“The biggest species at risk in Manitoba is beef producers,” said Curtis Hullick, field manager for the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation.

“It’s important to have large blocks of habitat for the birds. But with the economic pressures of farming, we’re seeing these grasslands disappear at an enormous rate. This is why we’re working with landowners to try and protect these grasslands.

“For us, the most important piece is the beef producers.”

It’s a delicate balancing act though, said Hullick, who spoke at a recent Canadian Farm Writers Federation tour. Both the birds and the beef producers rely on the land in different ways — for the birds, as habitat; for the producers, as feed for their animals.

But historically, the scales have been tipped in favour of the farmers, to the detriment of the birds. Across Canada, grassland bird populations dropped by 69 per cent between 1970 and 2014, and in Manitoba, there are 24 bird species listed under the province’s endangered species act.

Farmers typically don’t realize how important birds are on the landscape, said biologist Christian Artuso with Bird Studies Canada.

“There is so much intertwined within an ecosystem,” said Artuso. “Plants rely on animals for seed dispersal, pollination, and pest control. So if you mess with the animal community, you’re going to mess with the plant community, too.

“If we didn’t have birds, the landscape would change drastically.”

On the flip side, well-managed grazing is good for the grasslands — and these bird species’ habitats — as it promotes plant biodiversity while controlling tall grasses and shrubs. That diversity is essential for both birds and cattle, said Hullick.

“It’s important that the structure of the grass is different,” he said. “There’s a little bit of shrubs, a little bit of short grass prairie, a little bit of tall grass prairie. We’re trying to create an inviting ecosystem for the birds.

“We believe that if we build it, they will come.”

Ecosystem services

And the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation has found a way to do that — by showing that the birds and the beef can coexist.

“We work with private landowners in Manitoba to preserve, protect, and manage this grassland for the species at risk,” said Hullick of the organization’s conservation programs.

“We’ve been able to come up with management strategies that help protect it but also manage it in a way that the cattle can coexist with the birds.”

The heritage corporation does that in two ways — through short-term or one-time pro­jects under the federal Species at Risk Partnerships on Agricultural Lands (SARPAL) program, and through long-term conservation easements on farmland.

“We’re in the process of building a stock of land and a block of prairie. Our goal is to work with as many producers as possible in a large block,” said Hullick.

“These folks can work with us to protect the grasslands and receive a financial incentive to put a conservation easement or SARPAL project on the property.

“Through the programs we offer, we can start recognizing these efforts and paying attention to them.”

Both programs help protect the grassland, but they do it a little differently, Hullick added. The SARPAL program is more project based and focused on improving management practices on the land. Producers can receive a maximum of $10,000 per quarter or $50,000 per landowner for conservation projects. For these one-time payments, the landowner agrees to keep the land in pasture for at least 10 years.

“We’re paying for infrastructure to make sure that the mixed grass prairie stays as mixed grass prairie,” said Hullick.

“We’re able to work with those folks on more of a handshake deal to work on their management. There is no strict management regime that we’re trying to impose.”

The conservation easement program is also a one-time payment (the per-acre amount varies from farm to farm), but a caveat is placed on the land title and the agreement lasts in perpetuity.

“Through the conservation easement program, the way it looks now is how we want it to stay,” said Hullick. “You can’t break it, drain it, cultivate it, or disrupt it. We want it to stay as mixed grass prairie.”

Both programs come with their benefits and their drawbacks, but the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation has found that by offering financial incentives for these ‘ecosystem services,’ producers are more likely to participate in a conservation program.

“People are really starting to see the value of these projects,” said Artuso. “When you attach an incentive to that, it just goes that much further in creating a positive attitude around wildlife.”

And the programs are already working, he added. During a recent survey of one project site, Artuso found seven species at risk — something that was unheard of before the project began.

“These grassland birds are in absolute dire straits. They’re almost gone from Manitoba,” he said. “So when you find seven of the rarest species on one section of land in Manitoba, you need to find a mechanism for that to stay the way it is.”

The post The birds and the beef: The facts of grasslands conservation appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

That’s a familiar message but when Janice Goldsborough delivers it, she’s not talking about consumers — but farmers themselves.

“We have an aging population,” said Goldsborough, who helps small and medium-size businesses with their human resources issues.

“In 2011, 61 per cent of workers were over the age of 45, but our demographics are definitely changing, and it’s predicted that by the year 2025, over 30 per cent of that workforce will be retiring. That’s a huge number that will be leaving our agricultural sector.”

That view was echoed by another expert speaking at the recent Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation conference here.

“In 2011, the 55-plus category became the largest for the first time, and that trend continued in 2016,” said Erik Dorff, a StatsCan analyst who drew from census of agriculture data.

And while the 2016 census found the number of farm operators under 35 increased three per cent from 2011 (the first increase since 1991), farming is still a tough sell to young people.

“Unfortunately, there aren’t nearly enough young people who want to take over the farms,” said Goldsborough. “It used to be automatically assumed that if you were a child growing up on a farm, you would take over that farm. That’s not always the case anymore.

“Young people aren’t seeing farming as a career of choice. They see it as long hours, a lot of work, and returns that aren’t necessarily that great.”

On average, farmers earn only about $650 a week — versus more than $900 weekly in other industries, said Goldsborough.

It’s true farm life has many other benefits above “but if you’re raising a whole family on that, that’s pretty tough,” she said. “We wonder why our young people don’t want to go into farming.”

Labour shortage

The challenge in attracting people to agriculture goes far beyond the farm.

Right now, there are about 2.3 million people working in agriculture or the agri-food sector in Canada, contributing almost $88 billion to the economy (“a phenomenal amount”), said Goldsborough.

“But of all those jobs that we have in Canada, over 26,400 in agriculture went unfilled in 2014. That cost us $1.5 billion,” said Goldsborough, drawing on numbers from the Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Council.

The council predicts that number will hit 114,000 by 2025, she added.

“If we can’t fill those positions, crops are going to go unharvested,” she said. “We have to be aware of this, and we have to look for potential solutions.”

That solution will involve more diversity — an increased number of female, Aboriginal, and foreign workers, Goldsborough predicted.

Since 1991, the proportion of male to female operators has remained relatively constant, although there was a slight uptick in 2016 and the percentage of female operators is now 28.7 per cent.

But the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

“Additionally, 25 per cent of agricultural managers are women, and that number is increasing,” she said. “And 29 per cent of people who own their own farms are women.”

Producers and processors are also working closely with bands in their area to train and recruit Aboriginal workers, she added.

“We’re looking at partnerships with Indigenous groups to help expand and look for new sources of employees who can fill these positions that are going unfilled.”

And more producers and other agribusinesses are relying on both temporary and permanent foreign workers to fill vacancies.

“It’s changing our landscape. You’re seeing the face of our communities changing. There’s diversity,” said Goldsborough.

It’s both a good thing, and a necessary shift as farmers retire and labour becomes more difficult to find, she said.

“Some people are scared of change, but change overall is a good thing,” said Goldsborough.

“It doesn’t matter who you are. The work is there, and the work needs to be done. And we need people to do it.”

Dorff agreed.

“It’s not who fills the role. It’s that the role gets filled effectively. That trumps everything else.”

The post The face of agriculture needs to change appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Schoepp won silver in the Press Column category for Temper Tantrums: There’s way too much drama on some farms, which ran in the Nov. 6, 2017 edition of the paper. Blair, a multiple past winner, won bronze in the Technical Feature category for Still just taking pretty pictures? Drones could be making you money, which appeared in the May 7 edition.

The awards are given out by the Canadian Farm Writers Federation, which represents more than 350 agricultural journalists, broadcasters, and communicators from across the country.

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Cranberries are a big deal in La belle province and getting a close-up look at the harvest was a highlight for a group of ag journalists during a recent Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation tour.

Yes, a tractor is involved — but only briefly and then it’s time to flood the bank-enclosed fields, corral the fruit, and turn on the suction pumps to hoover up the bright-red berries.

But then, pretty much everything about growing cranberries compared to grain is as different as can be.

It costs about $40,000 an acre (mostly for irrigation) to establish a cranberry crop and you have to wait about five years for plants to mature and produce their full yield. But the payoff keeps coming.

“Once you plant the cranberry, you can keep it up to 100 years,” said tour guide Rejean Leblanc, a cranberry producer and ag economist in the pork sector.

However, the bush-like vines need constant care.

“Through the summer, every year, you need to water the cranberry,” said Leblanc. “The cranberry needs water every day, but it doesn’t like to be sitting in water… (and) if you put on too much water in the summer, the plant will just grow and will not focus on making the fruit.”

Leblanc waters his cranberries with sprinklers. Excess water goes down a drain and then back to the reservoir in a closed system. The fields are flooded in the winter to protect the plants.

“That’s what makes it expensive to establish. It’s digging the pond and the drain and the pipe. But once it’s done, it’s good for a long time.”

Plants must be pollinated between June 20 and July 15 by honeybees or bumblebees. Then the fruit will appear at the end of July or the beginning of August. Cranberries are biannual crops that bear fruit, rest during the fall, and then make their buds for the next year the following August.

“The goal for a producer is to be able to manage the fruit and the buds you’re making for the following year,” said Leblanc. “If you give too much nitrogen, the plant will make new seeds and will not bear too much fruit.”

The plant also needs to be stressed so that it focuses on making buds, and not on growing.

“To find the equilibrium between water, stress and everything, that’s the challenge for cranberry producers,” he said.

The amount of nitrogen given is critical.

“If you give too much water or too much nitrogen, the plant will just grow and she will not bear fruit or will bear less fruit,” said Leblanc. “You have to find the balance in your farm to be able to have a good harvest every year.”

Cranberry pests include caterpillars that eat buds along with wild turkeys and Canada geese, which can damage plants in the frozen ponds.

Harvest is a complex process involving a lot of water and time. First, fields are flooded with eight inches of water, and then there’s a bit of tractor time. It pulls an implement with blades that shake the berry plants so their fruit falls off. Then the fields are flooded up to 20 inches deep, the fruit floats to the top, and wind pushes the berries into one corner where they are sucked up.

And although there are only about 10,000 acres of cranberry production in Quebec — mostly in the Centre-du-Quebec region near the provincial capital — it’s big business. Last year, the province’s 82 cranberry producers harvested about 215 million pounds of cranberries — production that is second only to Wisconsin.

But there’s no organic production in the U.S., while Quebec has embraced that market. Conventional cranberries fetch 25 cents a pound, while Quebec’s 30 organic producers receive about 60 cents.

That price differential prompted Leblanc to switch from conventional to organic production. He now brings in Mexican workers to hand weed his bogs and fertilizes with chicken compost.

“A good conventional farm, last year, some had 50,000 pounds an acre, and the best organic was 30,000,” he said. “The average organic was 22,000 and the average conventional was 40,000. You have to take that into account.”

And because the fruit is biannual, one year’s harvest is bigger than the next. This year’s harvest is estimated to be about 100 million pounds less than last year’s harvest.

The post A cranberry harvest is unlike any other appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Blair won bronze in the Weekly Press Reporting category for her December 2015 story entitled Big Blowup, which detailed the firestorm of protests which arose following the introduction of Bill 6, which extended workplace safety rules to farms. Blair shared gold in the same category last year with colleague Alexis Kienlen.

This year, Shannon VanRaes won weekly press gold for one of her stories in a special series on Canada’s trade deal with Europe. That series, which ran in two editions earlier this year, featured a comprehensive package of stories from reporters from several publications owned by Glacier FarmMedia (Alberta Farmer’s parent company).

Madeleine Baerg, a frequent contributor to this paper, picked up two awards for stories she did for Canadian Cattlemen and Farming Smarter. The awards are given out by the Canadian Farm Writers Federation, which represents almost 350 English-speaking agricultural journalists, broadcasters, and communicators from across the country.

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Jennifer Blair and Alexis Kienlen won gold in the Weekly Press Reporting category for a July 2014 story entitled Drenched Again, which examined flooding in the south of the province after torrential rains.

It was the first year Blair had entered the competition put on by the Canadian Farm Writers Federation, but a second straight win for Kienlen, who won silver in the same category last year for her investigative report on McDonald’s choosing Canada for its “sustainable beef” pilot project.

“Being recognized by your peers is always very gratifying, but it all comes down to being passionate about what you do,” said Alberta Farmer editor Glenn Cheater. “Alexis and Jennifer really care about agriculture in this province and I think their commitment shows in all of their work.”

A number of their colleagues working for Farm Business Communications publications also won awards at the Canadian Farm Writers Federation conference held in Calgary last month.

Manitoba Co-operator reporter Shannon VanRaes received silver in the Weekly Press Reporting category for her story on how federal scientists have been muzzled by politics; Allan Dawson received bronze in the Feature Photo category, and editor Laura Rance received gold in the Press Feature category and bronze in Press Columns. Dave Bedard collected silver in the World Wide Web category.

In Monthly Press Reporting, Country Guide’s Angela Lovell won gold, Ralph Pierce won silver, and Gord Gilmour won bronze. Gilmour also received a gold for Technical Feature and Maggie Van Camp received silver in the Press Feature category.

As well, John Morriss, associate publisher of Farm Business Communications, was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Morriss was recognized for his commitment to agricultural journalism over the past four decades, as publisher and editor of the Manitoba Co-operator, and Farmers’ Independent Weekly, and as editorial director of Farm Business Communications. He has also been active in provincial and national farm writers’ organizations.

The post Alberta Farmer reporters win prestigious journalism award appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Alberta Farmer reporter Alexis Kienlen won a silver award in the Weekly Press Reporting category for her story on how the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef were working with the fast-food giant.

“This pilot program by the country’s largest beef buyer may lead to major changes, and is something everyone in the sector should be aware of,” said Alberta Farmer editor Glenn Cheater.

“Alexis not only broke this story but has worked with colleague Jennifer Blair to follow it as it develops. It’s not just about McDonald’s, but about BIXS 2.0, changes to the Verified Beef Program, and ultimately, opportunities for producers to grow their markets and find new routes to profitability.

“These are the types of stories the paper needs to be covering.”

Online news editor Dave Bedard received a bronze award for his work on albertafarmexpress.ca while Manitoba Co-operator editor Laura Rance won the Press Editorial category for an editorial that explored how the different voices in the debate over genetically modified organisms are portrayed. Gold in the Weekly Press Reporting category went to Co-operator reporter Lorraine Stevenson for her coverage of a Manitoba farm family trying to rebuild its on-farm prosciutto-making business after resolving a dispute with provincial health inspectors over how food safety regulations are applied.

The Canadian Farm Writers Federation represents almost 350 English-speaking agricultural journalists, broadcasters and communicators from across Canada.

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