
of your field tracking operation.
Also I like how fast the scroll buttons work in the activity addition
fields. Speed of entry is very high
on my priority list.
There are two pricing options
once you use up your 30 day
trial. The first is $249/year, which
allows five users and 40 fields.
The premium option is $479/
year and includes the ability to
manage 20 users and add up to
200 fields.
Like all apps and software there
are still improvements to be made
with Field Tracker but it is a very
nice smooth program that would
be perfect for people who are just
getting into electronic field tracking and do not want an overly
complicated program. †
Jay Peterson farms near Frontier, Sask.
Visit us Ja
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13-16 at the uary
Production Crop
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booth C10 how,
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January 21 ND
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Manitoba A 3 at
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in the Ag C Days
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Excellence of
It is a
very nice,
smooth program
USING FIELD TRACKER
The Field Tracker app is what
I would consider a layered application. The details are layered
on top of each other and there
is really only one way in and
one way out to access the information.
Field Tracker is layered into
three main sections. The first is
the opening screen where you
can select which year to work
in or access settings where you
can change information and
manage users.
Once you select the year you
can access your field menu. With
the base subscription you can add
up to 40 fields; with the premium subscription you can add up
to 200 fields. You’ll noticed that
once you select a field, it shows
the current crop on that field in
that crop year.
After you select a field you will
also notice that the field header
at the top shows the current crop
and also the acreage (in acres
and hectares, which is becoming
a more commonly used unit for
field areas.)
In the field section there are 11
activity options to choose from
and one main option to input
the field details. I noticed that,
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26
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Machinery & Shop
Agritechnica coverage
Glimpses of Agritechnica 2013
Grainews was at Germany’s massive,
bi-annual farm machinery show.
Here’s what caught our eye
By Scott Garvey
E
v e r y s e c o n d N o v e m b e r,
Agritechnica, the world’s largest farm machinery exhibition,
opens its doors in Hanover,
Germany. Held on the largest fairground anywhere, a site that was built,
in part, to house a World Expo, the
show has roughly 100 acres under roof.
Crammed into the 27 massive exhibit
halls this year were 2,898 exhibits,
ranging from large displays of major
brand equipment to small booths housing cutting-edge prototypes.
It might be fair to say Agritechnica
is the farm equipment world’s equivalent of the Detroit Auto Show. Not
only do you see what is on dealers’
lots now, but you get a glimpse of
what they’ll be selling five or 10 years
down the road. And because the show
2
1
has a global perspective, you get to see
what farmers all over the world are
interested in.
In all, approximately 450,000 visits to
the site were recorded during the weeklong event, and Grainews was there for
the show’s full duration to take in as
much as possible. In the pages of this
issue, you’ll see some of what we saw.
We’ll have more to show you in future
issues as well, so keep your eye open for
more articles in the weeks ahead.
To help give you a feel for what it was
like to be there, here are some images
that caught our eye during the trek
through the 26-plus kilometres of carpeted aisles in the exhibit halls.
For a video look at Agritechnica 2013,
watch the e-Quip TV episodes online at
grainews.ca/videos. †
Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews. Contact
him at [email protected].
3
4
5
6
photos: scott garvey
1: Turkish tractor manufacturer Hattat currently builds a couple of models based on older Massey Fergusons, like this 240S based on the old MF 235. The company is looking for a North
American distributor. 2: Grainews took in Agritechnica 2013, along with about 450,000 people from across the globe. 3: It wouldn’t be Germany if you didn’t have many close encounters
with beer, bratwurst and Oom-pah-pah bands right on the show grounds. 4: It isn’t unusual for manufacturers to display equipment in a pretty surprising way, like this pull-type sprayer
standing on its hitch. 5: Europeans are no stranger to sprayers, with a much wider variety of makes and models available than North American farmers are used to. 6: This Tecnoma
Laser self-propelled sprayer uses an unique cab design, which lowers to the ground to allow the operator to get in and out without climbing stairs, then it lifts up into operating position.
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
27
Machinery & Shop
AGRITECHNICA COVERAGE
“Fruit robot” is completely autonomous
Cäser, the new field robot, is designed to work in orchards
and vineyards without the need for an operator
BY SCOTT GARVEY
T
he number of orchard
and vineyard workers
in Europe may be set
to drastically decline
in the near future if the Cäser
“fruit robot” becomes popular. Cäser is a small, totally
autonomous robot designed
specifically to perfrom typical
orchard and vineyard chores.
And the significance of this
machine hitting the market stretches well beyond just
interesting orchard operators.
All farmers may want to take
notice, because Cäser’s market
introduction is an important
milestone. It pushes the idea of
employing self-contained field
robots in all agriculture sectors
another step forward.
Developed by a consortium of
private firms and the Technical
University of Dresden, Germany,
along with funding from the
European Union and Germany’s
Free State of Saxony, Cäser is
being introduced to the marketplace by Raussendorf Machine
and Equipment Manufacturing.
But it comes with a hefty 85,000
Euro price tag (about $122,400).
“It’s completely autonomous
said Dr. Klaus Weidig, business manager for Raussendorf,
speaking in German. “It’s now
available for sale. But it’s only
available in Europe.” Although
he acknowledged the company
might consider shipping to an
overseas buyer if asked.
Guided by GPS with an RTK
correction signal, Cäser can
make its way along a predermined path through an orchard
or vineyard performing a variety of tasks, such as fertilizing, tillage or grounds care and
transporting. The little robot
has four-wheel steering and is
equipped with a PTO drive and
hitch likage, which enables it to
use some standard implements.
Under the hood, Cäser has a 65
horsepower Kubota engine.
If Cäser encounters an unexpected obstruction, it has an
emergency stop feature built in.
For safety reasons, after encountering an obstacle it must be
manually restarted. The company
recommends any staff working
in the area should receive special
training to ensure Cäser isn’t a
hazard to them, and they don’t
interfere with its operation.
It also has an impressive load
capacity, capable of hauling up
to 2,500 kilograms. The robot’s
flat top is designed to carry
standard-sized orchard crates of
fruit or grapes, moving up to
four loaded ones at a time. “It
loads itself, then unloads the
crates onto a special receiving
platform,” said Weidig. It can
carry up to 15 empty crates and
position them at predetermined
spots.
The onboard computer also
maintains a continuous radio
link between Cäser and a base
station or other mobile communication device, reporting its
location and operating status
so a manager can constantly
monitor it. †
Scott Garvey is machinery editor at Grainews.
Contact him at [email protected].
PHOTOS: SCOTT GARVEY
Cäser the “fruit robot” is a completely autonomous machine designed to travel predetermined routes through a field and perform a variety of tasks.
The robot is equipped with PTO drive and a hitch, which makes it possible to attach some standard field implements.
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28
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Machinery & Shop
Agritechnica coverage
Electric implement drives still
appearing at Agritechnica
Manufacturers have been showing concept machines equipped with electric
implement control at the show since 2009. This year was no exception
By Scott Garvey
A
side from displaying new, market-ready
machines, some manufacturers again used
Germany’s Agritechnica machinery show to provide a glimpse
into the engineering future.
Tractors and equipment designed
to use high-voltage electricity to
power implement drives instead
of traditional PTO or hydraulic
systems have been appearing at
the event since 2009. There were
more concept machines advanc-
ing that technology on display
again this year.
But because this is an emerging
technology in agricultural equipment, electric drive standards for
implements have still not been
firmly established. When John
Deere introduced its two marketready 6RE tractor models at the
2011 show, they were designed to
supply 480 volt power.
The Agricultural Industry
Electronics Foundation (AEF),
which is made up of engineering
representatives from most manufacturers with a stake in electri-
cal technology development, has
been working to develop standards so the industry can really
begin to move forward on the
high-voltage drive front. “The
idea behind this is that the electric
motors on all standard attached
machines should be compatible
with every model of tractor, and
the only limitation should be
the output data of the tractor
engine,” reads the AEF’s official
explanation of the project.
Once standards have been
set, we’re likely to see more
manufacturers release market-
ready, electric-drive equipment
— or at least introduce concept
machines. So far, however, AEF
has not officially announced it
has established a standard agreed
to by all the major manufacturers.
Despite that, AGCO’s Fendt
brand jumped into the electric
drive arena this year, debuting its “X Concept” tractor at
Agritechnica. Still only a concept machine, the Fendt comes
equipped with a 700 volt DC
implement drive outlet on the
rear.
It is now widely expected that
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fordetails.
700 volt DC power is likely to
become the standard.
Powered by a 200 horsepower
diesel engine, the X Concept tractor is capable of supplying 130 kilowatts of power to an implement.
“This is a research study,” said
Benno Pichlmaier, a Fendt engineer, about the X Concept. “It’s
only for advanced engineering.
It will not go into production in
the next years. We are looking
at what are the concepts of the
future. We’re looking to have a
discussion with the implement
manufacturers, because the tractor alone will not improve with
the electrical system.”
Engineers at Fendt have been
working to develop durable electrical systems that could be used in
future tractors if high-voltage implement drive becomes mainstream.
“The generator itself, has been
totally newly developed for agriculture,” Pichlmaier continued.
“In 2001 we started a research
project called MELA. In German
it stands for mobile electric power
drives. So we tried to bring that
technology to mobile machinery.
If you buy a standard electric
motor it will not survive in our
(agricultural) environment. The
result is now the shape and the
technical functionality of that
(tractor’s) generator.”
With the tractor engine revving at 1,600 r.p.m., the newlydesigned generator reaches peak
output capacity to power systems
on an implement.
So far, Fendt is focusing on providing only high-voltage current
through a standard rear outlet.
However, it is possible that the
tractor, if it ever sees production,
could have additional lower voltage outlets capable of running
typical electrical equipment like
power tools, which is a feature
John Deere initially included on
the first electric drive-capable
tractors it introduced at the 2009
Agritechnica show.
“Our strategy is to have one output, which is DC,” said Pichlmaier.
“Currently we are focusing on the
tractor-implement electrification,
not so much to allow welding or
drilling or something. It’s in discussion what (other) possibilities
there are, because some contractors
would be interested in connecting power tools in the field, and
so on. But it’s also a legal issue,
because, for example, in Germany
it’s required to ground the system,
which makes it a little more complicated to provide that.”
A little way down the aisle at
another exhibit, Rauch, a German
company, displayed its high-voltage concept machine: a three-point
hitch mounted fertilizer spreader.
“There are a lot of tractor
manufacturers out there workBy Dan Piraro
Bizarro
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
29
Machinery & Shop
PHOTOS: SCOTT GARVEY
Left: Fendt’s 200 horsepower “X Concept” tractor is designed to provide high-voltage electricity to implements instead of hydraulic fluid flow. Top Right: The plug-in connection at
the rear of the X Concept tractor provides 700 volts of DC power to electric motors on implements. Bottom Right: Heavy-gauge cables transfer high voltage from a tractor’s onboard
generator to the electric drive motors on Rauch’s prototype electric fertilizer spreader.
ing on electric drive systems,”
said Michael Linz, from Rauch’s
electronic development division.
“Currently, we are 100 per cent
compatible to the John Deere
tractors, the 6RE. Our systems (on
the spreader) consist of two direct
drive electric motors. We expect
the tractor system (to provide the)
generator and inverter.”
The spreader is capable of taking power from an outlet that
delivers 130 kilowatts of current,
but it only requires 20 to power
it. “In the industry there will be
implements that need more (than
20 kilowatts),” Linz said. “We
have decided, as an industry, to
have a common connector.”
Join
us at
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Our most exciting event of the year
High-voltage
drives offer
benefits other
systems can’t
match
The current cost of motors and
components for high-voltage
drives in agricultural applications
is quite high, due to the unique
requirements and low volume
demand. “Here we have a functional concept,” explained Linz.
“However, right now we have
quite an issue with the cost of
components.”
In time, however, that cost premium compared to standard PTO
or hydraulic drive systems will
likely disappear when production
numbers increase. And high-voltage drives offer benefits other
systems can’t match, particularly
lower power demands that reduce
operating costs.
“If you compare the electric
fertilizer spreader to the hydraulic
one, we have about a 10 per cent
increase in efficiency, which leads
to reduced fuel consumption in
the tractor,” he continued. “We
see, also, improvements in the
distribution of the fertilizer. We
need quite exact disc speed. We
can get that with electric drive.”
Linz believes electric drive for
implements will become the
dominant system in the future.
“The only question is, how long
will it take,” he said. †
Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.
Contact him at [email protected].
Rick Hansen
Michelle Painchaud
Greg Johnson
Man in Motion and Spinal
Cord Research Crusader
Ag Management Expert
Tornado Hunter
Regina
Saskatoon
January 21
February 27
Register now at fcc.ca/forums
30
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Machinery & Shop
Agritechnica coverage
Merlo introduces a
hybrid telehandler
The Italian manufacturer takes home a gold Innovations
Award for its industry-first, diesel-electric hybrid
By Scott Garvey
B
eating out a field of 393
entrants vying for an
Innovation Award at
Germany’s Agritechnica
in November, Merlo’s Turbofarmer
40.7 Hybrid telehandler was one
of only four products deemed worthy of a gold medal, the show’s
highest engineering accolade.
The company’s president,
Amilcare Merlo, made an emotional acceptance speech during the medal presentations at
a special evening event during
Agritechnica week. “It’s very
special for us (as an Italian company) to win an award like this
in Germany,” he said through
an interpreter. “That makes it
worth double.”
Merlo is no stranger to coming
up with engineering firsts. In 1987
it patented the low-slung, centremounted cab, which increased
overall telehandler stability and
has since become the industry
standard.
With the introduction of the
40.7, Merlo becomes the first
company to produce a dieselelectric telehandler, making it
one of a very few hybrid farm
machines of any kind to hit
the market so far. According to
Amilcare, it’s a direct result of the
family-owned company’s ongoing R&D program that has an
annual budget equal to eight per
cent of the firm’s turnover.
“The Hybrid 40.7 is one of the
successful results of the Merlo
strategy that aims at producing
innovative products for a future
photo: scott garvey
The Merlo Turbofarmer 40.7 Hybrid is the first telehandler to use dieselelectric hybrid technology.
that will go beyond fossil fuels,”
reads a corporate publication
outlining the features of the new
machine.
In a press release, the company
acknowledged that the 40.7 was
developed by Merlo engineers
in
collaboration
with
the
Department of Aerospace and
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Mechanical Engineering at the
Turin Engineering Institute in
Italy. “This success is the result
of many years of collaboration
between the Merlo SPA and the
research group coordinated by
Prof. Aurelio Soma,” it reads.
Back at the exhibit hall following Amilcare’s passionate speech
the night before, product reps
were still a bit protective of any
engineering secrets incorporated
into the 40.7, preferring not to
open any panels and let a nosy
Canadian editor snap pictures of
the “modular” components. (The
company claims their modular
approach will allow the hybrid
system to be quickly incorporated
into other models.) But they were
willing to talk about some of the
40.7’s specifications.
Using a pack of lithium batteries rated at 30 kilowatt hours, the
40.7 can operate for a maximum
of two hours on only electric
power. That allows it to operate
inside closed buildings without
added ventilation or where quiet
operation is important. It can
also go for four hours in “Eco”
mode, relying on some diesel
engine use.
Powering the 40.7 is a 75 horsepower, four cylinder diesel engine,
which is much smaller than the
engines typically found in standard telehandlers of the same
capacity. But the company claims
it can still deliver performance
equal to those machines using
larger engines.
The small diesel runs a generator
that provides current to the electric traction motor, which delivers
torque to the axles through a twospeed mechanical transmission
capable of a 40 km/h. road speed.
In hybrid mode the engine can be
set to run at a fixed 1,200 or 1,800
r.p.m. to power the generator for
machine use and recharge the battery pack at the same time. When
working with the engine running,
the company claims the hybrid
operation allows for a 30 per cent
savings in fuel consumption.
The battery pack can also be
recharged from an outlet by plugging in the machine when not
in use.
The 40.7 has a maximum load
rating of 4,000 kilograms with
a lift height of 7.1 metres, and
it can extend that load forward
3.7 metres.
There is also a more comfortable, redesigned cab that has an
interior width of 1.01 metres. And
the door is 87 centimetres wide
for easy access. An operator can
control the shuttle function using
the right-side joystick or through
duplicate controls at the steering
wheel. A new dual-zone HVAC
system keeps the cab temperature
even and comfortable. †
Scott Garvey is machinery editor for Grainews.
Contact him at [email protected].
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
31
Home Quarter Farm Life
SEEDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT
Making sense of 2013 to plan for 2014
How are you planning to stand out in 2014 and make a difference in the world?
back) that tends to limit either
my accomplishments or my being
who I most genuinely am.
This resistance looks and feels
like…
ELAINE
FROESE
T
5. The seven to eight most
deeply held beliefs or core values
that I want to live by in the next
year are…
You might like to choose a
theme word for 2014. My word
for 2013 was “beloved.” In the
past I have chosen courage, hope,
joy, pacing and generosity. Find
a smooth stone and write your
theme word on the rock with a
Sharpie marker. You’ll be amazed
how many times in the upcoming
year you can affirm that you have
chosen the right theme for 2014.
Words are powerful. Pay attention
to the one that grabs your heart
and soul for 2014.
he calendar may say
that it’s a new year, but
my new year was a few
months ago in September.
I always feel that “going back to
school time” is really the start of
my new learning season. But alas,
you have bright, shiny new calendars on your office, shop and
kitchen walls, so as you are taking
down last year’s calendars, and
reviewing your 2013 diary or journal, take some time for reflection.
1. What do I remember and
value from my past year? I need
to list the accomplishments that
I deem most noteworthy:
My disappointments from that
same time frame are…
6. What are at least two
goals for each of the roles I live
in for 2014?
• My personal physical,
mental, emotional and
spiritual well-being and
growth… self-care.
• My family… marriage/
partners and children.
• My friends…
• My work…
• My neighbourhood or closest
community…
• My world.
2. I learned from what I did
accomplish that:
I also learned from what I did
not accomplish that…
3. If I reframe my learnings
into counsel for the coming year,
I hear myself advising…
4. Boulders: I notice that I experience a definite resistance (push-
7. What are my top seven to
eight goals for next year out of all
of the goals listed in No. 6?
Who am I willing to share this
with in order to be accountable
and responsible in achieving
them? How will I keep track of
my progress? Can I write them
on a colourful paper for the
office wall?
We all lead very
“busy” full lives,
but we all make
choices to commit
to what is really
important
Congratulate yourself for your
thoughtful work
There is power in your pencil and pen. I know that many
of the “next gen” use thumbs
instead of pencils, but whatever works, use it. Studies have
shown that folks who write
their thoughts out in journals live longer. There is also
research that shows the success
rate of those who commit goals
to paper or computer are more
likely to hit the marks and targets they set.
Many farm families tell me
that they just want “a happy
family,” they want harmony and
time to hang out together as
family. OK, what does that look
like in practice? Set some weekends aside now for fun at the
lake, either in the snow, or in the
summer with the boat, canoe,
kayak, or wiener sticks!
Decide who is hosting the
next gathering and block out
the dates early. We all lead very
“busy” full lives, but we all make
choices to commit to what is
really important.
I am writing this in a hotel
overlooking the seawall near
Stanley Park in Vancouver in
early December where the sun
is creating an orange glow on
the water as the float planes
take off from the harbour. The
joggers and dog walkers are out
and about getting their morning exercise. Two houseboats,
one bright red, one bright yellow stand out amidst the 100
white sailboats in the marina.
How are you planning to “stand
out” in 2014 and make a difference in your world? The glassladen skyscrapers are not unlike
tall Prairie elevators, except they
are jammed together on expensive waterfront real estate. I am
thankful for the quiet solitude
here, but more grateful for the
privacy and space of a thriving
Prairie farm. A blanket keeps
the winter chill off as I craft
encouragement to you. My goal
for 2014 is to continue to cherish family and relationships,
since intimacy and friendship
are two of my top six values. I
know this to be true as I have
a Value Styles Indicator assessment that I use with myself and
my farm family clients. If you
would like more clarity about
the different beliefs or common
values that are driving your farm
team, contact me, and I’ll set
up the assessment for your farm
team, online. Conflict is fuelled
when the values you embrace
are not honoured in your farm
workplace. Perhaps the tension triggers you are experiencing are a result of messed-up or
incongruent value expectations.
Make sure that your goals align
with what you truly value and
cherish, then your chances of
success in hitting your targets
and achieving your goals will be
greatly enhanced. †
Elaine Froese, CAFA, CHICoach is a catalyst
for courageous conversations in coaching
farm families and from the podium. Watch
for her next book “Farming’s In-Law Factor”
due out this year. Visit www.elainefroese.
com for more common-sense practical tools
for your farm family’s success. Share your
stories at [email protected], or call
1-866-848-8311.
EXTENDED OUTLOOK FOR THE PRAIRIES
Weather Forecast for the period of January 5 to February 1, 2014
Southern Alberta
Peace River Region
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
Jan 5 - 11
Cold and clear on many days with
flurries, but slight warming in the
southwest brings snow and
drifting.
Jan 5 - 11
Cold and clear on many days with
flurries, but slight warming in the
southwest brings snow and
drifting.
Jan 5 - 11
Often settled and cold apart from
scattered light snow on 1 to 2
days this week. Some drifting or
blowing in the south.
Jan 5 - 11
Fair and cold on most days in the
south this week, apart from light
snow and drifting on 1 to 2 days.
Clear and very cold in the north.
Jan. 12 - 18
Fair and cold weather dominates,
except for a few days of milder
temperatures and some snow in
the south.
Jan. 12 - 18
Fair and cold weather dominates,
except for a few days of milder
temperatures and some snow in
the south.
Jan. 12 - 18
Cold, clear conditions dominate, but
minor warming in the south brings
light snow and blowing snow at times.
Jan. 12 - 18
Cold, fair with high windchills, but
slight warming in the south
results in scattered snow and
drifting on a couple of days.
Jan. 19 - 25
Mainly fair but cold with higher
windchills. Blustery at times. Light
snow and blowing on a couple of
days in the south. Clear and very
cold.
Jan. 19 - 25
Mainly fair but cold with higher
windchills. Blustery at times. Light
snow and blowing on a couple of
days in the south.
Jan. 26 - Feb. 1
Fair and cold overall but expect
scattered snow and some blowing
in the south on 1 or 2 days this
week.
Jan. 26 - Feb. 1
Fair and cold overall but expect
scattered snow and some blowing
in the south on 1 or 2 days this
week. Mostly settled and very cold.
-19 / -8
Grande Prairie
32.7 mms
Jan. 26 - Feb. 1
Temperatures remain on the cold side
with higher windchills. Fair apart
from snow and drifting from time
to time in southern areas.
Blustery.
Jan. 19 - 25
Temperatures on the cold side with
a few higher windchills. Blustery at
times with some drifting. Light snow
occurs on a couple of occasions.
Jan. 26 - Feb. 1
Fair skies on several days this
week apart from some light snow
and drifting on 1 or 2 days. Cold
temperatures with a few high
windchills.
Precipitation Forecast
-18 / -7
Edmonton
23.3 mms
-14 / -3
Jasper
31.1 mms
ABOVE
NORMAL
-13 / -2
31.0 mms
Banff
-21 / -10
North Battleford
-18 / -6
Red Deer
20.7 mms
-14 / -2
Calgary
Forecasts should be 80%
accurate, but expect
variations by a day or two
because of changeable
speed of weather systems.
Jan. 19 - 25
Fair and cold in the south but with
light snow and blowing on a
couple of days. High windchills at
times. Bitterly cold and mainly
clear in the north.
12.2 mms
-15 / -3
Medicine Hat
19mms
cms
Lethbridge 17.3
20.3 mms
26 cms
-13 / -2
-25 / -12
Prince Albert
18.4 mms
-21 / -11
Saskatoon
15.9 mms
15.4 mms
-25 / -14
The Pas
18.0 mms
NEAR
NORMAL
-22 / -11
Yorkton
-22 / -11
Dauphin
-24 / -13
-21 / -10 21.2 mms 19.3 mms
Gimli
-19 / -8 Regina
-18 / -8 Moose Jaw 14.7 mms
25.1 mms
Swift 17.7 mms
-21 / -11
-23 / -12 Portage -23 / -12
Current
-20 / -9
Brandon 23.8 mms Winnipeg
20.0 mms
Weyburn
18.4 mms
19.3 mms
17.2 mms -19 / -9
Estevan Melita -23 / -10
18.8 mms
19.2 mms
Precipitation Outlook
For January
Much Above Normal Below Much
above normal
normal below
normal
normal
Temperatures are normals
for February 1st averaged
over 30 years.
Precipitation
(water equivalent)
normals for Jan. in mms.
©2014 WeatherTec Services
www.weathertec.mb.ca
32
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Home Quarter Farm Life
POSTCARDS FROM THE PRAIRIES
Life’s secrets,
according to you…
People of the world, tell me this — what’s the most
embarrassing thing you’ve ever done? Part One
JANITA
VAN DE VELDE
I
share this story for one (or
both) of the following reasons:
It makes me out to be classy
and sophisticated. Obviously.
In case you happen to be having
a crappy day my hopes are that
this will make you laugh.
Now where were we? Oh, right.
The chairlift incident… it still
gives me the shivers when I think
about it. I don’t even feel safe
writing this, however, in the spirit
of full disclosure when it comes
to one of my several thousand
most embarrassing stories, here
goes. It happened during my third
year at university, when about
10 of us decided to head down
to Whitefish, Montana for spring
break. I don’t ski all that often (or
well) but the thought of a vacation at a mountain resort sounded
appealing.
Once there, we promptly agreed
that it was far too cold to actually ski, not to mention the effort
required, so we buckled down in
our rental chalet and started to
play a drinking game. The game
itself was easy. Or so I thought.
There was a deck of cards and you
had to guess whether the card
being flipped would be a black
suit or a red suit. Not exactly
a mind bender. (Hey, we were
aggies!) If you guessed wrong, you
had to take a sip from your beverage. Active listening not being
one of my core strengths, I was
downing my entire drink each
time, rather than taking just one
sip. For the record, I don’t recall
anyone mentioning the “one-sip”
point during the initial reading
of the rules. Regardless, in a disastrously short period of time,
I ingested copious amounts of
alcohol and retired from the game
rather early, finding comfort and
solace face down in an empty
pizza box.
The next day, disastrously weary
but determined, we got up and hit
the slopes, ready to exercise and
sweat out the alcohol. Truthfully,
I felt like death warmed up, however I put on a brave face for the
crew. I even attempted to hit a
few jumps on the way down to
see if I looked anywhere near as
cool as the Olympians on television. (Reports gathered much later
indicated that a three-legged mule
strapped to plywood would have
appeared more graceful. See photo.
Does it bear mentioning that this
landing didn’t go well? )
Here forthwith, are the most
embarrassing things you’ve ever
done. Part One
Grade 7 social studies class. I
asked my teacher during class how
dinosaurs had sex. He was literally
speechless. I wanted to die.
Tough one. Getting into the
wrong vehicle at the end of the
day to go home. My husband was
picking me up, I saw a blue van
just like ours and walked right
from the office building into that
van and sat down, only to realize
it wasn’t my van! The guy driving
was pretty shocked too. I just got
out and ran in the other direction.
Not recognizing someone I
really should have known! Yikes,
that was bad, especially when she
looked the same!
Hmm… puking in a restaurant
in front of my new boss, and him
trying to catch it all in a wineglass.
That, or falling down a flight of
stairs in my gown at the reception for my university graduation.
Good times, proud moments.
I had a girlfriend from out of
town once when I was 20, and
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In high school I had an enormous crush on a boy in a grade
above me and (for whatever reason) he put my winter coat on and
then proceeded to put his hands in
the pocket, only to pull out a maxi
pad! He screamed like a girl and
threw it halfway across the school.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been the
one who was embarrassed, but I
was. Something about boys, high
school and having your period was
pretty damn embarrassing.
I try not to remember the
embarrassing stuff. Kind of like it
didn’t happen then, right?
CYFF
2014
REGISTRATION
brought her home on a weekend
my parents were away. She was
there when they got home on
Sunday and I thought it would be
a good time for them to meet one
another. Big mistake. To them, I
was sneaking around behind their
back. It was a very humiliating
and stupid judgment on my part.
It coloured their relationship with
her from that point onward.
Standing on stage at high school
assembly in Grade 12 leading a
“sing-along.” I can’t sing!
Doing something too inappropriate when I was drunk. I could
probably make that plural.
Where would I even begin?!
When
backpacking
around
Europe, my friend and I had
BY DAN PIRARO
Bizarro
our belongings stolen while we
were suntanning on the beach in
Barcelona (ahem, topless). Luckily,
I was using my (very) mini daypack as a pillow at the time, which
at least helped with a tiny little bit
of coverage as I walked all the way
up La Rambla wearing nothing but
my bikini bottoms, and doing my
best to cover my critical parts with
my hands!
Ha, I never get embarrassed.
There are a lot, but one that
stands out is when I was at a
4-H speech contest. My topic was
suicide (quite a heavy topic for a
kid in Grade 8) but it was a good
speech. I was so nervous when I
got up to the podium to speak,
the first thing that came out of my
mouth was, “I am going to laugh,”
then proceeded with my not-toosunny speech. Needless to say, I
did not get first.
This is one of those things I
can’t bring myself to talk about.
Got really intoxicated at a concert we drove seven hours to get to.
Climbing up the tree faster than
everyone, being suddenly overcome with the urge to urinate
from above, then being caught
doing so by my father.
When my kid wanted to leave
church and I kept whispering to
him, “Not yet, honey. Father isn’t
finished.” He kept asking if it was
time to go, and I kept repeating
the same thing to him over and
over, until finally he turned to the
front of the church and shouted
out, “Just shut up, Father!” In
his defence, it was a rather long
sermon. †
Janita Van de Velde grew up on a farm near
Mariapolis, Man. She holds a bachelor of
science degree in agricultural economics
from the University of Manitoba, and has
worked for a financial institution since
graduating. She lives in Regina, Sask., with
her husband Roddy and their children Jack,
Isla and James. Her first novel, Postcards
Never Written, was the recipient of the
Saskatchewan Reader’s Choice Award and
also listed by CBC as one of the top funny
books in 2009. She donates a portion of
proceeds from the sale of her book to World
Vision to help those less fortunate. For more
information, or to order her book, visit her
website at www.janita.ca.
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
33
Home Quarter Farm Life
Playing with clay
Retired farm woman creates lifelike clay figures
BY EDNA MANNING
S
andy Christensen’s handbuilt clay figures speak of
the diversity of personalities and stories in the characters she portrays. “Clay and clay
people have been a lifetime passion. I try to honour their strength
and quiet humour,” she says.
Growing up on a farm near
Young, Saskatchewan, Christensen
spent many enjoyable hours drawing, or building projects with the
clay dug out of the ditch banks
near the family home.
After high school she obtained
her education degree from the
University of Saskatchewan and
taught for five years in her local
school unit towns before settling
down to full-time farming with
her husband Ray. The couple
raised cattle for a few years before
shifting to grain only, which
included canola, peas and flax.
“Ray was a good farmer — he
could produce the basics really
well. We had a very good farm
life,” she said.
During those years on the farm
raising their three children —
Dan, David and Colleen, driving the grain truck and managing the home, Christensen also
found time to play with clay.
She connected with another
farm woman, Linda Teneycke, a
ceramic artist, and joined others
to get the local arts community
up and running.
“If it hadn’t been for her
leadership — someone with so
many fresh ideas, we might not
have gotten going nor sustained
things because people often try
out a craft and move on to the
next one. We started with small
sales that brought the whole
community out and managed
to raise enough money to purchase two wheels and a kiln,”
Christensen says.
Although primarily selftaught, in 1995 she took a class
in Watrous from a lady who also
made clay figures. “She gave
me some good ideas including
how to prop up a figure when
you put it in the kiln so it
won’t tip, warp or slump,” said
Christensen.
Over the years she developed
her own style which includes
leaving the clay figures unpainted. After the first firing she simply
rubs in a glaze and gives the figure another firing to produce the
antique look, reminiscent of farm
life. “Farming to me is brown,
and earth tones,” she says.
About this time the newly
opened gift shop at Manitou
Beach Mineral Spa was promoting
Saskatchewan arts and crafts and
the owner loved her hand-built
clay figures. Christensen also
shipped items to the Crafty Bears
Gift Shop in Moose Jaw, and in
2012 her work was accredited by
the Saskatchewan Craft Council.
Sales and marketing, Christensen
says, are the most difficult for her.
“Obviously the thought is that
we should value our work, but I’d
rather sell something for less if the
client comes to my door, and I
don’t have to box and mail it.
“In the past, people wanted to
buy a farmer or a fisherman or a
nurse because they had someone
in mind. Today they’re attracted to
something that has an expression
or an interaction that appeals to
them. So I’m spending more time
on the faces — I decide what I’m
trying to portray and get the faces
ready. Then I do the bodies and
get them interacting together. For
commissioned pieces I like to work
from photographs, but I also like
to hear stories so I have an idea of
the individual’s personality.”
The couple retired from farming in 2007 and moved to
Watrous. When her husband
Ray passed away in 2010, Sandy
was grateful for her artwork. “It
was really helpful to have something that just made the time
pass. Clay was a big comfort
along with the community and
family support — it all eased the
grieving process.”
What is it about clay that appeals
to her? “Clay is so malleable —
it can be squeezed into endless
shapes. I love the tactile feel of
it in my hands. I also enjoy the
three-dimensional aspect of working with clay.”
In using the human form,
Christensen wants her figures
to be more than just realisticlooking farmers. “I want them to
convey feeling and interest; to tell
a story; to be happy. That makes
me happy,” she says.
Sandy Christensen can be contacted at 306-946-3399 or email
[email protected]. †
photos: edna manning
Top: Sandy
Christensen with
some of her clay
figures. Left: The figures are
meant to be not
only lifelike but to
also convey feeling
and interest.
Edna Manning writes from Saskatoon, Sask.
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/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Home Quarter Farm Life
SINGING GARDENER
Travel down Tomato Trail with Ted
Plus, how do you handle your tomato issues?
TED
MESEYTON
Well howdy gardeners howdy
come listen to this tale,
Let’s take a saunter down along
Tomato Trail,
The greenhouse and the garden
are places set apart,
To learn from one another and
share tomato talk.
D
oes that sound a bit like
a spoken jingle when
you read it out loud?
Use your imagination
for a moment. Let’s pretend we’ve
gathered together in the greenhouse where it’s nice and warm and
are enjoying a cup of energy tea.
You’ve caught me sippin’ on a cup
of energizing organic Cardamom
Chai loose-leaf tea that I bought
at Scoop and Save. It’s good stuff
in my opinion. Ingredients such
as green yerba maté, cinnamon,
cardamom,
nutmeg,
ginger,
clove, chicory and black pepper
are blended by Common Sense
Natural Products in Winnipeg —
phone (204) 237-7909.
ON NEW YEAR’S EVE
… I sang “Happy New Year All”
to a neighbour down the street
who made wine with grapes I
grew. We toasted one another, had
a slice of Christmas cake and then
I sang my tomato song — “O It
Must Be the Tomatoes.” It’s my
musical approach to promoting
prostate awareness, health and
wellness among menfolk and a
clue to the direction I’m headed
with this first Singing Gardener
page for 2014.
A REMINDER TO ALL MEN
Please be certain to get your
prostate checked once you’ve hit
the age of 45 or 50. Most men
don’t think about their prostate
until they begin to experience
symptoms such as an urgent need
to pee and frequent urinary visits to the bathroom. These can
be telltale signs of an enlarged
prostate (BPH benign prostatic
hyperplasia) or prostatitis (an
inflamed prostate). Both are common conditions affecting many
older fellas. Prostate health may
also be connected to other issues
too such as fertility and erectile
dysfunction. Approximately one
in three guys over age 45 has or
will have prostate problems to
some degree in their lifetime. Let
your doctor guide you if you’re in
the age bracket indicated, or show
symptoms.
A WELL-BALANCED DIET
… goes a long way to maintaining a healthy prostate and should
include four to five servings of
home-canned and stewed tomatoes weekly. Cooked tomatoes
release a lot more antioxidants
including lycopene from under
the skin, than do raw tomatoes. As
a bonus just before serving stir in a
few drops of canola, flax, almond,
walnut or hemp seed oil.
EXCERPTS FROM AN EMAIL
Tom Stewart and his wife Esther
live near Mervin, Sask. Tom writes:
What causes tomatoes with white
streaks and tomatoes that don’t
ripen properly? They have a hard
white core through the middle.
The flavour is diminished, somewhat like store-bought unripe
tomatoes. They were grown in the
greenhouse and most have turned
out this way. Tomatoes grown in
the garden were OK. Wondered
if it was a disease or a nutrient
deficiency? I would like to hear
your thoughts on it. Please see
the pictures attached. I noticed
the leaves had a lot of spots on
them. Also it seemed to take a
long time for the fruit to set. The
plants were Early Girl. A cherrytype tomato (Super Sweet 100s)
was not affected with the problem. Of curiosity we have had at
times seeds that sprouted inside
the tomato and wondered why?
We live on a farm near Mervin,
Saskatchewan, about an hour NW
of North Battleford.
Ted’s response: As much as
Canadians love tomatoes, these
bold fruits of the vine are not
native to Canada and have been
described as the “Shivering
Immigrant.” Tomato plants love
heat and trace their family tree
to hot weather and long grow-
ing seasons of Central and South
America. Our goal is to try and
provide similar conditions as best
we can with growing sites that
are sheltered, consistently hot and
sunny during the day and warm at
night. A constant airflow circulating among tomato plants allows
foliage to dry off quickly after
rainfall and is critical in preventing diseases.
In addition, a couple inches of
wood chips mulch spread over
the entire area and around each
tomato plant retains moisture and
cuts down on need for watering.
Wood chips are a good investment and can be raked off into a
pile at season’s end for future use.
Less expensive mulching can also
be achieved by spreading several
thicknesses of newspaper over soil
and placing dry grass clippings or
oat straw on top.
PHOTOS: TOM STEWART
DO YOU EVER FEEL STRESSED?
Well so do tomatoes. Avoid
planting them out too soon. They
dislike extreme variables between
daytime and night temperatures.
Fluctuations in temps. and weather extremes disturb a tomato’s ripening process leaving fruits susceptible to uneven ripening and
developing hard central cores.
For example, it may hit 21 C or
higher during daytime in May.
When the overnight temperature
drops below 15 C tomato problems are almost a guarantee. Wait
until early to mid-June. Inside a
greenhouse it can be 10 C hotter
than outside leading to stickiness,
stagnant air and poor ventilation.
A greenhouse without roof vents
can be shaded with heavy dark
material. Prop doors and windows
open and keep one or more fans
going inside to allow constant airflow. Stressful weather and variable temps. contribute to fibrous
tissue and not much tomato flavour. Interior seeds can sprout
as a result of cool or hot soil
and moisture stress. When growing conditions are challenged,
Mother Nature prompts a tomato
into survival mode causing seeds
to germinate.
Tomato transplants need a week
or 10 days to settle into their
outdoor garden home. Side dressings of high-quality compost and
organic matter are essential to
A reader asks — What causes these tomatoes to not ripen properly? They
have a hard white core and white streaks through the middle and flavour
is diminished. Read what The Singing Gardener has to say.
maintain a fortress of healthy soil
microbes. Feed plants once with
all-purpose organic tomato plant
food, fish emulsion or seaweed
during the first month and in
moderation thereafter.
If you have sufficient space, focus
on growing early-, mid-season and
late-ripening tomatoes and varieties well adapted to your region.
Keep a record and discontinue
those that don’t meet expectations.
Among tomatoes shown to resist
white cores are: Better Boy, Big Beef,
Carnival, Celebrity, Champion,
Daybreak, Mountain Fresh,
Mountain Princess, Mountain
Spring, Northern Exposure, Primo
Red and Tasti-Lee. Slicers and
juicy varieties include: Break O’
Day, Charlie’s Red Staker, Earliana,
Heartland, Matchless, Pritchard’s
Scarlet Topper, Sasha’s Altai, Sioux,
Stone, Stupice and Valiant.
I, TED, ASKED GARDENER AL
... how his greenhouse tomatoes did this past summer and he
responded: “Not worth a darn. It
got too hot inside and there was
no aeration. Good air movement
is something they don’t get in the
greenhouse where high humidity and dampness on foliage can
lead to problems and blights.
Tomatoes grow faster and better
outside when roots can spread
out and temperatures suit them
better. I wasn’t happy at all with
Celebrity and Manitoba growing
in the greenhouse but they sure
did well out in the garden along
with Big Boy, Bush Beefsteak and
Star Fire.”
To Grainews readers… How do
you handle tomato issues? You’re
welcome to pitch in and let us
know. †
This is Ted Meseyton the Singing Gardener
and Grow-It Poet from Portage la Prairie, Man.
There is so much more to tell about tomatoes.
The subject simply can’t be adequately
covered here today, so I’ll continue on the
Tomato Trail next time. Also remember, I
garden for food, fun and recreation. Come and
join me all you men ’cross the nation, Cause
we guys sure don’t need aggravation, Give
the prostate a little help and appreciation. My
email address is [email protected].
SUE
ARMSTRONG
LOVE HEARING
FROM YOU
Do you have a story about a
farm or home-based business?
How about some household
management tips? Does
someone in the family have a
special-diet need? Share some
of your meal ideas.
Send them to FarmLife,
1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg,
Man. R3H 0H1. Phone 1-800665-0502 or email susan@
fbcpublishing.com. Please
remember we can no longer
return photos or material. †
Sue Armstrong
These leaves on a greenhouse-grown tomato plant are letting the
gardener know that something isn’t just right. The problem appears
to be septoria leaf spot, a fungus that begins as yellow dots that
quickly turns into brown zones surrounded by yellow halos. Infected
leaves turn completely brown, collapse, dry up and should be
removed at once to prevent spread of the disease. Such plants must
never be taken to the outdoor tomato garden. Some best choices for
greenhouse growing are Buffalo, Caruso and Cobra.
Shown are tomatoes with greenish-yellow shoulders instead of a solid red.
It’s called ‘tomato yellow shoulder disorder’ and is associated with adverse
weather and cultural practices. It’s natural for some varieties including
hybrids, old-timer, heirloom and heritage tomatoes to have ridges, stripes,
green cheeks and other unusual markings. What they lack in appearance
is often compensated for by true tomato taste. Note the recessed brown
bacterial spots on the tomato at forefront (right side) that become scablike. Severity increases when fruits and foliage are exposed to wetness.
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
35
Cattleman’s Corner
RISK MANAGEMENT
Is price insurance
coming to Manitoba?
Early January producer meetings are planned
to discuss beef and hog insurance options
BY ANGELA LOVELL
P
rice insurance for livestock will be one of the
items of discussion at a
series of meetings across
Manitoba as part of the 2014
Manitoba Beef and Forage Days
program.
Alberta has had livestock
price insurance programs for a
number of years and discussions
have been underway for some
time about expanding these programs to the rest of Western
Canada. In the throne speech in
November the Manitoba provincial government repeated a commitment to introduce livestock
price insurance.
At the meetings in January,
Murray Flaten, policy economist
with Manitoba Agriculture, Food
and Rural Development, will discuss how the Alberta livestock
insurance programs work, the
risks they cover and how livestock
producers can use them as part
of a risk management strategy,
and how this type of insurance
might apply if it were extended
to Manitoba.
Alberta offers two options for
livestock price insurance; a cattle
price insurance program (CPIP)
and a hog price insurance program (HPIP), both administered
through the Alberta Financial
Services Corporation (AFSC).
The first program of its kind
in Canada, CPIP offers producers
a range of coverage and policy
options that help to manage price
risk by providing a floor price on
cattle, says the AFSC website.
Each of the CPIP products is
designed to be market driven,
offering coverage based on current market conditions designed
to reflect the risk of a stage in the
beef production cycle.
Under the CPIP program producers can opt for any or all of
three types of insurance. CPIPFed is designed for cattle being
finished in Alberta and is often
purchased by feedlot operations.
Settlements are based on the average Alberta slaughter price. CPIPFeeder is tailored to insure cattle
weighing 750 to 950 pounds at
time of sale and settlement is
based on the average price of an
850-pound steer in Alberta. CPIPCalf is a fairly recent introduction
into the insurance line up which
covers the price risk a cow-calf
producer faces selling 550- to 650calves in the fall.
HPIP offers hog producers
protection against a decline in
Alberta hog prices over a defined
period of time and is based on
the Alberta market. Producers
can choose from a range of
policy lengths and prices that
correspond to a premium cost.
Choosing an insured price provides a floor price that acts as protection against the market being
lower than the insured price for
the month insurance is purchased
for. If the market goes above the
insured price, producers can still
take advantage of the upside and
sell hogs for that higher price.
The program is designed to be
market driven, offering coverage
based on current market conditions. Settlement is based on the
monthly average price of hogs
sold in Alberta.
CPIP and HPIP programs are
designed to offer protection against
three separate risk areas; the futures
price, currency exchange risk and
basis risk, which is the difference
between U.S. and Canadian cattle
prices. The programs are flexible
Early January meetings for Manitoba producers will review how Alberta
handles livestock insurance.
allowing producers to insure
against down side risk if any of
these above factors cause a drop
in the price they receive for their
cattle at time of sale. But, the
coverage also allows producers
to capture any upside potential if
prices are strong.
The Beef and Forage Day meetings will be held January 6th
in Vita, January 7 in Arborg,
January 8 in Ste. Rose, January
9 in Pipestone and January 10 in
Holland from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30
p.m. They will also feature an
update from the Manitoba Beef
Producer’s Association, an “Ask
the Vet’” question and answer
session with Wayne Tomlinson,
MAFRD’s extension veterinarian,
details of the new MASC Forage
Insurance program, a session on
Beef body Condition Scoring,
a beef market update and forecast from Canfax and a Growing
Forward 2 update. Local topics
will include Forage Restoration at
Arborg, conservation districts at
Vita, genomics at Pipestone and
Ste Rose will offer a session on
marketing branding or the impact
of shrink.
For more information visit the
Manitoba Forage and Grassland
Association website at: http://
mfga.net. †
Angela Lovell is a freelance writer based in
Manitou, Manitoba.
THE MARKETS
Cattle market remains sensitive to demand
JERRY
KLASSEN
MARKET
UPDATE
T
he cattle complex ended
the 2013 calendar year
relatively strong. Alberta
packers were buying fed
cattle at the yearly highs of $127/
cwt to $128/cwt as seasonal strong
demand caused AAA wholesale
beef prices to reach $208/cwt,
up over $30/cwt from year-ago
levels. The weaker Canadian dollar
along with lower beef production
resulted in the elevated price
structure.
Feedlot margins have been solidly in black ink over the past month
but break even prices remain relatively high for the first half of
2014. Therefore, the price of feeder
cattle will be heavily influenced by
swings in the fed cattle market. Late
in the year, 760-pound Charolaiscross steers were trading for $160 in
southern Saskatchewan, up nearly
$20/cwt from December of 2012.
Weaker feed grain prices and the
higher fed cattle values were the
main reason for the sharp yearover-year rise in the replacement
cattle prices.
CONSUMER SPENDING
Looking ahead, the cattle market will be sensitive to the beef
demand equation as the market
trades at historically high levels.
Consumers in Canada are con-
tending with record household
debt and inflationary factors are
bound to influence food prices
through 2014. U.S. economy
continues to improve with lower
unemployment levels but consumer spending has been constrained due to limited disposable income. Record U.S. poultry
production will also temper the
upside in retail beef prices as the
average price-conscious consumer
looks to reduce household food
expenditures. Given the current
environment, producers can be
cautiously optimistic for 2014.
Alberta and Saskatchewan
feedlot inventories have been
up approximately eight per cent
this fall. A slowdown in feeder
cattle exports in the first quarter
of 2014 will likely keep cattleon-feed numbers slightly above
2013 in the first half of the year.
Year-to-date Canadian beef production for the week ending Dec.
7 was 918,214 mt, down two per
cent from Dec. 7, 2013. Canadian
beef production is expected to be
540,000 mt during the first half
of 2014, up about 10 per cent
from 2013.
U.S. cattle-on-feed inventories
have been running six per cent
below year-ago levels throughout
the fall and this trend is expected
to continue into spring. However,
U.S. carcass weights are 10 pounds
heavier than last year due to
softer corn values. Overall beef
production in the fourth quarter
of 2013 will come in larger than
earlier anticipated and we could
see further increases for firstquarter 2014 projections. At this
time, first- and second-quarter beef
production for 2014 is expected to
be down from 2013 by 300 and
400 million pounds respectively.
Larger Canadian beef production will result in a year-over-year
increase in beef product exports.
Therefore, fed cattle and wholesale
beef markets will be sensitive to
the volatility in the Canadian dollar. It appears the Bank of Canada
will not increase interest rates in
line with the U.S. Quantitative
easing, a measure used to stimulate spending by the U.S. Federal
Reserve, will cause the Canadian
dollar to weaken compared to the
U.S. greenback. This is one positive factor for the Canadian beef
industry.
Consumer spending is the largest factor influencing beef consumption. U.S. GDP is expected to
increase by 2.6 per cent during the
first and second quarters which
will likely result in a two per cent
year-over-year increase in at-home
and away-from-home food spending. However, the accompanying
chart shows restaurant spending
is quite seasonal. Consumers tend
to stay at home and generally eat
less during the first two months
of year after excessive eating in
December. By March, spring break
and warmer temperatures usually cause people to eat out more
often. At-home and away-fromhome spending usually trends
lower into the summer periods
while overall beef production is
actually increasing. This results in
softer prices for the summer.
Fed cattle prices are expected
to follow a similar pattern to
U.S. FULL SERVICE RESTAURANT SPENDING
22,000
21,000
20,000
19,000
18,000
17,000
16,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
(millions of dollars)
2013
2012
U.S. QUARTERLY BEEF PRODUCTION (MILLION POUNDS)
Quarter
2010
2011
2012
Est 2013
Est 2014
1
6,251
6,411
6,283
6,172
5,875
2
6,547
6,559
6,475
6,517
6,135
3
6,768
6,737
6,584
6,608
6,185
4
6,741
6,492
6,571
6,380
6,010
Total
26,307
26,199
25,913
25,677
24,205
that of U.S. consumer food
spending. I’m expecting softer
values in January and February
and then higher prices in March
and April. The June live cattle
futures are reflecting $5 discount
to the April contract so look for
lower fed cattle prices in the
second quarter.
Feeder cattle prices are expected
to hold value through March and
then start to weaken in line with
the fed cattle market into the
summer. Break even on most pen
closeouts hovers at $123/cwt over
the next four months and if the
fed market starts to fade below this
level, feeder cattle prices will come
under pressure. Barley prices are
expected to weaken through the
winter as burdensome barley and
U.S. corn supplies weigh on the
feed grain complex. †
Gerald Klassen analyses cattle and hog markets
in Winnipeg and also maintains an interest in
the family feedlot in southern Alberta. For
comments or speaking engagements, he can
be reached at [email protected] or call
204 899 8268.
36
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Keepers & Culls
Good food
compliments
great art
LEE
HART
I
have learned over the years
if you want a successful field
day, community meeting or
book launch, serve good food.
Even if the particular message you
went to hear bombs, at least people
aren’t hungry.
So when my wife and I were
greeted at the door of the Home
Quarter Mercantile in Cochrane,
Alta. for a recent book launch with
tasty beef sliders, meat balls and
refreshments — before we could
even take our coats off — I knew
this was going to be a good event.
And then they brought out the
pastry trays and it didn’t matter to
me if we had come to see a crayon
drawing on a napkin I would have
liked the new publication. As a
bonus the new coffee-table book
didn’t disappoint either.
We were attending the launch of
the The Life is Art — A Photographic
Journey of Ranching in Western
Alberta. It is a beautiful coffee table
book by photographer JoAnne
Meeker, capturing the every day art
of life on a working cattle ranch,
the Diamond 7 Ranch, west of
Calgary. You can read more about
it on my blog at www.grainews.ca .
Meeker, who has displayed photographs at the Calgary Stampede
for many years, spent a good part
of a year at the ranch capturing
some great photos of the people,
the animals, the equipment, and
the scenery that are all part of life
on a commercial cattle ranch. Not
every ranch in Western Canada
has the beautiful backdrop of
the Rocky Mountains or grizzly
bears roaming the pastures, but
aside from those specific images,
the book is all about horses, and
cowboys and girls, red and black
PHOTO: CANADIAN ANGUS ASSOCIATION
Angus Association board of directors join for the ribbon cutting of the
new Angus Central office. From left, Kirk Wildman, Dawn Wilson, Cecilie
Fleming, Dave Sibbald, Gary Latimer, Corinne Gibson, Kevin Blair,
Lorraine Sanford, Tammi Ribey, Jon Fox, Lois McRae, Jim Colodey,
David Bolduc and Rob Smith.
CONTACT US
NEW ANGUS OFFICE
Write, E-mail or Fax
After three years of planning and
preparation, the Canadian Angus
Association (CAA) in December
officially opened their first member-owned national headquarters,
Angus Central.
More than 200 Angus members, vendors to the association
and industry partners attended the
official ribbon-cutting by the CAA
board of directors.
“One of the policies that the
boards before us established was a
fund for rainy days or a building,”
said David Bolduc, past president
of the CAA. “I think those people
deserve most of the credit for this
building we now have today. My
board purchased the land for Angus
Central, but without that initial
governance policy to set that money
aside, we wouldn’t be opening this
today. It’s easy to have a vision of
the future when you are standing
on the shoulders’ of titans.”
Junior members along with families representing more than 100
Contact Cattleman’s Corner
with comments, ideas or
suggestions for and on stories
by mail, e-mail, phone or fax.
Phone Lee Hart
at 403-592-1964
Fax to 403-288-3162
Email [email protected]
Write to
CATTLEMAN’S CORNER,
PO Box 71141 Silver Springs
RPO, Calgary, Alta. T3B 5K2
More on the web
those s”
“famou
plainjans.com
Roper
620-872-5777
gloves m: p l a i nj a n s
f ro
The ranch team at Diamond 7 ranch are featured in the Life is Art Book. From left, Ryan Cartwright, Kayla
Cartwright, Ken Boechler, Laura Laing, Connor Cartwright, Anne Peck, Wayne Loree, and Bob McAndrews.
cattle, good cow dogs, barns and
saddles all involved in everyday
ranch work.
Meeker has done a nice job
of the photos and then it is all
put together in a beautiful 100page, glossy, hardbound 11 x 14
book. As a special feature it was
designed with 10 specially finished photos on perforated pages
that can be removed and framed.
If you like western art for your
home, need some corporate gifts,
or a door prize for an upcoming community event, The Life
is Art would be a great choice.
The book can be ordered online
at the Diamond-7 Ranch website
at www.diamond7.com. And if
you want to learn more about the
photographer visit her website at
www.jmeeker.com
Now back to the food… the
Diamond 7 has done a good job
of marketing, all natural, grassraised, grain-finished beef. They
supply meat to some of the finer
restaurants in Calgary, which I
haven’t been too, but if the sliders (mini-hamburgers) are any
indication I wouldn’t hesitate to
order their steak anytime. The
sliders were moist, tender and
flavourful.
Along with the ranch producing nice beef, credit also has to
go Joan Longeway and her crew
at the Home Quarter Mercantile.
They put all the food together for
the event, and produced a great
years of raising Angus cattle were
present representing provinces
coast to coast. The new showcase
of Angus history featured years
of artifacts which make up the
breed’s past, including letters from
the Queen Mother, certificate
seals, decades-old herd books from
more than 100 years ago, and
much more.
Current CAA President Kevin
Blair said the future of the Angus
breed is all about young members
of the association. “Who is going
to bac fill behind the older generation as they retire in the next five
to 10 years?” he said. “I want us to
embrace and encourage our youth
by supporting them financially and
mentally.”
The Canadian Angus Foundation
(CAF) was established in 1992 under
the presidency of Bill Jackson.
Through his leadership, Doug Fee,
past CAA CEO and current CAF
chairman, credits the board for
creating the charitable arm of the
Association.
The Canadian Angus Association
is Canada’s largest purebred
beef breed organization. The
Association represents 3,000 members across Canada for the purposes of registering and recording the
pedigrees of purebred Angus cattle
in the closed Herd Book and promoting the breed across Canada.
The member-approved mandate is
to maintain breed registry, breed
purity and provide services that
enhance the growth and position
of the Angus breed.
short reminder on the value of
testing forages:
Still need convincing that forage
analysis can be a good investment?
Here are three good reasons:
1) Test results provide quick feedback as to how successful you were
in making quality hay. Even with
the Manitoba Green Gold Program
providing information on when to
cut your alfalfa, many times the
weather and other uncontrollable
factors (equipment breakdowns,
etc.) spoil the best intentions.
Forage testing indicates how far
from the goal the hay quality is
and provides some perspective on
how much rain or maturity impacted forage quality. Many times the
results exceed expectations.
2) Identifying high-quality hay
early can help you make storage decisions. If limited shelter is
available, the best hay needs to be
in the driest spot.
3) Correctly matching hay and
cow needs is the most efficient
and least costly method of feeding
cows through the winter. Without
forage analysis, additional feed
can be provided needlessly.
For more information and a
link to the whole newsletter and
other related information visit the
MFGA website at: http://mfga.net
THREE REASONS
TO FORAGE TEST
In the December issue of the
Manitoba Forage and Grassland
e-newsletter, John McGregor,
extension specialist with the
Manitoba Forage and Grassland
Association (MFGA) has this
ANGER MANAGEMENT
Ralph had noticed for sometime that his wife Mary never
seemed to get angry when they
had an argument.
“Whenever I get mad at you,
you never seem to get upset,”
he said. “How do you manage to
control your temper.”
“I just go and clean the toilet,”
replied Mary
“How does that help,” asked
Ralph.
“I use your toothbrush,” Mary
replied. †
selection of pastries to cap off the
main course.
The Home Quarter Mercantile,
right on Cochrane main street
has been around for years. The
Longeways owned it for many
years, then it was under different
management for a while, and now
the Longeways are back running
the business. About two-thirds of
the store is a western clothing and
art gift shop and one-third is pie
shop that serves breakfasts, lunches
and of course, pies.
A great book and great food —
this was definitely a win/win event.
Coming Events
UFA CATTLE COLLEGE
UFA, the farm and ranch
supply and services company
has launched its Cattle College
series for 2013-14.
UFA Cattle College, which
got underway in December and
continues in various locations
in January, brings together a
selection of speakers, including
leaders and experts to discuss
topics of interest in the cattle industry. Each event will
feature guest speakers, presentations and discussion periods. Local beef producers are
invited to take part in an event
in their area and to RSVP to
their local UFA Farm & Ranch
Supply store prior to the event
so adequate seating and food
can be provided.
Although the schedule may
change depending on location, topics for discussion may
include:
• Live Cattle Handling
Demonstration with Curt
Pate — known for his work in
the Robert Redford film The
Horse Whisperer.
• Cattle market outlook.
• Local veterinarian presentation featuring the popular
cow-calf simulator, Lucy & Lou.
• Cattle nutrition
Financing options for your
farm and ranch
The Cattle Colleges will be
held in Spruce Grove, Jan.
14; Aridrie, Jan. 15; Hanna,
Jan. 16; Lethbridge, Jan. 21;
Medicine Hat, Jan. 23; Grande
Prairie Jan. 28 and LeCrete,
Jan. 30. For more information
visit the UFA website at: UFA.
com/CattleColleges. †
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
37
Cattleman’s Corner
ANYONE CAN START FARMING
Prevention is best tool against foot rot
DEBBIE
CHIKOUSKY
F
oot rot in sheep and
goats is caused by a synergistic infection of two
bacteria; Fusobacterium
necrophorum and Dichelobacter
nodosus. It causes much economic
hardship, and is one of the reasons many people caution against
buying animals from unknown
sources, such as through an auction house. Once established on
the farm, the disease is it difficult
to eradicate.
To minimize the risk of introducing it to your farm, any animal
purchased should be quarantined
for several weeks to prevent the
spread of foot rot and other chronic diseases.
During the quarantine, the
animal’s feet should be trimmed
and examined closely for pockets
and other malformations that
suggest a previous D. nodosus
infection. Vehicles such as trucks
and trailers or facilities in which
unknown or infected animals
have been held should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected
before placing uninfected animals in them. If it is not possible
to thoroughly disinfect transport
vehicles, zinc sulphate can be
liberally scattered over the floor
to reduce viable bacteria.
BACTERIA NO. 2
The bacteria Fusobacterium
necrophorum is a natural inhabitant of the large intestine of small
ruminants and is found normally
in the soil and manure of pastures
or feedlots. Infection is exacerbated by cold, wet conditions
where mud and manure have
been allowed to accumulate. The
mud and manure causes irritation between the toes of the animals, and F. necrophorum readily infects the soft, irritated area.
Alone this bacterium is not capable of causing foot rot. It causes a
condition called foot scald. When
Dichelobacter nodosus joins the
party is when foot rot occurs. This
bacterium is only capable of living in the soil for 10 to 14 days,
yet can survive in the hoof for
extended time periods given the
right anaerobic environment. The
ideal temperature for growth is
between 10 and 20 C making this
an greater issue in early summer
under moist conditions.
The incubation period of foot
rot is about 14 days. European
countries still regularly use the
foot bath at 10-day intervals to
control spread of the organism in
affected flocks in wet conditions.
Foot rot has been controlled by
placing foot baths with a zinc
(0.10 per cent w/v) sulfate solution around water troughs, forcing
sheep to walk through and stand
in the baths in order to drink.
Most Canadian producers depend
on antibiotics and nutritional controls for their animals.
VACCINE AVAILABLE
Research has shown that D.
nodosus vaccines accelerate healing in affected sheep and aid in
protecting unaffected sheep. They
are recommended as an additional tool to be used when trying
to control or eradicate the disease. However, their effectiveness
depends on the bacteria strain(s)
causing the infection and those
present in the vaccine. No vaccine
contains all the various strains of
D. nodosus.
Alum-precipitated vaccines
require two doses four to six weeks
apart to establish effective immunity, which persists for two to
three months. Lesions heal within
four to six weeks if immunity is
established.
Oil emulsion vaccines induce
immunity within three weeks
of the initial dose and may persist for three to four months. In
endemic areas, revaccination is
recommended at three and six
1.
2.
Dig dirt out
from toes
3.
Trim, parallel to hoof
hairline, all loose excess nail
4.
5.
Snip away the little flap that
grows between the toes
Pare heels to
same level as toes
6.
Pare the soft heel tissue till hoof
surface is smooth and flat
months. Adverse reaction to the
vaccine is common, resulting in
large granulomas and occasional
abscesses, therefore most producers do not use them. Most sources
have reported a 60 to 80 per cent
success when using the D. nodosus vaccine along with regular
foot trimming and attention to
housing sanitation. Vaccines for
F. necrophorum have not generally shown much benefit in either
treatment or prevention.
ZINC MINERAL CAN HELP
Attention to the animals’ mineral supply will also help minimize
foot rot outbreaks. It is important
to read the labels and verify that
zinc is present. Mineral supplements have been reported effective in reducing hoof rot in cattle,
but has not been shown to be
particularly helpful for sheep foot
rot. However, zinc is important for
immunity and skin/hoof health.
Providing zinc in a well-balanced
trace mineral mix may be helpful
in locations deficient in zinc.
Baby season is a good time
to assess each individual animal. This is when we worm the
dam, give vitamins required and
check their overall soundness.
Four weeks prior to having their
young the goats/sheep are vaccinated and given vitamin A and
D, but depending on weather we
don’t like to stress them any more
than necessary by also checking
feet. If we find one of the small
ruminants in need of foot attention it is dealt with then. Winter
is a recommended time of year
since the ground if frozen. There
is little chance of the offending
bacterium that may be present
in the soil colonizing in a freshly
trimmed hoof.
For more information visit the
Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations website along
with a sheep health online manual
http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/
ah651e/ah651e09.htm.
Hooves
finished
When trimming the hooves, if
a problem is found it is best to
trim off all the offending tissue
and paint the area with Kopertox.
In fact, we have had success with
goats just trimming up the hoof
and applying Kopertox without
the need for antibiotics.
Over the years we’ve never
had many animals with foot rot
but know plenty of people who
have. Prevention seems to start
with not buying strange animals
without quarantine. The rest of
the prevention relies on keeping
up the overall immune system of
the livestock, a bit of work trimming hooves and cleaning pens,
and supplying a proper mineral
mix for the stock. These measures will go a long way to ensure
this problem doesn’t occur on
your farm. It will also help to
limit the problems if they do
arise. †
Debbie Chikousky farms with her family at
Narcisse, Manitoba. Visitors are always welcome.
Contact Debbie at [email protected].
M.C. Quantock Bull Sale
“Canada’s Bulls”
375
BULLS
Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 12 noon MST
Exhibition Grounds, Lloydminster, AB/SK All cattle in heated facility! Free Beef Lunch 11 a.m.
Complete
tal
Ca ogue, photos
and video on our
Website:
www.mcquantock.com
Red Angus
Black Angus
Super Baldie
Black Super Baldie
Call Mac...
1-800-561-BULL (2855)
email: [email protected]
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Box 10888, Lloydminster, Alta. T9V 3B1
CALL FOR YOUR FREE CATALOGUE AND DVD
Hereford
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38
/ grainews.ca
JANUARY 7, 2014
Cattleman’s Corner
ANIMAL HEALTH
Proper management can prevent scours
ROY
LEWIS
ANIMAL
HEALTH
M
ost calf scour documents focus on
treatment of calf
scours and methods
involved to eliminate an outbreak.
But with the proper management, preventative measures have
proven to substantially reduce all
scours. Nothing is foolproof, but
if certain measures are followed
incidence of the disease can be
dramatically reduced.
Certain management procedures
should be avoided as they markedly increase the risk of a scour
outbreak. Fostering of calves is a
common procedure with twins, but
purchasing calves for this purpose
can be a recipe for disaster. If you
absolutely must purchase a calf, do
so from a beef herd which has a
good management system, and is
vaccinated against scours. Keep the
pair isolated in a separate area for
two weeks. The best strategy is not
to purchase calves for fostering —
the risk isn’t worth it.
The same applies to purchasing
cow-calf pairs or heavily pregnant
cows just prior to the calving season. Two scenarios can result. The
calves from these new cows may
start scouring as they are exposed
to organisms on your farm. Or, the
opposite can happen — your own
calves scour from not being previously exposed to the organisms
introduced by the new cows.
This is where maintaining a
closed herd at least close to calving is a very good idea. The key is
preventing the first case. Once it
happens the organism is quickly
seeded in the environment and
if crowding occurs all in-contact
calves become at risk.
MANAGING HEIFERS
Herds with a high percentage of
first-calf heifers (more than 20 per
cent) run a greater risk of scours
for several reasons. Compared
to mature cow colostrum, heifer
colostrum is never charged with as
many immunoglobulins against
the scours organisms, mothering
with heifers is more difficult and
with more difficult births heifer
calves are generally more stressed.
Select good heifer bulls to minimize calving problems and always
have several litres of good frozen
colostrum on hand.
Some producers will drench
most first-calf heifer calves with
colostrum to supplement the heifer’s own colostrum. At least give
colostrum to any stressed, slowto-rise calves. Drenching with
colostrum may take time but it
could have huge benefits later in
the calf’s life. Try if possible to
calve heifers separate from cows. It
makes them easier to watch and if
any scours does start it can hopefully be controlled. Heifers mother
up with calves a lot better when in
a smaller group.
ALWAYS VACCINATE
Scour vaccination should be
mandatory in most circumstances,
especially among first-calf heifers
when there is past history of scours
or in herds where crowding is an
issue. We find any herd reaching
100 head or more can greatly reduce
scours problem by vaccinating. This
however, is not a panacea for sloppy
Make sure cow-calf pairs have plenty of room and keep the calving area clean and dry.
management. Any calf no matter
how well protected can succumb to
scours if exposure is too great.
The calving area needs to be
cleaned of manure from the previous year and preferably not
have cows in it for more than 30
days prior to calving.
The manure allows a buildup of
the undesirable organisms and this
is exacerbated in the spring thaw
when melting snow washes through
the manure packs. Organisms are
thus concentrated in the water
pools. Keep the calving area as well
drained as possible.
An isolation area must be
planned for so any sick calves and
their mothers can be immediately
removed from the group and kept
separate until no more diarrhea is
evident. Always treat the sick calves
last after the calving herd has been
checked.
It is imperative to change your
coveralls and dip your boots
before going back to the main
herd. A product called Virkon is an
excellent disinfectant against bacteria and viruses and can be mixed
in a boot dip. Farmers need to be
aware they themselves can be the
biggest cause of spreading scours
around the farm.
Esophageal feeders have also been
incriminated for spreading the disease. I have most large producers
use separate feeders for giving colostrum and treating scouring calves
with electrolytes. Also disinfect
tubes and hoses between usages
with the Virkon disinfectant.
KEEP COWS IN CONDITION
On the nutrition side, keep cows
within a condition score range of
2.5 to 3.5 at calving. This insures
good colostrum and strong cows
for quick deliveries. With exercise
in the winter cows will be in better
shape to calve quickly.
FILE PHOTO
One study compared calf
shelters and windbreaks, to barns,
to nothing at all. Not surprisingly,
the calf shelters and windbreaks
caused the greatest reduction in
neonatal disease. Even though
barns may seem the best, the
higher ambient temperature
allows proliferation of the
organisms. The calves are usually
quite confined as well. There is
no doubt a barn for obstetrical
procedures and other treatment
has its purpose, but calf shelters
provide a stress-free environment,
especially during a snowstorm.
Most scours outbreaks occur from
management breakdown and then
allowing the first case to spread. By
following good management practices, calf scours can be kept to a
minimum. †
Roy Lewis is a Westlock, Alberta-based
veterinarian specializing in large-animal
practice. He is also a part-time technical
services vet for Merck Animal Health.
BETTER BUNKS AND PASTURES
Trace minerals key to
healthy calf-cow rebreeding
PETER
VITTI
T
he last trimester is a very
critical time for the average beef cow and her
unborn calf. Her unborn
calf gains about three-quarters of its
birth weight during this period, dramatically increasing all her primary
nutrient requirements. While feeding better-quality forages together
with a few more pounds of grain
and protein supplement tend to
cover off extra energy and protein
needs, the smallest trace mineral
demand contained in the cow’s diet
often gets overlooked, yet it is just
as important.
Assurance of good trace mineral
status in pre-calving cows benefits
the upcoming calving season — getting newborn calves off to a good
start and allowing these mothers to
be successfully rebred and settled
back in the herd with next year’s
calf crop.
While both the cow and fetus
need a good pre-calving trace mineral-feeding program, science seems
to dictate the fetus takes a slight
priority over the dam’s trace min-
eral needs. Research shows trace
mineral-deficient beef cows have
been actually deplete their own limited trace mineral reserves, before
their calves become mineral deficient and thus adversely affected.
It is estimated the late-gestation
fetus (and placental tissues) utilize
up to 30 per cent of the pre-calving
cow’s daily requirements for essential trace minerals.
UNHEALTHY CALVES
Unfortunately, fetal calves from
mineral-deficient cows will eventually become marginal/severely trace
mineral-deficient themselves and
will be affected. For example, a classic case of a selenium deficiency in
a brood cow herd illustrates this
point: selenium is one of the essential trace minerals that easily cross
the placenta. Therefore good dietary
selenium supplementation to the
pre-calving cow diet increases the
selenium body reserves in cows and
transfers it to their fetal calves. In
contrast, failure to maintain adequate selenium status in pregnant
beef cows leads to a greater incidence of typical white muscle disease, greater susceptibility to infectious disease and poor growth, once
these calves are born.
Even before new calves hit the
ground, poor trace mineral status can haves a significant negative impact upon the brood cows
themselves; namely their ability
to get rebred.
Although, it is not fully understood, the essential trace mineral status of late-gestation cows,
impacts their normal reproductive hormone production as well
as follicular development on the
cow’s ovaries. It is estimated that
eggs begin maturing about 100
days before they are produced and
released. Some beef reproductive
specialists speculate good cow fertility is impacted by the amount
and different types of nutrients/
trace minerals needed during the
pre-calving period.
PROPER MANAGEMENT
It’s good evidence that trace minerals are needed just before calving.
Assuring all essential trace mineral
requirements for late-gestation cows
are met really becomes a simple
matter of feeding a well-balanced
commercial mineral containing
supplemental copper, manganese,
zinc, iodine, cobalt, and selenium.
The following nutrition and management suggestions also help in
making sure late gestation beef cows
receive enough trace minerals:
• Target cow herd mineral consumption. Target a daily consumption of 50-100 grams. If the cow
herd is not eating enough or too
much, add one-third portion salt to
the mineral mixture. On occasion,
calculate the average mineral intake
of the herd, and make the necessary
adjustment for adequate and consistent mineral consumption.
• Know the dietary sources in
your mineral. This is particularly
important when purchasing cattle
mineral. Knowing the copper final
concentration of your cows’ diet
without knowing the source of supplemental copper is of little value.
For example, copper comes in many
forms such as copper oxide, copper sulphate, and chelated (organic)
copper forms, which have relative
biological availabilities of five per
cent, 100 per cent , and 125-150
per cent.
• Feed a “beef breeder mineral”
all winter long. Some producers feed
a more fortified commercial mineral
(with more biologically available
organic copper, zinc, manganese
and selenium) all winter. They say
the cost difference between a basic
gestation and a pre-calving “beef
breeder mineral” calculates to a $3
to $4 per head premium over the
first half of the winter, yet it is
worth the assurance of good trace
mineral status for the entire lategestating herd until the calving.
• Fill your mineral feeders on a
regular basis. Mineral feeders should
be filled every two to three days
and hardened old mineral should
be removed. It’s also important to
remove snow and debris that prevents good mineral consumption.
• Know how to calculate your
daily mineral and seasonal costs.
This point should not be confused
with whether one spends too little or too much money on their
mineral feeding program! A beef
cow breeder mineral worth $40 per
25-kg feed at 75 grams per day costs
approximately 12 cents per head
per day. Fed for a 90 day pre-calving
period costs about $11 per beef cow.
• Avoid feeding too much trace
minerals. The old adage of “one
spoonful of medicine is good, two
spoonfuls of medicine is better”
simply does not work when building or maintaining adequate mineral status in beef cows.
For example: With a suspected
copper deficiency in a cow herd,
note the symptoms of marginal
copper deficiency is very similar to
those of a marginal copper toxicity.
Consult with your beef specialist or
veterinarian for trace mineral nutrition advice.
Setting up a good pre-calving
trace mineral-feeding program is
often a matter of fine-tuning the
current mineral program that was
started a few months ago. It can be
as simple as switching from a standard to more fortified beef breeder
mineral in order to meet the higher
trace mineral (and vitamin) requirements of the late-gestation beef
cow. †
Peter Vitti is an independent livestock
nutritionist and consultant based in Winnipeg.
To reach him call 204-254-7497 or by email at
[email protected].
JANUARY 7, 2014
grainews.ca /
39
Cattleman’s Corner
RANCHER’S DIARY
Hungry elk cause
havoc with horses
HEATHER
SMITH
THOMAS
NOVEMBER 22
Saturday Lynn took Charlie and
Dani up to ride Carolyn’s horses.
Andrea, Sam and I rode up the creek
to meet them. Carolyn, and Heather
went for a ride over the low range. It
got windy, so our party cut it short
and made it home to our place, but
the others had to ride three miles
back up the creek to put their horses
away. A blizzard hit just before they
got there. We were glad they had
heavy coats and warm hats!
Carolyn and Heather sorted their
cows, sending some to a bred cow
sale at Butte, Montana to pay off the
loan on their cows. Bred cows have
been worth a lot so they hoped the
cows would bring a good price, but
that day there weren’t many buyers.
Most of their cows sold at cull cow
prices, which left them short for
paying the loan. We helped them
make up the difference and they
can pay us back later.
Tuesday afternoon I had a vet
come check Breezy’s left eye. The
back corner (white part) has been
red and irritated for quite a while
but now there’s a growth on that
edge of the eyeball. We’re afraid
it’s cancerous. The vet took a scraping to check under a microscope,
and found mostly epithelial cells
(normal tissue), a lot of bacterial
cells and only a couple of cancer
cells. She prescribed an antibacterial
ointment, to put into the eye twice
daily for two weeks, and will check
it again. We’re hoping it’s not a
malignant growth because then the
eye would have to be removed.
DECEMBER 1
Last Saturday it was still cold, but
Heather and I rode our two trainees
for a short loop over the low range.
Dotty was grumpy and frisky in the
cold weather but I was able to keep
her from bucking. That evening
Alfonzo brought his cows down to
the lower fields, weaning his calves
in the corral at the Gooch place, so
the cows tried to come through the
fence between us.
The next morning, some of
them crashed over his fence along
the road and trooped back up to
the Gooch place. Later that morning Alfonzo and his son brought
those cows down again, and his
son put steel posts in the brokendown fence.
Andrea, Carolyn, Heather and
I rode that afternoon, making a
longer loop over the low range.
As we came over the ridge toward
home we saw three cows trying to
get out again, crashing the newly
fixed fence. One got stuck in the
fence, struggling and bellowing,
and then flipped backward. She
tried again, and made it over the
fence. About nine cows made it
back out, and this time Alfonzo
gave up and left them up on the
Gooch place.
We had Thanksgiving dinner
here with Andrea and Emily (the
other kids were at their Dad’s)
and Carolyn and Heather. Michael
wasn’t able to come home, nor
Nick (too far, from college in Iowa)
but they will both be home for
Christmas.
DECEMBER 10
Our weather became very cold
(below 0 F) and we haven’t ridden
now for more than a week. Heather
has been doing chores for Suzanne
Nebeker, who lives across the valley from us. She raises and shows
Tennessee Walkers. This past week
she went to Salt Lake City, Utah for
surgery and will be gone a while,
so Heather has been taking care
of her horses. Thursday afternoon
when she went to feed she discovered that a herd of elk had gone
through the pens and pastures and
scared the horses. The elk were
still there — about 30 of them in
a frightened group, huddled in a
corner of a neighbour’s field.
One of Suzanne’s mares had
gone over a fence and couldn’t
get up. She was very cold. Heather
put a wool horse blanket over the
mare and called her mom and
the vet. Carolyn, the vet and two
neighbours worked with the mare
into the night, building a shelter of
panels and straw around her and
covering her with blankets. The
vet gave her medication to ease the
pain and inflammation. After the
mare warmed up she tried to stand,
but her hind legs wouldn’t work.
She made it through the night
and was perky the next morning,
eating and drinking, but shortly
after noon she suddenly died. The
PHOTO BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
Grandaughter Heather working with the yearling filly Willow, teaching
her to drive in long lines, and getting her used to various distractions.
vet thought she probably split her
pelvis, and in one of her attempts
to get up the bones shifted, severed an artery and she quickly bled
to death.
The elk spent three days in a
tight group, in a plowed field with
nothing to eat. We assume wolves
drove them down from the high
country; a pack of six wolves left
tracks across the road a few miles
above the neighbourhood where
Suzanne’s horses are. †
Heather Smith Thomas ranches with her
husband Lynn near Salmon, Idaho. Contact her
at 208-756-2841.
Western Canadian
Holistic Management
FEBRUARY 10 - 11, 2014
Lloydminster Agricultural Exhibition – Lloydminster, Saskatchewan
• Jim Reger - Living a Life of
Meaning and Purpose
EARLY BIRD
REGISTRATION
$
165.00 per person
• Kathleen Charpentier
Deadline: January 31, 2014
• Jackie Northey (CEO)
Cultivating Connections –
Social Media and Agriculture
LATE REGISTRATION
$
200.00 per person
• Dr. Jill Clapperton Healthy Soil for a Healthy World
STUDENT FEE $125.00
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
• Robert Rutherford
Sunday, February 9th, 2014
Please join us for a
WINE & CHEESE
starting at 8:00 p.m. at the
Days Inn and Suites in Lloydminster
HEALTHY PEOPLE
HEALTHY LAND AND
HEALTHY PROFITS
Register Now
Phone: 780-727-4447
www.westcentralforage.com
after January 31, 2014
Registration is non-refundable
Registration includes two
lunches, banquet, breakfast
ticket and admission to all
sessions.
Additional banquet tickets
$30.00 each
NITROGEN LOSS
STINKS
With untreated urea and UAN, you can lose
valuable nitrogen as ammonia gas. That’s
why you need SUPERU™ fertilizer. It’s
ready-to-use stabilized nitrogen fertilizer
that works above and below ground for
proven protection against volatilization,
denitrification and leaching.
Sniff out the truth at
AGROTAIN.COM.
SUPERU™ and the SUPERU logo are trademarks of Koch Agronomic Services, LLC. The Koch logo is a trademark of Koch Industries, Inc. © 2013 Koch Agronomic Services, LLC.