“We know of 12 producers in Alberta, but that does not account for farmers who haven’t engaged with us,” said Wade Bendfeld, president of the Alberta Hop Producers Association, which was formed in March and recently held its inaugural meeting.

• Read more: Demand is there, but jumping into hops isn’t easy

He’s been growing hops for two years on his Spruce Grove-area acreage.

“I’m someone who is interested in craft beer, but I didn’t want to get involved in brewing or anything like that, so I thought I could get involved in the craft beer movement a little by growing hops,” said Bendfeld, a corporate communications professional who has almost 100 plants on a quarter-acre.

That’s actually a sizable chunk of current production in Alberta — Bendfeld estimates there’s only about five acres of hops in the entire province.

While not a big number, it’s a lot more than what you might expect. Most of the hops grown in the world are found in moist, temperate climates and until recently, the prevailing view was that they couldn’t be successfully grown in Alberta.

However, that changed when sisters Catherine Smith and Karin Smith Fargey started Northern Girls Hops at Darwell (west of Edmonton) in 2013. Bendfeld got in touch after hearing a radio interview with them and decided to give it a go himself. He also credits the sisters for laying the foundation for the hops association.

“They called a meeting of a bunch of different people who had expressed interest in growing hops back in 2016,” said Bendfeld. “We started talking about how we could grow together and support each other. The hops industry in Alberta was really non-existent.”

It was at that meeting that the idea for the association was formed.

“One of the things we quickly understood — and one of the central requirements for the association — was to be supportive of each other,” said Bendfeld. “We’re all going to learn different things. It’s really about how do we start our farms, and start an industry by helping each other.”

Hops growers in different parts of the province have different challenges because of their local climate. But one common issue for newbies is figuring out layout for a hop yard and building a proper trellis system, which needs to be six or so metres high.

“There’s a lot of infrastructure that needs to be set up for them to actually grow properly,” said Bendfeld.

But it’s not a case of build it and they will come — there’s already huge interest in hops thanks to the popularity of craft beer. These days, it’s often called “the new wine” and aficionados enthuse about flavour ‘notes’ and what food should be paired with this or that brew. That spills over to hops, which add both bitterness and aroma depending on the variety, the amount used, and when they’re added in the brewing process.

“One of the things we’re seeing is that there is huge interest from the public, the provincial government, and most importantly, from craft brewers,” said Bendfeld.

None of the farms in Alberta currently produce enough hops to regularly supply any of the bigger beer makers.

“It would be hard for us to supply any plants today. But next year, there are going to be a lot more plants coming online and a lot more production. It’s growing every year, so it’s good.”

Along with sharing best practices, the association will help connect craft brewers with hops growers in the province.

“The Alberta Hops Producers Association will be able to contribute to that significantly,” said Bendfeld.

The group held a fundraising event last month and is discussing a variety of ideas to generate more interest from the public, brewers, and government.

“There is a lot of recognition that this is viable and this is an exciting time to get in on this.”

The post It’s tiny now, but fledgling hops sector is taking flight appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Even though the presentation is barely a year old, Alberta doesn’t even make the list of hops-growing provinces. The owners of Northern Girls Hops west of Edmonton actually started their hop yard in 2013, but the sector is still tiny.

• Read more: It’s tiny now, but fledgling hops sector is taking flight

The potential, however, is huge. The Ontario presentation estimates that province alone would need 1,500 acres of hops to replace what’s being imported, but has only 90 acres (second to Quebec and just ahead of B.C.).

And the numbers can be eye popping. The Ontario presentation says yields can hit 1,800 pounds per acre, with a pound of dried hops fetching $14 to $16. That dollar figure is close to what the president of the newly formed Alberta Hop Producers Association has seen on offer, but the production is well above current yields here.

“Pounds per acre is hard for us to gauge right now because of our overall startup phase, but I believe that Northern Girls has estimated (production) between 1,000 to 1,500 pounds per acre,” Wade Bendfeld said in an email. “That’s not up to par with major U.S. producers’ harvests but again, we’re in our infancy stage.”

A big craft brewer might want 20,000 pounds in a year, but it all depends on what types of beer it’s making.

“Hoppy beers are obviously going to use more hops,” he said. “Some extreme double IPAS would use a pound of hops in 10 gallons… while a light lager or a malt-focused stout might only use an ounce or two of hops for the same amount of beer.”

And you might need a pint after looking at the startup costs. Ontario’s Ag Ministry puts establishment costs at $15,000 to $20,000 per acre (not including harvesting and drying equipment) and labour at $5,800 to $9,500 per acre. The powerpoint presentation can be found at the Ontario’s Ag Ministry’s website by clicking on ‘Introduction to Hop Production’ by Evan Elford.

The post Demand is there, but jumping into hops isn’t easy appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

This was stressed numerous times during presentations on technology at this year’s Canadian Agricultural Safety Association annual general meeting.

• Read more: AgSafe Alberta offering free safety programs for farmers

“There’s a lot of routine work on farms and a lot of incidents happen because of routine,” said Daan Stehouwer, a regional service manager with Lely North America.

“My approach in training, when I’m talking to technicians and also with farmers, is to explain why. We spend a lot of time in our trainings to explain the why of these things. Just putting a sticker somewhere that you can lose your finger doesn’t seem to be as effective as always training, and repeating that.”

New technology in agriculture is also bringing new hazards.

Catherine Trask, an associate professor and ergonomist at the University of Saskatchewan, is currently working on a project with needleless injections in hog barns with the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture.

Because they use pressure to inject drugs through the animal’s skin instead of a needle, the devices greatly reduce the risk of blood-borne pathogens being transmitted from animals to the person delivering the injection. But since needleless injectors can be used at a more rapid pace, there’s a greater risk of repetitive stress injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

Occupational health and safety isn’t always on the radar when new technologies are introduced, said Trask.

“We don’t always have good evidence and good information on the potential impacts of these technologies,” she said. “That can prevent folks from incorporating it into their decisions.”

While the drawbacks of using a needleless injector may quickly become apparent because of a sore wrist (or an aching back from bending over more often), the perils of other new technologies may not be.

Take, for example, the new combine. Auto steer means operators can spend a lot more time in the cab and that comfy seat may disguise another risk.

“Whole body vibration is a risk factor for back disorder and back pain and so is extensive static sitting,” said Trask.

Pork producer Curtiss Littlejohn described himself as a poster child for what not to do in agriculture.

In his three decades of farming, he has suffered broken hands and concussions, and even fractured his ribs when falling off a sow, he said.

Many people don’t know how to look for hazards in their own barn, he said, pointing to dangers as diverse as automatic doors (which can pinch animals or humans) and rusty edges.

“If you ever want to test how good your immune system is, go scratch yourself on a piece of rusty steel in a hog barn,” he said. “If it’s not pussing within three hours, either it’s not very dirty or you didn’t do a good job (of getting scratched).”

Stainless steel, plastics, and other materials that don’t corrode are not only safer but will last longer, said Littlejohn, who is also swine products manager with Canarm Ag Systems, a maker of agricultural livestock housing and ventilation equipment.

New technology isn’t just about machinery and devices, but also new management systems, which also introduce hazards to the workplace, said Littlejohn, a former chair of Ontario Pork.

For example, group housing requires workers to have a deep understanding of the behaviour of hogs.

“You end up with workers in a pen situation where they are not completely understanding what the animals’ thoughts are or what the animals’ behaviours are, so it’s another level of training that we need to bring into the workplace,” he said.

Bringing automation to barns can also result in unintended consequences, including having workers who have a good understanding of computers and technology, but less exposure to livestock and farm life, he said. As well, people designing equipment for farming activities don’t really understand what goes on at a farm, he said.

New technology is creating “an industrial revolution” on farms and producers need to be constantly thinking about the safety implications that involves, said Trask.

The post New technology brings new risks to the farm, say experts appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

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.

“Livestock feed supplies are going to be tight in some areas of Alberta, while in other areas, quality may be an issue,” said provincial beef extension specialist Andrea Hanson. “As such, testing feed stuffs that are to be fed this winter is important as you need to know what nutrients are available.”

The formulation of a ration depends on the nutrient composition of the forage, and the only way to accurately determine that is by sampling and testing the feed.

“Using last year’s feed tests, or even worse, using a provincial average for a feed’s nutritional content, isn’t realistic or useful,” said Hanson. “While physical attributes are part of feed quality, they don’t tell the whole story. A bright-green colour does help indicate the feed was put up with little or no rain, and that the mould level is little to none, but it doesn’t tell much more than that.

“Protein and energy content of the same hayfield can vary greatly depending on when it was cut.”

For example, brome cut very early in the season could have 18 per cent protein but only five to six per cent if cut late.

Protein requirements of a cow in second trimester of pregnancy (minimum of seven per cent) is significantly different than when she reaches the third trimester (nine per cent) or lactation (11 per cent), said forage-beef specialist Barry Yaremcio.

The most important information in a feed test is protein, energy and fibre.

“A basic forage analysis will list the moisture content of the feed stuff, energy as total digestible nutrients (TDN), net energy (NE) and/or digestible energy (DE), crude protein values as well as calcium, and phosphorus, magnesium and potassium,” said Hanson. “A basic analysis should cost less than $50 which is much less than the cost of a round bale of feed, let alone the possible savings from using fewer bales of hay mixed with lower-quality forages.

“The more advanced analytical packages will provide more details about the feed depending on what’s requested. If an early frost or crop stress have been experienced in the area and there are concerns, a nitrate test may be very beneficial as would a toxin test.”

Getting a representative sample of the feed to test is important in feeling confident with the analysis, said Hanson.

“If sampling bales, samples need to be taken from a number of bales (at least 15 to 20) from different areas in the field and then mixed into one sample,” she said.

That work is made much easier with a commercial forage sampler and some local agriculture service boards or forage associations have equipment available for loan.

“Use plastic bags to ship the feed so that an accurate moisture level can be determined. If sampling from a silage pit, rub the loose material off the face before taking the sample from packed material from the freshest part of the silage face, and from several locations in a ‘W’ or ‘M’ pattern. Mix the samples and pack tightly into a plastic bag with as little air as possible.”

If samples won’t arrive at a lab right away, they should be frozen.

“Finally, if you want a sample of the swath grazing feed, take a tub and scissors out to the field and pull various samples from the swath from locations all over the field,” said Hanson. “As the samples are pulled, cut the feed into two-inch lengths and mix in the tub. From the total sample, stuff a large zip-lock bag with a representative sample of the feed for analysis.”

The post Feed testing now can save you money appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The Drive Away Hunger campaign collects food and cash donations for food banks and hunger programs. Beginning Oct. 10, tractors pulling trailers will visit communities in five provinces to collect donations, which can also be made at FCC offices until Oct. 13. (Monetary donations can be also made at www.fccdriveawayhunger.ca.) In addition to co-ordinating the food drive, FCC will also donate $100,000 to school meal programs across Canada.

An estimated 860,000 Canadians, many of whom are children, experience hunger every month, Michael Hoffort, president and CEO of the ag lender, said in a release.

Since it started in 2004, the campaign has collected enough food and cash donations to make 33 million meals.

The post Annual Drive Away Hunger campaign now underway appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“At the moment, if producers are concerned about whether they have root rot in their field, they can take their soil to a commercial testing lab to determine if they have presence or absence of aphanomyces root rot,” said federal research scientist Syama Chatterton.

“But really, all that tells them is yes or no — it doesn’t tell them what the quantity of inoculum is in their soil and what their risk is of actually getting the disease if they were to plant susceptible hosts like pea or lentil.”

Chatterton’s team is developing a “quantitative risk analysis tool” that will allow producers to submit soil samples to a seed-testing lab to categorize inoculum levels in the soil as low, medium, or high risk of developing root rot. The first phase of the research is determining how much inoculum is needed in the soil to trigger the disease.

“We’re trying to link the amount of inoculum in the soil to disease severity,” said Chatterton.

With aphanomyces root rot — a devastating disease that has been spreading through pea and lentil fields across Alberta — the inoculum starts out as oospores, or long-lived resting spores.

“We’ve determined that it takes about 100 oospores per gram of soil to give you a moderate disease risk,” said Chatterton.

“We have a pretty clear idea of how much inoculum is needed in the soil to produce disease.”

Chatterton is now working on the second phase of the research — developing a molecular tool that quantifies the DNA of the oospores in the soil.

So far, that molecular tool is able to quantify oospores at higher levels (anything above 100 oospores per gram of soil), but the challenge now is detecting oospores at levels lower than that.

“We’d be able to go in and for sure determine what a high-risk field is,” said Chatterton. “It takes about 100 oospores per gram of soil to develop disease, but unfortunately, with the molecular tools that we have, we get a lot of false negatives at about that 100-oospore level.”

And because inoculum builds up in the soil over time, it could almost be too late by the time that level of disease risk is identified.

“It’s very important for us to be able to detect the lower levels of inoculum so that producers would have a heads-up that the inoculum is starting to build in that field and they should maybe pull back on the pea and lentil rotation to try and keep it under that threshold level of 100 oospores per gram of soil,” said Chatterton.

Chatterton’s team has developed a new mechanism to see if they can “reduce that false negative rate,” as well as different soil extraction protocols.

“We don’t want to release a test or a risk assessment tool until we’re confident that we have reduced that false negative level,” she said, adding that the test likely won’t cost “much more than, say, a clubroot test.”

“Most optimistic, we’d be maybe six more months, but it might take another year or two before we can bring those two different aspects together — an improved extraction protocol from the soil and improved detection methods.”

Once it comes online, this test will offer pulse producers a little more certainty as to the level of root rot in their field, and the risk of planting a susceptible crop on any given year.

“When we’re dealing with these root rot issues, we really have few management recommendations that we can provide to producers,” said Chatterton.

“The most standard recommendation is that a producer should avoid planting peas or lentils in a highly infested field for at least six to eight years, but we can’t really tell a producer when it’s safe for them to plant peas or lentils again.

“They need to have some sort of tool that helps them make those important management decisions for their farm.”

The post Root rot risk analysis tool could come online by next year appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Farmers can become candidates by filling the nomination package recently mailed to them (it is also available at albertawheat.com).

Voting will take place at Next Level Farming events — Nov. 15 in Acme for Region 2 and Nov. 23 in Viking for Region 4.

Candidates must have grown or sold wheat and paid a checkoff in either the current or previous two fiscal years.

Nominations must be received by Oct. 31.

The post Alberta Wheat Commission looking for candidates appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

A producer can call Alberta’s PID registry at 310-FARM with a legal land description to confirm or acquire a PID, or contact a field or client services rep from the agency at 1-877-909-2333 or info@canadaid.ca to ensure their PID is entered into the Canadian Livestock Tracking System database.

The cattle ID agency also offers complimentary, one-on-one training, templates, videos and tools.

The post Cattle producers urged to get premises identification number appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

With a massive land base, Africa has an estimated 632 million hectares of arable land of which only 179 million hectares are currently being utilized. More than 40 per cent of these lands are in Nigeria, DR of Congo, and North and South Sudan, which are areas of conflict. Despite having this massive land base for producing food, life expectancy in Africa varies from 49 to 60 years.

Putting the countries together within the continent would make it the third-largest populated country with the fourth-largest economy while having the 11th-strongest purchasing power in the world. And it is not just the soil that brings it wealth; the continent is home to massive stores of gold, platinum, diamonds, and a host of other mineral resources.

To be a superpower it would take irrigation (only five per cent of arable land is irrigated) and the erasing of the 166 borders (as well as the appreciation of the more than 3,000 languages officially and unofficially spoken on the continent). The cultural divisions could not and would not disappear overnight, but the economic benefit of its land, resources, and extensive ports could bring dramatic wealth in a short period of time.

From the perspective of political power in the World Trade Organization (WTO), the majority of the membership and minority of the power lies in developing and least developed countries. Unification of Africa literally erases the line between the Global North and the Global South and has opportunity to change the world economic order. In terms of trading agreements, one Africa could have the same clout as experienced by Canada, China, U.S., EU and Japan, which currently collectively make up 68 per cent of all trade through the WTO.

Pushing the agenda even further, a group of scholars is asking: Can Africa feed the world by 2050?

• More with Brenda Schoepp: The world has en eating problem – and farming is the solution

Despite population growth, Africa has the youngest working population on earth. They are well connected, educated, and innovative. I asked my Nuffield colleague Thato Moagi about her farm in Limpopo, South Africa. Thato is South Africa’s first woman to be awarded a Nuffield Scholarship and is breaking the bamboo ceiling by managing her commercial farm of 59 hectares. She is looking at beef production systems globally, which is a smart move as much of the foreign buying interest in the continent of Africa is for beef.

Thato faces the same challenges as Canadian farmers, such as the shortage of labour, high input costs, and limited export markets. She often gets labourers from nearby Zimbabwe and is learning how to navigate commodity contracts. This is important as African countries are huge processors of coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, fish, beef, biopesticides, maize, rice, nuts, fertilizer, and soybeans (to name a few).

I was curious about some of the issues we are tackling in Canada today and how they were seen from her perspective as an indigenous South African.

“How do you feel about colonization?” I asked.

Her comments were twofold. First, she made it clear that “there was no hunger in Africa prior to colonization,” and then added, “That is in the past.” This shows the entrepreneurial spirit of the rural youth who are ready to take on the challenge of becoming the breadbasket of the world.

Smallholdings, co-operatives, private enterprises, and joint ownership all have their place in Africa. But knitting the threads together through the maze of culture and religion is not a simple task because of all the boundaries drawn up by Europeans in the 1800s to protect what they considered as their territory.

Perhaps it could be possible if the countries with controlling political and economic interests allow unification. But then again, why would they? Keeping Africa divided ensures their dependency and weak economies make for willing partners.

This is a deep-seated global political game and often a dangerous one. One wonders if Africa as a continent can make her own decisions to become Africa the nation. Who will be marginalized in the process?

But let us not get caught in the negative, and instead remember young women like Thato who are working at being a living example for other youth in her area. Her goal is to empower other Africans, and she as well as those others who look for economic prosperity should be supported and encouraged. Unification of Africa may very well come from the people of the soil with small social changes that add up to a social construct.

Whatever the future, as separate African nations or in the unification of Africa, this is a continent of hope and the potential to feed our world.

The post Enterprising young farmers are the hope of a new Africa appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.