RCMP at Brandon, Man. are investigating the reported theft of 60 round hay bales that have gone missing from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Brandon Research Centre.

The bales, worth anywhere from $40 to $60 each, were on a rural property just east of the city and north of Hwy. 457, RCMP spokesperson Tara Seel said.

The bales were reportedly hauled away between Jan. 3 and 6 in what must have been a fairly lengthy undertaking with, at minimum, a loader tractor and multiple semi-trailer loads, she said.

RCMP are asking anyone with information to contact them at 204-726-7522 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

— Daniel Winters is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator at Oak Lake, Man.

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Think of yourselves in a new light and reach out to youth on their terms, says Peter Male.

Male took that message to the recent annual general meeting of the Manitoba Association of Agricultural Societies and spoke of how that approach revived his organization, the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver.

“In the end, really what you are is a socio-economic force that can affect the economy and the social lives of the people around you,” said Male, the exhibition’s vice-president of sales. “That is a powerful thing to be.”

Male was given the job of finding new attractions and year-round bookings to keep the 110-year-old venue “busy” when he was hired in 1997. It was no easy feat, with a long-standing operating agreement with the city about to be phased out, the local NHL and CFL teams moving to new stadiums downtown, and the province questioning whether it should be in the fair business.

“The place was in a state of chaos. Change was overwhelming it,” he said.

Like many small-town agricultural societies, management had to face the facts and decide where its future might lie. The organization didn’t focus on its infrastructure (six massive buildings, livestock barns, and an amusement park), but instead searched for one “powerful” fundamental principle that would guide change.

“What are we in this marketplace?” said Male. “The common denominator was that we were a gathering place.”

“Bringing people together” became the guiding principle and was key to the revival of the exhibition, which now generates $40 million in revenue from 1,800 event days each year.

That approach is something ag societies in rural Canada need to consider and they should also look at how current trends can be harnessed, Male said.

Volunteer source

For example, unemployed youth and those only able to find part-time work are a rich, untapped vein of volunteer manpower, he said.

But to bring them in, ag societies have to step outside their comfort zone and allow youth to participate in ways they want to — which today means digital and Internet technology. But it can lead to surprising and exciting outcomes, Male said.

For example, officials at the Walker Art Gallery in Minneapolis weren’t expecting much when they agreed to host an event screening silly YouTube videos of cats. But throngs of people showed up, many bringing their pets or dressing up as cats. There was also enthusiastic participation in a sculpture contest for cat carvings made out of butter and lard.

“They expected 300 to 400 people to show up, but the thing exploded on them,” said Male. “The entire crowd was chanting, ‘Cats, cats, cats!’”

The event ended up drawing 12,000 people, who paid $25 each to attend, and the Internet Cat Video Film Festival, originally devised as a means of maintaining event continuity at a time when their theatre was under renovations, is now booked solid until June 2014 for showings in Europe and Japan.

The older generation is the foundation of ag societies, but it can’t be an “island unto themselves,” and must find ways to engage youth, said Liz Roberts, superintendent of the provincial organization.

That may mean that a new event or initiative doesn’t have to be directly agriculture related, she said.

“(The PNE) is an agricultural society. Look at how they have rejuvenated themselves,” she said.

There is a tendency to do the same things over and over, while hoping for a different result, said Marlene Baskerville, the Manitoba association’s executive director.

“You know the coffee shop talk: The world is a mess. They should do something,” said Baskerville.

To bring communities together, ag societies have to reflect the interests of the target groups, she said.

“If YouTube or short videos or whatever is the thing, how can a community create an opportunity for that to happen?” she said.

It’s easy to bemoan the fact that today’s youth spend every waking hour staring into glowing screens, she said.

But if technology is their current obsession, then maybe there’s potential for bringing it into the community event mix, through texting contests or organizing spontaneous “flash mobs.”

“You can’t problem solve your way into the future,” said Roberts. “Instead of seeing problems that need to be solved, we have to start seeing possibilities.”

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Norm Hall, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, who also serves as the spokesman for the Western Canada Tree Nursery Coalition, said Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz rejected the coalition’s business plan submitted in August because it called for $1.6 million in bridge funding.

“That’s what we were pushing for: Get the place leased, get the order forms out, get the harvest done, and just continue the program,” said Hall, adding that the funds requested amounted to half a year’s operating costs.

“He said, ‘Come back to us when you are serious,’” said Hall.

Hall said Ritz broke his pledge earlier this year that he would ensure that the 112-year-old agroforestry centre continues to supply trees on a cost-recovery basis to landowners in Western Canada after the federal government divestiture.

Lorne Scott, the reeve of the RM of Indian Head, which is also a member of the coalition, fears closing the nursery is a foregone conclusion. He accused Ritz of sabotaging efforts to save the shelterbelt nursery and then laying the blame for its failure on the RM.

“Ritz has been telling the media that the RM of Indian Head is running the centre,” said Scott. “But no, the RM is not looking after the nursery.”

Scott added that the RM isn’t in a position to fund its continued operations, nor has it been authorized to take it over.

“Barring a miracle, I can’t see the facility surviving. It appears that it was designed to fail and shut down,” said Scott.

Shipped out

Scott noted that specially designed equipment is being shipped off to other AAFC sites across the country, tree order forms were removed from the agroforestry centre’s website earlier this fall, virtually all the employees have been laid off, and no one answers the phones.

The research aspect of the operation, which Ritz had originally promised would be preserved, may also be threatened.

“The guys in research are up in the air. They are not sure where they are going to be in six to 18 months,” said Hall.

Rodney Sidloski, CEO of Weyburn-based non-governmental aid organization HELP International, was one of 10 bidders reportedly vying to take over the shelterbelt nursery. Its proposal was rejected, even though Sidloski believes that HELP was the only one with actual reforestation experience.

He said that the delayed harvest won’t hurt the trees, but not having inventory ready for next year’s planting season might cripple efforts to keep the centre afloat.

“We don’t understand why the federal government isn’t allowing us as a public service organization to take a lease of the centre, harvest the trees, and take care of things, including a spring sale,” said Sidloski.

Volunteers ready

As for the harvest, Sidloski claims to have a team of volunteers ready to get to work within 48 hours.

“We’re ready to move in and harvest even today, but the longer we wait, the tougher the logistics will be to get the trees out of the ground,” he said.

HELP International, which operates its own 300,000-tree nursery on an eight-acre site, is dedicated to producing “two-penny trees” to “save the world” by controlling erosion, creating wildlife habitat and remediating polluted sites.

With research and aid projects operating both in Canada and Kenya, it has worked with dozens of landowners and planted hundreds of thousands of trees on farmland edges along the Souris River in a privately funded project since 2000, and has developed a low-cost system for propagating cuttings in styrofoam containers on farm dugouts.

With no forms available for ordering trees, and the RM not authorized to allow anyone else to do the harvest, sorting and storage of this year’s crop, Sidloski also said that Ritz appears ready to abandon the entire operation.

“We’re already producing a fifth of their production. We would love to get hold of that centre,” said Sidloski. “It’s so undercapacity. In the mid-1980s, it was producing 12 million trees a year.”

As planned

An emailed statement from Ritz’s staff said that federal government involvement at AAFC Indian Head is ending Dec. 31 “as planned.”

After that, it continued, “AAFC will continue to perform minimal field maintenance” until the completion of the disposal process, which will be undertaken in an “efficient, equitable and transparent manner” to ensure “best value for the taxpayer.”

“The government has been clear that no funding will be provided to pay for any group to assume ownership over the tree farm,” it stated.

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But for Rodney Sidloski, the CEO of Weyburn, Saskatchewan-based HELP International, they are a potential gold mine.

“We can potentially see a retail value of up to $4,000 out of a bag that brand new only cost the farmer about $1,000,” said Sidloski. “Imagine that, from a recycled product.”

With the help of a handful of interns from foreign universities who assist a number of agroforestry-related projects at his eight-acre site, Sidloski has developed a streamlined process for turning the bags into long-lasting mulch pads that can prevent weeds and grasses from choking out newly planted tree seedlings.

In the past six weeks, he and his team have repurposed about 20 bags by cutting them into two-foot squares with an x-shaped slit in the middle for the tree to grow up through. Because they are made from such high-quality, heavy plastic, the pads make newly planted trees virtually maintenance free for up to 20 years, he said.

In researching the idea, he has even found that at $2 each, the plastic squares compete favourably with a similar product made from shredded rubber tires that cost about $18 each, and much more in terms of effort and energy to recycle.

“You can make 2,000 pads from one single grain bag that are of much higher quality,” he said, adding that he is exploring a Canadian and United States patent for the idea and has arranged marketing and distribution across the Prairies through an undisclosed retail chain this spring.

The mulch pads will be marketed to appeal to urban landscapers and gardeners planting single trees, but not farm shelterbelts. They also work well for transplanted garden crops such as tomatoes, he added.

“We think the government could be a bit more visionary in protecting the environment and promoting industry, rather than spending money to send valuable products out of the province to be recycled in a really environmentally unfriendly way,” said Sidloski.

Resembling a beached whale when full of grain, grain bags weigh nearly 182 kg empty and are made of a high-quality polyethylene plastic.

At 10 mm in thickness, they are twice as thick as regular construction vapour barrier, and almost as heavy-duty as pond liner.

Slit open, they are about 10 metres wide and up to 107 metres long, and contain an average of 2,700 square metres of very useful material that has “101 uses,” said Sidloski.

“It’s unbelievable, really. There are all kinds of industries that require plastic membranes. It doesn’t have to be sent out to Alberta and melted down,” said Sidloski.

— Daniel Winters is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator at Oak Lake, Man.

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Formerly known as the Certified Livestock Transport training program, it was originally developed in May 2007 through Alberta Farm Animal Care (AFAC) in association with its sister animal care associations in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, said Geraldine Auston, project co-ordinator for the CLT Certification Program.

“It really is industry driven, all the way up from truckers to processing facilities that sit at the table, advising on content along with researchers,” said Auston.

“It shows the will of the industry for doing the right thing while they are on the road.”

Proponents described it as an innovative, pioneering program of its kind internationally and a leading example of industry-driven leadership in livestock welfare.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Canadian Meat Council recommend it, but it continues to be a voluntary certification program. However, more and more large and small livestock slaughter facilities are beginning to require that their truckers pass the test, said Auston.

The launch of newly updated and rebranded CLT marks the formal completion of a transition several years in the making. Some 1,500 truckers have become certified to transport livestock, and the CLT program’s managers expect more of the estimated 5,000 truckers in the sector to take the voluntary one-day course or complete the new online version now that it has been redesigned to cover the entire country.

She described the online version as a “very basic” version of the one-day classroom course that will eventually be upgraded to become more comprehensive and interactive. The online course is aimed at reaching out to more drivers, she added.

“We were getting more and more requests from drivers and processors throughout the country who require CLT or some other kind of animal care and transport certifications specific to hauling livestock,” said Auston, in describing how the program evolved from its initial focus on the western provinces to become national in scope.

It is designed to expand the scope and reach of CLT to a national initiative and ensure consistent training and delivery from province to province.

The Canadian Animal Health Coalition (CAHC), a not-for-profit organization serving Canada’s farmed animal industry, becomes the new official home of CLT effective October 2013.

The development of CLT into a national program was made possible through funding by industry partners, and by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the five-year Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP).

The new CLT features new, completely updated modules and expanded program content to match the new national scope, including multi-species course offerings and three certification levels.

It serves as a comprehensive training course and support service for livestock truckers, shippers and receivers, and others with an interest in safe, humane animal transport.

CLT course content presents the current regulations for animal transport in Canada and the training and certification is recognized throughout Canada and United States.

Certification costs $125 per year, and is valid for a three-year period. Complete program details will be made available at www.livestocktransport.ca. More information on CAHC is available at www.animalhealth.ca.

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That’s sheep shearing in a nutshell.

Nine students had a chance to hone their technique at a recent two-day sheep-shearing school sponsored by the Canadian Co-operative Wool Growers and hosted by Miniota, Man. shepherd Brian Greaves.

Shearing is a lot like dancing, said Greaves, who was taught by his grandfather back in New Zealand.

“Footwork is very important, but you have to be able to multi-task,” said Greaves, also a director of the wool growers’ co-op.

“You have to concentrate on where your feet are, how you’re holding the sheep, and your blows.”

With an ample supply of cull ewes on hand in Tony Atkinson’s spacious shed, the students were quickly put through their paces by Greaves and two young professional shearers. A few rams and lambs were thrown into the mix, and after the first day, some 60 shorn sheep scampered into the holding pens.

As the wool piled up, the students were shown how to clean it on a table and pack it into square bags using a wool press.

Speed was the focus for Darlingford, Man.-area shepherd Jonathon Nichol, who runs 35 ewes on 80 acres.

“I’m looking to get faster for my own flock, and to possibly be able to do some custom shearing at a speed that is economical and makes me a bit of money,” he said.

Before the course, his best day was a “very tiring” 50 head, but he upped speed substantially at the school with “less blows, less movements, and fighting less.”

South African-born shepherd Wian Prinsloo said he is hoping that learning how to shear will move him a step closer to his lifelong dream of farming full time.

Currently running about 100 ewes on a rented quarter section near Nesbitt, Man., the crop insurance adjuster and his partner Lydia Carpenter are interested in learning all they can about all aspects of farming. They still plan to hire a shearer next year, however, because it’s hard to justify the $2,000 cost of brand new, top-of-the-line clippers.

“In the next year or two, depending on how the flock grows, we’ll likely invest in a machine,” said Carpenter.

Carberry, Man.-area shepherd Jeff Bieganski, who runs about 80 purebred Dorset ewes, was hoping to improve his shearing skills so that he could shear a few when necessary and prepare his own animals prior to shows.

“I just want learn so that I can do a few when the shearer can’t show up,” he said, adding that getting small numbers of sheep done outside the shearing season can be costly.

Practice is key

However, students were warned that practice is key, with one of the professional shearers quipping that “the first 10,000 are the hardest.”

Russell Eddy — although just 16 — knows all about that after learning the craft from his father Chris on the family farm near Yorkton, Sask.

He can now shear 80 to 90 sheep in a day and has a personal best of 102. But those numbers seemed impossible when he started out.

“Trying to get above 30 was extremely painful,” he said. “The first day I got to 40, I thought I was going to die. When I got to 65, that was probably the most painful day of my life. But this year, I’ve steadily increased because once you get through the beginning, it becomes way easier.”

Once the “fighting” with the sheep is minimized, a shearer can look for ways to drop a stroke, and generally increase speed, he said.

The “blows” or strokes with the clippers, follow a carefully thought-out pattern that follows the contours of the animal’s body with the aim of being both speedy and producing the best possible fleece.

Greaves taught an updated version of the Bowen technique, first developed in the 1950s by New Zealand shearer Godfrey Bowen, who was the first to shear a sheep in less than a minute.

Greaves, who in his prime sheared over 300 head in a day, said a controversy that erupted within the Manitoba shepherding community over a perceived shortage of shearers has led to increased interest on the part of students, noting this year’s course was filled up well in advance.

A two-day course isn’t enough to mint expert shearers, but can help shepherds with small flocks get a good handle on the basics, he said.

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A century or so later, with the realization that tenderness is one of the most significant factors in consumer acceptance of beef, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is set to launch a new program which will guarantee it on the label.

Mark Klassen, director of technical services for the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said that it appears that the USDA is using a mechanical shear force testing protocol that uses meat cores or slices taken from middle cuts or the loin area of a carcass to measure how much pressure is required to cut it.

“You could use that method on any piece of beef that you had an interest in knowing the tenderness of,” said Klassen, who added that gauging the tenderness of the entire carcass could be done just by testing a few loin samples.

A recent post on the USDA’s blog explained the new criteria. Although some beef may not technically make the top grades such as Choice or Prime, it may in fact be rated just as tender by consumers, and similarly, certain cuts of beef, no matter how high their USDA quality grade, may not be as tender.

To address these issues and provide consumers with a more useful purchasing tool, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) worked with academia and industry to develop an accurate system to rate beef cuts as either tender or very tender.

Based on an objective scale, the system ensures that specific beef cuts consistently meet these established thresholds. Now, approved beef processors will be able to market products as “USDA-Certified Tender” or “Very Tender” through product labelling, advertisements and promotions.

On the Canadian side, Klassen said that data collected from Beef Quality Audits based on lab studies using shear force techniques and consumer assessments since 2001 have shown that the overall trend in beef north of the border appears to be steadily moving towards increased tenderness.

He added that the CCA is also working with the beef industry to develop ways to use shear force measuring instruments and existing grading tools to create a new classification system for Canadian beef that might be similar to the USDA’s.

“We’re trying to figure out the most cost-effective ways to determine tenderness,” said Klassen, who added that a system might be ready within a couple of years.

Canada’s existing grading system is a fairly reliable measure of overall eating quality, he said. Although it doesn’t specifically address tenderness, the other indications built into it can be used to infer that a particular cut will be tender.

“It’s not a perfect system, but it’s certainly a useful system,” said Klassen. “But with what we’re working on now, we hope to get to the point where in a very practical way we can make an assessment of tenderness while we’re grading.”

In June, Cargill became the first processor to have a program certified by USDA, and there are two other programs under review — one other beef processor and a major grocery store chain.

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Larry Thomas, the national co-ordinator for the program supported by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA), said that after almost two years in operation, the online database that serves up a range of carcass information based on RFID tag data is due for an overhaul.

“When you build anything this big and complicated, you’ve got to find out what is and isn’t working and decide where you’re going,” said Thomas.

About six months ago, BIXS staff started reviewing feedback from users with an eye on streamlining the process and making it easier to import and export data.

The initial version was aimed at getting a workable system out the door fast that would show the industry what was possible before zeroing in on refinements. “BIXS 2.0” will be ready for launch this fall, and will be followed by a further amended system a few weeks later.

“It’s a redesign that will be much easier and much faster to engage with. It’ll basically be a couple of clicks and validation information and away you go,” said Thomas.

The CCA has contracted Arcurve, a Calgary-based software developer, to create the next version.

Last winter the BIXS team began a process to evaluate the current version of the system, to pinpoint shortcomings and decide on a path forward.

The team interviewed commercial beef industry software development and service firms, packers, feedlots, retail interests, existing value chains and others to discover the precise benefits needed from BIXS.

Thus the next version of BIXS is expected to be smaller and more nimble than the current version. Import and export functionality will be improved and it will handle many thousands of users and millions of records.

BIXS 2.0 will key only on cross-segment data of economic importance and avoid duplicating existing commercial software systems and services. And the next version will enable blind queries using a Sourcer Utility, which enables cross-segment communication based on individual animal or carcass data or health and management protocols.

Thomas couldn’t say how may ranchers are logging on to the system currently, but did peg the number at well short of “critical mass.”

“Ideally, we’d like to have over 5,000 users of the system, but we aren’t there,” he said.

However, data already in the system amounts to 2.4 million carcass records going back to 2011 from Cargill and JBS plants, as well as 140,000 cow-calf records. More feedlot data is needed, but Thomas believes that third-party providers are waiting for the fully refined version to launch before they invest time and money in building their own complementary systems.

The new version will be animal-centric, where actions are applied to animals and recorded across their lifetime up to detailed carcass data acquisition.

— Daniel Winters is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator at Oak Lake, Man. A version of this article appeared in the Aug. 22, 2013 issue.

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Payne, who runs 225 Savanna goats near Humboldt, has been running ads and making pitches at livestock meetings looking for cattle producers willing to enter into “pasture swaps.”

“I haven’t found anybody yet,” said Payne, who has 40 years of experience in the livestock industry, a trailer, and a willingness to live on site in his own camper.

Payne was part of a successful multi-species demonstration project on nearby Wolverine AESB community pasture that saw him herd 700 goats along with 1,350 cattle on 9,000 acres. The goats chowed down mainly on willows and weeds such as leafy spurge.

The project showed that goats are the better way to control invasive species, he said.

“People are starting to realize that we’ll never, ever control leafy spurge chemically,” said Payne.

“We’re not doing anybody any favours by heli-spraying Tordon on spurge.”

Steve Kenyon, a grazing innovator and speaker from Busby, Alta., has run about 10 goats with his cattle as an experiment in the past and liked what he saw.

That’s because 80 per cent of a goat’s preferred lunch is made up of “browse,” mainly brush, leaves and weeds — the exact opposite of his cattle’s grassy tastes.

“They mix really well together. Put them in at the same time and you’re not going to overgraze anything,” said Kenyon.

“I’d definitely look at it if my neighbour had a bunch of goats they wanted to graze on my land.”

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The code is one of eight livestock codes that have been undergoing revision, with a focus on a number of welfare issues, including painful procedures, less stressful handling methods, flooring types, and methods of euthanasia.

Producers should go to the website for detailed information and to offer their comments online before the Sept. 6 deadline, said Brian Greaves, a sheep producer from Miniota, Man. and one of the 17 members of the committee which developed the code.

“If sheep producers find anything in it that they are concerned about, they can go online and make comments about it,” he said.

A scientific committee report summarizing research on priority welfare topics for sheep can be found online alongside the draft code. The committee — which included researchers with expertise in sheep behaviour, health and welfare — spent two years on the new code and is keen to get feedback on its work, said John Hemsted, an Ontario sheep producer who chaired the committee.

“This public comment period will allow us to ensure we are on the right track in providing sheep owners with the information they need to meet the needs of their animals,” he said. “All feedback received through the public comment period will be considered by the committee as they finalize the new code.”

The code was developed by consensus, not a vote, and so the emphasis was on finding a “middle ground” that balances the views of producers, animal welfare officials, veterinarians, and transporters, Greaves said.

After receiving feedback, the committee will make revisions and issue a final code by year’s end. The committee was established by the Canadian Sheep Federation and the National Farm Animal Care Council.

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