October 2009 Archives

A northeast Saskatchewan blog reader has a lot of canola left to harvest and it's still damp. He'd like to put it into big plastic bags — you know those 10,000 bushel bags we've written about in Grainews — and wonders how long canola at 14 per cent moisture will last in these oxygen-free environments.

The farmer writes:  "We have put very tough oats and barley into grain bags before, and it has kept alright for short periods.... We are thinking that keeping the air out of the canola should work similarly to how it does with cereals, which is that it will keep it from spoiling, but we aren't real sure.

"Being able to bag (the canola) in the field would give us a small hope of getting it all done this fall if weather straightens up. If it needs to get to a bin in our mudhole of a yard, it simply won't get done."

Please email me if you have suggestions.

Feedback on my GPS guidance blog of Oct. 27

On October 27, I asked the question: In hilly land, you can have the most accurate signal at the tractor, but if your implement doesn't follow in line, what's the point of spending all that money? 

This prompted the following response from a western Saskatchewan farmer: 

It's embarrassing to feel shame when you speak out against technology. Unfortunately that is the way it is. If you don't have autosteer, you're nobody. I am a young 35-year-old farmer that believes in zero till and has a fairly up-to-date farm. I even hate the wheat board (lol). My point is, I am not backwards and yet see GPS as a giant we don't need in agriculture.

What about just good, old fashioned, steering the tractor down the field. If people farmed less land and didn't need huge drills, it is still possible. I have a 40-foot drill and I will put myself up against any GPS system up hills, down hills, along hills, and on flat ground. I can drive it straight, without overlap or misses and I can react as I need on hillsides and so on.  Famers used to have the name of being able to drive really well. Now they can't even combine if their autosteer is not working. I think it's time to step back and take a look at the huge barrel technology has put us over and remember that we can still drive. Instead of being in the back pocket of yet another huge, multinational corporation, that, once you buy their product, you need to keep coming back for upgrades for, you can be driving your tractor down the field free of charge.

I'm all for getting the best out of my land and growing the best crop I can cheaply, but that includes not spending money to do a job I can do — steering. How hard is it to hold the wheel and turn it a bit one way or the other as you go down the field? I don't feel any worse at the end of a long day. I think it would be absolutely boring, to the point of falling asleep and causing a wreck, to have my tractor driven for me.

If you want to use this in a story feel free, I just don't want my name on it. 

Gerald Pilger wrote this week to say "another chapter of the year from hell is unfolding." The Grainews writer and farmer from Ohaton, Alta., had a fraction of his normal crop due to drought. Then last week, he checked all the grain bins — just to be safe — despite the fact all the grain he harvested this fall was dry.

"I was surprised to find nearly every bin had a crust on top," he says. "One bin of barley had sprouting on the top, even though moisture of the stored barley was 13.8 per cent. And in one bin of wheat (12.4 per cent moisture) I found some rusty grain beetles."

He spent the past five days turning and treating grain. Gerald says one neighbour found the same thing with his grain. And another neighbour who recently sold grain is finding the moisture reading of grain he is delivering to the elevator is up to 1.5 percentage points higher than what he recorded at harvest time.

"I am guessing the very hot temperatures at harvest, coupled with the drought may have given false moisture readings when combining. The grain simply did not mature completely and is now sweating more than would in a normal year. The high grain storage temperatures is causing increased air convection in bins and grain we assumed would store forever, as dry as it seemed, is now at risk."

Gerald wanted to share this news as a warning to everyone. Thanks Gerald. If you have advice you'd like to share, email me.

Now, what to do about damp canola

A lot of Western Canadian farmers face a different but equally troubling scenario: combining damp canola. The Canola Council of Canada issued the following "Tips for tough or damp canola" this week. 

Here is the CCC tip sheet. It's long for a blog, but it has good information:

"In most cases harvesting the canola at higher moisture when conditions allow for effective combining is preferable to leaving crop stranded under the snow for the winter, but farmers will need to manage aggressively to prevent spoilage until the crop can be properly dried," say Canola Council of Canada (CCC) senior agronomy specialist Derwyn Hammond.

While it’s difficult to generalize advice because of different weather conditions, grain moisture contents and temperatures, aeration and drier capacities, the CCC does offer some points to consider on storage management this year.

Harvesting in cold weather

Freezing temperatures can be beneficial for late harvesting, allowing a crop that might be too wet otherwise to flow through the combine reasonably well. However, the friction as the crop is processed through the combine will usually thaw the grain (and any layer of ice on the seed), increasing the temperature and moisture of the grain going into the bin. This thawing may also create some issues with icing up sieves, so farmers are advised to monitor regularly and break up or remove the ice as necessary. An accurate assessment of the actual temperature and moisture content of the grain as it goes into storage will be essential for determining the best management strategy.

Damp versus tough canola 

Canola is considered damp when moisture content exceeds 12.5 per cent, while tough canola ranges from 10 to 12.5 per cent. While tough canola can often be stabilized and in some cases even dried down to safe storage levels through natural aeration, damp canola will require heated air drying and rigorous management until that occurs. Farmers who think cool harvest temperatures will protect your grain, remember that mould still grows in a fridge! Cool temperature may help delay issues with heating, but unless the temperature throughout the tough or damp stored canola can be maintained at well below freezing it will spoil eventually.

Regularly moving damp canola back and forth between storage facilities is critical for avoiding spoilage, and may be required even if aeration is available. Physical movement every 2-3 days may be necessary depending on the level of moisture and temperature of the bulk seed mass. Monitoring continuously is one of the Best Management Practices (BMP) for managing high moisture canola in storage.

When managing damp canola, farmers should consider the following:

• —Use heated air drying to condition the canola as soon as possible. Continuous flow or re-circulating batch drying systems will be preferable, as they reduce the potential for seed damage from heating and allow for slightly higher drying temperatures. However, for very damp canola farmers likely will need to run the grain through twice at a lower temperature to prevent seed damage and reduce the risk of fires. They should also over dry the grain slightly to allow a rebound in moisture as the grain cools when it is moved into storage. A general rule of thumb is to over dry the grain by 0.1% for every point it is dried. If using driers with screens, farmers should make sure the screen size is small enough to hold canola, as many driers may have screens originally intended for corn or cereals.
• —Watch drying temperatures. If the canola is mixed during drying, research suggests tough canola can be dried at temperatures as high as 82 degrees Celsius, although the maximum safe drying temperature varies depending on the system. However, it is much easier to "cook" your canola in a heated air drying system as the moisture content increases. Generally the maximum temperature should be lowered by at least 11 degrees Celsius when working with damp canola as opposed to tough. If the canola is to be used for seed, maximum temperatures are substantially lower at around 49 degrees for tough canola and 43 degrees for damp. Check the links below for more details.
• —If you can’t dry the canola right away, aerate it continuously if at all possible. The goal with aeration at this time of year is to keep the temperature of the grain as cool as possible. Natural air drying will likely not be effective under these late fall conditions, as relative humidity of 70% or less is needed to achieve equilibrium moisture content of 8 to 9%. Reaching those dry equilibrium moisture levels will likely take too long to avoid spoilage in many cases.
• —Can your fan move enough air? The high bulk density of canola creates a great deal of static pressure, and this is aggravated by higher moisture contents. Air needs to flow continually to move the heat and moisture out the top of the bin, replacing it with cooler air from the outside. Insufficient air flow can result in creation of a high moisture zone near the top of the bin that can initiate spoilage. 
• —Bin style matters. The greater the depth of canola in the bin the higher the static pressure, and the more fan capacity you will need to move air through it effectively. From that standpoint, large diameter bins that provide uniform air flow through a perforated floor may have an advantage when handling damp grain. If you suspect the air flow is insufficient, consider removing some canola to reduce the depth and disrupt any high moisture areas that are developing. Proper ventilation at the top of the bin to allow for escape of the warm moist air is also very important, especially for large bins.
• —Considering adding heat to your natural air system? Keep in mind that it is generally recommended to limit the increase in air temperature to 10 degrees Celsius. In these late fall conditions that may be insufficient to provide significant drying, instead contributing to a higher temperature in the bin and greater potential for spoilage.
• —What about blending? If considering blending in an attempt to bring damp canola down to tough, be very careful. A poor job of mixing may simply put your drier canola at risk for spoilage.
• —The devil is in the details! The best strategy for conditioning your canola will depend to a certain extent on the weather in your area and the strengths and limitations of your storage and drying systems. The links below provide lots of additional information on the proper use of various styles of aeration and drying systems and how all of these are affected by weather conditions. You can also consult with the manufacturer of your specific system to get their input.

The final and most important point regarding storing this year’s canola crop, whether it was harvested dry, tough or damp, is to monitor it regularly! The only constant is change, and catching those changes in temperature or moisture early to avoid spoilage could mean a lot more money in the bank when that canola gets delivered!

David Cornea from Morse, Sask., raised the question about implement tracking on side slopes. He notices that his drill will drift down the hill a bit, increasing overlap and creating a problem for the next pass. In hilly land, you can have the most accurate signal at the tractor, but if your implement doesn't follow in line, what's the point of spending all that money? 

Well, you still have hands-free steering, so that's a big factor, and for the most part you are limiting overlap, which saves input costs. But David wonders about investing in a GPS receiver for his drill so his drill can tell the tractor where it is. That way, the tractor can veer off its straight path when necessary to make sure the drill is where it's supposed to be. This is called "passive guidance" and more guidance system makers are offering this feature. 

I had a conversation with guidance experts at John Deere and one of them directed me to a guidance "equation" that looks at all the components of accurate guidance. The signal is a big part, but certainly not the only part. Tractor and implement set up and condition are important. To read about the equation, click here then click on "Accuracy equation explains how AutoTrac accuracy is derived" under the Accuracy heading.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on accuracy, your experiences with precision steering systems, and what you've done to improve tracking on side slopes. Apparently discs track better on side slopes than shank systems do. If you have hilly land, would it be worth switching to disc openers for that reason alone? I doubt it, but you tell me.

The folks at the Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company phoned to let me know that they've had quite a few calls in response to Andrew DeRuyck's and Mark Sloane's column on environmental farm plans (EFPs) in the October 19 Grainews. I've posted the whole article below in case you missed it.

That's great news and kudos to Andrew and Mark for a job well done. But Alberta EFP would like you to know that it is no longer the organization running EFPs in Alberta. That duty now falls under the Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development umbrella, specifically the Growing Forward program. Call Alberta Ag toll-free at 310-FARM (3276) or visit the Growing Forward website.

Andrew and Mark's October 19 column

In the past couple of weeks we have had a rash of phone calls regarding the evolution of the next round of Environmental Farm Plan and associated best management practices (BMP) programming.  Everyone in the Right Choice community — Al Worknoplay, Boss Hog, Johnny Cash, Hans Pullteats and Ray Roundemup — have all been wondering how to best utilize the available funding under the newly announced program in Manitoba.

As similar Environmental BMP programs evolve in other provinces, the question of the best way to utilize the funding will become top of mind for many in the agriculture community. Every farm operation has different goals, which should influence which programs should be utilized to maximize benefits. Here are a few examples.

Al Worknoplay is tired. He has been harvesting for the past two months working on six hours of sleep a night. The rewarding feeling of finishing combining is quickly trumped by the daunting task of fall anhydrous season. Al would like to reduce his work load as he feels he aged 10 years this past season and his goal is to free up some time. Al doesn’t want to drop in acres, so we looked over the BMPs for options that would allow him to cover the same acres in less time and that had the highest cost share percentage. BMP categories that moved Al to one pass variable rate spring fertilizer application were very attractive to Al.

Al also mentioned he is sick of pounding kochia piles through the combine and has also elected to establish forage on some of his marginal land. This will also be cost shared and he will be able to rent the forage land to Ray Roundemup. This will eventually save Al time in repairs and increase returns on these unproductive acres.

Johnny Cash has one goal: Continue to build equity. Johnny wanted to know how to improve his balance sheet using the BMPs. We looked at purchasing assets that would depreciate the least and were the highest cost shared. Items such as fertilizer bins traditionally depreciate relatively slowly and if they are funded at 75 per cent of the cost, the impact on the balance sheet will be positive for quite a while. Johnny will be adding an asset worth $40,000 and using $10,000 cash. Johnny will add $30,000 of equity in one day!

Further consideration for Johnny is upgrading his harrows. Heavy harrows are proposed to be cost-shared 50 per cent, however they will depreciate more quickly. Johnny could purchase a $40,000 set of heavy harrows and would have to pay $20,000. The return on this investment would be lower than on the bin example.

Hans Pullteats has been delaying his decision to upgrade aging manure storage. He realizes that this will have to be done at some point to remain in industry and keep pace with existing regulations. This is an expense he has difficulty including in his budget, but with a cost share of 65 per cent, he feels this is the time to move on this project to ensure the farm will be able to continue to operate.

Ray Roundemup has decided to pack ‘em up and move ‘em out.  Ray caught his five-year-old son drinking out of the slough beside the yard, which runs into the creek. After two days of dealing with his son’s monkey butt, environmental stewardship and water quality is top of mind. Ray has decided to move his livestock confinement to a more suitable location on his home quarter and the funding share of 75 per cent will facilitate this decision.

In summary the best decision regarding these programs will be a synergy between financial and environmental reward. Each manager will have to have a clear understanding of future goals and carefully weigh options.  Take time to understand the programs and the implications they will have on your goals and ambitions.  Participation in these programs may place limitation on future land use and have implication on ownership of carbon credits just to name a few.

—Andrew DeRuyck and Mark Sloane manage two farming operations in Southern Manitoba and are partners in Right Choice Management Consulting. With over 25 years of cumulative experience, they offer support in farm management, financial management, strategic planning, and mediation services. They can be reached at andrewd@goinet.ca and sloanefarms@hotmail.com or 204-825-7392 or 204-825-8443. 

Grainews and our sister magazine Country Guide ran a contest over the past couple months asking people to tell us about their new on-farm inventions. The person who sent in the best invention, as chosen by a panel of Grainews contributors, would win a trip to Agritechnica. Duane Bartok of Esterhazy, Sask., won for his haybine reverser.

The top photo shows Duane on the right, with his wife, Cindy, and his co-inventor Ken Hudacek on the left.The bottom photo is the reverser.

        Agritechnica, the world's largest indoor farm machinery show, is held in November in Hannover, Germany. I had the pleasure of attending Agritechnica in 2007. I won't be going this year, but Grainews writer Scott Garvey will join Duane, Cindy and Ken at the show. They'll have a great time. A distinct difference between European and North American equipment shows is that at European shows, bigger companies have free beer at their booths.

More about the reverser

Duane originally built the reverser for his Model 1475 New Holland haybine. “We did it by putting an electric valve at the back end of the haybine, which reverses the flow of the oil by simply flipping a switch in the tractor. It has saved me time and money, and I no longer worry about safety of the operator because they do not have to leave the seat of the tractor,” he says.

“I have asked my New Holland dealer several times if there was any kind of reverser for my haybine, but the only reverser available is for the self propelled models," he says. He now makes kits for other pull-type models, including MacDon. See his website or call 306-745-3801 for more information.

Jim Bessel, senior agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada in Saskatoon, reminds farmers that canola harvested in September went into the bin hot and is probably still too hot in the centre for safe storage. Canola has to be dry AND cool to be safe.

Remember, the seed might not contain much water, but it’s 40 to 45 per cent oil. Several tonnes of hot canola piled in a bin exerts a lot of pressure. Pressure means more heat. You need to cool that grain down.

If you’ve got a wide squat bin, aeration is probably enough, says Bessel. But if it’s a tall narrow bin, like many of the hopper bottoms, aeration alone might not be sufficient. Compaction pressure is higher in these bins and airflow can be reduced, he says. The best bet it to take out a load or two on a cool dry fall day and put it back in the top.

For all you need to know about canola storage, Alberta agriculture has a very thorough fact sheet on line. 

Thank you to the readers who sent me emails adding to the discussion about adding water to grain. See yesterday's blog entry to see where this originated. Terry James of Vegreville, Alta., made a good point about sticking with tonnes and ignoring bushels.

"While you are correct in your assumptions about drier canola weighing less per bushel, this fact is irrelevant to the discussion. We are paid by weight whenever we sell anything. (The weight is then converted back to bushels because we like to see it that way)," he wrote.

"A 40-tonne load of canola at 10 per cent contains four tonnes (4,000 kg) of water.  A 40-tonne load of canola at six per cent moisture contains 2.4 tonnes (2,400 kg)  of water.  If canola was worth $400 per tonne and you could add that water back, you would get additional revenue of 1.6 tonnes times 400 = $640.  However you would then have a load of 41.6 tonnes. To maintain our 40-tonne load you would have to load only 38.4 tonnes of the six per cent canola.

Sticking to tonnes certainly simplifies the equation. I also got a few good cautionary emails. Here are some examples

You don't want a soupy mess

Mark Astner of Ferintosh, Alta., writes: "I guess one thing that has to be thought about when doing something like this is the chance of disaster.  Canola is an oilseed and oil and water do not mix.  Once the seed has dried down, it is very unlikely that you can get water to go back into the seed very easily. 

"I’ve never had the gull to try this myself but have heard of a few instances in central Alberta where guys have done this (added canola and water to a truck and let sit over night before delivery) and gotten to the elevator with a soupy mess in the bottom of their trailer only to be sent home with the gunk."

Lost money on lower protein

Sure, he got more bushels, but when Victor Lee of Hawarden, Sask., added water to dry wheat in 2003, he actually lost money because his protein percentage dropped. Victor writes: "We tried adding water to 1,200 bushels of wheat. We set the auger at about 30 bushels/minute and added 3.5 gal/min to wheat using a garden hose connected to a water hydrant. We went from 11.6 per cent moisture up to 13.8 per cent moisture, gaining 23 bushels through moisture increase.

"But the protein went from 14.4 per cent down to 13.7 per cent."

Victor figures he lost 23 cents a bushel because of the drop in protein, or $276 on the original 1,200 bushels. Initial payment for the extra 23 bushels was only $56.

Will your trucker take it?

Murray Puffalt of Kipling, Sask., says some truckers are terrified of adding water because of the possibility the product may stick to the inside of the trailer.  "I would probably hesitate to do it with canola. Cereals and pulses soak up water quickly enough that it really isn't very wet when it drops from the auger," he writes. "It might be asking for trouble to attempt to reach an exact moisture content. Most farmers would probably be satisfied with 1.0 per cent under maximum allowed."

Make sure your tester is accurate  

Greg Cochran of Saskatchewan advises you to make sure you know how your moisture tester compares to your elevator's tester. "It is pretty hard to argue with the value of selling water. But it is also pretty important to have a good accurate grain tester and know how it compares to your local elevator's," Greg writes. "Our local terminals pretty consistently test the exact same sample 0.5 to 1.0 per cent tougher than we get on our bi-annually calibrated tester.  For that exact reason, I think that some guys might be a little scared of it, or feel like it is dishonest, but I say until the elevators start adding premiums for over dry grain or correcting to a dry weight as they do when its tough, it's fair game."

I got an email this week from a Saskatchewan farmer who has a question: "What is the difference in the number of bushels required to make a 40-tonne semi-load of canola if the moisture level is 10, nine, eight, seven or six per cent moisture?"

The farmer asked this question to elevator agents, agrologists and fellow farmers and has received many different answers. He wants the right answer. He asked me if I could ask around. Please email me with your suggestions and comments.

          I fiddled around with this riddle a little. Here's what I came up with: Because you're paid by the tonne, I'd keep things simple and deal with tonnes. Low moisture canola will weigh less because water alone weighs 1.6 times more than canola. Take away a bushel of water (36 kg) and the bushel of canola (22.7 kg) that replaces it weighs less for the same volume. That's why lower moisture canola will be lighter per bushel. The truck will weigh light even though it's filled it to the usual level.

If the 40-tonne truck usually holds 1,760 bushels of canola (40 times 44 bushels per tonne) at 10 per cent moisture, then the same 1,760 bushels at 9 per cent moisture will weigh 39.766 tonnes. He's giving away 0.234 tonnes per load — or about $100 if canola is $400 per tonne.

         Does this make sense?

On that note...

I've got an article going into the November Grainews written by an Alberta farmer about his experience adding water — out of the garden hose — back to his grain to boost the moisture back up. He trickled water onto the grain as he augered it into the truck. He figured out exactly how much water he needed to add, then timed his hose and his auger to see how much volume each put out per minute.

By my math, if a tonne of canola is at 9 per cent moisture and you want to bring it up to 10 per cent, you would add one per cent of one tonne of water. A tonne of water is 1,000 litres (one liter of water equals one kg). One per cent of 1,000 is 10 litres. This assumes that moisture tests are based on weight, not volume.

Based on this, the farmer above would add 400 litres of water to a 40-tonne semi load for every one percentage point of moisture he'd like to boost the canola.

Am I missing anything? Together we can crack this riddle. Please email me with your suggestions and comments.

I did a feature on Scott Sigvaldason and his "Rice of the Prairies" in the October 5 Grainews. The entrepreneur from Arborg, Man., is marketing hulless oats as a rice alternative he's calling "Rice of the Prairies." He pitches the idea to the panel of entrepreneurs on CBC's Dragons Den this week — Wednesday night. Scott taped the show a few months ago, so he knows the outcome but he has sworn to secrecy. I'll be watching to see if the dragons gave him any money.

Dialogue in the Den

At the Dragons Den website, you'll also find weekly business discussions with KPMG — a sponsor — and the dragons. The podcast topic this week is the importance of a solid business plan for any new venture. You want to try something new on the farm, do up a business plan.

Some highlights of the podcast: Be realistic about what you've got and what you're going to do. "You're not going to be good at this for the first 12 to 18 months. Make sure you have the cash to see you through this period," one person on the podcast says. Pay attention to the competition your new venture will have and recognize your competitive advantage. Remember the bank has to see a return on its investment before it will give you money. Let a seasoned businessperson review your plan. 

        Read the recent Maclean's article "One colossal waste" online or in the October 12 issue. Canadians, the article says, don't pay the true cost of water, electricity or food — and as a result, we waste way too much of all three.

I've heard before that Canadians use way more energy than people in other developed countries, let alone the rest of the world. My reaction to that has been: "We need furnaces running eight months of the year to live up here." Turns out that most of us also pay electric rates that don't come close to matching the cost of production. The argument in favour of low electricity rates is that these are Crown corporations, in most provinces, and as owners, citizens deserve low rates. But if we used less, we'd have more to export. And, we wouldn't have to build more dams, more coal-generating stations, wind farms and nuclear power plants.

Pay more. Use less. Save ourselves a bundle in future infrastructure costs. That's the argument the Maclean's article makes. Makes sense to me.

On that same vein, many Canadians do not pay per volume of water consumed. Canadians who play flat monthly rates — Montrealers who pay for water through property tax and Vancouverites who pay a flat monthly fee — are the biggest water wasters. Pay for the water you use, and you'll probably use less. Again, makes sense. Any farmer who has to haul water knows the value in this statement. Come on cities, figure it out.

The argument eventually comes around to food. As farmers all know, the percentage of income Canadians spend on food is low and keeps getting lower. The Maclean's article makes the point that subsidies (in Canada, the U.S., EU and elsewhere) that encourage overproduction are what have dropped food prices relative to income. End the subsidies, production drops, prices rise. If people have to pay more for food, they might also waste less. The article mentions a new book by Tristam Stuart called "Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal," which brings to light the amount of food waste globally. About one third of all food in U.K. homes is eventually thrown away. In Toronto, the article says, the average household throws away one out of every four food purchases.

Many of the western world's — especially Canada's — environmental challenges can be greatly reduced by getting people to stop wasting so much. As for me personally, I can only finish off so many kids' meals without jeopardizing my own health. I try to ignore best before dates as much as I can — without jeopardizing my own health. And I'm prepared to pay the true cost of water and electricity. That's probably one of the cheapest ways to make a real difference for the environment. As for food and farmers and excessive production incentives, if reduced subsidies are the goal, we face an uphill battle at WTO talks — man, do we ever — but that's where the negotiation has to start.

In southwest Manitoba, my brother combined better-than-average hard red spring wheat crops but his average protein is 12 to 13 per cent, which is lower than he usually gets.

Maureen Fitzhenry, spokesperson for the Canadian Wheat Board, says average protein levels are down, except in Alberta. "Alberta's protein levels — particularly in north and north central areas — have been very good," Fitzhenry says. "I was at a farm near Killam where the guy was harvesting 15.5 per cent and there are reports from the Peace of 17 per cent." This is often the result in dry conditions when yields are lower.

The Canadian Grain Commission's average protein results for CWRS No.1 as of October 1 are 13.6 per cent for Manitoba, Alberta and Northeast B.C., and 12.7 per cent for Saskatchewan. The averages for all CWRS grades are 13.5 for Manitoba, 12.6 for Saskatchewan and 13.6 for Alberta and Northeast B.C. The overall Prairie average is 13.2 per cent for CWRS, all grades. That compares to 13.4 per cent in 2008, 14.1 per cent in 2007 and 13.4 per cent in 2006.

         Remi Gosselin, manager of corporate information services for the Grain Commission, notes that the number of samples received to date are about half of normal. He says the low protein average for Saskatchewan — at one full percentage point lower than normal — is "speculative" until more samples come in.

Why the drop?

Bruce Burnett, director of weather and market analysis with the CWB, says you'll often see an inverse relationship between yield and protein. Higher yield, lower protein, and vice versa. But he says other factors will play a role. He thinks that after good yields in 2008, a lot of nitrogen reserves in the soil were lower heading into 2009. And if growers cut their nitrogen rates, which many did, the crop runs short of nitrogen at a time when it needs nitrogen to build seed protein.

Burnett says that in eastern Manitoba, high rainfall probably leeched more nitrogen out of the soil, which further reduced nitrogen available to the crop at the time of seed protein set.

Higher premiums for high protein

Fitzhenry says high-protein from North America will be in short supply, particularly since protein levels in the Dakotas are quite low, particularly in the Red River Valley.

"There is expected to be a higher protein premium," she says. The September pool return outlook (PRO) reflects this. In September, the forecast price for top protein No.1 CWRS increased to $263 per tonne, up from $260 in the August PRO, while prices for  all other wheat grades and protein levels decreased. No.1 CWRS with 12.5 per cent protein is at $231, down $5 per tonne from August, and No.1 CWRS with 11.5 per cent protein is at $219, down $7 from August.

—Thanks to Scott Day of MAFRI for the photo.

North Dakota State University put out a call this week for producers to help with a research project to investigate the effects of variable-rate fertilization on crop yields.  John Nowatzki, NDSU agricultural machine systems specialist, leads the study.

"Increasingly, farmers are purchasing equipment capable of applying variable rates of fertilizer, but many farmers are reluctant to incorporate this practice," Nowatzki says. "It could be because there is little whole-field research available to evaluate its effectiveness. The most obvious reason to use variable-rate fertilization is to decrease input costs per unit of harvested crop."

Northern Plains crop producers are invited to participate in the program with up to four fields each. Each field will be analyzed separately, but then combined into a single database to evaluate the effectiveness of variable-rate fertilization.

I asked Nowatzki if Canadian farmers could take part. "I will certainly include Canadian farmers but I need to find a source for free satellite imagery for them," he says. "The ZoneMap site I am using for this study uses the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from Landsat imagery. I could use alternative methods to prepare the zone maps. For example, the farmers could send me previous years' yield data, a topographic map, or even they could prepare their own zones from their knowledge of the field."

If you're interested and you can provide the zone maps, you can email Nowatzki or call 701-231-8213. If you know of other variable-rate research studies that you think Grainews readers would be interested in, please email me. 

More from today's notice:

Project participants will be required to soil test each zone separately. The producer will select the crop and yield goal. To compare the crop yield between variable rate and the normal practice of applying one fertilizer rate across the entire field, random sections of each zone will have fertilizer applied based on a composite soil test from all soil samples.

Nowatzki will use the as-applied fertilizer application maps and crop yield

monitor data from a GIS computer program to analyze the data. Participant requirements include supplying the geographic field description, cropping history, planned crop and yield goal for each field; soil sampling and

testing of each zone; testing a composite soil sample; doing the variable-rate

fertilization; sharing the as-applied map; harvesting the crop with a yield

monitor; and sharing the yield data.

NDSU will prepare zone and fertilizer application maps, provide the maps to the producers in their desired digital format and analyze the data at the end of the growing season.

If you've been to Canadian Tire recently, you've probably noticed the very low cost ATVs near the front entrance or in the sporting goods area. Maybe it's just me who notices them because my kids make a beeline for them each time we go to the store. I'm that parent standing sheepishly beside the fish hook display while my kids crawl all over the things. We're the "shoppers" store clerks hate.

Anyway, I'm working on a couple ATV articles for the November Grainews. One lead I'm looking at is these Baja ATVs and whether "you get what you pay for." At $5,000 or less for the 400 cc model and quite a bit less for the 250 cc, they are half the price of any major brand. A mechanic who services them in North Battleford says he would buy one, but he says you really have to take a close look at the assembly. "They seem like not too bad quality, but they seem slapped together," he says. And parts take a long time to arrive. If you break down and you want to go hunting the next day, you're out of luck.

Do you have one of these ATVs? What do you think of it? Would you buy another? Please email me with your comments.

Karen Daynard was awarded the Canadian Nuffield Farming Scholarship for 2009, and she's researching ways to attract more people into plant breeding, food science, land resource science and animal science programs at Canadian universities.

"I'm involved with the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) at the University of Guelph and we're concerned about a drop in numbers of kids taking the core ag science programs. At the same time as numbers are dropping, we're also seeing unprecedented numbers of employers looking for grads," she writes.

It would be a good time for anyone to enter one of these fields — and not just farm kids.

For her research, she's visiting recruitment and communications people at other ag institutions to see what they're doing in terms of attracting students. So far she has visited Florida State, Texas A&M, University of California - Davis, Fresno State, California Polytechnic, Mississippi State, Royal Agricultural College and Harper Adams University (England), Scottish Agricultural College, Wageningen University (Holland) and Le Nivot (college in Brittany, France). 

"I'm also trying to hook up with people in non-traditional agricultural careers in an effort to document "cool careers,"" she says. "I've spent some time with the head animal nutritionist at Disney's Animal Kingdom who is an OAC grad, as well as a girl who is in charge of restoring the historical gardens on Alcatraz."

To follow Karen on her journeys, read her blog at www.agiscool.blogspot.com.

Karen runs KD Communications in Guelph, and has done work for many of Ontario farm associations including 4-H Ontario, the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program (AALP), Ontario’s Outstanding Young Farmers’ Program, ACC Farmers’ Financial, AgCare, the Ontario Farm Animal Council, the Agricultural Adaptation Council and Ontario Pork. She herself is an animal science graduate of OAC.

For more about Nuffield scholarships, visit the website.

Last week, I posted a few more photos from the big windstorm in southern Alberta in 2008. In that posting, I asked for weather photos from 2009. Liz Robertson, executive director with the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors, forwarded these photos, taken around Orangeville, Ontario during a big August 2009 storm. (She doesn't know who took them. If you know, please tell me.)

I have to thank Liz. She's has been a good source of leads over the years. Just recently, she suggested I take a second look at the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credit and what it offers for on-farm inventors. I have a short article on that topic on page 3 of the upcoming October 19 Grainews. Liz also responded to my Nuffield Scholar blog entry from this week, pointing me to Karen Daynard -- whom I featured in my other blog entry from today. If you're looking for farm advisors for any number of topics — tax, law, succession planning, etc. — start with the CAFA website. Let Liz know you got the lead from my blog.