That’s how Allison Ammeter felt after the province first confirmed — and then cancelled — funding for an agency set up to help attract plant-protein processing to Alberta.

And the move comes just weeks after the provincial ag minister held up the Plant Protein Alliance of Alberta as a leading example of his government’s effort to attract processors who, so far, have been setting up shop elsewhere on the Prairies.

“I didn’t see it coming. Not even a little bit,” said Ammeter, chair of the now-shuttered three-year-old organization. “They had told us we had funding, so we were in the throes of organizing our plans. And then March 31, we got a call that said there’s no funding.”

The about-face happened in just three weeks.

On March 10, the organization received a call from staff with the investment attraction branch of Alberta Agriculture and Forestry offering a grant of $250,000. The next day on a conference call with department staff, it asked for a higher amount but was told no more money was available.

“We could survive on $250,000 a year, but that’s pretty bare bones,” said Ammeter, adding the organization had only two staff. “We don’t pay our directors a per diem. We don’t have an office. We have no overhead like you would expect from an organization like this. We run lean.”

The grant seemed to be confirmed by Agriculture Minister Devin Dreeshen in an interview with this paper in March.

He was responding to questions on why Manitoba and Saskatchewan have both attracted large-scale plant-protein fractionation facilities, but Alberta hasn’t. Dreeshen responded, in part, by citing the efforts of the organization.

“We actually provide the Plant Protein Alliance of Alberta a quarter of a million dollar grant to do their exploratory work to see if they can help in our efforts to attract value-added processing,” Dreeshen said on March 12.

In the days that followed, the alliance submitted five projects to the department for consideration as requested, and after some back and forth, agriculture ministry staff indicated on March 24 that everything seemed to be in order and that a contract would be forthcoming.

Seven days later, a ministry official called back to say it wouldn’t be receiving any funding after all.

“We didn’t get a reason,” said Ammeter. “We didn’t get anything from them other than, ‘We thought we had the money, but we don’t. Sorry.'”

However, another event also happened during that period: The publication of the story Dreeshen was asked to respond to.

In it, both Ammeter and now former Plant Protein Alliance of Alberta CEO Dan Brewin called on the province to up its efforts to attract plant protein processing facilities — or risk missing the boat. Both said the province should emulate Manitoba and be more aggressive in attracting plant protein processors.

“I think Alberta has bent over backwards to support the energy industry, and I think it’s time to say, ‘Hey, we’re growing all these crops that could contribute to an amazing plant-based food industry here,'” Ammeter said in the front-page story in the March 22 edition of Alberta Farmer.

When asked if those statements might have prompted the abrupt turnabout on funding, Ammeter said she doesn’t know.

“I think there’s a lot of conjecture out there as to why we didn’t get it,” she said. “We just don’t know. We’re not getting it, and we just don’t know why.”

Few answers

Dreeshen declined an interview request and instead an official from his office emailed a brief response to written questions.

“Over the last three years, Alberta’s government provided the PPAA with nearly $800,000 in grants to cover expenses and webinars,” the email stated. “During that time, they did great work and we thank them for their efforts.”

That’s similar to the response the alliance received from Dreeshen after asking for clarification on why the promise of funding was abruptly withdrawn.

“Since 2018, the Government of Alberta has provided $793,000 in start-up grant funding to the PPAA to support the emerging plant-based protein sector,” Dreeshen stated in an April 7 email.

“However, due to the need to focus limited program funds on projects that directly support the value-added sector and encourage innovation and technological advancement, Agriculture and Forestry will not provide further operational funding to the PPAA.”

The department encouraged the organization to submit future proposals under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) program, but Ammeter said the non-profit didn’t have the luxury of waiting for new CAP guidelines to be announced.

“We had told them, ‘If we don’t get core funding, we shut down.’ We were extremely clear about that — that we could not continue without this funding,” said Ammeter. “They knew it, so it’s not a surprise to them that we’ve had to close down.”

But attracting plant-protein processing remains a top government priority, the agriculture ministry official said in the email.

“We are currently working on six plant-protein investment cases which are valued at over $500 million and have the potential to create over 325 jobs,” the email stated.

Her organization was making strides, too, said Ammeter, who is past chair of both Pulse Canada and Alberta Pulse Growers.

Its key role was to bring industry players together, she said, noting it had more than 150 members and had hosted a large number of networking events and workshops and, since the pandemic, webinars.

“We’ve seen people get funded because they met the right people at our events. We’ve seen them find the supply chain they needed,” she said. “The value of connecting these people one to another is almost impossible to estimate.

“In the last three years, we moved the needle a lot. I have no regrets about what we did do — I only have regrets about all the great things still on our wish list that we didn’t get the time to do.”

Businesses in the sector will “find a way to do it on their own,” but additional connections that were being made — with post-secondary institutions, researchers, investors, banks, and other resources — will be hard to replace, said Ammeter.

“The businesses will keep going. These business owners will continue. But what will not continue is the ability for them to network with other like-minded business owners in an Alberta-based forum like we had set up.”

Nevertheless, Ammeter said she is still hopeful that Alberta will someday be a hub for plant-protein processing on the Prairies.

“We’re a tremendous place to come and invest,” she said. “We grow all of these great food products. We have clean water and multiple sources of energy for processing. We’re close to ports to get our product to market.

“We have a lot going for us here.”

The post Plant processing advocate gets the axe appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“Farming is a whole lot more than putting seed in the ground and harvesting it,” said Allison Ammeter, who farms alongside her husband near Sylvan Lake.

“A lot of it is looking at the really big picture — provincially, nationally, and globally.”

That’s not something that came naturally, at least for Mike.

“When I first got introduced to policy development, it was like, ‘I’m growing grain here. Why are we talking about policy?’” said Mike, who was on the board at Alberta Barley and now sits on the Alberta Canola board.

“Sometimes you get a little myopic and just focus on what you’re doing, but the politics around food is really huge.

“And policy is a little like a black hole. It just goes on forever.”

Alberta has at least 20 agricultural commissions and marketing boards covering pretty much every commodity a farmer can produce — everything from grains and livestock to milk and eggs. The 13 commissions are funded through a refundable checkoff, while the seven marketing boards (which represent supply-managed commodities) have a non-refundable service charge.

These dollars fund research, market development, agronomy, stakeholder communications, and policy development — a key role of the commissions.

“The commissions specifically are there to serve the farmers and to be that networking interface between the farmers and so many other organizations around us, including the government,” said Allison, a director for Alberta Pulse Growers.

“We work with governments to ensure that their regulations are what work for farmers.”

A good example of that is the recent work on the Transportation Modernization Act, she added. Although it’s a provincial commission, Alberta Pulse Growers is part of Pulse Canada, a national body representing all pulse producers. Pulse Canada was at the table during the talks about rail transport, and farmers like Allison were “heavily involved” in that.

“With this transportation bill, we weren’t just involved in the sense that we talked to members of parliament and senators. We were actually writing portions of the bill and suggesting wording to make it work,” said Allison.

“We sat on a number of roundtables where the ministers were gathering information. We had the chance to say, ‘This is what would work for farmers.’

“As members of commissions, we can have that kind of an impact. It truly amazes me.”

On a provincial level, the commissions have worked together on major policy issues such as the carbon tax and the new workplace health and safety regulations and employment standards.

“Some of the problems are local, but we’re working in a global market,” said Mike. “We need an even playing field.”

Because of that, the commissions are also at the table during trade and market access discussions. When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went to India last spring, “what most of the Canadian public saw was all of the different outfits he had on,” said Allison. But representatives from Pulse Canada were also there with government officials to speak with high-level Indian officials about reducing tariffs on pulses.

“We’ve made sure our government is extremely well informed on what’s going on every time there’s a market access issue,” she said. “We’ve got the networks to make sure the problems are getting solved.”

That’s what lobbying is really all about, she added. When people think of ‘lobbying,’ they think of people “knocking on the door and asking for what they want.”

“We do do some of that, but we’re doing a lot of informing and networking and presenting all the facts so that they can make a really informed decision,” said Allison.

“It’s just not possible for them to know everything about every industry. We need to step up and say, ‘Here’s what you need to know.’”

Farmers can support commission efforts in a number of ways — volunteering at events, taking part in research trials, becoming a delegate for their region, or yes, even standing for election as a director. (Many elections are held in fall or winter. Alberta Canola, which has four director spots coming up for election, has a list of Alberta farm groups and links to their websites.)

“There are a lot of channels for you to make the difference you want to see,” said Allison. “As farmers, when we step up, we’re not stepping up so that our name gets engraved on a plaque somewhere. That ain’t going to happen.

“We are stepping up because we can serve farmers and serve agriculture. We can make a difference.”

The post Those who serve make a difference — for you and other farmers appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

That’s a suggestion from Alan Hall, who has kept a close watch on the pulse sector in his role as ‘new initiatives and project hunter’ with the Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund.

As such, Hall is well aware of the recent plunge in pea prices, and predictions that pea acreage on the Prairies could plummet by a million or more acres next year.

But the future for the pulse crop is bright and if you haven’t grown them — or have limited experience with them — peas should have a spot in your rotation next year, said Hall.

“I’d put a field or two (of peas) in as opposed to gambling too much — peas look very promising in the long term, as do lentils and fababeans,” he said. “For some, growing peas is a new experience. The Alberta Pulse Growers Commission had over 900 new growers in 2017. The bulk of those were new growers of peas.”

And while anyone with peas in the bin will be concerned about the drop in pea prices that followed last month’s decision by India to impose a 50 per cent tariff on the crop, the long-term trend is farmers’ friend, said Hall.

“There is some trending in global consumer markets that are really pushing demand for plant-based proteins,” he said. “There’s this kind of drive happening in North America, happening in Europe, happening in Asia. You’ve got a lot of world population pushing this.

“The response to that has been the investment world saying, ‘Look at the Canadian Prairies and all these pulse proteins are pretty much desired because of their functionalities and how they fit into the food formulations, beverage formulations, those kinds of things.’”

India has been the biggest market for Canadian dry peas, importing about one million tonnes annually over the last few years. It would take a huge amount of processing to equal that, but the signs are good, say both Hall and Pulse Canada CEO Gordon Bacon.

“Non-traditional applications in food products are the reason why I’m very confident in the pulse industry long term,” said Bacon.

A new plant being built by French pulse giant Roquette in Portage la Prairie, Man., will be the privately owned company’s biggest facility (it has 20 worldwide) and consume 125,000 tonnes annually. A Verdient Foods plant near Saskatoon (partly owned by famous director James Cameron) is being converted to organic and a series of expansions are planned that will bring production up to 160,000 tonnes annually. W.A. Grain and Pulse Solutions in Bowden has also announced plans for a two-stage expansion that could increase production by 100,000 tonnes annually.

There are also other facilities under consideration — including one at Moose Jaw involving German investors and another in Lethbridge. As well, there is speculation that Regina’s AGT Food and Ingredients, which has a pulse-processing plant at Minot, N.D. that has been repeatedly expanded, may build a sister facility north of the border.

“If they all get built, we’ll be using a million-plus tonnes, which roughly equates to a million acres,” said Hall. “You’re talking about roughly 20 per cent of the current pulse crop.”

Processing of peas — called fractionation — yields a variety of products. Some methods produce isolates (a plant protein), others yield concentrates with a 40 to 45 per cent protein level, and another process creates pea flour, said Bacon.

But the list of specific products and their uses is long and getting longer, he said.

“What we need to do is just get rid of the idea that you just grind it and it’s ready. We want to look at this continuum of whole peas, split peas, pea flour, pea concentrates, and pea isolates.”

Milling is a dry process, while the production of isolates is a wet process, and that’s where major dollars come in. The cost of a spray dryer in isolate production is about $25 million.

“We have various levels of investment, various levels of the price of ingredients, but we have this continuum of demand that we’re looking to address for all the levels that we’ve talked about,” said Bacon.

The demand is indeed varied. More and more consumers want the health benefits associated with plant protein while food manufacturers are increasingly interested in high-protein and high-fibre ingredients; protein sources free of allergens associated with soy, dairy, and wheat; and GMO-free ingredients.

And this is not just a North American phenomenon, but a global one, said Bacon.

On a recent trade mission to China, Alberta farmer and Pulse Canada director Allison Ammeter and Leanne Fischbuch, executive director of Alberta Pulse Growers, visited facilities that produce isolates and are developing new ways to incorporate pea flour into noodles, he said.

“People are looking to reformulate and higher-protein and higher-fibre levels,” said Bacon.

The Canadian Prairies will be a “hot spot” for pulse processing, predicted Hall.

Not only are farmers here able to produce both high quality and a consistent supply of pulses, but “Canada is a good place to invest in terms of security, political stability, those kinds of things,” he said.

“So it looks like the Canadian Prairies will be a magnet for this type of processing. It’s looking pretty positive — similar to the canola story. Go back over the last couple of decades when a first plant was built and then a second, and now half of the canola is crushed on the Prairies and the other half is exported bulk.

“I think pulses are on the same journey, but it’s ramped up in terms of speed.”

Even the plants already being constructed will make a difference, said Bacon.

“The key to price stability is a more diversified market base,” he said. “You can make an argument that even small improvements in a market base dampen price swings to a significant level.”

If Prairie farmers can make a decent return, there’s no doubt they will grow more pulses because the crop works well in a rotation, breaking the disease and pest cycles in canola and wheat, said Hall.

However, becoming adept at growing pulses comes with a learning curve too, he added, pointing to disease issues in particular. While root rot gets much of the attention, pulses can be attacked by a host of soil-borne fungi that are often described as ‘a complex of root pathogens.’

“Pulses are a funny animal,” noted Hall. “If you grow too much, you have diseases or pest pressures.”

But new pulse varieties with better yield and harvestability continue to come out and when coupled with rising demand, any drop in acreage will be short lived, he said.

“Overall, pulse crops are in that five- to six-million-acre range, and that could well go to 10 (million),” he said.

The post Give peas a chance — the future looks bright appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

But it’s exactly what women who attend Agri-Trade said they wanted to see at the popular Red Deer event.

“Attendee surveys brought a strong message that there were a lot of women in agriculture who would appreciate more content specific to them,” said David Fiddler, manager of the equipment expo.

Agri-Trade, which for several years has sponsored two students to attend the annual Advancing Women in Agriculture Conference, was approached by conference founder Iris Meck about working more closely together.

The result is a presentation entitled ‘Focus on the 90%,’ by Saskatchewan entrepreneur and motivational speaker Darci Lang from 9:30 a.m. to noon on Nov. 10. It’s an interactive, participatory-style event where women can learn and network, said Fiddler.

“(It) is about effecting change, finding solutions, and innovations in leadership,” he said. “She challenges people to take a look in the mirror and say what’s good; what do we have that we can change; and how we can use our focus to change what is around us in our work and our personal lives.

“She’s got a lot of humour and really connects to her audience. She’s got quite a style.”

The event, which is included with admission, isn’t just for women but “will give farm families a reason to come to the show,” said Fiddler, adding seating is limited.

While checking out equipment is the big draw for many, Agri-Trade has always been more about networking for two women who farm in central Alberta.

“I’m not nearly as focused on the (machinery) as my husband might be — it’s just not my forte,” said Allison Ammeter, who farms near Sylvan Lake and is past chair of Alberta Pulse Growers.

Connecting with farmers and “Twitter friends” from across the province is invaluable, said Ammeter, adding much of that happens at the pulse commission booth.

“Most of the commissions ask for farmer directors and advisers to put in booth time,” she said. “A lot of farmers want to talk to other farmers. I love having people stop and ask random questions.

“Sometimes it’s somebody asking you how to cook with pulses; sometimes it’s somebody asking about a new variety; sometimes they want to tell you about some weird disease. I absolutely love the variety in talking to farmers at a commission booth.”

Sarah Hoffmann agrees.

She manages Alect Seeds, a pedigreed seed farm near Three Hills, with her parents and spends a lot of time at the booths of seed companies that have lines that she retails.

“I’m there to talk with my reps, but I’m also there because potential customers might wander by,” she said. “If they’re looking for feed barley, I can tell them about the feed barley seed I have. It’s like an informal marketing opportunity for me as well.”

More and more conversations are taking place on social media or by texting, but chatting in person builds deeper relationships, she said.

“If you make that face-to-face connection, later on they have an idea of what you are looking for and you have an idea of what they can offer,” said Hoffmann. “That just seems a little more real than only talking on the phone or only emailing.”

She often lets her spouse and father go off on their own (“the equipment side of things is more their interest”), but likes to have “a hands-on look” at equipment she might be purchasing in the future.

A few years ago, the family was looking to upgrade their seed treatment system. They saw the prototype at Agri-Trade of the one they wanted and subsequently purchased.

“When you actually see it, that actually helps you ask better questions about (the product).”

And as a woman, she is usually well received at booths, she added.

“I can’t remember a time that stands out, maybe subtly, but nothing that stands out.”

Ammeter, who likes to check out “new inventions,” has had a similar experience, as well.

“This is always a matter of who the exhibitor is,” she said. “Some are great, some not so much. I do find if I ask intelligent questions, they answer me seriously. If I hang back, they hang back.”

Ammeter said her Agri-Trade experience has evolved over the years.

“One thing I have noticed, is that my role has changed at farm shows as my children have grown,” she said. “When they were in the young to middle years… I did my best to corral my children through, letting them ask questions, collect pens and notebooks, and climb on equipment.

“Now that I can go sans kiddos, I can actually focus on my own interests. I used to go to Agri-Trade to see what was different — things I’ve never seen before. I find, now the kids are grown, I divide my time between the products I know and I want to know more about, and the ones that are like, ‘What is this? I’ve never seen it! What’s it for?’”

But it’s the casual conversations with other farmers that makes Agri-Trade so valuable, said Ammeter.

“That’s the beauty of networking. Of course, women offer different perspectives to the same issues sometimes.”

“It’s as much of a networking opportunity for me as it is seeing specific products,” added Hoffmann. “I don’t think it’s any different for me to connect with other women than it is with men at these events.”

Agri-Trade runs from Nov. 8-11 (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Nov. 11 when the event wraps up at 3 p.m.). For more information visit www.agri-trade.com or follow it on Twitter @agritradetoday (use the hashtag #agritrade17).

The post All the iron is still there, but Agri-Trade has a new dimension appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“As a farmer, I’m really proud of the fact that I grow good, safe food that’s enjoyed around the world,” said the past chair of Alberta Pulse Growers, who farms near Sylvan Lake.

“But it’s always really ticked me off that everything we grow is loaded into a grain car and sent somewhere else.

“We don’t have to ship it to someone else to do the work. We can be doing this here in Alberta.”

Over the years, Alberta’s agriculture industry has dipped its toe into value-added processing for the “bigger-picture things,” said Ammeter, who chaired the national committee for the International Year of Pulses in 2016 and was recently given the Pulse Promoter Award by Saskatchewan Pulse Growers for her work on behalf of the sector.

“We’re cleaning our grain on the Prairies, and that’s adding value,” she said. “Our pulses are being split and bagged. That’s not what I would call high value added, but it’s sure a lot better than just shipping them in container cars.”

Canola crushing has an economic impact of about $1.3 billion annually and thanks to a booming craft beer market, malt barley is another growing value-added industry in Alberta, she added.

“I look at the oat industry, the flax industry, the hemp industry — all of them are doing it.”

There is tremendous potential for fractionation of pulses, a relatively new technology that separates seeds into protein, fibre, and starch, which can then be used in food products, she said.

“I believe we’re now looking at value adding not just in splitting and cleaning, but value adding in looking at what we can do with the protein and other fractions,” she said. “There are so many extra things we can do. We can go much further.”

And adding value would put money into farmers’ pockets because it would boost demand.

“Right now, we’re shipping our peas for $8 or $9 a bushel. I think if we send them to a fractionation plant, we’re going to see more,” she said. “When’s the last time you heard about farmers selling their canola for $6 a bushel? It’s because we’re adding value.”

‘Big-time’ potential

Some argue that the province doesn’t have the technology to do value-added pulse processing, said Ammeter.

“But I look around and I see the oilpatch, which has some of the most interesting technology and cutting-edge innovation in the world. We don’t have the technology to do value-added food? I don’t buy that one.”

Still others argue that Alberta is too far away from consumer markets, that it’s cheaper and easier to transport raw grains than value-added goods.

“OK, maybe we shouldn’t be canning beans in the Prairies because they’re a heavy thing to ship, but then I look at pharmaceuticals and colourants (dyes and pigments) that we’re shipping out in containers on a train that’s straight to Chicago in 10 hours,” she said.

“As a farmer, I go back to the question of ‘why can’t we do this?’ I know we can add value here.”

The federal government seems to think so too. Last month’s budget pledged $950 million over five years to support ‘superclusters,’ research and development hubs that will add value to Canada’s economy. The pulse sector has created a multi-province partnership — called Protein Innovations Canada — that is ready to make the case that, through this ‘supercluster’ funding, the western Prairies could become a leading global supplier of plant-based proteins and food ingredients.

“It’s a concept that we hope we can turn into reality,” said Wilf Keller, president and CEO of Ag-West Bio, a bioresearch investment firm based in Saskatchewan.

“We want to position Canada as the leading source of high-quality proteins. We have the capacity to produce crops that have proteins that are considered to be of value for downstream uses.

“This is a growth area. There’s growth potential here big time.”

With the growing consumer interest in healthy, sustainably produced food products, pulses and other plant-based proteins are a good-news story — one that has been largely underdeveloped to this point.

“This is an area of growing interest, but there’s only a tiny portion of our pulse capacity that is turned into ingredients. We have a long way to go,” said Keller.

Momentum building

Organizations like Pulse Canada, Cigi (Canadian International Grains Institute), and the Leduc Food Processing Centre have already done research on utilizing pulse fractions in food products. As well, French company Roquette announced in January it plans to build a $400-million pea protein-processing plant in Portage la Prairie, Man.

“We see a lot of signs that there’s increasing interest in investment in Western Canada in pulse fractionation,” said Keller, a well-known agricultural researcher in biotechnology development who has led numerous major research efforts.

“There’s already evidence of industry investment, so we need to continue and build momentum in this area.”

If funded, Protein Innovations Canada will set up a home base in the Prairies and partner with industry leaders and key stakeholders in the sector to invest in research and market development for plant-based proteins from pulses, canola, and hemp.

“We have the potential to produce these products, and our strategy has to be to add value first to ingredients and then beyond,” said Keller.

It could be “really big business,” he added.

“Using canola as an example through to 2050, we estimate that we would be able to have 20 million tonnes of high-quality protein. From 2020 to 2050, this is a trillion-dollar industry that we’re looking at, and it will be close to the same in pulses.”

Investing in plant-based proteins is simply a no-brainer, he said.

“There’s a big opportunity for this to be based on the Canadian Prairies,” said Keller. “We have the land, we have the expertise, and we have the interest. Now we just need the push.”

The post Prairies could be plant-based protein superpower appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

They didn’t.

“We got not quite two-thirds done, which is fairly average in our area,” said the Sylvan Lake-area farmer.

“We did our peas and most of our barley in September, and didn’t do any wheat or canola until November. We’ve still got a fair bit of wheat out, a little bit of canola, and all our fababeans are still out.

“Nobody in Alberta has seen this in the last 60 years. We’re all kind of making it up as we go along.”

But despite the unprecedented weather and record-long harvest, the lesson she learned from it was nothing new — “weather changes, and you have to roll with the punches.”

“We seeded probably the earliest we’ve ever had our entire crop in the ground, and we were prepared that we might be combining in August given how early our seeding was,” she said. “But it was a cool, cloudy, rainy summer, and everything was later, despite when it got started.”

Like Ammeter, D’Arcy Hilgartner didn’t quite finish harvest on his farm near Camrose, despite a strong start to the growing season.

“We started out the year fairly dry. As we came into May, there wasn’t a lot of moisture out there, and as we came to the end of seeding, it was getting really dry,” said Hilgartner.

“But seeding went better than it has in years. We didn’t have any weather delays. We didn’t get stuck. We didn’t have any issues that way.

“We got it all seeded and then the rains came, which was perfect. But the rains really never stopped until it snowed.”

The delayed harvest was a good reminder to “take advantage of every possible opportunity,” he said.

“There was no such thing as a perfect spraying day this year. It was more like, ‘it’s pretty close,’ or, ‘the crop is almost dry,’” said Hilgartner, who still has some flax and fababeans out in the field.

“We probably could have got a little further along in harvest before the rains hit again in October if we had done that a little more, but that’s one of those areas that you learn.”

Not all bad news

On the other hand, Dave Bishop was one of the few farmers in Alberta who lucked out in September.

“We were luckier than most of the rest of the province because everyone down here got everything off, even if it was later,” said Bishop, who farms near Barons, just north of Lethbridge.

“But it was a good reminder that Mother Nature rules the roost and can sometimes kick you in the butt when you least expect it.”

Spring seeding was drier than normal for Bishop, who has both dryland and irrigated crops. But in the end, “everything came off pretty good.”

“We started seeding pretty dry, but then it started raining and we ended up with a pretty decent crop. I feel very fortunate that the weather co-operated more so down in the south here and we were able to get our crops off.”

It was the same story on Greg Sears’ farm near Sexsmith.

“In our immediate area — and when I say immediate, I’m talking about 10 miles around us — people ended up being done fairly fast,” said Sears. “Ourselves, we were finished before the end of September before the really horrible weather set in.”

The dry spring was a nail-biter for Sears, but he learned quickly that “you always have to stay optimistic about what’s going to come.”

“Going into the season, in the spring we were dry and I don’t think there was much optimism when we were putting seed in the ground,” said Sears.

“But it turned out to be quite the opposite at the end of the year, and our yields were really good in our area.”

And harvest was a prime example of “making hay while the sun shines,” he added.

“A lot of people regret maybe waiting that extra day for something to get perfect instead of getting a little more aggressive and harvesting things when conditions were first appropriate.”

Spring harvest

But even though Sears finished harvest, he didn’t get his fall work done, including his normal fall application of fertilizer, and that’s “definitely going to make for more work in the spring.”

“With a little better preparation, I think we probably could have got the majority of that fall work done,” he said.

Bishop managed to get his fall work done “a week or two later than normal,” so he should be set to seed on time in the spring.

“I really feel for the farmers who still have crop out there because it’s going to be a big delay in the spring — they’re going to have to deal with the crop laying out there,” he said. “That’s going to delay their spring, and if it happens to be a wet spring, it’s just going to delay them further.”

For Hilgartner, “the harvest of 2016 will continue into the spring of 2017, unfortunately.”

“If things start to dry off in mid-March, it won’t take us very long to finish harvest off. But it’s always out there looming above us that we’re not quite done,” said Hilgartner. “How it will impact seeding is hard to say.”

That’s the big question on Ammeter’s farm, too.

“We’re going to have to do something fast, because our priority is to seed the next crop, or else we’re going to be in exactly the same place next fall,” she said. “We don’t want to start getting into that cycle.”

Ammeter expects they will at least be able to combine their canola, but options are limited for the wheat.

“I think we’re going to be dealing with it in some rather environmentally unpalatable ways, like burning it or doing some deep tillage,” she said. “We’re a low-till or zero-till farm, so that goes against our grain. But there’s a lot of 100-bushel wheat out there getting chewed up by mice.

“I think there will be a lot of people lighting matches around here.”

Cropping plans

The potential for a late start could also see a shift in some crop acres — mainly away from long-season crops toward shorter-season options.

“In the areas that have been hard hit, I think we’re going to find that if people can’t get crops off fast enough, they’re going to have to put in really short-season crops,” said Ammeter.

“Usually people make decisions based on price, but from the standpoint of what do we have time left to seed, we might see more of the short-season crops seeded unless we get a really early spring.”

Fababeans, for instance, take around 110 days to reach maturity, and they’re usually the first crop in the ground, said Ammeter. Peas, on the other hand, are a 90-day crop, so that’s going to factor in when people are pencilling out their cropping plans for 2017.

“It’s a whole different type of decision-making,” said Ammeter. “Normally, we’re looking at what’s our rotation, what are the best varieties for our climate, what are the prices looking like worldwide, and right now, we’ve thrown in this additional thing of when will I be able to get onto my land and do I need to choose something shorter season.”

Sears agrees.

“I suspect around the province there’s going to be a shift to shorter-season crops with the additional work of spring harvest and spring field work that has to be done.”

Sears is planning on reducing his wheat acres and increasing both field pea and malt barley acres, mainly because of a lack of fall fertilizer. But he doesn’t expect that most farmers will “change up their rotations a huge amount.”

“Making wholesale changes to rotations is usually not the best idea.”

Likewise, Hilgartner will be sticking to their rotation, come what may this spring.

“We have a rotation, and we follow it. We might not get the crops all at a high, but we won’t get them all at a low either.”

And as far as Ammeter is concerned, rotation is the “best tool they have” to spread their risk around and weather this storm.

“Last year (2015), we probably had the easiest harvest we’ve had in 10 years, and this year, we had the toughest harvest we’ve had in 70 years — but I don’t think that means that you change rotations,” said Ammeter. “For the most part, we still think that crop rotations are the answer, that the best thing you can do is stick to a rotation.

“I think this will be a year that really proves that one out.”

The post ONE FOR THE BOOKS: Lessons learned, and a look ahead appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The program, an initiative of the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association, will educate farmers, farm workers, and farm families about the dangers of grain handling and storage.

“The Alberta Wheat Commission is excited to be part of this grain safety initiative and it supports our belief that education is the most effective way to promote farm safety,” said Alberta Wheat chair Kevin Auch. “This is a great program and our commitment ensures growers have access to tools that can help shape a safe farming operation.”

The $120,000 contribution will help the Grain Safety Program launch and operate. The program includes a mobile demonstration unit, a trade show display, youth tabletop displays, and an interactive grain safety website. It will start with one mobile unit and trade show display, focused on Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

“APG’s support of the Grain Safety Program is about reducing injuries and deaths on Alberta farms,” said Alberta Pulse Growers chair Allison Ammeter, who farms near Sylvan Lake. “Producers and their families take steps to prevent injuries on their farms every day, and we want them to have the best information to stay safe around grain.”

The mobile unit will also help train first responders who are faced with a grain entrapment emergency.

There is a new emphasis on this area due to the high numbers of entrapments occurring as grain storage capacity expands, said Glen Blahey, a safety and health specialist at the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association.

From 2003 to 2012 there were 34 confirmed deaths. Last year alone there were seven, including four children. In Alberta, three children in the same family died after becoming entrapped in a truckload of canola.

Last year may have been “a bit of an anomaly” but the number of entrapments is far too high, and is on the rise, Blahey said.

“We see them progressively increasing,” he said.

Farmers or bystanders often fail to recognize the dangers, including realizing that the surface of grain is just like quicksand. There have been multiple incidents when someone has attempted to stand on or cross a grain surface and been sucked down as it’s being drawn out of the storage from below, Blahey said.

Entrapments also occur if someone attempts to walk across the surface of grain where a void exists beneath. This occurred in Manitoba a few years ago, when a farmer who was unloading grain entered the bin from the top to break a crust over the surface where the grain bridged. He broke through and was immediately enveloped from the grain that came down from the sides on top of him.

Death by grain entrapment also occurs if someone enters a storage facility and solidified grain on the walls collapses.

The first responders’ training is also very important because in rural situations many of these people are volunteers and the extrication procedures are difficult, technically challenging and dangerous in their own right, despite the precautions. Even as these incidents are on the uptick, the specialized training they need can remain a lower priority because they don’t happen all that frequently, said Blahey.

The first phase of the Grain Safety Program will run for three years and cost $400,000, with more than $300,000 raised so far. A second phase expanding the program into more communities would require another $385,000 in funding.

Other donations and sponsorship have come from grower associations, companies, event organizers and media sponsors across the country.

With material from CASA release

The post Alberta farm groups support grain safety initiative appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“It looks like there’s a lot of crop out there — I’ve heard estimates that this might be the biggest crop ever, and estimates that it might be second only to what we had in 2013,” said Alberta Pulse chair Allison Ammeter, who farms near Sylvan Lake.

“That’s a big issue as long as we’re dealing with the monopolies that we have with CN and CP. As farmers, we might not like government regulations but we recognize that the only way to counteract a monopoly in the industry is with government regulations. You can’t let a market sort itself out.”

That’s also a concern for her husband Mike, who is chair of the Alberta Barley Commission.

Although the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act — which sets targets for grain movement and penalizes the railways if they don’t meet them — was extended for a year, that’s not a long-term solution, he said.

“This is not an issue that is going away, as long as we export as much as we do,” he said.

The railways say they are better prepared to handle a massive crop than they were three years ago thanks to, among other things, extended sidings and a revised car allocation system worked out with the grain companies.

But both Ammeters pointed to another aspect of rail transport that is rarely discussed — the age of rail grain cars. The current fleet has a lifespan of about 50 years, and is about 40 years old.

“We’re getting to the point where people need to put some serious thought into what we’re going to do to get new rail cars, or we’re going to hit a crisis point,” said Allison. “Every year, there are about 600 to 700 rail cars that cannot be filled because they need repairs so badly.”

Quality concerns

But given the seemingly never-ending rain across much of the province, the Ammeters and their fellow crop commission chairs were also focused on shorter-term issues when reached in late August.

Malt barley growers across the province are not only concerned about the quality of the crop, but also worried that a big stream of downgraded malt being sold as feed would further pressure feed prices, said Mike Ammeter.

“Some guys, I think, have done better than others, but I think that generally in the last two or three weeks, there has been a fair amount of wet weather,” he said. “We need some hot, dry weather. In our area, we’re not excessive, but we’ve got plenty of rain. Now we just need heat.”

It’s the same wish being made by Alberta Wheat chair Kevin Auch and Greg Sears, chair of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission.

“Right now, a lot of farmers are working on getting their crops into the bin,” said Sears, who farms near Sexsmith. “We’ve had huge amounts of rain all over the province, and there could be some challenges getting this harvest in.

“We’re in the situation where anything that is being swathed is immature and it will take awhile to cure in the swath. There were certainly some areas that were hail affected.”

“I have had some lower wheat quality in the past couple of weeks because of the rain,” added Auch, who farms near Carmangay. “My winter wheat could have been harvested earlier than I did, but we had continual rains on it. It’s happening around the province and I know we’re not the only ones.”

Low loonie

With a bumper crop on the horizon and U.S. wheat futures recently hitting a 10-year low, Auch is concerned about price prospects. But there is a silver lining for some, he said.

“If you have higher protein, I suspect you’ll get more for it,” said Auch. “The supply of higher-protein wheat is lower than what it has been because of the higher yields. They kind of go in opposite direction. If you get higher yields, you don’t get the protein.”

Because the global grain and oilseed trade is conducted in American dollars, Canadian farmers have been partially protected from falling prices by the low loonie.

(But “the low Canadian dollar doesn’t shelter us forever, and when you go to buy a machine, you’re paying for it in devalued dollars,” said Auch. “Anything that we buy will be going up in price as well. It holds the prices of our commodities up, but that can catch up to you when you go to buy your inputs or your machines.”

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“As IYP draws attention to big global issues like nutrition, food security, and environmental sustainability, this crop — which is a Canadian success story — is only going to get more attention, get more agronomic research, and more breeding research,” said Allison Ammeter. “And as that filters down, that’s going to improve profitability.”

The Sylvan Lake producer has been talking up the benefits of the International Year of Pulses since it was announced in spring 2014. She says it will do for beans, peas, lentils and chickpeas what past international years have done for soil (which had its international year in 2015) and quinoa (2013).

“Initially, the response was, ‘What’s a United Nations year? What’s that about?’” said Ammeter. “It’s when you ask, ‘Did you hear much about quinoa before 2013?’ or, ‘Have you noticed an increased focus on soil health this year?’ and then tell them that’s what this year will do for pulses — then the light bulb goes on.”

Canada is the world’s largest producer and exporter of dry peas and lentils, shipping to more than 150 countries annually. Pulses are Canada’s fifth-largest crop (after wheat, canola, corn, and barley) and pulse exports were valued at over $3 billion last year. Pulses have also brought some of the best returns to Prairie farmers this year.

With acreage in this province topping the one-million-acre mark, Alberta producers are learning to love pulses, said Ammeter.

“I think what people are realizing is not only that pulse crops bring a good return for an operation, but are good for the soil and good for the next crop, too, ” she said. “We bang on that drum — rotation, rotation, rotation — and pulses are really good in rotation.

“If pulses aren’t in your rotation already, they should be.”

A group called the Global Pulse Confederation and partners such as the UN will host more than 100 events during the coming year. Pulse Canada is planning more than 20 events and activities to educate Canadians about the health, nutrition and environmental benefits of eating pulses. (More information on the events can be found at www.pulses.org.)

The Global Pulse Confederation has also set a goal of increasing both consumption and production of pulses by 10 per cent by 2020.

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“In 1980 — 35 years ago — I was selling spring wheat for $6 a bushel,” said Gary Stanford, president of the Grain Growers of Canada. “Today, it’s like $6.50 a bushel. It’s a good thing we have better technology and better farming methods so that we can get better yields. Where I used to get 30 or 35 bushels per acre on dryland, now I’m getting up to 55 bushels.”

The Magrath producer knows the odds of any price increase is slim. In fact the outlook is getting gloomier with market analysts now saying “the world is awash in wheat.”

Canola prices are also disappointing by recent standards, says Sexsmith producer Greg Sears.

“We aren’t seeing the commodity prices that we’ve got used to in the last five or eight years,” said the vice-chair of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission. “Ten-dollar canola used to be a good price, and now it’s not a great price.”

The steep fall in the loonie has shielded Canadian growers from the drop in world prices, but is also raising some costs.

“It is concerning when your input and machinery costs keep going up,” said Stanford. “With the Canadian dollar going lower compared to the U.S. dollar, all of our farm machinery and parts are getting more expensive.”

That’s also a concern for Humphrey Banack.

“Margins are very tight in agriculture as a whole, so it’s going to be a challenge,” said the Round Hill producer, who is also vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. That increases the importance of making your dollar go as far as possible. He pointed to urea, which has fallen by US$100 a short ton over the past year.

“It may work out well for farmers because there seems to be a glut in the world on fertilizer,” said Banack.

But he won’t wager that fertilizer prices will stay low or that crop prices won’t go lower.

“There’s risk management tools out there you can use. We’ll be looking to lock in the price of our fertilizers, and we’re looking to forward price some of these profitable prices for a crop we haven’t even really contemplated seeding yet.

“We’ll manage how we’ll sell the crop we have in the bin, and take advantage of profitable times. That’s the best we can do.”

Bright spot

But it was one of those profitable times for those who grew pulses — and got a decent crop — this year.

“At all of the zone meetings this year, the message (provincial market analyst) Neil Blue gave us was that wheat, barley, and canola are all ‘low and stable,’ which are not words we want to hear,” said Allison Ammeter, chair of Alberta Pulse Growers.

“And then he showed pulses, and they’re just in an absolutely fabulous place.”

Two consecutive droughts in India sent prices for chickpeas, yellow peas and lentils to record highs, and Canada is the country’s largest supplier. So analysts are predicting a jump in pulse acres, but Ammeter has a word of caution.

“That’s this year. Next year, wheat might be high, and the next year, barley might be high,” said the Sylvain Lake producer.

“Prices on lentils are through the roof, and you can bet next year we’ll have a ton of lentils. Unfortunately as farmers, we always seem to be one year behind because we react to what’s happened. But we do react — we adjust our rotation a little bit all the time for what we know is going to give us a good return.”

But adjusting doesn’t mean going overboard, she added.

“We try to keep a solid four-year rotation because that’s what’s best for the soil and for keeping diseases down.”

Ammeter and husband Mike also incorporate nitrogen-fixing pulses into her crop rotation to cut back on input costs.

“By adding, keeping, or increasing pulses in your rotation, you have the ability to save on nitrogen costs, which is one of our major input expenses,” she said.

Stanford, who farms with his two sons, starts his crop planning by pencilling with a reasonable gross rate of return for all of the crops they grow.

“Then we start working backwards on our inputs,” he said. “What I’m doing on my farm is looking at a gross return and see what kinds of crops we can get away with that have less expenses.

“We soil tested all the land this fall, and then we looked at it to see how much inputs we were going to have to put in for each crop. On a flax crop, it looks like we could save ourselves $60 or $70 an acre — maybe even up to $100 an acre — in inputs. So then we look at the price and what the price is going to be next fall.”

Pulse prices look to have some continuing strength in the coming year, he said, but he will also “diversify a little bit” by growing crops like alfalfa.

Sears is also looking to “tighten up on the input side of things.”

“I’m paying more attention to the cost of production, like going to less expensive crop protection products and trying to apply only what’s needed,” he said.

“Our weed situation has been relatively under control for the last few years, so maybe we can get away with not attacking those weeds we’ve chosen the more expensive chemistries for.”

‘Risky business’

When forward contracting, Banack doesn’t aim to hit home runs.

“We delivered canola last week that we pre-priced last year at a very profitable margin, just short of $10 a bushel,” he said. “Right now, the cash price is over $10 a bushel. But we look at that as a cost of doing business.

“There’s ways to manage around it by keeping close tabs on your expenses. It all comes down to management. With forward contracting, some people aren’t comfortable with that, but you have to manage the best way you can to lock in profits. If you’re just going to grow a crop, harvest it, and then decide to sell it, it’s a very risky business.”

Producers will also need to pay more attention to the “specials,” added Sears.

“You have to look more for those spot prices and bumps in the market that you can take advantage of.”

He also builds “contingencies” into his cash flow by knowing both his fixed and variable costs.

“There’s different forms of lending that producers have taken advantage of that can either rope them into a corner with debt repayment or provide flexibility with debt repayment,” said Sears.

“Understanding how their individual farm is set up can go a long way to managing around the odd bump in the road.”

Another risk-management strategy on the Ammeter farm is having some cash in reserve to deal with swings in grain prices.

“I remember the year where we had just an absolute ton of light barley, and the prices were so low,” she said. “But then there are years you get hailed out and the prices are high. We not only deal with fluctuating grain prices; we deal with fluctuating quality and fluctuating quantity. That’s called farming.”

But the Ammeters won’t cut back on nutrients and herbicides if it threatens longer-term soil fertility or causes weed management issues.

And using a “full crop rotation” helps with price swings, she added.

“There will always be one commodity with low prices in a year, or one for which the weather was not particularly conducive, and rarely is it the same one in the same place each year.

“As that is very difficult, if not impossible to predict, our best hedge is to grow a rotation of several crops each year.”

The old saying about the best cure for high prices came up more than once, but in different contexts.

“We’ve gone through some good times where farmers are willing to pay those extra dollars to get that land base, but that’s going to change,” said Banack. “High prices cure high prices, so we’ll see how this all works out. But I’m optimistic.”

Ammeter flipped the saying on its head, and said it might be a good time for some contrarian thinking.

“Low prices don’t stay low forever, either,” she said. “Prices on wheat are low, and you can bet there will be a lot of people not planting as much wheat next year.”

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