weather wise marketing tony Varekamp finds the silVer lining

western edition
country-guide.ca
September 2015 $3.50
Can you
score
market
wins
this fall
Despite
china?
Weather wise
marketing
Tony Varekamp finds
the silver lining �� 22
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Contents
september 2015
BUSINESS
8
better ag education
Getting more of Canada’s teens to look to agriculture for a great
career is an achievable goal, says Nuffield scholar Becky Parker.
12 german quandary
Germany’s global lead as a bioenergy producer sounds better
before you talk to the farmers who are stuck in its grip.
16 the china factor
Market adviser Errol Anderson tackles the year’s toughest question: Can you make China’s troubles work in your favour?
30 the hub of an opportunity
These food hubs will help more medium-size farms diversify into lucrative local-food markets.
36 Guide HR — Are you ready for change?
Some farms are good at change. Others simply aren’t. Are you really sure you know which camp you’re in?
38 the farmer as ceo
Bigger farms need leaders who function more like business CEOs.
More difficult is knowing how to make the transition.
54 our toughest marketing challenge
We’re losing the public’s respect, writes farm columnist Gerald Pilger, who says the time to get it back is right now.
56 finding the ‘wow’ factor
Machinery makers reveal how to build machines you want to buy.
58 agriculture’s glass ceiling
If there’s no gender issue on the farm, why are so many women
signing up for farm women conferences?
PG. 22 marketing in
weather extremes
Most farmers use their marketing skills to protect their
incomes from extreme weather. Here, however, Tony
Varekamp and Eldon Klippenstein explain how they use
their marketing to find a silver lining in any cloud.
62 lgbt on the farm
These days, diversity on the farm is good for business, sometimes
in some very surprising ways.
66 managing today’s diversity
CROPS GUIDE
70
39 choice sampling
If farms don’t learn how to embrace more diversity, they may soon
find it impossibly tough to attract enough good workers.
g
uide life — avoid overload
Burnout isn’t just a buzzphrase. It’s a real danger to your farm
and your happiness. Here’s your defence plan.
Whose soil sampling system is better, yours or your neighbours?
42 grow your own
With tight margins, those old nutrient plans come roaring back.
EVERY ISSUE
6MACHINERY GUIDE
Machinery editor Scott Garvey launches his new series.
46 GOING underground
Soil is more than just dirt. Are you nurturing soil organisms too?
48 phantom nutrients
Some growers believe in micronutrients. Others just don’t.
73 GUIDE HEALTH
50 their sights are on fusarium
74 HANSON ACRES
When his son fires up the combine, Dale knows what’s next.
52 foundation work
Which iron pill is the right pill for you?
This new research program aims to stop fusarium in its tracks.
Cigi research on pulse utilization is opening new markets.
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september 2015 country-guide.ca 3
desk
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Editor: Tom Button
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Sales Director: Cory Bourdeaud’hui
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Kevin Yaworsky
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Tom Button is editor of Country Guide magazine
A better marketing idea
Marketing is in a class by itself.
Nowhere else in agriculture is there so
much more noise than information, or
so many claims based on untested and
untestable evidence.
As a rule, of course, the entire financial and business ends of farming let us
down in this regard, and I have complained in this space in past that when it
comes to the biggest decisions they will
ever make — decisions about succession,
incorporation, expansion, etc. — farmers need much more rigorous ways of
evaluating their sources of information
and advice.
This is especially true of marketing,
where the lack of research is not only tolerated, it’s ignored.
It’s as if we don’t think that research
into marketing can really help us because,
let’s face it, any one year is likely to be so
different from any other year, and any one
farm or region is likely to be so similarly
different from any other farm or region
that it’s impossible to draw any permanent
lessons.
What we actually haven’t faced, however, is the fact that, based on the bit of
research that we do have, suggests more
research is sorely needed.
It’s already been seven years since we
reported on University of Illinois studies
by Scott Irwin and Darrel Good, comparing the performance of market advisory
services.
The researchers subscribed to some
4 country-guide.ca 23 different market services from 1995
through 2005 and then tracked how farmers would have fared if they had taken
their advice.
Farmers are used to hearing marketing
experts chide them for proverbially selling two-thirds of their crop in the bottom
third of the market. Yet it turns out that
the best marketing services also struggle to
sell in the top half.
And there’s worse to come because,
according to the research, the fact that a
marketing service beats the market this
year doesn’t predict whether it will beat
the market next year.
This doesn’t mean that advisory services aren’t worthwhile. Nor does it mean
that there aren’t any meaningful differences between your potential sources of
information.
But it does mean that we need more
science in our marketing. The few studies that actually put different marketing
strategies to the test do come up with
meaningful results, often demonstrating
that selling incrementally through the year
provides the best long-term average price.
The point is, business research in Canada is sadly lacking, especially in agriculture, and until enough farmers pressure
enough farm organizations to work for
change, it will continue to be underfunded.
Yet few research investments could return
more to this country’s farmers.
Let me know what you think. I’m at
[email protected].
Lillie Ann Morris
(905) 838-2826
Email: [email protected]
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President: Bob Willcox
Glacier FarmMedia
Email: [email protected]
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september 2015
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Machinery
By Scott Garvey, CG Machinery Editor
Editor’s Note: With this issue, CG machinery editor Scott Garvey begins a new chapter for MachineryGuide with his industryleading reporting on machinery innovations that can make a difference for you, both in the field and on the balance sheet. This
month, Scott goes deep into combine design with this exploration of the 2015 launches by AGCO and New Holland.
Elevation the key for these NH combines 
Combine designers are doing more than just tinkering, as New
Holland is showing with the particular attention it has paid this year
to small grains growers, introducing new conventional and rotary
machines designed specifically for that market.
In June, NH used Canada’s Farm Progress Show in Regina for the
North American introduction of its completely new, two-model range
of conventionals, the CX8 Series.
This line includes Class 7 and 8 models. The brand believes the
larger CX8.90 will appeal strongly to small grains growers in Western
Canada who also operate mixed farming operations and are willing to
trade a little capacity in order to leave straw in good condition for baling.
“It (a conventional combine) is a little gentler on the straw but not
quite as efficient in terms of capacity as a rotary combine,” says Nigel
MacKenzie, New Holland’s marketing manager for combines and
headers.
The CX8 models use the brand’s Opti-Clean cleaning shoe system, which was originally introduced on its large rotary. The company
claims it offers a 20 per cent cleaning improvement over previous
designs, because of the longer sieve stroke and steeper throwing
angle, keeping material airborne for longer to enhance cleaning. To
minimize the risk of blowing kernels out the back, the Opti-Fan automatically adjusts its speed to compensate for inclines.
For grain growers who like the idea of a combine tailored to their
crops but don’t want the capacity drop associated with conventional
models, NH also introduced a new rotary, the CR8.90 Elevation.
Both NH’s CX and CR Series combines will use the same cab,
which the brand redesigned last year. It includes more interior
space and glass area than the previous version.
Photos: New Holland
Of course NH already builds a Class 8 rotary at its Grand Island,
Nebraska, plant. So what’s different with this one?
“The elevation is the clue,” says MacKenzie. “The CR8.90
Elevation is a small-grain-focused machine. It has exactly the same
cleaning shoe as in the 10.90. The Opti-Clean cleaning shoe, it’s
optimized for small grains, that technology we’re bringing down into
the Class 8 segment to offer alongside our Grand Island machines.”
Today’s engineers are creating
specific combine designs for
specific cropping demands
New Holland has unveiled a new two-model line of conventional combines
aimed at the western Canadian and Northern Plains states markets in June.
6 country-guide.ca S e p tem b e r 2 0 1 5
AGCO gives S8 Gleaner combines
faster cleaning 
When AGCO used Louisville’s National Farm Machinery Show in
February to introduce its updated S8 Gleaner combine line, it was
able to take along some extra bragging rights. Just days before the
show, the work that the company’s engineers did to improve performance of these machines won the brand a prized ASABE 50 engineering award.
ASABE (The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers) selects up to 50 new engineering designs annually for recognition with its ASABE 50 awards.
AGCO’s award was for its redesign of the perforated cascade pan
at the front of the cleaning shoe, which is included in all three models
in the Class 6 through 8 range. The redesigned pan is slanted at a
six-degree angle, and the cleaning shoe has an additional 992 square
inches of pneumatic cleaning area, bringing the Gleaners’ total cleaning area to 8,721 square inches.
It may not sound like a big increase, but the company claims
this provides 10 per cent more cleaning capacity in tough conditions
because it allows high-moisture crops to fall through sooner after
coming through the accelerator rolls. This means the crop hits the
sieve and clean-grain cross auger much faster.
“That gives us the capability to avoid the bridging that normally
occurs in high-moisture crops (in all combine brands),” said Kevin
Bien, Gleaner marketing manager, during an interview at the show.
“You get so much buildup, it wants to walk itself right out the back of
the combine because it can’t get through the chaffer and sieve area
and into the cross auger.”
As well, in the redesigned units, the forced air duct was moved
forward, redirecting airflow.
“For the very first time, in 2015, Gleaner is totally pneumatic on our
cleaning shoe,” Bien said. “That means we don’t have any area of our
shoe that isn’t functional as far as giving us more capacity and more
cleaning capability. This means a lot in high-moisture corn and high-
September 2015
AGCO’s Gleaner marketing manager, Kevin Bien, introduced
the first S8 Series Gleaners to the farm media at the
company’s Hesston, Kansas, assembly plant in 2013.
density crops, because it gives us the capability to get more air to the
crop. This cleaning shoe right now is about as large as some Class 9
cleaning shoes on the market with some competitors out there.”
AGCO claims this cleaning shoe design also reduces losses during
side-hill operation.
“Cleaning is everything to a combine,” said Bien. “We’re really trying to figure out how we can give greater capacity to combines without
adding weight to the machine and sacrificing some of the things that
are most important to farmers… reduced compaction and increased
fuel economy, and, more importantly, efficiency of the overall machine.”
Class 6 through 8 Gleaner combines get a new, more
efficient shoe with a larger cleaning area, rivalling some Class 9
machines, according to the company. Photos: Scott Garvey
country-guide.ca 7
business
Better ag
education
By Lois Harris
f you need to make a big splash, says Nuffield
scholar Becky Parker, throw a big rock. A lot of
little stones will only create a lot of little ripples.
It’s an insight that Parker has brought
home from her Nuffield tour of Britain, New
Zealand and Australia, and it’s among the strategies
that she now believes could help Canadian agriculture cure the labour shortages that are hampering
virtually all sectors of the industry.
Parker kicked off her spring tour at an international
conference in France attended by 75 Nuffield scholars
from around the world.
“When the speakers talked about the biggest
challenges facing agriculture, almost every one mentioned human resources — whether it was a lack of
skilled labour, training and education of staff, or an
aging farmer population,” Parker says.
But Parker, who holds down a full-time job at
Ontario Agri-Food Education (OAFE), also saw that
Canada could be more effective in tackling our own
workforce challenges.
In particular, we're hamstrung by duplication,
working in silos, and inadequate funding.
The duplication comes from commodity groups,
industry associations, education organizations and
others all doing their own outreach to young people.
“There are multiple websites saying the same
thing, and they are all developing similar pamphlets
to go into classrooms,” Parker says. “It’s ineffective
and a waste.”
The silos get built when commodity-specific
groups don’t work together to encourage young people. If, for example, the fertilizer, food and machinery manufacturing industries focus only on their own
needs, they wind up competing against one another.
“The average student sitting in a high school classroom doesn’t see the difference between sheep and dairy
cows, tractors and combines,” Parker says. “Can’t we
have a bigger impact if we come as the agri-food sector,
and present the opportunities through one lens?”
Funding also affects everyone everywhere, but
Parker thinks that collaboration and pooling efforts
at fundraising would again make us more effective.
Parker’s scholarship is supported by a $15,000
sponsorship from Glacier FarmMedia, which publishes
Country Guide plus Grainews, Western Producer
and Manitoba Co-operator, among others. She has
8 country-guide.ca Getting more young
Canadians more interested
in working in agriculture can
be an achievable goal, says
Becky Parker, whose Nuffield
scholarship is supported by
Glacier FarmMedia. First,
though, we need to learn
some lessons for ourselves
also received funding from CropLife Ontario Council
and additional support from Litherland & Company, a
recruiting and placement agency.
Already, Parker has drafted a preliminary list
of three tactics that could go a long way in helping
the Canadian agri-food industry attract more young
people. They include competitions, mentoring, and
hands-on work experience.
Competitions are fun, engaging ways to get students
excited about possible agricultural careers. In New
Zealand, Parker attended a Get Ahead Experience Day
co-ordinated by the Young Farmers Club in which high
school kids were put into teams of six or seven who
then competed against each other at interactive stations.
The 12 stations were run by companies and organizations in the industry, and the young people got to
learn about everything from how to grade meat and
how to align gears on a tractor to how to figure out
which farm is the best to buy in terms of financing.
Teams were awarded points on how they worked
together to solve problems, and the winning team
took home prizes. The New Zealand beef, lamb and
dairy industry organizations collaborated to sponsor
the half-day event, which was put on in 10 locations
through March and April in 2015.
“Students see competitions all the time on television — “Dancing with the Stars,” “Big Brother” —
you name it, so it’s familiar to them,” Parker says.
Agricultural mentoring and ambassador programs are also effective tactics used by every country
Parker visited.
Some countries highlight ambassadors by profiling them on video or having case studies written up
about their careers, or by sending them into classrooms to talk about their experiences.
“The biggest takeaway I got from learning about
this is that mentors and ambassadors have to be
young enough to relate to the students sitting in the
classrooms,” she says.
September 2015
business
ment are needed. The first level would be aimed at
getting over the agri-food disconnect in the general
student population by reaching out through ambassadors, competitions and other resources. A second
level would be that, once interested, the students
could engage in a hands-on way in a specific career
while they’re still in high school.
“We already have co-op and apprenticeship programs in the education system — we need to get the
agri-food sector to plug in better,” she says. “It’s a
matter of determining what’s already in place, and
how do we make the best use of it.”
Parker says that when she asked the average person in any of the countries she had been in what they
thought when they heard “agri-food industry,” they
If we want the best and brightest
kids to look at agriculture, Parker
says, we must invest in really
connecting with their lives
In Australia, Art4Agriculture is “a network
of young people who share a passion to tell others about the pivotal role Australian farmers play
in feeding the world,” according to its website.
Through a program called “Young Farming Champions,” young people are trained as positive spokespeople for the industry. The challenge they’ve set for
themselves is to “be the change” that needs to occur.
A third strategy is to provide young people with
hands-on work experience.
“We need to do a better job of getting kids in
high school into the labs, offices and farms to get
them hooked,” Parker says.
She recognizes there are already a number of programs in place — like co-operative work terms and
apprenticeships that are available, but she thinks
there needs to be more collaborative effort among the
groups that are involved in delivering these programs.
All over the world, there are science, technology, engineering and mathematics networks, called
STEMs, that encourage kids to take on careers that
use STEM skills. The Scottish Food and Drink Federation has partnered with the U.K. STEM network
to ensure that agriculture and food careers are highlighted through that network.
Parker would like to see better co-operation
among the industry and educational systems in Canada to produce a more structured approach to drawing young people into agri-food careers.
In many of the countries she travelled to, postsecondary institutions would offer “taster days”
in which potential students could experience what
exactly would be involved in studying different agrifood-related disciplines.
The way Parker sees it, two levels of encourageSeptember 2015
all said “farmer” — as if the industry is only primary
production.
“Even in my discussions with the agriculture
people, I had to continually remind them that it’s
about agriculture and food — we have to broaden
the perspective of the people who work within the
industry,” she says.
There was also the unfortunate and wrongheaded stereotype in the schools that she visited that
if you’re not smart enough to go into other things,
you can get into farming. In one of her ongoing blog
posts (www.lessonsoftheland.com), she noted that during one of her many flights, she watched the movie
“Interstellar.” In it, a young character was streamed
into being a farmer because his test score wasn’t
“high enough for college.”
Up next for Parker is touring the U.S. and Canada
in 2016 and then reporting back in the fall. Country
Guide will continue profiling Parker’s progress as
she continues her Nuffield research. She can also be
followed on Twitter at @becky_parker_2. CG
Useful websites
Becky’s blog: www.lessonsoftheland.com
Young Farming Champions (Australia):
www.art4agriculture.com.au/yfc/
Get Ahead Experience Days (New Zealand):
www.getahead.co.nz/get-involved/experience-days/
U.K. STEMnet: www.stemnet.org.uk
Nuffield Canada: www.nuffield.ca
country-guide.ca 9
BayerCropScience.ca/InVigor or 1 888 283-6847 or contact your Bayer CropScience representative.
Always read and follow label directions. InVigor® is a registered trademark of the Bayer Group.
Bayer CropScience is a member of CropLife Canada.
O-66-08/15-10406655-E
business
Since 2011,
German farmer
Norbert Mayer has
grown all his crops
for bioenergy.
German quandary
German biogas producers generate as much electricity
as two nuclear power stations. If that sounds like a great
success, try talking to the farmers who grow the crops
By Marianne Stamm
t’s a perfect picture on a perfect day. A Claas
chopper sends a steady stream of green rye
into a tractor trailer while overhead, the main
overland power line hangs in the blue sky.
It’s perfect too as a representation of the
Mayer Energy Farm in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, where Norbert Mayer grows all his crops to
feed his biogas plant, which then feeds power into
the grid.
Germany is a world leader in the field of renewable energy. It introduced its first Renewable Energy
Bill (EEG) in 2004, offering substantial incentives
for the production of renewable energy, and it is
now embracing a goal of producing 80 per cent of
its energy from renewable sources by 2080.
Many farmers were quick to sign contracts to
produce solar, wind and biogas energy. With the
EEG2004 guaranteeing 0.55 euro (C$0.78) per kilo-
12 country-guide.ca watt hour for the next 20 years, it seemed an easy
decision.
Biogas seemed especially lucrative, so putting
up a plant made a lot of sense at the time. After
all, grain prices were still at their record lows, with
wheat fetching only 80 euros per tonne (approximately $3.26 per bushel).
At those prices, energy definitely added more
value to wheat than bread, which is why, by 2014,
German biogas plants were producing more energy
than two atomic power plants together, and a report
by the Marktforschungsinstitute “Trend” in August
2013 found that more than 80 per cent of biogas
plants and 21 per cent of solar plants were owned
by farmers. Farmers were receiving more than onethird of the Renewable Energy Fund.
Norbert Mayer has turned all his crops into
power since 2011. He made the switch to a bio-
September 2015
business
gas plant from a 3,000-head feeder hog operation
when hog prices plummeted in 2009 and grain
prices were still low.
There were several revisions to the EEG by then,
and he was guaranteed a price of 0.25 euro (CS0.35)
per kW-h. Mayer’s biogas plant produces 430 kW
for almost 9,000 hours a year, adding up to 3.5 million kW. That’s enough power for more than 1,000
households.
“I produce more power than Stühlingen needs,”
Mayer says of the nearby town of 2,000 people.
Power is produced by fermenting biomass such as
plant products or liquid manure. The resulting gas
is converted into power, which is fed into the local
power system. It sounds simple, but it’s actually
quite a complicated system, with added complications from numerous regulations.
For instance, to be eligible for subsidies for a
biogas plant through the EEG program, 60 per cent
of the biomass must be produced on the farm. There
must also be a clear plan with signed contracts for
the spreading of the liquid waste, which is highquality manure.
Mayer crops 225 acres, with corn taking 55
per cent of his crop, followed by sorghum, millet,
wheat and triticale. When the corn and sorghum
are harvested, winter rye is seeded which is silaged
in the following spring, before reseeding to corn
and sorghum.
Mayer still purchases a considerable amount of
feed and he also buys liquid manure from surrounding farmers. By adding 35 per cent of liquid manure
to the biomass he is eligible for a higher subsidy.
It’s clear he needs those subsidies to make it. In
September 2015
recent years, Mayer lost some of his rented land.
Prices for land and rent have risen, mostly because
of the nearby Swiss neighbours who can afford to
pay more for land than the German farmers.
Rising grain prices and changing agriculture policy regulations such as rules on crop rotation have
made margins slimmer. But Mayer can’t opt out
now; he has invested too much.
“I could have built a dairy barn for 300 cows
with the money the plant cost me,” Mayer says.
Instead, he needs to inject funds into paying the
biogas plant off before the 20 years of guaranteed
prices run out.
Mayer built much of the biogas plant himself
with the help of his wife and three children. His
daughter Lisa, 21, is studying agronomy and wants
to take over the farm. He formed a company with
her for the farmland. This company then sells its
crops to the biogas plant, which is operated by a
separate company owned by Mayer and his wife.
As Canadian farmers will understand from this,
tax planning is a crucial part of the job.
The regular market price for power is currently
0.02 euro (just under C$0.03) per kW-h. No one can
afford to run a biogas plant for that. “In 20 years,
when all the guaranteed price contracts run out,
there won’t be any biogas plants,” Mayer thinks,
adding, “With the new EG2014 regulation, new biogas plants became completely unattractive.”
Besides, the politics aren’t simple. When asked
about the food-versus-energy debate, Mayer says,
“It’s a crazy contradiction. On the one hand we’re
Will the energy
subsidies be
there for the
next generation?
If not, their
outlook is cloudy.
Continued on page 14
country-guide.ca 13
business
Mayer produces
enough electricity
to power the nearby
town of Stühlingen,
population 2,000.
Continued from page 13
accused of taking away food with bioenergy production. On the other hand the government pays
farmers to take land out of production.”
Government agriculture programs foster extensive as opposed to intensive forms of agriculture, for
instance by promoting flower meadows instead of
top wheat production. For many average Germans,
Mayer says, bioenergy has a bad reputation. Corn is
tall, easily seen and considered a monoculture that
jeopardizes biodiversity.
Mayer insists that other crops such as wheat are no
different. “I don’t use anywhere near the chemicals as
I did before I used our crops for bioenergy,” he adds.
Ludwig Käppeler, agriculture officer for the
Baden-Württemberg district believes the food-versus-energy debate in Germany doesn’t add up. There
is no food shortage anywhere, he insists. “Just look
at the low price of flour,” he says, “and what don’t
we all throw away!”
Käppeler insists it’s the Americans who are using
so much of their corn to produce ethanol that it
affects food prices. “If something happens on the
global scene, like a major drought, prices go through
the roof,” Käppeler says. “It’s speculation, not
actual shortage, that makes prices rise.”
There’s another consideration too; 70 per cent
of Baden-Württemberg’s farms are part-time operations. That has a lot to do with the way land
was passed on within the family. Instead of one
child taking over the whole farm, the land was split
14 country-guide.ca evenly between all the siblings, resulting in ever
smaller parcels.
Efforts have been undertaken to merge land parcels,
but the fact that much of the land is rented makes it
difficult. Part-time farm operations are here to stay,
Käppeler believes. But whereas farmers used to work
in manual jobs such as bricklaying, where they could
often take their holidays when it was time to make hay,
today’s farmers often have more sophisticated jobs.
The system works as long as there are parents or
a spouse at home who can manage the farm. Agriculture colleges are also now offering courses for parttime farmers, which are finding good resonance.
One way to improve farm income that requires little labour is to install a solar power system which sells
to the grid. Markus Schaub of Dettighofen, BadenWürttemberg invested big into solar energy with the
first EEG in 2004. That was a lucrative time with the
highest returns. Solar energy panels, unlike biogas
plants, require little maintenance once installed. After
20 years their output is still 80 per cent. There aren’t
as many unknown financials as there are with biogas,
and the return on investment can be easily calculated.
Schaub sells 234 kW-h into the grid, which generates 30 per cent of his farm income with the
Baden-Württemberg district having the best total
sunshine hours in all of Germany. Schaub’s large
shed and barn roofs all slope in the right direction
for maximum solar production. Almost all solar
panels on farms are mounted on roofs. Germany has
some fields of solar panels, but not yet on farms.
The Schaub farm lies idyllically among green
September 2015
business
rolling hills and small villages. The pastures are dotted with horses. Markus
and his wife Birgitta board 100 horses in
their stables, complete with a new riding
arena. The horses provide 50 per cent of
their income; the rest comes from growing seed crops on their 130 acres.
The solar panels are definitely the
easiest money on the farm. “We need to
rethink our strategy!” Birgitta exclaimed
as she thought that over. “Solar power
definitely outperforms considering the
income versus labour and input ratios.”
Each change in EEG has meant a
reduction in guaranteed prices for
power produced. In recent years, however, the price of solar panels has also
dropped considerably (once produced
by German companies, the Chinese now
make them much cheaper) so solar can
still be profitable, especially for smaller
businesses.
In 2014 Schaub added solar panels on
a shed, producing 17.5 kW-h which he
uses for the farm. It makes for a power
bill savings of 40 per cent. “You have to
rethink your power usage,” Schaub says.
“We try to use our high-energy consumption items like the washing machine
and oven during peak hours.”
Peak hours for solar energy are
around noon. That’s also the hours of
peak public consumption, a win/win situation. There are days now when Germany’s midday consumption is covered
completely by solar power. The main
challenge with solar energy is still storage. Research is working hard to find
an answer but for now, storage ability is
limited to batteries, which are expensive.
Schaub has less than 10 years to go
on the EEG subsidy program. His solar
plant will be more than paid for by that
time, so he’ll still make a bit of money.
But the good days will be over. Most
German farmers are heavily dependent
on subsidies, which make up 30 to 50
per cent of their income.
“Without subsidies I wouldn’t start
the tractor in the morning,” Schaub says.
Schaub farms 260 acres, half of which
is pasture for the horses. That’s much
bigger than the average farm size of the
district. “I was fortunate that my father
purchased land whenever it came up for
sale,” Schaub says. He’s also lucky to
be so close to the Swiss border. Most of
their boarding horses come from Switzerland. For the Swiss, it’s much cheaper
to board horses in Germany.
“The importance of the Swiss borSeptember 2015
der can’t be overestimated,” Käppeler
says. “The economic impact for German farmers is immense.” For Schaub it
works positively, but for many farmers
the impact is negative.
Like Mayer, many are losing land to
Swiss farmers who are more than willing
to pay a higher rent or land price. Käppeler can get passionate when it comes
to good farmland along the border falling way to big shopping malls catering
to Swiss customers. Many of Germany’s products, including food, are much
cheaper than in Switzerland.
Times are tough, especially for the
smaller German farmer, so it’s good that
renewable energy production helps many
farmers improve their income, Mayer
and Schaub say.
If it’s going to continue to work for
those farmers, however, politicians will
have to keep being generous. Will they? CG
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country-guide.ca 15
business
the china factor
Does China’s economic
slowdown have to be bad news
for Canada’s farmers? We
ask Errol Anderson, does he
see hope in the year ahead?
By Gord Gilmour, CG Associate Editor
or the first instalment in our five-part
series this fall and winter, we sat down
with Calgary-based grain market adviser
and regular Country Guide contributor
Errol Anderson for his insights into what
to look for in markets this year.
The billion-dollar question, Anderson says, is
what will happen in China. Other issues are important too, such as Greece and the chance that the U.S.
Federal Reserve could jump the gun on touted rate
hikes, just as the economy shows signs of flagging.
And Canada? We’re likely already in recession
but just haven’t recognized the fact yet.
It all adds up to a challenging — but not impossible — environment to market grain. Opportunities will emerge, but they’ll be fleeting, so having a
marketing plan and sticking to it is going to be more
important than ever.
COUNTRY GUIDE: What are the
main economic indicators you’re
watching these days? What’s your
overall take on commodity markets?
Errol Anderson: We’re definitely entering
a new marketing era for commodities. For a long
time the emerging economies like the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — have been
growing very rapidly. Now we’re seeing these same
countries encountering a significant slowdown with
their economies turning recessionary. This has had a
direct impact slowing global commodity trade. The
most recent concern has been China. China’s stock
market has been under considerable pressure and
there are signs indicating their real estate bubble may
be popping. If they’re not growing by six per cent or
more, they’re really in recession. I know that sounds
crazy, but the truth is their amazing growth has been
so highly leveraged, they need that kind of growth to
maintain the health of their credit markets.
What we’re seeing now is the early stages of their
16 country-guide.ca credit bubble imploding. It’s going to have a real
impact on commodities, and it’s going to be painful
and take awhile. What’s staggering is that China’s
economy now represents 39 per cent of the total
global GDP growth. China is an economic giant, and
its slowdown will impact markets globally.
I think Europe and Greece are really just a sideshow compared to China. It just boils down to
the relative size of their economies. We pay a lot
of attention to Greece because it’s right in Europe,
and there could be some knock-on effects for other
indebted countries like Italy, Spain and Portugal. But
the loss of wealth in China due to the falling stock
market is really going to affect consumption in China
as well as global commodity trade. We can already
see it weighing heavily on commodities like copper
and iron ore. You can see it in shipping rates, with
the Baltic dry index basically collapsed. Container
ships are simply being dry docked.
CG: You paint a concerning picture.
Until recently we’ve seen fairly rosy
economic data, especially out of the U.S.
EA:
I don’t think the picture of the U.S. recovery
has ever been as good as a lot of people thought it
was. The U.S. has experienced a modest recovery
since the 2008 financial crisis. But these gains are
Continued on page 20
september 2015
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business
Continued from page 16
fragile and can come under pressure, especially
with economic uncertainty around the globe causing the U.S. dollar to rise. That of course makes
it much more difficult for American manufacturers and exporters to compete globally, which
undermines their recovery. I think this likely means
that, despite public posturing, in reality we’re in
a low interest rate environment for several years.
An interest rate increase while economic recovery
remains fragile is highly risky, and a gamble for the
U.S. Federal Reserve.
True, we’ve already heard a lot of talk about
U.S. interest rate increases, including some pretty
strong language from Fed governors, but I think
what they’re really doing is talking the talk, but not
walking the walk. If the Fed does hike rates, it will
be just a toe in the water to measure the potential
market contagion that might occur both outside and
within U.S. borders.
At the same time, we’ve seen both the IMF
(International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank
request that the Fed leave interest rates untouched.
They’re concerned about what the global impact
of that move would be, since the U.S. dollar is the
de facto global currency. Take Brazil as just one
example of what might happen — they owe a lot
of money and it’s all in U.S. dollars. If U.S. interest
rates rise, so will theirs, putting a lot of pressure on
their economy just when they don’t need it, because
commodity demand is falling. Also remember, by
the time President Obama is out of office, the U.S.
debt will have ballooned towards a staggering $20
trillion. The U.S. also has to service this debt with
higher interest service charges.
It all adds up to a lot of talk, but no sudden
moves. If they do move prematurely, it could seriously undermine the U.S. economy and slam the
brakes back on. Global contagion could occur. In a
lot of ways the U.S. is stuck in the same stagflation
trap of chronic slow growth that Japan has found
itself in for many years now.
As for Canada, I personally think we’re already
in recession, government data just hasn’t caught up
to it yet. If China sneezes, Canada catches cold. We
can see this in recent moves by the Bank of Canada
to reduce interest rates even further. Clearly it’s concerned with the fragility of the Canadian economy.
CG: That sounds grim. Can I safely
put you on the bearish side?
EA: (Chuckles.) Sometimes I think I really need to stop
being so cautious towards prices. But I’m not trying to
sugar-coat commodity markets. This is the reality. Once
the process of credit deleveraging occurs, commodities will again turn bullish. Commodity prices — from
crude oil to precious metals to copper to grains — are
going to remain capped. But there will be opportuni20 country-guide.ca ties for pricing profits, if you’re watching for them
and you’re ready to move when they occur. However,
reducing your production costs and paying down debt
will also be a big part of this business formula.
This is definitely going to be a year when having
a marketing plan in place and doing your best to be
disciplined and sticking to it will help business success.
I think probably the greatest danger is going to be for
producers who fall victim to picking tops — markets
will rally, but rather than sell at a profit, they’ll hang
on, expecting prices to recover fully towards previous years’ highs. I really don’t think, given the overall global economic picture and what that’s doing to
demand, that it is in the cards for the foreseeable future.
Market recoveries are going to be fleeting and
what we’re really going to see is prices see-sawing up
and down. Rallies will be short lived, and sell-offs
can be swift. You have to be prepared for this. If you
don’t understand the nature of this beast, pricing
opportunities will be lost.
CG: You say planning will be very
important. What would that look like?
EA: The two leading indicators for a farmer putting
together a marketing plan are how much control
they feel they have over their business, and how well
they’re able to sleep at night. Those are the indicators that are really important, and it all starts with
the farm balance sheet. It’s not rocket science, but it
does require that you get a firm handle on the financial side of your business and understand what your
obligations are and when they come due. You also
need to have a really good handle on what you have
for sale, how much in inventory, how much it cost to
produce and what a profitable price will be.
Many farmers do a really good job of this stuff
already, but I do think there are some farmers who
could up their game a bit. Strong record-keeping is
essential, as well as noting why key decisions are
made. Try to document why you made a particular sale. Over time, as you collect more and more
data and history, a pattern will appear. It’s going
to reveal how you make sales and the reasoning
behind cash sales. It might even help reveal patterns and market situations where you find yourself
doing less-than-strategic marketing, like panic selling to meet a debt obligation or selling into a falling market.
Collecting this sort of information is really important and a valuable tool, especially over time.
As for the day to day, I can’t overstate this —
don’t fall victim to pure speculation under the guise
of marketing. Your goal as a grain marketer is to
find opportunities to price profitably. Don’t hold on,
hoping to hit the market peak. The reality is we’ve
all tried, and almost none of us have succeeded. You
don’t see a market peak with any certainty unless it’s
in the rear-view mirror.
september 2015
business
Generally I recommend that growers use a mix of
both cash contracts and the added horsepower of the
tools you can find in a commodity trading account.
I’m also generally not a big fan of the extensive
use of on-farm storage. Storage can be overused and
abused as a marketing strategy. One of the fallacies,
as I see it, is producers looking at stored grain as
purely an asset, when in reality, I think it can also
be seen as a bit of a liability. There are certainly
risks tied to storage. Many farmers would be, when
appropriate, better served by selling the physical
grain and getting early cash flow to pay bills, then
turning around and buying the paper in the form of
call options, to capture future market upside. I recognize this might not be a big issue for some of your
readers but it’s a strategy that bears consideration.
CG: Any last strategic points?
EA: If you believe the world owes you your cost
of production, you are mistaken. It’s demand that’s
driving this market, not supply.
Markets can and will remain below the cost of
production for long periods of time. You’ve heard
me say this before, but it deserves repeating — bear
markets, on average, last more than twice as long as
bull markets.
This is why it’s so very important to take emotion
out of your business decisions. It’s why tracking the
true cost of production, reining in expenses, understanding all the tools available in your marketing
tool box and setting up and executing a marketing
plan are so important. Over the next few years, these
concepts will all be put to the test. CG
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September 2015
country-guide.ca 21
business
Disasters set the price in
many markets, says Alberta’s
Tony Varekamp. His goal is
to anticipate them, and be
poised to sell.
22 country-guide.ca September 2015
business
Marketing
in weather extremes
By Maggie Van Camp, CG Associate Editor
Photography: Chris Yauck Photography
Other farmers use marketing to cut the weather’s
impact on their farms. These farmers build on it
September 2015
cross Canada, the late-summer
reports were a wild mixture
of good, bad and ugly. Crops
seemed stellar in southeastern
Manitoba, yet in parts of Alberta
and Saskatchewan, late rains couldn’t undo
earlier drought damage, while in Ontario, the
outlook swung from excellent to poor based on
late frosts and excess rain.
In that context, C ountry G uide spoke
with two farmers who were dealing with two
very different weather situations. For Eldon
Klippenstein in Manitoba, the year was shaping up to be bin busting. Conversely, in southern Alberta, Tony Varekamp was harvesting
dryland winter wheat that was yielding about
half of normal.
Over the years, most of us have eaten from
both sides of this plate, and although we can’t
control the weather, we have learned to mitigate the risk. We buy crop insurance and we
diversify production. We add irrigation, or tile
drainage. And we market around the weather.
There is a next level of sophistication, however, whose objective is to take advantage of
the opportunities that the weather creates. It’s
a strategy that requires recognizing the volatility of weather markets, tracking forecasts, and
seizing the opportunities that line those clouds.
With margins that are tighter these days,
and with weather variability that seems to
be increasing too, survivors know how to
execute smart, disciplined marketing in tough
weather situations and how to wring as much
out of the system as they can, when they can.
Make hay when the sun shines
Brenda Tjaden Lepp, co-founder and
chief analyst of FarmLink Marketing Solutions was driving from Winnipeg to Saskatoon in midsummer when Country Guide
caught up to her. From her windshield, most
crops looked great overall, although some
fields had been damaged by the high winds
and rain that had roared through the area,
complete with an incredible three-hour tornado, the night before.
This year, Tjaden Lepp has suggested that
her farm clients in this area stay with their
marketing plan and avoid selling into the
bearish harvest market. “If there’s no concerns
about yield, we consider it safe to pre-sell 20
to 30 per cent of expected yields,” she said.
The tornado touched down about 175
miles from Eldon Klippenstein’s farm near
Altona, Man., so his farm was unscathed.
When he had assessed the crops for yield
potential in mid-July, they looked very promising. His estimates put overall yields up at
least 10 per cent above average.
With the ideal growing conditions, and
knowing his cost of production, Klippenstein
wanted to catch a price rally earlier in the
summer and he had the confidence to pre-sell
aggressively. “At this point, production risk is
fairly low,” he said. “If the crop looks good
and the production risk is fairly low, I’ll forward price a lot.”
Continued on page 24
country-guide.ca 23
business
Continued from page 23
Klippenstein
focuses on building
strong relationships
with buyers to
create a framework
for his marketing.
“A lot” is a serious understatement. Overall, Klippenstein has
about two-thirds of normal production pre-sold, and for the next
third he has shorted the market on the board.
His confidence is built on a business plan of seeding a variety of crops, often for seed and via direct contracts set up the
year before. He grows substantial acreages of soybeans and
navy beans, plus CPS wheat and oats, with both cereals destined for milling.
This summer, a third of his wheat was under contract
for seed production and 60 per cent of the remainder was
already sold on a fixed-price, deferred-delivery contract.
A strong relationship with the buyer means he was able to
market 100 per cent of the oat crop a year in advance. This
relationship has been built up over years of working closely
with the buyer and being up front with the production program. The pricing mechanism is set ahead through a written
contract so each party remembers the details. He’s open with
the buyer and tries to do things that make the buyer confident that the quality is consistently going to be there.
Both parties get what they need. Klippenstein gets a home
for his crop, and the buyer knows they’re going to get all his
production. “I don’t do anything that will jeopardize this relationship, and always give them a heads-up,” said Klippenstein.
“This opens the door to do some out-of-the-box marketing.”
Klippenstein hasn’t used any basis contracting this year.
“I see the merits of basis contracting but I do very little with
basis,” he said.
Frank Backx, grain marketer for Hensall District Coop in
southwestern Ontario also avoids basis selling and instead is
a 100 per cent, flat-price seller, aiming to sell in increments
into strong prices. “If I do basis wrong and Chicago falls, I
get hit with a double whammy,” he explained.
This summer, Ontario basis was significantly impacted by
the falling loonie. “I’m bearish on the Canadian dollar,” said
Backx. “With the election coming, the government wants
to stimulate the economy and is trying to do that by lowering interest rates. By the new year, a $0.72 Canadian dollar
wouldn’t surprise me.”
The drooping Canadian dollar was a boost across the
country. “I was way upside down in my hedge account until
the Canadian dollar started dropping,” said Klippenstein.
The currency drop has also helped his navy beans that are
heavily sold, with one-third of the crop pre-booked. “I’ve been
able to capitalize on the foreign exchange.”
His dry edible beans hadn’t flourished as much as the other
crops with the abundant moisture. As of the end of July it
looked like the wet low spots would reduce yields 10 per cent,
but Klippenstein was hopeful that their aggressive fertility program for dry beans will help them pull through better in August.
On the other hand, his soybeans were impressive. Klippenstein already had 80 to 85 per cent of average yields sold,
including for seed production and deferred delivery, and he
also had call and put hedges on the Chicago and Minneapolis markets. “I’m being super aggressive this year and added
to sales during the June/July rally.
“If there are profits to be had, sell into the rallies,” said
Klippenstein.
24 country-guide.ca September 2015
Photography: Personal Expressions Photography
Basis and the dollar
business
Track and react
Klippenstein does follow the
weather, however. Locally he looks at
Accuweather, and on his own farm,
operational decisions are helped by
field stations that record and send data
by email on wind and rain events. He
also closely follows what’s happening
in the U.S. Midwest by looking at the
NOAA forecast and the five- to sevenday forecast.
Through the winter, when developing seeding and marketing plans for his
soybeans, Klippenstein closely follows
South American weather and he tracks
seeding intentions in Brazil. “It tells
me if I should be aggressive or patient
in marketing the next year’s crops,”
he said.
Closer to home, he utilizes Twitter.
Klippenstein has a network of farmers
and buyers in Ontario he follows for
insight on the navy bean crop there
and in Michigan. Similarly, he follows farmers in the U.S. and Brazil for
soybeans.
Before he enters into a sale, he’ll sometimes converse with a FarmLink analyst to justify the move, using them as a
sounding board and asking for additional
research and to see if there’s anything he’s
missed. “Farmers, traders and weather
guys are my source,” he said.
In Ontario seeding was challenging
with heavy rains and a late frost that
nipped low-lying areas. “Luckily the
corn was less than the fifth-leaf stage
so it should recover and the beans were
mostly still below the soil,” said Backx.
Then in June it rained and rained,
and rained some more. While rain
gauges overflowed and sprayers sat idle
in Ontario, south of the border comparisons flew around with the 1993 great
flood of the Mississippi River.
Reports of the eastern Grain Belt
being flooded and drought in the western U.S. and Canada instigated some
raging-bull activity on the markets. For
five weeks starting in mid-June, there
were some selling opportunities.
Backx said the other factor stimulating Chicago trading this spring
was that the speculators were short
on corn, soybeans and wheat. In four
weeks, 340,000 corn contracts were
bought — that’s 1.6 billion bushels,
roughly the same amount as the USDA
carry-out projected for this year. When
they started buying, corn rallied $0.90.
September 2015
There’s more volatility ahead before
the crop comes off, predicted Backx.
Farmers should try to track that volatility and take advantage, he said. “In
wet years, crops tend to disappoint, I
think that will happen again this year.”
Continued on page 28
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official government and industry sources.
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business
Continued from page 25
Drought impact
Like Klippenstein,
Varekamp taps his
own network.
28 country-guide.ca Near Bow Island, an hour and a half
east of Lethbridge, Tony Varekamp was
driving between fields, organizing crews
and machinery to harvest winter wheat.
This year their five combines are driving a little farther to fill the buggies.
“The winter wheat is only yielding 30
to 32 bushels on our dry land,” he said.
“Normally I can count on 45 or 50
(bushels). Under irrigation it looks like
it’s going to top 100 bushels an acre,
maybe even 110.”
Varekamp had pre-contracted 2,000
tonnes of winter wheat which he thought
he would meet and surpass because
of the irrigated fields. He had booked
about half of expected yields during the
winter and sold some wheat into the
summer rally.
The average price he got was $6.30
so he feels this was a conservative pricing
strategy that he could easily get out of.
With less than an inch of rain this
spring and summer, the difference
between the crops grown under the pivots compared to dry land was stark.
“Any rain in the forecast now isn’t
going to help,” said Varekamp. “We
needed it two months ago.”
On Varekamp Farms, canola was
the worst hit by the drought and
Varekamp estimated it will yield only
10 to 15 bushels an acre ­o n ground
where a 50-bushel crop is normal.
They also grow 16,000 acres of peas,
canola, and four different types of dry
edible beans, sugar beets, potatoes, and
winter and spring wheat. Some 70 per
cent of their land is under pivots; on
the rest they dryland farm peas, wheat
and canola.
Varekamp pre-booked 20 bushels
per acre and was pretty sure they won’t
meet that target. It’s a little more than
he normally contracts but once again
he liked the price and they should easily be able to buy to fill those contractual obligations.
Normally, Varekamp tends to direct
sell in most months of the year. This
year he was more aggressive and prebooked solid prices in January, February and March, and then catching
some of the spring/summer rally.
September 2015
business
In early April the canola basis in Lethbridge
skyrocketed. Although it levelled off by the summer, the November-December was still relatively
strong and a definite opportunity.
For farmers who can hold off delivery until
after harvest, there might be some opportunities
on a basis contract or a fixed delivery contract,
said David Lea, Market Place Commodities Ltd.
in Lethbridge.
Some farmers get stuck in the watch-and-hold
mode, waiting for prices to go higher without taking
advantage along the way by capturing returns over
their cost of production. Others will take it to an
extreme, holding out for a peak that they rarely hit.
With commodities like barley, where there’s no
future’s market to hedge, Lea suggested booking
25 per cent at the beginning of the year and if the
crop’s decent, pre-selling up to half the crop. This
way, many marketers lock in cost of production.
“There were many reluctant sellers in the recent
up move in the market,” said Lea. “The good marketers are willing to sell in an up market.”
In two days, barley dropped from $250 to
$220 a tonne, said Lea, but the guys who sold
right before had watched the forecast and knew
decent province-wide rains were coming.
The drought might also create some local selling opportunities. Although barley acres are up
across the province, Lea was expecting the lower
yields and quality to be impacted.
Varekamp’s brother farms in Holland and the
two exchange weather information so he has firsthand information on what the crop has been like
in Europe and he shares how the weather is in the
Prairies and keeps a close eye on Kansas and Texas.
He also watches what the weather trends are in
Australia, knowing that usually half that country is
burning up and the other half is drowning.
Disasters set the price, said Varekamp. He also
keeps in mind the political disasters, like Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine. “I watch the news, the TV,
read Market Sense, talk to Cargill,” Varekamp
said. But still it takes judgment, he said. “After
reading all those reports and combining them, I
get some sense of the trends and go with a gut
feeling.” CG
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country-guide.ca 29
business
Just opened,
Ontario’s new food
hub is building on a
continental strategy
to take the cost out
of value adding.
The hub of an opportunity
Food hubs are moving north, making it easier for medium-size
farms to break into ‘local’ sales without all the marketing
By Lois Harris
rissia Mellor is on a mission to boost
the sustainability of farmers and small
businesses in eastern Ontario. In Northumberland County’s economic development and tourism department, she’s
the energetic agriculture manager, and she’s also
heavily involved in getting the new Ontario AgriFood Venture Centre (OAFVC) up and running.
The venture centre is one of a growing number of
regional food hubs in Canada that is using consumers’
appetite for local food to benefit local farmers, small
businesses and rural communities.
“We are helping farmers find ways to grow their
business without putting them at a disadvantage,”
Mellor says of the centre’s work.
Food hubs can be bricks-and-mortar regional
warehouses where local farmers’ products are gathered and distributed to retail and institutional outlets. Or they can be digital, a sort of virtual gathering
place where producers and buyers connect to make
business transactions.
Obviously, there’s a lot of opportunity nearby.
Some food hubs offer processing services, or they
conduct business and marketing workshops for
30 country-guide.ca farmers. Some provide cooking classes to teach consumers how to prepare healthy local food. Some are
co-operatives, some are private companies, and some
others are publicly owned.
They're also a hot trend. A survey of national
food hubs in 2013 conducted by Michigan State
University and the Wallace Centre at Winrock International found that 61 per cent of the 222 U.S. hubs
they studied were less than five years old.
While there are many different kinds of food
hubs, the United States Department of Agriculture’s
(USDA) working definition of a food hub is “a
business or organization that actively manages the
aggregation, distribution and marketing of sourceidentified food products primarily from local and
regional producers to strengthen the ability to satisfy
wholesale, retail and institutional demand.” It’s a
mouthful, but the direction of it is clear.
The survey also showed that food hubs are generating positive cash flows whether they are old or
new. Even so, the most successful hubs are the ones
that have been in business for 10 years and have
Continued on page 32
september 2015
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business
The hub’s flexible
line eliminates the
need to invest the
$100,000 for even a
simple food process.
Exchange rate makes the time
right, says GFS’s Crawford
Continued from page 30
many farmer suppliers. About 40 per cent of hubs
are privately held, and another 32 per cent are nonprofits, including producer-owned co-operatives.
Most of the suppliers to these food hubs are small- to
medium-size producers.
The idea is catching on in Canada. Vancouver
and Edmonton are among several cities that have
food hubs as part of their food strategies. Just Foods
is a non-profit organization whose mission is to
“work towards vibrant, just and sustainable food
and farming systems in the Ottawa region.” Its main
motivation is increasing access to healthy local food
for everyone in the area.
Ontario’s Local Organic Food Co-ops is conducting a regional food hub expansion project in four
locations including Sudbury, Ottawa, Thunder Bay
and London with more than $73,000 in help from
the province’s Local Food Fund.
As well, Gordon Food Services (GFS), a U.S.based food distributor, is working with the Greenbelt
Fund to help develop food hubs in different areas
across the province. It already has more than 600
local Ontario products in its offerings.
When asked if food hubs make farmers more
money, Pete Bozzer, local food sales specialist at GFS
32 country-guide.ca says, “Market value will be market value. What the
hub does for farmers is it allows them to minimize
costs by providing one central distribution point and
co-ordinated volume purchases and packaging, as
well as sales and marketing.”
Three key factors that the big food distributors
are looking for are food safety, traceability and consistent, standardized packaging, according to Steve
Crawford, business development specialist for produce, dairy and local at GFS.
Crawford has been working on the local food file
for five years and thinks there’s tremendous opportunity for local farmers to supply larger buyers, but
they need to work together.
“And now’s the time to take advantage of the
exchange rate — if we do a good job now as a company and with our customers, it will help us maintain
markets later, when things change,” Crawford says.
His company has a deal with Woolwich Dairy to
act as a food hub for artisanal cheese makers like the
Thornloe Cheese Factory north of New Liskeard and
the Upper Canada Cheese Company in the Niagara
region. Woolwich aggregates the cheese at its factory
in Orangeville and Gordon Food Service picks it up
and distributes it.
Back at the Agri-Food Venture Centre, a May 1,
2015 launch by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne
september 2015
business
was followed quickly by equipment testing and clients lining up to use the stateof-art facilities. The centre offers services
including cutting, washing, bottling,
packaging, flash-freezing and labelling. It
also has a laboratory for recipe development and refrigerated storage space.
The centre’s mandate is diverse,
including supporting farmers seeking
value-adding opportunities, helping foodies with recipe development and working
with food processing startups and expansions.
The idea for the $2.4-million facility
came out of a Business Retention and
Expansion (BR&E) project through the
Ontario agriculture ministry.
Funding for the centre itself came
from a variety of sources, including the
provincial and federal governments, several eastern Ontario municipalities and a
local federation of agriculture.
While the centre only recently opened,
the plan is to break even within the next
2-1/2 years.
“As a publicly owned, non-profit
institution, we are completely open and
transparent about what we are doing
with the money we receive,” Mellor says.
“Any profit will be reinvested back into
the facility.”
Mellor says the centre offers farmers a
way to add value to their products without having to break the bank. He points
out that individual pieces of food-processing equipment can have prices tags of
$80,000 to $100,000, and farmers would
also face the costs of meeting health and
safety regulations, plus the possibility of
increased property taxes.
When talking to farmers, Mellor says,
“we have the equipment available for
you when you need it and you don’t have
to pay for it when you’re not using it.”
The centre is already popular — Mellor says she gets about six calls a day
from farmers and entrepreneurs — and
while it’s just starting up, there’s a lot of
research that shows facilities like this can
boost bottom lines for farmers and everyone else in the community.
Cornell University completed a U.S.
study in December 2013 that said food
hubs made more local farm products
available and helped farmers expand
their businesses through access to better
freight and storage as well as increased
exposure to large urban wholesale customers. Medium-size farms did the best
in terms of getting more opportunities
for sales.
september 2015
In terms of the effect of food hubs on the local economy,
the study found a 63 per cent increase in demand for other
industrial products for every additional dollar spent on food
hub products.
A January 2013 USDA study on the role of food hubs in
local food marketing said that farmers who supply The Local
Food Hub in Charlottesville, Virginia reported an average 25
per cent increase in sales as a result of working with that hub.
All 60 farmer suppliers have small- to medium-size businesses
Continued on page 34
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country-guide.ca 33
business
Planning, logistics
and sales strategies
all get a leg up,
thanks to hub.
Continued from page 33
and take advantage of a large menu of services
offered by the hub — from networking to insurance
coverage to rental space in cold storage, discounted
seeds, and inexpensive website development.
But all is not rosy on the food hub front. In the
same USDA study, several drawbacks were documented, including insufficient capital, a lack of risk
management planning, human resource and staffing
issues, poor access to food-processing facilities, difficulty obtaining contract and food safety liability
insurance, the costs and time of complying with regulations and more. Because of the alternative nature
of the business models, most new food hubs can’t get
financing through traditional channels and have to
turn to micro-lenders, non-profit organizations or
government for grants or loans.
Back in Ontario, the FoodHub pilot project was
initiated by the South Central Ontario Region Economic Development Corporation (SCOR), which
includes Brant, Middlesex, Oxford and Elgin counties. It has 20 to 30 producer suppliers, depending on
the time of year, and customers can order products
online at their website www.localfoodmarketplace.com/
scorfoodhub.
More info
Nourishing Communities: Sustainable Local Food
Systems Research Group (Ontario)
www.nourishingontario.ca
Greenbelt Fund Food Hubs page (Ontario)
www.greenbeltfund.ca/tags/food_hubs
Local Food Fund (Ontario)
www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/about/localfood.htm
FoodHub (Ontario)
www.localfoodmarketplace.com/scorfoodhub/
The Role of Food Hubs in Local Marketing (USDA)
www.rd.usda.gov/files/sr73.pdf
National Good Food Network (U.S.)
www.ngfn.org
USDA Agricultural Marketing Service
www.ams.usda.gov/
34 country-guide.ca FoodHub has four product drop-off locations,
including White Crest Mushrooms, VG Meats, Norfolk Fruit Growers and Froese Vegetables.
The FoodHub has been up and running for only
a year and a half.
“We ran into some difficulties last year, so things
didn’t get done, and we had limited sales,” says Kim
Earls, SCOR’s regional economic development coordinator. “But the producers and hubs stuck with
us — I’m so thankful for them.”
Since then, they’ve hired a dedicated sales and
customer relations person and a food hub co-ordinator who takes care of matching up the orders on the
website and arranging deliveries.
“For us, logistics is a make-or-break component
of the business,” Earls says.
The FoodHub’s customers include Gordon Food
Service, which uses the FoodHub to meet its 25
per cent local food target. The hub also supplies
the local student nutrition program that feeds 900
schools in three counties. A major customer is MealSource, a non-profit organization that handles food
contracts for 34 hospitals and other health facilities
throughout Ontario. Wendy Smith, a contract specialist with MealSource, is a member of the steering
committee of the FoodHub.
“Having a clear picture of who you want to sell
to is a must for any food hub,” says Earls. “We were
fortunate to have MealSource as an anchor customer.”
The next steps for SCOR are to continue building relationships with producers and reaching out
to new customers. Eventually, the business will be
turned over to the producers and hubs.
Nick Vranckx, owner of Blueberry Hill Estates
in Norfolk County likes selling his products through
the FoodHub because it streamlines the process of
finding suppliers, because of the handy drop-off
location in Simcoe and because of the $100 lifetime
registration fee.
He would like to see more people signing up for
the service, and has high praise for the people running the hub. Vranckx employs 100 to 150 pickers
and supplies fresh blueberries to Longo’s grocery
stores as well as making several products on farm,
including blueberry wine and pickled blueberries.
“It’s almost too good to be true,” Vranckx says.
“I know of growers who have to pay the (Ontario)
Food Terminal up to 15 per cent of their sales.” CG
september 2015
Measure it up
A brutal summer in much of Western Canada has left hay
and forage reserves extremely low. Tallying up an accurate
number of what you've got on hand could save you
money or eliminate the midwinter scramble to find feed
It could be said that there are two
measures of yield — total tonnage
and total nutrition. While tonnage is
the easiest to measure, just knowing
how many bales or tonnes you have
on hand isn't necessarily an accurate
depiction of if you've got enough
feed to get through winter.
The earlier you can assess actual yield (a
function of both tonnage and nutrient
levels), the more time you have to
prepare for a shortfall in stocked feed.
While late-spring seeding with an eye
to fall grazing can help stretch winter
feed needs, it's September — what
action can you take now to make sure
you're ready for the months ahead?
First off, if you're not in the habit of feed
testing, this may be the year to start. Cattle
don't just eat pounds of feed, they ingest
nutrients — bales of equal weight can
have vastly different nutritional profiles.
Testing hay is always a good idea, but
can be especially beneficial when feed is
tight or very expensive. And remember
— visual assessments of feed may be
able to quickly split feed into high- vs.
low-quality categories, but this isn't
enough to build a balanced ration from.
Once you've determined what amount of
energy and protein you have, it's time to
flex those networking muscles. Even if you
have tried-and-true hay suppliers you go
to, you may already have had to go outside
your typical sourcing area to find feed.
This is where getting creative may
help — is there the possibility of fall
grazing some non-traditional acres?
What about non-traditional feed sources
like silaged canola or straw/residue? If
you've got cattle that respect hot wire,
the possibilities to stretch the grazing
season well into the fall could buy you a
much needed reprieve on feed costs.
While tight feed supplies and poor forage
growth are the immediate concerns,
there's a second valuable side to having
an accurate measure of the nutrients
coming off the field — determining
your true cost of production both of
the hay and silage and of the cattle, but
we'll discuss that in our next feature.
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HR
Are you ready for change?
By Pierrette Desrosiers, psychologist and coach
arwin demonstrated that human
beings, like all species, must constantly adapt to change or risk disappearing. In agriculture, as in business,
we adapt, changing in order to survive
effectively in a competitive world.
In fact, change is the only constant. However,
change for its own sake is far from beneficial, either
economically or from a human perspective.
“How do we make sure that we are changing for
the better?” my clients frequently ask.
One thing is certain. There are no guaranteed outcomes to any decisions we make. Nevertheless, the coaching approach provides us with some interesting questions
we can ask ourselves about the prospective changes we
think we must make, whether they are small (e.g. changing cellphones) or big (e.g. building a new barn or buying
land).
These questions may increase your chances of
making successful changes. Try them out before
making your next change!
First, ask yourself…
What will this change most improve in my life?
How does this change fit with my values, needs,
and farm/life mission?
What results do I want? If I am in the process of
changing, is it because I want a result different from
my current situation? How am I going to measure
that result? What methods will I use to gauge the
success of this change?
How do I make the change? What resources are
available to me to make this change, and what others
will I need? Prepare a list of your resources, including time, money, materials, skills, etc.
How much time do I have? Do I want to make
this change immediately, by the end of the month, or
by the end of the year?
Do I have a margin of error? If I am mistaken
about this change, what will be the consequences?
Could I live with them? Are they irreversible?
What would happen if I did not change or did not
make this particular change?
What are some alternatives to this change? Could
I find some other solution that is less expensive in
time, energy, money and risk? Sometimes people confuse the means with the end. They confuse the strategies with the bigger goals.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of
these alternatives compared to this initial desired
change? Prepare a pros and cons list.
What is the cost of this change? Cost includes every
potential drawback, including stress (all changes produce stress), money, energy, time and more.
36 country-guide.ca Am I really ready to pay the price for this change?
How do I usually react to change?
Second, ask others…
Who else does this change affect? Have they been
consulted? Are they involved in the decision? Are
they willing? Don’t assume you know what they will
say. Actually ask them.
What do they have to gain or lose?
What is the true cost of this change for them? Are
they ready to pay it? Can they pay it?
Do my team and I have the resources to implement the change?
Every change has a cost. As humans, we have a
limit to the number and nature of changes we can
endure in a certain period of time. A change can be
imposed by external factors or not (for example, if
your house burns down, you have to build a new
one). Change can also be pleasant or not, and it can
be planned or not. When we perceive that we have
made a decision and that we are in control of the
change, and that it will be pleasant, we anticipate
a more positive transition. However, we have to
remember that every change introduces stress, even
positive changes.
When we undergo change, our brain works hard.
We plan, organize, evaluate, and make many more
decisions than usual. All these CEO tasks require
resources (glucose, oxygen, nutrients) from the executive part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex. Because
these are limited resources, we become exhausted
when faced with important changes. We suffer from
what has been called “decision fatigue.”
Clients rarely tell me that their project (new
acquisition, construction, expansion) was easier
than they expected. People generally underestimate
the time, energy and cost of a change. Perhaps we
must be a little bit naive to fully invest ourselves in a
new project. Who really knew what it would be like
to be a parent? To be married? To run a farm?
The idea is to be realistic. We have to be prepared
for change because the project that starts as a dream
could become a nightmare.
After all, says Darwin, it is not the strongest of
the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but
the ones most responsive to change. 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].
September 2015
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ame-management
The farmer as CEO
By Terry Betker
n Internet search will reveal several
definitions of the roles and responsibilities for the chief executive officer
(CEO) of a business. The degree of
formality of the actual position and
its title varies considerably from business to business,
depending on size, complexity, and organizational
preferences. Potential roles and responsibilities of the
CEO are summarized below.
CEO roles and responsibilities
Leadership:
• Promote change related to the mission and vision
of the business.
• Motivate family and team members.
• Work to increase shareholder (or owner) value.
• Manage succession.
• Liaise within the community.
Vision:
• M onitor industry developments and look for
future opportunities.
Management and decision-making:
• Oversee operations and plan implementation.
• Manage human resources.
• Manage investment and related financial performance.
Risk management:
• Analyze risk.
• Develop and implement mitigation strategies.
Management evolution on a farm
More farms are finding themselves in situations
where they are considering a CEO-type application
for their businesses. The farmer, early in his or her
career, provides all labour and management to the
operation. As the business evolves, they take on the
role of teacher as there are new employees (or family
members) who provide some of the labour component.
The farmer’s role advances to where the function
then more closely resembles that of a manager. This
is the most common, and at the same time challenging situation farmers find themselves in. It is challenging in that many farmers find it difficult to fully
engage as managers, which requires more time be
spent in the office and less time in the field.
For some, it is a question of what they enjoy
doing. For others it is a function of value. Is an
hour in the office equal to an hour in the field? The
answer to the question has direct correlation to the
purposeful, personal advancement of the farmer
through to a manager and then to a CEO.
The difference between the leader and manager
function is subtle, and can best be described by
looking at the actions of the people who provide the
labour component. Where a farmer is functioning as
38 country-guide.ca a manager, the people providing the labour component will be doing so because they’ve been told what
to do. Where a farmer is a leader, by contrast, the
people providing the labour will be doing so because
they want to — because they’ve embraced the vision
and plan as presented by the leader.
It is increasingly difficult to advance through the
different phases of management evolution, but the
farm or business should see the positive results of the
advancement. Employees working with a leader versus a manager will generally be more productive. For
example, on a farm, more care will be given to production details resulting in better yields when people
working on the farm are working for a leader. There
will be less downtime due to equipment breakdown,
and there will also be improved employee retention.
These in turn improve the farm’s financial performance, which then increases shareholder value, which,
as noted above, is one of the responsibilities of the CEO.
CEO position application
Clearly, leadership can be attained without the
formality of the CEO title. The title alone will not
get the desired results.
However, where there is motivation to formalize
the position, the first thing is to develop a detailed
position description. There can be challenges in
situations where there are partners (husband/wife;
brothers) involved. Who should be the CEO? How
will the decision be made?
When there are multiple partners involved, a specific and/or limited role that best represents the needs
of the farm is one option. Or there could be a rotation
where one partner is CEO for a couple of years, with
another partner then assuming the responsibilities for
a term. Often, people will decide they don’t want to
take on the position as it will require, depending on the
description, some change in what they do on a day-today basis; in other words, less time “in the field.”
The CEO function can also be effective in succession planning. A senior family member can take on
the CEO position and transfer managerial and operational duties to the incoming generation. This provides opportunity for the next generation to assume
some responsibility and autonomy. It also creates a
structure that can endure through the full transition
when the senior member fully retires.
There are courses or workshops that provide
instruction and training in leadership. These may be
a useful first step in a longer-term plan to develop the
CEO position on a farm. CG
Terry Betker is a farm management consultant
based in Winnipeg, Man. He can be reached at
204-782-8200 or [email protected].
September 2015
By Richard Kamchen
CropsGuide
choice sampling
Some of your neighbours have stopped soil sampling.
Others are sampling more than ever. Who’s right?
n any year, at most 10 per cent of the fields
are soil sampled,” says Tom Jensen, a director in the North American program of the
International Plant Nutrition Institute.
“Some people say 20 per cent of farmers
do some soil testing, but they may only do it every
couple to three years.”
Farm consolidation is one factor that’s leading
to the decline. Soil sampling can be a prohibitively time-consuming procedure for 10,000-acre
farms, and these operators may opt instead for a
standard fertilizer recommendation for each crop
type, rather than each field. Nutrient rates are also
adjusted based on target yields and what each crop
is expected to remove.
“We’ve seen a decrease in the amount of soil
sampling,” Jensen says. “A lot of our farms have
shifted over to what I would call yield-based
removal replacement, with a lot of experience from
their local area thrown in.”
“Making sure you have enough
nutrients to reach your yield potential
is a much larger benefit.” — Don Flaten, U of M
But it isn’t the same story on every farm. On
precision farms, in particular, growers are actually doing more soil sampling than they used to,
Jensen points out. They’re dividing their fields
into sub-fields based on soil management zones
derived from data gathered from multi-year satellite images, yield monitor maps, and other digital
information.
“We have some fields that are being sampled
more intensively and more regularly than they ever
were,” says Jensen.
Even so, some farmers continue using the same
blend at the same rate every year, notes Jeff Schoenau, soil scientist at the University of Saskatchewan.
September 2015
“They may be missing out,” Schoenau says.
“There are opportunities to make more efficient
use of the fertilizer dollars that they’re spending by
allocating their fertilizer to where it could be put to
best use in different fields, or even in different parts
of the same field.”
“Most of our farmers don’t overfertilize, but
they may misfertilize sometimes, and overfertilize in one part of their field and underfertilize in
another,” agrees Jensen. “On average they’re doing
a good job, but with precision agriculture, they can
do some fine tuning and adjust those rates to do a
little better job.”
The best combination of rate, time, placement
and source of fertilizer can vary from farm to farm
and from field to field, Jensen says. He agrees too
that it can even vary between different parts of a
single field.
Don Flaten, a nutrient management specialist
at the University of Manitoba’s soil science department, also believes soil testing is underutilized.
“There are a lot of farmers who are soil testing in some years and on some fields, but there
are very few farmers who soil test every field every
year,” Flaten says.
Even though soil testing is not a perfect, standalone way to determine fertilizer recommendations,
it’s a very important tool that could and should
be used more widely, Flaten says. “Expanded use
of soil testing to every field and every year could
certainly help to refine our nutrient management
practices.”
Soil testing is a valuable investment and its cost
is more than offset through higher yields and lower
fertilizer bills, Flaten argues.
Schoenau says it will pay off. “Knowledge is
power in terms of making more informed decisions
regarding input use like fertilizer.”
But Jensen notes his institute’s research reveals
the U.S. is ahead of Canada when it comes to
embracing soil testing, which he links to its greater
Continued on page 40
country-guide.ca 39
CropsGuide
Continued from page 39
adoption rate of precision farming and resulting
increased sampling. The highest rate of adoption
is in the U.S. Midwest for corn and soybean acres.
“When you get into the small grains cereals —
lower yields, generally lower net returns — there’s
less need or desire to use precision farming and
more soil sampling,” Jensen says.
Farmers in Canada, he predicts, are unlikely
to catch up. With limited heat units and rarely
adequate precipitation in all three provinces at the
same time, the Prairies — the northern fringe of
North American agriculture — just don’t have the
same yield potential as do areas to the south.
Jensen also believes more farm consolidation is
on its way, resulting in even less soil sampling on
some farms.
But on smaller-size operations, he sees the move
toward variable-rate precision farming growing.
“We’re in somewhat of an early adopter phase,”
Jensen says. “It will become a significant part of a
lot of farm operations.”
The next generation of agriculture school grads
could well be influential in making that happen,
Jensen adds.
“We certainly encourage our students to use this
as one of the tools in a nutrient management crop
nutrition program,” adds Flaten. “I would hope
that the majority of our graduating students would
be making very good use of precision farming and
associated increases in soil sampling.”
Fertilizer benefits
Soil testing allows farmers to observe trends in
their fields, Flaten says. Long-term monitoring of
a given field helps them identify whether their soil
is experiencing decreasing mineral nutrient fertility,
as well as variability.
Soil’s ability to supply nutrients can vary a great
deal, depending on type of soil, field management,
crops produced, growing conditions and environmental conditions after harvest.
“Different conditions can make substantial differences in the amount of leftover nitrogen that’s in
the soil from one year to the next,” Flaten points
out. “To get the most out of a soil-testing program,
a regular historical record should be developed for
each field on an annual basis.”
Flaten says he’s at least as concerned about the
potential to lose yield due to nutrient deficiency as he is
about spending more on fertilizer than what’s required.
“The gain from making sure that you have
enough nutrients to reach your yield potential is a
much larger financial benefit than the cost of overfertilizing,” Flaten says.
40 country-guide.ca Soil testing leads to more reliable, accurate fertilizer recommendations that more closely match
the actual amount of nutrients that are required by
plants, agrees Schoenau. “There’s certainly some
potential gains to be realized. One of the challenges
we have here in Western Canada is the variability
in the growing season from year to year, and that
very much influences the crop demand for the
added nutrient,” he says. “So one of the big challenges in fertilizer recommendations is coming up
with what a person feels is a realistic target yield
or anticipated yield and therefore crop nutrient
demand. And it can change so much on the Prairies, as we swing from wet years to dry years.”
Soil sampling not only provides economic and
agronomic benefits, but environmental ones as well.
“You don’t want to apply more fertilizer nutrients than what the crop needs because there is the
potential for the excess to be lost or wasted. And if
nutrient gets lost, it can get lost to the air as a gas
or potentially enter into water, and that poses environmental concerns,” Schoenau says.
Most sampling occurs following harvest after
soils have cooled. Sampling too early, for instance at
the end of August or early September, could result in
a poor representation as rains and warm temperatures can increase levels of available nutrients.
“Toward the end of September and into early
October is a good time for soil sampling, and you
get a pretty good idea of what the crop will have
available in spring,” Schoenau says. But there may
be changes if winter snowfall is very high and
spring conditions are saturated, particularly with
nitrogen prior to the actual seeding period. “So
some people will actually do a check in the spring
just to see if things have changed much.”
Flaten adds cold Prairie winters usually mean
the risk of overwinter nitrogen loss is much less
than in warmer and more humid parts of Canada
and the U.S.
“Some exceptions apply, (such as) fields or areas
of fields that are prone to substantial flooding in
early spring, where residual nitrate that’s present
in the fall may be lost by denitrification or leaching
before the crop is planted,” Flaten says.
The other advantage to fall sampling versus
spring is easy sampling down to two feet in unfrozen soil, as well as sufficient time for soil sampling,
analyses, and recommendations to be completed
and sent to producers. Also, farmers are able to
complete their fertilizer purchases and deliveries
well before planting.
“As a result,” Flaten says, “fall sampling is
widely recommended across all three Prairie
provinces, even though it’s not recommended in
Ontario, Quebec or Atlantic Canada.” CG
September 2015
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CropsGuide
By Gord Gilmour, CG Associate Editor
grow your own
As the cost-price squeeze reasserts itself, those old ideas about
producing your own nutrients might become new again —- which
means the organic industry might have a thing or two to teach us
ear Oxbow, Sask., organic producer Ian Cushon spends a lot of
time and energy trying to produce
the key building block for plant
life — his own nitrogen — because
unlike most growers, Cushon can’t just spread some
fertilizer and be done with it. If he wants to play the
organic game and capture those market premiums,
he must abide by the rules that say chemical fertilizers aren’t allowed.
“It’s definitely real,” Cushon says. “The challenge is quantifying it and determining
what the economic advantage is.”
To Cushon, that means adopting some of the
strategies that our great-grandparents would have
been very familiar with, things like growing and
then plowing down “green manure” crops, or planting nitrogen-fixing crops either along with or after
more traditional grain crops.
These are strategies that he has been able to fit to
his own farm. But does he think they might fit the
larger grain industry as a whole? We asked him.
“It’s definitely something we have to work at,”
Cushon responds. “I think these strategies make
42 country-guide.ca sense for us, and some of them might make sense
on non-organic farms, but those farmers are going
to have to look pretty hard at it and make that call
themselves. Some of them, I think, would be really
difficult to justify without organic premiums.”
Despite that hard reality, non-organic growers
are starting to kick the tires of some organic techniques, according to one researcher at the University
of Manitoba. Martin Entz teaches natural systems
agriculture and is a well-regarded researcher into
natural techniques to optimize crop production.
He’s been seeing scores of farmers at recent field
days, including some fresh faces that haven’t been
part of his traditional audience.
“A number of these farmers were conventional
farmers... people who I’d never seen before,” Entz
says. He’s excited that the message seems to be creeping outside of its traditional audience, and he confirms the most likely reason for this shift is their
increasing anxiety about an extended run of lower
grain prices that will bring the concept of cost-containment once again to the forefront of farm thinking.
“It’s not really clear what the market and grain
prices are going to do over the long term,” Entz
says. “That may be why we see more conventional
farmers coming.”
The first and most obvious way for growers to
begin producing some of their own nitrogen is to
incorporate a grain legume, such as peas, lentils or
Continued on page 44
September 2015
SOIL CONSERVATION COUNCIL OF CANADA
CONSEIL CANADIEN DE CONSERVATION DES SOLS
SOIL CONSERVATION COUNCIL OF CANADA
CONSEIL CANADIEN DE CONSERVATION DES SOLS
T
he Soil Conservation Council of
Canada (SCCC), established in
1987 has a successful history as
the face and voice of soil conservation
in Canada. The SCCC has created a
broad network of stakeholders with
interest in the agricultural landscape
that provides a strong national base to
advocate for and take actions on soil
conservation and health in Canada.
In order to maintain a healthy
organization that provides value to
all its stakeholders the SCCC has
undertaken a review of what we do
and how we do it. We will play a
stronger role in bringing governments,
private industry, individuals and
non-government organizations together
to discuss current issues and solutions
pertaining to soil conservation and
health and sustaining the agricultural
landscape. We will also continue
to help stakeholders disseminate
information and technology that
supports sustainable land management
practices and production systems.
Going forward, the key challenge for
SCCC will be to bring national leadership
to soil conservation and health. We
believe it is critical that soil management
and agricultural production systems are
used in all regions of Canada to ensure
The face and voice of soil conservation in Canada
Le visage et la voix de la conservation des sols au Canada
the sustainability of our soil resources
for future generations. SCCC’s network
of members and partners provides a
unique opportunity to understand the
national and regional challenges and
issues of soil conservation and health
across the country and represent them
to decision makers in government and
industry. Conversely, that network can
be utilized to disseminate information
and solutions back to producers,
conservation practitioners and others
working on the agricultural landscape.
SCCC’s national and global network
of partners was key to the success of the
6th World Congress of Conservation
Agriculture (WCCA). SCCC and our
partners hosted this event in 2014
which attracted over 400 people
from 49 countries including United
States, Australia, India, South Africa,
Brazil, Tunisia and Ethiopia. It was an
exceptional opportunity to showcase
Canada as a world leader in the adoption
of sustainable practices, such as direct
seeding, science, innovation and high
quality agricultural production and to
learn from others around the world.
The upcoming Summit on Canadian
Soil Health is another example of how
the Council will play a leading role
in advocating for soil conservation
and health. This SCCC hosted event
will be held in conjunction with
GrowCanada in December 2015 and will
bring leaders in Canadian agriculture
together to discuss a variety of issues of
importance to the industry. SCCC will
use this opportunity to highlight soil
conservation and health as key issues
in the future of Canadian agriculture.
The Summit will open with a
luncheon and keynote address by
Dr. David Montgomery, University of
Washington, Seattle. Dr. Montgomery
is author of the best seller “Dirt:
The Erosion of Civilizations”. He
will speak about the soil use and
abuse from ancient times to present
day and how we can avoid the
fate of previous civilizations.
In the afternoon sessions
presentations and discussions will
lead to identifying current key issues
of soil conservation and health in
Canada. The summit will conclude
with a “Call to Action” on how we
can respond to today’s challenges
to our soil resource. For more
information visit us at www.soilcc.ca.
The legacy and vision continues.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THE
SUMMIT ON CANADIAN SOIL HEALTH
Digging Into the State of Canada’s Soils –
The Link Between Healthy Soil and Sustainable Crop Production
Tuesday, December 1ST, 2015
11:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Hyatt Regency Hotel, Calgary, Alberta
DETAILS AND REGISTRATION AVAILABLE SOON!
[email protected]
204-792-2424
www.soilcc.ca
@soilcouncil
CropsGuide
Not just N
Animal manure should be treated more like a valuable resource
and less like a liability to be quickly and quietly disposed of, says
Martin Entz, University of Manitoba researcher.
In particular, Entz is concerned about phosphorus, which
is contained in particularly high levels in hog manure. For the
past few years this nutrient-rich manure has been applied to
maximum environmentally acceptable levels, usually without
regard for what the crop actually needs.
“We talk an awful lot about N, and I think this gets missed,”
Entz says. “Phosphorus we haven’t talked nearly as much about,
and when we do, it’s in terms of the environment, not how we
can actually get more use out of it.”
With more and better manure management equipment, and
with manure composting seemingly really coming into its own,
Entz says the time might be right to reconsider the applications,
noting that for farmers with nearby livestock operations, this
might represent some low-hanging fruit to be plucked when
trying to optimize plant nutrient efficiency.
Says Entz: “If we do this, we could potentially reduce
phosphorus fertilizer costs, and we won’t see soils loaded with
the maximum amount of phosphorus they can take.”
More conventional
farmers are starting
to show up at Martin
Entz’s field days on
sustainable nutrient
management.
44 country-guide.ca September 2015
Continued from page 42
soybeans. This is a very important way
to have at least one crop grow some
of its own nitrogen and reduce costs,
Entz says, stressing it’s also a relatively
simple adjustment for a farm rather
than a wholesale renovation of production practices.
“This is a good opportunity, and one
that fits in with most farms,” Entz says.
“It’s certainly one we see a lot of farmers
interested in exploring during times of
high nitrogen prices.”
A more complex system may involve
undersowing nitrogen-fixing crops or
planting cover crops in the fall. These techniques are still very much in their modern
infancy in Western Canada, though they
are much more common in warmer and
wetter growing areas elsewhere.
Entz says the real challenge for anyone wanting to try these strategies is to
find a window where the cover crops
will fit. For a fall crop, for example,
you’ll need to have the preceding crop
come off in good time so you have
enough season to get sufficient growth
to make it worth your while. You’ll also
have to have enough available moisture
to ensure crop establishment. If it works,
though, it can be worth it.
“You can grow a significant amount
of nitrogen, if you have enough time to
get it planted and enough available moisture,” Entz says.
How much nitrogen? That depends
on what you’re growing and where. Entz
says a study by the University of Manitoba about 15 years ago found that locations throughout the Prairies returned
between 10 and 60 pounds of nitrogen
from cover crops, meaning there is some
potential on the upper range to make
this practice pay dividends.
“To make it economically interesting,
I think you’d need to hit at least around
that 30-pound mark,” Entz says.
Ian Cushon says he’s had success with
both techniques on their farm, and he
confirms selecting the appropriate crop
to fill this role is an ongoing challenge,
one he continues to refine. His latest test
subject is fababeans.
“Last year I just planted a small
plot in the garden in mid-August to see
how they would do over that six-week
period, and they performed quite well I
thought,” Cushon says. “I may try them
on a larger scale this fall, but I’m still not
entirely convinced — they need a fair bit
September 2015
country-guide.ca xx
Soil fertility
of water and I think they might be better suited to
the northern Grain Belt.”
Cushon says there are a number of potential
crops that growers can try, however, and within
that list there may be a winner for an individual
farm. For example, he says he has either personally
used or knows growers who have used forage peas
and Indian Head lentils, and he is also familiar
with growers and researchers who have experimented with various vetches, a family of small
flowering legumes that is typically undersown.
None of these options have proven to be a “onesize-fits-all solution,” something Cushon said highlights the need for more basic agronomic research
in the area, such as that being undertaken by Entz
and his team.
“They’ve done a lot of great work, and I think
we need to keep looking at this pretty closely,”
Cushon says.
It may be a mistake to look at these techniques
entirely in the light of nitrogen production, however,
since there’s also a lot of evidence that keeping plant
material growing on agricultural lands throughout
the growing season is good for the soil. It keeps
organisms like fungi and mycorhhyza fed, happy
and active, in return for which they help improve
the efficiency of the crop’s nitrogen uptake.
“The soils are able to cycle nutrients more efficiently, and they let the plants use that nitrogen
more efficiently. There’s definitely a benefit from
having healthier soil overall,” Entz says.
Entz says the technique has become known as
carbon fertilization, because it provides the sustenance to the soil microbes in the form of carbon,
and there is definitely a crop response that’s observable and measurable. Ian Cushon says he’s seen it
himself on his farm, and it’s one of the reasons he
spends his time and energy on this challenge.
“It’s definitely real, but I suppose the challenge
is quantifying it and determining what the economic advantage is, especially for non-organic
farmers who want to try some of these things,”
Cushon says.
That’s important because the system might pay
dividends, but it’s not going to be free to implement.
Cushon ballparks sowing a fall cover crop at around
$50 an acre, when the cost of the seed and the fuel,
time, and wear and tear on equipment are figured in.
“I don’t know if you could make it pay if you
were strictly looking at the amount of nitrogen
you could fix in the soil,” Cushon says, noting
that in his mind it’s the combination of the nitrogen and the soil health benefits that put the system over the top. CG
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country-guide.ca 45
CropsGuide
By Gord Leathers
going underground
Soil is far more than just dirt. Are you nurturing
the organisms that help it grow great crops?
warm, early-July breeze blew through
a wheat field in northeastern Saskatchewan, not far from Nipawin. The
heads had just emerged and were still
green, but the field was taking on
that fuzzy look that you typically get with a fresh,
bearded cereal.
This field was unusual, however, because even
though you couldn’t see it, red clover was sown
under the wheat, so there were actually two crops
occupying the same space: wheat for harvest this
year and seed clover for next.
It’s a stratgey that pays off with more biodiversity
above the soil surface, and also underneath it.
Soil ecology is still on the frontier of science. We
know quite a bit about what soil does, based on our
observations above the ground and our knowledge of
a few simple elements: nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and sulphur. But soil itself isn’t simple and we’re
starting to understand we have to look at it not as a
simple workbench but as a highly complex factory.
“It’s a very, very diverse ecosystem — perhaps the
most diverse ecosystem on Earth,” says University of
Saskatchewan soil scientist Jim Germida. “Of course,
all those micro-organisms are doing lots of different things in terms of ecosystem services, everything
from cycling nutrients through the system and helping clean water to helping plants grow.”
The sheer number of different organisms living
in a healthy patch of Prairie soil is staggering. If you
count the number of stars that you’ll see on one of
those clear western nights where even the edges of
the Milky Way are visible as a creamy band down
the centre of the sky, that’s about equal to the number of different kinds of organisms living in one teaspoon of that soil.
That’s a lot of living things doing a lot of work
within a very small space. This kind of diversity
and the genetic variability within their populations
is called biodiversity, and it’s essential to the proper
functioning of any ecosystem.
In 2010, the European Commission published
a major report on soil biodiversity, classifying the
work of soil organisms into three main functions.
The first are the chemical engineers, made up of
organisms that decompose dead tissue within the soil
and transform it into the nutrient fuel that drives the
system. The second are the soil regulators, including
the predators and grazers that manage the populations of other soil organisms. These include our soil
46 country-guide.ca borne pests and diseases. The third, then, are the
ecosystem engineers, the burrowers and tunnelers
that move soil particles around and develop the pore
spaces that make water and air infiltration possible.
What this means is that in the course of a year,
the soil organisms within the area of a soccer field
will process material equal to the weight of 25 small
cars. This sort of biological activity is important to
soil ecology and has a profound effect on agriculture.
But then, agriculture also has an equally profound effect on soil, points out Dr. Tandra Fraser of
the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative based out of
Colorado State University.
Monocultures not only reduce biodiversity above
ground, they also reduce biodiversity underneath
it, Fraser explains. “Then this leads to a number of
problems. Soil biota and microbes contribute to the
maintenance of soil structure, they contribute to the
hydrological process and to nutrient cycling which,
in the end, is related to food production.”
Before the Green Revolution, farmers practised
diverse crop rotations. Not only did they change
fields from one annual to another, they rotated from
annuals to perennials. Perennials keep roots in the
ground year round for three or more seasons, conditioning the soil and energizing the soil biota. Since
most farms were mixed, sections of land were also
used for forage for livestock and the animal manure
was used as fertilizer. Above the topsoil they had
biodiversity over time and this helped maintain biodiversity below ground as well.
The development of farm chemistry and machinery changed all that. It may be said that the Green
Revolution created today’s specialized agribusiness
and our rotations of annual crops. Livestock farmers became more specialized as well, and there was a
separation of animals from the plants. There was no
longer any need to rotate to perennials, and animal
manure was no longer available to most crop farmers.
This is the system we’ve been working under for
multiple generations and it has its quirks. But the
news here isn’t all bad either.
One benefit of farm chemistry is the emergence
of zero-till agriculture, where leftover crop residue
helps to keep topsoil in place. The remaining roots
retain moisture in the ground and provide a source of
organic matter, which helps explain why we’ve seen
soil condition improve under a zero-till regime.
“The soil organic matter helps with stabilization of
the soil,” Fraser says. “It provides the carbon source
September 2015
farm sustainability
“It’s a very, very diverse
ecosystem, perhaps
the most diverse
ecosystem on Earth.”
— Jim Germida, U of S
for the soil micro-organisms. On top of that you need
nutrient balance between the carbon, the nitrogen and
the phosphorus and the other nutrients for uptake. The
reduced tillage since the ’80s has been huge.”
As we change land use from a natural grassland
ecosystem into a more intensely cultivated system,
however, we need to understand that we are reduceing soil biodiversity, Fraser says, and we really need
to learn more about the ecology of living soil, such as
knowing what organisms are in there and what they
do in a healthy system.
This is the problem. We really don’t know that
much about soil biology and biodiversity. Most soil
organisms are microscopic and they live in a dark
world that’s very difficult to observe first hand.
“The thing that has changed in more recent
time is the fact that we have new tools to help us
study biodiversity,” Germida says. “Now we’re
talking about using molecular tools where we can
extract the DNA from soil or from the roots and
we can start studying the microbial communities
that are there. We can think about it as a sort of
meta-genome of all these living organisms and how
they work in concert to do these different beneficial
things, just like we have the human microbiome. We
have all these micro-organisms living on and in us,
and these things are very beneficial and help us be
who and what we are.”
If this is the same with soil, then we have a lot
to learn about how we can use the subtle nuances
of its biology to help grow food. Germida begins
by saying we need some optimal equilibrium of different organisms. The right mix makes the whole
September 2015
system more resilient. For example, if moisture
levels or the pH changes, one group of microbes
may fail but another can step in to continue their
work. This can involve any number of things such
as mineralizing organic nutrients so plants can use
them, decontaminating pollutants, or even controlling certain plant diseases.
Take-all is the Pacific Northwest name for a fungal disease that affects wheat along the west coast. It
lives in the soil, infects the plant through the roots,
and may infect its neighbours. It affects the conductive tissue and restricts water uptake. Too much of it
in the soil, however, provokes an interesting reaction.
“We have this thing called Take-all decline and
as the pathogen infects the plant, the plant starts to
send out chemical signals that stimulate a certain
group of bacteria in the soil,” Germida says. “Those
bacteria get very abundant and they actually produce
antibiotics against the pathogen and the incidence of
disease declines after a period of time.”
In other words, nature doesn’t like an overabundance of pathogens either. Eliminating their predators may have made our crops more vulnerable,
but by understanding the relationships between soil
chemical engineers, soil regulators and soil ecosystem
engineers, we may be able to create a food production system that is more sustainable and that makes
economic sense as well.
“I grew up on a conventional farm and I understand it from an economic point of view,” Fraser
says. “If farmers are not making money or if it’s
going to be a huge expense to them they’re probably
not going to change their management strategies.” CG
country-guide.ca 47
CropsGuide
By Gord Leathers
phantom nutrients
Micronutrients are the acid test of crop fertility.
Some believe in them. Others just don’t
or the most part, our Prairie soils aren’t
short of micronutrients. Deficiencies are
rare, and they are also difficult to pin
down, in part because such shortages are
usually associated with highly localized
soil conditions and because some of these conditions
change with varying moisture or pH levels. As well,
since these micronutrients are only needed in tiny
quantities, most soil tests don’t even look for them.
“I always like to say they’re a little bit ghostly
in nature,” says University of Saskatchewan soil
scientist Jeff Schoenau. “They’ll appear and manifest themselves, and then environmental conditions
change and they disappear.”
The ghostly nature of micronutrient shortages
breeds a typical “out of sight, out of mind” mentality, which is part of the reason why soil tests rarely
look for them. Soil tests are based on macronutrients like nitrogen, the cornerstone of protein, or
phosphorus, part of the framework of DNA. The
contributions these elements make are well understood, and we know they’re needed in large quantities to make tissue and to set seed.
So our soil tests revolve around the macronutrients. But the micronutrients are quite different.
“They’re the nutrients that plants require in very
small quantities, and this has nothing to do with the
amount in the soil or even the amount that the plant
will take up. It’s just the amount that’s required — and
that’s very small,” says Don Flaten of the University
of Manitoba. “For example, iron is a micronutrient
required in very small amounts but in real life it’s the
most abundant nutrient in the earth’s crust.”
Even so, that small amount of iron is crucial.
It’s an important component of cytochromes, the
proteins in the cell that act as electron carriers in the
transport chain. It’s also a tiny part of many of the
enzymes that drive the chemical reactions within the
cell, so a shortage of iron means a weakened plant
that may not survive.
There is a whole host of other micronutrients that
plants can’t do without, but since they’re present in
sufficient quantities there’s really no concern about
shortages. Nickel is a classic example.
The really important micronutrients include
molybdenum, boron, chlorine, copper, zinc, manganese and iron. “There’s a category that we can classify as the micronutrient metals, things like copper,
zinc, manganese and iron,” Schoenau says. “They
play an important role in electron transport and
enzyme activation in the plant.”
48 country-guide.ca Enzymes are proteins that work as catalysts, and
they’re absolutely essential to the chemical workings
of living things. A catalyst initiates a chemical reaction and then disconnects itself to look for another
set of molecules to begin the reaction all over again.
It’s sort of like a railway locomotive.
After a fashion, a train is like a long-chain molecule, assembled from a collection of smaller particles called freight cars. Once the train is assembled,
the locomotives pull it to another location where it’s
broken into smaller units. Some of it is reassembled
into another train while other cars are sent to a final
destination where their cargo is delivered.
Even though the locomotive is only a small part of
the train, none of the assembly, hauling or switching
happens without it. At the end of it all, the locomotive will disconnect from the train and then couple to
another to start the process over again. In other words,
the locomotive may be used to pull and process several
trains, much the same as an enzyme which will pop
out of the reaction after completion, find another molecule and start the process over again.
If the locomotive is the enzyme, then the various
micronutrients are like the couplers that fasten the
engine to the train. Even though it’s a tiny, almost
insignificant part of the whole system, the locomotives still can’t pull a train without them. In the
micro world of biochemistry, the iron, copper or
boron in that enzyme is just that crucial, and the
whole system would break down without it. And
just like a coupler failure on a train, a shortage of
micronutrients is relatively rare.
“Micronutrient deficiencies can occur but they
tend to be fairly isolated and patchy within one field.
It’s rare to find an entire field deficient in a micronutrient,” Schoenau says. “Instead they tend to occur
in localized areas within a field, maybe in a gravel
lens or a highly eroded knoll with low organic matter
where the C horizon has been exposed.”
Often these shortages are geographic. These deficiencies are rare in the southern Prairies but they
sometimes do occur in the northern fringe where
the land was once under boreal forest. If the farm is
located on some of those sandy grey soils, the coarse
texture and low organic matter (i.e. below two per
cent) can be a factor. Oddly enough, high organic
matter above 30 per cent may also contribute, so
those high-peat soils may cause some trouble. Soil
temperature, pH and moisture content may also
influence availability.
“And that would be the same for all the microSeptember 2015
soil fertility
nutrients. Not only are they very sensitive to geographic variability, but also to
time or temporal variability,” Flaten says.
“Environmental conditions play a huge
role. Iron and manganese in particular are
very sensitive to soil temperature, flooding stress and that sort of thing.”
It also depends on the crop type.
Copper deficiency is probably one of
the most frequent micronutrient problems in crops especially on sandy soils
or on highly organic peat soils. Copper
deficiency in wheat does happen and
farmers should watch for that distinctive
pig tailing along the leaves where the tips
die off and twist leaving a brown frond
instead of a healthy green leaf.
Manganese deficiencies often show up
in the same kinds of soils, and may be seen
with a pale green or yellowing in legume
crops. It may also be seen as a grey speckling in oats. Zinc deficiency is most likely
to show up in corn and may be seen as
light yellow bands on the youngest leaves.
“Boron is a nutrient that’s sometimes
deficient in canola,” Flaten says. “But
the deficiency is extremely rare and I
am aware of only one case in Manitoba
and one case in Sask­a tch­e wan where
a boron deficiency has been diagnosed
with authority.”
Flaten also adds that chlorine deficiencies may show up in cereal crops,
but this too is dependent on the variety.
Some strains will respond to chloride fertilizers while others grown side by side
will have no response at all.
With so many complicating factors,
it’s no wonder that micronutrient problems can fly below the radar. It takes a
lot of experience, observation and field
notes from both farmers and agronomists.
Still, such things are site specific, so
these spots can probably be teased out
over time. There is also a number of
ways to narrow down a diagnosis.
“The best approach to diagnosis is to
use a multiple evidence approach,” Schoenau says. “You use a soil test, a tissue test,
a visual inspection and, if you suspect a
micronutrient deficiency, you may try a test
strip with a micronutrient across a field area
just to see if there is any response.”
There are some places that might
recommend a more proactive approach
with a micronutrient seed treatment.
This is relatively new, however, and may
require some verification before science
can really say that it works.
September 2015
“I know that in some parts of the
world they have worked reasonably
well, and if you have an acute deficiency
maybe they have some potential,” Flaten
says. “In a number of cases, I think that
micronutrient-based seed treatments
are being recommended for soils where
micronutrient supply is sufficient.”
“The other time micronutrient deficiencies may show up is when you’re
shooting for the top end of the yield
curve, and you’re trying to squeeze
every last bushel out so you’ve got your
macro nutrients and other inputs applied
to overcome any limitations,” Schoenau says. “Some growers will put on a
micro-nutrient as a bit of insurance and
there may not be a response, but they’ve
got that there just in case. Some growers
have that kind of philosophy.” CG
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country-guide.ca 49
CropsGuide
By Anne Cote
their sights
are on fusarium
This major U of M lab program hopes
to stop fusarium before it starts
rotecting crops from the ravages of fusarium is a never-ending job for investigators
like Dr. Dilantha Fernando and his staff at
the University of Manitoba.
The most common species of the
pathogen is fusarium graminearum, commonly
known as fusarium head blight (FHB) or fusarium
scab. It’s a cereal crop pathogen that has become the
most aggressive and prevalent species in both wheat
and barley.
Fusarium not only destroys the yield in cereal
crops and corn, it produces a toxin (i.e. mycotoxin)
that is harmful to both humans and animals if excess
mycotoxin in food or feed is ingested. Fernando says
this poses a serious health problem, particularly in
developing countries where corn is a staple of the
daily diet and food scarcity means people may not
throw away infected cobs, opting to simply cut out
the damaged areas they can see. Unfortunately this
isn’t always effective, since any undetected mycotoxin still clinging to the cereal has the capacity to
contribute to illness.
“It is extremely urgent,” Fernando says.
“The pathogen is a little bit ahead of us all
the time... it keeps changing.”
Fernando and his colleagues have taken on the
challenge of developing wheat varieties that have
genetic resistance to the pathogen. A fusarium-resistant wheat variety will slow the spread of the pathogen, which can linger on stubble debris in the soil for
several years. It will also reduce the need for repeated
fungicide applications while improving crop quality.
Fernando, professor of plant pathology at U of
M, says the genetic work being done there is essential
in the race to control the spread of fusarium in Canada and to maintain Canada’s status as an exporter
of wheat and barley globally.
“I think it is extremely urgent, mainly because
the pathogen is a little bit ahead of us all the time,”
Fernando says. “It keeps changing. The type of toxin
it produces is changing. So, now the ones we’re expe50 country-guide.ca riencing are a little bit more potent, more aggressive,
and at times causing more disease.
“It seems like they know what we are doing and
they are just one step ahead of us,” Fernando adds.
“We always see something new happening.”
That means the pressure is on in the small lab
where Fernando and the graduate and undergraduate students under his supervision study the DNA of
wheat and fusarium strains in their quest to gain a
better understanding of the interaction between the
host plants and the pathogen.
The lab itself is different from most Canadian
research labs because of the number of people working there. “Normally it’s one PhD student and one
master’s student,” Fernando says. But there are 15
people working in the University of Manitoba lab
—three master’s students, five PhD students, four
post-doctoral scientists and a technician. And, during
the summer months, three undergraduate students
are also hired.
One of their current tasks is to identify a marker
in a specific gene which, when transferred to an
existing wheat variety, will create a plant with fusarium resistance without diminishing yield or other
beneficial characteristics previously developed in
Prairie wheat and barley over time.
The challenge of finding a naturally occurring
resistance to fusarium is multi-faceted.
It’s not a straightforward one-gene problem, Fernando says. Transferring one gene may seem like a
quick fix but along with fusarium resistance there’s
a chance that less desirable traits like dwarfism
(smaller plants) or lodging (weak stems) will show
up as well. “In addition,” he adds, “single gene resistance to fusarium is not easy to find.”
A good way to understand the challenge is to
look at television cable bundling. When you purchase a cable package you get the channels you
want, but you also get some you don’t want your
kids watching, so you have to do some extra work to
keep those channels turned off.
According to Fernando, who has degrees in both
genetics and microbiology with a special interest
in genetic resistance, the best method for identifying a gene with fusarium resistance, while blocking
the transfer of undesirable traits, is marker-assisted
selection. This is a long process that can take many
years. It requires meticulous attention to detail in the
September 2015
plant health
Photo: Janet Lewis/CIMMYT
Researcher Dilantha
Fernando says the
goal is to introduce
genetic resistance
to fusarium and
minimize the need
for fungicides.
field, the greenhouse and the lab in order to produce
viable results.
Fernando says researchers have a variety of
sophisticated genetic protocols at their disposal to
help them in their quest for a genetic solution to
reducing fusarium. But, he adds, that’s another science story.
Today researchers are working at finding a minor
gene with fusarium resistance. It’s an important
aspect of genetic resistance research because minor
genes pose the biggest challenge to the pathogen.
They confuse it and slow its rate of adaptation providing a longer-lasting result.
Although it takes longer to develop a plant with
a high level of fusarium resistance using markerassisted selection and crossbreeding, once it’s there,
it’s established and will provide long-term protection.
In comparison, using a single-gene approach to
develop fusarium resistance in plants is a much simpler process. In this process, the whole gene is transferred without isolating the traits within it through
DNA analysis. Fernando called it a “quick fix”
because the desired results can be obtained relatively quickly. But the results can be overturned just
as quickly if the pathogen adapts to a new host, so
it may not be long before the farmer is forced to
increase the number of fungicide applications in
order to maintain crop quality and yield.
Reducing the incidence of fusarium through
transgenic plant breeding provides environmental
benefits as well as ensuring good-quality crops.
“(We’re) trying to stay away from fungicides by
putting good genetics into the crop, finding solutions
September 2015
in a very meaningful way. Not particularly saying
that we’re not applying anything, but our whole goal
is to remove the fungicides from the equation with
good genetics if possible… Even if you apply fungicides you still need good genetics,” Fernando says.
According to Fernando, putting fungicides on a
crop that is highly susceptible to a disease is a waste
of money. Good genetics with an effective fungicide
is the best solution because both the frequency and
cost of spraying are reduced, he said.
Not all the research occurs in the lab. PhD student Chami Amarasinghe is also working in the
greenhouse identifying which fusarium graminearum
strains cause the most damage to different wheat
varieties. She infects different varieties of wheat
with different strains of F. graminearum to try and
identify the various types of mycotoxins they can
produce. Her goal is to sort out which genes produce
the most virulent strains of the pathogen.
Amarasinghe is also working towards identifying
what other fusarium strains not yet seen in Canada
might also be able to infect out wheat.
That portion of Armarasinghe’s research helps
protect Canadian wheat from fusarium epidemics
caused by spores hitchhiking to Canada on imports.
She has received F. graminearum strains from 12
other countries including Germany, China, U.K.,
Switzerland, France, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and
Poland, and she is studying their effect on Canadian
wheat varieties.
Armarasinghe has been working on the FHB
pathogen and its toxin biosyntheses pathways since
she came to Winnipeg from Sri Lanka in 2009. CG
country-guide.ca 51
CropsGuide
By Ellen Goodman, Cigi
foundation work
Today we know more about how to make the pulse industry grow,
thanks to a decade of Cigi research
t was 10 years ago that the Canadian International Grains Institute launched its pulseprocessing and specialty milling facility, and
since then, Cigi’s pulse activity on behalf of
the Canadian industry has leapt ahead.
“There was a need in Canada to add value
to pulses by processing domestically,” says Peter
Frohlich, project manager for pulses and special
crops at Cigi. “Initially, Cigi worked with Saskatchewan Pulse Growers and Manitoba Pulse Growers to
develop a project which started with assessing quality and with developing methods for dehulling and
splitting pulses effectively and efficiently.”
The project, called Enhancing Markets for Canadian Pulses Through Secondary Processing and Value
Added Research, was designed to develop and transfer knowledge to the industry and set up a program
at Cigi to provide ongoing support to the Canadian
pulse value chain.
Cigi worked closely with the Canadian pulse industry and organizations including Pulse Canada which
provided direction on research based on industry activity, Frohlich says. Dehulling and splitting crops such as
peas and lentils evolved into milling pulses and adding
the resulting flour to food products.
52 country-guide.ca “It was basic feasibility work, at the start of the
project, to see how much flour could be added to a
wheat-based processed food product to retain quality and enhance nutrition,” Frohlich says. “The
idea was that pulses are healthy and their use as
ingredients would increase consumption and in the
September 2015
CIGI
long run increase returns to producers and open up new markets for Canadian pulses.”
This early work generated information such as the inclusion of pulse flour in pasta at 30 per cent as the optimum level
to maintain colour, flavour and texture. These results also laid
the foundation for Cigi’s four-year Pulse Milling and Utilization Project in 2010, Frohlich says. While pulse area work
continued to focus on pulse quality and new varieties, the new
project investigated the effects of milling methods on functionality of pulse flours as ingredients in food product applications
such as baked goods, Asian noodles, extruded snacks and
batter-coated products.
“The idea was that pulses are
healthy, and their use as ingredients
would increase consumption and
in the long run increase returns
to producers and open up new
markets for Canadian pulses.”
— Peter Frohlich, Cigi
> Empty Pesticide Container Recycling Program
There are many
reasons to rinse.
#1
Only rinsed containers can be recycled
#2
Helps keep collection sites clean
#3
Use all the chemicals you purchase
#4
Keeps collection sites safe for workers
#5
Maintain your farm’s good reputation
No excuse not to!
more information or to find a collection
{ For
site near you visit cleanfarms.ca
Now, take your empty fertilizer
containers along for the ride!
Over the past several years, pulse activity has included
testing and evaluation on behalf of pulse breeders, farmers
Trait Stewardship Responsibilities
Notice to Farmers
and processors. Project work has been directed by an industry10901A-CFM-5Reasons-QRTPage-CountryGuide.indd
1
4/2/14 11:59 AM
advisory committee and funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food
Monsanto Company is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship® (ETS). Monsanto products
are commercialized in accordance with ETS Product Launch Stewardship Guidance, and in compliance with
Canada programs and grower organizations.
Monsanto’s Policy for Commercialization of Biotechnology-Derived Plant Products in Commodity Crops.
Cigi also serves on the Prairie Grain Development CommitCommercialized products have been approved for import into key export markets with functioning regulatory
tee special crops subcommittee which makes recommendations
systems. Any crop or material produced from this product can only be exported to, or used, processed or sold
in countries where all necessary regulatory approvals have been granted. It is a violation of national and
on new pulse varieties for registration.
international law to move material containing biotech traits across boundaries into nations where import is not
Heather Maskus, project manager for Cigi pulse flour
permitted. Growers should talk to their grain handler or product purchaser to confirm their buying position for
this product. Excellence Through Stewardship® is a registered trademark of Excellence Through Stewardship.
milling and food applications, agrees on the importance of
industry collaboration which continues to grow. As manager
ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Roundup Ready® crops contain genes that
of the Pulse Milling and Utilization Project, Maskus is curconfer tolerance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides. Roundup®
brand
agricultural herbicides will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Acceleron® seed treatment
rently overseeing a followup project, Advancing Pulse Flour
technology for canola contains the active ingredients difenoconazole, metalaxyl (M and S isomers), fludioxonil
Processing and Applications, which involves optimizing the
and thiamethoxam. Acceleron® seed treatment technology for canola plus Vibrance® is a combination of
two separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients difenoconazole,
nutritional quality of food products made using pulse flours
metalaxyl (M and S isomers), fludioxonil, thiamethoxam, and sedaxane. Acceleron® seed treatment technology
as ingredients through roller milling and other pre- and postfor corn (fungicides and insecticide) is a combination of four separate individually-registered products, which
together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin, ipconazole, and clothianidin. Acceleron®
milling processing methods.
seed treatment technology for corn (fungicides only) is a combination of three separate individually-registered
Maskus says the project will place more emphasis on nutriproducts, which together contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin and ipconazole. Acceleron®
tion and on linking pulse applications in food with current
seed treatment technology for corn with Poncho®/VoTivo™ (fungicides, insecticide and nematicide) is a
combination of five separate individually-registered products, which together contain the active ingredients
pulse nutrition research.
metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin, ipconazole, clothianidin and Bacillus firmus strain I-1582. Acceleron® seed treatment
Maskus also notes that the Pulse Milling and Utilization
technology for soybeans (fungicides and insecticide) is a combination of four separate individually registered
products, which together contain the active ingredients fluxapyroxad, pyraclostrobin, metalaxyl and imidacloprid.
Project and other pulse work has helped build a foundation
Acceleron® seed treatment technology for soybeans (fungicides only) is a combination of three separate
of knowledge that Cigi has shared with industry and other
individually registered products, which together contain the active ingredients fluxapyroxad, pyraclostrobin and
metalaxyl. Acceleron and Design®, Acceleron®, DEKALB and Design®, DEKALB®, Genuity and Design®, Genuity®,
researchers, both domestically and internationally. The activJumpStart®, RIB Complete and Design®, RIB Complete®, Roundup Ready 2 Technology and Design®, Roundup
ity has contributed to a greater awareness of the potential of
Ready 2 Yield®, Roundup Ready®, Roundup Transorb®, Roundup WeatherMAX®, Roundup®, SmartStax and
pulses and has drawn increasing interest from industry, proDesign®, SmartStax®, Transorb®, VT Double PRO®, and VT Triple PRO® are registered trademarks of Monsanto
Technology LLC, Used under license. Vibrance® and Fortenza® are registered trademarks of a Syngenta group
ducers, government and universities for testing or collaboracompany. LibertyLink® and the Water Droplet Design are trademarks of Bayer. Used under license. Herculex® is
tion on value-added projects.
a registered trademark of Dow AgroSciences LLC. Used under license. Poncho® and Votivo™ are trademarks of
Bayer. Used under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
“Cigi’s pulse team has covered a lot of area in a short time,
and now companies are approaching us more often to learn
about food applications for pulses,” Maskus says. “Cigi’s pilot
facilities and other technology staff have all helped to make
this work possible. It’s been quite the evolution.” CG
September 2015
country-guide.ca 53
business
Our toughest marketing challenge
Farmers are losing respect. Now is the time to win it back,
By Gerald Pilger
before the costs get even worse
odney Dangerfield built a comic career
on his signature line: “I don’t get
no respect.” But for the agricultural
industry, loss of respect is no laughing
matter. The public perception of agriculture is steadily eroding.
Last fall, Harris Interactive asked 2,537 Americans
to name the most prestigious occupations. As you might
guess, doctors topped the list. Farming didn’t make the
top 10. In fact, only 14 per cent of those surveyed felt
farming has a great deal of prestige. And 22 per cent of
the respondents felt farming had no prestige at all.
Not surprisingly, the younger the respondent, the
lower the prestige score given for farming.
In March of last year, AAFC commissioned the
Strategic Council to conduct focus groups to determine the Canadian public’s perception of the agrifood industry. Among the study’s findings: “… a
relatively low level of awareness, particularly among
urban dwellers, of the current state of the sector
and its contribution to provincial, regional and the
national economy.”
Canadians seemed somewhat more pessimistic
than optimistic about agriculture. Reasons included
concerns about GMOs, factory farms, perceived
unsustainable or environmentally damaging farming
practices, and declining interest in the industry.
Participants did not feel agriculture is innovative,
and they felt there has been little change in the last
10 to 20 years.
The only good news is that participants expressed
a real desire to learn more about agriculture and food.
Robert Saik, founder and CEO of Agri-Trend,
warns: “We have a real problem. Traditionally, farmers were trusted like doctors and firefighters. Today,
if you ask people if you trust farmers, they answer
yes. But if you ask, do you trust agriculture, they say
no. The public has a romanticized view of farming
and only trust the image they have in their minds.
They do not trust the industry.”
According to Saik, there are a number of reasons
for this disconnect. “Only 1.5 to two per cent of
North Americans are farmers; the other 98 per cent
are getting more removed.”
Saik believes social media is also leading the public to question the industry. Misinformation can
spread rapidly and there are parties with vested interests that are using social media to sow seeds of doubt
about the food sector. They are doing this for their
own reasons, which can include their own gain.
54 country-guide.ca Farmers and the industry simply cannot counter
these messages on social media. Saik points out
that one of the most popular agricultural Twitter
accounts has 67,000 followers. This number pales in
comparison to organic proponent Whole Foods with
4.4 million followers.
Academics Review recently released its study of the
marketing of organic foods entitled “Organic Marketing Report” (available at academicsreview.org) which
found that food safety and health concerns are the
primary drivers of organic sales and that without these,
organic sector sales opportunities would be limited.
CEOs of organic companies routinely get quoted
in news stories about food scares without anyone
pointing out that the food scares drive their organic
businesses, the review notes. “Some (organic execs)
openly acknowledge that the industry should engage
in fear-based marketing.”
There is no question companies are either implying or directly asserting there are food safety risks
arising from conventional agricultural practices.
Saik suggests the A&W and Ben and Jerry’s ad campaigns prey on consumers’ fears of the food system.
Unfortunately, we are likely to see continued
growth in such advertising. Academics Review estimates the combined annual budgets of anti-GMO
and anti-pesticide advocacy groups promoting
organics at over $2.5 billion.
With this much money questioning the quality
and safety of our food and industry, is it any wonder
trust in agriculture is diminishing?
What is being done?
The ag industry is waking up to the fact that
modern farming and food-processing practices are
under attack. Industry is responding with some very
effective programming.
Ag in the Classroom (www.aitc-canada.ca) now
reaches over a million students in Canada. It is
industry funded and strives to provide agricultural
awareness through the school system.
Farm and Food Care ( www.farmcarefoundation.
ca) has taken the trust-in-food message out of the
school to the general public. It is working to build
public confidence in agriculture through direct presentations to audiences, through hosting special
agricultural events, and with the publication and distribution of the booklet Real Dirt, a fact-based look
at both conventional and organic production.
Farm and Food Care is also producing “Know
September 2015
business
GMO,” a $1-million documentary that looks at the
science behind GMOs and tackles the myths and
misconceptions about genetically engineered crops
(www.knowgmothemovie.com).
Agriculture More Than Ever (www.agriculturemore­
thanever.ca) is an industry initiative which offers
actual participants in the farm and food sector a
forum where they can tell their own stories.
What must farmers do?
“Farmers are guility of not arming themselves to
talk about how they produce food,” Saik says.
Saik feels farmers do not know how to respond
to criticism of the industry. Many farmers will
simply ignore misinformation about farming and
agriculture instead of responding to it. Instead,
Saik says farmers need to use these moments as an
opportunity to teach the person about farming.
To do this, Saik says a farmer needs to correct
misinformation rather than blowing up.
Farmers also need to use the chances they get to
explain why we use science in crop and livestock
production.
And it is critical that farmers financially support
the work that agricultural associations are doing
to increase consumer awareness of farming and the
agricultural industry.
Most importantly, Saik says farmers must advocate for the industry.
Saik has taken his own advice to heart and has
become a leading advocate for farming: Earlier this
year he produced a TedX talk entitled “Pushing
Boundaries in Agriculture,” available on YouTube. It
is an excellent resource for farmers wanting to equip
themselves with facts and information to respond to
attacks on our industry. CG
Nurse loves farmer
Sarah Schultz is a city girl turned farmwife and
mother. She started her blog www.nurselovesfarmer.
com because “I was seeing a lot of concerns over
how our food was raised and a lot of myths about
agriculture regarding GMOs and pesticides.
“Consumers seem to put more faith and trust
into celebrities like Dr. Oz and the Food Babe when
it comes to nutrition and food production, instead
of talking to the real experts in the agriculture
industry,” Schultz says.
Schultz is worried. “Food activists can, will, and
have changed agriculture policy already,” she says.
But at the same time, Schultz notes, “Consumers, especially the millennials and the young moms,
want to know more about food production and
farming. This is why I feel it is so important, perhaps now more than ever, for farmers to reach out
to consumers to tell their farm-to-food stories and
to answer consumers’ questions.”
“I would encourage farmers to be transparent
and honest about what they do and why they do it
on their farms. Find a common ground with consumers who have questions and sincerely listen to
those questions and concerns. There are far more
people in the “movable middle” who are skeptical of agriculture practices, but are open, willing
and wanting to learn about what farmers do, than
those of the activist mindset who already have
their opinions formed and their minds likely won’t
be changed.”
- Jen C., Ontario, 2014 AWC Delegate
y! .
da ed
to it
er lim
st s
gi g i
Re atin
Se
“If it weren’t for the messages from some of the leaders I connected with, I wouldn’t have
this clear vision nor the motivation to go after it. I can’t thank you enough for that.”
Open your mind to endless possibilities. Gain the skills needed to fulfill all your dreams.
Prepare to be inspired. This conference could change your life! Join women from Ag and related
businesses as they reveal the secrets to their success. Group Rates available now. Register today!
Visit advancingwomenconference.ca or phone 403-686-8407.
WESTIN HARBOUR CASTLE, TORONTO, OCT 5 & 6, 2015
S e p t e mb e r 2 0 1 5 country-guide.ca 55
Advancing Women Conference East / Country Guide 7” x 3.357” / Ontario Quote
business
Finding
the ‘wow’
factor
CNH managers speak
candidly about the challenges
of engineering an all-new
machine from the ground up
By Scott Garvey, CG Machinery Editor
esigning a new piece of farm equipment and getting it market ready
today is easier, thanks to technology.
But it’s also more complicated, thanks
to… well… technology. The complexity built into modern machines is stunning and it
continues to grow. In fact, from a machinery company’s perspective, it has to grow. Unless new designs
offer farmers ever more efficiency, they won’t generate sizable sales numbers.
Even before the long process of development and
testing can begin, company managers must establish
that the brand will see a financial return for that
investment. Any new machine has to appeal to buyers with chequebooks in their pockets. Getting that
right is where the whole process kicks off.
When Case IH invited media to its Saskatoon training facility to introduce its newly designed 5 Series air
carts earlier this summer, Country Guide spoke with
the brand executives about what it takes to park a
completely new machine in the showroom.
The Saskatoon
assembly plant that
builds CNH’s new air
carts is building on
its heritage as an
early innovator in
the dryland seeding
industry, according
to brand managers.
Photos: Scott Garvey
56 country-guide.ca “We do something we call CDPD, Customer
Driven Product Development,” said Gord Engel, the
brand’s seeding product manager. “We sit down with
customer focus groups. We ask them things like what
would you like to see different than what you’ve
got today, and flesh out all those details. What can
make this product better for them? With that you
always find these little nuggets. Sometimes it’s not
very apparent at the time, but something all of a sudden pops up. And we say wow, if we could do that it
would give them that wow factor. Those are the types
of things we’re looking for in the product definition.”
It would have been easy, however, to overshoot
the market while focusing on that wow factor and
adding features to the carts farmers might like but
just aren’t willing to pay for. Deciding where that
dividing line lies, it turns out, is no easy task.
“You have to balance it off; customers are looking for value,” Engel said. “You have to draw that
line between reality and not hitting the mark at all.”
There were some must-haves, the focus groups
told the 5 Series engineers. Topping the list were features that can help reduce input costs.
“Right now with the cost of inputs, everybody’s
looking for something with section control,” Engel
said. “That was one of the key things they were
looking for, trying to save input costs there.”
Of course, knowing what customers want is one
thing. Creating a machine capable of giving it to
them is entirely another. Computer simulations contributed to shortening the total development time.
“From the initial concept to today, you’re looking
around that four-year time frame,” said Engel. “Had
we tried to do this 10 or 15 years ago, the time,
for sure, would have been longer. We have a digital
simulation group and it can do some amazing things
with fluid dynamics. Looking at an air system, just
with a computer model, it can determine where it’s
going to go and how it’s going to react. I’m sure that
knocked nine months to a year out of our timeline
by using that kind of technology.
“Now you can predict what’s going to happen,
build a model in a lab and validate it,” Engel said.
“Fifteen, 20 years ago we would build it, try it, stick
it in the field and go yeah, that’s not working. Let’s
try something else.”
Once the company settled on a prototype design,
it turned back to those customer focus groups to see
if it had created something that would get farmers to
say, “I want that — and I’m willing to pay for it.”
But rather than head out to the field to take a look
September 2015
business
Joe Michaels is
senior director of
Case IH specialty
business.
at a camouflaged machine parked well away from
unauthorized eyes, customers went back inside to
take advantage of another aspect of modern technology: virtual reality.
“We now have a VR (virtual reality) room here
in Saskatoon as well,” said Engel. “You can take a
look at that computer model and really get a feel for
it, what it’s like to get around it and service it. Seeing
is believing.”
But while technology can be used to test and validate systems, it can’t take the place of the inspired
engineers needed to create all those things farmers
tacked on to their wish lists. That takes old-fashioned brain power. To build the current generation of
5 Series carts, inspiration came from a wide range of
resources, including discussions with engineers who
pioneered early air cart development when the Saskatoon facility was owned by Flexi-Coil, which Case
IH eventually purchased.
“We’ve tapped into that heritage,” explained Joe
Michaels, senior director of Case IH specialty business. “Some of the engineers who worked on the
original metering system 20 years ago came in and
had conversations. That’s the level we did it at. It
wasn’t a formalized thing.”
Michaels believes blending input from experienced innovators along with younger minds familiar
with the latest in cutting-edge technology can produce results like no other process.
“When you get (older engineers) together with
(younger engineers), that is a synergistic relationship
when it comes to product development,” Michaels
said. “Because when you have that wisdom and
experience together with that enthusiasm and knowledge of the current capabilities of technology, you get
magical synergistic results.”
September 2015
But Michaels believes the new 5 Series carts
embody not only the results of that engineering
exercise, but they are also the product of a renewed
focus on the same spirit of innovation that led to the
creation of the original Flexi-Coil machines. That
emotion is something he wants to solidify in the current corporate psyche of the big red brand.
“Specialty manufacturers out there really do
drive a lot of innovation in this (seeding) industry,”
Michaels said. “What I’ve been charged to do in my
position is bring that specialty culture to a major
full-line equipment manufacturer. That’s really the
spirit that we’re going on. There is a renewed effort.
We have a great heritage here, Flexi-Coil heritage
here, at this Saskatoon facility and the people. And
they still talk about it.”
That pride in their heritage has apparently also
created a sense of competition within the workers at the Saskatoon assembly plant that builds the
air seeders. The facility has earned the highest efficiency rating among the CNH and parent company
Fiat’s North American assembly plants, according to
Michaels.
“This facility here is No. 1 in North America,”
Michaels said. “And within the CNH group it’s the
No. 1 rated plant worldwide in quality and delivery.”
Michaels thinks that is an even more significant
achievement than it sounds, because staff at the Saskatoon plant have one of the most difficult assembly
jobs in any industry, the result of a wide diversity in
machines moving down the assembly line.
“There is infinitely more variability on these than
there is on a Fiat 500,” Michaels said. “And the volumes are lower. So it’s more important that you have
your systems in place to create consistent quality on
the line.” CG
country-guide.ca 57
business
Agriculture’s
glass ceiling
If gender isn’t a big issue
on the farm, why are so
many women signing up
for women’s organizations
and conferences?
By Helen Lammers-Helps
o maybe today’s farmers don’t absolutely
need the muscles of a Schwarzenegger, especially on farms with employees. Still, that
doesn’t mean the door is open to women
farmers, or that our modern agricultural system is really as modern as we like to think.
Women who want to farm do face challenges
not experienced by their male counterparts. Nor,
importantly, are all those barriers unique to agriculture. Books like L ean I n by Facebook COO
Sheryl Sandberg have documented problems that
prevent women from rising to the top in other sectors too, whether it’s in business, the non-profit
sector or politics.
Whether it’s on the farm or in
agribusiness, says Christie,
“talking brings the issue to light.”
Nor are women the only ones struggling for
change. Men are also seeking balanced lives, with
more time with their families.
Still, women and agriculture is a big topic, and
it is a real one too. It is also a topic that needs more
discussion not only in our farm organizations and in
our boardrooms, but also around our supper tables.
For example, this past April, 600 women attended
the Advancing Women in Agriculture Conference in
Calgary. “This was the largest gathering of (ag) women
ever held and their wish list for information was long
and varied,” says conference organizer, Iris Meck.
There was no one major common theme but most
of the topics come as no surprise: work-life balance,
time management, stress management, how to be a
spokesperson for agriculture and dealing with inter58 country-guide.ca At conferences, speakers like Saskatchewan’s deputy minister
of ag Alanna Koch chart a path for women’s progress.
generational issues. At least one attendee was explicitly
looking for information on “understanding how men
view us and how to build a bridge in the workplace.”
As well, in Ontario, a group of young women
working in agriculture started the Ag Women’s Network as an informal forum to network and share
information. The Facebook page for the group has
400 followers, mostly from Ontario but from other
parts of Canada and the U.S. too.
Jennifer Christie, dealer development manager
at John Deere and one of the founders of the Ag
Women’s Network says the group this past February, for instance, participated in a discussion on
maternity leave benefits. It’s a hot topic especially
for self-employed farmers, but women working in
agribusiness and who have better access to maternity
benefits than many women on the farm also want
their company HR staff to be more forthcoming with
explanations of maternity benefits and maternity
leave policies.
The group knows there are men who would like
to see a more open discussion of parental leave
options too, and that some men would like to access
parental benefits but are deterred from doing so
because a company is very traditional in its mindset. It’s another indication that a wider discussion is
needed, says Christie.
Still, for women who work in sales positions that
are based on commission, taking time off after the
birth of a child can mean losing clients and jeopardizing their long-term income potential, although
having the option to work in teams is one possible
solution that would allow women more flexibility.
Primary producers at the meeting also raised concerns about the lack of access to childcare for their
Continued on page 60
september 2015
The Canadian Association of Farm Advisors (CAFA) Inc. is a national,
non-profit professional umbrella organization dedicated to assisting farm families
and businesses by increasing the skills of farm advisors and consultants.
www.cafanet.com
I
t is with great pleasure that I write CAFA’s
first article as a new contributor to Country
Guide — Canada’s strategic leader in providing information on the business of farming –
and CAFA certainly understands the business of
farming. Let me introduce you to us!
The Canadian Association of Farm Advisors (CAFA) Inc. is a national not-for-profit,
professional organization whose mission is
to continually improve the quality of advice being given to Canadian farm families
and businesses, by increasing the skills and
knowledge of farm advisors.
CAFA members are farm advisors and
include any individual who provides advice
to agribusiness. Examples include, but are
not limited to, accountants, lawyers, bankers, trust officers, financial advisors, realtors,
insurance agents, agrologists, family coaches,
marketers, risk managers, government, nonprofit associations and interested farmers.
In meeting its mission, CAFA achieves the
following goals through regular local chapter
meetings and annual provincial conferences:
(1) Improve the level of education and
professionalism of farm advisors by
keeping them CURRENT with the
agri-food sector they serve, and
(2) Improve access to qualified farm advisors by offering local and provincial
networking meetings to keep members CONNECTED to the other
professionals and resources working
with agri-food clients.
CAFA grants a certification to its Regular
members, Certified Agricultural Farm Advisor
(CAFA), based on meeting Continuing Professional Development credit requirements.
“CAFA is a great benefit to my
clients. I’m able to get to know
other CAFA members by attending
meetings and conferences. I learn
how they interact with other
professionals. It is important to
me and my clients that a farm
advisor is not only knowledgeable
but must be willing to work
as a team player for the best
interest of the farm clients. CAFA
meetings are a great place to learn
about what is new and who to go
to for answers.
When I introduce clients to a
CAFA advisor, I know they will
be well looked after, this only
increases the trust my client places
in me as their primary advisor. It is
great to be able to say I don’t know
but I do know who does!!”
— Stan MacEwen,
Laskowski Wright,
Saskatoon, SK.
“After attending the CAFA
meeting in Prince Albert as a
guest, I cannot understand why any
professional farm advisor wouldn’t
want to be part of this. I wish when
I farmed there was an organization
like this. I could have used it.”
— Percy Woytiuk,
Hafford, SK
“I’m a lawyer and a farmer. CAFA
provides a great opportunity to meet
professionals who share my interest
in agriculture and to spend some
of my “professional” time learning
more about farming and farm
businesses. When I need to consult
with a professional in a different
area than mine on issues related to
agriculture, or need to refer a client,
CAFA gives me a great group of
people to choose from.”
— John Goudy, LLB, Partner,
Scott Petrie LLP, Law Firm,
London, Ont
“Farmers are looking for expert
advice more often to help them
with the complexities they face
in running their business. CAFA
provides a medium for these
experts to better understand how
each of us can make our clients
better off. I regularly reach out to
my CAFA colleagues to leverage
their expertise when my clients
have a need I cannot satisfy. It’s
win-win-win.”
Kim Gerencser,
K.Ag. Growing Farm Profits Inc.,
Regina, SK
Info & EvEnts
Plan to join CAFA for some timely information and great in-person
networking with other farm professionals. Be sure to save the dates!
CURRENT & CONNECTED
Conference
Thursday, October 8th
Lethbridge, Alberta
Farm Tax Update
for Professionals
Thursday, October 22nd
Guelph, Ontario
More information available at www.cafanet.com/Conferences
Toll free: 1-877-474-2871
Email: [email protected]
PO Box 270 • Seven Sisters Falls, MB • R0E 1Y0
Follow us on Twitter @CAFANET
Photos: the Advancing Women Conference
business
Tables are full,
speakers are world
class, and women
are taking control of
their ag destiny.
Continued from page 58
small children. “There are a lot of playpens and strollers in the milkhouses and parlours,” says Sandi Brock,
a sheep farmer from Hensall, Ont. When her children
were young, Brock had off-site childcare but had to
pick the kids up promptly at 4 p.m. every day. “Balancing farm work and childcare was hard,” Brock
says. “Sometimes things go wrong but both your livestock and your children are counting on you.”
A lack of work-life balance is an issue that’s
raised over and over again by working women. On
top of their jobs, women are spending twice as much
time as their husbands doing housework and three
times as much time on childcare.
“You feel guilty and you end up rushing a lot
with too much to do,” speculates Brock. “It seems
to be different for guys. Guys seem to shut it off...
they aren’t thinking about whether or not there are
groceries in the fridge.”
Too often, farm women are unable to work to their
full potential, says farm family coach Elaine Froese of
Boissevan, Man. As someone who works closely with
farm families, she has seen daughters overlooked as
potential successors solely because of their gender. She
has also seen cases where women are actively involved
in farm operations but their opinions aren’t valued, and
she has seen daughters-in-law who have no voice except
through their husbands.
Resources
The Canadian Agricultural Human Resources
Council (CAHRC), a national non-profit organization
focused on addressing human resource issues facing
agricultural businesses, has initiated a three-year pro­
ject to support women reaching higher executive roles
in agriculture.
Currently in its first year, the project team is doing
background and secondary research, but this fall and
winter will conduct surveys and focus groups.
Then the project will develop tools to support leadership development and create opportunities for women
to network, primarily through social media, togther with
cloud-based options for sharing and collaboration.
60 country-guide.ca Age and gender also come into play. As a woman,
Brock wonders if she had to work harder than a
man to prove herself when she first began farming
a dozen years ago. Whether it was because of age or
gender, it’s hard to say, she says. “I’m more confident
now, more comfortable with decision-making.”
A lack of confidence can hold women back,
agrees Meck, who says this is one of the benefits of
attending conferences geared to women. “By listening and learning they’ll gain confidence,” she says.
Christie agrees. “Sometimes the barriers are our own
internal limits about what we can achieve,” she says.
“By networking you realize others have doubts, worries and guilt, even though they seem very much in
control on the outside. This boosts confidence.”
Some companies are making it easier for women to
network and find mentors by holding internal meetings. For example, Christie says John Deere holds
women’s forums where participants are able to discuss leadership development and barriers. Not only
are these forums helpful to women, but Christie says
about a third of the attendees are men who have said
they had no idea that some of these issues existed.
“Talking brings the issues to light,” says Christie.
On the farm, that can mean a need for unique solutions. For example, Brock uses Twitter and Facebook to
connect with other women farmers. “Sometimes it’s just
nice to have someone to commiserate with… someone
to vent to who is not your husband.” CG
Project manager, Debra Hauer, says that since
the project was announced in April, it has received
more interest than any other project they’ve ever been
involved in. “Many women have come forward offering
to help in some way,” says Hauer. There are opportunities for women to get involved in working groups.
If you are interested, contact Debra Hauer at hauer@
cahrc-ccrha.ca.
Ag Women’s Network Facebook group https://www.
facebook.com/groups/490235661074691/.
Advancing Women in Agriculture Conference East
in Toronto October 5-6, 2015. http://www.advancing
womenconference.ca/2015east/index.html. The conference is open to both women and men, says organizer Iris Meck.
september 2015
LIVESTOCK ENTRY
DEADLINES
OCTOBER 1
Purebred Beef
Bull Pen Alley
First Lady Classic
President’s Classic
Junior Beef Extreme
Prospect Calves
Commercial Cattle
OCTOBER 15
Bison
Sheep/Goats
Horse Pulls
Chore Team Events
NOVEMBER 1
Stock Dogs
Cowboy Mounted Shooting
Youth Team Grooming
Youth Showmanship
Visit www.agribition.com
for the full schedule of events.
Entry information available at
www.agribition.com
or contact Shawna Fuchs:
P: (306) 924-9589
E: [email protected]
business
LGBT
on the farm
On these farms, diversity
is good for business
ow 33, Otis Bell admits he’s outside the mainstream of agriculture.
Growing up in Seattle, Bell next
lived in Olympia, where he got his
first taste of growing plants and gardening, and where he decided to get more directly
involved with farming.
“I think being queer made me take a step out of
some of the normal streams that people just flow
into,” says Bell. “I started to look at the world
through a critical lens, looking to really be part of a
positive movement of life that was going to sustain
us in a healthy community, in a healthy way.”
That’s why he and his Canadian partner moved
to Vancouver Island last year, where they had discovered Saanich Organics, near Victoria.
“I became a resident here and chose this area,
because it has a city I could study acupuncture in,”
said Bell. “But it also has a farm community accessible to the city. Balance of those two worlds is
important to me.”
62 country-guide.ca Saanich Organics is a collective of three women,
each of whom has their own heterosexual family.
The three run farms close together and market their
food co-operatively. They also sell for a handful of
other small enterprises, mostly run by women.
“They are very feminist,” says Bell. “Two friends
of mine who identify as transgender and gender
queer were working for them and told me what great
allies they are. They don’t just tolerate queerness.
They celebrate it and really invite it.
“It’s incredible to find common ground, a place
where I can feel truly liberated and grow strong.”
Robin Tunnicliff is one of the three women from
Saanich Organics. Her farm is located half an hour
west of Victoria, where she grows a variety of vegetables year round. Her output is distributed on the island
to stores, farmers’ markets, and directly to customers.
A few years ago, Tunnicliff recalls, she hired a
lesbian woman as farm manager. That manager then
hired from her circle of friends.
“Before we knew it, we had an almost entirely queer
workforce, which was really fun,” says Tunnicliff.
There’s something in it for both sides, Tunnicliff says.
She sees some of the struggles and issues that some of
her staff have faced, and she likens it to a sort of posttraumatic stress from having been born different from
the norm and subsequently being marginalized.
“I think the hard work and positivity that come
from nurturing plants is therapeutic to them,” says
Tunnicliff. “Farming is different. It can be a solitary
activity where you’re always on your own on land,
and it can also be an intense time pressure getting
ready for harvest.”
september 2015
Photography: AJ Photography
By Rebeca Kuropatwa
business
When Alberta farmers Kate Hook (left) and
Dawn Boileau (right) announced they had married,
the common question was, “To whom?”
Farm work can be
therapeutic for gays.
It’s the quality of
the work, not your
identity that counts.
“I’d definitely hire them over a
straight farmhand,” Tunnicliff
says. “For them to get where
they are has taken a lot.”
But she also sees benefits for the farm. “Farming
and distribution are tough nuts to crack. It costs a lot
of money to grow food well,” Tunnicliff says. “I really
welcome new subsets into agriculture. Queer thinking
is different. It comes from a creative side. Queers are
different in the way that they approach problems.”
“We definitely benefited from having a queer
staff,” Tunnicliff adds. “I’ve seen them marketing in
different ways that I hadn’t thought about, getting
food into the urban core. I don’t know that it has
to do with being queer or if it’s just because they are
exceptional individuals.”
It brings a smile to Tunnicliff’s face when her
employees dress up to go to work on the farm… and
then it gives her opportunity for reflection.
“One time, one of the farmhands who was biologically female just really wanted to work with his
shirt off,” said Tunnicliff. “I hadn’t ever thought
about what a challenge that might be. We just have
a lot of experiences on the farm where it gave me a
lot of opportunity to reflect on my privilege of fitting
into the norm. It was humbling.”
Still, a lot gets accepted simply by having an
september 2015
employee who shows up to work with a positive
attitude, a willingness to work, and the dedication it
takes to get the job done.
“I think there’s room in agriculture for willing
hands, hearts, and minds,” says Tunnicliff.
“There are so few people willing to work really
hard that when these workers do appear, it really
moves the farmers,” Tunnicliff says. “That can go a
long way to having people accepted and welcomed
into a community where they haven’t been before.
“When I come across a confident, happy queer
person, I think I’d definitely hire them over a
straight farmhand, because I know that, for them to
want to work in a non-traditional career, for them
to get where they are, has taken a lot.”
But it’s also important to let LGBT employees be
themselves, she adds. “I remember when they suggested Dress Up Fridays, I worried about how very
much work we had to get done. But, it didn’t take
any more time out of their days and it added tons of
spirit to the farm atmosphere.”
Tunnicliff would be the first to agree that sometimes conversation with LGBT staff can end up in
places you may be uncomfortable with, but she has
learned it is important to “let people be free” and
know that all workplaces are equal.
“It doesn’t matter to us how you dress at the
farm as long as you can get the rows hoed and the
carrots binned,” Tunnicliff says. “That said, we
have a delivery boy right now who is a flamboyant
cross-dresser.” Since he is the face of the operation,
Continued on page 64
country-guide.ca 63
business
Continued from page 63
The prairies
Tunnicliff had to create a dress code for him. But
otherwise, it’s pretty much a free-for-all, within the
spirit of getting the work done.
Near Onoway, about a half-hour northwest
of Edmonton, Dawn Boileau and her wife, Kate
Hook, built Sunrise Gardens.
It’s rural Canada, which means it isn’t exactly
the kind of place that gets automatically pictured
as gay friendly. But times are changing on the back
roads too.
“When I was talking to Kate (Hook) about
this interview, we could only think of two times
we’d ever had someone not buy our stuff because
they found out we were married to each other,”
says Boileau. “Both times, they were elderly and
religious.
“I’ve experienced a lot more issues about being
female than about being queer,” Boileau continues. “Around here, if you’re a woman, you’re the
farmer’s wife.”
Hook and Boileau work with four full-time
employees to supply vegetables in season, as well
as some out of season in cold frames and as shoots,
micro-greens, and wheatgrass year round, and they
sell their produce at the Old Strathcona Farmers’
Market year round, as well as at Booster Juice and
other sellers.
Farmers’ kids and LGBT staff
According to Tunnicliff, the farm kids have had
an easier transition time than the farmers themselves. “We just said, ‘Look, Jessica was a girl and
now is a boy, and we’re going to call him Dennis,”
said Tunnicliff. “It wasn’t an issue. There were a
couple of questions, but the kids are way better able
to accept it than adults.”
Tunnicliff believes it is good for kids to see this,
since the more LGBT individuals become empowered and accepted, the more they will be working
the land. “I think it’s good to build acceptance into
our world,” she says.
There are three kids working on Tunnicliff’s farm
who came of age right when the farm had hired the
LGBT staff. These three boys all went to the Pride
Parade and, she said, “They couldn’t be more straight.
“Good people are wonderful to have around,”
Tunnicliff says. “It doesn’t matter if they are queer
or not.”
Hook and Boileau
find more stigma
from being women
than guy. “Around
here, if you’re a
woman, you’re the
farmer’s wife.”
64 country-guide.ca september 2015
business
They also find the community to be
accepting of them as a couple, says Boileau.
Yet Boileau feels that this is partly
because the farming community itself
isn’t that tight. If you have under 1,000
acres in Alberta, you’re considered a
small farm and “you don’t really count,”
Boileau says. “We’re generally dismissed
by the farming community.”
Even at farmers’ markets, however, the
first question Boileau or her partner hear
is, “Where’s your husband?”
Just after Hook and Boileau were married and shared the news with some of
their regular customers, the question they
heard in reply was, “To whom?”
It was a question they learned to
answer very directly, with a, “To each
other,” says Boileau. “We’re very comfortable and very free with who we are.”
Besides, Boileau says, when it comes
to farming, and to treating people with
respect on the farm, it comes down to
the quality of your work. “There are a
lot more important qualities than sexual
orientation.” CG
On your farm
Across the country, labour is in short
supply. For farmers, in fact, it can be the
greatest threat to their ability to grow.
So, should you be promoting your farm
as a place for LGBTs to work?
“Farming tends to be represented so
homogenously,” says Moss Dance, an
LGBT farmer from Vancouver Island who
helped form an LGBT support group for
farmers and farm workers there called The
Rainbow Chard Collective.
“When I see images of farmers in the
media, it’s often people who are male,
and a farm family is usually a heterosexual couple with some children, often also
white,” Dance says. “Our whole thing was
to redefine the family farm… to insert food
for thought.
“In some farming communities, it’s
obvious I don’t fit,” says Dance. “But we
want other queers around the country to
know that farming is an option for them.”
mOBile
yOUR PORtaBle
eQUiPment sOURCe!!
Although Dance has never experienced
negative comments about her being LGBT,
she has definitely felt it on a subtle level.
Dance recommends that farm employers be “open to the possibility that a good
person for your farm is also queer. That is
a great start.”
Then, promote the fact that you’re
open to having an LGBT person apply
for work with you. “The best way to allow
this person to even consider you as an
employer is to list in your wanted ad that
you own a progressive farm that would
welcome diversity in its employees.
“I would think that any employer would
want to cast a wide net to catch all kinds
of diversity. I really see the value in having
people with diverse ideas, life experiences,
and backgrounds on the farm. Everybody
brings specific gifts. It’s less about attracting diverse sexualities, but more about
attracting diverse profiles.”
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©2015 Farm Business Communications
se p tember 2 0 1 5 country-guide.ca 65
business
Managing today’s diversity
How you’re prepared to
deal with diversity in your
work crew and even in
your family can help or
hurt your farm business
By Amy Petherick
f the new Canada is supposed to be a cultural mosaic rather than a melting pot, you
wouldn’t guess it by attending most agricultural trade shows. From the 2011 census, we
know that 72.5 per cent are men and 48.2 per
cent are over the age of 55. The mother tongue of
72.3 per cent is English, and 73.7 per cent identify
themselves as Christians.
It’s enough to make you think there’s nothing
diverse about agriculture. But you’d be wrong, says
Michael Bach, executive director of the Canadian
Centre for Diversity and Inclusion.
Bach makes his point by turning the concept on
its head. “Diversity,” he says, “includes straight,
white, able-bodied, middle-aged men.”
In other words, if “straight, white, able-bodied,
middle-aged” describes you, you’re just part of the
range that we accept and value within a modern
Canada.
Increasingly, farms that close themselves to
diversity will face a tougher and tougher time
finding good employees in the new Canada
He isn’t playing with semantics. “Human beings
are all different,” he wants us to know. “We’re all
diverse.”
Nor does Bach want every farmer to run right out
and hire workers because of any perceived problem
with the demographics of Canada’s farm population.
“Don’t do it because it’s the right thing to do,”
Bach says emphatically. “That’s not what gets people
out of bed in the morning!”
Bach insists there are really only two reasons
any business owner ever needs to actively strategize
for greater diversity inclusion; if their talent pool is
shrinking, or if their customer base has evolved.
66 country-guide.ca Yet that’s what is happening in many farm sectors, just as it is with the country as a whole, and
Bach says that if you are finding it difficult to find
good help, it might be time to make changes that will
attract different kinds of employees.
The first step, in Bach’s two-step process, is to
consider your own written or unwritten policies and
procedures. “You want to make sure there are no
barriers in place that are inadvertently excluding any
one group,” Bach says. “People who are engaged are
more productive, so if a person has to leave something at the door, if a woman has to ‘act like a man,’
or if a person who is Muslim can’t talk about their
faith, or an LGBT person has to stay in the closet,
then there’s no way they can be fully engaged in
their work.”
Once you’ve considered the culture your business
currently presents, address any weak areas by starting at the top and working your way down. “You’ve
got to make sure your existing people understand
why this is important.”
Bach says change is hard to implement, so a zerotolerance stance on workplace behaviours such as
making disparaging jokes need to be enforced immediately. Offensive humour makes a good example of
the seemingly innocent ways invisible minorities are
excluded in business settings.
“If you’re a woman, if you’re from a racialized
group, if you have a visible disability, you can’t necessarily hide,” Bach explains. “For some LGBT people,
the invisible minority that they are, you’re hidden in
plain sight; I could be there at an ag conference, hanging with the buddies, listening to gay jokes.” Then he
adds, “How connected can I feel at that point?”
The invisible minority experience
A 2012 Forum Research Inc. poll found that 5.3
per cent of Canadians identify as either lesbian, gay,
bisexual, or transgender. That’s one in 20.
No one really knows how many work in the agricultural industry, and Colin Druhan, the executive
director of Pride at Work Canada, tells me it’s very
common for people from the LGBT community to
not be “out” at all in their workplace.
In fact the Out Now Global LGBT2020 study, an
international report produced by a firm based in the
Netherlands, found that only 41.8 per cent of LGBT
workers are out professionally in Canada.
Not only is that bad for individuals who are primarily affected, but it isn’t good for their employers
either. “Concealing your sexual orientation at work
Continued on page 68
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Continued from page 66
can actually reduce productivity by up to
30 per cent,” Druhan says.
Druhan says his organization was
formed in 2008 primarily by people working in financial services to provide training
and education for businesses, as well as
networking opportunities for employees of
partnering companies. Currently none of
the 56 member companies are agricultural
or even rural. But Druhan says they do still
reach out into rural communities across
the country, just through partners that are
headquartered in Toronto like big banks
and franchise companies.
“Larger cities tend to have broader
support systems for LGBT people in general, so you see a lot more LGBT people
who are out in the workplace,” Druhan
says. “In smaller workplaces LGBT
workers rely on allies for support.”
Druhan says “ally” is a term typically
used to describe people who don’t identify as LGBT but are supportive of LGBT
individuals. Engaging allies is particularly
“Concealing your sexual orientation at work can actually
reduce productivity by up to 30 per cent,” says Colin
Druhan, executive director of Pride at Work
important in areas where there isn’t a high
concentration of people who are out at
work because these are the places where
people may be most afraid of drawing
undue attention to themselves by participating in an employee resource group.
But Druhan believes that initiating
conversations with people who don’t
identify as LGBT can be incredibly important. “My experience in working with
people who want to learn isn’t so much
they’re not interested, they just don’t
know where to start,” he says. Many
LGBT people don’t realize that the acronyms and terms that are common to the
community can be intimidating for others. “They don’t want to do the wrong
thing or say the wrong thing,” he says.
“Sometimes that is the biggest barrier.”
Once there’s open dialogue, LGBT
allies and employers can start to get
answers to their questions about making
workplaces more inclusive.
Building an inclusive
workplace
The legal firm Norton Rose Fullbright is a partner of Pride at Work
Canada and has a national LGBTA committee. Its Calgary representative, Lucy
L’Hirondelle, also practises some labour
and employment law and occasionally
works with agribusinesses.
To become a more inclusive workplace, there are a number of things
employers may want to look into, starting with their benefits package. There’s
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68 country-guide.ca september 2015
business
no requirement for employers to provide benefits in Canada of course, but
L’Hirondelle says that if you do offer
benefits, you must offer them uniformly.
Third-party benefit providers create the
specific terms of these plans and would do
so in accordance with human rights legislation that prevents discrimination. “One
piece of advice for employers would be to
look at their plan when they’re deciding
who to use as a third-party benefit provider, to confirm that the provider allows
coverage for same-sex and common-law
spouses,” suggests L’Hirondelle. In most
if not all cases, employers would find
the terms provide very good examples of
exactly how to create gender-neutral policy
for their own business.
One written policy that employers
may especially want to consider when
hiring a diverse workforce is a dress code.
“For dress codes, the No. 1 consideration is safety,” she says. “Employers
are required to abide by occupational
health and safety legislation, and that
comes before individual style or expres-
sion, regardless of gender.” Long hair,
for example, can be addressed as a safety
hazard but employers may only require
employees to tie loose hair back or wear
a hairnet, not require specific hair lengths.
Even without safety concerns, L’Hir­
on­delle says employers are still allowed
to impose defined appearance standards,
but the application of such codes has to
be carried out in a non-discriminatory
fashion. “It has to be applied uniformly,
that’s the most important thing,” she
explains, “and that’s the pitfall employers need to be wary of.”
Once employers fail to enforce the
dress code for one individual, they begin
to flirt with discrimination. L’Hirondelle
says misunderstandings may still arise,
where the employer and employee understand “business attire” to mean two different things when it comes to skirt length
for example, but these can be amended in
the policy by adding definitions if necessary. “But it has to be for a legitimate
business purpose, not just because you
don’t like how someone dresses, not to
exclude someone,” she says. “As long
as the employee meets these rules, his or
her biological sex or gender identification
should not even come into play.”
Accommodating employee gender
identification, particularly those who are
transitioning, really demands no more
common sense than accommodating
any other personal request, L’Hirondelle
says. “I cannot point you toward a single piece of legislation that requires any
employer to provide a gender-neutral
washroom or change room, but the
law does require all employers to make
reasonable accommodations for their
employees, and they cannot discriminate against employees who make such
requests,” she says.
As long as the individual can communicate a legitimate reason for making
their request, the employer has a duty to
look into available options. But not every
request can always be reasonably accommodated, she says. “What is considered
reasonable will depend on the size and the
structure of the workplace.” CG
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country-guide.ca 69
life
Avoid overload
Of course you take pride in
how hard you work. For your
own sake, however, and for
the good of the family and
the farm, it may be time to
inject some balance
By Helen Lammers-Helps
Y
ou work hard because you know the
benefits are worth it. But are they? If
you don’t take care to recharge, says
Beverly Beuermann-King, a stress and
resiliency specialist in Little Britain,
Ont., sustained overwork can lead to reduced productivity, failed relationships, an increase in injuries,
and physical and mental illness. In case after case, as
well, it leads to burnout.
Women in particular are in danger of getting
stretched too thin, Beuermann-King says, because
when they take on expanded management roles on
the farm, they continue to do the bulk of childcare
and housework.
“There will always be more to
do,” Katz says. “But you need
to look after yourself.”
Pat Katz, a well-being strategist in Saskatoon,
reports that she finds the overloaded feeling is
becoming all too common. “The first thing I tell
people is: ‘it’s not just you,’” Katz says.
First off, Katz recommends looking at the source
of our stress. Is it the result of jobs we generate
ourselves, or is it because we’re trying to meet other
people’s expectations? To live a life in balance, it’s
necessary to look at all three levels of our lives: individual, team and work culture, she says.
For instance, at the individual level we can set
boundaries around our volunteer commitments.
“You can have a Sanity Policy that states you don’t
sit on more than two boards,” says Katz.
Beuermann-King agrees it’s important to sign up
for volunteer commitments carefully. “Choose the ones
that you enjoy, not the ones you feel obligated to do.”
70 country-guide.ca Katz also stresses the importance of practising
self-care. “There will always be more to do, but you
need to look after yourself, or you will not be thinking clearly,” she says. What does self-care look like
to you? A stroll after dinner? Time to play with your
kids? “Build it into your schedule even if it seems
impossible,” says Katz.
Beuermann-King agrees that downtime is a necessity. We need to press the “pause button” during the
day, she says. Otherwise we end up dealing non-stop
with issue after issue. Instead she recommends taking regular breaks to stretch, breathe, walk around,
relax and reflect. Be more mindful of what you’re
eating too, she adds. “Don’t just gulp it down.”
Staying connected to the higher purpose of our
actions can also reduce stress. Instead of being irritated about having to cook dinner for your family,
Katz suggests seeing it as a privilege and an act of
love for your family.
Being aware of your self-talk is helpful too, continues Katz. Avoid the tendency to jump to the worst
conclusion, she says. Change the ongoing lament,
“I’ll never get this done,” to, “I will get the important things done.”
Be intentional with your time, adds BeuermannKing. Sometimes planning to “quickly check your
email” turns into hours spent mindlessly at the computer but without much to show for it.
Turn the TV off so you can go for a walk or a
bike ride with your kids, she continues. That way
you accomplish two goals at once: spending more
time with your kids and getting some exercise.
Too often people are slaves to their technology,
says Beuermann-King who has seen parents on their
phones while on vacation at Disney World. “They’re
not really giving their attention to their kids,” she
points out. Her advice is to limit yourself to checking
email morning and night while on vacation.
Don’t let perfectionism get in the way of a fulfillSeptember 2015
life
ing life, says Beuermann-King. “That might mean
settling for a house that is less clean so you can have
more time with your kids,” she explains.
Philadelphia writer and time management expert,
Laura Vanderkam dispels the myth that women “can’t
have it all,” in her new book, I know how she does
it. She interviewed more than 100 women with young
children who were earning in excess of $100,000 per
year to gather data on their time-use patterns.
Vanderkam found that these women were working an average of 44 hours per week and were still
sleeping almost eight hours per night. This left them
70 non-working hours for other things.
To maximize time with their kids, many of the
women worked what Vanderkam dubbed “a split
shift.” These women would leave work at 5 p.m. so
they could have dinner with their kids. Then they
would work an hour or two after the kids went to
bed. They also tended to work part of the weekend, usually Saturday mornings and Sunday nights,
which also allowed them to work shorter days during the week.
In line with Beuermann-King’s recommendation,
these women were intentional with their time. For
example, they only watched four to five hours of TV
per week, restricting themselves to shows they actually
enjoyed instead of mindlessly watching for hours.
If you want to use your time more efficiently,
Vanderkam recommends logging your time for a
week or two. Once you are more aware of how you
are currently spending your time, you’ll be in a better
position to make changes.
To assess your current satisfaction with how you’re
spending your time, Beuermann-King recommends
ranking each of the 10 major life areas. These include:
1. Family
2. Friends
3. Career
4. Health (includes sleep, fitness, doctors’
appointments, meals)
5. Personal growth (schooling,
professional development)
6. Spirituality
7. Fun and relaxation
8. Romance
9. Community (volunteering)
10. Physical environment (chores)
This will allow you to focus on the areas of your
life most in need of improvement.
When the demands on our time are made by others, Katz suggests actually tackling the issue by asking, “How can we support each other on the farm
team?” She recommends having a collective conversation around priorities. “Some things may need to
go on the back burner until later,” she says.
Delegate tasks respectfully, she continues. “Don’t
assume everyone has time to take on more work. Ask
first if they will need to reset priorities.” At the same
time, she recommends not agreeing to more work until
September 2015
you’ve thought it through. Instead, it’s better to say, “I
need to think about how this fits; I’ll get back to you.”
It’s also important to ask questions before taking
on more work. Try to get an accurate estimate of
how long something will take, she says. “Especially if
you tend to be overly optimistic,” she adds.
At the broader scale, a farm organization can
create policies and a culture that supports everyone.
What kind of policies can be put in place? Flex
time? Time for elder care? Fitness? Play? What about
ensuring people take their vacation time? “It’s an
investment in health and productivity,” says Katz.
As the need for time to recharge becomes increas­ingly
apparent, some organizations are building in planned
time-outs, says Katz. This is a time to slow down, reconnect and reorganize. “If these aren’t happening naturally,” she says, “then you need to create them.” CG
RESOURCES
Bev Beuermann-King’s website,
www.worksmartlivesmart.com
Pat Katz’s website, www.pauseworks.com
Laura Vanderkam’s website, www.lauravanderkam.com
Beuermann-King’s tips
for being more efficient
around the house
1. Have a permanent place for your keys, school
bags, cellphones, etc. so you can find them easily.
2. S chedule time each day to tackle cleaning
chores instead of saving them for the “big”
cleaning day.
3. Enlist the help of other family members to do
laundry, vacuum, prepare meals, etc.
4. Develop a meal plan that rotates every 14 days.
This makes grocery shopping easy but keeps
enough variety in your menu.
5. S implify and declutter. You’ll spend less time
looking for things and feel more relaxed with an
organized space.
Around the office
1. Make use of folders and directories on your computer to save time looking for things.
2. Have a designated thinking space where you can
go to read reports or problem solve. A change of
scenery promotes creativity.
3. Limit the number of piles on your desk. You’ll
feel more in control in an organized work space.
4. Add some life to your office. A scented candle, a
framed painting, or family photos enhance your
work space and make it more enjoyable.
5. Invest in a good office chair and desk. Nothing
can tire us out faster than an uncomfortable chair.
country-guide.ca 71
w e at h e r
Sca
tte
rain red
MILDER
AND
DRIER
THAN
NORMAL
NEAR NORMAL
MILDER THAN NORMAL
**
Scattered
rain
Frost
Cool
Some
snow
**
NEAR-NORMAL TEMPERATURES
AND PRECIPITATION
ld
Mi ry
D lls
e
sp
M
Ra ild
sp in
el y
ls
COOLER THAN NORMAL
Changeable
Scattered
rain
September 13 to October 17, 2015
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Sept. 13-19: Warm to seasonable temperatures this week. Mainly sunny but with
spotty showers west and isolated thundershowers east and north.
Sept. 20-26: Generally fair with highs
often in the 20s except upper teens on the
coasts. Scattered shower activity. Patchy
frost at higher elevations.
Sept. 27-Oct. 3: Fair and seasonable apart
from a couple of cooler, showery days.
Some snow and frost at higher levels.
Blustery at times.
Oct. 4-10: Cooler nights bring frost to a
few inland localities and some snow and
frost to higher elevations. Otherwise fair,
mild with scattered rain.
Oct. 11-17: Seasonable to occasionally
mild. Fair aside from rain on two or three
occasions changing to snow in the mountains. At times windy.
ALBERTA
Sept. 13-19: Warm overall but some lows
fall to near zero on a couple of nights.
Mostly sunny and dry apart from spotty
showers or thundershowers.
Sept. 20-26: Highs often in the teens
along with a frost threat in a few localities.
A couple of warmer days bring shower or
thundershower activity.
Sept. 27-Oct. 3: Fair, mild most days but
cooler, blustery outbreaks bring periodic
rain. Frost patches in many areas on two
or three nights.
Oct. 4-10: Variable temperatures. A few
frosty nights. Fair aside from scattered
rain and gusty winds on a couple of occasions south, chance snow north.
72 country-guide.ca Oct. 11-17: Fair and milder days will
alternate with cooler, wet days. Chance of
snow in a few areas. Windy at times.
SASKATCHEWAN
Sept.13-19: Sunny and warm days dominate the week with a few passing showers
or thundershowers. Some overnight lows
fall to near zero.
Sept. 20-26: Seasonable to occasionally
warm but with a few frosty cooler, nights.
Fair apart from showers, chance thundershowers on a couple of days.
Sept. 27-Oct. 3: Temperatures vary from
the teens to sub-zero lows. Often fair but
expect rain on a couple of cooler, windy
days. Risk of snow north.
Oct. 4-10: Fair with seasonable temperatures but cooler, windy outbreaks on two
or three occasions result in some rain,
chance of snow in the north.
Oct. 11-17: Temperatures fluctuate from
mild to cool under windy conditions.
Changeable as fair skies interchange with
rain. Intermittent snow north.
MANITOBA
Sept. 13-19: Frost touches a few areas
at night with daytime highs in the teens
and at times in the 20s. Expect scattered
showers or thundershowers.
Sept. 20-26: Fair skies dominate but look
for passing rain on a couple of days this
week. Seasonable temperatures with a few
frosty nights.
Sept. 27-Oct. 3: Warm, dry weather is
interrupted by cooler, blustery and wet
conditions. Frost on a few nights. Chance
of snow north.
Oct. 4-10: Cooler air moves in on a few
windy days bringing scattered rain. Risk of
heavier rain south and wet snow north.
Oct. 11-17: Look for changeable conditions as fair, seasonable weather alternates with windy, cooler and wet weather
south, snow north.
September 13 to October 17, 2015
NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
A dominant high-level ridge is expected to
prolong the warm and relatively dry conditions in British Columbia and most of the
western Prairies. El Niño is likely to reinforce this trend and then shift the warmth
eastward into Manitoba by mid-October.
Meanwhile, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada will experience typical fall
weather with temperatures fluctuating but
running close to longtime normal values.
The long-range winter outlook from British Columbia to the Great Lakes calls for
the milder-than-usual temperatures and
lighter-than-normal precipitation often
associated with an El Niño event. Similar
weather results may spread to Eastern
Canada later in the year.
Prepared by meteorologist Larry Romaniuk
of Weatherite Services. Forecasts should
be 80 per cent accurate for your area;
expect variations by a day or two due to
changeable speed of weather systems.
September 2015
h e a lt h
Which iron is the right iron?
By Marie Berry
ou need iron in your body for your red
blood cells to have enough hemoglobin
to carry oxygen through the blood system to your cells. A reduced number
of red blood cells (i.e. erythrocytes) is
called anemia. Iron-deficient anemia is the result of
low iron levels.
Your body contains about 3.5 grams of iron, of
which 2.5 grams are in the red blood cells. A blood
test will determine your iron levels and help diagnose
iron-deficient anemia.
Incidentally, there are other types of anemia
depending upon what is causing your drop in red
blood cell numbers. Causes range from excessive
bleeding (from trauma, heavy periods, or even a
bleeding ulcer) to low levels of vitamin B12 or kidney disease.
Anywhere from nine to 13 per cent of Canadians
have iron-deficient anemia, with women being the
most commonly affected. Anemia usually develops
slowly. Paleness and tiredness are the most commonly noticed symptoms, although you may misattribute these symptoms to overwork, stress, not
eating well, lack of sleep or the like.
Weakness, dizziness, increased heart rate, and
decreased capacity for any physical activity are signs
of more severe anemia. People often overlook the
symptoms of anemia, but if they do happen to you,
don’t ignore them. Get them checked out.
Iron is the treatment choice, but there are several
formulations. Ferrous sulphate which comes in red
tablets is 20 per cent elemental iron; ferrous fumarate, which is a dark-red tablet, is 33 per cent; and
the green tablets of ferrous gluconate are 11 per cent.
Ideally, you want to take the formulation that
gives you the most elemental iron, but ferrous sulphate and ferrous fumarate can cause more stomach
irritation than ferrous gluconate. Taking the iron
with food or a meal will reduce this adverse effect.
Because iron is better absorbed in an acidic environment, drinking a glass of orange juice along with the
iron will increase both the acidity of your stomach
and the iron’s absorption.
Antacids, calcium, and even some drugs such as
the tetracylcine antibiotics can impair the absorption of iron, and it can be advisable to avoid taking
your iron within three hours before or two hours
after taking these drugs to avoid the problem. (Some
multi-vitamin and mineral-combination products
include both calcium and iron in their formulations,
which means neither mineral is being absorbed.
Choose a multiple vitamin product with either calcium or iron, not both, then take the other mineral
as a single-ingredient tablet separately from the multiple vitamin.)
If you do not want to take iron tablets, then
dietary sources of iron may be an option along with
treating any underlying cause, for example a bleeding ulcer. Meat is high in iron content and it contains
a type of iron known as heme-iron which is well
absorbed by the body. Non-heme-iron is iron found
in plant sources such as beans, green leafy vegetables,
and dried fruits such as raisins. Unfortunately, nonheme-iron is less compatible with your body and you
need two to three times as much. As well, many cereals and foods are fortified with iron.
If you do take an iron supplement, remember to
store it safely out of reach of any children because
iron is among the top 10 medications involved in
accidental childhood poisonings. The tablets themselves are brightly coloured and a child may think
they are candy.
When children are given iron, their dose needs to
be calculated based on their weight. Both drops and
liquid iron preparations are available, but the two do
not have the same concentration of elemental iron.
Before you give a child any iron supplement, it is
essential that the child needs the iron, that you have
accurately calculated the dose based on your child’s
weight, and that you have the correct concentration.
If you are not sure, ask your pharmacist to check
your numbers. You certainly do not want to add to
the accidental poisoning statistics!
Marie Berry is a lawyer/pharmacist interested in
health and education.
Manufacturers are continually updating the mechanics of their inhalers. Their goal is to improve the delivery of
the medication to your lungs, but sometimes with the variety of delivery systems, it can be confusing. Next month,
we’ll look at some of the new inhalers, because after all, you want to get the most from your inhalers.
September 2015
country-guide.ca 73
acres
By Leeann Minogue
Just get in that combine and drive
The big milestones don’t always come with brass bands
hat are you waiting for?” Jeff
asked his father. “Get in the
combine and let’s get going.
These peas aren’t going to harvest themselves.”
Dale stood with Jeff, looking up at the cab.
“You go ahead. You can make the first round
this year.”
Jeff looked surprised. “But you always combine the
first round of the first field. I’ve been standing around
waiting for you to get here for half an hour already!”
“Huh. No sense in that. It’s no big deal. You go
ahead.”
“OK Dad. If you’re sure,” Jeff said, one foot
already on the ladder. Grinning. “Can you and
Grandpa bring the truck out from the yard? Won’t
be long until I get a full hopper.”
“Of course we can,” Ed said. “We’re not a couple
of feeble-minded old men.”
“Speak for yourself, Dad,” Dale muttered to
himself.
Dale hadn’t been feeling too confident this season. While he was seeding, distracted by a broken
ankle, a ringing phone, and neighbours driving by on
the road, he’d missed a spot. Then, when Jeff realized there was a problem in that part of the field and
brought in experts to diagnose it, Dale had been too
embarrassed to tell anyone what he’d done. Finally,
Jeff had figured out the problem.
“I’m sorry,” Dale had mumbled, red faced.
“It’s OK Dad,” Jeff had told him. “It was pretty
good entertainment, actually. You should’ve seen
that hotshot agronomist coming up with crazy hightech theories.”
Jeff hadn’t lost any sleep over it, but the incident
had really thrown Dale. When it was time to get the
GPS system set up in the swather, he wasn’t sure he
had it right. “I’m going to call the dealership,” Dale
told Jeff. “We’ll just get that guy from Weyburn out
here to make sure I have it right.”
“It looks good to me, Dad,” Jeff said. “You had it
running fine last year.”
Midsummer, when Jeff was trying to decide if he
74 country-guide.ca should put on a second round of fungicide, Dale had
been left almost speechless with indecision. “Geez,
son… could go either way.”
Dale’s father, Ed, had been off in the corner of
the shop that morning, making himself an Italian
espresso in the one-cup machine his girlfriend Helen
had bought for him. When Jeff had left the shop, Ed
called Dale over to the coffee pot.
“What’s going on here? You’re acting like some
retiree who’s about to sell his place and move out
to Vancouver Island. Spend your days trying to get
palm trees to grow in your backyard.”
“They can grow palm trees out there?” Dale asked.
“You should see those yards! Helen and I could
hardly believe it when we were driving through there
in June! They can grow darn near anything… Wait,
you changed the subject! What’s going on with you
these days? You can’t set up the swather. You can’t
make a decision. Donna probably had to tell you
what shorts to put on this morning.”
“I guess… I’m just worried…”
“Everybody’s worried. All the time. That’s farming,” Ed said, with no trace of sympathy.
“I guess you’re right,” Dale had said, putting an
end to the whole conversation.
Things had gone downhill from there when Dale
had managed to gouge the corner of the shed with
the edge of the lawnmower at the end of July.
Luckily, Jeff had been off at the lake with his wife
and kids that afternoon, so he hadn’t been there to see
the damage. Dale was able to fix the shed reasonably
quickly once he found the spare tin at the back of the
shop. But his confidence had suffered a hard blow.
And now — now that it was time to get in the
combine and put the first of the 2015 crop through
the header, Dale didn’t feel up to it.
Dale and Ed stood back, watching Jeff start up
the combine and cut into the peas. Then Dale walked
into the flying dust and chaff and got down on his
knees behind the combine to look at the losses.
“Wish I could still get down on my knees like
that, and be sure I could get back up!” Ed joked.
“What’s the damage?”
september 2015
“Looks good. I think we just about have that combine
set right,” Dale said.
“Must be killing you not to be running it.”
Dale didn’t answer.
“I know why I’m not up in that combine as much as
I used to be,” Ed said. “But I don’t know what you’re
doing. You’ve been acting strange all summer.”
Dale kept running his hands through the pea stubble,
pretending to look for stray peas.
“I know you’re worried. I haven’t seen the books, but
after all that flooding, then the hail, all that disease. I
imagine pulling this crop off is pretty important,” Ed said.
“Yup,” Dale said. “But it’s not just the farm. It’s…
Well, it’s me.
“You? Is something wrong with you?”
“No. Yes. Maybe? I’ve been worried ever since I had
that miss at seeding. I’m not as sharp as I used to be.”
Ed rolled his eyes and brushed some stray pea straw off
of the shoulder of his shirt.
“Don’t act like it wasn’t a big deal. That sort of thing
shouldn’t happen. I let Jeff down… I’m… I’m getting too
old for this.”
With that Ed snorted in disgust. Then he laughed. “If
I’d quit and run off to the campground complaining I was
too old every time I made a stupid mistake around here,
you wouldn’t have seen me since 1997!”
A trace of a smile came to Dale’s lips, and he said,
“Well, there was that day you drove the combine into the
shed before you rolled the door up far enough in 1996…”
Then Ed and Dale both started laughing.
“People get older,” Ed said. “Beats the alternative.”
“Dad, I just don’t want to screw anything up. Jeff
needs to get off to the best start he can. He doesn’t need
some old man weighing him down.”
“No, but he does need an old man as part of his crew.
And someone he can get some advice from now and
then.” Then Ed pointed at himself. “Heck. The kid needs
one old man, and one really old man.”
They both laughed again, then neither one spoke for a
few seconds.
Dale finally broke the silence. “I’m not in charge here
anymore.”
“Look at it this way,” Ed said. “You always wanted to
be able to pass the place on to your son.”
“Yeah. But it’s hard.”
“Tell me about it,” Ed said. “At least your son isn’t as
big a bonehead as mine was.”
They chuckled together.
“And look at it this way,” Ed said. “You always get
more vacations when you’re not in charge.”
Dale’s cellphone rang. When he answered, they both
heard Jeff on the other end. “Are you two going to get
that truck moved out here soon? I’m going to need it!”
“Yup, be right there,” Dale said, and hung up, still
chuckling to himself.
“Let’s go,” Ed said. “Don’t want to let the boss down.”
Leeann Minogue is the editor of Grainews, a playwright
and part of a family grain farm in southeastern
Saskatchewan.
september 2015
“Not another freight train!” It is
Canada Day, July 1. My wife Jacqueline
and I are celebrating a significant wedding anniversary with a train trip from
Montreal to Saskatoon. The dome of the
observation car is filled with people fascinated by the constantly changing landscape. The train crew bring champagne
and cake for Canada Day.
Progress west is slow. The passenger train is pulled over
onto siding after siding to allow fast-moving freights to pass.
Long trains haul lumber from British Columbia, oil from
Alberta, potash from Saskatchewan and grain from Manitoba.
We started our journey west in the Isles-de-la-Madeleine
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Our tour bus took us to a cheese
factory. The owner, Jeremie Arseneau, brought a herd of 60
Canadian cows — a breed better suited to the area than Holsteins — to the islands by ferry. Canadian cows are a dairy breed
developed in French Canada and the only dairy cow breed native
to North America. They thrive in this maritime environment.
Cheese produced from their raw whole milk is delectable.
One evening we were entertained by a Madame Bolduc tribute
artist. Madame Bolduc was a popular Quebec singer and songwriter in the 1920s and ’30s. I did not think anyone, French or
English, could sing so fast! Afterwards the singer, Sylvie, told me
Madame Bolduc combined traditional folk music of Ireland with
French Canadian folk tunes. Her songs incorporated realism
and humour, with an array of ordinary folk from priests to
policemen that contributed to her enormous popularity.
We were enthralled by magnificent scenery and met many
interesting people. We ate and danced with seniors’ groups in
the middle of the afternoon. In Quebec we saw huge colonies
of birds never seen on the Prairies. We passed by a moose with
two calves in Ontario. Deer and coyotes observed the train
with curiosity on the Prairies.
When our cruise ship began plowing up the St. Lawrence, I
reflected on all those immigrants from Europe and Great Britain. This was their first sight of Canada. A long train trip by
colonist car would bring these would-be farmers to their land.
During a station stop in Winnipeg I recalled reading how the
homesteaders were accosted by merchants around the railroad terminal there. Many homesteaders had little experience of farming.
They were merchants, civil servants and school teachers led to
Western Canada by the lure of a quarter section of land for $10.
Shifty merchants made a fast buck selling tools the would-be
farmers did not need, and animals ill suited to farming.
Waiting in line to reboard, I chatted with Brian Dillon
from Riversdale, New Zealand. I told him my version of how
scoundrels fleeced the homesteaders on their way west. He
said the rascals had branch offices in New Zealand. We talked
about the smoke in the air from forest fires in the north and
the drought gripping the Prairies. Brian said his farm produces
four cuts of hay each year. He described how timing and technologies combine to get maximum growth.
Meeting new people, seeing new places and having new
experiences reinforced my conviction; we live in a wonderful
country. Waiting on railway sidings for the next freight train
to thunder by gave me time to say a prayer of thanksgiving.
Suggested Scripture: Psalm 27, Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
Rod Andrews is a retired Anglican bishop. He lives in Saskatoon.
country-guide.ca 75
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