AgriPost April 25 2014

April 25, 2014 1The Agri Post

April 25, 20142 The Agri Post

The Federal Governmenthas introduced in Parliamentthe Fair Rail for Grain Farm-ers Act in response to thechallenges currently facingwestern Canada’s rail ship-ping system. The legislation amendsthe Canada TransportationAct and the Canada GrainAct, providing additionalmeasures designed to helpthe entire grain transporta-tion system. The changesincrease supply chain trans-parency, strengthen con-tracts between producersand shippers and help withsome transport system effi-ciencies. Pulse Canada and the Ca-nadian Special Crops Asso-ciation (CSCA) welcomedthe introduction of legisla-tion. “Our sector has alwaysbeen firm on the end resultand flexible on the means toget there,” said GregCherewyk, Chief OperatingOfficer of Pulse Canada.“We are looking forward tothe process of consultationon Service Level Agree-ments so that we can ensurethat the right regulatorybackstop is in place. Wehope that this process canmove forward quickly sothat we can have somethingin place in the near future.” “The end result has to beimproved predictability andperformance for our buyersaround the world,” said NickSekulic, Chair of PulseCanada. “We have to de-velop a logistics system thatserves the interests of farm-ers, avoids system coststhat farmers end up payingand starts to restore theconfidence in Canada asbeing a reliable supplier.” A number of Manitoba’srecommendations havebeen reflected in the federalbill, including a decision to

The Wheat Growers are calling on the federal governmentto bring about more competition in the western Canadianrail sector, in light of chronic performance failures of CN andCP and their cavalier attitude toward the resulting lossessuffered by prairie grain farmers. The Wheat Growers were reacting to comments made byCN CEO Claude Mongeau in a speech in Winnipeg re-cently. Mongeau spoke out strongly against a provision inBill C-30 that would give shippers modest improved accessto U.S. railways, referring to it as ‘poaching’. “What Mr. Mongeau calls poaching, we call competition,”said Levi Wood, President of the Wheat Growers. “Sadly, Mr.Mongeau seems to think no one else should have the oppor-tunity to haul our grain, no matter how badly his companyperforms.” “Only companies with monopolies or near monopoliescan get away with such an entitlement attitude,” said JimWickett, Chair of the Wheat Growers. “Parliament needs togive the railways an attitude adjustment.” The Wheat Growers note that CN and CP effectively oper-ate side-by-side monopolies in western Canada. Only sevenof the 342-grain elevators on the prairies have direct accessto both CN and CP. The expanded interswitching provision,now contemplated in Bill C-30, the Fair Rail for Grain Farm-ers Act, would give about 40 of those elevators improvedability to access the shipping services of Burlington NorthernSanta Fe Corp Railway (BNSF) a subsidiary of BerkshireHathaway Inc., which is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas,U.S.A. Currently there is a backlog of nearly 70,000 rail car or-ders from grain shippers, representing more than 6 milliontonnes of grain. The shipping backlog has resulted in artifi-cially depressed prices to farmers that some market analystsare saying will last into 2015. The Wheat Growers haveconservatively estimated bottom-line losses to farmers to be$2 billion and counting. They have recommended several measures that would bringabout more competition and more shipping capacity in thewestern rail network, including expanded running rights.

Rail Capacity ChallengesAddressed in Legislation

increase inter-switching dis-tances. “The Manitoba governmentsupports this move as it meanstrains will be able to travellonger distances along otherrail companies’ tracks and willimprove Manitoba’s access tothe port in Churchill as well asimportant U.S. markets,” saidProvincial Agricultural Minis-ter Ron Kostyshyn. While the Western CanadianWheat Growers Associationsees some positive elements inthe legislation tabled in theHouse of Commons, it believesBill C-30 does not go nearly farenough to address the seriousbreakdown in grain shippingcapacity on the prairies. “These measures do not ad-equately tackle the backlog ingrain shipments,” said LeviWood, President of the WheatGrowers. “They also do notposition our industry to meetthe long-term needs of prairiefarmers or our customers.” The Wheat Growers are dis-appointed the minimum grain-shipping requirement remainsfixed at one million tonnes perweek from April 7 to August 3,2014. This means the graincarryout on prairie farms willexceed 20 million tonnes head-ing into this year’s harvest, re-sulting in the continuation ofsevere price discounts, widebasis levels for the foreseeablefuture. The Wheat Growers hadasked that the minimum grainshipments be increased to13,000 railcars per week, ap-proximately 1.2 million tonnesinstead of 11,000 railcars perweek. The backlog of grain or-ders is over 68,000 railcars rep-resenting six million tonnes ofgrain. “Grain prices to farmers willremain artificially depresseduntil the backlog is cleared upand the elevator system hasthe capacity available to offercompetitive bids for our grain,”said Wood. “As long as the

elevator system remainsplugged, price offers to farm-ers are likely to remain belowmarket value.” The Wheat Growers hadproposed several recommen-dations to expand rail-ship-ping capacity in the longerterm, including an incentive-based revenue cap and mea-sures that would allowshortlines and other rail op-erators to add capacity to thenetwork when CN and CP areunable or unwilling to meetcustomer demand. These im-provements were not in-cluded in the legislation.

The legislation appears togive farmers a good deal ofwhat they were asking for,noted Doug Chorney, Presi-dent of Keystone AgriculturalProducers. “Bill C-30 extends the onemillion tonnes perweek-mini-mum the government orderedthe railways to ship severalweeks ago,” he said. “Thatwill take us to the end of thecrop year and after that thegovernment will have the au-thority to re-set shipping mini-mums for the next two years,depending on the crop situa-tion.”

Railways Need to Lose TheirEntitlement Attitude


One of Canada’s top expertson grain handling and foodstorage is warning farmersand producers of a poten-tially serious problem. Dr. Digvir Jayas, formerCanada Research Chair inStored-Grain Ecosystems andcurrently Vice-President (re-search and international) atthe University of Manitoba,says there is an urgent needto take action to prevent spoil-age of the 2013 food crop. With increased yields ashigh as 38 percent above 2012levels for some crops in 2013,this positive news has beentempered by the lack ofproper storage facilities on

Urgent Need to Move andProcess Last Year’s Grain

farms and elevators. Com-bined with the slow move-ment of grain out of westernCanada, this has forced pro-ducers to place grain intotemporary storage inQuonset huts, in Silobags orsimply piled on the ground.As the weather warms up inthe spring and summer, thereis a great risk of grain spoil-ing due to insect infestation,mould growth or rodents. “Farmers need to take cor-rective action very soon,” ad-vises Jayas, who makes thefollowing recommendationsto reduce quality loss in stor-age. Grain should be moved out

of Silobags, Quonset hutsand off the ground as soonas possible and loaded intobins with aeration beforeMay. Research results fromthe assessment of Silobagsused for storing canola at 12percent moisture contentshowed that canola main-tained its grade if unloadedbefore the ground is thawed,lost one grade if unloadedafter ground thaw and be-came feed grade if unloadedafter few summer months. Moister grain should bedried or processed first.Natural air-drying can be op-erated when the air tempera-

ture is higher than 15 °C andrelative humidity is lower than65 percent. After the middle ofApril, weather conditions onsome days can meet this re-quirement. Cold grain should be turnedor aerated to raise the graintemperature to between 5 to10°C to prevent moisture mi-gration. Newly harvested grainshould not be put on the topof the grain harvested in theprevious year, instead itshould go into bins cleaned ofgrain residues and approvedinsecticides applied to disin-fest empty bins.

Rusty Grain Beetle

Mouldy Grain

The Office of the Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO) hasconfirmed a small number of animals being held at ahigh-traffic site in western Manitoba that tested posi-tive for the porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) virus. Basedon the onset of symptoms and the CVO’s preliminaryinvestigation, it is likely the pigs were infected withPED at the high-traffic site due to environmental con-tamination present on site and not on their farm of ori-gin. As part of its investigation, the CVO will follow upwith other farms and facilities that had contact with thesite. The high-traffic site is fully co-operating with theCVO investigation and has taken measures to reducethe possibility of further transmission. The CVO had previously confirmed PEDv on a farmin southeast Manitoba and confirmed two positive en-vironmental samples from high-traffic sites. None arecurrently believed to be linked to this case. PEDv is a reportable disease in Manitoba. Producersare encouraged to remain vigilant with the necessarybiosecurity protocols that prevent the spread of PEDvand are reminded they must report all suspected casesto their veterinarian. The CVO will continue to workwith the pork industry to help any affected producerseliminate the disease from their herds and prevent itfrom spreading. Producers who have questions aboutPEDv, biosecurity and related issues should contactthe Manitoba Pork Council at 1-888-893-7447 or onlineat manitobapork.com. There are now 46 farm premises that have tested posi-tive for PEDv across Canada including one in Manitoba,one in Prince Edward Island, one in Quebec and 43 inOntario. Manitoba remains in regular contact with chiefveterinary officers and industry stakeholders acrossthe country on this issue.

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There is a continuum from anarchy to a complete dictatorship and most of uswould believe the best place for society is somewhere in between. The role ofgovernment is not the same in everyone’s eyes and that includes the eyes ofgovernment. The current administration in Ottawa is delivering on its promises of more freedom,they did away with the monopoly of the Canadian Wheat Board, the world did notend and many farmers believe they are better off. Then along comes a harsh winterand the railway decides to concentrate on other cargo and we have a farm commu-nity clamouring for the government to step in and get the railways back to movinggrain. Apparently, they have. I have trouble understanding the role of government on this whole issue. Some-times we want the market to work, other times we want the railway to work (movingour commodity). The railway cited a number of problems that slowed the movementof grain. The first issue was the large crop; truth is farmers are growing more grain thanks tothe advances of technology. The size of last year’s crop is going to become the normin the next few years. That is what the railway will have to deal with. The second issue was the cold weather, and yes, it was cold, a visit to any coffeeshop in western Canada would confirm that but we have had winter every year andwill continue. The global warming thing was overpowered by the Artic Vortex thisyear and it will happen again. Count on it. I am not an expert on railways or grain movement, but as a casual observer, I sawtrains moving this past winter. It would appear that the railways put their emphasison other cargo and moved it instead of the grain. Could it be that they make moremoney on moving other products and chose to do that instead? If that is the case,then we have the market at work, but in this case, we want the railways to work. So, in this situation it appears we need the hand of government to help the systemwork. I can even understand that there are some places we need government andother places work best without them, but my concern is who gets to decide whichones are which and more importantly whose interests does he (or she) have at heart?

When Ag Minister Gerry Ritz changed the former Canadian Wheat Board from a singledesk monopoly to a company, the feds gave them a 5-year program and some cash to makethis transition work. And that is a good thing because the more options farmers have tomarket, sell and move their grain, the better off the system is, ultimately for the farmer andthe rural communities. That is why this announcement is a good thing. We need more facilities, more competi-tion, more options for farmers to move their grain. It is no secret, with new varieties, new management and production techniques, if theweather co-operates yields will continue to improve. Not only the yields, but also thevarieties, and even the crops that farmers can grow profitably on their farms. I keep going back to my experience growing up on the farm and actually farming with myfather, who always kept his eye on the next good crop, variety or process that would helphim increase his profits on his farm. There are many varieties and different crops I remem-ber growing that did really well for my father, but suddenly, and sometimes without warn-ing, the niche market disappeared and part of last year’s crops sold for much less than he’danticipated that year and much less than what he’d received in previous years. He didn’t rest on his laurels nor did he take much time crying over spilt milk, but lookedfor the next promising variety or crop. Invariably, another one would come along, and thelast one quickly became a faint memory. So, I like the announcement by the the CWB, that is the new CWB, not the former singledesk Canadian Wheat Board, that it is building its first state-of-the-art grain elevator westof Portage La Prairie in Bloom. The CWB says the elevator will be ready to receive grain for the 2015 harvest. Oncecompleted, the facility will feature industry-leading railcar loading times and 33,900 metrictonnes of storage. CWB president and CEO, Ian White, said customer service is top-of-mind when choos-ing to invest in Bloom as the site for the company’s first elevator. “As one of the highest efficiency elevators in Western Canada, farmers will be able to

pull in and out of our elevator yard in record time. The site iseasily accessible from a number of highways, including theTrans-Canada and the Yellowhead, and it is located in anarea with a clear need for more grain-handling capacity.” The CWB began elevator construction off of the Trans-Canada Highway, four miles west of the Yellowhead. Theelevator will feature a 17,400 mT workhouse with cleaningfacilities, and 16,500 mT of steel storage capacity. A 130-carloop track will facilitate fast and efficient car loading at up to60,000 bushels/hour. The CN mainline will service the el-evator. The building of this elevator marks CWB’s first construc-tion of a grain-handling facility and adds to the company’sgrowing asset network that includes Mission Terminal inThunder Bay, Les Élévateurs des Trois-Rivières in Quebec,as well as a minority interest in Prairie West Terminal. “Every tonne of grain delivered to Bloom will be trackedfor the purposes of CWB’s farmer ownership plan. We wantfarmers to have a stake in their value chain after privatization,”said White. “As we continue to grow, the benefits to farm-ers will grow with us.” There is nothing wrong with what the new CWB is doing:I give them credit, and I hope it works out for them. In thefive years since the monopoly disappeared the feds gavethe new entity five years and x number of dollars per year todemonstrate it can actually make it on its own. CWB’s farmer ownership plan provides that farmers whodeliver grain to CWB will receive an equity interest in thecompany after privatization and is the only opportunity forfarmers to gain an ownership stake in a Canadian-focusedgrain company. On a similar note, it’s expected the federal government willtable new legislation this week to address the challengeswith grain movement by rail in Western Canada. Cabinet passed an order-in-council earlier telling CP andCN Rail to move one million tonnes of grain each week, butfarm and grain industry groups say the system needschanges to the Canada Transportation Act that addressongoing issues surrounding grain movement. There are mixed thoughts on this one too. On one hand,someone needs to stand up the railways and make themmore accountable. On the other hand, how far does thegovernment go into a private business and determine howto manage that business. In this case, many can justify, andI’m one of them, the fact the railways have a combinedmonopoly and their collective performance, in many cases,has the reputation of Canada as a country at stake, if wedon’t satisfy our customers.

Typically, you want to insure your buildings for the cost to rebuild, this is referredto Replacement Cost Coverage. You do not want to insure too high because you willnot get more than it actually costs to rebuild and yet you do not want to insure toolow, which leaves you, exposed at the time of the claim by not having enough insur-ance money to cover the costs to rebuild. Even with actual quotations from a contractor or having an appraisal completed,you do not know with absolute certainty what the limit of coverage should be. Thereare many outside forces that affect the replacement cost. A few examples are fluctua-tions of the Canadian dollar, varying material prices, government regulations, bylawsand fuel prices. No two buildings are the same. Options chosen and quality of equipment alter thereplacement cost greatly. Similar facilities can differ in replacement cost by more than25 to 50 percent. A consideration is the cost to clean-up debris prior to rebuilding. In today’s world ofenvironmental considerations and government regulations, these costs can be sub-stantial. In addition, you need to consider the extra cost associated with having to build inthe winter because you may not be able to wait until summer to start rebuilding. Debris removal and winter build can increase the amount of coverage needed by 20percent. Be sure to seek advice and purchase insurance from those who understand yourbusiness! Andy Anderson is an Associate Insurance Broker specializing in General, Lifeand Group Benefits for Farm, Commercial/Agri-business Ph 204-746-5589 F 866-765-3351 [email protected] /rempelinsurance.com /valleyfinancial.ca.

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by RolfPenner

PennersPoints

[email protected] The Cereal Research Cen-tre (CRC) is closing thismonth, marking the end ofnearly a century of publicplant breeding in Manitoba.It is another sorry landmarkon the Harper government’ssystematic path of destruc-tion through Canada’s publicagriculture institutions. Publicly funded plant breed-ing at the CRC, along withother Agriculture Canada re-search stations and severalCanadian universities, hasproduced most of Canada’scereal crop varieties, which arethe foundation for our multi-billion dollar grain industry.According to IndustryCanada, approximately 50percent of wheat and oat acre-age in Canada is seeded to va-rieties developed at the CRC,varieties that represent a farm-gate value of close to $2.5 bil-lion. The federal government isnot only closing the CRC, itis winding down all publicfunding for spring wheat plantbreeding to make way for pri-vate sector investment. Agri-culture Canada will allow sci-entists to continue work al-ready in progress, however itwill not support new breed-ing, nor allow current work toproceed to the final stage ofproducing the actual varietiesthat farmers can buy. TheCRC’s top-notch springwheat team has been brokenup and only a handful of wheatbreeders remain at the Bran-don, Swift Current andLethbridge research stations. At a 2013 meeting of theCanadian Seed Trade Associa-tion, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Direc-tor General Stephen MorganJones laid out the federal

March 25, marked the 100-year anniversary of the birth of a real hero of science, NormanBorlaug. The anniversary got next to no coverage in the mainstream media, a shame becauseBorlaug is one of the greatest human beings who ever lived. His groundbreaking work on plantbreeding saved more human lives from starvation compared with anything else in world history.As one blogger put it, “If you want to know why we live in a morally and intellectually decliningworld, the low profile of this man is a pretty good starting place.” Gregg Easterbrook nicely summarized Borlaug’s achievement in The Atlantic Monthly, “In1950, there were 2.2 billion people in the world and they produced 692 tons of grain. By 1992,there were 5.6 billion people and they produced 1.9 billion tons of grain. That is, there was a 220percent increase in global population but a 280 percent increase in global wheat production. Fornumerous food staples, this pattern held true. Furthermore, this increase in food productionnecessitated an increase of cropland of just one percent due to Borlaug’s more efficient agricul-tural techniques and improved genetic strands.” His efforts won Borlaug the Nobel Peace Prize back when it actually meant something.However, by no means is he a household name. His granddaughter, Julie Borlaug, the AssociateDirector for External Relations at the Norman Borlaug Institute, has an explanation. “He wasnot the best communicator. Scientists like my grandfather are better at doing science than talkingabout it.” Fair enough, but there is more to it than just that. The blog, ‘Gods of the Copybook Headings’ has some compelling theories. First, Borlaug wasan agronomist and agriculture today just isn’t that sexy. Steve Jobs is worshiped because hegave rich westerners cool toys. “But in the grand sweep of history improved agriculturaltechniques have done far more for mankind than any fancy phone or electronic tablet,” theblogger noted. “Without cheap food nothing else is possible for a society.” Couple this, “Withthe unfortunate conceit that farmers are dumb yokels. Despite the fact that the typical farmerin modern North America has more real skills than the typical office worker.” It doesn’t help. Also working against him is his nationality, American. “It’s hard for many people in Europeand the developing world to admit that their lives and those of their countrymen, rest upon theinnovations of an American genius,” adds the blog. The world loves to hate Americans; it is oneof the last socially acceptable forms of bigotry left. This makes it next to impossible for someto admit that an ‘American’ actually did something good. It also doesn’t help that he wasn’t a ‘development aid scrounger’. He didn’t get in on the self-serving racket played by so many politicians, bureaucrats and do-gooders, a scam, whichprovides little real value to the intended recipients. Borlaug is someone who genuinely helped the poor. As the blog points out, “Compared topious-sounding words, actual accomplishment is a dangerous embarrassment.” To today’s Left, one of Borlaug’s greatest accomplishments is probably also his greatest crimeaccording to the blog, “He made the poor independent.” This may seem absurd, but as theblogger points out, “A great measure of their self-worth, as well as net worth, comes fromattempting to help the less fortunate. Should the less fortunate ever improve their fortunes, theself-worth and net worth of the Enlightened Utopian Altruists would implode.” Borlaug was not a celebrity and not particularly interested in being one, “He didn’t appeal tothe lowest common denominator. He didn’t say stupid or absurd things on television. Instead hemade a real difference in the lives of billions. In our present tense culture that’s simply pastunderstanding. If it does not amuse, entertain or flatter us it isn’t worth the bother. Previousgenerations made an effort to look up. Our culture makes a point of looking down into the dirtfar deeper, and far less fertile, than that which engaged the energies of Norman Borlaug.” The man deserves to be remembered and his accomplishments celebrated. We have a lot ofholidays, long weekends, and days off from work, for far less notable people or reasons. ANorman Borlaug Day would be far more appropriate than a lot of them.

Dear Editor: A Manitoba Cooperator editorial, February 6, 2014, recognized the thirti-eth anniversary of the establishment of Keystone Agriculture Producers(KAP). The editorial attributed the organization’s recent growth in member-ship to its ability to avoid becoming embroiled in debates on controversialissues such as the retention of the CWB. KAP leadership decided not to become involved in the debate over thefuture of the CWB at a time when a majority of Manitoba grain producers-KAP members favoured the retention of the CWB. It appears a lack ofpolicy and leadership on this important issue was driven by a vocal minor-ity within KAP, allied with one or more KAP commodity group members. Asecond important consideration for KAP leadership to consider at that timemay have been its reliance on line grain companies to collect KAP andcommodity group membership fees. The capacity of line grain companies todeliver or withhold KAP and commodity group membership fees introducesa market driven component to Manitoba/Canadian farm policy debate. Market driven farm policy has demonstrated a capacity to focus attentionon issues such as the $5,000 cap on the reduction of education tax on farmland or the provincial ban on the cosmetic use of herbicides. Meanwhile, a$64 basis on CWRS or $87 basis on CPRS, $96-130 per acre on a yield of 1.5tonne per acre is not considered worthy of a comment. Market driven farmpolicy can also ignore overwhelming evidence that UPOV 91 will increase afarmer’s seed costs while avoiding commenting on $600 a bushel Canolaseed. The future success of check-off funded farm and commodity organi-

An AlmostForgotten NobelHero Continuesto Feed Billions

Government OpensDoor to Seed Oligopoly

By Glenn Tait

government’s vision; AAFCwould “vacate” variety finish-ing. Germplasm developed byAAFC scientists will be soldto private companies, intellec-tual property rights rules willbe redrawn to benefit privatebreeders and variety registra-tion rules will be revisited. However, public plant breed-ing programs have proven tohave a very high return on in-vestment. Studies conductedby University ofSaskatchewan AgriculturalEconomist Dr. Richard Grayshow that every dollar in-vested in cereals breeding re-turns at least $20 and oftenmore. When the federal gov-ernment funds $30 million an-nually in wheat breeding it cre-ates at least $600 million invalue that is distributed amongfarmers in the form of bettercrops, providing income topay wages, taxes and check-offs for additional research,while supporting agriculture-related businesses in rural com-munities and helping proces-sors and consumers who ben-efit from better wheat. When private companies in-vest, these high returns go tomostly wealthy private stake-holders and non-Canadians. Inthe case of genetically modi-fied canola, soy and corn genepatents, hybridization andcontracts ensure companiescan hold onto most, if not allof the returns by forcing farm-ers to buy expensive new seedeach year. Dr. Gray’s research not onlypromises high returns com-pared to actual investment dol-lars for plant breeding, the re-search also documents thatwhen private seed companiesare involved (as is the case incanola) they reinvest only a

small portion of their returnsinto new research. Further research by Dr. R.J. Graf shows that privatebreeding is also less economi-cally efficient. A comparableyield increase was achieved inwheat for a $25 million annualpublic investment however; aprivate program required $80million to research canolabreeding. Whether the federal govern-ment has decided to bring inUPOV ’91 via Bill C-18 inspite of or because of this dis-parity, it will guarantee thelikes of Bayer, Syngenta,Monsanto and Dow a massivenew revenue stream. By de-funding and vacating publicspring wheat breeding, the fed-eral government is handingthese companies an incrediblylucrative new source of prof-its. Under this new fundingpolicy and the UPOV ’91Plant Breeders Regime thatunderpins it, Canadian grainfarmers not only lose the fu-ture varieties that the CRCwould have developed, but willpay higher seed prices and in-creased royalties on the pur-chase of new seed or as endpoint royalties on crops har-vested from farm-saved seed. If changes to variety regis-tration rules proposed in May2013 are adopted, companieswill be able to deregister oldervarieties that no longer pro-vide them with royalties, forc-ing farmers to choose amongfewer and more expensive va-rieties. When the CRC’s predeces-sor, the Dominion Rust Re-search Laboratory, was estab-lished in 1925, prairie farmerswere fighting for a fair shareagainst the oligopolies of thebanks, railways and grain com-panies and eventually built theCanadian Wheat Board as acounterweight with power toact in the farmers’ interest. Today, the Conservativegovernment is now adding in-sult to injury by creating a newseed oligopoly. Glenn Tait is a NationalFarmers Union Board Mem-ber. He farms grain and cattleon his family farm near Meota,Saskatchewan.

Avoiding Biting the Hand that Feeds Youzations may depend upon their capacity to focus attention on im-portant issues like timely rains, bountiful harvests, higher pricesand lower taxes. The division and retention of the value of a farmer’sproduction will be deemed too controversial to discuss, requiringthe abandonment of any responsibility to represent the farmer’scollective economic interest in the marketplace. Over the next year, millions of dollars in check-off fees will becollected by line grain companies and delivered to KAP andManitoba commodity groups. Many meetings will be held. Mostwill be poorly attended. Busy work will flourish. Commodity groupannual meetings may be conducted within the prescribed 40 minutetime limit. Such restricted time allocations will not be applied toevents held in some far away exotic and luxurious locations. Con-troversy will be avoided at all costs. Farmers will receive an everdeclining share of the food consumers’ dollar. Farms will continueto fail while the check-off funded organizations will fund flourish.Editors of the farm press will often extol the virtues of those organi-zations that remain uncontroversial thereby removing any need toreport on controversial issues, that if reported, may offend theiradvertisers. The same advertisers, that is, that collect the check-offfees that fund the uncontroversial market driven farm and commod-ity groups.Fred TaitRossendale, MB


I want to ponder the new gamewe are playing in, called com-modity production versus theexport game. As you know, a bigchunk of our production is ex-ported to other countries, 40percent according to the beef ad-vocacy and educational re-source group. Our two largestexport locations are currentlythe United States and Mexico. Recently, there have been newtrade opportunities opening upto us, but what does that reallymean for us here in Manitoba?Let’s have a look at three of thenew export opportunities for thefuture trade of your beef. The Comprehensive Economicand Trade Agreement (CETA),which will soon be concluded,is the free trade agreement be-tween Canada and the EuropeanUnion (EU). This is a high valuemarket that we, Canadians andin particular the beef sector, havenot had a lot of access to in thepast. An agreement in principlehas been signed and it is hopedthat final negotiations will con-clude shortly. The full agree-ment will come into effect in2015. CETA will result in immediateduty-free trade for almost 94percent of agricultural productlines exported. Once fully imple-mented, opportunities to exportour beef duty-free will increaseto 65,000 tonnes annually.

By Les Kletke

Jeff Owens likes raisingalpacas because of theanimal’s ability to get alongby itself. He also likes themarket opportunities thatthe animal provides. Heacknowledges that at thistime the alpaca population istoo low to provide meat buthe sees that as a possibilitydown the road. Alpaca meat, or la vianda,has been eaten for years inSouth America and has beenoffered in some Albertarestaurants, but the smallnumber of the animals in thiscountry has restricted thataspect of marketing. Owens has 40 of theanimals on his farm atAlexander and says this yearwas the first time he saw onebeing born after raising theanimals for 13 years. “They normally go off bythemselves and give birth,”he said. “They are kind of adrop and go animal andbirthing is not a problem.”The female gives birth to onecria a year, twins occurringless than one in a thousandpregnancies. The gestationperiod is 11 months and ayear to nurse the young onemeans an increase inpopulation is somewhatslower than other breeds oflivestock.

A New Game for Beef FA New Game for Beef FA New Game for Beef FA New Game for Beef FA New Game for Beef Farmersarmersarmersarmersarmers

This is a specialty market, thus there are con-ditions for accessing the EU such as plantsbeing federally licensed and certified to ex-port to the EU. In addition, meat processedfor export to the EU must come from animalsthat are hormone and ractopamine free. Nowyou may think, “That does nothing for me,”however, I would suggest that this is just an-other market opportunity, or tool, for produc-ers and processors who wish to pursue it. The Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement(CKFTA) is a market that is returning to usafter the long cold winter (pardon the pun)since BSE in 2003. This too should come intoeffect in 2015 and open the door for more beefto move into South Korea (Republic of Ko-rea). The Republic of Korea is the fifteenth larg-est market in the world with 50 million people.Even though they are only fifteenth, this stillis approximately 15 million more people morethan Canada’s population. In the last 30 years,the Republic of Korea’s Gross Domestic Prod-uct (GDP) hasn’t just doubled or tripled, it hasincreased more than six times. GDP is just theway economists measure the economic healthof a country and it allows us to compare howwe are doing year to year. Melinda German, is General Manager ofManitoba Beef Producers.

Versatility, It’s Strong Suit

“We are still sellingbreeding stock and it will bea few years before we see ameat industry,” says Owens.“But it will come and themeat is considered a delicacywhere ever it has beenserved.” For now he iscontent to build his herd andshear the animals once ayear. He shares a booth at theRoyal Winter Fair with PatLovatt who has six of theanimals and not only shearsthe animals but turns thewool into value addedproducts. “I shear and spin andweave and felt,” said Lovatt.“I had as many as 20, but amnow down to 6 and can’tdecide if I want to rebuildmy numbers or concentrateon the other parts of the

business. She has had the animals for14 years and agrees that theyare one of the easiest animalsshe has ever worked with.She spins the fibre to wool,which she then knits intosocks, mitts or othergarments. She also offered skeins ofthe wool at the booth at theRoyal Winter Fair. The fibreis popular for garmentsbecause it is non-allergenic.It does not contain lanolinthat is found in sheep woolso it is not resistant to water. Owens and Lovatt agreethat the animals are ready tomove past the novelty stageand into a more commercialsituation but they bothadmit that for them they stillhave some pet-like attrac-tion.

Jeff Owens and Pat Lovatt shared a display at Brandon’sRoyal Winter Fair… they also share an appreciation ofAlpacas.

Photo by Les Kletke


By Joan Airey

Mar Mac Farms andguests not only partici-pated in a bull auctionthey also helped to raisemoney by auctioning offtwo cheesecakes at theirtenth annual Bull Sale.The proceeds of the

Mar Mac FarmsRaises Money forRegional Health

Foundationcheesecake auction weredonated to BrandonRegional Health Founda-tion in memory of AndrewMooney and Rick Potter. The first sold to MooseCreek Red Angus ofKisbey, Saskatchewan for$450 and the second caketo Sandy Margetts of

Brandon for $500. “We raised $1,111 forthe Foundation in honourof our friends who losttheir battle with cancer in2013,” said Lois McRae ofMar Mac Farms. The top selling Simmen-tal Bull Mar Mac JohnnyCash 102A, son of SawnLake Tombstone sold for$10,000 to Wayne andTherese Heinrich ofBrandon. Simmental Bullsat the sale averaged$4,051. Highest selling RedAngus Bull was Red Mar

Mac Determined 31A sonof Red Lazy Me Detour2W sold for $6,100 to Kenand Rebecca Mackenzieof Manning, Alberta. RedAngus Bulls averaged$3,302. Top selling Black AngusBull Mar Mac Corner-stone 2A, son of SAVFinal Answer sold for$6,250 to Troy Reynoldsof Carberry. Black AngusBulls averaged $4,017.In all, seventy-nine bullssold for a total of $300,200with an average sale priceof $3,809.

Lois McRae talks with Darren Ippilito of Moose Creek RedAngus and Sandy Margetts from Brandon, after they pur-chased the cheese cakes auctioned off in memory of AndrewMooney and Rick Potter at Mar Mac Bull Sale.


Trace minerals make up a very small portion of the diets of high producing dairy cows yethave a tremendous impact upon their health, reproduction and milk production status. That’s because they play vital roles in the activation of enzyme systems that drive almostevery biochemical reaction in a cow’s body. Of particular importance are trace minerals such ascopper, zinc, manganese and selenium, which might be contained at high levels in a well-balanced dairy diet, but are of no nutritional use to dairy cows unless they have a high degreeof bioavailability. Reliable sources of these trace minerals with superior bioavailability shouldbe fed in the dairy barn so their natural benefits are profited. Consequently, a working definition of ‘Bioavailability’ of trace minerals in dairy cowsusually refers to an essential trace mineral source that is consumed, digested and absorbed by adairy cow in a form that can be metabolized and finally utilized in order to meet the dairycows’ specific trace mineral require-ments. The feed industry has routinelysupplemented commercial dairy feedswith different inorganic mineral saltswith varying degrees of‘bioavailability’. These compoundshave different solubility, molecularmass, electrical charge, pH propertiesand chemical reactive states that affectthe way and degree in which they are absorbed and retained in the cow. For instance, dairyresearch done over the years has shown the relative bio-availabilities of ‘rock’ sources ofdietary copper follows the rank of highest to lowest absorption: copper sulphate (bluestone),copper carbonate and copper oxide (virtually unavailable). Despite feeding a dairy diet with a good suitable level of essential trace minerals (often basedon NRC requirements), there are many dietary factors that will adversely reduce trace mineralbioavailability and thus affect how much essential mineral the dairy animal finally receives orcan utilize. Some of these dietary factors bind ingested trace minerals in the gut and make themunavailable for absorption in the small intestine. For example, high levels of molybdenum inthe dairy diet combine with copper digested from the feed in the rumen and render it insolublefor absorption. In response to such biochemical obstacles to good trace mineral absorption and metabolismin dairy cattle, the use of ‘chelated organic’ trace minerals in dairy diets has become mainstreamnutrition. Chelated/organic mineral compounds are positively charged trace minerals chemically boundto organic compounds. They are produced by a specialized manufacturing process that takes ametal element (i.e. copper) from inorganic rock sources and attaches it to an organic molecule.These are often derivatives of a protein molecule such as a peptide or amino acid. Examplesinclude zinc methionine, copper lysine, and manganese methionines as well as non-specifictrace mineral proteinates. Subsequently, it should be noted that selenium cannot be trulychelated. Rather, organic selenium is produced by feeding inorganic selenium to yeast, whichincorporates it into their body proteins. Similar to these organic metallo-proteins, a new category of chelates, known as hydroxyltrace minerals, has been introduced to dairy nutrition as a new source of bioavailability copper,zinc and manganese. They are well-defined crystalline structures held together by covalentbonds (similar to those found in proteinated trace minerals), which render them non-hydroscopic (do not absorb water), and non-oxidative (non-reactive with other nutrients suchas fats and vitamins). Unlike organic trace minerals, which contain between 10 - 15% specifictrace mineral, hydroxyl trace minerals are available in higher trace mineral concentrations suchas: copper chloride (54% copper), zinc hydrochloride (55% zinc) and manganese hydroxylchloride (44% manganese). Regardless of the chelated source, some scientists think a trace mineral chelate’s superiorbioavailability has more to do with its reduced electrical charge that makes it less reactive withother molecules that may bind it and thus make it unavailable for absorption. Organic mineralcompounds are also believed to be less susceptible to possible changes in pH, which asmentioned above, also affects inorganic mineral absorption. Studies that demonstrate the visible benefits of feeding chelated minerals with higherbioavailability than inorganic minerals to dairy cattle have been variable. In one experiment, researchers at North Carolina State University (NSCU) fed marginalcopper deficient heifer replacement calves either organic chelated copper, inorganic coppersulphate, or inorganic copper carbonate. The researchers concluded that organic copper mayhave the same bioavailability as inorganic copper sulphate under normal dietary conditions. However, in a second NCSU experiment, they fed the same treatments, but in the presenceof high dietary molybdenum, known to be antagonistic toward dietary copper. As a result, theorganic copper was then shown to have greater intestinal absorption and liver retention in theanimals than the inorganic copper sources. Such evidence pointed to the advantage of usingchelated minerals under special conditions in dairy nutrition. To help iron out of such inconsistencies, a new statistical review technique called meta-analysis has been applied to such practical field studies in order to determine commonpatterns, areas of disagreement among treatment results and any significant experimentalinteractions. For example, a 2010 meta-analysis examined 20 dairy research papers and reports performedby the Zinpro Corp a manufacturer of organic chelated minerals for livestock. The meta-resultsof this review demonstrated that organic chelated trace mineral supplementation in dairy dietsimproved health status, milk production and reproduction performance in lactation dairy cows. Such field trial reviews are useful in demonstrating that the source of essential trace mineralsfor dairy cattle should contain high bioavailability. One also might extrapolate that our precioustime, effort and money are not wasted by ineffective over-formulation of dairy diets withinorganic minerals. Instead, we should rather fine-tune the dairy diet with various sources ofessential trace minerals. Reliable rock trace mineral sources might work satisfactorily in modestsituations, while chelated trace minerals with higher bioavailabilities are effective for more highperformance or challenging environments. Successful dairy cows should not only consume adequate amounts of an essential traceminerals, but ones that can be effectively absorbed, retained and metabolized in their body andultimately contribute to high performance and financial rewards.

Dairy Rewards Found in TraceMinerals with Greater Bioavailability

By Harry Siemens

The higher prices for pork and live hogs and the lower feed prices seems to be the best incentiveto get people in the pork industry out to an annual meeting. The recent AGM of Manitoba PorkCouncil (MPC) was no exception. Producers hope a tentative agreement with the provincial government will end the 2011 morato-rium on new swine barn construction or expansion in Manitoba. Michael Teillet Manager, Sustainable Development Programs with MPC, said that for the mostpart the hog industry is in slow decline in the last two to three years resulting in a shortage of pigsfor processing. The decline was a direct result of the moratorium, high feed costs and lower prices, but now withaging infrastructure and barns combined with poor prices over the last five to seven years theindustry needs breathing room, room to expand. The Pork Council is not sitting back to wait for things to change. Pork Council representatives areat the table with the government, educating and negotiating. “We have reached a tentative agreement, we believe, with the government and it involves threedifferent aspects,” said Teillet. One aspect is that producers who build new barns must inject manure into their fields, must havea multi-cell manure storage system and there would very likely be a limit on the total amount ofphosphorus allowed to accumulate on farm fields. “We always refer to the moratorium as a barn ban,” said Teillet. “In reality we could theoreticallyhave built new barns if we had added anaerobic digesters with the new barn but they are soexpensive, in the million dollar plus range, that nobody has built new barns because of that.” “This alternative of using a multi-cell lagoon system is a much more reasonable and a practicalsolution which will, we believe, allow us to build new barns,” he said. Teillet stressed that this is still a tentative agreement and they are waiting for final approval. MPC Chair Karl Kynoch said fighting for survival in the last five years has left the hog industrywith poor and deteriorating barns and infrastructure. Kynoch said hog producers built only four new hog barns in Manitoba between 2008 and 2013.That number needs to be closer to 20 to 30 each year, estimates MPC, to sustain the pork sector inManitoba. Kynoch said the biggest challenge is having the cash to replace them and the moratorium keepsproducers from even trying to build new barns. Even with record high hog prices due to a NorthAmerican hog shortage, lenders are still reluctant to invest in pigs because producers carry heavydebt loads after years of low or negative margins. He is hoping the provincial government will relax the hog barn moratorium and some of theenvironment-related rules governing hog production. Another issue at this year’s MPC AGM surrounds the new requirements for reporting pig move-ments in Canada and the tools in place to do so. Amended regulations that take effect on July 1,under Canada’s Health of Animals Act, swine traceability will need to be accommodated. Anyonemoving pigs must report those movements to the PigTrace Canada database. Jeff Clark, the Manager of PigTrace Canada, an initiative of the Canadian Pork Council, said bothshippers and receivers must report movements. He thinks it will be a bit easier to encourage andenforce this requirement because of the biosecurity needs surrounding the PED virus crisis. Clark explained that producers have seven days to report information and movements to thePigTrace database. “We are targeting to get that information reported as soon as possible, hopefullyin real time,” he said. “When pigs leave one facility to go to another, both the shipper and receiver must report keymovement information and that is the departure and destination locations, the date and time ofloading and unloading, the number of animals as well as the vehicle licence plate and any animalidentifiers that are required to go on the animals.” According to Clark, producers can use many reporting options in their operations. “We have a lot of electronic based tools that can help facilitate movement reporting as quickly aspossible, such as a mobile application, desktop application on the web and different programminginstructions for programmers to link commercial herd management software with PigTrace with atoll free number.” He said over the next couple of weeks provincial pork organizations will receive education kitsacross Canada, including a cover letter outlining specific provincial information, and then they willdistribute the packages to anyone who handles pigs.

MPC Hopes Moratorium onHog Production Ends Soon


By Peter Vitti

Many parts of western Canada suffered through one of the longest and coldest wintersin decades. It is anybody’s guess if arctic temperatures and belly-high snows predisposebeef cows to grass tetany when green lush grass sprouts across pastures. However,proper nutrient supplementation to the cows’ early spring diet eliminates any guessworksince this magnesium- deficiency disease is highly preventable. Reported cases of grass tetany or hypomagnesaemia often affect mature cattle grazingrapidly growing pastures, which are magnesium deficient. Symptoms of grass tetany inbeef cows may start with extreme nervousness; progress to a lack of muscle coordinationand spasms, staggering and finally failure to stand. If not immediately treated, most ani-mals suffering from tetany symptoms die. The risk of grass tetany in beef cattle seems to be higher in a number of grazed coolseason pastures of fescues, timothy, orchard grasses, brome-grass and vested wheat-grass. It rarely appears in legume pastures containing clovers or alfalfa. Normal magnesium levels for these common grass and legume species usually measure0.20-0.25 percent, which is enough to support the magnesium requirements of beef cows.The NRC Mg requirement is about 13-15 g/hd/d for gestating cows and about 20-22 g/hd/d for early stages of lactation. In contrast, when grass tetany develops in the above high-risk pasture grasses, their magnesium levels are measured below 0.10-0.12 percent andconsequently the magnesium requirements of beef cows cannot be supported. Fortunately, it takes specific climatic and field conditions to come together to dropmagnesium levels to deficient levels in pastures that cause grass tetany in cattle. The highest risk occurs in cattle grazing succulent grasses that seem to appear fromnowhere in warm periods of 10-15 C after weeks of cool, wet and cloudy weather. If there ishigh potassium and nitrogen levels in the soil such as from the previous fall’s appliedfertilizers, there is an added risk that these two elements interfere with magnesium’s uptakeinto the plants’ roots. Such grass tetany risk for cattle seems to decrease substantiallywhen day- and night-time temperatures rise above 20 C as grass is able to draw moremagnesium from the soil. One should also keep in mind, some of these conditions that predispose cattle to grasstetany occur after the cow takes its first bite of lush pasture! When beef cows grazemagnesium-deficient pastures, these grasses often contain very high levels of potassiumthat tend to follow and interfere with the ruminal absorption of what little magnesium isingested. As far back as 1957, research illustrated that when the ratio of dietary potassium to thesum of calcium and magnesium or ‘tetany ratio’ was less than 2.2, the incidence of grasstetany affected less than 1.0 percent of a group of beef cattle. The incidence of grasstetany increased to nearly 7 percent in another group of cattle when this tetany ratio wasgreater than 2.2. Note: The exact equation to determine the tetany ratio is based upon milli-equivalents ofpotassium, magnesium and calcium, which takes into account the molecular weight andelectrical charge of each of these elements. Regardless of a ‘tetany ratio’, the predictability of grass tetany has remained unclear.Some newer field trials have shown that cattle can be affected in some magnesium-defi-cient pastures, while not affected in others. Upon closer observation it was shown thatcattle fed loose salt (sodium chloride) on a free-choice basis are rarely affected by grasstetany. In contrast, cattle even provided with magnesium supplements on pasture with lowsodium or salt intake may come down with grass tetany. Speculation behind these phenomena is that lush pastures that cause grass tetany arevery high in potassium. This high concentration of potassium may interfere with magne-sium absorption in cattle rumen, but when salt is fed on the same pasture it counteractsexcessive dietary potassium, while restoring any metabolic electrolyte imbalance in thecattle caused by the potassium in the first place. As a result, there is more magnesiumabsorption and the threat of grass tetany in cattle is decreased. A beef cow that receives inadequate magnesium or utilizes it poorly in its body fromgrass tetany pastures usually comes down with deficiency symptoms quickly. Although70 percent of magnesium is stored in the skeleton, with the remainder in the soft tissuesand fluids, this macro-mineral is poorly retained compared to other minerals stored in thebody. Luckily, there are several methods to prevent grass tetany on pastures each spring. Such sound grass tetany preventative measures are:- Feed a ‘high magnesium’ mineral (with vitamins) that contains at least 15-20 grams ofmagnesium oxide in every 100 grams of mineral mix. Provide this mineral mix to cattle abouttwo - three weeks before cattle are released to pasture. Continue to feed a high Mg mineralfor the first part of the pasture season when the grasses are in their lush growing stages.- Assure that all cattle are consuming about 100 grams of this mineral mix in order that theyreceive the recommended amount of dietary magnesium. In addition to the prescribedcattle mineral, feed salt (sodium chloride) at the rate of 15-30 grams per head per day,preferably in loose form. This salt might also be mixed with the high magnesium mineral.- Consider turning cattle out to pastures later. Once grass plants are over 6 in. tall, much ofthe inherit risks of grass tetany are past. Some producers continue to feed some grass hayduring the early parts of the grazing season.- Make it a point to observe beef cows at least two times per day when grass tetany is ahigh risk. Symptoms of grass tetany are similar to milk fever and other ‘downer cow’syndromes. Consult with your veterinarian. Beef cows that are diagnosed early withhypomagnesaemia are often treated with intravenous or subcutaneous administration ofmagnesium-containing solutions. Older beef cows grazing lush cool season pastures can be susceptible to grass tetanyduring early springtime. Even without seeing one affected cow, grass tetany can be effec-tively prevented by making sure that all essential nutrients (including magnesium) arebalanced in the beef cows’ overall diet.

By Les Kletke

Pam Heath is with the Rare Breeds Asso-ciation and would like nothing better thanto see some of the less used breeds of cattleand sheep find their way into the marketplace. She believes that the best way tosave a breed of livestock is to use them. Her display at the Royal Winter Fair inBrandon featured a basket of wool fromvarious breeds of sheep and assorted otherspecies. She offered information on the ad-vantages to various wools and the animalsthat yield the harvest. “In Britain there are 60 different breedsof sheep,” said Heath. “And they each havespecific traits that make them valuable.”Many of the breeds are named for the areathey originated or where production is con-centrated. “The Cotswold is a great big fleece andhas fibre six inches long,” said Heath. “Aknitter might be able to make a garment orpair of mitts from a single fleece.” Heath isfinding support for her cause in a new gen-eration of knitters who value the variouswools and their specific traits. Some maypurchase a single fleece from a large sheeplike a Cotswold and take it through the en-tire process of cleaning, carding, spinningand knitting themselves. The display also featured various artforms created from wool. “There is an increasing amount of fibreartists,” said Heath. “And their work is asindividual as the artist.” She said the char-acteristics of the wool, like the thickness offibre or the way it accepts a dye, makecertain wools more attractive to differentprojects. The initial Manitoba Fibre Festival heldlast year at the St. Norbert Farmers market

Spring Prevention of GrassTetany in Beef Cows

Unique Animals Find Unique Uses

Pam Heath says the revival in spinning and knittinghas increased the demand for different types ofwool from unique breeds.

attracted nearly 20 exhibitors and good attendancedespite inclement weather. This year’s event is sched-uled for September 6 and already has exhibitors com-mitted. That is exactly the kind of thing that Heath wantsto see to help preserve the breeds that are fallingfrom popularity or have never gained a major foot-hold in this country. “We need to have more people see the value of thevarious types of wool and that increases the de-mand. When they are commercially viable, a breed isnot at risk of becoming extinct. The greater the de-mand the more it will be produced.” Heath’s message is most easily applied to smallanimals that yield products used in weaving ratherthan to breeds of horses or cattle.

Photo by Les Kletke


By Les Kletke

The reputation of Canadian cattle in the international market may be in question if plansto cut funding to the Canadian Livestock Record Corporation continue. Pam Heath Manitoba’s Manager for Rare Breeds Canada said that funding is being cut tothe organization and the only alternative is privatization. “We don’t know what will happen with a cut in government funding and it is impossibleto get more information,” said Heath, who was part of the Rare Breeds display at the RoyalWinter Fair in Brandon. Her concern with the government support of the breed registrygoes beyond her role with the Rare Breeds Association. “If the funding is cut this could have a dramatic impact on the registry system in place forany breeds in Canada,” she said. “The current Canadian system is the envy of manycountries and we are in danger of losing it.” The breed registry maintains the breed book for all species but is particularly valuable inthe cattle industry where exports total millions of dollars annually. Canada has not been a hot bed of new breeds but has contributed significantly and inparticular with breeds that work well in Canadian conditions. The Canadienne is the only breed of dairy cattle developed in this country and origi-nated in Quebec as an out crossing from cattle imported in the 16th century. It is stillpopular in Quebec. The Hays Converter developed in Alberta and Shaver from Ontariobreeds are noted for beef production. The Speckled Park is Canada’s newest breed andwas developed in Saskatchewan. Heath’s concern is for more than just the breeds that have been developed in thiscountry. “It is not just these breeds but all the breeds and for the integrity of the livestockindustry it is important that the breed books be maintained by an impendent source,” shesaid. Heath has been frustrated by the lack of answers she has received when askingabout the future of the Canadian Livestock Registry. “We have not been able to get any answers from the government on this and it appearsthat with the retirement of people in key roles the registry may fade away and becomeprivatized,” said Heath. She encourages livestock producers to pursue the issue throughtheir breed associations and with Members of Parliament.

By Les Kletke

Fred Gilbert remembers his firstRoyal Winter Fair and that was awhile ago, he was only seven yearsold at the time and his dad anduncles were showing horses. “It was 1957,” he said with a hintof pride. “We’ve worn out a fewbarns and a lot of people along theway, but we’re still coming and en-joying it.” Gilbert is the current gen-eration of Gilbert Farms that has hadshow horses at the Brandon institu-tion for nearly 60 years. Over the years he has seen a lot ofchanges and he rates the BrandonKeystone Centre as one of the bestfacilities in the country to showhorses. “That is one of the reasons peoplekeep coming here,” he said. “It is allunder one roof and when they gethere they can stay inside. There isno other facility with the kind ofwarm-up facilities we have here. Thatis a big plus for this show.” Whenhe began coming to the Fair it washoused in several barns with out-door warm-up areas. While the facility in Brandon hasbecome one of the country’s best,he said the selection of horses hasnot improved accordingly, and thatdoes not reflect on the Manitobacity but on the number of horses inthe country. “The selection of horses is not asgood and that is a function of thenumbers,” said Gilbert. “There justaren’t as many horses to choosefrom in breeding programs. There are

A LongWinter Fair

Tale

Fred Gilbert has been showing horses in Brandonsince he was 7 and plans to continue for a long time.

some very good horses but the selection of breed-ing stock has narrowed.” Gilbert concentrates on Hackney ponies, whichhe said were bred as coach horses. “They were originally bred to pull the Queen’scoach. They were working horses,” said Gilbert. “Ithink that sometimes we concentrate too much onthe refinement and have lost the strength. They arefrail and weaker. They don’t have the heart andstability they were originally meant to have as acoach horse.” He acknowledges that may be whatjudges are looking for in the ring and it is his pref-erence to see the heat of a working horse. The ponyby definition is under 14.2 hands or 58 inches at thewithers (bottom of the mane). One thing that hasn’t changed in his mind is thecrowd. “The crowd is what makes the show and for us togo in the ring and perform for an appreciative crowdmakes it all worthwhile,” said Gilbert, who workswith trainers across the continent to get the righthorses in his stable.

Canada’s Livestock BreedRegistry in Danger

Photo by Les Kletke


By Joan Airey

It is officially spring,but in ManitobaMother Nature isteasing us! It is stillcold out and our frost-free dates are stillmany weeks away, butwe are all eager to getgardening. First, the hard job ofsoil preparation,which is the mostimportant step. Manyarticles suggest thebest rule of thumb isto roto-till in fall andonly top dress in thespring. Every year infall or spring, it is agood idea to add neworganic matter such asaged manure or well-turned compost. Ruleof thumb with agedorganic matter is youcan never add toomuch one time and an

Mother Nature is Still Teasing Us

inch or more if possible every year.You should roto-till down at least sixinches more to grow carrots andpotatoes.

Vegetables that like to grow in coolweather, like lettuce, spinach, carrots,radish beets and onions, should beplanted first. Broccoli, brussel sprouts,cabbage and potatoes should be plantednext. In Manitoba, this year, it looks like itwill be early June before we can plant outtomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Afterall, many of us received two or moreinches of snow this past weekend sogardening outdoors will have to waitawhile. Remember not to plant yourtomato plants in the same place as lastyear, a three-year rotation is recom-mended and avoid where potatoes,eggplant and peppers were grown. Manytomato plants (seeds) have initialsbeside their name that means a varietyhas tolerance to diseases. The letter Vdenotes Verticillium, F for Fusarium, N isNematodes and T is for Tobacco Mosaic. A garden needs one inch of rain orwater each week and early morning is thebest time to water. Evening watering isless desirable because plant leaves thatremain wet through the night are moresusceptible to fungus diseases. Frost-free dates for Brandon in anormal year are between May 27 toSeptember 10m, Winnipeg from May 25to September 22 and in the Rivers areathere was no frost in 2013 until lateSeptember. A gardening friend of mine triedplanting lettuce, radishes, spinach andcarrots last fall. I’ll let you know if itworked for them. I do know it does workbecause I did try this method severalyears ago. We have been eating lettucegrown in our bay window box for threeweeks and have cucumbers ready topick.

Carmen greenhouse cucumbers (Stokes) grown in a large pot.

Photos by Joan Airey

Green Forrest pelleted lettuce seed (Veseys) grown in a planter from seeds started at theend of February. The lettuce has been cut off several times and comes back within a week.

By Les Kletke

Mitch Eastley has no plans of breeding the next great showpony. He enjoys competing and acknowledges that horses arehis hobby. Eastley works full time for the City of Steinbach andacknowledges that it is a long way from his home in Nesbittwhere he keeps his horses. “I have a place in Steinbach for the week and get back on theweekends,” he said. “It is a bit of travel but I enjoy the time onthe farm.” Eastley has established a lengthy string of years competing atthe Royal Winter Fair in Brandon and plans to keep on comingback. “It has been 20 years,’ he said, adding, “I missed 1995because my horse was sick. That is the way things go and thereis nothing you can do about it.” Eastley has shown with his father Ted over the years and thetwo have been competitors in the ring. “He is slowing down a bit and not as involved,” said theyounger Eastley, but the pictures on the enclosure of MTMstables at the Fair have pictures of both in the competitor’sarena. Mitch said that as he began competing he chose his owncolours for his silks, which are worn in the ring in the roadstercompetition. “They are like jockey silks and each competitor has theirown colours and designs a particular style,” he said. “There isno particular meaning to the design but most people choose thecolours that represent their stable.” Next door to Eastley at the Fair was the Gilbert Farmsdisplay with its traditional red and black draping. Fred Gilbert said the colours that he has, have been atradition with the farm for years but he has used other coloursin the ring. “I purchased a set of silks at an auction in Montreal,” hesaid. “They were from a well known harness driver that haddonated them to the fundraiser and my daughter wears them incompetitions.” Gilbert said that most drivers design their ownsilks and have the colours and various designs incorporatedinto the outfits. “They get established and people recognize them for thestable they represent,” said Gilbert. “People recognize thedriver by the colours and the design and it just adds a bit ofcolour to the event.”

The Colour of Silks

Ted Eastley has been competing at the Royal Winter Fair since1995. He says the blue and black silks were his design andadd colour to the competitor’s ring.

Photo by Les Kletke


By Les Kletke

It is too early to tell howwinter wheat came throughthe extended winter; plantshave not yet begun togreen and while producerswould like to make evalua-tions and seed plans ac-cordingly it might be an-other two weeks beforeevaluations can be made. Dennis Lange withManitoba Agriculture,Food and Rural Develop-ment (MAFRD) in Altonasaid that it will take a coupleof weeks for soil tempera-tures to warm to the pointwhere the plants will comeback to life. Despite thelength of the winter, an ad-equate snow cover shouldhelp plants survive. Plant populations have adramatic impact on yieldpotential and a stand of 30plants per square foot hasthe potential to yield 60bushels an acre while astand of eight plants dropsdown to 47 bushels per acreyield potential. John Friesen at LoweFarm would like to know ifhe will need seed for thequarter section of winterwheat that he planted intocanola stubble last fall butis content to wait and see. “The plants emerged last

Winter Wheat is a Waiting Game

fall and it looked like we hada good stand,” he said.“But we have not seen anyactivity in the plant thisspring with the cold soiltemperatures.” Ducks Unlimited (DU)has developed a test to seethe viability of the plantgrowth that speeds theprocess. DU agronomistsrecommend digging out theplants from several areas ofthe field and rinsing of thesoil, then trimming off theroots and leaving about aninch of stem above thecrown. The samples shouldbe placed in Ziploc bags,stored at room temperature,and rinsed again every twodays. If they do not de-velop new white roots in sixdays, they should be con-

sidered dead. If new rootsdevelop, then the plants areviable and the stand shouldbe left. Friesen said he is not go-ing out to buy seed for re-planting his acreage andwill begin seeding the restof his land before making adecision on the crop. “When it dries up wehave lots of other work todo and we’ll leave the win-ter wheat to see how itgreens up and if the standis good enough across theentire field,” he said. “Thenwe will make a decision andsometimes nature can makethat for us. If it gets too late,the winter wheat might bethe best crop we haveseeded.”

Winter wheat has not made any move to emerging at this pointand it could take until mid-May before a decision can be madeon the viability of plants. Photo by Les Kletke

By Elmer Heinrichs

In its annual income fore-cast issued on April 16, Ag-riculture Canada said ag-gregate net cash incomewill slip five percent thisyear to $12.6 billion, but willstill be 23 percent above theaverage for the period of2008-2012. It says farm-level averagenet operating income willsimilarly decline by fivepercent to $65,243. Crop receipts are forecastto total $29.1 billion in 2014,three percent below theprojection for 2013, but 17percent higher than the2008-2012 average. “It is expected that therewill be higher grain and oil-seed marketing, but lowerprices,” the report stated.“Increased marketing willresult from large carry-instocks that farmers held fol-lowing the record harvestof 2013.” Western farmers havebeen complaining about arail transport backlog that’sslowing the movement ofgrain, one of the factors,department officials said,contributing to lower pricesand higher stocks. Grain farmers produced a

Farm Income to Drop Slightlyrecord crop of 96.5 milliontonnes of grain in 2013 dueto historically high yieldsand ideal weather condi-tions. Aggregate farm cash re-ceipts for livestock are fore-cast at $21.5 billion in 2014,just below the record levelof 2013. “Relatively low suppliesof cattle in North Americaand expectations of in-creased heifer retentionshould translate into feweranimals available forslaughter and higher cattleprices in 2014,” the reportstated. Hog prices in Canadashould increase slightlydue to tight U.S. supplies.There may also be ripplesfrom the porcine epidemicdiarrhea virus that hit theU.S. last year and hasfound its way into Canadarecently. Agriculture officials saidthey are watching the vi-rus, but they added that Ca-nadian producers generallyhave strong safeguards inplace to keep the diseaseout of their barns. Egg producers andchicken farmers are ex-pected to see declines ofnine percent and eight per-

cent respectively, due tolower prices resulting fromlower feed costs. In 2014, program pay-ments are forecast to riseby eight percent, or $199million, to a total of $2.8 bil-lion. “These latest forecastsshow how the agriculturesector continues to be astrong driver of the Cana-dian economy,” said Agri-culture Minister Gerry Ritz. “Canada’s agriculture andfood industry has growninto a modern, technologi-cally-advanced, export-ori-ented sector that is amongthe elite performers intoday’s’ highly competitiveglobal marketplace and theoutlook is bright for ourfarmers.” For 2013, the departmentexpects net farm incomeswill be just shy of the his-torical peak seen in 2012,despite a reduction in pro-gram payments and a de-cline in crop prices in thefall. Net cash income for 2013is projected to total $13.2billion, only one percentlower than 2012. Farm-levelaverage net operating in-come is forecast to be$68,498, an all-time high.


By Les Kletke

Dr. Andy Allen had no shortage of visitors at his displayof x-rays that were part of Through the Farm Gate at theRoyal Winter Fair in Brandon. Allen is an instructor at theWestern College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon. Hisdisplay featured x-rays from various species of the animalworld and challenged youngsters to identify them. “They do amazingly well,” said Allen. “They are not boundby what they think the item might be, they look at theshape and offer their best guess and many times they areright.” His x-rays featured items from broken bones to turtlesand lizards.

Young Vets Get to Practice

Young would-be doctors had the opportunity to see whatmight be causing their dog’s stomach ache in a mini operatingroom at the Royal Winter Fair.

The display is a public relationsventure much more than a recruit-ment exercise since the school hasa limit on the number of studentsaccepted and that number is ex-ceeded by applicants every year.Manitoba is allocated 15 of the 80spots open to first year students. Myrna MacDonald is the Com-munications Officer for the Schooland was also part of the exhibit, al-ternating her time between answer-ing questions about the school andhelping out with Operation Doggie,which had a large stuffed canineunder a sheet and allowed youngwould-be doctors to remove theitems that could be causing a prob-lem in his stomach. They included

mainly plastic toys. “That might not be quite the real items vets find,” jokedAllen. “But the event is real and vets do perform thosetypes of operations and find some pretty strange things indogs’ stomachs.” Allen also commented that it was thedog’s version of what many dairy men refer to as HardwareDisease. “But usually refers to a piece of wire or somemetal object,” he said. MacDonald said that many students are choosing thepath of large and small animal practices, which is ideal forrural areas. A few years ago there was concern that manyof the students entering the instruction where choosing tospecialize in small animal practices, which allowed them toconcentrate on pets and keep better office hours than a vetin a rural situation who may face calls at any time of the dayor night, especially during calving season. The Saskatoon institution is one of five in Canada, alongwith Guelph, Ontario, Calgary, Charlottetown and the new-est college in British Columbia at UBC. Not many of the visitors will end up in vet school butthey certainly enjoyed looking at what might be in a dog’sstomach or reading a real x-ray.

Dr. Andy Allen letsyoung visitors guessthe subject of x-raysat the University ofSaskatchewan’sdisplay at the RoyalWinter Fair.

Photos by Les Kletke

By Elmer Heinrichs

Altona farm production advisor Dennis Lange seesgrowers in Manitoba increasing soybean acreageagain, this time to between 1.2 and 1.3 million acres.It’s only a year ago that growers here grew a recordone million acres of soybeans. Lange adds that Manitoba growers are also likely toincrease acreage in dry beans from last year’s 95,000acres to perhaps 130,000 or even 140,000 acres. A corn specialist said Ontario farmers would likelyfollow the lead of U.S. farmers and switch some fieldsfrom corn to soybeans this year. Greg Stewart doesnot expect a dramatic increase of acreage, althoughcorn is a more input-intensive crop and soybeans havethe potential to be slightly more profitable this year. Stewart also pointed out there could be problems ifthe traditional rotation of corn, soy and wheat is ad-justed. He said soybeans are harder on the soil and adramatic swing towards soybeans in any rotation couldresult in a decline in soil health and structure over thelong-term.

More Soybeans Acres PlannedMore Soybeans Acres PlannedMore Soybeans Acres PlannedMore Soybeans Acres PlannedMore Soybeans Acres Planned

The Cattlemen’s Young Leaders (CYL) program recently an-nounced its 2014 national mentorship recipients. In total 16 recipients were selected following the final selectionround. There were 26 semi-finalists vying for a spot in the na-tional youth initiative of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. This year’s graduates and mentorship recipients included threeyoung leaders selected from Manitoba. Andrea Bertholet(Hartney), Austen Anderson (Swan River) and Carollyne Kehler(Steinbach) will be paired with a mentor for an eight-monthmentorship.

CYL AnnouncesMentorshipRecipients


Craig Fewelling, Ringman, takes a bid on HTA Texas 318A which soldto Hunter Charolais of Roblin, Manitoba at the HTA’s Charolais andGuests Bull Sale in Neepawa at the Plains Ag Complex on March 26.Forty-five bulls sold for $244,550 with an average price of $5,375. HTA Stratford 320A, sired by RGP Remington 101Y, sold for $13,500to Keith Caul of Devlin, Ontario. HTA Nevada 317A, sired by WinnMans Quigley 539X, sold for $12,750 to Pleasant View Farms of Irma,Alberta. HTA Enfield 384A, sired by RGP Remington 101Y, sold for$10,750 to Cam Stewart of Paynton, Saskatchewan.

Manitoba Bulls in DemandAcross Canada

Photo by Joan Airey

By Bill Stilwell

With colonized sand dunes up to tenmetres high and dotted with open sandyareas known as ‘blowouts’, the Oak LakeSandhills natural area is unique. Here rareand endangered plants and animalsflourish. Protecting this habitat is apriority for one conservation mindedfamily. From an agricultural perspective, thisland is virtually worthless, according toJon Drinkwalter. However, from arecreation standpoint and for biologicaldiversity, it is priceless. This tract ofsandhill habitat, located southeast ofVirden, provides a home for many plantsand animals. Jon and Angie Drinkwalter are not yourtypical landowners. This conservationminded family feels that protectinghabitat is more important than theeconomic return and as a result theyopted to place a Conservation Agreement(Easement) on their property, coveringparts of a three quarter-section. “It’s all wild with big rolling hills,” saidDrinkwalter. “When a study was donethey found endangered species andspecies at risk.” “The Oak Lake Sandhills and WetlandsNatural Area (OLSW), located southeastof Virden, supports dozens of discretesandhill areas that rise as much as 10metres above the plain, supporting amixture of aspen woodland and sandhillprairie,” explained Josh Dillabough theNatural Area Coordinator with NatureConservancy Canada - Manitoba (NCC).“The property itself is a stabilized sanddunes system with a mix of sandhillwoodlands and sandhill grasslandshabitats.” “The sandhill slopes alongside are hostto a suite of rare plants such as SandBluestem, Spiny Star, [a cactus] and SilkyPrairie Clover.”

Worthless Land Is Priceless

The OLSW Natural Area isone of the NatureConservancy’s priority areasdue to the diversity of plantsand animals found hereincluding a lengthy list ofrare and endangered species.Protecting fragile habitatslike this is important as ithelps maintain biodiversity.Who knows what yetundiscovered creatures livehere and in other threatenedhabitats. The Drinkwalters boughtthis property as recreationalland. Their family andfriends often join them to sitaround a campfire, picnic,camp, and hike and enjoyother fun outdoor activities.Since they have a horse, theymight eventually use it forpasture on the part notcovered by the easement. Inthe fall, several groups ofhunters continue to gethunting permission andenjoy the property. The family especiallyenjoys the peace and quietthe place offers. “The onlynoise you hear is from theroad. It’s so peaceful, nonoise, no light, just the starsand there’s a million of them.It is quiet, peaceful,recreation land.” “We don’t want it forfarming, it is our hobby

Tiger Beetle.

Cactus.

land,” he explains. “Every-body is happy, the Conser-vancy got a big slab ofprotected land and we paidoff our mortgage, so it isgood for everybody.” “We have pictures of bearsfrom a trail camera,” saidDrinkwalter. “There’s a goodsized black bear and acinnamon coloured one aswell. “There’s lots of deer,coyotes and bald eagles.” Onone occasion their daughtersaw a big cat with a long tail.They think it was likely acougar. “One of the strangercreatures here is the Tigerbeetle, which is quiteunusual and they are foundin the sandy blowouts on theDrinkwalter property,” saidDillabough. “Manitoba is home to 19species of these sandbeetles,” said Dr. BobWrigley Chair of the NatureConservancy of Canada’svolunteer Scientific AdvisoryCommittee for Manitoba.“They all have highlyspecific habitat requirementsand so, typically occur inisolated colonies, with manyyet to be discovered. Severalspecies are currently at risk,with small populationsfound at only one or acouple of localities.Manitoba’s largest species,the Big Sand Tiger Beetle,inhabits the sandy blowoutsof the Drinkwalter property.Due to its relativelyundisturbed nature, theproperty no doubt providesessential habitat for literallythousands of wildlifespecies,” said Wrigley. “I would absolutelyrecommend easements toother landowners,” said JonDrinkwalter. Permanentlyprotecting the habitat ontheir property seemed to bethe right decision for thisfamily. “Absolutely, I woulddo it again in a heartbeat!” A conservation agreementis a voluntary, legalagreement between alandowner and a conserva-tion organization thatpermanently limits uses ofthe land in order to protectits conservation values. For more information,contact The NatureConservancy of Canadanatureconservancy.ca,[email protected] call 1-866-683-6934.


Kimberly Fargo guides her heavy horse through the obstacle course at the RoyalManitoba Winter Fair while her father, Rob Fargo, walks the course to show theaudience what path the drivers will need use to guide their team of heavy horsesand wagon. “About five years ago they added the obstacle course to the heavy horse show atthe Royal Manitoba Winter Fair. The obstacle course tests horse and driver. Theyare scored on driving, quality of horses and equipment, how horses perform, andoverall appearance,” said Brenda Hunter of Hamiota. Included in the obstacle course are many challenges such as pylons set up tomake sharp turns without driving over them, planks to cross and backing a teamand wagon into a narrow space with little manoeuvring room.

By Les Kletke

Brian Harvey could not count the number ofcomments he got on ‘An Effective Railway Mov-ing Grain’ for his display at the Royal WinterFair in Brandon. “There were a lot,” he said with a smile. “Lotsof farmers want the railways to move more grain,but this little one has been working prettysteady.” The railway was part of a display thatHarvey, his brother Jerry and daughter Meredithhave built over the years to explain the grainsystem in western Canada. It has grown to in-clude a working threshing machine. The project started with a request from theSwan River Agricultural Society and Harveybegan building a working elevator complete withan operating Gerber floor that allows for grain tobe channelled to various bins or loaded to thewaiting railcar. He estimates the project tookabout 2,200 hours. “The elevator has 2,200 individual shingles that

Brian Harvey’s model elevator and workingrailway proved a big hit at the Royal WinterFair. He can not keep up with the requeststo “build his system” at other events.

A Model Railway Moving Grain

This working threshing machine is not an exact copy of any machine but Brian Harvey wanted itto show the process of threshing, and it does that from a head of wheat to a clean sample.

Photos by Les Kletke

my daughter cut with the chop saw,” he said. “There are no models available so we had todesign and build everything ourselves.” Harvey is a retired farmer and had worked at thelocal ski resort in winter before turning his attention to the elevator and subsequentrailway that comes by to pick up grain. He has added a farm site with a radio controlledtruck that delivers grain to the elevator after passing under the track. The display had youngsters waiting to operate the truck and train at the display, whichwas part of the Through the Farm Gate at the Royal Winter Fair. He and his brother also built the working threshing machine to show people how themachines of the past worked, and it is the same concept used in today’s combine. The threshing machine is not built to pattern of any specific machine and he estimates itto be ¼ size. “We wanted to show people who worked the machine more than a model of a specificmachine,” said Harvey. “So there are features from a number of different machines.” Themodel is powered by an electric motor and works on a sample of wheat ingesting the headsand delivering a quality sample at the other end. Harvey said he is inundated with requests to take the display to fair and farm events buthas to be selective because of the time involved in dismantling and reassembling thedisplay on location. “We get a lot of requests,” he said. “But we can’t handle them all. This was a great eventand we had help from some volunteers to set up and run the display.”

Heavy Horses Big Drawing Cardat Royal Manitoba Winter Fair

Photo by Joan Airey

The Canadian Pork Council (CPC) is disappointed to learn that a three-judge panel of the U.S.Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a food industry challenge to block theimplementation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s final rule on country of origin labelling(COOL). “The Canadian Pork Council participated in the U.S. meat industry legal challenge as co-plaintiffsin the hope that a more expeditious and effective resolution of the matter could be achieved. It isessential that there be a legislated change for the U.S. to come into compliance with its WTOobligations on COOL,” stated CPC’s Chair Jean-Guy Vincent. “We are exploring several options tosecure this objective. The court challenge is a separate and distinct process from the WTO disputesettlement and our primary focus is prevailing at the WTO compliance panel. Failure to accept aresult favourable to Canada and to make WTO consistent amendments to the COOL measure couldlead to retaliatory tariffs against US exports.” The legal challenge represents a third channel by which the CPC is seeking a resolution to COOLand its discrimination against Canadian livestock exports. The CPC will continue to work closelywith the Government of Canada on the WTO challenge and to lobby for the U.S. Congress to makea legislative change that would remove the discriminatory impact of COOL.

UUUUU.S.S.S.S.S. Court of Appeals R. Court of Appeals R. Court of Appeals R. Court of Appeals R. Court of Appeals Rejects Labelling Challengeejects Labelling Challengeejects Labelling Challengeejects Labelling Challengeejects Labelling Challenge


By Harry Siemens

Things are changing, and changing rapidly, for the hog industry in Canada because theperfect storm is blowing in the right direction with higher prices, lower feed costs andeven the exchange rate is right for Canadian producers. These three things are pushing back at restrictions that stifle hog production. M-COOLis keeping hogs from travelling south and financial holes dug during the last three to fiveyears. When asked what do producers do now, James Hofer, the hog barn Manager ofthe Starlite Colony near Starbuck said, “We ship heavier pigs. We ship them at the top endof the grid, maximize and take advantage of a situation of low costs and high returns.” Hofer said, for him things do not really change because the goal is always to do thingsin an optimum way instead of taking corrective action once prices go up or down. The Starlite Colony has a 600 sow, farrow to finish operation that is moving to grouphousing by reclaiming more barn space for their grower finisher pigs. “What we’ve done in our situation is to take advantage of every square inch we have inour barn,” he said. “Every barn has alleyways which is really a convenience for you towalk in and check the pigs.” Hofer said producers should never have walked the alleyways to check the pigs. In-stead they should walk the pens. “You walk in through the pigs so you don’t need an alleyway,” said Hofer. “So we’vetaken the alley way space to give the pigs more room. We didn’t add more pigs butassured the pigs have adequate space.” Hofer said the nursery is the biggest area that will have the greatest challenge in meet-ing the new Pig Code with the nursery space requirements. “Finishers are okay because with finishers you are taking off five to 10 percent inadvance of the whole group so that acts like a sleeve and gives all the pigs more room, butin the nursery it is an all in, all out,” he said. “So it gets to the point where it gets full. Thatis why the code has a little sleeve in it allowing you a 15 to 20 percent sleeve. It is notunlike you getting into an airplane where you put up with a little less space but only solong.” Hofer is confident the hog industry will adapt to the group housing for sows as dictatedin the new Pig Code. “The way I feel about that, is it will evolve because it always has, and the industry hasalways chosen the best method,” he said. “That is why we are in it and I think very fewnew buildings will ever be built again with stalls. If I had the choice, I would not put stallsin but go to group housing.”

Starlite ColonyReclaims Barn Space

As far as the economic up turn, Hofer said producers have had five years of financialbleeding. Now producers are making some money, some good money. “You could almost say this is a lifesaver year. There are many producers on life supportand maybe we can now unplug the life support machine,” Hofer said. “Look after our ownaffairs and be able to sustain an industry that has sustained itself for many years. Therewere so many events that were not the fault of the producer, all happening at the same timeand were simply too much for some people. Management cut back on costs and then cutback some more, but management going forward will be equally as important during thesebetter economic times for hog farmers.” Producers have to balance out low cost feeding by experimenting he explained. “You stillhave to ship the pork and maybe now is the time. Just like driving down the highway. Youcan afford to drive a little faster and you aren’t worried about miles per gallon because youhave the money to pay for it,” he said. “Some producers have taken positions in futurecontracts, now pigs have exceeded those positions. My brother had said don’t worry aboutit, at least we’re in the game. When gold is 600 bucks and you don’t have any gold you’renot in the game.”

Hog producer James Hofer listening intensely to Dr. Denise Beaulieu, research scientist at thePrairie Swine Centre in Saskatoon telling producers how to manage smarter as feed prices dropand pork prices rise.


By Harry Siemens

Dr. Denise Beaulieu, a nu-trition research scientist withthe Prairie Swine Centre saidlower feed costs and higher livehog prices are allowing porkproducers to refocus on maxi-mizing the productivity oftheir herds. Beaulieu told producers at arecent Prairie Swine Centreproducer’s meeting that thebiggest change in the past fewmonths was the drop in thecost of feed grains and the in-crease in pig prices. Thismeans producers can shifttheir focus away from de-creasing the cost of feed andlook at investing more moneyto increase the rate of gain of

Time to Maximize Profitsand Pay Back Losses

those animals. “We’re still seeing thesechanges happening,” she said.“But certainly we could putsome more money, perhapsinto feed, where we were re-ally focussed on before, doingeverything we could to de-crease the cost of feed and itwas profitable even if it meantslowing the rate of growthdown.” According to Beaulieu, nowwith the increased futuresprices for the pigs, a producercould spend a little bit moremoney for their feed if itmeans increasing the rate ofgain of those animals. Theycan afford to invest once againin the feed if it improves theperformance.

“What the producer alwayswants to be concerned aboutis their net returns so theyneed to model their whole sys-tem, not just look at one com-ponent in isolation,” she said.“If they’re going to put a littlebit more money into their feedthey have to know how thataffects the performance ofthose animals and what theyget from those animals as anoverall return when they sellthose pigs and they have to beable to know the return on thatinvestment, just like any otherbusiness.” Dr. Beaulieu encourages pro-ducers to review their lowestcost diet formulations to takefull advantage of the positivechanges. Each producer needsto consider a system revalua-tion of diets and perhaps a re-formulation those diets. She believes it is a combina-tion of treating the animal bet-ter and helping the producermake more money so that theproducer has better marginsand more cash flow. “Our goal would be, for ex-ample, to help the producersmake more money that allowshim to treat the animals betterand vice versa,: said Dr.Beaulieu. “Not that they’renot treating them well now butto improve their care and wel-

fare and still be able to makemoney.” She said over the past sev-eral years, net returns were notalways about growing the pigat an optimal average daily gain.Most producers made moneyby decreasing feed costs evenif it meant the pigs weren’tgrowing quite so fast. “However, we think now thesituation is changing and haschanged quickly enough to kindof rethink that scenario,” saidBeaulieu. “Dietary costs couldincrease and you could stillimprove your net returns if youcan increase the daily gain ofthose animals and maintain car-cass values.” For example, the producercould reformulate their diets bylooking at the model on theirown farm. “If they increase averagedaily gain, look at the returnsthey would get for that and howmany more animals could theyput through that barn in a yearif they shorten the days to

Dr. Denise Beaulieu, a nutrition research scientist with thePrairie Swine Centre, said lower feed costs and higher livehog prices are allowing pork producers to refocus onmaximizing the productivity of their herds.

market and that is just oneexample,” she said. With producers trying to re-coup large losses this does notmean some producers may betempted to shorten the pro-cess. “I don’t see them taking realshort cuts, but we hope thatwhat they do is, perhapschange their focus,” said

Beaulieu. “They are going tomake money, but how canthey really optimize those re-turns and make as much aspossible, so they have a littleto go to the bank and invest intheir facilities. Many have fa-cilities that need some invest-ment because producers madevery few barn improvementsover the past five years.”


‘Sir Wilfred Declares Government Has SecuredEvidence of Mixing of Wheat and is Pledged to Punishthe Guilty Parties’, reads the title of a front page article inthe Manitoba Free Press on Tuesday, July 19, 1910. The historic news article reports on a meeting betweenPrime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier and the Grain GrowersAssociation (GGA) at the Brandon City Hall on July 18,1910. The Association presented to the Prime Ministertestimonies on the issues of Canadian tariffs, reciprocitywith the U.S.A., government ownership of port terminalelevators and the export trade in dressed meat. Prime Minister Laurier stated that the government hadevidence on the mixing of wheat and pledged to punishthe guilty parties. He went on to say, the governmentrecognizes this as, “An evil that must be remedied.” This strong statement may puzzle today’s farmersbecause ‘mixing’ is the term applied 100 years ago towhat the current grain industry knows as ‘blending’. TheManitoba Grain Act of 1900 prohibited mixing in section18 of the act which, stated, “In no case, shall grain ofdifferent grades be mixed together while in store.” Bycurrent standards, the ban on mixing or blending of grainthat was in place 100 years ago comes as quite asurprise. The no mixing or blending rule arose from the beliefthat the interests of the Canadian grain grower andCanadian grain trade would be best served by exportingproperly cleaned grain that was separated into averagequality of the grades. For example, a customer purchasing Number 2Manitoba Hard Red Spring wheat would only buy cargothat was made up of various parcels of wheat that wereall graded at No.2 at the first grading. It became illegal tocombine different grades of wheat. The rule emphasized the importance for growers thatproducing grain of the highest quality protected thereputation of Canadian grain and this reputation restedin their hands. The ‘no mixing’ rule had the support ofthe majority of Canadian farmers because they realizedthat price and reputation for the western grower wasparamount. High quality grain mixed with lower grades

“Determined to RemoveGrievance of Farmers”

would result in cargoes grading at the bottom instead ofat the average standard of the grade. The difference while subtle would be noticeable tocustomers of western Canadian wheat who would thenbe less willing to purchase our wheat. As well, farmerslacking the ability to mix grades on the farm would havelittle to no opportunity to profit from blending. In addition, grain traders largely supported the ban onmixing. In 1899, the Winnipeg Grain and ProduceExchange Council passed the resolution, “The Exchangeexpresses its positive conviction that no mixing of grainshould be permitted at terminal elevators and also thatno mixing should be permitted in a cargo shipmentunless the inspection certificate issued therefore shallhave written across the face, a statement defining thevarious grades entering into the composition.” Two contributing factors motivated grain tradersholding this view. In the early days of the prairie grainindustry, the port terminal facilities were largely ownedby the railways or by organizations, which did not owncountry elevators. Most grain traders had limitedopportunity to mix since the best place was only at theport terminals. The second contributing factor was from westernfarmers struggling to make their own voices heard on thedecisions for grain grading. Eastern grain interests hadsignificant power and input into the grading system.Most grain industry decisions were made in Montrealand Toronto. The rules were such that eastern Canadianwheat was allowed to be mixed into cargoes of westernwheat passing through the east on its way to markets inEurope. Eastern wheat was considered a softer varietywith lower gluten content and needed to be mixed withRed Fife wheat otherwise, it performed poorly when theblend was milled and baked. Customers in Europewanted the high quality bread made from westernCanadian Red Fife wheat and were prepared to pay forthis quality. Some customers apparently refused to accept wheatshipments with an eastern Canadian inspection stamp.Only a western Canadian inspection stamp was accept-able because this showed the shipment passed througheastern Canada intact. Any ‘manipulation’ in the eastresulted in an eastern Canadian grain inspector stampingthe paperwork. By 1890, the grading of western Canadian grain waslargely in the hands of the west. The price and customerproblems for western grain farmers had demonstratedhow important the reputation of quality western wheatwas in making sales. The first private grain terminal was built at theLakehead in 1907. These terminals handled grainpurchased by the terminal owners exclusively. Sincethese terminals were private, they were not subject to the

This 1910 historic news head line ‘Remove Grievance of Farmers’had Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier meeting with western graingrowers in Brandon over their concerns on eastern grain mixingpractices.

Manitoba Grain Act, reducing the concern over mixingand by 1910; railways were beginning to sell off theirport terminals to grain companies. The profits from ‘mixing’ were so attractive that thepeople who were engaged in lending caused concern, sofarmers demanded action. However, it should be notedthat the ‘no mixing rule’ resulted in some significantchallenges to farmers and the grain trade. The ‘no mixingrule’ directly contributed to grain elevators beingdeclared as, “Works in the general advantage ofCanada.” This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the ManitobaAgricultural Museum, ‘Manitoba’s Diamond in theRough’. If you have not been to the Museum for anumber of years make 2014 your year to drop by to helpus celebrate our 60th. For more information on theManitoba Agricultural Museum, see the Museumwebsite or call the Museum office at 204-637-2354. TheManitoba Agricultural Museum is open year round andoperates a website at ag-museum.mb.ca.


Applications are nowbeing accepted for a newlivestock price insuranceproduct designed to helpcattle and hog producersmanage unexpected pricedeclines. The Western LivestockPrice Insurance Program(WLPIP), announced byfederal and westernprovincial ministers onJanuary 24, enableslivestock producers topurchase price protectionon cattle and hogs in theform of an insurancepolicy over a definedperiod for producers in

Western Livestock Price Insurance AvailableBritish Columbia, Alberta,Saskatchewan andManitoba. Administration costs arecovered by the federaland provincial govern-ments through GrowingForward 2 while premiumsare fully funded byproducers. “This spring, westerncattle and hog producersare encouraged to makelivestock price insurancean integral part of theirbusiness plans,” saidGerry Ritz, FederalAgriculture Minister. “WLPIP is an importantnew risk management toolfor Manitoba’s livestockproducers. Now thatapplications are beingaccepted, I encouragebeef and hog producersto learn more about theprogram and how it canprovide price protectionon their farm,” commentedRon Kostyshyn, Ministerof Manitoba Agriculture,Food and Rural Develop-ment. “We encourage beefproducers to investigatethis new program andconsider it as a risk-

management tool for theiruse,” said Heinz Reimer,President of ManitobaBeef Producers. “Thecombination of livestockprice insurance andforage insurance will givebeef producers a strongand bankable riskmanagement package.” To purchase marketprice protection on cattleand hogs, Manitoba’sproducers will need tocontact a ManitobaAgricultural ServicesCorporation insuranceoffice and complete an

initial application. Oncethis process is complete,the producer will receiveinformation on creating anonline account, purchas-ing policies, monitoringpremiums and coveragelevels, paying premiumsand filing claims. More information isavailable online atwlpip.ca or by calling 1-844-782-5747. WLPIP isavailable-year round forfeeder cattle, fed cattleand hogs. Calf priceinsurance must bepurchased by May 29.

It is a movement beingfelt around the world.Conservation agricultureis in the spotlight inCanada and internation-ally. Canadian farmers havebeen leaders in develop-ing and adopting soilmanagement practicesthat help anchor conser-vation agriculture. The progress Canadianfarmers have generatedwill be highlighted as partof a special internationalconservation event thatCanada will host inWinnipeg this summer. “Farmers understandthat all of society isinterested in sustainablesoil management today,”said Glen Shaw, ExecutiveDirector of the SoilConservation Council ofCanada (SCCC). “Thetechniques Canadianfarmers have been part ofpioneering, such asreduced tillage farmingand Global PositioningSystems (GPS) arerevolutionizing croppingsystems.” Innovations in no-till orzero tillage seedingequipment where cropsare planted into the soilprotecting residue coverof the previous crop, havebeen led by Canadians,says Shaw. No-tillplanting technologybased on Canadiandesigns has beenexported to countriesaround the world. “At one time soilconservation simplymeant controlling erosionto most people,” saidShaw. “Today, consumerswant to know where theirfood comes from.Producers’ farms are partof broad food productionand sustainable soilmanagement systems andsoil conservation is seenas essential to feeding anincreasing world popula-tion.” Addressing environ-mental challenges isdirectly linked with issuessuch as greenhouse gasemissions, carbonsequestration, waterquality, air quality andbiodiversity. The global emergence ofa new generation offarming will be featured atthe Sixth World Congresson Conservation Agricul-ture (SCCC). SCCC, inpartnership with theConservation TechnologyInformation Centre (CTIC)is bringing this event toWinnipeg, June 22 to 25. “This conference willshowcase North Americanfarm developments suchas no-till farming systemsto the world,” said Don

Soil Conservation in SpotlightSoil Conservation in SpotlightSoil Conservation in SpotlightSoil Conservation in SpotlightSoil Conservation in SpotlightMcCabe, SCCC President. The Congress will focuson growing more, moreefficiently, weatherproofing agriculture andincreasing the adoption ofsustainable practicesthrough innovation. Theevent will feature 90speakers, with up to 700attendees of which halfare expected to beproducers. New ideasfrom around the world willbe showcased andproducers will have anopportunity to speakdirectly with industryrepresentatives, scientistsand leading growers.

AgriPost April 25 2014

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Transcript of AgriPost April 25 2014