June 2008 Archives
In Regina, during the Farm Progress Show, BASF held a media seminar to teach us about the extra benefits of using Headline fungicide. BASF is collecting all sorts of evidence from farmers and researchers to show that Headline is more than just a disease control product. The active ingredient pyraclostrobin also helps the crop with improved plant growth (through nitrogen use efficiency and more photosynthesis) and greater tolerance to drought and other stresses, we were told.
Amber Shirley, senior technical service specialist with BASF in North Carolina, says there have been 5,000 documented on-farm trials of Headline in the U.S. over the past three years. And in that time, U.S. corn acres treated with Headline have gone from 7,000 in 2005 to seven million in 2007.
She says Headline will control grey leaf spot and anthracnose, the major U.S. corn diseases, but farmers will rarely spray for these diseases. Farmers are using Headline for the added “plant health” benefits, she says.
Shirley quoted a Stratus survey of U.S. farmers that says the overall corn yield benefit from a Headline application is 15 bushels per acre.
Headline is approved on a bunch of crops. The rate for corn in the U.S. is six ounces per acre (equivalent to the 160 ml per acre rate in Canada.) At that rate, Headline costs U.S. growers $20 per acre, including adjuvant and application.
Headline is registered on a long list of crops in Canada, including corn, cereals, potatoes and pulses. BASF claims an 11 per cent yield benefit for peas treated with Headline.
Applicaton tips for peas....
The media package we got included a fact sheet about Headline use on peas. Here are some tips lifted from the fact sheet:
—For optimum plant health results, apply Headline at the early flower stage.
—Use a rate of 160 ml per acre.
—Use a minimum 10 gallons of water per acre for ground application, or five gallons by air.
—Research has shown that increasing water volume to 20 gallons per acre increases coverage, which increases disease control.
—Do not apply Headline more than twice per growing season.
PMG is holding its annual AgProgress Conference July 15-16 at the Saskatoon Inn. The conference actually kicks off Monday, July 14, with a reception starting at 5 p.m. I will be there for the whole conference. I've been a few times and I always dig up a number of great article ideas to use throughout the fall and winter.
I asked Laramy Gibson to write a short promo paragraph that I can use in my blog. Here is what she wrote: "Keep pace with global changes in agriculture by attending the largest private-sector agricultural management conference in Canada. Experience an international lineup of speakers, networking opportunities and the chance to think differently about your business."
Registration is $200 for PMG members and $400 for non-members. Find registration forms and additional event information at www.agcoach.ca or call Laramy in Calgary at 403-410-7593.
The Canadian Wheat Board has a new mapping system that estimates the emergence of midge populations across Western Canada. (Click the link below to see the latest map.) Midge like warm weather and usually start to emerge after 670 growing degree days. They reach their peak for the year around 900 growing degree days. The map shows growing degree days across Western Canada, and uses a colour-coding system to show how that equates to midge emergence. Today the whole map is blue, which means no midge will have emerged anywhere.
You can use the map as a guide to know when to get out and scout. The map does not tell you how severe the outbreak will be. It just says when the population — however big it may be — is at 10 per cent emerged, 50 per cent emerged, etc.
The map is updated daily based on data from Prairie weather stations — including the CWB's on-farm WeatherBug network — and pest modelling information available from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
Midge risk…
Mike Grenier, CWB agronomist, says large areas of the dark brown and black soil zones are at risk, based on fall soil sampling for cocoons. He reports in a CWB news release that areas at highest risk include north-central and eastern Saskatchewan, north-central Alberta between Edmonton and Calgary and western Manitoba.
Two days ago, my blog topic was on the price differences between Canada and the U.S. for similar, and in some cases, identical goods. Despite the parity of our currencies, we here in Canada are paying a lot more for the exact same things. I said Canadians were within their moral rights to shop across the border if the price differences were considerable. At the end of that blog entry, I said I was looking for an actual price comparison for a basket of goods in Canada versus the U.S. Well, with the help of a government of Canada staffer in Ottawa, I've found one. Turns out Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist with BMO Nesbitt Burns, has been tracking prices on both sides of the border for a year or more. He wrote an article called "The Price is Wrong" in September 2007. He followed that up with "The Price is Still Wrong" in June.
A year ago, when the two currencies reached parity, Porter started looking at the glaring price differences. He said in September '07 that it would take a few months for the price gap to catch up with the closed currency gap, but he said it should happen. Now he says "times up!"
In fairness, he says prices did come down in response to the higher loonie, but he says they could have come down further. The bad news, he says, is that retailers probably will not adjust prices any further unless consumers demand it. "Without further pressure, this may be as good as it gets for Canadian shoppers." That puts the onus on you to remind retailers when they're prices are out of line.
I'll close with a few of Porter's price comparisons:
New vehicles (average for five mid-range models): Canada, $32,766; U.S., $27,485
New vehicles (average for eight high-end models): Canada, $67,020; U.S., $51,425
Dell laptop: Canada, $774; U.S., $699
Huggies Pullups diapers (40 count): Canada, $18.97; U.S., $14.97
Toro snow blower: Canada, $399; U.S., $299
He did not compare any specific farm equipment or input products. Click the file name below for the June edition of BMO Focus in which the full Porter feature appears.
Gerald Pilger, who farms near Camrose, Alta., and who writes regularly in Grainews, drove to the Farm Progress Show in Regina. He and his wife left home on Thursday, spent Friday at the show and Saturday with their daughter Shyla (who is in RCMP training in Regina) and returned home on Sunday. He took this photo of a sad looking canola crop. It was a common theme for the trip.
Gerald writes: "I cannot believe how late (and poor) the crops are nearly all the way to Regina. I would guess less than half of the crops have been sprayed. Many are just now at the stage for spraying. Talking to people at the show I understand it was too dry for good germination early in the spring, then too cold for good growth. Furthermore frost, especially in eastern Sask and western Manitoba, further set back crops. A BASF rep I talked to at the show says crops are a month behind. I would have estimated three weeks.
Here is a picture of a canola field taken west of Purdue, Sask. While this crop is likely one of the poorer canola stands, those plants which did grow are likely further ahead than most canola fields from Killam, Alta. east."
At least 10, maybe 15, seed drill companies are at the Farm Progress Show. I can't see how they can all survive, given the consolidation in the tractor side of the business. And especially with the cost of these things now. We were at a Seed Hawk demo today and a 50 foot drill with drill mounted liquid fertilizer tank and 400-bushel tank — and all the electronic bells and whistles — is well over $200,000. The price of steel alone has doubled in the past 12 months, which has increased the cost of a drill by 20 per cent, says Norbert Beaujot of SeedMaster. With 10 or more companies sharing a market that seems to want bigger and bigger drills, competition is steep. Companies have to make a splash to stand out at Farm Progress Show and one way is to grace their demo with a massive new tank. Morris has a 650-bushel tank. Bourgault has a 700-bushel version. And Seed Hawk's biggest is 800 bushels.
Byron Richardson farms at Coronation, Alta., and he was at the show. I asked him about the big tanks. He says the most important aspect of a drill are seed placement and packing. As for the massive tank, he says "why would you want to pull that much weight around." And he likes the idea of getting out of the tractor for a break every three hours or so. "A guy's got to get out, take a walk, and have a pee with all that coffee he's drinking." Richardson has a Flexi-Coil with a 430-bushel tank.
I will be at the Farm Progress Show in Regina on Wednesday and Thursday, but not Friday. I have a few meetings and demonstrations to attend — including with BASF, Buhler Versatile, Seed Hawk, SeedMaster and FCC — and I do want to spend some time roaming the show, but I will be at the Grainews booth for a little while on Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon. I look forward to many good chats with farmers, and I hope to see you there.
The Grainews booth is in the Credit Union EventPlex. We're in stalls 182 and 183 right near the entrance to the EventPlex. Jim Affleck, our booth manager, says "if you find the Tim Horton's, you can't miss us."
Click here for a map of Western Canada Farm Progress Show site:
http://westerncanadafarm.rampinteractive.com/UserFiles/File/farm-show-map-2008.jpg
Mary Anne Brezden from Shell Lake, Sask., phoned me asking why she received a letter from Grainews saying, "Urgent! Your subscription is about to run out." She was quite sure she had sent a cheque to renew. I asked the subscription department and turns out Mary Anne is paid up to May 2010. Heather Anderson, our circulation manager, says this happens quite often. She prepares a big batch of these letters to go out each month, and often by the time the letter gets printed and sent off, a subscriber has sent in a cheque.
If you want to see when your subscription expires, look on the label of your next Grainews. To the right of the MSER number is a date, such as "2009-01." This is the year and month when your subscription runs out. If you have questions, Heather says the circulation (i.e. subscriptions) department is more than happy to talk to you. Call them toll free at 1-800-665-0502.
Shell Lake is dry, dry, dry...
Mary Anne and I chatted a bit about the weather. She and her brother, Donald, got just enough rain on their farm this past weekend to keep the dust down, and that's about it. Otherwise they've been "bone dry," she says. I asked how far the dry belt stretched. She said it goes as far west as Lloydminster, but not too far east. Prince Albert is in good shape, she says. And not too far south. "The farm two miles south of us got half an inch the other day and we got nothing," Mary Anne says.
Robert Hall from Goodlands, Man., called last week to tell me about his sprayer set up. He was responding to my request on page 3 of the June issue of Grainews. I was looking for farmers who used a pull-type high clearance sprayer to spray later in the season when the crops are taller. Robert does just that. I happened to be in the Goodlands area this weekend, so I popped over to his farm for a visit.
Robert has a New Holland SF 216 sprayer with a 134-foot boom and he has special tall wheels on his New Holland 8760 tractor. These wheels give him 22 inches of clearance under the tractor. The sprayer wheels, which he drops from duals to singles later in the season, are 14-inches wide to match his narrow profile tractor wheels. So he can cover 134 feet and only trample 28 inches of crop with each pass.
I will have a complete article on Robert's system in the July issue of Grainews. I will also try to post a video on my blog sometime this week. I have a new camera with video capabilities, but I'm just learning how to use it.
Sylvain Charlebois and Chris Yost head the University of Regina's Research Network in Food Systems. They just completed a study comparing the food safety records of the top 17 countries in the OECD. Canada ranked fifth overall, but performed rather poorly -- 13th -- in the category of food traceability and management.
Here is what Charlebois and Yost wrote in their summary:
"In Canada, no regulation regarding mandatory traceability exists (except in Quebec with Agri-Traçabilité Québec) and initiatives across the country lack uniformity.
"Traceability systems are joined-up record keeping systems. They bring together information collected at each step of the production process: deliveries from suppliers into the business, through each of the steps which process and combine the ingredients into new intermediates and products and then deliveries out of the business to the customer. Traceability systems link this information together so that the path of a particular ingredient or batch of product can be seen. The accuracy of the records of ingredient usage, production, etc. is therefore vital to achieving robust traceability.
"As such, Canada’s capacity to track and trace is deficient compared with other European-based countries. In most of Canada, unlike Europe, traceability systems have typically developed independently, designed to serve a single purpose or organization."
The study looked at three other categories: Consumer Affairs measured how well countries were connected with their own consumers. (Canada ranked third.) Biosecurity looked at a country’s capacity to contain all relevant risks related to food safety. (Canada ranked 14th.) And Governance and Recalls looked at the effectiveness of domestic regulations and governance related to food safety. (Canada ranked fourth.)
The U.K. ranked first overall, with superior ratings in every category. Australia was fourth overall and the U.S. was seventh.
Link to the complete report: http://www.uregina.ca/news/releases/2008/may/Food%20Safety%20Report%20Abstract%20for%20web.pdf
Soybean success has been hit and miss in Western Canada, but Kevin is determined to make it work. He has grown the crop for seven seasons. This time last year, he thought his crop might be in trouble with the wet spring, but it recovered and yielded nicely. This year the season is 100 corn heat units behind last year. Kevin is posting a regular progress report on the crop on his website (click the link below) so you can follow along. This photo, taken today, is one of his soybean crops seeded May 18 into soybean stubble.
Some of his seed customers are nervous about their soybeans and some have called because the cotyledons are losing colour. Kevin tells them not to worry. "As long as you don't lose a cotyledon before the first trifoliate leaves come, the plant will be OK," he says. "Once the trifoliate leaves come, the plant doesn't need its cotyledons anymore."
Soybean seeds from Elmy's Friendly Acres Seed Farms are in fields from Prince Albert to Arborfield to Assiniboia this year. Kevin will write an article for Grainews later this year to report on how the crop did in these regions.
As a closing comment, Kevin got word this morning that Jordan Mills is offering $12.50 per bushel for soybeans picked up in the yard at Yorkton this fall. At that price, he says you only need about seven bushels per acre to break even on soybeans.
My sons and I spent part of today mucking around in a swamp near our house. We've had a bunch of rain lately, so the frogs are happy and the weeds and marsh grasses are growing fast. Earlier in the week we had been in this same area and noticed a killdeer paying close attention to us. I told the boys that she must have a nest nearby. We looked around a bit. I made a replica nest of what to look for, using pebbles for eggs and telling them to watch their feet because killdeers will plop their eggs just about anywhere. We didn't find the nest.
Today we tried again. I wanted the boys to see the nest because I had talked about how fascinating they were — four eggs perfectly arranged with their points inward, perfectly camouflaged and right on the ground. "Nest" isn't really the word. "Slight depression" maybe.
As a boy I used to find killdeer nests in the cultivated area around our garden. I couldn't believe they would choose such a stupid place. But it must work. Killdeers live all across North America, with a territory as broad as the house sparrow. Somehow enough of those eggs hatch and babies survive to keep the population going.
Today I knew we were close because mommy bird started doing her trademark wing drag and tail flare to turn our attention away from the nest. We didn't follow her, of course. We stayed right where we were with our eyes on the ground in front of our feet. Suddenly — which is the only way you find a killdeer nest — there it was in my line of vision. I called the boys over. I told them not to touch the eggs because the mother would abandon the eggs if she sensed they had been fondled. (Is this true?)
The boys fell in love with the eggs. We went back in the afternoon to check on them. Later, while Campbell and I were hunting for frogs, Liam snuck away to spend more time by the nest, alone. A few minutes later I wandered over to see what he was doing. He was lying down by the nest, crisscrossing clover stems between the eggs. "I didn't touch the eggs, Dad," he said, knowing full well what I was thinking.
That evening, while I was at a meeting, the boys took their Mom to see the nest again "Liam walked right to it," my wife said. Liam added that the mother bird had taken away the clover.
We'll certainly be back to that nest tomorrow. Maybe, by some miracle of nature, we'll get lucky and see some chicks someday.
You'll wonder why I'm telling you this. I'm telling you for two reasons. Today's hunt for the killdeer nest was one of those simple but wonderful experiences for father and sons. It made me feel like a good dad. It is one of those great "at home" fun events that Elaine Froese explains in her July column in Grainews. (I've already edited the column but you won't see it for three weeks or so.) The second reason is equally banal: The nest hunt reminded me of growing up on the farm. But in this world of gameboy and soccer practice, banality is good for the mind and spirit. The chi of four speckled eggs.
Grainews writer Gerald Pilger sent in this photo of a drift of hail in a ditch in the Rosalind area, not far from where he farms. Gerald writes: "This photo was taken near the Double Dam golf course Sunday afternoon, 16 hours after the hail and rain had fallen. I talked with one farmer on the edge of the storm and it hailed steady for 55 minutes, ranging from pea to golf ball size. All the fields in the area are completely blackened. The golf course greens are totally pitted from the hail. And the upper dam at the golf course was washed out. The night earlier a tornado touched down about 20 km east of this site. Fortunately we missed the hail and tornados and the 1.5 inches of rain we received is welcome."
Weekend rains also greatly improved the moisture situation in eastern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Our columnist Elaine Froese e-mailed to say they got an inch of rain over the weekend at their farm just north of Boissevain, Man. "Thank you God," she wrote. Winnipeg got a few inches over the past few days. Western Saskatchewan is also in good shape. Jay Peterson farms down near the U.S. border at Frontier. He says, "I would never complain about rain, however Friday through today it has drizzled slightly every morning and kept things damp not allowing us to do any in crop spraying."
Scott Garvey, Grainews freelance writer and machinery expert, went to Langbank, Sask., this week for the grand opening of Seed Hawk's expanded plant. He files this report:
June 3rd was a red-letter day for air drill manufacturer Seed Hawk. The company officially opened a $2.8 million expansion to its manufacturing facility. All of that was done with a little pomp and ceremony as the company played host to a crowd that included customers, dignitaries and media.
Among those speaking during the ceremony were Pat Beaujot (standing in the photo), company president, and Crister Stark (seated), managing director of Vaderstad, a Swedish implement manufacturer that has partnered with Seed Hawk to market the Saskatchewan-built air drills worldwide.
Saskatchewan ag minister, Bob Bjornerud, cut the ribbon to officially open the new facility, which adds 15,000 square feet to the assembly plant and 4,000 more for new offices.
Seed Hawk says the 2006 partnership with Vaderstad has resulted in a giant increase in sales, requiring the company to triple production to 300 units annually in order to keep pace with demand.
The company also has some new technology to unveil at the Farm Progress Show in Regina later this month. An air drill equipped with the new features will be on display at the show. We’ll have more on this new drill in the July issue of Grainews.
Mandel-Campbell calls Canada the "no logo nation" because Canadian companies prefer to compete on price versus competing on the value-added of a brand or marketing. "Just competing on price is a losing proposition," she says in the podcast, especially now that we're competing with so many lower cost producers on everything from beef to wheat to cars. "We offer ourselves as cheaper versions of Americans," she adds. "We're underestimating ourselves and undervaluing our product."
What is a brand? Mandel-Campbell says a brand is not just a logo and distinct product. "You can sell a commodity and still have a brand," and that brand is based on reliability, trustworthiness and quality of product.
It is "critical" to have a brand, she says, and "you don't have to be a large company to do it." So what is your brand?
Andrea Mandel-Campbell podcast
I've read The New Yorker magazine a handful of times and always enjoy it. The articles are long and extremely well-written. Me saying "I'd like to write for The New Yorker someday" — which I would — is like a hockey player saying "I'd like to play in the NHL." The difference is that writers get better and better all through their decades-long careers, so I've still got time and opportunity. Anyway...Andrew Allentuck directed me to an article in The New Yorker called "The last bite" by Bee Wilson. (Andrew writes the excellent Farm Financial Planner series for Grainews along with his regular column on bonds. He also writes for the Globe & Mail.) The Wilson article was basically a summary of four recent books on food consumption and food production and the obscenity of our western habits. I will list the books at the bottom.
The gist is that despite our amazing ability to produce enough food to feed a fast-rising population, the problem remains that people in the developed world eat too much and a billion poor people don't have enough. This is getting worse. As Chinese and Indians get richer, Wilson notes, they too will start eating too much. One of the book authors, Paul Roberts, wrote — as Wilson quotes — "that in India "obesity is now growing faster than either the government or traditional culture can respond," and the demand for gastric bypasses is soaring."
You might assume that more overeaters means ever increasing demand — and continued high prices — for the food farmers produce, but Wilson reminds us that the food crises of today stems from prices that are TOO HIGH. Farmers around the world are producing enough calories to feed everyone adequately, but it comes back to the old question of distribution. Wilson writes: "The World Bank recently announced that 33 countries are confronting food crises, as the prices of various staples have soared."
So who are your allies? The book authors look down upon modern food production techniques, but they also argue that farmers should be paid more. Then there are the organizations, such as the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, trying to find solutions — including more western aid — to help people starving because they can't afford to buy the staples they need. The message for farmers: It seems the world doesn't really like high grain prices after all.
The authors and their books:
Raj Patel, "Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System"
Taras Grescoe, "Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood"
Michael Pollan, "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto"
Paul Roberts, "The End of Food"
I just read a short article by my former Country Guide colleague Peter Gredig. Peter farms near St. Thomas, Ontario and he's also the content manager for Farms.com. His article, which I've posted below, is about grandpas and farm safety. It got me thinking...can you put an after market roll bar on old cab-less tractors? I'll look into it, but if you have done this or know of a company that offers such a product, please e-mail me at jay@fbcpublishing.com. I talked to Peter this morning to let him know I was posting his article. He said he missed a key point when he wrote the article: "If you're not wearing a seatbelt, a roll bar isn't worth jack."
Here is Peter's article:
I’ve always been somewhat reluctant to write columns or articles about farm safety. After all, accidents happen to other people and there are plenty of messages out there warning producers to be extra careful during this busy time of year. But local events highlight a trend that is very concerning, especially for those of us with a farming partner of a certain age.
Statistics show that children and farmers over the age of 65 are at greatest risk of being in a farm related accident. In my immediate neighborhood, I can think of three gentlemen in their 70’s who left the yard on a small tractor, but did not return. This scenario is disturbingly common. The tractors tend to be small, older models with no roll-over protection equipment. Often the job at hand is to cut weeds in ditches, fencerows or lanes. A lifetime of being busy and productive motivates Grampa to help keep the operation tidy and it’s great to be out on the tractor on a sunny day. But we are losing far too many Grampas to roll-overs.
I’ve attended funerals where the comment has been, “well, he went doing what he loved”, but I know that doesn’t wash with the grandchildren that miss their Grampa. And we all lose the wisdom, experience and support provided by those who farmed before us. To all the farming Grandfathers out there, please step up to a tractor with roll-over protection and don’t forget to wear the seat belt. Recognize risks and be prudent about what you take on. We appreciate and value your desire to stay involved and be part of the farm, but your wife, sons, daughters and grandchildren need you. Please be careful!!
