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January 15, 2015

SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | Vol. 73, No. 3

Disease a North American first Where it came from isn’t as important as how it will be contained when it comes to verticillium wilt in canola By Shannon VanRaes

manitobacooperator.ca

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Aiming Beef leaders strive to high drive industry forward Goals include boosting production efficiency by 15 per cent and increasing carcass cut-out value by 15 per cent in just five years

co-operator staff, with files from Dave Bedard and Reuters / St. Jean Baptiste

anitoba prides itself on welcoming newcomers, but the canola sector won’t be rolling out the welcome matt for this one — verticillium longisporum. The disease was discovered in a Manitoba canola field late last fall and visually identified at Manitoba Agriculture’s Crop Diagnostic Centre. That determination was later confirmed by molecular analysis at the National See DISEASE on page 7 »

Cows aren’t straying far from the feeder during these cold January days. Photo: Laura Rance By Alexis Kienlen staff

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usiness gurus call them Big Hairy Audacious Goals — and now Canadian beef leaders have to figure out how to achieve the ones they’ve set for their industry. “You have to pick a place to get to,” said Trevor Atchison, co-chair of the National Beef Strategic Planning Group. “You can’t make every goal in life, but if you don’t set something that’s higher than what you have today, you can’t strive to get there.”

The group, comprised of the country’s main beef industry players, released a document entitled Canada’s National Beef Strategy earlier this month. It sets the bar high with three specific goals to be achieved by 2020: Boost production efficiency by 15 per cent, increase carcass cut-out value by 15 per cent, and reduce cost disadvantage relative to global competitors by seven per cent. “Maybe the goals are more ambitious than what we can complete, I don’t know,” said Atchison, a cow-calf producer and backgrounder from

Pipestone, who is also vice-chair of Canada Beef. “But it’s in every producer’s best interest to try and get there to keep the industry healthy and grow it, with increased numbers that we’re going to need to maintain the market share for the global beef business we have today.” The 30-page document (available at www.beefstrategy.com) contains many items that are long-term propositions, including improving genetics, forage See BEEF BUSINESS on page 6 »

FINED: Both railways penalized for missed grain targets » PAGE 3

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

INSIDE

Did you know?

LIVESTOCK

‘Nazi’ cattle prove too hard to handle for British farmer

Will they or won’t they? The prospects for North American cattle herd rebuilding

Breed was an attempt to recreate cattle’s wild ancestors

CROPS

Staff

Properly pricing grain Sample well — there is a lot at stake

FEATURE Making hay Kenyan pastoralists would rather bale than migrate to greener pastures

CROSSROADS

British farmer has culled his herd of “Nazi” cattle from 20 to six because the animals were considered too dangerous to handle. According to a story in The Guardian, in 2009, Derek Gow imported 13 Heck cattle to his Devon farm for study and as subjects for photography. Wikipedia says Heck cattle originated in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s in an attempt to breed back domestic cattle to aurochs or wild ox (Bos primigenius primigenius), their ancestral wild form. Two brothers, Heinz and Lutz Heck, independently used a different selection of cattle breeds including Spanish fighting bulls. Their efforts reportedly captured the attention of some Nazi leaders who dreamed of allowing the animals to roam free so they could once again be hunted. However, Gow ’s beasts became too difficult to handle.

Heck cattle were named after two German brothers who bred them in the 1920s and 1930s. Photo: Altaileopard/Creative Commons

“The ones we had to get rid of would just attack you any chance they could. They would try to kill anyone. Dealing with that was not a lot of fun at all. I have worked with a range of different animals from bison to deer and I have never come across anything like these. They are by far and away the most aggressive animals I have ever

worked with,” Gow told The Guardian. “We made sure no one went near them so there were never any incidents. To get them into the trailer to get them off the farm we used a young and very athletic young man to stand on the ramp and they charged at him before he quickly jumped out of the way.”

Small successes Consumers are hungry for what local, smallscale food processors are selling

4 5 8 10

Editorials Comments What’s Up Livestock Markets

Grain Markets Weather Vane Classifieds Sudoku

READER’S PHOTO

11 16 68 70

ONLINE Visit www.manitobacooperator.ca for daily news and features and our digital edition. (Click on “Digital Edition” in the top right corner.) At our sister site, AGCanada.com, you can use the “Search the AGCanada.com Network” function at top right to find recent Co-operator articles. Select “Manitoba Co-operator” in the pull-down menu when running your search. photo: marilyn Schick

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Railways fined for failing to move enough grain Farmers and grain companies say the fines are too small relative to the cost of delivery delays By Allan Dawson co-operator staff

anada’s two national ra i l w a y s h a ve b e e n fined for not meeting federal targets for grain shipments, but not as much as farmers and grain companies say is warranted. CN Rail said in a statement it will pay its $100,000 for two violations “and move forward,” while CP Rail will contest a $50,000 fine for a single violation, claiming it fell short due to circumstance beyond its control. The railways have 30 days to pay up or seek a review, Lauren Armstrong, a spokesperson for Transportation Minister Lisa Raitt said in an email Jan. 9. Keystone Agricultural Producers president Doug Chorney said while the fines are important symbolically, they aren’t high enough. “I think until we have meaningful consequences and some way to see the fines go back to the shippers or farmers who are the offended parties, they are not going to have desired outcome,” Chorney said in an interview Jan. 9. The fines are small but the Western Grain Elevator Association (WGEA) is pleased the federal government has taken action, said executive director Wade Sobkowich. “Unfortunately the fines being paid by the railways pale in comparison to the costs that the industry has incurred due to the poor service in those time periods,” he said. “But we understand there are some limitations in the legislation and that the government is at least holding them accountable to some extent.” Fines are the ultimate “public punishment” for the railways failing to move as much grain as they said they would, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in an interview. “At the end of the day fines don’t move grain, it’s the incentive to do it... and I think we’ve got a good balanced approach moving forward with the continuation of the order-in-council with some real big numbers, as well

PHOTO: file

“I think until we have meaningful consequences and some way to see the fines go back the shippers or farmers who are the offended parties they are not going to have desired outcome.” Doug Chorney

as the plans we’ve asked for from the railways to be provided to Transport Canada on contingencies on how they are adjusting to the corridor-bycorridor data demands that we’re asking for.” When Ottawa issued an order-in-council last March requiring the railways to each move 536,250 tonnes of grain a week, officials said the railways could be fined up to $100,000 a day for failing to do so. However, under the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act, which took effect in May, fines changed to up to $100,000 per violation, which officials interpret as per week since the movement target is weekly. In these instances, the fines are $50,000 per violation — half the maximum. “The actual level of a n A M P ( Ad m i n i s t r a t i v e Monetary Penalty) is set by the Enforcement Officer and

1+1=3

is established in a manner proportionate to the railway’s performance in relation to its obligation,” Armstrong wrote. The Enforcement Officer issued Notices of Violation to both railways Dec. 12, 2014, she wrote. CN failed to meet the minimum volume requirement for the period from July 28 to August 3, and both CN and CP failed to meet the requirements for the period from September 7 to 13. From July 28 to August 3, CN was required to move 500,000 tonnes. From September 7 to 13, CN and CP were required to move 536,250 tonnes. What the railways moved is confidential, but it fell short of the required amount, Armstrong wrote. “CP is disputing the fine on the basis that the missed targets of Sept. 7 to 13, 2014 were the result of broader sup-

ply chain issues, specifically the Labour Day holiday shutdown at the Port of Vancouver the week before,” CP spokesman Jeremy Berry wrote in an email. “These events outside of CP’s control in the supply chain contributed to delays in the movement, loading and shipping of rail cars on CP.” The WGEA, which represents Western Canada’s major elevator companies, doesn’t buy it, Sobkowich said. “The volume was there and the demand for the rail cars was there as long as they were placed at the right locations — the right country elevators — and with the right destinations,” he said. CP continues to stress Canada’s grain supply chain must operate around the clock, seven days a week to be efficient. “In 2014 we moved record amounts of grain — 21 per cent over the three-year average and up 16 per cent over the previous record crop year of 2008-09,” Berr y wrote. “More than anything, it is market forces that have driven the record volumes of grain that CP has delivered this year and last.” So far this crop year CN has exceeded its governmentmandated minimum grain volumes by more than 1.5 mil-

lion tonnes, CN spokesman Mark Hallman wrote in an email. “By the end of December 2014, CN had just 1,500 grain orders on its wait-list to fulfil — the equivalent of only about three days of grain movements,” he wrote. Grain movement from Aug. 1, 2014 until Christmas was up 37 per cent compared to the same period last year, Sobkowich said. The railways have been moving more grain, but some of the increase is because more grain moved earlier this crop year, he said. Last crop year, following record grain production in Western Canada, a huge backlog in grain shipping occurred causing elevator prices to fall well below world prices. The railways blamed the big crop and the coldest winter in 100 years. Farmers and grain companies accused the railways of failing to invest in surge capacity because grain shipments can’t go elsewhere. Farmers and grain companies hope the Canada Transportation Act review currently underway will result in regulations that force the railways to act how they would in a competitive market. allan@fbcpublishing.com

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

OPINION/EDITORIAL

On the right track

eef industry leaders have outlined some gutsy goals for their sector to meet with their recently released National Beef Strategy. Boosting production efficiency by 15 per cent, increasing carcass cut-out value by 15 per cent and reducing cost disadvantage relative to global competitors by seven per cent by 2020 won’t be easy. But much of the heavy lifting towards Laura Rance these targets has already been accomEditor plished during the exhaustive process that went into developing this strategic plan. Whether the sector hits these targets on the bull’s eye, falls a little short or overshoots, is less important than the fact that it has coalesced around a common vision. Everyone can agree on the need for a dynamic profitable Canadian cattle and beef industry and most can appreciate the value in being a trusted and competitive producer that is recognized globally for producing superior quality, safety, value, innovation using sustainable production methods. These goals may seem like stating the obvious, but they provide a starting point for the much more complex job of determining the ‘how’ of achieving them. That challenge of that feat cannot be underestimated. We are after all, dealing with the cattle crowd, a group that has historically been about as easy to guide as a herd of cats. While other livestock sectors have zeroed in on generic genetics and homogenized the primary production around specific management approaches, cattle producers remain fiercely divided by their loyalty to specific breeds — and a long list of them at that. It makes for variety in carcass traits, management requirements and production practices. And because cattle are raised outside, instead of in climatecontrolled facilities used for other livestock, producers are subject to unpredictable effects of the weather on their production efficiency. While that genetic and management diversity makes it more challenging to standardize the end-use quality characteristics, it also creates opportunity for value-added marketing in an increasingly diverse marketplace. Now that processes such as BIXS (Beef Infoxchange System) are in place to improve individual carcass feedback and communication through the value chain, work must continue toward converting that data into something that’s bankable. It has long been recognized that the industry has been a little too focused on meeting the needs of certain commodity beef markets — namely the U.S. — at the expense of other market opportunities. Not only has this approach left it vulnerable to market disruptions, such as when the border slammed shut in the BSE crisis of 2003 and when the U.S. pushed forward with mandatory country-of-origin labelling rules in 2009, it has hampered branding efforts. Ironically, beef producers, as diverse as they are, have been among the least tolerant of alternative markets and the efforts by some to meet those demands, such as the European preference for hormone-free beef, or similar preferences by the A&W fast-food chain to differentiate itself in the marketplace. Wanting to do things differently is seen by some in the cattle business as trying to make everyone else look bad. Despite the recent improvement in prices, the beef sector’s base for future growth is far from certain. This new strategy for the future has emerged from a tumultuous decade in the beef industry, one that has reduced beef cow inventories in this country by a quarter since 2003, and seen the emergence of new global competitors such as India. With many of the industry’s producers nearing retirement, they may be more focused on building back equity lost over the past decade than they are investing in building their herd. Many are also understandably reluctant to take on more hard work at a time when there are fewer people to do it. The beef herd liquidation coincided with a structural shift in grain markets, driven by increasing demand for ethanol, a sharp appreciation of the Canadian dollar, scarce labour and rising input costs. The National Beef Strategy acknowledges that while demand for beef globally continues to grow, it will be local concerns over environmental sustainability and animal welfare that dictate the producers’ operating environment. That could work in the beef sector’s favour when it comes to reclaiming grazing lands lost to annual cropping. Marginal lands belong under cover. It also reinforces the reality that the shrinking cattle herd has resulted in lower checkoffs and fewer funds. Although producers are enjoying record profits, cattle cycle checkoff revenues are currently their lowest in two decades. Bringing the sector together under a common plan is not only the wisest use of scarce resources, it is the strategy with the best chance of success. Job well done. laura@fbcpublishing.com

The ‘foodie’ movement isn’t new By Alan Guebert

e didn’t know it back then but everyone on the big southern Illinois dairy farm of my youth was a “foodie.” Of course there was no one named Bittman or Pollan or Waters to tell us we were “foodies” but there were people named Mom and Grandma and Aunt Nina whose food knocked your socks off despite their cracking a cookbook about as often as they wrote one — which was never. Most of the ingredients these professional amateurs used in our breakfasts, dinners and suppers came either from our farm and garden or were purchased — hogs, peaches, roasting hens, eggs, apples and such — from neighbours within 10 miles of our kitchen table. So, in almost perfect ignorance, we ate farm to table, our farm to our table, for decades. We were foodies, indeed, and “locavores” to boot, long before anyone on the East or West Coast cooked up either word or concept. If you grew up on a farm or a ranch two or more generations ago, you, too, were a foodie and locavore because, back then, rural food leaned more on home butchering and canning than grocery getting and buying. Eating local was more about what you had on hand, not what you carried home from town. Besides, most “store-bought” food (the name our farm’s hired men gave all goods purchased in town) back then involved a lot more novelty — Oreos, Coca-Cola, Froot Loops — than nutrition. We are now a nation addicted to sugar, fat and drive-through windows. Food is mere fuel, and we eat more of it in our family car than at our family table. For proof, look how we — you and me — have changed our food patterns in the last 40 or so years. (Links to research at http:// farmandfoodfile.com/in-the-news/.)

OUR HISTORY:

In 1960, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, we spent 26 cents of our food dollar on restaurant meals; in 2013 it was 50 per cent. In 1950, the standard soft-drink bottle contained 6.5 ounces; in 1960 it grew to 12 ounces and, in the 1990s, 20 ounces became the norm. In 1970, according to numbers in a 2011 article published by Grist, the U.S. “churned out 2,168 calories per day per person, 402 of which came from added sugar and 410 from added fat… or, combined, about 37 per cent of the total.” In 2008, the U.S. produced 2,673 calories per day per person [“… powerful evidence that (America’s) cheap food policy… succeeded…”] of which added fats and sugars were 35 per cent above the 1970 level. In 2013, according to Harvard University, Americans spent “an estimated $190 billion treating obesity-related health conditions.” What’s it all mean, fellow former foodies? According to that brief survey, most of us ate less sugar and less fat when we ate more fresh, more local food at home 40 or 50 years ago than what we buy and eat (mostly) in town today. Also, most of us were skinnier and healthier (as were our parents when compared to us today) and all of us had more neighbours and more “community” — local banks, medical care, grocery and clothing stores and the like — than almost any of us have anywhere in rural America today. In short, we had it very, very good — despite Grandma pushing the pickled beets and lima beans every chance she got. Little wonder, then, that a new food culture, a foodie culture, is taking root across the U.S. now. These folks just want to eat like we used to. The Farm and Food File is published weekly through the U.S. and Canada. www.farmandfoodfile.com.

January 1888

he Co-operator’s predecessor The Scoop Shovel was not Manitoba’s first farm publication — that honour belongs to The Nor-West Farmer and Manitoba Miller, which began in 1882, later becoming The Grain Growers Guide and later Country Guide. This page from the January 1888 issue contains advertisements from Binscarth Stock Farm, Beresford Stock Farm in Brandon, Nairn’s Oatmeal in Winnipeg and others. Among the “News Notes” in that issue were that “A field of Mr. Jas. Robertson, Glendale, yielded 52 bushels to the acre and one of W. Sirell’s 50 bushels to the acre on a 25-acre field.” “Mr. E.L. Puxley, the Westbourne rancher, has imported a splendid Hereford bull…” “The Winnipeg Grain and Produce Exchange is now in full working order, being open from noon to 1 o’clock p.m., at which there is a good attendance of grain men, who find that it saves them time and money, as well as facilitates business.” And most importantly, “Every farmer who declines to take an agricultural paper on the plea that they cannot afford it is almost sure to lose in a year 10 times its cost directly through lack of information that it would surely give.”

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

COMMENT/FEEDBACK

photo: file

A new strategy for developing Canada’s beef sector This strategy is about how we can work together to best position our industry to compete for a larger share of the world market and to become the high-quality beef product of choice in the world The following is excerpted from the executive summary from the recently released document “Investing in a strong future for Canada’s beef industry,” which maps out an aggressive strategy for industry development both short and long term. The full document can be found at: www.beefstrategy.com.

he Canadian beef industry is at a pivotal point in time. Cattle numbers are down across much of the world and demand for highquality protein is increasing in most developing nations. The majority of markets closed due to BSE have been reopened and a number of new and very significant trade agreements will come into effect over the next several years that open new opportunities for Canada’s beef industry. Today the industry is enjoying record beef and live cattle prices. In the past this would have attracted record imports of manufacturing beef into Canada and the U.S., but with strong world demand particularly in Asia and Brazil and tight world supplies, those beef products are sold at a better return into those markets. It is believed that the Canadian beef industry has moved into a new price range that can and needs to be sustained in order to create the returns necessary to stabilize and grow our cattle numbers.

More competition

Normally, the current conditions would compel a strong and rapid expansion of cattle numbers in North America. However, with strong returns in the grains and oilseeds sector and strong future prospects, there is more competition for arable land and more acres being cultivated into annual crop production. Canada’s beef cattle numbers are stabilizing and should begin to grow. This is likely to be much slower than seen in most previous cattle cycles as producers choose between the economics

and risks of annual cropping or raising cattle. Higher feed and production costs, as well as greater market volatility will also be major factors affecting producers’ decision-making processes moving forward. Given the expectation for continued growth in global beef demand coupled with tight supplies, there is an opportunity for the Canadian beef industry to position itself strategically and grow demand for Canadian beef products globally.

Identified priorities

To help make this happen, national and provincial industry organizations worked together to address identified priorities and ensure key initiatives are appropriately funded. With Canada currently at the bottom of its cattle cycle, checkoff revenues are the smallest since the early 1990s. Since the National Checkoff was introduced in 2002, inflation and a reduced number of marketings resulted in less checkoff collected, limiting resources. The need for all beef industry stakeholders to collaboratively discuss funding issues and to develop, implement, and report on a national strategy that could be used to communicate the value of checkoff to producers is clear. Acting on this, representatives from the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA), its provincial members, Canada Beef Inc. and Beef Cattle Research Council (National Checkoff recipients), the Canadian Beef Breeds Council (CBBC) and the National Cattle Feeders’ Association (NCFA) have worked together as the National Beef Strategic Planning Group (NBSPG) to draft this National Beef Strategy. This strategy is about how we can work together to best position our industry to compete for a larger share of the world market and to become the high-quality beef product of choice in the world. The Strategic Plan has been developed with the aim to achieve targeted

industry goals that are aligned with the industry’s vision and mission under four pillars, beef demand, competitiveness, productivity and connectivity. The pillars identify key focus areas where industry stakeholders work together to collectively achieve the outcomes identified. Under each focus area specific outcomes have been defined that work towards meeting the goals established by industry. The goals established are measurable benchmarks for which the industry is held accountable.

Mission: To be the most trusted and competitive high-quality beef cattle producer in the world recognized for our superior quality, safety, value, innovation and sustainable production methods.

Beef demand

The goal of the beef demand pillar is to enhance beef demand and as a result enhance carcass cut-out values by 15 per cent over the next five years. This will be achieved by focusing on domestic and global marketing, market access, validating and enhancing the Canadian Beef Advantage, consumer confidence and social licence.

Competitiveness

The goal of the competitiveness pillar is to reduce production cost disadvantages compared to our main competitors by seven per cent over the next five years. This will be achieved by focusing on regulatory burden, access to competitively priced inputs, maintaining and enhancing key research capacity, and economic, social and environmental sustainability.

Productivity

The goal of the productivity pillar is to increase production efficiency by 15 per cent, through focusing on genetic selection, research and development, technology development and adoption, and enhanced information flow.

Connectivity

The fourth pillar, connectivity, is unique in its goal which is to enhance industry synergies, connect positively with consumers, the public, government, and partner industries by actively addressing industry issues.

The NBSPG, with input from elected officials and members of their respective groups, is positioned to oversee the development and implementation of a five-year Strategic Plan. The plan is intended to be supported and delivered through a comprehensive operational strategy upheld by the various provincial and national industry stakeholders. Funding scenarios to support the operational strategy and ensure resources are leveraged effectively on behalf of producers will be developed. The Strategic Plan is intended to be a dynamic document and process, which continues to evolve based on stakeholder feedback and ongoing review as identified outcomes are achieved and industry priorities change. The plan will also be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure the priorities and outcomes established are aligned with the needs of the beef cattle industry. Communicating a consistent message that transcends all industry activities and programming is imperative to maintain consumer confidence in the Canadian beef industry. A National Beef Strategy involving the participation and agreement of all stakeholders demonstrates leadership and provides clarity to achieve industry commitment and ensure adequate funding to meet industry’s goals for the future.

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

FROM PAGE ONE BEEF BUSINESS Continued from page 1

productivity, and feed efficiency along with boosting technology transfer from researchers and utilizing better information flow in the value chain via BIXS 2.0.

The time is ripe

But a five-year time frame was chosen because by 2020, producers will be right in the middle of the average 10-year cattle cycle when prices will start to dip, said Atchison and his cochair Martin Unrau. “One of the highlights is that we’re all working together, looking at what we can do to remove some of the instability that we find in our industry at times when prices are low and people are trying to hold on,” said Unrau, also a Manitoba rancher and past president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. T h e CC A , Ca n a d a Be e f , Na t i o n a l C a t t l e Fe e d e r s’ Association, Canadian Beef Breeds Council, and Beef Cattle Research Council all support the strategy as well as Manitoba Beef Producers and its sister organiSEC_CAR11_T_MC.qxd 8/26/11 zations in the West, Ontario and

Dave Solverson Photos: Supplied

the Maritimes. Members of the working group will meet at the end of this month to begin hammering out specifics on how to achieve the targets. The joint effort is being hailed as an unprecedented show of co-operation in an industry often criticized for being fractured and inward looking. “One of the highlights for me is that the strategy is so inclusive and all involved had significant input,” said Dave Solverson, current CCA president and 4:23 PM Page 1 Camrose-area rancher.

Trevor Atchison

Dave Andrews

“I think this is historic for Alberta. In Alberta, politics have kept us from working together at times. So for me, this is a real positive.”

‘Impressive’ co-operation

That view is echoed by Dave Andrews, one of three members of the Straw Man Beef Initiative, which produced a landmark report a year ago calling for a sweeping overhaul of how the industry operates. “This report has been something that has been needed,”

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Growth needed

Although the sharp rise in cattle prices has buoyed the industry over the past year, the legacy of a shrunken herd needs to be addressed, said Un ra u , w h o ra n c h e s n e a r MacGregor. “In all reality, the strategic plan is about economics and making sure our industry grows,” he said. “Right now our industry is a little too small to maintain some of the infrastructure we have.”

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said Andrews, who ranches near Brooks. “It’s impressive that these groups have come together and agreed on a strategy. Whether it is the right one or not remains to be seen, but it is well thought out and there is agreement — and that’s a big deal in this industry.” The strategy addressed many recommendations of the straw man report, including a recommendation for a council of beef leaders. “I’m encouraged and there’s some optimism with producers,” said Andrews. “I hope they’re successful in getting producers involved with their industry organizations and successful in moving forward to take the industry to the next level.” He added he hopes producers will see the need to support the strategy with their checkoff dollars. That will be critical, said Solverson. “ To remain competitive, we’re going to have to put more money into it,” he said.

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Martin Unrau

“I think this is historic for Alberta. In Alberta, politics have kept us from working together at times. So for me, this is a real positive.” Dave Solverson

The time is ripe for bold thinking and taking action, said Atchison. “We’re at a point of change in the cattle industry,” he said. “People are looking to the future, and are anxious to take on something new and learn something new. “We’re hoping that this will work with the strategy to get new ideas flowing quicker because people will be looking and hungry for it.” And even though the targets are ambitious, they are achievable, said Solverson. “There’s all kinds of room in innovation and production practices that can improve our overall profitability and sustainability,” he said. “The industry leadership has come into the room together and come up with solutions,” added Andrews. “That’s what they seem to be trying to achieve with this report and I support them 100 per cent with that.” akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

Resolution Guidelines for MCGA’s AGM

Produced by: SeCan Product/Campaign Name: SeCan AC Carberry Date Produced: August 2011

Are you interested in submitting a resolution to the Manitoba Canola Growers Annual meeting? Check out the guidelines and worksheets for resolutions on MCGA’s website www.mcgacanola.org or call Liz at 204-982-2122 for the guidelines and worksheets. All resolutions must be submitted to the MCGA office by February 2 2015 at 4:30 pm. Forms can be faxed to 204-942-1841 or emailed to rossb@mcgacanola.org. MCGA’s Annual Meeting will be held Wednesday February 18, 2015 at 10:05 am during the CropConnect conference at the Victoria Inn in Winnipeg.

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

DISEASE Continued from page 1

Fungal Identification Service in Ottawa. “This is brand new to Manitoba, brand new to Canada and actually brand new to oilseeds in North America,” said Holly Derksen, speaking at St. Jean Farm Days last week. But how the fungus, which is prevalent in Sweden and seen throughout Northern Europe, ended up in Manitoba may remain a mystery. “I don’t think we’ll ever figure it out… the spores are tiny, they’re like dust particles, so it’s not going to be a matter of tracing it; at this point we just need to figure out what to do with it, because it’s here,” said the field crop pathologist. Now Manitoba Agriculture is working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to determine if the disease is widespread, or if the site in question is an isolated case.

Undisclosed location

Provincial officials say they will not release the location. “We’re not even releasing the region because we don’t know yet if it’s a specific isolated event that we’ll be able to control on the farm and be done with, or if it’s more widespread,” Derksen said. “At this point we’ll treat it much like we did with clubroot in the beginning, where we don’t release information until we figure out how widespread it is.” She noted that the site in question was not experiencing yield loss, but was tested after the producer noticed signs of disease while scouting. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Jan. 9 it has placed a quarantine order on seed from the farm. A prohibition of movement order is also in place on equipment used to harvest the seed, CFIA said, adding it’s working with the farm’s owner to discuss “treatment options” for said equipment, to make sure it’s cleaned of soil and plant debris. The agency said it’s still too early to know the source of the fungus, but CFIA is running trace-outs to learn how V. longisporum arrived at that spot. CFIA said it also plans related surveys to rule out any further spread and to learn if this was an “isolated detection” that may have been brought into the location on imported seed. V. longisporum is mainly s p r e a d v i a m ov e m e n t o f infested soil or diseased plant parts, CFIA said, noting “some scientific evidence” that seed from heavily infected crops may bring it to new areas. In this case, the agency said, the single V. longisporum finding is “limited to one location which is not being used for commercial production.” The Reuters agency and other media have described the site as a research farm. “Given we are now in the post-harvest season and all crop material has been removed, and that CFIA biosecurity restrictions have been applied at the farm, there is no immediate risk of any further agricultural-related spread of V. longisporum,” the CFIA said.

Scouting urged

The Canola Council of Canada is now urging all producers to scout

for the fungus, but acknowledged that few facts are currently available on the disease. “We will focus on collaborating with regulators, researchers and grower groups to determine its prevalence and bring best management practices to growers,” said council president, Patti Miller. It has not spread to Canada’s commercial crop-handling s y s t e m , Mi l l e r s a i d . L i k e clubroot, another disease that affects canola, verticillium spreads mainly from field to field through soil on machinery, boots or other carriers. It can survive in the soil for 15 to 20 years. “Although it’s disappointing that a new disease has been identified, it shows that the system is working and the industry is responding in a proactive and collaborative manner,” Miller added. “The canola industry has a long history and significant experience in working together to control diseases and pest issues as they arise and

this collaborative approach will continue.” Information on the disease has already been posted to Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development’s website, and more information regarding research will soon be made available through the canola council, as well. Symptoms of verticillium longisporum include chlorosis of lateral branches or leaves, often on only one side of the plant and early death stunting. At later stages, the outer stem may peel back to reveal black microsclerotia. “It’s a black peppering of spots you’ll see right below the surface,” Derksen said. The best time to scout for verticillium wilt in canola is at swathing, but it can also be identified after harvest as microsclerotia continue to develop.

Rotation

The plant pathologist said crop rotation can help to manage

“At this point we’ll treat it much like we did with clubroot in the beginning, where we don’t release information until we figure out how widespread it is.” Holly Derksen

the disease and keep fungi at low levels, but noted there are no fungicide treatments for it or verticillium-resistant canola varieties on the market. “It’s a difficult one to nail down the resistance for,” she explained, adding the fungi can survive in the soil for 10 to 15 years. Biosecurity practices similar to those used for clubroot are advised. Sweden has seen the biggest impacts from the disease, with

Holly Derksen speaks about verticillium longisporum at St. Jean Farm Days. Photo: Shannon VanRaes

yield losses up to 50 per cent. “They’ve had it for 30-plus years, so there are things we can learn from them, although their production practices are quite different than our own,” said Derksen. “There are still a lot of things we don’t know.” shannon.vanraes@fbcpublishing.com

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Scout for silent soybean killer

The soybean cyst nematode is all over the map in North Dakota, so it’s only a matter of time before it arrives in Manitoba By Shannon VanRaes co-operator staff/st. jean baptiste

hile the soybean cyst nematode, Heterodera glycines, has yet to be found in Manitoba, producers are being urged to begin scouting now for what is sometimes called the “silent killer.” “They call it the silent killer in areas where it’s been a problem for longer, because yield loss occurs long before symptoms are visible,” Holly Derksen told producers at St. Jean Farm Days. Derksen, a field crop pathologist for Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Development, said that University of Manitoba researchers have been searching for signs of the disease — particularly in the Red River Valley — but have not yet identified any cases. At the moment, the nematode’s range is expanding through North Dakota. “So basically it’s moving north and we all know where we live, and we all know that the Red River comes this way, so chances are that it has moved to Manitoba, we just haven’t found it yet,” she said. The nematode’s reach has also been expanding in areas of Minnesota and Ontario. “So I say with caution that it’s not been detected in Manitoba yet,” Derksen said. Because the soybean cyst

This map published on the University of Delaware extension website in January 2014 depicts where soybean cyst nematode existed in the U.S. as of 2013. Officials say it is continuing to spread north and west.

Soybean cyst nematode and egg. photo: usda

nematode impacts plants before any symptoms appear, producers need to scout fields and examine plants even when they seem healthy, as yield will be affected before obvious signs of disease appear, the plant pathologist said. If not, you may be left trying to get to the bottom of seemingly mysterious yield losses. “So basically you’re losing yield and you don’t know why, you know what your plant count should be, but it’s not reaching that level,” Derk-

sen said. “The first year, you’re probably chalking it up to abiotic stress or the weather… but eventually you’re going to start to figure out what’s going on, and then you’ll start to see symptoms.” Once nematode infects the

plant’s roots the female nematode will, over time, become a cyst. Later symptoms include chlorosis of the leaves and stems, suppression of root growth and root necrosis. But Derksen said farmers should aim to catch the infection at the cyst stage by digging up plants and inspecting the roots. “So if you’re scouting for this, actually take a shovel, dig up the plant, carefully knock off the soil, then look for the cysts — and they’re tiny, so you

might want to bring a magnifying glass,” she said. “And if you aren’t able to see them yourself, send them in.” Resistant soybeans varieties are also available in Manitoba, and rotations of four to six years can help control cyst nematode. However, because dry beans are susceptible to nematode as well, they cannot be used in a rotation meant to control nematode. Weeds like wild mustard can also host the disease. But like any disease, it can only be managed once it’s identified. “Knowledge is power, scout for diseases at low levels, you may think you have a beautiful crop and nothing is wrong, but you still need to get out there and make sure that you’re not missing anything that may be happening in the odd plant or patch, because you want to know what is there before you start to see these major yield losses,” Derksen said. “Also maintain those biosecurity practices, because those measures apply to all diseases.” shannon.vanraes@fbcpublishing.com

WHAT’S UP Please forward your agricultural events to daveb@fbcpublishing.com or call 204-944-5762. Jan. 15: Southeast Beef and Forage Day, Vita. For more information call MAFRD’s Vita GO office at 204-4255050.

Feb. 17-18: CropConnect Conference, Victoria Inn, 1808 Wellington Ave., Winnipeg. For more info visit cropcon nectconference.ca.

Jan 17: Manitoba Sustainable Energy Association (ManSEA) Sustainable Energy Workshop and AGM, 10:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., Knox United Church, 451 - 18th Street, Brandon, Man. (use 17th St. entrance). For more information please visit the ManSEA website at www.mansea.org or email info@ mansea.org.

Feb. 23-24: Wild Oats Grainworld conference, Fairmont Winnipeg, 2 Lombard Place, Winnipeg. For more info call 1-800-567-5671 or visit www.wildoatsgrainworld.com.

Jan. 20-22: Manitoba Ag Days, Keystone Centre, 1175-18th St., Brandon. For more info visit www. agdays.com or call 204-866-4400. Jan. 20-22: Red River Basin Land and Water International Summit Conference, Fort Garry Hotel, 222 Broadway, Winnipeg. For more info visit www.redriverbasincommission. org. Jan. 29: Meat Processing Workshop, 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Food Development Centre, 810 Philips St., Portage la Prairie. For more info call Jayne at 204-461-2978 or email Jayne. kjaldgaard@gov.mb.ca. Feb. 3: Growing Opportunities with Direct Marketing Workshop, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. , Swan River. For more info contact the Swan River GO office, call 204-734-3417 or email Nicole. clouson@gov.mb.ca. Feb. 5: Growing Opportunities with Direct Marketing Workshop, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Boissevain. For more info contact the Carberry GO Office, call 204-841-4084 or email shauna. mckinnon@gov.mb.ca.

Feb. 25-26: Manitoba Young Farmers Conference, Victoria Inn, 3550 Victoria Ave., Brandon. For more info visit www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/business-and-economics/events-anddeadlines/young-farmers-conference. html or call 204-266-2930 or 204697-1140. Feb. 26: Farm Credit Canada (FCC) Forum, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Keystone Centre, 1175-18th St., Brandon. For more info visit https://www.fcc-fac. ca/en/events.html. March 1-3: Warming of the North: Implications for Arctic Transportation, Supply Chain Management and Economic Development, Ottawa Convention Centre, 55 Colonel By Dr., Ottawa. For more info visit http:// umanitoba.ca/faculties/manage ment/ti/. March 3-5: Canola Council of Canada convention, Fairmont Banff Springs, 405 Spray Ave., Banff, Alta. For more info visit http://convention.canola council.org. March 6-7: Manitoba Direct Farm Marketing Conference, John R. Brodie Science Centre, Brandon University (18th Street and Louise Avenue), Brandon. For more info visit www. directfarmmarketing.com.

ANOTHER STELLAR TM

PERFORMANCE.

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Western Canada’s first annual outdoor farm show coming in July Ag in Motion is being created on 320 acres near Saskatoon and will include field demonstrations for crop inputs and equipment By Allan Dawson co-operator staff

lacier FarmMedia, Canada’s largest agricultural news and information publisher, is expanding the farm show part of its business with the creation of a new demonstration-focused, outdoor farm show called Ag in Motion on 320 acres of farmland just outside of Saskatoon. “What’s really unique about this show is it brings agriculture equipment and inputs to an agricultural setting,” show director Rob O’Connor said in an interview. “The property was actually farmed last year so you can get a really good sense of what that equipment or what that variety of crop can do because it’s there in the setting you’re most familiar with, versus being inside a building or on a concrete pad. It won’t

be hard to understand how that product will look in your field or on your farm.” Ag in Motion, Western Canada’s first outdoor farm show, will be held July 21 to 23. O’Connor managed Regina’s Farm Progress Show for 10 years and had just started managing Brandon’s Provincial Exhibition when he was approached by Glacier FarmMedia to help establish and run Ag in Motion. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said. “The last time a new agricultural trade show started up was... (Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show) in Woodstock (Ontario)... 20 years ago.” Staff with Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show, which is also owned by Glacier FarmMedia, will help organize Ag in Motion, O’Connor said. Canada’s Outdoor Farm

Show attracts 45,000 people a year and Ag in Motion has the potential to do the same, he added. The goal is to attract farmers from across the West and northern U.S. Saskatoon is central and people are willing to travel farther during summer when the days are long and snowstorms or extremely cold weather aren’t a threat, O’Connor said. “I think we’ll see, as shows on this property mature, it will become a significant place for agricultural business and research to be unveiled,” O’Connor said. “We’ll see this whole space will change and modify to what the industry demands of it. So right now it will be a three-day farm show. Five years from now it could be something more significant — a trade show and seminars or crop

“I think we’ll see, as shows on this property mature, it will become a significant place for agricultural business and research to be unveiled.” Rob O’Connor

tours. The great thing about this opportunity is it’s a blank slate. We can create whatever the industry needs.” With up to 140 acres of farmland set aside by Ag in Motion, input suppliers and equipment companies will be able to demonstrate their products to thousands of farmers who will see side-by-side product comparisons under field conditions. “I think this is a big step for Glacier FarmMedia and I think it’s the right move,” O’Connor

said. “And that’s partly why I joined the company. I think this is a fantastic opportunity.” It’s also another way Glacier FarmMedia can serve its farm readers and advertisers better, he said. Glacier FarmMedia, which owns the Manitoba Co-operator, also owns the Western Producer, Grainews, Country Guide, Alberta Farmer Express, Le Bulletin des agriculteurs and AgCanada.com. allan@fbcpublishing.com

Report on small-farm sector now with minister The report recommends how to support direct marketers By Lorraine Stevenson co-operator staff

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long-awaited report on the province that might better support Manitoba’s small farmers, processors and direct marketers is now on the desk of the provincial agriculture minister. “My sense is that there’s a lot of information in this report that will be very interesting to a lot of people,” said retired chief veterinary officer for Manitoba Wayne Lees who led the working group that produced it. He gave an overview of the report’s findings last weekend while speaking to about 140 attendees at a conference hosted by Small Farms Manitoba conference. Small Farms Manitoba is a loose affiliation of small farmers whose enterprises have been documented online. It paints a picture of what is now “a tiny part of the industry” but one destined to grow, Lees said. Even so, it is producing sales “that are nothing to sneeze at,” he added. Compiled through a series of discussions, public meetings, interviews and surveys, the report says that in 2012 the value of direct sales by small-farm-sector players was estimated to be worth between $65 million and $79 million, with transactions at this province’s 70 farmers’ markets somewhere around $240 million annually. The report also characterizes this sector as nimble, highly responsive to consumer demands, entrepreneurial, and intensely community minded, Lees said. “When people try to measure this in terms of strictly dollars I think they’re missing a big com-

“When people try to measure this in terms of strictly dollars I think they’re missing a big component of what the small-scale sector has to offer.” Wayne Lees

retired CVO and report facilitator

ponent of what the small-scale sector has to offer,” he said. “It’s really about the people and about the communities.” The report also contains a series of recommendations for improving the regulatory environment seen by many small-scale operators as a “wall of regulation,” Lees said. Lees said there are policy change recommendations but the small-farm sector is going to need to become more organized and formalized to speak to this. “I think the small-scale sector really does need to have an organization that can deal with government and make its voice heard,” he said. Lees was scheduled to meet with the minister this week to discuss his findings. Roundtable participants say they hope whatever comes of it will be as positive as the process to put it together. “We gathered people from all points of view in a room and used a consensus decision-making model to arrive at the final product,” said Brad Anderson, a Cypress River-area farmer and member of the Harvest Moon Food Group in an emailed comment. lorraine@fbcpublishing.com

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

LIVESTOCK MARKETS Cattle Prices

Heifers

Alberta South $ 187.20 - 189.50 — 120.00 - 140.00 110.00 - 123.00 — $ — — 245.00 - 260.00 255.00 - 279.00 280.00 - 300.00 290.00 - 335.00 $ — — 225.00 - 239.00 235.00 - 250.00 250.00 - 270.00 265.00 - 290.00

($/cwt) (1,000+ lbs.) (850+ lbs.)

(901+ lbs.) (801-900 lbs.) (701-800 lbs.) (601-700 lbs.) (501-600 lbs.) (401-500 lbs.) (901+ lbs.) (801-900 lbs.) (701-800 lbs.) (601-700 lbs.) (501-600 lbs.) (401-500 lbs.)

Futures (January 8, 2015) in U.S. Fed Cattle Close Change February 2015 163.60 0.05 April 2015 162.42 0.02 June 2015 153.40 -1.50 August 2015 150.97 -1.56 October 2015 152.52 -1.51 December 2015 152.95 -1.75

Feeder Cattle January 2015 March 2015 April 2015 May 2015 August 2015 September 2015

Cattle Slaughter

January 9, 2014

Cattle auction action restarting slowly in 2015 Prices are expected to benefit from a lower loonie

Previous Year 50,142 12,217 37,925 N/A 617,000

Prime AAA AA A B D E

Ontario $ 166.49 - 192.92 163.22 - 189.73 90.31 - 124.88 90.31 - 124.88 114.04 - 139.84 $ 207.53 - 239.22 168.60 - 202.20 213.86 - 267.50 193.47 - 282.17 219.19 - 301.84 222.24 - 305.75 $ 186.06 - 207.92 163.05 - 200.58 166.70 - 212.40 175.11 - 238.68 186.44 - 262.64 223.99 - 271.26

Close 225.62 217.05 216.42 217.17 219.22 218.60

Change 6.17 -0.27 -1.63 -1.88 -1.03 -1.78

Previous Year 547 19,558 14,200 620 743 13,667 146

Hog Prices E - Estimation MB. ($/hog) MB (All wts.) (Fri-Thurs.) MB (Index 100) (Fri-Thurs.) ON (Index 100) (Mon.-Thurs.) PQ (Index 100) (Mon.-Fri.)

Source: Manitoba Agriculture Current Week 176.00 E 163.00 E 166.01 168.80

Futures (January 8, 2015) in U.S. Hogs February 2015 April 2015 May 2015 June 2015 July 2015

Last Week 175.58 164.43 164.67 160.22

Close 78.15 79.95 85.42 89.00 88.15

Last Year (Index 100) 165.97 155.93 157.62 157.83

Change -3.05 -3.33 -2.86 -2.55 -2.52

Other Market Prices Sheep and Lambs $/cwt Ewes Choice Lambs (110+ lb.) (95 - 109 lb.) (80 - 94 lb.) (Under 80 lb.) (New crop)

Winnipeg (90 Hd) Wooled Fats 100.00 - 117.00 140.00 - 160.00 170.00 - 190.00 200.00 - 212.00 200.00 - 212.00 —

Chickens Minimum broiler prices as of April 13, 2010 Under 1.2 kg................................... $1.5130 1.2 - 1.65 kg.................................... $1.3230 1.65 - 2.1 kg.................................... $1.3830 2.1 - 2.6 kg...................................... $1.3230

Turkeys Minimum prices as of January 11, 2015 Broiler Turkeys (6.2 kg or under, live weight truck load average) Grade A .................................... $1.960 Undergrade .............................. $1.870 Hen Turkeys (between 6.2 and 8.5 kg liveweight truck load average) Grade A .................................... $1.945 Undergrade .............................. $1.845 Light Tom/Heavy Hen Turkeys (between 8.5 and 10.8 kg liveweight truck load average) Grade A .................................... $1.945 Undergrade .............................. $1.845 Tom Turkeys (10.8 and 13.3 kg, live weight truck load average) Grade A..................................... $1.895 Undergrade............................... $1.810 Prices are quoted f.o.b. producers premise.

Toronto 135.07 - 156.54 220.07 - 246.25 242.40 - 254.96 239.99 - 270.15 176.33 - 326.04 —

SunGold Specialty Meats 50.00

Minimum prices to producers for ungraded eggs, f.o.b. egg grading station, set by the Manitoba Egg Producers Marketing Board effective November 10, 2013. New Previous A Extra Large $2.00 $2.05 A Large 2.00 2.05 A Medium 1.82 1.87 A Small 1.40 1.45 A Pee Wee 0.3775 0.3775 Nest Run 24 + 1.8910 1.9390 B 0.45 0.45 C 0.15 0.15

Goats Kids Billys Mature

Toronto ($/cwt) 114.00 - 310.00 — 130.40 - 279.88

Horses <1,000 lbs. 1,000 lbs.+

Winnipeg ($/cwt) — —

t was a quiet start to the 2015 cattle season as just four of the province’s nine main auction marts held sales to start the year. Volumes were light as just under 400 animals made their way through the rings, but prices reportedly held firm. “We would have had more cattle too, if the weather hadn’t been so cold on Tuesday (Jan. 6),” said Keith Cleaver of Heartland Livestock at Brandon. Back on Dec. 16, steers in the 400- to 500pound range were drawing bids of $290 to $337 at the Brandon yard. During the week ended Jan. 8, that same class of animals was going for slightly less, at $290 to $325. “Prices overall were very steady to strong from where they ended off in December,” he said. Cleaver added he believes prices will remain strong as long as the loonie remains weak compared to its U.S. counterpart. The Canadian dollar tumbled 3.4 per cent between the end of November and Jan. 9, due to the sharp slide in oil prices. Many analysts expect oil prices to remain relatively weak until at least the second half of 2015, which will put pressure on the loonie, which is particularly sensitive to commodities. “If the dollar stays at the level it’s at, or drops a bit, the potential is there to get higher,” Cleaver said. As far as challenges go early in the new year, transportation doesn’t appear to be one of them, he said. “Right at the present it’s not an issue.” However, he said, that could change once the market ramps up. “Bigger numbers (in cattle volumes) are

Toronto ($/cwt) 2.00 - 25.00 15.00 - 40.00

Ashern

Mid-January

Brandon

Early January

Gladstone

January 13

Grunthal

N/A

Killarney

January 12

Ste. Rose

January 15

Virden

Early January

Winnipeg

Early January

* - sale dates not yet available

coming so it will probably come into play again,” he said, referring to potential truck shortages. However, one trader in southern Alberta said he believes the problem may be lessened this year due to the slowdown in energy development. Allen Pirness of Market Place Commodities at Lethbridge recently noted in a separate interview that many trucks lacked drivers last year because they had gone to work for oil companies. This year, he said, that may not be as much of a problem, resulting in more trucks loaded with cattle on the road. The recent cold temperatures are another thing Cleaver will watch out for, though. Right now, he said, most producers in his area are getting by with existing feed supplies, but that could always change if January remains cold. “If we get a straight month of cold weather, that will cut into the feed, but I think it’s relatively OK,” he said. Dave Sims writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

briefs

Canadian feed barley values ‘popping’ in January: analyst By Dave Sims, Commodity News Service Canada

Eggs

Winnipeg (10 h) 80.00 - 100.00 — —

First sales of 2015

CNSC

Week Ending December 20, 2014 1,349 23,737 12,901 635 695 8,953 153

(Friday to Thursday) ($/100 kg)

Auction markets

Dave Sims

Cattle Grades (Canada)

Week Ending December 20, 2014 Canada 49,157 East 12,416 West 36,741 Manitoba N/A U.S. 552,000

$1 Cdn: $0.8432 U.S. $1 U.S: $1.186 Cdn.

COLUMN

(Friday to Thursday) Winnipeg Slaughter Cattle Steers — Heifers — D1, 2 Cows — D3 Cows — Bulls — Feeder Cattle (Price ranges for feeders refer to top-quality animals only) Steers (901+ lbs.) $ — (801-900 lbs.) — (701-800 lbs.) — (601-700 lbs.) — (501-600 lbs.) — (401-500 lbs.) — Heifers (901+ lbs.) — (801-900 lbs.) — (701-800 lbs.) — (601-700 lbs.) — (501-600 lbs.) — (401-500 lbs.) — Slaughter Cattle Grade A Steers Grade A Heifers D1, 2 Cows D3 Cows Bulls Steers

EXCHANGES: January 9, 2015

estern Canadian feed barley prices remained firm to start the year with bids having enjoyed a gradual rise from the $190-per-tonne range in late November, to the current level of $210 per tonne, said an industry watcher. “Bids have firmed up, not surprisingly it’s kind of popping in January,” said Allen Pirness, a trader at Market P l a c e Co m m o d i t i e s i n Lethbridge, Alberta. He says wheat has been a strong market as of late and

barley has just kind of followed suit. The 2014-15 crop year saw a sharp reduction in barley production across Western Canada, with Agri-Food Canada predicting ending stocks by July 31 of just 700,000 tonnes. This is in sharp contrast to the 201314 carry-out of more than one million tonnes. “Barley is bullish by itself with low acres, but if some of this higher-quality feed wheat hits the market that could check barley in a hurry,” said Pirness. U.S. corn has also ceased to be a feed option for many producers moving forward, he added. “The idea of replacement corn gets further and further away as corn rallies and the Canadian dollar falls,” he said. Cheaper gasoline has also

started to impact the barley market in an indirect way. Last year, Pirness says some trucking companies were forced to park some of their vehicles due to a shortage of drivers; many of whom found jobs in the oil and gas sector. But with the plunging price of crude oil dissuading many Alberta energy companies from operating at full capacity this year, he says more trucks seem to be on the road. “You know there’s barley and wheat from Saskatchewan that’s making its way into southern Alberta again fairly regularly. I think that could be measured as an effect of the oil thing,” said Pirness. Going forward, he expects values to remain firm. “(It doesn’t) really look like anything should go down at the moment. The Canadian dollar is weak.”

Looking for results? Check out the market reports from livestock auctions around the province. » PaGe 36

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

GRAIN MARKETS Export and International Prices

column

A sinking loonie keeps lifting Canadian canola CNSC

CE Futures Canada canola futures moved higher during the week ended Jan. 9, with the March contract finally breaking above the key resistance level of C$450 per tonne. The market attempted to break resistance every day during the week, but only managed to settle above $450 per tonne on Thursday. On Friday, the market managed to hold above that level as well, after trading mixed throughout the day. Speculative-based buying by the funds, ongoing weakness in the Canadian dollar and strength in outside oilseeds were all lifting the canola market. The Canadian currency continued its tumble during the week, finishing at US84.27 cents on Jan. 9. On Jan. 2, the loonie had ended at US85.02 cents. Chicago soybean futures were up sharply during the week, but canola was lagging those gains, as traders are betting the rally in beans is temporary. At times, some light farmer selling was also limiting the upside in canola, as farmers took advantage of strong futures prices — but there hasn’t been a large amount of farmer selling as many grain companies have widened basis levels in response to the strengthening futures market. Canola cash prices ranged from $9.15 to $10.20 per bushel on Jan. 9, up about 10 cents from the week prior, Prairie Ag Hotwire Data shows. Because canola has lagged the gains in the Chicago Board of Trade soybean market recently, it’s unlikely it’ll fall as far and fast as beans would if they start to tumble. Steady demand, strength in Malaysian palm oil and soyoil futures and the weak Canadian dollar will help to underpin the canola market going forward. Worries also continue about unfavourable weather, including monsoons, reducing production prospects for Malaysia’s palm oil crop. This helped to underpin the Chicago soyoil market during the week, which finished with gains of more than 150 points in most contracts. Chicago soybeans ended more than US40 cents per bushel higher compared

Week Ago

Year Ago

Chicago wheat (nearby future) ($US/tonne)

208.34

—

209.07

Minneapolis wheat (nearby future) ($US/tonne)

223.59

—

228.00

Chicago corn (nearby future) ($US/tonne)

155.21

—

170.37

Chicago oats (nearby future) ($US/tonne)

195.98

—

250.61

Chicago soybeans (nearby future) ($US/tonne)

383.97

—

479.05

Chicago soyoil ($US/tonne)

740.44

—

836.80

Coarse Grains

Meanwhile, a stronger U.S. dollar drags on U.S. wheat Terryn Shiells

Last Week

All prices close of business January 9, 2015

oilseeds

For three-times-daily market reports from Commodity News Service Canada, visit “Today in Markets” at www.manitobacooperator.ca.

Winnipeg Futures ICE Futures Canada prices at close of business January 9, 2015 barley

to the week prior, with continued good demand for the U.S. commodity behind the gains. The strength in soyoil was also bullish for soybeans, though good weather for most of South America’s soybean crop was undermining the market. Corn futures were slightly higher, finding some spillover support from the gains in soybeans. Signs of improving export demand for U.S. corn were supportive overall. Though, supplies of the commodity remain large.

Last Week

Week Ago

March 2015

182.00

—

May 2015

184.00

—

July 2015

186.00

—

Canola

Last Week

Week Ago

January 2015

466.00

—

March 2015

452.20

—

May 2015

448.60

—

Special Crops Report for January 12, 2015 — Bin run delivered plant Saskatchewan Spot Market

Weather concerns

Chicago, Kansas City and Minneapolis wheat futures were all weaker during the week. The main driving force was the strong U.S. dollar index, slowing export demand for U.S. wheat supplies. Easing worries about cold weather causing damage to U.S. winter wheat crops were also behind the declines, though there are some renewed concerns about freezing conditions hurting European winter wheat crops. All three commodities will likely take some direction from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s monthly crop report, which was due to be released Jan. 12. Though the reports are being hyped up for soybeans, it’s not likely there will be any huge surprises given the large U.S. supply situation. Any small change to production or stocks won’t be as big of a deal as it would in a year in which supplies are tight. A similar situation is expected for both corn and wheat, with U.S. and global supplies at comfortable levels.

Terryn Shiells writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

Spot Market

Lentils (Cdn. cents per pound)

Other ( Cdn. cents per pound unless otherwise specified)

Large Green 15/64

Canaryseed

40.50 - 41.00

Laird No. 1

37.50 - 41.00

Oil Sunflower Seed

Eston No. 2

24.00 - 30.00

Desi Chickpeas

23.00 - 24.50 — 15.20 - 16.00

Field Peas (Cdn. $ per bushel)

Beans (Cdn. cents per pound)

Green No. 1

8.30 - 9.50

Fababeans, large

Medium Yellow No. 1

7.90 - 8.00

—

Feed beans

—

Feed Peas (Cdn. $ per bushel)

No. 1 Navy/Pea Beans

26.00 - 26.00

Feed Pea (Rail)

No. 1 Great Northern

42.00 - 42.00

No. 1 Cranberry Beans

42.00 - 42.00

4.10 - 4.10

Mustardseed (Cdn. cents per pound) Yellow No. 1

31.40 - 33.00

No. 1 Light Red Kidney

53.00 - 53.00

Brown No. 1

23.80 - 25.00

No. 1 Dark Red Kidney

67.00 - 67.00

Oriental No. 1

29.50 - 31.00

Source: Stat Publishing SUNFLOWERS

No. 1 Black Beans

30.00 - 30.00

No. 1 Pinto Beans

23.00 - 32.00

No. 1 Small Red

44.00 - 44.00

No. 1 Pink

44.00 - 44.00

Fargo, ND

Goodlands, KS

19.50

Ask

—

Report for January 9, 2015 in US$ cwt NuSun (oilseed) Confection Source: National Sunflower Association

Peas back at historical spreads in Western Canada By Phil Franz-Warkentin Commodity News Service Canada

fter two years of an abnormally large price spread b e t ween green and yellow peas in Western Canada, the relationship between the two crops is back at more normal levels. The yellow pea market has moved up a little in recent weeks, but the green market “is not that interesting,” said David Newman, of Commodius Trading in Vancouver. For green peas, he described the general theme as one of ‘delay,’ with many overseas buyers who have already bought, not that interested

in taking delivery currently. For yellows, there has been “a little splash of demand,” from people needing to fill vessels. “Yellow peas have been so boring for so long, that a 50-cent move is news,” said Newman. He said the ‘news’ wasn’t really that surprising as yellow pea supplies are not that large and every once in a while prices will need to go up to fill vessels and encourage farmer sales. With yellow peas facing steady d e m a n d a n d g re e n p e a s f i n a l l y at a place after two years where supplies are outpacing demand, Newman said prices were converg-

ing back to more historically normal spreads. “In eight out of 10 years, green peas will be $1.50 to $2 above yellows, because it’s harder to get the quality and the yields are a bit less,” said Newman. He said the spread has been as wide as $6 over the past two years, but has now narrowed back in to more normal levels. Green pea bids are currently topping out at about $9.25 per bushel, which is well off the highs of the past year of $13, according to Prairie Ag Hotwire data. Top-end yellow pea bids, meanwhile, are at their yearly highs of $8 per bushel.

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Records show powerful antibiotic for cattle often misused by farmers Ceftiofur accounted for one-fourth of USDA drug-residue violation reports in 2013 By Michael Erman and Brian Grow Reuters

t is one of the most potent antibiotics used by U.S. cattle and dairy farmers. But the strength of the ceftiofur and the frequency with which it’s being misused has created a threat to human health that may overshadow the drug’s effectiveness, a Reuters examination shows. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cautioned in 2012 that ceftiofur could pose a “high public health risk,” in part because the drug belongs to a class of antibiotics considered critically important in human medicine. The warning is the FDA’s strongest kind. The concern is that ceftiofur in animals could spawn antibiotic-resistant bacteria. A Reuters analysis of government data indicates that the risks to human health may be more significant than previously known. Since last year, records kept by the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that traces of ceftiofur were found at illegal levels in slaughtered animals more frequently than with any other drug. In 2013, ceftiofur alone accounted for one-fourth of all residue violations logged by the USDA. The residues are not themselves considered dangerous

but the traces serve as a warning sign that the drug was used shortly before the animal was killed, thus increasing the chances that the meat contains superbugs, said Guy Loneragan, a veterinary epidemiologist at Texas Tech University. Studies show that ceftiofur, more than most other drugs, can sharply increase the amount of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in an animal. “It kills off weaker bugs and allows stronger ones to survive and multiply,” Loneragan said. The effect is especially pronounced soon after the drug has been used, studies show. Zoetis says ceftiofur is safe to use as directed. “The use of ceftiofur continues to be appropriate when used according to the label directions in those animals that are in at-risk situations,” said Scott Brown, vice-president of global therapeutics research at Zoetis. The stakes are especially high because the drug is part of a crucial class of antibiotics called cephalosporins. The class includes ceftriaxone, a drug that’s vital to treating pneumonia, meningitis and salmonella infections in children, according to the FDA. The use of one type of cephalosporin can compromise the effectiveness of others in the same class.

Economic incentives

Despite the perils, there are economic incentives to misuse ceftiofur. The potent drug can keep a sick cow alive long enough for a dairy farmer to sell the animal to a slaughterhouse. Hugh Byron ran a dairy farm in Hillsboro, Kentucky, until 2011 and kept cattle until this year. He says he frequently used ceftiofur to treat common infections in his cows. In July 2010, a dairy cow sent to slaughter from Byron’s farm tested positive for 5.61 milligrams of ceftiofur residue per kilogram of tissue sample. That was 14 times higher than the 0.4-milligram level set by the FDA. Byron admits that he has administered ceftiofur at the end of his animals’ lives hoping they’d hang on, so that a slaughterhouse would accept the cows and pay him. “We’re talking about our livelihood, our money. We’re trying to save the cow and if we can’t save the cow, we’re trying to salvage it,” said Byron. “In other words, send her to the stockyard and get something out of it. So there’s a temptation to fudge on it.” One of ceftiofur’s features is a short withdrawal period. In the case of milk, if a cow takes penicillin, the farmer must discard all the milk produced for at least two days and as many as 15 days after the drug is last given. There’s

Zoetis says that one of the advantages of ceftiofur is the short withdrawal period.

often no withdrawal period for certain ceftiofur products, so a cow can keep producing milk while taking it.

No test for bacteria

The USDA tests animals for traces of antibiotics, to prevent excess levels of drugs such as ceftiofur from entering the food supply. But the residue program doesn’t test for the presence of resistant bacteria. In the case of ceftiofur, those bugs can survive in an animal past the end of the drug’s required withdrawal period, studies show. Zoetis said the FDA has evaluated ceftiofur’s impact on antibiotic resistance in bacteria and has approved drugs containing the compound as recently as last year.

Those caught misusing veterinary antibiotics face light consequences. Penalties include condemnation of the animal. Further action is extremely rare, an examination of regulatory and court records shows. The residue-testing program has been harshly criticized by federal auditors. A 2010 report by the Government Accountability Office found that the program “is not accomplishing its mission of monitoring the food supply for harmful residues.” One result of the audit was the implementation two years later of the new residue-testing methodology now used by the USDA and FDA. A longer version of this article is on our website.

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Canada pulse exports benefit from dry India

A walk in the hoar frost

India’s production has fallen short By Rod Nickel winnipeg / reuters

ne of the world’s biggest lentil shippers expects Canadian exports of that crop and other legumes to climb to near-record levels this year, as dry conditions in India limit output in that country, the biggest consumer of the protein-rich foods. Chief executive officer Murad Al-Katib of AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. expects that strong prices will entice Canadian farmers this spring to plant about 10 per cent more lentils and dry peas, sowing the country’s largest area in about five years. Al-Katib, 42, started AGT 14 years ago in his basement in Regina, Saskatchewan. The company, which specializes in so-called pulse crops but also processes durum wheat, now has a market cap of $518 million. Lentils and peas are staple foods in some developing countries. AGT depends on India, north Africa and the Middle East for 65 per cent of its revenue. “The reason I love this business is it is a cross-income product,” Al-Katib said in a phone interview from Regina. “The richest consumer consumes (pulses) and the poorest consumer consumes. The only difference is how much they consume, and the quality.” In India, weak monsoon rains will limit output of pulse crops this year to around 18 million tonnes, falling four million tonnes short of India’s consumption, Al-Katib said. Nitin Kalantri, a miller in India’s western state of Maharashtra, said Indian chickpea output could fall by 20 per cent, resulting in larger yellow pea imports. Still, Canada’s ability to cash in on India’s crop problems depends on how willing and able farmers are to plant more pulse crops four months from now. Saskatchewan, the province that grows the most pulses, is prone to flooding, and farmers will also assess wheat and canola prices in deciding what to plant. AGT stock jumped 67 per cent in 2014 as it diversified further from its lentil focus. The company has enjoyed a sharp turnaround from 2012, when the stock slid to a three-year bottom due to failure of the 2010 Canadian pulse crop, followed by the Arab Spring unrest and collapsing currencies in emerging markets. AGT struck an agreement last year with Ingredion Inc. to distribute flours, protein and bran ingredients within the food industry. It markets proteins for pet food through Cargill Inc. Together, the deals give AGT greater footholds in North America, western Europe and China.

Heidi the Shepherd leads the way for a walk on the Bennie farm near Waskada. photo: sharlene bennie

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Beware of snow load Can your farm buildings withstand the weight of snow and ice? The Co-operators release

he effects of heavy snow and ice on your farm building’s roof can pose serious risks to the structure, as well as threaten personal safety. The Co-operators is offering these property maintenance and safety tips for your consideration during times of heavy snowfall in your area. Snow load is the downward force on a building’s roof by the weight of accumulated snow and ice. The roof or the entire structure can fail if the snow load exceeds the maximum weight the building was designed to shoulder, leading to a loss of the structure, any livestock and machinery within it, as well as valuable income while the damage is repaired. Remember, it doesn’t take a blizzard to cause problems; an imbalance of drifting snow on one part of the roof can cause it to fail, triggering a domino effect that affects the rest of the structure.

Signs of excessive snow load

Since the weight of snow and ice can vary from five to 58 lbs. per square foot, here are signs that a structure failure may be imminent: • Audible creaking; • Visible bowing of rafters; • Small gaps appearing between ceiling panels; • Distortion of ceiling coverings. Metal structures don’t always exhibit signs of stress before failure, so using the following tips will help prevent damage from excessive snow load.

File Photo

Preventing structure failure

We strongly recommend hiring a qualified snow-removal contractor; however, if you attempt to do this yourself, please use these safety tips: • Use caution if standing on the roof; • Make sure to wear a safety harness;

• Use securing ladders; • Use a snow rake; • Avoid chipping or picking away at ice, to prevent damage to the roof covering; • Remove the snow in narrow strips from side to side, in an attempt to balance the stress on the roof.

Contact your adviser

Not all structures qualify for coverage for collapse due to the weight of ice or snow. If you have any questions or concerns, or to check if your structure qualifies for coverage, please contact your adviser.

A BIG CONGRATULATIONS to our “Weather You Like It or Not, It Matters” contest winner Max Roche! Max is a Junior 4-H Member in the Oak Lake 4-H Busy Buddies Club. On behalf of the Manitoba Cooperator, CoCoRaHS Manitoba and 4-H Manitoba, we’d like to say thank you to all who entered our contest, and encourage you to read this great story that Max submitted!

GREAT NEWS!!! 4-H Manitoba & CoCoRaHS Manitoba have teamed up! 4-H Manitoba will be the first to officially pilot CoCoRaHs as a 4-H Project here in Canada. With an official launch to occur by Fall 2015, members will be able to participate in real hands-on citizen-science activities that are designed to be both fun & educational. This project is designed for Junior and Intermediate members but may be of interest to all ages. Activities are built around an emphasis on measuring precipitation, and can be hosted in both urban and rural environments. The CoCoRaHs 4-H Project offers a variety of fantastic lesson plans and activities which include a variety of components like science & experimentation, weather & environment, individual & group collaboration, mathematics, data entry & computer technology, a sense of community and much more.

The Flood of 2014

In 2014 we had a ﬂood.

It rained for 3 days

and we got 20 centimeter s of rain. There was water everyw here. There

was water running over the land, surrounding people’ s homes and ﬂooding pe ople’s basements. It took a lot of time for th

e water to drain away, jus t about all summer. We had hundred s of frogs living around our house because of all the water sitting around. They were really loud at night. Then the mosquitos came and they lasted right until fall. You had to put mosquito repellant on every time you wanted to go outside . There are places that are are still undrivable and br

still aﬀected by the ﬂood

All that is required is an enthusiasm for watching and reporting weather conditions and a desire to learn more about how weather can impact our lives. It’s easy and it’s fun !

To ﬁnd out more about CoCoRaHs, visit our website at: www.cocorahs.org/canada or contact the Program Coordinator, Tiﬃny Taylor, at 204-228-0842. To learn more about 4-H Manitoba and how you can get involved, visit www.4h.mb.ca

idges are washed out.

because roads By: Max Roche

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Reforms bring ‘Fair Food’ label to Florida-grown tomatoes The logo signifies a commitment to providing better salaries and working conditions for workers By Letitia Stein tampa, fla. / reuters

new “Fair Food” label to help shoppers identify tomatoes grown under ethical working conditions is making its debut in stores belonging to the U.S. grocer Whole Foods Market, a result of efforts to ensure Florida farmworkers’ rights to water, shade and fair wages. The label, featuring a worker hoisting a brimming bucket, publicizes a campaign to reform an industry criticized by labour groups and prosecutors for unsafe and unfair working conditions. A dozen major buyers, including WalMart, Yum Brands, and Subway restaurants, are participating. It is not yet known when the label may be available at all outlets. Participating buyers have agreed to purchase fresh tomatoes only from

photo: Thinkstock

growers following higher standards. About 90 per cent of tomato growers have signed on in Florida, the nation’s

leading producer of fresh market tomatoes. The campaign’s centrepiece is a premium of an extra penny per pound picked, paid on top of workers’ hourly minimum wages. Since 2011, this has netted an extra $15 million for workers, organizers said, adding $30 to $80 or more to weekly paycheques. T h e l a b e l i s “p o t e n t i a l l y g a m e changing like few things are,” said Janice Fine, an associate professor in labour studies and employment relations at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Officials at the White House and the United Nations have called the program a model that could expand to other regions and crops. The campaign is profiled in the film “Food Chains,” set for national release later this month. In Florida, the program has assured

safe conditions for an estimated 6 0 , 0 0 0 t o 9 0 , 0 0 0 w o rk e r s d u r i n g tomato season, mostly in the central and southern parts of the state. Florida fields produced $456 million in fresh market tomatoes in 2013, according to the state and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It’s a market that Florida dominates, along with California, the nation’s top overall tomato producer. Whole Foods will debut “Fair Food” signage in its produce aisle as earlyseason cherry and grape tomatoes from participating growers arrive at its stores in the U.S. Southeast. With the label, consumers can start “supporting directly those companies that are willing to step up their game,” said Gerardo Reyes, a staff member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which launched the Fair Food Program in 2011.

Karin Wittenberg new faculty dean The research scientist will fill a three-year term University of Manitoba release Karin Wittenberg has been appointed dean of the faculty of agricultural and food sciences at the University of Manitoba for a three-year term effective January 1, 2015. She brings to the position strengths in agricultural research, education and outreach, and has a significant range of administrative and partnership-building experience. A professor in the department of animal science, Wittenberg has served as acting dean of the faculty since July 2014. Prior to this, she led the faculty in several capacities including associate dean (research) and department head of animal science. Wittenberg received her PhD in ruminant nutrition from the University of Manitoba in 1985, and soon after joined the department of animal science. Her research program has been directed at the development of sustainable animal production systems, and she has a distinguished record of research, peer-reviewed publication and graduate supervision. Notably, she led the establishment of the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment and the development of the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre, and established a $7-million industry-led fundraising initiative in support of these two innovative facilities. Wittenberg is the recipient of numerous awards and honours from science peers, industry and the community, including the Canadian Society of Animal Science Fellowship Award, the Manitoba Pork Council Education Award and the YMCA-YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Science and Innovation.

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

WEATHER VANE

Weather now for next week.

Get the Manitoba Co-operator mobile app and get local or national forecast info. Download the free app at agreader.ca/mbc

“ E v e r y o n e ta l k s a b o ut the weathe r , b ut n o o n e d o es a n y thi n g a b o ut it . ” M a r k Tw a i n , 18 9 7

Weather pleasant but a little fragile Issued: Monday, Jan. 12, 2015, covering the period from Jan. 14 to 21, 2015 Daniel Bezte Co-operator contributor

he start of this forecast period will see the last in a series of cold arctic highs push off to the east, which should result in milder conditions for the remainder of this forecast period and hopefully beyond. The best way to describe this forecast period is fragile. That is, while there are a couple of large weather features that should strongly influence our weather over the next week or so, they are both off to our west. This will lead to weak systems affecting our region, and weak systems can be difficult to forecast as their weak nature allows them to be easily influenced by other weather systems. So overall confidence in this forecast is not that high. For most of this forecast period we’ll be dealing with a large area of low pressure over the Gulf of Alaska, along with a building ridge of high pressure over the West Coast of the U.S. This should keep the arctic air trapped in the Arctic and any significant moisture and storm systems well to our south and east. It looks as if we’ll see a

series of weak lows slide down from the northwest over the next week. The first of these lows should slide by to our northeast on Wednesday, bringing with it a few flurries along with milder temperatures. A second and slightly stronger low will slide through over the weekend. Temperatures will continue to be mild ahead of this low on Friday and Saturday, with highs staying in the -3 to -5 C range. Slightly cooler air will move in behind this low on Sunday and Monday, but highs should still be in the -7 to -10 C range, which isn’t too bad for this time of the year. The fragile pattern looks to continue into next week with high pressure dominating for the most part. Should this pan out it will make for some really nice winter weather, with highs running in the -5 to -10 C range, overnight lows around -15 to -20 C, and relatively light winds. So get out and enjoy! Usual temperature range for this period: Highs, -22 to -5 C; lows, -33 to -16 C. Daniel Bezte is a teacher by profession with a BA (Hon.) in geography, specializing in climatology, from the U of W. He operates a computerized weather station near Birds Hill Park. Contact him with your questions and comments at daniel@bezte.ca.

2014 lower troposphere anomaly

This issue’s map shows the 2014 yearly temperature anomaly for the lower troposphere as calculated by the University of AlabamaHuntsville. By its readings, calculated using satellite-based instruments that measure the temperature of the atmosphere from the surface up to an altitude of about eight kilometres above sea level, 2014 was the third-warmest year in the 36-year global satellite temperature record. You can easily see the coldest part of the planet last year, compared to average, was over central and eastern North America.

A look back at 2014’s weather Let’s review from a winter that barely qualified back to a winter that wouldn’t go away By Daniel Bezte co-operator contributor

ow that we’ve had some time to settle into the new year it’s time to take our annual look back at the previous year’s weather. Usually I look back by going through each month chronologically starting with last January, but this year I thought I’d reverse the sequence and start off with December and work our way back. This way we can start with what we can easily remember and work toward what we’ve tried to forget — namely, last winter! December 2014: oh, I remember it like it was only last month! A lot of people look back to December with fond weather memories as most of southern and central Manitoba, and in fact, most of the southern and central Prairies, experienced well-above-average temperatures with only a few centimetres of snow. Personally, I had mixed feelings about the month. If it’s going to be winter, there might as well be enough snow to get out and do winter-like things. Also, last winter it was too cold to get out and enjoy all of the snow; this time it was too warm and all the snow and ice were melting! November of last year had us shaking our heads and hop-

ing this winter wasn’t going to be a repeat of last winter. Cold weather moved in early and areas downwind of the big lakes saw some significant and widespread lake effect snows. Overall, temperatures during the month were well below average, with below-average amounts of snow, except for those regions around the lakes. October was a surprisingly warm month across the region, with temperatures coming in 1 to 2 C above the long-term average. Precipitation was also below average during October with most regions seeing between five and 10 mm of rainfall. Of interest during October was the late-month heat wave that saw temperatures top the 20 C mark in several locations on or around Oct. 24. September was also warmer than average, with daytime highs again averaging 1 to 2 C above normal. Precipitation was below average again this month, with amounts in eastern regions only in the 25- to 30-mm range, while western regions were a little wetter with amounts of 40-50 mm reported. The month started off nice, but during the second week temperatures cooled and it started to feel like fall. Later in the month, summer-like heat built back into our region, with highs

making it into the upper 20s to even around 30 C from September 25 to 27. Overall, August 2014 was a fairly nice summer month. Temperatures across all three regions were about 0.5 C above average, making it a warm month, but not overly hot. The first three weeks saw daytime highs in the mid- to upper 20s, with only one or two days making it over 30 C. The first half of the month was also fairly dry with only 10 to 20 mm of rainfall reported in most areas. During the last week and of a half of August, cooler temperatures moved in along with rain. By the end of the month all three of our major centres reported above-average amounts of precipitation, with the highest amounts found in the Dauphin region with upward of 150 mm of rain. July was also a fairly nice summer month, even though the average monthly temperatures across our region were about 1 C below their long-term averages. With the exception of the first couple of days and a short cool snap in the middle of the month, daytime highs were usually in the mid-20s with the odd day pushing 30 C. Precipitation was light during the month, with most areas reporting between 20 and 35 mm of rain.

June’s cats and dogs

One of the biggest weather stories of the year was June’s weather. Temperatures were rather unremarkable during the month, with a monthly average pretty much bang on the long-term average. What we will remember about June was the rain, which fell between 15 and 20 days of the month, depending on where you live. Not only was it the number of times it rained, but also the amount. The Winnipeg and Dauphin regions saw more than double the normal amount in June, while the Brandon region reported a remarkable 256.1 mm, or over four times its June average. Most of the rainfall during June was a result of a couple of unusually strong upper-level lows. May was a little cooler than average, with near-average amounts of precipitation over eastern regions and aboveaverage amounts over western regions. The first three weeks of the month were fairly cool with overnight lows falling below 0 C on several occasions and daytime highs bouncing back and forth between 10 and 20 C. Warm weather finally moved in during the last week of the month, as highs soared into the upper 20s and even the low 30s for the first time. Last but not least were the

The Brandon region reported a remarkable 256.1 mm of rainfall, or over four times its average, for June.

months of April back to January — the months we all want to forget. I am going to lump them all together and simply say that January, February, March and April was a period when winter just didn’t want to take a break. I remember skiing at Asessippi during spring break and thinking to myself this would be perfect skiing weather if it was the middle of January, not the end of March! Needless to say, this period’s mean monthly temperatures were between 4 and 8 C below average. Top that off with near-average snowfall and it just makes a bad winter even worse — not to mention making it seem to last forever! Now the big question is, what’s going to win out this year? Cold or warm? You’ll have to wait until the next issue to find out.

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

T:10.25”

CROPS husbandry — the science , S K I L L O R A R T O F F A R M I N G

Representative sample critical in grading grain Norm Woodbeck also says the U.S. and Canadian wheat-grading systems are as different as apples and oranges By Allan Dawson co-operator staff /darlingford

Norm Woodbeck, a former chief grain inspector with the Canadian Grain Commission, spoke about grain grading at a meeting in Darlingford Dec. 10. Woodbeck, who retired from the commission in 2011, now works for Intertek, a private grain-grading company. photo: allan dawson

tively accurate way to divide a sample. But even when very expensive reducing equipment is used, there will be variability. Woodbeck ran a test using the Boerner divider, an expensive piece of equipment the grain commission and Intertek use to reduce samples. He took 1,000 grams of durum wheat and dyed five grams creating a sample that contained 0.5 per cent dyed kernels. The sample was divided 25 times. Each time Woodbeck weighed the dyed kernels. The results varied a lot with the lowest level of dyed kernels at 0.08 per cent and the highest at 0.92 per cent. But when averaged, the dyed kernels came out at 0.52 per cent dyed — almost exactly the percentage of the original sample. If the dyed kernels were in fact fusarium-damaged kernels, one of the samples would have graded a No. 3 and another a No. 1 Canada Western Amber durum, Woodbeck said. “You have sampling error, dividing error and then you throw a bunch of grain inspectors into the mix and they have different eyes and the way they look at it you’ve got more variability in there,” he said. In addition to visually grading grain, laboratory tests are often done

Visually assessing grain quality more challenging this year Falling numbers are down but still good, says the CGC’s David Hatcher By Allan Dawson co-operator staff

he visual factors grain inspectors use to estimate falling number and vomitoxin in wheat are never exact, but this year there’s even more variation than usual, says Norm Woodbeck, manager, agri operations with Inter tek Commodities Services, a private graingrading company. “This has driven the industry to do a lot of testing (for the toxin deoxynivalenol) to verify what they’ve got because they just can’t take a chance,” Woodbeck said in an interview Jan. 7. There’s no quick elevator test for deoxynivalenol (DON), a toxin produced by fusarium head blight. Bu t re s e a rc h e r s h a v e established a correlation between fusarium-damaged kernels (FDK) and DON levels. The percentage of fusarium damage affects the wheat’s grade. “I think this year we’re seeing, for whatever reason, with the vomitoxin See VISUAL on page 18 »

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laying the grain-grading game successfully starts with collecting a truly representative sample from your crop, the former chief grain inspector for Canada told farmers meeting here recently. It also requires understanding the differences between Canada and the U.S. grading systems, said Norm Woodbeck, who retired from the Canadian Grain Commission in 2011 and now works for private grain grader Intertek Commodities Services. “I don’t care how good you are as an inspector. I don’t care what you have for equipment — you could have the fanciest lab in the world — everything that you do is based on that sample,” Norm Woodbeck told farmers attending the Boundary Loading Group’s second annual meeting Dec. 10. Farmers are generally good at collecting grain samples from every load as they move grain from the combine into storage bins. They should also make sure grain buyers are getting a representative sample when the grain is delivered to the elevator, said Woodbeck. That means getting multiple samples from a load and not a few scoops as grain first pours out the back of the truck. “That’s where all the chaff is so you’re going to get an unrepresentative sample for dockage,” he warned. “Sample it from start to finish, that is the key.” Varying samples is why sometimes farmers get different grades from different grain buyers for what is supposed to be the same grain, Woodbeck said. “In theory they could be both right.” Swirling a grain sample around in a pail and then dumping it isn’t the best way to get a representative sample either, especially in a crop such as soybeans where a bit of shaking sends all the lighter dockage to the bottom. Large grain samples need to be reduced. Placing a piece of paper between two adjoining tubs is a rela-

on wheat to assess its falling number and levels of DON (deoxynivalenol), a toxin sometimes produced by fusarium head blight. In a 1,000-gram sample, one badly sprouted or DON-laden kernel — the so-called “nugget effect” — “can throw your test right out the window,” Woodbeck said. A low falling number or high level of DON will lower the grade and the value of a farmer’s wheat. (See sidebar.) He advised farmers to get their wheat graded before marketing. To attract harvest samples in the fall, the Canadian Grain Commission will provide farmers with a free protein test and grade. Grain companies will also grade grain for farmers. Farmers shipping grain on the Boundary Trails Railway (BTR) get free grading through Intertek. Some farmers using BTR are shipping grain to the U.S., which has a very different grading system. “My advice to producers... is to learn both systems, understand the different terminologies and the different factors and don’t try to compare them,” he said. “They are apples and oranges.” For example test weight in the U.S. is based on a Winchester bushel, which is smaller than a Canadian bushel. Both countries use the same moisture-testing equipment, but they are calibrated differently so results will differ too. The grain commission’s website has test weight and moisture conversion tables. Instead of wheat grades dropping from a No. 1 to a No. 2 and then a No. 3, in the U.S. a No. 1 Dark Northern Spring wheat will drop to a No. 1 Northern Spring and then to a No. 1 Red Spring. “In theory you could go down (to the U.S.) and get two per cent severely sprouted wheat, (which) in Canada would be a feed wheat and it would still qualify for a No. 1 wheat in the U.S.,” Woodbeck said. “Now that’s why they want to know the falling number and with fusarium, they want to know the DON (levels) besides the grade.”

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

VISUALLY Continued from page 17

that the relationships aren’t there that we maybe saw in the past,” Woodbeck said. Some wheat samples contain more DON than would be expected given the percentage of fusarium-damaged kernels and some less, he said. Sometimes the culprit is the so-called “nugget effect” when one or several kernels of wheat in a 1,000-gram test are heavily laden with DON, said David Hatcher of the Canadian Grain Commission’s Grain Research Laboratory. “The CGC — I can’t stress this enough — takes this very seriously because grain safety is paramount to both domestic and international sales,” Hatcher said in an interview Jan. 8. “We feel it’s critical to stay on top of this.” The CGC is exploring ways to conduct a quick DON test grain buyers can use on the elevator driveway to replace the current system based on damaged kernels, he said.

Dog days of winter

Sun dogs appear at sunset near Headingley on a bitterly cold winter afternoon. photo: brady knight

“I think this year we’re seeing, for whatever reason, with the vomitoxin that the relationships aren’t there that we maybe saw in the past.” N ORM WOODBECK

Varying weather conditions and different types of fusarium head blight, a fungal disease, can all result in different levels of DON, Hatcher said. Sprouting wheat produces the enzyme alpha amylase, which reduces dough elasticity undermining bread quality. Grain inspectors use the percentage of sprouted wheat kernels as a quick way to estimate the damage. A more reliable but timeconsuming measure is falling number — the length of time, measured in seconds, it takes a plunger to drop through a slurry of water and flour in a test tube. A higher falling number means the dough will have more elasticity and produce better bread. Woodbeck said he’s seeing lower falling numbers in wheat that doesn’t appear to have any sprouting. He suspects, however, there’s “incipient sprouting.” That’s when the sprouting process has started but isn’t visible. “Our falling numbers are excellent this year. There’s not a problem, but they are somewhat lower than last (crop) year, however,” Hatcher said. “But the numbers are well within the 10-year average and well within a good rating. “Sprouting was not a problem this year in our CWRS (Canada Western Red Spring wheat).” Last crop year CWRS wheat routinely had falling numbers of 425 to 450, while this year they generally range between 380 and 400, “which is still totally acceptable and is well within our normal experience for a No. 1 CWRS,” Hatcher said. The critical thing for millers and processors is knowing how wheat is going to perform, Woodbeck said. Then they can adjust their equipment and processes accordingly.

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Good stubble and lots of snow key for winter wheat It’s better to be good than lucky when it comes to ensuring adequate protection for your winter wheat crop By Shannon VanRaes co-operator staff/St. Jean Baptiste

Ingrid Kristjanson

While bare spots are visible on some fields in southern Manitoba, winter wheat fields with stubble shouldn’t have open soil patches. “Certainly if you’re startBRANDON14_QUEN-T.qxd 1/7/15 ing to see black spots in the

field, then you know that you need to have better stubble to ensure good snow cover on your winter wheat,” Kristjanson said. 3:34 PM

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he importance of sowing winter wheat into stubble is underscored in a winter like this one that saw less snow before the cold temperatures arrived, MAFRD extension officials told farmers attending St. Jean Farm Days. “ We’ve gotten away with m u rd e r i n a l o t o f y e a r s when we haven’t had really good stubble conditions, so then we start to think about that being the norm, but we really need to be careful that we have good stubble in order to have good snow c ov e r,” s a i d In g r i d K r i s t janson, a crop production specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. This year, most of Manitoba has had less snowfall than last winter, and a warm December caused a significant amount of melting. “If yo u’ve g o t t h e s n ow cover, you’re in good shape,” Kristjanson said. “I guess there is a little bit of concern when we hit those really warm temperatures in December… there is a possibility that if there was a place where it was already fairly bare, then with the warm temperature you might have some areas rise above zero, so that could potentially be a bit of a concern, we don’t really know yet.” Mike Wroblewski, a meteorologist with MAFRD’s crop knowledge centre, noted a lot can still change in the coming weeks and months, but speaking at St. Jean Farm Days he said that more snowfall would be helpful for winter wheat producers. “Snow sublimates all year long, if we don’t get any more snow and we have relatively dr y conditions, there’s the possibility that through the wind and the air that could disappear,” Wroblewski said, noting that’s a worse-case scenario. He added that last spring’s brief, early warm-up followed by extremely cold temperatures caused difficulty for winter wheat producers. “For us, we’re always more concerned about really cold weather,” Kristjanson said. “But the good thing about winter wheat is that early in the season is when it’s the most cold tolerant. “ The plant will slowly m ove o u t o f dor mancy as we get into the spring, so as long as we have good snow cover and protection, variability in the weather will not have as big of an impact. If we get those days in February where we sometimes get a melt or a rain, then have i c e c ov e r i n g , t h e n i t g e t s colder, that’s a bigger risk,” she added.

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Investors lulled by high prices Ending stocks of corn are likely to begin to drop downwards next year By Shannon VanRaes co-operator staff

hey’re phrases that have gotten a lot of use over the last few months. Analysts and experts are increasingly describing changes in commodity prices for wheat and corn as a “paradigm shift” or the arrival of a “new price paradigm.” But Chuck Penner, founder of LeftField Commodity Research said producers should be cognizant that high prices don’t necessarily mean higher profits in the long run. “High prices often come with higher costs,” said Penner, speaking at the annual Western Wheat Growers convention in Winnipeg. Producers and others may see a lag time where they can cash in on high prices before costs increase, but eventually margins return where they were before the shift in commodity prices.

“I kinda think we’re close to the bottom on corn, so we’ll start to see some relief in sight.” Chuck Penner

this big drought in Russia and it kept them from falling further,” he said. “Frankly the fundamentals said we should have fallen further. Finally we started to adjust from that… and then we had the 2012 drought in the U.S. and that extended those highs.” This fairly long stretch of sustained high prices may have distorted both investors’ and producers’ sense of how the market behaves, he said. “I’m a firm, firm believer in the fact that there are market cycles, and markets go up and markets go down, we’ve kind of been lulled into a

“A n d I t h i n k t h a t’s v e r y clearly what’s been the experience for many people in this high-price environment. So it gives you a bit of a lag… but overall it’s not great,” he said. And while prices are now returning to a sort of equilibrium, Penner pointed out the biggest market changes are still caused by the one factor that is hardest to predict — the weather. “ We h a d t h i s p e r i o d o f extended highs and they star ted with 2010 Russian drought, if you remember, markets were coming down in ’09 and ’10, then we had

Chuck Penner Photo: Shannon VanRaes

false sense of security that that may not necessarily be the case,” said Penner. “We had this kind of high-level plateau, and I think people

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get carried away by the hype — people in funds, farmers, cab drivers, dentists, people investing in commodities got carried away by this hype that it just could keep going higher forever.” Those investments themselves then altered the market, although Penner doesn’t believe the impact was as significant as other factors. Pr o d u c t i o n h a s t r i e d t o respond to increases in price, Penner noted, adding that ending stocks of both corn and wheat have increased of the last two years. “And frankly the market isn’t so concerned about where e n d i n g s t o c k s a re a t , b u t whether they are going up or are they going down,” he said. He expects ending stocks for corn will begin to decrease again next year. “So I’m calling for some gradual gains… not a huge rally,” he said. “I kind of think we’re close to the bottom on corn, so we’ll start to see some relief in sight.” Whether year-end wheat stocks will begin to fall next year might be harder to pin down, but Penner said that while production has increased, so has consumption. Especially as a smaller barley crop has meant a greater need to use wheat in livestock feed. “The markets have generally been negative towards w h e a t , I ’m n o t a s m u c h , I’m more of an optimist on wheat,” he said. shannon.vanraes@fbcpublishing.com

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

China to issue grain import quotas only after state sales end Beijing is revamping its quota allocation system in a bid to reduce stockpiles By Niu Shuping and David Stanway beijing / reuters

h i n a’s g ra i n i m p o r t s could plummet this year, with the government determined to sell off as much of its bulging state grain reserves as possible before it finally grants mills permission to buy overseas, analysts said. In previous years, private mills were normally allocated grain import quotas in January, allowing them to start ordering cargoes immediately, but it could take several more months this year as Beijing revamps its quota allocation system in a bid to reduce stockpiles, analysts said. While overall import quota volumes are unchanged, the amount allocated to individual mills will depend on how much they are prepared to buy from state reserves. “Corn imports will surely decrease this year as the reserve-linked quota allocation system will help the government get rid of stocks while discouraging mills from importing,” said Feng Lichen, a senior analyst with industry portal yumi.com.cn. Quotas will be allocated once mills have paid for and received grain bought at auction and the whole process could stretch out for more than two months. Total corn import quotas amount to 7.2 million tonnes, but 60 per cent of that, earmarked for state-owned entities, will not be issued at all in a bid to encourage state reserve sales, Feng said. But the government could struggle to issue the remaining 40 per cent to private mills, with many reluctant to buy reserves that are often low in quality and far too expensive, he added. In order to obtain quotas, some mills pay more than 240 yuan ($39) per tonne higher than the market price for state corn stored in northeastern provinces. During the first round of auctions from Jan. 6 to 8, only 36 per cent of the corn on offer was sold, amounting to 1.7 million tonnes. The remainder will go on sale again next week. “Mills are motivated to profit from cheaper imports, but the price gap changes every day and they are not sure when they can get the quotas,” said another industry source. “They face potential risks if overseas prices rise.” Auctions for state wheat reserves have proved more popular, with flour mills desperate to get hold of import quotas and gain access to higher-qual-

ity produce, which is in short supply in China. This week, the government sold 83.6 per cent of the two million tonnes on offer at an average price of 2,569 yuan ($414) per tonne for white wheat and 2,635 yuan for mixed-quality wheat, according to results posted by the National Grain and Oil Trade Centre (www. grainmarket.com.cn). COFCO, a state-owned trader, is also sourcing high-quality wheat overseas and bought two cargoes earlier this month, industry sources said. ($1 = 6.2086 yuan)

A porter moves a bag of flour onto a truck at a wholesale market in Beijing, July 18, 2013.

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

A hoarfrosted tower near Darlingford

U.S. soy stocks balloon on record crop A big South American harvest also looms washington / reuters

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he record U.S. soybean harvest in 2014 was even bigger than expected, pushing domestic supplies to their highest in eight years ahead of what is expected to be a bumper harvest in South America, according to government data released on Jan. 12. The U.S. Agriculture Department also said that U.S. corn stocks were a record 11.203 billion bushels as of Dec. 1, 2014 despite surprisingly large cuts to its production and yield readings. U.S. farmers cut their winter wheat plantings by 4.6 per cent to 40.452 million acres, below the low end of a range of analysts’ forecasts. USDA pegged the total U.S. soybean crop at a record 3.969 billion bushels, based on an average yield of 47.8 bushels per acre, also a record. A month ago, USDA said the soybean crop was 3.958 billion bushels and average yield was 47.5 bushels per acre. The harvest pushed U.S. soybean stocks as of Dec. 1 to 2.524 billion bushels, up from 2.154 billion bushels a year ago but below the 2.590 billion bushels predicted by the average of trade forecasts. The government raised its outlook for Brazil soybean production by 1.5 million tonnes to a record 95.50 million tonnes. Production in Argentina was seen at 55 million tonnes, unchanged from December. USDA trimmed its U.S. corn harvest view to 14.216 billion bushels from 14.407 billion and the average yield to 171.0 bushels per acre from 173.4. Analysts had been expecting a corn harvest of 14.349 billion bushels and an average yield of 173.3 bushels per acre. The government raised its harvested corn acres figure to 83.136 million from 83.097 million and cut its soybean acreage to 83.061 million from 83.403 million. For wheat, USDA said farmers seeded 40.452 million acres of winter wheat, compared to forecasts ranging from 41 million to 44 million. A year ago, total winter wheat plantings were 42.399 million acres. Acreage for hard red winter wheat, the largest class, fell to 29.5 million. The average of analysts’ hard red winter estimates was 31.023 million acres. USDA also lowered its outlook for 2014-15 domestic corn ending stocks to 1.877 billion bushels, raised its wheat ending stocks view to 687 million bushels and left soybean ending stocks unchanged at 410 million bushels.

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

EU countries can grow GM crops… or not New law would give individual countries the right to opt out By Barbara Lewis Reuters

h e E u r o p e a n Un i o n agreed a compromise on growing genetically modified crops on Dec. 4 that gives nations the option to ban them, even if EU authorities have approved them for cultivation. Environmental campaigners said the deal was an improvement on the current regime, but were concerned it would still make it easier to grow GM crops in Europe, while representatives of the GM industry also criticized the deal. Widespread in the Americas and Asia, GM crops are rare in Europe, where they divide opinion, with opposition in many countries including France and Germany. Britain is in favour of them. An earlier attempt to reach a compromise on GM cultivation failed in 2012, when EU ministers were unable to agree. The new law, which needs a formal sign-off from the 28 member states and the European Parliament, gives nations the right to seek an opt-out if the European Commission grants approval for a GM crop. Until now, any national bans for EU-approved GM crops have tended to be subject to court challenges. Re p re s e n t i n g t h e G re e n group in the European Parliament, food safety spokesperson Bart Staes said the deal was not robust enough and risked “finally opening the door to genetically modified organisms across Europe, in spite of citizens’ clear opposition.” Europabio, which represents the GM industr y, issued a statement saying the deal sent “a negative signal for innova-

tive industries” and denied farmers freedom of choice. So far, EU authorities have approved only two GM crops for commercial cultivation, and one, a starchy potato, was later blocked by a court. That leaves Monsanto’s GM maize MON810 as the only GM crop grown in Europe, where it has been cultivated in Spain and Portugal for a decade. A l a rg e r n u m b e r o f G M crops is approved for import, almost exclusively used as animal feed.

A Greenpeace activist displays signs symbolizing genetically modified maize crops during a protest in front of the European Union headquarters in Brussels in 2008. Only one GM crop is grown in Europe — a small amount of corn in Spain and Portugal. Photo: REUTERS/Thierry Roge

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Will lower prices help the world’s hungry? Lower oil import bill may give some countries the chance to spend more on infrastructure By Chris Arsenault Rome / Thomson Reuters Foundation

slump in global oil prices has brought cheaper food to many of the world’s poorest, but from the slums of Manila to the fields of Malawi, the benefits are not universal. Globally, 805 million people still face chronic hunger, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. While the poorest in cities may see a reduction in food bills, those in rural areas, not integrated into world food markets, may not. The price of oil dropped by half last year, the second-biggest annual decline ever, hitting a 5-1/2-year low. Oil prices have a knock-on effect on the price of food, which fell for a third straight year in 2014. “For many poor people who spend a lot of their budget on food, this is good news,” said Shenggen Fan, director general

of the International Food Policy Research Institute. “There is a high correlation between oil and food prices.” The key fuel for transporting food between field and market, oil also impacts food prices because fertilizers, pesticides and other key farm inputs are derived from petroleum. Energy and transportation costs represent roughly eight per cent of the price for domestically produced foods — say a packet of pasta — that consumers purchase, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture. On the supply side, energyrelated costs including fertilizers, chemicals, lubricants and fuel account for about 50 per cent of the production costs for crops like corn and wheat in developed countries.

Winners and losers

For the extreme poor, however, there’s a catch. Often subsistence farmers, many hungry people

Lower oil prices may not affect subsistence farmers who are not plugged in to world commodity markets. Photo: Farm Radio International

are not plugged in to global commodity markets. They don’t use much fertilizer when growing crops and they might receive less money for their products, due to declining global food prices.

Urban consumers in developing countries, including India, the Philippines and Bangladesh, will be some of the biggest winners, Fan predicts, as two of their biggest expenses — food and transportation — will become cheaper.

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“For many poor people who spend a lot of their budget on food, this is good news.” Shenggen Fan

International Food Policy Research Institute

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Globally, subsidies for fossil fuel consumption totalled $548 billion in 2013, according to the International Energy Agency. “The political costs for lowering these subsidies will be lower (now that oil prices have dropped),” Husain told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “This money should be freed up for rural infrastructure, public services and irrigation projects.”

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When oil prices spiked in 2007-08 in tandem with food prices, poor city dwellers rioted from Haiti to Cameroon and Bangladesh. Now t h a t m a r k e t s h a v e swung in the other direction, oil-importing states should take the opportunity to reduce fossil fuel subsidies and invest the money in rural infrastructure instead, said Arif Husain, chief economist for the World Food Program (WFP). If the money saved by lower energy expenditures is invested in agricultural research, roads, and new technologies, the poorest of the poor could benefi t from current trends.

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Cheaper shipping costs

Falling prices could provide some relief for people in conflict-hit regions including Syria, South Sudan, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Mali. The costs for hiring ships to bring food to emergency zones have dropped for groups like the WFP, due to falling oil prices. The price of bunker fuel used for container ships has fallen more than 20 per cent since the third quarter of 2014, meaning the WFP has been saving about $30,000 per month for the three vessels it has been chartering. But when compared to the full costs of running massive international food aid programs into countries like Iraq or South Sudan, these savings are comparatively small. “Maybe lower oil prices will allow us to get more aid to people, but its (impact) is quite marginal,” said Thierry Kesteloot, an agriculture adviser to the aid group Oxfam.

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Unlike Russia, Ukraine says no grain export curbs planned Agriculture minister sees another good crop on the way By Pavel Polityuk Kiev/ Reuters

Ukraine has no plans to restrict grain exports after Russia introduced curbs to stabilize surging prices, and will instead meet with traders to plan the year ahead in “normal operating mode,” Agriculture Minister Oleksiy Pavlenko said Jan. 10. Last month, Moscow announced it would introduce grain exports duties of at least 35 euros ($41) per tonne from Feb. 1 in a bid to defend domestic bread supplies against a tumbling ruble. Russia, expected to be the world’s fourth-largest grain exporter this year, had been exporting record volumes from a large crop of 105 million tonnes as buyers took advantage of the ruble’s decline. Analysts had predicted that the new duty could raise demand for Ukrainian grain, mostly wheat, and even lead to a domestic shortage. But Pavlenko said there were no curbs in the works and that the ministry was meeting major traders Jan. 13 to discuss exports and local markets in view of Russia’s decision. “Nobody is going to introduce any restrictions or any quotas. We (the ministry), together with traders, can plan this year in a normal operating mode without any restrictions,” Pavlenko told Reuters in an interview. He said that the ministry and traders would likely prepare a memorandum for the season, as they have previously, which allows for restrictions to be imposed if exports exceed specified volumes. Food wheat would be the focus of the meeting, Pavlenko said, but declined to give the maximum volume of wheat available for exports this season. He said total grain exports could reach 33 million tonnes this season.

Improvements are aimed at reducing waste and corruption Egypt looks to overhaul wheat storage By Maggie Fick Cairo / Reuters

gypt has signed a contract with a U.S. company to overhaul its wheat storage system as part of efforts by the world’s top wheat buyer to cut rampant waste and reduce its $4.5-billion food import bill. Blumberg Grain, a familyowned firm specializing in food storage systems in emerging markets, said on Thursday it had signed the $28-million contract with the Supplies Ministry to modernize wheat storage at 93 sites across Egypt. Blumberg said the new system would save the government one billion pounds (US$140 million) a year by preserving locally harvested wheat that would otherwise never make it into the sub-

sidized loaves on which tens of millions of Egyptians rely. Blumberg will install automated sorting and counting equipment in new warehouses to ensure that wheat is stored without exposure to the elements — a major cause of waste. Egypt wants to cut its $3-billion bread subsidy bill by boosting domestic supply but experts say that, due to water shortages and other constraints, reducing waste and corruption in the supply chain is more realistic. Farmers have long complained that much of their crop is lost after they deliver it to the government’s “shewan” — open-air plots of land on roadsides protected by nothing but barbed wire. Birds eat the grain, and corrupt local bureaucrats mix the wheat with rocks to make up for the losses.

Egypt is the world’s largest wheat importer, but heavy subsidies for bread mean much is wasted. Photo: Creative Commons

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“Nobody is going to introduce any restrictions or any quotas.” Oleksiy Pavlenko

Agriculture Minister

“We’re keen to understand what (export) volumes every company has, we’re looking at balances in a bid to understand the full picture. We’ll hold these meetings regularly,” he said. Ukraine harvested about 23 million tonnes of wheat in 2014 and traders say at least 10 million tonnes could be exported in the 2014-15 season, which runs from July to June. Traders said 8.5 million tonnes of wheat had already been sold abroad. This year Ukraine had a chance of harvesting a crop as good as last year’s as conditions were similar, Pavlenko said.

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Kenyan cattle slaughterhouse branches into the gas business Biogas plant saves more the $400 per week in waste disposal charges

By James Karuga Kiserian / Kenya / Thomson Reuters Foundation

aasai pastoralists have f o u n d a n i n n ov a tive way to generate biogas: using animal blood and waste from the Keekonyokie slaughterhouse. The facility in Kenya’s Kajiado County uses the gas it produces to generate electricity that powers the meat cold room and processing equipment. It also pipes the gas to local hotels, while the slurry becomes fertilizer for grazing pastures. Now the Maasai hope to take the project a step further and become the first group in the country to package the alternative fuel into cylinders — and finally make it mobile.

The Maasai pastoralists who run Keekonyokie slaughterhouse see a big market for bottled biogas in Kenya. Photo: Harvey Barrison/Creative Commons T:8.125”

According to project leader Michael Kibue, the group of 320 pastoralists anticipates that by March 2015 it will be selling its Keeko Biogas in six-kilogram cylinders. Each should cost around Ksh 700 (US$8), half the cost of conventional liquefied (LP) petroleum gas. The slaughterhouse can afford to sell its biogas so cheaply because, with an average 120 cows and 400 sheep and goats slaughtered daily, “raw input is assured and at zero cost,” said Kibue. Even the process of pumping the gas into cylinders costs nothing, he adds, because it’s powered by the slaughterhouse’s own biogas. The fuel is also hotter than LP gas “and it is highly combustible, so it allows you to cook faster,” said Erastus Gatebe of the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI), which provides technical support on the Keeko Biogas project. Gatebe said biogas can be as much as 30 to 40 per cent more energy efficient than propane or butane.

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Be f o re i t s t a r t e d p ro d u c ing biogas in 2005, the Keekonyokie plant was spending Ksh 36,000 (US$400) every week on waste disposal in order to meet standards set by the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA). By generating fuel from its waste and selling what biogas it doesn’t need, the slaughterhouse can now expand its revenue sources beyond the sale of meat. Currently the facility, which sits on four acres of land, is capable of generating enough biogas in a day to fill 100 six-g cylinders. According to KIRDI’s Gatebe, if the slaughterhouse upgrades its facilities with secondary biogas digesters it can generate three times that amount. The Kenya Climate Innovation Centre, a World Bank initiative, is providing funding to help with the upgrade. Kapunei Ole Tunda, chairman of Keekonyokie slaughterhouse, sees environmental as well as economic benefits to selling biogas in cylinders. He believes the venture could help save the trees in and around Maasai villages. “We cut down a lot of trees for charcoal and we hope to reduce that, since they keep our air clean,” he said. According to a 2010 report by the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, biogas use in Kenya is currently very small. But the country spends around $900 million a year on off-grid lighting, and fuel-based light sources in the country are responsible for over 2.3 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, according to the United Nations Environment Program. T h e Ma a s a i p a s t o ra l i s t s who run Keekonyokie slaughterhouse see a big market for bottled biogas in Kenya. Once KIRDI finishes safety testing of the biogas cylinders, “we start rolling it out,” Kibue said.

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Co-operator barn series revival Do you know this barn?

f you do, a Manitoba historian wants to hear from you. In early 1981 the Co-operator worked with provincial Manitoba Historic Resources Branch staff to photograph and publish a series on rural buildings in Manitoba. Each week a photo and a story were published about why each of the buildings was rare or unusual. Now Gordon Goldsborough, webmaster and journal editor with the Manitoba Historical Society (MHS), is looking for Co-operator readers to help him find the GPS co-ordinates for these barns. He has looked for them during road trips in rural Manitoba, but because the site’s location details are scant, he has been unable to find them. He wants to include the buildings, with their GPS co-ordinates on a map of historic sites being prepared for the MHS. This photograph was taken by now-retired Co-operator editor Bob Hainstock who took the photo in the 1980s for the earlier project. Many of the photos were eventually included in Hainstock’s 1986 book Barns of Western Canada: An Illustrated Century. We are including the original “caption” that ran with his photo, hoping a reader can answer these questions: 1. Does the building still stand? 2. If so, where is it? 3. What are its GPS co-ordinates? 4. What other information can you provide on its state of preservation or other details about its history since the original story in the 1980s? Please send your responses to Gordon Goldsborough at: email: gordon@mhs.mb.ca Telephone: (204) 474-7469 Mail: 2021 Loudoun Rd. Winnipeg, Man. R3S 1A3

Perhaps it was appropriate that a gloomy drizzle hung over the farm when the writer spied this large bank barn on the outskirts of Crandall. At the same moment, the W.H. Crandell family was just loading the last of their possessions for transport to a retirement home. Built 80 years ago by Morley Crandell, the barn, land and other buildings had changed hands. Designed to shelter 40 horses and 10 or more cattle, the large 96x56-foot structure is of the Ontario bank barn style, brought to the homestead by the Crandell family from its origins in Perry County, Ontario. The banked driveway leads to an enormous loft that features a 10-foot clear hay mow. The two carloads of B.C. lumber required to frame and cover the upper level are supported by a stone and mortar foundation that was originally trenched eight feet into the ground. The livestock quarters on the lower level were accessed by almost a dozen doors, three on each of the ends and a half-dozen on the south-facing mow mall. A master carpenter made the original preparations by hand-hewing and grooving the main timbers, as well as drilling holes for wooden dowels. No nails were used. A barn-raising bee was called in 1912, almost a year after the foundation was finished. The carpenter chose two captains, and they in B:8.125” turn chose two teams which competed in erecting and pegging the 10x10-inch timbers for the barn T:8.125” frame. The Crandell family completed the covering. S:8.125”

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Australia battles to contain worst wildfires in 30 years By Matt Siegel and Jane Wardell sydney / reuters

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Hundreds of firefighters were battling to contain Australia’s worst wildfires in 30 years Jan. 4, which have already swept across more than 12,000 hectares outside the southern city of Adelaide and destroyed at least 26 homes. The fires, which are burning across a 240-km (150-mile) perimeter in the state of South Australia, come as the Australian Bureau of Meteorology announced that 2014 had been the country’s third-warmest year on record. That has raised questions about whether the blaze is the result of climate change and a possible sign of worse to come. “Unless there are rapid, substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia and globally, Australia will experience more heat waves and bush fires as in 2014,” David Karoly, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Melbourne, said in a statement. The fires are the worst in terms of scale and intensity since the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 which killed 75 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes. Wildfires are a natural annual event in Australia, but some scientists say climate change is increasing both the fire season and intensity.

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

COUNTRY CROSSROADS CON N EC T I NG RU R A L FA M I L I E S

How to grow a food business Small-scale food product makers are capturing business opportunities in a market hungry for locally made specialty and niche products By Lorraine Stevenson co-operator staff / New Bothwell

atalie Dueck recalls the day she won gold at the Great Manitoba Food

Fight. She’d just accepted a $15,000 cheque at the 2011 event for a snack food made with hemp seed and realized this meant no turning back from becoming a small-scale food processor. At the time, the New Bothwell mom was doing a brisk business as The Bread Lady selling specialty breads at St. Norbert’s Farmers’ Market. “I remember going up to get the prize and thinking to myself, ‘what did I just do?” she says with a laugh. “ You’ve got gover nment money to start developing this now. There’s expectations that you go forward with this.” She did not hesitate. She invested the prizewinnings further in product research and development, and began e x p a n d i n g a c o m m e rc i a l kitchen built on to her New Bothwell home. In 2012, she incorporated her company as Natalie’s LifeSense Inc. and has since launched a line of raw (not baked) products including her prizewinning hemp snackers plus flax crackers, packages of chia, hemp, and brown and golden flaxseeds, and innovative products using buckwheat. They’re sold under the brand name ‘Rawnata’ and are available in locales such as New Bothwell Cheese Store and Generation Green at The Forks Market in Winnipeg, as well as St. Norbert’s Farmers’ Market during the summer months, its new online store, and an online outlet of her own she will launch a little later this winter. Dueck’s emerging small-scale food-processing company is one of literally hundreds across Manitoba, as entrepreneurs like her take hold of business opportunities in a market hungry for specialty locally produced foods. A vendor at St. Norbert’s Farmers’ Market since 2003, Dueck says others are on similar paths to grow their food businesses. “I think a lot of us are going into the retail end of things now,” she said. “Many of us are working towards getting our products into stores.” Carly Minish fast-tracked her small line of gourmet mustards, sold under the name Smak Dab, into store shelves in under a year. The Swan River-born culinary school graduate was working as an apprentice in Winnipeg restaurants when she was inspired to whip up a batch of specialty mustard to give as Christmas

New Bothwell small-scale food processor Natalie Dueck sells a line of raw-processed innovative snack foods including flax crackers and buckwheat and hemp snacks under the brand Rawnata. The 2011 Great Food Fight prizewinner developed the product line after listening to what customers buying her specialty breads sold at St. Norbert’s Farmers’ Market wanted. PHOTO: LORRAINE STEVENSON

“I think a lot of us are going into the retail end of things now. Many of us are working towards getting our products into stores.” Natalie Dueck

Owner of Natalie’s LifeSense Inc. and New Bothwellbased small-scale food processor

presents. Friends and family gave her rave reviews and insisted she try selling them, which is how she would end up selling at St. Norbert’s last fall. Her customers wanted to keep buying from her after the season wound up so she has since pursued retail opportunities. She now direct markets online. The Red Seal Chef turned entrepreneur said the products are selling so briskly she’s devoted herself full time to running her company.

“ This wasn’t anything I intended on pursuing forever,” she said. “But it’s turned into a really great business.” Both women said resources in marketing, product and business development through Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development and the Manitoba Food Processors Association have been helpful to their business. Minish says Buy Manitoba has been an especially important program, with advisers who have helped her navigate the ins and outs of running a food business. “They are people who have been really alongside me. They’ve been really amazing advisers, she said. These kinds of businesses are also benefiting from new opportunities to reach customers. More independent grocers are seeking out local, small batch-made products and specializing in made in Manitoba, including stores such as Local Meats and Frozen Treats in Winnipeg, Generation Green at The Forks, and innovative

marketing venues such as St. Norbert’s online market. Phil Veldhuis, honey producer and past president of the St. Norbert’s Farmers’ Market, said farmers’ markets are pivotal in helping jump-start ideas and help innovative products come to market. They’re where people have that first opportunity to see if their idea flies. They get immediate customer feedback, which helps make that allimportant decision to branch out. S t . N o r b e r t ’s Fa r m e r s’ Market’s online store was launched to help with that decision. In just a few months it has seen sales growth among vendors akin to what vendors at the physical market saw in about three years, Veldhuis added. About 40 vendors are participating and some are reporting sales of about $1,000 a month through it. A new report now before Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development Minister Ron Kostyshyn carries recommendations on how to grow the

smaller-scale processing and production in Manitoba. It has attempted to quantify the value and extend Manitoba’s smallscale food-processing sector. Direct-marketing sales in Manitoba had an economic value of between $65 million and $79 million in 2012, Dr. Wayne Lees, Manitobabased retired chief veterinary officer who facilitated consultations that led to the report told a weekend conference. Combined sales at the province’s 70 farmers’ markets are now at “somewhere around $240 million.” “That’s nothing to sneeze at,” said Lees. “It’s a tiny part of the industry right now, but interest in small-scale food production and direct marketing is growing.” The report includes a series of recommendations on how more support can be provided for emerging niche and specialty product makers and small-farm entrepreneurs. lorraine@fbcpublishing.com

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

COUNTRY CROSSROADS

RecipeSwap

Send your recipes or recipe request to: Manitoba Co-operator Recipe Swap Box 1794, Carman, Man. ROG OJO or email: lorraine@fbcpublishing.com

Complaining won’t shorten winter Lorraine Stevenson Crossroads Recipe Swap

wo email popped into my box almost simultaneously this week. One came from someone whining about not being able to afford to fly somewhere warm, and how she couldn’t wait for winter to be over. The other was from a friend describing how much she enjoys this time of year, and how she keeps healthy during these long months of cold and dark. Winter can be a tough slog. But complaining won’t make it shorter. It probably makes it seem longer. The best approach is to make the most of the time. Other older cultures whose winters are as long or longer than Canada’s embrace winter.

The Scandinavians have learned to wait out their very long, dark winters by making their homes especially bright and cosy with candlelight and colour. They build with their windows oriented in the direction of optimum sunlight. They are outdoors people who love and respect nature and they are outside in it often. The writer of that happier email described how she tries to get to bed an hour earlier and catch up on sleep this time of year. But she’ll also bundle up and get out virtually every day for a fastpaced walk. Back indoors, she reads and loves the long evenings to do handicrafts. It’s a time to reflect and think and plan. Food is a comfort any time of year, of course, but rich flavours and the warmth of a wonderful meal is just that much more pleasurable in cold weather. Let’s eat hearty and healthy throughout the weeks ahead, and if we simply must complain — we are Canadians, after all — let it be good natured and over a good dinner.

If you can’t go there, heat things up at the dinner table with spicy food from a warm sun-filled place. Try Mexico! Here are two recipes for a chili you can switch up into pie the next night, plus a delicious moist cornbread for serving alongside.

Chicken Chili with Corn and Black Beans Use any other leftover leafy vegetable you like in this soup such as brussels sprouts, cauliflower, or that kale that always seems to wilt before you get around to using it. No one could taste the handful of shrivelled cilantro I threw in. 2 tsp. canola oil 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 lb. ground chicken 1 red pepper, chopped 2 stalks celery, sliced 5 tsp. chili powder 1 tsp. ground cumin 3/4 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. dried oregano 1/4 tsp. EACH hot pepper flakes and black pepper 1 can crushed tomatoes (796 ml) 1 can black beans (570 ml), rinsed and drained 2 c. kernel corn (fresh, frozen or canned) 1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Spicy Cornbread This mouth-watering cornbread tastes absolutely delicious alongside the chicken chili recipe. A jalapeno pepper makes it nice and spicy but you can omit it and use any cheese on hand if you don’t have smoked mozzerella.

Tortilla Pie If you have leftovers from last night’s supper, you’ll have another meal ready in minutes with this recipe. 6 to 8 corn tortillas (or 3 large whole wheat tortillas) 1-1/2 c. TexMex or Nacho shredded cheese 1/2 recipe of Chicken Chili with Corn and Black Beans

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 9-inch pie plate with the tortillas, overlapping them to cover the edges of the pie plate. Sprinkle half the cheese over the tortillas. Heat the chili in the microwave then pour it into the pie plate and top with remaining cheese. Bake until the edges of the tortillas are crisp and the cheese has melted — about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes before cutting into wedges. Serve with a tossed salad. Recipe courtesy of Manitoba Chicken Producers

In a large skillet heat oil over medium heat, cook onion and garlic until onion is soft. Add chicken and stir cook, breaking up the lumps, until the chicken is no longer pink. Stir in red pepper, celery, spices, tomatoes and black beans. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in corn and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease a 9x9-inch baking dish. Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In a separate large bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs and oil. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir just until combined. Stir in corn, smoked mozzarella and jalapeno. Pour batter into prepared baking dish. Bake in preheated oven 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centre of bread comes out clean. Preparation time: 15 minutes. Baking time: 40 minutes. Makes: 16 pieces. Freezes well. Recipe courtesy of J.M. Smucker Co.

Stir in parsley. Serve with salad, and crusty bread or cornbread.

Recipe Swap

Tip 1: This recipe can be doubled or tripled. It freezes very well. Tip 2: Slow cooker version – cook onion, garlic and ground chicken as described above. Place in a slow cooker and stir in red pepper, celery, spices, tomatoes, black beans and corn. Cook on high for five hours or on low for eight. Stir in parsley just before serving. Recipe courtesy of Manitoba Chicken Producers

1 c. Robin Hood Original All-Purpose Flour 3/4 c. cornmeal 1/4 c. granulated sugar 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1-1/4 c. buttermilk 2 eggs 1/4 c. Crisco vegetable or canola oil 1 c. corn, fresh or frozen 1 c. grated smoked mozzarella 1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped

photo: Thinkstock

If you have a recipe or a column suggestion please write to: Manitoba Co-operator Recipe Swap, Box 1794, Carman, Manitoba R0G 0J0 or email Lorraine Stevenson at: lorraine@fbcpublishing.com

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

COUNTRY CROSSROADS

“

o I see you drove over here Andrew,” said Grant Toews as he leaned back in his chair and picked up his cup of coffee to take a drink. “Three blocks too long of a walk for you? Or did you just not want to put on your warm socks this morning?” Andrew Jackson looked up from his plate of bacon and eggs. “It is pretty dang cold out there,” he said, “but the truth is, with fuel prices this low, I can’t afford not to drive.” “Ain’t that the truth,” said Rodney Flett, who had joined Grant and Andrew a few minutes earlier. “I’m taking the wife to the city this afternoon just so I can save money on gas. I just wish I hadn’t bought such a fuel-efficient car. Because the more gas you use the more money you save.” “Why don’t you just take the long way to the city?” said Grant. “Go around by Virden.” “I don’t have enough time,” said Rodney. “That would take all day. I have to be home on time to watch the Jets game on TV. Also if I went around by Virden I’d have to stop for meals, which means all the money I save on gas would just go to pay for food.” “You could pack a bologna sandwich, or two,” said Andrew. “I hadn’t thought of that,” said Rodney. “I like bologna sandwiches. I eat them all the time. They taste great and I get the satisfaction of knowing that I’m supporting every type of livestock farming at once.” “ T h e Ja c k s o n A g r i c u l t u ra l Co r p o ra t i o n thanks you for your support,” said Andrew. “You’re welcome,” said Rodney. He took a sip of coffee. “You know what I’ve been saying for the last five years?” he continued. “We have no idea what you’ve been saying for the last five years,” said Grant, “because, frankly, we haven’t been listening.” “I’ve been saying,” said Rodney, “that Prime Minister Harper’s obsession with sucking dead dinosaurs out of prehistoric tar ponds and then pumping them all across North America through massive pipeline projects can only end in disaster. In fact his obsession is so powerful I think he should be on some kind of meds. That’s what I’ve been saying.”

The

Jacksons By Rollin Penner

“That’s why we haven’t been listening,” said Grant. “I’ve been listening now for a minute and a half and already I’m completely bored.” “Still,” said Andrew, “it’s kind of an interesting perspective.” “I’m an interesting guy,” said Rodney. “I like to think outside the box.” “When you say end in disaster,” said Andrew, “what exactly do you mean?” “What I mean,” said Rodney, “is that the whole tarsands project is going to wind up being a colossal white elephant. Oil prices go down and the tarsands project just sputters and dies. Kind of like the dinosaurs did.” “And what made you think oil prices would go down?” Andrew wanted to know.

“Lots of things,” said Rodney. “To begin with, the U.S. decision to tr y to become energy self-sufficient. Also China’s inevitable need to deal with its pollution issues. Add to that the expansion of oil exploration and production around the world, and finally the fact that fears of global warming would drive a revolution in alternative energy development. The end result of all these factors would be a situation where the oil producers in the Middle East would start losing market share and facing competition, which they would counter by dropping prices, because they can afford to do that.” “Wake me up when this conversation is over,” said Grant. “Are you saying oil prices aren’t going to go back up?” asked Andrew. Rodney pushed his chair away from the table and got up. “Exactly,” he said. “Just wait and see.” Andrew and Grant watched him make his way through the café and out the door. “Prime Minister Harper will be very disappointed,” said Andrew. “You think so?” said Grant. “Obviously,” said Andrew. “He has kind of staked his political future on Canada’s ability to compete in the global energy marketplace. He’s kind of put all his eggs in one tar pit so to speak.” “So you think Rodney’s right?” said Grant. “Rodney’s a moron,” said Andrew, “but that doesn’t mean he can’t be right every so often.” “Good lord,” said Grant. “That’ll be a tough problem for Harper. People will say he should have known the tarsands development was too risky and he’ll have to try to defend his decision to stick so much money in there. Plus people will wonder why it didn’t occur to him that the oil market might shrink and prices go down.” Andrew put down his coffee. “You can’t blame Harper for that,” he said. “Only a moron could have seen that coming. For more from Rollin Penner, visit www. rollinon.me/blog.

Handwashing really does cut illness rates We’ve all been reminded over and over to wash our hands but research shows it to be single most important way to prevent disease By Julie Garden-Robinson NDSU Extension Service

recall a common conversation I had with my children as they were growing up. “Did you wash your hands?” I would ask my two older kids as they popped into their places at the dinner table. “Yes,” they usually answered. “D i d y o u u s e s o a p ? ” I continued. “Yep!” they replied in unison. One time my then-six-yearold daughter pointed at my son and said, “But he didn’t wash his hands long enough!” “How long should you wash your hands?” I quizzed. “We should wash our hands for 20 seconds,” she said before she looked at her brother through narrowed eyes. My then-nine-year-old son gave her an “I’ll get you later” look and trudged back to the sink. I decided I didn’t mind tattling if it meant fewer colds and less flu in our house. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refers to handwashing as the single most important means of preventing the spread of disease. In the mid-1800s, a doctor con-

nected the alarming rate of hospital infections in the maternity ward to medical students who helped deliver babies after taking anatomy lessons in the autopsy room. They didn’t wash their hands. We’ve learned a lot since then. In a recent study, researchers examined the results of 30 handwashing studies done between 1960 and 2007 to learn how much difference soap, water and scrubbing make in maintaining health. After combining the data and analyzing it, they found a 31 per cent reduction in gastrointestinal illness and a 21 per cent reduction in respiratory illness associated with proper handwashing. Was antibacterial hand soap better than “plain” soap? Despite all the marketing of antibacterial soap, the researchers reported that it did not make a difference in fighting illness. Plain soap was just as effective. We also see bottles of hand sanitizer around us. Are they effective? Washing with soap and water is the most effective way to wash hands, but if you are not near a sink, an alcohol-based hand sanitizer works OK if you use enough and let it dry. It should be at least 60 per cent alcohol.

In a recent study, researchers examined the results of 30 handwashing studies done between 1960 and 2007 to learn how much difference soap, water and scrubbing make in maintaining health. PHOTO: THINKSTOCK

Researchers provided 6,000 children with a gel hand sanitizer to use when entering and leaving their classrooms. School staff tracked absenteeism related to infections (colds and flu). They found a nearly 20 per cent reduction in absenteeism among children in the schools using the hand sanitizer. However, hand sanitizer is not very effective after preparing food (especially if your hands become greasy) or after garden-

ing, camping and fishing. If you are using a hand sanitizer, you need to use enough of it. People often do not use enough or they wipe off their hands before the alcohol dries. Keep your hands clean during cold and flu season. Be sure to wet them before adding soap. According to research, the water temperature doesn’t really matter in terms of germ removal, however, you might be more inclined to wash if the temperature is comfortable. Turn off the tap to save water after you’ve wet your hands.

Researchers have not found a concern with the transfer of micro-organisms from the faucet handle to your hands. Next, apply regular soap and scrub for at least 20 seconds. Sing the “Happy Birthday” song to yourself twice, then rinse your hands under running water and dry them with a towel or an air dryer. Julie Garden-Robinson, PhD, R.D., L.R.D., is a North Dakota State University Extension Service food and nutrition specialist and professor in the department of health, nutrition and exercise sciences.

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

COUNTRY CROSSROADS column

Take decorating to new heights Decorating a ceiling can be tricky but well worth the time and effort Connie Oliver Around the House

ainted ceilings really can enhance a room when included as part of the overall decorating plan. A master bedroom and/or ensuite is a great place to add one. If you consider the use of each room, you do spend a fair amount of time looking at the ceiling either in bed or in a luxurious bubble bath so why not make the most of the view? A master retreat that is different in design and feel than the rest of the home can provide a true oasis at the end of the day. Including a painted ceiling into the mix will add a touch of grandeur and who doesn’t deserve a little indulgence now and then? For the less adventurous, simply adding a colour to the ceiling might be enough to give your room that extra oomph. The pink and white colour scheme in the photograph would look wonderful with a pale-mauve ceiling versus the standard white, for example. The flat ceiling colour would be calming yet still provide that extra something that most rooms don’t have via the ceiling colour. A pattern on the ceiling, like the one in the photograph, has a lot of visual movement and could be unsettling for some, especially in a bedroom. This particular pattern is set on an angle, which doubles the visual movement in my opinion. A similar pattern set on the square is more traditional and would be more conducive to a calming room. More visually energetic patterns can be great in a playroom or rec room. Traditional painted designs can add a sense of elegance, which can be perfect in a bedroom, dining room or even a living room, depending upon the layout of the space. Although ceilings are difficult to paint at the best of times, a couple rolls of painter’s tape and a lot of patience can turn a plain ceiling into something truly unique. If you’re considering attempting a ceiling treatment it might be a good idea to start in a small powder room. A smaller work surface can be painted over fairly easily if the project doesn’t turn out as planned. If it is a success then you can proceed to a larger project in another room. There are lots of options for painted ceilings, from a plain colour to a wildly geometric pattern that includes several colours. The sky is the limit along with your time and patience. Kids’ rooms are another great place to play with a

A decorated ceiling can add interest to a room.

PHOTO: COURTESY BENJAMIN MOORE

painted ceiling. A ceiling painted as a tent top is a popular design but there are many other options. Create a theme like a jungle, fairyland or beach-inspired room with a sky-blue ceiling with white puffy clouds. Accessories like brightly coloured sand pails and shovels, kites and beach towels will add to the theme. There are a lot of other ceiling treatments that don’t involve paint. Glow-in-the-dark stickers in the shapes of stars and moons can be a fun bedtime display. A stencilled pattern around a centre ceiling light fixture can add a sense of whimsy to a plain ceiling. Fabric can be used to create a soft tent-like ambience, which can be romantic in a master retreat. Wallpaper or borders

can be used to enhance ceilings. Consider cutting out the pattern in the wallpaper (flowers, for instance) and using them in a desired pattern rather than trying to hang a full sheet on the ceiling. These cut-outs are easy to put up and easy to take down so they afford you lots of options. Also, if you have a single roll of wallpaper kicking around the cut-outs will take you farther than a remnant could. Decorating ceilings can be a bit tricky but well worth the impact. Consider adding a little something overhead to take your décor to the next level. Connie Oliver is an interior designer from Gimli, Manitoba

Chalk plant in the interior This one has many desirable traits making it a great houseplant By Albert Parsons Freelance contributor

here are a few key characteristics that I look for when choosing houseplants. A plant that I have in my collection is the chalk plant, Senecio mandraliscae, and one desired trait that it has is that, being a succulent, it is very drought tolerant. It will withstand not being watered for long periods of time because it can store moisture in its fleshy leaves — a great plant for a snowbird like me! The leaves are stick-like (sometimes it is called blue stick plant) and are pale steel blue. Attractive foliage colour is another characteristic that I look for in plants. Flowers are fleeting but foliage is permanent so it should contribute its fair share to the beauty of the plant. No doubt what gives it its common name of chalk plant is that the leaves are covered with

a white chalky-looking coating. Care must be taken not to touch the leaves or the white coating will be marked. The chalk plant does produce small, tufted yellow flowers in summer if it gets enough light, but its leaves are its most attractive feature. This plant is robust and easy to grow. Surprisingly it is a member of the daisy plant family; maybe that is one reason it is so robust and easy to grow as most members of this plant family have that characteristic. A native of South Africa, chalk plant is used to dry, hot conditions and when grown as a houseplant it should get lots of direct sunlight. Otherwise the leaves will become elongated and weak and not stand erect. The whole plant will become spindly and the foliage will lose its blue-grey colour and be mostly green. The chalk plant should be planted in a fast-draining soil

that is sand based. It requires little fertilizer — another desirable characteristic that makes plants low maintenance — so a weak application of plant food in the middle of the start of the growing season will suffice. During the summer the soil can be kept moderately moist but during the winter in the indoor garden the soil should be allowed to almost dry out completely before the plant is watered again. The stick-like leaves can create a rather thin plant profile so many gardeners prune to produce a denser lower form. The leaf cuttings can be inserted into the soil in the container around the parent plant and this will also help to create a bushier plant. The cuttings will root readily (another soughtafter characteristic — easy propagation) although the soil should be kept moderately moist while the cuttings are rooting. This is best done in the

spring. The plant rarely exceeds 45 cm in height and usually it is kept shorter than that by judicious pruning. Insects and diseases seem to avoid the chalk plant. The only problem that I have witnessed is rot, which was totally due to overwatering. Never overwater a chalk plant and always provide excellent drainage. This plant can be used in the interior landscape in a variety of ways. It makes an attractive specimen plant on its own, especially when displayed in a suitable decorative container, with sand covering the soil surface and perhaps with a couple of polished stones or small figurines added for effect. It also fits well into a cactus garden or a succulent planter. It might be somewhat faster growing than some cacti, but if it gets too large it can easily be removed and replaced with another more suitably sized plant or it can simply be pruned. It is

If you go away in the winter, this plant doesn’t mind long periods without being watered. PHOTO: ALERT PARSONS

also an attractive addition to an indoor plant grouping, perhaps staged on an attractive tray. If exposed gradually to direct sun, the chalk plant can be moved outdoors into a sunny l o c a t i o n f o r t h e s u m m e r. Included in an outdoor succulent planter or used as a specimen on a patio table, it will be a sure hit in the outdoor garden. Albert Parsons writes from Minnedosa, Manitoba

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Will 2015 be the year we finally see growth in Canada’s cattle herd? It’s an increasingly familiar story — a ‘big move’ in heifer retention needed to rebuild herd, but that’s not easy By Jennifer Blair staff

attle herd expansion was one of the biggest ‘will they or won’t they’ stories in 2014 — and that little plot line will continue to play out in 2015. “Right now, we’re still in the consolidation phase,” said Brenna Grant, research manager at Canfax. “Inventories are going to be stable on Jan. 1, 2015, and we’re going to be looking at modest growth of one to two per cent.” That growth won’t come entirely from heifer retention, as was initially expected. “It’s looking like we’re going to have lower cow slaughter in 2015 to support cow numbers,” she said. “That’s something that we saw hap-

“Cows are a long-term investment, and they need to make money over their lifetime.”

Brenna Grant

pen in the U.S. in 2014, and it’s something that we’re starting to see in Canada in October and November.” For the last two years, beef cow culling rates have been high — 14 per cent in 2013 and 13 per cent in 2014 — and any additional drops in those numbers will be “modest.” “We’ve actually got quite a ways to go before we see cow slaughter drop in order to get that beef cow culling rate below the long-term average of 11 per cent,” said Grant. “We saw this drop a little bit by one per cent in 2014, and we could see basically another one per cent or two per cent drop. It’s pretty modest in terms of expansion.” Still, the cattle industry will need to see “quite a big move in heifer retention” before any meaningful expansion will take place. “It takes a longer time to rebuild your herd when you’re retaining cull cows because there are some challenges with retaining those older cows,” she said. “You might get that extra year out of them, but they may also require more labour and be a little bit more work as well.” Cash flow is another factor that’s slowing a bounce-back in cattle numbers.

“One of the biggest things about expansion is it very much limits your cash flow as you’re investing in the future,” she said. “Particularly if you’re looking at retirement. Do you really want to be tying up cash flow in an expansion?” Older producers are “rebuilding equity first and foremost after 10 very difficult years,” said Grant. “They may love this industry and they may be really optimistic, but they’re not adding more cows because that’s not where they are in their life. They may be staying in the industry, but they’re not necessarily looking for that additional work that comes with expansion.” For young producers, increasing by “five or 10 per cent this year just isn’t viable.” “They’re sticking to their longterm plan of getting another piece of land, getting the grass, and getting the cows to go with it — sticking to that long-term, slow growth that they have planned out.” And many producers are still jittery — and oddly enough, sky-high prices are contributing to that. “At these much higher prices, the dollars per head on the line are that much greater,” said Grant. “With that, you need to be really confident that you’re going to have

Brenna Grant photo: supplied

that return — not just next year or the year after. “Cows are a long-term investment, and they need to make money over their lifetime.” jennifer.blair@fbcpublishing.com

file photo

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

column

Reducing risk of injury or sickness when trailering horses You can minimize the level of stress by practising horse-trailering skills well ahead of when it’s necessary Carol Shwetz, DVM Horse Health

trailer ride is a formidable undertaking for a horse, as it is in strong contradiction to their inherent nature. Acceptance of loading into the trailer, travelling calmly and unloading quietly from the trailer requires mental preparation and conditioning of the horse. Horses that are properly prepared mentally for trailering arrive at their destination with the least amount of stress. It is important to acknowledge the mental intelligence and trust that is required of a horse to load into a trailer. Since trailering is a necessary part of horse ownership, it is advisable to “practise” the horse’s trailering skills prior to an emergency or heightened moment. If possible, keep the initial trailer rides a horse experiences to shorter intervals, as this assures the horse that the trailer ride does indeed have an end point. There are many different styles of trailers such as stock trailers, straight load, and slant load. Although horses tend to preferentially load into an open stock trailer and travel diagonal to the direction of travel, they can become accustomed and adapt to other means of travel. Their physical comfort while travelling is strongly dependent upon their freedom to maintain a state of balance. To do so, the horse relies on head, neck and

limb movement. They continually shift their weight in an attempt to maintain balance. Muscle exertion during travel is significant and can be a very fatiguing process for the horse. Ample room is necessary to allow the horse opportunity to move from side to side or from front to back as it balances itself while the trailer is moving. If a horse’s ears touch the roof of the trailer when he raises his head he does not have enough room and a different trailer shall be required. Tying of horses during travel tends to be an individual preference, taking into account both the nature of the horse and the owner. Ideally when a horse is tied it needs ample freedom to move its head and neck without entangling itself. The horse also needs to maintain a posture whereby it can comfortably lower its head. Lowering of the horse’s head is necessary to clear/drain fluids that accumulate in the airways. Inadequate clearance of the airways coupled with a stressed immune system, which often accompanies transport, substantially increases the risk of life-threatening pneumonia. As duration of travel increases, so does the risk. It is also necessary to ensure the air and ventilation within the trailer environment is of highest quality. Heavy rubber stall matting provides horses with sound footing and minimizes muscle and ligament fatigue. As horses are continually repositioning their limbs during travel it can be helpful to provide

Horses tend to prefer travelling diagonally in a trailer, but most important is giving them adequate space to properly balance themselves while travelling. photo: thinkstock

leg protection. Keep in mind leg wraps left on for long periods of time can interfere with blood circulation, retain heat in the limbs, and cause sores. Bell boot or leg wrappings which cover the coronary bands protect this sensitive area from harm should the horse accidentally take a misstep during loading or scramble while travelling. Injuries to the coronary band can effect hoof growth, resulting in a cosmetic defect as well as weakening the integrity of the hoof. Introduce or familiar-

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ize your horse to these protective items prior to actual shipping. The digestive system of a horse is taxed considerably during the trailering event. Interrupted feeding programs and disrupted water intake contribute to the higher incidence of colics which surround transport. Providing horses with a hay bag placed below the height of their withers can be helpful to maintain gut function, minimizing digestive disturbances. Misting hay with water will reduce its dust load. Grain meals are best eliminated while trailering as they can increase the possibility of colic. Owners may find in necessary to bring their own supply of water or place a flavouring into the new unfamiliar water source, a flavouring to which the horse is accustomed. Travel plans need to consider the duration a horse may be in a

trailer. A 20-minute rest for every four hours of travel is advisable. If possible, horses may be offloaded in a safe area, walked and offered water. Durations of travel that extend beyond eight hours are wrought with health risks for the horse. After eight hours of travel, it is ideal to take a long period of rest and allow the horse to recover. The incidence of dehydration, colic, pneumonia, and muscle fatigue increases as length of travel increases. Therefore those aspects that contribute to timely smooth travel are essential. These include a mindful driver and a well-maintained truck and trailer. Be aware when you arrive at your destination as your horse may require a period of adjustment following travel. Carol Shwetz is a veterinarian specializing in equine practice at Westlock, Alta.

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

SHEEP & GOAT COLUMN

Volumes were low but prices were high Cold weather restricted the volume of sheep and goats delivered to the Jan. 8 sale By Mark Elliot Co-operator contributor

here were 100 sheep and goats delivered to Winnipeg Livestock Auction’s first sale of 2015 on January 8. Not all categories were represented and selection was limited overall. Some buyers were concerned for the small young goat kids due to the cold weather conditions. The selection of ewes was limited, but the demand was high. Prices ranged from $0.97 to $1.10 per pound. Heavyweight ewes drew major interest, compared to the usual younger ewes. Seven 193-pound Rideau-cross ewes brought $212.30 ($1.10 per pound). An exception was a 120pound Rideau-Cross ewe that brought $140.40. A 200-pound Suffolk-cross ram brought $224 ($1.12 per pound).

briefs

China cracks down on contaminated pork sales Shanghai / Reuters China has arrested more than 110 people, suspected of selling pork from pigs that died from disease, and confiscated more than 1,000 tonnes of contaminated pork in its latest crackdown on food safety violations. The Ministry of Public Security said Jan. 11 the people were part of a network made up of 11 groups who, since 2008, had been buying pigs that had died of illnesses from livestock farms at low prices. The meat was sold off to markets in 11 provinces, i n c l u d i n g He n a n a n d Guangxi, or was processed into bacon or cooking oil for sale. The accused also bribed food supervisory authorities to obtain quarantine certificates, the ministry said. Seventy-five of the suspects have been prosecuted. Several food quarantine staff have also been sent to prosecutors, said the ministry, which had been investigating the network since the end of 2013. Food safety remains a major concern in China after a series of high-profile scandals that has involved tainted milk powder as well as donkey meat. The scandals have embroiled foreign corporations such as WalMart Stores Inc. and McDonald’s. In 2013, more than 10,000 dead pigs were found floating down Shanghai’s Huangpu River after the regional government cracked down on criminal gangs that had been selling abandoned carcasses as meat on the black market, fuelling overcrowding on farms. China’s top food watchdog said Jan. 7 that food and drug safety was “grim” and pledged stronger oversight.

$ / lb. Ewes

GOAT DOES

$177.10 – $180.80

$ / lb.

KIDS - Under 80

$140.40 Lambs (lbs.) 110+

$195 - $212.40

94 - 110

n/a

80 - 94

$175.74 - $184

Under 80 70 / 71

$105 / $143.50 / $134.19

$124.20

$79.75

A 205-pound Suffolk-cross ram brought $223.45 ($1.09 per pound). Quality heavyweight lambs attracted strong bidding. The weight ranged from 115 to 140 pounds, with a price range from $1.42 to $1.77 per pound.

The 160-pound Romanov-cross lamb brought $299.20 ($1.87 per pound). No market lambs were delivered, for this sale. Feeder lambs drew strong interest. The price ranged from $2 to $2.08 per pound. An exception

animal weight

1.75

1.90

1.47

0.60 / 0.80 / 0.50

was the small-framed 82-pound Icelandic-cross lambs that brought $1.70 per pound. The lightweight lambs continued with some high bidding. A 70-pound Suffolk-cross lamb brought $1.50 per pound. A 70-pound Suffolk-cross lamb brought $2.05 per pound. Four 71-pound Suffolk-cross lambs brought $1.89 per pound. Eight 69-pound lambs brought $124.20 ($1.80 per pound). A 55-pound Suffolk-cross lamb brought $1.45 per pound. No goat does were delivered for this sale.

No goat bucks were delivered for this sale. Producers supplied goat kids (under 80 pounds). The goat kids were represented by the meat goats, as no dairy goat kids were available. The small goat kids were a concern due to the weather conditions, which was expressed through lower bids. The Ontario Stockyard report indicated that all categories of sheep and goats sold for slightly higher prices. All buyers were preparing for an excellent new start for the year.

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

LIVESTOCK AUCTION RESULTS Weight Category

Ashern

Gladstone

Grunthal

Heartland

Brandon

Virden

Killarney

Ste. Rose

Winnipeg

Feeder Steers

n/a

Jan-08

Jan-07

n/a

Jan-09

No. on offer

n/a

176*

101

n/a

100

Over 1,000 lbs.

n/a

900-1,000

n/a

215.00-231.00

n/a

800-900

n/a

225.00-247.00

228.00-245.00

n/a

700-800

n/a

235.00-250.00

234.00-249.00

n/a

210.00-235.00

600-700

n/a

250.00-272.00

239.00-257.00 (266.00)

n/a

220.00-255.00

500-600

n/a

270.00-300.00

260.00-290.00 (295.00)

n/a

230.00-265.00

400-500

n/a

290.00-325.00

285.00-330.00

n/a

235.00-275.00

300-400

n/a

185.00-213.00

n/a

Feeder heifers 900-1,000 lbs. 800-900

n/a

205.00-227.00

209.00-226.00

n/a

700-800

n/a

218.00-241.00

218.00-233.00

n/a

200.00-225.00

600-700

n/a

240.00-267.00

221.00-239.00

n/a

200.00-235.00

500-600

n/a

265.00-283.00

245.00-279.00

n/a

225.00-255.00

400-500

n/a

280.00-305.00

260.00-292.00

n/a

235.00-265.00

300-400

n/a

No. on offer

n/a

D1-D2 Cows

n/a

118.00-128.00

113.00-126.00

n/a

117.00-122.00 (125.00)

D3-D5 Cows

n/a

100.00-117.00

104.00-112.00

n/a

105.00-115.00

Slaughter Market

Age Verified

n/a

119.00-131.00

n/a

Good Bulls

n/a

135.00-147.00

137.00150.00

n/a

130.00-140.00

Butcher Steers

n/a

158.00-165.00

n/a

160

Butcher Heifers

n/a

156.00-164.00

n/a

Feeder Cows

n/a

125.00-139.00

n/a

120.00-125.00

Fleshy Export Cows

n/a

Lean Export Cows

n/a

Heiferettes

n/a

130.00-140.00

* includes slaughter market

(Note all prices in CDN$ per cwt. These prices also generally represent the top one-third of sales reported by the auction yard.)

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Pork export growth faces internal challenge The CFIA’s expertise in trade support is retiring and not being replaced By Alex Binkley Co-operator contributor

eclining expertise within the Canadian Food Inspection Agency could hurt international pork sales in the future, the president of Canadian Pork International says. “A g r ow i n g c o n c e r n i s the loss of expertise and the lack of resources allocated to meat exports at the CFIA,” Jacques Pomerleau told the Senate agriculture committee recently. “The expertise required is very specialized and cannot be easily replaced. The lack of resources is already resulting in delays that have proven to be costly when dealing with pressing issues. This situation needs to be looked at very quickly as it has the potential to become

South Korea finds cattle infected with footand-mouth The disease was first found in hogs but has now surfaced in cattle

another impediment to further expand our exports.” Po m e r l e a u w a r n e d t h e senators, who are studying Canada’s international agricultural competitiveness, that the dwindling expertise isn’t just a pork or meat industry problem. “With the new CFIA structure, it will also have an impact on all the other exported food products and commodities.” When asked for more details by Senator Fern Robichaud, Pomerleau linked the problem to the transfer of responsibility for CFIA to the minister of health from the minister of agriculture. CFIA’s traditional role of both monitoring food safety and helping the food industry increase exports is shifting to health issues. “In the past, there was a full division that took care of

meat inspection and exports,” Pomerleau said. “Now, there is a single group that looks after imports and exports and, unfortunately, all the experts have retired, which means that there are very few people with this expertise, and that is the problem.” CFIA has not been training people to be able to replace the experience of the retirees, he said. “This is something that is learned within the agency. It is training that the government, itself, must give, because it cannot be learned anywhere else. There has to be a conscious effort to recruit and train, just to fill these positions.” The last 20 years has seen remarkable growth in pork p ro d u c t i o n a n d e x p o r t s, Pomerleau said. “With close to 20 per cent of the total

world’s pork trade, Canada is the third-largest pork exporter behind the United States and the European Union. More than 60 per cent of the Canadian pork production is exported which makes our industry very dependent on exports.” Canada once shipped 75 per cent of its pork exports to the U.S. Now that figure is 30 per cent. In 1991, Canada shipped 250,000 tonnes of pork, worth $600 million to 54 countries. Now it exports 1.1 million tonnes, worth $3.2 billion, to more than 100 countries. “The value of our exports could even reach $4 billion.” The growth would not have been possible without close working relationships with CFIA, the Market Access Secretariat of Agriculture Canada

and Trade Department. “To maintain access to existing foreign markets and to access new ones, the Canadian pork industry has to completely rely on the Canadian government which has the exclusive mandate to negotiate not only bilateral and multilateral trade agreements but also the veterinary and sanitary agreements required to be able to export to any given market,” he said. World trade in meat and meat products are already highly regulated and many countries are bringing in new veterinary and sanitary import requirements, he said. “It is definitely expected that it will not get any easier, given that many countries will continue to implement new technical measures in an attempt to limit their imports.”

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outh Korea said Jan. 4 that foot-and-mouth had spread to a cattle farm in the country for the first time in more than three years, a blow to authorities battling to contain an outbreak of the disease. The outbreak was discovered around half a year ago on hog farms, intensifying fears about food safety in a nation already grappling with bird flu. The Agriculture Ministr y said in a statement that the disease had been detected at a cattle farm in the city of Anseong, nearly 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of Seoul. More than 26,000 hogs, or 0.3 per cent of the country’s total hog population, have been slaughtered as defence against foot-and-mouth, according to ministry data. All the cases have involved a type of the disease that animals are inoculated against in South Korea, the ministry said. Worries over livestock disease have helped boost meat imports. South Korea’s pork imports, mainly from the United States and Ger many, rose 21 per cent to 328,241 tonnes in the first 11 months of last year from the same period the year before, customs data showed. The country’s beef imports, mainly from Australia and the United States, also rose six per cent to over 260,000 tonnes between January and November last year from a year earlier, the data showed.

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Develop a pasture plan based on specific needs and weeds Heavy seeding and a weed control strategy geared to specific pasture conditions are key for grazing consultant and rancher Graeme Finn By Alexis Kienlen staff / edmonton

ou can’t just let your cows loose on a piece of grass without proper planning and knowledge. “When I take over land, I assess it and see where we need to go,” grazing consultant Graeme Finn said

at the recent Western Canada Grazing Conference. “If we have weed issues, then we control them with chemicals or grazing. Or start from scratch with a new forage stand.” The Crossfield rancher direct seeds all his pasture, beginning either with a burn-off or direct seeding without weed control if

he has some knowledge of the pasture. The best time for weed control is in the fall when the plant is ready to go dormant, because more weeds will die in the fall than in the spring, he said. Finn also recommends seeding at a depth of half an inch, unless the pasture is broad-leaf

beef roundup scholarship winners

Scholarship winners: Manitoba Beef Roundup organizers have awarded $1,000 scholarships to two young Manitoba beef producers following the annual All Breeds Youth Weekend last August in Neepawa. Samantha Rimke of Oak Lake is currently studying pharmacy at the University of Saskatchewan and Dillon Hunter of Kenton, is studying athletic therapy at the University of Regina. Manitoba Youth Beef Roundup is annually held on August long weekend. In 2015, it will take place July 31, August 1 and 2 in Neepawa. The all-breeds junior weekend is open to purebred and commercial cattle breeders under the age of 25.

Bar

20th AnnuAl

Bull SAlE 3R limousin The Rea Family Marengo, SK

annuals. Finn favours a heavy seeding rate — if the recommended rate is 10 pounds an acre, he’ll up that by another five pounds. “When you’re direct seeding into soil, 15 pounds an acre is great. If you’re floating it on, go another three pounds heavier.” Underseeding is one of the worst things that can be done to a pasture, since they are generally in use for about 15 years, he said. “It’s g o i n g t o c o s t y o u between $60 and $65 an acre, so you might as well seed it right,” he said. “That way you’ll be ahead in 10 years time, and you won’t have to worry about weeds coming back in.” Finn leaves some shelterbelts on his land because they catch moisture and offer some wind protection, which are major benefits in drier years. He doesn’t graze cattle in the first year in order to foster strong plant growth and root development. “If you have a great summer and not a lot of burden on the young seedlings, then you can use it for stockpile grazing in the winter,” he said. In the second year, the pasture is put into normal grazing rotation. “It’s so simple to cut a quarter of land into four chunks,” said Finn. “If you have good management practices and rotational grazing, your pastures will get stronger and healthier and will last longer.” Cattle do well on low-fibre, high-protein forage, and will gain better when grazing less mature plants, he added. “One of the things we see is that people get complacent with their grazing,” he said. “Summer comes around, peo-

March 19, 2015 • 1:00 pm (mST) Crossroads Centre - Oyen, AB

UNDER PRESSURE

YOUNG GUN

SelliNG – 40 Red Black Polled yearlings & 2 Year Olds

TITANIUM

Celebrating 20 Years

TOLEDO

We are giving away a One Year Lease on a Featherlite Trailer Supplied by Bert Duncan Trailer Sales

Catalogue on-line in color at www.bohrson.com • FRee DeliveRy! Talk to us about our Sight Unseen Purchase & Boarding Program

Kevin – 306-463-7950 • Ken – 306-463-7454 or 306-968-2923 r3bar@hotmail.com

Graeme Finn photo: alexis Kienlen

ple get lazy, and they go on holidays and don’t shift the animals enough.” Finn grazes legumes and uses an alfalfa, sainfoin and vetch blend, which is available from most seed companies. Legumes can be planted into sparse grass, while sainfoin and vetch offer a buffer against the possibility of bloating from alfalfa. Every year, Finn chooses a couple of legume-based paddocks to graze once with the yearlings. Then his older herd of cows comes in and feeds on them later in the year, distributing pods and seeds. “Sainfoin and vetch are the easiest things to distribute — we’ve got legumes appearing in places that we haven’t even distributed them.” However, cows can get weeping eyes from the seeds, which can eventually turn into pink eye. Using legumes in the pasture improves soil fertility, while having multiple species in the pasture helps spread out the insect burden, he said. akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

“It’s going to cost you between $60 and $65 an acre so you might as well seed it right. That way you’ll be ahead in 10 years time and you won’t have to worry about weeds coming back in.” Graeme Finn

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Even My Wife... Loves cows! 375

BULLS

M.C. Quantock Bull Sale “Canada’s Bulls” Saturday, Jan 31, 2015

12 noon MST

Lloydminster, AB/SK • All cattle in heated facility! • Free Beef Lunch 11 a.m. My family and I have spent more than 40 years supplying in excess of 10,000 bulls to Canada’s commercial cow men. We’re sincere and solid. You have my word we’ll look after your business in a caring, friendly manner. Read what our customers have to say, then this year call me for your bulls. Sincerely, Mac

We sell and deliver for free, hundreds of bulls all across canada. Here's what our customers say... “We used your Super Baldie bull for 11 years, he was the best bull we ever had. We kept daughters and really improved our herd. When we sold him he was still going strong and in great shape. I think you run a wonderful operation and I want to thank you so much for that bull.” — B. Hogg, MB “The Sight Unseen Purchase Program you offer, coupled with a rock solid reputation, unquestioned convenience and a large battery of quality, affordable sale bulls has again made bull buying from your ranch a pleasure.” — J. Comrie, MB “Our ranch has been using M.C. Quantock Livestock bulls for over 10 years. We presently have over 50 Red Angus, Super Baldies and Black Super Baldies in our pen. We have had great success calving from April 5 to May 20. Our Baldie calves sold September at Dawson Creek at the top market. We sold 1300 calves in 1 hour and could have sold more if we had them. Thanks Mac and family, your great line of bulls makes a difference in our herd. — N. Combell and Sons, AB “Pleased with the RA bulls, good shape when they arrived and at the end of the dry summer in MB remained in good condition.” — K & G Archibald, MB “The bulls always do good and any problems I’ve had were solved immediately. Bull loaned free of charge. Keep up the great service. Thanks.” — J. Sykes, MB “Excellent service, the only place we buy our bulls. Small birth weight calves, excellent growth. Our calves are weaning steadily heavier in the last 5 years, better replacement heifers, better genetics.” — D & G Lyons, AB “It is a pleasure to do business with you. Never yet have I been disappointed with Sight Unseen purchases. Best of all, I like the temperament of your bulls and Mac’s integrity and reliability is tops with me.” — D. Armstrong, MB

“I must say, I couldn’t have picked a better bull myself, so thanks — calves hit the ground running, lots of vigor, the bull passed on his good disposition and conformation.” — G. Gramlich, AB “Nothing but a positive experience. Even being a small producer, you have treated me like I was important to you.” —S. Goldie, SK “We had problems with one of our bulls. We called Mac and he took it back and made an adjustment. We had had the bull one year. Very pleased with your service and prompt reply. I have been very satisfied. You take a professional approach to your business, something that is often neglected in agriculture.” — L & R Cooper, SK “We bought 2 bulls over the phone. I met Mac in Bonnyville and was very pleased. The bulls were exactly what we were told we were getting.” — R. Ulliac, AB “Extremely pleased with our sight unseen purchase and would not hesitate to buy this way again. Our local vet remarked, ‘That’s one heck of a nice bull.’” — D. Parkin, SK “I thought our Charolais bull was not working and you replaced him promptly. We were well satisfied.” — Cayenne Ranches, AB “The bulls are excellent and we have no trouble. We run 30 bulls which are all hybrids.” — J & G Naylen, MB “Very impressed with how smooth and fast the sale ran, to run that many bulls in that amount of time was truly impressive. It was also reassuring to know that you were there after the bull had been delivered to ensure that everything was okay.” — B. Wilson, SK “We needed an unexpected bull and Mac delivered an excellent bull on the day and time he said. Very nice to deal with people who respect your time.” – Crowley's, SK

“The bulls, the sale, the service is second to none. Buying from M.C. Quantock for the past 3 years has been a huge stepping stone for the ranch. It is always a pleasure to deal with you.” Heinz Reimer — JV Ranch, MB “Just got home with my bull, great head, real good feet and legs, clean in the shoulder and thick bull. I was nervous about this Sight Unseen Purchase thing, never done it before. I was impressed with the bull and the way you do business.” — R. Milliken, MB “Very impressed with your sale. The best one I have attended in 30 years of ranching. Quality of cattle was excellent and the sale went smooth and fast. I was impressed with the quality of people you having working for you and how well they worked under the stress of the day.” — B. Howell, BC “I’m 100% satisfied with the quality of bulls I’ve bought with your Sight Unseen system. When taking delivery I’ve always felt I’ve gotten more value than I paid for. Your integrity is appreciated.” — M. Carr, ON “I was very satisfied as a first time buyer ‘Sight Unseen’ — you deserve a huge amount of praise for your ‘Pay in full when delivered and sight unseen policy.’ Keep up the good work.” — D. Denis, SK “Being able to buy a bull over the phone is great peace of mind, and Mac was very easy to talk to and is very knowledgeable about his bulls. The bulls I got were perfect. It was as if I was at the sale. I am 100% satisfied and will buy again from M.C. Quantock.” — M. Arnold, SK “I’m really impressed with the bull you suggested. I wanted a long, deep, thick, meaty bull and that’s exactly what I got. I’ve been to a lot of sales in MB this spring and this bull would be a high seller at any of them.” — J. Brown, MB

Call Mac... 1-800-561-BULL (2855) Everything is on our new website (www.mcquantock.com or www.canadasbulls.com), catalogues, video, hundreds of pictures...… View it today or just call 1-800-561-bull (2855) or email us at mcquantock@hotmail.com and we’ll send you your very own catalogue and DVD.

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

10th Annual Family Day Sale

February 16, 2015 SELLING: 150 RED & BLACK ANGUS TWO YEAR OLD BULLS. STRONG SET OF 150 COMMERCIAL BLACK ANGUS BRED HEIFERS. DUE TO START CALVING MAY 1ST

1:00 p.m. at the farm at Athabasca, AB Lunch at 11:30 a.m.

CANADA’S LARGEST SELECTION OF 2 YEAR OLD ANGUS BULLS

www.olefarms.com

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

Y R A S R 30 E V I NN Le

u ll

February 28, 2015 1:00 pm Spruce Grove, AB

s Far i w

SELLING: 140 Simmental Yearlings  120 Extra Age  40 Angus Yearlings

e l Sa

LFE 319B

LFE 833A TICKET X 514N

SPRINGSTEEN X ACE

Volume Discounts

LFE 323B

LFE 816A BEER MONEY X DARK KNIGHT

GOTHAM X TANKER

Many Bulls Homozygous Polled

Bulls Fertility & Semen Tested

LFE 524B AUTHORITY X ROCKET

ANGUS

LFE 509B CHESAPEAKE X SAMURAI

ANGUS

LFE 357B HARVESTOR X FINAL ANSWER

LFE 397B TURBULANCE X RIBEYE

Website: www.lewisfarms.ca Office Ph.: 780-962-5050 Fax: 780-962-2467 Kyle Lewis: 780-220-9188 Jordan Buba: 780-818-4047 Ken Lewis: 780-818-3829 emails: kyle@lewisfarms.ca jordan@lewisfarms.ca lewis@xplornet.com Fullblood Bulls: Mark Land & Cattle , Lenny Mark 780-842-7207

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

Western Canadaâ€™s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

MRC BOLD RULER 183B

Legends of the Fall Champion, Farmfair Reserve Grand Champion Bull, Agribition

MRC SUPREMACY 260B

Reserve Champion Senior Bull, Farmfair

WHS HANNAH 3B

DCC Poker Face 2X x CMS Tila 725T

WHS HANNAH 6B

DCC Poker Face 2X x Meck Zoey 829U

Western Canadaâ€™s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

WHS HANNAH 8B

MAF Horizon 7Yx CMS Rose 134Y

MRC BROKER 60B

Junior Champion Bull , Farmfair

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015 d

Carlrams Ranching Ltd

6th Annual Sale ~ Thursday, February 12, 2015

2:00 pm ‘Sask Time’ ~ Join us for lunch prior to the sale! ~

45 Ranch Ready Hereford Bulls ~ 13 Black Angus Bulls ~

LOT 170A

LOT 95A

CARLRAMS 87R STD ROYAL170A ~ Selling Half Intrest ~

CR 181U LAD 95A

LOT 387A CARLRAMS 53Y STD LAD 387A

LOT 238A

LOT 196A CARLRAMS 501R LAD 196A

CR 35W LAD 238A

LOT 431A CARLRAMS 501R EXTRA 431A

RNRF 159A

~ 50 Commercial Heifers ~

Selling a maternal brother & four paternal brothers to the Lloydminster Stockade Roundup Black Angus Champion & RBC Supreme Challenge Top Ten Finalist.

Black Bulls from RNRFlicek Angus, Neilburg, SK Rick Flicek - 306.823.7266 ~ Larry Flicek - 306.823.3957

Cal & Marilyn (306) 398-7343

Carl & Dalynn (306) 398-7879

Randy & Robin (306) 823-3912

Cut Knife, Saskatchewan, Canada Sale held in Carl & Dalynn’s Yard 5 Miles North, 1 Mile West of Cut Knife Visitors always welcomed at the Ranch! Catalogue will be avaliable online January 6th!

www.CarlramsRanching.com Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015 26th Annual

Bull Power

& Select Female Sale

February 20th 2015

90 15

At the Mader Ranch Carstairs AB

Red & Black Simmental & Simm/Angus Bulls

Red & Black Simmental Heifers

Easy Calving Bulls for Heifers High Performance Bulls for Cows

Watch & Bid online @

Ryley & Jill Mader & Family 403.807.8140 maderranches@gmail.com Randy & Ronda Mader 403.337.2928 rrmader13@gmail.com

Call for a catalogue or view it online at

www.maderranches.com

40 Angus Long Yearlings and Two’s

March 07, 2015 1:00 pm. Fairgrounds

Pincher Creek, AB.

45 Charolais Yearlings and Two’s

Free Delivery or Bring your trailer and get $75 off per bull

A&L Robbins Ranching 403-627-7398 HD Ranching 403-627-7737

Turnbull Charolais 403-627-6951 Char-Lew Ranch 403-627-9412

Watch for the catalogue online @ www.charolaisbanner.com Follow @char_lew_ranch on twitter for sale updates

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

Western Canadaâ€™s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

LLB

th AnnuAl

Bull & FEMAlE SAlE at the farm, Erskine AB

MARCh 14, 2015

Spring Spectacular

Offering over 700 head of Quality Black & Red Angus Cattle Canada’s largest Angus Production Sale

•

100 yearling heifers •

•

150 yearling bulls

300 commercial heifers

LLBAngus

•

100 two year old bulls

50 commercial bred heifers

llbangus@xplornet.com catalogue online www.llbangus.com

Lee, Laura & Jackie Brown Trish & Tim henderson Box 217, erskine, alberta T0c 1G0

Phone: 403-742-4226 Fax: 403-742-2962

BONCHUK FARMS BULL SALE SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2015 AT HEARTLAND LIVESTOCK, VIRDEN, MB SALE AT 1:00 • JOIN US FOR LUNCH AT 11:00

Dave Bonchuk - 204-773-0467 or 204-842-3706 Wayne Bonchuk - 204-796-0004 Amy Bonchuk - 204-773-6140

70 BULLS REDS, BLACK, FULLBLOOD/FLECK SIMMENTAL BULLS

Check catalogue online at

www.bonchukfarms.com or www.bouchardlivestock.com

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015 Black Pearl Bull & Female Sale March 15, 2015 Edwards Livestock Centre Tisdale, SK

Yellowstone 286W

Youngdale Excaliber 32X

RAF World Wide 920

EXAR Upshot 0562B

Selling Yearling & Two Year Old Bulls & Select Heifers Royal Angus Farm

Glenn and Mel Sisson Box 22 RR 1, Ridgedale, SK S0E 1L0 Ph: 306.873.4882 (Glenn) Ph/Fax: 306.873.4890 (Mel) Located 18 miles North of Tisdale 2 miles West and 2 miles North

T Bar C Cattle Co. Ltd.

4-3342 Millar Ave., Saskatoon, SK S7K 7G9 info@tbarc.com | www.tbarc.com Chris’ Cell: 306.220.5006 Ted’s Cell: 306.221.2711 Shane’s Cell: 403.363.9973

View the Catalogue online at: www.sissonbros.com or www.buyagro.com

royalangus.indd 1

1/4/2015 3:51:15 PM

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

Family Day Sale 10th Annual

February 16, 2015

1:00 p.m. at the farm at Athabasca, AB – Lunch at 11:30 a.m.

150 Red & Black Angus Two Year Old Bulls Strong set of 150 Commericial Black Angus Bred Heifers Due to start calving May 1st

With over 2000 mother cows exposed in 2014, we at Ole Farms know what it takes to raise trouble free cattle. In order to be pro�itable we believe that a cow must be able to: *Feed herself on forages for as many days as possible with minimal mechanical intervention *Re-breed each summer and wean a calf every year.

All of our cattle must be deep-bodied, easy �leshing and have solid feet. This enables them to hold condition and breed without being pampered. Our sale bulls are 21 months of age. They are moderate, forage developed and ready to make your operation more pro�itable.

CANADA’S LARGEST SELECTION OF 2 YEAR OLD ANGUS BULLS

“Sharing in the Excitement of Agriculture”

Sale Managed by:

Kelly & Anna Olson: 780-675-4664 – Kelly Cell: 780-689-7822 Travis: 780-689-8324 – Graham: 780-675-0112 P.O. Box 420, Athabasca, Alberta T9S 2A4

www.olefarms.com

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015 eights Bull weaning w s! averaged 924 lb

Gerry & Linda Bertholet & Family

Hartney, MB, Canada Gerry & Linda (204) 858-2086 Gerry (204) 741-0340

glbertholet@hotmail.com

Andrea (204) 483-0319

adbertholet@hotmail.com

t the Bullon Check ouu r video o Pasture Twebsite! the

60 Bulls

SimAngus ▪ Simmental ▪ Angus Yearlings ▪ Fall Born ▪ 2 yr Olds

March 23, 2015

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

2pm Grande Clairiere Hall

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

MENTALS

R PLUS SIM

s anc & Son

R PLUS SIMMENTALS Ross LeBlanc & Sons Box 1476 Estevan, SK S4A 2L7 Marlin 306.634.8031 Cell 306.421.2470 Ross

306.421.1824

LeBl RossSIMMENTALS S4A 2L7 R PLUS SIM R PLUS tevan, SK Box 1476 Es 31

6.634.80 30Sons Ross LeBlanc Marlin & 1.2470 306.42 l Cel Box 1476 Estevan, SK S4A 2L7 Ross

Marlin 306.634.8031 306.421.9909 Jason Cell 306.421.2470

Marlin 306.63 Cell 306.42

Ross

306.421.1824

Ross

306.42

Jason

306.421.9909

Jason

306.42

Jason an306.421.9909 ement: Sales M ag

OBI

Sales Management:

OBI Rob Holowaychuk 780.916.2628 Mark Holowaychuk 403.896.4990

uk Management: Management: Sales aych R PLUSSales SIMMENTALS Rob Holow 28 26 6. 780.91 OBI& Sons OBI Ross LeBlanc waychuk Mark Holo

Box 1476Rob Estevan, SK S4A 2L7 403.896.4990 Rob Holowaychuk Holowaychuk 780.916.2628 780.916.2628 Marlin 306.634.8031 Cell

Ross

306.421.2470 Mark Holowaychuk 403.896.4990 306.421.1824

Jason

306.421.9909

306.421.1824

Ross LeBlanc Box 1476 Estev

Mark Holowaychuk 403.896.4990

agement:

waychuk 8

owaychuk 0

Western Canadaâ€™s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

Rivercrest - Valleymere 12

Annual

Spady Bull Sale

Selling: 120 Black

Wednesday, April 15th, 2015 Sons selling from these top herd sires:

Lead Off Bull & 2nd High Selling Bull at LLB 2012 Spring Sale Sire: Limestone Darkhorse U322 MGS: SAV Net Worth 4200

LLB Darkhorse 328y BW WW YW MILK TM +5.0 +58 +105 +22 +51

at the Ranch near Alliance, AB

Angus Bulls

Peak dot eliminator 780z

soo line kodiak 9169

2nd High Selling Yearling Bull at Peak Dot 2013 Spring Sale Sire: SAV Eliminator 9105 BW WW YW MILK TM MGS: SAV 004 Predominant 4438 +2.9 +53 +96 +24 +50

Sire: HF Kodiak 5R MGS: Bon View New Design 878

BW WW YW +1.7 +55 +97

MILK TM +21 +49

* Volume Buyer Incentive * Sight Unseen Guarantee * Free Delivery or $50 Credit if you take your bulls home Sale Day

High Selling Yearling Bull at Bar E-L 2011 Spring Sale Sire: HF Tiger 5T MGS: Rainbow Hills Prime Cut 114P

bar e-l executor 23x BW WW YW MILK TM +3.3 +66 +105 +29 +62

FV Mandate Man 146y

High Selling Yearling Bull at Johnson 2012 Spring Sale Sire: Sydgen Mandate 6079 BW WW YW MILK TM -0.2 +66 +118 +25 +58 MGS: FV 20K King 308M

Visit our website for more details www.rivercrestangus.com

Craig Spady 403-740-4978 Travis Spady 780-879-2298 Tom Spady 780-879-2180 Brian Spady 780-879-2110

Western Canadaâ€™s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

C R y Laz h c n a R

Herd Sires in Use

LONG YEARLING

BULL SALE

Red YY Thor 750T

Lazy RC Legacy 0144X

Crowfoot Logic 4019P

Red Lazy RC ElSenro 8125U

McRaes Mid Nite 26X

Red McRaes Top Cut 78X

60+

Red & Black Long Yearling Bulls (coming twos)

February 2, 2015

•

1:00 PM CST

Sale Location: Lazy RC Ranch, Beechy, SK Lunch @ 11:00 am

Lazy RC Ranch

Russ & Cindy Sibbald Box 329 • Beechy,SK • S0L 0C0

306-859-2244 home 306-859-7726 cell lazyrcranch@xplornet.ca

Infor mation and Catalog

www.lazyr cr anch.com

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015 PROGENY SELL

BULL & SELECT FEMALE SALE MARCH 16, 2015 S A V Resource 1441

PROGENY SELL

1:00 PM AT THE FARM 75 Black Angus Yearling Bulls

Remitall F Prospector 110Z

2014 Grand and Supreme Champion Bull FarmFair and Canadian Western Agribition

30 Black Angus Yearling Heifers

Remitall F Odyssey 67X

PROGENY SELL

S A V Harvestor 0338

- Low Birth Weights, Calving Ease - Carcass Evaluated - Sound, Athletic - High Performance - Semen Tested - Free Delivery - Customer Guarantee

Plan now to attend ....

Rawes Ranches Ltd. 32 Annual Performance Tested Charolais Bull Sale nd

y February y 17, 2015 at the ranch, Strome, AB. Tuesday,

On offer: 140 TWO YEAR OLDS

Proven genetics ★ Many ½ & ¾ brothers ★ Single and Pair lots ★ Internet bidding In house warranty program ★ Video sale with bulls available for on-site viewing ★ Personal guarantee

This is your opportunity to purchase bulls from a family that has been selling Charolais bulls for forty years. We offer you the largest selection of Two Year Olds from a program that guarantees sound, functional, uniform bulls, with built in performance to sire calves that will top the market. Catalog and Bull Video Available Online

www.rawesranches.com The Ranch where performance is no accident!

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

John & Myrna Rawe 780-376-3598 Philip & Marie Harty 780-376-2241

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

poplarMeadows_bullBuyersGuide_1230.indd 1

2015-01-03 12:20 PM

Western Canadaâ€™s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015 5thh Annual Ranch Raised

Highwa wa ayy We st Multi-Breed Mult l i Breed Bull Sale lt

 calving ease  grass-based  strong maternal

MARCH 21, 2015 • 1:00 PM MAYERTHORPE AG BARN

 longevity  moderate frame

VIEWING: 10:00 AM • LUNCH: 12:00 PM

550 0

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BLACK ANGUS

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Kristine Lange & Geza Szucs (780) 325-2224

RONAN R ANGUS Ralph & Lorree Erdell (780) 786-2961

TRI A ANGUS

Henry & Michelle Roy (780) 723-2361

Dave Holroyd (780) 723-3974

NOLARA FARMS

Larry, Nola & Sara Van Sickle (780) 786-4341

Shellmouth, MB 204-564-2540

Andy & Darlene Becker (780) 723-2683

Auctioneering By

FROM COWS LIKE THIS

(780) 542-7323

VIEW THE CATALOG ONLINE AT WWW.TIMBERLINDAUCTIONS.COM

2 yr old bulls sold private treaty off the ranch!

Our 2014 heifer promotion has been continued into 2015, check website for details!

www.nerbasbrosangus.com

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

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9th Annual 9th Annual Two Year Old Two Year Old Angus & Red Angus Angus & RedBull Angus Bull Sale Sale

February February 12th,12th, 2015 2015

JANUARY2:00 2015 pm Stettler 2:00Auction pm Stettler Auction Mart Mart Stettler, AB Stettler, AB

9th Annual 9th Annual 9th Annual “Foraged-Developed” “Foraged-Developed” Two Year Old9th Annual Year Old AngusAngus & Red & Angus Bull SaleBull Angus & Red Angus RedTwo Bull Angus Sale Sale

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February February 12 ,122015 , 2015 2:00 pm

pmancattle. www.www.chapm chapmancact lome.com th February 12 , 2015 February 12th, 2015

2:00 pm Stettler Mart 2:00Auction pm Stettler Auction Mart Stettler, AB Stettler, AB

CHAPMAN MEMENTO CHAPMAN MEMENTO 0513X 0513X pictured as a pictured frame asMEMENTO a frame 5, 2,346 5, 2,346 lb,lb, CHAPMAN MEMENTO CHAPMAN 0513X 0513X CHAPMAN MEMENTO 0513X pictured as a frame pictured as5, a frame 2,346 5, sire 2,346 lb, lb, sold four-year-old four-year-old herd sire herd who who sold pictured as a frame 5, 2,346 lb, four-year-old herd four-year-old sire herd who sire who sold sold through our 2012 through our bull 2012 bull sale sale to to a a four-year-old herd sire who sold through our 2012 through bull our 2012 sale bull sale to to a a progressive commercial progressive commercial outfit.... outfit.... through our 2012outfit.... bull sale to a progressive commercial progressive commercial outfit.... 100% “Forage-Developed” 100% “Forage-Developed” progressive commercial outfit... CHAPMAN MEMENTO 0513X 100% “Forage-Developed” 100% “Forage-Developed”

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741-2099

•

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Shane Castle 741-7485 Silas Chapman (403)(306) 741-2099 Silas • ShaneChapman Castle (306) 741-7485 (403) 741-2

www.chapmancattle.com

er: Don Raffan (250) 558-6789 Auctioneer: Don(403) Raffan (250)• 558-6789 Auctioneer: Do Silas Chapman 741-2099 Shane Castle (306) 741-7485 Auctioneer: Don Raffan (250) 558-6789

Silas Chapman (403) 741-2099 • Shane Castle (306) 741-7485 Auctioneer: Don Raffan (250) 558-6789 Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

Quality affordable ranch raised Bulls For ranchers

Mon. March 16, 2015 Foothills auctioneers Inc. Stavely, aB

Gloria Blades Nanton AB 403-646-2101

If you are interested in Genomics we genotype tested 70 bull calves for the most important traits in beef production resulting in Leptin - Feed Efficiency 58% homozygous TT 42% CT PMCH Tenderness & Marbling 82% AA 18% AT Catalogue Online After Feb 20th

www.foothillsauctioneers.com

DON’T MISS OUT ON OUR NEXT ISSUE OF THE

MARCH ISSUE

Deadline: Feb. 9, 2015

Stewart Cattle Co. & Guests

7th Annual Black Angus Bull Sale 50 Black Angus Bulls & Simmental x Angus Bulls

FEBRUARY 26 / 2015 1:00pm NEEPAWA AG-PLEX

Phone or email for catalogue: stewartcows@wificountry.ca Sale catalogue & video will be available from consignors or online @

www.stewartcattle.com

FREE BOARD on all bull purchases until April 1, 2015 Stewart Cattle Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204.773.6392 DJ Cattle Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204.841.3880 Legaarden Livestock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204.546.3052

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

“Where the serious bull buyers are looking”

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

Year Old

Black Angus Bull Sale

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

FORT MACLEOD AUCTION FEATURING:

Rugged Rising Two Year Olds! Summer grazed on grass from April 26 to October 15 for development of their future. Many 1�/2and 3�/4 brothers. Bred & Owned STACEY & MICHEL STAUFFER & FAMILY Contact Us For A Catalogue

Box 2377, Pincher Creek, AB T0K 1W0

sranches@telus.net Office: 403-627-2190 Stacey’s Cell: 403-627-8229

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

BUY ALL THE BULL

Y U B N A C Y OU

MARCH 28 , 2015

INVEST IN MANITOBA SIMMENTAL BULL POWER NOW AND CASH IN FOR YEARS TO COME

Lunch 12 Noon - 1 PM at the farm, Swan River MB

50 TWO YEAR OLD & YEARLING RED AND BLACK ANGUS BULLS

February 13 M&J Farms Simmental and Angus Bull Sale Russell, MB February 16 Rendezvous Farms Bull & Female Sale Ste. Rose du Lac, MB February 22 Bonchuk Farms Bull Sale Virden, MB March 11 Mar Mac Farms & Guests Simmental & Angus Bull Sale Brandon, MB March 15 Rebels of the West Bull Sale Virden, MB

Bulls Sired by:

March 16 Genetic Source Simmental Bull Sale Brandon, MB

Anderson’s Next Generation 20U Anderson’s Who’s Next 39S Brookmore Upward 116Y Kembar Kodiak 10Y Crescent Creek Pacesetter 128Z Red McRaes Mohican 40X Red D Bar Dynamo 67Y

March 17 Prairie Partners Bull Sale Killarney, MB March 18 Premium Beef Bull Sale Neepawa, MB March 20 Family Tradition Bull Sale Dropmore, MB March 23 Maple Lake Stock Farm Bull Sale Grand Clairiere, MB March 24 WLB Livestock 11th Simmental & Hereford Bull Sale Douglas, MB April 9 Transcon’s Winnipeg Bull Sale Winnipeg, MB April 11 Transcon’s Cattle Country Sale Neepawa, MB For Catalogues and more information please visit our website

Bruce: (204) 734-2073 Shane Castle (306) 741-7485 Ryan Hurlburt (306) 292-9812

www.mbsimmental.com Manitoba’s Breeders Are Among the Best In The Business

Manitoba Simmental Association Box 142, Cartwright, MB R0K 0L0

www.andersoncattle.ca

President, Everett Olson (204) 826-2643 Secretary/Treasurer, Donalee Jones (204) 529-2444

Selling Two Year old 20 red & Black Polled limouSin BullS 60 red & Black anguS BullS GReat SeleCtion of low BiRth weiGht, CalvinG eaSe BullS and peRfoRManCe GenetiCS with hiGh MateRnal tRaitS Box 85, Simpson, SK S0G 4M0 Rob Garner: 306-836-2035 C: 306-946-7946 nordallimousin@sasktel.net

view the catalogue online at www.nordallimousin.com Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

Annual Bull Sale Thursday, February 19, 2015 on the Ranch Russell, Manitoba

50 Two Year

Old Red & Black Simmental & Angus Bulls Also Selling Purebred & Commercial Females

Sale Managed By:

306-933-4200

Miles, Bonnie & Jared Glasman Box 1179, Russell, MB R0J 1W0 Home: 204.773.3279 Miles’ Cell: 204.773.6275 Jared’s Cell: 204.796.0999

www.mjsimmentalangus.com

Matthew & Leanne Glasman Box 1467, Russell, MB R0J 1W0 Home: 204.773.3209 Matt’s Cell: 204.773.6055

www.glasmanfarms.com

m&j.indd 1

1/4/2015 3:42:23 PM

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

FEATURING 50 BULLS TOTAL ON OFFER 20 COMING 2 YR OLDS

3rd Annual

February 17 2015 AUCTIONEER:

DON RAFFAN 250-558-6789 587-728-1004

SALE STAFF:

FOOTHILLS AUCTIONEERS INC

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

Western Canadaâ€™s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

JANUARY 2015

Your Next Bull

.ca

Performance you Can Trust Canadian Hereford Association • 5160 Skyline Way NE, Calgary, AB T2E 6V1 • 1-888-836-7242 • herefords@hereford.ca

Western Canada’s Comprehensive Bull Buyers Guide

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

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Baling hay helps drought-hit Kenyan pastoralists cut losses Fewer must migrate with their herds in search of forage By Kagondu Njagi alago alba, kenya/ reuters

sually at this time of the year, Ibrahim Hassan would be preparing his livestock for a lengthy trek toward greener pastures along the River Tana, some 100 kms away from his village in Dertu, Northern Kenya. Like many here, Hassan knows his livestock will die if he does not move the herd ahead of the looming dry season, which hits between the months of January and March. But this year the 58-year-old has decided not to move. His reason is stacked in heaps of hay protected under a grass-thatched shed at his home in Alago Alba. “When the rains have fallen and there is pasture, I collect as much as I can and then store it in bales to prepare for the dry season,” explained the father of six. “This saves me the long and dangerous journey in search of pasture.” An old technology — cutting and baling hay — is making inroads as a form of climate change adaptation in Northern Kenya, where worsening droughts have increased the length and uncertainty of migrations to find pasture, and at times led to worsening conflict over scarce water and grass. The problems faced by livestockowning families in Northern Kenya are clear from a remote automated weather station at the Dertu Millenium Village centre, which shows that rainfall readings can remain at zero for many days during the dry season.

“When the rains have fallen and there is pasture, I collect as much as I can and then store it in bales to prepare for the dry season. This saves me the long and dangerous journey in search of pasture.” Ibrahim Hassan

The solar-powered unit also shows that wind speeds can be as high as 40 kilometres per hour, and daytime temperatures increasingly high. The station operates as “a drought early-warning system,” explained Samuel Mbalu, a database manager at the station. Without such help, “herders lose their livestock to the drought while families flee their homes in search of food and water,” he said. The Dertu Millennium Village is one of a set of communities testing means of ending extreme poverty through sustainable development. The villages were established by organizations including the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the United Nations Development Program. For the decade or so he has worked at Dertu, Mbalu has repeatedly tried to convince the community in the area to reduce their herds of livestock to manageable levels when the dry season is about to set in. But few have been persuaded. “The herders believe that reducing the livestock is taking away (their)

livelihood and prestige in society,” Mbalu said. “They would rather have their stocks die than sell.” However, a few, like Hassan, have taken up other of Mbalu’s ideas, including baling hay to get animals through the dry times.

Benefits of baling

Saving more animals in drought periods is having far-reaching effects in the community. At the Dertu Boarding Primary School, classrooms are full of children busy with lessons — a change from the times when boys would have been home assisting their families with preparations for the migration in search of pasture, said Sofia Ali, the school’s head teacher. The girls, she says, at this time would have been married off to reduce the families’ burden of coping with drought. One of these would have been 13-year-old Halima Hassan, who is in class four. She is Ibrahim Hassan’s daughter. “I was tempted to marry her off but I am happy I did not. She is now getting an education thanks to a settled life,”

said Halima’s father, as he rationed handfuls of hay to his healthy-looking herd of cattle at his home. Other changes are also underway. Nunow Rage, 35, said her husband’s decision to begin reducing his herds and to cut hay rather than migrating has allowed her to invest in a clothing business at the Dertu shopping centre. “When my husband sells the livestock he gives me a share of the money to buy stock for the business,” said the mother of four. “When the drought is too much I use the savings to buy food for my family.” Nunow said a settled life has also helped cut child mortality in the area, in part because she and other mothers can take their children to the Dertu Health Centre if they face problems. And it is not only in Northern Kenya that hay baling is winning converts. At the Mwea irrigation scheme in Central Kenya, youth groups are baling dry rice straw and selling it as livestock fodder, said David Bundi, chairman of the Kiratina Hay Product youth group. A bale of hay weighing about 14 kg can fetch as much as US$7 (Ksh. 700), and some of the group’s production has been transported as far as Northern Kenya, to feed livestock dying of drought there, he said. He hopes the government will begin supporting such innovations, both to provide youth jobs and to help the country deal with worsening drought. “We would like the government to give us tenders to supply hay to drought-struck regions as well as (to) public institutions that keep livestock,” Bundi said.

A Maasai man waits for his cattle to finish drinking water near the Rift Valley town of Suswa, about 70 km (43 miles) west of the capital Nairobi, March 2, 2013. Kenya will hold its presidential and parliamentary elections on March 4. Photo: REUTERS/Karel Prinsloo

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Fonterra slashes New Zealand dairy prices Russian demand has fallen and China has ended its milk powder buying spree Wellington / Reuters

ew Zealand’s Fonterra dairy co-operative cut the pr ice it expects to pay farmers for milk to an eight-year low Dec. 10, responding to tumbling global dairy prices as production soars and demand from China and Russia eases. The world’s largest dairy exporter slashed its farm gate pr ice forecast to NZ$4.70 (C$4.23) per kilogram of milk solids for the current season. That is the lowest since the 200607 season and nearly half last season’s record-high NZ$8.40. The New Zealand dollar fell to around $0.7670 versus the U.S. after the announcement, from $0.7710 previously, as a lower price paid for the country’s biggest export earner was seen as having a negative impact on the overall economy. “There is still considerable volatility in global dairy markets,” Fonterra chairman John Wilson said in a statement. He noted that this was driven by high global supply, falling oil prices, geopolitical uncertainty in Russia, a major buyer, and falling Chinese demand.

“Right now we are seeing a number of factors that are delaying a sustained return to higher global prices.”

Fonterra chairman

“Right now we are seeing a number of factors that are delaying a sustained return to higher global prices.” Global dair y prices have dropped roughly 50 per cent this year, battering New Zealand’s largest export industry, with the market flooded by supply from Europe and the United States just as China slows its milk powder buying spree and Russian demand has fallen. The latest payout forecast takes the farm gate price further below the average cost of production around NZ$5.50/km. In response, signs are emerging that farmers are beginning to rein in production.

New Zealand dairy farmers are seeing the lowest prices in eight years. photo: thinkstock

Big U.S. school districts plan switch to antibiotic-free chicken Decision prompted by concern over rise in resistant ‘superbugs’ By Tom Polansek Reuters

ix of the largest U.S. school distr icts are switching to antibioticfree chicken, officials said Dec. 9, pressuring the world’s top meat companies to adjust production practices in the latest push against drugs used on farms. The move by districts in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Miami-Dade County and Orlando County is intended to protect children’s health amid concerns about the rise of so-called “superbugs,” bacteria that gain resistance to conventional medicines, school officials said. How e v e r, t h e c h a n g e may raise costs for schools because bird mortality rates are typically higher in flocks raised without antibiotics. The six districts, which served at least 2.6 million meals last year, hope to limit costs by combining their purchasing power, officials said. Under the new standards, all chicken products served in the districts must come from birds that were never fed antibiotics, according to the Urban School Food Alliance, which represents the districts. School officials are demanding the change after meeting with industry experts and “really understanding how this affects the human body overall and our

future with antibiotic resistance,” said Leslie Fowler, executive director of nutrition support services for the Chicago Public Schools. “We’re landing in a place that the scientists agree is the right direction,” she said. The switch is expected to take several years as contracts with food vendors expire and meat producers respond to the new standards. Companies like Tyson Foods Inc. and Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. have said they will not be able to change production systems quickly to raise more chickens without antibiotics, Fowler said. In those cases, the districts will require suppliers to explain when they can meet the new standards. Tyson and Pilgrim’s Pride did not respond to questions from Reuters. Perdue Foodservice said its production capacity is confidential. The unit of Perdue Farms has “no-antibiotics-ever” chicken products that meet the districts’ new standards, according to the company. However, the National Chicken Council said sick birds sometimes need to be treated with antibiotics. “ We s t r o n g l y c a u t i o n against food trends that are not fully supported by science, will introduce higher costs into the food system and offer no benefit to public health,” spokesman Tom Super said.

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

EU referendum seen as threat to U.K. farming One partner in Britain’s ruling coalition wants to renegotiate the country’s membership in the EU oxford, england / reuters

referendum on European Un i o n m e m b e r s h i p i s t h e biggest threat facing Br it ish farming, the cabinet secretary responsible for agriculture in Scotland’s parliament said Jan. 7. “ Westminster’s in-out referendum on the EU is a 20-billion-pound gamble with the future of Scottish and British farming,” Richard Lochhead said at the annual Oxford Farming Conference. Britain’s Conservative party, the leading partner in the current ruling coalition, has said it will renegotiate the terms of EU membership if it wins a general election to be held in May and then hold an inout referendum before the end of 2017. “The stakes are high, especially for Scottish farmers and crofters for whom CAP (the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy) support is a vital

lifeline,” Lochhead of the Scottish National Party said. He estimated direct EU support for British farmers was worth 20 billion pounds during the current CAP period (2014-20). “It is more difficult to make a living from the land in Scotland — of which 85 per cent is classified Less Favoured Area — and we have a predominance of livestock sectors which often face the biggest challenges in terms of profitability.” George Eustice, Britain’s junior farming minister, said it was important to have a renegotiation and referendum. “Those who say you shouldn’t have a referendum because people might want to leave have got to have a little bit more confidence in our democracy,” Eustice, a Conservative, said. “I think the right thing to do is carry out a renegotiation, get them to return some powers, go to the country, get a mandate and settle this debate once and for all.”

Highland Cow calves stand in the snow at a farm near Crianlarich, Scotland. photo: REUTERS/David Moir

news

U.K. explores dairy futures feasibility

SMALL.

EARLY.

oxford, england / reuters / Dairy futures could help British farmers cope with volatile milk prices, U.K. Farming and Environment Minister Elizabeth Truss said Jan. 7, adding the government was supporting a feasibility study conducted by the National Farmers Union. “Futures could have strong potential to bring added security to farmers,” Truss said at the annual Oxford Farming Conference. She noted that milk prices received by farmers in Britain have fallen sharply from around 33.8 pence ($1) per litre at the start of last year to the low 20s in some cases now. The fall in prices has been driven by increased global production, reduced demand from China and a European supply glut resulting from Russian dairy import bans.

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Go to dowagro.ca or call the Solutions Center at 1-800-667-3852. Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) or an affiliated company of Dow. 0115-41246 MC TM

1/5/15 11:12 AM

KAP release / An increase in safety inspections, an effort by the Manitoba government to reduce the high number of injuries and fatalities in the agriculture industry, has many producers concerned about what will happen when inspectors arrive on their farms. But now, Keystone Agricultural Producers and SAFE Work Manitoba have collaborated to provide farm safety support services that will help producers make their farms safe and prepare for these inspections. “A farmer can call the KAP office and we’ll arrange for a qualified SAFE Work professional to come out to the farm,” said KAP vice-president Dan Mazier. “This individual will be able to identify safety issues that need to be rectified, and explain what to expect when an inspector arrives.” Mazier also noted the same on-farm service is available for a farmer who has already been inspected and has received an improvement order. The safety professional will come out to the farm prior to reinspection and let the producer know if he or she is complying with the order. “In Manitoba, we’ve experienced 26 acute hazard fatalities in the agriculture industry in the past five years,” said Jamie Hall, chief operating officer of SAFE Work Manitoba. “This was the highest of all sectors and represents 34 per cent of the total workplace fatalities in the province. SAFE Work Manitoba is here to help farmers make their farms safer for their workers and families.” Producers wanting to take advantage of farm safety support services can call the KAP office at 204-697-1140 or contact SAFE Work Manitoba at 204-957-SAFE (7233) or 1-855-957-SAFE (7233).

68 1

TheThe Manitoba October 15, 6, 2011 ManitobaCo-Operator Co-operator || January 2015

FARMER'S

MARKETPLACE Call to place your classified ad in the next issue: 1-800-782-0794

Selling?

FAX your classified ads to: 204-954-1422 · Or eMAiL your classified ads to: mbclassifieds@fbcpublishing.com

Classification

index Tributes/Memoriams Announcements Airplanes Alarms & Security Systems AnTiqueS – Antiques For Sale – Antique Equipment – Antique Vehicles – Antiques Wanted

Your guide to the Classification Categories and sub-listings within this section.

BuiLDinG & RenOVATiOnS – Building Supplies – Concrete Repair – Doors & Windows – Electrical & Plumbing – Insulation – Lumber – Roofing Buildings Business Machines Business Opportunities

Arenas AuCTiOn SALeS – MB Auction Parkland – MB Auction Westman – MB Auction Interlake – MB Auction Red River – SK Auction – AB Auction Peace – AB Auction North – AB Auction Central – AB Auction South – BC Auction – Auction Various – U.S. Auctions

BuSineSS SeRViCeS – Crop Consulting – Financial & Legal – Insurance/Investments Butchers Supply Chemicals Clothing/Work wear Clothing/Western /Specialty wear Collectibles Compressors Computers

Auction Schools AuTO & TRAnSpORT – Auto Service & Repairs – Auto & Truck Parts – Autos – Trucks – Semi Trucks & Trailers – Sport Utilities – Vans – Vehicles Various – Vehicles Wanted

COnTRACTinG – Custom Baling – Custom Feeding – Custom Harvesting – Custom Seeding – Custom Silage – Custom Spraying – Custom Trucking – Custom Tub Grinding – Custom Work Construction Equipment Crop Inputs Dairy Equipment Electrical Engines Entertainment

BeeKeepinG – Honey Bees – Cutter Bees – Bee Equipment Belting Biodiesel Equipment Books & Magazines

TiLLAGe & SeeDinG – Air Drills – Air Seeders – Harrows & Packers – Seeding Various – Tillage Equipment – Tillage Various

FARM MAChineRy – Aeration – Conveyors – Equipment Monitors

– Fertilizer Equipment – Grain Augers – Grain Bins – Grain Carts – Grain Cleaners – Grain Dryers – Grain Elevators – Grain Handling – Grain Testers – Grain Vacuums – Hydraulics – Irrigation Equipment – Loaders & Dozers – Parts & Accessories – Potato & Row Crop Equipment – Repairs – Rockpickers – Salvage – Silage Equipment – Snowblowers/Plows – Specialty Equipment – Machinery Miscellaneous – Machinery Wanted

TRACTORS – Agco – Allis/Deutz – Belarus – Case/IH – Caterpillar – Ford – John Deere – Kubota – Massey Ferguson – New Holland – Steiger – Universal – Versatile – White – Zetor – 2-Wheel Drive – 4-Wheel Drive – Various Fencing Firewood Fish Farm Forestry/Logging Fork Lifts/Pallet Trucks Fur Farming Generators GPS Health Care Heat & Air Conditioning Hides/Furs/Leathers Hobby & Handicrafts Household Items Iron & Steel

hAyinG & hARVeSTinG – Baling Equipment – Mower Conditioners – Swathers – Swather Accessories – Various COMBineS – Belarus – Case/IH – Cl – Caterpillar Lexion – Deutz – Ford/NH – Gleaner – John Deere – Massey Ferguson – Versatile – White – Combines - Various – Accessories

LAnDSCApinG – Greenhouses – Lawn & Garden LiVeSTOCK Cattle – Cattle Auctions – Angus – Black Angus – Red Angus – Aryshire – Belgian Blue – Blonde d’Aquitaine

SpRAyinG equipMenT – Sprayers – Various

– Brahman – Brangus – Braunvieh – BueLingo – Charolais – Dairy – Dexter – Excellerator – Galloway – Gelbvieh – Guernsey – Hereford – Highland – Holstein – Jersey – Limousin – Lowline – Luing – Maine-Anjou – Miniature – Murray Grey – Piedmontese – Pinzgauer – Red Poll – Salers – Santa Gertrudis – Shaver Beefblend – Shorthorn – Simmental – South Devon – Speckle Park – Tarentaise – Texas Longhorn – Wagyu – Welsh Black – Cattle Composite – Cattle Various – Cattle Wanted Horses – Horse Auctions – American Saddlebred – Appaloosa – Arabian – Belgian – Canadian – Clydesdale – Draft – Donkeys – Haflinger – Miniature – Morgan – Mules – Norwegian Ford – Paint – Palomino – Percheron

– Peruvian – Pinto – Ponies – Quarter Horse – Shetland – Sport Horses – Standardbred – Tennessee Walker – Thoroughbred – Warmblood – Welsh – Horses For Sale – Horses Wanted poultry – Poultry For Sale – Poultry Wanted Sheep – Sheep Auction – Arcott – Columbia – Dorper – Dorset – Katahdin – Lincoln – Suffolk – Texel Sheep – Sheep For Sale – Sheep Wanted Swine – Swine Auction – Swine For Sale – Swine Wanted Speciality – Alpacas – Bison (Buffalo) – Deer – Elk – Goats – Llama – Rabbits – Emu/Ostrich/Rhea – Yaks – Various Livestock Equipment Livestock Services & Vet Supplies Misc. Articles For Sale Misc. Articles Wanted Musical Notices On-Line Services ORGAniC – Organic Certified – Organic Food – Organic Grains

Outfitters Personal Pest Control Pets & Supplies Photography Propane Pumps Radio, TV & Satellite ReAL eSTATe – Commercial Buildings – Condos – Cottages & Lots – Houses & Lots – Land For Rent – Land For Sale – Mobile Homes – Motels & Hotels – Resorts – Vacation Property – farms & Ranches – Acreages/Hobby Farms – Manitoba – Saskatchewan – Alberta – British Columbia – Pastureland – Farms/Ranches Wanted ReCReATiOnAL VehiCLeS – All Terrain Vehicles – Boats & Water – Campers & Trailers – Golf Carts – Motor Homes – Motorcycles – Snowmobiles Recycling Refrigeration Restaurant Supplies Sausage Equipment Sawmills Scales CeRTiFieD SeeD – Cereal Seeds – Forage Seeds – Oilseeds – Pulse Crops – Specialty Crops COMMOn SeeD – Cereal Seeds – Forage Seeds – Grass Seeds – Oilseeds – Pulse Crops – Common Seed Various

SeeD/FeeD/GRAin – Feed Grain – Hay & Straw – Feed Wanted – Grain Wanted – Hay & Feed Wanted – Seed Wanted Sewing Machines Sharpening Services Silos Sporting Goods Stamps & Coins Swap Tanks Tarpaulins Tenders Tickets Tires Tools TRAiLeRS – Grain Trailers – Livestock Trailers – Trailers Miscellaneous Travel Water Pumps Water Treatment Welding Well Drilling Well & Cistern Winches CAReeRS – Career Training – Child Care – Construction – Domestic Services – Farm/Ranch – Forestry/Log – Health Care – Help Wanted – Management – Mining – Oil Field – Professional – Resume Services – Sales/Marketing – Trades/Tech – Truck Drivers – Employment Wanted

✁

Classified Ad Order Form MAiL TO: Manitoba Co-operator, Box 9800, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 3K7

FAX TO:

204-954-1422

Name: __________________________________________________________ Address: ___________________________________________ Province: ____________________________

phOne in: TOLL FREE IN CANADA:

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MASTERCARD

Minus 10% if prepaying: ______________________

Card No.

Add 5% GST: ______________________

Expiry Date: Signature: _______________________________________________ Published by Farm Business Communications, 1666 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1 WINNIPEG OFFICE Manitoba Co-operator 1666 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1 Toll-Free in Canada 1-800-782-0794 Phone 204-954-1415 in Winnipeg FAX 204-954-1422 Mailing Address: Box 9800, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 3K7

AGREEMENT The publisher reserves the right to refuse any or all advertising for any reason stated or unstated. Advertisers requesting publication of either display or classified advertisements agree that should the advertisement be omitted from the issue ordered for whatever reason, the Manitoba Co-operator shall not be held liable. It is also agreed that in the event of an error appearing in the published advertisement, the Manitoba Co-operator accepts no liability beyond the amount paid for that portion of the advertisement in which the error appears or affects. Claims for adjustment are limited to errors appearing in the first insertion only. While every endeavor will be made to forward box number replies as soon as possible, we accept no liability in respect to loss or damage alleged to a rise through either failure or delay in forwarding such replies, however caused, whether by negligence or otherwise.

(unless otherwise stated)

ADVERTISIng RATES & InfoRMATIon REgulAR ClASSIfIED

plEASE pRInT youR AD BEloW:

VISA

noon on THuRSDAyS

Or (204) 954-1415 in Winnipeg

plEASE noTE: Even if you do not want your name & address to appear in your ad, we need the information for our files.

❏

ADVeRTiSinG DeADLine:

CAUTION The Manitoba Co-operator, while assuming no responsibility for advertisements appearing in its columns, exercises the greatest care in an endeavor to restrict advertising to wholly reliable firms or individuals. However, please do not send money to a Manitoba Co-operator box number. Buyers are advised to request shipment C.O.D. when ordering from an unknown advertiser, thus minimizing the chance of fraud and eliminating the necessity of a refund where the goods have already been sold. At Farm Business Communications we have a firm commitment to protecting your privacy and security as our customer. Farm Business Communications will only collect personal information if it is required for the proper functioning of our business. As part of our commitment to enhance customer service, we may share this personal information with other strategic business partners. For more information regarding our Customer Informa-

TOTAL: ______________________ tion Privacy Policy, write to: Information Protection Officer, Farm Business Communications, 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1. Occasionally we make our list of subscribers available to other reputable firms whose products and services might be of interest to you. If you would prefer not to receive such offers, please contact us at the address in the preceding paragraph, or call 1-800-782-0794. The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to Manitoba Co-operator and Farm Business Communications attempt to provide accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis. However, the editors, journalists and Manitoba Co-operator and Farm Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the editors as well as Manitoba Co-operator and Farm Business Communication assume no responsibility for any actions or decisions taken by any reader for this publication based on any and all information provided.

• Minimum charge — $11.25 per week for first 25 words or less and an additional 45 cents per word for every word over 25. Additional bolding 75 cents per word. GST is extra. • 10% discount for prepaid ads. If phoning in your ad you must pay with VISA or MasterCard to qualify for discount. • Prepayment Bonus: Prepay for 3 weeks & get a bonus of 2 weeks; bonus weeks run consecutively & cannot be used separately from original ad; additions & changes accepted only during first 3 weeks. • Ask about our Priority Placement. • If you wish to have replies sent to a confidential box number, please add $5.00 per week to your total. Count eight words for your address. Example: Ad XXXX, Manitoba Co-operator, Box 9800, Winnipeg, R3C 3K7. • Your complete name and address must be submitted to our office before publication. (This information will be kept confidential and will not appear in the ad unless requested.) DISplAy ClASSIfIED • Advertising copy deviating in any way from the regular classified style will be considered display and charged at the display rate of $32.20 per column inch ($2.30 per agate line). • Minimum charge $32.20 per week + $5.00 for online per week. • Illustrations and logos are allowed with full border. • Spot color: 25% of ad cost, with a minimum charge of $15.00. • Advertising rates are flat with no discount for frequency of insertion or volume of space used. • Telephone orders accepted • Price quoted does not include GST. All classified ads are non-commissionable.

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

AUCTION DISTRICTS Parkland – North of Hwy 1; west of PR 242, following the west shore of Lake Manitoba and east shore of Lake Winnipegosis. Westman – South of Hwy 1; west of PR 242. Interlake – North of Hwy 1; east of PR 242, following the west shore of Lake Manitoba and east shore of Lake Winnipegosis. Red River – South ofHwy 1; east of PR 242.

The Pas

Birch River

Swan River Minitonas Durban

Dauphin

Grandview

Ashern

Gilbert Plains

Parkland

Birtle

Eriksdale Lundar

Gimli

Shoal Lake

Langruth

Neepawa

Gladstone

Rapid City

Portage

Brandon

Carberry

Treherne

Westman Boissevain

Waskada

Stonewall Selkirk

Killarney

Elm Creek

Sanford

Ste. Anne

Carman

Mariapolis

Pilot Mound Crystal City

Lac du Bonnet

Beausejour

Winnipeg

Austin

Souris

Melita

Interlake

Erickson

Hamiota

Reston

Arborg

St. Pierre

242

Morris Winkler Morden

Altona

Steinbach

Red River

ANTIQUES ANTIQUES Antique Equipment WINTER PROJECTS: IH W4; IH WD6; IH H; JD AR; JD R; JD 70 DSL; JD 730 RC DSL; 1929 JD D; Oliver 77 RC; MH 44 RC DSL; MH 55 DSL; Fordson Major; Caterpillar RD4. (204)745-7445.

AUCTION SALES AUCTION SALES Manitoba Auctions – Interlake McSherry Auction Service Ltd

AUCTION SALE

FARM CHEMICAL SEED COMPLAINTS We also specialize in: Crop Insurance appeals; Chemical drift; Residual herbicide; Custom operator issues; Equipment malfunction; Yield comparisons, Plus Private Investigations of any nature. With our assistance the majority of our clients have received compensation previously denied. Back-Track Investigations investigates, documents your loss and assists in settling your claim. Licensed Agrologist on Staff. For more information Please call 1-866-882-4779

CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT

WATROUS SALVAGE

FARM MACHINERY

Estate & Moving

Sat., Jan 17 @ 10:00 am Stonewall, MB - #12 Patterson Drive

Military Medals, Badges & Access * Tools & Misc * Furniture * Antiques * Household Appliances * Go to the Website for Listing & Pictures!!

FARM MACHINERY Fertilizer Equipment

www.mcsherryauction.com

2007 MAZDA B4000 EXTRA cab 2x4, 4-litre V6, auto transmission w/overdrive, limited slip differential, tow package, good rubber, lots of extras, recent safety, 135,000-kms. Phone:(204)877-3037, Fri or Sat, $11,500 OBO. 95 F800 CAB & Chassis, 5.9 Cummins DSL, $5,500. F800 tandem water truck w/hoist, 3208 CAT engine, $6,500. (204)871-2708.

BUILDING & RENOVATIONS BUILDING & RENOVATIONS Roofing

PRICE TO CLEAR!! 75 truckloads 29 gauge full hard 100,000PSI high tensile roofing & siding. 16 colours to choose from. B-Gr. coloured......................70¢/ft.2

Multi-coloured millends.........49¢/ft.2

Ask about our blowout colours...65¢/ft.2 Also in stock low rib white 29 ga. ideal for archrib buildings BEAT THE PRICE INCREASES CALL NOW

FOUILLARD STEEL SUPPLIES LTD.

Toll-Free 1-800-881-7727 Fax (204) 326-5878 Web site: farmparts.ca E-mail: roy@farmparts.ca

106 Delta Cimbria Super Cleaner. All wear points rebuilt, new blast fans, $20,000.00. Contact Lawrence: (204)746-2862

FARM MACHINERY Grain Vacuums CURT’S GRAIN VAC SERVICES, parts & repair for all makes & models. Craik SK, (306)734-2228.

FARM MACHINERY Parts & Accessories

Harvest Salvage Co. Ltd. 1-866-729-9876 5150 Richmond Ave. East BRANDON, MB. www.harvestsalvage.ca New, Used & Re-man. Parts

Tractors Combines Swathers GOODS USED TRACTOR PARTS: (204)564-2528 or 1-877-564-8734, Roblin, MB.

DISCS JOHN DEERE 637 rock cushion 35-ft new notched blades on front, $39,000; Wishek 842 26-ft, $39,000; Rippers DMI 5 shank, $8,900; 7 shank, $10,500; Degelmen 14-ft rock rake PTO, $9,500; Degelmen scoop type rock picker, $3,000; Melroe auto reset plows 7 & 8 furrow, 10 x 70 Westfield auger w/swing bottom, $2,500; 7 x 40 Westfield electric motor, $1,000; 8 x 32 Farm King electric motor, $1,000; Leon 12-ft front blade, $3,000. (204)857-8403. GRAINVACS REM 2500 HD, $9,500; Brandt 4000, $7,000; Jump Auger, $500; New Gravity wagons 400 bu, $7,400; 600-bu $12,500; 750-bu $18,250; Tarps available large selection of used gravity wagons 250-750-bu, 375-bu $3,200; 500-bu, $5,500; Used grain carts 650-1100-bu, 672 Brent tarp & scales, $15,000; 874 Brent $22,000; UFT 750 hyd drive, JD 544 Payloader, $14,000; Grain screeners DMC 54, $5,000; DMC 48, $3,000; Hutch 1500, $1,500; Snowco, $800; 5 & 7 tube Kwik Kleens. (204)857-8403.

Big Tractor Parts, Inc. Geared For The Future

HEADER TRAILERS & ACCESSORIES. Arc-Fab Industries. 204-355-9595 charles@arcfab.ca www.arcfab.ca

Tillage & Seeding TILLAGE & SEEDING Air Seeders 1996 36-FT. BOURGAULT AIR seeder, 8880 cultivator w/2155 tank, good condition, $25,000 OBO. (204)745-7445.

TILLAGE & SEEDING Tillage Equipment

GAUGE WHEEL & GAUGE WHEEL KIT

Combines COMBINES Case/IH

AUCTION SALES U.S. Auctions

LOCATION: 2836 Austin Avenue, Modale, IA 51556

Reduction

OPENS: Tuesday, Jan. 13 / CLOSES: Tuesday, Jan. 20 | 2PM

PREVIEW & LOADOUT: By appointment

TRACTOR / COMBINES & HEAD / GRAIN CARTS & GRAVITY WAGON / PLANTER / TILLAGE EQUIPMENT / LAND PLANE CHEMICAL/FERTILIZER EQUIPMENT / GRAIN HANDLING EQUIPMENT / FORKLIFT / TANKS / TIRES

See complete terms, lot listings & photos at SteffesGroup.com JASON SALTER, 402.651.3375, TONY SALTER, farmertony@aol.com or Chris Bair of Steffes, 605.271.7730

RED OR GREEN 1. 10-25% savings on new replacement parts for your Steiger drive train. 2. We rebuild axles, transmissions and dropboxes with ONE YEAR WARRANTY. 3. 50% savings on used parts.

1-800-982-1769 www.bigtractorparts.com

HEAT & AIR CONDITIONING

3” & 4” OPTIONS

The Icynene Insulation System® • Sprayed foam insulation • Ideal for shops, barns or homes • Healthier, Quieter, More Energy Efficient®

www.ridgelandmanufacturing.ca

204-866-3558

IQBID is a division of Steffes Group, Inc. 2000 Main Avenue East, West Fargo, ND 58078 Scott Steffes ND81, Brad Olstad ND319

701.237.9173 | SteffesGroup.com

www.penta.ca

1-800-587-4711

ridgemetal@hotmail.com

IRON & STEEL

TracTors TRACTORS Case/IH 08 STX 430 brand new 620-70-42 tires, delux cab, heated leather seat, just over 3,000-hrs, $150,000. Phone (204)871-0925, McGregor.

FREE STANDING CORRAL PANELS, Feeders & Alley ways, 30ft or order to size. Oil Field Pipe: 1.3, 1.6, 1.9, 1 7/8, 2-in, 2 3/8, 2 7/8, 3 1/2. Sucker Rod: 3/4, 7/8, 1. Casing Pipes: 4-9inch. Sold by the piece or semi load lots. For special pricing call Art (204)685-2628 or cell (204)856-3440.

LIVESTOCK Cattle Auctions

TRACTORS John Deere 1997 9400 4WD, very good tires, 7,000-hrs, VGC, $95,000 OBO. (204)745-7445. FOR SALE: 2004 9420T 3,440-hrs, 30-in. tracks at 85%, guidance ready, PWR shift, front weights, 4 SCVs, excellent condition, $150,000. Phone (204)746-5312, Rosenort.

SALTER FARMS

STEIGER TRACTOR SPECIALIST

SMALL GARDENER LOOKING FOR a corn planter. Call (204)268-2392 ask for Gordon.

2008 CIH 8010 4WD combine.(it will drive as far as a track machine in mud), 30-ft flex draper, very low hrs 800-hrs, $200,000 OBO. (204)871-0925

TIMED ONLINE

TRACTORS Various COCKSHUTT 1850 W/DUALS 2 hyds, good tires, $2,500. 1200 Case 4WD, good tires, $6,000. (204)871-2708.

FARM MACHINERY Machinery Wanted

www.fyfeparts.com

ST. LAZARE, MB. 1-800-510-3303

COMBINES Accessories

SMALL HYSTER FORK LIFT, solid rubber wheels, propane, asking $1,850; New large natural gas Ford generator unit, can be converted to gas, asking $2,000; Lifter diesel generator, asking $1,500; Natural gas boiler unit, asking $700. Phone:(204)728-1861

1-800-667-9871 • Regina 1-800-667-3095 • Saskatoon 1-800-387-2768 • Winnipeg 1-800-222-6594 • Edmonton “For All Your Farm Parts”

Phone: 204-326-4556 Fax: 204-326-5013 Toll Free: 1-855-326-4556 www.reimeroverheaddoors.com email: kurtis@reimeroverheaddoors.com

1980 230 TIMBER JACK cable skidder, excellent condition, new starter, injectors, main line, c/w chains on front tires. Call (807)466-7610 or (807)548-4435or email angelica@talomafarms.com

MURPHY SALVAGE New & used parts for tractors, combines, swathers, square & round balers, tillage, press drills & other misc machinery. MURPHY SALVAGE (204)858-2727 or toll free 1-877-858-2728.

FYFE PARTS

• Quality Commercial/Agricultural/Residential Overhead Doors & Operators. • Aluminum Polycarbonate Doors Available. • Non-Insulated and Insulated Sectional Doors Available. • Liftmaster Heavy Duty Operators. • Mullion Slide Away Centre Posts. • Commercial/Agricultural Steel Man Doors and Frames. • Your washbay door specialists. • Quality Installation & Service. • 24 Hour Service. • Replacement Springs & Cables.

FARM MACHINERY Machinery Miscellaneous

BREAKING DISCS. KEWANEE 12, 15, 16-ft; Towner 18-ft, Wishek 14, 26, 30-ft. Feeder wagons, Roorda 300-bu, $2000; Kelly Ryan, $2000; Gehl 130, $900; Auger feeder, $750; Phoenix harrows, 35, 42, 53-ft; Flexi-Coil 50-ft winged packer, $9500; Oval 340 loader, $2000; Allied # 2795, $4500; Gehl 400-bu spreader, $7500; Knight slinger spreader, $3500; JD Double auger snowblower, $1250; Single auger, $1000. Call (204)857-8403.

FARM MACHINERY Grain Cleaners

06 GMC DURAMAX DSL 4x4, extended cab, runs very nice, 310,000-km, good rubber, $9,000 w/new safety. (204)871-0925

STEINBACH, MB. Ph. 326-2443

FARM MACHINERY Grain Bins

(204) 467-1858 or (204) 886-7027

AUTO & TRANSPORT Trucks

Large Inventory of new and remanufactured parts

1999 REM 1026B GRAIN vac, $7800; 930 JD Rigid header, 60 series hookup w/trailer, $7000; Sunflower pans for JD header, $1250. Call (204)712-0377.

CUSTOM BIN MOVING Book now! Fert Tanks. Hopper Bins/flat. Buy/Sell. Call Tim (204)362-7103 or E-mail Requests binmover50@gmail.com

AUTO & TRANSPORT

NEW & USED TRACTOR PARTS NEW COMBINE PARTS

USED FERTILIZER SPREADERS, 4-8 ton, large selection. Portage La Prairie. (204)857-8403 www.zettlerfarmequipment.com

Booking 2015 Auctions Free Consultations * Competitive Rates

BUILDING & RENOVATIONS Doors & Windows

Serving Manitoba, Saskatchewan, NW Ontario & Alberta....Since 1937

WaTRoUs, sK. Fax: 306-946-2444

06 D6R CAT LGP 6 way dozer, double tilt, A/C cab & heat, 1-bbl MS ripper, system 1 U-C, top con GPS system, $97,500. (204)871-0925 1998 JD 270 LC hyd excavator, quick attach, hyd thumb, 12-ft. stick, A/C, $40,000. Phone: (204)871-0925, MacGregor.

BUILDING & RENOVATIONS Doors & Windows

The Real Used FaRm PaRTs sUPeRsToRe Over 2700 Units for Salvage • TRACTORS • COMBINES • SWATHERS • DISCERS Call Joe, leN oR daRWIN (306) 946-2222 monday-Friday - 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

BUSINESS SERVICES Crop Consulting

Riverton

McCreary

Minnedosa

Virden

CONCRETE FLATWORK: Specializing in place & finish of concrete floors. Can accommodate any floor design. References available. Alexander, MB. 204-752-2069.

Fisher Branch

Ste. Rose du Lac Russell

AFAB INDUSTRIES IS YOUR SUPERIOR post frame building company. For estimates and information call 1-888-816-AFAB(2322). Website: www.postframebuilding.com

BUSINESS SERVICES

Winnipegosis

Roblin

FARM MACHINERY Parts & Accessories

BUILDINGS

Denbie Ranch and Guests Bull Sale Sat., Feb. 14th, 2015

at 1:00 p.m. Ste. Rose Auction Mart

FOR SALE: JD 1840- Hi/Low Shift, 3PT; JD 2130Hi/Low Shift, 3PT, w/FEL; JD 2750- 2WD, O.S., 3PT, Hi/Low Shift, w/146 FEL; JD 2750- MFWD, CAH, 3PT, w/24 FEL; JD 2955- MFWD, 3PT, CAH, w/265 FEL; JD 4020- PS, 3PT; JD 4055- MFWD, PS, 3PT; JD 4240- Quad Shift; JD 4440- (2) Quad Shifts; JD 4450- MFWD, 3PT, PS; JD 4640- Quad, add on 3PT, w/FEL; JD 6400- MFWD, CAH, 3PT, PQ, w/640 FEL; JD 6420- MFWD, 3PT, 24-SPD w/ LHR, loader; JD 7710- MFWD, PS, 3PT, w/740 FEL; JD 7810- MFWD, PS, 3PT, fact duals; JD 8650- 4WD, PTO, quad. All tractors can be sold with new or used loaders. Mitch’s Tractor Sales Ltd. St. Claude, MB. Cell:(204)750-2459. www.mitchstractorsales.com

Selling: • 26 Long Yearling Red Angus and Hybrid Bulls • 11 Two Year Old Red Angus and Hybrid Bulls • 8 Yearling Charolais Bulls • 12 Two Year Old Charolais Bulls

TRACTORS Versatile

Denis & Debbie Guillas

875 VERS W/ATOM JET kit; 895 Vers w/Atom Jet kit. (204)325-2416.

TRACTORS 2-Wheel Drive STEVE’S TRACTOR REBUILDER specializing in JD tractors in need of repair or burnt, or will buy for parts. JD parts available. Phone: 204-466-2927 or cell: 204-871-5170, Austin.

For info. Contact: Denbie Ranch

Box 610, Ste. Rose, MB R0L 1S0 204-447-2473 or Cell 204-447-7608 Email: denbie@xplornet.ca

View Bulls at www.srauction.ca

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

Eggs-actly!

by Adrian Powell 2

39 40 41 43

44 45 DOWN 46 1 Semi-liquid food 47 2 The Gershwin who 48 wrote all the words 49 3 Part of rpm 54 4 Has supper 56 5 Seance "guest of honour" 57 6 Snap out of it 59 7 More than just ajar 60 8 Pugilist's punch 61 9 Chinese metaphysical concept 62 10 A little, musically 11 Haul, slangily 12 Sink material 13 What tank tops cover 18 Walking on eggshells 19 Big genus of agricultural pests 22 Immature amphibians 23 Andrews Sisters, e.g. 24 Selkirk, for one 27 Bellicose Greek deity 30 Muse of love poetry 31 Nixon's first veep 32 Flight unit 36 Heap 37 Opened, as envelopes

Bart Simpson, for one Theme of this puzzle, in a way Like Paul Robeson's voice Black-eyed pea's "black eye", technically Hindu loincloth Men's grooming scent In the place already cited Raises one's glass to Trick billiards shot Major's superior, for short Row boat pair The Sail, astronomically Major Hoople outburst Barely There product Birth Name signifier Elbow setting Where a bloke might flush SOLUTION TO PUZZLE

P I P A R E P A R

Like lemons Get a new tenant Foil or dynamic beginning Big shady trees "Get Smart" star Don ___ Brief "how to" session

T A O A P A H R I E S S

63 64 65 66 67 68

C I T Y

ACROSS 1 Church organ part 5 Tonto's mount 10 Sound that might get your attention 14 Sphere of expertise 15 Momma's mate 16 Eight (comb. form) 17 Occasional hunter without a license? 20 Calm as can be 21 Warsaw natives 22 Handy, space-saving abbr. 25 Louse egg 26 Cheerleader's syllable 28 Wallach of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" 29 Cooks way past well done 33 Solution strength (chem.) 34 Overnight visitor 35 Oriental legume 36 Third down tactics 38 Still between the sheets 42 Yours, to a Quaker 44 Funeral lament 45 Gets furious while cooking? 48 Greg Selinger, e.g. 50 Remick of "The Omen" 51 Heckler's hoot 52 About 5 ml. 53 "Here's looking ___, kid." 55 Pilot a plane 58 Something CSIS might use

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The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

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Dispersal of 45 of 3 year old Black Angus 2nd calvers Bred Black Angus 60% are AI sired for April, May Calving Age Verified Dispersal of 85 Mostly Black Heifers Bred Red Angus & some Hereford To Start Calving March 15th Bulls were exposed for 45 days To Consign to this Sale Phone Terra Fulton Manager at the Mart (204)385-2537 The cows should be in the mart by 1:00pm Thursday January 29th License #1108 If you want to sell it fast, call 1-800-782-0794.

GRUNTHAL LIVESTOCK AUCTION MART. LTD.

Hwy #205, Grunthal • (204) 434-6519

GRUNTHAL, MB.

AGENT FOR T.E.A.M. MARKETING

REGULAR CATTLE SALES every TUESDAY at 9 am Jan. 20th, 26th and 27th

Monday, January 26th at 12 pm

Sheep and Goat with Small Animals & Holstein Calves

For on farm appraisal of livestock or for marketing information please call Harold Unrau (Manager) Cell 871 0250 Auction Mart (204) 434-6519 MB. Livestock Dealer #1111

WWW.GRUNTHALLIVESTOCK.COM

LIVESTOCK Cattle – Angus 3 YR OLD PB Black Angus bull w/papers, $3,400. Also rolled or crushed Barley & Oats by tote bag or small 50-lb bags, $10. Phone (204)886-2083. 45 RED & BLACK Angus 2-yr old bulls, suitable for heifers & cows, private treaty at the Ranch. Info sheets available. Contact Triple V Ranch. Dan: (204)522-0092 or (204)665-2448. Matthew: (204)264-0706. vvvranch.com D.B. MICHIELS RED ANGUS purebred two-year old bulls for sale. Catalogue information available by email at DBMREDANGUS@gmail.com. Contact David at (204)723-0288 or Brian at (204)723-0474.

LIVESTOCK Cattle – Black Angus CRANBERRY CREEK ANGUS REGISTERED bulls for sale. Sired by Windy 702, Remitall Rachis, Vermilion Yellowstone, Game Day, Cranberry CRK Pioneer, HF Kodiak. Bulls are easy going with great dispositions. Hand fed for longevity. Semen tested, guaranteed & delivered. Will hold until the end of April. All weights & EPD’s available. Call (204)534-2380, or cranberrycreek27@gmail.com for more info, David & Jeanette Neufeld, Boissevain REGISTERED BLACK ANGUS BULLS for sale. Low birth weights & quiet. Buy now & save, no disappointments! EPD’s & delivery available. Phone Amaranth (204)843-2287.

LIVESTOCK Cattle Various FOR SALE: 15 EXCELLENT fall calving cows w/calves. Calves as early as end of June. $3,050/pair. Phone:(204)278-3438. FOR SALE: 3 BLACK white faced cows 3rd calvers, calving Mar & Apr, are approx 1,500-1,600lbs, good milkers. Very good natured. Bred to Char bull (A.I. son of Blue Grass). Phone(204)748-1024, Virden.

300-700 LBS. Steers & Heifers Rob: 528-3254, 724-3400 Ben: 721-3400

Farmland For Sale

800-1000 LBS. Steers & Heifers Don: 528-3477, 729-7240

242 acres of productive crop land near Plumas, MB SE 33-16-11W (161 acres) and SW 33-16-11W (80.9 acres)

Contact: D.J. (Don) MacDonald Livestock Ltd. License #1110

Contact Dolf Feddes (204) 745 0451 or (204) 326 4567

LIVESTOCK Swine Wanted

www.CanadianFarmrealty.com

WANTED: BUTCHER HOGS SOWS AND BOARS FOR EXPORT

REAL ESTATE Farms & Ranches – Manitoba FARMS FOR SALE: 1. 72-acs of pastureland 1-mi East of Kelwood. Kelwood loam soil, fenced, 2 dug outs. 33-acs cult w/new posts ready for Alfalfa, remainder pasture, $47,000. 2. 640-acs of pastureland east of Gladstone. Fenced w/dug outs. Will handle 100 -11- cow calf pairs. Lakeland soil, $249,000. Call Liz Sumner Gill & Schmall Agencies (204)476-6362.

P. QUINTAINE & SON LTD. 728-7549 Licence No. 1123

RECYCLING

LIVESTOCK Specialty – Bison/Buffalo

NOTRE DAME USED OIL

BRED COWS, CALVES, YEARLINGS. & FILTER DEPOT (807)466-7610 or (807)548-4435.

Call

• Buy Used Oil • Buy Batteries LIVESTOCK • Collect Used Filters •EQUIPMENT Collect Oil Containers

Southern and Western Manitoba

ALTERNATIVE POWER BY SUNDOG SOLAR, 204-248-2110 portable/remote Tel: solar water pumping for winter/summer. Call for pricing on solar systems, wind generators, aeration. Carl Driedger, (204)556-2346 or (204)851-0145, Virden. FOR SALE: FARM KING model 100 rollermill w/5-hp motor; 20-in Better Air barn fans; 2-in Chore Time feeding system w/4 drives. Ph:(204)836-2434.

Glycol recovery services www.ezefeeder.ca

PERSONAL SHARE YOUR LIFE, as it’s meant to be... A lasting Relationship. CANDLELIGHT MATCHMAKERS is here to help you. Confidential, Rural, Photos and Profiles to selected matches, Affordable, Local. Serving MB, SK, NW Ontario. Call/Write for info: Box 212, Roland, MB, R0G 1T0, (204)343-2475.

REAL ESTATE

BRED COW SALE

SALE WILL FEATURE A HERD DISPERSAL OF:

• 30 Red Angus Simmental Cows Bred Angus • Majority Of These Cows Are 3rd And 4th Calvers • Cows Are Very Quiet And Are As Good As They Come.

OTHER CONSIGNMENTS WELCOME We Have 6 to 8 Cow Buyers 7 to 8 Order Buyers - 4 to 6 Local Buyers And Over 1000 Sellers “Where Buyers & Sellers Meet” To Consign or for more information call:

204-694-8328 or call Mike at 204-807-0747

www.winnipeglivestocksales.com Licence #1122

Specialized waste removal Winter & Summer windshield washer fluid Peak Performance anti-freeze ( available in bulk or drums )

The only company that collects, recycles and re-uses in Manitoba! 888-368-9378 ~ www.envirowestinc.com

REAL ESTATE Houses & Lots

CERTIFIED SEED

3 KIPLING LANE

CERTIFIED SEED Cereal Seeds

1604 sq. ft. 2 storey $319,900 in Niverville, 20 min. south of Wpg. 3+1 BR. 3.5 bath. Modern open concept main floor w. espresso finished hardwoods. Gas fireplace. Island & high end stainless steel appliances, under cab. lighting. Huge master w. tray ceiling, WIC + bath. 2nd flr. Laundry w. front load appl. Fin. bsmt. 12x20 deck, dble detached garage. Must see! NIVERVILLE,MB · PH:1-204-899-7684

CRAIG & LORNA MARR of Silver Ridge MB intend to sell private lands: E1/2 14-21-11W, W1/2 10-21-12W, NW 03-21-12W, SW 14-21-11W, N1/2 08-21-11W, SE 08-21-11W, W1/2 08-20-01W, S1/2 30-21-11W to Garrett Cameron who intend to acquire the following agricultural Crown Land leases: SW 13-21-11W West of PR No. 467, NW 30-21-11W, NE 31-21-11W, SE 31-21-11W, SW 31-21-11W, SE 0222-11W, NE 03-22-11W, SE 03-22-11W East of road by Unit Transfer. If you wish to comment on or object to the eligibility of this purchaser please write to: Director, MAFRD, Agricultural Crown Lands, PO Box 1286, Minnedosa, MB R0J 1E0, or Fax:(204)867-6578.

400 5X6 ROUND BALES for sale. First cut alfalfa & alfalfa/brome. Net wrapped, feed tested. Phone: (204)248-2643 or Email: colletfarm@gmail.com Notre Dame, MB. BALE SCALES NON ELECTRIC 3,000-lb, cradle type, 3-pt end truck mount. Various sizes of livestock scales & hopper feeders. Elias Scales (306)445-2111 www.eliasscales.com

ACC ELIE SPRING WHEAT, ACC Brandon Spring Wheat, Meridith Mulching Barley, Faba Bean Seed. Phone (204)944-1654. DURAND SEEDS: CERT AAC Brandon, Cardale & Carberry Wheat; Souris & Stride Oats; CDC Bethune Flax; Mancan Buckwheat avail w/contracts; Forage & Canola Seed. (204)248-2268, (204)745-7577, NotreDame, MB. INTEL SEEDS at Oakville, MB. Now taking bookings for colour sorting seed/grain. Taking SHB egort upgrading damaged grain. Call Don Campbell for booking schedule (204)267-7389. JAMES FARMS LTD Brandon, Cardale & Carberry wheat, summit oats, Mcleod & Chadburn R2 soybeans, tradition barley & forage seeds. Various canola & sunflower seed varieties. Custom processing, seed treating, inoculating, as well as delivery are available. Early payment discount. For info call (204)222-8785, or toll-free 1-866-283-8785, Winnipeg. djames@jamesfarms.com

Court Seeds Have you booked your spring wheat?

CDC Plentiful CWRS

 Earliest maturing variety available  Strong straw, MR to fusarium  High-yields *LIMITED SUPPLY*

FOR SALE: 153-ACRES (140-cultivated), Glad-stone, MB (Ogilvie) area. NW 15-15-12W. Summer cottage (Hydro), pole shed (wired), 1750-bu Westeel Bin. 2 dugouts. Asking $1,600.00 per acre. Call Ron (204)918-3169 cell.

Plumas, MB courtseeds@gmail.com 204-386-2354 courtseeds.ca

LEONARD KIESMAN of Moosehorn, MB intends to sell private lands: N1/2 02-28-07W, SW 2-28-07W, E1/2 03-28-07W, NE 34-27-07W, N1/2 10-28-07W, SW 11-28-07W to DARCY ALAN HUEGING who intends to acquire the following agricultural Crown land leases: W1/2 34-27-07W, SE 35-27-07W, SE 02-28-07W, SW 03-28-07W, SE 11-28-07W, SW 22-28-07W PT LS 3 & 5 by Unit Transfer. If you wish to comment on or object to the eligibility of this purchaser please write to: Director, MAFRD, Agricultural Crown Lands, PO Box 1286, Minnedosa, MB R0J 1E0; or Fax (204)867-6578.

COMMON SEED COMMON SEED Forage Seeds FOR SALE: ALFALFA, TIMOTHY, Brome, Clover, hay & pasture blends, millet seed, Crown, Red Prozo, cleaned common seed oats. Leonard Friesen (204)685-2376, Austin, MB.

SEED/FEED/GRAIN Grain Wanted

FARMERS, RANCHERS, SEED PROCESSORS BUYING ALL FEED GRAINS Heated/Spring Threshed Lightweight/Green/Tough, Mixed Grain - Barley, Oats, Rye, Flax, Wheat, Durum, Lentils, Peas, Canola, Chickpeas, Triticale, Sunflowers, Screenings, Organics and By-Products √ ON-FARM PICKUP √ PROMPT PAYMENT √ LICENSED AND BONDED SASKATOON, LLOYDMINSTER, LETHBRIDGE, VANCOUVER, MINNEDOSA

1-204-724-6741

BEEFMAN SPECIAL: LARGE SQUARE bales 2nd cut Alfalfa w/25% Orchard Grass 18-22% protein, in hay shed, $0.05/lb. Rye Grass, $0.04/lb. Delivery avail. Phone: (204)355-4980, Cell: (204)371-5744.

SEED/FEED/GRAIN Seed Wanted WANTED: BIN RUN RED & Crown Prozo millet. Phone:(204)685-2376.

LARGE ROUND BALES OF wheat & oat straw; Large round bales of hay. (204)325-2416.

TIRES

Stretch your advertising dollars! Place an ad in the classifieds. Our friendly staff is waiting for your call. 1-800-782-0794.

FOR SALE: 4 SPRAYER tires, 385-85-34 on 8 bolt rims, off rogator sprayer, $1,800 OBO. Phone (204)648-7136

SEED/FEED/GRAIN Grain Wanted

TOOLS FOR SALE: OTC INJECTOR tester model 4200B new condition, $600 OBO. Phone (204)648-7136.

TRAILERS WE BUY OATS Call us today for pricing Box 424, Emerson, MB R0A 0L0 204-373-2328 Looking for a hand around the farm? Place a help wanted ad in the classifieds. Call 1-800-782-0794.

Licensed and Bonded Grain Brokers

Collection of plastic oil jugs

1 877 695 2532

300 BALES OF ALFALFA Brome & Timothy mixed. Big round bales, $60 per bale. Phone (306)542-4401.

Vanderveen Commodity Services Ltd. We BUY used oil & filters

REAL ESTATE Land For Sale Fri., Jan. 30, 2015 @ 11:00 a.m. (In Conjunction With Regular Butcher And Feeder Sale)

BuyUsed Used Oil Oil ••Buy NOTRE •• Buy Buy Batteries Batteries DAME ••Collect CollectUsed Used Filters Filters • Collect Oil Containers Containers USED • Collect Oil• Antifreeze OIL & Southern,Southern Eastern, and Manitoba Western Western FILTER Manitoba DEPOT Tel: 204-248-2110

LIVESTOCK SCALES made to fit in your chute alley. We have a variety of sizes to choose from, no electrics. Also bale scales, hopper feeders in various sizes. Elias Scales (306)445-2111 www.eliasscales.com

12V. or Hydraulic Electronic Scale Opt.

1ST CUT ALFALFA HAY for sale RFV 123 & protein 18.9, avail in 3x3 bales, asking $.05 per lb. Delivery avail. Phone (204)856-3561.

HAY FOR SALE. 700 big 4x4x8 square bales, very good condition, no rain, bale weight approx 1500lbs- $.05/lb. Will load, can be delivered additional cost. (204)773-6890 Rick.

Proud Supporter of Manitoba Businesses & Municipalities

Friday, January 30th at 11:00am

TAKING TENDERS ON THE following land: 80-acres of the NW 36-20-15W also 149.36-acres of SE 03-21-15W until Feb 6/15. Separate tenders accepted. 10% of tender required. Balance to be paid in 30 days. Send tenders to G/M Butterfield, Box 302, McCreary, MB R0J 1B0.

1ST CUT ALFALFA HAY for sale in 3 x 3 squares. $0.04/lb. Hay test available. Phone:(204)242-2074, Harry Pauls, LaRiviere, MB.

37 4th Ave. NE Carman, MB R0G 0J0 Ph. (204) 745-6444 Email: vscltd@mts.net Andy Vanderveen · Brett Vanderveen Jesse Vanderveen

TRAILERS Grain Trailers 1998 JET HOPPER TRAILER, steel spring ride, 42x68x96. Good condition, Asking $12,000; 1984 Stoughton aluminum hopper trailer, spring ride, 42x80x96. Good condition, Asking $8,800. Phone: (204)728-1861 or (204)724-9497.

TRAVEL

AGRICULTURAL TOURS Costa Rica ~ Feb 2015 South Africa/Zambia ~ Feb 2015 India ~ Feb 2015 Greece ~ April 2015 Japan ~ May 2015 Ireland/Scotland ~ June 2015 Scandinavia ~ June 2015 Alaska Land/Cruise ~ July 2015 NWT/Yukon ~ July 2015

A Season to Grow… Only Days to Pay!

*Portion of tours may be Tax Deductible

BUYING:

www.selectholidays.com

HEATED & GREEN CANOLA • Competitive Prices • Prompt Movement • Spring Thrashed

MALT BARLEY “ON FARM PICK UP” *6-Row* 1-877-250-5252 MALT BARLEY

Celebration & Tradition *2-Row* AC Metcalfe &BARLEY CDC feed Copeland We buy feed barley, wheat, MALT MALT BARLEY oats, soybeans, corn & canola We buy feed*2-Row* barley, feed wheat, *6-Row* oats, soybeans, cornCopeland & canola AC Metcalfe & CDC & Tradition COMECelebration SEE US AT AG DAYS IN We buy feed barley, feed wheat, THE CONVENTION HALL SEE barley, US AT AG DAYS IN WeCOME buy feed feed wheat, oats, soybeans, corn & canola CONVENTION HALL BOOTH 1309& oats,THE soybeans, corn canola BOOTH 1309 COME SEE US AT AG DAYS IN COME SEE US AT AG HALL DAYS IN THE CONVENTION THE CONVENTION BOOTH 1309 HALL

BOOTH 1309

2013 Malt Contracts Available 2015 AOG Malt Contracts Available Box 238 Letellier, MB. R0G 1C0 BoxPhone 238 Letellier, MB. R0G 1C0 204-737-2000 Phone 204-737-2000 2014Toll-Free AOG Malt Contracts Available 1-800-258-7434 Toll-Free 1-800-258-7434 BoxMalt 238 MB. R0G 1C0 Agent: M &Letellier, J Weber-Arcola, SK. 2013 Contracts Available Agent: M & J Weber-Arcola, SK. Phone 204-737-2000 Phone 306-455-2509 Box 238 Letellier, MB. R0G 1C0 Phone 306-455-2509 Toll-Free 1-800-258-7434 Phone 204-737-2000 Agent: M & 1-800-258-7434 J Weber-Arcola, SK. Toll-Free Agent: Phone M & TRAVEL J 306-455-2509 Weber-Arcola, SK. Phone 306-455-2509

MALT BARLEY

Bred Cow & Heifer Sale

SEED/FEED/GRAIN Hay & Straw

*6-Row* Celebration & Tradition We buy feed barley, feed wheat, oats, soybeans, corn & canola

Gladstone Auction Mart

PASTURE SPACE AVAILABLE at the following Manitoba Community Pastures Alonsa, Gardenton-Pansy, Lenswood-Birch River, McCreary, Mulvihill, Narcisse, Pasquia, Sylvan-Dale. Contact Barry Ross (204)841-1907 amcp@pastures.ca

TIRED OF THE HIGH COST OF MARKETING YOUR CALVES??

COME SEE US AT AG DAYS IN THE CONVENTION HALL BOOTH 1309

LIVESTOCK Cattle Auctions

SEED / FEED / GRAIN

REAL ESTATE Land For Sale

LIVESTOCK Cattle Wanted

2013 Malt Contracts Available Box 238 Letellier, MB. R0G 1C0 Phone 204-737-2000 Toll-Free 1-800-258-7434 Agent: M & J Weber-Arcola, SK. Phone 306-455-2509

LIVESTOCK

Select Holidays 1-800-661-4326

It doesn’t get any better than this. Prepay your ad for 3 weeks and get 2 weeks free! Call today! 1-800-782-0794.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR Alberta

BASF Knowledge Harvest Join growers from your area to hear from industry experts and watch live plant demos. Hear a presentation on leadership from former NHL All-Star, Lanny McDonald. Register at www.agsolutions.ca/knowledgeharvest Feb 12th, Brandon-Feb 17th, CalgaryFeb 19th, Edmonton-Feb 24th, SaskatoonFeb 26th, Moose Jaw

CAREERS CAREERS Help Wanted FARM HELP REQUIRED for vegetable farm near Carman, MB. Duties may include planting, hoeing, harvesting & packing vegetables. Outdoors, stoop labour, variable hours, minimum wage. April through September. Dufferin Market Gardens (204)745-3077, fax (204)745-6193.

AG DEALS TO GO!

KING SALMON CHESAPEAKE CHARTERS

**ALL INCLUSIVE** 3 & 4 DAY CHARTERS 250-600-2055 or 778-983-2018 claudegourlin@hotmail.com www.salmoncharters.ca PRINCE RUPERT BRITISH COLUMBIA BEST PRICES: NO fISH, NO PAY

The Manitoba Co-operator | January 15, 2015

RELENTLESS ON WEEDS. SAFE ON WHEAT. ™ FLUSH AFTER FLUSH CONTROL. It’s rare to find a herbicide you can count on for long-lasting stopping power that’s also safe on wheat. The advanced safener technology in EVEREST® 2.0 makes it super selective for best-in-class crop safety. Safe on wheat, it’s also relentless on weeds, giving you Flush after flush™ control of green foxtail, wild oats and other resistant weeds. And a wide window for application means you can apply at your earliest convenience. It’s time you upgraded your weed control program to the next generation: EVEREST 2.0. To learn more, visit everest2-0.ca.

SAFE ON WHEAT

RELENTLESS ON WEEDS

FLUSH AFTER FLUSH CONTROL

CONTROLS HARD-TO-KILL GRASS WEEDS

INCREASED YIELD POTENTIAL

EVEREST 2.0 is now eligible for AIR MILES® reward miles through Arysta LifeScience Rewards Program in Western Canada. You can earn 400 AIR MILES® reward miles on the purchase of EVEREST 2.0 at full SRP! Go to www.arystalifesciencerewards.ca for program details and receive 100 bonus AIR MILES® reward miles when you register for the Arysta LifeScience Rewards Program.

®™ Trademarks of AIR MILES International Trading B.V. Used under license by LoyaltyOne, Co. and Arysta LifeScience Canada, Inc. Always read and follow label directions. EVEREST and the EVEREST 2.0 logo are registered trademarks of Arysta LifeScience North America, LLC. “Flush after flush” is a trademark of Arysta LifeScience North America, LLC. Arysta LifeScience and the Arysta LifeScience logo are registered trademarks of Arysta LifeScience Corporation. ©2015 Arysta LifeScience North America, LLC. ESTC-268