agripost july 25 2014

July 25, 2014 1The Agri Post

July 25, 20142 The Agri Post


By Les Kletke

The excessive moisture thisspring not only took it’s tollon seeding or lack thereof itis bringing more challenges inthe form of disease affectingcrops that were planted andin some cases the less thanexpected stand cannot handlefurther challenges. The thinstand in some crops is help-ing keep disease to a lessrampant outbreak than mighthave been the case in a densestand. Canola crops that wereplanted and had difficultyemerging from the soakedground are now facing chal-lenges from disease broughton by the high temperaturesand higher humidity.Aerial applicators report abrisk business for applicationof fungicide on good crops.The reduced acreage that wasplanted and the questionablestands have many farmerswondering about the addi-tional cost of fungicide onwhat in many cases is a lessthan average stand. Agronomist Mike Klassenat Portage thinks that it stillmakes sense to protect cropsthat have emerged and aremoving to maturity. “The stand in canola is notwhat we normally see,” saidKlassen. “But it still justifiesprotecting, perhaps evenmore so because you have tohave every available plantyield to its highest potentialjust to get an average crop.” He reserves judgement onthe club root situation sayingthat it is too early to see howmuch damage the diseasemight do even with produc-ers stepping up control mea-sures this year. “We know the disease ishere, it is just a matter of howbad it will be,” said Klassen.“We need every one to stayvigilant keeping it at bay.” He noted that many cerealcrops have received a treat-ment of fungicide in anticipa-tion of the conditions that ar-rived.

By Les Kletke

Peter Pawluk watches hiscattle graze knowing they willnot catch up to the fast grow-ing pasture. “It was a slow start and wehad them on feed a lot longerthan we would have liked,”said Pawluk. “But now thereis more than they can eat andwith the moisture we havenow it should carry thoughtill the end of August.” Pawluk knows hisMenisino area pasture couldcarry more cow calf pairs atthis time and he wishes thathe had more cattle on pasturein anticipation of the strongmarkets expected this fall. Hehas three hundred predomi-nantly Angus cow calf pairs.He considered increasing hisherd last fall, deciding againstit and there was a time inspring that he was thankful. “I looked at buying morecows last fall but the marketwasn’t right and with the win-ter we had I wasn’t sorry,” heexplained with a chuckle. “Aslate and cold as the springwas, I was feeding enoughcattle.” Pawluk pastures his cowcalf pairs on one site and heif-ers at another in easternManitoba. He has used a ro-tation grazing program formore than a decade to in-crease the efficiency of hispastures. “This year we have beenable to keep the cattle in apaddock longer than usualbecause there is so muchgrass now and that is a bo-nus,” he said. The wet condi-tions in early spring had him

Crops Challenged by Wet Conditions “Most producers include afungicide in their budget andafter the last couple of yearswith good stands and highvalue crops they want tomake sure that they get thecrop that is out there,” saidKlassen. “We are seeing, that

the stand justifies the treat-ment and producers are go-ing ahead, they have made abig investment in the crop tothis point and want to get itto harvest.” Klassen said that manyproducers faced wet fields at

seeding and wetter fields whenit was time to spray, “It justdidn’t dry up and while somechemical went on with groundrigs, many fellows were forcedto use aerial applicators forherbicides as well.”

Rancher Has Grass to Spare

After a slow start, pastures have more grass than cattle caneat. Peter Pawluk says his cows are staying in paddocks longerthan usual.

Photo by Les Kletke

keeping cattle on higherground. “We were able to keep tothe higher parts of the pas-tures and reduce the damagethey might have caused,” hesaid. “It was a tough springin the early going.” He acknowledges thathaying is behind schedulefrom where he would like itto be at the end of July butfeels his hay supply will beadequate going into fall. “We have some carry overfrom last year though not asmuch as we would like, thelong winter drew down ourstocks,” he noted. “This first

cut was late but there is goodquantity and while it might belate it looks like we are goingto get another cut and eventhough it might be less, thatwill allow us to build thestocks.” He expects a strong marketfor his calves this fall and theoverall beef market strength-ening will have him hold hiscattle numbers at the samelevel. “It would be tempting to sellsome cows,” said Pawluk. “Butat the same time with prices upyou think about buying somemore, so it will probably meanhold my own.”


by RolfPenner

PennersPoints

[email protected]

Something that slipped by me about a month ago, whenGord Mackintosh, who is a minister of the crown, righthere in Manitoba said in no uncertain terms the province’sNDP government isn’t budging on the hog barn ban mora-torium. It doesn’t matter if the Maple Leaf Foods plant inBrandon has to cut back and work share, or whatever elsethey do when idling because there isn’t enough product toprocess. The plant can process up to 108,000 pigs a week, lots

of pork chops I know, but normally would like to do at least 90,000 and can hardly reach 70,000because of producers going out of business over the last five years. No not this year because pork demand and prices are record high, but Manitoba producers can’tcash in because of this moratorium. As Doug Chorney, President of KAP told me, “It is unacceptable to have the activist’s agendadictate government policy.” However, Mackintosh takes a different route and some of it seems to veer a little off course. Recently, porcine epidemic diarrhea and other threats have presented supply challenges to thepork industry throughout North America, resulting in calls for a major increase in hog production,”said Mackintosh, the Minister of Conservation and Water Stewardship.This is absolutely not true. First off, five bad years, which I’ve noted here causing hog farmers to falllike flies resulting in supply cut backs. I’ve not seen anyone calling for a major increase in hog production, except maybe consumers whofind the current prices a little steep, but demand keeps rising. In Manitoba, where production fell by almost 50 percent, none resulting from PED virus, exceptat one farm, but not enough to create cutbacks in processing plants. I’m not sure what the ministerrefers to when he says ‘other threats’ but suffice it to say a business that can’t grow will shrink. As I said, in Manitoba it shrunk by half. Now the industry wants to rebuild to gain some lossesback and replace aging infrastructure. Not possible under the ban/moratorium because a farmer needsto increase production to payoff the investment. Secondly, bankers are leery and gun shy. “Our government remains committed to working with industry to protect jobs while stayingvigilant on water quality,” said Minister Mackintosh. “We are not prepared to weaken the Save LakeWinnipeg Act and allow unrestricted province-wide hog production in Manitoba at the expense ofthe environment.” He refused to add, or conveniently leaves out the fact that Manitoba Pork Council, KAP and otherpork industry stakeholders have spent so much time trying to help the government people figure outthe system and it isn’t complicated. Yet they keep saying we’re almost there, just a few more details and we can work out somethingthat works for us all. Then boom, Mackintosh drops the other shoe, or sledgehammer. “Any pilot project proposal coming forward from the hog industry to the province must demon-strate zero negative impact on water quality and include effective odour control measures,” he said.“The hog industry is an economic driver in Manitoba and we will continue to work with producersand processors to ensure the industry is strong and environmentally sustainable for the long term.” Absolute hog wash. I find it interesting when someone tries to suck and blow at the same time. Onone hand, they admit the hog industry is ‘an economic driver’ and on the other hand they take asledgehammer and drive it into the ground.

Unless you have been on another planet forthe past few months you have noticed the in-crease in the price of beef and yes I am aware of

the trend that beef prices rise in the beginning of summer as barbecue season begins,but this year they have taken a significant jump. I will be the second to admit that beefhas been under priced in the grocery stores for the past several years. I am second onlybecause I could not be faster than a producer. The guy who gets hit in the wallet reallyhas a story to tell. We don’t have to review the whole scenario of BSE and exchange rates and the othercatastrophes that hit the industry but as Abe Lincoln said, “He who does not learn fromhistory is doomed to repeat its mistakes.” I would like to learn from recent history in thebeef industry and use it to understand the future. This is where I have a problem. The problem is with the value added component of the business. Anyone who is oldenough to vote remembers the ‘Value Added Days’ and how the producer should getmore involved with the food chain and be closer to the consumer. There was a time thatthe rule of thumb was that processing doubled the value of the product i.e. grindingwheat to flour made it worth twice as much per pound and baking bread with flourdoubled the price again. This means it is now worth 4 times as much per pound and ifyou did something more with the bread the factor would increase to 8. When beef prices tanked, the processing value did not increase. The reasoning wasthat the work performed in the packing plants and grocery stores was still just as costly,therefore the price to the consumer did not drop as much as one would think. I under-stand the logic that the hourly wage in the packing plant and butcher shop remained thesame whether that steer brought 80 cents or a buck and a half a pound at the auction. Fast forward to this summer and the prediction that live cattle could hit $2.50 a poundby fall. Does that labour still cost the same in the packing plant or does the doublingvalue rule come into play? Somehow I have a feeling that if the price of the raw product was to go up a dollar apound the price to the consumer would see a much great increase. Yes I know, not all ofthe pounds of a live animal make it to the freezer so let’s use a factor of half for saleableproducts and keep in mind the same factor was in play at 80 cent cattle.

I can’t claim that I was the most studious fellow ineconomics class however I know that the instructortalked about prices going up and down and that themarket worked both ways, somehow this one is reallyconfusing and I can feel a pinch coming.

Regular TV viewers areprobably familiar with anA&W advertisement,where a friendly manageris handing out freesamples and pointing outthat their burgers are madewith, “100% pure beefthat’s been raised withoutany added hormones orsteroids.” Over at her ‘Ag-riculture Today’ blog, An-gela Jones has a big prob-lem with this message andrightly so. Pardon the pun,but in many respects, thead is a bunch of bull. It’s a clever bit of mar-keting. It implies thatA&W’s beef is a higherquality, healthier choice.The claim is presented de-void of context and reliesheavily on consumer igno-rance, peer pressure and atouch of guilt. Jones doesa wonderful job of dissect-ing the claims and bring-ing them into clear focus. First off, they don’t say100% Canadian beef. Sometoken production comesfrom Canada, but the com-pany imports most of itfrom places like Montana

Bogus Burgersand Australia. One of thebasic tenets of the‘sustainability’ movementinto which A&W is tryingto tap is ‘buy local’.They’re not really doingthat. Next, the blog focuses inlike a laser beam on thephrase, “Raised withoutany added.” The averageconsumer probably doesn’tunderstand this, but noone can honestly say ‘hor-mone-free’ because cowsproduce their own hor-mones. They are a naturallyoccurring part of any bo-vine.Yes, it is now common prac-tice for ranchers in Canadaand the U.S. to give theircattle a growth promotantearly on in their lives. Cer-tain people get their shortsin a knot about these‘added hormones’. Theyare the same hormones thatthe cows produce them-selves and the practice canbe considered as a sort of‘booster shot’ that im-proves the animals’ abilityto process food into muscletissue.

The hormone in questionis estrogen. It’s easy tomeasure how much of it weare in fact eating. The typeof meat A&W is promotinghas about 5 nanograms(ng) of estrogen per 500grams (g) of beef. Standardbeef grown with thedreaded added hormoneshas 7 ng per 500 g. A whole2 ng more! Doesn’t soundlike a lot does it? Well, it’sless than you think. The average human maleproduces in the neighbor-hood of 136,000 ng of thestuff every day. The aver-age woman makes 513,000ng a day. A pregnantwoman can produce20,000,000. What aboutother foods? You can find11,000 ng of estrogen in 500g of cabbage, 28,000 ng ina tablespoon of soybeanoil and 555 ng in every 500grams of eggs. Here’s the real kicker. Youcan get 300,000 ng in 500 g

of white bread. Think aboutthat. You receive way moreof the hormone that’s sup-posed to scare you fromthe bun that you’re eatingthan you do from the ac-tual meat. And, interest-ingly enough, no one istalking about that. Go fig-ure. It should also be pointedout that A&W talks abouthormones and steroids asif they are two separatethings from which theysupposedly protect theircustomers. They’re not.The terms are redundant;both refer to the same es-trogen. Again, most con-sumers don’t know this,which is exactly what thefast-food chain counts on. One also needs to pointout the big picture in all ofthis, and Jones does. Ifranchers stopped usinggrowth promotants in beefproduction, we would need12% more cattle, 10% moreland, 11% more feed, 4%more water and 7% morefuel and fertilizers to pro-duce the same amount ofbeef that they do today. Theadvocates of sustainabilitycertainly shouldn’t wantthat.

When one takes a hardlook at these claims, theyappear less clever, butrather cynical and cheap. Ifcustomers actually knewthe extent of the game be-ing played against them,their trust in A&W woulddrop dramatically. Obvi-ously that’s a risk the chainis willing to take. In Joneswords, “They don’t carewhat long-term effect theyhave on our food produc-tion or public perception ofagriculture, as long as theycan sell you a burger to-day.” Kudos to Angela Joneson her well-researchedblogpost properly sourcedwith links to all of the refer-ence material she found. It’sa shame that the main-stream media, particularlyconsumer reporters, can’tdo the basic researchneeded to inform peopleproperly about what’s re-ally going on with our foodsupply. Far too often, theyjust jump on the band-wagon rather than doingsome homework. Yet Jones,a working mother of twoyoung children and a farmwife, can do it in her sparetime. Good for her.

Value Added orRobbery?

Government Policy Keeps Thumb onEconomic Development in Manitoba


Replacement Cost is very different from Market Value. Insurance premiums and limits of coverage are notbased on the current resale value of your building. They are based on the cost to rebuild similar size and qualitywithout allowing for depreciation. Replacement cost includes new materials, today’s labour costs, debrisremoval, site accessibility, winter heating and current building codes. Market Value is based on age, size and quality of the building, condition and use, location, land value and theselling price of surrounding properties. Most comprehensive homeowner’s policies guarantee the replacement of your home if you are insured to fullreplacement cost according to industry standard rebuilding cost evaluations. This is a great benefit because ifthe cost to rebuild is higher than the limit of coverage on your policy, the insurance company will pay theseextra costs to put you back in the same situation you were prior to the loss. This means no out of pocket costsfor you. Be sure to seek advice and purchase insurance from those who understand your business! Andy Anderson is an Associate Insurance Broker specializing in General, Life and Group Benefits for Farm,Commercial/Agri-business Ph 204-746-5589, F 866 765 3351 [email protected] /rempelinsurance.com /valleyfinancial.ca.

I have recently returned from a trade mission to China, led by Gerry Ritz,Federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food. The Canadian delegation thataccompanied Minister Ritz was large. Delegates included Ministers fromManitoba and British Colombia and the Deputy Minister of Agricultureand Agri-Food Canada who was joined by her colleagues from Saskatchewanand Manitoba. In addition to Cereals Canada, the industry contingent alsoincluded representatives from barely, beef, pork, blueberries, flax and more. Trade missions like this one to China are not unique and followed closelyto recent trade missions to Korea and Japan. So why do both industry andgovernments put so much time and money into trade missions? The quick answer to that question is, “Because they work.” Agriculturaltrade is sophisticated, technical and large. The flow of billions of dollars isguided by a myriad of conflicting government policies and regulations. Face-to-face visits between Ministers, senior government officials and industryhas a way of cutting through this complexity. Despite the complicatednature of the business, success in agricultural trade often comes down toone-on-one relationships. No matter how efficient and effective moderncommunications have become, email, and social media channels like Twitterand Facebook cannot simply replace the personal touch in business rela-tionships. Federal and provincial governments deserve credit for the support givento developing agricultural markets. They also deserve kudos for directlyinvolving key industry players in market development. Governments areresponsible for setting the rules for trade and industry is responsible forsealing the deal and keeping the customer happy. These missions are a goodexample of how industry and government working together can get thewhole job done. What are some of the things we talked about when we were in China,Korea and Japan? A key focus for Cereals Canada was the Canadian qualityadvantage. Canadian farmers and industry can consistently deliver a highquality product that processes the same way every time. I remember growing up when my mom was baking bread and she wouldsay, “This batch of flour is just not right.” and the resulting bread was notquite right either. The same concept holds true for large international cus-tomers. They want their bread, noodles, or other products to be the sameevery time it comes out of the oven. The consistency of Canadian grainshelps them achieve that goal. Consistent high quality product has always been important for key Asianmarkets like Japan and is becoming more important to growing markets likeChina. As incomes grow across this region, people are demanding better andmore consistent food products. Canadian farmers, exporters and crop de-velopment companies stand ready to meet this growing demand for quality.This is what gives Canadian cereal grains their competitive advantage. Our customers also talked about another Canadian advantage – clean air,clean water and clean land. Canadian agriculture has a strong reputation fordelivering safe food. This is a reputation that cannot be bought and must beguarded by everyone in the industry. How can individual farmers protect Canada’s reputation for safe food?There are many examples and perhaps the most important is rigidly follow-ing the labels when applying pesticides and seed treatments. Do you thinkthat bit of treated seed in the back of the truck won’t do any harm? Or thosefew days of pre-harvest interval won’t make a difference? Think again.Consider the damage that could be done to Canada’s reputation if those fewseeds push a shipment over an international maximum residue limit. Be-cause testing is done at parts per trillion, those few seeds might just be thedifference between a shipment being accepted and one that is rejected. Food safety concerns and environmental reputation are growing issues ininternational markets. Canada can and is delivering on our promise to pro-vide safe, clean and reliable food. As a trading nation we must protectourselves against countries that use ‘safety’ as an excuse to block trade. Wedo this by fighting for trading rules that are based on strong science. Promoting sound scientific rules for food safety and environmentalsustainability is another key goal of trade missions. The Government ofCanada, with the strong support of industry, is leading the way internation-ally. Canada is using every opportunity to promote science based trade andhelping to build the scientific capacity of our trading partners. Again, this isan example of industry and government working closely together that ben-efits all links of the value chain – from farm gate through to our end usecustomers. Canada already has a strong reputation for high-value products in theinternational marketplace. By working together, producers, industry andgovernment can build on the Canadian brand and deliver long-term profit foreveryone involved. That is our ultimate goal. Cam Dahl is President of Cereals Canada.

Developing Markets forCanadian Farmers

Insuring forReplacement Cost

versus Market Value

By Peter Vitti

Excessive wet weather seems to be the norm on the Canadian prairies during the grazing season. Thunderstorms raceacross open ground, dump large amounts of precipitation and are periodically replaced by a few days of sunny weather.Most cowherds forced to stand on soggy ground, in puddles or in mud for much of the grazing season leads to many casesof painful and performance-damaging lameness. Therefore, producers should check their beef cattle on a routine basis duringthe summer find any lame cows or calves and treat them, immediately. Otherwise, when not being forced to stand in a puddle of water, healthy hooves of the brood cow and her calf lose one ofthe hardest parts of their body as a protective barrier against invading bacteria that cause many types of lameness. Healthy split-hooves of cattle are covered with a thick waxy hoof wall (made of keratin – a specialized protein that giveshardness to hooves), which sits upon the sole, white line (a junction between the sole and the hoof wall on the underside ofthe hoof) and heel. Inside the hoof or claw, the pedal bone sits inside the laminar corium, a blood-enriched living tissue that is along the hornwall. It is the laminar corium that produces the horny nail of the hooves. As mentioned, lameness problems start with the hooves’ constant exposure to wet pastures that causes grazing cows’hooves to eventually become very pliable and rubbery. This makes them more prone to overall excessive wear, bruising onthe underlying sole and direct physical injury such as punctures, scrapes or deep cuts to the hoof horn. It is these latterabrasions that open cattle hooves up to pathogenic invaders that cause the majority of lameness in pasture cattle. Unfortunately some of the initial stages of lameness are subtle or invisible, because we cannot see every little scrape orwound that might compromise hoof health. So we might not realize the real candidates with damaged and infected feet untilit’s too late and a swollen hoof of a particular cow is visible and painful-looking. From the road we probably will not see swollen feet hidden by lush grass unless we walk amongst the cows in the herd.What we might see is one or two of those animals favouring its hind legs, while another individual is limping away in pain.It often becomes a matter of constant vigilance and how close-up to all of the animals you are to check the herd for hoofproblems. Ironically, most of us blame a higher incidence of lameness of cattle upon footrot, which seems to be a matter of universaldebate. Natural surveys, field trials and available literature attribute between 5 – 75% of all diagnosis are valid footrotinfections! The chances are good if pasture animals suffer from actual footrot, the space between their claws (inter-digital space) isswollen and red. If any of these animals are suspected of footrot then most likely it has significantly progressed. Their clawswill be noticeably separated and the skin between the toes will be cracked and visible tissue will be dying. The classic smellof decaying flesh should also be evident. Footrot often shows up in cattle after a stretch of rainy weather, followed by a week or so of warm dry weather. The skinof the inter-digital claws starts to crack, chap and is eventually opened to infection by anaerobic (lives without oxygen)bacteria called Fusobacterium necrophorum, but also may include other invaders such as strep- and staph- organisms foundin pasture soil and manure. It should be suitably noted, footrot is a contagious disease. Pus and discharge from swollen feet will contaminate muddyground or water and other cattle can become infected within a day by walking in the same pasture with similar directphysical injuries to their hooves. Several environmental studies have proven that footrot bacteria can live up to 10 monthsin unfrozen ground or manure. Part of the frustration of producers in controlling this common disease is that the footrotorganism seems to disappear from wet or dry pastures for a few years and then may come back with a vengeance. Similar to footrot, cows and calves from wet lush pastures are also susceptible to lameness caused by toe abscesses. Theseabscesses are caused by hoof sole penetration by bacteria in the toe area under the hoof wall. A mitigating factor includeswhen a hoof is soft and easily worn down to the sensitive tissues, especially in the outside front toe of the claw. Someproducers that are able to restrain cattle with toe abscesses often trim the affected toe parts to allow drainage and relieve thebuild-up of pressure, which is painful to the animal. Regardless of footrot, toe abscesses, or other infectious foot problems, the general conscience of many cow-calf producersand large animal veterinarians is that antibiotic treatments can get cattle back ‘on their feet’ with a few days. Treatment ofswollen hooves is most effective when each lame animal is caught in early stages of progressive hoof damage. Rather than waiting for individual lameness to happen and then treat each case, some beef nutritionists suggest a cowherdprevention plan to infectious hoof disease by strengthening cattle’s hooves and improving their immunity by feeding ‘hoof-health building’ trace nutrients. They suggest that copper, zinc, selenium and Vitamin A should be fed in their most bio-available organic forms to all cattle for a few months ahead and during the entire pasture season. For example, a commercial loose mineral might provide 4 – 5 gm of zinc methionine per cow or calf (proven effective bydecades of university research) in order to reinforce the horn of cattle hooves and make them more injury resistant and thusclosed-off to lame-causing pathogens. Keep in mind that this is only one nutritional prevention plan and the former are well-accepted treatments that may averta high incidence of infectious lameness in some cowherds that is forecasted for the remainder of this year’s wet pastureseason. Depending on one’s pasture opportunity, it is might be best to move cattle to drier ground.

Increased Lameness Forecastedfor this Pasture Season

July 25, 20146 The Agri PostBy Harry Siemens

While the grain handling and trans-portation system, including government,grain industry and the railways have be-gun correcting the backlog of grainmovement, it is unlikely to clear up be-fore the end of 2014’s harvest. Still, grain broker Allan Johnston ofWelwyn, Saskatchewan hopes farmerswill not give up on the situation despitemany orders out of thousands of graincars booked for farmers remain unfilled. “Some of them are still waiting andthese cars are coming,” he said. “Thecontract is still in place, the buyers areexpecting to move it and their end buy-ers have it sold.” Johnson says honour the contractsbecause this will improve the transpor-tation system he hopes and that every-one is aware of it. “This producer car loading thing is avery good opportunity of not being

By Les Kletke

Hans Stern views farming as a business with a great deal of inherentrisk, so he tries to do everything he can to reduce that risk. That iswhat drove him to a mixed farm operation and that is what drives hiscrop rotation. “With a mixed operation you reduce the risk,” said Stern. “There arelots of things that can go wrong in this business, if I can spread my

risk so much the better.I will not win the lotterybut I will stay in busi-ness.” He crops 2,000acres and has a 100-cowbeef herd feeding thecalves to market weight. “Sure there are timeswhen the market isstrong and I wonderwhy I didn’t sell thecalves in the fall,” hesaid. “Or when I amfeeding steers on thecoldest days of winter,but that is the route Ihave chosen and youcan’t change from thatbecause you have onebad day.” He has increased thecrop portion of his landbase compared to whenhe first arrived as anAustrian immigrated tenyears ago. “I have built my landbase and will continueto do so but I have to

consider the risk as well,” said Stern. “Last year was a good crop andit would have been great to have more land but I will not always getcrops like that and if the market drops the returns are not as good.” He spreads his acres between cereals, oilseeds and forages. “The soybeans do well, it would be good to have had more acres,”he said. “But I can’t always count on a bumper crop and I am cau-tious.” He has grown soybeans for 4 years and continues to expandthe portion of the farm they occupy. “There has been a learning curve, I was not familiar with the crop sothere was much to learn,” said Stern. “The weed control has beengood and they seem to hand the challenges of the weather.” He would like to add corn to his operation however; he is waiting forlower the entry costs. “Corn would be a good crop for me and I wouldlike to target grain corn and could use it for a feed source if theweather is bad and the crop doesn’t mature. But, at this time, it doesn’tfit into the operation. The cost of extra machinery, spread over thesmall acreage that I have makes it prohibitive; maybe someday.”

GrainBroker

SaysBook

TransportEarly

trapped into your local elevator system andgives you another out,” he added. For farmers looking to tap into world mar-kets, Johnston believes the producer car load-ing system holds huge potential, despite thispast year’s logistics nightmare. “Get in the cue because if you wait to bookyour grain in September-October and thenyou might only get March-April loading,”said Johnson. Even with governments and farmers ‘watchdogging’ the system, there are bound to bemore problems even in an improved grainhandle situation which is one more reason toseize the day he explained.

“A farmer may rent a railcar and indirectly ship, say toVancouver and then maybe end up in China or India di-rectly,” he said. “Just a wonderful new situation now withthe demise of the monopoly of the Canadian Wheat Boardfarmers can do this thing.” Yet, the he said, the Wheat Board is still there if a farmerwants to go that way and all the more power to him. “I think this new system is far more just, far more impor-tant than our old system when locked into a monopoly,”added Johnson. Johnston’s grain began booking its first customers froma new satellite office in Calgary. The company first openedin Rocanville in 1986 and later operated from the familygarage on the farm at Welwyn, Saskatchewan which isnow the site of a recently built office and storage complex.

“Get in the cuebecause if you waitto book your grain

in September-October...”

Reducing the Riskin a Risky Business

Hans Stern tries to avoid risk on his farm. Hesays the business is risky enough even withhis efforts. He runs a mixed operation toreduce risk.

Photo by Les Kletke


By Dan Guetre

The community of Richer is once againhosting an exciting action packed rodeo asthe Richer Rodeo committee prepares foran encore event which saw them win Ro-deo of the Year in 2013. August 8, 9 and 10 is the date set for theAnnual Richer Rough Stock Rodeo. Therodeo will feature an added addition thisyear with a special Bull-nanza slated for theFriday evening featuring 40 or more bull rid-ers vying for the custom designed Champi-onship Buckles. Also, the Manitoba Cutting Horse Asso-ciation will be out competing Friday after-noon in the rodeo arena. There is no cost towatch this event. “Last year’s rodeo set a record attractingover 200 entries and we are expecting tobreak that record again this year,” says co-chair Pat Stolwyk. “We are attracting a highnumber of competitors because of the cashprizes and custom buckles available. Weknew early on, based on the tremendoussuccess we had last year, we would have towork hard to create an even better show.We know that those who come out will notbe disappointed.” With new bleachers built for spectators,added food choices, an improved “TradingPost” area, more activities for kids and theirparents, the rodeo committee is sure every-one will be impressed. “We again partnered with Heartland Ro-deo Association and 7 Cross Ranch be-cause of the professionalism of the organi-zations. The Heartland crew is a great bunchof people to work with and 7 Cross pro-vides a healthy and exciting stock for thecompetitors,” says Stolwyk. “Happy com-petitors, and exciting animals almost guar-antees a spectacular show for our guests.” While winning the coveted Rodeo of theYear title again is on the minds of many ofthe organizers, pulling off a successful ro-deo where fans leave knowing they got theirmoneys worth of entertainment is the ulti-mate goal. Last year the rodeo attracted al-most 3,000 people through the gate. Orga-nizers are expecting an even larger crowdthis year. “We are keeping the ticket prices afford-able for families,” says Stolwyk. “The Fri-day night Bull-nanza and social are only$15 for adults. Kids, with their parents, arefree! As for the Saturday and Sunday, wekept the 2013 prices. We want to gain a repu-tation of being family friendly and afford-able.” In addition to the Friday night Bull-nanzaand social and the Saturday and Sundayrodeo, the weekend includes a pancakebreakfast, family fun zone, a live Saturdaynight concert with Quinton Blair, live andDJ’ed music all weekend in the beer gar-dens, over 50 crafts and product vendors inthe Trading Post, a parade, Gymkhana,Mutton Busting, a special Sunday intermis-sion show featuring the Canadian NorthernLights Drill Team, and lots more. For more information, the RicherRoughstock Rodeo has setup a new websiteat www.richerrodeo.ca where you will find aprogram, event list, area accommodationsand more.

2014 RodeoAdds MoreExcitement

“Bull-nanza”Added


By Joan Airey

The second annualCharolais Association PenShow and Picnic was heldduring the mid-July week-end in Rivers at HTACharolais Farms owned byShawn and Tanya Airey.Many of the attendees trav-elled from Alberta,Saskatchewan and fromacross Manitoba. Some ofthe weekend participantseven travelled from as faraway as Vienna, Austria. Judges Cody andMichelle Allison ofLeveldale Hereford Farmswere able to pick the first,second and third place fin-ishers from a number of en-trants. First place winnerswon $150, Second place a$100 and third place re-ceived $50 for each classentry. Class winners alsoreceived chairs donated byfive Manitoba breeders. Charolais Female with cal-endar year heifer at footclass was won by C2Charolais, La Riviere, sec-ond place HTA CharolaisFarms, Rivers and third byFun Bus Syndicate,Brookdale. Charolais Fe-male with calendar year bullcalf at foot had HTA Charo-lais Farms taking first inclass, C2 Charolais in sec-

Charolais Pen Show Enjoyed by AllBy Les Kletke

Randy Barton knows that farming is about being in next yearcountry however; in 2014 next year’s country came too early. “We knew that we would get a lot of our land seeded beforethe deadlines came,” he said referring to seeding deadlines fromManitoba Crop Insurance. “And that is awful early to be innext year country.” For Barton, like much of southwest Manitoba, the excessmoisture comes too quickly on the heels of 2011. “We were still recovering from the flood of 2011 and now weget this, it gets pretty tough to take when you are still recover-ing from one and are hit by another flood in an area that is notused to flooding. We just don’t expect this and especially twicein 5 years,” he said. Barton farms at Melita and said that in thepast the drought was a much greater concern than flooding. “We were more concerned about conserving water than try-ing to get rid of it,” he said. “But the conditions this year withthe late spring and heavy rains made it impossible to seed.” He seed about one third of his farm and says that it does nothave the potential to give him a third of a crop. “The land we did get onto was wet and the conditions werefar from ideal, it was more a matter of trying to get someseeding done and in most cases going around low spots so it ismuch less than a third that actually got in.” The conditions of crops that were seeded suffered from theheavy rains that followed shortly after seeding, adding furtherstress on the crop that did emerge. “Then we got hit with cutworms that are not normally aproblem; but did appear this year,” Said Barton. He said thathe is left with only hope that conditions will return to long-term averages. “We can’t put in drainage to deal with the kind of rainfall wehave had this year or the previous flood year,” he added. “Therehas to be something done on a large scale, if that means control-ling the flow of water from the west or whatever; but when weget this kind of rain there is not much you can do.” He is hopeful that the province will come through with sometype of assistance program to help farmers impacted by theflood. “We have crop insurance but that doesn’t even cover costsmuch less the overhead expenses to keep us in business,” saidBarton.

Andre Steppler presents an event sponsor chair to Kris Kristjanson of FDKL Charolais in OchreRiver, Manitoba as the class winner of the Commercial Female with Charolais Influenced calf atthe annual Charolais Association Pen Show and Picnic. Judges l-r Cody Allison and MichelleAllison. Photo by Joan Airey

ond and third was HighBluff Stock Farms, Inglis. The Commercial Femalewith Charolais influenceCalf at foot class first placewinner was KrisKristjanson, Ochre River,second Darrin Pearson, Mi-ami and third T & MOlmstead, Carberry. TheCommercial Female withCharolais Influenced calf atfoot was won by HTACharolais Farms, in secondJMB Charolais, Brookdaleand in third High BluffStock Farms, Inglis.

In the Charolais FemaleBorn 2013 class first placewent to HTA CharolaisFarms, second place toBrooke Preston, Ste. RoseDu Lac and in third placeJared Preston, Ste. Rose DuLac. To add further excitementto the competition a ‘YouBe the Judge’ Jackpot Com-petition was held. With fivedollars participants couldjudge the final six heifersand if the person was ableto list the finalists in thesame order as the judges

they received half of thejack pot. The other half ofthe jackpot went to thecrowd favourite. Mel Reekie, CanadianCharolais Association,Acting Manager presentedKatie Steppler, of Miamiwith half the jackpot forchoosing the same order asthe judge and Shawn andTanya Airey had the crowdfavourite. After the Pen Show a pic-nic barbecue was hostedby HTA Charolais Farmsfor everyone in attendance.

Not This Year


By Les Kletke

Good weather was the or-der of the day as the Big MStampede entered its secondhalf century in Morris. EventPresident Tim Lewis said thatthe attendance reflected thegood weather. “Our numbers were downsomewhat over last year,” saidLewis. “But last year we hada lot of people on hand for the50th anniversary celebration,comparing it to a regular yearthe numbers were very good.” While the weather co-oper-ated for the event it did takeits toll earlier. The Black andWhite Dairy Show a long-standing tradition was can-celled just days before theevent because of the wet con-ditions in western Manitobaand eastern Saskatchewan. “It was a go until just a daybefore, so we had put all thework into getting the facilityready,” said Lewis. “But wecan understand that with theconditions in westernManitoba and Saskatchewanthe competitors would nothave been here. The show willbe back next year.” The Blackand White Show has estab-lished itself as one of the pre-mier summer shows attract-ing a number of participants

Good weather at this year’s Manitoba Stampede was a bonusto crowds and competitors with near ideal conditions in thearena.

Good Weather to Start SecondHalf of a Century

Photo by Les Kletke

because it gives them the op-portunity to show outdoors.The 51st version of the Big Mdid still have a dairy compo-nent featuring 4H competitors. Lewis noted it was not justthe current conditions thatwere a concern for competi-tors. “We know that hayinghas been a problem for manyof the dairy producers and forsome they are in the middle ofputting up their first cut, andthat has to be a priority.” High winds earlier on Fri-day caused some concern anda few tents were blown overwith no serious damage done,everything was righted forFriday’s events. Lewis explained that the de-

cision to join both the Ameri-can and Canadian Associa-tions is paying off with moreAmerican competitors choos-ing to come to Morris. “Cowboys now get pointsfor the Canadian and NFR[National Rodeo Finals] fromour event so that has helpedattract American cowboys,”he said. “We were happy withthe number and quality of con-testants. This year’s event also fea-tured Canada’s Wrestling Elitewith six bouts a day. “It’s notwestern but it is great enter-tainment and the crowdsloved it,” said Lewis with achuckle. “It is all a part of theshow.”


By Harry Siemens

Simon Ellis farms at Wawanesa and says on a scale of 10, ratestheir crops at about an 8.5. “I would say 8.5, but are surface rooted so will need moisture ina week,” said Ellis. “Our sloughs are full and the rest of the field is drying quickly.Healthy crop uses a lot of moisture.” He says the area that he rates at lower is fairly small and thatHighway 10 west seems to be the dividing line, really dependingon the field’s internal drainage. “We have a field that is very marginal,” said Ellis. “We do havespots drowned out from too much moisture, but we are in a goodarea here and crop does look good. Fifteen to 20 km and the cropsdon’t look so good. Further west the topography is a little differ-ent, more rain, the water just couldn’t get away fast enough forthe crop to survive as well.” They broadcast their canola on the field and because it is flat thefield is wet. The water doesn’t run off as well and the field endsend up with more water. As a result the crop has struggled and hethinks that more than 25 percent of the field is gone. He added, “I think the wheat, oats, and canola crops look good,but the corn and soybeans that need more heat are a little de-layed.” Ellis noted that the corn was knee high by July 1 and isnow is more like waste high.

This year’s Arabian Show begins Monday, August 11 andruns through Saturday, August 16 at the Keystone Centre inBrandon. The Canadian Nationals standsalone as the only AHA champi-onship show offering a full rangeof competition with Canadianflair. Class sessions begin at 8 am, 1pm and 7 pm respectively. Ad-mission and parking for the horseshow is free to the public. If you are interested in learning more about Arabian horses,attend the Total Arabian Interactive Learning (T.A.I.L.) toursheld on the grounds. Tours will be given Friday and Saturday,August 15 and 16 at 10 am, 2 pm and 5 pm. T.A.I.L Toursoffers an insider perspective of the Arabian breed and thehorse show. As well as the Championships themselves, spectators aretreated to incredible displays in the barns that look more likelavish living rooms, water-features and lush greenery, rightnext to their horse stalls. With over 700 horses, spectators will enjoy 196 differentclasses in youth, western, dressage, hunter and english disci-plines. For schedule of events and information visit the websitearabianhorses.org.

The third Annual Manitoba 4-H Fun Fest was held in Carmanat the Dufferin Agricultural Society grounds from July 9 - 11. Scheduled to coincide with the Carman Country Fair this year’sevent had 61 members participating. In addition to the horse,beef and dairy shows Fun Fest offered a day of competitionsolely for multi-purpose members and a series of games based onMinute to Win It, as well as a Tug Of War competition, whichproved to be very popular. Of the members who attended, 20 were dairy members, 22were equine members, 15 were beef members and four were frommulti-purpose clubs. The most coveted prize of Fun Fest was a trip to the 4-H ProShow in Nova Scotia this September. All members were invitedto submit an entry with their explanation of, ‘Why I love 4-H’.Each of the entries also went through an interview process. At the finale, Amanda McCullough, a senior member from theGraysville Beef Club was announced as the winner. Several other awards were presented during the three-day event.In the Livestock Judging Competition, the winners were Senior,Chris Jermey, Intermediate, Justin DeRuiter, Junior, TaylorCarlson and Cloverbud, Shaylee Frattinger. The High Point Win-ners in each age class for the horse category were Equine Senior,Shalen Martens, Equine Intermediate, Will Mantik, Equine Jun-ior, Alyssa Matthews and Equine Clover Bud, Jaylee Matthews. In the Beef category, the winners were Beef Senior, AmandaMcCullough, Beef Intermediate, Will Jermey and Beef Junior,Taylor Carlson. The dairy category winners were Dairy Adult, Michael Borst,

Manitoba 4-H Fun Fest Records Another Success

Dairy Senior, Melissa Hamming, Dairy Intermediate, LeviGunnink, Dairy Junior, Kelvin Hamming and Dairy Cloverbud,Ariana Borst. Supreme Showmanship winners were Cloverbud, JayleeMatthews, Junior, Kelvin Hamming, Senior, Bethan Lewis andIntermediate and Overall winner, Mikayla Frattinger. In the Tug of War contest the Gold Medal was taken by CentralManitoba Dairy Club, the Silver Medal by Archie 4-H LightHorse Club and the Bronze Medal by Elm Creek Beef Club.

Amanda McCullough a senior member from the Graysville BeefClub standing with her steer won the most coveted prize thisyear and will be travelling to Nova Scotia’s Pro Show this fall.

Arabs to Take Over Brandon

Wawanesa Farmer ... Most Crops Look Good

Simon Ellis of Wawanesa says this picture shows five different fields of wheat, canola, oats, corn and soybeans.


By Les Kletke

Las Vegas has long beenthe place of dreams morebroken than fulfilled andnow it has cowboysdreaming of a trip to thefamed city as well. TheNational Rodeo Finals hasfound a home in Las Ve-gas and getting to the fi-nals is the dream of everyrodeo cowboy. Dusty Hausauer callsDickenson, North Dakotahome; if a rodeo cowboyhas a home with theamount of travel, he doesin what has become an al-most year round sport.Hausauer was at the BigM in Morris to compete inthe Saddle Bronco compe-tition before moving on toa couple of rodeos in thesame weekend. “This is a busy time ofthe year,” he said with asmile. “There are rodeos allacross the west and it isthe time to get some pointsand money with the hopeof qualifying for the fi-nals.” He acknowledgesthat is not likely for a cow-boy from North Dakotahowever, it does not make

Dreamsare Madein Vegas

his schedule any less hectic. The July long weekend hasbecome known as CowboyChristmas for the number ofrodeos on that calendar all atthe same time and with a littlebit of planning and help fromthe computerized draw, con-testants can enter as many as5 or 6 rodeos over the week-end and put some extra cashin their pockets. Hausauer likes the format ofthe Morris event with a sepa-

rate rodeo held each day and prizesawarded for the event. “It helps with thetravel,” he said. “You can enter the daythat fits your schedule and you’re in forthat day, do the best you can and you’redown the road to another event.” He was non-committal on the numberof events he would compete in this year,“It depends on how things are going,when you’re doing well you want to keepgoing and get in as many rides as pos-sible. If you get hurt, well that can put anend to your season or at least put a bighole in your schedule.” While some cowboys competing in

riding events choose airtravel, because they are notburdened with a horse andtrailer, Hausauer is still driv-ing from one event to an-other and tries to considerdistance before entering arodeo. “There are a lot of thingsto consider, first of all, ifyou can get there,” he said.“Morris is a good event andit is not too far from homefor me.”

American cowboys like DustinHausauer chose to compete atthis year’s Big M and gain pointsfor the National Rodeo Finals inthe US.

Horticultural Diagnostic School - On Thursday, July 31 at the CanadaManitoba Crop Diversification Centre, 370 River Road, Portage la Prairie. Presented byMAFRD, CMCDC and Assiniboine Community College, this event will be of interest tomarket gardeners, vegetable and fruit producers. Registration starts at 8:15 am andsessions end at 3:15 pm (rain or shine). High Tunnel sessions in the morning andentomology, pathology, weeds and soils sessions in the afternoon. Registrants can chooseeither morning High Tunnel session, afternoon agronomy session or both for the samecost of $25/person (includes lunch and refreshments). Pre-registration is required forlunch. Contact [email protected], 204-745-5661.

The We Can Do It! Canning Workshop – On Saturday, August 9 from10:30 am - 2 pm at the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre, The Facultyof Agricultural and Food Science at 256 - 66 Dafoe Road, Winnipeg, Join us to learnhow to can pickles, peaches and more. All the supplies will be provided as well as arecipe book. The cost is $65. Register soon as only 15 spots are available and closesTuesday, August 5. Contact 204-883-2524, [email protected].

Made in Manitoba Breakfast - On Saturday, August 23 from 9:30 am to12 noon at 256 - 66 Dafoe Road, Winnipeg. The Farm and Food Discovery Centre teamsup with Ag in the Classroom. Come out the centre and enjoy hotcakes, sausages andfruit. All products are produced right here in Manitoba. Contact 1-204-883-2524,[email protected].

Community Events


By Les Kletke

The Manitoba AgricultureHall of Fame received five newmembers at a Ceremony inPortage on July 17 and thebackground of those inductedinto the Hall was as diverse asthe province’s agriculture. Waldie Klassen of Steinbachis thought of as a representa-tive of the Supply Manage-ment sector and rightfully sospending much of his time inthe poultry sector but alsofound the time to be involvedin the provinces general farmgroup KAP as it was beingformed and established. Klassen saw early in his ca-reer that poultry farmersneeded more stability in theirindustry and worked to estab-lish the supply managementsystem. He stayed on theBoard of the Manitobaproducer’s organization for 37years and lobbied in the Uru-guay round of the GATT talksto have the Canadian systemprotected. He was also in-volved extensively in foodsafety issues and has been rec-ognized internationally for thework he did in the industry.

By Les Kletke

The spring that was late in coming had Peter Dyck changing his seed plansmore than he cares to remember. “It was a tough spring,” said Dyck a Sperling area farmer. “We had plans inplace from winter but they got revised a few times.” One of the biggest changes resulted in an increase in sunflower acres, a cropthat he had not grown for several years planning to put it back into a smallerrotation and instead increased the acreage. “Our plan was for two quarters,” said Dyck. “We haven’t grown sunflow-ers for a few years so they fit in the rotation and the return looked good, sowe planned on getting them back but as spring got later we were seeding whatwe could. As the land dried up the acreage grew.” He has double the expectedacreage with 640 acres, a significant part of his 4,000 acre operation. Like many Manitoba farmers Dyck has been increasing his soybean acresover recent years, however the cost of sunflower made more sense. “The costof nitrogen has made them more attractive than canola, so our canola acreagehas been cut back,” said Dyck. The excess moisture has also been a deterrentfor canola. “We have had some pretty wet conditions the past couple of years andcanola has suffered, the soybeans have been able to come through thoseconditions, not always a bumper crop but always a crop, “ he noted. Hiscanola acreage is down 1/3 on his farm and acknowledges it was only borderline in good rotational practices. “We were crowding our rotation for several years and now we have cutback on canola and increased soybeans,” he said. “There are still some con-cerns but it does have some other characteristics that help out.” Disease was one of the concerns with short rotation but Dyck has also triedto rotate his weed control program to avoid herbicide resistance issues. “We did have a lot of roundup ready crop and that was an easy way tohandle problems but we also have to look at other modes of action to controlweeds and not have a resistance problem.” He said, “We are trying to do that and especially on the cereal crops.”He explained that the moist conditions of this season have pushed him to afungicide application on his cereals and he is also looking at other controlmeasures on his sunflowers. “We have been considering aerial application there and it seems expensivebut the crop looks good to this point, so we want to do everything we can tokeep it.”

With no help from her parents, the youngest 4-H buddymember, five-year old Jessica Wright of Rapid City preparesher horse for riding at Rapid City Chutes n’ Boots 4-H RodeoClub Rally day before the judge.

Pioneers of Change Recognized

“It was a suprise!” saidKlassen of the nomination. Hewas informed of the event onreturning home from winter-ing in Arizona. “We were homefor a couple of hours and I gotthe call, I was not even awareI had been nominated.” Klassen had worked withtwo other inductees, Siemensand Kroeker during his careerand said it was a highlight tobe going into the Hall withthem. “I knew there was a Hall ofFame, but it is not somethingI set out to do when I got in-volved with the industry,” saidKlassen. Bill Siemens began his farmcareer in 1959 when he gradu-ated from the School of Agri-culture at the University ofManitoba, purchased 80 acresof land with his parents andobtained his first sugar beetcontract. Siemens is best known forhis work in the sugar beet in-dustry and spent a term asPresident of the World Asso-ciation of Beet and Cane Grow-ers, an association based inParis, France that representssugar producers throughout

the world. He was instrumen-tal in hosting the group’s bi-annual meeting in Canada thatwas held jointly in Manitobaand Alberta. He has guided the growth ofhis farm to a family operationthat now involves his grand-children two of which havegraduated from the School ofAgriculture, one this spring. Ron Helwer’s involvementin agriculture is as diverse asthe geography he covered inthe business. He was born atLibau in eastern Manitoba andbegan working in a Masseydealership there with his fa-ther and brother before ex-panding to Selkirk and even-tually founding Shur- Gro inBrandon. Helwer was a foundingmember of the Western Fertil-izer and Chemical Dealers As-sociation in 1978 and servedas its second President in1979-80. He has been recog-nized by the Brandon Cham-ber of Commerce for his in-volvement in the businesscommunity there. Don Kroeker received a de-gree in Agricultural Econom-ics from the University of

Manitoba and returned to thefamily farm at Winkler whereunder his leadership the farmgrew 10 fold to become thelargest potato producer in thecountry. He was extensivelyinvolved with the CanadianHorticulture Council and trav-elled internationally to pro-mote the potato business. Bob McNabb of Minnedosabelieves in practicing what hepreaches and has been in-volved in promoting conser-vation at every level and prac-tices it at every level on hisfarm. He has worked rotationalgrazing and other conservationpractices into his grain andbeef operation in Minnedosa.His efforts did not stop inCanada; he also worked inZimbabwe co-ordinating aCIDA project that focused ondeveloping agricultural co-op-eratives. The Manitoba AgricultureHall of Fame is accepting nomi-nations for the 2015 inductionceremony and nominations canbe obtained from the office inBrandon.

Bill Siemens Ron HelwerDon Kroeker Bob McNabb David Klassen

Plans Changed for Canola Grower

Five YFive YFive YFive YFive Year Old 4-Hear Old 4-Hear Old 4-Hear Old 4-Hear Old 4-HMember Competes inMember Competes inMember Competes inMember Competes inMember Competes in

RRRRRapid City Rapid City Rapid City Rapid City Rapid City RodeoodeoodeoodeoodeoClub RClub RClub RClub RClub Rallyallyallyallyally

Photo By Joan Airey


By Les Kletke

Five students will beheading off to Universitythis fall relying on the ben-efits of growing canola ontheir farm and the ManitobaCanola Growers Associa-tion (MCGA). The MCGA scholarshipapplication required an es-say on what growing up ona family farm meant to theindividual. “Growing up on a farmwas my whole life,” saidBrad Wright of MacGregor.“Most of my family is in-volved in agriculture so ithas been everything tome.” Wright will be heading tothe School of Agricultureat the University ofManitoba. Other winnersare Jenilee Dyck of Winkler,Elliot Kiel of Teulon andSheena Meggison ofGoodlands who will be at-tending the Faculty of Ag-riculture and RichardWatson of Rossendalewho will be studying Engi-neering at the University ofManitoba. Wright has chosen the

Benefits of Canolaon a Family Farm

diploma program becauseit is a two-year commitmentthat allows him to enter the4-year program if hechooses to later. “I didn’t want to committo four years right now,” hesaid. “I want to get my di-ploma and I can transfer inand get a degree in twomore, if I choose to.” Hisfather Kenneth is a gradu-ate of the Degree programat the University ofManitoba. Wright is spending hissummer on the farm tend-ing to the families 100 cowcalf pairs and 500 acres ofcropland. The herd is a mixof Red Angus, Semintal andCharlois genetics that areon grass in the summer andcorn in the winter. “It was a good year forcalving and we have a goodset of calves with morethan enough grass,” hesaid. “There have beensome problems putting uphay and we are trying to dothat between rains but, ithas been slow going.” TheWrights havebackgrounded calves in the

past but now sell the calvesin the fall after a summer onpasture. The family grows canola,wheat and corn on their 500acres. “The corn is for wintergrazing and got off to aslow start this spring be-cause of the late seedingbut it is doing alright now,”said Wright. He says the canola isstruggling a bit this yearbecause of excess moisture.“We got done seeding butevery field has a few spotsthat were left because ofthe water,” he said. For his first year at uni-versity, the Canola Grow-ers Association will helpwith a $1,000 towards hisexpenses.

The 2014 Canola Grower Scholarship winners were Jenilee Dyck, Winkler, Elliott Kiel, Teulon, Sheena Meggison, Goodlands,Bradley Wright, MacGregor, who have plans on attending the University of Manitoba to take Agriculture and Food Sciences andRichard Watson, Rossendale who is planning to attend the University of Manitoba to take Engineering.

RiversHosts

AgFair

Rivers 4-H Beef Clubtook part in the RiversAgricultural SocietyFair Parade holdingtheir Achievement Dayin conjunction with thefair. The day beganwith a pancake break-fast and included a trac-tor pull, horse show,domestic classes andgames for the children,ending with the beefclubs steer sale fol-lowed by fireworks.

Photo by Joan Airey


By Harry Siemens

Sandi and Brad Knight farmnorth of Macdonald in the RMof Portage la Prairie, 4 kmsouth of Lake Manitoba and 9km west of the Portage Diver-sion growing grains, oilseeds,pulses and hay. They witnessed first handthe suffering the Portage Di-version caused in 2011 andagain in 2014. For them theflooding is man made becauseof the Portage Diversion andits breaches doing additionaldamage. Sandi takes issue withpeople criticizing the peoplewho are losing their homes andlivelihoods through these man-made floods to protect thegreater good. She said thatsomeone made an online com-ment, “People around LakeManitoba need to be less self-ish,” which was in responseto a question, ‘Flood farmlandand compensate farmers, orallow entire cities to flood?” “Really?” said Knight. Knight said that watershould not be on farmland, orany property around the lake,in the first place and the gov-ernment was not proactivewith the recommendations inthe technical review of the2011 flood. Despite the un-precedented amount of rain-fall to the west, forethought,and proper management couldhave averted this disastroussituation in 2014. “Farmers and ranchers onceagain will take a financial hitto protect others, despite thefact Lake Manitoba is not aflood plain,” she said. “Un-fortunately, when Manitobabuilt the Portage Diversion in1970, it became a man-made,government-controlled floodplain. Farmers had no choicein the matter. Governmentpromised the use of the ‘fail-safe’ would be minimal. Yet,this isn’t the case.” Mark Peters, a third-genera-tion farmer, knows this betterthan anyone. He lives about 6km from Lake Manitoba onthe west side of the diversion.Despite being almost 20 kmfrom the Assiniboine River, the

By Joan Airey

The Assiniboine Riverspilled its banks closing manymajor highways and destroy-ing crops in westernManitoba. Hundreds of acres of cropsthat had been flooded weredestroyed even with recedingflood waters in some areas.The Oak River generallyslows to a trickle at this timeof year, continued to roar andspilled over its banks innumerous places keepinghundreds of acres under floodwaters. Many in the Melita areawere evacuated and those whohave off farm jobs or work onthe opposite side of the riverhad to drive miles out of theirway to cross the Assiniboine. Some needed pontoon boatsto cross the water surroundingtheir home to get to theirvehicle on higher dry ground.The flood made it difficult forresidents travelling to work,for groceries or medicalappointments.

Flood Waters Destroy Cropsand Property Again

Photos by Brady Knight

Brady Knight took a picture of this Portage Diversion breechand counted at least 10.

This pictures of a track-hoe when government contrac-tors started work until ‘The levels are where we wantthem to be.”

Soybeans on July 3, 1/2 miles west of the PortageDiversion.

water comes on to his land more than he cares to admit, with2011 being by far the worst. “Notwithstanding the continual water woes, he doesn’t wantthe diversion closed. Like many others, he merely wants to seeit, Lake Manitoba, and the dikes along the Assiniboine properlymaintained and operated so flooding adjacent farmland and prop-erty is not a recurring issue,” said Knight. “Continually inun-dating farm-land and seepage from the diversion cuts incomeand the productivity of the land making for growing only lower-value crops such as barley and hay. Higher value crops such asbeans and potatoes do not flourish in saline soil.” Peters has lost numerous hay crops. In 2011, the diversiondrowned out the hay field beside it, keeping the ground satu-rated into 2012 and could not reseed until 2013. This year hewas set to take off his first crop since 2010. Peters was cutting and baling hay when he called the provinceon July 2 asking how much time he had before the governmentwould divert the wall of water heading down the Assiniboine toLake Manitoba. He said he was told, “Five days.” Unfortu-nately, in less than 24 hours, what began as a trickle over thefail-safe turned into a much larger stream overnight. On July 4, the province began a series of intentional breachesin that area pouring flood waters out of the diversion into hisfield. In a matter of hours, the water inundated his bales, swathesand remaining standing hay by at least a foot. Peters now worries about compensation and knows that if thelosses from the 2011 flood are any indication, the likelihood isnot.

AssiniboineWatershedDestroysCrops inWestern

Manitoba

Portions of Highway 21 closed and become inaccessible tofarmers and residents.

Near Highway 21 south of Sioux Valley, the Oak Rivergenerally slows to a trickle in July and instead it continued toroar as it spilled its banks in numerous places floodinghundreds of acres of farm land and roads.

Photos by Joan Airey


The 1914 to 1918 editions of the Canadian Threshermenand Farmer contained a number of pencil sketching ofFirst World War scenes that were usually meant topresent a humorous view of life in the army. Two of the main cartoon characters that appear are OldBill with a walrus mustached and a younger soldier,Alphie. The most famous Old Bill cartoon is the one inwhich Old Bill and another soldier is in a muddy shellhole filled with water while being shelled heavily. Billsays to the other soldier, “Well, if you knows of a better‘ole, go to it.” Obviously the other soldier was complain-ing of their plight. Old Bill’s success was such that thecartoon was copied by others. There is one cartoon in the Canadian Threshermen andFarmer where one of the characters is referred to as Billhowever the sketch does not appear to have been signedby the creator of Old Bill, Bruce Bairnsfather. Some of the sketches, such as the one where a demureyoung lady is intercepted on her way to visit Lt. Barkerin the hospital appear rather strange to the modern eye.However one has to remember that Victorian morals werestill largely present in Britain and the Empire through theFirst World War. By this standard, soldiers even thosewounded in action had to be protected from youngladies who presented threats equal to those of theGerman Army. One also has to remember these sketcheswere largely directed at the home audience and probablythe soldiers on active service had significantly differentideas about the activities and events depicted in thesketches. As well as sketches, editorials discus the impact of theWar on agriculture, the need for farmers to produce allthat they could in order to feed the allied nations andarmies, the difficulties presented to agriculture by a lackof labour and other related topics. In many ways the First World War had significantimpact on rural Manitoba and the Prairies. The heavycausalities suffered by the Canadian army did not sparePrairie communities. In addition many men who surviveddid not return to the Prairies while others who did returnsuffered from wounds incurred while in the army. Somehistorians point out that after the war, many Prairiecommunities never recovered the ‘go ahead’ attitude thecommunity possessed before the war. According to other historians the war experiences ofmany Prairie farmers and farmer’s sons lead to the widespread support of the Prairie wheat pools in the 1920s.These men had seen the power developed by an armywhen people acted together. They had also seen that theBritish Generals were not always right and that the‘amateur’, Canadian General Currie was just as effective,if not more so. Perhaps the professionals who said the Prairie wheatpools would not work and farmers could not take controlof their industry were not correct. History showed thatthe ‘amateurs’, the farmers were capable of taking controlof wheat marketing if they acted together. 2014 marks the 60th Anniversary of the ManitobaAgricultural Museum, ‘Manitoba’s Diamond in theRough’. For more information on the Manitoba Agricul-tural Museum and the Threshermen’s Reunion andStampede, see the Museum website ag-museum.mb.ca orcall the Museum office at 204-637-2354.

First World War Changed OurPrairie Life and Communities

OUR CHEERFUL CHAPSThe Pess-Optimist: “Wot a life! No rest, no beer, no nuffin. It’s

only us keepin’ so cheerful as pulls us through.”

Visitor (at private hospital) - “Can I see Lieutenant Barker,please?”Matron - “We do not allow ordinary visiting. May I ask if you area relative?”Visitor (boldly) - “O, yes! I’m his sister.”Matron - “Dear me! I’m very glad to meet you. I’m his mother!”

THE CHEERY OPTIMISTS“We’re all right, Bill. I expect the navy will up next week.”

THE NEW SUBMARINE DANGER“They’ll be torpedoin’ us if we stick ‘ere much longer, Bill”

- Bystander


By Fred Parnow

The next couple ofweeks are the mostimportant time forconfection sunflowerproducers to make criticaldecisions regarding theapplication of insecticidesto maintain marketablequality of seed. Insect damage tosunflower can financially

Protect Your Sunflower fromBanded Sunflower Moth

make or break the bank.The economic losscaused by seed damaginginsects can cost growersas much as .10 cents apound or $200 per acre ona 2,000 lb. crop or for 160acres, that is a $32,000decision. For years, the focus wason controlling the RedSeed Weevil inconfectionary sunflower

when in fact the mostdamaging insect inManitoba is the BandedSunflower Moth. RedSeed Weevil is very easyto see and identified.However, historically ithas not reached theeconomic threshold towarrant control inManitoba, unlike NorthDakota and South Dakotawhere multiple insecticideapplications are required. On the other handBanded Sunflower Moth(BSM) is the mostdamaging and mostundetected insect inManitoba. To the trainedagronomist BSM areeasily identified andcontrol measures can bedetermined. There are two ways toscout for BSM by eitherlooking for the adultmoths or by seeing theegg masses. The R-3 to R-4 growth stage is thecorrect stage to beginlooking for the adultmoth. Early morning is thebest time of day to lookfor BSM, especially in thegrassy areas around theperimeter of the field.Walk slowly towards tallgrass and look severalmetres ahead to see themflutter. Once the beigecolored adult moth withblack on the mid winglands on a leaf stem, moveslowly towards it andmake the correct identifi-cation. Once you spotone, it is quite easy tofind more. The second method ischecking for egg mass.BSM adults lay their eggson the back of thedeveloping bud and canalso be seen through amagnifying lens. Thehatching larvae movefrom the back of the headtowards the developingseed. Once the eggpenetrates the hull, it isnearly impossible to getsatisfactory control andthe damage is done.Therefore early scoutingand insecticide applica-tion is critical. Economic thresholdcalculations are available,but since these mothshide in the grass andproper numbers are hardto determine, you canpretty much anticipate anapplication of insecticideis required. The biggestthing to keep in mind isthat the higher thesunflower market price is,the lower the number ofmoths/eggs is necessaryto get economic return for

your investment. The timing of aninsecticide application isimportant as the target isthe hatched larvae.Typically when 10% ofthe plants are in the R-5.1growth stage this is thebest time to applyinsecticide. Earlier isacceptable and laterapplications result in poorcontrol as damage willalready be done. The ruleof thumb is, “Early isgood, late is bad.” There are severalinsecticide productsavailable which provideexcellent control. Consultthe Crop Protection guidefor products and rates.Some offer residualcontrol for additionalinsects like lygus, whichcan also tremendouslydamage the seed. Makesure the product fits thetarget. The menu of insecti-cides has varyingapplication recommenda-tions. Consult with youraerial applicator as towhen the best time of dayis for application tominimize any damage tobees or other beneficialpollinators. Fred Parnow is theCanada BusinessManager for NuseedAmericas.

Banded Sunflower Moth.

R-4 Growth Stage orScouting stage.

R-5.1 Growth Stage orControl stage.


It’s that time of year until autumn, when har-vested forages are tested for their nutrient con-tent and when an emailed-back analysis sheetcan list up to 80 laboratory results for each forage sample submitted. Much of this data can be input into dairy ration balancing software to help develop on-the-farmTMRs that supply essential nutrients in the right amounts, consumed and required by high milkperforming dairy cows. However, much of these analytical results are secondary without a respec-tive and simple moisture analysis taken on each collected forage samples in the first place. That’s because the moisture content of forages and other feedstuffs have the greatest impact uponfeed consumption and thus nutrient intake by dairy cows. Those rations that contain more than50% moisture are often associated with reduced dry matter intakes by dairy cattle. As their dietbecomes increasingly wet, the essential nutrients locked in the feed dry matter become less concen-trated. The animal must eat more total ration in order to consume the same amount of nutrients ordry matter feed as before. Given that moisture also adds bulk to the ration, there is a point where adairy cow can consume only so much ‘as fed’ ration (dry matter feed + moisture) because of gut fill. It is estimated that most mature dairy cows can consume up to 45 kg (100 lbs.) of ‘as fed’ feedwhile first calf heifers consume between 5 – 20% less feed. With such feeding boundaries in mind,we should target 45 – 55% moisture in the overall dairy diet to accommodate sufficient dry matterintakes of between 22 and 25 kg of dry feed, particularly in early lactation cows. This parallelsanother rule of thumb: 1 kg of dry matter intake yields 2 kg of milk production. Since, forages make up the majority of most dairy TMRs, we should also be aware that evenmodest changes to the moisture content of the ‘wet forages’ such as corn/barley silages and alfalfa/grass hay can significantly increase or reduce the amount nutritious feed eaten by the cows and beturned into milk. Other ‘wet’ feeds such as brewer’s mash (20% DM), liquid whey (10 – 15% DM)and molasses (75% DM) also have secondary moisture content effects upon the final dairy diet.Lastly the moisture content of well-cured hay is less variable and tends to have smaller influences,respectively. For example let’s examine the impact of a 5% moisture content increase of forages formulated ina dairy diet designed for early lactation dairy cows:

Whether we fail to analyze moisture content of our forages, or there is an actual-absolute 5%increase in moisture content of our dietary forages, the impact upon our virtual dairy feedingprogram results:- ‘As-fed’ intake does not change at 41.5 kg per lactating dairy cow.- Total dry matter intake drops from 23.6 kg to 22.0 kg per head or a 7% decrease.- DMI per cow of corn silage and alfalfa hay drops by 1.2 kg and 0.4 kg respectively.- Overall dietary moisture content increases by only 3.7%.- Forage: Concentrate ratio (dm, basis) falls slightly from 62.7%to 60.0%. From the above points, the most significant moisture contentimpact - is the total dry matter intake which drops by 7%”.This leads to a probable decrease in milk production of 3.2 kgper early lactation cow (re: 1.6 kg x 2). Therefore, it is a strongrecommendation that dairy producers test forages for moisturecontent before feeding them in a TMR to their dairy herd. Given that there is such a major impact upon feed and man-agement in the dairy barn, producers should choose an actualmethod that works best for them in determining the moisturecontent of dairy forages, particularly their wet-forages. Whilethere are many ways to test moisture content in feeds, there arepresently two popular ‘old school’ approaches; namely, usinga Koster tester or by Micro-wave oven (MV). The moisture-content procedures for both methods are virtu-ally identical: (1) Weigh out 100 – 500 gram silage/hay samplesthat are representative of harvested fields on a gram-weighingscale. (2) Samples can be dried down by either the Koster testeror Micro-wave oven. (3) Re-weigh dried out silage/hay samplesand (4) Calculate moisture results; % moisture content = ((Ini-tial sample wt. - Dried sample wt.)/Initial sample wt.) x 100.Therefore if a 500-gram corn silage is dried down to 184 grams,its % moisture content would be 36.8%. Interestingly, the Koster tester is an electrical dryer that isspecifically designed for drying forages and wet feeds to deter-mine their moisture content. This apparatus has a heating ele-ment and fan built in its base that blows hot air through the feedsample placed on a built-in screen for moisture determination.Its drying procedure takes about 20 – 25 minutes. Sample loss tends to be a small problem in using the Kostertester. Likewise, the common micro-wave oven provides a quickmeans for drying samples. Its greatest challenge is to avoidburning samples into a crisp. It is recommended that a smallamount of water in placed in the oven. MV drying time is about5 – 10 minutes for most wet feeds.

Moisture Content is theMost Important Dairy

Forage Analysis

Regardless of the preferred method used to determine the moisture content of your silage, hay andother forage, it sometimes takes a bit of practice to refine their similar procedures to achieve the mostaccurate moisture results. Such accurate moisture results of the forages are primary to targeting dry matter feed consumptionof a well-balanced dairy diet and subsequent milk production in the lactating dairy herd. Producersshould routinely test and take the necessary corrective action to maintain the optimum level forprimary milk performance and revenue.

agripost july 25 2014

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