“There’s always going to be someone who says they saw it coming. We didn’t,” said Brian Perillat, manager and senior analyst with CanFax, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association’s market analysis division.

“After the price correction we saw last year, you always expect a bit of a bounce. But we didn’t expect such a large price increase through the winter given how tough 2016, especially the fall, was.”

Fed cattle prices bottomed out at $128/cwt last fall. Barely nine months later, they reached $191/cwt. The prices seen last month were the highest since mid-2015 and only about $12/cwt off the all-time highs set two years ago.

Calf prices for 550-pound steers made a big jump as well, rising from $168/cwt last fall to about $250/cwt ($2.50/pound). These prices are the highest since early 2016, though still about $80 below 2015’s record high of $330/cwt.

High cattle prices in 2015 slowed both exports and domestic demand, and as prices cooled, producers held on to cattle. The spring and early-summer holdback in 2016 translated to more supply than demand and larger-than-average carcasses by early fall. Carcasses reached near-record sizes by October, with average weights topping out at 936 pounds (almost 100 pounds heavier than today’s average weight of 839 pounds).

But as prices dropped through last fall, export and domestic market demand rebounded.

“The lower prices meant consumer demand increased,” said Perillat. “Retailers saw good margins so there was more featuring of beef in sales fliers. Add in the fact that fed cattle supplies weren’t quite as abundant as we’d expected and, quite before we knew it, we’d worked our way through the glut of supply.”

Unexpected Alberta bonus

As quickly as prices had dropped, they suddenly began to rise again. Typically, Canadian prices are discounted compared to the price-setting lead of the U.S., and Albertan prices generally equal or lag behind Ontario prices.

Not so this spring.

“At the end of 2016 and into 2017, our prices were actually at a premium to the U.S. A couple of months back, Alberta had the highest cattle prices in North America,” said Perillat. “It’s supply and demand. Canada hasn’t seen the herd growth that the U.S. has, so we didn’t have big supplies. Packers in Alberta had to pull hard on supplies to meet demand so our prices jumped.”

What happens next is anyone’s guess.

Consumer demand for beef, particularly for higher-value cuts, peaks during barbecuing season in spring/early summer. The seasonality of demand is likely to depress prices somewhat as we move towards fall. As well, exports appear to be softening somewhat due to the strong pricing.

So far, Trump’s threatened changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are helping Canadian beef by softening the Canadian dollar. Over the medium to longer term, however, retooling of NAFTA may throw a curve ball into Canadian beef’s pricing.

“There’s strong consensus across North American cattle organizations that NAFTA is good for all of us,” said Perillat. “Any talk about renegotiating or scrapping NAFTA is a concern but hopefully the cattle industry will be heard.”

Regardless of what happens politically, expect increased uncertainty, faster change, and unusually varied pricing ahead.

“The way society, individuals and markets absorb, transfer and exchange information about supply and demand, whether globally or domestically, is very different than it used to be,” said Perillat. “Markets move rapidly because everyone reacts at the same time now.”

That’s certainly been the case the last two years, he added.

“The recent market ups and downs have been absolutely extreme. We have feedlots that in 2014-15 were making $500 or $600 a head. Six months later, they were losing $500 a head. Then six or eight months later they were making $700 a head.

“It’s tough. Risk management starts getting really important when markets bounce like that,” said Perillat.

Prices will likely average out over the long run, but in the meantime expect “big and stressful swings in the market,” he said.

The post Talk about a yo-yo: Cattle prices jump to near-record highs appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

In a best-case scenario, there will be enough time to harvest any redeemable crop, manage residue, and still seed in a timely fashion. But some may have to consider a riskier seeding method such as broadcast seeding.

“Everyone knows the old adage: ‘You can have it fast, you can have it good, or you can have it cheap.’ You can’t really have all three at once,” said Keith Gabert, Canola Council of Canada agronomy specialist for central Alberta south.

“Broadcast seeding is definitely fast, but it’s unlikely to be described as a good way of doing things. It should be viewed as a plan of last resort for when the ground is just too wet and you’re going to make a mess with ruts or smearing the soil rather than place the seed nicely with a seeder.”

Logistics are everything at seeding, added Trent Meyer, executive vice-president at SeedMaster.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see people go with broadcasting, either with a spreader bar, a spin spreader, or another option,” he said. “And on the residue management side, you’ll see them utilizing methods they wouldn’t prefer because they don’t have a choice, whether that’s an additional pass with a heavy harrow, some kind of high-speed disk, or what have you.

“They simply have to manage what they have to deal with today, and they’ll clean up the mess tomorrow in terms of going backwards from a soil management perspective. Our company was founded on conservation, but we understand that this year isn’t like most years.”

Broadcast seeding covers a lot of acres in a hurry, and can allow planting of hard-to-access low, wet, and otherwise challenging terrain. That said, the risk of poor stand establishment is at least double that of seeding with a drill, said Gabert.

“If you seed into the ground (with a drill) and get that seed packed in nicely with good moisture, you can typically get adequate germination 99 times out of 100. You can get good establishment from broadcast seeding too — some producers blow on oats, canola, barley every year with good success — but there are more variables, so more risk.”

Broadcast seeding success depends on seed-to-soil contact, usually achieved via pre-seeding tillage or other soil disturbance as well as a post-seeding pass with a heavy harrow or disk. Establishment also requires adequate post-seeding precipitation. Even in moist soil conditions, a decent rainfall goes a long way towards firming the seed into the ground.

“I like to joke with guys that half an inch of rain after seeding makes us all look really smart,” said Gabert. “If you put on too much fertilizer, if you seeded too shallow or too deep, if you had to broadcast instead of getting those seeds properly placed, a rainfall tends to fix it all.”

Broadcast considerations

Broadcasted fields require crop input adjustments — increase phosphorus application rates to account for that nutrient’s inability to move through soil, and increase nitrogen because surface or shallowly applied nitrogen is more prone to gassing off (volatilization). Most importantly from a risk management perspective, increase seeding rate to achieve adequate establishment and reduce risk.

Farmers considering broadcast seeding should pre-think the logistics. It is much less stressful to cancel a booking with a custom applicator than to be a late addition on a long list of others requiring that service.

Finally, double-check crop insurance timing and establishment requirements. The application deadline for crop insurance is April 30. Certain crops, such as field peas and potatoes, must be seeded by specific dates to qualify for crop insurance. Others, including canola, wheat and barley, have recommended rather than required seeding dates.

In addition, “non-conventional seeded crops such as broadcast seeding are reject(ed) for insurance when the seed is not mechanically incorporated and conditions for seedling establishment are poor,” said Mustafa Eric, spokesperson for Agriculture Financial Services Corporation. “The crop will be rejected if it has germinated poorly and the plant stand is too thin to produce a normal crop. An acceptance or a special inspection may be conducted on crops that are broadcast seeded.”

Gabert recommends only broadcasting if the seeding window is very tight, fields are very wet, and more precipitation is forecast.

“Back in 2012, we had huge amounts of excess moisture in my local area — lots of producers were sure they wouldn’t be able to plant,” he said. “But that was the year the Slave Lake Fire took off due to wind. We got that same wind and within five days, the excess moisture just disappeared and seeding was right on time.

“You don’t need long with sunshine and wind to dry things up.”

The post Broadcast seeding: A last-resort option may gain traction this season appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Step one is determining available nutrients.

In a cereal crop, the vast majority of the nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur and about one-fifth of the potassium taken in by the plant are contained in the grain rather than the straw. Wheat requires 2.2 pounds of nitrogen per bushel, which means a 50-bushel crop contains a total of 110 pounds of nitrogen.

In a normal year, approximately 75 of these pounds would be removed in the grain, leaving about 35 pounds to be recycled back into the field through residue. If the crop is not removed from the field, however, expect all of its nitrogen, less about 10 per cent for winter loss, to be available for future production.

“If they don’t harvest anything, the previous year’s crop will effectively act like a slow-release fertilizer,” said Tom Jensen, director for North America with the International Plant Nutrition Institute.

Adjusting fertilizer rates to account for increased nutrient recycling is challenging though.

“If a farmer is used to putting on 100 pounds of nitrogen to grow a wheat crop, a lot of them will just use normal rates even though they don’t need to,” said Jensen. “In reality, I think it’s fair to say that farmers in this situation could cut back nitrogen application rates by at least 20 per cent and probably as much as 50 per cent in some cases and still have adequate nitrogen available for the next crop.”

Farmers should also analyze what nutrient application will optimize their crop for the coming year, adjusting application rates according to this year’s unique requirements. Those seeding late may be wise to select shorter-season crops to ensure the plants have enough growing days to reach maturity. Careful nutrient management can also help crops successfully to achieve maturity.

“In a year like this, you really need to be paying attention to phosphorus and nitrogen,” said Mark Cutts, a crop specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. “Phosphorus is associated with enhancing maturity in crops. Some producers may be seeding on the late side, so a maturity benefit may be critical. I’d see what the phosphorus recommendation is on a soil test and then stick with it. Definitely don’t underapply.

“With nitrogen, I’d try not to overapply, because it could delay maturity across all crops.”

If wet fields squeeze the seeding window, some farmers may opt for less-than-ideal seeding options to speed the process. Given the choice, most producers apply fertilizer in two bands at seeding: one right alongside the seed and the other a few inches from the seed. Farmers facing a time crunch may opt for the short-term time savings of getting seed into the ground with only partial or even no fertilizer.

“There are options to fertilize after seeding, but none are perfect,” said Cutts. “There is potential to broadcast fertilizer even after the crop has emerged. But if you don’t get precipitation to move it into the soil, a portion of the applied nutrients, especially in the case of nitrogen, could be lost.

“Foliar applications get some nitrogen into a plant but much, much less than the crop requires — typically only a few pounds. Banding at seeding is definitely the best: all other options are compromises.”

Some growers may choose to broadcast both seed and fertilizer.

In broadcasted fields, nitrogen should be incorporated into the soil with a harrow, disk, or other method of disturbance in order to limit nutrient losses to volatilization (gassing off). Because phosphate is not mobile in soil, it should be broadcast at twice the rate one might band.

Though broadcasting seed increases the risk of poor establishment, it does offer certain benefits in addition to speed. Most growers have a maximum amount of fertilizer product they can handle through their seeder. A floater doesn’t have that issue. It might need to pull up to the truck more often but it can apply as much nutrient as a farmer requires, points out Keith Gabert, an agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada.

“If there’s a nutrient you’ve been a bit short of in the past, this might be an opportunity to broadcast it at a higher rate,” he said. “Farmers who are worried about crop left out in the field from last year might not think now is the time to talk about long-term nutrient investment. But if you can look at the big picture, broadcasting provides an opportunity to apply a higher rate of a nutrient like phosphate.”

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, soil test for optimized crop results.

“Producers really need to do them. It’s not the most popular practice but if you have information from a soil test, you can make good decisions,” said Cutts. “That’s return on investment regardless of the crop.”

This article was previously published on AGCanada.com.

The post It’s not business as usual when it comes to fertilizing this year appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

To squeeze as many acres into the tight seeding window as possible, the temptation is to jack up travel speed and many wonder if they should invest in higher-tech equipment.

Those farmers will be looking in the wrong direction to improve efficiency, say equipment experts. The single biggest factor that will make or break one’s ability to seed quickly and effectively is equipment maintenance.

“The biggest challenge during seeding is the unknown — and that’s generally an equipment breakdown,” said Trent Meyer, executive vice-president at SeedMaster. “You can’t take off a good crop unless you seed it. In order to seed it you have to have equipment that is operational. Any equipment, even old equipment, can be reliable if it’s well maintained. Unfortunately, you don’t realize how important maintenance is until you really need it.”

In a typical year, farmers have about four weeks to complete seeding. That seeding window often feels tight, but four weeks is usually enough time. This year, however, the seeding window may become uncomfortably constricted for many.

“In a year like this, any equipment breakdown will be a big, big deal,” said Meyer. “If you’re operating older equipment, your dealer might not have replacement parts on hand, so waiting for a part to come in can set you back extra days. It’s at times like this that not having your equipment well maintained going into the season can really increase stress levels.”

Ideally, routine maintenance should happen immediately after seeding, before machinery is put away.

“Unfortunately, let’s face it — no one wants to hear about drill maintenance when it’s time to get on the sprayer,” said Meyer. “But post-seeding is definitely the best time of year to do maintenance, because parts are the cheapest and you can still remember what worked and what didn’t work during seeding.”

“I’d say most producers don’t do enough post-seeding equipment maintenance,” added Chris Bettschen, international business manager for Seed Hawk. “If it’s been a challenging year for seeding, they usually just want to walk away from the seeder and decompress, or jump on the next piece of equipment and get on with the next job. Farms are busy places: routine maintenance doesn’t always get done when it should.”

Everyone should pull their seeding equipment out of storage at least a week before seeding begins in order to complete a pre-seeding inspection.

In addition to topping up oils and fluids, inspecting and servicing all grease points on the tank and toolbar, and assessing and fixing any obviously worn or damaged components, producers should complete a full walk-around inspection to check all hydraulic lines, search for any leaks and look for pinched electrical harnesses. Remember that a small drip or a little wear on the outside often means significantly worse damage on the inside. On older machines, pay special attention to the toolbar, since frame cracks can happen over time.

The most important area to inspect on a seeder is the ground engagement point: the seed knife and, if separate from the seed knife, the fertilizer knife.

“You want the opener to be in good condition, without excessive wear, and with all the bolts and attachments in firm, factory condition,” said Bettschen. “That area is the highest point of wear on any machine, so it’ll be the first point a problem is likely to show up.”

Finally, visually inspect all seals on pressurized air cart tanks, then turn on fans, and pressure up to assess whether any air leaks have developed.

“Maintenance matters a lot,” said Bettschen. “I’ve seen four- or five-year-old machines that look brand new and I’ve seen one-year-old machines that look really rough. Servicing and maintaining your equipment will save you a lot of money and a lot of time.”

Certain equipment dealers and manufacturers, including both SeedMaster and Seed Hawk, offer training clinics for owners and operators.

“Our customers only use the equipment for four or six weeks per year, so they might not know all the finer details of it,” said Meyer. “We run free operator and maintenance clinics annually as a way to help them be successful. We talk through best practices, show them what to keep an eye on, explain which parts you need to check and when.”

Once seeding begins, many producers may be tempted to increase their speed to get their crop into the ground as quickly as possible. Experts recommend against. Not only is attempting to seed too fast hard on equipment, it will negatively affect equipment’s ability to seed consistently and at the proper depth.

“Going a mile an hour faster will push the limits of keeping your butt in the seat, let alone getting seed into the ground effectively,” said Meyer. “Older equipment simply wasn’t made to go that fast and even newer equipment has operating limits.

“The important thing to remember is that there’s very little benefit to going faster. It’s much more useful to put your efforts into avoiding a breakdown — that’s where the efficiency will come from.

The post Lack of maintenance could bite you hard this seeding season appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

When not managed properly, nutrients from fertilizer and manure make their way into creeks, lakes, dugouts, and other water bodies. But a new tool to help mitigate phosphorus run-off risk will soon be available.

Over the past three years, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry and the Intensive Livestock Working Group (an alliance of eight of Alberta livestock and poultry organizations) have been collaborating to build a simple, personalized farm management decision-support tool designed to help manage phosphorus run-off. The Alberta Phosphorus Management Tool, expected to be available in late spring, is a free, Excel-based tool for assessing phosphorus run-off risk. The tool will also provide producers with management solutions that include both a relative cost and environmental efficacy ranking.

“The idea behind this tool is to help producers prioritize where they could invest their time, energy and/or resources to manage phosphorus and run-off,” said provincial water research specialist Jennifer Kerr. “Multiple beneficial management practices (BMPs) might be recommended based on a producer’s answers to the questionnaire. Obviously, you can’t necessarily change environmental or geographic factors, but you can change things like how much manure you apply to a field or what time of year cattle have access to a riparian area.”

Based on answers to the producer questionnaire, the tool provides a variety of customized recommendations.

“A producer might choose to implement simple, inexpensive recommendations to address their risk, while other situations may require a more complex solution,” said Kerr. “Compared to doing nothing, even a small change is better.”

Some recommendations — such as soil testing to determine nutrient levels before applying manure or fertilizer in order to limit overfertilizing — reduce run-off while also saving money.

Over the longer term, the plan is to offer producers additional resources and support to help them best manage run-off. Currently, the project team is putting together a producer website with links to additional tools, information, and resources (including grant opportunities).

Any information provided by farmers will be kept strictly confidential and won’t be shared with other agencies, Kerr said.

“Our priority is all about finding solutions,” she said. “As we were developing this project, we thought about different options and versions of this tool, including the idea of having farmers complete the questionnaire online. But if we went that route, we’d have to be really careful about where any producer information was stored for security reasons. And we know we’d lose some producers’ willingness to complete the tool because they would be concerned their information was tracked.

“So in the end, we designed it as a downloadable document that you save to your own computer, so you have total control over it.”

The tool is also designed to be user friendly and real-world applicable. The questionnaire drop-down menus make completion simple, and all analysis and calculations are completed via the tool’s embedded calculators and algorithms.

To date, the tool has been tested by at least 10 producers in two study watersheds,” said Kerr. “Everything from the questions asked, to the recommendations offered, to the layout and operation of the tool itself have been vetted by and adjusted according to producer feedback.

It’s hoped the tool will be widely used.

“The vast majority of farmers is extremely environmentally conscious,” said Kerr. “For them, choosing to use this tool will be just another aspect of their environmental planning. For those who are slower to respond, they need to consider that social licence is becoming a very important aspect of agricultural producers’ businesses, and environmental stewardship is a key component of that.

“Alternatively, farmers can seek support from agricultural extension staff, agrologists, or others with strong environmental and production understanding to help develop run-off risk mitigation strategies.”

While the Alberta Phosphorus Management Tool won’t be available for a few months, a companion resource guide is available now at www.agriculture.alberta.ca (search for ‘phosphorus management guide’).

The post New tool for managing nutrient run-off appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

This summer, the first known Group 4 herbicide-resistant kochia was identified in a durum wheat field in southwestern Saskatchewan. And samples currently being tested from a farm in southern Alberta are also suspected to be Group 4 resistant.

This new resistance follows just five years after Alberta’s first glyphosate (Group 9) resistant kochia was identified in 2011 in Warner County.

“There’s no question this will complicate kochia management. When you consider that all kochia is Group 2 resistant, and then you stack on Group 9 resistance as well, and now Group 4 resistance too, that three-way resistance starts to limit options,” said Hugh Beckie, a weed scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. “It could be worse — there are still other herbicide options to control kochia — but it puts another nail in the coffin in terms of herbicide efficacy.”

The two cases of Group 4 resistance are likely only the tip of the iceberg.

“When new resistance comes up there are almost certainly many more cases out there that just haven’t yet been identified,” said Beckie. “We expect to see a number of cases across the Prairies in the next few years.”

• Grainews VIDEO: Herbicide resistance spreading in Western Canada

Kochia’s prolific seed production and tumbleweed nature mean new resistant strains have the potential to spread virulently.

By 2013, just two years after it was first identified in southern Alberta, glyphosate-resistant kochia had spread to at least 18 nearby fields. But, said Beckie, do not assume that only nearby fields are at risk: kochia can tumble long distances, spreading seeds all the while. And additional resistant strains are likely to spontaneously appear in other fields as kochia manages to repeatedly breach the herbicide barrier.

Though no official surveys have been conducted to map its spread since 2012, Beckie suspects glyphosate-resistant kochia now exists in many western Canadian fields. Surveys will be conducted in Alberta this year, in Manitoba in 2018 and in Saskatchewan in 2019 to determine how common and how widespread glyphosate-resistant kochia has become.

“Back in 2012, about five per cent of fields showed glyphosate-resistant kochia,” said Beckie. “The new surveys will give us a good indication of how quickly it is evolving and spreading. How much of an increase we should expect is hard to say. We’ll have to wait and see but I would expect (the per cent of fields impacted) to be in the double digits.”

Now that Group 4 resistance has also been identified, researchers will attempt to map its early spread as well.

“I expect the Group 4 resistance will repeat what we’ve seen with Group 2 resistance — fairly rapid and widely spread resistant population increases,” said Beckie. “However, an apparent fitness penalty associated with that type of resistance may slow its development and spread.”

Beckie is not surprised by the new Group 4 resistance. Group 4- and 5-resistant kochia biotypes appeared in the northern U.S. several years ago. Even if resistant strains do not blow up from our neighbours to the south, herbicide resistance is simply a numbers game. The more often a herbicide is applied, especially on a common weed and highly prolific seed producer like kochia, the more likely resistance will develop. Given producers’ heavy reliance on herbicides, scientists agree that resistance to all herbicide options is only a matter of time.

“I’m actually surprised how durable the Group 4 chemistry has been to date considering they are very old chemistries dating back to the Second World War,” said Beckie. “Today, a lot of herbicide products are prepackaged or tank mixed with a Group 4 so we are seeing increased Group 4 use Prairie-wide. And new crops like soybeans are coming with a Group 4 gene, which also puts more pressure on that kind of herbicide. Selection pressure is there in most fields now, so we knew this was coming.”

So be vigilant about field scouting, he said.

“The awareness is there, but when you add time pressures, sometimes things fall through the cracks. Producers need to really be watching for how their herbicides are working so that they can catch problems before they burgeon out of control.”

If you suspect Group 4 resistance, contact Beckie at hugh.beckie@agr.gc.ca to arrange free testing.

The post This is not good — triple-resistant kochia has entered Alberta appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Realizing animal welfare audits would be foisted upon them if they didn’t act first, the National Cattle Feeders Association (NCFA) is stepping boldly forward with North America’s first-ever beef cattle welfare audit tool.

“Animal welfare is a big concern for consumers today,” said Dr. Joyce Van Donkersgoed, a Calgary-based feedlot veterinarian and NCFA’s audit program co-ordinator.

“They want assurances that the meat they eat was raised humanely and with care. The beef industry is a linked chain — when consumers put pressure on the retailers, the retailers push that pressure back to the meat packers, and the meat packers have to push it back along the chain to the feedlots.”

More than two years ago, a packer approached the NCFA with a draft animal welfare affidavit it hoped to implement. The affidavit required feedlot operators to sign off that they complied with a variety of animal care practices, both at the feedlot and during transportation. Though the affidavit only required a signature from the operator as proof, NCFA officials presumed demands for a more formal verification wouldn’t be far behind. Further, they guessed other packers would soon be coming to them with similar demands.

“Our big fear was that various packers and retailers would all create their own, separate audits, which would be chaos: completely impossible and unmanageable for feedlot operators,” said Van Donkersgoed. “So our goal was to create a single audit tool that would satisfy all meat packers and retailers while minimizing cost and administrative burden to feedlots.”

Through much of 2015, the NCFA worked with Canada’s three major beef packers, as well as animal scientists, feedlot veterinarians, feedlot producers and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to create the early draft of an audit program. Together, they turned the Canadian Beef Code of Practice (released in 2013 by the National Farm Animal Care Council) into a single, workable, comprehensive audit tool. They then presented the draft tool to a wide cross-section of retailers and piloted it at 22 feedyards in order to further perfect it.

This past spring, the committee rolled out the final result: the brand new Canadian Feedlot Animal Care Assessment Program.

Certified by the Professional Animal Auditors Certified Organization (the international standard for animal audits) and Canada’s National Farm Animal Care Council, the program is comprehensive, reputable, and — equally importantly — user friendly.

Throughout this past summer, the NCFA worked to develop templates, communication tools, and an online certification program to educate producers and ensure uptake of the audit tool went smoothly. All of these resources will soon be available online.

For now, the program is a voluntary ‘tool.’ That said, retailers are very likely to start demanding mandatory animal welfare audits in the near future. As such, the NCFA is pushing hard to educate cattle feed yards about the program and enrol them now.

While few feedlot managers will be excited about jumping through new auditing and administrative hoops, the audit is designed to be as simple to use and low maintenance as possible. All requirements are listed in easy checklist style, and all necessary documentation is available in template, fill-in-the-box form.

“Because this program comes from within the industry rather than being pushed on us from outside, it has been designed with the end-user — the feedlot operator — in mind,” said Van Donkersgoed. “We’ve done everything possible to make this as easy as possible to implement.”

The vast majority of feedlots is doing an excellent job, she added, and most will only have to make minor changes to meet the audit’s requirements.

Van Donkersgoed views the audit as an opportunity rather than a burden.

“Some feedlots, especially the smaller ones that are used to just talking procedures around the kitchen table, are going to have to focus more on documentation,” she said. “A few feedlots might need to tweak certain procedures or details. In general, this audit showcases the good work feedlots are already doing.”

The post Cattle feeders get proactive with new feedlot animal welfare audit appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

But for all their hopefulness, only some are willing to stray far from tried-and-true crops.

“There is always some interest in new or alternative crops, but few gain momentum,” said Mark Cutts, a crop specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. “Large producers tend to grow crops they are familiar with given the number of acres they need to cover. Smaller producers might be more willing to take the time to try new crops as they may have more time to learn how to grow these crops.”

And after all, sometimes a lack of enthusiasm for jumping into new and alternative crops pays off.

Five years ago, camelina was touted by some as a new wonder crop — hyped as hardy, easy to grow, and forecast by some to be the next big biofuel. In 2010, Great Plains Camelina Company out of Cincinnati, Ohio — the major player in the camelina biofuel market — contracted 60,000 acres of camelina in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The company’s vice-president painted a picture of a rosy future, saying they were looking to grow more and could, even then, handle almost twice as many acres.

Unfortunately, time proved him wrong. Many producers complained camelina is, in fact, very difficult to grow. And a combination of weather and bad luck (flooding, rail transport backups, and a promised but undelivered biofuel blender’s tax credit) caused Great Plains to renege on contracts for camelina grown in 2010 and 2011.

Though producers eventually received most or all of the monies owing, their enthusiasm for the new crop was understandably dampened. Today, camelina has virtually dropped entirely off Alberta’s cropping map.

“Five or six years ago, we got some questions at the crop info centre on camelina,” said Cutts. “Now, nothing.”

Pennycress, another potential biofuel, may suffer a similar fate.

“Some people are dabbling in it up in the Peace region but they aren’t getting too far,” he said.

But some novel crops are making headway.

Quinoa, mostly contracted to companies in Saskatchewan and Ontario, is gaining limited acreage.

And new and improved varieties of fababean and soybeans are drawing second looks because of their low disease incidence and pest problems, easy harvestability, and good potential profitability. Fababean acreage in Alberta rose from 6,000 acres in 2012 to about 80,000 acres in 2014 before levelling off this year.

But the biggest success story in recent years has been spring-seeded legumes. Lentils, in particular, made a huge jump in acreage in 2016.

“The value of lentils was very, very high last year so a lot of people jumped into them,” said Cutts.

That said, this year’s wet weather in many key lentil-growing areas will likely spell limited success for this crop this year. But interest in pulses remains high, and some are planting peas and lentils in the fall. Fall planting results in less spring planting pressure and a wider fall harvest window since fall-seeded crops are harvested earlier. As well, research plots have produced as much as 39 per cent more yield than spring-seeded crops — although high management requirements have limited uptake among producers so far.

And a changing climate and improving genetics mean some crops once considered impossible to grow in more northern climates now bring farmers success in areas they’ve never been grown before. Corn, for example, is now fairly common in central Alberta, and winter wheat is being grown right up into the Peace Country.

And finally hemp, banned as a crop in Canada from 1938 to 1998, is making a comeback in Albertan fields. Acreage peaked at 108,000 acres in 2014 before falling to 76,000 acres this year. The drop is the result of a shortage of processing capacity, and not because of a lack of producer interest, according to Jan Slaski, a crop scientist with Alberta Innovates Technology Futures.

“There is huge interest among producers but because this crop is grown 99 per cent on contract, we need the processors to get up and running,” he said. “We’re in the transition phase right now. More processors are coming on stream now.”

There are also more markets for hemp products, he said.

“Until last year, hemp was grown almost exclusively for seed for human consumption. But fibre demand is about to become reality and explode. Substantial acres of fibre-specific varieties will be necessary.”

There is also potential for non-narcotic cannabinoids which are being tested for a range of medical conditions, including epilepsy and diabetes. A single hectare of hemp can produce between one and three kilograms of pharmaceutical-grade non-narcotic cannabinoids, with each kilogram currently valued at $20,000. However, this is a federally regulated product and is not yet legal to produce in Canadian fields.

The post The enticing — and sometimes scary — world of alternative crops appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The crop also reduces spring seeding time pressure, widens the fall harvest window, and offers environmental benefits.

Yet, winter wheat acreage continues to climb only slowly. While winter wheat varieties and agronomics have improved greatly in recent years and the crop now enjoys success all the way into the Peace region, growers continue to be slow to jump on the winter wheat bandwagon.

After falling sharply at the start of the decade, Alberta’s winter wheat acreage has been on a fairly steady — albeit slow — upward trajectory, from 145,000 seeded acres in 2012 to 200,000 in 2016.

“Twenty-five or 30 per cent growth sounds good but on a smaller acreage, that growth doesn’t translate into a ton of acres,” said Monica Klaas, a contract agronomist with Ducks Unlimited Canada.

“The Western Winter Wheat Initiative, a program operated by Ducks Unlimited, aims to build winter wheat acres to one-quarter of all Western Canada (wheat) acres. Although strides in crop and market development have been made, we still have a long way to go.”

Acreage is projected to climb somewhat this fall, mostly because this year’s earlier-than-normal spring seeding will translate into a longer window between harvest and frost for fall seeding.

The holdup on a major increase in winter wheat acreage continues to be producers’ misconceptions about the crop, said Klaas.

“This isn’t your grampa’s or your dad’s winter wheat. Plant breeders have made huge strides,” she said. “It’s not a low-effort, low-return crop anymore. And winter survivability is no longer the big concern it used to be.”

The reseeding rate due to winterkill on the Prairies is now about nine per cent, she said.

“But if you look at a 10-year period of any spring-seeded crop, you’ll see a reseeding rate of about one in 10 due to flooding, disease, insects, etc. In farming, there is always uncertainty. The only difference with winter wheat is that it is in the ground longer, which means you unfortunately have a longer period to worry.”

This year’s crop enjoyed virtually 100 per cent winter survivability, even though a very minimal snowpack provided little insulation through the cold months. Improved genetics also offered protection from stripe rust: despite near-ideal conditions for disease development, fewer than expected commercial fields planted to resistant varieties reported stripe rust concerns in 2016.

Market challenge

Prices for winter wheat are lower, partly because there are few export markets specific to Canadian Western Red Winter wheat. Rather, the crop is either mixed in with Canadian Hard Red Spring wheat or, if it is sold as a winter wheat-specific block, it is mixed with American winter wheat.

However, Canadian Red Winter wheat has unique baking characteristics. It is harder than American winter wheat and can have higher protein than Canadian Hard Red Spring wheat, which means it has the potential to be marketed as a preferred option for specific end uses.

“What the Canadian Grain Commission, Ducks Unlimited, and their partners are trying to do is establish Canadian Western Red Winter wheat as a unique variety,” said Klaas. “If we can sell it as a unique variety, we can target our marketing to specific countries and specific end uses.”

The problem, like so many marketing dilemmas, is that the promoters’ efforts are a bit of a chicken and egg scenario.

“Obviously you need significant acreage so you can fill market. But, the question is this: Do you find the market and build the acres, or do you build the acres and then try to find the market? As soon as you default on an order, that customer is going to get cold feet and will go shop elsewhere. That’s what we’re working on right now.”

Their goal is lofty. In order to build sustainable markets, they need to convince farmers to plant 25 per cent of their wheat acreage — a full 1,665,000 acres in Alberta — into a fall-seeded crop.

“Producers just need to have an open mind. Winter wheat has so much potential,” said Klaas. “Eventually, we’ll see winter wheat grown commonly all the way up into the Peace. It’s just a matter of trying to capture growers’ positive experiences and building on that, but that will take time.

“We see a really bright future ahead. But we don’t always want to talk about tomorrow. Right now, winter wheat is a great option.”

For winter wheat production information, visit growwinterwheat.ca.

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On the one hand, the high cost of canola seed makes it tempting to minimize one’s seeding rate — on the other hand, a strong and consistent canola stand is key to good returns.

In the American Corn Belt, producers have found a solution by repurposing their corn planters to plant canola seed. The precision planting makes for better emergence; incredibly consistent stand establishment, better pest management, more even ripening, and improved crop harvestability, yield and quality. Here in Western Canada, where very few producers grow corn and even fewer own a corn planter, the jury remains out on whether the agronomic and input cost benefits could ever offset the high cost of the equipment.

Lacombe-area producer Craig Shaw planted and recorded on-farm results of various seeding rates and row spacing planted by both a corn planter and conventional plot seeder over three years.

Though weather woes and residue management issues got in the way of entirely clear results, Shaw says there’s no question that precision planting offers a big agronomic benefit.

“When you look at a canola field seeded with a planter, it’s hard not to be impressed,” he said. “You can see the difference — it’ll look very, very uniform and the crop stages are totally consistent. All through the season that consistency matters for everything from herbicide and fungicide application timing to even flowering to consistent ripening.”

Shaw’s trial data is being added to the planter trial findings conducted by federal scientist Neil Harker in research plots at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s research centre in Lacombe. Once complete, Shaw and Harker hope their efforts will help define canola’s optimized seeding rate and spacing when planted with a corn planter.

Even more importantly, the study hopes to determine whether the lower input cost and/or improved yield benefit over a conventional plot seeder are significant enough to justify the purchase price of a planter.

Less seed, better stands

Canola currently costs into the double digits per pound for quality hybrid seed. Typically, half (or more) of the seed never successfully germinates. So a farmer who seeds five pounds per acre and sees an average rate of seed mortality is essentially kissing $25 or $30 of seed away per acre. As such, improving seedling emergence can have an immediate positive impact on one’s bottom line.

“We found that seed mortality was much less in the planter situation, which meant we could reduce seeding rates but still maintain yield,” said Shaw. “We ran lower seeding rates — much lower — and still maintained yield because we were able to place the seeds at exactly the right depth and space.

“The best results are going to come out of the Lacombe research centre’s trials that are still ongoing. But from my experience, it was definitely easier to get a uniform stand from a planter system than from a regular seeder.”

Trials conducted by Rocky Mountain Equipment in Balzac a couple of years ago suggest the same.

The company conducted field trials using four different seeding rates (from 150,000 seeds or about two pounds per acre, to 375,000 seeds or about five pounds per acre) in 13 different locations. In virtually all scenarios, the lowest seeding rate produced the best yield.

Single-crop use

Still, is the saving enough to justify high cost of a corn planter, which due to crop rotation, may not even be used every year?

“The big question mark is whether a precision drill is worth the expenditure, especially in an environment where it’s exclusively used for canola seeding,” said Shaw. “As you move further south into country that grows corn, sugar beets and soy, you’d have more acres you could use that kind of planter on, so it would be easier to warrant that additional expense. But up here, it’s a significant cost when you can only use it for a single crop.”.

His three-year on-farm trial now complete, Shaw has returned the borrowed planter to the Lacombe research station — and isn’t planning on buying one for his operation.

“The reality is that the planter isn’t the be-all and end-all answer to every issue,” he said. “Yup, it improved certain things and made achieving consistency easier. But what we really saw was that environment is critical.

“The more things you can get right at planting — the No. 1 factor being good residue management — the better the odds that you can get away with reduced seeding rates. It’s a package concept — the better the seedbed you put it into, the better those seeds are going to do, regardless of how you get them in the ground.”

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