Five years oF red tape Cost oF Living +PLUS

western edition
country-guide.ca
Five years
March 31, 2015 $3.50
Cost of Living
how much is right? PG. 24
of red tape
Cocchio family Wins,
converting hog barn
to shrimp, PG. 36
+PLUS
A better way to get started
with family meetings
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Contents
march 31, 2015
BUSINESS
9
By rail to china
Talk resurfaces about a tunnel under the Bering Sea.
12 young and old
An injection of youth might help you reach your farm goals.
16 a little bit wild
In the Arctic, the business of producing food is still business.
20 Get in shape for family meetings
Check out this recipe for meetings your family will be proud of.
24 the costs of living
If commodity prices fall, can you cut back on living expenses?
28 plan for value-add success
Most startups fail. So why do nearly all franchises succeed?
36 from hogs to shrimp
Really? Five years of red tape to convert a hog barn to shrimp?
40 our failing price system
Farmers need to ask tougher questions about crop pricing.
42 financing proposals — what to take to the bank
Here’s how to impress your lender at your annual review.
44 a new venture
If you want to talk diversification, you have to talk Hutterite.
48 show me it works
New summer equipment show focuses on field demonstrations.
PG. 30 finding the peace
As associate editor Gord Gilmour discovers, times may
be changing in northern Alberta, but the Peace River
district is still unlike anywhere else in the country. So
are its farmers, it turns out. Read Gord’s road-trip report,
then start plotting your own adventure.
62 Guide HR — what is success?
You want to succeed, but will you know when you’ve arrived?
64
g
uide life — when things get busy… keep your sanity!
Here’s advice on how to work hard without hitting the red zone.
CROPS GUIDE
52 here come the robots
Robotic tractors are already in the field, with more on their way.
EVERY ISSUE
5MACHINERY GUIDE
Mid-size tractors are blending the best of power and agility.
54 drones get closer
Airframes and camera technologies are rapidly evolving.
56 brain plus computer
Simulators help meld your brain with tractor computers.
63 GUIDE HEALTH
59 aphano-what?
66 HANSON ACRES
Ouch! Now the Hansons really need help.
60 five years of midge tolerance
Corticosteroids can help your skin, but do use them wisely.
New pulse disease is all too similar to clubroot in canola.
More wheat growers reap benefits of anti-resistance strategy.
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march 31, 2015 country-guide.ca 3
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EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor: Tom Button
12827 Klondyke Line, Ridgetown, ON N0P 2C0
(519) 674-1449
Fax (519) 674-5229
Email: [email protected]
Associate Editors:
Gord Gilmour
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(204) 453-7624
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Maggie Van Camp
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Tom Button is editor of Country Guide magazine
Brothers versus sisters
History will judge today’s farm families
based at least in part on how they treat
their brothers and sisters.
At this point, it’s far from clear that
history’s judgment will be kind.
If you have sons and daughters in your
family, they know this and they are thinking it (actually, they are thinking a lot
about it), even if they don’t say it out loud.
It’s hard enough when multiple brothers want to become full-time farmers in
their own right. But at least with boys, we
start with a bit of a leg up.
Boys mature and they acquire physical
and mental capacities at about the same
speed, which in turn makes it easier for
parents to gain insights into their sons’
characters, and also for the boys to compare and evaluate themselves too.
Despite our schools, boys pretty
quickly figure out who is fastest, who is
cleverest, who is the best leader, and more.
Plus, the boys tend to get thrown
together while they’re growing up on the
farm, and they learn how to coexist and
how to make peace, often by carving out
different areas in which to excel.
That still isn’t enough to make succession easy for Mom and Dad. There’s still
all the usual family stuff to get in the way,
but at least you feel you have a chance.
Nor is it quite so difficult when you
compare two daughters.
But now more and more farm families
have both sexes with farming ambitions.
For parents who confront it, it can
4 country-guide.ca be a tough spot, despite the fact that it
is becoming increasingly common. Even
on the farm, brothers and sisters tend
to grow up as different species, partly
for cultural reasons of course, but also
because they acquire different skills at different times.
Girls excel at school. Just check your
local high school’s results. Meanwhile,
boys enter a period of doldrums in their
teens, from which they often don’t wake
up until they are in their 20s, after which
they may, or may not, blaze with energy.
Science is finding physiological reasons
for this, but our point is that fair, longterm comparisons between brothers and
sister are devilishly difficult and uncertain.
But as always, you aren’t farming in
a vacuum. Recognize the brother-sister
issue. Talk about it with your spouse, and
keep your ears and eyes open to watch
how it plays out around you.
Also learn from your children, your
relatives and even from the media about
gender equity in schools, organizations
and non-farm workplaces.
And recognize that the challenge before
you is, at its core, a tremendous opportunity. It’s a chance for you to decide. What
is fair? What is good for the farm?
Yes, your parents said that if the girl
wants to farm, she should marry a farmer.
But that’s dinosaur thinking that can tear
your family apart.
Are we getting it right? Let me know at
[email protected].
Lillie Ann Morris
(905) 838-2826
Email: [email protected]
Head Office:
1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1
Fax (204) 944-5562
(204) 944-5765
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Sharon Komoski
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Designer: Jenelle Jensen
Publisher: Lynda Tityk
Email: [email protected]
Associate Publisher/Editorial Director: John Morriss
Email: [email protected]
Production Director: Shawna Gibson
Email: [email protected]
Circulation Manager: Heather Anderson
Email: [email protected]
President: Bob Willcox
Glacier FarmMedia
Email: [email protected]
Contents of this publication are copyrighted and may be
reproduced only with the permission of the editor. Country
Guide, incorporating the Nor’West Farmer and Farm & Home, is
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PRINTED IN CANADA
Vol. 134 No. 6
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ISSN 0847-9178
The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to
Country Guide and Farm Business Communications attempt to provide
accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis. However, the
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in this publication and the editors as well as Country Guide and Farm
Business Communications assume no responsibility for any actions or
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information provided.
march 31, 2015
Machinery
By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor
With the horses to tackle heavy-going conditions, yet fast and flexible enough to adapt to an amazing range of jobs
on your farm, today’s so-called “mid-size” tractors are getting smarter by leaps and bounds, and more capable too. If
you haven’t put a new model through its paces in the last two or three years, be prepared for some surprises. Speed
and efficiency are better than ever, and so is your ability to call on reserve power. So whether it’s in the field at planting
or on the road hauling heavy loads, these models stand out. Plus, they have the value and durability that farming
demands these days. As always, however, if you’re in the market, get ready. You’ve got some serious homework ahead.
 Massey Ferguson (AGCO) 8700 Series
With its 8700 series tractors, Massey Ferguson really is trying to
deliver the best of both worlds. The company has two models in this
series that run into the high-horsepower class (i.e. above 325 hp) but
three models in the 220- to 325-hp mid-size range, including the 8727
(270 hp), the 8730 (295 hp) and the 8732 (320 hp). Billed as “the
best engine in its class,” the 8700 series comes with the advanced
Engine Power Management (EPM) system, including a six-cylinder, 8.4litre engine, capable of generating an additional 30 hp when needed.
Whether it’s for seeding and tillage, moving square bales or hauling
a manure spreader, the company says there’s little that AGCO’s Tier
4-final, Power 84 engine can’t handle. And it comes complete with
higher performance at lower r.p.m.s, plus its Dyna-VT transmission,
with no clutch packs, and no shifting or clutch burnout. There’s also a
new Clyclair cooling package to increase cooling capacity, and with the
Dynamic Tractor Management (DTM) system, the engine and the transmission can work together, increasing fuel efficiency.
www.int.masseyferguson.com
New Holland ‘Golden Jubilee’ T7 
For 50 years, New Holland has based its production in the United
Kingdom, with its plant at Basildon dating back to the days of Ford’s
farm equipment lines. Now, near the end of its golden anniversary,
New Holland is offering its “Golden Jubilee” models of its T7.270 Auto
Command tractors. The T7.270 and a smaller model, the T6.160,
are both available in North America. The tractors boast all
of the same attributes of the standard T7.270 model,
with the only change being a different shade
of blue paint with some gold highlights on the
grilles, exhaust guards and identification badges.
The cab also sports a more luxurious interior, including optional leather seats and
leather-wrapped steering wheel.
www.agricuture.newholland.com
M a r ch 3 1 , 2 0 1 5 country-guide.ca 5
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BayerCropScience.ca or 1 888-283-6847 or contact your Bayer CropScience representative.
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New Holland Genesis T8 SmartTrax 
New Holland is another manufacturer with a series that overlaps
— from high-horsepower brute strength to something a little leaner
(power-wise) that can still push the limits and perform. In all, there
are three models in the 220- to 325-hp class, including the T8.300,
the T8.330 and the T8.360. But what makes the Genesis T8 series a
greater value is the SmartTrax system, a combination of manoeuvrability with front wheels, and traction that comes from the rear rubber
tracks. Tracked options are becoming more of a staple on farms, but
the one drawback to a twin-track design is that an operator needs to
slow down while making turns to avoid berming at the end of rows or
even damaging the soil. With the half-track system on the Genesis T8
SmartTrax, the wheels up front reduce that potential for soil damage,
and also offer a tighter turning radius. With the half-track system,
there’s more balance and comfort, and a choice of belt widths from
narrow tracks of 16, 18 and 24 inches to wide-track versions of 24 or
30 inches. The overall track width is also adjustable, from 76 to 152
inches, meaning the SmartTrax system can be used for either rowcrop or broad-acre management practices.
www.agriculture.newholland.com
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8 country-guide.ca March 31, 2015
business
By rail to China
Is it really so impossible to think about a rail line
linking Canada with the economic hubs of Asia?
By Gerald Pilger
hat if Canadian farmers had
a choice of more than just CN
and CP rail to move their grain?
Imagine the opportunities our
agriculture would have if we
weren’t restricted because of the limited trackage to
the coasts, a shortage of hopper cars, a lack of pulling power, and increasing competition from oil and
other goods for rail movement.
Also ask yourself: what if our grain exports
weren’t constrained by a lack of commercial and
terminal capacity? Picture a scenario where our grain
exports couldn’t be shut down by a strike by any of
the multiple unions that have a hand in the current
movement of grains, and where our grain trade was
not dominated by a few large multinational companies but was truly open to multiple buyers, brokers,
traders. Imagine if even farmers themselves could
easily export grains overseas.
Then ask, what if a farmer could load a producer
car and have that carload of grain delivered overseas
to an end-use customer without any further handling
of that grain? What would agriculture and Canada’s
economy look like if farmers could do all this?
Maybe, this scenario is possible. In fact, this very
solution to our current transportation log-jam was
first proposed in 1890! That was the year the first
governor of the Colorado territory, William Gilpin,
proposed linking the entire world by railroads.
Two years later, Joseph Strauss proposed building
a bridge across the Bering Strait as a sort of keystone
for Gilpin’s plan. Nor was Strauss a mere dreamer.
Instead, he went on to design 400 bridges, including
the Golden Gate Bridge, although his Bering Strait
Bridge remained only a concept.
In 1905 Czar Nicholas II actually approved building a rail tunnel from Russia to Alaska, only to have
his plan disrupted by the First World War. Since then,
there have been numerous proposals to build a Bering
Strait rail tunnel connecting the two continents.
For instance, in August 2011, the U.K. Daily Mail
newspaper reported that the Russian government
approved the building of a 65-mile tunnel under the
strait. In 2014, the Beijing Times reported China was
looking at building a 10,000-km high-speed rail link
between China and the U.S. via a Bering Strait tunnel.
On October 1, 2013 the investment corporation
InterBering LLC was registered in Alaska. Its goal
is the connecting of Russia and Alaska via tunnel. It
March 31, 2015
has created a website which not only outlines past
proposals for such a tunnel, but also provides details
of the area, as well as various designs for such a tunnel. (The website is www.interbering.com/index.html.)
It’s an idea that keeps attracting new enthusiasts,
partly because we already have the technology to build
an undersea rail link. The Eurotunnel linking England
to France is proof it can be done. The Bering Strait
crossing would require a tunnel about twice as long but
under a relatively shallow sea. The bigger problem is
the many miles of desolate, frozen, arctic tundra, forests, and mountains on each side of the tunnel.
Many readers may question the risk of building
this tunnel in an earthquakes-prone area, although
this is a risk we work with when we expand major
cities like Los Angeles and Vancouver that exist in
the same earthquake zone.
Proposals for a Bering tunnel
rail link have been on the
boards since 1890, and may
soon get revived again
The challenge of cost
Of course, the biggest drawback to such a plan is
cost. Without question, the costs of construction of
such a rail network would be enormous. Costs for the
tunnel and a conventional double track from Yakutsk
(Russia) to Fort Nelson (Canada), including the Bering
Strait tunnel would be up to $134 billion, according
to InterBering LLC. But let’s put that dollar amount
in perspective. The cost of the Apollo missions to the
moon that put a total of just 12 men on the lunar surface was about $205 billion in today’s dollars.
Or consider the fact that Forbes magazine 2015
ranking of the richest men in the world reports there
are now 1,826 billionaires. In looking at the rankings, 125 of these billionaires have net worths of
over $10 billion.
If each of these 125 people would invest $1 billion
into the Bering Strait railroad, we would only have to
Continued on page 10
country-guide.ca 9
business
Continued from page 9
find an additional $10 billion. And seriously, if you were worth only $9.0 billion
rather than $10 billion would you really be
that hard up?
More importantly, let’s think about
the returns that could be generated by
building this rail system, especially compared to the economic returns from the
Apollo mission. Think of the driving
force the Apollo mission was to the computer, robotics, and telecommunications
industries. Now think of the possible benefits not only to farmers, but to consumers and society as a whole of a rail link
between North America and Asia. Think
of the economic benefit of connecting the
world’s largest population and manufacturing regions with the greatest amount
of untapped raw resources, commodities,
and consumers. The dollar return to the
remaining $9.0 billion in assets of those
125 billionaires could be many multiples
of their original $1-billion investment.
Think too of the economic stimulus a
project like this could provide the global
economy at a time when Canada, Russia,
and China are all experiencing downturns.
Think outside the box
If there’s one saying I detest more than
any other, it is: “Think outside the box.”
But in the case of Canada, this saying might
be appropriate. We really are boxed in with
oceans on three sides. We are a long way
from countries that want our commodities.
And we are an ocean and three mountain
ranges away from the biggest manufacturing region of the world and the countries
most in need of our commodities.
10 country-guide.ca We require more transportation of
goods than most other countries, especially by rail, yet our rail system is dominated and controlled by an oligopoly of
just two non-competing companies.
In the grains sector, we have complained about handling and transportation issues since the Second World War. In
response, we have had at least 10 major
studies of our grain transportation system, yet the same problems remain today.
It is time to think outside of the box.
We must find a new way of getting our
production to export markets. We have
to find a way to bypass the current noncompetitive rail system, the lack of port
facilities and terminal storage, and the
painfully slow loading of ships. We need
a way to introduce more competitiveness
into the entire sector. I think the Bering
Strait rail link could be it.
The rail link we need is not a highspeed passenger service. It would be a
heavy steel link that would allow us to
move commodities out and products
including containers, fertilizer, and manufactured goods into North America.
The link we need is not a privately
owned rail line or an expansion of an existing rail company but a public utility on
which all rail companies could compete for
movement of traffic. It would be more like
our public highway system than our rail
system. Or like the air travel system. No
one owns the skies. Airlines have to apply
for and pay for the right to use the flight
ways, or in this case, the rail beds and lines.
Most importantly, we need governments
pushing this project now. This project must
be a public utility to benefit both producers
and consumers. The economic benefits of
an intercontinental rail link could be shared
by everyone, not just billionaire investors
or the country which starts the project first.
We need government with vision and drive,
willing to work closely with the U.S., China
and Russia to develop this link for the benefit of all citizens and not just investors or
corporate interests.
The Bering Strait link could and should
be a transportation corridor for not only
trains, but pipelines and utilities as well.
On September 12, 1962 President
Kennedy gave one of the most passionate
speeches of all time when he said: “We
choose to go to the moon. We choose to
go to the moon in this decade and do the
other things, not because they are easy,
but because they are hard, because that
goal will serve to organize and measure
the best of our energies and skills, because
that challenge is one that we are willing
to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”
Just seven years later, Armstrong
walked on the moon.
Where is the “Kennedy” with the
vision that we need in order to compete
in a global, free trade economy? Who
can inspire Canadians to tackle this link
and open up the economic box Canada
is trapped in? Who is willing to challenge ourselves, the U.S., China, and
Russia to build this link to compete with
the corporate interests dominating world
trade and economies?
I have no doubt this rail link will
be built in the future. The question is
if it will be for the benefit of everyone,
including Canadian farmers or if it will
be the greatest profit grab in history by a
gigantic corporate entity. CG
March 31, 2015
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business
12 country-guide.ca march 31, 2015
business
Young and old
Separated by 52 years, Rudy Knitel and Corne Mans
find how to succeed at food distribution
By Steven Biggs, CG Contributing Editor
s good as you or better,” says Rudy
Knitel when I ask him what he was
looking for when he went in search of
a business partner. A sense of humour
apparently helps.
Aged 74, Knitel did find his business partner,
though. He’s Corne Mans, aged 22.
Farm to distributor
Knitel and Mans met when Knitel was making
the rounds for his business, called Galimax Trading.
“I was buying milk,” recalls Knitel, explaining that
Mans is the son of one of his suppliers.
“I met Rudy while working on the farm,”
agrees the much younger Mans.
Mans admits that in those days, he had a thought
circling about in his head. “Coming from a big family,” he says, “it’s hard to know if you will end up
with the farm.”
When he saw Knitel, the idea crossed his mind
that making the transition from farmer to food distributor might be part of the solution. “I like farming,” Mans says. “This way, you’re still involved
with farmers.”
Knitel farmed too, having studied agriculture
in Holland. “My wife and I, we farmed for many
years,” says Knitel as he talks about clearing land in
Peace River country with his wife Faye and their three
daughters. “We didn’t quite go broke… but we walked
off the place and gave it all back to the bank,” he says.
Photography: Chris Yauck
Into the food distribution
A 52-year age difference might seem like a lot.
It might even seem insurmountable, but Knitel and
Mans have come to see it as a plus. “It’s a perfect combination,” says Mans, explaining that he is
young and that there are lots of benefits he can get
from Knitel’s experience.
On the flip side, Mans contributes considerable
drive and energy to the partnership. “We both have
equal input,” says Mans.
It’s a sign of what it takes to succeed in food distribution, where anything that gets in the way has to
be overcome with a combination of grit and personality, and a willingness to do things that other people
say can’t be done.
march 31, 2015
After leaving the farm, Knitel worked in a few
jobs and ended up in the hay business. When he was
60, Faye, who had a decent job, suggested he slow
down. “That’s not me,” laughs Knitel.
“I was in Italy for the hay business,” he recalls.
“I’m not really a foodie, but I ate food there.” It was
a transformative moment. “I didn’t think food could
taste that good!” he says.
That sense of awe launched him into food distribution. Knitel and Faye started Galimax in 2001,
with a focus on importing high-end European food
for the restaurant market in Calgary.
Knitel says they imported for about four years.
“It was two steps ahead and three back at times,” he
continues. While Knitel liked the business, the model
had one big flaw: distance. “Every once in a while a
shipment went wrong,” he explains. Long-distance
mishaps aren’t quickly corrected.
Continued on page 14
country-guide.ca 13
business
Continued from page 13
He credits Faye for suggesting they switch to more affordable
foods and staples, which in turn evolved into a focus on Albertaproduced food. “I said, I got this client base of high-end hotels
and restaurants, and I’m going to switch over,” he recalls.
Knitel wasn’t ready to retire, but says Faye had had enough. He
chuckles, adding, “She said, ‘You’re too much of a risk-taker.’”
That’s when he started looking for a new business partner.
He and Mans hit it off, and Mans now owns 49 per cent of Galimax Trading, and has been with the company for almost four
years. During that time he has also completed a business administration diploma at Lethbridge College.
The business
Knitel says a lot of small farm and food businesses don’t have the
time, skills, or equipment to market and sell food products into the
restaurant sector. Galimax focuses on fruit, vegetables, dairy products, and eggs, with some specialty items such as vinegar. They don’t
sell meat, which he finds more complicated to manage since many
restaurants want only the top cuts, while producers want to sell the
rest of the animal too.
Farmers make deliveries twice weekly to the company’s CFIAapproved facility in Nobleford, Alta., near Lethbridge. It includes a
warehouse, cold storage, order assembly area, and egg-grading station. Annual sales are $1.6 million.
Galimax Trading sells mainly to restaurants, but also to a couple
of health food stores. Knitel says the restaurants are both medium
and high end. “It’s not all foo-foo food,” he says with a laugh. The
customer base has grown beyond Calgary to include places such as
Canmore, Banff, and Lake Louise.
Mans feels the key to their success is being able to offer a reliable supply of key menu items. But with good customers, it can
work the other way around too, and chefs build menus around
what Galimax has on offer. “Often what they do is they run a
feature menu,” he says. The features are a way for chefs to take
advantage of some of the less-mainstream items that Galimax can
get. For example, this year, some chefs designed features made
with specialty cauliflower or dragon-tongue beans (flat beans with
unusual colouring).
Knitel is excited about the egg business. They sell approximately
2,500 dozen eggs per week to hotels and restaurants. “We have our
own rules,” says Knitel, as he talks about the requirements for their
local network of egg producers. Right now they have 22 egg producers, mostly teenagers for whom it’s a part-time business.
Each producer can have up to 300 chickens (to avoid quota
problems with the egg marketing board), must use feed from
the supplier specified by Galimax, and give indoor-outdoor free
run. “We’re constantly short of eggs,” says Mans as he talks
about a demand that would allow them to double their sales.
Business thinking
One aspect of this business model that Knitel thinks is very
important is that all of the food Galimax Trading distributes is
presold. “Most businesses, all the money is tied up in stock,”
says Knitel. Without unsold inventory, he faces less risk.
To foster loyalty and grow new customers, Knitel arranges
an annual chef’s tour, where he rents a couple of coaches and
takes chefs to visit farms. “We feed them and make it a nice
day,” he explains. When I ask about the feedback he gets on the
tour, he says, “Oh, fantastic!”
14 country-guide.ca He makes sure to include line cooks and wait staff on the
tour. The executive chefs, he says, have already been converted
to Galimax Trading and Alberta-grown food. “You want people
who are on the way up.” He says he gets calls from people who
were on a past tour, saying something like, “I was on your tour
three years ago when I worked for so-and-so. I’m now the sous
chef and want to order from you.”
I ask Knitel what’s important to him when dealing with
people. “The secret is, when you talk to somebody, you have
to smile over the phone,” he says.
People
Today, Galimax Trading has 11 people on the payroll. Knitel
says staffing is his biggest challenge. “We find it very hard to get
good people,” he says, pointing out that he’s competing with
the oilpatch.
To find good people, he has an unconventional interviewing technique. He sits interviewees down, gives them a sheet of
paper, and says, “I give you 10 minutes to write down why you
want to work here.” The results, he says, help him understand
motivations, and also communication skills. If he’s satisfied
with what has been written, the interview continues.
As a small company, the roles of the partners are not cast in
stone. Although Knitel prospects for new customers and does
public relations, as with any small company, he wears many
hats. “I also drive truck,” he says, talking about their three
reefer trucks.
Knitel is stoked about the future of the business, saying,
“We’re very, very busy and have all sorts of expansion plans.”
Mans is bullish about the local food sector, saying, “It’s growing, no doubt about it.”
“We have a lot of fun,” exclaims Knitel.
Knitel is pleased with the partnership and its outlook. “If
you’re more than 20 years in the driver seat you’re ancient and
should move on,” he says. He is sharing the driver’s seat. He
adds, “A lot of old people think, ‘This is the way it should be
— we’ve done it this way and it was successful.’ They become
inflexible.” CG
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business
A little bit
wild
Even north of the Arctic Circle,
the business of producing
food is real business
hen he lists the challenges of operating a business in Canada’s northern reaches, Stephane
Lacasse, general manager of Kitikmeot Foods
in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut mentions Mother
Nature. Twice.
It’s enough to make him sound like a farmer.
That impression gets even stronger when he continues his list
by saying that having a Plan B is essential.
After seven years at the helm, Lacasse also says that on his list
are transportation, logistics, and breakdowns that he can’t fix
and that slow everything down until a mechanic can get on site.
“You have to be a bit of a hybrid type of worker here,” Lacasse
says. “You’re way in the North, so you need to learn different
skills and tasks to make it.”
But despite the challenges, he’s an optimist, and he tries to keep
everything in a long-term perspective. (Did I already say he sounds
like a farmer?) Says Lacasse: “If it happened 10 years ago, and it’s
happening again today, it’s going to happen in 10 years.”
Located at 69 degrees north in the country’s youngest territory, the community of Cambridge Bay is north of Canada’s
mainland, on the coast of Victoria Island.
Cambridge Bay has a population of 1,666, the majority of whom
are Inuit, and in the local language called Inuinnaqtun, Cambridge
Bay is called Iqaluktuuttiaq, meaning “good fishing place.”
It turns out to be a fitting name in any language, because this
is a place rich in Arctic char.
In fact, community members began looking at how to build
a business based on their resources of both char and muskox in
the 1970s, and Kitikmeot Foods was launched in 1990.
Today, Kitikmeot is one of four fish- and meat-processing plants
operating in the territory as a subsidiary of the Nunavut Development Corporation (NDC), a Nunavut government corporation.
Kitikmeot Foods runs year round, with a staff of six to eight
in the plant. This number jumps to 15 workers in the plant during the summer harvest when teams of local fishermen, adding
up to an extra 10 to 15 people altogether, are hired to harvest
the char on four rivers close to the community.
16 country-guide.ca Photography: Denise LeBleu Images
By Stephanie McDonald
March 31, 2015
business
For Stephane Lacasse,
the challenge is to find the
best business tools to achieve
financial goals, and also a
valued way of life
That season starts at the beginning of
July and lasts one to 1-1/2 weeks when
the fish are running to the sea. For about
a month afterwards, no fishing is done
while the char are in the sea, feeding and
reproducing. The fishing starts again in
mid-August and continues until the second week of September.
The Department of Fisheries and
Oceans, whose staff is on site to monitor
the harvest, sets the quota for how much
fish can be harvested, currently at 98,000
lbs. of char per year.
On two of the lakes, the char are
caught with a V-shaped trap called a
weir. At each end of the weir is an opening where fish can enter and exit. Most
swim forward through a narrow channel and end up in what Lacasse calls a
“sock.” Once the weir becomes full, it’s
pulled up out of the water. In the other
two lakes, char are caught in nets. The
fishermen are paid per pound of fish they
bring in.
Back on shore the fish are cleaned,
put on ice in Styrofoam boxes, and transported by float plane to the community.
After being washed and graded in the
plant, the fish are packed in ice again
and shipped out by commercial airline.
This whole process is usually completed
the same day the fish is caught. Other
products are processed or packaged and
put into the freezers, ready to be shipped
year round.
The fish is a vibrant orange and the
plant makes char fillets, steaks, and
jerky — the most popular item — as well
as candied and smoked char products.
“Char is almost like salmon, but the taste
is more wild,” Lacasse says. “The char
that we have is a lot higher in omega-3
and oil content. And has less fat.”
Until 2013, Kitikmeot Foods had
also organized a commercial muskox
hunt and processed the meat. That ended
when the number of muskox close to
the community dropped and disease was
found in the animals across the territory.
Muskox products had accounted for 25
to 30 per cent of the company’s sales. To
compensate, the plant committed 100 per
cent of its time to char and pushed sales
of the fish.
Continued on page 18
March 31, 2015
country-guide.ca 17
business
Continued from page 17
Local in the Arctic
The char caught in the rivers around
Cambridge Bay and processed by Kitikmeot Foods is shipped to customers and
high-end restaurants across America and
Canada. It has been written about in the
New York Times.
However, despite a North American
marketplace that is hooked both by the
quality of the char and by the Inuit-caught
backstory from the Canadian Arctic, the
focus for Kitikmeot Foods is to have its
products available within the territory.
“Our emphasis is the Nunavut marketplace. Inuit are our clients, they are our
core focus,” says Darrin Nichol, president
of the Nunavut Development Corporation,
the 98 shareholder in Kitikmeot Foods.
“We’re not against selling product outside
of the territory, we don’t discourage that,
but our emphasis is in Nunavut.”
“It’s a highly competitive environment. There are char farms, there are lots
of options for fish outside of our prod-
The bright-orange char
filets are marketed
under the ‘Truly Wild’
brand, with potential
demand outstripping
sustainable supply.
uct, and it can be an expensive endeavour,” Nichol says. “The markets in
Nunavut tend to be closer, the marketing
emphasis doesn’t have to be as high, and
the people tend to appreciate our product
more for what it is, recognizing that it’s
caught by the Inuit of Nunavut and provided back as a finished good.”
At the core of NDC’s mandate is creating employment, Nichol says, as well as
generating income-earning opportunities
and providing business support. NDC
also works in sectors that people rely on
for employment, although these sectors
tend to be high task, low return.
NDC is also interested in ensuring that
local food is available to the local population. Nichol speaks of walking into a grocery store in southern Canada. No matter
the section of the store, locally produced
food is usually available. “That’s economic
development, that’s people supporting
people, providing quality product for the
clients of that grocery outlet,” he says.
NDC has worked with northern
retailers to have food from their four
plants available in each of the territory’s
25 communities. The demand for locally
harvested food has increased as the cost
of hunting equipment rises and as more
of the territory’s citizens work in their
communities, limiting the time that can
be dedicated to hunting and fishing.
The meat and fish products from the
four Nunavut plants are marketed under
the brand “Truly Wild.” The logo has
a fish making a splash as it jumps out
of the water, with icebergs in the background. A lot of work was put into creating the brand and it has been officially
licensed. Nichol says that the “Truly
Wild” brand is recognized, but reiterates
that their focus is on the local market.
“Marketing is fine as long as you have
the capacity to deliver what you’re marketing,” Nichol says. “Over the years —
and I’ve been at this for a long, long time
— where we do have to be a little bit
careful, especially when you’re marketing
in the south, is that you don’t overstate
your ability to supply.”
Future plans
Kitikmeot Foods is preparing for
growth, but it will be slow, measured
growth.
Lacasse says there are no expansion
plans in the near future. They will continue
to harvest and prepare products to be put
back into the Nunavut marketplace.
Because they fish sustainably and under
18 country-guide.ca March 31, 2015
business
vide employment for community members and local food for the territory’s
population in a prohibitively expensive
business environment.
The vagary of Arctic animals means
a quota system, what they can harvest
is not unlimited. While he’d like to see
the muskox population bounce back, he
doesn’t expect it to happen any time soon.
Both Lacasse and Nichol see a market
for caribou, but the feasibility of the hunt
first needs to be assessed. “Logistics-wise,
to carry caribou it’s not cheap. The caribou
don’t stay put. They are that kind of animal
that like to travel, travel, travel so much a
day, so they’re always on the move. It’s not
like the muskox,” Lacasse says.
Going forward, Kitikmeot Foods will
continue to operate on the business model
it has built up over the past 24 years,
sharing the fish that the rivers around
Cambridge Bay have been endowed with.
Kitikmeot will also continue to pro-
the company must remain flexible. And
Kitikmeot Foods will continue to contend
with its No. 1 challenge, Mother Nature,
which as farmers know is always fickle,
with a mind of her own. CG
From the NDC Annual Report, 2012-13
Kitikmeot Foods Ltd.
2013
2012
Revenues
$1.45 million
$1.28 million
Expenses
$1.08 million
$1.38 million
Surplus (Deficit)
$376,100
$(99,200)
Jobs Created or Maintained
10.41
11.20
Subsidy Fund Contributions
Bleed: 8.625”
$330,000
$330,000
Capital Fund Contributions
Trim: 8.125”
$395,000
$53,000
7”
*Subsidy and Capital FundLive:
Contributions
from NDC are included in revenue
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business
Get in shape
for family meetings
What kind of meeting athlete are you?
Check out this new take for meetings your
By Amy Petherick
family will be proud of
Are you a couch potato when it comes to talking to your family about critical farm decisions?
The comparison isn’t so far fetched. In a way, family communication is a lot like physical fitness. Even
the best of us have areas that need a little toning, while many more of us need to spend serious time just
learning how to make communication a more routine part of our lives.
It’s similar in this way too. Communication skills are like muscle groups. The “use it or lose it” rule
definitely applies.
So let’s begin right there… at the beginning. What’s your communication fitness level? What kind of
communication athlete are you?
Because the goals are worth it — a healthier family, and tighter family decisions.
If you’re a couch potato
Yes, your family sits down to talk about farm
business, if it’s Christmas, someone’s birthday, or
some other family dinner.
Shauna Feth, executive director of the Alberta
Family Business Institute says if this is you, then
you’re not getting the most out of the exercise of
having family meetings.
Instead, Feth says farm meetings will be a lot
more effective if they’re conducted with a more
formal structure. She likes to promote the idea of
working on building up your meeting skills the same
way you would build a muscle.
Start with the equivalent of the stretching you’re
supposed to do before you work out. In a meeting
context, Feth says this means agreeing ahead of time
on an agenda. This is a basic starting point because
it allows everyone the chance to come into the meeting with well-thought-out ideas.
It’s also an easy first step for establishing a new
routine, and although it will take a bit of effort the
first few times you do it, practice will soon make
perfect, Feth says.
20 country-guide.ca Remember, you don’t have to go for the big
agenda items right at the start. Instead of discussing
succession, why not get together for an hour or two
to discuss how you will work together as a family to
get the field work done this spring, and who will be
responsible for what.
“Like a muscle, once you start, exercise it all the
time,” Feth recommends. “Then everybody starts
falling into the process and it gets so much easier.”
Morgan Knezacek, a human resources and communications professional based in Manitou Beach,
Sask., recommends that families start by focusing
directly on the purpose of each meeting, with clarity
about what you are trying to achieve.
Knezacek says this makes the meeting targeted,
and as a farm partner herself, she knows that no one
has time to waste on a pointless meeting. “Because
otherwise you can meet for hours,” Knezacek sighs,
“and you don’t have time to meet for hours!”
A simple way to control the time dedicated
to meetings is to divide them into daily, weekly,
and monthly discussions. Knezacek recommends
March 31, 2015
business
a daily check-in to share schedules and activities
planned for the day; a weekly review with all
farm stakeholders to assess the week’s key activities, determine expected outcomes, and resolve
obstacles; and then a monthly meeting for strategic discussions on those critical issues that require
analysis, brainstorming, and decision-making.
“Once you’re having the meeting, be clear about
what’s at stake, and what could happen if bad
decisions are made,” Knezacek recommends. Like
a good exercise routine, she says deciding which
combination of issues belongs to which meetings
can take some time at first. Her training advice is
to set up a whiteboard in a common area so anyone can add to the working agendas for weekly and
strategic meetings.
Betty Hansen, a family business facilitator based
in Mossley, Ont., agrees completely that separating
issues into different types of meetings is crucial. She
also believes it’s important to name meetings with
care, considering what types of meeting your family needs as you are defining what each meeting’s
purpose is. “Let’s categorize them appropriately so
that people don’t get their nose out of joint because
they’re not at the table when they think they should
be,” says Hansen.
For instance, Hansen explains, having a “family
meeting” without inviting the brother who works
off the farm could easily cause friction, but a “stakeholder meeting” or “operational meeting” is a different story. Choose your words wisely, she suggests.
If you’re a weekend athlete
You refer to your family discussions as meetings.
You can even produce some financial statements or
other written evidence afterward. But you only meet
“as needed” and not on a schedule.
An important element of successful meetings is keeping them focused. Family business facilitator Betty Hansen points out that having strict time limits will make
everyone more likely to commit. For daily meetings, aim
for a maximum five-minute discussion. Weekly meetings
can stretch into 30 or 45 minutes. Monthly meetings
should allow for one to two hours of conversation.
Each family’s needs are different, but whatever is
agreed upon, Hansen says it is absolutely imperative
that the meeting end on time. “If we haven’t come to
a resolution, we schedule another meeting,” Hansen
says. “I’d rather have a meeting that’s scheduled for
an hour and finishes in 45 minutes with a couple of
good decisions made.”
Creating a neutral tone for meetings will
help in keeping the meeting focused,
but Shauna Feth of the Alberta
Family Business Institute confesses this can be especially difficult when the people involved
are family. A lot of baggage easily finds its way to the table.
March 31, 2015
Even terminology can help, says
facilitator Betty Hansen. Maybe
it isn’t a “family meeting,” it’s
an “operational meeting.”
“If you want to professionalize the business, you
really have to separate the conversations that would
happen as a family versus as a business,” Feth says.
Deciding on a code of conduct for your meetings and
making sure that everyone follows it is one way to
achieve this. For example, everyone can agree not to
interrupt someone who is speaking. A calm, professional atmosphere will help everyone feel comfortable expressing their ideas, even if those ideas lead to
conflict at the table.
For people who don’t want any conflict in their
meetings, HR consultant Morgan Knezacek says
there’s no gain without some pain. But just as there is
good muscle pain and bad muscle pain, there is good
and bad conflict in meetings.
“Sometimes in these meetings we can drift off
into that bad conflict, so I encourage people to stay
on track and shift to good conflict,” Knezacek says.
It’s important to remember that good conflict is
never personal. Taking a curious approach to discussing an issue often builds trust and respect among
the group.
“Seeking opposing views is good problem solving
and good leadership. You’re gaining perspectives for
decision-making,” Knezacek says.
Always separate the people from the problem so
that the focus is on “the betterment of our farm” from
every perspective.
Continued on page 22
country-guide.ca 21
business
Continued from page 21
If your family has developed bad habits in the conflict department of your meetings, one thing to reconsider may be your
seating arrangement. Research from UBC’s
Sauder School of Business shows that seating arrangements can have a major impact
on the way people think. If the farm family is sitting in a circular formation, everyone will be more likely to want to belong
to the group and less prone to antagonistic
behaviour. In contrast, researchers found that
people are more likely to look out for No. 1
if they are seated in an angular arrangement,
as they would be at a traditional boardroom
table.
22 country-guide.ca For extreme
bodybuilders
You meet regularly, produce agendas
and keep minutes, and your farming
family is always looking for new ways
to make sure they’re having the best
meetings ever.
A body can become accustomed
to routine exercise, so experts advise
dedicated athletes to make frequent
changes. The same principle needs to be
applied to your meeting muscles.
“Make sure everyone takes turns
with recording notes at the meeting, so
it’s not just one person,” advises HR
consultant Morgan Knezacek. This fos-
ters appreciation, which she believes
can be hard for farm families to express.
“I think we’re often really hard on
ourselves as farmers, and we’re pretty
humble people, so we don’t really give
ourselves kudos when we deserve it,”
Knezacek says. Appreciation is a layered thing, she explains, and it’s learned
too. Practising appreciation is just
inherent on some farms, but others are
more accustomed to tough love.
“Just saying to somebody, ‘I don’t
say it very often, but I know how hard
you worked to get this farm to where
it is today, and we really appreciate it,’… those are the kind of things
that can make all the difference in the
March 31, 2015
business
world,” family facilitator Betty Hansen says. “The odd little
bouquet of flowers wouldn’t hurt either.”
Showing appreciation and being respectful are the most
important elements in setting the tone of your farm meetings.
Hansen says setting the right tone is largely impacted by the
type of language that’s used in meetings. When she is leading
workshops, she likes to demonstrate this point by asking the
group what kind of time frame they’re thinking of when she
says, ‘we’re doing it soon.’ “I’ll go around the room and I’ll
have anything from ‘in two hours,’ to, ‘in 10 years,’” she says.
Of course, even if you’ve addressed these pitfalls in the
past, time has a way of impacting the urgency different farm
family members feel. Shauna Feth of the Alberta Family Business Institute says more farms involve two or even three generations who bring different goals and skills to the table, none
of which remain static.
The world of agriculture is constantly changing, and Feth
has observed how young people connect easily to new ideas,
while older generations offer valuable experience and knowledge of what’s been tried before.
Feth cautions even the most skilled families to remember
that each generation has important insights to contribute to
the business as time passes.
“You’re not going to perform surgery on yourself just
because you think you know how from the Internet,” Feth
says. “There’s a lot of experience and a lot of intelligence
around what’s happened in the previous generations that can’t
be lost.” CG
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March 31, 2015
country-guide.ca 23
business
The costs of living
When farmers have more, they spend more. The question is,
can farm families stop spending if they have less?
By Maggie Van Camp, CG Associate Editor
aybe the biggest surprise is
that the numbers aren’t all that
surprising. Average family living expenses skyrocketed from
about $53,000 per farm in
2004, say researchers at the University of Illinois,
to $81,000 in 2013.
After starting at $84 per acre, living costs jumped
in that one decade to $121 per acre in 2013.
Nor is it a surprise that the increase followed
corn prices. Researchers Brad Zwilling, Brandy
Krapf and Dwight Raab looked at the financial
data from the 1,300 members of the Illinois State
Farm Business Management Association whose
families have three- to five-member families.
On average, non-capital family living expenses
on those farms (mainly grain farms) in 2013 were
5.3 per cent higher than the year before. When
they added in capital expenditures, like the portion
of the vehicles not used for the farm, family living
expenses increased to $89,130 for 2013, a $4,118
increase per family from the previous year.
Other numbers in other states are similar. For
instance, David Kohl, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech, reports the average farm family living
cost in Nebraska for 2011 was $85,733, up from
$79,250 the year before, based on annual family
living cost summaries provided by the professionals
of the Nebraska Land Farm and Ranch Management Education Program.
Figure 1. Total family living expenses per
tillable operator acre, 2004-13
130
$ per tillable acre
120
110
100
90
80
70
2004 2005
2006
2007
Source: University of Illinois
24 country-guide.ca 2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Then Kohl, who is also president of AgriVisions
and part owner of Homestead Creamery, drilled
down further to find how much these living costs
were eating into corn profits that year.
For a farm of 1,000 acres with 150-bushel corn
yields, about 80 cents a bushel went toward living
expenses and taxes.
Kohl is concerned that the nine-year supercycle
occurring in the grain and row-crop sector is being
built into the family living budgets of many producers, and it’s going to be difficult to cut back.
Nor is this spending pattern restricted to farm
families south of the border.
From 2010 to 2013, when total farm cash
receipts for Canada increased by more than $10
billion, rural spending followed suit. According to
Statistics Canada, average rural household expenditures (i.e. for Canadians living outside of population
centres of 1,000 or more) climbed to $72,040 in
2015 from $61,735 in 2010, up nearly 20 per cent.
Of course, the picture is complex. Farmers make
up only about 10 per cent of the six million folks
considered as rural population in Canada. Plus, at
least half of census farms had one or both spouses
with non-farm occupations, and their household
expenditure patterns are likely similar to any other
rural household.
As well, with such a small population sample,
numbers can jump significantly from year to
year, says Ray Bollman, research affiliate with
the Rural Development Institute at Brandon
University and adjunct professor at the University
of Saskatchewan.
Tax management can be a big factor too. When
the Illinois researchers looked at what those family dollars were actually spent on, they found that
income and social security tax payments rose to 31
per cent in 2013 from 12 per cent in 2004.
In Nebraska social security and income tax
for 2011 was over $40,000. Once incomes rise to
a certain level, prudent tax planning can make a
huge difference. Non-farm expenses devoted to
income and Social Security taxes rose from 12 per
cent in 2004 to 31 per cent in 2013.
Also, Kohl noted that the largest individual cost
in this U.S. group was for medical expenses, including health insurance premiums. They were over
$12,000 in 2011, nearly tripling in a decade.
March 31, 2015
business
How do you compare?
Manitoba-based farm family coach and succession planner, Elaine Froese says one of the starting
points for succession planning is nailing down how
much families need to live on. (She asks her clients
how they plan to be fair to non-farming family
members, and where they are going to live.)
It’s a sum that can vary a lot from farm to farm,
Froese says.
Jonathan Small agrees. Over his years as farm
management consultant with MNP, he has seen
a wide range of expenditures, anywhere from
$30,000 to $200,000 a year.
Yet when Froese and Small ask families what
they live on, very few farmers seem to know. “About
70 to 75 per cent of my older-generation clients just
don’t know what they need,” Small says.
Many older parents have never lived on a written budget and are transitioning into a new spending phase of their lives. Some older-generation
farmers will set unrealistic budgets that are so high,
the kids don’t have a chance. Others are extremely
frugal. This generation somehow made it through
some very lean times and is used to big fluctuations
in farm income.
“There are farm families that have spent 40
years living on fresh air,” says Small. “They can’t
change from this Prairie mentality.”
One of the facts of life for farm and ranch
families is income irregularity, either in amount or
timing, and many farms have built a resilience into
their DNA that helps them deal with downturns.
March 31, 2015
Profits left in the business grow
your net worth. Living expenses
boost someone else’s
“These farms have set a big gap between personal needs and profits. They want to be able to
handle a disaster of biblical proportions,” says
Small. “They can weather the storm.”
By contrast, more younger-generation farmers
have worked off the farm and they are more likely to
understand personal budgeting. Of course, they also
have a very different commodity-price business experience in the last few years, and they have different
expectations on the income side of the budget.
Culture is a huge part of setting living expenses,
says Froese. For example, all Hutterite members take
a vow of poverty, renounce private property and hold
all their possessions in common. They devote all of
their time, labour and energy to the community.
In Froese’s perspective, it’s also about fundamentally understanding what makes you happy.
Maybe you prefer to save for the next generation,
or maybe you like to donate profits, or maybe you
just want to buy a boat.
Those are personal choices, but the choices
must respect your budget, and the decisions must
be made in the light of how they will impact the
future of your farm business.
Continued on page 26
country-guide.ca 25
business
Continued from page 25
MNP’s Small sees another cultural impact in
more densely populated regions, where farmers’
friends and neighbours are living on higher, more
consistent wages from jobs in the city. These farmers want to live more extravagantly too, and with
big fluxes in farm income, there are some years
they can afford to keep up.
However, Small has also seen how difficult it
can be to pull back in the lean years, because
this higher standard of living becomes part of the
farmer’s culture.
“Living expenses are inelastic,” says Small.
“This can be a blessing and a curse.”
Small has witnessed spending increases reach a
certain level, then plateau. The farmers are comfortable and busy and don’t have that much time to
spend the money. This point of inflection is different
for everyone, but is affected by culture, time and discipline, says Small.
Once farmers reach that point of spending, any
additional money left in the farm rapidly increases
their ability to buy land and invest.
The other side of the coin is that some farmers don’t give themselves raises. They’d prefer to
cut their lifestyles or find off-farm work to fund
them. This has helped people get through sustained
downturns and generate wealth in the business
while staying relatively small. Small talks about
one client who has two sons interested in farming.
They crop only 2,000 acres but over many years
have accumulated nearly $2 million in cash.
How much do you spend?
Three approaches can help you understand your
personal living expenses, says Small. If you have
time, you can simply write down what you spend
as you go.
Alternatively, you can go back through your
records and piece together how much the family
used from previous years’ statements. Make sure
you include all the expenses, including the ones put
through the farm books as business expenses, and
use an average from several years.
The third way is to test what you can afford by
paying a set salary and seeing if you can live on
that amount. However, the problem of shining a
spotlight on income is that people tend to adjust
expenditures to stay within the salary, says Small.
If the goal is to find out what you need, you don’t
want it to be artificially set.
By writing your living expense budget on a
monthly basis and adding 25 per cent for unexpected expenses, you’ll get a better idea of personal
cash flow. This is really important because of the
seasonality of the business.
It can also help improve your perspective if you
have a separate account for household expenses,
26 country-guide.ca and then you compare it to business expenses.
Having only one chequing account makes it more
difficult to control family living expenses. The
business expenses are just relatively so much bigger.
A helpful fact sheet on how to manage farm
family living expenses, called Taking Control, by
Kathleen Prochaska-Cue and Sandra Preston, is at
www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/live/g2072/build/g2072.pdf.
Competing for equity
Farm family needs compete with the business
enterprise for cash. Both must be healthy. A key
objective in farming is to generate net worth, says
Small. That’s how the farm builds wealth.
Profits that are left in the business are how we
accumulate net worth. By contrast, draws for living
expenses and extras go into someone else’s business. They do not build farm assets.
“Taking a $10,000 vacation is basically piling that money and setting it on fire. It’s gone,”
says Small. “It might be fun, and a break might
be needed but it’s still not available for further
expanding the business.”
In England, Small saw clients’ personal expenses
outstripping the farm’s ability to earn. To compensate for this, the farmers would slowly sell off highvalued assets. Eating up assets enabled them to keep
operating, yet these farms were dying piece by piece.
Watch these ratios
On corporate statements, payment for effort is
reflected in retained earnings on the balance sheet.
If it’s too low relative to the size of the farm or the
productivity, there could be a problem. Basically
this means that the farm isn’t able to accumulate
equity, except in the appreciating value of the land
or quota.
Cost-of-production calculations should include
fair market value for labour. If they don’t, they can
be really misleading, says Small. “Your effort should
impact the bottom line instead of ownership.”
A couple of key financial ratios can send warning
signs that your living expenses are dipping into your
farm business too much. For example, if you are seeing a gradual trend of decreasing current ratio, you
might want to look to see if your living expenses are
using up too much of your available equity.
Another red flag to look at is any change in your
farm’s debt structure ratio. If the short-term debt (for
example, operating lines or credit cards) divided by
long-term debts is getting gradually bigger, you could
be headed toward problems. When Froese helped
with farm debt mediation, she said one big warning
sign was using credit cards to farm.
Although the numbers indicate a potential problem, it’s important to look at the whole picture and
communicate with everyone involved. CG
March 31, 2015
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C-53-02/15-10287620-E
business
Plan for value-add success
In the third of her series, Helen Lammers-Helps talks to
farmers about how the time they spent planning their new
value-added ventures saved them money and aggravation
By Helen Lammers-Helps
here’s a business school maxim that
says, “failing to plan is planning to
fail.” Based on the experience of Canadian farmers, it’s certainly true of value
adding.
Gary Morton, a Nova Scotia ag business consultant who has helped farmers launch value-added
products for more than 20 years, likes to begin talking to those farmers by pointing out that while 80
per cent of small business startups fail, 95 per cent of
franchise business startups succeed.
The reason, says Morton, is that franchises have
a step-by-step blueprint for success. They know what
to expect, and how much time and energy it will take.
Here’s proof that planning works.
Half of new businesses fail, but
95 per cent of franchises succeed
It’s too easy to dangerously underestimate how
much time and cost is involved in launching a new
product, Morton warns.
Even so, farmers can boost their odds by planning, says Jessica Kelly, direct farm marketing program lead with the Ontario agriculture ministry.
Planning helps you predict obstacles and weed out
bad ideas. It also helps prevent those nasty, stressinducing surprises that cost you time and money.
When you start the planning process, Andreas
Boecker, ag business professor at the University
of Guelph, recommends you focus on your goals.
(Boecker has worked with about 25 farmers studying
their value-added businesses, and a link to a summary of his work, along with other valuable online
business analysis tools, is in the resources section at
the end of this article.)
“You need to understand your motivation,”
Boecker says. Is it to put bread on the table for your
family, or is it primarily a retirement project or a
hobby? Is it to create jobs for your kids? Or is it to
help keep valuable employees on year round?
Your goals will determine how much income you
need to generate, says Boecker.
28 country-guide.ca Once you’ve got that basic perspective, agrees
Kelly, it’s time to tackle specific areas of your business plan, including detailed subplans for marketing, finance, human resources and production/
operations.
Your plan doesn’t have to be a glossy showpiece
(it may be more useful if it isn’t), but it should define
your goals, outline responsibilities, and set benchmarks for assessing progress. Plus, it should project
finances.
The business plan should also provide the essential documentation usually required by financial
institutions and government funding agencies.
In the planning stages, it’s essential to trace the
production process from the beginning right through
to delivery to the customer. Estimate how much
space is needed to house production equipment,
store inputs and store market-ready product. How
will your product get to the market? What are the
risks? How does it fit with your current business?
What quality control procedures will be needed?
Farmers really need to do their homework on the
regulations and rules involved in taking their product
to market, cautions Kelly. There may be strict regulations on labelling their products or on the size and
type of packaging they can use.
Learning from farmers
Fully understand what regulations apply to your
business idea, recommends Katie Normet, whose
River’s Edge Goat Dairy near Arthur, Ont. makes
and sells products from their goats.
Although it can be a lot of work to really get to
know the regulations, Normet says, understanding
the intent behind them will make it easier to ensure
you are in compliance.
Ontario’s Kelly advises farmers that there may be
several levels of government that have regulations
that apply to your business. For example, your local
municipality may have rules on the signage you can
use on your farm. There may be bylaws that control
the type of business you can operate on your farm.
Adding a processing facility to your farm could also
affect your property taxes. Inspection of certified
kitchens may fall under the jurisdiction of your local
health unit.
March 31, 2015
business
Be prepared for what may turn into
a sizable job, advises Cindy Wilhelm,
co-owner of Dragonfly Garden Farm in
Chatsworth, Ont. “The amount of regulation you need to know to run a farm business can be exhausting and frustrating.”
The nitty-gritty
When it comes to marketing, develop
a strategy based on your target customer.
What makes the product unique? What
are the benefits to the end-user? Why
would people buy your product instead
of the competitor’s? What are the marketing channels? What is your story and
where will you tell it?
For the financial planning phase, you
will need to set financial targets and estimate the cost of production and capital
costs, project cash flow and identify sources
of financing and possible funding sources.
Kelly recommends including optimistic, realistic and pessimistic bench marks
for both sales and costs.
The benchmarks you use will depend
on the reason for the value-added business, adds Kelly. “If you’re expanding so
you can keep good staff on year round,
then you’ll compare your profits to the
cost of keeping the employee.”
One mistake many entrepreneurs make
is not determining an accurate cost of
production, warns Kelly. “They overlook
things,” she says, so don’t forget to include
your time, electricity used and trucking
costs (e.g. gas, maintenance, depreciation).
Wilhelm agrees. “Know and understand each expense, know your cost of
production, and know how many pounds,
kilos, cans, jars, bars or baskets of whatever you sell it will take to break even.”
New ventures often get caught in a
cash flow crunch. “When you spend
money to run and expand your business,
you need to understand how long it will
take for that expense to generate sales,”
says Wilhelm.
Tim Barrie, owner of Barrie’s Asparagus Farm and Country Market near
Kitchener says that by the time he develops a new product and the packaging, he
doesn’t make anything on it the first year.
It’s also frustrating, he says, that after
you do all that work, others may copy
your products, Barrie adds.
You’ll need to give some thought to
who will do the work and what kind of
skills they will need. What skills will you
need to hire in and what will you outsource? What kind of training will staff
need? What are your responsibilities as an
employer — safety, training, government
deductions, insurance, etc. And how will
you prevent entrepreneurial burnout?
Meghan Snyder, co-owner of Snyder’s Family Farm, a pumpkin farm near
Plattsville, Ont. that specializes in agritainment, agrees on the need to adapt.
“It’s a rapidly changing industry,” she
says. “These days people really want you
to create an experience for them.”
Some of the changes Snyder has seen
over the past few years include customers who are increasingly safety conscious,
who want to buy online, who demand a
good website because they want to know
what to expect before they come, and
who want good signage onsite.
Belonging to organizations like the
Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association helps her to stay on top of changing
trends, Snyder says.
While the amount of planning needed
depends on the experience of the entrepreneur and whether it’s a completely
new venture or an add-on to an existing enterprise, all businesses will benefit
from creating a well-thought-out plan.
But it’s also essential to maintain some
flexibility, even in terms of the plan itself.
“It’s a living document,” Kelly says. “Be
prepared to adapt and change.”
Morton agrees. Planning is a circular
process, he says. As you learn more you
will always be going back and revising. CG
Resources
Dr. Andreas Boecker’s case studies, Best Management Practices for
Direct Farm Marketing and business
tools available here: www.omafra.gov.
on.ca/english/busdev/directfarmmkt/.
Farm Management Canada has
lots of great resources and webinars.
Webinar by Prof. Andreas Boecker
(University of Guelph) about direct
marketing and innovation available at:
www.agriwebinar.com/.
Information on how to prepare a
business plan can be found at the
Ontario ag ministry website at www.
omafra.gov.on.ca/english/busdev/facts/08051.htm.
Other useful sites:
www.canadabusiness.ca
www.canadaone.com
www.sbinfocanada.about.com
www.communityfuturescanada.ca
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fcc.ca/Knowledge
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2015-02-27 10:59 AM
business
Finding
the Peace
Times might be changing,
but Alberta’s Peace River Country
is still like nowhere else
By Gord Gilmour, CG Associate Editor
t was the height of summer and what should have been
late evening when the engines of the small regional jet
slowed almost imperceptibly and the craft began to
make its gentle descent into the northern Alberta city of
Grande Prairie.
The first thing that grabbed the eye was mile upon mile of
yellow-blossomed canola setting seed under the harsh, bright
subarctic sun. Crops seemed to flow endlessly towards the horizon, only occasionally broken by an equally oversized patch of
green where a cereal crop had just started to ripen.
It was closing in on 9 p.m., with the sun promising at least a
couple more hours of gleaming daylight before it would let dusk
begin to gently settle over the scene.
This is the near-mythical Peace Country, a land of fertile
plains in the valley of the Peace River, one of the major tributaries of the Mackenzie River system.
If the Canadian Prairies were the “Last Best West” as they used
to be touted to settlers, then this northern Eden is the special reserve
edition, or, as more than one resident will remind me during my stay
here, God’s country.
Oversized
Early the next morning, it was time to meet Gregory Sekulic,
the local agronomist with the Canola Council of Canada who
lives on a nearby acreage and works throughout the region.
Sekulic grew up on a farm here before leaving for university.
Now, with the busyness of the field-call season just nicely
quieting down, he has a little slack for introducing a visitor to
the lay of the local land.
The first challenge is finding the trendy coffee shop we’ve
agreed to meet at. It’s supposed to be here in this maze of bigbox and outlet stores. This retail complex, by the way, seems
way too big for a city of 55,000 until someone explains their
trading area runs as far north as Yellowknife, N.W.T., encompassing several hundred thousand people.
30 country-guide.ca Once we’ve found each other and
settled down over a cup of java, Sekulic
explains what, in his view, makes his
home a very special place.
“I always say — and I’ve certainly
heard other people including my predecessor say this — that the Peace is as much a
state of mind as a place,” Sekulic says.
The Peace is defined both by its place
and its people, he tells me.
When the first farmers arrived, they
found fertile grasslands and aspen parkland competing with fingerlings of boreal
forests, all with a healthy dollop of muskeg thrown in, making travel extremely
difficult in the early years. To that extent,
it wasn’t unique.
“Anyone who grew up in that transition zone, this is going to look a lot like
home to them,” Sekulic says.
He’s right. I grew up on the northern
fringe of farmland in Saskatchewan, and
March 31, 2015
business
this is familiar. But it isn’t the same, and the
major difference is the question of latitude.
Across Western Canada, the switch
from field to forest starts near Winnipeg
and angles steadily northwest, following the southern boundary of the Canadian Shield, climbing higher and higher
towards the Arctic.
Here at its northernmost, it takes on a
distinctly subarctic flavour, especially with
the extremely long days and short nights
at the height of the summer. At summer
solstice, for example, the sun sets just after
11 p.m. and rises just after 4:30 a.m. and
much of what’s left isn’t truly night, but a
twilight that seems to linger.
In winter, though, the days are brutally
short, and the nights are cruelly long. It isn’t
a place for everyone, Sekulic concedes, which
helps explain the local agriculture industry’s ongoing struggle of finding enough
workers, although Sekulic also insists this
is actually a great place to make a home.
It’s as much a state of
mind as a place, says
Sekulic (l), while Newman
adds, outsiders “think
we’ve just stepped off a
bloody iceberg.”
“It can be difficult to attract people
here, and to retain people,” Sekulic says.
“But those who do come, stay and get
involved, I think the community and
industry really embrace them.”
Later that morning, the rental car
pointed north on Hwy. 2, and the trip
began through the rolling fields and wide
open skies of the southern Prairie-like
portion of the region, through towns like
Sexsmith and Rycroft before giving us
our first real glimpse of the river at the
crossing at Dunvegan.
The Dunvegan Bridge is a surprise,
looking for all the world like a small
replica of the Golden Gate Bridge set in
northern Alberta. This time of year, the
river is flat and slow moving, but a band
of silt on either shore suggests this isn’t
always the case, hinting at wild spring
floods and fluctuating water levels.
To the north, everything seems subtly
March 31, 2015
different. It’s not like you’re suddenly in
the middle of the wilderness. It’s still very
much farm country. It’s just a bit wilder,
and it feels just that bit more remote. We
strike a line straight north, aiming for
High Level, our first overnight stop.
As the hours klick off, the feeling of
isolation only increases. Longer and longer
patches of forest interrupt the farmland,
until during the last portion of the drive,
nearly an hour passes with evergreen forest
on both sides of the road. Finally, though,
it opens up as we approach High Level,
and the farmland appears and rolls out for
miles toward the east, forming the Northern Block of the Peace District.
As the day winds down, the town
seems to wait for darkness to fall, and I
finally head up to bed in a midnight twilight. In the morning, two remarkable
things become apparent. The first is a sign
just outside the hotel, indicating the southern border of the Northwest Territories is
just 190 kilometres to the north.
The second can be seen just peeking
above a row of trees that isolates the
railway line and industrial area from the
highway. It’s an unassuming-looking oldstyle wooden elevator that’s unique not
because of its design, but its geography.
What we’re looking at is the most
northernly grain elevator in the Western
Hemisphere, and perhaps in the world.
We hear both claims made about the
facility — though the staff are reluctant
to make the second.
“Nobody’s really sure… I don’t
know what they’ve got in places like
Sweden and Russia. Do they even
have elevators there? I’m not sure,”
explains one elevator employee, taking
a few minutes to talk during the facility’s
annual maintenance shutdown, which
sees industrial mechanics swarming the
facility to service it.
The facility is part of the Richardson
International network, and it’s the sole
elevator serving close to 300 farm clients,
though many also haul a portion of their
crop hours to the nearest large concrete
facilities to the south, many clocking
four- and five-hour one-way hauls.
It highlights a perpetual problem for
growers in this region. They struggle
with long distances to elevators, and with
what they say is spotty rail service. While
the region is far less isolated than in past
years, few would argue it’s anything but
the end of the network.
Our birthplace
From here, though, we’re off to visit the
unlikely birthplace of agriculture in Alberta.
It’s the height of the summer in Fort
Vermilion, and Greg Newman breaks
for lunch at a roadside restaurant
on the banks of the Peace River and
considers how outsiders perceive the
unlikely prospect of farming in this part
of the world.
He’s heard the shock from strangers, acquaintances, and even from good
friends in other parts of the province.
“They think we’ve just stepped off
a bloody iceberg and fought off a polar
bear or something,” Newman says with
a hearty laugh.
Newman farms some 2,300 acres
of grain and, by any measure, is one of
the most northerly grain growers on the
continent, yet his hometown has the distinction of being among the oldest settlements in Alberta, founded in 1788.
Newman notes proudly too that farming
goes back almost as far, starting earlier
than almost anywhere in the province.
It wasn’t until the early part of the
20th century, though, that farming really
took off. That’s when transportation
links to the rest of the province were
established, and the land was opened
up to homesteading. It’s how Newman’s
family came to be farming in the area for
the past 85 years.
Continued on page 32
country-guide.ca 31
business
Continued from page 31
Fast-forward
Still, a strong sense of the frontier
past lingers, right alongside a progressive farm community that pushes as
hard as any other.
On the one hand there are massive
fields amalgamated in the name of
efficiency that can run two or three
miles along the road in canola and
wheat. On the other hand, there is still
new land being wrested from the bush
as producers clear part of an expected
136,000 acres that were recently
earmarked for sale and breaking by the
provincial government.
All in all, it’s an agricultural oasis in
the middle of the boreal forest, at turns
isolated and unlikely yet also wildly
beautiful and productive. Travelling
through it, it becomes clear just why it
has become the stuff of legend, and lwhy
it’s a place that attracts an unlikely cast
of originals and iconoclasts.
Just a few hundred metres down
the highway from the restaurant, Jacob
Marfo is simultaneously at home and a
fish out of water — at home because his
blunt honesty and sense of humour fit
right in with the rest of the locals, but
out of place because the last thing you
might expect to find in such a northern
outpost is a transplanted Ghanian.
Marfo, an agronomist, comes to
Fort Vermilion by way of Thunder Bay’s
Lakehead University, where he earned a
doctorate in forestry and natural resource
management. These days he lives and
works at the River Road Experimental
Farm, a former federal research facility
that’s now managed by the Mackenzie
Applied Research Association, a joint
venture of the local government and local
growers. Marfo concedes with a chuckle
there’s been a bit of an adjustment,
especially with the sunlight that in
summer never seems to quit.
The facility he manages has a twin
focus. It performs contract research for
various entities looking for site locations.
It also performs field-scale trials using
commercial equipment to test various
techniques and products.
Greg Newman, who chairs the organization’s board, says the commercial-scale
efforts are particularly important because
their unique environment can affect how
things work.
“Some of these products are a pretty
penny, you really want to make sure they
work,” Newman says.
In the long summer days,
says research manager
Jacob Marfo, crops grow
at blinding speed
32 country-guide.ca March 31, 2015
business
One of the things Marfo has noted during his two years here
is just how fast the crops develop under the long, bright days.
Sometimes, in fact, they grow too fast for the research protocols
designed by centrally located scientists.
“There was a seed company we were working with which
sent us some information about what they wanted us to do in
a couple weeks, when the wheat was heading out,” Marfo says.
“I had to tell them that the plots were already headed out. They
couldn’t quite believe it.”
“The crops move fast,” Newman agrees. “It seems like you just
finish seeding, and you’re spraying weeds, then it’s right on to fungicides, and then you might take a couple days off and it’s time to
start thinking of swathing and combining. I’d estimate that they’re
at least 10 per cent faster than down south, maybe more.”
As Marfo shows off the facility, a portrait of a venture still
in development emerges. Several old outbuildings from its days
as a federal research facility are still present in various states of
decay, as well as obvious evidence of several buildings that have
been demolished, interspersed with new buildings constructed
for the facility’s new purpose.
Marfo says the goal is a facility that’s right-sized to the new
group’s work, while the previous incarnation was simply too grandiose and would have proven impractical to maintain.
Newman says he can understand how people might marvel a
bit at the prospect of commercially growing grain this far north,
but he insists that it’s not like he and his neighbours are living
a second-class lifestyle or anything like that. In fact, as former
reeve of Mackenzie County, it’s not a stretch to say that he takes
minor offence to these claims.
“I just don’t see it,” Newman says. “We have pretty much
everything someone living down south would expect to have,
in terms of services and amenities. In fact, I’d put the municipal
services up against anyone’s.”
Leaving Marfo and Newman, it’s time to press on, this time
taking a big loop to pass through the former Métis community of
La Crete, now largely populated by Mennonite families who have
settled there in recent years. This is one of the areas where new
land has been made available for sale, and the signs of land being
broken are all around. Trees are pushed up into piles, there are
roots scattered across the surface of the land, and of course, there’s
a hint of smoke in the air.
All this is part of an at times controversial land swap with
the province that Newman worked closely on in his role as a
municipal leader. In the end they’re hoping to get something
close to 136,000 acres opened to agriculture, the amount of
land they signed away in remoter locations back in the mid-’90s.
Newman says that’s been a struggle and he adds that so far the
numbers fall far short. He also insists the land isn’t the great deal
that many from the outside view it to be. It’s selling, unbroken,
for as much as $100,000 a quarter, and then the cost of breaking
the land has to be factored in.
“Sometimes, just for fun, people have teased me a bit about why
I haven’t taken any of this land myself,” Newman says. “I joke right
back that I plan to pick it up at the auction sale in a few years.”
We cross the Peace River again on the La Crete ferry, where
super-Bs hauling grain to the elevators in the south make just
enough room for a passenger car to squeeze in, and the drivers
gather, telling tales of grinding a full load down and up these
steep valley roads in the dead of winter. Just a few more miles
on, we rejoin Highway 2 and head for Manning, named for a
former premier, where we stop for the night.
March 31, 2015
from across the world
The following morning we join Peter Bigler at his farm a few
miles to the south along the highway, near the small community
of Hotchkiss. Bigler’s story is at once familiar and different, starting with him realizing while working on the farm as a boy that he
wanted a farming life.
The difference is, that farm was in Switzerland, owned by an
uncle, and Bigler knew if he wanted to chase the dream of farming, it wouldn’t happen there. “If I had stayed in Switzerland,
there’s no way I could have farmed,” Bigler says.
It was on a student farm employment exchange that he first
became acquainted with farming in Canada. Then, in the early
1990s, he emigrated permanently, bringing his young family
with him. First they settled in central Alberta, where they were
in the dairy business, but expensive quota made that business a
tough one. About 10 years ago, they moved north to the current
farm, where they raise crops and cattle on about 1,200 acres.
During our conversation on a bright, hot afternoon, Bigler
talks of opportunities both won and lost, of land that has suddenly got expensive, leaving him to wonder of the long-term viability of his operation, while at the same time wondering if the
near-monoculture practices of some of the other local producers
will prove any more sustainable over time.
Continued on page 34
Swiss immigrant Peter Bigler knew he
and his family could never farm in his
native Switzerland. For him, the Peace
is “an opportunity to try.”
country-guide.ca 33
business
Continued from page 33
In the meantime he works both on and
off the farm, including work for other
local producers and driving truck to haul
grain to market, while he and the family
brainstorm about what the future of the
farm will be.
“We’ve thought of all sorts of things,
like marketing directly to the Arctic, but
that brings a whole set of challenges,” Bigler says. “What it really boils down to,
in the end, is we have to give someone a
reason to buy something from our farm,
rather than any of the other farms.”
In a geographically isolated area, Bigler concedes that’s a challenge, but he
says it’s a challenge he’s willing to take
on in order to farm.
“At least I got the opportunity to try,”
Bigler says.
From here it’s a few miles back up north
to a spot near Keg River, where the Freeman farm is nearly an hour from the nearest community of any consequence.
Here David Freeman and his father Les
are working hard on getting the water system up and running after some problems,
but they pause for a few minutes to have
a coffee and talk about the life of the parttime farmer in the Peace.
Les was the local elevator agent until
that facility closed in the late 1990s during the wave of elevator consolidation.
He retired, but continued to farm, having
started farming organically a few years
earlier. Today David is a maintenance
manager with an energy company, and
he makes no bones about loving to farm,
but also makes no claims to be a fulltime producer.
“Well, my tax return says I’m a hobby
farmer,” he says with a chuckle. “It is
what it is.”
Les says the early days of the business
were tough, especially marketing the crops.
Finding buyers was a constant struggle, but
these days it’s all changed.
“With the Internet, you can find buyers
almost anywhere,” Les says.
Farming just a few hundred acres, the
business won’t make anyone rich, but it
gives them both enormous satisfaction,
something that’s evident in the enthusiasm
they show while talking about the farm.
David says the long-term fate of the
farm is still up in the air. Both he and his
dad still like to farm, but Les isn’t getting
any younger. A third generation, David’s
son, has been involved in the farm, but may
or may not decide to take it over in time.
“Right now he’s happier riding a bull
than a combine,” David laughs.
Heading back out into the yard, we
discuss getting a photo in front of the bins,
and Les speaks up, saying he hopes it won’t
give anyone a false impression.
“Whatever you do, don’t make
us look rich,” he says with a deadpan
expression.
“With the Internet, you can find buyers almost
anywhere,” says former grain merchandiser Les Freeman, who farms with son David
34 country-guide.ca McIntyre: ‘that drive to
improve yourself’
The final stop is south near Fairview
to visit Kelly McIntyre, whose immaculate
farm site is just a couple of miles outside
the town. He listens with patience to my
impressions of it to date before speaking
up himself. An Alberta Canola Producers
Association executive member, he finds
himself travelling regularly for meetings.
“It’s definitely not as isolated as it once
was,” McIntyre says. “We have excellent
roads now, and the airport at Grande Prairie with connections to anywhere you need
to go.”
Nor has the information revolution
bypassed the region. McIntyre has just as
good a sense of what’s moving grain markets as any grower in the country.
In fact, if remoteness is an issue, it
might be what McIntyre calls “the Peace
advantage.” It often takes years longer
for crop pests or diseases like blackleg in
canola to find their way here.
“Really, if I had a message for your
readers, it would be to invite them to
come here to see it for themselves. It
really is the sort of place you need to
see first hand,” McIntyre says. “It’s still
Canada, it’s still the same country, but
yes, we are a bit unique up here.”
I notice the “we.” It isn’t just the land,
so when I mention that a lot of the farms
seem to also have non-farm businesses,
and I wonder why, McIntyre ponders this
for a moment, then reaches for the “p”
word we might never use anywhere else.
It’s the ethos of the place, he explains.
It isn’t just the drive for self-improvement
as you might see it anywhere else. Says
McIntyre: “I think that might be a bit of
the pioneering spirit remaining.” CG
March 31, 2015
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business
From
hogs to shrimp
Who knew it would take five years of red tape
before Paul and Tracy Cocchio could convert their
hog barns into Ontario’s first shrimp farm?
36 country-guide.ca By Amy Petherick
March 31, 2015
Photography: Deb DeVille
business
alking into Paul and
Tracy Cocchio’s barn
on a chilly Ontario
morning feels like a
visit to the tropics,
and rightly so, because the livestock the
Cocchios are raising originate in decidedly warmer parts of the world. You
might say the barn is a kind of greenhouse for the animal side of agriculture,
with the couple becoming Ontario’s first
shrimp farmers.
It’s probably also the first time any of
us have read the words shrimp and farm
in the same sentence.
Aptly named, Ontario’s First Shrimp
Farm is the first commercial shrimp
operation in the province, and it just celebrated its very first harvest in January.
But it was a celebration that had been a
long time coming, with the Cocchios now
in their fifth year of pioneering a new
Canadian agricultural sector.
Located in Campbellford, two hours
east of Toronto, Paul and Tracy weren’t
always quite so unique. In fact, they fit right
in with all the neighbours back in 1991,
when they purchased the family dairy farm.
Paul’s father had been a true “cowman” and had built up the family farm
from scratch. But Paul was more attached
to the idea of being a farmer than he was
to the idea of milking every day, and he
soon started to consider a big change.
“We thought hog farming was the
way to go,” Paul says, and then laughs.
March 31, 2015
Tracy recalls it with a small shake of
her head too: “I was looking forward to
cooking our own pork chops.”
Paul remembers how they had considered making their move for quite some
time before finally deciding. Tracy says it
was really when the neighbouring parcel
of land came up for sale, that it seemed
the stars were aligning in their favour.
They purchased it and built three new
barns there in 1998. They tried to juggle
the dairy and pork businesses for the first
six months, but they soon got a taste of
the lifestyle hog farming offered.
It wasn’t long after that, however, that
it became obvious that luck hadn’t been
on their side after all.
“I forget what year the price fell
apart exactly, but we decided we were
done with hogs,” Paul said flatly. Cash
cropping mercifully proved more profitable through the early 2000s but the
problem of what to do with the barns
still had no answer.
“The floors wouldn’t hold cattle, we
tried a few other things but they wouldn’t
work either,” Paul admits.
When they finally heard about retrofitting for aquaculture, they were
ready to pencil out just about anything.
“They’re changing barns in Indiana,
mostly chicken barns, and they’re growing shrimp in them,” Paul told Tracy.
After touring operations in Maryland and Indiana, they finally discovered
an arrangement they could envision in
What do you do with a hog
barn when markets go
south? If you’re Tracy, Paul
and son Brad Cocchio,
you look south too
their own barns. “We had to pull all the
slotted floors out, and the posts and the
beams, have new concrete walls put in,
and then there was getting the linings
in,” Paul says.
Even with the considerable help and
guidance from their mentor, a shrimp
farmer based in Indiana who was just a
few more years ahead of the Cocchios
himself, they say the transition has been
challenging to navigate.
In fact, the mentor was the one who
finally nixed their idea to seal the concrete dividing walls instead of accepting
the added cost of shipping up liners from
an American supplier. “We can pick up
the phone and call him any time,” Paul
says gratefully, acknowledging that there
have been many times when they needed
a sounding board.
The red tape involved in their undertaking has seemed incredibly excessive.
To begin with, it took three years just
Continued on page 38
country-guide.ca 37
business
With a goal of 800 pounds a week,
Paul (l), and son Brad are finding
ready buyers in local markets.
Says Paul: “No one says no.”
Continued from page 37
to get the government to list “Pacific
White Shrimp” as a species to be grown
in Ontario. Then they had to conduct
a lengthy study that proved the saltwater species could not survive outside of
the barn, for which, Tracy admits, they
leaned heavily on the provincial aquaculture specialist, Steve Naylor.
Then it took another year to get
all the heating, aeration, and filtration
equipment shipped across the border, in
addition to ensuring they would also be
permitted to ship up fish food.
“We tried all over Canada to get
somebody to make us feed, but we don’t
use enough for them to want to do it,”
Paul explains. “We were stressed out
thinking, ‘are we going to get feed or
not?’” Tracy adds.
So it was a good day when the baby
shrimp finally arrived from Florida. They
come in batches of 11,000, each one the
size of an eyelash.
Their son, Brad, joins as we talk
about the shipment, and then he’s quick
to pull out his phone and show me pictures. Educated as a large-equipment
mechanic but working just down the
road at the local cheese factory, Brad
details the type of pellets being fed at
each life stage, and he talks of the critical levels of ammonia, nitrites, and oxygen that they test for three times daily,
and how algae break down feed for the
shrimp to consume.
38 country-guide.ca There’s clearly a lot of science and
technology to shrimp farming, and with
half the facility’s 16-tank, 208,000-gallon
capacity running at this stage, Paul and
Tracy find it takes four to five hours a
day for feedings and water sampling. But
you’d never know Brad wasn’t there full
time himself, and Tracy says that Brad is
the one who makes climbing into murky
pools of creepy-crawly creatures fun.
“Someday, he’ll hopefully take over
and we can retire,” Tracy muses, “but I
don’t know when that’s going to be.”
All three agree that it’s a much different way of raising livestock. One of
the best parts is that the relationship
between the algae and the shrimp, coupled with the need to recycle water for
nutrient and heat retention purposes,
means there is very little waste to handle.
On the other hand, though, it’s
nervewracking for all of them that the
clay-based feed and the algae make it
impossible to see the shrimp in the bottom of the holding tanks.
“You can’t see them, so you don’t
know what’s happening,” says Paul.
“Our first crop was terrible, the second
one will be much better, and the third
one looks like, hopefully, we’re starting
to get onto the right track.”
But Paul says they’ve been assured
this is just the nature of the business.
The family tells me that when they
shared their first harvest counts with
Steve Naylor, he congratulated them for
being honest, noting that if their first
report had been any better, he would
have suspected them of plumping up
their results.
Further advice from Indiana was
that it will be a full year before their
water fully stabilizes and, until that
happens, they won’t get a truly representative crop.
Eventually, they tell me, they’ll be
able to produce 800 lbs. of shrimp on a
weekly basis, without even touching the
two remaining empty barns. Not that
they have any intention of retrofitting
another building any time soon.
After five years, the Cocchios insist
they are focused on generating a return
on the time and resources they have
already invested, and Brad says the local
food movement is creating an extremely
favourable market.
“There’s nowhere to get fresh
shrimp,” Brad says. “It’s all imported.”
Paul says before they ever spent a
dollar on the barn, they conducted market research in the food retail business
and received enthusiastic responses from
potential buyers.
During the fall prior to their first
harvest, they had already received two
inquiries from large food suppliers, and
word of their first harvest has spread
rapidly through the local community,
resulting in regular calls and emails to
the family about where people can go to
start buying their shrimp.
“Let me put it this way,” Paul offers,
“no one says ‘no.’” CG
March 31, 2015
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business
Our failing price system
By Gerald Pilger
armers need to be asking tough questions
about how our grain is priced, and we
must not be satisfied without full answers.
Farmers continue to be confounded by
“basis.” Their complaints include the volatility in basis as well as a lack of transparency in how
basis is calculated. As well, many farmers believe that
the positive effects of the falling Canadian dollar are
not being returned to farmers through a better basis.
In short, many growers feel they are being underpaid
for their commodities because of a corrupted basis.
But do we actually have a basis problem? Or is
the current dysfunctional basis simply a symptom
of a much larger problem; namely, a broken price
discovery system?
What is basis?
By textbook definition, basis is the result of a simple calculation: Cash Price – Futures Price = Basis.
In the working world, basis is the difference
between the local cash price and the futures price to
reflect the real costs of storage, handling, transportation and interest incurred. Basis also includes, in the
case of a grain company or broker, a profit margin.
More importantly, from a seller’s viewpoint, basis
also reflects demand for delivery of the commodity.
If a buyer needs delivery of the commodity, the basis
will strengthen, thereby resulting in a higher cash
price for delivery of that commodity.
Lack of information
How many of you can tell me with certainty what
the actual local cash price is in your area for a specific
grain and grade? Likely, most of you can tell me, or
quickly find out, what the basis is for your delivery
point as well as the futures price. But most of you will
not be able to tell me what the local cash price is for
your area because no one is tracking cash bids.
Many of you will argue that the cash price would be
the future price minus the quoted basis. While this may
be the cash price you receive for a sale, it may have little
relationship to the real value for that commodity in your
area. The price you received reflects a single transaction
between two parties at a particular time. It may be well
above or below the local average price.
Worse, if cash price is determined by the basis
(rather than the basis being determined from the cash
price) it is giving all pricing power to the buyer.
The biggest problem facing farmers is not basis. It
is a lack of a local price. While some of that is due to
a lack of buyers and competition, the bigger problem
is that no one in Canada is tracking grain sales and
reporting pricing information.
40 country-guide.ca South of the border, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has been tracking and publishing unbiased price and sales information of farm
commodities since 1915. AMS employs over 4,000
people and has a budget of US$965 million for 2015.
AMS reports local cash prices as well as sales
volumes and quality of commodities sold and in storage. It collects data from both domestic sales and
international sales, and this regularly updated information is available within hours of collection via the
Internet, by telephone, and through printed media.
This information allows farmers to evaluate current market conditions, identify market trends, plan
sales, and plan for next year’s cropping. The portion
of the current AMS budget for this collection and
dissemination of price and sales data is US$35 million for 2015 alone.
Since the privatization of the CWB, we have had no
organization reporting on price and sales of Canadian
crops. This may be changing. On January 28, 2015
the Alberta Wheat Commission (AWC) announced it
was spearheading a pilot project of publishing regional
cash prices for a number of agricultural commodities.
A model of its Price and Data Quote (PDQ) website is
already up and running to give farmers and industry
the opportunity to provide feedback as to what price
and data information is needed, what can be collected,
and what they would like to see available. This test site
can be viewed at www.pdqinfo.ca.
Russ Crawford, one of the individuals tasked with
developing the price and data report concept, urges
farmers to check out the site and provide feedback as to
what information they feel they need and would like to
see included on the site. He hopes this site will become
the standard for local cash pricing just as ICI is for
futures pricing and Quorum is for grain transportation
and movement information.
Will this solve the problem we have with the lack of
an established local pricing system? Unfortunately, at this
time, there are only a few companies providing cash bids
to PDQ. Crawford and his partners are trying to encourage more companies to provide pricing information
through direct contact with grain companies, traders,
processors, and end-users.
Unlike in the U.S., where companies are mandated
to provide sales and price information to AMS, participation in providing price and data information on
commodity sales is voluntary in Canada. It is unknown
how many companies will participate. If the information on the PDQ site reflects only a small percentage of
commodity sales, it will not be of much value.
The second problem is that the funding for this
program is unclear. The federal government provided
March 31, 2015
business
$742,725 to get this program up and running, but there has been no promise of additional or continual funding.
Crawford says there are a number of
ways this could be funded in the future.
The AWC, which started the program,
may decide to be the sole owner of the
information, although Crawford feels
this may be outside its mandate. Other
commodity groups and commissions
may join the AWC to provide this information to all stakeholders. It may evolve
into, or be sold to, a private entity and
the information disseminated on a subscription basis.
Or it could be recognized, as it is in
the U.S., that this information is actually
for the public good and should be available to everyone, meaning it should be
government funded.
Let’s assume the PDQ concept succeeds and becomes an accurate accounting of local cash prices available to
everyone. If we are to be able to calculate a true basis, we must also question
whether the posted futures prices are still
a truly accurate reflection of supply and
demand for commodities.
Futures markets
Today’s futures markets are much different than they were when they were
first introduced. The original futures
markets provided both risk management (which they still do well today) as
well as a mechanism for price discovery.
Futures markets used to be used primarily by the actual buyers and sellers
of commodities. The settlement price
accurately reflected what the buyer and
seller of the commodity were willing
to trade the commodity for at a future
point in time. There were also a limited
but necessary number of speculators in
the futures market who were willing to
enter into a contract when there was a
lack of buyers or sellers.
But today, investor and speculator
trades often overshadow actual hedges.
A significant number of trades is rolled
forward rather than completed. It makes
us ask, is the futures price really an accurate reflection of market fundamentals?
Furthermore, except for canola, we do
not have an active Canadian futures market for any agricultural commodity. Does
the U.S. futures price accurately reflect
the future value of Canadian crops?
A necessary function of any futures
market is to provide the price structure
March 31, 2015
for delivering against a contract. Are
the U.S. future market delivery points
a feasible option for Canadian farmers,
especially given our congested transportation system?
And what impact has the privatization
of the futures markets had on the accuracy
of price discovery? When quantity of trades
becomes the driving factor in the profitability of a futures market, are we putting at
risk the regulatory role which used to be the
primary goal of the futures market?
If the futures markets are not an
accurate reflection of the future supply
and demand for commodities, then basis
again becomes meaningless.
Disparity between
international and
futures prices
Farmers are also angered over the
apparent disparity between Vancouver port
prices, futures prices and the price paid at
the elevator pit. While this difference should
be reflected as the basis, all too often the
rumoured price at port is well above the
money the farmer receives plus the basis.
Farmers want to know why the futures
price is not an accurate reflection of the
port price, given they are the ones paying
for delivery of that grain to port.
Of course, an even more important
question is, what are the actual prices
being paid for our grains at port?
Farmers are also questioning why
we are not seeing the arbitrage of prices
between Canada and the U.S. now that
the CWB is gone. Is it truly just a transportation problem, or are there other factors at play as well?
Is the abnormal basis level the problem, or is it simply the tip of the price
discovery iceberg? Are we, as producers,
being distracted by basis from a much
more serious problem — that of a lack
of price discovery? Have we allowed
buyers to corrupt the meaning of basis
so that it is no longer a valid delivery
signal for growers but rather a way for
buyers to manipulate price?
I have no answers, just a lot of questions, including the ones you have just
read. These are the questions every
farmer must be asking of their commodity organizations, farm groups, and
governments. We need answers to these
questions now or the problem will simply get worse as consolidation in our
industry continues. CG
Price discovery –
Gibson Capital Inc.
Iebeling Kaastra, research director
with Gibson Capital Inc. at Calgary is
concerned with the lack of price discovery in Canadian crops and livestock.
“There is very poor price discovery in agriculture in Canada,” Kaastra
says. “I fear that over time, it is getting
worse due to global trends, increasing
concentration of grain-handling businesses, vertical integration, the inability to launch new futures contracts,
and the lack of government funding for
price collection and dissemination.
“Farmers should be concerned.”
Kaastra argues.
Kaastra warns that poor price discovery can lead to price manipulation.
And, he points out, risk management is
not possible if prices are unknown.
Kaastra has written a short online
article entitled Price Discovery in Canadian Crops and Livestock which should
be read and considered by every farmer.
It can be viewed in full at www.gibsoncapital.ca/articles/price-discovery.html.
Some key points in that article
include:
• “… true price discovery is the result
of a competitive market in which
many buyers and sellers are transacting within well-defined rules.”
• “Price discovery in Canadian cereals,
pulses, oilseeds, and livestock markets have unfortunately lagged the
developments in the U.S.”
• “ For over 90 years the USDA has
embraced the ‘public good’ role of
price collection and dissemination.”
• “It is highly unlikely Canada will have
a new agricultural futures contract
any time soon.”
country-guide.ca 41
A M E - ma n a g eme n t
Financing proposals —
what to take to the bank
By Heather Broughton, Agri-Food Management Excellence
n farming, where access to adequate financing
is key to success, lender relationships can’t be
ignored. Nor can you neglect your approach to
your annual review meeting with your lender.
This is an important management function that
needs focus. How can we best manage those relationships and your annual review for long-term positive
outcomes?
“Lending transactions incur risk,” says Dennis Jones, branch manager, Servus Credit Union in
Ponoka, Alta.
This supports the first principle that AME teaches
in our finance modules; banks always get paid. Understanding how you manage in general (your skills) and
how you manage risks (operational, financial, pricing,
succession, and outside agreements) is key for lenders
when making decisions on lending you money.
How can you help them better understand you
and your business, and then better assess you in
terms of risk? They may turn down loan applications when they aren’t comfortable with the risk they
believe they are taking on.
First, the work starts long before the annual
review. Lending depends on relationships, and it’s
essential to start building and refining that relationship before you need that new loan for an expansion, not just when you arrive for your annual
review. Sitting down and having a discussion early
on about your business, your goals and intents, successes and challenges, gives the lender a background
about what you do, who you are, and what kind
of manager you are. Over time, it better defines the
relationship between you and your lender. Better
relationships yield better results.
Touch base two or three times a year. In order
to understand what they are looking for, learn what
financial ratios are important to your lender or if any
of their policies have changed.
When considering changes or expansion, use your
lender as a sounding board on the project before you
ask for the loan. Use them as a member of your team
in the project assessment.
As the relationship develops and loans are made,
if troubles are looming, be proactive in communication. Talk to them before trouble hits, instead of
reacting after the bottom falls out. This communication needs to be open and honest. The lender is in
a much better position to help you before disaster
happens than after. Remember, lenders don’t like
surprises.
You’ve worked on communication to provide the
42 country-guide.ca background. Now it’s time for the annual review.
What should you present?
1. Bring your strategic and operating plan because
your farm is unique. Providing a written plan is
optimal. Share your vision for your operation, where
you want it to go in the future, how will you get
there, and what resources are required. Who are the
key members of your team? How do you use them?
Include staff, your accountant, agronomist, advisers or consultants, and mentors. Also include your
knowledge about issues in your industry or marketplace that can impact your business.
2. Share your projections. Being realistic, not idealistic in the values adds to your credibility.
3. Include your financial statements. “It’s important to review and understand your financials before
the meeting,” says Craig Guthrie, senior relationship
manager, Business Banking, Servus Credit Union,
Ponoka, Alta. “Areas of concern? Point them out. If
an event or circumstance took place that had a significant impact on them, be clear on what happened,
and how you will manage it differently next year.”
Take the initiative. Understand the numbers and their
implications before you get to the bank. Invest time
with your accountant or adviser reviewing your statements and understanding your ratios. Demonstrate
you have the financial knowledge and management
skills required to assess needed changes.
4. Discuss your succession plans and risk management strategies. Sharing these with your lender will
give them assurance about farm viability and security
as the farm is transitioned to the next generation or
if there is a loss of a key member of the farm team. Is
there key-man insurance, which is standard in businesses outside of farming, to provide resources to hire
someone to replace a key position if they suddenly pass
away? Do you understand the tax strategies, tax implications and financial resources of transition?
Management skills are key factors considered in a
lender’s credit analysis. Demonstrate them. If you’ve
taken some courses, let them know.
These suggestions are applicable for both your
primary and secondary lenders. The larger the “ask,”
the more work and detail will be necessary in the
presentation. It’s about demonstrating your knowledge, ability, management skill, and yes, the numbers
to help your lender become comfortable with the
assessment and his risk in lending to you. CG
Heather Broughton is co-owner and president of
Agri-Food Management Excellence.
March 31, 2015
SOIL CONSERVATION
COUNCIL OF CANADA
SOIL CONSERVATION COUNCIL OF CANADA
CONSEIL CANADIEN DE CONSERVATION DES SOLS
The face and voice of soil conservation in Canada
NATIONAL SOIL CONSERVATION WEEK
provinces but what seemed to be lacking
was a body that could provide a national
“voice” for soil conservation needs.
In 1987, Senator Sparrow became the
Founding President of Soil Conservation
Canada, which would become the Soil
Conservation Council of Canada (SCCC).
N
ational Soil Conservation Week
is a legacy of The Honourable
Senator Herbert O. Sparrow,
a passionate champion for protecting
Canada’s soil. Senator Sparrow’s
1984 motion to the Standing Senate
Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and
Forestry “…to examine the subject matter
of soil and water conservation throughout
Canada”, produced the report,
Soil at Risk – Canada’s Eroding Future.
The Senate Committee travelled across
Canada interviewing farmers, academics,
government officials and individuals
and “…determined that we are clearly
in danger of squandering the very soil
resource on which our agricultural
industry depends.” Some action was
already being taken by local groups in the
As thoughts turn to spring planting
and seeding, so do thoughts regarding
soil preparation. While pondering their
spring tillage options, farmers should
take a few minutes to seriously consider
the impact on the soil. Although tillage
may provide perceived benefits, the
damage done to soil structure, organic
matter and soil micro-organisms can be
devastating. Soil erosion continues to
be a major concern across Canada and
eliminating tillage is one way of keeping
the soil in the field. Dust storms across
the Prairies, phosphorus entering the
Great Lakes and fish kills around Prince
Edward Island can be partially attributed
to soil erosion due to tillage. With
direct seeding or no-till planting, huge
reductions in soil erosion are achievable.
No doubt that Senator Sparrow
would be pleased that the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations has declared 2015 International
Year of the Soils. “The multiple roles
of soils often go unnoticed. Soils don’t
have a voice, and few people speak out
for them. They are our silent ally in
food production” stated José Graziano
da Silva, FAO Director-General.
Canada’s contribution to the UN-FAO’s
report on soils for International Year
of the Soil is led by Dr. David Lobb,
Department of Soil Science, University of
Manitoba. “Healthy soils are fundamental
to the sustainability of agriculture in
Canada. Erosion removes topsoil, reduces
soil organic matter and contributes to the
breakdown of soil structure. This adversely
affects soil fertility, movement of air and
water into and from the soil surface and,
ultimately, crop yields and profitability.
Yields from severely eroded soils may be
substantially lower than those from noneroded soils in the same field”, said Lobb.
Canadian farmers have already done
a lot to help conserve soil resources,
although more needs to be done. More
extension efforts in the area of soil
conservation and a greater awareness
of the problems and potential solutions
need to be explored and promoted. The
SCCC will be leading the charge as the
face and voice of Soil Conservation in
Canada. Paul Thoroughgood, chair of
SCCC, stated that “Every single Canadian
should be concerned about soil health
and soil care. Stewardship of our soil is
fundamental, not only for our survival,
but more broadly for the environmental
values Canadians often take for granted.”
National Soil Conservation Week is
a wonderful way to celebrate Senator
Sparrow’s dream, his mission and our
role in continuing his legacy. SCCC is a
national, non-governmental, independent
organization, formed to provide a
non-partisan public forum at the national
level for soil conservation. New members
and collaborators are needed. Simply visit
www.soilcc.ca and click on ‘Join SCCC.’
The legacy and vision continues.
NATIONAL SOIL CONSERVATION WEEK
April 19-25, 2015
www.soilcc.ca
@soilcouncil
business
A new venture
If you want to talk diversification in Canadian farming,
you’ve got to talk Hutterite. Fortunately, it’s a topic
Paul Wipf is proud to discuss
By Lisa Guenther, CG Field Editor
aul Wipf is a Hutterite ambassador of
sorts. He has talked about life on Hutterite colonies at Alberta farm shows, he
speaks openly to reporters, and he puts
time and effort into helping the general
public see what it means to be Hutterite.
Wipf is also the farm steward — he doesn’t like
the title “farm boss” — on the Viking Colony, about
two hours southeast of Edmonton. Typically, Hutterite colonies have a range of ventures, and the
Viking Colony, which sits squarely in Alberta’s parkland, is no exception.
Wipf and his brethren run a dairy, custom feedlot
and grain farm. They raise hogs and broiler chickens. They collect eggs from laying hens. They also
process their own chickens on the farm.
Most interesting of all, however, may be the way
the leaders on the Viking Colony mobilize their
community of 110 people to create and run several
ventures, utilizing both their business savvy and
their cultural roots.
Why diversify?
For the Hutterites, diversification at some level is
a practical response to a practical problem.
It helps Hutterites earn revenue, manage risk and
put people to work. Wipf puts the average grain
enterprise for a colony at about 10,000 acres. A
colony of 100 people would have about 30 or 35
working men, Wipf says. “You don’t need 35 men
farming, running farm equipment.”
Hutterites also face many of the same financial
pressures as their farming neighbours. Colonies also
pay income tax.
But they also need to tackle distinctive challenges.
Wipf says one goal for every Hutterite colony is
to make sure the colony is sustainable. Hutterites
care for each community member from the cradle to
the grave. It’s a major commitment.
Although individual members don’t accumulate
wealth, they don’t rough it, either. Wipf describes
Hutterite homes as “state of the art.” Take a peek in
a communal Hutterite kitchen and you’ll see shiny,
industrial equipment. And anyone who has been
44 country-guide.ca lucky enough to sit down for a meal on a Hutterite
colony will know that no one goes hungry.
But Hutterites not only need to maintain their lifestyles on existing colonies, they need to save enough
money to help future daughter colonies. Once there
are about 140 people in the colony, a daughter colony
may split from the original mother colony.
“The whole plan of a colony is to take care of the
next generations. It is no different from your parents
helping you through university and getting used to
that. But we do it to a greater extent,” says Wipf.
Mother colony members support the new colony
until it’s on its feet. That means finding a parcel of
land, building infrastructure, and getting the daughter colony up and running.
Picking a new venture
Hutterite colonies do have one advantage over
single-family farms when it comes to brainstorming new ventures. Colonies, because of their sheer
numbers, have a lot of “thinking power,” says
Wipf. And although not all ideas will work, he
March 31, 2015
business
With many having surplus available labour, colonies routinely brainstorm new
diversification options, getting accountants involved at a very early stage
agrees, “from those ideas some new
ideas can spring forward.”
The Viking Colony’s management
team includes a president/minister, a vicepresident, a financial manager/secretary,
councillors, and the farm steward. Colony members elect people to the financial manager and farm steward positions.
They also elect a small slate of candidates
for the president and vice-president system, and from there a lot system determines who holds those positions.
“So hopefully those people who vote,
vote with a vision for the future, spiritually and materially,” says Wipf.
Wipf and the rest of the colony’s management team discuss new business ideas
during their morning meetings. After analyzing the idea, if they decide it has merit for
their community, they start working with
their accountant and researching the idea.
The colony leadership then creates a
plan and presents it to members to discuss and vote on. Members trust their
leadership, Wipf says, but sometimes a
member will voice another idea. “That
could be a good idea and we’ll review it
again,” he says.
Wipf and the rest of the leadership evaluate new business ideas much the same
way any other manager would. They look
at costs of production to figure out what
they need to earn to make a profit. They
consider where the market is, and whether
the product is going to be in demand.
They eye existing businesses to see
if they can add value to their products.
Why ship poultry to Lilydale when they
can process the birds on farm?
Wipf also thinks about what gives the
colony’s products an edge over their competitors. “What makes Hutterite chicken
better than the usual grocery-store
birds?” he asks. “It’s the freshness. By the
time you get them into Sobeys or Superstore, who knows how old they are?”
Wipf also watches societal trends.
For example, as people move away from
home cooking and as families shrink, he
sees a place for smoked chicken.
Wipf is also conscious of branding,
and aware of the brand that Hutterites
have built over the years. “People seem
to trust Hutterites and the way that they
do a good job of raising their food.”
Hutterite human resources
Nor is the Viking Colony leadership
afraid to look outside the colony for
advice. Along with an accountant, Wipf
says they’ll consult with private agronoContinued on page 46
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country-guide.ca 45
business
Continued from page 45
mists and nutritionists to ensure their farm businesses run smoothly.
But a Hutterite colony’s success isn’t due just to its
leadership and consultants. Each member contributes
by working steadily and by throwing in their two
cents when the colony needs to make a decision.
A big part of Wipf’s job is to manage people. In
many ways, Wipf faces the same challenges other
managers do. But in other ways, Hutterite colonies
are unique workplaces in North America. Workers don’t draw a wage or salary. And Wipf says the
spiritual side is important.
“You start off in the Hutterite community by
teaching your children character, morals, faith and
your culture,” he says.
Young men start working in the colony’s business
ventures at age 15 or 16. Whether they’re living on
a Hutterite colony or downtown Toronto, teenagers
deal with many of the same growing pains. Wipf,
who has his own children, is familiar with the typical signs of teenage stress. Reassuring teenagers that
they’ll be supported through crisis is very effective,
in his view. “And so if you have that parenting ability, you can also apply that as a farm manager or
enterprise manager,” he says.
Wipf meets with each new worker to welcome
him into the workplace and set expectations. “I do
try to practise that I’ll be the best and first friend
that he’ll have. And with that, I try to win his
Hutterite history
Hutterites are descended from the Anabaptist movement and therefore
share roots with Mennonite and Amish followers. But Hutterites believe in
communal living, setting themselves apart from other Anabaptists.
Jacob Hutter was the original Hutterite leader, and the man from whom
Hutterites draw their names. Hutter was burned at the stake in Austria in
1536. His wife, Katrina, was executed two years later.
Today’s Hutteritism started out in Germany, but spent over 400 years moving
around Europe, often to escape persecution. They immigrated to the United States
from Ukraine in the 1870s. Most — about two-thirds — left communal life and
settled on their own individual farms.
The remaining Hutterites settled in South Dakota. They stuck with their
Old-World congregations, eventually forming the three branches of modern
Hutterites: Schmiedeleut, Dariusleut and Lehrerleut.
Today you’ll find most Schmiedeleut colonies in Manitoba and South
Dakota. The other two branches are mainly located in Saskatchewan, Alberta
and Montana. Hutterite colonies have also set up shop in North Dakota, Minnesota, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. Alberta has, by far, the
most Hutterite colonies.
Viking Colony members are part of the Dariusleut branch. Viking Colony is a
daughter to Warburg Colony, which is a daughter to Ferrybank Colony. Paul Wipf
has lived on all three of these colonies in his lifetime.
46 country-guide.ca heart,” says Wipf. “But there will come a time that
I’ll have to deal with issues.”
The new workers rotate through each of the
colony’s farm businesses, and learn some welding
and mechanics. This gives them a feel for things and
reveals their interests and strengths. Wipf says some
jobs are more desirable than others. He tries to give
workers the support they need to do the job, such as
sending them to hog board meetings.
Wipf does have to deal with workplace problems
sometimes. If someone isn’t pulling his weight, Wipf
speaks to him privately. He tries to separate the person from the issue, he says.
If the problems continue, the worker will meet
with the colony’s preacher and council.
“If he doesn’t hear them, he’s got bigger issues
than we can deal with,” Wipf says. “And sometimes
some of those things are best left alone, until they go
through whatever is ailing them.”
Most colony members don’t need a lot of motivation to do the job, though. If someone shows up late
for work or otherwise isn’t pulling his weight, he’ll
hear from his co-workers, Wipf adds. “It’s a selfcorrecting thing.”
Managers need to be able to anticipate change and
adapt, in Wipf’s view. Communication is important.
And Wipf doesn’t believe in micromanaging people.
“The best way is to get them to participate (in
decision-making). It’s the best way to lead people,” he
says. Inviting people to help make decisions on important matters makes them feel important and needed.
The future of Hutterite
diversification
When it comes to evaluating whether a business
venture is a success or not, Wipf says it’s more of a
process than an event.
As every farmer knows, some years are good
for grain farmers and not so great for the livestock
industry, and vice versa. The Viking Colony’s feedlot
doesn’t have big capital costs, so they can switch in
and out of that business depending on grain prices.
Others, such as the hog operation, are not going to
be profitable every year.
“For years and years, there was no money in
hogs. So whatever you made one year you spent the
next five. But you know how farmers are… Guys get
snowed in. Do they quit farming? No. They try and
clean it up, because hopefully next year is a better
year. And that’s the same thing with us with different enterprises.”
Farming has been a natural fit for Hutterites,
but Wipf isn’t sure if new colonies will have as
many farm businesses as they have in the past. Not
all new Hutterite colonies can afford dairy quota
and farmland these days, he explains. And given
current grain markets, Wipf finds it hard to stomach the purchase price on a new combine, just as
his neighbours likely do.
March 31, 2015
business
Tomorrow’s Hutterite leaders will have
to think outside the box, just as their emigrating ancestors did. That means looking
for gaps that Hutterites can fill. For example, Wipf notices the oil industry is taking
many mechanics from the agriculture side.
“The biggest complaint today from
a machinery company is, ‘I’m buying
equipment from you, but you’ve got no
service,’” he says.
He sees opportunities for Hutterites
to set up shops with different bays to
service farm machinery, oilfield equipment, and personal vehicles, for example. “Where there’s a will, there’s going
to be a way.”
Wipf doesn’t have to look far to find
Hutterites wading into new, non-agricultural ventures. Just down the road from
the Viking Colony, the Holden Colony
manufactures metal roof and siding,
along with portable buildings, cabins
and storage sheds.
Hutterite colonies aren’t immune to
social change. Hutterites once frowned
at being photographed, but Wipf says
some carry digital cameras in their
pockets. The Internet and ever-present
smartphones mean colonies can’t hide
the outside world from their children,
either. Wipf writes that more Hutterite and Amish youth are leaving their
communities to explore the world they
glimpse online.
“Nobody on the colony raises a child
and expects him to leave the community,” Wipf says, adding it is very hurtful
for the family.
Retaining their faith and culture
while adjusting to these changes will be a
challenge, Wipf says. In his opinion, the
Hutterites’ future depends on their ability to use all the tools they have, including technology, in harmony with their
commitment to their faith.
Even so, he adds, “How the story will
end is left for each succeeding generation
to determine.” CG
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business
Show me it works
A new farm show focusing on practical demonstrations
and field plots hits Western Canada this summer
By Scott Garvey, CG Machinery Editor
Other regions already
have working farm
shows, like Ontario’s
Woodstock Show,
seen here.
s a machinery editor, one of the places
where I’ve come to feel most at home is
in the aisles of a farm equipment show.
I’ve logged many miles walking those
aisles in the last few years. But I’ve also
come to learn that those aisles aren’t all the same.
Clearly, not all farm shows are created equal.
Below, I’m going to talk about a new show that
will be launched this July in Western Canada. Before
I start, however, you should know that this new show
is owned by the same company that owns Country
Guide, i.e. Glacier FarmMedia. I don’t think this relationship has coloured my thinking, nor was I asked
or ordered by my bosses to write this story, but you
should keep it in mind.
48 country-guide.ca The goal of this column is to write about the
manufacturing, marketing and buying of farm
machinery, so the new show seemed a topic I just
had to investigate. In its own way, it may change the
landscape.
Because farm equipment displays require so much
square footage, fitting the shows into general-purpose exhibition facilities can be complicated. It usually leads to displays being spread throughout entire
civic complexes made up of hockey arenas, barns,
exhibition halls and outdoor spaces. So, getting
around requires a map, even at minor shows.
At one particular show I’ve attended, the relatively narrow hallways were packed to claustrophobic proportions with crowds of farmers all trying to
March 31, 2015
business
go in opposite directions. It made getting
lost occasionally almost inevitable.
Of course if you are a gearhead, you
could argue that being temporarily lost in
a sea of high-tech farm equipment is far
from a disconcerting experience.
Then there are shows like Germany’s
Agritechnica that also require a visitor
map, simply because they are, by any standard, enormous. In 2013 that event filled
26 massive buildings on a show ground
that covered over 100 acres. It even uses
city transit buses to help people get around.
The bulk of events that farmers get a
chance to visit are shows based on static
displays, housed indoors whenever possible. These shows are great opportunities
to conveniently comparison shop, with
competing machines all in the same vicinity and product experts beside them who
are eager to tout their brands’ advantages.
But there are also shows like The
Farm Progress Show in the Midwestern
U.S. or Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show
in southern Ontario where you can see
for yourself what the equipment can
actually do, or at least get a good idea.
These events feature various categories of
equipment at work in fields.
Western Canada itself hasn’t had that
kind of show since the Winnipeg Motor Trials ended at the start of the First World War.
As of July 21 this summer, however, that
will change. Glacier FarmMedia is launching Ag in Motion, a completely new, threeday farm show near Saskatoon. Organizers
think what will make this event stand out
is its very large, 320-acre footprint, which
means large-scale equipment will be able to
do actual field work as visitors look on.
“When you look at other jurisdictions around North America, they have
an outdoor show somewhere,” says Rob
O’Connor, show manager for Ag in
Motion. “They’re also very successful in
Europe. What we have in Western Canada is a lot of indoor shows in the winter,
and that’s convenient timing when people
are obviously not on the land. But you
certainly don’t get that opportunity to see
the equipment working.”
The Ag in Motion show will provide
plots of land for both equipment manufacturers and companies focused on crop
production to demonstrate equipment or
show test plots.
“This is that opportunity for equipment and for crops,” O’Connor says.
“We can see different demonstrations,
whether it’s crop plots or equipment
working in the field. We’re very fortunate, because we’ve acquired a half-section of land, so there’s more space here
to do those kinds of demonstrations
than probably anywhere else you’ll see
a show.”
The event will accommodate those
in-field attractions in a couple of different ways. For firms that want to show
the results of crop production products or practices, like fungicides or seed
genetics, the show will give them access
to test plots at the start of the season.
They can plant crop varieties in the
spring and develop them through the
growing season until the show opens.
“They can put in their varieties or a
couple of varieties and use different fer-
Continued on page 50
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March 31, 2015
country-guide.ca 49
business
Continued from page 49
Ag in Motion will let farmers
test machines in the field,
says manager Rob O’Connor
tilizer techniques and demonstrate that,” explains
O’Connor.
The late-July show date will allow crops to
mature enough to give show-goers a good idea of
their yield potential.
“On the equipment side, there’ll be a few different options for companies,” O’Connor continues.
“One is they can purchase a larger booth space on
the perimeter of the show, which we call a ride-anddrive space. They can do some small-scale demonstrations within their own booth. But if they want
to do a large-scale demonstration where a person
can actually get in and drive a piece of equipment,
there’ll be a large demonstration area as well.”
The Agricultural Manufacturers of Canada
(AMC), an organization that represents Canadian
ag equipment builders, has just announced Ag in
Motion will become its official western Canadian
event.
“Farm equipment shows are very important
to ag equipment manufacturers and they budget
yearly for attendance at these shows,” says Jerry
Engel, president of AMC. “Many AMC members
have already expressed an interest and/or intent on
displaying their products at this show.”
Their primary motivation is to show farmers
just what the equipment can do. With most high50 country-guide.ca value farm machines being sold on the basis of
factory orders, farmers are often unable to see first
hand exactly what the equipment is capable of
before they write the cheque for it.
“Field demonstrations have proven very popular at the Woodstock, Ont., show for years, even
though it has limited land available,” Engel says.
“Ag in Motion is bringing the field demonstrations
to a new level, with at least 320 acres of land available for exhibitors.”
“There is definitely that need for a hands-on
experience,” says O’Connor. “Whether you’re
buying a car, buying a tractor or deciding on your
crop inputs, there’s a much better opportunity to
make that decision after you’ve had that experience, whether it’s a test drive or seeing it growing
in the field.”
And because of the outdoor venue, manufacturers can avoid the problems involved when trying to
fit massive equipment into buildings not originally
intended to allow them access.
“Having a half-section gives us a lot more space
for demonstrations and it also gives companies
the opportunity to have a larger booth space to
showcase all their equipment, too,” O’Connor continues. “Out here in Western Canada, equipment
is pretty much the largest in the world, so it takes
a lot of space to show it off. I know that can be a
big concern for companies at indoor shows, where
doors aren’t big enough to get the equipment inside
or they just can’t acquire enough space to bring
their entire lineup.”
By late February, show staff were still in the
process of feeling their way through the initial
layout and organization for the event. With a lot
of land to make available to exhibitors, and no
carved-in-stone site plan, O’Connor says the staff
is willing to make changes on the fly to accommodate exactly what those companies signing up to
participate want to do.
“Here, we’re starting from the ground up,”
O’Connor says. “So if company X, for instance,
wants 300 feet of frontage, we have that available for it. We have laid out what I’ll call a Plan
A. Depending on how that space fills up, we could
go to a Plan B with a larger trade show area. And
that’s the beauty of having a half-section of land.
We can evolve this show to meet the needs of the
manufacturers, dealers and crop input companies.”
The show will only allow temporary structures
on the site for the first year. After evaluating how
the first year’s layout worked, organizers will settle
on a final site plan. O’Connor says the show will
then begin to allow the construction of permanent
buildings by those who plan to be annual exhibitors.
“I think we’re on a good track,” O’Connor
says.” We have a ways to go, but the companies
that are signing up are taking much more space
than expected.” CG
March 31, 2015
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C-59-01/15-10307870-E
CropsGuide
By Gord Leathers
here come the robots
Robotic tractors are already in advanced field tests,
and the results are producing great optimism
Robotic grain carts
are just the first
wave of a new
generation of robotic
farm applications.
hil Jennings of Kinze Manufacturing gets
a big kick out of riding in their modified
tractor when it’s hauling one of their grain
carts during a real Iowa harvest. When the
call goes out for the cart, the tractor starts
chugging across the field to where the combine is
working. Jennings just sits there and doesn’t even set
a hand on the steering wheel. The tractor is autonomous. Guided by a computer, it sets off after the
combine and runs the cart under the auger while the
big harvester empties its hopper. “I’ll tell you,” Jennings laughs, “it’s fun to sit in
the cab when you know you don’t have to touch
anything, and to see if it reacts the same way you
would if you were the operator, or some of the ways
it reacts differently. It’s been neat to see the system’s
ability to do that.” Jennings is the service manager for Kinze at its
factory in Williamsburg, Iowa. There, the company
has been working with Jaybridge Robotics of Cambridge, Mass. to integrate more capability into farm
machinery. Its first major project is the autonomous
tractor and grain cart. Ever since the development of auto steer, there’s
been a concerted effort to get farm machines to do
more and more. Now, a number of factors have
52 country-guide.ca come together to help make this possible. Computers are smaller, cheaper and more powerful than
ever. Navigating technology and geographic information systems such as GPS are more accessible
and, while farms and machines get larger, the labour
pool available to run them gets smaller. As well,
farm operations such as seeding and harvest are
highly time sensitive, so expenditures to improve
logistics could pay off handsomely. “If the guy who we need to run that extra piece
of equipment or run that grain cart is not readily
available, that labour is at a premium,” Jennings
says. “Without that grain cart, I lose the efficiency
of my combine and that’s really where your return
on investment is going to be, not specifically in a
paycheque for a person but in the efficiency of the
harvest by keeping the combine moving.” That’s why Kinze made its first demonstration
video with a driverless tractor suddenly sputtering to
life all on its own and scampering out over the field
to meet a moving combine. The tractor manoeuvres
alongside, places the cart directly under the auger,
and a torrent of corn starts pouring out. Just after
the four-minute mark, the real show begins as the
combine goes into a series of tight turns in several
different directions. In a strange ballet, the tractor
matches the combine step for step and keeps the
cart perfectly positioned right under the spout of the
auger. Not one kernel of corn hits the ground, no
matter how wildly the combine steers. “We give that tractor its own vision from sensors
all around it — and inside the combine there is a tablet,” Jennings says. “Essentially the combine operator still orchestrates that part of the operation, and
all of its cues as to what it should be doing still come
from the combine.” The combine is the heart of the system and the
driver possesses the brain, so it’s still a human being
making the decisions and directing the operation.
The tablet in the cab has a map of the field with all
the different obstacles placed in position and this is
transmitted to the tractor. It knows, according to the
map, where the crop has been cut and where it’s still
standing. It’s aware of tile outlets or any other structures in the field. The operator has the advantage of
the high seat and, if unmapped obstacles appear, they
can feed new information into the tablet while driving the combine. “The push of the touch screen can enter any other
obstacles,” Jennings says. “If you want to make sure
that it goes around a creek or a ravine or something,
you can just draw around it with your fingers like
March 31, 2015
New in Machinery
finger paint on the screen. You can say go
here but don’t go there.” The other thing an operator can do
is tell the tractor to idle and stand where
it is while the combine makes another
pass around the crop. At the push of the
screen button, the tractor will start up
again and catch the combine. “When the combine operator says,
‘Hey, I’m on a nice, fairly straight stretch
and I’ve got two-thirds of a tank and I
want to get it emptied,’ they can press a
single push button that says, ‘Unload,’
and it will come up, pull around the side
and sync with the speed and distance as
well as front to back. The combine can
dump the grain on the go.” To fine tune the system even more,
the tractor has a series of on-board
sensors that also feed information into
its own computer. There are cameras
mounted on strategic points in front,
behind and off to the sides. If it stops, it
feeds real-time video into the combine’s
tablet so the operator can see why the
tractor isn’t moving. If there’s an obstacle not entered into the tablet, the tractor will spot it with its own set of eyes. The tractor is fitted with a radar
system that sends pulses of radio waves
out and measures what bounces back.
Radar can see metallic things like other
machines or equipment, as well as
anything containing water. Since living things, such as wildlife, livestock
or people are largely water, the radar
can see them and the computer tells the
tractor to act accordingly. Radar can’t see wood or plastic so
fence posts or PVC pipe might go unnoticed if it weren’t for another set of eyes
called lidar. Lidar is a laser beam that
will register objects that radar can’t, so
the tractor can see just about anything
that might be in that field. It also has
an inertial measurement and GPS unit
that uses satellite information, accelerometers and gyroscopes to tell the
tractor what direction it’s going in and
how fast. All this information is fed into that
on-board computer which is “ruggedized” in order to withstand the jarring a tractor takes as it moves up and
down a farm field. The computer calculates the tractor’s speed and direction as
well as noting its surroundings. Since
computers work as fast as they do, it
can turn with the combine almost perfectly. Once it’s full it can be dispatched
back to its starting point where a truck
March 31, 2015
With so many farm operations being so time
sensitive, and with farm labour so hard to find, it
makes economic sense to take a hard look at robots
driver climbs into the tractor cab and
unloads it into a truck. “The other thing is that the system
is always running in a safe mode and
what that means is that if there’s ever
any question whether it’s a distance
from an object or if one of the sending
units reads something that it doesn’t
like or isn’t expected or normal, it shuts
down,” Jennings says. “There’s also
a number of different manual safety
devices on the exterior so that if you’re
in and out of the vehicle to load the
truck or you’re on the road or something, whenever you roll the steps down
to climb into it, it’s in manual mode and
it can’t be taken out.” There are visions of the future where
farm machines programmed for com-
plex tasks could work on their own
without a human operator in the cab.
There’s no denying that other operations such as swathing or seeding are a
lot more complicated and will require
a great deal more study. The grain cart
was one of the simpler operations and a
good place to start. “The autonomous grain cart that
we’re doing today has a relatively low
input from an operator’s standpoint,”
Jennings says. “As we look at machine
functionality we’ll just grow on that
and be able to add additional functionality for other machine types.” If you want to have a look at the
autonomous tractor and grain cart you
can see YouTube video at: www.youtube.
com/watch?v=nj_EYZeSkhM. CG
How a drone tractor works
Iowa-based Kinze Manufacturing Inc. has partnered with Jaybridge Robotics of Massachusetts to develop an autonomous agricultural
equipment system. The system is designed to increase productivity, reduce input costs, and operate safely and efficiently.
The system’s components include:
Sources: Jaybridge Robotics; Kinze Manufacturing. Inc.; Capital Press research; Alan Kenagai, Capital Press
country-guide.ca 53
CropsGuide
By Gord Leathers
Drones get closer
Airframe, camera and computer technologies are
rapidly evolving in favour of farmer applications
he next revolution in farming isn’t
about chemistry or genetics. It’s about
scouting, and the good news is that the
enabling technology has come several
giant steps closer in just the last two
years, thanks to unmanned aerial vehicles (popularly
called UAVs or drones) which offer a visual platform
for scientific crop monitoring.
Drones are becoming a big piece of the precision
ag puzzle, and Dr. Kevin Price of Des Moines, Iowa,
says they will completely change how we scout.
“What this technology does is help build a
map to look for problem areas in the field,” Price
explains. “The scout gets the co-ordinates and walks
out into the field to get a first-hand look at what’s
going on.”
Drones will also add huge new efficiencies, says
agronomist Greg Adelman of Southey, Sask. “While
a person out walking the field with a metre stick or
GPS can assess 160 acres in an hour, I’m assuming
the periday peak efficiency would be something like
6,000 acres with a fixed wing UAV.”
Adelman is a Canadian affiliate of Price’s company RoboFlight, a scouting data management company that takes images from UAVs and stitches them
together into a composite image called an orthomosaic. Information gleaned from these images will help
farmers make snap decisions about managing their
crops, while the precision lends them tremendous
potential to reduce costly inputs.
This really goes back to the dawn of the aircraft
age at the beginning of the First World War. Initially,
the primitive biplanes were used for reconnaissance,
with camera crews dispatched to monitor enemy
lines from the air. They took thousand of pictures
and watched for troop movements, changes in the
lines or massing of equipment. Command officers
used this information to plan both their offence and
defence according to the incoming data.
Farmers are no strangers to this idea either. Some
have used aerial photography and satellite imagery
to monitor their crops, although getting this data has
often been expensive and inconvenient.
Now, what these drones offer is an inexpensive
alternative that can fly at the farmer’s need. With the
advent of the Global Positioning System, navigation
software and smaller, high-resolution digital cameras,
the stage is set to incorporate drones into farming.
“Companies build implements designed to do
precision applications of chemicals and seeds and,
54 country-guide.ca as you’re driving through the field, the tractor is
adjusting the rate of fertilizer or herbicide based on
geographic co-ordinates that are fed into the sprayers
by an on-board computer,” Price says. “If you have
a map that tells the tractor where it is and what’s
there, then the software can decide whether to turn
on the sprayers or not.”
This kind of precision depends on highly detailed
mapping, which is what the drones do. The first
drones in agriculture were model airplanes with a
camera mounted in a jury-rigged box on the wing.
The plane flew along a programmed flight path
transmitted from a computer to an on-board GPS
sensor. The data directed the plane through a series
of points and instructed the camera to snap images
along the way.
Today’s navigation system is still the same, but
the cameras have greater resolution and the current aircraft are a lot more suitable to the task.
RoboFlight, for instance, uses the electric-powered
RF70 airframe.
“This aircraft is amazing,” Price says. “It’s got
multiple bays for mapping units and it will cruise for
45 minutes to an hour and 20 minutes depending
on the load. It’s made of high-density EPP so it’s not
like beer cooler foam. We’ve taken that plane and
crashed it from 200 feet in the air, picked it up and
put it back in the air again. It’s highly durable. We’ve
flown it in 50-mile-an-hour winds and we’ve had it
up to 100 miles an hour with a tailwind and it was
still flying stable.”
So that’s what the airplane does. The next part of
the package is the camera equipment that it carries in
any of the payload bays. This is the farmer’s eye in
the sky and can see things we’ve never seen before. In
digital imagery, the picture you see is actually made
up of thousands of points called pixels. The quality
of the image (i.e. the resolution) is a direct result of
how small an area of ground is represented in one
pixel. In a satellite image each pixel represents about
one square metre on the ground at best.
“Now we’re talking two centimetres,” Price says.
“We’re looking at individual plant leaves and we’re
able to assess the pigmentation of the plants. I can
tell you the geometry of the leaves in three-dimensional space to see which way they’re oriented.”
Not only is the resolution much finer but we’re
now able to see different wavelengths of light too.
This gives us even more useful information as to
what’s going on in that field.
March 31, 2015
New in Machinery
Price recalls one farm client who had Canada
thistle in a field, and who spent $4,000 to spray the
entire 120 acres to knock the weed out.
“Well, once we got through flying the field a
day or two after he sprayed, we could still see
Canada thistle,” Price says. We found that he had
only needed to spray 0.6 acre but he had sprayed
120. We were able to map the location of all the
plants and flying the field and processing of the
data cost $506. He could have easily gone in and
spot sprayed and saved himself a tremendous
amount of money.”
The first UAV cameras were digital units that you
could get from any camera store. They were small,
they required no film magazine and no motor drive
so they were extremely light compared to the old film
cameras. Additionally, because the images were digital,
they were easily uploaded to a computer, where several
images could be stitched together into a composite.
Now we’re sending specialized colour infrared
cameras up there to give us eyes that can filter out
certain wavelengths and see the world in terms of
visible and infrared radiation.
“By putting the two of them together, you compute an index called the Normalized Difference
Vegetation Index or NDVI that’s highly sensitive to
chlorophyll concentration,” Price says. “Anything
that affects the plant, anything that changes the concentration of chlorophyll on the ground, the NDVI
will pick it up.”
The NDVI is much more sensitive than our own
eyes in detecting some of the subtle differences in
the way light is reflected back to it from the canopy.
Changes in the plant’s pigmentation are sometimes
the result of stress on the plant, such as nitrogen or
water deficiency, disease or insects. The resulting
images, Price says, can help farmers make much better management decisions.
“It can measure your biomass, it can measure the
photosynthesis and it can measure the stress level
of the plant,” adds Adelman. “You can actually see
where the plant is stressed up to two weeks before
you see symptoms. I’ve seen RoboFlight data where
they could see nitrogen deficiency two weeks before
symptoms showed up, so if you can see it that quickly
you can address the problem before it’s showing
symptoms and reduce yield loss in that field.”
The third part of the system is the computer
power to take the data and quickly put it together
into a ready-to-read package.
“That’s what our company is really all about,”
Price says. “What we’re doing right now is working
with the portals for allowing people to get the data
to us in a very efficient manner. Basically you pull the
SV card out of the camera, plug it into your computer
and your computer will automatically download it to
our shop. We process it and have it back to you.”
Within five years, predicts farmer Brad
Hanmer, drone technology will grow as fast
and be as popular as auto steer in tractors
As the technology matures the data will get better and better and the computer capabilities will
improve in step. What this means is that farmers
and agronomists will become even better tuned to
the behaviour of land on a section-by-section basis.
If we can see plants are under stress, in time we
hope to develop the algorithms that will tell us why
the plants are stressed. We’ll be able to see different types of weeds, different insect pests at work as
well as be able to identify specific diseases before
they become a major problem. Precision agriculture
will become more and more precise.
“This new UAV technology will be like auto
steer,” concludes Saskatchewan farmer Brad Hanmer. “Within five years it was mainstream and I
think this is the next step for RTK technology. We
can make even more management decisions based on
science and less on intuition.” CG
Navigate the business of ag here
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2015-02-27 10:53 AM
CropsGuide
By Gord Leathers
Brain Plus
computer
Simulators are helping engineers finally figure out how best
to get your brain and the tractor’s brain working together
At the University of
Manitoba simulation
lab, engineers explore
how to get computers
and farmers to
communicate better.
t’s a good run with the tractor this time. The
driver has no trouble piloting a straight line
across the field, the machine is humming happily, and the display monitor confirms that all
is well. The discs are cutting nicely through
the field trash too, and the seed is getting dropped
right on target.
Then reality returns. The “tractor” stops, the
room lights come up, and the driver steps out of the
cab and into a small theatre that has a white curved
screen where, only a few seconds ago, it had looked
like there was a field.
Behind the cab there’s another wall separating the
theatre from a bank of computers where a group of
grad students and technicians is tweaking the simula-
56 country-guide.ca tion program that runs the on-board monitor as well
as the projectors that cast the moving image of the
field onto the screen.
It’s the tractor simulator in the biosystems engineering department of the University of Manitoba.
Unlike an airplane simulator where a pilot sits in a
closed cockpit and looks into a landscape shown on
the simulated windows, the operator sits in an actual
tractor cab surrounded by a projected farmscape.
The research job is to find the best way to
divide the different tasks between the two operators — the human at the wheel and the computer
in the wiring of the machine. There are some tasks
that computers are really good at but, despite their
growing power and capabilities, there are still jobs
better suited to the human brain. This project is to
look at what goes on during the seeding operation,
strike the balance between who should look after
what, and devise the best way for operator and
machine to talk to each other.
“Right now we’re looking at automating various
subsystems,” explains Danny Mann, head of biosystems engineering. “We need to know what is the
right level of automation that keeps the human in the
control loop so that if a problem arises, the human
can still get up to speed very quickly and know what
to do to take the corrective action.”
Farmers from a few generations back worked
with a semi-autonomous machine called the horse
that had a brain and a complex sensory system. A
few thousand years of selective breeding gave us the
draft model for pulling implements either by itself or
in teams. It could be programmed with a few simple
commands: go (giddy-up), stop (whoa), turn right
(gee) or turn left (haw). An experienced horse could
walk a reasonably straight line at a constant speed so
it could pull a small seed drill up and down a field
leaving the farmer to manage the drill and make the
occasional correction. The farmer would take over
on the big turns and get the drill oriented along the
line again.
With the development of the tractor, the farmer
had complete control of speed and direction. Today’s
modern machines can haul big, wide implements up
and down enormous acreages with no breaks for
feed and water.
One problem for operators of these larger and
faster machines, however, is dealing with huge
amounts of information coming in from all corners.
March 31, 2015
new in machinery
Unless you have another set of eyes set in
remote places, you can’t see trouble coming or react to it when it gets there.
With myriad small procedures making
up the seeding operation, we now need
to split these assignments between the
machine’s electronic silicon brain and the
operator’s organic wet one.
“A computer is very good at doing
routine or mundane tasks,” Mann says.
“We’ve talked about auto steer where we’re
using GPS so we can program in the width
of the machine and the boundaries of the
field. The auto steer gets the information
from the GPS satellites, does quick calculations and decides whether to turn the
steering wheel three degrees to the left or
five degrees to the right. It can be doing that
same calculation once every millisecond.”
The human, on the other hand,
is more instantly adaptable. Computers require programming, which means
you’re presenting a series of logical rules
that the computer must follow. For
example, you can program a computer to
recognize a coffee cup and then program
it to fill the cup if it’s empty.
Computers are binary creatures. The
program has to give them a choice of one
action or another because they can’t handle
any more then two options at a time. This
March 31, 2015
Computers are great at repetitive functions, but
humans outscore them for agility and adaptability.
For engineer Danny Mann, the challenge is to mesh
the two brains so one plus one equals three
is called binary logic based on an IF/THEN/
ELSE scenario. You tell the computer: IF
you see a 10-ounce container with a handle
on the side and it is empty THEN you pick
it up and fill it with nine ounces of coffee
ELSE ignore it and move to the next object.
Problems arise when the task becomes
somewhat more complicated, for instance
if the light changes. When the shadows
change, the computer sees a different
shape. A human still knows it’s a coffee
cup but the different shadow completely
bamboozles the computer.
“It’s only one tiny little piece of information that has changed but it can no
longer function to deal with it,” Mann
explains. “Whereas we human beings
have that ability to say that we now have
one extra piece of information, but it’s
irrelevant. I’m just going to ignore it and
I’m going to pick up the coffee cup.”
That’s why the auto steer moves the
machine down a perfectly straight line
according to information provided by
the GPS, but the human operator still has
to take the wheel for the wide turns at
the edge of the field. The human knows
there’s a ditch with a barbed wire fence
there and has the eyeball judgment to
know where to start the turn to avoid
them. It’s a good way to make use of the
strengths of both brains. The computer’s precision makes a straight line with
no overlap while the human’s flexibility
negotiates the obstacles.
The first step in this is to break down
the operation into its distinct tasks.
“There are about seven different subsystems on an air seeder system that we
can look at,” Mann says. “We can choose
Continued on page 58
country-guide.ca 57
CropsGuide
Continued from page 57
to automate one of them and compare
it with automating another and see how
this influences overall system efficiency.”
What they’re really looking at right
now is how a machine equipped with
sensors can monitor these different subsystems and keep the operator informed
through the on-board display screen.
They’re also working on an efficient
way to get machine and operator to
communicate with each other. The computer tells the operator what it knows
by showing it on the screen, but we
don’t want to overwhelm a human with
too much information coming too fast.
The operator also has to tell the computer what to do through some kind of
input device.
“I have to use the keyboard or
mouse to tell my laptop what to do
and I get information back from my
laptop via the screen,” Mann says. “It
depends on the layout of the icons and
how that is all arranged that defines
how efficiently the computer commu-
nicates with me. That’s the same type
of approach that we’ve been trying for
designing an integrated air seed display
for that system.”
So the computer gathers data from
the different sensors and then relays
information to the monitor. The next
question for the simulator is how the
monitor should display it so that the
operator can make sense of it. There’s
a fine line sometimes between sending
enough information and sending too
much. It’s up to the people working in
the simulator to find out that balance.
“For example, we have the parameter for the seeding depth and a red
flashing light that informs me there’s a
problem and I have to make the necessary correction,” Mann says. “We could
have a very low level of automation for
any one of those subsystems where you
have a sensor that detects a problem
and it simply alerts a driver that there’s
something wrong.”
From there we can test increasing levels of automation where a computer with greater processing power can
deliver a detailed analysis of what’s tripping the warning light. A more advanced
system could automatically make the
correction and deliver an onscreen message explaining what it’s doing and how
it’s adjusting the seeding depth.
Computer technology marches on
and we’ll continue to develop smaller
computers with greater processing
power. Along with that we’re developing a variety of sensors that can feed
more and more detailed information
into a machine’s brain. Ultimately
we will have machines that can go to
work while the farmer stays home and
watches through his laptop working on
some accounting spreadsheets.
What may be satisfying to some of
the old-school operators out there is the
real goal of machine programming. The
greatest success will be measured in how
much the on-board computer will behave
like a really competent human operator.
After all, it’s still an experienced human
mind that programs that computer, and
a human hand that tests the program in a
mounted tractor cab. CG
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March 31, 2015
CropsGuide
By Gord Gilmour // CG Associate Editor
Aphano-what?
For pulse growers, this new disease has all
too much in common with canola’s clubroot
ervous eyes are watching it, and
voices are already whispering that
it may become the clubroot of pulse
crops. Aphanomyces is a virulent
root rot, technically classified as a
water mould, and it appears to be slowly spreading
throughout the Prairie region, affecting annual and
perennial legumes including legume forages.
First confirmed in Saskatchewan in 2012, aphanomyces has subsequently been found in fields across
five Alberta counties, causing pulse industry insiders
considerable concern.
Beth Markert, a seed specialist with Bayer CropScience based in southern Alberta, says this concern
is well founded. The situation isn’t a crisis yet, but
the impact on individual fields can be profound.
“I’ve seen yield reductions as high as 30 to 50 per
cent,” Markert told Country Guide during a recent
conversation. “It can be very significant.”
Aphanomyces can be a bit tough to spot in the
field too, since the first symptoms show up on roots
Growers must get tough on aphanomyces,
says Markert. “It’s the only way they’ll be able
to slow down and stop this disease.”
rather than above ground. The pathogen chokes
off the root system, preventing nutrient and water
uptake. Eventually secondary symptoms affect leaves
and stems as the plants wilt and discolour.
While the disease may have a reputation for killing seedlings outright, that’s not exactly what happens. Instead it cripples the young plants, making
them uncompetitive with weeds and more vulnerable
to bugs and other diseases.
In fact, it’s those secondary infections that are
frequently the first thing growers actually notice,
Markert says, since aphanomyces penetrates cell tissue, then acts as a conduit for other diseases.
“Aphanomyces makes it a lot easier for other
plant diseases, like fusarium or rhizotonia, to enter
the plants,” Markert notes.
One way growers might be able to identify aphanomyces in their fields is by looking for patterns
when parts of the field aren’t thriving. Aphanomyces
symptoms tend to begin in low spots that the rest
of the field drains into so they have the ideal damp
March 31, 2015
conditions in the rooting zone that the disease thrives
with.
“You can see the disease moving like fingers up
the hillside as it spreads out,” Markert says.
One way the disease resembles clubroot is its
longevity in the soils, where it can easily survive 10
to 12 years before the inoculum levels begin to fall
significantly.
“Because it lasts so long, if you just changed to a
four-year rotation, it wouldn’t really matter,” Markert says. “It’s going to prove to be a pretty big challenge for pulse growers.”
If the problem isn’t present, or is only present
at low levels, longer rotations can help to prevent
inoculum from building up in the soil. But for growers the real challenge is going to be preventing the
buildup in the first place, and keeping it from moving around the farm if it is there.
“If they have a field where they know it’s present,
they should be either cleaning equipment off after
they’ve been working in that area, or saving that
land for last,” Markert says. “Otherwise they could
be spreading it across the whole farm.”
Those growers will also want to pay attention to
the fields they’re planting their legume crops into.
A coarse, well-drained soil is far less likely to see
aphanomyces issues because the disease requires free
moisture in the soil to thrive and move.
One thing that doesn’t exist, at least at present,
is a seed treatment that can prevent the infections —
though that’s not to say growers shouldn’t be treating their seed anyway. The treatments will, at the
very least, combat the potential secondary infections
and limit the scope of aphanomyces’ yield hit.
Another management strategy that has been
shown to pay off is selecting healthy seed with the
highest possible germination rates. Getting the crop
off to a good start early in the season is key to preventing or limiting how bad outbreaks could be.
One consideration for growers is that other crop
protection products can compound the problem, and
should be avoided wherever possible, because applying them will just heap more stress on an already
hard-pressed crop.
In the end, growers will need to take the bull by
the horns, and grapple with this challenge head on
if they expect to continue growing legume crops,
Markert says.
“It’s going to be a question of figuring out the
best management practices and being very diligent
in applying them,” Markert says. “It’s the only way
they’ll be able to slow and stop this disease.” CG
country-guide.ca 59
CropsGuide
By Karen Lewis // Midge-Tolerant Wheat Stewardship Team
Five years of midge tolerance
As its acreage continues to climb, the message
is to keep protecting the unique Sm1 gene
his summer marks the fifth anniversary of producers in Western Canada
growing and protecting midge-tolerant
wheat.
Since the launch of the first commercial varieties in 2010, the industry has witnessed strong uptake of the technology that helps
producers defend against orange blossom wheat
midge, a pest that can significantly reduce crop
yield and grade. Not surprisingly, the popularity of
midge-tolerant wheat continues to grow.
According to the Canadian Grain Commission,
18 per cent of total western wheat acres in 2014
were midge-tolerant — that’s up from 16 per cent
60 country-guide.ca in 2013. In Saskatchewan, midge-tolerant wheat
accounts for more than 36 per cent of the province’s total wheat acres.
“Wheat producers really value this technology
and are committed to maintaining its viability,”
says Mike Espeseth, communications manager for
the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF)
and co-chair of the Midge-Tolerant Wheat Stewardship Team.
“The proof is in the numbers. Nearly four million
acres of midge-tolerant wheat were planted in 2013
and 2014 alone,” Espeseth says. “The adoption is a
testament to the quality of the varieties and the benefits and convenience that they provide producers.”
Midge-tolerant wheat varieties offer flexibility
in crop rotations and seeding dates. Most importantly, they eliminate the need to use insecticide
as a control method. Instead, midge damage is
dramatically reduced with help of Sm1, a midgetolerant gene that is moved into wheat varieties
using traditional plant-breeding techniques.
“Growers told us they didn’t have to worry
about their wheat,” says Ed Mazurkewich, business development consultant for AgCall, whose
team interviewed producers in 2014. “They didn’t
have to scout and they didn’t have to spray. Not
spraying an insecticide was pretty critical to them,”
he says.
Midge-tolerant wheat is sold as a varietal blend,
with 90 per cent made up of a midge-tolerant
variety and the remaining 10 per cent midge susceptible. But that doesn’t mean producers sacrifice
any agronomic benefits. Those who grow midgetolerant wheat report significant yield and grade
benefits — approximately $36 per acre (based on
wheat priced at $6 bu./ac.).
The varietal blends provide an “interspersed
refuge system” that disrupts the midge’s ability to
produce resistant offspring, preventing a buildup
of a resistant midge population. Without an interspersed refuge system, midge tolerance could break
down within 10 years.
There are currently nine varieties of midge-tolerant wheat available in Western Canada. Producers are anticipating the release of the first durum
variety in 2016, which features the same Sm1 gene
as the other varieties so the same stewardship principles will apply.
march 31, 2015
WGRF
Protect the
technology
“At the same time that we celebrate
this five-year milestone, we need to keep
vigilant to ensure the technology is protected for future growing seasons. To
date, there is no other known source of
midge tolerance. In other words, there is
no Plan B if we lose the Sm1 gene,” says
Brenda Trask, communications manager
for SeCan and co-chair of the MidgeTolerant Wheat Stewardship Team. The
industry coalition, which includes plant
breeders, government, seed growers,
seed distributors and producer groups
has been active educating western Canadian wheat producers on the importance
of proper stewardship of the technology
since before the launch of the technology.
To preserve midge tolerance, producers who buy midge-tolerant wheat sign
a stewardship agreement that limits the
use of farm-saved seed to one generation
past certified seed, keeping the refuge at
the desired level.
“Five years of diligent stewardship
communications has led to a strong
awareness of the practices that are critical to preserving the technology,” says
Trask. “In addition to producer education, monitoring and enforcement are a
key part of our committee’s mandate.”
It appears the efforts are paying off.
Results of an annual audit show 96 per
cent of producers in compliance with the
stewardship practices in 2014.
“By far the majority of growers said
that the technology and the stewardship
was really critical for them. They understand it and they are doing everything
they can to protect the technology,” says
Mazurkewich, whose auditors contacted
a randomized list of producers and set up
on-farm visits to ask questions about the
status of their stewardship requirements.
According to Mazurkewich, the
midge-tolerant wheat audit was a pleas-
WGRF is a farmer-funded and
directed non-profit organization
investing in agricultural research
that benefits producers in Western Canada. For over 30 years the
WGRF board has given producers a
voice in agricultural research funding decisions. WGRF manages an
Endowment Fund and the wheat and
barley variety development checkoff funds, investing over $14 million
annually into variety development
and field crop research. WGRF
brings the research spending power
of all farmers in Western Canada
together, maximizing the returns
they see from crop research.
ant experience for everyone involved.
“Our auditors enjoyed working on this.
It was a kitchen table, eyeball-to-eyeball
conversation about farming and the use
of good technology. The growers were
absolutely appreciative and supportive
that someone was following up and driving toward better awareness.” CG
A hopper full of
best-in-class technology.
Through Western Grains Research Foundation, producers
have helped fund research and development for more than
200 varieties of wheat and barley. You most likely recognize
more than a few of them, and you’ve probably had some
success growing several of them too. Western Grains Research
Foundation is a producer-funded and producer-directed
organization. Working together, we produce some of the
world’s finest and most technologically advanced grains.
@westerngrains
westerngrains.com
HR
What is success?
We invest a lot in the idea of success, but we often take
more time to plan a vacation than to plan our lives
By Pierrette Desrosiers, psychologist and coach
e all want to succeed in life. But
how do we define success?
Success in your personal life
is connected to success in your
business, and vice versa. It’s like
having two containers that are connected together.
Each one influences the other.
It’s hard to be energetic when you are haunted by
negative emotions. It is also difficult to have positive
relationships if you are constantly upset.
We only have a certain amount of energy. If we
spend it on things that we can’t control, we can’t
devote that energy to other people or projects. Every
minute spent on something is a minute lost.
You don’t have the luxury of spending your time
and energy everywhere and anywhere.
Therefore, our lack of energy, internal dilemmas
and unsolved conflicts will affect our ability to make
good decisions. It will affect our productivity too,
and ultimately it will affect our ability to be successful in life.
Indeed, the discipline to define success and to
spend your energy wisely is even more important
because you set the tone in your circles of influence.
According to some experts, six characteristics
are the foundation for success in your life. As you
develop these characteristics for success in your own
life, you will also influence your team and family.
1. Peace of mind, which involves freedom from anger,
resentment, anxiety, hopelessness, shame and guilt.
As a leader, remember that your emotions are
highly contagious. You have a great impact on
your team. Be sure to manage your emotions first.
Inspire them. Be positively contagious.
2. A high level of energy and health, which involves
feeling that your body is in harmony with your spirit,
and having the energy to invest in your goals. As a
leader, you are a model. So be aware and encourage
your team to adopt healthy habits. Everyone will win.
3. Positive relationships, which involve developing
and maintaining meaningful, positive and mature
relationships with others. Leaders make positive
environments a priority. Conflicts affect the wellbeing and productivity of everyone.
4. Financial independence, which involves not feeling
constantly worried about money, and also involves
forming the right financial habits to feel safe and
meet your needs. Your employees should also be
able to meet their basic needs.
5. Goals and ideals which are demanding and chal62 country-guide.ca lenging and give you a reason to get up in the
morning and a place for you to invest your energy,
time and money. Are you and your team stimulated by your responsibilities?
6. S elf-actualization, which involves feeling that
you are reaching your potential, and that you are
expressing and activating all your capacities. As a
leader, try to set the conditions so that everyone is
in the right place, “the good seed in the right soil.”
Do we need to have all of these characteristics to
feel successful in life? Of course not. But the more
we have, the more we benefit. We should not see
these ideas as fully absent or present in our lives, but
rather on a continuum. We can also see that we have
great influence on the degree to which we exhibit
these characteristics.
For example, it’s up to us to stop maintaining
self-hatred. And this is also true for the rest of our
emotions. We cannot control certain events in life,
but we do have the power to choose our reactions. It
is also up to us to make choices about our lifestyle,
including diet, sleep and exercise. We can also make
choices with the financial resources available, even if
they are sometimes limited.
Finally, we can set goals and objectives that are
stimulating and constructive. We must take the time
to look at the resources we have and define what are
realistic goals that suit us in different spheres of our
lives (relationships, personal, family, business...).
How can we achieve this? Here are some tips:
sharpen your sense of observation, be realistic
about who you are now, have a clear picture of who
you want to be, and understand that your actions,
thoughts and feelings help or hinder your success.
Remember, as a leader, you can’t work directly
on those six characteristics for others, but you can
set work conditions that will influence them. Moreover, you are a model, like it or not. So remember that the way you act and react, and what you
choose to do or not do and to say or not say will
influence others. You can’t control anyone, but you
can inspire many. It’s up to you. CG
Pierrette Desrosiers, MPS, CRHA is a work psychologist, professional speaker, coach and author
who specializes in the agricultural industry. She
comes from a family of farmers and she and her
husband have farmed for more than 25 years
( www.pierrettedesrosiers.com ). Contact her at
[email protected].
March 31, 2015
h e a lt h
Topical corticosteroids —
use them wisely
By Marie Berry
teroids in the body are normally produced
by your pituitary gland and regulate your
body’s growth and functioning. They have
a common carbon-based structure and
range from substances like estrogen and
testosterone to cortisol and prednisone. First identified in the late 1850s, oral formulations were developed by 1933 and topical versions by 1973.
Topical corticosteroids are applied directly to the
skin where they reduce skin redness, swelling and
inflammation. The mechanism of action involves
blocking inflammatory substances, constricting the
small blood vessels or capillaries in your skin, and
affecting the immune system. As you can imagine,
they are ideal for skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, and even poison ivy.
Topical corticosteroids can
help your skin, but so can
some non-drug measures
Topical corticosteroids are available as ointments,
creams and lotions. Ointment bases are greasy and
remain on your skin the longest, making them more
potent. They are best for dry, scaly skin, such as psoriasis. Cream and lotion bases contain more water,
meaning they are easier to remove and less potent.
Creams are best for weeping skin lesions, and lotions
are ideal for hairy areas like your scalp. Occluding
the application site with plastic film or even wearing
gloves or socks will keep the steroid ingredient in
contact with your skin longer. However, you should
never do this unless it has been recommended.
You need to use topical corticosteroids wisely.
You don’t want to apply them to skin that is infected
or has open wounds. Skin areas that are tender such
as the face, genitalia, or even young children’s softer,
thinner skin should be avoided. Wash your hands
before and after application and, of course, avoid
your eyes and mouth. If your skin is wet, the steroid
will penetrate deeper into it than if it is dry.
Often people don’t know how much to apply.
Only a thin film is needed. One “fingertipful” will
cover both sides of your hand. The usual application
recommendation is twice daily, but recent research
shows that once-a-day application is just as effective because the steroid remains in a reservoir in the
skin. Applying these products in the same direction
that your hair grows has been shown to not only be
easier, but it also achieves better results.
Overuse or application to more delicate skin
can result in thinning skin with a “stretch marklike” appearance. This is the tachyphylaxis
reaction. Ideally, you want to apply a topical corticosteroid for no more than one or two weeks at
a time, giving your skin a drug holiday in between.
You should see your skin condition improve
within a week, but if you don’t or if it worsens,
you need to stop the topical corticosteroid and get
your skin condition checked.
The topical corticosteroids are classified according to potency with several of the mildest being
available without a prescription. Clobetasol is
superpotent and often used in chronic skin conditions like psoriasis. Betamethasone is a midstrength type, which means it is used in a wide
variety of inflammatory skin conditions. Clobetasone and hydrocortisone are milder options and do
not require a prescription, but remember to consult
your pharmacist about your skin symptoms before
you purchase them as your symptoms could be
something else entirely!
If your skin is itchy, red and inflamed, topical corticosteroids will certainly help, but sometimes common-sense measures may work as well. They may
even augment the treatment. Check for any environmental factors such as dust mites or pet dander that
may be causing your rash. Wear gloves when doing
tasks like washing dishes that can damage your skin.
Moisturize dry skin to keep it healthy and less prone
to damage, and avoid perfumed products because the
additives can cause skin reactions.
Marie Berry is a lawyer/pharmacist interested in
health and education.
Hearing loss can be so gradual that you may not notice it, until you realize that you are missing whole
conversations. Older age and a history of working around loud noises are often causes of hearing loss, but
drugs can sometimes be involved. Next month, we’ll look at some causes of hearing loss and even some
drugs that may diminish it.
March 31, 2015
country-guide.ca 63
life
When things get busy…
keep your sanity!
How do you manage today’s increased
workload without hitting the red zone?
By Helen Lammers-Helps
rowing up on a farm in upstate New
York, Julie Gray thought she was
learning lessons that she could share
with executives and entrepreneurs in
virtually every other line of business.
It turns out she was learning lessons that today’s
farmers need to learn too.
From her office near Washington, D.C., Gray is
now an internationally recognized time coach, with
clients all over the world, including Canada, the
U.K. and Australia. Most come to her feeling overwhelmed and close to burnout.
Sometimes, her advice is highly practical.
Among Gray’s first questions for clients, for
instance, is to ask how much sleep they get. “You’re
going to feel disorganized if you are not getting
enough sleep,” she explains. While our natural tendency is to steal from our sleep hours in order to add
more work hours to our day, sometimes the cure for
not having enough time is to take a bit of time off.
As counterintuitive as it sounds, productivity
research shows the importance of taking breaks, says
Gray. Giving yourself permission to “be off” at times
through your day will go a long way to restoring
your focus and energy.
Another problem she sees frequently is people
who are trying to hold too much information in their
heads. You need to build a system to get the information out of your head and into a notebook or phone
app, she says.
The important thing is to find systems that work
for you. We all have different strengths and our
brains work in different ways, she says.
But time management is also a sophisticated science. Not all generic time management information
Gray’s resources
For her own de-stressing, time coach Julie Gray likes www.calm.com.
Her favourite book is the Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and
Tony Schwartz.
At Gray’s website www.profound-impact.com you’ll find tons of time management information, including a Time Type Finder that will help you identify your
time management gifts and challenges while providing strategies for working
more efficiently.
64 country-guide.ca will apply to every individual or circumstance. Nor
will all time coaches recommend the same strategies.
For example, some time management experts
are adamant that you should never touch a piece of
paper or read an email more than once. Gray says
the problem with that is that it can backfire, because
some people will become paralyzed by the extra
pressure they perceive with this approach.
To find strategies that work for you, Gray recommends that when you read a piece of time management advice that resonates with you, “Try it out.
Experiment with it. Notice what works for you and
what doesn’t. Tweak it from there.”
Gray also emphasizes the importance of thinking
in terms of holistic time management. Your best success will come if you balance your mental, physical,
spiritual and emotional needs.
As the pace of life speeds up, it is increasingly
common for more and more distractions to pervade
our day, sapping our brain’s energy and leaving us
exhausted, whether those distractions are technological or otherwise.
Gray is a big believer in unplugging for one hour
each day while you focus on what you really need to
accomplish. Take five minutes at the start of every
morning to get clear on your three biggest priorities
for the day, she says.
Email has become ubiquitous in business communications and can be both a time saver and a time waster.
On the plus side, you have more control over your
time with email. You can answer emails whenever suits
you and you can avoid playing phone tag.
Bruce Court, owner of Court Farms near Courtland, Ont. says communicating via email and text
messages frees up a lot of time. This is especially
good if it is just a quick question, he says. “There is
less small talk,” he says. The other advantage is that
you have a record of what happened during the day
and can look back and see if there is anything you
need to do when you get back to the office.
Rhonda Driediger, owner of Driediger Farms and
Blueridge Produce in Langley, B.C. agrees. She says
her iPad and iPhone are her most important timesaving devices. “I have switched most of my customers over to texting or email so I no longer have to
answer the phone day and night.”
March 31, 2015
On the downside, if we’re not careful, email can
gobble up hours every day while not really accomplishing much. You may not even be aware of how much time
gets wasted.
For example, if you get 100 emails in a day and you
spend 30 seconds reading each one, that’s almost an
hour spent just reading emails. And then if you spend
10 minutes answering even five of them, that’s another
50 minutes. In total, that’s 100 minutes, more than an
hour and a half, spent on email. By the end of the week,
you’ve spent almost a whole day emailing.
This underscores the need to use email efficiently.
Don’t “cc” people who don’t really need to know. Unsubscribe from email lists that aren’t useful (or use a separate
email address so you can more easily choose a different
time to read them). Pick up the phone if it will be faster
than writing a long email or a series of emails. And if it’s
a sensitive topic, be aware that it is difficult to convey
emotion in an email. Some discussions are better done in
person or by phone.
Gray also recommends processing email in batches. It’s
more efficient to set aside small chunks of time to deal with
email rather than jumping back and forth between tasks,
she explains.
Many of us sit down to read our emails first thing in the
morning, yet time management experts are dead set against
this. They say this time of day should be reserved for the
tasks that are most important and valuable to you. Often
they recommend getting the jobs you really dislike out of
the way while you are still fresh.
Sharing the workload is another important time management strategy. “Farmers need to move away from the
‘I might as well do it myself’ mantra and work instead to
identify what skilled employees can bring to their operation,” emphasizes Driediger. “Now that we have several
full-time skilled staff members, I am free to do more
business development that focuses on improving our bottom line.”
Gray also advises looking for opportunities to outsource
jobs that aren’t a good use of your time. Housecleaning,
mowing the lawn, and cooking are jobs that could be given
to others. There are also virtual and personal assistants
that can be hired to help out.
With the cost of technology always coming down
in price, what technologies could you use to save time?
Driediger installed cameras throughout her facilities so
she can answer questions without having to track down
an employee for an answer. With the cameras she can
see whether trucks have arrived, how much fruit is in the
cooler to be packed or shipped, etc.
Court says auto steer and a smartphone have made
it a lot easier for him to stay in touch during the day by
answering text messages, emails and phone calls on the go.
While it’s important to make sure that field equipment
is ready to go for the planting season, Court makes sure he
is ready to go too. He tries to schedule all of his meetings,
licensing courses, and appointments with doctors and dentists during the winter months so there isn’t anything that
gets in the way during the busy seasons. “Otherwise,” he
says, “it never fails that those things happen on the nicest
harvest and planting days. CG
March 31, 2015
“Gossip about me is all over town.
What people are saying is not true.”
Rumours abounded about a man I knew.
The stories, all based on hearsay, were
magnified as they moved from coffee
shop to curling rink, and along the party
line. The man was bewildered and hurt.
The rumours reached the church hall.
People would lower their voices and ask, “Have you heard
about… ?” The gossip did not seem plausible. I had known
the man for a few years. Admittedly, I did not know him well.
He had come to church a few times. The rumours did not
equate with what I knew about him.
He phoned and asked to meet. I assured him I would try to
determine why ugly accusations about him were circulating. A
few phone calls and street corner conversations produced an
explanation. Another man from a nearby town had a similar
name. The other man was charged with a crime and his name
appeared in a big-city newspaper. People misread the article and
jumped to erroneous conclusions. Tongues began to wag and the
rumours ballooned. The wrong man’s reputation was on the line.
I was reminded of a campfire skit from summer camp. Some
10 or 20 campers are lined up. A leader whispers in the ear of
the first person. The message is whispered to the next person and
passed down the line. What emerges from the last person’s lips
invariably bears little resemblance to the first message.
James, a writer in the Bible wrote about the viciousness of
slander. He uses colourful language to describe the hurt caused
by gossip. “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!
And the tongue is a fire… but no one can tame the tongue — a
restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
A man had a reputation as the village gossip. He loved to
spread false rumours about his neighbours. People were getting hurt. The rabbi was asked if he would speak to the man.
The rabbi knew that quoting the Bible, or preaching, would
not solve the problem. The next time the religious leader met
the master of gossip he said, “I have a task for you. I would
like you to gather a sack of feathers and place a single feather
on the doorstep of each house in the village. When you have
finished come back to me.”
The man did as requested and soon returned to the rabbi to
announce that the task was complete. “Now,” the rabbi said,
“I want you to go back and collect all the feathers.”
“But Rabbi,” the man protested, “the feathers will be
impossible to collect. The wind will have blown them away.”
“So it is with the lies we tell about our neighbours,” the
rabbi said. “They can never be retrieved. They are like feathers
in the wind.”
Betty, the town gossip and self-appointed supervisor of the
town’s morals, kept sticking her nose into other people’s business. Most local residents were unappreciative of her activities,
but feared her enough to maintain their silence. She made a
mistake when she accused Ted, a local man, of being an alcoholic after she saw his pickup truck parked outside the town’s
only bar one afternoon.
Ted, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and
walked away. Later that evening, he parked his pickup truck
in front of her house and left it there all night.
Suggested Scripture: Proverbs 11:9-13, Ephesians 4:25-5:2
Rod Andrews is a retired Anglican bishop. He lives in Saskatoon.
country-guide.ca 65
acres
By Leeann Minogue
Ouch!!!...
Now the Hansons really need help
The question is, is Elaine’s idea for finding that help as
harebrained as one person in particular seems to think?
hanks, Elaine,” Donna said, watching
her daughter-in-law clear the supper
table while Elaine’s son Connor wandered off to play and the baby napped
in the corner.
“You two need all the help you can get,” Elaine
laughed, looking at Donna’s casted foot resting on
a flowered pillow.
Dale hadn’t wanted to say, “I told you so,” when
his wife flew home from Peru, exhausted, with her
broken ankle in a cast. But when he saw how much
pain she was in, he wished he’d never let her go away
without him. This would never have happened if he
hadn’t been so stubborn and had just gone on vacation with her like she’d asked him to do, he thought.
But instead of saying all that, he’d accidently led
with, “I don’t want to say, ‘I told you so,’” while he
was pulling her luggage off the carousel.
Donna insisted that Peru had been perfectly
safe. She’d broken her ankle tripping in a muddy
parking lot. “It was the kind of silly accident that
could happen just as easily on the farm,” she said.
“Well, it didn’t,” Dale said.
But then, the very next morning, after he’d
insisted on helping Donna get dressed, Dale had an
accident of his own right out in the yard. Luckily,
Dale and Jeff had been working together to change
66 country-guide.ca the tank lid seals on the air cart, so Jeff had been
there to drive Dale to the hospital when Dale slipped
off the top platform and flailed down to the ground.
“At least it’s my left ankle,” Dale said when he
limped into the house. “I can still drive.”
“I don’t want to say, ‘I told you so’ …,” Donna
had begun.
“Then don’t!” Dale said.
That night, Jeff and Elaine had come over with
the kids and a casserole to share dinner with Dale
and Donna, and to talk about their plans to hire
someone to work on the farm for the summer.
“It’s a good time for you to be out of commission, Dad,” Jeff said. “Damn road bans. I’ve got
three guys waiting to clean seed, and I wanted to
get that fertilizer picked up.”
The phone rang and Jeff got up to answer it.
“That’ll be Grandpa. I said we’d put him on the
speakerphone while we decide who to hire.”
Jeff passed the phone to Dale, who made small
talk with Ed about life in Arizona while Jeff put the
office phone on the table and figured out how to set
it to speakerphone. Finally, they could hear Ed.
“Did you see my photos? Helen dragged me
into a hot air balloon,” Ed said.
“For someone who once went 17 years without a
day off, you’re really living the life, Dad,” Dale said.
March 31, 2015
acres
“Let’s get to work,” Donna said. “Jeff, did anyone answer your ad?”
After the Hansons decided to hire farm help,
Jeff had advertised in the local paper and on a
couple of Internet sites.
“There’s 18,” Jeff said. “If you count the guy
who wants to know if we’d let him work here
while he collects EI. And the woman from Thailand who’s never been on a farm, but wants to
move here. Once I narrowed it down, there’s three
we could hire.”
“You know any of them?” Ed asked.
“One,” Jeff said. “Alan Chambers, from down
by Estevan.”
“I knew his granddad,” Ed said. “That guy
knew less about farming than the neighbour’s cat.
Next.”
“Slow down, Ed,” Elaine said. “I’ve been reading some articles.”
“Oh, here we go,” Ed said.
Elaine’s husband defended her. “This is how
businesses operate these days, Grandpa.”
They heard Ed snort in the background.
“Here’s a good one,” Elaine said, passing out
photocopies of an article to Dale, Donna and Jeff.
“Sorry you can’t see this Ed.”
“I’ll get by,” Ed replied.
“See the first thing on the list?” Elaine asked.
“Develop a job description.”
“Oh boy,” Ed said. Then they heard his muffled
voice call into the background. “Helen, can you get
me a drink?”
“I know this isn’t the way you usually do
things around here,” Elaine said. “So I started
with a draft. Jeff helped out.” She passed copies of
another sheet of paper around the table, looking at
each of them hopefully. “It’s just a first draft. We
can make changes.”
“Job description?” Ed said. “This oughta be
good.”
Dale and Donna looked over the list while Jeff
went to the kitchen for the coffee pot to refill
everyone’s mugs.
“Well?” Ed asked. “What’s it say?”
Dale read aloud from Elaine’s list. “Operating
machinery. Often working alone. Basic machinery
maintenance. Some manual labour.”
Ed snorted again. “You don’t know what he’s
going to be doing. What if we need him to go to town
for parts? Or pull someone out of a muddy field?
“It doesn’t have to include everything,” Elaine
said. “It’s just a guideline.”
“Here’s a guideline,” Ed said. “Just have the list
say, ‘Don’t be an idiot.’”
Elaine went on, undaunted, handing out more
paper. “I’ve also made a list of the qualities we’d
like to see in an employee.” Then she pointed.
“See? It’s the next item in the article.”
March 31, 2015
Dale read aloud from the new sheet. “Mechanical ability… Shows initiative… Responsible...”
“This is crazy,” Ed said. “I’d never have gotten
a job if everybody had a list like that.”
“Besides this farm, did you ever have a job?”
Elaine asked.
“Well… no,” Ed said.
“That’s a good point,” Donna said, looking at
Dale. “I guess the kids know more about what goes
on in the workplace these days than we do. Do you
have resumés from the three you’re looking at?”
“Resumés?” Ed said. “Best trucker I ever
met could barely sign his name, let alone write a
resumé. Why don’t we just have them all come out
to the farm and show us how well they can back
up the rock picker?”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Dale said.
“Here’s a guideline,” Ed
said. “Just have the list say,
‘Don’t be an idiot.’” Elaine
went on undaunted
“We have their resumés,” Elaine said. “All three
look good.”
“So should we set up interviews?” Donna asked.
“Yes,” Elaine said. “Once we agree on the list
of things we want, that’s the next step.”
“Could we set it up next week?” Donna asked.
“I don’t know if you need me there, but you and
Jeff and Dale should all make time for this.”
“You’ll have to do it without me,” Ed said.
“Unless you want to send me videos of these guys
backing up the rock picker.”
“One’s a woman,” Elaine said, knowing it
would egg him on.
“Oh geez,” said Ed. “I’d better get home.”
After Ed had hung up and Elaine and Jeff had
cleaned up and gone home, Dale and Donna picked
up their crutches and tottered to the living room.
“Guess you were right,” Dale said, looking at
his foot. “This could happen anywhere.”
“That’s nice to hear, but I am sorry you’re
hurt,” Donna smiled.
“Do you think all these articles and resumés are
going to get us a better hired man?” Dale asked.
“Hired person,” Donna said.
“Whatever.”
“I don’t know,” Donna said. “But we might as
well give it a try.”
Leeann Minogue is the editor of Grainews, a playwright and part of a family grain farm in southeastern Saskatchewan.
country-guide.ca 67
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