It certainly wasn’t an overnight process, and it involved a steep learning curve, but Steeves says being involved in Canada’s largest renewable energy, solar power generation project has been a game changer not only for his family’s Yetwood Farms, but for several other family farms in the Lomond area, about an hour north of Lethbridge.

The system of grazing sheep (or really any agricultural activity) under arrays of solar panels is known as agrivoltaics. For most that is not a household term. Agri of course relates to agriculture and voltaic (pronounced vol-tay-ick) refers to some process that generates electricity. You put them together and the term refers producing an agricultural commodity under these solar fields. Agrivoltaics is a relatively new concept to Canada, but has been used with solar power generating projects in the United States and other parts of the world for many years.

The Steeves family were just regular grain farmers, cropping about 6,000 mostly dryland acres of grains and oilseeds when they were approached in 2017 by Calgary based Greengate Power Corporation asking if they would make land available for a solar power project.

“I thought the first phone call was a joke,” says Steeves. “Some sort of scam as they were talking about a large solar project. There was a second call and I said if this is legitimate why don’t you come here and have a meeting with the people to properly explain the project.” So they did. Starting in July 2017, the company met with several farm families in Lomond during a number of meetings, which resulted in contracts being signed in October 2017.

That was the beginning of the Travers Solar Project “a trail blazer among solar power projects in Canada,” says Steeves. The project itself, today the largest solar project in Canada, involved installation of 1.3 million solar panels in arrays covering about 3,400 acres of farmland. The Steeves family has about nine quarters or 1,440 acres being leased to the project, while several nearby farm families leased another 14 quarters or 2,240 acres to Greengate.

It took about two years for the company to obtain all necessary permits. Construction started in 2020 and the project was completed and producing power by late 2022. The $700 million project is designed to generate 465 megawatts of electricity which in general terms is enough to power more than 150,000 homes.

So how did the Travers Solar Project benefit Yetwood Farms and the other producers who leased their land to the project? First of all are the lease payments from the energy company. Depending on the project, lease rates can range from $700 to $1,200 per acre per year. On top of that if the landowners are contracted to look after vegetation control — keep the grass and weeds cut under the panels — that can be worth another $200 to $400 per acre per year.

“When we looked at the project, here we are farming in the Palliser Triangle — the brown and dark brown soil zone — and on average our net return from crop production would be around $70 per acre,” says Steeves. “That’s an average. Some years better and during several years of drought conditions we could collect crop insurance which was less. Whereas on those acres leased to the solar project a person can potentially earn from $900 to $1,600 per acre just to have the project there. We saw getting involved with the solar project as an excellent opportunity to diversify the farm. With mostly dryland crop production and years of drought, this project has perhaps saved our farming operation, along with other family farms in the area.”

But, don’t these solar projects take good farmland out of production? Not at all. That’s were agrivoltaics kick into gear. When these large solar projects were first introduced in Alberta, for example, the asset owners wanted the bare ground underneath the solar arrays covered with forages. But it was soon realized that the real risk to these solar panel arrays wasn’t hail, although that can be concern, but potential for grass fires that could wipe out the whole operation. Hence the need for vegetation control.

There could be mechanical means for removing the forages, but with spacing of 21 feet between solar arrays and only about four feet of clearance under the panels when they are in the table top position, mowing and perhaps even baling the forage for removal would require specialized equipment.

For vegetation control in other solar projects around the world, grazing livestock — namely sheep — under and around these solar panels was a common practice.

“My dad had raised pigs at one time and we did run some cows at different times years ago, but I had zero experience with sheep,” says Steeves.

In preparation for the providing vegetation control for the solar project under construction, Steeves bought 50 sheep in 2020. He wanted to get some idea of what it was like to manage sheep.

“I soon realized that sheep are a lot different than cattle and for a project this size I was going to need some expert help with management,” he says. Steeves did some research, located an expert on sheep, a professor specializing in small ruminant livestock, who was managing a ranch raising sheep and goats connected with the University of Mexico, in Mexico City. He was interested in working on the Yetwood Farms project. In late 2023 he moved to Alberta and has been managing the flock.

Today, Yetwood Farms, which is managing the sheep and vegetation control for the entire Travers Solar Project, is running 2,000 head of breeding females. The plan is to increase that to 3,500 ewes over the next year and within five years grow the flock to about 8,000 head. They have built lambing facilities as well as feedlot for finishing lambs. The plan is to manage the flock so it is producing lambs on a year-round basis. Lambs are finished to an average of 130 pounds and marketed through the Westpine Meats processing plant at Innsifail in south central Alberta.

Steeves says when the flock is fully stocked, it has potential to produce about 13,600 lambs per year, with a total carcass weight of about 850,000 pounds of meat. If the price averages about $5 per pound that meat has a total value of $4.25 million. Along with land lease rates to farmers, agrivoltaics provides further return to producers through sale of agricultural commodities such as lamb.

Interestingly, the wool from the sheep has no value as a fibre. As sheep are shorn annually all wool, which is high in nitrogen, is mixed with manure and composted, with the compost applied to the Yetwood Farms annual crop acres. The farm hires contract shearers to shear the flock. Shearers are paid about $6 per head. A shearer with proper technique can shear up to 30 sheep per hour.

While sheep is a very common commodity for agrivoltaics, he says there are many options. There are a number of research projects across Canada, including Olds College, looking at the potential to produce poultry, hogs, beef cattle, hay and even annual crops under properly designed solar projects.

The sheep flock at Yetwood Farms is managed in an intensive rotational grazing system. The ground beneath the solar panels has been seeded to a forage blend. Right now the flock is divided, with 1,000 head of sheep grazing on about 60 acres and moved weekly. As numbers increase there will be multiple flocks moving through the field of solar panels. With rotational, mob grazing, they are able to run two to two and a half sheep per acre for the grazing season. With more extensive grazing management in the early days, carrying capacity was in the 0.8 to one sheep per acre range.

Steeves says the farm did invest in a low-profile Avant 860i loader which can travel between the arrays. It can be outfitted with a boomless sprayer to apply herbicide. For seeding they also have a small custom built air seeder that works between the solar arrays.

“If we have bare ground the air seeder is probably the best way to get grass established,” says Steeves. “But in areas were we want to renew or add forage species we found the best approach is to hire a drone applicator, apply the seed by air, then turn the sheep on to that area to graze. The hoof action of the sheep works the seed into the soil.”

Shade from the solar panels provides the sheep shelter from the sun and also creates a micro-climatic zone under the arrays, that suits forage production.

As they tried to establish forages during dry years in some areas the kochia took over before the grass. Some areas of the pasture areas were at one time 85 per cent kochia and 15 per cent grass. But through grazing management and seeding where necessary those percentages have been reversed. “We do have a couple areas of foxtail that we will address with herbicide, but for the most part forage production is trending in the right direction,” he says.

Steeves says the agrivoltaics project has been an intense learning experience. “When we started nine years ago, it really was the wild, wild west,” he says. “There were no guidelines, or regulations. We had to learn this system from scratch and we are still learning. There were a number of pain points as we went along, but the fact is that the benefits far outweigh any pain we experienced. It is a diversification opportunity that could benefit many farms.”

The post Solar and sheep provide valuable farm diversification appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Moving forward, Wilbur-Ellis Nutrition will be known as Rangen, a brand that many customers are already familiar with. Rangen’s head office is in Buhl, Idaho.

Rangen has two plants in Alberta; one in Cremona which handles forage for feed, and a plant in Lethbridge that processes all forages, all grains and seed commodities.

The transaction will cover the full nutrition business, including the Rangen, Ametza, Emmert, Oxy-Gon, Oxy-Gold and Oxy-Block product lines.

Rangen is a critical supplier of animal nutrition products and services for pet, aquaculture and livestock.

Rangen, the company, will now be its own independent platform, with a history of serving large and small customers alike.

Mark Essig, a leader with expertise across various industries, will serve as chief executive officer as Rangen. Essig has more than 30 years of senior leadership experience across multiple industries, including manufacturing, distribution and specialty materials. He has served as chief executive officer and as a board member for both public and private companies.

“Together with Balmoral’s support, we will accelerate innovation and growth across the pet, aquaculture and livestock markets,” he said.

Rangen has demonstrated success as a leading producer of value-added nutrition products, said Richard Levernier, board member of Rangen and principal of Balmoral Funds.

He said the company would be further partnering with customers, suppliers, employees and all stakeholders to achieve mutually shared goals.

Balmoral’s strategic investment will enhance Rangen’s leadership and innovation across the animal nutrition industry. A strong emphasis will be placed on employee empowerment, operational excellence and customer and supplier relations.

Blank Rome LLP acted as legal counsel to Balmoral. Wilbur-Ellis was advised by Lazard as financial advisor, and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP as legal counsel.

Wilbur-Ellis (now Rangen) was founded in 1921. Over the years, the Wilbur-Ellis companies have continued to grow the business with sales of over $3.5 million.

The post Wilbur-Ellis Nutrition purchased by an affiliate of Balmoral Funds appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) via CTV News, some regions received more than 100 millimetres of rain that weekend. Much of the rainfall was focused on the foothills south of Calgary as well as many parts of eastern Alberta, said the agency.

Rain in the Peace was spotty, but it wasn’t alone. Grant Lastiwka, a beef producer and forage consultant from the central Alberta town of Innisfail, says patchy rainfall means a grower could have received abundant moisture while their neighbour’s land a few miles away could be dry as a bone.

These regional moisture patterns are “probably more notable” than Lastiwka has ever seen.

”When somebody says “I’ve had four inches this year’ — which we’ve had — you go ahead 10 miles east and they’ve had one inch.”

That said, he called the two-and-seven-tenths inches of rain that fell on his Innisfail farm June 21 a “godsend” with the soil absorbing it almost immediately.

Ed Shaw, chair of the Alberta Forage Industry Network (now ARECA), is optimistic the new precipitation will make a difference.

“It’s going to improve primarily the cereal crops. It may improve the hay crops. It’s definitely an improvement to have some more moisture.”

Hay situation ‘serious’

The outlook is looking bleak for some areas of Alberta even after the weekend rainfall, says Shaw.

“The hay situation is serious,” he says, speaking primarily of regions south of Edmonton.

“I was talking to a farmer yesterday. He farms about 5,500 acres. He’s got about 500 acres less than normal, which is not great, but he wanted to cut it in case of rain, so he might get a good second cut.”

Others he’s spoken to haven’t been even that lucky. He’s seeing — on average — less than a tonne of forages per acre to half a tonne per acre.

“South (of Edmonton) is roughly dry and then there’s areas down in the south from Medicine Hat to Pincher Creek — some areas that have some moisture but the hay is very short this year.

“Even the irrigated people are saying it’s pretty bleak down there.”

Meanwhile, in the Alberta Peace Country, Shaw has heard unofficial reports of “okay” but marginal rainfall.

Alberta’s forage acres got off to a poor start with little soil moisture, little runoff on pastures and empty or semi-filled dugouts, says Lastiwka, calling the situation a “profound problem.”

“This year my neighbour sold a bunch of cows because they don’t have sufficient water. The dugouts didn’t fill. The wells can’t handle it. So the reality is now we’re in a progressive stage of too dry and it’s not the first or second year for the majority of people — it’s a third or fourth.”

Lastiwka has been travelling around the province checking forage conditions in several areas including Athabasca, Duchess and Oyen.

“In general, what we’re seeing are stressed forages that are lacking moisture and hay crops that are heading out with low yield potential.”

He believes Alberta is in a “declining moisture environment” that is making this year’s forage acres even more challenging than usual. ”

If there’s a ray of sunshine on the horizon, it’s the decent state of annual crops, he says.

Forage a ‘mixed bag’ in Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan also received some much-needed rain over the weekend, but so far forage conditions have been a mixed bag. All respondents pointed to previous lack of rainfall as a common denominator, even in the usually moisture-rich Parkland region of the province.

Just ask Duane Thompson, a mixed holistic farmer from that region (specifically Kelliher).

Although rain has been sparse, a hit of fall snow melted into his unfrozen soil, and marginal spring rain has replenished some of Thompson’s soil moisture, giving his hay and forage crops a chance to germinate.

Thompson plants about a section of first-year hay every year for haylage. He doesn’t think his new hay is going to do very well in the short term, but some of his older haylage land is looking good, he says.

Calvin Gavelin, who also describes himself as a holistic mixed farmer, got seven-tenths of an inch of rain over the June 21-22 weekend. However, overall rainfall in the drought-prone Palliser’s Triangle area where he farms remains elusive.

His forage season got off to a bad start due to lack of rain and insufficient subsoil moisture. His perennial forages didn’t even get off the ground. Instead, he may have to lean on his annual forages, which benefited from a surprise shower over the May long weekend.

”It didn’t help the other stuff, because it has all gone dormant. But our annuals are our gold star plan if it works,” he says.

Extra hay cuts hinge on rain in Manitoba

In Manitoba, dairy producers are mostly done their first hay cuts while many beef growers are just getting started, said Cindy Jack, livestock and forage extension specialist with Manitoba Agriculture on June 17.

Alfalfa has so far weathered Manitoba’s dry spring better than the grass thanks to its strong root structure, At the time of her comments, most alfalfa had entered early bloom and grasses were starting to head out.

Jack also suggested that overall forage growth was being compromised by older stands and fields that did not receive fertilizer. “(They) generally have lower productivity.”

The prognosis for further hay cuts will be weather-dependent, she added.

“Without significant rainfall soon, regrowth will be limited due to moisture stress, reducing the likelihood of subsequent cuts.”

Southeastern Manitoba dairy farmer Stefan Signer echoes Jack’s concerns.

“At this point, we are really hoping and needing some rain so that the fields can recover for maybe a second and maybe a third cut,” the Kleefeld-area farmer said.

The post Mid-June rain a ‘godsend’ but forage growers manage expectations appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Obioha Durunna, who is now in the third year of the study, says he was also prompted by the limited information available on backgrounding weaned calves in such systems.

Durunna says producers are reluctant to adopt forage blends because most of them haven’t tried them and there’s a lack of information about whether the practice is valuable.

“Some producers are a bit hesitant to use it, especially for winter swath grazing, not sure what will really suffice their needs during the winter,” Durunna says in an interview.

Preliminary results from two years of the study show there was no significant change in average daily gain between the two systems — one, a monoculture of oats, the other a forage blend of turnips, rapeseed, oats and forage peas.

More preliminary results showed that the overall feed quality of the forage blend was better than the oats.

Researchers collected biomass samples from the soft dough and hard dough stages to evaluate quality, but swathing is done at the hard dough stage.

From there, the animals start grazing the swaths at the beginning of November, and they finish at the end of January.

The study used six paddocks where cattle were swath grazed on two different forage systems.

“One component of this is really getting some objective information on animal performance,” Durunna says.

The researchers are also looking at soil health by comparing the two forage systems.

Durunna says before the study started, soil cores were taken from specific GPS points and samples will be taken again at the end of the third year.

Core samples will enable the researchers “to see if there is any difference in terms of soil characteristics and changes that can help differentiate the monoculture versus the poly crops,” Durunna says.

In the first year of the study, from 2021-22, seven steers were placed per paddock, but in the second year there were 10, and this year nine steers. He says they match the animal numbers to the forage yield to target a 90-day grazing period.

Another aspect of the study is virtual fencing.

“We want to see if we could deploy that technology to use it to move the animals, especially if you have a knee-deep snow,” Durunna says.

The virtual fence is the brand NoFence from Norway. It consists of a mobile app and the collars that the cattle wear.

“We saw really good numbers in terms of the charge retention of the NoFence collars,” he says. “So that gave us the assurance that these units can really work in Alberta winter. So it’s repeated this year, we’ll now reinforce that and then whether we could use it to move animals.”

Durunna and the other researchers are in the final year of the study. They will then compile the data. However, producers have asked about the study continuing with cow-calf pairs instead of steers, which is the next phase of the research.

“The next three years, we’ll look at cow-calf pairs, and then see which system would reduce mineral consumption. And we plan to deploy some automatic feeding systems that will measure mineral intake from the cow-calf pairs.”

– Melissa Jeffers-Bezan is a field editor with Canadian Cattlemen.

The post Forage blends benefit swath grazing appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

As well as being the keynote speaker at the conference, Undersander has worked as a forage specialist for 48 years, having shared his knowledge across Canada, partly through his Alfalfa Intensive Training course.

Undersander tells Glacier FarmMedia that he is glad to see the Canadian Forage Council pushing ahead with greenhouse gas (GHG) initiatives and says there is an urgent need for cooperation across Canadian livestock and forage production sectors to quantify their efforts relating to GHG mitigation.

Undersander has published over 1,600 papers related to forage production and utilization. He led the development of the University of Wisconsin Team Forage website, the most widely recognized source of forage information for temperate regions around the world.

Undersander developed the use of the relative feed value (RFV) index in 1990 and the relative forage quality (RFQ) index in 2000, as indices of energy intake by ruminants.

His work with the National Forage Testing Association and its chemical analysis methods has resulted in more dependable analysis of forages. Undersander and a colleague also developed the Milk-per-Acre spreadsheet for evaluating forage yield and quality changes. He led the writing of the Alfalfa Management Guide and worked with grazing groups internationally, which led to a 44-page grazing document. He developed a program to encourage contract harvesting of forage and he conducted numerous studies showing that forage dried more rapidly in a wide swath than conditioned forage in a windrow.

Undersander also developed the concept of stem density to determine when an alfalfa stand density was limiting yield, as a determinant to when the field should be turned over.

The CFGA AGM is hosted in conjunction with the British Columbia Forage Council (BCFC). This event brings together key participants and leaders in the both the forage and livestock sectors to focus on climate solutions for these interdependent industries.

The post Forage association presents 2023 Leadership Award appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The Marginal Areas Program on the Prairies is open to producers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, with DUC providing financial support to convert unproductive cropland to forage areas.

FCC clients can access up to $2,000 in credit if they take part in the program.

Kristine Tapley, DUC national lead for sustainable agriculture, said the program is focused on cropland that isn’t producing economic benefits to farmers.

“Maybe it’s a saline area or for some reason doesn’t have the yield that the rest of the field does. If you’re not seeing a return on investment, those are the areas this program is trying to target.”

While farmers know which areas are not producing, the program provides assistance in finding unproductive farmland.

“The farmer self-identifies acres to enroll. It’s not like we pick or choose where to go in the field.”

She said farmers can stop wasting inputs on areas that aren’t returning yield and they receive an upfront incentive to seed down to perennial cover.

“And you sign a 10-year agreement with Ducks to keep that marginal area in perennial cover.”

Producers can then apply for the FCC annual credit which runs at $50 per acre up to a maximum of $2,000.

The DUC compensation level will be determined by the land and will vary by province, said Tapley, with provincial representatives from the organization able to help farmers determine the incentive payment.

“It’s typically not easy to establish those acres, which is why we’re identifying them as marginal, and once they are established, then they’ll come out and see they are seeded to perennial cover and you will receive your cheque,” she said.

The specific perennial forage will vary because of differing soil conditions but Tapley added there is a pollinator package available for areas in which such plants will work.

“Because it is a forage blend, you can hay or graze it if you see fit but these are usually small acres here or there that are rounding off the corner of the field or that are just not part of the higher producing areas of the field,” Tapley added. “It makes good business sense for crop growers and the second is that at Ducks, we truly believe the best quality land should be producing food and we should be putting all of the technology and knowledge and resources we have into those good quality acres to produce as much as we can.”

More information on the program can be found at ag.ducks.ca.

– Alex McCuaig is a reporter with The Western Producer.

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Neil Blue, provincial crops market analyst with the Alberta government, says although the early season dry weather allowed hay crops to be harvested in good condition, there were lower than average yields.

“There is some carryover forage supply from the 2022 crop. Depending how that forage has been stored, it still is a feed source with value. It should be purchased and fed with caution, however, because some deterioration has likely occurred.”

Some producers silaged annual crops to salvage drought-ravaged acres.

The post Forage sources sought appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Horses, with their remarkable sense of taste and intuition, display a strong and deliberate inclination toward certain plants containing bitter compounds when allowed to graze in natural settings, during trail rides or along hedgerows and fence lines.

Plants classified as bitters hold a rich history woven into traditional medicine, dating back thousands of years. Dandelion, chamomile and milk thistle were foraged by our forebearers as a digestive support and to alleviate various ailments.

To the discerning palate of the horse, not all plants are equal. Top choices include dandelions, thistle, yarrow, nettle, plantain, raspberry bushes, rosebushes, shrubby cinquefoil, hazelnut and willows.

The modern horse-keeping diet is largely centred around rich processed feeds and grasses and can unintentionally disrupt the delicate balance in their digestive tracts and metabolic systems. When given the opportunity, horses are naturally guided to bitters, presumably as a way to restore harmony.

Bitter herbs like plantain, for instance, have a flavour profile that stimulates taste receptors, triggering certain physiological responses and hormonal pathways in the body. When horses consume plantain, the bitter taste activates their digestive system, promoting secretion of saliva, gastric juice and bile.

This process supports appetite and enhances overall nutrient breakdown and absorption.

It can be particularly beneficial for animals with poor appetites or digestive issues. For picky eaters or horses recovering from illness, the bitter taste can act as a natural appetite stimulant by encouraging them to eat more willingly.

The equine’s preference for bitters extends beyond merely satisfying the taste buds. These plants serve as powerful tools to nourish the horse’s gut microbiome and exert influence that reaches far beyond digestion.

Specific bitter plants, such as milk thistle and dandelions, have a known positive impact on liver function. By supporting the detoxification pathways that process toxins and waste products, these plants indirectly contribute to a healthier gut environment.

A horse’s digestive microbiome is the bustling community of microorganisms residing in the horse’s gastrointestinal tract, particularly the hindgut. One of the strongest advantages bitter plants offer to the equine digestive system is their prebiotic properties.

Prebiotics are compounds that act as nourishment and support for beneficial gut bacteria.

By feeding the microbiome of the horse, bitters contribute to a balanced and flourishing gut environment that can, in turn, optimize nutrient absorption and metabolism. Dandelion is well recognized for providing this advantage.

Certain bitters, such as milk thistle, also possess antioxidant properties. The active component in milk thistle is a flavonoid complex called silymarin, known for its potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

Silymarin helps protect the liver from damage by neutralizing harmful free radicals and supporting the body’s natural detoxification processes.

As a result, milk thistle is often used as an herbal remedy to support liver health and protect against oxidative stress in both humans and animals, including horses.

Bitter plants also offer soothing support to the digestive tract through known and unknown hormonal pathways, effectively calming the gut and reducing inflammation.

It’s essential to recognize that inflammation in the gut can have far-reaching effects on the whole body. The anti-inflammatory impact of bitters on the gastrointestinal tract addresses general inflammation by maintaining a stable, resilient and thriving microbiome.

When given the chance, the domestic horse shows a natural inclination and affinity toward bitter plants, demonstrating an innate wisdom and connection to the healing remedies of nature.

The post The benefit of bitters for horses appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Now some European companies aim to have their forage equipment, developed with the typical European farmer in mind, adapted for widespread use on this side of the Atlantic.

Two companies in particular hope to gain traction with North American producers based on potential time savings.

The short weather window of forage harvest, from cutting to baling or ensiling, makes it worthwhile to consider innovations that could save time, they say.

A number of products from European companies made their way onto Aric Wilson’s corner of the Ontario Forage Expo in July. Wilson represents Leading Edge Equipment based out of Woodstock, Ont.

Among the European offerings was a rake/tedder manufactured by Finland-based Agronic.

Its pitch as a time-saver comes from its ability to rake using a front-mounted unit and follow that in the same pass with a baler or self-loading wagon attached to the rear.

At the expo, the six-metre rake (which also has a seven-metre prototype) was attached by a front-mounted three-point hitch to a tractor that also had a round baler at the rear. The unit was put to the test for onlookers, in which it raked and baled several rows of hay in a demonstration.

“We got up to eight miles per hour and we could have gone faster, but the baler couldn’t take any more [hay] in,” said Wilson.

Other options for attaching the rake are front-mounted as a loader attachment or rear-mounted on the three-point hitch, in which case a baler can’t be operated as well.

“We had one customer who told me he would only need the rear-mounted three-point hitch, but once he tried it on the front, he never went back,” Wilson said. “People really like the convenience and time saving and fuel saving of being able to bale and rake at the same time.”

Wilson has sold 18 Agronic rakes in the past 18 months in Ontario and Quebec, with Connect Equipment serving as the dealer in much of Ontario.

It draws less than 10 gallons per minute from the hydraulic system in either the three-point hitch or loader attachment mode. That allows it to be connected as a third function when mounted as a loader attachment, if that’s available on the tractor.

Hay movement is achieved by nylon rods attached to rotating shafts. Replacement rods are inexpensive, and Wilson said they wear well. He noted one of his earlier customers has so far raked about 8,000 acres and not replaced any rods.

Developed in a hilly region of Finland, the unit is self-floating and adjusts to uneven terrain, making it ideal for many fields around this year’s expo, hosted near Paisley, Ont.

With its genesis in hilly hay country, the Agronic rake shares a bit of its origin story with the Ra rake, from Italian manufacturer Repossi. Not yet established in North America to the same degree as Agronic, Repossi is working with Toronto-based ITACA to secure distribution partners in Canada.

Company owner and president Gabriele Repossi, the fourth generation of the family in an ownership role since the company was founded in 1898, said he conceived the idea for the machine after a visit and a meal with a customer in the hills of central Italy.

“I need to be faster in my field,” Repossi recalled the forage producer telling him. “And I need to provide my customer with the best quality possible. If I’m not able to give them good quality, I will lose this customer.”

Wheel-rake technology, in use for decades and popular because it works best a high speed, has fallen out of favour among some hay producers because it kicks up more dirt than other technologies. Repossi and his customer talked about this drawback.

“The dessert was finished, the wine was finished,” Repossi said with a smile during a video interview organized by ITACA. “So I said, ‘I will try to come up with an idea.’”

An aeronautical engineer by training, Repossi had a three-hour drive to northern Italy, during which he thought of a double-wheeled system with only the exterior rake contacting the ground and driving the machine and the interior rake in contact with the hay.

He pulled off the highway, called the patent office and immediately scheduled a meeting.

“It is so simple that I think it can be disruptive,” Repossi remembers thinking, adding that, in the months since the Ra rake was prototyped and developed, “I’ve had a lot of people say, ‘oh, I’ve never seen something like this before.’”

There are Ra rakes in use in Wisconsin and Quebec but not yet elsewhere in Canada.

– This article was originally published at Farmtario.

The post Europeans take aim at North American rake market appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The plant-to-processing company recently set a record-best first cut when it harvested more than 40,000 tonnes of export-destined timothy hay grown under irrigation. In June, it celebrated a single-day harvest of 8,000 bales.

These are the latest in a series of wins for the nearly 30-year-old company and the Kainai-Blood Tribe, the First Nation in southwestern Alberta that co-owns it.

“That’s great news for us,” said Roy Fox (Blackfoot name Makiinima), chief of the 12,000-strong tribe.

“It assures us that this project was the right kind of project to get into. It ensures that there is a good return coming back to the tribe. It ensures that many of our people find employment, either directly at the forage plant or working for the farmers who have leases, including our own (Blood Tribe) farmers.”

Kainai Forage employs more than 50 people, primarily from the reserve, and leases several parcels of land to tribe farmers. Company employment landed close to 100 people at harvest, said Fox.

The Blood Reserve, at 1,400 square kilometres, is the largest First Nations reserve in Canada by area. The forage business is a good news story from a place that doesn’t always have the best news to tell.

A Google search for news from the Blood Reserve can be grim: many stories paint a picture of a community in the throes of drug addiction and overdose deaths.

The hay operation, which formed in 1997 as the Blood Tribe Forage Processing Plant, has had success over the years, including direct trade relationships with companies in Japan, Ireland, England, the United Arab Emirates and others.

However, its 2019 partnership with Indigena Capital, a venture capital firm focused on First Nations interests, has supercharged its capacity with a $45 million expansion plan that so far has included a new plant and hay press that can process more than 125,000 tonnes of hay per year.

For perspective on how much Kainai Forage’s fortunes have changed, consider that last year it harvested 52,000 tonnes on both cuts, compared to this year’s 40,000 on a single cut. Fox said the true secret of its success is ongoing dedication to sustainable soil practices.

“We have always had a good relationship with the Earth. We’ve always respected the Earth and we wanted to ensure that in this case, we did the same.

“The more that we can provide for ourselves, then the more sovereign we will become. We can get back to that point where our ancestors provided for themselves entirely through their own initiative and their own hard work.”

The story of Kainai Forage goes back to the 1950s and construction of the St. Mary’s Dam irrigation project. It’s a story that underscores the tribe’s changing relationship with government in terms of bargaining power.

“We provided some of the land on which the St. Mary’s Dam is on,” Fox said. “One of the agreements was that whenever the Blood Tribe wanted to go into irrigation farming, the federal government would help in that development.”

That time came in the 1980s and ‘90s with a large project in which the reserve become home to 25,000 acres of irrigation land. The next question was what to do with it.

Market and soil studies and a variety of experimental developments played a role in the decision, which ultimately favoured timothy hay as the best crop in terms of return on investment and soil regeneration. Fox said the soil was in rough shape after a number of dryland leasers were finished with it.

“A lot of them did not follow good farming practices so a lot of erosion was occurring,” he said.

“There was an expression that was used, while we were developing, that we would tell others: unfortunately, some of those farmers were mining the lands to death.”

A rotation out of timothy every seven or eight years, usually into cereal crops or oilseeds, seems to work for Kainai Forage, said Fox. Rotations have given the company chances to experiment.

“At one time we grew Kentucky bluegrass seed. We haven’t done that lately. We also grew hybrid canola seed. We’re always looking at how best to rotate the land but mostly it’s there to grow forage crops.”

The needs of an early client from Japan proved a major driver in the Tribe’s decision to grow timothy.

“At that time only about 11 per cent of Japan was arable. There wasn’t even enough land to grow crops to feed their people, let alone their dairy cows. They had to import the forage crops,” said Fox.

A Japanese company learned of land in Alberta that was looking for clientele and could be a fit for the kind of forage it sought for Japanese dairy cattle.

“So it just so happens that during those discussions, they found out that we had huge tracts of irrigated land which we could probably grow timothy on,” Fox said.

Timothy hay has a long, rich history in Japan, said Fox. The country grown and fed timothy for centuries, and at one time the island of Hokkaido had a lot of production.

“So the arrangements were made and we went to Japan and they came here several times. We went to Japan once and we finalized a deal,” Fox said.

“It was a good mix. It was an arrangement where we needed each other. The president and I shared some of our business practices. Some of them are quite similar. In the end, all it took was a handshake and the deal was done.”

Fox signals cautious optimism on when Kainai Forage will reach its 100,000 tonne goal.

“We’re hoping we’ll reach that in about three or four years. I’m being overly optimistic,” he said.

However, Justin Ferguson, vice-president of Indigena Capital, thinks the milestone could be reached sooner.

“We actually could get it even sooner than that, depending on how everything comes together. Next year will potentially be even better. So let’s see how the second cut goes.”

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