March 2009 Archives

YouTube and "viral video" — videos that people email to their friends, who email it to their friends, and so on — give companies a whole new way to get the word out. Did you see the T-Mobile dance video from the London train station? Millions of people watched it on YouTube, including me. This week, Kelly Schwalbe, who does public relations work for John Deere, sent an email linking us to a YouTube video by Tractor Chaser.

I took the bait. I watched the video. These guys are trying to chase down a truck carrying a prototype of John Deere's new 8RT tracked tractor. I looks like a total set up, but maybe I'm just a cynical journalist. (How did they know the truck was coming?) I didn't get much of anything in terms of detail from the video. But Schwalbe used this opportunity to promote John Deere by way of Tractor Chasers. 

In his email, Schwalbe says, "In response to the many calls we’ve received regarding this latest John Deere development, we wanted to make sure you were aware of this information... Feel free to share this information with your staff and ag audiences you serve."

This is hardly "journalism" and I won't be reprinting this blog in Grainews. I'll wait for the official launch so I can get some details. I'm sharing this so you can see the new ways companies are trying to reach you. That, to me, is more interesting than the video itself.

AgDay TV, part of the online programming from U.S. farm mag Farm Journal, recently had a series called “Seven habits of successful farmers.” Click here to view the seven short videos for yourself. Here are the highlights I pulled from the programs.

Habit 1: Adopt new and useful technology. A big part of farming, the show says, is to research practical applications for new technology to make sure it will pay off. New technology is a good investment if it “increases efficiency” and “maintains profitability” for the operation.

Habit 2: Create and follow a business plan. The business plan includes crop marketing, financing, accumulation of land and equipment, soil testing, seed evaluation and crop protection. One farmer interviewed says his family gets together for weekly meetings to review the plan and make sure everything is happening according to plan, or adjusting the plan as necessary.

Habit 3: Set goals. With challenging but realistic goals, you are motivated to make the farm better next year. What are you trying to achieve in life and in the business setting?

Habit 4: Protect your investment for the legacy generation. Do your children want to take over? If yes, make sure they’re ready. Get them involved in management earlier in their careers. Have an exit strategy for yourself.

Habit 5: Build business relationships. Farm business has expanded outside your immediate township, but good face to face relationships still have value. Social skills are very important. Know that any deal you make has to benefit both sides of the table in order to keep the relationship strong.

Habit 6: Keep learning. Tap any sources, from the old farmer down the road to the young kid right out of university to extension services. Five tips: Listen more, ask questions, give some wisdom to get some, get peers outside your area, keep an open mind.

Habit 7: Share learned knowledge through mentorship. A person can’t help you be more successful unless you give them feedback.

We introduced Grainews readers to Brenda Campbell in the November issue. The 22-year-old from a cow-calf farm near Sundre, Alta., is in Denmark for a six-month working visit on a dairy. We asked her to send regular reports to tell us what she's doing, how farming in Europe is different from farming in Alberta, and what farming tips she learns that she'd like to try back home.

Here is her fourth installment, written March 15:

I had some great visits this month. The first two visits were with past trainees who had been working in Canada many years ago through the International Agricultural Exchange Association (IAEA.)  The exciting part was they both worked in Alberta, one in Crossfield and the other in Brooks. This made our visits so much fun as we shared similar stories and pictures of Canada.

The other visits I have had were on two different farrowing barns. One farm, owned by a relative of my host family, has 1,200 sows. (The photo is of me in one of their barns.) The second pig farm was a brand new barn that will hold 2,100 sows! I have really enjoyed seeing different farms, and meeting other Danes as everyone is very friendly and happy to show me all around their farms.

Encouraging young farmers

At our farm, my host father recently hired an inspector from the Young Farmers Association to come assess any safety risks on our farm. This is not required by law, but with many regulations in place it is very important when obtaining and renewing permits to be able to hire Danish agriculture students and foreign trainees. In Denmark, many agriculture students are looking for farms to work on as a requirement for their education. The Young Farmers Association is designed to encourage the growth of agriculture through youth. They are a resource for all youth by providing social networks and activities, apprenticeship, site safety inspections, and career and education advice. They also act a liaison between student and farmer (employer.)

Denmark also requires that anyone wishing to purchase a farm (over 30 hectares) and receive financial assistance must first complete at least four years of agriculture school (half of which is on-farm learning.) This is even the case for succession planning. All farms, even if passed through a family, have to be sold at fair market value to each generation.

I think the Danish Young Farmers Association is a fantastic group. They are completely committed to the development of youth in agriculture, which is extremely important to the future of agriculture. I believe this program could have numerous benefits in Canada as the average age of farmers is unfortunately increasing. To have such support for youth interested in agriculture could facilitate more excitement for Canadian youth and motivate more to contribute to our intriguing and dynamic industry. 

Grainews is starting a new series called “What your checkoff gets you.” We invite all producer groups that collect a checkoff to send short articles to describe one project that exemplifies checkoff dollars well spent. This is a chance to provide some good useful information to Grainews readers and for readers to see how their checkoff benefits them. We kick off the series with the following from the Western Grains Research Foundation, written by Mike Espeseth, WGRF communications manager. We've also got the Canola Council of Canada and Saskatchewan Pulse Growers lined up to provide the next two in the series. If you're part of a group (oat growers or mustard growers, for example) and you'd like to be next in line, let me know.

WGRF: Bugs don't know borders

While insect forecasting isn't a completely new concept, what is being achieved through an innovative project that is partially funded through the WGRF is adding a new dimension to the insect pest analysis that is already taking place.

Currently the entomology specialists who work within each of the Prairie provinces do not have a high level of collaboration when it comes to analyzing and forecasting pest outbreaks across provincial boundaries. That is about to change.

Owen Olfert, a research scientist with the Saskatoon Research Centre of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, leads a project called the Insect Monitoring Group. This group will bring together research conducted provincially to create a region-wide monitoring program.

As all farmers know, insect pests do not stop their destructive tendencies just because they have crossed a border. Often when a pest outbreak occurs in one area, it is eventually felt across an entire region. This project will prove to be important to the creation of risk warnings and forecasting to help farmers develop risk-reduction strategies on their farms.

WGRF collects a checkoff of 50¢ per tonne for barley (in B.C., Sask., and Man.) and 30¢ per tonne for wheat in the four western provinces. WGRF does not collect the barley check-off in Alberta.

I'm loading you up with pointers on how to do your own on-farm trials and get meaningful results. The February 9 issue of Grainews had lots of tips for doing your own on-farm trials. On page 4 of that issue, John Heard, crop fertility specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, suggested that farmers visit on-farm research websites for the Iowa Soybean Association and the University of Nebraska.

Today, I got an email from Mosaic, the fertilizer company. It was titled "Planting time tips for on-farm comparisons."

Here is the Mosaic release:

With a plethora of new crop genetics and new plant nutrition products on the market, producers often conduct on-farm comparisons to see which provides the greatest improvement in production and profitability on their own farm. To get an accurate comparison, it’s important to compare apples to apples. Keeping the experiment specific, simple and similar will help ensure the answer at harvest provides usable information.

"When a grower compares two products in on-farm trials, it's important to address the field’s spatial variability. This is usually done by replicating the trial several times across the field," says Matt Wiebers, agronomy research lead at the Mosaic Company. "A good place to start is with fields that have good crop records, including soil tests, crop rotations and any other management factors that can significantly influence yield across the field. The use of precision farming tools makes it easier to establish the test areas than in years past.

"Lay out the research with harvest in mind," says Wiebers. "The replicated strips or 'treatments' need to be wider than the harvesting equipment to accurately measure the effect of each treatment using GPS yield monitors or a weigh wagon." On-farm experiments generally compare two different products or practices, such as fertilizer, seed, fungicide or tillage. One of the most common experiments growers conduct on-farm includes splitting the planter or drill in half to compare different varieties or hybrids. Four strips of each treatment through the field are suggested to provide enough data at harvest for a statistical comparison.

"It is important to manage or eliminate as many yield-limiting variables in the comparison as possible so that the results are truly an indication of performance of the two products being compared," explains Wiebers. "For example when comparing the benefits of a new product such as MicroEssentials to a fertilizer blend containing the same analysis for phosphorus, nitrogen, sulfur and zinc, the other nutrient needs within the field must be balanced."

MicroEssentials is a phosphorus-based fertilizer which incorporates the correct ratios of critical nutrients (P, N, S and Zn) into one uniform granule. The one granule formulation ensures all nutrients are distributed uniformly and consistently so every plant has a better shot at getting the essential nutrients it needs to produce the best results.

"When conducting on-farm comparisons, be sure to control other factors which may influence yield, such as weeds and insects," Wiebers continues and gives these additional tips for harvesting an on-farm comparison.

• Throughout the season scout the field periodically and collect an aerial photo if possible. This allows post-harvest comparison to help explain unusual yield results. Crop loss due to standing water or drought can heavily influence the final yield results.

• Harvest fields containing on-farm research trials after you've spent several days harvesting other fields. This ensures the combine is fully adjusted and working well and that the yield monitor and GPS are also calibrated and operating correctly.

• Eliminate yield data from headlands, end rows and point rows where compaction or other yield-limiting effects can influence the results.

• In comparisons with corn, be aware of the location of Bt refuges, since the yield can be affected in those areas.

• If comparing treatments where fertilizer was spread with a spinner, consider that the overlap area from an adjacent pass could include the other product and exclude this area from your comparison.

• When collecting GPS yield monitor data, use only one combine to harvest the comparison area. This process simplifies the analysis of the data.

• When possible, use the raw yield monitor data from the card before it has been processed by another mapping program.

• Download the data as soon as possible after harvesting the field to ensure data isn’t lost or erased from the card.

• Work with your local agronomist, university extension, or crop input retailer to evaluate the data and complete the final product comparison.

"By following a few common-sense practices, growers can leverage their investment in precision ag technology to make valid comparisons on their own farms so they can see first-hand how a new product performs in their fields," Wiebers concludes.

The MicroEssentials family of products includes three formulations, each is appropriate for specific crop needs. It is a versatile product that works well as a starter, a direct application fertilizer or bulk blend ingredient. For more information visit www.microessentials.com or contact your local Mosaic fertilizer dealer.

Goldacres company of Australia has a new sprayer with 14,000 litres (3,700 U.S. gallons) of tank capacity. The main spray tank is divided into two 6,000-litre tanks, plus there are two 1,000-litre chemical shuttles up front.

“The sprayer mixes chemical on the go so you don’t have to have 12,000 litres of mixed chemical on board,” says Roger Richards, Goldacres engineering manager. He was speaking in a video by Graham Fuller, national farm machinery writer for The Land. Click here to see Fuller’s article and the video. Richards is at the left in the photo. This photo is from Fuller’s article.

Thanks to Glen Nicoll of the Manitoba Co-operator for sending me this article. He saw the article in Grainews about the 160-foot drill and thought I’d be interested.

How much should you get for peas sold into the feed market? Good question. That's why Pulse Canada is posting feed pea benchmark prices for Western Canada on its website. You'll find the latest benchmark in PDF format. This gives buyers and sellers a useful pricing reference. For example, the benchmark for March 2-6 says the feed pea price in central Alberta should be $205.76 per tonne based on prices for competing feed sources, including barley, wheat and corn.

“Pricing comparisons for feed peas have often been lacking in Western Canada,” says Jeff Bond, director of the Feed Pea Network for Pulse Canada. “These feed pea benchmark prices are a transparent, unbiased and reliable pricing reference for the industry.”

Mark March 25 on your calendar

Pulse Canada will host an internet-based seminar on March 25 at 1:00 p.m. CST to discuss the benchmark and the benefits to both buyers and sellers of feed peas in Western Canada.

Benchmark prices, updated weekly, will provide an unbiased estimate of the intrinsic feeding value of dry peas in Central Alberta (Red Deer and area), Central Saskatchewan (Saskatoon and area) and Southern Manitoba (Winnipeg and area). The benchmark prices are generated from a standardized least-cost feed formulation for swine, which is typical of what major hog producers in Western Canada currently use. 

Hog rations are used to determine the benchmark as most of the peas fed in Western Canada end up in swine diets. The benchmark price represents the price at which peas start to become an economically feasible feed ingredient for hog producers to include in their diets. 

My wife got a 16-page booklet called “Oat Cuisine” inserted in one of her magazines. Quaker sponsored the booklet, which includes health messages about eating oats as well as oat recipes from “Canada’s award-winning chefs.” You can get most of the health message information at quakerchallenge.ca.

Ottawa-based dietician Helene Charlebois wrote the introduction. “A staple in most homes, oats have emerged as a “super grain” with multiple health benefits,” she writes.

The next page says, “Oats can be described as whole grain nutrition therapy in helping to manage cholesterol, weight and blood sugar.” And then, after a string of health attributes, the article concludes with, “What’s more, the oats found in Quaker products are 100 per cent Canadian grown.”

Quaker is a big supporter of Canadian oat growers. It has to be. Without Canadian growers, it would have to source oats overseas. Quaker sends representatives to Prairie oat growers meetings. It has its preferred varieties, and it encourages communication at all levels, including with breeders and farmers. I think the close relationship between Prairie oat growers and one of their single biggest customers — maybe their biggest — is a shining example for all other crops.

Big farms make more money per acre than smaller farms. Terry Kastens, ag economist with Kansas State University, says the biggest third of U.S. farms, based on data from 1998 to 2007, make an extra $19 per acre over the average farm. Think about that for a minute. Not only do they have more acres, but they're making more profit on each of those acres. That's why, Kastens says, farmers continue to get bigger. The economies of size are pushing farms in that direction.

I listened to Kastens speak online in an archived presentation from the Canadian Farm Business Management Council’s Managing Excellence in Agriculture conference, which was in January. You can watch it, too. Click here. If you have trouble with the streaming video-audio feed, click "Download audio file" in the bottom right. You don't get the slides, but you can at least listen without interruption.

Kastens gives 5 reasons why big farms are more profitable

1. They have much lower costs per acre, particularly for machinery and labour.

2. They get higher yields.

3. With bigger volumes, they can negotiate higher prices.

4. They farm more intensively.

5. They are faster adopters of technology that will lower costs per acre or increase yields.