agripost june 24 2016

June 24, 2016 1The Agri Post

By Harry Siemens

Jeremy Dueck of DueckHolsteins near Landmarkmilks 60 cows in a relativelymodern tie stall barn and theland he owns is the yard sitewith the house, barn, androom for an earthen lagoon. Dueck farms with his wifeand three sons, rents all of thefarmland, about 200 acresseveral miles away on theother side of Landmark thatprovides enough forages, forall of our milking animals andheifers. What we dont usefor forages on the farm, mydads a grain farmer, seedsand harvests about 150 acresfor me, said Dueck. I have aseparate farm from my dad,Im 29 years old. I was ayoung guy on my own forabout 6 years. With his rented land too faraway, and owning no farmland nearby Dueck has anagreement with his neighbourand every fall he gets all ofthe manure free. We have anearthen registered permittedlagoon that holds just over ayears storage, enough for thewhole year. Every fall weempty it onto their land, hesaid. Dueck grew up on a mixedfarm, where his dad had a 75-sow farrow to finish barn, andcropped about 800 to 1,000acres. I grew up a farm boy,and knew I always wanted tofarm, he said. Dads desirewas never to colonize and be-come a big-time farm so henever expanded when any ofthe boys showed interest. Hetold us, go out and earnenough money to buy your

The Making of a Dairy Farm from the Ground Up

own farms and buy him outsome day. That was his attitude andDueck appreciated it. Itseems like a lot of guys myage get golden spoons put intheir mouths, where dad didall the hard work in the 80s,90s and early 2000s, they of-ten dont know the value ofwhat blood, sweat, and tearsis all about. He dropped out of schoolin grade 8, never went back,and started working in con-struction, illegally, still under18 years of age. By the time Iwas 19, I was supervising asewer and water installationcrew in Winnipeg, makinggood money, and I knew I hadto do that to get a down pay-ment together for a farm.Whatever farm, I didnt carewhat kind of farm either, saidDueck. The desire was al-ways there, the knowledgethat Id be a farmer someday,

I never questioned that. Af-ter enough years in the con-struction industry, I had closeto $600,000 saved up, in-vested in a house and differ-ent things, but enough of anetwork I could put a downpayment on a small farm. During his last few years inconstruction, he started seri-ously looking for an oppor-tunity to buy, or find some-thing that would work for himand stay within budget. Itwas about the time when landwas becoming quite scarce

and it became pretty obviousthat if I wanted to grain farm,Id have to move where theland was much cheaper andmore readily available. Placeslike Brandon, Swan River,maybe even Saskatchewan,somewhere not in the RedRiver Valley, he said. Helooked at all the options, poul-try, hogs, and grain and noth-ing pencilled. Dairy was noteven an option at that time. After telling a friend thatdairy was out of the picture, ayear later, he was milking 60

cows. That was six years ago. For this, young farmer andhis wife and young familythings are not standing still.He recently bought a differ-ent farm closer to Ste. Annewhere his dad farms andplans to move this fall. Thenew farm comes with 450acres, securing a land base.He plans to build a new barnstarting this fall and milkingby March 1, 2017. Dueck always knew the firstbarn on the current farm wouldbe a temporary stepping-

stone to something bigger. Atemporary stepping stone,get in the door, buy the quota,get milking, start making per-sonal payments on the quota,and in five to ten years, Ill bein a position to buy a differ-ent farm, he said. Just sohappened one came up forsale close to my dads farm, agrain farm, no livestock. Weoutbid everyone else I guess,here we are, thinking of mak-ing a move and taking on a

Jeremy Dueck of Landmark milks 60 cows in a tie stall barn, gives the manure away to his neighbour and hopes to be milking in anew location and new barn by March 1, 2017.

Continued on page 2

It seems like alot of guys myage get goldenspoons put intheir mouths,where dad did

all the hard workin the 80s, 90s

and early 2000s,they often dontknow the valueof what blood,

sweat, and tearsis all about.

Harvesting forHope World

Record Day FastApproaching

On Sunday, July 31, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and the Manitoba Agricul-tural Museum will host Harvesting Hope: a World Record to Help the Hungry. To help end global hunger, over 500 volunteers from 100 communities acrossCanada will operate 125 early 20th century threshing machines to harvest a 100-acre crop of wheat. When in operation, the equipment will require over fourfootball fields of space. For more information on attending or how to participateplease visit harvestinghope.ca or follow them on twitter @harvesthope2016.

June 24, 20162 The Agri Post

June 24, 2016 The Agri Post2

whole bunch of new debt. He said the transition would require some juggling. The people that bought thisfarm only want to start milking next summer coming here from Alberta. He first mustsell his farm in Alberta and we dont want to start milking in winter so were going toown two farms for a period of time. Keep milking in the tie-stall, until the new barn isready by next spring. It will be inconvenient, but that is how it sometimes has to go. The new barn being built is a simple 84-head free stall. Dueck said that for now theywould put in one robotic milking unit. Im on a budget, severe really. This opportu-nity came along five years too soon. He said their feeding system would be com-prised of a TMR grinder that sits in a feed room and fed out with a conveyor into themanger. Currently all the calves and young stock are being custom raised. Dueck does not intend to increase his 60-cow quota immediately. The extra spacewill be used to house his dry cows. About 10 to 15 percent of his herd is always dryand his close-up heifers will be moved home about two months before calving. Even-tually his goal is to have between 85 and 90 cows and two robotic milkers. He already has plans in the works for the types of crops. Well plan for the homequarter to go into hay and alfalfa, and right around the barn the next closest field willbe the corn silage and after that soybean crushing operation in Blumenort, he said.On any extra land I typically grow beans. Dueck noted that he could deliver right offthe combine to his dad and brothers soybean crushing plant room so that he has noneed for bean storage.

Continued from page 1

Building a Dairycontinued...

By Les Kletke

Looking at his list ofaccomplishments it is nothard to believe that ShawnBirmingham qualified asthe Outstanding YoungAngus Breeder for thenational competition. Henot only qualified, he wonit. Birmingham and his wifeTeresa operate TSNLivestock at Forest, northof Brandon. He got anearly start with the breedwhen he was with 4-H andbought his first cattle.That was nearly 20 yearsago. A Diploma in Agricul-ture from the U of M alongwith several positions in 4-H and the Angus Associa-tion he now has 250 cows. Birmingham has 80purebred cows and 170commercial cows that hecalves out early in theyear. He uses the bestgenetics available on hispurebred cows but it his isapproach to the commer-

By Elmer Heinrichs

It is that time again across Manitobawhen a consumer can exercise their rightto pick your own fruit, from thedelectable juicy strawberries, perhaps thealways delicious raspberry, or the largesaskatoons.

FFFFFruit Crops Rruit Crops Rruit Crops Rruit Crops Rruit Crops Ready to Peady to Peady to Peady to Peady to Pickickickickick Strawberries have a very brief seasonand this year it looks like Manitobanswill be able to pick berries in the lastweek of June, and perhaps early July.Raspberries and saskatoons will also beready to pick or buy at fruit stands andmarket gardens throughout thesummer.

There are about 10 to a dozen berryfarms in eastern and central regionsthat operate as U-pick farms, whileothers prefer to pick for you. Consumers should be pickingstrawberries by late June, said WaldoThiessen, operator of Altonas Berry HillFarm, and representative for the PrairieFruit Growers Association. Strawberriesare a little earlier; raspberries will beready by early July, with saskatoonsready by July week two.

Manitoban Named OutstandingYoung Angus Breeder

The Birminghams sell their cattle directly from the farm north ofBrandon.

cial cows that is somewhatnon-traditional. I want to getthe best genetics I can, asquickly as I can, he said. To that end, he uses thecommercial cows as receptorsfor embryos from his pure-bred animals. This year hehad over 40 embryos placedin his commercial cows. Werely on a veterinarian forthat, he noted. It is fairlycomplex and we are busyconcentrating our efforts onother things. Those otherthings include a 5,800 acresgrain farm that is part of theoperation with his father andbrother. His intent is to grow hispurebred herd to 200 cows,but he is concentrating onthe quality of the geneticsnot just the numbers. He haschosen to grow the herd fromthe animals he produces. Weuse the top genetics avail-able, and we us A.I. becausethat allows us to choose thebest in genetics and changebulls, he said. We typicallyuse two bulls on the mature

cows and two other bulls onthe heifers because we arekeeping the heifers for ourherd. We have a strong lineof genetics from the bulls

we use that allows us tochoose other bulls nextyear. He has a ready market forthe bulls he produces andsells them off the farm.There is a lot of expense inmoving cattle and consign-ing them to sales so at thispoint we sell from the farm,he said. We might get tothe point that we have ourown sale on the farm in thefuture. He breeds the cows for a75-day calving periodbeginning January 1. Welike the calves early in theyear, and we want toconcentrate the calvingperiod into a short time, hesaid. The operation uses itsown homegrown corn silagefor its feeding program aswell. We have a silage pitand feed with a wagon,said Birmingham. Thatworks in our system andallows us to keep an eye onthe cows.


By Les Kletke

The community of Richer pulled together to host theannual Tractor Trek recently and helped organize a lunchfor the drivers, support staff, and spectators who attendedthe noontime gathering of nearly 50 tractors at the RicherDawson Trail Park.. We had great weather, said Laura Zimmermann oneof the organizers involved with the host committee. Wealso have a nice facility that allowed the organizers topark their tractors and display them during lunch. The 44 participating tractors had lots of room to form atwo deep semi circle and allow spectators to take the timeand wander between the horsepower of yesteryear. Annually, the host community provides lunch for par-ticipants in the Trek but the Richer Community also hadlunch available for spectators that helped raise funds forthe Eden Foundation and Mennonite Heritage Village.We covered our costs of the lunch and donated anyprofits to the main organizers, said Zimmerman, who wasaided by twenty volunteers. We had great support fromthe community and even had volunteers from outside theCommunity Club show up and ask what they could do onthe day of the event.

By Les Kletke

It was apparent that historykeeps rolling along for theannual Tractor Trek event insoutheastern Manitoba.Anne Toews was on hand asone of the event organizers

History Makes Its Way Through Southeast Manitoba

Drivers await the final instructions before embarking on Tractor Trek 7 from the Heritage VillageMuseum. Photo by Les Kletke

and a reason the event keepsrolling as smoothly as it does. After the initial instructionsto drivers and support staffat the Mennonite HeritageVillage, it was Toews thatgave the official, Gentlemen,start your engines. With

those anticipated words, thegroup headed to their trac-tors to get rolling. After 7years you get some thingsworked out, she said with asmile. There are somechanges each year but wehave a pretty good under-

standing what is involved andhow things move along. The route this year went toRicher for lunch followed by abrief history of the community.We really appreciated beinghosted by the community ofRicher, said Toews. Theyhad a great facility for the trac-tors and it gave people an op-portunity to come and see thetractors involved. It is not only the tractors thatwere rolling on a beautiful sum-mer day in June; the fundsraised by the event go to sup-port the Eden Mental HealthFoundation and the Menno-nite Heritage Village. Toewssaid that as of June 15, theevent had raised just over$36,000. But funds keep roll-ing in, we will see chequescome in through the month ofJune so that amount shouldincrease somewhat, saidToews. The 7th offering of the Trac-tor Trek attracted 44 tractorsand each had a goal of raisinga thousand dollars. For someof the Tractor Trek partici-

pants it is an annual event.For others it was a new expe-rience. We had 7 first timedrivers this year, which isabout what we normally get,said Toews. Some fellowsmight take a year off and comeback the following year, whilesome make it a family eventevery year. She listed sev-eral families that have threegenerations or grandfathersthat make it a special outingwith their grandson. Therewas no correlation betweenthe colour of the tractor and

families ties, though at leastone family was riding entirelyon International production. Every two years, event or-ganizers change the route sheexplained. We try to take thesame route for two years, shesaid. So we will discuss thatin the fall when we look at thecomments from the driversbut it would appear that wewould follow the same routenext year, because there wereno major problems this timearound.

Richer Comes Together as HostCommunity for Tractor Trek

Judging by lunch sales Zimmerman estimates that theevent attracted 50 spectators from the community. It isnot a great number, but we also had competing events inmany of the neighbouring communities and that hurt ourattendance, she said. She is already looking forward to next year. The eventtypically follows the same path for two years before chang-ing its route. We are looking forward to next year, and weknow what to expect, she said. We have a great space todisplay the tractors and that helps. The noontime breakalso included a presentation by local historian RogerGodard who outlined how the various ethnic groups hadworked together during the early days of the settlementsin the area. Zimmerman said there are few changes planned for theevent next year and is hopeful that word spreads aboutthe quality and number of tractors on display. It wouldbe great to see even more people from the communitycome out to see the tractors and visit with the drivers,she said. Judging from the response of the drivers there is littledoubt that the event will be back for lunch in Richer forthe 8th edition of the Tractor Trek.


Sometimes we get caught up taking ourselves tooseriously; actually, it is a lot of time that we take our selftoo seriously. We have to be believe that we are the mostimportant thing in the world and completing our to dolist is all the matters. A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to attend theTractor Trek that rolled from Steinbach to Richer forlunch and then back again. I had reluctantly agreed toattend the event. When I got there it didnt take me long to realize thiswas all about having some fun. Sure the trip would raiseclose to 50 grand for the Eden Foundation and theMennonite Heritage Village, and that alone is enoughreason to do the event again on the west side of the RedRiver and again next year. While there is a grand planand purpose, in the trenches and on the road it wasabout having some fun. When I pulled up, I immediately started looking for thetractors we had on the farm, it was not long before Ifound a John Deere M, and with it was a MT whichdesignated Trike, (or close front wheels). I remember astory about my Dad buying it used after it had run oneday on an American farm you see it was still the time ofsteel shortages, and used equipment could cross the

In perusing the aisles ofa Winnipeg box store, Istopped to read the labelof a product claiming tocontrol, not kill selectiveweeds on residentiallawns. In looking a littlecloser, it didnt say whichweeds it controlled, onlyselective weeds. I recallthis product isnt cheapereither. I asked another gentle-man who was looking atthe same product, andasked him what it meantto control only selectiveweeds. He said thatmeans it probably doesntwork very well - in fact, hesaid his neighbour tried it,and found it mostlyuseless. I put in a call to ChrisGoertzen, President of theAssociation of ManitobaMunicipalities (AMM),also the Mayor ofSteinbach. Goertzenadamantly says AMMdoes not support thecosmetic pesticide banthat became law in thisprovince in 2015 andremains consistent withits position. The former NDPgovernment passedlegislation to implement

Just Having Funborder while new equipment was in short supply soequipment dealers got creative with how used thatused had to be. I digress, this day was about fun, I saw a few familiarfaces and played the catch up game, and then it gotdown to the serious. Do you have a tractor? I did not and I have no need or desire to have anantique tractor but for the guys that do, more power tothem. They dont have to explain to anyone why theyhave a tractor or two or 7. That is up to them. If theywant to get together with other guys who have tractorsand drive down the road a bit, good for them. We needmore of that in our industry. I remember when the end of June rolled around therewas the school picnic community event that ended in theevening with baseball games and a wiener roast. Peopleshowed up to visit and have some fun, we talk about thebenefits of rural living and how great the lifestyle is but itseems to me it has slipped away into the fast lane on thegravel road. I for one am going to another Tractor Trek, and I amlooking for a Cochshutt 560, the one with the yellowmotor (the red ones were later and any Cockshutt guycan tell you that).

Credit has to be given to these collectors as ourindustry needs a healthy dose of fun and you are theones that can deliver it.

AMM President Lays OutPlans for New Government

the ban that requires lawncare companies andmunicipalities to use eco-friendly products forweed control. That iswhat I held in my handwhere the label refers tocontrolling selectiveproducts. Goertzen tells meManitobas SustainableDevelopment ministerCathy Cox will review theprovinces cosmeticherbicides ban to ensureit is in the best interestsof Manitobans andintends to meet withstakeholders to discusstheir concerns. Obviously, it is aregulation that is burden-some to municipalitiesand yes, we do want tosee this governmentchange it, said Goertzen.If we keep the same levelof service, and use theproduct we should beusing instead of the onesthat are approved byHealth Canada, our costsin Steinbach go from$18,000 a year to well over$200,000 plus per year.Thats just not doable forRMs. That is just oneanecdotal evidence plus

they are much lesseffective. Guess what, it kills thegreen stuff, burns it off soto speak, and the rootstays alive meaning youhave to use it multipletimes. The AMM has met withboth ministers. BlainePederson, Infrastructureand Minister Cox, andhave generally verypositive discussions.These are early days ofthis new government andwe continue to beconsistent with ourmessage, but feel thisgovernment will definitelyreview this legislation andensuing regulation, saysGoertzen. The point iswe all want to use lesschemicals in our munici-palities and in our lives ingeneral, absolutely! Butwe want to be practical,and not ideological aboutit. We want a review ofthat regulation so that it ispractical for our munici-palities and doesnt put ahuge burden on them, andso we can have healthycommunities and beautifulcommunities. Having the president ofthe AMM on the lineoffered opportunities to

discuss some other issuesfacing his organizationand in turn ruralManitoba, and farmersalike. There are manyissues that we will bedealing with, with thisnew government, just likewith old one. The AMMs overridingtheme includes twoissues, partnership andone already touched on,regulations, or as I senseit too many regulationsthat make no sense andonly cost money. Wewant to have a partner-ship with this newprovincial government tosolve the issues we havein common. When itcomes to infrastructure,we want to do this inpartnership with thePallister PC governmentto help solve the infra-structure issue. We thinkif we work together, wecan do it cheaper andmore effectively, than ifwe just have our hand outand not working as ateam, he says. When you look atregulations, which is ourother main thing that wewant to talk about, somany times there areregulations implemented

that are very difficult formunicipalities to dealwith; either there arecosts involved, or verydifficult to administer,says Goertzen. In theend, had the governmentconsulted us first,viewing us as a body thatcan help them get theright perspective, we canhelp them make betterregulations, we canreduce regulations whereneeded, and we can bethat partner that can bringbetter government, betterideas. He cites the cosmeticpesticide ban as a primeexample. It is not usefuland not practical andwhat it creates is ascenario of dramaticallyincreased costs, and thereare different standardsthat people apply to theirown properties. Yes, how right he is.This person standing nextto me at the product standin that box store says ifyou go to another home,lawn and garden store,ask for the product thatacts as a pesticides tooyou will have the productthat actually kills weeds,too.


by RolfPenner

PennersPoints

[email protected]

On June 4 just south ofPortage la Prairie,Manitobas first air showin close to a decade tookplace. Despite reports thatmany people wereunhappy with theorganization and logistics,the event was a success.Those who saw the showwere quite happy with theperformances. Its always a challengeto put on something likethis. First, you neverreally know how manypeople are going to showup. One report said theorganizers had hoped for5,000, prepared for 15,000and in the end sold 22,000tickets. Rain was a veryreal threat; even the nightbefore, forecasters werepredicting showers. Theability to scale up, orscale down, an event thissize due to changingweather is not easy,particularly for volunteerswhod never done thiskind of thing before. With the air displaysscheduled to start atnoon, my kids and I hadplanned to arrive by 11am. Once we hit a line ofcars backed up from the

Manitobas Aerial ShowWas Not to Be Missed

site, it took another twohours to get in and thenanother half an hourwaiting in line at the porta-potties to get rid of theextra-large Tims I drankon the trip. I can certainlyunderstand the publicsfrustration; at times, myleg cramped up from ridingthe brake in the backed-uptraffic. But in the end, itwas worth it. We did get to see theSkyhawks parachute teamthat opened the show, andthe search and rescueplane following that. Butwe watched from thehighway, as we were stillwaiting to get in. Our plan was to eatlunch at the food trucks,but the line-ups were solong we waited until afterthe show was over. It wasa good thing wed had abig breakfast. People whobrought their own lunchesmade the right call. I thought the generallocation was excellent,with lots of room forparking, even if it was a bitmuddy. With everyonespread out on a big grassfield, we had lots of roomto enjoy the show. The

P.A. system was loudenough that the publiccould hear announcersand the backgroundmusic. Ground displays wereinteresting; with all sortsof planes, classic carsand some militaryequipment, you could getup close to. Even theplanes in the show wereparked in a good spot forviewing. They were ropedoff but you could still geta good look at them. We were entertained bylots of great flyingdemonstrations, every-thing from small stuntplanes to vintage war-birds to some niftyremote control planes,and even an air cadetsglider demonstration. But the highlights ofthe day were the CF-18Hornet and the Snow-birds. The Hornet is not anew plane but it sure isloud, fast and impressiveto watch in action.Likewise, the Snowbirdshave to be seen in personto be really appreciated.The tightness of theirformations and theprecision with which they

fly is really amazing. Its acombination of disciplineand craziness that youjust dont see every day.After they were done, theSkyhawks went back upagain for an encoreperformance for anyonewho had missed themearlier in the day. We also shouldntforget how inexpensivethe tickets were; $20 foradults if you bought themahead of time, $25 at the

gate; for youths it was a$10 early price and $15 atthe gate; kids under 12were free. Thats a bargainfor a whole afternoonsworth of entertainment. Sure, they could havehad more food trucks,more porta-potties andsome better trafficmanagement. But it wasstill a great show to see. Itwould be nice if we couldhave one of these on aregular basis. Its obvious

from the turn-out that thedemand is there. Itwouldnt surprise me ifthat would still be thecase even if they doubledthe ticket prices. The massive traffic jamseems to have disheart-ened the shows volun-teer organizers, who did aterrific job. I hope theylearn from this experienceand decide to put onanother air show, realsoon.

I saw a cartoon recently that showed an oil companyexecutive at the Department of Motor Vehicles asking ifthis was the place to buy a social license. If only it actuallyworked that way. What is social license anyways? Generally speaking, itis the acceptance by society of a particular industry orindustry practice. The issue is becoming increasingly im-portant to agriculture because more and more consumers especially consumers in wealthy developed countries arebecoming concerned about the origins of their stuff. Didthat beautiful coat once belong to a seal? One hundredyears ago, that answer would not have mattered, but todayit does. And the answer has meant the end of an industrythat has been part of the Canadian landscape longer thanthe life of the nation itself. This might not be all that difficult to address if the thingsthat drive the evolution of societys norms were rationaland based on careful thought. However, many times thefad of the day is not based on fact or rationality and insome cases, those who profit drive fads from misinforma-tion. This brings up the first difficult task of farmers and theirpartners in the value chain. How do we differentiate be-tween long-term consumer trends and misplaced fads thatwill be gone in a year or two? We should adapt to the firstand try to correct the second. But how do we know thedifference?

Social License Where Do I Buy One? For example, for the vast majority of people who do notsuffer the pain of celiac disease, the gluten free fad is notbased on science or rationality. Unfortunately, this fadhas had an impact on sales of bread and other cerealsproducts, but we are seeing evidence that this food-fad isstarting to fade. The cereals sector has responded throughthe provision of rational, evidence based informationthrough organizations like the Healthy Grains Institute.While we likely can learn to be more effective in respond-ing, this is the right approach. Some things, however, go beyond short-term fads andare long-term consumer trends. These long-term trendsbecome part of our social license. This is clearly evidencedby consumer demands that are driving animal welfare prac-tices. The grain industry is not isolated and we do need to payattention to the question, Where does my food comefrom and how is it produced? If we do not correctly re-spond to genuine trends, we might find ourselves on thewrong end of a major marketing campaign. I do not wantbread on Canadian shelves made from Australian wheatbecause they allow the baker to make a sustainability claimand we dont. As an industry, we also need to recognize that not allcustomers are the same. Our industry needs to be flexibleenough to respond to the trend driven market signals ofsome customers, like those in North America or Europe,while keeping our price sensitive customers at the table. The sustainability file is one of these long-term trendsthat the grains industry needs to address head on. Thereare about a million definitions of sustainability. For methe simplest definition is treating the land and water weuse for agriculture in a way that ensures it will be produc-tive for generations to come. I dont know of any farmerwho would disagree with this objective.

Responding in a meaningful and reasonable way to thegrowing number of consumers who are asking the ques-tion where does my food come from is the reason whythe Round Table for Sustainable Crops (CRSC) has beencreated. We also want to ensure that producers are not saddledwith a different approach for every crop they grow. Thatwould not be cost effective. We need to have one programthat is an umbrella for all crops grown on a farm. The RoundTable is aiming to facilitate sustainability assessment us-ing broad regional measurements rather than always goingdown to the farm level. In this way the CRSC will provide the tools necessary totell the very good Canadian story on sustainability withoutunreasonably driving up the costs to farmers and everyother player in the handling and processing system. If we as an industry (my definition of industry alwaysincludes farmers) do not develop our own approach to so-cial license that works both for us and the customer thenwe will have something imposed on us. An approach im-posed from outside will certainly not consider the needs ofCanadian agriculture and it will almost certainly not be con-sidered cost effective. Farmers play a vital role in the development of a Canadianapproach to social license. Get in touch with your provin-cial association to see how they are contributing to thiseffort. Get informed about the progress being made. Getinvolved you will make a difference. Modern Canadian agriculture has a good sustainabilitystory to tell. The CRSC will help farmers and their partnerstell that story to our customers, here at home as well asaround the world, in a way that does not place unneces-sary burdens of paperwork and red tape on producers. Cam Dahl is President of Cereals Canada.


By Joan Airey

The first mobile practice in Manitoba was started by Dr.Keri Reykdal Hudson. Hudson works in the Interlake anddoes a lot of spay/neuter clinics and some remote clinicsas well. Dr. Keri Reykdal Hudson was a classmate of mine inSaskatoon and inspired me to have a mobile practice. Shecomes to the dog shows in Brandon and often does hip x-rays for the dog show crowd. Her rig can be seen aroundthe Keystone when shows are on, said Liana Mawer DVM. Liana Mawer always had a love of animals growing up onthe farm. She had a pet rooster, calves, cats, dogs andhorses. When she graduated from high school, she wentto secretarial school and moved to Calgary to work as anexecutive secretary for the directors at Canadian Airlines. After working as a secretary for a few years I realized Ididnt want to be a secretary forever and since I was in themarketing department I took some marketing courses butthey werent interesting to me. Living in the city, I reallymissed animals so I decided to go back to school and be-came a vet. I took Biological Sciences at the University ofCalgary and this allowed me to get the courses I needed toapply for vet school. When I was in my third year, I appliedto Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon

Petmobile Vet Clinics Popular in Manitoba

Judy Suttie a registered animal technician calms Sam a goldenretriever for Dr. Liana Mawer DVM (standing) before they takea blood sample in her mobile clinic.

Photos by Joan Airey

and was accepted. I graduated in 2000, said Liana Mawer. For five years, Mawer worked in a mixed practice atMinnedosa then two years for the government. Whileworking for the government she missed the hands on workwith the animals. I went back to private practice filling in at various prac-tices in Brandon working with small animals. Focusing onmore training in behavioural medicine for cats and dogsand started doing behaviour work as well. I really wantedto start my own business where I could incorporatebehaviour/low stress handling into my work. Last June Istarted the Petmobile Vet practice in the Brandon area. Ibelieve we are the only clinic in Manitoba certified in lowstress handling. We try to use gentle behaviour techniqueswith stressed pets or sedation rather than holding them

Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler made a pre-sentation to the Senate Standing Committee on Agricul-ture and Forestry on June 7, providing Manitobas per-spective on international market access priorities and mak-ing recommendations. Eichler appeared in front of the committee via teleconfer-ence. The Senate standing committee has been formallyhearing from stakeholders and government officials on in-ternational market access priorities for the Canadian agri-cultural and agri-food sector since Feb. 4. The presentation by Eichler to the committee included anoverview of Manitobas strengths in agri-food exports, con-cerns about international market access, and recommenda-tions on policy, investment and regulations related to agri-cultural export and trade. As part of the presentation, Eichler reinforced Manitobassupport for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement forthe purpose of expanded export opportunities and protec-tion of jobs.

Petmobile Vet Clinic meets a client at the Keystone Centre.

down and worsening their fear, said Mawer. Currently Mawer holds clinics in Rivers for vaccinationstwice a year. Most of her work is in Brandon, Shilo andWawanesa area. To promote vaccines and care for petsthat may or may not receive care otherwise or simply forclients that find it convenient. The clinic fees are greatlyreduced over my regular fees and I dont charge a housecall fee. We can do blood work, thyroid tests, heartwormtests, lyme tests, and feline leukemia testing. We do spay/neuter of cats and dogs less than 20 kg due to size restric-tions in the surgery suite. We dont have an x-ray machine,as it is too costly for start-up. So lame pets or those requir-ing long-term hospitalization or critical care we refer to theBrandon clinics. Due to time constraints we try to stick tobasics for the vaccine clinics, said Mawer. Petmobile Vet Clinic can be found on Facebook and has awebsite at petmobilevetclinic.com. The website containslots of interesting behaviour articles for pet owners.

MB Ag Minister SpeaksMB Ag Minister SpeaksMB Ag Minister SpeaksMB Ag Minister SpeaksMB Ag Minister Speaksto Senate Committeeto Senate Committeeto Senate Committeeto Senate Committeeto Senate Committee


The other week, I was driving in southern Manitobaand saw a group of dairy cattle grazing tall lush pasture.The grass was up to their bellies and I thought, Whenwas the last time that our pastures looked so good? Thenext field had cut-down hay in wide swaths that lookedrained-on and bleached. My heart sank. Thats because rainy weather in the last couple ofmonths has made harvesting good quality dairy hay,nearly impossible. While rained-on hay like in the fieldthat I drove past may not replace high quality hay in awell-balanced dairy diet, we should acknowledge suchdamage. Therefore, effective actions can be taken tominimize its negative effects upon any kind of dairyperformance. Its no secret that rain damage on hay starts immedi-ately after the first raindrop hits cut-down field grass andevery minute afterwards, that passes until swaths can bedried down to under 15% moisture and harvested intobales. For example, the University of Wisconsin demon-strated that field plots of alfalfa hay lost 22% of their drymatter content after a 2.5 cm (1 inch) rainfall fell on it afterone day, while cured hay without any rain damage lostabout 6% dry matter. The researchers also found thatrained-on hay lost 44% of its dry matter content afterpersistent rains lasted a few more days. In addition to such research of dry matter field losses,here are three more fundamental problems feeding rained-on hay to dairy cows:1. Loss of dairy nutrients - Similar to field losses of rained-on hay, there is aleaching of water- soluble carbohydrates, which are agood source of energy for lactating dairy cattle as well asa significant loss of soluble protein stored in its leaves.Not only is rain-on hay less nutritious, it tends to filldairy cattle up quickly with indigestible fibre, which isfermented slowly by their ruminal microbes. As a result,what energy and protein is leftover in damaged hay oftencannot support even the lowest dietary nutrient require-ments of lactating without some type of nutrient supple-ments.

Rain is Bad for Harvesting Good Quality Dairy Hay2. Mold growth - If hay is harvested at moistures above 20 - 25%, itbecomes an environment for dangerous mold growth. Ihave seen many times in my travels, the leaves andstems of tough hay covered with white mold. Somepractical field trials with white and other hay molds haveproven that cattle will eat most hay with about 1 2%storage mold without any problem. However, feed haywith over 10% mold contamination and they will likelyreject it or slow down consumption if they have no otherforage choice. Even unpalatable moldy bales are not rejected by dairycattle; there is a fair amount of essential nutrients (inaddition to field nutrient losses) that are naturallyconsumed by mold organisms. It is estimated that anestablished mold in damp hay reduces its energycontent up to 15 20% that could have been eatenotherwise in a mold-free state by lactating dairy cowsand help contribute to milk production.3. Caramelized hay - Mold growth produces a lot of heat, which not onlydenatures essential nutrients such as forage protein, butreduces overall nutrient digestibility of the hay. Thisprocess is known as the Browning reaction. It occurswhen internal temperatures of poorly cured hay reaches60 C (140 F), which binds heated forages carbohy-drates and proteins together, and thus renders asignificant amount of dietary protein unavailable to dairycattle. In order to measure the extent of protein damageby caramelization; producers should take rained-onforage samples and request an ADIN (Acid DetergentInsoluble Nitrogen) analysis at a feed-testing laboratory. Subsequently, what can dairy producers do tominimize the adverse effects of such rained-on hayupon milk production in their herds? Here are a fewsuggestions:- Consider using hay preservatives such as propionicacid sprayed on to cut-down forages. While propionic

acid will not stop field losses, it can reduce dry downtime and hay can be harvested at higher moisture.- Reduce the amount of poor quality forages fed to dairycows and compliment with more silage or better qualityhay. Avoid feeding extra grain to compromise poorquality forages.- Consider using forage extenders such as beet pulp toadd dietary energy and digestible fibre back into thedairy diet.- Save it for the non-lactating cows. I am only advocatingthe feeding of rained-on hay that is mold-free. Since, thishay is more fibrous and contains less energy; it mayhave a place in faraway dry cow diets.- Some producers have switched to round baled haysilage, where cut forage is harvested at 50 60 moisturecompared to 18% moisture in cured dry hay. Studies onbaled hay silage show significant reduction in compara-tive field and nutrient losses. Like cured hay, it workswell with other dairy feeds such as corn silage to achievehigh milk performance in lactating dairy cows.- Invest in an outside forage source, if available. It maybe economical feasible to buy better quality dry hay tosupport milk production than to rely on nutrient-compromised hay. Nobody can stop the rain for good haying weather.However, we should recognize the bad effects of rainupon cured hay quality, and consider one of the aboverecommendations to deal with rained- on hay when ithappens.


By Les Kletke

Ben Peters likes feeding silage. I like what it does for the cows, but I also like whatit does for me, he said. It takes a lot of the pressure off of putting up quality feed. Ican get good quality feed for my cows and know that I only need a narrow window toget it put up. Peters acknowledged that he did get some strange looks when he made the switch tosilage for his beef herd; it was not a widely accepted practice in the Interlake area. Wewere used to grazing the cows in summer and putting up hay for the winter, he said.The quality of hay was not that great a concern and the management practice was tofeed a maintenance ration of poor hay until the cows were later in their pregnancy. Peters said he took the approach that his cows were his most valuable asset andprovided him with a marketable product. I wanted to get the most I could for mycalves, he said. I could do that by having a group of high quality calves ready at thesame time. I could only do that by having my cows in better shape, and having themcalve in a tighter window, and give me a bigger more vigorous calf. He made the switch to silage with minimal costs. We started with a pile of silage andcovered it, he said. I had it custom chopped the first year as a trial to see how itwould fit into my system without investing in the equipment myself. He has since made the switch to his own equipment again paying attention to hiscosts. Sure, I would like newer bigger equipment, but that was not in the budget, wehad to catch up on the bills from the last couple of years, said Peters. Now we havea bit of breathing room but not enough to get silly. Peters had but up a quantity of feed by mid-June and expects that he should haveadequate feed for his herd this year. That is one of the benefits of silage, I know thatI have a better chance of putting up feed without watching the weather, and I knowthat my cows like it. It also gives me the calves that the market wants.

By Les Kletke

Manjit Minhas had just finished tellingthe audience how she and her brotherhave built an empire from their $10,000 sav-ing account and opened the floor for ques-tions when the challenge came. Youshould try farming, you would find thatyou cant do it without borrowingmoney, said a member of the audience. Minhas answered the question sayingthat their company bought 100% of itsmalt from Saskatchewan and the companyhad followed the path of vertical integra-tion, from brewing and distilling to thepoint of owning a glass company thatsupplied the bottles for their product. The Alberta entrepreneur is known asthe Beer Baroness for her appearance onthe Dragons Den and attracted the larg-est crowd to the three days of presenta-tions held in conjunction with the FarmProgress Show. She outlined how afterbeing turned down by a bank for a start-up loan she and he brother had turnedtheir $10,000 savings into a distilling andbrewing empire. She closed her presentation with 5 pointsthat she said would apply to any busi-ness. Find a mentor or mentors, she said.Someone who knows the business andwill take you under their wing. Realize lifeis not fair, you get what you can negotiatenot what you deserve. Minhas had explained how her firm hadtried to break into the beer market inOntario and had been stoned walled bythe existing large breweries. Two foreignfirms own the beer stores in Ontario andthe regulations say that they must carryother companys beer but the conditionsthey put on it are almost impossible. Whenwe met those conditions, they came upwith something else to keep us out of thatmarket. Monopolies and duopolies are

But Can this Dragon Farm?

Minjit Minhas says the key to a successfulbusiness in not borrowing money, and verticalintegration. Photo by Les Kletke

alive and well in Canada. Spend what you can make and no more,she said. Minhas apologized to the bankersin the audience and FCC her sponsor for thecomment but stayed true to her convictionthat borrowing money was not a good busi-ness practice. She had earlier told the audi-ence how when she wanted to enter the spiritbusiness she had developed a business planand taken it to a bank only to be told, Thatis a good plan and we would be happy toloan you the money if your father comes inand co-signs your loan. I was too stubborn to ask my Dad to dothat, she said. So my brother and I pooledour savings and started the company. I had$10,000, he had zero so together we had$10,000.Her final recommendation was to find a pas-sion and pursue it. My parents used to sayfind a job you love and you wont have towork a day in your life, said Minas. I usedto think it silly but now I live it. She ended her presentation with a com-ment that the farm audience understood.There is no elevator to the top, take thestairs to success, she said.

There is no elevatorto the top, take thestairs to success.

Silage Pays Off forInterlake Beef Farmer


By Peter Vitti

Beef cows cannot livewithout minerals and vita-mins, which are often defi-cient or biologically un-available in many pastures.So, I routinely recommendthat cattle producers feedenough well-formulatedloose cattle mineral to theircowherds on a regular ba-sis. Interestingly, I find thatmost people will take thistime in choosing a commer-cial beef mineral thats for-mulated to meet their cowsrespective seasonal needs,but some of the samepeople do not feed it, right. Either, they put it out onpasture and forget about itand/or dont use a propermineral feeder. Both failuresare roadblocks to goodcattle mineral intake. There-fore, I believe that whenpeople purchase cattle min-eral, they should calculatethe right amount of mineralto be fed, poured in a cleandurable mineral feeder andmonitor/adjust mineral in-take; all-encompassing as-surance that the wholecowherd is actually con-suming enough each day. Consequently, I use astandard recommendationthat targets 80 - 100gr (3 -3.5 oz.) of cattle mineral per

The Importance of Good Beef Cattle Mineral Intakeday to prevent any mineraland vitamin deficienciesfrom occurring in the firstplace and account for somenatural variability. If saltmakes up at least 25% ofthe cattle mineral, then oneshould adjust proposedmineral use accordingly. For example, a 200 cow-calf operator puts out loosemineral every 3 days; wecan figure out the numberof bags that are needed byusing the following calcu-lations:1. 200 cows x 100 gr = 2000gr or 20 kg2. 20 x 3 days = 60 kg.3. Each bag = 25 kg.4. Need 60/25 = 2 bags.5. Put out 3 x 25 kg bags. It is also recommendedthat mineral feeders shouldbe located where cattle willmake frequent visits. Mov-ing mineral stations closerto water sources generallyincreases mineral intake bycows, while moving feed-ers farther back from thewater will often decreasemineral intake. It is alwaysa good idea to have enoughmineral feeders for thewhole herd; one standardrecommendation is onefeeding station for every 30 40 cows. Good mineral feedersshould be easily accessible

to all cows, but protect min-eral from the effects of wa-ter, wind, sunshine and thecows, themselves. I will bethe first to admit that I amnot a fan of wooden boxes,oil drums cut in half, bar-rels hanging from trees, in-verted tractor-tires andeven concrete or belt feedbunks to feed mineral tocattle. Years ago, I knew acow-calf operator that had100 beef cows and fedcattle mineral in one plasticchildrens swimming pool.All went well until a cowput her foot through it. There are literarily dozensof brands of mineral feed-ers available, which con-tribute to the good mineralnutrition of beef cows.Here are the three commontypes of mineral feeders

that I often see on my trav-els from pasture to pasture:1. Three-compartmentground feeder - Durableheavy-duty plastic feederwith a fixed metal bar in thecenter to secure a weather-proof rubber flap. There arenotches molded into thebase for security feeder toa truck tire (keeps feederout of water and mud).Two bags of mineral andone bag of salt can bepoured into the separatecompartments. The metalbar may become loose overtime, but can be replacedby a - bolt. Rubberflap can be replaced easilywhen torn. I have seen min-

eral feeders of this type witha wick that is attached to arubber flap that can befilled with insecticide.2. Molded-barrel groundfeeder Basically a durableplastic barrel with a largehole cut into its side, so acow can get her head in-side to eat the mineral. A 22- 24 tire can be easilyslipped over it to stabilizeit. Its a simple one-piecefeeder that effectively pro-tects the mineral fromweather. It holds 2 bags ofmineral. I know of a 150cow-operator that prefersthis type, because he likesto see growing springcalves get their first tasteof mineral from them.3. Weather-vane mineralfeeder One of the firsttypes of mineral feedersthat I saw appearing onpastures, decades ago. Itprotects cattle mineral fromwind, rain and keeps min-eral off the ground. How-ever, they tend to tip overin strong wind, and arerust-prone. These feedersare not particularly durable,particularly when cattlewant to abuse them, but

there are some especiallybull -proof. Regardless of above min-eral feeder choices, someproducers might find thatmineral consumption bybeef cows is often lower orhigher amounts than origi-nally calculated (seeabove). Such deviation isdue to several interdepen-dent factors such as watersource/consumption, pas-ture quality, inclementweather and the body con-dition and health of thecowherd. One timelesstechnique to adjust mineralintake by beef cows is tomix salt with the purchasedmineral. It is common to mix1/3 salt with 2/3 mineral andfeed it. Getting healthy cows toeat this right amount ofcattle mineral will help themmeet essential mineral andvitamin requirements atany stage of their produc-tion. Success of such min-eral consumption buildsmineral status and I believethat as a beef nutritionistthis is always essential fora viable and profitable cow-calf operation.

By Les Kletke

Kelly Anderson is in thetransportation business.He buys organic grains andsells fertilizer and while thetwo seem unrelated, evenat odds with each other,they fit well together in hisbusiness. Sunrise Foods Interna-tional is a Saskatoon basedbusiness that buys lentils,durum wheat, soft wheatand oats. We are well es-tablished in Saskatchewanand moving in toManitoba, said Anderson.We have been in the or-ganic grains for a while andhave expanded into thenon-organics. The company has ties toa processing facility in Ne-braska that specializes inorganic grains. The plantthere processes corn andsoybeans, he said. It pro-vides organic feed to alarger area in the US. Anderson acknowledgedthat organic productiondoes have a yield lag insome crops and said thepremium in price more thanmakes up for it in mostcases. He said his companypays a premium of 2 to 4times the price for organicproduction over conven-tional. He offers no judge-ment on the health issuesor use of the commodity.

Sunrise Foods Expands by Gettinginto the Business of Transportation

Kelly Anderson is in the transportation business, grain out...fertilizer in. Photo by Les Kletke

His business is to bringproducer and users to-gether. That is what has allowedhis expansion into the fer-tilizer business. We hadconnections in the trans-portation business andthat introduced us to someopportunities in the fertil-izer business. So we beganimporting bulk fertilizer. He has no intention ofbecoming a full line farminput dealer. He brings inprimarily phosphate fertil-izer and has them deliveredto farms that have storagespace. Typically we canprovide a fertilizer at 60-80dollars a tonne under whatit might be from a full ser-vice retailer, said Ander-son, If the farmer can storeit or use it immediately hecan realize the savingsfrom us being able to buy

right and take advantage ofthe transportation connec-tions we have. Anderson said that whilehis business has grown inrecent years with changesin the Canadian grain mar-keting system he is alsoseeing a change in the sizeof farmers he is dealingwith. We used to see or-ganic producers as smalleroperations, he said. Wenow have some large scaleoperations that seed theprice advantage in organicproduction and are verysophisticated operationsthat are driven by the busi-ness side rather than theirbeliefs. Anderson also sees highyielding soft wheat becomea larger part of the produc-tion throughout Manitobaand Saskatchewan.


By Les Kletke

Glen Haley knows the potential for a bumper crop is gone for this year. We are not in next year country, yet, he saidphilosophically. We still have the potential for a good crop but it will not be a bumper. You know that when the low spotsare gone in June and we might lose the high spots in August. Haley farms at Souris and has gradually switched his acres to a higher portion of soybeans. We used to growsunflowers because of the potential in dry years, he said. That is gone now, the last couple of years have been wetterthat we have seen for decades before, so we have moved them out of the rotation and increased our soybean acres. He started slowly with the crop that is now moving into the corner stone of his farm. We found that soybeans will giveus a crop through most conditions and this year with the wet coming early we know there is still potential, he said. Hailey avoided the temptation to seed lentils a crop that has seen a dramatic increase in Manitoba acres. There are a lotmore lentil acres this year, he said. They had almost dropped to zero. Now the price is up and guys went back to them.We used to grow lentils. He said they would not have withstood the wet conditions his farm has experienced this spring. We know they wouldhave been done. They dont like wet feet and so much of our land has had water on it this year. While the spring has been unusually wet, he was able to get his crop seeded in good time and he thought soil conditionswere ideal heading into and during seeding. Then the rains started. Now we are wet but that holds no guarantee for therest of the season. We have seen that before where the tap turns off and it can get to dry in August and we lose the cropon the higher spots, he said. Haley thinks that at this point he has not lost a lot of crop but rather has seen the potential of his crop decreasing. He isalready thinking about next year, though he has not given up yet. We are considering planting some winter wheat this fall,if conditions are right. It has been wet before and then gets to dry. There is no use in putting the crop into dust and thathas been a concern in the past.

By Joan Airey

Shannon Lawlor a Manitobaborn artist is the first Canadianto be featured on the HamptonClassic Horse Show Poster inBridgehampton NY. HamptonClassic posters become collec-tors items and are the hottestselling item at the show. Lawlorartwork Flexible Soul is a paint-ing of Flexible the mount of USOlympic veteran Rich Fellers. I was displaying my artworkat the Masters Tournament atThunderbird Show Park in Lan-gley, B.C. last year when I cameacross Flexible and Fillers, the2012 FEI World Cup Champions.Just before they entered the showring and I captured a photographof Flexible. My vision was to doa close-up, rather an intense por-trait reflecting the soul of thejumping horse. Flexible capturedthe essence of everything I waslooking for in a portrait. He wassoulfully engaged in distant ac-tivity, inviting the viewer into thewonder of what might be. I didthe original portrait Flexible Soulin acrylic on Baltic birch. saidLawlor. Lawlor grew up in Kenton,Manitoba and before she couldwalk was riding horses. She hasbeen involved in many facets ofthe equine and agriculture indus-try her entire life. A decade ago

First Canadian Equestrian ArtistFeatured on Hampton Poster

she decided to focus her life on her artwork and is a well-known CanadianEquestrian Artist. Its an absolute honour to be selected as the Hampton Classic HorseShow poster artist. Its really a big deal for me. There are a lot of strong artistsout there with amazing talent and Im thrilled, yet humbled too at the sametime, that my piece was chosen out of so many applicants. This will be myfirst trip to the Hampton Classic, said Lawlor. Hampton Classic hosts more than a hundred classes of competition forhorses and riders, showcasing the highest levels of equestrian show jump-ing in six rings on Long Island. It features a Boutique Garden with more thanseventy vendors on immaculate sixty-acre show grounds. Lawlor is also collaborating for the first time with well known Vancouverfashion designer Noel Asmar to make available to the public an equestrianlimited edition linen tee featuring two of Lawlors paintings Casey andBreeze. The tees will be marketed through Lawlors and Noel Asmar Equestrianwebsites. They will be available the end of June.

No Bumper this Year, Maybe Next Year

By Harry Siemens

When the Froese Brothersof Reinfeld, Jack, John, andAlan, started growing edibledry beans in 1979, little didthe Manitoba farmers realizethe size this industry wouldbecome. In 1998, there were predic-tions that Manitoba would bethe edible bean capital ofCanada with a projected100,000 acres planted by farm-ers, many who would plantthe crop for first time. Thatyear, Ontario growers, whogrew most of the edible beanswere changing to soybeansand acreage dropped to under70,000. Froese grew at least 2,500acres of edible beans in 1998.Today the dry bean acres inManitoba have jumped to200,000 for some years de-pending on the markets andprice. On the average, theprovince has 100,000 acresplanted depending on theweather. To help promote the sector,drybeanworld.com, ownedand operated by AlvinKlassen of Winkler will belaunched this year on June 30.We will profile regions inNorth America representingapproximately 75 percent ofdry bean production in 2016,roughly 1.2 million acres, saidKlassen. Our goal is to pro-vide producers with accurateproduction information to as-sist in your marketing andgrowing decisions of dry ed-ible beans. Regions will be vis-ited during the growing sea-son, once in late July and againnear harvest. We will includepictures, videos, interviews,descriptions as well as sup-ply you with a variety of pro-duction and marketing re-sources. Starting July 31, 2016, thewebsite will include a real timeweather feature, which willlead to an application provid-ing alerts for heavy rainfall,frost, strong winds, and ex-tensive drought conditions onyour smart phone. Thiswebsite includes informationfrom growers in Ontario,Manitoba, Alberta, Michigan,Minnesota, North Dakota andNebraska. Your support willprovide the resources to ex-pand into other global regions.Give us a call to find out howyou can become a part of Dry

A New Business Toolfor Dry Bean Growers

Bean World Inc., said Klassen. He said the idea came fromhis own struggle to find infor-mation for his crop. Ive beenworking with edible beans forthe past 14 years in Manitoba,North Dakota and a little inSaskatchewan, he said. Onecommon thread of informationthat growers always seem tonot get enough of, is how thecrop is doing in other areas.We would often try to find thatinformation via the Internet,or go on a crop tour ourselves,look at the crop, and relay thatinformation to growers. It isvery difficult to find any realaccurate information on theedible bean crop, because it issuch a small industry. Klassen said it is importantfor growers to know how thecrop is developing andwhether there is any troublewith production in other re-gions because this will influ-ence their decisions to marketthe beans and whether theyshould wait for a better op-portunity. And to make de-cisions based on how manyacres of what type of beansare grown in certain regions.Also, help influence their de-cisions on what they decideto plant next year. Andwhether they decide to con-tract beans or to grow with-out contracts. Advance membership feesright now are $1,500, whichcan be paid at $125 a monthfor a 12-month membership.He arrived at the $1,500 mem-bership mark after some grow-ers said it is too expensive andothers said it is almost toocheap. Once the website ac-tually goes live, our intentionis because I actually have toset up Visa accounts, and soforth, get the staff in placethen the fee goes up to $1,800Canadian, he added.

Alvin Klassen of Winklerwho will launch his newwebsite on June 30, calledDrybeanworld.com.


There is property on yourfarm that you may not havethought to insure. TheThreshed Grain Floater isan important coverage whenyou consider this is whatyou worked all year to pro-duce. Each bin or truckloadrepresents thousands ofdollars of investment andcan be insured adequately.It is your cash flow, the life-blood of the farm. Thisneeds to be considered care-fully. When placing coverage on

Insuring Your GrainProtects Your Investment

your grain, you insure to themaximum value that you haveon hand at any one time. Thepremium charged takes intoconsideration the fact that thismaximum amount is typicallyfor a very short time each year. Threshed Grain Floaters dovary greatly between differ-ent companies. For example,some companies provide theftcoverage while located on avacant yard to the full limitamount while others only pro-vide up to 10% of your totallimit and others do not cover

theft at all. These points mayor may not be important inyour situation but it is a gooddiscussion point. Theft coverage is the mainconcern but also important iscoverage for collision, fire andwind.You could consider only in-suring the grain that is in yourgrain dryer and adjacent cool-ing bin. We mention this be-cause embers do travel fromthe dryer into the cooling bin,

which has a good oxygensource provided by the aera-tion fan. Some examples of claimswe have seen are theft from avacant yard, fire in a graindryer and cooling bin, fire ina truck and combine. An oddone, fire in a very typical flatbottom bin with full flooraeration and unloading tube. Be sure to seek advice andpurchase insurance fromthose who understand yourbusiness!

Andy Anderson is an Associate Insurance Broker specializing in General, Life and Group Benefitsfor Farm, Commercial/Agri-business P 204-746-5589, F 866-765-3351,[email protected] / rempelinsurance.com / valleyfinancial.ca.

New RulesComing for

Fabric CoveredBuildings

By Les Kletke

Peter Reimer said there are changes coming to the na-tional building code that will mean big changes for thefabric covered building industry. Reimer, from Winnipeg, is the Dealer Development Man-ager with Calhoun, one of the countrys largest manufac-turers of fabric-covered buildings. We are going to seechanges in the national building code that will mean bigchanges in our industry, said Reimer. The code will re-quire that buildings withstand the weather events of 1 in ahundred years instead of the current 1 in 50. For the new owner of a fabric-covered building this meanshigher standards and most likely higher prices. The build-ings are going to have to be engineered to withstand muchmore extreme conditions, said Reimer. That means thatsome manufactures will have to upgrade their buildings.Our industry is one that has been driven by price andbuilders have done things to keep their price down. He stops short of saying there are some fly by nightoperators who work on providing a low cost building withlittle support after the structure is erected. Reimer is notsure if the new codes will drive them from business. Cer-tainly not, it is driven by price and those manufactures willalways have a place, there is a demand for low cost build-ings and there are builders who do not have any aspect oftheir building engineered. They erect it and move on to thenext one, they do not have any idea of what kind of condi-tions it could withstand. Some customers are okay withthat kind of building. He expects the new rules to further separate the industry.Some firms that build according to engineered specifica-tions will do well, he said. This will meet the new regula-tions and provide the buildings that long term customerswant. He said his firm is concentrating on the next generationof fabric buildings, which will be insulated. We are seeingpeople ask about insulating the building and using it for amanufacturing facility, said Reimer. He said interest in fabric buildings has always been good.It the fabric is tight, it can last 20 years and be replaced ina day, he said. That is attractive to a manufacturer be-cause of the small amount of down time. He said the clearspan of the building also makes it attractive. Our com-pany is working on a building that is 1,000 ft. long and 175feet wide with no internal supports, that gives the owner alot of options inside the building.

Peter Reimer, Tim Nash, and Larry Whitehead expect anincrease in fabric covered building as the structures becomeinsulated. Photo by Les Kletke

Our company is working on abuilding that is 1,000 ft. long and

175 feet wide with no internalsupports, that gives the owner a

lot of options inside the building.


By Harry Siemens

The Smith farm at Argylehas been in the family since1953. Originally, a dairyfarm, the Smiths began rais-ing pigs on their quartersection in 1967. During the80s and 90s, as pork, pro-duction became concen-trated in huge hog barnsacross Manitoba and therest of North America, theSmith farm stayed small,mixed, humane and envi-ronmentally friendly. Today the farm is hometo about 250 to 300 pigs, 8cows, 80 chickens andhorses. Ian Smith who took overfrom his parents, said hisquarter section farm is trulya mixed farm, maybe the lastone left in Manitoba, nooff-farm income, no pen-sions, but where life isgood. On this farm youwill not find the animalsconfined in 2 foot by 7 footstalls, nor will you find pigsliving on straw-less, slattedmetal or concrete floorsabove a pool of their ownwaste which is how mostlarge hog operations arethese days, said Smith.We grow our own barleywith green clover and as aresult you get a wholesomefeed, a richer soil and acleaner environment whichin turn produces naturalpork, a healthier meat prod-uct. Since 1999, the Smith farmhas held a Canadian Qual-ity Assurance Certification(CQA). To meet the CQArequirements, a veterinar-ian comes out every thirdyear followed by 2 years ofthe farm submitting pro-duction records to the Vet.If the CQA Vet recommendsCQA validation, he sendsthe paperwork to theManitoba Pork Council forapproval. Smith started selling sidesof pork in the fall of 2003.In early 2004, he had thefarm inspected, passingcertification by theWinnipeg Humane Society.

Success for a Truly Mixed Farm

Ian Smith raises about 250 to 300 feeder pigs from his 25sows selling through two local stores and direct to theconsumers.

I am proud to be produc-ing the most consistent,highest quality naturalpork in the industry, saidSmith. To be honest, therewas nothing the HumaneSociety could find that Ihad to change because itwas the old fashioned way.They understood I had touse farrowing crates andexplained to them that thepurpose of the farrowingcrates was to not crush thelittle pigs. They had tochange their thought pat-tern and realizing the needfor those crates. I donthave stalls for the sow; theyare outside with theboars. He now uses A.I. breed-ing even though he still hasboars. The A.I. has helpedby improving the geneticsand increasing my litter size,meaning Im selling morepigs from the same numberof sows. Smith describes his three-field rotation on his quar-ter section farm. He hasthree fields for canola, bar-ley and summer-fallow, twoare 45-acres and one is a55-acre field. The summer-fallow field goes into canola

the following year, and thecanola field this year be-comes barley the next year. He uses solid manure, anddoes not use a pit system.They clean out the straw-based barns twice a daytaking the manure to thefield every day and worksit into the soil when prepar-ing it for seeding the fol-lowing spring. My fertil-izer bill is virtually nothingfor the canola field becauseI put nitrogen back in andcanola takes lots of nitro-gen, said Smith. But ofcourse Im losing a crop onthe fallow each year; itworks for me because it isthe area I put my manureon every day. The system works forhim. He has theneighbouring New HavenColony swath and com-bines his canola, hauling itto the elevator the sameday, selling it the next, andnever puts any into his ownstorage. I dont even seedit because I cultivate thefield I want my canola togo on, the fertilizer com-pany comes in and broad-casts the seed, puts on thefertilizer, I harrow it twiceand its ready to go, saidSmith. With his barley, heworks the field, the samecompany adds the fertilizer,and then seeds it with hisown press drill. The chickens, about 80laying hens, one customertakes 40 dozen a week if hehas them and at $2.75 adozen, it gives him somegrocery money that helpsout but the pigs are hismain income. He started selling onlinepicking up the idea fromanother beef producer sell-ing beef online when theBSE hit the cattle industry

back in 2003. Now, Smithhas over 800 customerslisted in his binder. Al-though some have died,but it is safe to say he hasabout 300 customers thatregularly buy from him. Hesells to two stores,Cramptons Market inWinnipeg, and Good and

Natural, a health food storein Steinbach. They are theonly outlets besides sellingdirectly to individuals. He works with about 25sows, and sells about 250 -300 finished pigs a year.What he does not sell pri-vately, he sells to MapleLeaf at Brandon, the only

option he has for now. Fromthe day Smith started in2013, he has never droppedhis price whether the hogmarket drops or not.When Ive sold to peoplemy price is this, it will neverdrop it may go up becauseof costs going up for me,he said.


By Les Kletke

Farmers around the worldface many of the same chal-lenges, the fact that they arein different places means theyrequire different solutions tothose problems. Brent Friesen, of ElmersWelding said the companys2,000-bushel grain cart ap-peals to farmers in westernCanada and Australia becauseof the large fields they are deal-ing with and noted that oneAustralia farmer told him hissmallest field was 37,000acres. They grow two cropsand haul directly from field toport, said Friesen who farmsat Altona and works for thecompany at Trade Shows,They cannot understand thatwe grow six different crops ona much smaller acreage. While Friesen was staffing abooth at Reginas FarmProgress Show another repre-sentative of Elmers was inEurope. He is meeting withfarmers and discussing thepossibility of a narrowerlonger cart to deal with theroads and field sizes in Eu-rope, said Friesen. Friesen said the 2,000-bushelcart proves popular in west-ern Canada where producersare using more than one com-bine and loading directly to a

By Harry Siemens

Agroservis, a Czech dealer and farm opera-tion came to Elmers Manufacturing to adapt anew 1600-Bushel HaulMaster Grain Cart totheir Controlled Traffic Farming (CTF) meth-ods. CTF is when all equipment throughoutthe season uses the same tracks in the field.This presents an issue when using a grain cartas the cart needs to approach in theneighbouring track. This is where the CTF con-veyor comes in, to close the gap between thecombine auger and the grain cart. The Elmers CTF Conveyor includes a beltconveyor to bring the grain to the cart and asecond, horizontal auger that runs lengthwiseon the grain cart to disperse the grain through-out the cart. The CTF Conveyor also needed ahydraulic fold out and resting height require-ments making the installation more complex. Riley Dyck, the lead engineer on the projecttravelled to the Czech Republic to oversee theinstallation of the product. Aside from the en-gineering challenges, Dyck said the languagebarrier is one of the biggest issues as one of theservice personnel could speak English, but theothers could not. When asked why this type of grain cart withthis type of conveyor Dyck said, With thecombine they use, they get the largest headerpossible. After attaching the large header to thecombine, the tractor pulling the grain cart justcould not get close enough for the combinesauger to reach the grain cart. So, that is whythey need the extra conveyor to reach out pastthe side of the grain cart so that the combinesauger does not have to reach all the way to thegrain cart, but just to the end of the conveyor.Then that conveyor can move the grain into thegrain cart. Dyck said the Czech farmers came to themfor a solution. Elmers sold them a couple of

Different Solutions Neededfor Same Challenges

B-train. It is all about effi-ciency, he said. No onewants to keep the truck driverwaiting, that costs money, sothis way they can load theentire B-train and have a bitmore to make sure they getthe maximum load. The com-pany has come out with a lim-ited edition of the cart for thisyear. We will see how the re-sponse is to it and if it willstay in the line up, he said. Friesen who has workedshows for the company forseveral years said he noticed areal change in the questionsfarmers bring to the show.For example our harrows,he said. They used to be over-looked and thought of as some-thing that was used and thenparked until next year. Nowfellows are looking at it as a

real management tool and pay-ing much more attention totheir harrows. He said reduced tillage andmore attention to seed place-ment and even germinationhave driven the interest in har-rows. Fellows are payingmore attention to seed place-ment so they are paying moreattention to preparing theseedbed. They are looking forharrows to break up somestraw and level the ground. Sonow they are looking for aheavier implement that willhelp break up straw in the fall. He said the increased yieldshave also been a factor. Newvarieties are bred to have lessstraw but overall we are grow-ing heavier crops and thatmeans more straw to dealwith.

Brad Friesen of Elmers Manufacturing says harrows havebecome an important part of trash management on most farms.

Photo by Les Kletke

Elmers Builds First Conveyor forControlled Traffic Farming

The Elmer Controlled Traffic Farming Conveyorattached to an Elmers grain cart becoming oneof the first advancements to prepare ElmersManufacturing with a product for the Europeanenvironment.

grain carts a few years ago. They really likedthem just because we offered a bigger size thanwhat they could get from other manufacturers,he said. But they wanted to use the grain cartswith the combines, using larger headers so theyasked us if it was possible to make the CTFconveyor because CTF farming is becoming morepopular in Europe. He said this is the very first one and it becamea learning experience for Elmers and forAgroservis. Being a brand new product, the goalis to make it work on their farm first and thenhopefully develop it for others in the future. The conveyor may not be consideredgroundbreaking but it is different in how it isattached and placed on the grain cart. Because ofthe road regulations, they could not make thegrain cart any wider or taller. The conveyor de-sign had to be as compact as possible, sitting ontop of the grain cart and when ready for use inthe field, the conveyor had to extend out the sideto reach the combines auger added Dyck. Theconveyor is basic, but the action that moves theconveyor on the grain cart is new.


By Les Kletke

Mention the weather in an agricultural community andyou are sure to get a response. Promise them Drew Lernerand it is standing room only. At the Farm Progress Show inRegina, it was no different. The man who has establishedhimself as Agricultures Weatherman drew a standing roomonly crowd. Lerner based in Kansas has a following across the prai-ries not only from his appearances at events like Ag Daysin Brandon and Farm Progress show but also through localradio stations carrying his regular weather forecasts. He opened his presentation by asking, How many ofyou were told it was going to be a hot dry summer? Thenwhen he had a few hands in the audience go up, he encour-aged them to be more truthful. You all heard it, but whatare we having? It was then that he launched into a series of slides show-ing how the rainfall in many areas of the prairies was wellabove normal even to the end of April. Lerners chartsshowed that southern Manitoba has as much as 200% ofnormal precipitation to the end of April. That is what wegot and that is what we are continuing to get, said Lerner. Most producers in the audience were quick to agree theywere having a growing season wetter than usual and that

By Joan Airey

Over the past six months,a group of volunteers hasbeen working tirelessly toorganize the 30th AnnualManitoba Farm WomensConference. Since it is theInternational Year of Pulsesfittingly, the theme of theconference is Fuel thePulse. Lou-Anne Stefankiw isone of the keynote speak-ers. She will be addressingIgniting the Fire WithinYou and Your Relation-ships Even the Most Chal-

lenging Ones. Lou-Anne grew up in rural Saskatchewanwith their nearest neighbour being ten miles away. In thisenvironment, with her sister and brother they discoveredthe world through their inquisitiveness and nature to ex-plore and question the world. She has always had a realcuriosity about human nature and what make us, us. Shenow offers Corporate Workshops and Personal Coachingfor Emotional Intelligence and Personality Types. Its been my pleasure to serve as a planning committeemember for the Manitoba Farm Womens Conference forthe past few years and I am always excited to see the pro-gram come together because it provides so many wonder-ful networking and learning opportunities. For example,this year I am looking forward to hearing Cherilyn Nagelwho has a successful career as a farmer, and as an influen-tial advocate for agriculture, including a stint as Presidentof the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association. Shewill speak about how we can all share positive messagesabout the food we grow and how we grow it with consum-ers, said Angela Lovell a devoted volunteer keeping theManitoba Farm Womens Conference website updated andis also head of sponsorship. The conference has numerous speakers and workshops,which will interest all rural women involved in agriculture.For more information about the conference check out theirwebsite at manitobafarmwormensconference.com.

Ag Weatherman Packs the Room

Weather draws a crowd, add Drew Lerner and you have alarge crowd. Photo by Les Kletke

while the crop had advanced they would like a dry period.Lerner was not able to give them much relief saying thatconditions would continue through the growing season.Manitoba Agricultures weekly crop report bears out whatLerner was saying about western Canada with no area ofthe province below normal precipitation and some areashaving received over 150% of normal precipitation to date. Producers attending Lerners presentation acknowledgedthere was little they could to about the rain but they didlike to know what was coming. Some indicated that theabove normal precipitation did serve a purpose in recharg-ing ground water, which in some areas had been seriouslydepleted by several years of below normal precipitation. Lerner told the audience to expect more of the samethroughout the growing season but stopped short of tell-ing them to check on tracks for their combines on their wayout of the show. Judging from the following that Drew Lerner has in thefarming community, if he would have called for wet condi-tions in harvest, he could have influenced the sales oftrack vehicles at Farm Progress Show.

MB FarmWomens

ConferenceCelebrating

Three Decades

Angela Lovell, one of thehard working committeemembers organizing the 30thManitoba Farm WomensConference.

Prison farm supporters welcomed the announcementrecently that the Federal Government will conduct a fea-sibility study on restoring the Kingston prison farms. We applaud that Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodalehas included public processes in the feasibility study,said Dianne Dowling, a member of the Save Our PrisonFarms (SOPF) organizing committee. Members of thepublic will have the opportunity to contribute to an onlinesurvey and to attend a town hall meeting in Kingston. The feasibility study on restoring the prison farmswill allow citizens, business leaders, and other interestedstakeholders to share their visions for what the programcould look like, and it will allow the Government to re-view the cost and efficacy of its reinstatement, accord-ing to a statement by MP Mark Gerretsen (Kingston andthe Islands). In 2010, the Conservative government ended the prisonfarm program at six minimum-security prisons acrossCanada. Two of the six prison farms are located withinthe boundaries of Kingston, and hundreds of people inthe Kingston area were involved in 2009 and 2010 in aneffort to prevent the closure of the farms. One of the prison farms in Kingston, Frontenac Insti-tution, had a large dairy herd and several thousand lay-ing hens. The farm provided milk and eggs to prisons inOntario and donated eggs to the local food bank. The other farm, at Pittsburgh Institution, has an abat-toir serving beef farmers in the region who sell to thelocal market. The fields at that farm are rented to nearbyfarmers for crops and pasture. Many people said closing the prison farms didnt makesense, said Jeff Peters, also a member of the SOPF orga-nizing committee. The farms provided meaningful workexperience and training, as well as rehabilitation andtherapy. Prison staff told us that inmates who partici-pated in the prison farm program were less likely thaninmates overall to re-offend when they were released, sothe program made our communities safer. Upon release, inmates obtained employment in manu-facturing, truck driving, heavy equipment operation andconstruction, as well as work related to agriculture.Many people said it was a good idea that inmates werecontributing to the prison system by producing food forit, said Peters. As well, the prison farm helped supportfarm service businesses in the area, which was good forfarmers and the local community. Another important reason to save the prison farmprogram is to preserve the farmland, Dowling said. Thetwo prison farms in Kingston total about 1,500 acres ofsome of the best farmland in our area. Without a prisonfarm program, the farmland could be at risk. Given the

Prison Farms FeasibilityStudy and Survey

uncertain political, economic and climate situation of theworld, every community needs to increase its ability tofeed itself. Kingston needs that land to stay as farmlandas a source of food security. In August 2010, when the dairy herd at Frontenac Insti-tution was removed from the farm to be sold, prison farmsupporters formed the Pen Farm Herd Co-op and raised$30,000 in a week through $300 shares. The co-op bought23 cattle from the prison herd and has been fosteringthe cattle at area farms since then. The herd now num-bers just over 30 cattle. Both the Liberal and New Democratic parties supportedsaving the prison farms, and committed to restoring thefarms if they were elected to government, said Peters.So we bought some of the cattle, with the plan to sell thecattle back to Corrections Canada when the program isrestored. Another sign of the determination of our supportersis the weekly vigil, said Peters. Every Monday nightsince the cattle were removed, vigil-keepers have been atthe entrance to Frontenac Institution, to remind the gov-ernment and the public that closing the prison farms wasa mistake that can be corrected. Dowling and Peters are members of the board of direc-tors of the co-op, and also members of the National Farm-ers Union. During the campaign, there were about adozen people on the organizing committee, and hundredsof people participating in advocating to save the prisonfarms, said Dowling. The SOPF committee perseveredbecause the supporters persevered, and contributed theirenergy and resources to the campaign. We thank themfor their support, and we thank our Kingston and theIslands MPs, Ted Hsu and Mark Gerretsen, for their workin advocating for the prison farms. The link for the online survey is csc-scc.gc.ca/consult/index-en. The survey will be online until August 4. Any-one in Canada is able to complete the survey, Dowlingsaid. Please submit your ideas about the value of theprison farm program and how it can contribute to goodcorrections and to the community.


By Les Kletke

Andrew Campbell is afarmer who uses technology,and he will be the first to tellyou things do not always turnout as expected... that is tech-nology as part of life on a farm. When the southern Ontariodairy farmer started postingpictures of what was happen-ing on the family farm he hadno idea he was creating an offfarm job, but that is what hasbecome of his efforts to usesocial media to explain farm-ing to an urban audience. Campbell was in Regina tospeak to a group at FarmProgress Show. We have setup the farm so that I can beaway for a day or two at atime, said Campbell. Dadcan handle things for a day orso and I make an effort to getback to the farm as soon aspossible. That is what I do fora living. Campbell is clear his firstpriority is the family dairyfarm, and then his objective isto explain to non-agriculturalaudiences about things thathappen on the farm, and thatit does not stop once in 365days. When the opportunityarises, he speaks to farm audi-

By Elmer Heinrichs

Farm field operations groundto a halt Friday June 17 whena line of severe thunderstormsmoved through southernManitoba during the earlymorning hours bringing largehail and heavy rain. Altona farm production ad-visor Dennis Lange said, Itsvery wet. Itll take a few daysto assess the actual effect oncrops. But there will definitelybe some losses. Lange noted that 110,000-120,000 acres of peas and drybeans was seeded, and lots ofsoybeans commenting, Thisis a crop that can handle mois-ture somewhat better. Manitoba crops this monthhave benefitted from thewarmer temperatures, and ad-equate rainfall, even if it de-layed late seeding and sloweddown producer progress onweed control operations. By mid-June, seeding wasreported to be essentiallycomplete in central regions,while some acreage was stillunseeded in the east due tohigher rainfall accumulation.Some producers there have de-cided to summer fallow orchemfallow the remainingunseeded acres. Manitoba agriculture, in itsweekly crop report, also notedthat excess moisture condi-tions in some areas are impact-ing crop growth, particularlyin the lower areas of fields.Crop yellowing is evident, andwet field conditions have

Spreading the Wordwith Technology

Andrew Campbell tells the story of what happens on the familydairy everyday.

ences about how they can dothe same thing, and why theyshould do the same thing.Judging from the Regina audi-ence his message was well re-ceived. When asked what will benext for his delivery processhe said, I have thought aboutvideo. But that requires muchmore time, and I have to de-termine how much time Ispend on the farm and howmuch time I spend spreadingthe message of farming. He has learned that the ulti-mate test is the delivery notperfection. I have thoughtabout video and how long itwould take to get the perfectvideo, but it does not have to

be perfect, just as my pictureswerent perfect. But peoplewant the story and that is whatI might do with the video. It ismore important to get it done,than waiting for the perfectmedia, and we on the farmshould know that, sometimesyou just have to get thingsdone in the best way that youcan and move on. He also views each oppor-tunity to travel and speak to afarm audience as a chance tolearn, and take somethinghome. In th

agripost june 24 2016

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