“This sort of moves us beyond even where India has been before in pulse import duties… more than a decade ago we were at 10 per cent,” Pulse Canada CEO Gordon Bacon said after the Nov. 8 announcement. “So to sort of move to the maximum allowable for peas under WTO (World Trade Organization) rules has surprised us all.”

• Read more: Surprise Indian duty on peas leaves Canada scrambling

Reuters reported the tariff was meant to support India’s own pea growers after prices fell below a support threshold set by the Indian government.

The move came just as Bacon and Lee Moats, chair of Pulse Canada, were heading to India where the top issue had expected to be whether the country would extend a fumigation exemption for Canadian pulses. That exemption expired in October and the Indian government had said nothing on the matter, throwing into question the ability of Canada to export to its top pulse customer.

The pulse industry was anxiously waiting to find out what’s up on both issues, said Leanne Fischbuch, executive director of Alberta Pulse Growers.

In the meantime, producers wanting to sell peas have limited options, Fischbuch said on Nov. 14.

“If they’re talking to their dealers and their dealers are looking at alternative markets, that’s another option,” she said. “But otherwise, if their dealer is not looking to sell anything at the time, farmers have to bear with it at the moment.

“Until we learn more and the trade sees that there’s opportunity for movement, we’re in a challenging situation.”

One major Prairie pulse exporter used stronger language.

“That is very horrible news for us as exporters,” said Meiyun Li, general manager with ADM Ag Industries in Saskatoon. “India is our biggest buyer of pulses, of peas. So if India doesn’t want to buy, where will our yellow peas go?”

Last year, India’s pea imports — mainly from from Canada, Russia, the U.S., and France — soared by 41 per cent to a record of 3.17 million tonnes. But shipments were already well off that pace this year, with total Canadian pea exports at 849,000 tonnes as of Oct. 29 — half a million tonnes behind exports from the same time last year. Li said demand in China is also down while big pea crops in the Ukraine and Russia are driving down prices.

The only place where there is interest for Canadian peas is in the U.S., according to Li. The U.S. pea crop is down this year due to the drought but “they cannot consume all of our pea production,” she said.

Drought in recent years had been driving India’s imports of pulses and wheat but the return to near-normal monsoons has changed the scenario.

That will also have an effect on wheat markets.

Along with the pea tax, the country simultaneously doubled its tax on wheat to 20 per cent. That’s expected to slash wheat imports, which means both Ukraine (India’s biggest wheat supplier) and Russia will be looking for new destinations for that crop.

“Twenty per cent is basically a prohibitive tariff, and we are likely to leave the (Indian) market,” said Yelizaveta Malyshko of UkrAgoConsult consultancy.

Ukraine had expected to sell as much as 1.6 million tonnes of wheat to India, but that’s now expected to fall to one million tonnes.

— With files from Commodity News Service Canada and Reuters

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“Even as late as seeding was done, the yield seems to be average or better than expected, which is surprising, when some canola was planted on the 7th or 8th of June,” said Greg Sekulic, Canola Council of Canada agronomist specialist in the Peace region.

Quality across the province has been better than expected in wheat, mostly due to the hot summer.

“Provincially, about 90 per cent of the hard red spring wheat is coming in in the top two grades, which is really good, especially compared to last year, where some of the wheat was caught out in the field in October,” said Geoff Backman, business development and markets manager with Alberta Wheat.

There were some other anomalies as well. For example in the Peace, La Crete had temperatures comparable to Lethbridge.

“Given the heat that we had over the summer, there were some concerns that there would not be as large of yields, and mostly what we’re hearing from the majority of producers is that they are getting average to slightly above-average yields,” said Backman. “Given a year like this, it’s great.”

Wheat that went in early is coming off with a higher protein, and wheat that went in later is coming off with an average protein around 12 per cent. About 85 per cent of wheat has been harvested throughout the province by mid-October.

Quality has been good in the south and central regions and the south Peace, said provincial government crop specialist Neil Whatley.

“The quality was excellent in the south and central regions because we didn’t get a lot of rain in the summer in those areas,” he said. “The yield was fairly low, but that’s due to a lack of precipitation. The quality is higher when we go through a summer that doesn’t have much precipitation.”

The harvest story for the north includes both precipitation and frost. There was rain in September, and snow at the beginning of October which slowed the harvest. Crops are also late because of delayed seeding.

“They had to do some combining in the spring, so that set back some crops in the spring, but not all of them,” said Whatley. “That left them more vulnerable to fall frost and some wet conditions in the fall.”

Central Alberta producer Neil Gorda is one of the farmers having a tough year.

“Last year was tough, too,” said Gorda, who farms 1,800 acres with his son near Willingdon. “The County of Two Hills was in the worst shape of any county in the province. Lots of people left thousands of acres.”

Gorda had about 300 unharvested acres and didn’t start seeding until May 21 — which is usually when he finishes. So even though growing conditions were good thanks to timely rains this summer, harvest has been a slog and he’s been forced to take off crops with high moisture levels.

“In our area, a lot of people are taking it off and hoping they can move it to the elevator systems because they have the big dryers and stuff,” said Gorda, who is an Alberta Barley director. “But if that gets backed up, it’ll be tough. A lot of guys set up with dryers last fall and those guys are going because they can dry.”

Farmers in Gorda’s area haven’t caught a break and he feels for them, said Backman.

“I don’t have any numbers out of there, but I suspect that that area would see some of the lowest grade on their wheat,” he said. “I’m also hearing similar things from farmers in that area that they just took their wheat off at about 18 to 19 per cent moisture because they needed to have it off.

“Hopefully they can dry it down on aeration, if we can get some drier days here.”

The post Harvest better than expected in most — but not all — areas appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Beef producers like Alberta’s Darren Bevans, Tyler Fulton in Manitoba, and Murray Shaw in Ontario know replacement and first-calf heifers need some extra attention heading into winter, but that doesn’t mean over-the-top management.

Bevans and Fulton manage heifers separately in order to give them extra feed, while Shaw moves the whole herd on to a Total Mixed Ration (TMR) in early December. The hay and corn silage ration may be a bit more than the mature cows need, but adequate to meet heifer requirements.

• Read more: Three approaches to managing first- and second-calf heifers

Heifers aren’t as competitive as cows especially in limit feeding situations on swaths, corn grazing, or bale grazing. Even in drylots, competition can be an issue around feed bunks and round-bale feeders. And when the weather gets particularly cold, it is important to meet the energy requirements of these young females to ensure their body condition doesn’t slip. For every 1 C drop in temperature below 0 C, the beef cow’s TDN (Total Digestible Nutrients) energy maintenance requirements increase by about two per cent. Nutritional requirements, just due to the demands of cold temperatures, increase by 25 to 30 per cent over winter.

For optimum reproductive performance, research has found beef heifers should be at 60 to 65 per cent of their mature weight at about 14 months of age; at 65 to 70 per cent of mature weight at time of first breeding (15 months of age); and 85 to 90 per cent of mature weight at time of calving (24 months of age). Heifers continue to grow even through to their second calving.

The December to March period is probably one of the toughest and most expensive times to try to get skinny or poor-condition animals back into condition. Poor condition leads to more calving difficulties, weaker and low-vigour calves, and extra costs in getting those mothers back into condition for the next breeding season. Some research showed cattle with the mid-range (recommended) body condition score versus a low body condition score, had 10 per cent more live calves; their calf weaning weights the next fall were 26 per cent higher; and the pregnancy rate came in at 92 per cent (versus 79 per cent for lower-condition females).

Heifers aren’t just young cows, said Bart Lardner, senior research scientist at the Western Beef Development Centre in Saskatchewan.

“Bred and first-calf heifers are still growing themselves,” said Lardner. “So they shouldn’t be managed the same as mature cows.”

Heifer management is actually a three-year project, he said.

“Sometimes producers will manage those replacement heifers really well from weaning until the time they are bred, and as soon as they have that first calf they get moved into and managed with the cow herd,” says Lardner. “But that heifer herself is still growing so has higher feed requirements. She needs to be managed properly right through until that second calving.”

Ideally producers should apply Body Condition Scoring (BCS) to the entire beef herd, he added.

Canada has a five-point BCS scale — one being thin and five being fat. (Some producers use the U.S. system that has a scale from one to nine.)

Older research suggested cows and heifers should be fed to maintain at 2.5 to 3.0 score on the Canadian BCS (five on U.S. scale) heading into and during winter. More recent research, which studied more than 100 herds across Western Canada, found open rates were lowest in females with a BCS of 3.0 to 3.5 on the Canadian scale.

The challenge with feeding bred and first-calf heifers is that they require more energy, protein and other nutrients comparatively to mature cows, yet have about 20 per cent less dry matter capacity. Often they can’t physically eat enough poor-quality feed to meet their needs.

“If a mature animal is being maintained on a ration containing eight to 10 per cent protein, for example, the bred heifers and first-calf heifers are going to need about 20 per cent more,” said Susan Markus, beef research scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. “And energy requirements will be similar. If the cow ration has 55 per cent TDN, the heifer ration needs to be in 60 to 65 per cent TDN range.”

Poorer-quality, high-fibre forage may fill cattle up but still not meet their nutrient requirements, said Markus, who also recommends cattle be provided a well-balanced mineral mix. Cereal-based feeds, for example can be high in potassium, which can adversely affect calcium levels.

More feed is needed to improve body condition of a beef animal in winter, so it makes economic sense to have replacement and first-calf heifers in good shape heading into winter. For example, a 1,200-pound mature animal requires about 160 pounds of weight gain to improve body condition score by one point (on the Canadian scale).

Depending on summer and fall pasture quantity and quality, it may make sense to wean first-calf heifers and nursing heifers also pregnant with their second calf about a month early,” he said. “But there is no reason these systems can’t work, maintain cattle in good body condition, and in fact we have seen situations where they actually gain weight while winter grazing.”

The first step is to have a feed test analysis before cattle start grazing. Many forages saved for winter feed might look good but could be low on protein or energy, said Lardner. Also, remember cows and heifers need to be on a higher plane of nutrition during the last trimester of pregnancy.

“If you have different qualities of stockpiled feed, put them on the lower-quality feed, such as straw or chaff, earlier in the winter grazing period and then switch them over to higher-quality feed as they approach calving.”

If animals are underconditioned, feeding lower-quality feed earlier in the winter is not a good option. Adjustments to the feeding program should be made no later than 60 days before calving.

When swath grazing, animals given free range will eat the seed heads first and be left with nothing but stems and stalks later in the winter when it’s colder and nutrient requirements are higher, so cross-fencing and restricting access are critical (and also reduces wastage).

Lardner also recommends first- and second-calf heifers be fed separately from mature cows.

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The association said it supports the expansion of U of C’s veterinary medicine program to about 210 students (from 130 students currently) by 2023.

• Read more: Alberta to reallocate veterinary school funding

But it’s “deeply concerned” by the province’s decision to start phasing out its funding of the U of S vet school when the current version of a long-standing four-province funding agreement expires in 2020.

“Eliminating funding for this partnership reduces the capacity for veterinary education and therefore limits the number of veterinarians available to practice in the province at a time when there is already a shortage,” the association said in a news release.

Starting in 2020, the province will allocate $4.7 million per year to the U of C’s veterinary program with incremental increases of 20 seats per year — for an annual saving of $3.3 million a year. Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt said the move means “we will now have the capacity to train all of our students right here in Alberta.”

The decision “will certainly have an impact” on the U of S vet college, the school’s dean, Douglas Freeman, said in a separate news release.

The Saskatchewan school, which the four western provinces set up in 1963, “will continue to be Western Canada’s veterinary college, providing quality veterinary education, research and clinical expertise to the region,” said Freeman.

The “most immediate impact” of Alberta’s decision will be on the province’s own students, he said. After the 2019-20 academic year, students from Alberta will “no longer have the choice” of completing a doctor of veterinary medicine degree in Saskatchewan.

The Saskatoon-based college noted it offers access to a “thriving” veterinary teaching hospital, a “diverse caseload of small- and large-animal patients,” specialized faculty, livestock-focused teaching and research facilities and a range of research centres on the U of S campus.

Under the current interprovincial agreement, U of S takes 78 new veterinary students per year, with Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan each supporting 20 seats while Manitoba supports 15. Two more seats are allocated for Indigenous students and one for a student from the northern territories.

For its part, the Alberta government said it expects more students and communities across the province to benefit from the Calgary program’s community-based practicum model, which connects veterinary students with rural practices.

The new funding “gives more Alberta students the opportunity to enter our community-embedded veterinary medical training programs and increases our capacity to graduate local veterinarians to support the province’s food animal, equine, and pet-owning communities,” said Baljit Singh, dean of Calgary’s veterinary medicine faculty.

A labour market demand forecast for Alberta estimates the province will need nearly 1,100 veterinarians by 2023, the province said.

However, U of S said many of its graduates are already beginning their veterinary careers in Alberta communities, including 97 in the past four years (with about 60 per cent of those being in mixed-animal or large-animal practices).

The Saskatchewan college said it also provides the entire western region with post-graduate programs, research in biomedical and veterinary sciences, clinical and diagnostic services, continuing education, and training support for veterinary technology students.

The post Vets decry province’s plan to redirect school funding to Calgary appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“We are concerned that to date very few producers are enrolling their cattle in the EU program,” the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association said in a recent edition of its e-newsletter.

“We believe that most are taking a wait-and-see approach to whether the access to the EU market will be genuine and whether the prices for EU-eligible cattle will justify the expense of raising them.”

There are a few reasons for the slow uptake, said Doug Sawyer, a Pine Lake-area cow-calf operator and backgrounder who is vice-chair of foreign trade with the CCA.

“One is that we haven’t got the technical trade barriers with the EU worked out yet to actually move the volume that we’re allowed to,” he said.

One of those barriers has to do with processing, as Canadian plants use a citrus wash and an acid wash that is not approved by Europe.

“We’ve got to get some of those types of things worked out in order to be able to take advantage of that market,” said Sawyer.

Another reason is a lack of Canadian Food Inspection Agency veterinarians certified to handle the program and get producers on board.

“You have to have your farm certified prior to your calves being born to get them into that marketplace,” said Sawyer, adding the cost of verification comes out of the producer’s pocketbook. “It does cost us more money to be under their requirements than what it does in our normal production system.”

Still, the EU is an extremely valuable market, estimated to be worth as much as $600 million annually to Canadian beef producers.

Sawyer isn’t selling into the European Union yet, but his cattle are EU verified.

“I’m optimistic that by next year’s cow crop, we’ll be eligible and there will be a growing market for them there,” he said.

The European Union also has strict guidelines about hormones and implants, but Sawyer says that’s not a major concern to Canadian cattle producers because most don’t use these products.

“Producers who don’t, like myself, can be on the system and it doesn’t cost us anything but the certification process,” he said.

If the market sends a strong price signal, more producers will come on board, he added.

“If the money is there, we’ll be standing right there.”

The Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), which came into effect Sept. 21, has an initial duty-free quota of 9,300 tonnes of fresh beef and 2,500 tonnes of frozen beef. That will increase to 14,440 tonnes of fresh and 5,000 tonnes of frozen beef next year and will continue to rise until the annual duty-free amount hits 35,000 tonnes and 15,000 tonnes respectively in 2022.

If exports to Europe hit those levels it would help grow the Canadian cow herd, said Sawyer.

Officials from the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association have met with International Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay to push for a resolution of the trade barriers and put more CFIA vets in place for the certification process.

“I think the signal will be to producers, as we’re making progress on those technical trade barriers, or if we have them resolved, now we can take advantage of that very valuable market. I think you’ll see a huge lift at that time,” Sawyer said.

The EU along with China are two critical pieces in boosting beef exports, he said.

“If we can achieve a premium in them, that makes carcass utilization much bigger,” he said. “We’ll be able to utilize full carcasses between those two markets at a premium price and it makes them much more viable for the producers to add that extra input cost to get them there,” he said.

CCA officials will also be meeting EU officials in Brussels next month.

“I think it is vital from an industry perspective that we be there to outline what these trade barriers mean,” said Sawyer.

Because so many producers are confused by the EU certification process, the CCA has created a series of videos and posted them on its website.

Although late enrolment is possible, most beef heading to Europe will come from cattle enrolled at birth in a program that certifies they haven’t received any “growth-enhancing products.”

“Producers who enrol their operations in the program this fall will be calving EU-eligible cattle in winter/spring 2018,” the cattlemen’s association said. “Those cattle, raised without growth promotants, will take longer to raise and so would not be market ready until late 2019 or early 2020.

“This anticipated time frame coincides with the period in which CCA believes the conditions could be established to encourage the larger Canadian packers to enter the market.”

The post The door to Europe isn’t quite open yet appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“Most families are three to five generations removed from the farm today and that disconnect leads to a misunderstanding about how food is raised,” said Luree Williamson, CEO of the Alberta non-profit, which promotes a greater understanding of agriculture.

“We feel the best way to shift this gap is to have agriculture within the curriculum throughout K-12 education.”

The Agriculture Education Teachers’ Symposium will bring educators, farmers, and agriculture industry experts together at Cochrane RancheHouse on Nov. 24. The day-long event will have speakers, panel discussions, and breakout sessions aimed at aiding educators in incorporating agriculture into their existing curriculum. Topics include sustainability, the different types of crops being grown; pesticide use and the role of bees; container gardening in the classroom; and careers in agriculture.

The symposium will be an annual event, Ag for Life said in a news release.

“Funny thing, everybody eats, and so relies on agriculture,” said Frank Robinson, a professor of poultry science at the University of Alberta and a keynote speaker at the event.

“However, not very many people know much about agriculture anymore. There is a lot of need for agricultural learning.”

For a detailed agenda or to register, go to www.agricultureforlife.ca.

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The program pairs up-and-coming applied researchers with innovative cattle producers or other industry professionals for a one-year mentorship. It provides researchers with the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the needs of the beef industry in a practical and meaningful way.

Research biologist Robert Gruninger is a Lethbridge native who is applying a combination of “-omics” based techniques and protein biochemistry to better understand the microbiology of ruminant microbes. His work at the Lethbridge Research and Development Centre includes investigating the role that the rumen microbiome plays in determining the efficiency of lignocellulose degradation.

Two of his mentors are Larry Helland and his son Justin, who have farming, ranch, and feedlot enterprises. Larry has previously been chair of the Alberta Cattle Commission (now Alberta Beef Producers) and the Canada Alberta Beef industry development fund. He is a current member of the Canada Alberta Livestock Research Trust. Justin is currently serving a third term on the board and is past president of Lomond Grazing Association. He is also a board member for the Canada Alberta Livestock Research Trust. Gruninger’s third mentor is Darryl Gibb, who has a background in research and is a beef nutrition consultant at Gowans Feed Consulting.

The other Alberta researcher is forage biotechnologist Stacy Singer. Her work at the Lethbridge research centre focuses on the development of advanced breeding tools and ‘clean’ biotechnological platforms (which do not produce foreign proteins) for improving performance- and quality-related traits in forage crops.

One of her mentors is Graeme Finn, who manages a cow-calf operation and runs grass yearlings on his ranch near Madden with a focus on year-round grazing of both high-legume pastures and annual crop grazing. He currently sits on the advisory committee of the Canadian Beef and Forage Research Council; the board of the Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund; and the research committee for the Canadian Round Table for Sustainable Beef. His passion is looking at new ways to do things to boost profitability and “anything grass.” Singer’s other mentor is Gord Card, who owns and operates Magrath-area seed retailer Sunshine Seeds with his family.

The other mentee in this year’s program is Mika Asai Coakwell, an assistant professor of animal genetics at the University of Saskatchewan with a research focus on muscle and bone growth and development. Her mentors are Saskatchewan ranchers Lance Leachmanan and Ryan Beierbach along with Canadian Beef Breeds Council executive director Michael Latimer, whose family owns and operates a purebred Angus operation near Olds.

The mentorship program comes with a travel budget that allows researchers to attend industry meetings, producer workshops, and farm tours.

The post Two Lethbridge researchers chosen for mentorship program appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“It’s not as harsh as that, really,” said Joyce Parslow, director of consumer relations with Canada Beef.

One of the guiding principles of the new food guide is that vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and protein-rich foods — especially plant-based sources of protein — are good for the human body.

“They are looking to remove the food category of dairy and meat alternates and merge those together so that they basically become one category called proteins,” said Parslow, who is based in Toronto.

Canada’s Food Guide was created in 1942, and was last revamped in 2007. But the process of making new recommendations to the food guide started a couple of years ago with a detailed evidence review related to dietary guidance, said Hasan Hutchinson, director general for the Office of Nutritional Policy and Promotions at Health Canada.

“We were really trying to find out whether things had changed from the scientific perspective with the relationship between particular foods or particular nutrients and health,” he said.

The second thing Health Canada looked at was how things had changed with respect to how people used the food guide. They examined what people were eating, and what they are feeding their families.

“This revision is being done as part of Health Canada’s Healthy Eating Strategy,” said Parslow.

The role of the food guide is not only to provide healthy eating recommendations for the general public, it’s also used as a guideline for policy-making.

The federal government has opened the food guide up for public consultations, in its effort to be transparent about decision-making. The first stage of recommendations to the food guide was released last fall, and people could weigh in from October to December.

“They got 20,000 respondents, which is a pretty weighty contribution,” said Parslow.

The second public consultation was also online, and closed Aug. 14. Anyone, including producers, the food industry, dietitians and physicians, were able to have their opinion in the consultation.

Canada Beef is currently working with like-minded groups to monitor the food guide and what their response should be. Much of this work has been driven by dietitians working for organizations such as the Dairy Farmers of Canada and the Chicken Farmers of Canada. Canada Beef also belongs to a group called the Nutrient Rich Alliance, which includes all of the other animal protein.

Meanwhile, Health Canada professionals have reviewed the scientific basis between individual nutrients, food, and health. They have found that some topics, like fats, have changed a lot.

“In 2007, it seemed the way one could interpret the food guide was that it was really about total fats,” said Hutchinson.

But over the last 10 years, it has been found that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats, can help decrease heart disease, and lower the risk of increased cholesterol and cardiovascular disease.

In order to make this claim, staff at Health Canada reviewed the literature from organizations such as the World Health Organization, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Cancer Research Fund.

Another thing that has changed over the past 10 years is the relationship between sugar intake, weight, Type 2 diabetes, and oral health. Health Canada has also been looking at the research on sodium, and has found convincing evidence about dietary patterns that are characterized by increased vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and fish along with a decrease in processed meats, refined grains, and sugars.

“These are associated once again with what we are proposing as our guiding principles and recommendations going forward,” said Hutchinson.

Even though the process is based on scientific considerations, some people are still worried.

“We certainly have been hearing from provincial (beef) groups, asking what role they could play, and we’re going to be getting together a sort of guiding document for them,” said Parslow.

The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Canada Beef, and other industry organizations will be meeting with provincial groups to help get the word out to individual producers who want to be involved or who have questions.

The first suite of new food guide products, which will include information for policy-makers, health professionals, and consumers, will be released in spring 2018.

The second phase will be released in 2019, and will include data from Statistics Canada about food consumption.

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